Sunday Sermon Matthew 2:16-23

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Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time, one book at a time.

We have come as far as verse 16 and I would like to pick up here.

So let us open our Bibles to:

Read Matthew 2:16-23

Prayer

Lord Heavenly Father,

We desire the eyes of the spirit that we might behold wonderful things from your Word, so please grant us a double portion of your Holy Spirit as we open up Matthew 2. Enlighten us and illumine our minds with saving truth as we consider Your word. But more than that, cause our hearts to be bowed before you and give us a greater love for Jesus who saved us! Create in us a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within us. And we will give You all the praise, glory, and honor. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen

Review

Looking back, we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Bethlehem means house of bread and this Jesus is the bread of life.

The wise men came seeking Jesus from the East and landed themselves in Jerusalem were they met Herod.

It is significant to bring it up again, that these men were seeking Jesus and they did not allow anything to get in their way of finding their Messiah.

What is stopping you from following JESUS whole heartedly?

Mark 12:29–31 NKJV

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Here we can see these wise men fulfilling this and so should we. They have left us an example to follow.

3. Herod then reaches out to the religious leaders of the day and he asks them where the Messiah would be born.

They immediately answered in the Bethlehem, quoting Micah 5:2

Here we learned that being religious does not mean you are seeking after the Christ!

They knew their Bibles church theoretically, but they did not know the God of the Bible, because the did not budge, they just stayed doing what the always did and this is sad.

The religious leaders were hearers only deciveing themselves.

They looked Christian, they smelled like a Christian, they even dressed like a Christian, if there is such a thing. But their hearts were far from God:

Isaiah 29:13 NIV

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Sir Henry Stanley traveled to Africa in 1872 to find Dr. David Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer, who had lost contact with the European community. After finding him, Stanley spent several months with Livingstone, who by that time was an old man. Apparently Livingstone didn’t say much to Stanley about spiritual things—he just continued about his business with the Africans. Stanley observed that throughout the months he watched him, Livingstone’s habits, especially his patience, were beyond his comprehension. Stanley could not understand Livingstone’s sympathy for the pagan Africans, who had wronged Livingstone many times. For the sake of Christ and His gospel David Livingstone was patient, untiring, and eager. He spent himself for his Master.

In his account How I Found Livingstone, Stanley wrote, “His religion is not of the theoretical kind, but is a constant, earnest, sincere practice. It is neither demonstrative nor loud, but manifests itself in a quiet practical way, and is always at work. . . . In him religion exhibits its loveliest features; it governs his conduct not only towards his servants but towards the natives . . . and all who come in contact with him.”

4. Then we learned that these men walked by faith. They followed the star to the place Jesus was born and they fell down and worshipped him!

Have you fallen down and worshipped Jesus? Have you ever committed your life to him for he is calling church, He is calling!

5. And then we closed out last week with briefly talking about verse 16, lets go back there and see what the Lord has for us.

Matthew 2:16 NKJV

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

If we go back to the Old Testament, we see Pharaoh doing the same thing.

Exodus 1:22–2:6 NKJV

So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Moses was a type of Christ, he was the savior of Israel and we see

Church, God’s ways are not our ways. the devil attempted to kill the seed and God intervened.

God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Moses was raised up in Pharaohs court and was the next in line to become the next Pharaoh.

But guess what?

Moses struggled with anger and he killed an Egyptian taskmaster beating his slave and then became angry at Israel and struck the ROCK

He was so fearful he was paranoid that everyone was out to get him.

Although Herod though he was deceived we learned that the wise men were seeking after Jesus and the Lord warned them in a dream to return to their country rather than return to Herod.

There is a clear contrast here church:

The wise men are seeking hard after Jesus and the Kingdom of God, while Herod is seeking his own kingdom and miserable.

Any time we seek our own kingdoms church, we will become miserable and just like Herod.

Herod lived with constant fear and paranoia that drove him mad and caused problems in all his relationships because he was so full of himself.

His anger turned to murder as the text reads, but before we move on, I wanted to share some scriptures about anger with y’all:

Ephesians 4:26–27 NKJV

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

Psalm 37:8 NKJV

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.

Proverbs 14:29 NASB95

He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.

Matthew 5:21–25 (NKJV)

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

RACA means empty headed or worthless in Aramaic...

Jesus suggest here that the verbal abuse stems for the same sinful motives (anger and hatred) church that ultimately lead to murder.

And this is exactly what happened to Herod.

Anger turns into resentment, resentment is unforgiveness.

