In this video, I'm going to evaluate four popular claims made by opponents of gun control in the US. I'll evaluate these claims against the real-world facts. Sources are available in the video description. All comments are allowed without moderation, but please attempt to back any assertions with primary sources. In the words of Christopher Hitchens, what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. Claim 1. Hitler outlawed guns, presumably to make it easier to control the population. Reality. Following World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, signed by the Weimar government, disarmed most of Germany. Gun regulations in 1919 under Article 169 of the Versailles Treaty forbid ownership of any handguns or long guns by citizens and militia. In 1928, nine years later, during a period of German hyperinflation, a law was passed which allowed citizens to own guns of any type, provided they had a permit and were of, quote, persons whose trustworthiness is not in question and who can show a need for a gun permit. A select group of officials on law enforcement were exempted from the permit requirement. In other words, the laws in Germany prior to Hitler were very similar to currently proposed regulations in the US. Under Hitler, the idea of citizenship was redefined to exclude Jewish people and certain political opposition groups, but ownership of guns in the permitted groups was expanded. Permits were now valid for three years instead of one. The legal age for purchase was lowered from 20 to 18. And the number of people who were exempted from getting a permit was expanded to include hunters, government and industry workers, and active Nazi party members. Contrary to the claim, Hitler expanded gun ownership as one of his first acts. Jews were specifically restricted, but that was part of a much broader agenda to dispossess and disenfranchise them. Claim two, Stalin took guns away from the Soviet people with a 1929 law. Reality. This is partly true, or at least true for Stalin than for Hitler. The Tsars of Russia had always feared revolution and made every effort to discourage private gun ownership. But in the rural areas of the former Soviet republics, hunting was a way of life, so allowances were often made for ownership of long guns. The Bolsheviks, when they came to power, attempted to put restriction on even this limited gun ownership, but facing strong opposition, they essentially continued the Tsarist policy of allowances for hunting with permits. Stalin came to power in a country with very few private weapons, but he did change the way that the military were issued weapons. Specifically, weapons were required to be kept at secure facilities when not in use. Even the personal sidearms of high-ranking officers. This facilitated the purges and nighttime kidnapping of officers who he felt were disloyal. He also increased the severity of punishments for buying, selling, and owning illegal weapons, making it a political crud, and transferred the responsibility for enforcement to his secret police. While I can't disagree that Stalin was pleased to disarm his officers in order to facilitate his brutal autocracy, and that pre-Soviet and Soviet Russian gun control was largely to reduce the risk of popular rebellion, I wouldn't say disarmament was a prelude to mass slaughter. The only new gun policy I could find attributed to Stalin only applied to the military and only much later in his administration, after millions had already died in the guloks. It was more the policy of a paranoid madman than a power grab. Claim 3. If you outlaw guns, only criminals will have guns. Reality. So far as I can tell, no one is proposing all guns be outlawed. The most stringent control measures seem to be related to licensing and restriction on who can own guns and how they can be sold. 40% of Americans own a gun, myself among them. If we piled all the guns in the US up for a giant bonfire, it would be 300 million of them stacked together. Supposing a reasonable ballpark figure of 1 kg per weapon, that's 300 million kilograms of metal and wood, 330,000 tons, the weight of three modern aircraft carriers. What many gun control opponents miss here is that gun control isn't a prohibition, it's an attempt to control where guns are sold and to whom. The goal is to restrict access to firearms, so that it's harder for a criminal to get one. That means criminal background checks, permits, classes, restrictions on the types of firearms that can be made and sold, where they can be sold and to whom. One of the contentious ideas is restricting private sales of guns, so that criminals couldn't find an easy alternative to regulated sales, a shadowy back channel without accountability. Whose interest does it serve to have unrestricted sales to criminal and non-criminal alike? In fact, we could say, contra the claim, that a lack of gun regulation means more criminals have guns. The meat of the claim, though, is that only law-abiding gun owners will comply willingly with gun regulations. Criminals, by definition, don't worry about complying with law. That would seem to suggest that all laws are worthless. If you outlaw speeding, only criminals will speed. If you outlaw littering, only criminals will litter. So why do we bother? It's a reasonable question, and I have no doubt that many libertarians will offer their opinions in the comments section. The presumption of rule of law is that we need these policies so that we can have enforcement. As a group, we decide what shall be prohibited and what the consequences of that action will be. Speed limits don't prevent speeders. Anti-littering laws don't prevent littering, but they do reduce it and give law enforcement a way to detect criminals. How many murderers, rapists, and thieves are caught due to speeding? If criminals are the only ones who disregard gun laws, how much easier will it be to detect them among the law-abiding gun owners? There is a second factor here, implicit in the claim. The fewer unregulated guns in private hands, the fewer there are available to steal, to borrow, to privately transfer to people who would use them for illicit purposes. Criminals are not exempted from supply and demand. The more difficult it is to get a gun, the more likely they are to seek an easier alternative. It won't prevent crime, but it may reduce gun crime and supply of unregulated guns. Thus, I cannot agree with the claim. Good gun regulations should reduce the number of criminals who have guns through increased opportunities for screening and detection, and through reduced availability of unregulated guns. Claim four. Those areas with the Titus gun regulation have the highest violent crime rate, suggesting criminals prefer a disarmed public. Reality. Gun control is one way the governments respond to epidemics of violence, and sometimes it can be effective. Sometimes it's not. Some laws are purely after the fact, and others have more of a preventative before the fact element. The most likely explanation for correlations between tighter gun regulation and violent crime is the reversed causation in the claim. That is, more violent crime often leads to governments enacting stricter gun laws. This is most notable in the extreme in urban areas where gang violence is most notable. Detroit and Washington DC being good examples. Let's take a moment to look at Detroit and Michigan's current policies. In the state of Michigan, to purchase a handgun, you have to clear a background check and take a basic pistol safety written test. Then you can purchase a permit valid for only 10 days to buy a handgun. The purchase is recorded and filed, and the gun must undergo safety inspection before sale, although most dealers have their inventory pre-inspected, so this primarily applies to private sales. After sale, the gun is inspected and logged by local police. Gun owners are required to have either a trigger lock or a gun case.  Now consider in parallel the process for getting a license to drive a car in Michigan. You take a basic written test, demonstrate driving safety in a road test with a law enforcement officer sitting next to you, and have a background check to confirm your identity and screen for criminal record. You can then drive a car, assuming it has undergone a safety and emission test, conducted by a state-regulated inspector, and has clear title and registration, and liability insurance, and is in safe operating condition with seat belts fastened.  When I compare these two, I find them very similar, but these are some of the most stringent gun laws in the U.S. Do Michigan car drivers find car ownership too much of a hassle? Do only criminals own and use cars? Is it an insult for law-abiding car owners to be treated as criminals when they apply for a driver's license? I suspect no to all three. Why would it be so different for gun use? We can also turn this around and ask if driver's licenses have had an impact on illegal driving. I can't answer that. Clearly it hasn't eliminated misuse of cars, but who knows if it's reducing the number of unsafe drivers on the road. Would you prefer to live in a state without restrictions on who can drive, what vehicles they can operate, and in what manner? Academic analysis of the number of people who are armed in any given geography versus the violent crime rate generally leads to the same conclusion. More guns, of any kind, equals more violent crime. Or we could say more violent crime equals more guns. It's likely that there's a two-way causation. The more shootings we see on the local news, the more likely we are to go out and buy guns. The more guns people have, the more likely we are to see shootings on the local news. I'll do a deeper analysis of this in a future video, but to wrap up on this claim, I don't think any clear conclusion can be drawn by simply correlating gun policy and crime statistics in any given area. Up next, I'll continue my gun policy analysis with the effect that an Australian gun buyback in 1997 and 1998 following the Port Arthur massacre had on crime statistics there. The results should be interesting. Thanks for watching.


And now, for your strong Europe spotlight. U.S. Army Europe Commanding General, Lieutenant General Frederick Ben Hodges, ended his 37-year career during his relinquish of command ceremony at Cley-Cassar in Germany. Of course, I hate to leave the Army while the Army is still in the fight. And I'll miss soldier humor and the can-do spirit of the Army. But as the Army song says, the Army goes rolling along, and today is no different. NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and United States European Commander General Curtis Scapparotti traveled to the ceremony in Germany to wish his fellow commander the best during his retirement.  Well done, my friend. Thank you. Thank you.


