Anger

Some months ago, I was driving on my way somewhere, I can't remember exactly where, but heading towards the motorway on the on-ramp of the motorway.

And it was morning, and I noticed that my windscreen was particularly dirty.

So I chose to do the washer-wiper thing at that particular point in time, and then speeding up to join the motorway.

And as I was doing so, I noticed a really peculiar behaviour behind me.

A car moved out from behind me, that was also joining the motorway, by the way, moved out, overtook me to the right, then merged into my lane.

By this stage, we were both on the motorway.

Slowed down a little, so that the gap between our cars reduced, and then proceeded to wash his wipers and wash his windscreen.

He then sped off.

And it just left me bewildered.

Why would someone do something so deliberate and so petty?

And then I made the connection.

When I was on the on-ramp, speeding up, and decided to wash my windscreen, some of the water from my windscreen must have washed over the car and hit his car, who was right behind me.

And it's as if I was spitting on him.

And so, therefore, he decided that he was going to show me, or make clear to me, the offence that I had caused by spitting back at me with a cup.

Although, I must say, mine was unintentional.

My spitting was unintentional.

And then this feeling of this overwhelmed feeling that I had about, you know, what's going on quickly turned into anger.

I was angry at this chap.

I was really annoyed.

Something rolled up within me that made me feel this anger.

And it wasn't pleasant.

My pride had been hurt.

Anger is no stranger.

It is a commonly experienced emotion, which can range from mild annoyance to rage.

According to the Australian Psychological Society, anger is triggered when a person believes that they've been wronged, or that they're not respected, or that they are under threat, or at some injustice.

Anger can be a powerful motivator and can drive us towards taking action that is positive, for instance, in standing up for the powerless.

In the Bible, anger is mentioned over 200 times.

In Ephesians 4, Paul writes the following instructions for Christian living.

In your anger, do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

And do not give the devil a foothold.

And jumping to verse 31, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Somewhat similar to the passage we just heard.

Anger lives in our bodies and in our society.

It is pervasive and difficult to avoid.

Let me be clear, anger itself is not sin.

Verse 26 recognises that we do become angry.

Indeed, the Bible tells us about God's anger falling on various people throughout history.

And even about Jesus' anger, justifiably at the actions of the religious leaders of the time who made it difficult for people to come to God.

In Psalm 103, the Lord is described as compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

God is righteous in his anger, and his anger is aroused when there is an offence against him or his word.

And he can regulate his anger.

About human anger, the Bible has a lot more to say.

In Proverbs, make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man.

In Ecclesiastes, do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

And in Psalm 37, refrain from anger and turn from wrath.

Do not fret, it leads only to evil.

God's word gives us numerous clear warnings about anger.

Let's look at why anger is a problem to us and to a society.

Firstly, its effects on the body.

Anger triggers in us the fight or flight response.

This is an automatic response that causes our body to release adrenaline and cortisol.

Chemicals that increase the rate at which our blood flows to our muscles, and chemicals that help us to focus on the threat.

This response is preparing us to neutralize the threat.

If we get angry frequently or have outbursts of rage, the heightened state of our body can result in well-documented and adverse health impacts as the body struggles to return to a relaxed state.

In our minds, anger impacts the quality of our decisions.

Decisions made in the heat of anger are affected by wanting to neutralize the threat.

And we are more likely to do things that are not loving and that we will regret.

Hence the words in your anger, do not sin.

And anger impacts our spirit.

For every moment we are angry, we experience a lack of peace and a lack of joy.

And we struggle to live out the fruits of the spirit.

Hence deal quickly with anger.

Furthermore, in Ephesians 4, we're warned against giving the devil a foothold, as we just read.

This is giving him space or room in your life that the devil wants to do harm in and draw you away from God.

And unregulated anger, together with its outworking, is giving him room to do so.

For all these reasons, unregulated anger impacts our relationships and our community.

We are commanded to love God first, then to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

However, anger within the church generates more anger and also fear.

This results in disunity, fragmentation, ineffectiveness, and discredits the witness of the church, things that the devil seeks to do.

So why do we get angry?

We might think that we are justified to be angry.

However, as Benjamin Franklin once said, anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

Anger originates from our heart.

It's deep within.

It results from a threat against something or someone that we hold dear.

Attitudes such as contempt, pride and entitlement mean that we have a skewed sense of what we love more.

And these can be the root of problem anger in us.

Hence anger can be a symptom of an idol in our lives.

Anger is related to blockages that prevent us from getting what we want.

It is not uncommon for a young child to become angry when they can't get what they want as they struggle to regulate their emotions.

Maturity is needed for anger to be regulated.

However, even in mature people, anger may stew up when one is blocked from having a desire or a need met.

And anger can also be related to our past hurts.

