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

Well, good morning everyone, welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your psalm books and turn to song 143. Song 143, in your psalm books we'll sing Blessed Assurance. And if you would stand, we'll sing song 143. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst at my sight. Angels descending, bring from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest, I and my Savior am happy and blessed, Watching and waiting, looking from above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just want to thank you, God, for just another beautiful day you've given us to meet in your house and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, now that you would be honored and glorified out of everything and sin done, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. All right, if you would take your Mountain Baptist Blue Songbooks. We're going to try to do a new psalm. So we've been singing through these psalms we have today. Psalm 81. Psalm 81 in your psalm books. In the Blue, I'm sorry, the Blue Mountain Baptist Songbooks. All right, ready? Psalm 81. Sing aloud unto God our strength, make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither the hymn, roll the pleasant harp with the psalm to re- blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for the law of the God of Jacob, this he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were delivered from the pots. Thou cause trouble had delivered thee, I answered thee the secret place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of Merivah, Selah were my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, then hearken unto me. There's no strange God being thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill in, but my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lost, and they walked in their own counsels, O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should have submitted enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries, the haters of the Lord submitted, should have submitted themselves unto me, but then forever he should have fed them also, with the finest of the wheat and with honey. Out of the rock should I satisfy thee, out of the rock should I satisfy thee. Amen. Welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday morning, and just some announcements here. We have all the services should be normal this morning and today, so we'll have our afternoon service at 4 p.m., but we're gonna have our main soul-winning time at 1 p.m., so after the service give you a little time to get some lunch, come back, meet up here, and get teamed up to go out soul-winning, and then our regional soul-winning times are on the list here, and so just honestly you want to be on the WhatsApp Mountain Baptist group, because all our leaders put where they're going to be meeting up at, and the specific time as well. These are all just tentative times for the week on those regional times, and then the Sutton soul-winning marathon seemed to go well. What was the total number again? 11. Salvations, amen, and so did you see Bigfoot? No Bigfoot? There was a wolf though, so. Was that just in someone's backyard? That sounds about right, so there's a road, there's a road that I drive down, I think it's Saltwell, but someone has camels and alpaca and all kinds of stuff just randomly in a barn, so I don't know what they're doing with them, like they like, you know, loading them up with stuff and doing stuff with them or what, but anyway, as far as the upcoming events there, we have the men's prayer meeting coming up this Friday, and then we have the Lord's Supper that we're going to be doing after the afternoon service on next Sunday, and then the women's prayer meeting we have on the list here for the first Saturday of February, and so, yeah, and then on the back of your bulletin there we have the chapter memory of the month is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and so we're still in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 for this month, and then Ephesians 6 4 is a memory verse for the week, and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that is a memory verse for the week, and then others are a lot are probably still on that schedule of reading the New Testament in the month of January, so I think we decided on gift cards that we're going to do for if you get through it, and it's an honor system, so if you tell me that you got through it, I'm going to believe you, but keep up the good work with that, I'll say this, if you're like at the end of January and you're like I got one more book to get through, I got to get through Revelation or something like that, and then you get through it going into February, then you still get a gift card, so we're not going to be sticklers on that and be like, well, you know, you didn't get it all in January, because, you know, it's close enough, so, you know, what's that almost only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades, what also counts when it comes to getting your gift card if you read through the New Testament in almost a month, so, but keep up the good work with that, and then birthdays, ours aren't until, brother Wade and I's not till next week, so, and then on the pregnancy list there, be in prayer for Mr. Tiara, and then my wife on the list there, it could happen any moment, so, yeah, hopefully it happens soon, sooner than later, so that there's this whole waiting game, you know, obviously I don't like it, but Holly doesn't like it even more, so she's the one that has to bear all the burden there, but just pray that we make it to the hospital this time, and I was just talking to brother Aaron, we were just talking about reminiscing over our last experience, mine was a little traumatic, and the fact that I had to deliver the baby, but theirs was even more extreme, so, but we're just praying that doesn't happen to us again, so, but just being prayer there that everything goes well, and that the baby is healthy, and that Holly's healthy as well, and that everything works out with the delivery, as far as other announcements, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, as far as what's going on, it's kind of the big stuff that's going on right there, and offering boxes in the back there, if you want to give a tie to their offering, the mother baby rooms for the mothers and babies only, I think brother Levi, there you are, yeah, brother Levi is going to be reading Ephesians chapter 4 for us for this morning, and, but before that, brother Dave's going to sing one more song. All right, take your song books and turn to song 244. Song 244 in your song books. We'll sing Amazing Grace, song 244. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers toils and snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought peace thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter number 4. Ephesians chapter number 4 in your Bibles, and we'll have brother Levi come and read that for us. All right, Ephesians chapter 4. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, preparing 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, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But everyone 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, unto 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 sleight 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 supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye 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 unto lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if you so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation in the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye 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 kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Let's pray. God, thank you for this morning. God, thank you for another time. We can come and hear your word preached. I pray that you would be a pastor and help us to learn what he has for us to learn. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So you're there in Ephesians chapter four, and I've been preaching a sermon entitled, Put Away Anger. Put Away Anger. This is a sermon that I'm probably more so preaching for my own behalf. Okay. Meaning this is that if I had, if there was any, well, obviously I have a lot of faults, but, but we all have faults. We all have things that we deal with or things that you got to kind of reign in. And I'd say anger is probably one of those, those things that I'm constantly wanting, I need to reign in. And in the Bible teaches on the subject of anger. And I want to, I'm going to hit on a specific subject when it comes to that, as far as why we want to put away anger and specifically us men. Because I think of obviously women can be angry, but I think of men when it comes to our anger and, and reigning that in having temperance and not having a bad temper. But I want to, I want to state this first, you know, because people see verses where it talks about putting away anger and then they'll just say, anger is always wrong and you should never be angry. And that's not true, but notice in Ephesians 4 26 here, Ephesians 4 26, I just want, I'm going to put a little caveat here that there are times to be angry and it's not, it's not wrong to be angry, you know, at all times it's, but I'll say this is that most of the time we shouldn't be angry. You know, as far as like throughout the day, we shouldn't just be angry all the time and be an angry person. Okay. But in Ephesians 4 26, it says, be angry and sin not. Cause it's literally telling you to be angry, but don't sin. Okay. Then it says, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. And what it's teaching here is that you shouldn't be going to bed angry, right? You shouldn't be going to sleep angry. And what we're talking about being angry, we're talking about righteous indignation, righteous anger. Cause in Psalm 7, go to Psalm 7 in verse 11, just so you know that anger is not a sin because God can't sin. You know, the Bible says in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promise before the world began. And the Bible says in him is no sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin. The Bible talks about how God can't look upon iniquity. But what does the Bible say here in Psalm 7 verse 11, it says, God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. So it's not wrong to be angry with the wicked, but we shouldn't be going to bed angry either. Right. I mean, thinking, thinking about like being angry with the wicked people in this world, you shouldn't be going to bed, just like fuming about the wickedness of this world. I believe that God has called us to, to joy and rejoice and to you know, be happy, you know, and to, and to basically have that type of peace and everything that's in our lives because anger is something that in some cases is good and it'll, it'll fuel a righteous indignation, if you will. I go to Mark chapter three and verse five, Mark chapter three and verse five. I'll show you a place where you say, well, that's the Old Testament God, you know, he's angry. Well, Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today and forever. I am the Lord. I change not. So, you know, so the, the idea there is that God doesn't change. He's angry with the wicked every day in Psalm seven. Guess what? That still applies right now. And here's, here's a verse here in Mark three or Mark three and verse five, Mark three and verse five. This is when Jesus was healing people on the Sabbath day and people were basically, you know, basically trying to accuse him because he's healing somebody on the Sabbath day. And in Mark three and verse five here, it says, and when he looked round about on them with anger, that's the Lord Jesus looking around at everybody with anger, he was angry with them. Okay. It says with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. He sat down to them, stretched forth on hand, and he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other. So he was angry with them because they literally wanted him not to heal this guy. And they were basically saying, it's the Sabbath day. You can't heal anybody. And obviously Jesus rebukes them and says, you know, you will basically pull, you know, I think an ox or something out of the ditch, you know, on the Sabbath day, you'll have someone circumcised, you'll circumcise your child on the Sabbath day. You know, all these things are true that you'll do. You know, how much more shall you heal somebody on the Sabbath day? But, but basically it's not wrong to be angry. Obviously it needs to be in the right spot, you know? Um, but go to Proverbs chapter 14, Proverbs chapter 14. When it comes to anger, we need to be slow to anger, not soon angry, slow to anger. We shouldn't just be like, just like a, you know, like in a mere second, we're just like angry. Okay. Cause God is slow to anger and we need to be like God when it comes to that. That's what it says in Proverbs 14 verse 16, Proverbs 14 verse 16, it says a wise man fearth and departed from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. A man of wicked devices is hated. So it's basically saying that if you're soon angry, and what this means is like basically becoming angry really quickly, right? You're blowing off your top and it just, anything will just set you off and you're just angry. Okay. The idea of being not soon angry is like when Jesus went into the tip temple and cast everybody out. But before he did that, he made, uh, you know, the scourge of small cords and he was out there literally thinking about what he's about to do, right? I mean enough time to where he's making this scourge, he knows what he's going to do with it, but he didn't just blow off his top. And obviously, you know, uh, you know, Jesus is perfect and he's always slow to anger because God is slow to anger and slow to wrath. I look at verse 29 there in Proverbs 14, it says he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Uh, go to, um, go to Titus and I'm going to read to you James one. And I know we just went through, we're going through the book of James right now, but in James 1 19, you're going to Titus chapter one, James 1 19 says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And that's why I need to be slow to wrath because obviously the wrath, if you're going to have wrath, you're gonna have anger. It needs to be according to God's anger and according to God's wrath, meaning that you need to be slow to it. First of all, but second of all, you need to make sure that it's righteous anger and that it's, it's an anger that, that would be approved of God. And, you know, we need to be slow to that now, Titus one seven. And obviously, you know, I was saying that I'm preaching the sermon to me, uh, you know, it's, it's more so, uh, uh, self, uh, you know, precautionary sermon or basically, um, things that I think about, you know, when it comes to what I want to better myself, or I want to get better, uh, as a Christian. Um, but, uh, a good reason for this is because the qualifications of a pastor has to do with this. Okay. Notice what it says in Titus one seven, it says for a Bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, notice this, not soon angry, not given a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. I'm going to get back to what temperate means, but that's going to go hand in hand when it comes to not being soon angry. It says holding fast the faithful word is he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. So this is a very important topic, especially if, uh, if you're a pastor, you're a deacon, but I would say, you know, for any Christian, right? Because I mean, when it comes to being a pastor or a deacon or in those offices, you know, those, those qualifications should be every, everybody should be striving for those qualifications, right? Even if you never take up that office, you should be striving to meet those qualifications. And the idea here is that we're not to be soon angry and we're to be temperate. Okay. You heard of someone having a bad temper. Uh, usually when you hear the word temporary, be like that person has a temper. Well, we've kind of used that term to basically mean bad, right? When you say someone has a temper, you know, basically someone being temperate is someone basically being restrained. But when you say someone has a temper, you're inferring that they have a bad temper. Okay. Um, but go back to Ephesians chapter four and verse 31, Ephesians chapter four and verse 31. So knowing this is that it's not wrong always to be angry. Okay. There are times the Bible says, be angry and sin not, and we can be angry with the wicked. We can be, we can be angry with the things that God is angry about, but it also says, it also basically the Bible's warning us that don't go, go, don't go to sleep angry. Okay. Um, and basically you shouldn't just