Our scripture reading this evening is a short one from Proverbs 29, verse 11. That's our starting place. We'll be looking at a number of verses in Proverbs and elsewhere in the scriptures. Proverbs 29, verse 11. A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. We're looking tonight at the issue of anger in the book of Proverbs and how it unpacks this issue and helps us understand it. We looked this morning at the insights promised to us in the Proverbs, and we want to go a little further this evening. As a way of introduction, though, I thought it would be good if we stopped and considered very briefly Jesus and the issue of anger. A lot of times when I'm talking one-on-one with people about anger and when somebody has an anger problem, but they don't want to admit they have an anger problem, They bring up their proof text. Well, Jesus was angry. He cleansed the temple. I mean, you want to talk about angry? He turned over tables. He drove animals and people out, got a whip, threatened people with it. Now, I'm not like that. If Jesus can do that, why can't I? And so they have a justification for chasing their family around the house with objects. Of course, I would argue they don't. Now, there's actually only one time in Scripture that refers to Jesus as being angry, and it's not the cleansing of the temple. I'll come back to that in a second. In Mark chapter 3, it's the healing of the man with a withered hand. It was a Sabbath day, and the Pharisees were testing Christ to see, would he break the law and heal on the Sabbath? Of course, Jesus asked the question, is it good to do evil or good on the Sabbath? And no one would answer him. Here are the theological leaders of the community. He asked them a very fair theological answer. If it is the Sabbath day, may we do good. May we bless one another. If it's a Sabbath day, they wouldn't answer. Mark 3 verse 5 says, after looking around at them with anger, only place I can find the scriptures where it specifically says Jesus was angry. grieved at their hardness of heart. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out. His hand was restored. The Pharisees were incensed. How dare somebody think they can honor God by doing good on the Sabbath? Of course, Christ was right and they were wrong. But there's the one time Jesus said to be angry. Now, we go to the cleansing of the temple. Let's read the text and see what actually has to say to us in John chapter two, verse 13 to 17. The reason the Passover, the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple those were selling oxen, sheep, doves and money changers. He made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen. He poured out the coins and the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who were selling doves, he said, take these things away. Stop making my father's house a house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for thy house will consume me. Now, the scriptures look at what Jesus did and they ascribe it not to anger, but to zeal. It's different, and there's an important difference. Look at the control that Christ had. He chased the animals out of the temple, but they could be reclaimed. He had respect for the property. He overturned the money changers' tables, but they could come and pick up their coins. And to those who were selling the doves, the sacrifice prescribed for the poor, he didn't open their cages and send them away, because how would they have recovered their property? He told them, take these out of here. I imagine they followed suit and did just that. He was very much in control. He knew what he was doing. Zeal for the Lord's house did indeed consume him, but it wasn't anger. When Proverbs tells us a fool vents off his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. It's one of the things we understand about anger. Godly anger is kept in control. I may be angry, but I'm responsible for everything I say. I can't come back later and say, well, I was angry, I didn't know what I was saying. Well, I can say that, and perhaps sometimes we should say such a thing because it's true, but we need to recognize at such times we are sinning. You know, there is a good in anger. Every emotion that we have has a godly place in life. Now, because of the fall, it's often been perverted. But anger has a good purpose. One of the good purposes is it gives us anger and motivation to do something about what's happening. You heard about the recent shooting on that Christian college campus. And when the young man saw that the shooter was reloading, he had his chance. He didn't stop to think about it. His odds. He just acted. That's one of the things anger does for us. It helps us be very quick about something. And it's supposed to be a response to evil. Anger isn't a response to me not getting what I want when I want it. Anger should not be a response to me being inconvenienced. The Bible has a word for that. It's called patience. People say, well, I don't have very much patience. And the truth of it is, we all have a ton of patience. We have as much patience as the circumstances of our life will ever call upon us to have. But there's a problem with patience. There's a high cost to it every time I exercise it. Every time I choose to be patient, It's hard for me. There's part of me that's pushed on me and say, don't be patient. You can be patient. Are you willing to pay the cost of doing so? Some people think, well, the