A Cool Head

A Cool Head

Rick

AI TRANSCRIPT

A|0:04|Good ⁓ to see you guys. And throughout this week, if you guys can be ⁓ praying, ⁓ even fasting ⁓ for the men of RP, there's seventy of us that are gonna be on this men's retreat ⁓ on Friday. So we're super excited for what the Lord will do ⁓ amongst the men of RP. ⁓ I think I'm pretty echo you. A|0:25|All right, well why don't you guys open up your Bibles to ⁓ Proverbs ⁓ sixteen? Proverbs sixteen. Mark, can you turn me down a little bit? A|0:37|Proverbs ⁓ sixteen. A|0:42|Last Sunday, two young ladies ⁓ from our church, ⁓ one in high school, the other in college, ⁓ laughed in my face. ⁓ Told me I was crazy because I had never heard of the artist Noah gone. ⁓ Just a few days prior to that, we were having our elders' retreat, and they gave me a similar look and told me that I'm living under a rock because I had never heard of ⁓ Ozempic. ⁓ Well, maybe they're right. A|1:11|But I'll tell you one thing that I am up to speed on Pixar movies. ⁓ A|1:18|Our weekly Shabbat in the Eisenberg home always kicks off on Friday night, and usually with a movie, and we take turns choosing. Many a Friday night we're we're watching a Pixar film. ⁓ A couple years back we we sat down to to watch ⁓ a movie and I found myself captivated by a story. Pixars inside out. ⁓ A|1:43|Now this movie got my ⁓ attention. I was most intrigued with the character ⁓ Anger. ⁓ There he is. ⁓ Who who lives inside of young Riley. There she is. ⁓ Anger is downright funny. Like when he he tastes broccoli pizza for the first time, he says, Congratulations, San Francisco, you've ruined pizza. ⁓ A|2:07|But they also captured some good truth about our emotion. The movie ⁓ is based off the psychologist Paul Ekman's theory of basic human emotion. For me, it it hit pretty close to home. Riley, when when anger shows up, reminded me a lot of myself as a kid. Should be a picture there. A|2:33|You're laughing now, it gets worse. If if you if you cross this kid you'd get the infamous Eisenberg line. ⁓ A|2:43|You're mean and stupid and God doesn't love you. ⁓ I mean, that that mean mug, usually with like seven t-shirts on, I had some sensory things going on. I would say you're mean ⁓ and stupid and God doesn't love you. The fact that I'm preaching now, one word grace, grace, and ⁓ more grace. And I wish I could say that that when I became a Christian, little ⁓ angry Rick for the last 20 years, nowhere to be found. ⁓ A|3:12|And yet that is not ⁓ the case. Literally last weekend I I ran a half marathon with ⁓ my wife Holly and some folks from RP. And in in less than fifteen seconds into the race, Holly throws me the I love you sign. And it was the last time I saw her until she ⁓ A|3:33|Cheered me on at the finish line. And you'd think, awesome. ⁓ Your wife is faster than you. She she trained at a sub-9-minute mile pace while I trained at a slow ⁓ 11-minute pace, or what I'd call zone two. ⁓ Took some days off as well. And you you parted ways on race day. Great. Not exactly. A|3:54|When she threw up that ⁓ I love you sign, and I haven't told her this. ⁓ It it it it may have well been a gang sign from a rival set. ⁓ I I ran my fastest mile just trying to keep up, which just about gassed me half a mile ⁓ in. Eventually I slowed down and eventually I got over it and calmed down. ⁓ Or two weeks ago, playing tennis with Pastor Mark, when some mom and her little two year old son began playing on the swings right behind. A|4:24|I ⁓ I told Mark as they came, ⁓ advantage me. ⁓ I I got young kids, I'm used to the noise. Well, right away Mark broke my serve, and the only thing going on inside of me was pure ⁓ rage. ⁓ Why would they build a swing set right next to a tennis court? Are you kidding me? ⁓ I ha I have an anger problem. A|4:50|What about you? Do do you ⁓ have ⁓ an anger problem? Don't don't don't answer too quickly. Think about that question seriously. Do ⁓ you have a problem with ⁓ anger? A|5:05|Let me read our passage this morning, then we'll dive into the answer to that question. So if you're not already there, Proverbs sixteen, verse thirty-two will be our text. And this passage, this verse here will will anchor us, but but but eventually we'll be ⁓ all over the book of Proverbs. Proverbs sixteen, verse thirty-two. Whoever ⁓ is slow to anger is better than the mighty. A|5:35|And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Do you have an anger? A|5:47|Dr. David Pallison ⁓ passed away a few years back, but he he was a well-respected counselor, not not only in the biblical counseling world, but in the Christian psychology ⁓ world, even in the secular therapeutic ⁓ world. And he wasn't afraid