Is it ever ok for a Christian to be angry? a loving Christian doesn’t mean that we are to be some wispy doormat of a person. Anger is a real part of life. But what we do with that anger is the issue. Anger is not the opposite of love.

Anger is the opposite of indifference. There is nothing worse than indifference. Wherever evil people have triumphed it was indifferent people who allowed it. Indifferent and unaware people entertained and aloof while around them an empire crumble

 In the times of the Romans they called it bread and circus. They had food lines where the government handed out grain and they kept the people entertained with the games in the Colosseum. As long as they provided free food and entertainment the people wouldn’t think for themselves and begin to question what was going on in their land.

Christians we need to come out of the world. we need to reject the bread and circuses the distractions and open our eyes to what is really going on for the sake of this next generation.

Read Ephesians 4:25-32

I like that it starts with speak the truth than it says Be angry and do not sin? What does that mean?

Anger is not always bad – without being provoked to anger due to seeing inequity or injustice in the world nothing would get done. (examples) when we see the vulnerable, those who can't speak for themselves harmed it makes us angry, when we see a corrupted government try to overthrow an elected president, when we see children sold into human trafficking, when we see activist trying to indoctrinate our children against the religious faith of their parents it makes us angry. And this anger is there for a reason. Its called righteous indignation.

Righteous indignation- is when you are deeply troubled and agitated by the sin that you see. It is a fire that is lit within our hearts to do something to set things right. How do we focus that holy fire in our hearts?

• Expose evil -information campaigns of awareness- We are called to expose what hides in the darkness. To call evil what it is.
• Many groups have agendas to push on society by underhanded means specifically indoctrinating young children with ideas that are contrary to the Bible in an effort to undermine Christians families. They disguise these brainwashing efforts as anti-bullying campaigns. but when was the last time you heard of a Christian child being bullied for their faith in Christ and as a solution the school called in a pastor to hold an assembly and talk to the children about Christianity or that they organized a Christian pride day, or that they instituted a curriculum that made learning about Christianity a mandatory part of education? Never happened. But that is exactly what those who are against what we believe do.

• Recently parents got together and exposed 4 books that were going to be used in the new framework in California to indoctrinate little children as young as 5 yrs old with ideology basically teaching children that gender is fluid and exposing sexuality to them. Starting in Kindergarten. All it took was for these parents to read directly from these books out loud and to show the very graphic illustrations for the school board to agree to ban those books. The evil had to be exposed to the light of day. The same thing is happening on the issue of abortion. People are waking up finally to the horrors and the lies of the abortion industry. But it did not happen without exposing what was being kept from the public.

• Counter the lies- We need to speak the truth and not be intimidated or bullied by those who would try to silence us. I don’t take much to fool people today. Hitler’s minister of propaganda said if you tell a lie often enough and loud enough people will believe it. They had the Hitler youth, the brown shirts which they indoctrinated with the Nazi belief system. they were taught to hate those who did not hold to their belief systems and the people were brainwashed to hate and think of as less than human those who were not like them. That very hatred is the kind I am seeing directed at Jews and Christians and anybody who dares to support us. It’s one thing to disagree with Christianity but is another to completely demonize a people and call for outlawing their beliefs and even approving of violence toward them for their beliefs. regardless. But we are called to speak the truth to this generation. This is where we need to ask God to help keep our anger in check. We cannot retaliate in the same manner as the world. We must be diligent to keep from blowing our witness.

• Intercede in prayer-nothing happens without prayer No matter what we need to commit to prayer.
• Share the gospel with everyone

so anger can be a motivating force but left unchecked it can also lead to all kinds of evil. And this is where they do not sin part comes in.

We sin by giving an opportunity to the devil whenever we let our anger go one of these 3 directions.

Wrath- literally an intense anger given to emotional outburst. It is an intensity of emotion that is when anger is unrestrained gives itself to be controlled by whatever is causing the anger. When Wrath or rage is on display it rarely ends with something good usually someone gets hurt either physically or at least emotional and Christians witness suffers damage.

bitterness happens when anger is allowed to get rooted long term in our hearts because of something done to us or to another in the past. The solution to this is to learn forgiveness. The ability to no longer allow a past wrong hold our hearts and minds hostage. Bitterness is a poison that seeps into our personality and corrupts us completely.

Malice-is the intent of doing evil toward someone. There is forethought, planning that goes on. Plotting. This has gone way beyond an angry outburst or even bitterness. Thoughts of vengeance or getting one over on someone is never good.

Conclusion: Anger in itself can be used to set us in the right direction. We get angry because we care. W3e get angry because we love. But we cannot let the selfish, worldly kind of anger control us and therefore give the devil an opportunity. No, we need to control our anger not let our anger control