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Well, my name's Nick, and I'm one of the pastors here. And if you're a guest, we want to say uh just welcome here this morning. We're glad that you're here, and uh we hope that you feel welcomed and encouraged. Uh, I want you also to know that um I'm very well aware that all of us come from different stages and places in life, and and even right now, circumstantially, some of you walked in, you're pretty amped today, pretty excited about life. Things are going really well. Uh you can see a little light in your eyes and pep in your step, and then there's others that are like kind of crawled in this morning because it's just been a brutal week. Uh, anybody been fighting the allergies? It's like the this nice uh yeah, Central Texas allergies. Um, and I've always had allergies, and then we decided to move to Austin. It was like, okay, this is great. Um thank you so much, Lord, for allergies, right? Uh so it's been a little bit rough on me this week, and I was thinking about that in light of our conversation today uh on anger because there are certain triggers, there are certain things that make me more prone to struggle with anger, and uh, and sometimes it's just how I feel physically, like it really can mess with me. Um But uh here's the deal. I want us to kind of set the table today. We are we're gonna be talking about this issue of anger, but we are in the middle of a series called A Way Out. Uh, because our focus as we talk about sin, as we deal with sin, is not to um is to is not to shame people for struggling with sin, and it's not to look to ourselves as the solution to sin. Okay? We don't want to do either one of those things. The reason we can talk about sin is because we know that there is a Savior who can rescue us from our sin, like we just sang about. And so we've been talking about these seven deadly sins, uh lust and pride and envy and greed and gluttony and laziness, and uh, it's just been really good for me personally. Uh maybe maybe you guys haven't benefited as much as I have, but just to look at these areas and say, God, you know, how can I grow? How can I become more like the person you designed and created me to be? And I know that it's caused me to trust in Jesus more deeply because I realize every time I'm way over my head in terms of trying to fix these problems. Uh like I am in a world of hurt, I'm in the hurt locker, as one of our elders would say, Um, the when it comes to these areas of sin, unless Jesus steps in. And thankfully again, he he has. But the the core verse, the key verse of this series is from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. It simply says this. Actually, I'd ask you guys to read this out with me. Can y'all read this with me? It says this No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it. Now that's good news, right? Is we're gonna be tempted, we're gonna struggle because we're human beings, we're fleshly, and there's a lot of things in this world that are gonna mess with us, they're gonna draw us in, and there are things that are gonna try to sell us a bill of goods that they can deliver us some sort of hope, some sort of pleasure, some sort of satisfaction. But at the end of the day, like those things are empty, but thankfully God gives us a way out. He provides a way of escape from those temptations, and it's really a door to life. When Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, uh, that that's true, that's true stuff right there. Okay, he is the way to life. But we have to choose that temptate that way out of that temptation. And so we've been talking about how do we do that? How do we actually walk in and experience the rescue from these temptations? So let me just start this morning by being really honest and vulnerable with you. Um, my wife and I, we got married when we were in college, and it was really um it was really one of those deals where uh we had been dating for three years, and I was like trying to take Paul, uh, you know, the Apostle Paul. He has uh this this scripture where it says it's better to marry than burn with passion. And so I'm like, look, we're getting married because this is not going to a good place, okay? Look, let's just get married, let's go ahead and do that. And and so we got our parents' blessing uh slowly, and we we went ahead and got married early, and uh, and that's been good. We were glad. Now my wife's like turning red, I don't know why. Um I'm just speaking truth, okay? Uh but here's the deal we got married early, but here's the thing. Even after knowing each other for three years, there's still things we didn't know about each other. You know what I'm talking about? So we'd we'd been friends and we'd had a lot of good conversations and we've been hanging out, but there's still that element in your relationship where you're performing for one another, you're still kind of doing that like you got the window dressing on, you want to make sure to put your best foot forward. And I remember when we got married, um, we hadn't been married very long, and we were living in a very small town outside of Abilene, and I was the student pastor at this little small church, and there was this moment, and I can't remember all the details that surround it, but I remember we were in the parking lot, and I think we had had an event for the student ministry, and my wife um was trying to give me some feedback and some instructive criticism. You know where this is going, and I was not in a place to receive that, okay? Uh and so as a result of that, um I got pretty amped, like I got pretty ticked off. Um I I was not happy in that moment. I thought the timing was terrible. I thought that uh what she was saying was was not good, and so you know, what I at the end saw as her offense to me, like became my sin, right? And so I throw our car into drive and I hit the gas pedal and I squeal the