How to Handle Anger // Sermon on the Mount

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in the old of Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at thelookout.church.

So uh today, if we haven't met yet, if you're stopping in, if you're visiting today, again, my name's Luke.

I'm uh excited.

What a gift it is for you to come and spend your morning with us.

What we're doing today is we're jumping into um a series that we've been in, that we'll be in for the better part of the summer, and we're journeying through the Sermon on the Mount, which is located in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And the Sermon on the Mount really is Jesus' vision for the kingdom of heaven.

And what he's doing as he's preaching the Sermon on the Mount, is he's inviting his listeners into a massive paradigm shift.

He's inviting them to leave the way they were thinking behind the way they were thinking before, to let it be transformed through his work into a new way of thinking.

And as we're journeying through this year together, as we're journeying in an election year, I just really felt it's important this year that we're always, that we're ever mindful that we are first kingdom citizens, citizens of the kingdom of God before we are citizens of our nation or any nation.

And being citizens of the nation is important.

And I'm proud to be an American, okay?

I'll just say that right out.

I am proud of this nation.

I love this nation, but my first allegiance is to King Jesus and his way, which is the way of the cross, which is the way of sacrificial love.

And it's through that filter I get to become a good citizen of the nation that I'm a part of, and you too.

But it's important that we continue to steep our minds, our hearts into the nature of the kingdom of God.

And so today, if you have your Bible, open up to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And uh and what we're gonna do here is we're gonna see uh a passage.

Last week we talked about how Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law.

And now, the next six segments of the Sermon on the Mount, he gives six examples of how you've heard it said this, but I want to show you a new way forward.

Okay, so if you don't have your Bible, it's okay, we'll have it on the screens.

If you need a Bible, you can always go back to the Connect Hub afterwards and get a free Bible.

But let's read this together, Matthew chapter five.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, sister, Raka, is answerable to the court, and anyone who says, You fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering a gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to them, then come 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 over, hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over 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.

Father, we hold your word before us this morning.

And Jesus, we ask that you would open the eyes of our hearts to receive again these words, some of which are familiar to us, but God, I thank you to take them even deeper today.

We thank you to change us from the inside out.

That's why we're here, God.

So we thank you, Father, to transform us as we hold open your scriptures together.

And it's in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So a few weeks ago, I was invited with a handful of other faith leaders in the area to go meet the interim police chief down in Boulder for lunch.

It's the second time we've done this, chief.

Uh I'm blaking his name right now.

But he had it on his heart to gather faith leaders, and so I showed up and there were some rabbis there.

So I kid you not.

A pastor, a rabbi, and a police chief walked into a bar.

And it was not a joke.

It was literally how it happened.

And when I walked into this bar and grill, uh, I met some of these rabbis from a local synagogue.

I could tell that they were visibly tired.

And knowing that they had probably been deeply affected by the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, I checked in with them and just said, Hey, uh, how you doing?

And uh and and they said just kind of with a sigh, like, we're we're hanging in there.

And the interaction, it kind of started with a bit of caution.

I can tell I was being kind of evaluated on where do you land on this thing?

Are you thinking about me what others are thinking about me right now?

I could could be wrong, but I had a sense that they didn't know if I was going to come at them with a strong opinion or an immediate reaction because that's what they were used to.

And so they were gauging the reaction of my face, and I just asked them, hey, it's been hard, hasn't it?

And they're like, Yeah, it has.

And I said, I'm so sorry.

They they went on to explain, this particular rabbi went on to explain that what was happening in the Middle East had translated to a kind of a local upheaval of sorts.

Many in their local synagogue were seen as objects of hatred and frustration.

Teenagers, their teenagers in their synagogue, uh, were called names in their local high schools.

Uh the police were called more than once with bomb-detecting canines to walk through their synagogues before their times of worship.

Okay, this is happening here.

And so this rabbi said, somehow we're being treated as if we're the decision makers in Israel.

We're being held accountable for what's happening on the other side of the world right now.

And and he mentioned that even you know, even his interactions with um young protesters in the area, he was he was confused because some young people he would hear chanting, From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

But they were chanting this and just kind of with a this pent-up anger, and and some of that is is understandable.

