Thank you very much.
Thank you.
OK, brethren, welcome to church tonight.
Hope you're ready to sing praises to the Lord.
If you are, take your hymnals
and turn to hymn number 459.
459.
And we can begin by singing
fairest Lord Jesus, 459.
When you have found it, can you please stand?
459,
fairest Lord Jesus.
OK, let's sing it up.
They will
I honour
Thou my soul's
glory, joy
and
crown.
There are
the meadows
fairest
silver
woodlands
roamed
heather blooming
garb
of
spring.
Jesus
is fairer
Jesus
is purer
who makes
the woeful heart
to
sing.
Fairer
is the
sunshine,
fairer silver
moonlight
and
forward twinkling
starry
host.
Jesus
shines
brighter.
Jesus
shines purer
than all
the angels
can, can
boast.
Beautiful
Saviour
Lord
of all the
nations,
Son of
God
and Son
of man.
Glory
and honour
praise
and
admiration
now and forevermore
be thine.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father
Lord we just appreciate that we
can be in your house tonight. Lord
we're singing about our fairest Lord Jesus.
Lord what a Saviour he is. Lord
we just come to praise him, to honour him.
Lord it's great to have fellowship.
It's great to learn from your word
but most of all we just want to fuel your presence here
tonight. Lord I pray your Holy Spirit will work
in our hearts and teach us great truth from your word.
And Lord may we put a smile on
your face Lord with our praise and worship.
Lord help us to have our hearts right towards you.
We love you because you first loved us. We pray this
in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.
Alright.
Hymn number 332 please.
332.
Channels only.
Channels only
blessed Master. Amen.
332.
32.
How I praise
thee precious Saviour
that by love
who laid hold of me
thou hast saved
and cleansed and healed me
that I might
thy channel be.
Channels only
blessed Master
but with all
thy wondrous power
flowing through us
thou canst use us
every day
and every hour
empty
that thou shouldst
fill me
a clean vessel
in thy hand
with no cloud
but as thou givest
graciously
with its command
channels only
blessed Master
but with all
thy wondrous power
flowing through us
thou canst use us
every day
and every hour
witness
in thy power to
save me
setting free from self
and sin
thou who bought us
to possess me
in thy fullness
come in
channels only
blessed Master
but with all
thy wondrous power
flowing through us
thou canst use us
every day
and every hour
Jesus fill now
with my Spirit
pass that full
surrender known
that the strings
of living water
from our inner
man may flow
channels only
blessed Master
but with all
thy wondrous power
flowing through us
thou canst use us
every day
and every hour
alright, so we have
some technical difficulties, is that right?
cameras down
alright, so for our online listeners, cameras down
you know that already, hopefully the audio is working
should be working
alright, well if there's no video
you guys can still hear anyway, so that's the key thing
alright, let's do another hymn
let's turn to hymn number 356
356
356, I must tell Jesus
356
I must tell Jesus
all of my trials
I cannot bear
these burdens
alone
in my distress
He
kindly will help me
He ever
loves
and He
loves me
and He
loves me
He ever
loves and cares for His
own
I must tell Jesus
I cannot
bear my
burdens alone
I must tell
Jesus
I must tell Jesus
Jesus can help
me
Jesus alone
I must tell Jesus
all of my
troubles
He is a kind
compassionate friend
if I
but ask Him
He will deliver
make of my
troubles
quickly and end
I must tell Jesus
I cannot
bear my
burdens alone
I must tell
Jesus
I must tell Jesus
Jesus can help
me
Jesus alone
tempted and tried
I need a great
Savior
One who can help
my burdens to bear
I must tell
Jesus
I must tell Jesus
He all my cares
and sorrows
will share
I must tell Jesus
I cannot
bear my
burdens alone
I must tell Jesus
I must tell
Jesus
Jesus can help me
Jesus alone
Oh how the world
too He will
out lose me
Oh how my heart
is tempted to sin
I must tell
Jesus
and He will help me
Oh how the world
for victory
to win
I must tell Jesus
I cannot bear
my burdens
alone
I must tell Jesus
I must tell
Jesus
Jesus can help me
Jesus alone
Ok great singing
please take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 3
Colossians chapter 3
Colossians 3
Thank you brother
Thank you
Colossians chapter 3 starting in verse 1
If ye then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are
above where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead and your life is hid
with Christ in God. When Christ
who is our life shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Modify therefore your members which are upon
the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness
which is idolatry.
For which things sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience,
in the which ye also walked some time
when ye lived in them. But now ye put
off all these, anger,
wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth.
Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man and his deeds,
and have put on the new man which is
renewed in the knowledge after the image
of him that created him. Where there is
neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free, but Christ is all and
in all. Put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,
forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a
quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave
you, so also do ye.
And above all these things, put on
charity which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your
hearts, to the which also
ye accord in one body, and be
thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever you do
in word or in deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all
things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children
to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleases, but
in singleness of heart, fearing God.
And whatsoever ye do, do it hardly
as to the Lord, and not unto men,
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward
of the inheritance, for ye serve the
Lord Christ. But
he that doeth wrong shall receive
the wrong which he hath done, and there is no
respect of persons. So let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us to
church this afternoon. We pray that you'll
fill Pastor Kevin with the Holy Spirit
as he preaches to us, and help him edify this
congregation, Lord, and preach with boldness and
power. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.
I appreciate that, brother.
Um, so we are continuing the
Perfect Man series, and if you
look at Colossians 3 verse 2, it says,
Set your affection, when you think of the word
affection, you know, what other words could you use?
Your feelings, your emotions,
yeah, your affection, your feelings, your emotions.
Set your affections on things
above, not on things
on the earth. The title for the
sermon today is, Learn to Control
Your Emotions. Learn
to control your emotions.
In fact, if we drop down to verse number 5,
we see that there are certain things that
our flesh does that we need to overcome,
because it says in verse number 5,
Modify therefore your members which are
upon the earth, this is our members talking
about our fleshly desires,
and it gives us a list of things,
fornication, uncleanness, but I want you
to notice the next word, inordinate
affection, evil
concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry,
but inordinate affection.
You know what the word affection means? Very easy, right?
Affection is your feelings, your emotions, so on,
but what is an inordinate affection?
Think about that word, what is an inordinate
affection?
Well, think of the word,
it's got in, that's got
the prefix, then you've got inordinate. So,
when you've got the in area, it's kind of like a
negative prefix, okay?
