Dial M for Murder

In all these cases, Paul and Jesus are attacking the scribes and Pharisees who are acting a certain way foolishly because they believe something wrong. So in that case, it's not an isolated, you know, indictment of anger. And like you said, he's not attacking the person. See if you talk to people, and we see people this way today, guys who grew up with an overbearing father or have a father wound today, or girls who have an overbearing mother, what they'll say is, when I was growing up, my dad or mom would say, you're an idiot. You're a fool. You're no good. You see what I'm saying? The emphasis is you. Instead of saying this, you're acting like a fool. You're acting like a goofball, whatever. There's a difference between who you are and what you're doing. And if you're a parent, you got to remember this. Don't ever tell your kids they are, because you label them and it's very, very hard from your voice and authority in their life to grow out of that easily. So Jesus is basically calling out the action. He's calling out the belief. You're believing something. Paul, you fool us Galatians. Who confused you with this belief system that's not true? Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast. I'm your host, Adam French. I'm here with Pastor Robby and Kandi Gallaty. It's good to be back recording this morning, but we've got some exciting news about just a journey that we're taking, learning about prayer, practicing prayer, and you have a powerful resource that I've already started. I know a lot of people out there. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah, we're a week into this at Long Hollow when you're hearing this, but it is a book Kandi and I put together called The Practice of Prayer. So we're excited about this resource. You can't even tell the story of how it came about, but we really think it's going to be very helpful for people because it's very practical. It's nothing profound in here. It's just very simple practices of how you can actually pray. You know, a lot of books out there are philosophical, theological, theoretical. This is what you should do. This is what prayer looks like. These are people who've prayed, but they don't actually give you activities to pray. Like nobody leaves being a better prayer warrior. You listen to these guys like Mueller and Ravenhill and Moody, and you're like, man, I need to pray more, but I don't know how. So this is a daily discipleship, hand-holding journey where we're going to kind of hold your hand supernaturally through prayer. So Kandi, tell them a little bit about the guide, if you want. Well, it was birthed out of a season of intense spiritual warfare that was taking place, specifically something that one of our sons was going through. And so I was having a really difficult time through that. And the only way I made it through that was through praying. And so I was actually praying the Psalms and writing out my prayers during that season. And it was just so freeing for me, and it was very, very impactful. And so I came to Robbie after a season of time had gone by and said, hey, I think if this has been really helpful to me, we've got to provide something out there that helps people in their everyday life with dealing with all the things they deal with, you know? And so that's kind of how it started. And then as we got together and worked on it, it kind of morphed into what we have now, which is this 30-day resource, which I love it because it is so simple, and you can just sit down, whether you have 20 minutes or whether you have an hour, and you can, you know, look

at a small passage of Scripture and write your thoughts on that, answer some questions about where you are in your prayer life currently, and then pray. You actually get to pray. Every day you do something. It's a discipline. It's training, really. And if you think about, you said this yesterday in the sermon, some of the most, we prepare, we watch videos, you always talk about YouTube University. We do all these things to learn about things that may not be important or they may have some importance. But one of the most powerful tools that we have in our Christian life is prayer. And what I like about it is, I mean, I've been a Christian for 20 years. I would like to say that I have a very consistent prayer life. I would say that, I do. But even though I'm on day two and I'm learning things, so it's really, it's a step-by-step training. No matter where you're at, if you've been praying for 20 years or 20 minutes, you can learn some tools. And what's going to happen when you pray, you're going to grow closer to the Lord. So if there's a man, you know, think about this, there's a book that says, you can't do this unless you're praying to God. And even if you're not a believer, a lot of times in recovery, we'll tell people who don't believe in a higher power, they don't believe in Jesus, don't believe in God yet. We say, why don't you just try it? Why don't you put your shoes under the bed before you go to sleep and just start praying and see what happens. And this is, so this can be that tool as well, if you're an atheist or if you're not, you know, you're not strong in your faith and you're worrying about it, why don't you Why don't you put this to test? See how your life is different and take the 30-day challenge with this. So I love it already. I'm excited. And I think like even day one, which I think most

