April 27, 2025 • 58 mins
"A Christian Approach to Anger and Offense" 04/27/2025 Sunday Sermon Pastor David L Goldsberry
Ephesians 4:26-27
James 1:19; Mark 3:5; Matthew 21:12; Ephesians 4:31; Romans 12:17-21; Proverbs 14:17, 22:24, 29:22
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
not just as a church.
We're blessed in this community,in our nation.
We have so much to be gratefulfor.
And recently, Pastor Pat and Ihave talked about this for
several weeks, and recently Ihave felt like God was dealing
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with me over something that thatwe see a lot of in our society.
And sadly, it's something thathas crept into the church.
And God has dealt with me overthis for several weeks now.
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And this morning, I want tospend a few minutes just talking
about this because this issomething I believe that we as
believers, we as folks who saywe're followers of Christ, we
really need to grasp hold ofsome things.
We can't be like the world andexpect them to think we're
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different because we callourselves a Christian.
We can't act like them and be alight, think that we're being a
light in the darkness.
We're just being a bigger partof the darkness a lot of times.
And so there's a couple things,and I'm talking to myself today
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too, so don't think I'm pickingon anybody.
If it's not for anybody heretoday, then it's for me, and I
needed to hear it myself.
We all have choices in how wedeal with both positive and
negative life situations.
Even as followers of Christ,this is important, even as
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followers of Christ, people withthe Holy Spirit living in us,
despite our efforts to remainpositive, because we're human,
we all are, we still have todeal with negative emotions that
arise during challenging times.
And in those challenging times,when bad things happen, when we
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feel hopeless about things thatwe see that need to be changed,
when we are hurt physically ormentally or emotionally, when
these and so many other thingshappen, in our life, there are
intense emotions that flood intoour hearts.
We're emotional people.
God created us this way so thatwe weren't just robotic.
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But sin has damaged ouremotions.
And because of that, the way wedeal with and express our
emotions is not always godly.
And today I want to look at twospecific emotions that as
Christians, even as Christians,we will probably deal with at
some point in our life.
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And they are anger and theclosely related emotion of
offense.
Anger and offense.
And while we as born-againChristians do so many things
well, we do them the way theBible says, there are things in
life that can become a strugglefor us.
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And even as born-againbelievers, since we are human,
again, I'm going to say that alot probably, since we are
human, there can be times whenan attempt to protect our minds,
our immense, intense emotionsare often deflected, redirected,
and expressed as anger oroffense.
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And please understand, again,this is not a reprimand for
anyone.
Instead, it is a biblical lookat the reality of the growing
sense of anger and offense intoday's society to an extent, as
I said earlier, that it hascrept into the church.
So if none of the things thatwe're looking at today apply to
you personally, then I would askthis of you.
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For the next few minutes, wouldyou pray for the rest of us?
Here's what I mean when I saywe're all susceptible to anger.
Maybe our anger is aimed at aninanimate object.
We hit our finger with a hammerand we throw the hammer.
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The hammer didn't do it.
We're playing golf and we make abad shot and you throw the golf
club.
So we get angry at an inanimateobject that didn't do anything.
Other times our anger may bedirected at complete strangers.
Someone cuts us off in traffic.
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And since we're already mad atour boss or our spouse or our
kids, we overreact to theirreaction when in reality we were
angry at someone else.
We just took it out on theperson that cut us off in
traffic.
Our anger can be because ofthings we read on social media,
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things that offend us, hurts ourfeelings.
And because we can't physicallybe mad at social media, it's
often our friends and family, oreven a complete stranger, who
suffers the consequences of ouranger.
Then there are situations whensomebody actually offends us in
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person with their words oractions.
And instead of dealing with itin the proper spiritual manner,
we direct our anger at them.
There's even times when badthings happen in our lives.
We have the death of a lovedone, a natural disaster like a
hurricane.
And in those times, we mighteven direct our anger at God for
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not keeping whatever happenedfrom happening.
How could you?
Anger and offense can be aresult of a lot of things.
And sadly, far too many people,even Christians, get stuck in
that anger.
And today I want to look closelyat what the Bible says about
anger and offense, and I'vetitled this sermon, A Christian
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Approach to Anger and Offense.
I want to start with readingEphesians chapter 4, verses 26
and 27.
This is Paul writing.
He said, Don't sin by lettinganger control you.
Don't let the sun go down whileyou're still angry, for anger
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gives a foothold to the devil.
What's important, let's look ata background here.
The book of Ephesians was aletter that the And since it was
written almost 2,000 or over2,000 years ago, obviously the
problem with anger is notanything new, even to
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Christians.
He wrote it to church folks.
So today let's look together atthe emotions of anger and
offense and see what the Bibleteaches us about getting over
the anger we have or can have atour circumstances, our enemies,
and sometimes even at our God.
First thing I want to recognizeis Paul did not start this
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passage out by just writing,don't be angry.
That would have been the end ofit right there.
Because he could have said,okay, everybody, listen up.
Don't be angry.
Okay, have a great day.
That's the end of it.
Just don't be angry.
And truthfully, for many of us,it might seem a bit strange that
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he didn't go in that directionbecause a lot of us were taught
as we were growing up thatyou're just not supposed to get
angry.
But here it seems that Paul isgoing with the assumption that
at some point the emotion ofanger is going to take place in
our lives.
The question is how are we goingto handle it?
How are we going to deal with itwhen it happens?
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The writer of the book of Jamessaid this in James 1.19.
He said that we are to be slowto get angry.
Since like Paul, he didn't justsay, don't get angry and leave
it at that.
It seems that both writersrecognize the fact that at some
point, even as followers ofChrist, we might have to deal
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with some anger.
I'm not going to ask for a showof hands this morning.
Thankfully, Wiley's not here.
I wish he was here.
If he was here, he would answerout loud.
But I won't ask for a show ofhands or speak out loud of who
has ever gotten angry.
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So we're going to go with thebelief or the assumption that
most everyone that is hearingthis sermon has at one point in
your life experienced theemotion of anger.
The word anger can be defined asa strong feeling of annoyance,
displeasure, or hostility.
Offense can be defined asannoyance or resentment brought
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on by a perceived insult.
First of all, let's talk aboutanger for a little bit.
While anger can be nothing morethan just a feeling of
annoyance, left unchecked, itcan turn into clenched-fisted,
red-faced rage.
And while the rage version ofanger is wrong, not all anger is
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wrong.
In fact, Jesus expressed angeron several occasions.
He was angry at the Phariseeswho resented his healing of a
man with a withered hand on theSabbath day.
He looked at them angrily.
This is Jesus.
He looked at them angrily andwas deeply saddened by their
hard hearts.
Then he said to the man, holdout your hand.
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So the man held his hand and wasrestored.
He was angry at the Pharisees.
UNKNOWN (10:10):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
He was angry at those who had turned the house
of God into a place ofmerchandise, Matthew 21, 12.
Jesus entered the temple, beganto drive out all the people
buying and selling animals forsacrifice.
He knocked over the tables ofmoney changers and chairs of
those selling doves.
That's anger.
We sometimes have a hard timeperceiving and reconciling those
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acts with the preconceived ideaor the picture in our mind of
this meek and mild Jesus.
But truthfully, Jesus wasangered by anything that
misrepresented or slandered hisheavenly father.
Jesus was angered by those whouse religion as a self-righteous
baseball bat with which tobrutally oppress people.
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He was angered by hypocrisy andfalse religion.
So let's be clear that even asChristians, there are some
situations in life that shouldanger us.
We should be angry at the murderof innocent children through the
horror of abortion.
We should be angry when we seethe family unit being undermined
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and destroyed in our society.
We should be angry when we seethe weak, the poor, the elderly,
the less fortunate beingmistreated.
We should be angered byinjustice anywhere we meet and
or see it.
We should be angered by theassaults on God's word and the
doctrines of our faith.
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Let me just say something sosomebody didn't think I've gone
off the rails into some kind ofmisplaced, self-serving social
justice.
That's not what I mean.
Anyone who cannot be angry atthe seduction and trafficking of
children, anyone who cannot beangry over some great display of
depravity, some terribleinjustice toward a helpless
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person, is either a coward or aperson who possesses no moral
convictions.
UNKNOWN (12:05):
Alright.
SPEAKER_00 (12:07):
Dr.
David Seaman said the followingabout anger, and I'll quote him.
Anger is a divinely implantedemotion closely aligned to our
instinct for right.
It is designed to be used forconstructive spiritual purposes.
The person who cannot feel angerat evil is a person who lacks
enthusiasm for good.
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If you cannot hate wrong, it isvery questionable whether you
really love righteousness.
The right kind of anger iswholesome, healthy, good, and
it's godly.
The key word there is the rightkind of anger.
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But if we allow it to, evengodly anger can turn into sinful
anger.
Because even godly anger, whenexpressed in the wrong way,
becomes sin.
