There’s a story about an actor who was playing the part of Christ in a Passion Play.As he carried the cross up the hill a tourist began to heckle him,and make fun of him, and shouted insults at him. Finally, the actor had taken all of it he could take. He threw down his cross, walked over to the tourist… and punched him in the face.
After the play was over, the director told him, "I know he was a pest, but I can’t condone what you did. Besides, you’re playing the part of Jesus, and Jesus never retaliated. So don’t go doing that again."
The actor promised he’d control his temper and that it wouldn’t happen again. But the next day the heckler was back worse than before. He held out longer than before but finally the he exploded and punched him out again.
The director said, "That’s it. I have to fire you. We just can’t have you behaving this way while playing the part of Jesus."
The actor begged, "Please give me one more chance. I really need this job, and I can handle it if it happens again."
So the director decided to give him another chance.
The next day he was carrying his cross up the street again. And sure enough, the heckler was there again. You could tell that the actor was really trying to control himself. He was clinching his fists and grinding his teeth.
Finally, he put down the cross, walked over to the heckler and said,
"I’ll meet you after the resurrection!"
This is the last in our series about emotions that trouble Christians.
We’ve talked about FEAR, and GUILT and DEPRESSION.
Today, we’re talking about ANGER.
Our passage today says that “man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” I remember it best though from the KJV of this verse:
“the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
Anger is NOT something God wants us to be known for.
Of course, the question is: WHY?
Proverbs 15:18 declares: A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension...”
• He says things he shouldn’t say.
• He insults people he should show love to. One time it might be their spouse. Another time it might be their children or parent.
Proverbs 14:17 says: “A quick-tempered man does foolish things...”
What kind of foolish things does a quick tempered man do?
• He curses.
• He breaks things.
• He hurts himself or
• He hurts others.
Ephesians 4:31 tells us – as Christians we need to “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
We’re Christians… we’re not supposed to act like that.
Now, the Scriptures’ are not talking here about getting a little upset.
And they’re not talking about us getting annoyed with people.
The Bible is talking about an anger where you’ve LOST CONTROL.
Have you ever lost control of your temper?
Me too.
ILLUS: Mark Twain once said:“It takes me a long time to lose my temper, but once lost I couldn’t find it with a dog.”
ILLUS: Years ago I came to church with my wrist all bandaged up.
How many of you remember that day?
Yeah, I broke my arm. Does anyone remember how I broke my arm?
That’s right; I slammed my hand against a wall.
One of my comfort foods at night is to drink a glass of chocolate milk. I’ll pour a glass of milk, and then I’ll get down the powder chocolate and mix it in. Well, this time I reached up for the powdered chocolate… and it slipped out of my hand and spilled all over the floor.
It got so mad I slammed my hand against the wall and broke my wrist.
That Sunday I came to church with my wrist all bandaged and eventually it came out that I’d broken it in fit of temper. A couple of well-meaning folks at church tried comforting me with this comment: “It’s alright. It just proves you’re human.
That bothered me more than breaking my wrist.
And I was so convicted about it that I got up in the pulpit to preach and noted:
“There’ve been folks who have tried to make me feel better about losing my temper and breaking my wrist by telling me ‘That just proves you’re human.’ And while I appreciate their kindness, they were wrong. It didn’t prove I was human. It proved I was a sinner. When I lost my temper I sinned. I’m not going to try to make excuses for my bad behavior… and you shouldn’t either. Let’s call it what it was: SIN.”
Proverbs 25:28 “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”
And that’s what happens WHEN a person loses their temper…they lose all self-control
So the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. God doesn’t like it when we lose our temper. But He doesn’t just tell us it’s wrong, He gives us advice on how to quit begin angry like that.
I found 3 ways the Bible teaches us to quit losing control in our anger:
The first is best illustrated by this video I found on YouTube. It features Bob Newhart portraying a psychiatrist counseling a young woman who has come to him for help.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw (begin at 0:27 thru 3:36)
What was Newhart’s advice to this woman?
STOP IT!
Colossians 3:8 gives us exactly the same advice: “But now you must RID yourselves of all such things as these:anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.”
Did you catch what’s Colossians was saying?
GET RID of your anger… STOP IT!
• Don’t offer excuses.
• Don’t hide behind stories of how you’ve never been able to do that.
• Or how certain people have mistreated you and it makes you mad every time you’re around them.
Just make up your mind to STOP IT!
I know it sounds simplistic.
But the problem for too many people is that they’ve got excuses for every bad habit they practice.
And, especially with regard to anger, God says:stop doing that!
