Do Not Let Anger Control You

Brethren, as we know from the news and what we watch and read, we are living in an increasingly violent society. There's a lack of respectful conversation. Vocabulary has changed so much that 40 years ago, even the term, quote, road rage didn't exist. But now, I just watched it coming to services. Just somebody while driving and just, he had a problem. You had to avoid just coming here. We live in a society that has been described in the Bible. We have prophecy that tells us about the days that we are living in.

Let's go to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter 3. I want to read it from the New Living Translation. It makes it clearer, but any version is good enough. It just, this one brings it out a bit more clearly. 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 4. It says, but you need to be aware that in the final days, the culture of society will become extremely fierce and difficult for the people of God. So we live in a society that is that way. It's extremely fierce. We don't know when a gunman can appear at any time or you're in a store. You don't know what's going to happen, whether people are going to come in and just rush in like they're used to doing, smashing and grabbing what they can.

It goes on to say, people will be self-centered, lovers of themselves and obsessed with money. Now, people tend to be self-centered, but at the end time, it will be marked. It will be much more amplified. There will be lovers of themselves, not of other people so much or of God, and obsessed with money. So that certainly describes this generation. It's even the term that was coined years ago, the me generation. And this is what we're living in more than ever before.

It says, they will boast of great things, so they brag as they strut around in their arrogant pride and mock all that is right. Talking about everything that is decent. And that's certainly the case now.

People are not looking at people that follow God. They mock people. They look at the media today, they're anti-God. In the great part, not everybody, but certainly the majority. You look at magazines and even the most prestigious, they look down on God. No, evolution is the answer.

And I was just reading an article from The Economist magazine, which is talking about languages and how they've developed over time. And he goes on and says, and of course, how did we begin to develop languages? He said, well, some monkeys eventually evolved into human beings. Well, we're in between. Where do you have the monkeys half speaking or anything? You just don't come up with that out of the blue. But that's what a very serious magazine with very talented and people with all kinds of university degrees.

And this is what they talk about. They mock all that is right and what our family values. They will ignore their own families. In other words, leave their children unattended, as it happens in so many places. They will be ungrateful and ungodly. They will become addicted to hateful and malicious slander. Their vocabulary shows that. Slaves to their desires, they will be ferocious, belligerent haters of what is good and right. Nowadays, you can't even talk about decency and family values. You're going to get attacked by people with brutal treachery.

They will act without restraint. We certainly saw that in a Hamas attack last October 7th. Mass shootings happening all the time. It says, bigoted and warped in wrapped in clouds of their own conceit. In other words, thinking only of me first, they will find their delight in the pleasure of this world, distractions. In other words, just get involved in all these distractions. Get a kick from that.

More than the pleasure of loving God. More than having pleasure in God's things, like this feast of Pentecost. When we get together and we look forward, we glimpse at that future kingdom. And in that future kingdom, we're not going to have any of these things. These all are going to fade away one day. All these things that people really are so excited about that are wrong, it's not going to exist then.

Talking about that violence, I watched on the news some time back when a security camera captured a man that was so outraged, so mad, because a woman was driving and slipped into a parking space ahead of him. What did he do? He began smashing into the woman's car over and over. He ended up going to jail for destruction of property and endangering the life of someone. The woman was still inside the car while he was smashing it up, just for a parking space. Notice what it tells us in Proverbs 19 verse 11. It says, the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook at transgression. Somebody does something against you. Don't get all upset and ready to wreak vengeance on them. So was it really worth losing his freedom, paying thousands of dollars for two cars being damaged, and paying a heavy fine just for a parking space? People don't think, but that's quite common.

And so the Bible tells us how we can improve our health and our spiritual state, especially by doing just one thing. And this is something that we can all practice. I have found it to be a game changer in my life, a practical way to improve living every day of the week. And every day, as it was mentioned in the first message, brings new tests about that. What am I talking about? I'm talking about don't let anger control you.

Rather, you control the anger. If we can just do that every day, how our lives are going to improve.