You don't get to just be angryat a cause and do whatever you
want.
For example, being angry aboutabortion is one thing.
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But when an abortion protestermurders the abortion doctor, the
line between good and evil hasnow been crossed, and it's sin.
We can and should be angry atinjustices to anyone at the
hands of another person.
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But when your anger drives youto kill someone...
destroy other people's property,and steal things that don't
belong to you, then once again,you have crossed the line
between good and evil.
And at that point, yourrighteous indignation has become
nothing more than sin.
There might be some folksfeeling uncomfortable right
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about now.
There might be someone that's alittle angry at what I'm saying.
But listen to me today, please.
Because there are biblicalanswers to how we should handle
anger and or offense.
We need to understand that wecannot be angry as Christians.
We can be angry as Christians,but we cannot allow our anger to
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lead us into sin.
You can be angry, but you can'tlet that anger cause you to sin
in deeds or words or whatever itmight be.
Here's what I mean by that.
We're going to kind of get downon some things today that are
real life, so just hang inthere.
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You can be angry over yourinsurance company denying a
claim.
I have.
I've been there.
I needed a procedure done.
You don't need that.
But there is never a time whenyou're justified in killing the
CEO of the company because theydenied your insurance claim.
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And yet that just happened.
We saw it happen just a fewmonths ago.
And you go, well, that'soutrageous.
How could somebody think that'sokay?
Here's something that might bemore troubling.
I'm going to quote this.
In a survey, recent poll, quote,48% said they view the killing
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as totally or somewhatjustified.
Those findings chime in with anEmerson College poll which found
that 41% of voters under 30found the killing acceptable far
more than any other age group.
How can between 41 and 48% ofpeople polled feel that personal
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anger at an institution givesthem the right to kill the CEO
of that institution?
That's misplaced anger if I eversaw it.
You can call it, wow, I'm risingup against an evil corporation.
No, you killed somebody.
You killed somebody.
That's sin.
I don't care what the reason foryou doing it, it's sin.
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We'll just keep going alongthose same lines.
You can be mad or angry over apolitical figure.
But that anger never justifiesgoing and burning down a car
dealership or vandalizing somestranger's car somewhere on the
side of the road just becausethe political figure you're
angry at owns 13% of thatcorporation.
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Well, I hate that guy, so I'mgoing to tear up your car.
That is misplaced anger.
You're stealing stuff.
You're destroying stuff thatdoesn't belong to you.
And if you call yourself aChristian and you're doing those
kind of things, you need to cometo the altar.
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We can't do that, folks.
It is never okay to let ouranger lead us to sin or to hurt
someone.
So we briefly looked at anger.
I'm I want to add in that otheremotion that goes hand in hand
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with anger and that's theemotion of offense.
I say they go hand in handbecause most of the time,
offense that isn't dealt with atsome point leads to anger.
You get offended and then youjust stay offended and you kind
of seep like a tea bag in hotwater in that offense and the
next thing you know, you're justplain old angry.
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It seems that people beingoffended and displaying that
offense What could be calledactually a spirit of offense has
reached a whole new level in oursociety.
And as I said earlier, sadly,that spirit of offense seems to
have invaded a lot of churches.
And that means whether it's atchurch or whether it's at
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Walmart, if you want to beoffended, if you look hard
enough, you can and probablywill find something to offend
you or someone to offend you.
I've known people like that.
They walked around just waitingfor somebody to offend them.
We used to call it with a chipon their shoulder.
I can't speak so much for beingoffended at Walmart, but I can
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for church.
I've seen folks get angrybecause they didn't like the
songs the worship team sang.
Or they got offended when theworship team didn't sing their
favorite song again.
Let me be clear.
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That is not something to beangry over or offended by.
If the worship team gets up hereand leads us into a place of
reverent worship and glorifiesGod, then they have fulfilled
their calling.
And our worship team does areally good job of that.
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I will assure you that no onechooses a song for any given
service with the intent ofoffending or angering someone.
Let's sing this song because Iknow so-and-so doesn't like it.
And yet there's people thatalmost act like that's the case.
Stop it.
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We are here to worship.
So let's worship regardless ofthe song that's being sung.
I had a conversation withsomebody last week and I said,
you know what, if we got up hereevery week and the only song we
ever sang week after week withJesus loves me, this I know,
before the Bible tells me so,you know what, I could worship
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to that every week.
You know why?
Because I know Jesus loves meand because the Bible tells me
so.
And church offense doesn't stopat the worship team.
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People sometimes get angry oroffended because they didn't
like the content, the style, orthe presentation of a sermon.
And although that it is not myintention to anger or offend
anyone today, this might be oneof those days for some folks.
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But here's the thing.
If the sermon is solidlygrounded or the Bible study is
solidly grounded in the word ofGod, and if it doesn't take the
scripture and twist it to fitinto a personal conviction or
view, then why not let the wordspeak to your heart as opposed
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to be offended by the content orthe style or the presentation of
the sermon?
Amen.
Here's an example.
I'll use myself for an example.
I tell stories when I preach.
I love telling stories.
I tend to preach on subjectsthat are more relevant to
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everyday life.
And while I don't do it tooffend anyone, I know there are
people who really don't likethat style of preaching or
teaching.
Instead, they would like for meto read a scripture talk about
it, talk about the Hebrew, theGreek, or whatever it might be,
read the next scripture and dothe same thing.
And there's nothing wrong withthat.
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But I feel like stories, whetherthey're personal or otherwise,
can often make the content ofthe sermon more understandable
or relatable.
You know why I feel that way?
Because Jesus did that.
He called them parables.
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I just threw that in there forfree.
There are a lot of other thingschurch folks can be angered or
offended by, but we're going tostop there.
The truth is, we live in aculture where many people stay
in a spirit of offense, even atchurch.
And with so many churchesaround...
For many folks, it's easy to beangered and offended and leave
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the church than it is to prayabout it and find a way to work
and make the church better.
So I would offer this.
If you see something that youthink could be better here at
High Point Church, rather thanleave the church because of
something you were offended orangry over, pray and ask God how
you might be able to make itbetter.
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There was a man who had...
been shipwrecked by himself onan island.
He was there for years all byhimself.
Finally, he saw a ship in thedistance and he waved and they
saw him and they came to thebeach to rescue him.
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And they said, how long you beenhere?
He said, I've been here foryears.
I don't even know how long.
He goes, what is that building?
That's a house.
That's where I live.
Wow.
He said, well, what's thatlittle building?
They said, what's that little?
He goes, well, that's my church.
Okay.
Well, what's that otherbuilding?
That's where I used to go tochurch.
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Silly little church folks.
The calling on every savedperson's life is to be a
disciple and then go into theworld and make disciples.
We've talked about that allyear.
Am I right?
Bible study teachers, Pastor Patthat preaches on Sunday, we have
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talked about that all so farthis year.
That is our calling.
And it's going to be difficultto do that if we are in a
continual spirit of offense andanger over everything that
happens in our church.
Why would somebody want to go toyour church when all you do is
complain about it?
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Folks, we need to do better.
Parents, grandparents.
If your kids and grandkids seethese kind of behaviors in you,
it's very likely that they willnever be stable in church.
In fact, I've been around thisfor a while.
At some point when they areable, don't be surprised when
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they walk away from church andnever come back.
Offense and anger go hand inhand, and both can lead to
sinful actions and attitudes.
I have a friend, Pastor AlanCarr, he said this, when we are
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angry, we are rarely angry atthe right people about the right
things at the right moment inthe right ways for the right
reasons for the right amount oftime.
We saw earlier in the scripturetext in Ephesians, it seems to
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assume or conclude that evenchurch folks would probably find
themselves being angry at somepoint in life.
And once again, we didn't seePaul make a blanket statement of
just don't get angry.
Instead, his statement was oneof don't sin by letting that
anger control you.
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So the assumption that theremight be a time when we might
get angry is tempered with theidea of not letting the anger
control us.
You can get angry, but you can'tlet that anger control you and
make you do things that aresinful.
You can't do things that arerevengeful.
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With that in mind, we need tounderstand that the assumption
that we will find ourself angryat some point in our life is not
a license to be controlled bythat anger or spirit of offense
and act out in some kind ofunrestrained anger or rage
because that action not onlyaffects us, but it affects
everyone around us.
And left unchecked, it will ruinour witness as a child of God.
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Anger and offense are...
typically selfish in nature.
Here's what I mean.
We're often angry or offendedbecause we're hurt.
We're often angry or offendedbecause we didn't get our way.
We are often angry because wewere offended.
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We are often angry or offendedbecause we feel slighted.
We're often angry when we feelhelpless.
So in most cases, our actionsSin around us and on how we feel
with very little considerationfor anyone around us.
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Sinful anger, sinful offense,they're almost always about what
is done to me.
It's an attitude of, you hurtme, you offended me, so I'm
angry.
