Sit down.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts
of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by
that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working and the measure of
every part, maketh increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. This I say
therefore in testifying the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness
with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be, that ye have heard him,
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the
former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, let him that stole
steal no more. But rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good that
he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your
mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto
the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day
of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking,
be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Let's bow our heads
for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we just pray now, Lord, that you would fill brother
Dylan Oz with your Holy Ghost and enable him to preach the sermon you've laid on his
heart with clarity of mind, with boldness. I pray, Lord, that you help us to pay attention.
And help us, Lord, to apply the message to our lives so that we may be more complete
Christians. We love you, and I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Amen. Well, thank you all for being here this morning. Thank you, Pastor Shelley, for the
opportunity to preach. I'm very excited to be preaching this morning. We just read Ephesians
chapter number four, and before we get back into this chapter, I'll have a little bit
of a longer intro this morning. But the title of my sermon this morning is "Road Rage."
"Road Rage." And you're thinking, "What? This is kind of a weird thing to preach about."
Well, really, the sermon is just going to be about anger, about the biblical doctrine
of anger, what the Bible has to say about anger and rage and wrath and all these things.
But it's kind of funny. When I moved to Texas, as soon as you drive into the state of Texas,
you see this big sign that says, "Drive friendly the Texas way." And you know, like, when you
tell your kids, like, "Hey, be nice to your sibling," it's because they're not being
nice to their sibling. So I kind of looked at that sign. I was like, "Oh, that's kind
of funny. They're saying, 'Hey, we got to drive nice.'" Because I've noticed since
I've lived here that road rage is a serious problem in Texas. And has anyone else noticed
that? Lots of road rage here. This is not just my opinion or my own personal experience
because I actually have data to back this up. I looked this up. I was wondering, "Is
this just my experience? Am I just crazy or is this a real problem?" And it is a big
problem in Texas. And, you know, judgment begins at the house of God. So let's just
talk about it here. But basically what I did was I just Googled "Texas road rage shooting."
"Texas road rage incident." And I just took the article titles from 2023. And we're in
March. We're in the first quarter of 2023. So this is just, I'm just going to read you
the titles of these articles of all the Texas road raging shooting incidents that's happened
just in 2023. Okay. Let me just read some of these for you. I do have a little bit of
echo. I don't know if you guys can fix that. January 9th, 2023. This title says "Man taken
to hospital after road raid shooting on Central Expressway," police say. January 10th, "Fort Worth
police searching for suspects in road rage shooting." January 12th, "Family of young Austin mother
killed in road rage attack asks for help identifying shooter." January 17th, "Houston fatal road rage
shooting of 17-year-old." Results in 30-year sentence. January 23rd, "Man says he was knocked
out and needed stitches after road rage punch near Willowbrook Mall." January 25th, "Suspect
in deadly Dallas road rage shooting identified." February 5th, "Texas road rage incident ends
violently with one man stabbed in the chest." February 11th, "Man charged allegedly killed
motorcyclists in road rage shooting near Home Depot in Spring, Texas." February 13th, "Man
charged with murder in connection with deadly road rage shooting last month." February 17th,
"Driver shot during possible road rage incident following crash in Bel Air." February 26th,
"Passenger shot in possible road rage incident San Antonio police say." March 2nd, "One person
cut in Fort Worth road rage incident police say." March 7th, "Road rage shooting victim." "I have
no idea what I did to set them off." March 10th, "Motorcyclist killed in suspected road rage crash
in Wise County." March 21st, "Arrest made in road rage incident that killed motorcycle rider in Rome."
March 21st, again the same day, "Dallas police investigating after woman killed in road rage
shooting." March 25th, just a couple days ago, or is that yesterday? That was yesterday, okay.
March 25th, "Chester County man wanted in connection with road rage incident in West
Chester." So that's a lot. That's pretty crazy that pretty much every other day it seems like
there's like a road rage stabbing or shooting or assault or just something crazy crazy happening.
And I thought well maybe it's just because there's such a large population in this state
that you just have a lot of these incidents. But listen to this statistic. This is actually
referring to 2022. It says San Antonio. So just the city of San Antonio saw as many fatal road
rage shootings as 40 other states. Just the city of San Antonio. So road rage here is just
unbelievable. In fact just a few weeks ago on my way back from church on a Wednesday night I
witnessed a road rage crash. People flipping each other off trying to get in front trying to get in
front trying to get front. Next thing you know they're spinning and crashing against the wall.
