From His Heart

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

Dr. Jeff Schreve: 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 giants. We talked about Goliath. Maybe your 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?

Larry Nobles: 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 Giants. How to deal with your biggest problems. Today's message, we're 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 4 now and learn how to follow the example of Jesus and be aware of that check in your spirit when you should be obeying.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I heard about a trucker pulled into a roadside diner and he ordered cheeseburger, a malt, and an apple pie. He was sitting there at the table. The waitress comes with a cheeseburger, his malt, his apple pie. And he was getting ready to eat it and then all of a sudden these three biker guys came into the roadside diner. They were tough looking guys and they were looking for trouble. They spotted the trucker and they came to where he was seated and they just glared at him for a minute. And then one of the bikers grabbed his cheeseburger and took a huge bite and put it down.

Another one of the bikers grabbed his chocolate milkshake, drank half of it, put it down. The third biker took his apple pie and just gobbled it up and just left the crust and they just glared at him. Trucker didn't do anything. He just got up, paid his bill and left. Well, the bikers were kind of laughing uh amongst themselves and finally one of them said to the waitress, they said, that trucker, he's not much of a man, is he? She said, well, he's not much of a driver either. He just ran over three choppers on his way out of here.

The giant of anger. 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 giants. We talked about Goliath. Maybe your Goliath, maybe it is anger. You know, all of us deal with anger, but some it's really 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? Now 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 4. 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. And 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. And Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions and 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. And 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. You know, we read in the Bible about God getting angry. You know, God, he he gets angry over sin. He gets angry at injustice. He gets angry at unbelief. When God called Moses at the burning bush, you know, Moses didn't want to go. He kept saying he he had all these excuses and the scripture says that the anger of the Lord burned against Moses because he kept uh trying to dodge God's plan for his life.

Now God, when he gets mad, it's called righteous indignation because God is righteous. He is holy, holy, 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 just by itself is not necessarily, well, that's always wrong because you should never get angry. Jesus got angry. Jesus cleansed the temple. He made a whip and he uh turned over the tables of the money changers and he drove them out with a whip. He was angry. He he had passion and zeal for his house.

And he said, it is written, my father's house should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. He was angry. But the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4, 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 never sin because he's angry at sin, at injustice, at unbelief. We can get angry reading things in the paper or knowing that uh this terrible thing happened, that terrible thing happened.

You read about sex trafficking and it just grieves your heart and can make you angry that these people are doing these terrible things. That's not a sin. Be angry and yet do not sin and don't let the sun go down on your anger and don't give the devil a place because when you allow anger, unrighteous anger like Cain had, when you allow that to have a place in your heart and you 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. Really when you boil it down, what is anger all about? It is a desire for control. I want you to do what I want you to do. My good friend and seminary preaching professor Wayne McDill has a great definition of anger. He says this, 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 and Cain is the emphasis of Genesis chapter 4, his name is mentioned 16 times, twice as many times as Abel's name is mentioned.

Second to the last book of the Bible in the book of Jude is still talking about Cain. First John chapter 3 talks about Cain being of the evil one and he killed his brother, slew his brother. And 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. Now to understand this story, we need to remember as we read the Bible, uh many people get hung up. They go Genesis 3 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 open and they fall from their innocence with the Lord and their righteousness with the Lord and they fall from that. And their eyes are open and they see things they wish they had never seen and they learned things they wish they had never learned and they're banished from the Garden of Eden. Now when they sinned, they knew that they were naked. And so what did they do? They sewed fig leaves to cover their nakedness.

And when God confronts them and says, Adam, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid myself. The Lord said, who told you you were naked? Did you eat of the fruit of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? And the Lord has a confrontation with Adam and with Eve and he curses the serpent. And then we read that God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skin, with animal skin. And the way he did that wasn't through uh a land's end order.

It was through sacrifice. He killed uh an innocent animal and that animal died and from that animal he took the animal skins and he clothed Adam and Eve. And so Adam and Eve learned on the day they sinned that the wages of sin really is death. Romans 3:23. And without the shedding of blood, Hebrews chapter 9, there is no forgiveness of sin. See the book of Leviticus 17:11 says this, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. And it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. And God said, I've given you the blood sacrifice to atone, to cover your sins and to cover your souls.

And so they were taught all that in a very uh preliminary rudimentary way, but they were taught that the day that they sinned. And no doubt they taught their children that. Now the Lord had given them a a command, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And they did. I don't know how many kids Eve had, but she had a ton. Maybe a hundred. I mean, we think a big family. How many do you have? I have five kids. She had a hundred. Uh you know, we don't know, but we know that from two people they populated everything.