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And now I'm going to strike outat you.
I'm going to say things, I'mgoing to plot my revenge, and
then I'm going to follow throughwith it in an attempt to make me
feel better.
This kind of anger leads to ahateful spirit, a spirit of
offense.
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and ultimately to the judgmentof God because it's sin.
The difference between goodanger and sinful anger is the
focus of the anger.
Here's what we need to askourselves.
Am I angry because this ishappening to me, or does my
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anger exist because a terriblewrong is being done to God or to
someone else?
Followed by, will my reaction tothis anger Be one that will not
result in sin.
If your reaction is going toresult in sin, don't do it.
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It's like any other sin.
Sin is sin.
There's no big sins.
Well, it's just a little sin ofanger.
Sin is sin.
Consider this quote by FrederickBuechner.
Not quote.
Of the seven deadly sins, angeris possibly the most fun.
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to lick your wounds, to smackyour lips over grievances long
past, to roll over your tonguethe prospect of bitter
confrontation still to come, tosavor to the last toothsome
morsel of both the pain you weregiven and the pain you are
giving back.
In many ways, it is a feast fitfor a king.
The chief drawback is that whatyou are wolfing down is
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yourself.
The skeleton at the feast isyou.
We might think it's fun to beangry.
We might even enjoy it.
But if it leads to sin, you needto repent of it.
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The question might be at thispoint, if we can be angry
without sinning, when does angerand offense, when do they become
sin?
Anger and offense become sinwhen they're centered in self.
and when they are allowed togrow into resentment, revenge,
and angry outbursts, Ephesians4.31.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage,anger, harsh words, and slander,
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as well as all types of evilbehavior.
We don't like to think of angerwith all types of evil behavior.
Anger is evil behavior.
Sinful anger is evil behavior.
And Paul said, get rid of it.
Who was he writing to?
A bunch of heathens?
No, he was writing to the churchat Ephesus.
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He was writing to be like, if Iwas out of town for a while and
I sent a letter back and hadsomebody get up in the church
and read it, this was a letterto the church.
And he said, hey, church, getrid of all bitterness, rage,
anger, harsh words, and slander,as well as all types of evil
behavior.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they plot the downfall of
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another person.
More specifically, I'm referringto gossip and slander, plotting
to harm someone with our wordsor our actions.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they grow vengeful,
vindictive, mean, when theycause harm to others.
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Romans 12, 19.
Dear friends, never takerevenge.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God.
Righteous anger.
Righteous anger.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God.
For the scripture says, I willtake revenge.
I will pay them back, says theLord.
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Anger and offense become sinwhen they consume our lives.
And all we can think about isthe person who we think wronged
or offended us.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they stifle our worship,
when they hinder ourfaithfulness to God.
when they fill us withbitterness toward God and
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others, and when they undermineour joy.
Because if there's anything inthe world that can take away
your joy, it's anger and aspirit of offense.
Simply put, anger and offensebecome sin when they cause us to
act in a way that is contrary tothe example that Jesus showed
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when he was mistreated bypeople.
And keep in mind, he died ahorrible death on a cross for
those very people who mistreatedhim.
So when we get angry andoffended over something petty,
over something that hurt ourfeelings, where does that place
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us in our self-proclaimedjourney to be like Jesus?
Most of the time when we'reangry, we can't really do much
about it.
When Jesus was hung on thecross, he could have said, I
ain't doing this.
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I'm going to call down thousandsof angels.
I'm going to wipe all y'all out.
The Bible says he could havedone it.
That would have been offense.
That would have been sinfulanger.
Jesus never sinned.
even to the point of being hungon a cross.
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And we say we want to be likeJesus.
Many years ago, there was aKnicks and Bullets playoff game,
and one of the Bullets came upbehind the great Walt Frazier,
this was a few years ago, andpunched him in the face.
And the referee called a foul onFrazier.
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Frazier didn't complain.
His expression never changed.
This is a true story.
He simply called for the balland went and put in seven
straight shots to win the game.
An amazing display of productiveanger.
That is an example of anger thatdid not sin.
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If you want to react to youranger, let it cause you to be
productive.
And not vengeful.
Here's another example.
Told you I like to tell stories.
Bruce Goodwitch was beinginitiated in the cadet corps at
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Texas A&M University.
One night, he was forced to rununtil he dropped.
Literally.
He never got up.
He died before he ever enteredinto college.
A short time after the tragedyhappened, Bruce's father wrote
this letter to theadministration, to the faculty,
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the student body, and the Corpsof Cadets at Texas A&M.
Here's what he wrote.
I would like to take thisopportunity to express the
appreciation of my family forthe great outpouring of concern
and sympathy from Texas A&MUniversity and the college
community over the loss of ourson, Bruce.
We were deeply touched by thetribute paid to him and the
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battalion.
We were particularly pleased tonote that his Christian witness
did not go unnoticed during hisbrief time on campus.
Mr.
Goodrich went on, I hope it willbe some comfort to know that we
harbor no ill will in thematter.
We know our God makes nomistakes.
(35:58):
Bruce had an appointment withhis Lord and is now secure in
his celestial home.
When the question is asked, whydid this happen?
Perhaps one answer will be, sothat many will consider where
they will spend eternity.
(36:21):
That is one of probably athousand different ways to react
to the death of its son.
And sometimes we get angry andget offended because somebody
(36:43):
basically looked at uscross-eyed.
We talk a lot about sharing thegospel, being a light in a dark
world.
(37:09):
If we blast everybody with angerjust because we can, every time
we're offended or angry, we willnever win anyone to the Lord.
Because people will say, why doI want what you say you have?
(37:31):
You're no different than I am.
The last phrase in verse 26 is,don't let the sun go down while
you're still angry.
The command here is clear.
Get your anger in check asquickly as possible.
(37:52):
And if you're struggling withyour anger, get yourself before
the Lord and get it settled.
Don't carry it into tomorrow.
If you're angry today and youhold it all night and you wake
up the next morning angry,Something else is going to come
along and make you angry.
And then it's just going to beon top of the anger you had.
Paul was a pretty smart guy.
(38:13):
He said, don't let the sun godown on your anger.
Anger and offense that isallowed to simmer will turn into
resentment.
Resentment will soon turn intobitterness.
(38:35):
And bitterness will soon turninto a root of
self-righteousness, which willchoke the life, the peace, and
the joy out of not only you, buteveryone around you.
Let me throw this in here.
Anger, offense, resentment, andbitterness are contagious.
(38:55):
Angry people and people who areeasily offended attack other
lives, and they drag theirvictims into their snare of
death and defeat.
It seems that far too often,people aren't content with being
offended and angry bythemselves.
Instead, they feel the need torecruit others into their anger
and offense.
(39:18):
Parents, grandparents, if ourkids and grandkids see this in
us, and they see this type ofanger and offense in our lives,
don't be surprised when youeventually see it in theirs.
Verse 27 says, that anger givesa foothold to the devil.
(39:38):
And it follows right after,don't let the sun go down on
your anger.
That's not an accident.
When we take our anger to bedwith us and allow it to grow and
simmer in our hearts, we givethe devil a foothold in our
life.
The word foothold refers to agrip or a position.
Unreconciled anger in our heartsGive Satan the opening that he
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needs to attack us and then forus to attack others.
When Satan is allowed afoothold, when he is allowed a
place or a position in our livesbecause of anger or offense that
we're holding on to, he willcause us to seek revenge, in
(40:22):
violation, clear violation ofthe word of God.
Romans 12, verses 17 through 21.
Never pay back evil with moreevil.
Do things in such a way thateveryone can see that you are
honorable.
Do all that you can do to livein peace with everyone.
Dear friends, never takerevenge.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God for the scripture
(40:44):
says, I will take revenge.
I will pay them back, says theLord.
Instead, if you're any, this isthe hard part.
If your enemies are hungry, feedthem.
If they're thirsty, we have ahard time just not being angry.
And then you had to write this.
If they're hungry, feed them.
If they're thirsty, give themsomething to drink.
(41:05):
In doing this, you will heapburning coals of shame on their
heads.
Don't let evil conquer you.
Don't let evil conquer you.
Conquer evil.
By doing good.
(41:26):
There was a man that told his,he was told by his physician.
He said, I'm really sorry totell you this, but you have
rabies.
As soon as the man heard that,he pulled out a piece of paper
and started writing.
And the doctor was thinking thisman thought he was going to die
and he's making out his will.
(41:47):
And he said, this doesn't meanyou're going to die.
There's a cure for rabies.
The man said, I know, I'm justmaking a list of people I want
to bite.
Listen to me.
We laugh at that.
But weaponizing rabies is noworse than weaponizing anger.
(42:10):
And there's just some peoplethat seem to enjoy their anger
as much as this guy seemed to beenjoying his rabies.
And there's just some peoplethat seem to look forward to an
opportunity to use their angeragainst someone.
