Thank you.
Game number 296.
Follow.
Down in the valley.
Ready?
Sing.
This is sea water.
Up in the inter acres by the valley.
Mariffs.
Out in the valley.
forming verse.
Out of valley, out of valley, out of valley, out of valley.
Of the valley.
You are the chance to be out of time, oh Lord
I just want to thank you for being a happy person
and a happy boy
You are the storm to bring me back to life
You are the dream to start to leave me
I will never have to leave you
You are the man that I need
I know I need to see you
My love, my love
You are the light that makes this world
I know I need you
My love, my love
You are the light that makes this world
I will never need you
You are the light that makes this world
Let's pray.
Pray.
All right.
Good morning everybody.
Welcome to Verity Baptist Church.
We'll go through a couple of announcements real quickly.
First, let's count up any salvations that are unreported or I'm unaware of.
So let's start in the back.
Any salvations to report?
Anybody?
How about in this section?
Any salvations? Eleven? Okay. And let's see. Anybody else? One. Anybody else? Three. Anybody else?
One. All right. Sixteen salvations. All right. Anybody else that I missed? All right. And of
course we do have soul winning this afternoon around 1.45. And just one other thing to
mention. There is a typo in the bulletin under upcoming activities. The soul winning marathons
are on those days. Those are holidays here. But the time is wrong there. It's not three to six.
It's a morning ten to twelve, lunch provided by church, and then the afternoon as well two to
four. And so for both the 21st and 28th, the time there is our same time we have at
Kaysan Memorial Circle. But anyways, that's all we have for announcements. While Brother
Raffi lead us in another song.
We are a friend that calls me from a world of fear. He leads me and my father's
love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads
me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my
father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love.
He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and
my father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love.
He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my
father's love. He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love.
He leads me and my father's love. He leads me and my father's love.
Amen. For our scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of Judges. Judges
chapter 14. Judges 14. And as our custom, you'll be reading the entire chapter. Judges
chapter 14. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. Judges 14 verse 1. And Samson went down
to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. And he came up and
told his father and his mother and said, I've seen a woman in Timnath of daughters of the
Philistines, now therefore get her to me for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said
unto him, is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people?
That thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines. And Samson said unto
his father, get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. But his father and his mother knew not
that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines, for at the
time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Then went Samson down, then went Samson down,
and his father and his mother to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath, and behold a
young lion roared against him. And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he
rent him as he would have rent a kid, and had nothing in his hand. But he told not his father
or his mother what he had done. And he went down and talked with a woman, and she pleased
Samson well. And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass
of the lion, and behold there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.
And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother,
and he gave them, and they did eat. But he told not them that he had taken the honey out
of the carcass of the lion. So his father went down into the woman, and Samson made their
feast, for use the young man to do. And they came to pass, when they saw him,
that they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said unto them, I will now put
forth a riddle unto you, if you can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the
feast, and find it out, that I will give you thirty sheets and thirty chains of garments.
But if you cannot declare it me, then shall you give me thirty sheets and thirty chains
of garments. And they said unto him, put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. And they said
unto them, out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness,
and they could not in three days expound the riddle. And they came to pass on the seventh
day, that they said unto Samson's wife, entice thy husband, that he may declare unto us the
riddle, lest we burn the anti-father's house with fire. Have you called us to take that we
have? Is it not so? And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me,
and lovest me not. Thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people,
and hast not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father,
nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? And she read before him the seven days,
while their feast lasted. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her,
because she lay sore upon him, and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day, before the sun went down,
What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them,
If you had not plowed with my hyper, you had not found out my riddle. And the Spirit of the
Lord came upon him, and went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their
spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was
kindled, and he went up to his father's house. But Samson's wife was given to his companion,
whom he had used as his friend. Bless the reading of God's Word, and let us pray.
O God in Heaven, we thank the Lord for this day that is given to us. I pray that you would
please give us good weather for our sovereignty and our fellowship later on. I pray that you
would please bless the preaching, and the preaching of your word, Lord, this day.
We love you, and we pray. Amen.
All right, we're here in Judges chapter 14. We're starting a new series called The Alphabet
of Characteristics. And this series, it's not similar to the alphabet of Bible doctrines.
This is not a doctrinal look at each of these things that we're going to look at.
So for example, today is the letter A. We're going to be looking at anger. It's not a
doctrinal look at anger. What we're going to be doing is looking at a specific character
that you can look at that character trait and how it affects their life. So for example,
today is going to be about Samson as we look at the topic of anger. So 26 different
characteristics and 26 different characters that we can look at those characteristics.
And it's not going to be like anger and wrath or anger and rage. I mean, all the 26 characteristics
are very different from one another. But today we're going to look at anger through the lens
of the character Samson and how it affected his life. Now go to verse number 12, Judges 14
verse 12, the Bible says, And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you,
if he can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast and find it out,
then I will give you 30 sheets and 30 change of garments. But if he cannot declare it me,
then shall he give me 30 sheets and 30 change of garments. And they said unto him,
put forth thy riddle that we may hear it. So what you see here is that Samson is gambling.
Now in our modern day, 30 change of garments doesn't really seem like that much because you
can buy them at the store. But during that day, clothing was very valuable. So this is a
lot of money that Samson is gambling. And look, if you want to ask my opinion, what's your
opinion on gambling? Just look at this story. And that is my opinion. It is a disaster. And
I would say Christians should have nothing to do with gambling. Don't buy a lottery ticket.
Don't bet on sporting events or whatever. It's like, I don't think Christians should have
anything to do with it because we see the result here in Judges 14. Verse 14,
And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness, and they could not in three days expound the riddle. And it came to pass on the
seventh day that they said unto Samson's wife, Entice thy husband that he may declare unto us
the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire, have he called us to take that
we have? Is it not so? So as a result of Samson gambling, what's the result? They threaten
the life of his wife and her family. And isn't that true with gambling in 2023?
When you get into high stakes gambling, if you owe a debt, what are they going to do?
They'll threaten to kill your wife unless you pay up, right? They'll say, well, you give in,
you know, you lose this or we're going to do this to your family. So look, as Christians,
we should have nothing to do with gambling. We see the result here in Judges 14.
