Anger and fighting the right things

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.- Ephesians 4:26-32 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

We may have said to ourselves during this sermon series, "I don't struggle with this, I can tune out." But everyone struggles with anger.

Distinguishing two types of anger

Not all anger is sinful. God can get angry and be righteous.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!  O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah  But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.  Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Psalm 4:1-4 ESV

David is angry because he is being falsely accused. But he is trying to show the difference between anger and sin. Even when we are angry about righteous things, it can become evil. Anger about injustice can be twisted into something evil.

Sinful anger is called wrath. It has no righteousness. How can you tell what it is? We'll look at holy anger. Holy anger is against actual sin and God's kingdom and concerns. It expresses itself in holy and life giving ways.

Clamor, brawling, is a hot type of anger. Much like wreath. But bitterness and slander is cold anger. It is not explosive, but rather an inward simmering.

Diagnosing anger

What is the root of both? Love. What we get angry over points to what we love. When we are not angry over godly things, it points to our idols. When we get angry over traffic, it could be that we are upset about how we appear to be at work, or we love what our job does for us. We are placing things above God. Not only that, but we are playing God. We are rejecting what reality should be. You are setting up your own kingdom with it's own rules. Anger is directed to people around us for failing to follow our rules. It is destructive to relationships.

Defeating sinful anger

We have a king who has his rules. He had a just and righteous anger against us. But instead of pouring out his anger on us, he laid it upon the only righteous one, Jesus. So to defeat this sin, we need to find our contentment and fulfillment in Jesus. We need to have God as our chief desire. When we get sinfully angry, we need to ask God to keep God as Lord over our lives. Ask Him to change our hearts to turn toward the life giver and lover of our souls. Turn to God and ask what it is that we are hoping with bring us fulfillment... And turn from it and turn towards God. Do this over and over to become more loving and more righteous.

Sloth

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.  Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.- Hebrews 5:11-6:12 ESV

Define

We see sloth as sluggishness, laziness, and passive. But you can be busy and still suffer from the sin of sloth. "It is that whole poisoning of the will which beginning with indifference and an attitude of 'I could care less'. It is not merely idleness of mind and laziness: it is that whole poisoning of the will which, beginning with indifference extends to the deliberate refusal of joy and culminates in morbid introspection and despair." The picture is not one of a sluggard, but rather a zombie. Someone who goes through the motions but takes no joy in it. They can be busy, but the do not perform excellently nor do they desire to. So what moves them? Comfort. They seek to minimize discomfort and the path of least resistance. At the first sign of difficulty, they contemplate quitting.

Diagnosis

This is what it looks like in the modern day. "... evenings without number obliterated by television, evenings neither of entertainment nor of education but of narcoticized defense against time and duty." - Richard John Neuhaus Your heart lifts comfort to the highest priority. Why? Because your heart is bored with God.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.- 2 Peter 1:10 ESV

Those who profess to follow Christ and are apathetic to the things of Christ should check themselves. Are they truly saved or just self-deceived? If you say you are a Christian but are largely not concerned with the outworking of the Gospel in your life, do you have saving faith?

Sloth causes you to suffer loss
- You waste your time, talents, and treasure... Your life.
- You move further away from the true source of comfort and leisure, God.

Slothful people seek to gorge themselves on comfort, but ironically move away from the real place to find comfort and rest... God.

Destroying Slothfulness

By faith in the promise of the gospel

Believe in the Gospel. That Jesus is the source of true comfort. But there is a difference between comfort and being comfortable. Jesus will turn your life upside down. He does not promise a comfortable life, but he will give you a real comfort.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

Comfort is offered... Through labor, not  leisure.

Through patient perseverance

We look at God, the holy one, and are bored. Our hearts are warped to look upon the one from whom angels hide their faces... And are unimpressed. We must take the things of God seriously. Reformed people need to know that God is not opposed to effort. It is only opposed to salvation by effort. There is no shortcut, we need to commit ourselves to the Word and prayer. The devotion of an hour and a half every week is not sufficient for the maturation of our joy and love in Christ. If your relationship with Jesus is limited to just under two hours every week, you will remain in sloth. Any meaningful relationship requires effort... in friendships, in marriage, and in our union with Christ.

Gluttony and the fight for self control

Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.  Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,  for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. - Proverbs 23:19-21 ESV

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  Oh, fear the Lord , you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.- Psalm 34:8-10 ESV

Rev. Dan Whang

Gluttony is not about what you eat. It is about why and how you eat. It is the spirit in which we eat. Do you eat to satisfy some thing other than hunger?

