AGED ANGER
By: MICHAEL MILLER
I ain't talking about..."hangry." Is that when you're hungry and you're angry, hangry? Someone said, I really struggle with being hangry and I didn't know what they meant this morning. I don't know necessarily if I'm talking about hangry, but maybe I am talking about hangry. Sorry, I'm processing this. I just remember this conversation that I had. So, I want you to open your Bibles. We're going to look at Matthew chapter five and start with verse twenty one. I didn't actually have a ton of time to unpack this this morning, but I'll try to get to most of it tonight. Throughout the Beatitudes, Jesus would say, "you have heard this" and he's always referring to the law, he's referring to the Torah, and then he's interpreting the Torah for the Pharisees. He's Interpreting the Torah for the religious community. And he can do that because he wrote the Torah. Amen? "So since you've heard that the ancients were told you shall not commit murder" -- here's one of those "you shall not" [commands]. "And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court," meaning you will be found guilty in the court or you have to go to the court or you will face judgment. And they did not want to face judgment. But Jesus says this. He says, "I say to you. That everyone who is angry with his brother…" so this is very specific. It's not just anyone who is angry, it's anyone who is angry specifically with his brother or with someone that's close to him." So, if you're angry with your brother, you shall be guilty before the courts. And whoever says to his brother, 'you good for nothing or you're worthless' because of that anger shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, 'you fool', shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell or to be condemned for eternity." This is an eternal perspective on anger. It's significant from God's standpoint. So what's he saying? He's saying someone gets angry with their brother and then they judge their brother out of their anger, so obviously that anger came from a conflict. That anger didn't just show up. That anger came from an interaction with that brother and it produced this emotion in their heart. And then they landed in a judgment where they said, "you're a fool." They said "you're worthless" based on the unresolved conflict. And it brought division between them. Jesus says that that spirit is the same spirit that causes someone to take a nine millimeter and fire it and end the life of that individual. Anger's significant. And I know for some, maybe not all, anger can be an issue. You get triggered. Joel always says this, he says "triggered." He knows what triggers me. You can see it in my face. But some of you, you have tripwires and you get triggered. You have relational conflict, you have conflict that goes unresolved and a trigger hits and all of a sudden this emotion of anger comes forth. Have you ever seen the movie In & Out, it's a kids movie. It's like the inner world of the toddler. And there's all these -- What's it called? What did I say? In and out? That's close. In and out. Inside Out. You know, I'm talking about. So you've seen it. Alright, we're there anyways. There's this emotion, anger. And he's this red guy and he's really fun. But when he gets mad, fire comes flying out of his head because he gets triggered. Anyways, it's worth watching. I have four kids under the age of nine. But anger is significant and it's a trigger man and it's a signal that something's off in your heart.
THE ORIGINS OF ANGER
The first person that was angry -- it was the first two brothers. It was Cain and Abel, and in Genesis chapter four, they both bring offerings before the Lord. And the Lord accepts Abel's offering, but he rejects Cain's. And so Cain is experiencing this rejection and anger sets in his heart. Check this out. I'll flip over there really quickly. Genesis four: and listen to what the Lord the Lord comes to Cain. Chapter four, verse five, "Cain brought his offering, the Lord had no regard for it, so Cain became very angry and his countenance fell." So he's experiencing this emotion. There's fire coming out of his head because he's feeling rejected. So the Lord approaches Cain in his anger, and look at what he does. He says, "Cain, why are you angry? I see your face that it's downcast. If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?" Meaning, if you respond to this anger rightly, things can change for you, but if you do not, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Here's a significant revelation: anger isn't necessarily a sin. How we respond to anger, though, can lead us into sin. That right next to this emotion of anger, it's