Feelings

Have you ever considered just how wonderful it is to have feelings? What a blessing from God is the gift of emotions? How important is the gift of feelings? Let's look at some examples. We're going to dive into the Bible today. Not every time do we read as many scriptures as we're going to read today, but today this topic is really important. This topic drives us. This gets to literally the very heart of our being, our feelings. Psalm 5 and verse 11. Psalm 5 and verse 11. But let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. So David combines trusting God with a feeling, a feeling of rejoicing. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those who love your name be joyful in you. For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous with favor. You will surround him with a shield. The way we feel is very important to God himself. God doesn't just look at how we act, but also how we feel. It's part of how he evaluates us. Philippians chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making a request with you with joy. Nehemiah chapter 12 and verse 40. The way we feel is important even to God. Nehemiah chapter 12, verse 40 through 43. So the two thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God, and likewise, I am half of the rulers with me. And the priest, Eliakim, and he lists all the people who were standing on the stage, and the singers loudly. And then in verse 43, also that day they offered great sacrifices and a great sacrifice. And the people who were standing on the stage, and then in verse 43, also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.

And listen to this, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. God made them rejoice. He caused them to have happiness, a feeling, an emotion. God isn't just concerned with our thoughts only, but also our feelings. They're an integral part of a human being, and thankfully they are.

And God gives a warning to Israel just before they were about to enter the Promised Land, from their 40-year journey in the wilderness, when those who were 20 years and older had died, and the next generation was about to cross over into the Promised Land. And God spoke to them about blessings and cursings, and He weaves emotion into His instructions. And let's pick that up in Deuteronomy 28 and verse 45. Deuteronomy 28 and verse 45, Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, and keep the commandments and statutes which He commanded you. Okay, so this is the cursing part of the blessings and cursings. He's warning them before they go in. If you obey Me, I will bless you. If you disobey Me, I will curse you. This is the cursing part. Verse 46, And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. 47, Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness in your heart, because there was no joy, no emotion when you served God. Verse 48, Have you ever noticed it before? Have you ever looked at it like that before? That it's not just how you think and act, but it's also how you feel. Your feelings are part of you. God made them in you, and He expects something out of you from your feelings. 48, Therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send you against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in need of everything, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck, until He has destroyed you. And why does God do that? Because you didn't serve Him, and that's action, with joy, and that's emotion. So God expects us to worship Him, not only with our intellect, but also with our feelings. So I ask the question, why are feelings so important? Why did God give them to us?

They're so powerful. They drive us. Why? They can do so much damage. Brethren, why did God give them to us? Because feelings help us place value on life.

Feelings help us place value on life. Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about. When a child is born, intellectually the human race continues on. But that's not the value of that child, is it? We are overwhelmed with joy and a sense that we must protect and guide that child, because the emotion that we feel places high value on that child. Another example, a woman expects a husband to remember their anniversary. Why?

She wants to know how much do you value me? How much do I mean to you? What about when a loved one dies? You know, we're not cattle. It's not just a member of the herd that gets lost and the herd moves on, is it? No, we have a funeral. I mean, we were black. We cry. And we're sad for a long time. And even years later, decades later, when we think back about that person, there's a sadness inside us. Why? Because that's what gives that person value.

Without emotion, life has no value. It's just clinical. Feelings are powerful. They actually help us grow in godly character. They are an integral part of our religion towards God. They're an integral part of who we are as people. Without them, we're not people. If we control them, they develop godly character. But feelings are powerful. And if we let them control us, we could lose our very salvation. As Peter says, and we'll read this later, it will cause us to stumble. Feelings can prompt us to turn to God. And brethren, that is actually the very beginning of our Christian walk. Have you ever considered it that way? Feelings are involved in the very beginning, the very birth, of our own personal Christianity. How important is that? 2 Corinthians 7. Starting in verse 8.

2 Corinthians 7 verse 8.

For even if I made you sorry... Now, this is the second letter, or at least the second letter, that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. The first letter, he was telling people to kick this young man out, who was committing sexual immorality. And the Corinthian church was just letting it go. And so Paul really came down hard on them in 1 Corinthians. And now, the end result, 2 Corinthians.

