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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is Celeste, and I am part of the online team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Fredo teaching from our soundtrack series. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:One of the most critically acclaimed and talk about, talked about TV shows today is a show called The Bear. I don't know if you guys are familiar with it. Based on your subtle reaction, you have not seen a single episode. But this is probably one of the most stressful and and hopeful shows you will ever watch. Every single second of that show, people are arguing, yelling at each other, cooking.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's it is something to behold. It's a fascinating story. It focuses on this character named Carmi, who is a renowned chef, and he has to move back, to his hometown in Chicago at the after the death of his brother and try to maintain and kind of revive the family restaurant. They own a a beef sandwich shop, a rundown beef sandwich shop. And what you come to, you know, realize in this show, if you choose to watch it, you know, is it's a fascinating experiment on everyday raw human emotions, and really the trauma that we all carry in our lives, and yet how at the same time all of these characters are trying to actually experience transformation through their trauma.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's why I would say it's both, like, stressful to watch this show and also immensely hopeful even as a even as And really for me, I think one of the most beautiful pictures about this show is this kind of contrast that we constantly see. It's almost like this duality that's pictured right in front of us so artistically, and it's that they're they they transform this rundown shop into a, like, a beautiful American fine dining experience. So spoiler alert, just ruined a part of the story. And and in the middle of this beautiful restaurant called The Bear, people are enjoying just these exquisite meals, and yet behind the kitchen doors is just pure chaos, cursing, yelling, it's just fast, it's just intense, and it's this amazing contrast of serene, beautiful dining experience, and yet on the other side, chaos. And it's a great picture and metaphor, really, of the main character, Carmi, who at the same time, you know, in in the public eye, he's a he's a well respected young, restaurant owner who every day changes the menu and makes, like, just, you know, he plates, like, this culinary masterpiece.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now I've never tried it because it's, you know, not real, but I would imagine it's very good. And even in the middle of him being able to, like, just plate you the experience of your life, he is internally a mess emotionally. And I think in a lot of ways, the show The Bear is a a way of, like, holding up a mirror to our culture today and telling us that this is really all of us in a lot of ways, where it's very easy to live life where in in the public, like, you know, you're presentable, and you're going about your day. Even as Christians, to kind of externally project a kind of health, but then internally in your inner life to be unaware of what's actually going on inside. And so we find ourselves now in a series called, soundtrack, changing what you're listening to.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Realizing that oftentimes, the way that we're feeling, the emotions we're carrying, that the shame, the unwanted thoughts, like, all of that is doing something to us. And changing what you're listening to requires you to pay attention to what your emotions are saying about you. Because, you know, you can memorize all the scripture you want, you can go to church, you know, every single weekend, you can be serving people, but if you don't know how to navigate your emotions, if you don't know how to navigate your shame, those unwanted thoughts in relationship to your faith, and as you follow Jesus, it's not an indicator of your maturity, but of your immaturity. In other words, as one author put it, it is, you know, spiritual Christian maturity is inseparable from emotional maturity. In other words, it's not possible to be a spiritually mature Christian, and yet be emotionally immature.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's not possible. They they they are hand in hand, and so in light of that our topic today is anger. Anger is such an important topic, and yet at the same time at the church it's oftentimes a complicated topic as well. Why do I say that? Because for a lot of us, maybe you grew up in a home in which anger was an emotion that was not allowed to be expressed, and you were told to not share that, not show it, and to and to even kinda dismiss it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For others of you, anger is the primary emotion you saw in the home. So like, you know, an episode of The Bear was just another Thursday night at your house, right? So, you know, we all come together today in this gathering under the word of God from various experiences, and and so it's so important now at this moment that we start to consider, like, what does God call us to do with our anger and and how that can begin to, you know, change what we're listening to. The the that's beneath the surface. Realizing that the question, like, isn't so much, you know, do you have anger, but to what degree has anger already influenced your life?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so I want you just to think about before we read scripture together, what have you been angry about recently? What what in the recent days has, like, infuriated you? Got you upset? And what I would love for you to do, wherever you're at, just is is to hold that up right now, to hold on to that, and to be open to what God has to say to all of us from from Matthew chapter 5. And so with that in mind, I'm gonna ask that if you are willing and able that, wherever you are, that you would stand with us for the reading of God's word as we take in this teaching, from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' most well known sermon.