I have been given the topic, assigned the topic of what do you do when you get angry and do not know what to do. Does that apply to anybody? Yes. Me too. We have about another month or so in the current series that we're working through in the family Bible hour. What do you do when? A very kind of a practical biblical counseling series, pulling out different topics. And then how do we deal with these things biblically from the word of God? We have one on transgenderism coming up. We have one on what do you do when somebody says, God told me different things. just practical issues that I think will be really good for us to think through together. But today, the topic of anger, the topic of anger. Let's pray and then we'll jump in. Father, thank you for your word, the clarity of your word, the power of your word. Thank you that your word is absolutely authoritative and heart searching. It shows us our sin, but not only does it show us our sin, it shows us the only solution for our sin. Oh, we glory in Christ, we love him, and we pray that you would take this time, even in this hour, may it be fruitful for your glory and for our greater holiness. In Jesus' name, amen. There is an author of a children's book A children's book that has a poem titled, I Am Angry. Listen to the poem. I am angry, really angry, angry, angry, angry. I'm so angry I'll jump up and down, I'll roll on the ground. I'll make a den, I'll make you spin, I'll pull out my hair and throw you in the air. I'll pull down posts, I'll hunt for ghosts, I'll scare spiders and I'll scare tigers. I'll pull up trees, I will bully bees, I'll rattle the radiators and frighten alligators. I'm so angry, I'll cut down flowers, I'll bring down towers, I'll bang all the bones and wake up stones. I will shake the tiles, stop all smiles, silence birds, and I will boil words. I will mash up names, grind up games, crush tunes and squash moons. So angry that I will make giants run, terrify the sun, I will turn the sky red, and then I will go to bed. What a terrible children's story. What a terrible poem in a children's book. God has a better way than that. Or maybe it reminds you of Bruce Banner, the comic book character who appears to be sort of this mild-mannered gentleman until he's angry and stressed out, and then he sort of becomes this incredible hulk, a monster who hurts people and destroys property. But God has a better way than that. It doesn't have to be that way when we get angry. And we want to look at that today in our topic that we have before us. What do you do when you get angry and don't know what to do? Let me show you in the outline there, the plan, kind of the roadmap for the day. There's a lot of material in your notes that I don't have the time to cover. So I'm going to sort of fly through some of it and skip over other parts of it. But you see at the top there, here's our plan. I want to show you the redefining of anger, the root of anger, the righteous expression of anger, and I must show you the ruination of anger. And then we want to hopefully spend a good bit of time with the replacement of anger. So let's begin, number one, with the redefining of anger. Now, this is not new to you. We've been taught here, we've read these things, that we are so good in our culture, in our society, in our own sinful hearts, that we relabel sins so it doesn't sound quite as bad. We often don't want to say you know what I'm sinfully angry right now rather we might say well, I'm losing my temper I'm a little bit touchy. I'm losing my cool. My child's throwing a temper tantrum. I Or maybe the adult is throwing a temper tantrum. Or maybe we often say, I'm frustrated, I'm irritated, I'm annoyed. And all of these words we hear all the time. And those are just really kind ways of rewording the biblical reality of anger. Some people talk about venting, scowling, snarling, boiling, steaming, glaring, snapping, hitting the roof, burning up, blowing up. All of these phrases are just redefinitions of, or maybe synonyms of, the biblical idea of anger. We're good at that. We need to understand it the way God describes it. And by the way, one thing is we're talking about anger in sort of this introductory level. We need to recognize that anger is far more than just a merely emotional thing, nor is it just a physiological issue. Although there are emotional responses, there is a physical component as well. when we get angry, right? We as Christians believe that we are two parts of our makeup, body and soul, right? The outer man, the inner man. And these are connected. One often affects the other. For example, we'll look at Genesis in a little bit, but Cain became angry. That's emotions. That's the desire of his heart. And then his countenance, physical, makeup, it fell, it fell. So they are connected oftentimes. Interestingly, biblical words for anger are quite colorful. When the Bible talks about anger, especially in the Hebrew, it connotes the idea of burning, trembling, shaking, the flaring of nostrils, hot passions, are words and ideas in the Hebrew for the understanding of anger. But we don't wanna have a simplistic understanding of anger. Oh, it's just merely physiological, or it's just merely emotional, or it's just something