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A winner of the Lord beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation,
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
there is one body and one spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling one lord one
faith one baptism one god and father of all who was above all and through all and in you all
but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ
wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts
unto men now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the
earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might
fill all things and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the
edifying of the body of christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
son of god unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ that we
henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive
but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even christ
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the
body under the edifying of itself and love this i say therefore and testify in the lord that he
henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the
understanding darkened being alienated from the life of god through the ignorance that is in them
because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over
under lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness but you have not so learned
christ it so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in jesus
that he put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man
which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness wherefore putting away lying
speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another be angry and sin
not let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil let him that
stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good
that he may have to give to him that needeth let no corrupt communication proceed out of your
mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the
hearers and grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption
let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as god
for christ's sake hath forgiven you let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in heaven
we just pray now lord that you would fill brother dylan aus with your holy ghost and
enable him to preach the sermon you've laid on his heart with clarity of mind with boldness i
pray lord that you help us to pay attention and help us lord to apply the message to our lives
so that we may be more complete christians we love you and i pray this prayer in the
name of jesus christ amen amen well thank you all for being here this morning thank you pastor
shelly for the opportunity to preach very excited to be preaching this morning we just
read ephesians chapter number four and before we get back into this chapter i'll have a little
bit of a longer intro this morning but the title of my sermon this morning is road rage
road rage and you're thinking what this is kind of a weird thing to preach about
well really the sermon is just going to be about anger about the biblical doctrine of
anger what the bible has to say about anger and rage and wrath and all these things but
it's kind of funny when i moved to texas as soon as you drive into the state of texas you
see this big sign that says drive friendly the texas way and you know like when you tell
your kids like hey be nice to your sibling it's because they're not being nice to their
sibling so i kind of looked at that sign i was like oh that's kind of funny they're saying hey
we got to drive nice because i've noticed since i've lived here that road rage is a serious
problem in texas and as has anyone else noticed that lots of road rage here this is not just
my opinion or my own personal experience because i actually have data to back this up i looked
this up i was wondering is this just my experience am i just crazy or is this a real problem and
it is a big problem in texas and you know judgment begins at the house of god so let's just
talk about it here but basically what i did was i just googled texas road rage shooting
texas road rage incident and i just took the article titles from 2023 and we're in march
we're in the first quarter of 2023 so this is just i'm just going to read you the titles
of these articles of all the texas road raging shooting incidents that's happened just in 2023
okay let me just read some of these for you jay i do have a little bit of echo i don't know
if you guys can fix that january 9th 2023 this title says man taken to hospital after road raid
road rage shooting on central expressway police say excuse me feb uh january 10th fort worth
police searching for suspects in road rage shooting january 12th family of young austin
mother killed in road rage attack asks for help identifying shooter january 17th houston
fatal road rage shooting of 17 year old results in 30-year sentence january
january 23rd man says he was knocked out and needed stitches after road rage punch
near willowbrook mall january 25th suspect in deadly dallas road rage shooting identified
february 5th texas road rage incident ends violently with one man stabbed in the chest
february 11th man charged allegedly killed motorcyclists in road rage shooting near home
depot in spring texas february 13th man charged with murder in connection with deadly
road rage shooting last month february 17th driver shot during possible road rage incident
following crash in bel air february 26th passenger shot in possible road rage incident san antonio
police say march 2nd one person cut in fort worth road rage incident police say
march 7th road rage shooting victim quote i have no idea what i did to set them off end quote
march 10th motorcyclists killed in suspected road rage crash in wise county
march 21st arrest made in road rage incident that killed motorcycle rider in rome
march 21st again the same day dallas police investigating after woman killed in road
rage shooting march 25th just a couple days ago uh or is that yesterday what that was yesterday
okay march 25th chester county man wanted in connection with road rage incident in west
chester so that's a lot that's pretty crazy that pretty much every other day it seems like
there's like a road rage stabbing or shooting or assault or just something crazy crazy happening
and i thought well maybe it's just because there's such a large population in this state
that you just have a lot of these incidents but listen to this statistic
this is actually referring to 2022 says san antonio so just the city of san antonio
saw as many fatal road rage shootings as 40 other states just the city of san antonio
so road rage here is just unbelievable in fact just a few weeks ago on my way back from church
on a wednesday night i witnessed a road rage crash people flipping each other off trying to get
in front trying to get in front trying to get front next thing you know they're spinning
and crashing against the wall i've told the story before about in houston how a guy tried
to literally kill me in a road rage incident a church member here showed me last week they
had dash cam footage of they were driving in arlington and they saw a man get out of his
car in a road rage incident walk up to another person's window and this person was smart the
