Comparison vs Contentment

Well, I I'd love some participation at the very front end of this, if that's okay.

And what I'd love is for those of you who are extroverts, introverts, just sit there, don't do anything, you're fine.

Um I'm not gonna you know make you get uncomfortable, but extroverts, you know who you are.

You're you're d you wish that you could have said something already, like your mad worship is done because now you have to be quiet.

So I got it.

Extroverts, I need you to just shout out the very end of this statement, this sentence, whatever comes to your mind, okay?

Why can't you be more like your wife?

Wife?

Oh yeah.

I heard a lot of I heard a lot of brother.

How many of you in your mind thought brother?

Like, let's see, show of hands.

You thought, why can't you be more like your brother?

Anyone think sister?

Mother?

Okay.

Yeah, why can't you be more like your fill in the blank?

I asked my I asked my 12-year-old son to do the same thing last night.

I said, son, I want you to answer this for me.

I want to test you.

Um I said, why can't you be more like your sister?

He like cut me off.

He went, sister?

He's talking about his little sister, Lily.

And I said, really?

He said, oh yeah, I know that you guys wish I was more like Lily.

And he looked at me with this look that was like, tell me I'm wrong.

And I was like, well, I mean, in some ways, you know, like, but not.

No, I no, I'm I we had a great conversation.

I was like, do you actually feel like your mom and I wish that that you were more like someone else?

And he said, yeah, sometimes.

Now what's interesting is he's never heard me say the phrase, why can't you be more like your sister?

I've never said that, I never would.

And I love him and who he is, and I want him to be the best version of who he is, not not pretend to be someone he's not.

But I found it so interesting that even in my home, we work so hard to love and celebrate our kids, and my oldest son is he's celebrated by me definitely.

I mean, you guys have all I tell lots of stories, right?

They're almost always positive, almost always.

But there's something about us as people that naturally gravitate to this idea that we ought to be more like someone else.

Or maybe even that other people wish we were more like someone else.

And this morning we're gonna explore this.

Specifically by looking at an ancient story.

I mean, this is one of the oldest stories that we have in human history.

It's the story of the very first sibling rivalry that ever existed.

And it ends really, really poorly for both parties.

It's the story of Cain and Abel.

For some context, we we're in a series right now called Lessons from the Garden.

We've been going back to the very first story we really have in the Bible.

The story of God creating the earth and creating this garden, this paradise, and he puts the people that he's made in the garden and he gives them very basic instructions, but it goes awry pretty quickly, at least in terms of how we read it.

We don't know how long an amount of time there was between when he did it and they messed everything up.

But things go poorly pretty fast the way the story's told.

And there's all this fallout, and part of that fallout is this relationship that we see between this man Cain and his brother Abel.

And one of the things we keep coming back to in this series is how incredible it is that this ancient, ancient story is so relevant to our lives today.

It should not be, it just shouldn't be that the story, this, you know, thousands upon thousands of year old story of naked people eating fruit in a garden, that should not be something that we we read and go, man, I got a lot out of that.

That really helps me in my life right now.

But that is that is just a testament to the power of Scripture.

God's word is true.

And it has this way of getting to the heart of what we really struggle with as human beings.

It kind of exposes our humanity in a way that helps us understand, wow, our God who made us knows us.

He knows us inside and out, and maybe we should, maybe we should listen to him.

So we're gonna explore the first sibling rivalry, the first why can't you be more like your your brother moment that ever happened.

Now, just so I can understand what what I'm dealing with in terms of of the room, it's good to know the room you're in.

I would love, I would love a little bit more participation.

Not a lot, though, trust me, this is gonna end very soon, I promise.

But I would just love to know how many of us in the room grew up uh with siblings.

How many of you grew up with siblings?

All right, hands down.

I should have done it the opposite way.

How many of you grew up as only children?

You were the only child in your family.

You know, only I relate to you.

I was the only child in my family for a long time.

And uh I think sometimes when you're the only child, you get a bad rap.

There's some stereotypes that go along with that, like that, you know, the world revolves around you, that you never had to share anything.