be this angry person all the time. You're just constantly angry. And, uh, but I'll say this, we are to be angry, but not most of the time. Okay. It's just like, uh, the Bible talks about, there's a time to love and a time to hate. There are times that we need to hate, but it's not most of the time, right? Most of the time we should be, we should love. Most of the time we should be happy and joyful, right? You know, there's a time of war and time of peace, but we should, if at all possible, as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. The idea is that we want as much as possible to be at peace and much as possible to be loving as much as possible to, uh, be happy and not be angry. Right. Um, so when we're dealing with this as Ephesians chapter four, and I want to, you know, don't take the exception and apply it as that's like the majority. Does that make sense? Like there are, there are times where we should hate and there are times where we should, uh, you know, uh, basically be angry, but don't take that and be like, this means I should be angry all the time. Okay. Because you're kind of missing the point of the whole passage because notice what it says in Ephesians chapter four verse 31, it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So when we're talking about this anger, obviously this wrath and anger, we're not talking about righteous anger. We're not talking about being angry with the wicked. We're talking about being angry. This could be being angry with your brother without a cause. Right. And notice that the Bible says without a cause, right. It doesn't say that it's a sin to be angry with your brother. You're just not to be angry without a cause. Now it is a sin to hate your brother at any time. Okay. We should never hate the brethren, you know, at any time, but you can be angry with your brother if your brother is doing wrong or, you know, they're whatever. Right. But at the same time, we should not be angry with them for no reason. And, uh, but keep, keep reading there. It says, and be, but be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Go to the Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three. And as you know, Ephesians and Colossians are parallel books, if you will. So it kind of deals with the same subjects. So I just want you to see here how it talks about putting away anger, putting off anger. And by the way, this is a daily thing you got to deal with. You know, the Bible, you know, Paul talks about dying daily. And just as much as every single day, you got to put off the old man and put on the new. This is something that you got to constantly be putting off anger. Okay. And some of you may say, I don't, I don't get that angry. I'm not an angry, you know, I don't deal with that. Good. Good. Then just listen to the sermon and keep doing what you're doing. Right. But I'll say this is that my dad, my dad would know this because it's probably a Robinson trait. I'm going to throw him under the bus, you know, it's genetic, you know, but we have what we call the Robinson temper. Okay. And, uh, and you know, you can see it in my kids when they get angry, you know, it's, it's, it's intense. Right. None of you have ever seen me angry. Like I've been angry before. Okay. And praise the Lord for that, you know, and obviously you may be looking at it to be like, I don't think he's that angry. Maybe you are. Maybe you're like, he is angry, you know, when he gets up there and preach. But here's the thing, when I'm preaching and I get angry, that's because it's righteous indignation, right? You know, I'm angry because of sin or wicked people or stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay. But if you're just around me and I'm just angry around you all the time, and I'm just bitter and angry and wrathful around you, that's not good. Okay. Um, and so hopefully, you know, you look at me and say, yeah, pastor's not soon angry. He's not someone that's just angry all the time or anything like that, but obviously you can get angry in a sermons because of the subject matter or whatever. Um, but in Colossians three, eight here, it says, but now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Sound familiar? It's very much what Ephesians talks about. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all put on there for as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels and mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye and above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Now, when it comes to this is that I'm not going to just tell you to put off anger and then just stop. The idea here is that to put off anger, you got to put on something else. Okay. And to put off anger, really what you need to put on is patience, long suffering, forgiveness. Okay. Because you think about why are you angry? And sometimes, sometimes the anger that you're dealing with isn't even like unfounded. Okay. It could be anger that, you know, someone does you wrong and you're just angry about it. Okay. But the idea there is that the way to basically not be angry in those situations is to be long suffering, to have patience, to basically have kindness toward them and be gracious and merciful to them. Right. And I'm going to be showing you verses on this because God is this way, meaning that God is, he's right. He can be, he's obviously right to be angry whenever he's angry. But the way that God puts off his anger is putting on something else. Okay. And so to put off anger, you have to put on mercy, grace, long suffering, patience, you know, these types of things that obviously when you're walking in the new man, you're going to be dealing with that. Now, one subject that I'm going to be preaching on, and you could put this into different facets. Right. You could be talking about the workplace. You could be talking about husbands and wives and being like bitter against your wife or angry with your wife and wives. You could be saying the same thing and be like, I'm angry at my husband for whatever reason. Right. And so you can look at spouses as far as anger is concerned. You could look at coworkers as far as anger is concerned. But I'm going to be dealing with fathers and their children. Okay. And this is something that I'm constantly having to like check myself. Okay. I'm just being honest with you. Meaning this is that I got four kids, one on the way and things are not, you know, always just in their place the way they should be. Let's put it that way. You know, meaning this is that, you know, life is hectic. You know, you're dealing with a whole bunch of stuff and, you know, it's easy to get angry. Just to be honest. At least, you know, in my experience there. I want you to think about these verses. And I was reading through Ephesians and Colossians the other day or yesterday. And basically these verses kind of stuck out to me because notice what it says in Ephesians 6 verse 4. It says, and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I've always kind of wanted to, you know, thought about these verses as far as provoking them to wrath as far as them being wrathful, right? Because what's wrath mean? Basically being brought, you know, being brought is being angry. It's another word for anger. If you don't believe me, you know, look at Colossians chapter 3 and verse 21. You know, the parallel verse to this. Colossians 3 and verse 21. Colossians 3 verse 21 says, fathers provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged. Now, if you're not bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, what are you bringing, how you bringing them up? If you're provoking them to wrath and to anger, I would say maybe you're not bringing them up in a nurturing way, right? And go to Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 24. And I want you to think about this. Who here has your kids finally go to bed and after they come out like six or seven times needing to tell you something or needing something or whatever, they come out six or seven times or eight or nine and then they finally go down to bed, right? They finally go down to bed and then you're just sitting there thinking about how you're so mean to your kids sometimes. You're just like, why am I so like, you know, why do I get so angry? Why am I always just like, you know, you know, why can't I just be nicer, more understanding, more long-suffering? And then they come out and you're just like, get back in your room, you know. But, you know, all joking aside, you