Right, day two of our inner-city golf. This one's Haggs Castle. It's literally across the road really from Pollock Golf Club that we played yesterday. It's 7 a.m. some will be up guaranteed within half an hour. Just playing into the first is a par 5. We're on in regulation. The sun will be with us in five minutes. Life couldn't be any better, or maybe if we hold this birdie, it will be. It's now the bunkers. It's going. But away on three. Finding fairways, you know. Fourth hole is a par 5. It plays 467 off the yellows, which is where you just see me tee off from. But it's a really interesting hole. I had a feeling it was a par 5, even though I'm on the white dot, which is 200 yards in, as the kind of crow flies. So it's, I don't think I've hit a drive 267, but what it means is you've got a real risk and reward situation where if you just move slightly to the right, you should be able to see the flag through the gap. So we've got two logics here. They go straight down, which in my case, I'm only hitting a wedge. But we're going to go over the angle of the dog leg and have a bit of a pop of it. The next dilemma we've got is I haven't got the iron in the bag. I've got pretty much half a bag with me. No more excuses. We've got to hit a bit of a cutty five, what I'm afraid. Because I don't think I'll get there with a six iron, which is the longest iron I've got in the bag. I pulled it left, not cut it at all. And we're going to see where that one is. I think it's safe. It bounced, but I didn't get any cut on it and not very committed in terms of that swing. But do you know what? We've played four holes, three and a half holes in. And again, I did it yesterday. First impressions. I machinally kept loads of green stuff out, busy beavering away around here. Greens have been really, really rich in color. They look superb. First of all, loads of patterns on them. Again, first cut, second cut on the roof. It really is a tidy looking parkland course. And again, bit similar to again, I'm going to refer to yesterday's strategy required to sort of weave your way around this place. So yeah, impressed again. Well, we might have seen it bounce, but bounced and finished into a bunker. And in terms of yardage, it wasn't too bad. Not the best of lighting a bunker. Well, as you can see, I've got that a little bit heavy. And I don't find it better than it should have done really. Right, one noticeable feature got ourselves to the eighth hole. And again, what I'm looking at is a dog leg from right to left. Hopefully a bit of drone footage to assist my interpretation of this hole. But like I said, only playing, we're going to play it off the whites of 320. And the diagram that I'm seeing is on the tee box, a sharp right to left, pin tucked away. Can't see any sort of green at this stage. And again, that's been a key feature on, I think probably four out of eight holes, we've played par fours with movement from right to left. I'm really all about positioning, as I say, 320, not overly long. I haven't lasered those bunkers, but I'm going to try and get something around 180. It's very tight off the tee. That's bang down the middle. And I think, yeah, pretty much what I played for. Looking at it, probably could have got a little bit more in terms of yardage out there, gone with a bit of a long round. Unfortunately, the longest time I've got to be back today is the sixth time. But again, really interesting shape. And it's all about, obviously with those dog legs, it's about positioning. And it's about positioning on the right side of the fairway. But more importantly, I suppose just finding the fairway to start with. I reckon we could have probably gotten another 20 yards out in terms of the club that I selected, but that would have meant it narrows up and the bunkers come into play. As it stands, we've got 140 in and the flag is tucked way left, as you'd have seen from the drone footage. So I reckon a decent play. A little bit right of target. That's quite a bit right of target, actually. And I'm not sure they're quite enough club there. We're in and around the fringe anyway. Yeah, I came up sure, as ever, lazy golfer that I am didn't get the range finder. And that pin is tucked way back, probably another, I don't know, 10-15 yards back from centre. We've got a long chip and rumble, a lovely little golf hole in there. I just said, sort of off camera that, you know, it's a 320 yard par for really well shaped in terms of, like I said, strategically where you need to be and asking questions of the club selection off the tee. And then when you're playing your iron in, you've got sort of three staggered bunkers in terms of distance. So yeah, really good, really good. 320 yards and I bet it causes all kinds of problem on a satin medal comp.   Well, we got there in the end, wasn't perfectly played, but what a great little golf hole that is. Again, you can pick up on the camera now, a bit more light coming in, but the greens are so lush in the colour. And I mentioned earlier, nicely cut, we've seen them being hand mowed throughout this early morning start and they look and play really well. Well done, Hags. Well, we just finished playing on eight, a real short par for dog leg. And I've put the camera back on because nine is another dog leg and you can see from the drone footage going on for you now. Quite severe, we've got a tree right in the middle of the fairway, that's our first thing we've got to overcome in terms of finding some short stuff and making sure we're not blocked out and you can see the movement in that, again, left to right in terms of where we're trying to get to, our end goal. I have measured the tree out at 213, I'm going to go for the tree with driver and pray. I think I've got that bang on just about kept me balanced. That is absolutely, oh, and that's pretty much position A, I reckon.   So without doubt, the position is get something short of that tree, which should give you a fairly short ironing anyway. So like most courses, far better if you've played them before. But as it stands, we're in really good nick. See if we can make the most of it. That's right on it, you know. This could be good. Oh, no, on the clubbed. I say on the clubbed, it's sure as I take it all day long, but I thought that was literally going to drop down it. I took a pretty much easy half swing, clearly. I could have hit that thing. Do you know what? Look, it's unreal, you know. I have literally, I have hit pretty much centre stripe of the fairway all day long with my driver. And yet when I got an iron in my hand, I'm absolutely garbage. This game just cracks me up. I don't think it's a long time since I've actually drove the ball this good. I don't think I've hardly missed the fairway. And I mean in the middle of it and long everything's been working. And then you get there and the irons just ain't working today. This game's crazy. That's right on it, you know. I don't think there's enough legs from here. Go. Do you know what I'd almost got there? Part five finishes on 18. We started with a part five. Don't forget we're finished with one. And not far off in two there, I'll have a chip and hopefully a putt for Bernie to finish. I think if I was doing a kind of like overall summary of the course, you've seen it's extremely well kept. There's been great definition on fairways, first cut, second cut. Generosity in terms of the fairways. I will say it's tight in places in that. Again, without repeating it too much strategically, you've got to plot your way around a little bit more. Not overly long, I think from the yellows, it plays around 6,000 yards. So that tells you that it's more about strategy club selection rather than all out power, but really, really well kept. What you can hear just over in the distance is when you come back to the clubhouse, you hear a little bit of that traffic noise, which tells you just how close you are to the motorway. And as I say, just a couple of mile away from the city centre. So for in the city golf episode two, I think both here and Pollock really ideal. If you want to mix it up in terms of spending a little bit of time in the town centres, few nights out, and then some golf very nearby the following day. These two places are pretty much ideal for it. They really are. So we're going to see if I can chip and make a birdie to finish, I think.


Wow always so that way the artist everyone feels comfortable like when the baby first came into town Yeah, I remember hit that was like this is the next dude.  Yeah, we gonna talk. Oh, let me ask you this man You had uh, what was that show that y'all had down there because you had I remember mode three rapping I took some of that footage and used it too on one of my interviews just showing What was that show that you when you first had space boy down there? Let's talk about it was the black the black Yeah, it was a black box. The black box show. Yeah, I want to talk about that show because there was so many different people that I seen when you showed me the footage of them rapping in there, right? What made you put that together and and and like Who all give me some names of some of the guys. Yeah, so we were I was doing a um How would they call it an anime?     Okay. And so he showed up.   Wow, and it was just over everyone's head So like I said, and I know I seen uh early on I see mode three come through there Like how was it dealing with him when he would come through and uh, you know, he was he was unique You know saying he was all about his business.      It's quiet. We in on social media.  Wow always so that way the artist everyone feels comfortable like when the baby first came into town Yeah, I remember it hit that was like this is the next dude.  Like you're at home. Yeah. Yeah that motherfuckers in our studio for like two weeks People don't know that. Wow.  We feel dog We you know, we first start So the whole the whole the whole thing is we we so we started in the black box show And we saw a potential You know, nowadays they had the microphone that everyone's doing right now. Yeah. Yeah, it's a music video. Great But people never fully grasped with us was when mode three went in there and spit them bars.