It was all, you know, all about you all the time.

And part of that's true.

There's also a lot of pressure when you're the only child, right?

Because when you have siblings, like, you know, if if you mess up a lot, well, one of them's gonna cover it.

But when you're the only child, it's like it's all on you.

Like you have to be successful.

You have you're the one, you're the one shot.

It's hard to be the only child.

All right, so we got a few only children in the room, but by by by a large margin, siblings.

How many of you, show of hands, you were the oldest in your family?

Oldest.

Alright.

These are the alphas, right?

These are the bossy ones.

These are the ones, right?

Look, I I very much relate to you because uh I was the oldest child in my family, and so I get it, right?

Some of those stereotypes are are true.

We when you're the oldest, you do tend to be okay taking charge, telling other people what to do.

But there's also a lot of pressure on you because your parents very often expected you to be just more mature than the others.

Even though you were more mature, it's like, yeah, but it felt extra sometimes.

Some of the pressure, some of the responsibility felt a little extra.

I get that.

How many of you, show of hands, you're the middle child?

You're in the middle.

Yeah, you're crazy.

These are the crazy ones.

Right?

Because you had to be to get like attention.

You know, it was one of those things where the oldest kid, like parents are oftentimes very focused on them because they're the first one that's driving, they're the first one that has the thing to go to, and and you know, youngest kids, like, they're the babies, they get all the you know, whatever, and in the middle you just have to do crazy things for for anyone to notice you.

So that's that's okay.

I very much relate to you because in my family I was a middle child.

So I relate to you for sure.

Um, how many of you, you were the baby, you were the youngest.

Oh, look at these guys.

You got away with everything.

Your older siblings were like, I hate you.

Because if I would have acted like you, they never let me get away with that.

Because by the time your parents got to you, they were just tired.

They were just done.

They're kind of like, we're out, we're out of energy.

We had all these ambitions and hopes, and we had all these desires as parents, we're gonna do it the right way, but then you came along and the others were so messed up that we're like, clearly we don't know what we're doing, so just figure it out, you know.

There's a my wife told me a saying that it's the oldest makes the rules, the middle is why the rules exist, and the youngest is the rules do not apply.

That's how it goes.

But I very much, by the way, youngest, I very much relate to you because for a long time in my family I was the youngest child.

And so some of you are looking at me sideways.

Like, you just said you were the only child, the oldest child, the middle child, and the youngest child.

And I'm not lying.

My family, we had an interesting dynamic growing up.

So here's the way it worked for me.

Um, my I am the firstborn of my mother, but my dad was married before he was married to my mom.

So I had an older half-brother who was eight years older than me, still is eight years older than me, actually.

I cannot catch up to him, no matter how hard I try.

And I have an older half-sister, and growing up, my dad had joint custody with them.

So, what that meant was every other weekend they came to my house.

So, for the first seven years almost of my life, for two weeks, I was the only child.

It was just me.

Only kid.

And then every other weekend, these other two kids showed up, and for three days I went from being the only child to the youngest child.

And it was, it was kind of interesting.

The dynamics changed fast.

I got picked on, I got beat up on, I got teased, and then they'd go away, and I'd settle back into the normal just in time for them to come back in.

And then when I was almost seven, my little brother was born.

And so for two weeks at a time, I was the oldest child.

And I had all that responsibility, and I was helping out.

And I was like seven years older than him, so you know, my mom expected me to do a lot to help him out, and and I did, and and then every other weekend, my older brother and sister would show up, and I'm not the oldest child anymore, right?

And I'm not the youngest child anymore either.

Now I'm the middle child.

And so I just use that as an excuse to say if I seem messed up sometimes, it's because I am.

And I never knew who I was growing up.

I could never I can I had to change the order all the time, so I know what it feels like to be an only child, an oldest child, a middle child, and a younger child.

It's hard.

Those dynamics are interesting.

And some of us have extremely close relationships with our siblings.

Some of us like go, I wish I was an only child.

Because those dynamics can get really hard.

When you live with someone, you see the best and you see the worst.

