Turn with me, if you will, to Genesis chapter number 37. Genesis chapter 37. And I want to read just a few verses and preach to you a message that the Lord's put on my heart for this morning. And it's not really going to be an easy message to preach and not going to be, it's probably not going to make you feel very good about yourself. But I will say this that if it sounds like while I'm preaching that I know what I'm talking about It's because I do because I deal with it in my own life. This is one of those message I've said this time and time again. I feel like I could just set a mirror and in front of the pulpit and preach to myself because I struggle with this and I think this is something that all of us struggle with. But I do, and I guess this is true with most things in life, I do believe that this is something that if you will learn to take care of when you are young, and not let it continue to be a problem. It's so much easier to deal with this at a young age than when you're older. And so you pray and we'll see what the Lord has for us in this text. Genesis 37, if you'd like, let's stand together one more time and honor the reading of the word of God. Genesis 37. We're picking up in a very familiar story. You'll find this is the betrayal of Joseph as he is sold into slavery by his brothers. And I want to begin reading in verse number 31 of this chapter. It says, And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood. And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, This have we found. Know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it and said, it is my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and put on sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and he said, for I will go down into the grave until my son mourning Thus his father wept for him. I want you to look back with me in verse number 33 at a statement that Jacob made. He said, it is my son's coat and the evil beast hath devoured him. I want to preach this morning on the evil beast of envy. the evil beast of envy. We understand that what Jacob said in this verse was not literally true. He had been deceived. It just appeared to him that his son had been devoured by a beast. But I think there's a lot more truth in what Jacob said than even he realized. And in fact, let me read you this verse before we pray. If you wonder what it was that motivated Joseph's brothers to betray him, in Acts chapter seven and verse nine, in the great message that Stephen preached before his storm, the Bible says this, and the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. So I just want to take a few minutes and point out a few things in this chapter about what envy does and how it works in our life. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Thank you for letting us be here this morning. I know it's already been said, but thank you for the message that you gave to our hearts this morning through your servant. And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to take it to heart and to let it change our life. And Lord, I ask again that you would touch me as I try to preach for just a few minutes. And Lord, for these young people that are here, Lord, that you would work in their heart. And you know the things that they're dealing with and the problems that they are facing. Lord, I pray that you would just do something special for them in this meeting. And Lord, we'll thank you for all that you do. We love you in your name we pray, amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated this morning. Now I'm not gonna spend much time by way of introduction. Envy is an interesting study. If you just take the Word and begin to search it throughout the Scripture, it's really a very interesting study. You'll find a lot of different things that are said about envy, and a lot of different aspects of it are revealed throughout the Word of God. And sometimes we'll, if we're not careful, we'll kind of consider envy to be one of the smaller sins, or one of the more insignificant things in our life. Sometimes we'll ignore it for bigger sins that you'll find through the Word of God. And there's a lot you could say about it. All I want to say just by way of introduction is this. If you ever wonder how serious that envy is, or if you ever wonder how bad of a sin that it actually is, Then you can go to Matthew chapter 27 and verse number 18, and you'll find that the Bible tells us that envy was what was behind them crucifying our Savior. In Matthew 27, 18, it's talking about Pilate, but the Bible says that he knew that for envy they had delivered him. So if you just ever wanna just seal in your heart how significant that envy is, you remember that the Bible says it was the reason that they nailed our Savior to the cross. It was envy that caused them to do that. So envy is a very serious thing, and it will cause you to do a lot of things in your life that you'll regret, and we'll see that played out in the life of Joseph's brothers. But I'm interested, particularly in what Jacob said and the fact that he's talking about an evil beast. And I don't know exactly what animal Jacob was thinking of. The first thing I picture in my mind is a lion. We know there would have been lions present probably in this day and in this area. And you could speculate exactly what beast that he was talking about. But one thing that is true is that envy, spiritually speaking, has a very unique resemblance to a