of psychology. All truth is God's truth. And yet he knew just when and how to apply the gospel in ways that would penetrate the soul, bring actual healing. Well, in his A|6:17|Wonderful book on anger, ⁓ Good ⁓ and Angry. I highly ⁓ recommend it. My favorite chapter was chapter two. ⁓ It was extremely short, the shortest chapter I've ever read, but it but it was packed with a convicting and powerful punch. I'll actually read the whole chapter for us this morning. Chapter two. ⁓ Do you have a serious problem with anger? A|6:46|Answer ⁓ Yes. ⁓ Whoever is slow to anger is A|6:52|Is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Charles Bridges in his Proverbs commentary says this: conquering a city is child's play compared with ruling the turbulent, demanding, upset world inside each one of us. The one ⁓ is only the battle of the day, the other ⁓ is the conflict of a lifetime. A|7:19|This is where ⁓ all of us ⁓ live. The conflict of a lifetime, namely ruling ⁓ our spirits. A|7:30|As we've seen ⁓ in this sermon series so far, Proverbs is this wonderful book of wisdom aimed to get you to see the path that leads you to the good life. This book is about wisdom, wisdom from God that actually works. And like we've already seen, every proverb that you read is going to touch a central theme ⁓ of this book, and that's this: the fear of the Lord. A|8:01|The fear the Lord is at the heart ⁓ of ⁓ wisdom. Everything we're going to see in the Proverbs, every different topic we're going to be preaching on can only be lived out if we're walking in wisdom. Namely, walking in the fear ⁓ of the Lord. And remember, fearing God is simply taking him at his word. Taking God seriously. A|8:29|⁓ The word of God for us this morning, whoever is slow to anger is better ⁓ than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Socrates said the ⁓ unexamined life is not worth living. Solomon would add though the life that cannot rule its own spirit will never know ⁓ true wisdom, and thus never live the life God has. A|8:58|intended. Speaking on anger, the the ancient Romans had a saying, ⁓ Anger is a brief madness. ⁓ I love that. ⁓ Anger is a brief ⁓ madness. ⁓ A|9:15|Few forces have have left a trail of destruction like anger has. ⁓ It has shattered marriages, fractured families, divided churches, destroyed countries, and turned lifelong friends into bitter enemies. It fuels gossip, escalates conflict, ⁓ erupts behind the wheel as you're driving on Parker Road. A|9:41|And in its darkest moments has ended lives. Wherever resentment, hostility, or bitterness takes root, anger is often growing, flourishing underneath. The mistake we often make is assuming anger ⁓ only belongs to the loud, ⁓ to the explosive. ⁓ A|10:02|We say, I I I know folks with an anger problem. ⁓ That's not me. But did you know anger wears many faces? Yes, sometimes it shouts and other times it withdraws. It can sound like harsh words, but it can also hide behind constant criticism, endless complaining, quiet resentment, passive aggression. A|10:30|Yeah, none of us can sit this one out. Yes, you you may indeed have a serious ⁓ anger problem. If you've spent your life quick to argue, quick to react, super defensive, easily offended, quick to lose your temper, this message is for you. A|10:51|And if years of unmet ⁓ expectations, deep hurt or lingering disappointments have quietly settled you into ⁓ bitterness and cynicism, this message is also for you. ⁓ Some people ⁓ vent ⁓ their anger, ⁓ others bottle it up. Some bury it so ⁓ deep that they don't even recognize they still have it. A|11:18|But every one of us knows what it's like to wrestle ⁓ with anger. ⁓ The question isn't whether anger is present, it's whether anger ⁓ is ruling us. ⁓ Or ⁓ whether ⁓ by the grace of God we have learned to rule it. A|11:38|For instance, when you read Paul, the Apostle Paul's vice list in the New Testament, you you quickly discover that that anger has a large family. ⁓ Wrath, rage, malice, slander, ⁓ bitterness, complaining, on and on. These are all branches ⁓ growing from the same root. Which does lead itself to a at least a theological question here in the beginning is ⁓ anger in and of itself. ⁓ A|12:08|Wrong, bad. Back to Pixar's Inside Out. Now let's not get our theology from Disney. But I think we can learn something here about anger. All truth is God's truth. For instance, they make it clear that the character anger is not the villain, that every emotion has a purpose when it functions properly. A|12:33|Anger sees himself as the protector of ⁓ justice ⁓ and fairness. ⁓ His job, he exists to say, this ⁓ is not right. One of the most helpful books I've read ⁓ in