(42:32):
That's not a good witness.
That's not a witness at all ofJesus.
The truth is this.
Any case of anger or offense,whether it's legitimate or not,
if it is allowed to run and gounchecked, it will permit Satan
(42:58):
to have an upper hand in ourlives.
And when we allow Satan to dothat in our lives, he will feed
our anger and our offense withself-pity, with pride,
self-righteousness, vengeance,and every other sort of selfish
sin and violation of God's word.
(43:19):
When we allow anger and offenseto control us, it can and most
likely will distract us orcompletely lead us away from
God's will for our lives.
Because we just love beingangry.
And once again, if we don't findthe right outlet for our anger,
it will not only destroy us, itwill cause us to hurt innocent
(43:43):
people around us.
There's a story told aboutAbraham Lincoln, when he was a
president, his secretary of war,Edwin Stanton, was angered by an
army officer that had accusedhim of favoritism.
And so Stanton went to Lincoln,and Lincoln suggested that
Stanton write a harsh letter tothis officer.
(44:04):
Stanton did.
He showed this strongly wordedletter to the president, and
Lincoln said, what are you goingto do with it?
He was surprised.
He goes, well, I'm going to sendit.
Lincoln shook his head, andhere's what he said.
You don't want to send thatletter.
Put it in the stove.
That's what I do when I'vewritten a letter while I'm
(44:25):
angry.
It's a good letter, and you hada good time writing it, and you
feel better.
Now burn it and write anotherone.
It is said that Abraham Lincoln,when he had to write a letter to
someone he was irritated with,he would write two letters, and
the first one was deliberatelyinsulting.
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And then having gotten all thosefeelings out of his system, he
would tear it up or burn it, andhe would write a second letter
that was far more tactful andfar more kind.
A lot of folks could take thatadvice from Abraham Lincoln and
think twice before they presssend on that angry social media
(45:08):
post.
And we'll move on.
If we do not learn to handle ouranger, it will break us and it
will lead us into sin.
Proverbs 14, 17 says thatshort-tempered people do foolish
things.
Proverbs 22, 24 says don'tbefriend angry people or
(45:28):
associate with hot-temperedpeople.
Proverbs 29, 22 says an angryperson starts fights, a
hot-tempered person commits allkinds of sin.
That's only three passages ofScripture that address the
problem.
But be assured, the Bible has anawful lot to say about anger and
the sin that is often broughtabout by it.
(45:50):
I mentioned earlier that angerand offense are contagious.
So I'll close with this.
In the spring of 1894, theBaltimore Orioles came to Boston
to play a routine baseball game.
True story.
But what happened during thegame was anything but routine.
(46:10):
The player for the Orioles namedJohn McGraw got into a fight
with Boston's third baseman.
And the benches were cleared andthey all joined in the fight.
The warfare quickly spread tothe grandstands.
And among the fans, a conflictwent from bad to worse.
(46:31):
Someone set fire to the stands.
The entire ballpark burned down.
And then the fire spread acrossto 107 other buildings in Boston
before it was brought undercontrol.
Maybe we haven't seen our angerand offense spread quite that
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drastically.
But be assured, there is rarelya time when it doesn't affect
someone else.
I'll go back to that quote fromDr.
Alan Carr.
When we are angry, we are rarelyangry at the right people about
(47:14):
the right things at the rightmoment in the right ways for the
right reasons for the rightamount of time.
Benjamin Franklin said thisabout anger.
Anger is never without a reason,but seldom with a good one.
No one here today, no onewatching the live stream is
(47:37):
above getting angry.
Sometimes our anger isjustified.
But at other times, our anger isjust plain old sinful.
Whether you are angry over somesituation in your life you don't
understand, angry at someone whohas hurt you deeply, angry at
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God himself because he allowedsome trial to come into your
life, You must remember this.
Please remember this.
God is sovereign.
He is in control.
He is sovereign even over youranger.
Trust him to bring good out ofwhat makes you angry.
(48:26):
And submit your anger to him.
Ask him to help you let go ofthat anger.
When you're faced with thechoice of how will you display
your anger, this is going tosound simplistic, but I'm going
to say it.
(48:46):
Stop and pray, even if it's asimple prayer of help me God,
I'm angry.
Help me God, I'm angry.
Help me God, I'm angry.
Sometimes we just need to bereminded as to who we are for
(49:09):
our anger to calm down.
And when we say, help me, God,I'm angry, we realize we're a
child of God.
Will that take all your angeraway?
I won't promise that, but it'llchange the way you react to it.
When you get God involved in it,it changes the way we do it.
(49:35):
Don't allow anger to destroyyour life.
your family, your testimony, oryour faith in God.
Each of us, every one of usthat's saved, has a calling on
our life to go into the worldand make disciples.
(49:56):
And since we live in a worldthat is already inundated with
hatred, anger, and offense, wecannot possibly fulfill that
calling with a heart filled withhatred anger and offense.
Would you stand this morning?
(50:47):
It's amazing how a person cangrow in their walk with Christ,
and they can do a lot of goodstuff, and they can witness,
maybe win people to the Lord,maybe even be in ministry, and
they can destroy it like that,over anger.
(51:17):
As a church, I know what God hasshown me for High Point Church.
I know what he has shown me aswe go forward as a church.
But I believe before he is gonnado those things, we're gonna
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have to make sure we've got ourhearts right.
Why would he fill this place upwith people looking for change?
And when they get here, theyfind out that no different than
them.
I'm not saying anybody here isgoing to miss out on heaven.
(52:07):
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm not judging you.
I am saying that there areopportunities to really mess up
our lives and mess up ourwitness.
Over things like anger andoffense.
Don't justify it.
Don't make excuses for it.
(52:28):
When there's anger and offensein your life, there's only one
thing to do.
The easy thing is to justify itand make excuses for it.
Well, what really needs tohappen is repentance.
If it's sinful anger, it's justlike any other sin.
You repent.
You ask God to forgive you.
Lord, forgive me of that sin.
(52:49):
I shouldn't have done that.
And if it was bad enough and youneed to go make restitution with
somebody, go do that too.
We can't move forward in ourwalks with God if we've got an
anchor of anger and offenseholding us back.
(53:18):
So pastor, you're saying younever get angry?
I didn't say that.
I've dealt with anger for years.
Even the wrong kind of anger.
I knew it was wrong.
(53:39):
And there was a time in my lifeI was really good at it.
I enjoyed it.
In fact, I will even go this farto tell you.
I told my psychologist one time,I said, it's weird because
sometimes when I get angry, itactually makes me feel good.
(54:07):
It's that dopamine that gets allcranked up.
Except that feel good lasts forabout that long.
And you realize you didsomething you shouldn't have
done.
And then it's like, why did I dothat?
(54:30):
We have to get it under control.
Our anger and our offense, wehave to get it under control.
I will tell you that when Istarted giving it to God, when I
started going with, Lord, helpme, I'm angry.
That's when things started tochange.
(54:54):
And I can tell you that, my wifecan tell you, I'm not that
person.
So many times we think about sinof, I was a bank robber and I
robbed 17 banks and Goddelivered me from robbing banks.
(55:19):
Praise God.
But the anger that hurts people,the anger that destroys lives,
the anger that plots out revengeand how I can hurt this person
and destroy their life or theirfamily, that kind of anger is
just as sinful as robbing abank.
But we don't think aboutrepenting of that so many times.
(55:43):
And so today I'm going to askyou to do this.
Whether you come to this altar,That's a good place to do it.
Whether you do it right whereyou are.
I want us all to spend a littletime in repentance.
Lord, search my heart.
If there's offense and anger inmy heart, help me to stop making
(56:08):
excuses for it.
Help me to stop blaming somebodyelse.
If I am angry, that's my choice.
If I have hatred and anger andoffense in my heart, it is my
choice to hold on to it.
Give it to God.
Just like any other sin that youwould commit, give it to God and
(56:33):
leave it there.
You've heard me say this before.
So many times we come and wecome to the altar and we say,
here's my sin, here's my angerand offense.
And I'm gonna give it all toyou, Lord.
I'm gonna walk away.
And we make it about two steps.
I really enjoy that.
(56:55):
And we pick it up and take itright back with us.
Folks, it's an angry andoffended world out there.
We're different.
We're saved.
We are forgiven.
We have the Holy Spirit livingin us.
We can't act like that.
(57:16):
We're going to sing a song herein a minute.
And as they sing, I want us tosincerely seek God.
And if there's something in mylife that shouldn't be there.
And if you say, I just don'tknow that I can get past this.
You come up here and we'll praywith you.
I believe that there is a spiritof offense that is in a lot of
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people's lives that they need tobe delivered from.
And I believe that God candeliver you.
I don't know what people wouldthink.
I don't care what people think.
You shouldn't either.
Probably the only thing they'regoing to think is, I wish I
would have gone.
(57:59):
Let's sing.
not just as a church.