people probably, if you're starting it with us like as a church, you started that today, but uncovering where did you come up with the idea of what you call prayer today? Like where did that start? How was it modeled for you? Growing up, you know, like how did you pray or was that even a thing? You know, and starting to kind of unpack in a small way, what created this concept and idea of prayer in your own life? Where are you today? And then how are you going to grow, you know, in this process as you go through it for the next four weeks? Because that means a lot, like where your idea of prayer has even come from. Who has modeled that for you or has someone? Well, think about this. Christianity is one of the only things in life, not only, one thing in life where people expect you to just inherently know how to do the spiritual disciplines, but have never been taught. Think about how many Christians you're listening here. Nobody sat, you see, because a lot of these disciplines are more caught than taught. So prayer is like learning the intro or the opening thing Candy and I wrote is we have, I studied French for three years in high school, mainly because I liked the teacher. Upon graduating, I was inducted in the French Honor Society, not because of intellect, but for ingenuity. Recently, Candy and I went to Paris for our 20th anniversary, and I attempted to recall the language I'd learned in high school, but to no avail. And I had a couple of words, you know, come see, come sigh, and come on to tell to show my pal, you know, yeah, but that was it. So what happened to the language I once knew so well, it had become foreign to me because I hadn't practiced it. Prayer works the same way. It's like a foreign language. Now the problem is the way you learn a foreign language is you have to speak it. And you have to converse and you have to talk. And so that's what this does. It literally just gets you talking with God. And so there are seven practices in the book, how to pray scripture, how to pray a prayer list of needs, how to lament to God, how to really confess in a lot of people don't know or don't do that, how to journal prayer through different styles, how to engage my favorite in silence and solitude, how to have an attitude of gratitude by remembering what God has done and what God will do. So at the end of it, as I had one of the guys in my discipleship groups, texted me this morning and said, finishing with five minutes of silence at the end of the time was revolutionary. This was really cool. So anyway, the practice of prayer, you can find it really excited about it. All right, Adam, where are we today? We're in the sermon on the mount still on the mount. We're going to touch a topic that I think, especially coming out of the

Christmas season, a lot of people may want to get some information on just because being around family and those sort of things, it brings up a lot of difficulties that we face. Let me say one thing before we move forward in 2026. I do want to say this, in 2025, I don't know if I've ever said this, we've ever said this on the podcast, we had 590,000 views inside the prisons and jails for the Forgotten Jesus podcast, five times more. Get three of them. So I just want to give a shout out just to say thank you for those who are listening. And all the people that just to say that I know that the holiday season, the Christmas season can be a tough time. You made it. And we ask you to continue to be faithful to us. We're grateful that you're listening. And we love you guys. We pray for you guys. We get letters all the time. And I know it's encouraging to see that and to know that, that it's just an amazing thing that people are consuming the word. So think about this, that your heart behind this podcast, both you guys is to take a deep, deep, slow dive to truly know the scriptures, to know who Jesus is. And our biggest audience are people in prison and jail. Yeah. And Jesus said in Matthew 25, if you want to know where I am, that's where I'll be. Yeah. Where were you when you said that's where I was, when you helped me, when you served me, when you came to me, uh, I would say if you're listening in prison or, uh, or not, what helps the podcast is sharing it. So if you could do us a favor and tell a family member, a friend, or send an email or a text and say, Hey, have you heard of this podcast? Or, or like you said, subscribe or like, or comment on Chris. I mean, that helps too. When you subscribe, like, or comment. Okay. So we're back. Uh, we, we do have one thing to highlight before we go on, uh, the deck of hearts group made it Rose bowl parade, baby. Chris claps. Yes. And, uh, is in a group called the deck of hearts. Unbelievable. Not every day you get to turn on, uh, a long hollow worship leader and long hollow members. If you haven't checked out deck of hearts, come on, you got to check it out. Number three on the voice. Number three. But that's okay though. heard because if they would have won it they would have been owned by the voice and that's just a side note though if people who are not in the studio Chris has the best hair of any human being on planet Earth. A lot of people don't know this to a young but he reminds me of a modern-day Fabio. Fabio. You know who Fabio is?

He was a heartthrob. Let's get into something productive today. We're 10 minutes in and we've got nowhere. Okay this is one yes all right do not murder. Candy can you quote this one? It's a long one. I have not gone over anything. I can try just don't know where I'm gonna get it. Just go to we got to go to Hellfire so I just need you to go there and I'll take it from there so okay you've heard that it was said to our ancestors. You okay you have heard it was said to our ancestors do not murder and whoever murders will be subject to judgment but I tell you anyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment anyone who said anyone insults whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court and whoever says you fool will be subject to Hellfire. Whoa that's it okay okay still got it yes Hellfire all right so what we start here is a section of six which is very interesting because you'll see this six is the number of incompletion you know not sufficient and so I think it's fascinating that Jesus is going to take the Old Testament law he could have done seven he could have done ten he could have done twenty couldn't done five he did six and I think it's a nod to the Old Testament law if you misinterpret it you get to an insufficient place if you go the wrong way because six is insufficient seven is completion I don't know if that's what he did but I think it's fascinating that of all the numbers he's going to tackle it's the number six okay every one of these starts the same way you have heard it said or you've heard that of ancestors said or you've heard that it was said this way it's all gonna start the same way and basically Jesus is going to as we learned in Matthew 5 19 or 17 18 19 he's going to come to what not abolish but fulfill which we know means what interpret the law he's going so basically fulfill if you're taking notes and remember it means to correctly interpret correctly interpret the law y'all have read the law and misinterpreted the law with all these parameters in systems and processes and so Jesus is going to start in the middle of the Torah or the middle of the Ten Commandments with commandment number six do not what murder do not murder okay he's like a candy she's good she says whoever yes he says whoever murders will be

