Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Sometimes when I'm in the midst of worship, even when I'm preaching, I just want to continue on with that. Just, just move in in a way where we just sing songs of, of gratitude and, and coming together and singing hymns and songs and spiritual songs to one another. Um, but we're going to get on with this sermon series that village churches in, uh, through the 10 commandments or the law also known as, and, and I was grateful to get to speak on, on behalf of Craig, of your lead pastor. And I, I tracked along with where you guys were at up until this point. And I thought last week, he just knocked it out of the park. I mean, if you didn't go home with something to think about and something to digest, as in regards to how you're raising your family and how you edit.
Speaker 0 00:00:55 And there was, there was things in there that man, I, I just, I love the leadership that is here at village church. And I think you guys are highly favored. I just down the road at fellowship church at Carol stream, for those of you that don't know me, my name's Michael Wood. I'm the youth pastor over at fellowship church and happy to join you guys. We're literally a mile down the road. And I had spoken here before. And for those of you that don't remember the sermon that's okay. But since the last time I've spoke, I spoke here. There's a lot's happened. I mean, the world is crazy. I won't even list off like what's going on because you guys have heard it. And then trust me as, as being, uh, uh, a minister, I've talked about it enough. I just want to get down to the word of God and what God sees fit my life in our lives.
Speaker 0 00:01:59 Also, since the last time I spoke here, my wife and I had a baby. So yeah. So this, the picture you see is, Nope, go back, go back, go back. So this is me and my wife before baby, right? This is pre Nolan. And then this is post Nolan. So this is, this is me and my wife after having our baby. And the next picture is a picture of our family together. There's you see, I made it super spiritual for you guys. So we had the cross in the backdrop and everything, but that's our baby Nolan. Who's just about to be a year old. And if you see me speak or you've heard me speak, you know, that I'm like high energy. I got nothing on this kid. This kid moves nonstop. He's crazy to follow and praise God for my wife who has been home and also carrying on her job as a therapist, zoom and in person. On some days we have these great babysitters slash grandparents who have just come alongside of us and just offered their services. And we couldn't be more grateful for the life that we live that God has given us. So that's just a bit about me. You guys,
Speaker 1 00:03:19 As a church
Speaker 0 00:03:21 Have been going through the tank commandments, which Craig talked about through the sort of context you have the first four, right? The relationship with God, the obligations. I like how we put that, the obligations to God. And then you have the last six, the obligations to
Speaker 1 00:03:41 Right. There's
Speaker 0 00:03:44 Some things where I I've heard people talk about the 10 commandments and where they see God as almost like this cosmic kill joy. Who's here to destroy our funds. So he gave us these rules and regulations, and we have to do this, this and this. Let me show you what CS Lewis said about the law. CS Lewis said the laws like the good news of arriving on solid ground. After a short cart, gone awry through the mud, the muck and the mire after fumbling about in the squishy stinky mess, you are relieved to finally hit something,
Speaker 1 00:04:23 Something you can trust and something you can count on. That's the law, solid something. You can trust something. You can count on something that you can rely on the Lord. Our
Speaker 0 00:04:44 God has revealed himself
Speaker 1 00:04:48 Through the law. His character has
Speaker 0 00:04:51 Attributes who he is, what he desires his heart's desire for.
