This message is adapted from one preached by Rick Warren. Scripture Reference: Matthew 20:1-16

We’re in this series on 40 Days of Building Relationships – With God’s Love. The most common destroyer of friendships is not anger, it’s not impatience, it’s not apathy, and it’s not unkindness. It’s envy. And today in our series, as we go through this 40 days, we’re going to look at the verse in the Bible that says, “Love does not envy.” (I Cor.13:4 NIV) It is impossible to envy someone and love them at the same time. So, what is envy? It’s resenting God’s goodness to others and ignoring God’s goodness to me. That’s what envy is.

The Bible tells us clearly that envy is behind most other sins. In James 3:16, it says, “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (NIV) That intrigued me when I saw that verse this week so I went through the Bible and I made a list from A to Z of problems that envy can cause. I’m not going to go into all of these but let me read a few:

• Anorexia: People starve themselves because they envy skinny people
• Adultery: People envy somebody else, their spouse, so they steal them.
• Bitterness: You resent people things that you wish you had achieved.
• Complaining, Conflict, Dishonesty.
• Exaggeration: People overstate accomplishments out of envy.
• Gossip: We build ourselves up and tear other people down out of envy.
• Hypocrisy: We kiss up to those we envy then talk behind their back.
• Insecurity, Judgmentalism,
• Manipulating: It causes us to scheme and want to get our own way.
• The Bible says that envy can cause murder – in fact the very first murder was between Cain and Abel. The first homicide.
• Obsession: Envy can cause you to obsess over a thing or over an event.
• The Bible says that envy can make you power-hungry, rude, sarcastic, spiteful, stingy, stubborn, unforgiving, ungrateful, unkind and vain. Not a pretty picture.
• The Bible says that envy can turn you into a worrier and also into a workaholic. Ecclesiastes 4:4(NIV) says, “And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbour.”
• The Bible tells us in Proverbs 14:30 that envy is like bone cancer. It will eat you alive. It starts inside, and it makes you miserable.

Is it worth it? No. Nothing destroys friendships faster than envy. It can destroy families by sibling rivalry. It can destroy businesses. It can destroy neighbourhoods. It can even cause nations to go to war with each other. Simply out of envy. This is one destructive sin.

If it’s so destructive, then how do we root it out of our lives? Because we live in a society that is filled with envy. Capitalism is built on the theme of “I want what you’ve got. I want more, and I’ve got to have it.” So how do we rout it out of our lives?

Sometimes you learn what to do by looking at what not to do. In the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20, Jesus tells us the story of some people who did it the wrong way. They become very envious. A farmer goes out and he hires five different kinds of day workers. He starts out with the workers at the start of the day, then he goes out four more times and hires four other guys. To the first man, he says, “I’ll pay you a set wage.” They contract for a dollar a day, which was the going rate at that time. To the other guys he goes and picks up for day workers he says, “I’ll just pay you what’s fair” and they don’t even agree on an amount. So they’re just trusting in his generosity to be fair. So at the end of the day he decides to pay them in reverse. He decides, “I’m just going to pay everybody the same amount.” He didn’t pay the people who worked all day any less. They got exactly what that had contracted for – a dollar a day. What made them upset was that other people were given what they felt they didn’t deserve. So they became very, very envious. In this story we learn the five antidotes to envy.

1. If you want to get envy out of your life, you must first stop comparing yourself to others.

Comparing is at the root of all envy. And comparing was the very first mistake made by these workers. Matthew 20:10 (NLT) says, “When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they too were paid a day’s wage.” In other words, they started making comparisons: “Look what they’re getting. So we’re going to get more. We deserve more. We ought to have more.” They started comparing.

The Bible says over and over again, never compare yourself to anybody else. The Bible says it’s foolish. The Bible says it’s dumb, unwise. You’re never to compare the way you look. You’re never to compare your income. You’re not to compare your intelligence. You’re not to compare your kids. You’re not to compare your husband or wife or your job or anything else. The Bible says do not do that.

The Bible tells us to never compare yourself to anybody else for two reasons.

• One, you’re unique. God made you special. There’s nobody like you. He made the mould and then He broke it. You can’t be comparable to anybody else.
• Two, if you do start comparing, it’s always going to lead to one of two sins – pride or envy. When you start comparing yourself – like the way you look or the kind of car you have or the way your front lawn looks or whatever – you start comparing and you think either “I’m doing better than them,” and you get full of pride. Or “They’re doing better than me,” and you get full of envy. They’re both sins. So God says never, never, never compare because it’s always going to lead to either pride or envy.

