Open your copy of Scripture with me this morning to James 4. As you're turning there, I hope that you're ready for the heat, right? I think we skipped spring. We knew this was happening. And we went right to summer. And we're supposed to get to the mid-90s tomorrow or something like that. I'm glad that wasn't yesterday. Because yesterday I was able to get to the first, for me, the first Detroit Tigers game of the season. And we sat in the shade and had a wonderful time. We had fun. The Tigers had no fun. But we had fun. But immediately upon entering Comerica Park, I had a problem. And my problem was, where we went in, right to the left, there's a tiger fan shop where you can go in and they have all things Old English D. And as you know, as you live in southeast Michigan, the D not only represents our baseball team, it represents our city and our region. And so my problem is, is I always go into stores like that and think I need one more thing with a D on it. I mean, I saw magnets, can openers, every kind of hat. I saw a Carhartt hat that I didn't even know existed with a Detroit D on it. Well, now I want that. I didn't know to want that before. There's shirts, jerseys, pencils, pens, Christmas stockings, you name it. There's just one more thing that I want that I don't need, right? I guess you could say some people, I don't think I'm one of them, collect Detroit Tiger stuff. Amen. Phil does, yes. If you've been to his house, you know. He has some bragging rights with some pictures and autographs, too. I'll say this, though. Maybe you don't collect Detroit Tiger stuff, but there's other things that are all the rage with you. Perhaps you, I mean, there are very strange people out there that enjoy collecting pocket knives. There are other people, I mean, I don't understand those people, but I especially don't understand those who collect purses. Ladies who collect purses. We need to clarify that. Or some people collect shoes. Some people collect watches. Some people I've met collect fountain pens. Some collect coins. Some collect stamps. Some collect puzzles. There are some people that have collections of joke books and pun books. That sounds like a lot. You know what a pun is, right? Example, I used to be a banker, but I lost interest. You'll get that later. Or I couldn't remember how to throw a boomerang, and then it came back to me. Those are puns. People collect pun books. I looked up this weekend some other strange things that people collect. Some people collect Coke cans. Some collect railroad spikes. Some collect soap bars. Some collect banana stickers. Some collect baseball cards. That's not abnormal. Some collect hats. I saw a picture of this guy, a guy that collects airline barf bags. And he has too much time on his hand, right? Some people collect miniature chairs. Some people even collect erasers. And it went on and on and on. There were pictures of these people. There were support groups and clubs for some of these all the rage folks. They collect things. Collectibles. What are collectibles? Collectibles are what you get in order to keep, right? Collectibles are what you get in order to keep. But as we come to this text in Scripture this morning, we're not going to talk about collectibles. We're going to talk about the issue of anger. If a collectible is what you get to keep, anger is what you get to give. I came across a few quotes I want to just open with here. Benjamin Franklin said this, anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. Cato the Elder who lived up to 149 BC said this, an angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes. That's actually a good definition. Saint Augustine said this, anger is a weed and hate is the tree. Or the Chinese had a proverb that went like this, so long as a man is angry he cannot be in the right. Some of you read for your daily devotions the book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. And while he can be wonderfully helpful there and encouraging in those devotionals, Oswald Chambers pulled no punches when it came to anger. And he wrote these words, the man who loses his temper quickest is the one who finds it quickest. The man you need to be aware of is not the man who flares up, but the man or the woman who smolders, who is vindictive and harbors vengeance, end quote. Or someone else just simply put it this way, bitterness is self cannibalism. It's true. And I want to talk to you this morning about the topic, the issue of sinful anger. Sinful anger. And I'm not just talking about sinful anger towards strangers you happen upon in your days driving around southeast Michigan. I'm not talking about the people that are on the peripheral of your contact. And why do you get so upset at them? As always, James is going to require us, and what he's going to write to us here in James 4, he's going to require us that we start at the center of our relationships and work our way outwards. We start with our neighbor. And remember, James' older brother, Jesus, defined your neighbor as the person closest to you, and from there, anyone within reach. Why do we struggle with sinful anger at our closest relationships? Why do we struggle with our anger in our marriages, in our parenting, in church? We don't have to worry about driving on Grove or Harris Street and worry about anger there. We need to ask the question, why do I get so angry, period? Should I be concerned about sinful anger? Should you be concerned? I have some notes for you in the bulletin here, and I'm going to get to them in a minute, but I want to give you a few pastoral observations before we start filling in blanks there. And let me just say that you and I must be concerned with our expressions of sinful anger. And where do those expressions come from? Our heart. We must be concerned. Why? Let me just say to you as a pastor, as a pastor who has to struggle with anger in his own heart as well, that anytime I give place to sinful anger, Not just with strangers, but with those closest to me. Number one, it is mutiny. It is mutiny. You say, what do you mean by mutiny? I steal God's glory, or I'm trying to. