When I hear people talk about feelings and emotions, I hear both sides of the coin. I hear the good side, and there are good sides to feelings, by the way, and you'll know why just in a minute, in a little while. And there's a bad side to feelings. You have good feelings and bad feelings. Now watch, it's confusing. Sometimes your good feelings are really bad. Bad decision, bad choices, bad thinking, et cetera, et cetera. Sometimes your bad choosing or your bad feelings are consequential of you not receiving the good things. So you do this. So I put three definitions up here tonight, and we're going to be in Matthew chapter 9. If you have your Bible and you want to turn to Matthew chapter 9, verses 35 through 38. Is this important? Does the Bible even say anything about it? Is it significant? Is it relevant? Et cetera, et cetera. You name me something in this world that's not directed by feelings. Go ahead. Even your worship. Why didn't you pray tonight when you had the opportunity? That's a good question. Didn't feel led? Huh? Jesse James did. But the point being, we make a lot of decisions based on Either or, good feelings or bad feelings, rather than if somebody asked you why you decided to buy a blue car, you don't, well, it was cheaper, maybe. Or you like blue better, or whatever. But I just felt like that was the car for me, right? Or how many times have we eaten a meal? I just feel like having pizza for supper. You hear my heart? But I just feel like this, I just feel like that because our lives are geared and built with the capacity to feel. You hear this? Built with the capacity, created with the capacity to feel. So therefore, since we've created with the ability to feel or express emotions, then we dare not act as though we don't feel anything. Because even when you don't feel anything, you're feeling something. That's like asking me, what are you thinking? Nothing. Yes, you are. Liar. You've got to be thinking something all the time. OK? Even in your sleep, you ever have a dream? That's that little mind of yours operating 24-7. You wished it wouldn't. It is, and so forth, we are a feeling-geared people. Not by nature, okay? It wasn't meant to be the gear, okay? But it was meant to be an expression of the gear. And hang with me on this. And I want to use Jesus as a model. You know, God has feelings. Not he had feelings, he has feelings. Remember this, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. His attributes and His character never ever alters or changes for anyone. For instance, God had the ability to be angry. What is that? It's an emotion, right? God, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc., etc. Okay? So we can't talk about God without considering the fact that there's emotions involved in His creation because we are created in His image. I want you to remember that. You are created in the image of God, as far as those things are concerned. Now, let's move ahead and look at your notes, if you would. Mine turned off on me, thank you. I can do this without them, but it'd take longer. So God forbid, Pastor, get them. So we've got three definitions there that are actually synonymous. If we go over those, you're going to find out they're going to be all tied in in one aspect or another together and are often used as synonyms for one or the other. For instance, emotions, feelings. Feelings, emotions. How about moods? It's just a state of being of emotions, okay? That's all it is. So they all link together. So we're gonna use it synonymously tonight as feelings, and we'll relate to all three of them. You've got the definitions there. You can go back, obviously, and do that on your own. I don't wanna take up time doing, just reading definitions to you. But the definition of these terms, take notice, of the overlaps, I do want you to do that as you read through them, that all three of them indicate the role of feelings in the created being called man. Man by nature does experience a wide variety of feelings, emotions, and moods. There was a study that was done supposedly that a person will experience over 34,000 feelings or different kinds of feelings in his lifetime. I don't know how you count that or calculate that. I thought this was so foolish I didn't bother reading the whole 25 pages on it. So I thought, good night. And some of them got them classified into six classes of emotions, or six characteristics of emotions, or seven. One guy come up with seven. And so who counts them, and how do they do that, et cetera? I don't know, and you don't need to worry about it, by the way, as far as that's concerned. That's good information for those who want to go to college. and just get a lecture, that'd be a great lectural presentation probably, but that's not my purpose as far as tonight is concerned anyway. But let's look in Luke chapter, Matthew chapter 9, I'll get it eventually, verse 35. This is Jesus in his Galilean ministry being very busy. As a matter of fact, verse 35, Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness, every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Well, here