Whack-A-Mole – Knocking Down Anger

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

I am so honored and excited to get to speak for you.

It is my joy, my privilege.

Pastor Jason kicked this series whack-a-mole off.

Did you whack-a-mole?

Whack-a-mole?

Wacamole?

I don't know.

It looks like a hot dog to me.

Anyway, um, a little hot dog with a face.

Um, he kicked this series off two weeks ago and he spoke about stress.

And then last week, Pastor Isaiah spoke about disappointment.

And today I'm here to talk to you about anger and all the things we're trying to get out of our life and what makes us angry.

I don't know what makes you angry, but I had an experience yesterday that brought up anger.

I we hosted a yard sale, and those are just truly terrible.

Like you put your stuff in the driveway and then invite everyone to judge you.

Like it's like, and the thing that makes me angry is the people that do the drive-by of your stuff and they go, No.

And I'm like, who are you?

You don't know.

My stuff is good stuff.

Um, and that makes me so angry.

But I sat there and I have like, I don't know if it's a condition.

Like last night I couldn't sleep, so I Googled it, um, which is a terrible idea.

Any people who can't sleep and start Googling things, don't do that.

Don't do not do that.

Um, but I take on the accent of whatever person I'm speaking to.

I don't know, like, I don't mean it offensively.

I don't mean it, like I genuinely I looked it up and it said that this is a real condition, but it said that psychologists say if you do that, you're a very empathetic person.

So I'm gonna go with that.

Um, but truly, like people will come up and be like, hey y'all, good morning.

I'm like, how y'all doing?

Y'all doing good?

I'm from Queens, New York.

And then I've had this my whole life.

Um, everybody assumes like I'm Latina.

I am 100% Italian.

Um, but everybody, like this girl came up into the driveway and was like, hola buenos, and I was like, hola mommy.

I was like, I was like, Kittag, like I don't speak Spanish, but in the moment, I just really wanted to be there for her.

You know what I'm saying?

Um it got really awkward when she started like full speaking, and I was like, see.

Interesante.

Laro.

All right.

Um, but it's just wild.

I don't know.

I've always had that problem.

Um, but garage sales make me a little bit angry.

Um, my I'm not even gonna talk about my road rage because that has been well documented here at the church.

Don't woo, don't woo.

Do not woo for that.

I will say this.

This weekend I was out with friends, and um, if you do not have children yet in the room, can I tell you this?

Something to consider before you reproduce.

Um, having a child is like having an annoying vocal conscience that follows you around and tells all your worst moments.

Okay?

So we're out with friends, and sweet, sweet Ella, the expensive one, she says.

Uh she goes to my friend, yeah, my mom will get mad in the car and be like, you idiot.

And I'm just like, first of all, that's don't say that, but then I was like, honey, it's way worse when you're not in the car.

Um, but that's what makes me angry.

I get I get angry about stupid things.

I think at like the heart of it, I'm a rule follower.

Any rule followers, we're like the good kids in school, you know.

Like, um, and I think like if you cut me in line, that bothers me.

Well, why?

Because why did you cut in line?

There's a rule.

Do you know what I mean?

I think that's what it is.

I think like at the heart of it, it's like, I feel like you did me wrong, you you cut me in line, and and these are silly things, and we laugh about it.

Um, but I want to talk about anger today, and I felt this word so strongly in my heart when Pastor Jason asked me to preach today.

Um, some of you are laughing, and you're like, that's funny things to be angry about.

You're like, what I'm angry about isn't that funny.

What I'm angry about is a moment that wrecked my soul that has been holding me back for years now.

What I'm angry about is some way that I was violated when I was younger.

What I'm angry about is a loss in my life that you could not even understand the depths of the pain.

And I'm here to tell you, I want to tackle all of that today.

I actually believe it's no mistake you're here today.

I believe God sent you today, and we're gonna deal with this.

Here's the thing at the root of anger is a sense of self, right?

When we're angry because something in us was violated.

I say it like this anger comes when I feel my rights have been violated.

Anger comes when I feel my rights have been violated.

If you could put that on the screen, there we go.

Perfect.

And we're gonna we're gonna talk about that a little bit today.

Now, before you even go there, there is such a thing as holy anger.

