You know, when we came up, I wasn't sure if you guys celebrated Mother's Day, like a holiday, you know, in the United States. So, happy Mother's Day to all of you ladies. Okay? You can say, that's nice of you to say, you know what I mean? So, okay. So, happy Mother's Day to you. and I got a nap this afternoon. This 7.30 time, that was good for me, because I was telling some folks in the States, they're going to five o'clock on Sunday nights, and some churches aren't having Sunday nights. But when you go to five o'clock on Sunday night, that doesn't give me time to get home and get a nap. So I had a good nap this afternoon, and I enjoyed it. Well, tonight we're going to go into a subject that is very important. It is a debilitating sin. And so I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 4. And remember, I've said you've got to learn the fours. Philippians 4, Ephesians 4, and James 4. Ephesians chapter 4, I want to speak to you tonight about one of the most debilitating sins in a person's life, the wicked sin of anger. one of the most ungodly and debilitating sins in a person's life, the wicked sin of anger. Let's stand together as we read out of respect to God and His Word. Ephesians chapter 4, going to start reading with verse 22. The Bible says that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you now for the opportunity to be able to open your word. I pray tonight that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher. I submit myself to the Holy Spirit right now. I pray that my mind and my heart may be yours. I pray, God, that you'll work in hearts here tonight. There may be someone here tonight who's unsaved, Lord. And if they're unsaved, I pray, God, that they will come to a saving knowledge of you. If there are those here tonight, Lord, that are out of fellowship with you, that they'll have their fellowship restored. And Lord, if there's people here tonight that have an anger issue, a lust, I pray that you will work in their heart. I pray God that we'll be able to see someone change their life tonight for your honor and glory. I need your help now. I submit myself to you. I need your help. Please help me. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. One of the most ungodly and debilitating sins in a person's life is the wicked sin of anger. As a pastor and a biblical counselor for many years, I have found that anger is a deceptive, ugly, and a major destroying factor in people's lives. and it must be taken seriously. The Bible mentions this, so I want you to understand whenever God wants to make a point in the Bible, He always repeats it. This is mentioned in the Bible 491 times. So that means that God is extremely interested in us dealing with anger in our life. 491 times. Now Galatians 6, 7, and 8 say this, Be not deceived, God's not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. The word corruption means destruction. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Now, Satan desires to use anger in your life and it is one of his biggest tools for your destruction. I want to say that again. Satan desires to use anger in your life, and it's one of his biggest tools for your destruction. It will derail your life. It'll harm everyone around you. And many people who are in church today are miserable because they've allowed ungodly anger to hinder them from having a real, intimate, personal, and passionate relationship with God. They're not spirit-controlled people. You cannot be an angry person and be a spirit-controlled person. Now, I want you to think about it with me in this realm, and I want you to understand, I got to get to this next page here, come on, there we go, alright. So, I grew up in a home, and I said this morning a little bit about that, but I grew up in a home where my parents were unsaved angry people. Every day there was an argument. And because I did not want to listen to all the bad language, I played any sport I could every day when I got home from school in the park or across the street from my house until my father went to work at 9 p.m. each night because I did not want to hear the arguments and the bad language. And unfortunately, some of that bad language of my parents rubbed off on me as well. Now, as a young Christian, I remember very clearly the day that God showed me how dangerous my ungodly anger was, and I thought I could explode all over the countryside. It was no big deal because everybody gets angry. God made it plain to me that my anger was ungodly from the scriptures, and I know what ungodly anger is about, and it will cause you major problems with your spouse, and it'll be devastating to your children. Where does ungodly anger come from? I'd like for you to turn back to Proverbs chapter 21 and look at verse 24 for me. Proverbs 21 and verse 24. Where does it come from? Where does ungodly anger come from? Proverbs 21, 24 says, Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. Do you see it? Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath. Haughty means I don't think much of you. So in essence, when a person is using ungodly anger, they're doing it and they don't think much of you. So think about that when you're doing that with your children or with your wife or with your husband. Notice it says pride, proud. Pride has its tentacles in a lot of things. And prideful people can be seriously angry people. Proud and haughty scorn are his name, which, now watch what it says, who dealeth in proud wrath. Wrath means anger with a strong desire to avenge. Get back at somebody. Now, anger comes from pride. And wrath is anger with a strong desire to avenge. And to get back at someone, in essence, you allow anger to control you rather than the Holy Spirit to control you. Think about all the times you've been angry at your wife or your husband or your children. As a biblical counselor for many years, I have seen what ungodly anger can do in a person's life. We have had many, many people in our counseling program who have had uncontrolled anger. Now, many Christians think getting angry is a laughing matter. No, it's a sinful matter. I want to say it again. Many Christians think that getting angry is a laughing matter. No, it's a sinful matter and it grieves the Holy Spirit. Now several years ago I was at a McDonald's eating lunch. The people were getting up and everyone was laughing. And I decided that I should see what was going on. So I got up to look and there was a nicely dressed woman in a black business suit. She was out in the parking lot screaming and yelling and taking her purse and hitting her black BMW car and screaming at the top of her lungs. Why now? Why did you do this to me now? Now, I don't mean to sound bad, but you know, folks, that car is an inanimate object. And it does not care one iota or one way or another, and you can beat it all day, and it's not going to make a difference. Obviously, the woman had a serious anger issue. Now, the question today is, do you have one? Do you have an anger issue? The question today is, do you have an angry spirit? Satan wants to use anger in your life. You know, it is destructive behavior and it will cause you much hurt, anguish, and pain. Many Christian men and women will use anger on each other and their children and they call it righteous indignation. And I have news for you. Now, you know, I've preached in many preacher's meetings. And of course, because of who we are and what we do, the pastor will always say, well, won't you have a question and answer period after it's over? And it never fails that some pastor will say, well, brother, What about righteous indignation? And my answer to that is those two words. I got news for you, folks. Those two words are not used together in the Bible. Or they'll say, well, Jesus got angry. Well, I understand that in the temple. You know, Jesus got angry in the temple, but He's God and you're not. You're not God. And God here says, put away all anger. Period. Put it away. Now, let me ask you another question. Now, I don't know hardly anybody in here, okay? Personally. And pastor hasn't told me nothing about any of you that's bad. If he's told me anything about anybody, it's good, okay? So there you go. So he didn't tell me to preach this, okay? So the Holy Spirit did. Do you call your children names in anger and then expect to see that child grow up and live for God? You idiot. Get over here. You stupid thing, what's the matter with you? Or worse? Turn back to Proverbs chapter 14 and look at verse 17. Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 17. Now remember I said the Bible mentions this how many times? 491 times. 491 times. So we could spend a lot of time going verse to verse to verse here. Now I want you to notice in Proverbs 14, 17, notice what it says. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated. So anger is a wicked device, and your children will hate you for it. Now turn over to Proverbs 22 and look at verse 24. Now watch what the Bible says. Proverbs 22, 24 says this. Make no friendship with an angry man. Now what kind of problem that we got with no? Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man Thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. So anger is a snare to your soul. Amen? Anger is a snare to your soul. Many Christians believe that anger is the way to deal with their child. Ungodly anger and dealing with your child will fail and you'll have a broken heart. There's another powerful verse about this within the scripture. Anger and your children. Turn to Proverbs 22 and look at verse 8. Look at Proverbs 22.8, ladies and gentlemen. The Bible says, He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and watch it, and the rod of his anger shall fail. So if you discipline your children in anger, it's going to fail. Do you hear me? If you discipline your children in anger, it will fail. One of the things that, and by the way, just so you all understand this, as we talked about this morning, with our children, one of the things that we learned was that if we were going to spank them, we were going to do it when we were calm. Okay, and Kim or myself would take them to the bedroom, sit down and say, now, honey, mommy and daddy loves you. But what you did was wrong, and we'd explain why it was wrong. And now daddy's going to have to spank you. Now I want you to know I love you. And I would give them two or three whacks and, you know, and then they would say, daddy, I love you. Mommy, I love you. I'm sorry. So I would say to them, Mom and Dad want you to grow up to be a person that honors and loves the Lord. Instead of saying, you know, grabbing him by the arm, dragging him in the room and letting him have it. Many Christians believe that anger is a way to deal with their child. Proverbs 22 says, And