God's Answer to Anger

Sermon OverviewScripture Passage: Proverbs 19:11-12It’s been said that unjustified anger is like an acid that brings harm to anything it is poured on, including the very container it inhabits. If we can’t control our temper, we risk wrecking our lives and destroying our testimonies.Proverbs 19:11 reveals God’s answer to anger. “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.”Scripture says sudden anger is to be controlled. When we feel it coming, we must confess it to God and keep it contained until we have a chance to consider it.Sinful anger is to be condemned; it is not a weakness, it is wickedness. It is anger without a cause rooted within us. It is centered on a person rather than on an offense. It refuses to forgive and let go.Stubborn anger is to be conquered. Bitterness and wrath take over when we let the sun go down on our anger. We allow the devil access in our lives when we let anger rule over us.We must recognize and repent of our anger and refuse the devil’s schemes to use our emotions against us. If we don’t control, condemn, and conquer anger, it will control, condemn, and conquer us.But there’s a sanctified anger we are instructed to channel. It is not destructive to the soul, and it does not result in sin. We see it in Jesus in Mark 3, when He cleared the temple of malicious Pharisees and self-seeking merchants who were taking advantage of the poor.It is not only possible to possess righteous anger, but it is also expected. In fact, injustice ought to stir us and move us to act. Never once did Jesus retaliate when he was personally attacked and abused, even when He was crucified. Yet, Jesus was moved with righteous anger to act when He saw other people being attacked and abused.Adrian Rogers said, “Sometimes anger is love’s clearest expression, but we need to be careful with it.”If we want to follow the example of Jesus, we are instructed to get angry at the right time, for the right reason, against the right thing, in the right way.Apply it to your lifeIs there a sudden, sinful, stubborn anger in your life that is controlling you? Recognize it, repent of it and rebuke the enemy, so that you may live righteously and protect your testimony.