Anger

[00:00:00] Well, church, I want to go ahead and open up in James, verse one and 19 through 20. You all want to read along with me. I will be reading out of the english standard version for this says, know this, my beloved brothers. [00:00:19] Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. [00:00:27] For the anger of a man does not produce the righteousness of God. [00:00:35] That's why this is going to lead me into my topic for tonight. I want to talk for just a few moments on anger. [00:00:45] We pray over this message. Church. Thank you, Jesus foundation for this. Would you continue to guide us into your kingdom, Jesus? O God, would you give us a crown for this word to make the way in our lives? Jesus. [00:01:10] Thank you, Jesus. [00:01:12] Everyone said in Jesus name. [00:01:17] Thank you, Jesus. Jesus. [00:01:24] Y'all can be seated. [00:01:27] So I've said this a couple times in the youth, but I have become a person who likes to study. I like to read studies. I like to read. I like to learn more about everything that I'm trying to research. And I found a study from the National Library of medicine. [00:01:48] They did a study on anger and the effects that it has in the body. [00:01:54] What they found, and I'll quote this, it said exactly, anger and rage are then transformed into feelings of hate, competition, subtle resentment, sadism, contempt, envy, jealousy, and possessiveness. [00:02:16] All of these reasons are the same reasons on the top of the list as to why warfare happens in the world today. [00:02:22] See, going back to James one and 19, when it mentions being slow to anger and for the anger of a man, I looked into what anger meant. [00:02:32] See, anger means a feeling of displeasure and usually of hostility. [00:02:39] But to go a step further, when I looked up the definition of hostility, I found that it means acts of warfare. [00:02:48] And that's why anger is leading to warfare in today's cause. Because what it does is it releases your body's stress hormone, or as we call it, cortisol, and it floods your body with adrenaline. [00:03:01] Adrenaline sends your body into a fight or flight mode. [00:03:06] When it does that, it tricks you into feeling that. That you're stronger, more powerful, and smarter than you are. And that's why they call it the instinct, the survival instinct. [00:03:24] In reality, what it's doing is it's exhausting every nutrient that your body needs to live. [00:03:30] And that's why afterwards, you feel more sleepless. [00:03:34] You have cravings. You even begin to have brain fog. [00:03:38] See, brain fog is when your memory becomes clouded of the past. [00:03:44] One of the first instances that we see anger in the Bible is with Cain and Abel. And we can read from Genesis four, three, five. When it says, in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord and Abel. He also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel into his offering, but unto Cain into his offering, he had not respect. [00:04:13] And this is the part where I find really interesting. It says, and Cain was very wroth, which means he was angry. And it says, his countenance fell, which means his face dropped. See, in the same study, it says, you can't have anger in your body without showing it can't have anger in your body without pushing it on others. [00:04:36] See, Cain's mad that his offering wasn't accepted. And what he decides to do when we see it here is he actually goes on later to kill his brother. And the lord asked him beforehand why he's angry, why he became wroth. He asked him why his countenance has fallen. Because what he tells them is, he says, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou does not well, sin lieth at the door. And I kind of want to pause here for a moment, because it says, sin lies at the door. It doesn't say that sin opens the door. It says, it lies there, which means you have to turn around and actually open it to allow it into your life. [00:05:18] You have to turn around and allow the anger back into your heart, because he's already closed the door to those problems and situations. [00:05:26] And that's why in the next verse, when Cain actually decides to open the door, it says, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. When he opened the door, he allowed jealousy and bitterness in, and that led him to kill his own brother and sister. [00:05:51] And that's why Genesis, it talks so heavily about anger and the effects that it has within the body of your brothers and sisters. It isn't just referring to your family, but it's referring to your church family. [00:06:08] That's why in ecclesiastes seven and nine, we read, be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. See, what it means when it says to lodge is to find somewhere comfortable to stay, because the definition is to become embedded or fixed in. So when you allow anger into your heart, you allow it to become embedded into your spirit, and it takes over your life. And that's why with anger comes warfare seed. What we find is we see others start to get blessings or start to see things that we want to see in our own lives. [00:06:51] And instead, we begin to doubt ourselves. We begin to doubt promises that we've had, and we begin to say, I'll never be there. I'll never get that. [00:07:02] And sadly, one thing that we all hold close to us is a phone. Where social media is so present in our lives, social media has become a platform that pushes agendas and praises mental illness and shows us that these things are okay in our life. [00:07:21] And