Managing Your Feelings - The KEY to Emotional Health with Andy Stanley

so here here's something um that always causes us to uh stop and stare um perhaps at times um duck and run for cover and it's an over reaction an overreaction you've seen this you've seen people overreacting to something and you you just have to stop and stare in fact somebody might say don't stare just just listen it's like i mean it's when somebody overreacts it always gets our attention um it's you know it's typically you know or something we've all experienced it's the parent in the grocery store or at the mall who's over disciplining their child because the child has embarrassed the parent and the child embarrassed the parent by acting like a child and now the parent is acting like a child right and they're over disciplined they're overreacting and it's just you know you don't know if you want to rescue the child or get your phone out and just you know post it somewhere because it's just like it's you know or maybe at work we've all seen somebody overreact at work and when they overreact at work i mean the whole office freezes everybody gets you know kind of tensed up if you're overhearing this in an office or a cube or you walk by or walk in on a conversation and and when you see somebody overreacting or what you consider as an overreaction we always think the same thing we generally think wow there must be something else going on right because that cause did not warrant that effect right it's like here's what happened but here's how they're reacting they're overreacting um if your parents were over reactors you you can remember or maybe you're still kind of getting over the damage that that did to the to your relationship with your parents they just overreacted to everything um um they thought i mean and some of your parents now so you understand this your parents thought that they were coaching and correcting and you thought they've lost it right and consequently you sort of got lost you just you know you withdrew you could not wait to get out of that and get out of there and again it damaged the relationship on the flip side we've all had our moments where we have damaged a relationship potentially or may or strained a relationship because of our emotional outburst i mean your latest apology may have been a follow-up to an unwarranted outburst of emotion um and and you were right i mean what you were saying to the person was right but you weren't right the right way have you ever not been right the right way um you were over right have you ever been over right like you're right but you're kind of over right in fact you're so over right that your rightness overrode the point you were trying to make and you had to circle back around and apologize even though you were right so the point of all this and this isn't where we're going for the next few weeks but it is interesting um we can learn a lot about ourselves by um our our our reactions right by monitoring our reactions you you monitor your reactions you learn a lot about yourself because and i'm the same way but i'm picking on you you are so predictable right i mean we are all so predictable when it comes to our reaction certain environments right certain words certain types of people certain names they just they trigger us i mean when you hear you're just like your mother okay that's not an emotionally neutral statement is it you're just like it's not like you know what you're right and now i know what to work on thanks for no and you're just like your dad why can't you be more like your sister why don't you get a job why don't you grow up why can't you be more responsible i mean there are just there are just trigger phrases and there are trigger people um as i've shared in the past andrew and i our foster parents and years ago we had three little girls living with us for about five six months and the youngest was five and she came into her home with this i thought it was a terrible habit after she would watch television she would hide the remote and i mean she would hide it well like you could not find the remote anywhere and and and it just got to me sandra would kind of chill you know with it and the sisters were kind of chill with and it just honestly just got to me and the thing that made it even more complicated she would not talk to me ever i mean the whole time she lived with us she would talk to whisper to her sisters to talk to me she would not talk to me and and i didn't press it you know i was super gentle because you know fostering and all that but i mean privately behind closed doors i told sandra and she's here i'd say i'm not emotionally mature enough to have this child in our home okay just don't share that okay but i mean she's five years old and she just it just was just you know it was just it was just kind of driving me nuts and i realized there's something wrong with me she's five years old okay and i'm like losing it and now she's 16 years old and she's doing great and as you can tell i'm still not still dealing with okay so here here's the point here's what we're going for the next few weeks even though that was kind of fun what if but what if but what if what if there was a way to harness the power of a reaction or even an overreaction for something good and what if there was a way to harness the power of reaction for something good and jesus says there is a way and jesus says we can do it in fact jesus says we should do it and as we're going to discover today and as we're going to unpack for the next couple of weeks this is not this is not extra credit christianity is we're going to discover this is fundamental this is 101 this is what it looks like and sounds like and reacts like to follow jesus that jesus is going to insist and these are my words not his he's going to insist that we master the art of the unexpected unprecedented under reaction the unexpected unprecedented under reaction it's so under that it's over or appears to be an overreaction in the other direction it's it's the art of who would say that in light of