RAGE Rash

Have you ever had something happen and you couldn't let it go?

You see all that stuff in the parking lot.

Each one had a story and it was taking up room in his residence because he would not let it go.

He took a guy's bumper because he would not use his blinker and cut him off.

Because he would not use his blinker and cut them off.

Took a shopping cart because his peas thawed out and you are not supposed to refreeze them after they unthaw.

And if you're not ready to eat them, what else can you do but like any regular person and show them and leave your cart in the line and walk away?

You can tell how emotionally and spiritually mature someone is by how quickly they get angry.

Yeah, I just want to read scripture.

Let's read scripture.

Come on, let's get to the word.

I'll let the word do the slapping you around.

I'll just be the messenger.

If you have your Bible, look at Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 26 through 31.

Ephesians 4:26–31

You have it to take home for later.

Write it down.

Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 26 and 31.

Ephesians 4:26

26 says this and don't sin by letting anger control you.

Some of us just tapped out right there.

I don't want to hear what's coming next, because I already failed.

Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

So then he goes on.

Paul goes on to say this if you are a thief, what should you do?

Quit stealing, makes sense, right.

Instead, use your hands for good hard work and then give generously to others in need.

So what you produce out of that hard work, give to others generously, for God has turned something that used to destroy your life into something for the good, which is who he is.

It's what he does.

Y'all going to get this.

On number 29.

Verse 29.

Don't use foul or abusive language.

Let everything you say be good and be helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Y'all remember, is it ringing a bell?

The Speak Life Challenge for 30 days.

It's probably gonna go on for 90 more because we don't get it yet, but verse 30 says this and do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.

Remember he has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

He has identified you, and you know what happens when you begin to understand who God is.

You begin to see more clearly who you are in him.

Jesus prayed in the garden.

Let them see I and you and you and me, so that they can have what we have.

He's about relationship, and just as God identifies you as his own and his child, so does the world, and they will watch you.

Verse 31, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words and slander, as well as all types of what kind of behavior.

It categorizes these little things we said right here anger, wrapped up in the middle of them as an evil behavior.

Let's pray, father.

We thank you so much for your presence that has been so evident here in our worship service today.

Thank you once again, holy Spirit, for coming and resting in this place.

I pray God a revival over this body of believers today that breaks out in the city of Longview, in the state of Texas and in this United States of America.

Father, let it begin here.

Let this be ground zero for what you are wanting to do in this nation.

We speak it and receive it in the name of Jesus, amen.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited about what God is doing, and when I get excited about things, I start to sweat my back from worship.

I'm telling you, man, the reason I say this.

It's kind of funny because the church that we come from, like God, would do exactly what he's doing here how we felt today.

He would do it over there, and as soon as it started happening I had to wipe while I was playing, sweat that was coming down my face like holy ghost right now.

But you know, when God starts to move and starts to do things, the physical body gets a little uncomfortable.

When he begins to move and set us right and begins to shift things in our life, it makes us uncomfortable because our fleshly desire wants to stay what right?

Where we are.

We want.

We want to stay exactly how we are.

We don't want to change, we don't want to believe over ourselves.

We were, if you oh, and, by the way, let's do a little little, uh, little spot right here for it.

We have on Tuesday mornings at 10 am prayer meeting.

We have it from 10 to 11.

I don't know if it was a carryover of the Spirit being here on last Sunday morning, but I'm telling you that we stayed here past 12 o'clock just praying and I went up to the sound stuff and I was going to turn down the volume of the music and Brother Vernon was standing right here.

And usually at the end we have this whole process.

We come, we'll testify, we'll give you know if God has laid something on your heart, we'll share with each other, which can be so encouraging, and sometimes it could be so vulnerable because you've been weighed down by the things of life.

And it's only Tuesday, but that's how life is.

Sometimes, how many of you know, when you get a touch from God and you step out those doors, real life will smack you in the face again, if not.

Before you make it to that point, and God was so evident here on Tuesday mornings, Before I turned the music down, I looked and Brother Vernon's standing here, and there's one person standing right here but nobody else budged.

I don't even think they knew that it was time yet.

