Sermon Tone Analysis

Prescription for Healing

 

September 3, 2006

 

/./ *1 Corinthians 13:5**; **John 21:15-22*

* *

 

It may have been King David’s lowest moment.

His son Absalom was leading a revolution against him.

Absalom was a charmer and had convinced many that David was too old and ineffective to lead.

When Absalom stormed the city with his troops, David and his army left Jerusalem and left the palace vacant.

David decided he would rather be humiliated in retreat than to be involved in a bloody civil war against his own son.

What a horrendous moment this must have been for Israel’s most celebrated king.

On the way out of Jerusalem, David must have thought, /It can’t get any worse than this/.

But it did.

A commoner by the name of Shimei taunted David as he fled the city.

Shimei stood on a hillside throwing clods of dirt and stones at the king and cursing him saying, “God is finally getting even with you for what you did to King Saul, you bloody traitor!”

One of David’s men snarled, “Let me go up and run that impudent coward through with a sword.”

David’s response was incredible.

He said, “No.

Don’t kill him.

Let him go.

Maybe I’m just getting what I deserve.”

If that were the end of the story, we would hail David as a great man—how magnanimous to forgive such an offense.

Well, David was a great man, but that’s not the end of the story.

The memory of that offense festered in David’s mind for years.

On his deathbed, about a decade later (see 1 Kings 2:8), David speaks his final words to his son, Solomon:

/“Remember you have with you Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim.

When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’

But now, do not consider him innocent.

You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him.

Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”/

Those were David’s final words.

*I.

The Problem of Resentment*

That story introduces us to the problem of resentment.

First Corinthians 13:5 says, /“Love does not keep a record of wrongs.”/

That is an accounting term.

It’s the term for entering an item into a ledger so that it will not be forgotten.

Paul is saying love does not keep a ledger of offenses.

Love does not build up indebtedness.

Love doesn’t harbor a grudge.

That’s exactly what many people do.

They nurse their wrath to keep it warm.

They brood over their wrongs until it’s impossible to forget them.

Like David leaving Jerusalem, most of us have had a Shimei, hurling insults and wounding us from the sidelines.

Some of you can remember childish insults said on the playground.

Maybe you were a good scholar, but you’ll never forget how the athletes made fun of your lack of athletic ability.

Or maybe you have a good personality, but you’ll never forget somebody making fun of your physical appearance.

It’s amazing how we can recall almost verbatim some things that were said to us as children.

They’re like video tapes replaying in our minds.

 Some of you were hurt by teachers or coaches or counselors in school years ago, and you have never forgotten.

Listen to this story from an unknown source: During my freshman year of Bible college, I worked on the maintenance crew at the school for 70 cents an hour.

I got released from that job because I took time off to play on the basketball team.

The supervisor said to me, “Bob, I’ve observed that young men who don’t do well on this crew usually don’t do very well in the ministry either.”

That was 30 years ago, but I remember him saying that.

Not that I hold a grudge against that judgmental old codger!

He couldn’t tell a preacher from a pagan to begin with!

We remember those things.

Hurts from the past can stay in our minds forever.

Instead of letting the wound gradually heal, leaving a slight scar, resentment keeps picking the scab and putting the video tape back in to watch it again.

We keep a record of the wrong, and we keep underscoring it in the ledger.

Some of you encountered a Shimei in your own home.

Maybe you were wounded by an alcoholic father who terrified you or by an inconsistent mother.

There are husbands and wives who live under the same roof but barely speak because resentment has built up over the years.

Maybe you were cheated out of money or a position at work.

It’s easy to let resentment toward the offender build over a period of time.

Resentment destroys relationships.

Some of you are so bitter over the Shimei in your life you won’t speak to him or have anything to do with him even though he is a close relative or you see him frequently.

You’re going to take your pride or your alienation to the grave with you.

It alienates you sometimes from close friends.

If you’ve ever had a relative go through a divorce, you know the tendency to divide into camps.

In order to be a friend to somebody, you must be an enemy of their enemies.

 Resentment alienates you from people because it destroys your personality.

I don’t know many great things that Buddha said, but he did say one thing that was good.

He said that holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal in our hands with the intention of throwing it at someone.

But we’re the ones who get burned.

Resentment is emotional suicide.

It’s self-inflicting because it destroys the personality.

Maybe you withdraw into a shell and become very protective, planning never to allow yourself to get close to somebody again because it hurts.

You’re the loser.

You become vengeful, joyless, negative, and bitter.

Proverbs 17:22 says/, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”/

There are minority groups, some militant feminist organizations, and some bitterly handicapped people who have become resentful and angry.

Although they have legitimate hurts, they are so bitter in expressing and vocalizing, people don’t listen.

Prejudice is a terrible sin—but so is resentment.

 Martin Luther once was so depressed over a prolonged period that one day his wife came downstairs wearing all black.

Martin Luther said, “Who died?”

She said, “God has.”

He said, “God hasn’t died.”

And she said, “Well, live like it and act like it.”

In /The Living Bible/, Job 5:2 reads, “To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.”

 

*Today we’re going to look at the biblical prototype of forgiveness*

Let’s  reading today’s Scripture from John chapter 21 beginning with verse 15 and continuing on through verse 22.

If you don’t have your Bible with you, there are Bibles available on the side table.

So, John 21, verses 15 – 22: /“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"

He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."

He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

\\ He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you."

He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

\\ He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."

Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

\\ Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." \\ (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)