We're blessed in this community,in our nation.
We have so much to be gratefulfor.
And recently, Pastor Pat and Ihave talked about this for
several weeks, and recently Ihave felt like God was dealing
(00:25):
with me over something that thatwe see a lot of in our society.
And sadly, it's something thathas crept into the church.
And God has dealt with me overthis for several weeks now.
(00:45):
And this morning, I want tospend a few minutes just talking
about this because this issomething I believe that we as
believers, we as folks who saywe're followers of Christ, we
really need to grasp hold ofsome things.
We can't be like the world andexpect them to think we're
(01:11):
different because we callourselves a Christian.
We can't act like them and be alight, think that we're being a
light in the darkness.
We're just being a bigger partof the darkness a lot of times.
And so there's a couple things,and I'm talking to myself today
(01:34):
too, so don't think I'm pickingon anybody.
If it's not for anybody heretoday, then it's for me, and I
needed to hear it myself.
We all have choices in how wedeal with both positive and
negative life situations.
Even as followers of Christ,this is important, even as
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followers of Christ, people withthe Holy Spirit living in us,
despite our efforts to remainpositive, because we're human,
we all are, we still have todeal with negative emotions that
arise during challenging times.
And in those challenging times,when bad things happen, when we
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feel hopeless about things thatwe see that need to be changed,
when we are hurt physically ormentally or emotionally, when
these and so many other thingshappen, in our life, there are
intense emotions that flood intoour hearts.
We're emotional people.
God created us this way so thatwe weren't just robotic.
(02:43):
But sin has damaged ouremotions.
And because of that, the way wedeal with and express our
emotions is not always godly.
And today I want to look at twospecific emotions that as
Christians, even as Christians,we will probably deal with at
some point in our life.
(03:05):
And they are anger and theclosely related emotion of
offense.
Anger and offense.
And while we as born-againChristians do so many things
well, we do them the way theBible says, there are things in
life that can become a strugglefor us.
(03:26):
And even as born-againbelievers, since we are human,
again, I'm going to say that alot probably, since we are
human, there can be times whenan attempt to protect our minds,
our immense, intense emotionsare often deflected, redirected,
and expressed as anger oroffense.
(03:47):
And please understand, again,this is not a reprimand for
anyone.
Instead, it is a biblical lookat the reality of the growing
sense of anger and offense intoday's society to an extent, as
I said earlier, that it hascrept into the church.
So if none of the things thatwe're looking at today apply to
you personally, then I would askthis of you.
(04:11):
For the next few minutes, wouldyou pray for the rest of us?
Here's what I mean when I saywe're all susceptible to anger.
Maybe our anger is aimed at aninanimate object.
We hit our finger with a hammerand we throw the hammer.
(04:35):
The hammer didn't do it.
We're playing golf and we make abad shot and you throw the golf
club.
So we get angry at an inanimateobject that didn't do anything.
Other times our anger may bedirected at complete strangers.
Someone cuts us off in traffic.
(04:57):
And since we're already mad atour boss or our spouse or our
kids, we overreact to theirreaction when in reality we were
angry at someone else.
We just took it out on theperson that cut us off in
traffic.
Our anger can be because ofthings we read on social media,
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things that offend us, hurts ourfeelings.
And because we can't physicallybe mad at social media, it's
often our friends and family, oreven a complete stranger, who
suffers the consequences of ouranger.
Then there are situations whensomebody actually offends us in
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person with their words oractions.
And instead of dealing with itin the proper spiritual manner,
we direct our anger at them.
There's even times when badthings happen in our lives.
We have the death of a lovedone, a natural disaster like a
hurricane.
And in those times, we mighteven direct our anger at God for
(06:03):
not keeping whatever happenedfrom happening.
How could you?
Anger and offense can be aresult of a lot of things.
And sadly, far too many people,even Christians, get stuck in
that anger.
And today I want to look closelyat what the Bible says about
anger and offense, and I'vetitled this sermon, A Christian
(06:26):
Approach to Anger and Offense.
I want to start with readingEphesians chapter 4, verses 26
and 27.
This is Paul writing.
He said, Don't sin by lettinganger control you.
Don't let the sun go down whileyou're still angry, for anger
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gives a foothold to the devil.
What's important, let's look ata background here.
The book of Ephesians was aletter that the And since it was
written almost 2,000 or over2,000 years ago, obviously the
problem with anger is notanything new, even to
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Christians.
He wrote it to church folks.
So today let's look together atthe emotions of anger and
offense and see what the Bibleteaches us about getting over
the anger we have or can have atour circumstances, our enemies,
and sometimes even at our God.
First thing I want to recognizeis Paul did not start this
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passage out by just writing,don't be angry.
That would have been the end ofit right there.
Because he could have said,okay, everybody, listen up.
Don't be angry.
Okay, have a great day.
That's the end of it.
Just don't be angry.
And truthfully, for many of us,it might seem a bit strange that
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he didn't go in that directionbecause a lot of us were taught
as we were growing up thatyou're just not supposed to get
angry.
But here it seems that Paul isgoing with the assumption that
at some point the emotion ofanger is going to take place in
our lives.
The question is how are we goingto handle it?
How are we going to deal with itwhen it happens?
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The writer of the book of Jamessaid this in James 1.19.
He said that we are to be slowto get angry.
Since like Paul, he didn't justsay, don't get angry and leave
it at that.
It seems that both writersrecognize the fact that at some
point, even as followers ofChrist, we might have to deal
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with some anger.
I'm not going to ask for a showof hands this morning.
Thankfully, Wiley's not here.
I wish he was here.
If he was here, he would answerout loud.
But I won't ask for a show ofhands or speak out loud of who
has ever gotten angry.
(08:57):
So we're going to go with thebelief or the assumption that
most everyone that is hearingthis sermon has at one point in
your life experienced theemotion of anger.
The word anger can be defined asa strong feeling of annoyance,
displeasure, or hostility.
Offense can be defined asannoyance or resentment brought
(09:22):
on by a perceived insult.
First of all, let's talk aboutanger for a little bit.
While anger can be nothing morethan just a feeling of
annoyance, left unchecked, itcan turn into clenched-fisted,
red-faced rage.
And while the rage version ofanger is wrong, not all anger is
(09:44):
wrong.
In fact, Jesus expressed angeron several occasions.
He was angry at the Phariseeswho resented his healing of a
man with a withered hand on theSabbath day.
He looked at them angrily.
This is Jesus.
He looked at them angrily andwas deeply saddened by their
hard hearts.
Then he said to the man, holdout your hand.
(10:05):
So the man held his hand and wasrestored.
He was angry at the Pharisees.
UNKNOWN (10:10):
Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00 (10:11):
He was angry at those who had turned the house
of God into a place ofmerchandise, Matthew 21, 12.
Jesus entered the temple, beganto drive out all the people
buying and selling animals forsacrifice.
He knocked over the tables ofmoney changers and chairs of
those selling doves.
That's anger.
We sometimes have a hard timeperceiving and reconciling those
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acts with the preconceived ideaor the picture in our mind of
this meek and mild Jesus.
But truthfully, Jesus wasangered by anything that
misrepresented or slandered hisheavenly father.
Jesus was angered by those whouse religion as a self-righteous
baseball bat with which tobrutally oppress people.
(10:55):
He was angered by hypocrisy andfalse religion.
So let's be clear that even asChristians, there are some
situations in life that shouldanger us.
We should be angry at the murderof innocent children through the
horror of abortion.
We should be angry when we seethe family unit being undermined
(11:16):
and destroyed in our society.
We should be angry when we seethe weak, the poor, the elderly,
the less fortunate beingmistreated.
We should be angered byinjustice anywhere we meet and
or see it.
We should be angered by theassaults on God's word and the
doctrines of our faith.
(11:38):
Let me just say something sosomebody didn't think I've gone
off the rails into some kind ofmisplaced, self-serving social
justice.
That's not what I mean.
Anyone who cannot be angry atthe seduction and trafficking of
children, anyone who cannot beangry over some great display of
depravity, some terribleinjustice toward a helpless
(12:00):
person, is either a coward or aperson who possesses no moral
convictions.
UNKNOWN (12:05):
Alright.
SPEAKER_00 (12:07):
Dr.
David Seaman said the followingabout anger, and I'll quote him.
Anger is a divinely implantedemotion closely aligned to our
instinct for right.
It is designed to be used forconstructive spiritual purposes.
The person who cannot feel angerat evil is a person who lacks
enthusiasm for good.
(12:28):
If you cannot hate wrong, it isvery questionable whether you
really love righteousness.
The right kind of anger iswholesome, healthy, good, and
it's godly.
The key word there is the rightkind of anger.
(12:51):
But if we allow it to, evengodly anger can turn into sinful
anger.
Because even godly anger, whenexpressed in the wrong way,
becomes sin.
You don't get to just be angryat a cause and do whatever you
want.