A lot of times we envy people because we don’t know the whole story behind their success or what we think they’ve got that we don’t have or ought to have. If you knew their background or you knew what sacrifices they’ve made to get where they are or if you knew their pain or their hurt of if you knew what it cost them to get what they have, you might not want it. You don’t know the whole story and that causes you to envy.

Envy occurs when you really don’t know people intimately. You can see people’s strengths from a distance, you can see their successes from a distance. But it’s only when you get up close that you see their warts, their faults, their failures. That they’re normal people, that they’ve got hang-ups, that they have problems, that they have pain. And everybody has hidden pain. You can’t see their pain and hurt from a distance. When you see people from a distance, it’s a whole lot easier to envy them.

That’s why this thing about celebrity worship is so unreal. I hope you’ll never again read a gossip column. It’s a total waste of time, and it only leads to envy. All those things are just airbrushed PR releases anyway. They’re not what people are really like. I’ve had the opportunity over the many years here as pastor to meet some very famous people. I’m not going to mention any names but their initials are…. No. I’m not going to drop any names, but I have had the opportunity to meet some very famous people in the area of entertainment – the Hollywood types – in politics, certainly in the Christian world.

Let me tell you something I’ve learned. Nobody is as cool as they appear. They may look like they’ve got it all together. If you get close, they don’t have it all together. Nobody is as happy as they seem to be. Nobody is as carefree as they seem to be. Nobody is as satisfied with their life or as successful as they appear to be. And that constant stream of celebrities checking into Betty Ford Clinic isn’t doing it for fun. They’re doing it because their lives come unraveled. And honestly, behind the lives of celebrities, they often have more pain because they’re in the glare of the spotlight. You really don’t want what they’ve got.

The reality is every one of us has hidden hurts. And when you discover those, you wouldn't just say “I’d like to be that person” after all, once you know what’s behind it. I heard this week about a woman in her small group. She has MS and lupus. She said to her small group, “If we all put the problems that each of us have in the centre of this room in a big pile and looked at them, at the end of the evening we’d probably all take our problems back and go home.” You don’t have grace for other people’s problems. So all those people that you envy, you might not want what’s behind what they’ve got. They may be strong in one area but they’re also weak in another, and they may have success in one area but they may have major pain and heartache in another. Do you really want that?

God has tailor made your cross. It’s just the one that’s right for you. So the first antidote to dealing with envy is just to get to know people. Get to know them up close and personal and get to know them intimately. That’s the power of small groups. When you get to know people closely, you don’t envy them. But you can pray for them.

This problem of envy has been around since the dawn of civilization. In fact, they were doing it way back when men lived in caves. If you want to get this out of your life, if you want to be a genuinely loving person, you’ve got to stop comparing. You’ve got to stop comparing yourself to other people.

2. You have to start enjoying.

Start enjoying God’s grace to other people. When you see God being kind, good, gracious to others, learn to enjoy it rather than resent it. You need to be happy when God is blessing somebody else. This does not come naturally. You have to learn it. You have to learn to rejoice in other people’s blessing. When God has been good to others, you need to learn to enjoy watching God do that to them.

This is the exact opposite of what these workers did. They went out and the guys who worked all day, they were paid exactly what they contracted for. They weren’t cheated. They just resented other people being given just as much. And instead of enjoying it, the workers resented it. Matthew 20:10-11 (NIV) says, “So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.” owner of the vineyard. The landowner replied, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous.” Matthew 20:15 (NIV) They resented it.

Romans 12:15 (NIV) says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice.” Last week, we looked at the second half of that verse, which says, “and weep with those who weep.” The second half of the verse is much easier to do than the first half. It’s easy to weep with those who weep. It’s easy when someone is down, they’re hard up on their luck, they’ve had a tough time, it’s easy to be sympathetic. We talked about that last week as an element of kindness. That you share the hurts and the pains and the sorrows of other people. That’s the easy part.

It’s much more difficult to rejoice when they have a success. We don’t handle the success of other people very well. In fact, we’re threatened by it. We resent it. Because somehow in our minds we think the world is some big giant apple pie and it’s all divided up into slices. And if somebody’s slice gets a little bit bigger, then that must mean my slice is going to get smaller.

