Put Away Your Anger, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He says, Let no one wholesome word come from your mouth, only words that edify.

That's an amazing thing. He said, According to the need of the moment so that you will give grace to those who hear. Have you ever thought yourself, according to God, what you should be is a grace dispenser? That's in your job description.

I mean, think of it from this point of view. Why are you here? Why are you going to heaven? Why are you saved? What did you do?

Nothing at all. What did you receive? The grace of God. How thankful will you be forever because of the grace of God? How important to you is the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God? Oh, it's just incredible. God says, Yeah, you received it.

You love it. Now dispense it. I want you to dispense grace. 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. Are we that way? You see, am I really slow to my anger? That's why he warns us to be angry and do not sin. He also says, Don't let the sun go down on your anger. This is a versus married couples use this verse a lot.

You know, maybe you've done it. The Bible tells us never to let this they say a little paraphrase Bible tells us never to go to bed angry. OK. That's a good thing.

I'm not denying that's a good thing. That's not what the verse is saying. When he says, let don't let the sun go down on your anger. He means this.

It's an idiom. He means first, if you're going to be angry, be angry at only what God is. Secondly, don't sin.

And three, keep it short. Be slow to anger and keep it short. Now, some of you are still angry at things that happened in the 80s. You know, I mean, you're still angry. I'm still mad at that. That still makes me mad.

He said, no, no, don't do that. If you're going to have any anger. What even if you see the memory said last week in Romans said, look, don't take out vengeance on anyone. Just leave it in my hands. I'll take care of it. The reason you shouldn't take care of it is God can't trust you and you can't trust you.

You do it poorly. You see, so he warns us in that verse to be angry, but he says, do not sin. Then he goes on and says, do not give the devil an opportunity. Now he gets the point, what's really behind your anger?

How about this? Who's really behind your anger? The devil, your enemy. Does he know how to make you angry? Does he ever?

And then he can orchestrate the events. And here comes your anger boiling up. I can't believe it.

It makes me so mad when I hear that. You're just giving the devil an opportunity. You don't want to do that. So he then does a summary verse of what he talks about, how I want this change to be. I want this change to be complete for you. So he uses an example in verse twenty eight. He who steals must still no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

Now, that's a complete transformation. What am I? I'm a thief.

What do I do? I steal. OK, you're a Christian.

Yes. Stop stealing. Well, then what do I do? You get a good job. And by the way, when you have a good job, it's not even for you. Get a good job.

Use some of it for you and use the rest to help people who have need. That's a complete transformation. That's why he uses that verse.

That's his point. When it comes to anger, it should be the same kind of transformation. So he goes on and he says this. And from here on, it's interesting. He says there should be, he said, about six things, six completely different kinds of things. He said that we should be able to change.

Six things in our lives, he said, that we should be different about. Now, if you're starting to think like, boy, I don't know if I could, I'm really struggling with this. I don't know if I can really do this. I don't know if I can make that big a transformation. You already have the capacity to do that in your flesh. What?

Yeah, in your flesh. Let me give you an example because I've experienced it. You and your spouse start out with a typical spousal argument. And I call it, in the beginning, it's just spitballs. You know, we're just throwing them at each other and going at it a little bit. Then someone got hit in the eye and so then they bring out rocks.

And they move from rocks to knives. Then someone gets a gun out. Then a cannon rolls out. And then there's always the nuke at the end.

The nuke usually goes back years and years and is always introduced by you always, you never, you did this. And then I call. They're screaming and yelling and then the phone rings. Hello? Oh, this is Pastor Bill. Hi, Pastor Bill. How are you doing? How are you? Yeah, no, we're fine.

What is that? You're controlling it. Well, I had to because Pastor Bill called. God is right there in the room with you.

You would act like that in front of him. But if Pastor Bill called, I can control this. So even in your flash, you can control your anger.

So certainly in your spirit, you should be able to do that. And so what he ends up doing here and making it really clear to us is he says to us, look, there's just some things that we're going to really have to be able to do here. Six things, he says, if you're going to control your anger, these are six things you must put away. One, he said.

Well, let me let me before I start that, I want to say this part. He says two things in verse twenty nine and thirty. He said, look, generally speaking, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. But only such a word.

It is good for edification according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear. First thing you've got to do in your transformation is no unwholesome word. The translation I like is unkind. Notice he says no. So how many unkind words can I say? None.

Not one. I use this verse often when I'm someone's coming in and there's going to be some sort of disagreement or confirmation, you know, something coming on that I think could turn to be problematic. And I'll say in my prayer life, Lord, make sure I don't say something unkind here. I need your strength for this because I got a hunch my human nature is if you say unkind things to me, I'll probably say him back.

You see, that's the nature of it. And he said, no, you don't have any room for this. That word, by the way, is sapros and it means rotten, literally in Greek.

That's why they had a little bit trouble translating it. So he says, let no unwholesome word come from your mouth. Only words that edify.

That's an amazing thing. He said, according to the need of the moment, so that you will give grace to those who hear. You ever think of yourself that way? Have you ever thought yourself, according to God, what you should be is a grace dispenser?