Feasting was a communal event to praise God. For the Israelites, they were week long events. The rest of the time, they were to live restrained, disciplined lives.

What is so dangerous about gluttony?

Don't look at body weight. Bad health is a shallow perspective and largely a cultural pressure. A skinny person can struggle with gluttony just as much as an overweight person. Gluttony is seeking rest and our deepest satisfaction in food. We turn to the pleasures of food and forget to turn to God.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. - Philippians 3:17-19 ESV

We stress eat. But when we do this, we avoid addressing the sin in our lives. We eat and forget why we were angry or upset. The sin is left unaddressed.

We can eat without thankfulness. We eat only the best. So this is gluttony by quality rather than quantity. But the heart is still dominated by food. We want our food and we want it exactly the way we want it.

Gluttony can fracture community. If you are eating with others without being considerate of others, we can eat taking from those we eat with. If you are eating family style and take more, someone is eating less.

It throws up barriers to others. From being too picky or unloving or self centered, food takes the place of loving God and loving others.

Jesus

He is the bread of life. He will satisfy us deeply and fully. He is here to fill our spiritual needs. Choose him over food. In times of stress, anger, or spiritual emptiness, turn to God. We cannot be gluttonous in regards to the word of God. We cannot overdo the bread of life.

Greed and the fight for contentment

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”  He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,  Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” - Matthew 19:16-26 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

Jesus talks more about money and possessions than heaven and hell. Why? Because our approach to money and possessions can take us away or move us towards God.

We will readily call greed a vice but we will not look for examples in our lives. It is okay to call Wall Street evil, but we don't consider if there us any examples of greed in our own lives.

Nature of greed

Greed is idolatry. Here's what Brian Rosner has to say on the topic: "a strong desire to acquire and keep for yourself more and more money and material things is an attack on God’s exclusive rights to human love and devotion, trust and confidence, and service and obedience." Our hearts are devoted to things rather than God. We derive our safety and security from money and material things. We spend our time and order our lives based on seeking more money rather than what God desires of us.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. -
1 Timothy 6:10 ESV

Christians are marked by generosity and love. Greed blocks love. Prioritizing money and things over people is the opposite of love. We see the poor and greed tells us to walk away. We will start to judge the poor rather than share our wealth and love them. Workaholics lose relationships with their family and friends. No dying person will say they wished they spent more time in the office. They wished they spent more time with their partners and their children. Greed kills.

Christian Contentment

This doesn't come from willpower. This is supernatural from God. We have a savior, the Prince of an everlasting kingdom, who became poor so that we could be rich. In Jesus we have life eternal and an inheritance unimaginable. The one who gives us his son will not withhold any good thing from us. We will have peace, joy, and contentment regardless of circumstance.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. -
Philippians 4:11-13 ESV

The Lord's Prayer: Petition

Give us  this day our daily bread,- Matthew 6:11 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The first half of this prayer is God focused. This is the beginning of the second half which speaks about our needs. But it is not disconnected; they are connected.

The Reality of our need

This is confusing. From praying for spiritual direction and God's kingdom, we start praying for bread. Confusing for the early church fathers. Bread is not just the word of God. It is representative of our physical needs. Food, shelter, and other daily needs.

Why? To remind us of our utter dependence on God. Our job, health, and very breath... all comes from God. We believe that we are self sufficient. We don't consider that God gave us our intelligence, our health, our ability to work for daily provision... It is all by the grace of God.

Our Responsibility to others

We don't say MY father in this prayer. We say OUR father. In our sinfulness, we have the default of being self focused. But in Christ, we are praying for other believers, family, and those around us. We pray this prayer so that we can learn how to share. God may use us to answer other's prayers for daily bread. We are to serve the poor, so that we can pray this without being hypocritical.

How the Gospel guides our request

When we pray, we are asking for daily needs. Not extravagance nor abundance. Just our needs. There is not a one-size-fits-all set of "needs". God is not saying that we should only pray for food and a tent. It is different for each person and situation.

How then should we approach this? We should pray for it and rest.

Jesus explains:

“Therefore I tell you,  do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.- Matthew 6:25-33 ESV

Pray persistently. But we should pray faithfully. Not pray because we distrust and worry. God is our heavenly father. We are not orphans. Do not worry. God knows our needs. Lay them at His feet and rest.

