One autumn afternoon in 2004, Amena Barami was leaving work in Tehran when she was confronted by a young man she had repeatedly refused to marry. The stubborn suitor, unable to cope with rejection, had pestered and threatened her many times before that day, but she had no clue what was about to happen. Her attacker had in his hands a red container filled with liquid. He looked at her, opened up the red container, and then threw the liquid at her face. It was acid. She was 26 years old when it happened. She lost one eye, and her face, even today, remains severely disfigured, and scarred. If you would, please open to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one. We're looking at verse seven. For an overseer, God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered. We examine verse 7. We are continuing to look at the qualifications for leadership. And not just leadership, but what God expects from everybody here. We see, at least in the beginning, a familiar qualification. And what is it? Above what? Reproach. That's right. We have looked at this and it means blameless. Doesn't necessarily mean that he is sinless because on this side of glory we cannot be sinless, but it is that there is no blight in his life. There is no habitual sin that people can point to in his life to disqualify him for the ministry. We also see two words that refer to the same person. It is presbyter or elder, which we see in verse 5, and then we have episkopos or bishop or overseer in verse 7. We've already looked at this. It is the same person but different function and roles. I want to give you three points, three marks of the faithful servant. Point number one, the faithful servant is God's manager and steward. Point number two, he must not be arrogant. Point number three, he must not be quick tempered. First point is God's manager or steward. Everybody in here wants to be faithful. Do you know what faithfulness in this life will yield? It will yield a greater return in eternity. God uses time here on earth to measure your faithfulness in eternity. If you can be faithful with the limited time that you have here on earth, and you give back to God a harvest, He will give you, in light of that faithfulness, more. Before we even get into the fourth and fifth qualifications, it's very important that we need to understand that all of us are stewards. Everything in your life belongs to God. And He has given it to you in credit. He has given it to you to improve upon it. Your life has been leased to you, and at the end of your tenure, whether it's the end of this year, or 10 years, or 40 years, or 50 years, your lease will be up. I want to have high mileage on mine, but there is no guarantee. When your lease is over, God will summon you to Himself. Your children will not be there with you. Your spouse will not be there with you. Your parents will not be there with you. Nobody in your life will be there other than you. You will be summoned to God alone, and you will have to give an account for your stewardship of everything that God has given you. In verse 7, the Spirit of our Lord zooms in, notice, for an overseer as whose steward? God's steward. Oikonomos. Oikos is house and nemo means manager. He is a house manager. The steward of the house is the one who assigned members duties and keeps the household stores under lock. He seals it and he gives out what is required. The servant or the house manager in biblical times would have received the signet ring from his master as acting overseer of the master's house. His master is away and his master expects him to watch over the affairs of his house. And I also must add that these stewards were oftentimes slaves. There are many parallels we can make to this. We have been purchased from the bondage of sin, haven't we? If you can reflect on your life where you were before God, this should elicit and well up gratitude in your life. Our hearts should be drawn towards the affection that God has in us through Christ, that we were slaves to sin and now we have been set free. We had a harsh master of sin, ruin, and destruction, but now we have been adopted as sons and daughters to Christ, who is the most meek and caring owner. The steward acknowledges that he does not own anything. He's simply a manager. He is someone who takes what God has given him and renders to him a return. This is what God expects from all of us. And please, beloved, do not think for a second that this is just for the qualifications of leaders. God is speaking to all of us. The steward does not own the church or the people of God. He is an overseer to make sure his master's property is well taken care of. He expects a return. He is in charge of the spiritual nourishment, growth, and behavior. The steward must not squander what God has given him. If you are in Christ this morning, you are a steward. Did you know that? How are you doing? How are you doing with your children that God has entrusted to you? How are you doing with your finances, which don't actually belong to you? How are you doing with the affairs of your house? How are you doing with the spouse that has been entrusted to you? Even if you're not married and you don't have a spouse, God is sustaining your heart. He is ordering the wiring of your neurons to make sense of what I'm saying. Even as a non-believer, God is faithful to Himself. How are you with that? You are also a steward of this local body as well. How are you doing? A steward is somebody who can be trusted. Can you be trusted? Have you even committed yourself to a local body? Anybody can be a consumer. Anybody can come and leave and stay in the shadows. God does not call us to be halfway committed. He wants our full and he wants our all. The steward gives back to God. His energies are focused towards one thing, pleasing his master. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2, you can just listen to it. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. A steward must be found dependable, reliable, and faithful. Did you know that you are a steward of Crossway? If you are coming. A steward must be invested in the will of his master. Are you invested here at Crossway if you've been regularly attending? Or do you keep your distance? You come, but you don't give. Evidence of a healthy body is that all of the organs are functioning properly. Organs just don't receive, but they give. Are you a healthy member of a local body? I want to give you five things that we're stewards of, and you will see this on your outline. five things that we are stewards of. First and foremost, on your list, we are stewards of material wealth. Did you know that the average American, after 40 years of working, will make $1.4 million? Most of us live in houses that would make a first-century Palestinian respond in wonder and awe. Is your house, is your car, is your money, are your clothes, is your food a means to advance kingdom of God. Very simple question. Second is time. You and I are on borrowed time. It doesn't matter whether you're six years old or whether you are 60. You and I are on borrowed time. Ephesians 5.16, redeem the time because the days are evil. What does this word redeem mean? Redeem means to buy back. It means to buy back. or buy out, and I want you to picture a marketplace, beloved, where things are sold. You and I are in a marketplace every second, every day of our lives. And a lot of things are being sold. There are sellers who want your time. And the reality is with most other things you can get back, right? If you lose a job, you can find one. If you become bankrupt, you can work your way out of it. God forbid if your house gets knocked out by a natural disaster, it can be rebuilt. But time, you cannot get back. You cannot get time back. You and I are on borrowed. and do not assume for a moment that you have 10 more years. How are you with your time? Now, there are competitors, as I have already mentioned, in the marketplace, and I want to give you three things, three competitors that you must fight against as a steward. First thing you're fighting against is laziness. Laziness. People who are lazy make excuses for why they cannot work. Second thing competing for your time is being a busybody. A busybody is the opposite. It's somebody who's always busy, but never actually gets anything done. The polar opposite of being lazy is a busybody, where you never actually finish anything that you've started, and you're so busy that you cannot even do anything well. You are so busy that you cannot prioritize what needs to be prioritized. Busy bodies are always busy but don't actually accomplish anything, and it's not done well. Or, third, you are fighting against carelessness and apathy. So, laziness looks to excuse itself from work. A busy body is so busy that they never actually get anything done, at least nothing well done. And then apathy or indifference, you just don't care about what you do. Indifference. How are you this morning with your time? How are you this week with your time? The third thing that we are stewards of are gifts and abilities. And as I've already mentioned before, if you are saved, you have a gift. When you are saved, the Holy Spirit deposits a gift. You may do things well before, but the Spirit of God energizes you now to advance the kingdom of God. There are two things that you need to know in light of God's Spirit as He energizes, as He motivates you in light of your regeneration. This is how your gifting should help. First, your gifting should be a means to edification and building up of the local body and saints. And second, if you are in Christ, your gifting should also be as a means to reach the lost. Everybody here has different functions, has different gifts, but we all have the same end goal, to advance the kingdom of God. The fourth thing we are a steward of is children. Children are inherited from the Lord. Your children are given to you as stewards, and we've looked at this many times. Improve on them. Improve on your children. After spending 18 years in your home, have they seen Christ? Do they know what a Christian is? Have you modeled for them godliness? Have you pleaded with them for their salvation? Have you loved their souls? If they reject Christ, it should be in light of the exceeding revelation in your home, not because Christ was absent from it. Will they be a witness against you before the behemoth seat of Christ, or will they be advocates for you? Lastly, five, we are stewards of the gospel. As Christians, we should have ulterior motives when we