beast. Real quickly, let me just give you five things before we get into this text. Let me give you five similarities between envy and between a wild beast or an evil beast. The first thing I would say about both of them is that they are contentious in their nature. They're impossible to tame. They have a rebellious spirit. We understand this with a wild beast that you can put them in a cage and you can try to domesticate them, but we've all heard the stories of how that usually turns out. And it's usually not very good because there's something in that nature to resist and to push against and to rebel, any kind of constraint that's put on that animal. And I'm telling you, that's exactly how envy is. If you let envy in your heart, it will develop a spirit of rebellion and a spirit of resistance against anyone or anything that tries to direct you in the right path. Not only is it contentious in its nature, but also, I thought about the concealment of its nature. We've all watched as maybe a lion, it'll sneak up, it'll try to camouflage itself and sneak up on its prey or you've probably seen videos of a crocodile and how it'll conceal itself in the water up until the very last second to try to latch on to that prey. And you know that's how envy works in our life. It's amazing how sneaky that envy is. It will wiggle its way into your heart and wiggle its way into your thoughts. And if you're not careful, you'll wake up and be full of envy and really kind of not even know how it ended up there. Why in the world am I dealing with this in my heart? But that's how envy works in our life. Not only is it contentious, it's concealed in its nature. I would say this, that it's conceited in its nature. Envy only thinks about itself. Envy will make you a self-centered person. Envy will give you the idea that the whole world revolves around you and you are the only person. Is that not how a wild animal is? A wild animal has no care. A wild animal has no concern for anything else. All it's thinking about is itself and fulfilling its own desires. I thought about how envy is calloused in its nature. We've all seen the videos of wild beasts that will just completely devour its prey. It seems like there's no heart. In fact, one of the aspects of a wild beast that we're familiar with is many of them will destroy their own offspring, their own children. They're just calloused. There's no feelings of care or love for anything else. And I'm telling you, envy will make you a very, very calloused person. As a young person, if you don't deal with envy in your life, then it will callous your heart and you'll become someone who doesn't have any compassion toward the lost or toward the brothers and sisters in Christ that God had placed you with. I thought about as well how that it's cruel in its nature. The intent of envy is to destroy. That's the signature of a wild beast. That's what the Bible said about our adversary Satan in 2 Peter, that he has a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That's the nature of a wild beast. And envy wants to devour. It wants to devour the people that you're envious of. But sadly, if you give envy a place in your life, it will devour your own life. And it will devour, you'll self-devour. That's how envy works. Now I wanna look in this scripture. And I want to note just several things in this chapter. And really I want to kind of work my way backwards through chapter number 37. I know most of us are probably familiar with this storyline of Joseph and his brothers and the coat of many colors that is mentioned in the first part of this chapter. But I want us to look at this question. Why was Joseph's brothers so envious of him? I think there's several things that we could point out in Scripture. The first thing I would say as we move backwards through this chapter is I think they were envious because of Joseph's purpose. Now as you read these first several verses of chapter 37, and you see the dreams that Joseph had, you'll realize that God had a special purpose for Joseph's life. Not only did Joseph understand that, but I think that it was obvious to his brothers and to his father that God had something special he was going to do in his life. And it made, they had become so jealous and so consumed with God's purpose for Joseph's life that they hated him because of it. And I'm telling you, one thing that envy does, now this makes no sense, I'm telling you, envy just completely goes against what logic would convince us of. It makes no sense that someone who is saved, someone who is a part of the family of God would become upset about the purpose that God has in someone else's life. But has it not happened? I know I'm gonna say some things this morning that none of us want to admit to. We would never want to admit that we think these things or that we've dealt with these feelings, but I'm telling you nothing highlights our depravity like envy does. And if you're not careful, you'll see God using someone else. You'll see God put a special purpose in someone else's life. Maybe they are getting to do something that you wish you could do. And instead of being happy for them, which is what you would think would happen in the life of a Christian, you would think we would be excited that God wants to use someone else. We'd be excited that God has a purpose for someone else's life. But sometimes instead of becoming excited, we'll become envious and we'll become jealous and we'll