The effects of deep hurts from what was denied to us earlier in life still linger as scars deep within and can cause in us those entrenched attitudes that drive more anger.

This glass rings with a nice tone.

It is related to the material the glass is made from, the shape that it's formed into, whatever defects it might have.

It makes a nice tone.

This is what we call, in the scientific world, resonance, where something has a natural frequency at which it will vibrate.

And musical instruments, the traditional ones at least, work on this principle.

And as we strike something or as we excite it, it will resonate.

It will give off a sound that is related to what it is and how it's been made.

As we go through life, sometimes the hurts that we experience from the scars that we have affect how we respond to things.

Imagine these little clips here.

I'm just going to put a couple of clips on this glass, and I'll strike it again.

There's a slight resonance, it is affected, and certainly the tone changes, because of the presence of the clips.

The response is affected by the clips.

And hence, in a similar way, the scars that we carry can affect the way that our subconscious mind responds to particular events.

To one person, a particular event may have little effect, such that they may resonate with compassion, say, or not at all.

And yet to another person, the same event might cause in them same feelings of anger to well up.

If significant hurts from the past have resulted in proud heart within us, then we may be overly sensitive and react angrily to actions that we perceive as being disrespectful.

In so doing, we protect our pride.

In the car spitting incident I mentioned at the start, if I'm honest, I would say that my anger was aroused in defense of the pride that was in my heart.

Ultimately, anger is intent on protecting what we love, and in so doing to harm whatever poses a threat to what we love.

And so anger can highlight when we are giving greater importance to ourselves or something else over God or others.

What makes you angry?

What is your anger defending?

The Bible's words on anger are strong and clear, yet anger seems to come from deep within our core, our heart with its hurts.

So what can we do about it?

How can we change our hearts?

First and foremost, I want to remind you that Jesus accepts you totally as you are.

Your anger or how you manage it is not going to change that.

By His grace and in His loving mercy, if Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then you are God's precious child, forgiven, accepted as you are, scars and all.

Your future is secure in Him.

There is no quick fix to anger, but the grace that changes our whole lives is the same grace that can change our will to anger.

Grace is given freely to enable us to live the life that we have been created for.

And the believer living in the grace of God is best placed to overcome anger.

In Philippians, we are reminded that it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.

In God's grace, we have access to a loving God, the Creator of all, who knows everything about us, including what's in our hearts.

He knows what we truly need, and He provides the resources to do His work in us.

And He enables us, by His power, to do whatever He causes us to do.

This is grace upon grace.

Part of His good purpose is to transform us to become more Christ-like, to grow in the way of the Master.

Transformation does not happen overnight, but is a progressive thing that continues this side of heaven, as long as we allow God to integrate the life of Christ into our bodies.

We must be willing participants in this transformational process.

We will not do it, so He will not do it without our will.

He meets us where we are and will remain with us as we take steps in obedience to His leading.

As we yield to His work of grace in our lives, we mature as Christians.

He brings order and restoration to our frailty.

Our perspective of what matters most changes.

Our hearts are reshaped and our scars receive His soothing balm.

By His grace, His transforming work changes the way we resonate to things.

The result of this is that we become better at regulating our anger and in knowing when to choose submission rather than an angry response to someone who has offended us.

More and more, we bring the fragrance of Christ to all the situations because He is in us.

As we recognize His work of grace with gratitude and humility in our hearts and by becoming more servant-hearted, our hearts soften and we become less angry people.

By God's grace, He has also given us rules to live by that are intended for our good.

Pay attention to the wisdom of His word and choose to live by it.

In 2 Corinthians, we are given a particularly powerful strategy.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We usually can choose whether we keep dwelling on a thought in our minds.

We have learned in previous sermons that repetition rewires the brain, while repetitive destructive thoughts stemming from anger reinforce those destructive patterns of thinking.

By choosing not to ruminate over angry thoughts, by dismissing them quickly, we are disempowering them.

And when we replace them by repeating truths from the Bible over and over, we build new thought processes that are based on those truths.

This is part of the journey of transformation, as it renews our mind and changes our heart.

Finally, if the Holy Spirit is nudging you in any of this, it is God's grace at work right here.

He is drawing your attention to what He wants to do, a good work in you.

Ask Him for revelation.

Pay attention to what He is telling you and trust Him.

If anger is rooted in something you give greater importance to than you should, repent of it and receive His forgiveness.

His grace is given to you.

Access His grace today.

Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, that it is by the same grace that changes our whole lives, that can change our will to anger.

We invite you, Lord, to rule in our lives, and ask you to have your way here today.

We pray for your prompting, and where you want to do your work of grace in us at this moment.

And help us to relax in the yoke of your provision.

Help us to love others as you have loved us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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