- Well, hello Saddleback. Come on, anybody glad
to be in church today? (congregation cheering) Anybody love Jesus today?
(congregation cheering) Come on, would you give King Jesus just the greatest standing
ovation of praise that you got. Come on, this is the day
that the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it. Are you glad to be here? - [Congregation] Yeah. - Do you like who you're standing next to? If you don't, you can change your seat. You can, you can, no I'm playing. You may be seated. Oh, I tell you what,
I am Red Bull excited. And just to express how
elated to finally be here at Saddleback Church. You have to understand that I have been watching this church,
learning from this church, gleaning from this church, stalking this church for a long time. So now that I'll finally have
my face in the place, come on, I can go to heaven, a
happy chocolate brother, 'cause I'm finally made
it to Saddleback Church. And I'm just trusting that God is gonna do incredible things today. I consider it an honor and
a privilege to be here. And I hope you know how blessed you are to be a part of this church. Do you know that the
grass does not get greener anywhere else? If it is, is artificial turf, is not real. You are at the greatest church and you have the greatest pastor. And I believe we ought to give
honor to where honor is due. Would you help me and just thank
God for Pastor Rick and Kay for who they are, for their leadership. Oh, come on, you can do better than that. Y'all are blessed to have them. As he mentioned, I'm from
the great country of Texas, live in Dallas and we planted our church, my wife and I just five months ago. So I stand in awe of faithful leaders like your pastor who've
been pastoring for 42 years. And pastor Rick has a relational equity to get anybody behind this pulpit. And when I say anybody, anybody, Bano could be preaching today. But I'm so glad that he would
give me this opportunity. And I'm excited to share
the word of God with you. Are you ready to hear it? - [Congregation] Yeah. - I'm telling you, I preached
it to myself in the hotel this morning, responded to
my own altar call, amen. And I wrote my ministry a
check for a thousand dollars. So I know that this
message is gonna bless you. It's gonna bless you
because it's also in line with what pastor Rick already started. He started a series called
Strategies for Stressful Times. And we are certainly
living in stressful times. And if you're honest, all of us respond to stress differently. Stress can produce a myriad of emotions and sometimes it can
produce an emotion of anger. Sometimes when there is stress on you, it makes you want to go off. And that's kind of what
I wanna talk about today. In fact, let me give you
my title right at the top. I wanna talk to you from this idea, The Cost of Going Off. The Cost of Going Off. Now, quick disclaimer, if you
are one of those peaceful, happy people that just smiles all the time and you floated in the room and you always pray for your enemies and bless them that curse you and you had manna for breakfast and you just never get mad. You never tempted to go
off or go off on anybody. This message is not for you. In fact, you can just leave right now. Just go get some brunch. But to those of you who have ever gone off or been tempted to go off, to those of you, whew,
that have ever responded to an email or a text message in all caps. To those of you that have ever
had somebody say something to you and your heart
started to palpitate, you're right eye started to twitch and your nose started to flare. If you have ever had somebody
driving crazy in front of you and you had to pull up next
to them, just to look at them, to see what they look like,
whew, this message is for you. The Cost of Going Off. And I wanna look at an
interesting narrative in the Book of 2nd Kings. Go with me today to 2nd Kings 5. Wanna look at verses 1 through 4. And we'll also look at
verses 9 through 14. This is a story about a
man by the name of Naaman who knew what it was to go off. It says starting in verse 1. "Now Naaman was commander of
the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in
the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier,
but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders
from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a
young girl from Israel and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, 'If only my master
would go see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would
cure him of his leprosy.' Naaman went to his master and told him what the
girl from Israel had said. So Naaman went with his
horses and his chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, 'Go wash yourself seven
times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored
and you will be cleansed.' But Naaman went away angry and said, 'I thought,'" ooh, let
me pause right there. Have you ever gotten in
trouble for what you thought? Oh, I'm the only one. Have you ever gotten in trouble, "Cause like who I thought,