And that's never been more true than the story that we're about to read.

This is Genesis chapter 4.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

It says, When they grew up, Abel, who's the younger of the two, became a shepherd.

While Cain cultivated the ground, when it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord.

Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock.

And the Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.

Now, it's not explicit as to why.

There's definitely a hint here that because it mentions that Abel brought the best, it doesn't mention that about Cain.

There's sort of this implied Cain kind of brought some stuff to the Lord, but Abel brought his best.

But no matter what was going on, it says that Cain was not accepted, and his gift was not accepted.

This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

Why are you so angry?

The Lord asked Cain.

Why do you look so dejected?

You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what it's right, then watch out.

Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.

Very interesting.

This is the first time that sin is mentioned in Scripture and it's personified.

It's talked about as if it is an active force.

This idea that there's this driving force that wants to control us, wants to master us, but we we've got to fight back.

Otherwise, it will master us.

So it goes on to say in verse 8, one day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields.

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, Where is your brother?

Where's Abel?

I don't know, Cain responded, Am I my brother's guardian?

But the Lord said, What have you done?

Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood.

No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work.

From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.

Cain replied to the Lord, My punishment is too great for me to bear.

You have banished me from the land and from your presence.

You have made me a homeless wanderer.

Anyone who finds me will kill me.

I always find it interesting that Cain is so terrified that someone will kill him when, as far as we know, he's the first person that's done that.

The Lord replied, No.

For I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you.

Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him.

So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

So, like many of the stories that we find in this part of Scripture, it's it's very broad stroke.

Right?

It's it's it's just you get the Cliff Notes version.

But there's so much here for us, and this is obviously a cautionary tale.

God never says to Cain, you know, why can't you be more like Abel?

Why can't you be more like your brother?

But you can tell that that's something that Cain feels.

You know, he doesn't ever say, man, Abel, he's the baby of the family, he gets away with everything.

Everyone praises Abel, you know, like, what am I?

He doesn't say that, but you can tell all those dynamics are at play, and Cain is driven crazy to the point of murder by jealousy.

Proverbs chapter 27, verse 4 says that anger is cruel and wrath is like a flood, but jealousy is even more dangerous.

Proverbs 27:4

Think about that for a second.

Jealousy, according to scripture, is more dangerous than anger.

I've done some stupid things in anger in my life.

When I was, oh gosh, in my late 20s, my oldest was only three or four years old, and I got really upset one day doing housework because I'm really bad at doing house things.

I'm just bad at it.

Like fixing stuff.

It's always gonna go wrong.

I usually make it worse.

I got so angry trying to fix this thing that I couldn't fix at home that I took the screwdriver I was holding and I threw it through a wall.

And and Liam, my oldest, was there.

He was three, and he saw it, and I'm like, well, he'll forget this, you know, because like, no, he still to this day will be like, Dad, you remember that time that you threw the screwdriver through the wall?

And I'm like, I thank you.

I'm so glad that that moment is burned into your memory forever, right?

It's like this moment of anger.

Anger is pretty dangerous.

I'm sure all of us have experienced regret because of anger.

Now, wrath, wrath is a more intense thing, right?

Wrath, it says, is like a flood.

Wrath is like unrelenting anger.

It is not anger that's out of control, it is like anger directed.

There's like a vengeful quality in our minds, at least with wrath.

So wrath is like, whew, that's a really, really big deal.

But scripture says that, yeah, yeah.

Anger, yeah, that's bad.

Wrath, whoo.

But jealousy is even worse.

Jealousy will ruin you.

And it's so interesting because at its core, jealousy comes from this thing that we as human beings do so naturally, and our world is so set up for us to do it on a constant basis.

Jealousy, it just comes from our tendency to compare ourselves with the people around us.

Or at the very least, to very easily be accepted, very easily accept being compared to other people.

Jealousy is rooted in comparison.

It's comparison.

How do you stack up to the people around you?

How do you do you measure up?

Right?

Are you as good as that person?

Are you as healthy as that person?

Are you as attractive as that person?