talk and in our dealings with unbelievers. Every unbeliever that we meet on our radar We should be asking ourselves this question. How can I know this person as a means to the gospel? When you're sitting at the barber's seat, for guys it may be 15-20 minutes, for women it may be 2 or 3 times longer, who knows? But we can just say at least 20 minutes. When you're sitting there in the chair with just you and your barber, are you looking for a way in? Are you looking to know them as a means for the gospel? If all you and I do is just know unbelievers, and Jesus Christ is never shared, we actually haven't loved them, have we? We haven't actually given them their greatest need, which is the gospel. You can rejoice that you know all things about them, and in the end it doesn't matter because they are damned. Beloved, we must bring up Jesus and the need for a Savior. You leave the end result to God. You just be faithful with the message. Beloved, we are ambassadors, all of us in this room, and we have been given a message from the King. The King has spoken. Do you know his message? You are a soldier here to advance the kingdom of God. You are here as a farmer casting seed all over the place looking for God to give the increase. You are an athlete who must exercise self-discipline over all things. If you know the gospel this morning, you are commissioned and commanded to tell people about it. You leave the end results to God. That is his business. When a king would issue a decree, it would be given to heralds who would go from village to village or city to city or town to town. They would open up their scroll and they would say, thus says the king. This is the priority. Do you have ulterior motives in your dealings with unbelievers? The reason why Jesus did everything was to testify to the truth. Do you have ulterior motives in your interactions with non-believers? Part of stewardship is not just example, but what you say with your words. How are you this morning with your stewardship? Now that we have identified major oversight of the steward as an overseer, the spirit now zooms in to two negatives, two negatives. This, we're gonna look at today. It's very important that you understand, God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. The shepherd and the leaders, the church. First point, the overseer, and just as a reminder, this is for everybody in the room. Just because you are not in leadership, You are not excused from this. The overseer must not be arrogant. He must not be self-willed. Some translations may say overbearing, arrogant, headstrong, bossy, aggressive, self-willed, over-fond of having his own way. The Greek is actually really interesting. It's taken from two words, autos, which is self, and hedomai, which means to delight in. We actually have an English word from this Greek word, hedomai. Do you know what it is? It is hedonism. It is a hedonist That is the Christian cannot be a self-hedonist He cannot delight in himself. He cannot love himself to the point where he delights in himself He cannot be someone who is preoccupied with himself in his own interests The arrogant man has a lack of concern for others because all of his thoughts all of his mind all of his energies are directed towards self He arrogantly asserts his will. He is self-satisfied, self-centered, self-complacent, arrogant, proud, haughty, stubborn, willful, inflexible, presumptuous, unaccommodating, harsh, despising others, dictatorial, dogmatic, impatient of contradiction, and unyielding. Now, just in case you missed this, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Or better yet, There are ways that you can identify in your life whether you are self-willed or arrogant, and it's going to come in the form of statements. There's five of them. First, the self-willed man never admits that he is wrong. The self-willed man never admits that he's wrong. Either because he's convinced that he's never wrong, or he's so prideful that he can never apologize about anything. Second, self-willed man or woman is someone who is always shifting blame. Always shifting blame. It is everybody else's fault. Third, self-willed man is not a team player and yields the rod at all times. He's not a team player and he yields the rod at all times. Fourth, he is an unpleasant man and he thinks and is absolutely convinced that his way is the only way. Fifth, He is overbearing and refuses to take other people's suggestions and even criticisms. As I already mentioned, these qualifications are not just for the leaders, it is for all of us here. How are you with this? Are you overbearing? How are you when your spouse or parents correct you? Are you quick to shift blame? Proverbs 18 says, a fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing his own opinions. Can people criticize you or do they know not to mess with you? How about your children? Has there been a reoccurring theme coming up in your life? that you've heard from them? Or how about at work when you receive your yearly or quarterly or semi-annual review? Can anybody say anything to you? Do you get defensive? Does your spouse know that if he or she was to rebuke you in love, in the back of your mind, you wouldn't really be listening to them, you would just be looking to bring up one of their faults or sins? As someone brings a character trait to your mind, or when someone addresses a wrong of yours, or a habitual sin, are you not even listening to them, but you are already setting up a response? Do you seek to understand people who correct you, or even in general, or are you immediately writing them off and waiting for your turn to say something? Do you scream and talk over people to get your point? across. I'd like us to turn to Psalm 19, verse 12. Please turn to Psalm 19. We're looking at verses 12-13. Psalmist asks a rhetorical question. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. The psalmist asks a rhetorical question. Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults. The psalmist acknowledges, listen, that he is blind to his own sin. Sin does not want to be found out. Sin, if it could, would lie deep, dormant, and remain unaddressed. Sin wants to hide his face. The psalmist acknowledges that he does not have it all together. And not only does he not have it all together, but he realizes that he cannot discern his own errors. The psalmist says no one can discern his own errors, and this is what it means. It means that you will remain a sinner unless somebody from the outside renovates you. You and I have sin in our life that does not want to be found out. The psalmist not only acknowledges that he has sin that he's not aware of, but he asks for cleansing. He asks for cleansing. So some of you are asking, how does God cleanse us? I'm going to give you a few sources. He uses the conscience to cleanse us. That's assuming that you have a sensitive conscience. If you are living in habitual sin, your conscience will be unresponsive. God also uses His Holy Spirit. God uses the Word of God. And He also uses other people, too. The psalmist asks for cleansing. Do you ask that? Do you ask the Lord to cleanse your heart? Lord, I have some deep-rooted baggage that I'm carrying around and I need you to help me. He will use the Word of God, He will use your conscience, He will use other people, and He will use the Holy Spirit. And you know what's really interesting is that other people can even have wrong motives. God is even able to use that. You remember the story of Joseph, right? His brothers hated him and were jealous. They threw him in a pit, either to die or to be sold. He rises to prominence in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife wrongfully accuses him of attempted rape. He's thrown in prison. He interprets two dreams, one by the cupbearer and the other by the chief. Baker, the cup bearer, did not remember him, and the chief baker was killed. Joseph was in prison for years. God used all of that hatred, dishonesty, jealousy, and manipulation, not only, check it out, for Joseph's good, but also for the good of his family who wronged him. His brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Christian, be of good cheer when others malign you and hate you, even for the wrong reason, because God is even able to use that for your good. But I will say and give a caveat, and it is this. The Christian is not a pushover. It doesn't mean that he never has his way. He is somebody who is patient, who is a listener, and honestly and truly seeks to genuinely understand people. And he is open to suggestions and corrections. It doesn't mean that he always has to go with somebody else's opinions, but he takes them into consideration and asks God to do what other people's suggestions can't. The disposition of the heart is the issue. The self-willed man will not hear anything from anyone because his heart is closed. The overseer must be flexible in his opinions and considerate of other people's viewpoints and sensitive to his use of authority so he can promote God's work and his own agenda. Are you a self-willed or arrogant person? Negative. He must not be quick-tempered. Some of your translations may say irritable, not quickly moved to wrath or blows, not hot-tempered, has not a passionate temper and not angry soon. Much easier to see anger than to define it. The Christian should not be a hothead. He doesn't blow up. He has his passions in check. The idea here is not necessarily someone who is prone to occasional outbursts. The Greek word here refers to someone who has a propensity towards anger. A quick-tempered man is easily provoked because he has a short fuse. This quick, and this is really interesting, this quick-tempered man and response is actually related to him being self-willed. The spirit is placed, arrogant and quick-tempered, side by side, because self-willed and arrogant men and women are oftentimes very, very easily angered. What is anger? I want you to picture a boiling pot seconds from explosion. It is said, and it's true, that anger is one letter short of danger. Picture an emotion or an imagination that is allowed to be festered and to be nurtured and not allowed to die. Anger is oftentimes seen as holding a grudge, being unwilling and refusing to forgive. Anger oftentimes even cherishes and loves resentment and does not want reconciliation. A quick-tempered man is a spark away from blowing up. The self-willed man uses his anger to intimidate or control others. Essentially, he manipulates. Now, it's very important that you track with me here