Nobody really likes anger, but the fact is that we all experience it.  We all get angry and we’ve all experienced being the brunt of someone else’s anger.  In his book Uprooting Anger – which I highly recommend – Robert Jones writes this, “Anger is a universal problem, prevalent in every culture, experienced by every generation.  No one is isolated from its presence or immune from its poison.  It permeates each person and spoils our most intimate relationships.  Anger is a given part of our fallen human fabric.”  What he adds is very true, when he writes, “Sadly, this is true even in our Christian homes and churches.”

Jones is right.  The most blatant displays of anger tend to be aimed not at the people we work with or interact with on a daily basis in the world, but at the people we love the most: at our husbands, wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters – and not just our biological brothers and sisters, but our brothers and sisters in Christ too...

[This series of sermons is adapted from Jerry Bridges’ recent book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins we Tolerate.]