lodged liable to what judgment okay there it's also possible Jesus is not talking about judgment in general Jesus is talking about the judgment okay so the final judgment at the end of time and it draws our attention to the Old Testament Genesis chapter 9 verse 6 so candy turn there real quick Genesis 9 verse 6 when God is showing us why murder is so bad we see this right out the gate Genesis 9 verse 6 whoever sheds whoever sheds human blood by humans his blood will be shed for God made humans in his image okay so God is showing us why we don't murder the reason we don't murder is when you take the life of another human being who's made in the image of God is actually an attack on God now right let me just remind you here this is interesting it's hard for us to understand this but the Jewish culture had they had the 613 commands they reduced in the ten Jesus reducing the two obviously but there were three sins that so they they said that when it came to a life-or-death situation when you were gonna lose your life either in captivity or in exile or for something by an enemy that you could sin you could break one of the 613 commandments or many of them but you could never break three did you know this you ever heard this word okay watch this they said you could break you you could in a life-or-death situation you could lie Abraham did that okay we see that because that why we why would God a lie lie he thought it was a life-or-death situation he's not it's not done make it right but God allows that according to the Jewish culture they said you could according the rabbis you could break every law but three these were forbidden whether life or death you know what the three were yes okay yes but yes okay tell me what they know okay well obviously do not murder do not murder that's one of you can never break yeah okay okay Do not break the Sabbath. No. Oh, Christ. For the Jewish people, it wasn't do not break the Sabbath? Okay, and then you cannot have any other,

you cannot have any other idols. That's our next button, that's Jeremy's button. No other idols besides me. Okay. That's what I was thinking. Idolatry. Okay, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Murder. One more, one more. Don't tell us. Honor your father and mother. No, that was just a guess. Chris knows it. What is it, Chris? Adultery. Adultery, baby. Listen, and it's funny. I should have known that. Yeah, adultery. So here they are. Thank you, Chris. Chris left there. No, that's a good try, though. You got two of the three, yeah. Okay, so you could never murder in life or death. You could never commit adultery, and you could never commit idolatry. Okay, these were the big three. So at this point, when you hear the law, the Old Testament, right away, someone says,

well, I never murdered anybody. What are you talking about? I'm a good person. I haven't killed, taken another person's life. Why would Jesus be talking about me? Jesus says, let me drop a truth bomb on you. I'm talking about something deeper than murder. Now, before I get to this, the million dollar question I get asked a lot is this. Is there a difference between killing and murder? Or let me say it another way. I get asked this. People will tell me, ask this in line. I'll ask you guys in the audience if you want to. Is there such a thing as just cause killing? In the military. Jeremy was in the military. Oh, Jesus. Is there such a thing as just cause killing? Like self-defense? Is that what you're talking about? Well, like war. Like war. Like we're going to go to war as a country. Yes, you're going to war as a country. I thought you meant like someone breaking your house. Well, that could be too. If you break into my house, you just going to get hurt. Whoa, wow. You know what I'm saying?

Justified. Yeah, just as if I slapped you in the face, huh? Yeah, no. In Middle Tennessee, if you're not from this area, that's how they roll. That's how we roll in Middle Tennessee. Yes. No, but we, okay, take that for example. We had to come to a conclusion in our own home to own a gun. Everybody has to figure this out, yeah. To own a gun. Right. I own a gun. We own a gun. We have many guns in the home. We own guns in the home. When you own a gun, and I have a gun by the bedside. Okay, there's a long answer for that. We got hammered years ago for a sermon I did, and we're not going to get into it, but got multiple death threats on our life preached against gender, sexuality, years ago at Brainerd. You remember this. They ran a false ad against me. The Daily Beast, it was a long story, and basically said I wanted to kill a bunch of people. Anyway, I got multiple death threats, multiple threats to my family, my kids, my wife, the church,

and like, credible, not like some wackadoodle. Right. So we had to make the decision, do I get a gun to protect my home if some crazy nut, you know, nut case, I guess you could say, tries to break in? And the answer was yes. But the thing about a gun is you have to get right in your mind you're going to use a gun before you buy it. Because there's no sense in having a gun, don't use it. Okay, so we made the case that in a life or death situation in our home, if somebody's coming in to steal, rape, or rob, and if they find themselves in my home, then they shouldn't be there, and there's going to be something to pay for that, to answer for that. So that's what we got to. Now, in my mind, there's a difference between killing and murder. Murder is taking an innocent life, or taking someone's life innocently, or just random, killing is you're defending your country. Because people listening would say, man, I kill people in war. Or I have, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think that's where I, and you may not agree with this, and that's fine, but capital punishment in the first century was very rare. The Jews did not kill people.

