Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, village church.
[00:00:06] Good morning. You're gonna notice this morning that my voice is struggling at best. So I'm going to try to protect my voice, but we're gonna do it right. And so I said to 815, I regret saying this. I said, you're probably gonna get the best of my voice. And as the sermon went on, my voice got stronger. So fingers crossed. Here we go. I want to ask you a rhetorical question.
[00:00:34] I have to say this every time, because you might be new. Rhetorical means, keep the answer to yourself.
[00:00:41] Don't say it out loud.
[00:00:44] What is the dumbest thing that you have ever done when you are angry?
[00:00:52] You got it in your brain now, don't. Don't, like, kick your husband or your wife or your kids.
[00:00:58] Rhetorical. Don't answer. Okay. Have you ever punched a wall, guys? Okay? Every 16 inches in a wall is a. What? A stud. And it's not you. It's a piece of wood. Okay? So, like, come on. Like, you maybe in the heat of your anger, you don't quite know what to do with the emotions, and so you go and you get drunk.
[00:01:24] Have you ever called somebody a name? But it wasn't just, like, a cutting name, it was like, one of those names that's going to sit with them for a very long time, and one of those names that you're going to have to probably work together for a while for them to really forgive you and move on, you know, those things that come out of your mouth, and you're like, I meant it in the heat of my emotion, but I don't mean it, like, objectively?
[00:01:48] Okay, this one's not rhetorical. Raise your hand. I'd like to see. Raise your hand if you have sent an angry text that you wish you never had sent.
[00:01:58] Enough said.
[00:02:01] Back to rhetorical.
[00:02:04] Have you ever gotten into a fight and your anger with somebody that was bigger than you or that you knew you could not win, but you did it anyways because you were so angry?
[00:02:17] Okay, so in the moment of intense anger, our brains, they do some really interesting things. And so, during intense anger, there's this little part of your brain. It's called the amygdala. It's about one and a half, one to one and a half centimeters long. And through multiple hormonal and chemical processes, what the amygdala does when you are extremely angry, what the amygdala does is it actually begins to overpower your prefrontal cortex. You might be going, your prefrontal what? Let me tell you a little bit about the prefrontal cortex and why you want this part of your brain working optimally all the time. Okay. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for at least number one, executive functioning. This includes planning, decision making, problem solving, goal setting. Number two, impulse control. The prefrontal cortex helps in resisting temptations and delaying gratification. Have you ever said no to a good thing now so you can say yes to a better thing later. That's your prefrontal cortex. Thank you for working optimally. Brain number three. The prefrontal cortex is responsible primarily for emotional regulation. It helps moderate and control emotional reactions. Number four, attention and focus. It allows for concentration on tasks and management of distraction. And at this point, some of you are saying, I think my PFC is broken. Okay.
[00:03:47] Number five, social behavior. The prefrontal cortex helps in making judgments about social situations and interacting with others. And so in the moment of intense anger, where your amygdala sends these chemicals and hormones and it says, hey, prefrontal cortex, we're kind of numb you out a little bit. Some pretty dangerous things can happen in that moment. Can it? Now, this brings us to the curious case of a man named Phineas Gage. Can you raise your hand? If you've ever heard of Phineas gage, you're in for a treat. 1848. Working on the railroad, there was an unexpected explosion. It shot a 1 meter bar of iron through his head. It was 1 meter long, and it was one and a quarter inches thick. It went into his left cheek, behind his eye, through his prefrontal cortex, out his skull, and landed 30 yards away. He didn't go unconscious during any of it.
[00:04:49] Now, he survived.
[00:04:52] Prior to the event, this is how phineas was described.
[00:04:58] Level headed, friendly, and even tempered.
[00:05:04] After his prefrontal cortex was severely injured with significant parts missing, here are some of the words used to describe phineas gageous. Childish, impulsive, obstinate, profane, selfish, and unreliable.
