Resources
Controlling Your Emotions
This sermon is concerned with sinful emotions and how to control them.
$6.00 — $12.00
We’ve been speaking now for a few weeks about what it means to have an extreme spiritual makeover. It’s a 5-week series, and we’re in week number 4. In this series we have operated from a thematic verse over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse number 23 of which I want to read this morning. Are you ready to read it? “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify,” that means set you apart, completely, not just part of you but all of you. Jesus wants to sanctify all of you. Everybody got that? “…and may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Notice the emphasis. God says I want you to set apart your what? Your spirit, soul, and body. And it’s to be found blameless, holy, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the only way that can happen is that you’re in the process of right now being saved. Not only have you been saved, but you’re being saved, and one day you will ultimately be saved. Being saved is what we call sanctification. You’ve been justified, set free from your sin; sanctified, in the process of being saved from your sin; one day you’ll be glorified, saved from the ultimate penalty of your sin. Amen.
Now with this we started talking in week number 1 about the importance of caring for your body. That was an interesting week. We got some interesting response. I heard some folks didn’t necessarily like the message; thought it was a little too personal. Well, wear it if you need to wear it; if you don’t, shuck it. Caring for your body.
Message number 2: controlling your soul. Well, in that whole series of controlling your soul, we talked about the importance of controlling your mind. The biggest enemy you have beyond the enemy himself is your mind. What you think about, you become. You act what you think about. That’s why the country is degenerate because we think about degenerate things too much.
Then we talked about controlling your will. And today we’re going to talk about the importance of controlling your emotions. Anybody here ever have a struggle with your emotions? The Bible talks about it over in Galatians chapter 5, verse 19 through verse number 26. So do you have a copy of God’s Word? Hope you’ll get it, look at it with me today, or have it memorized.
Chapter 5, verse 19. “Now the works of the flesh are obvious,” here are the works of the flesh. Listen to what he says they are. “…sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.” That pretty well covers it all. “About which I tell you in advance as I told you before that those who practice,” circle that word, “such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Verse 24, “Now those who belong to Christ, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, we,” what? Listen to it, “…we must also follow the Spirit.” Then the scripture says, “We must not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.”
Over this past year I’ve gone through a very big test in my life. I’ve gone through a very big test in my leadership. I’ve learned that people don’t like to change. I already knew it; had it reaffirmed by the thousands. I have learned what it means to pay the price to stay focused, and to not let your emotions, even though you feel like you are the constant stock market, up and down, but not letting your emotions control you. This morning, I want to talk about controlling your emotions.
How do you do that? This scripture talks about it and that’s what I want to talk about this morning. First of all, I want to challenge you to:
1. See the emotional choices before you. I want you to see the emotional choices before you. Now, what I want you to understand here about chapter 5 is that we’re going to get very detailed. We’re going to get very detailed. We’re going to get very committed to going in the Word, and we’re going to stay in the Word, and we’re going to stay deep in the Word. And I want to challenge you today if you are note-taking; you’ve got to run. I’m going to talk fast; therefore, you’ve got to listen fast. If you end up feeling lost by the end of the day, then it’s going to be your own issue. Don’t get lost.
What you’re going to find is this: when you see the emotional choices before you, the text here exponentially tells you that there are two of those choices: flesh choices, and spirit choices. In a moment I’m going to talk about those spirit choices. I’ve talked a lot this week. Ya’ll forgive me. God didn’t give me the vocal chords of a woman. Now I’m just kidding. I, oh lordy, help us now! Wow. I’m already in trouble.
In relationship to these flesh choices, you know here’s the theological reality that every one of us have to understand: the theological reality is this: you are fallen, I am a fallen man. Ever since the Garden of Eden I have been sinful by my nature, and by my choices. I am not in the process of getting better whatsoever at all apart from Jesus Christ. In fact, I continually move to a state of ultimate degeneration. And the only way in the world I have any hope in my life is that the Holy Spirit that lives in me is able to transform a little bit at a time by mind, by will, and my emotion, and my body.