become bitter that God is not doing the same thing for us. Not only were they envious of his purpose, but also I think you could conclude from these verses that they were envious of Joseph's passion. Joseph was excited about what God has in store for him. He doesn't understand it all He's just a young man with a few dreams that has his whole life ahead of him But I can imagine you know the story how the Joseph he comes in to the breakfast table one morning and he begins to tell his father and his brothers about these dreams and I mean I think you could tell in Joseph's life that he just had a passion, he was excited that God had given him these dreams. And I can't help but think in their mind, Joseph's brothers looked at him and thought, what are you so excited about? What in the world, you woke up this morning so excited, you think you're something special that God has given you these dreams? And they become envious of the passion that Joseph had. Again, it doesn't make sense. You would think, especially with young people, you would think that when a young person gets excited about serving God, and you think when you see someone excited about doing something and whatever it is God has put in their heart, you would think you would be excited with them. You would think you would praise God for the passion that someone wants to do something for the Lord. But how many times does envy sneak into our life, and instead of being excited with someone else, and we think, who do they think they are? Would they think they're something special? They're coming in bragging about what they get to do for the Lord. We're not careful, we'll misinterpret what God is doing in someone else's life when we're full of envy. knowing they were envious of his purpose, they were envious of his passion. But let me say this, and this is a tough point in this scripture. But I think they were also envious, and we could maybe say this was even the primary thing that was playing out in their lives, they were envious of His privilege. Now one thing that we know about Joseph, in verse number 3, this is the first thing that's said, you can see it in our text, 37 verse number 3. He said, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. One thing that had produced envy in the heart of Joseph's brother is that Joseph seemed to have a privilege that they didn't have. Now we could preach all day about how Jacob handled this situation. And I think there's some good principles. I think it would be hard to say that Jacob handled this situation right. It does seem like he showed a lot of favoritism toward Joseph. And we could look at that and we could preach on that. But here's what I want you to understand, that they're so focused on Joseph's privilege, they're so focused on the favor that he has, that they've forgotten about their own position in the family. They're just, all they can see, let me make this statement, I know you've heard your parents say this, or somebody say this time and time again, and that's that life is not fair. Sometimes, and I feel like the least person here to be preaching this because I told you last night how God has blessed me with such a good home. And I was raised in church and I have no complaints about my life and how the Lord let me be raised. And I feel I have a tough time preaching this, but let me say this, there's probably some young people here that your life isn't that great. You don't have such a good home. You don't have so much opportunity. And if you're not careful, you'll look at someone else whose life seems to be better. If you're not careful, you'll look at someone else that they have parents that love them. They have parents that encourage them in the things of God. They have parents who take them to church. And if you're not careful, you'll let envy begin to stir in your heart and you'll become envious of the privilege that they have. It seems like they have more opportunity. It seems like they have more potential. It seems like they have more going for them. And it's easy to get focused on that. And I think that's what happens in the life of Joseph's brothers. Be very careful. Be very careful in your life of not becoming envious about the privilege that it looks like someone else may have. Let me say this lastly, going back to verse number two. And honestly, in my heart, this could be the whole reason that this could have been the thing that started it all in the life of his brothers. But I think they were envy of Joseph's purity. And here's what we're given in verse number two. It says that Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bill and with the sons of Zilpah. That would have been Naphtali and Dan, who was Bill's sons, and Gad and Asher were Zilpah's sons. It says, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now, I know everybody, I guess, has a different opinion or perspective of this verse, and some people make Joseph out to be a tattletale, almost as if he was in the wrong in this text. Honestly, I don't see that in this verse. Joseph was just a young man of integrity. Something had happened, the Bible doesn't give us any description of what had went on, but in verse number one, something had happened and Joseph was the young man that had enough integrity to bring this report to his father. I'm telling you, the one thing that could have started it all was the integrity that Joseph's had and his brothers were envious of that integrity. You know, a