psychological. We wanna have a holistic, a well-rounded understanding of anger the way that the Bible presents it so that we can understand it accurately. But we're good at redefining anger. So we have to take all of these different words and really sort of call it for what it is. It's anger. So where does it come from? In your outline, look at number two, the root of anger. Now, in this, I want to take just a quick minute and talk about the secular understanding of where anger comes from, and then I want to talk about the biblical understanding of where anger comes from. Let's talk about the secular for a moment. So you could go to a psychology website, you could go to the American Psychological or Psychiatric Association website, and they'll talk about, you know, what do you do when you're fuming and somebody cuts you off in traffic? You know, your blood pressure skyrockets when your child disobeys you and won't cooperate. They don't use disobey when they don't cooperate with you. They will often say things like anger is a common and even a healthy emotion, they may often say, but you have to deal with it in a positive way. And so what often the secularists will say is that you have to get your anger under control. And so you need anger management tips, which is really an interesting way of talking about it. Anger management. The Bible never tells you to manage your anger. And so what do the secularists do? Well, they say, well, you need help. So you go to a doctor and they might recommend treatments like psychotherapy, or all the different ways that that might express itself, or different medications, or perhaps a combination of the two. Here are a couple of interesting quotes. Maybe you've heard this before. My temper is like a rubber band, usually flexible, but sometimes it snaps. Or maybe you've heard the best way to deal with your anger is to take a step back and throw something. Or maybe this one that's a little bit more common. Anger is like a sneeze. You can feel it coming, but you can't stop it. How hopeless. How hopeless. Secularists often will blame one of two things, or maybe perhaps both. Number one, they may blame nature because of your genetic predisposition. It runs in the family, it runs with your genes, it's because of your nature, or they might say your nurture. You're angry because of your social environment, because of the bad marriage that you're in, because of the work environment that you're in, because of your place in life and where you currently live or whatever. Secularists can often blame nature or nurture for the reasons why you get angry, and they'll give reasons or ways to deal with it. Express your anger would be one, suppress your anger would be another, or calm your anger is often brought into the secular understanding. Okay, let's leave all that. Let's talk about the biblical understanding. So how do we deal with it biblically? How do we understand the root of anger biblically? Well, very clearly and very simply and with no ambiguity at all, God says that our anger always comes from the heart. It always comes from the heart, meaning our desires. Our longings, our cravings, our wants. And I think one of the clearest verses in all the Bible on this, Ecclesiastes 7, verse 9. Don't be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the heart or in the bosom of fools. Very clear right there in Ecclesiastes. Jesus said in Matthew 15, 19, out of the heart come evil thoughts and murders. James 4 verse 1, what is the source of fights and quarrels among you? Is not the source your desires and your pleasures? Meaning you lust, you strongly desire something, and you don't have it. So you commit murder. You're angry. That's the biblical understanding. The world doesn't have a category for that. The secularists don't have a category for that. But yet God in the Word makes it so clear that anger comes not from the environment out there, but from my own heart right here, my own desires. I think I put in your outline there that the New Testament has three different main primary words in Greek for anger. There's about 20. I think that's even a low number. It might even be closer to 30 different words in Hebrew for anger. And you see there in your notes, there's one that is the idea of wrath, kind of an explosive anger, a loud shouting. That's the first word. And then you've got another expression that the Bible often talks about, or gay, anger. It's kind of an abiding, settled attitude, a disposition. We might just say, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated. I don't want to talk about it. It's that kind of an idea. You're not exploding and hitting things, but you're angry on the inside, kind of the slow burn. The third word that is often used for anger is that of irritability, exasperation, or embitterment. And you see those scriptures there in your outline. But let me just define anger because I guess we're talking about it. It'd be good to just give a simple definition. You see two of them there in that box on your outline. Number one, here's a good definition. Anger is a whole personed an active response of negative moral judgment against a perceived evil. I perceive that something bad is happening. I think, I perceive that