I've told the story before about in Houston how a guy tried to literally kill me in a road rage
incident. A church member here showed me last week they had dashcam footage of they were driving in
Arlington and they saw a man get out of his car in a road rage incident walk up to another person's
window and this person was smart. The church member drove like into a parking lot to get his
family away and he said as he was turning he heard gunshots. So like this is happening all the time
it's happening in broad daylight you know Bible says that perilous times shall come crime is
skyrocketing you know people say that our prisons are overpopulated and you know I would agree that
there's many charges that shouldn't exist there's many laws that are not biblical but when it comes
to major things like murder rape assault burglary all these things there's something called a
clearance rate which is basically the rate at which law enforcement solves crimes so let's say
that there's a hundred reported murders and police only solve 50 of those and the clearance rate is
50 percent well if you look up the clearance rate for a murder in the united states it's like 50
percent and for many other very large crimes it's even less than that so actually the people in
jail is just a small fraction of the people that have committed these crimes so crime right now is
just exploding right under our noses and the statistics aren't necessarily reflecting that
accurately and so but really the thing is it's not a political problem it's a spiritual issue
all of this violence all of this anger it really is a spiritual issue and so what i want to preach
about this morning is basically just an overview of what the bible says about anger because what's
happening with all these road rage shootings and incidents it's people that are just full of wrath
full of anger so much so that they're going to go kill someone over something so stupid and so i
four statements this morning if you want to write these down you can number one anger is not
inherently sinful anger is not inherently sinful and i'm going to be you know talking negatively
about anger this morning but i don't want you to get the wrong idea that i'm just saying anger is
always wrong or that you should never be angry there's never a time to be angry that's not true
anger in itself is not inherently sinful you're there in ephesians chapter number four
look at verse 26 the bible says be ye angry and sin not let not the let not the sun go down upon
your wrath neither give place to the devil so according to the bible it is possible to be angry
and to not sin there's some things that are just inherently sinful the bible can never say hey
blaspheme and sin not that's not possible because blaspheming is inherently sinful you know commit
fornication and sin not that's impossible fornication is just always sinful it's inherently
sinful but being angry is not inherently sinful it depends on the context it depends on why you're
angry or how you're responding to that angry anger and also go ahead and go to john chapter number
three i'll read for you psalm chapter number seven verse 11 the bible says god judgeeth the righteous
and god is angry with the wicked every day it's impossible for anger to be a sin because god is
angry every single day every single day god is angry with the wicked and there's a lot of
preachers the new evangelicals the niv rock and roll type churches where they want to make jesus
to be this hippie that's just cool with anything he's never mad he's the jesus of the chosen who's
just always super chill and you know the jesus of the chosen that's like making fun of john the
baptist for being a hard preacher that's not the jesus of the bible the jesus of the bible is angry
every single day with the wicked and you know we should be too anything that makes god angry you
have 100 percent of free license to be angry about that as well because it's never a sin whatever
god is angry about john chapter 3 verse 36 he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life
and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of god abideth on him according
to the bible if you're not saved god's wrath is just placed on top of you and he is ready at the
moment you die to send your soul to hell for all of eternity now of course god also is merciful so
we have to balance these things god is loving he's merciful and he wants people to get saved but
while someone is not saved he's angry with them he's angry with them that they have not chosen
to believe the free gift of salvation that he's offered to them freely by giving us his son to die
on the cross he's mad that they've rejected that and he's ready to send them to hell and if they
die without believing in christ that's exactly where they'll go immediately go to exodus chapter
number 16 i'll show you some other incidents of justified anger in the bible exodus 16 so just
give you some context of this chapter it's talking about the manna from heaven and if you remember
when god gave the manna they were supposed to eat all of it and they were supposed to hoard any for
the next day god wanted them to trust in him and so he didn't want them just holding all the manna
back and being preppers and just trying to like keep a store of it in case oh man god might not
come through for me tomorrow right he told them to eat it all look at exodus 16 verse 19 it says
and moses said let no man leave of it till the morning notwithstanding they harken not unto moses
but some of them left of it until the morning and it bred worms and stank and notice and moses was
wrath with them moses wrath is just the past tense form of wrath he's so angry he has wrath
that they decided not to obey god's word and you know of course sin should always make us angry
when people break god's commandments when we break god's commandments that should make us angry
we should be ready to take vengeance on every act of disobedience right that we do against god
we should be angry about sin that's a completely justified anger that's an anger that more people
should have go to matthew chapter 21 you know jesus when he was in the flesh alive on this earth
he showed anger during many times of his ministry where he was angry at people where he was screaming
and rebuking people and we're going to see a story here where he takes it up a notch even above
screaming in just words matthew 21 verse 12 it says and jesus went into the temple of god
and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money
changers and the seats of them that sold doves and said unto them it is written my house shall
be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves so jesus here is so angry
because god's house is supposed to be about the preaching of god's word it's supposed to be about
praying it's supposed to be about fellowship with the believers it's supposed to be about sending
people out with the great commission and what have these people what have these jews done they
turned it into basically an exchange house a place where they make money a place where they sell
things right and that makes jesus very angry so much so that elsewhere in the bible talks about
how he literally fashioned a whip meaning this wasn't just an explosion of anger that came out
of nowhere he said you know what i'm going to call i'm going to patiently here make a whip i'm
going to go ahead and just make this thing because i'm going to go in there and i'm going to start
