Everybody loves Jesus, right? I've never ever had a conversation with anyone who thought he was a jerk. He healed people, loved people, and cared for the outcast. He died a horrible death because he believed that he could save our souls. Even if someone doesn't believe the story at all, you can't not like Jesus. 

So what's the problem? The problem is a lot of people love Jesus, they just don't want to follow Him, and they're not interested in Him. Why is that? It's because they're not getting Jesus represented to them well. Jesus loves us and He died for us, but for a few weeks, I'd like to look at the side of Jesus that should make the church pause and pay attention, ANGRY JESUS.

Just to be clear, anger is not a sin. Paul said, “In your anger do not sin.” And Jesus, that everybody loves, one time made a whip, went into the temple, and drove out the money changers and overturned tables. This Jesus told people it would be better for them to have a rope tied around their neck with a two-ton rock attached and thrown into the sea. This Jesus called people names like “brood of vipers”, “unmarked graves”, and “sons of hell”.

Jesus definitely said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. I am gentle and humble in heart." I think the world's idea that Jesus was nice is correct, so what do you do with “you snakes”, “you brood of vipers” and “how will you escape being condemned to hell”? This is Jesus too. Sometimes Jesus' words were sharp and biting.

When the son of God gets mad, we should pay attention because we can learn a lot about a person from the things they don't like. So, who was He mad at? Well, that's the kicker. I always knew Jesus was mad at the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law. Then one day I realized the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law were the church leaders of their day, and Jesus was a part of that church. As a matter of fact, this was the church that God set up. They were the people appointed by God for the purpose of enacting God's system of religion. 

When that realization hit me like a ton of bricks, I began to wonder if there was anything that caused Jesus to be mad at His church back in the day, that might be my issue as a current church leader. I discovered four basic attitudes that were the problem: legalism, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, and indifference to suffering. Those were the four things that flipped Jesus’ switch. In fact, we still have problems with those things today. 

The bigger “aha” moment for me was when I realized WHY those bad attitudes made Jesus angry. In every scriptural instance where Jesus expressed anger, the people who claimed to be religious and followers of God gave “love” a bad name through legalism, hypocrisy, judgmentalism, or indifference to need. When our religious attitudes get in the way of God's love, this makes Jesus mad. And, as I’ve pointed my finger at the Pharisees and Sadduccees, I’ve had three fingers pointing back at me. Search us oh God.

The real tragedy about this propensity that we have to drift from God's heart of love is what it does to those on the outside who are not part of the active church and may not consider themselves followers of Jesus. Jesus was mad at the people on the inside of the religious groups who were blocking the way for those on the outside to come into God’s presence. All Jesus ever wanted was for people to be reconciled to God the Father who loves each one. Jesus died so ALL could have access to God. He paid the ultimate price and it is an affront to Him when we, as His church, do not represent love well and push people away from God’s loving presence after Jesus paid such a price to provide for that access. 

Does that change things? Jesus' anger in the story of the temple took place in the gentile court and was directed at the religious people who were denying access to the gentiles who wanted to worship God. Those who already felt furthest from the Father, who were suffering the most, were being robbed not only of their hard-earned money, but of their access to God. It made Jesus angry because access to God is what He came to provide. This was something Jesus felt deeply passionate about. Jesus will throw tables, or animals, or people out of the way to get you access to the Father because He gave up His life to get us full, unhindered access. God wants us in. He's calling us in. He's never going to stand by and let anyone, or anything, keep any of us out. He came to reunite the lost children with their Father.

I realized at some point that Jesus was mad at the Pharisees, but the Pharisees were doing what they thought they were supposed to be doing. If I'm holding any of those same attitudes in my heart, if the current church is functioning in any of those same attitudes, we're guilty of the things that made Jesus angry. We will unpack this further in the coming weeks. I hope you will join us as we learn what makes Jesus mad and turn to those things that please Him.

Today, I want to talk about pride. A message on pride, for purposes of actual change in people’s lives, is a frustrating topic because the people who need to hear it don’t think it’s for them.

