Angry.

Steve Gentry

[0:06] Well, go ahead and have a seat. [0:07] Welcome to Village Church. [0:08] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:10] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:12] And as always, I am thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:16] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter five.

[0:19] We’re going to be starting in verse 21 this morning. [0:23] We’re getting into the thick of the sermon on the mount. [0:26] And so what’s interesting about where we are, in my opinion, is that we began with [0:31] Jesus giving us the Beatitudes, with him saying that if you are the new creation in Christ, [0:37] here is what will flow in and out of your life continuously. [0:41] And then he said that if you’re living out this new creation, you’ll be the salt of

[0:45] the earth, you’ll be the light of the world, you’ll be a city that is on a hill, so that [0:49] people can find the hope that they need in Jesus. [0:52] And then last week, we took a look at this amazing picture that Jesus draws for us as [0:59] to how he fulfills the law of God for us and how we have no hope of fulfilling the law, [1:06] but rather Jesus has come to do that for us. [1:09] And now he begins to meddle.

[1:12] Now he begins to go into our lives to show us point by point why we need him to fulfill [1:20] the law for us, why we need him to be our Redeemer and why we can’t redeem ourselves. [1:27] And I’m not sure why he begins here, but I always find it interesting that he begins [1:32] with anger. [1:34] And there’s one thing that I believe, and I know enough people, I think, in general, [1:38] and I know enough of the members of Village Church to understand that you are an angry

[1:44] bunch. [1:45] All right? [1:46] I don’t believe any of you don’t struggle here. [1:51] I think that at some point, at some place, and I think it’s common in your life, you [1:56] can deny it all you want to, but I think you’re angry. [2:01] And here’s what I’ll confess.

[2:03] When you’re preaching something like the book of Matthew, and it’s exciting because we’re [2:07] talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we’re talking about the different realities [2:12] that it brings into our life, you don’t always know the effect that it’s going to [2:16] have, but when you get into the Sermon on the Mount, it begins to become very uncomfortable [2:20] even for me because I can tell you right now, I am an angry person. [2:25] I am a person that for my entire life has struggled with the issue of anger.

[2:31] And if you’re close to me, you’ve seen it. [2:34] All right? [2:35] And it goes all the way back to childhood, when, I mean, my parents probably have so [2:40] many stories, but don’t ask them for one. [2:42] And because I know some of you are going to go directly to them if you can ever find [2:46] them.

[2:46] They’re good at hiding. [2:47] But you’re going to go directly to them and you’re going to ask them for a story, and [2:51] that’s disobedience. [2:53] So don’t do that. [2:55] All right? [2:56] I tell you enough stories.

[2:57] I’m pretty transparent about who I am. [3:00] But when I was younger, and I’m talking about a child when I was an adolescent, even into [3:05] especially as a child, I would get so angry and I would lose my temper. [3:11] And then when you would try to figure out what I was angry about, no one could figure [3:14] it out, not even me. [3:16] I was just angry.

[3:18] And sometimes I was just angry about being angry, and so I was letting out my anger.

[3:23] And so anger is something that has followed me my entire life. [3:27] Anger is something that could very easily be something that, though, that just like [3:32] you do, I could justify. [3:35] Anger is something that is never justifiable, but you’re always trying to justify it, and [3:39] I’m going to prove that to you today. [3:42] Anger is something that will consume you.

[3:45] Anger is something that will destroy your soul. [3:48] Anger is the enemy of faith in Jesus Christ, and you better deal with it, or it’s just [3:53] going to deal with you and have its way with you for the entirety of your days. [3:58] That’s how serious the issue of anger is. [4:00] And that’s why I think maybe Jesus began by talking about our anger. [4:06] Anger will destroy your soul.

[4:09] And the quickest way to finding resolution to how anger is destroying your life is admitting [4:16] that you are an angry person. [4:18] You are someone that probably isn’t even struggling with your anger because some of you have [4:22] convinced yourself that anger is a virtue in your life. [4:25] Anger is how you get things done. [4:28] You know, this culture is not the worst culture in the history of the world as opposed to

[4:31] what some people would say. [4:32] As soon as you start studying Rome, that was pretty bad culture. [4:36] But our culture is convinced of a lie. [4:40] The lie that our culture is convinced in currently is that outrage is a virtue, and outrage is [4:46] a way to get things done, and it’s on all sides. [4:49] Everyone is outraged about something nowadays.

