Taking Out the Trash Part 4
“Today’s stinky, rotting trash: Anger”
Introducion
Matthew
12:34.
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For
out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
Matthew 23:25-28.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside
of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the
cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
So Far…
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Letting go of hurt
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Getting rid of an unforgiving heart
Why have we looked
at these two things and why do we continue to look within ourselves?
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We must focus on the inside if the outside is to become clean
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We must take what is hidden inside us, in the dark part of us, lurking
in the shadows and we must bring these things out into the light
1 Corinthians 4:4-5.
My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.
It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time;
wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At
that time each will receive his praise from God.
- God sees the heart. God sees why you really do what you do. Are you ready to be exposed for who you really are or are you ready to be praised for who you really are?
o EXAMPLE: go drinking at a bar, camping chicks…everything looks better at night/ in the darkness
We cannot begin
to deal with our filth if we can’t see it and admit it is there first!
Over the next few
weeks I will try my best to show you some more common areas of filth we all have lurking within us
Today’s area:
Anger
Matthew 5:21-22."You have heard that it was said to the people
long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with
his brother will be subject to judgment.
Proverbs 14:17. A
quick-tempered man does foolish things…
Proverbs 15:18. A
hot tempered man stirs up dissension…
Proverbs 19:19. A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty...
Proverbs 29:22. An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered
one commits many sins.
When Galatians 5:22-23 lists the fruit of the Spirit, it does not include anger.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…
Christians are not
supposed to be know as angry people. Instead God wants us to…
Psalm 37:8. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil
Eccles. 7:9. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for
anger resides in the lap of fools
Ephesians 4:31-32. Get
rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Proverbs 16:32. Better
a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city
Col. 3:8. But now
you must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Instead,
we are to be…
Ephesians 4:32. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. (KJV)
How do we remove the anger that lives in our hearts?
1. Recognize it
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Bring it into the light
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those people closest to you will see it before you do
o I do not have an anger problem!
o Admit you have anger within your heart
2. Repent of it
Repent of it
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before any sin can be dealt with it has to first be repented of
3. Do something about it
When something makes you mad, deal with it as soon as possible
Ephesians 4:26-27. "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.
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This is best done by bringing it out in the open, by talking about it
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Confess why you are angry to someone else because then you will not have
an excuse to be mad anymore, it loses its power
o When we try to stuff our anger, it builds up, waiting to explode
§ As anger builds up, it leaves potential for future, easier explosions
· Talk about it, resolve it
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Keeping our stories of why we are angry do nothing more than feed the anger
and give it more power
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When we stuff our anger and don’t talk about why we are angry, we
allow other people to continue to control our lives and emotions
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Some of these people you don’t even like, some of them are people
who are no longer in your life, some of them are people who may not even be alive…
o And yet we allow them to continue to control our lives by letting what they did make us angry.
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We often spend the rest of our lives being angry over 10 minutes of hurt
o Even though you cant undo what has been done, but you don’t have to let it control the rest of
your life
**Important
to note** We don’t share our stories to justify our bad attitudes, we tell it because it is therapeutic.
Deal appropriately with situations that may make you angry
How can we do this?
Proverbs 18:13 says, "He who answers before listening - that
is his folly & his shame."
James 1:19-20. My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone
should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous
life that God desires.
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think before you speak…often our words only make us and the other
person more angry
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Listen to what is actually being said instead of what you think is being
said
Proverbs 19:11 says, "A man’s wisdom gives him patience.
It is to his glory to overlook an offense."
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Put yourself in their shoes
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Look beyond the emotion people are shooting at you and understand what
is going on behind the words and the emotions
We must die to our self daily
What does this have
to do with anger?
James 4:1-2.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come
from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it.
You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.
People get mad because
they don’t get their way… they want things done a certain way but they don’t get it.
One of the most
common ways people experience anger is when they feel like someone owes them something.
FOR EXAMPLE:
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My husband should treat me this way
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I have certain expectations about life and when “I don’t get
what is expected of me, I get angry
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My waitresses did not serve me the way I should have been served.
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Pastor Matt is doing things differently than how I like it so I’m
leaving the church….
What was the last
thing you were mad about?
Ask yourself, what
didn’t I get?
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…
Matthew 16:24-25. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If
anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.
When we surrender,
we expect nothing other than what God has for us.
When we are walking
in obedience, everything we experience becomes part of God’s plan
Closing
What are you angry
about?
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Repent of it.
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Tell Jesus about it.
Ask God to help
you overcome anger in your life.
Do you need Jesus? Choose to give your life to Him today.
