Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. See, one of the things about our fallen nature, whether you want to realize at night, you are extraordinarily in your flesh, self-absorbed.
Extraordinary. As long as the circumstances play right for you, you're happy. But when they're not, you're not.
In fact, you could be angry when you don't get what you want. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Now you have this great revival. How would you feel for Jonah? Pretty good, huh? I let all these people.
This is amazing. Watch. But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. Who's he angry at? God. He got angry at God.
He's a prophet of God. Yeah, he got angry at God. By the way, if circumstances are right in your life, you get angry as well.
Now, we don't like to admit that. But we get angry. If you've been through unbelievable sorrow or deep grief, you know what it is to be angry at God.
Because understand this. What can God do? Anything, right? And why did my wife die? I prayed my guts out to him and my wife died. And he could do anything. You see where anger can come from here? See, that's the whole point of the book of Job. Look how many terrible things Job had to go through.
You see, it's just unbelievably terrible. Because if God could do anything, why did he do what I wanted him to do? The short answer is because he's God.
You see, there's a difference here than this. So we get angry. He's angry because his people were saved. He prayed to the Lord and now watch what he says. He said, please, Lord, was this not what I said while I was still in my own country?
Therefore, in order to restore this, I fled to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. That's grace modified.
That's the word hesed in Hebrew. And one who relents concerning calamity. I knew you'd do this. I just knew you'd do this.
You know, God, here's what he's saying. You know what I don't like about you? You're too compassionate. Too much loving kindness, too much grace.
I just knew you'd do something like this against these people that I hate. How did Jonah become a prophet? God. How did Jonah have a relationship with God? Every one of us is just a recipient of the grace of God. Who are you and I to talk about that I just knew you'd do something like this?
And then we're angry about it. You think Jonah has any underlying issues here? You see his hatred and his prejudice. Notice what God says.
First in verse 3, Jonah says, Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life. I'd rather be dead. Kill me. You see, kill me. Do we got enemies? Do you know enemies? Countries, people, criminals.
The other party, whatever, enemies. You see, I don't want, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want that to happen. You're not God. Listen, when COVID broke out last March, God didn't go, Oh my, what happened? What am I going to do? What happened?
He knew forever it was breaking out. Don't even get me going on the whole political ideas. God says, I put pagan kings like Nebuchadnezzar on the throne.
I put them on, I take them off when I want. I'm sovereign over all this. That should give us comfort. But for many of us, it gives us anger. Now I'm really mad.
Why? God is sovereign. And he's good, compassionate. We're just saying he's a good, good father. If you didn't mean it, don't sing it.
You see, that's the whole idea. So what am I mad about? He said, I'd rather be dead. That shows you how much depth to the fallen human spirit there is that I'd rather be dead than have my enemy blessed by God. God said to him, do you have good reason to be angry?
No. You know what you are? You're a sinner saved by grace. You know why your sins are forgiven? God.
You know why you're going to heaven? God. What did you do to deserve any of it?
Nothing. You have to remember that. All have sinned to fall short of the glory of God. That's your friends and your enemies. The scripture says if you violate one aspect of the law, you're guilty of the whole thing.
That's everybody. So where do we come up from this position that our enemies are worthy of destruction but our friends are worthy of heaven? He said, then Jonah went out from the city and sat on the east of it.
And there he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what was going to happen to the city. He has another prayer that's implied here. Maybe God will change his mind and kill them all. He might. You see, I'd like to see that.
I'd like to see this whole city just turn to ashes. That'd make me feel good. Well, it says then that so the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head and deliver him from discomfort. Grace, right? Now watch.
And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. Hey! I'd rather be dead and see those people, you see, turn to God. I got shade. I just love it.
It's cool. I just, this is great. So often what we end up doing is that we think of the circumstances or what we want them to be, we're happy.
And when the circumstances are not what we like, we're angry. That's Jonah. He's happy with a plant. Now what did he do to deserve the plant? Nothing. Who gave him the plant? Sovereign God. And now he's happy.
Now watch. But God appointed a worm. When dawn came the next day, it attacked the plant and it withered.
Now think. You've got a plant that's big enough to give you shade. What kind of worm is this?
I mean, really, what kind of worm is this? Took the plant down the next day. Jonah's response.
And it came about when the sun came up. God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and he begged with all his soul to die. Death is better than life for me. These are terrible circumstances.
I'd rather be dead. Are you starting to get a picture of this guy? God says, do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? Yes.
It was hot. Think of that. What does that tell you about him? How self-absorbed is this guy? You see, one of the things about our fallen nature, whether you want to realize at night, you are extraordinarily in your flesh self-absorbed.