this is not what I thought. I thought you were coming to help me. And you're actually hurting me. I thought you were coming
to be a blessing in my life. You are a burden in my life." How many will be honest. Have you ever gotten in trouble based off of what you thought? He says, "I thought that he
would surely come out to me and stand and call on the
name of the Lord His God, wave his hand over the spot
and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar,
the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash them in
them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage. And Naaman's servant went to him and said, 'My father, if the
prophet had told you to do some great thing, would
you not have done it? How much more than when
he tells you to wash and be cleansed.' So he went down and dipped
himself in the Jordan seven times as a man of God had told him
and his flesh was restored and became clean like
that of a young boy." Can you say amen. The cost of going off. Let's pray before we jump into this word, it's gonna be a long prayer,
but just bear with me. Would you bow your heads? God, you are awesome. Speak today, amen. The cost of going off. Are there any parents in here today? Any parents? Can I see your hand? Ooh, come on, keep it lifted parents. I need to see where my support group is. Come on. Can we be honest and say, there
is nothing more challenging, there is nothing more difficult, there's nothing more daunting
than raising little humans. I'm telling you there is nothing
that keeps me on my knees before God like my
children, praying for my, I've often said, if you
wanna be a prayer warrior, have some children. If you really wanna call
heaven down to earth, have multiple kids. There's nothing like having kids. In fact, we have three little humans. Let me show you the Madu crew. Come on, that's my family right there. That's my beautiful wife, Taylor. And those are our three little humans. Ooh get ready, here's their
ages, six, five and three. Yes, Yes. Not just their ages, those are the times they
wake up throughout the night, every night, assaulting my sleep. There is nothing like being a parent. There is nothing, to be honest, that I feel more unqualified for. I have searched the scripture
saying, "God help me." You can't even find it in the
scripture sometimes, come on. Even Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. Remember that time, remember
that time they lost him in the temple. You don't even get any insight
to Jesus' teenage years, almost like the Bible
saying you gotta figure out the teenagers yourself, parents. It is difficult to raise
kids and so you got to pray. You got to seek wisdom. You got to get counsel. You got to read resources. In fact, my wife and I,
we recently read this book entitled "Parenting From the Inside Out." "Parenting From the Inside Out." And if you wanna read it, I'll give you the Wikipedia version. The version of the book,
basically it just says this, that parenthood can and will trigger the unprocessed emotions
of your childhood. Parenthood can and will trigger, the unprocessed emotions
of your childhood. So the book says that if
you can heal the child in every parent and get a healthy parent, that healthy parent will
produce an environment that is conducive for healthy children. So that's the book I'm reading, as I'm dropping my son to his
first day of kindergarten. And we go to kindergarten
and I saw something I've never seen in the classroom. There was a white chalkboard in the corner and had all these markers
and I asked the teacher, "What is that?" She said, "Oh, that is
the calm down corner." She said, "They're still young, I have to teach them how
to process their emotions so they can go to the calm down corner and they can take out
their anger and emotions on the chalk board because
that's the calm down corner." And as soon as she said, I said, "Whew, I need a calm down corner." Oh, don't you laugh at me. You need a calm down corner. And I wanna ask you
especially as we're looking for strategies for stressful times, I wanna ask you a serious question. What do you do when you get mad? What do you do when you get angry? Here's what I know about today's message. Today's message is for everybody. Nobody escapes this message. How many know anger is
a universal emotion. Everybody deals with anger. Come on, you came into the world angry. Yes, there was not a single
baby that came into the world common poise that said,
"I'm not gonna cry. I just would like for you
to give me some milk." No, you came in, aah, screaming
at the top of your lungs. Every single person watching
this message around the world and all the campuses, you deal
with anger, it's universal. So when it comes to getting
angry, the question is not, if you'll get angry, the
question is when you get angry. And I wanna know, what do
you do when you get angry? Do you yell? Do you kick? Do you scream? Do you throw stuff? Do you leave? Are you a storm trooper? You just leave. Come on, all the storm troopers who leave when they get angry, come on, the stay at home shelter
orders messed you up. 'Cause you had nowhere to
