(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, well Happy New Year, amen. So the sermon title this morning is called keeping your bearing. Keeping your bearing. And your bearing, what I mean by that is your direction. Okay, you see as God's people we should always be conducting ourselves in a way that brings credit upon the kingdom of God. Now more specifically what this sermon is about, it's about a subject that can derail your bearing in a very quick, just a moment of time. And that's the subject of anger and how anger affects the people that are around you. It doesn't just affect you but it affects the people around you. Now obviously there's a time and a place to be angry, right? We've all been angry, I get that, I understand that. The goal is to learn how to have your anger, your righteous anger at the right time and at the right things, okay? Now as I said, anger is an emotion that we all have. All of us display it from time to time but what you have to understand is it just takes one moment to ruin your life with anger and I'm going to show you that here. Now when I was in the military, you know I have a lot of stories about the military, it's a big part of my life, but they didn't do me any favors in this department, okay? Because you see, I don't care what branch of service somebody's in or you know even some of you just have a job, maybe you work for crummy bosses, you know, you can learn to get angry pretty quickly because of all the, you know, drama and just being under poor leadership and that's what you're going to experience a lot of times in the military, you know, poor leadership and just having to do things that are just awkward. Well when I got out of the military, I seriously struggled with anger. There's a way that I do not like to be talked to and it is a serious fight for me to suppress that and to not let that out. It's taken me a lot of sermons and vibrating and prayer, you know, just to get to where I'm at today which isn't the best, okay? Now when I was interviewing for my job that I currently have, they asked me how do you like to be talked to and I just kind of smiled and just like, I'm just curious because some people are all sensitive, I'm like I'm not that sensitive, but I will tell you that on any given day, you know, I could be on simmer. I will tell you, there's a way that I don't like to be talked to and, you know, we'll figure it out in the end, you know, and she's like okay. The reason why she said that is because a couple of the managers there like to belittle people just for the stupidest things, you know, and again, you know, prayer is obviously the answer to that, the Bible, all of that. Now when I was in the military, I've met five people that landed themselves in a federal prison called Fort Leavenworth. Who's ever heard of Fort Leavenworth? One guy is still there to this very day. I'm not going to say his name because you can easily look it up on the internet, but so back in the late 90s, the sodomites were not viewed very highly in Uncle Sam's military and rightfully so. If I could say anything positive about the military, that would be it. Well unfortunately, this guy here, you know, we leave basic training and he goes to his duty station and discovers that a member of his platoon is dating a tranny. So you know, that's just the lowest of the low, you know, it really is. Now I'm not endorsing what he did, right? We should never take the law into our own hands. What he did was wrong and broke the law, you know, but you know, when you sing songs every single day about killing children and collecting ears and you know, hacking people up and you know, blowing queers out, you know, it does something to you, you know, it affects you. Well this guy's superior gets him drunk and basically puts him up to this task and says, hey, you know, that guy's been running around saying he can beat you up and he's this and that, you know, got them all excited, got them all worked up. And so what he does is he takes a baseball bat and goes over to this guy and beats him to death, okay? Never been in trouble his whole life. I mean, he was, you know, the worst thing he did was have his mom lie about his age so he could get into the military. And that's like the only crime this kid had ever committed. Anger for one moment ruined his entire life and to this very day, he's still sitting inside Fort Leavenworth Prison. All because he let the emotion of anger get to him, it got too far. And look, I don't care who you are, everybody in here inside of this room has been angry this week and it's been wrong. We're human. We're human. It's something that we all battle. I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. Oh, I'm the best person in the world. No, even the most calm or seemingly calm person can struggle with anger and it takes one circumstance to ruin your marriage, to ruin your children's lives, to ruin your own life and it's something that we need to be aware of and that we have got to deal with. Now keep your place there in Matthew. We're going to come right back to it, but go to Second Peter chapter number one. Second Peter chapter number one. There's nothing worse than coming home from work and having a bad day and taking that anger out on the kids. And look, I've done that. I'm taking it out on Jessica. It's a battle. It's a struggle. Sometimes these customers out here, they'll say the stupidest things or you just have the most ridiculous expectations and my stomach burns within me. I'm so mad. You know what winds up happening? I often will take that out on the next customer and then the next one and then the next one. It depends really on how many customers I have after that one person that basically will dictate