You’re wrong. Because God’s got all the pie filling in the world. He doesn’t run out of blessings. He doesn’t run out of grace. There’s more than enough to go around for everybody, and because God blesses somebody else does not mean there is not enough blessings for you. He just wants to do it in different ways. He does not bless us all the same. Some have good health, others don’t have good health. Some have good achievements, others don’t have good achievements. Some have real good family relationships, others have difficult family relationships. We’re blessed in different ways. And we need to learn to rejoice in the joy of other people.

The fact is envy comes most often in the area that you’re most interested in and you’re most likely to be talented in. For instance, athletes envy other athletes, and doctors envy other doctors. Speakers envy other speakers. Writers envy other writers. Musicians envy other musicians. I have to say I have never been envious of a good seamstress. They can maybe sew up all kinds of incredible clothes. I just never wanted to be a seamstress. So there are areas in your life that you just don’t envy because you have no interest in those areas. But if it gets a little bit close to home, and it’s an area that you’re interested in or have a modicum of talent in or wish you did, there comes the envy. It always happens. Realtors envy other Realtors; they don’t envy accountants. So we tend to find those who are closest to us in our profession or in our area of interests. Brothers envy brothers, sisters envy sisters – things like that.

Because envy is such a hidden sin, we don’t think it’s that bad. We don’t think it’s as harmful as the more overt ones like murder or lust or things like that. But the Bible says this is an incredibly damaging sin. It’s hidden. But it’s mean. In fact, it’s the meanest sin of all because it is wishing bad on other people and it’s destructive. It devalues other people, it ruins your happiness, robs you of happiness, makes you miserable. It destroys relationships. It makes you critical. I’ve discovered that when people are critical, if it’s not a constructive criticism, it’s almost always out of envy. Criticism is almost always based in envy unless it’s a constructive criticism.

The main thing envy does is it keeps you from entering into the joy of other people. You miss out on a whole lot of joy in life you could be enjoying. For instance, let’s say you want to get married, but you’re not married right now. So every time you hear about a wedding, instead of being happy, you get resentful. You get envious. You can’t enjoy it. Or, let’s say you want to have a baby, but you’re not having a baby. So every time you hear about a baby being born you don’t enjoy that. You don’t rejoice. You don’t rejoice with those who rejoice. You get envious. Or you want a promotion, and somebody else in your company gets promoted. You don’t rejoice over that promotion. (“Good for you! Congratulations!”) No, you’re thinking, “How come not me?” Or somebody gets a windfall, and they get a big inheritance, and you think, “How come I wasn’t born not a rich family? I have a poor family. I’m not getting any inheritance.”

As a result, you don’t enjoy much that goes on in the world. You can be a pretty miserable person. If the only time you’re happy is when good things happen to you, you’re not going to be happy that much, because happy things don’t happen to you all the time. A lot of life is just average, and a lot of life is bad things happening to you. On the other hand, if you learn to enjoy the good things that happen to others, you can be happy all the time. Because something good is always happening to somebody.

That’s your choice. Envy is a choice. I can choose to rejoice, or I can choose to resent. Those are the options. The good news is if you learn to rejoice at God’s goodness to others, you’ll have a lot more to be happy about.

A great place to practice this second principle of enjoying God’s grace to others is in a small group. That’s why I encourage you to get into a small group. In a small group, it’s not just a place to share your sorrows where we commiserate over our sorrows and we pray for each other and help each other over our hurts. But small groups should also be a place where you can share your joy and people are your cheerleaders. We all need to have the attitude of grandparents. You can brag to them, and they don’t think you’re bragging. You can say, “You wouldn’t believe what the kids did this week!” and they’d say, “That’s great!” You tell somebody else and they’d go, “But my kids…” like, “My kid was inmate of the month in prison.” They have to one-up you every time. There’s no guile in grandparents.

But eventually your grandparents die off. So we need to be grandparents to each other in the small groups. And a small group needs to be a place where we not only share our hurts, but we also share our successes and everybody goes, “That is great!” When a sorrow is shared, it is cut in half. When a joy is shared, it’s doubled. That’s very important.

There’s a third antidote to envy.

3. Be grateful for what you have.

Instead of focusing so much on what you don’t have and what didn’t happen, be grateful for what you do have. This also has to be learned. It doesn’t come naturally to me and probably not to most of us. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content.” Philippians 4:11 (NLT) It was a learning process.