[00:05:25] This is called frontal brain syndrome, and it's just one of the many different issues that can happen from traumatic brain injuries. Why is this so important? Well, for the time, this was really the first glimpse that scientists got to, to what parts of the body and human experience this prefrontal cortex controls, which means that in the moment of anger, that there is actually something that happens in your brain, your prefrontal cortex, it actually has this thing called a will, or our body does, and the will, the prefrontal cortex is getting dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, and the will says, no, we're not going to let it do this. And so when your prefrontal cortex works, even though your amygdala is kind of numbing it out, numbing it out, you have a will from God. And the will says, no, I am not going to do that dumb thing. I'm not going to punch that person in the face. I'm not going to write that dumb text message. I'm not going to send that nasty email, because even though my prefrontal cortex isn't working optimally in that moment, I still have a will. Well, guess what? It seems that phineas gage, right, he lost the ability to actually use his prefrontal cortex to control his behavior. This has huge implications for you, because if you have a semi functioning prefrontal cortex, do you know what that means for you in this room?
[00:06:48] It means you have the ability to say no to anger, to intense emotions. It means that no matter what you're feeling, God has given your body this ability to trumpet and say, even though I want to punch that person in the face, or even though I want to send that nasty text, I have self control. Praise God. Now, there are a whole bunch of, again, different kinds of brain injuries that people have, and that severely affects the way they live in this world. But for the 99.9% of us that you have a semi functioning prefrontal cortex, you have now self control, the ability not to necessarily control your emotions, but to say no to the impulses that you have. And that means we have full responsibility for all of the decisions that we make. Even if anger makes it a little bit harder, or a lot of it harder to control ourselves, we always still have the ability to say no to the impulses of anger. Now, this brings us to the book of Leviticus, chapter 24. If you have your bibles, would you open up there? And this is the first of the four last sermons actually in the book Leviticus. And this series is called the Promised Land, because what God's doing is he's giving an insight into what life should look like in the promised land. Leviticus 24, we're going to be in verse ten. It tells the true story of a young man who absolutely loses it. Now, you should know something about narratives in the book of Leviticus. 100% of the time, there is a narrative. Someone dies an ugly, painful death. You ready for it? Here we go, verse ten. Now, an israelite woman's son, whose father was an egyptian.
[00:08:47] The son went out among the people of Israel, and the israelite woman's son and a different man. Now a man of Israel. They fought the camp. So there's going to be really one main character in this story, and that main character is going to be the son of an israelite woman. So what do we know about the son? Four things. Number one, the hebrew word for son, which is nar, it generally refers to a young male. So Joseph, when he was 17 years old, was called this word. David, when he was a young teen fighting Goliath, he was called a nar and probably 1314 years old ish at the, at the time. And so typically this is not going to refer to a young kid, an infant, a child. It's going to refer to somebody who is a young adult or young man, probably in their teenage years.
[00:09:40] What do we know? Number two, the son left Egypt with his mom, but apparently not his dad. We don't know the story of the dad, but there are places in the story where the dad should come up. According to Israel kind of custom and law, he's completely non existent. He is not named. He is not there. And it appears that something happened, that either he died in Egypt or she left with the Passover and the dad stayed behind.
[00:10:10] What do we know about the son? Number three, the son was raised in Egypt. The son was raised with a choice. You can either worship the gods of Egypt or you can worship Israel's God, Yahweh. And as the story goes on, it appears that the son chose the gods of Egypt.
[00:10:27] What do we know about the sun? Number four, it would appear that the kid has the faith of his egyptian father and not his mother. Now look at verse eleven.
[00:10:38] They're in the middle of this fight. The israelite woman's son blasphemed the name and cursed.
[00:10:49] So let's just be honest about kind of our cultural moment. All of us, for the most part, are numb. When people blaspheme or curse the name of God, we hear it all the time. It goes in one ear, out the other. But just because a soldier is numb to war, does that make it less ugly?
[00:11:09] Nope. Just because a coroner is numb to death, does that make death less ugly? Nope. Our numbness to God's name being blasphemed and cursed, does that make it any less kind of ugly? Nope. Now I'm gonna cough. I'm gonna mute this.
[00:11:37] Praise God for honey tea. Amen.
[00:11:42] But let me tell you what you are not numb to.
[00:11:45] You are not numb to the person you love being ridiculed or blasphemed or cursed to your face.
[00:11:57] This is why your mom jokes are funny until they are not it is the reason why will Smith lost his mind and slaps Chris rock on the face in front of the entire world.
[00:12:10] If I go to 98%, it's a pastor stat, so it's perfect. If I go to 98% of the husbands that I know, and I call your wife a derogatory, ugly name, I will probably be punched in the face if you take a cheap shot at an Italian's mom.
[00:12:34] Good luck.