[4:53] And you believe the lie that your outrage, whether it be this issue, whether it be that [4:59] issue, whether it’s a perceived injustice, whether it’s an actual injustice, whether [5:04] it is a victim or whether it is a victimizer. [5:07] Our culture is trying to convince us and it’s trying to convince itself that anger is a [5:14] solution and a way to get things done. [5:17] And the reason that we can’t believe that is because of the words of Jesus Christ.

[5:23] The scriptures will never lead you to a place where you are convinced that your anger is [5:29] the way to get something done in a righteous manner, but anger deceives you into believing [5:36] that you are righteous and it is righteous. [5:39] Here’s what Jesus says starting in verse 21.

[5:48] Whoever murders will be liable to judgment, but I say to you that everyone who is angry [5:52] with his brother will be liable to judgment. [5:55] Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool, [5:59] and he’s not just talking about, you know, when you say someone’s foolish or when you [6:03] say you fool, but what he’s actually saying is this is an Old Testament way of condemning [6:09] someone, because that’s what he means by that in the original language.

[6:13] Whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. [6:16] So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has [6:20] something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. [6:24] First, be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. [6:28] Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you were going with him to court, lest your [6:33] accuser hands you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison.

[6:38] Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. [6:45] You see, the law of God is just. [6:49] And so he is not pitting murder and anger against one another, nor is he saying murder [6:54] and anger are the same thing. [6:57] I would much rather you be angry at me for a long time than murder me. [7:01] OK, so we know that they are not the same thing.

[7:04] But what Jesus is doing is he’s continuing the theme that you weigh righteousness by [7:10] external action. [7:12] But God knows what’s going on in your soul. [7:15] And he’s saying that just because you haven’t done what you want to to a person does not [7:20] mean you are righteous. [7:22] The seeds of anger inside of you are unrighteous and will eat your soul alive.

[7:29] And you need to deal with your anger because, number one, this morning, understand that [7:35] anger puts you in God’s seat and you don’t belong in God’s seat. [7:39] Your judgment cannot be trusted, so stop trusting. [7:44] You see, the heart is deceitful about anger, and that’s why Jesus puts it in the terms [7:51] that he puts it in. [7:53] In the movie The Avengers, it came out a couple of years ago.

[7:57] He didn’t think you were going to get an Avengers reference today, I know. [8:00] I’m full of surprises. [8:01] But in the movie The Avengers, when it’s getting to the climactic battle and they’re in the [8:06] middle of the battle and the Hulk is nowhere to be found, they thought that he was gone [8:10] or dead or worse somehow. [8:13] But then Bruce Banner in the middle of the battle pulls up on a motorcycle, and that’s

[8:17] not good news because they don’t need Bruce Banner. [8:19] They need the Hulk, all right? [8:21] And so in this scene, they’re talking with one another, and Bruce Banner says, I’m going [8:27] to go and I’m going to take the battle to them. [8:29] And he turns around and Captain America kind of cautions him. [8:32] He’s like, Bruce, don’t you need to get angry?

[8:36] And Bruce Banner turns around and he says, that’s my secret.

[8:41] I’m always angry. [8:44] Then he turns into the Hulk. [8:47] And I’m not going to take that analogy too far. [8:48] I know it’s a movie, all right? [8:52] But here’s what you need to understand. [8:55] So often you do what Bruce Banner does in that movie.

[9:02] You believe the lie that anger is a way to get things done. [9:10] That anger is somehow a virtue and a way in which you to enact a justice in this world [9:17] that is missing from this world. [9:19] For you to enact a punishment on someone else that won’t happen unless you are angry. [9:26] For you to right a wrong that needs to be righted. [9:30] Or simply, I get things done better when I’m good and angry.

[9:36] And so you see and you’re angry and you let it overwhelm you. [9:41] And you believe that if you can Hulk up on a person, you will get your point across better. [9:47] If you will Hulk up on a person, you will get the job done that you need to get done. [9:52] And you believe whether or not overtly or just subconsciously that your anger is a virtue [9:59] in your life and that without your anger, you will be victimized. [10:05] Without your anger, you won’t prove your point.

[10:08] Without your anger, you won’t get the life that you believe you deserve. [10:17] And so in opposition to everything, Jesus, to everything that the Bible has to say about anger, [10:22] you operate under a system in which anger is what defines your life. [10:32] See, anger will deceive you. [10:37] Robert Jones defines anger this way. [10:40] He says, our anger is a whole person active response of negative moral judgment against a perceived evil.

[10:51] You see, anger is an action and anger is you putting yourself in the seat of the judge. [11:00] Anger is you believing that you have positive moral judgment against negative moral actions in this world and evils that other are committing. [11:14] But you see, that’s where it’s deceptive because you can’t trust yourself. [11:19] Anger is an action. [11:21] It is not something that you have, rather anger is something that you do not because of the effect that it has on others, [11:32] but because of the effect that it has on you.

