A Christian Approach to Anger and Offense

"A Christian Approach to Anger and Offense"  04/27/2025  Sunday Sermon  Pastor David L Goldsberry

Ephesians 4:26-27

James 1:19; Mark 3:5; Matthew 21:12; Ephesians 4:31; Romans 12:17-21; Proverbs 14:17, 22:24, 29:22

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

not just as a church. We're blessed in this community, in our nation. We have so much to be grateful for. And recently, Pastor Pat and I have talked about this for several weeks, and recently I have felt like God was dealing with me over something that that we see a lot of in our society. And sadly, it's something that has crept into the church. And God has dealt with me over this for several weeks now. And this morning, I want to spend a few minutes just talking about this because this is something I believe that we as believers, we as folks who say we're followers of Christ, we really need to grasp hold of some things. We can't be like the world and expect them to think we're different because we call ourselves a Christian. We can't act like them and be a light, think that we're being a light in the darkness. We're just being a bigger part of the darkness a lot of times. And so there's a couple things, and I'm talking to myself today too, so don't think I'm picking on anybody. If it's not for anybody here today, then it's for me, and I needed to hear it myself. We all have choices in how we deal with both positive and negative life situations. Even as followers of Christ, this is important, even as followers of Christ, people with the Holy Spirit living in us, despite our efforts to remain positive, because we're human, we all are, we still have to deal with negative emotions that arise during challenging times. And in those challenging times, when bad things happen, when we feel hopeless about things that we see that need to be changed, when we are hurt physically or mentally or emotionally, when these and so many other things happen, in our life, there are intense emotions that flood into our hearts. We're emotional people. God created us this way so that we weren't just robotic. But sin has damaged our emotions. And because of that, the way we deal with and express our emotions is not always godly. And today I want to look at two specific emotions that as Christians, even as Christians, we will probably deal with at some point in our life. And they are anger and the closely related emotion of offense. Anger and offense. And while we as born-again Christians do so many things well, we do them the way the Bible says, there are things in life that can become a struggle for us. And even as born-again believers, since we are human, again, I'm going to say that a lot probably, since we are human, there can be times when an attempt to protect our minds, our immense, intense emotions are often deflected, redirected, and expressed as anger or offense. And please understand, again, this is not a reprimand for anyone. Instead, it is a biblical look at the reality of the growing sense of anger and offense in today's society to an extent, as I said earlier, that it has crept into the church. So if none of the things that we're looking at today apply to you personally, then I would ask this of you. For the next few minutes, would you pray for the rest of us? Here's what I mean when I say we're all susceptible to anger. Maybe our anger is aimed at an inanimate object. We hit our finger with a hammer and we throw the hammer. The hammer didn't do it. We're playing golf and we make a bad shot and you throw the golf club. So we get angry at an inanimate object that didn't do anything. Other times our anger may be directed at complete strangers. Someone cuts us off in traffic. And since we're already mad at our boss or our spouse or our kids, we overreact to their reaction when in reality we were angry at someone else. We just took it out on the person that cut us off in traffic. Our anger can be because of things we read on social media, things that offend us, hurts our feelings. And because we can't physically be mad at social media, it's often our friends and family, or even a complete stranger, who suffers the consequences of our anger. Then there are situations when somebody actually offends us in person with their words or actions. And instead of dealing with it in the proper spiritual manner, we direct our anger at them. There's even times when bad things happen in our lives. We have the death of a loved one, a natural disaster like a hurricane. And in those times, we might even direct our anger at God for not keeping whatever happened from happening. How could you? Anger and offense can be a result of a lot of things. And sadly, far too many people, even Christians, get stuck in that anger. And today I want to look closely at what the Bible says about anger and offense, and I've titled this sermon, A Christian Approach to Anger and Offense. I want to start with reading Ephesians chapter 4, verses 26 and 27. This is Paul writing. He said, Don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. What's important, let's look at a background here. The book of Ephesians was a letter that the And since it was written almost 2,000 or over 2,000 years ago, obviously the problem with anger is not anything new, even to Christians. He wrote it to church folks. So today let's look together at the emotions of anger and offense and see what the Bible teaches us about getting over the anger we have or can have at our circumstances, our enemies, and sometimes even at our God. First thing I want to recognize is Paul did not start this passage out by just writing, don't be angry. That would have been the end