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Aug 19, 2018

Wisdom keeps goodness and anger on friendly terms

Wisdom keeps goodness and anger on friendly terms

Passage: Proverbs 14:29

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Proverbs, Searching for Wisdom

It may be the first emotion we exhibit as children. Frustration in getting what we need gives rise to the anger that means to put an end to our waiting. And we find it an effective tool to get what we want. We know anger to be problematic. But what shall we make of anger when God speaks of His own practice of it? Or of Jesus’s unambiguous expressions of it? If goodness and anger are not mutually-exclusive, what wisdom do we need to keep them as “friends”?

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Ecclesiastes 7:9
Call To Worship: Psalm 103:1-12
Old Testament Reading: Exodus 34:1-8
New Testament Reading: Mark 3:1-6
Sermon Title: Wisdom keeps goodness and anger on friendly terms
Central Text: Proverbs 14:29; 15:1, 18; 16:32; 19:11,19; 22:24; 24:17,18, 28-29; 25:21-22; 30:33
Response: Communion
Benediction: Hebrews 13:20-21
Post-Service Text: Prov. 25:21

Sermon Slides 08.19.18

Illustration: Inside Out, No Dessert

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

Call To Worship: Psalm 103:1-12
LEADER: 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

ALL: 6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.

LEADER: 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Old Testament Reading: Exodus 34:1-8
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

New Testament Reading: Mark 3:1-6
1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Central Text: Proverbs 14:29; 15:1, 18; 16:32; 19:11,19; 22:24; 24:17,18, 28-29; 25:21-22; 30:33

Prov. 14:29 Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding,
but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Prov. 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Prov. 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

Prov. 16:32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Prov. 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Prov. 19:19 A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,
for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

Prov. 22:24 Make no friendship with a man given to anger,
nor go with a wrathful man,
lest you learn his ways
and entangle yourself in a snare.

Prov. 24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
18 lest the LORD see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.

Prov. 24:28 Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,
and do not deceive with your lips.
29 Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;
I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

Prov. 25:21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
22 for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Prov. 30:33 For pressing milk produces curds,
pressing the nose produces blood,
and pressing anger produces strife.

Benediction: Hebrews 13:20-21
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Post-Service Text: Prov. 25:21
If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
22 for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.

Related Scripture

Psalm 37:3-8
Isaiah 54:5-8
Romans 12:14-21

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. Are you more given to letting your anger simmer beneath the surface or boil over? What things most make you angry?
  2. What’s the good of anger? What are its dangers?
  3. Why is pausing to “cool off” in the middle of your anger helpful for the moment, but not a long-term solution?
  4. What can we learn about anger from the instances Jesus showed it during His ministry?
  5. How does the good news of sin forgiven, the full welcome of God established, and the beginning of God making all things new--and all by grace--speak to our potential for anger?
  6. What are you too angry about? What are you not angry enough about?

Quotes:

  • My anger has often seemed out of proportion-that is, too great or too little, but more often too great-for the occasion that gave rise to it. . . .  My anger has more often distressed those I love and who love me than it has affected those at whom I was angry. . . . My anger has not carried me far enough toward changing what legitimately enrages me. In fact, the anger often saps the conviction. Garret Keizer, The Enigma of Anger
  • God, there guns growing out of our bones
    God, every road takes us farther from home. Iron and Wine, “On Your Wings”
  • If we are resistant to the idea of the wrath of God, we might pause to reflect the next time we are outraged about something—about our property values being threatened, or our children's educational opportunities being limited, or our tax breaks being eliminated. All of us are capable of anger about something. God's anger, however, is pure. It does not have the maintenance of privilege as its object, but goes out on behalf of those who have no privileges. the wrath of God is not an emotion that flares up from time to time, as though God had temper tantrums; it is a way of describing his absolute enmity against all wrong and his come to set matters right. Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ

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