something bad is happening, and because of that, I am, in my whole person, responding actively to that in a negative way. Richard Baxter gives a good, it's a little bit archaic in the 17th century, but it's a good definition here of anger, very biblical as well. So that's the definition of anger and the root of anger. You know, it's quite hopeless when you look at the secularists and the psychologists and the different articles and blogs out there. And many of them will acknowledge, you know, current research in the medical community nowadays is we don't know where anger comes from. So here are the ways to just manage or curb your anger. Well, the simplest Bible-believing Christian can say, I know exactly where anger comes from because God tells us in the Bible. So you, Christian, from the all-sufficient and clear word of God, you know what the whatever PhD, double PhD, MD doesn't have a category for because you have the mind of Christ. revealed in the word of God. You know the root of anger. So look with me now in your outline at number three. And as I was pulling this together and pulling notes and researching, I thought, you know, I've got to teach on the righteous expression of anger. I think in the years of Christ Fellowship, I haven't taught on this enough or even very much at all. So I wanted to deal with it here at least even for a couple of minutes. the righteous expression of anger. Did you know the angriest person in the Bible is God? God is the one who always, in a perfect and in a holy way, expresses righteous, never sinful, but righteous anger. There are hundreds, hundreds of occasions in the Old Testament where God is angry. And there are many synonyms of that word anger. The indignation of God, the vengeance of God, the wrath of God. He is hot with anger and on and on we could go with that. Let me just give you a sampling of some scriptures and you know them well, but I'll just give you a few scriptures. Exodus 32, God is angry when the people of Israel constructed and worshiped the golden calf. God was angry. And then numbers 11, God was angry when the people of Israel complained. In Deuteronomy 29, God's anger comes when his people don't abide by all things written in the book of the law and the curses of God come upon them. In Psalm 69, we read that God's indignation and burning anger will overtake his enemies. Psalm 2, speaking of Messiah, the Son, we read that God will terrify sinners in the fury of His anger. Psalm 95, we're gonna read about this in Hebrews here in a few weeks, in Hebrews 3. God loathes the generation that strays, that errs, that wanders away from Him. Israel did in the desert. Revelation 14, we read that sinners in hell will drink of the wine of God's wrath, mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger forever and ever and ever. Nahum 1.2, the Lord is avenging and wrathful. Psalm 7.11 even says that God is a righteous God and has indignation every single day. Even Jesus, Mark chapter 10, Jesus was indignant. Interesting Greek word. It's two Greek words put together for emphasis and intensity. Jesus was really indignant when people hindered children from coming to the Savior. So, the anger of God is an unmistakable theme. It's always good, always righteous, always controlled, always God-centered. It's never an emotional outburst. It's never uncontrolled. It's always fair and right, an expression of His perfect holiness against sin. So God is righteously anger. And sometimes when you and I get angry, I wanna think, well, my anger is righteous. And it might be for a moment, but I don't think it stays righteous all that often and all that long. But I give you there in your outline, just a couple of indicators that you see there so that you can know or to help you discern when your anger is righteous. Remember Ephesians chapter four, tells us be angry and do not sin. Remember that? Now, another way to think about that is when you're angry. It's not a command to get angry, but when you are angry, do not sin. Deal with it quickly. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. And the Lord gives much help in those verses there. But you see, they're the three indicators that your anger is righteous. Here's the main thing. When we are sinfully angry, it's usually because I am not getting what I want. Righteous anger is different because it's not a self-absorbed reaction. It is, I'm angry because God is not getting the glory that he deserves. Very different. God is at the center of righteous anger. Sinful anger is when I am at the center and I'm not getting what I want. But interestingly, anger, when you think about anger, I think about it like a fire. You know, a fire can be used for heating, a fire can be used for cooking, and that's good, and that's useful, and that's helpful, but a fire can also be used to burn down the house as well. There's a very dangerous side of anger that we need to discuss and be aware of. By the way, do you see in your chart there, or in your outline, there's a little chart. On the left side of the page, there's unholy anger, and on the right side, you see the holy anger. See that? David Powleson put this together. It's really good. When we have unholy or sinful anger, here are some of the characteristics. When I don't get what I want, I am the Lord of my own life. My will is being violated. What's my motive? My desire is not being met. I want this. And really, I am my own functional God in that moment. But God's godly anger, righteous anger, is when God doesn't get what he wants. Christ is the Lord of my life. God's will is being violated. My motive is the glory of God. And God must be God. And we are righteously angry when it looks like that with those manifestations. But like anger, like being like a fire, there are really dangerous, dangerous ways that anger can ruin a life. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you've seen it. Maybe you have been a part of the difficulty, the pain, the tragedy, the devastation of anger. In your outline, look at number four, the ruination of anger. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I think, was spot on when he said this, nothing I maintain so constantly gives the devil an opportunity is loss of control and anger. I mean, right, you turn on the TV and you see a tennis star, a tennis star who has forfeited a match because he or she is threatening profanities at the line judge. Or you turn on the TV and you see, you read about a motorist in traffic who had road rage and they're yelling and they're screaming and they pull over and then they pull a gun on the person that they're upset with. Or you pull into your driveway and a neighbor is screaming at another neighbor because he accidentally parked or drove on his grass. I mean, and on and on and on we could go with scenarios like this. A young lady named Grace gets upset when Jonathan, her husband, seems to ignore her when she tries to address the problems in their marriage. She flies into a rage. She yells at him because he's not responding to her. He's not communicating to her. He's not changing the way she wants him to change, and she is or the young lady Ruth, who's married to Patrick. He is a domineering guy, he's a controlling guy, and he's a complainer. She's often angry and bitter and fed up, and she finally says, I'm done. After 25 years of marriage, I am done. All of my anger has been pent up, it has been inwardly boiling in my heart, and she leaves. Unbridled anger can devastate a life. a marriage, a family, a relationship. We understand that, we've seen that. What I want you to do, I've talked about the Bible, but let's look at it together. Take your Bible, go to Genesis chapter four. Now, I was sort of rushing through a lot of the introductory material to get to this, because what I want you to see with me in Genesis chapter 4 is I want you to see a biblical example of how anger that is unbridled and uncontrolled can absolutely ruin a life, literally. You know, we often hear these conversations and we see it take place all around us. You know, is it really my fault that I'm angry? And people say, well, it's not really your fault. You know, you're married to a difficult spouse. You really got a tough job. You had a tough upbringing. Is it really your fault that you're angry? Yes. Yes, it is. The blame falls upon us. What I want to look at with you in these opening verses is I want to show you the danger of uncontrolled anger. I want to show you how to deal with it. And I want to show you how God, the master and perfect biblical counselor, provides counsel to those who are angry. So let's look at the progression into sin beginning in verse one. Now the man, that's Adam, had relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. And she said, I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord. And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of the flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord out of the fruit of the ground. But verse four, Abel on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. But, verse five, see it here, but for Cain and for his offering, God had no regard. So Cain became angry. He became very angry and his countenance fell. Okay, so here's what's going on. Here's the progression. You have Cain who wanted something. Cain and Abel both bring their offerings to God, and what is it that caused the anger of Cain? He wanted something, but it wasn't to obey God. Whatever that desire was, he wasn't getting what he wanted or what he thought he deserved. He brought His offering to God, but God had, verse five, no regard for it. What's the lesson for me and you? Often we desire something more than we desire obeying God. I want this. I need this. I crave this. I've gotta have this. And then we get angry when we don't get it. When we don't get it. So when that happened to Cain, he wanted something. He thought that he deserved something. And that desire, that craving wasn't met the way that he wanted it. And so, verse five, he became very angry and Cain's countenance fell. His physical feature changed. Do you see that? He's emotionally angry, and yet he's physically, physiologically affected by the anger. They often go together. We get this, right? I mean, that happens all the time. You know, what's wrong with you? I can tell that you're angry. Do you want to talk about it? I remember years ago there was a very tough meeting at church and I walked out on a Sunday after service and one of