Envy breeds discontent by Pastor Ed Young

Have you ever wondered why the tabloid TV shows and the gossip columns are so popular?  We read about celebrities and we envy them.  Whoa, Madonna has five different houses.  Jim Carrie makes how much money?  Sylvester Stallone did that?  Then as we read on, they tell about the problems that they have and various difficulties.  We love to read about this dirty laundry because somehow it makes us feel better than they are and it eases our feelings of inferiority.

Proverbs 24:7.  “Who is able to stand before envy.”

The second ugly facet of envy is that it creates a lack of contentment.  Envy breeds discontent.  I love what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13.  “I have learned to be content.”  This word contentment is not compliancy, it is rendered “happy enough with what you have or what you are”.  Paul said, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in.”  Do you remember the story that Jesus told in Luke 15 about the prodigal son?  Most everyone here, whether you are churched or unchurched, has heard about the prodigal son.  It is a story of a young guy in his late teens who took his dad’s Merrill Lynch trust fund, all of his inheritance, went out and spend it all on loose living.  He comes back home and his father is so excited to see him that he gives him an I Fratelli pizza party, buys him a wardrobe from the Gap and everything is going great.  You have heard preachers and teachers speaking about the prodigal son as an illustration of the forgiveness of God.  They say that God is waiting for us to turn from our sin and turn to Him and they are exactly right.  It is a great story of forgiveness.  But, most of us miss one of the major players in the story.  I think that the main message of the prodigal son story is not the prodigal son, it is his older brother.  The Bible says that when the older brother heard what was going on, saw the Gap boxes and the half-eaten pizza he couldn’t stand it.

He was eaten alive with envy.  His father came into his room and tried to reason with him.  He told his older son that everything he had was his.  “I love your younger brother too, but everything I have is yours.”  The brother couldn’t accept and enjoy what he had because he was thinking so much of what he didn’t have.