tires and like I'm just like we are going, you know, and I'm gonna take out my anger on this vehicle. And her eyes got the size of saucers, and she'd never seen this before from me, right? Because I had been, you know, the Nick that I'm dating that's so awesome who loves Jesus and everything. And so, and so here's the deal. So, like, here we are, and I'm like, and she looks at me and she says, I want out. And I'm like, No, you're not getting out of here. We're going, you know, you just ticked me off, and you're gonna have to ride along with me now, okay? Now, I wish I could say that was the last time that that happened. But it's sadly it wasn't. My anger got the best of me. I made a fool of myself, and sadly, there were multiple occasions after that where I lost control and I decided that the vehicle was one of the best ways to vent my anger. And I remember at one point Jada saying, like, you can't do this anymore. And I started to really evaluate and I was like, Where did this come from? You know? And then I realized, you know, there's been some generational patterns here, and I've kind of adopted those. I want to honor my parents, but there's some like things that, yeah, I just kind of said this is how you handle that, right? Now, thankfully, by God's grace, I haven't done that in a while. Um, I'm not gonna tell you how many days, but it's been, but I haven't, I haven't struggled with this as much, okay? I've learned how to find other ways to deal with anger. But here's the thing I know every single one of you sitting here today have dealt with anger this week. In some form, you've gotten angry about something. Something has ticked you off, something has frustrated you, something has made you mad, and you've been angry. So I think this has a real appropriate application for us today because it's where we live. It's got our address all written all over it, right? And so I want us to look at this text today from James chapter 1, and let's ask the question, God, how do you help us with this issue of anger, this temptation, this struggle, this thing that really is trying to take us out and can do incredible damage. So if you have your Bible, I'm gonna ask you to open it up to James chapter 1. And while you're turning to James chapter 1, we're gonna look at verse 19 through 21, just three verses. Those are gonna be our sort of uh springboard verses for today's message. We're gonna unpack those together. But um, James is Jesus' half-brother, and he is a pastor in the city of Jerusalem. Okay? So he is uh a key leader, key figure in the early church. And I love the book of James because James doesn't really hold anything back. He just gets to work, he just starts saying, here's what you need to do, and here's how you need to do it. When you read like the letters in the New Testament of the scripture from Paul, Paul writes in such a way that he spends a lot of time talking about our identity in Christ and how the gospel shapes our identity in Christ. But James is like, look, you know that stuff, let's just get to work, guys. It doesn't mean that it's not gospel centered, it doesn't mean that it doesn't talk about our identity, it's just that he is very practical and very tactical, if you will, at going after these sin issues. And so in the book of James, chapter one, he's already been writing about how we deal with hardship, trial, persecution, and struggle. And he said something pretty crazy in the front first part of this book. He says that we should consider it joy when we're going through pain and hardship, when we're going through trial. He said that. And if you're like me, it's like, what are you talking about, James? Like, what is wrong with you? You why why would I think it's joyful to like go through hardship? And he says, because it's in those moments that you grow up. You know, pressure and pain and suffering causes you either to grow up or get out, right? It's like it makes you move towards maturity, or you just reveal more immaturity and you realize where your trust lies in those moments. And so James says it's a really good thing to go through these painful struggles and trials, even though they're difficult. And we can consider it joy because we know God's using that to mature us, to develop us. So at this point, he's been riding through some of that, and he gets to a place where he's now given some practical instructions on how not to handle uh trials, how not to handle these struggles. And so I want us to read together from James chapter 1, verse 19. Here's what it says My dearly loved brothers, obviously indicating he's talking to believers, he's talking to Christians, right? They're in his church. My dearly loved brothers, understand this. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For man's anger does not accomplish God's righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive the implanted word which is able to save you. Okay, this is a great text. And I wish we had like a lot of hours to just sit here and unpack each of these pieces of this, but we're gonna do this really quick this morning. And I want you to go back this week. If you if you guys get a guide each week, you know that there's a reading plan there, and I encourage you to read those scriptures and reflect on them and ask God to say some things to you because there's some things that are there that I'm not gonna be able to touch on this morning. But notice what he starts out by saying again. He says it's this is believers. I'm talking to Christians here, I'm talking to people who already are in the kingdom. This isn't a salvation issue, in a sense, this is not you performing to get God to let you into heaven. Uh, you're already in, you are a child of God, you are my dearly loved brothers, okay? And he says you need to understand some things. And he gives a real practical instruction here that you should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. But I think verse 20 is something that I want us to start out with, and that is let's talk a little bit about the dangers of anger. Let's just make sure we're all on the same page here because there are some dangers of anger. Uh, anger is the dynamite of the soul, if you will. Anger decimates, it does some very uh detrimental things to our lives and to the lives of others around us. And so when you look at this, uh just go to Proverbs. It's chocked full of uh these sayings about anger. Let me just give you four this morning, because anger does not bring about the righteousness of God, it does not accomplish God's righteous purpose in our lives. In fact, it does the opposite. It actually does some really bad things when it's the wrong kind of anger. So, Proverbs 14, 30. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but jealousy is rottenness to the bones. Now, why did I say uh this scripture? Why is this scripture? Because actually the original language would use the word passion and instead of jealousy. So you could substitute the word jealousy for the word passion. In fact, uh uh Matt Albman's not in here, but if you're an NASB reader, uh you know it will say passion there because the more literal translation is that it's the emotions that are attached to jealousy, right? It's the emotions coming, which typically anger is one of those. And it's saying what? That that anger, that emotion is rottenness to the bones. That means anger will destroy your health. Okay? Anger does not go well with your physical body, it will mess you up. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, it doesn't take a physician to figure out that anger does some bad things to you. It creates anxiety, it creates depression, uh, but it also creates uh high blood pressure, heart attack, uh, you've got skin disorders. I mean, they've linked all kinds of things to anger. Uh the best way to say it is this if you want your life to be short, be an angry person. All right? If you want to have a short life and you want to see Jesus soon, just be angry and walk in anger. You will you will you will end your life faster than it's supposed to end because anger has a way of stripping us of physical health. Are you with me? Your face gets all red and flush, you are intense, you are in you are invested in that thing, you are passionate about that thing, and that will lead you to poor health. So that's one of the consequences of anger. Another consequence of anger is that anger blows up relationships, it just destroys relationships with other people. My guess um would be that every one of us in this room have been wounded deeply by someone who was angry. Somebody said something, somebody did something to us in their anger. And even if they regretted it and they came back and they said, I'm sorry, it made you a little bit gun shy, made you a little bit like, uh, like I'm not sure I want to be around you right now. I'm not kind of want to keep some space because anger creates barriers in relationships, right? It makes us concern and freak out a little bit when we see what the anger can do. Because it's a powerful emotion. It's in fact it's the most powerful emotion we have. And it does these things to our relationships. In fact, Proverbs 29, verse 22 says it this way An angry man stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered man increases rebellion. So anger causes us to stir up conflict. And so we know that if you let anger get the best of you, it's not gonna go well in your relationship with your spouse, in your relationship with your kids, in your relationship with your extended family, and in your relationship with your coworkers. You're gonna do some damage in those relationships, and sometimes that damage is irreparable. It's really, really hard to earn back the trust of those people. That's what happens when you let anger run you over. In fact, Proverbs 15:1 reminds us that a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So when we are harsh, when we are angry, it actually produces anger in other people. So it just creates this cesspool of anger and divides us up, breaks down community. The third thing, though, is anger also makes you act like a fool. Now, I've already shared one of my foolish stories. I could share a lot more. But how many of you guys, when you got angry and you kind of finally came back to your senses, you're like, man, I feel really foolish right now. It's because you are. You are a fool. The scripture would say that in those moments you are producing foolishness. In fact, um, Proverbs 14, 29, a patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness. We are walking like idiots in those moments. We are not being wise. We are doing the things that are in opposition to God's ways of handling this emotion inside of us. And so we typically will do things. Uh, I remember when I was high school, I loved to play sports, and I was I had a coach who had a really, really bad temper. Maybe some of you guys know people like that. And I remember after a basketball game, we played a terrible game. And he goes back into the hallway between the hall between the gym and our locker room, and he decides to take his anger out on the wall, and he punches the wall. And probably some in here, you probably don't want to raise your hand right now. I'm not gonna make you raise your hand right now, but you've done something like that. This guy shattered his hand. He had to wear a cast for like the next six weeks because he got angry and let the anger get the best of him and he punched it. You feel like a fool because you do foolish things when you let this emotion of anger boil over, right? I think we understand this, we get this. So we can do some damage to ourselves and we act like fools. People kicking things, punching things. I mean, and by the way, a psychologist for a long time would say, Well, you know, the thing with anger