go, when you got angry, then you had to sit there. What do you do when you get angry? Do you erupt? Do you explode? I'm being extreme 'cause I wanna talk to all the eruptors first. Oh yeah, they're in here. I know they look spiritual,
but the eruptors are in here. That's how they processed
it, like the incredible Hulk. They just erupt, they go off. And you eruptors, whew,
y'all make me laugh, 'cause y'all are crazy. Oh, y'all are crazy. I mean y'all will just go
off and then after you do it, you're like, "Did I just do that? Did I just react like that?" And I'm telling you, you look
crazy 'cause you are crazy. You are in that moment because
there's nothing like anger that will assassinate your wisdom. Anger takes away your wisdom. Proverbs even speaks to it. I love what Proverbs 14:29 says, this is the book of wisdom. It says, "People with
understanding control their anger, a hot temper shows great foolishness." Translation, you are cray
cray when you get angry. Eruptors, you guys just go off
and I laugh at you eruptors because I'm not eruptor. Oh, I'm not eruptor, I am a stuffer. And stuffers are different than eruptors because stuffers, we don't scream. We don't yell, we don't go off. We just sit there very
calmly and when you ask us, are we angry we say,
"Oh no, I'm not angry. No, no, I'm fine. I'm fine, it's okay. I'm fine, it happens, I'm fine." And all while we're saying, we're fine, we are ruminating and
rehearsing over everything that they did. We cannot believe they had
the nerve, the audacity, the unmitigated gall to do what they did. And we will say, "I'm fine," as we are stuffing it all down
into the basement of our soul until it becomes a cantankerous
cesspool of bitterness. And we are stuffing it in
all while we're saying, "I'm fine." And stuffers are the worst because stuffers can become eruptors. 'Cause you stuff in all your
emotions and I'm telling you, you've got to learn how to deal with anger because scientists and
researchers will tell you that anger more than any other emotion has a negative effect
on your physical body. More than grief, more than sorrow. Hear me, anger will
give you a heart attack. Anger will cause your
blood pressure to go up. Anger will attack your nervous system. Anger will age you. Oh yeah, you can forget about exfoliating. Just keep getting angry, it will age you. What are you gonna do with your anger? "So you're saying Pastor
Robert, I can't erupt. And I can't stuff, but
it's inevitable that anger is gonna come on my front door. What am I supposed to do?" Ooh, I'll tell you. You've got to manage it. You've got to control it. You've got to steward it. See anger is like having
a toddler in your car. You don't wanna give that
toddler the keys to the car. No, you don't want the toddler to drive. Come on eruptors. You also don't want to put
the toddler in the trunk, stuffers. What you wanna do is have
that toddler in a car seat, strapped in and periodically
check in the rear view mirror to know where that toddler is. How are you gonna process your anger? Please hear me, if you don't learn how to control your anger,
your anger will stop you from doing the thing that
God has called you to do. Your anger will assault your assignment, your purpose in the earth, if you do not learn how to control it. God wants us to learn
how to control our anger. I love what the apostle
Paul says in Ephesians 4:26, He actually gives us the
biblical worldview for anger. He says, "Be angry and do not sin." Ooh pause, Paul said, "Be angry." Come on, somebody should
shout right there. You have an excuse, you
actually can get angry. Paul doesn't say, get rid of the anger, He says, "Be angry and do not sin. And don't let the sun
go down on your anger." So the biblical worldview of
anger is not to get rid of it, because it says right
there clearly be angry, but do not sin. So there is a purpose for anger. As a matter of fact, if you
never get angry about anything, you might not have a pulse. Come on, some people are so apathetic and they don't care about anything, but there is a biblical worldview of anger that's actually healthy. How many of you know, you serve a savior that didn't just feed the
5,000, but how many of you know, there was a time where he
had a little tipple tantrum and he started turning over the tables of the money changers, why? Because they were making it difficult for people to worship
because he loves humanity. And he says, "I will turn over any table. I will get people out of the temple if you are blocking people from having a connection with me." How many know there
ought to be some things that the church should get
angry about and that anger ought to produce something
on the inside of us. A righteous indignation to say, "We need to do something about this. Come on poverty should anger us. Injustice should anger us. People being marginalized should anger us and cause us to rise up and be a light in the midst of darkness,
come on somebody. Can I get an amen in here today? There's an anger that's healthy. So Paul says, "Be angry, but do not sin." Have anger in its proper place. So it's possible to be