that's why ever since social media has come up, we've over tripled in the amount of suicides, the amount of hospital visits, the amount of mental illness cases that have actually come true. [00:07:33] See, the problem is that everything that we do on our phone is called a feed. [00:07:38] And it never fills us, but we keep coming back like it's an empty plate. [00:07:46] That's why we were warned of anger. [00:07:48] In psalms, we read in psalm 37 eight says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. [00:07:57] Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. [00:08:01] Sadly, we've become a people. When anger takes over our lives, we become where we want to justify everything that we do, where justification becomes a priority with our attitudes. [00:08:14] We start to say, these scriptures aren't for me because my situation's become too bad. [00:08:20] We start to say that this has taken over my life, and no one else knows where I'm at. [00:08:27] But ephesians six and eleven says, put on the whole armor of goddess, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, the whole armor of God. [00:08:38] See, when we begin to fight our own situations and shift the word to fit our situation, we begin to fight that spiritual warfare unequipped. [00:08:47] We weren't meant to fight spiritual warfare unequipped. He gave us armor. He gave us a sword. See, the sword is the offensive piece of the armor, and it's the word of God. [00:08:57] We need to take the word of God, pick it up, open it, because it gives us hope. [00:09:03] It guides us in everything that we do. [00:09:08] And what's sad is we try so hard to stand. Cade, will you put that picture up there for me? See, pastor prayed over this church and found what we were doing this year. And we were standing against the things of this world. [00:09:26] But all too often, we don't pick up the sword to fight through, to break through strongholds, to break through chains that we find ourselves in, to break through the anger that's taken over our lives. [00:09:40] And we can't stand together if we're knocking each other down at the knees every time we get a chance. [00:09:49] You know, science actually gave us four ways to release anger in our life. [00:09:54] And it's funny how they line up. See, number one is shouting. [00:09:59] Shouting doesn't refer to screaming out of rage or yelling. It actually refers to talking excitedly. [00:10:07] That's why we find in psalms so many times. And I'm going to read off a bunch. Sorry, brother, I didn't give you any of these. [00:10:14] Psalm 511 says, let them ever shout for joyous. Psalm 30 211 says, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. Psalm 35 and 27 says, let them shout for joy and be glad. Psalm 65 and 13 says, they shout for joy. They also sing. Psalm 132 and nine says, and let your saints shout for joy. Psalm 130 216 says, and our saints will shout for joy. Because it doesn't mention shouting without mentioning joy in the same sentence. Because what a shout is, is it's prophetic, and it builds up our faith, and it commands attention from those things that are trying to hold us back. [00:10:58] After that becomes singing. [00:11:02] Psalm nine and two says, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. [00:11:07] I will sing praise to thy name, o thou most high. [00:11:12] Psalm 20 113 says, be thou exalted, lord, in thy own strength. So we will sing and praise thy power. [00:11:19] Just like when it was talking about shouting, it doesn't mention singing without mentioning praise. That's because it's a form of praise. That's why the Lord promised that he inhabits the praises of his people. And when we lift him up through song, he dwells in our midst. Singing is spirit. And all too often we find ourselves singing the wrong things and praising the wrong things in our life. And it's allowing attachments that we don't need. [00:11:50] After singing comes dancing. [00:11:54] Psalm 149 three says, let them praise his name in the dance. [00:12:00] We're not talking about dancing by tapping your foot because you love a beat. [00:12:06] We find ourselves tapping our foot to too many beats that hold too many things behind it. [00:12:11] See, dancing was made originally as a means of social connection and bonding. [00:12:17] When we start to do these things, we begin to bond things to our life. [00:12:22] We bond the anger to our life with the backside meaning of the songs that we're listening to. [00:12:30] After dancing comes reading. [00:12:34] Romans 15 and four says, for whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. [00:12:50] See, anger is many things, but what it really is, it's a secondhand emotion from the feeling of powerlessness, shame, anxiety, inadequacy hopelessness. [00:13:04] What's sad is hopelessness leads to anger. [00:13:09] But it says the word gives us hope. [00:13:13] That's why it's so important for us to open up the word and read it daily. That's why it says it's our daily bread. It's what feeds us. [00:13:24] Psalm 119 105 says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. See, we were given the word to guide us. But what happens when anger slips in is we begin to slip off the path that he set before us. And tell him that we have a shortcut. Tell him that we know how to get there because he hasn't given us away. Tell him that he hasn't done anything, so we're going to take it upon ourselves. [00:13:49] But he doesn't give us the power of vengeance. He says, vengeance is mine. [00:13:56] You know, vengeance actually comes