- "Know this, my beloved Brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." [33:45]
- "The word of God is given to us to unleash us. I've never met a person who is truly happy who did whatever they wanted to do." [58:30]
- "God's welfare program is not elect the right leaders and have them pass policies. God says my welfare program I'm going to put on the shoulders of my people." [01:12:13]
- "Pure and undefiled religion is to give yourself to matters of Justice and personal piety." [01:05:22]
- "I can't claim to have God's heart and not advocate for the poor, the Widow, the orphan, The Immigrant." [01:09:35]

Well, hey Summit family! If you have your Bibles, I want you to meet me in James chapter one. We’ll look at verses 19 to 27. If you're new with us, we've been making our way through the Book of James.

James chapter one, pick me up in verse 19. James writes, "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger." Why? "For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word," verse 22, "and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

We're going to talk about anger, we're going to talk about the word of God, we're going to talk about orphans and widows. I think we should pray.

Father, would you speak to us today? There is much in your word in this section of scripture, and I pray, Lord God, that you would make it clear, you would make it practical, that you would show us the way you have called us to walk. But above all else, Lord God, would Jesus be clearly seen with your gospel crystal clear? And would you do what you do, Lord God, and that is save souls, change lives, strengthen the weak and the faint-hearted, call sinners to turn from their ways. Do it all, I pray, Lord God. Give me grace. It's in Jesus' name I ask all these things. Amen.

One of the things that Corey and I just really felt God had called us to do as parents with our kids is we wanted to equip our kids with a biblical worldview. We want our kids to think Christianly. So one of the things that we did was when our kids turned 12, one of the gifts that we gave them—I gave each of my kids a copy of the autobiography of Malcolm X. I said to them, "I want you to read all 400-plus pages of this book, and once you're done with that, I want you to write me a five-page paper comparing the ideology of Malcolm X to the gospel."

To which they responded by giving me a big bear hug, kissing me on the cheek, and saying, "Thank you, Father! It's the best gift any 12-year-old could ever ask for in their life!" Said no one ever. After some arm twisting, they got after it. They wrote their papers, we went out to a meal together, and for each one of them, as we would sit down and just talk about this through a biblical gospel lens, they were each shocked at several points along the way.

But particularly, they were shocked to discover that Malcolm X, this one of the leaders of the Nation of Islam, his primary recruiting ground was the black church. What Malcolm X would literally do would be he would stand outside the church, and he would time it so he was standing right there just as the doors of the church were open and people were leaving the church and they were kind of spilling out onto the street. And Malcolm X would yell at the top of his lungs, "Y'all been in church for three hours and ain't nothing changed about your society! Tell me, what difference does your Jesus make in your day-to-day life and in the life of this world? What difference does your Jesus make in your day-to-day life and the life of this world?"

That's actually a good question. It's a question James takes up in his epistle. James is intensely practical. I want to caveat that by saying that I am not saying that the other books of the Bible are not. Remember, Paul writes Timothy and he tells him that all scripture—not some, not most, but all scripture—is profitable, it's useful. But James is focused in his letter on a particular part of the believer's anatomy—not so much his head, not even so much his heart, but his feet. James is giving us the shoes of Christianity. He wants us to see and understand what practical difference, after you leave church, after you've heard the sermon, after you go back to your neighborhood, once the alarm clock goes off on Monday morning and you go to work, what difference should Jesus make?

James, in our text, talks about the intersection of the Christian faith and the practical realities of life. James raises three questions in our text, and I want to look at these three questions.

The first question James raises is: How do I deal with a person who offends me? Secondly, how do I respond to the Bible when it exposes me? And thirdly, how do I relate to people who can never repay me?

