October 19, 2024 • 28 mins
Can you distinguish between anger that serves justice and anger that serves self? Today, we uncover the complex layers of anger, using insights from Robert D. Jones's "Uprooting Anger" to guide our journey. We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of how anger functions as a full-body response to perceived wrongs and how our perceptions can mislead us into sinful reactions. By referencing scripture from James chapters 1 and 3, we explore how internal temptations and desires can mold our anger, and how seeking godly wisdom can help us manage it more effectively.
Join us as we delve into the biblical criteria for identifying righteous anger. We consider the writings of James 4:1-12, Jeremiah 17, and Ephesians 4, emphasizing humility and submission to God while challenging ourselves to evaluate the true motives behind our anger. Through biblical narratives such as Jonah, we reflect on whether our anger aligns with divine justice or our personal pride. This transformative discussion inspires a pivot from self-centered anger towards a focus on God's kingdom, urging us to assess our emotions through a lens of faith and righteousness.
The path to peaceful relationships and emotional healing becomes clearer as we examine how to respond to anger through a spiritual framework. We explore crucial questions about anger's targets, expressions, and duration, while unpacking the dangers of suppressing or exploding in anger. The episode culminates in a hopeful message: the transformative power of grace and reliance on the Holy Spirit can guide us to overcome unrighteous anger. By the end of our conversation, you’ll be equipped with the tools to start uprooting unhealthy anger and nurturing peace and love in your life. Stay tuned as we prepare for next week's session, where practical solutions await.
ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE
Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, it's James Long and welcome back to
our Lunch and Learn.
Today we're going to betackling the topic of is your
anger really righteous?
Anger is one of those majorissues that so many of us
struggle with.
So many of us are dealing withit, either dealing with other
people's anger or our own anger,and the principles that we
(00:21):
talked about last week reallyhelp us to understand how we
could work through this process.
So, if you remember, last weekwe had talked about that.
The top is this book UprootingAnger, by Robert D Jones.
It's a great book.
If you haven't gotten a chanceto pick it up yet, I would
encourage you to do so.
When you pick up the book, whatyou'll learn are some of the
(00:44):
key topics that are in there.
He begins the lesson with whatis anger and he lays out for you
a standard of what anger is.
Now, if you remember, last weekwe had talked about that anger
is found throughout Scripture.
There are so many passages inScripture that speak of anger,
(01:04):
and mostly anger talks about thesinful tendencies that we have
towards anger.
Anger is one of those sinswhich war against our soul and
we gave you this definition byJones and, if you remember, the
definition was our whole personactive response of a negative
moral judgment against perceivedevil.
And you remember we broke itdown into the key components.
(01:28):
We had talked about anger as aresponse against something.
It's reacting against someprovocation that is there in
life, and so I want you to thinkabout what are some of the
common provocations, what aresome of the things that provoke
you time after time, and why dothey provoke you?
Understanding those two keyconcepts is so important.
And then what we did was wemoved from that piece of the
(01:51):
definition to the next piece.
Where was?
Anger is an active response.
It's something that we do, it'snot something that we have.
You know, so many times what wefind is that people will say
that you're making me angry orsomething is happening around me
that's making me angry, andtherefore it's almost like we're
passive in this, that we're notdoing anything.
(02:13):
It's somebody else doing it tous.
And this definition makes itvery clear that anger is an
active response.
It's something that we do.
It's not just something that wehave, it's not just genetics
and it's not just what'shappening around us.
It's about things that arehappening within us as well.
Then he talked about that angeris a whole person active
(02:35):
response.
It's about your whole person.
Now, so many of us tend to thinkof anger as a feeling, and it
it is, but it's also driven bybeliefs.
It's driven by actions.
It comes out in your desires.
So when you think about anger,it's not enough just to say it's
a feeling.
It is important to be able toacknowledge that anger is also
(02:57):
about the way we but what webelieve and how we feel and how
we act and how we decide on thedesires that we have of our
heart.
We feel and how we act and thedesires that we have of our
heart.
So anger is something thatwe're responding against.
It's a response againstsomething.
It is an active response.
It is a whole person activeresponse.
But then we also talked lastweek it is involving a negative
(03:20):
moral judgment.
So we view something or someoneas wrong.
We object to a wrong that hasbeen committed.
It pits us against what webelieve to be unjust or evil.
And so what are the things thatyou feel are just so wrong and
you were so upset over Now?
Maybe things that are happeningaround you.
(03:41):
Maybe the political climatethat we're going through right
now.
Maybe there are things that arehappening within your church or
your family, at work orwhatever it may be.
We have a tendency to make ajudgment about those things and
we see those things as wrong.
Now I would say this, and we'regoing to get into that today,
that it's not always sinful, aswe will see today, that some of
(04:02):
these judgments are actuallyright, and we are right in
having these judgments andhaving the problems with the
anger or the situation.
Okay, so anger is also anegative moral judgment, but
then it is against a perceivedevil, and if you remember, last
week we had talked about thatyour anger arises out of your
personal perception.
(04:23):
It's something that we dislikeor oppose.
Now, our perceptions may or maynot be accurate and our
responses may or may not begodly, and so what happens is it
arises out of our value system,and not all people are always
angry for the same reason.
So it is so important torecognize that just because
(04:44):
you're feeling angry doesn'tmean that your perception may be
accurate.
Recognize that just becauseyou're feeling angry doesn't
mean that your perception may beaccurate, and just because
you're feeling angry doesn'tmean that your response may be
godly, and so that's where we'regoing to get into today.
Now, last week we spent sometime looking at passages from
James chapter one and Jameschapter 3.
Now, if you remember in Jameschapter 1, we had talked about
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these tests, or thesetemptations, and the temptations
that happen underneath thesurface, and the evil desires
the passage talked about.