Everyone's gonna be like, but there's holy anger.

Jesus flipped the tables.

Everybody likes to talk about that.

Jesus flipped the tables?

Sure.

Sure he did.

There's a great chance you're not dealing with holy anger.

There's a great chance.

He was Jesus.

Um, if you need a lipness test for is my anger holy or is it self-focused, just realize what is at the root of it.

Does it serve you?

Are you angry because of something of yours was disturbed, or is it truly a cause of injustice?

In fact, I I do have like there's one thing I will say for all my rule following nist, I'm what you call a ride or die.

Do you know what that is?

It means I'm a loyal.

Italians, we are loyal, okay?

And we will tell you bad things to your face because we're loyal, but we would also fight for you.

Like put a horse in your bed, whatever.

Um, we will fight for you.

And one time, um, I you need a friend that's a ride or die too.

Like I make a very good friend because I'm very loyal, but um, you need a friend that's a ride or die.

Mine is Ida Mandel, she's sitting there, and um, so we had a situation once where a girl in kindergarten and my daughter was in kindergarten, said something nasty to my daughter, and I'm not gonna play with that.

Like, I just called Ida and I said, um, I told her what happened.

I'm not even gonna repeat it because it's disgusting, and I don't think that girl's doing that well now in fourth grade.

I don't know, I'm just saying she was on a path.

Anyway, and I called Ida and I told her what happened, and she's like, I'll be right there.

And I don't know.

We just we just rolled up to the school.

I don't know what we were gonna do to the five-year-old girl.

Us like full women just like approaching her, but we weren't gonna stand for it, you know.

Um, but that's that's loyalty, that's love.

I think that kind of anger can can serve a purpose, right?

But there's a good chance today that something you're dealing with is an anger that stems from one of your rights being violated.

And I want to talk about it.

Um, we're gonna go to the Bible.

It's the best book.

I'm in a master's degree program right now, and it has just thank you.

Thank you so much.

I don't know if that was for I don't know if that was for me.

I didn't say it that way.

Well, thank you.

Um thank God, because I'm tired.

Um, I have a lot of book recommendations where the recommendation is don't read that.

But the Bible is amazing.

I've read it my whole life.

My dad is a pastor, my grandfather was a pastor, but every day the Bible is alive and new and challenging.

And do you know that anger is mentioned over 200 times in the Bible?

And that's encouraging, because that to me says God knew we were gonna get angry, right?

And he's gonna give us some help in dealing with it.

So let's go to the word of God, shall we?

We're gonna start in Ephesians 4.

I'm reading in the New King James, that is my favorite version of the Bible.

Uh, you can read in whatever version you want, but I do have a cute story.

When I was like third grade, my pastor dad saw me reading my little school Bible, and he said, What version of the Bible are you reading, Liz?

And I flipped it over and I said, holy, and then I just kept going.

Holy is not a version of the Bible, just to clear that up.

Um uh they are all holy.

Uh, this is the living word of God.

So if you ask me in your life, how am I doing?

One of the first questions I ask people who come into my office is, Are you in the word?

As the word will feed you, God will meet you every day where you are.

So let's go.

Ephesians 4 26, it starts and this says, Be angry and do not sin.

That's interesting.

Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

We're gonna come back to that.

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

I love the opening line.

Be angry and do not sin.

So what does that say?

Well, that that means this to me.

Anger leads to sin, but it's not a sin.

So it's not a sin to be angry.

It's what we do with it, right?

It's not a sin that somebody cuts me off in traffic and I get angry.

It's a sin when I say, you moron, right?

That's when the sin comes in.

Anger leads to sin, but is not a sin.

I was thinking of anger for this series, and when I was kind of watching other messages, thinking about anger, thinking about my life, I realized there's no winning in anger, is there?

You you could be angry and you can hold on to anger, but there's no real win, right?

So if I'm fighting with my husband and we get mad at each other, I I'm not making my marriage better.

My marriage doesn't get better because I'm angry.

Uh if I yell at my kids, I never feel better about that.

I feel terrible about it afterwards.

When I yell at people in traffic, I feel like a failure because my kids are mimicking me for the backseat, telling people what they saw.

There's no real win in anger.

Um, so I like to think of it this way: being angry is inevitable, okay?

