Get a Hold of Yourself
Dan Rodgers
Proverbs 25:15, 28; 26:17
October 14, 2007
ILLUS: The story is told about a father who wanted to illustrate to his son the difference between "anger" and "exasperation." He looked up the phone number of a pompous fellow commuter whom he knew only by name and reputation, and he dialed the number. When the call was answered by the man, the father asked, "Is Adolph there?" "There's no Adolph here. Why don't you get the right number before bothering people this hour of the night?" roared the man on the other end.
"Now that," said the father when he put down the phone, "was simply annoyance. We'll wait a few minutes, and then you'll hear something." After a decent interval, the father dialed the same number and again asked, "Is Adolph there?" This time the other party literally screamed into the phone, "What's the matter with you, are you crazy? I told you to look up the number and stop bothering me!" Whereupon the receiver at the other end was slammed down.
"Now that fellow was angry," said the father. "In a few minutes I will show you what I mean by exasperation compared to anger."
After 15 minutes or so, the father dialed the same number for the third time, and when the same man answered at the other end, the father said almost cheerily, "Hello, this is Adolph. Have there been any messages for me during the past half hour or so?"1
INTRODUCTION: This evening, I want to talk about a subject that is seldom discussed in churches today and that is our temperament. Now, I know, this will not pertain to most of us, but if there happens to be even just one person here who can benefit from this lesson, then we will all be the better off because of it.
Solomon is the one who wrote the book of Proverbs, and given that he had 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines, he understood better than anyone else, what it mean to have an even temperament and a lot of patience.
Three things this evening:
I. A Soft Spirit ...
Dan Rodgers
Proverbs 25:15, 28; 26:17
October 14, 2007
ILLUS: The story is told about a father who wanted to illustrate to his son the difference between "anger" and "exasperation." He looked up the phone number of a pompous fellow commuter whom he knew only by name and reputation, and he dialed the number. When the call was answered by the man, the father asked, "Is Adolph there?" "There's no Adolph here. Why don't you get the right number before bothering people this hour of the night?" roared the man on the other end.
"Now that," said the father when he put down the phone, "was simply annoyance. We'll wait a few minutes, and then you'll hear something." After a decent interval, the father dialed the same number and again asked, "Is Adolph there?" This time the other party literally screamed into the phone, "What's the matter with you, are you crazy? I told you to look up the number and stop bothering me!" Whereupon the receiver at the other end was slammed down.
"Now that fellow was angry," said the father. "In a few minutes I will show you what I mean by exasperation compared to anger."
After 15 minutes or so, the father dialed the same number for the third time, and when the same man answered at the other end, the father said almost cheerily, "Hello, this is Adolph. Have there been any messages for me during the past half hour or so?"1
INTRODUCTION: This evening, I want to talk about a subject that is seldom discussed in churches today and that is our temperament. Now, I know, this will not pertain to most of us, but if there happens to be even just one person here who can benefit from this lesson, then we will all be the better off because of it.
Solomon is the one who wrote the book of Proverbs, and given that he had 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines, he understood better than anyone else, what it mean to have an even temperament and a lot of patience.
Three things this evening:
I. A Soft Spirit ...
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