For example, being angry aboutabortion is one thing.
(13:12):
But when an abortion protestermurders the abortion doctor, the
line between good and evil hasnow been crossed, and it's sin.
We can and should be angry atinjustices to anyone at the
hands of another person.
(13:32):
But when your anger drives youto kill someone...
destroy other people's property,and steal things that don't
belong to you, then once again,you have crossed the line
between good and evil.
And at that point, yourrighteous indignation has become
nothing more than sin.
There might be some folksfeeling uncomfortable right
(13:56):
about now.
There might be someone that's alittle angry at what I'm saying.
But listen to me today, please.
Because there are biblicalanswers to how we should handle
anger and or offense.
We need to understand that wecannot be angry as Christians.
We can be angry as Christians,but we cannot allow our anger to
(14:19):
lead us into sin.
You can be angry, but you can'tlet that anger cause you to sin
in deeds or words or whatever itmight be.
Here's what I mean by that.
We're going to kind of get downon some things today that are
real life, so just hang inthere.
(14:40):
You can be angry over yourinsurance company denying a
claim.
I have.
I've been there.
I needed a procedure done.
You don't need that.
But there is never a time whenyou're justified in killing the
CEO of the company because theydenied your insurance claim.
(15:03):
And yet that just happened.
We saw it happen just a fewmonths ago.
And you go, well, that'soutrageous.
How could somebody think that'sokay?
Here's something that might bemore troubling.
I'm going to quote this.
In a survey, recent poll, quote,48% said they view the killing
(15:26):
as totally or somewhatjustified.
Those findings chime in with anEmerson College poll which found
that 41% of voters under 30found the killing acceptable far
more than any other age group.
How can between 41 and 48% ofpeople polled feel that personal
(15:49):
anger at an institution givesthem the right to kill the CEO
of that institution?
That's misplaced anger if I eversaw it.
You can call it, wow, I'm risingup against an evil corporation.
No, you killed somebody.
You killed somebody.
That's sin.
I don't care what the reason foryou doing it, it's sin.
(16:16):
We'll just keep going alongthose same lines.
You can be mad or angry over apolitical figure.
But that anger never justifiesgoing and burning down a car
dealership or vandalizing somestranger's car somewhere on the
side of the road just becausethe political figure you're
angry at owns 13% of thatcorporation.
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Well, I hate that guy, so I'mgoing to tear up your car.
That is misplaced anger.
You're stealing stuff.
You're destroying stuff thatdoesn't belong to you.
And if you call yourself aChristian and you're doing those
kind of things, you need to cometo the altar.
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We can't do that, folks.
It is never okay to let ouranger lead us to sin or to hurt
someone.
So we briefly looked at anger.
I'm I want to add in that otheremotion that goes hand in hand
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with anger and that's theemotion of offense.
I say they go hand in handbecause most of the time,
offense that isn't dealt with atsome point leads to anger.
You get offended and then youjust stay offended and you kind
of seep like a tea bag in hotwater in that offense and the
next thing you know, you're justplain old angry.
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It seems that people beingoffended and displaying that
offense What could be calledactually a spirit of offense has
reached a whole new level in oursociety.
And as I said earlier, sadly,that spirit of offense seems to
have invaded a lot of churches.
And that means whether it's atchurch or whether it's at
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Walmart, if you want to beoffended, if you look hard
enough, you can and probablywill find something to offend
you or someone to offend you.
I've known people like that.
They walked around just waitingfor somebody to offend them.
We used to call it with a chipon their shoulder.
I can't speak so much for beingoffended at Walmart, but I can
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for church.
I've seen folks get angrybecause they didn't like the
songs the worship team sang.
Or they got offended when theworship team didn't sing their
favorite song again.
Let me be clear.
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That is not something to beangry over or offended by.
If the worship team gets up hereand leads us into a place of
reverent worship and glorifiesGod, then they have fulfilled
their calling.
And our worship team does areally good job of that.
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I will assure you that no onechooses a song for any given
service with the intent ofoffending or angering someone.
Let's sing this song because Iknow so-and-so doesn't like it.
And yet there's people thatalmost act like that's the case.
Stop it.
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We are here to worship.
So let's worship regardless ofthe song that's being sung.
I had a conversation withsomebody last week and I said,
you know what, if we got up hereevery week and the only song we
ever sang week after week withJesus loves me, this I know,
before the Bible tells me so,you know what, I could worship
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to that every week.
You know why?
Because I know Jesus loves meand because the Bible tells me
so.
And church offense doesn't stopat the worship team.
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People sometimes get angry oroffended because they didn't
like the content, the style, orthe presentation of a sermon.
And although that it is not myintention to anger or offend
anyone today, this might be oneof those days for some folks.
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But here's the thing.
If the sermon is solidlygrounded or the Bible study is
solidly grounded in the word ofGod, and if it doesn't take the
scripture and twist it to fitinto a personal conviction or
view, then why not let the wordspeak to your heart as opposed
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to be offended by the content orthe style or the presentation of
the sermon?
Amen.
Here's an example.
I'll use myself for an example.
I tell stories when I preach.
I love telling stories.
I tend to preach on subjectsthat are more relevant to
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everyday life.
And while I don't do it tooffend anyone, I know there are
people who really don't likethat style of preaching or
teaching.
Instead, they would like for meto read a scripture talk about
it, talk about the Hebrew, theGreek, or whatever it might be,
read the next scripture and dothe same thing.
And there's nothing wrong withthat.
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But I feel like stories, whetherthey're personal or otherwise,
can often make the content ofthe sermon more understandable
or relatable.
You know why I feel that way?
Because Jesus did that.
He called them parables.
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I just threw that in there forfree.
There are a lot of other thingschurch folks can be angered or
offended by, but we're going tostop there.
The truth is, we live in aculture where many people stay
in a spirit of offense, even atchurch.
And with so many churchesaround...
For many folks, it's easy to beangered and offended and leave
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the church than it is to prayabout it and find a way to work
and make the church better.
So I would offer this.
If you see something that youthink could be better here at
High Point Church, rather thanleave the church because of
something you were offended orangry over, pray and ask God how
you might be able to make itbetter.
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There was a man who had...
been shipwrecked by himself onan island.
He was there for years all byhimself.
Finally, he saw a ship in thedistance and he waved and they
saw him and they came to thebeach to rescue him.
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And they said, how long you beenhere?
He said, I've been here foryears.
I don't even know how long.
He goes, what is that building?
That's a house.
That's where I live.
Wow.
He said, well, what's thatlittle building?
They said, what's that little?
He goes, well, that's my church.
Okay.
Well, what's that otherbuilding?
That's where I used to go tochurch.
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Silly little church folks.
The calling on every savedperson's life is to be a
disciple and then go into theworld and make disciples.
We've talked about that allyear.
Am I right?
Bible study teachers, Pastor Patthat preaches on Sunday, we have
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talked about that all so farthis year.
That is our calling.
And it's going to be difficultto do that if we are in a
continual spirit of offense andanger over everything that
happens in our church.
Why would somebody want to go toyour church when all you do is
complain about it?
(24:20):
Folks, we need to do better.
Parents, grandparents.
If your kids and grandkids seethese kind of behaviors in you,
it's very likely that they willnever be stable in church.
In fact, I've been around thisfor a while.
At some point when they areable, don't be surprised when
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they walk away from church andnever come back.
Offense and anger go hand inhand, and both can lead to
sinful actions and attitudes.
I have a friend, Pastor AlanCarr, he said this, when we are
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angry, we are rarely angry atthe right people about the right
things at the right moment inthe right ways for the right
reasons for the right amount oftime.
We saw earlier in the scripturetext in Ephesians, it seems to
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assume or conclude that evenchurch folks would probably find
themselves being angry at somepoint in life.
And once again, we didn't seePaul make a blanket statement of
just don't get angry.
Instead, his statement was oneof don't sin by letting that
anger control you.
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So the assumption that theremight be a time when we might
get angry is tempered with theidea of not letting the anger
control us.
You can get angry, but you can'tlet that anger control you and
make you do things that aresinful.
You can't do things that arerevengeful.
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With that in mind, we need tounderstand that the assumption
that we will find ourself angryat some point in our life is not
a license to be controlled bythat anger or spirit of offense
and act out in some kind ofunrestrained anger or rage
because that action not onlyaffects us, but it affects
everyone around us.
And left unchecked, it will ruinour witness as a child of God.
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Anger and offense are...
typically selfish in nature.
Here's what I mean.
We're often angry or offendedbecause we're hurt.
We're often angry or offendedbecause we didn't get our way.
We are often angry because wewere offended.
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We are often angry or offendedbecause we feel slighted.
We're often angry when we feelhelpless.
So in most cases, our actionsSin around us and on how we feel
with very little considerationfor anyone around us.
(27:27):
Sinful anger, sinful offense,they're almost always about what
is done to me.