You're gonna get angry.

We live in a fallen world with things that are designed to make us angry, like lines that are too long and the road diet and whatever else, you know?

And it these things are designed to make us angry, right?

So being angry is inevitable, but living angry is a choice.

Well, what do I mean?

Well, that means that I could get angry, right?

But holding on to my anger, that's that's on me.

That's between me and God.

Am I gonna hold on to it or am I gonna let it go and keep going and try to live in such a way that I don't have anger as a part of my life?

We're gonna go back to Ephesians because there's a part I want to touch on.

It's this, and I'm gonna switch to the NIV because I love the way they said it.

It says in 427 NIV, it says, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Do not give the devil a foothold.

Um, that word in the original Greek is it looks like this.

I won't try to say it, but it translates to place or a room.

It's saying, when you're angry, you are literally giving the devil a room.

And who in their right mind would do that, right?

Who in their right mind would say, Come on in, I got a room for you, I made you some space, stay a while, right?

I love having guests.

I love to prepare the house.

I'm one of those, I'll be incredibly honest, who's like, please excuse the mess, but I know it looks good.

Um, I know it, I know it looks good.

I just gonna say that because that's what you say.

But who in their right mind would say, uh, come on in, devil, take a place.

And and the Bible is very clear.

This is not in your notes, but in 1 Peter 5.8, it says, the enemy, the devil, prowls around like a lion looking for ways to destroy us, right?

Okay, so if, follow me, if the devil is looking for ways to destroy us, and our anger gives him a foothold, a place, a room, wouldn't it follow then that the enemy wants you angry?

Yeah, he wants you angry at each other.

He wants you angry at your friends, he wants you angry at your spouse, angry at your kids.

He wants you angry with the church.

He wants you angry with God.

Yeah.

Um, we're gonna go to the Bible and look at somebody who dealt with anger, and I love this story.

This was not the original story I had planned when I thought about this, but we're uh we're gonna go to the Bible because I love what Dwight Moody said.

He said, You're the Bible's gonna keep you from sin, or sin is gonna keep you from the Bible.

And so let's kind of do it this way.

Let's go to the Bible, let it try to keep us from sin and hear what it has to say about this, all right?

We're gonna go to 2 Kings 5 and we're gonna read about a man named Naaman, and we're gonna find out from the jump a lot about him.

So Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.

So uh Aram, this is an area in like Syria.

He's a great military official, he's important.

It says that he was a great man.

Uh he was highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram.

So stop there, and it says, so in other words, this guy's successful, right?

He's an army guy who has had a lot of wins under his belt.

He's looked to with regard.

But check this out what it says.

It says, he was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Wow.

Okay, so he had leprosy.

I don't know what kind of mental images come to your mind when you think of leprosy.

Me, I think of somebody being unclean and having to shout that out and life of isolation.

Um we think of it as a skin disease, and it is, it's a it's a it's a a nerve disease.

So this would be infathomably painful, infathomably hard to live with.

It would isolate you.

You would be, this was a death sentence.

So he's this great commander of this army, but he has leprosy.

So this is wild, right?

So he hears from his wife's servant about a prophet named Elisha.

And he and she's like, you know, you should go check out what this guy, Elisha, is doing.

I I think he could heal you.

Okay, so this is what happens.

If we're gonna go on to verse 9, it says, So Naaman went with his horses, his chariots, he stopped at the door of Elisha's house, and he said, Elisha sent a messenger to him.

Okay, now hang on.

Elisha, it doesn't go out to meet him.

That's interesting right away.

If you're this man, Naaman, how angry do you think you are already at life?

You've already been given leprosy.

That's a bad go.

That's a bad get.

And now you go to this man to ask for healing, and he doesn't even have the time to come out to meet you.

If I'm Elisha, I'm getting a little angry, okay?

So so he he sends a messenger out to say to him, and this is what Elisha says: go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.

Very odd directions.

This is how he's saying the healing would come, okay?

And but Naaman went away angry, okay?

So Naaman's like, the Jordan, we came all the way from here.

The Jordan, if you don't know, is a muddy, kind of gross river.

And so that's like strike two here.

Naaman's like, are you serious?

