Faithbase

Hello, friends. Good to see you. And as we start, let's invite the Lord's presence. Heavenly Father, we thank you for being with us. And as always, let your word speak, let you speak, and let us be receptive to your words. Take me away and let it just be you that they hear. This is all for in Jesus' name. Amen. Again, good to see everybody. Now, when we look at the human dynamics of how human beings are, we're made up of a lot of different facets, different emotions, how we express ourselves, you know, good and bad, because there's some bad elements in there that we've been fighting very hard to take control of. And through the grace of God and the power of God, we're able to resolve those things and have total control because of the power of the Lord. But again, we're made up of different facets in terms of who we are as human beings. And in this episode, we're going to look at one of those facets in terms of anger. And the title of this presentation is called Cease from Anger and Forsake Wrath. Cease from Anger and Forsake Wrath, Managing Anger. And the text is taken, actually, the title is taken from the text, Psalms 37, 8. I'm actually going to read it. Psalms 37, 8, it said, and this is the King James verse, it says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. And that's in the King James version. And this is a whole lot of different versions where they express this. In the New King James Version, it says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm. The American Standard Version says, cease from anger and forsake and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil doing. The Bereans Study Bible says, refrain from anger and abandoned wrath. Do not fret, it can only bring harm. The English Revived Version says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself, it tended only to evil doing. The message says, brittle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes, it only makes things worse. And two other versions, this is the World English Bible, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Don't fret, it leads only to even evil doing. So, and there's other versions, but the point of it all, in this case, they all specify the same thing, like what it says in Psalms. I believe it says in the King James Version, I'm sorry. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Now, I read that because, like I said, we're, you know, God made us wonderfully. It says we're wonderfully made, you know, God made us beautiful, even though sin has, you know, caused destruction in the way, the perfection that God had put. God still gave us various emotions. Now, he didn't make us robots, where we cannot express, the emotions are important, but we're not governed by our emotions. But then again, we're not robots where we don't have no feelings because, you know, emotions are important. Empathy, God had an emotion, that's why he came down to die for us, that emotion of love, empathy for us, but he still knew how to control himself when the devil tried to push him to respond in certain ways. And this is why it's so important that we know how to manage anger, because if we're supposed to be a loving body, expressing love to one another and showing the world God's love, having cutthroat in each other is not helping, and expressing violence and anger towards each other doesn't help. It's because many times anger leads to violence. Now, we read in different, as I said, we read in those, that verse, that chapter of, that verse of Psalms or what it says in anger, here's some others. We read in Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 7, 9, be not hasty in the spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Proverbs 14, 17, he that is soon angry, deal it foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated. Proverbs 15, 1, a soft anger turns into way wrath, but previous words stir up anger. And, you know, we can go through the Bible and see so many examples of how anger operated. There's, we look at, you know, in the beginning, Genesis, when Cain killed Abel, you know, it was about, it was that anger, the anger he had towards the Lord, because his sacrifice wasn't accepted. And he got so mad that when Abel talked to him, and Abel, if you read, you know, the text in Genesis, the story in Genesis, when Abel went to talk to him, he talked to him, and it didn't, it didn't seem like he was yelling at him. He talked to him in a very, you know, calm way. He said, if you do right by the Lord, won't the Lord accept it? But Cain was so angry at God that he took his anger out on Abel and killed him. We see the same thing with Esau and Jacob, you know, when Jacob deceived Esau, Esau was so angry, he was going to kill Jacob. And that's why Jacob had to run for his life. And we could go through countless stories, and we're going to touch on some of them, because we see how anger can go a certain way. And we notice many times when that anger that people have towards God, they take it out on human beings. We look at Revelations 12, 12, it says, therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. That's in Revelations 12, 12. So we see how the devil, it warns us, the devil is so angry at his, knowing his destruction is coming soon, that he's taking it out on the world. It says in the other verses, chapters in the Bible, how he's at wrath with the church, God's seed, God's truth, which is the church. He's taking out his whole, all the chaos you see in this world is the devil behind it. And because God's church is the light in this wicked world, this is why this wickedness of anger and violence is going on. Even though sometimes we don't really connect the dots, because we see different wars and killings and all different types of things. And we're like, was this politics? No, what is really stems from is that God has his church in this earth, spreading a word to save humanity. And the devil is going to do everything he can to keep human beings from being lost. If he can wipe out God's church, just like how he tries to wipe out God's message, he has the whole world. But God always says that he has a remnant and that remnant is going to be here to give the truth to the world so God can save souls, so he can clean us up. So we see how this anger that the devil uses, he uses it to destroy people and he uses it to destroy relationships. And even if it doesn't get violent with one another, we can have contention from one another that we can't even talk with one another, deal with each other. And then how are you going to function if you have that type of animosity towards another? That these feelings that rise up that you can't even deal with one another, especially if we're victims of being hurt. Now in some of those texts, we hear in Ephesians 4, 31 to 32, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. 