Are you as successful as that person?

We are so good at comparison.

You see it in the Cain and Abel story.

This comparison, it's Cain versus Abel.

And Abel had the better sacrifice, and Cain can't stand it.

And this comparative spirit becomes jealousy.

Comparison, it kills contentment.

We sang a song right before we we wrapped up worship.

It is well.

It is well with my soul.

I didn't know we were singing that until yesterday.

I looked at the set list and I was like, oh, I love I love that song.

That is that is contentment in a nutshell.

The ability to say, no matter what is going on, it is well with me.

It is well in my soul.

Paul wrote that he learned the secret to being content in all circumstances.

And he said, it isn't about having a lot, it's not about when I have a lot or a little.

He said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

That is the key to contentment, Paul said.

This focus on Jesus and the fact that no matter what's going on, he's with me.

He'll give me what I need.

That is contentment.

But comparison, comparison kills contentment.

Because if we're living a life comparing ourselves to others, we might say, it is well with my soul, but it seems to be more well with them.

Or it is well with my soul, and it's definitely more well than it is with theirs.

Right?

Comparison kills contentment.

And more than that, comparison, if left unchecked, it it drives us crazy.

And we see it all the time, right?

Like sometimes we just we gotta be honest about ourselves and how shallow we can be as people.

I think there's actually tremendous freedom in coming to church and being able to say, aren't we all terrible sometimes?

Not all the time, not completely, but maybe it's just maybe it's just me.

I'll give you an example.

Uh, last the last two weeks, I have young kids, they're in school.

Any anyone have children that are school-aged right now, you're doing the whole like, yeah, so I don't know why, if there's an administrator in the school system here just throwing something out there for you, like just end school two weeks earlier, just end it.

I'm sure there's rules that you have to do things, but at least at the elementary level, it's like, why are they?

Every day for the last two weeks, is like, make sure they bring something that they can get wet in.

Um, you're like, really?

Like, this is this isn't school, right?

This is a chore.

And I and you have to be at so many things as a parent.

And they graduate from everything, and it makes graduation cheap.

Can we just say that?

That when you're having kindergarten graduations, it's like my son graduated from preschool last year, and nine boys said they were gonna be astronauts, and let's be honest, they're not.

Right?

And so we're just letting them live a lie.

It's whatever.

Okay.

That's the cynical me coming out.

But all jokes aside, I I enjoy going to that stuff.

It's fun to see my kids in their element, and I got to go with my my middle child, Judah.

Uh, I got to go to his field day.

This is a picture I took of Judah doing uh the hula hoop there.

He's actually really good at hula hoop.

And I'm not gonna lie, I'm watching him do this, and it was like a hula hoop station, and I found myself comparing how good he was at hula hoop to the other kids, and being like, well, you know, they're not nearly as good at hula hoop as my son.

And it's amazing how specific the comparisons are because the girls are just much better at hula hoop.

That's just true.

And so I wasn't comparing Judah to them because that would have been an inconvenient comparison for me.

I was like, he is by far the best hula hooping boy in the kindergarten at his school.

And I just think that that should be known.

Uh so all those other kids should have worked harder because, or they just should have brought it, because my son did at hula hoop.

But I found myself, I'm being honest, I found myself at field day.

I noticed it, like, so I'm grateful for that.

But I found myself comparing my son to other children.

Like, oh, he's he's the tallest boy in his class.

And as a man who's five foot nine, that feels like a miracle that my son would be the tallest in his class.

But I'm doing that, I'm like sizing my son up to, you know, I'm watching some kids that are misbehaving, and I'm like, my son is so much better behaved than that child.

They're doing like these relay races, and I'm like sort of keeping track of like, oh, he's yeah, that kid's a little faster than mine, but he's my son's definitely in the top 25% speed-wise, wearing Crocs in kindergarten, for sure.

Like, what is it about human nature that we just naturally start comparing, even our children?

Like, if you ever go to a youth sports event, the parents are insane.

And it's and here's why.

Because I've been in this place, it's because a lot of those parents, they don't just want their child to win, they need their child to win.