Extraordinary. As long as the circumstances play right for you, you're happy. But when they're not, you're not. In fact, you could be angry when you don't get what you want. So God said, do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? He looked right to God and said, I have good reason even to death. Notice how defiant that is. Instead of saying, oh, Lord, I'm sorry. That's ridiculous. No, I do.
I should die rather than be hot. The Lord said to him, you had compassion on a plant for which you did not work, which you didn't cause the grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who did not know the difference between right and left hand as well as many animals? That's an Hebrew expression for children. That's why I said that population's probably about 600,000.
120,000 kids. So think of the issues again that he has. Once again, self-absorbed, angry at God. Because I want what I want. So often why we get angry.
One more. John chapter 7 in the New Testament. Jesus this time. And I'll pick it up in verse 21. Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. Okay, he heals the man on the Sabbath. And this is the reaction to him healing a man on the Sabbath. And Jesus speaks to it and says in verse 21, I did one deed and you're all marveled. They're very upset with him.
You'll see in a moment. He said, for this reason, Moses has given you circumcision, not because it's from Moses, but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man. By the time Jesus shows up, the Pharisees had taken the Sabbath laws and actually added hundreds and hundreds of additions to them.
Some of them are hilarious. It's just unbelievable the micro-ness of their laws of you breaking the Sabbath. Okay, there was only one exception you could do on the Sabbath. If a boy was coming into his fourth day after he was born, you can circumcise him on the Sabbath, which is work in any other time. But not on the Sabbath. You don't have to call it work because circumcision is important.
It's a sign of being a Jew. Now, I want you to think about this. What is the Sabbath supposed to teach? Rest. Grace. That's what the Sabbath teaches. It teaches grace.
God will provide. Remember, they were supposed to let every seventh year the land lay so that God would provide the food they needed. The idea of the Sabbath is this is my grace.
You just rest. That's how it started. Now, they turned it into a religious activity. Also, in the Bible, Jesus is called the Lord of the Sabbath. So this isn't just some guy. This is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Why? He's the bringer of grace to mankind. He's full of grace and truth. He's also Israel's Messiah. So Jesus doesn't circumcise a boy.
He brings and restores a man back to health. Now, the response. He said, if a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? What are they angry about? Unmet expectations. We're religious leaders. We tell you what to do, and you're not doing it. That's an unmet expectation. Now, are there expectations biblical?
No, slightly. But they don't care. They're angry because he doesn't meet their expectations.
Does that sound anything like you? I have expectations. Look, for years and years and years, I've been doing marriage counseling.
And on almost every case when a couple's in here, you know what a lot of it is about? Unmet expectations. You're not the man that I thought you would be. You're not the woman. You see, you didn't meet my expectations. And I'll say things, well, what are God's expectations in this marriage?
I don't know. I don't care. I know my expectations. They don't meet my expectations.
You see, that makes us mad. But the truth of the matter is the only expectations anyone has to meet are God's, not yours. That's why he says right after, don't you judge people. You don't have a right to judge.
You can't do that. But that's what they did. So what you end up seeing here is that they, in all three of these cases, show the danger of anger and how unrighteous it is.
And I'll explain that now. Let's go to James 1, James chapter 1, verses 16 through 20. James 1.
James says, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, tender. He said, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above. Now, on a fallen planet in a cursed world with sinful people, every good thing that is given to you comes from where? That's what God said. Every good thing that's ever happened in your life comes from where? Do you deserve it? No. But God gives it.
Why? His nature. Jonah said, I know what you're like. You're compassionate. You're forgiving, all that stuff. So he said, he says, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth from the word of truth so that we would kind of be the first fruits among his creatures. That's the gospel. He saved us by grace through faith. He said, this you know, my beloved brethren.
Then he says this to us, our responsibility. Everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Quickly listen to what?
To what God has said. Slow to speak. But slow to anger. Why do I have to be slow to anger? Because I have a sinful nature. I have to be slow to anger.
I'm commanded to be slow. Notice what he says then. For the anger of a man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Now so often we think our anger is righteous indignation. But most of the time it's not. We never achieve the righteousness of God with our anger.
You see, that's not the way this works. Even if I was angry, how I would speak to somebody has a lot to do with that I'm slow to anger, methodical about anger, and how I present it. In Ephesians, Paul said, speak the truth in love. Now when you're angry, you're probably pretty good with the truth, right?
