It's obvious we're living in divided times. Today on bold steps, Mark Jobe has an important message about the church and unity.
I don't think I've ever seen the amount of anger and volatility that I'm seeing today all the time in relationships, in marriages, among coworkers. And you know what Paul is telling us? Paul is saying you are different than that. That may exist in the culture. That is not who you are.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Mark is president of Moody Bible Institute and serves as senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. My name is Wayne Shepherd, and you know, our attitude towards something can make or break it. And, Mark, I think you would agree that there's a lot of anger, division, strife in relationships today. And that's something you address recently to our students at Moody Bible Institute in Wayne.
There was a guest speaker that was supposed to be preaching in chapel the night before he got sick.
Oh, I didn't know that.
And called me and said, I can't make it. So, uh, I spoke on this topic that I'd preached on not too long ago, but, you know, a lot of people came up to me afterwards and said that God really spoke to their heart. I was able to pray with some students and some faculty because this is a topic. I think that we're all right in the middle of.
Well, we get to hear it now as we go to chapel at Moody Bible Institute. Here's Mark's message. Attitudes that divide us.
You know, I'm shocked at the amount of anger that I see in our culture these days. It seems like people are on edge, ready for a fight. Just bump them and they're ready to explode. I walked into the mechanic mechanic's shop a couple of months ago, and there was a heated argument happened between happening between the guy that brought his car in and the mechanic's shop owner. And this argument started to escalate. I thought I was going to have to tackle the guy because I thought,
this is going to get physical. Someone's going to get hurt here. It was over a car. And the mechanic not being able to do what the client wanted him to do on the car. But it almost got physical. The amount of volatility and anger and stress was amazing
here in the city of Chicago. We hear news all the time of someone on the expressway that cuts someone else off, and someone pulls out a gun, and over a traffic disagreement, someone is shot and killed because there's a lot of volatility and anger Gallup did an annual survey of global emotions. Every year they do this, and they discovered that Americans experience stress, anger and worry right now at level largely surpassing those that have been seen
in decades past. More than half of the United States. Of American respondents, 55% reported feeling highly stressed, while 45% said they felt worried a lot. Most of the time. So I just want you to know that we live in a culture where people are on edge, and we have not been spared in the Christian community from some
of the volatility that exists in our culture. And I want to draw your attention to Ephesians chapter four, because Apostle Paul is talking to a group of believers that live in a very Secular environment, and the focus of this chapter is on growth and on unity, and on how to get along in tense relationships. And if you read the book of Ephesians, you'll realize that God is
calling us and was calling them to live countercultural. I believe that one of the most powerful testimonies of the church in today's society is that people from different backgrounds and different color, skin and different ethnicities and different accents love each other in a way that astounds the world outside of us. Unfortunately, it is often not the case.