[00:12:37] You call an Irishman's daughter a profane name, you will be dead.
[00:12:44] This is how God's people felt about God's name. His name is respected.
[00:12:49] His name is honored.
[00:12:51] His name is sacred.
[00:12:54] And here's how I imagine the fight went down.
[00:12:58] The boy and an older man get in a fight because the kid was being mischievous. As egyptian kids are await all kids.
[00:13:06] Maybe the young man broke something.
[00:13:09] Maybe the young man harmed his animal.
[00:13:12] Words are exchanged.
[00:13:15] The Israelite curses the boy's dad.
[00:13:21] You're a half breed. You're not welcome here. Your mom is a fill in the blank, and the kids had it.
[00:13:31] These people treat him like dirt.
[00:13:34] They call him the b word for not having his dad around.
[00:13:39] It stands to reason, actually, that this young man maybe lost his older egyptian brother or maybe one of his cousins.
[00:13:49] In his heart, it's clear he hates Yahweh. And in his rage, he yells. And now his heart is given words. And the boy doesn't just blaspheme. The boy curses, curse you, Israelite. And curse your pathetic, invisible God who has led you into this wilderness to die and be humiliated. At least my gods gave you food and shelter.
[00:14:13] And then he points his finger in the ear and says, yahweh, you are pathetic. Curse you, curse your name, and curse your people.
[00:14:22] Now, whenever there's a fight, people gather to watch. But now they're in shock because they cannot unhear what this young man has said. This young man, he went way too far. Scriptures are going through people's minds. Exodus 22 28. You shall not revile God. Leviticus, 1912. You shall not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
[00:14:50] Most relevant, the third of the ten Commandments. Exodus 27. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. Now here's what happens if you do.
[00:15:00] For the Lord will not hold him guiltless. Who takes his name in vain?
[00:15:07] Now that is clear and vague all at once. I know exactly what we're not supposed to do. But if someone does, it doesn't give Israel any direction on what to do with the person. It just leaves them with this concept. Well, if you break this law, then Yahweh is going to intervene. But how and when do we just let this boy get away with it?
[00:15:31] Verse eleven goes on.
[00:15:33] Then they brought him, the boy, to Moses. His mother's name was shelemeth, the daughter of debris of the tribe of Dan. Again, there's no mention of the father. He doesn't seem to be around. But her name, it means peace or tranquility, implying that the boy does not have his mother's spirit, but as the spirit of his father. And it leaves you wondering if the boy has his father's spirit, what happened to the dad?
[00:16:01] Verse twelve.
[00:16:02] And they put him in custody till the will of the Lord should be clear to them. I want to draw your attention to something really important so far.
[00:16:13] When the Bible is clear, I commit to obey.
[00:16:19] In the vast majority of circumstances that we're going to navigate in our life, the Bible speaks explicitly, bluntly and directly to those things. And I have good news for you and bad news. Your opinion on the matter doesn't matter. What matters is God's word. And so for the majority of the decisions that you have to make today or this week, the Bible has already spoken as to what you should or should not do.
[00:16:44] But when the Bible is gray, and there are a handful of these issues, we don't just go, well, the Bible doesn't say much, and it's not explicit on it, so I can just go do whatever I want.
[00:16:56] When the Bible is gray, I diligently search.
[00:17:01] Here are some examples of, like, gray issues that the Bible doesn't exactly address specifically with 100% clarity, what you and I should do in these circumstances.
[00:17:13] Should I date this Christian? So the Bible is very clear about being unequally yoked and dating and marrying non Christians, but, like, it doesn't mean that I can date any christian because you might be dating a believer and it might not be good or wise for you to date that person. Okay. When I am of age, should I drink?
[00:17:32] What does God really think of marijuana? Like, is it just for medical cases at all? Like, the Bible doesn't actually explicitly say something on that. So does that mean we can just go do whatever we want? Well, of course not. How do I handle technology in my kids? Like, the Bible did not anticipate on purpose the iPhone or the Android. It just didn't. And so what do we do with children and social media? And how do we even think about how we handle this in a wise, wise, God honoring. I mean, I could go on and on with gray issues. But here's what we look for whenever there are gray issues. Number one, if the Bible doesn't speak directly to it, I look for biblical principles.
[00:18:12] I look for biblical principles. But that's not just it. Number two is I look for wise people.