angry in the right way and to have a righteous indignation. But what's not right is
when you're going off for the wrong things. Ooh, I wanna know today,
what makes you go off? Your sports team losing? Cowboys losing? Slow people in front of you in the car, do that make you go off? Ooh, people that chew real loud, does that make you go off? What makes you go off? Does it make you go off
when you have a new outfit and you go to the bathroom
to check on that new outfit and you lean up but you got too close to the edge of the bathroom and now you got a line across that but what makes you go, the
tangle chords make you go off? Let me just throw stuff out here today. What makes you go off, when
you get a brand new laptop and you're trying to put it in the USB and it's only two ways for it to go in, but it takes you eight tries. Try to get that thing in there. What makes you go off? So yeah, I'm being extra
'cause I wanna show you, there's so many different
things that make people angry. Isn't it? Come on, what makes me angry,
doesn't make you angry. What makes her angry,
doesn't make her angry. And that's interesting
because we tend to think that anger is something externally. Something we're provoked too,
but that can't be the case because all of us have different
things that make us angry. And that's why we have to understand that anger is a secondary emotion. It's a secondary emotion. Whenever you see somebody getting angry, never look at the anger
look under the anger. Because underneath the
anger is something deeper. Anger is a secondary emotion. This actually ought to give you grace for people that go off on you, you know, when you just say
hello and they go off on you. They don't give you grace and you say, "Okay, I know that couldn't
have been about me. There must be something else
going on and I'ma pray for you because anger should never be looked at, it should be looked under. Sometimes when people are going off under that anger is pain. Under that anger is fear, under that anger is stress or worry. So don't just look at
anger, look under it. There's a (indistinct) to my text today because I am confused by this man that we read about whose name is Naaman. Because Naaman has a skin
disease that was uncurable at that time called leprosy. Leprosy was a devastating disease. It was diseased that would
start as a spot on your skin and then it would slowly spread
eating away at your flesh, to before you know it,
your ear would fall off or a limb would fall off. It was a disease that
had social ramifications. The moment you found out
that you had leprosy, the priest will look at
you and deem you unclean. You would have to yell at
people coming at you saying, "I'm unclean, I'm unclean." You would be isolated from
your friends and family. It was a devastating disease. And Naaman has this disease and goes to a prophet named Elisha. And Elisha gives him the remedy. He says, "All you have to do
is go wash in the Jordan river seven times and you'll be
cleansed, you'll be healed." And Naaman went off. He got mad at the
prescription for his healing. Pause, timeout, let's contextualize it. Since when does somebody get
angry at the prescription for their healing? I mean come on, can you
imagine going to the doctor, you got a cough or a cold or whatever, and he gives you a
prescription and just says, "Go see the nurse, get the prescription, take it two times a day." And you, "Oh, I cannot
believe this doctor. How dare you ask, oh two times a day?" What in the world is going on Naaman. Why are you angry about the
prescription for your healing? Don't look at anger, look under it. And I think perhaps the
blues clues for his anger is right in 2nd Kings 5:1. Notice the first thing the
Bible tells us about Naaman. It says, "Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man, highly
regarded, a valiant soldier." Whew, Naaman was not a
nobody, Naaman was a somebody. Naaman had status. I think just the fact that he had leprosy made him angry because nobody would think, I mean, come on Naaman
looked like The Rock. He had biceps, he had triceps. Come on, he was the one
that all the women wanted and all the guys wanted to be like. Naaman was the man, he had status. And I don't think Naaman ever
thought that with his status he would have ever had a
devastating disease like leprosy. Oh, Naaman had status. He was a somebody, he's got a blue check on his Instagram page. Everybody follows him on Facebook. Naaman was the man. He couldn't go anywhere
without kids saying, "Would you please sign my sword?" He was on the cover of every Wheaties box. Naaman was the man, he had status. And here's what I've learned
about our culture today. Whew, we are obsessed
with status, aren't we? Oh, we love status. Everybody wants to be the somebody. Everybody wants to be in the room that everybody wants to be. Everybody wants to be famous today. Ask any young kid, I used to tell you, I wanna be a fireman when I grow up. Or I wanna be a teacher. No, I just wanna be famous. That's why I'm making this Tik Tok video. I just wanna be famous. We are obsessed with