we go. In the context that we're teaching from, Let's get the picture, the experience of Jesus in this Galilean ministry. This experience, you see what he's doing, we read it. Number one, he's working hard. He's doing, number one, the work of an evangelist. He's teaching the word of God. He's preaching the word of God. And that means more than just having a one-hour session. This is where he is all the time. This is what he's doing continuously. and he continued as an evangelist. Secondly, that's the first blank you have, as a matter of fact. The next blank you're gonna have is Jesus was not doing just the work of an evangelist. He was doing the work of a pastor or a shepherd, verse 35, when he says he was healing the sick and healing the diseased. You know what he's saying? He rolled up his sleeves, come down out of the pulpit, got in among the people, and began to see their particular needs. That's exactly what that says. Now, you gotta know the West Virginian to get all that, but that's there. Okay? Healing the sick, in other words, individually. Healing diseases individually. That's pastoral work. That's not evangelistic work. You hear me? I keep telling you, there's a difference between just preaching and pastoring. Two entities, maybe, of the same task. I don't know how to put that other than that. But it was healing the disease. And let me tell you how bad off these people were. This sickness to these people wasn't the flu. No, it was a malady that hung on to them. You ever had one of those? Just something that just hangs on, that doesn't go away. I guess the best that we could use, or I could use possibly that would be a severe arthritic condition. You know, you got arthritis in your back, in your neck, et cetera, et cetera. That's just, if you've never had that, don't volunteer for it. that's very painful, very disabling. It dismembers you from functioning, et cetera, et cetera. You don't wanna, you can't get comfortable, you can't get any relief. I watched my poor old mother suffer for years with that kind of malady. And that's the best I could probably do with the disease or the infirmity because it is something that's going to debilitate. Then the healing of the diseases was something that was actually probably prone to That's how ill these people were. So we're not running a clinic here. This isn't a drive-through, 24-hour, urgent care kind of mentality here. It is urgent care, but it's more severe than that. These people in our day and time would probably be in a home somewhere or hospitalized or hospice units, et cetera, et cetera. That's how the commentators say how severe these people were. And there were many of them. So now he's down among them, Jesus I'm talking about, he's down among them and he's healing the physical aspects of them and he's teaching them. preaching the gospel and teaching and then he's healing the sick, he's doing the work of evangelism, doing the work of a pastor, etc. etc. He's quite busy. So this task that he's under, this experience he's having, be in your notes, is exhausting. Let's face it. Now, in order for Jesus to be exhausted, okay, he has to be man. You hear this? Here's deity. Now, this is a side of deity you may not rejoice in necessarily, nor would he, as a matter of fact, because he's a man of sorrows. But the point being, he was exhausted. There's no question in my mind. Look at the verses. Go back and look at the verse. And Jesus went about all the cities. The cities were walled, had walls of protection around them. Villages didn't. So he went where the secure people were, all the cities that were walled as far as that's concerned. And then he preached when he got there and he taught when he got there. Now, perhaps when we get to the villages, it's a little different. But he was exhausted, is the point I wanna make. Because he went to all the villages, he went to all the cities, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease. You see the word every, it goes along with all, all, every, every, okay? So what he was doing wasn't a fly by night, I'm gonna run through here and start a Baptist church and go home. What he was doing was with longevity. He didn't do this overnight. This was an ongoing prayer. You got to understand this. How exhausted he must have been physically. And oftentimes we'll find him physically exhausted in his ministry. Here we find I have no doubt about the fact that he had to be absolutely exhausted. Sometimes we think we're weary and sometimes we think we're tired. But I mean he was at the point of being exhausted. He had to be. had to be. This took time, it took energy, it took effort, etc., etc. It took exposure to sicknesses, it took exposure to maladies or physical debilities of distress and despair that he was among. And he walked among them. Now a real Christian, if he's going to have the right kind of feelings, he has to be among people. Oftentimes when Jesus would heal someone in his earthly ministry, he touched them. He would reach out and touch them, their hand. You remember the