CWW Week 41 - Anger

Church Without Walls – Raw transcript of interview:

CWW Week 41 – Anger

 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Church Without Walls, week 41. As we unpack God’s word on our various, our various topics going forward in the year, and it’s been a tumultuous year, hasn’t it? Uh, 2025 has been, um, a year to remember in probably many ways. We’d rather forget. Uh, anger has become a real issue, anger and hatred.

And, uh, over the next couple of weeks I’ll be talking about those in some detail. And this week we’re talking about anger in week 41. Thank you to all of those who are listening to the Daily devotionals, the daily checkup, which you can get through this website and the various social media platforms.

Getting a lot of good feedback about that. And, um, I feel really. Really, uh, blessed that it’s supporting you and helping you in your journey. Um, I know it does a lot for me to record them and write them every day and, and, uh, I really enjoy that. I also want to, uh, thank all the volunteers from the, uh, hoodies Bible study group that’s set up around, uh, what we’re doing here at Church of Without Walls, to help people that we baptized and others new to faith to go on a journey of Bible study.

Um. They’re, uh, multi-denominational people that have just, uh, come on board that, uh, website, hoodies bible studies.com. Uh, go there and, uh, you’ll see contact details for people in your area. Uh, it’s starting to become international now with I think one or two added in America as well. So, uh, great to see our friends abroad coming on board with that.

So go to that website. You can find someone who, um, who fits the bill for you that might be in your geographic location or nearby. And these can be done by telephone in person or by Zoom or whatever. And this, uh, this group is steadily growing. So thank you to all the volunteers for doing that. Before we get into our, uh, little sermonette for today, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to God and lead us through God’s word.

Dear Lord, father in heaven, we just praising on you, Lord God. And we thank you so much for the truth you bring to our hearts and minds. Lord, help us to understand. The topic of anger as we open your word, uh, today, Lord, and help us as we go through the week through the devotionals to examine our hearts, Lord.

And, uh, and Father, we ask that you, uh, you develop our character and you turn our stony hearts into hearts of flesh and love. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Right. So the topic for today is anger, and anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads you nowhere. Uh, we’ve seen so much of that in the last few weeks with the, uh, assassination of Charlie Kirk.

A very polarizing figure, it seems, uh, more so in death than in life. Some of the anger and hatred, uh, that has been generated from his death is quite palpable. If you look at social media, uh, there’s a lot of very cynical. Angry and hateful people out there that are, um, having a field day on tragedy. And, um, that’s what anger does.

Anger leads you into hatred and hatred festers. At the moment, I’m looking at my finger, which has got a splinter in it, which is now festering into a infection, and I’ve gotta deal with that, which means I’ve gotta stick a needle in it. And, uh, drain it and clean it, disinfect it, and hopefully then it will heal.

Anger and hatred are the same. Um, hatred is the boil that’s generated from the splinter of anger. And we need to examine whether that’s having a foothold in our life or not. Because every time we go to anger, we give Satan an opportunity to lord over us. Jesus got angry. We know Jesus got angry, but it was a righteous anger.

And quite often his anger wasn’t always expressed in a violent sense. Um, he was, he was a man of, uh, compassion and peace, but he was a man driven to righteous anger because Can you imagine the frustration that he would’ve felt watching the people he created? Squandering their life and their destiny on anger.

And how much of that are we doing? Anger management’s a really, really important thing we need to discuss. We need to unpack as we do this. This week I once flew with a man who had a real anger issue when I was a pilot. He was a co-pilot with me and, uh. Every time you flew with him, he was angry about everything and it made it hard work.

It was a hard day out when you flew with this guy. And one day I was rostered to go on a four day trip with him and I wasn’t looking forward to it. And as I, um, embarked on the trip with flying along at our cruising altitude, he was going on and on and on about all the things that he’s angry about. I handed him a piece of paper and I asked him to write a list of all those things that made him angry.

He said, why should I do that? I said, let’s just do this as an exercise. And he wrote 48 or 49 items that made him angry. I looked at the list. I couldn’t believe it. I went through each of these items and I thought, man, I hate, I would hate to be in this guy’s skin, but unfortunately for the next four days, I kind of am.

