In this sermon, the preacher discusses the influence of personal and impersonal spirits on our lives. He emphasizes the importance of discerning these spirits and ensuring that they align with God's will. The preacher also highlights the significance of the spirit that others sense coming from us, stating that it is more important than the actions they see us doing. He then provides steps to overcome negative spirits, including recognizing the problem, desiring victory, repenting of sin, and confessing the sins of forefathers. The sermon concludes with a testimony of a father who experienced a transformation in his daughter's life after seeking God's help in dealing with his anger.

I talked to a committed Christian father who was having problems with his 16-year-old third-born daughter. She was attending a large Christian school and had developed a dangerous soul tie with another girl in the school. The daughter had a bad attitude but was still somewhat obedient. One night the father tells that he came home and, quote, our daughter asked to talk to me outside. She told me she had been arrested with her friend for shoplifting. She was crying and seemed truly sorry for what she had done. I told her that I was glad she had gotten caught. I asked if it was the first time she had done this and she said it was. I asked her if it was the first time her friend had done it. She didn't want to answer me but finally admitted that it wasn't the first time for her friend. The Christian school expelled both girls for a semester. We homeschooled our daughter and she was diligent in doing her studies. The big mistake we made during this period was allowing her to stay in contact with her friend. She was constantly on the phone with her. When the new semester started, both girls were readmitted to school. Our daughter spent the night before school started at her friend's house. After the first day, we found out both girls had been called to the principal's office for wearing their skirts too short. Our daughter had been belligerent to the assistant principal about it. I didn't trust myself to talk to her. One evening, I needed the phone line. My daughter had been on the line to her friend. When she finally got off, she said to me, You need to get your own line, Dad. This broke the camel's back and released a torrent of anger that scared my daughter and I could see the hatred for me in her eyes. She left home the next day and spent the next three days with her friend. I called her up the third day and apologized. She came back home, but our home was filled with tension. Next, I started taping her phone conversations. I found out horrible things she had been doing and that there was a boy involved who was in rebellion against his father and smoking marijuana. We decided to confront my daughter with her sin and institute measures to get her heart back. I first confessed my sin. I couldn't keep from crying as I asked for her forgiveness. When asked if there was anything she would like to confess, she said no. I sat the tape recorder on the table and started the tape. She began screaming, I hate you, I hate you. I'm glad I did those things. I did those things so I wouldn't be like you. The father cleansed his daughter's room, then separated her completely from her friends. Her friend found out and reported them to the state and an HRS representative from Florida showed up at their house. A letter intercepted from the friend said, quote, I called HRS. If you talk to them, tell them you're scared for your life. If you really want out, hurt yourself and say your dad beats you. If I can get you a cell phone, we're going to buy a teddy bear and put it inside. With his pastor's permission, I talked to the father. I suggested that he get away from home and spend time one-on-one with his daughter in a remote area for a while. He took several of my videos and watched one per day in a certain order and then discussed each one with his daughter. For two weeks, they roughed it in the mountains of northern Georgia. I talked to him once or twice, but he was seeing no headway. My oldest daughter has seen some success in counseling with the rebellious girls. Talked to the girl. The girl was polite, but very hard. A few days later, we were in Knoxville, Tennessee and met the father, mother and daughter. My wife talked to the girl. She was... The girl was the worst kind of a rebel. Polite and nice on the outside and rejecting everything on the inside. My wife has a lot of discernment in these areas and she said to me, Honey, I don't know. She's pretty hard. I don't think she's going to change. In Luke chapter 9, verse 51 to 56, we read, And it came to pass, when the time was come that Jesus should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before His face, And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, Even as Elias or Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Say that phrase with me, would you please? Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, But to save them. And they went to another village. Notice that Jesus in that passage did not say, You don't realize what you're saying. Jesus said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. The meaning was this, You don't realize the spirit that is coming from you. You don't realize the spirit that your spirit is putting off or emitting or revealing. Now, number one I want to say to you tonight, The Bible mentions both personal and impersonal spirits. The Greek word pneuma, translated spirit, May be used in relation to the personal Holy Spirit in one verse, A personal evil spirit in another verse, And an impersonal spirit of meekness or truth or error or holiness or life, And so on in some other verses. In fact, the phrase spirit of, if you look it up in the Bible, Occurs 139 times throughout the Word of God. Now, to properly understand this, We need to recognize that there is a division between, first of all, your spirit, Secondly, good and bad spirits, Whether personal or impersonal, That affect your spirit, And thirdly, the spirit that others sense coming from your spirit. And that is not necessarily either a demonic or an angelic spirit, That is simply what others sense coming from your spirit. Let me illustrate for you. A mother noticed that her obnoxious little boy had become, In the past few weeks, kind and considerate, After spending time around a certain teacher. The mother said, Johnny, what does Mrs. Smith do to teach you to be polite? Johnny replied, She doesn't do anything, Mom. She just walks around and we feel polite. That was the spirit that he sensed coming from her spirit affecting his life. Now, number two. We must try the spirit coming from ours and other people's spirits, To make sure that they are of God. 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. The context means, We should try the spirits to see if they are of God or of Satan. But the principle would carry over further. This would mean that you and I must try, Test, examine and scrutinize the spirit coming from our own spirit, As well as the spirit coming from other people's spirits. James and John were good men. Righteous men. Men with good motives. Men who wanted to please Jesus. But Jesus said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. He was saying you don't realize the spirit that is coming from you. You don't realize the spirit that your spirit is putting off, That your spirit is emitting or revealing. Number three. There is a great possibility, That we may not realize it when our spirit, Is putting off the wrong spirit. Let me say it again. There's a great possibility, We may not realize it when our spirit is putting off the wrong spirit. James and John didn't realize it. And their spirit of anger, Was so intense and so severe, That they wanted to destroy an entire village full of people. Think about Proverbs chapter 16 verse 2 here. It says, All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes, But the Lord weigheth the spirits. Jesus dealt with the possibility of our being blinded to major faults in our own life, In our own lives, Especially in our relationships with others. In Matthew chapter 7 verse 3 when he said, And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, But considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye. He said, why are you worried about this little moat in somebody's eye, In your own eye, But you're not considered about this huge log in somebody else's eye. Now how can anyone have a huge log in his eye and not know