Now let’s break down these emotional choices, these sinful, emotional:
(1) Flesh choices that we make. There are four here denoted in the text. Out of all that list that you see in the book of Galatians in chapter 5, verse 19 through 21, there are four that I want to denote. First of all, there are those:
1) Sinful sexual emotions that disregard God’s plan for sex. The scripture talks about it. Sinful sexual emotions that disregard God’s plan for sex. There are three that he mentions specifically underneath this section. He talks about sexual immorality. Sexual immorality. Anything God forbids related to sex is sexual immorality. The word here is the word porneia in the Greek language. It’s where we get the word for pornography. The word can mean a multiple sort of matters and things such as: adultery, pre-marital sex, incest, bestiality, prostitution, and I’m sure many, many others. God says that one of those flesh choices that people make will be the flesh choice of sexual immorality.
Then he talks about moral impurity. We live in a generation filled with moral impurity. You can’t even watch a commercial without feeling like at times you need to go take a bath. There is an uncleanness that exists that literally infiltrates our minds in 21st century America.
Then he talks about promiscuity. Promiscuity is an unrestrained sexual living that is indecent. In other words, it enjoys a shock value that it brings to the culture and to your life. It’s almost like a Romans 1 that becomes so well known that they applaud their own sinfulness. The challenge about the promiscuity in our generation today is that there are not a whole lot of things now that even shock us, said to say. It doesn’t matter what you hear, what you look at, what you read; the shock value is somewhat gone because we are now desensitized by a filthy, unclean, sexually-driven culture.
There’s a second category here in this text. And he talks about:
2) Sinful emotions that disregard God Himself. One disregards God’s plan for sex. God’s plan for sex, let me make that clear, is you to fall in love with the opposite sex, a believer in Jesus Christ if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. You get married, and then you enjoy the blessing of sexual union. That is God’s plan for sex. Now, then he talks about sinful emotions that disregard God Himself.
He mentions a couple here. First of all he talks about idolatry. Interesting insight here, idolatry is worshipping anything that replaces God being the center of your life. And I want to take that to another level. It is also worshipping anything that receives your emotions throughout your life. You know, I mean it’s really pretty sad when you come to church on Sunday sometime because many of you, you don’t have a lot to give to God emotionally because you’re so worn out from the week because you’ve made love to the culture all week long, or your life, or your situations. But yet, God wants us to be able to have one focus of our emotions: God. God.
You know one thing every one of us need to start praying before we come to church? “Lord, now this deal’s going to last about an hour and twenty minutes, and God, I just want to give you my very best, all of my emotions to you for an hour and twenty minutes.” And you know what will happen if you do that? You will walk out those doors refreshed, and renewed. Refreshed and renewed.
Then he talks about sorcery. Sorcery is the word magic. It also refers to mind-altering drugs. The word here in the original language is the word pharmakeia, which basically means our word for pharmacy. When he talks about sorcery here, he’s talking about using drugs that alter attitude or mental assent. Well we live in a culture today you’ve got an issue, take a pill. Need a lift, take a pill. Go to the doctor, take a pill. I mean think about it, I mean, we are observing all kinds of matters that maybe at times more flesh-driven than spirit-led.
Thirdly, as a section would be the:
3) Sinful emotions that disregard others. Boy in this list he gives a lot of things, and boy you need to listen quick here, because this is really challenging to each one of us here today. Those sinful emotions that disregard other people he mentions hatred in this list. What is hatred? It’s anger, mean. Have you ever met anyone that’s mean? I’ve met a few mean church members, and a few mean lost people, and I’ve met a few, met a few mean, lost church members. Some of you’ll get that tomorrow.
Next of all, hostile to others; that’s what hatred means. Then he talks about strife. Strife. What is strife? Strife is a bitter disagreement that occurs. And a bitter dissention that comes because of flesh choices.
Then he talks about jealousy. Jealousy is, is hateful resentment. Something that is spiteful. There is a lot of us that want to get back out something or someone, and in us there’s something that is polluted, and it’s resentment, and it’s spiteful! We want to spite another person.