They didn't even know Brother Vernon was standing here.

Sometimes we get so caught up in agendas and timeframes and what we want God to do and we've got to do it like this.

Well, it's almost noon, we've got to get to lunch, we've got to beat the Baptist or whatever you want to say, I don't care.

But we get all these different things we have that we have on checklist and we do this, it this.

It's good to be structured and scheduled, but when God doesn't do it to the way we want, it makes us upset.

Am I the only person?

I have a certain amount of songs that I have on my list.

What happens when I run out?

I guess worship's over, or I might repeat the same bridge or verse over and over and over again until I get done with it.

We have to be willing to shift and be willing to fit in the mold that God wants us to fit in, and not try to conform him to our ways, but begin to conform to his.

And the way we begin doing that is we start submitting our toxic emotions that drive us, the behaviors that drive us to be jerks, that drive us to be confrontational, that drive us to have attitudes to be negative.

They are very real feelings.

They come from a very real place.

It may be from a place of pain, it may be from a place of agony, it may be from a place of bitterness, but guess what?

God is still in the delivering business and he wants you to live the fullest life you can.

And you cannot do that if you are chained to what holds you down.

God does not desire for any man or woman in this building or on the sound of my voice online to be bound to what hinders the spirit.

The spirit of God is a freedom that, when it comes into the room, every chain becomes broken.

When he steps up on the scene, every attitude becomes docile.

Every argument is stupid when you compare it to the goodness of God.

So today we're going to be addressing another toxic emotion, and this one is rage.

I mean, the guy was talking real soft on there, but he was a person who would steal from you as a little trophy to show that you were an idiot.

It may not have been showing, but it was deeply rooted.

So many things in life, like in the video, y'all know this.

I've said this multiple times traffic is a big one for me.

I have no lack of comments when someone gets in front of me and going really slow.

We can paint it up all pretty and nice as me praying for them, but I ain't talking to the Lord.

I'm talking to them Going 45 and a 70.

Lord, help us and they will not get over to let you pass, if that's you come to the altar today.

Jesus wants to save you.

Anyone with me on that one I can tell by the giggles y'all don't want to confess, but you understand the stress.

Come on somebody.

It seems that I get so close to God.

I travel a lot for work.

I go to Tyler a lot many old, a bunch of different places surrounding the Tyler areas where we come from.

I travel a lot for work.

I go to Tyler a lot Mineola, a bunch of different places surrounding the Tyler areas where we come from.

So I have a lot of business over there in photography.

So I went over there and it's good windshield time for me because I put on worship music.

You know I get in tune with God.

I pray.

I don't read, but I listen to audio books.

I'm not trying to get in a wreck, but I listen to audio books.

I listen to audio books.

I'm not trying to get in a wreck, but I listen to audio books.

I listen to other pastors.

I'm trying to have this time allowing God to pour into me, because I know I'm going to be on the road for an hour or more, sometimes an hour and a half, sometimes two, maybe even three.

But I have all this time and so my mind before I even get in the car is.

I know that me and God are about to get in some close quarters in that vehicle and we are going to get to know each other just a little bit better.

And lo and behold, an idiot comes in front of me in traffic and will not let me pass and it just knocks out everything God was trying to do in that car.

It smashes it to pieces and then I'm like I can't even get my mind right anymore because I'm so frustrated.

Whew, smashes it to pieces and then I'm like I can't even get my mind right anymore because I'm so frustrated.

Behold, an idiot cometh and it seems like the more you're trying to get somewhere faster, the more they show up.

Amen, it's like they're all on the radio together and you pull out of your house, getting on the road, and you're like he's coming.

He's taking a left right now at the stop sign.

Yeah, pull out.

Three, two, one Now.

Okay, you up here, he's coming up to the left.

All right, go ahead, just pull out.

Just real slow, slow it down a little slower, a little slower, hey, a little slower.

And it's only when I get there and I'm telling you that someone in a room somewhere full of the devil is waiting until I get up to the green light to make it turn red.

I know that that orange or yellow, whatever you want to call it should have stayed longer than three seconds.