Verse number 16, And Samson's wife wept before him and said, Thou dost but hate me and
lovest me not. Thou hast put forth a riddle unto thy children of my people, and hast not told it
me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I
tell it thee? Now we're seeing a problem with his marriage out of his own words because what
he says is, well, if I didn't tell my mom and my dad, why would I tell you? But see,
here's the thing. When you get married, you leave father and mother and cleave unto your
wife, and they twain shall become one flesh. So your relationship with your spouse ought to be
above the relationship that you have with your parents. And out of Samson's own mouth,
that's not really the case for him. He says, if I didn't tell my mom, you're just my wife.
Why would I tell you? I mean, I didn't even tell my mom, right? Verse number 17,
And she wept before him the seven days while their feast lasted, and it came to pass on the
seventh day that he told her, because she lay sore upon him. And she told the riddle to the children
of her people. And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day, before the sun went down,
What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion? And he said unto them,
If he had not plowed with my heifer, he had not found out my riddle.
Now, first off, what is a heifer? A heifer is a young female cow that has not
borne a calf yet. Who is he saying is my heifer? Well, how did they find out the riddle?
From his wife. He just called his wife a female cow to other people, right? Now, look,
you want basic marriage advice 101? Don't call your wife a cow. Why does he do this? Out of
anger. He speaks out of anger. Now, there might be an added insult in the fact they didn't have
children yet, because a heifer is a young female cow that is not born, so maybe that was something
that was a burden on her part. Maybe calling someone a female cow in that society was like
a curse word. I don't really know. But look, when you're calling your wife an animal,
it's like obviously that's the wrong thing to do. And why does he do this? Out of anger.
He loses control. He loses his temper. And then he calls his wife a female cow to other
people. Now, go in your Bible to James 3. James 3. James 3. I mean, who needs soap operas when
you have the life of Samson here, right? It's like the Bible's entertaining enough as it is
anyway if you're paying attention. It's like, oh, wow, I never noticed he called his wife a cow.
Yeah, he calls his wife a cow to other people. Now, look, you should never criticize your spouse
to other people to begin with. And you should not tell other people or tell your wife that
she's a cow either, right? And he calls his wife a cow, a young female cow that is not born a calf
yet. And so the first thing we see with anger in the life of Samson is he speaks out
of anger. And isn't that true in our lives? When we get really angry, what do we do? We
say things that we don't mean. We say things to harm other people. We say things to cause
pain that we're feeling, right? That's what we see in the life of Samson. James 3 verse 6.
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 it is set on fire of
hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea,
is tamed and hath 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 proceedeth blessing and
cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. I mean, out of the mouth of Samson,
you're the most beautiful woman in the world. Out of the same mouth, you're a cow.
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so
to be. Now, look, I'm not trying to find out what every husband or wife has said about
their spouse when they've got mad. But isn't this true that when you get angry, you say
things to your spouse to try to hurt them? Or you get mad at your children because they
make a mistake. You know, you're an idiot. Can't you do anything? I wish I'd never married you.
I wish I'd married this other person. I don't love you. I hate you. And is this not reality?
Brother Stuckey, why do we need a sermon on anger? Because every husband and every wife and
every father and every mother has said things out of anger that they regret. And here's the
problem with this. Once you say things, they don't just immediately heal in a couple seconds.
I mean, it's easy to say it ought to be like water off a duck's back that just let it bounce
off you. I mean, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. But is
that really reality? Because I'd rather someone just threw a rock at me. Because when people
say things that are hurtful, they get to the inside. They don't just immediately heal.
And sometimes that person might say, I'm sorry. It doesn't just make it go away, though.
Right? And when you say things when you're angry, you cause real damage that doesn't just go away
immediately. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.
And so, look, I've got four points in this sermon, so I'm not going to spend a whole sermon
talking about the sins of the tongue, but there's many ways that we can apply this.
One thing is in marriage, you know, when you get mad, you have a tendency to say things
that are very hurtful that you don't mean, and you know what? You say those things,
they come out, and you know what? You can't just bring them back. Once you say those things,
they're out, and it is what it is. Then you've got to deal with the consequences.
Another thing is, you know, you get mad, and then all of a sudden you just say whatever
curse word that comes out of your mouth when you're angry. Somebody cuts you off in traffic
when you're driving, and you're slamming the horn. You try to run them off the road.
You pull out a gun or whatever. Hopefully you don't go that far.
But it's like, yeah, you know, it's called road rage for a reason. And look, in the U.S.,
I drove all the time, right? I get it. You get mad sometimes. People cut you off,
and then all of a sudden you have a tendency to get really angry as a result,
and then you lose your temper. You have no self-control over yourself.
Look, I would say that all of us struggle with anger in our lives to some level or degree,
and if you say, I don't struggle with any anger whatsoever, I'm sorry, but, you know,
sinu alankaba, right? It's like all of us. I mean, we should be slow to anger,
and I realize that, but I'm willing to admit that I struggle with my temper,
because life is stressful. Life is tiring. You don't get sleep. You're stressed out.
You've got all these problems, and this is the way it works.
There's this animated cartoon clip in the U.S. that's very famous. It goes back a long way.
A husband's at work, and his boss yells at him, and he comes home. He's mad. He screams at his
wife. The wife screams at their son. Their son screams at their daughter, or hits their
daughter, whatever. The daughter kicks the dog, and the dog attacks the cat,
and that's the way it goes. Somebody does wrong to us. It's like, all right, now it's
my turn to do wrong to somebody else, and this is reality. I mean, we act like little kids
half the time, right? Notice what it says in Ephesians 4 verse 29.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace onto the hearers. When words come out of our mouth,
the Bible says they ought to be edifying. They ought to be helpful. They ought to have
a benefit, not corrupt communication. You have to ask yourself, with the things that you say,
is it helpful? Is it beneficial? Is it a nice thing to say? Is it a kind thing to say?
Look, you don't have to call someone an idiot because they make a mistake.