So instead of complaining like these workers did about what wasn’t happening, what they didn’t get, you learn to realize that you’d have nothing without God, without His goodness and what He’s given to you.

1 Corinthians 4:7-8 (NIV) says, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!” Envy is based on a myth. The myth is I have to have more to be happy. I have to have something I don’t have now to be happy. And you get caught up in this myth and focused on everyone else. Envy always looks at others and asks, “Why them? Why did they deserve it? I deserve what they have.” But gratitude says, “Why me? Why did I get this? I don’t deserve what I have.” It totally flips around the perspective of our mind.

The truth is although we all struggle with envy, it’s hard to admit it. It’s hard to admit that we struggle with this. One of the reasons why is because it is such an ugly emotion, such an ugly feeling toward others. Envy, when you’re envious of others, you really want them to fail. You want them to fall flat on their face. You don’t tell anyone else, but it really makes your day when they have a bad day. Because you feel better because they don’t have something. When you think about that, that’s pretty crazy, isn’t it? It’s hard to recognize envy because it’s all around us. It’s a part of our society. We’re inundated with it. When I have to admit I’m envious, I have to admit I’m feeling inadequate. I have to admit the reason I’m envious is I want something you have that I couldn’t get or don’t have. Because of that, we hide from these feelings of envy in our lives. If only we could be grateful for what we have, we could begin to solve these feelings of envy.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 6:9(NLT), “Enjoy what have rather than desiring what you don’t have.” I already have more than I deserve.

Envy is not having a desire or a dream or a goal. It’s important to understand that. I’m not talking about having a desire or a dream or a goal. It’s good to have those. That’s not envy! Envy’s not wanting something, looking forward to something or hoping that something can happen in your life. Or even wondering if you should have some thing. Envy is instead resenting somebody who already has what you desire or dream or goal. That’s what envy is. Envy says, I can’t be happy until I get that desire or dream or goal. Envy is not being grateful for what you already have.

The fourth antidote to envy is

4. To trust God when life seems unfair.

When it looks like God’s blessing somebody in a way that He’s not blessing you, you need to relax and trust God. You need to believe that He knows what’s going on. He knows what’s best. Even when you can’t see it, you need to trust Him when life seems unfair.

One of the signs of envy, the way you can tell it’s fermenting in your life, is the language you use. If you find yourself starting to use the phrase “It’s not fair,” you’ve already fallen into the trap of envy. “It’s not fair! Why them? Why not me? I’ve worked as hard as they do. I’m a committed Christian.” Then you start getting into legalism. “Maybe if I just worked more, then maybe God would bless me more. Maybe if I just went to church more, God would bless me more.” No, that’s not it at all. You need to trust God that He knows exactly what each individual life needs. He knows the hurt and He knows the pain and He knows the blessing that each life can handle. And you need to trust God in that.

In this story Jesus told, the workers felt that they were being treated unfairly. Not because they weren’t paid what they were promised. They were. They got exactly what they were promised. But that other people were paid the same amount when they thought, “We’re better”.

Notice verse 12, “These men who were hire last worked only one hour,’ they said,’and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.” You can hear the envy in that. “We’re better than them. We who slaved all day under a scorching sun.”

Notice the owner’s reply in the next verse. By the way, the owner represents God in this story. "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ... Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?”

The bottom line on envy is this. When you’re envious, you’re in a battle with God. Your problem really isn’t with the person you envy. Your problem at a deeper level is with God. You’re doubting God’s goodness in your life. You resent God’s decision to bless somebody else. You accuse Him of being unfair. When you are envious, your problem really is with God. You don’t think God has your best interest at heart. You think God loves somebody else more than He loves you, that God is playing favorites. You accuse Him of that. You start building an entire case against God. God loves you as much as He loves anybody else. He doesn’t love anybody else more than He loves you. Because He loves us all unconditionally. It’s not like, “I can love them, but not love you.” No. He does. And the bottom line is you need to learn to trust Him.

God has a good reason why I don’t have what I want. Do you think God is duty-bound to give you everything you want? He’s not a slot machine. He’s not a vending machine. He’s not a genie – you put in a little prayer and you get whatever you want. You serve God; He doesn’t serve you. God has a good reason why I don’t have the things in my life that I think I ought to have. Because He knows me better than I even know myself. I need to relax. I need to trust God. And I need to say, “God, You have a unique plan for my life, and I’m just going to trust You in this.”

