“Spiritual Jealousy”

John 3:22-36

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