Come On Over

The message given at the WOW (Worship on Wednesday) service in Gettysburg August 6, 2014.

            As you know, we’ve been doing a sermon series called “Three-Sixteens”, looking at Chapter Three, Verse Sixteen in various books of the New Testament.  And you know, God obviously has a sense of humor, or at least a sense of timing.  I’d been struggling with an issue of envy, and I’d prayed about it, and then I came to start working on this sermon and read, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

            What James is telling us is that there’s no good that can come from envy.  It does not make us better.  It does not help us love people.  It does not encourage us to try harder or to do more or to help others more.  All envy can do is cause trouble.  It can destroy relationships.  It can make us bitter.  It can make us resentful of others.  It can make us dislike people we don’t even know much about.  It can make us desire things that would not make us happy if we had them.  There is absolutely no good whatsoever that can come from envy.

            And the thing is, we know that.  I’m not aware of anyone who thinks envy is a good thing.  No one goes around saying envy is the key to happiness.  We know that envy is not helpful to us.  We know it’s not something God wants us to feel.

            And yet, a lot of times, we feel it.  We know we should not feel it, but we do.  We feel bad about the fact that we feel it, but we still feel it.  We know it’s not doing us any good, but we still feel it.  Envy is one of those feelings that is just really hard to get rid of.

            But I think James gives us some advice on how to get past it.  One of the things James says is this:  “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.”

            So that’s the first step to getting rid of envy.  Admitting we feel it.  And that may seem simple, but a lot of times it’s not.  Most of us don’t want to admit we feel envy.  We deny it.  We not only deny it to other people, we deny it to ourselves.  We tell ourselves we’re happy for someone.  We tell ourselves that we wish someone nothing but the best.  But deep down, we know better.  We know that we really want what they have.  We feel like we deserve it a lot more than they do.  We feel like we’re better people than they are.

            And those feelings tear us up.  They keep us from being happy.  They keep us thinking about all the things we don’t have, although the things we wish we had.  They keep us thinking that life is unfair, that God is unfair, that if God was fair we’d be the ones who had all this good stuff, not someone else.  They make us start thinking that the world is against us, that God is against us, that nothing will ever go right for us because we just did not get the breaks.  These other people, these lucky people, these people who we’re envious of, they’re the ones who got all the breaks.  And we get so focused on all the things we don’t have and on all the breaks we did not get that we cannot see all the blessings we do have and all the good things God has given us.

            So, like it usually is, the first step toward conquering those feelings is admitting them.  We need to admit that, yes, we do feel envy.  We do wish we had what someone else has.  And that does not necessarily mean material things.  It could be looks, it could be talents, it could be abilities, it could be relationships, it could be anything.  There are all kinds of things we can feel envy about.  We need to admit that we think we deserve those things more than someone else does.  We need to admit that we think life has been unfair to us.  We need to admit that truth to ourselves.

            And we need to admit it to God, too.  Because one of the things God wants us to do is confess our sins.  It’s not enough for us to admit these feelings to ourselves, although that’s important.  We also need to admit them to God.  And in fact, sometimes it can work the other way.  Sometimes it’s only through prayer that we can actually realize that we do feel envy.  It’s only then that we can admit it to ourselves.  But whichever way it works, we need to admit our envious feelings both to ourselves and to God.  That’s the only way we’re going to start down the road toward getting rid of them.  Just like in a lot of other cases, it seems like God does not step in to help us with this until we confess our sin to God.

            Now, notice, I said we need to confess our sin to God.  I did not say we need to obsess over our sins with God.  We need to admit our sins, but we don’t need to beat ourselves up for them.  We don’t need to wallow in our sins.  What we need to do is confess our sins, ask for God’s help, and resolve that with God’s help we are going to change.

            But still, how do we do that?  I mean, it’s all well and good to admit our sins to God and to ourselves, but we still need to figure out a way to get rid of them.  How do we do it?

            I think James gives us the answer there, too.  He says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

            “Submit yourselves to God.”  I really think that’s the key to it.  To submit ourselves to God.  If we submit ourselves to God, then envy pretty much has to disappear.  

If we submit ourselves to God, we won’t want what someone else has any more, because what someone else has won’t matter.  If we submit ourselves to God, we’ll accept whatever God has given us, and we won’t worry about whether God may have given someone else something different or something more.  If we submit ourselves to God, we won’t worry about what we deserve and we won’t worry about what someone else deserves.  If we submit ourselves to God, we’ll recognize that God knows better than we do and that God will give us what we need, which will work out better than if God had given us what we want.  If we submit ourselves to God, we won’t worry about whether life is fair or whether God is fair.  If we submit ourselves to God, we’ll realize that God knows a lot more about what’s fair and what’s not fair than we do.  If we submit ourselves to God, we won’t be envious of anyone, because our focus won’t be on what anyone else has or does not have.  Our focus will be on serving God.

James also tells us how to submit ourselves to God.  James says, “Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”

That’s such an awesome sentence that I want to read it to you again.  “Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”  If we go to God, God will always be there for us, and God will give us whatever we need.

So how do we come near to God?  There are the obvious things, of course.  Prayer.  Reading the Bible.  Going to church regularly.  And don’t get me wrong, those things are good things.  They can help us a lot.  I highly recommend them.  But I think there’s a little more to it than that.

Coming near to God is not a matter of doing the right things.  That can help, but coming near to God is a feeling.  It’s an attitude.  It’s a desire to be in tune with God.  It’s a feeling that God is with us as we go through our day.  It’s keeping God and God’s will in our minds at all times.  It’s keeping God and God’s will in the back of our minds even when we’re not consciously thinking about it.  It’s keeping a desire to serve God in our hearts at all times.  It’s opening our hearts to God.  It’s putting ourselves in God’s hands.  It’s trusting God enough to say, every day, “God, be with me today.  Lead me.  Guide me.  Send me where you want me to go.  Lead me to do what you want me to do.  Whatever happens today, be with me and guide me through it.”

Now, do I always do that?  No, I don’t.  But I wish I did.  Because the fact is that when I do it, my day goes a lot better.  I do feel God leading me and guiding me.  I do feel in tune with God.  I do feel God has come near to me.  And I don’t feel envy.  Instead, I feel at peace.  I feel at peace with others, at peace with myself, and at peace with God.

            Envy tends to be a problem for all of us at some point.  When it is, let’s admit it to ourselves and to God.  And then, let’s submit ourselves to God.  Let’s come near to God.  Let’s go to God and say, “God, be with me today.  Lead me.  Guide me.  Send me where you want me to go.  Lead me to do what you want me to do.  Whatever happens to day, be with me and guide me through it.”  And see if it works.  See if it makes our days, and our lives, go a lot better.