[00:18:18] Look for wise people who know how to apply biblical principles to various modern circumstances. And so there are some incredible books, for example, on kids and technology, and they pull out biblical principles and Bible verses and apply them. And when you see wisdom in action, you go, yes, that's right. That is wise. That is good. That is appropriate. And so here's what we're very clear on. We're clear on. When the Bible is clear, I obey. But when the Bible is gray, I diligently search.
[00:18:49] When your throat wants to cough, you drink, honey.
[00:18:55] All right, before we get to the Lord's response with what to do with this blasphemous young man, let me just ask you a personal question.
[00:19:04] Are you glad that our God is a promise keeper?
[00:19:08] Yeah. Look, when you get to heaven and he kept his word, anybody who trusts and believes in life, death and resurrection of Jesus will be forgiven and saved. It's good.
[00:19:17] What about the promise to hold a person guilty who takes his name in vain?
[00:19:25] What about the promise to send people to hell who reject Jesus? What about the problem to discipline his children when we spiritually astray? Are we glad he's a promise keeper then?
[00:19:37] If you want to celebrate God as a promise keeper, then we need to celebrate the fact that God keeps all of his promises. Which brings us to verse 13. Yahweh finds the boy guilty and sentences him.
[00:19:50] Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, bring out of the camp the one who cursed. Now, the next few verses, they are going to read quickly, but it appears that it doesn't happen quickly.
[00:20:03] And whenever somebody is brought out of the camp, by the wAy, you can pretty much guess it's not going to be good news.
[00:20:10] Verse 14.
[00:20:12] He says, let all who heard him, who heard the boy blasphemy and cursed the name of Yahweh, lay their hands on his head. So multiple people step forward, they lay their hands on the boy's head.
[00:20:26] The command of Yahweh continues in verse 14.
[00:20:29] And let all the congregation stone him.
[00:20:35] What would you do?
[00:20:37] Well, first of all, I am very grateful. We do not live under old covenant law and old covenant theocracy. The people of God are never under the new covenant called to stone or to kill. Anybody that has given to governments to execute justice. That's not the church's job, but there are plenty of things that God asks believers to do that are gut wrenching. Let's come back to this paradigm. When the BIble is clear, I commit to obey. When the Bible is gray, I diligently search. And when the Bible is hard or difficult, I quickly submit.
[00:21:14] The Bible usually says difficult commands about really important issues.
[00:21:21] And there are going to come times in your life where the Bible is really clear and it is going to cost you something to obey it. It is going to grind the cultural moment.
[00:21:33] It's going to maybe even cause you to lose something.
[00:21:37] But if we know what the Bible tells us to do, then we quickly obey and we submit.
[00:21:45] But God isn't done speaking verse 15. He goes on and he says and speak to the people of Israel, saying, whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Well, what does that mean in verse 16? Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. Now, this is, I think, where we need to kind of distinguish between when you hear somebody say, oh, Jesus Christ, and take his name in vain versus what's actually happening here. 99% of people who curse or blaspheme God's name now, they're doing it because it's like a curse word or a really bad habit. And yes, it's indicating that they don't have reverence or respect for God, et cetera.
[00:22:26] But if you lived in this time and you were going to curse a God, you would be doing this on purpose.
[00:22:36] What you do when you curse a God in ancient times is you are standing up to that God and you are picking a fight with that God.
[00:22:48] You gotta remember, like, they had a much more tangible understanding of God than probably we do. And so when you, if you were this israelite son and you blasphemed God, it was like sticking your finger in his face and saying, what are you gonna do about it? I'll curse your name. I'll curse your people. You invisible God.
[00:23:11] Me versus you, you're weak.
[00:23:14] This was an actual standing up to God and going toe to toe. And here's what we learned in scripture. Whenever people stand up to Yahweh, they always lose. Satan tried it, he lost. Third of the angels tried it, they lost. And every single person who goes toe to toe with God picks a fight with him, points their finger in his face and says, what are you going to do about it? Every single time those people lose.
[00:23:36] So Yahweh says, fine. This isn't just a passing comment. This is an actual intentional fight this kid is picking with the God of Israel.
