From His Heart

Speaker 1

Anger is a giant out to crush you. But you already know that, don't you? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

You know, I think if we're honest, all of us would say, hey, I've encountered the giant of anger. And the giant of anger is a tough, tough giant. We talked about Goliath. Maybe you're Goliath. Maybe it is anger.

You know, all of us deal with anger, but some anger is really eating your lunch. So here's our question: do you understand the giant of anger? And do you understand and know how to defeat the giant of anger?

Speaker 3

He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Most of our anger turns to sin when we want to be in charge. We want to be in control. So how are you doing when this giant of anger rears its ugly head in your life?

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who today will continue in his seven lesson series, "Land of the How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems." Today's message is about dealing with the giant of anger. It's probably the biggest, if not the most visible giant that does so much damage to you and those around you.

In this revealing lesson from Pastor Jeff, he'll help us learn to trust God and allow Him to be in charge when we face the giant of anger in our lives. Open your Bible to Genesis chapter four now and learn how to follow the example of Jesus and be aware of that check in your spirit when you should be obeying.

Speaker 2

I heard about a trucker who pulled into a roadside diner and ordered a cheeseburger, a malt, and an apple pie. He was sitting there at the table when the waitress came with his cheeseburger, his malt, and his apple pie, and he was getting ready to eat. Then, all of a sudden, three tough-looking biker guys came into the diner looking for trouble. They spotted the trucker and approached his table, glaring at him for a minute. One of the bikers grabbed his cheeseburger, took a huge bite, and put it down. Another biker grabbed his chocolate milkshake, drank half of it, and put it down. The third biker took his apple pie, gobbled it up, and left just the crust. They continued to glare at him, but the trucker didn’t do anything. He simply got up, paid his bill, and left.

The bikers laughed among themselves, and finally, one of them said to the waitress, “That trucker, he’s not much of a man, is he?” She replied, “Well, he’s not much of a driver either. He just ran over three choppers on his way out of here.”

You know, I think if we’re honest, all of us would say, “Hey, I’ve encountered the Giant of Anger.” The Giant of Anger is a tough, tough giant. We talked about Goliath; maybe your Goliath is anger. All of us deal with anger, but for some, it’s really eating your lunch. So here’s our question: Do you understand the Giant of Anger? And do you know how to defeat the Giant of Anger?

To help us understand, we’re going to look at the first human being who was ever said to have been angry. His name was Cain. The Bible says this about him in Genesis, chapter four: “Now, the man Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, ‘I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord.’ And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.” Cain was a farmer.

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, He had no regard. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell. He had a scowl on his face. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Cain told Abel, his brother, and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. The Giant of Anger.

Notice with me three insights about this giant that we all face, the Giant of Anger.

**Insight number one:** The Giant of Anger is not righteous indignation. We read in the Bible about God getting angry. God gets angry over sin, injustice, and unbelief. When God called Moses at the burning bush, Moses didn’t want to go and kept making excuses. The scripture says that the anger of the Lord burned against Moses because he kept trying to dodge God’s plan for his life. When God gets mad, it’s called righteous indignation because God is righteous and holy. The Bible says in Psalm 7, verse 11, “God is a fair judge, a righteous judge, a God who is angered by injustice every day.”

So, God gets angry. Anger by itself is not necessarily wrong. Jesus got angry when He cleansed the temple. He made a whip, turned over the tables of the money changers, and drove them out with a whip. He was angry and had passion and zeal for His house. He said, “It is written, my Father’s house should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

The Bible says in Ephesians, chapter four, “Be angry and yet do not sin. And do not let the sun go down on your anger. And do not give the devil an opportunity.” The Lord always has righteous indignation. He’s angry, but He doesn’t ever sin because He’s angry at sin, injustice, and unbelief. We can get angry reading things in the paper or knowing about terrible events, like sex trafficking, which can grieve our hearts and make us angry. That’s not a sin. Be angry and yet do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger and don’t give the devil a place. When you allow unrighteous anger, like Cain had, to take root in your heart and respond in anger, it’s like throwing a welcome mat out for the devil, and he will wreak havoc in your life.

**Second insight:** Where does the Giant of Anger come from? It comes from a desire for control. When you boil it down, what is anger all about? It’s a desire for control. My good friend in seminary, preaching professor Wayne MacDill, has a great definition of anger: “Anger is the feeling of hostility and aggression in reaction to some circumstance or event that poses a threat to one’s control.” It deals with the issue of authority.

