MK040 Sermons
Anger (Audio)
It often comes out of nowhere and surprises me, I usually don't have any warning and there it is again. Sometimes other people around me will see it before I see it. Some people think that it's a condition that's related to the color of my hair and a nationality that I don't really bear any resemblance to being the Irish. I'm not talking about my son hiding behind the door and trying to scare me every time I walk around the corner or what I feel when I watch an episode of Criminal Minds and then walk into a dark room, but anybody know what emotion I'm talking about. I think I heard it say it out louder. Anger, anger, anger. Anger is one of those emotions that for me personally has been a great challenge throughout my life. As a kid, I wasn't very angry. I wasn't angry much at all. I do remember one incident when I was a kid. I think I was about 15 or 16. My mom cut my hair and she did kind of one of those bowl cut things. That's basically what I got and at 16 I kind of cared what my hair looked like and it was not looking too good and I just took a brush and fired it in the mirror, the bathroom and shattered the thing. That was my anger experience when I was a kid but I kind of prided myself on not being an angry person. I grew up around angry people and what I didn't realize until much later in life is I had established a rule of life for myself and that rule was if I don't paint people angry with me then they will want to have a relationship with me. It wasn't until years, a few years ago that I came to discover that that's not really God's view of me and God's view of anger. I realized that since my childhood I had shut the door, really deadbolted the door shut on my emotions that kept me from feeling anger. Not only did I not feel anger about bad things but I also didn't feel anger about things that I should care about that God talked about. It was only through that journey of beginning to open that door and walk back into those things and unlock the door to those emotions and I also discovered the door to joy and to excitement and to delight and to laughter but also the entrance in the anger. What I learned about anger is often anger shows up unannounced. It doesn't give you much of a warning that it's going to be there and then it is there. When anger shows up sometimes that anger can be used in positive ways to bring about change but most often that anger results in something happen that makes a mess that we don't have any control over and we realize there's consequences as a result of that. Now to help you remember it, to help you have a visual picture that I need two guys that would be volunteers to help me with something this morning so can I get two guys to come up front here and help me volunteers? I need two volunteers so I get two volunteers and I need two guys come on guys I got a gift for you. All right Stan is going to come up, who else is going to come up, Bill is going to come up. All right come on up here guys have a seat up here and what I wanted to do is I wanted to have a way to illustrate for you. Stan this is Bill, Bill does Stan if you guys don't know one another. I wanted to have a way to illustrate for you what happens with anger and what takes place when anger occurs so you guys are probably going to each need one of these so you might want to hold one of those in your lap so I thought of a way to illustrate this is to give them a dozen eggs so there's a dozen eggs here guys and now half of these eggs are hard boiled and half are not and so you don't really know which ones are which ones not fortunately Stan it will be easier to clean up than Bill here but what I need you to do you can decide who wants to go first who's who's going to go first. All right all right Stan is going to go first all right Stan is going to pick an egg and he's going to take that egg and he's going to crack that egg on his head and we're going to see what he gets here so give it a shot Stan there you go let me put the garbage can up here and then get out of the way so all right so all right go ahead let's see Stan what he got hard boiled there throw that one in the garbage so no mess there hard boiled egg go ahead Bill your turn let's see what we got here another hard boiled okay well you know what the odds are guys not getting any better here so all right Stan your turn give it a shot let's see oh there we go we got a messy one there that went flying everywhere so got a little bit of a mess there so he can kind of clean up all right one nothing Stan all right Bill what do we got here oh man Bill's on a roll he's got nothing there all right Stan here we go here's another one up another cracked one so two to nothing stands leading here come on Bill you got to catch up oh man look at that that means these eyes are really not looking good here guys all right down to the front of the thing there two to nothing on Stan another hard boiled oh man guys what do we got left here come on Bill give us a crun give us one oh Bill got one but that didn't make much of a mess all right Stan two to one and only four eggs left all right that's a messy one what do we got Bill three to one Bill finally got a messy one not much of a mess all right so one more Stan to win the to win the contest here so oh you know how to break them all right hard boiled no all right all right one more there so thanks guys let's give these guys a hand there you go stand for your efforts so now these guys had no idea when they cracked those eggs whether it was going to make a mess or not and Stan kind of learned from the first time you don't crack it too hard because it'll go all over the floor and kind of spill it over everywhere and Stan's a very good sport because he's going to a high school concert