Introduction:
I’m sure you’ve all heard the old story about the enthusiastic man who walked into a dignified worship service and sat down in a pew. The minister had just started his sermon when the visitor said fervently, “Amen!” A moment later the fellow said, “Praise the Lord!” The usher walked down the aisle and whispered to him, “You need to be quiet! We don’t do that here.” The visitor said, “But I’ve got religion!” The usher said, “Well, you didn’t get it here.”
I think we can relate to that situation because we tend to be a group of people who are more comfortable with the intellectual aspects of religion than we are the emotional aspects. And I include myself in that number. I’m much more comfortable discussing the truthfulness of the doctrine of premillennialism than I am letting tears flow down my cheeks in the middle of a worship service.
I want to be careful not to be misunderstood this morning, so I’m going to be making a lot of clarifications, and I want to make one at this point. I’m not saying that anyone who doesn’t get visibly excited or has tears flowing down their cheeks isn’t worshiping God with their deepest emotions. I wouldn’t dare say that, I don’t believe it.
What I am saying is that I think we have a tendency to want to shut our emotions down or at the very least suppress them, especially when during worship because we’re afraid of what will happen if we don’t. We’re embarrassed to be seen with tears running down our cheeks. We’re embarrassed to be seen as a little bit too enthusiastic or excited about what God has done for us. We don’t want to be perceived as someone who gets a little too “carried away” with religion.
But Jesus said, in giving the greatest commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). Quite frankly, we’ve done a good job in the church of loving God with all our mind, but I think we’ve been a bit hesitant at times to love him with all our heart.
When I talk with couples who are about to get married, I always talk with them about what love means. And one of the questions I raise is this: “Is love something you feel, or is it something you do?” And ultimately agape love is something you do; it’s a commitment that will hang in there regardless of what happens. Agape love will lead you to get up in the middle of the night and take care of a sick family member even when you don’t feel like it. Agape love will lead you to make sacrifices for the benefit of others even when you have trouble feeling excited about doing it. Agape love is the foundational love in our marriage relationship. It’s also the foundational love in our relationship with God. There are times that our love will express itself to God even when we just don’t have the feeling.
But does that mean that love has no feeling? Imagine a husband who has an agape love for his wife. He will do anything he can for her. He will make any sacrifice necessary. But he doesn’t have any feelings for her. He doesn’t get excited when she walks into the room. He doesn’t laugh with her and he doesn’t cry with her. There’s no feeling, no emotion -- just a commitment. I think all of us would agree that there’s something missing in that love, something sadly missing.
And yet, many times, that describes our relationship with God. We have an agape love. We are firmly committed to serving God. We’ll do anything for him that he wants us to do, but there’s not much feeling, not much emotion. We don’t dare get too excited in our praise, we don’t dare allow ourselves to get too sad at the thought of the cross. We have love, but I think there’s something missing in that love, something sadly missing.
Again, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. We need to think reasonably and rationally about what God has done for us and about what God wants us to do for him. But there’s got to be more to our relationship with God than that. We are more than just our minds. There is more to being loved by the Creator of the universe than simply reading about it in the pages of the Bible. Love that isn’t felt may certainly be real, but it is just as certainly incomplete.
There is a dimension to being loved by God that goes beyond apprehending it intellectually. It is more than an objective fact, more than something “out there” to admire and observe. It’s also a subjective experience, something “in here" to feel and enjoy.
It sometimes seems that many Christians experience God’s love in the same way they do a great painting. If you have ever attended the exhibit of a famous art collection you know that extensive measures are employed to keep the viewing public at more than arm’s length from the various works on display. Often, as with the Mona Lisa (in the Louvre in Paris), the painting is kept behind a glass enclosure. Security guards are positioned so that no one can get too close. Strategically placed signs warn of the consequences which will be carried out against those who dare cross cordoned-off areas.
The result is that the viewing public is reduced to precisely that: viewing. They are mere spectators. And I suppose in an art gallery that houses priceless masterpieces that’s the only reasonable policy. But it’s not sufficient when it comes to God’s love for His children. We cannot, we must not, allow ourselves to become spectators only. God’s love is not to be viewed from afar but deeply and intimately embraced.