church member drove like into a parking lot to get his family away and he said as he was turning
he heard gunshots so like this is happening all the time it's happening in broad daylight
you know bible says that perilous times shall come crime is skyrocketing you know people
say that our prisons are overpopulated and you know i would agree that there's many charges
that shouldn't exist there's many laws that uh are not biblical but when it comes to major
things like murder rape assault burglary all these things there's something called a clearance
rate which is basically the rate at which law enforcement solves crimes so let's say that
there's a hundred reported murders and police only solve 50 percent of those and the clearance
rate is 50 well if you look up the clearance rate for a murderer in the united states it's
like 50 and for many other very large crimes it's even less than that so actually the people
in jail is just a small fraction of the people that have committed these crimes so crime right
now is just exploding right under our noses and the statistics aren't necessarily reflecting
that accurately and so but really the thing is it's not a political problem it's a spiritual
issue all of this violence all of this anger it really is a spiritual issue and so what i
want to preach about this morning is basically just an overview of what the bible says about
anger because what's happening with all these road rage shootings and incidents it's people that
are just full of wrath full of anger so much so that they're going to go kill someone over
something so stupid and so i four statements this morning if you want to write these down
you can number one anger is not inherently sinful anger is not inherently sinful and i'm
going to be you know talking negatively about anger this morning but i don't want you to get
the wrong idea that i'm just saying anger is always wrong or that you should never be angry
there's never a time to be angry that's not true anger in itself is not inherently sinful
you're there in ephesians chapter number four look at verse 26 the bible says be ye angry
and sin not let not the let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the
devil so according to the bible it is possible to be angry and to not sin there's some things
that are just inherently sinful the bible can never say hey blaspheme and sin not that's not
possible because blaspheming is inherently sinful you know commit fornication and sin not
that's impossible fornication is just always sinful it's inherently sinful but being angry
is not inherently sinful it depends on the context it depends on why you're angry or how
you're responding to that angry anger and also go ahead and go to john chapter number three
i'll read for you psalm chapter number seven verse 11 the bible says god judgeth the righteous
and god is angry with the wicked every day it's impossible for anger to be a sin because god is
angry every single day every single day god is angry with the wicked and there's a lot of
preachers the new evangelicals the niv rock and roll type churches where they want to make jesus
to be this hippie that's just cool with anything he's never mad he's the jesus of the chosen who's
just always super chill and you know the jesus of the chosen that's like making fun of john
the baptist for being a hard preacher that's not the jesus of the bible the jesus of the
bible is angry every single day with the wicked and you know we should be too anything that
makes god angry you have 100 a free license to be angry about that as well because it's
never a sin whatever god is angry about john chapter 3 verse 36 he that believeth on the
sun hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath
of god abideth on him according to the bible if you're not saved god's wrath is just placed
on top of you and he is ready at the moment you die to send your soul to hell for all of
eternity now of course god also is merciful so we have to balance these things god is loving
he's merciful and he wants people to get saved but while someone is not saved he's angry with
them he's angry with them that they have not chosen to believe the free gift of salvation
that he's offered to them freely by giving us his son to die on the cross he's mad that
they've rejected that and he's ready to send them to hell and if they die without
believing in christ that's exactly where they'll go immediately go to exodus chapter number 16
i'll show you some other incidents of justified anger in the bible exodus 16
so just to give you some context of this chapter it's talking about the manna from heaven
and if you remember when god gave the manna they were supposed to eat all of it and they
were supposed to hoard any for the next day god wanted them to trust in him and so he didn't
want them just holding all the manna back and being preppers and just trying to like
keep a store of it in case oh man god might not come through for me tomorrow
right he told them to eat it all look at exodus 16 verse 19 it says and moses said
let no man leave of it till the morning notwithstanding they hearken not unto moses
but some of them left of it until the morning and it bred worms and stank and notice and
moses was wroth with them moses wroth is just the past tense form of wrath he's so
angry he has wrath that they decided not to obey god's word and you know of course sin
should always make us angry when people break god's commandments when we break god's
commandments that should make us angry we should be ready to take vengeance on every act
of disobedience right that we do against god we should be angry about sin that's a completely
justified anger that's an anger that more people should have go to matthew chapter 21
you know jesus when he was in the flesh alive on this earth he showed anger during many times
of his ministry where he was angry at people where he was screaming and rebuking people
and we're going to see a story here where he takes it up a notch even above screaming and
just words matthew 21 verse 12 it says and jesus went into the temple of god and cast out
all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers
and the seats of them that sold doves and said unto them it is written my house shall be called
the house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves so jesus here is so angry
because god's house is supposed to be about the preaching of god's word it's supposed to
be about praying it's supposed to be about fellowship with the believers it's supposed
to be about sending people out with the great commission and what have these people what
are these jews done they turn it into basically an exchange house a place where they make money
a place where they sell things right and that makes jesus very angry so much so that elsewhere
in the bible talks about how he literally fashioned a whip meaning this wasn't just
an explosion of anger that came out of nowhere he said you know what i'm gonna call i'm gonna
patiently here make a whip i'm gonna go ahead and just make this thing because i'm gonna
go in there and i'm gonna start whipping people buying and selling in god's house that's how
angry he was to the point where he didn't ask them politely to stop he just walked over to
their table and just flipped it over i mean that oh wow jesus is so rude i mean isn't that so
rude that's what people would say but no that's actually righteous indignation that's righteous