32 says, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. James 1, 19 verse 20, it says, my dear brothers and sisters, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. That's from the New International Version. Now, again, the most famous one that we read about where God shows how you can be angry because anger can still be a good thing is one of the most famous texts. I have read it, but I'm going to reread it. It's Ephesians 4, 26. Ephesians 4, 26, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. That's one of the most famous ones where we see that anger is not always a sin, but it's how you control it. How do you control your anger? There's a statement, a woman was speaking to her pastor and she said, she tried to rationalize her anger outburst. She said, there's nothing wrong with me losing my temper. I blow up and then it's all over. This is what the pastor said. So does a shotgun. And you look at the damage that leaves behind. So she was trying to justify, well, when I get mad, I explode and then let it all out and it's fine. And that's why he said, well, so there's a shotgun and you see what damage it does. So there has to be a sense of control, you know, even when things kind of piss us off. And the Bible, that's why I read in the famous text where it says, Ephesians 4, 26, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. So God tells us we can be angry about a situation, but it doesn't have to lead to sin. One of it we create about is righteous indignations. You know, typically when we think about righteous indignation, we think of the emotion of anger, but it's usually perceived because of mistreatment, insult, malice of one another. You know, many times it's due to what we see unfairness being done to somebody. And that's where this righteous indignation comes about. Jesus had it. It came up many times. Many times we read about where Jesus showed the one of the most famous ones when he cleansed the temple. And you read about it in John and as well as in Matthew. The first one's in John 2, and then the next one is listed in Matthew. That was the second one, but the first one was in John where he cleaned out the temple. And we see why when they were in the temple, they were basically ripping people off, you know, and this was supposed to be a house of worship, but they were, they took the God's house and made it into a, that's why he called it a den of thieves. They were ripping people off. The priests knew it, didn't say anything about it. They were benefiting from it. And they took the holiness of God's temple, of God's church, and threw it on the wayside to benefit their own greeds and ripping people off and causing them not to get the blessing that God had instilled upon everybody. And Christ in his righteousness stopped all of that. You know, we read about how he took the cord and the whip, but if you really read, he didn't hit nobody with the whip. He swung it around to scare people. And that's all you got to do sometimes. People like to say, well, Jesus hit it. If you take up an object and you start moving it back and forth, you don't even have to touch anybody. Everybody's going to move out their way so they don't get touched. But he was doing that to clear out everybody, turned over the table to say, this is not right. He saw the wrong that he was doing and it stirred his soul. And this is where the righteousness of the nation comes about. So anger can be used the right way. Again, we read different stories where in the Bible and we see in life how an anger comes about the different response. We look at the story of Samson. Remember when they, even though Samson, in Judges, Samson didn't follow the Lord the way he was supposed to, but we see situations where his anger responded in certain matters. When they killed his wife, the first marriage he had, when they burnt his wife and her family and they killed him, the Philistines just brutally killed him. Samson went back and he took him out. When it says he did a slaughter, this is before they took him and he fought on Leah. This is the first time where he went and he killed him and he was angry. And you see there was a compassion he had because what they did to his wife, that he went back and responded in a certain way. And we just see how that happens. You look in the story of Samuel, when David with Abigail, remember when David was being chased by Saul and he came into the area where Nabal, Abigail's husband, he was a rich man, but the Bible explains that he was an evil man. And David and his men protected Nabal's shepherds. And then just, he sent some messages, he said, could you give us something to eat? Because we've been out here. And he responded very cruel and disrespectfully saying, who is this David? And just insulting, he said, I'm not giving them anything. David got so mad that the text says, he told all his men, grab your swords. He said, in a manner of how he said it, he said, any man that piss on a tree, we're going to kill. David was that angry. And you could see the frustration he had. He's being chased like an animal by Saul for something he didn't do. Now he does another kind of thing and he sees the insult that slap in the face. So now he's like, look, all gloves are off. I'm going after him. And when Abigail found out, you see, she came and quieted David down to give him a more tone, cause him to resolve his anger. That's why when we read that verse