Nov 3rd Service with Guest Speaker Brad Yates
First B Jackson
2024-11-03

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Thanks, Judy. As a treat, Brad and I are going to dance a jig.

No. I'm kidding.

But Brad is gonna preach, and I didn't see him earlier. And I thought, oh, no. The pastor's done. I guess it's gonna be one thing this morning. But then he showed up.

I'm sorry. I doubted you, Brad.

We've done this every time.

Can I pray for you? Please. Pray for us. So we pray. I pray for Brad, and I pray for us that we would be recipients open and hearing, listening to what you have to share with us through the word and through Brad's personality.

And, Lord, there are some helpful and important nuggets and truth right here. Lord, would you give us ears to hear and a heart that is receptive and open and hands and feet to carry it out.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Grown ups should never wear sweatpants outside the house. Ever. Term limits should exist for all elected offices.

Country music lost its soul twenty years ago. What you don't eat is more important than what you do eat. Instant replay is ruining televised sports. Any steak cooked beyond medium is a waste of a cow and should be illegal. Sweet Cheeks is the best burger in town.

Taylor Swift, the NBA, Tropical Vacations, and the Godfather are all way overrated. And we need toll booths that charge every car $10 the first time each year it drives into Jackson. And we should never do daylight savings again. Now, have prayed through these convictions, and it is my firm opinion as your head elder that if you do not believe in these, you may not be a Christian. I'm obviously joking.

Everything I just said could clearly be labeled as what we call a hot sports opinion. And to agree with them or not, it's up to each person. Some of the things that I said are actually helpful in wisdom. Some of them are purposely arbitrary and basically useless. But our warning today is that we as Christians can sometimes take biblical commands straight from scripture, and we can treat them as hot sports opinions.

Or as if they're wisdom from our mothers saying, don't forget to eat your vegetables. Today, we're going look at James one nineteen through 20. It's one of the first texts that I memorized when I became a Christian. It's so commonplace and so simple that we often tend to drive right past it. And I did for a while.

Because I heard it like it was a proverb or like it was wisdom. Eat your vegetables. But church, this is not eat your vegetables. This is love your neighbor. This is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Let's look at it now. James one nineteen through 20. I'll read the NASB because we're an NASB church generally, but I'll tend to talk about it in the NIV because that's what's stuck up here. You know this my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

For a man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. What I did wrong with this text for a long time was I assumed that this text was saying that if I was a 10% improvement versus my pre Christian self, that I was fulfilling this command. As if the text were saying, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. But that's not what it says. What it's saying is we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Is that how people think of you? No. Me too, Salas. Rhetorical questions are next year. That was awesome, buddy.

No. But if somebody were asked about you, is that a characteristic that they would think of you? Is that what your spouse would say? Or your children? Or your siblings?

Or your coworkers? If they were asked about you, would they say, oh yeah, they're quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Because that's what we're being called to. We're called to be like Christ. And I wanna warn us, because this is one of those texts that we can be tempted to white knuckle our way into it.

That we can just go be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. And if you do that, you'll actually get a little bit better at it. But if instead, if you allow God to change your heart, if you give this up to him, if you allow him to reset the foundations of your soul, allow him to put living water through you, that is what will come out of you more naturally. If I have a bad if I have bad water flowing into the pipes in my house, no amount of Brita filters is going to turn salt water into fresh water. I need to connect to a new source.

If I have sewage coming up through the pipes, so that when I turn on the sink, what comes out of the tap is sewage, I need to disconnect from those pipes and connect to the right ones. I need the living water to flow through my house. And I lived in that first paradigm for a while. I have a tendency to want to put Brita filters on salt water in order to produce fresh water. And some of that is because it's so much easier for me personally to feel useful for God than it is to feel beloved by him.

And maybe you can identify with that. But if I reset my heart each day and throughout the day, if I remind myself of the truth that God died for me not when I was useful for him, but when I was still an enemy as Paul says in Romans five. Then I remember that God's love for me is regardless of circumstances, regardless of my performance. So I tend to work towards things, checklists and categories and things like that, instead of resetting the foundations. That's my natural want.

But instead, I remind myself of the truth. Because discipline for the sake of discipline is actually not helpful. It builds up my pride, it builds up my religiosity. I'll think of myself as moral and others as less so. But the irony is, there are disciplines that can lead me closer to my relationship with the Lord.

