[0:00] But they are wonderful and precious verses. I want to read from verse 8 of the psalm.
[0:15] ! So far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us.
[0:56] As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are formed.
[1:07] He remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone.
[1:20] And its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him. And his righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
[1:38] A wonderful psalm helping us to understand more of the Lord. The Lord who is compassionate and gracious.
[1:49] He rightly gets angry, but he's slow to anger. And he's abounding in love. And even though we sin, he does not treat his children as they deserve.
[2:05] He's a God of great forgiveness, great compassion. That's who we come to this evening. In all the ways in which we have sinned in our anger, we know that he is compassionate and gracious to us.
[2:26] Let me pray and ask for God's help this evening. Then we'll pray for Stephen Brenda. And then we'll sing something.
[2:39] Father God, we thank you for who you are. The God that we come to worship together this evening. Thank you that you've revealed to us yourself in your word and most wonderfully in the Lord Jesus, your son.
[2:55] Thank you that you are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. And Father, as we think about anger this evening from your word, as we think about ourselves and we think about you.
[3:10] Lord, help us. And Lord, help us to change. Help us to grow. To become more like the Lord Jesus. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
[3:24] Amen. I mentioned praying for Stephen Brenda over the last 24 hours. Steve's had some sort of an infection in his leg and had a couple of trips to A&E.
[3:38] And we don't quite know how time will go this evening, but we want to make sure we pray for them. So I've asked Phil if he could lead us in a prayer. Thanks, Phil. Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you that you are kind and compassionate.
[4:00] As a father, it is his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. We thank you that you know our frame that we are as dust.
[4:12] And you don't treat us as our sins deserve. And we thank you that you are such a gracious and generous and kind and merciful God.
[4:22] And we pray for Stephen Brenda this evening and ask you to show that compassion and kindness and mercy to them. We love them.
[4:34] We value them. We thank you for all that you have worked through them and in them over many, many years. And we pray for their health at this particular time.
[4:47] We pray that you will be able to heal and restore. So we name Brenda before you specifically that you will heal and restore them. And we pray for Steve by name and ask you that you heal and restore them.
[5:01] And we pray that the medicines that the professionals have been gifted to prescribe would be effective.
[5:12] With an effectiveness from you. And we also pray for their state of mind. That they might not be unduly anxious and worried. But in some way, a peace of God which passes all understanding.
[5:25] Will keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus in a wonderful way. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh, just by way of notice, there's one thing to remind you of.
[5:39] Our prayer meetings from this Wednesday are back all together in the back hall over there. From 7.45 we start, arrive from 7.30.
[5:52] Just a reminder for those that weren't here this morning. We're going to sing. We're going to sing. Bless the Lord, O my soul. One of the verses says, You're rich in love.
[6:05] You're slow to anger. Picking up on those words that we read. So we'll stand and sing as Phil leads us. And then we'll look at the Bible together. Amen.
[6:15] Amen. Amen. Thank you.
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[14:16] And we'll think about that.
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[26:46] you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no corn or figs or grape vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
[27:12] The Lord said to Moses, take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water. You will bring out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, listen, you rebels. Listen, you rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock?
[27:55] Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the side of Israel, you will not bring this community into the land I give them. These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
[28:27] So the situation is that there is no water. They're in the desert. Of course they need water. People complain and quarrel and oppose Moses. Two questions just to chat about amongst yourselves.
[28:45] How does the Lord respond to the people, and then how does Moses respond? have a chat amongst yourselves again for a few minutes, and then we'll feed back.
[28:57] a lot of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of those of Thank you.
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[32:09] Yeah? Do you think it's out of anger? Do you think he's saying that he is willing to be spoken to about this?
[32:26] It says, He's saying, He's willing to be spoken to the rock. It says, He's willing to have a conversation about this matter.
[32:40] It says, It says, He says, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, It's an invitation to speak.
[32:54] How does Moses respond? He strikes the rock. Yeah, he doesn't speak, does he?
[33:08] Particularly. Yeah. What makes he say he was angry? He struck the rock twice. Yes.
[33:21] Yeah. Yes, he says, listen, you rebels, and then strikes the rock. It doesn't sound particularly gracious.
[33:34] Unlike the Lord, he seems to respond rather graciously to his quarreling people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[33:50] Yeah. I don't want to be doing this, but yeah, it's the Lord who's providing it. Yeah. And we see how God feels about this in verse 12.
[34:03] But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of Israel, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.
[34:13] God is clear with how he feels about Moses here. Yeah.
[34:25] In terms of anger and power, the Lord wants rather different, really, from his leaders.
[34:36] So, in the New Testament, when we talk about elders, pastors of God's people, shepherds of the flock, a couple of places. Titus 3, verse 7 says this, And since an overseer manages God's household, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent.
[35:00] Or 1 Timothy 3, verse 3, not given to drunkenness, not violent. Anger can make us violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not quick to be arguing with people.
[35:16] And leaders in the church are really just to be examples to the flock of how to live the Christian life.
[35:28] Anger and power shouldn't go together, really. I look up in Exodus, and God says to Moses to strike the rock there.
[35:43] Okay, interesting. Yeah, so... Interesting, the number says differently. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's the same one. Is it a different occasion?
[35:53] Isn't it? Hmm. What chapter of Exodus? 17. Exodus 17. 17. It's... It's...
[36:13] They're both setting out from... Oh, here in Exodus 17, the whole community set out from the desert of Sin. In the first month...