of it right there. Because he could have said, okay, everybody, listen up. Don't be angry. Okay, have a great day. That's the end of it. Just don't be angry. And truthfully, for many of us, it might seem a bit strange that he didn't go in that direction because a lot of us were taught as we were growing up that you're just not supposed to get angry. But here it seems that Paul is going with the assumption that at some point the emotion of anger is going to take place in our lives. The question is how are we going to handle it? How are we going to deal with it when it happens? The writer of the book of James said this in James 1.19. He said that we are to be slow to get angry. Since like Paul, he didn't just say, don't get angry and leave it at that. It seems that both writers recognize the fact that at some point, even as followers of Christ, we might have to deal with some anger. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands this morning. Thankfully, Wiley's not here. I wish he was here. If he was here, he would answer out loud. But I won't ask for a show of hands or speak out loud of who has ever gotten angry. So we're going to go with the belief or the assumption that most everyone that is hearing this sermon has at one point in your life experienced the emotion of anger. The word anger can be defined as a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Offense can be defined as annoyance or resentment brought on by a perceived insult. First of all, let's talk about anger for a little bit. While anger can be nothing more than just a feeling of annoyance, left unchecked, it can turn into clenched-fisted, red-faced rage. And while the rage version of anger is wrong, not all anger is wrong. In fact, Jesus expressed anger on several occasions. He was angry at the Pharisees who resented his healing of a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day. He looked at them angrily. This is Jesus. He looked at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, hold out your hand. So the man held his hand and was restored. He was angry at the Pharisees.

UNKNOWN: 10:10

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 10:11

He was angry at those who had turned the house of God into a place of merchandise, Matthew 21, 12. Jesus entered the temple, began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of money changers and chairs of those selling doves. That's anger. We sometimes have a hard time perceiving and reconciling those acts with the preconceived idea or the picture in our mind of this meek and mild Jesus. But truthfully, Jesus was angered by anything that misrepresented or slandered his heavenly father. Jesus was angered by those who use religion as a self-righteous baseball bat with which to brutally oppress people. He was angered by hypocrisy and false religion. So let's be clear that even as Christians, there are some situations in life that should anger us. We should be angry at the murder of innocent children through the horror of abortion. We should be angry when we see the family unit being undermined and destroyed in our society. We should be angry when we see the weak, the poor, the elderly, the less fortunate being mistreated. We should be angered by injustice anywhere we meet and or see it. We should be angered by the assaults on God's word and the doctrines of our faith. Let me just say something so somebody didn't think I've gone off the rails into some kind of misplaced, self-serving social justice. That's not what I mean. Anyone who cannot be angry at the seduction and trafficking of children, anyone who cannot be angry over some great display of depravity, some terrible injustice toward a helpless person, is either a coward or a person who possesses no moral convictions.

UNKNOWN: 12:05

Alright.

SPEAKER_00: 12:07

Dr. David Seaman said the following about anger, and I'll quote him. Anger is a divinely implanted emotion closely aligned to our instinct for right. It is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it is very questionable whether you really love righteousness. The right kind of anger is wholesome, healthy, good, and it's godly. The key word there is the right kind of anger. But if we allow it to, even godly anger can turn into sinful anger. Because even godly anger, when expressed in the wrong way, becomes sin. You don't get to just be angry at a cause and do whatever you want. For example, being angry about abortion is one thing. But when an abortion protester murders the abortion doctor, the line between good and evil has now been crossed, and it's sin. We can and should be angry at injustices to anyone at the hands of another person. But when your anger drives you to kill someone... destroy other people's property, and steal things that don't belong to you, then once again, you have crossed the line between good and evil. And at that point, your righteous indignation has become nothing more than sin. There might be some folks feeling uncomfortable right about now. There might be someone that's a little angry at what I'm saying. But listen to me today, please. Because there are biblical answers to how we should handle anger and or offense. We need to understand that we cannot be angry as Christians. We can be angry as Christians, but we cannot allow our anger to lead us into sin. You can be angry, but you can't let that anger cause you to sin in deeds or words or whatever it might be. Here's what I mean by that. We're going to kind of get down on some things today that are real life, so just hang in there. You can be angry over your insurance company denying a claim. I have. I've been there. I needed a procedure done. You