And don't give me a ticket when I try to go through it, because I was there when I saw it.

If I could see it green, that means I'm going through.

I don't care how far off I am.

Some of y'all are saying wow.

Some of y'all are saying amen, I get it.

Some of y'all are saying hmm, we're going to call police on you.

The guy who was just up here with the microphone, he's a cop, so too late now.

He knows.

Good thing he don't work in the city of Longview.

We've been meeting each other all the time.

Now I know that some of these things they sound really silly and they sound real little.

They sound stupid, they sound ridiculous, they sound like I'm just being okay, get over it, pastor.

This is dumb, move on.

But let me tell you it's little things like this that you may not think is big, but to me can get under my skin faster than anything think is big, but to me can get under my skin faster than anything, tell me where to go, and if I can't find it, I get mad.

I don't know if it's a man thing, I don't know if it's passed down from generation to generation and it's a curse.

I don't know.

Whatever God can break curses, amen.

But if I cannot find, if the GPS leads me to a field and there's supposed to be a building there, I will throw my phone, figuratively speaking.

Of course, I don't really act like that.

That's so childish.

When it's somebody else how they're acting, I wouldn't get mad about that.

But you have your thing.

It may not be traffic, it may be a Walmart line, or it may be.

Now I'm going to confess my father's sins.

It may be it makes you upset that they have checkouts where there's not a real person there, because you're paying money to go there and shop.

You want to talk to somebody.

My dad will not go into the self-checkout.

He said I ain't getting paid to work here, come on somebody.

And yes, there may be little things, but these emotions and this anger, the anger that rises up when these things happen and occur.

It's very real.

It may be the boss at your job.

They take credit for your hard work, but when something or a deadline is not met, you're the problem.

It may be someone that is constantly getting promotions but the boss has no idea how they're really talking behind their back.

Hmm, was that real?

It may be someone that, in every conversation, always thinks they have the right answer and they want everybody to know it, and you would rather get throat punched than listen to one more self-centered, know-it-all comment that they have coming out of their mouth.

It may be that your husband or kids constantly leave dishes in the sink or trash After they finish something.

The trash can is right there and you left it on the counter right here, moron.

Open it up and put it in there.

Or maybe they leave their underoos around on the floor for you to pick up and clean.

Or maybe, or maybe, or maybe your wife oh, come on, y'all sucked up real quick.

Some of you men got scared.

Maybe your wife likes to play the cruel game of hide and seek with your tools.

Or maybe your child does it.

Mine is very gifted in this.

He doesn't remember.

It's like he has short-term memory loss and he doesn't remember anything that just happened.

He didn't touch it and I'll find it in his room.

Or maybe you look, you're about to sit down.

You've had a long day and you sit down and you're wanting to watch some TV.

You're like, you know I got 30 minutes to myself.

I'm just going to flip it to the channel that I love.

I'm going to watch a movie that I haven't watched in a while.

I'm going to watch a show I've been binge watching last weekend.

I'm going to sit down and you go to reach for the remote in its faithful place and you don't know where it went.

And then everyone in the house has amnesia and has no clue where it is.

And you knew it wasn't you.

And if your child has gone on vacation and you and your wife are the only person there, it couldn't have been me.

She said it wasn't her.

We do this almost.

It's almost an every night thing, like.

So our thing is at nine o'clock, we go to bed and we wind down, so we'll sit with our pillows, we'll read, we'll scroll Facebook, instagram, whatever.

It's.

Just wind down, so we'll sit with our pillows, we'll read, we'll scroll Facebook, instagram, whatever it's.

Just wind down from the day and we'll put something on the TV.

And we'll put something on the TV and we have these little like real thin covers that aren't really heavy, because I get hot when I sleep and I don't want no thick blanket on me.

I'm not paying for the air conditioning so I could sweat while I sleep.

That's another story.

We're not going to touch that one.

But and we always lose the remote in these covers every time and we're like where is it?

We're like it's like we're blind.

We're going like this, like I don't know where is it.

I don't know.

Did you have it last?

I don't know.

I have gotten on to her about where did you put the remote?

And looked and it was right beside my bed where I left it, where I left it.