First, how do I deal with people who offend me? Again, verse 19: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger." Verse 20: "For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

James is writing in an original language called Greek, and the Greek word for anger is "orge." It's this kind of emotional reaction that happens when, in some way, shape, or form, I'm triggered by someone else. In fact, James just kind of says this in such a matter-of-fact way. He doesn't get into the specific situation or scenario. He doesn't pull us in and let us know exactly what happened to kind of trigger the "orge," the anger. In fact, he says it in such a flippant, matter-of-fact way, it's as if he's implying that one of the basic realities of life is I'm going to be offended, I'm going to offend you, you're going to make me angry, I'm going to make you angry.

In fact, I want you to hear this, and I say this almost parenthetically, but I've actually got a mentor who says to me, "It's not a relationship until you scream at each other." Now, James would say, "Pump the brakes." But the idea, the kernel of truth is, if the person you're doing community with never offends you, never makes you angry, y'all are way too surfacy. It ain't real. It's just not.

And I think we Christians have a PhD in surface-level relationships. I just really think we do. A lot of what we pass off as community ain't really community. If you really want to know if you're getting underneath the hood of each other's lives, then you see the mess. You see my mess, I see your mess. And what's bound to happen is I'm not going to mean to, but you spend enough time with me, I'm going to trigger you, you're going to get angry. And I spend enough time with you, you're going to trigger me, I'm going to get angry.

That's why James doesn't say get rid of the anger; he says be slow to anger. Now, here's the question: Is "orge" anger good or bad, Brian? Because some of you all have been raised in homes where you just saw anger so poorly managed and poorly stewarded that you actually got to a point in which you really feel like a sign of emotional maturity, spiritual strength, and vitality and health is that you don't ever express anger.

Be clear on this: this idea of "orge" or anger, it's pretty much a neutral term. It just depends on the context. In our context, James just kind of juxtaposes two kinds of anger: the anger of man and the righteousness of God. If you go to Ephesians and Colossians, there are places in these books where Paul literally says, the writer of Ephesians or Colossians, "I want you to put off anger." But then earlier on to the Ephesians, he actually says this: "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger."

This is amazing! Paul actually disentangles anger from sin. He is helping us to see that you can be angry but steward it in such a way to where it's not unrighteous but it's actually redemptive. See, that wants us to understand. So which is it? It just depends.

You know, one of the best investments our family ever made was when we were living in San Jose. We just kind of built in a fire pit. One of the things I just figured out with my boys—my boys were in high school at the time, I got three sons—and there was just something about a fire pit that would just get my sons to talking. And we’d sit out there by the fire pit. We used to call it the locker room. And sometimes Mama, we’d let Mama come back there, but a lot of times we just had guy talk around the fire pit. Sweet moments together.

And one of the things I just shared with them, I said, "I want you guys to kind of look at this fire as anger." Now, we're enjoying it, we're having a wonderful time, it's great, we're being warmed by it, it's kind of making a setting for some great fellowship. But the reason why we're enjoying it is because it's got boundaries, it's controlled, it's walled in.

So now, if you remove those boundaries and it's unfettered, the very thing that a few moments ago we were enjoying, we're now scared of. The difference is boundaries and control. So it is with anger. Jesus deals with a harmful, sinful kind of unfettered, boundaryless kind of anger in this great sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 21.

Jesus says, "Look at it with me: you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." Now, we know he's talking about a sinful anger because he says that person will be liable to judgment, but we also know it because analogously he links it to murder. Unfettered, unredemptive, unrighteous anger, Jesus says, it kills.

There's a couple faces to this, of course. Kind of the one face to unrighteous, unfettered anger is kind of the aggressive, brazen face. It's the face that yells, that screams, that maybe curses, that says hurtful things. Some of you had that in one of your parents or both of your parents. Some of that maybe that's your struggle. Or maybe it's that precious little three-year-old of yours that when they don't get their way, they throw themselves out—unrighteous, unfettered anger.