And but he he would ask some of these young people, can you either can you name either the river or the sea that you're chanting about?

And they could not.

And he was he was dumbfounded how how could there be such an anger about a conflict that so many people know so little about?

And over the last several weeks, as you guys know, the campus protests have almost overshadowed the conflicts.

The campus protests have actually been more a part of the headlines than the actual conflict over there.

There's an uproar, there's an upheaval.

And I'm not here to kind of talk about sides or get that kind of thing.

It's a very complicated issue, but it brought up this whole um conversation with the police chief as we were, he was even reflecting on the state of the community, and he was even drawing conclusions and observations that even since the pandemic, there's just been this pent-up anger he sees.

It's grown over the years.

He commented that it feels like people are just needing outlets, pressure relieve spouse for an internal sense of unrest and frustration.

And so when opportunities arise, it can escalate very quickly.

Protests, online arguments, acts of total hatred.

Now, to be clear, it doesn't mean that all protests are just about individual emotional release.

There are legitimate injustices in the world, God's in Israel being one of them, that need our attention.

All right?

There are things that are happening in our day and time.

Injustice does have to be confronted.

And it does require people to use their God-given agency and the power of our own voice.

That's why God's given us a voice, right?

So I'm not minimizing the need for that, but more an observation that what happens as a culture when there is pent-up anger and the need, an unprocessed anger and the need to release it, it comes out in a lot of very vicious ways.

And so there's a growing frustration among us, and it's about some of the world conflict, but even on domestic matters, you can look at the economy, crime, immigration, racial injustice, distrust of leaders across the board.

There's this there's this stuckness, there's this fatigue, there's this uh malaise that is growing from the inside out.

And a lot of times the way when it's when we can't quite name what it is that's happening with us, what it does as a nation, as a culture, it it shows its ugly head as anger and rage.

Because of the algorithms, and so this adds to the problem, because the algorithm and curated social media on all of your news feeds, no one's exempt for this, everyone ends up living in their own echo chamber.

Do you guys realize that?

So when you go online, your feed and your results will be different than mine based on what we're interested in.

Marketers know this, this is how they sell us things.

And so what happens over time is that what you believe, you are growing to bleed even more and more and more, and who you believe is the enemy is becoming more and more the enemy, and the same is happening for others on another side of an issue.

And what happens is the pre over time it creates these divides even across the room.

There's probably things in this room that if you were to check in with somebody down the down the row from you, they share a very, very different world view than you.

And some of this is an architecture of our day.

And it's, I would even use the word demonic because it's actually being used to destroy civilization.

Now, those are harsh words, those are maybe a little over the top, but I and I'm not saying that all you know search results are are bad or all technology is bad, but what we have to understand what is happening to us as a people and what it means as we're seeking to live in the kingdom of God.

You guys with me?

So APM Research Labs, and just uh a couple months ago, April 23rd, um, they released some stats basically uh you know showing, indicating that the mood of our nation is one of anger.

Um there's one stat that showed about one in five Americans are angry about domestic issues.

That's probably too small for you to read, but um, on domestic issues of all kinds, about 20% are just, you know, just just dealing with a sense of unrest.

But coupled with that, and so that's just domestic issues, by the way.

That doesn't have to do with your car breaking down or you losing your job or any relational like discord that you're facing as well.

This is just like larger, just the nation.

So one in five are already angry about that, and you add in other things and what it means, it's a recipe for unrest.

But you add to that, you couple this with this other stat that 44% of Americans are not proud of anything.

Nearly half of all Americans do not feel like they could be proud of anything in our nation right now, and you probably know what that feels like.

Sometimes it's you gotta you gotta fight for it.

And so when you're generally uneasy and frustrated, and also you're not proud, what it does, it can it can it can create this this pent-up thing, this this need to release that.

And this is where I believe we are.

But one of the problems is as a culture, we always tend to think that the problem is out here, and very rarely do we realize how deeply it's right in here.

And this is exactly where Jesus gets to us in the Sermon on the Mount.

He gets to us, he cuts us open like a surgeon.

And oftentimes we're looking for external change, but Jesus, time of time, has to say, no, no, no.