And then you've got inordinate, where you kind of,
that's order, that's something that is orderly, right?
Something that is orderly, so if something is
an inordinate affection, what are we talking about?
We're talking about a disorderly,
or an emotion, an affection,
that is not in order, okay?
It is not in its proper place as it is, right?
And so, when we talk about an inordinate affection,
you know, this is something that is
affections that are large,
that are not contained,
emotions that are excessive,
emotions that are unrestrained.
As I said to you, the title for the sermon
tonight is, learn to control
your emotions.
Now, the first thing I want you to understand
is that emotions are not sins
in of themselves.
The reason we have emotions is because
God is a God of emotions.
How many times do we hear about God being
grieved, or God's anger,
or God's love, you know, God's
loving kindness and mercies.
You know, we often think about how God has his
emotions, and when he created us,
he's given us these emotions,
but we can use our emotions
in a wrong way. We can use our
affections, our emotions, our feelings
in an inordinate way, and we need to
make sure that our emotions are under control.
I've often
had it said,
especially by my wife, she says to me,
I don't know why, but, you know, she says to me,
Kevin, you don't have emotions, like you
lack emotions. And I think partly
because, you know, usually ladies are a little bit more
emotional than men, it's not that I don't have
emotions, of course everybody has emotions,
it's just that
when I'm upset, I'm not necessarily
showing it unless I'm excessively upset.
Or if I'm happy, I'm not necessarily
showing it unless I'm excessively
happy. Like, if I'm kind of
partly happy, partly upset, you're not necessarily
going to see that on my face, unless it's
on the extreme side of things.
But the thing is, I've actually
learnt how to control my emotions.
And I'll give you the reasons why as we go through
this sermon, in what way did I learn to control my
emotions, but then I found out later, this is actually
a biblical principle, that we should not be
people that just always wear
our emotions on our sleeves, like people say that,
right? You always just, you know, they wear their
emotions on their sleeve. We need to learn how to
make sure that when we feel emotions, they're
in the right way. And, you know,
that we understand that not all
emotions are sinful, but only
if we apply them in sinful ways,
can they become sinful. Let me just give you a
quick definition, a dictionary
definition of the word
emotion. And it says
it's an effective state of
consciousness in which
joy, sorrow, fear,
hate, or the like
is experienced
as distinguished, now this part is important,
pay attention, as distinguished
from cognitive
and volitional states of
consciousness. What this
is saying is that we can
have these emotions, they can
be either cognitive, or they can
be volitional. You say, what does that mean,
pastor? Let me just give you an example.
Volitional, what's the definition
of a volitional emotion? Basically,
you do something or you
respond out of emotion
because you want to.
It's your preference, you're acting
upon your own will.
You might decide, I feel like
eating something for dinner today, you've got
your various restaurant, various options,
and you say, you know what, I just feel like a kebab
at Al Medina, and you're
just going by those feelings that you have,
that's where I want to go, that's
your will.
And so it's you expressing your emotion
through your own personal
preferences. And then you
have your cognitive side
of things, and obviously many of you
probably know that word cognitive, but it's got to do with your intellect.
It's got to do with your intellect.
And that's basically deciding on things
based on reasoning,
based on logic, based on
what you've learnt, based on your experience.
And so, for example,
you might be dating a girl, you
want to impress her, and you feel like
Al Medina kebab, but you know that's not going to
impress her. You want to take it to
a romantic place, where there's a candlelit
dinner, it's going to be expensive,
you know that, man, I just want
a kebab, but your reasoning
says, no, no, I want to impress her, she's not going to be impressed eating
in front of Fairfield train station.
We've got to
go to a place with a nice view, and so you're using
your cognitive
to take action
on what you're feeling.
So those are two elements that you need to understand
that make up your
emotions, or your state of
consciousness.
Let me give you a list of emotions that you might experience.
Happiness,
depression,
feeling inadequate,
when you think about others, you think, I'm
nobody, I feel inadequate to others.
Fear, confusion,
hurts, anger,
loneliness, remorse, these are all
feelings, some of them are positive,
some of them might be negative,
slanted.
There's nothing wrong, there's nothing sinful
about emotions in of themselves.
You're there in Colossians 3,
look at verse number 6, drop down to verse number 6.
As I said to you, God
has emotions, and in verse number 6 it says
for which thing's sake
the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience?
So does God have emotions?
He's got wrath. What's wrath?
Extreme anger.
Now would you say God's extreme
anger is a sin?
Would you say God is a sinner because he has extreme anger?
Because he has wrath? Of course not.
So is anger a sin?
No. But how many churches will teach you
that anger is a sin?
Because they don't understand the Bible.
And anger is just an emotion.
Now look, if you get angry at the things
God gets angry about, do you think that's righteous?
Absolutely.
But if you get angry at the things that God
is not angry about, is that righteous?
No.
So you need to understand your emotions in of themselves
but how you apply their emotion
can be wrong.
If you are angry at the things that God is angry about
that is righteous and that is good.
If we keep going,
drop down to verse number 8.
It says, talking about our flesh
and the carnal things on this earth,
but now you also, look at this,
I want you to notice this.
Put off all these.
So this is what God wants us to get rid of our lives.
Anger, wrath.
God wants us to get rid of anger
and wrath.
But we just saw in verse number 6 that God has wrath.
So God, if you have wrath, why do you want us to get rid of wrath?
Because again, it's not the emotion
in of themselves
that is the problem.
It's how you apply the emotion.
And it keeps going.
Malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth.
And so what we see here
is that God has given us emotions
and boy, if you have anger and wrath,
if it's just a fleshly, carnal
wrath and anger
that comes out of your pride,
comes out of someone hurting your feelings
which is just minor in the sight of the Lord,
then of course it's wrong to feel that way.
You know,
if God hates something,
it's right for you to hate what God hates.
If God loves something,
it's right for you to love
what God loves.
And it's the same thing,
if God hates something,
what is something that God hates?
Someone give me something.
A lying tongue.
You know, but we love a lying tongue.
Are we right with God if we love a lying tongue?
If we love to tell lies and to deceive people,
would we be right with the Lord?
No, we should hate a lying tongue.
Okay, what does God love?
What does God love?
Anyone want to give me an...
The church?
Let's say the church.
God loves the church.
Should we love the church?
Are we expressing our emotions in the wrong way?
Absolutely.
And so it's always making sure that we line up
with what God wants.
Drop down to verse number 12.
These are things that we need to put on in our lives.
