In this sermon, the speaker starts by describing a scene of birds fighting in a garden, which eventually ends when darkness falls. The next day, the birds realize that without their feathers, they all look the same and equally ugly. The speaker then goes on to give four steps for overcoming personal struggles. These steps include reading and meditating on the law of the Lord, praying daily to experience the life of Jesus, confessing the problem to one's family, and discussing the steps taken for victory. The speaker also shares a story about a family dealing with turmoil and emphasizes the importance of controlling one's emotions. The sermon references Psalms 97 and 2 Corinthians 3:18, and concludes by mentioning the story of Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden of Eden due to disobedience.

The psalmist said, in Psalms 146, 5, Great is our Lord, and of great power His understanding is infinite. Father, we thank you for your understanding that's infinite. Now we pray that you'd open up our understanding to understand just the simplest things of life. And the simplest being that by faith we're saved. We thank you for the shed blood of Christ that whosoever would believe in the name of the Lord could be saved. It's an amazing, simple fact. We pray for any that do not know Jesus as their Savior, that this would be a time for them to call upon the Lord. We thank you now in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, today on Eagle's Wings, we'd like to say thank you to Maranatha Baptist Church for supporting us in the month of October and also carrying us through November. And now we're going to bring you a message from Maranatha Baptist Church on the subject of anger. Verse 1 of Genesis 4, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and offering him to the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the first things of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wrought, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wrought? And why is thou countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 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. Let's pray. Thank you Father for your word. We ask now that you would teach us what you want us to learn this morning from the word, and from the message that you have for us in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. In going over this passage, we could have read also a passage over about Jonah. Because it was a similar thing that God said to Jonah, after Jonah had his little deal with the Lord. Two times the Lord said, Doest thou well to be angry? Doest thou well to be angry? And so after reading that article last night, and I don't know where it went. It had some pretty good things about dealing with it. Some real practical things. I guess it's back in the bedroom at home here. But how do you feel when things go and you don't like the way they're going? I didn't feel too good this morning about something. And I'd been listening to the Lord, and finally I made a phone call to somebody, and asked a question, and got a couple little comments. And then the Lord showed me something that I had done. And I didn't feel something was right. And what it was, in one of the jobs that I had done, I had added on a little bit to the bill for something that the man thought was included. And I didn't think it was included. But I sensed in his spirit something wasn't right, and so I called his brother, and asked him if he had said anything about it. And he had mentioned it, and I said, Okay, now I see what's going on. And then God showed me what to do. I'll go back and give the man that money back. Maybe some extra. Because God was dealing with me on it. It wasn't right. Are you that sensitive in your spirit? Are you as sensitive in your spirit as you are with your human feelings, your emotions? Are we that sensitive as a little feather? I'm not always so sensitive. Now, this little story, War of the Birds, is an interesting story. And if any of you boys or girls want to come a little closer so you can see the pictures, I'll read a little bit, and then I'll show you the pictures. I'm going to just read you this story. It's a story. It's a made-up story. War of the Birds. John Calvin Reed. And it's been around since 1963. But it's called a fable. It's just a story that was made up. But it's got a pretty good punchline to it. You know the story in the first book of your Bible, how life for the animals and birds as well as for man, began in a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden. You will remember, too, how the serpent, by telling a lie to the man and the woman, caused them to disobey God and to be sent out of the garden. Now, you know I don't always read storybooks for sermons, don't you? But there's another story, a fable it is called, because no one would want to say for sure that it is a true story, that the birds did something which also displeased God and caused them to have to leave the garden, too. And there's the picture. All the birds and the animals are having a good time in the garden. It's nice and peaceful. Now, going on with the story. According to this fable, God gave to all the birds beautiful voices that the garden might be filled with music. He also gave them wings that they might fly upward toward the sky so that heaven as well as earth might hear their songs of joy. For time all went as God had planned until one day the same evil serpent who had lied to Adam and Eve began to whisper lying words into the ears of the birds. You see the snake in the tree? What do you think he's going to say? To the bluebirds, he said, your feathers are the most beautiful of all. They are the same color as the heavenly sky. But the redbirds think their feathers are more beautiful than yours. And if you'll notice, the countenance on the bluebird has fallen. And to the redbirds, he said, your feathers are the same, are the most beautiful of all. They match the glory of the sunset. But the