The change that you need, the actual rule, the law that was given, do not murder.

It actually starts not out there with what you do out there.

It starts right in here, it starts in a place of eternal, internal transformation.

Ambrose Beer said it like this speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

You know what that feels like.

And so just for a moment, I just want to explore what is anger, okay?

What is what is anger as an emotion?

It's it actually really is important that we frame this in right.

Because at its core, anger is actually a God-given emotion that allows you to express your values.

It's not from the enemy, it's actually part of your humanity, and it actually is proof that you're living a full life.

It's a gift of a full heart.

Jesus was angry, all right?

We're gonna see that in other passages.

He would flip over tables, and because it was an act of injustice, some people were being kept from participating in worship.

The poor were being kept from participating in worship, and he wasn't gonna have any of that.

So he flipped over tables to expose a paradigm, to expose a system that was keeping some people out while privileging other people.

We know that Moses was angry.

He he let his anger get to him, he killed an Egyptian man.

Moses, as he watched his people, the Hebrews, being oppressed under the hand of Pharaoh, that finally bubbled up that value, which is a good value.

That value came up, but he ended up snapping, killed an Egyptian man.

It kind of shifted the course of his life, sent him out to the desert.

But it's amazing though that even that moment was later redeemed, that that that heart, that there's a flame, a fire inside of that.

What is happening is not okay.

And God would end up calling him back on a large scale to liberate his people from the hand of Pharaoh.

And and our and our spiritual lineage can be traced back to that.

Anger is actually necessary to confront injustice, particularly among the powerless, the poor, widows, and children.

Okay?

So it is not something, um anger is not something we should immediately ignore.

There's usually follow-up questions to why is this anger here?

We'll get to that in just a second.

Chip Dodd, in his fantastic book called The Voice of the Heart, where he frames out several of the emotions and the shadow side of that emotion and then the gift of that emotion, when he's talking about anger as a gift, he says this.

He says, Anger shows our yearning and hunger for life.

Anger helps us pursue full life by exposing the substance, desires, and commitments.

Authentic anger is a carrying feeling, telling us that something matters.

Anger exposes what we value and expresses our willingness to do what is required to reach that value.

So it reveals something about us.

And Paul would echo this.

Even in his letters, we read into the Ephesians when he writes in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25, he says, Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Ephesians 4:25

Then he continues, be angry and do not sin.

Alright?

So anger isn't inherently a sin.

You need to know that.

Be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Okay?

So you take that whole kind of movement, that whole that verse in context, he's saying, He's saying, Listen, I want you to do away with falsehood and speak truth to one another.

That's actually a value in the kingdom that we don't put up with falsehood.

We don't allow ourselves to live in illusions.

We don't, in the body of Christ, allow ourselves to live in illusions and in unreality.

We actually have to speak truth to each other even when we don't like it.

And he's saying there's going to be cases where it's okay to get angry.

It's okay to expose something that doesn't belong.

But do not sin.

We'll talk about what makes anger sin in a second.

But he says, do not sin, do not let it fester, do not let that sun go down on your anger, which means when it arises, you deal with it and you enter into it, but do not let it grow from the inside out.

And so this is something that even for me has been a massive paradigm shift over my life.

My personality, my makeup, my demeanor since I was a child is really one of a peacemaker.

I like when everyone is doing okay, all right?

I like when you're okay.

I like when my friends are okay.

I like when my wife definitely like when my wife's okay.

I like when the people I don't like people being upset at me.

I don't like conflict.

I don't like those things, but I've actually learned though that unless I access my voice and my values and my actual feelings and anger towards something, number one, I diminish as a person.

And number two, the people around me don't actually understand what I care about.

And I've actually had to learn in this way to access my anger, where I would normally, my mode of operation typically is to assess where everybody else is at in a room, all right?

This is what pastors do.

You assess what everybody else's needs, and what do you need?

What do you need?

What do you need, right?

Doesn't matter what I need, I'll deal with what I need.

What happens is if I don't access that in the moment, I'll just secretly get angry, and that'll just be something I have to deal with later, and it's gonna come out in ways that I that I don't like and nobody around me likes.

And so even for me, just learning like there are moments that I need to be angry.