because there are two questions you must ask yourself in light of anger. And it's on your outline. First question, what am I angry about? Second question, what are the outlets of that anger? Let's deal with them one at a time. First question, what am I angry about? There are two categories that this can be answered or filled in for. First anger is righteous anger. The second is sinful anger. Well, that doesn't really help me. Everybody can come to that conclusion. Well, think a little bit deeper. Anger can be righteous if, four points, I wanna give you four things. This is how you can tell whether or not your anger is legitimate. Now notice, the anger can be legitimate, but the outlet can be sinful. So track. This is for anger. We are dealing with the topic of anger, not the outlet. Anger can be righteous if, first, I am more concerned over God's reputation than my own. I'm angry because God's reputation is being tarnished. Second, Anger can be righteous if you are grieving over your own sin. Third, anger can be righteous if I am grieved by evil. Fourth, anger can be righteous if it is motivated by love. Righteous anger must be motivated by love because love is patient and kind. Love is not irritable or resentful. Love is not self-willed. We in our fallen state have the capacity to sin even in righteous anger, but God always acts and thinks and responds justly. Second, anger can be sinful when, number one, it is agitated for the wrong reason. questions that you need to ask yourself. This is self-introspection. Am I getting angry because my own agenda is not being promoted? Am I angry over my own sin that destroys myself and other people's lives? So, first, is it agitated for the wrong reason? Second, if it rises too quickly and too long, It rises too quickly and too long. Unforgiveness can manifest itself through anger, and anger can manifest itself through unforgiveness. It works on both sides of the coin. And three, and this is what I find most consistent with Christians, anger can be sinful if it explodes in unbridled, destructive thoughts, meditations, assumptions, or behavior. Scripture is not saying that he is never angry, but he is slow to speak. When we are quick to speak, how often do we sin? In your anger, do not sin. What does that mean? It means that people should not have to walk on eggshells around you. because you'll blow up. This man should not be quick-tempered. He has controlled his temper. He has learned to bridle it and keep it in check. The godly man or woman has control over their anger and they bring their anger under the submission and yielding of the Holy Spirit. A non-believer cannot do that. Put it simply, a man who habitually has destructive thoughts, meditations, assumptions, behavior, a man who cannot control his emotions, is unfit to lead others to control their lives because he can't even control himself. What should you be angry towards? You should be angry at what God is angry at. The difference, though, is that God does not have the capacity to sin. We do. When God acts in anger, check it out, it is measured. It is merciful. It is loving. It is kind. And as the famous poet says, don't fly into a range unless you're prepared for a rough landing. When you are angry, how often times is it measured with you? How often times is it explosive and violent and reactive? Reactive anger is often times sinful. But I will say this, anger does have the potential to be profitable. Anger can be profitable. If anger towards a particular issue is an impulse or divisive reaction and does more to complicate the problem than solve it, there is no profit. Doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. There's just no profit to it. But anger, beloved, can only be profitable if it is redemptive. When you're angry, can you make it redemptive? It is said that God and the devil are always angry all the time. Whose side are you on? Second, what are the outlets of anger? What are the outlets of anger? There are three outlets. You can probably come to these conclusions by your own, but I'll give it to you anyway. First is the tongue. Second is violence, and third is the heart or mind. The tongue, being violent, or the heart, or the mind. Let's look at the tongue first. Ambrose Bierce says this, speak when you're angry and you'll make the best speech that you'll ever regret. James chapter 1 verses 19 through 20. You don't have to turn to it, but just listen. Everybody should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Because human anger does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger in the flesh does not produce the righteousness of God. Now I would like us to turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Please turn to Ephesians chapter 4. We're looking at verses 26 and 27. Ephesians 4 verses 26 and 27. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down in your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. The main issue in this text is not anger. You see it? You can be angry and not sin. There are times when we should be angry. But I want you to notice where the Spirit has put these words. Go back to verse 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you what? Speak good. Why is it speaking? Well, you know why. Because it's easy to say stuff when we're angry. You'll hear people say, well, I was angry and that's why I said it. Emotions do not determine truth. Truth determines emotions. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. And beloved, to sin means to miss the mark. Literally, the Greek refers to an archer who has his bow drawn ready to release the arrow. To sin literally means to miss the mark. When you are sinning in your anger, and you are spiteful, malignant, and you have a dense and harsh spirit, when you are envy and cunning, and when you have malice brewing in your heart, you are experiencing, pay attention, preeminent feelings of the devil. If wrath and unmitigated anger takes possession of your heart, and it is not an issue of the glory of God, Satan and his host is close by. Christian, you cannot be demon-possessed, but you can be demon-oppressed. If you harbor resentment in your heart, Satan is close by. Paul is commanding us to make a righteous anger as our lifestyle. A Puritan once noted what happens when you go into the woods during the summertime. You walk around and you'll hear the rustling of the leaves or the breaking of twigs, but you have no clue where the sound is coming from. Too much distraction, too much foliage. Only during winter Do you have a better idea of what is there? This is oftentimes what happens with anger. Anger, in that sense, is the winter that surfaces what otherwise would be hidden. Oftentimes, we sin when we are angry. And you'll notice as well, you'll see verse 27, give no opportunity to the devil literally means toehold. It is said that great mountain climbers are able to scale mountains not yards at a time, not feet, but inches. Satan makes his advances not in big openings, but in inches. If you give him the slightest in, the slightest foothold, he will begin to inch away. Do not allow him and do not allow hatred and bitterness and anger to take residence in your heart. Don't let him hold on to your toe. Do not allow him to drive a wedge and allow him to occupy territory in your heart. So an overseer, beloved, must not be volatile in his temper, he has learned to control it, to submit it. If he has a hot temper, he does not let it show. A man who cannot control his own emotions will have a difficult time leading others. And I will say this to you, in particular those who are saved. If you're a Christian, I would like to remind you to be careful of what you say about other Christians. You can act like the devil. who is the accuser of the brethren day and night. You can accuse brothers and sisters, and it could be ill-founded. And your accusations can undercut a brother and sister. I will say this, be careful what you say. The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. Satan accuses day and night whether it's true or not. And maybe sometimes we jump to false conclusions and start accusing when it is ill-founded and we undercut a brother and sister wrongfully. My plea with you is this, be careful what you say. How about physically? Anger, when it is not towards sin, is called momentary madness. You know, Moses was angry over the unjust treatment of his Hebrew kinsmen, and what did he do? He killed the Egyptian, and he tried to bury him, right? Now, some of you may say, well, that was the first time up to the whole story that we see him getting angry, and I would say, amen, that's true. But you know what that anger did? That anger put him in the desert, in the wilderness, for 40 years. Or how about Cain and Abel? Our scripture reading this morning. Why did Cain kill his brother? He was angry. He was angry. As Matthew Henry says, anger is a sin that is its own punishment. If we would be angry and not sin, we must be angry at nothing but sin, and we should be more jealous for the glory of God than for any interest or reputation of our own. End quote. You may say, I got angry and so I physically did this. It was a one-time thing. Yeah, and so was the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and look how much deadly destruction that resulted. If you are going to be angry, you must be willing to accept the consequences of that anger. If you would, please turn to Psalm 4. You'll see a familiar theme that we saw in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 26 and 27. Psalm 4 verse 4. Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds. Be silent. This word here, tremble or be angry or be agitated. Yours may say tremble, denotes grief or awe. The psalmist says, let reason speak. And why does he say upon your bed? Because on your bed is a place of respite, a time of reflection. Or let me use modern day English. Go in your car for a drive. Go for a walk. Go for a run. Cool off. On your bed is the time of reflection. I don't know about you, but I oftentimes on my bed find myself reflecting and thinking on the day, this is what we should do. Were you short fused with anyone this week? Did you shift blame? Did you seek forgiveness from somebody who you wronged? Jonathan Edwards, who in my opinion is the greatest theologian on this continent ever, wrote 70 resolutions at the age of 19. I want to give you two of them. Resolved, to inquire every night as I go to bed where I have been negligent and what sin I have committed and wherein I have denied myself. Resolved, to