For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. So here, again, sorrow is involved in repentance. Sorrow initiates repentance. Repentance isn't just a clinical turning away from what you did wrong, but it's also sorrow, which is an emotion, a feeling. Verse 9. Now, I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. In other words, you were made sorry, so we didn't lose you. Because, brethren, we almost lost you. You were tolerating sexual immorality, and we almost lost you. But you were sorry, and you turned. Verse 10. For godly sorrow, which is an emotion, produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but sorrow of the world produces death. And I talked about that in a sermon, and that's self-pity and blaming other people. Human sorrow actually puts the blame on somebody else, and we never change. Godly sorrow leads us to look at ourselves and repent and change. For observe this very thing, that you were sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, it spurred you on to do great things. Paul said, what spurred them on to do great things? Emotion.

What zeal, what vindication in all things you approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Wow, what a powerful thing feelings are. You know, in the Sermon on the Mount, one of the B attitudes is an emotion.

Matthew 5 and 4. In fact, I think this is the first, the very first of the B attitudes. Matthew 5 and 4. Talking about the same thing that the Apostle Paul was just explaining in great detail, Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Two emotions, two feelings, mourning and being comforted. Brethren, our feelings give us more than just a mind or raw intellect. They enable us to have what the scriptures call a heart. Without feelings, we do not have a heart. I'm not talking about the physical organ that beats in your chest. I'm talking about your motives, your innermost self, that thing that makes you, you, are your feelings. Here's some reasons why we need to feel deeply about God's love and care for us. Psalm 32, verse 11. Women tend to be in tune with their feelings. Their feelings are always at the forefront of their mind. Most of the time, always is a big word. But most of the time, they are. Men can sometimes distance themselves from emotion and either think only logically or think only with feelings. We tend to not most men tend to not like to dwell in their feelings area. We put those in a nice neat little box. We put that box on a shelf. We don't open that box until it gets opened for us, usually, and then we are out of control. And then we're only in that box, the feelings box, and logic has left us completely. Women don't tend to go through that. They tend to have both at the same time. So, you know, men, we may not have considered this as deeply. But you know what? Everybody I'm reading from today, out of these scriptures, every single quote that I read out of these scriptures were written, inspired by God, but written by a man, not by a woman. So, gentlemen, even we need this topic. We need to understand our feelings. Oh, they drive us. Oh, do they drive us. We just don't like to admit it. But feelings drive the male just as significantly as feelings drive the female.

And here is how we really need to feel deeply about God's love. Psalm 32, in verse 11, Psalm 32, in verse 11, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

To have a godly heart is to have joy inside you. Psalm 33, verses 1 through 5, Psalm 33, just the next Psalm over. Verse 1, Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. God loves to hear a good word from us. It deepens the relationship. It puts value in the relationship. Praise the Lord with the harp, make a melody with him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the Lord is right, and his word is done in truth. He loves the righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Our feelings, on the other hand, brethren, can cause us to make disastrous choices. And that's what I want to talk about today, is getting our emotions under control and in balance. How do we do that? These feelings are not to be ignored. In fact, they're commanded by God, and yet they can drive us to leave God and actually lose our salvation. How do we keep them under control and in balance? A very difficult thing for the human state of being. Very disastrous choices with our feelings. Remember Cain's anger and jealousy? Genesis 4. Let's go through it. Genesis 4. Let's start in verse 3. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel's offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. And anger came in, a feeling, an emotion. In verse 6, God tries to reason with Cain. And so the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? You have this feeling. Where's this feeling coming from, Cain? Why has your countenance fallen? And then God gives him the solution. If you do well, will it not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. You, Cain, need to control your emotions, God says. But Cain won't listen to him, and he commits murder. In verse 8, Now Cain talked to Abel his brother, and it came to pass. When they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. And then denial sets in. Another emotion. Verse 9, And then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? Don't blame me.

That's us. That's every one of us. When we get in trouble, we run and hide. Adam and Eve did the same thing. When the aid of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what did they do? They heard God in the garden. They ran and hid. Don't blame me. You didn't see anything. You can't prove a thing. And then the penalty, verse 10, And he said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, you shall no longer, it shall no longer yield its strength to you, and a fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth. And then Cain complains to God what we all complain when things go wrong. It's not fair. Oh, but it's not fair. Human sorrow, self-pity. Verse 13, And Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Yeah, well, killing Abel was greater than he could bear.

