← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
Why What You Are Angry About Is Not Why You Are Angry
00:22:42
Wisdom is the everyday expression of skillful love
Loading summary
Transcript20 lines
- [00:04]
A
Hey, good morning, Sowers. For a great awakening. Friends of Jesus, friends of mine, it's good to be with you on this Wednesday. It's January 14th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt, and this is your wake up call. We're. I'm having a good month. I feel like I'm growing in wisdom. Do you feel like you're growing in wisdom? We're touching on. I mean, the Proverbs, got to be the most practical book in the whole Bible, touches on all aspects of life. Yesterday we talked about money. Today we're going to talk about anger. The day before yesterday we talked about anxiety. I mean, this is just garden variety everyday life. And I love how God's word speaks into that. You know, I've been thinking. I know we all have concerns, I guess, or I don't want to speak for you, but like AI. Okay, AI Artificial intelligence. I mean, on the one hand, it's a marvel what it does and what it can do. It's unbelievable. I mean, you. You know, I was on Duck Hunt not long ago with some. With some friends and, and Clay pulls out his phone and he says, which. Could you. Could you give me a devotion in the spirit of the way J.D. walt does it on the wake up call about. And he said First Corinthians 15:56 and 57, or 57 and 58. Okay. He just asked AI that question. Oh, my gosh, y', all, it put out a devotion and it did everything but read it in my own voice. And I'm not lying, it sounded like I wrote it, but I didn't. And, you know, I don't think the Holy Spirit wrote it either. And so there's a. There's a marvel at it, and I don't trust it. Put it like that. Artificial intelligence, a you know, what we have access to. I've been thinking lately, ji Jesus intelligence. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ, we have the word of God. This is the intelligence of heaven, the wisdom of heaven. It is to AI. There's no comparison. And so I've decided for whatever I got left on this earth, I don't think I'm going to throw in with AI. I'm not going to probably become a big, you know, negative speaker about it, but I'm going to go with JI Jesus intelligence. That's what wisdom is. So this was all before consecration today. How about that? It's Wednesday. You ready? Wake up. Let's go for some Jesus wisdom from the Word of God, wake up. Sleeper. Read. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus is the wisdom of God, friends. He's the power of God and he's the wisdom of God. And he's our friend and he's with us. He. He's in fact leading us right now. We're meeting with Him. He's our teacher. Guys. I'm just our guide. I'm just our stagehand, okay? Today's entry is entitled why what you are angry about is not why you are angry. In our text today, Proverbs chapter 14. I want you to read that whole chapter 14. We're going to zero in on one verse again today. Verse 11. Hear now the word of the Lord. Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick tempered displays folly. The word of the Lord. Now consider this. It's fascinating how we use the metaphor of a thermometer and temperature to talk about anger. It also points up one of the great myths of the so called quick tempered. Among us, temperature doesn't typically wildly fluctuate instantaneously. In the same way a quick tempered person does not explode in anger all of a sudden as it may seem. The truth people we think of as quick tempered already had a fever. They were already mad. A quick temper looks like a spike in a person's temperature who was already about to boil over. That's what anger is like, a low grade fever. People who have a quick temper typically carry the low grade fever of anger around with them all the time. Their temper can spike at the slightest thing. It often looks quite irrational and even foolish. The scripture says folly. It's because quick tempered people usually aren't mad about what they're mad at. So the real question for those of us who have a quick temper is what am I mad about? It often takes either a good friend or a professional friend, that is a counselor, to help one unearth the deeper issue. It can go all the way back to one's childhood and we can literally carry it for a lifetime. I have become convinced that the low grade fever of anger underlies much of what we call depression and anxiety. It literally makes us sick. It's another post, but this is why the antidote to anger is usually some form of forgiveness. Depression and anxiety may require medication. But anger often can only be cured by forgiveness. Wisdom looks and feels like patience. It brings to mind the Apostle Paul's famous words, love is patient, love is kind. It all brings me to a new working definition of wisdom. Wisdom is the everyday expression of skillful love. In example C, Jesus, whoever is patient has great understanding. The proverb says today, patience is not just a common human trait. In fact, it's not a human trait at all. It's a divine virtue. Patience is a divine virtue that serves to humanize us, to make us truly human. In example C, Jesus, there's so much to be said at this point. I'm going to turn to our wise New Testament friend James, the brother of Jesus, for counsel. At chapter one, verse 19, he says, My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. He's like, get your pencil out, open your journal. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Word of God, there's that word. Listen again. Following closely after comes a reference to our words. This idea of being, quote, slow to anger is good, but it is really only managing a fever. It's why I love the way Eugene Peterson translates the following verse, verse 21 in his message translation. He gets to the deeper, longer term solution. Here it is. In simple humility, let our gardener God landscape you with the Word, making a salvation garden of your life. That's pretty good. Can I ask, Can I say it again? In simple humility, let our gardener God landscape you with the Word, making a salvation garden of your life. Patience doesn't come from trying to be more patience patient, as we so often resolve to be. Remember, whoever is patient has great understanding. Patience comes from great understanding, which is deep wisdom. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for the gentleness with which you approach us in our frailty. There is none like you. Teach me your gentleness and empower me by your spirit in the name of Jesus. Amen. Journal prompts today so why are so many people so angry these days? What are we really mad about? It's time to name it, to get it out of the shadows of our soul and deal with it. And how might we become slower to anger? That this is. I'm just. I marvel at the practical nature of the proverbs. And this whole notion of wisdom is skilled love, right? Patience. Love is patient. You know, I. I just. People tell me I'm a bad driver. Okay? I don't believe them. But regularly I'm driving down the road, and somebody will zoom up behind me and they'll pass me by and right out the window. I mean, they're just shooting me the bird. I'm like, I just want to pull up beside them and say, what are you really mad about? Because it. It. You just don't do that to somebody who might have maybe been looking at their phone at the red light and missed the turning to green and sat there a little bit too long. That's just not. That's not worthy of that kind of violent expression. I want to say, what are you really mad about? And listen, I'm a person. I've struggled with anger in my past. Golly, it was a problem. The Lord delivered me, literally delivered me. I believe it was a demonic level of oppression on me. This is many years ago, but I didn't have anger. Anger had me. And I was such a critical person. I mean, golly, I had a critical spirit. I was angry. And the Lord has. He's delivered me from it. He's taught me forgiveness. I'm not mad anymore. I don't feel mad at all. And I find that I'm really hard to make mad now. Okay, that's a sign of. That's not a sign of, like, all this work I've done. I have participated with the spirit of God in my life working. But Jesus has done the work. It's really him in me. It's right. It's his Jesus presence in us is. Is patient. We think, well, I got to try to be more patient. No, you got to try to belong to Jesus. Open your life to him. Give him domain in your life. Right? This is the Sower's Creed. If Jesus is patient and Jesus is in me, I am patient. As simple as that. We got to participate, right? We got to let go. We got to forgive. We got to sometimes renounce. We got to let go. But he's the secret. All right, you ready to sing? We're going to sing a good one today. Dad's here. All right, everyone. You see, we got dad here with us today, and we're talking about anger today in the Proverbs. And you know the way to. To. To not be angry is it's not. To try not to be angry is to be filled with peace. And sometimes the way to be filled with peace, I'd say a lot of times, is there's a hymn we're going to sing. Dad, tell them what it is.
- [16:12]
B
Be still my soul.
- [16:14]
A
What's your number?
- [16:16]
B
346.
- [16:18]
A
So we're going to sing 346 today. Be still my Soul. And even a song like this can actually have the effect of doing what it's saying as you sing it. And you open yourself up to the presence of God, you welcome the Holy Spirit. You'll find the peace of God.
- [16:45]
B
Comfort.
- [16:46]
A
That's what the theme of these songs is. Comfort. Right. Coming into your very spirit. And what happens is pushes anger out, it pushes anxiety out, it pushes fear out. You can't just not be afraid or not be anxious or not be angry. You actually have to be peaceful. You have to be still. You have to be filled with something. And that's how God works to transform us. I say it's by displacement rather than replacement. This is not by behavior management. It's by beholding God. So we're going to sing these three verses. And you're turned already there. Three, four, six. You ready, dad?
- [17:38]
B
I'm ready. Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain Leave to the God to or day. In every change he faithfully remains Be still my soul Thy best thine heavenly friend through stormy ways Leads to a joyous end Be still my soul Thy God shall undertake to guide the lame. Hope thy can. Footnotes. Let nothing shade all now mysterious shall be right in the land Be still my soul the waves and winds still know his voice who move them while he.
- [19:20]
A
Last verse.
- [19:22]
B
Be still my soul they are right. When we shall be forever with the Lord when disappointment, grief and bang on sorrows forgot Love's purest joys restored Be still my soul and tears are past all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
- [20:17]
A
I hadn't sung that one in a while. Have you?
- [20:21]
B
Maybe I got the wrong glasses.
- [20:23]
A
You think you couldn't see that very well?
- [20:27]
B
No.
- [20:27]
A
Well, the words came to you pretty good. Well, everybody, I guess. I. I don't know what you know, as we sang that first verse. Be still my soul when best thy heavenly friend through thorny ways Leads to a joyful end. Anybody out there in thorny ways?
- [20:53]
B
A lot of them.
- [20:55]
A
The thorny. The thorns are about us. And you know when you're. When you're caught in thorns, worst thing you can do is just kind of frantically throw yourself around because then they just stick all in you. You want to be still, you gotta live with them. You gotta be still. Sometimes you have to live with them for a while and you have to slowly pull them out and. Anyway, that's a good word for today. That. That reminds me of Psalm 46, 10, which says, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in all the nations. I will be exalted in all the earth. Amen. There's. There's very few things we're going through that being still won't help us to deal with. Better if we can just have the presence of mind. Right?
- [21:54]
B
That's right. That's very right.
- [21:57]
A
Well, I think it's time to hit the fields today, on this Wednesday and get your seeds together. You know, something about being still around other people is contagious. Just like anxiety is contagious, so is peace and stillness. You're carrying peace today. You're carrying stillness that's exuding from you into those you meet. That's what sowing is like. So get your seeds. We'll see you on the field for The Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.
- [22:29]
B
And I'm David Walt.