Kathy and Elliot Lewis, on stage. Two of the most distinguished names in radio, appearing each week in their own theater, starring in a repertory of trans broad stories of their own and your choosing. Radio's foremost players in Radio's foremost play. Ladies and gentlemen, Elliot Lewis. Good evening. May I present my wife, Kathy? Good evening, and may I present Jerry Hausner. Good evening. Jerry is up here in front with us. Because the story we're going to do for you tonight is really about three people, and Elliot and I thought it would be rude not to have you meet Jerry before it all started. Because the story is told by a man named George, and that's the park Jerry plays. It's a lovely story. It was written by Shelby Gordon, who did the adaptation of The Lady or the Tiger we did last month. This one is called The Man of Independent Mind, and it's about, well, that's why Jerry Hausner is here to tell you what it's about. First Fred Steiner and The Overture. What's the use of kidding? I don't care how close you are to a guy. You're his friend, you're his buddy. But do you ever get to know what he's like inside? Now you take me and my partner, Wally Craig. How? But did I know what was liking him? Nah. What happened to him? It was his own fault. He brought it on himself. But when you get right down to it, what was his trouble? He figured out one day he's a human being. That's all. But believe me, it's enough to get your right up to your ears in the hot water. The way it all started, we were out on his job one day, tapering Mrs. Connolly's dining room. Roses. All the time roses. Do you ever see anything like it, George? What'd you say, Wally? You take Mrs. Connolly and want something besides roses in her dining room. Some wallpaper. You don't like roses? Sure, roses. Who doesn't? Well, so what's wrong with the wallpaper? You call these roses? Well, sure. When do you ever see a rose as big as that? Well, I guess they don't grow that big. There you are. But otherwise, it looks like a rose. That's not what a rose looks like. The color's all wrong. Now look at a leaf. Wally, it's only wallpaper. What do you want? It should smell like a rose. It's just a picture.  Look, for 60 cents a roll, you don't get, what's his name? Rembrandt. George, if you can't make roses look like roses, why do it at all? Why make wallpaper look like this? Because people like it. Now George, what kind of people like wallpaper like this? Mrs. Connolly likes it. Mrs. Connolly doesn't like it. She bought it, didn't she? Sure, she bought it. It's in the sample book, so she bought it. But she could have taken something else. Like what? Petunias, begonias, gladiolas? Well, you don't like them, neither? Not on wallpaper. Flowers that don't look like flowers. Birds that don't look like birds. Trouble is, the average man's got no choice. You buy these lousy patterns in the sample book and you don't get wallpaper. I never heard no complaints. Who complains? The average guy never opens his mouth. About what? About getting pushed around. Well, no one gets pushed around without he opens his mouth. That's how much you know. You take the man on the street. What street? George, don't you ever read the newspapers? The man on the street. John Q. Public. The crowd. A whole crowd of average guys. They're always getting pushed around. That's why they're average guys. Ah, go out. I'm telling you, take a look around. Listen, I would recognize the average guy if he walked in here right now and started drawing mustaches on the wallpaper. Yeah, I guess you wouldn't. That's because you're an average guy yourself. Me? Well, look at the rot you're in. You never do anything out of the ordinary. Who don't? You don't. You're an average guy. Oh, and I suppose you're not. Of course not. Okay, big shot. What did you ever do that was so sensational? Now, George, don't get mad. I'm just saying I'm not like the rest of the crowd. Don't give me that. You're no better than anyone else. That's how much you know. Well, you ain't so much. Hand me a press roll. Big shot. A lot you ever did. I still don't think it looks bad. I'm telling you, Clara, the nerve of the guy. Oh, stop grousing, honey. George is your best friend. Nice friend. Wally, you know there isn't anything he wouldn't do for you. Then how come he gets so critical all of a sudden? You're just exaggerating. He wasn't criticizing you. What do you call it? Clara, I got some pride. Well, it wasn't so terrible. How can you say that? My best friend, for no reason at all, he tells me if I should drop that this minute, nobody knows the difference. Oh, he didn't mean anything by it. Well, he didn't. In any way, he's right. Clara, what are you saying? Now, wait a minute. Don't get sensitive. Me? Sensitive? Just because my own wife tells me to drop dead? Oh, Wally, I didn't mean it that way. How many ways are there? Would you like me to drop backwards or backwards? Now, Wally, stop it. My own wife. Now, listen. You're making a mountain out of a molehill. I don't want you to drop dead, even just George.  Thanks a lot. You've got a lot of friends. They'd miss you, too. Well, sure I'd make a difference to them if anything happened to you. Yeah, they'd have to cut out the Saturday night beer to buy me flowers. Honestly, you're just impossible. Look, all George meant, all I'm trying to say is that heaven forbid, if you should die, the world would go on, and hardly anyone would know you'd ever been alive. Clara. Honey, honestly, I love you, and George and all your friends think the world of you, but the people like us, we live our lives and no one ever knows the difference. It isn't like you're president, or you'd invented something. Well, I never had a chance. I was always too busy making a living. All right. So it's nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of people are too busy making a living. It's a tough life. A lot of people never, I don't know what you call it, they never make anything of themselves, but they're happy. What's the largest average, guys? What's the difference? But that's terrible. Well, they don't think it is, Wally.  They grow old, they never do anything that sets them apart from the rest of the world, but they enjoy life. That's all it counts. Clara, is that all we are? Is that all we've got to look forward to? My goodness, it isn't so bad. Wally, it never bothered you before. I didn't know. I always thought I was different. I never thought... Clara, is that all I am? Just an average guy? Is that all? Of course not. To me, you're something special. You're the best. To you. Isn't that enough, Clara? But I want to do something with my life. Clara, I want to be something, not just for myself, but for you, too. Well, I'm not complaining. But to go through life, and then just like that, you're out of it and nobody remembers you. That's no good. But it's like that for everybody. For most of us, anyway. I don't want to be like that. I want to make a mark in the world. I don't want the world to take notice of me. Clara, I don't want to be just an average man. But, honey, there's nothing wrong with it. I never really saw myself before. I'm a failure. No, what? We're all failure. It's terrible, Clara, to be just average. To be a failure. That's terrible. Clara, you've got to do something. The big jerk ain't been on the job in three days. What can I do? He just sits around, mopes all day long. I'm sorry. I kind of feel like it's my fault. I can't blame you, George. I wish I knew what to do. He's so miserable. Big lunkhead. He's got no right making you miserable, too. Don't mind that. I'm just worried about him.  So am I. Maybe if you talk to him, huh? Do you think I'd better?  He's out and about. All right.  He wouldn't even eat. Oh, gee. He ought to eat. Hi. Hi, Wally. Oh, George. How is, uh, everything? All right. Uh, Wally, when are you coming back to work? I don't know, George. I hadn't thought about it. Could you come back tomorrow? Maybe we got that big papering job on Oak Street. Seven rooms. I can't do it myself. You can do it. I don't know, Wally. It's a two-day job for both of us. Do it yourself and take four days. I'd better turn it over to another firm. Wally, you really ought to help. Go on. Back to work. He can do it himself and he can make twice the money. But he says he can. Yeah, that's right, Wally. There's no such thing as can. You can do anything you want to. If you didn't like the job, why didn't you say so right in the beginning? Well, how'd I know you were going to walk out on me?  An excuse for what? You don't want the job. Why don't you admit it? Well, how do you like that? Listen, there are a lot of jobs I don't like, but I don't turn any of them down, and I don't walk out on them. But I can't work alone. Ah.  What's your excuse, Wally? Me? Why don't you walk out on it? Clara, I didn't... Well, it isn't the same thing. It's worse. You walk out on your job or on your friend.  What are you talking about? Sitting around here torturing yourself, and for what? Oh, let him along, Clara. No, I won't. I'm sore. He decides one day he's a failure, so he just quits cold. Well, what do you want me to do? Get back in the same old rut. I don't care what you do as long as you stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you don't like wallpaper, I'll do something else. Take up a new trade. The doctors sell papers. I don't care. Don't you think it's a little late for that? Is it? Well, I can't start all over, can I? Why not? I can't. That's all. A minute ago, you told George there's no such word. You said he could do anything he wants to do. Why don't you? What? She's right, Wally. By golly, she's right. Wally, don't you see? You're not doing yourself any good this way.  Yeah. Gee, yeah. I can still be somebody. Now, you tell her. I'll show them who's a failure. I'll show them there never was a man like Wally Craig. Clara? Yes, Wally. Let's eat. Well, I thought that was the end of the trouble, but I guess I should have known better. Wally came back to work all right and everything was swell for a couple of weeks.  And then, one day, we're doing a job at the old Palmer place. Real slick job, too. Embossed paper. Even Wally liked it. Isn't this pace a little sick? That could be. I'll send it out. That's all right, Wally.  