notice if you deal with your children in ungodly anger, the rod of his anger shall fail. Now, I want you to hear me carefully now. One of the biggest problems in the church today are Christians who are out of fellowship with God and anger causes us to be out of fellowship with God. Anger causes us to be out of fellowship with God. They're in destruction mode and they don't know it. Everybody who's coming into our counseling program is in destruction mode and many of them don't know it. They're on the highway to destruction already and they don't even know it. Understand me? We must pay very close attention to our fellowship with God. Now I've explained that this morning. We have an old nature, therefore it's imperative that we ask God about our heart every day to be in fellowship with Him. Clearly in the church today, there's not nearly enough attention given to our fellowship with God. We have to be diligent about our fellowship with God, and the book of 1 John speaks about our fellowship with God being important and checking our heart about that. The people who come to us at Hope Biblical Counseling Center are losing hope or they've lost hope. 25% of the people who come have never been truly saved. 65% are out of fellowship with God, and most of them do not understand they're out of fellowship with God. Jeremiah 17, 9 tells us the heart is deceitful above all things. Okay? So Jeremiah 17, 9 says our heart is deceitful above all things, and we can't know it. Okay, so here's the deal. Verse 10 says, it is, I, the Lord, search the heart. Did you hear that? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the rains, even to give every man according to his ways and to the fruits of his doing. So every day then, because my heart is desperately wicked, we can't know it, I'm going to ask God to search my heart, God the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2.10 says, it is the Holy Spirit who does the searching. Now, turn back there with me. I want you to see it, okay? The Holy Spirit is the one that does, is to search our heart. And as you read this, it's interesting because verse 9 is, you know, really interesting and then 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9, it says, But as it is written, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9, But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now if you read that and you stop there and you think, okay, how is this done then? Okay? You know, again, one of the things that we major on here is we not only tell you, look, you need to get right with God, but we tell you how to do it. Okay, how do I do it? How is this done? So verse 10 says, notice, but God hath revealed them unto us by his what? Do you know it's the capital S? Holy Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. So I'm going to have him search my heart, show me if there's any sin that stands between him and me today. Is there any hurt that I'm allowed to control me right now? Is there any bitterness in my heart right now? Because bitterness is a root sin and it gets in your heart and it's going to be a major malfunction. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Now, when we're out of fellowship with God, we can say and do anything. We need to understand that a lot of spiritual problems today are just the fact that the persons out of fellowship with God were capable of doing all of the sins of Galatians 5, 17-21. And when we're out of fellowship with God, the answer is to be a spirit-controlled person, not a flesh-controlled person. An angry person, many times, is a gossiping person who's out of fellowship with God and is a flesh-controlled person. Turn back with me to Galatians chapter 5. We're in a mode here tonight of Bible turning, okay? I want you to look with me at Galatians 5. This is a powerful passage of Scripture. And it says here in Galatians chapter 5, look at verse 16 with me. It says this, verse 16. Let's start with verse 15. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. So if you're going to be biting on somebody, in essence, you are focusing on tearing them up. You don't know this person. You don't know what they do. You don't know how they do it. They're ungodly. They're wicked. They're vile. Notice what it says. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. And then the next verse says this in verse 16. Notice, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the what? Lust of the flesh. So you have your old nature. Boy, it would have been wonderful if we got saved and God had taken away our old nature, but He didn't. But He's given us the Holy Spirit to help us deal with it, and He's also given us all kinds of tools to deal with it. The lust of the flesh. By the way, there's at least 82 different lusts that a Christian can have. So, notice it says, this I say then, walk in the Spirit. So, think about this. Now, when you got out of bed this morning and you, you know, one of the first things you did was walk somewhere, right? Yes? Okay. Walk in the Spirit. So, in essence, as you're moving along in your day, every day, instead of allowing the lust of the flesh to control you, I'm going to have to be in fellowship with God every day. So, immediately, when I get out of bed, basically, I'm going to head straight you know, for my Bible, and, you know, and then I'm going to ask God to show me if there's any sin that