How does that benefit? How is that edifying? How is it helpful? Look, when mistakes happen,
people are aware, right? Let's say your wife accidentally burns the dinner. It's like,
you burn the dinner. Yeah, you don't have to tell her that. She already knows it,
but isn't that what we have a tendency to do? Because we're trying to make them feel bad.
We're trying to make ourselves feel better. I mean, we lose our temper. We get angry. We
get mad, and then corrupt communication comes out of our mouth. Now, the Bible says this in
Ephesians 4, 29, and go to Ephesians 5. In my opinion, the context is not really broken
from Ephesians 4, 29 to Ephesians 5. What you're primarily seeing is sins of the tongue
talked about for a long time. And on a side point, one position that I take,
I believe saying curse words is wrong and sinful. And I'm going to give you a biblical
reason why. And I understand that not everybody takes this position, and that's fine. I mean,
everybody, your own free will, make your own decisions. But I'm going to give you a biblical
reasoning, but then I'm going to explain why it's unwise whether you think it's wrong or not.
Notice what it says in Ephesians 5, verse 3. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness,
let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Verse 5, skip verse 4. For this
ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now, if you're paying attention here,
verse 3 and verse 5 are very similar to one another because there's three things mentioned
in verse 3 and three things mentioned in verse 5. The first thing is fornication in verse 3.
That is a sexual sin, right? The first thing mentioned in verse 5 is a whoremonger.
A whoremonger is a male whore, okay? That would be under sexual sin. So the first thing
in verse 3 and the first thing in verse 5 are sexual sin, right? What about the second thing?
Well, in verse 3, the second thing mentioned is all uncleanness. What's the second thing
mentioned in verse 5? Nor unclean person. Same thing. Uncleanness, unclean person.
What's the third thing mentioned in verse 3? Covetousness. What is the third thing mentioned
in verse 5? Covetous man. Do you see how these things are lining up with one another? You've
got two verses that are basically parallel, so of course the question should be,
why aren't the verses back to back? Why is there a gap in between verses 3 and 5, right?
Well, notice what the Bible says in verse 4, I should say.
Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks. Now, filthiness is a more broad term,
but foolish talking is a sin of the tongue. Jesting is what? It's very crude joking.
Sins of the tongue, primarily. So verse 4 is primarily focused on sins of the tongue,
and then verse 3, verse 5 mentions sexual sin, uncleanness, and then covetousness.
So these are things that we shouldn't joke about, we shouldn't talk about, and I find it
interesting that in the English language the two primary curse words, one by its vulgar,
actual meaning is about sexual sin, and the other one is uncleanness, by its actual meaning,
and what the world does, they take a vulgar term that is already something you shouldn't
really be saying, and they turn it into a common word, and people aren't even aware sometimes
what those words actually mean, but they take vulgar terms, and yet in verse 3 and verse 5,
it's like don't let any sexual sin come out of your mouth, don't let anything unclean,
and don't come anything covetous. And another example of this, when someone
first gets saved, sometimes they'll tell jokes. I remember I knew someone who had been
saved for like six months, and we're in front of the pastor and a couple other people,
I'm there, and he told a joke about Michael Jackson, and it's the sort of joke that is
about perversion and pedophilia and stuff like that, and hey, as fleshly people, those are the
sorts of jokes people make. And then I remember he said it, and all of us are standing there
like, and then he's like, that was inappropriate, wasn't it? It's like, yeah, it's just a little
bit inappropriate, right? He's like, I'm sorry, and he apologized for it, I get it,
but here's the thing, that's what the world says. That's what the world talks like,
and the world lets anything come out of their mouth. The world does jesting, inappropriate
joking, perverted joking. They say these things, but here's the thing, let no corrupt
communication come out of your mouth because you're a Bible-believing Christian.
And here's the thing, you might not have the same stance as me on that, and that's fine.
You could disagree on Ephesians 5 verses 3 through 5 is my main thing of where I would prove
that, but I would say this, whether it's wrong or not, you do destroy your reputation
by speaking in that way. The Bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than riches,
and a good name is referencing your reputation. Now, maybe you were raised this way,
maybe you weren't, but I was raised, and I have never heard either of my parents ever say
a curse word in my entire life. That's the way I was raised. I was raised as a homeschool
kid, and it's like, I have never heard them ever say a curse word. As I said during the first
sermon, my mouth was washed out with soap when I said things they thought were inappropriate.
And here's the thing, my parents taught me that when people say curse words, it's because
they're not intelligent, and they don't know what to say. They have nothing more intelligent
to say, so they just say a curse word because they don't have a strong vocabulary.
That's what my parents taught me growing up, and whether that's true or not,
I'm just being honest, that's just kind of the way I feel. If I hear people say curse words,
I automatically lower my view of them because I'm just, that's the way I was raised.
And here's the thing, I am not the only one that was raised that way. So maybe you were
raised that way, maybe you weren't, but here's the thing, a lot of people were raised that way
where it's like, whoa, wait a minute. That's not something that we should say.
And as I said, you can agree or disagree with me and that's fine. I'll just say this,
there's other words besides calling your wife a heifer in the English language or the Tagalog
language, words that I know I'm not going to repeat in this sermon. You say, well,
I don't think it's appropriate. Calling your spouse an animal is a very vulgar and offensive
term because what is a male homosexual in the Bible? A dog? What's a female homosexual in
the Bible? A swine or a sow referring to a pig? Now look, a cow is not a dog and a cow is not
a pig. It's still not a compliment. I looked online, I was curious, and this question's
asked on Quora quite a bit. If you call someone a cow in India, is it a compliment?
And even in India, calling your spouse a cow is not a compliment. Even though they worship cows,
it's not a compliment if you call your spouse a cow. So as I said, you can agree with me
or disagree and that's fine. But obviously what we see from the life of Samson is he speaks out
of anger and he says something that causes major damage. You say, why? Because he loses
his temper, because he's angry. Go to Judges 14. Judges 14. Judges 14.
As Bible-believing Christians, we ought to be peculiar. The things we watch,
the things we listen to, the way we speak, the way we act, we ought to be different.
Different than the world, not the same thing as the world.
And here's the thing, the way the world speaks, they speak like that because they've heard it
from somebody else. So I remember one time when I was a kid, I said a word when I came home from
school and I didn't know what the word meant. And I remember the reaction of my mom and my sister.
