Dealing With Anger

7/5/26 Park Service. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So I've been starting uh I've been doing this thing uh this in the in the mornings. I I called it hundred days of communion, and I bought those little little plastic cups with the little styrofoam thing, you know. I mean they they're pretty cheap. And um, but I bought them, I put them out, you know, um in my little study place, my little private time, and I started uh just taking communion every day. But first I spend time with the Lord and I'm asking him to reveal something to me. But before we take communion, we're supposed to like examine our hearts, you know, almost like that whole verse that's like search me and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts, and and see if there be any kind of wicked way in me, Lord. Show me the way everlasting. And you know, it's almost been like a challenge, almost like my little fleece, you know. The first about four days I did it, he revealed something different in me. And I'm like, I'm gonna be doing this for a hundred days. Can you like really reveal a hundred different things? I'm only on day like 11, and I have like 11 different things, so I'm gonna just I'm just I'm just kind of blown away. And this whole sermon came because it came out of me evaluating my heart from a place of anger, you know, dealing with anger. And I got to thinking, I'm like, not an angry person, you know, but as the Lord began to reveal things in me, there's been about six times in my life where the volcano has erupted. Okay, now I teach at an alternative school, so you can imagine those, you know, the attitudes that come in, the mouths that come in, you know, and and four of them were there. Okay, I mean just flat out there. In fact, the kid on the cover of my CD, um, we were at school one day. I was I was I was teaching to probably 30 of them in a room, and uh, I just happened to say, I said, like, none of y'all have seen me go off anybody. You know, I'm like a real peaceful guy. I said, nothing haven't gone off on any of y'all, you know. And that kid raised his hand, and immediately when I looked at him, I knew I was like, oh my goodness, I was like, dude, I'm so sorry. I said, I remember that. But what that did was it got me to talking to him one-on-one. And, you know, he will admit he was terrible, and I will admit that I shouldn't have reacted like that because I know better. I'm an adult, I'm a grown man, I'm supposed to know better than this. But he told me the story of how he went to um to juvenile jail. You know, he went to DJ J. And uh man, he just told me how everything worked out. All he really had was himself and a copy of this. He said, I held on to it for dear life. I told God, like, just get me out of here and I'm done. He said, So I gave my life to him. He said, I he said, I I I do remember, he said, but I had my part in it too, Mr. Hopkins. And um, I was like, man, that's amazing. And and we started talking, we started praying, started talking about the Bible. I asked him if he had been baptized. He said, No, he really wanted to be. And so um it was raining one day and up here, and we ended up going to the shelter up there, the shed next to the barn. And he, I mean, it was a rainy, dreary day, and I bet he brought 20-something people from his family, and he came up and it was like I said, it was dreary. We went down to the swimming hole, and that's the result right there, man. So um, you know, he's like a success story, you know. Like, I'm so glad my my anger didn't uh you know, didn't prevail and prevent him from doing anything. But, you know, I'm telling you, I mean, there's been a couple of times I probably should have been fired, and I'm like, that that's in me. And I started realizing when I was taking communion, I'm like, Lord, I want your blood and your body to cover this anger in me because I started to see it. I'm like a person that that the straw breaks the camel's back, you know. I can take it. I can take some more, I can take some more, I can take some more, but it seems like one little thing all of a sudden makes me erupt. I'm like, why did I erupt over that? Because I let it build and I let it build and I let it build. And see, these kids I work with, they wear anger as like a badge of honor, almost like they're general stripes. You know, they're like, Yeah, I'm I'm angry. And if I get too angry, I'll black out, I'll hurt somebody, and I won't even know what I done. I'm like, oh my goodness, please spare me the tough talk, you know. And that just makes me kind of boil up. But but you know, there's something to it. I mean, I think people carry around a lot of anger. And what I wanted to to talk about today was um was Moses, okay? Um, because y'all y'all remember when Moses was supposed to speak to the rock, but he just struck it. He's like, You rebels must we bring rod water from this rock. And the water came out, but it said God did not like that that Moses didn't treat him as holy, he didn't speak to the rock like he was supposed to. And he said, Because you did this, you will not enter into the promised land that I've promised. And I mean, when I first read that, I was like, Oh my goodness, like that's all it took. And I I kind of took it further. Then there's no way I'm making it to the promised land. You know, there's just no way. But I want to evaluate it. I want to kind of the Bible's just gonna teach itself today. It doesn't need a lot of help from me. Um, but I didn't mark my spots, but so I'm gonna go through and just kind of read some verses. We're gonna start in James um chapter one, verse 19. It says, My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Okay, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. You know, you're not gonna mad anybody into heaven, you know, you're not gonna uh throw fiery darts of evil and somebody finally say, Oh, well, um, I need to be saved. You know, that's just not gonna happen. He says, Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word and deceive yourselves. Do what it says, okay? So he's he's telling us, like, in this in this verse, I believe, like, put this stuff away, okay? Not to earn God's favor, but because you have it, because he loves you. Put this stuff away. You are now brothers and sisters in Christ with me. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. And we are so the opposite. We are quick to speak, we are quick to post on Facebook or social media. I mean, we are quick to do that stuff and very fast to get angry. We get offended so easily. Okay. Then I'm gonna go to Ephesians 4, starting in verse 25. All right, and it says, Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbors, for we are all members of one body. In your anger, do not sin, okay? Do not let the sun go down on your anger. So I like that because it almost like anger is unavoidable, okay? But in your anger, just don't sin. Watch what comes out of your mouth. Maybe walk completely away for a few minutes, at least a few seconds, and calm down before you say anything. I've learned this at the alternative school. I've engaged in so many smart alec arguments, and while they're in that state, I just remove them, and then when they calm down, we go in and we talk, and it is so much more productive than if I talk while we're both heated up. I mean, that's just gonna result in things we we both wish that we could take back. And there's one more in the New Testament that I want to read, and it comes from Colossians 3, starting in verse 5. Put to death, okay? Put to death. This is I like this because he's saying, you do this, okay? This is something you should do on your own. Some things God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has to take away or to work in you. So those things you may you, I think we're allowed to go to God and say, God, I got this in my heart. I can't get rid of it on my own. Will you help me by the power of the Spirit? Will you start working on me? Will you start working on me? There are some things that we can't that we can't do that we need the Holy Spirit's help, okay? Um, but this is things I think that He's asking Christians to do. You put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips, don't lie to each other, okay? And he's saying, I want you to work on these things because as long as you have those things, I think it's very easy for the world to look at you and say, you you you're trying to tell me about the Lord that I need him. I mean, look at all these things you still do, okay? So I do think it is very beneficial for us to put these things away. But I'm going back now, you know, to um to Exodus. And I just want to look at Moses' life, and um, I don't remember. Uh I want to start here that where I think was maybe the beginning of this. I think this is the first thing in Moses' life that um we get to that we we get a little bit into to the way he was and the way he started. So it goes all the way back to Exodus chapter one, the very first chapter. Okay, and I'm gonna start in verse 11. One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, glancing this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked one in the wrong, Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew? The man said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, What I did must have become known. So, whatever was happening when he saw the Egyptian, now the Egyptians had treated him very well. He was living in Pharaoh's palace. He was he had it made. He was being raised by Pharaoh's daughter. You know, he had it made, but for whatever reason, when he went out and he saw the the Egyptian beating a Jewish slave, it made him angry. And he went out and he murdered, and I I mean the Bible says he looked around to make sure nobody was looking. He premeditated, like, I'm gonna kill that guy. And he did, and I guess he thought the guy would be thankful and you know, not say anything, but he went out and told everybody. He's like, Yeah, I watched, you know, the big prince of Egypt there murder somebody, and it scared him, and he got out of there. Okay, so I think that is the first incidence because when I think about God saying you're not coming into the promised land, you're like, Well, was that it? Or was there other times he could have thought about it and worked on it? I think that was the first one. The next one comes from um Exodus 11. All right, and we're gonna start in verse 8. Um, let's see. Alright. Actually, I'm gonna start in verse 4. So Moses said to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says. About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die. From the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. So this is like the last plague. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt, worse than there's ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any man or animal. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between um between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, Go, you and all the people who follow you, after that I will leave. Then Moses, it says, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. The Lord had said to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt. Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of the country out of his country. So I was reading that and I was thinking about it. I mean, the Lord told Moses what to say, and he also told him that Pharaoh would not listen to him. Now, I realize in the moment Pharaoh has denied him, denied, denied, denied. I mean, but God said there was gonna be ten plagues, you know. He called it beforehand. So Moses is in here. I mean, there should be something in him that feels sorry for him. Like, dude, you're about to lose your firstborn, and everybody is why don't you avoid it by just letting us go? You've already lost your cattle, you've already seen the Nile turn to blood, you've already seen all this stuff, please, but instead he goes in there like, God's gonna do this to you, and this is gonna happen. And he says it out of anger. Okay, so now we're gonna go to uh Exodus. Let's see, I'm gonna go to Numbers 16. There's only a couple more of these, I'm not gonna be reading forever. Um, Numbers chapter 16. So this is from Korah's rebellion. You know, they came and said, Look, what makes you and Moses so special? We're just as good as you, okay? And they've already been denied the promised land because they didn't have faith in God to beat the giants or whatever, and they're wondering for 40 years. So I imagine everybody is seriously frustrated, okay? So, um so when Moses heard this, he said to Korah and all his followers, In the morning the Lord will show you who belongs to him and who is holy. He will have that person come near him. The man he chooses will cause to come over, to come near him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this. Take censors tomorrow and put fire and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far. Moses said to Korah, now listen, you Levites, isn't it enough that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work of the Lord's tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you're trying to get the priesthood too. It's against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is erring that you should grumble against him? Then Moses summoned Dathan, Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, We will not come. Is it enough that you brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us. Moreover, you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of the field and vineyards, a field and vineyards. You will gouge out, will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come. Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, Don't you accept their offerings? I've not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them. Moses said to Cor, You and your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow. You and they and Aaron. Each man is to take the censer and put in it 250 censors in all, and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censers also. So each man took a censer, put fire in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Cor had gathered all the followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. The Lord said to Moses, Separate yourself from the assembly so I can put an end to them at once. And you know what happened after this. There was like an earthquake, and they got completely like swallowed up. But once again, Moses didn't have the attitude of, please don't do this. You're already separated in service to God. God has already said the Levites must be the priest. So don't do this. Please don't do this. He was more like, all right, you're about to find out, you know? That was his attitude. And so we see again that Moses was very angry. Okay? Now, this is the last one uh about Moses, um, I believe, Exodus 34. Come on, let's see. All right. Um, so this one is very unique because Moses had been up on the mountain with God 40 days, the presence of God. He received the Ten Commandments. You know, he he had them written down on the original slate, God's finger wrote on them. But I want you to look what happened, okay. Moses approached the camp coming down from the mountain, and what had they done? Built the golden calf, right? And everybody's worshiping and doing all these Egyptian dances and rituals, whatever, okay. So when Moses approached the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned. And look at this, he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. He took, I guess he's the first guy to break all ten commandments at once. Right? He had them all right there. He broke them all because he was so angry. He took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, then he ground it into powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. Like, whoa! Easy there, dude. And he said, Do not be angry, my lord. Aaron answered, you know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, Make us gods. As this fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. So I told him, Whoever has any jewelry, take it off. Then they gave me the gold and I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. Somehow it just magically formed itself, you know. But they were making um, you know, what they had seen in Egypt, what they worshipped, okay? And I'm gonna tell you, one of the creepiest feelings, me and my wife went to New York and we were exploring um um New York, and I wanted to go see Wall Street, and I saw that big old bull, and I was like, whoa, we're no different, you know, like we are really no different. Um, but Moses saw that the people were running wild, and Aaron had let them get out of control, and so became a laughing