TEXT: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).

" 'Be angry, and do not sin': do not let the sun go down on your wrath" (Ephesians 5:26).

"And when [Jesus] had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other" (Mark 3:5).

"Above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins' " (1 Peter 4:8).

IDEA: Anger is not necessarily an impediment to intimacy.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see how anger needs to be faced in marriage.

I. Anger is not necessarily sinful: “be angry but do not sin.”

A. Jesus became angry, "And when [Jesus] had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other" (Mark 3:5).

Jesus looked on them with anger and was deeply distressed by their stubbornness of heart. Two words are used here, one meaning “looking at them out of fury” and the other meaning an inner turmoil (deeply distressed).

There are some things in life that ought to make us angry: child molesters, pornographers, etc. If you meet someone who never gets angry, you are probably talking to an indifferent person (not a patient person).

You can tell a great deal about a person by discovering what makes that person angry.

II. Often in a good relationship, what another person does makes us angry.

Often our anger is a fleeting response. 1 Peter 4:8 -- "Love covers a multitude of sins," love throws a blanket over them. That is normally how we deal with anger in a good relationship.