Date:      14th December 2008                                                              (Sunday AM)                                                                       Ref: A0412

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: Losing Your Yule Cool

Text:        & James 1:19-20

Illust:  “Driven, by Hate”, “Rage fuelled racism and violence”, “Teen’s final night of fury” – Big bold headlines following the tragic shooting of a young Victorian teenager. – A young man who was armed with 2 carving knifes & advancing on Police. 2 shots of Capsicum Spray failed to subdue him. – Shot. – Leave it to the Coroner to state a verdict – But one thing certain A lot of rage bottled up. – Not just him –  “A QANTAS check-in attendant was slapped and another worker collapsed from stress in a bad start to the holiday season at the airline's Brisbane domestic airport terminal.”  & “Tempers explode as customers lose their Yule cool FAMILIES are being told to keep children away from supermarkets and shops to curb customer rage in the countdown to Christmas.The call for child-free zones follows complaints frazzled parents are causing maddening delays at cash registers. Retail rage traditionally soars near the festive season as short-fused customers struggle to cope with crowds. More & more rage, anger in people – A lot of angry people.

I.                   Angry People

A.               A Lot of Anger

i.                 We are living in a society that is progressively becoming angrier & angrier; Road Rage, rage at the shops, in queues, rage at nightspots:

           Front page of the Saturday Canberra Times; young men in a fight outside a club in Civic – alcohol fuelled

           Obviously though not all rage is alcohol fuelled, its just the oil that greases a violent response from already angry individuals

ii.               Anger starts in children, we even have a term for anger that indicates it’s early manifestation – “dummy spit” – children display anger amazingly early & boy can they get angry – uncontrolled. – That’s part of the challenge of parenting to discipline your children to control their anger.

      An event recently where one little boy caught doing something wrong, the teacher told him not to, & he manifested, screamed, stormed off, stood by himself scowling. – The teacher was onto him but his mother – Nothing !! – Going to grow up an angry uncontrolled man

iii.             Beetles song today would be written ‘all the angry people where do they all come from’ ~ Rage, a rising problem in our society.  – And its an issue that we all have to deal with in our own lives often on a daily basis. The issue of anger.

B.               Not Necessarily Sin

i.                 Before we go much further I want to make a point that anger is not necessarily sinful, in fact the Bible makes a clear distinction between anger & sin.

        Psalm 4:4 Be angry, and do not sin. (NKJV)

ii.               How many know that all of our emotions are given to us by God, Anger is an emotion that God has gifted us with, It is an emotion that He has. The bible makes it clear that God is angry.

        Psalm 7:11 God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day. (NKJV)

           Indeed the sinless son of God – Jesus was reportedly angry on a number of occasions.

        Mark 3:5 .. when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts. (NKJV)

iii.             The key is to realise as Psalm 7:11 tells us that God is Just, His is a just anger. It is righteous.

iv.             What make anger sinful is; what it is that makes you angry & the way you express that anger

II.                 Typical Anger

A.               What Ticks You Off

i.                 As a kid Hey Hey had a segment “What Cheeses me off” – Well what ticks you off, what gets your goat, causes you to get angry? – Think about your anger. Most times you get angry because you don’t get your own way.

           Think about people loosing their cool in the shops, it is because they can’t go quickly through the check out like they want. – At its core is that we are a selfish & becoming a more selfish generation. – Easily find our will / wants / demands defied or blocked. – makes us angry.

ii.               And our society is geared to becoming more selfish, it is all about getting more, more things, more happiness, more money, more, more, more. – The problem is that a selfish society becomes an angry society

iii.             Reinforced through, popular media, TV, movies & music – Popular music is angrier – did a quick search; How is this for a question on ‘Yahoo Answers’?

      “Any good songs about anger/rage or maybe even suicide. Not looking rock anything slow... I want anger.”

       No shortage of answers including Break Stuff- Limp Bizkit, Never Again – Nickelback, Riot Act- Skid Row.

B.               How Expressed

i.                 And how is this anger expressed, what is the outflow – 2 main responses. The first is the most easily seen – The Volcano – eruption / explosion, hot magma & ash spewed out everywhere leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

ii.               When you blow up your anger is primarily aimed at & mostly hurts others. There is an unintended consequence however. – Anyone here ever fired a 22 Rifle, anyone ever fired a shotgun? When you fire a gun there is invariably a recoil, the more charge, the larger the calibre, the more powerful the recoil. – You get hurt.

      People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing. Will Rogers

iii.             The other response is at the extreme other end of the spectrum – You internalise the anger, it is bottled up inside you – doesn’t have the same immediate impact, & is therefore potentially the most dangerous. – “I don’t get angry, I get even” –

           This is the simmering pressure cooker response, the slow but gradual build up of temperature & pressure; constricts, crushes your spirit, your physical health

      Anger becomes sinful not only when it is ventilated by doing a Mt. Vesuvius, complete with ash and lava, but also when one does a slow burn. Clamming up, internalizing anger, holding it in for another leads to bitterness and resentment.[1] – Jay Adams

iv.             Important that we recognise our own propensity to engage in these sinful anger responses as James has said in our text & vs. 20

III.              Be Angry

A.               Slow to Wrath

i.                 The ‘righteousness of God’ should be our goal. So given the capacity for our angry responses to cause serious hurt to others & indeed ourselves, our question should be how do I handle anger properly, how do I make sure I respond in a right way.

ii.               Key as with anything in your Christian walk is to have the humility before God to realise, that you may be the problem - Many times your anger is rooted in your own selfishness. – Therefore it is sin & must be repented of.

iii.             Our text states: & vs. 19 – Swift to hear, be a listener, & be oh so slow to speak. - Some issues you need to just spend some time meditating on - why am I angry, is it because I have been denied / slighted  - Need to repent & get over it

        Proverbs 19:11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression. (NKJV)

      Swallowing angry words before you say them is better than having to eat them afterwards. - Unknown

B.               Deal With It

i.                 There will & should be however occasions when you are justly angry,

      It is not wrong to act in anger, since the purpose of the emotion of anger is to motivate. Anger is a strong force that God built into man for the purpose of moving him to biblical action. [2]

ii.               The important thing is a righteous response is to focus the emotional energy of your anger not at others / yourself but on the problem that occasioned the anger. – There are wrongs that are done that you should be angry about.

      One controls his anger best when he is solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented. [3]

           When focussed on the solution to a problem / wrong that may mean that you need to confront someone in anger but:

      You will be focussed on the solution to the problem / wrong at hand

      Only angry to the extent that the other person is responsible to be involved in the solution to the problem

      The confrontation is not to attack them, but to motivate them to get involved to do what needs to be done so that the problem may be dealt with

iii.             Important this AM that anger must be dealt with in the right manner, in love, the emotion directed at the solution to the problem, not the problem maker. – Needs to be dealt with promptly.

        Ephesians 4:26-27 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. (NKJV)

iv.             Paul tells us that if you stew on your anger you give a foothold for the devil you’re your life. - Husbands / Wives especially – We need to take the words of Paul seriously. Letting the sun go down on your anger is a prime cause of many marital problems, especially in the bedroom.

v.               Need to repent of unrighteous anger, of unrighteous responses & ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be angry about the right things and in the right way – Solution focussed.

IV.             Altar Call

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[1]Adams, J. E. (1973). The Christian counselor's manual. "The sequel and companion volume to Competant to counsel." (353). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

[2]Adams, J. E. (1973). The Christian counselor's manual. "The sequel and companion volume to Competant to counsel." (353). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

[3]ibid