They actually sequestered them to a place called the, where'd you send people that were murderers and killers? Robert, help me. It was called, you know what I'm talking, I just want to tip my tongue. It's a city of refuge? City of refuge. City of refuge, yeah. We got a house named after that. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, we got a ministry named after that. The city of refuge, yeah. The city of refuge. That was in the Old Testament, yeah. But then they had questions, what happens if a person commits murder in a city of refuge? So you got to have layers to this. So they had people who were just bad apples who were in the city of refuge killing other people. So they had layers to this. It was a rare thing to have capital punishment, but Rabbi Akiva said, he was one of the early second century rabbis, he said, if he had been in the Sanhedrin, not a single person would ever have been put to death. The requirements for execution were deliberately made near impossible to meet. So that's one extreme of saying he would never kill anyone. Now Jesus takes murder and he says, forget murder,

because what I'm going to show you is the sin before the sin. I'm going to show you the desire before the action. So what Jesus says is, murder's the outflow of a heart filled with anger and rage. Watch what he says. I say to you, everyone who is what? Angry. Angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever. Salter's brother be liable to the council, whoever says you fool, that's the one that really gets us, you'll be liable to the hell of fire. So here's the line I like to use. The fruit of the sin of murder is not the problem, but the root of the murder, I'm sorry, the fruit of the sin is murder, but the root of murder is anger. Okay, let me say that again. The fruit of the sin is murder, meaning the outward expression, the fruit, the action of your sin is murder, but the root of murder, the core is anger. So if you wanna address the sin before it blossoms into a fruit of your life, then you go after the core, which is anger. And Jesus says there are three offenses here because of this. The first one's interesting. Anyone who insults his brother is liable to judgment.

Now that word insult in Aramaic is the Aramaic word raka. You ever heard of this? Raka. Yeah, R-A-K-A. R-A-K-A. Isn't that the same word for fool? Raka. It's kinda like fool. Yeah, fool. It just sounds nasty if you say, man, call your brother a raka, raka. One commentator said it would be like saying you are the son of a motherless goat. That's bad. Son of a motherless goat. If you hate goats. I'm playing. Like, what does that even mean? Goats were just, well, like goats and sheep, like goats are like less than. Yeah, because they hated goats. Yeah. You gotta understand the culture. It means nothing to us, whatever that means, Robert. It's another way to say you're a blockhead or you're an empty-headed fool, or another way to say you're an imbecile. That'd be like, that'd be a Columbia quote. You're an imbecile. You're an idiot, okay?

That would be what you're saying. And Jesus is saying, if you say that to your brother, if you insult him with that word, then you shouldn't do it. But then he takes it a step further. He says the word behind fool, you fool, is the word moros, or moron. Moros, where you get the word moron. Okay? So behind the word rocker or fool is the word moros. This term was used to describe someone's mental capabilities, okay? So if you're saying you're a moron, you're not saying like you're a goofball. You're saying you are mentally incapable of thinking or processing or speaking. You would say you're a moronic cheater or you're a moronic liar. So this is the way I look at it. Rocker has to do more with one's intellect. Moros has to do more with one's character, the way they converse and deal with people, the way they act, okay? So think of one, one is the head, one is the heart. One is the mind, one is the action, okay? The reason this is so bad is there was a story in the Mishnah that is from Simon Ben Eliezer. He's an older sage years ago. He had come from a session with his famous teacher and the young man felt proud

of how he handled himself before his teacher. And as he basked in his wisdom and his holiness, he was really proud of himself. He passed a man who was particularly unattractive in the crowd. And when the man greeted him, Simon, the man greeted Simon, the rabbi responded and said, you rocker, how ugly are you? Are all men of this town as ugly as you are? So he just left his teacher, he's proud of himself, but then he sees this man who wasn't really attractive. And the man said, that I do not know, but go and tell your maker who created me how ugly his creature is that he made. Who said that? The guy he was talking to. Is that a real story? It's a Jewish legend in the Mishnah, okay? So basically- That's a good way to combat when somebody tries to- Okay, think of the point here. It's a great way to think. So the point of this illustration was when you slander someone made in the image of God by calling the fool or a moron or an imbecile or a blockhead or the son of a motherless goat, what you're actually doing is slandering the one who made them himself. See what I'm saying? So it takes criticism and condemnation