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And in there, he has this unique and life giving teaching on anger that I think will really show us a pathway forward. And so with that, here's Matthew 5 starting in verse 21, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, Rocca, is answerable to the court, and anyone who says, you fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, Leave your gift there in front of the altar.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:1st, go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we take a moment now to pause in prayer and realize that in our gathering, god, you have gathered with us too. And so we ask now, god, that you, as Jesus said, would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might become all that you desire us to be in him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You may be seated. You know, it's been said that to be angry is to have a short moment of madness. To be angry is to have a a short moment of madness. And throughout my life, I could imagine scenarios in which Fredo experienced a short moment of madness. As a young kid playing video games, you know, trying to do all this, short moment of madness, as silly as that is.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:On the basketball court, and of course, the ref makes another terrible call, there's a short moment of madness. Being a Lakers fan, there's regularly short moments of madness. Right? Then of course as I, you know, fast forward a few years and get into marriage, there's moments of madness and I'd even realize I had the gift of murmuring until I would get angry and I would start to say things under my breath and and you know, then Ash would catch me. It's like, yo, what did you just say?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm a murderer. Like I walk away saying things and she'll catch me because Latina's got great listening ears. And I'm like, what? This is this is a short moment of madness, like, where did this come from?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And of course, the glorious wonderful painful experience of raising kids. And once in a while, they tend to snap and pop off. And so you again have a short moment of madness. All of those things I'm here to tell you kind of lead me to this driving question that I think we're all being honest have asked before and it's this, what was that inside of me?
Morgan Teruel:Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today at Sandals Church online. Before we continue on in the message, I just wanna take a moment to invite you. If you'd like to be a part of the work that God is doing in and through Sandals Church, we would love to invite you to go to give dot sc right now. For now, let's hop into the message with pastor Frida Ramos.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What was that? Especially in a day and age in which anger is just like the air that we breathe, our culture today, our world today is permeated with anger. Employees are angry at their bosses, citizens are angry with their government, sports fans are angry with their sports teams, parents angry with their children, teenagers angry with their parents, spouses angry with each other, and then at the heart of all of it, and what maybe stings the most sometimes is that if we're being honest, we're angry with ourselves. We're too dumb, we're too fat, we're we're we're we're a failure, we haven't lived up to everything we wanted to be, like, we're angry with ourselves. And and it's amazing that, like, in our day and age we have a way of amplifying our anger.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There was a study done in 2021, trying to understand what was, you know, happening on social media, and what they came to realize is that some of the most viral clips that, like, just kind of took off were clips of short moments of madness. Right? So there's a way in which our world wants to kind of amplify and give space for anger in ways that I would say are not helpful, and can be immensely scary, disruptive, and the danger is that we've become so, you know, normalized by it, that we become numb to expressions of anger online, and we just kind of, you know, started to carry ourselves as if this is just the way the world goes with anger, and that is a dangerous place to be. You know, the the way the world invites us to deal with our anger is vastly different than the way I think Jesus invites us to deal with our anger, And I say that because the invitation to follow him is not an easy one as it relates to confronting the anger that is in all of us and the anger that is in the world. And so, you know, by by way of learning to, you know, change what we're listening to, I wanna just ask this question that I think will help us kinda understand this passage, and it says, what does Jesus invite me to do with my anger from this teaching?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:First lay rule simply is just, I think, you know, he just says, be real about it. In other words, be real about the anger that resides in my own heart. As you read through Scripture, one of the things you come to find out is that it has a ton to say about anger. Through the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Proverbs, there's plenty of places where we are, you know, kind of told about the the quick tempered fool, the one who loses it so easily. You know, you just snap, and and you kinda have a response that is disproportionate to the scenario.