right after this so thank you Stan for being such a good sport in spite of having that happen so but I wanted to give you a visual picture of yes wife's cleaning them up a little bit more there so thank you Kristen so you know I wanted to give you a visual picture that you would remember of what happens when anger takes place what happens when anger takes place is it makes a mess you don't know when it's coming and you can't control what happens when the anger comes out and the point is that neither one of these guys really knew what was going to take place but it's something that they probably won't remember and they won't volunteer and for anything when they come to church anymore in the future you know but this morning we want to talk about this subject and we want to talk about it and I want to challenge you with this phrase it's going to come up on the screen and it's this resolve conflict or it will surprise you and make a mess out of your life resolve conflict or it will surprise you and make a mess out of your life and this morning we're going to dive into a series of subjects that Jesus talks about that are difficult to discuss they're difficult for me to present to you because I simply want to tell you if you do what God says is what your life will be and I don't want to talk it's hard it's not something I enjoy talking about very difficult things but these are tough subjects that we're going to walk into over the next few weeks they're tough not only on the presenting side to do it with truth and compassion but they're tough on the receiving side for you to be willing to look in the mirror on these issues and not think about someone you wish was sitting here to hear what I'm going to say this morning if you haven't been here with us we're in a series of studies on the Sermon on the Mount entitled sitting at the feet of Jesus and we're looking at this message that Jesus presented to a group of people that were literally sitting there at his feet he was up on a hillside and I'm very much like the picture that's on the screen and he begins this message by saying to them repent for the kingdom of heaven is near repent for the kingdom of heaven is near they didn't really understand it because they were good Jewish people why do they have to repent we're good Jewish people we do all the things that we're supposed to do but Jesus was presenting some truth about his kingdom that was radically different than what they know they said the kingdom of heaven is near because the king Jesus was here on the earth it wasn't here because they were still living in a broken world but it was getting closer it was getting closer and we began that journey a few weeks ago looking at eight different groups of people who somewhat we expected but more often than not we're surprised by people that were on the outside on the fringe that were a little bit surprised that Jesus invites them in but there's something about their heart being open to the truth about God and there's something about them being willing to receive what God has to offer that makes them candidates to be part of the kingdom of heaven and then when their lives are radically changed we looked at the fact that these individuals would be salt and light that they would be salt and that they would influence the world around them that they would be light and that they wouldn't be hidden but they would be visible so others could see and then last week we talked about Jesus being the final piece of the puzzle we talked about how a puzzle sometimes when it's first started to be formed you can't figure out what the puzzle is unless you sneak the peak at the box but you can't figure out what the puzzle is but as the pieces start to go into that puzzle all of a sudden you realize oh that's what it's supposed to be a picture of and when Jesus showed up on the scene for the Jewish people is like oh that's what all that stuff in the Old Testament was about because if you are a good Jewish person and you just tried to keep the Old Testament law it would just frustrate you because you couldn't do it you couldn't do it and Jesus came to say I've not come to wipe out that but I've come to complete it and talk to you about what a relationship with me is really about and so this morning if you have your Bibles if you want to take and turn to Matthew chapter 5 that's where we're going to be this morning Matthew chapter 5 if you don't have a Bible our guys have someone they'll pass them out and we're going to start this morning by looking at the first of six scenarios that Jesus gives to us six scenarios and these scenarios are not based on truth from God's word they're based on what's called oral tradition you say what's oral tradition well oral tradition is not necessarily the law but these are interpretations of the law that people have passed down for decades so let me give you an example how many of you have said or heard it said you won't get pulled over by the police officer if you're only doing about five to seven miles over the speed of them and how many of you heard or said that okay almost all of us that are drivers in this room right is that the law no the law is what that sign right there you know whatever that number is that's the law but the tradition that we've passed down is our interpretation of the law and so this morning that's what we're going to look at what Jesus says Jesus doesn't say it is written because when he says it is written he's speaking about God's truth when he says you have been told he's speaking about oral tradition and so we're going to look at the oral traditions that have been passed down from the Jewish leaders to the people this morning if you're there in your bibles um if you have one of the bibles the guy's passed out is page 