Then he mentions an outburst of anger. That outburst of anger all of us have dealt with along the way of life. What would that be? It would be our temper. It’d be a terrible flare-up. All of you parents today that have little children that throw their fits, all right, you might think that’s cute, you might choose to ignore it at times, and perhaps there are times after you beat them half to death you need to ignore it and maybe it’ll go away, but I just want to challenge you. You better get a hold of it when they’re kids, or they’ll grow up to be 50, 60, 70, 80 years old and still act that way. Outbursts of anger.
Selfish ambitions. Selfish ambitions hurts other people because it shows that we seek ourselves and we self-seek in what we do. Then he mentions dissentions is the word. The dissentions here is they’re talking about obviously dissent, or what we would categorize as relational conflict, and we live today in an American culture that absolutely sizzles with relational conflict.
And then he talks about factions. Factions. What’s a faction? A faction’s a result of everything I just listed. Let me put another way, a faction when a me versus them mentality begins to dominate my life. Me versus them. They’re against me. They don’t like me. And all of a sudden it’s me versus them. And that happens so much of the time, especially when those conflicts begin to occur.
And then he uses the word envy. The word envy here is depriving others of what they have. In other words, somebody has something you don’t have and you’re depriving them of having it. You wish they did not have it. You wish you had it. Position. Ranking. Stuff. Whatever. And you know what happens when you look at other people like that, and you develop envy? Here’s the spirit that comes. Now I want you to get this. You develop the spirit of discontentedness. You become discontent. And I guarantee you one of the big times sins in the American church Christian’s life today is the sin of discontentedness. But God calls us to be content with what we have. Paul even told the people of God we need to be Godly with our contentment, and God will give us great gain in life.
Then notice a fourth section here. He talks about:
4) Sinful emotions that disregard yourself. So notice it. We are disregarding God’s plan for sex. Then he says there are those other elements that disregard uh, others, uh whether it’s those things that disregard uh your, your, the Lord God Himself, and then now it’s that which disregards you personally.
What are those things? Interesting. Notice what he mentions. He mentions drunkenness. Now I know that’s not really cool to mention in today’s church, but I’m telling you that’s what God’s Word says. God’s Word says it; I’m going to say it. Take it up with God. You know what drunkenness is? The scripture says it’s a lack of restraint. And what a desire is to satisfy your flesh. That’s exactly what it is. We live in a culture today that is all into that kind of activity and lifestyle, and the sad commentary, listen to me now, there’s not a whole lot of difference between the world, and the church on the state of drunkenness in the culture.
I’ve just got to do this. Amen.
And then he mentions carousing. Wow think about all those things that he could have mentioned, he mentions carousing. You know what carousings would be? Drinking parties. That’s what the word means. Drinking gatherings. Gatherings that come together all for that purpose. Hey, why don’t you come over. We’re going to you know do this or do that together. We’re having a little party together.
You see, the essence of the passage, sure got quiet, the essence of the passage is in the word practice. And that’s what I want you to notice here in the text over in that verse number 21. He said those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now what does that word practice mean? The word practice here doesn’t mean that you do it some. What it means is a pattern of your life. It means a lifestyle, and if God doesn’t correct you, and get you right in those areas, then it indicates that, that you are unregenerate, meaning that you have never been born-again, and changed by God Himself. That’s what the scripture means. I mean folks listen; I just have to be faithful to the Word. Okay? Take it up with God. I’m just the delivery boy today. That’s all I am. And I really want to encourage you this morning to understand that one of the real issues in today’s church is that we have a lot of unregenerate church members. They’ve never been saved. They’ve walked down the aisle. They’ve uttered a word, group of words called a sinner’s prayer, and they’ve left and their lives have never really been altered by the power of the gospel. Listen to me; if the power of the gospel has not altered your life, you’ve never experienced the power of the gospel. The power of gospel forgives sin, changes lives.
Then he talks about these:
(2) Spirit emotions. We talked about those flesh emotions; let’s talk
about those spirit emotions. Verse 22 and 23. The Holy Spirit is the only one able to create in you, and through you this Christ-followership, this life that is committed to character, this life that is committed to self-control. And you know what? You can imagine, I mean, I could have talked for hours about that list. I could have gone down for several weeks on that list before, but I didn’t. Maybe I need to one day, huh?