whipping people buying and selling in god's house that's how angry he was to the point where he
didn't ask them politely to stop he just walked over to their table and just flipped it over i
mean that oh wow jesus is so rude i mean isn't that so rude that's what people would say but
no that's actually righteous indignation that's righteous anger right and if if someone comes in
this church and starts buying and selling things just flip over the table okay just i don't know
maybe pastor really doesn't want that let him flip it over but there's a time to have justified anger
to have righteous indignation and i'll tell you what america would be a better place if more
people were angry at sin america would be a better place today if you're angry about sin people think
you're a weirdo people think that you're just insane for being mad of someone committing
fornication they think you're insane for being angry at divorce they think you're insane for
being angry at the lgbt takeover of our nation but really we need more people to be angry with
sin in our nation and people will attack the preachers of the new ifb and say oh you guys are
so angry you guys are so mean you guys are so angry and it's like yeah i am angry at sin yeah
i am angry at false prophets yeah i am angry at false doctrine but notice does that anger motivate
us to sin or does it motivate us to preach god's word or does it motivate us to start more churches
or does it motivate us to go get people saved that's what it motivates us to do so how is that
a sin it's not it's righteous indignation and our country used to get mad and used to get upset
by the sin and the filth and that's not happening today now people are angry if you preach the bible
now people are angry if you're king james only now people are angry if you're uganda and say
hey let's pass a law where we put pedophiles to death by the way god bless uganda god bless uganda
so number one i just wanted to explain that anger is not inherently sinful but number two
the vast majority of time people get angry it is sinful the vast majority of the time people get
angry it is sinful if we would be honest with ourselves myself including probably the last
time that you got upset it probably wasn't just because of the injustices of this world
and the sin of the world it was probably over something dumb like someone cutting you off in
traffic last time you got angry it was probably because you didn't get your way at work or you
didn't get your way with your husband or you know you didn't get your fifth coffee of the day
right and so you're so angry about it you had to work eight hour shift today instead of a six
hour shift or something just ridiculous the last time you got angry it probably wasn't righteous
indignation and think about this is it easy or is it hard to get angry very easy right and something
that's just really easy for your flesh is usually sinful right if something is just really natural
really easy to your flesh that means that it's usually sinful and think about it the last time
you yelled at your spouse the last time you yelled at your kids the last time that you just freaked
out it probably was unrighteous anger it probably was sinful anger because the majority of time
people are angry it is sinful majority of time people are angry in the bible it's not over
something good and let's just take a commercial break here and talk a little bit about road rage
you know here's my tip for you when it comes to road rage is never ever ever escalate someone's
anger on the road don't ever ever escalate someone's anger on the road go to roman or
first peter chapter number three first peter chapter three you know i read to you all those
articles of all those road rage shootings that have been happening in texas is happening over
and over and over and over again and you want to know why a lot of this is happening it's because
both parties are riling each other up escalating things it's not one person backing up and just
saying hey i'll suffer myself to be defrauded you can cut me off no problem i'll forgive you
it's some oh you flip me off i'll flip you off oh you break check me i'll speed in front of you
and break check you oh you want to you know push push your car to me i'll push my car into you
right what does the bible say look at first peter chapter number three look at verse nine
says not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing but contrary wise blessing knowing
that you're there and to call that you should inherit a blessing look it's it's natural in
the flesh i'm not standing up here as some hypocrite saying i've never gotten mad at someone on the road
but as our world gets more and more dangerous you have to be seriously careful about this
and you have to take it seriously that hey on the road you should not render evil for evil
when someone flips you off let it go don't worry about it they're just trying to rile you up
because what's the alternative you get mad they get mad you cut them off they cut you off and next
thing you know you got bullets flying into your windshield oops you probably didn't mean for that
to happen what are you going to do then when bullets are flying into your windshield it's too
late to change anything that's why it's so stupid to engage in road rage it is foolish it is not
something Christians should be doing and here's another thing especially ladies you need a reality
check that you are so vulnerable in this world you are so vulnerable you are so fragile you are
so weak and if someone wanted to hurt you they easily could but I even see women road raging
and I'm thinking you are a fool you really want to go make some random dude angry at you you really
think that you're going to be able to protect yourself that is so foolish let me tell you a
story one time I was in Vancouver Washington my wife and I were on our way to church for a pie
fellowship and this person was like speeding super fast past me or whatever and they got mad at
something I did and they decided to brake check me in the middle of the interstate okay so it's
like dark it's raining and there's cars everywhere and this person brake checks me to a complete stop
in the interstate and they throw open the door and you know what walks out like an 18 or 19 year old
chick okay she gets out of her car and she stands on the interstate with cars going by her in the
dark in the rain because she was angry at something I did and I'm just thinking like
this woman has no sense of reality because if I was just some psychotic man that just wanted to
fight I'm a man I could snap her in two if I wanted to I could throw her off of the interstate
right but in her stupid mind she thought it's a good idea to get out of a car at a man what
is wrong with people right you you people have lost their sense of reality and sometimes on the
road I think people just like they see a car and they forget that there's human beings there
right a lot of these a lot of these incidents are people like killing motorcyclists where
they just get mad at the motorcyclists and they're just like let's just crash into them and kill them
but under what circumstance would you ever just shoot a motorcyclist in the head you wouldn't
but for some reason road rage just puts people under the influence it makes them not think and
so when you ever see people road raging you should never escalate it you should never return evil
