Friday, January 31, 2014
012914: Why Are You Angry?
Message: Why Are You Angry?
I.
Introduction
a.
During this
coming year we are going to have an interlocking theme for each of the sermons,
each one will be about a question that is asked in the Bible.
b.
Often the Bible
gets looked at as something full of answers (which it does have) but it is
amazing when you read the Bible how many Questions it asks, and not just silly
questions, but deep ones that go to the core of our life.
c.
So each week we
will look at one of those questions and hopefully by the end of the year see
ourselves more rooted in Christ as we grow together.
II.
Body
a.
Read Genesis 4:1-8
– “Adam lay with
his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to
Cain. She said, “With the
help of the LORD I have brought
forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain
worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the
fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the
firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his
offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD
said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face
downcast? If you do what is right, will
you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at
your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go
out to the field.” And while
they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.”
b.
The question of the night is, “Why are you
angry?”
c.
How many of you struggle with anger in your
life?
a.
What does your anger look like (how do you show
it)?
b.
Illus: Pop Can Shaking, my anger is like this
can, I shake and shake and shake until a final thing pushes me over the edge
and I explode, usually in words.
d.
Do you think Cain knew why he was angry
(literally: so hot
a.
He probably knew, but didn’t want to acknowledge
why he was angry
e.
How many of you that deal with anger know why
you are angry?
a.
What kinds of things get you really mad?
f.
There are 6 main
reasons why people get angry (shake can after each one):
i.
Frustration –
wanting something but not able to achieve it
a.
Not being able to
get the grades you want
ii.
Alienation – not
accepted by those around you
iii.
Hurt or threat of
hurt – physical and emotion
a.
Sometimes there
isn’t even a visible threat but it is caused by a flashback of a similar
situation in which you were hurt
iv.
Injustice – you
or someone else is being treated wrongly
v.
Fear – not living
up to standards, losing love
a.
Not being able to
live up to what your parents expect from you
vi.
Learned – see
parent or adult or friend doing it
g.
No more shaking of can!
h.
God tells Cain
that in order to overcome his angry he needs to master it
a.
The word means to
be in control of, to reign over it, to have power over
b.
Meaning you might
get angry, but you need to be able to guide it correctly
i.
Psalm 4:4-5 – “In your anger do not sin; when you are
on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.”
III.
Conclusion
a.
How can you
master your anger?...similar to mastering a horse
a.
Get the right
equipment so you can ride him
i.
Get a deeper
relationship with God…fruit of the Spirit
a.
Pray, Read Bible,
Spend time with him, Go to church
b.
Gain the fruit of
the spirit in your life, the more time you spend with him (Love, Joy, Peace,
Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control)
c.
Get baptized in
the Holy Spirit
ii.
Find ways to
direct it
b.
Get to know the
cause of it running wild…and deal with it
i.
Stay away from
angry people…if possible
a.
If they are a
family member, counteract with more good influences
ii.
If it is
something in your past…deal with it
a.
Illus: Not
feeling like a man, fixing things makes me mad
b.
If you need to
forgive, forgive. If you have been hurt,
forgive. If you feel alienated, find
belonging in Christ. If you
c.
Get help from
someone on the ground
i.
Someone that has
dealt with anger and found some healing from it can help you start to master
it.
d.
Direct the anger
to go the right direction
i.
Find ways that
appropriate to deal with anger, so you don’t explode
ii.
Don’t open your
mouth right away, get out of the situation, clean, exercise, write, listen to
calming, uplifting music, read the bible, etc…
iii.
Learn to get
angry about the correct things, but deal with that with passion rather than
lashing out.
iv.
Illus: Open
Can…when we deal with it correctly we don’t explode
b.
Pray and ask God
to help
Saturday, January 25, 2014
012214: Where Are You?
Message: Where Are You?
I.
Introduction
a.
During this
coming year we are going to have an interlocking theme for each of the sermons,
each one will be about a question that is asked in the Bible.
b.
