"Stinking Thinking".

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Pastor Ed Pruitt

Sunday July 9, 2006

I have so many titles for this sermon running through my head.

"Stinking Thinking".

"As A Man Thinketh In His Heart".

"You Are What You Think".

"So Go The Thoughts,

So Go The Man".

Let me start by asking you a few questions.

1. Are you totally discouraged right now?

Do you feel overwhelmed?

Is your mental thought process completely shut down?

2. Do you feel trapped?

I have a friend who consistently responds “I’m happy and blessed” when I ask him how he is doing.

Now I like this guy, I really do.

But, sometimes, I just want to say “get real" when he tells me that.

I don’t know, maybe he really is happy all the time.

I guess it’s possible.

Anything is possible right?!

I’m going to get blasted over this sermon.

I’m going to get tons of emails from the "Happy All The Time Crowd" when I put this sermon on the internet.

They’re going to tell me I’ve gone off the deep end.

They will let me know that the Christian should always be happy.

It’s our right.

It’s our obligation.

We should always have this enormous smile that tells everyone around us that we are HAPPY.

Christians are not allowed to get bummed out.

Christians, especially Christian ministers are definitely not allowed to sink to the cloud of discouragement.

A minister should never allow himself to get to a place of feeling down.

Right?

Sounds good doesn’t it.

But in the real world that’s a bunch of baloney.

Just ask the old Prophet of God.

One minute he’s killing off 500 false prophets, and wishing he could die the next.

You might agree with me that most preachers are emotional people.

Now some people out there are not real emotional, but most of the preachers I know are people who allow emotion to guide them.

Now that’s not a bad thing.

I’m convinced that the Lord has a hard time using people who are hard to move emotionally.

This is why he anointed David to be king when he was only a boy.

God said of David, “He’s after my heart”.

Other words, he’s a person who is able to touch me with his emotion.

Without emotion, David would be led of his own ideas and agenda.

But, since he was a person whose heart could be touched, God said, “I’ll use him in ways he never imagined he could be used.”

Emotion is a good thing.

We need to be emotional!

God is emotional.

Look what the scriptures tell us about him.

• He gets angry.

• He gets jealous.

• He laughs.

• He’s emotional!

We, being created in his image are allowed the same privilege of being emotional.

Am I making my point?

It’s ok to be happy.

It’s ok to be sad.

It’s ok to be joyous.

It’s ok to get mad, even angry.

And for all of you who answered yes to my questions in the first paragraph, it’s ok to be totally discouraged.

It’s ok to feel overwhelmed.

And it’s ok to feel like you are trapped and boxed in with no way to get out of feeling completely bummed out.

Did you hear me?

It’s OK to feel the way you feel right now.

Anyone who says he/she has never felt the way you feel right now is a liar.

Examine the scriptures and you will find heroes of the faith who from time to time were depressed, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, dismal, disheartened, despondent, downcast, dismayed, dejected, doleful, disillusioned and disappointed.