stands between me and Him. Because I want to start my day being a Spirit-controlled person so I can walk in the Spirit. Is there any sin that stands between you and me today? I want you to show it to me. Is there any hurt I'm allowing to control me right now? I want you to show that to me. Is there any bitterness in my heart right now? And bitterness, again, being a root sin, is a huge deal. But, you know, one of the things is that many times anger is the issue. And the Holy Spirit says, you know, Bill, you got angry about that. You got angry about that. Can you witness to somebody if you're an angry person out of fellowship with God? It's not going to work, is it? You can't do the work of God if you're out of fellowship with God. It's not going to work. So he says here, Notice verse 16, so he's going to cover this now, and he says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now notice verse 17, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. So in essence, if you're going to allow your lust to control you, you're not going to be able to accomplish a whole lot spiritually. Are you with me? Got it? So if you're going to allow your lusts to control you, then you're not going to be able to do much spiritually. It's not going to work. And you're always going to be upset. You're always going to be defeated. You're always going to be a person who is angry at your circumstances or angry at another person. Wanting a wrath. You know, wrath is the next level up. Wanting to get back at somebody. Now, notice what it says here. Verse 18. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now watch this. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And this is an ugly list. So if I'm out of fellowship with God, I'm not a spirit-controlled person, it's easy to have any of these sins in my life. What are they? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness. It's interesting. You know this word uncleanness here is the word that would be used for pornography? Laskiviousness means unbridled lusts. It means your lusts are out of control. You don't even have a notion about how to control them. Idolatry. You can have idols of the heart. Witchcraft. Witchcraft here is a word for pharmacology or drugs. Okay? Hatred. Variance. Variance is arguing. Okay? Emulations is a very, it's a really ugly word. Ambition to equal or excel others. Jealousy. Okay? Wrath. Anger with a strong desire to avenge. Strife. Seditions. Heresies. Envying. Envying is worse than anger in the Bible. And anger is bad. But envying means that I want to possess something that doesn't belong to me and to destroy it. I want to possess something that doesn't belong to me and to destroy it. It says here, and notice what it says, and such like. You know, years ago I heard Dr. Fred Brown, he went down through this list and he said, and somebody said, I haven't done any of those things, and such like, gotcha. Okay? Now, watch what it says. Now, I want you to hear me. If you can do the things that are in this list, and you are not convicted by the Holy Spirit about it, that means you're not saved. Did you hear me? If you can do the things in this list and the Holy Spirit does not convict you, it means you're not saved. It means you're on the road to hell. Keep in mind that 25% of the people that come into our counseling program have never truly been born again. They might be a church member. But these sins are prevalent in their life. And again, is the Holy Spirit convicting you about this? I know this. When I got saved, the next day I went back to where I was working and I said something and it was like, I knew it. Wow. Forgive me. Now, if the Holy Spirit does not convict you about your sin, you're going to die and go to a devil's hell for all eternity. So that's something that you better be sure about. Amen? No question about it. I have to understand that I'm a sinner and I have to turn from my sins and turn from myself and turn to God who alone can save me. So, if you can go and do these things and you're not convicted about it, you've got a major malfunction. Now, but I want you to notice here, verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such, there is no law. Do you notice that word long-suffering? You know what? That's a problem for me at times. I'm a very detail-oriented person and I really want to get something done and I want to get it done right now. And there are some people that you have to be long-suffering with. I just had a guy in our counseling program living in mortal fear, scared to death that he might die and go to hell any moment. Two weeks ago he got saved. Patiently working with him and he got saved. And Kim says, boy, you can hear the difference in his voice this week. But he was he in his thought process was is that he had to go find everything about this. I had to go find every sin that he'd ever done and ask God to forgive him for it. No. The Bible just tells us that we need to turn from our sins and turn from ourself and turn to God. But see, he was living in mortal fear because he thought that he might die and go to hell any minute. And he said when he first started in counseling, he would say to me at the end, he said, Would you pray for me today that I won't die before I get saved? I don't want to go to hell. Would you pray for me? I said, I'm going to pray for you to get saved. And we went through we went