Aug 13, 2017 | by Jonathan Waller | series: The Gospel John
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“Spiritual Jealousy”
John 3:22-36
- Introduction: Have you ever suffered from Spiritual Jealousy?
- Spiritual Jealousy is when you’re envious of the spiritual activity happening in the life of someone else
- The Apostle John records an incident in John the Baptist’s ministry that reflects how we might overcome spiritual jealousy
- Spiritual Jealousy usually surfaces when something we’re doing has started to lose traction or things don’t go as planned
- It happens when we start to view other churches as competition and not cooperation
- Conflict within John the Baptist’s Ministry happened because of the unrest in their hearts
- Spiritual Jealousy should show us something is wrong
- When we have unrest, it should cause us to ask the question, “Why can’t I be happy?” and look for an answer
- There are many reasons why people might serve the Lord
- Nicodemus’ agenda as well as John the Baptist’s disciples agenda for Jesus is not much unlike our own
- Spiritual Jealousy must be replaced with a servant’s heart
- God has one purpose; to glorify the Son, Jesus Christ, so that he might bring glory to himself
- We don’t get to share in that Glory and those with servant’s hearts don’t want to
- Conclusion: To follow Christ we must not only believe in Jesus, we must believe “into” him
- When we abandon our agendas, there is enough room in our hearts for joy
- When Jesus becomes our focus, others bringing glory to him fills us with Joy not jealousy