Emotions are Real
The Emotions of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning everyone…I trust you are all doing fantastic this morning! You all have your wake up juice and you are all settled in after a great time of worshiping through song and through giving and prayer, as well as a time making a commitment to those families who are dedicating their kiddos to the Lord. Now our kids are gonna get to go worship in their class as they learn in a way that makes sense to them. So right now lets have our kids hop up and head on out to their class giving a fist bump to the safety team on your way way out. Now remember though, if you come find me after church and tell me about what you learned, then I will have a treat for you guys, so be sure to come find me after church this morning kiddos. Of course we want to welcome those of you joining us online as well. Thank you for being a part of our extended spiritual family today.
Hey everyone, we have finally moved into the Christmas season around here, it is so great to come in and be reminded why we are here, ya know. Instead of going and shopping and getting credit card bills for all of the shopping that we just did, we get to be reminded of and focus on why we are here in the first place. You know, there are so many emotions that come along with the holiday’s to isn’t there? I mean so many of us are dealing with some amazing joys around the holidays, yet others are dealing with some sorrow. Some folks are dealing with laughter, while some are fighting off anger for various reasons. There are just so many emotions that pop up around the holidays and it seems like around Thanksgiving and Christmas we can’t get away from them the way we can hide from them the rest of the year, right? I mean, we feel the rest of the year, but many times we can just pretend those emotions aren’t there…but around these holiday’s it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore your emotions doesn’t it…But what if that wasn’t a bad thing? I mean, what if God didn’t create us to pretend our emotions didn’t exist, but to use our emotions to worship him? What if God gave us emotions to both worship him and draw us towards him and we have a choice to make with every emotion we feel? What if our emotions were never meant to be a focus of our life, but act as a temperature gage of our heart?
Listen, the reality is that I don’t have all the answers, but I know the guy who does…so let’s just look to his word to help us understand how we can manage our emotions in a way that is pleasing to Him. Remember…that is our goal as believers…we desire to live a life pleasing to the Lord, Amen…So, how can we live a life pleasing to the Lord while managing our emotions that many times seem to rule our lives, especially over the holidays.
Today we are starting a brand new series called
The Emotions of Christmas...
The Emotions of Christmas...
Of course we aren’t going to deal with every single emotion that exists, but we are going to look at the primary emotions that seem to pop up in the Christmas story. We will do this by looking at the various people that make up the Christmas story and the emotions that they battled during the advent. Of course in order to do that we are going to be looking at the story multiple times from multiple perspectives, much like we did a few years ago, however, we are going to be really focused in on how they managed their emotions, or really how they didn’t manage their emotions and maybe what a few of them could have done differently to be pleasing to the Lord.
Now today is a very busy day, and so I want to just break the ice for us in thinking about emotions from a Godly perspective. So, let’s think about what are emotions…Let’s get a definition together that we can work with, ok…So when I look up emotions in scholarly dictionaries, and I look up emotions in Theological dictionaries, I find very similar language. So, I would like to suggest the following definition for us to use as we go through this study. When we think about emotions, I want us to think about subjective feelings, that can be either positive or negative, and subject to change.
So as we are thinking about emotions we should begin to really think about how we respond to various emotions and various stimuli. See, few years ago I did a study on James 4 where I asked a very important question over and over again. I asked this question because I wanted for us to understand why we get into arguments and have temper tantrums sometimes. Here’s the question I asked…Why do you do what you do? …(because you want what you want)… Our actions show us what is in our hearts…Well, our emotions can be a bit of a thermometer to understand your hearts so that you can bring our hearts back into alignment with God’s purposes. Am I holding onto something that God has already taken from me? Is there some grief that I am holding onto that is not allowing me to fully realize God’s goodness because I am still reeling in sadness? Is there some sin in my life that has caused me such guilt that I have not been able to let go of allowing God to heal my heart? So then the question that we should ask is Why am I feeling the way I am feeling? See that is really important thing to think about and realize. When we start to realize deep down why we are feeling the way we are feeling that is leading to the actions that we are doing then we can bring those actions and emotions in line with God’s standards and not our own. I love what June Hunt said as she wrote about Biblica decision making,
God gave us emotions, but He never intended emotions to be our “decision makers.
