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Hannah Brown: Envy or Kindness (1 Peter 2:1, Colossians 3:9-14, Isaiah 43:1-4)
Hannah Brown, preaching resident at First Baptist Church in Temple and student at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, examined the root desire of honor and worthiness, and our struggle with envy. She defined envy as an internal focus based on what one has or doesn’t have. Envy measures worth and honor by how one ranks against others.
Brown listed symptoms of envy that most people can identify with at some point. She was vulnerable about her own struggle with envy through comparing herself to her fellow seminarians. Quoting from the movie Cool Runnings, Brown noted envy doesn’t want us to know “if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”
The antidote to envy is to reject the lie and to embrace the truth. The truth is God knows everything about us and already loves us. Our root desire for honor and worthiness is already fulfilled in God. This should change our outlook, our pursuits and our behavior. Brown concluded with a list of practical ways to practice kindness to combat envy.
This sermon was delivered March 10, 2022, for the morning worship services at First Baptist Church in Temple. It is part of a series titled “Vice & Virtue.”
A sermon manuscript is available here.
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