Alliance Bible Church - Mequon, Wisconsin
FEEL - Part 3
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In Order to Cultivate Godly Emotions, We Need To:1. Engage the Mind2. Participate in Worship3. Commit to Prayer4. Be a Giver
A biblical handling of the emotions is foundational for spiritual maturity. This is what we've been looking at these Sundays. We're going to conclude this series today. Over the years in ministry and just observing life, I've become more and more convinced that one of the reasons we can sit under great Bible teaching, great Bible preaching for decade upon decade but not make much progress in our walk with Christ is that the emotions have not been addressed, they've not been dealt with. And we've been looking at this these past couple of Sundays. Now last week we asked and answered an important question and that is where do emotions come from? We looked at in some detailed Jesus' words to us in Mark 7 where he conveys to us that emotions are not an external force that impose their wills on us. The statement that we hear often, the mantra we hear often in our modern day world is I can't help the way I feel. We look at Jesus' words to us in Mark 7, that statement doesn't really hold weight. When you look at how Jesus is addressing this subject, he insists that emotions are generated from within. It's out of your heart that these things come and therefore emotions really do reveal what we value, desire and believe. To recap here, let me just quote Jeremy Pierre, he helps her thinking on this, he writes this, he says, "Emotions are the dynamic gauges of what we value." Motions are the dynamic gauges of what we value. When we feel an emotion regarding something, we are making a statement of its value. Emotions reveal desires. So joy shows we just receive something we value, discussed as the opposite. Emotions can show we've lost something we want. Anger shows we perceive a threat to something we want. Fear is a similar reaction. Emotions are the colorful expression of our hearts, desire. Emotions reveal what you really, what you truly value, desire and believe. Now, I want to, by way of introduction into the body of this last message, I want to tackle two introductory issues. I want to ask the question, why is it emotions are so tricky? Why is it they're so tricky? There are a couple of reasons why these emotions are so tricky. The first is that we lack self-awareness. We lack self-awareness. That is, what we say we value, believe and desire may not be what we really value, desire and believe. We lack self-awareness and the Bible insists on this in Psalm 139. David says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life." You see what David's doing here, he's acknowledging that he does not have the capacity of self-discernment to know what's going on inside him. It's astounding, Psalm 19, "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults." We lack the powers of self-awareness. We lack the power to discern everything that's going on inside of us.
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