woman with the issue of blood that reached out and touched his garment? He would touch them and heal them. Just think about this crowd, this multitude, not just there, but I'm sure the people in the villages were a little less profitable probably economically as the people inside the walled villages, it would be different, socially speaking. So we find him here expressing an emotion. It's called compassion. You can look at your notes and get the definition there. means to have the sympathy or to feel sympathy for the people you're among. Now, he didn't look down on them, he didn't frown upon them, he didn't send them downtown to the clinic, he didn't do anything like that. He walked among them. This is the good thing about our Savior, that he walked among men, real, genuine men. He settled real, genuine problems. He was a solution-oriented Savior. Hear this? You remember the blind men that called out and said, Son of David, if thou be the Son of David, save us? Remember that? They told him to hush. That's a bledsoe paraphrase, by the way. Told him to be quiet. And they cried out even more, Son of David, Son of David, so forth. He had mercy upon them. He had grace. What about the woman at the well? But what about the woman caught in the act of adultery, et cetera, et cetera? What was that all about? Sympathy. You know that God has sympathy. with the vilest of sinners. You hear this? The thief on the cross is a great example of that. Not necessarily the rule of thumb, but it is an example. What is it that this man said? Was there magic words coming out of his mouth at his death? What was it that delivered the thief on the cross from his condom? I got something here. Something going on. But what was it? Well, he just said it the right way. That's what it was. He prayed the right kind of prayer. No, it was the mercy of God and the grace of God that saved that old thief on the cross, Calvary. He called upon the Lord, yes, but it was God's mercy. He could have said it's too late. You can't be baptized. You can't be pastorized. You can't be homogenized. He could have said a lot of things. No, he said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. So here in this passage, this compassion means that Jesus had sympathy or a sympathetic pity toward those that he was working with there. Now watch what happens. Would you agree with this? I'm trying to talk to you about your feelings tonight. Would you agree with it that his feelings or this compassion was responsive? It was responsive. He didn't walk He wasn't in Jerusalem and had compassion on these people. He came, dwelt among them, saw what he saw, did what he did, and responded to that compassionately. You hear this? So it was responsive, and I'm trying to get you to see something here. His feeling, the feeling of Jesus toward these people was in response to them. You hear this? Do you hear this? Now what's your feelings in response to? Everything around you. Everybody around you. You ever watch the news and get angry? Well, you should. Don't watch it before you go to bed. That's terrible. And Edna just knows everybody's guilty anyway, so don't watch any mysteries or anything. But it was responsive, and I want you to see this, that how you feel right now, right now, and you probably couldn't even tell me, is responsive to where you are, who you're with, what's going on, et cetera, and your thought. For instance, you may be responding like, boy, I hope how soon he gets finished. Or you may be responding, boy, I already got all this. Or you may be, but whatever you're feeling or thing is responsive to now, right now, where you are. So does that mean anything? Yes, it means that this feeling of compassion has the ability to be changed. Because I'm not gonna be here all night, maybe. From the looks of you, I might, but I'm just saying. My dad used to say, work till you get it done, son. OK. So the point being, it's bearable. Because my influences, my situation, my circumstances, my thinking is going to be enhanced by other characteristics of different people. Would you agree with that, by the way? We want to think that way, that it's in response. For instance, you made me mad. Any of you husbands ever heard this? You make me so angry. Now, I've not heard this, so don't use me as an illustration. You make me so angry. Well, when she really gets angry is when I find that humorous. and smile the wrong way. And then she don't want to smile, but then she ends up smiling. That makes her worse after she smiles. I know then to go back to the study and close the door and get out of my face before God. But the point being, it changes, it's variable. No, I didn't make anybody mad. I've never made anybody mad. By the way, don't worry about being mad. Dogs go mad, we get angry. Okay. I've never made anybody angry. Now you could respond in an angry way. No, I didn't. They chose through their thinking to respond with anger. That's why some people can't forgive others because they don't feel like it. I like this one. You just don't know them very well. They've done this