1/21/01
EMOTIONS - a persons response to living situations.
INTRO: Have you ever had anyone tell you; "well I’ve tried going to church, reading my Bible, and praying but I just DON’T FEEL ANYTHING"? So they just give up on trying to get right with God. There are also some wonderful Christian people who really struggle in their faith because they operate according to their feelings. When they feel God moving or see Him doing some wonderful thing in their life they are on top of the mountain "SUPER CHRISTIANS". But in the everyday drag of life they easily get weighed down with feelings of disappointment and dryness in their faith, because they fail to see God moving. God’s desire for us to live by faith not by our feelings, when we live by faith we live on the promises, but when we live according to our feelings we end up living in an emotional prison held captive by our emotions.
Body:
1. OUR MOODS, FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS CAN LEAD US AWAY FROM TRUSTING GOD.
In Genesis chapter fifteen one of Abraham’s greatest desires was to have an heir, but Abraham didn’t have any children. So God made him a promise.
Gen 15:4-5
4Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Although Abraham believed the Lord nothing in his immediate future changed as far as his wife conceiving. Then the days turn into weeks, which turn into, months, which turn into 10 years, and still no child. This takes us to chapter sixteen of Genesis were we find Sarah in her mid 70’s and Abraham in his mid 80’s barley holding on to a 10 year old promise. Time seemed to be running out on our aging patriarch and his wife. Silence is difficult to deal with. During these times we often strain too hard to read between the lines and in effect read something that isn’t there.
Gen 16:1-2
16:1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
This is where Sarah begins to read between the lines. She might have felt the promise wasn’t for her, or maybe she had done something wrong that caused God to go back on His promise. It’s easy to criticize Sarah for her failure to trust God until to we look at how she responds to the silence (maybe you can relate).
Sarah responds with a GOOD IDEA. She will give her maidservant to her husband to bear "her" children. Notice in verse two that Sarah uses the word "I". God’s plan was not for Sarah to build a family, or for Hagar to provide the children, but for God to provide the children.
Illust: I was a member of a small country church with a membership of about 100. Our average Sunday morning attendance was about 50. Our pastor believed that God’s desire was for ALL our church members to be active. So he had a good idea to remove all the members from the church membership role that didn’t attend church for three months. So the church sent out letters to all the church members informing them of the intent of the church. This was to be fair warning to all who hadn’t been actively attending with the understand that all church members would begin attending again. And with not surprise to me and some of the other church members this "GOOD IDEA" backfired. Those who received the notice from the church were deeply hurt and offended, and instead of pulling them back into the church it proved to drive them farther away. This was about 9 years ago and to my knowledge none of the people who were removed from the church role have ever attended church since. And the little thriving country church I was a member of went down hill fast from there with nothing but hard times since. Was it God’s will for all the members to be active in church? Sure. But the most important thing for the church is for those who are active to be focused on their personal relationships with God first. If that’s not right then nothing is going to be right, and no one will be able to force the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead of working to glorify God we were working to judge and condemn our church family.
When we pray and pray and all we get is silence our feelings can be the most misleading thing of all. Our natural inclination in these times is to think that something is wrong, when according to God’s plan it may not be the right time for Him to accomplish His purpose. If Abraham and Sarah would have had children in their youth then they would have missed the miraculous, but by the promise being fulfilled in when they are past the age of child bearing, they will know it’s by God’s power alone.
2. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE (OR CAN’T WAIT FOR) THE PROMISE, YOU COULD END UP IN THE PRISON.
Gen 16:3-5
3So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."
This is where they move from the PROMISE to the PRISON. Sarah’s "GOOD IDEA" backfires when Hagar conceives. After Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham’s child friction begins to build between her and Sarah. In her anger Sarah lashes out at Abraham blaming him for the mess they are in. Who’s "GOOD IDEA" was it for Abraham and Hagar to get together? It’s easy when things don’t work out the way we think they should to blame other people. This removes the responsibility from off our back and places it on to someone else. Blaming others for bad situations seems to be a favorite pass time for some in the church to the point that angry members are guilty of running off other members. This should never happen in the family of God. How did Jesus say that the world would know that we were His disciples? "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35)."
Abraham turns the blame right around on to Sarah.
Gen 16:6
6"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
This once happy marriage has now turned into one full of anger, disappointment, and resentment. All a result of not waiting on God and being controlled by feeling instead of faith. The way of faith is never the easy way but it’s always the best way.
3. OUR SPIRITUAL CAPABILITY IS MEASURED AND BASED UPON THE PROMISES OF GOD.
We need to be careful not to base our spiritual capacities on our natural abilities. This is exactly what Sarah and Abraham were guilty of. When their natural abilities to bear children were fading they began to lose hope in the promise. In Matthew 25:14-30 the parable of the talents told by Jesus gives us an illustration of not leaning on natural abilities. This parable has nothing to do with natural abilities, but brings to bear upon the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we have less than what God wants us to have we feel like God has let us down, just like when the servant accused his master of expecting too much of him. When the Spirit of God is involved we must never say "I can’t", this is to place limitations on the power of God. Sarah was to the point to be she felt like she couldn’t have any children, but she had a promise form God that applied to her. We must learn to live by faith and not feelings, if we have received the Holy Spirit than God expects the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in our lives.
The lazy wicked servant in this parable falsely accused his lord while condemning himself. He felt unprotected and that the demands of his lord were way out of proportion to what he had equipped him with. People who are lazy in the spiritual realm will always be critical of God feeling like they have never been given a fair chance.
Is God able to fulfill His promises? Will His promises only be accomplished according to our natural abilities? Let’s go back to Genesis chapter sixteen and seventeen to find our answers.
Gen 16:15-17:2
15So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Genesis 17
17:1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."
Note the age of Abraham in chapter 16:16, and then look at his age in chapter 17:1. Thirteen years pass between chapter sixteen and chapter seventeen. Thirteen years of silence from heaven. What was Abraham thinking during this time? Have I gone too far, has God forsaken me, will I every hear from Him again? Then twenty-four years after God first made His promise to Abraham he returns to confirm His 24-year-old promise. Even though Abraham made mistakes and tried doing it his own way God didn’t give up on him.
THE PROMISE FULFILLED
Gen 21:1-5
21:1Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
We must all realize that we have choices in life, choices to accept Christ as our savior or to reject Him. If we accept Him then we make choices whether or not to obey, trust, and give our life totally to God. It like the choice you will make this morning of which door you will walk through when you exit this building. You have many choices and no one will force you to go through any certain door, it’s all up to you. Nor will God force you to obey or to trust Him; it’s totally your choice. By choosing the way of faith you choose to live ON THE PROMISES. If you choose to live according to your feeling you will end up living in an emotion PRISON held captive by the pain of your own choices.
