Week 3 | Anger Can Take You Down

So, in 1963, I was five years old, and I remember attending the famous MLK I Have a Dream speech. As a matter of fact, my dad drove the bus, our church bus, from Amityville, New York, all the way four and a half hours into Washington, D.C. I also remember that I was wearing one of my favorite sweaters, the black, red, and yellow sweater, like each panel had, like, red and then yellow. Because I was five years old, I don't really remember understanding as much about the day or the feel of the crowd, but I do remember the voices who spoke that day, and being kind of amazed that there were, like, so many people gathering. My sense of being there that day was more of a group of people determined to accomplish the goal of equal rights, and just being recognized as full citizens. I think it's incredible that, in my lifetime, the Voting Rights Act was signed, and the Civil Rights Act. But maybe I should also mention, if it weren't for the nonviolent approach, those goals may not have been realized. Good evening. Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. Everything came into perspective for me when I saw my mom crying for the first time. I can still see the image in my mind now. I think that's the first time I experienced anger about the movement and about the life of Dr. King. You have every reason to be angry about whatever the discrimination is that you may face, but you have a choice of how you're going to respond to that discrimination. Leading with love is always going to be the best response to any discrimination, or any anger, or any conflict. Because ultimately, for us as Christians, if we're not leading with love, then we can't lead others to Christ. So I remember a scripture from 1 Peter 2, 9, where it says that we are a peculiar people. And I often wondered, what does that really mean? Does it mean that we're strange or odd?

No. But I think it really means that we are, we're different because we have the spirit of God living in us. And that should mean something to us, because we know that darkness and light can't reside in the same place. We should not respond with darkness, but with light. So know whose you are, know who you are, and walk with God. You know, on this weekend, as an entire country, and certainly as a church, we just remember, and we celebrate the incredible life and the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And what I love so much about his life and his ministry, is I think he was so anchored in the Jesus Way, which is the series we're in, and we're discovering, what does it really look like to walk the Jesus Way? So I do want to welcome our Willow locations, great to have you here. Also want to welcome those of you joining us online. And a big shout out to our friends who join us from the Jefferson City Correctional Center, great to have you here as well. Now if you've been with us for the past couple weeks, you know we're tracking through one of Jesus' most famous sermons, we now call it the Sermon on the Mount. And what I love about the Sermon on the Mount is I would say it's the most clear, concise, just catalytic place that you can really discern, like what does it really mean to follow Jesus? I think it's the most articulate perspective of what it means to walk the Jesus Way. And as I told you when we kicked off this series, it's not for the faint of heart. I mean really walking the Jesus Way, it is not an easy road. I think in many ways it's actually incredibly difficult, but at the same time, I started to take a step back and I recognized so many great things in life aren't easy. I mean I think about what it takes to have a godly marriage. It's not easy, but man it's worth it. Or I think about the journey of training for a marathon. That's not easy, but man do I love a finish line, right? I mean I think about having a difficult conversation with somebody.

It's not easy, but it's the only path where you can find healing and hope and meaning in that relationship again. It's the only way to actually get toward reconciliation. And so candidly, as we start this week... Jesus kind of turns up the dial a little bit when it comes to the challenge that he has for us, really this week and the next couple of weeks. But as we are challenged by Jesus, I wanna start with this perspective, because this is really important to us. I would say that Jesus isn't trying to give you a standard that you can never reach. Instead, what I would say is that Jesus is trying to give you a vision for your life for which you were made. And I want you to really anchor yourself in this thought, because what he's about to say is really, really challenging and he's not trying to give you this impossible standard. He's trying to help you see this vision for your life looks very different than the world would give you. But I think it's exactly what you were actually made for. As we dive in, starting at Matthew chapter five, verse 17, there's a couple of principles that I want us to lean into today. Here's the first principle that I want you to lean into. The first one is, we gotta be people who look inward before you look outward. You gotta look inside before you look outside. Here's how Jesus starts this next section. Matthew chapter five, verse 17, we're walking through this sermon verse by verse.