Let no one say, when he istempted, I am being tempted by
God.
For God cannot be tempted byevil, nor does he tempt anyone.
Each one is tempted when he isdragged away and enticed by his
(05:25):
own evil desires.
So there is something that ishappening in us that is causing
to produce the things that werehappening around us and outside
of us.
So what James is arguing is thefact that we can't blame God,
we can't blame Satan, we can'tblame other people for the evil
desires that we have.
The reason why we struggle, theevil desires that we have, the
reason why we struggle with thethings that we struggle with,
(05:48):
are because the desires that arehappening within our own heart.
And then we looked at thepassage in James chapter three.
In James chapter three, jameswas talking about the type of
wisdom that you can have, eithergodly wisdom or wisdom that is
from earth, and he had talkedabout that wisdom is almost
(06:10):
satanic, if you remember thepassage said in verse 13,.
Who is wise and understandingamong you by his good conduct,
let him show his works inmeekness or wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousyor selfish ambition in your
heart, do not boast and be falseto the truth.
This wisdom does not come downfrom above, but is earthly,
(06:33):
unspiritual, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfishambition exist, there will be
disorder in every vile practice.
But the wisdom that is fromabove is first of all purer than
peaceable, gentle, open toreason, full of mercy and good
fruit, impartial and sincere.
A harvest of righteousness isshown in peace by those who make
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peace.
And so what James is arguingthere is that there are two
different types of wisdom thatwe can lean on A wisdom that is
from above, from God, that isgranted to us, that is going to
produce a greater level of peaceand gentleness and openness.
Or there could be a wisdom thatis coming from within and it's
actually demonic and it'sworldly and it's going to crave
(07:18):
these evil things.
And then he went into James,chapter 4 and verses 1 through
12, he talks about worldlinessand he talks about conflicts,
and if you remember we talkedabout.
Conflicts can happen around you, but it really is what's
happening within you.
It's covening, it's desiringwhat you can't have.
It is prayerlessness, it's anadulterous heart, it is a heart
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that is driven by our owndesires rather than desires for
God.
It's driven by pride, he said,and you remember it said that
God opposes pride but givesgrace to the humble.
So what he wants you to see isthat if you humble yourself, god
wants to give you the grace todeal with it.
And if you remember last weekwe had talked about the steps
(08:04):
out of that he says in verse 7,submit yourself, therefore, to
God.
Resist the devil, and what willhappen?
He will flee from you.
Draw near to God and he willdraw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, yoursinners.
Purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.
He said.
Purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.
Be wretched and mourn and weep.
(08:25):
Let your laughter be turned tomourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourself before the Lordand he will exalt you.
And so when you're thinkingabout anger, remember that he
had talked about the fact thatour anger is this whole person
active response of a negativemoral judgment against perceived
evil.
(08:45):
So you have to really do somework internally to try to
understand where your anger iscoming from.
So let's do this today.
Let's move towards the nextpart of the puzzle, and we're
going to start with is youranger righteous?
So I want to welcome you backto our second lesson in the
(09:06):
study, and now we're going totackle this question, because
this question is so important Isyour anger really righteous?
Now, we often deceive ourselvesinto thinking that our anger is
justified or righteous, but theBible challenges us to be
cautious about making suchassumptions, and so there are
passages in scripture that talkabout this tendency that we have
(09:29):
Now.
If you see the first one here,in Jeremiah, chapter 17, it says
the heart is deceitful, aboveall things, and desperately sick
.
Who can understand it?
And so the writer, and, greaterthan that, the Holy Spirit, is
asking you to be considering thefact that your heart is
deceitful.
It has this tendency, thedeceitfulness of anger.
(09:51):
That is there.
Scripture tells us the humananger is sinful.
A lot of the time, actuallymost of the time, human anger is
sinful, and that word for angerin the Old Testament, the
Hebrew word, is used 47 times inthe Old Testament and it
denotes human anger, and atleast 42 times of those 47, it's
(10:13):
sinful anger.
It's easy to deceive ourselvesinto believing that our anger is
righteous, but the Bible iscalling us to a higher level of
discernment.
In Ephesians, chapter 4, verses22 and following.
It also talks about putting offthese things, and in verse 26,
it says be angry and do not sin.
(10:34):
Do not let the sun go down onyour anger.
Give no opportunity to thedevil.
I want you to examine yourself.
I want you to reflect on themoment.
When was the last time that youfelt angry?
When was the last time that youwere struggling with this anger
and bitterness or resentmentthat was happening?
(10:55):
Maybe it was just even earliertoday, and I wonder if you feel
like you were justified in youranger.
Do you believe that you wereright in what you were feeling?
I want to give you a criteriathat is going to help us to
understand whether our anger isright or not, and so that's what
we're going to try to do today.
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What we're going to do is we'regoing to introduce the concept
of righteous anger.
We'll examine the threecriteria that determine if anger
is righteous or not, and thenwe'll try to discuss how we can
apply that criteria toevaluating our personal anger,
and we'll even look at somebiblical examples of righteous
anger in the life of Christ.
So let's start by looking atthe criteria first.
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How can we know if our anger isreally righteous?
So this is a really bigquestion.
And so righteous anger reactsagainst actual sin.
So there are going to be threecriteria we're going to talk
about.
The first criteria is that itis reacting against an actual
sin.
Righteous anger is a response toreal sin, not just a personal
(12:02):
inconvenience or an unmet desire.
Anger is real.
Righteous anger actually reactsagainst sin.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
The last time you were angryonce again, it could have been
this morning were you angry overan actual sin or was it
somebody doing something thatinconvenienced you or violated
(12:24):
your preferences?
And so a lot of times, what wefind is that so many of us get
angry over things that deal withself-interest.