the men said to me, Jeff, what's wrong? What happened? I was physically affected because of what happened in that meeting. It often goes together. Inner anger on the inside affects the physical, the physiological makeup on the outside. Cain's countenance fell. Now that's the progression into sin. Cain wanted something, he didn't get it, he became very angry, his countenance fell. Now look at verse six. Here's the patience of God. I like to think of it as God, the perfect biblical counselor. What's God gonna do with a really angry person? Verse six. The Lord said to Cain, two questions, don't miss it. Why are you angry? And number two, why has your countenance fallen? Why are you angry? I mean, what a good heart-probing question. Actually, in the Hebrew, you know what God says here? Why are you burning with hot anger? Cain, you are. You are livid. It's like your face is red. I mean, you're seething with anger. Why? Why are you so angry? What's up? What is it that you're really wanting? Why are you angry? Here's the second question. Why has your countenance fallen? I can see it in your face. Now, let me just pause here. This isn't just something that happened way back then. This is something that we can all relate to. I mean, we could sit down with a table of men and say, men, why do you get angry? And maybe one man might say, I just want my wife to follow our family budget. Maybe another man says, my wife is always arguing with me and she seems to be about nothing much of the time. One man might say, I just want my kids to obey me and respect me. Maybe another man might say, I just want my boss to stop making my life miserable at work. I just hate going to work. And then another man says, I just want to get a better grade. I want that promotion. I want a new position. Maybe somebody else says, you know, after a long day at work, I just want a quiet home. I just want to relax. I just want to watch the game in the evening and just veg. Maybe another person says, you know what? I just actually want to quiet. A devotion time in the morning uninterrupted? Will my children just sleep so I can have a devotion time uninterrupted in the morning? Another man might say, I just want to be intimate with my wife more frequently. And there we have it, with all these men that have shared all the things that make them angry and their countenances can fall, and there we have it, with that answer, we have the little idol that our hearts can craftily create. I want this, and I've gotta have it. I've gotta have this, and if I don't get it, I respond with a whole person emotional response of anger. Things that we often want or obey more than we want to obey God indicate little small-eye idols that we've crafted in our hearts. Often, when we get angry, in that moment, my core desire is not to obey God. Rather, my core desire is I want to get what I want. So God, the master biblical counselor, look at verse seven. This is so cool. If you do well, the idea is, okay, if you choose the right path, If you choose, if you choose the right path, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, if you don't choose the right path, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Verse seven, God says, Cain, if you choose to do well, aren't you gonna be lifted up? Aren't you gonna be accepted? If you choose a different desire, Cain, if you choose to obey God, rather than to just do what you want, God is going to accept you. It's going to go better for you. Verse seven ends, sin is crouching at the door and, oh wow, its desire is for you. The desire is for you and you must master it. Literally, the idea is you have to control your desire. You have to have mastery over your desires. Don't succumb to your emotions and your feelings, but you have to master it. Well, verse eight, Cain rejects the counsel from the master biblical counselor. Verse eight, Cain told, or he talks to Abel, his brother, and it comes about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and he killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where's Abel, your brother? Again, what a master counselor. God knows he's probing the heart through questions, drawing out the heart. Where's your brother? Where is your brother? And he said, I don't know. Lie. Do you see how anger leads to other sins? Uncontrolled anger. I mean, it led to murder. It leads to blatant lying. And just progression after progression leads to more and more and more. So your anger and my anger, it may not lead you and me to do something as egregious as murder. But if Your anger and my anger masters us. It can lead us to do things that we might regret. Speaking words in anger that we might never say otherwise. Ephesians 4 tells us in the words of the Apostle Paul, the end of the chapter, Ephesians 4 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander Be put away. Let all these things be put away from you along with all malice. And then he's gonna tell you what to put in its place in verse 32. Colossians 3 verse 5 tells us to put the sin of anger to death. Literally in the Greek, kill it. Kill sinful anger, kill it. This isn't anger management in the secularist idea. This is the divine mandate from the Bible to the child of God who has been