I need to allow myself to feel the full weight of something that has gone wrong, or a hurt, or a sadness, or a fear that's inside of me, right?

Is anybody do you guys understand what I'm saying?

Because the key idea is this anger is actually, it's actually oftentimes a secondary emotion.

Anger is not always a primary emotion, oftentimes it's a secondary emotion that erupts when we're sad, we're hurt, we're lonely, or fearful.

Much of the anger we feel as a culture is not just because we're angry and we're looking for people to shout at.

It's because at the core, many of us are sad, lonely, hurt, or fearful, we're afraid.

And we don't have always, and especially in the culture, and even in the church, we have to do a lot of work on this, which is why we do all the emotionally healthy stuff around here.

Because we have to learn how to dig underneath the content of our heart and our lives to find out what is actually happening underneath the surface of my life.

Oftentimes it's hurt, fear, sadness, loneliness.

And when I don't deal with those things, oftentimes it comes out as I'm not getting something that I need.

And it turns into anger, right?

So when we don't let our anger lead us, listen to this, when we don't let our anger lead us into an exploration of why we're angry, then it turns into anger against others.

When we don't let our anger lead us into an exploration of why it is that we are actually angry, it then turns against others.

And this is part of what we're talking about.

Chip Dobbs says, Chip Dodd said, this is actually the difference between anger and rage.

So anger as an emotion is part of what God has given you to show to show you what you actually value in your life.

And when that value is crossed, you it something's gonna rise inside of you.

It's it's a good thing to pay attention to.

But when when anger is not processed for yourself and it's not exposing anything else that's that's lurking on the inside of you, then it actually can transform into the ugly step sister called rage.

And rage is what is is the weapon that is released upon others, and rage is what happens when we when our anger becomes sin against others.

So in this passage, Jesus is not condemning anger, he's condemning the fessering of anger and the weaponization of anger against others.

He didn't say never get angry, he said don't let that anger live inside of you so that you're committing murder in your heart.

Okay?

You guys hanging with me?

Oftentimes, I'll just give you another practical example.

Like when I when I find myself, when I catch myself, and this requires some awareness, but when I catch myself short tempered, either with my wife or my kids, and say, like my kids interrupt me while I'm doing some work.

Um and uh this this happened the last couple weeks.

I found myself getting frustrated.

Like, ah, just let me let me do my thing, all right?

But I had to kind of peel back a little bit, stop, pause.

Like, okay, what was that about?

This shouldn't be a dis when my child comes to me, I shouldn't be so disturbed.

They shouldn't feel that for me.

What is actually going on?

And I could have just walked away and said, Oh, I was just frustrated, all right?

That's what most of us do.

We just move on.

I was just frustrated, I'm over it now.

But, you know, when I peeled back and I said, okay, what's going on there?

I realized that I had a lot to do, a lot I was trying to get done, a lot of multiple different projects, meaning I was communicating with a lot of different people.

And if I was interrupted from my work, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to complete those tasks, which isn't that big of a deal.

But if I didn't complete those tasks for me, that means that someone was going to get disappointed.

And I realized for me that I wasn't actually angry.

I was afraid of letting somebody down or being embarrassed.

And so that sadness, that kind of stuckness that I need to be approved for.

I'm just being very transparent with you so you know how this works in my own life.

The need to be liked and loved is still so deep in me that sometimes it actually surfaces.

It's like, don't mess with me because I have to perform perfectly so I don't let people down.

You guys, can you see how that works?

Okay, it's a very real example.

You have your own, all right?

So you have to dig with yourself.

You have to be close enough to your own heart to actually know what is actually going on under the hood, all right?

So Jesus kind of then shifts this.

So he's gonna walk through a few different examples of anger.

This is where it gets interesting, all right?

So buckle your seatbelt.

Verse 21 you have heard it said to people long ago, you shall 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.

Again, anyone who says to your brother or sister, Raka, is answerable to the court.

And anyone who says, You fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.

That escalated quickly.

All right.

So we're hanging with Jesus as he's starting here, all right?

Um don't murder.

Okay, check.

We're we're on we're on board with you, Jesus.

We're with you.

Let's let's not murder anybody, right?

