210306 - Anger-Motivation or Destruction - Batchelder

Jonah is angry because God did not destroy the people as he had predicted. Anger can affect our thinking and physical health. It is important to handle anger properly and not let it lead to destruction. Cain's anger led him to kill his brother Abel. King Saul became angry and jealous when the people praised David. Anger can have negative consequences if not controlled. Jonah, chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry, and there's the anger, and so he prayed to the Lord and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I knew that you were a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said, Is it right for you to be angry? The Lord added his blessings by reading this word this morning, and as Dan brings us his message. Again, good morning. Happy Sabbath. What a beautiful day. You know, it was pretty chilly this morning. But in spite of that, there was a little bit of wind, but the sun was out. You get out of the wind and you get into the sun. It was just gorgeous. And it's still, it's beautiful. It's warmed up quite a bit now. But what a beautiful Sabbath day God's given to us today. You know, in that passage that Dan just read. And we want to look at that for a minute. And, you know, it's kind of like what I was just talking about to the kids story about not thinking right. You know, it says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. So he prayed to God and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish. For I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Why is Jonah mad? Well, that's part of it. But what's the first part that he just said about God? He was mad that God was full of loving kindness. He was slow to anger and he was gracious. And why was that such a bother to Jonah? Could have been that what he said didn't happen. Those people. Yeah. That's right. It made Jonah look like a fool. That's what he thought. It hurt his pride. He said, I knew this was going to happen. I was going to go in there. I was going to. You're going to destroy them. And, you know, they're going to go. Oh, no, we aren't going to do that. We're going to change. And then you're not going to zap them. So it makes me look really bad. One who relents from doing harm. Therefore, now, oh, Lord, please take my life from me. For it's better for me to die than live. Don't think right when you're angry. When you let anger get the best of you, you don't think right. Then the Lord said, is it right for you to be angry? You know, is it is it right for you to be mad at me because I didn't zap these people? Because I am a loving God. You know, we look at this this passage and we go, man, this guy really had a problem. Man, this guy really had a problem. But how many people have ever been angry and lose your cool? And when I'm talking about angry, I mean being really angry. And losing your cool. I've been there. I know what it's like. You don't think right. And the other thing, how does it make you feel? You know why it makes you feel awful? The chemicals that are produced in your body when you're angry raise your blood pressure, makes your heart race, it lowers your immune system. It messes up all sorts of functions in your body, your stomach. You just don't function properly. And you know, when you get angry like that, it lasts in your body at least 24 hours or longer. So what happens if you are angry, an angry person, and you're angry every day? Have you ever been in a situation where you're angry for many days? Or a year? Yeah, it does. I remember one time being angry for over a year. For over a year. And I just was miserable all the time. Didn't think straight, body wasn't functioning properly. I just felt lousy. So, that's why you don't feel right, too, when you get angry like that. So, is it wrong to be angry? God says to be angry. You know, in Ephesians chapter 4, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4. And yes, that's a trick question about, is it wrong to be angry? Ephesians 4.26, it says, Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, on your wrath or anger. I'm reading also from the New King James today. So, really angry, being angry is what you do with the anger. You know, the title of the study today is Anger, Motivation or Destruction. You know, anger can motivate you. I think of Abraham Lincoln, OK? He was angry about the slave trade. And he was motivated to stop that. And because of his anger of it, the emancipation of the slaves, the emancipation of the slaves, and because of his anger of it, the Emancipation Proclamation was taken care of. Is that a good thing? You know, that's a wonderful thing. And, you know, it was out of anger that the people that worked towards that, they were angry at the enslavement of people. And they fought, and that was their motivation. You know, there's many other things that anger has motivated people to do that were good. It's all about what we do with our anger. How we handle it. Are we going to let it motivate us to do something good? Or are we going to take and let it destroy us? Or destroy those around us also? We're going to look at a few different things in Scripture about anger. And we're going to go right to Genesis chapter 4. We're going to start there. We're going to start in verse 1. It says, Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord. Then she bore again this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of fruit of the ground to the Lord. Is that a bad thing? No. This is another trick question here. It is and it isn't. Because if he was bringing it as a thank offering, it's a wonderful thing. But if he's bringing it as a sin offering, it's a wrong thing. And this is the offering that they were talking about. He's bringing a sin offering to the Lord, not a thank offering. And Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel in his offering, but he did not respect Cain in his offering. So that sets up really what it's all about. It's about the sin offering. It's a sacrifice to cover a sin. So in this case, it is a wrong act for Cain. And it says, because God did not accept his offering, Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. Now, this represents two classes of people that are going to be with us until Jesus comes. It's those that trust the righteousness of Christ and his blood that was shed. And it's those that go by their own righteousness or righteousness by works. So it's a difference between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works. Cain was righteousness by works. God, you have to accept my offering because I did it. And Abel's offering was, I'm offering you the lamb to cover my sins. If Cain had taken an offering of a lamb, it would have been accepted. But he chose not to go to his brother to get a sheep. He decided, my vegetables and my fruit are good enough to cover my sins. And how many times do we think our works are good enough to get us to heaven? They aren't. It's only through the blood of the lamb that's going to get us to heaven. So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, will you not be accepted? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. He's given Cain a choice. He says, just do what's right. But if you don't accept what's right, sin lies at the door. That's when our anger gets the best of us, right? It's when we know what's right. And we're going to do it our way anyways. Because we aren't thinking properly at that point in time. And sin lies at the door. Be angry, but sin not. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. The devil wants to take you down. But don't let it happen. Rule over it. How do we rule over that? By submitting to God, right? Doing what God wants us to do through His strength and His power. Through the strength of the blood of the Lamb. He says, now Cain talked with Abel in his field, with his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. Anger to destruction. Losing the temper. The church that I grew up in, there was an older man there who I considered my adopted grandfather. My grandparents died when I was pretty young. And they kind of adopted me, this elderly couple. I was friends with their grandchildren, and they were friends with my grandparents. And we always called him Grandpa Ford. He always said, you know, a man and a hammer is the same. Neither one of them are useful if they lose their temper. You know, if you lose a temper and a hammer, you go to pull a nail, the claws are just going to straighten, and it's not hard enough. It's too soft to drive the nails, too. So he says, a man and a hammer, when they lose their temper, are useless. So, when we lose our temper, we become useless. You know, God warned Cain that if he didn't do well, sin would be lying at the door, waiting for him. And that's exactly what happened. Anger to destruction. For now, let's go over to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel, chapter 18. This is about King Saul. And David had been taken into his courts at that time. And we're going to start with verse 5. And it says, So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he behaved wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of the war. And he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. And now what happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced, and they said, Saul is slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Then Saul was very angry. And the saying displeased him, and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? So Saul eyed David from that day forward. Oh, that green-eyed monster, jealousy, just reared its ugly head. All because the women said, David had killed ten thousands, and Saul had killed thousands. And the story continues, it says, It happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times. But there was a spear in Saul's hand, and Saul cast the spear, and he said, And he said, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped his presence twice. That anger. Look at his temper. A little bit of jealousy there. Well, a lot of jealousy there. You know, and if you go to the next chapter, in chapter 19, it says, In verse 8, And there was war again, and David went out and fought the Philistines, and struck them with a mighty blow, and they fled from him. Now the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in the house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand. Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with his spear. But he slipped away from Saul's presence, and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night. And Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michael, David's wife, told him, saying, If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed. So Michael led David down through the window, and he went and fled and escaped. And then she made it look like he was sleeping in the bed. And when Saul's servants came in, she said, Oh, he's sick. And then when they found out that it was an image in the bed, and Saul finds out about it, he says to his daughter, and he says in verse 17, Why have you deceived me like this and sent my enemy away? So he has escaped. And she said... And Michael answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go. Why should I kill you? And, you know, he was mad at his daughter for saving her husband's life. You know, how anger causes us to not think straight. How stupid we become. Why shouldn't she save her husband? For not doing anything wrong. He was obeying the king. Now the king's mad because he thinks David's better than him. And at that point, he is. You know, we just become stupid. Another one, anger to destruction. Another one, anger