it? Spiritually speaking, James and John did. And you and I may as well. How easy it is to see the moat of our wife's lack of respect, And yet not to see the beam of our own spirit of anger. How easy it is to see the moat of our children's disobedience or stubbornness, And yet not see the beam of our own wrath. One way you might tell whether or not you have a problem in this area, Is to ask yourself if your father or grandfather had the problem. Are you thinking about them right now? I want you to. Anger is one of those sins that is often like a family curse, That passes down the generations from grandfather to father, To son to grandson and so on. The father in my opening illustration told me, I got interested in my family history. I know my father always had a real problem with anger. There are still aunts and uncles who knew my grandfather. With little, if any, prompting, I heard stories about his anger. To top it all off, I found newspaper articles from the 1880s, That tell of the fights that my great-grandfather got into because of his temper. My wife and I were at a church in another state. A father with a rebellious 17-year-old daughter and a rebellious 15-year-old son, He really had his hands full, Asked to take us to the airport so he could talk to us along the way. As we rode along, the man described the problems with his children, And how he had tried to deal with them and that nothing seemed to be working. I said to him, do you have a problem with anger? Yes, he replied. And I traced it back to some guilt from some earlier unresolved conflicts. Some problems I had back yonder I'd never properly dealt with. That's where it was coming from. Then I went back and dealt with those things. That was wise, incidentally. I said to him, that's wonderful. So do you still have a problem with anger? He said, well, occasionally, but not very often. I said, what do you do when you get angry? Well, he said, I've made myself accountable to my wife and my children. Anytime I get angry, I give the children $20 and I give my wife $50. Any children here would love for your folks to do that. I said, so how much have you paid out in the last few months? Well, I'd say I've paid $150 to $200 to each of the children, And probably $500 to $600 to my wife. In a little while, I'll tell you the rest of that conversation. What is the difference between anger and an angry spirit? An angry spirit manifests itself in a harshness that keeps those around us on edge. An angry spirit cuts back on a person's life potential. A person may have all kinds of talents, abilities, and potential. He may be loving, kind, and gentle, But the angry spirit causes people to be afraid to be around him. Now, let me clarify here. I'm not talking about the fearful respect that accompanies almost any strong leader. I'm talking about a wrong sense of fear that is created by the unpredictability of a man or a woman's angry spirit. The spirit of anger is the very opposite of the spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of meekness and gentleness. A spirit of anger is sometimes evident in a person's tone of voice, even when he's carrying on a normal conversation. A wonderful couple came to talk to me about what they could do to reach their rebellious son. I said to them, do you have a problem with anger? Well, yes, but we feel like we've been dealing with it. Finally, I said, I need to help you. You both have a spirit of anger that comes out in your attitude, your tone of voice, and your demeanor. We talked for another 30 minutes. They couldn't see it. So while we talked, I stopped each of them two or three times and said, There it is. There it is right there. Listen to yourself. There was a harshness in your voice or in your attitude. Incidentally, sometimes you can pick this up just talking to people in other areas. You can sense a spirit of bitterness or a spirit of some other type of spirit like that. This couple, the thing that impressed me was their humility and their teachableness. Not many people would have done. In fact, if I had not sensed their humility and their teachableness, I could not have done what I did. I've seen situations where I was in spots and needed to help somebody, but I could not help them. They just did not have the humility to be helped. They kept saying to me, Thank you. Thank you. We want to see it. Please keep pointing it out to us. Finally, I said, You need to make yourself accountable to other family members. It won't be easy. You will need to say to other family members in the home, Correct me, not just for outburst of anger, but for any time you even sense a spirit of anger or hear a tone of anger in my voice. All three of their children now nearly grown have been rebellious at one time or another. I talked to the youngest one two or three months later, and I said, Has your dad dealt with his anger? And he said, Yes. I said, How about your mom? Yes. I said, What do you think? And he looked at me and said, It's pretty amazing. That's what I think. Remember that we're dealing with the spirit of things. Incidentally, consider this as one definition of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit so controlling your spirit that no spirit that is a wrong spirit is able to do so. Now, you remember what the points are up to this point. Number one, the Bible mentions both personal and impersonal spirits. Number two, we must try the spirits coming from ours and other people's spirits to make sure that they are of God. Here we are. Here is our spirit. Here are personal and impersonal spirits that can influence us. And then the spirit that others sense coming from us is the result of this impact upon our spirit. And number four then is victory in the area of the spirit others sense coming from you is more important than victory in the area of actions that others see you doing. I want to say it again. Think about it. Victory in the area of the spirit that others sense coming from you is even more important than victory in the area of actions that others see you doing. Now, I'm not saying that it's unimportant to have the proper actions. I am saying it is more important that the spirit be right. It's good to obey the letter of the law, but it's better to obey the spirit of the law. Galatians 5.18 says, but if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. How easy it is to be deceived in this area and feel like that we're fine because we obey the letter of the law, but disobey the spirit of the law. Jesus dealt with the Pharisees in this area in Matthew 23.23. He said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. If you get the spirit area right, then the actions will eventually take care of themselves. But just getting certain actions right gives no guarantee at all that other actions will be right. Note that the spirit of obedience is more important than the letter of obedience. I'm sure most of you have heard the story of the little boy who defiantly obeyed his mom. She had said to him, Johnny, sit down. He said, I don't want to sit down. She said, Johnny, sit down. He said, I don't want to sit down. She said, Johnny, sit down or I'm going to spank you right now. Johnny sat down, looked up at his mom and said, I'm still standing up on the inside. Which is more important, the spirit of obedience or the letter of obedience? You see what I'm saying? This principle is true in relation to anger as well. It is more important to have victory over the spirit of anger than over outward manifestations of anger. The truth is this, where there is victory in the spirit, there is far more likely to be victory in the outward manifestations. I wonder if this isn't what the Bible means when it tells us to be slow to wrath. Step away not just from anger but from getting angry. Deal with the attitude toward anger and the action won't be nearly as likely to be a problem. Sometimes I talk to parents who wonder why there's so much contention, strife and division in their homes. We want our children to obey and have sweet spirits and attitudes. How many of you want your children to obey and have sweet spirits and attitudes? That's all of us surely, isn't it? But if a father or mother in a home is full of anger, then that anger alone will stir up strife. Proverbs 29, 22 says, an angry man stirreth up strife. That same principle is also true in the church. One pastor among several now who heard these truths testified, he said, I've gone from church to church all my life and always blamed the people. I realize from hearing this for the