The Lord's Prayer: Submission

Your kingdom come,  your will be done,   on earth as it is in heaven. - Matthew 6:10 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The point of the petitions

We are not praying for God's kingdom to come into existence. God rules. But since the fall, earth and sinners resist His reign. We are praying for the full coming of His kingdom here on earth. In order for this to happen, the opposition must be crushed.

Christ has come and dealt the deathblow. Victory is already here. But the opposition continues to fight. The kingdom doesn't come like a light switch, it comes like a mustard seed. Slowly and imperceptibly coming. Like a dawn, starting in darkness and shadows slowly receding until everything is light.

We pray for bringing glory and reverence of God. Immediately afterwards, we pray for missions. The growth of the kingdom. For people to come into saving knowledge of God. That is a priority over asking for daily bread. The daily provision is to support the seeking of God's kingdom. If we think it strange, then this is simply the Word pointing out our twisted priorities.

The posture of the petitions

We are not to mindlessly ask these things. It should not be going thorough the motions. We should be consumed about doing all things for God. Our primary concern should be for pleasing God.

Our hearts should be thankful and desiring to obey God. But often we do it begrudgingly. Not willingly or fully engaged to doing anything for God. If we hold anything back from God, we are not submitted. We want to say this is partial submission, but really we are saying our priorities matter more than God's. We are desiring our kingdom rather than God's. When we hold something back, we are saying... I'm the boss; I'm in control. We are not submitted.

Our unwillingness to fully submit is our lack of trust in God. We can only release control to those we trust. So we think it will be better to live for ourselves. We believe that obedience to God will not being joy, contentment, or happiness. We think that disobeying God will give us joy. We chase our dreams, party it up, or reach our goals and find ourselves feeling Meh.

Then perhaps we are beginning to understand the lie. It is not obeying God on one side and happiness on the other. God really desires the best for us.

The power to pray these petitions

Full submission means that God will take us up on it. He will bring us to suffering. There is no glory without a cross. That is the pattern set by our Lord, Jesus Christ. No matter what suffering God bring you to, Jesus understands our suffering. He bore the sins of the world.

God gave up his son for us. We can underwhelmed by things on this earth. But when we come into heaven, we will all be awed and overwhelmed. We will think that we did not spend enough time, money, resources on God's kingdom.

The Lord's Prayer: Adoration

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love  to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.   “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as  the Gentiles do, for  they think that they will be heard  for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Pray then like this:  “Our Father in heaven,  hallowed be  your name.- Matthew 6:5-9 ESV

Rev. Charles Han

For those with plans and those without any idea of what lies ahead, this is a clarification and a promise. This is a call of going back to fundamentals. Back to the basics to achieve all that God had placed before us. Today's fundamental is prayer.

The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life by Bruce Wilkinson was a landmark book. It became a popular book, even for non-Christians. It became a merchandised extravaganza. Prayer guides, book bags, etc. But how about Jesus' prayer? Why does it not capture our attention in the same way? It is a model prayer given from Christ to his disciples. Let's examine it closely.

Our Father

We have the privilege to call God our father. The Jews back in that day never would have called the Holy One, father. In Aramaic, it was the familiar version as a child calls their father. Abba (Aramaic), Dad, Appa (Korean), Baba (Canto)... It means we are not just justified, we are adopted. It is not a clinical application of law, but a familiar relationship that God provides. We have gone from enemies to beloved children. This has been bought for us by the perfect relationship and rejection of Jesus by God, the Father. This is grace; unconditional love of God, our father.

This affects our prayers. We are confident, at peace, confident, secure, and drawn into intimacy with God. We consider our earthly fathers, but we don't all know about a father's love. God knows about the fatherless and has adopted us. We are not orphans. We are his children. We don't need to make an appointment. We don't have to be afraid to ask for something. We have intimate access.

In Heaven

He is powerful and transcendent. He is also holy. He calls us to intimacy, but he also deserves all reverence. He gives both tough and tender love. It is a balance that we have trouble keeping. He is not a domestic pet.

Hallowed be your name

This is the first request. What does it mean to hallow something? It means to make and keep sacred. God's name should be feared, respected, and adored. First in our lives, then the world. The first request is what is hallowed. What do we bring the most before Him? What drives us to pray? That is what is sacred and we desire to hallow in our lives. It is our idol. God should be first and foremost.

This is what centers our lives and our prayers rightly. It also will make us happier and more content. But this should not come from a sense of duty, but because it is our joy and desire. This is what keeps God holy and sacred in our lives.