Surely you have driven me out from this day from the face of the ground, and I shall be be hidden from your face. And that is the biggest penalty of all. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen, that anyone who finds me will kill me. Emotions drove Cain to do terrible things, but it's easy for us, you know, to separate ourselves from the villains in the Bible. Yeah, but we're church-going folks, right? Those were the evil sinning people, not us. Well, what if a godly man let emotion take him away? Can that happen? Yes. Does it happen to us all the time? Hence this sermon. I'm not giving this sermon for the benefit of people who do not come to church. I'm giving this sermon for our benefit. Oh, it's easy to separate ourselves from a guy like Cain. We should not, because that is also in us. Remember King David? Oh, and I know immediately you're going to think of Bathsheba and Uri the Hittite. Oh, it started way before then. What about Nabal? Right? Okay. So here's the story. 1 Samuel, Chapter 25.

I won't take time to read the whole thing, although I could. I have it all printed out here.

So King David is on the run from King Saul. He's been anointed king of Israel, but he has not taken the throne yet. Saul isn't dead yet. Saul is still God's anointed king. But Saul is trying to kill David so that Saul's son Nathan can be king. So David and his little band of 600 men who are crack soldiers, commandos, elite commandos, and they're going around protecting the people of Israel from marauding enemies. Enemies will come into the land of Israel and steal people's food and all of their money. And so King David, being the anointed king, felt that it was his responsibility to defend the people of Israel. And in this particular episode, he was defending a rancher named Nabal, whose word essentially means fool or foolish one. And so David needs a little bit of food. He sends a couple of soldiers to Nabal's ranch and says, hey, I've been defending you for a while. You've been kept safe from your enemies. We need some food. Please send us some, you know, nuts and raisins and some sheep. And we'll be on our merry way and we'll leave you alone. And Nabal sends a report back. Who is this David who doesn't bow down to our king, King Saul, David being the rightful heir of the throne? And this guy is completely and foolishly disrespecting him. And David gets what? Angry. Oh, it's righteous indignation. How dare he speak against the anointed king of Israel? David had every right to go in and kill that man. And that's exactly what he planned to do. He took 400 of his best men and they got on their rides and they started to ride towards Nabal's ranch. He left 200 men back to guard the supplies. And he decided that he was going to kill every male in that ranch by morning. Not one male would be left alive because of his righteous indignation. Was he wrong? Do you know why he was wrong? He was wrong, but why? Because he was the anointed king of Israel. Nabal did rebel against the king. It was absolute rebellion on Nabal's part. Why was David wrong? Well, Nabal was fortunate to have a very beautiful, very wise wife named Abigail. And Abigail knew how foolish her husband was.

And she had heard that David's army was coming and was going to kill every male on the ranch. I mean, she didn't know that David had decided to kill every male, but she knew bad things were coming. So she quickly gathers her servants without telling Nabal to throw as many supplies on donkey's backs as they could. And they went ahead of her with those supplies to meet the marauding army coming down on her ranch. And she met with David eventually and talked to David and asked him not to do this great and terrible sin. And so let's pick it up in verse 18. 1 Samuel 25. Now Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep, already dressed, five sheaves of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and said to her, servants, go before me and see I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. So it was as she rode on the donkey, and she went down under the cover of the hill, and there was David and his men coming down towards her. And she met them. And verse 21. Now David said, Surely in vain I have protected all the fellow this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed out of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. May God do so and more also to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light. What an idiotic statement. And you know why? Because David didn't ask God for permission, but he took it upon himself to seek revenge. And Abigail knew this. She knew the law of God. And she knew that even though David was in the right, he was letting his emotions drive him to break God's law. And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and dismounted the donkey and fell on her face before David and bowed down to the ground. And so she fell at his feet and said, On me, my Lord, on me, let this iniquity be. And please let your maidservants speak in your ears. And hear the words of your maidservant, Please let not my Lord regard the scoundrel Nabal. Don't even give him a second thought, King David, she says. For as his name is, so he is. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord, whom you sent. Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand. So she states the violation. That is a violation against God to avenge yourself. And she clearly, humbly, calmly states to David, The Lord has prevented you from sinning. And David's emotions calm down, like hot iron goes into water and the steam is released.

And now let your enemies and those who seek to harm my Lord be as Nabal. And now, so she goes on to talk to him. And then in verse 30, it says, And now it shall come to pass, when the Lord has done my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that it this will be no grief to you, nor offense of your heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my Lord has avenged himself. Two things that David would have done that would have caused him grief the rest of his life, and she saved him by calming down his emotions, brethren, because it's our emotions that get out of control and drive us to do the most ridiculous things. You see, all of the ranch workers on Nabal's ranch would have been killed that night before the sun came up, but they didn't do anything against David. That would have been innocent blood shed. And the second violation would have been that David would have avenged himself, and God has avenged his mind. David would have been stealing from God to do that, because God did not give him permission. Abigail was very wise.

