Attacking Your Anger Series

Slaying The Giants In Your Life Series

"Attacking Your Anger" 4 of 6

May 19, 2002 FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker

INTRODUCTION:

A One of the most common terms used today among psychiatrists is LFT. (Low Frustration Tolerance)

a We have allowed circumstances, situations, schedules, and people to crowd out our ability to tolerate frustration.

b We become people who live on the edge, on the brink of eruption.

*Bottom Line: We get angry too easily and I want to show you how to attack anger in such a way as to slow it down..

B Anger is a God given emotion and in is of itself NOT A SIN!

a Ephesians 4:26/27 (NAS)

26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.

b The Bible says, "Be ANGRY..." Whoa! I can do that!

*Lot’s of people see this verse as their ticket to vent their anger. -pleasing to the ear...but not biblical.

Eph. 4:31/32

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you Venting is a BAD idea.

1 Sinless anger is possible

How do we deal with anger? How do we get angry and don’t sin? Look to Jesus. John 2:14/16

[14] In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. [15] So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. [16] To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!"

A The temple in Jerusalem was THE ONLY place to worship God on the High Holy days.

a You would bring the best of your flock and the priests would tell you its unacceptable. What do you do?

b Outside there are 100% guaranteed sacrifices (oxen, sheep, dove) for sale right out side.

(Priests had sweet deals cut with retailers) Huge mark up on the product.

*Where else are you going to go to get your sacrifice? (IL.) How much does a hotdog cost at Busch Stadium? Cold drink? They can charge an outrage price because....where else are you going to get your soda & hotdog?

NO COMPETITION NO CONTROLS=Sky High Prices Temple situation was just that.

B The only place the merchants set up shop was the court of the gentiles. (Gentiles weren’t allowed in the temple. Their sacrifice and worship had to be carried out in the court yard.)

a The Gentiles (LOST) were the people Jesus came to save. He was there for the lost person. (Just as FBC exists for to bring lost people to Jesus.)

*If the Wal-Mart Wannabe’s are hogging the court yard, where do the gentiles worship? NO WHERE!!!

b How was Jesus’s anger sinless?

*His anger wasn’t about Him. (When He was beat, belittled by Pilate and spit on by the crowd, nailed to a cross....he never got angry.)

*He got angry when an injustice was done against people and God. Sinless anger!

*When He tossed the merchants out of the temple it was a controlled action.

(He made a whip and kicked them out! It wasn’t an uncontrolled tantrum, it was a redemptive action.)

C Mark 3:5 tells about a man with a withered/shriveled hand coming to Jesus on the Jewish Sabbath to be healed by Jesus. The church leaders criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath.

MK 3:5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

a Why was Jesus angry? They (pharisees) didn’t get it!

b They were worried about some Hebraic law and couldn’t see that redemption/love/compassion override the fine points of the law. RIGHTEOUS ANGER!!

"A man who is angry on the right grounds, against the right persons, in the right manner, at the right moment and for the right length of time deserves great praise." -Aristotle "That’s Jesus!"

T.S.: The right kind of anger is admirable, the wrong kind is an abomination.

2 Sinful anger is tameable.

A Don’t NURSE your anger. (Staying angry is a choice)

a Many of us get angry at someone and we’ll stay awake at night rehearsing our speech of what where going to tell that person at just the right moment, devise a plan of attack, how to get even.....we let it nest. (What happens when you sit on something in a nest long enough? It will hatch and fly out!)