I've had to check myself on that.

Lord, do I need my children to succeed?

Do I need them to succeed so that I feel enough?

Because it's that comparison thing.

You're sizing up even your children with other people's children.

You find parents talking about their kids, you'll hear them like make excuses that no one's even questioning.

They'll be like, you know, they're a little tired this morning.

It's like no one accused them of being like, where's this coming from?

And it's coming from that place, that same place that became a trap for Cain that we naturally compare ourselves to other people and it kills contentment and it drives us crazy.

And if you need any proof of that, just spend the next week dedicated to scrolling through social media.

Like, let's be honest.

What it did did Satan invent social media?

Can we just say in in because it's so good at doing everything that he would want us to do?

Like you scroll through social media, and there's things that, you know, it's so hard, right?

You're comparing your your day to someone's curated picture of their day, and you know that when they posted that, they they looked at like 13 different pictures and chose that one.

But that's what you compare yourself to, and so when they've lost 20 pounds, are you like, yay, for them?

Or like, I hate them.

I'm teasing.

But you know what I mean.

It's it's a tool that is like custom design for us to compare ourselves with other people.

And very often, and this is by the way, scientific.

This is there's been enough studies on this that we know it, that spending tons of time on social media and naturally comparing yourselves over and over again to everybody else's picture, everybody else's moment, everybody else's highlight video, whatever it is, everybody else's happy family.

I have posted pictures of my family from things that we've gone out and And in that picture, we look happy, and everything's wonderful.

And someone would be like, oh man, I wish my family was like that.

And if you would have been there, that picture was a lie.

It was an absolute lie.

It went terrible, it went awful, it was a waste of money.

My children were terribly behaved, but we got them, I threatened them enough to take one picture so that we could present to the world our wonderful, happy family.

Right?

We've all done that.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Someone else is like.

This is like, we're all coming clean today.

Yeah.

We are so wired for comparison.

But it's a trap.

And we see this, by the way, countless times in scripture.

Countless times.

In the book of 1 Samuel, Saul is the king of Israel.

He's the first king Israel's ever had, and he has this new soldier in his army, David.

And David is wildly successful.

And it says that when the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine.

This is the story of David and Goliath.

Women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul, and they sang and danced with joy and tambourines and cymbals, and this was their song.

Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

And this made Saul very angry.

What's this, he said?

They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands?

Next they'll be making him their king.

That actually happened.

So from that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

You kind of feel for Saul here, right?

In one way.

It's like, that'd be tough.

But but he ought to be so content because he's the king.

And David is fiercely loyal to him.

And he has this extremely loyal superstar in his army.

Essentially ensuring victory wherever he goes.

And if Saul had any sense about him, he would be like, God, I am so blessed.

Thank you for David.

I'm so glad that he is making my kingdom successful.

This is awesome.

He should have been content, but he wasn't.

And if you go on to read the rest of the story, this jealous eye that he keeps on David, it literally drives Saul crazy.

Because a comparison, if we compare ourselves to other people on a regular basis, it kills contentment and it drives us crazy.

And you see it happen over and over again.

You can look at the story of Jacob and his brothers.

This is in the the the or sorry, rather, Joseph and his brothers.

Jacob's their father in the Old Testament.

These brothers are driven crazy by the fact that their father Jacob loves Joseph more than he loves them, and that's true.

That Jacob was not a good father in that way.

He compared his sons, he pitted them against each other, and he's like, that one's my favorite.

And it drove the brothers crazy.

Because that's what comparison does.

Over and over and over and over again.

We have a story in the New Testament in Luke chapter 22, the disciples begin to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

That's that's I love this idea.

Because you know Judas is there, and he's probably arguing, no, I'm the best.

It's like, no, you are definitely the worst.

But he he joined the argument for sure.

Jesus told them, In this world, kings and great men lorded over their people, they are called friends of the people, but among you it will be different.

Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.

Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves?

The one who sits at the table, of course, but not here, not in my kingdom, Jesus is saying, for I am among you as one who serves.