for evil because something very bad can happen to you and especially ladies driving by themselves
you don't ever want to be in a situation where here you are getting shot at or people are trying
to open your door and get to you that's that's horrible you should not be foolish and make such
a silly decision also here's the best part of that story though is i said that we were going to a
pie fellowship well when we break the car the pie just completely smashed against my windshield
and my wife is just sobbing you know and i'm like you're entering the pie i don't care
you know i was like you know the competition was based on taste not look and then she won the pie
competition i was like yeah so it was a really good pie you know it was hilarious but the road
rage wasn't hilarious and i've seen road rage incidents in my life in washington and texas i
told you someone tried to kill me in houston i've told that story before if you haven't heard it i'll
tell you after the service but go to james chapter number one james chapter number one
talking about how the majority of the time when you're angry it's not righteous indignation
it's sinful and these road rage incidents it's not righteous indignation it's sinful anger is
what it is james 119 says wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to
speak slow to wrath why for the wrath of god worketh not or the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of god notice the bible is generalizing man's anger and just saying like in a general sense
it's not the righteousness of god most of the time when man is angry it's not righteous it is
sinful and road rage is a perfect example of that i'll read for you go to proverbs 19
i'll read for you proverbs 16 32 it says he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he
that ruleeth his spirit than he that taketh a city some people think well i don't care i'll
road rage all day long because i'm so tough and i'm so strong and i'm such a good fighter
if someone wants to try to fight me on the road hey i'll take care of it i know for sure i'll be
able to back you know back this person down and defend myself but you know what's better than
being a good fighter you know what's better than being a strong person is someone that's slow to
anger you know what's better than being a good fighter is someone that avoids the fight altogether
and it's way more wise for you to not try to escalate people's anger on the road than for you
to just trust in your flesh trust in your ability to defend yourself to go fight someone for no
reason you say oh okay yeah you're really strong but that doesn't mean you won't go to jail okay
so you defend yourself great have fun in jail oh you know you're so strong you're ready to beat
someone up good luck against nine millimeter bullets flying at you was that worth it absolutely
not proverbs 19 look at 11 proverbs 19 verse 11 it says the discretion of a man deferred his anger
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression this would be a great bible verse to just put on
your dash in the car you know it's a it's your glory to pass over a transgression right because
let's be honest you see driving transgressions all the time you know as the illegals are just
flooding into america and they've never learned how to drive hey you see it a lot i'm i'm not
saying there's not a reason to get angry on the road you could find a reason anywhere anytime if
you want to get angry but hey it's a glory to pass over a transgression the discretion of a man
deferrent his anger what is discretion definition of discretion one of the definitions is the power
or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment freedom of judgment or choice so my
my judgment and our good judgment should tell us that it's not a good idea to get into a road rage
incident because number one like we said you can get shot you can get crashed off the road
you can get in a fight with someone you can get on the news you can go to jail you can go to court
discretion should tell you that all those things are bad and are any of those things worth someone
just cutting you off are any of those things worth someone just flipping off no so wisdom
should tell you having good discretion should tell you that it's not a good idea to just escalate
people's anger on the road go to ecclesiastes chapter number seven ecclesiastes chapter number
seven ecclesiastes seven verse nine says be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth
in the bosom of fools and i i i mean one of the most foolish things i could think of
is okay you made me angry on the road so i'm going to kill you that is so sick that is so
disgusting that is so wicked just because you got a little upset at someone to just say okay now i'm
just gonna shoot you now i'm just gonna take my truck and just plow it into your motorcycle and
just kill you but that's what's happening that's what these people are doing how what a wicked
thing to do and what a foolish thing to do to throw your life away to murder someone in cold
blood just because you got angry at them on the road what a stupid foolish thing to do go to
proverbs chapter number 12 proverbs chapter number 12 proverbs 12 verse 16 the bible says a fool's
wrath is presently known but a prudent man covereth shame you can identify a fool because they
always want to tell you everything they're mad about they're just they're on a hair trigger
they're ready to get angry and every little thing that annoys them every little thing that they don't
like every little injustice they're just ready to let you know how angry they are and that is what
a fool is that's what these people on the road are doing as soon as you do something bad they're
flipping you off they're ready to hurt you they're ready to fight you but even outside of the road
we have all known people like this in our lives where they're just always negative you bring up
anything and they're mad just no matter what the topic is they're just ready to be angry about it
that's a foolish person that's a person no one wants to be around that's a person who is toxic
and who is a fool i'll read for you psalm 37 8 says cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not
thyself in any wise to do evil so we've seen the bible over and over it paints a negative picture
of anger most of the time when man is angry now if you type up anger angry wrath wrath in a bible
software you know you're going to see it the most is god and we already talked about his anger is
always righteous but when most of the time you're seeing mad man get angry it's usually not righteous
number three go to proverbs 15 number three people who don't learn to control their anger
don't get angry they are angry there is a difference between a person who gets mad
at something that happened and someone who just is an angry person and there are people who they're
not getting upset by their circumstances or their environment or something happened to make their
mad they're just mad all the time they're on the road and they're wanting someone to cut them off
they're wanting someone to do something bad they're wanting someone to look at them in a weird way
so they can fight there's people like this where they just are angry people and it's not that the
strife stirred them up it's that they stirred up the strife okay proverbs 28 where I tell you to go
