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All right, we started off in John 2. I want to focus in on the portion of Scripture that starts in verse 13, a famous story about Jesus Christ and kind of seeing some things that made Him angry and what He did. In verse 13, the Bible says, And the Jews passed over with it at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. So He walks into the temple, and He sees basically just a bunch of things being sold. Now, the things that were being sold here, oxen, sheep, doves, those were all things for the service of the Lord. Those were all things for sacrifices. People were traveling, coming and going, maybe coming from out of town, making long distances, but they needed to do a sin offering or peace offering, or they did do some type of an offering and would need doves or oxen or sheep to be able to fulfill one of those Old Testament sacrifices. And they figure, well, what better place than in the temple for people just to come here? It's your one-stop shop. You can get whatever you need, right? And be able to fulfill whatever it is that you needed to be done. Now, there was nothing wrong with buying sheep, buying and selling animals for sacrifice use and stuff like that. And in fact, the Bible even talks about it. This is just for a way of introduction. I'm not going real deep into this particular aspect or story. But the Bible says if you live real far and you're bringing your tithe, you don't have to necessarily bring literally everything in that you needed or sacrifices. You could just convert it to money, bring your money down, and then buy what you needed for the sacrifice. So there's nothing wrong with that in general of just buying what you need for sacrifices. But the problem was what they were doing was that it was in the temple. And that's what made Jesus angry is that you've got the people buying and selling within the house of God in the temple. And elsewhere the Bible says, you know, you've made My Father's house a house of merchandise. And it's supposed to be a house of prayer to all nations. So when people come into the house of God, it's not to buy and sell things at all. And it doesn't matter what those things are. Okay, it's not to, you know, which is why we'll never have our Christian bookstore or whatever in the church building where we meet to worship, we meet to congregate together. That's why we give everything away for free because we're not making merchandise of you and we're not making merchandise in the house of God. And it doesn't matter if your intentions are good. It doesn't matter if all you have to offer is good things, even Bibles, whatever, you know, literature, books, DVDs. We're not gonna sell those things in the house of God. Now, is it okay to sell those things outside of the house of God? Sure it is. There's nothing wrong with that. Just same way, the oxen and the sheep, hey, go ahead and sell those things. But go to the store for that. Go to the marketplace for those things. You know, that's not appropriate place in the house of God. And this is one instance, you know, you could say, oh, you're just splitting hairs. Oh, it's not really that big of a deal. Well, you know what? How many times do you see Jesus Christ making a whip and whipping people in Scripture? Because that's exactly what he did here. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 15, the Bible says, and when he made a scourge of small cords, a scourge is a whip. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changer's money and overthrew the tables. So he makes a whip. He's driving them all out with the whip going, hey, get out of here. Get this stuff out of here, right? He takes the money and goes, get this out of here, right? Dumps it all out, flips over the table, and drives them out of the temple. It's pretty powerful. It's pretty bold. It's pretty strong. I don't think anybody is questioning how Jesus Christ felt about what was going on in the house of God. And, you know, we ought to, one, and the sermon's not even about this, but that buying and selling principle, we ought to pay real close heed to this, that you never fall into this trap of making merchandise in the house of God. And obviously the most direct application of this would be the church or things being sold for church, Bibles, all the materials that we have here selling all that stuff at church. That would be probably the most one-to-one direct application of this. But you know what else? Don't bring your business into church. The work that you do, maybe you sell stuff, maybe, you know, don't bring your business in here as you've got this whole clientele, you've got this whole base of people to work with. Now, oh, people in church, oh, yeah, I'll invite them over to my parties where I sell them things. And now, you know, look, don't use church for that. Don't make your father's house a house of merchandise because that's what you're doing is making merchandise to people when you're just trying to sell your goods and services and targeting people at church and you're talking to people at church. Now, it's one thing, you know, again, you could have friends, we all probably do, have friends outside of this church, right? And you meet with people outside of church and you can do things that have nothing to do with church. And if you happen to have friends that may or may not come to this church and you're at a gathering, has nothing to do with it, and you're approaching people in that regard with goods and services, I don't see a problem with that because that's more appropriate. That would be like seeing someone out, you know, whatever. I mean, there was someone that came to our church that I dealt with on a professional level outside of everything here, but it's something that was