It says this, do not think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I haven't come to abolish them, but to what? To fulfill them. He says, for truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not a smallest letter nor the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. He goes on to say, therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commandments and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, what Jesus is doing in this small little section is he's setting up what he's about to do. What he's about to do, he's about to challenge the religious leaders and the religious thinking back in the first century. He's about to challenge not the commands that God gave, but he is gonna challenge their interpretation of those commandments. And so it's really important for him to establish himself. He says, I'm gonna challenge your perspective of how you're interpreting God's law, but I want you to know, I'm not saying God's law is not important or irrelevant. Instead, I've come to actually fulfill it.

Every single thing that God has done, I'm the fulfillment of. And so in other words, Jesus is saying, every law, every prophet, every book of the Old Testament, it actually all points to Jesus. He's not setting it aside. He's not brushing it under the rug. He's not telling you to go a different way, but he is saying, I'm gonna challenge how you've always thought about it. And so what he's about to do is take these commands that they had known, that they had followed for literally hundreds of years, and he's gonna challenge us to take it to a much greater level of depth. And so right after this, he's gonna launch into six different examples of what that means. Each example is really challenging, but each example is driving us to really take a look at our heart. So here's kind of the next verse, verse 20. It says this. He says, for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, the teachers of law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now that may not strike you as crazy. In the first century, if you were a Jewish person, hearing Jesus said that, your jaw would have just hit the dirt.

Like how in the world can I be more righteous than the Pharisees or the teachers of the law? They were the most righteous, at least outwardly, than you could have ever possibly imagined. Because again, they interpreted the law and everything that God had done was about exterior, outward, like, you know, obedience by how you lived and what you did. And they were doing this to the nth degree. And so I know we're challenging in the series to memorize the Sermon on the Mount. That's pretty challenging, right? Memorizing three chapters of the Bible. These Pharisees, they had the first five books of the Bible memorized. Genesis memorized, Exodus memorized, Leviticus. They memorized Leviticus. Like, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they memorized the first five books of the Bible. It's unbelievable. And not only that, they were known to be people who gave about 20% of their income to God and the things of God. They were people who prayed 18 times a day. And so Jesus says, if you wanna make it into the kingdom of heaven, your righteousness needs to be better than theirs. And everybody would be like, how in the world can we do more right things in God's mind than these guys?

There's nobody more right than them, right? What Jesus is getting at is he's talking about there's a different kind of righteousness in his kingdom. Jesus is not suggesting that you memorize six books instead of five. He's not suggesting you get 21% instead of 20. He's not suggesting you pray 19 times instead of 18 times. He's suggesting that the economics of his kingdom, the ethics of his kingdom is more about the heart and not just about the hands. So I would say this, the righteousness of the Pharisees was a righteousness of the hands. It was all about exterior obedience. But the righteousness of the kingdom that Jesus brings, it all begins with the heart. So these examples he's about to launch into, six different examples, you have to hold this principle because each one of them is gonna look at the exterior behavior and look underneath the cover and say, Hal, we gotta take a look at our heart. Like what's behind it? Jesus cares to take our heart of stone and replace it with a soft heart. Jesus wants to transform us from the inside out. And so really Jesus is getting at the kind of righteousness of the kingdom is not just about exterior compliance, it's about internal transformation. Make some sense?

All right, so we got that. And so here's the first challenge that he lays forth that we'll walk through over the next few weeks together. And here's the principle. I think Jesus would say this, turn down the heat before you boil. Here's the first commandment he goes after. He says this, the next verse. He says, you've heard it was said to people long ago, you shall not murder. And anybody who murders will be subject to judgment. And so he's referring to one of the 10 commandments. You remember that commandment, thou shalt not murder. And most of the people who had heard this say, I've never done that. And so they would think I'm right with God because I've got the external obedience right with this one. I've not done that kind of horrifically irreversible type of thing. So Jesus says, you've heard it was said, do not murder somebody. Anybody who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister is subject to that same judgment. Say what? I mean, that feels a little crazy, doesn't it? That Jesus is equating murder with anger. Here's what he's getting at. Long before somebody does this, has this decision in a fit of rage