status in our culture. Everybody wants to be the somebody. And do you know why we're
obsessed with status? Because we subconsciously think, that if I just got that notoriety,
if I just got that fame, if I just got that
achievement or the accolade, maybe I won't have any problems. Maybe that's why my life
is so bad right now. It's because I haven't reached that level. But we have to understand
what Naaman didn't understand, is that status doesn't stop suffering. Status does not give
you a pass on suffering. Naaman had the status, but
he still had suffering. Oh, you can have money, you
can buy a lot of properties, but have you noticed
they don't sell peace? Ooh, Gucci does not sell
you good sleep at night. That is not on the sales rack. You can't buy it. I'm telling you and there's
something in us that thinks if I could just get to
the penthouse suite, I'll finally reach a level
where I won't have any issues and I won't have any
problems and I'll be fine. But Naaman is a clear picture that you can be the greatest soldier, you can have people screaming your name, but still face suffering. You'd be shocked at the person that you're actually envious of scrolling through their timeline, going, "Oh my gosh, that car. They got a raise during
the pandemic, really?" But you don't see the real story 'cause they're posting
their highlight reels and with all of their status,
they're actually suffering. Can you see Naaman? One day he comes home from the battlefield and he looks in the mirror. He's got all his armor
on, you know how you do when it's just you in
the house, in the mirror, I can see him looking
flex and talking about, who's the man? Naaman. Who's the man? Naaman. (congregation laughing) He's just won a victory and
he takes off all of his armor. And as he's looking in the
mirror, Naaman for the first time in his life, sees a spot,
a strange spot on his body. And he knows what that spot is. I think the first time he saw it, he said, "Maybe it'll go away." He comes back the next day, the spot has now started to spread. Naaman, had a spot even with his status. Can I tell you, everybody has a spot. Everybody has an inequity in their life. You'd be shocked at the
people that are real good in the boardroom, but horrible at home. And your job gets the best of you and your family gets the rest of you. And all of us have inequities in life. All of us have spots and
I can see Naaman crying, down in the fetal position, trying to figure out
how as a mighty warrior, he could have leprosy. I could see his wife coming to console him 'cause she's never seen
her valiant warrior ever cry like this before. I can see her saying, "Honey, it's okay. We'll figure something out. Just keep putting on your
armor, keep covering it up." And ain't that what we do
whenever we find out issues and inequities in our life,
we wanna cover it up, just, we wanna flex with what we're good at, show the best, hide the mess. Don't let anybody see that we're suffering with something that's destroying us. Naaman has never felt this before. Whew, but the walls in Naaman's
house must've been thin because there's a young
Israelite slave girl, the maid, if you will, she
noticed something was going on and she had the nerve to go
up to Naaman's wife and say, "I'm telling you if my master Naaman would just go see the prophet in Israel, he would be cured of his leprosy." This girl was a maid. This girl was a slave
who had come from Israel, but she knew the God of Israel. She knew that the God of
Israel was a way maker, was a miracle worker,
was a promise keeper, that he could do great and mighty things. So she said, "Look, I
know it's not my place and y'all just brought me
here to mop the floors. But I'm telling you what I know, that God can do supernatural things, that God can do the impossible. And if he would just go
see the prophet Elisha, he would be healed." I'm gonna pause and thank God for miracles that come from unlikely places. Sometimes we're looking for
miracles in the wrong places because we're looking too high up. But sometimes we need to
start looking down low because God we'll send you a miracle from the least likely place. God will send you a
miracle from the people that you sometimes are quick to dismiss and think you don't need,
that look different than you. That vote different than you. That don't walk like you
and laugh at the same jokes you laugh at. That's why you ought to
humble yourself before God, because you don't know
who God is gonna use to bring a miracle into your life. Ooh, look at who started the miracle. This maid girl started the miracle. Ooh, you know this maid girl teaches me is that servants always
start the miracles. Servants always start the miracles. As a matter of fact, you wanna start seeing
miracles in your life, start serving people,
just start serving people. Don't try to see how high you can get up. You ought to see how low you can go and you will start to see
God do miracles in your life. Isn't that what our savior did. He didn't start to save us from the lofty pinnacle of heaven, no. He came down from heaven to earth. He took the position of a servant. Come on y'all, he put on a towel and he washed the crusty
