No Anxious, Angry, or Arrogant Preachers
What began as a preaching reminder and coaching strategy has evolved into a powerful life mantra. “No anxious, angry, or arrogant preachers.” I repeat this phrase before stepping on stage to preach and I share it regularly with our preaching team. It is a wonderful heart check and recentering tool that I now apply to every aspect of life.
Our preaching team wants to love people with God’s love like He loves, share good news in good news ways, and have fun doing it. It is impossible to do those three things when we are anxious, angry, and/or arrogant. Our team evaluates each other’s sermons each week and we point out anything that comes across as anxious, angry, or arrogant. This practice not only helps us be better preachers…it helps us be better humans.
Anxiety, anger, and arrogance form an unholy trifecta that feeds upon itself in a swirling decent into isolation, judgement, and cruelty. Anxiety fuels anger, anger fuels arrogance, and arrogance fuels anxiety.
Fear is where the worst human behaviors typically begin. We want something and do not get it. We feel threatened. We have a need that is not being met. We step outside of God’s provision and into sin and selfishness.
The fear morphs into anger as we attempt to justify our ungodly actions. We blame others, point the finger, and feign righteous indignation at the supposedly worse sins of others.
Cue the arrogance. We pretend to be better than others but live in constant fear of being found out. Arrogance always feels threatened, always has something to prove, and always looks to put others down. We find ourselves right back at fear and the cycles continues.
This is a terrible way to preach, but an even worse way to live. Yet it seems to be the way of our world. Anxiety is pushed onto people in sermons, newscasts, social media, pop culture, politics, and everyday conversations. It feels like the prevailing cultural sentiment is “be afraid…be very afraid.” But God tells us repeatedly to fear not.
A good rule of thumb is that if something or someone is pushing fear then it is not of God. Be careful what you consume. Do not celebrate evil as good. Do not pretend that anxious, arrogant, and angry words are godly…they are not. Be careful little ears what you hear, because what you hear you bring into your heart and what you bring into your heart will come out of your mouth.
Our world does not need any more anxious, angry, or arrogant rhetoric. It is desperate for good news shared in good news ways. Break the cycle of anxious, angry arrogance in your life by taking every thought captive and actively choosing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant preachers.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant Christians.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant families.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant friends.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant neighbors.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant coworkers.
No anxious, angry, or arrogant leaders.
Imagine the impact God will make in your world as He daily delivers you from anxiety, anger, and arrogance. Try praying Psalm 139:23-24 every day.
“Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
