LIVERMORE — August 11, 2024, service. The congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship, Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”, “O Worship the King”, and “”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist, Janet Diaz is the pianist, and Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, titled “Defeating the Green-Eyed Monster” and scriptures from Galatians 5:26. Pastor Bonnie started out by saying that everyone, sometime in their live, more than once has had the green-eyed monster come into their life. As you see your family and friends on social media, in conversations, telling you all the things they have or have done for themselves. If we want to be honest with ourselves, we can feel a bit envious of them. But what does God say about that?

Being envious of someone else just means that you are not satisfied or content with you own life. As we look around to others, we start comparing ourselves to others and their lives. Looking at scriptures, we see it in Genesis with Cain and Abel, where Cain grew jealous of Abel’s offering to God. What happened? Cain killed his own brother because he envied the response Abel got from God and he didn’t. Another story was Joseph. Joseph’s dad Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors and his brothers became envious, not to the coat, but for the attention that Jacob gave Joseph. What did his brothers do? They sold him into slavery to get rid of him. All this was because Cain and Joseph’s brothers were envois of someone else getting attention. There are many stories in the Bible that envy played a role in.

Even in 1 Corinthians 13 it states, “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy.” We know that envy can destroy relationships between spouses, friends, families, etc. And knowing that envy will destroy, we know that it is not from God but from Satan. Satan wants to destroy our relationships with one another and also with God. God has told us that we should be content with everything we have since he supplies all our needs. But Satan wants to pull us away from God.

How do we defeat envy? First, we need to be grateful and thankful people. If we are thankful and grateful, envy cannot grow in our life because we put God first and we will be satisfied with who we are in Christ. Jesus tells us to be thankful in all circumstances, because it is the will of God that we live for. Even when our life doesn’t seem to be what others have, be thankful because your life is given to you by God.

Secondly, we need to be contented in our life. We need to realize that God has given us everything we can possibly need to live a good life in Him. We need to stop comparing our life to others because God continues to bless each of us in His plan for us. It may not be what others get, but it is what God has for you. Don’t be envious of what you don’t have, but content in knowing that you have everything God wants you to have for a fulfilling life in Christ.

As Christians, followers of Christ, we need to remember that we don’t need to be envious of anyone else, because Jesus Christ is all we need to survive in this world. No amount of money, social status, education, etc. will get you into Heaven, but knowing Jesus as our personal Savior will. Jesus completes us!

Announcements: we will be collecting crackers for the Food Pantry in August. Bible Study – Tuesday at 1 p.m.