first time in my life that it's really my fault. I wish I had heard this 20 years ago. Number five, there is no biblical justification for anger or a spirit of anger. No biblical justification for either anger or a spirit of anger. Allow me to give you an observation here about the typical Christian's attitude toward anger. See if you agree with me or not. The typical Christian thinks something like this. Well, anger may be bad at times, especially if it causes you to hurt or kill someone. But there is a place for anger. Anger may be a useful tool in the right setting or situation. Sometimes anger is the only thing that will work to bring someone into line. Releasing anger releases tension. And if you don't release it, then it can be bad for you. And of course, there has always been a need for righteous indignation. Would you agree with me that that's the typical Christian's attitude toward anger? Am I right? Now, of course, my opinion or your opinion doesn't really matter. All that matters is what the Bible says. Psalm 37, verse 8 says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Notice what this verse does not say. It does not say keep spiritual anger and forsake carnal anger. Proverbs 19, 19 says, a man of great wrath shall suffer punishment. For if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. Proverbs 27, 4 says, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous. The word outrageous is an interesting word. In the Hebrew, it means like a downpour or a flood. It is not possible to have a little bit of anger. Wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous. Anger is a flood. Ecclesiastes 7, 9 says, anger resteth in the bosom of fools. My wife and I were riding along in the car with a man who had paid a thousand dollars to his wife and children for his anger. I looked at him and said, Part of your problem is that you're not taking anger seriously enough. I read to him Galatians 5, 19 and 20. Listen to it. Notice it closely. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, and so on. I was holding the Bible and he was looking across the seat. I was holding it there. I said, you see this list here? I said, look at that again. Adultery, idolatry, witchcraft, emulation, wrath. I said, there are some things in life you get victory over because you know you just can't do them. The consequences are far too great. There are some things you just don't do at your house. You're a Christian, you don't do them. For instance, you don't bring X-rated movies into your house and watch them as a family. You don't bring an idol into your living room and bow down before it. You don't have a witch come into your house and hold a seance and you don't get angry in your house. You just don't do it. You don't do those things. Ephesians 4.31 says, Let all bitterness, notice the word all there, all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you. You just put it all away. A father called me who had a rebellious 15-year-old daughter and six more children. The daughter had run away once for a few hours and then returned home. The father admitted to me that he had a problem with anger but I could tell he didn't realize how serious his problem really was. He began to gloss over the problem by telling me the high standards that he maintained in his home. He felt that his daughter was reacting to his high standards. He told me he had no TV, no rock music, no immodest clothing and he just kept going down the line. Good standards incidentally. Finally I asked, How often do you get angry? He said, well, maybe twice a month. And I had sensed a spirit of pride and harshness in his voice in the way he dealt with standards with his family. I said to him, sir, listen to me. I'm glad you don't have a TV. That's wonderful. But you'd probably be better off to let a TV run 24 hours a day than to get angry twice a month. You have no idea the amount of destruction your anger is bringing to your family. Another man told me he had a problem with anger but he didn't think it was too bad. He said he only got mad once every couple of months. I said to him, How would you like to live next door to a volcano that only explodes once every couple of months? Incidentally, he didn't know it. But his family was sensing his spirit of anger all the other days of those months. Going on through the Bible, Colossians chapter 3 verse 8 says, But now ye put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication. Notice that anger and wrath are in the same classification as blasphemy and filthy language. Would you allow someone to blaspheme in your home? Would you allow someone to use filthy language in your home? What would you do? You'd probably say, I'm sorry, but you can't talk like that in my home. If you're not going to change, you're going to have to leave. Does that mean that the parents need to leave the home? Anger and wrath in the same classification. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 8 says, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Holy hands are hands without any wrath. Titus chapter 1 verse 7 gives one of the qualifications for a bishop. It says, Not soon angry. It means not prone to get angry. James chapter 1 verse 20 says, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Look at that. The truth is this. The wrath of man is always wrong. It is always carnal. It is never spiritual and never righteous. I've been asked, But isn't there such a thing as righteous indignation? That phrase, those two words are never used together in the Scriptures. The only adjectives used to describe indignation are great and fiery. Great indignation and fiery indignation, they are used four times. Twice it is God's great or fiery indignation. Twice it is man's great indignation. The indignation of God was righteous. The indignation of man was sin. Some think, But couldn't God give his wrath to someone? If he did, he would violate his own command in Ephesians 4.31 To let all wrath and anger be put away from you. There are illustrations in the Bible where it looks like someone is receiving or assuming God's wrath. But when you see the results, you realize that man cannot handle wrath at all. Even God's wrath. If God, let me put it like this. If God gave righteous indignation to a man, that man would make it unrighteous indignation immediately. In Numbers 11.10 we are told that the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. Moses was also displeased. It appears there that God's anger has stirred Moses to become angry. Five verses later, Moses asked God to kill him. When Samson got angry, he stopped fighting for the Lord and started carrying out personal vengeance. In Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 11, Jeremiah said, Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord. A study of the entire passage shows that Jeremiah was saying that the message he was preaching was a message full of the wrath and fury of God. When I first read 1 Samuel chapter 11 verse 6, I thought it must be the exception. It says, And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. But the more I studied, the more I came to realize that Saul's anger being kindled was simply a statement of fact. His anger was not needed, it was not useful. All he needed was the power of the Holy Spirit along with courage and discernment. That anger that Saul had and its resulting bitterness, which Saul didn't deal with early in his life, caused problems with his son Jonathan, caused problems with his wife and with his son's loyal friend David. He tried to pin David to the wall with a javelin and there was no justification for it whatsoever. It eventually cost him his position as king and cost him his life. The two questions I'm most commonly asked by people who defend anger are these. Number one, but didn't Jesus get angry? And number two, how about the verse that says, Be ye angry and sin not? I'm going to look at those two questions. Let's look first at the first one, did Jesus get angry? I read every verse in the Bible that uses the following seven words. Anger, angry, wrath, wrath, fury, furious, and indignation. Those words occur a total of 584 times in the Bible. I was amazed to discover how many of those occurrences involved God's wrath. In fact, I was so amazed, I decided I would go back and count all the verses that did involve God's wrath. And out of the 584 occurrences, 470 appeared to me to refer to the wrath, anger, fury, or indignation of God. That is four out of five times, 80% better, slightly better than 80% of the references in the Bible to anger appear to be God's anger or wrath. Verses about the Lord burning with anger are very common in the Bible. In Numbers 11, the children of Israel complained and wept about having nothing but manna to eat. Verse 10 says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. In Joshua chapter 7, Achan took things from the city of Jericho that were dedicated to the Lord. Verse 1 says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. When Achan was stoned, and they raised over him a great heap of stones, then the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, Uzzah put up his hand to steady the ark when it started to fall off the ox cart. The Bible says, And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there, and there he died by the ark of God. 1 Kings 14-15 talks about how Jeroboam provoked the Lord to anger when he led the people to worship calves of gold. King Ahab not only led the people to worship Baal, but let Jezebel have Naboth murdered and stole his vineyard. 