If you have any quarrels tonight
with our brother or sister in the Lord,
then forgive them, because Christ has forgiven you.
Look at verse number 14.
Charity is another way of saying love.
Love is above all these things.
We often associate love with feelings,
and in some ways it is,
in some ways it isn't.
Because if you say,
look, I'm only going to love
when I have those butterfly feelings
in my stomach,
and I'm getting a little bit, you know,
excited about this person's presence,
well, you know what, there are going to be times
when you're not excited about that person's presence.
Right? I met somebody,
I don't want to marry them,
I love this individual.
Well, you know what, in the 20, 30, 40, 50 years
of marriage, there are going to be days
that you don't feel like loving your spouse.
But your command is to love her anyway.
Because it's not based solely on your emotions,
so it's also cognitive,
you know what God says,
husbands who love their wives,
it doesn't matter when you feel like loving her,
you need to love her, and really,
love is not just an emotion, love is action.
You know, what you're showing to the other person.
That is what love is.
When you demonstrate kindness,
and appreciation,
and you do kind things toward others,
you are demonstrating that love.
But notice how verse number 14 ended,
when we put on charity, which is the bond
of perfectness.
We're going through our perfect man series.
You know what, if we want to be perfect,
the characteristic
that should stand out above all things
in our lives is charity.
And that's going to bring union,
okay, in our church.
That's going to help solve our conflicts and problems.
Or when those conflicts arise,
you know, a quick resolution
to those problems.
As long as we put on charity.
So, I'm looking not only
for a perfect man, not only do I
want you guys to mature and grow
and become well-rounded as Christians,
but I also want our church to be well-rounded.
Okay, we must put on charity.
It'll bring unity
into our church. Drop down to verse
number 18.
Wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands, as
it is fit in the Lord.
And the wives might say, well, I don't feel like submitting
myself to you. Well, again, it's not
just an evolution necessarily, okay.
This is a cognitive response.
You know, maybe your husband isn't the perfect husband.
Welcome to the real world.
So, I'm not a perfect husband.
I don't know any man who would say I'm the perfect husband.
Okay, but the instruction, what God is asking
of wives, wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands, as it is
fit in the Lord.
This is what the Lord wants. This is fit in the Lord.
Okay, we're talking about here
having ordinate affections,
not inordinate affections.
Guys, if you turn around and say, you know what?
My husband's got failings. I'm not going to submit to him.
Well, now your affections,
your emotions are out of order.
God is asking you to be
submissive to your own husbands.
I don't care if it's 2023.
This is the word of God. This is what he teaches us.
And of course, this is primarily a cognitive
decision. It's not always, I
feel like obeying my husband.
Even when you're out in the world, do you always feel like
obeying your boss?
You don't always feel like obeying your boss.
The boss says, because at the end of the day,
he's the one that's going to pay your
wage.
And the ladies are like, oh man, that's a hard thing
to ask pastor. Well, look at verse number 19.
Husbands, love your wives,
and be not bitter against them.
Husbands, love your wives.
You might not always feel like loving your wife.
But you know what we learn here? Be not bitter against them.
Again, why would God say these words in his word?
Why would he say that?
Because it's easy for husbands to become bitter
against their wives.
That's why it's there.
Because sometimes your wife may not go along
exactly with what you want in life.
She may not always be submissive
towards you.
But you know what, even if your wife is not submissive
to your husbands, you still love her, and you don't
get bitter against her.
This is a commandment from the Lord.
You love her, you instruct her, and we know that
husbands are the head of the wife as Christ is
the head of the church.
And did we obey the Lord first?
Or did the Lord give his life toward us
first?
The Lord gave his life toward us.
Given us everlasting life, and then in that
process, having Christ as our leader
are we able to then submit ourselves
and follow after him?
Really the onus when it comes to a relationship
is that the husbands will take charge in this area.
And again, it's not always
I feel like doing this, I don't feel like doing that.
It doesn't matter. You've got the instruction of the Lord.
The best thing for you, husbands, is to
love your wives and not grow bitter
against them.
In verse 21, fathers provoke not your children
to anger, lest they be
discouraged.
Again, learning how to control our emotions.
You know, when you have children
and they disobey
it's going to really
ruffle your feathers.
You know what, if you're not prepared. If you don't learn
to control your emotions, it's going to really
ruffle your feathers. I'm not saying
they should never get angry at your children.
You know, if your children disobey
they don't do what mum and dad asks.
You know what, it's perfectly normal for you to get angry.
The reason God has given us
emotions is that we can learn
or cause a response
cause a reaction, that we will do
something out of that reaction.
And what God's instruction is
when it comes to a disobedient child
is to chastise that child.
Is to take that rod of correction
or take that belt if you have to
and apply some swift punishment on their backside.
But look, when you
apply that on your
children, you don't want to be doing
it out of anger. You don't want to be doing it
emotionally. Again, you want to be
cognitive. You want to make sure that
what you're doing is reasonable
with what they've committed.
You have control over your emotions
because if you take that rod, you take that belt
and you've lost control of your emotions
you can do some major damage
as you correct your children.
But see,
fathers, we can provide our children to anger.
I've done that.
I've done that. I've
you know, responded in a way
to my children that has caused them to
get angry and lest they be discouraged
I'm sure I've done that.
I know I've done that. And I'm sure there are
times my children say, yeah dad, you've done it other times. They don't realize.
Okay, cause
these things are in the Bible so we learn.
Okay, to control our
emotions and understand
our emotional outbursts have an
effect on the people that we love the most.
Drop down to verse number 22.
Servants obey in all things your masters.
Again, do we always feel like obeying our masters?
Do we always feel like obeying our employers?
Who does?
Okay, obey all things your masters
according to the flesh. Not with
eye services, men pleasers, but in
singleness of heart, fearing
God. Is fear an emotion?
Yes. Fear is emotion.
Is it right to
fear God? Absolutely.
All things that we do, we ought to
fear God. We ought to be mindful
about what God is thinking of us
as we go about living our lives.
When we make decisions, Lord, are you
happy with this decision?
Or Lord, are you not happy with this decision?
We should fear the Lord.
But can fear be a sin?
Yeah, if we fear man.
If we fear the devil.
If we fear things that are contrary to the Lord.
Yeah, that is a sin.
But we're commanded to fear the Lord.
You see, fear, again, in of itself
is an emotion, but it is not
sinful as long as you are fearing
God. But if you fear man
above God, now you've committed a sin.
