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All right, Galatians 5. The part of the chapter we're going to be focusing in on there is starting in verse 19, where it talks about the works of the flesh. So it gives us the fruit of the Spirit, which is preceded by the works of the flesh. And it lists off a lot of different things here, a lot of different sins in Galatians 5. Look at what it says here in verse 19. It says, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Now, a lot of these first lists I've been preaching on a lot lately. Adultery, fornication. I'm not going to focus on those this morning. Then verse 20, it says, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Then it continues on, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of the witch I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, the day which do such things shall I inherit the kingdom of God. There's a lot of things here that obviously we ought not to be, none of these things we should be participating in or having in our life, sinful things. And I'm going to be focusing in verse 20 where it's talking about hatred, wrath, and strife. And I'm focusing mostly on anger or wrath. Wrath is just like extreme anger. And the title of my sermon is called Anger Management. So that's the politically correct term or whatever where people have to go to anger management classes and things like that. Well, let's go to Bible and see what the Bible teaches just about anger management because I do believe you ought to be able to manage your anger. That is something that you need to have control over in your life. Now, it's not always sinful to be angry. We're going to see that in the next passage, but we see a lot of passages that talk about hatred and wrath and anger that are not good things, that are not things you ought to have in your life in general. So I don't want to get too focused on the special cases, the exceptions to the rule, because the rule is more important than the exceptions, right? I mean, we want to live our lives that are not full of just wrath and anger and just being upset and angry all the time. So this is followed up in verse 22 with the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. The thing about peace is like the opposite of being angry, right? When you're in peace in your heart, everything's fine. Long suffering means you allow a lot of things to happen before you get angry, right? Like the Lord is long suffering. He suffers things long. He allows things to go on, even transgressions and sins, before He comes down and chastises and disciplines and brings judgment and sometimes brings wrath, right? When He gets really angry. He allows people to continue and provoke Him on and on and on and has a lot of long suffering and patience towards people. And this is an attribute that we need to strive to have as well. Then gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. And again, real briefly, we know that as believers, we have two parts to us. We've got the flesh, which is what everyone in this world has is flesh, which is what drives you to sin. We have a sinful flesh. It's going to try to get you to do all of these things that are the works of the flesh, the adulteries and fornications and the hatred and all the things listed here. This is the flesh speaking. This is the flesh trying to get you to do wrong. But when you're born again, you have a spirit inside of you that's born again. And when you walk in the spirit, that's all the good stuff. That's the love, the joy, the peace, the long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, when you can walk in the spirit. And the Bible teaches us that our flesh battles against the spirit every single day. That it's a constant battle. It's a constant struggle. Your flesh wants you to sin and your spirit wants to do right. And it's up to you to choose whether or not you're going to walk in the spirit or walk in the flesh. Okay, but I don't want to get into that. That's kind of a side note. That's a whole nother doctrine to teach for another day. Turn if you would to Ephesians chapter four in Galatians right now. Just flip over a few pages of Ephesians chapter four. So hatred and wrath, these are works of the flesh. But I want to point out here in Ephesians chapter four, we're going to see that it's not always sinful to be angry. Because there's some people that would take this teaching, what I'm trying to teach this morning about not being angry and not having wrath and stuff like that, and take that too far of an extreme of just saying that it's always a sin to be angry. Because it's not always a sin to be angry. We're going to see an example a little bit later of righteous anger as well as unrighteous anger and wrath that's going to bring a cursing. So in Ephesians chapter four, look at verse 25, the Bible reads, Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Verse 26, Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So it's saying go ahead and be angry, but don't sin. So obviously, just by that one phrase alone, we can see it's possible to be angry and not be in sin. It's not always wrong to be angry. So we need to start to understand, well, what's the Bible talking about? It says the works of the flesh is wrath, but then it says to be angry and sin not. Well, first of all, wrath and anger aren't exactly the same. They're very, very similar, but wrath is a much more extreme form of anger. But even wrath in and of itself isn't always just sinful. I mean, God has wrath, and we know that God is not a sinner either. Now, God isn't bound by the same exact rules that we are necessarily, but at the same time, I mean, He's the embodiment of righteousness and holiness and truth. So, you know, if God has wrath, it's not a bad thing. And it's not always a bad thing to have wrath. But what we want to see here with the wrath and what we're going to see with the hatred and stuff is it's not something that ought to characterize your life. It's not something you ought to be known for. It's not something that you should just be like, oh, man, that's an angry person. That's a wrathful person. Because there are people out there like that, right? There's definitely people out there who are just always angry about things. They're always mad at the world. They're mad about something. They're just kind of flying off the handle. They don't know how to control themselves. They can just flip on a dime and get really, really angry. The smallest things just make them lose their top. This is what we don't want to be found in. And look, this is part of not allowing that wrath and that anger to consume you. Because that's the other problem is that when you're angry, it can really just eat you up and consume you. And if you hold on to it, it could destroy you having that anger just built up inside of you. You need to be able to let things go, which is why the Bible says here, be angry and sin not. And then it explains how you're going to do that. How are you going to be angry and sin not? Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So here, this is equating the wrath and the anger being the same. Wrath, like I said, normally is a much more extreme form of anger. But here it's just saying, hey, when you're angry, don't sin by keeping that anger or that wrath with you day to day to day. So it says don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. The sun goes down at the end of the day, right? You get angry today. You get angry from someone doing something. You get angry over something. The Bible saying, you know what? Learn to just let it go. Don't hold on to that. Don't harbor that anger and just let it fester inside of you day to day. You know what? Anger is a is a normal, natural, you know, and you know, not everything that's that that is of the you know, the things are of the flesh are not good. But there are the way that God designed us. We have emotions. So it's not just all emotions. Bad anger in and of itself isn't just inherently bad or wrong. There is a good time to express and feel anger. Jesus Christ himself got angry and we can see that. So we know that Jesus Christ was not a sinner. So it's not like it's it's a sin to be angry, but it is a sin to just hold on to that just day after day and let that anger fester because that's going to turn into bitterness. And that's going to that's going to destroy you from the inside. Verse 27. Let's keep reading here. In Ephesians four, the Bible says 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, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So it's contrasting here having bitterness and wrath and anger with being forgiving and tender hearted and kind towards people. That's what we ought to be focusing on and striving to be is being tender hearted, kind, merciful, forgiving. These are the attributes of walking in the spirit. This is how this ought to typify your life. Now, none of us are perfect. We're on a fall. But I want to I really want to make sure that the point gets gets hit home that you don't use the excuse of well, it's not always a sin to be angry to justify you being in sin of being an angry person and just holding on to anger and always losing your top and you know, and then using it say, well, see, you could be angry and not sin and then and then just just cling to that and continue to just be a really angry person. Because that is not right. That is that is not biblical. That's not the way we ought to be. We're going to see as we get into this, you're going to see how much scripture really is involved in this. And you know, this actually you might be like, well, Pastor Burzins, that's kind of normal. I think a lot of people already know that. But I need to make sure we maintain a balance because one of the things that I preach here, I'm going to preach on things that you don't always hear from all the other churches just in general and Christianity in general. You're not going to hear all of the you know, the harder topics and the things that that go against the grain in this culture. And when I preach on that stuff, I don't want there to be an imbalance, right? And especially we're going to go over hatred in a little bit, too, because the world today and modern Christianity is going to tell you could never hate. You should never be angry should never do all these things. So to combat that I'll preach and be like, well, no, it's not always a sin to be angry. It's not always a sin to hate. There is a time for this, but we need to keep it in its proper place in context that it's not just all the time thing. It's not just something that you should just be experiencing on a regular basis. Just I'm always angry and I'm always hateful. That's not it at all. There is a specific time and place, but we need to keep it on that and I'd rather focus on what we should be doing and how we should be living and being kind and forgiving and that ought to characterize you as a Christian. Turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 11. I want to make sure we get the right teaching and the right balance on this doctrine. 1 Samuel 11, we're going to see an example of righteous anger of a time where it's clearly obvious that here King Saul got angry and it was of the Lord that he got angry. That this is not just always a sin and you need to take the Bible as a whole as well. Like when you're trying to understand Galatians chapter 5 and you say, well, wrath is of the flesh. So, then any time you have wrath, it's like, well, hold on a second. We need to make sure how that gels with everything in Scripture and what is this actually talking about here before you just come up with doing a broad brush, right? Now, generally speaking, that would be the rule, but there are exceptions to this and we're going to see that here in 1 Samuel chapter 11. Look at verse number 1. The Bible reads, Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us and we will serve thee. So, just to give you the context here, this is really early, very early on in the reign of Saul. He'd just become king. And these Ammonites, this is some heathen people that were around Israel at the time. They were surrounding Israel and their neighboring Israel. And this Nahash comes up and it says, all the men of Jabesh, basically they got scared. So, this Nahash comes up and then these people of Israel, they get scared of this guy and they say, well, just make a covenant with us or a promise with us and we'll serve you, right? They're just kind of ready to just roll over and fine. We'll do whatever you want us to do. Verse number 2 says, And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for reproach upon all Israel. So, he's saying, you know, he's coming up to fight. He's coming up to conquer and they're just rolling over right away. They're not even going to put up a fight and saying, well, we'll just be your servants. We'll just do whatever you want us to do. They say, you know what? The only way you're going to get away with this, with, you know, with you not even fighting, is if I can pluck out your right. I mean, think about that. That's going to be a reproach for you. All the people are going to go around with only one eye. And they consider this, even this, of going like, we're going to see this in a minute, of saying, well, maybe we will do that. I mean, think about that. If someone were to come to you, like if some foreign country is going to come and try and invade us, and we're just like, no, no, please don't hurt us. You know, stop. We'll be your servants. And they're like, well, you know what? You all got to pluck out your right eye. Be like, no, sorry. I mean, first of all, we probably wouldn't even be like, we'll be your servants. But that's how these people were fearful. And again, this is