Just last month, there was a report from the American Heart Association talking about how damaging anger has turned out to be, much worse than they thought. This is what they reported. The findings revealed that anger had a significant negative impact, limiting the blood vessel's ability to dilate. The response was not as pronounced when anxiety or sadness occur. So it is anger that raises our blood pressure, and it can cause heart attacks, strokes, even younger people as well. What happens, it says here, is that when you just get this anger and all of a sudden your heart has to pump a lot more blood, and very quickly. What happens is that it causes so quickly that the heart cells are not able to expand outwardly, and you just put more pressure until something bursts, because it happens so quickly. Another report from the United Kingdom, the National Health Institute, mentions that chronic and intense anger has been linked with coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and common physical illnesses, including colds and flu, because your body lowers its immune system and generally poorer health, as well as increased risk-taking, poor decision-making, and substance abuse. So all of these things, just because we don't control our anger, we let the anger control us. We're ready to fly off. Heart disease is the number one killer in the world. Notice what Paul said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 8.

Colossians 3 verse 8. And by the way, everybody has some type of problem with this. Nobody is absolutely exempt from it. We all have something to overcome, but it is a game changer. It can change our lives if we just learn how to do it. And the Bible gives us very good instructions about it. Colossians chapter 3 verse 8. It says, but now you yourselves are to put off all of these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. So it is one of the things that we need to overcome.

Don't raise your blood pressure for small things. This is one of the typical mistakes people do. They just get angry over small things that don't amount to a hill of beans. Five minutes, ten minutes later, you've forgotten it, but what did you do? You shot it all up. You used all of that adrenaline to swell the heart up and cause all kinds of issues. So don't sweat over the small stuff.

You learn to control your blood pressure by not letting it get a hold of you. So one thing is to learn to raise your voice only for important things. Like there's a danger. There are emergencies that come up. It's a crucial situation.

But if you learn to shout about everything, and especially in the home, children will get used to parents shouting. And then, when something important happens, and the parents shout, kids don't notice any difference. It's kind of like crying wolf. They don't realize, yes, this is the moment. This is an emergency. No, because there's an emergency almost every day. So we are over-emphasizing something and creates anxiety. Dr. Macmillan, in his book, None of These Diseases, it's an old book, but it's still a classic. How many have read that book? None of these diseases. Very few. Okay. Well, it's one of those that should be read before. It should be in your bucket list. Let's put it that way. And he uses illustration of the lion and the crocodile. He went to the zoo one day, and there was this 25-year-old lion, and he looked really bad, just strutting around. And when lions, they get dissected, they've got this huge adrenal glance, because their lives are just hunting all the time. And so they're just shooting up their blood pressure every time some predator is coming or some animal they want to chase. And when they analyzed or checked out the crocodile, they have tiny adrenal glands, because they can stay all day relaxed. They don't have all this pressure on them. They just need to eat once a week or something like that. That's enough. But their adrenal glands are very small, and ours can either grow, because we're using that adrenaline all the time, or they stay at a normal size. It's up to us. I've never forgotten that, because I really want to be more like a crocodile, and there's a lion that's always pacing and running and rushing. And it really has a problem with blood pressure. So we have to keep our blood pressure down. Just think of a pressure cooker. That's like our heart, and it has a safety valve. And so as the pressure goes up, you got that safety valve, and that's where all the vapor, and it reduces. And what do people do sometimes? They put a stopper on that safety valve, and eventually it's going to blow up. And so it's so important, so valuable for us to see that we can control this. It's not rocket science, but you just have to be aware and make a commitment about that. Just think how life would be if we weren't upset and angry and causing all of this tension to be around a person. Nobody needs that. Notice what it says in Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 26.

It says, Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. And then it goes on to say in verse 30, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So God's Spirit, in that sense, he's using kind of a symbol. It's something that, oh, that spirit in us just can't work very well. You know, God's Spirit, and you can't do much because of the anger problem going on. It says, verse 31, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Avoid all of that. Now, that's what we should take out. But then what do we put in in its place? Verse 32 answers, And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. It's a whole different attitude. That's going to lower that heart pressure, that blood pressure, and be kind to one another. Think about the words that we use. Are they the ones that are going to raise the blood pressure, or are they going to lower the blood pressure? You can do it both ways. You have a choice. You can get the point across without causing anxiety and stress upon someone else. If you're stressed, it's easy to stress others. If you're not stressed, others are usually not going to be stressed. It's all up to us.