I took a red bar outta my pocket and I handed it back to him with a paper, and I said to him, I want you to draw a red line through all those things that make you angry that you can do nothing about. He said, like what? I said, well, you’re angry about the Prime Minister. Can you do anything about that? At the moment, you can’t.

At the moment you can’t until the next election. You’re angry about this, you’re angry about that. Can you change that? So go through and draw a line through all the things that you cannot change. And after half an hour, he handed it back to me and the li the list had gone from 48 to six, and I then suggested that he deals with each of those one at a time and gets rid of them even.

Going through the list and drawing a line through all the things that made him angry that he couldn’t change, changed his demeanor for that four days. You know, the Serenity prayer is a beautiful thing, and the first three parts of it go, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

If we could but cultivate those three things in the way that we live, we have a much better chance of dealing with the anger in our lives and therefore reducing the hatred, which destroys us ultimately, and all those around us when we live in anger and hatred. It affects all of our relationships. It affects our relationships with our friends, family, colleagues, even with God.

Lots of people are angry at themselves because they did stupid things and they’re angry at God because God allowed things to happen. We’ve talked about that many times in previous weeks in Church without Walls. But the thing is, if you don’t get in touch with your anger, if you don’t channel it and get rid of it, it’s gonna consume you.

You’re gonna be like a person dragging a dead corpse around behind them everywhere, and everyone runs away from you because of the stench. That’s what anger does. When it breeds hatred, there’s no place for it. Anger and hatred, sure they can bring change, but it’s only ever short lasting because it’s based on the wrong precepts.

Is their compassion in it? Is there love in it? Is there tough love and courage that goes with the issuing of tough love? ’cause sometimes you’ve gotta be brave in order to tell somebody something they would rather not hear. That’s the kind of life that we need to be living. It’s a daily journey of character development.

So I’ve seen way too much anger and hatred, especially in the last five years. I’ve been confronted with people who are so filled with anger and hatred that it spits outta their mouth. I’ve seen their eyes red like Ford Falcon Taillights. Rage. Rage leading to violence. Violence leading to murder. Charlie Kirk is, but a prime example of that.

A prime example.

So all these things we need to examine. We look at the hatred that was generated from the death of George Floyd in America. Towns were burned down, shops were looted. People went on a rampaging ride that went on for ages. It gave birth to new movements like Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter.

When Charlie Kirk died, however, the outpouring of grief led to a renewal of faith and a revival. There is a revival happening around Charlie Kirk’s death, and I pray with all my heart that that revival is a solid one and it’s sound and it’s based on good biblical principles, and it’s not exploited by people.

By those who can see a way of making money or controlling the masses. ’cause that’s not revival.

So resentment, anger, and hatred have to be dealt with. And the Bible is really specific about this. I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of hatred in the last five years, and I’ve also been on the receiving end of a lot of love. And that tends to wipe it out. But I can tell you we live in a world that is festering to explode, and if we don’t get control of our anger and hatred, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.

And the only way that’s gonna get put right is when Jesus comes to sort it all out. I pray that that day happens soon because the violence that we see on our television screens and our computers all from stemming from anger and hatred. Um, it has to be dealt with. It has to be. ’cause we’re on a slow train to nowhere if we don’t.

So what does the Bible say about this? Well, I’ve got a number of bible verses here, and I’m first gonna go to Proverbs 14, chapter 14 and verse 29. 14 in verse 29. I’ll wait for you to go through your Bible because it’s always good to read your own Bible. And I also suggest you read a few passages before and after to get context as well.

But I’ve summarized these in order for brevity. Proverbs 1429 says, whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper, exalts folly, everything we’re gonna be talking about. Today is about being slow to anger. Don’t get angry too quickly. Patience reflects wisdom. While quick temper leads to foolish behavior.

Have you ever acted in anger and gone straight to straight to rage and felt the foolishness afterwards when you realize that you overdid it? Man, there are so many stories I could tell you of how that’s happened in my life. Think about an email that you might get or a post on social media and it really fires you up and you type a response and you hit the send button straight away.