I'm thinking now of the time my boys were little. Gosh, I'm guessing '97, '98. The three of us were in the sporting goods store, and we're there, and we're watching this exchange between this nine-year-old—he looked about nine—and his dad. The nine-year-old son is asking for the cleats, and the dad's saying no. Back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth they go. Finally, it's time to check out. The son says, "Where's the cleats?" And the dad's like, "I told you I'm not getting you the cleats."

And we literally watched this nine-year-old, or this little boy, take his foot and kick his father in his hind parts. And the look on my son's face was priceless! They looked at me and they looked at me as if to say, "Is that permissible? Can we do that?" And I looked back at them as if to say, "I wish you would!"

That kind of anger, Jesus says, he likens it to murder. It kills a person's confidence, it kills their esteem, it kills the relationship. Unless—I hope this is a safe place—I'm not known, I'm just not naturally wired to be a yeller or to cuss people out. It's just not how I'm naturally wired. But man, I know what it's like to go through seasons of life, especially when you've got a lot going on at work and you're just in one of those seasons, there's not much emotional margin, and then something happens.

But I think there's another face to this unrighteous anger. Most of us are way too cool to cuss out or yell or to let you know that I got. This face is kind of more of what I call the Silent Assassin face. Something happens to me, I'm not going to yell at you, I'm not going to cuss at you. There's this thing in me that goes, "Okay," sort of like Al Green's wife. I don't have time to get into it; Google it.

So what do you do? You just go dark. You just stop returning phone calls. You just kind of move, walk away from the relationship. That's murder too. You kill the relationship; you don't deal with it.

But there's another face to "orge" and your anger: do not sin. Which means there's a possibility of me stewarding anger in such a way that's not unrighteous but it's actually redemptive. It's constructive. But we see this in God. For example, it's impossible to read the Bible without seeing God getting angry. In fact, theologians say that anger is actually an attribute, what we would call a character trait of God.

In fact, news flash: of all the places I can go in the Bible to talk about the anger of God, let me go to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, Paul actually says that prior to coming to Christ, all of us were by nature objects of—or children of—God's wrath. God was angry with us. Some of you might be going, "Wait a minute, Brian! I thought John 3:16 said God loved us!" Now you're saying Ephesians 2, God was angry with us? How in the world can love and anger dwell in the same person?

You must not have kids. As you understand, can't nobody tick you off like the ones you love. In fact, any counselor or therapist will tell you that an indicator light of love is anger. That's why the worst thing God could ever do to you is not be angry with you. The worst thing God could ever do to you is to be indifferent towards you. God loves you so deeply and so profoundly that when we live in rebellious sin, it angers him.

But watch this: God deals with his anger. He's looking at us, his kids, living in sin and saying, "I'm angry with them. I'm going to deal with my anger. Come here, Jesus! I want you to actually die in their place and for their sins." That's why 1 John chapter 2 says that Jesus Christ became the propitiation for our sins. You know what that means? Propitiation means to satisfy the wrath of God. On the cross, the death of Jesus Christ satisfied God's wrath and God's anger so that now we can enjoy a healthy relationship with him with no fear of condemnation. It's the good news! It's the good news of Jesus Christ.

So how do we get there? How do we have righteous anger? How do we steward anger in such a way that it's redemptive? Notice again, James does not say, "Don't be angry." He says, "Be slow to anger." Again, I just want you to think with me what these phrases mean. Verse 19: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger."

You know what the implication here is? That we're interacting and having a conversation, which means that I'm dealing with my anger. Quick to hear, which means I'm sitting across the table from the one who's ticked me off. I want to hear; I want to gain an understanding. Slow to say it means I haven't stopped calling you. It means that I'm not just kind of yelling at you; I'm actually sitting at the table and I'm trying to gain an understanding and kind of repair and deal with the issue.