people who are patient, they're just different than I am. It's easy for them. Patience is not easy for anyone because it costs a very high price. I have to say no to myself. This is what I want and I want it now. And I think I'm justified in wanting it now. And I have to say, no, you're not going to put yourself first. You're not going to treat other people that way. You're going to humble yourself and be patient. Not an easy thing to do, but doable if we would just choose to do it, if we would recognize that it's the right thing to do and hold ourselves accountable. Proverbs 29, 11 says the fool gives full vent to his feelings. A wise man holds it back. Well, that's the reading in the English Standard Version. The New American Standard says a fool gives full vent to his anger. A wise man holds it back. Others read a fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man holds it back. And we see the basic difference. The fool allows his emotions to control him. And the wise man stays in control of his emotions. Everybody gets angry, even at times when we shouldn't. Everyone's impatient at times when they shouldn't be. We're sometimes fearful when we shouldn't be. You can name any emotion that we experience and there will be times you experience it and it doesn't fit. It shouldn't be the emotion I'm experiencing. And we don't have emotional off buttons. But God says it's the fool that lets these things control them. And so we have to back up a minute and say, OK, what is a fool, according to God? I mean, it's not like the gesture in the king's court who wears a funny hat and does little dances and other comic relief items. That's not the fool. The fool, as defined by God in Psalm 14, 1, the fool says that his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There's none who does good. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. When I share that with people, they say, well, that doesn't apply to me, I'm a Christian, I believe in God. I say, well, most of the time you do. What do you mean most of the time? Oh, there are blocks of time where you forget all about God. I do not. Well, Do you believe Romans 8.28? You remember the passage where we know that all things work together for good to those who are loved by God and called according to his purpose. You remember 8.28? God is working all things together for your good. Yeah, I know that verse. Do you believe it? Sure, I believe it. Well, if you believed it, why would you ever get angry? This circumstance is overseen by God for your good, even though it's an unpleasant circumstance, why would you be getting angry? Oh, I see your point. There are moments of time where believers forget about who they are in Christ. They forget about their Savior. They forget about the promises of God that comfort our heart. In those moments, we allow ourselves to play the fool. As we go on studying Proverbs, I want you to see something very clear. God makes the angry person responsible for their own anger. Proverbs 19, 11. A man of great anger will pay the penalty, for if you rescue him, you'll only have to do it again. It's one of the most common things we hear when people are angry. You make me so mad. Me being angry is your fault. And God says, not so. Oh, you can take that burden up and say, oh, I'm sorry. Well, you better be. And if you rescued him, you're going to have to rescue him again and again and again and again, because it's not the answer. The man of great anger shall bear the penalty because it's his fault. It's his responsibility. You know, I'm talking one on one with people. I'll ask him a question to drive this point home. Say, suppose I'm not going to do it, of course, but suppose I would just reach across the table and slap you just because. Tell me three things you could do. Well, most often they start with, well, I could turn the other cheek. But I don't know if I would say, well, I understand that. I don't know if I would either. I could hit you back. You could. I could get up and leave. You could. You could call the police and press assault charges. You could pull out your concealed carry weapon and shoot me. We could go on and on and come up with many things that you could do in response to my unprovoked attack. Now, whichever one of those you chose, who would be responsible for your choice? You say, well, I would. Then why are you blaming other people when you choose to get angry? You have other choices in every circumstance. Having been a parent and now a grandparent, children can be very provoking. Not all the time. Most of the time I find them quite nice to be around and really enjoy it. But once in a while, they're quite the trial. All they're doing is revealing my heart to myself and to others. Here comes a circumstance. It's a hard circumstance. They were messing around, just as I've warned them not to mess around, dozens of times. And they broke it. The thing I've warned them about. This is precious to me. Do not break this. And they broke it. After all the warnings, after all the cautions, they broke it. And in my first responses, it's easy to show them how much more precious that thing was to me than they are. Now, when I back away, going, no, they're more precious to me than that lamp. They're more precious to me than that window. Why did I let myself act that way? Because my heart came out in the stress of the moment. It is easy to love things more than people, but of