As the Bible Knowledge Commentary mentions about this verse, it says, Anger against evil can be righteous. So there is what's called righteous indignation, which is the type of indignation where you see evil and you want to avoid it. And you do what you can to get away from it. It says, But there are other times when anger is sinful, when it is an emotional or emotion of malice, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, or hatred because of personal wrongs. It is forbidden. God doesn't go along with that. So notice what Proverbs 12 verse 18 says. Proverbs 18. I mean 12 verse 18.

It says, There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. Notice here how important promoting health. It's something that one person, again, promotes a person from not being stressed out, even when there are difficult situations. It's how you handle it. Notice what it says in the Good News Bible version. It says, Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal. They bring about that. So it all depends what kind of thoughts and words come out from our mouths because we are what we speak. It's a picture of who we are. Notice what it says in Matthew chapter 12 verse 34. Matthew 12 verse 34. He's talking here to the Pharisees. He says, Blood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? So you could see their hearts. He says, For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. And so it's so important to make sure before we say something, we think it through. We think, is this the best way to say it? Is this going to cause the other person to feel injured, to feel offended? And again, we all need to improve on this. Nobody is exempt from its application. Notice in James. Let's go to the book of James chapter 3.

It says here in verse 2, it says, For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, in other words, doesn't cause all kinds of issues, and they don't offend people, he is a perfect, which means a spiritually mature person, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. So you can light up a whole fire inside of somebody else, just with a little comment that just like a matchstick, just throwing it right there, causing a fire, even if it seems insignificant. Again, we know godly wisdom is shown many times by how we express ourselves, how much we have learned about this, because this is the where the rubber meets the road. This shows are we overcoming or still being overcome? If we don't watch our words, then what's going to happen to the actions? Are we also responsible? Yes, we are.

Notice in, well, the first sin that occurred in the Bible after Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden was Cain. His envy led to uncontrolled anger.

He was watching his brother Abel, and Abel was giving such a great example, he couldn't stand it. He felt guilty, humiliated, and finally killed his brother. Just uncontrolled anger because of envy. In Proverbs 25 and verse 28, it says, like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. A person who is not able to control his words, it's like you're leaving this wall wide open for Satan to come in. You're opening up to being attacked. So let's look for a moment at the roots of anger. The roots of anger, first of all, it can be genetic. It has to do with the temperament of the person. It will be harder to control that temper if it's a family trait. In other words, you grew around people that were that way. They would talk and shout. The one who shouts the most is the one that wins. That type of thing. And so you can fall into a habit that way.

It's interesting that the word temperament, which means your attitude, your way of doing things, it also originates from the word temper, which means something that is level. If you have a good temper, what type of temperament is also related to temperature?

How is our temperature? Is it just next to a boiling point? Something can trigger that or is way down. It takes a long time for a person to boil over in that sense. So we have to look at genetics. Some people are mild-mannered by nature. Others aren't. And then let's look at second root of anger. It's the home life. An example. It's not just a temperament one inherited, but the environment around. Our parents fighting, venting anger, this type of thing. You usually grow up and you follow for good or evil what your parents did.

And so that can cause a lot of problems. But again, nobody's forcing you. You don't have to go along with the way your parents reared you. There are people that go the opposite. Say, I know the wrong way. I went through that. I don't ever want to do that. And so you go and you become a different person. You don't have you're not destined or automatically have to follow somebody or some person. And then the third root of anger is copying society. Those around you, friends, peers.