inquire every night before I go to bed whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could with respect to eating and drinking. Self-willed and arrogant people who have short fuses can be forgiven, but the damage is oftentimes very severe. There is forgiveness. There can be healing, but there is always scarring. Arrogant and selfish people, even when they do apologize, oftentimes sound like this. I'm sorry that I was angry, but you made me do this. You made me upset. This is not genuine repentance. This is shifting blame and justifying anger on someone else. You're not even being specific. You're not pointing to anything. You're sinning specific to what you did. The only thing specific that you said was that they made you angry. We have a problem, I think most of us, with genuine repentance. Maybe it's time to be genuine and to own up to our own wrong and sin. Beloved, remember the world is watching, your children is watching, your family is watching, people at work are watching, and they may have no clue, your children may have zero idea of what genuine repentance looks like. They may have no idea what it looks to be broken and contrite over sin. Maybe the reason why our children are so quick to defend themselves is because they see it from mom and dad. Maybe the reason why the spouse is never quick to confess wrong is because she learns it from her husband. A self-willed man will never say, I'm sorry that I yelled at you and I'm sorry. that I was quick to speak to you. I said this or I did that. I tried to justify my anger by pointing out your own wrong. You're not the issue, it is me, and I am a sinner. And I would ask that you would forgive me for my sin and not owning up to it. Does your repentance sound like that? The third outlet It's the heart and mind, and I will say this very briefly. Be careful what you meditate on. Be careful what your mind and your heart lingers on. Be careful what you dwell on. If you allow anger to take port and anchor in your heart, If you allow anger, unrighteous anger, to start laying bricks and fortifying itself, it will be something that you will struggle with for the rest of your life. Be careful what you dwell on. Please turn to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs chapter 14, you'll see the list. I'm just going to read it, and I'm not going to provide any commentary on it. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 29. You have these in your outline, but I do want us to read this. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 29. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. Chapter 15, verse 1. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Verse 18. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. Verse 28. The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. Chapter 17, verse 14. The beginning of strife is like letting out water. So quit, for the quarrel breaks out. Chapter 18, verse 2. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his own opinions. Verse 13, if one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly in shame. Chapter 19, verse 11, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Chapter 29, verse 11, A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. Do you consider how to answer when you are angry? Do you have self-control to beat into submission your sinful inclinations to lash out? Are your thoughts and words ordered so it could be as redemptive as possible, if possible? I want to give you four points of application and then our time will be done. Point number one, anger in itself is not necessarily bad. Determining the reason why we're angry and the outlet of that anger plays the deciding factor. on whether it is sin. Make sure you are angry at what God is angry at. Point number two, when you're sober from your anger, reflect how you reacted. Point number three, when you sin against the Lord in anger, or you sin against other people, be specific on how you sinned, what you did, why what you did was wrong, and ask for forgiveness. Fourth, you cannot have righteous anger if you don't know God because you don't know what God hates and what He loves. Your propensity If you fight again, sinful anger will only increase as the Word of God increases and as you yield yourself to the Spirit. A man who is self-willed and hot-tempered will scar others. He may not throw acid physically, but what he spills from his mind and what he spills from his tongue is as deadly and will scar. Let us look to Jesus, who is the perfect embodiment of hatred towards sin and love towards people. And may we look as he did, not to our own interests, but to the interests of others. And even in anger, make it as redemptive as possible, if possible. Let us pray. Father, we confess that While we live in this flesh, even though we are redeemed, we are still prone to our own ways. We are still prone to anger. Help us, Lord, give us an extra measure of your spirit to be able to determine what we're angry about. Father, may the outlet of our anger Be pleasing in Your sights. We are thankful that Lord, those who You save, You keep. And even though we are prone to sin, we're prone to selfishness and arrogance, that You secure us and that You hold us. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.