1 Kings 16-33 says that, Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 2 Kings 21-6 tells how Manasseh made his son pass through the fire and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. Isaiah 30-27 says, Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger. And verses like these appear hundreds of times in the Scriptures. Over 80% of the references in the Bible referring to God's anger. Then I tried to find all the times that Jesus showed anger. The only time the Bible says that Jesus used anger was in Mark 3. The Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if he would heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day. Verse 5 says, When he had looked round about on them with anger. Being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. Jesus seemed to get angry most at hypocrisy. Twice he seemed to be angry when he cleansed the temple, John chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 21. Jesus also seemed to be angry when he rebuked the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. That's four times that I could find in the New Testament. You may find more. The thing that struck me about that is that it is only four times. After all, Jesus was God. Maybe you think, but isn't Jesus our example? In most areas, yes. But there were a couple of things that Jesus did that if you and I are wise, we probably won't try. Jesus in a weakened state after 40 days of fasting was led directly into the presence of Satan to be tempted. I don't suggest you try that. Jesus proved he was the Son of God. You and I will probably prove that we are not the Son of God. In fact, it was only two chapters after that when Jesus said that you and I should pray, Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. The best way for you and me to deal with temptation is to stay away from it so we won't have to deal with it, so we won't wind up in evil. Another thing Jesus did that you and I probably shouldn't try to do is use anger. God's anger is spiritual and produces justice. Deuteronomy 29.23 describes how God in anger overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. That was just, righteous anger. Man's anger is carnal and produces injustice. In the book of Daniel is the story of Nebuchadnezzar. You remember him. He was the wealthy, powerful king, the head of gold, who built the beautiful city of Babylon and the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar got angry at a few of the wise men because they couldn't remember his dream. Daniel 2.12 says he was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. Man's anger is carnal and produces injustice. In the book of Esther, Haman was so angry at Mordecai because Mordecai wouldn't bow to him that he plotted to destroy the entire race of the Jews. God can righteously get angry and then righteously take actions that man cannot righteously take because man isn't God. Romans 12.19 clarifies this further and shows why man cannot and must not use wrath. Listen to the verse. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now there's a powerful and important thought there that you must not miss. Here it is. The purpose of wrath is vengeance. Ezekiel 24.7 and 8 confirms this further when it says, For her blood is upon the top of a rock, that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance. Notice again, the purpose of wrath is vengeance. Note that vengeance is not given to you and to me. Very important. Is everybody listening? If a parent spanks his child while he is angry, he has not disciplined the child. He has carried out vengeance upon the child. He has violated God's requirement in Genesis 18.19 in relation to Abraham. It talked about him doing justice and judgment. And also Luke 1.17 that says that a parent must be just. It violates God's requirement of justice. This act of vengeance is unjust and easily causes a child to become either disobedient or rebellious. I don't know about you fathers, but it grieves my heart to think of the number of times I violated God's truth in this area as I was raising my children. I wish somebody had told me these things. According to Romans 13.4, God does delegate the responsibility of vengeance to earthly rulers. It says, For he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. The wrath mentioned there, interestingly, is God's wrath, not man's. I said that God delegates His vengeance to earthly rulers, but God doesn't delegate or give His wrath to anyone. Even earthly rulers are not given God's wrath. If a judge gets angry in the courtroom, the whole case may be thrown out. Anger negates justice's ability to deal impartially. I talked to a lawyer recently who told me that they had just had to evaluate the judges to make sure because they wanted to make sure that the judges were being impartial. Anger negates justice's ability to deal impartially. Jesus could cleanse the temple, but the people were amazed that He had the authority to do it. Why? He was probably exercising both wrath and vengeance. Jesus will also carry out vengeance in the future. According to 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7 and 8, it talks about how the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. If you're here and you are lost, that ought to strike terror in your soul. Someone asked me, but won't a man need anger if he has to defend his family? It would seem that way, wouldn't it? But you know, if you reason biblically, you'll find out it's not true. You'll find out the opposite is true. You especially would not need anger then. And I'm not saying a man wouldn't be greatly tempted to become angry, but what you would really need would be courage and discernment. Let me prove it to you. Angry people act out of rage instead of out of reason. Angry people have unjustly lynched innocent people in their wrath. To say that a father would need anger to defend his home would be the equivalent of saying that the police need anger in order to defend us. The truth is, a policeman who gets angry often does so and acts irrationally when he does so and he has to give account for it. We've heard many stories of such things. Anger goes beyond God's law and becomes its own law. Angry people don't settle for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Angry people want both eyes for one eye and a handful of teeth for one tooth. Let me take this even further. What I'm about to describe sadly has and is happening. In fact, it is exacerbating and complicating the problem of anger in our homes. What is it? A preacher gets angry in the pulpit or uses anger in his preaching or has an angry spirit while he is preaching. How do I know? I've been guilty enough. But I'm afraid I'm not alone. In fact, I've been in meetings where the amens were the loudest when the preacher was the most angry. And I am not against amens. Sadly, most preachers who have this problem are like James and John. They don't know it. It's easy to get confused and think that the emotional high of anger is the same thing as the power of God upon your life. Some people who hear an angry preacher preach know that he's angry, but many men in the congregation have the same problem and therefore don't know it. For a strong Bible preacher to have an angry spirit is not only an accepted thing in our day, it is also in some circles a strongly promoted, encouraged, and expected thing. Preachers have said things like this. If you don't get in the pulpit and have a royal fit once every few months, then you'll have