Like, he's like, I thought surely he'd come out and wave his hand and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God.

Uh, keep it going, and wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.

Are not Abana and Farpur, these are rivers and bodies of water where he was from.

Uh, aren't these rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?

Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?

So he turned away and went off in a rage.

Okay, so what's happened so far?

This man, he has leprosy.

He comes kind of vulnerable, asking for healing.

Elisha not only doesn't meet him in person, but then goes, and go to the muddy waters and dip in there, and that's how you're gonna get healed.

And Naaman's upset.

He's like, What is going on?

So Naaman's servants go up to him and they're like, Look, my father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?

They're like, Come on, man, let's let's try this his way, right?

How much more then when he tells you, wash and be cleansed.

So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, like Elisha said, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God, back to Elijah.

He stood before him and said, Now I know that there is no God in all the world except Israel, so please accept a gift from your servant.

Did you catch what happened?

Why was Naaman angry?

It's not that he didn't get healed.

Naaman was angry because God didn't heal him the way he thought he should heal him.

And how many of you are there?

How many of us have prayed for a miracle?

God didn't answer the way we thought he should, and we're angry because we expected the waved hand in the healing, like Naaman, right?

We expected God would show up the way we asked him to, and he did not.

And Naaman is coming to Elijah saying, Heal me, I want you to do it like this.

And Elisha says, Okay, go do this.

Naaman didn't just want to be healed, he wanted to be healed his way.

It's almost like this.

Um, it's the difference between some of us praying to God, thy will be done.

No, we're praying, God, my will be done.

And when the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, he said, You say this, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

But how many of us are in this same place?

We've prayed, God doesn't answer the way we tell him to.

Our will.

And because of that, we're angry.

I felt as clear as a bell when I was praying yesterday morning that somebody here, I don't know if it already happened, maybe it was first service, maybe it's not you, but somebody here was stuck in this very place we're talking about.

That you have prayed, God didn't answer the way you thought he would, and now you're so stuck in anger.

And we're gonna deal with that today.

Maybe you're realizing, even as I'm saying these words, that your prayers have been, God, my will be done, not thy will be done.

And there's a difference.

Ultimately, the miracle did happen for Naaman, but it happened God's way.

And maybe some of us are so stuck in the way we've been praying that we don't even realize miracles have happened, just not the way we wanted it to.

So you're like, okay, this is great.

Now you've brought up all my anger.

Thanks a lot.

We're gonna go to some steps, some practical things of how we can get anger out of our life.

I'm I fully believing today is gonna be a day of breakthrough and freedom for some of you.

The first thing is this we're gonna exchange my anger for gratitude.

Why do we say that?

Well, it's basically impossible to be selfless and angry at the same time.

Why?

Well, because anger says you owe me.

Anger says you violated my rights, you did something that hurt me, and this is what I deserve.

Oh, but when I take my anger and I bring it into the shadow of the cross of Jesus who died for me, was beaten for me, was bruised for me.

How can I hold on to the idea of my rights?

See, it's like the other day, my husband and I were in the middle of a fight.

We do fight.

It's a it's a thing.

We are human like you.

We always come back to love.

We were fighting.

I don't even remember what we were fighting about.

That's how most fights are, right?

And in the middle of the fight, we found out that a friend of ours that we went to college with, our age, her husband had passed away.

And we just looked at each other and it was like all the fight went out of us, right?

All the anger went out of us.

Why did that happen?

Why did the anger go away?

Well, because we realized it didn't matter, right?

When we thought about this poor girl grieving her husband, burying her husband, we thought, I'm so glad I have you.

Forget the fight, it didn't matter anyway, right?

Our anger is like that when we take it to the cross.

Why?

Because what leg do I have to stand on when compared to all that God has forgiven me of, all that God has done for me.

And if we practice a daily gratitude, we'll find our anger our anger starts to slip away.

Why?

Because it doesn't stand up in light of the cross.

The second thing is this we need to use our words.

I love what Proverbs 15 says.

It says this.

It says, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Well, what do I mean?

Can I tell you?

I have been appalled as a Christian to watch the way some of you write online, the way some of you go after people, the way some of you argue and are angry.

Your words are stirring up anger.

They're not bringing peace, they are stirring up wrath.