is you really just need to get it out. Just go like kick something, go hurt something. And I read this story this week about this young man who, when he was younger, was told by these these counselors, hey, you just need to get your anger out. And so he was, they say, just go kick something. And his his wife writes in and says, basically, now he's kicking people, he's kicking dogs, he's kicking stuff. Like, that's not the resolution here. That's not the solution, is just to let your anger out like that. Okay? We've got to find a better way to handle this anger because it's gonna lead us down a path to foolishness. But the fourth thing is this, and maybe you have never thought about it this way anger is actually addictive. It's addictive. What do you mean by that? Well, it says this in Proverbs 19, 19. A person with great anger bears the penalty. If you rescue him, you'll have to do it again. That's pretty straightforward. What is he saying? Anger's a lot like lying. It's a lot like lying. There's a lot of parallels. What do I mean? Well, with anger, uh, when you when or with lying, when you lie, and then somebody confronts you and says you're lying, what do you do? You have to lie. And then they say, No, you're lying, and you have to lie again. And pretty soon you don't know what the truth is because you've lied so much to cover up the original lie. It might have been a small thing that you just were fibbing about, or you were tweaking, you were just kind of you know messing with it a little bit, and now it's become this huge issue, and you've had to cover it up. Well, anger's the same way. When you get angry and somebody says, Hey, you're an angry person, you're like, No, I'm not angry. You know, it's like my kids sometimes they like look at me and they go, Dad, why are you so angry? I'm not angry. You know, it's like that's not good because we use anger to try to cover up anger. Right? That's what it happens, and it's an addictive thing. Chemicals are released uh in our system when we get angry, and sometimes people really like that feeling. They like that feeling of I'm gonna just blow up, I'm gonna let my body release this stuff. And remember, again, this is not good for you. Okay? God knows this. This is not good. So these are just four things. But know this um anger is a very severe issue, and it's something that we cannot take lightly. In fact, um Frederick Bucher said this, I read this this week. It says, Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. That's an interesting way to put it. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, roll over your tongue, the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last two morsel, the pain you're given and the pain you're going you're gonna give back. In many ways, it's a feast fit for a king. But here's the chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. Are you tracking? You think that your anger, unleashing that anger, is gonna get you what you want. In actuality, it's hurting you. It's like drinking poison, hoping the other person will die. That's what anger does to our souls, that's what it does to our lives. So it's incredibly dangerous. So, what is anger anyway? What is it? He says we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. But what is anger? Do we have a good handle on that? Well, I'm gonna try to at least give us some handles this morning so that as we try to combat anger, as we try to find a way out of anger, we at least know what we're talking about. We're all on the same page here. Here's what I would say: anger is an emotional and sometimes physical response to offense. There's a lot of things written about this, but at a baseline, anger is an emotional and sometimes physical response to offense. So it starts with an emotion that sometimes then goes outward and becomes a physical response, it becomes a verbal response. But anger is something that's going on in here. And I just need to say this to you this morning because we're gonna come back in a second. And know this like anger is a natural emotion that is God given. Like you being created in the image of God, you have emotions, and anger is one of those natural emotions that's there. Okay, so just hang on to that because we're gonna come back to it. So notice I said it's a response. So anger is re uh it's it's expressed in multiple ways, but there's really two primary camps. And I'm guessing that if if we were to divide up this room, we could have like some of you go standing against this wall and some of you standing against this wall, to say, how many of you are powders? Okay, probably a bunch of you go, well, I'm a powder. You go over here. What I mean by powder is you try to like sub go subversive with your anger. So you stew over things, you're like always simmering. Instead of like just letting it out, you're like just hanging on to it. It grows bitterness in you. Those roots then become shoots, which become trees, and you've got all these issues that are going on. You know what I'm talking about? Some of you are the powders in the room. So you don't blow up on the scene, you just kind of go there, and but you can tell. I have a uh a grandfather who's no, actually, he he passed away a few years back. He was he was definitely a powder, and and one of the ways that he handled his anger is that he would give people the silent treatment. I see some elbows, I see some people like going, yeah, that's you. So here's the deal. Listen, I'm not trying to create marital anger conflict this morning, right? But here's what I will tell you. Um, I mean, there was one point where for three months he didn't say one word to my grandmother. Three months. Like I come from a great family of angry people, right? So this is naturally something that some of us can struggle with in the room. So we we know that that some of you are powders, some of you kind of go subversive with your anger. It's not