And little, small things like a remote that is literally that big will set off chain of events that will echo into the next week over a remote that I didn't even put back where it was supposed to go.

But it's automatically her fault.

I'm preaching now.

It's never our fault, it's always someone else's fault.

They always act like it's about them.

They're a bunch of idiots.

They can't really drive when you drive like a maniac and almost kill everybody.

Or maybe you're in the Walmart line and you're like, oh, they're so slow and it's really someone who needs real help, but you're too blinded by your raw emotions and anger and rage that you don't realize that the person who's been at the counter for 20 minutes can't find money to pay for the groceries they just put on there.

If we believe that God orchestrates our steps, stop looking as things are obstacles and look at them as opportunities.

And I am preaching big to myself on that one.

I don't know how in the world I can turn a remote story into opportunity, but let's just pray that God works it out.

That might've been a real experience, I don't know.

Maybe you have a relative or friend that always comes around and they always want to borrow money.

They always come to you with their handout.

They always are needing something.

Always something is going wrong, always this or always that, or you may be.

Yesterday I was over over in Mineola and there was a family.

It was a pregnant woman.

She had a daughter and a son.

The daughter looked probably 12 or 13.

And they had these roses that they were standing at the Walmart entrance that had Whataburger.

There.

I was eating God's burgers and they got a big cracker.

Once you start thinking about it, you can't stop until you have one.

Something's crazy, and so I'm like you know what?

I had cash in my pocket actually from you, and I was like you know what.

God blessed me with this.

Who am I?

I walked over there, I handed.

You know, god taught me this lesson one time at youth camp when I was going to give an offering.

I pay tithes to my church.

I don't have to give here, this is just camp.

God taught me something because I was going to give my $5 that I had, and when I reached in to grab my $5, he said you just passed up a 20.

Yeah, that's my snack money for the rest of the week.

God taught me something then is that when you automatically, out of the abundance of your heart, give the least, expect to receive not much more.

And so I reached in there and I gave her that $10 bill and you know, I could have in my head thought of all the ways of how she's going to waste that money, or it's probably she was on the side saying they were struggling.

They didn't look homeless, they weren't like dressed down.

I mean the girl tried to hand me a rose.

They were selling them to help them in some way.

I said, no, keep the rose.

How many of us pass up people.

I'm not telling you to give to everybody you do it when God tells you to do it but I'm saying how many times do we live in our anger when God's trying to use us and we just pass up a blessing that we could have been to somebody else?

What if that one time that you said God bless you and you stopped besides giving them money and decided to pray for them, that that was the pinnacle of when things begin to turn around in their life, because someone actually stopped and paid attention and gave them the time that they needed?

I get mad if I think somebody looks like a drug addict.

I don't want to give them cash.

Am I the only one?

Maybe maybe the government is a sore subject for you right now.

Am I the only one?

Maybe Maybe the government is a sore subject for you right now?

I had to put it in here, come on, come on.

Maybe it makes your blood boil.

You think they're all a bunch of professional crooks that forgot that they actually work for us and then they use us to pawn against each other to get their way in agendas.

Or maybe you're wondering why the government hasn't rode in on its white horse and saved you, like they keep promising every election year.

It's so crazy.

There are many things in life that can rub us the wrong way, that can get us fired up and make steam come out of our heads and leave what feels like road rash to our soul, and that's why I call today rage rash.

These things that make us mad.

They infuriate us from the littlest to the biggest.

We allow these things to take root in our hearts and begin to fester and they leave a mark on our soul.

They leave their mark on our attitudes.

They leave a mark on our minds.

They leave a mark on how we interact within our relationships.

They leave a mark on how we interact with each other.

At church.

Mark Twain said 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.

I'll say it again it rhymes, so it has to be true, right?

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.

Have the things?

I want you to ask yourself this have the things that you've allowed to upset you, to get you in a raw state of anger, emotion and rage.

Have you allowed them to take control of your mind and your heart?

So we're in church, so we're going to see what the Bible says about this.

Is that okay?

In the Bible there are 15 different instances where anger and fire are in the same verse.

