Let's take our Bible's brothers and sisters and turn to James chapter one As we talk today about facing our anger and fear Several years ago I was in the home of a dear friend of mine His name is Franco Magiodo. He is an Italian guy and lived in a little town of Alplanyano, which is up near Turin in northern Italy. We were sitting around his dinner table after an evening meal and just out of the blue Franco who was probably the most affable guy I've ever met in my life. He said ask me why are Americans and even American Christians always so angry? Well, I was kind of taken back by the question and I Him and Hald and I got a little flustered and I began to defend American Christians and Franco put his arm around me and smiled and said brother. I Didn't intend to make you angry by my question
To which I had to confess to him that if I have a root sin in my life, it is anger I've been like that my whole life My mother and sister and my wife and my other family members can tell you that I'm a person who's impatient Irritable at times. I can lose my temper people who've been around me and have even experienced my rage on occasions. I've been struggling with this for 65 years. I would Be quick to tell you that I'm not the angry young man that I used to be Not even the one sitting in Franco Maggioto's kitchen But I'm embarrassingly not where I want to be So I know something about the topic that I'm going to discuss and Early on in my Christian life a friend of mine the man who led me to the Lord Said you know, he said I want to send you to James chapter 1 Because there's some verses you need to meditate upon That might help you with your anger And that's where I'd like you to turn this morning James chapter one Versus 19 to 21 three verses With three truths Three perspectives on anger that I think would help us a great deal James chapter 1 verse 19 know this my beloved brethren Let every person be quick to hear Slow to speak Slow to anger For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness And receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls I want you to notice those three truths truth number one verse 19 be quick to hear Slow to speak Slow to get angry Truth number two in verse 20 The anger of man Does not achieve or does not produce the righteousness of God truth number three Meekness in receiving God's word Serves as the antidote to our anger We live in a culture of anger The American society becomes more and more angry And vitriolic and foul With each passing day Jeff temple who is a counselor with the biblical counseling center Said today's world has an underlying current of anger Our responses to outsourcing of jobs Increasing taxes Lack of funding for projects immigration And restricted religious freedoms are just a few notable issues that verify How we respond To disappointments and verify our culture of anger Anger is not just relegated to the news We see it in movies and in television We hear it in secular music like rap Anger is an attitude that is exalted around the world When steadily fed upon anger De-sensitizes And allows us to become accustomed to it When we feed upon anger We become desensitized that we think well that's normal And We begin to practice it ourselves Anger is a known trait of the American person So that he's known around the world as the ugly American He's loud He's aggressive He's irritable He's always self-consumed pushing always and demanding always his rights Years ago my little family and I were in Paris coming back from a sabbatical in Europe And the day that we checked in to catch the TWA flight back to the United States British airways and TWA it's affiliate decided to go on strike And that's shut down the Charles de Gaulle Airport I have never seen so many people Trying to scurry around and get where to where they were going And the the poor flight attendants the people at the desk They were heroic in their measures to Defined people away to get to where they're supposed to go The guy in front of me Was getting married in Pakistan Uh in about ten hours And they managed to somehow route him around the world to the got there on time They finally got us back to Miami and Florida where we were supposed to be But I noticed this That the only people in that airport who seemed to get angry about the situation Were the Americans Everyone else was disappointed and frustrated But it was the Americans who angrily said to the people of desk This is unacceptable What are you going to do to fix this As if somehow Those young ladies behind that counter were responsible For what the airline mechanics and London England decided to do that morning Anger is one of the seven deadly sins Pride Envy Laziness Greed Gluttony Lust And anger It was a major topic of discussion and study In the Medieval Church They realized that it was a deadly sin not only because It ravaged the human soul and the psyches of everyone around but it contributed To vile and filthy behavior Anger is as old as mankind it's as old as the fall We read it we first encounter the word In Genesis chapter 4 verse 5 So Cain became very angry And his face fell And Cain slew his brother Cain's anger at God Led to murder James acknowledges That anger is a problem in the church and so have the elders of our church And looking at things we want to focus on In the next six or seven years The session has agreed with me That we need to face our tendency Towards anger and a spirit of fear And the reason we need to Is because anger is always the response to fear That's what people don't realize that's what I've learned about myself folks And learned about other angry people Anger is not rooted in pride Or in selfishness always wanting to get your way It's rooted in fear When things don't go your way the tendency the the default mood is to be angry When you feel threatened the first response is anger Because anger makes people go away Anger creates an invisible barrier An emotional safety zone that leaves you Unthreatened by exterior forces You will inevitably find that a man or a woman Who has a sin problem of anger Is a person who grew up or lives in a world Where they do not feel safe And since the American culture