whether or not I calm down or not. If it's the last one of the day, sometimes I'll come home and I'll notice like I'll start being like pretty rude and I'll show you why here in a moment, but just something to be aware of. Anger has to be dealt with. Now I just wanted to have you turn to second Peter chapter one because I want to show you how our bearing should be. What is the expectation that God has for us regarding our countenance, regarding our direction in life, regarding how we live? So if you look at verse number five, it says this, it doesn't beside this giving all diligence, right? Giving all diligence. He says this, add to your faith virtue into virtue knowledge. So what in the world is virtue? Well, virtue is power. It's ability, it's capacity, it's a moral maturity, right? And we're supposed to add to our faith, add to our salvation, right? After salvation, we shouldn't just cut the cord and be like, okay, well I'm good to go. I'm going to take the grace and run. That's never the answer. We are commanded in the Bible to add to our faith virtue, add to our power, the word of God. That's what he's talking about here. Ability, right? The more power that you get from the word of God, the more ability you have in Christ, right? This is the direction that we need to go. But when we're angry and we let that seed of anger resonate inside of us and we don't deal with it, it affects everyone around us and it limits our capacity. It limits what we were able to do. So look at verse six, he says, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, right? So we need to be temperate. We need to be mild mannered. We need to strive to be that way. Because the nature that we have in our old selves is to lash out. I do it all the time. I'm not standing up here today saying that I've got this one down pat because I don't. Okay. Now I'm a lot better than I used to be. Praise God, but not where obviously I should be. Look at verse number seven. He says into godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. When anger resonates inside of your heart, all of these, guess what, they go right out the window. Because look, if you can't control your anger in front of your family, you're not gonna be able to control your anger in front of the brothers and sisters that are at church. And it affects everybody. I mean, you can walk into a room and you can literally feel tension, can't you? A lot of times if somebody's upset about something, you don't even know what it is, but you can feel that. Right? That anger and that bitterness and that problem, it oozes spiritually from you, and it affects other people around you. And now you're scratching your head like, man, what in the world is wrong with this person? What did I say? And oftentimes you know how the story goes. Go back to Matthew chapter two. You know how the story goes after that. You know, people are, I don't want to offend. I don't want to say nothing. I'm just going to keep it inside and hope it goes away. Well, guess what? Most of the time it doesn't go away. Most of the time it just builds and builds and builds until you've had enough and you explode. And all of us have our limits. Look, each one of us, some of us can carry more than others, but it doesn't matter. If you don't deal with problems when they arise, guess what? It's over. It is a done deal. Now I want to just take a look at something that I noticed about Herod while reading Matthew chapter number two. So look at verse number three, it says this, and when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Now why was Herod troubled? Obviously the news about the Messiah coming, he didn't like that, right? He wants to maintain his position. He wants to maintain his control, doing things his way. So he calls the wise men and he inquires, hey, where's this Messiah supposed to be born? And they give him the answer and they tell him all this stuff and he's like, hmm. Now jump down to verse number 16. So he tells these wise men, hey, you guys know the story, but he's like, hey, make sure you find out where he's at and come back because I want to bless this guy. I want, you know, I love Messiah too and all that. And the wise men, they don't buy this. They're like, sure you do. And so they hoodwink him. And when he realized that he's been hoodwinked, look at verse number 16, it says this, then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath. He is exceedingly wrathful, he is very angry at this point. It says this, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Now go to Proverbs chapter number 14, Proverbs chapter number 14. And so did you notice something there? First of all, Herod's troubled spirit, Herod's issue with the Messiah being born, did that just affect him? Well, no, it affected all Jerusalem because it says in all Jerusalem was troubled with him. So when you're troubled about something and you're plagued about something, you're angry about something, it doesn't just stay with you. Even if you keep it inside, it doesn't matter. The way that God's wired us, it just works out to where it's going to show. It is going to show in your actions, it's going to show in your countenance, you cannot hide it. And he couldn't hide it, and so that's why all Jerusalem was affected by how he was troubled himself. But what happens when he realizes, you know what, these wise men aren't going to help me, they're not going to play my game, he gets exceeding wrath, he gets angry. Keep in mind, this is a politician here. He has the responsibility to protect the people that he is ruling. So he gets angry and what does he do? He takes it out on the innocent. He takes it out on the people that cannot defend themselves, the people that he is supposed to be protecting. And that's what happens to us when we bottle up anger inside and we don't let it out, we don't deal with our problems. It affects the people that are around us. What exactly was it, though? What was it? What was the one thing in this story that caused Herod to flip his lid and to hurt the innocent, to hurt other people around him? Well, it's the same thing that affected Cain when he killed Abel, right? Did Cain's anger just only affect himself? No, it hurt his brother, it hurt his mother, his father, it hurt the nation that he was in, it hurt all the people around him. What about Moses' anger when he came down from the mouth? What did he do? He took it out on the Word of God. Smashed the Word of God. What about King Saul? His anger, who did that affect? It affected David, it affected Jonathan, it affected the nation of Israel. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on in the Bible about anger affecting other people, but what was it specifically, and I've already mentioned it, that caused them to take their anger out on other people? And it's this right here. When we lose our bearing, meaning when we allow other people to get us angry and we take it out on the innocent, we take it out on the bystanders, people that are surrounding us, when we lose our bearing, it's because we have failed to deal with our troubles or foreseeable troubles. Every single time. Every single time. That's what it is. So, you know, if you're angry about something, you got a problem, you have beef, so to speak, you better deal with it. You better mention it, you better go to somebody who's bothering you and deal with that problem because if you don't, bad things are going to happen. People around you are going to be affected and they're going to get hurt. You say, well, I'm saved. Amen. Praise God. That doesn't mean, look, I'm not saying that somebody in here is going to go around killing babies and, you know, come in here with a pistol and start blowing people out, right? But it's the same thing. You will cause hurt amongst other people. You have to deal with your emotions. Anger is an emotion that we all experience and if something is bothering you, you've got to deal with it right away. If you do not deal with it, trouble comes. Trouble is going to happen. You're going to affect other people. And how do you think Christ looks at that when his children are hurting people that have nothing to do with their problems? Yeah, it's a bad deal. Now you're there in Proverbs chapter number 14 and I'll show you this here. Herod's problem was envy, right? He was envious. He didn't want Christ to reign. He wanted to reign. He wanted to have the preeminence. He wanted to be the top dog. I want to show you something about envy. Proverbs 14, look at verse number 30. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. That is talking physical things right there. You know what? I've always wondered how some people just kind of like don't have the best diet to eat like crap and they live to be X amount of years old. What is that? Could it be perhaps that some of those people have realized that a sound heart is more profitable to the flesh than your vitamins? You know, I was reading articles about this and I was reading about different health gurus who have died early, like, I forgot the guy's name, but some super vegan and I'm not trying to pick on you for being vegan. It's just, you know, some people think they have this diet thing all figured out, right? And they promote these products online or whatever and they just won't let it go. And you got to buy my supplements, you have to buy my special olive oil, you have to buy my Flintstone vitamins, you know, whatever the case is. You know, look at me, I'm 60 years old and I'm ripped. Yes, because you're taking hormones, but we won't talk about that, you know, but they want to push this stuff and then they wind up croaking and they wind up dying. You know why? It's because of envy. I'm serious. It's because of envy. It's because they envy the success of others, because they envy somebody else. There is something that they covet that they should not have and guess what the Bible says? That is rottenness in your bones. Well, guess what a cancer can be? Rottenness in your bones. There's all sorts of diseases that can overcome you that can take control of your bones and cause you to rot, all because of how you are emotionally. I think that one of the main reasons that my dad is the way that he is, it's not just the chemicals that he was subject to while he worked for the federal government, but I believe it's because he was a very, very, very, very angry man, a very angry man, always envy about other people, you know, just, oh, you know, these other people here, they're just getting fed, you know, with a silver spoon and that's why they got more stuff than we do, blah, blah, blah. He would always be seeing that kind of stuff growing up, very envious of other people, but you know what? He would never do anything to correct his situation. You know, like I said, he worked hard, he went to work most days and then came home and plopped down in front of the couch and sucked up whatever was on that TV. That was it. That was his life. And then when he retired, it was get out of bed, TV until lunchtime, then you go to the bowling alley and eat his lunch, come back, boom, TV time. And guess what? Now he's rotting from the inside out. Look, I'm telling you, we have to, as God's people, there's all kinds of toxins and problems in the environment. I mean, don't let your emotions, especially anger or worse yet envy, take control and set up inside of your physical body because it will ruin your life. It could cause you to die prematurely. That's all I'm