Control Your Emotions or Pay The Price

Control Your Emotions or Pay The Price                                          Kelly Durant  7-31-16

Numbers 20:7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” 9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. 12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

2. There is a case of a woman on a train holding a child that is crying and crying and will not shut up. It is right after the war finished with Nazi Germany and many people were returning back to their homes where they had fled. It was obvious all of the people on the train were getting bothered and very angry by the crying of the child. No one asked the lady what was wrong, they all started talking amongst their selves getting more and more angry and then someone yelled out, “Hey lady, shut the kid up or get off the train!”

The woman not knowing what to do decided that she had better explain what was happening or it was going to get very severe with all their anger so she yelled back, “I want everyone here to know that this crying child is not mine but it is my niece. My brother and his wife were killed in the war and this child is crying for its dead parents! And I am doing the best I can to console him!”

After that the whole train car was silent and a few people even got up to try to help. With this illustration we can observe that as humans we often get bothered by the things of life, and we know that some people when bothered by others can get very rude, judgmental, loud angry, and offensive. But this brings shame upon them when they learn the whole story of the matter!

3. The story we are covering today is about Moses and a big mistake he did that cost Him a huge punishment from God! What is happening in these verses? Moses was in the desert with the children of Israel after leaving Egypt and the Israelite people were getting impatient that they were not finding water. Did God ever fail them yet? No! So what did Moses do as a leader?  He wanted to take care of the needs of the people! So he went off to pray desperately!

Vs. 6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. We read here that Moses went to pray with Aaron in their tabernacle tent and the Lord appeared to them.

What is the first thing we should do when there is a serious concern or need? We should take it to the Lord in prayer so he can show us His solution! In this case the Lord’s answer was to speak to a rock that would open up and allow water to run out. Science proves there are rocks barely covering a stream in desert areas, but the miracle here is God lead His people right to one at the precise right time that had enough water for all! And God wants all the glory, always!

Vs. 7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.

4. So what happened? Did Moses go and speak to the rock as he was told to do by the Lord? No! Vs. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank”.

“Hear now, you rebels?” Was that something the Lord told him to say? No, not at all! To understand the full meaning of why Moses is being angry and violent we must know a bit more of the history of what is happening. Why would Moses get violently upset? Is it okay to be a servant of the Lord and let your emotions overpower you? Is it okay to get ugly and angry?

What we see here is that Moses in this one instance of anger showed himself to be a terrible example to the people! At that one moment he lost control and instead of representing God as a compassionate provider, he represented God as an angry hater! This mistake cost him severely! He let his emotions take over him! He even broke the stone commandments before!

5. The children of Israel were complainers and difficult people and a whole generation of `them died going in circles in the desert as a punishment before reaching the promised land of milk and honey, Israel. They complained all the time about everything! Imagine, God did miracles through Moses to free them from the slavery in Egypt and now they are whining about having to be in the desert, and whining that Moses is not getting them water as soon as they want.

Moses was fed up with their complaints because they had a history of being complainy and these rebellious people had pushed his patience, faith, and wits to the limit many times over. But despite the sins of the people, God expected Moses to always remain strong and be a good example. But Moses failed God because he let his emotions get the best of him.

Few people realize the importance of Moses! Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible which contain the Pentateuch, or the law. It was through Moses liberating actions that the people of God, the Israelites, begin to reign as a people in the Promised Land. Moses is considered to be one of the most holy, connected-to-God, men who have ever lived!

6. But even though the people were misbehaving, God expected Moses to always be a good example and not let others have reason to disrespect him for being out of control. I know some people might think, but what is wrong with getting angry and ugly when people push you? We all do that! Some people get angry and ugly many times in one day! Some may think that it is not such a big sin to get angry over things that bother you. Stop right there. Let’s look at this more closely.

For one, Moses in one of his episodes of anger had murdered an Egyptian 40 years prior to leading God’s people! Exodus 2:14 Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!”

What happened was an Egyptian was beating an Israelite severely, sort of like how we have seen some abusive police beat down an arrested person. And Moses should have walked away and yelled, prayed, and cried out to God over the matter but instead he killed the Egyptian and hid the body. But as you can see, no sin can ever be hid, everyone knew about it! And Moses punishment then was to have to abandon the luxurious halls of wealth in Egypt to wander in the desert 40 years! Moses basically spent 40 years in jail in the desert just watching sheep as a punishment for getting angry and getting out of control!