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We're, like, well, that was that was a little much, you know, sorry. And it's, like, it it it's what the proverb says, that's a fool. Alright. There's that there's that kind of anger, but, you know, one thing that we oftentimes kinda forget and overlook is that many of these verses, they speak about anger in a way that actually assumes that we will have normal experiences of this particular emotion. In other words, as often as the Bible talks about anger, you need to hear me now, it expects, assumes, and welcomes the reality that you will be angry at times.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So just name it. Be honest about it, you know, and you might even read this passage from Matthew 5 and think that what Jesus is saying is don't be angry, and I just wanna encourage you to not read the text like that. That's a reductionistic too simplistic approach. If you just think, oh, yeah, Jesus said don't be angry. There's there's much more that's happening here.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In fact, you know, when you read that passage, you can't even find a place where he commands us not to be angry. He doesn't make that command at all. He says, whoever is angry. And so in being real about our anger, what I want us to think about is that Jesus invites us to access that place in our lives where anger resides deep in your heart, and to be honest about it. Acknowledge it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And and to receive the relieving news that Paul offers in Ephesians 4, which is a direct quote from the Psalms where he says, in your anger, do not sin. In other words, in in just acknowledging it and being real about it, that that's not sin yet. Right? It's a normal experience, it's a normal emotion that arises out of us. And so, you know, that first invitation is just to name it for what it is.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And every single one of us, anger resides, and Jesus invites us to take a breath and to just name it for what it is. Secondly now, he invites us to understand, listen now, to understand that my anger can either become a constructive gift or a destructive force. Meaning, you know, constructive gift. When you read through the bible, specifically in the gospels, you'll come to Jesus's life and you'll realize there were places where he was very angry. And so when you, you know, think about what he expressed and then what he thought about anger, you might think, well is he not practicing what he preached?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And that's why I want us to consider the difference between anger as becoming a constructive gift versus a destructive one. Something that is like a a force that that just annihilates anything. So by constructive gift, here's what I mean. Anger as a constructive gift, listen now, addresses what is wrong and restores God's purposes. Anger is a constructive gift, oftentimes is addressing what's wrong.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know, so, you see this in, you know, marriages or parenting or single, and it's like you you just look out in the world and you see what's going on and you get angry. That's a good thing. Something is happening that's deeply wrong in the world today, and the natural response should be anger, and there should be a way in which we we we kind of utilize that anger for the sake of restoring God's original purposes. This is a healthy, constructive form of anger. As a parent, you know, when we're out for walks, I have said this constantly to my kids to no avail, and it's like just can can you look both ways, you know, before you go rollerblading through everything, can you just can you just look both ways, please?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And and, you know, there's been some moments where like around blind turns we've had to like, yo stop, like there's been a there's been a reaction of anger because something wrong can potentially happen, right. And so I'm responding to that. And so I think a lot of us know what what this is like, and Jesus actually modeled this in his life. You know, the the famous place people love to go is John 2, where Jesus showed anger in the temple, and we're told there that he made a whip of cords and drove all of them from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle, like, every animal was getting there, right, you're all out. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now we're told he made a whip of cords, we're not told that he actually used it, but apparently he demonstrated himself with a kind of righteous anger that led to the temple being cleansed. But we realized this was a restorative thing. In other words, Jesus was seeing the way that poor people were being taken advantage of the temple. They're going in, trying to make a sacrifice, and they're being ripped off as they're exchanging so that they can, you know, actually purchase an animal and make a sacrifice to Yahweh, and he's infuriated by this. That's a constructive view of anger, and you see it as a gift.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you realize what what's different there is that his anger in that moment is fueled out of a concern for justice and what is right and for those who are mistreated. And so oftentimes, like, if you were just to think and take inventory of maybe what you're holding and what you're angry about, is it fueled by concern for justice, or is it fueled by concern for what's right, or is it fueled by something else? Because what Jesus models is is a beautiful picture of someone who's not concerned, you know, over their bruised ego wrong in the world. Now contrast that with the picture of anger we're given in our passage today from Matthew chapter 5. We're told there in verse 22 he says, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's a direct quote from Exodus 20 verse 13. It's the 6th commandment in our 10 Commandments. He goes on to say, again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, raca is answerable to the court, and anyone who says, you fool, you will be in danger of the fire of hell. Now let's let's pause and take in this significant teaching. As a rabbi, Jesus is saying, you know, you have heard it said.