Often the Bible
gets looked at as something full of answers (which it does have) but it is
amazing when you read the Bible how many Questions it asks, and not just silly
questions, but deep ones that go to the core of our life.
c.
So each week we
will look at one of those questions and hopefully by the end of the year see
ourselves more rooted in Christ as we grow together.
d.
Illus: Have
Groups Present their Plays
a.
Saul –
Gordie/James
b.
Jonah –
David/Sharon
c.
Elijah – Lacey/Karen
e.
Each of these
stories had something in common, in each case the people in the story were
hiding from God
a.
Saul hid from his
destiny, his calling to be king. He was
afraid, yet God sought him out even though he was hiding because God had
something important for him to do!
b.
Jonah knew what
he was supposed to do but had ran from it doing his own thing. He was going to hide as far away from God as
he could think…but God sought him out so he could put him back on the right
track, correcting his sinful choices.
c.
Elijah was
depressed, scared, and in pain. He felt
abandoned and just wanted to die. Yet
God sought him out and gave him hope, healed his pain, and removed his fear by
showing how powerful he was.
II.
Body
a.
The first
instance of this hiding is found in Genesis 3:6-9. And this also where we will find our question
of the night
b.
Read Genesis
3:6-9 – “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and
ate it. She also gave some to her
husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and ty realized they were
naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for
themselves. Then the man and his wife
heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where
are you?””
a.
When they sinned
they had broken their relationship with God and felt dirty, thus they first try
to hide their sin by covering up their bodies, hiding themselves from each
other and the world around them. Suddenly
they felt exposed and ashamed, and could think of nothing better to do but to
hide
b.
But then things
get worse because they forgot about one part of the equation, God. And now he is in the garden walking toward
them. What would he do when he found
them? Would he kill them, would he hate
them? So they hid.
c.
But God doesn’t
just walk by, ignoring the problem. Nor
does he just walk up to them and say, “You dirty sinners come and get
judged.” Instead he calls to them,
“Where are you?” allowing them the
chance to come out of hiding.
d.
Did God know
where they were? Yes, but he was seeking
them out
i.
Even though they
were dirty, even though they were avoiding him, even though they didn’t deserve
to have a relationship with God again, he went looking for them
III.
Conclusion
(Things that are true for your life)
a.
We all hide at
some point in our lives
a.
Some hide to avoid
doing what God has called them to do.
Maybe this is with a calling in your life (to be a pastor, missionary,
teach a SS class, be on worship team, etc…), sometimes this is making a
lifestyle change (stopping hanging out with certain friends, getting out of a
bad relationship, etc…)
b.
Some hide to
avoid God correcting us from our sinful choices. We turn up our music and tune out God
(stopping praying, reading the bible, listening when in church), we like our
lives how they are and don’t want to hear we are doing something wrong.
c.
Some hide to
avoid God because we have lost our relationship with him and feel he might hate
us or not accept us back.
d.
Some hide to run
away from fear and pain, we are depressed and just want to die, so we hide from
God and from the world, the pain is too great we don’t want anyone to find out,
so we hold it in and smile.
e.
Maybe you are
hiding tonight
b.
But God is
seeking you out
a.
God wants to show
you your purpose and walk with you as you live that out, you won’t have to do
it alone.
b.
God wants to
correct you when you are making sinful choices because he wants the best thing
for you and to help you before things get worse.
c.
God wants to mend
the broken relationship he has with you, not so he can punish you but so he can
restore what has been lost between the two of you.
d.
God wants to take
away your fear, pain, and depression by showing his power to you and giving you
hope
e.
God is seeking
you out, tonight he is asking, “Where are you?”
c.
If that is you
tonight and you want God to find you, to guide, correct, mend, or heal, then I
want you to do something brave tonight, everyone look at your table leader, and
if that is you tonight and you want to stop hiding, tell your leader at your
table right now, “I’m here.”
d.
I’ll pray and
then you can talk at your table about this and be prayed for by your leader.
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