[11:35] You see, anger almost always makes you foolish. [11:39] I wanted to say always, but I know some of your fickles. [11:43] So anger almost always makes you foolish. [11:46] Some deal with anger by blowing up or venting. [11:53] I love how we have these pretty words for sin. [11:58] But men, stereotypically, are the ones that lose their temper.

[12:02] See, men externalize their anger. [12:05] Men explode on other people and I’ve been there. [12:08] When you are three, it’s called a temper tantrum. [12:10] When you are 30, it’s called venting. [12:12] It’s not that women don’t do this. [12:14] You do, I’ve seen it happen.

[12:16] But it’s that men usually are the ones that will just totally explode in their anger on another person. [12:25] This is why I don’t normally carry my phone up here. [12:28] It starts ringing. [12:30] But anger will convince you that the answer to this problem right here and right now is to destroy everyone in sight. [12:39] But don’t think that if you’ve never lost your temper or you don’t lose your temper very often, you’re off the hook. [12:43] See, some of you are passive aggressive.

[12:46] Some of you respond in anger by backing away and getting quiet and plotting.

[12:56] See, on one side we’ve got the pretty word of venting. [12:58] On the other side, we’ve got the pretty word of plotting. [13:02] And so you are passive aggressive and so you will wait until the right time. [13:07] You will strategize just what will hurt them the most. [13:10] And then you will pounce and you will get your revenge. [13:17] See, whether you lose your temper or whether you are a passive aggressive person that’s enacting justice after a while, it’s all the same.

[13:25] It is you believing you are righteous enough to make the right moral judgment so that you can bring vengeance onto the lives of others. [13:35] You are convincing yourself that you are God in that situation. [13:41] But it always makes you foolish. [13:43] Look at what the Proverbs has to say in Proverbs 14, 29. [13:46] Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. [13:49] See, it’s not quick to anger, it’s slow to anger.

[13:52] But he who has a hasty temper exalts foolishness. [13:56] Proverbs 15, 8. [13:57] A hot tempered man or woman stirs up strife. [14:01] But he who is slow to anger quiets contention. [14:05] See, note that these also tell us that those who can control their reaction are wise people. [14:11] See, self control.

[14:13] It’s a fruit of the spirit. [14:14] But what’s interesting is that some of us treat anger as if it is a fruit of the spirit. [14:19] You know, Galatians in our version says, and the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, anger.

[14:27] Wait a second, one of these is not like the others. [14:31] Actually, that’s not in the list of fruits of spirit at all. [14:34] That’s in the list of fruits of the flesh that you ought to repent of. [14:38] You see, anger is never something that is godly, nor is it something that will bring you to wisdom. [14:44] People that lose their temper, people that fly off the handle, people who are consumed with anger. [14:49] Do they typically make things better?

[14:52] No. [14:53] When you have an angry reaction, almost every time, you make it worse. [14:58] Have you ever broken furniture over anger? [15:01] How much did that cost you? [15:03] It didn’t make things better. [15:04] It made it worse, or even worse than that.

[15:07] Have you ever broken a relationship beyond repair because of your anger? [15:13] You do not see relationships get better. [15:16] He was just so angry that I had to forgive him. [15:20] You don’t usually hear that. [15:23] You hear anger is a reason to separate. [15:25] You hear anger is a reason for divorce.

[15:28] You hear anger is a reason for irreconcilable differences.

[15:33] Anger is never going to heal you, and it’s never going to heal the relationships around you. [15:39] Proverbs 16-32 says it this way, [15:41] whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. [15:44] And that’s the opposite of what we think. [15:47] See, many of us have deceived ourselves that anger will make us strong. [15:50] Anger will make us invulnerable.

[15:53] Anger will get things right. [15:56] No, the Word of God says that when you are slow to anger, [16:00] you are better than the physically strongest person around you. [16:03] He goes on and it says, [16:05] and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. [16:09] See, if you can control your anger, if you can control your reactions,

[16:12] if you can control yourself, [16:15] you are better than a great military leader. [16:18] And see, that’s the power of God that you need in your life. [16:21] But when you are consumed with anger, you are consumed with self-righteousness. [16:26] You see, losing your temper is not a sign of maturity. [16:29] We believe that about five-year-olds.

[16:32] But do you believe that about yourself at 35 years old? [16:36] See, even as I say that, some of you are getting angry. [16:39] You see, the fact of the matter is that some of you are angry that we’re talking about anger, [16:43] so you’re trying to justify your anger. [16:46] And you’re like, yeah, I might be angry, but my anger is different. [16:49] You don’t understand what I’ve been through.