[00:23:46] In verse 16, Yahweh continues speaking. All the congregation of Israel shall stone him, the sojourner as well as the native. So it doesn't matter who blasphemes, who walks into the camp and picks a fight with Yahweh. Anybody walks into this camp, whether it's a sojourn or a native, when he blasphemes, the name shall be put to death. Now, lest you think this is capricious, Old Testament law was never capricious. It was always judicious. Crimes, especially crimes that were going to be punishable by death, need to be corroborated by two, preferably three, non related witnesses who first hand witnessed and saw the actual event taking place. Thankfully, not just that, but after the witnesses were established, there was a very detailed protocol that was developed for specifically all capital punishment, but specifically stoning. And this protocol was developed in what's called the Mishnah. Now, I need to. Before I tell you the protocol, I need to tell you what the Mishnah was. So, the Old Testament, the Torah, had multiple gray issues. And so what would happen is the Israelites, in day to day experiences, would say, we don't quite know what to do in this circumstance. And so rabbis would come together, and they would debate, and they would process, and they would come to a conclusion. Well, all of these conclusions were handed down orally in what was called the Oral Torah, from one generation of rabbis and spiritual leaders to another.
[00:25:24] Somebody, like, centuries later, had the bright idea, maybe, just maybe, we should write all of these things down. And they were documented in what's called the Mishnah. And so the Mishnah took all of these practices and decisions of really, really wise, godly people, put them into a book so that there was kind of no question. So if you were like, oh, no, we have somebody who blasphemed the name, what do we do? We have somebody who has to have the death penalty. How do we exactly go about this? And they're very detailed. So here is the stoning protocol from the mishnah.
[00:25:56] Step one is prisoner transfer. The convicted person was taken outside the city or camp.
[00:26:05] A herald would go before them, announcing the crime and the names of the witnesses, giving anybody with evidence to the contrary a chance to come forward. So if you were falsely accused, you'd probably be pretty grateful for this last opportunity.
[00:26:23] Step two is confession. The condemned was urged to confess their sins to make atonement before their death.
[00:26:33] Step three was preparation. The person to be stoned was typically stripped of their clothes to a modest extent. Even the mishnah is like, we need modesty.
[00:26:42] The Mishnah specifies the place of the stoning was to be at least twice the height of a person, approximately ten cubits or 15ft.
[00:26:52] Step four, the witnesses begin. Two primary witnesses were required. This is interesting. Think twice before you condemn somebody.
[00:26:59] Were required to push the condemned from a height, ensuring that the fall would cause significant harm. If the fall did not result in death, then the witnesses would then cast the first stones. And then, step five, the congregation joins. Following the initial actions by the witnesses, the rest of the people would then participate by throwing stones until the person was dead. And this might feel barbaric to you, but like before a technological age, before cars and this and Internet all, it was the wild, wild west and the vast majority of the world. And if lawbreakers weren't dealt with once and for all, this is everywhere, all over the world. What God did is he actually brought justice, order and accountability to the system of capital punishment.
[00:27:47] Here's a principle that's being upheld by God and dual covenant law.
[00:27:52] God's good and holy name will be respected and revered amongst his people, no questions asked.
[00:28:00] But God hasn't done giving his verdict yet. So verse 17, Yahweh has more to say. He goes, he says this, whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. And at this moment, if you stopped, you'd be like, wait a minute, you just told us to stone this guy and now you're telling us if we take a human life, like we're going to be put to death?
[00:28:18] It's correct, but only after the person has gone through old covenant due process. So if it's a matter of capital punishment and they've gone through the due process of law, that's acceptable. But if you get into a fight with somebody and you kill them in the process, are you innocent or guilty? Guilty is the answer. Good.
[00:28:35] So what is the context of verse 17? And by the way, everything coming up, it's in the context when two people fight with each other and there is damage as a result to the fight. That's what these laws, these laws are not about. What happens if you hurt somebody on accident? There's a whole set of different laws on that and they don't require the death penalty or anything that's going to happen in verses 17 and on. So verse 17 says, whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death in the context of if you go punch a guy in the face and he dies. You're culpable for that man's life.
[00:29:10] Verse 18, whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good. Life for life. You get really angry, you go kick that puppy dog across the way, right? You're culpable for that. Whatever you do in the heat of anger, you are personally responsible for under o covenant law, verse 19, when you're fighting, if anyone injures his neighbor as he has done, it shall be done to him. You give that guy a black eye, you're going to get one back. This is part of it. If you're going to lose your cool and not be under control, whatever you do to that person will be done to you. And here's the point of the law. The point of the law is not to. That's like, punish people. The point of the law is to restrain stupidity when we are in the middle of intense anger. Do you see this?