carnal, worldly church members and your church will never be all it ought to be. So the use of the carnal, worldly weapon of anger is supposedly proper and powerful to fight carnality and worldliness. Sometimes the angry spirit is heard in the things a preacher says or the way he says them or both. Why do we use anger? Every preacher would have to answer that question for himself, but I'll tell you this, it's easy to use anger as a substitute for study. If the point is not well supported with Scripture, Scripture principle, Scripture illustration, strong reasoning or other illustrations, just use a little anger to drive the point home. Then if a fellow's really talented, he may use... I never had this talent. Maybe it's a blessing, I didn't. I used to think it was a curse I didn't have this, but maybe it was a blessing. If a fellow's really talented, he may use some humor to gloss over the hurt that he caused by his anger. You know what that's like? It's like a father trying to get a child to laugh after he just said or did something cruel or hurtful. Humor may wisely be used to make truth more acceptable. Humor should not be used to make anger, a work of the flesh, more acceptable. Incidentally, anyone who says anything in anger will probably say the wrong thing. But if you do happen to say the right thing, it will probably be said the wrong way. Proverbs 14, 17 says, He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. What are the results of this angry spirit in our pulpits? There are several of them. One is continual strife among pastor and deacons and pastor and people and people and people. Remember that Proverbs 29, 22 says, An angry man stirreth up strife. A second result of this angry spirit in our pulpits is empty pews and people going to churches that don't teach and preach the Bible just to get away from the angry spirit in the Bible-believing church. One preacher said to me, Brother Davis, I don't believe. All the people I ran off for years and blamed it on them when it wasn't any... Angry spirit. In fact, as this message is going out, we're hearing more and more preachers saying, You are right. This is exactly what has happened to me over the years. A third consequence of the angry spirit in our pulpits is that a plague of anger is spread throughout homes, businesses, and society. And I was very careful how I chose those words. Anger is indeed like a contagious plague. Since the anger is behind the pulpit, it must be right not only for this area, but for out there as well, anywhere else. But that's not the worst problem we have in this area. We are not simply defending and justifying a carnal work of the flesh. We are also promoting the spread of something that God Himself says is contagious like a deadly disease. Proverbs 22, 24, and 25 says, Make no friendship. The Hebrew word means to pasture or feed together with an angry man. And the Hebrew word there for man means ruler or leader. And with a furious man thou shalt not go. Why? Lest thou learn his ways. In fact, right there, the word means beware about learning his ways and get a snare to thy soul. When a preacher stands in the pulpit with an angry spirit, the fathers in the church easily catch it and don't know they have it. Then many youth rebel against their parents and we can't figure out how or why it's happening. I know this isn't the only reason for problems in our churches and homes, but it's probably a bigger one than hardly any of us realize. The fourth result of the angry spirit in our pulpits is that vengeance is being handled by someone not biblically qualified to handle it. An angry preacher may think he is giving reproof and correction. In reality, he is exercising wrongful vengeance upon God's people. The fifth result of an angry spirit in our pulpits is that it causes us to lose the battle to spread God's truth among the nations of the world. Our spirit of anger weakens or neutralizes even our presentation of God's truth. The truth of the spirit, listen to this, the truth of the spirit is not the most powerful when it is presented with a work of the flesh. The truth of the spirit is the most powerful when it is presented with the fruit of the spirit. Have you noticed that we really are losing the battle for the mind, especially in America? It's happening in many areas, but I especially notice in the area of homosexuality or sodomy. Should we continue to stand against this vile sin? Of course. But using a spirit of anger as we do so will not help us in our presentation of the truth in this area. I think of a statement that I made in this area, not only here but in several places where I spoke. People really like this statement. I have to be honest, I sort of like this. I thought the statement was sort of cool. I said, if you want to see what God thinks about homosexuality, look at Sodom and Gomorrah and see how God turned those fruit loops into crispy critters. Boy, I thought that was really creative. I remember when I came up with that, I thought, ooh, this is good. The problem with that statement is that the very words carry with them a spirit of anger. A pastor said to me, Brother Davis, a good friend of mine, he said, couldn't, isn't it possible that the intensity of our presentation of the truth, couldn't it cause people to think we're angry when we're really not? My reply to him was this. Our love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance should be so obvious that there would be no question about our being angry. The Holy Spirit knows better how to use His sword than do we and His sword, the Word of God, the truth of God's Word is best used with His fruit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Let me make clear what I'm saying here. Somebody could misunderstand. I am not against strong, clear, plain, powerful, bold preaching. Even this message is somewhat that way. I am for that. I am for preaching that exposes sin and Satan. What I'm saying is this, listen very carefully. It may be a fine line, but there must be a line drawn between being emphatic or being enraged, between being fiery or being frightening, between being watchful or being wrathful. There must be a line between correction and condemnation, between intensity and indignation, between reproving and raging. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, suggesting passivity on the preacher's part or the people's part. No great leaders or great Christians in the Bible were passive men. I am suggesting that our attacks and our defenses be filled with spiritual propriety and humility and a heart of concern. 1 Peter 3.15 says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. How? With meekness and fear. Notice the qualification that Peter put on this giving an answer. Luke 4.22 tells about Jesus' message in the synagogue at Nazareth. What was it that stood out about Jesus' preaching? It says, And all bear Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. The other key question to be answered is, How about Ephesians 4.26, Be ye angry and sin not? Well, notice first the number of clear Scriptures that say to get rid of anger completely. I didn't count them, but you notice they were all the way through the Bible, and one of them is only five verses away. Let all anger be put away from you. Notice, secondly, that the Greek verb tense for be ye angry is a present passive imperative. Present means it is something currently taking place. Passive means not that you are acting, but that you are being acted upon. Imperative is a command. What is the meaning? Put it together. Be angry. It is saying there are going to be times when you feel something or someone working on you to make you angry. Be aware of that. Be ready for that. Recognize it. Don't let it happen. Be ye angered, but don't sin by getting angry. That's what Ephesians 4.26 means. One of the wives in our church was having lots of problems with her husband. She's allowed me graciously to share this story with you. At one point, she was about ready to walk off and leave him and their house full of children. Wise older lady in our church was counseling this younger wife, and the older lady finally got the younger lady to see her boss the angry spirit. It's easy for that to hide from anybody. A few days later, this younger wife brought me a book she'd been reading for a couple of years. She said to me, Pastor Davis, I don't think I'll be needing this book anymore. It has definitely been encouraging me in the wrong direction. I could hardly believe my eyes. Here was a 300-page book