Jesus's Teaching on Murder and Anger (Jake Enns)

Our sermon title this morning is titled Jesus Teaching on Murder

and Anger. The Bible has a lot to say about

the topic of anger, and if you read all the verses where this

is brought out in the stories or particularly in different

passages where anger is addressed directly, it is never

in a positive light. We'll make a few comments about

how Jesus got angry a few times, and there's the righteous anger

of God, but generally speaking, the anger between one person and

another is never good. It just isn't.

And before we go into our passage this morning, I want to

read a few verses just to give us a give us a bit of

perspective on this topic of anger.

Proverbs chapter 22, verse 24. The writer says make no

Proverbs 22:24

friendship with an angry man and with a furious man.

Do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your

soul. The New Living Translation puts

it this way. Do not befriend angry people or

associates with hot tempered people or you will learn to be

like them and endanger your soul.

That's pretty grim. That's pretty dark.

But you know what is worse than being with angry people?

What's worse than making friends with angry people or going with

a furious man? You know what's worse than doing

that? What's worse than being with

angry people is to be 1. Then you're it.

Anger comes from the heart. It's an emotion.

Now the emotion of anger itself is an emotion that you cannot

always help. It's just how we're built, how

we're wired. When something wrong happens,

there's an emotional repulse, repulsive.

There's an emotional reaction to it.

It is a good reaction and it's right to be react.

This is wrong. But then it comes to the

dividing point. How will we respond to it?

And we'll talk about that from there on.

Anger has to be carefully guarded.

It must be rained in. It turns into words and then

words turn to actions. It is very dangerous.

Jesus has very strong language against it, and it talks about

the consequences of it. When anger is unleashed and let

go, from the human heart to the lips to our actions, there's no

way of knowing what ultimate damage it may cause.

Just think of all the broken relationships, loss of

friendships, loss of life, and damage that's recorded worldwide

since ancient biblical times. Again, anger at its starting

point is a human emotion that everyone has at some point in

time. The emotion in and of itself is

not where the sin it's it's what it's allowed to do, or how it's

rained, how it's used. Jesus himself was angry at the

Pharisees. We know the story of how he

cleaned out the temple. He was angry, but never in a

spiteful, malicious, vengeful way.

That's not how he expressed his anger.

It was a response to how evil was trampling on God's holiness

and he exposed it and he rebuked the people for doing it.

When we see something wrong, we may feel anger and maybe rightly

so. That's an emotion that just

happens. Anger is not so much the

question, the emotions, not so much the questions.

What do we do? It's very important how we

respond. We respond to situations when we

see they are wrong. A few more verses.

Proverbs 18, verse 21 says death and life are in the power of the

Proverbs 18:21

tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit, the Message

translation by Eugene Peterson writes.

He says words kill, words give life.

They're either poison or fruit. You choose James 3 verse 6,

James 3:6

James the Apostle writes, and the tongue is a fire, a world of

iniquity. The tongue is so set among our

members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the

course of nature and is set on fire by hell.

The tongue can be used to bless and to curse, to heal and to

hurt. And how we use our tongue is for

you and me to decide. This is our responsibility.

If we decide to speak evil, we are responsible.

We will reap the consequences of that.

If we decide to speak blessing, we will reap the rewards as

well. The blessing, the choice is

ours. This morning we're continuing

our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount.

Last Sunday we looked at how Jesus shifted from speaking.

You've heard it said back up. Jesus said blessed are the poor,

blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, the third

person. And then he went on to the

second person where he said blessed are those, blessed are

those. And then he said blessed,

blessed are you. But then he went to the first

person. He says, I tell you.

Then Matthew 5 verse 20 we read, unless we closed off there last

Matthew 5:20

Sunday, Matthew 520 I say to you, unless your righteousness

exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will

by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus put a very high standard. He says, I say to you, I say to

you from that point on in this chapter, in chapter 5 of the

Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes it very personal, very

authoritative stance on 6 different issues.

And we will talk about that the next several Sundays.

Today it's going to be an anger. Next Sunday it'll be an

adultery. Lust and adultery will combine

those two into one. Then the after that will be the

one on oaths and standards on oaths and standards on oaths and

what and swearing and those kinds of things.