Speaker 1 00:04:56 Yes, that's God's desire. That's God's heart. The law is part of the solid foundation
Speaker 0 00:05:05 On which we stand in Christ Jesus. When the word says we are not under the law, it's telling us this, we're committed to the laws. If we're married to the law, the apostle Paul puts it as we're married to the law where we're obligated to carry out our commitment to the law as we would,
Speaker 1 00:05:25 Our wife or husband
Speaker 0 00:05:32 World, doesn't see these commandments. As we see these commandments,
Speaker 1 00:05:37 The world
Speaker 0 00:05:38 That we live in today, especially
Speaker 1 00:05:42 That of murder. The world does not see these commandments, this law,
Speaker 0 00:05:49 As we, as followers of Jesus Christ. See
Speaker 1 00:05:55 James says it like this,
Speaker 0 00:05:58 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of Liberty and the severes being not just a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts will be blessed in his doing. I believe that God smiles on his children when we come together and really truthfully open up his word to seek, to fall deeper in love with him. If I have one goal here today, it's not to get like this fantastic point across that like blows your mind. And it's like, Oh, I've never noticed that before in scripture or it's none of that. It's, it's a hope that your heart turns deeper in love with Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. That's my one main goal. When I preach, I want people to leave with a, with a deeper admiration, with a deeper love, with a deeper reverence, uh, of God who called you out of darkness.
Speaker 0 00:07:02 So let me pray. And then we're going to jump into Exodus 20. So let me pray for us. If you're a, if you're an early Christian or sort of new to the church, I want to tell you a couple of things. One never feel bad about not knowing where scripture is always pray before you then scripture always pray before you open God's word and asked for wisdom. So let's pray. Heavenly father, Lord, love you. We thank you. Yeah. We praise you that as a group of people, you you've called us from dry bones to an army.
Speaker 0 00:07:46 God, we have a great responsibility to be doers of the word and not just here. So we ask that you, you saturate our hearts with your word so that it would be protected so much from the evil one, but that you move in a way. It doesn't have to be big and dramatic, but that you just nudge us to where we should be. Lord, I pray for the person in here. Who's doubting their faith, uh, who has anger in their heart, who, who may have heard last week's sermon and thought, gosh, where do I start? How do I get my kids to honor me? Where do I Lord? I pray that, you know, uh, that you let them know the starting point is here and now, so God, we're going to open your word, expecting that you speak to us. And we pray this in Jesus's name.
Speaker 0 00:08:42 Amen. Exodus, chapter 20, starting at verse one. The word of the Lord says this, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord. Your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to that or serve them for I the Lord, your God am a jealous God. Visiting the inequity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. I, I love but God moments in the scripture, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Speaker 0 00:09:43 You shall not take the name of the Lord. Your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him. Guiltless, who takes his name in vain or without purpose, verse eight. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord. Your God on it. You shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the Sojourner who is within your Gates for in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and arrested on the seventh day.
Speaker 0 00:10:32 Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it Holy verse, 12 honor, honor, your father and your mother. That's your days. Meme belong in the land that the Lord your God has given you. Let me sidebar for a second here. That's where you guys left off last week and which is, I'd love to sort of quiz you and say, Hey, do you remember what, uh, I won't put anybody on the spot because I also, and youth ministry, we get very embarrassed when we're like, Hey, do you remember what I talked about last week? And everybody's like, it's like, Oh man, I thought I made a, so we won't, but the word honor means to give weight to right. Well, when I honor something, there was a preacher named Alex when we did sermon prep this past week who gave this great illustration of basically, um, you the weight of an object. So I pick up a pen with two fingers like this. That's giving the weight that it has. And then the same thing where if I pick up a music, stand with a Bible on it and paperworks, I'm going to, I can't pick it up the same way as the pen. I got to show it a different honor. And in the same way, God says to honor your parents, right? Honor, mother and father,
Speaker 1 00:11:57 To show the importance of the order. And in the order you have the parents, then the children. Now our hope is that the parents are doing their job, right? Train in their kids up in the ways of the Lord. Even if you started late like myself, I have a 13 year old son while I'm trying to lead up in the first six of six years of his life. First five or six years, I was not walking with the Lord. There was sort of a later start.
Speaker 0 00:12:30 I didn't come in with a heavy hand and say, Hey, you got to honor me now. Now's your time. You got to honor me. And you're going to do, as I say, what I found was that he followed my actions
Speaker 1 00:12:43 So much my words, right? God calls me to be a doer of the word,
Speaker 0 00:12:48 Not just a here so I can spew off scripture all I want to my children. But if I'm not showing the hand of grace, thank you, pastor Craig for saying that the hand of grace as the head of the household. If I'm not showing the hand of grace, I don't, I don't even sense that I deserve
Speaker 1 00:13:06 Honor.