trying to tell you. Go back to Proverbs chapter number eight. And so the point is, we lose our bearing when we fail to deal with trouble or foreseeable trouble. If you could tell, hey, trouble's coming, you know, at work or at home, you know, you can see that maybe the kids are going to go a certain direction, you know, you need to take steps immediately to cut that thing off and to deal with it before it becomes a bigger problem and you just get stuck in the thick of this thing and you're like, how am I going to get out? Right? When you feel trapped, when you feel cornered like that, a lot of times the only thing you can do is to get angry and to freak out and that is when you are extremely vulnerable to making a mistake that could possibly ruin your entire life. Proverbs chapter eight. Look at verse number 14. So you know Proverbs chapter eight. It's all about wisdom and understanding and it talks about the value of wisdom. Very important. We need to visit this subject often as a child. We need to visit this subject often as a church, but look at verse 14. It says this, counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. Verse 15, by me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me. That eliminates just about every politician that I have ever heard of that is alive and reigning today, especially in this country. Wisdom is void in the United States of America, politicians by and large. You might be able to pull one or two out here or there, I will give you that, but by and large there is no wisdom in Governor Little, there is no wisdom in Mayor McLean, the commie, or Lisa Sanchez, or Jimmy Holly Burton, these commies, these devils, no wisdom whatsoever. What do they do? What do the decisions that they make do? They affect the innocent. They affect people like us because they conjure up these laws and these plans and these statutes that they even want to make law and we hear about it and it vexes us, like her communist manifesto. She endorses the idea of teaching perversion to kindergartners, to teaching things about queers to kindergartners. What sense does that make? Zero. It's blasphemy, it's disgusting and she's going to burn in hell forever and ever and ever. Not necessarily because she made those laws or because that's on her heart, but because she's a Christ rejecting human being. That is why. But the Bible is very clear right here that kings need to rule with wisdom. There's no doubt about that, right? Now let me ask you a question. How much wisdom did Herod have? Zero. To set forth a decree to go, okay, well, since the wise men mocked me, I'll just kill everybody under two years old. What did they ever do to you? In fact, Herod, you were appointed to protect those children. They were under your jurisdiction. Gavin Newsom, Jay Inslee, Kate Brown, I mean, we could go on and on and on. All these governors support abortion just about. So here's the first point I want to make. When we lose our bearing and direct it towards other people, guess what we lose? We lose wisdom. I'm telling you the truth. Look, when I get mad at these stupid customers and I come home and take it out on the kids and I do that from time to time, guess what? I have lost wisdom for the day. I am not now making a wise choice because instead of protecting the ones I love, instead of edifying them, instead of nurturing them, what I'm doing is I'm harming them all because of some idiot clown out here, which is me, because I let someone else get the better of me. It's a dangerous thing, and it can happen, and it does happen to every single person in this room, all of us. So go to James chapter three, James chapter three, James chapter number three, and look at verse six. So James chapter three, look at verse number six, it says this, it says, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and is set on the fire of hell. The next verse talks about how mankind has tamed all the animals, okay? I mean, you go to the zoo, you can see all sorts of animals, you go to the aquarium, you can see sharks and barracudas, all kinds of dangerous looking fish, electric eels, all that kind of stuff. And then he makes this statement here in verse number eight, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison, full of deadly poison. And when you get angry, when we get angry, guess what happens? The tongue starts going. And then from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So when the abundance of your heart is filled with rage, guess what? You're going to say all kinds of things that you might not even mean. Just to hurt, just to lash out, because it temporarily gives you gratification. Go to 1 Peter chapter three. I remember growing up in school and they're like, you know, guys, when you guys have disputes and you have arguing, you shouldn't be yelling at each other because you're just going to feel bad later. They were lying because it always feels good to tell somebody how you feel, right? I mean, let's just be honest here. Oh, it does. It feels good temporarily. Now when you do it to a loved one later on and you see the hurt that you caused, then it's like, okay, that's when it should hit you. Like it wasn't the best decision. Now I've got a lot of work to do to mend this and to make up for this and it just sets you back so far. But when you're at school and you're arguing with kids that you don't care about, look, it feels good. But that doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it okay. And so what James is trying to tell us is like, look, it's better to be quiet in most situations than to open that mouth, especially when you're angry, especially when we are angry and that is when the damage is done. First Peter chapter three, look at verse number 10 says this, for he that will love life and see good days, kind of sounds like Proverbs chapter 14. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. So you say, what in the world are you talking about? What I'm talking about here is dealing with problems, dealing with beefs. If you've got issue with your children, you've got an issue with your spouse, you've got an issue with a church member, you've got an issue with whatever, you need to deal with it. Look, we need to be a people that comes out of our shell and says, hey, look, I just want to talk to you about this. What are you going to get arrested? You're going to go to jail? I mean, what's the worst that can happen? Look, you have no idea. You will feel so much better by just getting that thing out in the open, even if the issue is not resolved right there, because you get it off your chest. I mean, what do you think that feeling comes from? It comes from the word of God, right? But that's going to save you because at least you know in your heart that you made the attempt to rectify and solve the situation. But when you keep that thing about, look, I'm notorious for this. I mean, I grew up bottling up anger. Very quiet person. Didn't like to talk. I don't want to make anybody mad. Whatever. Now I would always keep stuff inside until one day didn't get enough sleep and somebody said something and it was just on. And you guys know that. It can happen to any one of us at any given time, but we are commanded to have our bearing to reflect great credit upon the kingdom of God and when we allow ourselves to be filled with wrath, guess what? We're no different really than Herod. We're going to affect the people around us, the people that had nothing to do with why we're upset, why we're angry. You see what I'm saying? You've got to deal with these problems. I mean, think about people, think about these abortion supporters, bunch of Harrods. That's what they are. They go out and they make a certain choice. They say, you know what? This is going to bring me pleasure. This is going to bring me some joy. And then all of a sudden she winds up pregnant with child. And what does she do? Instead of dealing with the sin, dealing with whatever, say, you know what? I'll just go down to the clinic and I'll take my anger out on this innocent living being. And I'll just have an abortion. And only the reprobates feel good about doing that. You see these news articles with these ladies jumping up and down, and I had five abortions and I don't feel nothing. You're a reprobate. That's what you are. You're a devil. You're good for nothing. You can't be saved. You're on your way to hell. That's my opinion. Because you know what? You have no conscience at that point. Because I'll tell you what, a lot of women, and we've talked to some who have done that in the past, and they feel horrible. They feel terrible about it. There's a big difference there between those two types of people. Go to Ephesians chapter number four. So when we lose our tempers and we direct it towards other people, we lose wisdom. Plain and simple. We are no longer operating our Christianity. We are no longer having our bearing going towards adding virtue to faith. Instead, we've lost wisdom. It's out the door. We are saying things. We are doing things. We are hurting other people, and it's all contrary to wisdom. And being kings and priests, we are commanded to live a life according to wisdom and knowledge. It is a commandment. It is not optional. It is what God wants, and especially if you are hearing the truth and you reject this over and over and over again. I mean, what do you think a good father would do? Backside, chastening. That's what's going to happen. These sermons are designed to save you heartache, to save you trouble, to save your life physically, to save your marriage, to save your children, to save you in the future, so that you don't get caught up in a single moment and do like that kid that I knew and go beat somebody to death and wind up paying for it for the rest of your life. Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 25. Paul says this. He says, Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. So again, if you've got beef with somebody, if you've got a problem, what are you supposed to do? Well, you need to address that. You need to speak truth and somebody say, hey, what's bothering you? What is wrong with you? What's going on? Don't lie to that person and say nothing. It's not okay. That is wrong. Verse 26, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. But look what he says in verse 27, neither give place to the devil. Here's the point that I want to make with this. If we do not learn how to control our anger, guess what? Your enemies, our enemies, the devil is going to use that to get us to do stuff that they want to do. Now we have put them in charge. That's why he says give not place to the devil because now once you do that, the devil's like, now I'm going to get you to do what I want you to do. When I was becoming a supervisor for the federal government, they sent us to this course, I think it was about a month long, and they told us a story about anger. They have all these different modules and try to make you a better person, right? And one of the things they would always talk about is, don't let your anger show in front of your crew because you're going to lose credibility and there's a lot of truth to that. They told the story, and I don't know if the story is true, but it stuck with me, okay? They talked about these, because it's on a naval base, they talked about these sailors in the South Pacific during World War II. They landed on some island down there and noticed coconuts up in the trees, but there were monkeys up there and they weren't sure like, man, you know, coconut trees that look kind of hard to climb, you know, they weren't skilled in climbing. And so they came up with this idea, here's what we're going to do. They said, we'll just pick up rocks and throw them at the monkeys and get them all pissed off, okay? So apparently they did that and then the monkeys got mad and grabbed the coconuts and started throwing them at the sailors and they were like, oh, this is great, right? And they would just catch them and eat them, you know? And I don't know if that's true or not, I didn't spend time to go look it up, but the story stuck with me because it proves a good point. You know, when we get out of control, the enemy can use that to his advantage. And that's why Paul's telling the Ephesians here, hey, be angry, but do it in the right way. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath, you know, be angry at the right time about the right things, otherwise you open yourself up to be controlled by the devil. Very, very important here. Now go to Colossians chapter number three. Colossians chapter number three. Look at verse number six. So Colossians three verse six says this, very similar message. He says, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience in the which he also walked some time when you lived in them. Verse eight, but now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Now we're going to stop here and talk about something. Now the world as in most Christian churches, most counseling centers, like I bet this counseling office back here would probably say something similar to this, say you need to develop your personality in the way that you are so that you don't get angry about anything, like never. Like you can't get mad about anything, ever. Okay, now there's a lot to be said about that, right? That's kind of the world's message, right? Because I mean, think about it. If they can get society to be like those people on Demolition Man, right, who I've talked about last week, where they're just never upset, it's just everything's just hunky-dory all the time. Well, then when they pass the law that says, you know what, if these sodomites show up at your door, you better let them in and do whatever they want, and you shouldn't get mad about that, right? So there's an advantage to them teaching them, but I've noticed that Christians will often point to Colossians chapter three and say, hey, it says you can't ever be angry. And then when you bring up Ephesians chapter four, they're like, well, you don't know the Greek. I'm serious. I am dead, dead, dead serious. I have heard this in church. We were going to a church in Louisiana, it was called the Crossroads, right? Little non-denominational liberal, you know, Hawaiian shirt type, you know, where they come pass out coffee and donuts like during the service in your chair, super laid back. I can remember him saying something very, very similar to that. This was before we knew any better, obviously, okay? And then worse, the atheists will say, the Bible has a contradiction, because it says in one of your books, you know, that you can be angry, and then it says in the other one, you can't be angry. So which one is it? Well, turn to Ephesians chapter, I'm sorry, turn to Colossians chapter four, and I want to show you something here. Because obviously in verse number six, it says that God has wrath. And in fact, if you do a study in the Bible, and you just type in the word, like anger or angry, guess who's angry most of the time? It's God, it's the Lord who's angry all the time. And his anger is always righteous, right? And we're supposed to be like God, we're supposed to be like Christ. I mean, Christ got angry, went and flipped over tables, which by the way, most people don't want to talk about today. It's okay to be angry about the right things. But you know what, that's really a sermon all on its own. Righteous anger definitely has its place. We need to be a people that are angry about the right things at the right time. When people try to stop us from soul, and you know what, that should get you angry, right? Not physically like ready to scrap, but you know, she should be upset about that. We should be upset about that. You know, when people call us and threaten us, you know, there should be some anger to that. You know, that's healthy, right? When people speak lies against the King James Bible, that should make you angry, because that means you're on the right side. That means you're actually standing for something. And that's what God's looking for today, a people that are willing to stand up for the truth and be angry about the right things. But real quickly, let's go back to this so-called contradiction in the Bible. We're going to give you a quick commercial break here on this. Okay. Now we have a question. Okay. Well, why does it say not to be angry and to put away anger in Colossians chapter three? You could just say, well, it's talking about the wrong kind of anger and you would be correct. That is exactly what it's talking about. But why in Ephesians chapter four then does he say, you know, be angry and sin not, you know, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. What do you do with the person who's opposing themselves and say, well, this is why you need the Greek. And there are a lot of people out in this community now bringing this up, like almost every time I was soul-winding I'm hearing this. Almost every single time. We were talking to this guy in Mountain Home the other day and he's like, he's like, you know what, I just, I don't want to answer these questions because I just, I know more about religion and deep thought than most people do. And he's like, is that