The Temptations: Anger
1 of 3
August 26, 2001 F.B.C., Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
1. Anger is a God given emotion. (The trouble is some of us have the tendency to get in hot water when we get hot under the collar)
A. In September 1999, Guy Boos was arrested in Wisconsin because his anger got to the best of him.
a His washing machine was acting up so he pushed it out the door, down a flight of steps and then got his .25 caliber pistol and shot the machine three times.
b Whether it’s road rage or appliance rage, anger can be a big problem.
B WE don’t get angry on accident.
a Anger is not a chosen reflex. It’s not an accident to mad.
b We chose to be angry.
2. Today we are going to begin a look a series called "The Tempations", with Anger being our first one.
A. Eph. 4:26-27
[26] "In your anger do not sin" : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, [27] and do not give the devil a foothold.
a God told the angry believer to be especially careful about messing up. (ETS)
b Angry Christians must be Careful Christians. (ESS)
B. I want you to make a double effort to be careful when your angry. (Objective)
a How do you handle your anger? (Probing Question)
b Let’s look at two paths we can take in dealing with anger. (Transitional Sentence)
I The first path we can take in dealing with anger is Peter’s Path. (John 18:10-11)
JN 18:10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.):11 Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
A Pete loved Jesus. (Pete was apart of the inner-circle and later he was martyred for being Christ’s witness.)
a When the detachment of Roman Soldiers and Jewish officlas showed up it, Pete chose to get angry. (No sin yet......but what he did next was!)
b Pete took his sword out it’s sheath (literaly taking out his anger) and cut off a man’s ear.
*Jesus wasn’t angry.
*Why? Jesus and Pete interpretted this even differently.
*Jesus saw this as an event that had to happen. Did he like it no, however he knew this was how it had to be. (Cross, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation)
*Pete just knew that he didn’t want to see his friend Jesus taken from him....so he cuts off a guys ear!
B. Some of us take it out on other people when were angry.
(Kick the dog, drive our cars to fast, throw the kitchen cabnits shut, slam doors, be ugly to our spouse, kids. Some of us pout, give the silent treatment... )
a Anger happens when what we want to happen doesn’t happen.
(Things didn’t go our way, people didn’t listen to us, people didn’t obey us, consult us, things didn’t go the way I planned.....Sounds arrogant. It is.)
b When we hurt, we have the tendency to take it out on others.
* "Hurt people, hurt people."
C. On Mother’s day in 1987, Percy Washington killed the wrong woman. He and his wife, Corene were recently seperated after 29 years of marriage. (He thought she had taken advantage of him.)
a He went out and bought a shotgun, went to her church and waited for her to come out of the worship service so he could kill her.
*She got in the car, he leveled the shotgun and fired through the windshield. But since Washington wasn’t wearing his glasses, he killed a woman who wasn’t his wife. Fannie Watson was driving a car similiar to Percy’s wife.
*In an interview after his arrest Washington said, "I’m sorry about the other woman. I meant to kill my wife, but I forgot my glasses."
b. Anger makes blind and causes us to take out our anger on innocent people. Peter did and so do we.
T.S.: Pete’s path is often taken, but it’s not the only path we can take.
II The second path we can take in dealing with anger is Jesus’s Path. (Matt. 21:12/13)
MT 21:12 Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. [13] "It is written," he said to them, " `My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a `den of robbers.’ " 14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.
A Jesus himself was no stranger to the emotion of anger.
a He went to the temple at Jerusalem where the loan sharks were making a killing at inflated prices. (He tossed over the stales of those selling doves, tossed tables of the money changers. WHY? Angry! Did He sin? NO!)
b He saw the church being defiled, He acted out of anger to cleanse it.
*It wasn’t His preference, plan, prejudice....it was the Word of God that drove him...vv:13. Wasn’t his way!
*These people shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Once they were gone, the people who should have been there (blind/sick/lame) came.
B Who wants to be like Jesus? (When do we get to through tables and hit things?)
a To show the type of righteous indignation, you must must be like Jesus. (Perfect, sinless, righteous, holy, selfless.....)
b He is without sin toss the first....table.
*We don’t’ through tables.
C How do we show our anger in a way were we won’t sin.
a Carefully (Who we get angry around, words we say, timing...be careful)
b Sparingly (Don’t stay mad all the time and when you are mad don’t expect the world to be mad with you.)
(IL.) An old man with a thick mustache was taking a nap and his grand kids rubbed lindberger cheese in to to it. When he awoke he went from room to room looking for the source of the smell. He concluded "Every where I go, it stinks." If you constantly stay angry or your pistol stays thumb cocked....stop being so angry all the time. Not every where your go is bad,stinking.....it’s your attitude..
Conclusion:
1. God gave us the emotion of anger. Angry Christians must be careful Christians. (ESS)
A. We’ve looked at two paths we can take in dealing with anger.
a Pete’s path. (Hurt people around us, blow up, freak out....)
b Jesus’s path (Carefully, sparingly)
B I want you to make a double effort to be careful when your mad.
a No one can make you angry against your own will. You chose to be angry.
b IT isn’t reflex, it’s a chosen response/emotion to any situation.
*You can either let anger have it’s way with you or you can have your way with anger.
2 How do you handle your anger?
A Some of you are angry with God, a brother, a sister, a fellow church member.
a Jesus tells us to go to that person before we come before Him in worship.
b Will you decide to go to the person your angry with...not now, that’s too easy. Go to them outside the church and make things right.
B How do you handle anger?
a I’m asking you do double your effort to be careful when your mad.
b Pray