course, we never should. How a person chooses to respond to a given situation is always their own decision. Christ told us in Matthew five, but I say to you, do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. It's a very hard passage. One of the things Christ is teaching us is that there is wisdom and choosing to make yourself vulnerable. I'm not saying we never stand up against wrong or we never draw a line, we never push back, but I don't have to do it out of anger. I can be in control. I can show love and respect and push back at the same time. This thing of being willing to be vulnerable, it's a hard teaching for us. It doesn't seem right. Sometimes people will say, well, I've been hurt this way and this way and this way. Why can't I put up my walls? Why can't I pull away? Why can't I be angry? Because Ephesians 4, 31 to 32 says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Certainly, if there's anyone who has a right to be angry. It's God who has the right to be angry with us. We are his creatures and we have rebelled against him. What has he done to deserve that? He's been true to all of his covenantal promises. He created us. He put us in the garden and he said, I'm going to promise to sustain my creation. You're going to have a place to live and a means to live. He's never turned away from that. He blessed us with many good things. He had pity upon us. It's not good for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him. He's given us many good things. He's never stopped in that. And yet, we can treat God as though He somehow wronged us, though He never has. When he calls us, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you, to let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, it makes a lot of sense. In recent years, as my thinking develops, I've seen the need to spend some time with people and cultivate the idea that gentleness has wisdom and power to it, because we don't think it does. Gentleness, kindness, patience, are some of the most powerful tools that we have. Think about it. You know, suppose you're a young person, supposed to be home at 11. They come strolling in at 1 o'clock. Have a good time. And where were you? I was at my friend's, just like I told you. Do you know it's 1 o'clock? 1 o'clock? I didn't know that. We've called you. You haven't answered. You didn't call us. Let us know you're coming home late. No concern for us. We think you're dead in a ditch someplace, ready to call the police. Worried out of our minds. And you come in just happy as can be. Oh, there's nothing wrong. It's one in the morning. Now things start to get even rougher. At the end of that conversation, what I would like to have happen is for my son or daughter to go up to their room thinking, dumb, dumb, dumb. I'm so dumb. Why did I do that? So wrong. I want to take responsibility and learn from their mistakes and grow in obedience. You see what happens when we tell them, I'm taking away your cell phone and your iPod. You have no more computer privileges. You're grounded for the next three months, maybe longer. We'll see. And we go through the whole litany of bad things that are going to happen to them. And they go back to their room thinking, dumb, dumb, dumb. My dad is so dumb. I'm not saying the consequences might not be right consequences. I'm saying the manner in which we impose them matters. In that situation, I found out it's much wiser to say, you know what? You have really messed up big time. And your mom and I are very upset. So upset, in fact, that we've decided it would be wrong for us to consider what to do to you tonight because quartering and gangplank sound really good. And we don't think we should go there. You go to bed. We're going to go to bed and we'll talk about this tomorrow. We love you. Good night. No hysterics, no yelling, no threats. But it's hanging over them, and they have to think about the fact that they did mess up big time. Gentleness and patience and kindness bear more fruit in the hearts of people than does disrespect and anger. Colossians 3 says, But now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from your mouth. When is it right to be rude? Well, if you're rude to me first, it's OK for me to be rude back. That's right, the Bible teaches that when it says return evil for evil. No wait, it says don't return evil for evil. When is it okay to be rude? Never. When is it okay to be disrespectful? Never. When is it okay to use abusive speech? Never. Does that prevent me from making my point? Not at all. In fact, I will make my point with greater clarity. There is wisdom in what God teaches us. This thing that people say, I can't help it, you make me so angry. You know, again, temptation does not come from outside as much as it comes from within us. James chapter one, verse 13 to 15 says, But no one say when he is tempted, I mean tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. Now, that's pretty easy. I don't think there are very few of any of us blame God for our actions when our actions are wrong. We just wouldn't go there. We wouldn't say it's his fault. But James continues, he said, but each one is tempted when he's carried away enticed by his own lust, by his own desires. Temptation comes because there's something wicked in us that desires it. Blaming it upon outside circumstances. Now, I might say to you, You know, the Lord wants me to respect you and show you love. And right