Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.
What should I do? Well, one would be, why don't I pray to God about this? You see, God sort of tells us this.
Why don't I pray to God about it? Remember what God said in Romans 12? He said, vengeance is mine, I will repay.
You see that? God knows what's just and what's not just. He said, give it to me. Let me handle this. Don't fill your heart with hate and anger. Don't fill your speech with all kinds of condemning and horrible words.
Don't do that. Just tell me. And trust me, I'll make sure it's right in the end. See, that's an amazing perspective of it for us as a believer. 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. Elliot Larson says, anger always comes from frustrated expectations. That's why we get angry.
By the way, that's what marital conflict is. You get frustrated expectations. I expected more from my wife. I expected more from my husband. I expect you to act and you don't get it.
You get angry. And then all you have to be is a parent. Wow. Look, if you ever got up and raised all the way someone to a teenager and you think they met every expectation I could ever have, man, you ought to patent that. You know, that's amazing.
It's frustrating. It's all part of who we are. We have these unmet expectations. You see, I expect to be treated by my government in a certain way. I expect to go to the hospital and be treated in a certain way.
And when I'm not treated the way I expect, I get frustrated and I get angry. He said, that's what ends up happening. That's what James says.
So James goes on and he says, you lust and you do not have. Now watch. So you commit murder. What?
Wait, he's writing to a church. So they got mad at each, they got angry at each other and they started killing each other? No. No.
This is hyperbole. But something interesting about this. Who is this James?
Do you know? He's James, the Lord's brother. He is an unbeliever until the resurrection. He does not convert to Christ until the resurrection. When he saw his brother raised from the dead, he became a believer.
He became the lead elder of the Jerusalem church. He's a pretty amazing guy. And he's writing this. And I think when he wrote that, he knows it's hyperbole. But I think he remembered something. You remember on Jesus Christ talking, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, You say, for instance, thou shall not murder. But I say, if you've ever had anger in your heart, you are a murderer.
Wow. Do you think James might have heard that in all those 30 years he spent with Jesus? Yeah, I remember him saying, I didn't know what he meant. You see, and he says, so he uses it here. He uses the hyperbole. Jesus Christ says, our anger condemns us before God, just like murder would.
Murder is obviously worse because of the ramifications for humans. He said, you lost, you do not have, you commit murder, you are envious, cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Unmet expectations. He said, that's why we fight. That's why we go through this. Now, what's interesting about this is a lot of the ways in which we get angry is not the same way God gets angry. One thing you're going to read in the New Testament and Old Testament alike is, I'll give you an example. Psalm 78, speaking of God, but he, God, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity. He did not destroy them, and he often restrained his anger, and he did not arouse his wrath. God has tremendous patience with human beings. He never flies off the handle and just acts angry over something that was done wrong. Exodus 34, 6, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, he is very slow to anger, abounding in love and kindness and truth. You see, we should be long suffering. Anger should be a very last thing of a long process that we observe sin.
It's never something we should just fly off the handle with and do from that point of view. You see, because righteous anger, even if you're angry about the right thing, can turn to evil if it comes out of your human heart and out of your human mouth in which you deal with it. So, it's wrong to use Ephesians 4, 26, and most of our anger comes out of our own heart, even with a hyperbole. Now, what's that mean?
Now, listen to this part. This part is worth remembering, because I get this all the time in counseling. When you get angry and I get angry, it's not my mom. It's not my dad. It's not my kids. It's not my wife, not my husband, not my neighbor, not my boss, not my government.
It's not that at all. You know where anger came from? Right here, from me. I choose to be angry. The answer to your anger is not a who. It's a what.
Where does it come from? Boy, boy, anyone ever said this to you or you ever said it? Every time I get around that guy, I just get so angry, as though it's that guy's fault. You see, it's his fault.
I wouldn't be angry, except for him or except for them, except for that. You see, you can't use that. Under the Word of God, he says, look, this comes from your heart. This is you.
This is what you do. You get angry. Anger is an inside job.
It's not outward, and you can't use it quite that way. Well, now, obviously, sin should make us angry. That's where it comes on. Real sin should make us angry. The question would be, though, when I display my anger, is it from my heart or from God? Well, first of all, if you say an unkind word, it doesn't come from God. You see, if you don't say a word that edifies them, it doesn't come from God. If you don't offer them grace, that doesn't come from God. That all comes from you. That's you, justifying yourself because you're angry. You see, and that's what he keeps saying here. We should be angry at exactly the right type of thing. Let me give you an example. Does abortion make you angry?
It should. It's murdering babies. We should be angry about that.
So what do we do? I just tell those people I can't stand them. They'll burn in hell for that, and I'll scream at them. Really?
That's what you should do? Are those words unkind? Are they edifying? They're not. So don't say that. That's your flesh speaking. That's not God speaking.