They're like, what did you say? And I'm like, I don't know. Did I say anything? Because I
heard kids saying something at school and then I repeated it without really knowing what it was.
And you know what? They were shocked that I would say that. And here's the thing. When
people speak in a certain way, it tells me what you're watching. It tells me what you're
listening to because those words are fresh in your mind if you've been meditating upon them.
It's kind of like when you meditate on the word of God, what comes out? You talk about the
word of God. I mean, you're just hanging out with friends and you talk about the Bible
because that's what you're meditating upon. And Samson, he loses his temper and he
calls his wife a cow when he's angry. So the first thing we see is with anger,
you speak out of anger. And I would say that all of us are guilty of doing that sometimes.
You get in a fight, you say things you regret. Now here's some good advice.
If you get really mad, go out for a walk for 20 minutes and pray to God and talk to God
and get control of your emotions before you say anything. By the way, when you go out,
don't bring your cell phone. Number one, you ought to get alone with God,
not just be on your cell phone. That's not going to help your emotions. And number two,
you might say something via your cell phone, send out a text message, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And it's just like, you know what, just get away and talk to God. Otherwise,
you're going to cause major damage. And you say things, and then 30 minutes later,
you're fine. I'm sorry, but it doesn't mean the other person's fine, right?
And the first thing we see with Samson is he speaks out of anger. Number two,
we see that Samson separates from those that he loves. He separates from his wife.
Notice Judges 14, verse 19. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to
Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them, and took their spoil and gave change of garments onto them,
which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled. What's the result of his anger
being kindled? And he went up to his father's house. What's the Bible saying?
He gets really mad, and what does he do? He goes home to mom and dad to complain about
his wife. It's interesting because the strongest man in the Bible gets in a fight with his wife,
and he goes home to mom and dad to complain to his parents, right? He goes to his father's
house. Why? Well, the Bible says he's angry. As a result of anger, he separates from those
that he loves. Verse 20, but Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as
his friend. Look, it's good advice to get 30 minutes to relax and control your emotions and
talk to God. Obviously, though, Samson's gone for a long time. We don't know how long,
but what it says at the beginning of the next chapter is in the time of wheat harvest,
he's visiting his wife, and the implication is a lot of time goes by. You've got to realize
his wife doesn't hear from him, and she's relying on Samson to provide the bills.
Now, probably a few months go by, and Samson's gone. He goes home to live with mom and dad,
and then eventually the father of his wife says, I'm just going to give her to another guy.
Now, I don't think that what her father did was correct, but whose fault was it? Samson?
It's Samson's anger. Starts with his gambling, and then he loses control of his emotions.
He says something horrible, which I'm sure that his wife ended up finding out,
and then he leaves his wife. What would you think? I would think, well, I guess he's not
coming back, and as a result of his anger, he separates from the one that he loves, his wife.
Go in your Bible to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.
Now, the reality is I think Samson loved himself more than he loved anybody else,
including his wife, based on the way that he lived his life.
And look, I get it. Samson did great things for God. The Spirit of God comes upon him,
and he does great things, but he also had a problem with anger, and anger destroys the life
of Samson. And here's the thing. If you don't get control of your anger, it will also destroy
your life. Look, when we get mad, there's a lot of things that we'd like to say.
I mean, if your boss says, hey, I need you to finish this assignment within the next hour,
on the inside you might think, oh, man, I hate my boss. He's the worst person. But if you say
that, you're getting fired. You can't just say what comes into your mind. You can't say
what comes into your heart, because if you say it, you're going to destroy your life.
Look, all of us get mad at people sometimes, but if you get mad and you just say exactly
what you're thinking, good luck in life. You've got to learn to control your emotions.
Ephesians 4, verse 26.
Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Now, the Bible says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
We understand the sun rises and the sun sets. And obviously, this is an inhuman understanding,
but what I'm saying is we see the sun rise up in the morning, the sun rise, and around 6
p.m. the sun sets, right? And the idea that's being stated is, okay, you're angry,
but don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. Basically, deal with that anger the same day.
So if you get in a fight with your spouse, you know, you get in a fight on Monday around
lunchtime, and then all of a sudden it's nighttime, and on Monday night, she turns this
way in bed, and you turn this way, and then you put like 20 pillows in between you so you
can't be near each other, and neither one of you says anything to the other person,
and that's what happens on Monday night, and then on Tuesday night when you're walking by
each other, the head's down, it's just like this, and you're ignoring one another,
and then Tuesday night goes by, and you go from 20 pillows to 15 pillows in between,
right? And then Wednesday night goes by, and then at this point you realize you're a fool,
and in your mind you're saying, you know what, this is ridiculous, but I'm waiting for her to
apologize first. She's thinking, this is ridiculous, but I'm waiting for him to apologize first,
and you just let day go by, day go by, day go by, and you know what, here's the thing,
I'm being kind of humorous, but not really, because I think if we're honest, every husband
or wife has gone to bed and refused to talk to their spouse before. You're so mad,
you're so angry, and you let the sun set upon your wrath. Now if you get into a pattern of saying,
no matter what problems, we're going to deal with it before you go to sleep at night,
that's going to fix a lot of your problems, but see what takes place, if you let anger go
day after day after day after day after day, you know what takes place? Next week's sermon
on bitterness, that's what takes place. Then all of a sudden you pretend like you've forgiven,
but you haven't, you've just let this really bitter heart be there, and you just act like
everything's okay when it's not. This is reality. We get angry, and we say things so quickly,
we separate from those that we love, and we just keep it in our mind and in our heart,
and maybe you don't physically separate from one another, you're around one another,
but you might as well be in a whole other place because you don't want to talk to each other,
you hate one another, you're mad at one another, and then every time they make a mistake,
you bring it up. Every time your wife makes a mistake, you bring it up to let her know.
Every time your husband makes a mistake, you bring it up to let him know. This is reality.
You know what it's called? It's called human nature. It's called the sinful human nature that
all of us have. Turn to 2 Samuel 6. Let me give you another example in the Bible.
2 Samuel 6 verse 20. 2 Samuel 6 verse 20, and here's the example of David and his wife Michael.
2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel 6 verse 20.
