Sermon text: Mark 3: 1-6
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Last night was playing around with my sermon on our laptop and I had just added a few thoughts that I thought might be helpful. I reached over for my glass of water and somehow I hit my wrist on the power button of the computer and off it went. Awesome. I had not saved my notes since I added the new stuff, so I waited for the computer to reboot to see if the content was there and sure enough it was gone.
So today’s sermon is about anger.
I know that not everyone here this morning is a sports fan, but this week has been really wild in terms of NBA basketball. One of the best players in the league, Lebron James, recently became a free agent and entered into potential negotiations with several NBA teams. There has been a ton of speculation about his decision and which choice he would make. He has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers his entire career, but decided on Thursday via primetime hour special on ESPN that he is now going to play for the Miami Heat with a couple of his friends. The media hype and the 1 hour decision special was a little over the top, but what has really made this a spectacle is the reaction to Lebron James’ decision.
The anger has been amazing, especially from people in Cleveland that believe that James has betrayed them. There are photos of people weeping and screaming at their televisions. There are photos of people burning Lebron James jerseys. And then I could not help but be a little shocked when I saw the anger of the Cleveland Cavaliers owner in an open letter that he wrote to Cleveland Cavalier fans and posted on the team’s website. See if you can sense a tone to this letter:
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Unity is one of the recurring themes of the Bible. But the Bible and our lives are also jammed packed full of disunity. And this is the way that the Bible works. The Bible paints a picture of how we are supposed to live . . . what we were created to do and be. Our lives then are movements towards that ideal.
True unity and the avoidance of divisions seems like such an impossible ideal for us as humans in relationship with one another, though. It is hard enough for Dana and me to agree on a place to eat sometimes . . . so when the Bible calls us to perfect unity, that can seem a little crazy and impossible.
The passage we are going to examine this morning comes from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. The sin from Galatians 5 that we are looking at is “discord.” Some translations have “contention” or “strife.” But the basic problem is that humans sinfully struggle to get along, even in the church.
Let’s begin by reading this passage. Read 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.
Sermon text: James 4:1-20
I heard a story this week. During one of our wars a military unit hired a local boy to cook and clean for them. Being a bunch of jokesters and not liking the boy much, they quickly took advantage of the boy’s seeming naiveté. They smeared Vaseline on the stove handles so it would get all over his hands. They put buckets of water over the door so he’d get soaked when he opened it. They even nailed his shoes to the floor during the night. Day after day the young boy took the brunt of their practical jokes without saying anything. Finally the men felt guilty about what they were doing, so they met with him and said, “Look, we know these pranks aren’t funny for you, and we’re sorry. We’re never going to take advantage of you again.”
The boy smiled and then asked, “No more sticky stuff on stove?” The guys responded, “Nope.” “No more water on the door?” They answered, “No more water on the door.” “No more nailing shoes to floor?” “Nope, we’ll stop that, too.” “Okay” the boy said with a wide grin, “I won’t spit in your soup anymore.”
Galatians 5 lists “hatred” as the next sin on the list.
The word “hate” just has an edge to it. It points to a deep deep disgust with something that gets out heart pumping and our emotions boiling.
There is a physical response to anger and hate. At the same time your heart rate accelerates, your blood pressure rises, and your rate of breathing increases. Your face may flush as increased blood flow enters your limbs and extremities in preparation for physical action. Your attention narrows and becomes locked onto the target of your anger. Soon you can pay attention to nothing else. In quick succession, additional brain neurotransmitters and hormones are released which trigger a lasting state of arousal. You're now ready to fight.
The word “hate” appears in the Bible quite a lot and in a bunch of different ways. So it is really quite an adventure figuring out not only what “hate” is, but what we are to do with it.
Sometimes “hate” is really just preferential. For instance, Jesus says that we are to hate our mother and father, but what he means is that our love for God is to be so great that it is as if we hate our mother and father. He does not literally mean that we are to have deep disgust for our parents.
Most of the time the word “hate” is used to refer to how people feel about God or God’s followers. And then also as how we are to treat bad things like evil, wickedness or idol worship. We are to hate these things or have deep disgust for them.
The passage we are going to focus on regarding hatred this morning comes from the book of James. James 4:1-12.
So let's just begin by reading this passage.
Read James 4:1-12.
Sermon Text: Romans 1:21-23, Galatians 5:19-21
Additional Sermon References
- Colossians 3:5
- Ephesians 5:5
- 1 John 1:9