And I just have to make sure, I have to check my heart to make sure I'm doing it for the right reasons. For example, my quiet time is not to prove my piety to myself, to God, or to anyone else. My quiet time, like any other spiritual discipline, is so that I might be drawn nearer to the Lord. And I'd made a lot of progress on this since I became a Christian. Versus my before Christ self, I was quicker to listen, slower to speak, slower to become angry.

And I thought I was good. But God in his kindness was not done working on me. And my honest prayer for you guys, like it or not, has been that he's not done working on you guys either. C. S.

Lewis has this great quote that is, a, I have to quote C. S. Lewis, and b, it's too helpful not to get into here. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.

At first, perhaps you can understand what he's doing. He's getting the drains right, stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing it, so you're not surprised. But presently, he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to?

The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one that you thought of. He's throwing out a new wing here. He's putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage. But God is building a palace, and he intends to come and live in it himself.

So let's make this real and concrete and really uncomfortable for me. And I'll give you an example from my life that echoes what Lewis is talking about here. Because I have a quick tongue, always have. Got me in a lot of trouble in school, sometimes at work. Because I have a tendency to speak quickly, without thinking and without a filter.

And what's really interesting is it actually got me ahead a lot a lot in life. And yet, when we look in our culture and compare it to what's in what's in scripture, they're at odds. James one and James three here, as well as all throughout the text, make clear out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?

James talks a lot about the taming of the tongue. And yet, I was finding myself getting ahead because of my quick wit or my sharp tongue. Think about what our culture celebrates as cool. Basically, every successful TV show or movie is based around some character that's got a quick wit or sharp tongue. Or think about the politicians that we tend to like.

The clips that we send around, it's when the politician that we like dunks on the other one, has a quick slam as a comeback for somebody. It's not the thoughtful kindness that we tend to celebrate. Church, I think it seems way more important to us to be thought of as clever, or smart, or funny than it does to be thoughtful, or caring, or patient. So I got in a lot of trouble because of this tongue and the brain attached to it. But what was really interesting was I also got ahead a lot.

What I learned through that process is everybody kind of loves a smart out. Except where you know where they don't? Is at home, as a husband and as a father. This sharp tongue and this dry wit, it's not a lot of fun to be married to or to be parented by. And I knew that, So, I white knuckled my way around.

I'd say, shut up Brad. James one nineteen, quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. I actually thought that on a really regular basis. And what I realized was that I had not given this part of my life over to God. And what a weird thing to hold back.

Because when I think about giving things over to God, I tend to think of it, oh, you know, how am am I being godly in the way that I'm stewarding my finances, or my calendar, or my talents? I wasn't thinking about giving over my sharp tongue and my quick wit over to the Father for Him to solve it. And really what was going on there was I wasn't trusting in God's sovereignty. I had this subtle and unexamined fear that was driving my behavior, that things would not go as I wanted. And to be honest with you, I am terrified of being a passive husband and father.

Terrified. Like, I would rather basically anything else be said about me. And that's a fear. And that was motivating me and driving me. So I could be light hearted and easy going one minute, and then something would set me off, and I would snap, and man, I could hurt people.

And it wasn't godly. And yet, I could I could go, okay, that wasn't it. That wasn't that wasn't of God. That was of Brad. And so I'd confess, I'd repent, I'd try to make amends, but it still hurt people.

And in a particularly stressful few months, was happening more and more. Because when we get stressed or busy, our sinful tendencies tend to

come

forward. We might not be what we think of as our best selves, and I think you guys know what I'm talking about when I say But for illustration purposes, let's imagine what you're like on vacation. Real vacation, like without kids. Because if you take your kids traveling, it's not a vacation, that's a trip. I haven't done this in a few years, but one can dream.

But let's imagine I'm on a vacation, and I'm in La Jolla with Natalie, it's nice Saturday morning. I've had a long interrupt uninterrupted quiet time. I've spent time talking to my bride. I've got a great day ahead of me. We call and we do a check-in call with whoever's watching my children tied to a stake in the front yard.

And the adult's talking, and Jack interrupts him, and then starts talking over his sister to justify something he had done wrong that morning. Now, if I'm on vacation and I haven't been dealing with that, I am patient, I'm kind my dear eldest son, let us talk about the way, you know, you speak in the King James. Let us talk about the ways that we can glorify God with our tongues. Might pray through it, might even talk about this text, is something of a family verse. Now compare that with a normal weekday.