know, I think, I think men, you can understand this, you know, as fathers, especially with little ones, okay, is that when they go to bed, you're just like, man, I need, I need, I need a little nicer. I need to like be a little more nurturing, you know, and, and not be angry. And I think we all deal with this, but the reason that I think this is important that we are always keeping in check, okay, is Proverbs 22 and verse 24. It says, make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go. Notice in verse 25, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul. If we're angry around our children all the time and we're just always just snapping at them and we're just losing our temper, you know what that's going to create? Angry and wrathful children. And we need to keep this in check, men, you know, fathers, we need to keep this in check that we're not, you know, at least all the time like that, okay? Meaning that none of us are perfect and there's going to be times where we're going to get angry and we're just gonna be like, get in your, get in your room, get in your bed. It's, it's, it's bedtime, you know, we're done, you know, go to sleep, we'll wake up in the morning and have a better day. But, you know, it should be a time where we need to reflect on our anger. Go to Proverbs 29 and verse 22, Proverbs 29 verse 22. And listen, ladies, you can deal with this too. I'm not saying like this is out of the realm for mothers, okay? Because mothers can get angry just as much as men, but I think men have a more of a proclivity to this, meaning women are a little more nurturing by nature, okay? And men aren't. We're usually like, suck it up buttercup, you know? We just have that mentality that, you know what, you just need to get over it, life, life is, you know, life sucks, deal with it, you know? You're gonna learn this one day, you're gonna learn that you're gonna pay taxes and, you know, deal with the inflation and everything else one day and you're just like thinking about that and you're like, but at the same time we have to understand that when you're talking to a four-year-old, that's probably not, you know, you don't really need to bring that on them yet, okay? And I'll say this too, well let's read Proverbs 29 verse 22. Proverbs 29 verse 22. It says, an angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. Meaning this is that there's a lot of times where we're not angry and sending not, okay? Just to be honest, it's something that we are in transgression, we are not acting the way that we should be and we don't want to basically provoke our children to wrath or anger. Now, I'll say this, is that a lot of the times I'm just stressed out, you know, I'm stressed out with work, I'm stressed out with other things, you know, you got the weight of the world on your shoulders, especially as a father and a husband because it's a, it's on you that everything either rises or falls and that is a lot of weight and, you know what, when it comes to my wife, I try, I try my hardest not to unload that stuff on her. My wife will unload stuff on me and whether I'm good at dealing with her unloading that or not, that's another, another summer for another day, you know, but, but at the same time, there are times where I've had a really bad day. Like, I mean, I had people chewing me out, I've had, like, just a bad day, you know, and I'm just, like, not in a good mood, you know, and there's times where I just want to, like, let, let, just be like, listen, let me tell you about my day, you know, just so you know where I'm coming from, but I try to hold that back. I try not, you know, a lot of times I don't say and my wife has no idea some of the days that I've had and my children don't know what's going on or, you know, like, everything, you know, that's under the sun, but when you do that, sometimes you tend to still lash out because you're kind of, like, holding in this kind of anger and just, you know, stress that you're dealing with and as men, we need to basically let that stuff go and when it comes to this, the idea of, of basically dealing with anger is substituting it with something else, okay? Having mercy, having long suffering, having patience, but this passage just really stuck out to me and I'm, and it, I don't want to say it worries me, but meaning this is that I want to take heed to it. It's a warning, I believe, to men that we don't want to provoke our children to anger or wrath. We don't want them to, to basically emulate those attributes of ourselves, right? And go to Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14 and verse 18. We don't want our children to bear our, you know, if we have a problem with a certain sin, think of, like, alcoholism, right? Or smoking, okay? I'll just use these two as kind of big ones. If the parents smoke, the chances of the kids smoking are astronomically higher, okay? I mean, and the parents don't smoke, it doesn't mean the children won't, but there's a lot less chance that they're going to than if the parents are just like chain smokers and then you expect your kids not to do it. Same thing with drinking alcohol, you know? It, that, that sin of drunkenness will carry over to the kids and meaning this, that if you have a proclivity in that sin, it tends to carry over. Now think about this verse right here in Numbers chapter 14 and verse 18. It says, the Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy for giving iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and on the, unto the third and fourth generation. And what is this talking about? Meaning this is that what a certain generation does can affect like three or four generations. I mean, think about like a nation, think about a whole nation, right? But think about like Japan, for example, or China. And you know, you know that Christianity actually used to be over there in China. Like there was like a Christian Mongolian like, you know, leader, I forget if it was like a, you know, what the title was, but basically it's not like it was always Buddhist or always like atheist type of religion, okay? But there was a point where there was a certain generation that basically forgot God and just, you know, basically said nuts to Christianity, nuts to God. Look at the consequence that's there. Look how dark it is over there as far as when it comes to the truth. And the children of those people are suffering the consequences. And we need to be thinking about that and the fact that we don't want any type of, you know, basically things that we struggle with to go down the line. And now my kids are dealing with that, okay? And so we need to be thinking about that. Now here's the thing though, the Bible teaches, especially specifically for the death penalty, that the Bible says that the soul that sinned it shall die and that the son shall not bear. It says in Ezekiel 18, 20, it says the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, not there shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. Meaning this is that we bear our own sin, okay? But that doesn't mean that the sins of our fathers doesn't affect us, okay? Does that make sense? The sins of our fathers will affect us. The righteousness of our fathers will also affect us in a good way, okay? So the reverse is true as well. Meaning that, you know, if your father was, you know, not a drunkard, right? Not a smoker. And I'm using these as physical applications, but think about your father was, a hard worker. Your father did this or that, that was good, right? Those things tend to carry over as well, okay? For example, my dad, one thing I remember about my dad is that he was a very hard worker, very consistent, right? Now maybe he was consistently going to work because he didn't have to deal with us when he's at work. I'm just kidding. But he was very consistent, very hard working, and you know, I hope that that translated over to me, you know, to a certain extent. And that type of stuff, even, you know, the righteousness will carry over, but you know what? The sins carry over as well. And it's something we need to be thinking about, that if we're angry with our children, and we're just always blowing off our top with our children, you know what's gonna happen? They're gonna end up being angry. They're gonna end up being wrathful. And I've seen it actually just sometimes happen. The phrases you say, I mean, my kids will just repeat what I say, you know? Sometimes I use a little bit of over-the-top language, you