Paul Tripp: God must have His way as Lord, King, Creator, and Ruler of the universe. And He's angry with anything that stands in the way of His will. And His anger is, in fact, not something to be afraid of; it's the hope of the universe. And we are angry because we want our own way, and we rage against anything that stands in our way, and our anger is our doom.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here, now, is Paul Tripp.

Paul Tripp: Have you been angry lately? I came across some incredible statistics in the London Sunday Times Magazine, July 16, 2006. Now these are about people in London, but they map on, I'm sure, to us as well. Forty-five percent of the people interviewed said they regularly lose their temper at work. Sixty-four percent of those people have experienced some kind of office rage. Twenty-seven percent of nurses have actually been attacked at work. Sixty percent of all absences from work are caused by anger and stress. Thirty-three percent of the people interviewed were not on speaking terms with their neighbors.

The airlines reported almost fifteen-hundred significant serious acts of air rage. More than eighty percent of drivers say they've been involved in some kind of road rage. Fifty percent of the people interviewed have reacted to computer problems by screaming, or yelling, or other things. You see, the evidence is...we are very angry people.

Have you been angry lately--at what, at whom? How did you express it? Do you know that anger is a very good thing that sin has turned into a very bad thing? Do you know that God actually wants you to be good and angry?

Music: "Cry" by James Blunt

You and I have lived through many things.
I'll hold on to your heart.
I wouldn't cry for anything,
But don't go tearing your life apart.
I have seen fear. I have seen faith.
Seen the look of anger on your face.
And if you want to talk about what will be,
Come and sit with me, and cry on my shoulder,
I'm a friend.

Kate Crowley: You are listening to Right Here, Right Now. How can you be good and angry? That's today's topic with Paul Tripp. Thanks for being a part of this new radio outreach from Paul Tripp Ministries. Be sure you tell your friends that Paul is here each weekday at 11 A.M. on WFIL. His goal is to remind you, every day, that there really is help in Jesus Christ right here, right now.

For more information and a complete list of resources by Paul, go to paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org. Right now, more "Survival Skills for a Fallen World" as Right Here, Right Now continues.

Anger Is Everywhere

Paul Tripp: Let's go back to the London Times article and examine what it's saying. What the survey actually said is that there is anger all the time, everywhere...anger at work, anger with the computer, a road rage, anger in times of shopping, anger at home in a variety of ways, husband and wife, parents and children, children to children. There's anger on the phone; there's anger with neighbors; there's anger at times of leisure. We human beings are angrier than we think.

The problem is that we are all very good at minimizing, rationalizing, or denying our anger, while we point to the anger of the other person. You see, anger really does stain everything we do and everywhere we go. And anger has many faces to it. It can be a vicious stare; it can be silent revenge; it can be angry words; it can be the back that's turned as you walk away; it can be unexpressed bitterness; it can be violent rage; it can be raging anger underneath a smile.

But the Bible says that God is angry too. And if God is angry and God is perfect, then anger must not always be a bad thing. What is it about anger? In fact, if God is angry, then anger must somehow, some way also be about something that's very good, something that's very loving, something that's very productive because God is good; God is kind; God is wise; God is gracious; God is loving. And if God is angry, then there must be a way of anger being a good thing.

Maybe it is true that anger, in its essence, is actually a very good thing that sin has turned into a very bad thing. It's, for sure, time for you and me to stop being confused by and controlled by our anger. Does anger sneak up on you; does it grab you unprepared; are you surprised at those moments when your emotions change and your desires change? Oh, maybe you're going to have a conversation, and you prepare for it ahead of time, and you've played both sides of the conversation, what you're going to say and what that person may say, and you've played three or four renditions, and you feel so prepared.

And all of a sudden, that person, in the middle of the conversation, says something hurtful to you, and all of a sudden, your desire changes, no longer do you want love and understanding; all you want to do is win. All you want to do is hurt that person back. You feel immediate change in your desires, immediate change in your emotions. It's time for us to find out how, in fact, we can be both good and angry at the very same time. God is able to be good and angry. How can we be the very same?

Music: "Lonesome Tears" by Beck

Lonesome tears
I can't cry them anymore
I can't think of what they're for
Oh they ruin me every time
But I'll try
To leave behind some days
These tears just can't erase
I don't need them anymore
How could this love
Ever turning
Never turn its eye on me
How could this love
Ever changing
Never change the way I feel

The Bible Is an Anger Story

Paul Tripp: Do you know that the Bible is an anger story? There's a way in which anger stains every page of the Bible. Let me turn you to one of the Bible's most familiar anger passages. It's in James 1:19 and 20. James writes this, "My dear brothers, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry; for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."