and judgment a step further. And what Jesus says is you shall be found guilty by the Supreme Court. That's what the Sanhedrin was. It was the collection of 70 different elders who gathered together to hear the findings. The NIV, the New King James Version, the King James adds this one clause in verse 22. It says, this one little addition, if you say, whoever, or I say to you, whoever's angry with his brother, and the King James says, without a cause. Without a cause. Is that in the original language? That's in, it's a long story, but the King James and the New King James get their text from what's called the Majority Text or the Textus Receptus, the Received Text, which is a later text found in the 8th, 9th century. The modern versions of the Bible we use, CSB, the NIV, the NLT, the ESV, the NASB, the RSV, all of those, ESV, I said that, they all use what's called the minority text, which is two texts, the Codex Sinaiticus, or the Book of Sinai, or the Codex Vaticanus, which is the Book of Vatican, which both go back to the second or third century AD. So basically, it's older by 600 years, and so it's more reliable, because it's closer to source.

Regardless, people think, I mean, they're both good, you can look at them, but that's interesting, it says without just cause. So the question I wanna ask you is, is there ever a time to call someone a fool? That's the question. I tell you, this has got my mind running, because thinking back on just my degree in counseling, we did all this study there, the idea in the world of psychology is that anger is a secondary emotion. And it's interesting that Jesus is calling that, he's actually pointing to the desire. And if you think about it, if anger is a secondary emotion, what is that connected to? A deep-rooted sin. That's why he is saying it's almost equivalent to murder, because it's really coming from a place of jealousy, envy, fear, anger. What is behind anger? I said anger, but not anger. But what is behind that? I'm really afraid I'm not gonna get what I want, so I get angry. I'm jealous of what you have, or I'm envious because I really wanna tear you down to where you're at. So it's interesting, it got my mind going back to that. It's even deeper than the anger.

It's deeper. I mean, it's deeper than the anger. Think about it, because you're saying, because when you were talking about the difference between murder and killing, the first thing my mind went to was desire. The desire behind that, right? If I'm been instructed to protect my family by God, or if I'm trying to protect our country or freedom, the desire about the reason why I would take someone's life is totally different than if I did it out of a place of sinful greed or anger. Think of all the reasons people are murdered today. That comes from a place of what? Sin. And so Jesus is saying, hold on, you can actually have that desire, you can have that same sin without actually committing that act. You're walking around as if you're pious and you're better, but in your heart, you're committing that act every day in your mind from the place of sin. Yeah, and one of the reasons Jesus says to address it below the surface before it rises to the top is because if you don't address it, it will eventually simmer to the top, and it always comes at the most inopportune time of life. You ever notice that? Your anger explodes. We always talk about this with dealing with grief

and life in the past. If you don't deal with your grief in the moment that it happens, it will come back, and it's normally not at the time you want it to. What Jesus is saying here is he cannot be saying don't ever call someone a fool generally. Why? Because Jesus himself called some people fools himself. In Matthew 23, verse 17, Jesus refers to the scribes and the Pharisees as you blind fools, okay? Interesting. Paul in Galatians 3.1 says you owe foolish Galatians who has bewitched you, who has confused you. First Corinthians 15.36, Paul says you foolish person. Okay, so what is happening here? Is Jesus saying you shouldn't call anybody a fool, and he's doing that? What were you gonna say, Kenny? Well, no, I just was thinking, I don't think it would be right to say that somebody is a fool, just from what we read in Genesis, because God has created everybody, but something that someone is doing or a way they're thinking could be foolish. Yes, I think that's a good word. It's like I could say, honey, you're not thinking about this right. This is foolish way of thinking, but I'm not saying you are a fool.

Yeah, there's a difference. You see what I'm saying? Especially when you're representing God in the church. Jesus is pointing to things that affect the continuation of the kingdom of God on planet Earth. So he's definitely gonna go, that's foolish. Yeah, exactly. So he would be righteous in doing that. Right, that's what I'm assuming is happening. And what he's doing is he's attacking actions or beliefs as a result of wrong theology. In all these cases, Paul and Jesus are attacking the scribes and Pharisees who are acting a certain way, foolishly, because they believe something wrong. So in that case, it's not an isolated indictment of anger. And like you said, he's not attacking the person. See, if you talk to people, and we see people this way today, guys who. grew up with an overbearing father or have a father wound today or girls who have an overbearing mother done, what they'll say is, when I was growing up, my dad or mom would say, you're an idiot. You're a fool. You're no good. You see what I'm saying? The emphasis is you. Instead of saying this, you're acting like a fool. You're acting like a goof or whatever. There's a difference between who you are and what you're doing. And if you're a parent, you got to remember this. Don't ever tell your kids they are because you label them. And it's very, very hard from your voice and authority in their life to grow out of that easily. So Jesus is basically calling out the action. He's calling out the belief you're believing. Paul, you foolish Galatians who confused you with this belief system. That's not true. And so I want to ask questions as we start to wrap this up. The questions I want to ask are ways to determine the condition of your heart. The first one is this because everyone