anger right and if if someone comes in this church and starts buying and selling things
just flip over the table okay just i don't know maybe pastor doesn't want that let him
flip it over but there's a time to have justified anger to have righteous indignation
and i'll tell you what america would be a better place if more people were angry at sin
america would be a better place today if you're angry about sin people think you're a weirdo
people think that you're just insane for being mad of someone committing fornication they
think you're insane for being angry at divorce they think you're insane for being angry at the
lgbt takeover of our nation but really we need more people to be angry with sin in our nation
and people will attack the preachers of the new ifb will say oh you guys are so angry
you guys are so mean you guys are so angry it's like yeah i am angry at sin
yeah i am angry at false prophets yeah i am angry at false doctrine but notice does that
anger motivate us to sin or does it motivate us to preach god's word or does it motivate us
to start more churches or does it motivate us to go get people saved that's what it motivates
us to do so how is that a sin it's not it's righteous indignation and our country used to
get mad and used to get upset by the sin and the filth and that's not happening today
now people are angry if you preach the bible now people are angry for king james only now
people are angry if you're uganda and say hey let's pass a law where we put pedophiles to death
by the way god bless uganda god bless uganda
so number one i just wanted to explain that anger is not inherently sinful but number two
the vast majority of time people get angry it is sinful the vast majority of the time people
get angry it is sinful if we would be honest with ourselves myself including probably the last
time that you got upset it probably wasn't just because of the injustices of this world
and the sin of the world it was probably over something dumb like someone cutting you off
in traffic last time you got angry it was probably because you didn't get your way at work
or you didn't get your way with your husband or you know you didn't get your fifth coffee of
the day right and so you're so angry about it you had to work eight hour shift today instead
of a six hour shift or something just ridiculous the last time you got angry it probably wasn't
righteous indignation and think about this is it easy or is it hard to get angry it's very easy
right and something that's just really easy for your flesh is usually sinful right if something
is just really natural really easy to your flesh that means that it's usually sinful
and think about it the last time you yelled at your spouse the last time you yelled at your
kids the last time that you just freaked out it probably was unrighteous anger it probably
was sinful anger because the majority of time people are angry it is sinful majority of time
people are angry in the bible it's not over something good and let's just take a commercial
break here and talk a little bit about road rage you know here's my tip for you when it
comes to road rage is never ever ever escalate someone's anger on the road don't ever ever
escalate someone's anger on the road go to roman or uh first peter chapter number three
first peter chapter three you know i read to you all those articles of all those road rage
shootings that have been happening in texas is happening over and over and over and over again
and you want to know why a lot of this is happening it's because both parties are
riling each other up escalating things it's not one person backing up and just saying hey i'll
suffer myself to be defrauded you can cut me off no problem i'll forgive you it's some oh you
flip me off i'll flip you off oh you break check me i'll speed in front of you and break check you
oh you want to you know push push your car to me i'll push my car into you right what does
the bible say look at first peter chapter number three look at verse nine says not
rendering evil for evil or railing for railing but contrary wise blessing knowing that you're
there and too called that you should inherit a blessing look it's it's natural in the flesh
i'm not standing up here as some hypocrite saying i've never gotten mad at someone on the road
but as our world gets more and more dangerous you have to be seriously careful about this
and you have to take it seriously that hey on the road you should not render evil for evil
when someone flips you off let it go don't worry about it they're just trying to rile you up
because what's the alternative you get mad they get mad you cut them off they cut you off
and next thing you know you got bullets flying into your windshield oops you probably didn't
mean for that to happen what are you going to do then when bullets are flying into your
windshield it's too late to change anything that's why it's so stupid to engage in road
rage it is foolish it is not something christians should be doing and here's another thing especially
ladies you need a reality check that you are so vulnerable in this world you are so vulnerable
you are so fragile you are so weak and if someone wanted to hurt you they easily could
but i even see women road raging and i'm thinking you are a fool you really want to go make some
random dude angry at you you really think that you're going to be able to protect yourself
that is so foolish let me tell you a story one time i was in vancouver washington my wife
and i were on our way to church for a pie fellowship and this person was like speeding
super fast past me or whatever and they got mad at something i did and they decided to break
check me in the middle of the interstate okay so it's like dark it's raining and there's cars
everywhere and this person break checks me to a complete stop in the interstate and they throw
open the door and you know what walks out like an 18 or 19 year old chick
okay she gets out of her car and she stands on the interstate with cars going by her
in the dark in the rain because she was angry at something i did i'm just thinking like
this woman has no sense of reality because if i was just some psycho psychotic man that just
wanted to fight i'm a man i could snap her in two if i wanted to i could throw her off of the
interstate right but in her stupid mind she thought it's a good idea to get out of a car
at a man what is wrong with people right you you people have lost their sense of reality
and sometimes on the road i think people just like they see a car and they forget that there's
human beings there right a lot of these a lot of these incidents are people like killing
motorcyclists where they just get mad at the motorcyclists and they're just like
let's just crash into them and kill them but under what circumstance would you ever just
shoot a motorcyclist in the head you wouldn't but for some reason road rage just
puts people under the influence it makes them not think and so when you ever see people
road raging you should never escalate it you should never return evil for evil because something
very bad can happen to you and especially ladies driving by themselves you don't ever want
to be in a situation where here you are getting shot at or people are trying to open your door
and get to you that's that's horrible you should not be foolish and make such a silly
decision also here's the best part of that story though is i said that we were going to a