is becoming more raw And more difficult all the time it should not surprise us That anger is on the rise Anger is always tied to a spirit of fear I will go so far as to say It is the spirit of fear that gives birth to its first child called anger And his twin brother contempt So James deals with these Why will because the people he writes to remember their circumstances Look at them in verse one James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ To the 12 tribes of the dispersion These were Jewish Christians who'd come to Christ They were suffering under the persecution that Paul began In Acts chapter 8 They were scattered all over place They'd lost their businesses They'd lost their homes They'd lost their families Some were in jail Others were being put to death They were naturally afraid Their rights were being violated Their privilege is taken away from them There was gross unrighteousness and injustice All these themes that James will deal with in this epistle These people were experiencing And they were beginning to think And to act unbibbically They were beginning to be angry And so we want to look at these three verses Know this my beloved brethren, let every person Be quick to hear Slow to speak, slow to anger For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God Therefore Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness And receive with meekness the implanted word Which is able to save your souls Three verses Three truths Three antidotes to anger Truth number one We should be Slow to get angry Because we are quick to hear Know this my beloved brothers Let every person be quick to hear Slow to speak Slow to anger I want you to notice James Egalitarian language Let every person man, woman, child These people he calls the beloved brethren Every one of you he says Be quick to listen Slow to give your opinion Even slower to be irritated and angry These Christians Were beginning to suffer for their faith in Christ It was natural for them To quickly speak out and defend themselves To demand their rights to become irritated Angry at the injustice done to them But James says no You need to do the opposite You need to be quick to hear, to listen Slow to speak Even slower to anger I read a fascinating study Done by five professors of psychology at the University of Freeberg in Germany Bender spade us verbota, traber and rouse Decided to study anger in a culture Their little papers entitled anger in a just world The impact of cultural concepts on cognition and emotion They had a thesis and it was the thesis That a person's anger is determined by two things Their view of themselves and their view of the world Really deep and profound but they decided to test this out So they studied two cultures Germany and Tonga Tonga is a little island in French Polynesia Originally called the Friend the Islands By James Cook who discovered them in the 1700s These people were chosen because they were the complete opposites They looked at these two factors with the Germans and the Tongans They're self-image and their image of the world They said that there are two images of the self in mankind One, the individual Whose self-esteem, whose personal peace and affluence Whose rights and privileges determine his course of action Or a person who is a collectivist He sees himself as a member of a tribe And his welfare rises and falls With the blessings or difficulty of the people He finds himself a member of Obviously the Germans are individualistic They're Westerners And the Tongans were collectivistic They were tribal people The second thing they wanted to look at was their view of the world There are two views they said that basically people have of the world A just world where everybody gets what they deserve and deserve what they get The things work out According to some fate or some divine plan or some karma And then there's the unjust world Where things happen in a random way And often people are victims of forces and actions they can't control Now think of the German people Emerging out of World War II and Nazism and Communism and all those things They have a view that the world is not just its random and threatening and evil But the Tongans saw the world as under the control of the forces of nature And things happened as they were deserved and people deserved what they got You want to guess which culture had more anger? Tell me The Germans They were angry because their rights weren't met Because they were not respected Because they were violated By an unjust world And uncontrollable forces they were victims And the Tongans just rolled along and said Come say come saw This is the way things go Isn't it amazing That those are the very two things that James focuses on in chapter one He talks about our view of the world He says that we do live in a basically just world You'll say nonsense Because you're a German You're a Westerner thinking like a victim Look at chapter one Look at what God says in verse 16 Do not be deceived my beloved brothers Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above Coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth That we should be the kind of first fruits of his creatures God is sovereignly in control of things and he's a good God Not shifting or changing Look back in chapter one Beginning in verse two even when bad things are happening to us God is using them for good count it all Joy my brothers when you meet trials in various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produce a steadfast and let steadfastness have It's full effect that you may be further complete lacking and nothing we live in a just world because the world is controlled by a just and kind God It's not always what we want