gets angry. Everyone says things they regret. What Jesus is saying is don't let your heart harbor anger because if your heart harbors anger, the outflow will eventually be you say something, you do something, you act on something, you regret. Here's the question I want to ask you. Is your heart a headquarters for hatred? Is your heart a headquarters for hatred? Has your temper gotten the best of you recently? I'm not looking at you, Candy. I'm not looking at you, Candy. I did give it a side eye, Jeremy, but I'll just give you a side eye. Does this happen repeatedly? Honey, what are you talking about? I'm not talking about you, but I'm just playing. I was going to make a comment, though, about this. And I was thinking about something that Adam said a while ago, too. So this is what I was thinking about. We were talking about life this morning. You know where I'm going. Oh, listen, we almost got we almost got rid of two dogs this morning, Chris. Literally, this is not the way I wanted to be greeted on my first day back. But before I even get there, before I tell you what happened, this is the root like we were talking about. There's a root of something that happens with like anger and it's stemming from something. And I think for me, this is just a personal thing, but I think it could probably I would think a lot of people could say yes, that they feel the same way or they relate to this. A lot of my anger comes from two different things in life. But I think they both go back to the same thing, actually. If I am overwhelmed or not in control, I get upset. So but if I'm overwhelmed, I'm overwhelmed because I'm not in control about something. Something is happening that is outside of my control. And so it's like when we realize we actually have no control, we live like we do, but really in the we manage some things, yes, but we really don't have the control that we think we have. And so when my when I've planned something or, you know, I'm a woman on a mission every day of my life. Right. And when something does not go according to what I have controlled or laid out or my plan, my first thought is somebody gonna pay for this. You know what I'm saying? Because now I'm upset. I am mad. And so anger is stemming from me personally. I always see that look. I say chubby Annie, run for the hill. She's run toys and hit the hill. Yeah, hit that. But I will say so like this morning, this is a perfect example. And let me just tell you, do you think it builds though? I think it builds like, oh, yeah. I just don't think that like, if you just personally know you, I don't think like, oh, one thing happens, right? It's gonna be like, it's like a pot. Yeah, it's on the stove. And that's been on the stove for a while. It's fiery dark. It's simmering. That's the enemy

knows that. Yes. No, it's been simmering for so if I'm Emily doesn't act this way, but I've heard of girls who do so. Emily has a long way to go. She's young. She will. Why would you even bring that up? But what I'm saying is, it does build over time. And like when you're tired, or when you're worn out, that's when it'll really boil over when you're hangry, not angry, but hangry, hungry. When I woke up this morning, in my perfect world, I had planned for one hour to sit down with the Lord. I set my clock, I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna have a solid hour. I was so ready. But I was so excited. And so I was like, I'm getting up, man. And I'm gonna have my best life today because I spent all this time like praying and then I was gonna work on some other things, but I had allotted myself an hour. So I get up and I get my coffee. And of course, being the nice person that I am, I decided to let the dogs out so they can go to the bathroom so that they had already done that by the time Robbie got up. And as... As I entered into their bedroom, which is the laundry room, one of them had been sick all night long. Annie. All over my laundry room floor. Both sides, both sides. To which, had we not just come off the holidays and I was not actually fully relaxed, I would have shut the door and waited for Robbie to get up and said, your dog's made a mess and I ain't touching it. That's what I would have done. But however, I felt actually really rested and I thought to myself, I have an overwhelming calmness about me right now that normally wouldn't be here. And so I was like. So you're gonna serve your husband. You're saying, I'm gonna clean this up for Robbie. I had a whole method that I had to clean this up and get rid of one of my spatulas to do it.

It only took her six minutes, five, six minutes. No, it took me 20 minutes. Okay. So, so, by the time I sat down in my chair for my hour with the Lord, we were 30 minutes behind schedule. That stinks, to be honest with you. Literally. Literally. Sorry. Yeah. So. Oh gosh, sorry. The normal response from Candy would have been furious. No, so here's what happened. I am so mad right now. Getting rid of the dog. But I wasn't. So I did it all. I was so proud of her too. I cleaned it. I put them back up in there and I thought, well Lord, you must have only thought I would sit down for 30 minutes today because now this is messed up. So as soon as I got up, she was in the bathroom. I was getting ready, walking out, dressed. This is never the sight you wanna see of your wife This is never the sight you wanna see of your wife in the bathroom.