Well, what do I do then? Well, remember the center we use on the West Bank? What do those ladies do? Are they angry about abortion? Of course they are. That's why they have a ministry. See, that's what they do.
And they just yell it. No, they don't. They welcome all those people in. They give them every possibility they have for them to choose to have their baby.
Every one of them. They love on them. Some of them have chosen abortion, and guess what they do? They still love on them.
You see, they still love on them. The whole idea behind it is, I want so much for you to come to the position, and they're overwhelmingly successful of young women who went in there thinking they would get an abortion who decided to have a baby. If you're angry about abortion, that's the kind of thing you want to be involved in. You don't want to be yelling and screaming at people. See, that's not righteous anger. That's human anger from your own flesh.
So, hmm. Maybe look at it this way. The next time you get angry, ask yourself this question. Ask yourself, am I angry because I didn't get what I wanted in anything? Am I angry because I did not get what I wanted? You see, who likes to be disrespected? Nobody. You don't want respect.
Has there ever been anyone in your life that's disrespected you? Yeah, and that makes me angry. You see, we have to be so careful, almost always in anger.
Larson's thing is correct. It's a frustrated expectation that we have that's not being met. So, we have to be careful using Ephesians 4.26 to support our anger, and we must realize that our anger comes out of our own sinful heart.
So, what should we do about it? Go with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians, very close to chapter 3 and verse 1. Colossians 3 verse 1. Paul, starting in the last part of the letter again, says this, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, and by the way, we all have. That's a first-class condition of assumption, if.
It means since. Since you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden in Christ and God. So, therefore, when Christ, who is my life, our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. For you and I as a believer, my life is Christ. My life is hidden in him. My perspective is where he is.
That's how I see my life. Paul says, yeah, that's the perspective you have to have. He said, therefore, verse 5, Consider the members of your earthly body as dead.
That word consider means reckon. It takes faith to do that. Paul uses the same argument in Romans. He said, how do I not sin so much? He said, you have to reckon yourself dead to sin. In other words, Paul's view is, before I came to Christ, I sinned because I had to. Now that I'm a Christian, the Spirit of God indwells me, I sin because I want to.
It's a difference. You see, that's what he is saying. He said, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, greed, and that all amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will one day come upon the sons of disobedience.
And in them, you once lived when you were living in them. Now, here's what he says. But now, put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, abuse of speech from your mouth. That word anger is orge, normal word. Let me paraphrase it loosely.
What is he saying here about anger? This part's deep, so try to listen. Stop it. Just stop it. That's what God said. Stop it.
Wow, we want a little more than that. What he uses is he says, put it aside. That's interesting. That's apotithomy. And that word means take off your clothes.
That's literally what it means. Take your anger, your slander, take all that. Take your clothes off and throw them off and leave them. Stop it. That's what God said.
Just stop it. Wow. That's it?
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Notice, all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abuse of speech from your mouth. That word wrath is thumus. Literally, that word means a fire and straw. You ever see how a fire goes in a straw? Pretty fast, huh?
What's an example of thumus? Do you remember when Jesus went back to Nazareth and he preached and he reads Isaiah and he goes, I have fulfilled it. This is all about Messiah.
And he said, I have fulfilled it. What do you think the response was to the Nazarites? How did they respond? Get them.
Let's get them. They discharged them. They ran them out of the synagogue and ran them to the edge of a precipice and they wanted to throw them over. That's thumus. That's rage.
They just reacted in total rage. He said, that's the kind of thing he means. But God says, look, just put it aside. Just stop it.
Stephen Cole writes this. He says, well, here Paul seems to say, you're angry? Stop it. But Paul, when I was a child, my parents abused me.
Now I seethe with anger. Put it all aside. But Paul, my wife nags me constantly and I eventually explode in anger. Put it all aside. But Paul, my husband's a workaholic who leaves all the household in dealing with the kids. To me, he's so inconsiderate.
I'm so angry with him. Put it all aside. But Paul, my kids sass me and don't do what I say.
No matter how many times I ask them to do it, all I can get them to obey is to yell at them. Put it all aside. But Paul, you don't understand, my boss at work favors his daughter who works with the company and he treats me terrible. I'm so angry.
I just hate him. Put it all aside. That's what God says. Put it aside. Why?
Because you can. I'm telling you, put it aside. Be done with it. Stop it.
What should I do? Well, one would be, why don't I pray to God about this? You see, God sort of tells us this.
Why don't I pray to God about it? Remember what God said in Romans 12. He said, vengeance is mine. I will repay.
You see that? God knows what's just and what's not just. He said, give it to me. Let me handle this. Don't fill your heart with hate and anger. Don't fill your speech with all kinds of condemning and horrible words. Don't do that.
Just tell me and trust me. I'll make sure it's right in the end. See, that's an amazing perspective of it for us as a believer. But we're to put it all aside.