the last couple of years is a book called Unoffendable. A|12:55|In it, the the the author argues that that the more we can grasp God's grace toward us, the less ⁓ room there is for offense ⁠or ⁓ anger toward others. ⁓ And though this book was extremely convicting and ⁓ practical and helpful for me, and I've highly recommended it to others, I believe this author who who doesn't claim to be a theologian, but I believe his his theological understanding of of human A|13:24|Human anger is flawed. He says, Because God and ⁓ God alone judges perfectly, we have no right to anger. Not even righteous anger. Now I do understand and even appreciate where he's coming from. Anger is a slippery ⁓ slope. ⁓ And it's way too easy, especially for sinners. ⁓ A|13:50|So to return ⁓ evil ⁓ for evil and to justify ourselves in the process. ⁓ So instead of being nuanced about anger, I get it, it's easier to just say no ⁓ anger ever. Period. But again, what ⁓ is anger? Well, at its core, ⁓ anger says that's ⁓ wrong. That's wrong. A|14:16|Namely, it's a response to something we believe should not have happened. Betrayal, injustice, mistreatment, whatever. Anger is a a moral emotion. ⁓ It reveals what we value and what we believe matters most. ⁓ The problem isn't necessarily feeling anger, it's what we choose to do ⁓ with that ⁓ anger. In fact, there are things we should. ⁓ A|14:46|Be angry about. Anger is part of what led Holly and I into foster care. Something in us looks at the brokenness these little image-bearers have experienced and says, this is not how it's supposed to be. Healthy anger recognizes that something is wrong and is not ⁓ okay to call it okay. I mean, isn't this the anger we see in Jesus? A|15:16|The one who were told to imitate. He got ⁓ angry at hypocritical Pharisees. ⁓ He was pissed when his disciples pushed children away. And he was fired up at death itself when he hears that his friend Lazarus passed. A|15:38|When he overturns the tables as he's clearing the temple, the Bible says he made the whip himself. Premeditated. Jesus saw what was wrong, and he refused to make peace with it. This is good ⁓ anger. Not all anger is bad ⁓ anger. And there's a reason Paul tells the church. ⁓ A|16:03|Christians like us in Ephesus, be angry and do not sin. This is a New Testament command. It's an imperative. Good anger is part of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. But Paul's warning at the end of that verse for sinners like you and I is something we definitely need to take heed. ⁓ Be angry ⁓ and do not. ⁓ A|16:33|Sin. ⁓ Paul says that 'cause it's really easy for you and I to let anger, even good anger, when that happens, turn into sin. Bad anger. A|16:46|Ray Ortland says this: we all feel anger. And not all anger is wrong. In fact, the closer we get to Christ, the angrier we will get at real evil. By nature, we are cowards and compromisers. We need holy anger if we're going to represent the real Jesus to our world. But it is so hard to sort out which anger is good and which anger is bad, isn't it? it is. And why is that? Well, sin. ⁓ A|17:16|Sin and we don't merely sin, ⁓ we ⁓ are sinners. Again, Dr. David Pallison says this anger goes wrong ⁓ when you get ⁓ God like. Your desires become divine law. Poke your way into every example of bad anger and you'll find ⁓ God plain. ⁓ A|17:39|Whether I'm really ticked off or just a little irritated or deeply embittered, it's all about Almighty Me. ⁓ Anger is demanding and entitled. This is what I want. My will be done. The world and all that is in it are subject to me. All persons, objects, and events are subject to my ep opinion and evaluation. Yikes. This is where. A|18:07|think the the psychology behind inside at it can ⁓ fall apart. It doesn't have to. But but when when when you're made up simply of parts, whether that be anger, ⁓ anxiety, embarrassment, fear, joy, so on and so forth, it's it's really easy not ⁓ to be accountable for your actions. A|18:27|The Bible's clear, when you ⁓ get angry, do not sin. Cause if you do sin, don't simply blame that part of you and think you're off the hook. I'm Italian, sorry. ⁓ A|18:45|This is why the book of Proverbs is filled with warnings about anger. ⁓ Be ⁓ slow to ⁓ anger. ⁓ Because this can take you down a slippery slope. Let's look at some of these Proverbs that are dealing with ⁓ anger. Proverbs 14 17. ⁓ A man ⁓ of quick temper acts foolishly. A|19:10|Or Proverbs 14, 29. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. But he who is ⁓ who has a hasty temper exalts folly. Proverbs 15:18. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. A|19:31|Proverbs nineteen eleven. ⁓ Good sense ⁓ makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs nineteen nineteen. A man of great wrath will pay the penalty. A|19:47|Proverbs 25 28. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. ⁓ Proverbs 29 11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. In Proverbs 29:22, ⁓ a man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. A|20:22|There is. Back to our verse ⁓ this morning. Whoever ⁓ is ⁓ slow ⁓ to anger is better ⁓ than the mighty. And he who rules ⁓ his spirit than he who takes ⁓ a city. Anyone know when the first moment of human anger ⁓ came into the story of Scripture? A|20:47|Cain and Abel, I love it. Cain and Abel. Yeah, back in Genesis four is his brother Abel's offering. It is accepted by God and Cain's is not. Genesis four five tells us Cain was very ⁓ angry, and his face fell. A|21:05|In verse six, God calls out anger. He calls out his anger. He says, Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? But but what's intriguing is what God tells Cain in verse seven. He's warning him as he's seeing Cain's ⁓ anger rising higher and higher. God tells Cain, Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it. A|21:33|In this moment, God is warning Cain. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the Almighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Sin ⁓ is crouching at the door. Be slow to anger, Cain. ⁓ Rule your spirit. Take me ⁓ at my word. Fear the Lord, Cain. Take the path of wisdom. A|22:03|Well, you know the story. By the next verse, verse 8 of chapter 4, Cain's anger turns into rage and culminates in murder. ⁓ He kills his very ⁓ own brother. ⁓ And though this is the first moment in the Bible where we see human anger, anger here that leads to murder, it should not have been this way. A|22:29|What happened with Cain and Abel should never have happened. The first glimpse of anger in human history should have happened ⁓ in the garden. Should have been a good ⁓ anger. Adam and Eve should have looked that serpent, the devil, in the eyes when they told him that they don't need God. Matter of fact, they can be God. A|22:56|They should have recognized the lie, been filled with good and holy and righteous anger and ⁓ killed the snake. But they didn't. And where the first Adam failed, the last ⁓ Adam did not. In the garden, God promised that from the seed of Eve there would come one who would crush the devil's head. A|23:22|And so Jesus came into this world ⁓ on ⁓ a mission to confront the serpent, to defeat ⁓ sin, ⁓ death, ⁓ to crush the head of the enemy. How does righteous anger look in in God's kingdom? Like skull crushing. ⁓ A|23:46|But righteous anger in God's kingdom, skull crushing, doesn't equal ⁓ John Wick. Righteous anger in God's ⁓ upside down kingdom is, well, upside down. Jesus, the seed of the woman, was betrayed by his good friend Judas. He was denied by one of his closest apprentices, Peter. A|24:15|And his entire ⁓ band of disciples, his beloved disciples, his chosen ones, they ⁓ all betrayed him. He's mocked, spit on, beaten, falsely accused, and nailed to a Roman cross, and yet ⁓ he does not lash out. He doesn't even defend himself. Rather, he ⁓ prays. ⁓ A|24:42|He turns the other cheek. He he stays faithful. He forgives. He absorbs evil without himself becoming evil. Kingdom anger is not passive. It is not indifferent, but anger so ⁓ submitted to the Father that it refuses to become the very thing it hates. God shows his love for you. ⁓ A|25:11|In that while you were his enemy, think about that for a second. While you were God's enemy, Christ died for you. Friends, Jesus absorbs the righteous ⁓ wrath, ⁓ anger of God. God is slow to anger for sure. You see that throughout the pages of Scripture, yet God is also just. A|25:40|His wrath towards sin is ⁓ righteous. Remember from our God Is series, wrath and anger are not attributes of God, but they are how a God who is love responds to sin. When my family stood at A|26:00|Book involved ⁓ a concentration camp in Germany last summer and I read the story about ⁓ the US ⁓ bombers who who attacked this place ⁓ in in in August of nineteen forty-four. The the proper reaction to the wrath of that attack ⁓ from the US is a fist bump. A|26:25|Fist bump that needed to happen. This is how ⁓ the wrath of God works, friends. Though he's slow to anger, sin will ⁓ be ⁓ punished. And here's where it gets ⁓ personal. All of us, ⁓ every single one of us, ⁓ have sinned and fallen way short of this ⁓ holy. A|26:53|And righteous God. But because of God's mercy, He does the unimaginable. He aimed that righteous anger. That anger do your sin, ⁓ my sin. He aimed that righteous anger on his