I'm dressed, ready to come out and get my coffee and go to the office. She's in her bathrobe, like her little robe. She ran the house, you know, with her pajamas on. Her hair's a mess and she's staring at me with a side eye. Across her arms. And I said, this is, thinking to myself, this is not the way you wanna be greeted in the morning. I said, hey babe, good morning. She said, well, I hope you slept good. I said, your dogs. I hope you slept good, your dog. Now it's my dog. It's actually both of our dogs, but it's my dog. Your dogs, and then so, now in their defense, they got into the pantry two different times. I knew we were in trouble when they ate an entire box of cookies and cream Pop-Tarts, which looked pretty appetizing. But then two days before we got them is, they got into the Reese's, I mean the Hershey Kisses. From Christmas? From Christmas. And listen, they ate the entire bag, the big bag. Not the Kit Kats though, right? And the foil. Not the Kit Kats though. I mean, but they ate the entire bag of Hershey Kisses and the foil.

And the reason I knew that is, they started to get sick and it came up and actual whole chunks of foil. I'm like, how are these dogs not dead right now? I don't know. I told Robbie, he's like, they're gonna die. I said, well, good riddance. They're gone. You might wanna leave them outside for a little bit. I ain't losing my sleep over it. Jesus says, listen, anyone who's angry with his dog will be subject to judgment. Anyone who calls his dog, Rocco. No, but listen, the whole point, the whole point, the whole point is normally I would have been mad because everything I had planned for my first hour of the day did not go according to plan. And I lost all control in that moment because I had to handle a situation that totally popped up unexpectedly. So what I'm saying is, if we go back and we trace what causes that flare up of whatever it is. And for me, I know it's, I'm overwhelmed, stressed, tired, or I'm out of control of something. I have no control and now I'm mad about it. Do you see? When we really don't have control in the first place. And then if I can identify that, it helps me not live in that place because there's a deeper problem, right?

That causes the anger, like he was saying. And so if I can deal with that, recognize that, and also repent of that, because most of the time it's some sort of a selfish thing with me, then I can move forward and make some progress. Do you see what I'm saying? That's good. And I think people actually, the scarier part is that people lead with this residue or from a, I wouldn't say a place, I don't know how to really say it, but I've seen people leave with this bent of anger. It's of a domineering, it's a fearful way to lead or to interact with your spouse, your kids. And that's not how God's called us to leave. And I wonder if Jesus is seeing that just in the Pharisees and the scribes, because that's how they're ruling. They're ruling, one, they're being pious. We do these things and you don't. You can push back on this, Robby, you think. But I'm curious if they're going around and saying, this is how we're supposed to do it, from a place of anger and self-righteousness and putting themselves up above other people. Because I've been around even Christian leaders who want to lead from a place of fear or want to have to catch myself to make sure I'm not leading kids or whatever from this,

hey, do it, because I said so, instead of getting down to the level, getting to the heart, explaining how things are happening. I see that a lot, you know, when people are trying to lead from this place of. Anger is saying, and wanting to control, I'm more dominant, I'm stronger. We see this in the church world where, you know, churches explode because of this, because you give somebody a little bit of power, and then it's like, okay, I'm gonna domineer, and I'm gonna lead, and I'm gonna rule from a place of fear and anger. So I don't know, it's just thinking about that. Well, my counselor has dealt, we've dealt a lot with this. And so you were saying that the root emotion, the root feeling of fear, I mean, the root feeling of anger is fear. Okay, so there are only really eight feelings. If you're interested in this, you can read Chip Dodd's book, Voices of the Heart. Eight feelings, and they manifest differently. And what my counselor was teaching me, we've been working on this for years, is that today's culture, think about this, when we were growing up, Vivian, you remember this, Jeremy, Ben, Josie, when we were growing up, no one walked around and said, man, I'm depressed today. Do you remember anybody hearing that? Never.

No one walked around and said, man, I'm anxious. If I'm one guy from high school that walked around, nobody says that, okay? Oh, I'm suicidal, even that. I think some of us were, we just didn't know how to identify it. Right, well, this is true. But the point is, those words are deceptive. Why? Because that's not the root feeling. The root feeling is not depression, it's not anxiety, it's not even anger. The root feeling is something else. So I'll just take anger because it's the one we're talking about. Do you know anger in and of itself is neither bad nor good, okay? Anger is benign. There's only how you respond and you direct the anger, here's what I mean. So at the root, feeling is fear. You nailed it. Some of the worst leaders that self-destruct are the most insecure leaders in and of themselves. I've had three guys I've had on staff here through the years, and what led to their self-destruction was insecurity. So basically what I mean is, every grown man is still a 12-year-old boy. And we all struggle with fear.