In the book of Jonah, we findthe classic example of
self-deception and anger.
Twice God asked Jonah if he hadthe right to be angry, and
twice Jonah claimed that he did.
(12:45):
If you look in Jonah, chapter 4, verses 4 and 9.
But God was clearly showingJonah's anger was unrighteous,
stemming from the self-interestrather than from true injustice.
And I will tell you, sad to say, a lot of times our anger is
coming out of our ownself-interest, our own desires.
(13:06):
So think about the last timeyou felt justified in your anger
, only to realize that the rootof it was bitterness or the root
of it was selfishness.
What did that reveal about yourheart?
What did it reveal about what'sreally happening underneath the
surface?
Well, let's continue with thecriteria.
So we have criteria number onethat it has to react against
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actual sin.
Criteria number two is that itfocuses on God and his kingdom
rights and concerns, not me andmy kingdom rights and concerns.
It focuses on how people offendGod, not me.
Now, this is such an importantpiece of the puzzle because so
many of us, once again, if it'sabout my self-interest, about
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what I want, what I prefer,versus what God wants, what God
prefers, am I really gettingoffended over God's glory being
diminished?
Am I really getting upset overthe fact that God's kingdom is
being violated and that hisconcerns are being not addressed
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, or is it about me?
And once again, I have to say, alot of us make our anger and
our angry situations aboutwhat's happening within us.
So once again, I want you tothink about a recent situation
where you've been angry.
What was the cause of youranger?
Was there an actual sin thatwas happening underneath it?
So, once again, I want you tothink about a recent situation
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where you've been angry.
What was the cause of youranger?
Was there an actual sin thatwas happening underneath it?
Did your anger focus more onthe glory of God or your
personal rights and concerns?
And then I want you to thinkabout how could you adjust your
perspective to align more withGod's will.
Now, if you remember from whenwe talked about last week,
sometimes our perceptions arewrong and a lot of times when
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we're at this point, we thinkwe're doing the godly thing and
the reality is we're not,because we're focusing more on
ourselves rather than God andhis glory.
Okay, so principle number oneis that it reacts against actual
sin.
Principle number two it focuseson God and his kingdom, not me
(15:13):
and my kingdom.
It's not about personal slights, but it's actually about
offending God, and if it's moreabout personal slights, I know
that I'm off track.
The third criteria is alsoimportant.
Righteous anger is accompaniedby other godly qualities and it
expresses itself in godly ways,so it is a self-controlled anger
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.
You remember the fruit of thespirit.
It goes love and joy and peaceand patience and kindness and
goodness and faithfulness andgentleness and self-control.
And it says unless, if youdon't have those, you are not
walking in the spirit, but ifyou do have those, so every
person that is in Christ hasthose qualities that are there.
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And so what Paul was arguing isthat the quality of
self-control, to be able tocontrol the way I think, the way
I speak and the way I act, isone of the key components in
understanding whether theiranger is righteous or not.
So righteous anger remainsself-controlled.
You don't get overwhelmed bythe emotion.
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You master the emotion.
Last week I alluded to a passagein Genesis, chapter 4.
You remember the story of Cainand Abel.
Now, in that story of Cain andAbel, what we have is that God
was saying that sin is crouchingat your door, cain.
It desires to master you.
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You must rule over it.
And so what God was arguingwith Cain is the fact that anger
and bitterness and jealousy,these sinful things were
happening underneath the surface.
It was leading to hisfrustration, his anger, his
bitterness towards his brother,and if he didn't control it, it
was going to come out of him andaffect others.
That's what sin does.
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It starts within us, it startswithin our hearts and then it
has an impact on other people'slives.
So righteous anger remainsself-controlled.
It shows concern for thewell-being of others, which is
so important, and it seeksjustice for the oppressed.
It's not about me and mykingdom.
It is about God and his kingdom.
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Identify situations where youmight become angry, and I use
these three criteria.
Maybe you may even want to sitdown and write on a plan of how
you've been struggling with thisanger and how you responded to
it.
Did you respond in a way?
Was your anger first drivenabout something that was actual
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sin?
That's number one, and thennumber two.
If it was driven by actual sin,was I really focused on the
glory of God and his kingdom orwas it about me?
And then step number three is Iwant you to think about whether
you actually acted in godly ways.
Was it controlled anger?
And, very honestly, you getthrough number one and sometimes
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you'll be able to get throughmile marker one, or warning
number one that there was sinthat was there, that the action
that the person did was sinful.
So you've got that one checkedoff.
But the dilemma is number two,that oftentimes we make it about
us because that's us, we'reselfish, prideful people, and so
we make it about us becausethat's us.
We're selfish, prideful people,and so we make it about us.
And even though that person mayhave acted in a wrong way, we
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still make it about us ratherthan God.
I'm not sure that you could failon number three without missing
on number two that failing onhow you control your anger,
versus number two, the root ofit, what's the heart of your
anger.
I'm not sure that you can donumber three and fail on number
three if you also failed onnumber two, and I'm not sure
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that if you failed on numberthat, you would accomplish
number three.
So you need all three.
You need to have the rightstandard the word sin.
You need to have the rightmotive it's about God and his
glory and then you have to havethe right response Number three
how you respond to your anger.
Each one of those is soimportant.
(19:19):
So now I'm going to give youseven questions.
I want you to consider each oneof these seven questions and I
want you to perhaps even thinkabout taking a journal and using
these prompts, these sevenquestions, as prompts this week,
and so, once again, we don'twant to focus so much on how bad
we are without recognizing howgood Christ is.
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You know, newton I believe itwas said I am a great sinner,
but he is a great savior.
You know, some of us strugglewith not being able to see our
sin.