It's an attitude of, you hurtme, you offended me, so I'm
angry.
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And now I'm going to strike outat you.
I'm going to say things, I'mgoing to plot my revenge, and
then I'm going to follow throughwith it in an attempt to make me
feel better.
This kind of anger leads to ahateful spirit, a spirit of
offense.
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and ultimately to the judgmentof God because it's sin.
The difference between goodanger and sinful anger is the
focus of the anger.
Here's what we need to askourselves.
Am I angry because this ishappening to me, or does my
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anger exist because a terriblewrong is being done to God or to
someone else?
Followed by, will my reaction tothis anger Be one that will not
result in sin.
If your reaction is going toresult in sin, don't do it.
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It's like any other sin.
Sin is sin.
There's no big sins.
Well, it's just a little sin ofanger.
Sin is sin.
Consider this quote by FrederickBuechner.
Not quote.
Of the seven deadly sins, angeris possibly the most fun.
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to lick your wounds, to smackyour lips over grievances long
past, to roll over your tonguethe prospect of bitter
confrontation still to come, tosavor to the last toothsome
morsel of both the pain you weregiven and the pain you are
giving back.
In many ways, it is a feast fitfor a king.
The chief drawback is that whatyou are wolfing down is
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yourself.
The skeleton at the feast isyou.
We might think it's fun to beangry.
We might even enjoy it.
But if it leads to sin, you needto repent of it.
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The question might be at thispoint, if we can be angry
without sinning, when does angerand offense, when do they become
sin?
Anger and offense become sinwhen they're centered in self.
and when they are allowed togrow into resentment, revenge,
and angry outbursts, Ephesians4.31.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage,anger, harsh words, and slander,
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as well as all types of evilbehavior.
We don't like to think of angerwith all types of evil behavior.
Anger is evil behavior.
Sinful anger is evil behavior.
And Paul said, get rid of it.
Who was he writing to?
A bunch of heathens?
No, he was writing to the churchat Ephesus.
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He was writing to be like, if Iwas out of town for a while and
I sent a letter back and hadsomebody get up in the church
and read it, this was a letterto the church.
And he said, hey, church, getrid of all bitterness, rage,
anger, harsh words, and slander,as well as all types of evil
behavior.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they plot the downfall of
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another person.
More specifically, I'm referringto gossip and slander, plotting
to harm someone with our wordsor our actions.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they grow vengeful,
vindictive, mean, when theycause harm to others.
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Romans 12, 19.
Dear friends, never takerevenge.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God.
Righteous anger.
Righteous anger.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God.
For the scripture says, I willtake revenge.
I will pay them back, says theLord.
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Anger and offense become sinwhen they consume our lives.
And all we can think about isthe person who we think wronged
or offended us.
Anger and offense become sinwhen they stifle our worship,
when they hinder ourfaithfulness to God.
when they fill us withbitterness toward God and
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others, and when they undermineour joy.
Because if there's anything inthe world that can take away
your joy, it's anger and aspirit of offense.
Simply put, anger and offensebecome sin when they cause us to
act in a way that is contrary tothe example that Jesus showed
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when he was mistreated bypeople.
And keep in mind, he died ahorrible death on a cross for
those very people who mistreatedhim.
So when we get angry andoffended over something petty,
over something that hurt ourfeelings, where does that place
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us in our self-proclaimedjourney to be like Jesus?
Most of the time when we'reangry, we can't really do much
about it.
When Jesus was hung on thecross, he could have said, I
ain't doing this.
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I'm going to call down thousandsof angels.
I'm going to wipe all y'all out.
The Bible says he could havedone it.
That would have been offense.
That would have been sinfulanger.
Jesus never sinned.
even to the point of being hungon a cross.
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And we say we want to be likeJesus.
Many years ago, there was aKnicks and Bullets playoff game,
and one of the Bullets came upbehind the great Walt Frazier,
this was a few years ago, andpunched him in the face.
And the referee called a foul onFrazier.
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Frazier didn't complain.
His expression never changed.
This is a true story.
He simply called for the balland went and put in seven
straight shots to win the game.
An amazing display of productiveanger.
That is an example of anger thatdid not sin.
(34:31):
If you want to react to youranger, let it cause you to be
productive.
And not vengeful.
Here's another example.
Told you I like to tell stories.
Bruce Goodwitch was beinginitiated in the cadet corps at
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Texas A&M University.
One night, he was forced to rununtil he dropped.
Literally.
He never got up.
He died before he ever enteredinto college.
A short time after the tragedyhappened, Bruce's father wrote
this letter to theadministration, to the faculty,
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the student body, and the Corpsof Cadets at Texas A&M.
Here's what he wrote.
I would like to take thisopportunity to express the
appreciation of my family forthe great outpouring of concern
and sympathy from Texas A&MUniversity and the college
community over the loss of ourson, Bruce.
We were deeply touched by thetribute paid to him and the
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battalion.
We were particularly pleased tonote that his Christian witness
did not go unnoticed during hisbrief time on campus.
Mr.
Goodrich went on, I hope it willbe some comfort to know that we
harbor no ill will in thematter.
We know our God makes nomistakes.
(35:58):
Bruce had an appointment withhis Lord and is now secure in
his celestial home.
When the question is asked, whydid this happen?
Perhaps one answer will be, sothat many will consider where
they will spend eternity.
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That is one of probably athousand different ways to react
to the death of its son.
And sometimes we get angry andget offended because somebody
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basically looked at uscross-eyed.
We talk a lot about sharing thegospel, being a light in a dark
world.
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If we blast everybody with angerjust because we can, every time
we're offended or angry, we willnever win anyone to the Lord.
Because people will say, why doI want what you say you have?
(37:31):
You're no different than I am.
The last phrase in verse 26 is,don't let the sun go down while
you're still angry.
The command here is clear.
Get your anger in check asquickly as possible.
(37:52):
And if you're struggling withyour anger, get yourself before
the Lord and get it settled.
Don't carry it into tomorrow.
If you're angry today and youhold it all night and you wake
up the next morning angry,Something else is going to come
along and make you angry.
And then it's just going to beon top of the anger you had.
Paul was a pretty smart guy.
(38:13):
He said, don't let the sun godown on your anger.
Anger and offense that isallowed to simmer will turn into
resentment.
Resentment will soon turn intobitterness.
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And bitterness will soon turninto a root of
self-righteousness, which willchoke the life, the peace, and
the joy out of not only you, buteveryone around you.
Let me throw this in here.
Anger, offense, resentment, andbitterness are contagious.
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Angry people and people who areeasily offended attack other
lives, and they drag theirvictims into their snare of
death and defeat.
It seems that far too often,people aren't content with being
offended and angry bythemselves.
Instead, they feel the need torecruit others into their anger
and offense.
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Parents, grandparents, if ourkids and grandkids see this in
us, and they see this type ofanger and offense in our lives,
don't be surprised when youeventually see it in theirs.
Verse 27 says, that anger givesa foothold to the devil.
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And it follows right after,don't let the sun go down on
your anger.
That's not an accident.
When we take our anger to bedwith us and allow it to grow and
simmer in our hearts, we givethe devil a foothold in our
life.
The word foothold refers to agrip or a position.
Unreconciled anger in our heartsGive Satan the opening that he
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needs to attack us and then forus to attack others.
When Satan is allowed afoothold, when he is allowed a
place or a position in our livesbecause of anger or offense that
we're holding on to, he willcause us to seek revenge, in
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violation, clear violation ofthe word of God.
Romans 12, verses 17 through 21.
Never pay back evil with moreevil.
Do things in such a way thateveryone can see that you are
honorable.
Do all that you can do to livein peace with everyone.
Dear friends, never takerevenge.
Leave that to the righteousanger of God for the scripture
(40:44):
says, I will take revenge.
I will pay them back, says theLord.
Instead, if you're any, this isthe hard part.
If your enemies are hungry, feedthem.
If they're thirsty, we have ahard time just not being angry.
And then you had to write this.
If they're hungry, feed them.
If they're thirsty, give themsomething to drink.
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In doing this, you will heapburning coals of shame on their
heads.
Don't let evil conquer you.
Don't let evil conquer you.
Conquer evil.
By doing good.
(41:26):
There was a man that told his,he was told by his physician.
He said, I'm really sorry totell you this, but you have
rabies.
As soon as the man heard that,he pulled out a piece of paper
and started writing.
And the doctor was thinking thisman thought he was going to die
and he's making out his will.
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And he said, this doesn't meanyou're going to die.
There's a cure for rabies.
The man said, I know, I'm justmaking a list of people I want
to bite.
Listen to me.
We laugh at that.
But weaponizing rabies is noworse than weaponizing anger.
(42:10):
And there's just some peoplethat seem to enjoy their anger
as much as this guy seemed to beenjoying his rabies.
And there's just some peoplethat seem to look forward to an
opportunity to use their angeragainst someone.