in that text where it says, a kind's words will diminish anger. So we see these ways in which when we get angry, we can control ourselves. We can find ways to not let it take the best of us. And like we said, there's times when you are going to be angry, justifiably so. That's why we use the example of Jesus. Another time is when Jesus was with the Pharisees. He showed the hardness of their hearts and he called them hypocrites. He said things in anger, but even in his anger, he didn't seek revenge upon their sins. And he still had compassion on them to the point where he told them, if you don't change your ways, you will be lost. So there's many ways when we're dealing with our anger, we can have ways to come at it. That's why I said, if you're that angry, take a walk. Don't respond all the time. You may have to remove yourself from the situation. You don't want to get to the point where it can get violent. That's the last thing you want it to happen because of violence. When they say violence doesn't solve anything, it doesn't. Even with the wars and we understand self-defense and when things have to happen like that, but even in that sense, there's still a ramification of that. The self-defense just comes about because by all the choice you have to protect yourself. But if you can avoid it to get into any level of that, that's why wars, a lot of times they want to not have wars because there's always ramifications to that. And when we look at it in a minute sense, in a more micro sense, it's the same attitude. We see how violence and anger, people go around killing people, taking out their frustrations, their hatred, and doing all types of evil things. And this is where we see the destruction of society. But then there's a point where righteous indignation has to come about because we see unfairness. We see discrimination and in very harsh and malice and mean ways. There should be an anger for that because unjust things, we see it with racism and sexism and all those things. It has to be an anger for that because that's contrary to God. When Jesus went into the temple and he drove them out, when Jesus saw the unkind that was happening to people that were not able to defend themselves, there was an anger. That's why I use those examples of, you know, when Samson went after the men that killed his wife and David and all that, when these unjust cause people to step up and say, this is wrong and something needs to be changed. Now we know sometimes the angles went a certain way, but still in terms of unjust, this is where the righteous inclination comes in. And God gives us the ability to say, this needs to be changed. Passive resistance is what they use during the civil rights time. So they saw the unjust were upset about it and chose a strategy to change it. And they connected it spiritually in the way of the teachings of Christ. And they use a certain strategy. Now, and some people said they couldn't do that. They said they can't go out and allow people to hit them. Even though this was an aggressive tactics, this wasn't a pat, um, they weren't being weak. They were being aggressive. They just use a strategy to do it. And some people said I couldn't do that. And that's why they said I couldn't be in one of those type of things. If somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. You have to know yourselves. And when you get into personal situations, you have to know your triggers. You have to know what it is that's going to cause you to do certain things. And if we look out for one another, we wouldn't want to do things to hurt each other. And that's where you take control of yourself. You're not an animal. You have reasons. You have reasons. You can think. God gives us that ability. And when it says to show love to one another, this helps us with controlling our anger. Or if we have to exhibit anger, we know how to exhibit it. It's being channeled in the right direction. God, and we see this with God's righteous anger. Romans 118, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. As we see, some people will receive many groups and will take the truth and persecute people with it. And God is not for that. And that's when God will step in because you're abusing the power, especially abusing God's truth. We see in Romans 2, 5 through 9. But after thy hardness and impatient heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, unto them who be patient, continence in well doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, ignomination and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil. And it says of the Jew first and also the Gentile. And we know the reason why they say Jew and Gentile is because at that time, even though it's the New Testament, the Jew was significantly, not significantly, symbolically referred to, as you would say, the Christian and the non-Christian. The Christian who, the non-Christian at the time, because the Jews were the majority in the church and they were spreading the truth, they were held accountable first because the that's where it came down to. The Christians, we know when you accept God and you accept his truth, it's information we know that maybe somebody that doesn't, hasn't accepted the truth does not know. So you, too much who's given, much is, I'm getting tongue-tied, but the more you know, the more you're held accountable for. So when we're blessed to know the truth, we're going to be held accountable, but nobody's going to be having an excuse not to know. Ones that don't know the truth are going to come in contact with the truth. And that's why God is going to be able to hold them accountable. So here he's saying the church is always held first, held responsible first. He said, I come and bring judgment onto the church first because the church is the apple of God's eyes. They're the ones who are expanding the truth. So in many ways, we should know better than we should set an example. But at the same time, the world is not going to have an excuse. They're going to, it's going to get a point where they have to make a decision. And that's when everybody's on even playing field because