So there are some people thatdon't see that they sin at all
and they think they accomplisheverything and they do
everything great, and that's aproblem.
There are some people, on theother hand, that only see their
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sin and they live in constantcondemnation and guilt.
And I guess there's a thirdgroup of people that will find
themselves living in bothextremes, where they have a good
day, they feel great, they havea bad day, they feel terrible,
and so I don't want you to go toany one of those extremes, but
we do have to admit that ourgreatest problem is sin, and we
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do have to admit that the onlyanswer to our sin is Christ.
Problem is sin, and we do haveto admit that the only answer to
our sin is Christ.
And so now, taking his word byhis Holy Spirit and going into
looking at these areas of ourlives, help us to go through a
level of self-examination.
So do me a favor and let's tryto examine ourselves right now.
Let's examine ourselves inlight of these seven questions.
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The first question is really soimportant Do you get angry about
the right things?
A lot of times what you'll findis, if you look at those three
criteria and you'll have to behonest and say, no, you know,
sometimes I really am notgetting angry about the right
things.
It's not about sin, it is aboutme.
For some of us, it's a goodplace to be able to recognize
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that that is a problem for us.
The second question is also soimportant Do you express that
anger in right ways that, evenif there was sin that's behind
it?
Am I responding to otherpeople's sin in godly ways?
Am I representing God in theway I should be acting in these
ways?
A lot of times we findourselves not doing that.
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The third question how long doesyour anger last?
Does your anger fester?
Does it kind of stay there, ordo you find yourself getting
angry for a short period of timeand then it's gone?
How controlled is your anger?
When you find yourself gettingangry, are you able to master
yourself, kind of like God wassaying to Cain, and are you able
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to take control of the way youthink and take control of the
way you speak, take control ofthe way you act in a way that's
going to honor him?
What motivates your anger?
That goes back to that secondcriteria.
Is it God in his glory or is itme in my glory?
Is it God in his kingdom or mein my kingdom?
Is it about God's name or myname?
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Is it about respect for God oris it about respect for me?
What's the motivating factor?
The sixth question is a greatquestion as well.
Is your anger primed and readyto respond to another person's
habitual sin?
For some of us, we haven'tdealt with our anger well.
We stuff it.
You know, one author said thatwe have a tendency to either
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stuff our anger or spew ouranger rather than study our
anger.
And I'm hoping over these weekswe're going to learn to study
our anger.
Because if you are a stuffer ofyour anger, I will tell you
eventually it's got to come out.
And it's going to come out inhurting and spewing to others.
And if you're a spewer of youranger, you're still hurting
other people, you're hurtingyourself as well and you're
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harming your relationship withGod.
So if you're constantly readyand you're in that conversation,
you're ready to jump down thatother person's throat, there is
something that is there thatneeds to change in your heart
and life.
And then the seventh question iswhat is the effect of your
anger?
Does it really accomplish whatGod wants?
Now, once again, this is goingto tell you whether it's about
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you and your kingdom or God andhis kingdom.
See, if you want somebody to dosomething, if you want to kind
of manipulate or control asituation to get somebody to do
something that you want, you useyour anger.
And you use your anger to tryto control a situation, you may
get the very thing that you wanttemporarily, but you're really
not changing hearts, you're notdeveloping a deep relationship
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with them.
You're hindering yourrelationship with God.
So the question is the effectof my anger?
Is it really having an effectto bring glory to God and for
the good of others, or is itreally about me?
In Proverbs 4, verse 23,.
It says this In order to changeheart, you must recognize that
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you need to uproot sinfuldesires.
He talks deeply in Proverbsabout what is happening in your
heart has an impact on your life.
So it's not enough just to tryto cease the angry behavior.
You need to replace it withgodly fruit in your heart and
life.
So please be mindful of thefact that it is not just enough
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to say I'm going to stop abehavior.
You know scripture talks aboutthat.
Oftentimes it's not just enoughjust to stop a bad thing.
You need to actually start todo something in a God-honoring
way.
Okay, so for this week I wantyou to consider these three
principles.
Number one do I have a standardfor my anger?
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Number two is my angermotivated for the glory of God?
And if it's not, what ismotivating it?
And then, number three I wantyou to consider am I displaying
my anger in godly ways?
A lot of us fail on all three.
Some of us fail on one or twoof those things.
So what I want you to do thisweek is I want you to consider
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the ways that you've gottenangry and I want you to do an
evaluation of your heart, likethis Proverbs says.
I want you to think about notjust changing the angry behavior
.
I want you to replace it withwhat's happening inside, from
the inside out.
I pray that God would do a workin you and through you, because
that is such an important placeto be Okay.
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Last thing I want you to answerhow deep is my anger?
How many times has my anger hadan impact on my relationships
with others?
I want you to take time to workthrough your journal this week.
I want you to pray through this.
I want you to recognize this aswell, that if you're in Christ,
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all of your sin past, presentand future has been atoned for.
It's done.
I want you to know that whenGod looks at you, he looks at
you as though you lived aperfect and righteous life of
Christ.
He says that there's nocondemnation.
Nothing will ever separate youfrom my love.
In Romans 8, he doesn't justbegin by saying no condemnation.
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He says at the end of Romans 8that nothing will ever separate
you from his love.
So, as you deal with the sinRomans 7, paul was talking about
the sin in his life he says thethings I want to do, I don't do
.
The things I don't want to do,I do.
What a wretched man that I am.
And he says who will separateme from this body of sin and
death?
He says thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
He recognized that it is JesusChrist that separates him from
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this sin.
Romans 8 tells you nocondemnation and ends with no
separation from his love, butright in the middle he talks
about the Holy Spirit's work inyour life.
So let the Holy Spirit work inyour life this week.