959 or Matthew chapter 5 and that's where we're going to get started this morning before we before we go through it let me just read the whole thing for you and then we'll walk our way through it says in verse 21 it says you've heard that it was said to people long ago you should not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment but i tell you that anyone who is angry with the brother or sister will be subject to judgment anyone who says to a brother or sister raka is answer to the court and anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell therefore if you are offering your guilt to the altar and they'll remember your brother or sister as something against you leave your gift in front of the altar first go and be reconciled to them then come and offer your gift settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court do it while you are still together on the way or your adversary may hand you to the judge and the judge may hand you to the officer and you may be thrown into prison truly i tell you you will not get out until you have paid the last penny and what we're going to do is we're going to walk down through this story that jesus presents and we're going to look at what he has to say about this he kind of begins there in verse 21 about this you have heard it said what is jesus talking about is he just taking the truth that god has given it and erasing it or modifying it or clarifying what is he doing well the best way i can describe it is i think he's deepening it and i think he's helping them to understand the substance underneath of it it's kind of like when a parent says to a child i need you to do this and the child says well why do i need to do that now and the parent then explains to them because they know it in their mind well i need you to do this now because this is going to happen next and then this is going to happen and this is something we all want to do as a family and i need you to do this now and the the child says oh okay now i get it now i get it so this morning i think that's a little bit of what jesus is going to do he's going to explain why these things are true he's going to explain what's underneath of it what's behind it what contributes to it and he starts off by saying you've heard it said don't murder no is not murdering something that comes from god's word what do you think yes yeah where does it come from 10 commandments 10 commandments anybody know which commandment it is he was here first service that doesn't count so six all right number six it's number six the first four commandments that jesus gave their god gave to us are all related to our relationship with god and anybody remember what the greatest commandment jesus said the most important thing you should do you should love who you can learn your god with all your heart soul mind and strength jesus is simply echoing simplifying completing those commandments then the second six commandments are our relationship with one another and the second greatest commandment that jesus said was you should love your what your neighbor as yourself that's what he said and so he's saying something that is true and he says that you're subject to judgment um and that comes from genesis nine verse six where shortly after the flood god said this it's going to come up on the screen whoever sheds the blood of a man by man shall his blood be shed for the image of god god has made image of god has god made man he says that if you take someone else's life your life will be taken now when he says do not murder he's not talking about the killing of animals as some of you are sitting in the woods in the cold early morning trying to accomplish these days he's not talking about that um he's not talking about someone who has committed a capital offense of taking someone else's life and they are subject to lose their life that's not what he's talking about um he's not talking about um as well those who would take the life of an enemy in the context of war he's talking about a premeditated deliberate action and he said someone who murders is going to take the life of another person and so jesus initially just starts by saying what they know this true they've heard this they know this they're like well yeah we're we're good with that haven't murdered anybody recently haven't even thought about murdered everybody recently so we're good so what's the point jesus well then he continues in verse 22 and he says this but i tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment and he goes on to explain how this anger shows up so jesus immediately took the point of murder and all he goes way back to the issue of anger let me ask you this question anybody think that anger leads to murder anybody think that's a possibility that anger leads to murder i don't know if you heard about this story but in jacksonville florida man was just recently convicted of a first-degree murder for fatally shooting a teenager in argument over loud music outside of a convenience store 47-year-old michael done i was convicted of first-degree murder at a second trial in september for firing into an suv 10 times on november 2012 killing 17-year-old jordan davis done testify that he claimed he was acting in self-defense he had heard the music it was bothersome to him and he saw a window roll down and thought he saw a flash come out the window and he proceeded to fire 10 rounds into the suv at the hearing he apologized to his parents but the prosecutors portrayed done as a cold-blooded killer because he never called 911 after firing the right into the suv afterwards he went back home to his hotel made a drink ordered pizza walked his dog and went to sleep he testified that the problem started when he and his fiancé heard a loud-based thumping