And in the morning you wake up and you see all the comments attached to what you said, and you realize you should have just not said it or waited till morning before you reviewed it.

Sometimes it’s best not to press the send button on your computer until you’ve slept on it.

Let’s go now to James one verses 19 and 20 book of James in the New Testament, chapter one and verses 19 and 20. Know this, my beloved brothers Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak. Slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Anger hinders godly living. It interferes with God’s plan for our life, our daily destiny.

It sees our conscience and therefore threatens our character to develop. We should listen carefully, speak thoughtfully, and avoid reacting to anger. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to learn to listen with intent. When you’re involved in a conflict of some sort or a conversation that may lead to conflict or a conversation about an issue that needs to be discussed in family or at work or amongst friends, you need to be able to listen so that when the person expressing their feelings is finished.

You can say back to them what they just said in context, but we don’t do that when we hear somebody bringing up an issue. We go straight to assumption in our head and we start thinking of our response before we finish listening to the person expressing the view. So when somebody’s expressing a view, switch all the other background noise off, sit and listen.

Knowing that you should be able to go back to that person straight after they’ve said. And so what you’ve just said is this, is that right? And if the person says yes, then you can respond knowing full well what the issue is. However, if the person says, no, that’s not what I said, then they have a chance to change the frame that they put their, their, uh, issue in and the way they present it.

And you have a chance to listen more carefully again. Now the whole thing is really, really simple. Once we think about it and that’s it, we don’t think about it. We react straight away. We’re always there on a hair trigger and that’s what we need to avoid. So know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, not respond, quick to hear, slow to speak.

In other words, think about your response. What re what? What kind of reaction do you want to get from that response? Be slow to anger. Don’t get angry in a hurry. I get so much of this stuff poured out on me, and I’ve learned in the last four years, thank you, God, to just sit on it, not react as much as I used to, and wonder what the person’s going through that’s expressing their anger to me.

Where’s their pain coming from? And that helps me to understand them, and it helps me to focus on God’s will and hear his voice. For the anger of men does not produce the righteousness of God. God didn’t create us to be angry. He created us to be compassionate and to love fearlessly. That means not the sugarcoating kind of love or love is a, a big place for that, but love each other enough to be honest, to tell the truth faster.

When we tell the truth faster, we get the splinter out before it festers. Into an infection of hatred. Clear things up. We’ll get to a verse very shortly about the sun going down on your anger. Proverbs 15, chapter 15, and verse one. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Gentle responses can deescalate conflict while harsh replies provoke more anger.

I remember once I was in a, a protest rally, a very, very big protest rally in Canberra. I was surrounded by people who were hugging me and, and wanting photos and wanting me to pray with them. And it was, it was beautiful. It was a beautiful atmosphere. But in the crowd, I saw this big bulk of a man covered in tattoos.

He had a black singlet on, he had a baseball cap on backwards. His eyes were filled with rage, and I could see him about 20 meters away, storming towards me. And as he got closer and closer, I could feel the energy coming from him, the negative energy. And I can tell you, I thought he was gonna hit me. And as he stormed up to me, instead of bracing myself, I opened my arms and just, just put out a, a, a vibe that was, Hey, what’s going on?

Are you okay? As he got closer, I started to feel the spit of his mouth hitting my face as he was screaming his anger at me. I forget what the issue was about, but as I looked at him and he took a breath and he got right up to my face, I said, Hey brother, are you okay? It’s okay, mate. What’s going on for you?

Ah, you this and you that, and you said this and you said that. And I said, really? I said, I don’t ever recall saying that. Oh, this guy said that. You said this and you said that. I said, well, I actually didn’t, but what’s more worrying for me now is not whether I said or did the right or wrong thing. It’s you.

Are you okay? No, I’m not. Okay. I said far out, man. What’s going on for you? This and that, this and that. And I said to him, well, you know what? We live in a shocking time at the moment. We dunno which way’s up. I don’t blame you at all. I feel that inside sometimes. And I dunno what to do with it. Sometimes I just gotta sit and take a breath.