what just happened who would do that in light of the way he or she has just been treated so we're going to refer to this as the art of the over under reaction okay this is what we're going to talk about we're going to master the over under reaction that we're going to so under react to some things that it will feel like an overreaction and cause people to stop and stare and go what is up with them now you're going to discover as well this is going to create some tension this is easily dismissed this is i mean some of you on the inside or the outside in about five minutes are going to be like i should i just no but nobody does this this is ridiculous it's easily misunderstood in fact you've got to pay attention it's so easily misunderstood that if you misunderstand what jesus is about to say it might appear dangerous and unhealthy but it's worth talking about well we have to talk about it because jesus talked about it and again he lays this out as a fundamental principle or a fundamental way or an essential way of following him it is essential if we're going to be followers of jesus because what we discover is that jesus consistently jesus consistently viewed being treated unjustly being treated unfairly and being treated unkindly as an opportunity an opportunity to react in such a way that people stop and stare because they're caught off guard because they recognize that cause that cause didn't warrant that effect that cause didn't warrant that effect that person i mean did you see what happened to him he should be angry it's not did you see what happened to her she should be so bitter but she's not did you see what happened to them they should be so reciprocal they should be returning evil for evil to use a new testament phrase but they're not that you know what if that had happened to me listen i would be broadcasting this i would be broadcasting my grievance why are you so quiet i would be bad mouthing them in the company why don't you do that i would be malicious i you know for sure i would hope they fail i would try to facilitate their failure and i would celebrate their failure if that had happened to me but you're wha what what's up with you right what's going on what you did what you you reacted how you you showed up for them when things fell apart with them you helped them after they hurt you wait wait you apologized wait wait they owed you you you forgave see you've heard it said we've we've all heard it said that actions speak louder than words but the truth is reactions reactions speak louder than either reactions speak louder than either either our actions and this is true of all of us not just not picking on it's true of all of us our actions just don't tell the whole tell our whole story our actions only tell part of our story because we all know how to behave when it serves us well i mean look at how well behaved all of you are are you always this well behaved no okay but you know how to behave in a crowd we know how to behave when it serves us right we know how to pull off nice and kind and polite we even know how to pull off i'm going to defer to another person we know how to be respectful we even know how to be generous we'll be generous when that serves us or makes us look good right but you know when things you know don't go our way you better get out of the way right when somebody when something or somebody gets in our way you better get out of our way because when things don't go our way that's when all the niceness begins to wear off and that's when what's on the inside comes out and sometimes it seems justified and other times it just scares people right i mean if i don't get my fair share if i don't get credit if i don't get appreciation if i don't get recognition if i don't get what i think that you know i deserve well if i don't get what i think is should be coming to me my reaction exposes what's on the inside in my reactions your reaction tells the rest of the story actions speak louder than words but we all know how to behave reactions tell the whole story that's when cause and effect goes into effect we look and we sound and this is jesus point that if we're not careful we look and we sound and we react just like everybody else and here's what jesus is about to tell us and i'm kind of setting you up because his words are so strong his point is this when we sound if for those of us who claim to be jesus followers when we sound and react like everybody else we sound and react like everybody else and there's no distinction and when that happens from our savior's perspective we miss our opportunity because and you know this from your favorite novel your favorite series you know your your the favorite story that you tell that you've seen play out in real life unexpected reactions isn't this true unexpected reactions are often what makes the story's worth telling worth telling so i'm going to give you some samples from the teaching of jesus okay and heads up you've heard all of this before i i don't think i'm about to read a single thing from the gospels where you're go where you say i have never heard that before and not only have all of us heard this before if you're not a christian or you're not a person of faith not a jesus follower you've heard all of this before and the fact that you've heard all of this before is one of the reasons you don't take us seriously because you know what jesus taught and when you watch his followers not follow him you think to yourself i don't blame you why should i become one of you you don't even do what you're supposed to do in other words your problem with christians isn't that you don't believe what we believe you're not sure we believe what we say we believe because we don't do what jesus instructed us to do so we're going to work on it and at the end of the message if you're not a person of faith i'm going to invite you to participate in the application as well because i think it'll be a lot of fun so here's kind of a quick overview of sampling from one single message jesus famous mountain message where he is so specific