from an suv part next to him at the department convenience store to buy a bottle wine he had just come from his son's wedding um anger that you don't do something about on the inside has dangerous consequences it will make a mess it could ruin the rest of your life and jesus says it's not just enough for you to say i've never murdered anybody he said you need to take a harder look on the inside at this thing called anger called anger let's talk about anger for a few minutes um anger is something that the bible does not condemn the bible does not condemn the bible actually says be angry and don't sin the bible tells us that god is angry the bible tells us that jesus was angry but anger for many of us we've been taught that it's an emotion that is wrong that's emotion that's bad it's emotion that we should not have that we should not even feel i don't know if you know this but anger is actually a second emotion second emotion anger's not the first thing you feel anger is like the warning light on your dash saying check engine check engine that means there's a problem inside if you don't pay attention to the problem inside that initial emotion inside then you're going to have a major major problem anger comes anger exists for two reasons the first reason that people get angry is because they have a block goal james says you want something and you don't get it and you're angry the second reason that anger exists is for an injustice when there's something wrong when you when jesus saw people selling things in the temple to make a profit off of people that were coming there to worship he turned those tables over in anger because there was something that was wrong when you see a child being mistreated when you see a woman being oppressed when you see people because of race and color being discriminated against you say that's something wrong and somebody needs to do something maybe i need to do something about that the bible calls out a righteous anger where something rises up inside of us we say something is wrong and needs to take place there but what jesus is talking about here is he's talking about something intimate and personal he's not talking about road rage because look at he says i tell you that anyone is angry with his brother this is in the context of a family relationship this is parent and child this is husband and wife this is siblings this is extended family this is your small group this is your church family or maybe someone who used to be a part of your church family that is not any longer that's what jesus is talking about and notice that he compares that they're going to be subject to judgment just like the person that committed murder it's so hard for us to wrap our minds around this because we had great murder as being this awful horrible thing and we equate anger as being this little tiny thing jesus helps us to understand a little bit more look what he says there he says anyone who says to his brother rakah is answerable to the sanhedrin still brother still relationship what's this word rakah he's not saying rock on that's a good thing he's saying rakah that that is an arabic word that literally means empty-headed empty-headed and it was such a problem because name calling in the ancient near eastern culture as well in a current middle eastern culture is a very offensive thing very very offensive you say why is it so offensive because our name is our identity it connects with who we are when was the last time you were in a room full of people and you heard someone call out your first name and you turned and looked john and i turned and looked oh they're talking to another they didn't say john mickless they just said john and i turned and looked why because that's my identity that's who i am and if your identity gets replaced with a name that is offensive it strips you of who you are earlier this summer my wife and i were on a uh we are flying out of filly and we had some issues with our flight and that's another long story for another day but uh we happen to end up in the line with people who had problems with their flight and what you discover quickly is everybody in this line has a problem with their flight so nothing is moving very fast and um so there's an individual behind the counter they're trying to help someone you're waiting and you're waiting and you're waiting and this is it's a very it's a very um tense situation you can feel it around the room because people's flights are in jeopardy they're running late for things there was an individual behind me he was spewing out profanity at this woman behind the counter uh just calling her all kinds of names because he could not get what he wanted his way at that moment in time and what jesus says is he says if if words are launched from your mouth that degrade another human being says you're answerable the sanhedrin now the sanhedrin where the jewish courts the roman said that these individuals they can decide anything for the jewish people that isn't impacted by the roman law and so they were the ones who were able to decide that and so he said you're going to have to stand before a judge if you use words that degrade the value of that individual you think wait a minute we were talking about murder and i haven't murdered anybody and now you're telling me i got to go stand before the judge because i'm calling people names solomon said this he says life and death are in the power of our tongues i've talked with countless people who have etched in their memory a name that was said to them by a parent by a coach by a teacher by a boss and it's like a part of them just got carved out and that name is implanted deep in their soul and what jesus says is he says don't take this don't take this lately but recognize that what comes out