Let's say it's been a particularly stressful few weeks. Maybe I've had ministry or an elder meeting or kids sports the night before. I wake up way earlier than I want to to check-in on markets. I I I rush through a perfunctory quiet time. I haven't reset my heart.

And then I'm and then I'm working. And I'm working from home, and I'm placing trades, analyzing markets, whatever. And I hear it from the other room. I hear Jack interrupting Natalie and talking over Abby to justify something. In my flesh, I gotta I gotta shut this down right now.

Pop up from my desk, pop the door open, boom, the dad voice, hey, cut it out. I've quelled the insurgent uprising, and peace and harmony have been restored to the village. Except, I didn't value the relationship with anybody in the house. Natalie feels cut off at the knees, Jack feels crushed by his father, and Abby Abby probably enjoyed it. But she gets funny too.

But you get the point. I didn't value the relationship with anybody in the house. And here was a big breakthrough for me. I don't have to be the Holy Spirit for my wife and for my children. I can let God be God.

Now, that doesn't mean I get to check out. I still have to be a leader. I'm going to be held to account by God for how I lead that family. But I can let God be God and I can trust in his sovereignty. So I'm not gonna check out.

I still have to discipline. I still have to rebuke. I still have to lead well. But the difference is I can do it with the long term view and I can do it out of grace and wisdom and love. Instead of reacting to affronts to my ego, my pride, or how I think things should go.

And I tell you that's a subtle difference, but man, it's big. And really, it's about trusting in God for that outcome. And that's what I wasn't doing. I wasn't trusting in Him. I had my own little vision for how God was going to be building the cottage that was our family instead of allowing Him to build a palace.

Fathers and husbands in particular, does that strike a chord with you? Because the more I've talked about it at our Thursday lunch study, for all for any men, or I've talked about it with the other elders, or I've talked about it with my community group, more men have gone, Yeah, me too. Now, did God cause me to sin? No. Absolutely not.

But can God use my sin, bring it to the surface, make it visible, so that in working through it, I might be sharpened, might become more like Christ, and then I can share it with you guys and encourage you guys in it. Glorify God and encourage you. Absolutely. And that's in God's grace what he was doing. And I am so thankful that I had a wife that loved me, loved Jesus, and knew scripture.

And that we were surrounded in the company of other Christians, similarly talented, that loved me and wanted to enter into this in a caring and gentle way. Because you know what isn't fun? Having your mentor, having your wife, having your closest friends gather around, tell you what's wrong with you. Basically felt like surgery without anesthesia. Just laying open my flesh, so that we could all take a good look at the cancerous growth of my impatience and my anger, and my anger inside of me.

But they were delicate and they were loving, and because we meet together so often, pray together so often, we had the relational equity that they could tell me hard truths in a loving way and I knew that they were for me. And that's why I'm so passionate about community groups. Romans twelve one calls us to calls us to make our lives a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. But you know the problem with a living sacrifice is when you put it on a table, it tends to wiggle off the altar. And that was me.

But I had my friends in community that would call me back into this, and it only works in community. For example, Ray is the most gifted pastoral leader I have ever seen. The way that he loves people is astonishing to me. Oh. I know, Carter.

And but if I have to depend on Ray to do this work with me, let's say Ray and I don't meet together all the time. Let's say we only know each other. And I walk into his office and I'm all of a sudden aware that I need help on this problem. Ray doesn't have the time, he doesn't have the context, and he doesn't have the relational equity with me to do the hard work that I need to be done in order to become more like Christ in this aspect. And that's why we need community around us.

To borrow from Ephesians six, you can choose to put on the armor of God. You need to do so before the battle begins. Right? Because if the arrows start flying while you're still naked, you're dead. So you can put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation.

And I would add, you need fellow soldiers shield to shield with you. Because if you put all that on and you step out in a battle by yourself, you're dead. You don't last the first salvo. And remember the shields that Paul's talking about there aren't the round shields that we see in gladiator or brave heart or the running that are for sword fights one on one. We're talking the big Roman shields.

That's what Paul's evoking the image of. The ones where I can cover half of myself and half of the man next to me, and the man next to me covers half of me. And so, he's covering my unguarded flank. And so, together, we've set up this impenetrable wall, and we can gain territory together as one. And God used other other believers to cover my unguarded flank, and I am so grateful for it.

But we have to come at these things out of the right way, out of the right motivation, that's deeper than willpower. Because willpower runs out. We have to come at it out of love and gratitude. Said another way, we're not better people and then become Christians. We are Christians.