bluebirds think their feathers are more beautiful than yours. And his countenance has fallen. He's got a scowl on his face. He whispered similar words into the ears of the canaries whose feathers were yellow. Into the ears of the swans whose feathers were white. Into the ears of the crows whose feathers were black. Into the ears of the sparrows whose feathers were brown. Into the ears of other birds whose feathers were mixed in color such as woodpeckers and the robins. Now up to this time, the birds had hardly given any thought to the fact that their feathers were of different colors. Among them, there was an occasional quarrel over a bug or a worm, but never any serious strife at all. The various birds built their nests, laid their eggs, and hatched their chicks with a warm, friendly feeling toward all other birds. In the garden, there was plenty of room for all and plenty of food for all, so peace reigned as well as joy. But now, as the serpent kept whispering his lies into their ears, the birds began to be more and more color-conscious and unfriendly toward one another. Until one day, two of them began to fight, each making belittling remarks about the feathers of the other and plucking them out. As the serpent watched in glee, the fighting spread like a forest fire until all the birds were at it, with feathers of all colors and sizes flying everywhere and drifting to the ground. Look at that. That is one big fight, isn't it? All those birds. Fighting. Only the darkness of the night broadened in to the fighting. And by that time, every bird in the garden had been plucked bare. The cold of the night chilled their bodies and also cooled their tempers. But not until the light of the next day dawn did they realize how silly they had been. For when the light arose upon the scene, to their amazement, they found, as they looked around at each other that stripped of their feathers, they all looked almost exactly alike, like a plucked chicken. No one could claim to be prettier than another, for they were all equally ugly. Quite a story, isn't it? Worse still, and to their great shame, with their feathers gone, not one of them could fly. As for singing, some of them had hurt their voices by shrieking, others had caught cold in the night, and all were so ashamed that not a song was heard among them. So to teach them how wrong and foolish they had been, to become proud of the color of their feathers, God sent them out of the garden. But He forgave them and still loved them, just as in the case of the man and the woman. So in time He permitted their feathers to grow back. And once more the birds were beautiful to look at, and were able to spread their wings and soar upward toward the sky. But some of them, those who shrieked loudest and longest when they were fighting, never did recover their voices. I guess that explains the blue jay and the crow. All of them, however, learned their lesson, and also taught it year by year to the new birds that hatched from their eggs. So there never has been another war among the birds, because they have remembered ever since that all colors were given by God, and therefore every color is equally beautiful in His sight. Now quite a lesson, isn't it? The lesson of the war on the birds. Now, that snake bite in the garden affected Adam and it affected Eve. And it affected you and me. We've been bit. And just like you were sharing before we started the service this morning, Dennis, how we do have a longing in our spirit, in our body to be free from the contamination that has affected us in this life. We live in vile bodies. Who shall deliver me from this vile body? Bodies of flesh. Now, we have been given the power because of the shed blood of Christ at the cross to live free from the influence, but it is a choice. Adam and Eve made a choice in the garden. They made a choice to eat of that fruit. Cain made a choice. God warned him. God came down and gave him a specific warning. God gave him a choice to turn away from his anger. Abel's sacrifice was being accepted. Cain's wasn't. And so Cain came to God. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thou countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? In other words, Cain, you're not doing right. If God speaks, we need to listen. Just like there's been advertisement that if so and so speaks, then everybody listens. If God speaks, then we need to listen. God spoke directly and clearly to him. He said again, Why art thou wroth? Do you realize that God said that same thing to Jonah? Doest thou well to be angry? Are you doing well to let your emotions control you? Whether it be anger or bitterness or fear or whatever it is, does good come from responding and letting an emotion control you that's out of control? And I wish I had that article to go over some of the practical things that were given to us in that article. To go through these things were really good because they were coming out of a Mennonite paper showing struggles that they had in their families with this one particular emotion. But as I was thinking about this, when we are young, sometimes things happen to us, we get bit because we were not protected by our authorities, by our fathers or our mothers. And the things that happened unto us way back still have repercussions if we haven't dealt with them and they will continue until we get it dealt with. And I've realized, and I've had to struggle a lot with bitterness, that a lot of things I should have been protected from, but I wasn't. Because I was the best that my parents knew, they did it. But a lot of things they didn't know and so I was exposed and vulnerable to some of these things and it affected me. Now, Cain was warned and I believe God gives us warnings. And it's been a sobering thought to me to realize again this week that whatever weakness is in my heart is going to be an area that may give ground to Satan in my children. Boy, that thought keeps me humble. It really does. It may give ground. And so