know? Like as far as like when I'm describing something, you know, it's always just like, you know, there's like 100 million of this, it's like that's not anywhere close to that. So my kids are using that type of language where it's just like over-the-top type of language. And not that that's necessarily bad, it's just that they emulate how you speak. But they also emulate how you carry yourself, okay? And I've seen times where, you know, instead of, you know, basically when I, you know, I'll be in a bad mood or something like that, I'm just like, get out of my way. Move out of my way, right? You know, I gotta do something, I'm doing this or that. You know what they end up doing? Next time they're talking to their, they're like, get out of my way. Instead of saying, please move, you know, excuse me, right? And these are the types of things that we have to think about when we're, how we're gonna rub off on our children, right? Now I'll say this, kids, your parents have every right to tell you to move out of the way without saying excuse me, okay? Meaning like your parent says jump, you say how high, okay? But as parents, we do need to set an example. And even though we don't need to say necessarily, you know, please to our children, we should say do it, right? Because it's their duty to obey you. But at the same time, we should instill that and say, hey, you know, I could say, hey Clara, can you please go get me this? Even though I could say, Clara, go get me that. You know, because I'm her father, she's my daughter, and she needs to obey me, right? And so, we need to be thinking about how we affect their manners, how we affect how they act, and how merciful, how merciful you are with them will, I believe, dictate how merciful they are with others. And go to, go to Galatians chapter five, Galatians chapter five. And the thing that I believe that we need to substitute or we need to work on is our temperance, our temperance. And here's the definition of temperance if you just went to dictionary.com. It says, moderation or self-constraint in action, statement, etc., self-control, habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion. Okay? So, if you have a natural appetite or passion for anger, for example, which is obviously the subject I'm dealing with, but the temperance can't be dealing with other things too, right? It's not just dealing with anger. But if you have good, if you have temperance, that means you have that under control, right? You have this natural proclivity to maybe be angry, but the idea there is that you're, you're restraining it. You're controlling it. Okay? And like I said, it's not, it's not wrong to be angry in general, you know, when it's dealing with things that you should be angry about, but you need to control it. You need to rein it in. You need to constrain it. And Galatians chapter five, verse 22 here, Galatians five is dealing with, you know, the works of the flesh compared to the fruit of the spirit. Okay? And I want you to see here in the fruit of the spirit, if you're walking in the spirit, remember we were talking about putting off the old man and putting on the new? What is that? You're putting off the flesh and putting on the spirit, right? And you're basically walking in that new man. You're walking in the spirit because it says in Galatians five at the end there, it says, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. So walking in the spirit is putting on the new man. It is, you know, walking in your new man, all that. Now notice what the fruit of the spirit is, verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. Notice this, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law. Notice how, you know, a lot of this is dealing with stuff that, how do you deal with anger and constrain that? You know, be filled with the spirit. It's not that the spirit can't have anger because God is angry with the wicked every day. But what we're talking about here is that these attributes of the spirit, these basically effects of the spirit is that will be long suffering and that will have temperance. And we need to be working on that. So instead of just saying, how do I put this off? You should say, what should I put on? Because if you have temperance and you have long suffering, you have patience, you have mercy, and you have, you know, in your, and you have grace that's being applied to what you're doing, guess what? It takes care of itself, right? It puts it off for you, right? You can't, you can't have the anger if you have all those things, okay? And go to 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1. This is not something that when you get saved, you just automatically have temperance, you just automatically have all these attributes. Contrary to popular belief, when you get saved, you're just not just sinless and don't have to deal with anything. And when you get saved, it's not like at that moment, you're like, I'm an angry person. Now I'm not. There's this idea of, you know, everything in your body physically changing and that, oh, you know, I used to deal with that sin, you know, I used to be a smoker, I used to be a drinker, but now I got saved, and now I don't ever desire that anymore. You're a liar. Every single person that says that is a liar. That's insanity. The Bible never teaches that, by the way. Actually, the Bible teaches is that you're actually going to have issues with that sin and that you're going to have to reign that in on a constant daily basis. That's reality. Because inwardly, yes, you're free from all that sin and you're completely sinless, but outwardly, in my flesh dwelt no good thing. Because it is no longer I to do it, but sin that dwelt in me. And you know what? O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this dead? You still have that wretched old man that's there and you're gonna have to reign that thing in every single day. And in order to do that, notice what it says here in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter talks about how we can be partakers of his divine nature, okay? Now inwardly, remember, we're children of God, we receive the adoption of sons, right? We have the spirit of adoption. But we're still waiting for that manifestation of the sons of God bodily, right? Because we don't have the resurrected body yet, so we're still dealing with that old man physically. And it's stating here that we need to tap in. It's almost basically talking about how we just need, we need to tap into that, though. Think about it. It's there inside of you, you need to tap into it. And as much as possible, you need to tap into that divine nature, if you will, that God has imputed on us. And notice what it says in verse 5 here. It says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith. So notice it doesn't say like, you know, to have true faith, you know, you need to have all these things. No, it's just saying you need to add to your faith. You have faith. You've received like precious faith as we have, but you need to add to it. Add to it what? Virtue and the virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge what? Temperance. And to temperance, patience. And to patience, godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. We need to add these things to our faith. And I know I preached, you know, we were going through James and the Bible talks about not having our faith with respect to persons, but having faith with works. Well, we need to have faith with virtue. We need to have faith with, you know, you know, temperance and patience here. Okay. And go to First Corinthians chapter nine, First Corinthians chapter nine. First Corinthians chapter nine. Think about this as far as dieting, right? Think about anger as being like that, that junk food that you love to eat. Okay. And whatever that may be. Okay. And can very much be related to like eating, you know, and that type of like, desire and pleasure of eating, because you know what, that that brownie batter donut that I see everybody sending me pictures about, because it's like my Achilles heel over at Dunkin Donuts, that everybody's sending me all these pictures, you know what, it's pleasurable for a season, but as soon as that thing, as soon as I eat that thing, there's nothing good that that's good about that anymore. Right? Just sure consequence after that. You know, and it always takes you further than you want to go, right? You know, when it comes to that, you know, you buy like half a dozen of