Achilles: Week 1

Good morning, Church of the Crossing. We're so glad that you're here.

Would you stand to your feet with us? This is such a beautiful day

for us to be together, a beautiful day to celebrate the presence of the

Lord together and to worship him. All of you joining us online. We're

glad that you're hear it with us. Let's lift our voices and say this,

open up the heads. We want to see you waving folks. Stay

when Gavin in your name calling out you're gloody like a fine awaken deans,

I will burn your breathway you please, Swissing. We want to see imlin

ever blowing from your heart and feeling every mod your presence in the springs,

your worry on our face, with beats in the sky, descending like a

mind, just standing with us. Stile your the reason, your bees with

you, your reason we see. We want to see face your body never

blowing from your heart and feeling every heart hoping. We want to see woman

up the bags a mighty river and feeling everyone shoss chusos shuts, power chest,

huss Boodle show us the Boy shows, shows, the Choice Shows and

Power Shows Choice Boy Open. We live see feeling everyone we want to see

even heart and feeling everybody lift up and off bringing prace today to our God.

Yes, maybe see it. Have a seat. Today is one of

my favorite days because we get a dude child dedication this morning and so yeah,

you can clamp for that. That's a good And so we have rigs

acre this morning and today. You know, when we talk about child dedication,

you know the whole purposes. A family stands before our congregation and says,

hey, we want this little guy to love the Lord, his God

with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. And that's what our

goal is as parents. And so today we're just gonna have a quick conversation

and so you got to be a part of it. That's how it's gonna

work. Well, guys, I know that right now you're in a time

of some sleepless nights and every everything that you wear seems to have spit up

on it, and you're doing a lot of laundry. And we know that

there's times in our lives where we have our first kid, our second kid,

or we seem to not to stop having kids. It's kind of the

way it works sometimes too. But what I want you to know today is

you are in a relationship and that's what you have. You have a relationship

with some awesome kids, and it's so important because God has ordained you all

to be parents. And so we like to use a jar of marbles to

illustrate one thing, and so I'll put a picture of it up today so

can see it. But there's nine hundred and thirty six marbles in this jar,

and what that represents is how many marbles you have from birth until graduation.

And so every week you lose a marble, literally and figuratively, you

lose your marbles. And the idea behind this is that it's a physical thing

that we can see that it's not about how many marbles we've lost, it's

how much time we have left. And the time we have left is important

because that's the time we have to direct our kids and help show them the

way. And I know it goes by quick. You've got today a special

Abigail's birthday, she's ten today, and you realize how quick it goes and

so you're losing your marbles very fast. And what we want you to know

is that you're not in this alone. Parenting can be super stressful, but

it breaks down to just a couple of things. Be present. You have

to be present in your kids' lives every day, you know. It's the

relationships you invite them into, the people you put them around, the places

you take them are who is going to help mold and shape your kids.

And so we're glad you have chose us as a safe place for your kids.

And it's an honor for us and Kids Ministry to serve them all and

soon into Youth Ministry. But here as a congregation, you all have a

job too, and it's for every one of you in this room and online

and people that are in different services. It's our job to help partner with

this family. See, because it takes a village to raise a child,

and it takes all of us to help encourage a mom when she's tired and

she may just need a break and need a hand for a baby. It

may be a guy's state night like this week for a dad like hey,

just be around some guys. It may be a time where they just need

a shoulder to cry on because they realize that graduation is right around the corner.

And so all of us as in this room are here to be with

you we're here to help you, and we're here to help guide you,

and most of all, we're here to point your kids to Jesus. And

that's what's the most important. So today I just want to remind us.

In Deuteronomy six five, the Moses is talking to a group of leaders and

he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all

your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And

that's the one thing today I want to remind you and everything that you feel

like you may fail as long as you do that you have one And so

today we want to take time and we're just gonna pray. And so church,

if you'll just pray for this family as I pray out loud. We

want to pray and pray for Riggs as we know that he's going to grow

up and do something amazing. Today, let's pray. Father, we love

you so much. We thank you for this day. We thank you for

this family. Lord, I thank you for this Acri family. I thank

you for every thing that you have for Lord, you have put them together,

and Lord you gave them a blessing of three awesome kids. Now,

Lord, right now, I pray that you would use them. Lord,

I pray for Riggs's life. I pray that you will mold him and shape

him and who to who you've called him to be the evil guide and direct

mom and dad and brother and sister. Lord, that they will walk around

him and help point him to you every day. Lord, I pray for

his future. Or do we dedicate him to you today? And all God's

people said, Amen? All right, Griggs, I love that name.