I have fear, you have fear, and fear will manifest. Listen, if you're leading any organization or your home and you have to walk around and say, I'm the boss here, you're lost all respect. Because if you gotta tell people who's in charge, you're probably not in charge. And it's a posture of insecurity, right? I, in the world, I mean, Jeremy will tell you, I grew up in an environment like you where we fought all the time. I was always fighting, we'd jog for a position, always, you look at me wrong, I'm gonna fight you. And the reason was, I was scared. It was out of a posture of fear. The reason I went and learned MMA and did MMA fighting and bouncing, it was out of fear, okay? So in the world, though, I used to, if you looked at me wrong, I was like, hey, bro, let's go outside and handle that. Let's not do it in here. That's what I did, okay? So now I'm a Christian. I don't lead that way. I don't have to lead that way. Because I realize, I don't have, Jesus didn't have, Jesus could have decimated people with a blink of an eye or a thought. And yet, Jesus was strong, but he demonstrated meekness. We talked about this months ago.

Jesus had, meekness is restraint of power. Jesus, I could take you out in a moment, pilot, but I'm gonna let you live because of my meekness, right? So the person that has to flaunt his power and authority and control and position and power normally is insecure about themselves. And I find, if that's you, you can get counseling and help, because I have as well. But here's how fear works, okay? Fear manifests itself in healthy response or unhealthy, the feeling of fear, okay? So let's take anger. Oh yeah, anger. Let me take anger, okay? So there's good anger, there's resourceful anger, and non-resourceful. There's good and bad anger. Here's what I mean. Bad anger is rage. So if I get fearful that I'm gonna lose my marriage, if I feel like my wife's cheating on me, or if I'm gonna lose my kids because of something, then that can go into rage. Or this guy didn't call a plate for my son. I'm gonna rage and mad at him because we're gonna lose the game, fear. What is good fear? Because you're probably thinking, what is healthy fear? Healthy fear is you get so sick and tired of addiction that you're gonna start a ministry to combat it.

I am sick and tired of sex trafficking. I'm gonna have an anger toward it that I'm gonna fix it. That's healthy fear. That's a good thing. You know what another word for it is? Passion. Now there's a fine line between passion and rage. You see what I'm saying? Because both emotions are, I'm gonna get in your face, man. I'm gonna confront. And the difference is the outflow of the root. That's what Jesus is saying. He's not saying you shouldn't have anger. Jesus had righteous anger. Anger's a feeling and an emotion that God has given for us to be able to express. It's just, you have to express it in a way that is positive and not destructive. Every single feeling and emotion we have is the same way. Yes. You see what I'm saying? Like it's going to either, we're either going to channel that and we're going to do that in a positive, good healing way and be blessed for that. Or we're going to be, it's going to be a completely destructive way that is going to destroy us and other people. Yeah. I agree.

And here's the flip side. There's a fleshly response or there's a life giving response. But the emotion and the feeling in and of itself is given from the Lord. Yeah, I'll finish with this. But think about this. The opposite of rage and anger and engagement is engaging in what I call cold war tactics by withdrawing from others and giving them the silent treatment. So you mad? Nope. Well, you look, tell your face that, because you look, are you, is there something wrong with me? Nope. Are you mad at me? Not at all. Okay. That's what, that's another extreme. You shouldn't be on one side. You shouldn't be throwing and screaming and punching walls. And you shouldn't be reclusive and silent and detached. So there has to be a middle ground. So next week is we're going to do, we're going to take this in two parts. And I promise you, we're going to speed up because the session sections gets shorter, but we're going to take the second part, which if you thought this was convicting,

wait till next week. This is the sermon I preached on this years ago that I was literally preaching the sermon. And after preaching, I thought, man, I don't have any problem with this at all. I have nobody I need to forget. And the Holy Spirit's like, all right, big boy, let's start with five names I'll put on your heart right now. So anyway, next week, we're going to talk about why reconciliation is more important than worship to God. I love it. Give us a place to take our anger that we've been talking about. That's good stuff. Powerful, powerful time together. I loved it, enjoyed it. Hopefully Tubby and Annie will make it to the next episode. They may be at the French house with Cookie. Cookie may have an older brother and sister. That's right. Thank you for joining us today. If you're consuming this content, please subscribe to it, share, like, comment. We want people to be able to grow in their faith and have a deeper understanding of who the real Jesus is and was in scripture. Yes, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.