Surrender to him, listen to him, yield to him, let him, through
his word, talk to you andexpose some of these areas where
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the criteria have been brokendown, and let's look and
determine whether your anger hasbeen righteous or not.
And if it hasn't been, don'tlose hope, because there is an
answer to get out of this andwe'll be talking about that in
the weeks to come.
Look forward to picking up withyou, lord willing, next week.
Same time, same station, and wewill be looking forward to
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dealing with the next lesson inour lessons on uprooting anger.
All right, be blessed everyone.
Take care.
Hello everyone, it's James Long and welcome back to
our Lunch and Learn.
Today we're going to betackling the topic of is your
anger really righteous?
Anger is one of those majorissues that so many of us
struggle with.
So many of us are dealing withit, either dealing with other
people's anger or our own anger,and the principles that we
(00:21):
talked about last week reallyhelp us to understand how we
could work through this process.
So, if you remember, last weekwe had talked about that.
The top is this book UprootingAnger, by Robert D Jones.
It's a great book.
If you haven't gotten a chanceto pick it up yet, I would
encourage you to do so.
When you pick up the book, whatyou'll learn are some of the
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key topics that are in there.
He begins the lesson with whatis anger and he lays out for you
a standard of what anger is.
Now, if you remember, last weekwe had talked about that anger
is found throughout Scripture.
There are so many passages inScripture that speak of anger,
(01:04):
and mostly anger talks about thesinful tendencies that we have
towards anger.
Anger is one of those sinswhich war against our soul and
we gave you this definition byJones and, if you remember, the
definition was our whole personactive response of a negative
moral judgment against perceivedevil.
And you remember we broke itdown into the key components.
(01:28):
We had talked about anger as aresponse against something.
It's reacting against someprovocation that is there in
life, and so I want you to thinkabout what are some of the
common provocations, what aresome of the things that provoke
you time after time, and why dothey provoke you?
Understanding those two keyconcepts is so important.
And then what we did was wemoved from that piece of the
(01:51):
definition to the next piece.
Where was?
Anger is an active response.
It's something that we do, it'snot something that we have.
You know, so many times what wefind is that people will say
that you're making me angry orsomething is happening around me
that's making me angry, andtherefore it's almost like we're
passive in this, that we're notdoing anything.
(02:13):
It's somebody else doing it tous.
And this definition makes itvery clear that anger is an
active response.
It's something that we do.
It's not just something that wehave, it's not just genetics
and it's not just what'shappening around us.
It's about things that arehappening within us as well.
Then he talked about that angeris a whole person active
(02:35):
response.
It's about your whole person.
Now, so many of us tend to thinkof anger as a feeling, and it
it is, but it's also driven bybeliefs.
It's driven by actions.
It comes out in your desires.
So when you think about anger,it's not enough just to say it's
a feeling.
It is important to be able toacknowledge that anger is also
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about the way we but what webelieve and how we feel and how
we act and how we decide on thedesires that we have of our
heart.
We feel and how we act and thedesires that we have of our
heart.
So anger is something thatwe're responding against.
It's a response againstsomething.
It is an active response.
It is a whole person activeresponse.
But then we also talked lastweek it is involving a negative
(03:20):
moral judgment.
So we view something or someoneas wrong.
We object to a wrong that hasbeen committed.
It pits us against what webelieve to be unjust or evil.
And so what are the things thatyou feel are just so wrong and
you were so upset over Now?
Maybe things that are happeningaround you.
(03:41):
Maybe the political climatethat we're going through right
now.
Maybe there are things that arehappening within your church or
your family, at work orwhatever it may be.
We have a tendency to make ajudgment about those things and
we see those things as wrong.
Now I would say this, and we'regoing to get into that today,
that it's not always sinful, aswe will see today, that some of
(04:02):
these judgments are actuallyright, and we are right in
having these judgments andhaving the problems with the
anger or the situation.
Okay, so anger is also anegative moral judgment, but
then it is against a perceivedevil, and if you remember, last
week we had talked about thatyour anger arises out of your
personal perception.
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It's something that we dislikeor oppose.
Now, our perceptions may or maynot be accurate and our
responses may or may not begodly, and so what happens is it
arises out of our value system,and not all people are always
angry for the same reason.
So it is so important torecognize that just because
(04:44):
you're feeling angry doesn'tmean that your perception may be
accurate.
Recognize that just becauseyou're feeling angry doesn't
mean that your perception may beaccurate, and just because
you're feeling angry doesn'tmean that your response may be
godly, and so that's where we'regoing to get into today.
Now, last week we spent sometime looking at passages from
James chapter one and Jameschapter 3.
Now, if you remember in Jameschapter 1, we had talked about
(05:05):
these tests, or thesetemptations, and the temptations
that happen underneath thesurface, and the evil desires
the passage talked about.
Let no one say, when he istempted, I am being tempted by
God.
For God cannot be tempted byevil, nor does he tempt anyone.
Each one is tempted when he isdragged away and enticed by his
(05:25):
own evil desires.
So there is something that ishappening in us that is causing
to produce the things that werehappening around us and outside
of us.
So what James is arguing is thefact that we can't blame God,
we can't blame Satan, we can'tblame other people for the evil
desires that we have.
The reason why we struggle, theevil desires that we have, the
reason why we struggle with thethings that we struggle with,
(05:48):
are because the desires that arehappening within our own heart.
And then we looked at thepassage in James chapter three.
In James chapter three, jameswas talking about the type of
wisdom that you can have, eithergodly wisdom or wisdom that is
from earth, and he had talkedabout that wisdom is almost
(06:10):
satanic, if you remember thepassage said in verse 13,.
Who is wise and understandingamong you by his good conduct,
let him show his works inmeekness or wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousyor selfish ambition in your
heart, do not boast and be falseto the truth.