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In other words, he's assuming his readers are familiar with the Old Testament, and then he uses that phrase, but I say to you. It's a rabbinic method that helps prepare his audience that he's going to give them the intentional teaching, the accurate saying of what he's desiring to say. And so he takes this statement about murder, which many of us would be, like, alright, I'm fine then. I don't murder, And he says, no, no, no. If anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, you're subject to judgment too.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now that phrase there is really important, whoever is angry. The word there in the Greek is orgasemonos. I just kind of messed it up. I'm on some cold medicine, but orgasomonos, that's it. I won't have you try to say that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now it's one of 2 words that's used in the Greek to describe anger. The other one is thermos, which is a word that describes kind of like a quick flare up. It's where we get, like, our word, like, thermostat. Right? It takes a quick temperature, like, you flare up real quickly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But this word is actually a parsable phrase in the present tense, it's a fancy way of simply saying, the one who is remaining angry. It's what Jesus is saying, the one who is remaining angry. Dale Bruner, a New Testament scholar, said it like this in his commentary, that if he was speaking Americanese, he would be saying, the one who is nursing a grudge against somebody. That's the kind of anger he's concerned with. Someone who is cultivating it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Someone who is, like, almost imagine planting a garden of anger in your heart, and and you're nursing, you're you're you're watering these seeds, and you're allowing it to grow. Jesus is fully aware that the longer we live with this, the more devastating effect it's going to have on our souls. Dallas Willard put it like this, he says what Jesus is describing here is energy that is dedicated to keeping the anger alive. Think about that. Nursing the one who is angry, the one who is remaining, nurturing, or nursing that anger.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Dao's words said it's it's you using energy to keep it alive. You're fanning the flame of that anger. Jesus says there's judgment for that. You will be subject to judgment. And then he he kind of builds.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He he starts to create a cycle that we're gonna see in just a moment. He says, that kind of individual will be that you'll you'll commit what we'll call verbal violence. You'll say, raqa to someone. Now, you know, for us living in America in 2024, like, alright. What's raqa?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You know? But it but it's a it's a phrase that insults someone. It's like calling someone an a hole, you know, or an idiot. It's to insult their behavior, and ultimately in your heart to show contempt for them. And that's what you're communicating with someone, And he's saying, if if you're gonna hold on to anger in that way, you're gonna nurse anger, it's it's gonna lead you to to commit a kind of verbal violence.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So think for just a moment, in your current life, like, who have you maybe, real subtly, like when I was murmuring, been saying raqa to individuals. You voted for who? Raqa. Oh, you believe what about this? Raaka.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:There's a real quick movement that happens when we're unaware that we've been nursing anger that leads us to even subtly commit this kind of verbal violence against people. And then to add to this cycle, Jesus takes it even further, which is really astounding. This is the the person who then says, you fool. Right? Which is not just to insult their behavior, but then how to attack their characters is you will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now when you hear the word hell, you might think of a lot of different things because of the connotations that come with it. The word there literally means, Gehenna. And in Jesus's day and in his, you know, the minds of his hearers, they would have known exactly what he's referring to. Gehenna is a real place in the southern part of Jerusalem. There's a valley there.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's called Gehenna. It's where they burn things. It's where, you know, it's like a trash dump, if you will. But unfortunately, in the Old Testament, in some of the darkest parts of Israel's history, Gehenna was known as a place where children were sacrificed in the name of pagan gods. You can read about in 2nd Chronicles.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Jeremiah, and Jeremiah 19 speaks judgment against Israel because of the valley of Gehenna, because of the sin that was committed there. And so over Israel's, you know, history and time, that literal place Gehenna became kind of like a word picture for the judgment that was coming, the furnace that was coming. And so Jesus is saying, you're in danger of having your entire life become a consuming furnace, is what he's saying. The the one who gives into their anger, the one who nurses their anger, is essentially playing with fire. In which this fire will burn inside of you, to where nothing is left of you but this consuming fire, and you will wreak hell on earth.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Before we get into a conversation about, you know, what hell is and if you will go there, all this stuff, just consider that. I think what he's literally saying is that your anger, if it goes unchecked, will become a consuming fire in your life. And you will become this kind of burning place that's like wreaking hell on earth. Now this is a fascinating take on the human condition. This is why here at Sandals Church, we are huge on the person of Jesus, because he is so dang brilliant.