when Saul just became king. He hadn't even really established himself yet as being a great leader and someone that people can follow. So here's what they do. Look at verse number three. We'll keep reading the story. It says, and the elders of Jabesh said unto him, give us seven days respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel. And then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to these. So they're saying, well, can you give us a week so we could go call on other people to help us out? This is kind of an interesting story. It's kind of like, it's just weird that they're allowed. Like, this guy just wants to fight. It sounds like these Ammonites that came up against them, you know, they want to conquer. They don't want the people to roll over. They're just like they're looking for a fight and they're looking to conquer because he gives them this opportunity to let them send out messengers and see who's going to come to our aid. They're like, just leave us alone for a week. OK, give us a little bit of time to prepare for this battle. And then verse four says, then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul and told the tidings in the ears of the people. And all the people lift up their voices and wept. So the people are all upset at hearing this. Like, oh, man, you've got this army. These Ammonites are coming out. And they're trying to conquer these people here in Jabesh. And everyone's upset about it. Verse five says, and behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field. And Saul said, what aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh. Now look at verse number six. This is Saul's reaction. To everyone else, they hear it and they just kind of mourn and they're crying and they're upset and they don't know what to do. And it's kind of like, woe is me. These bullies are coming. And what are we going to do about this? But here's Saul's reaction when you hear this. It says in verse six, and the Spirit of God came upon Saul. So God's Spirit comes on Saul. The Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings and his anger was kindled greatly. It made Saul angry. He's like, who do those heathen think they are that they're going to come in and take over the people of Jabesh and make them pluck out their eye? That ought to make you angry. That would make me angry. Who do you think you are? You're not just going to come in here and you heathen people and just take over our land and force us to submit to you or whatever. And we can see here that it was with God's Spirit upon him he got angry. This wasn't something that he is walking in the Spirit here because God's Spirit is on him, which provoked this response of being angry. And then it says in verse 70, took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent. And this is a wise move by Saul because he's trying to get these people together. And it sounds like they're all in fear, which is why they wanted a king in the first place. They wanted a king to go out and fight their battles for them. If you remember earlier in Samuel, I don't want to get into all that. But there's a whole other aspect of the Bible there where these people just they needed someone to guide them and lead them. He's saying, look, you all need to come and help now. You can't stand for this. And he kind of united the country, united Israel together to go and fight these people. And he does. But the whole point of turning there was to see this passage of the Spirit of God coming upon Saul and then them getting angry. Turn, if you would, to Mark chapter 3. We're going to see the example here I mentioned earlier about Jesus getting angry. Now, I don't have it in my notes, but there's also the real famous passage when Jesus Christ goes into the temple and he sees everyone buying and selling. And he flips over the tables of the money changers and he makes a whip and he drives them out literally just whipping people to just driving them out. So imagine someone coming into church here and just flipping over the tables and bringing in a whip like Indiana Jones and just making everyone like, get out of here, right? What do you think you're doing in here? And that's what Jesus Christ did in the temple to those who are buying and selling in the house of God, which by the way, separate note again, is why we don't sell anything in church and no church should be selling anything at all and making the house of God, which is supposed to be a house of prayer, a house of merchandise. That is what got Jesus really angry and caused him to flip over tables and caused him to use a whip to get the people out of the temple. That is a very big deal, right, for Jesus to do. And a lot of people, they don't have that understanding of who Jesus was that he even did something like that. Because people have gone too extreme, too far to one side on the teaching to not understand there is an appropriate balance but we need to keep it in the right context because Jesus wasn't flipping out and doing this every week. And in fact, he didn't flip out when he did that either. He maintained his control and his composure. If you read that story, again, it wasn't in my notes, if you read that story, he took the time, he saw what was going on, he actually took the time to make a whip. He wasn't carrying a whip with him and just pulled it out like he's just pulling out his gun. He actually took the time to stop and create a whip, which that alone shows you the control, right? He's not just flying off the handle and just blowing up as soon as he sees this stuff. He sees it, he analyzes the situation, it makes him angry, and he decides how he's going to deal with it and he decided, you know what? I'm going to make a whip and these people are going to go, right? And he did it in a dramatic fashion by flipping over the tables but he was very controlled when he did all of that because when you're out of control and you lose your temper, that is a sin. That is a sin and Jesus was without sin. That's how we know that even though he was doing some dramatic things did not mean he was out of control. However, he did get angry. There's another time where the Bible records Jesus being angry as well in Mark chapter 3, which is where I had to turn. Look at verse number 1, the Bible reads, And he entered again into the synagogue and there was a man there which had a withered hand, and they watched him whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, stand forth, and he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they held their peace. Look at verse number 5, And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. So Jesus Christ here, it says that he looked round about on all these people with anger. He was angry. Why was he angry? Well, in the story, what's he trying to do? You know, these people are trying to accuse him of doing something wrong. Jesus comes to