You can do this. God believes in you.
It’s not rocket science.
It’s simply making up your mind that this kind of behavior isn’t acceptable for you.
STOP IT.
The 2nd way God says we can defeat anger is this: “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26
God is telling us, it’s OK to get mad now and again.
It’s a natural emotion.
It ok to be angry now and again… just DON’T SIN!
It’s when we lose control and lose our temper that we sin that we get into trouble. It’s when we say the harsh words, and curse words, and hurtful words. It’s when we start breaking things, and begin slamming things down. It’s when we strike out and hit something (like a wall)… or when we hit someone.
You can feel it coming can’t you?
You can feel the anger slipping away from you.
Don’t let it go that far.Be angry, but “don’t sin.”
STOP IT!!!
But then, notice the next phrase: “…do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
What’s that all about?
Well, people who allow themselves to be angry with others will often keep a list of what the other person has said or done in the past. Thus, they don’t start each argument as if it’s a new experience. Oh no – they’re still kinda mad from the last argument they’ve had, so they start up the argument right where they left off. The incident that made them angry may have occurred two weeks or two months ago, but it still makes them mad and they keep on being angry about it in every fight they have with their friend or loved one.
They’ve let the sun go down on their anger.
They haven’t forgiven the other person for what happened the last time they argued.
Did you realize that Jesus puts a heavy emphasis on forgiveness?
He taught it, for example in what folks call the “Lord’s Prayer.”
You remember it: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…”
How are to ask God to forgive our debts?
“…as we forgive our debtors”.
We’re to ask God to forgive our debts/sins “AS” we forgive our debtors. We’re to ask Him to forgive us in the SAME WAY we forgive others. And, just in case you didn’t catch the subtlety of that comment, Jesus ends this “Lord’s Prayer” by saying this:
“…if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:15
Hanging on to our anger is a nasty thing.
It robs us of forgiveness from God.
And it leads to 2 other results:
1. Our anger gets the better of us and begins to control us.
2. And we end up allowing Satan control of that part of lives.
Satan is just watching for opportunities like this where he can get slip into our hearts filled with rage and start damaging our relationship with God.
“do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26
There’s a 3rd way to control your anger.
But I kind of backed into discovering the nature of this tool God give us.
Proverbs 15:1 says “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Now, I’ve learned how to use this technique to deflect someone else’s anger.
Ordinarily an angry person will literally scream at you, but I discovered that if I kept my voice soft and was even toned in my speech, the other person would eventually subconsciously try to copy my tone of voice and their anger would be reduced.
So, when I was preparing for this sermon I went online looking to see of someone had done a study on that phenomenon. I never did find THAT study, but in its place I found two other studies that showed how this verse could be used by angry people to control their own tempers.
In these studies, test subjects were asked to remember anger-arousing memories and to describe these memories in a fast and loud voice. The result for this group was that their blood pressure and heart rate increased as they spoke, and test subjects reported feeling significantly MORE angry.
Then the study had the subjects recall other memories that angered them, but to speak in soft and slower voices. Result? Blood pressure and heart rates became reduced and they reported feeling significantly LESS angry.
In other words, when an angry person slows down their speech and speaks in a softer tone of voice, their anger is easier to control.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2287702
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9196920
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8126712)
Now, one last thing…
As I was studying for this sermon I encountered an odd thing.
Did you realize that God got mad? That He became angry? That He was even furious at times?
Each of the following 3 passages (I’m going to quote)use the exact same word for anger that James chapter 1 uses.
For example, in Mark 3 we’re told about the time Jesus was at a synagogue on the Sabbath and there was a man with a shriveled hand there. We’re told:
“Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.
Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, ‘Stand up in front of everyone.’
Then Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in ANGER and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.”
(Mark 3:2-5)
So Jesus got mad.
He was furious.
Then the Bible also tells me that God has feelings of anger towards those who reject Him.John the Baptist told his crowds:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s WRATH (same word) remains on him." John 3:36
Paul writes the Christians in Rome and says: “The WRATH of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness” Romans 1:18
So God can get mad???
But I can’t?
What’s up with that?
That hardly seems fair.
Why can God get angry… and I can’t.
Well, here’s the deal.
When we get mad it’s usually because we feel entitled to something.
• The right to be treated better… but then things don’t go our way and we begin to get angry about the injustice of it all.
• The right to have things go our way… but then they don’t, and we’re furious.
• The right to expect a certain outcome to events
o Whatever it is… we feel we have a RIGHT to be angry…
… when things don’t turn out the way we want them to.
