Last
week we kicked off our sermon series Seeing Red. We acknowledged that anger is
present in everyone life. It can pop up sometimes without warning and have
damaging effects. Luckily the Bible has a lot to say about anger. Last week we outline five characteristics of
anger. If you remember they were: Anger is not always bad. Anger makes us
acceptable to greater dangers. Anger makes us do foolish things. Anger never
produces what we hope it will. Anger is our own punishment.
Today
we are going to look at the first one: Anger is not always bad. We are going to
explore righteous anger. There are things in our life that should make us
angry. Righteous anger can be defined simple as what makes God made should make
us mad. We serve a God who created us, knows us, and loves us so whatever makes
God angry should make us angry as well. Righteous anger however is never anger
towards another person but only anger towards the problem. Because when we are
mad at a problem we will be forced, moved, inspired to take action.
It’s
no secret that I am a University of Memphis Tiger fan both football and
basketball. Like all college sports we have our rivalries. I think every
college team has them. But for Memphis in football it is Ole Miss, for you non
southerners, Ole Miss is the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss is less than an hour drive from the Memphis;
they recruit in the Memphis area for players. Great High School football
players go to Alabama, LSU, or UT. That leaves Memphis and Ole Miss to fight
for the rest. Memphis fans dislike Ole Miss Fans. When Will was about four, we
are at the game and Will is front row right behind the Ole Miss bench Will
screams, “You Stink” every time they came off the field. It was one of those moments where I was in
front of them like, “Will don’t say that.” And then as soon as they leave I’m
like “That’s my boy.” See the problem was not anger at the player from Ole
Miss, it was anger at the problem of two opposing teams who compete in
recruiting. Or the problem was a father taking college football to an unhealthy
level. It’s not the person that causes us anger, it’s the problem. So what makes
God anger? Simply put it is injustices.
There are two distinct kinds of injustices that make God
angry and that should make us angry as well. First are universal injustices. Those are things in our world that happen that
should as follows of God should make us angry. Some people in our faith
community have questioned me and my integrity of why are we spending all this
money for a mission trip to Honduras. The risk of death for women during
childbirth is nine times the rate in the United States. One in every 40 children dies before their
fifth birthday, triple the U.S. rate. One in 50 children dies before their
first birthday, almost three times the U.S. rate. In Honduras 70% of the people
are illiterate. Most children work in the field to help provide income. That
should make you angry because these are children of God who did not ask to be
born there. In our own city of Centralia, 1 in 6 kids are food insecure. Being
Food insecure simple means lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic
needs at all times. Education. Kids in our community don’t have what they need
to succeed in academics. Our kids are hurting and struggling and we
automatically want to get mad at the teachers, the teachers get mad at the
parents, and the kids just don’t want to go to school. Instead of getting mad
at a person, righteous anger gets mad at the problem.
The second kinds of injustices are personal injustices.
These are things that happen to us on a person level. Addictions, alcoholism,
physical and emotional abuse are things we witness and we like God should
become angry at the problem, not always focused on the person. I want to be
perfectly clear here, getting mad at the problem does not in no means
automatically relinquish anyone from the responsibility of their actions caused
by the problem. We have all witnessed how addictions have torn families apart
and damaged innocent children that have lived it. We have all seen how specially
in divorce people choose sides and blame the person, not the problem that
caused the marriage to end. We must at time must zoom out and not focus all our
attention on the person but look at the overall problem.
So
how do we know if our anger is righteous? The litmus test to see if our anger
is righteous or is our anger is in line with Gods is three distinct
characteristics.
Righteous anger is always,
always anger under control. Proverbs 29:22 “An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered
person commits many sins.” Because God created us, knows us, and loves us,
God knows that deep inside of us, in real life, in real time, there is this
thing called vengeance. You did something to me, buddy, I am going to do
something more to you. It boils up side of us and we do things, say things, or
plot ways to get back. If our anger is
not under control, we start conflict, we commit many sins, we do things that
are not pleasing in the eye of God or others who are watching us.
Righteous anger motivates us
when others are mistreated. James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless
is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself
from being polluted by the world.” Over and over again throughout scripture
Jesus tells us over and over again to look after the orphans and widows. You
know what that means. Don’t just be listeners but be doers. You know what
orphans and widows means. Jesus says anyone who can’t take care of themselves.
In my life I have gotten into some stuff because I cannot just stand by when
anyone who cannot defend themselves are being abused, taken advantage off or
mistreated.
Righteous
anger is motivated by the right reasons. Last week I stated
that many times anger can be wrapped around the statement of “I’m not getting
what I want.” Because we have this selfishness about us. Whenever anything is
done in our life, in our faith community we say through our words, actions, and
attitudes, “What am I going to get out of it.” When we have righteous anger,
anger like God’s, we have selfless. It doesn’t matter if it will get us
something down the road, it doesn’t matter if we get recognized, and it doesn’t
matter if it will benefit us. Here is where God is going to mature us as a
faith community. Genesis 1: 27 So God
created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and
female he created them.
Did you get this? You were created in God’s
image. That means we are all created equally. We are created equally. Equally! God
created each of us equally. That means in the eyes of God it doesn’t matter
where we live, how much money we make, it doesn’t matter what race we are, or
what language we speak, or what country we might have been born in. God hearts
breaks whenever He sees his people in pain. I got to hear Eli Wessel speak; his
is a Holocaust survivor and wrote the book called Night. He said the true tragedy of the Holocaust was
not that over 6 million Jews were slaughtered. It was the fact that 6 million
Jews were slaughtered and no one cared. The greatest sin is indifference. God
hearts breaks even more when He sees us witness people in pain, when we see
people hurting, hungry, and broken and we do nothing about it. Then God’s
righteous anger is turn towards us. When our anger is under control, when anger
motivates us when others are mistreated, when anger inspires us into action for
the right reasons, we then can make a difference and attack the problem. Maybe
the problem is not that we get angry, maybe the problem is not that our anger
is not righteous, maybe the problem is we get angry and do nothing..
Pray
for me and I’ll pray for you..
Tommy
No comments:
Post a Comment