this world, the Son of God. He's performing miracles. He's healing people, people who are deaf. He's miraculously allowing them to hear. People who are blind are receiving their sight. People who can't walk, they're laying on their feet. He's healing them and allowing them to walk in. He's doing all these great things. I mean, you see someone doing these things. Wow, the great power of God. What a great man coming and doing these great things. And then you got people going, oh, he's doing it on the Sabbath day. He's breaking God's, you know, like, look, you are completely blinded and missing. What is he even doing here? And he's angry because while he's on this earth performing great miracles, he's got people still just trying to accuse him of things, trying to call him out. It's like, look, why don't you just let Jesus do the good work that he's doing and listen to him and get some understanding instead of trying to find fault with him at every moment? And you know, that's kind of a separate issue too, but we ought to be careful not to just be on this hair trigger to find fault with people. You know, people are humans. And I still, no matter how many infiltrators or bad people end up coming in the church, I still want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I think we ought to give people the benefit of the doubt. Now, it doesn't mean I'm going to trust everyone with my children, but I am going to give people the benefit of the doubt. I'm not going to think that anyone's a bad wicked person. When they expose themselves as being such, then, you know, we deal with it. But until then, we don't need to just be always looking for, you know, on the lookout for when are they going to do bad? This is what the people were doing to Jesus. It made him angry that they're trying to accuse him of something as he's saving life, as he's healing people, as he's doing good things. And it made him angry. And Jesus, we know, was without sin. Turn to James 1. So, those are the two examples of righteous anger. I wanted to hit those first because now we're going to get into just lots and lots and lots of Scripture that's going to tell us not to be angry, not to have wrath and not, you know, so I kind of wanted to cover that just so we get the proper understanding. You know what? There is a time and a place for this. There's a time and a place to get angry in certain situations. You know, when you're serving God and doing what's right, it's okay to get angry when you're being withstood and there's an enemy trying to, you know, stop good work from being done. Or when someone's just blaspheming the Lord or doing things that are just really bad in the church or whatever, you can have righteous anger for those things. Now, it wouldn't be right, like even for Jesus, if he's just going to bed and he's just like, man, I can't believe those people are buying and selling. It's just like day after day. It's just like eating him up. No, that's why I said be, you know, be angry and sin, not let the sun go down upon your wrath because you're supposed to just be able to let that stuff go. You can see it, makes you angry, deal with it, move on. Don't harbor the anger or the hatred in your heart because that will be sinful. Then James Chapter 1, we're going to start looking at verse number 18 here. James 1 18, the Bible reads of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So we need to be ready, way more ready to hear than we are to speak. Unfortunately, a lot of people have a problem of whining, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk without even hearing what other people are saying. We ought to be the opposite. The right way is to be ready to hear, ready to receive instruction, ready to learn, ready to hear what other people have to say, measure what you hear, control what you say, so that way you're taking your time and only saying the things that are right and that are appropriate instead of just doing a quick reaction to someone else, right? Or just having a lot of words because you like to hear yourself talk or whatever. We need to be slow to speak and slow to wrath. A lot of times people are going to say things that get you offended. You know, in church, you might hear things that offend you. You might hear things from the Bible. You might hear things out of my mouth that offends. That stings, but be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath. Now, it doesn't mean you can never get angry. It just says be slow to wrath, right? Just like God is long suffering. Now, if I'm wrong in something, I say something is blasphemous, you know, that would be worthy of getting angry about. Then by all means get angry about it, but don't just on the hair trigger, right? You need to be slow and a lot of say, well, wait a minute. What's he saying? Is this right? Is it, you know, you don't start throwing tomatoes right away. Just get down and get off from the pulpit. Be ready for it, you know, to hear out the matter, right? It's folly and shame for someone who doesn't, who doesn't hear, hear a matter out, right? The answer of the matter before you hear it is folly and shame unto him is what the Bible says in Proverbs. So be, be slow to speak, slow to wrath. But look at verse number 20 says, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So being wrathful is not going to work God's righteousness. Proverbs, we're going to spend a lot of time in Proverbs here. Proverbs chapter 19. We're a lot of wisdom from Proverbs and this is the heavy meat in the bulk of the sermon has is revolving around Proverbs when it comes to dealing with anger, right? Handling your anger. So we see already in James that you need to be slow to wrath. So Swift to hear be ready to listen to people and and just let that wrath, you know, build up. Don't don't be real quick hair trigger on the wrath. Proverbs 19 verse number 11. The Bible reads the discretion of a man defereth his anger. So discretion is, you know, having that the understanding that the being able to discern what you're experiencing what you're hearing the discretion of a man defereth his anger. So instead of being angry, you're able to kind of pass over it, which is why I continues and says it is his glory to pass over a transgression. So it's a good thing. Basically with the Bible teaching here to be able to overlook people's transgressions and their wrongs against you instead of just getting angry about it, right? You can the spiritual man is going to show discernment because you can say well, hey, yeah, this person did me wrong. You know, I ought to be angry about that. Try to take the Spirit of Christ who is very forgiving and God who is very long suffering and let that give you wisdom and how you ought to deal with things so that you can defer your anger and say yes, this person did wrong. No doubt about it. They're wrong. I'm right, but you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to put off my anger and just not even get angry over this and I'm going to pass over that transgression. I'm just going to pretend like it didn't even happen. The Bible says that that is glory that it that's that's going to get you respect in God's eyes by being able to pass over the things when people do you wrong because that's how Christ lived jump down to verse number 19. The Bible says a man of great wrath shall suffer punishment. So if you're someone who just always has great wrath, right? You have you have a lot of anger and wrath built up. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment for if thou deliver him yet thou must do it again. And this is that habitual aspect of it. You you deliver him for one time is going to keep happening over and over and over again because a very wrathful person and it's going to come back and bite you. Another thing to another reason why I believe a person of great wrath is going to suffer punishment is because you end up reaping what you sow and if you can't be long-suffering and forgiving of other people then God's not going to be long-suffering with you. Right that that when you forgive others then God sees that and then he'll be more lenient and forgiving of your own faults. And here's the thing. We all have faults don't think that you don't and oftentimes having this great wrath gets tied in with having pride to because people get full of themselves and thinking there's something really special and really great. So any minor transgression against them sets them off right and the people who oh, man, you know, think about the guys are always trying to get in a fight. Like what are you looking at me? You're looking at me funny, huh? You stepped on my toe. You bumped my shoulder whatever, you know, these guys that just just want to be all tough. They're proud. They're full of themselves. They think there's something great and you know what God's going to deal with them the way that they're dealing with other people and it's not going to be good. Flip back to chapter 16 of Proverbs Proverbs chapter 16. Verse number 32. The Bible reads he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and what's about the mighty or just like a mighty warrior, right? Someone who's just a really good a mighty strong guy. It says if you're slow to anger, you're better than than that real strong guy and he that ruleth his spirit than he that take at the city. So the Lord values your ability to control yourself to control your spirit control your anger be able to Passover matter way more than he gives respect to someone who's just real strong and able to defeat a city and go in and you have these victories like in a war or something like that. God God, you know, man puts a lot of accolades and respect and honor to those, you know, great generals of these battles and stuff like that, right? But God sees that and he says, you know what? I think it's better for someone to be slow to anger. I think it's better for someone to be able to control themselves and not just flip out and do you know and make these these really rash decisions. It's I much prefer to see that than someone, you know, taking a city and a mighty man God respects that more even though man may not turn to Proverbs chapter 14. I'm going to read from Ecclesiastes chapter 7 Ecclesiastes 7 verse number 8 the Bible reads better as the end of a thing than the beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools again saying don't be quick or hasty to just get angry. And if this feels like it's you if you're thinking like, you know what the littlest things just set me off. There's this just every little thing is a problem then you're going to need to deal with that consider these scriptures meditate on these scriptures and figure out what you can do to not be so angry and maybe take a look at yourself and your own sins and where God has shown you forgiveness and try to change your heart and maybe take a step back be quick to hear but then slow to act and slow to respond slow down your time that you deal with things. You know a common place where this might happen is in the home, you know dealing with people that you deal with on a regular basis whether it be a spouse or your children, you know, sometimes people could get under your skin and you get kind of irritated and stuff but don't let that drive you just become an angry person or to kind of always be thinking about things that people have done wrong learn how to show mercy forgiveness let things go and it's going to make your household way better. And learn how to just be you know suffer some humiliation and not be proud and even when people do you wrong be able to pass over that matter it will generate peace at home. It's the attitude that says but I'm right, but I'm right you shouldn't be doing that to me. They should be doing that and they're wrong. You can you can have that attitude and you can be right all day long and have a miserable home. If you can't learn how to forgive now, obviously men need to be able to run their household, but at the same time, you know, you don't need to be having a lot of strife and contention in the house just because you're easily angry and you don't know how to forgive and to pass over and you're just hasting your spirit to be angry. The Bible says that anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Don't be a fool. It's not worth it. Proverbs chapter 14 is where I do turn like verse number 16. The Bible says a wise man fearth and departed from evil, but the fool rages and is confident. So again, there's a you know, the fools someone who's when some of them being confident. It's like overconfident. They're proud. They're puffed up and you know, they're just raging. The wise man sees a situation and he goes, you know what? This isn't going to turn out very good. Right and I'm just going to go over here and I'm just going to get out of the way of this strife and this evil and I'm just going to avoid it all together. But the fool is just going to be bullheaded and run right into it and rage and I take on whatever. Let it go. Verse 17. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly and a man of wicked devices is hated. Again, if you're quick to be angry, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to deal foolishly and this has to do with a lot of emotions. Not just anger. If you allow yourself to just be, you know, really fearful if you allow yourself to just to be influenced by too much emotion when you make decisions, it's going to cause you to make bad decisions. When you're extremely angry that can cause you that could cause you to make a bad decision if you act too quickly. And it's the same way with with a lot of other emotions. So you need to be able to and if you're soon angry, right as there's a difference between because if you if you allow it to build up, you're already going to be thinking about how you're going to be able to deal with it when it gets to that point. But if it's just one moment, I'm not angry and the next moment I'm angry now, you're making decisions on the fly. But if you're being long suffering, okay, you're building up just like the Lord saying, you know, we see many examples of God warning people sending his prophets and going. Okay. Look, you guys are sitting you're doing Wickedness, you know, think about Jonah yet 40 days and the Lord's going to overthrow an end of them, right? He knows what he's going to do and they've been being wicked and sinful and God's been long suffering with them and it's just building and building and building to the point where God's about to destroy the whole city. He's about to bring his wrath down and he warns them saying hey, if you keep this up, here's what's going to happen. But see they listen and that's the good news for Nineveh is that they heard they repented they got right with God and God didn't destroy their city. But that's an example of how God is able to you know, when it's necessary, he has wrath and it's righteous anger and it's righteous wrath, but he's not just every single any little thing that that that is wrong. He's just flipping out about and again apply that to ourselves is how we ought to be Proverbs chapter 21 actually turn to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 21, I like this verse is Proverbs 21 19 says it is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman. So ladies, especially if you're looking to get married, you know, it's Bible seed is better for men to just go off and be alone somewhere. Like I'd rather just be off alone by myself in the wilderness than to be with a contentious a contentious means just always trying to fight. And an angry woman men don't want to be around that at all. And the Bible is even saying hey, it's better. It's better just to go off and go be alone for a while. If you've got a woman who's just being contentious and angry. Not good attributes, obviously. I don't want to get too far into that this morning though, but it popped up as one of the anger verses and I kind of wanted to throw that in there verse number or excuse me chapter 22 where I do look verse number 24 the Bible reads make no friendship with an angry man. So this is someone who is characterized by being angry, right? Someone who is quick to anger someone who's has these attributes that we already saw bad attributes make no friendship. Don't be friends with someone who's just real quick to be angry angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go look at verse 25 lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. So when you have friends when you become friends with people they rub off on you right there traits you pick up on their traits good and bad, right? They influence your friends are always going to influence you on how you behave. I see it with my children. I've seen it myself friends that I've had over the years you pick up little things that they say you pick up some of their attributes, you know the way that they deal with things and then and vice versa people. It's just the way that God built us even socially when we interact with each other you pick up different things from people. So when you're making friends with people you see as someone just an angry person. Don't be friends with them. I could think of someone specifically that's a really angry person and anytime this person spends time with other people those other people end up becoming more like them and getting more angry. And it's and it's not a good thing and it's and it's a fact and it happens. So you need to be aware when you know when you're making friends you see something like this an attribute, you know, that's going to make you an angry person. Just just don't be friends with people like that. Let them be angry by themselves, right? They could just they could stew and and be angry and not and not have that infect everyone else around them and just look out for yourself in that regard Proverbs chapter 29 verse number 22 the Bible reads an angry man stirs up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. So an angry man is someone who's going to stir up like they're always trying to cause problems. Right, they're stirring up strife. They want they love getting into fights and says in a furious man aboundeth in transgression. So when someone's just just really angry all the time. They're in a lot of sin Proverbs 15 verse number 1 the Bible reads a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. We want to be peacemakers. In general, we're not out trying to cause fights and cause problems. If you're living righteously, don't worry the problems in the fights will come to you, but it's not our job to go off and start the fight. We're not trying to get you know, real angry with people. But if you could learn how to give a soft answer and not provoke people it's going to turn away a lot of wrath and who wants to have wrath faced them anyways, right? Is it but grievous words stir up anger don't be pushing people's buttons. You know what I'm talking about the people that you know, you know the things that you can say that's just going to cause a response and push the buttons don't do that. It's not good for anybody. It does no good. A lot of smiles it doesn't do any good. I don't care if it's fun. It shouldn't be fun. You need to look at it different use a soft answer turn away wrath don't use the grievous words are going to stir up anger. No good is going to come out of it jump down verse number 17 Proverbs 15 about as better as a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred there with it is basically teaching that you know, it doesn't matter you could have a dinner of herbs is means you have a very meager means right you're not you don't have very much money. You can't afford to eat very much. You just got a little bit but you know what when you've got love there you're doing great as opposed to the person who's got the full, you know, seven-course dinner. They have all the food that they could desire and want but then there's hatred there with that's miserable people have a lot of money can just afford every fancy meal, but they're just miserable angry people. That's a miserable existence. I would never want to have that and trade that in a heartbeat for having a nice good loving family loving meal, whatever even if it's just a salad like well, it's all we got. It's so much better. It says in verse 18 a wrathful man stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. So again, the angry person the wrathful one is always trying to start problems always stirring up strife. Now hatred and anger often go hand in hand. I brought this up at the beginning of the sermon. I'm not going to get too far into it because I'm already running a little bit low on time. But we saw in verse 18 of Proverbs 15 is a wrathful man stirs up strife. So that's someone is a lot of wrath lot anger Proverbs 10 12 says hatred stirs up stripes. So besides, you know being wrathful and also just having hate they both are going to cause fighting and cause problems says but love cover it all sins. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3 you have to turn there verse number 8 the Bible reads, you know, this is a famous passage where it talks about all the different times the time of war time of peace verse 8 says a time to love and a time to hate a time of war time of peace. So according to Scripture is a time to love for sure we get that all throughout the Bible. We see that being exalted love being exalted charity being exalted long-suffering gentleness goodness. All these things are attributes. We ought to be striving to have as in our lives. But there is a time to hate that that that exists. That's part of the Word of God. It's not something that's just always automatically a sin. Now it shouldn't consume you and you need to be very careful and selective of what you're going to what you're going to hate but it just makes sense. If you think about it, you know, you can't have everything everything has its its equal opposite right God made heaven and he made help there's righteousness in their sin, right? If you're going to if you're going to love something if you're going to love righteousness, if you're going to love heaven, you're going to hate the opposites, right? When you love your wife, you're going to hate an adulterer. You're going to hate a murderer. You're going to hate the people who are going to take that away for you. This is this is a natural thing to have that love and that hate now. We ought to have a love that God demonstrates towards people but God's love has a limit also. Because while God is love and God encompasses love. He also did create a place called hell and God does send people and cast them into hell. I mean even people who are still alive Cora, Dathan and Byron God opened up the earth to send people straight to hell that was God doing that. So God's love has an end with some people. As can also be appropriate for us as well. The people that hate God or the Bible says, you know, I love them that hate the Oh Lord. I hate them with a perfect hatred, you know, but you know what those verses and those examples are very very very small and minor compared to everything else. We see about how we ought to be loving and even in the God's law Leviticus 1917 Bible reads thou shalt not hate thy brother and thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. So we shouldn't be hating our brother and we see that in 1st John as well not hating your brother 1st John chapter 5, I believe. Or three and four it's in there quite a bit but Let's move on because I wanted to go a little bit more into that but I don't have time for that. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. I'm gonna wrap things up. Earlier we saw examples with King Saul and with Jesus having righteous anger right when it when it was of God it was it was a right thing. But there's another example in Genesis where people exhibited anger and wrath and it was unjustified and not right where they should have been forgiving and they should have looked over the matter and they should have handled it differently than they did and they end up getting cursed for it. And this has to do with Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49 5 I'll read this for you about read Simeon and Levi our brethren instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Oh my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honor be not thou United for in their anger. They slew a man and in their self will they dig 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. This is a curse coming on Simeon Levi Simeon Levi when they had found out that their sister Dinah had commit fornication with one of the men's men in the land. They defiled her because she you know, he didn't marry her first and then lay with her and that made them angry that he this heathen man defiled their sister so they decided to take matter in their own hands and they made this deal with them and with the whole town of Shechem and they said hey, you know you guys the only way that we're going to give our daughters to be wise for you and vice-versa is if you guys get circumcised so they made them get circumcised and while they're still healing they're still in pain. They're still weak though. These two guys go in and they just kill all these guys and just kind of destroy this city and it's and it's this, you know big overreaction to what was done a sin was committed. Yes, but they got so angry about it and so worked up about it that they in turn then decided to go and kill all these people which was not right for them to do and this also shows us that just because people do things in the Bible does always make what they do right like the Bible records a lot of things happening, but it's just because you see something happen in the Bible doesn't mean that the person doing it was right when they did it. And this is an example of that because Simeon Levi get cursed for having that type of anger when they killed those people. But you're in Matthew chapter 5. I'm going to close with this with this thought. We've seen a lot of scriptures talking about being not being swift to be an angry and you know how we ought to be just basically forgiving and overlooking people's problems with us. Matthew 5 kind of sums that up Matthew 5 as well as Romans 12. We're going to close on Romans 12 Matthew 5 verse 21. We're start reading their the Bible reads you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. So Jesus is saying here that we shouldn't be angry with our brother without a cause because they're going to be in danger of the judgment. So we need to be careful with our anger and definitely not be angry without a cause now when you talk about without a cause everyone has a cause to be angry. You ask them they'll tell you why they're angry. He's talking about a justified cause not just any reason and you want to be really careful and especially when it comes to your brother like your brother in Christ your sister in Christ, you know God does it we ought not to be just having a lot of anger and wrath towards our brethren in Christ now. Sometimes there may be a reason for it. And here's what he's saying without a cause there may be a cause for it. It may be justified but you need to be very selective with that and very careful with that jump down to verse number 43 because this is the overarching principle that we ought to be following and he's giving the warning on just being angry with people say hey, you're going to be you be guilty of judgment here. It's going to come down on you if you don't have a righteous cause to