If your leave this resentment in your heart, eventually church, it will turn into bitterness:

Hebrews 12:14–15 NKJV

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

TELL DAROLD BIGGERS STORY

Anger and Physical Health

When anger is frequent and prolonged, it’s a problem. Numerous studies show that it causes stress hormones to release in the body, which weakens the immune system and destroys neurons in the brain.

Because anger also fires up the body’s “fight or flight” response, which studies show causes a burst of energy that tightens blood vessels and causes blood pressure to soar, it’s also tied to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart attack.

Uncontrolled anger includes anxiety, high blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, eczema, and depression...

Signs of Anger Issues

If you’ve been told that you have anger issues or you feel guilty because you’re allowing anger to impact how you respond to people or treat them, you may be wondering if you really do have anger issues.

Here are some signs of anger issues:

You get aggressive – If you get physically or emotionally aggressive when you’re upset, you may have anger issues. This may involve punching walls, placing your hands on someone who angered you, verbally abusing or screaming at an individual, or taking physical measures to “get even.

”You become passive-aggressive – You might not show your anger in the form of a blow-up or shouting, but you may become sarcastic, mean, or bitter towards the other person. You might resist requests by the other person and shut him or her out.

You harm others – You may physically harm a person that you’re angry with.

You can stay angry for days – You might not be able to let go of your anger and dwell on it for days or weeks, refusing to forgive the person who “wronged” you.

You get angry quickly and often – You might get angry at the drop of a hat and find that you spend more time feeling anger than you do any other emotion.

You blame others – You may blame others for your anger and repeatedly tell them if they’d just stop a certain behavior, you wouldn’t be the way you are.

How to Deal with Anger God’s Way

So, if you’ve identified that you have anger issues, how do you deal with it God’s way?

1. Restrain It

Proverbs 29:11 ESV

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

This scripture does not mean that the wise bury their anger or do not deal with it, but it means that they control their anger and how they express it.

When you restrain your anger, you keep it within limits.

Rather than your anger controlling you, you are controlling your anger....

2. Re-evaluate It

James 1:19–20 NIV

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

God’s way of dealing with anger is to be slow to anger.

There are some things that you need to let roll off of your shoulders and not internalize or act on.

When you re-evaluate a person’s words or action, you often find that there’s no need to get angry as that person really did not intend to hurt you or was merely acting out of their own biases, which is not a reflection of you.

Church, much of the time we become angry, resentful, and unforgiving because we have placed some unenforceable rule upon someone.

This means that you have created a rule that you place on others that cannot be enforced…

Look at this illustration :

Imagine there is a pro-active police officer whose job it is to patrol a busy stretch of I5. Sitting in his car, the officer notices a blackHonda CRV speeding by at 85 miles an hour. He begins to write out the ticket and tries to start his car, but the engine will not turn over. Stuck and unable to move, the officer soon notices another car speeding by. Then another. Wondering what to do, he gets mad at first and then feels helpless.

Questions go through his mind: “Do I write out a ticket for each car, or do I let them go bye? If I write tickets , what do I do with them since I cannot issue them? What do I do with the cars that continue to speed by?

Stopping speeders is the officers job , but because squad car will not start he cannot do his job. He is faced with a predicament of having rules to enforce but no ability to do so.

The question the officer ponders is the one you and I deal with when one of our unenforceable rules is broken.

The question we must ask ourselves is: “Do I continue to write tickets, I cannot serve?”

When we write mental tickets that we cannot enforce church, we clutter up our minds!

Anger and peace are polar opposites!

I am convinced church that when you try to enforce something over which you have no control, you create problems for yourself.

The bottom line church, the rules we have for other people’s behavior will to a large degree determine how we feel1

When we have too many unenforceable rules and try to enforce them on people, we will ned up with problems...

3. Release It

Colossians 3:8 NKJV

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

When you deal with anger God’s way, you feel it, vent it in a safe way (possibly complaining to an innocent third party) where no one is harmed, and then release it. You get rid of it from your body, heart, and mind.

If we were honest church, we all struggle with anger!

God never said we would not be angry, but he did say be angry and sin not.

Therefore, it is a sin to not deal with the anger in our hearts.

Some of us are able to deal with anger rapidly, while others of us have unresolved anger that is literally killing us.

Anger that is not dealt with with destroy all of our relationships church!

What or who are you angry at? Are you ready to release it and be free?

Prayer

Benediction

1 corinthians 13:4-5

1 Corinthians 13:4–5 NIV

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Go, be angry no more!

The Lord Bless You!

Your Mission Starts Now!

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