And I will preach this till I'm blue in the face.

This is one of my life messages, but God gave you a voice, and you're in danger of losing your voice if you abuse your voice.

And what about what happens when the time comes that your voice is called on to speak the gospel and people have tuned you out because they stopped listening to you a long time ago?

Don't abuse your voice, you'll lose your voice.

What do you have to do?

How do I use my words?

Well, I use my words as instruments of peace.

Oh, I gotta tell you, I used to be so dumb.

I I'm still sometimes dumb, if I'm incredibly honest, but I um in college I had like a best friend, and she and I were close, and I was about to be in her wedding, and like a week or two before her wedding, she sat me down and she told me like six months of grievances she had with me.

And I was hurt.

And I'd love to tell you, I went home, prayed, asked God's forgiveness, and spoke to her.

Nope.

You know what I did?

I put my badge of woundedness on and I wore it around town, and I told everyone how wronged I had been.

I told everybody how bad she had done me, and I was talking, talking, talking, talking, talking.

You know what I did?

I ruined any chance of that friendship ever being restored.

Why?

Well, it got back to her.

I learned a lot from that.

I learned that my words are powerful, and more than me needing to feel validated and let people lick my wounds.

I should have taken my words, cherished my words, honored my words, and realized that my words had the ability to kill or to restore.

It says that our words can either diffuse anger or they're going to ignite anger.

What are you doing with your words?

I'm not talking, by the way, about stuffing your emotions down.

This is not a message about never feeling your feelings.

That's that's not appropriate.

I see a counselor.

I talk to my husband.

I have like three trusted friends.

That's really all you should have, if I'm incredibly honest.

Like you should be authentic with everybody, but transparent with very few.

Why?

Because not everybody has been equipped or called or prepared to handle your messy.

That's for a few people, okay?

But what I am saying is when I take my words, what I speak matters.

What I speak can either fuel the anger, make it worse, or it could start to bring healing.

This third one is hard.

This one's this one is the one I struggle with most.

It's this it's practice same day forgiveness.

Let's go back to Ephesians 4, 26.

What does it say?

It says, do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

Let me tell you a story.

Um my mom and I are the biggest Stevie Wonder fans in the world.

We love Yeah! We love Stevie Wonder.

I feel like everybody who's come after him has been influenced by him.

I feel like he is the originator, okay?

His music just moves me.

And he doesn't tour a lot, but he did like five or six years ago.

He was going to Atlanta.

That was as close as he was coming.

So Jason got me and my mom tickets.

My mom's wedding song was Stevie Wonder.

Like it's just, we love him.

So we went to Atlanta.

Mom and the concert was phenomenal, but uh, that's another story.

But we get into our hotel room, we unpack all our things, and a roach the size of my head climbing up the wall, roaching this roach has seen stuff, okay?

Like this roach probably can rent a car.

This roach has retirement.

This roach voted for American Idol.

Like, I don't know, but this roach has seen stuff, okay?

This is not a common small roach.

This is a beast, it's got a thousand legs, okay?

And the the dreaded thing happens.

I go to get a shoe, and the moment I come back, it's gone.

It's gone.

He is gone.

He has roached off.

Okay.

And yeah, so mom and I just said, Oh, we'll we'll just go to bed and hope for the best and pull up our covers.

No, we didn't do that.

Are you insane?

Are you literally insane?

Do you know what could have happened?

That we'd be roaching over my face in the night.

In your ear, in your mouth.

I don't know.

No, we didn't do that.

We called a guy and we switched rooms.

We were not staying in that room with a roach that was hidden roach.

Hidden roaches might be worse than visible roaches, but on the roach scale, we were out of there.

Okay, great.

Why do I tell that story?

We have no, none of the same energy, none of the same eagerness when it comes to getting rid of things in our life before we lay our head down at night.

We go to bed at night holding on to our anger.

We go to bed at night thinking about all the ways they did me wrong, reliving the conversations in our head, right?

We go to bed holding on so tight to our offense, to our anger, to our issues.

We not only don't let it go before bed, we let it take our sleep, don't we?

And the Bible says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

I'm not saying that's easy, but I'd like to offer you this.

I'd like to offer you that the day of our hurt can also be the day of our healing.

That's not easy.

