Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Jun 24, 2018

Wisdom in Anger

Passage: Proverbs 19:11

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Proverbs

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: anger, conflict, hate, love, wisdom

Are you an angry person? Hopefully your answer is yes, because anger is a healthy and loving reaction to brokenness: broken relationships, bodies, hearts, communities and our world. But in our own personal brokenness we are also prone to a “broken anger” when our own personal kingship is threatened. The Gospel helps us trace our anger backwards to see what is causing it, how to channel it in a controlled and healthy way, and how God offers healing to our anger by channeling and satisfying his holy anger onto Jesus instead of us.

Order of Worship

Call To Worship: Psalm 145:3,8-10 ESV

Songs: Holy Holy Holy, Come as you are, Who wrote the rain, Jesus Paid it All

Reading: Colossians 3:1-2,12-13a,14 ESV

Prayer: Humility In Service

LEADER:  O Mighty God, we humble ourselves for faculties misused, opportunities neglected, and words ill-advised.

ALL:  We repent of our folly, inconsiderate ways, and paths of unbelief

LEADER:  Fill us with an over-flowing ocean of compassion, Bury our sins in the cleansing blood of Jesus.  The reign of love our motive and the law of love our rule.

ALL:  O God of all grace, make us more thankful, more humble and work in us a deep sense of our depravity and your daily rescue.

LEADER:  That faith may adhere us to Christ, that love may entwine itself around us, your Spirit pervading throughout; making known Your grace to all.  

ALL:  Lord Jesus, give us repentance unto life.

Sermon Title: Wisdom for our Anger

Central Text: Various Proverbs on anger

  • 14:17: A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.
  • 14:29: Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.
  • 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
  • 15:18: A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
  • 16:32: Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
  • 19:11: Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
  • 29:22: A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression.
  • 29:11: A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Illustrations: 

Response: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV

Benediction: Romans 15:13 ESV

Post-Service Text: Ephesians 4:26 ESV

Related Scriptures:

Psalm 103:9

Psalm 103:8

Psalm 85:5 

John 11:38-44

Ephesians 4:26

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. What does anger look like in you? Is it more active or passive? More external or internal?
  2. What makes you angry? When is anger a good thing and when is it a bad thing? Think of things in life that stirred up a “righteous anger”. Think also of things in life that have and do stir up a “selfish anger”.
  3. What makes God angry? Why?
  4. When has your anger (and how you dealt with it, how it came out of you) gotten you in trouble? (i.e. said or done something in anger that was really hurtful).
  5. How has/does God act out of his holy anger? Think of how he did it in the Old Testament and then how he did it in/to Jesus.
  6. How can understanding that God’s full anger and wrath has been entirely poured out onto Jesus on the cross change the way you respond in anger, and change the way you see the the one that caused your anger?

Articles / Docs

Quotes:

  • “Anger is the result of love. It is energy for defense of something you love when it is threatened. If you don’t love something at all, you are not angry when it is threatened. If you love something a little, you get a little angry when it is threatened. If something you love is an ‘ultimate concern,’ if it is something that gives you meaning in life, then when it is threatened you will get uncontrollably angry. When anything in life is an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, is is essentially an ‘idol,’ something you are actually worshiping. When such a thing is threatened, your anger is absolute. Your anger is actually the way the idol keeps you in its service, in its chains. Therefore if you find that, despite all the efforts to forgive, your anger and bitterness cannot subside, you may need to look deeper and ask, ‘What am I defending? What is so important that I cannot live without?’ It may be that, until some inordinate desire is identified and confronted, you will not be able to master your anger.” - Timothy Keller
  • “If what you’re really looking to for your significance and security is people’s approval or a good reputation or status or something like that, then when anything gets between you and the thing you have to have, you become implacably angry. You have to have it. If we find ourselves angry about getting snubbed in social media, or being cut off in traffic, or going unrecognized for work, or having an idea shut down, or feeling underappreciated by our spouse — the problem might be that we love ourselves too much.” - John Piper
  • “If our minds are not being daily renewed by the truths of the gospel, we will not be able to discern and walk in the will of God” - Jeff Vanderstelt

Sermons (audio & written):

Related Media:

6.24.18 Album