“Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” – Fredrick Buechner

Crouching at your door

a. True stories

Anger at government, anger at AIG, anger at ….somebody

Angry at cigatette taxes, in egypt a day of anger,

Easter match prompts church anger

Shootings

b. Your story

c. Saul

Holy Anger – 1 Sam 11:6

52/66 CASES were ‘justified’ – all but five, by God

“A man that does not how to be angy doesn’t know how to be good. A man that doesn’t know how to be shaken to his hearts core with indignation over things evil is either a fungus, or a wicked man”

Anger is a great motivator to right things. I get angry over tripping over that threshold and I finally fix it. I get angry that the broken screen window keeps me up at night, so I do something about it. I get angry about a broken relationship, so I reach out. I get angry at sin and finally, have enough of it, and start making changes.

But righteous anger is parceled out in very small portions because we simply do not know how to use it properly. Holy wars, forced conversions, abortions clinic bombings, etc.

Unholy anger

a. 1 sam 16:14

d. Anger affects those around us

Pr 30.33

John McGraw fight

In the Spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well.

e. When anger prevails, reason disappears

Gen 4:6-7

Pr 14:17

Personal example?

f. Ther is a price to pay for your anger

a. Moses “struck the rock out of anger”

b. Ps 37.8

c. Personal example

g. Anger destroys your soul

a. James 1:19-2