So please turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 17 and we'll be reading verses 14 through 18. Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot one share to inherit since we are a great people and as much as the Lord has blessed us until now." So Joshua answered them, if you're a great people then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and the Giants since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you. But the children of Joseph said, The mountain country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Bethshean and its towns, and those who are of the valley of Jezreel. When Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, you are a great people and have great power you shall not have only one lot but the mountain country shall be yours although it is wooded you shall cut it down and its farthest extent shall be yours for you shall drive out the canaanites though they have iron chariots and are strong amen father i pray that as i give exposition of your word that i would be faithful and bringing the thoughts that you want your people to hear that you would open the eyes of our understanding and give us a full satisfaction in the providences that you bring into our lives. We love you and we continue to express our love to you as we hear your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. J.I. Packer once said, Envy is one of the most cancerous and soul-destroying vices there is. Was that an exaggeration? I don't think so. I've read about envy in quite a few different counseling books, and they almost all say the same thing. People don't recognize the dangers of envy immediately, but when you see the results of this sin, it truly is astounding how dangerous the enemy of envy is. Let me just read you a few sample scriptures. Proverbs 27.4 describes envy as a powerful enemy. Job 5.2 describes it as a destructive force. Proverbs 14.30 likens envy to rottenness in the bones. And so if it's a powerful enemy, if it's a destructive force, it brings inward rottenness, then we should avoid it like the plague. And yet people will often hold on to envy as if it's an inalienable right. They have a right to be envious. And I hope by the end of this sermon, you'll recognize the disastrous consequences of not crucifying envy within us. Saul's envy of David's love by the Lord and acceptance by the people caused him to eventually try to kill David. Now, envy doesn't usually result in murder, but it can result in bitterness, slander, complaining, grumbling, pride, and many other sins. And with regard to Saul, he probably didn't intend to kill David initially. In fact, David was his friend. But because he did not crucify Envy, it began to grow into a monster that actually controlled him. Envy makes us so focused on what we want, that over time we become blinded to a number of sins that envy spawns within us, and we're gonna see that it does spawn a lot of sins. Rachel's envy of her sister, who had a lot of kids and she couldn't have any, made her bitter against her sister and made her angry against her husband, Genesis 31. In Genesis 26, 14, you see the Philistines envying Isaac's wealth, and since they couldn't get the wealth, They decided he shouldn't have it either, and so they stopped up all of his wells. That's going one step beyond envy, actually. Herbert Schlossberg, in his book, calls that resentiment. It's a French word. In this case, it means that the Philistines think, if I can't get it, he's not going to get it either. Joseph's brothers envied him in Genesis 37, 11, and that envy made them bitter against him. and made them do awful things to him. And so envy is not a vice that we can ignore without damage to our souls. Commentators point out that the leaders of Manasseh clearly became envious of the property that they didn't have, and God didn't want them to have, and we'll see that it was an irrational envy. But let's start with the definition. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines envy this way. Envy is resenting the advantage of another with a desire to possess the same advantage. John Corson adds a few details. He says, Envy is the whimpering whisper within me which says, why him and not me? It's not fair what he has, where he's at, what he enjoys. Envy is different than jealousy, for while jealousy fears that I'll lose what I have, envy wants what someone else has, be it a personality trait or a skill, a gift, or a position. Clinton and Hawkins say, envy is fueled by the expectation of deserving more success and recognition than another person. Envy, therefore, is closely linked to pride and greed. Now, with that as a background, let's dive into the text. Verse 14. should really come as a shock to you when you see on the map the incredible properties that the descendants of Joseph actually had gotten. Yes, there were a few areas that were rough and even a little bit of desert, but between Ephraim and Manasseh, they had already received far more property and far better property than any of the other tribes had received. And you can see that on the map. The territory of Ephraim and Manasseh is huge. Now, here's the thing. Envy can make us blind to the blessings that we already have. So blind in this case, they can't see that God has already been extremely generous with them. But to the person with envy, that doesn't matter. They want more. Lord Congleton in England overheard one of his servants saying, if only I had five pounds, I would be perfectly content Well, he wanted her to be content, so he