I was holding in my hand, not only justifying anger, but actually encouraging women to get angry. I mean, that's almost the title of it. On the back of it, it says you can get good and angry. It's encouraging. Well, I looked till I found the page in the book where the author discussed the biblical justification for anger. He said that the Greek word translated angry in Ephesians 4.26 refers to a milder form of anger that may not be sin and might actually be good, and he encouraged the use of anger as a tool. I also read a Greek scholar who pointed out that there are three Greek words for anger in the New Testament, and this one, the root of it is orge, may, he said, be righteous anger. Most commentaries going all the way back to the 1600s to Matthew, Henry say about the same thing. It's a tool. This is a mild form. Well, I'm not a Greek scholar. I will, if there's anything, I'm definitely not. I'm definitely not a Greek scholar, but I do know that the way you understand the meaning of a word is by looking at all the places where God used that same Greek word. So I studied the eight times that the word occurs in the Greek in the New Testament. Three were God's anger, Matthew 18, 34, 22, 7, and Luke 14, 21. God's anger there is certainly not mild anger. In one of them, he was full of wrath and delivered this man to the tormentors. One of them was Satan's anger found in Revelation 12, verse 17. As I remember, it's one of only two times that you find Satan's wrath in the whole Bible. Satan's anger there is not a righteous anger and certainly not a mild anger. In fact, it's one of the worst pictures of anger in intensity in the entire Bible. It's the passage where Satan as a dragon was angry at the Jews and set out to wage war on them because through them the Messiah was given. Four of those eight were man's anger. All were unrighteous. In fact, one of them was the elder brother's anger at his father for welcoming home his brother, the prodigal son, in Luke chapter 15, verse 28, says he was angry and would not go in. That is not mild anger. It was anger of rejection. It was harsh anger, cruel anger. Even the context of Ephesians 4, 26 should tell us that this is not mild anger. Be angry and sin not. Be angered and sin not. Be subject to getting very angry but don't sin. That's the meaning. Why? Because the very next verse says neither give place to the devil. That which allows Satan to take ground in a person's life cannot be considered to be something mild. That is the context of the passage. I read articles by both secular psychologists and Christian counselors who say this. Stay with me. Listen to me very carefully. They say that you must release anger. If you don't release anger, they reason, tension will build up and create problems. So it's supposed to be better to have a controlled release than to hold it in. I've heard of counselors who send patients into a room with a pillow. The angry person is supposed to beat the pillow and beat it and beat it until they get out all their frustrations and feel better. It's really the same as knocking a hole in the wall or throwing things. It's just not as damaging. Sometimes a person is told to take the picture of the person that they are mad at and go into a room and fuss and scream and curse and say any vile thing you want to that person until you feel better. Now, there are a couple of things wrong with that reasoning. First of all, it doesn't take into account that anger is not really something you can properly control. It usually gets out of control. It's like a skunk spraying a little bit under your house. It tends not to be a little bit. Ask my son-in-law and daughter about what happened with a skunk getting under their house. And you could say, well, it was just a little bit. The truth is it permeated everything. Anger is like a flood that has the power to wash it. You remember that it says anger is outrageous? Anger is like a flood that has the power to wash away homes and churches. It's like a flood. Once you wrongly give permission to have a little bit of anger, it winds up being a lot more than a little bit. Trying to have a little bit of anger is like trying to have a little bit of adultery or a little bit of idolatry or a little bit of witchcraft or a little bit of blasphemy or a little bit of filthy communication. I've never yet met anyone who said that they control their anger who did so. The second problem with the world's reasoning about controlling anger is that it causes us to miss God's way to control anger. God's way to control any wrong emotion is to put the mind under the command of Christ and His Word, then have the mind tell the will what to do so that the emotion of anger is unplugged before it gets turned on. My wife and I were on a flight to Chicago that arrived an hour and a half late so that we missed our connecting flight to El Paso, Texas. We wound up having to fly to Las Vegas, Nevada, and then on to El Paso, Texas, arriving six hours late at 4 o'clock in the morning. That'll put you in a cheery mood. The lady at the ticket counter in Chicago, when we went there to find out what we were going to do, thanked us for being kind and commented to us about how she hated having to deal with belligerent passengers. I said to her, Well, ma'am, I figure God's in control of the weather so there's really no reason for us to get upset. He could have done anything he wanted to with it today. You couldn't handle it. It's fine. Now, do you see what I did? Do you know, be you angered, I had that outside force working on me to make me angry just like anybody else does and I'm not perfect anymore than anybody else is. I wanted to get upset just like anyone else. I felt it. But I thought that thought, God is in control of the weather. That's a biblical truth. My mind accepted biblical truth, told my will to settle my emotions down. That's the way you're supposed to control it. Incidentally, anger is an emotion and just humanly speaking, the more, this is just true whether you have a Bible or not, the more you practice or yield to any emotion, the easier it is to do. There are some people that have trouble conquering anger and one reason they have trouble conquering anger is because they've been angry all their life. They let themselves get angry almost every day. And the more you say no to any emotion, the easier it is to say, and that's just humanly speaking. That's just talking about human, that didn't have anything to do with the Bible. But you add the thought in, of the mind, the will and the emotion, put in the mind of the command of Christ and you recognize, I've got to reprogram my thinking. This man is making me angry. This woman is making me angry. No, God is trying to teach me something. You reprogram yourself. Even after all this truth, there may be someone still feeling that they need to defend anger. Did you know there are even verses warning you that you better not do that? Proverbs 21-24 says, Proud and haughty scorner is his name who deals in proud wrath. Proud wrath is wrath that I'm glad I got it. Proverbs 30-33 says, Surely the turning of milk bringeth forth butter and the wringing of nose bringeth forth blood, so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife. Maybe you're wondering like I was, isn't there anyone in the Bible who had spiritual anger that was helpful instead of hurtful and right instead of wrong? I have a list of every man in the Bible that those seven words, anger, angry, wrath, wrath, fury, furious, and indignation, that those seven words were used in relation to, incidentally, they were all men. 52 of them plus two unnumbered groups, not one lady. The main verse about an angry woman seems to be Proverbs 21-19 that says, It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. I'm not saying there weren't women in the Bible who got angry. I'm saying that every reference to those seven words was a man. So let's go back to the men, okay? You're welcome, ladies. Peter got angry and chopped off a man's ear. He did that defending Jesus. Jesus told him to put up his sword. And what is the message? The message there is that Jesus doesn't want us using anger to defend Him. Paul got angry at the high priest in Acts chapter 23 and then humbly apologized for it When Jesus got angry, He didn't need to apologize. If you ever get angry, you need to apologize as well. There's one other man in the Bible we might notice, clearly one of the greatest men in the Bible. I come nowhere near even worthy hardly of untying his shoes if he's around