stock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance of the camp and said, Whoever's for the Lord, come to me. All the Levites rallied to him. Then he said, This is what the Lord God of Israel says. God didn't say this, okay? This is what uh Moses said this. Now you go read this, and I'm gonna read it all the way through to see if it. But God doesn't say this. But he Moses says, This is what the Lord says. Each man strap a sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor. The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three. Three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, You've been set apart for the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and his and he has blessed you this day. The next day Moses said to the people, You've committed a great sin, but now I'll go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So we went back to the Lord and said, Oh, what a great sin these people have committed. They've made themselves gods of gold, but now please forgive their sin. But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. And then here's what the Lord said Whoever sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Okay. I know the hearts of men, okay. I know who willfully wanted to do that Egyptian work. And I also know who just kind of joined the crowd and might have been uncomfortable. I know, okay? I know these things. He didn't say it, but you didn't have to go down there hacking everybody down. I know. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I know these things, but I want you to look at the consequences. If you go over two chapters, it says, the Lord said to Moses, chisel out two stone tablets like the first one. Okay. The first time I did it, okay? But now you're gonna do it. I imagine chiseling stone. That was a lot of work, okay? So he's like, you do it, and I will write the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Okay? Are you mad at yourself like this because you literally broke the original set of the Ten Commandments? You know? Um, so Moses chisel out two stone tablets, like the first ones, and went up to Mount Sinai early in the morning as the Lord had commanded. And he carried the two stone tablets in his hand. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, and I love this, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He made sure he mentioned to Moses that I'm slow to anger. Don't you think that maybe that I want you to be slow to anger as well? Okay, so Numbers 20 is where it happens. Okay, so if I go to Numbers 20, here's the the ultimate consequence. Now, you just saw me read all those examples that Moses had to learn from when I really examined my own heart. I had six examples to learn from, okay? And I'm hoping that today is the day that I learned from them. This past couple of weeks is when I when I've learned from them. Okay, so Numbers 20, here it is. Um, here's the moment. Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell face down. The glory of the Lord appeared. The Lord said to Moses, Take the staff, you and your brother Aaron, gather the assembly together, speak to that rock. Now they had seen the heating done before with the staff. This is the first time that Moses is supposed to have enough faith. It's like God says, Okay, water's gonna come out of that tree, and we're about to drink. Tree, do your thing. God, do your thing, and water starts coming out of that tree. But Moses went over it. Well, let me let me just read it, okay? Um, Moses, so Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence, just as he commanded. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of the rock? Meaning him and Aaron. Then Moses raised his arms, struck the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not trust me enough to honor me as holy in the side of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I gave them. Okay, so if you read that in very in isolation, it sounds like, come on, God. I mean, all he did was kind of make a mistake, you know, he was a little hot-headed. But when you read the rest of it, Moses had his chances to learn to deal with his anger, okay? And I may just be sitting here talking about myself. Y'all may be the most peaceful people on the planet, okay? But for me, I'm telling you, the day that I dealt with this, the day that I took communion, and as I was dealing with this, every little thing made me aggravated. I mean everything. And I just kept thinking, why in the world is this aggravating me? This is nothing. And by the time the next day I spent some time with the Lord, he's like, I was allowing the little things to be magnified so that you can deal with them. Because if you can be faithful in little things, you will be faithful in big things. And I'm like, Lord, you are amazing. Like, thank you for being the best teacher the world has ever known. But I don't want us to feel too sorry for Moses, so I'm going to finish with this right here. I'm going to end with this. Matthew 17. Okay. After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. That gives me chills. Moses made it, okay? He is in heaven, you know, and you know what? I'm going to heaven, not because I'm good, not because I can control my anger. I'm going to heaven because God loves me. He sent his son to die for me. I have received it. And my prayer for each one of you guys is that you have said, Lord, I need you to come into my life. I want to make you Lord. I want you to have everything about me. And as I go through this life, will you teach me everything I need to know to make me fit for heaven?