You know, as Megan and I were talking about this dynamic uh earlier today, and there's this idea kind of in the church world at large in America, internationally, that the way that the church is going to like influence culture is we're just gonna get Christian people at the top of every one of sort of the man-made structures of power, right?

Entertainment and finance and the movie industry, government, and we get we get Jesus followers at the top of all of those, that's how we're gonna change the world.

That is the exact opposite of what Jesus said would happen.

Jesus said the way that we're gonna change the world is we're gonna occupy the lowest places and we're gonna serve people and we're gonna love people and we're gonna give of ourselves because it doesn't give us anything in return.

That's how we're gonna change the world by being the lowest, not not trying to be the highest.

The disciples are arguing over who's gonna be the greatest, and Jesus puts a stop to it because comparison kills contentment.

They ought to all just be content.

We get to walk with Jesus.

We're hanging out with the Son of God.

We're with them, we see the miracles, we experience it with our own eyes.

I mean, come on, pinch us.

Are we dreaming?

We get to walk with Jesus, but instead of just being content that they get to be the ones that walk with Jesus, they start comparing themselves to one another, going, I wonder which one of us ranks the highest.

And what does it do?

It kills their contentment.

And it at least for one of them, it maybe drives them crazy.

Because that's what comparison does.

Many times in Jesus' teachings, he he uses comparison, whether it's the prodigal son or there's a teaching he has of a Pharisee, a religious leader, and this man is comparing himself to a tax collector.

And anytime that human dynamic of comparing yourself to someone else shows up in scripture, it's a bad thing.

And so here's what I'm I'm trying to say in all of this lesson from the garden, Cain and Abel, and countless other stories in scripture warns us that if we want to be people who can say with conviction, it is well with my soul, I am content, I am happy, I love my life.

I'm grateful for the life that I have.

If that's where we want to be, then the one thing we've got to guard hard against is comparison, which leads to jealousy, which kills that contentment and actually drives you crazy.

Do not fall into that trap.

But it's tough, right?

Because the world kind of begs us to do it.

A few thoughts.

Jesus actually does have one teaching where he compares us to something.

Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Jesus says, That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life more than food in your body more than clothing?

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life?

And why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

So Jesus says, hey, look, if you want to compare yourself to anyone or anything, compare yourself to the birds.

Compare yourself to the flowers and think about how much more valuable you are to God than almost everything in creation.

That's actually really important for us to do from time to time.

You know, it's it's crazy when you look at creation and all that God has made.

And you look at, I mean, you can look at pictures of things that are in space that just blow your mind.

You can look at pictures of a mountain range.

Sometimes you just have a view.

You've probably been to a place in the world where you're like, this is amazing.

Wow, this is breathtaking.

Look at what God has made.

But but scripture teaches us that there's only one thing that God made that he looks at and actually sort of marvels at, and it's us.

That God's not looking at the mountain ranges and being like, whoa, that's the that's that was my best work.

Right?

That was whew, that's I I really nailed it with that.

He's not looking at the majesty of the universe and all the planets and solar systems and galaxies, going, wow, look, you guys see that?

That was me.

You know, like I did that.

That was me.

There's only one thing that scripture calls a masterpiece that God has created, and it's us.

And so Jesus says, hey, look, if you want to compare yourself to anyone or anything, why don't you start by comparing yourself to, I don't know, everything in creation that isn't a human being, and realize that you are more valuable to God than all of that combined.

That he cares for you, that he loves you, that he knows your name, and you didn't do anything to earn that.

Now, if that's what we lived our lives comparing ourselves to, we'd probably feel a lot more contentment and a lot more joy.

But but that's hard.

Because we want to compare ourselves, or at the very least, we're compelled to compare ourselves to the people, to that person over there, that family over there.

I heard someone say once that you should never compare yourself to anyone.

You should just compare yourself to everyone.

Because if instead of comparing yourself to any one specific person, you just compared yourself to every person who's ever been alive, you would be like, I'm doing great.

I'm alive, first of all.

Breathing puts me in the top.

But like, you're probably doing better than the vast majority of human beings who have ever lived.