we can't overlook or treat lightly a snake bite that we've received that we still have the effect of the venom coming out in our lives. That day that my wife backed into the post and put a dent in the van bumper, God used that to show me, hey, some venom come out. And there's been other occasions until now I'm trying to really watch that area and through the victory that's in Christ at the cross, I've been able to have more control over that area. But other areas, what about you? Has there been an area of snake bite? You see, I believe many times, I don't like, and my children will tell you, I don't like fighting in the house. I don't even like it outside the house. But especially inside because it brings turmoil. And they'll tell you, if they begin to quarrel or bicker, I'm going to be on them right away. And one of them may be innocent, but they're both going to probably get in trouble because they're bickering or fighting. And I might jump in there and give them both a punishment. Now, listen to this article. Christian Family Living written by John Koblentz dealing with anger in the family. He had these seven guidelines that he shared. Matter of fact, before I go through those seven guidelines, let me give you some other things. He said, following our seven reasons, this kind of anger in parents is wrong. He was talking about parents destructive anger. He said there's different types of anger. There's the blow-up type all the way down to you know, he said in parents destructive anger comes in various various forms from quite disdain to general irritability to cutting criticism to biting sarcasm to red-faced shrieking. That's what our birds, they got down to the red-faced shrieking level. They were really mad. And so he said, following our seven reasons, this kind of anger in parents is wrong. An uncontrolled temper destroys trust. Trust, think about it. And trust is one of the hardest things to be won back. Destroys trust. Uncontrolled temper cuts off communication. There. That's true. Can you think of somebody in your life, some relative or friend or whatever, because y'all got angry at each other you haven't communicated and maybe for years. That's why you need revival. Come back to the cross, deal with that, confess it, go make restitution. And it's hard to confess that maybe you had very little that you were actually wrong at, but your little part will do that which is necessary. An uncontrolled temper creates an atmosphere of tension. Let's just go back to Cain and Abel. Tension. Abel, he was doing right. But look, he received the whole blow of the venom and the snake bite just came over to destroy him and kill him. Innocent people many times are affected by anger. An uncontrolled temper lets loose unbridled actions. An uncontrolled temper damages self-image in children. How many little children have grown up feeling so inadequate in life because somebody said, you are good for nothing. Or you can do nothing right. All you can do is spill your milk. All you can do that is an expression of anger. Unresolved snake bite venom still inside coming out to just affect the little children. Uncontrolled temper gives the devil access. Gives ground. And the seventh one he shared, uncontrolled temper grieves the Holy Spirit. This is a big big area. It's dealt with by a lot of preachers. I think one I know of, Erwin Lutzer. I've heard him share on this and he's got a good book on this. So here's the seven things. Several pointers for overcoming destructive anger patterns. One, acknowledge the problem specifically before God. Acknowledge it specifically before God. You know, how many times have you kicked the tire? It went flat. How many times have you kicked the dog or the cat? You know, you come out. But when you come back, God, why am I beating this poor dog up? Every time I come out there. You come back to it. Snake bite, you got, God may say, hey, you got snake bit back in the garden. You got to get the antidote. You come back to Calvary. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Second, recognize this as an expression of the self-life which grieves the Holy Spirit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, for by you're sealed into the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, those two, bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. Boy, these things, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking in our churches, in our homes, create turmoil. Third thing, find verses about anger and paraphrase them to specifically fit your situation. Write these out, he says, read them, re-read them because the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Psalms 19, 7. Fourth thing, he said, pray daily to experience the life of Jesus in place of this strong whole of self. And he has a verse, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, but we all with open face beholding us in the glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And then the next one, confess the problem to your family. That's very humbling to have to come to a family for a father or a mother and say, listen, I was angry at you. And I expressed that in the wrong way. Confess the problem to your family. And then he said, discuss the steps that you're taking for victory. Who was it? Was it one man? He had some problem. I can't remember if it was anger or whatever. He told the kids every time he did it, they were going to get $20. And yeah, I remember. I don't remember specifically what it was, but I remember that it cured him of his problem because he said he was going broke. Had to share out $20 every time to his kids. He said, just the financial strain on it cured him from doing that. So maybe you need to get drastic like that and say every time you would do this or whatever it is that you would do that for your family. So confess the problem. Confess your false one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. Sixth thing, he said, look reasonably at the things which come