about how his followers are supposed not just to act but to react when things don't go our way because our re-actions speak louder than our words and our reactions expose whose we truly are so here we go you've heard it said and we have heard it said you've heard it said i for i and tooth for tooth and to which we say we don't even need to hear this said we this is just how the world works right i mean common sense you do unto others as they do unto you that's that's what's expected in fact nobody's even surprised when somebody does unto another person what that person has done unto them in fact not only are they not surprised people will cheer you on if you do unto somebody else what they've done unto you especially if you win jesus is like i know but i tell you because i want you to follow me but i tell you do not resist an evil person now this is where it could be easy for us to misunderstand what jesus is saying jesus is not talking about self-defense self-defense is instinctive protection this is important protection is not the same as retaliation jesus is talking about retaliation he's saying i don't want you to react to people who are cruel to you and people who consider you an enemy i don't want you to react to evil people in an evil way i don't want you to be reciprocal i don't want you to treat unto other people the way they have treated you i don't want you to act or react like everybody else if you do he says it's a missed opportunity and we've all seen this play out right we've all seen a situation where somebody has something coming to them and the person that could bring it to them decides not to bring it to them they they don't react in like kind in fact they go the opposite direction and it's like wow it's inspiring he goes on he says this if anyone and here's here's a here's an idiom he this is where this idiom comes from in our english language if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also you we've all heard you know turn the other cheek this this is where that comes from that that came from jesus if you've ever said turn the other cheek you're quoting jesus now what we miss here is this jesus is not saying if someone attacks you physically you just stand there and let them beat the living whatever out of you that's not the point in fact everybody in the first century who heard jesus say this knew exactly what he's talking about it's why he used the word right cheek because if most people are right-handed and if somebody who's right-handed slap somebody or hit somebody on the right cheek they didn't hit them with an open palm they came across this way and to hit them with the back of the hand which is a representation of being disrespectful to somebody or dismissive to somebody it's not an attack it's an insult it was a way of trying to bait somebody into a fight they're picking a fight they're saying come after me it's an insult in medieval times the same idea would happen when somebody was challenging someone to a duel it wasn't a physical assault it was trying to get somebody to rise to the occasion to come back at them the way they had come at them and jesus is saying when people try to bait you into that kind of conflict when people try to get you to rise to the occasion to match their level of anger match their emotion match whatever's going on in them he says no not my followers this is your opportunity you are to over under react turn the other cheek i'm not going to rise to the occasion say whatever you want to toward me but i'm not going to be like you back to you because i'm a jesus follower and he tells us why in just a minute then he talks about being sued and taking people to court now our legal system is very different than their legal system our legal system is far superior to their legal system in fact our legal system we don't have time to go into this our legal system is far superior to the first century legal system due in large part because of the teaching and the influence of jesus and the influence of the church and then jesus moves on and again he gives us language that we're so accustomed to using perhaps you didn't know this originated with jesus he says this and if someone or if anyone forces you to go one mile you go with them two miles now to us it's like you know we can imagine what he's talking about but his original audience knew exactly what he was talking about he was referencing he was referencing compulsory public service compulsory public service that in this this culture a temple leader a political leader um any kind of of person of wealth and power even a roman centurion a roman officer in some cases a roman soldier could come to the average citizen where rome rhone or rome occupied a city or occupied a region could come to the average citizen and force the citizen to stop whatever it was they were doing and serve that person for a specific amount of time or if it involved carrying a load or carrying something they could force that person this was legal it was subject to abuse it was people were so resentful um you just immediately had a bad attitude you just never made eye contact with public officials or temple officials or roman soldiers because you never knew when they were going to stop you and say hey put down what you're doing and help me and they could force you they could force you to go in our english new testament it says a mile but literally um in in the greek it it's a it's a distance of about a thousand paces or a thousand steps so jesus says if someone requires and again this wasn't just anyone this is someone who is really abusing in some way their authority this is somebody that you're not on good terms with this is not somebody who's asking you to help them move and you're like not only will i help you move i'll help you do something else this isn't that that's different this is immediately everything in you is going to bristle and think oh i don't like this person i don't want to do this he says if you find yourself in this situation and you are recruited against your will to serve a public