of your mouth is reflective of what's in your heart it's in your heart so you can say i haven't murdered anybody but if you got stuff coming out of you at other people there's something going on inside that is not good at all he goes on to say but anyone who says you fool be in danger of the fire of hell now the word fool doesn't sound like that bad we kind of use that almost jokingly today but that is where we get our word moron from and we might translate that word you idiot it really refers to someone who does the same thing over and over again and doesn't learn from their mistakes it just happens over and over and over and you think what an idiot you know and it's again it's a use of a word that expresses contempt which is deep hatred deep hatred and he says they're in danger the fire of hell older translations say the fires of gahenna gahenna was a place outside the city of Jerusalem that during the time of the kings in the old testament when some of the kings worship foreign gods they would have alters set up and they would say to the people that to please the gods you have to all you have to sacrifice your children on these altars it's a horrible detestable place in the time of Jesus it was the common dump and so that's where you would dump all your refuge if you were not a person of wealth and someone died or passed away you could not bury them their body was placed outside in gahenna and that's why it was so remarkable that Jesus who was not from a family of wealth his body was not just placed there to just be burned up and consumed it was placed in a tomb he says anyone who calls someone this you will be in danger of the fires of gahenna i mean if you think about it you think man this is just mind-boggling places these are strong consequences strong you got to stand before a judge you're you're going to be in the places closest to hell on earth if you don't control the words that come out of your mouth say why was this so important to Jesus why did he make such a big deal about it was i've come to understand anger anger is really what is what is true about what's inside of me that comes out and the danger is these kinds of things come out when you are suppressing when you are holding down anger anger is like putting your thumb over the end of a hose and what happens when you put your thumb over the end of the hose what does it do that spray goes what everywhere right not where you intended it to go and you got to do a lot of work to get a point in the right direction the right pressure all that but that's what anger is like when you are holding anger inside that has come out that has not been properly expressed and walked through it will come out towards people you never intended it to come out how often have you been the recipient of someone who blows up at you and you turn to them and say what was that all about and they're like oh i'm sorry man i'm sorry i it's not you it's not you they're holding their thumb over the end of the hose in their lives and it's spraying out everywhere and Jesus says if that is true in your life if stuff is spraying out towards mom and dad towards your siblings towards your spouse towards people in your life towards total strangers who may innocently have cut you off not realizing you were there then there's something going on on the inside that is very very dangerous and incredibly unhealthy and Jesus wants us to remember that if we do not resolve conflict it will surprise you and it will make a mess of your life don't resolve conflict it will surprise you and it'll make a mess of your life he turns to verse 23 and 24 to give us some direction on what to do when conflict occurs and he says there if you're offering your gift to the altar and remember your brother is something against you still in the family context still in relationship verse he says leave your gift there in verse 24 and go and be reconciled then come and offer your gift and Jesus says if you're coming to worship and he's talking in the context of the Jewish culture where they would bring a sacrifice which was an offering to God which in the New Testament Jesus says we do that with our finances we do that with our time he says if you're coming and go back to verse 23 if you would there Matt and he says remember you have something against your brother is that what Jesus says to the verse remember you have something against your brother is that what he says no that's not what he says he says remember your brother has something against you remember Jesus is confronting the Pharisees and their way of thinking their way of thinking is I talked to them I resolved it I'm done it's on them not on me I'm free and clear Jesus says no no no no no no no Jesus says if they have an issue with you you need to go back and talk to them now some of you have a certain level of awareness when there's a problem with someone else you kind of know when the room in that the temperature in the room goes down you kind of know when things are a little frosty you kind of know and oh they got an issue that some of you are very aware of that others of you and I am generally in this side of the category you're kind of oblivious to that we're like oh they have a problem with me oh how did you know that really I never even had it so you kind of have people in two different camps as it relates to that and so Jesus specifically talking to the latter which I tend to fall in this group and he says if someone makes you aware if you discover if you remember God's Spirit brings something to your mind wow that person kind of looked at me a little strange you know are they kind of blew me off maybe I should go have a conversation with them I was listening to a training series on crucial conversations this individual was talking