before. Have they done it 70 times, 70 times? Well, I don't know about that. Well, then don't worry about it. That's the number. And that's a little sarcasm thrown in there. But it was responsive. And it was directed toward particular people, the multitudes. Would you agree to that? In other words, his emotions at that moment, his feelings at that moment was upon these people. the sick, the afflicted, the distressed, the desperate, etc., etc. There's where his emotions were going to show forth. Now how do you know because the Bible says so? What do you think the healing was if it wasn't compassion? What do you think the bumping of elbows was if it wasn't compassion? I'm not doing this again, I'll tell you that much. It was responsive toward the multitudes, and toward the multitudes entirely, not one or the other. He said all sicknesses and all diseases. Now you can study that, you scholars, if you want to, the word all, what it means and so on. I'm a plain kind of guy. I just think it means all. It's like I believe every means every, okay? So that's me. I'm the guy who studied this out and you can teach your own when you get your own church. But the point being, It was toward these multitudes particularly. Now watch this because I want you to see this. If you don't get anything else, get this about your feelings. They're going to change. You have to. You're built for this. You hear me? You're created for them to change. They are in response. They're all tied together with your emotions, your mood. They're all tied together. But this compassion of Christ was an emotional response. and was expressed with his response. In other words, I saw what I saw, I did what I did. There you go. I saw what I saw, I was compassionate, and I did what I did. You hear this? Get the pattern, would you? This all ties into your emotions. I saw what I saw. You ever been angry with your children? I should ask grandchildren, maybe. with your grandchildren? You ever been angry at your spouse? You ever been angry at your dad or whatever? Well, sure you have. Why? Because you saw what you saw. You experienced what you experienced, and you did what you did, all through emotions. You hear this? All through emotions. So we're built this way. What we don't realize is the, I should say, the frequency of variations with our emotions. Now let me take, I'm not going to have you turn, but let me take you to another scenario with Jesus. He goes into the temple, and I've been on these steps, by the way, where this happened, that remain in Jerusalem. And the money changers are there. And he turns over the table, throws them out. The house of prayer, you made it a den of thieves. That was emotion. He did what he did. He saw what he saw. He knew what he knew. And he chose to use righteous anger to sanctify the temple. You see? That's what the Bible says, be you angry and sin not. You be angry, but don't sin with it. In other words, there is a righteous purpose for righteous anger. And we'll talk more at a given time about that, perhaps. But this compassion that he's shown here, that's where it came from. It wasn't like he walked around and said, you know, I just love everybody, you know. Who was it? Sterling mentioned a hippie. It's a good thing this is overcrowded or we wouldn't know what a hippie was. I remember the hippies. I had hair then, too. Made it through that era without being pierced one time. I don't even have a tattoo, man. I was a square, a nerd. The compassion of Christ, let's do this, was an emotional response. He was moved with compassion. In other words, he put it into action. It was expressed with his response. So they're going to know that he's pitying them. They're going to know that he's feeling for them. Number three, the emotions were consequential of the experience. You hear this? Now let's get this tied together because this is part one of this, and we have to have this foundation. It was consequential of his experience, okay? Have you ever gone into work and felt like mud, and they said, how you doing today? Oh, I'm doing great. But you felt like mud, or dirt. I'm mud. You just felt really bad. Were you sick? No. I was just in a bad frame of mind. You ever been that way? You know what that means? I'm not thinking right. You're talking about mental disorders. Yeah, we've got them all right, but it's all in our thinking. Well, what's wrong? Well, no. It's like, how you doing this morning? I don't know. I just got up. I got to get me a cup of ambition here, Dolly said. I got to go. Gotta go. You're not that way, I know. But these emotions were consequential to the experience. For instance, Ed and I were driving up Church Street the other day, down Church Street or up some way, coming back from somewhere. And we got there right after, or to this area right, I mean this motorcycle had just collided with this car and telephone poles. The rider of the motorcycle was laying in the street. There was blood all around him. We were there even before the rescue squad was there, the fire department or anybody else. He was dead. Did I feel anything? You better believe it. Did they ever feel anything? Oh, yeah. Should we have felt anything? Oh, yeah. So I don't have any feelings about that at all. I just, well, how can you do that? Yes, you do. You just said you didn't, but you do. You really do. You don't live without feelings, good night. You hear this? There's two supreme emotions that humanity has the ability to express, love and hate. They're extremes. Everything else is in between there. Is it loving? Is it hateful? Is it purposeful? Is it spiteful? Et cetera, et cetera. So we need to think about these things because feelings matter to God. I want to take you to the Garden of Gethsemane. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. And a transliteration of that would be, or a translation of that would be, I'm so grieved I'm about to die. Not about dying, but it's so heavy, it's killing me. This grief that I suffer. Now the closest I've ever been, not related, but what would I say? The closest I would be with that would be for the widow who just lost her husband. Or the husband who just lost his wife spoke with an individual that that occurred to, and the comment was, I'm dying without my spouse. It's killing me to go through the house. I can't stand it. With tears rolling down her face. Be tough, wouldn't it? Being buried for 65 years or so, he or she decides to go to heaven before you. Self-centered little thing. If she did all she could to send you there ahead of time, you wouldn't go. But look at the multitude's condition. I'm not gonna spend too much time with this. But his emotions were consequential. on the multitude's condition, first of all. The Bible says the multitude was faint. That means distressed. They didn't know what to do. The multitude was scattered or downcast. Translation. Number three, the multitude had no shepherd or no pastor, no guidance. They were a sheep without a shepherd. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful. You never want to be in the condition these people were in. Never. Ever. For whatever reason. You don't want to be distressed, first of all. You don't want to be so desperate and downcast. And you don't want to be without any kind of guidance in life. You don't want to be turned loose. Nobody does. You show me a person who isn't subject to accountability, I'll show you a person that's irresponsible. And I'll show you a person that wanders from thing to thing to thing. And I'll show you another person who is feeling-oriented, that they make decisions based on thing to thing to thing to thing. Ask them, what you're thinking about this? Well, I just feel like this, and I just feel like that, and so forth and so on. Do any of you remember you oldies, Sterling, you older guys? Remember a musician by the name of B.J. Thomas? Yeah. We could have an oldies party here. I'm hooked on a feeling. You can't hurry love. On and on and on and on and on. Everything is directed this way, toward feelings. They're distressed. They're desperate. They're despondent. They're left without guidance. They're like sheep as if they have no leader. And they don't. And there's what broke his heart. There's the healing he's done and done and done and done and done. but to see masses of people that are desperate, and without hope, and without help, and feel sorry for them, or pitiful. They are pitiful to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the point being to that is this. There's the compassion. There's the compassion. Let me read you, well, you've got them printed out there. In Hebrews 4.15, we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our firmness. but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. John 11, 35, Jesus wept. Isaiah 53, 3, he's despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. John 2, 13 through 17, and his disciples remember the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. In other words, the passion. And then there's the Garden of Gethsemane that I just referred to a little while ago, where Jesus expressed feelings, his feelings. Do you hear this? So feelings, watch, and we're going home here in a minute, feelings are the expression, okay? So when we talk with people, it is significant how they feel. Now, they could feel wrong. but it's significant how they feel. You tell me how you feel, I'll tell you what you're thinking, whether it's good or bad. Then I'll tell you why you feel like you feel. Pretty simple, pretty simple. You know, there's people who don't give to God because they don't feel like it. Don't think it's necessary. After all, they're not tithers, tithing's under the law. Well, then if you're so generous and you want to go above the law, chip in. A little hypocritical. People don't pray because they don't feel like it. People don't come to church because they don't feel like it. Why? Why? Well, they cook the late supper on Wednesday. Come on. I had a hard day at work. You knew you were going to have a hard day at work on Wednesday morning. Okay? Et cetera. And I'm not saying there's not times that things don't happen. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying if we're going to base things on feelings, we're in trouble. But then again, how many times we come to the synagogue, or the church rather, come to the house to be with the people of God, when we didn't feel like it at all. And as we got among God's people, our feelings changed. I've heard it said many a time, boy, I didn't feel like coming, but I'm so glad I did. It was so refreshing to be with God's people, to sing the songs, et cetera, et cetera. That happens all the time, and it should. Because they're variable. Now if you go out on a parking lot after we get finished with this wonderful message, and your car has four flat tires on it, you may not feel as good as you did before you knew you had four flat tires. You may not feel as good. But that's not the goal, the objective here. The objective in that case is not how I feel, it's what I'm going to do about four flat tires. But let me give you this. Jesus' feelings or emotions were byproducts, not products. It is. Now, if they're byproducts, based on what he was teaching and preaching, based on ministering to the afflicted or the circumstances, we understand, and he understood the aimlessness of the multitude, he responds with compassion. So what did he do? He did a do-you-e. Who's Brandy? Do-you-e. To what he saw and knew to be true. He did what he saw and knew to be true. That should read, what did he see? What was he thinking? And his response was what? According to that conclusion. Now I'm not going to turn because it's in next week's session in John 13, 17. Happy are you or your emotions are right if you know what's right and you do what's right. You find that again in Philippians chapter four, the things you've seen and heard and learned of me do, and the God of peace will be with you. Okay, do. So I'm not just gonna sit back and quit my responsibilities because I don't feel like working today. I just don't feel like going in today. Now tell your boss that one or two times and see what he says to you. I just don't feel like keeping my responsibilities. You know, I didn't feel like buying groceries. Well, go hungry. By the way, Bronnie, I am not paying $7 for a dozen eggs. I know. See you heading after the service. See you heading after the service. $7 for a chicken. I could get the whole chicken for $7. We could buy our own chickens, house them at Bronnie's place and pay rent. and pick up the eggs on Saturday. What did he see? What did he think? You need to ask yourself this question. If your feelings are contrary to your walk with God, and they are often, you need to ask yourself, what is it I'm experiencing here? What am I thinking about this? Am I thinking right, correctly, godly, et cetera? Because your feelings are gonna respond to those questions, the answers to those questions, rather. So point number one, feelings in general are expression and are a byproduct of the way you think, by the way. And feelings, number two, point number two, are to be the result of thinking. So which brings us to significant truth that then my thinking needs to be right if I want to feel right. I need to think right. And by that I mean biblically. I need to think godly ways. For instance, no matter what the experience is, was Jesus among the Galileans on purpose or accident? You know he planned that entire ministry in Galilee? He went there on purpose. Did he meet the woman at the well by accident or on purpose? He didn't do anything by accident. How about a woman was caught in the act of adultery? On purpose. It wasn't an accident. He didn't just happen to be in the area. Okay? Every step he took led to Calvary. Even if you think it went the roundabout way, it led to Calvary. Just like Moses in the wilderness led to the promised land no matter how long he wandered around. He was going to end up in the promised land. Here's the way we think. Point number three, feelings are healthy. They can help you diagnose what's wrong, because it causes me to think and evaluate, or what's right. How do I feel about this? Well, how am I thinking about it? And here's the conclusion factor on that, concluding factor, is am I thinking the way God wants me to think about this? Do all things really work together for good? Do they or don't? Is God faithful or is He not? I've got to do some biblical thinking because the world and my flesh is against God. Have you noticed how opposed you personally are to God? Have you noticed? If you haven't, come meet with me, I'll help you. You by nature, and by nature I even mean mentally, are opposed to God. And if God leaves you alone, you're one of these people that's in distress and despair, despondent, without hope, and without help. But thank God he didn't leave us alone. Thank God he didn't leave us alone. So feelings are healthy. So when we meet with people, and we talk with people, and they begin to express themselves in feelings, I feel like, I feel like, I feel like, don't be so quick to close the door. We're not going to rest on your feelings, but they are going to help