You see, this passage is really a story summary. Let me get you to think about how the Bible works. The Bible itself is a story. You will notice that your Bible is not arranged in topics. That's not an accident. I know there are probably sometimes where you wish when you were searching for a particular topic, that the Bible was arranged in topics and had little topical tabs along the side of the pages so you could quickly go to where you want to go.

You see, that approach to the Bible would actually do violence to what the Bible is about. The Bible is a story. It's the grand overarching, origin-to-destiny story of redemption. Here's the way it's meant to work...that I can only understand my story as I understand it in the context of the big redemptive story that's in the Bible. The big story of the Bible is meant to explain every individual story of every human being.

But the Bible is not just a story. It's an annotated story. That means it's a story with notes, and the Bible is a story that has with it, all along, a set of explanatory notes. Here's how it works. In the middle of the Bible, the main content of the Bible is the story, and on one side are principles, and on the other side are propositions. The principles are true statements that apply the story to our everyday life. And the propositions are true statements that help us to understand the story.

Now this passage is actually a principle and a proposition. Here's the principle: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. That's the principle. That's the way God has called for us to live. And the proposition actually explains the principle. The anger of man does not work God's righteous cause. Now in that proposition and principle, the whole story of Scripture is actually unfolded. You see, the Bible is, in fact, a story of two parallel but opposing angers--God's holy righteous anger and our unholy anger.

God must have His holy and righteous way. And He is angry with anything that is in His way. God must have His way as Lord, King, Creator, and Ruler of the universe. And He's angry with anything that stands in the way of His will, and His anger is, in fact, not something to be afraid of; it's the hope of the universe. He must be zealous for His cause, or there's no hope for us.

And we're angry because we want our own way. And we rage against anything that stands in our way. And our anger is our doom! Now when you see these two angers staining the pages of Scripture, you right away know that these two angers cannot coexist; they are complete opposites. They can't live together; they go in polar-opposite directions. And as you read the biblical story, page after page, situation after situation, year after year, century after century, you can feel the drama building; you can smell the smoke! You just know that these two angers are going to collide, and when they do, there's going to be a whole lot of carnage!

And you can feel the anger of God and the anger of man marching to some kind of explosive collision. This collision does take place, but it doesn't take place in the way that we would think. This collision of the anger of God and the anger of man takes place in a shocking and unexpected moment. They collide in this amazing moment on the cross. Peter gets that right. Peter understands that when he preaches his first sermon in Acts 2. He says that Jesus Christ was led to the cross by the act of evil men who set Him up and sent Him there. But he also says that Jesus Christ was led to the cross by the foreordained plan of God.

You see, the anger of God was sin, and the anger of man who wants his own way, collide at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this collision is not a collision of judgment; it's not collision of condemnation; it's not an explosion of vengeance; it's rather a collision of grace, and all of the carnage is carried by the Lord Jesus Christ. You see on the cross, Jesus bears the full anger of God and the full anger of man so that we can be freed from our bondage to selfish, destructive anger. On the cross, Jesus takes our anger on the cross; Jesus takes God's anger, and Jesus does that so that we can, once and for all, be freed from destructive, unholy anger.

Why do we struggle so much with this destructive anger? Well, James tells us in James 4, verse 1. He says, "Why are there so many fights and quarrels among us? Don't they come from your desires that wage war in you?" You want something, but you can't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You see, James connects our anger to our desires, and in so doing, connects anger to worship. You see, when desire for things in the creation, acceptance, and position, and power, and possessions, and success--when those things grip and rule my heart, anger and conflict will always result.

Here's the principle, desire for even a good thing becomes a bad thing when that desire becomes a ruling thing. You see, my heart was never meant to be controlled by the creation. My heart was meant to be controlled by the Creator. And when my heart is controlled by something in the creation, I will rage at any person, or any obstacle, or any situation, or anything that is in the way of what I want.

You see, here's what this means, and this is a radical thought. It's a thought that you and I need to meditate on and follow-up on. We don't so much need anger management; what we actually need is worship realignment. You see, it's not enough for us to learn how to hold onto our anger, learn ways of managing it, learn ways of coping with it that are less destructive. No, what we need is a change in what rules our hearts so that we can be in the same situations that once made us angry and now be free of that destructive, evil, selfish, violent anger.

You see, as long as some God replacement controls my heart, I will be angry at anything or anyone that stands in the way of what I crave. Here's the bottom line: Sinful, destructive anger is rooted in idolatry. When people, possessions, positions, power, and acceptance or whatever rule my heart, there will be no end to my anger; there will be no end to the conflict in my life. If we're ever going to get to where God wants us to be, we don't so much need anger management; what we really need is worship realignment.