totally appropriate with what needed to be done and everything else. There's a certain time where you can do business with people, but there's a difference between doing business with people and making God's house a house of merchandise, right? You're not targeting people here to just be like, how can I make money off of these people? And I know you might not be thinking like, well, that's not what I'm thinking about these people, but that's what you're doing if you're targeting people to sell them stuff, that's exactly what's happening. Just like the people here are gonna be saying, yeah, but we're just trying to make it easy for people to make these sacrifices to the Lord. Okay, but it's still not appropriate. Jesus still flipped over the tables and made a whip and drove people out. Now, I wasn't really planning on getting that far into this because what I'm preaching on this morning is inconsequential for the actual reason why Jesus got so upset here. But let's finish up the story, verse number 16 says, and said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my Father's house and house of merchandise, and his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Now, obviously, this is an instance where Jesus Christ shows some, maybe what people call extreme behavior, at least passionate, right? Animated, he's, but one thing I wanna point out and the reason why we started in this chapter is that what actually happens here, because we don't wanna let it get out of control even in our own minds, Jesus was never out of control in this situation at all. He didn't lose His temper. He didn't flip out and fly off the handle. Now, He did flip over tables. He did drive people out with a whip. But He was never just out of control, lost it, whoa, man, no one knows what He's gonna do because He's just like a firecracker, a bomb that went off. It was all controlled and what I wanna, the reason why I started here too is I want, because there's a few times where this happened, but verse 15, it says, and when, so He came in and He sees what's going on, but verse 15 says, and when He had made a scourge of small course, so it's not like He just saw what happened and just like went straight to the, you know, boom. Not that He wouldn't have done that, but the fact that He was able to sit down and create a whip and make a whip and He still followed through with the same exact plan, He wasn't just enraged and blinded by anger, right? You know what I'm talking about? Because people can get like that. People can let your emotions get the better of you and you end up making unwise decisions because you're just in the heat of the moment and you're really upset and really angry and you end up reacting as an impulse as opposed to being tempered and being in control and deciding what you're gonna do. Now, Jesus made a decision on what He was going to do, but it was controlled. It was deliberate and it was rational and it was not just based on emotion. Now, was He zealous? Yes, He was, but did He let His emotions get the better? No, and like I said, I think that's demonstrated by being able to sit down, He sees what happens, He assesses the situation and He's angered by it, no doubt. He's angered by it, but He's able to decide what He's going to do and He does so with enough preparation to even make this whip and then He drives them out, pours over the tables and the money and makes a big scene on purpose. You can do acts like that where you're still in control. You still know what's going on and this is what I'm preaching on this morning is ruling your spirit well. You need to rule your spirit well and not allow yourself to lose your temper and to just go off and become unhinged or unglued because then you're going to run into a lot of problems when you start letting your emotions drive you as opposed to knowledge and wisdom and truth. Now, again, there's different ways of dealing with things and handling the things, it doesn't mean that you always have to be soft-spoken, mild-mannered when you're dealing with situations, but you do always have to retain control of your spirit and not lose control. That's when things get dangerous, that's when things get out of hand, that's when people honestly get hurt unintentionally, that's when a lot of bad things can happen is when people lose control of their spirit. Turn, if you would, to Romans 10 because when these things happen, the Bible says in John 2.17 that His disciples remembered it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. So Jesus Christ had a lot of zeal here, but He wasn't out of control and we need to make sure that we don't just have zeal and just have a whole bunch of zeal, but it's not according to knowledge. That was the problem that the Jews had, that was the problem that the Pharisees had was they had this great zeal, like even the apostle Paul before he was saved, he had a lot of zeal for his religion, he had a lot of zeal in his actions, he had a lot of zeal in persecuting the church. I mean, man, when he was going after the church of God, he was going after the people and hailing men and women, bringing them into prison, he's going out and basically hunting down these Christians and trying to do everything he can, getting permission, man, I'm gonna go into this city, I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna get these guys. He had a lot of zeal, he was dedicated, he was ready to go, but he had that zeal that was not according to knowledge, because he wasn't saved, he didn't know the truth, he was ignorant of the gospel, he was ignorant of the truth, he had zeal, but it was misdirected zeal, it was not applied. Now, Jesus Christ obviously did not have misdirected zeal, he had zeal and knowledge, he was able to apply his zeal appropriately in the right