pie fellowship well when we break the car the pie just completely smashed against my windshield
and my wife is just sobbing you know and i'm like you're entering the pie i don't care
you know i was like yeah the competition was based on taste not look and then she won the
pie competition i was like yeah so it was a really good pie you know it was hilarious
but the road rage wasn't hilarious and i've seen road rage incidents in my life in washington
and texas i told you someone tried to kill me in houston i've told that story before
if you haven't heard it i'll tell you after the service but go to james chapter number one james
chapter number one i'm talking about how the majority of the time when you're angry
it's not righteous indignation it's sinful and these road rage incidents it's not righteous
indignation it's sinful anger is what it is james 1 19 says wherefore my beloved brethren
let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath why for the wrath of god worketh
not or the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god notice the bible is
generalizing man's anger and just saying like in a general sense it's not the righteousness of
god most of the time when man is angry it's not righteous it is sinful and road rage is a
perfect example of that i'll read for you go to proverbs 19
i'll read for you proverbs 16 32 it says he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city some people think well i don't
care i'll road rage all day long because i'm so tough and i'm so strong and i'm such a
good fighter if someone wants to try to fight me on the road hey i'll take care of it i know
for sure i'll be able to back you know back this person down and defend myself but you know
what's better than being a good fighter you know what's better than being a strong person
is someone that's slow to anger you know what's better than being a good fighter is someone that
avoids the fight altogether and it's way more wise for you to not try to escalate people's
anger on the road than for you to just trust in your flesh trust in your ability to defend
yourself to go fight someone for no reason you say oh okay yeah you're really strong
but that doesn't mean you won't go to jail okay so you defend yourself great have fun in
jail oh you know you're so strong you're ready to beat someone up good luck against
nine millimeter bullets flying at you was that worth it absolutely not proverbs 19 look at 11
proverbs 19 verse 11 it says the the discretion of a man defereth his anger and it is his glory
to pass over a transgression this would be a great bible verse to just put on your dash
in the car you know it's a it's your glory to pass over a transgression right because let's
be honest you see driving transgressions all the time you know as the illegals are
just flooding into america and they've never learned how to drive hey you see it a lot
i'm i'm not saying there's not a reason to get angry on the road you could find a reason
anywhere anytime if you want to get angry but hey it's a glory to pass over a transgression
the discretion of a man defer it his anger what is discretion the definition of discretion
one of the definitions is the power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment
freedom of judgment or choice so you know my my judgment and our good judgment should tell us
that it's not a good idea to get into a road rage incident because number one like we said
you can get shot you can get crashed off the road you can get in a fight with someone you
can get on the news you can go to jail you can go to court discretion should tell you that all
those things are bad and are any of those things worth someone just cutting you off are any of
those things worth someone just flipping off no so wisdom should tell you having good discretion
should tell you that it's not a good idea to just escalate people's anger on the road
go to ecclesiastes chapter number seven ecclesiastes chapter number seven
ecclesiastes seven verse nine says be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry for anger resteth
in the bosom of fools and i i mean one of the most foolish things i could think of
is okay you made me angry on the road so i'm going to kill you that is so sick that is
so disgusting that is so wicked just because you got a little upset at someone to just say okay
now i'm just gonna shoot you now i'm just gonna take my truck and just plow it into your
motorcycle and just kill you but that's what's happening that's what these people are doing
how what a wicked thing to do and what a foolish thing to do to throw your life away
to murder someone in cold blood just because you got angry at them on the road
what a stupid foolish thing to do go to proverbs chapter number 12 proverbs chapter number 12
proverbs 12 verse 16 the bible says a fool's wrath is presently known but a prudent man cover it
shame you can identify a fool because they always want to tell you everything they're
mad about they're just they're on a hair trigger they're ready to get angry and every
little thing that annoys them every little thing that they don't like every little injustice
they're just ready to let you know how angry they are and that is what a fool is
that's what these people in the road are doing as soon as you do something bad they're flipping
you off they're ready to hurt you they're ready to fight you but even outside of the road
we've all known people like this in our lives where they're just always negative
you bring up anything and they're mad just no matter what the topic is
they're just ready to be angry about it that's a foolish person that's a person no one
wants to be around that's a person who's toxic and who is a fool i'll read for you psalm 37 8
says cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thyself in any wise to do evil so we've
seen the bible over and over it paints a negative picture of anger most of the time
when man is angry now if you type up anger angry wrath wrath in a bible software you know
you're going to see it the most is god and we already talked about his anger is always righteous
but when most of the time you're seeing that man get angry it's usually not righteous
number three go to proverbs 15 number three people who don't learn to control their anger
don't get angry they are angry there is a difference between a person who gets mad
at something that happened and someone who just is an angry person and there are people who
they're not getting upset by their circumstances or their environment or something happened to make
their math they're just mad all the time they're on the road and they're wanting someone to cut
them off they're wanting someone to do something bad they're wanting someone to look at them in
a weird way so they can fight there's people like this where they just are angry people
and it's not that the strife stirred them up it's that they stirred up the strife yeah okay
proverbs 20 where i tell you to go proverbs uh 15 18 says a wrathful man stirreth up strife
notice it doesn't say that there was strife and so this man became wrathful no he was already
wrathful he was already angry he was already mad and so because he was angry and mad what
did he do he stirred up strife and this is a person who just is an angry person they don't
get angry they are angry that is a terrible attribute to have as a person but he that is slow