that you're not angry, it's that you're just handling it different, and it's boiling under the surface. And eventually, by the way, even powders will blow up. But that's the other camp is that some of you guys are shouters. There's the powders and there's the shouters. You want to get it out, you want to get it out now, you want to let them have it, you want it to be unleashed. Release the hounds, okay? Like that's where you are in your anger. And I just want you to know, like, when you do that, man, you leave a wake of devastation. You you lead you leave a pathway. I mean, sometimes the good thing about the powder is that you don't just blow up on the scene and like cause this all this devastation. Now, I would just generally say to you that men in the room, um, we because we are physical in nature, because we know that that um our presence can sometimes bring change, i.e., our kids are not behaving, we show up on the scene, we blow up, and everybody gets quiet and runs away. Right? Listen, there is a way in us physic physically as masculine. Men who we can use that anger to intimidate people into doing what we want them to do. And that's part of this shouting component. Like we can use that. I know that it's not hard for me to intimidate a three-year-old. Right? I mean, I can go into an environment with my son who's three, and I can make him obey me. But is that healthy? No, it's not healthy, okay? I'm angry. So I want you to understand that it's a response, and these are two of the primary responses. There's stuffers, there's exploders, there's those who suppress and those who vent. But in our life, we've got to see our natural tendency and know that neither one of those are the right thing. Neither one of those are right, okay? But it's a response to offense. Some of us, we don't really see why we're angry, but I want to tell you why we're angry. We're angry because we're offended. We're angry because somebody has crossed a line, has done something to offend us. Maybe it's they ignored us, maybe it's that they attacked us, maybe they disrespected us, maybe they defamed us, maybe they embarrassed us. Um, I know as a parent, again, I'm using some of these illustrations because these are just true to life for me. I can be in a public space, and if my kids make me look bad by being fools, it makes me angry, right? I get embarrassed. I'm like, everybody's looking at me, and and they're really not. But they're looking at me saying, you know, why can't you control those kids? Why are those kids so bad? Why are they struggling with this? Because they're little sinners, right? That's just where they are, and so they struggle with sin. But I sometimes in my life can like get really angry about that. And maybe I'm not angry in public, but as soon as we get to the car, I'm like, I'm gonna, you know, I get to that like little talking, like I'm not, I don't even know what I'm saying. I'm just like frustrated and I'm angry, and I'm giving them what for in my little, you know, uh under under current current voice because I'm angry. And some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been there, but there's these emotions that come up in us when we are offended. I have to say this the world would tell you that if you could just eliminate the offense of everyone else, you wouldn't be an angry person. That's not true. Because the problem's not out there, the problem's in here. The problem's not everybody else offending me. It's the problem that I'm easily offended because I'm guarding and protecting something, which really leads me to the next point. You see, not all anger is actually bad. Not all anger is actually the wrong thing. You're like, wait, you just totally switched gears on this. I thought we were like making this case that anger was horrible, it was all bad, it was all evil. Actually, in its purest form, anger is actually love in motion. It's love in motion. Now, you're gonna have to hang with me for just a second so we can make this case. But biblically speaking, you've got to see that not all anger is bad. In fact, God is angry. God is angry. It says in Scripture that when Moses was talking to God, and Moses like, I want to see you, God, and God said, I am the God who is slow to anger. So he didn't say I'm not angry. He said, I'm slow to anger. What about Jesus? He shows up on the scene, he goes into the temple, he cleans house. I would have loved to have been there, man. That would have been awesome. To watch him like go in to this religious place, start throwing over the tables. He's got a whip he's created. He is like going to town. He is angry. He's ticked. He's just mad, right? Paul goes on to say in Ephesians chapter 4, he says, be angry, but do not sin. So, wait, is anger good or is it bad? Well, it depends. You see, here's the deal. Because anger really is about defending or protecting what we love. It is love in motion. In fact, we would even say that if I was not angry towards the issues of sin in my kids' lives, that I didn't really love them. Right, parents? I know our kids don't always believe that, they don't always buy that. But if I'm not angry about sin, like that's that's a problem. See, God's angry about sin, he's angry about the right thing. Psalm 145.8, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and great and faithful love. That's our God. He is angry, but he is angry about the right things. He is slow to anger. Um, I was at a pastor's prayer meeting one time, and I've told you guys before, prayer meetings are really awesome, but they're also weird. Okay, I'm just gonna say that. You get really weird things that happen in prayer meetings, especially with a bunch of pastors. And uh we were there, and this guy stands up and he says, Hey, I feel like God's telling me we need to do something. And I'm like, Oh, okay, here we're where are we going here? Uh I could see it in his eyes. He kind of looked like