situation, completely accurately and according to knowledge. Romans 10, one, the Bible says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves on the righteousness of God. So the apostle Paul here is saying, hey, he's got a heart for the children of Israel, he wants them to be saved, and probably because he's thinking that there's a lot that were like him, that were ignorant of the gospel, that just didn't know any better, doing things ignorantly and unbelief, and he wanted them to be saved, going, yeah, they have a zeal of God, just like I did, right? Like he had a zeal of God, but it wasn't according to knowledge. Now, which is why wisdom is extremely important in ruling your spirit well, because if you have zeal not according to knowledge, that's also going to get you into trouble. Now, turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy 2. Because it's good to have zeal. It's good to be ready to fight, to contend for the faith once delivered under the saints. The Bible says, you know, we're called to be soldiers of Jesus Christ, but we want to be careful not to have so much zeal. You're like, oh man, I'm ready to go, and you go off half cocked. You go off not fully ready to fight, but you're just so excited about the fight and so excited about the battle. Man, I'm ready to argue with people and do whatever, but you don't have the knowledge or the wisdom. You've got to be able to keep yourself in check enough to be able to do things appropriately, and I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on zeal because zeal is good, but you know what? The zeal needs to be according to knowledge because you can easily get yourself into trouble when you're not ruling your spirit well. 2 Timothy 2, the Bible reads in verse 15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And we're going to get to this in a little bit in the book of Proverbs where the Bible talks about being ashamed as a result of not being able to rule your spirit, control your spirit. And in 2 Timothy 2, 15, very famous passage, it's saying the study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Why would you not be ashamed? Because you have knowledge, because you're doing things right, because you understand the truth and you're able to rightly divide the word of truth. It's a shame to be fighting for something and find out, oh man, I've been wrong this whole time. And you have all the zeal and you're really pushing, and you're fighting real hard and you're going, oh man, I've been wrong about that the entire time. It's a shame, right? No one wants to, and that's one of the reasons, unfortunately, why so many people don't end up getting right, is sometimes the shame is too much when they realize and come to the knowledge of truth that they may have been in error about something and they don't want to admit they were wrong. Obviously, that's completely the wrong attitude to take, but one of the ways that you can mitigate against even being that predicament is to make sure that you're studying to show yourself approved unto God, that you're not just repeating what you've heard, you're not just repeating what other people have said and that we're all fired up and it sounded great and now you're just saying exactly what they say, but that you're studying to show yourself approved unto God so that way you know what you're saying is right, you know because you've done your own study that you're a workman that needeth not to be ashamed because you know how to rightly divide the word of truth. Verse 16 says, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have heard, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some. Those are profane and vain babblings, the Bible says, and they increase unto more ungodliness. It needs to just be, just don't even give heed to it. Don't even pay attention to it and because it says their word will eat like a canker, like it's just gonna continue to fester and grow. But if you have studied to show yourself approved, hopefully you won't find yourself just repeating the Hymenaeus and Philetus line because maybe they're preaching with a lot of zeal, right? They could be just really sounding good, but if you're not studying to show yourself approved, it's easy to get caught up in someone else's zeal and just kind of go off of that emotion instead of going off of what's right and being able to be tempered with wisdom. Flip back, if you would, to Proverbs 25. And I preach a very similar sermon earlier, I think it was earlier this year, the last year now, on controlling your mouth, right? But this is more focused on just your whole spirit and your emotions because obviously there's so many scriptures and we're not gonna go through those this morning about being able to keep your mouth from saying things that you shouldn't say. And they're obviously very closely related, but controlling your spirit will help you then to keep control over the things that you say when you could harness your spirit and harness your zeal and your emotion to be able to apply it appropriately and not let yourself get out of control, to be tempered, to be temperate, be in control of what you're doing. Proverbs 25, look at verse number eight. The Bible says, go not forth hastily to strive. That means to fight, don't be real quick just to get into fights. And again, I'm all for being zeal contending for the faith, but don't just be so fast to get into fights. It says, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. You say, you start getting into fights too quickly before you even assess the situation or really know what's going on, then you're not gonna know what to do when you're put to shame, when you're put to the worst because you're just so quick to get into all these fights. Control yourself. Hey, it's not saying to never