perfect, sinless, beloved Son. A|27:23|Have you been? ⁓ A|27:27|By the scandal ⁓ of the gospel. A|27:31|And so the question now remains as I seek to land this plane how then shall we live as God's people? With the proverbs in our hands, how shall we then live in this already and not yet upside down kingdom? ⁓ Anger is being affected deeply by wrong. ⁓ At the core of what anger is, it's this being ⁓ displeased at wrong. A|28:00|Sometimes our perception of reality is wrong, so so we imagine things that aren't true, ⁓ so our anger is out of line from the get-go. ⁓ But sometimes we're angry because we see wrong, real wrong, or we've really been wrong. The path of wisdom knows when something is wrong, can call it wrong, and yet is ⁓ slow to anger. A|28:29|It doesn't ignore what is wrong, but it moves slowly because it also knows sin is crouching at the door. And God says you must rule ⁓ over it. Maybe you're in here this morning and you know you have an anchor problem. A|28:47|Maybe that that that that anger often turns into bad anger. Maybe it's never good anger. But all versions of returning evil ⁓ for evil, whatever that looks like, is bad anger. God calls you this morning to turn away from that. To instead choose the the path of wisdom. This is what repentance is all about. ⁓ A|29:14|In the life of the Christian, in the words of Martin Luther, is the life ⁓ of ⁓ repentance. This week I had to do a lot of repenting from anger. I say this often, but but preaching is the best and the worst. ⁓ God's not gonna let me say anything that He hasn't first wrecked me of. ⁓ A|29:36|Literally last ⁓ this last week, ha Holly and I have been deeply hurt by someone we love. ⁓ Anger has been ⁓ one of my primary emotions for the last nine days. ⁓ Anger at this person. ⁓ At times, Holly and I try not to let anger get between us. ⁓ And then I look at the preaching schedule and I get to preach this text. ⁓ Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. A|30:06|And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Friends, in the gospel, God has been slow ⁓ to anger with you. And now he calls us to imitate him to be ⁓ slow ⁓ to anger. Lately I've become obsessed with Proverbs 17:27. A|30:31|Especially love the the the CSB translation. It it says, ⁓ One who keeps a cool head is a person of ⁓ understanding. A cool head. This is wisdom. You may not be up to speed on all the latest trends. You might not be a a hip hop head ⁓ or a sneaker head, ⁓ a dead head, a pothead. ⁓ Harry Potter, obviously. ⁓ A|31:01|But the Bible calls you to something far ⁓ greater. A cool head. This is wisdom. And how do we practically do this? How do we become these type of people? The cool heads. ⁓ Like I got two things and then I'm done. Two of our core values here at ⁓ RP. ⁓ Spirit-led. Spirit-led and ⁓ A|31:29|Committed to ⁓ community. First spirit led. I read ⁓ over the course of the summer, ⁓ Holly and I read the Steve Jobs biography. And it was fascinating. ⁓ The former CEO of Pixar and Apple was a genius ⁓ and a lunatic. ⁓ At one point, Steve Jobs was asked towards the end of his life: why are you so angry and mean? ⁓ A|31:59|He says, is just who I am, and I can't do anything about it. And in all reality, he's right. This is a good definition of total depravity. But this is not our story. If you're a follower of Christ this morning, the Spirit of God, ⁓ the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity has come ⁓ and made his home, has taken ⁓ residence ⁓ in ⁓ you. ⁓ A|32:28|Let let's be spirit led and watch him change us from the inside out. ⁓ You want patience, you want self-control. It's not try harder, do better. These are fruit of the spirit. ⁓ Friends, the only way we can even fear the Lord. ⁓ A|32:48|Take him at his word. The only way we can do that, become slow to anger, rule our spirits is if the spirit ⁓ is inside of us. So let's be a church that practices ⁓ the presence of God. Let's be spirit-led. Amen. Amen. And second, committed to community. A|33:09|The Bible talks so much about imitation. Mark will preach a sermon next week ⁓ on this theme, but you will become ⁓ who you spend time with. So we stay with our theme in anger here. Proverbs 22 ⁓ says this: Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. A|33:38|Bad anger is contagious, but so is the path of wisdom. So do life together with those who are seeking to imitate Christ. If you are not in a GC, get ⁓ in one this semester. Imagine, church, if we were the cool heads. Not afraid to call wrong wrong, not unwilling to fight ⁓ injustice, but ⁓ slow to anger. A|34:07|Able to rule ⁓ our spirits. Imagine what kind of church we can be. Amen. ⁓ Amen. Let me pray.