Then David returned to bless his household, and Michael the daughter of Saul came out to meet
David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the
eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered
himself. Now in this specific example, David's wife is the one who starts the fight, and she's
the one who's wrong because David is actually not doing anything wrong. However, I would say
common sense would say she's angry because he's married to multiple women.
And so the thing is, when you marry multiple women, obviously your wife is going to have
some resentment and anger toward you and bitterness about that. And so technically,
I don't think he really did anything wrong. He's dancing before the Lord. I don't think what he
did was sinful. But his wife's already mad at him. And then she starts a fight, and the best
thing David could have done is just ignore it, just get along with God, pray, talk to God.
But is that what we normally do as people? I mean, if somebody says something hurtful to you,
you can't let them win, right? You've got to get the last word. And then David, notice his reaction.
And David said unto Michael, it was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father.
Her father's dead. He's insulting his wife's father, King Saul, who is dead.
I mean, that's probably worse than calling your wife a cow, in my opinion. That is an
incredibly insulting thing to do. He doesn't just stop there. And before all his house.
Now he just insulted his best friend, Jonathan, that's dead. He's like, I was, because Jonathan
was the one who was going to replace King Saul. And then God chose David. I mean,
this was his best friend who helped him, his friend. And he just insulted his friend,
who has also passed away. And so David has just lost it. He's lost control of his temper.
He speaks out of anger. And we're going to see the second point of separating from the
one that you love. So he insults her father, King Saul. He insults Jonathan.
And then he says this, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel,
therefore will I play before the Lord. But it doesn't stop there. Verse 22,
and I will yet be more vile than thus. So basically, he's admitting that what he's
doing is wrong. And he's like, I'm going to intentionally be worse than you. I'll be more
vile than thus and will be based in mine own sight. And of the maidservants which thou has
spoken of, of them shall I be had an honor. So basically he says, you know what? I'm going
to flirt with whatever woman I want and marry whoever I want. And you can't do anything about
it. Now look, David's wife starts the fight. David finishes the fight. And what he
said to his wife was, I mean, it's David's fault to begin with. He's married to multiple women.
And of course, you can trace it all the way back to his wife, taken from him. It's a strange
situation. But here's the thing. I mean, he says these horrible things. And then notice verse 23,
therefore, so as a result of this, therefore, Michael, the daughter of Saul had no child
until onto the day of her death. As a result, his wife, Michael, she never gives birth
anymore. Why does it say therefore? What it's saying is they're never together anymore.
This is the end of their marriage. They don't technically get a divorce, but they might as
well be divorced. They never talk to one another. I mean, I don't know if they ever
say one word to one another ever again. I mean, this is the end of their marriage.
Now here's the thing about this. You know, they say this and they separate from one another.
And then some people look at this as a Bible contradiction because the Bible mentions Michael
having children. But if you pay attention to the characters, Michael raises the children of her
sister. So she's the aunt to the children, but she never gives birth to a child. Of course,
if you raise kids, you could be called the parent of those kids. But in terms of
physically actually having a child, she never does. She raises the children of her sister,
who I guess probably passed away, but she never has children herself. You say why? Because
David and Michael, they speak out of anger, and then they separate from the person that
they love the most. Go to Judges 15. Judges 15. Judges chapter 15.
And here's the thing. If you don't get control of your anger, this is what you're
going to do to your marriage. This is what any one of us would do to our marriages
if we cannot control our anger. We'll destroy them. Because isn't it true,
we have a tendency to hurt those that we care about the most.
I mean, you just talk to people in a polite and respectful way, you know, when you see them.
Well, what's really funny to me is you go soul winning, and you know, you knock on a door,
you say towel pull, and then you can hear people arguing on the inside of the house,
and they don't yet hear you. And eventually they come to the door and they overcompensate.
And it's like, how are you doing? And they've got a big smile on their face, and you heard
them screaming at one another in the background, right? And they're speaking out of anger.
And then if you do this on a day to day basis and don't control your anger,
you're going to separate from those that you love, from those that you care about.
I had a friend of mine in college, and he was a good friend of mine,
but he had a problem with his anger. And he would get mad at people, and he wouldn't talk
to them for like weeks. And it was always interesting to me, because it's like all of
us are a group of friends, and then he'd be mad if someone not talked to them for weeks.
And it's kind of humorous to the rest of us. It's like, man, just get over it.
It's like, why are you staying angry for so long about something?
Judges 15 verse 1. But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest,
so a long time goes by as Samson separates from his wife,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid.
Now when it says a kid here, it's not referring to a child. A kid is a baby goat.
So what is taking place is he's bringing a peace offering.
I know I left you for the last couple months, and I know you're really mad at me,
and maybe he's doing this to give to her father or her. But here's a baby goat.
Does that forgive everything? Right? So a kid is not referring to a child.
It's referring to a baby goat. That's what a kid is.
And so he comes, and he's bringing a peace offering.
And he said, and look, if you say horrible things to your spouse,
and you leave for a couple months, a bouquet of flowers does not fix everything.
A baby goat does not fix everything. Right?
And then it says, and he said, I will go into my wife into the chamber,
but her father would not suffer him to go in. So he's just been gone for a while.
I'm just going to go in and act like nothing's wrong.
And this is what we tend to do. You say horrible things,
and once your emotions are settled, well, let's just forgive and forget.
Yeah, but you don't have to forgive anything. You're the one that caused the damage.
And he wants to stroll back in and act like nothing happened.
And it's like, well, wait a minute. And then her father says,
I thought that you hated her. I gave her to somebody else.
And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her.
Therefore, I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she?
Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
He's like, you called her a cow. You left for a couple months.
I thought that you ended the marriage. Right?
And then as a result, she's given to another guy.
Point number one, when Samson gets angry, he speaks out of anger.
Number two, he separates from those that he loves the most, his wife.
Number three, he starts new fights. People that he's not fighting with,
he starts a fight with them. Now, here's the thing.
Samson's wife was taken from him. Is that the right thing? Obviously not.
But Samson's the cause of this. He started all of this.
But here's an angry man who has something that does not go his way.