Never heard that name? Church? Would you stand with us? I just

want to take a moment to kind of kind of sit on this, on

this next song, and when I ask for some participation from the congregation,

how many in this room have had a time where God has came through for

them, whether it's in a relationship and a job. I'm a child,

how many in this term raise your hand? Keep your hands up, I'll

put your hands down, all right, keep your hands up, everyone,

Look around this room. It's almost every hand in this room in the air.

But how how is it so easy to forget that? Sometimes I don't

have an answer for that, But I know, for me, I forget

that all the time. How God is good in my life, how he

comes through for my family, how he provides for everything we need. So

let's remember that. And it's important that as we sing these songs too,

we use these opportunities as testimonies. Says, you sing the song, just

remember everything that God has done in your life. Church, listen to Shurce.

Jesus sees mine. He's been my fourth man in the fire time after

time, borne off his fear, washed in his blind and what he did

for me on Calvary was more than he now for. Why trust in God

my sad, who will never he would ever fair? I trusted God,

say you will never, you will never be perfect Sundation, all these I

know, the author of tomorrow. It's all my stand. So this is

my sory, this is my song, crazy, my reason, king and

saying all the day it's one trust in God, my sad, the one

you will never he will never be. I just sing God myself, the

one you will he will never bad. This next part of the song is

exactly what we just talked about before we started. Find like you can raise

your hands, get down on your knees, and pray whatever you feel like

God's leading me to do. Sing this with me. I saw the Lord

and he heard and he answered, I saught the Lord and he heard,

and he answered, I saw the Lord and he heard, and he answered,

that's why I trust him. That's why I trust him. I trust

the Lord. And he heard and he answered, I throught the Lord and

he heard and he answered, I saught the Lord and he heard, and

he answered, that's why I trust him him. That's why I trust him.

I saw the Lord and he answer, it ain't heard me and he

ain't the Lord and he heard, and he answered, that's why I trust

him. That's fine. I trust him the Lord and he answered, from

the Lord I saw and he ain't said, I thought the one. And

he answer, that's why I stand with that fine trusting God. I say

your you will even the bad. I'm trusting God. I say you will

never I I thought the Lord and he and he I said, I start

the love and he heard. Then he answered, and I start the love

and he hurt. And he answered, that's why I trust him. That's

why I trusted my fine love and he heart and he answered, I thought

the love and he heard and he answered, and I start the love and

her and he answered, that's why I trust him. That's why I trusted

I trust That's why I trust him. That's why I trusting, trusting,

trusted, who will never fair, He will never fain. I trust in

God, my safe, who will never fair, He will never say.

Oh God, you are our God, you will never feel us. God.

We seek your face to day. Father. We've come to bless your

name, and we seek your will, We seek your ways, We seek

to know you more. We pray Lord that you will hear our prayers.

Today you hem me in behind, and before you have laid your hand upon

me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to

attain. Where can I go from your spirit? God? Where can I

flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If

I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far

side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your

right hand will hold me fast. Thank you for your promises, God,

Thank you for your love for us, your desire to be close and to

draw us close. Here our prayer today fun in the name of Jesus,

we pray, Amen, you may be seated. We are so glad that

you're here today. My name is Pastor Clint. I'm one of the pastors

here and it's just a privilege to be able to be in the presence of

the Lord today and to be in this place. And if it is your

first Sunday, welcome, We're glad that you're here. If you would stop

by the Connect desk on your way out today, we have a gift just

for you and we'd love to meet you back there and today. Also,

if everyone in the room would fill out their Connect card, it's a great

way for us to stay in touch and to know that you were here.

Feel free, and we welcome you to put your prayer requests on those Connect

cards. It allows us the opportunity to pray with you and for you during

the week. And you can also scan the QR code on the back of

the seat in front of you and do all of that online. In two

weeks, we have VBS and this place is going to be rocking. We're

so excited. It's going to be full of kids and volunteers for four days.

It's going to be a powerful opportunity for the church to teach and to

learn about Jesus. And if you want to be a part of that.

Four year old to fourth grade are encouraged to register as soon as possible.

You can go on golove dot org slash vbs and register today. We want

to make sure that you get to participate. And while we are sitting in

this room comfortable in the air conditioning, there's a team from church at the

Crossing in Roatan and they're ministering being the hands of feet of Jesus over there,

and we would like to take just a moment together and let's pray for

them for whatever they're doing today. Would you bow your head with me,

let's pray for this team. Father, We love you and we're grateful that

you can be everywhere all at once that we as humans cannot. So we

send people out and we pray Lord that today our team in Roatan would not

only see you in special moments, but reach and minister to people that may

not know you. We pray for your hand of protection and your hand of

blessing over them, keep them safe and Father, might your kingdom be increased

in Jesus name. Amen, we hope that this message today will be a

blessing to you. Well, good morning, Welcome to the church at the

cross Seeing. This is our first week of the summer, and we're excited

to jump into our new series, Achilles. And let me tell you something.