And so what I'm trying to show you
here, just by some examples,
is that emotions,
you can't get rid of them. God has programmed
them into you. Okay, you can't
shut them off completely.
In fact, you can't shut them off.
You know what? I don't care what
anybody says. I don't care how
stoic someone can look on the outside.
Alright? If someone says
something nasty towards you, it's going to have
some effect. It's going to cause some
emotional reaction within.
It's just that the person that is most
stoic has learnt to not allow that
to show out on the outward.
But they still feel it on the inward, to some
extent. Okay? But what we're
here to do, what we're here to
learn is to control our emotions
and understand that not
emotions in of themselves are not
sinful as long as we apply
them in the right way, in the way that
God wants us to apply those
emotions.
Come with me to Proverbs 15.
Come with me to Proverbs 15, please.
Proverbs 15.
You can move away from Colossians 3.
Brother Matthew's got a sermon lined up
on Colossians 3. Sorry, brother.
I've taken all the best verses.
Proverbs 15, please.
Proverbs 15, verse number 18.
Just want to give you some other examples here.
Proverbs 15, 18.
It says,
You know, a man that's constantly in strife,
the Bible tells us, is basically
a wrathful man. He's always
angry, very quickly offended.
You know, always getting upset, always
rubbing people the wrong way.
A wrathful man, stirs up strife.
But then it says this,
So if we look at verse number 18,
which one of these two should we be?
Should we be known as
a wrathful man, or should we be
someone that is slow to anger?
The second one. Obviously, slow
to anger. Now if you turn around and say,
well, anger is a sin, then
this doesn't make any sense. Because God
is asking us to be slow
to anger. You know what that means?
That means when something
bothers you,
you don't just fly off your handle.
You don't just lose control.
You don't have a temper tantrum.
Okay? Yeah, you consider
what's taking place.
And you're making sure
that as you express anger,
you can say, this is something
that God does want me to get angry about.
But you know what? I'm not going to
lose my temper. I'm going to be in control
and I'm going to be slow
to anger. You're controlling your anger.
You guys know, I'm sure there are times
that you've gotten so angry,
you've just had this outburst and you're like, where did that
come from? It's because you haven't got
control of your emotions. See,
God wants us to have control. Slow
to anger, a piece of strife.
Come with me to
Proverbs 27. Proverbs
27, verse number 19.
Proverbs
27, verse number 19.
This one's
a bit of a cryptic verse,
but I like the meaning behind it.
It says, as in water,
face answerth to
face. So let's stop there for a moment.
So if you look at water,
it's saying here that the reflection of the water is going to show
your face, like a mirror. Okay?
So you can see yourself through the waters.
Alright. Then it says,
so the heart of man
to man.
The Bible's saying here that a man
can know another man by
their heart. And of course, many times
in the Bible, the heart represents
that seed of emotions. You see,
if you're someone that does not
control your emotions, you're easily
upset. You're easily angry.
You know, you're easily having those temper
tantrums. Or you know, you're
demonstrating love to the things that God hates
and you know, you hate the things that God
loves. Or you know, you're not demonstrating
the slow to anger. Well, you're going to show
other men that you
fail in this area. You're going to show other people
that you have a failing in controlling
your emotions.
So the heart of man
to man, how you express
your emotions demonstrates
to another man whether you have control
of your emotions or whether you don't.
And
I'm sure,
I'm sure there are at least some of us that can
say tonight, I need to learn
how to control my emotions. I need to
stop just having outbursts.
I need to be slow to anger.
I need to think about if these feelings
are correct. Does this line up with God's
word? Am I just responding out of
my fleshly desires?
Or is it what God wants?
Come with me to another proverb. Proverbs 25
verse number 28.
Proverbs 25 verse number 28.
Proverbs 25, 28 basically
tells us why it's so important that we control our
emotions. The Bible
says in verse number 28,
the spirit, the spirit here is just referring
to again, just your seed of emotions.
He that hath no rule over his
own spirit is like
a city that is broken
down and without walls.
You know what? If you
have no rule, if you have no control
over yourself and over your
emotions, you're like a city
that is broken down and without
walls. What does the Bible say?
It says, look, if the city
represents your life, okay, if the city
is broken down, then this represents that your life
is broken down. If you can't control your
emotions, you're going to cause
your family to be broken.
Okay? You're going to cause your finances
to be broken because you'll be making
stupid decisions based on emotions
and not thinking reasonably
about whether you should be doing that or not.
Your reputation will be broken
and your productivity on the job will be
broken. I know this.
You know, I've hired so many
people over my life
and there are people that come to work
and they bring their emotions from a home
and, you know, let me just
give you one word of advice.
Learn to separate work from
your house life. Okay? There's a
stress that you have at work. When you come
home and you enter the house
to your wife and to your children,
don't bring up all, don't
allow all the stress of work
to enter into your home.
I've done it. I've done it where I've been so
stressed at work. You know, working
12 hours, 14 hours at work
thinking, oh man, like we're just not
getting ahead at work. We're falling
behind. I'm getting frustrated
at the job. I might be
getting frustrated at employees and I
come home and, you know, I should be
at peace with my family
and because I'm stressed and worried, just
one little outburst by the kids.
Just one little inconvenience at home
and I can just have an outburst.
And then I'm like, where did that come from?
You know, my family didn't deserve that. My wife didn't
deserve that. My kids didn't deserve that.
Oh, it's all the way back from work.
I've brought it with me.
You see, when you're highly
emotional, even on the job, your
productivity will drop. Okay, because
you're going to be stressed and worried
rather than thinking, okay, what do we
need to accomplish? What's the best way? How can
we be most effective? How can we be the most
productive? How can we get this job done?
How do we prioritize? All of
that requires a logical
thinking mind, okay.
Thinking cognitively,
alright, then just running
off your emotions, otherwise you'll be
a poor employee.
So the city, so a man that has not
ruled over his own spirit is like a city that's broken down,
not only broken down and without
walls. So in the times
of the Bible, if you had a city without walls,
what was the point of the walls
in the time of these cities in the
Bible?
Yeah, protection. So, you know, if you've got no walls,
you've got no strength, you've got no
defence. You've got no defence
over your own life. You know,
you'll easily, you know, if the walls
represent your defence, you know,
you'll easily cave into sins.
You know, you won't be able to fight the
temptations in your life because you're so
downcast in your emotions. When the temptations
come, you're so easily given to your
sins. Again, those
walls protected you from the enemy.