to anger appeaseth strife so if you want to have a bunch of problems in your life you want
to have a bunch of issues and strife and fighting and bickering well then just be an
angry person and you'll get lots of that and you ought to examine your life you know are
you always fighting with your spouse you always yelling at your kids are you always fighting with
your co-workers it's probably because one person involved just is an angry person it's not that
they got angry it's not that something happened to make them angry it's just they are an angry
person and if you don't fix that in your life you will have nothing but problems
you will destroy the relationships in your life proverbs 26 proverbs 26 verse 21 says
as coals are to burning coals think about this visual you have coals that are already on
fire and you add coals to it as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so is a contentious
man to kindle strife notice there wasn't strife that made him contentious the man's already
contentious and he wants to kindle strife he wants to go make fires he wants to bring his
fire with him and catch everything else on fire we've all noticed we've all known people like
this and here's the truth if you want a reason to be angry you will always find it if you want
to find something to complain about something to be unhappy about something to just nitpick
and other people that they don't do that makes you mad you'll always find it because we're
sinners and so it's real easy to find things to make you mad but guess what it doesn't make
you a good person to just always be angry it makes you a fool and it makes you someone that
no one wants to be around and it makes you someone that's always going to have strife in your life
that's obviously not a good thing proverbs 29 22 says this an angry man stirreth up strife
notice again the strife didn't make him angry he was already angry what did he do he stirred
up strife and a furious man notice this aboundeth in transgression people that are always angry
you know what they're doing they're always sinning they're always sinning with their mouth
they're always sinning with their actions and so these furious people on the road they're
abounding in transgression and they're ready to murder over their anger what a sick thing
you know and sadly you know some people are in marriages like this where you know spouse
didn't do something to make them mad they just are mad spouse is just always mad always angry
there's some people where this is your parenting style you know what you're just angry and
you're just always screaming and yelling at your kids all the time and that is going to bring
strife and transgression in your life you're not going to have a good relationship with
your spouse you're not going to have a good relationship with your kids when you're always
a wrathful angry person no one wants to be around that no one ever says man i really
love my mom and dad because they're always so angry when i was a kid no it's usually like
yeah my dad abused me when i was a kid because he was such an angry drunk and he'd hit mom
and he'd hit me right or same thing for domestic spousal abuse anger is always involved number four
out of control anger can destroy yourself and those around you out of control anger will
destroy yourself and those around you this is something that if not checked in your life
you will destroy your life if you were just an angry person and i talked about how can you
do this you could do this through your actions and you could do this through your words let's
talk about actions first go to genesis chapter number four let's see some examples of where
people just brought destruction because of anger genesis chapter number four
start reading verse one it says and adam knew his wife eve and she conceived and bear cane
and said i have gotten a man child from the lord and she again bear his brother able and
able was a keeper of sheep but cane was a tiller of the ground and in process of time it came
to pass that cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the lord and able he
also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the lord had respect
unto able and to his offering but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect and
notice this and cain was very rough so cain is mad he's super angry and it says in his countenance
fell verse six and the lord said unto cain why art thou roth and why is thy countenance
fallen if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin
lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him
and cain talked with able his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field
that cain rose up against able his brother and slew him so here we have a story in the bible
where cain he's upset god didn't accept his offering and instead of responding to his anger
appropriately by saying hey i messed up i need to change something here instead what does he do
he just murders his brother in cold blood the first murder that we see in the bible and where
did it come from it says that he was roth he was angry and when you're angry when you're
roth in an ungodly way it'll cause you to be destructive it'll cause you to destroy things
in your life to where he destroyed his own brother he killed his own brother
go to genesis chapter 34 genesis chapter 34
genesis 34 start reading in verse number one it says and dina the daughter of leah
which she barrened jacob went out to see the daughters of the land and when she come the son
of haymore the high vite prince of the country saw her he took her and lay with her and
defiled her so what happens jacob's daughter dina she goes out to see the daughters of
land and she ends up committing a grievous sin of fornication now let's go to verse number
seven it says and the sons of jacob came out of the field when they heard it and the men
were grieved and they were very roth because he had wrought folly in israel in lying with
jacob's daughter which thing ought not to be done now is this righteous anger is this
unrighteous anger right now it's righteous anger it's totally justified to be angry that
your sister committed fornication right it's a it's okay to be angry that someone defiled
your sibling that makes sense but what happens in the story is they don't go about their anger
in a right way and they end up bringing destruction basically what happens is they
tell sheikim and his family hey if all of you guys get circumcised we'll give our daughters
to your to your men you can give your daughters to our men we'll share and have marriages with
each other and so all of you guys need to go get circumcised well let's start reading in verse
25 and says and it came to pass on the third day when they were sore so sheikim and all
their family they did do it they went and got circumcised they were sore from it that the
two sons of jacob simian and levi dina's brethren took each man his sword and came
upon the city boldly and slew all the males so were they right to get angry yes were they right
to go commit murder no and so we have to learn the proper way to deal with our anger
because even if you are angry in a justified sense it could still lead to that just
intoxicating mentality to where you just go and do stupid things or you go and do foolish
things and this was absolutely not right what they did verse 26 and they slew haymore and sheikim
his son with the edge of the sword and took dina out of sheikim's house and went out the