and get back here to the back page which come commonly anger you and search for more constructive responses. And he said if a particular person irritates you, for example, one of the things I found out about that, the person that irritates me, God is going to put in my life until I learn to live with that person by grace and to learn to work with that person. God is going to put that person in my life. So if a particular person irritates you, for example, you might begin to focus on positive things about that person which you can appreciate. If a messy house, a messy garage, or a messy room gets your blood pressure rising, discuss ways you or the family could improve the situation. In other words, learn to advance on that like a stepping stone. You learn to advance. Improve the situation. If the situation is beyond your power to change, consider ways you can accept it or adjust to it. In all situations you can ask yourself, how would Jesus do this? Learn of me. One of the things about Jesus, he said, I am meek. Meekness. Being controlled. He was controlled and gentle. And there was power in the controlled, gentle Jesus. Seventh thing, refuse to justify your anger. And here we probably come down to it. I think Cain didn't get it because he was trying to justify his anger. I don't know if Jonah got it. Because he was trying to justify his anger. He hated Ninevites. So God, he looks around the prophets. Who's he going to send to Ninevah? Oh, we'll get old Jonah because he hates Ninevites anyway. We'll do two birds with one stone. We'll get them saved. Have a revival. Bring them to repentance. And we'll get Jonah straightened out too in the process. Well, we got Ninevah straightened out, but we don't know whatever happened to Jonah. Do we? The story ends without knowing. You probably assume he didn't get it. And we come back to the old thing again. God's fixing to fix you with the fix you're in. But if you try to fix the fix that He's fixing to fix you with, you'll find another fix to fix you with. And so if this person is angry with you, like Cain, he killed him. Or, what about Moses? Did he have trouble with anger? I think he did. He did. Tried to bury his Egyptian in the sand. You know. And he came back. So these are little interesting thoughts that have been brought out. To justify your anger, how many times have you heard, he made me mad? That's nonsense. No one makes us angry. Anger is in one way an involuntary emotion. But our responses, the way we express our anger, and our control or lack of control depend upon our own choices. Remember the feather? Where'd our feather go? Choices, decisions. Boy, this is hard. This is why we have cults around today. Because people would like somebody to make the rules for them. And sit down. Okay, this is what you need to do to be spiritual. You do this and this and this. Oh, okay, I can do that. You can't. Be spiritual, keeping all the rules. We are spiritual by making a choice to obey the Lord in every situation. And not obey our emotions. Our feelings. That's pretty good, he said. Consider how easily anger is controlled. Listen to this. Here's a scene. You boys and girls. Mom has just told you to pick up the toys. You are there playing with the toys. There's three or four of you there playing. Mom comes in, pick up the toys. All of a sudden, turmoil breaks out. I didn't get the toys out. I'll see you later. One of them takes off. Another one says, you pick them up. I'm older than you. I'm going to tell you what to do. And that one starts crying and there's turmoil. Mom comes over and says, I told you to pick up the toys. Quit fighting. Let's don't have all of this. The phone rings. Mom is up to about here with heat. Temperature is rising. The kids are all down there crying and still yelling. The phone rings and she goes over and says, hello. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm doing just fine. Oh, things are great around here. Well, they're going to be great. See how easy we control our emotions? We turn it on and we turn it off. And we are just as sensitive as a feather. We can just feel that feather. As I rub my face, I can just feel it through my beard. If I rub it someplace where I don't have hair growing on my face, even though it's shaved, it's still not as sensitive. I can rub on my eyeball and I'll really feel it. I need an eyeball. Somebody got an eyeball I can use for a second? But do you see how dangerous the venom of the snake bite of Satan has affected us? And how we must live under the power of the cross. How we must die daily to self. How deadly that poison has affected us. But how wonderful the provision that Calvary, when Jesus said it was finished, he said, you don't have to let that venom control you. I have the cure. And it's at Calvary. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads. I just wonder if before we close if maybe we need to have a personal revival. As we go through the week we are affected by life's emergencies and life's situations. And it may not be to pick up the toys but somebody may tell us something to do at work or maybe a situation. And our response is, self, I don't want to do that. But if we're sensitive to God, God will say, no, I want you to do that. You yield. It's by yielding and having control that we have victory. Father, thank you for speaking to us today. Thank you for giving us this message. Lord, it came from you. It didn't come from me. And I just thank you that you speak to us, you direct us. And Lord, you have touched on one of the most sensitive nerves we have, our self. And we all, none of us, here today, or even listening by radio, are exempt from this area of anger. We have to continually bring our self being to the cross and reckon our self dead to sin, to self will, and alive to the Holy Spirit's prompting, to the Holy Spirit's leading, and to the Holy Spirit's filling and controlling of our life. Thank you for ministering to us and speaking to us today. In Jesus' name. Amen.