Speaker 0 00:13:10 And I, I love, I love, I think pastor Craig was spot on. When he talked about that your child doesn't need a friend
Speaker 1 00:13:20 In the home. My
Speaker 0 00:13:23 Mom asked her after I got sober and, and years down the road, my mom came to me and said, man, I was just trying to be your friend. And trust me, this is no dishonor to my mom. My mom was a single mom and she worked her butt off to raise us the right way, no design, but she said, I want it to be your friend. And I remember it was a pretty weighty conversation. Mom, I didn't need
Speaker 1 00:13:47 Friend. I needed a mom.
Speaker 0 00:13:52 Christ said a last week. And how true, how true are kids today? And I say this from a youth standpoint, I speak at high schools. I, I work a lot with teenagers. I've never seen. And I don't know because obviously I wasn't around 50, 60 seventies, eighties, but from what I hear, there's, I've, I've never seen such dishonorable children and it worries me. It worries me. And I'm not sure I don't have no great like how to get your parents, your kids to honor you better. I don't have no great advice for that. Except
Speaker 1 00:14:29 Get plugged in and get connected with your church. Be a doer of the word.
Speaker 0 00:14:38 So Craig gives these things last week
Speaker 1 00:14:41 That I was like, wow, um, honor, your father and mother is the first commandment
Speaker 0 00:14:52 That God
Speaker 1 00:14:53 Gives. That's horizontal. There's a good reason for that. The first four to God, to God, to God honor your father and mother, the next verse 13, you shall not murder. Sounds simple, right?
Speaker 0 00:15:22 He said that you shall not murder. We're going to come back to that. Obviously that's where we're going to camp out today. But just for the sake of the word of God, I'm going to finish reading a little bit more. Verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything.
Speaker 1 00:15:54 That is your neighbors through the law. We see that God is God,
Speaker 0 00:16:03 There is no other, there's no other, there's no other God. So if there's one truth that God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, right? The triune God, father, son, Holy spirit is God. That means that there's one true
Speaker 1 00:16:21 With that. The others have to be wrong. An observation just
Speaker 0 00:16:27 Really quickly that I noticed is if you want to see, look at the paradises or the afterlives of others,
Speaker 1 00:16:38 Their religions, and they're very fleshly there.
Speaker 0 00:16:44 See in Christianity and being followers of Jesus, our eternity, our afterlife is eternity
Speaker 1 00:16:51 With God. We get eternity with God. When you look at other ones, do you have
Speaker 0 00:16:57 Virgin? You become a God, you have reincarnation. You have
Speaker 1 00:17:03 Actually desires. Ours is spiritual.
Speaker 0 00:17:11 Another thing we see, so the law is God is just God craves, harmony between us and him and God craves harmony for us and our fellow humans.
Speaker 1 00:17:24 Now, the thing we see is that God is good.
Speaker 0 00:17:27 Hey, wait guys, I hope you at home are shouting out all the time and all the time. God is good. Yeah, we have. That's great. I love, uh, reactions. So, and it's amazing the order that we have the commandments, which God delivers the four obligations to God. Thank you, pastor Craig. And then the four obligations to his creation. We start with honoring the household
Speaker 1 00:17:58 And then we must honor life. Like God honors life.
Speaker 0 00:18:09 If there's something you take home, something you sort of, if we were playing baseball and I was going to throw you things to sort of store in your heart and I threw you something, you caught it, you put it, we must
Speaker 1 00:18:23 Honor life. Like God honors life. So commandment number six thou shall not murder. Right?
Speaker 0 00:18:37 Certainly sounds like the easiest of
Speaker 1 00:18:43 Don't murder. Don't murder somebody. Here's the thing.