I want to challenge you as you read this article to be open to considering that you have a little bit of pride. Keep in mind that if you’re not open to receiving this message you probably need to hear it.

Most of us don’t typically see pride as a real sin. But God detests pride (Proverbs 16:5). No one wants God to look at us like we’re detestable! But, we tend to dismiss pride as a sin. For a different perspective, what if I was talking about lust and I admitted to checking people out. Your response would be “that’s gross” and you wouldn’t want to hear from me anymore. Pride is just as bad. 

Pride is not necessarily ego. Pride is tricky and can manifest by drawing attention to yourself by appearing pathetic. The end result is you are still after people’s attention for yourself. Our job is to put all attention on God. We want to show off who He is. Are you worried about what people are thinking about you all the time? You may be struggling with pride. 

Pride is a pervasive matter. No one wants to admit to it. Honestly, it’s easier for me to admit to it when I’m writing a message about it. Pride is usually why we get our feelings hurt and why we feel rejection. Pride is the reason we can’t admit to making a mistake. Pride causes us to take ourselves a little too seriously. We will resent criticism if we are prideful. Insecurity is a result of pride because we are seeking for others to notice and praise us. Pride causes us to see ourselves as overly important or more special to God than others. Pride will make us want to blame others for our problems.

Mark 7:21-23 gives us a list of things that defile us including pride. 

“For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

So how do we become humble? How do we develop a humble attitude? Humility is not a look. It’s not the way we dress or what we drive. Humility is not about letting people walk all over you. Humility is knowing that God is our source - that all we have comes from God. We’re created to bring glory to God. So often we want to draw attention to ourselves but we need to focus on and bring focus to God.

Humility of all the virtues is the hardest one to gain and maintain because we all want to be first and we want to be noticed and we want to be important. But, we must have everything in Christ and nothing in ourselves. I don’t deserve all God has allowed me to do and be a part of in the natural, but God can do anything with anybody who stays humble before Him.

When I started, I had a big vision with little reality. I kept pressing toward that vision and God, in His faithfulness, taught me humility along that way. I was insecure and wanted to be great and important, but I had to get rid of that attitude. It's humble people God can help. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

We are to have the same attitude as Christ. He is our example of humility. He came from heaven and took on a human body. He never defended himself. His depth of humility is unfathomable. He loved everyone even while He was mistreated. Instead of focusing on Himself in those moments, He was thinking about what those who were persecuting Him were doing to themselves. Those who mistreat you don’t know what they’re doing. He prayed for them! Jesus forgave them. He loved them. 

Humility treats everyone with care and love no matter who they are. Pride is boastful and high minded, thinking of yourself more highly than you should. We don’t have to think of ourselves as below others, but just not more highly than others. Have a servant’s attitude. Judging and criticizing others is the fruit of pride. One of the most important things that reveals our level of pride or humility is how we treat other people, especially people that we or the world might deem as unimportant. 

If you’re going to be in authority, you need to know how to be under authority. You need to learn how to be under authority without complaining and gossiping, even in the privacy of your home. It’s the words you’re putting out there that are the problem. Zip your lip. Use a glue stick instead of chapstick! When you are going through tough times that make you want to complain and be vengeful, remember, often the things that hurt you the most will teach you the most.

Are you in a dark place? God will give you treasures out of this if you submit to Him in the process. Pray for God to do what He wants with you. But be ready. Like a puzzle that has a lot of plain blue or green pieces, one by one as the pieces come together, the big picture will emerge over time as God does a good work in you. We’re each called to do something. God wants to use you. But it will only be under the condition of humility.

How often are we dealing with pride and don’t know it? It's a priority and imperative that you get your heart in the right place, and know who you are in Christ. God is not impressed by the positions we hold, but is drawn to our love, our hunger and our thirst for Him. After seeking His righteousness first, are we pure in heart? How are we treating other people that the world thinks are unimportant? Let’s work at getting ourselves off of our own mind. Look for those who are hurting. Work to bless and encourage someone else. 