feet of his disciples because your God and my God, your savior and my savior was a servant, so much so that he said, "I
did not come to be served, I came to serve." And no wonder he did the most miracles because servants always
start the miracles. This girl said, "I'm telling
you, if you go to Elisha, you'll be healed." Ooh, I know Naaman's
leprosy had to be bad. I know it had to be bad, you know why? Because he listened. He went to go see Elisha. Come on, there's some some
trouble that will hit your life, that you will listen to people
that you used to ignore. I'm telling you, God
knows how to humble you. That leprosy had to be bad
because Elisha went and listened. He didn't go straight to Elisha,
I'm sorry Naaman listened. He didn't go straight to Elisha's house. He actually went to the
king of Israel first. He went to the king of Israel and he told the king of Israel, "Hey, I brought gold, I've got silver. I got 10 sets of clothes,
I've got an official letter. I'm a big deal, so I'd like
to purchase my healing." And it's so funny, the king of Israel, the one who had the title,
but didn't have an authority. The one who had the position,
but didn't have any power. He didn't know what to
do with Naaman's problem. Read it when you get home. I skipped it out in the beginning. He rips his clothes, he's like, "Who am I? Am I God, I can't cure leprosy." Oh, he had the position,
but he didn't have power. Thank God for Elisha who
didn't have the position, but he had the power. Can I pause right there and tell somebody, you should never seek the position just seek the power from
God and God will make sure you get the position. God knows when to elevate you and put you in the right place. Elisha didn't have the
title as the king of Israel, But Elisha knew the God of Israel. And although the king
of Israel was stressed and saw this as opposition,
ooh, not Elisha. He said, "This is an opportunity for God to get the glory out of this. Bring him to me." So the king of Israel
says, "Go see Elisha." And now here's Naaman. Can you see Naaman? Fancy Naaman in his gold armor. He's got a Bentley chariot. Four horsepower, for horses. Here he goes, with all his regalia and he's going to Elisha's house. And Elisha, you know, he's just a prophet. He probably lived in the hood, just a little biddy old house. And as soon as Naaman comes in and like, "What is Naaman doing
in this part of town?" And here, he pulls up,
pulls up to Elisha's house and Elisha's servants
see's him first and goes, "Whew, Elisha, you're
not gonna believe it, Naaman, Naaman, Naaman, Naaman is outside. Do you know how many
followers he has on Instagram? He's here." And Elisha's like, "Calm down. You're impressed with all that armor. But underneath that armor, he's suffering. Underneath all of what you see externally, he's suffering with
something on the inside." And Elisha's servant is freaking out. He's like, "Well, we gotta
go say something to him. Are you gonna go greet him?" And Elisha's like, "No, I'm
actually watching Law & Order. Here's what you can do. You go tell him that if he'll
go wash in the Jordan river, seven times, he'll be cleansed." Elisha's servant is like, "Is that it?" He's like, "Yeah, that's it." "But don't you wanna come and see him?" "No, you go tell him." So here's Elisha's servant
going out to Naaman. Naaman's on his high horse,
looking real important. And here's Elisha's servant saying, "Hi, so good to meet you. Wow, you look better in
person than you do online. I have a message from Elisha. He said that all you have to
do is go wash in the Jordan seven times and you'll be cleansed." And Naaman looked down and said, "Well, isn't Elisha gonna come see me?" "He's actually busy,
he's praying right now." "Praying?" Naaman looks in the house he's like, "He's watching Law & Order." "Yeah, that's what he
does before he prays. He's really busy." Elisha wouldn't even go see him. And Naaman took off in a rage. Oh, he was livid, that Elisha
wouldn't even come see, "How dare he send a
servant to me, is that it? He couldn't come out? I thought," this is what he said, "I thought he was gonna come out and at least wave his hand
over my leprosy and heal me. That's what I thought he was going to do." He went off. Why is he going off? Come on, he's going
off for the same reason you and I go off. Because his experience is not lining up with this expectation. He was expecting the prophet to come out, to perhaps honor him and say,
"Oh, you're amazing Naaman. Let me just wave my hand
and cure your disease." But he didn't. And often, whenever there's
a gap between our experience and our expectation, we tend to get angry. Some of you, if you're honest, right now, the reason you are so angry, either erupting on other
people or stuffing it in is because you are
experiencing something in life that you weren't expecting. Some of you, if you're honest,
you're even angry at God because you're saying, "God, I thought you would
have done it this way. And I thought the miracle