But when he says slow to speak, slow to anger, not only am I dealing with the issue, but there's a sense of control. Man, I'm so proud of Pastor JD. So proud of him! Last week blew my mind. Our pastor used a Coming to America illustration. Unbelievable! So we're all about ethnic unity here, so I'll see your Coming to America illustration and I'll raise you a NASCAR illustration. NASCAR is a beautiful sport, so they tell me. I mean, these cars are powerful and they are fast. Did you know these cars don't go as fast as they can? They're outfitted with what's called a restrictor plate. Out of concern for the driver and the other drivers, they put a control mechanism on them.

If you're a follower of Jesus, you've been outfitted with a restrictor plate. It's called the Holy Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Proverbs 25 says, "Like a city without walls is a man without self-control." So when something happens to me, anger, "orge," is rising. It's time to lean into the restrictor plate.

But there's something else here: have the conversation, lean into the Spirit for control. But there's one more thing in dealing with our anger. Verse 21: "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word." That word "meekness" is actually a word that could be translated "gentleness."

Now, I want you to think with me in your own life. Think with me about the things that you are gentle with, and they all have the same common denominator: you're only gentle with what you value. When I pop off, when I yell, when I scream, when I curse, or when I just kind of Silent Assassin back away, go dark, relationship's over, I am communicating to someone made in the image of God, "I don't value you."

So I want you to think of two individuals: a criminal and a doctor. The criminal's got a knife; the doctor's got a scalpel. Both things can kill you. The criminal wields his knife to kill you; the doctor wields his scalpel to heal you. What's the difference between the two? Gentleness.

We are not saying don't get angry; be slow. But will that anger be like a scalpel? Gentle. Next, James moves from how do I deal with a person who has offended me to how do I respond to the Bible when it exposes me? Verse 22: "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."

But the one who—here it is—the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty. Stop right there. Now, some of you are here and you don't know Jesus, or maybe you're here and you would call yourself a brand new Christian, and there's a hesitation you have with this book, this word of God, because you've got this hesitation that, man, I don't know, this thing is filled with stuff that I don't like. It's filled with rules and responsibilities and restrictions. And James kind of validates that because the synonym he uses for the Bible is "the law."

And the reason why you are hesitating and the reason why there's a bit of trepidation among you is because, man, just kind of being who you are, like all of us, you enjoy your sense of freedom. But the problem is we have a misguided definition of freedom. We tend to think freedom means I get to do what I want to do. That's not freedom! Freedom with no responsibility or restrictions isn't freedom; it's chaos.

In fact, I love one pastor's definition of freedom. Will you look at it with me? He defines freedom as the ability to function at your highest or fullest God-ordained capacity. Paul, in writing to the Galatians, would say it this way: "For freedom, Christ has set us free."

And here's what we understand in context: Paul cannot mean that Christ set you free so you can do whatever you want to do. Freedom has healthy restrictions; it's got a sense of responsibility. But those sense of restrictions and responsibilities isn't to diminish us as much as it is to unleash us. Jesus says, "I've come that you might have life and life more abundantly."

Sort of like our cars. We don't treat our cars just by going, "I can do whatever I want to do with this car." Now, there are some simple rules: put gas in it, change the oil every couple thousand miles. You may not want to do these things, but you understand if your car is going to really be free, if it's going to function to its maximum capacity, you have to do things you don't normally like to do.

Like a fish in water, "This water's getting on my nerves! I want some land! Let me just do me and get on land!" It's water's too restrictive. Well, do you, and you will die. You have to embrace certain boundaries. But these boundaries found in the word of God are given to us to unleash us.

I've never met a person who is truly happy who did whatever they wanted to do. I don't say this to offend anybody. I've counseled a lot of adulterers in my life. I've yet to meet a happy adulterer.

James says this word is given to you. Yes, it's got restrictions, but it's given to you to unleash you to your highest and fullest God-ordained capacity. It's in that light that everything else in this section just kind of falls into order. James says, because of that, because of the word of God, it's been given to you to unleash you, I want you to not just be a hearer of the word but to be a doer.

To hear the word without doing the word is like chewing your food without swallowing it. It might taste good, but it has no long-term effect. Hear and do. But not only that, James gives us a powerful image. Verse 23: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror."