But I think we’re afraid. We’re afraid of our emotions. We’re terrified of our feelings, as if emotions were something terribly sinful, rather than a God-given aspect of the image of God in man. And some of the reason we feel that way is because of some of the sermons we heard growing up.
Emotions are seen as an inescapable and necessary evil. They are to be carefully monitored and ruthlessly suppressed. Anything that has the potential to arouse or stir up one’s feelings is, at best, viewed with suspicion and, at worst, considered demonic.
We are suspicious of anything that carries the potential to move us emotionally. We view any such thing as a threat to our determined resolve to keep control over our feelings. And so we are resistant to the emotional intensity that praise songs might evoke in our hearts. Having a worship service that touches the emotions seems inconsistent with our commitment to the importance of the intellect (not to mention the image we wish to project to the people around us).
One writer has summed up how many of us feel when he said, “emotion is regarded as something almost indecent.”
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a long-time minister in London, England, once recalled an incident during the course of an evangelistic campaign in London. A prominent religious figure approached him and asked, "Have you been to the campaign?"
Dr. Jones said, "No, not yet.”
The other man said, “It is marvelous, just marvelous! People are going forward by the hundreds, . . . and there is no emotion. It is simply marvelous!"
Dr. Jones wasn’t very impressed. He later responded to this man’s statement in the following way:
“What can one say about such an attitude? I content myself by asking a few questions. Can a man see himself as a [condemned] sinner without emotion? Can a man listen to the thunderings of the Law and feel nothing? Or conversely, can a man really contemplate the love of God in Christ Jesus and feel no emotion? The whole position is utterly ridiculous. I fear that many people today in their reaction against excesses and emotionalism put themselves into a position in which, in the end, they are virtually denying the Truth. The gospel of Jesus Christ takes up the whole man, and if what purports to be the gospel does not do so it is not the gospel. The gospel is meant to do that, and it does that. The whole man is involved because the gospel leads to regeneration; and so I say that this element of pathos and emotion, this element of being moved, should always be prominent in preaching.”
I think there’s a great deal of truth in that. And so I want us to consider for a few moments the place of emotion in a Christian’s life. Do our feelings have anything to do with our faith? Or are they mortal enemies?
WHAT DOES EMOTION MEAN?
And perhaps I should take a moment to define what I mean by “emotions.” It’s one of those words that’s hard to define and yet we all know what it means. Webster’s dictionary isn’t much help at all. It says that emotion is “a psychic and physical reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling and physiologically involving changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action.” I don’t know about you, but that’s not much help at all. What it’s saying is that an emotion is a strong feeling that often has some effect on our bodies.
Let me give you a few examples. If you’ve ever had to speak in public, you may have had the emotion of being nervous that resulted in sweaty palms. If you’ve ever been angry, perhaps your face got red and warm. If you can remember those early years of dating and every time the phone rang it provoked the emotion of excitement which showed it through getting butterflies in your stomach.
In Luke 24, after Jesus revealed his identity to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they said, “Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32). There was an emotional response to what Jesus had said. I don’t know exactly what that response was -- maybe it was a rapid heartbeat, maybe chills running up and down their spines -- but there was something they “felt.”
That’s not surprising. Emotions are a part of who we are. They are an essential element in the way God put us together. And they are part of what makes us like God, because God is filled with emotion.
Micah 7:18 says, “[God] delights in mercy.” That English word “delights” isn’t nearly strong enough to express the Hebrew. God enjoys showing mercy. God gets excited at the prospect of showing forgiveness. It’s not just something he does. It’s something he enjoys doing. There’s emotion there.
In Genesis 6:6, in the days of Noah, “The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Destroying the earth wasn’t just business as usual. It made him sad. It touched his emotions.
You see the same thing when Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and said “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).
Numerous times in the Old Testament you see mention of the anger of God, and you see it in Jesus when he cleansed the temple. There’s emotion there.
So why are we so afraid of it in our dealings with God? I think one reason is that we believe that people who feel passionately do so as an excuse for not thinking profoundly. And we can find a lot of examples of that -- people who say, “It doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you just “feel it in your heart”!