get into a fight, to never contend, because there are times to contend. We're called, as mentioned, we're called to be soldiers of Jesus Christ. We're called to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints, but do so with wisdom. And don't be so hasty and have a hair trigger just to get into fighting and to strive. And actually, we shouldn't have that spirit of just wanting to get into fights anyways. That's a contentious spirit. Now, we're ready to fight. We're ready not to back down. There's going to be fights, and we know that, but it's not like we're out seeking and picking fights just for the sake of fighting and just being hasty to strive and just being hasty to get into fights. The fights are gonna come regardless. You stand on the Word of God. You preach the Word of God. The fights will come. We need to be ready for them, but it's not the same as having the attitude of just wanting to get into fights. When Jesus walked into the temple, He wasn't just looking to pick a fight with someone. He saw something that needed to be dealt with. It needed to be dealt with appropriately, and He did the appropriate action, but He wasn't just hasty to get in a fight with these people. He did what needed to be done, and that's the way that the Christian life needs to be or supposed to be that you're ready to fight when the fighting time comes. He didn't just see what He saw and then turn around and walked away and just ignored it and pretend like He didn't see it and back down. He dealt with it. But He wasn't going into the temple to start fights with people either. Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame and thine infamy turn not away. And, you know, there's a lot of different fights and different battles that go on in general, and we want to make sure that, you know, you don't want to get involved with things, especially when you don't know all the facts and everything that's going on and a lot of information, because you could end up coming down the wrong side of things. And a lot of people make a lot of judgments these days, especially just on video clips and certain things that you see or hear online. And you know what? It's best just to refrain from getting involved and not be hasty to strive and just hasty to jump in every single fight that's going on. Now, there's times when getting involved may be necessary, but wait for those times when they're necessary. You don't need to just be on the hair trigger just to jump in and get involved in a fight because it's exciting, it's fun, you've got the zeal, and like, oh man, I want to show everybody how much zeal I have. Let your zeal be according to knowledge. If you don't know what's going on, if you're not part of the situation, if you only hear certain things, refrain from getting involved. Flip over to Proverbs 16. I'm going to read for you from Proverbs. Proverbs 14, 29 says, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. Slow to wrath. If it takes a while for you to just get really, really angry and wrathful, you have great understanding. You shouldn't be on that hair trigger just to be just full of wrath immediately. It says, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Folly is foolishness. Say if you're hasty of spirit, if you're just quick to just, your spirit's just ready to go off in any direction and just real hastily get in, you're going to exalt foolishness. That way you're going to make mistakes. You need to control or rule your spirit. Your spirit's not always bad or wrong, but you need to be able to temper that with wisdom. Proverbs 16, look at verse number 17. The Bible reads, the highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before a fall. So again, your spirit can lead you into pride. If you have a haughty spirit, if you have a proud spirit, that's going to lead you into destruction. You need to be able to control the pride that might want to well up within you and within your spirit to be able to temper that and say, no, I'm not going to let myself get proud. You may have a lot of circumstances that could tend to lead anybody into pride and we're all human. We have a human sin nature that's going to compel us to get into maybe having a haughty spirit. And number one thing is when people get a lot of financial blessings and you start to think, oh man, I really deserve all this stuff and I'm so great and when you have more things that have accumulated, just physical things in your life, money, riches, whatever, that is the most opportune time for people's spirit to become haughty. Another time though too is even just by getting a lot of wisdom, ironically enough, when people have a lot of knowledge without charity, the Bible says that knowledge puffeth up, a charity edifieth. There's a lot of people who could get lifted up and have a haughty spirit because they think that they're so smart and other people just don't know anything. And everyone else is just an idiot, everyone else is just stupid, but I know so much. Don't let your spirit go off into those areas and allow yourself to become haughty or to become proud. The Bible says in verse 19, better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good, and whoso trust in the Lord happy as he, the wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it, but the instruction of fools is folly. Verse 23, the heart of the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips. Pleasant words are as in honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Jump down to verse number 32. This is actually the verse where the title of my sermon comes from, verse 32. The Bible says he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. So even if you're not that mighty, not that strong, the Bible says if you're slow to anger, that's better than, you