But we we don't do that.

So, so look, take it from Jesus.

When you start feeling that urge to compare yourself and you start feeling bad because you're you're looking at someone else and you're going, why am I not more like them?

Stop and look at a bird and just be like, oh yeah, I'm glad I'm not eating worms today.

That is good.

I'll take it, right?

Think about how valuable you are to God.

Look, if you're gonna compare yourself to any one person, though, you might as well just, if you're gonna go there and say, you know what, no, I don't want to compare myself to a bird or flowers.

I know Jesus said to do that, that's silly.

I'm I'm gonna find someone to compare myself to.

Great, pick Jesus.

Just do Jesus.

Let's look.

Psalm 71 says, Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens.

You have done such wonderful things.

Who can compare with you, O God?

Psalm 89, 6, for who in heaven can compare with the Lord?

What mightiest angel is anything like the Lord?

Psalm 113, 5, who can be compared with the Lord our God who is enthroned on high?

There's no comparison to God.

And Jesus is God in flesh.

And so if all of us stopped comparing ourselves to the people around us, to the people in our neighborhoods and on social media and that family, this family, this person at work, that person at work, and we said, let's just all compare ourselves to Jesus, we would really quickly be like, oh yeah, equal footing.

We are all equally in need of his grace and his mercy and his love and his acceptance because none of us, like none of us, can be like, actually, I mean, I I'm gonna give you this.

Jesus is better, but I don't think it's that, you know, wide of a gap.

Like, would anyone actually do that?

I know you would not say yes in church.

That would be like a, yeah, actually, I think I'm close.

I'm almost there.

Right?

It's an interesting dynamic though to think about comparing yourself with Jesus, because you know what scripture tells us?

None of us are our only children.

Actually, none of us.

1 Peter chapter 4, or rather 5, verse 9, says, Stand firm against your enemy the devil, be strong in your faith.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

We're a family.

We're brothers and sisters.

We're called that over and over again in Scripture.

When you give your life to Jesus, and I know not all of us have made that decision yet, but when you do, you are adopted into the family of God.

You are literally his child, and that is a little inconvenient because now Jesus is your older brother.

And you want to talk about a why can't you be more like your brother opportunity?

You know, like how annoying.

Like, how annoying would it be to have Jesus as your brother?

That was actually a physical reality for Jesus' brothers and his sisters.

Like he had siblings and they grew up in the shadow of Jesus.

Like you try to blame the lie on Jesus.

He did it.

He didn't do it.

You know?

Imagine being married, how much easier it would have been for her as a mom?

Like, hey, who who ate this that wasn't supposed to?

Jesus is like, guys, it wasn't Jesus.

And if he did, he'd just make another one, right?

Like, come on, he could cover for it.

It'd be annoying.

But here's what's really cool, and this I this is the one thing, and we're gonna wrap up, but this is the one thing that I really hope hits you when it comes to the way that God sees you.

If God wanted to, that's the alarm telling me to finish up.

I got it.

Alright, we're going.

If God wanted to, if God wanted to do that, compare my children, which I'll be honest, as a father I I've been guilty of, he could compare us to Jesus.

Every single one of us who's given our life to him, he could, he could look at you and he could say, he could, and I hear this.

You are such a disappointment to me.

Why can't you be more like your brother?

He could say that to every one of us, but he never, ever does.

God the Father does not compare us to Jesus and find us lacking.

He doesn't do it.

In fact, it's the opposite.

It says over and over in Scripture that God the Father has taken the righteousness of Jesus, the perfection of Jesus, just the overwhelming goodness and glory and majesty of Jesus, and he's taken that and he's like transplanted that onto us.

So now when God the Father looks at you, God the Father sees you just as righteous, just as holy, just as pure, just as wonderful as Jesus.

So, so how like, come on, let's think about that for a second.

God the Father never looks at you and says, Why can't you be more like your brother?

God the Father looks at you and says, You know who you remind me of?

Your older brother.

You look so much like Jesus because you have been covered.

The scripture says you've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

That's awesome.