servant i want you to not only go a thousand paces i want you to offer to go 2 000 pace at the end of a thousand paces you say hey i i'm willing to go further i'm willing to go another thousand paces now you gotta understand this this is already bothering us right i i assure you the people in jesus audience by this time half of them are like this and just like we're not doing this hey jesus do the thing about prayer the prayer thing was good or one of your cool stories about a rich guy and had a son you know one of those are good but this no jesus nobody's gonna do this i mean nobody lives this way he didn't stop he didn't let up he says oh yeah and here's something else i want you to give to the one who asks you whoever it is and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you now he's talking specifically about the relationship of people with stuff to people who don't have stuff he's talking specifically about people who have extra and the poor um in this day and age in ancient times the rich people and the poor people the haves and the have-nots they lived close to each other they were always with an ear shot you know streets were narrow most people walked they it wasn't you know these groups weren't separated their circles overlap and jesus says here's his point whatever the norm is in terms of giving whatever the norm is in terms of generosity whatever the normal arrangement is in terms of borrowing and lending i want you to go above and beyond i want you to surprise somebody with the terms you give them i want you for the sake of their dignity dignity to say you know what i'm not going to give you this i'm going to loan this to you so that that that you know that saves their dignity but then i want you to over time just forgive that loan i want you to handle your generosity in such a way that people don't say oh they meet the requirement i want you to be so generous and to approach generosity in such a way that people are like wait seriously are you are you sure jesus says yeah this is this is how i want you to live if you're going to follow me to which again we say this is so impractical and is it even necessary nobody lives like that and he's not through you've heard it said again we've all heard this you've heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy which meant basically like your friends and don't like the people who aren't your friends love you know the people who you get along with love the people like you because they're like you and they like you and the people who don't like you you just don't like them back an enemy is anyone who's hostile towards you in the neighborhood at work maybe an extended family member he says you've heard that you know you like the people that like you and you dislike the people that don't like you to which again were like does anybody even need to say that i mean isn't that just what you do he says but i tell you i'm raising the bar but i tell you here it is love your enemy which means you were to treat your enemy as if they're not your enemy that's what that means this isn't like love them in your heart love your enemy practically love your enemy that you are to treat your enemy in such a way that your enemy doesn't understand what's going on because wait a minute you know i don't like you you know i fired you in a way that just you know shattered your reputation you you do know what i said about you you do know what i yeah yeah i know well this is weird why why are you being kind to me why are you treating me like somebody that you like when i know you don't like me because i've made it evident that i don't like you jesus says this is this is what my my followers do and not only that get this this is so convicting and pray for those who persecute you now let me just say what you've thought and so you don't have to say it out loud and be embarrassed you don't even pray for most of the people that you like do you right i mean he's saying hey i want you to add to your prayer list of people who persecute you you're like okay number one i don't even pray that much anyway number two when i pray i thank you for the day and then i ask you to give me stuff and blessed stuff and i pray for my family and then i gotta go you know i don't even pray for my friends or my extended family and you want me to pray for the people at work and the people in the neighborhood and the people at school who persecute me who talk bad about me who gossip about me who take my ideas and run with them you you you want me to mention them by name in my prayers jesus is like yeah to which we would say who would do that and jesus would say yeah who would do that who lives this way who who approaches life in relationships this way now he tells this is now he's getting down to because we're like this is just too much and now he tells us why this is essential what comes next here's what he's about to do he's about to separate the believers from the followers he's about to separate the christians from the father he's about to separate the hearers and the note takers and the movers that's good good preacher he's about to separate the note takers from the doers he's to quote crawford lyrics when he was with us i love this he's about to separate he's about to separate the folks for whom christianity is a point of reference from those who understand that christianity is the framework for all of life and every decision when i say when crawford talked about you know christians who consider christianity a point of reference you know what that means that means this that means hey i prayed i prayed a prayer and i asked jesus to forgive me and i'm gonna go to heaven when i die and i'm just going to stand here right inside the door and you know i'm you know i'm a christian no no no i'm a christian i believe i'm a christian i believe jesus is about to separate that group from the group that does stuff that changes stuff that impacts culture that impacts the world that impacts people's worldview the people who cause the people who cause others to stop and stare and