What does First B Jackson teach about anger management?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on anger starts with a clear refusal to treat James 1:19-20 as friendly advice. When Brad Yates preached from that text, he pressed the congregation to take it as seriously as any other direct command in Scripture, no less binding than loving your neighbor. The measure is not whether you have improved a little since becoming a Christian. The measure is whether the people closest to you, a spouse, children, coworkers, would actually use those words to describe you. That is a harder standard than most people apply to themselves.
Brad was direct that willpower alone will not get anyone there. Repeating the command to yourself produces, at best, marginal improvement and, at worst, pride. The image he used was plumbing: no filter turns salt water into fresh water. The source has to change. Brad named his own struggle with a sharp tongue, something that had helped him professionally but was doing damage at home. Underneath it was a fear of being passive, and that fear was running him rather than the Spirit. The breakthrough came when he recognized he did not need to act as the Holy Spirit for his family, and that he could lead with a long-term view rather than reacting out of wounded pride.
Pastor Ray covered similar ground from Ephesians 4, noting that every person is going to get angry and that some of that anger is righteous. But righteous anger is not a license to act on it however you feel. The danger is what happens when anger is fed and steeped rather than released. The command not to let the sun go down on your anger is, in Pastor Ray's reading, permission to let it go, grounded in the truth that vengeance belongs to God. Both teachers land in the same place: lasting change here is not a self-improvement project. It comes from a changed heart, sustained by community, confession, and a daily return to what God has already done.
Taught from James 1:19-20 · Ephesians 4:25-32 · Ephesians 5:1-2 · Psalm 4:4
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 11 (partial)
1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 10, 2026 Easy to Understand, Hard to Do A Mother's Day sermon on Ephesians 4:25, 5:2, calling believers to speak truth, guard anger, work honestly, tame the tongue, and imitate God as His beloved children.
- November 3, 2024 Nov 3rd Service with Guest Speaker Brad Yates Brad walks through James 1:19-20, showing why being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger is a command of the heart, not just good advice.
- November 3, 2024 Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger James 1:19 calls us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. Brad explores why this is heart change, not willpower, and why it matters.
- November 3, 2024 Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak, Slow to Become Angry Brad speaks from James 1:19-20 on being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, and why lasting change comes from the gospel, not willpower.