born again. We are to put these things to death. Genesis 4 verse 7 sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must Master it You must master it Now I want you to follow with me in your outline. I give you two long paragraphs by John Henderson He's a biblical counselor and he's writing an article on the sin of anger and from Genesis chapter four, he's sort of diagnosing it and giving help. It's a wonderful article, but let me just read these paragraphs. Track with me here. He says our primary danger begins with our hearts and not our behavior. That's key. The main problem comes out of us, not out of our environment. Suffering can come from many places, but suffering never ruined anyone's soul. The crops that Cain brought to the Lord weren't the source of the problem. Abel wasn't the location of the problem. Cain's parents weren't the key issue. The standard of gods weren't the problem either. The source of trouble, where was it? Cain's very own heart. Conversation between God and Cain makes that very clear. So the basic nature of our problem also becomes clearer. This is so good here. It is firstly a worship problem. Did you hear that? When we get angry, it's a worship problem. Not a psychological and not an emotional problem at its core. It is a worship problem. And God responded to Cain on these grounds. Cain did not approach God with the heart of humble worship. Abel did. The psychological and emotional troubles came as a result of, they were not the cause of, Cain's worship. His countenance fell. In other words, Cain became angry and dejected. Psychological and emotional troubles are clearly present, but they're the symptom and not the cause. And then God says, you must master it. The sin is crouching at your door. You gotta master it. You and I might think, huh, I could never do that. That's wrong for two reasons. Number one, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of God, you have the ability to obey God. Romans 8 makes that very clear, especially the opening 13 or 14 verses. You have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, so you can, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh. You can do it. In the counseling room, I'll often say to counselees in the opening few sessions, you can never say, I can't do it. Because Christian, you can. You can by the power of the Holy Spirit. But another reason why we can't say, I don't have the self-control to do it. Oh, yes, we do. And I have an illustration here of a, just imagine a mother where everything goes wrong one day, everything goes wrong. I mean, the dinner is burnt, the children are acting up, the rebellious two-year-old needs another spanking, toys are everywhere, chalk on the kitchen floor, paint spilled in the dining room, marbles are lining the floor in the hallway, glitter is stuck on the bedroom carpet, and finally the mom erupts with this volcanic anger toward all the children and she's yelling and she's screaming and then the cell phone rings and it's the pastor's wife and she says hello how are you I'm good she has the self-control in that moment to choose to act in a certain way in certain circumstances we can do this we have self-control and by the power and aid of the Holy Spirit we can Okay, so that's the ruin of anger, and Cain is a very fitting illustration of that. So, Christian, what would God say? The master biblical counselor, he would say, has your countenance fallen? Are you angry? Do well. Do well. Choose to do well, and it'll go well for you. Sin is crouching at the door. Always remember that. Sin is crouching at the door, but you gotta master it. And you can. by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, in the time that remains, let's just take a few minutes and look in your outline number five, the replacement of anger. And I suppose that's where we should be all along because the title of the topic is, what do you do when you get angry and you don't know what to do? Maybe for you and me, we're not erupting with loud anger and hitting things every day, but you and I do get angry. We do get angry. What do we do when that happens? Yeah, I think of it like this. Lou Priolo said it well. Anger is like an internal inward alarm system that often indicates the extent to which I am guilty of idolatry. Why am I angry? Why am I responding this way? What do I want so much? That's the key word. What do I want? So what's a game plan? Okay, in the moment, in the moment, your emotions are rising. Anger is settling in. What do you do in the moment when you become angry? Listen to some of these Proverbs here. I'll give you a little plan, but Proverbs 15, 18, a hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. Proverbs 29, verse 8, scorners set a city aflame, but wise men turn away anger. Proverbs 14, 29, he who is slow to wrath is great understanding, but he who is hasty in his spirit exalts folly. Proverbs 12, 16, a fool's anger is known at once. But a wise and prudent man conceals dishonor. Proverbs 15, 28, the heart of the righteous studies how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things. So what do we do? How do we respond well in the moment when, not if, but when we become angry? A simple acronym that I heard years ago, and I've