Then after that, it'll be a sermon on violence and

retaliation and finding love towards enemies.

And that'll wrap up chapter 5. But this morning we're going to

look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 21 to 26.

Matthew 5:21–26

And here Jesus takes an authoritative stand on the issue

of anger. And guess what?

He does not lower the bar. He does not.

Oh yeah, you know, everybody does it.

It's OK as long as you don't hurt anybody.

It's not what happens. He raises the bar.

It's scary, folks. It's scary.

Sometimes people think of Jesus meek and mild.

He never would would have an issue.

No, it's incredible how serious He takes human anger.

Jesus is not tolerant towards sin.

He's gracious towards sinners, but sin has to be atoned for and

He did that on the cross. He's merciful and forgiving, but

He's not easy on sin. Sin demands payment.

He died for his sins and today Jesus puts anger in full

display. How He sees it, humanly

speaking, He raised the bar impossibly high.

So let's go through this chapter verse by verse, Matthew 5, verse

Matthew 5:21

21. You've heard that it was said to

those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will

be in danger of judgment. That was the standard.

That was what every Jew was familiar with.

That's what they learned when they were when they were young,

The 10 commandments, OK, don't kill, don't kill.

And if somebody did kill someone, that person would be

arrested, face the judgment. And not every killing or every

death was it was the same. But if somebody had killed

somebody with malicious intent, with vengeance or intentionally,

there were harsh punishments and it meant the death penalty.

Now there was there would be other forms of killing may be

unintentional or we call manslaughter and those kinds of

killings that was not as severe. But the eye for an eye, the

tooth for tooth, the life for life mentality existed.

So when Jesus said you shall not murder, everybody got it.

OK, we got it. Everybody got it.

Everybody knew what he's talking about.

So far so good. Everybody's in agreement.

The whole crowd on the Mount Jesus by the water there,

everybody's listening. They all got it.

But now he starts to dig down. He goes down, he says, but I say

to you, he's taking authority here.

I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause

shall be in danger of the judgment.

And whoever says to his brother Raqqa shall be in danger of the

council. But whoever says you fool shall

be in danger of Hellfire. In the past it had been taking

of a human life that was the benchmark for punishment.

Now Jesus lumps anger into the same category.

He raised the bar. If you read different

translations, some of the earliest and commentators write

about the some of the earliest, most reliable manuscripts in the

Bible. The early, early ones do not

include that phrase there where it says without a cause.

But commentators believe this may have been added as a

clarifying comment because it was not.

Not all anger was sin. As we know Jesus was angry as

well at times. And I'll leave it there for this

morning, but here Jesus is saying killing a person,

expressing anger to a person comes out of the same category.

Both put one in the danger of judgment.

Jesus puts anger towards another person, the same category as

murder. He escalates it.

This is deep. This hits hard.

How often are people not angry at each other and with each

other? And then oftentimes it doesn't

just stop there. Then actions, suing, fighting,

revenge, retaliation starts coming.

Oh, I would never kill somebody. I'm just mad at him.

Maybe not, but in God's eyes, it lands in the same court.

So let's look at the consequences of uncontrolled

anger in the Old Testament. If a person got angry with

another person and committed murder, as I said, as we as the

Bible teaches, there's a standard for that punishment

would be given. But if a person just was angry

at somebody, there was no punishment.

It was not part of the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments don't say thou shalt not be angry.

There's not an 11th commandment, thou shalt not be angry.

It's not there. Thou shalt not kill.

You shall not murder. That is there.

But if a person was just angry at somebody and wouldn't

actually do anything to that somebody, then maybe it wasn't

punishable. And still today in the law, it's

still the case today. If a person just angry at his

neighbor but doesn't do anything to his neighbor, that's not a

cause for arrest or for a court action.

Just being angry is not actually a crime in our country.

Now in God's moral standard, it's sin.

But on a from a from a legal standpoint, it's not a crime.

If it turns violent or to an assault, then it becomes 1.

So how do we best unpack this truth and explain it, that we

can see it for what it is and learn from it?