to destruction. If we turn back to 1 Samuel 17, though, and we see that the Philistines had gathered their armies to battle. And they're on one side of a valley, and Israel is on the other side. And there was one giant. Goliath. And we're going to start here in verse 3, and it says, And we're going to start here in verse 3, and it says, And the champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now, the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the iron head weighed 600 shekels. And a shield-bearer went before him. Then he stood up and cried to the armies of Israel and said, Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. And if he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. And he did this every day, morning and evening. Why is it so important morning and evening? Put fear in them. But what goes on morning and evening in Israel? Worship. Isn't that when they should be trusting God the most? These guys are scared. Now, David's older brothers were at this scene. And David is sent by his father to deliver food and also to find out how to make a living. And David is sent by his father to deliver food and also to find out how his brothers are doing. And he brings the two of them and he gets there and he hears Goliath out there. And David's going, why isn't anyone going up against this guy? What's going on? And it says in verse 24, of all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. And the men of Israel said, have you seen the man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel. Then David spoke to the men who stood by him saying, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? David sees a thing that's happening here. You know, he says, when he makes that statement, he says that he's defying the armies of who? Of the living God. You know, others have said, oh, of Israel. He said, he puts it right where it should be. He says, they're defying the armies of the living God, which in turn really means what? He's also defying God. Not the armies, he's defying God. What basically, Goliath is up there saying, you are proving to me that your God isn't strong enough to send you into battle against me. And David recognizes that right as he shows up there. Everyone else is afraid and they aren't thinking straight. They see this big guy come out and go, come on, let's go, send me a guy. And every day he comes back and says, you know, you can almost hear him taunt and go, what a bunch of wimps. Come on. Not one guy in all your army is willing to come out. You know, your God isn't strong enough. Yeah, for 40 days he does this. You know, and David is motivated by his anger. And he goes to Saul and he says, yep, I'll go against him. And they're like, you can't, you're just a kid. He's probably, you know, what, 16, 17 maybe. And they give him Saul's armor and he puts it on and he goes, I can't do that. He says, I can't even move in this thing. Let me use what I'm used to using. He says, God has delivered me from the bear and the lion. He says, I've killed both of them. Let me use what I have of my own and what I'm used to using. And I'll trust God will do this again. He's motivated. It says in verse 40 that he took his staff in his hand and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's bag. Question, how big do you think those stones are? There's been a bunch of study on this that in that country, even now, you know, a few years ago, we would hear things on the news about the kids in Palestine and stuff throwing rocks at the police and at the military and stuff, at the barricades. And they were using slings to throw stones. You know, and we hear it on media that, oh, they're throwing rocks. And you think, oh, they're little rocks. They are whipping things about the size, between the size of a baseball and a softball with these slings. And they're clocking them out at over 90 miles an hour. So, you know, that's a little different than having somebody chuck a rock at you. You know, that is a serious weapon. And so they figure that probably what David was picking up was stones in that area. A lot of the stones in the brooks are about that size, between the size of a hardball and a softball. So you have something that size coming 90 miles an hour at you, it's going to do some damage. So David picks up five of these stones. And he starts to go towards the Philistine. In the Philistine, verse 41, it says, So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David. And the man who bore the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him. For he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. So the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Now we're putting things into a little more perspective. He's cursing David by his gods, saying, My gods are stronger than yours, and I'm going to kill you. That's what Goliath is saying. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. And David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcass of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. You see the difference here? That David is saying, I'm not going to do it. God's going to do it. I'm just the instrument. He says, you're cursing me by your gods? I'm telling you that my God is stronger than your gods. David saw right off what was going on. It was a great controversy between good and evil. And the Philistines were defying God. He says, Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with a sword and a spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands. So it was, when the Philistines arose and came and drew near David, that David hurried and ran towards the army to meet the Philistines. He's motivated. He knows that God is on his side and he's moving forward. He's not backing down. He's running towards the battle. And David put his hand in his bag and took out one stone, and he swung it and