through this and we worked and I worked patiently with him, long suffering with him to the point that he came to the point of true repentance in his life. Amen? Praise God. That's what we do. Some people need more help than others. So you're going to have to be what? Long-suffering. And you know, by the way, Satan is an imitator of God's tools. Satan, you know, instead of being long-suffering, he wants us to react all over the countryside. Okay? And there are some situations you're going to have to be long-suffering in. And I always think this word is very interesting, and it really, I've studied this word at length. Now, notice what it says here. And they, verse 24, so see what it says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh, or put to death is what it means, with the affections and lusts. That word affections means emotions and lusts. Satan wants you to react emotionally. He's going to put outside pressure on your life to get you to react, you know, at the point of impact. and see that word, I want you to notice, affections and what? Look at it. What's it say? Lusts. It's lusts, plural. See it? Lusts, the affections, and lusts, plural. If we live, He says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. So in essence, if I am a saved person, I'm going to every day ask those questions and then I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to control me today in my walk so that I won't be allowing my lust to control me. Amen? And tomorrow night I'm going to talk about how you control your thoughts. Most Christians are totally ignorant about how they control their thoughts. And by the way, you can be out of fellowship with God by what you're thinking. Now, I want you now to go back with me to, and I want to start it with this, how bad is anger? How bad is anger? There are many, many passages of Scripture on this. I want you to listen. I don't want you to turn. I'm just going to quote some for you, okay? James 1, and you can write them down, the verses, if you wish. James 1, 19 and 20. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James 1, verses 19 and 20. So the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Psalm 37a, cease from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Psalm 37, eight. Cease from anger, forsake wrath, anger with a strong desire to avenge. Threaten not thyself in any wise to do evil. Proverbs 29, 22. An angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. Proverbs 51, 15, one. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Now those are only some of many that deal with this subject. So now let's go back to Ephesians where we started. I want you to look at verse 29. Let's start with verse 21. Yeah, 22. Ephesians 4.22. Now remember I said that there's 82 different lusts, right? Now, notice it says, in verse 22, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, so your old nature is which is corrupt, according to the what? Deceitful lusts. So, your lusts can deceive you. And notice it's plural there, more than one. Deceitful lusts. Your lust can deceive you. So, what are some of these deceitful lusts? Okay? I said there's 82, but right here, it starts right out the door. So, look at the next verse, and it says here that, or let's go down to verse 25, okay? So I'm going to let you look at it with me. I'm going to let you tell me what the first deceitful lust is. Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. So what is the first deceitful lust that comes out the door? Lying. Do you lie? It's a deceitful lust. Years ago we had a young man in our church and he was a, I mean, he was a chronic liar. And I would notice him in the back of the church, you know, with the men all around him and he would be spinning a yarn and the guys would be sitting there shaking their head like, you serious? And it was always that he was the hero and, you know, all of this kind of stuff. And a lot of the times, he was doing that to impress the girls. So parents decided he needed to be in counseling, so he came into counseling. And so I asked him, I said, what do you think God thinks about lying? And he looked at me and said, well, everybody does it. And I said, no, not everybody does it. So here's what I want you to do. Now, I want you to look with me so we can see how we deal with it. And parents, so you can see how you can deal with it. And look what it says here in verse 22, that you put off. So we use the put off, put on method. that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lust, and that, verse 24, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, and then look at verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So you put off, put on, and renew. Okay? So the next week he comes in, I said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to look up five verses on anger, and I want you to write down two things that you learned or you thought was important. Okay? So he looks up the five verses on anger, comes back the next week, and I said, what do you think God thinks about lying? He says, oh, God hates it. So we went from everybody does it to what? God hates it. So the next week, same thing, five verses on anger, going to look them up, going to write down two things that you learned or thought was important. Next week, same thing. Next week, same thing. Next week, same thing. Next week, same thing. Next week, same thing. We