lot of the times when you become upset about someone else doing what's right, when you become upset about someone else's integrity or them serving the Lord, it's because it's condemning your own life. It's because it's highlighted the lack of integrity. And I think they wanted Joseph to be just like them. Joseph, just sweep it under the rug. It's not that big of a deal. But Joseph was a young man of purity and a young man of integrity. And his brothers were envious of that. I'm telling you, it just doesn't make sense in our life. How many times have you had emotions and have you thought things? And if you're really saved and the Holy Spirit's dwelling in your heart, the Holy Spirit's going to point those things out. But how many times have you had those thoughts come through your mind and you've dealt with those emotions and you think, why in the world am I dealing with this? I should be happy for that person. I should be excited. I should be thrilled that they have a passion to serve God, but yet the whole time you just eat up with bitterness and jealous, and you don't even wanna see their face because of what they're doing for the Lord. It doesn't make sense. I'm telling you, if we're not careful, we'll find ourselves there. Now, here's what I wanna do. In our remaining time, I want you to look at what happened when these brothers became so full of envy And it just begins a progression in their life or a decline, I guess you would say, away from what God's doing for them. Even though they may not have had the privilege of Joseph, There's no doubt because these, I mean, this was the beginning of the nation of Israel. God had a purpose for their life. And let me tell you what envy will do. Envy will get you distracted from the purpose God has for you because you're so consumed about the purpose God has for someone else. Envy is a thief. Envy, some of you no doubt this morning, some of you are being robbed of the greatest years of your life because you're so full of envy and you're so distracted with the life of someone else. Some of you may be here, you have a young family that God's blessed you with. You're missing watching your kids grow up. You're being robbed of some great years in your life because you're just so upset about what's happening in someone else's life. That's a dangerous place to be. There's people that are 60, 70, 80 years old and they've lived their whole life full of envy and they've allowed it to rob them of any joy and any peace that they could have had in serving God. So how does envy work in Joseph's brother's life? I think it works exactly the same way, just like a beast. Let me show you, I just wanna give you, I don't know, six, seven things real quick of what was the result of envy. Let me say this first of all. that envy resulted in despite. It caused them to despise their brother. Someone who they should have loved. Someone who they should have been close to. Someone who when he came to the breakfast table, they should have said, Joseph, we're thankful for what God's doing in your life. And we'll be there to encourage you. But it caused them to hate. Look what the Bible says, let me show you just a few verses in this chapter. 37 in verse number five, it says, Joseph dreamed a dream and he told his brethren, or look with me in verse number four, first of all. It says, when his brethren saw that his father loved them more than all his brethren, they hated him. That was the beginning, they hate him. Verse number five, it says, he dreamed a dream, he told his brethren, and they hated him yet more. Look with me in verse number 8. It says, His brethren said unto them, Shout thou indeed reign over us, or shout thou indeed have dominion over us. And they hated him yet the more. Look with me in verse number 11. It says, And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. What had happened is their envy had caused them to despise their brother. We understand what the Word of God says about hate. It's a strong word that's used in the Bible. And as a Christian, we should have no place, no matter what happens, there should be no place in our heart for hate. But what envy does is it will bring hate into your life. It will stir up that emotion of hate that all of us deal with. Not only that they despise him, but you'll also find that they cause division. Envy resulted in division in their life. Just like a wild beast will take its prey and rip it to pieces. If you let envy have control in your life, it will start to rip apart everything that you love. Look what the Bible says in verse number four. This is a strong statement. It says that when his brethren saw their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and notice this last phrase, and could not speak peaceably unto him. They were so envious of Joseph that they couldn't say one nice thing. They couldn't say anything to unite. Everything that they said was to divide. Listen, I know how it works, especially as a young person, especially in a youth group, You'll develop envy in your heart, and all of a sudden, and we're really good at it in the South, we know how to frame it very sweetly, but everything we say is to divide. Everything we say is to make us, what about the person, you probably, if you're dealing with envy, you can see a face in your mind this morning. What about the person that every time you see them, the first thing in your mind is what can I say to hurt them? You cannot, I mean, as