proverbs 15 18 says a wrathful man stirreth up strife notice it doesn't say that there was strife
and so this man became wrathful no he was already wrathful he was already angry he was already mad
and so because he was angry and mad what did he do he stirred up strife and this is a person who
just is an angry person they don't get angry they are angry that is a terrible attribute to have as
a person but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife so if you want to have a bunch of problems
in your life you want to have a bunch of issues and strife and fighting and bickering well then
just be an angry person and you'll get lots of that and you ought to examine your life you know
are you always fighting with your spouse are you always yelling at your kids are you always
fighting with your co-workers it's probably because one person involved just is an angry person it's
not that they got angry it's not that something happened to make them angry it's just they are an
angry person and if you don't fix that in your life you will have nothing but problems you will
destroy the relationships in your life Proverbs 26 Proverbs 26 verse 21 says as coals are to
burning coals think about this visual you have coals that are already on fire and you add coals
to it as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so is a contentious man to kindle strife
notice there was a strife that made him contentious the man's already contentious
and he wants to kindle strife he wants to go make fires he wants to bring his fire with him and
catch everything else on fire we've all noticed we've all known people like this and here's the
truth if you want a reason to be angry you will always find it you want to find something to
complain about something to be unhappy about something to just nitpick and other people that
they don't do that makes you mad you'll always find it because we're sinners and so it's real
easy to find things to make you mad but guess what it doesn't make you a good person to just
always be angry it makes you a fool and it makes you someone that no one wants to be around and it
makes you someone that's always going to have strife in your life that's obviously not a good
thing proverbs 29 22 says this an angry man stirreth up strife notice again the strife didn't make him
angry he was already angry what did he do he stirred up strife and a furious mouth man notice
this aboundeth in transgression people that are always angry you know what they're doing they're
always sinning they're always sinning with their mouth they're always sinning with their actions
and so these furious people on the road they're abounding in transgression and they're ready to
murder over their anger what a sick thing you know and sadly you know some people are in marriages
like this where you know spouse didn't do something to make them mad they just are mad spouse is just
always mad always angry there's some people where this is your parenting style you know you're just
angry and you're just always screaming and yelling at your kids all the time and that is going to
bring strife and transgression in your life you're not going to have a good relationship with your
spouse you're not going to have a good relationship with your kids when you're always a wrathful angry
person no one wants to be around that no one ever says man i really love my mom and dad because
they're always so angry when i was a kid no it's usually like yeah my dad abused me when i was a
kid because he was such an angry drunk and he'd hit mom and he'd hit me right or same thing for
domestic spousal abuse anger is always involved number four out of control anger can destroy
yourself and those around you out of control anger will destroy yourself and those around you
this is something that if not checked in your life you will destroy your life if you were just an
angry person and i talked about how can you do this you could do this through your actions
and you could do this through your words let's talk about actions first go to genesis chapter
number four and let's see some examples of where people just brought destruction because of anger
genesis chapter number four start reading verse one it says and adam knew his wife eve and she
conceived and bare cane and said i have gotten a man child from the lord and she again bare his
brother abel and abel was a keeper of sheep but cain was a tiller of the ground and in process of
time it came to pass that cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord
and abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the lord had
respect unto abel and to his offering but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect and
notice this and cain was very wrath so cain is mad he's super angry and it says in his countenance
fell verse six and the lord said unto cain why art thou wrath and why is thy countenance fallen
if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door and
unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him and cain talked with abel his brother
and it came to pass where when they were in the field that cain rose up against abel his brother
and slew him so here we have a story in the bible where cain he's upset god didn't accept his
offering and instead of responding to his anger appropriately by saying hey i messed up i need to
change something here instead what does he do he just murders his brother in cold blood the first
murder that we see in the bible and where did it come from it says that he was wrath he was angry
and when you're angry when you're wrath in an ungodly way it'll cause you to be destructive
it'll cause you to destroy things in your life to where he destroyed his own brother he killed his
own brother go to genesis chapter 34 genesis chapter 34 genesis 34 start reading in verse
number one says and dina the daughter of leah which she bear unto jacob went out to see the
daughters of the land and when sheikham the son of hamore the highvite prince of the country saw her
he took her and lay with her and defiled her so what happens jacob's daughter dina she goes out
to see the daughters of land and she ends up committing a grievous sin of fornication now
let's go to verse number seven it says and the sons of jacob came out of the field when they heard
it and the men were grieved and they were very wroth because he had wrought folly in israel in
lying with jacob's daughter which thing ought not to be done now is this righteous anger is this
unrighteous anger right now it's righteous anger it's totally justified to be angry that your sister
committed fornication right it's it's okay to be angry that someone defiled your sibling that makes
sense but what happens in the story is they don't go about their anger in a right way and they end
up bringing destruction basically what happens is they tell sheikham and his family hey if all of
you guys get circumcised we'll give our daughters to your to your men you can give your daughters
to our men we'll share and have marriages with each other and so all of you guys need to go get
circumcised well let's start reading in verse 25 and says and it came to pass on the third day
when they were sore so sheikham and all their family they did do it they went and got circumcised
they were sore from it that the two sons of jacob simian and levi dina's brethren took each man his
sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males so were they right to get angry yes were