[36:23] In Numbers, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Sin. So, maybe they're different occasions, actually. I'm not sure.
[36:35] They call it the same place. They do call it the same place. So, yeah, that's interesting. That is interesting. But I definitely think that whatever's going on here, it's clear that the author is showing us, actually, Moses is wrong in his reaction.
[36:52] He's not very gracious. Whereas the Lord is gracious to say, I'm going to provide water for my people. I said, it makes you wonder about the time frame, because when they met...
[37:16] I mean, imagine they met with the Lord, and it said, the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And then... And then... Hmm. Imagine that. You wouldn't think it would be immediately that then they'd go out to the people and be...
[37:32] It must have been a lapse of time. Hmm. I mean, I don't know enough to say what the time frame was, but we definitely see that we're a rather forgetful people.
[37:43] As we are. Yeah, forgetting how glorious God is. Yeah.
[37:55] Thanks, Pete. Thanks, Jack. Just a slightly different theme. Anger and self-righteousness. Let's, for this one, turn to Jonah chapter 3.
[38:12] Jonah chapter 3. In the Old Testament, among the minor prophets.
[38:30] If someone gets there in the church Bibles and wants to call out a page number to help people. 99. 99.
[38:40] 99. Excellent. Jonah chapter 3 from verse 10. when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened but to Jonah this seemed very wrong and he became angry he prayed to the Lord isn't this what I said Lord when I was still at home this is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish I knew that you are gracious and compassionate God slow to anger and abounding in love a God who relents from sending calamity now Lord take away my life for it is better for me to die than live but the Lord replied is it right for you to be angry Jonah had gone out and and sat down at a place east of the city there he made himself a shelter sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city but then the the Lord God provided a leafy leafy pot plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort and Jonah was very happy about the plant but at dawn the next day God provided a worm which chewed the plant up so that it withered when the sun rose God provided a scorching heat and the sun blazed on
[40:09] Jonah's head so that he grew faint he wanted to die and said it would be better for me to die than to live but God said to Jonah is it right for you to be angry about the plant it is he said and I'm so angry I wish I were dead but the Lord said you have been concerned about this plant that you did not tend it or make it grow it sprang up overnight and it died overnight and should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals I guess we're all pretty much familiar with the the story of Jonah as he's sent to to preach to the Ninevites and to preach repentance salvation to them but but Jonah's not very happy about that so he tries to flee away from God but God shows him you cannot flee away from me and and now after preaching to the people of Nineveh after they turned to the Lord and Jonah's still cross still cross that that God would be gracious and kind to them I am a Jewish person and I obey the law that he might think and I should decide who is who God is going to be gracious to and compassionate to you got a wrong that's basically how Jonah lives and then he sends this plant up for Jonah and he gets cross about the plants and a quote from David Powlison in his book on this he summarizes all this says you care when a plant dies because it inconveniences you shouldn't I care that people die that's basically the lesson God's teaching him here we could also think about the prodigal son who ran off and um away from his father and the other um and gets into all sorts of depths of trouble and despair and ends up um thinking I'm gonna go back to my father um maybe he'll be gracious to me maybe he'll let me serve him as a servant but actually it's far more than that the father welcomes him back open arms I you're my son I love you but then there's the other son who says to his dad you never threw me a party he's cross of the grace that his father shows his other son but his father's like well you were here you've always been here but my son who was lost is now found he's jealous of the grace that is shown to him maybe we sometimes think like that maybe we think we we are the ones who deserve the grace we we deserve special attention we we deserve the promotion promotion we we deserve to be popular and we find that our heart's response is anger towards someone bitterness maybe because our hearts love to be the centers of the world and that's human anger uh we'll look at God's anger for a bit in a moment but but first let's let's take a break and sing something um we're trusting uh not in ourselves praise God we're sinful uh but we're trusting in Jesus's blood and righteousness for our salvation so uh we'll stand uh and sing uh this hymn uh as Phil leads us um in the singing of it
[44:10] and ending us Thank you.
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[65:18] Ephesians 2.
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[69:18] In our reputation.
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[70:18] Christ changes those things, changes how we can feel about things. And finally, very final point, verse 26 and 27.
[70:31] Here is wisdom from God's words. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
[70:45] That's very practical advice. In your anger, do not sin. Otherwise, we're giving the devil a foothold. That's the sort of advice that Cain was given back in Genesis 4.
[70:57] And so when we're angry, wisdom suggests various things, maybe removing ourselves from a situation for a while. Apparently, it takes about 20 minutes to really calm down from anger.
[71:10] Let ourselves calm down. There's all sorts of other things that I could say. I'm going to leave you at that.
[71:21] And I'm going to leave you with a recommendation of these resources. Massive amount, we could say. But have a look at those.
[71:32] Please do ask me questions after this meeting. Or send me an email. Arrange to have coffee. That's absolutely fine. And we can be thankful, can't we, for God's grace, which is at work changing our hearts.
[71:54] Let's sing a final song, and then we'll close in prayer. May the mind of Christ, my Savior, may we grow to be like the Lord Jesus Christ in all we do and say.
[72:10] Let's sing a final song. Thank you.
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[76:09] Thank you. The God who is always rightly angry. The God who is always rightly angry are the right things all the time. Thank you that when we are wronged and when we feel angry, we can trust you, the judge of all the earth to do what is right.
[76:27] Help us, Lord, we pray. Help us, Lord, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.