Is there a way that anger can be handled well in the scripture? I read a story earlier this week. I thought it was interesting. Nehemiah 5. It's all about Nehemiah. They went back into the land in the Babylonian captivity. And things didn't go well in the land. But one thing that really happened is there were Jews in the land and went back who had wealth. There were a lot of Jews that didn't have wealth. They could barely make a go of it.
They had some really terrible times. So what the Jews who had wealth did is they decided then, okay, I'll give you money for a lot of interest. That's a violation of Jewish law.
Not allowed to do that. But they took their land as payment so they could feed them. They took their children and put them in slavery or certitude. Their children. And the Jews did it.
Two other Jews. Nehemiah finds out and he said, I was very angry. Very angry. So he calls them all together.
And it's a real interesting response that he gives. You'd think he would have yelled and screamed at them. He just told them what the Bible said. He said, this is against God's law. We can't do this.
You're not allowed to do this. Then twice he says, please. Please. Give them back their land. Please. Stop charging them. Please.
Don't enslave anybody. Guess what they did. Exactly what he said.
That's amazing. Sometimes you do that and you don't get any response. They all responded. They all said we repent of it. They all said amen to it. He even got the priest together and they all took an oath that they'll never do that again. But he never even raised his voice. He just said, please.
This is a violation of God's law. And it worked. But the key was, he said, I was very angry. Just imagine that.
Well, he should have done more yelling, shouldn't he? No. Jefferson said something. Right? It's just brilliant. And you know it.
You probably have heard it. Jefferson said, whenever I get angry, I count to ten. When I get very angry, I count to a hundred. Why does he say that? Because he knows himself. And he knows that when I'm really angry, I'm going to say something I'm going to regret. And if I'm very angry, it's going to be worse. You see, and that's what God is saying.
That's what we're supposed to look at here. One is this. First one, the Bible never commands us to do anything that we can't do. Especially with, for us, with God's indwelling spirit. The Bible never gives you a command that says, oh, I know they can't do it. If Jesus gives us a command, we can do this. That's why Paul said, I can do all things to him that strengthens me. The book of Proverbs has twelve verses to my anger.
It's a threat to us. Do you remember in Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel? Remember how that worked? Who spoke to Cain after he murdered his brother? God.
It was interesting. Do you think God would have come down and just, boy, really, he didn't? He said to him, Cain, why are you so angry? Now, do you know why he was so angry?
Frustrated expectations. He thought he could decide what to offer God. God didn't accept his offering, and he accepted Abel's. So he got mad, and he murders his brother. But then God gives him a warning.
He said, look, Cain, sin is crouching at your door because of your display of anger. You must master it. You must master it. You must control anger. Secondly, our own experience tells us that you can always control your anger. You think, well, I don't know if I can.
I'll bet you can. I've had this experience. Just imagine you and your wife are in a good fight. You know what a good fight is in marriage. It starts out with something insignificant, and then it just starts escalating. And you ever notice sometimes you end up in the same fight? Like, all of a sudden we add everything that you originally were disagreeing about, and you end up using words like always and never.
You always, you never, you know, were fighting. And you feel really hot. And then I call you. Ring, hello? This is Pastor Bill.
Oh, hi, Pastor Bill. How you doing? What, what?
What happened? You controlled your anger. Immediately, you start saying nice things.
Glad to help, you know, and all that stuff. Then you hang up. And another thing. That means you have control. You see, you have control. You just don't want to. Thirdly, always confess it as sin. If your word's unkind, they're not edifying, it's not full of grace, you're sinning. Just confess it to the Lord.
Fourthly, this one's tough for us. Accept your circumstances from God. They may not change. What do you mean?
They may not change. You see, say you're always angry at your neighbor. He's just a horrible human being.
All right? He blows his leaves on your yard, you know, all this stuff. And there's all this stuff that goes on. Do you know how long he's going to be your neighbor?
No, but I can tell you this, it could be till you're dead. You see, it could be. God doesn't always change our circumstances. Oh, this makes me so mad. It doesn't work that way. Well, I'll change it for you.
Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. And I'm going to have to live with what God's providence is in my life. This is my life. You're the people.
These are my neighbors. I can live with that because my well-being doesn't at all need circumstances or people to change for me not to be too frustrated. And the last thing, choose to forgive just as Christ has forgiven you. Always. Christ forgives you every day, unconditionally. That's what you've got to do. You get frustrated, they're not meeting your expectations, forgive them.
Pray to God. But forgive them. Anger can be more dangerous to you than it can be to the people you're angry at.
That's what he's telling us. We have to be careful. Father, we all get angry. Some of us have a real problem with it.
Lots of outbursts. Lots of casualties because of our anger. I pray your spirit will convict us of that. That that's not the way we should live. That's not what we should bestow on other people. We should follow your example.
Long suffering, patient. I pray, Father, that we understand that anger can change us more than it changes the people we're angry at. And we should be a kind, edifying, loving people in spite of our frustration. Just as you are with us. I pray this 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. .
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