The word anger and fire in the same verse.

This is a comparison that is revealing and it is accurate to this destructive emotion and the emotional tendencies that come with anger.

Fire can be used in a controlled environment.

In the middle of winter, it can warm you, it can do good for you, but when it burns out of control, it can easily catch everything in its path and destroy everything that it touches.

A literal fire in seconds.

When raging out of control and burning out of control, it can destroy everything, consuming in just a few moments what you have spent your entire life saving up for a consuming fire that will burn up everything.

Wildfires can destroy thousands of acres of timber in moments.

Wildlife and natural resources even claim people's lives.

According to a recent data from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, fire-related deaths average nearly 3,000 a year.

3,000 deaths a year for wildfires.

What does this mean?

It's very obvious that the Bible is saying that when they group these two words together on purpose, that, just like a fire, if left unchecked it can destroy everything in its path.

Our anger can be used constructively.

It can be used deconstructively, destructively.

It can be used as a catalyst for justice, a pursuit of God's righteousness.

God has a righteous anger.

Anger can cleanse, it can restore and it can unite and actually, when the forest is burnt up, it actually rejuvenates the soil.

Or, if allowed to rage out of control and unattended, being combined with our desires bless you and our frustrations and our grievances, it can lead to hurting others and ourselves.

There's two types of anger and we just touched on them.

There is a righteous anger.

Now this surfaces in me very quickly when I see over and over again I'm not even watching regular television, I stream stuff like Amazon Prime or something like that, and every commercial has become full of homosexuality, every single one of them.

Like you're watching a commercial and they're all dancing and whatever, and then you see a little clip of something that's this is a watch commercial.

Why in the world did you need to put that in there?

It's so random, but it's very intentional and this serves up a righteous anger in me because I know if you've heard the controversy about the Buzz Lightyear movie.

Everybody got up in arms about that because they had a same-sex marriage couple at the I think it was at the end of the movie and most people don't know this.

But if you've ever seen the animated movie Stork, it's talking about bringing babies and it's kind of a funny way of talking about how they're born and the storks have to bring them and that's how they get to the mommy and daddy.

And at the very end of the movie they're showing different families.

It's cutting and then they have the same sex.

Who's blipped in there?

And that was a few years ago and nobody even caught it.

Nobody said a word about it.

They're after our children and we get upset about same-sex things, but we allow sexual immorality all the time in our homes.

It's on every show, it's on every type of anything.

Everything has become sexualized.

We have the right, as children of God, to raise up in righteous anger, attacking the truth.

If you haven't noticed, they're trying to adjust the truth and make it as far left as they can.

And if you say any different, you're a hater, you're a bigot, you're homophobic, You're whatever, whatever word you want to put on it, all the icks and the whatever-ists they try to put on these words.

But let me tell you something that makes me angry, but I still love them.

If Jesus can be hung between heaven and earth on the cross, between two people who did not deserve to go to heaven and of them was offered in, if he can do that, he hung on the cross and he knew how I was going to be in the depths of my sin, how you were going to be in the depths of your sin.

If he can be on the cross as the sacrificial lamb for us and say, father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing, why can we not have that same posture of love towards them?

You can love somebody and not accept sinful nature, and it's not that I'm lashing out at them.

I fight with sexual sin all the time, sexual immorality.

There are things that plague the church and we act like they don't exist and expect it just to solve itself and we get uncomfortable when we talk about it.

But Jesus said if you even look upon a woman and you lust, you have already committed it.

That's why I've been pouring out that you have got to start having preventative measures in your heart and mind, because the enemy is trying to entice you, attack you and rip you apart.

He is not your friend, he is not on your side and we have to be disgusted.

I'm disgusted with sin in the world because I'm disgusted with sin in myself.

I cannot tell them that they can't do this, that God says that that is impure, immoral and it is not right, not to my standard, but his.

The standard that I say to them is the same standard I hold to me, because the Bible is not meant for just one type of people, it is meant for everyone, and so the truth is across the board.

You can't reinvent truth, and that's what makes them so mad, because it's so obvious.

And that's what makes them so mad because it's so obvious.