us get to a place of rest. We're not going to let you feel sinfully and respond simply, you know, Charlie Strickland said this to me and therefore I said this to him. No, wait a minute. Well, I just felt like he was insulting me. Well, he probably was. But sin number one, I mean, sin number two never justifies, is justified by sin number one, you know? If he smacks you on the one cheek, then you slug him in the nose. I mean, that's not what the Bible teaches at all. And we've got to be, in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit, you need to be filled with the Spirit. Okay? So feelings are healthy. Feelings are a result of what you see to be true. Feelings should be a result of what you know to be true. And what you know to be true should result in the way you think and in your actions in accordance. Now, how many of you, that's not retired, on Sunday evening went home and said, well, I'm going to get me a little bit of rest. I think I'll call in, tell the boss I'm not coming in tomorrow. Oh, by the way, Super Bowl Sunday, now they want Monday to be a national holiday so you can sober up before you go to work on Tuesday. That's not a quote, that's just Fox News verbiage. So I'm willing to miss a day of work because of a ball game. What a great decision maker you are. Feelings are a result of what you see to be true. are to be, it should read. Feelings are to be a result of what you see to be true. I only know one thing that is true, and that's the Word of God. Feelings are to be a result of what you know to be true. In other words, he that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, whether he feels like it or not, is seeing. And feelings are to be a result of what I think and what I'm thinking, and they are. They are. Sometimes I find myself feeling without knowing the thought. You ever do that? Then after the fact, I realize the thinking wasn't exactly right. Or that's good thinking. Or I'll listen to somebody teach or preach and I'll say, that's good thinking. Because he was able to apply it. And by the way, you can always tell a good teacher he's able to apply what he teaches. A lecture leaves you hanging, okay? And I don't mean he has to make up an application. It's there, it's all over it. So Jesus expressed his feelings. Now the pattern that you have on your sheet or handout tonight, you're gonna find out that's gonna be consistent throughout the entire church history. That pattern of feelings. It's gonna be consistent with Paul, James, whoever we refer to. It's gonna flow consistent. Now why would it be consistent? Now listen to me. Two reasons, two reasons. One, it's God doing it. Two, you're creating the image of God. So God doesn't expect this generation to change His image to conform to them. He expects this generation of Christians to conform to Christ like any other generation of Christians. Period. So He's not going to change. He's going to be consistent throughout the Word of God. I like that. I like that. And we're going to deal with some other things that deal with the same arena or flow out of this. But I think this is key. Absolutely key. And we've maybe overtaught it. I don't know. But I know as I was refreshing and editing previous sessions that we've had on this, these thoughts to me all gelled for tonight. And they're scriptural. I haven't taught you one thing that's not scriptural, biblical. And what you've got to do is consider the fact that we don't make decisions based purely on feelings. We don't love each other just purely based on feelings. We love each other because we know the truth about loving one another, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's there by the Holy Spirit, of course. So we know. So we take this and we say, now, wait a minute. I just feel like you need to be quiet. Well, really? You just feel that based upon the clock or redundancy or hypocrisy or what see do you see that I don't see is the point. What are you thinking? What were you thinking? We had a court case, well I didn't. I was a witness in a court case where a woman was it was a divorce case and they were fighting over the custody of the child. The woman accused the man of improprieties with the little girl. Well, we had counseled these people for months trying to salvage this situation. She wasn't gonna let it be salvaged. So she left, she took the baby, she left. Long story short, we end up in court in a custody battle. She would use phrases like, I suppose this, or I just feel this, or I just think that. Well, now, after hearing that, it's a bad time to call an aesthetic counselor to the podium. Because when she did it in my office, We chewed that up, spit it out. There was no evidence whatsoever that this man had any impropriety, none, none. You see, that's the big play card today. Just accuse him of something immoral and you got him. Politicians, parents, teachers, whatever, you got him. That's the big card if you really want somebody. So when I got on the stand and took the oath, But the defense attorney made a mistake by asking me something. And I asked