okay to say? He's like, because it's like when you, when you think about like the original intent and, you know, what he's getting to is original languages and stuff like that. And he's like, you'll learn a lot more and you really just come to the down, you got to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. And it just, don't be angry. It's what he said. Don't be angry. Don't ever, you know, treat anybody badly and if they're, you know, basically there's a heaven, then you'll go, get real, get out of here. But back to this idea, how do we rectify these two issues? What's a good answer? And what I'm about to share with you is my opinion. Let me just make that very clear. This is my opinion. I'm going to show you something here. Colossians chapter four, look at verse 15. So after mentioning this stuff about anger and all the sanctification and all the great wisdom in chapter three and the first half of 14, it says this, verse 15, Colossians four, 15, salute the brethren, which are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church was, which is in his house. So now all of a sudden he's talking about this, if you will, is a satellite church, a small church that's in Laodicea that's led, I guess, by, by Nymphos here. And now notice what Paul says in verse 16. He says this, and when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of Laodiceans. So just so I'm crystal clear here, does everybody understand that Paul wants this letter, the letter to the Colossians to be read in Laodicea? Very clear. Okay. Kind of interesting, right? We're supposed to read all the word of God. Then he makes a statement here and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Okay. Now here's where people, and I've heard this, this is why I'm bringing this up, say, see, this is part of the problem. We don't have the Laodicean epistle. And that's why there could be a contradiction in the original language between Ephesians four and Colossians chapter three. Now we know better than that. Okay. We know that we serve a God who is all powerful, who preserves us and him. So obviously he can preserve his word. So what's the situation? Well, the first thing that you need to notice when you're reading this verse here, it says in that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. He's not necessarily saying the epistle to the Laodiceans. You have to inject that in there. So if you want to rightly divide the word of truth, and this is my opinion, this is where I stand on this issue until I get corrected, as I believe that he was talking about the epistle to the Ephesians, I believe that they had that epistle as well. I mean, think about it, small church, in a house, getting started being set up, right? They're probably just getting all of this stuff to them from the other churches, right? They don't have enough experience. They haven't been around long enough to warrant their own solid, dedicated epistle, right? They get that in Revelation three. They get that in Revelation chapter three. And so when you turn back to Ephesians chapter four and you read where it says in verse 26, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, right? What are you saying? Now, when you compare that to Colossians chapter three, you can determine, okay, we need to be angry about the right things. But I personally believe that the letter that they had in Laodicea that they were supposed to read was just a letter to the Ephesians because they were cycling all of these letters and giving attendance to reading as Paul taught to all the churches. And so that's how I answer those critics that say, well, you know, how do you know you can trust the King James Bible? Because you know, even Paul admits we don't have the letter to the Laodiceans, we lost it. Well, show me in the Bible where it says that there was a letter to the Laodiceans. Show me, show me right now, you can't do it. And the very fact that Paul's saying, hey, I want you Colossians to cause that this letter be read in Laodicea. Why wouldn't he do that to the Ephesians as well? Say, hey, you guys are established, we've already ordained elders here, this is a big, you know, thing, there's multiple churches here, it would make sense that you take on and help this small church in the house. So that's what I believe about that situation. Now go to Proverbs chapter 16, we're almost done. The application here is just very simple. Deal with your beef, deal with problems, whatever trouble that you currently have, whatever troubles that you can currently foresee in the future, you need to take steps to deal with them. Just that simple acknowledgement, guess what that's going to do? That is going to save you heartache, that's going to save you money, it's going to save you time, it's going to save relationships, and it could possibly save your eternal rewards in the end. I'm dead serious, this is a big problem. I'm not saying it's a big problem in our church, okay, I'm trying to prevent it from ever becoming a problem. You need to hear things like this because this is how we succeed, by learning what God's intentions are for us, and learning how the old man operates. The old man loves to get angry, right? Don't care who you are, you've got problems. A lot of times we look at these kids and you listen to them bicker and we just laugh, you have no idea what problems are. But to them, man, their stuff, that's a big deal. You know, when you take that Ninja Turtle toy from somebody, it's a big deal. It hurts, it's a problem. You know, we need to start them young, hey, let's actually sit down, let's talk about your problem. Force yourself to listen to them. Even though it may not be a big deal to you and to us, it is to them. So again, the