You know, you'll be influenced by the wicked world.
You'll find yourself becoming more
worldly. You'll find yourself
not loving God's word
and God's holiness as much as you
used to and you'll be drawn away into
that wicked world. Because
not only is the city broken down, but
so are the walls of protection.
So this is why it's so important that you
learn how to have control of your
emotions. Control of your
spirit.
Come with me to, um,
come with me to
Psalm 23, please. Come with me to
Psalm 23.
Let me give you some other
reasons to control your emotions.
Psalm 23.
I'll quickly read to you from Ephesians 4-30.
But the first reason why,
or the other reason why you should control your emotions
is because you can grieve God.
This is what, um,
this is the part of
being a Christian that I don't like.
I'll be honest with you.
Now I love being saved, don't
get me wrong. I love being a child of God.
But
Ephesians 4-30 says
and grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God
whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption.
The Bible tells us here basically that
we're saved and we often associate salvation
you know, the salvation of the soul
and that is true. And we associate
salvation with being born again so we have a
a new living spirit within us.
But we don't often
associate then our flesh
because we know it's our
kind of like this enemy, it's this
carnal enemy with the new man that we have within you
but we also need to understand that when we were
saved, God also
purchased our body.
Okay? And we know that we sin
in our body. And look, when
you, we're talking about emotions here,
when you're not expressing emotions
in the right way, you know, if you're not
controlling your body in the right way
you know, if you're not, you know,
loving how, the things that God loves
and you're not hating the things that God hates
you're going to grieve the Lord God
you're going to grieve the Holy Spirit
because the Holy Spirit
lives within each one of us.
And this is the part of being a Christian
that I don't like
because I know every time I make a mistake
every time I sin
every time I have an emotional
outburst that is not aligned with God's
will, I am grieving
my Lord.
And I just have a hard time thinking
that I can grieve my Lord every time
I disobey, every time I do
things contrary to His will, every time
I have some emotional outburst
that is not what God wants for me
I'm grieving my Lord God.
I don't know if that bothers you, but that bothers me
I don't like it. I don't like thinking about it.
But we have to think about it because
you know, we can't just
think that, oh, are we going to sin
to the day we die, so why try?
Why bother? Well, here's why you should bother
is because by continuing
you're going to just grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
I want to grieve Him less
than grieve Him more.
You know, every day that I live a Christian life
if the Holy Spirit is empowering me
to grow and mature
then in return I want to be able to grieve
my Lord less than I have in the past.
You're there in
Psalm 23.
I told you why I decided to control
my emotions. This actually comes back
this wasn't even a biblical thing. This wasn't a biblical
reason when I decided this.
I was a teenager.
And I used
to get really bothered. Because like, you know
if you go to school, is everyone going to
treat you well? No.
You know, I mean, bullies run rampant.
Not that I was really ever bullied. I can't
turn around. I hear stories of other people being
bullied and I'm like, okay, I didn't really experience
that. But you know, if you put
any kid amongst other kids
you know,
there's going to be a negative experience.
Like, people don't like you.
Just because they don't like how you look.
Or they don't like how you speak.
Or they don't like what you like.
And school for me is such an immature place
to be. Because it's kind of like you develop
friendships based on your interests.
You base friendships on
the music you listen to. You might base your
friendships on the sports that you like.
But it's never anything of real
quality. Like, of that individual
person, right? And
so, you know, people can mock you and
tease you. And I used to get so
frustrated. I remember just sometimes getting so
annoyed by what someone said and my face
would just turn bright red. You know, beetroot
red and my ears would turn red.
And I just, why would they say
that about me? Or why would they treat me
like this? But then
what I observed by
getting angry and by having some type of
reaction, I learnt that I'm
satisfying
I'm satisfying them. Like I'm giving
them something that they want.
They want to bother me.
And then I realised, hold on.
I don't want to be rude in return. Because I was already
a Christian. I know that I should not revile
when I'm reviled and all that kind of stuff, right?
I know that I'm to do good to my enemies.
You know, I really knew what the Bible taught on these
things. So I just said, you know what? I'm going to learn
how to not give them satisfaction.
If they mock me, if they tease me,
I'm just going to just
it's going to bother me on the inside.
Yeah? I'm going to get angry on the
inside, I'm going to get sad on the inside
but on the outside I'm just going to smile.
On the outside I'm just going to go
ha ha ha, you're right about that.
I am an idiot.
Or whatever, right?
Because I'm not going to give them the satisfaction.
And I'll get to the
Bible verse soon but
then I found out, when you start doing that
guess what happens?
They become your, they stop bothering you.
Because they're not getting the reaction.
They want it. They go bully someone
else. Not that that's a good thing but
at least they're off your back.
But I realised, oh, they're not getting the satisfaction.
You know, I'm kind of like laughing with them
about myself. That's a good thing.
You learn how to grow thick skin as well. I think growing
thick skin is a good thing to do. But you don't
show them satisfaction. And when you
learn to control your emotions
you learn to not satisfy
your enemies. And look at Psalm
23 verse 4 please.
It's a very famous psalm of course.
And I love this.
This is my favourite part in Psalm 23.
He goes, the psalmist says
Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death.
He's not having a good time.
He's having a miserable time at the moment.
He goes, I will fear no evil
for thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.
David's going through a hard time here.
It's a time of darkness.
Shadow of death.
He's got enemies against him.
But then verse 5 just comes out of nowhere.
Like verse 5 when you read Psalm 23
it just seems to come out of nowhere.
He goes, thou preparest a table
before me in the presence
of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil.
My cup runneth over.
Do you think this would bother
David's enemies?
When David's enemies are trying to hurt him.
When they're trying to overcome his kingdom.
When they're trying to tear David down
and when they look at David, all they see
is David rejoicing
with a full table before him.
David with the blessings of the Lord coming
upon him. His cup runneth over.
Of course that's going to bother the enemies.
They're not getting the response they want.
And so I thought,
you know what? I want that with my life.
You know what?
I get nasty phone calls
about myself
or even about the soul winners that went out there.
Just recently I had someone call
or no, actually they messaged me going,
some old man tried
to break into a locked door of our house
and there were four girls sleeping
in the room. This is not okay.
And I got this message, I just wrote back,
some old man was trying to break into your house, you should
contact the police.
I'm not going to, look if the guy's soul
winners just knocking the door trying to find out someone's
home, I don't know who the old man was.
I'm not going to, you know what?