Then he says, anyone who is angry with his brother or sister is gonna be subject to judgment.

Yeah, okay.

All right, I can hang there.

You know, if you're if I'm if I'm angry with my brother and sister, you're gonna be subject to judgment.

And he continues, though.

Anyone who says your brother or sister, Raka, is answerable to the court, I'm like, okay, I don't know what that means.

But that sounds serious, all right?

But then he finishes, if you weren't hanging with him here, he finishes with the the slam dunk, and anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.

It's like, okay, I was hanging with you all the way up into that last one.

You're saying if anybody says you fool will be in danger of hell, what hope is there for any of us?

How many times has that happened even today, right?

You fool.

See, the thing is, this word raka, um, it's this word that comes from the Eric, uh it's an Aramaic term.

It was a derogatory expression meaning empty-headed, insinuating a person's stupidity or inferiority.

And this is actually, as far as language goes, a really big deal in first century Israel among the Jewish people.

When you said raka, it's basically, you know, it was a word given to degrade a person, to say you fool, but to say, like, do you even have a brain inside of you, right?

Do you have anything of value inside of you?

When you when you would when you would leverage these words of this word, it was it was so derogatory that it would actually get you called into the Sanhedrin, to actually have to give account for your words.

Like, did you call that person Raka?

And there would be a consequence for this, right?

But raka was a word, it's it's different.

The way we use our language is so flippant, but in in this particular culture, to insinuate that somebody is less than worth valuable or worthy.

Jesus is saying, whatever it is, anything inside of you that that that manifests itself with language that will degrade a person, even calling them fool and just degrading the image of God inside of them, and saying he's saying that in itself is the spirit of murder.

That's what's going on from the inside out.

And so it's a big deal.

And we have to give an account, though, even in our culture, of our use of words and the way that we use words.

Because let's be honest, even on the way to church here today, somebody is driving slow.

And what was going on in your heart?

Raka.

You're sitting in the DMV.

Raka.

Right?

You're watching the news.

Ah! Raka! I mean, that's what we do.

Everything is racka to us.

Can they get a brain?

But they slur like that, you're it's not, it shouldn't be seen as harmless.

It's a social weaponry that's designed to cause serious injury.

And we have to pay attention when it exists in our heart and when it exists in our mouth.

And what Jesus is saying is anybody who says this is actually in danger of the fire of hell.

Now, this word hell in this particular passage was the Greek word gehenna, which was actually a trash heap right outside of uh Jerusalem.

It's where it was an ever-burning trash heap.

And they would use this word quite often.

So it's hard to say in this particular passage whether he's referring to like the an eternal situation, but if nothing else, we know that gehenna had to do with this burning trash dump outside of the city.

And so basically, when Jesus said, if when you let that language, when you let murder live in your life, it's like a dumpster fire in your actual soul.

That's what he actually meant.

Mark Twain said it like this anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

Like, listen, if you're holding on to that in your heart and you're letting that faster, you are the one who will pay severe consequences for that.

You will pay more of a consequence than the person you're holding your anger against.

Yikes.

What's interesting though is that Jesus takes a turn here.

So he walks through these levels of anger, but then he changes the subject slightly.

And he says, This therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has some done something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar and first go and be reconciled to them and then offer your gift.

So what's really interesting here is that Jesus is talking about anger and then immediately just flips a switch and starts to talk about worship and the intersection of what's in our heart and the way we worship.

This is so important.

And basically saying if you're coming into worship, and remember there's something unresolved in your relationships, you need to pause what you're doing, go deal with your anger, and then come back.

Now, the language he's using is very hyperbolic.

He goes over the top as he does in much of the Sermon on the Mount.

He's he he over-emphasizes his points so that he can create a shock and awe moment, okay?

So, because what does this actually mean if you were if you were offering a sacrifice in Jerusalem, if you were at the temple offering a sacrifice, an animal at the altar?

Uh just imagine walking a day and a half journey to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice, you remember uh that you have some unresolved issues back in Galilee.

And so you leave your animal there at the altar, you travel a day and a half back to Galilee, you you apologize to your mother, and then you walk all the way back to Jerusalem.

