Live Free with Josh Howerton - Mismanaged Anger vs. Righteous Anger | Ep. 303 | Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

This week, we have been looking at the Fatal Four, four deadly opponents that want to take us out. God has righteous anger that comes from sin, injustice and evil. You might experience that, too. However, mismanaged anger causes damage wherever it flares up. Be aware that the enemy wants to keep fanning that flame, so we burn our relationships down. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up everybody? My name is Bro and excited to be hanging with you for a few minutes here on the Daily Drive. We're here Monday through Friday, and I've got to tell you, I am obsessed with March Madness that has actually found its way into April this year. But being a basketball fan, I've been following the road to the final four since the beginning of the season back in November. And my brackets have been busted after the first weekend of the tournament, anybody else? But I still can't stop watching. So I thought that this week we would line up with that by talking about the fatal four, not the final four, the fatal four, four deadly opponents that want more than anything to take you and me out. You know, First Peter, chapter 5,

verse 8 tells us to be alert, to be on guard because the devil prows around like a lion looking for someone to devour. Paul tells us the second Corinthians to not let the enemy outsmart us to be aware of his schemes. He tells us in Ephesians 6 that we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but a powerful enemy who is always looking to take us out. So put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. He's got schemes.

We talked about pride for the last two days, and since it is the number one seed, we gave it a couple of episodes. Actually, we could spend a week on each one of these things. But today, I want to reveal the number two seed, and it is neck and neck with pride because it has destroyed so many relationships and lies. I'm talking about anger.

We really could spend the rest of the rest of, of the week unpacking this, and maybe we will. I'm not real sure. But the damage that mishandled mismanaged anger does in our world in our city, in our neighborhoods, in our homes, in our schools, and our workplaces is absolutely staggering. According to the FBI, in our country, there's a violent crime every 24 seconds, an aggravated assault every 48 seconds, and a murder every 23 minutes. Domestic violence is the number one cause of emergency room visits by women. Fifteen hundred people are killed or injured each year in cases of road rage. And we all know personally how mismanaged anger affects our own lives. Men, it can take you out of a job,

out of a friendship, out of a marriage, out of a family, and a heartbeat. And it can hurt a whole lot of people and cause your own soul to implode in the process. Jesus, brother, James, actually was his half-brother, same mama, different fathers. He puts it this way in James chapter one, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For a man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. If you are wanting God to turn you into his best version of you, and I think you do, that unhealthy anger, it just has to go. Now, I qualify that as unhealthy anger, because anger in and of itself is an honest emotion. It's been hardwired into us by our passionate

God, we are created in his image, so we have this capacity for feeling anger. I mean, Scripture, in fact, 256 of them tell us that God sometimes gets angry. You might even remember how one time Jesus got angry when he saw the religious leaders scamming people in the name of God. They were cheating poor people by saying that the sacrifices they were bringing to the temple were not acceptable and then forcing them to purchase their official pre-approved blemish-free temple sacrifices at jacked up prices. Well, Jesus stood there and watched for as long as he could, and then his nostrils began to flare in the face of injustice, and he starts turning over tables and driving out animals and scattering money everywhere, and he said, my father's house is supposed to be for prayer and worship, and here you are ripping off people and doing it in his name. God is a righteous kind of anger, a healthy kind of anger, the kind that flows from his love, from his justice, the kind that absolutely hates.

I mean, if you watch a news report of some of the atrocities happening in this world and not feel the same righteous indignation that Jesus felt that day, there's something kind of wrong inside of you. If you don't feel angry over rape and child abuse and child pornography and the scamming of older people and trafficking and terrorism, then your heart has grown immensely apathetic. Some things anger God, and they ought to anger us who are made in his image. Now, we must channel that anger to respond in the right way and leave the ultimate vengeance part to God, but evil, oppression, and injustice, they ought to make us angry. And you know what?

Sometimes anger even energizes us to do the right thing. There are some addict friends of mine that I know got to the point in their life where they got just angry about their life and the pain it was causing other people in themselves. They said, you know what? I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. And they checked into rehab or they got into a group. Some of the best decisions I've made in my life came when I got to a point of anger and I said, all right, enough, that is it. I am done with the old routine. It's time to get up and do something about this. It is time that I rise above the status quo. So just being angry is not bad or sinful. Sometimes it can unleash passion and motivate us to good things. But here's the deal.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle said it over 2,000 years ago. Anyone can become angry. That's easy. But to be angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right purpose in the right way, this is not easy. I don't have to tell you that way too often we're not angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right purpose in the right way. Most of the time it is in Fuego, this fire raging out of control. And if you and I are serious about becoming God's best version of us, then we have to get a handle on our anger,

because it's really hard to move through life in a God-honoring way when you got a short fuse. When you're always starting stuff with people, always getting frustrated and flipping people off in traffic, when you're always saying little things to set your kids off, doing little things to intentionally get under your parents' skin, when you're pushing other people's buttons and you're picking fights and trying to take other people down,

when it seems like you're in always some kind of dispute or argument when you're always keeping score and holding grudges and waiting for the chance to get even, when you get all kinds of strife going on with your spouse, your brother, your sister, your coworkers, your teammates, your neighbors, your parents, your in-laws, the Bible says that you will live a miserable existence, and eventually you will become a bitter and resentful old man, old woman who finds no joy in life because they've lived all locked up in a self-imposed prison of

unresolved anger again. Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Don't let it ruin your relationships. Don't let it keep you from becoming God's best version of you. Don't let this one bust your brackets. All right, well, I'm out of time today. So come on back tomorrow. And I'm going to give you a game plan for managing this deadly opponent. And if you're listening to this right now in traffic, just take a deep breath and chill. See you back tomorrow.

Have a good day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint. dot church slash daily drive.