gave her five pounds. And a few minutes later, he overheard her saying, see if I get it right, why didn't I ask for 10 pounds? So the point is, if you're not content with a providential lot that God has already given to you, it's unlikely that you will ever be content. Now, inwardly, you might deny that, but it is really the way sin nature works. You cannot satisfy the monster of envy. You must crucify it. Let me tell you a true story from when we worked with the international students at UNO. I was so intrigued by this story back then that I put it into my illustration file. But one of the teachers told me that he had given a writing assignment to his students, giving them practice on writing English, because they're all learning English at UNO, and it was business English. But the writing assignment was to answer the question, what I would do if I had a million dollars. And for 30 minutes, the class was silent as everybody was writing out what they really would like to use that million dollars for. And finally, one lady came up to the teacher's desk, showed him two pages of crossed out and written over figures that she had been writing, and she told him, not enough, teacher. I got to have another $100,000. And as I remember the story, she was serious, okay? Apparently she wasn't kidding. A million was just not enough. At least not for her dreams. But of course, even if she had another million, it likely would not be enough. Envy blinds us to the blessings that we already have. Let me just use the very first illustration of the Bible. Eve had a garden that was plum full of every imaginable fruit tree, and yet Satan got her to envy the only tree that she couldn't have. Okay? She was blinded by Satan to the incredible generosity of God. Rachel's envy of her sister's babies made her so focused on babies she was blinded to all of the other blessings that God had given to her and she wanted to die. I mean wanting to die, that's an irrational kind of blindness. Verse 14 shows another area of blindness that envy can produce. They were so convinced that they needed more and better land that they weren't embarrassed in the least to ask Joshua to use his leadership position to give them more. They were related to him. So this is asking to show favoritism to them. It really amounts to a form of graft. Graft is using political connections to get something we otherwise would not be able to get. Verse 14. Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying... Now we saw last week that Joshua was an Ephraimite, and so he was related to these children of Joseph. They were trying to leverage their relationship to profit from that leadership. Surely a relative can use his position to give us more. And of course, Joshua was not subject to graft, he was not subject to favoritism, and so the request did not work. But the fact that they would even try to use their relationship to get their way is a sad testimony. It illustrates how blind people can become when envy grips their soul. Another illustration of the blindness that envy can produce is seen in the context of the previous verses and the previous chapter. Donald Madvig points out that the descendants of Joseph already had the largest and the most fertile territory in all of Israel with just a few rough places and a little bit of desert. And yet they still complained that they haven't been given enough. He says, in terms of square miles, the Joseph tribes had little reason to complain. Moreover, the land they were given was the most fertile in all Palestine. Joshua was certainly justified in resisting their request. But envy makes people so focused on what they don't have that they don't even notice that they are starting to drift into unethical territory, in this case, asking for favoritism. James 3.16 speaks to this kind of blindness when it says this, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. So if you've been justifying envy that's in your heart, keep that verse in mind for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Confusion means you're not going to be thinking straight. And that envy also breeds every evil thing. This is why envy must be crucified early while our thinking is still clear. Envy is an incredibly dangerous enemy. Another evidence of blindness was that their envy led to stretching the truth. They ask, why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit? Joshua, no doubt, was shaking his head at the audacity of this claim. It is audacious. Look at verses five through six. This is backing up a bit. 10 shares fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, so that would make 12, right? Which were on the other side of the Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. So they had 12 shares in all, and either they engaged in an outright lie, or they were using a different definition of share than Joshua had used in verse 5. But it's still stretching the truth because even if you look at huge regions that they themselves recognize, they had at least three shares. So you got East Manasseh, West Manasseh, and you got Ephraim. And commentators point out, there's no way of getting around it. This was a falsehood. But envy makes people so focused on what they want and don't yet have that they're sometimes willing to bend the truth Even tell an outright lie sometimes in order to get it. Now they may not think it's a lie because we've already seen that envy breeds confusion. It distorts your ethical thinking. Okay. But whether you see it as a lie or bending the truth, it is a sin. Don't