Intro: If you remember last week one of the most important things we can do is saturate our minds with God’s word. We do this so that the Holy Spirit can plant it deeply within our minds and give us something of the Spirit to think about.
We don’t learn more of the Bible which teaches us more about God so we can show off in Bible Trivia. We learn more of the Bible so that we can understand who we are as new creations in Jesus Christ and do what is right as followers of Jesus.
True Biblical knowledge married to a living spiritual relationship with Jesus leads to new creation behavior. So any true biblical belief if applied should lead to true biblical behavior. If we are hearing and heeding the word of God we can train ourselves to manage our emotions for the glory of God.
So this next statistic should shock you, Christian counselors report that somewhere around 50% of the people they council have problems dealing with anger.
America is growing increasingly angry, we are a short-tempered people. Road rage, Airplane rage, grocery store rage, movie theatre rage, church rage, a child’s sporting event rage. Emotional outbursts and lack of control has become the current new reporting rule.
James Garbarino, human development professor at Cornell University, reports a major social shift:
There is a general breakdown of social conventions, of manners, of social controls. This gives a validation, a permission, to be aggressive. Kids used to be guided by a social convention that said, "keep the lid on." Today they are guided more in the direction of taking it off.
Garbarino also observes an increasing "culture of vulgarity." Swear words are now common on cable TV and violence is promoted in much of today's youth music. Psychologist Frank Farley of Temple University cites "a loosening of inhibitions promoted on TV talk shows such as Jerry Springer's. 'It is OK to say whatever is on your mind,' " Farley concludes.
A question we must ask ourselves is can a Christian be good and mad?
I. Don’t beat yourself up about your anger
I have some good news for you today. Romans 8:1 (read)
The strongest Christian is reminded of the war within and it is not His walk in the Spirit but the work of His Lord Jesus on the cross that removes all judgment. No matter how strong you are till Jesus comes to take you home you will face conflict with your old nature. The weakest Christian is reminded that even though you seem to constantly fail especially in your emotional responses and give in to your flesh or old rebellious nature, victory is ultimate and final victory is waiting in the life to come.
This doesn’t mean that there isn’t something in us that couldn’t be judged. It means that because of Jesus finished work and our relationship with Him it won’t be judged. Because it has been judged on the cross!! If you haven’t received His free pardon of sin by believing God raised Him from the dead and confessed Him as Lord you will be judged. The issue with emotions isn’t beating yourself up it is you need to be sure you are in Christ!! Because the good news is that Jesus clearly never said He would take away all your troubles, frustrations, pain, problems or failures. Instead He said, “If you are with me I will take away all judgment!!!” Philippians 1:6 “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you[b] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Don’t beat yourself up. No condemnation means freedom from sins Guilt!! But what makes it possible to control our anger is freedom from sins power!!
II. Don’t make excuses about your anger
Since we are set free from sins guilt and also sins grip, don’t allow your walk or weakness to become an excuse for your anger. Be angry but sin not!
We as Christians must do our best to destroy the attitude of entitlement and enablement! We make excuses for our anger. I wasn’t given a break, so and so was mean to me, my dad was angry. What does that Bible teach us that should make us stop making excuses for our explosive emotions?
2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. A relationship with Jesus gives us access to all the power we need to no longer be controlled by our emotions and stop making excuses.
Philippians 4:13 “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Colossians 3:5-10 “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath comes on the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.”
God has left no room for excuses. He gives us a relationship and resources. In order to apply the resources we need to understand the source.
III. Do understand the source of your anger
What is it that makes us angry? There are two sources of anger. One is acceptable to God and one is not.
A) Anger resulting from the activity evil
There is anger that is appropriate. Mark 3:1-5 (read) Jesus was wanting to heal the man with the withered hand. The Pharisees wanted to trap and accuse him. Jesus responded with anger and sorrow in His heart. Luke 17:2 Jesus showed He was the original gangster by saying better you sleep with the fishes than hurt one of these little ones. John 2:13-22 records Jesus cleansing of the temple. Jesus hates when people are taken advantage of. The temple was to be a place of prayer and encounter with God for His people. Instead the priests and money changers turned it into a place to take advantage of all the people. Jesus had Zeal, passion, fire, anger for the way His Father’s house was being corrupted. Anger at injustice, mistreatment, corruption are all acceptable to God.
B) Anger resulting from the emotion of pride (We believe someone owes us something)
James 1:20-21 makes clear that pride is the root of anger. We will not want to be slow to speak and slow to anger and quick to listen if we are prideful. When we feel any of the emotions I spoke of before it is because our pride was poked.
Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel? We will read a portion of the story found in Genesis 4 (read Genesis 4:1-6) God gave Cain and Abel clear instructions on what he expected of their worship. Abel gave something that cost, the first born of his flocks. Cain gave some of the lands produce. When God did not have regard for. The Hebrew word literally means God would not gaze at it. God wouldn’t look at it and accept it.
Cain became furious. It seems to me that Cain’s problem is pride. I can imagine him saying “What you accepted his sacrifice but not mine? Who does he think he is Mr. Goody Two Shoes?”
So explosive and destructive anger grows out of pride and selfishness. These cause us to feel frustrated, unappreciated, ignored, undervalued etc.
We still say things like Cain did. Who do they think they are raising their hands in worship? Do they think they are better than me? I am not about to take being treated like that. I tell you what I am about to give them a piece of my mind. You should be careful doing that you might not be able to spare a piece.
Pride causes us to ignore the truths of scripture and operate in destructive anger.
Philippians 2:3-4 makes clear the humble attitude that defuses the destructive power of anger.
“Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
IV. Do take practical steps to control your anger
A) Memorize scripture to transform your anger
Be angry but sin not Ephesians 4:6
The anger of man does not make the righteousness of God
Proverbs, psalsm
B) Manage your anger with God’s help (Proverbs 14:17 / 15:18 / 25:28 / 29:20)
1) Confess it
Don’t deny or hide your anger. If it is ungodly and prideful confess it and repent. If it is based on prejudice, abuse, corruption ask God to direct it toward making a difference. There many things that should move us to anger. The way Planned Parenthood is slaughtering babies in order to sell their parts. The way so called preachers are saying God’s ok with homosexuality. The way children are abused and used.
2) Consider it (proverbs 14:29)
Quick tempered person promotes foolishness. Foolishness in the Bible is the trust of self that leads to ignoring and ultimately rejecting God and His word!
3) Control it (proverbs 29:11)
Have you ever been in a fight with someone and your words were pretty heated and the telephone rings? Notice how quickly you can manage your anger! You've got a lot more control over your anger than you think you do
C) Make a continual surrender to the Spirit
Anger is an emotion that is given to us by God. Uncontrolled anger is the perversion of God’s gift.
1) Unlearning wrong ways to express anger
Anger is given to us by God. However the way we express anger is learned.
2) Learning right ways to express anger
a) Don’t allow you anger to linger – deal with it (Ephesians 4:6)
b) Don’t be quick to anger – think through it (James 1)
c) Don’t ignore evil – respond to it
Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it's very questionable whether you really love righteousness. - Dr. David Seamands
Counter Attack, Jay Carty, Multnomah Press, 1988, p. 41ff
