Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning Bent Tree Church, I am Pastor Mike Walter the Campus Pastor at Bent Tree Church On Campus in Greeley, and I am thankful for the opportunity to bring the message this morning at both pf our Bent Tree locations.

For those of you that are giving above and beyond your tithe to Push Against the Gate I want to personally thank you for the opportunity to do ministry in Greeley.

We have had a great summer of adventure camps and meeting new families.

We will have our first baptisms soon and we are looking forward to celebrating these new believers soon.

We are going to continue our study on - today we will look at part of verse 5.

“Love does not keep a record of wrongs.

(CSB)”

1 Corinthians 13:4-5

For the past few weeks, Pastor Paul has talked about what love is and is not -Love is patient, Love is kind, BUT Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

For the past few weeks, Pastor Paul has talked about what love is and is not -Love is patient, Love is kind, BUT Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

Today we are going to look at keeping a record of wrongs.

Let’s Pray

Big Question #1

Have you felt like you have been wronged because of the success or position of another person?

Turn in your Bibles to

We are going to look at

Sometimes we will keep a record of wrongs and it’s like a score card - all the things someone has done to hurt or harm us, maybe even make us mad.

Look at Joseph’s brothers -

Joseph was loved and favored by his father - so his brothers hated him.

Joseph had a dream and shares it with his brothers - they don’t like the meaning of the dream so they hated him.

Joseph had a second dream and shares it with his brothers and his father.

This time they are jealous of Joseph because of the dream.

When we keep a record of wrongs our anger and frustration can boil over.

Think about this - Joseph had no control about him being the favored son.

Joseph had no control over having dreams.

And yet, with each thing Joseph’s brothers got madder and madder to the point that they conspired to kill him or sell him into slavery.

This is the danger when we keep score of other people’s wrong doings, especially if they are out of their control.

1 John 3:15

This is the danger when we keep score of other people’s wrong doings, especially if they are out of their control.

When a boss shows favoritism to a co-worker -

When a parent shows favoritism towards a sibling -

Jealousy

Keeping a record of wrongs can lead to jealousy.

The danger is we can become jealous, we can become angry, some things are out of our control but how we respond is what is important.

Do we respond out of love, or do we keep a record of how we are angry at someone else.

Check out what Proverbs has to say about Jealousy.

Proverbs 14:30

Proverbs

Hate

When it comes to jealousy - each of us need to check out hearts.

famously says this:

Psalm 139:23-24

Searching my heart for jealousy God revealed to me jealousy in my own heart.

My brother-in-law is very successful.

He serves in the United States Air Force and flies F-16’s.

He has a beautiful home in Las Vegas where he is stationed.

He has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.

And until recently, he had a beautiful Jeep Wrangler - lifted, big tires, lockers, lights, everything that you would want on a beautiful trail crawler.

And now jealousy creeps in my heart.

I also have given my life to service, not military service, but service to the Lord.

I too have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.

I too have a beautiful home.

I also have a Jeep Wrangler.

But in my heart, I don’t see my home as beautiful as his.

I don’t see my Jeep as desirable as his.

Jealousy creeps in.

We have similar lives, similar things but rather than being happy for my brother-in-law, I am jealous of things he has acquired.

Rather than being happy for my brother-in-law, I am jealous of things he has acquired.

Search your hearts this week - see if there is any jealousy in your heart.

Joseph’s brother’s allowed jealousy to turn to hate.

Hate

Keeping a record of wrongs can lead to hate.

Keeping a record of wrongs can lead to hate.

Big Question #1

Have you felt like you have been wronged because of the success or position of another person?

Big Question #2

Have you ever experienced a wrong done to you or a family member?

For help with this questions we are going to look at a parable that Jesus told the disciples.

:

Luke 15:11-32

The older brother felt wronged.

Wronged that his father killed the fatten calf for his brother who wasted away his father’s wealth.

The older brother may have even felt that his brother had wronged his father by wishing him dead, and taking his inheritance early and wasting away the wealth.

The older brother had kept a record of the wrongs of his brother.

Luke 15:28

Keeping a record of wrong leads to anger.

Let’s look at what Proverbs has to say about anger.

Proverbs 14:16

Proverbs

Luke 15:29

Luke 15:29

Don’t be a fool - don’t allow yourself to be easily angered.

When we feel wronged - it’s easy to be angry.

As I search my heart for anger - I realized that I was still angry from being wronged in 2007 - over 10 years ago!

I was working for an internet company and part of my job included running background checks on potential clients.

Because we were sending contractors into people’s homes we needed to make sure that we were sending in good people.

Contractors without criminal backgrounds.

One of my co-workers - was featured in the news.

My co-worker was buying drugs and his drug dealer was giving drugs to his own children.

So my co-worker turned him into the police.

Now here is where it gets bizarre.

The news article confirmed that my co-worker was buying drugs.

So when I shared the article with our human resource department, what was said to our vice president was not that I showed them the news article, but that I was wrongfully running background checks on our own employees.

Which was an absolute false accusation.

Thankfully, my Vice President said, “Mike, I am going to give you one opportunity to tell me the truth, were you running background checks on our employees like Human Resources has accused you of.”

I responded, “Absolutely not, I have the news article that I took to the HR Department.”

So our HR lady blatantly lied about me.

I’ll tell you, being wronged, I am still angry.

Even talking about this I can feel my blood pressure rise, I can feel my anger reaching a boiling point.

I would even go so far as to say that I have hatred in my heart for this HR Lady.