sons of jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister
they took their sheep and their ox and their asses and that which was in the city
and that which was in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and
their wives took they captive and spoiled even all that was in their house so just because
your sister commits fornication it doesn't give you a right to just go murder people
steal all their goods plunder their city take their wives take their cattle take their little
ones it doesn't give you the right to do that and just because you've been wronged in some
way in your life that doesn't give you the right to avenge yourself bible says vengeance
is mine sayeth the lord i will repay it's god's job to take vengeance and of course he's
given us institutions for man to take vengeance on god's behalf in this world like the government
and if the government did their job they're the instrument of god's vengeance in many ways
but hey even if you don't have that system you still don't have the right to take things into
your own hand and just avenge yourself and to right the wrongs on your own behalf the right
thing to do is hey to pray to god you know pray to god that god can work out the situation
in the best way possible pray to god sometimes in some cases against people you see a
predatory prayers in the bible there's many times it's okay to pray against people but the act
the answer is not just going committing murder the answer is not just going out and stealing
things and when people are cut off in the road and someone does something wrong to you
on the road let me tell you what the answer is not to pull out your gun and just start
shooting them your amp the answer is not to just take your car and just start running people
over and just to run people's motorcycles onto the side of the road that's sick that's not
right and if it wasn't happening in such a huge scale i'd have a hard time believing that people
even do this that you're just on the road you're just going to kill someone for
someone cutting you off but it happens it does happen this is uh jacob when he's about
to die and he's preaching to his kids what's going to come to pass in the latter days this
is what he says of simian and levi that did this grievous thing jacob said this i'll read
for you genesis 49 5 simian and levi are brethren instruments of cruelty are in their habitations
remember that word cruelty oh my soul come not into out there come not thou into their secret
under their assembly mine honor be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man
and in their self will they digged down a wall cursed be their anger for it was fierce
and their wrath for it was cruel i will divide them in jacob and scatter them in israel so notice
jacob is not condoning actions of his sons he's not saying oh yeah yeah i mean dina committed
fornications you guys are writing what they did he said no that was cruel that was wicked
that was outrageous that should have never happened he's not condoning it he's saying
this was a horrible thing that happened go to first samuel 18 let's look at another story where
a man's anger causes him to destroy those around him first samuel chapter number 18
first samuel 18 verse number six and it came to pass as they came when david was returned from
the slaughter of the philistine that the women came out of all the cities of israel
singing and dancing to meet king saul with tabarets with joy and with instruments of music and the
women answered one another as they played and said saul has slain his thousands and david his
ten thousands notice saul's reaction to this so is saul happy for david that he
went and killed the philistine and did something great for the lord no he's envious
and this is what it says verse eight and saul was very wrath he's very angry he's very upset
and the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed unto david ten thousands and to me
they have ascribed but thousands what can he have more than the kingdom and so did saul say you know
what david's doing better than me so i'm just gonna work harder than david now i'm gonna start
killing more philistines than david i'm gonna start doing right or did he try to destroy him
let's read what happens in verse number nine it says in saul i david from that day forward
and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from god came upon saul and he
prophesied in the midst of the house and david played with his hand as at other times and
there was a javelin in saul's hand and saul cast the javelin for he said i will smite david
even to the wall with it david avoided out of his presence twice what a bizarre story what a
weird thing to do you think that saul and david would be on the same team they're both supposed
to be fighting the lord's battles saul should be excited that david went out and killed goliath
but instead he doesn't just let that motivate him to be a better king to be a better warrior
instead what does he do he gets mad and he tries to kill david the guy that just killed the enemy
of the lord the guy that's doing god's work he literally tries to kill him can you see now
the intoxicating effect of anger on someone to where you'd be literally willing to kill your
brother in christ willing to kill your fellow soldier who's doing nothing but good for god's
kingdom you're willing to kill him or attempt to kill him because of anger it goes to show
how dangerous anger can be now destructive it can be now careful you have to be because it leads
people to do just insane things but another way anger can bring destruction is by your words
go to james chapter number three i'll read for you proverbs 27 4 it says wrath is cruel and
anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before envy notice the bible keeps saying that
their wrath was cruel it was cruel proverbs saying their wrath is cruel and another thing
that happens when people get really angry is they say some of the cruelest things in their life
some of just the most mean hurtful words that people have ever said have been when they're
angry and this will bring destruction in your life this will bring destruction in your marriage
this will bring destruction in your relationship with your parents in your relationship with your
children because of the things that you say you know you can say things that can hurt people
you absolutely can and you don't have just a free license to just say whatever you want to say that
is not what the bible teaches people see preachers getting up screaming yelling and saying
things that are extreme because they're preaching the bible let me tell you that's generally not
the best way to act with people in your life i'm just going to tell you that right now
james 3 verse 5 says even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things behold
how great a matter a little fire kindler and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is
the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and set it on fire the course of
nature and it is set on fire of hell this doesn't sound very positive the bible's not
really painting a good picture of what your tongue can do verse seven for every kind of
beasts and of birds and of serpents and things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of
mankind but the tongue can no man tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison therewith