I believe that we're called to live countercultural. I believe that one of the things that the world needs to see of the church now is a people that can be united in spite of differences. Is the united in Jesus Christ, and love each other in a way that causes the world outside to be confounded about what brings us together and keeps us together. At the front end of chapter four, the Apostle Paul expresses his desire for unity in the church, and he says, I therefore a
prisoner for the Lord. He's writing this epistle from prison, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Hey, you have a high calling. Every believer in Jesus has a calling. We're all called to follow him and to follow him on mission. And what the Apostle Paul is saying is you have a high calling, but some of you are not living to the measure of your calling. And he says, walk in a manner worthy of the
calling to which you have been called. And then he gives some descriptions, Some of these would not be the words that we would gravitate towards. But he says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all
and through all and in all. You would think that he would use words like courage and boldness and risk taking when he talks about call, but he uses words like gentleness, humility, kindness because he's saying that our call is not just a call to be bold about our faith, but there's a calling also to learn. to get along with other people, especially the household of faith, especially of
the body of believers. And I want to jump further down in the passage, because the Apostle Paul gives us the intention, but he gets real practical in verses 25 through 32, and he basically tells us what we're to stop doing and start doing. And, um, I'm going to have to go through this fast because of our time constraints here. But there are five things. If you're going to have an attitude that brings people together instead of splits people apart that you need to stop doing, and
five things that you need to start doing. Number one, he says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. The first thing he says is stop lying and start telling the truth. Stop lying. That's who you were in your old life. You were liars. You manipulated. You weren't truthful. You weren't vulnerable, transparent and real. You had mask and pretension, manipulation, deceitful half truths. That's
how the world operates. Putting on a facade to make people think that we're something, that we're not deceiving. People with subtle forms of manipulation, distracting people with lies that really aren't truth. And he says that's who you were. That's not who you are. You are people of honesty and truth. You are the old way of deception that's gone the way of Jesus. The new you is real,
is honest, is transparent. The real you is someone that operates without mask, uh, without manipulation, and allows us to have relationships that, uh, that are significant because we're not pretending. And then he says this, for we are members of one another. He says you need to operate with honesty and communication because you are actually connected to each other. He's talking to Christians that, that, that aren't operating honestly with one another. He uses the example of a body
that were members of one another. Your head and your hands and your feet and your legs are part of one body, and they have to communicate honestly with one another. When members of your body don't communicate honestly, we call it a disease. If my hand does not respond to what my head is saying and does its own thing, that's a neurological disease. If my feet don't cooperate with my eyesight, I stumble. I fall a lot because there's
not honest communication and I don't get somewhere. And he, in essence is saying, if you are to be the people of God, there has to be a different way of relating to each other that is not inculturated by who you were. There's a level of honesty, transparency, openness about our struggles and who we are that should characterize our new culture, the people of God. Number two, stop letting your anger fester and start dealing with it. Verse 26,
he says, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. I love the wording of the message. It says, go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry, but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the devil that kind of foothold in your life. There is a lot of anger, a lot of anger in every part of our culture
and society. I don't think I've ever seen the amount of anger and volatility that I'm seeing today all the time in families, in relationships, in marriages, among coworkers. Driving on the expressway, there's anger. Anger over politics. Anger over cultural issues. Anger over economics. Anger over a lot of things that divide us. Uh, there is a lot of volatility and anger these days. A lot of polarization. And you know what Paul is telling us? Paul is saying
you are different than that. That is that may exist in the culture. That is not who you are.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. We'll continue with today's message in a moment. First, I want to make sure you know about all the ways you can connect with this ministry and access these important Bible teachings. Our website Bold Steps org is your hub for all things bold steps. There you'll find our complete message archive plus faith building resources to help you grow in your walk with Christ. And have you downloaded the Bold Steps app?
It's packed with exclusive content from Mark, including original sermons, teaching videos, and special features you won't find anywhere else. Just visit your favorite app store today and download it for free. And be sure to follow Mark on social media too. You'll find engaging content and a solid community of believers when you connect with bold steps on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Mark's YouTube channel, by the way, is a
great place to get exclusive video content. There are special messages and updates from Mark. Just search for Bold Steps Radio and hit the follow button when you find us. Now let's get back to today's message. Here again is Mark Jobe with more bold steps.
I have to be honest with you, as a pastor in the city of Chicago, I feel like I often have to deal with stereotypes of Christians. Oh, you're those angry people always shouting, always against someone, always hateful. And I try to say, yeah, you know, there's some people like that. That's not necessarily who we are, because a lot of the world sees kind of what we're against.