We are saved by Christ when we are still his enemy. And then in response to the love and the grace and the mercy that he's shown us, we go, alright, I'm gonna do what he says. Here's a radical idea straight from scripture. What if we all actually just committed to doing what the Bible said? What if our scripture was really clear with these commands?

We just said, okay God, quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. I'm a work on it. We can say to God, okay God, you say it. And because you're God and I'm not, and because of what you've done for me, I'm going to trust you in this. But God, I can't do this alone.

I can't do it in my own strength. I have to trust in you. Will you will you strengthen my heart? Will you give me a new heart? Will you give me a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit?

Will you surround me with other Christians that want the same thing? Guys, pray that prayer. If that if that rings true to you, stop listening to me. You're fine. Pray that prayer.

But be willing to do whatever God calls you into next. Because for example, when you pray for patience, God doesn't just level up your patience score like this is a video game. No, he gives you situations where you can grow in patience or where he can show you your sin. Okay. So that's my twenty minute intro.

We'll be fine. Simple text. We're gonna look at it three ways, what, how and why. And there's three commands here for the what. Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Quick to listen. Are you actually seeking to understand those around you? Or are you just waiting for your turn to talk? There's a big difference between the two. Listening is others focused.

You might say loving your neighbor, like Jesus called us to. Because is there any easier way? Is there any lower hanging fruit to feeling loved than by being understood? It's so simple, and it's so against our nature. Here's a good litmus test that I would Natalie and I were taught in premarried counseling years ago, that we actually implement in our lives, and that we teach anytime we do marriage counseling.

It's called the active listening technique. Some of you guys are familiar with this, But I'm telling you, it changes lives. And here's the whole thing. You can read an entire book about it, or you can just start doing this one phrase. What I hear you saying is That's it.

That's the difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak, is you say back to the person what they were trying to communicate. Try it the first time as a dry run. You can warn them so that it doesn't feel as awkward. When you're figuring out where to go eat after this, you say, what I hear you saying is, you want to go to the verge because you like Amy. Whatever it is.

But then when you're in conflict, do the same thing. What I hear you saying is, when I say x, you feel y, and I was unaware of that. And then let them correct you if need be. What I hear you say they no. No.

No. That's not what I was trying to say. But you will be astonished at how much it brings down the temperature in the room for you to understand them and for them to feel understood. It makes a massive difference. What I hear you saying is.

And then don't just do it with your spouse or with your friends, do it at the office. Do it with those you disagree with. You want to bring down the temperature in an animated conversation about something that's going on in the world? What I hear you saying is, you're not telling them they're right, you're making them feel understood. And that's loving your neighbor.

That's having humility. And as Ray says, having humility looks great on everyone. Somebody recently told me that beards are just makeup for men. Having worn a beard for twenty years, I can tell you it's pretty much true. Without a beard, I basically look like a turtle without its shell.

I'm cold and vulnerable. I don't like it. But you know what looks better on me than a beard is humility. And you can groan inwardly as much as you want. It's okay.

I know it's cheesy. But it's true. It's so

true.

Similar to quick to listen, we can have humility and we can be slow to speak. My friend Caleb was helping me prep this message and he reminded me of Ecclesiastes five, which I don't have on the screen. But it's God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Guys, that's pretty straightforward. God's in heaven, you're on earth, so let your words be few.

Here's some other text from wisdom literature that say basically the same thing. It's all what I'm showing you is it's all over the place. Stop talking. It's simple, but it's hard, and I'm working on it. But I'm noticing that as I build these two disciplines in the Holy Spirit, that I'm actually starting to think better of the people around me.

I'm starting to understand them more, even the ones that I disagree with sometimes. So I have deeper relationships with people, and I'm finding it easier to love them. That just kinda sounds like a better life. Like who doesn't want that? And this is one of those things where we should do it because God commands us to, but the side benefits are just a better life.

And then, we do slow to become angry. And this is the hardest one, because this is the one where you're most pushing against that visceral reaction, that affront to your pride or to your sin. This is the one where if you're not resetting the foundation of your life, you're not going to do it. You have to change the water source that's flowing into your house, as I talked about earlier. So, we're going to talk about this more in the how, but the what here necessitates a a critical point, which you see that it says slow to become angry.

