Avoiding The Mistake Of Anger Series

Introduction:

A. A man with a terrible temper, was playing a round of golf with his preacher.

1. After leaving three straight putts on the edge of the cup, the man exploded, “I missed again!” “How could I miss?”

2. With that he heaved his putter into a nearby lake, kicked a wheel on the golf cart and drove his fist into a nearby tree.

3. The preacher was shocked. “I have never seen such a terrible display of anger,” he said to the man.

4. “Don’t you know that God doesn’t like it when we are angry? I have heard that there are angels whose one assignment is to search out people who express their anger so ferociously and to send lightning bolts from heaven to burn them to a crisp.”

5. The man was embarrassed and fearful. Heeding the warning of preacher, on the next few holes, he managed to control himself.

6. However, on the last three holes his putting failed him again.

7. When the last putt veered off to the right just in front of the cup, the man went crazy. “I missed!” he screamed, “How could I miss?”

8. He broke his club across his knee and threw it as far as he could, he kicked up several large clumps of grass on the edge of the green, and once more drove his fist into a nearby tree.

9. Suddenly the sky grew dark as an ominous cloud appeared. There was a clap of thunder and an awesome burst of lightning came out of the cloud and hit the preacher and burned him to a crisp!

10. An eerie silence filled the golf course. All that could be heard was the voice of an angel in heaven: “I missed again! How could I miss?” (Contributed by David Lansdown, SermonCentral)

B. In know that’s a silly story, but we’ve all seen displays of anger like that man on the golf course.

1. I admit that I’ve lost control and acted that way in times past.

2. It seems that we live in a world that has gone MAD.

3. People seem to be more and more angry than ever before.

4. We keep inventing new terms to describe people’s angry feelings and actions.

a. Psychiatrists today describe a condition called LFT (Low frustration tolerance).

b. The phrase “road rage” officially entered the English language in 1997 when it was first listed in the New Words edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

c. An even newer term is “air rage” which is used to describe disgruntled passengers who take their frustrations out on airline personnel.

5. According to one anger management firm, “one out of every five Americans has an anger management problem.

6. According to FBI statistics, 28% of murders come as a result of arguments occurring at home.

7. Anger related violence is the reason stated for 22% of divorces of middle-class marriages.

8. Studies show that 79% of violent children witnessed some form of violence between their parents.

C. So, as I said, it seems that the world is going mad.

1. People are getting more and more angry and are showing it.

2. So many people are allowing situations, schedules and people to hinder their ability to tolerate frustration.

3. So many people are living on the edge of anger, on the brink of eruption.

4. For that reason we must understand that anger is one letter short of DANGER.

5. Giving in to the mistake of anger can be very costly.

D. The Proverbs address the topic of anger as much or more than any other topic. Here is a sampling:

1. Pr. 14:17, “A quick-tempered man does foolish things…”

2. Pr. 19:19, “A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.”

3. Pr. 29:11, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”

E. So, today we want to talk about “Avoiding the Mistake of Anger.”

1. Our good/bad example is Moses.

I. His Story

A. The story of Moses is one of the better known stories of the Bible.

1. His story begins as the book of Exodus begins.

2. The Israelites are living in Egypt and are being brutally oppressed as slaves.

3. The Israelites are multiplying so rapidly that the Egyptians order the midwives to kill all the Hebrew baby boys that are born by throwing them into the Nile River.

4. When Moses was born his parents hid him for 3 months, but when they could hide him no longer they made a little basket boat for him. They put Moses in the basket and put the basket in the reeds along the bank of the Nile, near to where the Pharaoh’s daughter bathed.