Speaker 0 00:18:50 This has had much controversy through the church as through church history, because a couple reasons, one, the King James version version, for those of you says, why Dow shall not kill, right? And when you put the premise around the word kill, you think like, Hey, I'm not supposed to kill
Speaker 1 00:19:11 At all at all.
Speaker 0 00:19:14 So you have, if anybody's ever seen the movie Hacksaw Ridge, great movie, fantastic movie, Mel Gibson directs this movie about Desmond Doss. Who's a seventh day Adventist and he joins the army as a medic. He refuses to carry a gun. He will not kill. And his convictions are strong. And to be honest with you, I appreciate something like this. So while, while the story is amazing and I truly believe that God has his hand over this obedient, man, I also see that there's a big difference between premeditated unjust murder in comparison to that of capital punishment warfare and protecting your family. There's a big difference. And, and through sermon prep with the fellow preachers, we discuss the differences and are significant differences. Especially when you go from the Hebrew text into the English language, there's a lot you miss out on. So the Hebrew word here is sock. And excuse me, I'm a, I'm a 33 year old guy from Elmwood park, Illinois. My, my Hebrew, um, dialect might not be the best. So feel free to correct me or email me afterwards, how I pronounce that wrong. But the Hebrew word is I sock,
Speaker 1 00:20:48 Which is parallel to unjustified premeditated murder, as it was amazing that Desmond Doss held true to his convictions
Speaker 0 00:21:03 And save these men. Actually, if you look into the interviews, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 00:21:06 Well with this Manda had done, we should always be well aware of the context and what's the Lord speaks through the Holy scripture.
Speaker 0 00:21:19 So just as we just finished the super bowl, super bowl, just so just as you're at a football game and you shout defense defense defense. When you open your Bible, you should be shouting context, context, context, there's um, we should know context of the word
Speaker 1 00:21:37 That we live by. And the contact shows us this, this commandment is not talking about. Self-defense not talking about capital punishment. It's not talking about war. It's not talking about protecting your family, unjustified murder, premeditated murder. So if you've been in the Carol stream of, uh,
Speaker 0 00:22:06 There's a family, actually, today's the anniversary
Speaker 1 00:22:09 Out of couples and may celebrate Valentine's day. Um, does anybody remember Northern Illinois university, 13 years ago? Uh, unjustified. So I got to know the father a little bit and uh, Mr. <inaudible>,
Speaker 0 00:22:28 So there was a young girl that's from the Carol
Speaker 1 00:22:29 Stream area. That was one of the victims of the Northern Illinois shooting. Um, incredible moment. So the, the family's a family of believers and the, the dad, while he was driving after hearing about his daughter's death, felt the word of the Lord on him to say, you must comfort those as the Lord has comforted you. What he did is he prepared himself for therapy. So he's a therapist, uh, and literally comforting those who have meant through the same thing. But the point is, is that Northern Illinois, things like that, that what we see smarter that is unjustified murder.
Speaker 0 00:23:23 When God speaks to Moses and brings the law or the 10 commandments to him, and under number six, the Lord says, Dow
Speaker 1 00:23:30 Not murder. It's a simple obligation for us to not murder our fellows, to not murder those who can't defend themselves. And certainly, certainly, certainly
Speaker 0 00:23:46 To not murder the
Speaker 1 00:23:48 Born, who God is knitted together in the womb.
Speaker 0 00:24:00 For those of us that like to compare ourselves, that might be the
Speaker 1 00:24:03 Easiest ever killed. Somebody's never done that. I remember
Speaker 0 00:24:13 When my mom would get frustrated with me because I was a mischievous kid. So I would get in trouble at school or something like that. And my mom was a protective mom and she would become like my lawyer. What do you mean? My son
Speaker 1 00:24:27 Did that? My son wouldn't do
Speaker 0 00:24:30 Something like that. It was like, no, ma'am we seen him throw an egg across the parking lot. We know he did. She said, well, why did he do it? Did you do something to him? And then when I would dishonor somebody, my mom would rain down on me. How dare you disrespect your elders? And I would always say, you're acting like I killed
Speaker 1 00:24:52 You're acting.