[16:51] You don’t understand what I’m currently going through. [16:53] You don’t understand what I’m about to go through. [16:55] You don’t understand what I’m afraid to go through. [16:58] Here’s the big question. [16:59] How is your anger making it any better? [17:01] It’s not. It’s making everything worse.

[17:03] I know the answer to that question. [17:05] Because anger exposes self-righteousness. [17:08] Note what Jesus says about anger in Matthew 5, 22. [17:12] See, we usually think about anger that it is us making someone else liable to judgment. [17:17] But what Jesus says here in verse 22 is, he says, [17:20] when you are angry, you make yourself liable to judgment.

[17:24] See, your anger doesn’t bring revenge on another person. [17:26] Your anger isn’t going to take vengeance on another person. [17:28] Your anger is only going to ruin your life. [17:31] Your anger is only going to make you unhealthy. [17:34] Your anger is going to bring judgment on you. [17:38] Because your anger is not about that other person.

[17:42] Ultimately, even if you think you are mad at God, your anger is not about God. [17:46] Your anger is about you.

[17:49] Anger is you trying to be God over yourself and others. [17:55] Think about it. How much does it take for you to get angry? [17:58] How long does it take?

[18:01] For some, a person walks into a room and says, hi.

[18:08] But you caught their tongue.

[18:12] You saw the way they tilted their head. [18:17] You saw the look in their eyes.

[18:21] You’re angry. [18:23] How dare you.

[18:28] We laugh.

[18:31] But I’ve seen relationships broken over one word.

[18:40] Your soul is sick.

[18:45] You need healing.

[18:48] Friends, I know that you think that the problem is the other person. [18:51] I know that you believe in your heart. [18:52] And I don’t think that you are a wicked and evil person. [18:56] I think that your soul is wickedly sick with sin. [19:00] Because you have put yourself in the seat of God. [19:03] You have put yourself in the seat of righteousness.

[19:05] You have put yourself in a judgment seat that you cannot trust yourself to be in. [19:11] You cannot trust yourself to judge others because you obviously can’t even judge yourself with righteousness. [19:19] Anger is self-righteousness working inside of you and coming out of you. [19:25] You believe that you are the center of the universe. [19:28] And if anyone breaks any of your rules, not God’s rules, your rules, [19:34] they are condemned.

[19:38] Psalm 103, 8, lets us know what the anger of God is like. [19:42] It says the Lord is merciful and righteous, excuse me, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. [19:50] You see, the Proverbs tell us about the wisdom of God to apply to our lives. [19:54] And the Psalm shows us that God is the definition of these things. [19:59] He says He is slow to anger, but His steadfast love, His enduring love, [20:06] is what really marks the character of God.

[20:08] He is patient. [20:09] He endures us. [20:11] See friend, you are nothing like God when you are losing your temper in order to hold others accountable. [20:17] In James chapter 1, verse 19, it warns us. [20:20] It says, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. [20:28] Yet somehow we often convince ourselves that the way to get things done is to be slow to hear,

[20:34] quick to speak, quick to get angry.

[20:38] See, we have deceived ourselves. [20:40] Then He says in verse 20, the anger of man does not, does not produce the righteousness of God. [20:51] Are you angry?

[20:54] What are you planning to do with that anger?

[20:57] See, you believe that you are going to react in anger. [21:00] You believe that you are going to enact some kind of temper tantrum. [21:03] You believe that you are going to get somebody and you have lied to yourself [21:06] and you believe you are going to produce the righteousness of God with those things. [21:10] Here is what I want you to understand. [21:13] Underline James 1, 20.

[21:16] Your anger will never produce the righteousness of God. [21:22] It can’t happen. [21:23] God doesn’t say one thing in His word and then another truth be true about you just because [21:29] you know, it’s you. [21:31] So number two this morning, you need to stop justifying your anger. [21:35] Stop justifying your anger.

[21:38] So I want to look at the different levels of anger here. [21:40] First, I want to talk about the right just anger of God. [21:45] You see, God shows us that anger is more than a mere emotion. [21:49] Anger is complex. [21:50] Anger comprises the whole person. [21:53] Have you ever been so angry that you were ill?

[21:57] Have you ever been so angry that it upset your stomach or maybe you even got sick? [22:02] Have you ever been so angry that you couldn’t think straight? [22:07] Have you ever been so angry that you just couldn’t control your reactions and your emotions? [22:12] You see, all of those things show us that anger isn’t just one thing that happens to us. [22:16] Anger is a whole person response when it happens to us. [22:20] And so it overwhelms us.