That should be your that's in your job description. I mean, think of it from this point of view. Why are you here? Why are you going to heaven? Why are you saved? What did you do?

Nothing at all. What did you receive? The grace of God. How thankful will you be forever because of the grace of God? How important to you is the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God? Oh, it's just incredible. God says, yeah, you received it.

You love it. Now dispense it. I want you to dispense grace.

You see, when we end up getting angry or getting in an argument, what ends up happening is we have our own perverted view of justice and we argue for it. But you love receiving grace. You just don't like distributing grace.

He said, no, you should do that. Your word should be filled with grace for edification to help people. Remember, he said, I said it the first week, a kind word turns away wrath.

You see, a kind word turns away wrath. I can still remember an illustration on a national level. I was reading an excerpt in a paper from Teddy Kennedy and Ronald Reagan was president. Kennedy's a very, you know, power was a very powerful left wing Democrat. And so he said, when Reagan was in office, he said he just did things that just made me so angry. I despise some of the things he was doing.

And as a prominent senator, you know, he said, I just I just I just couldn't stand the things that was happening. So he said, I'd call the White House and tell him I'd like to make an appointment. And Reagan would tell him, sure, bring let him come down. So he said, I'd go into the White House. And he said, and go into the Oval Office and start talking to the president. He said, now, the next 15, 20 minutes is kind of foggy to me. But all I know is when we got out to the front, I was getting in my car. He had his arm around me and we were talking. And he said, I was telling him how much I expected when I got in the car. He said he turned what I thought was going to be a very big confrontation into this.

Give me a hug and get in the car thing. That's what the scripture is talking about. How can I take a kind word and be able to destroy or move away the wrath that was already there? So then he says also, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

You ever think about that? In your own selfish anger, do you know how God feels? He's grieved. He's grieved by your anger. The Spirit of God is grieved. That's an emotional word. I can't believe what they're doing.

I just can't believe what they're doing here. That's something we need to think about. Now he gives six things in that we have to put away. He said, let all bitterness first one bitterness.

Now understand something about these six things. Paul assumes in this text, all of us and everyone he's reading have been mistreated by other people. He's talking about the things that make you and I angry. One of them is when people really mistreat us. And he said, yeah, I know you've been mistreated.

I'm not talking about that, but I'm telling you how you should respond to this mistreatment. So he says, let all bitterness, the very first characteristic. I've called bitterness the cancer for the soul in the past. It's a devastating thing to see as someone who becomes bitter. Bitter people keep score. That's what they do.

They just keep score. And by the way, if you want to be bitter and you want to keep score, you're going to be bitter. You live on a cursed planet. Everyone around you is sinful. If you want to be bitter, you can be bitter. You can die as bitter as possible.

Because on a certain level, life stinks. You see, there's always people doing things all the time to other people. It's always going on. I was reading a pastor this week and he said that he had a woman come into his office for some pastoral counseling about their marriage. And she had she had 16 tight pages of all the things that her husband had ever done to her. 16 pages. And she said, I'm just here because what can I do?

What can I do with this man? And he said, the first thing you have to do is burn those 16 pages. She gathered it. She remembered everything.

I imagine went back to their dating days. Every disappointment she ever had. You can't do that. If you carry that with you, you become bitter. You know, you can't become bitter because it ruins your life and affects the lives of those around you.

But if you think I'm justified in my bitterness in a certain way, you are. There's a lot of terrible stuff that happens. You know that you can't have a view of life that's any different than that.

You just begin to accumulate. I've seen one of the most tragic things I've seen is this run into an 80 year old Christian who's been a Christian since they've been teenagers and they're bitter about everything. And the first thing they'll do is tell me all the terrible things they went through. But what is the outcome of the way they handled those things? They're miserable. It made them miserable.

You see, that's. That's what's wrong with bitterness. Hebrews 12, 15 says, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. No root of bitterness springing up causes any trouble because by it, many people are defiled.

You don't want to be bitter. Secondly, wrath. The second thing he says that we must get rid of wrath, put away wrath. The NIV says rage.

I believe there. The Greek word means to boil. This is people who are explosive, have outbursts. Don't do that. And you know what those people often do? And I've heard it. Well, yes, I do get really I do explode, but I get over and it's done with. You know, that's the same thing when you shoot a gun. It was just a moment. Yeah, but there's a corpse right there.

Well, but it was a moment. So you you've got to get rid of that. You can't justify that.

You can't do that. And so he says you've got to get rid of wrath. Thirdly, anger. This word means seething anger. See, some people are angry and you know it and then some people are angry and you don't.

You see, and that and by the way, that can be really a difficult thing. You marry somebody and they're angry, but you don't know it. But you will.

Like sooner or later, if they're a stuffer or a seater, it's going to come out. They're going to they're going to be angry. Now, remember, he's already said, don't let the sun go down in your anger. You shouldn't ever be seething and storing anger.

There's no place for it. Fourthly, he says clamor, cragouge is the word. It's only used a couple of times in the whole New Testament. It means shouting or crying out loud.