I'm also glad you came back. Are you glad, Wally? Oh, sure. But just till I find myself. Yeah, I sure hate to bust up the partnership. You going to get a job or something? No, Mike. Kind of depends. What are you cooking up? Rather than I tell you, George, not right now. Why not? Wouldn't want it to get around yet. Well, I ain't going to tell anyone. Well... No, I'm better not. Aha. Come on, Wally. Well... Okay. George, I finally figured out what my trouble was. No kidding. You see, George, I'm potentially a great man. Oh, no, Wally. No, wait. I'm not being conceited. Every one of us is potentially a great man. You too. Me? You just say it. That's the truth. But, George, we made a mistake. Eh? We let ourselves become average guys. Now, don't start that again. Now, listen. We don't have to be average guys. Huh? We can do anything we want to do, be anything we want to be. Only trouble is we never tried to do anything important. From now on, things are different. I'm going to make something of myself. See that swell. What? George? I'm going to be the world's strongest man. Come again? The strongest man in the world. You? Me. Well? What do you think, George? Wally, you're nuts. Suppose you don't think I can do it. Well, listen, George, remember that story we saw in the paper once about the farmer who lifted a cow every day from the first day he was born? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he kept on lifting it every day? That's right. And finally, he could pick it up even when it was a full-grown cow. Yeah, I remember. Well, there you are. Where are you going to get a cow? I don't want to pick up a cow. It's just the principle of the thing I'm interested in. There was another story, George. But a fellow took poison. He took small doses at first, and then he gradually increased the amount until he could swallow a whole barrel full practically. Oh, he must have been a real oddball. No, he wasn't. It worked. Anything works, George, as long as you start out easy and work yourself along an easy stage. Well, you ain't going to take poison, are you? Of course not. But look, watch this. That's a toothpick. See? Wally, a two-year-old kid can break a toothpick. Sure. But now look. Two toothpicks. You get it? Uh-uh. You're not paying attention. Look, anyone can break a toothpick, but if you can break one, you can break two. Is that right? Well, that ain't hard to figure. If you break two, you can break three. I'll go along with that. If you can break nine, you can break ten. If you can break fifty, it isn't any harder to break fifty-one, you see? And that's all there is to it. George, I'm going to keep adding toothpicks until one of these days I can break golf clubs and baseball bats in my bare hands. I'm going to keep on until I can break trees and telephone poles. And one of these days, George, you know the courthouse oak? Sure, the oak in front of the courthouse. One of these days, I'm going to break that big, gold oak tree in two with my bare hands. You're kidding. The courthouse oak? That's the biggest tree in town. It's three feet thick. Who cares? George, I'm going to be the strongest man in the world. You are listening to Kathy and Elliot Lewis on stage. Tonight's play, The Man of Independence Mines. When you take a trip, take your radio too. Going to the beach, picnicking, hiking, mountain climbing. Radio can take the trip too. Highways and byways are all airways thanks to radio. And any radio you carry carries the summertime easy listening favorites America listens to most. Resented day and night, every day and every night by CBS Radio. And any radio you carry carries the summertime easy listening favorites America listens to most. Resented day and night, every day and every night by CBS Radio. Going somewhere? Take radio too. Poor Warwick. He had his heart set on doing something to make him different from other people. He was going to be the strongest man in the world. So he went around breaking things. Toothpicks, pencils, golf clubs, working his way up to the courthouse. Well, I'm telling you, he was driving us nuts. Me and Clara, that is. You see, something happened that kind of worried us about, Wally. His plan was working. Of course, it's only a baseball bat, but you see how easy it is, Clara? Wally, you better stop this right away. I don't like it. Why not?  It isn't normal. You bet it isn't. And this is just the beginning. You wait, Clara. I'm going to be famous. Yeah, he got famous all right. That's what scared us. For instance, that same day one of his neighbors came over to see him. Big guy named Al Cook. Wally and Clara were out in back and Wally was still practicing. Hey, I sure hate to bother you, folks. That's all right, Mr. Cook. Cheryl, what's on your mind? Well, you'll probably think I'm crazy for repeating this, but my kid came home today and said you broke a baseball bat in your bare hands. Of course, you know how kids are always making things up. Oh, he didn't make it up. I was showing some of the kids how strong I am. Thought it might inspire them. You should have seen their eyes pop out. They didn't think I could do it. Well, frankly, neither did I. Well, take a look. I was just showing my wife this morning. You can do it, all right. Well, it's a broken bat, but you did that. Sure. Want to see me break one of the pieces? Well, I wouldn't want to put you in any trouble. Oh, that's no trouble. Well, I'll be. Wally! Hey, what's the big idea? Why'd you hit him? That'll teach him to break my kid's ball bat. Well, that didn't discourage Wally.  He graduated to two-by-four, then to four-by-four in small trees. Finally, he could actually take a pretty good size three and snap it. Just like that. You never saw anything like it. I never saw anything like it. Wally, you can't keep dumping lumber in the yard. It just looks terrible. Clara, I've got to keep in training. Well, can't you do it someplace else? Darn it. Give me some room, Ron, and move any more. All these broken boards and trees is just... Clara! Wally, how long is this going to go on? Till I break the courthouse oak, I guess. Then what? You can't make a career out of this? Well, I'd have to think about it. I might get some offers when the newspaper starts writing me up. Wally, I don't want the papers to write about you like you're some kind of freak. Freak? I'm the strongest man in the world. Oh, I just think you're feeling silly. Well, if that's all the help I get from my own wife. Wally, I'll give you all the help you want, but I don't know what you're trying to do. I'm just trying to... Oh, the strongest man in the world. What do you expect to gain by it? You're going to go around breaking things all your life? Don't make it sound so terrible.  No, I'm not, Clara. You'll change your mind when you see how everybody will look up to me. You'll see, Clara, you'll be proud of me. See, that's all he wanted. A little respect from his neighbors. And something for Clara to be proud of. Well, a time finally came when Wally was ready to let the world know about himself. He called all the papers in town, and he told them to come over to the house. I guess we were both a little disappointed when only one of them sent a reporter. Jack Jensen of the Herald. So you're the strongest man in the world. Yep, you ought to see him. That's why I'm here. Just what do you do, Mr. Craig? He breaks things. That's very naughty of you, Mr. Craig. What? Just how did this amazing strength of yours all come about? Well, it all started with toothpicks. Mine. You are strong. You don't believe me. I can be convinced. How about a demonstration? Sure. That's why I called you. All right. I weigh about 170. Let's see you lift me with one hand. You don't understand, Mr. Jensen. I don't lift things. I break them. Is that all you do? Well, he really does, Mr. Jensen. The other day he broke a telephone pole in his bare hand. Why, Mr. Craig, you big brook. All right. You don't believe I can do it, but I'll show you. Listen, Craig, are you on the level? Sure. Well, maybe I'm crazy. OK. Let's see you break something. Anything in particular? You pick it out. I don't want you to think I'm faking it. All right. How about that apple tree out front? Sure thing. You're really going to break it, huh? Easy. Well, this I'd like to see. Well, he'll do it all right. Well, I'm in this far. Let us well invest in film. Let me get a picture of it. Any time you're ready. Yeah. This is a reporter from the Herald, Clara. He wants a picture of me breaking the tree. This your wife? Oh, yeah. The apple tree? Uh-huh. You left this tree alone. Clara. Don't you dare. But this is for the newspaper. I don't care who it's for. You leave it alone. Clara, stop shaking your finger at me. Hold it. Nothing to be afraid of, Mrs. Craig. Just a flashball. You took our picture? Yeah. Thanks a lot. Strong, man. Look at that. Look at that, will you? Oh, stop, Wally. Look at that picture.  I'm sorry. Fine story. They printed about me. Strong, man. Wilt before little woman. Great. Just great. I don't like it any more than you do. Just the whole town's laughing at me. Oh, well, let him laugh. What difference does it make? Clara, do we have to go through that again? Why do you think I'm doing all this? I want people to respect me. Well, if you want me to respect you, you leave that apple tree alone. I wonder if I'm ready yet. Ready? For what? I wonder if I could tackle a courthouse open. Oh, Wally. I'll show that reporter. I'll show them all. Why, guys? What are you going to do now? You'll see. You'll just see. Hello. Mr. Jensen, please. Now, Wally, be careful. He'll print another story about you. That's just what I want him to do. Hello, Mr. Jensen. This is Wally Craig. I just thought you'd like to know that exactly noon tomorrow, I'm going to break the courthouse oak in two. I hope you'll be there. And don't forget your camera. What a mug. I didn't think there'd be so many people. I'm glad Pirates stayed home. No, you're sure you want to go ahead, Wally. You all right? All right, all right. Hey, Craig. Hey, there's that newspaper guy, Wally. Yes, come on. Oh, you showed up after all. What do you mean after all? I told you to be here. Yeah, I know. You want to make a speech to your public? Or isn't that part of your technique?   Help yourself. Yep. Well? Here goes. Good luck, Wally. Thank you, George. All right, Craig. Nice to know. What? Get away from the tree. Yeah, who said so? I say so. Lieutenant Branch Police. You're under arrest.  Listen, Crackpot, we've got enough troubles without you starting a riot on the courthouse long. I didn't do anything. You read the paper this morning? Well, sure. Throw it everyone else in town. You want to see what kind of lunatic thinks he can crack this oak tree. You might get sore if you can't deliver. But I can. Oh, now listen. Just give me a chance. Come on, Craig. Hey, Lieutenant. Yeah, Lieutenant. Just for the record, what's the charge? Disturbing the peace and citing the riot public use until you take your choice. Well, how about attempted destruction of city property? It's a serious thing to go around breaking oak trees in two. Or a jerk? It hurts, Wally, the lieutenant and the reporter. He felt terrible that he never got to try that oak tree. I guess it hurt him even worse when the judge dismissed the case against him too. You see, the trouble was, no one took him seriously.  