So just take a breath, will you? And he took a big breath and he started to soften. I said, uh, I don’t know how you’re gonna respond to this, but you look like someone who needs a hug. And I’ll tell you what, I sure need a hug. Can I hug you? And I hugged him and when I hugged him, it was like hugging a telegraph pole.

And then all of a sudden he softened and he really hacked hard. And I said, mate, I’m just doing the best I can with what I know. I don’t, I haven’t prepared for this. I’m just winging it. He said, I’m hearing you, I’m hearing you. And he hugged me again and he said, good on you. I’m really sorry if I scared you.

I said, it’s okay, mate. We’re all in the same boat together. I said, enjoy the rally. And he turned around and walked away and he walked away about five paces, and he turned back and he looked at me and he smiled and he went like this.

What would’ve happened? I wonder if I just braced myself, uh, ready for an onslaught for an attack and invited that attack. I put my faith in God now, and God will protect me in any situation I find myself in. So a soft answer turns away wrath. It does just play a higher thought. When you get attacked by somebody, you’d normally like to go back in at a lower level and hit even harder.

Avoid that. Avoid that. Come back with a higher thought. You know, do what Jesus would do. What I would do under normal circumstances when someone was, uh, was lying about me or condemning me in some way is get really angry with ’em. What’s the opposite to that? Just love them. Why should we love them? Because it’s their behavior that we don’t like, not the person, and we don’t know what’s going on in their life that’s causing that behavior.

So we need compassion for one another. And that’s the exact opposite. It’s what our human response would be, is what the Jesus response would be. Let’s go now to Ephesians chapter four, verses 26 and 27. In your anger. Do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold.

We’ve gotta avoid giving the devil a foothold. It’s okay to feel anger, but don’t let it lead to sin or linger as it can give the enemy influence in your life. That’s a basic summary of that verse. Once again, it’s like the infection in the finger, um, the splinter in the finger. If you don’t get it out, it’s going to fester into an infection, so you need to get it out quickly.

Tell the truth faster. If you’ve had an argument with your spouse, resolve it before you go to sleep. Otherwise, it’ll steer away in you, and when you wake up the next day, you are doomed for a rotten day. You know that. The silent treatment, the quick sharp answers, the criticisms, the sarcasm, deal with it.

Michelle and I do everything we can to deal with any kind of conflict. Not that we have that many, but if we’re frustrated or in a situation that’s a bit dark at the time, and that happens a lot ’cause of the world we’re living in, we cut each other a bit of slang and we always affirm our love for each other.

It’s really, really important to do that. Let’s go now to Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse nine. Ecclesiastes chapter seven and verse nine, do not be quickly provoked in your spirit. For anger resides in the lap of fools, easily provoked. Anger is a sign of foolishness, not wisdom, and all the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools.

And we’re seeing that played out in social media. People read something or see something on social media, they quickly adopt that as their truth, even though it may be full of falsehoods. And they get angry and they express that anger and they spread that anger. And it’s like a disease at the moment, and I don’t think it’s gonna get better anytime soon unless we embrace God.

We need to fill the God shaped hole in this country with God. Instead of taking him out, we need to put him back where he belongs.

Foolishness. All the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools Knowledge is good as you if you apply it properly and use it to gain wisdom. But if you use it to attack, not good. I came up with a saying years ago. The past is a warehouse where we store wisdom. It’s not an armory where we keep weapons.

We need to learn from our mistakes and learn from our past. Let’s look at Proverbs 1632. Now, Proverbs 1632, whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. And self-control is more powerful and physical strength or military victory. I’ve often said that the real measure of a man is not on how, based on how often he draws his sort, but how often he chooses not to.

People only drive you crazy because you give them the keys. We have to be slow to anger. Once again, everything we’ve read is about being slow to anger and don’t ha, don’t harbor anger. Don’t harbor resentment. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Let’s look at Colossians now. Chapter three and verse eight.

Colossians chapter three and verse eight. Now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these, and listen to the order it says I in anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Now think about the order. The anger leads to rage, leads to malice, leads to slander, and leads to filthy language from your lips.