a sin, it's crouching at your door, meaning sin is about to knock on your door. And it's going to empower you to respond to this anger in a way that I will not honor. You will be outside of my will if you respond to this anger in this way. This is the power of anger and we know what happened some time passed, they believe, between verse seven, the Lord talking to Cain in verse eight, because then Cain goes and he talks to Abel. It is a premeditated plan from the anger to take him to a field. And in anger, he strikes his brother and kills him. And the next visitation from the Lord is the Lord saying, "yo, where's your brother? Homes? What have you done?" He's like, "am I my brother's keeper?" Well... "I hear the voice of your brother's blood coming before my throne. You took his life." This is the power of anger. And you may say, "like, man, I haven't. I've never taken a nine millimeter and shot someone." Well good. You probably wouldn't be in this room if you did. But that thing inside of you relationally has taken a lot of people out. And tonight, I just want to give you the freedom to bring your anger before the Lord, and I also want to give you the freedom to see that your anger is a natural response probably to things that have happened to you, but you just didn't have the tools to rightly respond to it. Many of us actually were trained in how to respond to anger because it's all that we've seen. But I want you to know that the Lord is giving you a heart to master anger to get on top of anger. You know, anger comes with a system of thinking, a system of responding. Many of it is so innate to who we are that when that trigger is crossed, we don't know how to respond differently than the (*makes blowup face*). And tonight, you're going to get freed of that. Tonight, you're going to get delivered of that. The Holy Spirit is going to come and he's going to uproot that anger that's turned into bitterness. He's going to pull that sucker out. And you're going to leave this room with a new heart and a new lease on life because you're no longer going to live bitter to those you run into conflict with. I mentioned several times that anger is not necessarily a sin. You know, God, God gets angry. God gets angry. Psalms 145, verse eight, it says, "The Lord is slow to anger, but he's abounding in loving kindness and he's gracious." But the Lord gets angry. Jesus got angry when he went into the temple, Paul got angry with Peter, Steven got angry with the Pharisees. A number of examples of people with righteous anger, typically it had to do with injustices towards the vulnerable, towards the weak. That's what really gets God's heart stirred up. But even how we respond to those things is so important. It's one of my concerns right now about what's happening culturally with the social justice movements on the earth that are emerging. It's the anger of man, but the anger of man will not produce the righteousness of God. It can't. It can't. But there's a way to submit your anger based on the injustices that you've seen and find God's zeal and compassion and be an agent of change towards those things that really tick you off. But you've got to allow him to lead your heart. Not the latest cultural social justice, celebrity-driven, politically-driven cause. We need kingdom hearts carrying righteousness in their right hand, in their love. The only source of justice, it comes from the Lord. So anger isn't necessarily wrong, but what you do with your anger can lead to righteousness or can lead to wonkiness. And we don't want wonkiness, do we?
ANGER DOES NOT AGE WELL
Ephesians chapter four, check this out, Ephesians 4:26. Be angry. Everyone say: "be angry." Here, he's saying be angry. This seems contradictory to what Jesus is saying. But it comes with specific instructions that says, be angry and do not sin. How do we not sin? Don't let the sun go down on your anger. What does that mean? Handle your anger on the day that you get angry. Listen, today's anger, today's anger is OK. Yesterday's anger is toxic today. Anger does not age well. If I could title it, I said this morning, I would title it aged anger. Anger is not like wine. I'm a wine guy. I love a good vintage bottle of wine that has been sitting in there for over two decades. The 20 year cab, it tastes really nice. It's very biblical because it was Jesus's first ministry, man. That juice must have been really nice. But here's the deal. The longer a wine ages in the bottle, the better it tastes because of the complexities. It gets the earth tones. And it's beautiful. But anger isn't like that. Anger does not age well. Anger is like milk, sour, gnarly. It gets chunky with that black foam and