Title: Envy | Kindness
Scripture: Genesis 37
Speaker: Tim Spanburg, TimS@ChristCommunityKC.org


"Of all the deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all." - Joseph Epstein

I. What Envy Is
- Envy starts with feeling inferior.
- Envy is fueled by comparison
- Envy destroys love

"Envy: feeling bitter when others have it better”
- Rebecca DeYoung, Glittering Vices

"The envious person resents another person’s good gifts because they are superior to his or her own. It’s not just that the other person is better; it is that by comparison their superiority makes you feel your own lack, your own inferiority, more acutely." - Rebecca DeYoung, Glittering Vices

"The envious want to be superior, for their self-esteem depends on outranking others in the relevant field of comparison."
- Rebecca DeYoung, Glittering Vices

II. How Envy Grows In Us
-Peaceful words disappear
-Passive Aggressive attacks increase
-Destruction is desired
-Destruction is pursued

III. The Only Way to Overcome Envy
-Envy dies where kindness dwells.

Conversation Starters – Shawnee Mission Campus
Date: 5.7.2017 Text: Genesis 37
Title: Envy or Kindness?

Comparison = Envy begins with comparison. Where are you most tempted to play the comparison game? Where is your heart aching to feel like “you’re enough?”

Envy = Envy begins with comparison but it goes further and births hatred toward those who you compare yourself with. Recognizing this is important. Take time now to think about who you compare yourself with and who you envy. If you are willing, name those people and situations.

Kindness = What is your next step of kindness?
Do you need to embrace God’s kindness towards yourself?
Do do you need to extend God’s kindness toward others?
How are you doing in helping others reach their potential?
Is there a particular name of someone popping up in your mind that you need to repent of envy and extend kindness toward?

Action Step = Here’s our other next step. This week: find a way to encourage the person you thought of above. Pass along the kindness you’ve received from God. Pass it along to them. Write them a note. Do something behind the scenes to make them look better. Compliment them in front of others. Serve them. Sometimes you really do have to fake it till you make it!

Difficulty = Being kind to a rival (or faking it till you make it) is difficult. Spend time talking together about how to be able to be kind to the person you envy even when you don’t have the emotion of kindness to accompany this action step.

Prayer = 1) pray for your hearts to recognize when you are being envious of others and to repent of this vice.
2) Pray for your rivals that you mentioned above.
3) Pray that you may seek ways to be kind to them this week.
4) Pray for your heart and that God might give you good motives to follow as you “fake it till you make it.”