Passion: The Holy Spirits Power to Handle your Emotions
Emotional Freedom
Intro: What do you think of to fill in the blank when I say, Emotions are out of __________ today.
In 2002 George Barna conducted various studies that showed how much Americans identified faith as a key factor in their life. Large majorities claimed their “religious faith is very important” in their life and described themselves as “deeply spiritual.”
However this same study showed that less than half of those that described themselves as Christians also described themselves as “completely committed to the Christian faith.”
Less than one out of every ten regular attenders of Christian churches give 10% or more of their income - a "tithe" - to their church. A majority of teenagers attend a Christian church today, but only one-third is likely to do so once they reach adulthood. The persecution delivered by the terrorist attacks has produced no increase in spiritual practices, such as attending worship services, reading the Bible, praying, or serving the needy. Giving levels have actually decreased this year. In fact, not even half of Americans indicated that their faith had been an important factor in helping them process the effects of the terrorist attacks.
Barna suggested that many Americans may have fallen in love with faith rather than the object of their faith. "It's much less demanding to be devoted to the idea of faith than to invest yourself in a true relationship with the living God. The data raise the question of just what people have become infatuated with: the idea of being a person of faith or the reality of having an intimate, growing relationship with Jesus Christ."
There is a disconnect today between faith and a vital relationship with Jesus which creates attenders, givers, goers, preachers etc. Did you can do everything that a believer is supposed to do and have no relationship with Jesus?
This might be an indication as to why there is such out of control emotions even in the church today.
What I want you to understand is that emotions are not evil. We are created in the image of God and the Bible talks about His anger, passion, sorrow and even pain. Emotions allow us rejoice over the birth of a baby or grandbaby, celebrate friendships, milestones and victories. Emotions allow us to be angry at the evil of abortion, praise at the faithfulness of God. Emotions allow us to demonstrate a response to the world around us.
Out of control emotions hurt people. Remember hurting people hurt people. Emotions in control or out of control come from the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked and deceptive. The heart is a way of describing the inner man. When Jeremiah says the heart is desperately wicked and deceptive he is simply saying we can fool ourselves about the condition of our heart and the outflow of our emotions.
The great tragedy of this society is that nearly all people mature physically, and maybe almost half even mature mentally somewhat; but very few ever grow up emotionally or spiritually. Today, we even wonder about that because it seems like emotional immaturity is the norm, rather than the exception.
I pray that you are encouraged as we begin this study. Ephesians 3:19 gives us the goal of this series. Paul prays for the Ephesians this prayer and this is my prayer for you that you would, “know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
I. The return of Jesus
1 John 3:3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.”
What hope? 1 John 3:2 tells us that when Jesus appears we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. The word for hope carries the idea of anticipation, confidence and desire for the return of Jesus.
Those that desire and anticipate the return of Jesus with confidence are in the process of purification. The word for purification means to remove everything that disqualifies us from acceptable worship of God! It gives us the idea of our hearts being fully devoted to Jesus!!
Ephesians 3:16, 17 (read from Bible)
The problem of emotions is the problem of the inner man. Paul prayed that we would be strengthened in the inner man because that is the source of all our problems especially our emotional ones. We almost always try to tackle the problem from the wrong direction. We tackle it from the outside instead of the inside out.
In my back yard is a pear tree. Every year it bears more fruit than my family can use. Even when we invite others to pick the fruit we end up with fruit on the ground. That is ok until you walk out in the yard and carry pear mush in the house. When the yard is mowed our dog is attacked by pear missiles. So we invite more people and go out and pick more pears.
That unfortunately is the way we handle our emotional problems most of the time. We pick up and apologize for our anger outbreaks, anxiety attacks, fears, etc. We pick up all the emotional bad fruit give out another round of apologies.
But Paul has already given us the solution. If we want to deal with the fruit that we bear we have to deal with the root that we have. That is why he said those that long for, look for and wait for the return of Jesus remove anything that keeps their heart rooted in anything other than Jesus.
Now the example of the pear tree should teach us that the solution is not just to try harder with our emotional problems. We will only be able to remove the roots by replacing them.