And so guess what? He loses his temper again.
Verse number three, and Samson said concerning them,
Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
Now, Samson doesn't say that he's blameless. He doesn't say he's not doing anything
He doesn't say he's not doing anything wrong. He's just saying,
You know what? What I do is not as bad as what they did.
And isn't this what we tend to do in fights?
The husband says something, and the wife comes back with this.
And it can be kind of two ways. Sometimes you can take the David approach,
I'll be more vile than us, or otherwise we justify ourselves and say,
Well, I'm more blameless. So you said that, I'm going to say this.
But it goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
It gets worse and worse and worse. Verse four,
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes and took firebrands
and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines
and burn up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives.
So he basically destroys the finances of a large group of people.
Just burns up all of their corn, all of their olives, all of their produce that they have.
Verse six, Then the Philistines said,
Who hath done this? And they answered Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,
because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion.
And the Philistines came up and said, Okay, well, let's forgive and forget now.
Is that the way it works in life? I mean, because if your spouse says something horrible
to you, you got to come back with something, right?
I mean, your friend says something horrible to you, you got to come back at them.
Your coworker says something about you, you got to bring it up to another notch.
And what do they do? It says in verse number six,
And the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire.
They killed his wife, and they killed her father.
I mean, it's getting worse and worse. So surely at this point, Samson says,
Okay, let's forgive and forget, right? Absolutely not.
And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this,
yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
And what Samson says is, You know what? I will stop after I do this next thing.
Here's the problem. That's what the other side also says.
I'll stop once I'm done, but then the other side says, Okay, now it's my turn.
And then once they go, now it's the other turn.
I mean, isn't it pretty full? Because when you read this story, Samson looks like a fool.
His life is destroyed. And yet we do the same thing in our lives, don't we?
We do the same thing in our marriages. We do the same thing with raising our kids,
losing our temper. We do the same thing with the relationships in our lives.
Someone does something, we want to get back at them, and it gets worse and worse
and worse. And which side benefits? Nobody benefits.
Then it says in verse 8, And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter,
and he went down and dwelt, and the top of the rock eat him.
Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us?
And they answered to Biden, Samson, are we come up? To Judah, him as he hath done to us.
And of course, Samson said, I was just doing to them what they did to me.
And they said, well, we're doing to you what you did to us.
And that's what takes place in a fight. I mean, look, if you ever try to mediate
a fight between people, both sides will tell you why they're justified.
Well, they did this to me, and it always sounds horrible. Why would they do that?
And you're thinking, man, this side, I mean, I can't believe they did that.
Then you hear the other side, and they say what they did.
It's like, okay, now I understand the situation. You're both just filled full of sin.
You both can't control your temper. No one's really the innocent victim in the situation.
Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock, eat him, and said to Samson,
Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?
What is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me,
so have I done unto them. Isn't that what they just said in verse 10?
They said the exact same thing. Here's the thing. Samson's starting a fight with the Philistines,
and I get it, God has a war with the Philistines. But now all of a sudden,
Samson's got a problem with his own men as a result of his own anger. Go to Proverbs 15.
Now, you always know that people in the room are guilty when none of the guys say amen.
Right? I mean, it's true. And of course, this is why it's a very helpful sermon.
I think I'm excited for the whole series, honestly. I was going to start this after
we got back, but I was like, you know what? I'm really excited about this series,
because all of us, including myself, including my family, we can benefit from this. You say,
why? Because we have a tendency to lose our temper. Now, here's the thing. When
life is going well, you're always in a good mood. But once you have the stress of life and
you're getting pressed on every side, what ends up coming out? The old man. And the old man
ain't pretty, my friend. The old man is filled full of anger. The old man is filled full of
bitterness and envy and covetousness and pride. Because if they were humble,
then they could have stopped it. Right? But that's just not generally the way that we are
as people. And as a result of anger, Samson destroys his life. Now, if you're trying
to get rid of a fight, what do you do? Proverbs 15, verse 1.
A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Isn't it true that if you're
really mad at somebody and they give a soft answer and they say they're sorry, oftentimes
your anger just goes away immediately? Right? I mean, when I lose my temper, it's like,
man, it's impossible to get rid of. And the person I'm mad at says, I'm sorry, or gives
a soft answer. All of a sudden, it's like, it goes away. And you feel kind of foolish.
And oftentimes, what you were fighting about was something so small.
The problem is it started small, and then you went like this, and you just escalated it more
and more and more. And you get back to the root cause of the fight. It's all about,
did you leave the toilet seat up? It's something so stupid, something so small,
something we had just a small bit of maturity we could get rid of, and yet it becomes a full
scale World War III situation. The Bible says in verse 2, the tongue of the wise
useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pourth out foolishness.
You say, Brother Sucky, you don't understand. I mean, in my situation with my fight,
I'm right, and they're wrong. That might be true, but that doesn't make you wise,
because the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, meaning you might have the knowledge,
but wisdom will use that knowledge in the right way. I mean, if somebody makes a mistake,
and you point it out to them, I mean, let's say, for example, you go soul-winding with someone
today, and let's be honest. If you've been soul-winding for a long period of time,
sometimes you have better conversations than others. Sometimes you forget something.
Sometimes you're like, man, I could have done that better. And let's say your soul-winding
partner just completely screws it up. Well, here's the thing. I mean, you have knowledge
that they really messed up, but how helpful is it to say, man, you had a horrible
gospel presentation. What's wrong with you? You have the knowledge, but is it wise to say that?
No, it's not. I mean, just because you have knowledge about something,
it doesn't mean that it's wise to repeat it. If somebody screws up, you don't have to tell
that to them. I mean, you might be right in a fight with someone, but it doesn't mean
that just because you have that knowledge and you're correct doesn't mean that it's proper
to say it. It's actually foolish, the Bible says. It's like, hey, it's great that you have knowledge,
and this is one of the problems when people first start getting zealous for God. They get
a lot of knowledge, but they still don't have wisdom. And they're pouring out foolishness.
It's like, yeah, you're technically right on all these things you're saying, but a wise person
wouldn't actually say it. You don't have to tell everybody everything that you know just
because you have knowledge. Go in your Bible to Proverbs 15 verse 18. Verse 18.