But when the Lord has dealt with my Lord, then remember your maidservant. And he did. And David said to Abigail, blessed is the Lord. This is verse 32. And David said to Abigail, Is the Lord God of Israel, who has sent you this day to me? And blessed is your advice, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to blood shed and from avenging myself with my own hand.

And later, Nabal learns of this and dies of a heart attack ten days later. And David takes beautiful, wise Abigail as his wife. And you know what? He should have stopped there. But he didn't. Abigail was plenty for him. Emotions can drive us to do stupid things. And that's the point. How do we control them so that they don't control us? They're so important. We can't disregard them. They make us who we are.

And God expects us to worship Him with us. And yet, they drive us away from Him to do stupid things. So let's go to the New Testament, and let's look at some solutions. Paul discusses how emotions can be so overwhelming, and that Satan can use them to cause our destruction. So this is even a New Testament concept.

In 2 Corinthians, again, let's go to chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, verse 1, But I determined that within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, and we're on the same topic we just talked about when we were reading 2 Corinthians before, who is He who makes you glad but the one who made you sorrowful by Me?

In other words, God wants you to be happy, and He's going to make you happy. How? And I wrote this very thing to you, lest when I come to you that I should have sorrow over those whom you've... Let's skip down to verse 5, because we're running out of time. But if anyone, verse 5, has caused grief, He has not grieved Me, but all of you, to some extent, not to be too severe.

This punishment which was afflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man. In other words, don't be too hard on the guy you kicked out. Don't be too severe, because his emotions are important. So that, on the contrary, you ought rather forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love to him, for to this end I also wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you be obedient in all things.

And Paul gives the key to controlling emotions. Obedience in all things. The key to controlling emotions is actually outside of your emotions. Something other than emotions controls the emotions. And you know what it is? Obedience. Not reasoning, not feeling obedience. Verse 10, Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive.

For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes and the presence of Christ. Why? Verse 11, lest Satan should take advantage of us. Satan uses those emotions. If you have a sore, he sticks salt in it. Right? He wants to drive us away from God. One of the quickest ways he does that is with our feelings. For we are not ignorant of his devices.

Satan can take advantage of our negative emotions Let's go back to the first letter that Paul wrote. The one that he's referring to. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. Let's jump in the middle of it. Let's go to chapter 7 and verse 1. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Satan can take advantage of our negative emotions. He capitalizes on them. He makes a profit out of our emotions. 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, chapter 7 and verse 1. Now, concerning the things of which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

Now, this is what they were saying. Their solution was, well, nobody should touch anybody, even though God made the relationship between a husband and a wife.

The Corinthians came up with a conclusion. Well, then the solution is nobody touch anybody. We'll just be clinical, non-feeling, no emotion. We'll just be stoic. That's the solution. That's not human. It's not possible. Paul continues. They say, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, Paul says, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. Paul's instruction was, no, the solution is to get married, as God said to, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, and let each man have his wife and each wife has her husband. Let each husband render to his wife the affection to her and likewise also the wife to her husband. What's Paul saying there? Make love to each other. Have good emotions towards each other. So many husbands and wives bicker and fight. It's just what husbands and wives tend to do. And then the husband gets bitter. I'm not going to touch her. You knucklehead!

Reach your hand out and touch her, even if you're fighting. Do not be bitter towards her. Give her emotion, feelings, and wives. Well, I'm just not in the mood. He makes me angry.

Touch him. Do not let Satan take advantage of you, even in a fight. Make love. Let her rip, tater chip.

That's the solution. It's obedience.

The wife does not have authority over her body and the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except with consent for a time that they may give yourself to fasting and prayer and come together again. Why? So Satan doesn't tempt you because of lack of self-control. Paul recognizes emotions are powerful, like Benjamin Franklin said. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don't try to cure the problem. Present the problem, even if you're bickering with each other constantly for years.

Put down your swords and your knives and make love. Have good emotions. Remember why you love each other. Sorry to be so blunt, brethren. I know there's preschool kids in the room. The best thing you could give your children, the best thing you could give those children, is a happy marriage. Emotion can lead us to do the dumbest things.