those things, you're like, I'm gonna eat them, you know, I'm gonna freeze them. No, you're not. No, you're not. You're just gonna eat them. And so, but you know what, when it comes to anger, you kind of have to think about it kind of like dieting, right? Because you have to think about the fact that you, your body wants to be angry, right? Your flesh is constantly wanting to be angry, be wrathful, and just be upset with everything that's going on in the world. And you have to basically reign it in. Have willpower, okay? It takes willpower to diet, physically, and to deal with like not eating sweets, or not eating things that you would want to eat, okay? And 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 24 here, Paul's dealing with the idea of being temperate, obviously for preaching the gospel for a purpose, right? There's a reason why we're being temperate, and the reason why I'm telling you to be temperate when it comes to anger. The big reason why I'm telling you to be temperate when it comes to your anger is for your children's sake. That's not the only reason, but that's the reason that I'm preaching it, okay, right now. Is so that your children aren't provoked to wrath or anger, okay? And in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24, it says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. So if you want to win this prize, you want you want to be victorious, you need to be temperate on all things. Now anger is one of those things, okay? And I'm just preaching on anger this morning, and you know, putting off anger and being temperate in that. That's one thing, but we want to strive to do all things and being temperate in all things, but you got to kind of start one by one, right? And I could show you all the different things as well and different sins that you need to be temperate in, but be temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beat at the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Meaning this is that he keeps himself temperate in all things, he keeps his body in subjection, so that he'll be an effective soul winner, essentially, right? The idea is that he's made all things to all men that he might, by all means, save some, and he's stating that, he's saying, when I'm with the Jews, I'm gonna I'm gonna do what they're doing, I'm gonna eat their kosher meals, you know? When I'm with the Gentiles, I'm gonna eat bacon, I'm gonna do whatever, right? But he's doing all that so that he'll save people, you know? So that he'll get people saved and win people to the Lord, but then he's also just talking about himself personally, saying, you know, when it comes to my body and the things that I do, I'm gonna keep that, I'm gonna keep be temperate in all things when it comes to that, so that I'm effectual, right? So that when I'm preaching the gospel, I'm not, you know, basically, I myself being cast away, meaning that he's not effective, he's falling away from things, okay? And we need to be thinking about that as far as being temperate in what we do. Go to Jonah chapter 4, Jonah chapter 4, and let me show you a prophet that had a problem with anger, okay? And Jonah was a prophet that had a problem with anger. You say, well, myself being a castaway, you know, like, oh, you know, let's talk about losing your salvation, you know, how's that talking about being profitable for the... How about Jonah? You know, the reason why he wouldn't go is because he was angry, because he knew that God was merciful, okay? And you don't know that at the very beginning of the story, you're just thinking, like, he's just fleeing from the presence of the Lord, you don't really know why, until the end, and then you're like, oh, okay, this is why, because he wants them all to die. He wants all of Nineveh to be destroyed, and he doesn't want God to spare them, that's why. And when God spares them, he's actually angry about it. So I want you to see a prophet of God, and obviously Jonah's saved, right? I mean, he's a prophet of God, he's a saved individual, but he has a problem with anger. And you know what? We can understand his anger for the Ninevites, right? Because Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and Assyrians completely annihilated the northern kingdom of Israel. So you can understand where he's coming from. It's not like it's unfounded anger, okay? But this is where mercy comes in, right? Jonah needs to show mercy and reign that anger in. If your anger is more angry than God, you're wrong, okay? If you have more anger towards somebody than God does, then you have too much anger towards that person, okay? And Jonah 4 and verse 1, it says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. What displeased them? Well, the last verse is in Jonah 3, 10, where it says, And God saw their works, that they turned from evil way, and God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and he did it not. And Jonah was angry, because he didn't destroy Nineveh. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Now, we didn't see that when we were reading Jonah 1, it doesn't tell us this, but it says, Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repent this thee of the evil. Here's how you deal with anger, what God just did. God was angry with Nineveh, and he said he was going to destroy it within 40 days. But guess what? He was slow to anger. He was gracious, and merciful, and full of kindness, okay? And God was rightfully so angry. It's not like it was wrong for him to be angry. God's never wrong. But notice God's mercy, and graciousness, in that time of anger, and how that puts off his anger, right? That quenched his anger. It says, Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. So now, Jonah's being a little, you know, emotional, to say the least. But it says, Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? Now that's kind of a rhetorical question, meaning that you're not doing well to be angry, okay? And Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. I mean, he's literally pouting and stomping out to the outside of the city, making a booth, sitting there, and be like, I'm just gonna see if God will actually, you know, maybe he'll change his mind, and kill them all. I mean, that's like Jonah. He's just sitting there, like, seeing if it's gonna happen, you know, anyway. And then it goes on to say, in verse 6, And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Now, do you see how anger clouds your judgment? I mean, think about how much ridiculousness is in that statement, right? He's like, that gourd died, just kill me now. Like, that's how angry and clouded his vision, you know, is. And that's what anger does. Anger clouds your judgment. It clouds, you know, your discernment. And when you're angry, especially if you're, like, raging angry, right? You're not thinking straight, okay? There were times in my life where I was so angry, I couldn't even think straight. I mean, it was just like, just a rage of anger, to where, like, you don't want to be near me, or I'm going to, you know, hurt somebody. And, you know, I don't want to ever get like that. And we should always be holding our, you know, restraining ourselves back where we don't get to that point. We should never be to the point where we're so angry that we can't even speak, right? To where someone's, like, trying to calm you down, someone's trying to say something to you, and you just can't even speak. You're just so angry. And Jonah here is so angry that he's literally saying, just kill me for this gourd that died. I mean, think how stupid that is. Think about on the surface, like, we're outside reading this, but he's just so angry about what's going on. He's just like, just kill me now. Now the gourds dead, you know? It's kind of like, you know, when everything just starts going the wrong way, you know, when it rains, it pours. And it always seems to happen in threes, doesn't it? Right? It's like I've got a flat tire, you know, someone chewed me out at work, this happened here, and it's just like, everything just piles. It's not like it just happened, like, off, you know, once-offs. No, it's usually like this one day, like, everything is going wrong. And then, and then it's just like, you're going home and it's like, of course it's raining, you know? It's like, what? Like, okay. And you're just, you're just angry about everything. It doesn't matter what it is. And you've all been there, you've had a bad day, and it's just like, everything goes