One of the best ways that I find that for me, that I find best to

explain difficult passages and topics and themes in the Bible

is through stories. And the Bible has plenty of

them. There's a lot of other stories

we could use, but I think the best stories are in the Bible.

And because we know the Bible, I would hope to say the best.

I would at least I would hope to say that this morning.

We want to look at two different stories in the Bible and see

what anger does, what destruction it unleashes if it's

not controlled. The first story we want to look

at this in Genesis chapter 4, verse 3 to 11.

Genesis 4:3–11

It's a story of Cain and Abel. Now Cain and Abel were the sons

of Adam and Eve. God had blessed Adam and Eve

with two boys and they grew up and one became a farmer and the

other boy became a shepherd. Abel became a shepherd and Cain

became a farmer. Now in in Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

let's begin reading there, verse 3.

In the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an

offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord, And Abel

also brought the first born of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not

respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his

countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why

are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire

is for you, but you should rule over it.

Now Cain talked with Abel's brother, and it came to pass

when they're in the field that Cain rose up against Abel's

brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain,

where is Abel your brother? He said, I don't know.

Am I my brother's keeper? And he, meaning God, said, what

have you done? The voice of your brother's

blood cries out to me from the ground.

So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its

mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Then it goes on to explain how God, God did curse Cain.

And then he also said to him, From now on you will no longer

have the bountiful harvest that you have.

The ground will not yield its fruit for you.

You are going to suffer for this.

You think Cain had thought that through?

No. How often do people not do

something which in hindsight, oh, I wish I had not said that.

I wish I kept my mouth shut. All of us at times have done

that. Cain's curse came as a result of

God's punishment on him because he killed his brother Abel.

He didn't control his anger. The story goes on how things

went downhill from there. And there's more that happened,

but in summary, Abel lost his life due to Cain's anger.

He was dead. Cain's life continued on, but

the consequences he suffered were huge.

And there's no way of knowing when a person does stuff like

that, what the final outcome will be.

And I've said this here before, if CS Lewis, who one time said

every sin is in its own right a fresh fountain of evil flowing

on to the end of time, especially in cases like this,

the Bible continues on and, and I don't have the verse on the

PowerPoint here, but in Genesis 9 verse 6, when Noah comes out

Genesis 9:6

of the ark, God gives a special command and said whoever sheds

man's blood, that man, his blood shall be shed from the image of

God. He made man.

Now we know under the new Covenant the death penalty is no

longer in place, but that's how serious God takes when humans

kill humans. People are made in God's image,

and if a person is killed, God takes it personally.

And here Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 puts anger towards

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

one's brother in that same category, on the same level of

murder. How many people on a daily basis

just have an angry attitude at their job, at their boss, at

their employer, at home, between spouses, parents to children,

children to parents, teachers to students, students to teachers,

people to law enforcement, law enforcement against the the

populace. It's everywhere.

And just because there's so much of it doesn't make it less

serious. The gateway through which sin

came into reality in Cain's life was his response to perceived

injury, perceived disappointment.

If Cain had held his anger in check as God told him to, Abel

would not have died. He would have continued farming,

avoided the curse. Life would have moved on.

In Cain's life, it started with an internal heart condition, and

he ended up with the killing his brother and ruining his own life

in the process. That's a hard story, but that's

a true story. There's another story in the

Bible, and this one's a bit different.

Then we'll go back to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

This is the story of Moses. Now Moses, he's a hero.

He's a great guy. Moses was God's chosen man to

lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

It was a very difficult job and it took a big toll on Moses.

But back early on, before it all began, he was in the land of

Egypt. He's described later on as a

humble man, but in the land of Egypt he had an anger issue.

We find an exodus that when he was still in Egypt, one day, he

was 40 years old or so, he sees an Egyptian man beating an

Israelite. He has he, he can't stand that.

He takes and kills the Egyptian and hides the Egyptian in the

sand and buries him to hide the evidence.

Well, and someone might say, well, what's so bad about

defending an Israelite? The Egyptian had it coming,

right? He acted justly.