No jail, no fine.  Well, that hurts. Wally. I'm all right, Clarence. I'd just like to be alone for a little while. Honey, it doesn't mean anything. I made such a fool of myself. Isn't that bad? I wanted everybody to respect me. That's all I wanted, Clarence. But I made a fool of myself. Honey. I wanted to be something special. Not just average. You know what I am, Clarence? I'm not average. I'm less than average. If it helps any, I love you, Wally.  They're all laughing at me. I've failed. But there's nothing wrong with failing. It's easy to laugh at failure. I've tried. You tried. Me and Henry Ford. Only he made the grade. Hello, George. Hi, Clara. This is Lieutenant Brent. Hello, Miss Craig. Can I see your husband? I mean... What do you want? I just stopped by to see you in your car. I think it's time to do a decorating job for him. It's six rooms, Wally. We could start tomorrow and wind it up in two days. You want us to work on your house? Why? Well, my wife's been after me to do it. It's been about five years since we had a fixed up. Why me? You said I was a crackpot. So? Will you trust me to decorate your house? Listen, I don't care what you do on your own time. I'm just interested in getting my house fixed up. And you two guys are the best paper hangers in town. We were recommended to him, Wally. We were? Who? All the other decorators. They all say you're the best in town. They said that? Well, not just you, Wally. Me, too. Gee. Hey, did you hear that, Clara? It's the best in town. Us? We got a deal. You got a deal. The wife will pick out the wall paper. You bring over some of your nice stuff. You bet. See you tomorrow. You bet. Hey. How about that, Clara? I heard what he said. Yeah. The best paper hanger in town. The Man of Independent Mind starring Kathy and Elliot Lewis on stage. In a moment, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis will tell you about next week's play. Dreams are the stuff of which there's music in the air is made. Tomorrow night, Alfredo Antonini in the orchestra, your baritone host, Earl Wrightson, the Prano Francis Greer and tenor Clark Dennis get together for When I Grow Too Old to Dream, My Dream of Genie, I'll See You in My Dreams, and many other positively dreamy tunes, tomorrow night on most of these same CBS radio stations. And now, once again, Kathy and Elliot Lewis. We're very grateful to Shelby Gordon for a delightful story, The Man of Independent Mind. And deep thanks to Jerry Hausner, who, as George, told it to you. Other average human beings tonight were Frank Nelson, who hit me, Byron Cain, whose newspaper ridiculed me, and Barney Phillips, who arrested me. All average men and happy women. Next week, Shirley Gordon, not related to Shelby, has a new story for us. It's about love, and that's always pleasant to hear about. More specifically, it's about a girl who wasn't in love and never had been, until... And that, until, is the story. It's called Miracle for Jewelry. Until next week, thank you for listening. Good night. Good night. For tonight's story, what's composed and conducted by Fred Steiner, the Kathy and Elliot theme is by Ray Noble, and the program is transcribed and directed by Mr. Lewis. George Walsh speaking. And remember, the world dances to Love Gluffkin's music Friday evenings on the CBS radio network. Thank you.


So, when we talk about jealousy versus envy, the problem is today is people misuse the word jealous today.  They're just jealous. No, actually what they are is they are envious. Because every time jealous is used in the Bible, jealousy is actually a good thing in the Bible. Okay, so jealousy is something that I can be over something that is mine. The definition of jealousy and envy is found in whether or not you own those things or not. Okay, so the Bible says that, I mean, jealousy is a good thing. It's actually one of God's names. In Exodus chapter 34, verse 14, it says, whose name is jealous? Capital J. It's actually one of the names of God.  Why? Because He owns you. That's why. God created you. He created everything. He created this universe. God can be jealous over you. He wants your attention. He wants your worship. He wants your affection. It's okay for God to be jealous over you. It's okay for me to be jealous over things that are mine. Today's my wedding anniversary. It's okay for me to be jealous over my wife. Why? Because she's mine.   So look, it's okay for my wife to be jealous over me. Why? Because I belong to her. We belong to each other. So it's okay to be jealous over things that are yours, okay? That is the key. Now, envy is always a bad thing. Envy is always a bad thing. So when a child comes home from school or somebody's being mean to a child and their parents say, oh, they're just jealous, what they should be saying is, oh, they're just envious. Because envy is a bad thing. Envy, and we're going to look at it in the Bible this morning with King Saul against David. Envy is coveting something that somebody else owns. It's coveting something. It's where somebody else gets something or does something and you, you're upset that they have that thing or you're upset that they did that thing or they had that success or whatever it is and you're angry about that. That's envy. And envy is always a bad thing. Go to Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs chapter 14. Let's talk about envy this morning.  So it's okay for God to be jealous. Jealousy is over, is something that is yours, something that you possess. And that's why God can be jealous. It's actually one of his names. But envy is completely different. Look at Proverbs 14 and verse number 30. The Bible says a sound heart is the life of the flesh, or it's on the front of your bulletin. But envy is the rottenness of the bones. Look, the Bible here is saying that envy will eat you from the inside. It will just, it will just, and it gets worse, it's just like rottenness. It gets worse and worse and worse as time goes on.  It's going to rot you from the inside. And that's exactly what we see.  That's exactly what we see in the life of Saul. That's exactly what we see in the life of Saul. Look at verse number 6 of 1 Samuel chapter 18. See Saul, Saul was king. Saul was king. I mean he was, he had everything in the kingdom. But he had envy that rotted him from the inside. And look, it defied his whole life. Look at verse number 6 of 1 Samuel chapter 18. And it came to pass as they came when David, this is right after David killed Goliath. Okay, the chapter before David had slown, he slew Goliath and he was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine that the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabirates, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000. So it's interesting that they weren't saying, you know, King Saul is like worthless. They weren't saying Saul's done nothing. They're saying, Saul, I mean they're saying Saul is a powerful king, but then they just gave more credit, extra credit.  It was a big deal. Look at verse number 8. And Saul was very wroth, maybe he was angry. And the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed unto David 10,000. And to me they have ascribed but thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day forward.  But he envied David for the attention that David got. Look it was David's attention. It was David's, David is the one that slayed the giant. He just envied the prestige that David had in this moment. I mean he was insecure.  As a leader, you know, as a leader you can't do everything yourself. You know, you must delegate authority to people. So as a leader you delegate authority, maybe as a leader in your family you delegate authority to your children. Hopefully you're doing this in your family. You have your children do chores, you give your children responsibilities to build them as young people, to get them used to working hard, to get them used to having responsibility following through on tasks.  Maybe other people come and see how well the lawn looks or whatever and you just get upset and you're like, oh, why is everyone so happy that they did such a good job? It's ridiculous. But this is what Saul was doing here. He delegated a task to David to kill Goliath and he got upset when he was successful. But right away we see that it's an illogical position to take as a leader. So look, David was having a good day here. He had very much success with killing Goliath. It wasn't David's issue. I mean, anything, anything, anytime something good happens to somebody and you aren't happy for them, you have one of two issues in your life. You don't want anything good to happen to them. Number one, you have a bad heart towards that person or you want the thing they got. That's the covetous part of envy.   When this giant was coming forth and challenging the army, where was Saul? Where was the rest of the army? Where was every single other soldier in the army? Look at 1 Samuel chapter 17 and look at verse number 11. Look, go to verse number 10. Look what Goliath says. Goliath is coming forth, he's challenging the whole army every day and the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all, look at verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and what? And greatly afraid. Saul was afraid of Goliath. He was afraid just like everybody else was afraid and here David came forth, Saul gave him permission to go do that and David with his faith in the Lord, he was up to the task and he killed Goliath. So I mean, Saul was covetous is what Saul was. Saul was covetous over what David had here. He was covetous over the attention David got. So look, I mean, here's the thing, wanting things is not necessarily bad in your life. You know, wanting to better yourself is a good thing in the Bible. Wanting to work hard and better your life is a good thing. However, you know, being upset over somebody else bettering themselves or somebody else having success is bad. I mean, look at Saul, he had praise. He had praise. He slayed his thousands. He had victories over their enemies. He just didn't have the most praise and that was his problem or he wanted to be the only one with praise.  