But it's always what God has for us not what we deserve But what God has planned for us and we are not an assemblage of individuals We are people who are part of a corporate tribe Known as the church and our religion reflects that corporate mentality Look at verse 27 this is pure and undefiled religion before our God and father To visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self Unstained by the world Our religion is not defined by our self-esteem By our rights and privileges But by our obligations to other people widows and orphans in their distress And a proper holy relationship with the world around us as a witness a worshiper and a worker for Christ How we view ourselves and how we view the world Says a lot about how we respond to difficulty Know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger quick to hear eager to learn devoted to listening to others attempting to understand someone else's opinion A deliberate attempt to gather information and to think before we speak and act
Slow to speak Choosing our words carefully Usually them clearly and consciously Realizing the effect our speech has upon other people Especially the unity and harmony of any group of people And slow to anger Doesn't say never to anger Slow to anger because rarely Can anger be expressed In a righteous way Anger may not be fully controlled at James admits
But it should be something that we slowly and rarely turn to
And the reason we do is because we're afraid
my wife Rarely gets angry You know why my wife is a great listener You have to be when you're married to a preacher I never stop You wind me up and I just keep going She is very tactful in the way she speaks. She's a southerner
And my wife believes In God's goodness And a lot of times I don't And that's why I get angry She rarely does She only gets angry at my anger Which is a righteous anger I have to say It is our poor listening skills folks And our Desire to tell people what's true to correct them and make things right and protect ourselves That causes our anger We are horrible listeners And we really are I seldom really I don't ever try to scold you folks But sometimes I need to give a review And I'm telling you you're not good listeners I mean the emails I get from you I wonder if you're in the same town that I'm in when I preach Because I get emails like I when did you start believing in evolution? I don't believe in evolution
But last Sunday night I quoted a British guy and Dr. Tim Keller who said Evolution as a as a biological process of change Not Darwinian Natural selection across species but the change why your girls are taller and And more mature and reach child-bearing age at the age of nine instead of 19 It could be and a good scientist will take the Bible and the possibility of the possibility Hear that say it back to me Possibility And study those two things to see if they can be comported That is hardly an endorsement of evolution I don't believe in global warming I'm not a Democrat But I've been accused of believing in global one because I say global warming Could be a possibility Why don't we let science study it for a hundred years and find out? I'm not a Democrat But it's not a sin to be a Democrat And I believe the Democrats gotta be right half the time because Republicans are wrong half the time
But you hear those things and they threaten you He's a Democrat we hired a Democrat Didn't the elders know this when they hired him he believes in evolution and global warming pretty soon He'll be saying that Jesus wasn't born of a virgin and the Bible is not true and guru is guru
fear It's fear that leads to those things and so What James says is Realize that And when you feel that curkling up and like believe he said that You need to slow down and listen I'm now listen. I'm gonna give you an exercise. We're gonna do a pop quiz at the end of this sermon So you you know anybody here know captain kangaroo anybody grew up a captain remember had you put on your listening caps Okay, put them on Because mr. Green genes is going to give you a lesson, okay
We're gonna have an exercise at the end time and I'm dead serious. So I want to pay attention Listen Listen to people Formulate your words carefully and while you're listening and thinking remind yourself that every good gift comes down for a father of love Who's going to take care of you? Your Safe In God say that every morning you get up Look yourself in the mirror and say I am secure in God Because when we lose our temper We don't possess the righteousness of God. That's truth number two very quickly For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God This is maybe even harder to accept But if we display our anger about unrighteousness sinful things and flattitudes and contact sinful people Our anger will not help to bring about righteousness But the opposite Well because there is such a thing as righteous indignation But we seldom see that in mankind. I'm not saying never But we seldom see that mankind that righteous anger is usually found in God alone We because of our sinful natures are so much a mixture of the righteousness of Jesus Christ Imputed to us and then imparted to us to the Holy Spirit and our own sinful fears And and aspirations that our anger is always a mixture and always polluted Rarely I shouldn't say always but rarely is it righteous Notice the ambivalence That there is an ambivalence here in James James is usually black and white says be slow to anger meaning that There are times that you could be angry But your anger will not achieve the righteousness of God He's just like Paul who says be angry and yet do not sin Do not let the sun go down on the anger and do not give the devil an opportunity Both Paul and James realized that anger Is a very common natural emotion That sometimes it could be righteous I Honestly have tried to think through some example where it would be righteous and I can't think of one Where human anger is not tainted by sin because even if We are angry That our brothers and sisters In Christ are being persecuted around the world. There is the spirit of revenge. We want the American government to get them To stop them to punish them and that is not anger That is revenge The anger of man cannot achieve the righteousness of God Folks I will tell you that I've learned that the hard way with the way I used to get angry with my children I would scold those little souls I Tell them harsh things. Sometimes they saw my rage. You know It never accomplished what I wanted to accomplish My anger never led them to repentance. It just made them afraid They never feared God they just feared me My anger although I