Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post.
Text: Ephesians 4:26–32
Title: Facing the Giant of Your Anger
Introduction: Have you ever been at an airport during a storm when flights are delayed or canceled? People become extremely angry about things over which no one has control.
Anger is incredibly powerful and lethally dangerous. We live in an anger society. And, anger is irrational. It doesn’t take counsel of the future, of personal safety, or of another’s circumstances. Anger is the corrosive material that damages both the container and the one it is released upon.
I. Is There Such a Thing as “Sinless Anger?”
II. What Are the Characteristics of Sinless Anger?
A. Sinless anger is unselfish
B. Sinless anger does not nurse grudges (doesn’t keep a fire going)
C. Sinless anger is purposeful
III. Warnings Regarding Anger
A. How do we most often demonstrate our anger?
B. Weapons to fight anger
1. Commit your rights to God.
2. Correct yourself before you correct others.
3. Constructively allow your anger to reveal hidden areas of pride and self-pity.
4. Consider the door that anger opens.
5. Console yourself in the fact that God will settle your accounts.
Conclusion: The world should be able to expect Christians to be distinctly different from what they are accustomed to. When you are mistreated, are you responding as is expected, or is your response a clear indication that you are filled with something other than yourself?
Jesus countered evil with goodness. Even in His dying breaths, He offered words of forgiveness to those who had been consumed with their own anger.
When we begin to offer good for evil, peace for violence, kindness for harm, and gentleness for harshness, we are a living demonstration of the miracle that has taken place within us, and is now evidenced around us.