Make sure you are making love to your spouse regularly. Discouragement can also lead to bitterness. That's a big deal, especially in the wintertime. You know what? We don't get a lot of sunlight. We get a little bit more tired. We get a little bit more cranky, a little bit more stressed in the wintertime. Discouragement can set in at all times of the year, though, and Satan can use discouragement to make us bitter. Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12.

Satan is good at this game, and we need to be good at it, too. We, in fact, need to be better, and God will help us do it. Hebrews 12. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Oh, trials can beat against you, like Mr. Stetter talked about in the sermonette, and you can get so discouraged, so down, and then you just get, what, angry and bitter. Why me? I'm gnashing your teeth. Right?

Verse 4. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed. Paul here slaps us across the cheek. Hey, get out of it! You are crucified on a cross. You are beat with a cat of nine tails, with a crown of thorns put in your head, spat upon and then beat, and then put on a cross and bled to death. You're still breathing. Paul gives us a little slap in the face there, and it's needed. We needed it. When we get discouraged, we need someone to shake us and go, hey!

You're not dead yet! Get up and move! That's what Paul is saying. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. Get up and move, man! Move, woman! And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. You've forgotten God's affection, his emotion towards you. And all you see is the bad going on all around you, and what everybody has done to you. And you forgot! God loves you!

And you don't need anything more than that, because that will yield something awesome in the future and right now.

Speaks to you as sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. Chasening means a spanking. It doesn't mean pointing the finger and scolding. That's what rebuke means. Chasening is a whooping, and life gives us plenty of those.

Verse 6, For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges everyone whom he receives. In other words, yeah, you're going through a hard time, but God's just making you better, because he loves you, because he has affection for you.

Verse 9, Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of the spirits and live? And that's the solution to controlling our emotions, is being in subjection to God, obeying God. The key to controlling emotions has nothing to do with emotions. It has to do with simply saying, God rules my life. And no matter how I feel, this is what I will do.

Verse 15, Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest a root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by this many become defiled. Yes, we do. We let our feelings get out of control, and it literally takes us away from God. Feelings are important. You know, they help us value what's important in life. They give us a heart, literally, not just a cold clinical intellect, but they're so powerful that they can bring us down quick, just as quick as they lift us up. Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28, We are commanded to control our emotions and not let them control us. Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 28, Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. And in ancient times, walls were like what our military is today with our radar and our missiles and our early warning defense system. If any enemy approaches, we launch an attack and destroy. Back in the day, they simply put up a high wall, and any enemy who approached had to put a ladder up on that wall and lose more than half of his men trying to get up over that wall. And a lot of times they couldn't even get up. But if that city didn't have a wall, all was lost. An invading army would come in, and everything that you had, including your life, would be gone, and they would take it away. You are defenseless, and if you can't control your emotions, you are defenseless to life. Life will take everything that you have, because you can't control that one thing that makes you you and me, me, our feelings. We either control them or they control us. It's a matter of choice. And that's the way I like to put it. It's a matter of choice. Our emotions are what we choose. We like to think we can't help our feelings. We like to think that we have nothing to do with them, when in fact, our feelings are a matter of our choice. And I'm going to give you an example of that in just a minute, where there was an ancient king who thought his feelings were excuse enough for him to do anything he wanted to do. And God held him accountable and removed him as king, because he led with his feelings instead of with obedience. Because God judges us on our feelings, based on how we obey.

Choice. Choice is how we control our emotion. In all the examples we looked at in the past, the people made choices. Their feelings greatly impacted those choices. Feelings can both be a blessing and a curse. How? It depends on the choices that we make, based on those feelings. Oh, great! That puts all the responsibility on us. Yep. Yes, it does. Yeah, it does. It doesn't make it easy. I know, I know. Not for me either. I'm in this game too, called life. But it's our responsibility, how we choose to feel. Do we choose to obey? Do we choose to disobey and try somehow to come in the back door and say, oh, it was my feelings that made me do it. King Saul. Let's look at him. Because that was his argument. It's not my fault. It was my feelings. He can't blame me. You have to blame my emotions.

God says, I made you. I made those emotions. Of course, I blame you. God knows how this whole thing works. 1 Samuel chapter 15.

I don't have time to read the whole thing, so I'll just tell you the story.

