Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000018A
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00:25 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:26 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you 00:29 have joined us today. 00:31 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:34 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:39 in your heart and in mine as women, as daughters of God. 00:43 If you're just joining us, we're in the middle 00:46 of a section on pride. 00:47 We talked about the boastful heart, and how God wants us to 00:51 turn our eyes heavenward and behold Him, and give thanks. 00:55 We talked about, our last program, we talked about the 00:59 the critical heart, the critical spirit, and how God wants 01:03 to enable us to esteem other people as better than ourselves. 01:08 To focus on other people. 01:10 To give of ourselves and sacrifice for other people. 01:15 Today's program is on jealousy; The Jealous Heart. 01:19 Our Scripture for today is Philippians 4:11. 01:23 We're going to spend a lot of time in Philippians today. 01:27 Philippians 4:11. The Bible says, the second part of the 01:32 verse: I have learned in whatsoever state I am 01:36 therewith to be content. 01:40 Let's pray. Father we come before You right now 01:43 in the name of Jesus. 01:45 Thank You for the deliverance that You want to bring 01:48 to each one of us. 01:49 Thank You that You can get rid of whatever jealousy 01:53 is in our heart, and You can replace it with a spirit of 01:58 contentment, with a spirit of thankfulness. 02:01 And right now I ask that you would hide me, 02:03 and that we could hear whatever you have from Your Word. 02:08 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 02:13 He was apparently a shy man. 02:16 Quiet, so quiet in fact that when the prophet Samuel first 02:21 spoke to him he responded by saying that he was from the 02:26 least tribe in all of Israel. 02:29 And in addition to that, he was from the smallest 02:32 family in that tribe. 02:36 The prophet Samuel wanted to see him, 02:38 and wanted to spend time with him. 02:41 The man's name was Saul. 02:44 God had chosen Saul to be the first king of Israel. 02:48 And I believe in the beginning that he was a good king. 02:52 It wasn't in God's will for them to have a king. 02:55 The Bible's clear about that. 02:57 But at the same time the Lord said, 02:59 If this is what you want, that's okay. 03:02 I'll give you a king. 03:03 And the Lord Himself chose Saul for their first king. 03:07 Over time a young upstart, a young man by the name of David, 03:14 who followed after God's heart, stole the heart of 03:19 everybody there in Israel. 03:23 He killed the giant Goliath. 03:26 And everybody started talking about him. 03:28 We see Saul's pride crop up in several areas. 03:34 We see it when he offered the burnt offerings himself 03:37 instead of waiting for the prophet Samuel, 03:40 like the Lord had instructed him to do. 03:42 We see it in his treatment of his son Jonathan after Jonathan 03:47 had stormed the Philistines garrison. 03:50 We see it in his direct defiance to God's command to destroy 03:55 everything that belonged to the Amalekites. 03:58 So there was some pride going on there, some refusal to follow 04:03 what God had directly commanded. 04:05 And then David comes on the scene, 04:08 and there was this competition. 04:11 Saul's pride, I really think, shifted to a jealous pride. 04:15 He saw David as a competitor, as someone who was going 04:19 to take the throne. 04:20 And he became jealous of David. 04:24 Jealousy is usually directed at other people; 04:27 maybe what they have, what they possess, 04:30 what they look like. 04:31 The spirit of jealousy is really closely related to the 04:35 spirit of covetousness. 04:37 And if you get all of the way down to the roots, 04:40 if you go all the way through the plant to the bottom, 04:43 the root of that covetousness, the root of that 04:46 jealousy is really pride. 04:49 Lets do our self evaluation. 04:52 Ask yourself, How much does jealousy control my life? 04:57 How much does it control my life? 05:00 With all our self evaluations be honest. 05:04 Put down what you feel, which category you most 05:07 closely identify with. 1. 06:12 Maybe you're at the last one, 4. 06:33 I don't know where you feel you are today in your walk with God. 06:38 You might say, Jill I've got jealousy all over me. 06:42 When I hear that I'm definitely at number one. 06:46 And I know that jealousy. 06:48 I feel it toward my boss. 06:51 I feel it toward my co-workers. 06:53 I feel it toward my neighbor, and my friend, 06:57 and even my spouse. 06:59 It's just all over me. 07:01 God said, I came to set you free. 07:04 I came to release you from that spirit of jealousy. 07:09 Of course God knows of ourselves we can't get rid of it. 07:12 But He said, I came to set you free. 07:16 The spirit of jealousy, the spirit of pride is not really 07:21 new with us as humans. 07:22 It began several thousand years ago in heaven. 07:27 How sin began in a pure and sinless atmosphere in heaven, 07:34 I have no idea. But the point is it did. 07:38 Lucifer, he was called Lucifer then, 07:41 now we just call him Satan. 07:43 He was the covering cherub. 07:45 Of all the angels, of all the created beings there in heaven, 07:49 he was the most, I think, beautiful, maybe not, 07:54 but he was at least, we know, 07:57 he had the most exalted position. 08:01 He was right next to God Himself. 