I mean, like someone who's successful but he's only happy if he's the only one successful, think about that. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 20. Saul was so envious of David that he was upset that his own son was friends with David. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse number 27. We see even in 1 Samuel chapter 18, we see that Jonathan right away was very happy for David. He was very happy for his friend. 1 Samuel chapter 20, look at verse number 27. The Bible says, and it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month that David's place was empty and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meet neither yesterday nor today. And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. And he said, let me go, I pray thee, for our family hath a sacrifice in the city. And my brother, he hath committed me to be there. And now I have found favor in thine eyes, let me get away. I pray thee and see my brethren. And therefore he cometh not unto the king's table.   And Jonathan is kind of standing up for David here, look at verse 30. And Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said unto him, thou son of a perverse and rebellious woman. He like literally insults, you know, his mother, you know, Jonathan's mother, do not I know that thou hath chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion and to the confusion of thy mother's nakedness. Just makes a, just a terrible insult towards the mother of Jonathan. And then he says, for as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thine kingdom, wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.  I mean, David's already been anointed king at this point. God has already chosen David to be king. And Jonathan, he didn't care about that. As a matter of fact, in verse number one of 1 Samuel chapter 18, he said, it came to pass when he made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and let him no more go to his father's house, then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And look at verse number four. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and he gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword, his bow, and to his girl. Jonathan gave David all of his royal apparel to the point where he was so happy, and so just happy for his friend, he didn't care about this power struggle that was going to be between him and David. And just left that up to the Lord, whoever's going to be the next king.  Look, Saul is destroying himself through envy, is what we see happening in his life.  He didn't care. He didn't care about any of that power struggle. The thing is here, this is a side note. If you want to have great friends, I mean, Jonathan is a perfect example for you in the Bible. I mean, you say everybody wants great friends. I mean, if you go up to somebody and say, do you want to have great friends in your life? I mean, would anyone say no? Everyone wants great friends. Watch Jonathan's example in the Bible, because look, here's the thing. You have to be a good friend. Everybody wants to have good friends. I want to have stuff. I want to have, you know, success. I want to have friends. I want to have all these things. But look, you got to be a good friend. If you want to have good friends, that's what you're seeing Jonathan do here. He didn't care about any of that stuff, just, just poured it on David. He didn't care about any of it. You want to have good friends? You be a good friend. That's the key. Like, you know what that means? You can't be envious. You can't be envious. Look, because it works both ways. Because it works both ways. You got a friend in your life, something good happens to them. This has happened to you. Every single person in this room, this has happened to you. You got a friend in your life, something good has happened to you, or it happened to them, and you're like, there's something in your heart that's just like, look, that's a problem with your heart. You have envy in your heart. You need to find the root of that and get it out, because look what it did to King Saul. Be supportive. Be supportive and good. Look, you want to have good friends? Be supportive to your friends in good times and bad. I mean, everybody could be going up to a friend and being like, oh, I'm sorry, you're going through hard times and all of this, but look, can you also go up to that friend who's just got a promotion, who just had some really great things happen to them or whatever and be like, you know what, I'm really happy for you and mean it when things aren't going well for you in your life. That's the test right there. That's the Jonathan test in your life. Jonathan was probably like the best example of a friend in the Bible that I could think of, just like didn't have any consideration for himself, for his position, for his success, was just totally for the success of his friends. And look, he even defied his own father when his own father was doing the wrong thing. His own father who was the king, even though he wasn't really the king, he was still the official king to the people at that time. He defied his own father and did the right thing for his friend.  People grow in the Christian life at different rates. People are generally going to just have different even worldly success than other friends of theirs. Different things are going to happen.   I hate to say that, but some people just will. You know it's true.  They're just going to do more. I mean, that's why we talked last week on the Independence Day sermon. It's the pursuit of happiness. It's not the guarantee of happiness. That's what the Declaration of Independence says, it's the pursuit. Today is going to pursue things and have different successes and failures along the way. And if you want to have friends, you need to be supportive to your friends in those failures and their successes, whether you're failing or succeeding at that time. And that's how you can tell if you have envy in your life.  You need to work that out. Let's look into Proverbs chapter 23. Here's another, the Bible tells us another source of envy. Another source of envy. Let's take a look at it in Proverbs chapter 23. So envy is bad. Envy will rot you from the inside out. Envy literally destroyed Saul's life and his family. We'll get to that in a few minutes. But look at Proverbs chapter 23. Let's look at another source of envy, especially for us as Bible-believing Christians. This is a Bible preaching Baptist church. We preach the whole Bible. Whether you like it or not, you're going to hear the whole Bible preached here. We preach separation here. We preach that you know what? The Christian should be peculiar to the world. The Christian should look different than the world. The Christian should sound different than the world. The Christian should be separated from certain things in the world.  That's not what the Bible says. The Christian should have a separated life. But look, if you're separated, here's something that could happen to you. Look at Proverbs 23.17. If you're separated, look, why? Why are we different? Why do people get mad when some of the things are preached here? Because look, the Bible calls out sin. That's why. The Bible calls out sin and you're supposed to separate from that sin in your life.  That's not what we're supposed to be doing according to the Bible. But look, here's what the Bible says could happen to you.  Look at Proverbs 23.17. Let not thine heart envy sinners, but beat out in fear of the Lord all the day long. Now look, this isn't saying that you get saved and you're not a sinner anymore. This is not what this is saying. This is saying when you separate and you start getting sin out of your life, don't be always going looking back over there going, oh, what are they doing over there? That looks fun. It says don't envy those things that you left behind. Get out of the drunkenness. Get out of fornication. Get your life squared away. Get right with God.  That looks fun. Envy that junk you left behind is what the Bible is saying. Look, that's a source of envy for certain people. Look, and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. But this is what will happen if you get saved and then you start trying to put one foot into the Christian life. That's what will happen. You're like, hey, on Sundays I'm going to go to church. And then I'm just going to hang out with the same friends. I'm going to do the same thing. Look, you're going to start to envy sinners.  Turn to Galatians chapter 5. You've got to guard your heart. You turn to Galatians chapter 5. I'll read you Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14.30 says, a sound heart is the life of the flesh. But this is, again, in your bulletin. But envy is the rottenness of the bones. Look, it's not going to work out if you separate partially in your life. And then you're always looking back over the fence.  This is why even Alcoholics Anonymous was like, you know what, you just got to get new friends.  It's why, because it's not going to work. That's why. I mean, it's a biblical concept that one thing in Alcoholics Anonymous, there are 10 steps or whatever their steps are. Galatians chapter 5, look at verse number 16. Every good idea was stolen from the Bible, by the way. If it's a philosophy and it works in your life, they got it from the Bible somewhere. Alright? Look at verse number 16 of Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 verse number 16.  This I say. This I say then. Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the spirit, there's the trick right there. You're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh.  You didn't get saved because you changed your mind about alcohol or some sin or whatever. You didn't get saved because of that. You got saved because you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's why you got saved. At that moment, Ephesians chapter 1 says, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit. At that moment, God put a down payment down on you. He sealed you. That's how He keeps your salvation. You're like, how do I know that once I'm saved, I'm always saved? How do I know? Is it because I'm great? No, you weren't great to get saved. You're not great to stay saved. You're great. You're saved. You're not great.  