I was so excited when I woke up this morning. I woke up

an hour early, and I could not fall back to sleep because in my

last dream I scored a basket on Michael Jordan. Then I wanted to process

that, like, has that been some hidden secret desire I've had for twenty

or thirty years? But either way, I started out today as a winner

and it felt good, felt good, And but I'm so glad to see

you here. Is such a beautiful day, and I'm excited about this series.

I think it has something for every single one of us. Today.

Let's pray, God, We just thank you so much for the opportunity to

dive into a new series to be challenged, because we're talking about things that

usually really hinder us from receiving all the good that you have for us.

So speak to us and help us today to shape our life according your word.

In Jesus name, we all pray. All right. Let me begin

today by asking you a personal question. Do you have anger issues? Anybody

got anger issues? Just point at the person next to you if they have

anger issues, you know, did it even make you mad? Did I

even mentioned anger issues this morning? Because you don't want to talk about it.

Now, before I say anything else, I want to make it very

clear, being angry is not as in okay, anger is an emotion,

and it's okay to have that emotion. It's what we do with it.

And here's our first outline point today. What matters most is what you do

with your anger. What matters most is what you do with your anger.

Now if you jump on social media or turn on the news. We are

living in the age of rage. I don't remember the last time I went

more than one or two days about seeing on the internet a assault at a

gas station, at a grocery store, at a restaurant. And let me

tell you, guys, it's not gonna stop anytime soon. And and friends,

this anger culture in America that's really beefed up in this season, it's

not going away. So here's a couple of things I want to promise you.

All right, here's the first thing I want to promise you. Number

One, You're gonna need to pay close attention to what you do with your

own anger. Okay, you need to pay close attention to what you were

going to do with your own anger. Number two, and this is a

big one, you will need to learn how to deal with other people's anger.

I promise you you don't have to learn how to deal with other people's

anger. Now. I learned both of these my freshman year at Bible College.

We were one of those three hour classes. You didn't even guys take

those three hour classes where you got like the fifteen minute breaking between. And

we're all sitting out there and and everybody's kissing up to the professor, and

we're all these comfy chairs, and there's all these presidents pictures on the wall,

and somebody says, tell us a little bit about each one of those

presidents. So he goes by and says, this president accomplished this, This

president accomplished us, this president accomplished us. And then he finally got to

the one guy and he goes, now, you might want to take heed

and learn from this president. He was a hothead, and we were all,

okay, tell us about it. And he said, after he left

the presidency of that Bible College, he went to take a pastor at a

large church in Ohio and he got a new old phone, a BlackBerry,

you remember when those were new and cool, And he had a BlackBerry.

And they had a church picnic. And for those of you who did not

grow up in a church in the sixties, seventies and early eighties, a

church picnic is where a church gets together and has a picnic. All right.

So anyways, there all at this church picnic and there's an annoying kid,

and you know what annoying kid is like, and this kid's being annoying,

run around, run around, really messed with that pastor, like,

won't leave that pastor alone. And so finally the boy runs into the pastor,

knocks the BlackBerry on the ground and breaks the BlackBerry. The pastor reaches

down, grabs ahold of the boy and shakes him in front of everybody at

the church picnic and screams and yells at him. So the next day two

things he needed, a new phone and a new job. He did not

learn how to deal with his own anger. But it's not only just learning

to deal for our own anger. We have to learn how to deal with

other people's anger. And I learned this my freshman summer. I was doing

an internship and it was one of that. It was on a Sunday night,

very small church, maybe thirty or forty people, and they said,

hey, once you appreach the adults on Sunday night. And I had not

preached to adults much before in my life, and so I was really nervous.

And I was preaching on the parable of the Sower, and so I

decided to bring in a pack of seeds. And here I am up on

stage and it's amateur hour and I just ripped that packet open. Well boom,

the seeds went all over the stage. And I was so embarrassed that

I don't know why. I just said, don't worry, I will vacuum

this up after church. I don't know why I said that. Well,

after church, the guy who was the janitor came to me and much holler

than me, and he looked down upon me, handing me up against the

wall and said to me, I ought to punch you in the face.