don't need that. But there is never a time when you're justified in killing the CEO of the company because they denied your insurance claim. And yet that just happened. We saw it happen just a few months ago. And you go, well, that's outrageous. How could somebody think that's okay? Here's something that might be more troubling. I'm going to quote this. In a survey, recent poll, quote, 48% said they view the killing as totally or somewhat justified. Those findings chime in with an Emerson College poll which found that 41% of voters under 30 found the killing acceptable far more than any other age group. How can between 41 and 48% of people polled feel that personal anger at an institution gives them the right to kill the CEO of that institution? That's misplaced anger if I ever saw it. You can call it, wow, I'm rising up against an evil corporation. No, you killed somebody. You killed somebody. That's sin. I don't care what the reason for you doing it, it's sin. We'll just keep going along those same lines. You can be mad or angry over a political figure. But that anger never justifies going and burning down a car dealership or vandalizing some stranger's car somewhere on the side of the road just because the political figure you're angry at owns 13% of that corporation. Well, I hate that guy, so I'm going to tear up your car. That is misplaced anger. You're stealing stuff. You're destroying stuff that doesn't belong to you. And if you call yourself a Christian and you're doing those kind of things, you need to come to the altar. We can't do that, folks. It is never okay to let our anger lead us to sin or to hurt someone. So we briefly looked at anger. I'm I want to add in that other emotion that goes hand in hand with anger and that's the emotion of offense. I say they go hand in hand because most of the time, offense that isn't dealt with at some point leads to anger. You get offended and then you just stay offended and you kind of seep like a tea bag in hot water in that offense and the next thing you know, you're just plain old angry. It seems that people being offended and displaying that offense What could be called actually a spirit of offense has reached a whole new level in our society. And as I said earlier, sadly, that spirit of offense seems to have invaded a lot of churches. And that means whether it's at church or whether it's at Walmart, if you want to be offended, if you look hard enough, you can and probably will find something to offend you or someone to offend you. I've known people like that. They walked around just waiting for somebody to offend them. We used to call it with a chip on their shoulder. I can't speak so much for being offended at Walmart, but I can for church. I've seen folks get angry because they didn't like the songs the worship team sang. Or they got offended when the worship team didn't sing their favorite song again. Let me be clear. That is not something to be angry over or offended by. If the worship team gets up here and leads us into a place of reverent worship and glorifies God, then they have fulfilled their calling. And our worship team does a really good job of that. I will assure you that no one chooses a song for any given service with the intent of offending or angering someone. Let's sing this song because I know so-and-so doesn't like it. And yet there's people that almost act like that's the case. Stop it. We are here to worship. So let's worship regardless of the song that's being sung. I had a conversation with somebody last week and I said, you know what, if we got up here every week and the only song we ever sang week after week with Jesus loves me, this I know, before the Bible tells me so, you know what, I could worship to that every week. You know why? Because I know Jesus loves me and because the Bible tells me so. And church offense doesn't stop at the worship team. People sometimes get angry or offended because they didn't like the content, the style, or the presentation of a sermon. And although that it is not my intention to anger or offend anyone today, this might be one of those days for some folks. But here's the thing. If the sermon is solidly grounded or the Bible study is solidly grounded in the word of God, and if it doesn't take the scripture and twist it to fit into a personal conviction or view, then why not let the word speak to your heart as opposed to be offended by the content or the style or the presentation of the sermon? Amen. Here's an example. I'll use myself for an example. I tell stories when I preach. I love telling stories. I tend to preach on subjects that are more relevant to everyday life. And while I don't do it to offend anyone, I know there are people who really don't like that style of preaching or teaching. Instead, they would like for me to read a scripture talk about it, talk about the Hebrew, the Greek, or whatever it might be, read the next scripture and do the same thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I feel like stories, whether they're personal or otherwise, can often make the content of the sermon more understandable or relatable. You know why I feel that way? Because Jesus did that. He called them parables. I just threw that in there for free. There are a lot of other things church folks can be angered or offended by, but we're going to stop there. The truth is, we live in a culture where many people stay in a spirit of offense, even at church. And with so many churches around... For many folks, it's easy to be angered and offended and leave the church than it is to pray about it and find a way to work and make the church better. So I would offer this. If you see something