Under the Surface 2

Intro

We are continuing our under the surface sermon series

What I want to talk about is our emotions that we face

How many of you have ever had an emotion before?

I thought so

We aren’t just talking about random emotions

But I want to talk about the emotions that can be so strong

But not always seen by everybody else

What do you mean by that Adam

How many of you guys have ever been asked like

“Are you okay?”

or maybe just

“How are you doing?”

And you say

“I’m Good”

When in reality you are like anything but

Maybe you are super:

Angry

Scared

Sad

Lonely

Right the list can go on and on

But these are the kinds of emotions that I want to talk about today

The emotions that we often can be feeling

Under the surface

People see us one way

When in reality we are dealing with this or that

The emotions that I want to talk about today

Is ANGER/ FRUSTRATION

How many of you guys have ever been angry before?

I want to look at is what does the Bible say about our anger

Is it ever justified?

How do I know if my anger is a problem?

But even more so

How do we deal with it?

What should our response be?

As I was preparing for this morning

I think more anything this morning hopefully is a tool for you

Not just

For this message

4 questions to ask ourselves when we feel angry

1. Why am I angry?

Psalm 139:23–24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

I know none of you can drive so I think this will be fun

How many of you know what warning lights are on a dashboard?

There are different lights that will pop up

And mean things on a cars dashboard

I am curious to see if you know what any of them are?

I am going to put some on the screen

I want you to guess. Lets start with an easy one

What is this one? Low Fuel light

Check Engine light

Oil pressure light

Tire pressure light

Engine Temperature warning

These lights all exist

to be able to warn us about something going on with your car

To this day

I will never forget this buddy that I had in highschool

Who had this old junky car

It was a 1994 Oldsmoblie 88

So if you don’t know I was born in 2001

So this car was 23 years old at the time

Now It would be even older

I remember the first time I ever rode with him in that car

We are riding along

His dashboard is lit up like a Christmas tree

Like every single light is on

I’m like dude

Don’t think we should stop so you can take care of your car

And he literally Goes

“We are fine, When lights come on. I just turn the music up and keep driving”

Now his car was pretty old, and it malfunctioned alot

Why do I share that story?

I share it because

My buddy clearly has these things in his car that are telling

SOMETHING IS WRONG

And his reaction is to just to continue doing whatever he wants

And I think if we are honest

There are many times

that we do the same exact things with the emotion of anger

Now Its not always giant lights flashing our face

BUT JUST LIKE THOSE WARNING LIGHTS

They exist to make you ask the question of why

You don’t just see it and do whatever you want

But you ask

“Why am I so angry about that thing”

“Why am I feeling so frustrated right now”

just like for the car

“Do I have enough gas in my car”

“Do my tires need more air”

So when anger occurs

The last thing that I think we should do is just ignore it

Here is one of the key points I want to hear this morning

Don't just acknowledge your anger—ask what the motive is

Here is something that maybe you have never heard before

But anger can actually be righteous

Meaning. Anger isn’t evil by itself

There are times when God has anger in the bible

Even Jesus was angry

He went into the temple and flipped table on people

So what made that okay????

This so so so so so so important

It comes down to the motive behind it

essentially ask the question:

Is this righteous anger or Is it about me?

Like i said there are times in life that anger can be righteous

When the Lord is dishonored or mocked

Has anyone ever mad fun of God before around you?

And it has bothered you?

That is righteous anger

Obviously we don’t want to be overcome by anger

But it is wrong for us to mock the Lord

Anger over injustice

There are real problems in our world

Human trafficking

Abuse

Domestic violence

There are times that we hear about this things

And it can make us angry

Because we desire justice for the wrong things that have happened

God’s laws have been broken

And the wrong thing has happened

Like I said We have to ask our question

IS THIS ANGER ABOUT ME?

What is my motive for feeling the way that I do

If we are really honest with oursleves 9 times out of 10 its about us

We live in a broken and fallen world

We all have fallen short and fallen into sin

And when it comes to our anger

Most of the time it is led by our sin.

The last thing I want to talk about with this point

Your anger is worth examining before it's worth expressing

Not only do we let our anger get the best of us

But we also will try and justify the anger that we are feeling

Because if we are upset about something then we have to be right

We know what is true because we are upset about it

We get into this habit of feeling this way

But what does the bible tell us

Jeremiah 17:9–10 ““The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.””

We may think that we are in the right

We may think that our emotions and feels are justified

But more often than not our emotions can be reckless

Especailly if we are angry

2. What am I angry about?

1 Corinthians 10:13 “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

How many of you guys ever had a frozen microwave meal before?

How many of you like them?

Has anyone ever noticed before how hot they get

You ever had that before?