be angry verse number 43 Robert you have heard that been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate that enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love them which love you what reward have you do not even the publicans the same and if you salute your brother and only what do ye more than others do not even the public and so be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect and I think the overarching theme that we could get here and where you're not going to go wrong is instead of erring on the side of being angry and being you know having hatred and stuff. Why don't you earn the side of just like being a little bit more forgiving and compassionate and loving and that's going to that's going to lead you the right way. If you're going to err one way or the other it's probably better. I mean you want to get it right you want to get it right, but if you're going to hurry the way there's a lot more emphasis on the forgiveness side of things and there is on the anger side of things a lot more emphasis on on walking the spirit being long-suffering being forgiving and if you end up being a little bit too long-suffering for giving the people then you know, I don't think that's gonna be a bad thing in God's eyes. Romans chapter 12 last last verses here four verses. This is the take home. For everything that we saw today Romans chapter 12 verse number 18 if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men. How are you gonna do that by not being angry with people by overlooking problems by being forgiving as much as like as much as you're capable of doing it live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath you say when someone does you wrong and you want to do vengeance you want to take matters in your hands. You want to write that wrong. The Bible is teaching us here to give place. I mean set that aside put your wrath aside don't get full of wrath towards someone who's done you wrong and here's why for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay Seth the Lord. Here's why you can put aside that anger and I read when someone does you really wrong and you can say you know what I'm justified in having wrath towards this person. One of the reasons why it's good to just let that go is because when you have that wrath you want to take matters in your own hands and you want to make sure that they get punished and that they get what's coming to them. But you can put that aside knowing that vengeance belongs unto the Lord God will deal with that person. So when someone deals with you poorly badly and they and you're right and they're wrong and you can say I'm justified in being angry with them, but you can put that away. You know what you can put that away. It should be easier for you to put that aside because God's going to deal with that person God sees all things and God's the perfect judge. Let's let him judge that let's let him deal with that person that that has done you wrong and you know what let him determine how much long-suffering and forgiveness he's going to allow to them because he's also the one determining how much long-suffering and forgiveness that he's going to extend to you. Let him deal with it because we see plenty of examples when people are being unrighteous towards righteous people God deals with those people. Let him do that. We don't have to worry about it. That is one area that that should be a comfort to us. We don't have to worry about it. People lie about you. They steal from you. They do whatever to you. We don't have to worry about that. You don't I know it makes you angry makes me angry but let not the Sun go down upon your wrath be able to put it aside and say, you know what Lord why don't you deal with it? You can handle it. Verse 20 therefore so because we know that vengeance belongs to God. He's gonna pay if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. You really want to get people back back bad be good to them. So what does this what the Bible saying here? You want that vengeance to be brought by God? Well, the more that you are good to other people the less deserving you are for receiving bad yourself. The more God's going to take vengeance than on you. Right even people who are your enemies people who you know, you guys are opposed but you can still be good to them and then they do evil to you God sees that and he's like I'm going to write I'm going to I'm going to even out the balance here the scales. We're going to balance it out and he'll make sure that that happens and you can just keep you a good and you know what then when you're focused on doing a good then you also don't have the negative side effects of just being angry and having that that burning inside of you just that's not a good feeling. It's not a good feeling to be angry so much better to be at peace, isn't it? And when you've got someone looking out for you got someone checking your back and right in the wrongs. We have total comfort and peace and not have to worry about the the problem, you know, the things that people have done us wrong and when you do well, why was your heaping calls a fire on your head? You're just making it that much worse for him. So just be good to him, right? Verse 21 sums it all up be not overcome of evil. Evil when people do you evil people do you wrong. It's easy to become overcome of that getting angry bitter raffle hating and just in just in just having that eat you up and letting that overcome you and defeat you and destroy you overcome evil with good. Being forgiving long-suffering merciful kind all the things that that God wants us to be. That's how we ought to have our lives characterized by yes, occasionally there's going to be times of righteous anger and righteous indignation and and those times it's just it's perfectly fine. We see the examples of those but overarching the what we need to do is just be forgiving that as Christ has forgiven you as God for Christ's sake and forgiven you so forgive you, you know those that that trespass against So let's borrow heads have a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father Lord. We thank you so much for the for the mercy and forgiveness that you've extended unto us help us to have a peaceful spirit by being able to forgive those that do us wrong and to not hold on to anger and wrath and I pray that you please help us to get to get past those things and to just let you be able to deal with them Lord and I pray that you would bring us peace amongst our church and within our own households anywhere where there might not be peace dear Lord people that are struggling with with anger problems in their heart. Dear God. I pray to please help us to to be able to get past that and and deal with with the things that that cause us to be angry appropriately and Lord. We love you. We thank you for the instruction that you give us. It's in Jesus name. We pray Amen.