Sermon Central
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Attacking Your Anger Series
Contributed by Mike Fogerson on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: This six part series on overcoming crippling sins is based on David Jerimiah’s book "Slaying The Giants In Your Life." 4 of 6
b Hebrews 12:15 "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
*Clear all the relationship accounts before the day is done.
*Proverbs 22:24/25
24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.
If you run/walk with a sarcastic, angry crowd that is always ticked about something...your sitting yourself up for sinful anger.
YOU CAN’T CHOSE YOUR FAMILY, BUT YOU CAN CHOSE YOUR FRIENDS
B Don’t REHEARSE your anger. (Have you ever said, "That person made me mad.") Me too.
Henry Brandt said, "It’s a fallacy to say that some other person "makes us angry." If we become angry its because we already had it in us, and we allowed someone else to pull it out of us. But no one can MAKE us angry."
a Some people have their own little anger factory inside them with a steady supply on hand & nearly anyone can make them angry.
*Say something to them and they’ll explode, tell that same thing to somebody else and their not bothered at all. (Hurting people hurt people)
*Some people simply have more buttons to push and some people are nothing but buttons!!
b This story may not be appropriate, but it has helped me control my anger so much,...I’ve got to share it. It comes from John Maxwell’s book The Success Journey
IL. A bird got a late start going south for the winter, fell into a barnyard freezing to death. A cow "plops" on him, the bird begins to sing because he’s thawing out, a cat comes up and cleans him off, and the cat eats him.
3 Morals: (1) Not everybody who "plops" on you is your enemy. (2) Not everybody who cleans "plop" off you is your friend. (3) If you get "plopped" on, shut up about it.
C Reverse Your Anger (Have you ever wished you could rewind a moment in your life and do something differently? Anger is one of those things you can reverse.)
a Romans 12:20 [20] On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
*An ancient Egyptian custom. If you truly felt remorse and regret on something you did, you put a plate of hot coals on your head to show the person you wronged just how sorry you were. OUCH!
b We pay out the reverse of what we feel or what has been done to us. (That DON’T make sense. To the world your right, but to God it does make sense.)
*We showed him hate, he showed us love.
*We show him contempt, he showed us compassion.
*We told him our rights, he showed us his righteousness.
*Is it easy to reverse your anger? Get Real. It takes wisdom, self-control, maturity....but it does work.. That’s what the Bible says.
Conclusion:
We can attack our anger and slow it down.
(Don’t nurse it, Don’t rehearse it.....and Reverse it)
Forrest Gump: Scene where Jenny returns to old home after her father has died and the old farm house is dilapidated and abandons. As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house. She throws and throws, and rapidly reaches for more rocks. Jenny finally falls to the ground in exhaustion and the scene closes with Forrest Gump saying, "Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks."