know, because if you have someone who's real mighty and real strong, but they're quick to anger, they're beginning a lot of fights. Now, if they're mighty, you can say, well, they're gonna win a lot of fights. Yeah, but you know what? They're gonna be getting in a lot more fights in one of those times they're gonna be brought down. And if you're slow to anger, that's better than the mighty. And look at this, the latter portion, and he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city. You know, someone taking a city, it's not taking a city in battle. It's about winning a great victory in taking a city. You've conquered, you've won this fight. You know, you're gonna get this honor and glory and recognition for winning this battle and taking the city, but the Bible says that, you know what, he that's able to rule his spirit, that's better than all the honor and glory that you receive by taking a city. It's better for you just to be able to rule your spirit. It's better for you to be slow to anger. Flip back to chapter 15, Proverbs 15. You know, sometimes when you have problems, you can have a lot of zeal, but the right answer isn't just to start fighting. With control and ruling of your spirit, you could sometimes avoid conflicts altogether or resolve or deescalate situations because you have control of your own spirit and you're able to use wisdom in dealing with a problem, dealing with a confrontation, dealing with opposition, and you can resolve things in a better way. That's actually right. And here's the thing, look at what it says in Proverbs 15, verse number one, the Bible says, A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. And this is why humility is also so important with having the humble spirit, because when we face problems, and it can be for spiritual reasons or not, people could come at you with words that are meant to inflame you or enrage you or to ridicule you or to bring you down, right? To cut you somehow with their words and to provoke you unto wrath and provoke you unto anger and to get in a fight. There's people out there that want to get in fights. And we ought not to be those people that are hasty in their spirit. They exist, there's a lot of people out there who are hasty in their spirit, they're gonna get in a fight. But you know what, it doesn't hurt you at all to swallow some pride, because you ought not to be haughty and lifted up in yourself anyways and be able to exhibit humility and be able to say, oh, you know, someone bumps you, oh, I'm sorry, right? You didn't even do anything wrong, but you know what? That soft answer can turn away wrath. And oftentimes, that's gonna be the better way to go. You say, but I didn't do anything wrong. Okay, then you can just get in a big fight then and maybe get injured and who knows what's gonna happen. Or you could win. Like, yeah, I showed him. So you injured somebody else? Tell me again how that's a win. A win for your pride. Because that's what's gonna make you feel real good about yourself. I'll tell you this much, though. If you're not able to control your spirit, you're not gonna be able to give that soft answer that turns away the wrath. Because you're gonna let yourself just go off and follow along that path. That's foolishness. Don't allow other people to dictate how you're gonna act. That's a very simple thing. Simple meaning stupid. Okay, when you allow people just to provoke you and just they could know they could push a button and it's just gonna trigger you to go off and do whatever, you're being manipulated. You're being controlled. And that's foolishness. Now, if you could control your spirit, there may be actions that are necessary depending on the situation, right? There may be something that you just need to do anyways and people are gonna try to get that provocation out of you. But don't let your emotion dictate that, right? Let's just say in the example we saw with Jesus Christ, maybe someone just wants to get a rise out of Jesus, so they're gonna go and say, well, I'm gonna go and do this anyways. And you know what? There's no reason why he wouldn't deal with that the same way because that was what is appropriate for that situation. But there's a difference between just, again, losing control and flying off the handle as opposed to doing what's necessary. When people bring certain things our way, you know what, we're gonna need to fight. There's not always a way around getting involved in fights. But there's oftentimes ways of deescalating situations and gaining a victory that way. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. You're stirring the pot then when you start going this back and forth and name calling. Go to verse number two, the Bible says, the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. And I love how this one verse is even worded because it's demonstrating within the verse itself, the wise person is using knowledge aright, whereas the foolish one, they're just pouring things out. There's uncontrolled, there's a lack of control of what's coming out of the person's mouth. They're just pouring out this foolishness because they have no temperance. They have no control, they're not ruling their spirit, whereas the person who's wise, they're using knowledge. They can see the situation and they're able to control what comes out of their mouth because they're using knowledge aright. Huge difference there between the wise and the fool. Verse three, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. And this goes more along, I'm not gonna get into just all the things that could go with the tongue, the things that we could say, but when you have wisdom and knowledge, that wholesome tongue is a tree of life. You could use your tongue for so much good, when you could rule your spirit, control it, when