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I don't think there is anyone else who offers a better explanation as to what it's like to be human. Because he's not giving us a pat answer for a very complicated reality like becoming angry. He's he's, you know, not just encouraging you. Alright. Well, I'm not gonna try to be angry this week.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It goes much deeper than that. He he wants us to seriously consider the vicious cycle that's created out of our anger because he's just helpful in that way. And that cycle, I think, helps us to see that though anger can, yes, be a constructive gift, ultimately, it it becomes a destructive force, and it follows this particular cycle. Number 1, we get angry. Number 2, our ego is hurt.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Thirdly, we start to nurse that anger. You let the the the fame the the fame kind of flame. Fourthly, we we give our hearts to contempt, raka, like you you just you start to look down on other people. And and fifthly, that spills out of your mouth in in a kind of verbal violence. 6th, you you wreak hell on earth.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then 7, unfortunately, we we see the effects of physical violence, abuse in our world today, and and actual murder. This is a cycle that Jesus has diagnosed the human condition with when it comes to anger. And then he uniquely turns, you know, from going from the dangers of hell into verse 23, he shifts to, like, a worship service. It's a very bizarre turn, and I wonder if it's if Jesus is wanting us to understand that anger at its core will have a lasting impact on your. In other words, your relationship to people, it is a direct reflection of what your true relationship with God looks like.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yep. They impact each other both horizontally and vertically, which is why, you know, he talks about leaving your gift and and go and be reconciled. Now when Jesus was telling the story about, you know, it's better for you to not offer the sacrifice, just, like, consider for a second how extreme, and and a little bit of an exaggeration the story is. In that day and age, when you were to go to the temple, you had to first, you know, travel from your hometown. Now he's in Galilee teaching.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Jerusalem is far away. So imagine you just had to go from Galilee to Jerusalem. That's a long journey. You had to get there, then you had to wait in line to, you know, buy an animal, whatever you can afford, then you got into another line to to meet with the priest, and you had to wait to get all the way to the front to make that sacrifice. And he's saying right when you're about to make that sacrifice the Holy Spirit convicts you and you're like, oh no you got beef with someone.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Leave your animal there, go all the way, like get out of line, go all the way back home, and and get right with the person who you got beef with. That's like, that's an extreme picture. Like, you traveled all the way, you spent all that money, and then right at the last day, you're gonna leave the animal? Like, who's gonna leave the animal there? Like, with a priest, like, just that goat chilling by itself.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a bizarre scenario. But what I think Jesus is trying to do is drive home the point that you gotta get serious about your sin. You gotta go to extreme lengths to be honest and to deal with the anger that's in your heart. That that we are not to make light of it. But if you're gonna break out of this cycle, if you're gonna change what you're listening to, you have got to get serious about the anger that lives in your own heart.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because imagine Jesus, you know, kind of contextualizing this teaching for sandals church. He's like, imagine you're at sandals, you know, and you fought hard to get a parking spot, which, you know, at Hunter Park is a miracle of God, and some of our other campuses. And and then, you know, you get into service, and of course, it's it's your favorite song, so hands are fully extended, it's a great day, you know, you're caffeinated, so you're really filled with the spirit, and and then, you know, communion's passed around and we're ready to confess sin and receive, you know, the good news of the gospel again, and then all of a sudden, spirit convicts you. But you got beef with someone here. What Jesus would say is, you better go and pause, and get right with that individual, because you walked in here today and you're caffeinated, you think this is a good moment, but inside of you you you wanna say, rocka, in your heart, and and you are using energy to protect and keep anger alive, you are not okay right now.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You need to go and be reconciled. So, you know, drop your little communion cup, and go and get right here. And I think the principle that Jesus is drawing out here for us is that just maybe our relationship with God isn't as good as we think it is, if we are carrying anger towards someone else. And I I say that because, you know, living as a human in a very broken world, it is inevitable that somebody is going to hurt you. Someone in the church will hurt you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It is inevitable that you will hurt somebody else, and that anger will be the place that you find yourself living in. Unfortunately, because of sin, bitterness and resentment will find its way into your heart. And Jesus's words here, I think, are a strong caution and invitation to be very extreme about the anger that lives in your heart, and and to to think practically about what then we do here with this. And so the the last invitation that I think Jesus invites us to consider is ultimately found in a few places. The first, I just wanna say this, that that it begins with just expressing my anger in prayer within the loving presence of God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Learn as you as you consider how to deal with the bitterness, the nursing, the grudge that you have against someone. You've got to find places in your life of prayer to name those things honestly. I might even say it like this, pray your emotions, pray your anger. Listen, God is not intimidated by your anger. He's not bothered by your frustration, He's not upset with your depression.