The Bible’s really clear in the order that it places these things in. Christians are called to put aside anger and related sins as part of their new life. In Christ, there’s no profit. I’m talking about spiritual profit, not financial profit. There’s no profit in hatred or anger. We need to be rid of it.

Be done with it.

Psalm 37 and verse. Let’s go there. Psalm 37 and verse eight, and it reads, refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret it leads only to evil. Anger and worry can lead to evil. Actions we’re advised to let go of them. There’s a wonderful saying that goes, let go and let God. Let God deal with the issue.

’cause most of them you can’t change anyway. If you had a dollar for everything that you got angry about or worried about, that never happened, you’d be a wealthy person. How often have you said that? Let’s go to my favorite book in the Bible. The book of Matthew, chapter five and verse 22. Matthew five and verse 22.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says, you fool will be liable to hell of fire to the hell of fire. Jesus warns that unresolved anger and insults a serious and subject to God’s judgment.

Why? Because the person we’re angry with is created in the image of God. And Jesus also said when he talked about sin, that he who hates a brother is murdering him in his heart. We’ve committed murder when we hate. We’ve broken God’s law. Jesus warns that unresolved anger and insults are serious and subject to God’s judgment because anger leads to sin and we need to avoid.

We need to calm down, to let go and to let God. Now, final verse for today is Galatians chapter five, verses 19 to 21. The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, and de arbitrary idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions factions, and envy.

Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. All those things are mixed in with anger and hatred. Outburst of anger are part of the sinful nature and can separate us from God’s kingdom. It’s pretty plain. You know, when you feel angry, you don’t have a good day, but you know when you let it go, you feel better.

I can let go of anger pretty much instantly now. I just pray about it. Invite the Holy Spirit and I put myself in the shoes of the angry person. Would I rather be having their day or mine? If you’re out on the road, on the freeway and someone’s cut you off, or someone’s angry with you because you made a mistake, back off the pedal, let ’em go.

Don’t get involved in road rage. Way too many people have lost their lives as a result of road rage and lives have been shattered, terribly shattered. How does it happen? ’cause we give Satan a foothold. It’s time to end that. It’s time to bring all that to a close. As the world gets darker before Jesus comes and we know it is gonna get darker before he comes.

The best way to prepare ourselves is to find ways of getting rid of those things that destroy our serenity and get us upset because calm, logical responses. Always lead to much better results. God bless you. I hope you got something from that. I’ve got an awful lot outta preparing it and reading it. I can tell you.

Let’s close with a prayer. Dear Lord, father, God, father, I start by praying for the family and the bereaved of Charlie Kirk as divisive as, um, as his medium may have been. Lord, he relied on you. He trusted in you as we trust in you. Father, we pray for all of those out there who are angry and filled with rage and hatred at the moment.

Help them to see the folly of their ways. Help them to come to peace. Help them to come to the foot of the cross and leave their anger there for this is what we ask today in Jesus’ name, amen. God bless you all. Don’t forget, uh, hoodies bible studies.com. Go there and avail yourselves of some wonderful people who are ready to.

Answer your questions for you and take you on that journey. I look forward to meeting many of you as, uh, we travel around the countryside from time to time and, uh, I’ve gotta go now. I’ve got a bit to do because we’ve got a church without walls gathering happening here. In a few hours and, uh, Michelle’s frantically getting ready to host, uh, dozens of people.

So, uh, we thank you for your time. We thank you for, uh, watching Church Without Walls. Please share this message around, spread it around. It’s a message of hope. It’s a message of dealing with life, developing character, and preparing ourselves for the soon return of Jesus. We need to spread the gospel message, which is the message of hope for the whole world.

Jesus died for our sins. We don’t need to kill him and ourselves again and again. Let’s go forward in love, compassion, truth, and strength, in the mercy and wisdom of God as we follow in close behind Him and listen to every instruction for his will and for his glory. Dear Lord, father in heaven, thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you for Church Without Walls. We love you, Jesus. Amen. God bless you all, and I’ll see you next week when we discuss our next topic by.