ANGER

ANGER

Matt.5:21,22- Mt 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment

Mt 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. {Raca: that is, Vain fellow}

Oftentimes there are humorous things that come out of anger. Such as a woman that couldn’t get her car started and keep cranking it and her neighbor heard it and came out. He asked her have you tried chocking it and in her anger she said no but I am about too.

Or the man that called work and said he wouldn’t be in for a few days because his wife broke a arm. Well said his boss why can’t you work if your wife broke an arm? Because said the man the arm she broke was mine.

Or the little girl that came crying to her mother. Her mother asked what was wrong and she said daddy hit his thumb with a hammer. Why are you crying if daddy hit his thumb? I didn’t start out crying I started out laughing.

Or the man that was seen playing golf and taking his clubs and bag and throwing them into a pond on the course and storming off to his car. In a minute he was seen coming back walking into the pond, picking up his golf bag getting his car keys out of it throwing the bag back down and storming off.

There may be some humorous stories but let me assure you that anger is no laughing matter.

I want to start by saying

I. Anger is deceptive:

Vs.22-But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a causeshall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Jesus zeroed in on our problem of understanding anger when He said without a cause.

...One of the biggest reasons we don’t get victory over anger is because we don’t think we need to get victory.

We feel we are justified in our anger, we feel we have a cause to be angry, we feel we have a right.

Most of the time anger that we display is without a cause. Most of the time it is unjustified, up around 99% of the time.

James 1:20- For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God

If anger does not come from God then the anger is wrong.

Ephesians 4:26-Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Eph. 4:26 Balancing scripture with scripture this passage is saying the initial surge of anger is not sin. That bio-chemical reaction that takes place within your body when you first begin to feel anger and your face flushes and your heart races that in itself is not sin but a signal or warning that you had better be careful you could commit sin very easy. It is a signal that something is wrong and needs to be taken care of in a wise biblical manner.

Only five verses later in verse 31 Paul says-Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Paul says put it all away from you, it is so close to sinning don’t even try to justify it.

The Spirit of Christ is not verse 26 but rather verse 31.

Anger should be extremely rare.

Jesus seldom showed anger Himself but rather rebuked it more than he showed it.

Luke 9:54-Lu 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did

Lu 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

Lu 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

They thought they had a cause/reason to be angry but Jesus said you don’t know what spirit your of.

Angry people are hard to reach because they have made a connection that to them is logical when in reality it is illogical. Example: A man comes home or on the job sees something that is messed up house or assignment at work or whatever it may be, and makes the connection that the way to fix this is to get mad and show them I mean business.

A man said onetime the reason he gets angry is it keeps the family in line. But it is to direct a violation of Ephesians 4:31- Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

God don’t tell us to do something for no reason.

Angry men create rebellion and discouragement in children or workers or whoever may be under you that can turn to bitterness.

Angry people usually create rebellion because anger cuts the heart strings between children and parents. And when their cut it makes them open to anyone.

The greatest damage that can be done to a family is with anger.

And usually when you talk to a person that has a problem with anger that don’t know it because anger is deceptive. It is deceitful. And it tells you that you have a cause.

And that why Jesus said whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause. And Jesus give progression here:

Angry without cause- attitude

Says raca- progresses to speech

Thou fool- Action (Imbecile, stupid, idiot)

Anger will always progress.

Jesus said these are in danger of God’s courtroom. Angry people may admit they have done wrong but they feel they had a reason. (Ill. Me sitting in court with William)

One that won’t change their anger is because it has become a control mechanism. They become anger attics.

You must ask your self do I have a cause or not?

Anger that comes not from God is wrong. Now there are on rare occasions when anger comes from God. But how can we tell:

1. God never gets in a rush about being angry.

God Himself before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah came down with two angels to talk to His friend Abraham.

Mark 11:11 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

Mr 11:15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;

Mr 11:16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

Mr 11:17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves

Anger that is of God will always be slow:

James 1:19-Jas 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Jas 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Pr 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Pr 15:18 A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.