And so when this story takes place in Genesis chapter 4, 125 years have passed. How do we know this? Because it says at the end of chapter 4 that Adam and Eve had a son to take the place of Abel who was killed. And when Adam and Eve had that son, Adam was 130 years old. Sometimes we read this passage and we think, well, Genesis 3 happened and then Genesis 4, I mean, these guys are probably maybe 20 years old. They're not very old. They're probably 120 years old. There there has been a gap of time.

There has to be a gap of time because Cain is going to find a wife and so there have to be lots of kids born to Adam and Eve for him to do that. But the Lord had communicated to Cain and to Abel, when you come before me, you come with a blood sacrifice. And 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? Where did the faith come from?

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Nobody's ever had faith without outside of the word of God. So God had communicated to those boys, probably from mom and dad, that when you come before the Lord, you come with a blood sacrifice. That's the way Abel came humbly, obediently, came before the Lord with a blood sacrifice. How did Cain come? Cain's a farmer and he says, well, look at what all I've done. He came with the works of his hands. He came with the sweat of his brow and he came and he brought uh a big basket of fruits and vegetables to the Lord.

Lord, look what I have for you. God had no regard for Cain and his offering. God wouldn't look upon Cain's offering. That's not the way I told you to come. And so Cain gets mad, hopping mad, burning mad because God accepted Abel's offering and Abel's sacrifice and he didn't accept Cain and Cain's sacrifice. Hey, 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 the core of sin and it's this, 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 open 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. And 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. And sin is rooted in pride in the big eye and anger is tied into that, wanting to be in charge and have it your way.

Now God is in charge and we have to trust his way. We have to go his way, not just in in the offering, but in life. Because see, we get mad when things don't go the way we want them to go. We have this idea that, you know, when I get in the car and drive, everybody should do what I want them to do. You know, you ever get in the car and drive and and you you run across some driver that's going slow. You think that idiot, he's why is he going so slow? George Carlin the comedian used to say, have you ever noticed that when you're driving in the car, everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot and everyone who drives faster than you is crazy?

I mean, that's what we do. That idiot's driving so look at that crazy guy going so fast. Uh but we we feel like we ought to be able to control the road and and control how everyone drives and control how everything works and and control our kids and how they respond to everything and hey, we're not in control of much. God's in control of everything and you choose God's way. You don't choose your own way. And even when things happen outside of your control, but obviously not not outside of God's control, something happens that you don't like.

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 and you 're saying, 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 God is in charge. Nothing comes into your life or into my life that doesn't first filter through God's fingers of love. And God has a plan and a purpose for anything and everything that he allows to come to us.

Satan couldn't get at Job till God let down the hedge. And 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. And you know what Job said, greatest verse in the book of Job, Job 13:15, though he slay me, speaking of God, though God slay me, yet will I trust in him. I don't understand this, but I'm going to trust God because he's good and he loves me and he works in ways that I can't understand and I can't see. The Lord asks Cain a question, 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 for a desire comes from a desire for control. And 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. He says, now when God asks Cain, why are you angry? God's not asking for information. The Lord never asks a question where he's trying 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 uh really consider this, Cain? Why are you so angry? 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.

Well, if you're going to come worship me, you better come my way. You can't come any old way. You can't come your 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? And 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. Now it's important to remember 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 McDill gave, anger is the feeling of hostility and aggression in reaction to some circumstance or event that poses a threat to one's control. So there's a circumstance or an event that triggers the anger. Whether it's somebody cutting you off in traffic, whether it's your wife not leaving you any pizza, whether it's just something that triggers the outburst of anger. And so there's a progression with anger.

Every angry person and every outburst of anger, it always starts with a hurt. There is first a hurt. There's something that happens to you, some event, some circumstance that hurts you some way somehow. Whether it hurts you physically or it hurts you emotionally, it hurts you professionally, it hurts you in some way. And 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, you can be sure that that person has been hurt in his or her life. They hurt by a dad, hurt by a mom, hurt by a boss, hurt by a coach, hurt by someone, hurt by a sibling, hurt by a drunk driver, whatever it might be.

But there's a hurt there and they they they trace it back. It's like, well, I got hurt. Now Cain suffered the sting of rejection from God over his offering. There was hurt there. And that hurt turned to anger. Now if you don't process the anger correctly, then the hurt goes to anger, goes to resentment and bitterness. That is the flow. And then when you allow bitterness to get in your heart, it's Katie bar the door because when you start to resent a person or get bitter at a person, then you start to churn that and mold that over and you start to think of ways that that person could you could hurt them back.

Uh you start plotting revenge and things like that. And that leads to disaster.

Larry Nobles: 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 and 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. And this month, along with pray.com, we're launching a new initiative to help us translate all of our daily radio and weekly TV broadcast 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 for basically reaching three quarters of a billion people in the world. 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. Both 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 Bible, or go online to fromhishart.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 37 verse 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.

Guest (Male): 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 fromhishart.org.