be surprised when the envy in your children leads them to bend the truth or tell lies. Envy produces every kind of evil. It's not enough to deal with the lying. You've got to deal with the root issue that's producing the lying. The next aspect of blindness can be seen in the word lot. Proverbs 16.33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. So this is not even Joshua who gave them the land. It was God. It's his providence that's being referred to. All Joshua did was cast the lot, sort of like casting dice, and however they land, that's who's going to get what. They fell where they fell, and we've already seen that all the tribes got their land based on how the lot fell, so it had nothing to do with Joshua's decision. Well, that means that their complaint was not just against Joshua, it was ultimately a complaint against God. God had been unfair. And what's weird about this is that if any tribes might have had some justification to feel like they got an unfair shake, it was certainly not the sons of Joseph. It maybe would be Dan or Zebulun or Issachar. They got the smallest lots. They might have felt shortchanged. But for Manasseh and Ephraim to think they were shortchanged shows incredible blindness to God's good providence. And the Puritan writer Stephen Charnock claims that all envy is a denial of providence. It's a complaint against God. So here's my question to you. Do you act like the descendants of Joseph? Do you get bitter over God's providences? Do you envy money as if we had a right to it? What about envying other people's houses or husbands or wives or children? If you ever experience envy creeping into your heart, instantly put it to death and begin thanking God for His mercies. Mercies means we don't deserve them anyway, right? But thank Him for His mercies. Without such repentance, envy will just get worse. The envious person needs to learn from the Apostle Paul who said this, not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. The next area of blindness that I see in these children of Joseph is an exaggerated sense of self-worth. They say, since we are a great people. They saw themselves as being great. I hope by now you're beginning to get a little bit of a feel of what a headache Joshua had on his hands. It was not easy to be a leader. Leaders experience a lot of headaches. One author said, sometimes we envy people in high position, but if we knew what they had to put up with in that position, we would not envy them so much. So it was with Joshua. He had a heady position, but some of the territory that went with the position was not so nice. Listening to and trying to solve the complaints of dissidents has never been an enviable task, especially was it a pain in the neck to have to deal with. The problem of Ephraimites was that they thought that they were better than they were. And really, it's impossible to have envy and not think that you are better than you really are. It's no wonder that the ancient church listed envy as one of the seven deadly sins. It is a deadly sin. We've got to recognize it. Don't ignore this in your children. Envy must be dealt with. The next area of blindness is that they had an exaggerated view of what God thought about them. It wasn't just that they thought too highly of themselves, but they thought God thought highly of them. They say, since we are a great people in as much as the Lord has blessed us until now, so they're saying, we believe God wants to bless us because He must recognize that we are a great people. It may seem like they're being spiritual when they acknowledge God's blessings, but is it really being spiritual when you thank God for a million dollars, so to speak, but complain that a million dollars is not enough? No, it's definitely a complaint against how the lots fell out. They believe they deserve more than what God has given to them. They think to themselves, it's not fair that I have X when that person has Y. And so what is Joshua to do? If a leader's objective is always to keep everyone happy, which is impossible, by the way, then a leader's only goal should be to give people what they want to hear. But that is not biblical leadership, whether the leader is a parent or some other kind of leader, not at all. Real leaders like Joshua will model self-denial and will encourage others to have self-denial by learning to be content. Tom Landry said, I don't know why I'm quoting him, but it was a good quote. Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve. In other words, leaders are helping people to achieve things that are difficult, but they know that they have to get them to do some uncomfortable things in the process, right? So he didn't allow himself to be manipulated in verse 15. First good illustration of Joshua's leadership. is that he didn't ignore their envy. He addressed it. Verse 15 begins, so Joshua answered them. He answered them. He didn't ignore them. He knew he couldn't please them, but he still addresses the issues head on. And this is the kind of leadership that makes some leaders very unpopular. It'll make children upset with their parents. They may even say, don't you love me? You'd give me what I want if you loved me. And you can respond, no, God defines love, and it would not be in your best interest to reward your envy, and so that would not be loving. Charles Spurgeon's comments on this chapter, I think, are right on point. He says, it's not an easy task to divide land amongst different claimants. Joshua divided Canaan with strict impartiality. He was a man