that takes the life of another human. If you rewind the clock way before that moment, at some moment, it likely started with a moment that they were angry, something that wasn't right. And that anger festered, it grew, it turned into bitterness, it became magnified, and eventually it escalated to the point where eventually somebody's life was taken. And so Jesus says, in my kingdom, it's not enough just to say I've never killed somebody. What I want you to take and examine is your own heart, and all of us need to examine our own heart. I think that what Jesus is getting at is this kind of idea that murder doesn't start with a weapon in your hand. It actually starts with a story in your heart. We all know this. Because one of the things that's most common in the human experience is broken relationships. We all have them. And it's challenging, and it's sensitive. And there may be good reasons why anger entered into a relationship because there was a wrong that took place, right? But we gotta recognize that murder doesn't just start with a weapon in your hand, it starts with the story in your heart. And if we're not careful, that anger again, it can grow, it can turn into bitterness, it can magnify, and we can do things

that are mind-boggling to somebody else in our anger. I would go as far to say this. You don't have to spill blood to take a life. Here's what I mean by that. Most of us, I would assume, will never physically take another human life. However, sometimes in a moment of escalated emotion, I've said some things, or I've done some things to people that I love, that I've taken their self-confidence, I've taken their sense of worth, I've taken their maybe aspirations and dreams. You don't have to spill blood to take a life. But as you lean into Jesus' words here, I do think it's important to really talk about what he's saying and what he's not saying. I would say this about anger. Anger is a secondary emotion, and so what I would describe anger as is I would say this. Anger, it's not a sin, but it is a sign. Like anger in and of itself, actually it's a God-given emotion. And it's something that God gave us for a couple of different reasons, but we have to understand and take the deep look within our own heart. It's a God-given emotion that oftentimes when we get angry, it's because something's not right, something's unjust, something needs to be made right.

And so anger's the emotion that's an indicator, it's a sign, it lets us know that something is not okay. And so the book of Ephesians reminds us that in your anger do not sin. So anger is not a sin in and of itself, but sometimes in our escalated emotions we can do sinful things. In our escalation of emotions, we can say some very demeaning words to somebody. In our escalated emotions, we can do some very harmful things to somebody else, right? So anger itself is not the sin, but it is a sign. I think the other aspect of the sign is this, for some of us, we walk around angry all the time. It's almost like, you know when you're trying to boil a pot of water? I'm not much of a cook. I really can't cook anything except for Kraft macaroni and cheese, and I do make a mean Kraft macaroni and cheese. So I do know how to boil water. And you know the experience when you're boiling water. There's that point right before it boils that it kind of simmers, that you know it's just about to boil. Oftentimes, people will walk around in a state of just simmering, and it takes the smallest little thing to put them to a boiling point. And oftentimes, when you and I boil,

somebody gets burned. So the question that Jesus is pressing us to consider is when we live in this simmering type of state, that we're always one step away from boiling and burning somebody else. When we're kind of living in a state that sometimes our reactions are disproportionate to what happened, Jesus says, I want you to take a deep look within. Like what's behind that? What's fueling that? How do you turn down the heat before somebody gets burned? I think for some of us, sometimes the heat that we feel is just an immense amount of stress or pressure about whatever the thing is. I remember a moment that my wife and I, we were walking the dog, and my dog did something on the leash, and I exploded on my dog. And my wife looks at me and goes, what is wrong with you, right? And I was feeling a lot of stress. I was feeling a lot of pressure. And when I do, sometimes I will take that out on somebody around me. So I gotta recognize, sometimes there's some heat in my life. I gotta turn down the heat or somebody's gonna get burned.

For others of us, maybe something horrifically tragic has happened in our lives, and maybe somebody horrifically has done something to us. And we carry that anger around, and we've nurtured it for a really long time. And unless we deal with that trauma, we will always be in a simmering state, ready to boil. Here's the truth. I would say this. If you don't allow God to transform your pain, you will eventually transfer that same pain to other people. So Jesus says, I want you to take a look at your heart. It's not enough to feel like I'm righteous before God if I obey the commandment of thou shalt not murder. I'm calling you to a deeper relationship with God. We're willing to take a deep look within our own heart and allow God to transform us from the inside out. I care not just about your hands and what you do. I care about your heart and who you are and what you experience. The other aspect of anger that Jesus is getting into here, which is really interesting. If you dive into the original language of the Bible, maybe you know that the New Testament of the Bible was originally written in what's called Koine Greek. And if you look at the Greek word that's translated for us, anger, it's not referring to like an incident, like a moment of anger.

