StoneBridge Community Church
Pastor Neal Nybo
Introduction to Hearts and Minds Message Series
Written by the Apostle Paul, the first seventeen verses of Colossians chapter three is like a “how-to” guide for following Jesus. This nine week, Hearts and Minds message series will unpack and explore these practical "how-to's" and inspire us to live them out.
1. Break the anger cycle
Last week we talked about a progression the author used, beginning at the end, with the worst and then backing up, step by step to the starting point. Today, we look at Col 3:8 and find another progression, this time starting with the first stage and progressing to its natural outcome.
Colossians 3:8 NIV
Anger: Burst of strong negative emotion.
Rage: Anger that lingers.
Malice: Rage that includes a desire to see someone hurt.
Slander: Malice acted out.
Filthy language from your lips: Hurtful words become part of your vocabulary.
The three parts to our brains
1. The reptilian brain (basal ganglia and brainstem) handles basic drives like hunger as well as habits and procedural memory (like putting your keys in the same place every day without thinking about it or riding a bike).
2. The paleomammalian brain (hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and cingulate cortex) is the center of our motivation, emotions, and memory including sight, smell, and sounds connected to memories.
3. The neomammalian brain (neocortex) enables language, abstraction, reasoning, and planning.
Reflection Questions
1. Which of these five steps in the anger cycle have you demonstrated? Which have you experienced from others?
2. Describe a time when your anger was just anger – just a momentary response to something that just happened.
2. Identify the cause of your anger.
Anger seems like an obvious. We're angry or we're not. There is the kind of anger we get when we hit our thumb with a hammer. That is that first kind of immediate cause and effect anger. I hurt myself and it made me angry. Don’t let the sun go down on that kind of anger. Be angry and sin not. Don’t put that hammer through the wall.
All of that is a slightly different Greek word from the one in our text. Today's relates more to what has happened to us in the past. There is a reason we call it baggage. We carry stuff with us and it affects us today.
Reflection Questions
1. What do you feel or think of when you see hot pancakes on a plate, melting butter sliding down the side with the smell of maple syrup?
2. Have you ever seen or smelled something and it took you back to a childhood memory?
3. Take a minute to think about, then describe, a time when your anger may have been related to something that happened in your past.
3. Take preventive action.
James 1:19, 20 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
I wish more Christian leaders would take this passage to heart. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. I think we could assume that human anger does not produce Godly results.
Dallas Willard would often say, anything that can be accomplished with anger can be better accomplished without it.
Reflection Questions
1. Do you know your anger is triggered by something in your environment? For example, the neighbor’s dog barks early in the morning.
2. How can you take preventive action about that situation?
3. When was the last time you memorized something? Can you still remember it?
4. How much of Col 3:1-17 are you willing to try memorizing?
Next Steps:
1. Ask one or two trusted people if they notice you being angry often.
2. Memorize Colossians 3:1-17 over the next few weeks.
