Pastor Mark discusses the theological concept from Romans 6 about belonging to Christ and surrendering personal entitlements. An illustrative story is told about a missionary in New Guinea who struggled with anger when locals repeatedly stole his pineapples. His transformation came when he attended a conference on anger, realized he must surrender ownership of everything to Christ, and offered his pineapples to God. Surprisingly, the locals noticed his change in demeanor, assumed he had become a true Christian. This narrative underscores the message that overcoming anger involves relinquishing perceived rights and entitlements to Christ.
Pastor Mark Willey
Excerpt from “The Addition and Subtraction of Anger”
Video Transcript:
If you’ve embraced christ as savior you belong to him in romans chapter 6 it contrasts two things It says you used to belong to sin You It was your master.
It was your Lord. When you embraced Christ, you were freed from this despotic ruler, but you were brought under the benevolent rulership of Christ. You belong to him. And he therefore says, uh, contribute all of your members, all the instruments of your body, all your body parts, everything he says to pleasing your new master.
We entrust ourselves to his sovereign will for our lives. He does not promise us wealth or health or recognition or space, personal space, or a life of ease, or an early retirement, or perfect relationships, or spouses, or children. He promises to be our peace, to be with us in trouble, to sustain us. But our sense of entitlement causes us to be angry when we are thwarted.
changed. A number of years ago, I saw a video, actually I heard the guy present it. And I bought the video, watched the video a number of times, used it in small groups, we had a lot of times. It was the story of a missionary that went to, to New Guinea. And this guy had been there a number of years and, um, he had a temper and, but he also was very much a, a, An orderly person, and he decided to plant some pineapple trees.
And they grew fast, and they come to fruition in just a few seasons, apparently. And he was waiting for the first season in which the pineapples would, would be ripe enough and, and able to be eaten. So anyway, he has this pineapple tree, and, and he knew the people of the culture there tended to be thieves.
Actually, that was a, a A, um, a meritorious thing. If you were the best thief in town, you were the smartest guy in town. So he had watched it. He even slept . They stole every one of his pineapples. He didn’t get one ripe pineapple. He had to take ’em out before they were, way, before they were ripe. And they, they all, it never worked.
They never got ripe. They just rotted. So he lost the whole first season. He’s mattering a hornet. The second season, did not get one pineapple. Third season, and now his health is starting to break. He is so mad at these people. And he’s, he’s, he’s now bought a huge, vicious dog that he has out there because the natives were, the nationals were fearful of the dog.
Still, not one pineapple. The guy came home, his health was breaking. He was, he was having emotional breakdowns. He was so furious. He came home and he went to a, uh, a conference and at the conference, the guy was talking about anger and the guy was talking about how pictured, and he just pictured this, he had a circle in the middle, it was like a wheel, and the circle in the middle is Christ.
And then around the outside is this big circle with, with sections. Alright, you got, so there’s multiple sections around Christ. And he says, Christ owns every part of your life. And you have to yield every part of your life. And so he’s giving examples, you know, the use of your time, you’ve yielded it to Christ.
It doesn’t belong to you. Uh, the use of your money, it belongs to Christ, doesn’t belong to you. Your relationships belong to Christ. And then he left a couple of slots and he says, what is it that you are demanding that you need to acknowledge belongs to Christ? And this poor guy had to write down pineapples and he talked about it was transformative to him.
that he realized he owned those babies and it was so infuriating and basically he explained it in this worship experience where he offered his pineapple grove To god and said you own them. I don’t own them anymore. I don’t have to protect them. They’re yours Well, here’s what happened. It’s the best part of the story.
So he returns to new guinea And uh, it’s it’s now season for pineapples to come and They’re stealing his pineapples right and left. And he’s relaxed. He’s chill. And they’re unnerved by it. Because they think he’s got some, maybe he’s poisoned the pineapple. What’s he done? So they don’t know what’s going on.
So they finally come to him and they said, why aren’t you angry anymore? And he said, uh, I, I, I don’t own the pineapples. Like what? Well, who owns the pineapples? And, uh, and then they said, they, they, they, this is the worst part for him. They actually said to him, what has happened to you? And he said, well, I, I, I’ve changed, and I, I gave my pumps, and they said, We thought you’d become a Christian.
This is a missionary. We thought you became a Christian. And he said, he said, what do you think? I became a Christian. They said, well, you’ve told us for all these years about what a Christian looked like. We always wanted to see one and you live like one. And so we think you’ve become a Christian. Is that what happened?
He says, well, no, I wasn’t. He couldn’t even, he said he was just brokenhearted. But he said, all I can tell you is I gave my pineapple to God. And he actually pulled away. He said, I can’t, I can’t talk about it anymore. So that night, they’re at his house, calling in the window, knocking on the door. Who did you give the pineapples?
Because they’re nervous. You know, if they steal from somebody, they don’t know who it is. Who knows what the retribution is going to be. Who did you give the pineapples away to? And he finally said, I gave my pineapple away to God. He owns them. The pineapple grove is his. Well, now they actually began to get agitated because they’re scared of God.
Who’s going to steal from God’s pineapple grove? So he told the story. He ended up staying there, repented, realized what a horrible witness for Jesus he had been. But God in his grace allowed him the opportunity to now continue to minister, saw incredible fruit. And, but he told the story of how they never stole a pineapple again, because nobody wanted to steal from God’s pineapple grove.
What he learned is what I think Paul’s saying to us. The foundational reality of overcoming anger is when I don’t have rights. I yielded them to Christ and the circle of my life, all the stuff that I say, well, this makes me angry. This is me. And this makes me dig down. You’ll find a right that you’re saying I’m entitled to this.
But in
the visual that Romans six is presenting and first Corinthians six is presenting. That we belong to God, he’s saying if we belong to him, we were slaves to sin. We’re now slaves to a benevolent master, but a slave doesn’t have rights. Those were yielded when we gave our lives to our new master.
What right am I demanding that is causing me to be angry is the key question. What am I assuming I’m entitled to that is feeding this anger within me?