about making conversations safe and he said if people don't feel safe in a conversation then you won't be able to resolve it and move forward and they said one of the ways you know the conversation is not safe is if someone has the same conversation with you over and over and over again and I heard that I was like wow I never knew that before you know that means it doesn't feel safe and so they only bring up a little bit and they bring up a little bit more and they bring up a little bit more because it doesn't feel safe someone uses sarcasm do you know what sarcasm is sarcasm is when you are suppressing anger it's like that thumb over the end of the hose and the only way you can let them know that you're angry is little dig little jab and then laugh after it these are the kinds of things that when you hear this stuff coming up it needs to alert you to the fact that oh they probably have a problem with me that we need to go have a conversation about you see the goal is not to figure out who was right who was wrong the goal is to take initiative and move back towards that person and you know what Jesus is saying and this is what I think startled the Pharisees Jesus is saying I don't want you coming through those doors if you remember when you're driving in that you have a problem with someone and it's not resolved now some of you are saying John but what if that person doesn't want to resolve it someone came up to me after the service and said John that person in my life is dead not Jesus Paul said later he said pursue peace as much as lies within you there's only so much you can do you can't force the other person to reconcile with you you can only go to them knock on the door say can I come in so we can talk they're not willing to open that door there's not much you can do but you don't have to have that you don't have to have them be willing to talk for your heart to be at a place where you're ready and prepared to resolve that as much as you possibly can you see remember what Jesus is doing the Pharisees and the religious leaders they wanted to know what do we have to do to skin buy what do we have hey I tried to talk to I'm done don't need any you know Jesus said no if you remember that's unresolved you go back and you knock on that door I was talking with someone this week about a situation in my life that they were aware of and had been involved in and I said to them I said it's just really hard that it feels unresolved and they said to me they said I think you've done everything you can do they said you might they just have to live with that and I'm trying to do that it's really hard when I think about the individual I tap on the door and that might be a short text quick email it's all it is but it's when God brings it to my mind I walk back towards it you say well why is that so important well look what Jesus goes on to talk about in the next in the next section of verse 25 and 26 he says settle matters quickly with your adversary now he's switching gears now he's moving away from the friend away from the brother and he's talking about someone you're in conflict with this is someone who's taken advantage of you someone who's mistreated you someone who's wronged you and they're not a friend they're an adversary they're an enemy and he says settle quickly he says do it out of court while you're still on the way walking in say what do we got to do to settle this because he said or he might hand it over the judge the judge the officer and you may be thrown into prison essentially what Jesus says is if you don't resolve this quickly it will get taken out of your hands and you have no control over what the future might be you say but john what if that means I'm going to take a loss settle it quickly what if that means that justice isn't served settle quickly what if it's just not fair settle quickly say why does Jesus say settle quickly it's almost as if Jesus knew that when you have unresolved conflict in your life even if it's in a box it's with an enemy this is not with your spouse this is not with your kids this is not with your small group it's almost as if he knows that if you don't settle that quickly it's going to leak over into other arenas of your life you see anger is like toxic waste it gets down into the water table into the water system of your heart and your life and it starts popping up here and popping up here and popping up here and popping up here and all of a sudden you're like wait where is this coming from and you're just trying to get justice over here and Jesus said get rid of that and deal with it quickly and move on with your life Jesus didn't say roll over he didn't say just give them whatever they want and walk out no he didn't say that he said settle it but do it quickly and bring closure to that matter in your life because if you do not resolve conflict it will surprise you and it will make a mess of your life Jesus is saying when you are emotionally invested when you are financially invested when there's mistreatment a lack of trust hiding information power plays what good is going to come out of that and when you are engaged in a long drawn out matter that's what comes of it Jesus is not saying to you this morning don't be angry but he's saying do something when it shows up in your life because if you don't you're going to find yourself at a place where it's going to make a mess in your life and you have no control over the outcome now those of you listening this morning we're we're at this the best way to describe is we're kind of on this continuum as it relates to this subject you know the amazing thing is I thought about this and I think about this room of people all of you are here this affects every single person in this room there are sometimes we talk about