Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 In the village church, sermon Q and a pastor Michael, here with you. I am in the studio of pastor Craig, pastor Alex, and this past Sunday, July 4th, 2021. Uh, they launched the series in the book of Exodus called the golden calf and we saw Moses get pretty angry. And uh, so we have some questions about anger here that I want to ask you guys to go deeper on. The question is when does my anger please? God. And we talked about two big rules for anger. So Craig share with us the first rule for using your anger to please God. So
Speaker 2 00:00:37 Anger, pleases God, when it's against sin. This is when God gets angry in scripture. Yep. It happens almost on a regular basis. And for us, it's a challenge not to do that, right? So when we get angry at sin, we can be confident that this is something that we are allowed to do. Um, actually you could even say encouraged to do in Ephesians four. There's a verse in there that says be angry and sin, not which is interesting the way that is written because it says be angry and sin, not it doesn't say, you know, avoid it. It doesn't say this is a bad one. So watch out it says be
Speaker 3 00:01:14 Angry. It commended.
Speaker 2 00:01:17 So be angry and do not sin. The challenge is, I think for us, our anger has a tendency to kind of lead the way for us. And so when we see something, we immediately go from one to 10 pretty quick or zero to 60, whichever you prefer, but we kind of have a tendency to do that because our sin nature drives that ability for us to be angry over the edge. And Satan loves to, to make us angry. Listen, if you want to control people, get them angry. I mean, that, that is it's been shown throughout history, right? So anger is a really difficult emotion for us to control in our fallen nature, but it is not something to be avoided because scripture allows for it. And it is an attribute of,
Speaker 3 00:01:58 Yeah, I think it's also like really important, uh, along the lines you were saying that when anger is at sin, how many things do we get angry about that? Aren't sin almost all of them. Right. I mean, I think that's a really good point. We need to evaluate like, am I just getting angry because my feelings got hurt, but was that thing really wrong? Like, so we kind of have to be aware of that. So, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:19 And it's also interesting, like getting angry at sin. It w it would be nice if we could put that all into a big room and always function that way, but you're right. It's interesting that we do have a tendency to get angry at things we can't control. And I think that's one of the problems with anger because it plays on our emotion to want to control things. And so, because we cannot control the guy that cuts us off in traffic or what our kids do and make us angry about, you know, we, we have a tendency to kind of allow that anger to overtake and become something. It shouldn't
Speaker 1 00:02:49 Be most parents get angry at their kids when they, yeah, for sure. That's really good insight. All right. What's the second. Well,
Speaker 3 00:02:55 So that leads really well into the second rule, which is anger, uh, pleases God, when anger is under control, according to God's word, right? So let's take what you were talking about. So you should
Speaker 4 00:03:08 Yell and scream, right? I should just be angry all the time. I should be actually, that's what I have. There are categories,
Speaker 3 00:03:15 There are various lists throughout the new Testament of just, uh, dispositions of the heart and actions that are not good for you to walk into. And oftentimes there are three or four different words for anger that end up in those lists. Things like malice and wrath, like there's like a kind of an nth degree of anger that we can eat really easily go to. And the Bible calls those things sin, right? If we walk too far with our anger, so our anger needs to be under control. So Ephesians for you, you said, be angry. Like God commands us to be angry, but then the key next part of that is in your anger do not sin, right? Fruit of the spirit is self-control when we're angry, we need to have that anger be under control, along with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, the whole list that does
Speaker 2 00:04:05 Go along. Like it's interesting. Uh, we are supposed to be under the control of the holy spirit at all time, who gives us love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. On that whole list we have from, from the fruit of the spirit, but anger is not in that list. So anger needs to, needs to be hand in hand with those, with those things. And that's like, that's like blows our mind because anger has a like again, tendency to control us and lead us into sin. Right. It's almost like two wrongs don't make a right. And so if we're angry at a situation in a righteous way, like if we, if we can be, it's so easy for us to get out of the boundaries of the fruit of the spirits. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:04:46 So this morning I woke up and my, one of my children, you shall go nameless, nameless, did something, uh, very infuriating. And I was, I was very angry, but I remember sitting there and I was thinking to myself about this question
Speaker 4 00:05:00 And I was wondering, so what's the limit,
Speaker 1 00:05:02 Right? Where do I stop? Because uh, discipline needed to happen. It was bad. It could have very easily negatively impacted other people in very harmful ways. Uh, it was a big deal. And so, but I remember sitting there saying I'm angry, I'm legitimately angry. Um, he actually, he should, I gave it away, but I remember thinking to myself, he, ah, goodness. So he, he, uh, like legitimately, I was like, I was angry at sin and then I really wanted to yell because it was really bad. Yeah. And, but I remember looking at him and thinking my quietness, my control actually made the point and I didn't have to sit in the process. And then he said, he was very sorry. We reconciled. And it was, it was, I don't think actually he'll do it again. That's good. And so that was really positive, but like, this is okay. So here's a question. How angry am I allowed to get?
Speaker 3 00:05:52 I think that's fair. Can I yell so you can prepare and guys,
Speaker 4 00:05:58 If you have yelled at your cute guys, you guys have, I never, would you ever call me an angry person though? Okay. So I had Mr. Enneagram nine, I had kids
Speaker 3 00:06:10 And I did not realize the depth of anger and how quickly it would take me.
Speaker 4 00:06:18 Yeah. Yeah. Out of most people that happens in marriage. I love Andrew. Right. But when I got married, I was like angry. So, so, uh, so yeah. I, there
Speaker 3 00:06:30 Are times when, I mean, I have yelled and I know like, there's just some, I know I've crossed the line. Like I know that I've sent, I think last time it happened about three times within a 20 minute period with them. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You're like,
Speaker 4 00:06:45 You've never seen that call yourself. So, uh, so I, there's a level of self awareness.
Speaker 3 00:06:53 I think that is required to understand that, like I, I knew my anger was right, but I knew that my reaction, yeah, what's wrong.
Speaker 2 00:07:01 Okay. So if we make this subjective, that's a challenge because then everybody is like judging their own. Oh no.
Speaker 4 00:07:08 Well I'm okay with mine. I wonder if Jesus yelled
Speaker 1 00:07:11 When he turned the tables. Well, that's the thing I'm going to be really gentle, but I'm going to toss this table over
Speaker 4 00:07:15 It. Like, no, I mean, I think there was life's energy. Jesus,
Speaker 2 00:07:18 God angry. Yeah. Right. We can't say that he wasn't angry. He and, and zeal for, Hey,
Speaker 1 00:07:23 Can you get behind me, Satan, please.
Speaker 4 00:07:26 Don't think that's the tone. Right. But you gotta be real gentle. Yeah. You guys are Viper. Yeah. So,
Speaker 2 00:07:38 Well, so he did, he got angry at the fairs because they were abusing the power over the people who got angry at the money changes because they were stealing money from the people in the name of God. Like no churches do that today, not ours, but you know, Jesus
Speaker 4 00:07:51 Got it. <inaudible> some churches do. They do so, oh, you were serious.
Speaker 2 00:08:01 He was serious. So the answer stands. We get angry when we are righteously anger, angry at sin and it's under control. And sometimes under control may not look totally under control, like the, to people around us. But Jesus turning over those tables. We cannot say he was out of control. We have to say that he was completely in control. Yep. Yeah. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 00:08:23 Well, we got a lot more to talk about in our next sermon Q and A's. Why does God get so angry in the Bible? So let's go deeper into this question. When I, you back, will you join us next time at sermon Q and a.