Back then, mirrors were not as clear as they are now. In other words, you couldn't just walk past a first-century mirror and with a quick glance get a full picture. No, you had to stop and look intently to see what was happening. What is a mirror? A mirror is simply that which reveals reality. It just shows you where you stand.

That's why we don't argue with mirrors; we don't debate mirrors; we don't question mirrors. No, we see reality and we adjust ourselves. It's what we do with mirrors. Several years ago, my wife was really frustrated with me. Ain't nothing changed, but the house we were living in at the time, the bathroom had this big mirror, like some of your homes.

And so there would be plenty of mornings she'd be in front of the mirror on her side, and I'm in front of the mirror on my side. And you know, we both look into the mirror, and then I'd leave. And she was like, "I just don't get you." I'm like, "What are we talking about here?" She goes, "You don't see that long eyebrow hair?" I gotta see it, but it ain't bothering me. Let's keep it pushing.

True story! A couple months later, I am preaching at a church—this must have been 10-plus years ago before I had glasses. I'm preaching at this church, get finished preaching, stand out in the lobby shaking hands, and this guy comes up to me. Never seen the guy before, and he's looking at me, but it's weird. He's not looking here; he's looking here.

And like, "This is weird!" And all of a sudden, he goes, "Wham!" Snatches the eyebrow hair out! When I tell you I needed the restrictor plate of the Holy Spirit, I wanted to take my fist and punch him in the nose! Right after that, I called my deeply sympathetic wife, told her what happened, and she was dying laughing on the phone. "That's what you get! You saw it in the mirror and you didn't do anything!"

I think you get the moral of the story: there's consequences to looking intently, seeing yourself, and doing nothing. Every Sunday, Pastor JD or myself or Pastor Curtis, we stand and preach the word. All preaching the Bible is is simply holding up the mirror of God's word and saying, "Look! Look! Not look at me; look! This is a perfect mirror!"

Now, you think about the implications of that. Don't miss this: the implication is you will leave at times offended. If you never leave church offended, there's no way that church is preaching the word. So when you get offended, instead of rushing off that afternoon to send the email—and I'd love to get your emails; email me at PastorCurtis@SummitChurch.com—instead of rushing off to send the email, I would just encourage you, why don't you sit on it for 72 hours and ask yourself the question: was this Brian being careless with his words, or was this the Spirit of God?

Now, I want you to hear me: I've been doing this a long time. There have been plenty of times, and over the course of my ministry, I've needed to be rebuked and admonished and corrected, and there will be plenty more times when I, "Man, I'm sorry I didn't say that the right way," or "I said that, that was wrong what I said." I am not infallible. This is—but more times than not, I just find believers are way too quick to take an issue that they think they have with the preacher when in reality it's an issue God has with them.

How do I deal with people who've offended me? How do I respond to the Bible when it exposes me? Thirdly and finally, let's go home on this one: how do I relate to people who can never repay me?

Verse 26, he ends by saying, "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless." Wow! "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit"—I love this—in the original language, the word "visit" actually means to advocate, to advocate on behalf of orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This blows my mind! I love the word! He says, "You want to know what pure and undefiled religion is? It ain't tithing; it ain't church attendance; it ain't going to your small group." All those are wonderful, but he says when you just kind of filter it all the way down, here's pure and undefiled religion: to advocate on behalf of orphans and widows. Thank you! And to keep oneself unstained from the world.

And let me say it this way: pure and undefiled religion is to give yourself to matters of justice and personal piety. Here's why I love this: historically, the Church of Jesus Christ in America—historically, the liberal church, the progressive church has gone, "Yes, advocate for the marginalized," but has very little to say about personal piety. And historically, the conservative church in America goes, "Yes, personal holiness," but has little to say about issues of justice.