As we read the story of Cain, we see that his name is mentioned 16 times, twice as many times as Abel’s name. The second to the last book of the Bible, in the book of Jude, still talks about Cain. First John, chapter three, talks about Cain being of the evil one and that he killed his brother. In Cain’s situation, he is mad at God because God is not doing what Cain wants Him to do. God is doing it God’s way, and Cain wants God to do it Cain’s way.

To understand this story, we need to remember that many people get hung up on Genesis 3, which is the key chapter in the Old Testament. It’s the fall of man when Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and their eyes are opened. They fall from their innocence and righteousness with the Lord and are banished from the Garden of Eden. When they sinned, they knew they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves to cover their nakedness. When God confronts them, He asks, “Adam, where are you?” Adam replies, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

The Lord asks, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree that I commanded you not to eat?” The Lord has a confrontation with Adam and Eve and curses the serpent. Then we read that God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin, which He did through sacrifice. He killed an innocent animal, and from that animal, He took the skins and clothed Adam and Eve. They learned that the wages of sin is death, as stated in Romans 3:23, and without the shedding of blood, as stated in Hebrews chapter 9, there is no forgiveness of sin.

The book of Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” God said, “I’ve given you the blood sacrifice to atone for your sins.” They were taught this in a rudimentary way the day they sinned. No doubt they taught their children that the Lord had given them a command: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

I don’t know how many kids Eve had, but she had a ton—maybe a hundred. We think a big family is five kids, but she had a hundred. We know that from two, they populated everything. When this story takes place in Genesis chapter four, 125 years have passed. How do we know this? Because it says at the end of chapter four that Adam and Eve had a son to take the place of Abel, who was killed. When Adam and Eve had that son, Adam was 130 years old.

Sometimes we read this passage and think, “Well, Genesis 3 happened, and then Genesis 4. These guys are probably 20 years old.” They’re not very old; they’re probably 120. There has to be a gap of time because Cain is going to find a wife, and there have to be lots of kids born to Adam and Eve for him to do that. The Lord had communicated to Cain and Abel that when you come before Him, you come with a blood sacrifice. We know that’s true because the scripture says in Hebrews, chapter 11, that Abel, by faith, offered a more acceptable sacrifice than did his brother.

How did he do it? He did it by faith. Where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Nobody has ever had faith outside of the word of God. So God had communicated to those boys, probably from their mom and dad, that when you come before the Lord, you come with a blood sacrifice. That’s the way Abel came—humbly and obediently. How did Cain come? Cain’s a farmer, and he says, “Look at what all I’ve done.” He came with the works of his hands, the sweat of his brow, and brought a big basket of fruits and vegetables to the Lord, saying, “Lord, look what I have for you.”

God had no regard for Cain and his offering. He wouldn’t look upon Cain’s offering. “That’s not the way I told you to come.” Cain got mad—hopping mad, burning mad—because God accepted Abel’s offering and didn’t accept his. When you come to God, you have to come God’s way.

Now, here’s the heart of anger: the heart of anger is the heart of sin, and at its core, it’s about wanting to be in charge and have it your way. That was the sin of Adam and Eve. “If you eat of this fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil, and you won’t need God. You won’t have to depend upon God. You can be your own cheap tin god.” She said, “That’s what I want because I want to be in charge. I want to be captain of my own ship. I don’t want to have to depend upon God.”

Sin is rooted in pride, in the big “I.” Anger is tied into that wanting to be in charge and have it your way. God is in charge, and we have to trust His way. We have to go His way—not just in the offering, but in life. We get mad when things don’t go the way we want them to go.

We have this idea that when we get in the car and drive, everyone should do what we want them to do. Have you ever noticed that when you’re driving, everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and everyone who drives faster than you is crazy? That’s what we do. “That idiot’s driving so slow!” or “Look at that crazy guy going so fast!” We feel like we ought to be able to control the road, how everyone drives, and how everything works.

But we’re not in control of much. God is in control of everything. You choose God’s way; you don’t choose your own way. Even when things happen outside of your control, but obviously not outside of God’s control, something happens that you don’t like. For example, driving home on a Friday night, a drunk driver crosses the median, hits you, and now you’re in the hospital with a punctured lung and broken bones. You might ask, “What gives? Why did this happen?”

Things are outside of our control. How do we handle those things? How do we not get angry at God when He doesn’t do what we want Him to do? We need to remember that God is in charge. Nothing comes into your life or my life that doesn’t first filter through God’s fingers of love. God has a plan and a purpose for anything and everything that He allows to come to us.