would have happened this way. And I thought, and I thought,"
and I've learned in life, whenever your experience doesn't line up with your expectation and what you thought is not playing out, you have two options. You can be mad, you can get angry. You can rehearse over
and over and over again how it didn't play out and
let bitterness eat away at your soul or you can
say, "You know what, God, I trust you for the
way it's gonna turn out. Yes, it didn't turn out the way I wanted, But God, I trust your word and I trust you to get the miracle to me the way you wanna get the miracle to me." Because sometimes we want
God to do the miracle the way we want him to do the miracle, rather than just trusting the
God that does the miracle. And I came to encourage
somebody today, don't go off. Don't make the mistake
Naaman was about to make. He was willing to risk his
healing and keep his rage. He was willing to risk the
thing that he desired the most because of his pride, because it didn't turn
out the way he thought. And God sent me shouting,
screaming and sweating all the way from Dallas, Texas
to tell you, don't go off. Don't let your rage make you go off because it didn't turn
out the way you thought. Trust God and obey what
he's telling you to do. Naaman goes off and thank
God for this servant of his. 'Cause the servant spoke up and said, "Hey, Naaman, miracles always
start with the servants. Naaman, if he had asked you to
do something mighty or great, wouldn't you have done it?" See, this is the problem with Naaman, if he could have paid for the
healing, he would have paid. He was prepared to do it. He had gold and silver. If Elisha would have told him, "All you have to do is
go fight a thousand men with one sword," Naaman
would've said, "Bring them on." If he said, "All you had
to do was scale a wall and defeat a lion and then
all of a sudden do that and cut off the head of the lion, then you get your healing," Naaman would have been
ready to do it, because why? Because then he could have
at least gotten the credit and got some glory out of it and said, "Well, look at this lion I
destroyed to get my healing." No, no, no. He told him to go do
something a toddler can do, take a bath. Dip seven times, ain't it
crazy that the simplest thing was what was stopping Naaman. Oh, don't laugh at Naaman,
we do the same thing. Ain't it crazy how
sometimes God will ask us to do the most simple
thing, but we're like, "God, it can't be that simple, I gotta do something more complex." But we don't understand this. That simple obedience is strength. You wanna know where your strength is? It's in simple obedience. Worship team, join me, make
this sound real spiritual, I'm landing the plane. Some of you are making
something so simple complex. I've seen people do it
even with Christianity. They can't explain, they
can't wrap their minds around the free gift of grace, that all you have to do
is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart
that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he paid the ultimate
price for your sin. That you can't purchase salvation. That is actually too
simple for some people. That's why they go to religion. They think, no, it's
gotta be more than that. "Surely I gotta do something. I gotta fast eight times a week. I gotta read Leviticus every
night and have it memorized. There's gotta be more. No, it can't be that." No, I'm telling your strength
is in your simple obedience. Just doing what God told you to do, that's where your strength is. You're only as strong as you are obedient. Go wash seven times. Thank God for the servant that
stopped Naaman in his rage from going off, 'cause he
would have missed his miracle. He finally turns around,
goes to the Jordan River, he gets off of his high horse 'cause humility always
initiate's the miracle. He gets off his high horse. Can you see Naaman taking
off, all this shiny armor and now everybody can see
that the mighty soldier has a vulnerability. Can I pause right there and say, your victory is actually
in your vulnerability. I want to speak to some
mighty men here today who are always trying to flex and always trying to show your victories. People need to see your
vulnerability, sir. They need to see your weakness. That's where your true victory is. And he takes off all of his armor. He gets in the Jordan River,
he has to dip seven times, which means he didn't even get the luxury of just staying in the shallow
end, he had to go deeper. He gets all the way in the Jordan. I can see his mind going,
"This is ridiculous. This doesn't make sense." Remember he even said, "Couldn't I go to some other rivers?" 'Cause the Jordan river was muddy. He's like, "Name two other rivers. Like those are clear, can I at least go? Ah why this river, is so gross." But it's obedience. He dips the first time, he does what you and I would have done. He looks, nothing changed. Huh, dips the second time,
still nothing changed. I can see him looking like this, "That's not doing anything,
I'm wasting my time." Just like some of us, 'cause