Proverbs 15 verse 18, a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger
appeaseth strife. The Bible says if you're someone who's a wrathful man full of great
anger, you start fights. But someone who's slow to anger that has control over their attitude,
they appease or get rid of fights. Ask yourself, which of those are you? Are you someone who
starts fights or are you someone who gets rid of fights? Now here's the thing. Let me help
you out if you're not sure. If you always fight with your spouse, always fight with your
kids, always fight with your coworkers, always fight with the cashier at the restaurant or at
Robinson's, it's not because every single restaurant they spit on your burger. It's you.
If you have fights everywhere you go, it's you. It's not everybody else because other people go
about their lives and they don't fight with everybody. And if you're always fighting with
other people, it's you. Look, and I get that there's exceptions, but you know what? You
can have unsafe Catholic relatives and not have big fights with them all the time.
You can have unsafe coworkers and not fight with them all the time.
Well, everybody's out to get me because I'm a Baptist. That's funny because I talk to
Catholics all the time, neighbors, they don't have a problem with me.
And yet everywhere you go, every Catholic hates you because of your faith. Yeah,
that's the reason. Go to Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16.
Proverbs 16. And look, here's another thing to keep in mind. It's okay to not be the expert at
everything. And what I mean by that is you don't want to be a know-it-all, that on every
topic you've got to tell people that they're wrong. I'll give you an example. If someone
first started coming to our church and let's say they hand me a birthday card that has an
NIV verse on it, you know what I'm going to say? Thank you very much.
But Brother Stuckey, we're King James only. Is that a reason to start a World War III
argument with someone who just started coming to church though? Look, if somebody tries to do
something nice, just say thank you. Now look, if you're a vegetarian and somebody makes you
some food with meat in it, be polite. Be nice. You don't have to start a fight about it.
It's okay to just be polite and say thank you. Right? Proverbs 16 verse 32.
Now ruling your spirit means you are in control of your own attitude. The Bible is saying if
you're someone that controls your own spirit, you're better than the mighty. You see, here's
the thing. It's pretty hard to take a city in a military fight. The Bible is saying, you know,
it's even harder to control your attitude. Right? And look, if we're honest with ourselves,
we all struggle with this. We get mad. We get stressed. I mean, when you're a young child,
you don't really have any responsibilities. You don't have any stress. I mean, the most
important thing to you is that you get the food that you want. Right? And then when you get
older, you have the stress of life that comes upon you. And when that stress comes,
what's the normal reaction? To lash out in anger when things don't go our way.
Proverbs 19 verse 11. Go to Proverbs 19.
Proverbs 19.
Proverbs 19 verse 11. The discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to pass
over a transgression. Look, when you have a situation in life where you have a reason to
be upset and someone does something to you, and you can control yourself and can control your
temper and not get angry, that is actually your glory. That actually shows maturity.
That shows character. That shows grace. That shows spiritual growth in your life.
And you ought to look at those situations, and you're mad, and you want to say something,
but you pass over it and realize, you know, hey, that is how I measure my success of how
spiritual I am. Go to Judges 16. Judges 16. Judges 16.
But here's why most people aren't going to be like that. One reason is because it's hard
to control your attitude. And the other reason is because we really like those 10 seconds of
vainglory when we cause pain to someone else and make them mad.
Right? You lose your temper. You say something horrible, and what is your goal? Is your goal
to fix the situation? No, it's not. Your goal is to make them more hurt than you are.
Right? This is the way we live our lives. This is what we do. And here's the thing
about this. You can struggle with this, and all of us do, but you're a fool to not try to
control this because if you don't control your anger and you let everything come out of your
mouth that comes into your mind, you'll destroy every relationship in your life.
I'm not just talking about romantic relationships. I'm saying relationships with your parents,
your cousins, your kids. If you just let everything—look, when you're raising kids,
your kids make a lot of mistakes. They're learning. They're growing. If you say everything
that comes into your mind when you're angry, you're going to cause your kids to cry every
single day. You're going to destroy the relationship with your kids. You're going
to provoke your kids to wrath, as the Bible says. You're going to destroy the relationship
with your parents. I mean, Christmas comes around. You show up on the front door,
and your parents open the door. They're like, oh, no. Our son's here. Our daughter's here.
But I'm being humorous, but literally, you will destroy every relationship in your life if you
cannot control your anger. Number one, Samson speaks out of anger. Number two, he separates
from the one he loves the most, his wife. Number three, he starts new fights with people
that are not involved. And number four, he suffers personal loss. Judges 16, verse 20,
and she said, and this is a famous story of Samson and Delilah. Judges 16, verse 20,
and she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said,
I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And he wished not that the Lord
was departed from him. But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down
to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house.
When it says they put out his eyes, they took his eyes out. They made him blind.
I mean, he literally is never going to see another day in his life. Now, look,
your eyesight is one of the most valuable things that you have in your life in terms
of the things that, in your personal body. One of the last things I would want to lose
is my eyesight. Your eyesight is very valuable to you. Now, when I go to sleep at night,
I take out my contacts. I really can't see at all. I'm used to it, but I just fall asleep.
I wake up. I put my glasses on, and I use my glasses. Now I can put on contacts.
But it would be a horrible feeling to me if what I saw at nighttime is always what I saw,
because I'm legally blind by my level. I cannot see at all without contacts.
Samson, though, no contacts or glasses are going to fix this situation.
He's blind. His eyes are taken out. He can never see again.
Verse 22, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice
unto Dagon their God, and to rejoice, for they said, Our God hath delivered Samson our
enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said,
Our God hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country,
which slew many of us. Now Samson's eyes are taken out. He can't see what has taken place,
but he can hear. What does he hear? He hears the people worshiping their fish god Dagon.
Now look, one of the most annoying things in the Bible believe in Christian is hearing the
praises from the heathen worshiping a false god. One of our neighbors in Pampanga is their
Hare Krishna followers. And so you've got a bunch of people in the Indian community that go to our
neighbors, and then at night time all of a sudden you start hearing that music in the same song
with the same words for like 45 minutes. It's obnoxious. It's annoying. Not only is the
song horrible, but you know they're worshiping a false god. It's annoying that you have to hear
that. And what is Samson hearing? He's hearing them praising and probably doing whatever kind of
music to their false god Dagon. But here's the reason. Why is it he doesn't have his eyes?