Satan couldn’t get at Job until God let down the hedge. All that came into Job’s life first filtered through God’s fingers of love. God didn’t cause that, but He allowed it to happen. You know what Job said? The greatest verse in the book of Job is Job 13:15: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” I don’t understand this, but I’m going to trust God because He’s good, He loves me, and He works in ways that I can’t understand and can’t see.

The Lord asks Cain a question: “Why? Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? Why is anger written all over your face? Why is there such a scowl on your face?” It’s because, “God, you’re not doing as I want you to do. Because, God, you need to do my will. I don’t do your will.”

The Giant of Anger comes from a desire for control.

**Insight number three:** The Giant of Anger is defeated when you choose God’s grace over your control. Look at it again, verse 6. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” God is gentle with Cain. He’s kind and merciful with Cain. When God asks Cain, “Why are you angry?” He’s not asking for information. The Lord never asks a question to gain information; He knows everything. He knew exactly why Cain was angry.

But He says, “Why are you angry, Cain? Why don’t you start to really consider this? Does it make sense for you to be so angry, Cain? Because I set up how you’re supposed to come to me, and you’re coming to worship me. If you’re going to come worship me, you better come my way. You can’t come any old way and expect me to rubber stamp that.”

God says, “That doesn’t make sense, does it? Why are you so angry? Why has your countenance fallen?” Then He says in verse 7, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, take heed. Sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

It’s important to remember that God wants to help you with your anger. He wants to help me. He wants to help us as we deal with that Giant of Anger that pops up in our lives. As we think about anger in the definition that Wayne MacDill gave, anger is the feeling of hostility and aggression in reaction to some circumstance or event that poses a threat to one’s control.

There’s a circumstance or an event that triggers the anger, whether it’s somebody cutting you off in traffic, your wife not leaving you any pizza, or just something that triggers an outburst of anger. There’s a progression with anger. Every angry person and every outburst of anger always starts with a hurt. There is first a hurt. Something happens to you—some event, some circumstance—that hurts you in some way, whether it’s physically, emotionally, or professionally.

That hurt will always turn to anger. The flip side of the coin of hurt is anger. Every person that is angry and walking around angry can be sure that they have been hurt in their life—hurt by a dad, hurt by a mom, hurt by a boss, hurt by a coach, hurt by someone, hurt by a sibling, or hurt by a drunk driver. Whatever it might be, there’s a hurt there, and they trace it back.

Cain suffered the sting of rejection from God over his offering. There was hurt there, and that hurt turned to anger. If you don’t process the anger correctly, then the hurt goes to anger, which goes to resentment and bitterness. That is the flow. When you allow bitterness to get in your heart, it’s “Katie, bar the door.” When you start to resent a person or get bitter at a person, you start to churn that over in your mind, and you begin to think of ways that you could hurt them back. You start plotting revenge, and things like that lead to disaster.

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, we've learned how critical it is to not let anger and resentment preside unchecked in our hearts. If we do, they will win every time. If you're a supporter of this ministry, we want you to know that together we are proclaiming real truth, real love, and real hope. From the loving heart of God to the lost and hurting, around the world, people are experiencing His amazing grace.

This month, along with pray.com, we're launching a new initiative to help us translate all of our daily radio and weekly TV broadcasts into Spanish and Portuguese languages. Yes, that is a big, big giant of a task—a real challenge, both physically and financially. That's why we're asking you to help. We tremendously need the generous outpouring of our faithful listeners so we can plan for the kind of expanding outreach around the world, basically reaching three quarters of a billion people.

For your gift of any amount today toward this effort, we'll say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's series, The Land of the Giants, and his booklet, When You Don't Like Yourself. For your support this month of any amount, you can receive the series on CDs, DVDs, a USB flash drive, or as an MP3 download. Just call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go online to fromhisheart.org to make your gift and request these resources today. God bless you for standing with us.

As we close today, we trust this verse will be a reminder and a blessing to you. From God's Word, it says, "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret; it leads only to evil." That's in Psalm chapter 8.

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, trusting you'll be with us tomorrow when Pastor Jeff Shreve will have part two of this timely lesson about how to defeat the Giant of anger. Be with us then when we'll open God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

Speaker 3

There is truth There is truth there is blessed There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scars with real truth, Real love, real hope from his.

Speaker 1

Heart From His Heart is the listener-supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that. Go to fromisheart.org.