Last week we started a series of sermons on the seven deadly sins. The desert fathers were the first to teach on the deadly sins, also known as capital sins, or “root sins.” It was felt that if you dug down past everything else, all other forms of transgression, you were left with these seven vices. Today we consider envy. Like most of the seven sins, there is no one here unfamiliar with envy. As a child someone else had a toy we wanted. As a teenager someone else received the scholarship we wanted. As a twenty something someone else got the job we wanted. Somewhere along the line someone else has possessed or received recognition, attention, or possessions we felt we needed, deserved or simply desired.

Title: The Seven Deadly Sins: ENVY
Bible Passage: GENESIS 4:1-16

Sunday is Communion which is always a good time to think about the mysteries of God. We keep with our series on Moses as we consider the series of plagues brought on Egypt and Pharaoh. Here’s a thought from the sermon:

The question we always ask is how did the Egyptian wise men duplicate the things Moses did? After all they replicated turning the Nile to blood, calling up hoards of frogs, etc..  Wondering how they did such things is the wrong approach. I think the Bible’s point is how can Moses and Aaron, slaves from slaves , do such a thing?  In Exodus 7:11 we’re told the King, “summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.” This is the ancient equivalent of pitting the faculty of Harvard against two nobodies who know nothing. But what makes these men who they are is the Lord who stands with them.