bottom line, we lose our bearing when we fail to deal with present or foreseeable trouble. That's when we have the greatest opportunity to derail our bearing. Now instead of bearing towards the things of God, instead of bearing to adding virtue and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and love and all the things that we're supposed to do, now all of a sudden we're headed down the Ephesians road where we give place to the devil, and then he uses our anger to fulfill his will, which is to get us out of church, to get us away from the things of God, to throw us out of whack, and now instead of serving God, instead of bringing credit upon the kingdom of God, we're bringing credit upon the world, which does not make our savior happy. Proverbs 16 verse 32, so like I said, we are almost done here. This is the vision that we need to have right here in this verse. This needs to be on your heart. This needs to be what you work towards. Look at verse 32, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Say, I want to have muscles. I want to be able to beat everybody up. I want to be able to cut the heads off, not just the ears, but I want aim. I want all this stuff, man, because that's what's cool in the world, right? Well, guess what? A person who can control their anger, God says, it's you are better than the physical mighty. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city. So we as God's people, when we say, you know what, we're going to commit to learning how to rule our spirit and our emotions. You know what? Your relationships will grow, they will get better. Your bearing will always be going towards the things of God. And this church will flourish, right? It is God that is able to make us stand or fall. Not an affiliation with somebody else, not an affiliation with another organization. That is not what causes success. It rises and falls on leadership and you are all leaders and you have got to as a leader decide in your heart and in your mind that you will control your emotions, that you will control your anger. Because by so doing that, you are better than the mighty and you are better than a politician who can take a city. You're better than a general who can go to the Middle East and take a country. We can be better than them if we do it God's way. And so look, last year gave us a lot of reasons to be upset about a lot of things. When I see somebody answer the door and a mask and a ponytail, my blood starts boiling because I know it's going to be a fight, right? Because here's what happens now. The blinds open up, they go down, they go up again, they go down, you hear this, and then answer the door, why aren't you wearing a mask? Go to hell, I hope you die. Look, and that's not a spiritual, it's an angry thing. And inside I'm like, man, dude, God, please, just this one time I don't swing. You know what I mean? But that's wrong. That's wrong. That's the devil like, hey, come on, man, you know what you're capable of doing, maybe you could do it. You could just beat these guys up and look at, oh man, yeah, I didn't lose my qualification as a pastor. You know what I mean? It's dangerous that, look, I'm telling you right now, nobody knows what this year's going to bring. But we can start this thing off learning and acknowledging that we need to rule our own spirits. And by so doing, we'll be better than the mighty, better than somebody who takes the city. Everybody see where I'm going with this? I mean, think about it. Jeff said it the best. He's like, you know what? You're living rent-free in that guy's head. All because I just look back, shut up, I didn't get mad, just told him to be quiet. Shut up. Right? And then he flipped out and it's like, ah, whatever, you're not going to do nothing. But that's true. Right? Because I didn't really get upset. He's the one that flipped out. You know, he's the one that has to live with that night. And I guarantee you to this very day, I bet yesterday he was like, oh, I hope these Christians come back and knock on my door. I mean, what would possess somebody to call the CDC here in Idaho repeatedly on us, somebody who can't rule his own spirit? You know, Caden was talking about this the other day. You know, we were in Mountain Home and some people were kind of just upset, I guess, or you know, knocking on doors or whatever. He's like, you know what these people need to realize? You don't have to answer the door. Right? If you're really scared, if you're really worried about this stuff, you got to peephole most of the time, you don't got to answer the door. You can control your anger. You can control and rule your spirit by just, you know what, it's not going to answer the door. Don't go away. You know, typically people carrying Bibles and wearing ties and stuff, don't go around knocking on doors and then pull on a 45. Although I'm sure it's happened, you know, but it's not the typical, right? And so that's the vision. That's the way we need to start this new year off because there's probably going to be some politics and probably going to be some laws and some rumors of laws that come along that get us super upset and we've got to learn to control our tempers. We need to rule our spirits, not only for that, but also just for our own church, for our own family so that we can continue to have our bearing going towards the things of God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for the wisdom that we're able to pull from the Bible that you've given us that we can trust and live. Let's pray for our church this year, Lord. I just pray you'd use this mightily, no matter what happens, no matter what the world throws at us. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this. I pray you'll use this.