from the latin word vindicarde, which actually means to set free. [00:14:05] He never said that he was going to hurt anyone that hurt you. He was saying, he's going to set you free from the things that are affecting and afflicting you. [00:14:19] You know, in Hebrews, we read in twelve and one, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. You know, the phrase so easily beset is actually from the greek word euperastatos, which is a compound word. That word actually breaks down into you, which means well, or comfortable. Peri, meaning completely surrounded. And statos, meaning to stand. [00:15:04] Staros is actually from the word histami. [00:15:08] So when we're reading it, lay aside the sin that we stand in because we find it comfortable. [00:15:15] Lay aside the sin that we stand in because we decided that we have a better way to go about it because we want to get there easier than what he has for us. [00:15:26] See, the discharge of anger becomes comfortable because it releases a fake hormone called dopamine, which gives you a false sense of comfort into your body. [00:15:39] And we find all too often that we allow this chemical that our brain produces to take over our life. [00:15:47] See, when we allow anger to become comfortable is when we become complacent. [00:15:52] Isaiah 32 actually gave us a warning to those who were complacent. And what happens when we become comfortable and complacent is we forget who really is in charge. [00:16:04] That's where the brain fog slips in. [00:16:07] That's when we forget what he's already done for us what he's already freed us from. [00:16:13] We forget where we are and we'll quit on a call that he has for us. We'll quit on every promise that he's made for our church. We'll quit on everything that he said he was going to set us free from. You know, they released today that there's an epidemic of monkeypox. They keep releasing these constant epidemics that seem to go away, but there's an epidemic that stayed around for years, and it's the epidemic of quitting. [00:16:44] Quitting has become comfortable. [00:16:47] We prioritize what we can see more than anything ever. We get on social media and we'll make a post, and if it doesn't get a number of likes in a couple of minutes, delete it and we'll start to wonder if we should even have an account. If we go to the gym and we don't see a difference in a day, we'll cancel our membership. And if we go to church and we don't get what we want, we'll stop coming. We'll stop praising and stop believing. [00:17:14] We'll quit on something to appear knowledgeable rather than staying in it, trusting and becoming wise in the situation. [00:17:24] We can't allow him, the enemy, to speak to us and cause us to quit on a call that he's promised. [00:17:33] And I knew I wouldn't be long. [00:17:35] I don't have too much more. If the music wants to go ahead and come. [00:17:41] It's a quick message, but a message I feel that we need. When everything that we face in the world has started to go south, when every battle keeps getting worse, every corner we turn, there's more wars today than there were ten years ago. And it exponentially keeps getting worse. I looked it up, and there's over 118 wars going on as of today, and a lot of them are civil wars. [00:18:11] They're fighting against their selves. [00:18:13] They're killing the people that they used to love. [00:18:18] Matthew 522 24 says, and this is the Lord speaking. He says, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. [00:18:33] Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. [00:18:42] Then he goes on in the next verse to say, so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you and he gives us instruction. [00:18:55] Leave your gift there before the altar and go first. Be reconciled to your brother. [00:19:06] We can't continue to fight on when we're fighting against each other. [00:19:12] We can't continue to battle every day if we're constantly hitting each other. [00:19:19] Church, we have promises of seeing that stadium filled. [00:19:23] We have promises of seeing our families in here praising with us, friends and coworkers to talk to. And we'll never see revival if we decide to have a war in the midst of the body. [00:19:38] See, the enemy wants nothing more than separation. [00:19:43] He wants nothing more than us to be fighting against each other because then he doesn't have to do anything. [00:19:48] We're constantly crawling because we keep getting knocked down. We're constantly fighting warfare that was never even intended for us. [00:20:00] And anger has become prevalent. [00:20:05] Church, if you will, stand with me. [00:20:18] We've allowed too many things to decide to guide us off of the path. We've allowed doors to open that were never meant to be reopened. We've allowed people to cause hurt that's already been fixed in our lives. [00:20:35] We've decided to take it upon ourselves to go about it our ways. [00:20:39] And it becomes too often than not. [00:20:45] I don't know about y'all church, but I want to see all those promises happened. I want to see these things happen. [00:20:53] We pray for it every day. What good would it do if we're constantly going against what we pray for? [00:21:03] That's why I just want everyone who would, if we come with a mirror, looking into ourselves with a glass to look through, with the ability to come with a repentance of heart over everything that's affected us and allowed us to affect others in the meantime, to allow anger to become prevalent, we all will come down to the front.