And I'm like, you don't like the parable of the Sower? And that

wasn't it? And he said, no, everybody knows that I'm the janitor,

and you insinuated that I don't know how to do my job. Now

I could not compute that other than thinking deep, deep, deep deep issues

here. And come to find out, well, first of all, he

didn't punch me, but as I'm like, please don't punch me, come

to find out that the reason he came to the church was because one day

he beat up his neighbor so bad that he had to go to the hospital

and all this stir stuff, and then he got sued and was losing his

house. The neighbor he beat up came to the church to visit. One

Sunday, the church I was interning at came to Christ, went back to

that man and said, I forgive you. I came to Christ, and

I'm not going to take your home. So the guy who threatened to punch

me was so overwhelmed with that forgiveness that he actually started attending that church,

and he came to Christ. But discipleship is a very long pathway. And

of course he had not yet conquered his anger. Have you conquered your anger?

Have you learned how to control your anger? And see the people around

him had to learn that second lesson, everybody who was around him and lived

life with him had to learn how to deal with other people's anger. Now,

when we get to the Bible, Moses is probably the number one cautionary

tale of not knowing how to deal with other people's anger. Moses lived forty

years in exile. Then God spoke to him from a burning bush. At

Moses went all the way back into Egypt where the Israelites for slaves, and

he went before Pharaoh and he said, God said, let my people go.

Pharaoh said absolutely not. And then he did a bunch of miracles.

He's a miracle worker, he's God is blessing him. He becomes this revolutionary

leader, a once in a century or millennial leader, and he brings the

people up out of Egypt, and he becomes really their spiritual father. But

in the midst of all of this we come to this story in Deuteronomy,

where we see that the one thing that the man by the way, who

was called the most humble man on this earth, the most humble man on

this earth, had one great goal in his life, and that was to

enter in to the Promised Land. But God would not let him enter into

the promised land. He wonder why his anger. Let's look at this together.

Right here we go, God is not permitting Moses to go into the

Promised Land. And we see here in Duterami thirty two, verse fifty one,

and says, this is because you broke faith with me in the presence

of the Israelites at the waters of Marabeth Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin,

and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore you

will see the land only from a distance, and you will not enter the

land I'm giving you and the people of Israel. So God was true to

his promise. He showed Moses the Promised Land, but he did not let

him in. Now, let me tell you about this incident at Marabeth Cadesh.

Okay, for forty years, they're traveling around and they're getting close to

the Promised Land, and they find themselves in this desert called the Desert of

Zin. And the desert of Zin, there's no water. There's no water

to plant vegetables crops, there's no water for the people, there's no water

for the cattle. So the people lose their mind on Moses. They're looking

around, like, Moses, what are you doing here? You've let us

out here to die, And so they become very upset and they become extremely

harsh with Moses, who was like their spiritual father. So let's look at

what happened here, So the people turn against him. Verse three, it

says in numbers twenty they quarreled with Moses and said, check this out.

It's all about ungratefulness. If only we had died when our brothers fell dead

before the Lord back in the war with Egypt. Why did you bring the

Lord's community into this wilderness that we and our live stock should die here?

Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place. It

has no grain or figs, grape vines or pomegranates, and there's no water

to drink. You see the exclamation mark. They're yelling at Moses. So

let me translate this for you in layman's term. They're saying, Moses,

you're a lousy leader. First of all, we'd have been better off dying

in Egypt. Instead, you bring us out here in the middle of nowhere

to die. And guess what when the Israel lights You know, when it's

found out that by the Egyptians that we wandered for forty years after leaving them

only to die, our legacy is going to be that of a lifey stock.

You promise us a landfalling with milk and honey. And now you've brought

us out to a place of a barren desert with no water. Moses,

you stink very clear here. They're very mad at him. Moses is rattled,

okay, and so he goes and he bows before the Lord. And

then God speaks to Moses and Aaron, and he says, hey, gather

the assembly, and I want you to go speak to this one rock and

water is going to come forth. So then, in a fit of anger,

check out what Moses did. Verse ten eleven. I love this,

He goes. Listen to you, rebels. I love that. Listen to

you, rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock? Then

Moses basically beat the rock. He struck the rock twice with his staff,

and then water came out as God promised Verse twelve. But the Lord said

to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust me enough. Now here's

the keyword. If you're in your bible right now, I'll circle this word

to honor me. This is what it's all about, right here, to

honor me as wholly in the sight of Israel lights. You did not bring

this community into the land you will not bring this community into the land that

I'm going to give them. So the anger of Moses at the end of

the day, it dishonored God. And God was deeply disappointed because Moses lost

control, and so he wouldn't let him enter into the promised land. And

here's what we need to understand today. Moses's anger prevented him from a receiving

all that God had for him planned for him and one up for him.