he kind of had that date. I don't know how to describe it. But he says, Listen, I really feel like we should forgive Satan. And I was like, wait, what did you just say? I was like, look, there is nothing in me that has any inkling of desire to forgive Satan. The Bible says he is a thief, that he steals, kills, and destroys. It says that he is roaring lions looking for someone to devour. It says that he is in total opposition to God, he is deceiving us, he is against us, he is against God. I hate him, and there is nothing that's going to change that, right? Point being this: listen, there are some things that we should be angry about. We should be angry about poverty in the world. We should be angry about abuse and neglect in the world. We should be angry about slavery in the world. We should be angry when we see kids growing up in homes where they are being mistreated, when they are being peddled, when we we should be angry about these things. We should be angry about sin and suffering. This is not the world we were designed to live in. This is not it. So that stuff should stir in us some emotion. Like, God, this is not right. Because that's how he feels about it. It's not right. It's not the world that he intended for us to live in. Guys, listen. Anger is love in motion. And if we love God, we're gonna be angry about the things that he's angry about. This stuff that's in the world that's broken should motivate us to do something. Not just talk about it, but to actually be stirred to action to do something. But here's what I think is really helpful. Tim Keller says it this way The goal of anger, according to Scripture, is not to avoid anger, that would be no anger. Maybe this will stick with you. It's not to unleash our anger or vent our anger, that would be blow anger. But the goal is what? Slow anger. That's the kind of anger that God has, and that's the kind of anger he wants us to have. You see, here's the problem. As I said, we get angry about the wrong things because it does reveal what we value most. Anger reveals what we value most. I can tell you what you really care about by what ticks you off when it's messed with. Okay? So that's that could be a good thing. You mess with my wife and kids, I'm gonna have a little anger issue. Okay, I'm gonna be struggling because I love them and I want to protect them. Okay, there's a natural tendency in me to do that. That's a good that can be a good thing. I could take that too far. I could move that into me becoming God and trying to judge people and trying to take care of them to the degree that I literally put it in my hands. But here's what I personally see in my own life. Most of what I'm defending and protecting is my reputation. Because I think my value, my worth, and my identity is tied to my performance and how people see me. Anybody been there? Maybe you don't see that, maybe you do, maybe it'll take a little time to sink in. But for me, what ticks me off, what makes me angry, is when people jack with my identity, with my hopeful, perceived image. That's why as a parent, I get frustrated when my kids embarrass me. Anger comes up in that moment. So the point being this anger reveals what we value most. When we are angry, remember what James said, be quick to listen, slow to speak. Let me tell you something that needs to happen in that moment. We need to ask ourselves the question what am I protecting or defending? Now, I don't know about you guys, especially for those of you that are shouters, you're quick to react. Like that's the hard, that's a hard question to ask when you're angry. But it's a mature question to ask. Because I think that's only in that you'll start to find freedom from your anger. What am I defending here? What am I protecting here? What am I actually so ticked off about? And my guess is that 99.9% of the time you're ticked off and you're angry about something that's impacting you because we ultimately, for the most part, we love ourselves more than anything else. Ouch. That's what we defend, that's what we try to protect. So, how do we actually disarm this anger? This is really important. We must have a plan for anger. If we wait till the moment, we're done. We've already gone down that trail, we've already blown up, we've already lost it. We have to have a plan in how to deal with anger. Notice in the verses that James again said we should be quick to listen, slow to speak. Why? Because we've got to help stop the train before it gets started. We gotta be ready and available and able to like say, wait, I'm not gonna go there. Yes, my husband just deeply offended me and said something that was very hurtful, or my wife just criticized me and that hurt deeply, and I just want to lash back out and let them have it. But here's the thing: we have to have a plan. Notice what he says at the end of this. With the Spirit's help, I believe this is the absolute truth. We have to have the power of God. Remember, he's talking to believers. We have to have the power of God to help us. When we are being quick to listen, when we are being slow to speak, it's because we need to hear some things. We need to remember some things in those moments. At the end of that section, he says in verse 21, Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil. Humbly receive the implanted word which is able to save you. Let me start with that first part. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil. Listen, sin is a part of your life. Even if you put your trust in Christ, it's still warring against you. Okay? You don't get a free pass to no longer have temptation. Even if you've known Jesus and you know where you're gonna spend eternity, you still struggle with sin. In fact, this week I read from John Owens, The Mortification of Sin. And here's what he says Sin does not only still abide in us, but it is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone. And it's by the way, never gonna let us alone. All right? It's gonna keep nipping at us. The enemy's gonna keep coming after us. He wants to keep us shut up and quiet. He does not want the gospel to go out. Do you mortify? Do you make it a daily work? Be always at it whilst you live. Cease not a day from this work. And I love this phrase: be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Here's the cool thing: God's grace makes us aggressive towards the sinful things in our lives. Sometimes we think, well, God's grace is a free pass to just let sin fly and just don't worry about it. Actually, God's grace is saying, I want to set you free. I want you to walk in truth. I want you to bring me the fullness of glory that I intended and created you to walk in and to reflect. And so it's in that we have to be aggressive. We cannot be indifferent towards ungodly anger. We can't just act like it's no big deal. We can't act like it's not a big thing. And this is for any sin, right? You just can't say sin's not a big deal. It is a big deal. It costs Jesus his life, for one, to make it right. But two, it's ripping us off. We're not experiencing the fullness of the life that God has. Did you guys know that the gospel's not just about getting a ticket to heaven, but actually living and walking in victory and peace and joy and glimmers of heaven here and now? Like we get to start seeing the kingdom of God here and now when we walk in obedience. So we have to rid ourselves. We have to be aggressive towards it. Um, remember what I said from Ephesians chapter four a while ago, be angry and do not sin. But he goes on to say, don't let the sun go down on your anger, and don't give the devil what? An opportunity or a foothold. We have to be aggressive towards this. The enemy wants to get in, he wants to divide our relationships, he wants to break down our health, he wants us to look like fools. Ultimately, he wants us to destroy ourselves. And we will without God's help. The second thing he says there is he says, Not only rid yourselves of all moral filth and evil, but humbly receive. If you were here the first week of this series, we said that the baseline, the undercurrent of all of our sin issues is what? You guys remember? Pride. Good, good. You guys were listening. That's awesome. Pride. Pride is there. And it's always saying to us, we got this figured out, we got we know how to fix this, we know how to do this, we don't need your help, God. We know what we're we how we should live. And I want us to understand, I want myself to continually understand that part of the life of a mature believer is to humbly receive. To humbly receive, to humbly continue to acknowledge and admit we need help. We have a problem. Um, I told you I'd be vulnerable. We try to always just make sure you guys know, like, there are no superhero Christians. No one gets a free pass to like, again, not struggle with sin, and pastors are no different. Jada periodically will say, Why are you so angry? And I'm like, I'm not, I'm just frustrated. I'm angry. Why are you so angry? I'm not, I'm just kind of struggling right now. We use these language, this these phrases to mask what's really going on, don't we? Like we come up with these different phrases to kind of soften the blow. You know what we need to say? You're right, I'm angry, I'm ticked off right now. And I need to give it to God. Like we need to admit it. We just need to acknowledge it. We need to humbly confess we are angry. That's a huge piece of us walking in the truth. Listen, the problem is that when we acknowledge that we're angry, we admit right, we're admitting weakness. And that is very, very hard for our pride to do. But no relationship, catch this, no relationship can ever be made right until we're willing to admit we're wrong. Until we're willing to admit we have need. Until we're willing to admit we need help. This is why men, listen, men, catch this. Most of the time the women in the room are the first ones to say, I'm sorry. We men, we were prideful creatures. Maybe it's flip-flopping your relationship. That's fine. I'm just telling you, most of what I hear is I hear men saying, Man, she's wrong. She's wrong me. You know? What did you do? You probably were offensive. You probably weren't exactly loving either. So what I'm saying to us this morning is we need to humbly acknowledge that we are sinful, that we struggle with anger, and we need God to heal us. But notice what he says: humbly receive what? The implanted word, which is able to save you. The idea here is that it's engrafted gospel truth. That literally the truth of God's word, which points us to the gospel, that fact that we were sinners and broken. God created a perfect world, but we rebelled, and that Christ came to redeem us of that. And without him, there was no hope of us ever fixing the chasm that was between us and him. But in Christ, we now have access back to the Father. We have a relationship that can be restored. And we need to know that truth. And we need to know that all of our worth and our identity and value is not tied to our performance. It's tied to Christ's. That changes the game right there, guys. Because that means I don't have to defend or protect the things that I think I'm I have to have in order to find value, worth, and identity. But I can cling to Christ, who is our hope, who is our righteousness, who is our purity, who is our truth, who is our life. And so we have to replace the lies that are there with the truth. The lies that say we must protect our worth. We are the only ones who really care about us. We're the only ones who really know how to fix this problem. All those are lies. Christ is the solution. He is the truth. He is the gospel embodied. In fact, ultimately, Jesus models how to deal with anger, and in doing so, he provides a way of escape. He models how to do it. He models and shows us exactly what it looks like. Aren't you glad that God is not indifferent to our sin? Because if he was indifferent to our sin, he would just say, listen, just go kill yourselves. And that sounds kind of, you know, just blatant, whatever, but that's that's what it's saying. Basically, like just go do whatever you want. Whatever happens, happens. That's not how God feels about our sin. He loves us, so he engages with us. In fact, it says he made the first move. He initiated a plan to redeem us from our sin. And he did that through the person of Jesus. God came near. 1 Peter 2. This is where we're going to land today. 