they right to go commit murder no and so we have to learn the proper way to deal with our anger
because even if you are angry in a justified sense it could still lead to that just intoxicating
mentality to where you just go and do stupid things where you go and do foolish things
and this was absolutely not right what they did verse 26 and they slew hamore and sheikham his son
with the edge of the sword and took dina out of sheikham's house and went out the sons of jacob
came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister they took their
sheep and their oxen their asses and that which was in the city and that which was in the field and
all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives took they captive and spoiled even
all that was in their house so just because your sister commits fornication it doesn't give you a
right to just go murder people steal all their goods plunder their city take their wives take
their cattle take their little ones it doesn't give you the right to do that and just because
you've been wronged in some way in your life that doesn't give you the right to avenge yourself
bible says vengeance is mine sayeth the lord i will repay it's god's job to take vengeance and of
course he's given us institutions for man to take vengeance on god's behalf in this world like the
government and if the government did their job they're the instrument of god's vengeance in
many ways but hey even if you don't have that system you still don't have the right to take
things into your own hand and just avenge yourself and to right the wrongs on your own behalf the
right thing to do is hey to pray to god you know pray to god that god can work out the situation
in the best way possible pray to god sometimes in some cases against people you see a predatory
prayers in the bible there's many times it's okay to pray against people but the act the answer is
not just going committing murder the answer is not just going out and stealing things and when
people are cut off in the road and someone does something wrong to you on the road let me tell you
what the answer is not to pull out your gun and just start shooting them the answer is not to just
take your car and just start running people over and just to run people's motorcycles onto the side
of the road that's sick that's not right and if it wasn't happening in such a huge scale i'd have a
hard time believing that people even do this that you're just on the road and you're just going to
kill someone for someone cutting you off but it happens it does happen this is uh jacob when he's
about to die and he's preaching to his kids what's going to come to pass in the latter days this is
what he says of simian and levi that did this grievous thing jacob said this i'll read for you
genesis 49 5 simian and levi are brethren instruments of cruelty are in their habitations
remember that word cruelty oh my soul come not into thou there come not thou into their secret
under their assembly mine honor be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man and
in their self will they digged down a wall cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath
for it was cruel i will divide them in jacob and scatter them in israel so notice jacob is
not condoning actions of his sons he's not saying oh yeah yeah i mean dina committed fornications
you guys are right in what they did he said no that was cruel that was wicked that was outrageous
that should have never happened he's not condoning it he's saying this was a horrible thing that
happened go to first samuel 18 let's look at another story where a man's anger causes him
to destroy those around him first samuel chapter number 18 first samuel 18 verse number six and it
came to pass as they came when david was returned from the slaughter of the philistine that the women
came out of all the cities of israel singing and dancing to meet king saul with tablets with joy
and with instruments of music and the women answered one another as they played and said
saul has slain his thousands and david his ten thousands notice saul's reaction to this
so is saul happy for david that he went and killed the philistine and did something great for the
lord no he's envious and this is what it says verse eight and saul was very wrought he's very
angry he's very upset and the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed unto david
ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands what can he have more than the kingdom
and so did saul say you know what david's doing better than me so i'm just gonna work harder than
david now i'm gonna start killing more philistines than david i'm gonna start doing right or did he
try to destroy him let's read what happens in verse number nine it says in saul i david
from that day forward and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from god came upon
saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house and david played with his hand as at other times
and there was a javelin in saul's hand and saul cast the javelin for he said i will smite david
even to the wall with this david avoided out of his presence twice what a bizarre story what a
weird thing to do you would think that saul and david would be on the same team they're both
supposed to be fighting the lord's battles saul should be excited that david went out and killed
goliath but instead he doesn't just let that motivate him to be a better king to be a better
warrior instead what does he do he gets mad and he tries to kill david the guy that just killed the
enemy of the lord the guy that's doing god's work he literally tries to kill him can you see now
the intoxicating effect of anger on someone to where you'd be literally willing to kill your
brother in christ willing to kill your fellow soldier who's doing nothing but good for god's
kingdom you're willing to kill him or attempt to kill him because of anger it goes to show how
dangerous anger can be and how destructive it can be and how careful you have to be because it
leads people to do just insane things but another way anger can bring destruction is by your words
go to james chapter number three i'll read for you proverbs 27 four it says wrath is cruel and
anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before envy notice the bible keeps saying that
their wrath was cruel was cruel proverbs saying their wrath is cruel and another thing that
happens when people get really angry is they say some of the cruelest things in their life some of
just the most mean hurtful words that people have ever said have been when they're angry and this
will bring destruction in your life this will bring destruction in your marriage this will bring
destruction in your relationship with your parents in your relationship with your children because
of the things that you say you know you can say things that can hurt people you absolutely can
and you don't have just a free license to just say whatever you want to say that is not what the
bible teaches people see preachers getting up screaming yelling and saying things that are
extreme because they're preaching the bible but let me tell you that's generally not the best way
to act with people in your life i'm just going to tell you that right now james three verse five
says even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things behold how great a matter
a little fire kindler and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue among our