[22:22] But Jesus reveals that the godly pursuit of risk, excuse me, resisting anger [22:28] helps us to repent of our selfish tendencies. [22:32] He aids us to understand that anger actually affects our worship. [22:36] Note that he says, if you’re bringing a gift to the altar and you find out that you have [22:41] anger with a brother or a brother has anger against you. [22:45] Note how he also turns that around because usually when we think about how angry we are,

[22:48] it’s that we’ve been wrong. [22:50] Jesus says, no, no, you’re the one that’s wrong. [22:52] He says, leave the gift and go get it right. [22:54] He lets us know that anger actually affects our relationships, [22:59] that this is about us and other people and we need to get that right. [23:04] But most of us understand that anger is a negative moral judgment and we want to be like God.

[23:12] Here’s what God’s anger is like. [23:14] This is Job 4-9. [23:16] By the breath of God, they perish. [23:18] By the blast of his anger, they are consumed. [23:23] If you are an angry person, you read that and you’re like, I need to get me some of that.

[23:32] I mean, if I could just take that into my road rage, everybody would get out of my way. [23:39] I want to consume them.

[23:44] So when we see a text like that, we want to be like God, not for righteous reasons, [23:50] but for reasons that we actually can’t be trusted because we want to use his vengeance for our gain. [23:57] God uses his anger for righteousness every single time.

[24:04] Righteous anger from a human level. [24:08] God’s anger is righteous every single time. [24:11] But the Bible speaks of righteous anger from a human level so rarely and so few times, [24:22] you can assume your anger is never righteous.

[24:26] That’s what I want you to understand. [24:28] It is safe to assume because of the way scripture talks about anger, [24:32] that your anger is never, ever, ever righteous anger. [24:38] Was I clear?

[24:41] Never, ever, ever righteous anger. [24:45] Some of you are like Ephesians 4.26.

[24:49] Okay, so let’s deal with Ephesians 4.26. [24:51] This is be angry and do not sin. [24:55] Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. [24:57] Some of you take this completely out of context and you’re like, [25:00] that’s right, I am angry and I’m not sinning. [25:03] I mean, I want to kill you, but I’m not sinning.

[25:06] I want to destroy you, your entire family, all of your descendants. [25:11] I want Ancestry.com to delete everything about your family tree. [25:15] I want to build a prison in my backyard and I want to put you in that prison and I wanted [25:19] to have a dungeon and I want you chained in that dungeon and I want there to be torture [25:22] devices in that dungeon, but I am not going to sin.

[25:30] How’s that working out for you? [25:33] Then you’re like, right, don’t let the sun go down on your anger. [25:36] I surely get my vengeance the day it happens, so I obey it. [25:43] I don’t let the sun go down on my anger.

[25:47] See, the problem with us is that we’ve got this inner lawyer inside of us that tries to justify [25:54] our reactions and tries to justify our anger in the face of what the truth actually is and that [26:01] your anger is consuming you and your anger is surely sinful anger because of the effect [26:08] that it’s having on you and probably the effect that it’s having on everyone around you.

[26:16] So let’s look at the context of what Ephesians 4.26 is actually about. [26:19] It does say, be angry and don’t sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger, but go a few verses [26:25] down to verse 31. [26:28] In Ephesians 4.31 it says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander be put away from [26:35] you along with all malice. What I love about this text is he just says five synonyms.

[26:43] They’re all anger, but he wants to get every angle of anger that he can possibly get so [26:49] you have no outs. What does he say? Let it be put away from you. Instead, be kind to one another, [27:02] tender hearted, forgiving one another. Now, if he stopped there, we would have enough to understand [27:11] that we’re not supposed to react one way. We are supposed to react another way. [27:15] But the problem with that is how we deal with our anger is usually, okay, I just need to be not [27:21] angry. I need to stop disobeying and I need to start obeying. I need to stop not forgiving

[27:27] and start forgiving. But God doesn’t do that. Jesus doesn’t do that in Matthew 5. The apostle [27:33] Paul, what he says is, is that the foundation for kindness, the foundation for tender heartedness, [27:39] the foundation for forgiveness is not denying the wrong, is not denying how you feel. [27:45] It is finding justice for wrong in the appropriate place. [27:50] He says the reason that you can be kind in the face of sin, in the face of adversity, [27:54] the reason you can be tender hearted, what tender hearted actually means, that’s the most difficult

