Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Am I So Mad? | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to drive across town. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are working through 1st Corinthians 13, which is Paul's definition of love. Back in 2009, a guy named Steve Montforto, I think I'm saying his name right, but either way we'll go with it. Steve and his daughter, they go to a baseball game. She's three years old. They live in New Jersey, and they go to a Phillies game.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Steve's been a big fan for really a baseball. whole life, and this is a chance to take his daughter. But it's also a way for him to escape his responsibilities and get to go to a baseball game. You know how dads do that sometimes. Hey, if I take the kid, I can do just about anything. I can even go to a baseball game. So he's there at night, and they're up in the kind of the upper deck, and foul ball gets hit by one of the better known Philly players. The guy named Jason Worth hits a big foul ball. And it gets all the way up, and Steve reaches over, and he catches it. And he gets all the way up. And he gets, gives it to his little three-year-old girl who promptly throws it back toward the field down in the

Starting point is 00:01:11 stands, never to be seen again. And Steve's reaction was perfect. He was shocked. It's not at all what he thought was going to happen. He thought he just got his daughter this really cool souvenir. But, you know, she was three. She threw it back. She didn't know. That's what you do with the ball, right? You throw it. And he picked her up and gave her a big hug. Now, I bring that up because to Today, we're in 1 Corinthians 13, and we are looking at this manifestation of love called Do not be easily angered. And I think in that moment, it would have been easy to show frustration, exasperation, anger. Things did not go the way Steve had planned.

Starting point is 00:01:55 He'd spent a lot of money. He had taken a lot of time. Here he was, got something for his daughter, and she didn't appreciate it. And when you think about it, it's easy to go, oh, I would have reacted the right way. But in the moment, would you have, in the moment, do we ever quite act the way that we wish we would have act when we've had a chance to reflect on it? But Steve demonstrated love because he was not easily angered at his daughter, even when things didn't go well, even when she didn't act the way that he had hoped she would. Sometimes Paul tells us in this chapter of what love is, and sometimes he tells us what it's not. And this is one of those occasions where he says love is not easily angered.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Or some versions have love is not irritable. Love is not grouchy. Love is not kind of quick to pull the trigger to be frustrated or exasperated with someone. When do you get grouchy, easily angered, irritable? For you, is it in the morning before you had your coffee? And everybody knows to avoid you? Is it when you're under a lot of pressure? For me, I know one of the times is at night.

Starting point is 00:03:18 The later it gets at night, the more irritable that I am prone to get. But do you have enough self-awareness to know when you are more sensitive to be easily angered? The Gospels tell a story about how the disciples were easily frustrated with people and how Jesus, because remember Jesus is love, Jesus is the perfect demonstration of this whole chapter of 1st Corinthians 13. So in Mark 6, the disciples are easily angered. Jesus shows love instead of irritability. So just to set the stage, Jesus has sent the 12 out and they've gone out to do ministry and and they've seen incredible amazing things. But it's been tiring and exhausting, and they've come back,

Starting point is 00:04:04 and they're going to get away from all the crowds for a little bit. They're going to be able to spend some time with Jesus. He's going to listen to them, what they experienced out there, and it's going to be a fantastic time, camp with Jesus. Who doesn't want to do that, right? So they go in a boat to get away from the crowds. So here's what Jesus says. Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Well, that's what I wanted. I wanted to rest. I wanted the people to stop bugging me. I wanted to be with Jesus. But here's the deal. I didn't turn out quite like they had hoped because when they were on their way to get the rest, all the people in the crowds, they saw where they were headed, and they ran around the lake, got around there before Jesus and his disciples could get there.

Starting point is 00:04:52 So when they show up on the other side of the lake, there's these needy people again. and the disciples are just a bit exasperated. The people are hungry, they want food, and the disciples are like, hey, could you just get rid of these people? Go tell them to go get their own food. Just get away. I'm tired. I'm hungry. The last thing I want to do is deal with people.

Starting point is 00:05:14 So get away from me, people. But Jesus's response is really, really different than that. It says that he had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a shepherd. and Jesus, instead of telling him to go take care of their own food, fed them. He met their need. He wasn't frustrated with them. He wasn't easily angered or irritable or grouchy. The disciples were, and I can identify.

Starting point is 00:05:45 They had a plan of what they thought was going to happen. And sometimes when I have a plan of how I think life's going to happen and then someone interferes with that plan, that's one of the times I'm easily angered. They were hungry. Ever been hangary? He's been most of my life hangary, so I get it. They were tired. You know, maybe it's tangry.

Starting point is 00:06:06 I don't know. But I already said, when I get tired, I get irritable. Jesus was all those things, too, because Jesus was perfectly human like us. But instead of lashing out at them, instead of running away from them, instead of being frustrated with them, he reached out to meet their needs. He had compassion on them. Anger. Where does that come from?

Starting point is 00:06:33 We see it. It gets manifested in our life in all kinds of ways, right? Sometimes we lash out at people. Sometimes we have a sonarkey comment, a sarcastic comment. Sometimes we just, we clam up. We give somebody the cold freeze. Sometimes we gossip about people because we're angry with them. Somehow we're going to make them pay in some way.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Now, have you ever thought about your anger? where does it come from? You ever notice that in your life you get angered about things that just aren't that big of a deal? They're small, they're trivial. Most fights between spouses usually are not over big principles. They're over inconveniences and hassles and frustrations of daily life. I always say that when somebody seems to be angry disproportionately to what, actually happened? In other words, when their anger seems like an overreaction to the real-life events, it's probably because they're angry about something else and it's just spilling out in this conversation. Where does anger come from? I think it's because we know, at least we think we know,

Starting point is 00:07:45 what we want and something's threatening that. Either we have what we want and something's threatening to take it away or we know what we want to get and someone's keeping us from it, and so we get angry at them. But what if I knew that what I really want, what I really need, what will really satisfy me is Jesus, and nothing can take him away? And I don't need to get angry, because I don't have to have that thing in order to make my life worth living. I don't have to have your approval, or have to have more money, or have to have that promotion, or have to have that recognition, whatever it is. I've got Jesus, and that's enough for me. Love is not easily angered. Love is patient. It's kind. It's all these things we've been seeing

Starting point is 00:08:38 1st Corinthians 13 tells us about. It's not just an emotion. It's in action. We don't demand from other people that which they cannot give us. Another person is not going to give us ultimate satisfaction. Another person is not going to bring ultimate happiness. Another person is not going to bring ultimate purpose or meaning or whatever else it is in our life. Only Jesus can be that. And when I have Jesus, then I don't demand things from other people that they can't give me. When I'm satisfied and happy in Jesus, I am free to love people for who they really are. I'm able to love people where they really are. Check your anger. Next time you get angry, ask yourself, what's going on in side of me that's causing this reaction. I think a little honest self-examination could go a long

Starting point is 00:09:30 way to helping you understand yourself and understanding what it might look like to love others the way God loves you. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Am I So Mad? | Redefining Love (1 Cor. 13)

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