I am not saying that's easy.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute.

But listen to what James says in James 1, it says this.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Therefore, get rid, burn it down, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Slow to anger.

Can I can I be honest?

I think the reason so many of us are holding on to anger is because it's easier to be angry than to deal with our hurt.

See, if I dealt with my anger and got to the bottom of it, I'd have to realize, you know why I'm angry?

God, because you didn't show up the way I thought you should.

Why did he walk out?

God, why did you let my child die?

God, how could you let him betray me?

How could you let that person violate me?

And at the heart of it, under the anger, is pain.

And you may say to me today, Liz, you have no idea what I'm facing.

Your stories are cute, but my anger is a big anger.

Not so simple.

I don't know what you're going through, but can I tell you a story from my life?

You know I was diagnosed with cancer.

I was not angry about it initially.

I was the nicest, happiest patient.

If you know me, you know I'm like a very joyful person.

But five years later, I was so angry, my guts were spilling out on everything.

My anger spilled into the way I dealt with my kids.

I was snapping at them.

I hated myself for it.

My anger dealt with the way I talked to Jason and I hated myself for it.

My anger was me yelling at people in traffic.

I wasn't mad at my kids or Jason or traffic.

I was angry that God had allowed me to go through sickness.

And he had healed me, but I didn't want to go through chemo.

I didn't want to go through all of that.

He hadn't healed the way I wanted him to.

So I was angry.

And you know what I realized in holding on to my anger?

That my anger never healed me.

In fact, it stunted every chance I had for healing and health in my life.

So I get it.

You're saying I can't forgive what happened, or I can't let go of this anger.

Okay, let me offer you this then.

The answer to anger isn't becoming better.

It's not like, hey, if I try more, if I say eight prayers, if I repeat the magic words, if I come to church every week, that's not the answer.

The answer isn't becoming better, it's becoming new.

So you may not be able to let go of anger, but can I tell you today, a brand new creature in Christ could?

What does the Bible say in 2 Corinthians?

It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old has gone, the new is here.

Maybe you can't let go of anger, and that's okay, but a new creation in Christ can with his help.

That's what we're gonna do today.

That's what we're gonna do today.

It comes down to this.

It comes down to surrender.

We're not surrendering to our anger, we're surrendering the anger.

Holding on to it, how has that worked out for you?

See, but if I let go of my anger, I'll forget.

No.

You are stopping the healing and the miracles and the blessing in your life.

For what?

How's it working out for you?

Today, I know God ordained that this moment was designed with you and mine, friend.

There's gonna be some people that just in a minute when we pray are gonna leave and surrender their anger and not pick it back up.

Not because they're stronger for saying some words, but because they're a new creation in Christ today.

Do you believe that?

Do this with me.

Bow your head, close your eyes.

We're gonna do it a little different today.

When I was speaking, I know that I know that I know that for some of you something came to mind immediately.

You were wronged, you were violated, and I am not saying that does not matter, or that is not valid, or that is not important.

Your pain is real, your pain is valid.

But I am saying that holding on to your anger is doing everything but healing you.

So if this is you, no one is looking in this room.

We're gonna do this together.

If this is you and it's time and you're gonna surrender that anger today while no one's looking, put your hands out in front of you and begin to pray this in your heart and mind.

God, you didn't come through the way I thought you would.

You didn't come through how I expected, but it's not my will be done.

It's thy will be done.

In you today, as a new creation, I want to leave this anger here.

I want to leave it on the floor of this church on this black carpet.

I want to leave it here today.

And I want to walk out healed of my anger.

My anger never got me anywhere.

But through you today, God, you can do this.

Somebody today, right now, you're fighting it.

It's a you you you're you're you don't want to let go because you say if I let go, it'll be like it's forgotten what was done to me, and I can't forget.

Friend, God is speaking to you right now.

He is more than enough.

Will you let him be?

His arms are so big and strong.

Will you let him carry your anger?

Will you let him carry you?

Don't kick and scream and fight.

Put your hands out and release it now.

Watch as he unfolds miracles his way, the best way.

He sent me here today with this word for you, with you in mind.

It doesn't discredit what was done to you to lay the anger down.

It says, I'm now standing up for me, a healed and whole life.