[27:58] thing. It means empathy. It means that you try to understand someone, even someone who’s sinning [28:04] against you. You try to understand the deepest hurts that they have that are making them the [28:08] way that they are. And he says be forgiving. Why? Because God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you. [28:16] In other words, justice has been had for every wrong. Believe it. And if you believe it, [28:24] you’ll start in verse 26 where it says be angry and don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your [28:29] anger. And you’ll begin to understand something that took me a long time to understand in my

[28:33] personal life. And that is that verse is not talking about me dealing with another person. [28:39] That verse is not me dealing with my adversary. Verses 31 and 32 say that that verse is about me [28:47] dealing with me. Me dealing with the root of my anger. Me dealing with the root of why am I so [29:04] angry? Because I am not believing the gospel. That’s my problem. That’s why anger will destroy [29:16] your soul. Anger will convince you that other people are the biggest problem in your life rather [29:21] than you being the biggest problem in your life. Anger will convince you that your enemies are

[29:26] victimizing you rather than starting from the base of saying you know what I’m victimizing myself [29:31] and before I can ever deal with the people that are hurting me I need to deal with myself hurting [29:37] me. Anger deceives you and locks you into a prison where you will never grow as a person. [29:44] You will never grow as someone with faith in Jesus Christ because anger destroys faith and [29:49] tells you that the answer is in you rather than the answer being in Jesus Christ. Because when [29:56] you believe the gospel you understand that God’s justice for all sin for all sin culminates in the

[30:06] cross of Jesus Christ. Therefore God tells you to find the justice for sin that you are so angry [30:14] about in Jesus because you will never be satisfied otherwise. Sure go after vengeance. [30:23] Try to seek retribution. Try to get revenge for all the wrongs. You know what you’re gonna find?

[30:32] More wrongs. And you’re just gonna set a rhythm in your life where you’re trying to find vengeance [30:37] for all the wrongs that are ever done to you over and over and over and over and over again. [30:42] The cross of Jesus Christ is the only place where vengeance stops because God doesn’t pretend sin [30:48] doesn’t exist. God doesn’t pretend that you haven’t been abused. God doesn’t pretend that [30:55] people don’t make victims out of other people. God doesn’t pretend any of those things. God [31:01] tells us it does happen. God tells us it can happen. God will look to us and say it did happen.

[31:11] But the only place you were ever going to find healing, the only place that you were ever going [31:17] to find the satisfaction that your soul longs for, the only place you’re ever going to find rest [31:22] for your anger is in the justice that Jesus Christ brought to sin by paying the penalty [31:29] for all sin on his cross. Friend the answer to your anger is and always will be Jesus. [31:39] What’s fascinating to me sometimes are movies about revenge because this tells me this isn’t [31:46] something that God just dropped on us in his work. I think he sowed it into our hearts as people

[31:51] and then revealed it to us specifically in his word so that we wouldn’t miss it. [31:57] But you watch these movies that are about someone that was hurt or someone whose family was hurt [32:01] when they were young in life and then 10, 20, you know 30 or so years later they come back into that [32:07] town and they’re going to get their revenge. And what happens so often in movies is that the movie [32:14] is less about that person getting revenge and more about that person finding that revenge will [32:20] never bring satisfaction to their souls because they will just continue down a path of anger.

[32:28] And so what happens so often is in the climax of the film that person is about to set it up and [32:34] get their revenge and something happens and they either forgive and they just walk away

[32:42] and they realize revenge is just going to make me more dissatisfied. But what those movies miss [32:50] is what Jesus reveals in his word. Is that the only place your anger will find full satisfaction [32:58] isn’t in walking away. It’s in Jesus because God the Son laid his life down on the cross. [33:09] In part for everything that you’re ever angry about. And he wants you to trust him enough to [33:16] find justice there. You see number three anger is only solved by the heart-changing power of the [33:21] gospel. Anger is only solved by the heart-changing power of the gospel. Friend your anger will take

[33:28] you down a path that will wreck your life. See it has taken me 14 years of marriage [33:37] to really understand the effect that my anger can have on another person. The effect that my [33:44] anger can have over perceived injustices when another person hasn’t done anything wrong. I [33:50] mean do you want to know if you’re angry? Have you ever gotten angry because of what’s for dinner? [33:54] How dare they make chicken? I wanted beef tonight.