that you think could be better here at High Point Church, rather than leave the church because of something you were offended or angry over, pray and ask God how you might be able to make it better. There was a man who had... been shipwrecked by himself on an island. He was there for years all by himself. Finally, he saw a ship in the distance and he waved and they saw him and they came to the beach to rescue him. And they said, how long you been here? He said, I've been here for years. I don't even know how long. He goes, what is that building? That's a house. That's where I live. Wow. He said, well, what's that little building? They said, what's that little? He goes, well, that's my church. Okay. Well, what's that other building? That's where I used to go to church. Silly little church folks. The calling on every saved person's life is to be a disciple and then go into the world and make disciples. We've talked about that all year. Am I right? Bible study teachers, Pastor Pat that preaches on Sunday, we have talked about that all so far this year. That is our calling. And it's going to be difficult to do that if we are in a continual spirit of offense and anger over everything that happens in our church. Why would somebody want to go to your church when all you do is complain about it? Folks, we need to do better. Parents, grandparents. If your kids and grandkids see these kind of behaviors in you, it's very likely that they will never be stable in church. In fact, I've been around this for a while. At some point when they are able, don't be surprised when they walk away from church and never come back. Offense and anger go hand in hand, and both can lead to sinful actions and attitudes. I have a friend, Pastor Alan Carr, he said this, when we are angry, we are rarely angry at the right people about the right things at the right moment in the right ways for the right reasons for the right amount of time. We saw earlier in the scripture text in Ephesians, it seems to assume or conclude that even church folks would probably find themselves being angry at some point in life. And once again, we didn't see Paul make a blanket statement of just don't get angry. Instead, his statement was one of don't sin by letting that anger control you. So the assumption that there might be a time when we might get angry is tempered with the idea of not letting the anger control us. You can get angry, but you can't let that anger control you and make you do things that are sinful. You can't do things that are revengeful. With that in mind, we need to understand that the assumption that we will find ourself angry at some point in our life is not a license to be controlled by that anger or spirit of offense and act out in some kind of unrestrained anger or rage because that action not only affects us, but it affects everyone around us. And left unchecked, it will ruin our witness as a child of God. Anger and offense are... typically selfish in nature. Here's what I mean. We're often angry or offended because we're hurt. We're often angry or offended because we didn't get our way. We are often angry because we were offended. We are often angry or offended because we feel slighted. We're often angry when we feel helpless. So in most cases, our actions Sin around us and on how we feel with very little consideration for anyone around us. Sinful anger, sinful offense, they're almost always about what is done to me. It's an attitude of, you hurt me, you offended me, so I'm angry. And now I'm going to strike out at you. I'm going to say things, I'm going to plot my revenge, and then I'm going to follow through with it in an attempt to make me feel better. This kind of anger leads to a hateful spirit, a spirit of offense. and ultimately to the judgment of God because it's sin. The difference between good anger and sinful anger is the focus of the anger. Here's what we need to ask ourselves. Am I angry because this is happening to me, or does my anger exist because a terrible wrong is being done to God or to someone else? Followed by, will my reaction to this anger Be one that will not result in sin. If your reaction is going to result in sin, don't do it. It's like any other sin. Sin is sin. There's no big sins. Well, it's just a little sin of anger. Sin is sin. Consider this quote by Frederick Buechner. Not quote. Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. to lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontation still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel of both the pain you were given and the pain you are giving back. In many ways, it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. We might think it's fun to be angry. We might even enjoy it. But if it leads to sin, you need to repent of it. The question might be at this point, if we can be angry without sinning, when does anger and offense, when do they become sin? Anger and offense become sin when they're centered in self. and when they are allowed to grow into resentment, revenge, and angry outbursts, Ephesians 4.31. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. We don't like to think of anger with all types of evil behavior. Anger is evil behavior. Sinful anger is evil behavior. And Paul said, get rid of it. Who was he writing to? A bunch of heathens? No, he was writing to the church at Ephesus. He was writing to be like, if I was out of town for a while and I sent a letter back and had somebody get up in the church and read it, this was a letter to the church. And he said, hey, church, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Anger and offense become sin when they plot the downfall of another person. More specifically, I'm referring to gossip and slander, plotting to harm someone with our words or our actions. Anger and offense become sin when they grow vengeful, vindictive, mean, when they cause harm to others. Romans 12, 19. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. Righteous anger. Righteous anger. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the scripture says, I will take revenge. I will pay them back, says the Lord. Anger and offense become sin when they consume our lives. And all we can think about is the person who we think wronged or offended us. Anger and offense become sin when they stifle our worship, when they hinder our faithfulness to God. when they fill us with bitterness toward God and others, and when they undermine our joy. Because if there's anything in the world that can take away your joy, it's anger and a spirit of offense. Simply put, anger and offense become sin when they cause us to act in a way that is contrary to the example that Jesus showed when he was mistreated by people. And keep in mind, he died a horrible death on a cross for those very people who mistreated him. So when we get angry and offended over something petty, over something that hurt our feelings, where does that place us in our self-proclaimed journey to be like Jesus? Most of the time when we're angry, we can't really do much about it. When Jesus was hung on the cross, he could have said, I ain't doing this. I'm going to call down thousands of angels. I'm going to wipe all y'all out. The Bible says he could have done it. That would have been offense. That would have been sinful anger. Jesus never sinned. even to the point of being hung on a cross. And we say we want to be like Jesus. Many years ago, there was a Knicks and Bullets playoff game, and one of the Bullets came up behind the great Walt Frazier, this was a few years ago, and punched him in the face. And the referee called a foul on Frazier. Frazier didn't complain. His expression never changed. This is a true story. He simply called for the ball and went and put in seven straight shots to win the game. An amazing display of productive anger. That is an example of anger that did not sin. If you want to react to your anger, let it cause you to be productive. And not vengeful. Here's another example. Told you I like to tell stories. Bruce Goodwitch was being initiated in the cadet corps at Texas A&M University. One night, he was forced to run until he dropped. Literally. He never got up. He died before he ever entered into college. A short time after the tragedy happened, Bruce's father wrote this letter to the administration, to the faculty, the student body, and the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M. Here's what he wrote. I would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation of my family for the great outpouring of concern and sympathy from Texas A&M University and the college community over the loss of our son, Bruce. We were deeply touched by the tribute paid to him and the battalion. We were particularly pleased to note that his Christian witness did not go unnoticed during his brief time on campus. Mr. Goodrich went on, I hope it will be some comfort to know that we harbor no ill will in the matter. We know our God makes no mistakes. Bruce had an appointment with his Lord and is now secure in his celestial home. When the question is asked, why did this happen? Perhaps one answer will be, so that many will consider where they will spend eternity. That is one of probably a thousand different ways to react to the death of its son. And sometimes we get angry and get offended because somebody basically looked at us cross-eyed. We talk a lot about sharing the gospel, being a light in a dark world. If we blast everybody with anger just because we can, every time we're offended or angry, we will never win anyone to the Lord. Because people will say, why do I want what you say you have? You're no different than I am. The last phrase in verse 26 is, don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. The command here is clear. Get your anger in check as quickly as possible. And if you're struggling with your anger, get yourself before the Lord and get it settled. Don't carry it into tomorrow. If you're angry today and you hold it all night and you wake up the next morning angry, Something else is going to come along and make you angry. And then it's just going to be on top of the anger you had. Paul was a pretty smart guy. He said, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Anger and offense that is allowed to simmer will turn into resentment. Resentment will soon turn into bitterness. And bitterness will soon turn into a root of self-righteousness, which will choke the life, the peace, and the joy out of not only you, but everyone around you. Let me throw this in here. Anger, offense, resentment, and bitterness are contagious. Angry people and people who are easily offended attack other lives, and they drag their victims into their snare of death and defeat. It seems that far too often, people aren't content with being offended and angry by themselves. Instead, they feel the need to recruit others into their anger and offense. Parents, grandparents, if our kids and grandkids see this in us, and they see this type of anger and offense in our lives, don't be surprised when you eventually see it in theirs. Verse 27 says, that anger gives a foothold to the devil. And it follows right after, don't let the sun go down on your anger. That's not an accident. When we take our anger to bed with us and allow it to grow and simmer in our hearts, we give the devil a foothold in our life. The word foothold refers to a grip or a position. Unreconciled anger in our hearts Give Satan the opening that he needs to attack us and then for us to attack others. When Satan is allowed a foothold, when he is allowed a place or a position in our lives because of anger or offense that we're holding on to, he will cause us to seek revenge, in violation, clear violation of the word of God. Romans 12, verses 17 through 21. Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see that you are honorable. Do all that you can do to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God for the scripture says, I will take revenge. I will pay them back, says the Lord. Instead, if you're any, this is the hard part. If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they're thirsty, we have a hard time just not being angry. And then you had to write this. If they're hungry, feed them. If they're thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don't let evil conquer you. Don't let evil conquer you. Conquer evil. By doing good. There was a man that told his, he was told by his physician. He said, I'm really sorry to tell you this, but you have rabies. As soon as the man heard that, he pulled out a piece of paper and started writing. And the doctor was thinking this man thought he was going to die and he's making out his will. And he said, this doesn't mean you're going to die. There's a cure for rabies. The man said, I know, I'm just making a list of people I want to bite. Listen to me. We laugh at that. But weaponizing rabies is no worse than weaponizing anger. And there's just some people that seem to enjoy their anger as much as this guy seemed to be enjoying his rabies. And there's just some people that seem to look forward to an opportunity to use their anger against someone. That's not a good witness. That's not a witness at all of Jesus. The truth is this. Any case of anger or offense, whether it's legitimate or not, if it is allowed to run and go unchecked, it will permit Satan to have an upper hand in our lives. And when we allow Satan to do that in our lives, he will feed our anger and our offense with self-pity, with pride, self-righteousness, vengeance, and every other sort of selfish sin and violation of God's word. When we allow anger and offense to control us, it can and most likely will distract us or completely lead us away from God's will for our lives. Because we just love being angry. And once again, if we don't find the right outlet for our anger, it will not only destroy us, it will cause us to hurt innocent people around us. There's a story told about Abraham Lincoln, when he was a president, his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, was angered by an army officer that had accused him of favoritism. And so Stanton went to Lincoln, and Lincoln suggested that Stanton write a harsh letter to this officer. Stanton did. He showed this strongly worded letter to the president, and Lincoln said, what are you going to do with it? He was surprised. He goes, well, I'm going to send it. Lincoln shook his head, and here's what he said. You don't want to send that letter. Put it in the stove. That's what I do when I've written a letter while I'm angry. It's a good letter, and you had a good time writing it, and you feel better. Now burn it and write another one. It is said that Abraham Lincoln, when he had to write a letter to someone he was irritated with, he would write two letters, and the first one was deliberately insulting. And then having gotten all those feelings out of his system, he would tear it up or burn it, and he would write a second letter that was far more tactful and far more kind. A lot of folks could take that advice from Abraham Lincoln and think twice before they press send on that angry social media post. And we'll move on. If we do not learn to handle our anger, it will break us and it will lead us into sin. Proverbs 14, 17 says that short-tempered people do foolish things. Proverbs 22, 24 says don't befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people. Proverbs 29, 22 says an angry person starts fights, a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin. That's only three passages of Scripture that address the problem. But be assured, the Bible has an awful lot to say about anger and the sin that is often brought about by it. I mentioned earlier that anger and offense are contagious. So I'll close with this. In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. True story. But what happened during the game was anything but routine. The player for the Orioles named John McGraw got into a fight with Boston's third baseman. And the benches were cleared and they all joined in the fight. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. And among the fans, a conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands. The entire ballpark burned down. And then the fire spread across to 107 other buildings in Boston before it was brought under control. Maybe we haven't seen our anger and offense spread quite that drastically. But be assured, there is rarely a time when it doesn't affect someone else. I'll go back to that quote from Dr. Alan Carr. When we are angry, we are rarely angry at the right people about the right things at the right moment in the right ways for the right reasons for the right amount of time. Benjamin Franklin said this about anger. Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. No one here today, no one watching the live stream is above getting angry. Sometimes our anger is justified. But at other times, our anger is just plain old sinful. Whether you are angry over some situation in your life you don't understand, angry at someone who has hurt you deeply, angry at God himself because he allowed some trial to come into your life, You must remember this. Please remember this. God is sovereign. He is in control. He is sovereign even over your anger. Trust him to bring good out of what makes you angry. And submit your anger to him. Ask him to help you let go of that anger. When you're faced with the choice of how will you display your anger, this is going to sound simplistic, but I'm going to say it. Stop and pray, even if it's a simple prayer of help me God, I'm angry. Help me God, I'm angry. Help me God, I'm angry. Sometimes we just need to be reminded as to who we are for our anger to calm down. And when we say, help me, God, I'm angry, we realize we're a child of God. Will that take all your anger away? I won't promise that, but it'll change the way you react to it. When you get God involved in it, it changes the way we do it. Don't allow anger to destroy your life. your family, your testimony, or your faith in God. Each of us, every one of us that's saved, has a calling on our life to go into the world and make disciples. And since we live in a world that is already inundated with hatred, anger, and offense, we cannot possibly fulfill that calling with a heart filled with hatred anger and offense. Would you stand this morning? It's amazing how a person can grow in their walk with Christ, and they can do a lot of good stuff, and they can witness, maybe win people to the Lord, maybe even be in ministry, and they can destroy it like that, over anger. As a church, I know what God has shown me for High Point Church. I know what he has shown me as we go forward as a church. But I believe before he is gonna do those things, we're gonna have to make sure we've got our hearts right. Why would he fill this place up with people looking for change? And when they get here, they find out that no different than them. I'm not saying anybody here is going to miss out on heaven. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not judging you. I am saying that there are opportunities to really mess up our lives and mess up our witness. Over things like anger and offense. Don't justify it. Don't make excuses for it. When there's anger and offense in your life, there's only one thing to do. The easy thing is to justify it and make excuses for it. Well, what really needs to happen is repentance. If it's sinful anger, it's just like any other sin. You repent. You ask God to forgive you. Lord, forgive me of that sin. I shouldn't have done that. And if it was bad enough and you need to go make restitution with somebody, go do that too. We can't move forward in our walks with God if we've got an anchor of anger and offense holding us back. So pastor, you're saying you never get angry? I didn't say that. I've dealt with anger for years. Even the wrong kind of anger. I knew it was wrong. And there was a time in my life I was really good at it. I enjoyed it. In fact, I will even go this far to tell you. I told my psychologist one time, I said, it's weird because sometimes when I get angry, it actually makes me feel good. It's that dopamine that gets all cranked up. Except that feel good lasts for about that long. And you realize you did something you shouldn't have done. And then it's like, why did I do that? We have to get it under control. Our anger and our offense, we have to get it under control. I will tell you that when I started giving it to God, when I started going with, Lord, help me, I'm angry. That's when things started to change. And I can tell you that, my wife can tell you, I'm not that person. So many times we think about sin of, I was a bank robber and I robbed 17 banks and God delivered me from robbing banks. Praise God. But the anger that hurts people, the anger that destroys lives, the anger that plots out revenge and how I can hurt this person and destroy their life or their family, that kind of anger is just as sinful as robbing a bank. But we don't think about repenting of that so many times. And so today I'm going to ask you to do this. Whether you come to this altar, That's a good place to do it. Whether you do it right where you are. I want us all to spend a little time in repentance. Lord, search my heart. If there's offense and anger in my heart, help me to stop making excuses for it. Help me to stop blaming somebody else. If I am angry, that's my choice. If I have hatred and anger and offense in my heart, it is my choice to hold on to it. Give it to God. Just like any other sin that you would commit, give it to God and leave it there. You've heard me say this before. So many times we come and we come to the altar and we say, here's my sin, here's my anger and offense. And I'm gonna give it all to you, Lord. I'm gonna walk away. And we make it about two steps. I really enjoy that. And we pick it up and take it right back with us. Folks, it's an angry and offended world out there. We're different. We're saved. We are forgiven. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. We can't act like that. We're going to sing a song here in a minute. And as they sing, I want us to sincerely seek God. And if there's something in my life that shouldn't be there. And if you say, I just don't know that I can get past this. You come up here and we'll pray with you. I believe that there is a spirit of offense that is in a lot of people's lives that they need to be delivered from. And I believe that God can deliver you. I don't know what people would think. I don't care what people think. You shouldn't either. Probably the only thing they're going to think is, I wish I would have gone. Let's sing.