7. So what are we going to do, don’t we all sin by being angry at some time or another? Anger is an emotion that does have its place sometimes, but I will get to this point in a moment. Most of the time people get angry over not having things as they want them to be. Anger often has its roots in having no patience for something.  It is a selfish emotion because it is intended to disturb another person as much as possible, like wishing them harm. I rarely see people angry over the sins of evil workers who insult God and his Christian people! I get angry and speak often about how I hate those who kill Christians but few ever care! So what we usually see today is out of control angry mobs of people demanding authority to exclude and punish someone they hate. Our fight is often against those that want to legalize sin!

Basically anger is usually used as a tool by some people to get their way with things because who wants to confront a red faced person saying ugly words knowing they will not listen to you anyway? It is sort of like the child that throws their selves on the floor to make a big scene because they are not getting what they wanted.  I spanked all of my kids for doing that! And today some adults get away with angry temper tantrums making everyone else suffer because they never got corrected as a child! Pray and ask God, am I one of those?

I am going to take it even further, today our jails are full of 2 million people in the USA, and many of these people are ones who never got correction as a child for getting angry and out of control! Why am I making a big deal of anger? Because anger leads to big sins and some people sin with insulting words and disrespect to others, while others resort to violence! Anger is like a fire that we must extinguish quickly! And never think, well this is just my character, I am Italian, I’m Irish, or I’m Latino and getting angry is just my culture! God accepts no excuses! He did not forgive the most holy man on earth years ago, Moses, and he will not forgive you!

8. Psalm 4:4 Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Ask yourself right now, do I pray and meditate on my bed concerning things that make me angry? Do I get still and stop and get answers from God over matters? Ephesians 4:26  “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Ask yourself, do I forgive at the end of the day? Or do I hold onto what I am mad about making everyone miserable for days or years on end? In most churches there are people who hold onto anger against others for years and by doing so they are in direct disobedience to forgive as Jesus taught!

There are many verses in the Bible that guide us to control potentially destructive emotions such as anger. And you can if you beg God for the Holy Spirit’s help! These verses do not say, ‘never get angry’, that is a human impossibility! But what does it mean that if we are angry we can be that way and not sin? It is within our human possibilities to control our knee-jerk emotions, or what I mean is, you and I can get a hot button pushed, but with prayer and spiritual maturity, and with a healthy fear of getting punished by God, we can choose to not act upon anger or emotions that destroy. I have had to lean to practice this and still am at it!!

But to speak insulting or manipulative words, or to take an action to do something to cause harm to another, to spread words around that are unverified, is sinful and wrong. Another thing about a person that is angry is that they are putting their selves in the position to be seen as an ordinary carnal person and not as God’s representative. This was Moses mistake, is it yours?

9. You can look around anywhere and see people in any room that may be living in the desert of their lives due to certain past sins they committed. They may be living punished right now over anger issues as Moses was. To be honest, you or I do not know even know 1% about of the lives of anyone! Over time, and in trying situations, we do see the problems of others come out. The question is, do you see your sins? (repeat) Some deal with their own sins and others do not, and some people focus a lot on the sins of others to get the focus off of them selves! It is easy to complain about the sins of others, but it is not your place to be so concerned about others as much as it is your place to be begging God to save you from the punishments that will come if you do not authentically repent from your sins that come with out of control emotions.

What we do know is that God has everyone under the fire to purge out all impurities! I Peter 4: 12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

If you have not done it lately, ask God to reveal to you your secret sins. You should have done this when you received Jesus as your savior but that was only the beginning of your sanctification.  Over time the heart gets dirty due to one’s behavior.

10. Here is how it works, Moses could not undo the damage he did! He was a bad example before all showing his temper and lack of faith in God to speak to the rock as God wanted. God did not allow him to step foot into the Promised Land because he was so stubborn, willful, and out of control even when he was an old man!

It is like the folks who go into our rehab centers, they may repent and never use or drink ever again and Jesus forgives them and they get a new start in life, but they still will never be able to get rid of all of the liver and brain damage. Also, never one drink is ever permitted after that!

Ask yourself, when was the last time I was angry? Last month? Today? Anger and angry actions and words create consequences! Do you really want to keep living with those consequences? Too many people take medication for the damage done to their bodies by their out of control emotions! Is God angry with you over your anger? If you have any doubt, beg for forgiveness so that your punishment will not be as that of Moses. Faith, trust, control, and prayer solve matters, not our own impositions.