July 27, 2008
Being Angry With God
Introduction: Have you ever been angry with God? Perhaps you are right now and do not realize it. First I want you to know that being angry with God is all right and that it doesn’t affect Him nor make Him angry with you. Second, I want you to understand that you can be angry with God and not know it and project that anger on others. Finally, I want you to know that being angry with God can hurt you and your receiving from Him until you let yourself forgive Him.
Jonah 4:1 - 11 (NKJV) 1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. 3Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” 4Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 5So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city. 6And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. 8And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” 10But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”
Jonah, like us, insisted on his right to be angry with God
Swells of emotion are often a natural response to tragedy.
ILL: Insurance companies call earthquakes, floods and wind storms, “acts of God!”
Job 1:13 - 21 (NKJV) 13Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; 14and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 16While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 17While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 18While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 20Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
“The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15when the Sabeans raided them and took them away
“The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them;
“The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword;
“Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead;
Who did Job blame?
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away – God! Oh he said, “Blessed be the name of the Lord” but he was angry even while he worshiped – He tore his robe, and shaved his head but he was emotional and he was angry. God gave Jonah the plant to shade his head, God made the worm that ate the plant, and Jonah was so angry with God he wanted to die. Job was angry with God, did not realize it and Jonah as angry at God, and knew it!
What can make us angry at God
The death of a loved one
Divorce
Financial collapse
Not getting something we want and think we deserve
Why bad things happen to good people
We are part of a cursed world
Genesis 3:17 - 19 (NKJV) 17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
ILL: It happens – but!
Romans 8:28 - 39 (NKJV) 28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Look at the life of the Apostle Paul – one of the greatest Christians
2 Corinthians 11:22 - 28 (NKJV) 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
Why should you or I claim any right to be mad at God?
ILL: I got angry at God because I had the opportunity to go to India and become a great evangelist. Everything was set except India would not give me a visa to enter the country. I was embarrassed because I had declared that I was going – I got so mad I was trying to quit the ministry, the church, and His service – boy I would show Him! - It didn’t work!
We substitute our anger at Him and direct it on others.
Jonah 3:1 - 10 (NKJV) 1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Jonah 4:1 - 2 (NKJV) 1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.
ILL: Jonah was so angry with God he wanted to burn all the people of Nineveh in hell! But Jonah was in the wrong place at the wrong time –
Where he was supposed to be – and knew it!
Jonah 1:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
He even paid the fare to get away from where God was sending him
God’s mercy!
Jonah 1:4 (NKJV) 4But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
God’s further mercy!
Jonah 1:17 (NKJV) 17Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
God’s mercy may stink like the inside of a great fish!
When people get mad at God sometimes they get even by leaving church.
When people get mad at God sometimes they get even by blaming the preacher
ILL: I’ve experienced people so mad at God that they have threatened my life, my family, my finances, and physical harm. They have blamed me for the death of their loved ones, their lack of healing, the break-up of their family, their business failure and their failure in life itself.
When people get mad at God sometimes they get even by blaming those closest to them
Genesis 3:9 - 12 (NKJV) 9Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
ILL: God, you are the problem. If you hadn’t given me this wife I would not have failed!
Conclusion: How do we get rid of being angry with God?
Recognize it as a fact!
Confess our sin!
Forgive Him and others
Mark 11:22 - 26 (NKJV) 22So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 25“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
ILL: That word “and” is a big word. If you have faith in God you can have what you believe and if you have anything against anyone forgive. Faith in God and forgiveness work together! Angry with God – have you forgiven Him and others? If not, you just might meet a storm and a great big fish!