wrong, you know, you like, hit your head on things, you're bumping into things, and you're just like, why is that there? You mean the wall? You mean that door frame that's been there since the beginning, since you've ever lived here, you know? And you're just, you're just angry, and just everything makes you angry. And it's just like Jonah here, it's just like, he's angry because his gourd died. It's a gourd. Get over it, right? But he's just so angry that he's just like, just kill me now, right? That's what you call someone that's in a rage. But he's not thinking straight, and God's reasoning with him here. Notice what it says here in verse 10, and he's teaching him a lesson, right? It says, Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither made it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. He's basically, you didn't do anything to make this gourd, you didn't labor for this gourd, and you're gonna be that angry about this gourd dying, that you never did anything to even produce. But then he says, And should not I spare Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? And what you have to understand is that what he's saying here is that they're ignorant. The people that are in this city, they're ignorant. They're sinning, obviously, and they're doing stuff they shouldn't be doing, but they're ignorantly doing it. And he's like, shouldn't I be merciful to them? Shouldn't I be gracious unto them? And he's talking about people, right? He's talking about scores of people, scores of thousands of people, right? That Jonah's just like, kill them all. And you need to have compassion, and it's easy for us in this life, especially when you see all the weakness going on in the world, and be like, Lord, just destroy it all right now. But then you think about the innocent people that would get saved. You think about the children. You think about, you know, how God is long suffering, and he waited for the pressure through the earth, and that he's not willing to any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And that God is long suffering. He's merciful. He's patient, even though he's angry with the wicked every day, even though, you know, obviously, his eyes behold the evil and the good, and he sees everything that's going on. And if you saw, you probably say burn it all down right now, when it comes to all the wickedness that's in the world. But God is slow to anger. He's long suffering. That's what we need to do. Go to Psalm 103 and verse 8. Psalm 103 and verse 8. Now, when it comes to fathers, we want our children to emulate, well, here's the thing, they're gonna emulate us whether we like it or not. Facts, okay. Our children are going to emulate us, and the question is, what are they gonna end up emulating? Is it gonna be, you know, a hard-working man that loves them, or is it gonna be maybe a hard-working man that's just angry with them every single day? Or maybe angry most of the time, and every once in a while they're loving or whatever, right? And I'm not saying like there's not times we're gonna be angry with your children and it's rightfully founded and you know all that, right? And obviously we need to spank our children. You know, he that spareth his rod hateth his son. But he that chasteneth the times, you know, the Bible talks about delivering their soul from hell and like all that. So I'm not here to say like chastening is wrong, but we should we shouldn't be spanking in anger though. If you're like in this rageful anger, you know, pass the spoon off to your wife, you know. Like have her do it, right? If you're that angry, right? You shouldn't be spanking in anger, right? And ultimately spanking is not the only, that's not the only part of discipline, okay? Just spanking your children and nothing else, that's not gonna do the job, right? Spanking needs to be implemented, but you need to be bringing them up in the nurture and admonition Lord, okay? And as fathers, that term nurture just doesn't bode well a lot of times with us, right? Like nurturing, that's just not something that we tend to want to be like. We don't want to be that nurturing type of person. We want to be hard, strong, you know? But we need, with our children, we need to bring out that nurturing nature of a father and a child. And here's the thing, as much as we want to, we want to be a good example to our children, we need to take God's good example. Let's take God the Father's good example and apply it to ourselves and then take that and apply it to our children, okay? So let me give you some verses on this. Go to Psalm 103 and verse 8. It says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Here's how you deal with anger with your children. Have mercy. There are times where my, you know, the spanking, you know, like, you know, I'll basically say you're getting a spanking. But then there'll be times where I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna have mercy on you this time. You're not getting a spanking this time, okay? And I'll just show acts of, like, mercy. When they deserve it, they should have gotten a spanking, they should be disciplined, but I'll show that mercy every once in a while so they know, hey, you know, Dad is gracious, you know, like, that was, that was, that was nice, you know, that was, I deserved it, but I didn't get it, right? And there's a lot of times, listen, we are not, we are not punished to the, even in this life. Now, obviously, spiritually speaking, we'll never be punished by our sins, for our sins, right? But in this life, we are not punished for our sins as we ought to be, probably, right? As far as, like, the severity of punishment and chasing that we should get, God is very merciful to us, okay? Go to Psalm 145, Psalm 145, Psalm 145, and this is, I'll be done after this. This is just, I want you to think about, okay, I understand I need to put off anger, I understand I need not to be an angry person, my children will emulate that, the question is, how do I do that? The answer is, be long-suffering, be merciful, be gracious like our Heavenly Father is, be forgiving like our Heavenly Father is, be more like Him, and whenever you're dealing with anger, just, just think about, you know, what would God do in this situation? How would God act in this situation, right? And one, Psalm 145, verse 8, it says, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. So think about the mercy, the compassion, the grace, being slow to anger, and not just blowing off His top, and just quick to be angry about something. Go to Jeremiah 3, Jeremiah 3 and verse 12. Jeremiah 3 and verse 12. Jeremiah 3 and verse 12. So I'm just gonna show you some verses here, dealing with God's mercy, and how, how He puts off anger, essentially. Because if we want to put off anger, we need to look to how God does it. It says in Jeremiah 3, 12, it says, go proclaim these words toward the north, and say, return thou back my Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. See, here's the thing is that sometimes I think we, we look at it and be like, they deserve it, they need to get the punishment, right? You're like, that's justice, okay? But you know what? God, if God can turn away His anger, and be merciful, that's obviously just. God's always just, and always right. So if that's just for God to be merciful and gracious, even though they deserve it, right? Even though they deserve it, even though He could pour it out upon them, then you know what? We can be merciful as well. Now here's the thing, I'll say this, if my kids are doing something wrong, and they need a spanking, and they're just being stout about it, and they're just like, what are you gonna do about it, you know, kind of attitude, they're getting spanking, okay? But if my kids are just like, I'm sorry daddy, you know, like, you know, I, I didn't mean to, or you know, this or that, and they're very like, like, repentant, if you will, and they're just like, I don't, you know, I don't, I'm not gonna do it again, you know, all this, and they're sincere, and that's where usually the mercy is gonna come in, we're gonna be like, all right, you're not gonna get it this time, right? But you know that look that you get, like, what are you gonna do about it, you know? That's where, like, you're getting a spanking, and you better watch yourself, because you might be getting many more after that, because there's a difference in the way you deal with that, and when it comes to Israel in a lot of cases, it's