It actually is referring to when you hold on to the anger. It's like when you continue to be angry. It's one thing to kind of have a moment of anger when something wasn't right. It's a whole nother thing to hold on to it, to become bitter, to hold the grudge, to not let go of it. I would say this about anger. I'd say anger becomes lethal when it becomes luggage. Anger will take your life and take others around you when we just hold on to it, when we carry it around with us, when we're unable to let it go. And that's why Jesus is saying, bring that to me. Allow me to help transform that from the inside out. Again, I hope that you find this to be incredibly practical. Ironically, this week, I'm studying for this message. I'm taking a deep dive into this verse. And I got really angry this week. I got really angry with somebody that I deeply, deeply love. And what's interesting is because I'm diving so deeply into the Sermon on the Mount and trying to memorize it, the Holy Spirit brought this verse to my mind. Now, I would probably tell you I was justified in my anger. At the same time, there's no justification if in my anger I say some hurtful words or if I do some hurtful things. And so the beauty of it so practically is when you remember this ethic of Jesus, what it looks like to walk the Jesus way

is it's okay to be angry. The question is, what do you do when you're angry? And there's no justification of somebody getting burned because of my life. I gotta take a deep look within. I gotta turn down the heat. Here's the next principle that Jesus is gonna get at. Now, I think he'd say, I want you to humanize before you demonize. He gets at this. The very next verse, he goes on and he says this. He says, again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, raka, is answerable in the court. And anyone who says, you fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Have a nice day. I mean, Jesus is, he's not messing around. Now, raka is a word that we don't necessarily use today. It would have been translated as calling somebody like worthless, you're a total moron. You have no value of any kind. In the first century, it would have been a very offensive, very demeaning type of word. It would have been kind of like saying the N word to a person of color, just as offensive as it could possibly be in order to demean somebody else. And so Jesus basically says, when we don't deal with the anger in our heart, we are actually liable. And it actually sometimes led to almost demonize somebody else for whatever the reason that that might be,

which is not the way of Jesus. So I thought I would paint a little perspective of what I think the process of demonization looks like, which is very different what I would say the process of humanization looks like. So let me kind of walk you through this process. It starts this way. We tend to demonize somebody when we first recognize there's a difference, that you're not like me. You don't vote like me, you don't think like me, you believe differently than I do about that particular issue. Maybe you don't parent like me. We have different perspectives, very different ways of life, right? We see the difference. And the question becomes, what do you do with that moment? If we begin to demonize people, here's what we do next. We make a judgment. And what we typically are thinking about is that you're wrong and you're inferior because obviously I'm right. I mean, obviously when it comes to this particular issue, I'm spot on with my perspective. Somebody said this to me recently. They said, do you know what it feels like to be wrong? And I'm like, well, yeah. They're like, no, no, no. Like, when you're actually still wrong, do you know what it feels like?

It feels the exact same way as being right because you haven't yet recognized that you're wrong. And so oftentimes we're at a place of like, we feel like we're right, even if we're not. And what we do with that is we make the other person inferior. So what we do next is we just start disrespecting them because they're not right. And because they haven't figured it out, we oftentimes will disrespect them feeling like that person's actually not even worthy of my respect, which leads us to what Jesus is talking about is we label somebody. We kind of fill in the blank with whatever name we would call them. Now again, we don't use the term raka, but we might say, man, she's a Karen. Snowflake, Packers fan, you know, list goes on and on, right? Now, if I were to challenge you a little more on this one, we'll say stuff like, they're a MAGA idiot. Or we'll say, they're a woke moron. And we label people, when we label people, we actually see them as inferior, we demean them, we demonize them. Have you noticed in our current cultural context, how many people refer to the other side as evil? It's not the Jesus way. As the progression continues, we typically objectify, we say that you're a problem and you have to be removed,

and that's how we go about it, and it leads us to land in a place that we would say this, give me the last one, that we'll justify it, that we feel like because we were right, because they were wrong, because they're just a Karen or whatever it is, that I'm justified in my mistreatment of them. Does this feel somewhat familiar in our culture right now? I mean, you can go on any like even semi-controversial social media post, open up the comment section, this is what you see. This is what we do. It's just not the Jesus way. Jesus way is not a demonizing way, it's actually a humanizing way. Let me give you the process of humanizing somebody else. What's interesting is it actually starts with the exact same thing, that you still recognize that somebody disagrees with you about whatever the issue is, about whatever the situation is, maybe you still feel like you're right and the other person's wrong. You recognize there's a difference, and that's okay. It leads you to the second piece that if you recognize you're not like me and that's okay, I can actually still value you, that you're still made in the image of God. Now, you may not be reflecting his image very well, but you're still made in the image of God,

