Reconciliation over Anger
Notes
Transcript
Are you an angry person? John Hunter was a man who was a surgeon in 18th century Britain. He was a very good surgeon, who is known as the founder of scientific surgery. He helped improve understanding of different ailments to the body. Yet despite this he also was a man who was described as rude, and impatient and easily provoked. This man who was a man so gifted in medical actually died of a heart attack. It was after an argument at St. George’s hospital, where this man died because of his anger. This man who could not control his anger, and did not realize the effect it had on his body, even though he was very smart about the body. Many Christians treat anger as a respectable sin. Yet anger can do a lot of damage. There are many Christians who get angry over little things, and then blow up.
Jesus here is starting to talk about the law, and how there is a higher standard. There is a higher standard for people who call themselves disciples. He will say “Ye have heard it said…but I tell you”. Jesus is trying to get the disciples to understand the true spirit of the law. He mentions murder, and then compares it to anger. Are you an angry person? God does not want you to be. Yet there are alot of Christians who walk around angry, and are just one bad move away from exploding.
How can you overcome anger?
Unrighteous anger is murder of the heart
Jesus says that whosoever is angry WITHOUT cause is in danger of judgment, there are times to be angry, but if it is without a just cause it is sin
If you are upset because it hurts God or others, righteous. If you are upset because it hurts you, can be righteous. If you are upset because it is an inconvenient, unrighteous.
The same punishment that those who murder are in danger of
The reason why anger is murder of the heart
Anger towards someone is the first stop to murder
Cain was angry with Abel, and killed him. Many people murder because of anger.
Jesus is going into the heart, and making sure that the disciples, are not just following the law outwardly, but rather making sure that they are obeying the spirit of the law, and
Even calling people names in anger makes you guilty
raca was an insult similar to idiot, or fool
The reason why is because it is not God’s character. God is slow to wrath
Nahum 1:3 “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked: The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
So we should be
Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”
James 1:19 “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”
Proverbs 16:32 “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
So we need to understand the severity of anger
Are you an angry person? Do you just like getting angry?
Reconciling is the solution
Priority
Jesus said that before you bring your gift to the altar, make sure you are reconciled to your brother
There might be some offenses that you can look over
Proverbs 19:11 “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”
However if you cannot, you need to go the person and get it settled,
Some of you are living unreconciled to people, and are trying to offer gifts and spiritual sacrifices to God, but Jesus wants you to be reconciled before you offer gifts
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
Matthew 9:13 “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
If you are unreconciled yet, your gifts are nothing more than religious show, and are not acceptable to God.
Urgent
It is better to get reconciled right away than to drag it out
Ephesians 4:26–27 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”
When you just fester in anger, you have no idea where it will take you. You are imprisoned in your anger.
US Geological Survey “Some volcanic eruptions are explosive and others are not. The explosivity of an eruption depends on the composition of the magma. If magma is thin and runny, gases can escape easily from it. When this type of magma erupts, it flows out of the volcano. A good example is the eruptions at Hawaii’s volcanoes. Lava flows rarely kill people because they move slowly enough for people to get out of their way. If magma is thick and sticky, gases cannot escape easily. Pressure builds up until the gases escape violently and explode.” https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-do-volcanoes-erupt#:~:text=Deep%20within%20the%20Earth%20it,fissures%20to%20the%20Earth's%20surface.
Your anger is like that volcano, the more you fester, the more it explodes
People have killed in anger, people have destroyed things in anger, have tried to fight in anger. The more you allow the anger to fester,
Are you an angry person?
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