Music: "King of Glory" by Songwriters: Johnny Mac Powell, Samuel Tai Anderson, Bradley B. C. Avery, David Carr, Mark D. Lee

Who is this King of Glory that pursues me with his love
And haunts me with each hearing of His softly spoken words
My conscience, a reminder of forgiveness that I need
Who is this King of Glory who offers it to me

What to Do With Your Anger

Paul Tripp: Perhaps today as you've heard me talk about anger, you're thinking, "Boy, Paul, you've really encouraged me. I'm now seeing my anger everywhere, and I just don't know what to do. As you've been talking, I've thought about last week, and I see it; my angry is just everywhere. I think about my relationship with my husband, or my wife, or my friends, or people at my church, or my neighbors, or my kids, or at work. And you're right; I do see anger all over the place." Well, I would like to say this to you, and I want you to hear it. "There is grace for this struggle with anger." James says, right in the middle of his discussion of anger and conflict, "But He gives us more grace."

You see, Jesus didn't die on the cross in order to produce people who are un-angry. Now you've got to hear what I'm going to say here. Jesus actually died to produce people who, because of His grace, are able to be angry in brand-new ways. He died so that we would no longer be angry at God, but angry along with God. You see, as long as there is sin in our world, as long as this world is a broken place, as long as evil is done to us, through us, and around us, we cannot be and we should not be satisfied. There are things that exist in your world every day that should make you angry because they're in the way of what God has promised and planned for His world.

In fact, the more your heart is consumed by worshiping God, the angrier you will get. But it won't be the old evil anger that results from you not getting your way. It will rather be anger for God's holy and righteous cause on earth. Like God, I will be angry at the damage that sin does to people and to the cosmos. No, not the old anger that I once had, anger against situations, and anger against people, and anger against circumstances, and anger against all the inanimate things in my life that don't work just the way I want them to do. No, I will growingly be free of that kind of anger, but I won't be un-angry.

There will be a new kind of anger, a productive kind of anger, a good kind of anger that will be in my life. As the old anger begins to melt away, as my heart is transformed by God's grace, and as I quit worshiping things in the creation, and I start actually being functionally ruled by worship of the Creator, the old anger will begin to melt away, and it will be replaced with the restorative anger of love, the rescuing anger of mercy, the advocacy anger of justice, the serving anger of compassion. I will be angry, but I'll be angry in ways that are productive. I will not be angry because things are in the way of my plan.

I will be angry because things are not the way that God has planned. And I will live out that restorative anger of love, that rescuing anger of mercy, that advocacy anger of justice, that serving anger of compassion. I will be good and angry at the same time.

(Music Interlude)

Paul Tripp: So what got you angry yesterday? Were you angry because people and circumstances got in your way? Were you angry at the traffic? Were you angry at your son or daughter who seems so contentious? Were you angry that you had too much on your schedule than you could do? Were you angry at that person who said something unkind, or that circumstance that didn't operate the way you wanted it to? Were you angry at that inanimate thing that didn't function as you expected it to function? There is grace for your struggle because Jesus bore the anger of man and the anger of God, so that you and I could actually, in reality, be free of that old destructive anger.

In Him, you have power to say, "No!" to the old anger and to begin to give yourself to loving, merciful, and just anger of worship. Where's God calling you to act out of the anger of love? Where's God calling you to act out of the anger of mercy? Where's God calling you to act out of the anger of compassion? Where's God calling you to act out of the anger of justice? Where's your Lord calling you away from your bondage to your own comfort, your bondage to your own pleasure, your bondage to your own ease, to live for God's glory and for the success of His righteous cause on earth?

Where are you in terms of anger? Are you still stuck in that old self-absorbed, self-focused, unproductive, and destructive anger? Does it still sneak up on you? Does it still kidnap you? Or has that anger begun to melt away, and are you now able, in love, and mercy, and grace, and compassion, and justice to be good and angry?

Kate Crowley: Paul Tripp with a right perspective on anger. This is Right Here, Right Now from Paul Tripp Ministries and the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." If you're looking for a fresh perspective on life, go on line and take a look at Lost in the Middle.

In this book, Paul Tripp explains how God provides fresh grace every day. That's Lost in the Middle, Paul's new book. Go to paultrippministries.org. That's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

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Tomorrow, Paul talks about the celebration of grace from the series, "Survival Skills for a Fallen World." I'm Kate Crowley. Be sure and join us tomorrow for more hope and encouragement from Paul Tripp Ministries here on Right Here, Right Now.