1 Peter 2, verse 21. Peter writes to the believers there. He says, This, for you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example. Christ is our example for how to live, right? He's our example in everything. He says, leaving you an example so that you should follow in his steps. Well, what did he do? He did not commit sin, so he was perfect. I don't think anybody else in here is perfect. Christ was perfect. And no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was reviled, catch this, he did not what? He did not revile in return. When he was suffering, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. You have been healed by his wounds. Isn't that a great text? You know what he's saying? He's saying the problem, whether it's anger, whether it's envy, whether it's lust, whether it's jealousy, it's all fixed in the person and work of Jesus. It's all forgiven in the person of Jesus. He showed us how to live, he would give us the capacity to do that because we are now made righteous in him. It doesn't mean that it's not a fight. It doesn't mean that it's going to come without effort. We've got to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. But we do know that Christ has showed us it's possible in his power. Listen, if anyone had the right to be angry, it's Jesus. God makes man, and man basically says, forget you, God. We're going to do things our way. If anybody could be angry and offended, it would be God, it'd be Jesus. He didn't do anything wrong, and yet they're falsely accusing him. How many of you guys would pass that test? Like how many of you guys would be able to take somebody making a false accusation against you and just sit there and be silent? Scripture says he was like a sheep going before the shirts. Like just literally, he doesn't return the violent accusations against him. He doesn't return those with threats. He doesn't come after him. He absorbs the wrath. This is one of the coolest parts of this. You guys remember what happened when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane? He prays a prayer. It's right before he goes to the cross. Okay? This is one of the last moments of his life. He's right before the cross. And he says this. He says, Father, if there's any way that this cup could be passed from me, like would you make it happen? Meaning this, he knows he's about to suffer, and he's like, if there's any other way, then I pray that cup would go to someone else. But he also receives and accepts the responsibility for our sin. And he knows that the cup of God's anger, his wrath, is going to be poured out on him. Guys, I don't know about you, but that makes me want to worship Jesus. Like, thank you, Jesus, that instead of pouring the wrath that I deserved, instead of pouring it out on me, you took it on yourself. In fact, Scripture would say he's the propitiation, that he is the one who took God's anger upon himself in our place. He substituted. It's the great exchange. Our life for his life, our filthy rag righteousness for his eternal, glorious, incredible, perfect righteousness. I don't want to ever get over that. I don't want to ever make that just into a trite theological statement. That's truth. That's what sets us free. Christ absorbed God's wrath for us. God is quick to forgive. God destroys, catch this. God destroys sin without destroying the sinner. God destroys sin without destroying the sinner. That means, guys, that listen, as we receive God's forgiveness, we can offer forgiveness. As we receive God's grace, we can offer grace. And instead of just lashing out at people or stewing under the service, just waiting for the right moment to blow up on them because we feel offended, that because of God's grace, we can walk in forgiveness and love towards others because that's exactly how God's walked towards us. That's exactly what Christ has done for us. So when a parent, your kid, who you have raised from birth, looks at you in the eyes and says, You don't love me, I hate you. In that moment, your hope is not in how well you've performed as a parent. You have to give that to Jesus. You have to say, Jesus, you know their hearts, you know their sin, but you also know mine. And you know that I treated you the same way, and yet you loved me still. When your spouse looks at you in the eye and says, You are a lousy spouse, you never meet my needs, I hate you, in that moment, you have a choice to lash back out at them and to go to town and just make a complete idiot of yourself, or you can look at Jesus and say, Jesus, that's exactly what I did to you, and yet you still love me and you absorb the wrath that I deserved. Are you tracking? Like this is practical. This isn't just theoretical, this is practical in everyday life. When your boss looks at you and says, You are a lousy worker, you are not doing a good job because they're stressed, because they're not doing their job good, you look at them and you say, My worth and my identity is not tied to your opinion of me, but to Christ's opinion because he loves me, regardless of that. And yes, I'm not perfect, and yes, I don't do everything right, but thankfully, by God's grace, I'm loved, forgiven, and free. I have value. So I don't have to be angry. When they revile, I don't have to revile back. Don't have to give them back what they're giving to me. Let's pray.