Tackling Fuel Series

Opener Story: Wrong Order!

How do you respond when a mistake has been made with your fast-food order?

If you’re 6’3” and weigh 270 pounds, people don’t recommend crawling through the drive-through window.

But that’s exactly what happened when a University of Kansas football player realized a chalupa was left out of his Taco Bell order.

He got so angry that he tried to climb through the 14” x 46” inch drive-through window and got stuck.

The frightened manager and employees locked themselves in an office and called the police.

The police pulled up to the drive through and laughed hysterically as they discovered the legs and butt of the football player kicking in midair.

Police Sergeant George Wheelers said, “When you take a big guy and put him through a small space, something’s got to give.”

Main Point of Discussion: Can we redirect anger into something good to get us in the game?

----DVD The Waterboy” The Movie Clip: Tackling Fuel

In this movie the weakling water boy becomes the star of the football team, popular, and gets the girl in the end, all as a result of tapping into the anger within him and living it out on and off the field. It is a comedy but has a bunch of questionable things such as language that you should be aware of, but there is a great clip for talking about anger.

Introducing the Clip:

Today we are going to talk about anger. There are a lot of examples out that have to do with anger, but one in particular really captures the heart behind anger, and allows us to see the good and bad side of anger. Let’s watch this clip from The Waterboy.

BEGIN CLIP AT Chapter 7 “Bobby’s First Practice” Bobby (the water boy) comes out onto the field dressed to play for the first time.

BEGIN with the black guy saying “Hey where’s your helmet?” Please edit the sound as the coach sends off the special teams to run laps because of a curse word.

STOP after Bobby agrees to tackle for Coach like that every game.

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Transitional Statement after the clip:

Some of us might wonder about anger. Is anger in itself bad? As you can see, Bobby can react pretty bad when he’s angered. I’m sure some of us can relate to that. But once Bobby redirected his anger toward something good, his anger wasn’t a bad thing.

Divide into Small Groups (optional - depending on your audience size):

Let’s go ahead and split up into our discussion groups and examine anger a little closer, and then afterward we’ll come back together for a final word.

Discussion Questions:

AROUND THE CIRCLE: Say your name and your greatest pet peeve.

AROUND THE CIRCLE: Rather than an annoying pet peeve, this time what’s

something that really angers you? How do you usually react to that?

ASK A FEW: Is it ever good to be angry? Why or why not?

Read the following two passages:

Eph. 4:26-27 (NLT)

[26] And don’t sin by letting anger gain control over you." Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, [27] for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil.

John 2:13-16 (NLT)

[13] It was time for the annual Passover celebration, and Jesus went to Jerusalem. [14] In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; and he saw money changers behind their counters. [15] Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. [16] Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, "Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!"

ASK ONE OR TWO: In the two above passages, is anger in itself wrong? (Answer: No. We just shouldn’t let it gain control over us. Heck, Jesus even got angry. It wasn’t wrong, but our response can be wrong.)

ASK A FEW: In the video clip, Bobby redirected his anger to be used as "tackling fuel." Can you think of an example where anger can be used to fuel something good?

Read this introduction to your group:

"In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah has been dealing with a lot of tragedy. He’s trying to rebuild the walls that were destroyed, his enemies have been attacking, and now . . . his own people are attacking from within. They are ripping off their own people who are in dire need. So Nehemiah gets ticked-off!"

Read the following passage:

Neh. 5:6-7 (NLT)

[6] When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. [7] After thinking about the situation, I spoke out against these nobles and officials. I told them, "You are oppressing your own relatives by charging them interest when they borrow money!" Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.