Somebody might argue. Well, the next day Moses sees 2

Israelite men fighting each other, and he wants to break up

that fight too. But one of them asked Moses, are

you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

And Moses, what I've done is out and everybody knows and I'm in

danger and he's fearful. He runs off to the land of

Midian in the desert, and there he finds a job as a shepherd,

the man he worked for as a shep, as a as a shepherd, that man

gave him one of his daughters as a wife.

And so Moses became the son-in-law of Jethro the

Midianite. And he stayed employed with

Jethro for 40 years in the desert.

At the end of that 40 years, Moses, now 80, God calls him and

sends him back to Egypt to free the people of Israel from

slavery in Egypt. Well, Moses is reluctant to go

and he doesn't think he's the man for the job.

God persuades him and he goes to Egypt and he does that.

He frees the people and through a long painful process, they get

out of Egypt into the desert. Now they're on their way to the

promised land, but the deserts not that good of a place to be.

And so they become unhappy very quickly and they start to

complain and repeatedly. And it starts wearing on Moses

in the desert day in and day out.

There were times it just got tough and patience grows thin

and attitudes get hot and tongues got loose and words got

said. Does that sound normal?

We respond to circumstances in a way like we feel.

Give somebody a piece of our mind and say things we wish we

hadn't. Well, let's continue reading

Numbers 20, verse one. Then the children of Israel, the

whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zen in the

first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam

died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the

congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and

Aaron, and the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If

only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord.

Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this

wilderness that we are animals, should die here?

What a complaining bunch. And why have you brought us,

made us come out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates,

nor is there any water to drink. So Moses and Aaron went from the

presence of the assembly to the door of the Tabernacle of

meeting, and they fell on their face, and the glory of the Lord

appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses,

saying, Take the rod, you and your brother Aaron together the

current, and to you and your brother Aaron, gather the

congregation together. Speak to the rock before their

eyes, and it will yield its water.

Thus you shall bring water out for them out of the rock, and

give drink to the congregation and their animals.

Here it comes. So Moses took the rod from

before the Lord, as he had commanded him.

Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the

rock, and he said to them, Here now you rebels, must we bring

water for you out of this rock? Uh oh.

Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his

rod, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation

and their animals drank. Well, the problem's solved,

right? Nope, not so.

Moses action caused a greater problem.

Moses had disobeyed. God knows God's response.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not

believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel,

therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land

which I have given them. He had been told to speak to the

rock, not hit the rock. He hit it twice.

He got the blessing, but he tarnished the Lord's name and he

lost the privilege of entering the promised land.

Moses. Moses, of all guys, the last man

you would expect something like this to happen to.

But he said cut him some slack. You mean he done all this good

over all these years and that little bit, You mean you're

going to hold him to that? Yes, Patience had worn thin and

he, his fuse had worn short. But the law was the law.

And if we could debate with God, we'd say, hey, we'd cast our

vote with Moses. Lord, he, he, he still deserves

to go. I would have cast my vote with

him. What's the big deal?

All he did was saying, must we, must we get water for you

rebels? And it was true.

He wasn't lying. Everything he was said was true.

Did he try to see if God would relent?

Let's go again, verse, some verse, this verse, because you

did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of

Israel. Therefore you shall not bring

this assembly to the land I've given them.

I think for Moses, this was heartbreaking.

Moses really did want to go into the Promised Land and he did try

to bargain with God. Moses wasn't just ready to lay

down, let it go and forfeit this, this, this promise.

Notice verse drawing me chapter 33 verse 3023.

He says, then I pleaded. He's talking about the history

of the Israelites before his death.

Then I pleaded with the Lord at that time saying, O Lord, you've

begun to show your servant your greatness in your mighty hand

for what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything

like your works and your mighty deeds.

I pray let me crossover and see the good land beyond the Jordan,

those pleasant mountains in Lebanon.

He's describing it. He's explaining God, see God, I

I want to whose prayer, but Moses's prayer would God listen

to if Moses doesn't get his prayer answer, then who has a

chance? Would God listen to him?

Let's go further verse 26 but the Lord was angry with me on

your account. He tells the Israelites, and he

would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me, enough

of that. Speak no more to me of this

matter. Go up to the Mount of Pisgah,

and from lift your eyes toward the West, the north, the South,

and the east. Behold it with your eyes, for

you shall not crossover this Jordan.