bless we god even the father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude
of god out of the same mouth proceed of blessing and cursing my brethren these things
ought not so to be and there have been many relationships in this world that have been
absolutely irreparably destroyed by the things that people say to each other and you need to be
really careful when you're mad when you're fighting with someone to not be cruel with your tongue
just because you're upset it doesn't give you the right to be cruel to someone it doesn't give
you the right to be cruel to your spouse it doesn't give you the right to be cruel to your
kids you don't want to be known to your kids as just that parent that was just always
screaming and yelling and always calling them names and always saying things to them of course
children are supposed to be under obedience completely to our parents that doesn't mean you should
be mean to your kids i don't think it's cool to just call your kids a bunch of names and to
treat them like they're your dogs or something like that i don't think that makes you cool i
don't think that makes you look like you're such a tough authoritarian parent i think it
makes you look like a fool actually because what you're doing is you're being cruel you're
cutting them down with your tongue and you're destroying relationships in your life and hey
you should care a lot about your relationship with your spouse you should care a lot about
your relationship with your kids and you should not get the the short times of your life
that you get angry to just cause lifelong devastation to your relationships because
there are things you can say that can cut people down forever you need to be very careful
with your tongue i'll read for you proverbs 21 verse 19 the bible is very clear about this
it says it is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman
okay when when spouses are fighting and the wife is real contentious and she's real angry
and she's yelling at her husband and she's calling them names you know what the husband's
not thinking you know my wife has some good points she she might be right about that you
know what he's thinking when can i move to alaska i'd rather deal with a grizzly bear
i'd rather deal with a pack of wolves than dealing with the angry and contentious wife
that's what the bible says here and notice the bible doesn't say
it'll seem better to dwell in the wilderness it says it is better
right so you ladies that think oh you know i don't understand why my husband
you know we're having issues in our marriage i constantly tell him what he's doing wrong
i constantly tell him how he can become a better husband i don't understand why he's not getting
this it's like you're just going to drive him to alaska you're going to ruin your marriage
you will never as a woman ever make your marriage better by being angry at your husband
you will never make your marriage better by being contentious against your husband
you will only destroy your marriage the bible says that women are to be obedient to their
husbands in all things okay and that also doesn't give men a license to be cruel to their
wives that doesn't give men a license to be jerks to their wives but i'm just telling you the
bible paints the picture that usually is the angry and contentious woman that's causing the
issues because usually men are pretty chill they're just like oh whatever you know they're
not worried they don't really want to spend the energy on fighting right but the woman she
wants to be contentious and angry but look that is your that's your sin nature that's not
good remember what i said when things come natural to you it's probably bad you need to check
your anger because you can destroy your marriage by being cruel with your tongue by being angry
with your spouse by being contentious with your spouse you could drive him to the wilderness
it doesn't say that he'll think that it's better it says that it actually is better
okay so god is very clear about that proverbs 22 24 says go to colossians 3 while i read this
colossians 3 i'll read for you proverbs 22 verse 24 it says make no friendship with an
angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go notice you could also destroy the
relationships with your friends by being someone that's just always angry and contentious because
the bible says hey don't make friendship with an angry man and there's been people in my life
where i thought hey you know i love you you're my brother in christ i hope the best for you
but i've thought like i just shouldn't be close to this person i shouldn't be very close
friends with this person because they're just so angry all the time and just because they're
so contentious and the bible makes it clear hey make no friendship with an angry man you
shouldn't be around people like that because it's going to drag you down it's going to turn
you into that same person and you don't want to destroy the relationships in your life you
don't want to get into these crazy situations with road rage and all the negative that could
happen in your life because of anger colossians 3 verse 21 says fathers provoke not your
children to anger lest they be discouraged you know one of the most weighty responsibilities
that you'll ever have in your life and one of the biggest blessings from god
just one of the greatest honors in life that god has ever given us is being a father and you
know there's a lot of things in my life that i want to do really well on i i want to be
a good employee i want to be a good preacher i want to be good at a lot of things in my
life but one of the most important things that i want to be said of me when i die is that i
was a good dad and it's such a heavy responsibility because the bible says that you
dad can provoke your child to anger and you can be the cause of their discouragement
that's that's a very heavy thought to think about to think about god looking down from
heaven and saying you want to know why your son and your daughter is discouraged in the
things of the lord you want to know why they're not excited about church you want to know why
they have a negative view of christianity in the bible it's because you are a jerk dad
because you provoke them to anger and you discourage them that's a heavy thought to think
about and so as dads you know we are the primary disciplinarian right we're supposed to be
disciplining our kids and teaching them and yeah you know we should be tough on them
especially compared to how the world is as parents right but you don't want to be so over
the top that you discourage your kids they're still kids they're still just kids foolishness
foolishness is bound in the heart of the child kids are going to do foolish things
all the time it's just your job to discipline them and correct them and move on that's it it's
not to just be angry at them all the time and to scream at them and to call them stupid
and call them idiots and call them worthless and to call them all these mean names that's
not your job and you know what if you discourage your kids god will judge you for that if
your kids don't end up loving the lord because of your authoritarian style as a dad god's going
to hold you responsible for that and you should take that extremely seriously so like i said you
know anger can destroy the relationships in your lives it can destroy people's lives literally