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, you know 1 Corinthians 10 31, therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the what? The glory of God. I am not just in what I do and where I go, but what I speak. And even from the level of the heart, it is to point people to the magnanimous glory of God. You say, well, how glorious is God? He's so glorious that He can forgive sin. Ephesians 4.32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, your faith is in Him alone for eternal life. Your sins have been forgiven. And you understand that God now wants you to put the forgiveness you've experienced horizontally or vertically between God and you. This forgiveness you've received from God, you and I are to extend out towards others. But watch this, when someone wrongs us, And we don't forgive them, instead we respond with anger, either a blowing up anger or a clamming up anger. Either an engaging anger or a withdrawal anger. Both are the same. We are saying that God is not glorious in his forgiveness. Paul put it this way in Colossians 3.13 as well, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone of you have a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so also you must do. If I have a posture of an angry heart, I am saying to all those around me that are watching, and especially to the one that I'm angry at, God's not a good forgiver, because I have nothing to project to you of what I've experienced. What is that? That's a mutiny. I'm thinking that I can fix, I have better ideas for the situation that I'm angry in than putting God's glory and grace on display. That's mutiny. Paul even says in Romans 12, 19, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But when you and I say to God, I got this one, I know that you are fully capable, God, of dealing with this person that's wronged me, but I'm going to go ahead and take care of it. God says in Romans 12, 19, wait a minute, you're parking in my parking space. I'm the God who takes vengeance, not you. Any time that I harbor and express sinful anger, it is mutiny. I steal God's glory. But secondly, And again, just by way of introduction, any time that I express and harbor sinful anger, it is piracy as well. Piracy. You say, what do you mean by that? I hijack God's resources. Now you know what Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26. Paul says this, be angry. Did you get that? He says, be angry, comma, but don't sin. be angry and do not sin. That's Ephesians 4.26. You're like, hold on just a minute. Is that right? I mean, it looks like we were just prescribed to be angry and not sin. Wait a minute, I thought all anger was sin. No, not all anger is sin. You say, how can you say that? Well, Psalm 7.11 says that God is angry with the wicked every day. Is God a sinner? John or in Mark chapter 3 verse 5 it says about Jesus when he had looked around at them with anger Being grieved by the hardness of their hearts He said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other Jesus Looked at his skeptics looked at the legalist with anger Was Jesus a sinner? No Or how about of all people Paul and I read in Galatians 2, verse 11 this, Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. Peter was giving off a wrong impression of the gospel to the Gentiles, and Paul said, I'm standing up to that. Was Paul sinning in doing that? No. So what does it mean in Ephesians 4 where it says, be angry but don't sin? It's simply this. We need to see anger as Jay Adams puts it, energy that God gives you to solve a problem. or some reword it this way. Energy is a grace from God. It's extra energy in a spiritual sense. We call that grace. It's extra energy from God to destroy, to solve a problem in front of you. It becomes sinful when I take this gift that God has given to me to solve a problem I find myself in, and I use it not to destroy the problem, but to destroy people. That's sinful anger. And when I'm harboring and expressing sinful anger, it's not only mutiny, but it's piracy. I am taking this resource that God's given to me to solve a problem, and I'm using it for my own goals. So yeah, I should be concerned about anger. Yes, you must be concerned about anger in your own heart. Not only is it mutiny and piracy, but let me just give you one more suggestion. It's also idolatry. Sinful anger is idolatry. It's casting what I call a messianic gaze to something other than God that you believe will make you content. We're going to talk about that last one this morning. Whoever said this was correct, they said every time you lose your temper, you advertise yourself. Maybe at this point, I haven't even gotten to James 4 yet. We're looking at it. We know what's coming. But we're asking the question, Lord, can you show me this morning what sinful anger looks like in the mirror of your word? The word that we read and studied when we were looking at James 1, verses 22 to 25. Lord, would you show me anger in your word and allow me to see myself? And his answer to us is, yes. That's why I love James chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. There's a lot of stuff written from Christian authors on the topic of anger. And I always want to know this, when a new book comes out on anger, I want to know, does the author spend much time in James chapter 4? If he or she doesn't, I discard the book. You say, well, what if they have other good points? They do have other good points. But this one is kind of the hub of the wheel. This, in my mind, is one of the key texts in all of Scripture on anger. And it's next for us to study. Look at James chapter 4, verse 1. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust, and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. And some of you even ask. You ask, verse 3, and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasure. Yes, this is not just a key text on anger in James' letter, but in all of Scripture. We are at ground zero in my mind. You understand this text, these three verses, listen, all those verses and Proverbs on anger are going to make a lot more sense to you. All of the examples of ungodly, sinful anger in the Old Testament, New Testament narratives that we read will make sense to you. This is the key text that unlocks all of the other ones. You say, well, what's going on here? Well, James, I'll tell you this right now, if I can word it this way, as James pulls into this chapter, coming fresh off of what we studied in chapter 3, verses 13-18, James is, well, I guess we could say, is ticked off. James is angry at sinful anger. And you've noticed that you haven't seen a particular word that James has been using often. And I've asked you to circle it every time we see it. In the first three chapters, he has been using the phrase, my brethren. Remember that? It usually is used to introduce a new topic or to push another topic to a different level. And he's going to resume using that phrase in chapter 4, verse 11. But the last time we saw it is chapter 3, verse 10. And it's as if, as he crested into chapter 3, verse 13 through chapter 4, the first part of 4, the gloves are off. And the easing into a topic with gentleness is absent. Why? Because the issue of anger is not only that serious, but listen, he's been saying everything he's been saying in this epistle in order to say these verses. He's been building for three chapters to say what we're studying this morning. Remember, he's writing to a scattered congregation, scattered because of persecution out of Jerusalem, but now they've landed in worse persecution, right? And in their frustration, in their persecution, now these believers are turning their guns on one another and they're angry with each other. Maybe anger that's explosive or anger that's reclusive, but they're angry nonetheless. And things seem to be getting frayed. And the brotherly love seems to be splintering, if you will. And that's why James is writing. And you know what James is going to say? What he's wanted to say all along and he's saying now? He's saying this, if things are falling apart between you and other believers, the problem is not your persecution. The problem is what the persecution is revealing about your heart. That's the mercy. of God in exposing that. He just explained in chapter 3, verse 13, who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds, and the gentleness of wisdom. Remember, we studied that two weeks ago. And he describes that wisdom from above, beginning with verse 17, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And we all want to see that coming from our hearts, but we can't ignore what he said most often comes from our hearts when we're in trials. Verse 14, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but it's earthly and natural and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil thing. You know what James is doing in chapter 4 now? He's saying, I want to talk to you about the source of that kind of wisdom that's not from above. In other words, James isn't saying, pound like a nail your anger back in. Keep it inside, don't let it go out. James is saying, no, it's sticking out. Understand where it's coming from. and deal with that. He's not saying put your teeth together and don't speak angry words. He's saying, are you frustrated with the anger that comes out of your heart in big things and in the smallest things? Ask the question, as one commentator says, don't just look at the symptoms of your anger, study the disease. That's what he's doing in these first three verses of chapter four. And here in the New American Standard, you don't see something that is there. I want to not scare you away with it, but I want to point out that James is asking the same question twice, though it's only reflected in the English one time. Look at chapter four, verse one. He says, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you. Literally, it reads this way, from whence come quarrels and from whence come the conflicts. It's one word repeated twice, and the translators have combined them behind one idea, but two times. James is saying in chapter one, do you want to know why you get angry? Do you want to know why you get angry? He's asking it like that. And so I ask you that question this morning. I've been wrestling with it all week. It's your turn. I know why I get angry. This text tells me. This morning, do you wonder why you get so angry? Whether you let it out or not? Now we're to your notes. And I simply want to answer two questions this morning. The first question is, what is the problem? And the second question is, what is the reaction? What is the problem? And what is the reaction? Or you could ask it this way. What is the reason for my anger? And what is the result of my anger? And I never ever want you to ever forget these notes the rest of your life. Because you and I are going to struggle with sinful anger in one expression or another the rest of our lives. I'll give you a little hint here, a little pastoral hint, a little counseling hint. You and I are never, yeah, I'm using the word never there, and I'll debate you on this. You and I are never angry out of a vacuum. Sometimes you and I act like we don't understand our anger. We're like, how could I have said that? Where did that come from? James 4 is like, yeah, I'm glad you asked. Let's answer that. And the answer we get this morning will last, well, the rest of our lives. So first of all, let's answer that first question briefly. What is the problem? What is the reason for my anger? Why do I get sinfully angry? I'm going to give you the answers now, and then we'll circle back around and get them. First of all, I get sinfully angry, letter A, not getting what I want. Not getting what I want. I think you can figure out letter B. If this is a coin, one side of the coin is not getting what I want. You turn that coin over and it's letter B. Possibly losing what I love. Something I enjoy and cherish now that I thought was secure, I might be getting ready to lose that. So on one side of the coin is there's something I don't have that I want. The other side of the coin is there's something I have that I don't want to lose. Listen, you and I get angry only because of this coin. So let's unpack it for a minute. Not getting what I want, what do you mean by that? Well, look at chapter 4, verse 1. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and you don't have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. I find it interesting the words that James is reaching for to describe what fuels and motivates my sinful anger. In verse one he says, is not the source your, and here in the English it says, pleasures. Those of you who've studied philosophy or have been around and done any kind of reading, you've come across the word hedonism. Hedonism is living for the momentary pleasure, or pursuing what I think will be the goal of pleasure. And I agree with MacArthur and others who say, when this word shows up in the New Testament, it's never in a good light. Not to say that it can't be used in a good light in other contemporary literature, but when the authors of scripture are laying a hold of it in the New Testament, it's not usually positive. It means often a sinful desire for satisfaction. This is the word that's even used in the parable of the soils, as to what makes us unfruitful. and our discipleship, and it's these pleasures that we lay hold of or want to in a way that eclipses all other priorities in our life. So he uses the word pleasures, but keep looking at verse one, that wage war in your members, and verse two, you, and here's another word he uses. Lust. And this is a word, as you know from others who have been preaching here long before I showed up, this particular word for lust means sometimes something positive, sometimes something negative. It means to have a strong desire for. It's a different word than the word in verse one, but it's communicating a strong gravity towards. says you lost and you don't have so you commit murder and then there's another word in verse 2 it says you are envious and this is the word that we would say you're zealous for something I look at these words that Paul's clumping together and I'm like well he's on to something He's using three different words to communicate the same thing, that there is something in my life that I have tunnel vision about that I really believe if I could only get, or if I could only keep, because I already have it, I will be happy. I will know joy. It's interesting. James isn't the only one to talk in this kind of language. Remember 1 John 2.16? John says there's the lust of the what? Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. And as I've mentioned before, I like to word them this way, what I lack, what I like, and how I look. John's talking in the same language as James here. And it's so desired. Whatever my tunnel vision is zoned on, it's so strong that I'm willing, James uses this language in talking to Christians, you're willing to commit murder? Really? Did we have murders going on in the church back then? No? This is another occasion where James is referring to the Sermon on the Mount. because Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 and 22, I told you not to murder, but, or it's been said not to murder, but I say to you, if you hate, you're a murderer at the very level of your heart. We can want something so bad that if we can't get it, or if we already have it and we fear we're gonna lose it, listen, we can become murderous at the heart level. What fuels sinful anger? Not getting what I want. Maybe you might want to write four little things off to the side here. You say, give us some examples. Example number one is I want something, I have tunnel vision towards something, just say, with me. With me. This is talking about relationships. I want to have different dynamics in a relationship than what I have. Or I even want to just have a relationship with someone that I don't have. And if I can't have that, or if I've had it and I lose it, or I fear I might lose it, boom. I'm ready to kill. So the first category is with me. Second category would be for me. And this would be issues of esteem. I want people to esteem me. This would be the boastful pride of life of 1 John 2.16. Perhaps I want them to appreciate me, and if they don't, whether it's my spouse, or my kids, or my parents, or a co-worker or someone in ministry, if they don't esteem me like I think they should, or if at one point they esteemed me as a husband or a wife or whatever, and now that's no longer there, boom. Let me give you a third category. You have with me, that's talking about relationship. You have for me, talking about esteem. A third relationship or a third category would be through me. And this is talking about success. my wanting to advance my standing in the eyes of other people and just in general in life. And if I can't get ahead, if I don't get recognized, if I don't get that promotion, if I'm not pushing forward in my elevation on the organizational chart of a ministry or a company or even this house, boom! Let me give you one more category. To me. To me. If we've already spoken about relationships and esteem and success, for to me, just put the word things. This is just where my security can land and yours can land. It's with bank account balances. It's with being able to have and enjoy things. Now look what James is saying. I'm staying here for a reason. You and I are never angry out of a vacuum. We may have our gaze of joy set on a relationship, or esteem of others, or success, or things. And if we can't have those, Or if we're enjoying them right now and suddenly they might be removed from us, boom. He uses the word pleasures, lust, and envy. That's what he's talking about. Not getting what I want and possibly losing what I love. By the way, both of those are answered in the first and second great commandment of our Lord. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. We'll come back to that later. Second question and we're done. What is the reaction? You say, what do you mean by this question? Listen, what James is going to tell us here is going to forever deliver you and me from excusing our sin. It's going to deliver you and me from saying, well, I'm just an angry person because of my personality, or my parents, or my experiences, or pain I know. No, no. He's going to say what to look for. And if you see these things, you're an angry person. And refer back to the first question as to why. What is the reaction? First of all, let Ray put down this. Constant tension. Constant tension. Again, go back to verse one. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? That first word in English, quarrels, this is a fascinating word and worthy of your study. This is the word that means a state of war, war footing. Think North Korea and South Korea. Okay, they're not shooting a lot at each other. But up until recently, they were in war footing for decades, even though not a lot of shooting going on at each other. He says, we can have that dynamic even as Christians in our relationships with each other. It's not that we're attacking each other, but the air is tense. It's war footing. That's the first word he uses, quarrels. But look at the second word he uses. It says, and conflicts among you. Conflicts, letter B, is talking about frequent battles. Frequent battles. This is where, yeah, the bullets fly every once in a while. There is a time of engagement, and then it's over, and then later there's another one. You have to have the tension of A first, and it's against the backdrop of that that some skirmishes do break out. That's the second word here, conflicts. Think here of Israel and Syria. There's not only tension, but missiles do go back and forth from time to time. What about letter C? Write down this word, tireless posturing. Tireless posturing. Again, look at verse one. We've seen quarrels, we've seen conflicts. Look at the middle of the verse. Is not the source your pleasures that, and here it is, wage war in your members? Say, what's that? This is a word that we get our word strategy from. This means that we're thinking through, knowing our enemy, where do we have to position forces? What kind of weapons do we need? How can we outsmart them in order, what? To get what we want. We want to win a war. So you have constant tension, frequent battles, and tireless posturing. And I think it's moving in that order. This letter C is the war campaign. This is our country, if you need an example. And the war on terror. We are being very strategic with our intelligence and our assets to know where on the globe we need to go to confront the enemies who are conducting this war of terror. on the West and on what they perceive to be Christianity even. And so we're very strategic. Even when we're not throwing bullets or missiles, we are still strategizing. Now look, James uses these three words to get us to look at something in our own hearts. If you and I find ourselves in situations where the air is thick in this marriage, or in this parenting, or in this ministry, or this business, or this friendship, the air is thick. it's only a matter of time if we don't deal with it there that there's going to be frequent battles verbal physical I would even add the reverse to that would be disengagement and no concern for ministry to someone And those frequent battles during the times when they're not happening, we're still trying to figure out, what do I say? Where do I go? Who do I need to know in order to manipulate this person or these group of people to land where I want? James is just pulling it out here. You say, well, what's letter D? Letter D is the end of verse 2 and verse 3. I call it practical atheism. And I'm borrowing that phrase from Jerry Bridges. Practical atheism. Now look at the end of verse 3. Or excuse me, verse 2. You do not have because you do not. What's the word? Ask. This is talking about praying. If there's any doubt, it'll be removed by the time we finish verse 3. You ask, verse 3, or pray, and do not receive. Why? Because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. There's that word again. Practical atheism. Say, what do you mean by practical atheism? Well, James gives us two options here for letter D. Either prayerlessness, end of verse 2, or Faithless prayer, verse 3. Either not praying at all, or praying but not with faith. In other words, James says, I know you want something. You know, some people might even want something good. And they'll pray for something good in a relationship. But, for example, I don't know, a parent might be praying for the child to make a certain decision. I'm just pulling this right out of the hat, off notes now. And I really have a concern for my child to make a right decision, and I'm praying hard about it, but when they don't make the decision I think they should make, boom. I wanted them to make a certain decision because that decision would be most convenient for me and keep my world all safe and intact as a parent. I've seen it too that one spouse will pray that the other spouse will get saved or if they are saved that they'll grow in their Christ-likeness. Why? Because they're too hard to live with as it is right now. Is that true? Could be. But your main desire is not to make your life easier if they'll change. Your main prayerful desire must be that they'll change because they're walking with Jesus. We can pray, Paul Tripp puts it this way, we can want a good thing so badly that it becomes a ruling thing, and therefore a sinful thing for us. There's constant tension, frequent battles, tireless posturing, and a practical atheism. And by the way, if you