because they were asking for forgiveness, they were wanting God's mercy, and asking for his mercy, and God gives it to them, okay? Same thing with Nineveh, right? Nineveh repented and sat cloth and ashes, and that's why God was merciful to them. Joel, go to Joel chapter 2, Joel chapter 2, Joel 2 and verse 12, Joel 2 and verse 12, Joel 2 and verse 12, it says, therefore also now said the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented him of the evil. So just like I was saying, why do we see God's mercy being dealt out when he's angry, and you know, when his anger is being kindled against, you know, Israel in these cases, right, this nation, is because they're turning to him, they're, you know, draw an eye to God, and he'll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. The idea there is that when your child's coming to you, seeking mercy and grace, that's where in a lot of cases we need to give it to them, right? We need to be like God to say, you know what, and that'll kind of teach them like, hey, you know what, there is a reward for basically being in this state that God is telling us to do. Because, for example, if every time they came to you, you'd be like, please don't, you know, like, I'm sorry, and all this stuff, you're like, getting it anyway, you know, you know what that's gonna kind of teach them? Be like, I guess that doesn't help at all to be mournful about what I'm doing, to be, you know, to be sorry for what I'm doing. I think it will kind of breed that attitude of like, well, I guess it just doesn't matter, you know, I'm gonna get spanked anyway. I'm gonna, you know, be punished anyway. But if they understand, hey, no, there can be, there's an option of mercy that's there, then I think that's gonna teach them. And plus, you don't want them to be bitter or angry or, you know, resentful towards you. If your kids, listen, the way that, the way that discipline should be working is that you spank them, and then you're immediately playing with them again, right? It's like, all right, that's done, let's move on, right? It shouldn't be this penalty of like, you know, don't speak to me the rest of the day, you know what I mean? Like, it should just be like, all right, you got your punishment, let's move on, let's forget about it, right? Don't do it again, you know, or you're gonna get another spanking, but at the same time, like, let's forget about it, let's move on, let's have a good day, right? That's the way that it should be dealt with, okay? Doesn't mean it's always the way it works because kids don't let it go either, you know? And then they're like, crying and just weeping over it, and they're just upset about it, you know, for a long time. But if they're over it, don't hold a grudge against them, they'll be like, I remember what you did, you know? And you're just like, holding it over them, like, you spanked them, you know? I mean, that's, it's over, you know, let's move on, and let's have a good time, right? Go to Micah chapter 7, Micah chapter 7, Micah chapter 7, and obviously there's many verses on this, but these are just some of the ones I picked out as far as dealing with God's graciousness and mercifulness, and this, but this also kind of deals with the idea of kind of forgetting about it, right? We shouldn't just be holding stuff over our children's head when it comes to things that they do. You know, they do something wrong, we forget about it, we move on, right? We don't want to just be like, listen, I remember what you did last year, and that's why this isn't happening, you know? It's like, you can think about that, and I'm not saying that you can't remember things that your kids do or whatever, but don't, try not to hold grudges over your kids, and hold things over their head, and Micah chapter 7, verse 18, it says, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. Do you see a theme here? How do you get rid of, how do you put off anger? Mercy. You have mercy. And in all these cases, the anger is justified, okay? But what, how much more when anger is not justified, right? That you need to be putting that off. But even in the cases where the anger is justified, mercy needs to be, you need to try to apply mercy as much as possible, right? He will not, he will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, that, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea, thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. So, when it comes to this, I believe God is the best person to go to, obviously, you know, God is righteous, and just, and, you know, everything that he does is right. So, when it comes to putting off anger, how does God put it off, right? And I'm talking about good anger, right? That's anger that God's obviously not sinning, but in a lot of cases, he'll cease from his anger and have mercy and grace. And he's also not just blowing off the top, right? Even when it's rightfully to be angry, he's slow to it. He's slow to it, and he's giving them an opportunity to get right, okay? Instead of just like, you're like waiting for them to mess up, right? You're like, I'm just, I'm watching them, like, alright, spanking, let's go, you know? And you're just like waiting for punishment, okay? It should be more so the idea of, you know, you want to have mercy as much as possible. And there's going to be cases where it's just not possible. You're like, nope, that attitude is going to be changed. You know, you need to, you need to get this straightened out. But, you know, I think about this, you know, with anger, but you know what, this isn't just for children, you know, like dealing with your children. This could be in the workplace, you know, not being angry, you know, with people that treat you bad or talk to you, cross, right? Remember this, a soft answer turneth away wrath. And as much as you want to hit them fire with fire, sometimes you need to just be soft, be merciful, be gracious, even though they don't deserve it, okay? And, you know, just the type of wisdom that God has when it comes to dealing with anger, we need to try to implement. But how much more with our children? I'll say this, I've had anger issues in my life and I've had, you know, temper problems, okay? And I believe that obviously I've restrained that good enough to meet the qualifications of the pastor, okay? But wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall? You know, I don't want to think like, well, I'll never go back to being that angry or having that type of temper. No, I need to always be keeping it in check. And how much more when you have children that are emulating the way that you are, and they're looking to you to be the type of person that you are, just remember, they're always watching you, okay? You guys may not always be watching me because, you know, I go home, you don't see me, right? Unless it's like Big Brother and you got a camera in my house that I don't know about. But my kids always see me, you know, they see what I do. They see whether I'm reading the Bible or whether I'm doing, you know, whatever, that's not worth anything, right? But they also see the way I act in certain situations. And so we need to put off anger. But that means we need to apply mercy, temperance, graciousness, you know, long suffering, patience, we need to put those on and that'll help that situation. So let's end with a prayer to only follow we think today, thank you for your word, and just pray that you'd help us one to be angry and said not but also just to put off anger altogether. And to have mercy and grace like you do in many places in the Bible, help us to be like you Lord, help us to be long suffering, help us to be patient, help us to be slow to anger, help us to bring up our children in inertia and admonition, the Lord, help us to not discourage them. And to be provoking them to anger or wrath. Lord, just pray that you'd help us men, especially as fathers to, to be a good example, and to rein in that anger that we may have in some cases in our lives. And Lord, we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. So Brother Dave will come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right, take your song books and turn to song number 15. Song number 15 in your song books will sing lead me to Calvary. And if you would stand, we'll sing song number 15. Gethsemane, lest I forget thine agony, lest I forget thy love for me, lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where thou hast laid, tenderly worn and wept.