Most of our anger is spontaneous and is wrong:

Anger without a cause means my personal rights have been violated.

Anger with a cause means God’s biblical justice has been violated.

To often our anger is self-centered and selfish.

(Do you think Jesus would have got mad for someone hogging the bathroom?) Do you think he would have started a fight is someone stared at him? Here is a good one what if they called him a devil? Or said something about Him?

Righteous indignation is anger against the evil more than the person that done the evil. When your anger is directed at a person usually that anger is almost always wrong.

II. Anger is destructive.

2Ch 26:18 And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.

2Ch 26:19 Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

2Ch 26:20 And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.

The higher position you hold the more careful you must be.

Es 3:5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.

A few verses later he is hanging from his own gallows.

Mt 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

Anger wants to destroy: Men in anger still do the same thing. How many babies have been murdered because of a boyfriends anger, or a father’s anger, or a mother’s anger.

A girl stabbed her grandfather to death because she got mad over him changing the TV channel.

Usually when anger is displayed something is destroyed, life, property, relationships, children, …etc.

Homes are destroyed because of anger.

Anger perverts your thinking. They say an angry person usually sees red but anger affects more than just sight it perverts your thinking to the place of terrible decisions.

Will Rogers once said those who fly off in a rage always make a bad landing.

Anger destroys your Christian testimony. Your anger can send people around you to hell. Our testimony doesn’t shine when people are good top us, our testimony shines when they are ugly with us and we don’t show anger.

Anger gives ground to Satan:

When you get angry it gives Satan the right to come in and take control of that part of your life.

Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

This place means don’t give the devil a chance to take control of an area in your life.

III. There is deliverance from anger.

They have books and classes and instructional films on anger management, but God don’t want you to manage it He wants your to overcome it.

He wants us to have victory over anger.

(1)Recognize the problem- get rid of pride that holds you back and confess anger as sin.

(2) Realize that you can control it.

Mother fixing to whip the kids for screaming and yelling and in her anger starts out after them when the phone rings and all of a sudden it is controlled.

Husband and wife fighting and the pastor shows up and all of a sudden they are love birds.

(3)Look for root causes:

Look for sin or iniquity. Iniquity is doing what I want to no matter what God says about it.

When Nathan came to David He became angry because of his own sin and guilt with Bathsheba.

Gen.4 Cain became the first man to display anger because his heart wasn’t right.

Balaam became angry with his donkey because of his own disobedience.

(4)Ask God to reclaim the ground that you have given to Satan:

You are to weak to reclaim it God must do it for you.

(5)Ask the Holy Ghost to guide you and produce His fruit in your life.

Ga 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law

Ga 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Ga 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Ga 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ga 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Ga 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

The fruit of the spirit is not how you feel but how you react in a bad situation.

Longsuffering is Greek Macro Fumia which means long wrath, slow anger.

It is the fruit of the spirit to slow your anger down. When the spirit of God is in control you can display love when you feel like showing rage. You can display joy when you feel like retaliating. You can display patients when you feel like biting someone’s head off.

(6) Replace anger with praise.

If you’re a person who has a problem with anger start praising others including husband/wife, children, brothers, or sisters.

(7) Make yourself accountable to family and friends.

If you see me get angry give me a sign.

(8)Don’t give up.

A famous Christian once said a bell still gonged a few times after you stopped ringing it. And a Christian may gong a few times even after he has stopped.

You must come to the realization there is no justification for anger.

A murder gets angry and kills someone and you say I wouldn’t do that what? Get angry or murder? You anger is just as bad as the murders except it hasn’t progressed that far yet.

That’s pretty tuff stuff. Judgment is pretty tuff stuff. Hell fire is pretty tuff stuff.

I want deliverance from anger so God can use me and Satan will lose control of that part of me.

If your lost the place to start is with Jesus Christ and giving your life to Him.