and really quickly i'm just going to talk about for the rest of the sermon how we can control
our anger really this should be a soul different a whole different sermon but i don't want to
leave you guys with nothing so go to proverbs chapter 27 proverbs 27 you know we talked about
basically just the doctrine of anger in the bible what the bible has to say about anger
but let me just give you quickly a couple things you can do to help you control
your anger and number one you're there in proverbs 27 the number one way you can help control
your anger is to confront and rebuke the person making you angry that sounds weird you're like
what rebuke here's the thing rebuke doesn't always have to be swinging from the chandeliers
screaming at someone it could just be confronting someone about an issue that they had
or a transgression that they did against you and just bringing it to their attention
okay and look the bible teaches this proverbs 27 verse 4 says wrath is cruel and anger
is outrageous but who is able to stand before envy then look at the next verse this is not
a coincidence that these verses are next to each other it says open rebuke is better
than secret love faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful
you would think why would you ever rebuke someone to deal with your anger you're just
going to lash out in them and scream at them and call their names not according to the bible
these verses are right next to each other for a reason they're connected hey you want
to deal with your anger just go up to the person that's making you mad that did something
to you and just say hey you wrong me in this way and i'm upset about it and that does a
couple things it gives them the chance to repent and get right and to restore relationship with you
which most of the time especially amongst christian brethren that's going to happen
people are most likely going to be humble and just take the rebuke and say hey sorry
sorry i offended you and then you gain your brother right and that also allows you to get
rid of the anger that you have because when situations get resolved obviously you have less
anger right another option you have is to forgive i'll read for you matthew 6 9 it says
after this manner pray ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy
will be done in earth as in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as
we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen for if you forgive men their trespasses
your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your father forgive your trespasses and so one thing you can do
when you're angry when someone does something wrong to you you can just choose to forgive
that person whether they apologize for it or not and if you think about a lot of the
situations in our life that we get angry about it's probably just small things it's probably
just menial things that you could just probably just let go and forget about and if you can't
hey then talk to the person confront them rebuke them but a lot of times it's just so much
easier to just forgive someone to just let it go and i didn't say you know harbor it up in
bitterness and not actually forget them it's actually forgive and forget them that's one way you
can deal with anger as well another thing go to galatians chapter five another thing that
could help you is to just be filled with the spirit more often being filled with the spirit
more often is going to help you not to be just an angry person galatians 5 verse 16 says
this i say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh
for the flesh lust it against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are
contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would but if you
be led of the spirit you're not under the law now the works of the flesh are these notice now
the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness
idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations and notice this wrath so one of the works of the
flesh is wrath being angry but look at verse 16 again it says this i say then walk in the
spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh think about this these people in these
road rage shootings that are going out and shooting people and crashing their vehicle into
people and stabbing people and beating people up do you think that these are people that woke
up in the morning and read their king james bible prayed to god and was singing hymns on
their way to work or do you think these are people that are walking in the flesh
so here's the thing if you start your day you read the word of god you get prayed up
you're singing hymns to the lord and someone cuts you off you know what you might do you'd
be like hey you know what i'm just gonna give place to wrath i'm gonna forgive this person i'm
not going to render evil for evil that's most likely going to be your attitude but when you're
so in the flesh you're angry and you're just wanting someone to cut you off you're in the
flesh you're going to be a lot more likely to get angry and to get into these situations
so and like pastor shelly always says it's not hard to know what to do it's hard to do it
right you want to avoid being in a road rage incident here you go read the bible every day
pray every day and sing hymns to god and you're probably not going to be on the side
of the road stabbing someone in the chest anytime soon just my guess right it and it's
i mean it sounds like oh that's that's too simple i mean no it's true if you're walking
in the spirit you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh so i just wanted to preach
this because i've noticed a lot of anger in our society noticed a lot of people in the flesh
i also wanted to give you some practical tips on road rage to not be escalating people
because i would hate to hear about something bad ever happening to someone in this church
i hope this sermon can help you also just to be a less angry person to walk in the
or walk in the spirit and just to reduce conflict and strife in your life and with
that let's end in a word of prayer heavenly father thank you for this day thank you for the
word of god that gives us instruction on every area of our life i pray that every single
person in here would work on controlling their anger would work on just walking in the spirit
and that you would just protect our church our families during these perilous times and that
you just bless our church we love you in jesus name of prayer amen
all right in closing let's go to song number 41 song number 41
go there myself
song number 41 sweet by and by song number 41
everybody singing out together on the first there's a land that is fairer than day
and by faith we can see it afar for the father waits over the way
to prepare us a dwelling place there in the sweet by and by
by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by
we shall meet on that beautiful shore we shall sing on that beautiful shore
the melodious songs of the blessed and our spirit shall sorrow no more
not a sigh for the blessing of rest in the sweet by and by
by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by
we shall meet on that beautiful shore to our bountiful father above
we will offer our tribute of praise for the glorious gift of his love
and the blessings that hallow our days in the sweet by and by
and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by we shall