We're talking about just like just can I leave this animal here for three days?

Is that okay?

I just want you to imagine like if you came into worship on a Sunday morning and uh and and we're preparing to worship as you should, and you're examining your heart, and you realize, oh, there's something I am not dealing with.

I I my words were flippant.

I said some hurtful things in my life.

I need to go make that right.

What if you told the worship leader, hey, just a second, can you can we just call a T right here?

Can we call a pause?

I just need to fly back to Iowa real quick.

I'm gonna talk to my childhood friend that I said some things I didn't mean to say, and then I'm gonna come back in, and then we can resume worship.

I'll let you know, just stay tuned, right?

That's kind of what Jesus is saying.

He's just like this just stop everything that you're doing.

Now, why is he saying this?

Um uh because he's talking to a group, many of whom they've separated the way they live from the way they worship.

And he's using this example to bring a reintegration into life that you can't truly love God without loving others.

You can't love others completely until you're overflowing the love of God.

You cannot separate the songs that you sing and the prayers that you pray, and then the way that you treat other people in your life.

And if you hear nothing else, uh I want that, that needs to stick with this.

What you do here, I don't care how anointed your prayers are, I don't care how prophetic you are, I don't care who got healed by the laying on of hands.

If the way, if you are harboring anger, bitterness, uh, if you are harboring rage and murder in your heart and you're not dealing with it, and the way that people experience with you is not one of uh seeing them through the eyes of love, then I'm saying it it creates a disintegration of your life, and it's not pleasing to the heart of God.

It is not actually pleasing to his heart when our actual lives are different than our worship lives.

Are you guys hearing me today?

And Jesus saying, We're not gonna have any more of that.

What I want you to do is pause what you're doing, go make something right, and then come back and worship.

Now, was he expecting everyone to actually do that?

I don't know.

Is that a good idea to just walk out of worship, go make a phone call in the middle of worship and then come back in?

Maybe.

Maybe.

Maybe you need to do that, maybe you need to send a text message.

But I think ongoing, the better way to live is aim to live your life, every moment of your life, the moment you leave here, your Monday through Saturday, aim to live every moment and detail of your life in righteousness, right alignment with God, so that when you come to worship, there's not a whole lot of things that you have to resolve before you lift your first song.

I would rather live that kind of life.

So there's not all of these things on my to-do list of, you know, uh a trail of dead bodies behind me, broken relationships, burned bridges.

I'd rather live my life in right standing with God, knowing that I take everywhere I go, there I am.

Our lives are not as compartmentalized as we think they are.

The quality of our relationships, here's the big deal the quality of the relationships does affect the quality of our worship.

And this is why Jesus got under everybody's skin.

Because they knew how to divide, they knew how to separate those things, they knew how to do just enough to keep the law, and yet there was ugliness on the inside.

And it what it should do, even in this moment, my prayer right now is it just it creates a pause for us.

That when when we come in to worship, we can come in so casually sometimes.

We come in with our, you know, our flat white in hand, our coffee in hand.

We're just, you know, we're gonna take a seat, I'm gonna, you know, sing some songs and get on with my day.

It's like, no, when we come into worship, and this goes through any day of the week, when we come before the Lord, we're not coming in lighthearted, we're bringing our full selves before Him.

We're bringing Him not just our songs, but our very lives.

And so that might mean calling your friend or your brother or your sister.

And listen, some of you, you've you have some relationships in your life that you wouldn't you wouldn't describe as squeaky clean.

They're a little messy right now.

And I don't want, I want you to feel no condemnation on that.

If there's something going on in your life right now that it feels upended, there's no condemnation on anybody for for broken relationships.

But the question is: have you done what you can to keep your heart pure towards that person?

Have you done what you can to reconcile with your brother or your sister or your family member or your coworker?

Have you done what is in your agency to make that right?

They may not reciprocate, that's on them, right?

But have you done what you can?

Some of us in our marriages, we can harbor frustration.

We know what, Megan and I know what that's like to have a season where things fester, and then we have to kind of come together and figure that out.

We can have frustrations that we bury, and it's really sadness and hurt, and over time it just turns into bickering and fighting.

And I'm saying, do what you need to do.