James says it is not an either/or; it is a both/and. That we can walk and we can chew gum at the same time. Pure and undefiled religion is comprehensive. That yes, I care about issues of personal holiness, and I'm leaning on the Spirit of God and God's grace to put to death the works of the flesh. Yes, I'm in this journey of sanctification. At the same time, I'm advocating for widows and orphans.

So let me just end by pulling you into my own journey. Every year, I just try to read through the Bible, and I just remember years ago reading through the Bible, and I haven't even made it out of the first five books yet. I'm still in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and I'm there, and I'm just struck with how many verses I'm seeing that talk about God's heart for the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor.

And I just start kind of underlining these verses. Just every time I see it, just underline it. Come to verses like Proverbs 19:17: "Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed." Remember talking to a well-known writer and pastor, a guy by the name of Randy Alcorn, and him just saying, "Oh yeah, Brian, there are over 2,350 verses in the Bible that talk about God's heart for the orphan, the widow, the immigrant, and the poor."

Wow! A great theologian, Wayne Grudem, says—I love this—he says, "The Bible is the transcript of God's heart." If there's over 2,350 verses in the Bible that talk about God's heart for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, then I can't claim to have God's heart and not advocate for them.

And hear me, there are several ways we advocate. We advocate with our time; we engage them. God's just—God's wearing me out. Then I start reading about—there's a book called The Clapham Sect, and it just talks about a great community of Jesus lovers back in the 1700s who were ticked off about slavery, and they just said, "We're going to take it down."

And most of these individuals were in their 20s. A guy by the name of William Wilberforce gives a six-hour address at 25 years old, and he gets up in front of Parliament. He goes, "My great aim is the abolition of the trade; all others are secondary. I will not rest until I've affected this cause." For the next 20 years, him and this little group they called themselves the Clapham Sect, they said, "Hey, most of the slaves work the sugarcane plantations over in the West Indies. What if we gave up sugar? Not for keto reasons, but what if we gave up sugar until slavery ends?"

And lo and behold, that's what they do. I come to verses like Matthew 25, Jesus's last sermon prior to the cross. Think about that! His last sermon prior to the cross, of all the stuff he could have talked about, he says, "Whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done to me."

And then he says, "Those who do nothing for the least of these go to hell." He's not saying give to the poor to get into heaven; he is saying the way that you know heaven has gotten into you is you engage the poor.

I remember a family vacation. Me and my kids and Corey were on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, and we've got shopping bags. My kids were little—three, five, and seven—they're little. And we're walking with these shopping bags, and there's a homeless mother with her three kids with a sign begging for food. And I just walk right past them.

And a couple steps later, the Holy Spirit is how he talks to me. He goes, "Are you kidding me right now?" So we stop, and we go to the Trader Joe's that was there at the time. And you want to talk about joy? It's getting food and watching your son Miles lay hands on the woman.

Guess what I'm saying is—and I'm still growing in this area—but I was tithing, and I'm going, "Man, I'm not greedy by American standards." But then is America really the standard? Then I read these verses, and it just messed me up.

I'm going to leave you all alone, but Leviticus 19: "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God."

Man, I just—I remember reading that, and everything just stopped. God is saying, "Here's my welfare program." My welfare program is not elect the right leaders and have them pass policies. Is there a place for that? Yes! God says, "My welfare program I'm going to put on the shoulders of my people."

I relax; I'm not a socialist. So Brian, stop complaining about what's happening in the White House. What's going on in your house? Some months ago, I was playing golf, and at the same time, I'm listening to this podcast—not during the round, but after the round. I start hearing about Compassion International and how you can feed a kid for $38 for the whole month. And I'm going, "I just paid that on green fees!"

I'm not telling you what you should do; I just want you to live in this tension. On the one hand, the Bible says that God has created all things for our enjoyment. I don't think God creates Table Mountain in South Africa. I don't think he creates the crystal blue or the crystal green waters of the Caribbean and looks at the Holy Spirit and goes, "Man, I hope they never see that."