[34:03] Everybody that giggled is married and has gone through it. But in that moment you feel completely [34:12] justified because you’re angry about food choices. See that doesn’t reveal health emotionally. I’ll [34:19] be honest with you. That reveals a lack of health. Whether it’s dinner, whether it’s laundry, [34:26] whether it’s cleanliness, whether it’s you know your child is getting an IV and you’re [34:30] in trouble at school and you blame the other spouse 100% while totally not owning any [34:37] influence in your own life as to how that happened. Imagine believing the gospel in

[34:47] every moment for everything that you lash out in anger about. And instead you react [34:55] slow to anger abounding in steadfast love. Where does this steadfast love come from? [35:02] The steadfast love comes from the cross of Jesus Christ and you are able to look to that other [35:07] person and not even say anything but just forgive. Not even say anything but give them the benefit [35:14] of the doubt. Not even say anything but love rather than abusing. No matter what that abuse [35:24] looks like. You see in verses 25 and 26 Jesus gives us a very interesting analogy and I think

[35:31] it’s an analogy because of what analogies he uses later in the book of Matthew. See I don’t think [35:36] he’s talking about literally going to court. What he’s talking about here is he’s saying when you [35:41] are on your way to the judge you need to get right with that other person because if you don’t get [35:47] right and you go before the judge he will lock you up until you have repaid every single penny. [35:54] See that’s word play and in that word play what he’s saying is you will never be able to repay it [36:02] because he’s talking about the eternal punishment under the wrath of God. He’s saying that if you

[36:07] don’t deal with the anger that consumes your soul, if you don’t make it right the same way that Jesus [36:15] makes it right. It’s going to consume you, it’s going to kill your soul, and it’s going to prevent [36:20] you from really trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ because here’s what I want you to understand [36:25] you cannot be a person consumed with anger and a person who’s growing in their faith in Jesus [36:32] Christ. They will not exist together. You cannot be growing as a human being and consumed with anger [36:40] at the same time. You cannot be becoming what God has designed for you to become and a person

[36:45] who is consumed with anger. You cannot have it both ways and that’s what James tells us in [36:51] James chapter 4. Look at what he says in verse 1. What causes quarrels? What causes fights among you? [36:59] Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? Think about the last fight you had. [37:05] It’s probably with your spouse if you’re married. Think about it. What were you fighting about? But [37:12] a better question is what were you fighting for? He says your passions, they are at war within you. [37:22] You desire and don’t have so you murder. You covet, cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel.

[37:27] You do not have because you do not ask and you ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly to spend [37:33] it on your passions. You know what that text is about? Anger. You’re angry because life’s not [37:40] going the way that you want it to go. You’re angry because your neighbor has a paved driveway and [37:45] you have a gravel driveway. I mean you are you were angry because you believe, man they have [37:49] something that I deserve to have because I’m a better person than they are and I deserve to [37:53] have it. Oh you have broken my rules. But you didn’t even know our rules. How dare you? He says

[38:02] there’s a war that’s happening inside of you and if you don’t deal with that war [38:11] it will consume everything about you. You see the problem with your anger isn’t chiefly other [38:17] people. That’s what James is getting at. The problem with your anger is you. The problem with [38:22] your anger is your passion. So what does repentance look like? First repentance looks like me throwing [38:30] away my personal law book. We all have one and it’s not God’s law. We have a personal law book [38:38] of things that we hold other people accountable for that we often haven’t even expressed to those

[38:43] other people that they are accountable for. We all have a law book that has our preferences, [38:48] has our personality, has our emotional baseline in it and we hold everybody accountable for our [38:53] personality and our preferences and our rules and all of that. Here’s the deal. God doesn’t care [38:59] your personal law book and neither does anybody else. Throw it away. If it’s not God’s law, [39:08] I want to be very clear. If it’s not God’s law, how dare you think you are God enough to get [39:17] angry at someone about it? How dare you write a new one? Throw it away. Secondly, if I’m repenting,

[39:27] I will drop the charges against others. I will forgive. I will forgive. I will forgive under the [39:38] pretext of Christian love. I will erase the debts that I believe others owe me. I will realize that [39:45] I am not the final judge over everyone in my life. I will refuse to punish and I will begin to love [39:52] and I will do it by looking to God as the judge and to Jesus as the one who makes [39:59] wrong things right on the cross because Jesus has paid the debt.

[40:07] Imagine if in your marriage

[40:11] your default mode was to give your spouse the benefit of the debt.

[40:20] Imagine if in your marriage your response to your spouse was to believe that they had the best of [40:26] intentions. Imagine if in your marriage you were quick to forgive even before you tried to verbally [40:35] hold them accountable. Would that make your marriage healthier? If you will trust Jesus Christ for [40:44] justice in every way that you think your spouse is wronging you, you will have the power to do that. [40:51] Not just your marriage, your community group. See some of you are holding your community group [40:59] members hostage in your own mind for sins that they’ve done against you and they don’t even know.