Imagine this, this one little phrase that he said there and

beating the rock twice. That's it.

That cost him his journey to the Promised Land.

He'd given 40 years to service here.

He'd been so hard put up with so much, done so much.

We know Moses is in heaven with God, read the New Testament, the

Mount of Transfiguration, that experience.

Moses was not now cast aside, but I'm sure he just regretted

this so much. We we know what he did.

There were consequences for his action.

It makes you just want to drop your shoulders and what's what's

the hope for any of us if every angry outburst would be punished

that way? We're done, we're toast, we're

history. But there's grace.

We know that. And even for Moses, there was

grace too. But he still could not go into

the Promised land. How many relationships again?

How many are being destroyed? How many opportunities lost, How

many blessings forfeited simply because of the attitude of

anger? I'm thankful that today we are

under grace, under the new Covenant, but that does not

erase the consequences of it. So many relationships are ruined

and destroyed and someone's destruction follows because

people can't hold their tongue. God is serious about his

commands. Cain ruined his life.

Moses and Aaron forfeited their the promised land.

Well, back to the story of Jesus, verse 22, Matthew 5.

I say to you, whoever's angry with his brother without a cause

shall be in danger of the judgment.

Whoever says to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the

council. But whoever says you fool shall

be in danger of Hellfire. Anger that is expressed in

malice and hate, derogatory ways falls into this category.

Moses had violated it and he forfeited the promised land.

You see, it would be one thing if this closed off here and just

ended and it was overdone. It's not continuing on in the

passage. Now Jesus digs down even deeper.

I know this is hard. I did say at the beginning of

the series that there are hard things in this passage that are

hard for us to grasp and hard to hear.

But let's look again at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5.

And sooner or later you and I have something to repent of.

Now Jesus narrows it down and digs deeper.

Let's read verse 23. Therefore he says, therefore if

you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your

brother has something against you, Let's stop right there in

verse 23 says therefore, meaning what happened before the word is

used that when it comes next in response to something, the word

therefore is used as a response. He says, therefore, if you bring

your gift to the altar and there remember your brother has

something against you. See, sometimes you forget

something. You go to church, you engage in

service, you gain in ministry and you remember, oh souls has

something against me. You may have said something, you

may have done something offended that person or hurt that person,

or maligned that person in a way, or said something to the

person that should not have said.

You'd remember that. If you've done that, he says,

then leave your gift there before the altar.

Go your way first, be reconciled to your brother, then come and

offer your gift. The way I understand it is this.

If you did something to someone or said something to someone

that you should not have said, you are responsible.

And it's on you and me to take ownership of what we say, to

take ownership and responsibility.

Before we unpack this, I want to make something very clear about

this passage. What it is not saying, it's not

saying some things. One thing it's not saying is

that when someone has been victimized by crime and

assaulted and violated and abused and hurt, and some

perpetrator or predator has done that and they have not faced

legal consequences for their actions.

Jesus is not saying to the injured and victimized party or

you're now responsible to go get that person back in relationship

with you. That's not what this is saying,

not at all. They're people who've been

victimized and abused and mistreated in many ways and in

the end made to feel it's their fault.

They're to blame. That's not what Jesus talking

about here. He's saying if you're serving,

if you're worshiping and you remember you're wrong, somebody

you go make it right. That's what he's saying between

you and that person. It's more important to reconcile

than come to church and offer a gift because that's there's

that's the only way to healing, the only way to unity, the only

way to peace. There can be no fellowship

otherwise. And then he says something else.

Now he puts the pressure on it a little bit more.

He says it was 25. Agree with your adversary

quickly while you're on the way with him, lest your adversary

deliver you to the judge, The judge hand you over to the

officer and you be thrown in prison.

The path to healing and restoration.

It runs right through the field of ownership and responsibility.

And it shouldn't be procrastinated.

And as long as a person refuses to take ownership, a person will

never be free. Jesus tells his listeners to

make things right with the ones they've wronged.

And do it urgently, do it quickly.