him, do I have permission as a counselor to reveal what was given to me in confidence? And he said, yes, we have it in written writing, et cetera, et cetera. We want you doing it. By the way, my confidentiality didn't matter. She'd already told all over the world. But the point being, yeah, I said, OK, if I have the liberty His attorney said the same thing, said, okay. I said, well, she uses these terms, I suppose, I feel, I think, I this, I that, I that. But not one time has she said, I saw him do this or do that. Not one time in our counseling, not one time. So what do we act upon? I said, we act upon the scriptures. Love, think of no evil. Love, believe with all things. Now, until somebody brings some evidence in here to tell me that I'm wrong about this, she's wrong. And here's what her evidence was that came out, that he had watched a Rocky movie. No, no, no, not true. Rambo, one of my favorites, all five Rambos, all five Rockies in my video stash. And I said, and he said, and even the defense attorney said, well, Rocky Balboa's got no, I said, I'm just telling you. That was the evidence. And he said, what'd you do about it? I said, I went home and watched it. I did, just in case I missed something. I didn't miss anything. I didn't miss anything. I feel, I feel, I feel. The attorney said, your honor, I want this witness dismissed. He seems to be a little militant about what he has to say. And so the judge said, we will dismiss this witness, but you've given the most credible testimony of anybody that's come forward. Okay, why? It was based on the word of God. That man still writes to us once a year, that's been 20 years ago, at least, once a year, and greets us and thanks us for helping him or trying to help him. He's a little older now, a little disabled, can't get out as much, but the truth. If I'd have gotten what I was feeling, I'd have felt sorry for her in the counseling session. You're always on the woman's side in counseling, you know that, don't you? If you're not, you will be because it's better to be on a rooftop than not be. But I try to be simple. I listen to this rhetoric over and over, four or five sessions. Then I finally just had to call it quits. We've heard this story, we've sang this song, I even know the chorus. Move it. Move along. She didn't have anywhere to go because she didn't feel like I was a good counselor anymore. And I'm glad she felt that way, because I wasn't for her. She wanted me to cover her sin. He wanted it uncovered, dealt with through the blood of Christ. She wouldn't. She wouldn't. So she kidnapped the girl, the baby, and was gone for 18 years. They couldn't find her. Changed her identity, changed the identity of the baby. The baby grew up without a dad, without being in touch with her dad, et cetera, et cetera. Ended up joining, the baby ended up at age, joined the military, doing very well in the military, served three or four terms in the military, and then went home to her dad. In between that, she's in touch with her dad after she left home, but just saying. Truth. We've got our feelings and all that phony sympathy that we share. and put her arm around her and say, we understand. No, I don't understand sin, do you? I know it destroys, it damns. Huh? And you want to tell this sinner that you understand. No, no. I want to have compassion and bring deliverance and bring hope. I want to be compassionate and love them and meet the needs of their lives where they are. and help them with their feelings, not to make some silly decision because they felt like blah, blah, blah. I feel like Lord had me have a new car. You feel like you could afford one? Nope. Well, you better hold it. Because my feelings for not afford it is based on facts. Not the fact that it's red and beautiful. Sharp. Not the fact that I know, just sitting in it, I'd look good driving it. You know what I'm saying? On feelings. Well, the time comes for this big payment to roll out. I'm strapped. I made a decision based on feelings. And I've done it, not in a car, but I've done this. Done something I just feel like. Depressed people spend a lot of money. When you're down and out, you'll spend a lot of money. You'll eat a lot, spend a lot, so be happy. It's the moral of that story. I hope this will get you sparked and get you to evaluate, get you to thinking about things and that God will use this in your life and you'll share it with others, maybe help them give direction. Father, how gracious and kind you really are. How merciful, oh God. You really are. We ask you tonight to take these practical points of our feelings and realize the truth about them and that you have much to say and have exemplified your sayings throughout the entire Word of God. I pray you'll bless each saint that's here tonight in which I give you thanks for and thank them for being here Ask that the Holy Spirit guide and direct them through your word, quicken them, save our lives from destruction. Oh God, I pray. Be merciful to us and help us to be waiting and watching for the coming of our hope, our blessed redemption.