Greetings Church,
We continue our series on wisdom this week with a look at anger.
Questions for Small Groups:
To start your group, have everyone share a time that they got angry this week.
I. Good Anger.
1. Read Ephesians 4:26. Why does God command us to be angry? How is anger connected to what we love?
2. Does it surprise you that there can be good anger? Can you think of a good thing to be angry about?
3. God and Jesus himself get angry. Read Exodus 34:6. How is God’s anger described? What does God/Jesus get angry at?
II. Bad anger.
4. Discuss Proverbs 15:18 and 19:19. Have you seen the destructive power of your own anger? Someone else’s?
III. The Problem with Anger.
5. We get angry about whatever we love the most. Can you think of a personal example of when you got angry? What did you love most in that situation? Your comfort? Your control? Your reputation? Your ideas/plans?
6. Read Ephesians 4:26-27. How does the Devil use our anger to destroy our relationships? What lies does he try to get us to believe?
*Think through what Pastor Mark talked about here: being blind to our own shortcomings while being and “expert” in the other persons shortcomings.
IV. Transforming Anger.
Our anger reveals what we love. Therefore this powerful emotion can actually be used to change us for the good and into Christ’s likeness. Here’s how:
7. First- admit your own anger. Can you identify your own anger?
8. Second- analyze your anger. Can you identify WHY you are angry- not just because of what they did or said, but because of what you BELIEVE about what they did or said?
9. Third- repent of your anger. Can you turn from what you love back to your first love, Jesus? What would it take to be able to do this?
10. Read the Fighter Verse. Proverbs 19:11. Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
How did Jesus display this truth on the cross? How can that truth allow you to forgive and “overlook an offense” and thus move past anger?
*Remember: Jesus’ death was necessary in order for God’s just anger to not destroy us. God destroyed sin without destroying us.