Do some of us need to repent of anger in our lives, things we've

said to other people, how we've treated other people?

You see, in some countries, if an evil thing has happened, if a

crime has happened, it's been committed in a certain number of

years go by. There's what's called the statue

of limitations. In other words, if a crime has

been committed and the guilty party has not been caught and a

certain length of time comes and goes, then the government just

drops the case, or the the law just drops the case.

Some governments work that way. It's interesting because in

God's Kingdom there's no statute of limitations on sin.

That sin can be 80 years old. It's still as hard and cold and

dangerous as the day it was committed.

If it's not repent enough. All sin gets dealt with in God's

Kingdom. Jesus died for every sin.

And of course, we know we can't possibly remember every sin

we've ever committed, and we must pray in repentance that we

will, that we repent when things are brought to our mind.

What anger does is it lands a person in the prison of the

heart out of which there's no release.

If there's no repentance, a person may be walking in the

community, his heart may be in prison.

He may be free physically, but his heart is still chained

because he can't move past what he's done, can't confess, can't

repent. He's too proud.

How much better instead of just look at the issue, take owners

and say, look, my words caused you pain.

My words hurt you, My words damage you.

I'm sorry. I repent and I ask forgiveness

and then there's no conditions and no demands.

Jesus instructs us to go and deal with the issues in our

lives. And today we're talking about

anger. But this goes way beyond anger.

But the anger is the big one. He says in verse 26, assuredly,

I say to you, you'll by no means get out of there until you've

paid the last penny. I know this is a hard teaching.

Again, this is what I was referring to early on when I

said this series has hard parts and there's some sermons are

going to be hard on this one. There are consequences to all of

this. There's other passages the the

writers of Scripture talk about this as well.

James chapter one, verse 19 says so.

Then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow

to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce

the righteousness of God. This is not talking, but having

different opinions on how to paint the church or how to

gravel the driveway or what kind of vehicle we're going to buy

next. Disagreements happen everywhere

and all the time, but in what context?

In what environment? This is talking about people who

speak to each other out of pride and arrogance and selfishness

and anger. Jesus talking about people who

use cutting words and hurtful language.

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, He cast the light

beam of truth on the issue of human anger and He revealed it

for what it is. Repenting of anger isn't

optional. When we sin against each other,

we have said things in anger. We're responsible to own it, to

deal with it, to repent of it. Perhaps you know what it's like

to suffer the consequences of not controlling your anger.

Maybe you've lost a job because of an angry outburst.

Maybe you've lost a relationship because you didn't control your

anger. We all struggle with it in some

measure, in some form. I just want to say to all of us

here in this morning, let's be honest, let's be truthful, let's

be humble, let's be repentant. Let's build bridges, not walls.

You see if you fall into the hole of anger.

The only way others up to repentance, confession and

asking forgiveness and work toward healing.

That is the only way we must rule over the sin that wants to

enter our hearts the way God told Cain you must rule over it.

If you hear this morning you don't know Christ but would like

to have Him help you with your struggles, you can call out to

Him, confess your sin, put your faith and trust in Him and He'll

heal you. Jesus, whoever comes to him, he

will not cast out. I know for many people here this

is such a journey and have struggled so much, but there's

comfort in Matthew 1128. Jesus has come to me.

All you who labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and

lowly in heart. You'll find rest for your souls,

for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

We're never married meant. We're never meant intended to

carry a yoke of anger, hopelessness, despair, and fear.

We can bring that to Christ and He'll help us with it.

And He'll help us with the pain and the burdens we carry.

We can turn to Him. He'll give us rest in the

difficult situations. We can break free from the

bondage of living an angry life with Jesus.

We can be truly free. Let us pray, Lord, we recognize

that we all fall far short of Your standard.

We have looked briefly today at the sin of anger.

We realize that it's not just anger, but a lot of other things

as well that we will need to look at as we go through the

series. Lord, we know that without Your

mercy, we have no hope. So help us, Lord, help us to

look to You, to walk with You, to surrender to you.

Help us to repent and to make things right with people we've

heard, with her words and with her actions, and maybe we walk

with you. May your Spirit revive your

church. We thank you, Jesus.

Amen.