The problem that happens in envy is you have forgotten how much God loves you. You’ve got in your mind, “Maybe He loves somebody else more than He loves me.” No. You’re wrong. You’ve forgotten how much He loves you, how much He has a plan that is just perfect for you and how life isn’t about things anyway. It’s not about material possessions. There’s a lot more important.

Envy is the fever. Doubting God is the infection. And any time you start envying, it’s because you’re doubting God. You need to fall in love with Jesus Christ again. This week I received this letter: “Dear Pastor, my faith has been in a coma for some time. But I’m back. Here’s a memo I felt compelled to send to my small group, and I just felt compelled to share it with you. ‘Dear small group, for most of my life I’ve practiced a somewhat reserved version of the faith but not any more. This 40 Days series has opened my eyes to a part of the Christian life that I have been so desperately lacking in – trusting in the leading of God’s Spirit. Through prayer and reading God’s word, I’ve returned to the honeymoon period with God that I experienced when I first became a Christian. I now find myself smiling at other drivers instead of flipping them off. I now find myself anticipating church each weekend instead of wondering, which service will least impact my plans and weekend schedule? I’ve gotten involved in ministry again, just serving at the lowest levels. Most important, my heart has grown again to include more people than just myself. In short, I’m falling in love with God again and the things that concern Him. As the song says, “I will never be the same again.” Thank God. I wish you the same rekindling of the greatest love affair of your life, a love affair with Jesus Christ, and I will pray for each of you today.”

You need to trust God and trust in His love when life seems unfair.

5. Keep focused on God’s plan for you.

Keep focused on the plan God has for your life. Don’t get distracted by what’s going on in other people’s lives. Centre in on God’s will for your life. There’s a simple phrase in this story that the owner says to those who were grumbling and griping and who didn’t get what they deserved, Matthew 20:14 (NIV), “Take your money now and go.” He’s basically saying to those who are complaining who can’t get past this, he’s basically looking them in the eye and saying, “Get a life! It’s time to move on now. It’s time to go to the next step in your life. Quit having a pity party. Just get over it!”

Sometimes we get so stuck in the past. Some of you are still envying the person who got to be prom king or queen. You’re really stuck back there a long way. God is saying, “Get a life! Move on.” You get so stuck on what you didn’t get and why it didn’t happen and I deserved that and they didn’t deserve that, you get so stuck on that, you can’t see God’s plan for your life. He still has an incredible plan for your life right now, today. Why should you let what they got keep you from God’s plan for your life? And He has an incredible plan for your life.

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV) says, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” The particular race. That means the unique race. That means the personal race, the race that is only for you. It’s unlike His plan for anyone else. This plan that God has for your life individually is a plan that He had before you were even born. That’s how great this plan is.

Psalm 139:16 (NLT) says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” God has shaped you. He has made you for a unique purpose. One of the reasons for a church is to help you discover the unique purpose that God has for your life, the particular race that He wants you to run.

To get you started in that, as some of you know, we have a series of four classes here at Saddleback. We call them 101, 201, 301 and 401 just to be simple. If you haven’t been to those, I encourage you to get started. The first one, 101 is this afternoon at three o’clock. It will help you to see – begin to see – the unique particular race that God has for your life. And once you begin to discover that, how God wants your life to be lived out differently than everybody else’s, you don’t have to envy anyone anymore. You just have to realize you just have to be the particular person God has made me to be. You’re released from the tyranny of always having to be best all the time. You just have to be the best you can be, the person God made you to be.

When you get focused like this on God’s race, His particular race for you to run, you really don’t have time to envy anyone. You’re so caught up in what He wants you to do. You can’t be bothered with envy because you’re living your life for an audience of one. For Him. For the particular race He has for you.

This isn’t always easy. It’s very easy to get off track and start to run our own race and get caught up in what other people are doing. Let me give you a couple practical ideas of how to stay focused on the life that God has for you to live.

• One, I encourage you to get a spiritual partner. Somebody you can trust that can say to you, “You’re getting a little off track here. Why don’t you focus on the life that you need to live?” Get a spiritual partner.

• Two, memorize some Bible verses. God can bring those verses that you’ve memorized to mind at just the right time to say, “Get back on track!” We’re giving out these little key chains every week with the verse attached to them. This weeks verse is James 3:16 (NIV), “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” That’s an honest verse, isn’t it?