This wisdom does not come downfrom above, but is earthly,
(06:33):
unspiritual, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfishambition exist, there will be
disorder in every vile practice.
But the wisdom that is fromabove is first of all purer than
peaceable, gentle, open toreason, full of mercy and good
fruit, impartial and sincere.
A harvest of righteousness isshown in peace by those who make
(06:56):
peace.
And so what James is arguingthere is that there are two
different types of wisdom thatwe can lean on A wisdom that is
from above, from God, that isgranted to us, that is going to
produce a greater level of peaceand gentleness and openness.
Or there could be a wisdom thatis coming from within and it's
actually demonic and it'sworldly and it's going to crave
(07:18):
these evil things.
And then he went into James,chapter 4 and verses 1 through
12, he talks about worldlinessand he talks about conflicts,
and if you remember we talkedabout.
Conflicts can happen around you, but it really is what's
happening within you.
It's covening, it's desiringwhat you can't have.
It is prayerlessness, it's anadulterous heart, it is a heart
(07:42):
that is driven by our owndesires rather than desires for
God.
It's driven by pride, he said,and you remember it said that
God opposes pride but givesgrace to the humble.
So what he wants you to see isthat if you humble yourself, god
wants to give you the grace todeal with it.
And if you remember last weekwe had talked about the steps
(08:04):
out of that he says in verse 7,submit yourself, therefore, to
God.
Resist the devil, and what willhappen?
He will flee from you.
Draw near to God and he willdraw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, yoursinners.
Purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.
He said.
Purify your hearts, youdouble-minded.
Be wretched and mourn and weep.
(08:25):
Let your laughter be turned tomourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourself before the Lordand he will exalt you.
And so when you're thinkingabout anger, remember that he
had talked about the fact thatour anger is this whole person
active response of a negativemoral judgment against perceived
evil.
(08:45):
So you have to really do somework internally to try to
understand where your anger iscoming from.
So let's do this today.
Let's move towards the nextpart of the puzzle, and we're
going to start with is youranger righteous?
So I want to welcome you backto our second lesson in the
(09:06):
study, and now we're going totackle this question, because
this question is so important Isyour anger really righteous?
Now, we often deceive ourselvesinto thinking that our anger is
justified or righteous, but theBible challenges us to be
cautious about making suchassumptions, and so there are
passages in scripture that talkabout this tendency that we have
(09:29):
Now.
If you see the first one here,in Jeremiah, chapter 17, it says
the heart is deceitful, aboveall things, and desperately sick
.
Who can understand it?
And so the writer, and, greaterthan that, the Holy Spirit, is
asking you to be considering thefact that your heart is
deceitful.
It has this tendency, thedeceitfulness of anger.
(09:51):
That is there.
Scripture tells us the humananger is sinful.
A lot of the time, actuallymost of the time, human anger is
sinful, and that word for angerin the Old Testament, the
Hebrew word, is used 47 times inthe Old Testament and it
denotes human anger, and atleast 42 times of those 47, it's
(10:13):
sinful anger.
It's easy to deceive ourselvesinto believing that our anger is
righteous, but the Bible iscalling us to a higher level of
discernment.
In Ephesians, chapter 4, verses22 and following.
It also talks about putting offthese things, and in verse 26,
it says be angry and do not sin.
(10:34):
Do not let the sun go down onyour anger.
Give no opportunity to thedevil.
I want you to examine yourself.
I want you to reflect on themoment.
When was the last time that youfelt angry?
When was the last time that youwere struggling with this anger
and bitterness or resentmentthat was happening?
(10:55):
Maybe it was just even earliertoday, and I wonder if you feel
like you were justified in youranger.
Do you believe that you wereright in what you were feeling?
I want to give you a criteriathat is going to help us to
understand whether our anger isright or not, and so that's what
we're going to try to do today.
(11:16):
What we're going to do is we'regoing to introduce the concept
of righteous anger.
We'll examine the threecriteria that determine if anger
is righteous or not, and thenwe'll try to discuss how we can
apply that criteria toevaluating our personal anger,
and we'll even look at somebiblical examples of righteous
anger in the life of Christ.
So let's start by looking atthe criteria first.
(11:39):
How can we know if our anger isreally righteous?
So this is a really bigquestion.
And so righteous anger reactsagainst actual sin.
So there are going to be threecriteria we're going to talk
about.
The first criteria is that itis reacting against an actual
sin.
Righteous anger is a response toreal sin, not just a personal
(12:02):
inconvenience or an unmet desire.
Anger is real.
Righteous anger actually reactsagainst sin.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
The last time you were angryonce again, it could have been
this morning were you angry overan actual sin or was it
somebody doing something thatinconvenienced you or violated
(12:24):
your preferences?
And so a lot of times, what wefind is that so many of us get
angry over things that deal withself-interest.
In the book of Jonah, we findthe classic example of
self-deception and anger.
Twice God asked Jonah if he hadthe right to be angry, and
twice Jonah claimed that he did.
(12:45):
If you look in Jonah, chapter 4, verses 4 and 9.
But God was clearly showingJonah's anger was unrighteous,
stemming from the self-interestrather than from true injustice.
And I will tell you, sad to say, a lot of times our anger is
coming out of our ownself-interest, our own desires.
(13:06):
So think about the last timeyou felt justified in your anger
, only to realize that the rootof it was bitterness or the root
of it was selfishness.
What did that reveal about yourheart?
What did it reveal about what'sreally happening underneath the
surface?
Well, let's continue with thecriteria.
So we have criteria number onethat it has to react against
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actual sin.
Criteria number two is that itfocuses on God and his kingdom
rights and concerns, not me andmy kingdom rights and concerns.