of God, and he was also shrewdly wise, as you may gather from many of his speeches. But for all that, he could not satisfy everybody. He who would please all attempts the impossible. God himself is quarreled with. If it be the design of providence to please men, it is a melancholy failure. Do we not find men everywhere dissatisfied with their portions? This man would like his lot if it were not where it is, and that man would be perfectly satisfied if he had a little more. One would be contented with what he has if he could keep it always, while another would be more pleased if life could be shortened. There is no pleasing men. We are like the sons of Joseph in the chapter before us, ready to complain of our inheritance. It should not be so. Contentment should be natural to those who are born of the Spirit of God. Yea, we ought to go beyond contentment and cry, blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits. And I say amen. But then Joshua went on to show them how contradictory their statements really were. Now he's already done this, but he persists in showing them the lack of logic in their arguments. By the way, since envy is more emotional than it is logical, you're not always going to break through when you do this. In a moment, we'll see that they obviously weren't convinced, even though Joshua was pretty clear, but he still seeks to set the truth before him. You don't stop presenting logical truth simply because people don't follow you, okay? This is God's pattern. You present the truth. There's gonna be some people will be blinded, some people will reject it, but you present the truth. God sanctifies people through the truth of his word. And so Joshua's first step was showing them how contradictory their claim was. He says, if you're a great people, Then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the parasites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you." And in fact, he's using their own argument against them. If you're as numerous as you say that you are, then it should be super easy for you to clear out all of that forest territory. And it should be super easy for you to conquer those Canaanites that you've not even tried to attack yet. After all, you say you have the numerical advantage. Now, of course, this is not what they wanted to hear. as verse 16 shows, but to people who have an exaggerated sense of self-importance and self-worth, take them at their word, give them great tasks to do. Joshua was showing, okay, show your greatness in your performance. As one pastor said, they need to match their talk with their walk. The next thing Joshua did in verse 15 was to point them to their responsibilities before God rather than avoiding responsibilities by living in a pipe dream. Their responsibilities were to conquer the land and to take dominion of the land. They were doing neither. They feared the giants. And so they were avoiding them. And apparently they were overwhelmed with the task of clearing the forest that had been given to them. It was a lot of work and it would have taken a lot of time. And so they were not taking dominion of the territory that had already been given to them. They were wishing for territory that was easier. Envy does this. It tends to want the easy way. It avoids responsibilities. And sadly, we live in a country of envy that avoids responsibility and wants the government to do everything for them. By the way, socialism, by definition, is a philosophy of envy. By definition. Socialism exalts envy. But as an encouraging side note, I should point out that eventually Joshua's words must have had a good impact on me. And to me, this is very encouraging. The reason I believe these words were not lost on them is because archaeology shows some pretty impressive improvements that were eventually made to the mountain and the desert portions of the land, which, by the way, were not that huge. And to me, this is encouraging because it shows that blindness can be overcome by the Holy Spirit applying the truth of God's Word. Don't give up in bringing the truth to your children. We can't change people's hearts, but God certainly can, and He loves to use the truth of His Word. Now, that's a simple side note. We don't see that here in this passage, but let me quote from the ESV Study Bible on this. It says, with the influx of the Israelites into Canaan, many settlements appear in areas never before settled, the highlands and the deserts. To support this human settlement in those areas not so easily cultivatable, the Israelites borrowed or developed fresh agricultural techniques. One principal development of settlers in the mountains was agricultural terracing. In addition, plastered cisterns and rock-lined silos are abundant at these sites. They are rare in earlier periods." So granted, most of the land, or not all of the land was lush, but they did have some areas that needed this kind of creativity. And so to me, that shows that Joshua's council eventually had an impact, and we can praise the Lord for that. I think I misspoke earlier. Most of the land was lush. These were just a few areas that were not. But let's get back to the text. At this juncture, they're still resistant. So don't be surprised when the monster of envy is not instantly conquered. God can use the ministry of the word to change people's hearts, but don't get discouraged if it doesn't happen right away. Don't give up. Anyway, look at verse 16, and you'll see they still have their excuses. And let's break down their new excuses phrase by phrase. First, their