and God has put dignity in every single human life and I will honor the dignity that God has put in. I can still value somebody that I actually. adamantly disagree with. If we value, then it actually leads us to respect them and not disrespect them. Because every person, regardless of who they are, they're still worthy of honor, even a disagreement. Which leads us to recognize that there is complexity. I don't have to label somebody. When I label somebody, I box them in. Every issue becomes black or white for me. I can recognize that there is complexity to almost every issue that exists out there. And even if the person's wrong, I refuse to label somebody by their worst mistake. If I'm willing to do that, it actually leads me to a place where I can be generous. I'm actually willing to treat you more generously than you would expect, which allows me ultimately to land in love. That I choose to see you just as God chooses to see you. The beautiful thing, if you know about the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he had this nonviolent approach that was based in this. That even those who attack me, even those who are adamantly against me, I'm still going to live a countercultural, different way. My friends, in our culture today, we've lost sight of that. And I think in many ways, there's a certain amount

that calls us back to the Jesus way. It doesn't call us back to agree with people. It doesn't call us back to advocate for things that are wrong, but it does call us to advocate for the dignity and the worth of every single human being. And regardless of what happens, we still can love in the way that Jesus loved. We still can see people the way that Jesus sees people. We still can care. And so my encouragement to you, and my encouragement to me, because I don't get this all right, is that we would catch ourselves in the moment. We would recognize we are called to humanize before we demonize, and it changes everything. Which leads us to the last principle Jesus gives us in this section. I think he'd say this, reconcile before you worship. This is the most challenging. You ready? Buckle your seatbelts for this one. Okay, here's what he says. He says, therefore, if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them, then come back and offer your gift. And so the picture Jesus is painting

is kind of like a setting like this, that people have gathered to worship God. Now in the ancient world, before Jesus, before his sacrifice, people still brought sacrifices. Part of it atoned for their sins. It allowed them to reconnect with God in a meaningful way. And so Jesus says, if you're in this worship environment, and you're ready to pray to God, to worship to God, to give a gift to God, and there you remember somebody's got something against you, leave your gift there. Don't even give it to God yet. Go reconcile with that person first. It's almost as if Jesus is saying that he prioritizes reconciliation with others more than worship of our great God. That's a crazy statement. Particularly for those of us who are from the West and kind of an Americanized way of thinking is we tend to compartmentalize most things in life. And so we kind of think we can have this whole relationship with God and broken human relationships. I think Jesus challenges that. If anything, I'd say Jesus takes a sledgehammer to that kind of thinking. It kind of helps us recognize that our broken relationships with others actually has an impact on our relationship with God, that you can't be fully whole here

till you allow God to help you be full and whole here. That's challenging, isn't it? It's challenging in the way that he pushes us in that direction. I love the way that Rich Valotas says this. He says that Jesus says that your relationship with God is not as good as you think if your relationships with other peers or another person is damaged. And so Jesus paints this picture that if you get into an environment like this and you realize there's some brokenness with somebody around you, your priority is reconciliation here even before you worship God the hero. God loves your prayers. He loves your worship. He loves your gifts. But even more than that, he loves your reconciled relationships with others. And he calls us to prioritize it. Now, there's a really important detail that we can't miss. Let me go back to the verses we just read. So therefore, if you're offering a gift to the altar, they remember their brother or sister as something, what? Against you. Now, here's why this matters. Oftentimes, when we think about our broken relationships, it's very easy to think about the ones that we're the victim of, right?