[00:29:54] So if anyone injures his neighbor, as it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Verse 21, whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native. I am the Lord your God.
[00:30:16] In verse 23. So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed, and they stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded, because the people of Israel were to be a people of law and order and self control. And let it be said, anybody who acts out of anger, retribution or vengeance will be held culpable for what they do. Now fast forward. It's the first century. It's centuries after this law was given. And this text from Leviticus 24 was actually being used very abusively. So this is the way it was being used.
[00:31:00] If somebody punched your son, you wouldn't call in the elders or the leaders of the church. You would go to their house and you would punch them right back and you would pick up Leviticus 24 and say, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, fracture for. For fracture. God's word tells me that I can actually take vengeance on you if you harm me or someone I love. Now, this is the way the other culture and civilizations did it. Retribution laws. But is that the intent of Leviticus 24? Not at all. In fact, it is written to prevent people from being ridiculously dumb in their heated emotions and intense anger. And so Jesus speaks into this in Matthew, chapter five, verse 38. And he says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. Now, by the way, that is true and that is good and that is right.
[00:31:49] If you do something to somebody else in the moment of anger, then that's going to go through due process, and there's going to be some kind of judge who's going to look at it. There's going to be two or three witnesses, and if you're found guilty for doing this thing out of anger, not self defense, but out of anger, then the law is going to come down on you.
[00:32:06] And so that's true, but that's not the way they were saying it. And he says, but I say to you, in other words, I'm going to actually show you the way this was intended to be applied.
[00:32:14] Do not resist the one who is evil.
[00:32:19] The law isn't telling you that when someone picks a fight with you. Go get them back.
[00:32:26] The law is telling you that when some evil person attacks you, chill out, because whatever you do in return, you're going to be held fully responsible for verse 39. He gives. He gives a couple examples. We'll just look at this. One of things that evil people will do out of anger toward you. He says, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, super disrespectful. This is a way of saying, I'm going to humiliate you publicly and start a fight with you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, jesus is like, listen, guys, just because someone is evil picks a fight with you and is mean to you and slaps you and whatever, it doesn't mean that you get to just do whatever you want in response. Cause you're taking this passage out of context. In fact, you're gonna be held fully responsible for everything you do in retribution and vengeance.
[00:33:25] I'm gonna give you two silhouettes.
[00:33:28] Number one, God's true. People take full responsibility for our decisions, because presumably, 99.9% of us, our prefrontal cortex works.
[00:33:40] So there are other experiences, actually, where the amygdala will go out of its way to reduce the functionality of your prefrontal cortex, where your decision making strength is weakened a little bit. And here's a handful.
[00:33:54] When you experience deep, intense fear or anxiety, have you ever noticed, like, in the moment of fear or anxiety, we're not our most rational selves? That's because your amygdala is sending a bunch of hormones and chemicals over to your brain. And it's reducing the function, the executive functioning, that your prefrontal cortex is responsible for.
[00:34:15] Deep, deep sadness.
[00:34:17] You ever noticed that in deep sadness, or maybe depression, you don't have the most rational of thoughts, which is why we tell people who are depressed almost always do the opposite of your impulse, but get wisdom because the impulses are broken.
[00:34:31] Another one is intense stress, that when you're under seasons of intense stress, have you ever noticed that you're probably more irritable, and you say things that you wish you didn't say, and you do things that you wish you didn't do?
[00:34:44] Excitement. Intense excitement actually also reduces your decision making power and strength, if you will.
[00:34:53] Lust is another one that in the moment of lust or pornography, especially the brain scans done around men's brains, the prefrontal cortex literally just goes black.
[00:35:03] Love and infatuation. I mean, not that any of you, whenever you were, like, infatuated in early love, did ridiculous things where everybody looked at it, go roll their eyes, but there are these things that happen in the beginning of love and infatuation where we're just. Our decision making abilities just get a little bit weaker.
[00:35:24] I'm gonna come back to anger because this is the issue that Jesus is addressing that Leviticus 24 is addressing.
[00:35:31] Anger is a really good thing.
[00:35:33] God gets angry. Anger is righteous.