They oftentimes don't see what we're for. They see the anger, the veins popping, the screaming and the yelling very much like what I see political opponents doing, or teams that are against each other, or people that oppose each other. An anger volatility that really isn't the kind of stereotype, the image that I think reflects Jesus the best. Now, don't get me wrong, there are times to be angry. In fact, I want to say this anger is not a sin. Anger is an emotion. So we know it's
not a sin because Jesus became angry. For example, in Mark chapter three verse five. Jesus looked around at what they were doing in the temple, and he said. He looked at around in anger. Deeply distressed at their stubborn heart. In Psalms chapter four, verse four, it says, in your anger do not sin. But when you go to your bed, search your hearts and be silent. God becomes angry. Anger is not a sin. But here's the thing Anger can lead to sinful behavior if it's not dealt with the
right way. Uh, psychologists would say that anger is a secondary emotion. That means that typically, if you struggle with anger, it means that there's probably an undercurrent issue that is causing your anger to pop up. That undercurrent issue sometimes is sadness. Uh, people that are experiencing loss in their life, loss of a relationship, a friendship, uh, death of someone, uh, status, a job, whatever. Sometimes sadness can lead to anger. Uh,
sometimes the root emotion is fear. Uh, show me people that are fearful a lot. And oftentimes that can explode into anger. Show me someone that's hurt. Uh, someone that's wounded internally. Someone that has experienced disappointment, disillusionment, abandonment, abuse of any kind. Oftentimes they lash out in anger. So I would say this if you're experiencing anger today, you need to treat it as a dashboard. In your car. You have a dashboard and there's a lot of lights.
I know some of you ignore them all the time. Like, yeah, there's a light that's been going on. I don't know, I just don't pay attention to the lights. Let me say pay attention to the lights. Because that light is telling you you need to change the oil or you need to put oil in that car. It's just a light. All these lights just. And anger is like that. It's a dashboard in your life that tells you there's something
in your life that's undealt with. If you are here today and you have anger, you explode at your roommates. You get ticked off very easy. You rant about things. You feel this simmering anger inside of you. You need to pay attention to that because it's telling you that there is some underlying Line emotions, some underlying root issue that you have not dealt with and you're going to excuse it. Ah, it's just the stress. It's my roommate.
It's the pressure. It's the unfairness. It's the finances. It's whatever you blame it on. But listen, people around you know that you're angry. You need to pay attention to the dashboard. Why is it going off all the time? Because there's something at the root that you need to deal with. And here's what the Apostle Paul says. The apostle Paul says, hey, be angry, but don't sin. Anger
can show up in explosiveness, stewing, irritability, hostility, aggression. And then, Paul, I don't have time to get way into this, but Paul gives us basically three rules for anger. Number one, don't let it turn. Be angry and don't sin. Anger can quickly turn into damaging destructive behavior if it's not channeled. Hey, yeah,
you get angry at your roommate. That's normal. But when you start to become critical, demeaning, when you start to become abusive with your words, when you start to slander, you've crossed the line and let anger become sinful. Don't let anger turn. Feel the emotion, the urge, but don't let it turn to something destructive. And that's why the apostle Paul tells us, by the way, uh, he says, don't let the sun go down while you're angry. In other words, if you let it, if you let it
stew without dealing with it, it turns. Let anger stew and don't deal with it. It'll turn to bitterness, resentment. It'll turn to revenge. It'll turn to hate. It'll turn to a critical spirit. It always turns. And so the rule that the apostle Paul gives is deal with it that day. In essence, what he's saying is you need to deal with it that day. So I've learned, if I want to have a really good fight with my wife and and have time to stew, I pick the
fight early in the morning. That way I have all day. I'm just kidding. He's not really talking. It's not just about the 24 hour rule, but it is about do not wake up the next day not having dealt with your anger. And then number three, listen. He says, don't give the devil a foothold and give no opportunity to the devil. Can I tell you something? A foothold is when someone tries to close the door and you put your foot there and you can't close the door. You
ever done that? Run around playing with your roommates or as kids? They try to close the door. You put your foot in there, and then you can yell in the door and you put your hand in there. Try to reach in. Do something. Throw something in there. That's called a foothold. And if you don't deal with this door, if you don't close this door, if you don't deal with that, what's at the root of it? Listen, if
you have trauma in your heart, if you have. If you have scars in your soul, which a lot of us do, we live in a broken, messed up world. And a lot of you have been raised in families that were broken, dysfunctional, unhealthy, toxic. And if you had a healthy family and had good parents and had good investment, then you are the rarity and you better thank God for that. But the great majority have brokenness. A lot of brokenness. And a lot of times that brokenness is
not dealt with. And at the core there's anger.