subjects that might lend itself more towards different people at different places in their life anger affects us all and some of you may be way over on this continuum and maybe because of you know your background and upbringing things you were taught in a church you were taught that anger is wrong and anger is sinful and anger shouldn't shouldn't be expressed in any way and so you were taught to suppress your anger and so you hold that anger down and when you feel something inside you're like oh I'm not going to get angry and you just swallow it and you hold that anger down there's some of you on the other side of this continuum you weren't taught that you were taught listen you just need to state your mind and when you have a problem you just need to tell somebody about it and you're going to hear about what my problem is whether you like it or not whether it's your problem or not you're going to hear about it and you just let it fly and you're like that they're problem and they got a deal with how it comes how they respond to what but I'm just I'm not going to bury it I'm going to let it all come out and I don't think either of those extremes are what God's calling us to have true in our lives because the person that suppresses their anger the person that says to me I really don't ever get angry my wife and I we never fight I used to think that was a really good thing and almost the goal and now I'm like oh man warning signs because that anger will come out you cannot suppress that emotion that God has placed in you without it leaking out in dangerous destructive ways that Jesus has talked about this morning for some of you that's scary because to open that door you're scared to death that a tidal wave is going to come out it might it might for a time but you have a choice you can either keep that shut and keep that down and it'll keep leaking out until it gets worse and worse and worse and worse in your life I would not be being honest with you to say to open that door is scary is the scariest thing I ever did in my entire life by far by far but opening that door gave me the opportunity to experience God's mercy and God's grace in ways I've never known you see sometimes we forget that God reached out to us when we were not friends of God we were enemies of God we were opposed to him and he turned and moved towards us in our sinfulness and he invites you today to say you know I know there's stuff there every once in a while I have the guts to turn that knob and I crack that door and but there's no way I'm going to enter that but he invites you to not only open that door but to clean that cause it out and gives you the capacity to feel anger about the things that are awful in this world just like Jesus did you're on the other side where it's explosive and it kind of comes out and you feel like you can just let it fly and I just have to be me it's a different journey it's a different journey it's not one that I know and have experienced but it's a journey that you need to be willing to walk in and recognize this is not the way of relating to people that Jesus invites you into it's not the way of relating to people that reflects the love of God that gave himself up for other people God has given you clarity and God has given you passion but and he said he expressed in ways that value people and please him so I want to give you some questions for you to walk away and think about this morning the first question is this is your anger leaking out do I find it kind of leaking out towards people in situations do I get really angry at really little things and big things kind of ambivalent towards are you gonna do something about it as I was talking this morning did you think of someone who has a conflict with you did you remember someone that you need to go back and knock on that door as I was preparing this I was reminded of someone that I need to knock on that door I've been putting it off for a few weeks I don't really want to wait in there because it will be very very very messy I know it will are you willing to enter it lastly are you dragging a problem out and maybe it's on you that you're not willing to resolve it you're holding on to it and you just need to say let's bring some closure to this let's settle this so we can move on I'm gonna give you just a minute or two to bow your heads and just talk to God I know that some of you right now are feeling incredibly angry and it took everything within you to stay in your seat this morning you don't want this to come out it seems unfair because of what's been done to you that has contributed to this but the choice is yours today what will you do with it God this is such a hard subject to talk about we just see this anger everywhere around us God we see it in war we see it in sports field we see it in politics we see it in the courts but the truth is we see it in our own lives as well and God it would be easy just to say I haven't murdered anybody so I'm okay God I I'm good it's really hard to face the reality that there is some deep-rooted anger in me that it's just starting to make a mess in a whole bunch of areas in my life God one thing I know for sure is that it takes incredible courage to tackle this and I just pray for the men and the women and the students who are here that you would give them the capacity and the courage and your strength to enter them this morning in your name we pray amen you know one thing I know about that God wants to be true in our lives he wants us to be generous he wants us to be gracious he wants us to be kind he wants us to be compassionate and when I meet someone who's really angry that's not true of them but that's what God longs to see happen in our lives shall we thank you John it's such a amazing word about anger