got up to 50 verses. He comes in and he says, Pastor, can I ask a question? I said, yes. He said, how many verses are there in the Bible on lying? I said, there's 96 and you're going to do them all because you're a chronic liar. I wanted him to really see what God said about lying. Amen? Not what he thought God said about it, but what God says about it. It's a deceitful lust. Don't be deceived by it. It's a deceitful lust. Now I want you to look at this verse now and tell me what the second deceitful lust coming out the door is. Verse 26, Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So what is the second deceitful lust? This is the Bible, it's not Dr. Coomer. And we're biblical counselors. We don't believe that psychology has the answer for you. We believe that God's Word has it. So, when we have somebody with an anger issue, we have them to look up five verses on anger, and then we have them to write down two things that they learned. And they keep doing that until they see exactly what God says about it. But this verse here is a little interesting. Okay, now watch it is, you know, so in, you know, in my undergrad work, Dr. Roberson believed that every preacher should know English. So we had to take four years of English grammar. Yuck. But I'm glad I did now. Okay, but back then, and we didn't have computers, you know, so they had, the English teacher had, you know, chalkboards all around the room, and you had to take this sentence and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know, and tell what this word, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this. I was like, you know, it was pretty daunting because the last time I had took English grammar was in seventh grade and I didn't remember anything that I'd learned. And so now here I am trying to learn English grammar as a man. And it was probably as hard as you can, you know, and so I, but I'm glad now because you know what? Do you know what verse, look at angry in verse 26. Everybody pay close attention here. You know what angry is here? It is a present passive imperative. Present passive imperative. Now, so let's break it down then. What does present mean? Right now. Okay? Imperative. Does anybody know what an imperative is in the Bible? It's a command. So an imperative is a command. So this is commanded activity. Okay? Commanded activity. Now, it's passive. Now, I was a baseball player, right? San Francisco Giants. So, best way for me to explain it is a baseball analogy, okay? I'm standing at home plate with a bat. I swing the bat at the ball. Is that active or passive? Active. I'm standing at home plate. Don't do a thing. Guy throws the ball and hits me. Is that active or passive? Passive. So, here, listen. Be ye angry and sin not. So when somebody does something to make you angry, you immediately are going to have to stop. I'm not going there. Think. I want to turn it over to you, to the Holy Spirit right now. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for, Philippians 4? So stop, think, submit, turn it over. What do you want me to praise you for? What do you want me to thank you for? So be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So that means you got to deal with it immediately, amen? And wrath is anger with a strong desire to avenge. So you have a choice to make at the point of impact that you're going to deal with it in a proper way. Now let's just put it this way. I use this illustration. Austin, what's your wife's name? Megan. You mind if I use you here for a minute, Megan? All right. So somebody walks up to Megan when she comes into church on Sunday morning and they say, Megan, look at you. When are you going to do something about yourself? Uh-oh. So Megan's like to Austin, do you know what she did? Do you know what she said? I tell you what, when I get back to church tonight, I'm giving her what, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. Now Megan, you really need to be careful about that, okay? Because you give away too many pieces of your mind, you may not have much left, you know. But all the way home from church, Austin is hearing, I can't believe it. She told me why she said I look bad. And you know, whoo, oh, ah. And Austin's going, now just calm down. I'm not calming down. He, you know, she told me, whoa, now, wait a minute here. Not gonna have that. No, uh-uh, no. Nobody in here's ever done that, right? Now, Megan has a choice. God gave her free will to make a choice. She can go nutsoid, for lack of better words, on that person and create havoc. Or she can say, I'm going to turn it over to God. One of my mentors who greatly influenced me. He pastored, took over, at that point, one of the largest churches in the world. He was a tremendous Bible teacher. And he had taken over a church that was pastored by one of the great Bible teachers of the past. And so when he immediately took over the church, he had a deacon that didn't like him. And every time they got into a deacon's meeting, the deacon said, I'm against it. I don't like it. And I don't like how you're doing this. I don't like how you're doing that. And I don't like this. I don't like that. And I don't like something else. And so my friend asked God, he said, did I do anything to cause this? And God said, no, just turn him over to me. And so, you know, next meeting, he's doing the same thing, keeps doing the same thing, keeps doing