mold on it. That's what's happening to your heart when you harbor that anger inside of you. And this is saying you can be angry, but don't sin. Don't let the sun go down on that anger. Here's what happens when the sun goes down on anger. It involves spiritual warfare. When the sun goes down on your anger, a door flies open. And that door that flies open is a door to your heart and the enemy goes and he steps in. And look at the next verse. Don't give the devil an opportunity. What does that mean? It means don't give the devil an opportunity, or that Greek word for opportunity is actually space or marked off allotted territory. And that's territory in your heart. Because that anger went unchecked, that anger went unsubmitted to the Lord. So we've got to submit today's anger before it becomes soured milk in the name of Jesus. I mentioned this morning, my experience with someone that was angry. Anger ultimately will grow into bitterness and bitterness. You just get embittered towards life. One moment of anger can turn into a filter of bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment. It sets in your heart and you start to view everything and everyone through that. And my beautiful, awesome [grandmother]-- she passed away and she was 96. She grew up in the Great Depression. She didn't have the best of a lot in life. Her life was hard. She had been wronged by people. She had been wronged by.... I don't know the totality of it. She had issues with my grandfather, but she lived in bitterness like deep bitterness. And I remember when I was in sixth grade, I put a hole in the couch. I was never allowed to go back to her house till like my senior year in high school when she had fallen and she needed help being moved to Dallas into a full time nursing facility. And so was the first time I had seen her. She was gracious enough. She saw pictures of me when I was in seventh and eighth grade. And she wrote my mom and said, like, "his teeth are so crooked." So she got me braces so I can like -- I remember she felt my teeth and only wanted to see these teeth [fixed]. She was really gracious in that way. Yeah. But -- it was really hard to watch my mom love her. My mom loved her and loved her and loved her and she did not know how to receive my mom's love. She just didn't, she was crippled and it was because of the filter that she wore and how she lived towards everyone. She thought people were out to get her. And here is my mother graciously, sacrificially loving her. It's probably one of the greatest demonstrations of love that I've seen. The way my mom loved my grandmother and got little in return. Well, we ended up leading my grandmother to the Lord when she was ninety four. It was really powerful. She received the gospel. We prayed a prayer. And, you know, one of the hardships she's had -- I'm just sharing this with you to see the power of bitterness when it stays in your life or anger it stays in your life. But she was somewhat frustrated still with my grandfather, whom I had not met. He died early fifties. But she was resentful towards some decisions that he had made before his death. And so here she is receiving the Lord. And she just wanted to know how close she would have to be. When she gave her life to the Lord, she was wondering, how close do I have to be to Carl (her husband) when I get to heaven? Meaning am I going to see him and I'm gonna have to talk to him? Am I gonna have to interact with him? We assured her that "the Lord will take care of that. Like if they have houses, maybe they'll be on different blocks." I don't know. But it was just her filter for viewing life. It was through this lens of pain. And so the Lord actually began to open up her heart. She wrote some beautiful letters to people forgiving them before she died. She gained a measure of freedom. But the reason I'm sharing that is because I don't know if my grandmother was a twenty something and she never rightly dealt with the anger, but it would affect the generations that would come. It would hinder intimacy with them. And ultimately, I mean, I had just some powerful moments towards the end of her life, but so much was robbed because of what bitterness and anger had done to her. And so I just want you to know that, your anger and you sounding off in these signals to the engine light of your heart, if they're going off, they're not going to go anywhere. They're going to progressively get spoiled and gnarly. And they will show up in your marriage. They will show up in your parenting. They will show up when you're a grandparent. They manifest. They don't go away. You've got to deal with it. So let me give you some tools to deal with it. Is that cool?