08:04 He had that job right next to God. 08:07 And how sin began in his heart, is really to me 08:12 a confusing thing. 08:13 I mean, how could it even start when everything's pure there? 08:15 That's a question I want to ask God about. 08:18 But lets turn over to Isaiah 14. 08:24 It gives us just a little glimpse of Lucifer here. 08:27 Isaiah 14, verse...Let's look at 13 and 14. 08:32 Talking about Lucifer, son of the morning, You said in your 08:36 heart, I'm going to ascend into heaven. 08:38 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. 08:42 I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest 08:45 sides of the north, where God sits. 08:48 Then verse 14. Isaiah 14:14. 08:52 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. 08:56 I will be like the Most High. 09:00 Pride never just stays with us. 09:04 In Lucifer's case, he became prideful. 09:09 He had pride in his heart. 09:11 And his pride was, I think, a jealous pride, 09:15 because he wanted to be like God. 09:16 He was jealous of who God is. 09:20 However, his pride didn't stay with him. 09:23 It spread. Remember that? 09:25 And it influenced one third of the angels 09:30 to join his encampment. 09:32 And, you know what? 09:33 When they came down to this earth, and Adam and Eve 09:36 took of the forbidden fruit, and they fell. 09:39 That pride spread to you and I. 09:43 That jealousy spread. 09:44 It's part of our human condition. 09:47 Pride never just stays with ourselves. 09:50 It influences and spreads to other people; those around us. 09:54 Pretty soon it involves them in our sin as well. 09:59 I think the jealous heart is never really satisfied. 10:02 If I have one dollar, what do I want? 5 more, or 500 more, 10:07 or 5,000,000 more. 10:10 If five people think I'm pretty special, then what do I want? 10:14 I wish another five people would think the same thing; 10:19 always reaching, always grasping. 10:22 But you know, the beautiful thing, when God shows us our 10:26 heart, He never shows us for us to sit in shame, 10:30 in guilt, in condemnation. 10:32 He always shows us because He has a solution. 10:36 Because He deals redemptively. 10:40 Because He wants to change us. 10:43 How do we break free from jealousy? 10:47 In my own experience I have found that surrender 10:51 is one of the keys. 10:52 1. Surrender. And as I surrender learn to practice contentment. 10:59 We're going back to the book of Philippians. 11:01 It's actually one of my favorite books in the Bible. 11:04 Philippians, and we're going to look at Philippians 4. 11:09 Philippians 4:11. This was our opening Scripture. 11:13 I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. 11:18 How do we practice contentment and thankfulness? 11:23 Begin by surrender. 11:26 Are you jealous of how many friends your co-worker has? 11:30 Surrender that desire to God; that desire for more friends. 11:35 Thank God for the friends that you do have, 11:38 and strive to be a better friend to other people. 11:41 Do you wish that your job paid more? 11:44 Surrender that need. 11:46 Thank God that you do have a job in today's economy. 11:50 Ask Him to provide for your needs, and enable you to do the 11:55 best work you possibly can at the job you have. 11:59 Do you envy your friend's gift of singing? 12:03 Surrender that dream. 12:05 Thank God that your friend is using her gift for Jesus, 12:10 and strive to use the gifts that God has given you for His honor, 12:15 and for His glory. 12:17 You know, contentment doesn't always come easily to me. 12:21 I can surrender it, and want to be content, but contentment 12:25 is not always an easy thing for me. 12:27 My husband Greg often tells me, Everything you have Jilly, 12:32 hold onto it with an open hand. 12:35 Sometimes the people I love, the things around me, 12:40 I want to hang onto tightly, with a tightly clenched fist, 12:46 because somehow I feel safer. 12:50 I feel more in control; I feel better. 12:53 But God comes to me and says, Will you open up your fist Jill? 12:59 Are you willing to practice contentment? 13:02 Are you willing to surrender those things you have, 13:05 and those things maybe even that you don't want, 13:09 that you don't have, but that you wish you did have. 13:12 Are you willing to surrender that to Me? 13:16 You know what? I've tried to surrender. 13:19 And sometimes my fist is clenched so tightly that the 13:23 knuckles are white, and I say, God I can't. 13:26 I've tried. I can't do it. 13:29 And He says, Are you willing to let Me do it? 13:34 And I say, Okay. God please open up my fist. 13:39 Open up that hand. 13:42 Philippians 2:13 talks about that very thing. 13:46 It says: It is God who works in us both to will and to do 13:53 of His good pleasure. 13:55 I love looking up the Greek, the Greek origin of words. 14:00 Or if you're in the Old Testament, 14:01 the Hebrew origin of words. 14:03 I love seeing where they came from, and what their original 14:07 meaning is in the original language. 14:09 If you look up, in that verse, it says, It is God who works 14:14 in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. 14:20 If you look at those two verbs, will and do, 14:24 in the Greek will means wish. 14:27 Do you know what God says? 14:29 He said, I'm going to give you the desire to open up that 14:32 tightly clenched fist. 14:34 I'm going to give you the desire to break free from jealousy. 14:37 I know you can't even create that desire. 