the same thing. And finally, the man got so angry, he left the church. And my friend was like, you know, God, did I do anything? No, just turn him over to me. So the first week, He said it was gosh awful. He said Satan came at him all the time. Just this guy, you know, this guy, this guy, this guy. And he said, I just kept turning him over to God. He said, boy, that first week was miserable. I had to do it multiple times a day. And so he said, next week, a little better, but still bad. Third week got a little better. Fourth week got a little better. Fifth week got a little better. But you got to understand, Satan's going to use people to try to hurt you. And so you're going to have to be willing to turn them over to God at the point of impact. And so he continued to turn him over to God, turn him over to God. And so he gets out to about six months. You know, just before six months, he only thought about the guy once or twice a day. After six months, he never thought about him at all. Fast forward nine and one half years later. On a Monday morning, monster auditorium, he always came in and he would straighten up the hymnals and pray for the people who sat there. And he'd walk around the auditorium every Monday morning and pray for the people who sat there and put the pews back in or the hymnals back where they should be. He's there in the church by himself and the back door opens. Guy walks in, long hair, greasy, torn clothes, dirty, filthy. And he said, you know, he's a little concerned because he was the only one in the church. But he said, as the guy started walking toward him, he said, I think I've seen this guy someplace before. I just can't place him. And as the guy walked toward him, he kept thinking, I know I've seen this guy someplace, I just can't remember where. And so the guy walks up to him. And he says, you don't know me, do you? And my friend says, I, well, I've seen, I've got, you know, you look familiar, but I just can't place you. And the guy told him his name. And my pastor friend said, really? He said, what happened? And he said, Pastor, I lost my home. I lost my wife. I lost my children. I lost my business. All because I hated you. And I'm here today to ask you to forgive me. Will you please forgive me? And my pastor friend said, Well, sure. He hadn't been thinking about it for nine and a half years. Get it? Turned it over to God. You've got to learn, instead of using anger as a wicked tool, that you turn people over to God. Every time they come up in your mind, turn them over to God. Okay, now he's going to take care of it. Now, it took him nine and a half years to break that guy down, to bring him to the place of repentance. So my friend says, look, he says, can I get you, can I get you, you know, a place to stay, get you some clean clothes, get you a bath, get you some food? And the guy said, no. No, he said, I just came here today to get right with you. And he turned around and walked out. Now, think what would have happened if my pastor friend had let the anger of that individual control him. Amen? Anger is a wicked sin. It is a vile sin. And it will control you. And it will destroy you. And it will do all kinds of things in your life that you wish you'd never done. You know, people, I've sat across from people in jail that have done horrible and wicked things. And I can tell you some horrible and wicked things over this 45 years of ministry. And the reality of it is, is this, you need to realize that rather than letting anger control you, you need to let the Holy Spirit control you. And you've got to learn to practice letting the Holy Spirit control you at the point of impact. The way you practice that, you get better rather than allow your anger to control you. Now, you've got to learn, though, that other people around you, they're going to be people that are angry, and they do wicked and vile things, and you've just got to turn them over to God. And every time they come up, just keep turning them over to God until it's no longer, you know, it's not controlling you, and you will be surprised what God will do. You know, now listen to me. The just shall live by faith. So in essence, are you going to live by faith or are you going to live by taking care of silliness your own way? Do you understand? Got it? I'm going to have to learn to submit to the Holy Spirit and turn things over to God so that I don't live a life of anger and bitterness. so that I can be in fellowship with God. Anger is a deceitful lust. Notice in verse 22 it says, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Deceitful here means promises what it can't deliver. Anger deceives you and is deceitful. And when you're living for a deceitful lust, you're grieving the Holy Spirit. And the way to deal with a deceitful lust like anger is put off the old man, put on the new. Now, I want to say one last thing. I have got to learn to forgive people. We have a really important booklet out there on the book table called Forgiveness. Forgiveness is more about you than it is about them. How to deal with forgiveness? I have to learn to forgive people. I have to learn to understand that if I forgive them, I will not try to get back at them. I will not use their sin against them. I will not gossip or say horrible things about them to other people. I refuse to allow them to control my life. I shall turn them over to God and keep