This surfaces when we see that God's truth is being opposed and it's being distorted.

That's what the enemy does, you see, in the garden.

In the very beginning, the devil did this.

He said a partial truth with a lot of lies, and they bit.

They could put just enough truth.

We have people in the justice system that can't even define what a man and a woman is.

They are supposed to uphold the law, what truth, righteous and justice is, and they can't even say what it is Under perjury.

They will not say what it is.

We have to be bold, we have to be honest, because what happens is the church looks at people who suffer from these things and they are being oppressed and the enemy is attacking them so strong.

We pretend like we've never sinned and we come at them with all these scriptures that tell them what they can't do and we forget that God loves them and that he does not want any man or woman to suffer and die and go to a devil's hell.

It was not designed for us.

Jesus displayed this, the righteous anger, when he went into the temple.

Now, in this story, he went and took the time to fashion a whip.

I can just imagine I put myself in the Bible stories all the time.

If it was me and I was Jesus and I'd never done anything wrong, I would be sitting there.

I'd be like, oh yeah, okay, all right, I knew what you did Every person I'm going to name their name as I weave it in and out making that whip.

And Jesus went in there and he had every right, because they turned the house of God into a den of thieves.

When God is being challenged, you don't have to fight his fight, but when he is being mocked, you have the right to stand up for it.

And the second one is bad anger.

This usually comes out of emotions driven by feelings, a loss of control, and will end up causing us to do something that is not righteous.

You see, in our flesh, we sometimes like to take the righteous anger and twist it just a little bit to where it fits, our fleshly anger.

Well, I'm mad about this.

And the word says this that has nothing to do with what you're upset about, and we try to paste it onto what we want it to say instead of what it actually says.

And twisting God's word will end up justifying our sinful nature.

And this is dangerous, because this is the exact behavior of what the devil did.

You see, when God designs things and he says listen, this is not what you should do.

It's not to keep us from something we're going to enjoy, we would still all be in the Garden of Eden if Adam and Eve did not mess up, if they would have put aside their selfishness.

It was what they wanted to see, they desired.

Oh, there's something more than this.

I want it.

God didn't have that for them.

They literally had everything they needed and they still wanted what they didn't have that for them.

They literally had everything they needed and they still wanted what they couldn't have.

This is dangerous Cain and Abel.

He killed his brother.

He actually was upset because God took his brother's sacrifice and did not take his.

He made him so angry I hope none of you have done this Made him so angry that he killed someone.

Matthew 5, 21 and 22,.

It says this Jesus is doing the Sermon on the Mount, one of his most famous sermons, and it says you have heard it said to the people long ago you shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

Okay, that's fair, right, good job.

You know this is the amen corner.

Yeah, that's right, jesus, yeah, and then he goes on.

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

He compared being angry with the brother or sister in Christ as to being a murderer.

The Bible says that if you were at the altar giving your praises and your sacrifice to God and someone has done you wrong.

I say this all the time.

It needs to come true to you.

Someone is at the altar.

Think about this.

You're the one at the altar, you are praising God, you're living right, your prayers are going up, your sacrifice is being accepted and you have not done anybody wrong.

But it says that if they have just done you wrong, you need to go make it right.

Why?

Because God's all about taking the high road.

It maps it out that the path is straight and narrow and it's very little traveled.

James says this I love the book of James.

James don't care.

He's writing you.

He's like I don't care what you believe, I don't care how you act.

I'm going to tell you how it is, james.

In chapter 1, at 19 and 20, it says very plainly my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

And then he says why?

Because, in verse 20, because human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

So how do we fight against this?

How do we get angry but we don't sin?

Get angry but we don't sin?

How do we get frustrated with dummies driving on the road that just need Jesus?

How do we get in the middle of a heated argument and we're supposed to act like God, but we know we're right, we stop, we listen before we respond and you take time to process.

I have a rule In my ministry.

This is my rule.

If you don't hear back from me immediately or you say something to me and it upsets me, I will not respond.

You text, call, whatever.

I wait 24 hours because I need to pray and I need to cool my head Because nothing good ever comes out of a quick response of anger.