Jesus concludes this story with a shocking statement. Matthew 20:16 (NIV) says, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” He’s talking about in heaven. V.26 “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.” This is what I call The Great Reversal. God says when we get to heaven, the tables are going to be turned upside down. All those celebrities, all those people of talent, famous people that you envy – all the people that you envy – He said they’re going to be at the back of the line. Because the line in heaven is not about wealth and fame and possessions and all those things.

The point He’s making there is this: None of the things we envy on earth are going to matter in heaven. Not one of them! The things that we envy most will not matter in heaven. Not success, not wealth, not talent, not beauty, not fame, not accomplishments, none of the things we envy most on this side of eternity are going to matter one bit those billions and billions of years in eternity. What God is going to evaluate in your life and what God’s going to reward in your life is not how much money or accomplishments or talents or beauty or whatever you have here on earth.

What God is going to evaluate and reward in your life is your service to other people. He says if you want to be great, you must learn to be the servant of others. He’ll ask how much did you serve the people around you in love. He’s not going to ask, “How many businesses did you build? How big did your retirement fund get?” He’s not going to ask, “How well known did you become in your neighbourhood?” He’s going to say, “How much did you serve?” As we said last week, love is something you do, and the Bible tells us serve one another in love. Service is love in action.

So if you want to be great in heaven… and, by the way, where do you want the credit in your life? The 20 or 30 years on this side or for billions and billions of years on that side? You can make fame the goal of your life, and you get it for one week. You get it on the cover, and the next week somebody else is going to be on the cover of some magazine. Fame does not last in this world, so I wouldn’t waste a penny or a moment of your time trying to become famous. It doesn’t last. He says if you want to be great in heaven, if you want to be great for eternity, if you want to be rewarded for all eternity, you’re going to need to rearrange your priorities and rearrange your schedule to allow more time for serving because that’s what God’s going to evaluate. Did you serve? Did you give your life away in love to help other people? So He would say, “Do you want to make your life count? Stop envying people and start serving them.” And God says, “I’m taking notice and you’re going to be rewarded eventually.”

God has given you certain talents, certain abilities. We call it your SHAPE – Spiritual gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality and Experiences. You’re unique. God gave you those talents and strengths not for your benefit; He gave you your talent for the benefit of other people. If you use it on yourself, you miss the point. If you use it on other people, to serve others, God says good going. You’re doing exactly what you’re put on earth to do. So use it for the benefit of others.

Life is about serving, not acquiring. It’s not how many toys you pile up, it’s not how big a house you get. It’s about: Are you a lover? Are you a server? Are you like Jesus Christ and kind to others? And do you give your life away in service to others?

Here’s the amazing lesson. If you start giving your life away in service to others, studies have shown you’ll live longer. Just this week I read this: “According to the most recent research at the University of Michigan and Cornell University, doing good for others yields great health benefits and will prolong your life. Studies have shown that people who do volunteer service regularly are far more likely to live longer and are less likely to experience a major illness during the course of their lifetime. Several other recent studies have shown that volunteering to serve others boasts your level of endorphins, the brain chemical that give you a natural high, and endorphins also play a role in lowering your blood pressure, boosting immunity, which may account for why people who volunteer to serve live longer than those who don’t.

I would add to that that when you’re busy serving others, you don’t have time to envy them. In your weekly schedule, is there any time during your week that you’re doing unselfish, volunteer service in the community, in the church, in the school? Anywhere that you’re serving voluntarily? You say, “I’m too busy!” Yes, you’re too busy. You need to change your schedule. Because when you get to heaven, you’re not going to be evaluated on the stuff that’s filling your schedule right now. It’s going to be on, Did you learn to love?

Love is something you do. And Jesus said if you want to be great, you’ve got to focus on this one. Because it’s the ultimate antidote to envy.

• Prayer: Would you follow me in this prayer? Father, I want my life to be filled with love, so I ask You to help me clear out all the envy in my life and my relationships. Help me to stop comparing myself to others. Help me to start enjoying Your goodness to others. Help me to realize You don’t have a short supply of grace, that there’s plenty to go around. Help me to remember that I already have so much more than I deserve. I ask You to forgive me, Lord, for not being grateful for what I already have. I’m sorry. When life seems unfair and it seems like other people are being blessed more, would You teach me to trust You, realizing that You have my best interest at heart and You don’t love me any less? Most of all help me to keep focused on Your unique plan for my life. I want to be exactly what You want me to be. Help me to remember that life is about relationships not getting things. And help me to serve others in love instead of envying them. In Your name I pray. Amen.