When somebody's wronged us, when somebody's hurt us, when somebody's hurt us, Somebody says something about us. when somebody's hurt us, That's where our mind typically goes. when somebody's hurt us, We don't first think of the things that we've done when somebody's hurt us, when somebody's hurt us, that might have hurt somebody else. when somebody's hurt us, We think about how people have hurt us. when somebody's hurt us, But Jesus is calling us to be remindful of the things that we do to hurt others. He's not saying if you're at the altar and you realize that somebody's done something to you, that that's your responsibility to reconcile that. It's recognizing there are times in my life that people have gotten burned by the way that I've treated them. And when that happens, I've gotta be really quick to make that right. Because I cannot be right with God until I make that right with others. But Jesus is calling us to recognize there are times that we are the offender. Now my friends, if you're anything like me, we are masters at justifying our own behavior, right? That we think about a relational conflict we have

or we think about a broken relationship. It's so easy to see the fault that the other person's done. Jesus says, that may be true. You're trying to be your master. You're saying, justice not justice. Take an example of that myself. Many people have gone after business and they claim that by their contribution they have been able to restore some of those were powers and unpredictability and hold up peace, or have followers and followers and followers and they put it in a certain way but also hold up a mirror. Because there is likely things that we have done that have also contribute to it. Do it while you're still together, on the way or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, the judge may hand you over to the officer and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. Now Jesus sets up this example as if somebody's taking you through a court and legal proceeding. And maybe that happens at times but I think we can also expand the principle just to recognize that sometimes somebody's not taking us to court but at the same time the relationship's still very broken.

And so there's still this urgency to settle that matter quickly or else we might find ourselves not in a prison like a jail but we might find ourselves in a prison of a broken relationship. Because if you settle the matter quickly while you're still together, you can avoid the hardship that could come afterwards because if you avoid the hardship that comes afterwards, if you stay in like broken relationship and unmended relationships, boy, that is a price that you don't wanna have to pay. Right? So Jesus calls us to do things quickly. Now let me give a little aside that I think's a helpful aside to us. I wanna remind us of these words from the book of Romans. The Romans reminds us this, is if it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everybody. So let's acknowledge the reality that reconciliation is a two-way street. It actually requires all parties. Reconciliation cannot take place without all parties diving in. And you cannot control the other person, their behavior, their reaction, their response. You can always control your own. That's why it says, as far as it depends on you,

as far as it depends on your actions, your thinking, your ownership, your decision, as far as it depends on you. God says, live at peace with everybody. My friends, I don't know what your experience as you hear this, but my guess is for all of us, we've messed this one up. If you've been married for any amount of time, you've likely messed this up. If you've been a parent for any amount of time, you've likely messed this up. If you've been dating somebody, been in a friendship relationship, been a coworker for a long time, we've messed this up. One of the most common human experience is broken relationships. But I would say one of the most profound measures of spiritual maturity is how quickly you recognize your own fault and your willingness to make that right. What if, what if we took this literally? What if we heard Jesus' words and even in this worship service, we close with a final song? What if we didn't bring an offering of song to God before we reconciled with that broken relationship in our life? And so I want you to feel led by however God is leading you.

For some of us, we need to take out our phone before we sing this song. And maybe we need to send a text message to somebody. Maybe the text message is an apology. Maybe the text message is, hey, I'd love to catch up later so that we can talk through some things. Maybe for others of us, you need to step out of the back of the room and call somebody up and have a conversation. I don't know what it looks like. looks like for you. But what if we took Jesus seriously? That we have that level of urgency to make relationships right, because it just puts us in a better posture in a heart relationship with God. As I think Jesus would challenge us to turn down the heat so people don't get burned by our lives. That we take the very intentional steps to humanize instead of demonize. But we're also willing to say, God, I'll be obedient. I will reconcile even before I worship in order to honor them and ultimately honor you. If you'd allow me to, just love to pray for you and ask that God would even guide your next step. God, we come before you. God, it's a challenging topic for all of us. And God, I think about so many moments over my journey that in a moment of anger,

in a moment of like escalated emotions, I made some really poor decisions. I've said some things I regret, done some things that I wish I didn't do. And Father, I just ask that you continue to give us the courage that when we don't get it right, we'd have the courage to make things right. God, for some of us, we need to make something right with a spouse. We need to make something right with a kid. We need to make something right with a parent. We need to make something right with a coworker, a friend, a dating relationship. God, it takes tremendous courage. So would you empower us by your spirit to take the steps that you're leading us to so that, God, we can experience your change, your transformation, your power from the inside out. God, we love you. We say thanks in Jesus' name, amen.