And so if God the Father looks at you and says, You remind him of Jesus, what point is there in comparing yourself with anybody else?

Like, come on.

It's pointless.

It's pointless.

Don't do it.

If anything, if you if you want to guard yourself against comparison, celebrate it.

Celebrate the success of other people.

Celebrate when other people do well.

Celebrate when that person has lost the 10 pounds and looks awesome.

Celebrate when that that other person's children succeeds and and does that great thing.

Celebrate it, yes.

But but compare and feel like you're not enough?

No.

There's no point to that.

Our enemy almost always traps us first by making us to question where we stand, by fueling us with or filling us with insecurity, and that fuels the decisions we make.

But don't fall for that trap.

Because here's the deal.

You don't have to compare to anybody.

You don't.

When you give your life to Jesus, you you exit this whole worldly dynamic of trying to constantly measure up and stack up and beat out and compete and all that.

That is not the way God's kingdom works.

When you give your life to Jesus, you are accepted wholeheartedly into the family of God.

You're not ranked.

You know, you're not like, hey, look, you're in the family, but you're, you know, like you're extended family.

You're like that second cousin at the wedding that no one talks to.

That's you.

No, it's not like that at all.

You are literally called the co-heir of Christ.

That's amazing.

So, lesson from the gardener.

No comparison.

Comparison kills contentment.

It drives you crazy.

And you are the son or the daughter of God.

And he looks at you, God the Father looks at you, and he never once thinks to himself, why can't you be more like your brother?

In fact, the opposite, he looks at you and says, You look just like your brother.

And he loves you just as intensely as he loves his son, Jesus Christ.

Hold on to that.

Let that give you peace.

And this week, when you find yourself tempted to do that whole comparison thing, just stop and be like, oh no, no, no.

I don't have to do this.

I know what this is going to do to me.

Look at Jesus and let that joy and that peace fill your heart.

Alright?

Now we actually have an opportunity, I said this uh a second ago, to celebrate, right?

Celebrate when when good things happen in other people's lives.

And I want to ask a huge favor that we stick around for this.

This is important.

You know, when when one of our friends gets baptized and one of our family members gets baptized, it's so vital that they see their church looking at them and celebrating with them.

And so I'm saying this to give you permission to go crazy and cheer.

Because we've got a bunch of people getting baptized right now.

So that's how we're gonna finish our Sunday together.

If you're new, we we have baptisms almost every single Sunday.

It's always the exclamation point to our morning.

Um it's it's how we love to wrap up because it's a big reminder that this is what it looks like to say yes to Jesus.

This is what it looks like to go all in.

And we've got some great people right now.

So I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna we're gonna celebrate together and then hang out as long as you want to hang out because this is your home.

So, Father God, thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you so much, Lord, that we do not have to be people who compare ourselves to everyone around us, constantly feeling like we're inadequate, constantly feeling like we don't measure up, or at the very least, Lord, even if we're successful, constantly feeling like we gotta keep it going.

Otherwise, someone else is gonna catch up, someone else might overtake us.

That is not the way that your family dynamics work.

Thank you, Lord, that you have brought us into your family, that you've adopted us as your very own sons and daughters, and that you don't play some type of game that some parents unfortunately do, where you compare us against the most successful one in the family.

We could never, we could never win that game.

But we don't even have to play it.

Because you look at us and you call us the righteousness of Christ.

In other words, you say that we are just as good in your eyes, that we are just as holy, as special, as meaningful as Jesus Himself.

You've decided to bless us like that, Lord, and it honestly doesn't make sense.

But it's wonderful, and if we receive that, Lord, we can say it is well with my soul.

We can have a true contentment.

And so I pray that you give that to us, Lord.

And as these people that are part of our family, Lord, as they go all in with you right now, Father, I just pray that you fill their hearts with joy, that they know that you are so pleased with them.

So pleased.

Lord, fill our hearts with joy with them.

Help us celebrate with them because this is such a special moment.

We love you, Jesus.

We thank you for this opportunity.

We ask all this in your name.

Amen.