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's not bothered by your anxiety, nor is he scared to handle your anger. So pray everything that you are feeling. And the reason why I say this is because oftentimes it's natural for us to think, well, if I'm angry, I can't go to God in prayer. Or others would say, well, I'm angry so I don't wanna go to God. Like our our emotions become a natural barrier to God when instead they should become a pathway to him.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because in in prayer, it's very possible that your emotions are a way to help you understand what's going on beneath the surface and what's behind the kitchen doors, what's the chaos that's going on, and what you've been listening to is trying to reveal to you a story that you need to deal with. And prayer becomes a profound place, even when you're angry to just let it out. Pray your anger. And I can say this confidently realizing that the story of scripture is a story about people praying their anger. Psalm 5, Psalm 6, Psalm 11, Psalm 56, Psalm 137.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The Psalm we'll read right now, Psalm 69. There are dozens of Psalms that are just filled with statements of anger directed towards God as an offering to him in the act of prayer. This is the place where we're transformed through it. Listen to language of Psalm 69. This might like like, make some of us laugh.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a bit crazy. Psalm 69 verse 22. Let the bountiful table set before them become a snare and their prosperity become a trap. That's a prayer from an angry person to God about other people. Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They're praying that someone would become blind, and then make their body shake continually. Someone probably was praying this about me because all weekend I had the shakes, like I had a fever. I was shivering constantly. He goes on to say, pour out your fur, your fury on them, consume them with your burning anger. This is a prayer?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This is a prayer in scripture? Yes. Why is it in the Bible? There's a lot of answers to that. I'll at least say this, it's in the Bible because it's honest, and it's true.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I believe God preserved these kinds of prayers for us to help show us the kind of permission we have to speak before God, to pray our anger, to name what we need to do. And and discovering that this kind of prayer creates a discernment where you where you start to understand with God's help what the stories are that lie beneath that anger. You know, it's been rightly said that anger is a secondary emotion that is often tied to deeper issues that need to be dealt with. If I were to translate that for us, I would just say this, my anger is often revealing a belief I'm holding connected to my pride or my pain. Fredo's anger, and I believe your anger oftentimes is connected to a belief that you are holding that's either deeply connected to your pride, your ego, like how dare they say that, how dare they do that, or to pain, a wounding, something that you haven't been healed of.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so when you find yourself exploding, ask yourself, what lies beneath the surface of this? And and when I think about my own life, man, I'm discovering quite a bit about my own anger. In fact, just a few weeks ago, I was planning with pastor Matt, like, this series, and I text him realizing, like, hey, I think I actually wanna teach on anger. You know, I've been learning a lot, and I got I'm an expert in this area. And, I, you know, I get nervous, I send this text out, and I, like, give them an idea, here's how we can change it, you know, and I simply just say, hey, can I can I teach on anger?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And an hour goes by, no response. I'm like, oh, shoot. I don't think he likes this. 2 hours goes by, no response. I'm like, well, you know, he's busy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's got less stuff. 3 hours go by, nothing. I'm like, alright. He's not gonna wanna switch, so he just have to teach us on the topic. And then he finally texts back 3 little words, are you angry?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I'm like, well, I am now. You didn't answer my question. And so, you know, in my reply back to him, I I sent him a clip as a millennial as I am. I sent him a clip from that scene in the first Avengers movie when the Avengers fight in New York, and I think it's Captain America who turns to Hulk and says, you know, what's your secret with your anger? And Then Hulk turns around, he's about to punch someone.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He says, I'm always angry. And that's why I told Matt, I'm always angry. And it's a bit of a surprise because for so many people who experience me, like, I'm mellow, I'm chill. You know, I have to regularly remind people, I do not smoke weed. I'm just a relaxed person.