Speaker 0 00:24:53 And how many times have we talked to people where it's like, yeah, I've done pretty good things. I think I might go to heaven. I've done pretty good things. At least
Speaker 1 00:25:03 I never killed someone.
Speaker 0 00:25:11 See no murder is showing the highest regard for God,
Speaker 1 00:25:14 God be here. Because again, he is calling us to honor life as he honors life and Jesus takes us much deeper. So Matthew five Jesus says in Matthew five verse 21, you have heard
Speaker 0 00:25:39 That. It was said to the people long
Speaker 1 00:25:41 Ago, you shall not murder.
Speaker 0 00:25:44 And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment again, quick
Speaker 1 00:25:49 Sidebar. I I've had many people question God, in a sense of
Speaker 0 00:26:00 God, allow murderers and rapists in light that you know, they name the evilest of things. Why would God allow these people?
Speaker 1 00:26:07 I haven't. My answers
Speaker 0 00:26:11 Is usually around this verse where I say, I don't know, I know they're subject to judgment, but I do know one thing. If your faith is an in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, you won't be able to find it.
Speaker 1 00:26:27 Who's in heaven.
Speaker 0 00:26:32 Jesus says anyone who murders will be subject
Speaker 1 00:26:36 The judgment. Now watch what he says here. But I tell you anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Fuck, I got it. God too far. I mean, you're talking murderers and anger. There's a, come on Lord. There's a, you know, big difference. Um, Jesus knows our hearts, right? The creator of all things, Jesus compares murder to anger. That's insane to me and
Speaker 0 00:27:26 Think about this. So John chapter
Speaker 1 00:27:28 One you have in the beginning was the word, write the word was with God. The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Jesus. And without him was not anything made that was made. So Jesus, who
Speaker 0 00:27:49 Is God, the creator of
Speaker 1 00:27:52 All things
Speaker 0 00:27:54 Knows your heart a lot better than, you know, your heart.
Speaker 1 00:28:00 Don't
Speaker 0 00:28:01 Think you can slide one past them. My head got, I'm not angry. I, you know, I, the guy just cut me off and, and now he's driving slower and Lord, I'm not, I'm not angry. Um, but truthfully, God knows that what anger does to a heart. So you got Rick be rid of all malice,
Speaker 1 00:28:20 Anger in the scripture, right? An angry word. And Proverbs talks about do not react with an angry word.
Speaker 0 00:28:32 God wants to be rid of anger because anger is like a corrosive thread that just drives between our hearts and produces
Speaker 1 00:28:46 Evil.
Speaker 0 00:28:50 I I'll admit this. I love being transparent in my preaching. So please don't judge me cause we're not supposed to do that. Um, I am an angry
Speaker 1 00:28:59 Person. Usually
Speaker 0 00:29:02 What happens is I don't respond to my anger properly. Um, but what I do do what I do is I respond to my
Speaker 1 00:29:12 Anger with the people who are closest to me.
Speaker 0 00:29:15 I get angry at word. That's where I bring it.
Speaker 1 00:29:18 I bring it home. I drink,
Speaker 0 00:29:23 I get angry on the road. I bring it
Speaker 1 00:29:26 Home. I get it
Speaker 0 00:29:28 Angry with somebody, a brother and sister in Christ at church.
Speaker 1 00:29:33 I bring it home.
Speaker 0 00:29:38 Th this is just the truth. God wants to be rid of the anger in our hearts.
Speaker 1 00:29:50 See, Jesus knows your heart better than you know your heart. He knows
Speaker 0 00:30:02 That while you may not murder the person you're angry with, he knows what anger can lead to
Speaker 1 00:30:10 See.
