TOPIC: Anger, Spiritual Growth
REFERENCES: Isaiah 1:15, Matthew 21:12-13, Ephesians 4:26-27, Hebrews 12:15
SERIES: Protecting Your Achilles Heel, Part 5

SUMMARY
What are those things that really makes you angry? What makes you mad? What makes you blow your stack? When is anger the right response? With most of us, if we have the right buttons pushed enough, we can have anger erupt within us like a volcano.

Some people would say that we should never get angry, that God doesn't get angry and that Jesus didn't get angry, but in this sermon, a different view is presented. One that says that Jesus did get angry and that it was a sinless anger. In this sermon we will unpack some of the descriptions of this sinless anger in our life.

1. Sinless anger is altruistic, those things you do for other people, those things you do without any self-interest involved. Embarrassing anger, sinful anger, is routed in self-interest. We’re often times angry because we have been wronged or because we’re mad about something. Jesus’s anger, however, remains sinless because He’s not angry at something that has been done to Him personally, He’s angry at the temple squatters who have mistreated His Father.

2. It does not nurse grudges. Any anger that is held over to the second day without being dealt with is in danger of becoming seething vengeance.
Rehearsed hate is a great demon that will come in and occupy our heart if we make room for it. Over time a grudge becomes poison bitterness and eventually rots our soul. It breaks down relationships. Old anger is not like fine wine, it does not improve with age. It’s like spoiled food, it only stinks the longer you carry it around.

3. Sinless anger is directed. Anger without focus is not a rebuke, it’s a tantrum. Collected experiences not dealt with accumulate in our emotional life until the pressure can no longer be contained and sometimes it spews out on the one closest to us at the time. If anger is not directed it’s a tantrum and that means something is going on inside.

4. Sinless anger is useable. The question to ask yourself whenever you get angry is this, “What is it that your anger accomplishes?” If it’s not accomplishing something, then it’s probably not useable, if it’s not useable it’s probably not directed, it’s probably a tantrum. That is to say, “What does your anger motivate you to get involved with?”

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