Pray and ask God to show you every time you’re in pride. “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us” (Romans 12:3 NLT).

Today, I continue with a message on things that made Jesus mad. Anytime there's blocked access to God, it makes Jesus mad. If you haven’t seen my message on Jesus’ temple-tantrum from last week, please go back and read/listen.

So, legalism… I hate it. If you've got a stupid rule, I'm going to want to challenge it. I want to know why the rule is there and if it makes sense! Rules are never going to be able to cover every scenario we could come up with and an effort to try to make rules that do so results in stupid rules. 

Do you realize your behavior, your judgment, your rules, may be keeping people out of Heaven?? Jesus said it this way in Matthew 23:13 (NIV),“Woe to you …You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus spoke to the crowds and said, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” 

To quote a modern icon, Homer Simpson answered Bart’s question about what religion they were, “You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work out in real life... Christianity.” What happens if Homer's statement is true? Well-meaning rules that don't work in real life create a huge unnecessary barrier and this makes Jesus mad.

So, do we not need rules? Of course, we need rules. I know we need rules. I know society needs governance. God gave us rules because He loves us. That's the difference. He loves us so He gave us rules. Think about the Ten Commandments for a second. They're all for our benefit. They provide a foundation for a relationship with our loving Father and for our general well-being, individually and socially. Here's the thing, the problem is whenour interpretation of the laws of God hinder people getting to God. At that point they are our laws and our rules. If we don't understand God’s laws but we’re expecting others to follow those interpretations, it creates a barrier for people to get to God. This makes Jesus mad.

In Mark 3:1-6, Jesus decided that it was time for the Pharisees to learn a lesson about forcing people to go through well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. And so, He broke one of them. “Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up among us.’ And He asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ But they were silent. Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out, and it was restored. At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

The Pharisees, the religious ones, the church leaders literally started plotting how to KILL JESUS in response to this miracle. What was Jesus mad about? He was mad about the hardness of their hearts. They were so caught up in their own religious beliefs, they couldn’t see THE NEED of the man!!! He was mad about the fact that they were blocking the Kingdom of God. When Jesus did miracles on the Sabbath, He did them purposefully.  He was trying to tell us to look at the need, not the law.  He was trying to tell us to look at the person, not our own idea of religion.

What did the crowd think? The crowd thought Jesus was awesome. The outsiders loved Jesus, but he made the church uncomfortable. I sure hope that you have met the real Jesus. And I hope, as Christians, we can introduce the real Jesus to those who are outside the church. At the very least, I hope that we can understand that Jesus didn't come to show us how to follow the rules. Jesus came to fulfill the rules, to complete their purpose, in love.

The church is not comfortable with Jesus turning to a thief being executed on the cross, and saying, "Oh, you want to go? Yeah, sure. Come on." Paul said it in Gal 5:6 (NIV), “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” That's what matters. It’s not which one of these rules you're getting all right. Jesus was more interested in doing good than following rules. And Paul said, "Yeah, exactly."

There's something inside all of us that feels safer when we know we’re playing within the rules of the game. Steve Brown wrote inA Scandalous Freedom, "But the good news is that Christ freed us from the need to obnoxiously focus on our goodness, and our commitment, and our correctness. But religion has made us obsessive almost beyond endurance. Jesus invited us to a dance, and we've turned it into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we're doing it right, and if we're in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through Hell to get to Heaven, so we just keep marching."

Man, this feels dangerous. Maybe it's time to understand what grace is really about. Grace is dangerous. Does that mean God doesn't care how we live? No, of course not. He wants what's best for us. The difference is the order of the scandalous response that Jesus gave the woman caught in the act of adultery: 1) Neither do I condemn you. 2) Now I want you to have a better life. Grace, then truth. I love you and here is what’s best for you.

What traditions have you turned into legalism, rules, judgment?? What are you doing that may be keeping others from seeing the redeeming love and grace of Christ in your life? Are you so self righteous that others can’t see His love through you? God, help us. Let’s partner with God in getting those who are outside connected with Him.

