Anger's Place

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here at the bridge. I am so glad that we are able to join together and worship this morning.

This morning i want to talk about something that some people find controversial. I know what your saying already. Oh great we love these kind of talks. Ultimately this issue no matter where you stand is not really the main point but instead is to help us get to the real point so bear with me.

Firearms

Yes, i said it. Firearms. Now many people might be like wait firearms, you mean guns. For those who don’t know i sold firearms for years as I worked for Academy sports. Ever since i never really refer them to guns any more i use the more technical term of firearms.

One of the biggest thins i learned in all my time with dealing with both firearms and customers is the importance of respecting what a firearm is. Ah see i didn’t go the direction you might have thought. This isn’t a talk about 2nd amendment rights its about the reality of an item like firearms.

We can all agree on one thing that firearms are dangerous and they deserve to be respected. That is a truth that no matter what your political or personal feelings are about firearms we all have to agree on is that firearms are tool created to cause damage.

The truth is that the most important thing about an item is that we respect it for what it is. They can be used for both good and bad. That is the reality of a firearm. This reminds me of a story i wanted to share with all of you.

As a manager we were responsible for reviewing all paperwork and finalizing all sales of firearms at Academy. This was a responsibility that i took very seriously. One day i got a call from one of my team members that he needed me to come over to the gun bar and have a talk with a customer.

When i get over to the counter i talk in private with my team member and he has informed me that the customer had threatened him. Now to make this story more interesting this was an 80 year old women who made a passing comment that she intended as a joke. After he told her the return policy on firearms she informed him that she could return it if she shot him. As a seller we take even passive threats that are a “joke” as serious because like i said these are items that need to be respected.

A long story short i had to inform this little old woman that i wouldn’t be selling her a firearm. You can imagine how fun that conversation was. I wish that was my only incident with a customer where someone just didn’t respect the firearm and treated it in a way that is unacceptable.

The truth is that firearms remind me of something else in life that we must always treat with respect and be aware of it in our lives and that is Anger. This is where we pick up in the scriptures this morning.

Ephesians 4:25–26 NIV

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Anger

Anger is such a powerful emotion. It is something that many people strive to control on a regular basis. The truth is that we know that Anger when unchecked is a dangerous thing. Yet, Anger is also an emotion that can be very useful.

The truth is that the presence of anger is usually a fundamental sign that we care about something the question though is…What?

Before we talk about though lets talk about the fact that the truth is that often not known.

Christians can be Angry

The thing about passages like this.

“Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry” are well known even among circles outside of Christianity and this has lead to a thought that Christians are suppose to just be meek and show no anger. There are other things like forgiveness and turning the other cheek has many people thinking that when a Christian experiences or shows anger that they are hypocrites or just another sinner. Yet, the truth is that we are humans just like everyone else and we can experience anger and yes even express anger.

Righteous Anger

The truth is that Anger can come in the form of righteous Anger. We have the classic example of Jesus.

Matthew 21:12–13 NIV

12 Jesus entered the temple courts 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.’”

Jesus enters into the temple courts and sees people disrespecting the house of God and he runs them out. He expressed anger. We see this also with Jesus when he is dealing with people and holding back the children from him. Jesus was angry because things were happening in the world that deserved anger.

Bring this to modern day and the things we can see righteous anger come out are things like protecting life, social injustices, and many other ways that we are angered by the pains and sins of this world.

We need to recognize though that anger around these issues and even the concept of righteous anger needs to be treated with a deep respect. Kinda like those firearms.

Anger is dangerous

There is a reason that Paul shares with us the wisdom of verse v. 26

Ephesians 4:26 NIV

26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Dwelling on anger is a dangerous thing. It is also easy to move from anger to a place of malice or vengeance and sinful acts. This is why Paul also says.

Ephesians 4:27 NIV

27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

The truth is that while this passage of scripture is often quoted to married couples it is also true for all Christians that we can not allow Anger to gain to strong of a foothold because it is dangerous to allow it to become a regular part of our lives. Anger produces so many problems that we must be cautious and in all honest treat it like a loaded firearm. It needs to be respected and recognized for the dangerous tool it can be.

Anger shows passion and care. We talked about this early when i said.

The truth is that the presence of anger is usually a fundamental sign that we care about something the question though is…What?

It is the what that is the important part. I could share with you story after story of being angry about something that in all honesty wasn’t that important and at times i would consider to be dangerously sinful because allowing frustration to take hold and affect who i was as a person. Yet, there are times that Anger is a part of my life that i can’t deny.

I thought about this for awhile and what it is that could say i am consistently angry about in this world. It was then that i thought about the kids that attend church in today's world.

See for me it is not unusual for us as a church in our western culture to see kids as an annoyance. We see kids as a burden in our lives and this would include while we are at church. This is a serious problem. Too often in churches we never engage with our kids or when we do it is out of obligation not out of desire or passion for caring for these little ones. It is because of this that when i hear of Pastors or church’s who cause harm to children by just viewing children’s ministry or outreach as just a means to get to the parents not as a means to actually help the child in their faith that i have problems. I get angry when i hear about children’s ministry as a tool just for getting parents not also as an opportunity to grow our children in their faith.

Children are essential and we must foster their growth both as a church and along side the parents of these children.

Time to get off my soap box.

The truth is that i could dwell on this and i could think on this and i could think of every person i might know who views children this way and i would allow bitterness to creep into my heart and i would now have given Satan a foothold into who i am. This is why Anger is so dangerous. It is not hard for us to slip into these moments where we get frustrated and hurt and we want good things but in the end we may say or do things that are not right as Christians.

Its about Passion

At the end of the day i think that Anger is an essential part of who we are as people. We can experience anger and frustration and we can even express that to the world. We can respect that Anger exists and we need to allow people to see what it is we are passionate about. Yet, we must always be at an every present mind to keep that anger in check. To be cautious in not only how we display our anger but to not allow it to sit and fester becaust we can’t allow for Satan to gain that foothold. So the next time you experience some anger ask your self what is it that i am angry about and why. Then the real question comes is what am i willing to do about it that will last? This is the truth that we need to engage because it is here that i think we can start to change the world.