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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.
Biblical Counseling - part 5
Series Counseling
Biblical Counseling - part 5
Feelings, Emotions, and Moods
Matthew 9:35-38
#faithwaybaptistgso #Faithway #biblicalcounseling #feelings
| Sermon ID | 2425181355436 |
| Duration | 52:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 9 |
| Language | English |
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