you can avoid the wrath and turn away the wrath by having a wholesome tongue and being able to use wisdom appropriately. Jump down to verse number 18, the Bible says, a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. And this is a good thing, to not always just be in strife and conflict and battle, because oftentimes it's not necessary. Jump down to verse number 28. The Bible reads, the heart of the righteous studieth to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pourth out evil things. Again, this is demonstrating, if you're wise, you're gonna be more concerned about what's right than just fighting. Study to answer, because if you're just real quick to just give your answer, because I don't wanna be wrong, you're gonna fight with someone and they say something and you're just on the hair trigger to respond the opposite or because they're the enemy or whatever, look, make sure that what you're saying is right. The righteous studieth to answer. The wicked just will pour out whatever just pops into their head. There's a lot of foolishness there. You need to be able to temper and meet what you say, measure against what you've learned. And look, there's work involved in that. It's easy to be a fool. It's easy to be simple. And you could just react, you could be emotional, and you could just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you never have to study or anything. You know what, then everyone's gonna know you're a fool too. At least those that are wise. And that's a shame. And the people who are really foolish oftentimes don't even realize it's a shame until they can get enough knowledge to understand, oh man, I was really an idiot. Don't be that person. Turn to second Peter chapter one. I had referenced this passage in another sermon about in Luke 21, there's the end times passage. Where it says, you should be hated of all men for my name's sake, but there shall not an hair of your head perish, and your patience possess ye your souls. Your patience is your ability not to just be overcome with your emotion, not to just be quick to answer and not able to restrain yourself. And in the times to come, when things get really bad, when there's great tribulation, you need to be able to have patience. And your patience possess ye your souls. You need to know when is it appropriate for whatever decision you need to make, what is the right decision to make? Romans 5, three, I'm just gonna read this for you. You're going to second Peter one. That reads, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God should have broadened our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. I'm not talking about running from tribulation. I'm not talking about running from problems. It's not what I'm teaching. It's not backing down and running away from things. We need to be able to face tribulation, face persecution, but do so wisely. Do so with the proper spirit and grueling your spirit and controlling it, and you know what? Being zealous, nothing wrong with that, but make sure you have a zeal according to knowledge. And to the contrary of running away and fleeing from just tribulation, the tribulation is what's gonna help you with your patience. Just the more trials and tribulations you go through, it's gonna help you. So when we have that great tribulation, if it comes in our lifetime, you'll be better equipped and better prepared to handle that by going through any tribulations you're going through now because that's gonna work the patience in you. And that experience is also gonna be valuable to help rule your spirit as well. Look at verse number five in 2 Peter chapter one. The Bible reads, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. So everyone starts off with faith, right? You get saved, you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying, add to that faith virtue. What's virtue? It's doing good, doing right, just doing the right thing. So add to that faith, just doing right, and to virtue, knowledge. Well, in order to do right, this is kinda gonna feed off of each other. You just need to start learning, right? So you're doing right, you're gaining knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance. Temperance is being in control. It's your temper, right? As you start learning more, hey, you need to be able to keep yourself under control. Keep yourself tempered. Don't lose your temper. And look, when you lose your temper, a lot of bad things can happen. And this happens in many situations, even just at the home, right? Think about all the bad things that can happen when people lose their temper at home. You could lose your temper with your kids and end up not appropriately disciplining them because you've lost it and you've lost control. Now I believe in the rod and spanking and disciplining your kids right, but you know what, you better be in control when you do that because otherwise you're gonna end up injuring and harming your children, which is not what you wanna do at all, and you end up making mistakes when you're not in control of your spirit. You're not ruling your spirit well. You do what needs to be done. You don't back down from it, ignore it, and just let your kid just go do whatever. But at the same time, you better be in control because that's when people get injured and hurt. And if you're not in control, then you better hold off and wait for the punishment until you are in control. And not even with kids, that's a lot of times with marriages, domestic problems, right? People getting into physical fights with each other when if you could've just used a soft answer to turn away wrath, humbled yourself a little bit, you could avoid major conflicts altogether, but you know what, stay in control. A disagreement, an argument, you're talking about money, you're