This will be a year of unlimited possibility. Declare it with me!

Right here at the beginning of this new year, let’s consider our habits.Weare what werepeatedly do. If you haven’t read my book,Make That, Break That, this would be a great time to get a copy!

I desire real change this year, a transformation. In any area of life, if you want to see something new, you’ve got to make a change. The way to live life the way God has for us is challenging; it’s doable but it’s challenging.

For 2023, let’s develop some habits that are intentional and worthwhile. What I want to share with you are God principles. If we apply these principles, they will change our lives. Get rid of excuses that keep you from achieving and seeing the changes you desire and jump in all the way. Let’s do this thing.

For our journey this year (check out my sermon, “Unlimited Possibilities”), you will need hope, hope your marriage can be restored or that your finances can be improved, hope for whatever it is you long for. I have a word for you… “But God.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) promises, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

In addition to hope, the second thing you need is repentance from the past, a course correction. 

Repentance is not a negative thing. It means to stop going in your current direction, change the way you think, and go the opposite direction, no looking back. Recovery programs sometimes use a tool, “My Life in Five Chapters”. The first four chapters involve no real change, going down the same road, falling into the same hole or nearly falling into it, and taking a long time to get out. But, chapter 5 is the key. Just go down a different street. This is transformation. My goal is to help take you down a whole different path this year. Like Philippians 3:13 says, let’s forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead.

The last thing is to form some new habits. Romans 12:21 says it this way, “Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evilby doing good.” The things we put first not only show truths about us, but they have power. Let’s focus on what to do first. 

Put God first. I promise you, if you put God first in your life, it is going to be a completely different year for you. Let me make a strong statement. If God is in your life, but he’snot firstin your life, then he’snot really in your life. He will not take another place on your list if he’s not at the top of it. The first of the 10 Commandments is all about him being first, “Then God gave the people all these instructions: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me” (Exodus 20:1-3 NLT). That little “g” god is really just any love or passion we may hold dear. He does not mind you loving something, but he does mind you loving itmore than him and he will not take another place other than first. Here at the beginning of 2023, I challenge you to develop a habit of putting God first.  

Give God the first of everything. Many preach this as a money principle. It is not just a money principle. Leviticus 27:30 NLT teaches that one tenth of all we have belongs to the Lord, 1/10th of everything. This includes your thoughts and your time. Set apart a tenth of your time and your thoughts and give them to God. The purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God in first place in your life (Deuteronomy 14:23 LB). Thank God that our giving feeds the hungry and builds buildings. But that’s not the purpose. Give to God the first of everything you possess.

Consider the following. Give God the first of your year. We are in a time of prayer and fasting at my church during January. We set aside this time to put God first in our year. 

Give God the first of your month. Review your schedule and make sure he is in your schedule. Likewise, don't schedule things that will schedule God out. 

Give God the first of your week. A good example of this is to make sure Sundays are set aside for him. Spend time in God’s presence and skip that additional golf game on Sunday morning or sleeping in. We gather on Sunday to worship God not only because that was the day Jesus was resurrected, but because the early church decided they wanted to celebrate on the first day of the week, putting God first in their week. Take the day to worship and to rest. if you give God this time, you'll be surprised what you get done the remainder of the week. 

Give God the first of your day. Talk to him first thing in the morning before anything else. Give him your first thoughts. Pastor Chris Hodges challenges people to give the first fifteen minutes of the day to God - 5 minutes in the Word, 5 minutes in worship, and 5 minutes in prayer. Do this and then watch God work in your life in amazing ways. 

When I give God the first of my time he multiplies my time. When I give God the first of my finances, he multiplies my finances. I find that the 90% will go further than 100%. When I give God the first of my thoughts, he multiplies my thoughts. Keep a notepad handy. You will want to write them all down!

Give God your first and your best. “Seek his will in all you do, andhe will show you which path to take. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Thenhe will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine” (Proverbs 3:6, 9-10 NLT).