was concerned about their eternal souls never accomplished anything good in their life They will tell you That our dad stopped being an angry man when we got in college He began to deal with us with reason and grace and with patience You know why? Because by the time they got to college I was not afraid as a parent anymore I knew God was going to take care of and save him I'd seen all the things that God had done in their life for them in spite of me And I was able to be patient with them Quick to hear what they had to say To think through their little generational mindset that was different them Very slow and how I said things not to crush their spirit Not to shame them But to motivate them to do what's right and slower to get angry and in college They began to respond to me as a father Rather than an authority figure Thirdly he says Our anger always becomes foul Look at the last verse Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness And receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls Why would he say put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness Because those are the children of anger contempt And rash actions Filthy speech and violence It is true that wherever there is anger uncontrolled there will be things said That not only are not acceptable They are foul Fowl mouth in an angry spirit always go together
And a person of anger is always more aggressive than he needs to be Always There are two views of anger and in his book on Anger the seven deadly sins. It's a series of books Produced about the seven deadly sins professor Robert a Thurban of Columbia University says that these two view of angers are this one The first views that there is not really anything to be done about anger It is either god-given or hard-wired into our brains So there is no getting around it in any case we wouldn't want to since we need anger to write wrongs overturn social evils revolting as depression Get our rights Anger is only deadly sinful or bad when it's unfair excessive or self-destructive That's view number one and it's the American view Anger is normal And you need to just learn how to manage your anger to get what you need View number two The second view is that anger Can and should be eradicated For it is always destructive and never justified and that is God's view Anger will never accomplish the righteousness of God All we'll lead to is foul speech And aggressive behavior therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness And receive with meekness the word implanted which is able to save your souls It's interesting that Paul says the same thing Be angry and yet do not sin Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth But only such a word that is good for edification that it may give grace to those who hear Anger and speech are tied Hence verse 19 be quick dear slow to speak Slow to anger for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart If anger fills the heart guess what the speech is going to be It's as if Jane is saying I don't want you to try to attack the root of anger I want you to work from the outside in Work on how you speak and how you treat people Work on your foul mouth and your aggressive attitude towards people And see if they won't lead you To a healing of that anger gene As we talk about the the anger gene Well, you know, I've had an anger gene my whole life. It's called sin People have an alcohol gene that doesn't give them an excuse to Commit one DUI after another they have a violent gene they just can't beat up everybody they want They have a cleftomaniac gene they can't shoplift They have a homosexual gene they can't live in morally or a lustful gene
Those aren't excuses Who knows what sin is done to the human psyche There may be such thing as an anger gene
But we're not responsible to change our natures That's God's job Responsible just for what we say and what we do That's our responsibility Is there an antidote of course there is there is a cure to anger It's to receive with meekness the implanted word of God Which is able to save your souls you know what the cure for anger is it's the gospel It's to realize that Jesus Christ Took your anger into himself And killed it on the cross that Jesus Christ died for your sins So you will not be punished for your sins no need to be afraid of God anymore God is on your side Christ is proof of that It's that Jesus Christ will give you implant inside you this Holy Spirit And open up your mind and heart to receive the word which is able To rescue that's how the word reads to rescue your souls From anger and God's wrath For the word of God is living in active In sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joint and marrow Able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart There is a solution to anger And that is Jesus Christ If anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Jesus Christ who has stand before God and say he is an angry man, but I want you to know Father I have absorbed his anger it was his anger That nailed me to the cross it was his speech that said Crucify him and let his blood be on us and on our children It was his slowness to hear the gospel To know who I was that led him to act the way he acts towards me and everyone made in my image But that's all been put aside now Father I am his defending attorney I have died for his angry soul and his angry sins and all the ramifications of it And I have placed him in the Holy Spirit and the living powerful word of God And if you look carefully Father My client is being changed I ask of you a verdict not guilty Not angry Righteous in God I am his advocate Jesus Christ Is the cure of your anger coming to him Abiding in him and letting his word Go into your soul and over what will take a lifetime Begin to take the anger in you and turn it into the peace of God Now it's time for your quiz You ready? Lloyd Marcus wrote an article said This is the title Democrats responsible for black culture of anger That's enough to make anger right there Listen to what he said Black 20-year-old Daniel Simpson with two black associates Was interrupted by an 84-year-old Geraldine Davidson while they were in the process of