find ourselves not praying at all for what we're angry about, we are guilty of letter D. So let me ask you a question about your relationships right now. And I don't want you to think of the ones that are going really well. I want you to think of the ones that aren't, or the ones that often go sour first. Do you see in that relationship or in those relationships a lack of prayer? Or are you praying, but only so that your world will be easier? Are you seeing in that relationship tireless posturing? You're not even with the person sometimes, or with those people, but you're trying to figure out, I know where I want them to end up, so I'm going to strategize to get them there. Do you find in those relationships frequent battles, and even when there's not battles, constant tension? Trust me. Trust James. You're an angry person. And I can be an angry person as well. So when we get the answer to the second question, we need to ask the first question. Why am I angry? What is it that I want so badly in this relationship or esteem or success or things? What is it that I want or that I fear I might lose? and I will put my finger every time on the source of my anger, and I need to repent there first before I work on things with the other person." Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount again, before you go talk to your brother about a speck in his eye, get the beam out of yours. Dealing with our anger biblically is not a matter of, OK, I'm just not going to say anything. Have I touched anger at all when I stop saying things? No. I'm just as angry. James is saying, you want to know why you're angry? It's not because of what you're enduring in your persecution. God, in his mercy, is using your persecution to expose your heart that is not reflecting the heart of Christ. And he wants to free you from that. Your biggest battle is not the enemy outside the church, and your biggest battle is not your enemy within the church, James says. Your biggest enemy is your heart that can get angry because of what you want. There it is. There it is. What do you think his readers were praying for? What do you think? Remember who he's writing to? They were praying for, can you give us a break, Lord, from the persecution? James is saying that's not what you should be praying for right now. I mean, pray for that, but your main concern, even more than that, as you pray for that, is, Lord, if it's your will, and we're going to see this at the end of chapter 4, if it's your will, we can go to a different city and start over. It's got to be your will, though. But he's saying, in addition to that kind of praying, pray first. that you can finally see daylight as to why you're angry and how you can be engaged in battling sinful anger at the heart level. I'm told that there's a small village in Austria, the name of this village is anger, for real. Now anger in German doesn't have the same meaning as that in English, but let's just suppose, let's use our imagination here. Let's say that there was a true village called anger where everyone who lives with sinful anger would have to live. It could be explosive anger, it could be reclusive anger. It could be anger with a furrowed brow, it could be anger with a smile. But everyone that struggled with anger at the level of the heart had to live in the village of anger. But we got a problem, don't we? It wouldn't be a little village. It would be a huge metropolis. You know what? Anger is a problem. I differ with those who interpret this passage as only dealing with unbelievers. And the guy I disagree with on this is one I quote most often. Because he's talking to believers coming into this, I believe he's talking about believers in this and he picks it up in verse 11 if there's any doubt. He's talking to believers. You and I know exactly what he's talking about. And so we end where we started with his two questions in verse 1. What is the source? What is the source? He asks it twice. What is the source of your anger in your church, in your family, in your offices, on your cul-de-sac? Paul's going to actually offer an answer to James' question. James has answered it, but Paul agrees. Paul wrote this to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19. Listen to this. Paul writes, there must be factions among you. Talking to the church. In every biblical church, there's going to be factions that rise up. Why, Paul? Paul continues, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you. When conflict arises, listen, it's those growing disciples who are walking in the grace of Christ. They shine. They shine. So why don't we keep going? Well, first of all, I'm out of time. And I was frustrated to end the sermon at this point, but I determined to end it at this point. I'd like to end up on a positive note, but here's what I want us to do this week. I want us to drive all over the Ecorse Corridor in southeast Michigan this week, and every time we get upset, our thoughts or face-to-face with someone, by ourselves or with a group of people, I want us to ask the question, what is it in this moment that I want that I'm not getting or that I have that I fear I might lose? You and I will be shocked with not only the gravity but the truthfulness of what James is saying in these three verses. This is the key text on anger. I believe that as we come back, as we come back to this text in our future studies, listen, we've got some good news coming. In our next study, we're going to see further into this, starting with verse 4, of the deadliness of heart idolatry, and then we're going to find out that to be free from a sinful life and expression of anger, listen, The answer is this—to live under the lordship of Jesus, just like when you first got saved. That's what's coming up in chapter 4. There's good news coming, but I have to leave you at this point with this challenge this week. Whenever you get angry or are tempted to, ask the question of the coin. Ask the two questions.