now, the way you're treating me makes it a lot harder for me to do that. I'm seeking to persevere and show you love and respect. But if you could change the way you're treating me a little bit right now, it would make it easier for me. But suppose I don't change it. Can I persevere in showing good and showing love to those who are unlovable? Of course I can. What's the best defense the Lord has given us against sinful anger? We're right back to where we were this morning. The fear of the Lord. Proverbs 19, verse 11 says, A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression. A man's discretion makes him slow to anger. God builds that sense of discretion in us over and over. He tells us, for instance, in the passage we read in Ephesians, as we were told that all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. What's the discretion there? He's saying, stop and consider. You're upset with this person because of what they've done. And you're absolutely right. What they have done is wrong. They have wronged you in this way or that way. But when you have wronged God, how has he treated you? Well, with kindness. He's loved me despite that. He's forgiven me. He sometimes shames me with his love. I sometimes wish God would smite me in one way or another because I feel like I deserve it. And he comes along and says, Noah, I delight in you. You're the apple of my eye. And I cringe and I can't look up to heaven because I'm thinking, how can God love me? I don't deserve it at all. And I'm so keenly aware of it. Lord, right now, your love isn't blessing me. Your love is shaming me. How can I stand myself when you can love me as much as you do and I can allow myself to live the way I do? This is horrible. I am ashamed of myself. discretion. OK, so sometimes people sin against me and I've got to deal with and I've got to live with it. And God says, learn to be forgiving as I have been forgiving towards you. And he goes on to say, we can grow in Christ the point that not only does our discretion make us slow to anger, but it's our glory to overlook a transgression. We can actually delight in being kind. We can delight in overcoming evil with good. It's not always a grit your teeth and do it because it's the right thing, but it's so hard to do. It can be a joy to us because we are gripped by the love of God in Christ. And love and kindness and patience and gentleness no longer seem like a weak thing. But we see them as powerful. If you were put in a position where you were asked to give your life for Christ, you know, right now in our country, that's not too likely, but one never knows. My hope is if I were ever put in that position, I would choose to die rather than to renounce Christ or speak against him in any way. Now, I'm not going to be bold and say I would rather die than renounce Christ, as though I'm positive that's what I would do, because I've turned away from being as faithful as I should be for much lesser causes. I think it would be right for me to die for Christ, and I trust that you are of the same opinion. If put in a position where you are called upon to give your life in service to your Savior, I hope you think it's the right thing to do. But why do you think that? It's not because I'm afraid that if I proved unfaithful in that circumstance, I'd be cast into hell. I don't believe that. God knows my frailty. And I could find forgiveness even for that sin. Why I hope I would die for Christ is because his love compels me. His love controls me. He loved me first. He died on my behalf. Why wouldn't I die for his cause? Why wouldn't I? You see, the love that God has shown me has so captured my heart, as I believe it's captured your heart, that you hope that circumstances were to ever arise that you would choose death rather than renouncing Christ. But it's not out of fear. It's because of what love has done for you. That's how powerful it is. What happens when we love one another in the same way? We can find it a glory to overlook a transgression. Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, tells us the fear of the Lord's beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom instruction. God has equipped every believer with all we need to fight against anger. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23 tell us about the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now stop and think about it. We have the fruit of the Spirit. Which of those would help a person fight against anger? Well, self-control kind of jumps out at you. Gentleness, kindness, patience, well, faithfulness and goodness and all of them. Any one of them would help me. And the next question is, which of them do you have? And when I ask that, people say, well, I don't have much patience or I'm not good at self-control or I say, I'm sorry, it was a trick question. These are not the fruits of Ken Smith. These are the fruits of the Spirit. And if you have the Holy Spirit, you have these fruits. They are there. You can do it. Sometimes it means dying yourself in order to do it. But you can. He has that funny phrase at the end, against such things, there is no law. Against such things there is no law. There's no law against exercising these fruits of the Spirit. Now, it took me some time to really make sense of that phrase. Why would he bother to put it on there? Who's going to go around saying it's wrong to be loving or kind or gentle? And then it dawned on me