It’s important to understand that our emotions are not a suitable guide for establishing what is right and what is wrong. Doctrine can never be derived from our feelings or our passions. The Bible and the Bible alone is the ultimate standard by which we can discover inerrant truth.
If feelings were a guide for what to believe, then we could just do away with the doctrine of hell because it’s hard to “feel good” about the idea of eternal torment! But we know hell is real because the Bible says so. The same thing is true of a number of other biblical doctrines.
Emotions can never be the foundation of our faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17). That’s doesn’t mean that emotions are of no use, it merely means that we need to be careful not to use them in that way. Feelings can never be a guide to decide what is true and what is false.
Furthermore, our emotions are not a suitable standard for evaluating our relationship with God. Simply because you are feeling bad about yourself doesn’t necessarily mean God is angry with you. Nor is it always the case that feeling good means that everything is all right between you and God. There are a lot of people who feel just fine, but who haven’t made things right with God. So, again, don’t use your emotions to tell you what the Bible was designed to say.
We need to draw a distinction between emotions and emotionalism. One is right and the other is wrong. Emotions are a natural outgrowth of understanding what God has done for us. Emotionalism is the artificial manipulation of feeling for the feeling’s sake. We’ll all seen examples of this -- religious services designed for the specific purpose of working people up into a frenzy, playing their emotions like a fiddle. That’s wrong.
The only emotions and passions that please God are those that are rooted in biblical truth. They have to arise from a thinking, perceptive understanding of who God is and what God has done for us. Such an emotional response isn’t wrong at all. In fact, it is very proper and scriptural.
WHAT IS THE PLACE FOR OUR PASSIONS?
Once our faith is founded on an understanding of what God has to say, emotions play an important part. I like the term Sam Storms uses to describe a proper view of emotion. He says that true religion, true Christianity, consists of the enjoyment of sanctified emotions.
Think about how emotions play such an important role throughout the Bible, especially in the Psalms.
David says in passages like the one read for us earlier: “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is the great God, and the great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:1-3). You can’t read through the psalms without sensing the emotions of joy and love that went into their writing.
Nor can you read passages like Psalm 51 without sensing the emotion of sadness over the realization of sin. David said, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight -- that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:2-5).
In the book of Acts, we’re told of many of those who were baptized, including the Ethiopian eunuch, “He went on his way rejoicing.” (Acts 8:39). I don’t know how that joy expressed itself, but I know good and well that emotion expressed itself in some visible way.
In Romans 9:2-3 when Paul writes about his fellow Jews who were lost outside of Christ and said, “I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh”, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that a few tears fell on the page while Paul was writing.
Peter wrote, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith -- the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1:6-9).
Peter is writing to Christians who are enduring persecution and oppression. He first encourages them with the reminder that such trials are temporary. More important still is the fact that their afflictions were serving to purify their faith.
He does this by drawing an analogy between what suffering does to a Christian and what fire does to gold. Fire burns away the dross and alloy from gold, leaving it pure and solid. In similar fashion, the flames of trial and testing and affliction burn away the dross from our faith. Hypocrisy, pride, and other such elements are consumed, leaving behind the solid element of dependency on Christ.
So when Peter comes to verse eight, he is describing for us Christian life and faith in its purest form. That which characterizes Christian faith and life in its purest form is wholehearted love for Christ and an inexpressibly glorious joy in Christ.
John Piper has said, "Our quest is not merely joy. It is joy in God. And there is no way for a creature to consciously manifest the infinite worth and beauty of God without delighting in Him.”
Sam Storms has written, “So much of what passes for Christianity today is little more than pious morbidity. Christians seem to be afraid of enjoying God.”
Conclusion:
I guess if I want to leave you with any thought this morning, it is that God built you with the capacity to feel emotion. So enjoy those feelings. And, more importantly, don’t be afraid to enjoy God with those emotions. Don’t be afraid to allow those feelings to express themselves.
Don’t be ashamed to get excited when you think about what God means to you and what he has done for you. Don’t be ashamed to shed a tear when you think about the sacrifice made on Calvary or about the fact that there are things in your life that you need to make right with God.
Emotions will never tell you what you need to do in your relationship with God. But they may well motivate you to do what you know you need to do. Allow them to do that.