wonder what is up with him what is up with so listen to how he finishes this out you've heard it said love your neighbor and hate those um hate your interview i tell you love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you that in other words here's the result here's the here's what happens at the end of that here's what happens if you do all this that as a result you may be children of your father in heaven in other words he says the reason i want you to do this is so that you will reflect your father in heaven that you will reflect the character and the nature of your father in heaven reacting this way makes us like our father in heaven it positions us relationally and visibly to reflect what our father in heaven is like now here's what i say to you all the time i say hey if you want to know what god is like you follow jesus through the gospels okay if you want to know what god is like follow jesus through the gospels here's what god would talk about here's what god values here's who god likes here's how god responds to sin if you want to know what god is like follow jesus through the gospels the question that jesus is posing is this how is everybody else gonna know what the father is like if you're gonna follow me i want you to live your life in such a way that people look at you and they catch a glimpse just a glimpse of what god their father is like because you as his son and you as his daughter so reflect the character and nature of the father they catch a glimpse of the father when they catch a glimpse of you and the best way for them to understand what the father is like is not through being you being polite and being kind and being a good citizen it's by your over under reaction when things don't go your way oh and then he comes at the same idea a little different angle okay then this is he's going right to the heart of what he's the point he's trying to make he's making he says if you here it is again another one of those clauses if you if you love those who love you what here's the key word because this is where he's taking us what recognition will you get he's saying look i want you to be recognized for something but if you just love those who love you what recognition will you get i mean here's something you've never said she just loves her friends so well she just loves the people who love her that's amazing isn't she amazing she loves the people who love her that's amazing i want to be more like that but jesus is going no he is a he's so cool i mean he hangs out with and gets along with the people that get along with him it's just it's remarkable i mean goodness tell us how you do that right he's like that doesn't that doesn't stand out nobody's gonna stop and stare nobody's gonna pause and wonder this is expected right and then if you're not sure that's the point he's making he illustrates it and again what he says next doesn't do anything for us emotionally but i'm telling you there was a ripple effect through the crowd when jesus said what he said next here's what he said art because he's he's dissing him i mean he's he's turning the screws he says come on are not even the tax collectors doing that translated think for a minute and no elbows no eye contact don't write this down and please don't say it out loud i want you to think for a minute of the group of people or the category of people you have the least respect for i know for some of you it's pastors i know that's why i didn't want you to say it out loud okay all right so think about the group of people you have the least respect for jesus is saying look even that group get along with the people that get along with them even that group of people are friendly to their friends so simply doing for others who do for you and being like the people that like you and that you like that you're that doesn't stand out i want you to be recognized for something extraordinary and this is what's so amazing he's given us he's given us the key your reactions your reactions should give you away your reaction should be a dead giveaway for whose son and whose daughter you are and then if we're not done yet one more push on the flywheel and if you welcome and if you welcome only your own people if you welcome only your own people you know you have your people have my people i mean my people like me my people get along with me when i'm with my people ah i can just be myself and relax he says but if you only welcome if you are only comfortable with if you only surround yourself with your own people and then here it is if you haven't been paying attention don't miss this part if you're only if you're only going to welcome your own people here here's what he's about to say next this is the difference that makes a difference ready if you only welcome your own people what are you doing more than others you see more than isn't expected more than is unusual more than stands out the extra mile stands out loving your enemy stands out not reciprocating in like kind that stands out not doing evil for evil that stands out praying for your enemies befriending you all of this stands out he says i want you to stand out not simply in the normal routine behavior of life everybody knows how to behave when it suits their purposes i want you to look for those opportunities when things don't go your way when you're treated unkindly when you're treated unjustly when things when there's a when life isn't wrinkle free i want you to begin seeing those as opportunities and before you instinctively react i want you to ask this question what would it look like in this moment to react like my father in heaven and then he wraps the whole thing up with another you know parent-child phrase he goes back to the parent child thing again here's what he says he says and this is so easy to misunderstand if you take it out of context he says i want here's what i'm saying i want you to be perfect i want you to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect here's what he's saying so powerful i want you to be perfect toward others i want you to be perfect