here, and that man is Moses. Six times in the Bible, it tells us that Moses got angry and four other times it appears that he was angry for a total of ten times. Exodus chapter 2 verse 12 was probably the root of Moses' problems with anger for the rest of his life. He saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite and he killed the Egyptian and hid his body. Moses never did deal with his sin in that area. The unresolved guilt apparently aided him for the rest of his life. Hebrews 11, 27 says that Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king. Before the murder, Moses had no fear of Pharaoh. After the murder, Moses was afraid and fled for his life. In Exodus chapter 5 verse 22, Moses seemed to be angry at God himself. Definitely sinful anger. In Exodus chapter 11 verse 8, Moses was angry at Pharaoh. It was not spiritual and his anger accomplished nothing. In Exodus chapter 16 verse 20, the people kept manna for an extra day and Moses was wrath with them. In Exodus 32, 19, Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. Wait a minute. God wrote those tables with his own hand. Was there really anything spiritual about breaking them? Here is a powerful picture of how anger breaks God's law. It is also a picture of how anger destroys the very truth you were supposed to be presenting when you got angry. It is also interesting that God required Moses to cut out replacement tables of stone and to walk all the way up Mount Sinai carrying them so that God could write the tables again. Think about what you have to do to rebuild what you destroyed in anger. Leviticus 10.16 tells how Moses got angry with Aaron's sons but his anger was because of a misunderstanding. He answered the matter before he heard it all and it became folly and shame to him. Numbers 11 I mentioned earlier in the message. Numbers 16.15 was where Moses got angry at Korah, Daphin, and Abiram. And the seventh time that Moses got angry after killing the Egyptian, it wound up costing Moses his life. He had already smitten the rock which was clearly a type of Christ. In Numbers 20 he was told to speak to the rock. Instead he smote it twice and God told him that he would die at age 120 though he wasn't really old. You remember the Bible describes that his eye was not dim nor his strength abated. He would not be able to enter the Promised Land. I really believe he lost 40 years off of his life if you study how his life divided into 40s. Did Moses ever, great man that he was, did he ever deal with his anger? Apparently not. In Numbers 31.14 and Numbers 32.6 Moses got angry twice more still. Several people have asked if there were some key steps they could follow to conquer a spirit of anger. Number one, recognize the problem and its seriousness. It is time we recognized anger for the devastating curse that it is because denial destroys hope for help. I've dealt with people who honestly don't want to admit they have a problem in this area. I talked to a father and mother with a rebellious 16-year-old daughter. After a few minutes on the telephone I asked, Sir, do you have a problem with anger? He quickly replied, No, I don't. His wife on the phone with us meekly said, Well, maybe just a little bit. He snapped back at her, No, I don't. I said, Sir, may I be very honest with you? Of course. Sir, you have one of the biggest problems with anger of any man I've ever talked to. How can you say that when you've only been talking to me for a few minutes? Sir, you don't even know me, but you've rebuked your wife three times in my presence in less than ten minutes. Sir, you have a huge problem with anger. That father had already sent his daughter away to a girl's home for over a year. She had come home changed and in three months had become a rebel again. And he wanted to know. He called me to ask if he should send her away a second time. And I said, Sir, the problem is not your daughter's, it's yours. Don't create a sense of rejection in your daughter by sending her away again. It would not be just to send her away when this is your problem. I told another father with a similar problem who refused to take action that he was the one who needed to be sent away, not his daughter. Ask your wife if you have a problem with anger. If she answers, well, maybe just a little bit, you probably have a huge problem. She's probably too afraid of your anger to tell you. Ask somebody else. Ask other people. Ask anybody if you have a problem with anger. If anybody tells you, well, maybe just a little bit, then you probably have a huge problem with anger. Remember, there's no such thing as a little bit of anger. Recognize the problem in the seriousness. A number of years ago, a man in our church came to me and he said, Pastor, I love you. I love your preaching. But there's a harshness about your preaching. I had no idea what the man was talking about. I couldn't see it. If I had respected him, I wouldn't have listened. But we talked over and over again. He gave me examples from sermons I'd preached. The problem was not error. The problem was anger. And finally, the light began to dawn. Have I arrived? I'm sure I haven't. This I do know. I am more determined than ever not to create strife in my church by having an angry spirit in my preaching. If people get upset because I don't defend anger, that's fine. If people get upset because I am using anger, that's not fine. In fact, the number one prayer I prayed before I preached this sermon was that I might be able to preach it without a spirit of anger because I think it'd just be really easy to get angry while you're preaching about anger. A while back, my heart smoked me for several days because I felt like I made one statement in a sermon with a spirit of anger. It also seems that God has been able to use me a great deal more since I began to sincerely seek God's help in this area. Recognize the problem and its seriousness. Number two, desire victory enough to cry out to God. The truth is there are many who have the problem, know they have the problem, but don't really want victory. They enjoy the fear their anger creates in others. They also enjoy the carnal power that their anger gives them to control others. Number three, repent of the sin. Say to God, I want to turn from this sin. Number four, confess the sins of forefathers and ask God in the name and through the power of the blood of Jesus to break any curse that is coming down the generations. In Nehemiah 1, verse 6, Nehemiah prayed, both I and my father's house have sinned. Number five, ask God to take back the ground Satan has taken because of anger. Remember that Ephesians 4, verse 26 says, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. The very next verse says, neither give place to the devil. Whenever someone or something causes you to become angry, then Satan is able at that time to take ground in your life. Number six, men especially see the connection between anger and lust. If you study Matthew 5, 21 to 32, remember that Jesus is dealing with the letter of the law and the spirit of the law in this passage. He that is angry with his brother without a cause is describing a spirit of anger. When lust prevails, so does anger. Lust creates an insensitivity in the spirit that causes a person to be more likely to respond wrongly to God and to others. Lust and anger are like twin sins. Wherever you see one, the other is probably also somewhere around and that is one reason, young men, that Satan does his best to defeat you in the area of lust and anger in your youth because he wants to get you addicted to it where you will be ineffective as a young man. You must deal with lust and anger and do whatever you have to do to deal with it. Number seven, watch for people and things that are going to come your way to make you angry. Did you hear that? Did you know I wouldn't be surprised at all if somebody didn't have something or somebody really work on them to make them angry even after you hear this message this very hour? The meaning of Ephesians 4, 26 is that you're definitely going to have things coming your way that could possibly create anger in you. God is saying, be aware of this and don't sin and don't give ground to Satan. Use the impulse to get angry as a signal to yield to God and to answer softly. Proverbs 15, 1 says, a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Few things have as much power to make you angry as anger in someone else. Number eight, purpose to enter the presence of family members and business associates with praise. I love this