judgment's going to come to all. And God wants this judgment to be fairly so we can be saved. The tale was made for the devil and his angels. God is not joy at anyone being, God does not, God is not, God does not have any pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. He wants everyone to turn from their wicked ways and be saved. So we see God is telling us if we turn from sin, we won't be lost. And in that we will be able to also control our emotions and know how to exhibit it. Again, we're not robots. We're supposed to express ourself in every way, every way. And in those ways, it will be positive and well shared with brothers and sisters. So even with anger, there's times where your anger has to be exhibited because like we said, when something wrong is happening, we don't just sit back and let it go by. But at the same token, we don't want our anger to govern us that every five minutes, we don't know how to talk to each other. We just yelling at each other. We're screaming at each other. We're saying unkind words to each other. We're slicing pistachios off. You know, we want to be able to have a spirit of love that we show kindness and love to one another. And this is why knowing how to govern oneself is so important. And again, it's not walking on a tightrope. It's just once you accept the Lord, your personality becomes conformed to the best way he wants us to be. And this is how we'll be able to operate. And you will see the way our personality carries it. And that's why it says, you know, when certain things go on, we find different ways of how to deal with it. When issues come about that may cause us to feel a certain way, we know how to maneuver. You know, when your anger is getting to the point where you can't control your emotions, you say, okay, I got to step back. I got to take control. I can't let my, you don't let your emotions govern you. You govern your emotions. And by governing your emotions, like we said, it doesn't mean that you are just a robot. I remember there was a TV show called Star Trek, and there was a character on it called Mr. Spot. And Mr. Spot was always like, he didn't show any emotions. He would always say, that's not logical. You know, and that's because of the way the character is. But they even said, because I saw something about when they were making the show, because the actor was playing this character, they had to give breaks where they could show him express his emotions because of the way the character was. So even with them creating the character like that, they still had to show different angles where sometimes he got kind of emotional. Because the reality is we don't walk in a way where we don't express. Jesus cried. You know, that's an emotion, and that was an emotion of compassion. But Jesus also showed happiness, and he tried to show that more often than the sadness, because he wanted to bring hope. And even when dealing with each other, you want to see that your emotions can give you the ability to interact with one another on a positive way. You know, there was another saying, my assistant brother, Lisa, would say, you're too cool to laugh. You know, you're so cool, because there's some people that are super cool. They're cool. And it's all right to be cool, but when you're so cool that you can't express yourself in any other way, it's like, hey, what's up? You that cool that you can't express it that way? And then you get to the point where the anger comes, and you just lash out in a point where people are like, where did that come from? How did this come about? You know, and that's sometimes when you hold things in, you bottle it up. And then when the slightest thing happened, you explode. And we've seen so many incidents with that. I know there's people we know personally, and celebrities and things of that nature, where you see anger was so bottled up that when it lashed out, it became such a terrible scene. So you don't want that type of anger to be in you, to control you. You want to be able to say, well, you know, if this is bothering me, let me remove myself from the situation. There's certain things you may not say, oh, I'm not going to put up with this. And you shouldn't, because if you do, that's going to cause some anger. But it doesn't mean you'll have any malice or hatred to the person. You may just have to remove yourself from that situation and know what your triggers are. And that's the important things of controlling your anger, knowing what your triggers are, knowing what are the things that can cause harm to you. And if you know that these things are not healthy for you, removing them from your circle or from your environment. Sometimes you have no control of the environment, so to speak, but you have the power of God helping you to manage through the environment. But there may be specific things in your circle that you know, I need to remove this. Watching these programs don't help me. Reading these type of materials does not help me. It just causes me to feel a certain way. So let me read or listen to this type of music is not good for me. Let me listen and read these types of things that would uplift my spirit. So when I do see things that are not too happy, I don't just fly off the handle. I know how to deal with it. You know, if you have more positive in your life, it can filter out the negative that we are in, that we have to deal with. And what's more positive than to have Jesus in your life and to have his word in you. And that helps you in a much greater way. And on that note, let's thank the Lord. Heavenly Lord, we thank you for who you are. We just ask you to please help us to be governed by you so we'll know how to show your love. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Please support our sponsors. By supporting our sponsors, you support our ministry. Eden Salt contributes heavily in the work of mission and humanitarian work in nine countries around the world. You can support by going to EdenSalt.com. Please use the promo code, the word at checkout. See you again next week. Eden Salt is the salt for you. 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