Radical For Christ: Things I Wish Jesus Never Said, Part 3 Anger
7-20-2014 1 Samuel 22:6-22 Matthew 5:19-24
How many of you have ever had to say something like, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say that, I was just angry” or “I know I shouldn’t have done that, I just lost control.” How many of you know there are people in prison who led good lives for years and in a 60 second burst of anger, they did something that has them locked away for years and years to come.
For some people, if they could just erase 60 seconds of their lives, they would no longer be on death row, they would no longer be alienated from their families, they would no longer be unemployed, or they would no longer be away from the church. How many of you can think of 30 seconds of anger you wish you could take back out of your life?
I wish Jesus never would have said that anger is just a half step under murder and that I’m going to get in trouble for calling my brother or sister a fool or an idiot out of my anger. Doesn’t Jesus understand that when somebody cuts you off in traffic and causes you to spill your coffee or drop your cell phone, that you are justified in saying, “you idiot or you fool, what’s wrong with you.” We could think of a lot worse things to call them.
Jesus has this way of saying that our thoughts lead to actions. In the first week we saw how our greed leads us to robbing God of our tithes and offerings or turning away from helping our sisters and brothers. In the second week, we saw how our unforgiveness places us outside of God’s blessings and plans for our lives. Today we will see how our anger, leads us to murder. Anger leads to hatred which is the opposite of love, and then we have that other pesky verse in John that says, 1 John 3:15 (NIV) 15 Anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him or her.
Have any of you tried to play a word game on God to get around this verse. Well God’s it’s not that I hate him or her, I just don’t really like them or I just prefer not to have anything to do with him or her. To grow in Christ, involves total honesty before God. You don’t have to go tell the person “I’ve been hating you”, but be honest with God, so that God can change the anger and hatred in your heart toward the person.
You may say but I really don’t have hatred per se. Are you assassinating or destroying a person’s character behind their back? That’s called anger in action. It’s the most dangerous kind, because we have not exploded in rage, so we think we have done nothing wrong. Yet we’re killing the person all the same.
Let’s look at just how far anger can take us. One day David, who had been a general in Saul’s army and a great hero to the people of God was running for his life from King Saul. David goes to the city of Nob and runs into Ahimalek the priest. Ahimalek was nervous when David showed up, and asked David why was he alone. Ahimalek knew David usually had men with him so this was unusual. Ahimalek’s fears were put to rest when David lied to him, and said that he was on a secret mission, that nobody was to know about from the king. His men were hiding in a place that he was to meet them on this secret mission.
David lied some more and said do you have any bread for my men to eat. Ahimalek said, the only bread here is some holy bread if the men have kept themselves clean. David assured him that his men were definitely religious clean for this top secret mission. So Ahimalek gave him some bread. Then David asked if there was a sword or spear around, because he was in such a hurry to leave because of the urgency of the king’s request that he forgot to grab one. Ahimalek said, “the only sword here is the one you used to kill Goliath.” David said, “good I’ll take it.” He took the sword and the bread and he left. There was a fellow there by the name of Doeg the Edomite who saw all this take place. He was in charge of King Saul’s sheep.
Saul was king over the nation. He was a mighty warrior. But he was a man that was very proudful or a man with a very big head. He wanted to be the center of attention. He developed a tremendous hatred of David that grew out of his anger. You would have thought David had done something drastic in rebellion against the king to produce such anger. But actually David didn’t do much at all.
Sometimes we can be full of anger, and the person we are angry with is not to blame, but our anger will keep us from seeing how we have blown things out of proportion. David had gone into battle at the King’s request, and David and his men won a great battle for King Saul.
They had a large victory parade, and the women singers and dancers prepared a song for the people to sing. The women sang “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.” The Scriptures tell us that Saul was very angry because of them giving him only thousands while giving David tens of thousands.
This simple song pushed Saul over the edge. How many of you know, David had nothing to do with the writing or the singing of the song? In some of our situations, we are so angry with someone, who if we just knew the truth and was willing to receive it, we could be set free. Or else like Saul, somebody who could be an asset to our lives becomes enemy that we feel the need to destroy.
After David has escaped, Saul is sitting around with his officers and leaders trying to get them to understand his side of the story. He reminds them of the fact that he is king, and he can give them promotions, he can give them wealth and he could set them up for life. All they need to do is to tell him him the moment they hear anything about somebody working against him. Somebody should have told him that his son Jonathan and David had made a pact to be friends for life. He then says, he has proof that his son Jonathan had a conspiracy going with David and they have arranged for David to hide somewhere to ambush and kill the king.
Anger will cause us to believe our own lies. We have to build up our case for holding resentment toward the person. Saul can’t simply say, “I’m mad because of that song.” But when we are angry, we put ourselves out there for others to see a situation that they could exploit for their own advantage. In other words, somebody else begins to use us for their own advantage.
Doeg the Edomite, saw his chance to get some of that money and position that Saul had to offer. He could go from being over the sheep to a much higher position in the kingdom. He tells Saul, “I got your back. I saw David, go to Ahimalek the priest at Nob. Ahimalek sought the Lord for David, he gave David provisions, and he gave David the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
Now everything Doeg says, fits right in with the plan Saul made up in his head about a conspiracy against him. David asked Ahimalek where he should hide. Ahimalek gave him the provisions he needed to wait there for Saul to come, and David planned to use the same sword he cut of Goliath’s head with to cut off Saul’s head.
Do you think there was a reason Doeg left out the part about David claiming he was on a secret mission from the king, or that Ahimalek thought he was helping the king by helping David.