much as you know you're supposed to be a Christian and you know you're supposed to do right, but you just can't find it within yourself to say one good thing. You're so envious of what's going on in their life. And listen, it can be good and bad. Asaph talked about being envious of the wicked. And you can get to a place, maybe it's not what the good that God's doing in someone's life, but you may be a young person and you're envious of what someone else gets by with. You're envious of the sin that they're in. And you're just serving God out of duty because you know that you have to, but you're looking at a young person across the aisle and you're envious that they don't have any rules and regulations and they get to do whatever they want. And you may be in that situation. And you're in a place where every time you see that person, the first thing in your mind is I can't stand them. What can I say to hurt them? What can I say to tear them down and make myself look better? Envy always brings division. Along with that, another thing I want you to notice in verse number 8, we already read this verse just a second ago. But envy, it produces defiance. Look what they said to his brother. Now I get the situation. I understand where they're at. That they don't want to have to submit to their brother. All of us that have siblings can say amen to that. You're not going to tell me what to do. So I get it. I'm relating to them in this verse. But they said, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? But here's what they don't understand. That when they're resisting Joseph, they're resisting God's plan for their life. This was all in the organizing of God. God was the one that had laid all of this out. And they thought they were just going against Joseph. They just thought, oh, this is his little brother and he thinks he's going to be the boss. Well, he has another thing coming. But they don't understand in their envy towards someone else that they're going against God's plan for their life. Here's what you don't understand a lot of times. When you let envy fester in your life, and it calls you to, we still know the verse in Ephesians 5, submit yourself one to another. That's not just for adults, that's for young people too. That's the way we're to live our life as a Christian, submitting to our brothers, sisters, and Christ. And when you raise up, and they're not gonna tell me what, they're not gonna act that way to me. Who do they think they are? You don't understand, you're not just rebelling against them, but you're rebelling against the word of God. Envy will sometimes deceive you to think that it's just against that person, but the truth is, they were going against what God had planned for them. They didn't understand all of this. Envy will produce defiance in our life. Not only that, notice with me in verse number 18, I made a statement similar to this a few minutes ago, but you'll see that envy produced depravity. Now look at how bad this gets in verse number 18. Now we know the story how that Jacob had sent Joseph to check on his brethren. Joseph in obedience goes and the Bible says in verse number 18 that when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. Their envy had become so serious in their life I don't know how long it's been since they've seen Joseph, but they're out here taking care of their father's sheep, and they see Joseph, and the first thought is we need to figure out how to kill him. We've got to destroy him. We can't get to where he's at. But man, we can take away what he has. You can imagine as they ripped that coat to pieces how satisfied that they were in their flesh that they were doing this to Joseph and they were bringing him down off of his pedestal is what they thought. And envy had called, it really highlighted their depravity. Thank God for civil laws that keep a lot of this stuff from happening. And we'd probably be surprised how many Christians, they're saved, and I don't think any of us would say we would go this far as to want to kill someone, but how many times, if you dealt with the emotion, you become full of envy, and the first thing in your depraved nature, the first thing is, I just want to hurt them. I've got to try to bring them, I've got to try to tear them down. It happens so many times. It happens so often. There'll be a young person who's serving the Lord and doing what's right. And it's a lot easier to try to tear that young person down than to try to get to where they're at. It's a lot easier to try to destroy their life. That's what they do with Joseph. Let me give you a couple more things. Also, I want you to notice this, that envy had caused a delusion in their life. Now, what they're envious of, remember, is the favor that Joseph had with Jacob, and they're envious of his dreams. These dreams, it seems like it's what had drove them to full-blown envy in their life. But they don't know what Joseph is going to have to go through to get to that place. All they see is the dreams. All they see is the purpose. And envious had made them delusional to that. In their mind, they thought Joseph is gonna have this wonderful life. They don't know that Joseph's life is gonna go to the pit, and then it's gonna be in Potiphar's house, and then it's gonna be in prison, and he's gonna be forgotten about in prison, he's gonna interpret dreams, and then he's gonna be forgotten about again, and they don't know the ups and downs in Joseph's