Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Anger
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Has anyone here ever been to the Lincoln park zoo in Chicago?
Our family went a couple weeks ago, and I did not know this at the time when we are there but there is an animal that has been in the new recently.
His name is Amare and he is a 415 pound Gorila,
And he is a 16 year old Gorilla, However there is somthing that has made him get some attention this past year.
It all started when the zoo started to notice Amare coming down to the glass where the people were and he would stay there for long periods of time
And while he was there the zoo keepers began to notice that the guest were taking out there phones to show him pictures and videos of himself, there kids, and otherthings
Amare even loved selfies!
And this sounds adorable right?
But it actually began to cause some issues because they believe Amare (this teenage gorilla has actually become addicted to cell phones).
In fact the zookeepers have noticed that he since they have started noticing this he has become more antisocial and has even been social cues from other gorillas, because he has been busy looking at the phone.
At one instance another teenage gorilla actually charged Amare because he was on the phone not paying attention.
But you know while that story is kind of silly it does raise this question of there are things that have the ability to shape us right?
I mean if a phone shapes a gorilla it probably can shape us.
But even past our phones, really there positive and negative things that can speak into our life and shape us.
And really we need to ask ourselves in our lives what are the things that shape me.
And are they shaping me into who Christ is calling me to be?
And really if you were with us last week like I mentioned we began this new series called “Overflow”
And really we have been looking at this letter written by a leader in the early church named James.
And James in this letter is writing to a church explaining how their faith should be the thing that shapes them the most in their life.
And throughout the letter he telling them how their faith should really be overflowing and spilling out to the rest of their life.
And last week we looked at how our faith can spill out to the times where we face trials or issues
And this week we are looking at how our faith can spill out in moments of anger
So we are in James 1:19-27 and we are just going to be starting in verse 19.
And look what it says because this is a short but really packed first verse.
James says this:
James 1:19 (NIV)
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
So look at what this verse says because James is getting ready to talk about our-lives and anger and in just one verse he gives us 3 pieces of advice
He first says be quick to listen!
How many of us like to listen-
I am not someone who likes to listen, because I am a doer, but whats amazing is James says we need to be a people who before anything are listening.
There was this one couple I know and they were awsome, but they would always tell me that the majority of their fights happen from their hearing aids being turned off or they were not on high enough.
But you know with all seriousness when we are not listening at all or not listening well it opens the door for conflict in a relationship.
And really we need to be a people who are listening to God, but also listening to our neighbor.
And a lot of times as Christians we might listen to God, but we do not do the best at listening to our neighbor.
And when we listen to our neighbor it does a few things:
Firstly iit helps us know there actual thoughts on something right?
If we are jumping to conclusions we probably are not jumping to the right conclusins
But it also does something where it huminizes the people that we might disagree with and even get really frustrated with.
I mean when you are driving in traffic its easy to scream and honk and just chew them out.
Right?!
Because you know nothing about the person.
They are the person who cut you off
But when you learn the persons situation, you learn that they were actually speeding because they were getting their kid to the hospital.
And I recognize that a lot of times people do just do wrong things.
But really larger then traffic, I want to be a person who listens to the stories of the people who might make me angry.
Because we live in a polerizing culture.
But what if we humanized the people that so we get angry and listened to their stories.
Can I just say I really believe that alone would resolve a lot of conflict and anger in our world.
Whether its from an issue with our neighbor or a worldwide issue
I mean we need to be a people that listen.
And going a long with this James tell them be slow to speak.
In fact I am going to jump to to verse 26 but James even says
James 1:26 (NIV)
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
You know in moments of anger, it is so easy to just want to start going off on someone.
But the issue in the things we say have the ability to speak life, but they also have the ability to speak destuction.
And so James is saying you know when you are angry, you really need to let it process before you let it loose.
Because once things are said they cannot comeback.
And there is more part because in verses 19 that we read it says be quick to listen, slow to speak and what?
Slow to anger.
Now I want you to notice that it does not say do not get angry.
It says be slow to anger
Because there are times where anger is justified and even nesacary,
but look at the next verse because James realizes anger can control us, but we are called to be a people who have control over our anger.
Look at verse 20-21
It says this:
You know James recognizes that when we get easily angry over things that are not big it does not bring us closer to God.
And this is really logical right because when you are angry you often times do not feel that close to God right?
But really look at verse 21 because it tells us what to do about this:
Because it tells us to clear out all the moral filth and evil and accept the word of God.
You know really its saying in our life in order to make anger an okay thing we need to clear out all the stuff in our life that tends to turn anger into something toxic.
Its almost like if anyone here is a crab fan ( I am from Maryland so I am) but when you are eating a crab you do not eat the whole thing right?
Why? because it will hurt your stomach and make you feel pretty sick.
You take out the toxic parts and eat the good stuff right?
And really with our anger there are parts that are causing sickness
And in fact after this passage says to get rid of the toxicness it says toi accept God’s word.
Basically get rid of the toxicness and alow God’s life giving word to enter our hearts.
Because God can use anger.
We see times in Jesus’s ministry where he was angry
We see times in the Old Testement where it says God is angry
But heres the thing, because the anger in our life should match the things that might get God angry.
I always say this but we want our hearts to be aligned with the heart of God
Where when His heart breaks, ours does to
When He is loving we are too.
When He is angry, we might get angry
Because the truth is there are things that we should get angry about.
We should be angry when a child is abused
We should be angry when a person uses abuses and uses the name of God to get what they want.
And we can use our anger as a tool rather then letting anger control us.
And look what James says in the following verses because He says this in verses 22-24 because James explains what so many Christians do when it comes to anger and so many other areas in our life.
It says:
So James says when God’s word and really the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in a relationship with Christ, we should be living in a way that reflects that right?
And I love the illustration that James uses because He says when we are not letting God be the thing that shapes us we are like a person who looks at their reflection and walks aways forgetting what they look like.
And I know I have used this illustration a few times, but really James is saying we are supposed to be a people who reflect Jesus to the world!
But so often we reflect this image of Him that is distorted.
I mean have you ever been in a fun house?
Liam and I were a few weeks ago at the fair
And guess what I did not look the best.
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