Speaker 0 00:30:11 Jesus knows that anger is the doorway for sin
Speaker 1 00:30:17 To enter Genesis four,
Speaker 0 00:30:23 The first documented murder of human history, right? The first think about it, that you have all of history. The first documented murder of human history,
Speaker 1 00:30:33 Abel
Speaker 0 00:30:36 Literally murders his brother
Speaker 1 00:30:42 In cold blood.
Speaker 0 00:30:43 And I'll tell you what, as a preacher, it's like, it's great to preach on this. And you're like, Oh, jealousy of a brother and liquid. It can lead to and all that stuff. What has God address right before the murder takes place?
Speaker 1 00:30:58 If
Speaker 0 00:30:58 Somebody knew that that would be so impressive. Genesis four verses six through seven, the Lord said to Cain,
Speaker 1 00:31:08 Why are you angry?
Speaker 0 00:31:12 Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face?
Speaker 1 00:31:18 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. What a powerful sentiment. The first murder fishery is caused by the anger and Cain's heart.
Speaker 0 00:31:59 So it's no surprise that Jesus comes to these, this great teaching. And he says, Hey, you heard it said, thou shall not murder. Right? You've you've heard that before. I know that you have,
Speaker 1 00:32:12 I tell you even
Speaker 0 00:32:14 A person with anger in their hearts is subject wow, profound. And then you go to Genesis four and right before this is literally right before it Cain brings the, it goes and meets his brother in the field and, and hammers him with a rock and kills them.
Speaker 1 00:32:38 God, why are you angry? I don't, I don't know
Speaker 0 00:32:51 Anybody's at. And the great thing about being a guest preacher is I get to say things and usually I don't see you guys for a while. So, so if I, if I bring something that somebody doesn't like, I don't mind so much because Craig can deal with it next week. There's uh, but, but realistically I, you know, I've, I've never, um, uh, appreciated sort of the, uh, when God's words are used for cheerleading, you know, where you get like the rah rah type of thing. I always appreciate when God's word brings conviction. Um, and it does it every time, right? Trust me, there's times that we encourage one another there's times that we mourn with one another and there is times to be grateful and, and lift our voices to the Lord. But when we're in the midst of the assembly of the people and some of these teaching the word, I pray that we are a people who are convicted by the word of God and my guests. If you're anything like me, there may be some unaddressed, anger in your heart. That's holding you back from being the ultimate version of yourself. And I think God wants to be rid of that.
Speaker 1 00:34:07 I
Speaker 0 00:34:08 Don't think God wants to want you to hold on to that anger. So, so coming from a single mother family, and then being a product myself who has literally, I have kids that have gone without their father, me, because they, they probably have anger stored up just like I had anger towards my father.
Speaker 1 00:34:29 My anger
Speaker 0 00:34:30 Came out again to the person I was most comfortable with towards my mom. So I would dishonor my mom in the household. So it was a disorderly approach from the beginning. And that's where I think God, Jesus addresses anger in the heart because he wants to bring order to our lives. So if we can be rid of this, maybe we can,
Speaker 1 00:34:54 Or life like God honors life.
Speaker 0 00:35:06 This message of anger in the hearts and, and murder is very easy to preach to a society that looks the way that our society looks. It's. It's very easy to sort of look out our eyes and say, look at this anger in their hearts and in these riots and these unjustified abortions and what is going on.
Speaker 1 00:35:30 But church look at our own lives. God addresses Cain and says, sin is crouching at the door right after he asks, why are you angry? See, anger has to be disposed of maybe anger is entered your heart because of uncommunicated expectations between you and your spouse. Maybe you have anger in your heart because you feel that God has dealt you an unfair hand, or maybe your anger is rooted from a deep seated resentment as he just can't get over. You just don't have the strength to get over it. I'm here to tell you you're right. You can't do it. You can't get over the anger. That's in your heart. The matter of fact, I believe that the enemy will deceive you and say, Hey, you're over it. It's gone move on. And then all of a sudden it crops back up somewhere else. See, I can't see anybody's heart in here. I especially can't see your heart at home. Um, but Jesus, the creator of all things, all things were created through him. He knows your heart.