But here's the thing, you don't satisfy, contact the
police. I said hey, if it involves
the church, someone's breaking into your house,
we'll happily
address
or happily
answer any questions that the police might
have. You know what? You don't give them
any satisfaction. You know when you're doing
what is right and what is good,
you're rejoicing the Lord, don't
give your enemies satisfaction
by you losing your temper, by you
losing control of your emotions.
Just wait for the blessings
of the Lord to fall upon you.
Come with me to Psalm 35, verse number 19.
Psalm 35, verse number
19.
Psalm 35, verse
number 19.
It says,
Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me.
Do you think the Psalmist was
feeling similar to how I was when I was a teenager?
You know, when
I'd be bothered by the words they'd say,
and I'd respond
and I'd get angry or I'd get upset.
You know what? Those people were
rejoicing when they would see that
reaction. The Psalmist says, Let not them
that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice
over me, neither let them wink
with the eye that hate me without a cause.
Because Lord,
don't let them be satisfied
by their attacks
toward me.
And brethren, I found by controlling your emotions, that's one
great way to not allow your
enemies to be satisfied
by their actions toward you.
Come with me to Ephesians, chapter 4.
Ephesians, chapter 4, verse number
26.
Ephesians, chapter 4,
verse number 26.
Another reason why you need to learn to control your
emotions is that it hurts
relationships.
It damages relationships.
And you know, the greatest relationship
that God has given you is your marriage,
if you're married today.
And the Bible says in Ephesians 4, 26,
Be ye
angry.
Again,
is anger a sin?
No, because the Bible says, Be
ye angry.
God is commanding you to be angry.
Be ye angry, but notice the next words.
And sin not.
You see, again,
the anger in of itself is not the sin.
Okay, but how you apply
the anger can be sinful or can be righteous.
You know, in this scenario, it must be a righteous
reason to be angry. Be ye angry
and sin not. Then it says these words,
Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. And then verse number
27 follows, Neither give
place to the devil.
Remember, this is where you need to control your
emotions. You know, when you're married,
you're not always going to have a perfect
day together. There are going to be times
that you're going to get angry one
toward another. It can be verbal,
it can be non-verbal. It can just
be ignoring one another.
You know, it can just be not fulfilling
certain requirements or your roles
that you need to fulfill one
toward another. But when that happens
and you get angry toward your spouse,
hey, go and make peace, the Bible
says here, before the sun goes down.
While the sun is still up,
go and make peace.
Go and say sorry if you're in the wrong.
Go and apologize. Go and talk about
the matter before the sun goes down.
Don't let that anger just
simmer, you know, for an
extra day. Because by doing that,
you give place to the devil.
You allow the devil to come
and take control of your emotions
and cause damage in that marriage relationship.
But it's not just marriage, it's all
our relationships. Any times you
have a conflict, you know,
sort it out quickly.
Right? You have a disagreement.
Look, not so much a disagreement. We can have
this all the time. But you know, you get hot and bothered
and you might offend one another.
You might sin against another because of some disagreement.
Look, just sort it out
as soon as possible.
Ideally, like the Bible says, before the sun goes
down upon your wrath. Because now
you're going to give place to the devil.
You're going to allow the devil to come in and
utilize your emotions that are inadequate,
inordinate, okay?
And use it to further damage
those relationships, then bring peace
between the two of you.
Come with me to
2 Corinthians chapter 6.
Now,
if you don't know already,
in my opinion,
when we look at the epistles of the churches,
the Corinthian church
by far, in my opinion,
is the worst of all the churches
that you read about. They are a mess.
They are a mess.
And I'm just, look,
if I was in the Corinthian church,
I think I would have left a long time ago.
But look,
it just shows us
the mercy of God. And sometimes
when we give up on a church,
the Lord has not.
The Corinthian church, if you read 1 Corinthians,
the apostle Paul writes them,
he says they're babes,
he says they're carnals, they're men
worshippers. Like, one is of Paul,
one's of Apollos, one's of Cephas.
You know, they've got
their favorite preachers,
and they have their cliques,
and they have the disagreements,
and they've got the false prophets
that have crept into the churches, false brethren.
I mean, the church is just, it's a
horrible mess. And when you read
1 Corinthians, it is a sharp
rebuke from Paul to all the
church. Very sharp.
And what we read when we get to
2 Corinthians, I think
it's in chapter 2, I won't go to it right now,
I think it's in chapter 2, that he says, you know,
my first letter that I wrote to you made you
sorry. Like, the church was so
cast down and depressed
that they had received such a sharp
rebuke from the apostle
Paul when we get to 2 Corinthians.
And even so, that some
within the church are starting to hate
Paul, you know, for coming in
and trying to rebuke them, you know, pointing out
their issues, you know, and they're starting to
dislike Paul, even though Paul is the one
that got them saved, even though Paul is the one
that started this church, there are some within the
church that are starting to despise Paul for
his correction that came in 1 Corinthians.
And so when we get to 2 Corinthians
chapter 6, verse 11,
I want you to notice
the right emotional
response
when there's tension. Because there's
tension right now between the Corinthian church and
Paul. Okay? Paul wants to
visit them, he can't visit them, he's caught up,
he's writing a second letter, he says
in verse 11,
O ye Corinthians, our mouth
is open unto you,
our heart is enlarged.
He says, look, my mouth
is open towards you, look, I've been
very critical about
your actions, you know, I'm trying to correct
you, but then he says, our heart
is enlarged. He says, look, my heart
towards you, Corinthian church, is large.
Like, the reason
I've wrote that letter to begin with is
because I love you so much, and I love you
more now than I have before.
You see, even with all the
rebuke and the chastening that came from
Paul, you must understand that it came
from a loving heart towards the
church.
Then he says in verse number 12,
ye are not straightened
in us,
but ye are straightened
by your own bowels.
What does the word straighten there mean?
S-T-R-A-I-T, straight.
Straight means narrow,
right? So he says, look,
ye are not straightened
in us, so in us,
our emotions towards you are not
narrow, right? He says he's got an open
heart, it's not a closed
narrow heart, or narrow emotions
that he has towards the church.
He goes, not in us, but then he says, but ye,
so you, Corinthians, are straightened
in your own bowels.
You know, you don't love us
the way that you ought to, you know, you're
holding these
these,
this is a grudge against us
for writing the first letter.
Then he says in verse number 13,
now for a recompense in the same,
I speak as unto my
children, be ye also
enlarged.