toward others as your heavenly father has been perfect toward you i want you to over do it i want you to second mile it i want you to amaze with your unexpected unprecedented over under reaction i want you to be a more than others man i want you to be a more than others woman i want you to be a more than others employer employee neighbor student son daughter why because god your heavenly father is a more than other heavenly father think about this okay this is the gospel think about how our heavenly father let's just make it personal think about how your heavenly father reacted to your sin knowing what you would do knowing what you wouldn't do knowing the promises that you would break knowing the lies that we would tell knowing the harm that we would inflict on others and then not take responsibility for it right knowing the excuses we would make when we're caught knowing the secrets we would keep knowing the selfishness we would embrace with all of that he is the heavenly father who responded to who reacted to our sin and our sinfulness by what by sending his son by sending us a king jesus the king think about this the king who reacted to our sin by what by dying for it so that he could pay for it that that he came looking for us that he came looking for us to forgive us to include us to call us his sons and his daughters so that we could call him with a clear conscience our heavenly father jesus says this is why i want you to react this way because this is how your heavenly father reacted to you and i want you to reflect the nature of god not in moral perfection not an ethical perfection because we're gonna fall short but in those moments when you are mistreated in those moments where you're tempted to react in like kind those are your opportunities to respond to others as your heavenly father responded to you so it makes sense that jesus commands us to react toward others the way he reacted toward us to see slights and hurt and rejection as opportunities opportunities to amaze and to confound opportunities to appropriately draw attention to ourselves so we can draw attention to our father in heaven jesus said it this way we've quoted this so many times he said come on i want you to let your light shine in such a way that people see something i want you to let your life your light shine in such a way that people see your good deeds and they glorify your father in heaven i want people to stop and stare so at the end of the day they would find themselves gazing in my direction so here's what we're going to do this is where it's going to get fun all right and for those of you watching and maybe you're not church person or you're with us and you're not a person of faith and somebody's gonna feed you lunch or bribe you to get here this is this isn't all skate this is something we can all do we're all gonna practice this week okay we're gonna practice the art of the strategic over under reaction and we're going to practice at home okay we're not going to go out to work i don't think you're ready for that we got to take some baby steps okay don't try this in the neighborhood don't try this at work or with your friends we're going to practice at home because this is new okay and this is rather extreme so here's what i want you to do and the first part of the assignment is so easy and so fun i want you and again no elbows no okay this is this is just you i want you to choose something or think about something that happens on a regular basis at home okay something that happens on a regular basis at home that perturbs you disturbs you upsets you and gets on your nerves that's the easy part right only one only one okay and this can't be a person okay this can't be a person this has to be a thing it has to be a thing like every time you get home from work she or he you know as soon as you get home from school your mother always so it's not your mother it's this thing that she does it's not your husband it's this thing that he says okay i want you to think i think a thing with your roommate or wherever you live whatever your your home life is like roommates possibly if you're living in a dorm whatever might be i want you to think of that that thing that is said that thing that happens that just it just gets on your nerves and then i want you and i'm going to give you an example in a minute of something between me and sandra and she's here so you know i i'm always honest but you know be really honest anyway um so and once you kind of that thing it's like yeah as soon as he comes in as soon as she comes in and says you know whatever he calls you know whatever it is um then i want you to think about your normal reaction okay and it's let's just assume you're a great person it is a justified reaction but it's a reaction and it is so predictable i mean they don't even your family doesn't even respond your roommate doesn't even respond anymore it's so predictable and then i want you to ask this question it's a terrifying question so you got the thing that gets on your nerves you know what your normal response is your normal reaction then i want you to ask this question what would amazing look like what would amazing sound like to go back to jesus words what would like my father in heaven look like or sound like parents what would cause your son or daughter to wonder who stole my father and replaced him with this kind man who stole my mother and replaced her with this patient woman what happened to my parents kids i want you to come up with an amazing response that causes your parents to wonder if you're up to something or perhaps on something okay now later later okay with this three-week series so later we're going to talk about what this looks like out in the wild but we're going to start with the folks we love the most right we're going to start with the folks that actually deserve for us to respond or react to them like our heavenly father would to us and we're going to take it one step further we want to hear your stories okay we want you to tell us what you did or we want you to tell us what