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm very relaxed. I'm just chill. But beneath the surface, I have come to discover there's like just a low simmering boil that I have. For whatever reason, I'm just wired to be naturally irritated. Irritated at people, irritated at the world, irritated at myself.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so I've been discovering that oftentimes my anger is connected to a part of me that's, you know, kind of wedged a story deep in my soul that just simply says I'm not enough. And so a lot of my outburst of anger are connected to just pain and a wounding. And so when I respond with like a disproportionate kind of response to my kids who spill something in my nice jeep after I asked them to just be careful with their soda. I really man, this is connected to something much deeper. The other day, I was trying to, you know, respond to my son who kindly reminded me he didn't wanna go to school the next day, and he was done with it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And I wasn't pleased with that because he had an amazing weekend, and he was going to school. And so I go into his room. I get a little verbally intense. My wife texts me. She's like, you gotta change your approach.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:So I sit down. I change my approach. And afterwards, I'm realizing, like, this is an insane like, this is what is going on? And again, it goes back, like, to this this part of me where I see things not go the way I want them to go. It triggers a part of me that I'm not enough.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so I have to start to to preach to myself as a as a way as a way forward. And what is so beautiful in this moment is that we begin to see the key to changing the the soundtrack that we've been hearing. And and the key to dealing with, you know, the deeper issues that we're all sensing, according to Jesus, has and always will be forgiveness. Forgiveness. Ephesians has this amazing place where Paul, after dealing with a handful of things that he's addressing to the church, just so confidently says these words, get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Brawling and slander along with every form of malice, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you. What I have to regularly come back to when I sense that irritation bubbling is that I live from a place of forgiveness. And and I need to let it sink into a deeper part of who I am. If there was one person who had the justification to be angry all the time, as I tend to be, it was Jesus of Nazareth. The world he loved and made went in the opposite direction.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And then when he arrives to save us, we continue to call him raqa, to call him fool, to the point of crucifying him with that name. And and it's in the life of Jesus that he absorbs anger on the cross. And in his death and resurrection, overcomes it with love, and overcomes it with the power of new life, and overcomes it with forgiveness. And so this now becomes the focal point of our transformation as Christians is forgiveness. Whenever you're trying to deal with anger, at some point, you're going to have to hit the stage of forgiveness and wrestle with the God who welcomes in your anger and wants to lead you down to a place of transformation and a forgiveness.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You are forgiven in Christ. And you have got to let that sink into the parts of you that just wanna snap at somebody all the time. Forgiveness. Let it let it transform you and let it move you to a place where you can, as Jesus says, go and be made right with one another. Go and be made right in your life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's our invitation. You know, there's an amazing moment at the end of, season 3. I'm not gonna ruin everything in the bear. It's a bit of an intense show, but there's an exchange between Carmi and one of his old mentors, and it's the one who drove him the most mad. He sees him at this party and he starts to lose it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And it's such a tragic conversation between the 2, and it I couldn't help but watch it and think to myself, what Karmy needs is the good news of Ephesians 4. And and what that show has been screaming out since its beginning is, is there forgiveness available for people who have deep anger? Is there a way to actually allow our trauma to be transformed? And what the show does so beautifully in this moment is that as Carmi is unable to come to grips with this person who has done so much harm to him that has caused him so much anger, A coworker of his is in the kitchen with another chef, and the chef is explaining to her this amazing dish he's come up with, but it's come out of all his trauma. That's come out of all the pain.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And she says to him with which I think is just just such gospel good news. You have allowed your trauma to transform you. At the same moment that that scene is happening, and he smirks and says, yeah, I guess I have. Karmi is in another room unable to process the anger. And I just think to myself, this is who we are as people.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Forgiveness is right there. If we would allow what's in us to be transformed by what Jesus offers us. Let me pray. Heavenly father, what a gift it is for us to be before you with the permission to be honest. And so I ask god that as we think about the places in our own lives where we have anger, would you meet us now and help us to, by the power of your holy spirit, sense again forgiveness, to fill again what it's like to be forgiven by you, and then in turn to be able to offer that to other people.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Would you do that work in us? We pray now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Morgan Teruel:Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.