life. And I dare say, I dare say this, that if they would have known what Joseph was going to have to go through to get to those dreams, they'd have probably said, no, thank you. We'll stay right here at home with dad and we'll enjoy our life. Joseph, you can have all the dream business if that's what we're going to have to go through. And I'll tell you what Envy will do in your life. Because all we see, especially in this day with social media, all you see is the highlights of everyone's life. You see the good things. You see the good days. You see it when they're smiling. You don't know what they've had to go through to get there. You may see the purpose and you're envious of what it looks like God is doing in someone else's life. And you're thinking, man, I wish that was me. But honestly, in reality, you might not even be willing to go through what they're going through to get to the place that God is taking them. Envy will make you delusional. Envy will get you focused on someone else's life, thinking, oh, they've got everything going for them. They've got it so great. And sometimes you'll miss what's going on in your life that's good. These men were still a son of Jacob. God still had a purpose for their life. They still had some great things in store for them, but they were so focused on Joseph's purpose that they completely missed it. Joseph had to go through a lot of things to get to these dreams. Let me give you this one. I want you to turn, in fact, with me to chapter 42 in verse number 21. Let me say this, that envy will produce disgust in your life. This is such, this is so interesting to me. Chapter number 42. As these men come to Joseph, it's been years now since they had seen Joseph. As far as they know, he doesn't even exist anymore. They sold him into slavery. We know the Bible changes through Joseph's life and everything that he goes through and how God brings him to this place of power, to the palace, and he brings him for the salvation of the world. It's just amazing just the design of God in this entire text and all of these circumstances. But as they get, of course you remember Joseph knew who they were, but they didn't know that this was Joseph. And he tells them they're going to have to go back and bring their younger brother. He accused them of being spies. Now here's what happens in verse number 21. Remember this is years after everything has taken place. And look what the Bible says, as soon as they're confronted with this situation, they're scared to death, they've been accused of being spies, they know how Jacob feels about the younger brother, Benjamin. In verse 21, it says, and they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us. Joseph had gotten past what they had done to him, but they were never able to get past it. The first thing that came in their mind when something went bad is they said, this is because of what we did to Joseph. It's for years, what happened that day has haunted their memory. For years, it still seems pretty fresh in their mind. In fact, they're pretty descriptive, more descriptive than what we see in chapter 37. Because they said in verse number 21 that he besought us and we would not hear. Obviously, Joseph was begging them not to do this to him. He said, we would not hear, therefore behold also his blood is required. They had a guilty conscience because of choices they made when they were controlled by envy. And here's what's so dangerous about, especially as a young person, what's so dangerous about envy in your life is you'll make choices that are spurred by envy that will live with you the rest of your life. You'll say things in a moment of envy that you'll regret for the rest of your life. You'll destroy relationships because of envy that you'll have to deal with. And thank God for forgiveness. All of us have said things that we shouldn't have. And I'm thankful for forgiveness. But I'm telling you, envy will cause you to do things that will haunt you. That's where his brothers are at. Let me give you this one lastly. You'll find that, and this is sort of the obvious statement of the chapter, you'll find that envy produced destruction. That's what they thought that they had done to Joseph. They thought that they had destroyed him. That was their intentions, is they wanted to destroy Joseph's life. But honestly, you know the story, Joseph wasn't the one that was destroyed. It was their life that was affected by envy. Their relationship, here's one thing that's so interesting about envy. Now who in this text, who is the person that they want favor from? It's from their father. That's what they're envious of, is the favor that Joseph has from the father. And in trying to hurt Joseph, they end up hurting the person that they claim to love the most. the one they claim to want his attention and to want his favor, that's the person who they hurt. In fact, look in our text, in verse number 34, chapter 37, verse 34, it says, and Jacob rent his clothes and put on sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And here's what he said in verse number 35, for I will go down into the grave until my son mourning, thus his father wept for him. And you'll find later on in the chapters that Jacob was still upset, he was still mourning when they took Benjamin away to take him back to Egypt. He said, I've already lost Joseph and he was still affected by what had happened. This completely destroyed the relationship that they had