You're sealed by God. You're sealed by that Holy Spirit, capital S, spirit. Let that spirit lead you is what the Bible is saying here. The Bible says that if you envy sinners and you go back into sin and you go, that you will actually grieve that spirit that's in you. Because look, that spirit's not going to leave you. That down payment is not going to leave you. You'll grieve that spirit. Not only will you be punished by God at that point as an adopted child, but you'll grieve that spirit within you and you all know what I'm talking about if you're saved. You'll grieve that spirit. You're supposed to be led of that spirit. The opposite of that is being led by the flesh. The opposite of that is being led by just like your sinful desires because your sinful self is not going away. Your sinful desires, they're going to be with you until this body dies. But you need to, it's all what you're letting lead you.  You're letting that spirit lead you. You know what? That spirit will be better at leading you if you feed it. How do you feed it? You get involved in this Christian life.  You go home and you're like, okay, all my past friends are all having fun now. I'm going to go home and stare at a wall. I'm going to go home and do nothing. And you're going to be like, this is lame. You know? But look, there's joy in the Christian life. You just need to get plugged into it. You need to get plugged into the Christian life. Let's continue in Galatians 5. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. They're saying, what is the flesh? What are they talking about? Well, he's going to give us a list here. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Look at all these things. These are all the things you need to leave behind. Then look at verse 21, envyings, murders, murders, drunkenness, revelings. What did envy lead to, by the way? What did envy and Saul's life lead to? Let them to murder, attempted murder and actual murder, drunkenness, revelings and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now look, you're supposed to be led of the spirit and not of these things of the flesh. Okay? That's how we're supposed to live this Christian life. But look, here's the thing, folks. It's not like there's no joy in this Christian life. It's not like there's no joy to be had in this Christian life.  One of the things, we were just out fishing the last couple of days, and one of the things I've really enjoyed doing is, first of all, you see the contrast in people.  You walk by this guy at noon, and there he is. You walk by him at like 8 o'clock at night, and he's still right there. I'm like, what in the world? What are you doing? One of the things that I've liked doing, I've started to like more and more, is like at like 5 o'clock in the morning, 5.30 in the morning, you see all the like, just like the hardcore fishermen coming out, getting everything ready to go out. And like, these guys aren't, I can tell you one thing, I don't know these guys personally, we just chat in the mornings, but I know that these guys aren't reveling all night long. They're out there, and they're like working on their machines.   But they're going out, and they're involved in a sport that is serious. It could be dangerous.  But they've got a lot of joy in their life. I mean, it's not that there's no joy in the Christian life. The Christian life has actually got more joy than all that. There's actually no joy there. There's death there. There's sadness there. There's destruction there. We've talked about that. Look at Galatians chapter 5, look down to verse 22. It's interesting that Saul, with his envying and his rottenness, it just led to murder and all sorts of other sins that we see in Galatians 5, these things of the flesh. Because he let envying lead him, he let his flesh lead him. That's the difference here.  It literally drove him to the point where God was judging him with just this troubling spirit.   Look at Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit, here's what we need to be led by. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there's no law. It's like, hey, just fill yourself with those things. It's like there's no limit to those things in your life. And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So say, look, if you live in the spirit, look, if you're saved, you live in the spirit. If you're saved today, you are sealed in the spirit, you have the spirit with you. So you should walk in that spirit. Let it lead you. Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another. Again, what does it say here? Enveying one another. So look, envy is something that if we have it in our lives, we need to figure out what is wrong with our heart, why we are envying our friends, envying people, envying anybody, and we need to take care of it and get rid of it. So for us, look, we saw it, we saw it destroyed his life, it destroyed his family. But here, you're saying, well, how do I do it? Okay, how can I tell? I'm gonna give you three points to conclude this morning on how you can tell and get rid of envy in your life. The first thing is this. The first thing is this. The first problem that you might have if you have envy in your heart, you're like, yeah, I do have some envy in certain situations in my life, with certain people in my life. It's one of these three things. Okay, the first one is this. You love stuff. You love credit. You love attention.   Look, but here's the thing, folks, work hard. You know, work hard and those things will come to you if you deserve them, okay? When you deserve those things, turn to Luke chapter 14. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Look, you will get those things when God thinks that you are ready for those things or believes that you deserve those things. You're not to love those things. Okay, look at verse number eight of Luke chapter 14. Verse number eight of Luke chapter 14. The Bible says, when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit down not in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. So it's saying when you go to a wedding, it's saying when you go to an event or whatever, don't go sit in the best chair right away. It says, and he that bade them, come and say to thee, give this man place and now begin with shame to take the lowest room. It's like, don't go sit in the best chairs of a wedding because then someone's gonna come and say, yeah, that's for someone more important than you. That's gonna be embarrassing when that happens. All right, don't be like, hey, honey, the front row, it's open and you take it and everyone's like, yeah, this is for the bridal party, like, who are you? That's embarrassing.  Look at verse number 11 or verse number 10, for when thou are bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend go up higher and thou shall have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. And the Bible here is saying, go sit in the lowest chair. You're like, but I'm super important.  Here's the thing, if you are super important, go sit in the lowest chair and then someone will move you to the front chair. That's what the Bible is saying here. That's what Jesus is saying. He's trying to get you to understand. He's trying to get you to not love attention. He's trying to get you to not exalt yourself because guess what? Just forget about exalting yourself. When you're at work and you do something great, maybe you had a great idea at work. Maybe you did a really good job on something and you just want everyone to see.  Let the work speak for itself. You're like, I just went to this job and the boss left me alone here and I just killed this thing. I mean, look at the craftsmanship of this. It'll speak for itself. That's what the Bible is saying.  They're gonna be like, yeah, you know what? It's not that great. Then that's embarrassing. All right, so look, don't love credit, attention, stuff. You shouldn't be covetous over stuff. Anyway, stuff comes and stuff goes. All right, but what's the other part? So don't love those things. Don't seek attention for yourself. If you deserve attention, folks, the Lord will make sure that you get it. Look at Daniel. Look at Daniel. Daniel rose to the top of two empires and he did nothing in his life except give credit to God with everything. Everyone's like, he's interpreting dreams. He's like in prophesying end times. Everyone's like, this is the greatest thing. It's the Lord. It's God. Because I serve God just constantly. Just it's nothing but God. And he rose to the top of two kingdoms. He was second in charge. I mean, can you imagine how difficult that is to your second in command of an empire? And then some other empire comes and conquers that empire and they're like, we're keeping this guy.  And he did nothing to try to bring attention to himself. Daniel was all about just credit to the Lord, credit to the Lord, credit to the Lord. You do something great at work. You have a great idea. You know what? Praise God for giving me that idea. That needs to be your attitude. Tell that to your boss. Hey, great idea, man. The Lord gave me this idea. See what he says. He won't care. He's like, hey man, whatever. It's still great. And he's gonna think you're great for being humble. That should be the Christian today. That should be the Bible believing Christian today. We should stand out because of this. Just another reason we should stand out. So the first thing is that you love things. You love attention. You love stuff. You love credit. Stop doing that.  Start at that baseline.  You don't deserve anything.  That's just because God gave that to you. That's it. That's the only reason you have those things. Just remember, remind yourself that every day if you have to. Here's the second reason that you could be envious in your life. You love bad stuff. That's what Proverbs 14 is, or that's what Proverbs 17 is talking about. You love Proverbs 23. Sorry, that's what you either love stuff or maybe you just love bad stuff. Maybe you just love the things, like you left some things, you just love those things still. You need to start walking in the spirit. You need to get plugged into the spirit, plugged into the Christian life, and guess what? You will stop loving those things.    I'm not talking about salvation here, but I'm talking about changing your life. I'm talking about walking this way and not this way. Well, that's gonna be some actual decisions in your life that need to be made. And then you'll stop loving those things. The Bible says that the more you get into the Bible, the more you learn the Bible, the more you hear the Bible, the more you will despise those things. The more that sin, sin will become exceedingly sinful to you. I'm telling you, you get plugged into this Christian life, you start walking in the spirit, you're gonna start looking at the world and you're gonna start going, this is crazy. You're gonna start seeing the things that we read in the news every day and all the perversion out there. You're gonna be like, this is nuts. It's because you're in the spirit, that's why. That's why nobody, you see like, why does not anyone notice what's going on? Does not anyone notice all these things that are going on today? It's because they're not in the spirit. That's why. They're just in the flesh. So they're gonna go along with everything that changes and that's how that's gonna go. Get in the spirit and you'll stop loving bad stuff. Here's the third one. Turn to Romans chapter 12. Turn to Romans chapter 12. You say, yeah, but there's this one person. There's this one person and I just don't want anything good to happen to this person.  