somebody in your family did so we want you to go to reactionsseries.com and we want you to log in your story okay and if they're really good we're going to share them and if they're really really good i'll use them as an illustration and i might even use your name okay or you don't have to give us your name but we want you to go because we want you to catch each other doing this and we want you to brag on each other so this is your opportunity to have an epic sermon illustration kind of moment as you begin to practice this just at home now real real quick i want to tell you this is my illustration okay um so and please don't tell anybody i told you this because this isn't embarrassing i hate to run errands i hate any other aaron haters in here that you just yeah yeah yeah yeah and so what would happen is this and i mostly hate to run errands on my way home so sandra because you know she's wonderful she's already home she's like would call hey could you stop by and as soon as you would start with stop by before even i before i even knew where i was going to stop by i was already in a bad mood which she totally doesn't deserve hey could you stop by the grocery store could you stop could you run by and when the kids were young could you pick up so-and-so and i just immediately go into this funk and on my attitude's back it would get so bad eventually she just quit calling just text because you know nothing you can there you go you know and and she didn't deserve this i mean this is 100 on me it was it was terrible so finally i realized and the same at home sometime and i'm like andy this is this is so ridiculous okay so i just decided from now on no matter what she asked me to do what she wants me to eat where it doesn't matter my response is going to be happy to now i got to tell you something real quick see i left out the pronoun this is a little bit like when you would tell your kids to apologize to your son their brother sister and they go sorry sorry it's like are you calling him sorry are you saying you got to have a pronoun right you got to say i'm sorry so it kind of started out with happy too that i'm like nope that's not enough i would be happy to because i knew once i did i would be happy i did it and she would be happy i did this is so simple andy come on so i started doing this you know some time ago but not as long ago as you might think and i told her yeah i said hey i'm doing this series and i'm going to share this illustration and i'd never said told her that i started just i'm going to be happy i'm going to i will be happy but you know i will be happy to and she said i noticed that i'm like i bet you did because i had these sorriest attitude when it came okay so that's my illustration that's just between us my point is i want you now to think about that thing that kind of gets on your nerves maybe it deserves to maybe it doesn't when you think about your normal response and i want you to think about a response that would be like oh my goodness what happened to him who stole the body right or if you want to again i think couching in jesus terms is great even if you're not a jesus follower what would look like what would sound like what would we act like my father in heaven so let's look for an opportunity to go the extra mile like our father in heaven because you know what this is really this is just this is just rinse you know wash and rest this is just repeat this is just recycling jesus new covenant command his new covenant command was this we talk about it all the time he said to his followers look let me make it simple for you i want you to love other people the way i've loved you i want you to love others a new command i give you love one another new command i give you it's new new command i give you i want you to love others the way i have loved you this is just that but jesus says your greatest opportunity my greatest opportunity to love others especially the people that don't love us the greatest opportunity we have to make to make a difference to be a more than to be a stop and stare is when things don't go our way because people know how they would react and your heavenly father has invited you and jesus has commanded us to respond to others as our heavenly father responded to us like our father in heaven then he says you will be sons and daughters of your father in heaven so let's practice at home and we'll pick it up there next time in part two of reactions speak louder than words i'd love to pray for you heavenly father it's easy to stand up here and talk for some of us we're immediately thinking of circumstances that we think i don't know i may be taken advantage of it may be misunderstood it may not work out so give us wisdom and give us eyes to see and ears to hear and give us courage to react and father would you raise up would you raise up tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of jesus followers around our nation who decide you know what i'm gonna react like my father in heaven i'm gonna over under react i'm going to let my light shine in such a way through my reactions that people see my good reaction my oh my goodness i can't believe they did that reaction and ultimately glorify their father in heaven and father especially in this cultural moment with so much going on give us the courage to step into this and i pray that we would begin at home with the people we love most and the people who deserve this the most and i pray all of that in the matchless name of jesus amen

Channel: Connexus Church

Views: 40,905

Keywords: church online, church, church live, church service, online ministry, bible, connexus church, connexus church live, connexus church youtube, connexus, connexus live, sermons 2021, sermons, worship at home, north point church, north pointe, carey nieuwhof, church live streams right now, live church, live church service, church live stream, online church, online church service, church service live stream, andy stanley

Id: d4R7d7hWqgc

Length: 42min 18sec (2538 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2022