Be ye also enlarged. Stop being straightened
toward us. Stop restricting
your love and
emotions. Stop being angry toward us.
Stop being hostile toward us.
He says, look, as little children, enlarge your
heart toward us.
Brethren, what we learn here
is that when there's tension,
you know, when there's conflict between
brother and brother, or there's conflict
between pastor and his church,
brethren, we need to learn how to open
our hearts. That is not the right
time to close ourselves down.
It is not the right time to have a narrow
minded feelings
toward one another. You know what, if there's
conflicts between our brothers or our sisters,
if anything, we should learn to
love one another even more so,
so we can have the peace of God between
us, so we can have the forgiveness between
us, so we can learn and fix
the things that are causing the tension.
So the right emotion
when there's tension,
or there's conflict,
is stop hating your brother,
stop hating your sister.
Stop, just put aside,
you know, learn to control
your emotions, put aside
all your pride and all the things.
Look, if someone says something to you
and it offends you, please stop
for a moment and consider, have they
said that out of love?
Do they mean well? Are they really trying to
attack me? And you'll find
more often than not, especially when it comes to God's
people, they're not trying to attack you.
Like, maybe
their tone was not the best. Maybe
the way they communicated was not the best.
Maybe they don't even know how to communicate.
Maybe they've got concerns and they
don't want you to misrepresent what they wanted to say
towards you, but they've made the
effort to love you enough to share
the concern, the worry, or the
criticism they might have towards you.
You need to learn that this is a person that
has opened their heart toward me
and I need to, in response, have an open
heart toward them.
I know what it's like. Sometimes
you share things with people. I guess
I experience it a lot more as a pastor.
Where, you know, someone asks me a question
and I give them the response and they get upset
with me. It's like, why are you upset with
me? You asked the question.
Like,
I'm giving you the answer even though
I know it's not the answer you want to hear,
but it's the answer because I love
you and you need to love me
in response for giving you the answer
you did not want to hear. Isn't that why
you asked in the first place? Because you knew
it might not be what you wanted to hear.
So brethren,
in conclusion,
let me give you some tips
to get better control of your emotions.
Just in light of everything that we've covered
today. First tip number one
is know your Bible better.
Know
God's word better.
You need to learn
to know what God hates.
You need to learn to know what
God gets angry about.
And then you,
when you have those emotions, you can
check whether my emotions are
lining up with what God feels.
And if they don't line up with what
God feels, then it's just my
flesh and I know that I'm in the wrong.
But if it's aligned with what God
feels, and what God wants,
then I'm in the right.
And it doesn't matter if someone says to me,
you shouldn't feel that way, as long as
it's lined up with God's word, you are
in the right. But you only know
that if you know the Bible.
This is why
people don't know what emotions are.
People say hate is a sin.
Anger is a sin. You hear that preach behind the pulpit.
Why do you hear that?
Because the pastors haven't read the
Bible. The pastors have not read
the passages where God gets angry
or where God has asked us
be angry and sin not.
They've not read the passages where
God hates the wicked.
They've not read the passages where it says that
God is angry with the wicked every day.
They've not read it. They've only
read a few passages of the New Testament.
They don't know what the Bible contains.
And so they tell you false things.
So don't depend
on the preacher. You need to
spend time in God's word. God,
how do you feel about this?
How do you feel about that? How do you feel
about fornication? How do you feel about
adultery? How do you feel about the lying
tongue, Lord? Because what you feel about,
that's how I want to feel about it, Lord.
Lord, what do you love?
I want to love what you love.
Lord, if you're willing to have
those feelings toward
these things, then I want to be able to love
those things as well.
Lord, you love lost souls?
Lord, you know, you sent Jesus
to die for a sinful world,
then if I have the right emotions and I
love lost souls as well, that's going to
drive me to go soul-willing and give someone
the gospel.
But if you never give anybody the gospel,
you're just demonstrating that your emotions
are not in control. You don't love what God
loves!
Know the Bible to understand
what the right emotions are.
Come with me to Psalm 127.
Psalm 127.
Point number two is a lot easier.
I was doing some research on this
when I was preparing this sermon a while ago,
and one reason people
lose control of their emotions,
believe it or not, is due to
a lack of sleep.
You know, especially in the big cities,
it is like a rat race here
living in Sydney.
And there's always something urgent,
there's always something to do.
And many times, people would give up on their sleep.
Instead of getting a good seven,
eight hours of sleep, they'll lose
on sleep in order to complete whatever
tasks they have to do.
And they think, well, I'm getting these extra hours.
But by not getting enough sleep,
you're not allowing your body to rest,
where you have the ability and the strength
to control your emotions.
You'll find the more, the lack of sleep
that you, the more sleep you,
the more lack of sleep you have,
the harder it's going to be
for you to control your emotions.
There is a direct correlation.
And if you look at Psalm 127, verse number one,
Psalm 127, verse number one,
it says,
except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it,
except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain.
Verse number one is there for a reason
to tell you that unless
the Lord is doing it, it's vanity.
Okay? You don't have to always
stress about everything in this world.
You need to leave things in
the hands of the Lord.
If you're worried about something, take it in
prayer to the Lord and leave it to him
to build your house. But then it
says in verse number two,
it's vain for you to rise up early,
to sit up late,
and eat the bread of sorrows.
It says,
look at this, for so he giveth
his beloved sleep.
Are you the
beloved of God? God gives you
sleep. God says, look, it's vain
for you. Why do you wake up so early?
And why do you go to bed so... In other words,
you're not sleeping enough.
You're not getting enough hours of sleep.
And the reason you're doing that is to eat
the bread of sorrows. That's another emotion, right?
Oh, woe is me.
Oh, the world is falling apart.
Oh, it's all disaster moving forward.
Oh, the economy is about to collapse.
What are we going to do with our lives?
All that stress and worry
and then you can't sleep.
Because you've not left it to God.
See, he gives his
beloved sleep. God knows
that you need a good seven, eight hours.
Look, unless you're some exception to the
rule. I know that some people are able to
function five, six hours of sleep or something like that.
I don't know. But most people need at least
seven or eight hours. Look, if you want
to learn to control your emotions, this one's
an easy one. Go to sleep early enough.
Get your hours. Rest
your body. Let your body heal.
And when you have the strength,
you'll find when you're having those emotional
responses, you'll be in a better position
to take care of those emotions.
The other one that I
want you to notice here. Come with me to Ecclesiastes 3.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3.
This is something that I've learnt
more recently in my life.