It does not say, do not be angry. And this was a really big breakthrough for me in taking this text more seriously in that heartbeat. Because human anger, why? Because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. But it's human anger that does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

This was a big breakthrough for me. This is how God describes himself. This is part of the name of God as he is explaining himself to Moses. Moses has asked God to show himself to him, and God says, no, even seeing my glory will kill you. But he hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, he passes in front of him in the form of a cloud and he and and the Lord tells Moses his very name.

The Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in faithfulness and truth, who keeps faithfulness for thousands, forgives wrongdoing, violation of his law and sin, and yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Slow to anger. Same phrase. So when God is calling us to be slow to anger, he is calling us to be like him. That's how we were made to be.

When James is telling us what to do, how to be more like Christ, he says slow to anger. This is not just about becoming a better version of ourselves. This is not a multivitamin, or a discipline, or a gym membership. This is about heart change. This is about becoming more like Christ.

And Jesus did get angry. Matthew two and Matthew 21. Matthew records two different cleansings of the temple. Chasing out of the money changers and the tax collectors. Yeah.

But here's the thing, Jesus was zealous not for himself, but for the glory of his father and his house. So if you think back to my discussion from anger earlier, my tendency was to be angry for myself and my desires or or even that which I thought was right. But if I'm trusting in my own wisdom and discernment, I'm still trusting in myself. So basically, the only thing that I can be angry for safely is a direct affront to God or his justice. Even then, I need to be really careful when doing so that it doesn't turn into self righteousness.

Because that leads me right back out of it. Because Jesus was the most righteous man of all time. He actually had grounds for being angry when he was mistreated. I do not. And yet this is how Jesus is described by the by the disciple and apostle Peter of what Jesus was like on the cross.

While being abusively insulted, he did not insult in return. While suffering, he did not threaten, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Can the same be said of you? Or of me? I'm not righteous.

I'm not perfect. And I wasn't on a cross. And yet when I'm insulted, that's not my that's not my knee jerk reaction. I got work to do. Because anger is a powerful fuel.

God gave us anger for a reason. We can use anger to achieve the purposes of God's kingdom. But just like a gun or a fire can be both life giving or incredibly destructive, we can think similarly about our anger. I think everybody in here doesn't take a lot of imagination to think about what happens when you misuse a power tool, or a gun, or fire. We can think about our anger similarly.

We should treat our anger, I want you to think of it, like a loaded gun with the safety off. You treat it with that same level of precision, and care and alertness. Now, for a few of us in the room that particularly struggle with anger, give me a minute because I want to speak just to you. If this is your key issue, if this is your key struggle, your safest bet is to treat all anger as if it's sinful. Do not fall into the temptation to self justify, because we all kind of want to protect a couple of things about us.

So if you struggle with anger and you find yourself getting angry, go, hey, was that for God or was that for me? What what was the root of that there? Or here's one that caught me off sides a bunch when I was going through this period. Would Jesus have gotten angry about that? Would Jesus have gotten angry about what I just got angry about?

That one got me. Now, I'm aware of what the date is. The elections this week. I taught back in June, out of first Peter two again, about a right view of submission to government and how we should view politics in view of the kingdom of God. But I want to add a quick comment here as it relates to today's message.

Because if you are self righteous in your political view, if you are quick to speak, if you are slow to listen, if you are quick to become angry around politics, Christian, I'm telling you, you're doing it wrong. You're gonna see this week many self proclaimed Christians ranting and raving in anger, either into an echo chamber or just into the void. And I'm telling you church, don't you do it. That's violating a clear command of scripture. Instead, engage everyone with the love and grace and mercy that God has shown you.

Show them the truth of the gospel. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry in all things. And frankly, I would recommend at this point not even engaging in politics. It's like forty eight hours. You ain't convincing anybody.

Instead, preach the gospel with your lives. I was convicted by the idea recently. If our religious freedoms were taken away tomorrow, would it really change many of our lives that much? If the doors of this church were locked forever, would that make a big difference in most of our lives? I don't know that it would.

So here's a heart check. Have you been praying for both? We'll just focus on the presidential candidates because that's the one that gets the most press. Have you been praying for both of the pull of the presidential candidates to have a saving faith in Jesus Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit? Have you prayed for Kamala Harris and for Donald Trump to come to know Jesus?

If that's not your impulse, or if you're mad at me for saying so, I'm saying check your heart church. Because I'm talking about clear commands in scripture to pray for our leaders whether or not we agree with them. You wanna see change in this country? Let God change the hearts of our leaders. Make them radical followers of Jesus Christ.