Because of himself. Because of his anger. Turn to Galatians 5, we'll close up. Galatians 5.
And if you know the end of Samson, which we're basically out of time, which is why I kind of
skipped it, what's the last thing that Samson does? Commit suicide. Now Samson's a great proof
that you can't lose your salvation because he's in the hall of faith, and he's like a suicide
bomber as we would say, someone who intentionally kills themselves and other people. But that's kind
of the worst way to end your life. You're made blind, out of the will of God, and then you
kill yourself. That's how he ends his life. Now I do want to say on a side point, I'm speaking
and preaching about anger, and what we're doing is not a doctrinal view of anger. We're just
looking at the life of Samson. Anger is not always wrong. Anger is not always sinful.
I mean, if you read on the front page of the newspaper that a child gets molested, it ought
to make you mad. It ought to make you angry. There are things that we should be angry about.
The Bible speaks of a righteous indignation. You know, when it comes to these weird
Asian philosophies like Taoism and Buddhism and Hinduism, they will say, well, anger's wrong,
and hate's wrong, and fear is wrong. But the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning
of knowledge. But I think if we're honest with ourselves, usually when we get mad,
it's not a righteous indignation. Look, when you call your wife a cow, it's not righteous
indignation. It's called you cannot control your own temper, and you are doing wrong. You
are sinning. Now here's the thing. I do believe that we ought to learn to minimize the damage
when we do get angry. I mean, get in a pattern. Figure out what do you do when you get mad
and avoid even the opportunity. So look, if you cannot control your tongue when you get mad,
you need to just start going out for a walk for 30 minutes, leave your cell phone,
and just pray to God and come back. That's literally what you need to do.
But here's the thing. The question is, how do we stop it at the root cause? How do we
prevent ourselves from being angry at all? Notice what the Bible says in Galatians 5,
verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law.
The Bible speaks in Galatians 5 about walking in the Spirit. You have walking in the flesh
versus walking in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, one thing you have is temperance.
What is temperance? It's self-control. You could apply that to food. You could apply that
to entertainment. You could apply that to anger, where basically you have control over
your emotions. You have control over your anger. You have temperance, where basically
you're not easily provoked, as the Bible says. That's another thing the Bible says,
not easily provoked. You don't just easily get mad at the smallest little thing.
Well, what's the answer in Galatians 5? Well, the answer is walking in the Spirit.
How do you do that, Brother Stuckey? You do that by waking up and reading the Bible
and spending time with God. Here's the truth. On days when you wake up and you don't spend
any time with God, what's the result with your attitude during the day? It's not pretty,
is it? You get very stressed. You get very angry. You get very mad. You're upset the
entire day. You're prideful. You say horrible things. Why? Because you're walking in the flesh.
It's that simple. Look, I strongly advise people first thing in the morning read your Bible,
and this is one of the reasons why, because if you don't, you're going to walk in the flesh,
and you're going to easily get mad at everything that takes place and lose your temper
and get angry. But what happens when you walk in the Spirit? Well, great peace have those
that love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Isn't this true? When you're close to God,
and you're reading the Bible, and you're praying to God, and then something happens in
your life, it's not that big of a deal to you. Nothing offends you. I mean, people could
be rude to you. You're like, eh, maybe they're just having a bad day. But when we're walking
in the flesh, the smallest little thing makes you mad. I said no lettuce on my burger,
and then you're mad at the person that made a small mistake. It's like it's not that big
of a deal. Just take off the lettuce and eat the burger, right? It's not the end of the
world. I wanted Coke, and they gave me Pepsi. It's not the end of the world, right? You can
let it go. It's not that big of a deal. You say why? Because you're just not that bothered
by things that aren't that important. But here's the thing. When you're walking in the
flesh, the smallest little thing will make you mad. If you're walking in the Spirit, though,
you don't really get upset. You're in a good mood. I mean, literally. I found in my life
that when I'm close to God, my life can be falling apart all around me in every direction.
And I'm like, I'm in a really good mood. It doesn't make any logical sense, but I am.
You say why? That's the result of walking in the Spirit.
That's called walking in the new man. But here's the thing. If you want to just not
apply the sermon, just skip your Bible reading, skip personal time with God, go ahead and just
get angry every single day and destroy every relationship that you have. Destroy the
relationship with your spouse. Destroy the relationship with your kids, your coworkers.
Be known as the wrathful person. Be known as the angry person. Be known as the person
that with the smallest little thing you're just going to explode in anger
and destroy your life. It's up to you. But if you want to deal with this problem of anger,
really the only solution is you need to spend time with God and walk in the new man.
And of the characteristics we're going to look at, this is really one of those things that
if you're not walking in the new man, at least for me personally,
I cannot control myself if I'm not reading the Bible and not spending time with God.
The stress of life, it's too much for me. I lose it. But you know, when I'm reading the Bible
and I'm close to God, honestly, things just don't bother me that much. It's like,
yeah, you know, it's no big deal. It is what it is. Let's close in the Word of
Prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to help us to
apply this sermon to our lives, God. Help us to be able to control our tempers, to control our
anger, God. Help us to spend personal time with you so we don't deal with this as much.
Help us also learn to minimize the damage and destruction that we cause when we do get angry,
God. Help us to learn from the life of Samson and not go down the same road of destroying
every relationship we have because of our tempers, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So hymn number 298, hymn number 298, hymn number 298, More like the Master.
More like the Master. The verses already say, More like the Master, More like the Master.
More like the Master.
Take down my heart, and lead me on my own
You're a dream come true, for all I now belong
You're a dream come true, and lead me on my own
You're a dream come true, for all I now belong
Take down my heart, and lead me on my own
You're a dream come true, for all I now belong
Under the last four hours, you've been leaving me
You're a dream come true, for all I now belong
All I know is that I'm going to never leave you
Take down my heart, and lead me on my own
You're a dream come true, for all I now belong
Amen.