And let me tell you something, so many of my fellow followers of Christ

I've washed over the years did not receive all that God wanted for them,

planned for them, or hope for them because of their anger. Now,

the punishment might seem really harsh to you because you're like, hey, Moses

was a great guy for like forty years, but he made several mistakes.

Let's look at him really close. At number one, he disobeyed a direct

command from God. He was told to speak to the rock. Instead,

he beat the rock. Now, earlier in Exodus seventeen, we see that

God did bring water out of a rock when he instructed Moses to strike to

rock. But here's the thing. It's been many years later now, and

God's relationship with Moses has grown. Okay, they've been walking together, they

talk to each other face. God had brought the Ten Commandments through Moses,

so God thought, surely, mine and Moses's relationship is close enough that he

can just trust me that at my word, this will happen. Instead,

Moses took it into his own hand. But then the really big deal is

Moses took credit for bringing out the water. Look at this, He asked

the people together at the rock. And then what did he say in verse

ten? Must we bring you water out of this rock? So Moses takes

credit for this miracle himself, and he does this all publicly. And here's

what we need to understand. Moses did all these things in anger and he

just lost control. But the question to you right now is this. The

Bible says that Moses was the most humble and on this earth. So how

can we have the statement Moses is the most humble man on this earth?

And then we also see that Moses took credit. He hit a rock,

he called people rebels, he lost his mind. How does that match up?

It doesn't match up. On me tell you something, I wholeheartedly agree

with the Bible that Moses was the most humble man on this earth. I

simply offered to you this that when we lose our temper, we're not ourselves,

we're not our best selves. And he said things that were horrible,

he did things were horrible, and in that moment, Moses ceased to be

the man of God that he was. See, when we lose our mind

and we lose our emotions, we do things that we are going to regret.

But the problem is there's going to be consequences that. See, Moses

missed out on the biggest goal of his life because of his anger. And

it's not uncommon for people to miss out on some great opportunities or lose precious

things in their lives. How many marriages, let me tell you, I

can't tell you how many marriages I've I've set before in the office and they're

broken up because someone got angry and one day let it all out and those

words can never be unheard. What about the people who lost these great job

opportunities because of what they said or did in a fit of anger. What

about relationships that have been broken up because of unguarded words. And See,

I don't want any of you to miss out on all that God has for

you. So here what we're gonna do. We're gonna we're gonna dive in

and we're gonna tackle this subject. So today, like you said, you've

guessed, our big topic is anger and we're talking about the Achilles Hill and

anger for many people. Is there Achilles hill? Okay? And I think

who in here has heard the expression Achilles hill? Has everybody heard that expression?

But if you haven't, me just give you a little history. In

Greek mythology, there was a baby born. His name was Achilles, and

it was prophesied that Achilles was going to die at a young age. So

achilles mother took him to the river Styx and dipped his whole body into the

river, and the legend went that whatever part of your body touched the river

Styx, you would be invulnerable. Well, his whole body becomes invulnerable,

set for the little part of his hill that she's touching. And so therefore

he goes on to win many, many great battles, but at the end

of the day, it's his unprotected, vulnerable hill that takes him down.