burglarizing her house The group duct taped her mouth Bound her hands and legs and through the white former schoolteacher and church organist into the trunk of her own car Mrs. Davidson was severely brutalized before the trio eventually tied a rope attached to a sin to block around her legs and through her still alive into the river Brutal crimes are not unique, but here's what makes this case so remarkable for several hours Simpson and his friends Road around and Mrs. Davidson's car stopping for fast food and opening the trunk to show off the victim to their black friends Due to fingerprints left in the car detectives estimate that around 10 people viewed Mrs. Davidson and the trunk Incredibly not one person called the police or lobby to set the poor widow free What could possibly harden these young men to such an extent? Perhaps one of the detectives investigating the case nailed it down when he described the black criminals and their friends as part of a culture of anger now mr. Marcus who is Slow to hear quick to speak and obviously a man the temper tells us why Why has this culture of anger infected the black community answer the Democrats There they are again those Democrats According to us represented Bobby Rush and Angela Davis and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and majority of Democratic leaders pundits of the Democrats support of mainstream media black Americans are routinely physically attacked by whites Is there any wonder why millions of black Americans are finding a culture of anger and fuming within it? One of the consequences of the Democratic Party keeping black Americans stood up over their well-crafted culture of anger blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder Eight times more likely to commit robbery blacks are three times more likely to use a handgun and twice as likely to use a knife 45% of black crime is against whites 43% against other blacks and 10% against Hispanics Who can deny that black criminals are angry at whites and fellow blacks blacks are seven times more likely to end up in prison than people of other races Now what's your reaction? Well, if you're African-American you say that's it. I will never be back to this church
I'm not done yet If you're a Democrat using there he goes again Republican politics in the pulpit
Are you listening? Did you listen to what Marcus said he's wrong? wrong wrong African-Americans make up 17% of our culture. That's a fact non-dependent therefore you would expect that 83% of crime would be against people of other races, but it's not In fact according to his own statistics, African-Americans commit crimes against other races less than they do their own race And why are they angry? Well, could it be that they were enslaved and then brutalized and then marginalized That they were born into disadvantaged that they lived with all their life by the majority of people 83% who are insensitive to that Could it be that out of their poverty and they're broken homes and they're lack of good education or a good church That in desperation they rob when they're needy They steal when the hungry They do bad things when they're on drugs and alcohol a fact that Mr. Marcus didn't happen to mention In his article are black people The only people angry and violent
No, and our Democrats the cause of it
Let's not be stupid Democrats and Republicans are trying to fix the problem of an unjust prejudice society and the only solution is Jesus Christ who will forgive us For our racism and violence Who will forgive us for our crime and our broken homes Who will reconcile us Who will teach us how to love one another And how to put anger From black young people and fear From older white people away
And to live in harmony in a new society Called The church How you respond In the next few days with your emails Will tell me whether you're able to hear
Why is about how you speak and whether you live in fear or not But here is a table That calls us To listen Listen to Jesus Christ Who gave himself to fix our broken world This is a table that calls us to faith and not to fear To forget all of our prejudices and our public opinions and our political justifications And to come here and say we are all horribly broken and only you can fix us And here is a table that calls us To love one another as God has loved us Because that is how people will know that we are Christians Not by our shrill Fearful Angry Ejaculations of a victim But because of how we live How we treat one another another people By this men will know that you are my disciples By the love you have for one another a commandment given at the first Lord's supper That's pray Father we come to this table this morning As people who are full of fear We live in a dangerous world But people whose fear has overcome their faith And the Father of Lights who from above Is never changing and always giving us his good And saving gracious gifts We come here as people who need to repent of our fear our anger Our foul speech Our aggressive actions and even perhaps violence People full of prejudice Hate And pride And an orientation towards being a victim Rather than a thankful calm Peaceful worshipper of Christ We know Father this table is meant for believers For those who have received you as their Lord and Savior Through receiving your Son Who have been baptized Into the church Who live in harmony with their brothers and sisters And in good communion with Christ honoring Bible teaching churches And so we fence this table Inviting all those people who meet those qualifications to come And those who are outside of your grace and outside of your fellowship To not be angry with us But to be quick To hear what the gospel message is Slow to express their disappointments Not angry But meek Receiving Christ as Lord and Savior And his implanted word and spirit So that the next time we take the table They may join us in a fellowship of love Having come out of a culture of anger And we would ask you In a special way to meet us at this table And to help our fearful and angry spirits Become like Jesus Christ Through the word which is able to rescue our souls We pray this now in Jesus' name and for his sake Amen