envy makes them nag. But the children of Joseph said, Joseph's previous answer should have been totally sufficient. Totally sufficient as an answer if they had been humbled, but no, they keep pressuring him. One counseling book that I have shows the gradually increasing stages of envy, where envy is allowed to flourish unchecked. It starts with comparison. moves to scorn and disdain to those that he or she envies, moves to malice, and then to domination of relationships. On the domination portion of the cycle, they apply it to a woman, it applies equally to a man, but they say, an envious woman is usually desperate to be in control, so she seeks to dominate every relationship in her life. Some women who have faced abuse or abandonment in their past bring this pathology into their marriage, becoming domineering, nagging, and suspicious toward their husband, rather than loving and respecting him. But that is in effect what these leaders of the house of Joseph were doing. They were not taking no for an answer. They kept pressuring Joshua. Maybe they think he will cave in if they keep pressuring him. Nagging doesn't have to be drawn out in order to be nagging. It's simply continuing the same arguments, and they really are the same arguments, and not taking no for an answer. And you parents should not allow nagging to make you give in to your children's envy. Nagging should receive its own discipline. And I think failure to do so is not in their best long-term interests. So let's quickly go through some of the ways they continue to pile excuse upon excuse. Each one of these excuses expresses an effort to bypass their responsibility and instead to ask for something easier to be handed to them on a platter. First, they say that what they have isn't enough. Well, they've already said that. They say the mountain country is not enough for us. Joshua told them, OK, go clear some land. Settle the forest. You could do that, that would solve the problem. But even having cleared the land, they're still convinced it won't be enough. If you thought that desire for entitlement programs was a new thing, this reminds us that envy can become a pervasive element in any society. And we live, as I've mentioned already, in a society that is filled with envy. Gary North uses the phrase the politics of envy in a number of his books. A politics of envy is just a nickname for socialism. That's what all forms of socialism are, the desire to leverage the power of politics to get what we envy. We should hate socialism. It is an enemy of Christ, an absolute enemy of Christ. And when envy is that pervasive, it is destructive to a country. Now their next excuse is that their task is impossible because of the Canaanites and their heavy iron chariots. This actually seems to be somewhat of a legitimate excuse on the surface. They say, and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Bashian and its towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel. I think this was probably the main reason why they wanted different land. It wasn't that the land was too small, it was that the land was occupied with people who were really scary and had very scary, terrifying war vehicles. And by the way, archaeologists have pointed out that This use of heavy iron chariots was a fairly new development in Canaan, and that Israel itself did not start using iron chariots until the time of Solomon. You can see that in 1 Kings 9. So it was indeed scary technology. Records we have of a line of heavy iron chariots plowing into an army. You can see people just fled left and right. It was very, very intimidating. But that should have been their first and only honest excuse that they didn't have the faith to fight the Canaanites, but that wouldn't sound too spiritual, would it? They leave out their own culpability of lacking faith. And so in one sense, they're sounding exactly like the 10 spies did 40 years before. at their grasshoppers in the sight of the Canaanites. And God was not pleased with lack of faith back then. So it's no wonder to me Joshua is not moved with these excuses. Their eyes were on the fearful chariots rather than on the omnipotent Lord of Israel's armies who had guaranteed their success if they would do their duty by faith. They were failing to live by faith rather than by sight, as 2 Corinthians 5, 7 words it. Fear drowned out faith. It always does. Envy drowns out faith as well. So hopefully you're getting the picture. You do need to deal with envy in your children very early on before it becomes an established pattern. In any case, Joshua persists in pointing them to their responsibilities before God. We once again see in verse 17, he didn't ignore their excuses. Verse 17 says, Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph. And we too cannot ignore the envy that arises in our families. Almost every child at some point is going to be tempted by it. Don't assume that your children will outgrow envy. Children don't outgrow any sin. They must be disciplined over sin, trained in righteousness, coached in faith, constantly pointed to God and His Word. It's the only way to help others successfully mature. Otherwise envy just becomes worse and worse over time if it's not dealt with. And by the way, a lot of envy flows out of an overemphasis on our rights. And so I'll just say as another side note that we have We have no, we should have no absolute sense of rights that cannot ever be taken away. Okay. Even the right to life is bounded by God's word. Just look in the scripture that a penalty