This is bold steps with Mark Jobe, the start of a lesson titled Attitudes That Divide Us. We'll continue with part two on tomorrow's program, but until then, head over to our website at Bold steps.org and check out this month's special Bold Step gift. It's available for a limited time. Mark, let's talk about this special offer.
You know, Wayne, today's young girls, they're just bombarded with messages that shape their beliefs, affect their identity. That's why I'm excited about this bold Steps gift this month. It's called Lies Girls Believe by Dana Gresh.
And Dana is with us right now.
Absolutely, Dana, great to have you with us. Tell us a little bit about why you wrote this book.
Oh, well, my friend Nancy DeMoss, Wolgemuth wrote a book called Lies Women Believe. And over a million women read that book, and it helped them to really identify where they were in bondage to lies. And that was resulting in emotions that weren't working, that weren't healthy. That was one of the telltale signs, as well as sinful behaviors that they just couldn't stop. And when they identified the lies,
they felt freedom. Well, those women said, these lies started when I was in my teen years and in my teen years. So Nancy and I worked together to write both Lies Young Women Believe for teens and then Lies Girls believe for the 8 to 12 year old girls.
So this is for 8 to 12 year olds specifically, by the way, I just think this is so, so needed. Yes, especially in today's culture where young girls more than ever are bombarded about identity, lies about who they are, gender, where they fit into the world. What would you say are the top three lies? I know you have a list of quite a few lies. Can you identify what you'd say are the top say three lies?
God is not enough. If we don't believe that God is enough, then that dismantles and affects everything else around us. And one of the ways that shows up is emotions, which I just addressed. Emotions are one of the telltale signs that we aren't believing God is who he says he is, and he will be in our lives who he says he will be. So we believe God isn't enough. I need the car, or the house or the job or whatever. But as as tweens, they tend to really
believe the lie. God isn't enough. I need the friend and friends lead you down a road of believing all kinds of other lies. Peer pressure is either a great gift in our lives that leads us to Jesus, or it is a great dismantling of our faith and leads us away from Jesus to counterfeits. And so I think that's probably one of the big lies. And you mentioned
identity so many times. If if that friend isn't from a source of biblical truth, a home that's grounded in biblical truth today, which of us feels good about ourselves? Our emotions are healthy in our in our middle school and pre-teen years. None of us. Well, today people are saying, okay, the reason you don't feel good is because and they're leading them down, these really lethal, dangerous roads of lies that lead to lots and lots of years of struggle and pain.
Well, Dana, we are so happy to partner with you in getting this book into the hands of our listeners lives. Girls believe and the truth. Can't forget the subtitle, Marc, the Truth That Sets Them Free. Dana, thank you so much.
My pleasure. Thanks, guys.
And we'll be happy to send you a copy right away. When you give any amount to bold steps to send a check in the mail, just write to us at bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Or call us at 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. And of course, you can always visit us online at Bold Steps. Org. You know, these daily Bible teachings and helpful resources are made possible through the generous support of listeners just like you.
We call them our bold partners through their faithful monthly gifts, these ministry partners help us reach more people with the truth and life changing power of God's Word. When you commit to giving, a monthly gift will send you some special bonuses like a signed copy of Mark's book unstuck. Also, when you give, there's access to our Bold Partner post Pastor Mark's unique bi weekly communication featuring a personal video
and special sermon material. And when you give a gift of $30 or more, we'll send you a 50% discount on all items at the Moody Publishers online store. To join the team, simply visit boldsystems.org. Well, that's the time we have for today, but we'll see you again tomorrow when we continue with the final part of Mark's message about the attitudes that divide us. Don't miss Wednesday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.