one day, as I was sitting in the car, waiting for my wife, who's perpetually later than I am, She's late again. You know, all these years, sittin' and waitin', sittin' and waitin', sittin' and waitin'. Yep. It was against the law to be patient with my wife. She was late again. Again! Still! Continually! Never in her whole life has she ever been on time. Alright, obviously that's an exaggeration, but it's a justifiable exaggeration because I'm feeling sorry for myself and No, where did I let my heart go? Patience and kindness and gentleness were against the law because I was inconvenienced. Doesn't make me look very good, does it? That's OK, I don't feel too naked standing up here because I know a lot of you are just like me. And if that's not the issue, there are other ones that you wrestle with. But you get the point, I hope. But there are times when we don't fight to live out the fruit of the Spirit and we justify turning away from them. As though in this circumstance, it no longer applies. And that's where we're saying there is a law against the fruit of the Spirit. There is no law against these fruits. Every time, any time I'm not living out the fruit of the Spirit, I'm sinning. And that's a truth that once we drive it home in our hearts, it takes us a long way toward gaining control of our anger. God calls us to put on a Christ-like nature. In Colossians chapter 3, he tells us that those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Notice he says, these are things we have to put on. They don't come naturally to us. In some circumstances, they're a whole lot harder to put on than others. But he tells us, put them on. It's not something that we should be fighting against. It's something that we should be fighting to do. Bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. You see how he pushes us to that discretionary point of view again? To remember what we received in Christ so we'd be willing to give it to others? Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. The commands are there. It's not unusual to run into people who say, I just can't help it. I try and I try and I just can't help it. Well, what that really means is I refuse to control myself because we can help it. Anger is learned and after practice becomes a habitual response. The steps to anger seem to disappear and one becomes instantly angered with no opportunity to control themselves. Anger is a learned behavior and it can be overcome. Taking personally responsible for our sin, and seeking forgiveness from God, and the person sinned against will break the chain. There are two ways we fight sin. I stop myself from doing it, or I take full responsibility for it after having done it. I see angry people. They say things, they do things they ought not say or do. And then they just pretend they didn't do anything, let a little time pass and act like nothing happened. I can pretty much guarantee, if you allow yourself to sin, and it doesn't cost you anything, you're going to do it again and again and again. 1 John 1.9 tells us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's two promises. God says when we confess our sins, He forgives us, but He cleanses us. He changes us. What happens when you come back to a person and you say, I was angry with you in an unrighteous way. I sinned against you. Will you please forgive me? You take responsibility for it. And that doesn't lose your issue. You know, men, suppose, you know, you came home and your wife says, oh, I went to the grocery store today and I spent $700. You know, $700? You can't afford $700. That's not our grocery budget. What are you spending $700 a grocery store for? And you're wondering, are we going to have money for the other bills that are coming due? You get very, very angry. I suppose you didn't get angry. Could you talk about the problem without anger? You certainly could. And it would probably lead to a better solution. James chapter 4 says, A greater grace. Therefore, it says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double minded. Be miserable, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned in the morning, your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. The good of humbling ourselves. We don't like it. It's hard to do, but it breaks the chain. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. When I was 20 years old, my brother had cancer, an insurance salesman, a preacher between calls. And so he's trying to support himself selling insurance. He's going door to door. And my brother's at work, but his wife answered the door, and she said, we'd love to buy life insurance, but my husband has cancer, and I doubt that you would sell it to us. And he quickly looked at his things and said, I think we will. She said, come back tonight, when my husband's home. So he came back that night. In between, he checked with his trainer, who told him, no, we don't sell insurance to people with cancer. We're in the business to make money, not lose it. They have to get it before they get cancer. They came back to the house and he apologized and said, you know, I'm new at this and I read this wrongly. And, you know, I want to apologize for misleading you on that. But I wanted to talk to you some about Christ. And he explained the gospel to them and having the possibility of death staring at you. They were open to it and they were converted and they started inviting the family to come to church. My