Speaker 1 00:37:15 And we must be rid of this anger because truthfully, I don't think that any of us in here are going out to murder anybody, but I would never say that we're not capable of one of the most, one of the ultimate sins, one of the most weighty sins and the eyes of God, anger is addressed in the heart because it leads can lead to murder. That's why Jesus goes deeper and says, Hey, congratulations. We're not murderers, but your anger is also subject to judgment. Now, as we grow older, we realize that there are some things that are imprinted on our minds. There's something just imprinted on our minds and maybe a place where you grow up. You know, it's just talking about WIC, where a man in here went to Fenwick,
Speaker 0 00:38:36 And there's some things that are imprinted on his mind about his childhood. I remember my phone number and I grew up pretty poor. And we only had one phone number that worked in the 12 different places that we live. But I still remember my phone number from a child. Uh, some of you may remember your childhood phone numbers. Um, there's, there's things that are imprinted on my mind and on my heart from, from being younger. I remember the little league baseball team that I played for when we won the championship, the Marlins, um, I actually, I, me and that coach went back and forth. I didn't honor him properly. Uh, I quit the team. My mom made me go back, apologize and rejoined the team when we won the championship that year. And, uh, and I learned a lesson on honor. Imagine that there's I remember things that are sort of, that have been impacted
Speaker 1 00:39:33 In my heart and on my mind in the same way, as we walk in faith with our Lord Jesus, we should have things imprinted on our hearts, imprinted in such a way like tattooed branded on our hearts to never be forgotten.
Speaker 0 00:40:02 See, we are not under the law, the new Testament. Instead we are married
Speaker 1 00:40:07 To the law. We're obligated to carry it out. An imprint on the heart is to honor those who got honors. We're all created in God's image. We must honor life like God honors life. So how do we get rid of the anger in our hearts, right?
Speaker 0 00:40:44 Maybe subtle anger. Um, it may be extreme anger. It may be sort of a trickling anger. Like I talked about, I, I bring anger home and I got to, I have to make amends to my family quite often. Um, because I, I, I, I react towards them, but they're not the core issue of the problem. See the anger in my heart is the core issue of the problem.
Speaker 1 00:41:06 Well, so how do we get rid of the anger in our hearts? One way we must confess. We must confess, right? We must confess our sin. So first John one nine says if we our sins.
Speaker 0 00:41:34 And so I grew up just real quick again, sidewalk, I grew up Catholic and some of my friends went to Catholic school and I remember those sort of Catholic Christian Wars, or like Christians use this Catherine's Catholics have a bunch of things you need to do to be Christians, always use this verse. Like, Hey, if I'm sinful, I gotta do this sort of confess and he's faithful. And just, and he forgives and cleanses me from all unrighteousness. The word of God is true and that's very true, but there's also something beyond that. There's fruit that comes from compassion. Confession. I truly believe that there's fruit that should come from confession. And part of that fruit is repentance. I think confession is great.
Speaker 1 00:42:26 There needs
Speaker 0 00:42:26 To be a start. We should be in prayer and confessing our sins
Speaker 1 00:42:29 To our father. Um, but there should be a turning from that sin, a repentant heart. After the confession, see when we're angry towards our brother and sister, we're not only dishonoring them. We're dishonoring the creator confession. God is faithful. God is just upon confession who will forgive. He will cleanse us, but you better watch out because the Holy Spirit's going to move you in such a way that you might become a whole new person to those around you. Another way to be rid of the anger as reconciliation. So Matthew five, where we read earlier about the murder, Matthew five 23, he goes in and says this.