struck the Philistine in the forehead, so that the stone sank into the forehead and he fell to his face on the earth. David was motivated by anger. And it was righteous anger. He was mad because God's name was being defiled. It wasn't this anger because of envy or jealousy, this anger because of envy or jealousy or whatever. He was motivated because God's name was being defiled. That's anger with motivation, not destruction. You know, if we take and go over to Matthew, the 21st chapter. And we start with verse 12. And it says, And it says, Do you think Jesus was angry? But he didn't sin. He was motivated by this anger to do something. And he's making a point here. It says, You know, these people that were selling in the temple, you know, the offering was to be without spot or blemish. And the priests were saying, Oh, well, that one isn't going to work because that's got spot and blemish. But they would take that animal, take it around, go back and then bring it back in and sell it again. They were thieves. That's exactly what Jesus was talking about. This was all about greed. It wasn't anything about selling a sacrifice to someone so they could offer a perfect sacrifice. This was all about greed. And he says here, But you've made it a den of thieves. Then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David. The priests were indignant about it. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? They said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, I hear it. But haven't you ever read, Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfect praise? This here shows anger but without sin. And we notice that these ones here, both with David and with Jesus, it was because God's name was being trampled. That they're given the wrong impression of God. Anger, motivation of destruction. So where do we bring it today? You know, it's one of those things that when I read things, if I can't apply it to me today, what good is it? Then it's just a story or something. You know, and as I look around today, I'm angry. And the reason I'm angry is because this word right here is getting trampled underfoot. You know, a little over a week ago, in the House of Congress, there was a bill passed by Congress. It has to go to Senate. It's called the Equality Act. I don't know if you're familiar with it. It tramples this so bad. Do you know that if that happens, if that passes, it's not an Equality Act. It's actually a Discrimination Act. And on page 25 of that, I believe it's page 25, that it says that if this passes, the Religious Freedom Act is superseded by that. It supersedes the Religious Freedom Act. The Equality Act is about transgender. God says that he created male and female. And that if we say anything other than that, we go against God's Word. But according to that act, that if we speak against the Equality Act, it's hate speech. Do you know that it's getting to the point that if we say that Jesus is the only way to the Kingdom, that's hate speech? If we speak and say that abortion is murder, that's hate speech? This is happening right now. God's Word is being trampled underfoot. And they're trying to make it against the law to quote things. From this book. That's why I'm angry. Because I see God's Word, God's name being defiled. And how do we deal with it? We have a mission to fulfill. God has called this church at this time to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the only way to Heaven. And that's considered hate speech. I consider that love speech because it frees people from the hatred of the world. You know, it's better to obey God than man. And I'm not saying that we should go out and take and try to offend people. That's not our purpose. Our purpose is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. And yet, some people are going to say what we're saying is hate speech. And I think that we need to do this in love. We need to show the love of Jesus. And then we can present all of these messages with the love of Jesus. You know, none of this should surprise any of us here that this is happening. We're told that as the time approaches that Jesus is coming, things are going to get rough. It's going to be a difficult time. It's going to be harder to present. But you know, that doesn't change what we're told to do. We're told to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Then the end will come. And even if they consider us criminals, people that hate speech, that doesn't take us away from the message that Jesus has given us to preach. That Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. And the only way to the Father is through Him. And that He died to save us. And that He loves us so much. And that He loves us so much that He was willing to do that. I think that my prayer for each of us is not to go out to try to offend people, but to take and show them Jesus' love. And show the right way to do it. And to just reach as many people as we can to share His love. That's my prayer for each of us today. Amen. Our closing song today is number 83. Our closing song today is number 83. And I sing with praise to the Lord, And I sing with praise to the Lord, And I sing with praise to the Lord, The Lord is kind, the Savior is great, The Lord is kind, the Savior is great, His strength and compassion are ever sure, And I sing with praise to the Lord, And I sing with praise to the Lord, The Lord is kind, the Savior is great, The Lord is kind, the Savior is great, His strength and compassion are ever sure, And I sing with praise to the Lord, When you will have God and people as friends, When you will have God and people as friends, The life will change and His love will find me in the end, And I sing with praise to the Lord, The Lord is kind, the Savior is great, Let's bow our heads for the benediction. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.