So Paul prayed that we would be strengthened in the inner man and that Jesus would dwell or take root and control of our inner man. Because the inner man or the heart holds the emotions. It is the soon return of Jesus that moves us and motivate us to cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit.
II. The right response to the Spirit
A) The inner work of the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16)
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, works not on the outward but the inward. The Holy Spirit works to renew our minds, redirect our wills and renovate our emotions. All of these are inward works. Why is God so concerned with the inner man? God is so concerned with the inner life because that is where true and lasting transformation takes places. If you want to stop picking up all the rotten and smashed emotional fruit then you have to submit to the Holy Spirits inner working.
B) The submissive work of the saint
1) Strengthen yourself by becoming weak.
Negative emotions when uncontrolled lead us to the worst tragedies in life. Greed, pride, envy, fear and hatred have destroyed untold lives.
If you are struggling with difficult feelings, emotions, you are not alone.
Don’t let the devil sell you the lie that you are the only one with something wrong with you and that no one wants to be near you because you are so messed up.
Admit that you can’t do it by yourself. Are you tired of picking up rotten fruit and handing out apologies? Submit to the Spirits control. How do show we are submitting to our parents, boss or spouses wishes? We do what they ask. Submit to the requests of the Lord Jesus by humbling yourself.
2) Saturate yourself with the word of God.
Romans 8:5, 6 “For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.”
Filling our minds with scripture prepares us to submit to the control of the Holy Spirit. The mind-set of the Spirit is life. We are called and commanded by God to feed and feast on His word, Why?
2 Timothy 3:16, 17 “ All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Our mind is equipped and trained for emotional healing and health by the word through the Spirit.
Emotional brokenness does not heal automatically. We have been give the cliché “Time heals all wounds.” You know from life that it just isn’t true. The passage of time may cause the memory of the pain to fade, but the pain remains a part of us twisting the way we view the world and respond to circumstances and people.
David said it well in Psalm 26:2-3 “Examine me, O Lord and see and try me and see if there is any wicked way in me.” David overcame destructive emotions and wrong thinking by replacing it with God’s facts and forever principles.
Napoleon Hill, author and advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, summarized this principle when he said, “If you direct your thought and control your emotions, you will ordain your destiny.”
Dr. Charles Stanely, “If you deliberately govern what you think, you will transform your emotions – you will manage them instead of them ruling over you!”
3) Seek the Lord’s help through prayer
In constant confession of our need and conversation with our Lord that our thoughts are taken captive to Jesus. Those that we take to him will no longer keep our minds and emotions captive.
III. The reward of freedom
Galatians 5:1 “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Paul was talking about submitting again to religious observance. However the truth still stands with our emotions. Jesus came to set us free from the penalty and power of sin in our lives. He also came to set us free from the control of our emotions.
What do we miss out on when we are chained by our unmanaged emotions?
1) We will miss out on the joy of life
God created us to experience love, happiness, excitement, surprise, contentment, appreciation, so that our life would be full.
What would it be like to be completely numb when a child or grandchild are born? No excitement or thrill when you child killed their first deer, danced their first dance won their first completion. Life would just be and endless empty string of eating and sleeping.
God gave us the ability to enjoy life with our emotions and the devil and the fallen nature of the world distorts them. The first step to take in managing your emotions is to confess Jesus as Lord and receive His Holy Spirit. Without our emotions we might never see our need for a savior.
2) We would miss out on relating to others
No matter what culture or country we come from everyone has tasted the pain of loosing someone, betrayl and rejection. We also know what it is to be loved and accepted. Those that we trust enough to share our deepest emotions are those we connect with and build lasting relationships.
Dr Charles Stanley, “God gave us our emotions to understand one another – so we could reach into one another’s deepest wounds and become His instrument of healing to them. (Letters to pastors) Part of the mission statement of Immanuel.
Passion Statement: We at Immanuel seek to glorify God by Cultivating His life in common in order to; Seek Him above all things, Serve Him as His hands and feet, Share Him with all people.
3) We would miss out on reflecting the image of God
When the fruit of the Spirit is flowing through us we are demonstrating God to others! The fruit is controlled emotions and actions. If we admit our weakness, saturate ourselves with God’s word, and seek Jesus’ help through prayer God will use us to draw others to Himself!!