It doesn't Even Jesus.

When he walked into the temple and saw what they were doing, he did not act.

Then he went, he fashioned a whip and then he came back.

Sometimes we get angry and lash out and we end up giving a punishment that is not deserving of the crime.

Oftentimes, as parents, we have these conversations where Tristan does something and I want to get the board.

I wrote little bestie on there, so it makes it better, right, best friend?

I have a cutting board with the sides broke off.

Little paddle Doesn't take much, he has no rear end, but sometimes in my anger I want to get him.

Then my father would always make me go down into we had a basement up in Missouri.

Down into the basement he said you need to go down there and pray about what you did.

Boy, you know he's a pastor, so he had the pastor voice and he was probably quoting scripture and all that other stuff.

And I would go down there and I would cry myself silly because I knew that the vents were fashioned downstairs to give some air down there, but then they would shoot it up through the floor and I knew he had to hear me.

I wanted to make sure that my father knew that I was really sorry and just maybe he would lighten up on the spanking I was about to receive.

This never worked, but I have faith.

Every time.

I thought that my dad sent me down there to pray through, but he always still gave the punishment.

I didn't realize until recently that some of the safest things for me to do when I'm angry with my child is to send him to his room and tell him to think about what he's done.

When I'm going to think about what I'm going to do, and then I will talk with her about it.

And we sometimes decide, okay, it really wasn't worth the spanking, sometimes in the heat of the moment.

And we sometimes decide, okay, it really wasn't worth the spanking, sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you can lash out and it wasn't worth the spanking that you gave.

It wasn't worth the anger that you passed along to that person, because we all know this, misery loves company.

Anger also enjoys it.

So does negativity.

You start getting negative.

You start speaking that into existence.

Everybody around you is gonna start wearing it too.

You start being angry.

You're gonna lash out at somebody and guess what?

They're gonna pass it on to the next person.

God doesn't give us these scriptures to make it where you can never be angry.

You're allowed to be angry, but you're not allowed to sin against the person that you're supposed to be loving.

God wants us to be in good relationship and good standing to where, even to the point to where we don't do something wrong, we still go and try to fix it, and that is called maturity.

I told you all this story before.

There was a man in my parents' church I was tapping on these papers of a girl it was her grandpa, I think and I had drumsticks.

I was the drummer at my dad's church.

He walks up, he grabs the sticks, he snaps them over his leg and throws them at my feet, and this is a board member at my dad's church and he says she told you to stop and then walked out.

Well, I'm like nine.

I started bawling.

I was like my drumsticks.

It didn't warrant that.

But my mom taught me a lesson in this very same instance and it did not make sense to me at the time, but today it rings truer than it ever has before.

She told me that I needed to go up to him and apologize.

Now maybe I'm the only one, but that didn't sit right with me because I didn't do anything wrong.

It's not always about the focus of who did wrong.

It's about who's trying to make it right.

It's not always that they need to come to you, because you may never have that conversation, but the way you look at them and treat them, the way you go to them and submit yourself to them, it changes the atmosphere of it.

The very people that love Jesus, the disciples that he washed their feet.

They abandoned him and crucified him.

Sometimes you have to be the loving one in spite of the hate, and that path is not fun, but it is what you, as a child of God, is called to do.

That's not my rules, trust me.

I don't like it either, but that is what we're called to do.

This is when we start to become spiritually mature, is when God begins to mold something inside of us different, begins to grow different fruit inside of us and it says okay, what am I going to do?

Am I going to lash out?

Am I going to give what I just got, or am I going to shut my mouth, stop being negative and start speaking life over the situation, because he is the way, the truth and the life.

So when you begin to speak life, you're speaking Jesus into the situation.

When you begin to love the unlovable, when you begin to respond in a way that does not make fleshly sense, they begin to see the Spirit living out in you.

And are we not called to be higher than our flesh, to be better than our flesh, to actually be led, manufactured and have the fruits of the Spirit pouring out of us?

God has called every single person in here to do that.

We're called to be better.

We must be better Because if we act just like them, it will never draw them in, because they already have what we have.