with their father. Here's what's so sad about envy, is you'll allow your life to be consumed by envy, and you think you're gonna hurt that person you're envious of. What's gonna end up happening is you're gonna hurt the people you love the most. How many young people that have been consumed by envy, and their intention, it was never to hurt, it was never to hurt their parents, it was never to hurt their friends, they tried to hurt that person they were envious of, but they ended up hurting the person they loved the most. How many spouses, husbands, and wife have been moved by envy, and they never intended to hurt their marriage, but they destroyed their marriage because of envy. Envy will destroy relationships in your life. You can even look, I don't know if we could attribute it, directly to what happened in chapter 37, but you look at chapter number 38, and what happened in Judah, and the horrible sin that was committed in chapter number 38. You know, a lot of times envy will lead you to other sins. You let envy in your life, and it'll take you further down a road of sin. Let me give you this verse as we close. Job chapter number 5. You don't have to turn there, I'll just read it to you. Job chapter 5 and verse number 2. I think Job made a very wise statement. He said, Envy ultimately will destroy you. You've heard the illustration so many times about jealousy or bitterness. It's like drinking poison, expecting it to hurt someone else. And it's not going to. It's so interesting. I've been thinking about this the last few days, and I'm closing. You could go through the Word of God, and you could see how envy works. And it's interesting to me. Now, let me give you this. I guess I shouldn't close without giving you the remedy of envy. If anyone had a right to be upset and bitter and envious, it was Joseph. He's the one when he was sitting in the pit. He should have been the one that was so bitter and consumed with what had been done to him, but he wasn't. He just kept his focus on what God had called him to do. And he just stayed the course. He was faithful in the pit. He was faithful in Potiphar's house. He was faithful. Joseph was just faithful. And he said, you know, I've been hurt. I've been betrayed. Joseph could have sit around and cried a bucket of tears at Potiphar's house over what had happened in his life, but he didn't do that. He just stayed busy. He said, God's been too good to me. I'm going to stay faithful. Joseph should have been the one destroyed by Andy. All the circumstances were against Joseph, but he was just faithful. And you see what God did in Joseph's life. Listen, I'm telling you, the remedy to envy is just stay faithful to the Lord. Just do what's right. Just say, I'm not going to let anything else distract me. I'm going to stay faithful to the Lord. I thought about David and Saul. If anyone had the right to be upset in that situation, it was David. Saul was the one that was trying to kill him. And yet David just stayed faithful to the Lord. He just did what's right. Saul was the one that ended up dying a miserable death on a battlefield and God blessed David's life. Haman and Esther in the book of Esther. If anyone that should have been upset, it should have been Esther. She should have been the one that was consumed with bitterness, but she was so close to the king that she invited Haman to the banquet that she had prepared twice in the book of Esther. She wasn't distracted, but Haman was the one that was so consumed with envy that he ended up hanging himself, he ended up being hung on his own gallows because of envy in his life. It plays out the same way every single time. It plays out the same way you think you're going to hurt someone else. Because envy feels good. Just like that wild beast, and I'm done. Just like that wild beast. How many times have you heard the story of someone who had a lion, a tiger, they've had it for years. And then one day, they thought it was their pet. They thought they had everything under control. And one day that animal turned and destroyed their life. And I'm telling you, envy is a really, I don't know any better way to say this. I think you'll understand. It's a good pet sin. It feels good. Envy really feels good to our flesh. And it just grows and grows. And it's just so easy to try. I'm telling you, it's our depravity. And you'll think you have it under control. You think it's your pet sin that you'll play with and everything will be okay. But you'll turn around one day and it'll destroy your life. God help us to be careful. of the evil beast of envy. Pastor, you come. Lord, I thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that you'd speak to the hearts of the young people that are here. And the Lord has already said, I need this in my life. It is so easy. We're so prone to jealousy and envy. And Lord, I pray that if there's a young person that's dealing with that this morning, that they would get in the altar and they would get that right. Lord, it was said last night how much potential is in this room. And Lord, there's probably a young person that they're consumed by envy and you wanna do so, if they could just see the plans that you had for their life. If they could just see the purpose that you have for them and what you wanna do through them, and yet, if they're not careful, they're gonna let envy take it all away. I pray that you would work and you would do what only you can do. We love you, Lord. Amen.