PRACTICAL STEPS TO ADDRESSING ANGER
You know, says in Proverbs, 19:11, says "a man's discretion makes him slow to anger a man's wisdom, makes him slow to anger, and it's his glory to overlook a transgression. It's his glory to overlook a transgression or offense." And here's what I just want to ask you tonight as we dove into this, is there a transgression you haven't been able to overlook? Is there a relationship and a conflict with someone that you have not been able to overlook and set aside? And the way you know it is when you think about that person, it's charged. When you reflect upon that person, you may be reasoning and there's a narrative in your head that you play over, and over, and over again. Conversations that you have with them internally that you're not really having with them. When they post something, you manifest on the inside. Like that's that's how you know, "wow I haven't overlooked that." And what happened is there was a conflict between you and that person that was never resolved. And you took away a judgment from that conflict that is now still irritating your heart. And here's what I want to tell you, is that the Bible says you need to act, you need to do something about that for your heart's sake. Because Jesus is going to continue in Matthew five and he's going to say, "listen, if you have this issue going in your heart, therefore, if you're presenting your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother hears that brother that you were angry at, you made judgments towards. If you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering to the Lord." What is he saying? He's saying some of you need to get up out of your chair and walk out those doors and take action towards that person where those things are stirred up. Some of you need to get out your phone and you need to text him right now. "Hey, I need a short conversation with you this week." That's the significance of it. So let me give you let me give you some tools, here's the problem, here's the problem. It says go first, be reconciled, go first, be reconciled. And I don't know about you, but that's a loaded thing. Like Jesus actually sounds like, oh, that's real simple. Like "just go and be reconciled." How do I do that? What does reconciliation look like? There's pain in my heart when I think about that person. I was wronged by that person. Like, you want me just to go and be reconciled? What does that look like? So can I just give you some practical tools? I wasn't taught this in college. I didn't have a high school class that taught me about conflict and conflict resolution. But I want to give you some tools tonight that I think can change the state of your heart because you can bring reconciliation to those relationships. Is that cool? So here's the first one. It says, "go first." #1: You've got to take initiative. Take initiative, just write that one down, take initiative. You've got to proactively respond if you don't, you'll passively react to your anger. You need to do something. You need to make the first move. You know, Jesus, when he saw you in your sin, he didn't stay angry. He was motivated by love. He came to you in your mess. He came to you when you were still an enemy of him. He's not asking you to do something that he was not willing to do. Jesus did not create a 50/50 response. He did not say, 'I'll do something when you do something. I'll wait for you to make the first move or I'll take one little step and see if you'll take another step.' Jesus came the full way for you not knowing whether you would come to him or not. So what's my point? My point is some of you are going to have to take the first step to find that reconciliation. What's holding you back? Here's what's holding you back. Fear. Fear's a powerful force. Fear is paralyzing you, but I'm telling you, the Lord in his love will release a strength and courage to face that person. Fear is a prophetic spirit from hell. Fear's a prophetic spirit from hell that releases a negative report about the future of that relationship. And it creates a fear-based decision that God does not honor. You cannot respond to fear. Fear set you outside of the will of God. We walk by faith. And by faith, I want to encourage you to reach out to that person where you had tension and conflict. [Have] you ever heard the phrase time heals all wounds? It's not true, it's just not. Time heals nothing. Time brings callousness. Time sets your heart off. Time makes you insulate. And be codependent, act out. You have these weird indicators in your life because time has gone by. You've got to act, you've got to respond. This is Jesus saying "go first" -- it is so significant to him. And if you see it as an act of worship, as an act of honoring the Lord, as an act of: "Lord, I'm going to honor you not just with my words, my song, my time. I'm going to honor you with my actions. And I'm going to bring reconciliation to this relationship. I'm not going to live in bitterness any longer. What they did is wrong. But on my end, I'm going to do all that I can to make it right." This week in prep for this message, I sent three emails that were extremely hard for me to send. I didn't think I necessarily needed to, but I just