OUR BEFRIENDING THE PEOPLE OF GOD WILL ANGER SOME PEOPLE

PROCLAMATION

“Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, ‘… Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of the mother who bore you?’”  1 Samuel 20:30 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

The Spirit of The Lord God had left King Saul and had been replaced by an evil spirit. (1 Samuel 16:14 and 18:12)  Saul had initially loved David and took him into his home, but the more that he saw that The Spirit of The Lord God was with David, the more he feared him and wanted to kill him. (1 Samuel 18:29, 19:1, and 19:15)  Saul even got very angry with his son Jonathan for befriending David.  Saul was so angry that he threw a spear at Jonathan, attempting to kill him, when he questioned why Saul wanted to kill David. (1 Samuel 20:32-33)

APPLICATION

There are some people in this world who do not like The Lord God or the people of God.  They will even dislike or hate you for being friends with or being kind to believers.  It is good for us to be kind and good to the people of God.  The Bible records that Rahab, the prostitute, was spared along with her family because of how she treated God’s people. (Joshua 6:17)  People will be blessed for being nice to a man of God or just giving a child of God a drink of water. (Matthew 10:41-42)  The world will know that we are believers by the way that we show love to one another. (John 13:35)  We should not let anger or hatred rule our behavior.

DON'T STAY ANGRY

Proclamation:

“In your anger do not sin; Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26-27 (NIV)

Explanation:

These words were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by the Apostle Paul to the believers in Ephesus while he was a prisoner in Rome.  Paul reminded them that they were saved by the grace of God and that they were to behave in a Christ-like manner.  He said that it was okay for them to get angry, but it was not okay to stay angry or to let anger control their lives.  Getting angry did not give them the permission to sin.  They were to forgive the person who made them angry and not let the devil use their anger to cause them to sin.

Application:

We have all gotten mad or angry at some time in our lives.  Anger is a natural emotion.  The “anger” is not the issue, but what we do about it or what we do when we get angry that becomes the problem.  The world says, "Don't get mad, get even" but that is not the Christian way of doing things.  The Bible says, "Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither give place to the devil." (Ephesians 4:26-27 KJV)  The Bible also says "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:31-32 KJV)  Acting out of anger allows the devil to take control of our behavior and speech and we do not give God glory.  According to Bible scholar Rev Dr John Mac Arthur, "bitterness can be likened to a smoldering resentment (that gets worse with time).  Wrath has to do with rage, the passion of the moment.  Anger is an internal, deep hostility.  Clamor is the outcry of strife out of control.  'Evil speaking' is slander.  And 'malice' is the general term for evil, the root of all vices."  We need to do the right thing, be righteous and Christ-like.  We may get angry, but we should not stay angry or act while we are angry.  We need to forgive whoever made us angry and not wait a long time before we do it.  Forgiving them will probably require us to pray a long prayer and ask for God’s help, but we will be better off for having done so.

What Will Be Said About Our Life After We Die?

The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. " Genesis 4:1-10 (NIV)

Abel gave God his best, while Cain just offered God some of his increase. God accepted Abel's offering but he rejected Cain's offering. Cain got angry and killed his brother Abel, and God punished him for that.

What will our "blood" say about us when we are gone? Blood here is a figure of speech, it is something that will be left behind after our soul leaves our body. What will be remembered about us and said about us after we die? More importantly, what will the life that we have lived say to God about us after our death?

God knows whether we have truly given Him our best, when we have been wronged by others, and when we have done wrong unto others. We will have to give an account for our actions, as well as for our words and thoughts. When we stand before Jesus in judgement, we won't have to say a word, our lives will speak for us. What will our life say about us and what we did, or did not do, to give God glory?

Don't Stay Angry

Have you ever gotten mad or angry? Anger is a natural emotion. The 'anger' is not the issue, but what we do about it or what we do when we get angry that becomes the problem.

The world says, "Don't get mad, get even." That is not the Christian way of doing things. The Bible says, "Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; Neither give place to the devil." Ephesians 4:26-27

It is okay to get angry, but it is not okay to stay angry or to let anger control our lives. Getting angry does not give us the permission to sin. We are to forgive the person who made us angry.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians 4:31-32

Acting out of anger allows the devil to take control of our behavior and speech and we do not give God glory. According to the Rev Dr John Mac Arthur, "bitterness can be likened to a smoldering resentment (that gets worse with time). Wrath has to do with rage, the passion of the moment. Anger is an internal, deep hostility. Clamour is the outcry of strife out of control. 'Evil speaking' is slander. And 'malice' is the general term for evil, the root of all vices."

We need to do the right thing, be righteous and Christ-like. We may get angry, but we should not stay angry or act while we are angry. We need to forgive whoever made us angry. That will probably require us to pray a long prayer, but we will be better off for having done so.