seven deadly sins sermon three envy and love

Envy: dictionary defines envy as a painful resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with the desire to possess the same advantage.
Scripture: Mark 7:20-23
Greek word for envy has two words: opthalmos and porneros. It literally means eye pornography or evil eye. If you have secretly or not so secretly enjoyed it when something bad happens to someone, you know what envy is. If you resent someone because they have things or enjoy experiences or relationships that you don’t have or enjoy—you know what envy is. If you have felt loss over someone else’s joy you know what envy is. If you have little to no gratitude for your possessions, experiences, relationships, and abilities because others have one you don’t then you know what envy is. If you struggle to be thankful when others get then you know what envy is.
The nasty thing about envy is it robs us of gratitude for the things we do possess, the experiences we do enjoy and the abilities we have. Most of the other deadly sins, at least initially provide some kind of pleasure. For a moment, the proud feel happy about their supposed superiority. The angry can feel righteous in their indignation. The gluttonous certainly derive pleasure from food as do the lustful from their lust. But the envious person feels no pleasure he only feels a sense of deprivation, of loss, of nothingness, of self-torment, of being imprisoned by his own apparently pitiful life.
Envy says, “It is not enough to want what you have, but I must despise/hate/and wish for bad things to come to you for having something I don’t have.” Envy is a feeling in the heart that says you’re terrible you have something I don’t have or may not ever have. It turns into an emotion of despise, which changes into the sin of hate and then a desire for you to suffer loss of what you have, whether I will ever get it doesn’t matter. Since you have it and I don’t you’re to be hated and in turn I must wish for something bad to come to you.
One man said envy is the sin no one confesses. Any doubt why
Os Guiness says envy has several common characteristics:
Envy is the vice of proximity.
Envy is highly subjective. (It is the subjective perception that causes us problems.)
Envy doesn’t lessen with age. It gets worse, as we run into more people of happiness and success, offering more fodder for envy.
Envy is often petty but always insatiable and all consuming. No matter how small the occasion that gives rise to envy, envy becomes central to the envier’s whole being. Envy begins with pride and plunges the person into hatred.
Envy is always self-destructive. The envier’s motto is “if not me, then no one.” What the envier cannot enjoy then no one should enjoy, and thus the envier loses every enjoyment.
Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Envy if continued in our lives will lead us to be damned. If you practice such things you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Not my words, His. Practice: Habitual practice not lapses. Have someone you wish bad things happen to? Have a person that you despise because their life seems far more charmed than yours? Missing thankfulness for what you have, experienced, can do or are? If you continue to practice such things…
It is not a pretty sight. But there is hope.
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
The opposite of envy is love. This is what Titus is telling us is that you can live in love because of who God is and what God has done.
This is the love God gives. We possess no quality attractive to God and have nothing to give that God requires, including our worship. The vain and silly notion is sometimes put forward that God has need of our worship and praise, but this makes no sense if we take God to be the Creator of all and utterly complete in Himself. God loves us because we exist, and we exist because He loves us. This is not a circular argument: it is not an argument at all. God is love, and so He created us so we might be loved. He gave us free will so we could love others in the way He does. It is nothing less than astonishing that we can love as God loves; it is equally astonishing that we have consistently refused to do so.
To love as God loves is to love without reason, without thought of return, without bound. It is to desire the best for others, but not to decide what is best for them. It is to desire happiness for others without necessarily knowing what will make them happy. It means helping others reach their potential, but not running their lives. It means being involved in others' lives while keeping our own self interest out of it, being willing to suffer great loss rather than use the other person for our own benefit.
Jesus gave us the perfect example, saving a world he could not live in for long. He did not seek his own private happiness in this life, but gave everything he had for our benefit, taking nothing from us during his life and dying utterly abandoned.
Quite possibly there is no greater danger to love than the pretenders of romance, affection, infatuation, lust or duty. Love is made to excuse many sins, and ignoble motives are often buried under protestations of love. To love perfectly is to be a bit colder in some respects, not relying on emotion but on resolution. Love is not a feeling, it is a decision. In deciding to love, we have the full power of God's Grace in us, for He always supports love and gives us the ability to channel it. In fact, it is never we who love, but rather we become channels of God's love, floodgates of love from Heaven, letting God love through us. This is the highest calling possible, and completely possible for every human being.
Galatians 5:16, 22, 23

If you want to overcome the sin of envy and enjoy the freedom
of God turn your life over to the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit offers to us is a life of freedom to be all God wants and the power to do it.
If you struggle with envy or any other sin in your life, God wants to pour out the Holy Spirit on you richly that you may live in His grace, love with His love and be all God desires. The problem is not a change and control of your attitude. The problem is a spiritual problem and requires a spiritual solution. Why not allow the Holy Spirit to make the difference in your life so you can be changed?