It focuses on how people offendGod, not me.
Now, this is such an importantpiece of the puzzle because so
many of us, once again, if it'sabout my self-interest, about
(13:51):
what I want, what I prefer,versus what God wants, what God
prefers, am I really gettingoffended over God's glory being
diminished?
Am I really getting upset overthe fact that God's kingdom is
being violated and that hisconcerns are being not addressed
(14:11):
, or is it about me?
And once again, I have to say, alot of us make our anger and
our angry situations aboutwhat's happening within us.
So once again, I want you tothink about a recent situation
where you've been angry.
What was the cause of youranger?
Was there an actual sin thatwas happening underneath it?
So, once again, I want you tothink about a recent situation
(14:32):
where you've been angry.
What was the cause of youranger?
Was there an actual sin thatwas happening underneath it?
Did your anger focus more onthe glory of God or your
personal rights and concerns?
And then I want you to thinkabout how could you adjust your
perspective to align more withGod's will.
Now, if you remember from whenwe talked about last week,
sometimes our perceptions arewrong and a lot of times when
(14:53):
we're at this point, we thinkwe're doing the godly thing and
the reality is we're not,because we're focusing more on
ourselves rather than God andhis glory.
Okay, so principle number oneis that it reacts against actual
sin.
Principle number two it focuseson God and his kingdom, not me
(15:13):
and my kingdom.
It's not about personal slights, but it's actually about
offending God, and if it's moreabout personal slights, I know
that I'm off track.
The third criteria is alsoimportant.
Righteous anger is accompaniedby other godly qualities and it
expresses itself in godly ways,so it is a self-controlled anger
(15:37):
.
You remember the fruit of thespirit.
It goes love and joy and peaceand patience and kindness and
goodness and faithfulness andgentleness and self-control.
And it says unless, if youdon't have those, you are not
walking in the spirit, but ifyou do have those, so every
person that is in Christ hasthose qualities that are there.
(15:59):
And so what Paul was arguing isthat the quality of
self-control, to be able tocontrol the way I think, the way
I speak and the way I act, isone of the key components in
understanding whether theiranger is righteous or not.
So righteous anger remainsself-controlled.
You don't get overwhelmed bythe emotion.
(16:20):
You master the emotion.
Last week I alluded to a passagein Genesis, chapter 4.
You remember the story of Cainand Abel.
Now, in that story of Cain andAbel, what we have is that God
was saying that sin is crouchingat your door, cain.
It desires to master you.
(16:42):
You must rule over it.
And so what God was arguingwith Cain is the fact that anger
and bitterness and jealousy,these sinful things were
happening underneath the surface.
It was leading to hisfrustration, his anger, his
bitterness towards his brother,and if he didn't control it, it
was going to come out of him andaffect others.
That's what sin does.
(17:02):
It starts within us, it startswithin our hearts and then it
has an impact on other people'slives.
So righteous anger remainsself-controlled.
It shows concern for thewell-being of others, which is
so important, and it seeksjustice for the oppressed.
It's not about me and mykingdom.
It is about God and his kingdom.
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Identify situations where youmight become angry, and I use
these three criteria.
Maybe you may even want to sitdown and write on a plan of how
you've been struggling with thisanger and how you responded to
it.
Did you respond in a way?
Was your anger first drivenabout something that was actual
(17:47):
sin?
That's number one, and thennumber two.
If it was driven by actual sin,was I really focused on the
glory of God and his kingdom orwas it about me?
And then step number three is Iwant you to think about whether
you actually acted in godly ways.
Was it controlled anger?
And, very honestly, you getthrough number one and sometimes
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you'll be able to get throughmile marker one, or warning
number one that there was sinthat was there, that the action
that the person did was sinful.
So you've got that one checkedoff.
But the dilemma is number two,that oftentimes we make it about
us because that's us, we'reselfish, prideful people, and so
we make it about us becausethat's us.
We're selfish, prideful people,and so we make it about us.
And even though that person mayhave acted in a wrong way, we
(18:33):
still make it about us ratherthan God.
I'm not sure that you could failon number three without missing
on number two that failing onhow you control your anger,
versus number two, the root ofit, what's the heart of your
anger.
I'm not sure that you can donumber three and fail on number
three if you also failed onnumber two, and I'm not sure
(18:55):
that if you failed on numberthat, you would accomplish
number three.
So you need all three.
You need to have the rightstandard the word sin.
You need to have the rightmotive it's about God and his
glory and then you have to havethe right response Number three
how you respond to your anger.
Each one of those is soimportant.
(19:19):
So now I'm going to give youseven questions.
I want you to consider each oneof these seven questions and I
want you to perhaps even thinkabout taking a journal and using
these prompts, these sevenquestions, as prompts this week,
and so, once again, we don'twant to focus so much on how bad
we are without recognizing howgood Christ is.
(19:42):
You know, newton I believe itwas said I am a great sinner,
but he is a great savior.
You know, some of us strugglewith not being able to see our
sin.
So there are some people thatdon't see that they sin at all
and they think they accomplisheverything and they do
everything great, and that's aproblem.
There are some people, on theother hand, that only see their
(20:04):
sin and they live in constantcondemnation and guilt.
And I guess there's a thirdgroup of people that will find
themselves living in bothextremes, where they have a good
day, they feel great, they havea bad day, they feel terrible,
and so I don't want you to go toany one of those extremes, but
we do have to admit that ourgreatest problem is sin, and we
(20:24):
do have to admit that the onlyanswer to our sin is Christ.
Problem is sin, and we do haveto admit that the only answer to
our sin is Christ.
And so now, taking his word byhis Holy Spirit and going into
looking at these areas of ourlives, help us to go through a
level of self-examination.
So do me a favor and let's tryto examine ourselves right now.