You put in there for what it says

And its like 900 degrees

I had never thought about this

But just the other day it occured to me

Even though the box says

microwave for 4 mins

There is nothing stopping me from only doing 3:30

And it hit me

And guess what

I tried it

And my food was perfect

Not too hot. not too cold

And it stuck out to me

We always do it this way

When in reality

All it does is make it super hot

For some of us

Our frustrations are like frozen microwave meals

There are things in our life

That always set us off

Do any of you have something like that????

Or someone like that????

you can be in a great mood

But then you’re entire mood can go from fine to angry

And just like that microwave meal you are on fire

You can go from frozen to burn your face off

because you are angry

And I think so often in this moments we don’t stop

We don’t ask

Like what am I really so angry about

What is REALLY causing so much frustration

It similar to asking why

But its I think it challenges us to look at the frustations that we just always have

Just like the microwave meal

We are so used to just making it hot

When I put it in the microwave it’s just always so hot

When in reality it doesn’t need to be that way

“That thing just always annoys”

“That person just drives me up a wall”

It doesn’t need to be that way

What does our scripture say?

God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

The Bible makes it clear

When we are faced with a temptation

God provides a way out for us

When we are feeling our anger

When we are fired up about something

we don’t need to have that heat

How many of have heard of pet peeves

we laugh and joke about those

But some pet peeves i hear

“You just got to much anger in your heart”

We live with these constant angers

When in reality God wants us to surrender those things

things may bother you

But that anger doesn’t need to be the way that it is

Often, the anger we hold hurts us more than the person or thing we're angry at.

Often times we think that our anger is just someone or something else

“It’s that persons fault”

“it’s this situation that I am dealing with”

“ts becasue of them”

We think that these other things are what are taking the hit from our anger

And don’t get me wrong, they do

But holding onto anger tears us up inside

Its like burning your hand on that microwave food

We are fired up

When God intended for us to able to be cool

3. Who are you are angry at?

Romans 12:9–10 “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.”

What kind of bug is that?

How many of you guys like misquito

how many of you have been bit by one

Who here knows there science

What happens when a misquito bites you?

It itches

Sometimes like annoyingly

What happens if you scratch it?

It literally starts to itch even more

Its like the worst feeling ever right

This itches so bad

But I am just going to make it even worse

Why do I give you this example?

I have learned over the years

Our anger GIVEN TO OTHER PEOPLE is just like misquito bite

When come at someone with our anger

It doesn’t make the problem better

But in fact it does the worst

It make anger about whatever situation get even worse

Some of us deal with that temptation to get our anger out

“Man I want to tell them what they did”

“Man I hate how they talk to me. I am going to give him a piece of my mind”

“I am going to call them that name they are always calling me”

And guess what when we do that

It feels good to let all that anger out

But what usually comes next?

Now the other person is angry back at you

They don’t want to talk to you anymore

Or worse they freak out back on you

All of that to say

Don’t scratch the itch of anger at the expense of someone else

What does our scripture say?

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection”

There are times that we get angry at each other

But the Bible is telling us that we have call to truly love another

Don’t just pretend

But love each other how Jesus did

That being said

One of the key things for us to remember is who we are angry at

I get it

Some of us have really been hurt by someone else

But that person is still made in the image of God

They may of chosen to not follow the Lord like they should

But guess what???????

God still loves them

The worst people we could think of

Drug dealers

Robbers

Murders

God still loves them

He hates the sin that they commit

But they are still made in his image

We need to remember

The people that we carry anger twords are loved by God

So don’t scratch that mosquito bite

4. Who have I hurt with my Anger?

Ephesians 4:32 “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

*Photograph*

I want to show you guys what I mean by this

We have our relationships in life

Parents

Brothers

Sisters

Friends

And when we show anger towards one another in those relationships

We create damage in them

Sometimes to the point that they can be *torn apart*

Now if this happens. what do we do?

Well the bible makes it clear to us

We are called to forgive one another

Why?

We have all sinned

We have all fallen short

And Yet the Lord has still forgiven us

And when we choose to forgive it mends

*tape*

Forgiveness doesn't erase history, but it restores relationship.

When we forgive each other

We don’t just act like nothing happened

And it doesn’t just take history away

But we choose to fully forgive

And when we do that. things are mended

And so just as I said before

The question that we need to ask

Who have I hurt with my anger?

Because just as we are to forgive

The bible also tells us:

Ephesians 4:26 “And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,”

Essentially…….don’t let it sit

How many of you don’t like it when someone is mad at you

How many of you also don’t like dealing with confrontation though

Regardless of our comfort

We need to take ownership for anger sin

And the harm that it can cause other people

Who is a person/people that you need to forgive

What is an issue that you have with someone else that you have been to afraid to address, but need to