Jesus is saying this: do what you need to do to bring that before each other, to make that right with each other.

Do not let it grow because anger can be like a cancer, and it can grow from the inside, and the fruit of it is way worse than the initial violation in the first place that made you angry.

Whatever made you angry in the first place, I'm telling you, the fruit of anger left unaddressed will be much worse and poisonous than whatever went wrong in the first place.

And so I believe that the word this morning for us as we're kind of entering into this life with Jesus and just trying to re-examine as if we're fresh to these passages, as we're as if we're fresh to this once again.

Is God, would you examine our hearts?

Would you look inside, show us what we've ignored, show us what we've suppressed?

And God, I know in this room there's some of us that deal with rage.

And maybe that open door has even invited a spirit of rage, which is different than the emotion of anger.

There's actually a spirit of violence and rage that can overcome people when we leave that door open and we don't address the sin in our heart.

So just with me across the room, if you could just close your eyes.

And we're gonna ask the Holy Spirit to examine us.

And we all have a part to play here, but God, as we sit before you, we invite you, Holy Spirit, to just come and explore our hearts with us.

Not to expose us, but to heal us.

And God, wherever there is unaddressed anger towards a sister-in-law, towards a father, a mother, towards a child, would you show us, Lord God, what the roots of that anger are?

Would you show us show us, God, if there's any hurt, any loneliness, fear, sadness?

And we just wait on you, God, and listen for your voice.

It's okay to be hurt.

It's okay if you feel lonely or afraid.

You confess those things to your Father in heaven.

And he'll meet you right there, as honest as you're willing to be.

Some of you, as you're there's people in your life that you know you need to forgive.

You need to offer forgiveness to.

They've hurt you, they've betrayed you, they let you down severely.

They may not even know it.

They don't certainly don't know how deeply it's affected you.

But Jesus said, if you forgive, your brothers and sisters, the Father in heaven will forgive you.

There's a there's something that happens when we forgive, when we actually release forgiveness, it makes us more in touch with the forgiveness we've received from the Father.

So some of you just need to be brave and just name that person or that situation and say, I forgive you.

I just want to ask too that the Lord come and move in this place on our hearts.

So if there's anyone here that has been tormented by a spirit of rage, and you know it because an unlikely moment, something wells up inside of you that you know is not you.

And the tone of voice changes, your posture changes, your your blood pressure changes, and and and nothing can settle you down, and you don't even know why you're angry.

I'm telling you, it could be you've partnered with the spirit of violence and murder and rage who has a grip on you.

And I invite you in this moment to call out to the name of Jesus to ask that hideous, unclean spirit to leave you.

It does not belong to you.

That Jesus is powerful over that spirit, and if you reject that thing in Jesus' name, it will flee.

And I just pray over this body.

If anybody here has been plagued or tormented by a rage that they cannot get rid of, God, I thank you, Lord Jesus, to meet each one where they're at in the power of the Holy Spirit, that you will not be subject to that spirit any longer, that the Spirit of Christ is inside of you.

And God, I thank you, God, that as we forgive and as we break covenants and partnerships with any of those sins, Lord Jesus, we get to release that spirit to go away from us, to get away.

It's rebuked in Jesus' name.

It does not belong.

We will not be that people.

Because we have been given a sound mind, a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

So I thank you, God.

I speak over the hearts of your people.

I speak peace over us, Lord God.

Show us, Lord Jesus, how to walk in righteousness before you.

And let your peace guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

God, as we as we move forward, Lord God, as we move forward in this year, as anger circulates all around us, this pent-up frustration marks the conversations of our culture.

I thank you that we are those of a different spirit.

And though we fight for injustice, and though we do raise our voice, and though we do speak truth where there is unreality, God, I thank you, Lord Jesus, that we are not given to this festering spirit of anger, but we are people of peace.

We are peacemakers exhibiting the shalom of God everywhere our feet tread.

So I bless each and every one of us, Lord God, here today to walk in the peace that you came to bring.

You have broken down every dividing.

Wall of hostility in your flesh, making the two one.

We are one with you, Lord God, and because we are one with you, we are reconciled to our brothers and sisters.