talking about whatever things that married people argue about, okay? There's no reason for that ever to come to blows, ever. You need to rule your spirit. You need to check yourself and stay in control and do what it takes to stay in control because folly is gonna follow you your whole life if you don't know how to keep yourself well-tempered. And in control. Verse number six there says, into knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience. Again, these two kinda go hand in hand. When you learn how to control your temper, you're having, you're exhibiting patience. You're able to wait and not just react. And to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. Obviously, a lot of great attributes there. Look at verse eight, it says, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You'd be a fruitful Christian if you can follow these things. Almost done, turn if you would to, turn back if you would to Proverbs, Proverbs 25. I'll close with Proverbs 25. I'm gonna read for you from 1 Corinthians 9, 24, the Bible reads, know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. Hey, run the race, get fired up, right, run. You don't have to walk the race. You know, you don't have to be so cautious that you're not actually running the race. Have the zeal, get fired up. It says, but you know, if you're running the race, to win the prize, verse 25 says, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. You're striving for the mastery, you wanna win the race, you better be temperate in all things, being able to control yourself. Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. The person who runs the race physically, they're in good control over themselves, over their bodies, right? I mean, if you wanna win a race, if you wanna go to the Olympics and win a race or win a competition, do you think it's people who don't really care at all and they're just kinda, no, of course not. It's just a hobby. The people that win those races and those competitions are very regimented. They have control over what they eat. They have control over their body to practice and to train and to work and can do so and be in control of themselves and they have that temperance. Now, some people do that to win these gold medals. The prize is just gonna go away, but the race that we're in, hey, we need to have that same level of being meticulous and training and being in control and being able to say, no, I need to do this, no, I need to go soloing, no, I need to read my Bible, no, I need to pray, no, I need to do these things and be regimented about it, I'm gonna keep myself under control and I'm not gonna strive and be hasty in my spirit and I'm gonna do all things in all areas of my life, I'm gonna be tempered, I'm gonna be tempered and in control. That's how you're gonna win the prize, spiritually speaking. That's how you're gonna attain to getting the great rewards and prizes given out by the Lord Jesus Christ. Be tempered in all things. Rule your spirit. Proverbs 25, look at verse number 28. The Bible reads, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. It's an interesting passage, because outwardly, some of us know control of their spirit, you might think that, well, they're real hasty, they're always on the attack, and this is talking about your defense. See, you have no defense. You've opened yourself up. When you're hasty in spirit, you're just wide open for anything. You're wide open to being manipulated. You're wide open to just running into a cause that you don't know the half of and you're gonna end up being brought to shame. You're running into, you know, maybe you're potentially harming yourself or other people because you're not ruling your spirit well. You've got no defenses. You need to rule your spirit. Keep control to guard yourself from wickedness, guard yourself from foolishness, guard yourself from getting into troubles that you don't need to be involved in. Hey, have the defenses up. Be prepared for battle. Be ready for the war. Be ready for the fight. Equip yourself with the armor of God. Be ready to stand. But hey, if you wanna be able to stand, you better need some good defenses. In order to have those good defenses, you need to be ruling your spirit well and being in control. Zeal, yes. Excitement, yes. But control, absolutely. Wisdom, knowledge. It's one of the things that younger people in general are a little bit more hasty than older people. Not all the time, but it's just kind of an attribute or trait of the youth. It's just being quick to just get excited, run in the fight, and go, go, go, go, go. I like the excitement. Get excitement according to knowledge. Exhibit wisdom. This isn't the type of sermon to throw a wet blanket on excitement, believe me. But it is one to help guard you from getting involved in things and bring shame upon yourself. Because you're just too quick to get involved and too hasty of spirit. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all wisdom that you provide us from your Word. I pray that you would please just guide us and lead us and help us learn how to control ourselves, how to control our words, our actions, Lord, that we can do so according to knowledge. Give us the knowledge we need. Open up your words to us and provide us with wisdom. Lord, help us to be able to understand and to make good choices and to be able to be very deliberate in our actions because it's based on truth and it's based on wisdom. It's based on knowledge. Lord, also, we ask that your Word would just liven us up and provide us with the zeal and excitement that we ought to have, but help us to never just get blinded by emotion and react to situations without really thinking about it. And God, we just ask for your guidance. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.