Samuel goes to Saul and tells Saul that he needs to go and wipe out the Amalekites and not leave anything. He's to destroy everything in their city and leave no one alive, man, woman, and child. This society was so heinous, so absolutely depraved, that God was going to set an example. They were, in a similar sense to like Sodom and Gomorrah, I remember being the assistant to a professor at Ambassador College, and talking about how depraved these people were with their child sacrifices, which I will not describe, but very similar to the United States that we live in today, very similar to our society today. What they did, God absolutely hated and destroyed. But King Saul listened to the people and respected the people and feared the people, and it was a popularity contest with Saul. He would play the popularity thing with God, and he would play the popularity thing with the people, and the people wanted to keep the wealth. So there were all these sheep coming back out of the burnt city. They even left the king alive, because Saul probably didn't want himself to be killed one day if he was in battle. So he let all the other nations know, I'm not going to kill the king. Oh, I killed all the people, but I left the king alive. So if you ever take me, I'm hedging my bets. You'll leave me alive, too. And then Samuel came to him and told him, you know, what have you done? And he said, well, the people, well, the people. I feared them. And he quoted his emotion. I feared the people. I had a feeling inside me, and that feeling made me do it. And God said, you didn't fear the Lord. Samuel said, you didn't fear the Lord, and therefore you will lose your entire kingdom, and your neighbor will take it. And then in verse 19, Samuel once again gives the solution to controlling our emotions. In verse 19, it says, Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Brethren, that is how we control our emotions. We make the choice to obey. No matter how we feel, we have a responsibility to make a choice. And God holds us responsible for that choice, no matter how we feel.

It's the test of character. It's the on-the-job training that Mr. Seder was talking about. The 70% of our job is controlling our emotions and making choices to obey, whether we feel like doing it or not. And the end result is joy. The end result of that is joy, which is an emotion. Amazingly, obedience controls emotion.

Verse 19, Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission. So he said, Well, I mostly did it. I mostly obeyed. Is that what God's looking for from you and me? To mostly obey. I'd gone on the mission that the Lord sent me to bring back. I brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and I've utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took up the plunder and the sheep and the oxen the best, which they should have been utterly destroyed, the sacrifice to the Lord on Gilgal. Yeah, but we disobeyed for a good reason.

We are going to sacrifice to God. Verse 22, Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight and burnt offering and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry. How does that apply to us today? How does that apply to us today? That obedience is better than sacrifice. Well, to them, sacrifice was a payment.

Sacrifice was a payment. So what he's saying is, don't try to buy your way out of it. Change your heart. Obedience is better than halfway obeying, and then coming back to God and saying, oh, I repent and I tithe and I will do this service for you. I will stack chairs in church, and I will continue to disobey. God doesn't want you to stack chairs and pay tithes only. Would you need the chair stacked once in a while? That's not going to get you in the kingdom of God. That's not what he's looking for. If you earn more money and pay more tithes, God owns it all anyway. You can't buy your way out of this. You literally have to turn your heart. Obedience over sacrifice.

And then Saul said to Samuel in verse 24, I have sinned and transgressed the commandment of the Lord your words, because I feared an emotion. The people and obeyed their voice. Brethren, controlling emotion is a matter of choice. And Saul made a wrong choice. And instead of like King David just repenting, he tried to negotiate his way out of it and buy his way out of it.

But you know what happens, brethren, when we make good choices and we obey? We develop something in us that's what God wants all along. It's what God is all about. His character, character, being developed in us. And you know what? Without those emotions that are so powerful that drive us, we could not build character. Without them, we would not be the children of God. So they are critical to our very being, because when we have emotions and when we're driven by those emotions and we learn to make right choices, no matter what those emotions are telling us, we develop God's character. And that's what he's looking for all along. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, let's go to verse 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 9. Developing character is all about making choices with our emotions. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 9, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field and you are God's building. God's doing something with you. You're a work in progress, Paul says. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. There's no other choice to make but to follow Jesus Christ. Verse 12. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold and silver and precious stones and wood and hay and straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved. What's Paul talking about? Work hard and if you do it right, you'll be rewarded. And if you do it wrong, you'll suffer the penalty. But in the end, you will be saved. Because what God's doing here in life is building character in us. And emotions play a big role in the development of that character. Verse 16, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God by making bad choices, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. We are personally responsible, brethren, for making good choices. And when we do, we're being built up like a temple, like a building. Our character is growing.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. In other words, when you pray to God, don't pretend to be so smart. Pray as though you have something to learn. You have more to grow. You have more to become. When you approach your Father in heaven, approach him humbly. Not as though you are wise. Verse 19, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God, for it is written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise. They are futile. You cannot thank God. We cannot thank God, brethren. And we know that. Paul is simply reminding us, Therefore, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours. We have to make right choices. Choose to be humbled before God. Obey his commands.