turning them over to God. And if necessary, get physically out of the way. And when the person or situation comes to my mind, I will say, Lord, I want to turn this over to you. What do you want me to praise you for? And what do you want me to thank you for? This is called the point of spiritual impact. And make Jesus Christ real in your life tonight. At the point of impact, it's like rebooting your mind to think on the right spiritual thing. Anger is a deceitful lust and it destroys people. It destroys lives. It'll destroy you. It'll destroy your wife. It'll destroy your husband. It'll destroy your children if you're an angry person. Now I'm going to ask you a question tonight, straightforwardly. Are you an angry person? Is there somebody right now that you're thinking about that you're angry at and you wish that something bad would happen to them? You got to remove yourself, you know. I carry this, I carry my board with me. You know, I brought it all the way from Arkansas. It don't take up no space. Got it? Here's God. And here is you, okay? And here is the person who hurts you. Now, who's in the middle? You are. So you have to get emotionally free. and you have to get over here on the other side so that God has direct access to that person who hurts you. Now, in my friend's situation, it took nine and a half years. So don't let anger control you, because it's a deceitful love. So let's stand together. Our hands are bound and our eyes are closed. Nobody's looking around. Nobody's looking around. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, the pianist is coming. As she begins to play, let me ask you this question. Are you saved tonight? Do you know if you died tonight, would you go to heaven? Are you sure about that? You need to be sure. And if you're here tonight, and you know that there's something against somebody else in your heart, now's the time to deal with it. Now's the time to deal with it. I'm going to submit myself to God. I'm going to turn that person or that situation over to God. Is there anybody here tonight that said, Dr. Coomer, God spoke to my heart tonight. I do have a situation like for you to pray for me about that. Anybody like that? Raise your hand. Thank you. God bless you. A lot of hands. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Now, don't feel like that you're don't feel like that you don't have any control over it, because when you turn it over to God, then he has control. And you're not the one that has to mess with this. Amen. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you. Look, turn that situation or that person over to God. And then do it every time it comes up. So you can get emotionally free. So you can get on the other side. Get emotionally free. Now I'm going to ask the question here again, is there anybody here tonight that would say, Dr. Coomer, I'm not sure I'm saved. I'd like for you to pray for me. Anybody like that? Would you raise your hand for me? Not sure I'm saved. Thank you. God bless you. Now we can help you with that. Pastor can help you. You feel free to come and we'll get you help. Anybody else? I'm not sure I'm saved tonight. Are you in fellowship with God tonight? Or do you know that? I hope some of you are practicing what we've talked about. But do you know if you're in fellowship with God tonight? Is there anybody here tonight say, I'm not sure about that. I want you to pray for me. Anyone? Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I got it. I thank you. Yes. Amen. All right. Now this is serious business. I want to be saved. I want to make sure I'm saved. I want to be in fellowship with God. And I got to turn people and situations over to God. Penis is going to finish playing now. One more verse. I want to thank you for meeting with us tonight, Lord. Thank you for the Holy Spirit being our teacher and our guide. Lord, there are many people in this room tonight who have raised their hand on the fact that they're not sure if they're in fellowship with God. Lord, I pray that you'll make the words that have been said here real to their heart and they will practice it. They will ask you the questions and turn from their sin and turn to you. I pray for the folks that have raised their hand that they're not sure about being saved. Lord, I pray that tonight will be the night they'll get saved. God, that they'll come to pastor or his wife, and they'll get saved tonight, Lord. I pray that you'll, or Kim or I, I pray, God, that you'll work in their heart, help them to understand this important decision that they'll ever make. And Lord, I pray that they'll be willing to make that this evening. God, I pray right now that if there are people in this room that are out of fellowship because of the fact that they're holding a grudge against somebody else, I pray, God, that you'll protect them, but I also pray that you'll help them to understand that they've got to turn this over to you. and make that real in their life. Now I pray God that you'll work in our hearts now through the remainder of this week as we learn these great and special truths from your word that will help us to walk with you, serve you, love you, be all that we can be for you. I pray God that you'll encourage the people in this room tonight. Pray you'll lift them up. Pray God that you'll give them strength and guidance and direction. Thank you for meeting with us tonight.