People that think they're more macho if they always are out there just with their anger ready, and they're going to put down people, show you I'm a man, macho man, or a feminist. No, nobody's gonna tell me what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna show them. I've got this angerer I can use against others. That's not the right thing to do either. But again, then we start copying the wrong type of people in society. And you become that. There's a proverb that says, if you follow wise people, you will become wise. If you follow foolish people, you'll become foolish. Well, in the church, we've learned to be around wise people that are putting God first. That's so important. When I came into the church as a young man, I was pretty dumb and doing dumb things, because my friends did dumb things too. Then I came to the church, and I found, hey, this is a different atmosphere. I don't have to follow them. I can follow God and Jesus Christ. And you know what? It's a lot better result in life. Avoid a lot of headaches and heartaches.

In Proverbs 22, what does it tell us in verse 24? Proverbs 22 verse 24.

It says, make no friendship with an angry man. Now don't be around them.

And with a furious man, do not go. Don't follow that. You're just going to follow bad habits. You're going to pick up bad habits. You're going to become just like them. If you get around people that are going to be nice and patient, have self-control, you're going to become that way. So you are, by the way, you follow people. It says verse 25, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Talking about a trap. You're going to fall into that trap. It's not going to be pretty. It can be avoided. And then the fourth root of anger is the ego, the me first attitude. So that's the that's inside of you. Me first. And if not, I'm going to get angry. I don't want to be second or third. I have to be first no matter what. And so anger is something that there are tests about that. I think it's probably the most common test during the day that we have. When we're dealing with other people, maybe they irritate us, maybe they cause offense. And here we are being tested. How are we going to take it? Are we going to allow people to affect you and become that way? If we're close to God, if we have our prayers and Bible study, we're going to have that armor that was mentioned in the first message. And he's going to bring peace no matter what is surrounding us. That peace of God. Notice in Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4. It says in verse 6.

4 verse 6 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So he knows he can intervene at any time. But are we doing our part? Are we getting close to him? It says, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Yes, it's not the peace from men. It's the peace from God, from his Holy Spirit. And either God's Spirit is with us or will be in us. But already in the church, God's Spirit is working with you. It's trying to capture more and more of your mind and your thoughts. And as you yield, you will see more of the peace from God, that inner peace that is so valuable. Remember, we're preparing to rule under Jesus Christ in that coming kingdom. We will be given great authority, but how will we use that authority? Will we be the types that just will lose our temper?

Notice what it says in Revelation 2.

Revelation 2.

Verse 26.

It says, And so we have to learn how to first control ourselves if we want to apply that authority toward others. Have we learned? We have to start with ourselves. Secondly, with our families. Thirdly, in the church. And finally, with the rest of the people.

Verse 27.

Now, that rod of iron is comparable to the rod of the shepherd that is a symbol of authority, but it's to protect God's flock. You don't hit God's flock over the head with a rod. No? It's a protective tool and weapon. It's there to protect the flock. So nobody's going to attack your flock. You're going to go after those predators, those attackers. That's what it means. It's not going to be a weak rule where all the predators can take over like they do today, where we don't have that authority. We've seen a lot of false shepherds. We've seen people steal the flocks, and what can we do? Well, we don't have the authority. It's up to the people. But there will be a time when, yes, we're not going to let them. We'll see through their facade and disguises. We'll see exactly what they feel and deal accordingly. So that's very encouraging.

But first, we have to apply it in our lives. So we're going to finalize now in Matthew chapter 5 verse 9.

Matthew 5 verse 9. Christ summed it up here when he talked about the Beatitudes. We call them the beautiful attitudes, but it actually means the blessed attitudes that come from God. It says in verse 9, it says, blessed are the peacemakers, not the war makers, not the violence makers, for they shall be called sons of God. And then he goes on to talk about the situation with anger.

He says verse 21, that you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, which is a very strong offensive term, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go to your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

So again, the Bible talks about this. We see Satan is an angel full of anger. He would have died a long time ago of heart disease if he wasn't spirit. But he's like a roaring lion, seeing whom he can devour. And so one thing we can do is learn to control ourselves and just apply that strong words for emergencies, for things that really are important. And the rest of the thing, just don't sweat it. Don't let that anger control us. But rather, let us control our anger.