And so in the modern day use we now say that somebody's Achilles hill is

your area of weakness. It's your vulnerable spot. And I wondering how many

of you this morning? Anger is your vulnerable spot. And again, it's

a sin to get angry. It's what we do with our anger. Now,

the Bible has a lot to say about anger. And by the way,

anger is easy to justify. How many of these comments have you ever

heard? I've heard a lot of these. Hey, if they hadn't done

that, I wouldn't have done this, or if this would have happened,

I wouldn't have lost control, or my least favorite one, and I hear

this often, this is just the way God made me, I'm kind of

hotheaded, or this is just how ideal with things. And so what we

want to do today for the rest of our time, we want to go

beyond the excuses and go down to the route and talk about anger. Now,

again, not all anger leads a sin. I mean, look at

let me just show you. There's a such thing as sanctified anger. Okay,

So filling upset about something isn't where the sin occurs. Okay. It's

our response to anger. It's our response to anger that leads us to do

the right thing or the wrong thing. It's our response that matters a matter

of fact, Paul says, it's to the believers and effusions. He says,

in your anger, do not sin. So he says, hey,

there's actually a choice, okay. In other words, when you are angry,

you're not in sin yet, but you have a choice about whether to

do right or wrong. But then he goes on to say, don't let

the sun go down on you while you are still angry, and don't give

the devil foothold. Now, this is interesting. This word foothold in the

Greek is the word topos, and the word topos means a room. And

so what Paul is saying is, in your anger, don't allow Satan,

the enemy, to set up residence in your heart. Don't allow him to

have a room in your heart. Because if you allow him to take up

residence in your heart, this anger, that is an emotion at a certain

point, is going to come out and become sin. By the way,

we go all the way back to one of the very first confrontations in the

whole Bible, and we see this actually play out. Let's go all the

way back to Genesis. Let's it say we got Kane and Abel, the

two brothers, and Kine doesn't bring as good of an offering as Abel did,

and so Caine's upset. God intervenes. What does he say, Kane,

why are you angry? Why is your face so downcast? If you

do what is right, will you not be accepted? And so right here,

right here, right here, at the beginning of humanity, God said,

you have a choice, and your answer can lead you to do something

that is right or wrong. But then what does he say? But if

you do not do what is right, sin, it is crouching at your

door. In other words, he's knocking on that door. Satan wants to

take up residence in your heart. Don't allow him to take up residence in

your heart. And he says it desires to have you, but you must

rule over it. So God warns came from the very beginning, don't give

the devil a guest room in your heart, because if you don't bring your

anger before God, then sin will overtake your life. In your response,

so here's what we're gonna do for the next few moments. We're gonna look

at two different types of personalities. Now I've shared these before in the past,

and I'm gonna do it again. And again and again because I think

it gives us really good framework for our church to understand what type of anger

you deal with. Okay, and so some of you have heard this before.

I'm going to talk about two different groups today. You are probably either

a spewer or a steward. Now, those of you who remember this from

the past, you probably already know what you are. But this teaching is

a reminder you're either a spewer or a steward. Now let's look at this.

Okay, So let's talk about the spewers first. What do they do?

The spewers express their anger. They express it. I like this word

better. They erupt, they explode. You don't have to worry about what

they're thinking. Does anybody without pointing live with a spewer? Are you a

spewer? But let me tell you what the Bible says. It says those

who control their temper have great understanding. In other words, you gain wisdom

by controlling your temper because you take time to process first, you take time

to analyze. But those who just don't take time to process and analyze,

you're not gonna gain wisdom. And says those with a hasty temper, you're

gonna make mistakes. So if you are a spewer, you're gonna make mistakes

and costly mistakes. And I don't want any any of you to make cost

to me. I want God's best life for you. But there's a reality

that if your anger is uncontrolled, you're gonna make some costly mistakes that you're

gonna regret. Now, I'm a spewer, I'm not a steward. Don't

worry. We'll get back to my people. You know, the stewards.

But I grew up in a household. If allus, here's some world famous

spewers. And so here's what you need to understand about our household. Growing

up. We loved our animals. We treated our animals better than we treated

ourselves. I mean, our animals were everything. Our family is animal lover

family. My dad before he came to Christ, and my dad today is

a wonderful man of God and it's been amazing to watch his journey. But

before my dad came to Christ, he was like an Olympic spewer. Okay,

And one day I'm sitting in a living room and I hear the backdoor

flinging open, and I hear my dad coming and screaming, and he yells

I'm gonna kill you, and I'm like, what did I do? And

then thankfully I see a cat and the cat runs right by me, and

I'm like, oh, thank god, he's gonna kill the cat, not

me. And so my dad then grabs us broom and I follow this chase

and we go. Oh, by the way, for those of you who

wor there was no animals injured in this story, Okay, so let's go

back. So my dad runs into the bedroom. Okay, but it must

have been laundry day because there was no sheet on the water bed. Yes,

it was the late eighties. People had water beds. Who here had

a water bed? Crazy? Huh? Well, anyways, it's crazy that

never mind. All right, So do you have any idea what a cat

does when they get scared? Their calls come out? Do you know what

calls do? Calls rip things, poke things. And so the next thing

we know, my dad's king sized water bed has a fountain feature. Surprisingly,

this did not make my dad less angry. And then one way for

the cat to escape was window was open, but there was a screen.

So this cat still being screaming all that and being chased with a bri takes

off and just clearly breaks out the screen. So now the story's over,

but my dad is stuck. He has to buy a new bed, he

has to spend a whole other day feeling this bed up, and then he

has to fix the screen, and all of this for nothing. He didn't

even get the cat. Didn't even get the cat. Now, I still

don't know what made my dad mad that day, and personally, I'm still

scared to ask. But it's one of my favorite stories of like man classic.