How you doing with the love part? Well, honey, I'd just like to explain something again. I think what you did, you see, no, we're not going to do that. I said last time, you know, I read a book back in the 1970s on an expert on marriage said, in the context of marriage, whenever you're going to go through conflict or fight, ask the other person's permission to get angry.
And even then I thought, that's just stupid. Because look, my wife said to me, can I get angry? Here's my answer. No.
No. Why am I going to give you permission to start yelling at me? I mean, the point of it is, see, that's slow to anger.
You've got to be slow to understand how I'm going to handle this. Because he said, by principle, you do not achieve the righteousness of God. This isn't a God thing.
You're not achieving anything. And righteousness is dikaiosune, is the word. It's used 92 times in the New Testament.
And it means rightness, correctness in thinking and feeling, integrity, how things ought to be. When you're angry, you're not doing that. You're not achieving the righteousness of God.
You're just ventilating your flesh. So we have to be slow to anger. The other thing is, we have to be motivated to try to understand and ask the question in prayer, why? Why are you angry? Why are you angry? You see, we get angry about the circumstances of life.
So a lot of people, and I'm sure if I had lost loved ones, and many people have, through COVID, it's a terrible thing. And if I'm really angry about it, and I want to blame somebody about it, but I'm still back to the same question, is God sovereign over this? You see, is God loving? He's compassionate. Does He see the whole? He says, I see the end from the beginning. Was He aware of this? He uses that all things work together for the good.
Are all these things true or not true? Oh, yeah, I guess. But I like it when only good things happen. There's only one place in all creation and beyond creation where good things always happen. It's called heaven. It's never going to happen here.
A lot of bad stuff happens here. That's part of the whole idea. Do I trust God in this or not? Or do I get angry? You see that, and I get it. You see, that's why He said, look, I'm not saying all anger is sin, but He said, I'm telling you, be slow to anger. Really be slow. And most of the things we do that do real harm is because we're not slow. We just have an outburst.
We just say what we want to say. We saw this kind of anger, orge, it means wrathful. That's the word James uses. We saw it in Cain. We saw it in Jonah.
We saw it in the leaders of Israel. God's just warning us. One last passage, Romans 12, verse 17. Romans 12, 17.
He tells us all the good stuff in the beginning, by the way, in verse 9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
Give preference to one another in honor. Don't lag behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope. He said, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. These are all wonderful things.
Then he says this. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and don't curse.
Oh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to bless those who persecute me. God said, I want you to.
I want you to see life the way I see it. And then he says, rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haunted or proudful in your mind. Associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Because if you do that, you're going to get in trouble. By the way, really angry people are always wise in their own estimation. Not in anybody else's, but in their estimation.
Then he says this. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. So how many people can we pay evil back that's done evil to us? How many? None.
That doesn't sound right. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Here's a verse you ought to put in the refrigerator. If possible, so far as it depends on you, you be at peace with all men. I don't like how many men.
All of them if it's up to you. You see, this is how God sees life. This isn't how we see it. Then he says this. Never take your own revenge. Beloved, leave room for the wrath of God. It is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he's thirsty, give him a drink. He said, for in so doing, you will be heaping coals on his head. You do not overcome evil by evil, but evil with good. Don't ever take out vengeance on your own.
Why? You leave vengeance in whose hands? God.
We leave justice in whose hands? God. God says, let me have that, not you.
Why can't I have it? Because it'll ruin me. You see, because of my flesh, it'll ruin me. It'll help me be more self-absorbed, more proudful, doing more harm, not achieving the righteousness of God.
All this will happen. Some of us, by the way, are really angry people, and the rest of us have never heard a peep from you. Because you repress it. And then you become passive aggressive. And then you go from angry people to bitter people. Then the bitterness becomes your identity. And then you become a cynical, sarcastic, bitter person because you didn't deal with anger. You refused to deal with it. You just repressed it. So in closing, remember, anger is a secondary response. Ask yourself the question, what's really going on here? Two, pray for that kind of insight about your anger.
Three, just be slow. If something's making you angry, be slow to anger. Pray about that. And lastly, and maybe most importantly, things that make you angry, let God be God in that situation. If you do that, it's such a freeing thing. And I don't walk around all churned up. That's in God's hands.
And I trust him. Let's pray. Father, anger is such a continual problem for so many of us. For some of us to such a degree, it's become who we are. We're just angry people. And by the way, as sinning people living on a cursed planet, we have so many things we can be angry about. We could spend our whole life angry every moment of every day for all of the failures and injustices that we see around us. But none of that would achieve the righteousness of God.
None of that will help us as we try to walk close to you. Father, I pray that in this series we begin to learn we need to see life the way you see life. I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ...
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