Let's examine ourselves inlight of these seven questions.
(20:46):
The first question is really soimportant Do you get angry about
the right things?
A lot of times what you'll findis, if you look at those three
criteria and you'll have to behonest and say, no, you know,
sometimes I really am notgetting angry about the right
things.
It's not about sin, it is aboutme.
For some of us, it's a goodplace to be able to recognize
(21:10):
that that is a problem for us.
The second question is also soimportant Do you express that
anger in right ways that, evenif there was sin that's behind
it?
Am I responding to otherpeople's sin in godly ways?
Am I representing God in theway I should be acting in these
ways?
A lot of times we findourselves not doing that.
(21:32):
The third question how long doesyour anger last?
Does your anger fester?
Does it kind of stay there, ordo you find yourself getting
angry for a short period of timeand then it's gone?
How controlled is your anger?
When you find yourself gettingangry, are you able to master
yourself, kind of like God wassaying to Cain, and are you able
(21:54):
to take control of the way youthink and take control of the
way you speak, take control ofthe way you act in a way that's
going to honor him?
What motivates your anger?
That goes back to that secondcriteria.
Is it God in his glory or is itme in my glory?
Is it God in his kingdom or mein my kingdom?
Is it about God's name or myname?
(22:15):
Is it about respect for God oris it about respect for me?
What's the motivating factor?
The sixth question is a greatquestion as well.
Is your anger primed and readyto respond to another person's
habitual sin?
For some of us, we haven'tdealt with our anger well.
We stuff it.
You know, one author said thatwe have a tendency to either
(22:36):
stuff our anger or spew ouranger rather than study our
anger.
And I'm hoping over these weekswe're going to learn to study
our anger.
Because if you are a stuffer ofyour anger, I will tell you
eventually it's got to come out.
And it's going to come out inhurting and spewing to others.
And if you're a spewer of youranger, you're still hurting
other people, you're hurtingyourself as well and you're
(22:58):
harming your relationship withGod.
So if you're constantly readyand you're in that conversation,
you're ready to jump down thatother person's throat, there is
something that is there thatneeds to change in your heart
and life.
And then the seventh question iswhat is the effect of your
anger?
Does it really accomplish whatGod wants?
Now, once again, this is goingto tell you whether it's about
(23:20):
you and your kingdom or God andhis kingdom.
See, if you want somebody to dosomething, if you want to kind
of manipulate or control asituation to get somebody to do
something that you want, you useyour anger.
And you use your anger to tryto control a situation, you may
get the very thing that you wanttemporarily, but you're really
not changing hearts, you're notdeveloping a deep relationship
(23:41):
with them.
You're hindering yourrelationship with God.
So the question is the effectof my anger?
Is it really having an effectto bring glory to God and for
the good of others, or is itreally about me?
In Proverbs 4, verse 23,.
It says this In order to changeheart, you must recognize that
(24:03):
you need to uproot sinfuldesires.
He talks deeply in Proverbsabout what is happening in your
heart has an impact on your life.
So it's not enough just to tryto cease the angry behavior.
You need to replace it withgodly fruit in your heart and
life.
So please be mindful of thefact that it is not just enough
(24:25):
to say I'm going to stop abehavior.
You know scripture talks aboutthat.
Oftentimes it's not just enoughjust to stop a bad thing.
You need to actually start todo something in a God-honoring
way.
Okay, so for this week I wantyou to consider these three
principles.
Number one do I have a standardfor my anger?
(24:46):
Number two is my angermotivated for the glory of God?
And if it's not, what ismotivating it?
And then, number three I wantyou to consider am I displaying
my anger in godly ways?
A lot of us fail on all three.
Some of us fail on one or twoof those things.
So what I want you to do thisweek is I want you to consider
(25:07):
the ways that you've gottenangry and I want you to do an
evaluation of your heart, likethis Proverbs says.
I want you to think about notjust changing the angry behavior
.
I want you to replace it withwhat's happening inside, from
the inside out.
I pray that God would do a workin you and through you, because
that is such an important placeto be Okay.
(25:29):
Last thing I want you to answerhow deep is my anger?
How many times has my anger hadan impact on my relationships
with others?
I want you to take time to workthrough your journal this week.
I want you to pray through this.
I want you to recognize this aswell, that if you're in Christ,
(25:51):
all of your sin past, presentand future has been atoned for.
It's done.
I want you to know that whenGod looks at you, he looks at
you as though you lived aperfect and righteous life of
Christ.
He says that there's nocondemnation.
Nothing will ever separate youfrom my love.
In Romans 8, he doesn't justbegin by saying no condemnation.
(26:11):
He says at the end of Romans 8that nothing will ever separate
you from his love.
So, as you deal with the sinRomans 7, paul was talking about
the sin in his life he says thethings I want to do, I don't do
.
The things I don't want to do,I do.
What a wretched man that I am.
And he says who will separateme from this body of sin and
death?
He says thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ.
He recognized that it is JesusChrist that separates him from
(26:35):
this sin.
Romans 8 tells you nocondemnation and ends with no
separation from his love, butright in the middle he talks
about the Holy Spirit's work inyour life.
So let the Holy Spirit work inyour life this week.
Surrender to him, listen to him, yield to him, let him, through
his word, talk to you andexpose some of these areas where
(26:56):
the criteria have been brokendown, and let's look and
determine whether your anger hasbeen righteous or not.
And if it hasn't been, don'tlose hope, because there is an
answer to get out of this andwe'll be talking about that in
the weeks to come.
Look forward to picking up withyou, lord willing, next week.
Same time, same station, and wewill be looking forward to
(27:17):
dealing with the next lesson inour lessons on uprooting anger.
All right, be blessed everyone.
Take care.
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