members that it defile it the whole body and set it on fire the course of nature and it is set
on fire of hell this doesn't sound very positive the bible is not really painting a good picture
of what your tongue can do verse seven for every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and
things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankind but the tongue can no man tame it is an
unruly evil bull of deadly poison therewith bless we god even the father and therewith curse we men
which are made after the similitude of god out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing
my brethren these things ought not so to be and there have been many relationships in this world
that have been absolutely irreparably destroyed by the things that people say to each other and you
need to be really careful when you're mad when you're fighting with someone to not be cruel with
your tongue just because you're upset it doesn't give you the right to be cruel to someone doesn't
give you the right to be cruel to your spouse it doesn't give you the right to be cruel to your
kids you don't want to be known to your kids as just that parent that was just always screaming
and yelling and always calling them names and always saying things to them of course children
are supposed to be under obedience completely to our parents that doesn't mean you should be mean
to your kids i don't think it's cool to just call your kids a bunch of names and to treat them like
they're your dogs or something like that i don't think that makes you cool i don't think that makes
you look like you're such a tough authoritarian parent i think it makes you look like a fool
actually because what you're doing is you're being cruel you're cutting them down with your
tongue and you're destroying relationships in your life and hey you should care a lot
about your relationship with your spouse you should care a lot about your relationship with
your kids and you should not get the the short times of your life that you get angry to just
cause lifelong devastation to your relationships because there are things that you can say that
can cut people down forever and you need to be very careful with your tongue i'll read for you
proverbs 21 verse 19 the bible is very clear about this it says it is better to dwell in
the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman okay when when spouses are fighting
and the wife is real contentious and she's real angry and she's yelling at her husband and she's
calling him names you know what the husband's not thinking you know my wife has some good points
she she might be right about that you know what he's thinking when can i move to alaska
i'd rather deal with a grizzly bear i'd rather deal with a pack of wolves than dealing with the
angry and contentious wife that's what the bible says here and notice the bible doesn't say it'll
seem better to dwell in the wilderness it says it is better right so you ladies that think oh
you know i don't understand why my husband you know he's we're having issues in our marriage i
constantly tell him what he's doing wrong i constantly tell him how he can become a better
husband i don't understand why he's not getting this it's like you're just going to drive him
to alaska you're going to ruin your marriage you will never as a woman ever make your marriage
better by being angry at your husband you will never make your marriage better by being contentious
against your husband you will only destroy your marriage the bible says that women are to be
obedient to their husbands in all things okay and that also doesn't give men a license to be cruel
to their wives that doesn't give men a license to be jerks to their wives but i'm just telling
you the bible paints the picture that usually is the angry and contentious woman that's causing
the issues because usually men are pretty chill they're just like oh whatever you know they're
not worried they don't really want to spend the energy on fighting right but the woman she wants
to be contentious and angry but look that is your that's their sin nature that's not good
remember what i said when things come natural to you it's probably bad you need to check your anger
because you can destroy your marriage by being cruel with your tongue by being angry with your
spouse by being contentious with your spouse you could drive him to the wilderness and it doesn't
say that he'll think that it's better it says that it actually is better okay so god is very clear
about that proverbs 22 24 says go to colossians three while i read this colossians three i'll
read for you proverbs 22 verse 24 it says make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious
man thou shalt not go notice you can also destroy the relationships with your friends by being
someone that's just always angry and contentious because the bible says hey don't make friendship
with an angry man and there's been people in my life where i thought hey you know i love you
you're my brother in christ i hope the best for you but i thought like i just shouldn't be close
to this person i shouldn't be very close friends with this person because they're just so angry all
the time and just because they're so contentious and the bible makes it clear hey make no friendship
with an angry man you shouldn't be around people like that because it's going to drag you down it's
going to turn you into that same person and you don't want to destroy the relationships in your
life you don't want to get into these crazy situations with road rage and all the negative
that could happen in your life because of anger colossians 3 verse 21 says fathers
provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged you know one of the most weighty
responsibilities that you'll ever have in your life and one of the biggest blessings from god
just one of the greatest honors in life that god has ever given us is being a father and you know
there's a lot of things in my life that i want to do really well on i want to be a good employee i
want to be a good preacher i want to be good at a lot of things in my life but one of the most
important things that i want to be said of me when i die is that i was a good dad and it's such a
heavy responsibility because the bible says that you dad can provoke your child to anger and you
can be the cause of their discouragement that's that's a very heavy thought to think about to
think about god looking down from heaven and saying you want to know why your son and your
daughter is discouraged in the things of the lord you want to know why they're not excited about
church you want to know why they have a negative view of christianity in the bible it's because you
are a jerk dad because you provoke them to anger and you discourage them that's a heavy thought to
think about and so as dads you know we are the primary disciplinarian right we're supposed to be
disciplining our kids and teaching them and yeah you know we should be tough on them especially
compared to how the world is as parents right but you don't want to be so over the top that you
discourage your kids they're still kids they're still just kids foolishness is bound in the heart
of the child kids are going to do foolish things all the time it's just your job to discipline
them and correct them and move on that's it it's not to just be angry at them all the time and to