used it in biblical counseling. It's easy to remember. PRAY. P-R-A-Y. What do you do? Number one, pause. Pause. Rather than emotionally responding with that word or response or reaction, pause. With that, Number two, rehearse. P-R, rehearse. Speak truth. I love this. Counsel your own heart. You think, well, what does that mean? Rehearse the character of God. God, you're good. God, you're in control. God, you are providentially bringing this into my life because you love me. We could rehearse our dependence upon God. Lord, I'm weak. I'm frail. I am finite. P-R-A. Well, then what? We have to act. Not react, but act. Act appropriately. It's a volitional choice. I know who my God is. I know how weak I am. I know that I'm getting angry right now, but Lord, you tell me in your word, I must choose. I must choose to let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from me." Ephesians 4. Well, then what do I do? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4, 32. So, okay, act, P-R-A, and then Y, yield. I have to trust the Lord. Everything in me might be rising up in this emotion of anger, but I have to yield. I have to trust in my good God. That's a helpful acronym, sort of a game plan, maybe a fighter, a fighter verse, or a fighter acronym to help you in that moment of difficulty. You see in your outline there, what do you do when you have sinned in anger? And there's some helpful points there. Look at the next section. What do you do when you've received someone else's anger? They just vented at you. I mean, they just poured out, they just unleashed, they just got a vent to someone. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word can stir up anger, and Alexander Strauch gives wonderful counsel in that. Or what do you do when people are angry at you and they unleash and unload upon you? Some wisdom there. But in letter E, look at this in your outline. How do you slay? How do you kill the habitual sin of anger in your life? Okay, so maybe you're hearing this and you think, you know, this really is a battle for me. That this really is sort of the fighting ground in my Christian life. Maybe it's not just the volcanic eruption of rage and anger, but there's just this irritability, just this anger that can settle in in your heart. What do you do? How do I do this? And this is a long 12 point, not intended for you to get it all done today. but something that you can begin to practice and implement on your own in the mornings with a game plan with God's help so that you can put off the sin of anger. Then you see letter F there, questions to diagnose your own heart of anger. Well, am I really an angry person? Well, here are some questions that might help you diagnose your own heart. Okay, but letter G, look at this, and then we'll close. Letter G here, a self-appointed homework plan. Here's something that I've given out to others, some counselees at times, who have battled with anger. These are things that I have done before to help me. What do you do? Let me just give you sort of a five-point change and growth plan. Number one, memorize Ephesians 4, 31 and 32. Write it on a note card, write it on a Post-it note, type it out, keep it with you. Take it with you, review it often, daily if you need to, hourly if you need to. Number two, make a list of five ways that you can show love in your words and actions to those who have hurt or disappointed or mistreated you, and then begin to implement them one by one. Yeah, I'm really mad at that person. Well, here's the counseling plan. How can I show love to them? How can I choose to serve them rather than maintain a bitter attitude toward them? Number three, pray for those with whom you're angry. Pray for them. It's hard to maintain anger when you're bringing them before the throne of grace. If it's somebody else, if it's a child, if it's a relative, if it's a coworker, pray for them. Number four, create a note card with the five most important truths that you need to remember. Like number one, I am a new creation. I'm new. Romans 6 11 I can choose to present my body as Instruments of righteousness to God. I can do this. God has given me the ability in the new life in Christ and then number five just another change and growth plan help keep and maintain an anger journal and there's just some helpful questions you can ask there and But with God's help, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and with the power of His Word, and the love of our great God, He is absolutely good to show us our sin, to show us where we've erred, and then He gives hope. And he gives a solution in Christ and in the gospel so that, Christian, we really can put these sins off and we can replace them with godly virtues, right? May the Lord help us to do that for his glory. Let's pray. Father, we know that even in all of these different matters relating to anger. We battle, we struggle, we fight. It is hard for us. And yet, Lord, we cast ourselves upon your almighty power. and the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to help us to overcome sinful anger, to put it off, and to replace it with godliness. Help us to have control, self-control, patience, and love, all for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.