Saul becomes furious that Ahimalek has joined in the conspiracy. He sends for Ahimalek and all the men of his family who are priest at Nob. Saul says to Ahimalekm “ Why have you conspired against me by giving food and and a sword, and praying for him, so that he has rebelled against me and is lying somewhere to ambush me even now.”
Ahimalek then makes the mistake of telling Saul something Saul does not want to hear which is the truth. He says look,” my understanding is that David is a loyal soldier to you, your son in law, and the captain of your bodyguard. I have always sought the Lord for him? Neither I nor anyone else you have brought with me in my family, knows anything about a conspiracy by David against you.
Our anger can blind us to the truth. We can think we have all the facts. But anger causes us to live only in the moment. That is why James tells us in the bible , James 1:19 (NIV) 19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
Saul does not listen at all. Saul’s anger toward David is about to be misplaced to Ahimalek. How dare Ahimalek embarrass him in front of his officers by calling him a liar and by making David out to be an innocent loyal official when Saul recently declared him to be public enemy number one.
Saul then declared, “you and your whole family are going to killed for your part in this conspiracy.” Saul gives the order for his guards to kill the priest because they had sided with David. They knew he was fleeing but they would not tell me. But Saul’s anger leads to the very rebellion he claims he wanted to end. His guards were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priest of the Lord. Even they could see, that Ahimelek was telling the truth. They knew Saul’s anger was out of control, but they didn’t want to say anything. Be willing to listen to those close to you when they tell you your anger is getting out of control. The bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend They feared God too much to strike down a priest.
So Saul turned to someone who was trying to impress him with his loyalty. “Yo, Doeg, you said you got my back. You kill the priest.” Doeg was not part of the nation of Israel and did not have the same kind of respect for the priest or the fear of God. He killed 85 priests, who were wearing the linen ephod which the priest wore as consecrated servants of God. Saul’s has driven a wedge between him and his soldiers.
With 85 men lying on the ground dying, and blood filling the area, you would have thought it would have been enough. I can imagine that when Saul looked at his commanders, he must have seen disappointment, shame, or disgust in their faces. Their leader had become a madman right before their eyes. Did he really execute 85 priests of the Lord? Their expressions pushed his anger even further. He then ordered the execution of every man, woman, child, infant and all the animals in the city of Nob. Only one priest escaped this massacre.
Do you this act of Saul did anything to win him the allegiance of his people? Do you think some people thought, perhaps its time to look for another king? Do you think this action drew Saul closer to God? Now Saul has really put himself in a bind. He has to go after David at any cost to prove this imaginary conspiracy actually exists. He needs to capture David to prove that he was justified in killing all these co-conspirators, but I don’t know how infants and animals conspire to do anything.
Can you understand why Jesus takes such a strong position against our allowing anger to get a foothold in our lives. There is a reason that the Bible tells us not to let the sun go down on our anger. Suppose for a moment that Saul had been able to do it when he heard that song, Saul has slain his thousands but David his tens of thousand. If that night he had thought and said, “you know, I thank God for David. He has been able to defeat more armies that I have, because he’s gone to battle for me more than I could have gone for myself. My nation is stronger because I have David at my side.”
If he had of done it, Saul’s life would have been more meaningful and filled with a lot less anxiety and fear. He would have had a better relationship with his son, Jonathon. The priest and their families would have never been destroyed. The nation may have avoided a civil war. Who knows, with David and his men at his side, Saul and his five sons might not have all been killed in the last battle with the Philistines.
You may have an anger problem and you may even try to justify it by saying, my daddy had a temper and I got it from him, or everybody in my family has a short fuse. People know not to mess with us. Anger is a part of us that needs to be brought to the foot of the cross just like greed and just like unforgiveness. If not, it will destroy us and destroy others. There is a thing such as righteous anger, but that’s not what I’ve been talking about.
Anger separates us from God. We will find ourselves saying, I know its wrong but I’ve got to get back at them. In other words, “God get out my way, I’m going to handle this like I want to handle it. I’m going to be God in this situation.” That’s a dangerous place to be in, because we cannot control events once we set them in motion Anger keeps our prayers from getting through to God. In 1 Timothy 2:8 God tells us to pray lifting up holy hands without anger. James 1:20 tells us that our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires therefor it lacks spiritual benefit.
What we do with our anger is a choice on our part. We need a plan to deal with anger just like we need a plan to deal with lust, or greed, or any thing else which leads us further from God. Some of us need to get in the habit of just walking away from the situation. Somebody is going to die this week simply because the person would not walk away. Some of us need to quit jumping on our horn, because of a traffic injustice. Road rage takes people out of this world.
Some of us need to just shut our mouths and keep them closed when we are angry. Somebody is going to permanently destroy a relationship because of some very hurtful words that came out while they were angry. Quit slamming your door yelling “I hate you.”
Some of us need to just let it go and quit planning on getting even. The person you intend to hurt, may not get hurt at all, and you may end up hurting a lot of innocent people in the process.
You may not be able to deal with your anger problem on your own. You need to destroy it before you destroy someone you love or someone who loves you. I want you to know that Jesus died for your sin, including your anger and God raised Jesus from the dead so that you can have life. When you invite Christ into your life, God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of you.
You overcome anger, by yielding to the Holy Spirit. You stop asking, how do I get even, and you start asking, God what do you want me to learn about me in this situation. How do you want me to respond in a way glorifying to you? How do I receive the peace of God.
God is trying to replace our anger with love. Love will allow us to see that person in a whole new light. We just might find ourselves praying for that other person. Don’t be a Saul, who allowed a very small thing to take control of his life. Remember, Jesus came that you might have life and have it abundantly. The choice is yours of how much abundance you will choose to have.