So you can join me. I pray at 11:06. I was standing back there with Baldock when the alarm went off. At 11:06 every day, I have an alarm on my phone that goes off that says Donald Trump and Kamala Harris salvation. And when we know the results of the election, I'm gonna change the names a little bit.

But I'm gonna pray for their salvation. I'd ask you to join me as well. Because like our text says, human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires, but God's wrath does. God's wrath is real and it is holy, and it is coming to every single person apart from Christ. Guys, everybody that you see day to day, political candidate, person standing next to you in line, or the person that you see getting coffee, they are eternal and they are made in God's image.

This nation, this state, these beautiful mountains that drew so many of us here, they're not eternal and they're not made in God's image. People are. God's wrath is coming. So how do we do this? How do we do this impossible task?

Because this is impossible. You can go to anger management, that's just tips and techniques. We're talking about resetting the heart. Because here's the very core of so much of scripture. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and he calls us to do so accordingly.

Only when we know what he did for us can we truly follow him in it. So, no surprise to you guys, I categorize everything. Right? How do we get to remind ourselves that we are reborn as Christ called Nicodemus to be in John three? I look at it as gratitude and purpose.

For gratitude, you have to know what you were saved from and what it cost your savior. You remind yourself of that every day and throughout the day. That's that's heart rebirth. That's that's regeneration. And then gratitude and then so that's gratitude.

And then purpose. You have to know what you've been saved into. Second Timothy two, first Peter two, Romans 12, Romans 14, rightly applied so much of scripture makes it clear that the call on your life means that your life is no longer your own. And that is a blessing and that is great news because modern life is exhausting and seemingly pointless. But Paul makes clear in first Corinthians 15 that if you labor for the Lord, your labor is never in vain.

This is the difference between being exhausted as a Christian and having joy, And we are commanded to have joy. Once you open your eyes to it, it's all you can see because the Bible is a book of joy. What we're called to is not burdensome. We're called to joy. Church, you've been saved so that you've been set free.

But we need a biblical definition of freedom to think about this rightly. Because a biblical definition of freedom is not that you just do whatever you want. That's anarchy. A biblical definition of freedom is that your desires are finally aligned with the kingdom of God. So you get to do what you want to do, and what you want to do is what glorifies God.

That's freedom in light of the in light of the gospel. So in conclusion church, we must be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. Why? Because a man's anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Romans 14 says, that when we know what to do and don't do it, it's sin for us.

So if you're feeling convicted in this moment, that there's some step of repentance or faithfulness that you need to walk into, don't ignore that conviction. If you ignore that conviction until after lunch, it will be gone. I think we've all experienced that at some point in our lives. So don't ignore the opportunity. Step into it in faith today.

Talk to someone. Confess your sin to someone. Have a reconciling conversation. Apologize to someone. And then take the next step

in faithfulness.

Because it's the enemy that says to you, don't confess. Don't tell anybody about this thing. Don't ask for repentance or reconciliation. They won't understand. They'll think less of you.

They'll think of you as weak. But church, if we do it right, we won't be more materially blessed. We won't be thought of as cool or sharp witted or quick or any of those things, but we will have deeper and more loving relationships, and we will be more Christ like in our day to day lives. When Jesus went to the Garden Of Gethsemane, he begged God if there was any other way than going to the cross. And the father said to Jesus, not if you're gonna save them.

For all of human history, God had said to his people, if you will obey me, I will bless you. But to Jesus in the garden, he said, if you obey me and go to this tree, I will crush you. And Jesus said, okay, father, not my will, but yours be done. And God crushed him in that obedience. Cursed is he who hangs on a tree.

But church, the best news ever is that Jesus now sits at the right hand of the throne of God in victory and death has been defeated. And so if I will but take up my cross and follow him, I will become more like him every day. And then one day, I'll be made like him in the twinkling of an eye. And there will be no more death, no more despair, no more disease, no more pride. Because when I finally get to worship my creator face to face, I'm gonna be pretty slow to speak.

I'm gonna be pretty quick to listen. And I won't have any anger because I won't have any pride, but I will glorify God on that day. And until then, we're called to live with the purpose. To live in view of the kingdom of God in every aspect that we do. So church until then, we can be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Don't ignore the conviction if you feel there's a next step in faith. Let's pray together. Let's worship together. And then let's go out those doors and have a great week of glorifying our God. Thank you.

Would you stand? We'll join. I'd love to sing together and we'll make this our prayer and our song. Cleanse me

from Psalm one thirty.