mother warned me. She gave me the heads up. Kenny, Mike's gone all religious and he's never been to church. I suggest you just accept his invitation, go with him once and say, I'm so happy for you. And then just be nice. That sounds like good advice. So, of course, the invitation came and my wife and I said, oh, we'd love to go. And so we went to church and we heard the gospel being preached. And we came back the next week. And I wanted to respond to the gospel. But I thought, no, I can't, because I don't want them to know they got me this easy. In the third week, I couldn't wait. I had to talk to them. I had to know Christ. God opened my heart, too, in the hearts of my family. At the time, I was working in a factory steel processing plant. It was a rough place. A couple of weeks after being converted, the Lord began to convict me of my language, which was not nice. Some of you worked in factories, you know what I'm talking about. Every other word is a crude word. It proved we were men. Yes, we could structure our lips in such a way as to pronounce words really manly. It's stupid when you think about it. But as I was convicted about my language, I tried to stop. Work was the only place I ever spoke like that, didn't speak like that at home or anywhere else, but at work, maybe just to fit in, I did. But as hard as I tried, I couldn't get myself to stop using that kind of language. And as time went on, I prayed about the Lord convicted me and said, you know, you're not just wronging yourself, you're wronging everybody who hears you. Oh no, Lord, they don't mind a bit. It's not whether they mind or not. They are being defiled when they hear those words coming out of your mouth. They shouldn't hear that from you. You're right. You're right. You know what you have to do? I know. If I slip up, I'm going to have to ask those around me to forgive me. So I went to work and with that hanging over my head, I made at least 10 minutes. before something came out. I can still see that group of men standing around me. And I said, I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have said that. Hope you forgive me. I looked at him. He said, what? Well, I cussed. We all cuss. I know. If you want to cuss, you can cuss. I just don't think I should. I'm sorry I did. Oh, Kenny's got religion. Went all around the shop very quickly. I was kind of embarrassed by that. Over the course of the next two days, I had to ask forgiveness two other times, three times total. And it was excruciatingly hard every time, for me and for my hearers. But I did it. And God used it to change my heart. The cost of saying those words became very, very high. It meant I had to humble myself in ways I didn't want to humble myself. And when it came down to, you will humble yourself and ask forgiveness, even of these men, or you'll stop doing it. All of a sudden, the stop doing it became doable. I tried for weeks getting nowhere. But when I listened to what James had to say and practiced it, it brought about huge changes. The same thing happens with anger. When we take responsibility for it, when we humble ourselves, when we come to one another and say, the way I allowed myself to behave there was totally wrong. I was angry and I was venting it at you. I was not loving you as I should. I was not showing you kindness and respect. I was not living out the fruit of the Spirit. I am at fault for my behavior. And by the way, that doesn't necessarily mean you lose your point. I still think spending $700 a grocery store this week was a bit excessive. We need to talk about that, but we'll do it respectfully. Don't lose your point. You simply take responsibility for your behavior. This is what Christ is calling us to. Anger is one of the easiest sins to break and get on top of. If you're willing to pay the price and humble yourself before the Lord and those you sin against, and if you're not willing to pay that price, you're not going to break. It's going to hold you in bondage for most of your life. And it's going to hurt you and it's going to hurt those that you love the most and bring shame upon you and heartache to people that they will remember for years to come. And it's all folly and unnecessary. The Proverbs tells us rightly, the fool gives full vent to his anger. The wise man holds it back. Because we are in Christ, we can be wise and we can overcome these sins. Not easily. It comes at the cost of our pride, which we should be willing to put to death. Because it's useless and it's vile and wicked. And all pride does is pull us away from God and clothe us in shame. And yet we protect it like it's something precious. It's a sad thing that God gave you grace to hear these things and, as needed, respond to them. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for meeting with us tonight. We're grateful for the wisdom that you give us in the book of Proverbs, all that it teaches us about who you are, your will for our lives. We remember Christ, our Savior, and how perfectly He lived out these commands, this wisdom. He looked around at them with anger. He didn't speak harshly to them. He was not unkind to them. And He continued on His course of action of mercy and love. And He healed the man with a withered hand. And He took the abuse that followed. He was not afraid of men, of their wickedness. for his trust was in you. Help us to be of the same mind. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.