wanted to clear the decks and make sure "we good." I said, I want to reissue and restate that I need forgiveness from you for that season, for that moment, for and I owned myself. #2: When you do make the first move, own you. Own you. You do you. Ninety-nine percent might be on them. You may have been completely, completely wrong, but you can figure out one percent that you can 100 percent own. I know I know a brother that grew up in a relationship with an alcoholic father. He beat his mom, beat him. He beat anything he could. It's all he knew of his father. Had not been in a relationship with him for ten years. He heard a message just like this. Was reflecting upon the anger in his heart towards his father. He came to me and he said, "I don't know what to own." He was angry. I said: "why don't you own that anger?" "What do you mean?" "Why don't you own that emotion, why don't you own that it's created a wall between you and him and you haven't spoken to him for ten years?" And he was just thinking about "I didn't want to get hurt." Well, you're not hurt anymore. He didn't know. He had just built up all these [walls]. And finally he surrendered to the Lord and in faith he called his dad. And he hadn't talked to his dad in a long time. No one in the family had and his dad was actually dying. And it issued this moment of reconciliation and forgiveness because he took the first step. And he owned not being silent. And remaining wounded, I don't know what you can own in that relationship, but I'm telling you, the Lord in his grace and his mercy will empower you to take that first step and to own you. I would encourage you to spend time in the presence of the Lord before you go to that person and you own [your part]. Get the Lord's perspective, get his heart, get his feel, his emotion for that person, empathize with that person, like really sit in their shoes, wake up to what they wake up to, think about what they think about, think about why they maybe did what they did, that it wasn't about you, but maybe something that had been done to them and they just didn't know any better. All of a sudden that starts disarming you. It positions you to receive his love and then you have something to give to them when you go and you bring forth that reconciliation. It's so important. We don't accuse them and we don't excuse ourselves. It's a good word, you know, when you go to someone... My wife and I, I've learned this about her because, listen, this is why many marriages get stuck in ruts. It's because we don't know how to manage conflict. Listen, if you're in a relationship and there's no conflict, I don't know if you're really in a relationship. I hear people they're like, "oh, we're never in conflict. We just had the best relationship." Like, how long have you been dating? Just a couple of weeks. Alright. Come back to me. Come back to me. But listen, healthy relationships are healthy because they know how to deal with conflict in a healthy way. It's not that there's not conflict. It's not that there's not a struggle. It's not that there's not "we disagree." It's when that happens, we disarm ourselves and we come and we work it out. We communicate. We don't get triggered and blow up. It's so, so crucial and what I'm learning about my wife is that, you know, we talk about entering the gates with Thanksgiving and the courts with praise, you know, that it's like a major revelation for someone. And we enter the gates and courts with thanksgiving and praise. And that's how we approach the Lord, brother. That's what we need to do. We talk about that all the time. I'm learning my wife is a lot like the Lord. Here's what I mean, that if I approach her with thanksgiving and I approach her with praise and encouragement, I get to the holiest of holies of her heart and she forgives me. You know, like there's this way to engage, especially from the onset. Like if you're going to that person and all of a sudden you drop the problem. We're going to talk about this today, you and me. It's been a while. I know. And you start circling like an MMA. All of a sudden what you're going to get is you're going to get someone that's like, here we go. I've been thinking about this, too. But if you walk in, if you walk in and you enter the gates of their hearts with thanksgiving for who they are and you encourage them and you tell them you're fighting for their relationship. And that's the first three minutes of the conversation. Many psychologists say the first three minutes of any conflict resolution, it's defined. The outcome's defined in the first three minutes in the tone of how you start out. So I encourage you. Own you. Take initiative and enter that thing with Thanksgiving and a smile and praise. Because you can't control them. But the anger that that conflict that you have with him is controlling you. It's time to bring that thing into the light so you can take ownership for you. Alright, a couple more. #3. The next tip is listen to understand. Listen to understand. I think listening is a lost art, especially today, we want to be understood, but we need to enter these conversations, seeking to understand, seeking to hear, seeking to emphasize. Your love organs, there's two love organs. Are you ready for them? It's your eyes and your ears. If you lend those to someone, you can use those in a powerful way to bring connection. James 1:19. Check this out really quickly. James 1:19 it says: "This, you know, my beloved brethren. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. We're talking about anger tonight, but I believe our ears and our mouth are connected to our heart. And I think if we can be quick to zip our lips, quick to open our ears, I believe our heart will open up and anger will not be able to set in. Oftentimes when anger and temper hits, your mouth just sounds off. And those words. They hurt. And some of you are ninjas with your mouth when you're offended. You're a martial arts expert with your words and you beat the tar out of people when you're hurt and the Lord is saying: "you need to be slow to speak." Listen to me: your anger and those words, they accomplish nothing. They're actually undermining your husband. Your husband doesn't need that. Your husband needs to be honored. You need to honor him with your words even when you're mad. We speak the truth, you can be truthful with that person. Yeah, depending on the situation, there's a lot of times when I'm going into a situation where I need reconciliation. Listen, I've been a pastor. I'm entering...I think 20 years, actually, it is 20 years last month that I've been a pastor. I know. Yeah, I started when I was ten. But here's the deal. I was reflecting on this message about being a pastor. And I've been at small church, big churches. I believe about 70 to 80 percent of my time as a pastor is managing conflict between people, either people here or people here, but it's giving them the tools to manage conflict. I really believe that. And many times when I enter into a conflict, especially if it's if I'm being a mediator, I will spend time with the Lord and I will script out what I hear him saying to that person so that I'm going to speak the truth and love. But I'm not just responding to whatever they're saying. I've been positioned in truth to actually impart something. And I just encourage you to spend time with the Lord, receive scriptures scripted out. Some of you, your hearts are going to be changed because the action that's going to come out of the sermon, you're going to be in truth and you're going to get freed. So speak truth. There's a little more to that, but I'm going to hop to the next one. Two more: fix the problem, not the blame. Fix the problem, not the blame. Use your energy on fixing the problem, not to blame, meaning many of us, the reason we haven't acted is because the person that we're in conflict with they're wrong, and you're right. But that doesn't solve anything. And so the goal isn't to be right, the goal is to be whole and, you know, you can totally be right and completely wrong. You could be totally right and completely wrong. I've watched marriages, marriages like godly marriages. I've watched an offense through anger set in the heart and in a civil war begin between a husband and wife. And what they do is they get family and friends involved in the civil war and they're making their case. And then family and friends can't solve it. So then they bring pastors in and pastors start to navigate. Pastors can't help. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get counselors, we bring counselors in, counselors can navigate. You get counselors. So we're going to get more counselors. We're going to spend more money. And ultimately where it ends as it ends with a lawyer who has the legal ability to say, you're right and you're right. And by this much. And they part ways and a family is split because two people simply it to be right and not a whole. Being right is overrated. It is. So you're right in the conflict, you're right, you're completely right. You're right. They're wrong. But guess what? Jesus was completely right and you were completely wrong. It says he who knew no sin, he became sin. Why? So you could be the righteous of God. He met you and your mother. He met you and your mire. He came to you. And that person might need an ambassador of reconciliation to connect them to the Lord, because if they did it to you, I guarantee they've done it to a dozen other people. But they've never had someone actually sit down and model what the gospel looks like. So we focus. We fix the problem, not the blame. I've got a number of examples, but I feel we just need to hop into ministry. Let me show the last one. Focus on reconciliation, not resolution. Reconciliation means reestablishing the relationship resolution means we're going to solve every problem so there's no disagreements. But resolution will never be possible. Reconciliation is about establishing that relational connection. And this is the key. I want to end with this point. The older I get, the more conflict I faced with dear people. With precious people, and there's some that we've actually parted ways and we don't communicate as much as we once did. I feel in my heart that we're past that season hole, their hole, but there's not the same connection. But there's others that..what ended up happening is the conflict, we never fully had reconciliation because one of us left the table.