The Bible says this, and Proverbs says the hot headed do things that

they'll later regret. And I would add that hot headed people not only do

things that they're going to regret, and only say things that they're going to

regret. But I think if we would be honest to those of you who

are a spewer, I think that sometimes you might feel better after you spew,

but the people around you don't feel better. See our next sly simply

says this spewing leads to collateral damage. Spewing leads to collateral damage, and

so and thinking about it, this collateral damage is always against almost always against

the people we love and cherish, the most. And what does God called

us to do when he talks about the fruit of the spirit, he talks

about followers of Christ, that we are to be given to self control.

We're to be a people of self control. And so, all right,

we gave it to the stewards. Now let's give it to excuse me,

the spewers. So now let's give it to the stewards. And I'm a

steward, and so if spewers express it, what does stewards do? We

suppress it. That's my group. I'm upset about something, I push it

way way, way way down. King David even said this. When I

kept silent, my bones wasted the way through my groanings all day long,

says in other words, when I'm trying to pushed out my emotions, the

deepest part of my soul was damaged all day long. And so, and

by the way, there are people will hear us stewards. We have knocked

down, drag out fights all the time. I mean, we're always if

you are a steward, we are getting into some major fights. It's just

all on our head. You don't know about it. You can walk in

a room and we're looking at you like this, and you're like, hey,

how are you doing fine? Even though you just had a fantasy about

taking her head through the wall, You're just I'm fine. Don't worry about

it. It's not worth talking about because we want to suppress it. We

want to suppress it. But but here's what you need to understand, Okay,

suppressing your anger, it's gonna mess you up inside, okay. And

also it's gonna come out sooner or later. Either it's gonna come out like

one day where you just blow their whole life up, or it's just gonna

come out in therapy one day. It's gonna come out okay. And by

the way, it will hurt others, but it's gonna hurt you most of

all. You know, have you ever had a neighbor that you know that

they don't like you even though you've never talked anybody had that neighbor. I

have a neighbor whom we've never exchanged words, but they look at me all

the time like, how did you get into this neighborhood? And and they

they always stare at our backyard and disgust see and they look at our backyards

because you know, we don't have any landscaping. In our backyard, we

have a pond. I feel you're like, that's a feature. And but

and I'm not kidding. I've literally seen them multiple times on their hands and

knees cutting pieces of grass. Okay, they're really really serious about their long

They've probably spent thirty to forty thousand dollars on the pagoda and the rocks,

and it's amazing. By the way, I love looking at their backyard when

I'm relaxing out back. I'm very appreciative of their investment. But they often

look at me like, you don't belong in this neighborhood. And but here's

a thing in our pond. In our neighborhood, our pond is communal.

In other words, if you have access, if you could walk through some

of my yard where the rocks are, if you're around the rocks and about

five to eight feet from the bank, that's everybody's property. If you have

access to it. Well, I have access to it, so I can

walk all the way around the pond. But they're buying our little pond.

Team knows that if you walk on their waterfront property, they come out and

stare at you until you leave. That they don't want anyone on their waterfront

property. And so well, I go to fish. It's Memorial Day this

past Monday, and it's hot and I'm go to fish and none of the

fish are biting in front of me. So I look over at no Man's

Land and I'm like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go to no

Man's Land. So I was, you know, and so I walk over

to no No Man's Land and I get under this tree there that's right on

the edge of their property, and I started slaying all these bass and I'm

like, this is great, this is great, this is great. And

then all of a sudden, So here's the setup. I'm on the rock,

here's the water this close, I'm that close to the bank. That

drum kit that's their house. See how close we are. This is the

whole scenario here. So I'm sitting here and I'm fishing, and all a

sudden of her and all of a sudden, my whole back is soaked.

They turn on the sprinklers, and I'm like, was this intentional? And

then and then I did some calculus, maybe algebra, no geometry, and

I look back and I noticed that if I were to move. This stream

of water goes straight into the water. So this wasn't for the grass.

This was for me. And but here's the thing I don't understand. If

you're a chubby guy on a hot day, that felt awesome. So I'm

catching fish and I'm like, oh, thank you Lord, catching out of

fish like oh. And when the next time I heard it come, I

was like, well, they were watching me, and they did not like

that. I was enjoying that water. And so they come out and they

slam a book on the deck and I did that thing like I think they're

upset. And so now I'm not kidding. So I'm still wondering maybe this

is all just a big coincidence. And then the raised flower beds are right

there in front of the drum kit, and all of a sudden, a

bunch of rocks and big old weeds start dumping like cannons and grenades right in

my fishing hole. And you know what that you know what happens, All

the fish scatter. They got rid of all of my fish. That's war.