But the third point
that I have for you is give space
for grief and mourning.
Give space
for grief and mourning.
There are going to be times
that you're going to have times of grief.
There are going to be times that you have to mourn.
If I ever lost
my wife. If I ever lost
my parents. They passed away.
Don't you think I'm going to be grieved?
Don't you think I'm going to need a time of
mourning? It's
a shock to the system.
And the Lord knows that
we need time to grieve.
I'm not talking about just passing away. There can be other things
that can cause grief.
And look at verse number 1.
Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1.
And a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Drop down to verse number 4.
A time to weep.
And a time to laugh.
A time to mourn.
And a time to dance.
So in everything
there's a season for everything.
God has given us a time and a season for everything.
A time to weep.
A time to mourn.
Look if you're going for a period of
grief and mourning
give yourself time to get that.
To prevent that.
To take that to the Lord.
Give yourself time.
You've just lost your loved one.
You don't need to be rejoicing.
God wants me to be rejoicing every single day.
That's not realistic.
If you don't give yourself time to grieve and to mourn
when something serious happens
then you're going to have
times of outburst
because you've not allowed yourself
that natural process that God has given you.
And if there's someone in our church
going through grief.
If there's someone in our church that's weeping
because they've experienced some hard times
the Bible says in Romans 12-15
Rejoice with them that do rejoice
and weep with them that weep.
Brethren if there's someone in church
having a hard time
the worst thing you can do is walk up to them
and say, hey, snap out of it.
Come on brother, get over it already.
Look, the Bible says there's a time to weep
there's a time to mourn.
And we're all different.
Some of us are going to mourn longer than others.
We might mourn differently to others.
Some people might react as they mourn and grieve
strangely.
And you go, there's something wrong?
No, nothing wrong with them.
God's given them that time to vent
and to go through this process
because we need to be able to express sometimes
even these negative emotions
that God has given us.
Because once we've had that time
to grieve and to mourn
and we can put that behind us
emotional struggles behind us
then we can move on
and live a life that is fulfilled
that God wants us to live.
So brethren, those three points that I have for you
just three points, three major points
know the Bible better
know how God wants you to feel
number two, get enough sleep
and I actually, I realise this is so important
you get enough sleep
and number three, give place to grief and mourning.
Alright.
In conclusion
when you have an emotional
response to something
I want you to start asking yourself these questions
okay, this is how
you're going to assess
whether these emotions are right.
Number one, ask yourself, what am I feeling?
Okay, figure out
what is this emotional response?
Why am I feeling this way right now?
And then, sorry, what am I feeling?
What is this emotion?
Number two, why am I feeling this way?
Why?
And to bring this emotion
in me, okay?
Then the next question should be
how should I be feeling?
Am I feeling the right way?
Am I having the right emotions in this situation?
And if you say
I'll give you an example
let's say a brother offends you
okay, and you're like, ugh, my brother offended me
said something nasty, I'm upset
I'm angry at them right now, I feel like having an outburst
maybe I should call them and have a go at them
in response
should you be feeling that way?
Like, think about for a moment
what they said to you, how they acted towards you
like if someone else came up to you
and said, hey brother, can I ask you something
someone responded this way to me
what do you think I should do?
Sometimes thinking about a situation that is not your own
can actually give you the answer that you're looking for
am I just being overly emotional here?
You know, could I be
misunderstanding what this
individual meant to say?
So, should I be feeling
this way?
And the final point on four
is what is the correct action to take?
If you say, no, these are the right emotions
I'm feeling the right way
my brother has trespassed against me
he has sinned against me
alright, what is the correct action to take?
And we know that when it comes to a brother
we have to take a one on one
okay, what else could other
corrective actions be?
For example, if I'm feeling
if a child walks into my kitchen
alright, and they pick up a knife
I'm going to
experience some level of fear
for my child, that the child might
hurt itself, is that the right feeling
to have? Of course it is
so what's the corrective action?
Take that knife from the child
you know, put some rules around the house
hey children, you're not allowed to walk into the kitchen
hey little ones, you're not allowed to
turn on the stove, hey little ones
you're not allowed to boil water
okay, because those emotions will cause you
to take some level of corrective action
and so brethren
that's the conclusion that I have for you
just once again, what am I feeling?
Why am I feeling this way?
How should I be feeling?
And if your feelings are correct
what is the correct action to take?
Brethren, the title for the sermon
was learn to control your emotions
you know, God has given us emotions
for good reasons
they're there so we would react in a certain way
but make sure that your emotions
don't line up with God's will
don't allow your emotions to damage relationships
don't let emotions give satisfaction
to your enemies
and please learn the Bible so you know
whether you're feeling the right way
okay let's pray, Heavenly Father Lord
I want to thank you for tonight once again
Lord thank you for your word, thank you for your creation
and Lord thank you for giving us the emotions
that you've given us, Lord that we can apply them
in the right manner
Lord help us to love what you love
help us to hate what you hate
and not to fear what man can do unto us
Lord help us to apply our emotions
in the right way
and Lord even if we're not feeling
like participating
Lord emotionally in a certain way
Lord if your word commands
Lord help us to operate
by our cognitive reasoning
and instruct you from your word rather than
whether we desire to feel
to do that or not Lord
Lord just help us tonight, Lord if there's anyone
that needs help in this area
please work in their hearts
Lord please don't allow their flesh to have the victory
over their spirit, Lord please
give us the ability Lord to learn from you
and to apply these things to our life
we pray these things in Jesus' name
Amen
Alright please take your hymnals now
Let's turn to hymn number 456
456
456 all your anxiety
456 come to the cross
456 each burdened hair
456 in all your anxiety
456 leave it there
456 all your anxiety
456 all your care
456 bring to the mercy
456 say leave it there
456 never a burdening
456 cannot bear
456 never a friend
456 like Jesus
456 no other friend
456 so keen to help you
456 no other friend
456 so quick to hear
456 no other place
456 to live your burden
456 no other one to hear
456 your prayer
456 all your anxiety
456 all your care
456 bring to the mercy
456 say leave it there
456 never a burdening
456 cannot bear
456 never a friend
456 like Jesus
456 come then at once
456 delay no longer
456 heed his entreaty
456 kind and sweet
456 you need not fear
456 a disappointment
456 you shall find peace at the mercy
456 all your anxiety
456 all your care
456 bring to the mercy
456 say leave it there
456 never a burdening
456 cannot bear
456 never a friend
456 like Jesus
456 all your pain
Thank you all