scream at them and to call them stupid and call them idiots and call them worthless and to call
them all these mean names that's not your job and you know what if you discourage your kids
god will judge you for that if your kids don't end up loving the lord because of your authoritarian
style as a dad god's going to hold you responsible for that and you should take that extremely
seriously like i said you know anger can destroy the relationships in your lives it can destroy
people's lives literally and really quickly i'm just going to talk about for the rest of the
sermon how we can control our anger really this should be a soul different a whole different
sermon but i don't want to leave you guys with nothing so go to proverbs chapter 27 proverbs
27 you know we talked about basically just the doctrine of anger in the bible what the bible
has to say about anger but let me just give you quickly a couple things you can do to help you
control your anger and number one you're there in proverbs 27 the number one way you can help
control your anger is to confront and rebuke the person making you angry that sounds weird you're
like what rebuke here's the thing rebuke doesn't always have to be swinging from the chandeliers
screaming at someone it could just be confronting someone about an issue that they had or a
transgression that they did against you and just bringing it to their attention okay and look the
bible teaches this proverbs 27 verse 4 says wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous but who is able
to stand before envy then look at the next verse this is not a coincidence that these verses are
next to each other it says open rebuke is better than secret love faithful are the wounds of a
friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful you would think why would you ever rebuke someone
to deal with your anger you're just going to lash out in them and scream at them and call
them names not according to the bible these verses are right next to each other for a reason they're
connected hey you want to deal with your anger just go up to the person that's making you mad
that did something to you and just say hey you wronged me in this way and i'm upset about it
and that does a couple things it gives them the chance to repent and get right and to restore
relationship with you which most of the time especially amongst christian brethren that's
going to happen people are most likely going to be humble and just take their rebuke and say hey
sorry sorry offended you and then you gain your brother right and that also allows you to get
rid of the anger that you have because when situations get resolved obviously you have less
anger right another option you have is to forgive i'll read for you matthew 6 9 it says after this
manner pray ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will
be done in earth as in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever amen for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly
father will also forgive you but if he forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father
forgive your trespasses and so one thing you can do when you're angry when someone does something
wrong to you you can just choose to forgive that person whether they apologize for it or not and
if you think about a lot of the situations in our life that we get angry about it's probably just
small things it's probably just menial things that you could just probably just let go and forget
about and if you can't hey then talk to the person confront them rebuke them but a lot of times it's
just so much easier to just forgive someone to just let it go and i didn't say you know harbor
it up in bitterness and not actually forget them it's actually forgive and forget them that's one
way you can deal with anger as well. Another thing, go to Galatians chapter 5, another thing that
can help you is to just be filled with the Spirit more often. Being filled with the Spirit more often
is going to help you not to be just an angry person. Galatians 5 verse 16 says, "This I say then,
walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one to the other so that you
cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit you're not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are these, notice, now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ideology, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
and notice this, wrath. So one of the works of the flesh is wrath, being angry. But look at verse 16
again it says, "This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."
Think about this, these people in these road rage shootings that are going out and shooting people
and crashing their vehicle into people and stabbing people and beating people up,
do you think that these are people that woke up in the morning and read their King James Bible,
prayed to God, and were singing hymns on their way to work? Or do you think these are people
that are walking in the flesh? So here's the thing, if you start your day, you read the word
of God, you get prayed up, you're singing hymns to the Lord, and someone cuts you off, you know
what you might do? You'd be like, "Hey, you know what? I'm just going to give place to wrath. I'm
going to forgive this person. I'm not going to render evil for evil." That's most likely going
to be your attitude. But when you're so in the flesh, and you're angry, and you're just wanting
someone to cut you off, you're in the flesh, you're going to be a lot more likely to get angry and
to get into these situations. So, and like Pastor Shelley always says, it's not hard to know what
to do, it's hard to do it, right? You want to avoid being in a road rage incident? Here you go,
read the Bible every day, pray every day, and sing hymns to God, and you're probably not going to be
on the side of the road stabbing someone in the chest anytime soon. Just my guess, right? It, and
it's, I mean, it sounds like, oh, that's, that's too simple. I mean, no, it's true. If you're walking
in the Spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, I just wanted to preach this
because I've noticed a lot of anger in our society, noticed a lot of people in the flesh. I also wanted
to give you some practical tips on road rage to not be escalating people because I would hate to
hear about something bad ever happening to someone in this church. I hope this sermon could help you
also just to be a less angry person to walk in the, or walk in the Spirit and just to reduce
conflict and strife in your life. And with that, let's end in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father,
thank you for this day. Thank you for the Word of God that gives us instruction on every area
of our life. I pray that every single person in here would work on controlling their anger,
would work on just walking in the Spirit, and that you would just protect our church, our families
during these perilous times, and that you just bless our church. We love you in Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 41. Song number 41. Song number 41.
Sweet by and by. Song number 41. Everybody sing it out together on the first. There's a land that
is fairer than day. By faith we can see it afar, for the Father waits over the way to prepare us
a dwelling place there. Sweet we shall meet on that beautiful shore. We shall meet, we shall sing on
that beautiful shore, songs of the blessed Beelzebub.