But here's the thing, folks. Look at Romans chapter 12. Maybe there is, maybe, and the third reason is this. Maybe you just don't like someone. Maybe you're not covetous. Maybe you don't even love sinful things but maybe there's somebody in your life and maybe this is just a really bad person. Maybe they've really wronged you like for real. Like they've really wronged you and then like they just keep having success in their life and you're just like, ugh, they're so bad. Why do successful things keep happening to them? First of all, the unsaved folks, I mean I have pretty sermons on this as well but the unsaved people, they're not gonna be, you know, the good things may happen to bad people.   God chastises his children on this earth. God will chastise us on this earth like a parent chastises their children but look at Romans chapter 12 and verse 19. Yeah, but this really bad person, I just don't like seeing good things happen to them. Here's all you have to do. You just have to have faith. You just have to have faith that God's word is true. Look at verse number 19 of Romans chapter 12. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place under wrath for it is written, what place? Vengeance is mine, I will repay, say it to the Lord. Look, you don't have to carry that around with you.  You don't have to be watching everything. I mean you can completely put that out of your head because you can have faith that God will take care of that. Because God said, vengeance is mine. It belongs to him.  I forgot to properly judge that situation. No, God will take care of all of it. That's just a matter of faith. Look, that's not for us. That's not for us. You can just take that load of bricks off yourself and just put it on the Lord. That's it. And that's how you can not be an envious person.  God will take care of that situation. That is just a matter of faith. That's all it is. Do you believe that God will make things right or not? It's very simple, okay? So look, turn to Proverbs, chapter 17. I wanna give you one last point, one last warning about envy in your life. So those are the three things, okay? Those are the three things.   These are all sources of envy. Or maybe you just don't like someone. You just don't like someone. But look, you can take that and just put it on the Lord, God says. Let me just give you one last point. And especially for the men, especially for the leaders of households, we really need to take this lesson from Saul's life. Look, it's better in our lives to learn, look, I've learned from my own mistakes. Hopefully, the worst kind of person is the person that makes their own mistakes, doesn't learn from them and keeps making mistakes. That's the worst type of person. The second worst is someone that needs to make their own mistakes. They may be learned from their mistakes, but they just, no, I gotta, everyone's like, there's a hole right there. Don't step there. You're like, I don't think so. I don't think so. You're like, no, it's like 20 feet deep. Don't step in there. And you're like, no, I must do it. And you step in the hole. Okay, there's people like that as well. Look, I've done that. You've done that. Like, at least learn from those mistakes, but here's the best way to learn. The best way to learn is through the mistakes of other people. That's the best way to learn. That's the best way, and that's why God puts all these things in the Bible for us, all these examples of people in the Bible, both good and bad in the Bible, because we can look at Saul's life and say, man, I don't wanna do that. But look at Proverbs chapter 17 and look at verse number three. Here's the last point I wanna make. The Bible says this. Say you're envious towards somebody because you're covetous towards them. You want the attention. Say that you have a little bit of Saul in you and there's a David in your life and you're upset over it. Look at Proverbs 17, verse three. This is a very serious verse right here for you. Whoso rewardeth evil for good? Look what it says. It says, evil shall not depart from his house. If I could come up with one verse to describe Saul's life, it would be that one right there. David was nothing but good to Saul even when Saul was trying to kill him. He's like, no, I will not. David felt bad for even cutting the robe that Saul wore because he laid his hand on God's anointed. Look, Saul rewarded good with evil and because of that, evil did not depart from his house. When we say evil, by the way, in the King James Bible, because look, the evil spirit on Saul came from the Lord. This is the Lord evil. Evil means trouble. Evil in that sense is talking about trouble in the Bible. Look, it says, let me King James translate this for you. Whoso rewarded evil for good? Trouble shall not depart from his house. That's how you could read that. That's what that evil means there. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 18. 1 Samuel chapter 18 in verse number 10. I mean, think about how terrible that is. If you're envious of somebody just because you're covetous over something that they have, the Bible says, God says, that you're gonna have trouble for that. Your house is gonna have trouble for that. In verse number 10, and it came to pass on the moral that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul. This was that troubling spirit that we're not talking about a demon here.  And it ruled his life. Does that sound like it matches the front of your bulletin where it says the rottenness of the bones? Rottenness is something that if you don't get it out, it's just gonna grow and get worse and worse and worse. This is what happened to Saul. And guess what? Evil never departed from his house. This is how important it is, men, leaders of your family to get things right. You say why? Because our house comes with us.   I mean, that's why in Acts 16, 31, it says, believe all the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.  You will be able to preach the gospel that you're out soul-winning and you get somebody saved. You should say, is there anybody else in your house you'd like to hear the gospel? Say that. And many times, people will say, especially if they got it, they'll be like, you know what? Because everybody wants their kids to go to heaven. Another question that nobody will say, you know, hey, do you want your kids to go to heaven? No one will say, no, I don't. Everybody wants their kids to go to heaven. And if they understand what they've just been given, they will want their house to have it too. That's what the Bible's saying. So good, the good comes with your house, men. But guess what? The bad comes with your house too. You can lead your family in the wrong direction. That's what the Bible is saying here. And you know, you can bring trouble upon them. Turn back to 1 Samuel chapter 31. This also came true for Saul. This also came true for Saul. Let's look at the ending of this story since we're studying Saul. This came true for him. The trouble that he had in his life, that the trouble that Envy came in, it rotted him from the inside. It didn't just cause him trouble. It caused his entire family trouble. Look at verse number one of 1 Samuel chapter 31. The Bible says, now the Philistines fought against Israel. And the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons. He's being attacked by this army now. And the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him and he was soar wounded of the archers, of course, right after this. He kills himself. But look, you say this isn't fair. Jonathan didn't do anything wrong. Yeah, but we disobey God's warnings and we will bring trouble on our house.  But look, you say that's not fair. Look, that's leadership. That's leadership, folks. That is the leadership that God has ordained in the Bible for the family. Otherwise, look, if God didn't think leadership was important, he'd just be like, he would have just been like, everybody's in charge. Who's in charge of the family? Everybody. But anybody who's been in any kind of leadership position, leadership, seeing leadership work, seeing it not work correctly, knows that, you know what, that would make no sense because if everybody's in charge, nobody's in charge. So God put someone in charge. And there are consequences to that. Good ones and bad ones. So us, you know, us as people, as, especially as leaders of our homes, maybe you're in a leadership position somewhere else in your life, you know, we look at these things and we're like, oh, I want all the good, but I don't want any of the bad. Is that right? That's not right. You take the good with the bad and God warns you against the bad. You can affect those around you in both a good or a bad way. I mean, this is the pomegranates and the bells, the blessings and the curses. All I want is pomegranates in my life. I don't want any bells. Well, listen to the Bible because that's not how it works. All right, so look, just to wrap up. Envy is always bad. Envy is always bad.  No, like speak with proper English and say you're just envious because jealousy is a good thing. Jealousy is, you know, recognizing that something belongs to you and that someone is trying to take what belongs to you. So, you know, next time you see that, correct people. Saul and Jonathan and David, this story, it should serve as a warning to us to not be envious in our lives at all. So if you have good friendships in your life and I pray to God that you do have good friendships and you have something and you're just, here's the biggest test. You're just the lowest you can be and you have a friend that's in a really high place. You should be Jonathan.  If you have something that says, oh, why is that happening to them? You got some heart problems you need to work on. You need to get that envy out of your life before it rots you. That's what we take from the story of Saul, Jonathan and David. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.