A PRAYER FOR RECONCILIATION
And I believe what reconciliation means, it's not resolution not fixing the problem, but reconciliation is that I didn't leave the table mad. I didn't leave the table angry. I left the table connected. Even though we disagree, even though you hurt me, even though I've forgiven you, I don't have to be your best friend anymore. But my heart is whole. And there has been an interaction where you've given me forgiveness, I've given you forgiveness, and I'm not going to carry you any longer in my heart because I didn't leave the table. But if I leave the table hurt, if I leave the table mad, then all of a sudden I'm carrying a broken heart because I left the table. And I feel like the Lord is inviting some of you to go back to the table with that person, extend that hand of fellowship and bear with them in love. You may get nothing from them, but I promise you'll be able to see it from a different perspective that will set your heart free from them. Because you didn't leave the table, you stayed at the table and you invited them to that table. And you can't control them, but you can control you and you're going to get free tonight. So if there's someone like you know that, you know that, you know, tonight there's someone that this is addressing. Can I have you do something for me? Can I just have you stand up? Alright. This is miraculous if you're standing up, you're acknowledging that I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit tonight and I'm going to respond rightly to the word. And so I want the Holy Spirit to speak to you. If someone's around, you can just extend your hand to them? I want you if you're standing up to look up to the Lord and I want you to see the Lord's zeal and excitement for this moment. And I believe the Lord has been ready and willing to empower you into action. And I believe that you can forgive tonight. So I just believe right now where there's a fence, where there's been bitterness or anger towards that person, I just see the Lord with his hands open saying, will you give that to me tonight? And I pray that you, as you've received his forgiveness, that you can forgive that person from your heart for the offense, for the moment of offense, or maybe it's been weeks, months, years of strife and tension. And I feel tonight by the power of the Holy Spirit, he's going to give you his love to set you free from this person. And so in the name of Jesus, I pray, Holy Spirit, forgiveness could be issued, Lord. We love because you love us, you are the source of this. It's your love in us that compels us. And so, Holy Spirit, we welcome you into our hearts, into this area, Lord, where the enemy has had a foothold. And so we just remove bitterness. Right now, the spirit of bitterness go in the name of Jesus, leave in the name of Jesus. No more occupancy here, Lord. We declare you are gone in the precious name of Jesus. So if you can, if you're standing up, if you could just forgive from your heart, if you feel that you're able to do that, I just want you to -- it's a form of surrender. I want you to lift your hands. It's a form of surrender that I feel like I am able to forgive tonight. Come on. Thank you, Lord. Come, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Alright, I want to put you in a step one, I want you to take action tonight. I want you to think about what you're going to do. Tell me what you're going to do, how to engage them. Is it an email or is it a text? Is it a phone call? I want you to figure out how you're going to respond to this message, how are you going to take initiative? I want you to get your phone out and I want you to write down a plan. In the presence of the Lord, you're going to get a practical plan tonight. This wants you to write it down. Put down one. I'm going to call them. And I want you to tell me the time you're going to do it. It can be after service at 7:22. It might be at 8 p.m. It might be later tonight at or 9:00 am in the morning. But I want you to figure out what you're going to do and when you're going to do it. This is about getting your heart free, bitterness and anger is leaving. And then after you've put down what you're going to do, I just want you to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and I want you to say, Father, what are you saying about this person? And I want you to hear from the Lord what he sees when he looks at them. What does he see when you look at them? Figure out a word, just listen to the Lord he's going to give you of his lens and his heart for that relationship. Jesus. I want you to take a deep breath now and receive the peace of the Lord. You can be bold, you can be courageous, you're not going to be afraid, you're going to do this. And you are going to bring forth wholeness to your heart. And I see a connection coming to these relationships, life coming to these relationships. I see generational curses being broken where families have not known how to operate. They've only known how to do it this way. And you tonight are standing up in faith and you are severing that curse over your family of division and the blood of Jesus is flowing to you. And there's a blessing that's going to come to your family, a blessing of reconciliation, a blessing of wholeness, a blessing where bitterness is uprooted. I see mothers and sons restored, fathers and daughters restored. I see brothers and sisters restored. I see family coming together in the heart of the Father delighting in this. He is going to call you forth. He says, "this is what I have for you. Be courageous, be strong. Do not be afraid. For I will go with you in the name of Jesus." Thank you, Father.
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