There’s one significant error in that thinking is this: we don’t any rights.
In order to have rights you have to OWN something, and we don’t really own anything.
Everything we have can be taken away from us.
Everything we have will decay, rust, or die.
In fact, that’s what Jesus told us: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matthew 6:19
You can’t keep anything.
As one person put it: “You brought nothing into this world and you sure ain’t taking nothing out.”
ILLUS: I heard the true story of a family who were angry about everything. It seemed like their house was a warzone every day, with yelling and screaming being the course of life for them.
One day they decided to go to church. They were so moved by what they experienced, they came back week after week and eventually became Christians.
But they still yelled and screamed at each other at home.
Realizing this wasn’t healthy they went to the preacher asking if he could help. He scheduled a time for counseling with them and they sat down in a classroom with a long table. Given the enormity of their problem, the preacher began to ask probing questions to see if he could get a handle on the issue.
It seemed that the family was in a constant state of conflict with everyone mad at everyone else. The dad would get mad at the wife for burning the food, or nagging him all the time or questioning his time being out with his friends. She was angry at him for dropping his clothes in the middle of the floor and not helping out around the house. The kids would be angry with each other over various things. One daughter was mad at her sister because her sister would borrow her dresses without permission and then throw the dress on her bed.
The situation was so tangled and laced with anger that the preacher wasn’t sure what to tell them… so he prayed. Then, it was like a light bulb went on in his brain. He passed out pens and blank papers to each of the family and asked them to write down everything they could think of that made them angry with their other family members.
For the next few minutes everyone wrote furiously on their sheet of paper.
Then the preacher said “Everything you wrote represents a ‘right’. The husband thinks he has a right to not be nagged. The wife believes she has a ‘right’ to have him pick up after himself. The sister thinks she has a ‘right’ to have her sister not only ask to borrow a dress, but to hang it up when she’s finished.
“Once you became Christians you made Jesus the Lord of your life. That meant you turned all of your ‘rights’ over to Him. You don’t have any rights any longer… but you haven’t learned how to give those rights to Him completely.
“So, what we’re going to do is pretend that the center of this table is an altar to God, and we’re going to put your ‘rights’ that you wrote down on your papers onto that altar and offer them back to God. Now, that’s easier said than done because you’ve spent a lifetime building your sense of entitlement in life and you’re not going to unlearn that attitude in a single day. So, what we’re going to do is, you’re going to have daily meetings at the dining room table and ask around the table if anyone has gotten angry at someone else that day and you’ll talk about how those ‘rights’ need to be resubmitted to God all over again. Mom, you’ll be the secretary and you’ll right down what is discussed and how your family handled it. Next week, we’ll get together and talk about what happened at your family meetings.”
It took a few weeks, but before long the family changed their attitudes. The daughter recalled a day when she saw one of her dresses crumpled up on the bed… and she picked it up, thanked God for her sister, and rehung the dress in her closet. The father came home to a meal that had been burned, told his wife that he loved her and that he was so grateful she committed to cooking the meals for the family. The wife told of seeing her husband’s clothing on the floor, picking them up and putting them in the hamper, and thanking God she had a husband who supplied for the family. In time, warfare was replaced with kindness and peace.
So, we don’t get to be angry, but God does. How come?
God gets to be angry because He owns everything… it’s all His.
He created everything.
And do you know the one thing God created that is most important to Him?
Us.
You and I were made in the image of God.
No other creation has that distinction. We are valuable to Him beyond measure, and we literally belong to Him
So, because we belong to Him, God literally hates (and has a right to hate) anything or anyone who damages or destroys us. God has a right to be angry.
And, at one time, we were His enemies. We had been amongst those that damaged His creation.
Ephesians 2: 3 says “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of WRATH.”
But… now wait a minute.
We WERE objects of wrath?
We’re not objects of wrath anymore?
What happened?
Well, Jesus happened.
Thru Jesus God found a way to forgive us of what had made Him angry. “…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved…. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:4-5 & 8
God hates sin… and He hates those who sin.
But if those who sin look to Jesus, repent of their sins, acknowledge that Jesus will now own us, and allow ourselves to be washed free of our sins in the waters of baptism…
God WANTS to forgive us.
And God has always been like that.
Psalm 103 says it this way:
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion… The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.” Psalm 103:2-4 & 9-13
CLOSE: You see, God has never changed.
He has always sought ways to forgive us.
He is angry with sin and with sinners, but God never loses His temper. He has vowed that He will not keep His anger forever but will have compassion on those who fear Him.
INVITATION