we want God to show up like Amazon Prime don't we? "Like do the miracle in 25,
like God, I came to church, why haven't you done the miracle?" But I'm telling you, God
wants you to trust him for his time schedule. God wants some believers who will actually be relentless enough and
persevere to say God, "Even if it doesn't come to
pass on my time schedule, I'm still gonna trust you. I'm still gonna seek you. Even if I don't get the miracle, I believe that you're worthy of the praise and the glory anyway." Don't give up just 'cause it didn't happen on your time schedule. He dipped the third time, still no change. The fourth time, still nothing changed. The fifth time, still no change. I think he was ready to
walk away and give up. But something on the
inside of the Naaman said, "No, he said seven, he said seven. I'm gonna be obedient." He dipped the sixth time,
there was still no change. And finally he dips the seventh time and when he got up out of
the water the seventh time, the Bible says that his
skin was completely healed as a young boy, thank God for our savior, who still does the miraculous, that when people say there's no way, God says, "I can do the impossible. I can cure the incurable. I have power." Can you see Naaman? His skin looked like that of a
young boy, Gerber, baby skin. It's funny, he was still
trying to purchase it. He goes back to Elisha's house and says, "Hey, I got money, I
got gold," Elisha says, "No, I don't need it. You can't buy salvation. You can't buy grace. It's a free gift." This changed Naaman's life. Don't forget who Naaman is. Naaman is the captain of
the enemy army of Israel. They worship pagans. But this encounter that he
had with the God of Israel was so profoundly impactful
that he took some of the dirt from Elisha's house and
said, "When I go back, if I have to be in an environment
where there's a pagan God, I wanna take the dirt from the earth so that when I go down, I will actually be
kneeling and giving honor to the God of Israel, honor
to the God that healed me." Can you imagine the ramifications
of a pagan army commander who had an encounter
with the God of Israel? Oh, wonder how many soldiers
got transformed and changed because Naaman told them, "Let me not tell you about the victories where I cut off people's heads, no, let me tell you about when
I had an incurable disease and I could only be healed
by the God who is Yahweh, the God of Israel." I wonder what the ramifications
of Naaman's miracle were. Oh, wait a minute, don't
forget who started the miracle. It was the slave girl from Israel. Did you read what it said earlier? She was captured by the armies of Aram that Naaman was the commander of. This girl that initiated the
healing was taken captive by soldiers that Naaman
sent to capture her. In all likelihood, this
girl's family was killed. She was taken from her home
town because of Naaman. This is crazy. You realize that when Naaman had leprosy, this girl had every right to
say, "That's what you get. You're the one that's responsible for taking me from my home. You're the reason that
my parents were killed. You're the reason that
I'm here as a slave." She had every right to say, "Thanks be unto God,
that Naaman has leprosy. That's what you get." She had every right to go off. Naaman's responsible for her
being captured, but she didn't. She offered the remedy
of healing to her enemy. Who does that? Who offers the remedy of
healing to their enemy? I don't know anybody to do that, but our savior who hung
on a cross, who did no sin but yet he said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh, I came to tell somebody, you might think you
have a right to go off. You may think you have
a right to that rage and that bitterness to
the person that hurt you. But I'm telling you, is it worth it? Are you really gonna lose
your family for your rage? Are you really gonna
lose that relationship for that bitterness? You don't have the right, not when your savior
hung on a cross and said, "Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do." I'm telling you, you can,
you can go off if you want, but you could miss out on the
greatest miracle of your life 'cause there is a cost to going off. I'm believing that God through this word would do such a deep
healing to those of you who had been holding on to
anger and rage and bitterness, such a deep work that you
would be able to truly stand like your savior and say, "Father forgive them for
they know not what they do." Would you bow your heads with me today. Father, I thank you for your word. God thank you and because you did not hold our sins against us, the cross empowers us to
not hold any wrongdoings towards somebody else. God, I pray today, you
give us the strength and the grace to put anger
in it's proper place. God let us get angry about
the things that matter. The broken things in this
world that you've called us to bring healing, hope and life to. God, we do not wanna pay
the high price of going off. God I pray that we
would learn to go to you and find the healing that our souls need, in Jesus name, amen, amen. God bless you Saddleback.