How? By making right choices, no matter what you feel. To become the person that God wants you and me to become. Building on the foundation of Jesus Christ, who obeyed God to his own death.

We need to make that level of commitment to God. Don't let your feelings or the feelings of other people pull you off the path, but finish the journey that you've started by simply every day and every moment of every day, making right choices. It's how you control your emotions. And that leads to God the character. And God will help you and build it in you. You can't do it on your own. It does require his spirit. But my point today is, we have a part to play. It's not all just, oh, God will do it for me. We have choice in the matter. And Peter lays that on our shoulders squarely. And that's where I want to leave it today. 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, verses 2 through 13. Talking about building character and laying the responsibility of choice squarely on the individual's shoulders.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by the glory and virtue. Glory means absolute, splendid beauty. And virtue is right moral character. And that's what God thinks of the righteous. You are absolutely precious to him.

Verse 4, By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises. Why would God give precious promises to you and me if we weren't precious to him? 2 Peter 1, That though these you may be partakers in the divine nature, his very character, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through what? Lust. What is lust? Desire. It's feelings. We can escape wrong feelings, Peter says. And have God's very nature built in us.

Verse 5, But also for this very reason, we have a job to do. Listen to this.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence. Add to your faith virtue. And virtue knowledge. And knowledge self-control. Control those emotions. To self-control perseverance. Hang in there. Keep moving. And to perseverance, godliness. Now, godliness means respect or piety towards God. In other words, you put God's word above your own opinion. That's godliness. I want to do it this way. I've always done it this way. You know what? But God says to do it the other way. Godliness is saying, I will do it God's way. I respect God's way over my own. Simple definition of godliness. It's respecting God. Okay? A lot of people think godliness is, I don't know, obedience. It has to do with an emotion inside you. That you feel God is above you. To godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. In other words, this process leads to you and I becoming so mature that we are literally willing to put our life down that somebody else might live, especially spiritually. You know, guys relate to that. I'll take the bullet. I'll be the one that sacrifices my life. It's so much more than that. It's laying down your life every day, giving up your time, the things that you want to do, that you want to see, that you want to experience, that someone else might live, especially spiritually speaking. That we don't become people that just feel for ourselves, but we live literally for other people also. The ultimate goal is godly love. Verse 8, for if these things are yours and abound in you, you will neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. Peter is talking to people who are already converted, already have God's Holy Spirit, and he's warning them to be diligent. It's not enough to just have been in the church for a long time. We have work to do until our head hits the pillow and we breathe our last. Therefore, verse 10, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if we do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you and abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And then Peter goes on to say why he's reminding the church of this. For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. It doesn't matter how long we've been in the church, brethren. We need to review this topic over and over and over again. Peter says, I will never stop reminding you. Control yourself and grow in godly character. And take those emotions and obey God anyway, and in that you will grow in godly character and your emotions will become joyful. Verse 13, yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you. Peter said, if I'm a hundred years old and still able to preach, I'm going to give you the same message that I'm giving you today. Our ultimate goal, brethren, is godly character. And God places a huge emphasis on that character. You know, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, a list of three big character traits of faith, hope, and love, and yet the greatest of these is godly love. And without emotion, which places value on everything, without it, it's just intellect.

And when we have those emotions, we are pulled in all different directions, and we are forced to make choices. And we can let the emotion choose and follow our lust, or we can let God choose, and we can decide to follow Him instead. And when we do, God will mold us and shape us until we become what He is, love. For God is love. And can you say that about you? Can I look in the mirror and say, Rod is love? Well, not yet. And brethren, we all have a long way to go to grow in character. But the way to grow in character is to acknowledge our feelings, that we have them, that they're important to us. God created them. In fact, God expects us to worship Him with them. And yet He places a big burden on us, a burden that we are to control them. So brethren, as we go through this winter, let's control our emotions. Let's not judge each other, which is easy to do when the days get short and the nights get long and we get cranky. We tend to start little squabbles with each other. Let's make better choices this winter. Let us control our emotions, make good choices, and grow in that loving, godly character.