Again, it's got this idea of the explosiveness. Then he says, put away all slander. Great English word for this. It's when you talk to some people about what other people did to you and made you angry. See, you know what John did to me? I know you think a world jumping, you know what he did to me?

What are you doing? You're slandering him. You see, you're slandering him. It was between you and John and you're slandering to someone else. So they'll change their opinion of John because of your anger. The last one is malice.

That's ill will towards someone else. Paul experienced so much of this. Just imagine what it was like. Every place he went, he was the recipient of anger. He was beaten with rods. He was stoned and left for death.

I mean, everything that happened to Paul, he received all this and he's the guy writing it. He said, you have to put all this away, every bit of it away as a Christian. And he says, then you must replace these six things with these three characteristics. Characteristic number one, he said, be kind to one another. Be kind.

Wow. First Corinthians 13, which he used in weddings. Love is.

We say that all the time. Love is kind. Love is kind. Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians five.

What's part of the fruit of the Spirit? Kindness. He said, you have to be kind. It says in Luke six that God is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Amazing. He said, you have to be kind. Secondly, you have to be tender hearted. The NIV says compassionate here. You know, one of the ways you have to see people, no matter what happens to you, they're not the enemy. They're victims of your enemy. Your enemy has victimized them. Don't be angry at them. Well, I just hate what these people are doing in Baton Rouge or Washington. Yeah, I just hate.

Hey, everybody, everybody is a victim in this case. Don't hate them. As I said earlier, hate the sin. But we say it all the time, but not the sinner. But it's not easy to get angry at the sin. It's easier to get angry at a face, angry at a sinner.

And then lastly, and most importantly, he said, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. You have to be forgiving. By the way, that's the answer to anger. And what's the answer to anger? Forgiving.

What's the what's the answer to having a great marriage? Forgiving. What's the anger to raising your children the right way? Forgiving.

What's the anger to being a good neighbor? Forgiving. Forgiveness is the answer. Think about it. It's the answer for you and me. I'm not going to hell.

You know why? God forgave me. I didn't deserve it.

I didn't earn it. He forgave me. Forgiveness is the balm, the healing balm of all relationships, because we all sin, fall short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one. So he says, you need to be forgiving.

Then it gets worse. He said, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. How many times has God forgiven you? How many sins has he forgiven you? How many sins has he forgiven you since you became one of his children? He said, Yeah, that's exactly the way I want you to forgive everybody else. Now, please understand something here.

This is a time to sort of become more like God than you imagine. When you forgive somebody, you have to pay the price. When you forgive somebody, you bear the burden. You pay the price of the pain that they caused. Just like Christ did. You see, forgiveness didn't come without pain, but it came to the forgiver.

It came to Jesus Christ. He bore the pain because he's the one who forgave. If you're going to forgive somebody, you have to bear the pain. And understand, when you bear them, just like on the cross.

You have to be done with it, then. Every reminder you get is pain you bear. But you don't bring that up again. Remember what God said? I will forgive them of their trespasses. And then he said, I'll take them to sea, I'll dump them overboard, and I'll remember them no more.

And I've had people say to me, Yeah, but that's God. He can forget, but I can't forget. God doesn't forget anything. Ever.

I have a hunch you do. God never forgets anything. He chooses not to remember. You have to choose not to remember.

What's that mean? I can't bring up my pain from something you did to me two years ago. Again, I have to bear that pain. That's why forgiveness is hard and at great cost. It's hard to be a forgiver because it's like, Wait a minute, I want to be mad. I want to be angry. I'll bear the pain. He said, Just as Christ has forgiven you.

So I must be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving. Now, you might be thinking right now for this reason. I don't think I can do this. I know who I am and I know what my life's been. I don't think I can do this. Let me give you the short answer. It's OK. You can't.

You can't do this. That's who you are. Look across the page at verse 18 of Ephesians 5, right in the same context. Ephesians 5, 18. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. What happens when you're drunk? What controls you? Alcohol. I'm drunk. He said, Don't do that.

That's just stupidity. But be filled or controlled by the Spirit of God. We know we're going to be indwelled by the Spirit of God, but we have to be controlled by the Spirit of God. If you're controlled by the Spirit of God, by the way, you can do all these things. In fact, Paul said that to the Philippians, didn't he? He said, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

So there's no out force here. You see, when it comes to anger, God says, Put it aside. James said, Be slow about it. Solomon said, See life the way God sees it. Well, for some of us, it's a lifetime pattern and there are casualties everywhere. We need to begin to think about anger the way God has told us to think. Let's pray. Father, anger is so pervasive in our society and so pervasive in our lives. We have been angry for such a long time that we keep using it as a default. And yet we shouldn't. We have to put aside the old self. We have to offer ourselves up to you as a living sacrifice.

We have to put on the new self, which we have. We have to find ourselves dependent on the power of the Spirit within us so that we can begin to deal with the anger in our lives. If we do that, Father, not only will other people benefit who we've been angry at for so long, but more importantly, we will benefit. It will change our heart. It will change our peace and hope and joy. Father, I pray as we look at just some of the verses in the Bible and anger that you have spoken to us in a meaningful way.

In Jesus' name, amen. 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.