[00:35:37] Anger is a gift from God. Anger is a tool, but it is a very powerful tool. And very few of us have the ability, the strength to use anger with control.
[00:35:50] In fact, most of us use anger to control people and their behavior. And I would just say that anger is the laziest, most ineffective way to actually help somebody become the person God has made them to be. I'm going to read you James 119.
[00:36:06] Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. It's interesting. He's not primarily identifying the emotion or the feeling. He's identifying the behavior that we use when we're angry. He says, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
[00:36:27] That your exercise of anger in that moment to control that person or to control your child, to control your spouse, it might get you immediate behavior modification, but it will not be effective to transform the heart of the person to becoming more like Christ.
[00:36:45] And when the believer acts out in anger, we are fully responsible for the things that we do when we're angry. And so, as the people of God, when we use our anger in inappropriate ways, we take full ownership and we make right the things that we did wrong in the heat of anger.
[00:37:06] So at number two, the promised land is a place where Jesus name is hallowed and glorified.
[00:37:18] We were made and designed by God that when we worship him and him alone, we are designed to function optimally, mentally, emotionally, physically. This is the way you were made. We were also made so that when anything other than God becomes our God, we are made to fall apart and to disintegrate.
[00:37:40] And every single one of us, we have experienced the ramifications of sin in our life, have we not? We have done ridiculous things in the heat of emotion, especially anger. And what I love is that God is calling and equipping his people with the resources to overcome the temptations, to make a mockery of God's name with our words or the way we live. And when we fail, he has offered us the path of forgiveness. I am so grateful it is not the death penalty when we make huge errors and embarrass the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:38:15] You may be here and you are listening to this and you are like, I don't feel like I have the kind of control I need. I need help. And what I appreciate is that for most people, their intuition when they need help, when they realize they don't have the internal resources to do the things they know they need to be, or to be the kind of person they know they need to be, they call out to God and they say, God, help me. And I'm gonna say something that might be a little bit tough for somebody to hear, but I want to be very blunt with it.
[00:38:43] There is only one way to get the kind of help from God that you need in one way alone.
[00:38:48] And the kind of help that we need from God is, number one, forgiveness of our sins.
[00:38:53] And we need reconciliation with goddesse, and we need the Holy Spirit. Don't get me wrong, without the Holy Spirit, you still have a prefrontal cortex. But I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit is our helper and empowers us and takes this ability to have some level of self control and amplifies it. And you need redemption over all the things in the relationships that you and your sin and your lack of control and your retribution and your vengeance have utterly messed up.
[00:39:19] So you need forgiveness and reconciliation and the Holy Spirit and redemption, and that only you will only ever get God's help with that if you first come to God and say, I am sorry for my sins. I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And what I love is that God is faithful to keep his promise. Anybody who comes and believes in Jesus Christ is given, reconciliation with God is given, forgiveness is given, the Holy Spirit to permanently indwell in you. And now you have the ability to work with Goddess to experience redemption in your life. If you are here and you've never trusted in Jesus, everything you need, everything you need, he is the door, he is the access to get all of it. And I would plead with you today, believe in the Lord Jesus. And if that's a decision that you want to make, come talk to any of us. We would just love to celebrate with you. We'd love to tell you a little bit more about what that means. And if you got questions and you're like, I got to work through some stuff before I do that. We'd love to help you in that process. Right now, what we're going to do is we're going to celebrate communion, and we are going to remember that everything we need began with a life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Let's pray together.
[00:40:24] Father, I want to thank you that in this group of people, all of us, every one of us, we have acted sinfully with our anger and probably every other one of our emotions. And I want to thank you, God, that even before we were christians, that many of us, we probably did some things that were so harmful to your name, even the way we talked about you, was probably just grievous to you. And I want to thank you for your grace and your patience with us. I want to thank you for the blood of Christ that can cover all of those sins. And so, Lord, as we get ready to celebrate communion, we remember that we sinners have been forgiven and cleansed by the power of the blood of Jesus.
[00:41:04] Lord, would you continue to empower us to be a church that is under control?
[00:41:09] Lord, we are people who feel deep emotions on every different level and are tempted all the time. But, God, we are not a slave to our emotions, and we are not a slave to our temptations. So would you continue to teach us how to be people of self control, not of retribution, not of vengeance, but of peace? We love you. We pray all of this, and we do it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
[00:41:37] I.