thought. Psalm 100, verse 4 gives the principle enter into his presence with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. You should come into the presence of those you admire and love and respect with praise. The first words to each family member each day, husbands to your wife, wife to your husband, parents to your children, the first words should be words of praise. Those words then set the stage for the rest of the relationships that day. Praise is a motivator. Praise is a magnet that draws hearts to you and praise is also a defense for you against wrong words and attitudes. Are you, especially the first thing every day, praising those around you? Number nine, ask God daily to fill you with his spirit and to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life. Every morning I ask God to produce in me the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And then I pray to God that fruit. And I try to picture this. As I pray it, I try to picture my countenance and my actions portraying the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Hey, you won't display that too much in your life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the opposite of the works of the flesh and there's something powerful about just praying about it and meditating on it. And number ten, make yourself fully accountable. If you realize you've had a really serious problem in this area, then you may want to ask your mate daily at first whether she sensed any spirit of anger in you that day or whether he sensed any spirit of anger in you that day. And if so, offer no defense, only gratefulness for correction. Be humble to ask for and accept correction from your mates or children and perhaps others. A pastor or staff member or a teacher in a church may want to set up some type of accountability with some key person that he or she trusts in the church. One father who knew he had a problem in this area listened to this message several times and after a period of time, the father asked his son how he was doing and the son looked back and answered, Dad, I can still see the fire in your eyes. And the dad humbly cried out, Please son, tell me when you see it. It's a blind spot for me but I want to know. I want to deal with it. I tell you that father will deal with it. He wants to too badly to not. Another father who heard this message said to me, All my life had a problem with anger. I finally dealt with it when I heard that message and three weeks later my wife pointed out to me that my little boy no longer had a problem with stuttering. I wonder what God will do in your home once you deal with the spirit of anger. You remember my opening story. I was talking to that father in Knoxville, Tennessee. We had discussed the problem of anger. He had listened three times to a different message of mine on anger. He had already made himself accountable to his wife and daughter so that anytime they just looked at him and said to him that he was angry he would immediately apologize. I said to him, Brother there is still a spirit of anger in your life. I can hear it in your voice even while we're talking. He said, Brother Davis, I don't know what you're talking about. I said you must not just repent of the outward manifestations of anger. You must repent of the spirit of anger and make yourself accountable so that anytime your wife or daughter even hears a spirit of anger in your voice they can tell you about it. He said to me Brother Davis, I'll do it. I'll do it. I went over and talked to his daughter for a while. I said to her your dad has a terrible problem with the spirit of anger and you know it, don't you? She said, oh yes. I said, I want you to know that I told you dad what the problem is and he's going to make himself accountable not just for the outburst of anger but for any spirit of anger as well. What I want to challenge you to do is to give your dad a chance. This has really been a terrible blind spot for him. He honestly needs your help and I hope you won't make it difficult for him. Now the reason I told her that is because many teens will actually take advantage listen, of a father trying to change in this area and try to provoke him to anger just so they can feel justified to continue in their rebellion. Here's the end of the father's story in his own words. Exactly 14 days later our daughter turned around and has been growing in the Lord ever since. It was like we got our daughter back from the dead. It's been such a joy to hear her say, Dad I love you. She wrote her friend's father and asked his forgiveness for not telling him what was going on in his daughter's life. That's the way you know somebody's really gotten right. She pleaded with her friend's dad to deal with his daughter like her dad dealt with her. My daughter's friend got pregnant and the father of Sunday school teacher said she should get an abortion which she did. The girl's mother met my wife in the grocery store one day and blamed the Christian school for the trouble. She said they never should have kicked them out. News of our daughter's turnaround got around. I have been surprised at the number of parents that are having similar problems with their daughters. I've been asked to talk to a number of them. I have yet to find a father who is willing to pay the price that it takes to win his daughter back. In every case, I can sense a spirit of anger and resentment. He said my daughter is now very strong in her commitment to the Lord and is working with other young people who have problems. She now has a ministry helping other rebellious girls. His last quote was this for our family the spirit of anger was the key. Jesus looked at James and John who wanted to call down fire from heaven and he said to them ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Is it possible that someone here today is emitting or putting off a spirit of anger? Maybe you haven't even known about it. Maybe you do know about it and you realize now it's time for you to take it seriously. It is extremely destructive. You would not dream of bringing an X-rated movie into your home and watching it. You would not bring an idol into your home and bow down to it. You would not dream would you of bringing a witch into your home and holding a seance and you also should not dream of having anger in your home. Would you bow with me please? If you're here tonight and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, that's the place to start. That's the beginning point. That's the most important point of all. That's more important than anything else I've said tonight. In fact, let me ask. How many here tonight know of a time, a specific time in your life when you realized you were a lost sinner on your way to hell and you cried out to God and asked His forgiveness and asked Him to come into your heart, cleanse you and save you? How many know that's happened to you? Would you lift your hand all over the house? Thank you. Put your hands down. If you can't lift your hand, listen to me. I don't care what you've gone through. I don't care what your parents are like. I don't care what your mate is like. It doesn't make any sense to die and go to hell. It doesn't make any sense to stay lost. Why don't you come and trust Jesus as your Savior before you leave this place tonight? I hope that you will. And there ought to be many people in this altar tonight saying, God, I want victory over anger and a spirit of anger. What is it really? Is it really the bitterness I preached about this morning? The anger that I preached about tonight? Is it really accomplishing anything in your life? You say, but the other person needs to deal with something. No, no, no. It begins with you. Dealing with sin does not begin with dealing with sin in that other person. It begins with dealing with sin in your own personal life. Will you do it tonight? Heavenly Father, Lord, I lift before you many here tonight who need help in this area and pray, God, that nobody who is lost would walk out of here without getting saved and that nobody who has a problem with anger and angry spirit would walk out of here without falling in this altar and saying, Dear God, give me cleansing and victory in this area. I'm going to commit myself now to do whatever I have to do to get victory in this area. Lord, there are folks who keep fooling around with all kinds of things and need to just finally make up their mind, we're going to do whatever we have to do to get victory in this area. God, help them to do it tonight. In Jesus' name we pray.