(42:32):
That's not a good witness.
That's not a witness at all ofJesus.
The truth is this.
Any case of anger or offense,whether it's legitimate or not,
if it is allowed to run and gounchecked, it will permit Satan
(42:58):
to have an upper hand in ourlives.
And when we allow Satan to dothat in our lives, he will feed
our anger and our offense withself-pity, with pride,
self-righteousness, vengeance,and every other sort of selfish
sin and violation of God's word.
(43:19):
When we allow anger and offenseto control us, it can and most
likely will distract us orcompletely lead us away from
God's will for our lives.
Because we just love beingangry.
And once again, if we don't findthe right outlet for our anger,
it will not only destroy us, itwill cause us to hurt innocent
(43:43):
people around us.
There's a story told aboutAbraham Lincoln, when he was a
president, his secretary of war,Edwin Stanton, was angered by an
army officer that had accusedhim of favoritism.
And so Stanton went to Lincoln,and Lincoln suggested that
Stanton write a harsh letter tothis officer.
(44:04):
Stanton did.
He showed this strongly wordedletter to the president, and
Lincoln said, what are you goingto do with it?
He was surprised.
He goes, well, I'm going to sendit.
Lincoln shook his head, andhere's what he said.
You don't want to send thatletter.
Put it in the stove.
That's what I do when I'vewritten a letter while I'm
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angry.
It's a good letter, and you hada good time writing it, and you
feel better.
Now burn it and write anotherone.
It is said that Abraham Lincoln,when he had to write a letter to
someone he was irritated with,he would write two letters, and
the first one was deliberatelyinsulting.
(44:45):
And then having gotten all thosefeelings out of his system, he
would tear it up or burn it, andhe would write a second letter
that was far more tactful andfar more kind.
A lot of folks could take thatadvice from Abraham Lincoln and
think twice before they presssend on that angry social media
(45:08):
post.
And we'll move on.
If we do not learn to handle ouranger, it will break us and it
will lead us into sin.
Proverbs 14, 17 says thatshort-tempered people do foolish
things.
Proverbs 22, 24 says don'tbefriend angry people or
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associate with hot-temperedpeople.
Proverbs 29, 22 says an angryperson starts fights, a
hot-tempered person commits allkinds of sin.
That's only three passages ofScripture that address the
problem.
But be assured, the Bible has anawful lot to say about anger and
the sin that is often broughtabout by it.
(45:50):
I mentioned earlier that angerand offense are contagious.
So I'll close with this.
In the spring of 1894, theBaltimore Orioles came to Boston
to play a routine baseball game.
True story.
But what happened during thegame was anything but routine.
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The player for the Orioles namedJohn McGraw got into a fight
with Boston's third baseman.
And the benches were cleared andthey all joined in the fight.
The warfare quickly spread tothe grandstands.
And among the fans, a conflictwent from bad to worse.
(46:31):
Someone set fire to the stands.
The entire ballpark burned down.
And then the fire spread acrossto 107 other buildings in Boston
before it was brought undercontrol.
Maybe we haven't seen our angerand offense spread quite that
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drastically.
But be assured, there is rarelya time when it doesn't affect
someone else.
I'll go back to that quote fromDr.
Alan Carr.
When we are angry, we are rarelyangry at the right people about
(47:14):
the right things at the rightmoment in the right ways for the
right reasons for the rightamount of time.
Benjamin Franklin said thisabout anger.
Anger is never without a reason,but seldom with a good one.
No one here today, no onewatching the live stream is
(47:37):
above getting angry.
Sometimes our anger isjustified.
But at other times, our anger isjust plain old sinful.
Whether you are angry over somesituation in your life you don't
understand, angry at someone whohas hurt you deeply, angry at
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God himself because he allowedsome trial to come into your
life, You must remember this.
Please remember this.
God is sovereign.
He is in control.
He is sovereign even over youranger.
Trust him to bring good out ofwhat makes you angry.
(48:26):
And submit your anger to him.
Ask him to help you let go ofthat anger.
When you're faced with thechoice of how will you display
your anger, this is going tosound simplistic, but I'm going
to say it.
(48:46):
Stop and pray, even if it's asimple prayer of help me God,
I'm angry.
Help me God, I'm angry.
Help me God, I'm angry.
Sometimes we just need to bereminded as to who we are for
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our anger to calm down.
And when we say, help me, God,I'm angry, we realize we're a
child of God.
Will that take all your angeraway?
I won't promise that, but it'llchange the way you react to it.
When you get God involved in it,it changes the way we do it.
(49:35):
Don't allow anger to destroyyour life.
your family, your testimony, oryour faith in God.
Each of us, every one of usthat's saved, has a calling on
our life to go into the worldand make disciples.
(49:56):
And since we live in a worldthat is already inundated with
hatred, anger, and offense, wecannot possibly fulfill that
calling with a heart filled withhatred anger and offense.
Would you stand this morning?
(50:47):
It's amazing how a person cangrow in their walk with Christ,
and they can do a lot of goodstuff, and they can witness,
maybe win people to the Lord,maybe even be in ministry, and
they can destroy it like that,over anger.
(51:17):
As a church, I know what God hasshown me for High Point Church.
I know what he has shown me aswe go forward as a church.
But I believe before he is gonnado those things, we're gonna
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have to make sure we've got ourhearts right.
Why would he fill this place upwith people looking for change?
And when they get here, theyfind out that no different than
them.
I'm not saying anybody here isgoing to miss out on heaven.
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That's not what I'm saying.
I'm not judging you.
I am saying that there areopportunities to really mess up
our lives and mess up ourwitness.
Over things like anger andoffense.
Don't justify it.
Don't make excuses for it.
(52:28):
When there's anger and offensein your life, there's only one
thing to do.
The easy thing is to justify itand make excuses for it.
Well, what really needs tohappen is repentance.
If it's sinful anger, it's justlike any other sin.
You repent.
You ask God to forgive you.
Lord, forgive me of that sin.
(52:49):
I shouldn't have done that.
And if it was bad enough and youneed to go make restitution with
somebody, go do that too.
We can't move forward in ourwalks with God if we've got an
anchor of anger and offenseholding us back.
(53:18):
So pastor, you're saying younever get angry?
I didn't say that.
I've dealt with anger for years.
Even the wrong kind of anger.
I knew it was wrong.
(53:39):
And there was a time in my lifeI was really good at it.
I enjoyed it.
In fact, I will even go this farto tell you.
I told my psychologist one time,I said, it's weird because
sometimes when I get angry, itactually makes me feel good.
(54:07):
It's that dopamine that gets allcranked up.
Except that feel good lasts forabout that long.
And you realize you didsomething you shouldn't have
done.
And then it's like, why did I dothat?
(54:30):
We have to get it under control.
Our anger and our offense, wehave to get it under control.
I will tell you that when Istarted giving it to God, when I
started going with, Lord, helpme, I'm angry.
That's when things started tochange.
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And I can tell you that, my wifecan tell you, I'm not that
person.
So many times we think about sinof, I was a bank robber and I
robbed 17 banks and Goddelivered me from robbing banks.
(55:19):
Praise God.
But the anger that hurts people,the anger that destroys lives,
the anger that plots out revengeand how I can hurt this person
and destroy their life or theirfamily, that kind of anger is
just as sinful as robbing abank.
But we don't think aboutrepenting of that so many times.
(55:43):
And so today I'm going to askyou to do this.
Whether you come to this altar,That's a good place to do it.
Whether you do it right whereyou are.
I want us all to spend a littletime in repentance.
Lord, search my heart.
If there's offense and anger inmy heart, help me to stop making
(56:08):
excuses for it.
Help me to stop blaming somebodyelse.
If I am angry, that's my choice.
If I have hatred and anger andoffense in my heart, it is my
choice to hold on to it.
Give it to God.
Just like any other sin that youwould commit, give it to God and
(56:33):
leave it there.
You've heard me say this before.
So many times we come and wecome to the altar and we say,
here's my sin, here's my angerand offense.
And I'm gonna give it all toyou, Lord.
I'm gonna walk away.
And we make it about two steps.
I really enjoy that.
(56:55):
And we pick it up and take itright back with us.
Folks, it's an angry andoffended world out there.
We're different.
We're saved.
We are forgiven.
We have the Holy Spirit livingin us.
We can't act like that.
(57:16):
We're going to sing a song herein a minute.
And as they sing, I want us tosincerely seek God.
And if there's something in mylife that shouldn't be there.
And if you say, I just don'tknow that I can get past this.
You come up here and we'll praywith you.
I believe that there is a spiritof offense that is in a lot of
(57:37):
people's lives that they need tobe delivered from.
And I believe that God candeliver you.
I don't know what people wouldthink.
I don't care what people think.
You shouldn't either.
Probably the only thing they'regoing to think is, I wish I
would have gone.
(57:59):
Let's sing.
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