14:40 I'm going to give it to you. 14:41 God works in us both to will, to give us desire, and to do. 14:48 Now in the Greek do means aid: power. 14:53 God wants to not only give us the desire to break free, 14:58 He wants to give us the power. 15:00 Andrew Murray, in the book Humility and Absolute Surrender, 15:04 said this about surrender: I give myself absolutely to God 15:11 to do His will, to be only what He wants. 15:16 And I think that's the key. 15:18 As we surrender, we give ourself to God. 15:22 God, I want to be Yours. 15:24 Whatever You want me to be, I want to be Yours. 15:28 I give myself to God to be only His; to do His will, 15:33 to do only what God wants. 15:37 To obey when it seems the hardest 15:41 is true surrender to God. 15:44 Sometimes I say, Oh, I'm obeying, and I'm doing a 15:47 really good job of it. 15:49 But maybe its something that I want to do, 15:51 or something that I like. 15:52 Truly to obey, when it seems the hardest, 15:56 that's when the rubber meets the road. 16:00 That's when we experience true surrender. 16:04 So first, we want to surrender and to practice contentment. 16:11 Second, Give thanks. 16:14 Matthew Henry, I don't know if you're familiar with him, 16:17 but he's a Christian speaker, and author. 16:19 This was years ago. 16:21 He wrote this in his diary. 16:23 He said he was robbed. 16:26 And after he was robbed, he wrote these four things: 16:32 I'm thankful that first, I was never robbed before. 16:37 Second, although they took my purse, they didn't take my life. 16:44 Third, Although they took my all, it wasn't much. 16:49 And fourth, that it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed. 16:56 You see that thankful spirit? 16:58 If I had been robbed, I probably would have been mad. 17:01 But instead, what did he do? 17:04 He went to God. He chose to give thanks in the midst of that. 17:11 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul says, In everything give thanks. 17:17 For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 17:23 Now that does not mean that everything, 17:26 we should be thankful for everything. 17:28 Of course not! Not everything is thankworthy. 17:31 But it does mean that in everything we can give thanks. 17:37 It means when we drive a high mileage car we thank God that 17:42 we don't have to walk. 17:44 Learning to practice contentment, 17:46 learning to give thanks for the blessings we do have, 17:50 even if it's not the one I wished I had. 17:53 It means that if we didn't get the job at church that we 17:57 wanted, or we didn't get the promotion at work that we 18:01 wanted, we thank Jesus that He knew what was best for us, 18:06 and we practice contentment serving in the job we have, 18:10 serving in the job where God has called us to, 18:15 serving in the ministry that He has given to us. 18:19 I called one of my girlfriends on the phone not too long ago, 18:22 and I said to her, How are you doing today? 18:25 It was before we actually got into the business 18:28 of why I called her. 18:30 I just said, How's your day going? 18:31 And do you know what she said? 18:33 She said, Today I have a thankful heart. 18:36 A thankful heart is a beautiful thing, 18:40 and it's not only a beautiful thing, it's Biblical. 18:44 And I believe a thankful heart is the God given antidote 18:50 to dealing with jealousy. 18:52 We practice contentment, and we surrender 18:55 those jealous feelings. 18:56 If our fist is tightly clenched, 18:58 and we can't open it up, we ask God for the desire. 19:02 We ask Him to open it. 19:04 We ask God for the power. 19:06 And then we practice giving thanks. 19:09 One of my friends, somebody I respect highly; 19:14 a friend of Greg and myself. 19:15 He's been through some painful experiences in his life. 19:20 And do you know what he said? 19:22 He said in the midst of those painful experiences 19:26 I chose to praise God. 19:30 I chose to give thanks. 19:34 I chose to give praise. 19:38 He went through the loss of his son, the death of his son. 19:43 His business failed. 19:46 He lost a marriage. 19:48 That's a lot of pain. 19:51 One of those would be enough pain, wouldn't it? 19:53 Yet you think your business failed; that would be horrible. 19:56 I think you go through a painful divorce, 19:59 or a death the spouse; that would be horrible. 20:03 You go through the death of a child; that is horrible. 20:07 But yet in the midst of that he said, I'm going to praise, 20:11 I'm going to give thanks. 20:13 And he said, every time he does that, 20:17 every time he gives thanks, you know what God does? 20:22 He opens up his heart. 20:24 He said it's like a weight coming off of his shoulders. 20:27 And he said, I'm free. 20:30 It sets me free. Do you want to be free from the jealous heart? 20:35 Do you want to be set free from that that binds you so tightly, 20:40 or that tightly clenched fist that doesn't want to open up? 20:45 Then give thanks. Praise God. 20:48 You might not feel like it at the beginning. 20:51 We've talked about this on previous programs. 20:55 When we don't feel like it, that really doesn't matter. 20:58 We bring our thoughts, and our words into line with what God's 21:02 word says, and God will change your feelings. 21:07 God will bring those feelings into line. 21:10 We have to take a short break right now. 21:12 We're going to come back in just a moment. 21:15 We will do our application, our assignment for this week, 21:19 something that will, hopefully, help and encourage you as you 21:24 seek to break free from the jealous heart. |
Revised 2016-04-25