June Hunt
You see, Our emotions are not meant to control, but to be controlled. The problem is that, our emotions, much like our minds and bodies, have been influenced by the fall of man into sin. In other words, our emotions are infected by our sin nature, and that is why they need to be controlled. You see, we read throughout Scripture that we are to live by the Spirit, not our emotions. Now…here’s the cool part…When we recognize that we are being controlled by our emotions, even just a little bit, then we can repent and take that to the Lord and allow him to do his work of healing in our hearts and emotions. Sometimes, that may mean that God may totally relieve that emotion by comforting us and reassuring us that he is stronger than this emotion. Other times that may mean that God leads us to forgive someone or even ask another for forgiveness. The Psalms area such an amazing place to looks for to understand how to manage emotions. Let’s look at one together this morning.
Psalm 61:1–8 (ESV)
Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him! So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day.
You see, in this Psalm we can feel the emotion of David, but we can also see how David took his emotion and mastered it, turning his helplessness into strength by taking it all to the Lord. See…that is how we master our emotions instead of having our emotions master us...Allowing our emotions to master us is not godly. Denying or vilifying our emotions is also not godly. We should thank God for our ability to feel emotion and steward our emotions as a gift from God. Remember we talked about stewardship over the last month. Well, your emotions are simply one more resource that God has placed into your care.
Now, the way to manage our emotions is to grow in our walk with the Lord. This is something we have been talking about constantly over the last year…I’m gonna ask if anyone here knows the number one way to grow in your relationship with the Lord? Does anyone have any idea about how to grow in your walk with the Lord? (read your Bible)…Yes, read your Bible…how often…like once or twice a year? Once or twice a month…how often is often enough? (Every…Single…Day). Let’s look at another passage here real quick this morning. I would like to reflect on this passage because it specifically speaks to this idea of growing in our walk with the Lord.
Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
How do you think you renew you mind? Yeah…Reading Scripture. If you desire any hope to master your emotions…then this is where to start…and folks, if your emotions are mastering you, then maybe you need to reach out and ask for a little one on one advice on how to get your emotions back under control. Because do you know what happens when your emotions are controlling you? Well…their not just controlling you, their controlling your walking with the Lord, their controlling your marriage, your kids, your family, your work, your friends…when your emotions are controlling you, then your emotions are controlling everything…and leaving nothing for the Lord...and I know if you are here today…that is not your goal. SO over the course of the next few weeks we are going to look at some of these emotions and how various advent characters dealt with their emotions and maybe how we can deal with these same emotions today from a Biblical perspective...
Now, I want to give you some tools this morning as we move into the Christmas season. I have three questions based on this passage in Romans to ensure that your emotions are in line with a Godly response, and not a sinful response…So, here we go:
1. Am I presenting myself as a living sacrifice?
In line with Romans 12:1, consider whether your emotional response reflects a surrender of yourself as a living sacrifice to God. Are your emotions in harmony with a life dedicated to Him?
2. Is my mind being renewed by God's Word today?
Reflect on whether your emotions are shaped by the renewal of your mind through God's Word, like we read in Romans 12:2. Are your thoughts and reactions in line with the transformative power of Scripture?
3. Am I discerning God's will in this response?
In accordance with Romans 12:2, reflect on whether your emotional reaction involves discerning God's will. Are you seeking His guidance and aligning your response with what you believe He desires for you in this situation?
Now let me encourage you to take these questions and implement them into your life as you continue to grow and wrestle with your emotions this holiday season and use your emotions to worship the Lord instead of stuffing our emotions down and trying to just survive the holidays ahead of us or allowing your emotions to control you and everyone around you this season…deal...
Let’s pray…(pray that God begins to show each of us how we are allowing our own emotions to control us instead of us leaving our emotions in the hands of God
For now we are going to have a very special time where we are going to remember why we are here at Christmas. See, every Christmas we come up and we light up the true Christmas tree and we all hang ornaments from that tree that represent our families. We have a few extra ornaments here in case you forgot an ornament or didn’t have one to bring, but you will come forward and you will take communion at the cross and hang your ornament there and then go back and sit down. After a while when everyone has a chance to walk through then the worship team will come up and they will close us out with one final song for us to worship together.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.