And so I'm sitting there going, okay, okay, this is real.

They're really throwing rocks. They're getting me off their property. So I'm

like, okay, what do I do? Lord? And I just turned

to her and I said, I just want you to know you have a

beautiful, beautiful garden. And she goes thanks, and I said, and

I just love do you work out here? If your young daughters, It's

just such a beautiful family. She didn't say nothing. She walks over,

sits down under her twenty five thousand dollars Pa Gooda, and stares at me

the rest of his time while I fish and I finally leave and I get

back to my house. I'm glad, I remembered, because the scripture that

was going through my head in that moment was a soft word turns away raft,

but a hard worse, hard worse stre's up anger. So I said,

escalating. You know, I brought the situation down, so Old James

is proud of himself. But you got to remember, I'm a steward.

So I'm sitting on my back patio and I'm looking at their house, and

I started to think, do you think you're better than me? Who do

you really think you are? And then I started daydreaming about going over there

every single day until the point they sprayed me so much that their water bills

so high that they have the foreclothes on their house and they lose everything,

and our kids are on the street and their life is horrible. Yes,

I will take that much water upon my back. And so I start stewing.

And I'm not kidding that I was actually thinking this stuff, like I

will destroy your bills and so then and then I just decided stop. This

is such a beautiful day, and the whole time you're fishing, someone was

cooling you off. Don't let Satan have to stay. So here's what I

did. I just stopped and I just went to prayer time and I read

through scriptures. I read through all the things something before, and I stayed

in that until the stewing was gone, and then I was able to have

joy again. Let me tell you something about a steward that could have lasted

all day, next week, the following week, and the week after,

but that moment I prayed until the Lord gave me peace, and even to

the point where I start praying for that family now. So here's what I

want to do at the end of the day. Whether you are a speward

or a steward, maybe you're a sprayer. I don't know, but whatever

you are, at the end of the day, you remember what may God

really upset with Moses was that he did not honor God with his response.

And see our anger. How can we honor God with our responses. So

here's what I'm want to do. At the end of the day, I

want all of you to experience all that God has for you. So I'm

just going to give you something that I don't care if you are a steward

or a speward, if you follow these five things I'm about ready to give

you. If you follow these it will take you to a better place and

you will live will God will be able to bless your life in more significant

ways, and there won't be collateral damage to other people are to your own

soul. So here's what I'm gonna do. Can everyone grab out your phone

because I'm just gonna put them up right now. Grab your phone out because

I'm gonna ask you to take a picture of this. And the reason I

want you to take a picture of these five is I want you the next

time you are offended or you are very upset, pull this out and stand

these five First of all, just stop, take a time out when you

feel when you feel that anger common okay, all right. Number two it's

very simple, read some scripture and pray. You immediately got to stop and

start praying, and you pray until the emotions subside. Number three, if

you need to, because this is healthy, sometimes address it, but in

a non accusatory language. Other words, when that happened, I felt this

way, don't say you are it's I felt, okay. But also there's

a lot of honor in number four. If you can let it go,

you know, you don't have to be offended at everything in life. And

then number five, most of all, remember your witness at the end of

the day. Our anger, if we allow it to explode, if we

allow it to affect our life, it's going to ruin our witness. And

let me tell you something you don't understand. I'm not talking about a public

like. I'm not saying like the people the gas station are going to be

shocked, because I know that law has got enough sense not to explode there.

I'm talking about your kids, I'm talking about your family members. I'm

talking about the ones who are most likely to see man, they're watching your

witness. And so how can we be a people at the end of the

day, the question is, even though we have these emotions, how can

we honor God. Well, I just think we stop and we'll invite God

into our anger. Okay, so let me pray for you. God.

We just want to come to you and we just want to be the type

of people that honor you with our emotions. And here's want to ask you

right now. For those of you in the room who took a picture of

that, I want you to go ahead, just take a moment to talk

to God and to say God, here's what I'm gonna commit to you.

I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. You know, next few times I get

angry, I'm gonna walk through this process. So once you go ahead and

just commit that to God, those of you who are spewers, ask God

to help you help you to control your anger. Those of you who are

doers, ask God to help you express your anger in a very God honoring

way. And it's gonna be different every time. Okay. So God,

we're a people that we understand that anger can be a big Achille deal in

her life and it can run our witness. But we people at the Church

of the Crossing, we want to bring you honor and glory by the way

we live our lives in our homes, at work and out and about as

well. Give all this to you now in the name of Jesus