[41:08] What if you just believed the best about them because of the gospel? What if you gave them the [41:13] benefit of the doubt and realized maybe they don’t know what’s going on inside of you? Maybe they’re [41:18] clueless. What if you refused to believe that everyone was against you? Because here’s the deal, [41:26] they aren’t. Every day I try to look myself in the mirror and tell me what I believe is the most [41:31] encouraging thing for every day. I look in the mirror and I say, Steve, no one cares.

[41:38] No one cares. You might say, how is that inspirational?

[41:44] It’s inspirational because it prevents me from believing other people are against me. [41:49] See I believe that you’re busy, like I’m busy, and I believe you’ve got too much going on to care about [41:56] me. Care about getting me, care about hurting me, care about taking me down. But some of you, [42:03] get up in the morning and you start walking around and you’re like, oh my goodness, Susan, [42:08] I know she’s out to get me. Carl, I know you’re out to get me. Here’s the deal, if they’ve got [42:14] kids, a mortgage, a spouse, if they’ve got hobbies, they’ve got too much going on to care about you.

[42:22] No one cares. So forgive them and love them. Find your justice in the cross, even if it is [42:33] an imaginary sin that you just believe for no reason. Find your justice in the cross of Jesus [42:39] Christ because here’s the deal, you aren’t hurting other people as much as you are hurting yourself.

[42:47] You’re imprisoning yourself. Forgiveness frees me. Love builds me. Kindness assures me. Jesus [42:55] saves me from myself. Look at what James says further in James 4-6.

[43:04] It says, God gives more grace. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit [43:10] yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, he will flee from you. Draw near to God, he will draw [43:15] near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. See that [43:20] term? Double-minded. You know what it lets me know? That the context of verses 6-8 are verses 1-3 [43:26] where he was talking about anger because in verses 1-3 he’s talking about a double-minded man.

[43:32] That means that when he says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, [43:40] he’s saying, if you’re angry, you’re proud. If you want grace, humility is you. Finding justice [43:50] in the cross and ridding your life of anger. Anger resists humility. Anger resists the gospel. [43:59] But the gospel resists the devil who wants you to stay angry. So what do you want ultimately?

[44:08] Do you want vengeance? Do you want a life in which you seek personal justice against everyone [44:17] and hold everyone accountable for everything that they do against your personal rules? [44:25] Or do you want God to work in your life? Because you cannot have both. I’ve watched people try, [44:34] and this is a few times I’ve tried it myself, but it doesn’t work out. Do you want Jesus to save [44:40] your life? Then you need to repent of your anger. You see, to receive God’s forgiving grace, [44:48] you have to own your anger. I can’t own your anger. You have to own it. What are you angry about?

[44:56] Why are you so angry? And what does the gospel do with your anger? Friends, you will never get [45:09] healing from Jesus. So the ultimate question about anger, Jesus doesn’t give us a self-help [45:15] tip here. He doesn’t give us a bullet list of practices to put into place. Jesus simply asks, [45:23] do you trust Jesus? If you do, you will turn from your anger and you will trust him with it. [45:32] Every week we reflect on the Lord’s Supper. What I find interesting about weeks like this where we [45:38] have a specific topic that the scripture is leading us to talk about is that it helps us

[45:43] to really understand the Lord’s Supper, I think. See, the bread represents the broken body of Jesus. [45:49] The cup represents his shed blood. And if you’re a follower of Jesus, you believe that this meal [45:56] proclaims to everyone in this room that you are a follower of Jesus. Because he tells us, he says, [46:01] you come to the table with nothing. And he supplies your every need through the cross. [46:09] But if you’re in here and you struggle with anger, this is a morning where I can honestly [46:15] look you in the face and say, I get it. I struggle too. But if you’re a follower of Jesus and you

[46:22] come to this table to eat and drink, I want you to come proclaiming your faith in Jesus, but I also [46:30] tell yourself the truth. Everything you are angry about, Jesus paid the penalty for on the cross. [46:38] So why are you still carrying it? Why are you still carrying your anger? To believe the gospel [46:46] is to lay your anger down at the cross of Jesus Christ. And if you’re in here and you’re not a [46:53] follower of Jesus, don’t come to the table. Not because I’m being mean, because I don’t want you [47:00] to feel like you have to lie here today. Because this is what people do that proclaim Christ as

[47:05] their King. But I want you to understand that you can proclaim him, you can trust him, you can put [47:11] your faith in Jesus today. Turn from your sin. Trust the grace of Jesus Christ. He will save you.

[47:23] But if you are a follower of Jesus, the tables are open in the front and the back. Come. [47:29] Repent of your sin. Trust the grace of your King.