We thank you for the power of the cross that makes a spectacle of all principalities and rulers and strongholds, rendering them powerless.

We thank you, that's what you've done.

We thank you for the fragrance of Christ to mark our lives, Jesus.

Your way is better than our way.

May your way be seen.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Yeah.

Hey, let's let's stand together.

Let's stand.

Um some of you uh need would like some prayer.

We're gonna have our prayer team up front.

It's our ministry team.

You're gonna see purple badges.

Listen, I may have said some things that has left you still maybe a little unsettled.

Maybe you have something you don't know what to do with in your life, you have some relationships or some things that you're working through.

You just need to either talk it through, just have somebody pray for you.

These are people that you can trust.

If we could get somebody over here, that would be awesome.

Um and uh and and or if you have any physical conditions you need prayer for, I want to invite you to come and receive healing prayer.

Um, our friend Pat uh Mansdone of Pat's here, or not.

Uh she's over here, she's over here.

She uh last last week she was prayed for.

Uh yeah, get the mic, get the mic, you can share this testimony.

Okay, so I'll make this quick because everybody wants to go home.

Um both my parents had a longer left leg by about a half an inch.

So my left leg has always been a half inch longer, and it has created problems in my lower back.

Um so I uh spoke to Shannon Cavill, um, who I know had prayed for Joan, and she and her amazing daughters prayed for me after service last week, and my right leg is now a half inch longer.

I have to keep saying it because it's so surreal.

But I can I can feel the difference.

I've checked it objectively.

It's they're just the same length now.

That's awesome.

You want me to pray for you?

Yeah, pray.

Okay, so if anybody here has something going on in their structure that they would like prayed for, I'm just gonna pray and you receive this.

All right?

So, Holy Spirit, come.

Do it again, Lord.

God, we have declared your intense love for us.

It's hard for us to imagine what you are anxious to do for us, but you are anxious to do it.

And so now, by the power of the risen Christ, I proclaim healing over bodies.

Thank you, God.

Come, Holy Spirit, set to right, restore your divine design.

Declare that the enemy has no more power in this body in the name of Jesus.

And we thank you, Lord.

We thank you for testimonies, we thank you for lies that have been agreed with that are being broken off in Jesus' name.

This is not what you have to be.

This is not what you have to be.

This is not what you have to be.

Jesus wins.

Thank you, God.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, girl.

Let's go.

So good.

So good.

I I remembered, uh, by the way, finally remembered his name, Chief Redster, and he's the he's the interim chief uh chief of police um in Boulder.

He was asking, I asked him how we can support him.

In fact, he he asked if we would come, like if pastors would come and pray with their whole um police, uh, police officer unit before like big events or big things happening in their community.

I said, yes, we will be there.

You let us know.

So there's a lot of open doors right now, even with the the police department.

They did say ask for prayers um for uh for the young officers.

They have a lot of young officers in the police squad that are still kind of getting settled in that aren't super experienced, just prayers for wisdom and safety and favor with them.

And and they just said a lot of the police departments are very discouraged.

Uh, they've had a lot of attrition over the last several years, and they just said, hey, if there's one thing you can do when you see a police officer, just thank them for serving, and it would do a whole lot for them.

So, can we do that together?

And uh, and as we go here today, uh remember we have uh a lot of bottles of water and supplies, food supplies out at the north entrance.

Pull your car around, load your car up.

Um, like Josh said earlier, take all that stuff home with you.

That would be awesome.

Um, and then you can go if you have parents, you can go get your kids here in a second.

You're gonna see a sign if you're a guest.

There's a sign that says connect with us in the back.

We'd love to meet you and uh and introduce ourselves to you, just right in the back of the room.

And that being said, let me just pray a last blessing over you all as we go.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make his face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and give you peace.

Go in the peace and the strength of the kingdom of God.

Love you guys.

Do you remember?

Yes, they praised him for ours, and he'd feel the room when they saw the shit cancer and we didn't have the answers, but we're there straight two now and forever know you speak to the mountains and make up the oldest that God You did it that hand you still do You still please faithful and true You and God That's just what you took out forever So you can speak to the mountains and make them Gotta be stuck You did it for you, but I'm gonna go to the U.S.