Speaker 0 00:43:33 It says, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the
Speaker 1 00:43:41 First go and be reconciled. See, he says that right after the anger, right after he says anger in your hearts, go and be reconciled with your brother and sister. Another way to be rid of anger, stay close to the power source, stay close to the power source. Uh, vacuuming. Think about this for a second. I know it's a strange illustration, but I love this. So when you're vacuuming, right, your vacuum and you start at one side of the room and you start vacuuming and you're vacuuming and you're vacuuming.
Speaker 0 00:44:28 And all of a sudden you're moving on, you're moving and all, yeah, it comes, unplugged.
Speaker 1 00:44:34 The power shuts down. I see it more and more in the lives of teenagers. Um, and when I look at the teenagers life and I don't mean no disrespect, I look at their parents and I see the same thing in their life. They step away from the power source, right? I'm not really getting anything from my small group. I don't, I don't feel like stop it with your feelings, please. I don't feel like my small group is providing that. If there's not sin in that small group, you should be in there weekend and week out, a disciplined, hard, as hard to be angry.
Speaker 1 00:45:24 So when we step away from the power source and we get further away and we get further away and we get further away, all of a sudden we find just like God told Cain. Sin is crouching at the door. The further you are from the power source, that easier. It is for sin to enter in three ways to keep anger from overruling, your hearts, confession, reconciliation, staying close to God. We must, we must just, like I said, in the beginning, we must persevere. We must rise above the culture that we're in. And we must be doers of the word and not just hearers of the word. Anger, anger produces a stone called heart. So the word of the Lord says, thou shall not murder again, easy for us to not murder. When Jesus takes us deeper and says, anger becomes a bit different. It becomes a bit more realistic. Cause we know
Speaker 0 00:47:30 Each and every one of us, you at home, you can point out instances where your anger has overruled you in such a way where it was like my, my following Jesus has to be brought aside for a second because I have red in my eyes. And I'm seeing
Speaker 1 00:47:46 This situation differently. But imagine if you can pray, think retrain, pray, think retrain and react differently. Uh, I'll close with letting you know this. I'm just getting better with my anger. I'm just getting better. Even
Speaker 0 00:48:12 Midst of our sermon prep. We came to this Matthew five and I asked the other preachers. I said, Hey, when was the last time you guys were angry?
Speaker 1 00:48:20 And each one of them was able to get a clear instance of a recent time. They were angry. Our hearts are deceitful sanctification, right? The process of becoming Holy is the road that we're on. I hope as we have those imprints on our hearts to honor life as God honors life. We remember this Philippians four, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true. Whatever is noble. Also some translations say honorable, whatever
Speaker 0 00:49:13 For is right? Whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent
Speaker 1 00:49:19 Or praiseworthy, think about such things, whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Let me pray for us. Heavenly father. We thank you Lord for your word. We thank you for everything that you have gifted with. Gifted us with.
Speaker 0 00:49:52 Certainly thank you for conviction. We don't like it. Lord, it's rough. It puts us through this mud and muck of our own mess. And most of the times it's things that
Speaker 1 00:50:01 We created.
Speaker 0 00:50:03 So God, I pray as a people that we would as we come together, as we draw near to you that,
Speaker 1 00:50:11 Uh, just stay true to your promises like you always do and draw near to us
Speaker 0 00:50:17 Father. I pray for the families. I, especially as my, my heart holds a dear place, I pray for the single mothers who are raising children without much help. I pray that they would be able to one be shown on her, but also to teach their children how to honor. I pray for the single father. I pray for parents as a whole, that they will be able to teach honor to their children so that their children would stand apart from what the world looks like.
Speaker 1 00:50:48 God, I
Speaker 0 00:50:48 Pray that while we're in this world, while we're, while you have us here, that we carry out our tasks as your faithful followers,
Speaker 1 00:50:57 Um, that we're a light that's never hidden. And I pray that the anger in our hearts, um, can be removed and we can be rid of it as we become who you called us to be. Lord, I pray this in your name. Amen.