for murder is the death penalty. So that murderer does not have, uh, he's lost the right to life. Well, that means the right to life is not an absolute right. Right. It is bounded. It's defined by God's word. And if we ignore the bounds of God's word, when we pursue rights, we're not pleasing to God. The right to have children, it's often bounded by God's providences. And it's important that we keep pointing our families back to the sufficiency of God's grace to take us through everything that God throws at us. Now, once again, he used their own excuses to show that they didn't have a case. Verse 17 says, you're a great people, you have great power. And in fact, he's saying, put your money where your mouth is. If you're as great as you claim that you are, Then you have everything that you need to clear the forest area to conquer the valleys that the Canaanites are in. And in any case, their greatness came from God, didn't it? So go back to God and trust God as you use your greatness. And then he again shows them how much their excuses lacked faith and substance. They asked for more than one lot and Joshua in effect says, sure, possess your shares, possess your lots. You've already got more than one share. You've been given 12 shares, possess them. Take the hill country that so far you've done nothing to possess, and take the Canaanites that so far you've not engaged. Do you want more territory? It's right there in front of you. You've got far more than one share. Just possess your possessions. So beginning with the last phrase in verse 17, you shall not have only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong. William MacDonald comments on the first phrase in his commentary. He says, when Joshua said, you shall not have only one lot, he didn't mean that they would get additional land, but that they must occupy all the land that had been given to them. In other words, he didn't budge one inch on what they were envious of, but he kept pressing them into the responsibilities that they had been shirking. And envy always makes us wish for something on a silver platter rather than working diligently for it. Next, in verse 18, he calls upon them to possess what God has already given to them, but the mountain country shall be yours, although it is wooded. You shall cut it down, its farthest extent shall be yours. Now, it'd be hard to cut down the trees, terrace the slopes, turn wild country into arable country, but God calls us to hard work. Laziness will never please God, and we've got to teach our children to have a godly work ethic. A godly work ethic I think is one of the essential traits to habituate in our children as we train them. John Butler says, it is the complaint that wants recognition but not responsibility. They wanted privilege but not the requirements that went with the privilege. They wanted greatness but did not want to put out a great effort to achieve it. They wanted a pay increase but did not show much interest in a production increase. Their kind is not extinct, but still plagues society and the church. This shows up at school in those who think they should be on the team, who do not qualify because their performance is deficient, and in those who think they should get better grades, but do not qualify because their test scores do not even justify the grade they are given. And so God's solution was just old-fashioned hard work. This is an essential component of getting rid of covetousness and envy. Work hard for your money. Work hard to acquire the things needed to take dominion. Now Joshua was also strategic. I should point this out. He was helping them to break down their task a step at a time so that they would not be overwhelmed. So he tells them cut down the forest first and that would be putting them into a better position to attack the Canaanites because the Canaanites would not be able to charge up those hills and chase them down. And so, in effect, he's at least showing them how they can do this in a proper order. He didn't just rebuke them, he counseled them through how to have success. Now, people don't always follow good counsel, that's another issue. Now, the last thing he reminds them about is that with God, nothing is impossible. Indeed, God never commands something that he doesn't equip us to achieve. And so, verse 18 says, For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong." There is no doubt in Joshua's mind. You shall do it. Envy tends to make people shirk responsibilities to come up with excuses, but we can encourage our children to put that off by promising them God will give them all the strength that they need. He's promised. He always follows through on his promises. May we as a congregation put off envy, begin walking more and more in the lifestyle attitude that's outlined in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8, where Paul promises this. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. So believe that promise as you determine to fight against the enemy of envy. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word, even when your word brings rebukes and correction into our lives, because we want to more and more conform to the blueprints that you have established in the Bible. And so I pray that we have studied this passage, that we would be the stronger for it, and that you would, through our holiness, bring incredible, that joy unspeakable and full of glory that you give to those who are satisfied in you. And so, Father, bless this, Your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.