But the opposite of all that you find in verse 22 and 23. See you don’t have to live that way. You may be choosing to live some of that, but you don’t have to do that because God is giving you the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Holy Spirit can help you to be godly. He can help you to make certain choices. He can help you have self-control. He can help you have growth. He can help you produce fruit in your life, and the kind of fruit that remains. Amen.
Now what, what, what is this cluster of fruit that should exist in your life and my life once we come to Christ, and we lean on the power of the Holy Spirit? Here’s the cluster. Are you ready?
Love. What is love? Love is willing, unconditional, sacrificial service to God and others. That’s what love is. So when the Holy Spirit is leading our lives, we can pretty well love anyone. And some of you are tested in that periodically. It’s hard to love some people. Some people are not very loveable. But regardless, God says when the Holy Spirit is living in you, you can willingly love them, you can unconditionally love them. It doesn’t matter what they say to you, do to you, because what? The model of the cross was that kind of love for you. You have been given the love of God at the cross through the death, the bloody death of the Son of God, and if He can forgive you, you can forgive anyone else. Let it go, and learn to love.
Joy. Joy. Joy is grounded in a secure relationship with the Lord and His Word. Joy never lets circumstances or situations determine your attitude. Because I guarantee you, your situation and your circumstances will be very difficult to keep you from determining the way you feel on a certain day. We hear a lot about happiness, happiness is usually determined by your circumstances. But not joy, joy’s not determined by your circumstances. Joy’s determined by your position in Jesus Christ. I have been saved. I have been born-again. I have been rightly related to the Father. I am in His Word; therefore, regardless of what happens to me, I can experience the joy of the Lord, which the scripture says is my strength.
I like to talk about peace because that’s the next word. Peace is having it all together because confidence in God’s sovereignty, and God’s control in life. I want to say to you today God is sovereign. That means that He is in complete control of absolutely everything in the world. Nothing surprises God. God never says oops. He knows it all, and He’s in control of all. And when you know, and you’re grounded deeply with your feet in the sovereignty of God, God can give you peace in the midst of your storm.
Patience. Anybody here need patience? Patience is enduring what others do to you. Patience is enduring situations that will test your life. Anybody here been through a test recently? Anyone here today been enduring what others have been doing to you? God has got to give you a level of patience. Well part of the cluster, the spiritual cluster, is that cluster of that fruit called patience.
And then kindness. Kindness is treating others as Jesus would treat them. It’s being gentle toward others through everything that goes on in life. Kindness doesn’t come easy for any one of us because really it goes back to that old depraved state. It’s hard to be kind to other people because really the way we look at it, all of life should really revolve around us anyway.
And then goodness. Goodness is taking kindness up to a different level. It’s being active in your goodness. It’s being good to other people. Are you with me? We need goodness.
Faith. Faith is trust-worthiness. It is loyalty. It is faithfulness through it all. God has the power to give us faith. I want to say to you today and declare to you that Jesus that we sang about a moment ago, and the Word of God that I hold in my hand today, it is trustworthy, and absolutely and completely sufficient for your life. He and this Word deserve absolute loyalty and faithfulness from me. I’ve got to bank my life on what He says in this Word. When the Spirit of God gets on you, and gets on me, and lives in me, and lives through you, then we become faithful people.
And then he mentions the word gentleness. Gentleness. That’s what it means. It means to be meek. It means to demonstrate tamed strength. I like that phrase of meekness. Sometime we act like Jesus is meek, and we hear about the meekness of Jesus, and we think that means He’s soft, or He’s become a little boy sissy going on here. That isn’t Him. I mean He demonstrated tamed strength. He could have called 10,000 angels to take Him off the cross. He could have destroyed everybody at the foot of the cross. He could have taken out every Roman soldier. He could have done whatever He wanted to do, whenever He wanted to do it, but He chose not to, and He gave Himself sacrificially for you, and He tamed His strength all the way to His bloody death, and to His glorious resurrection on that third morning. He tamed His strength so that God’s plan for the gospel would be fulfilled.
And then self-control, meaning that He is holding in, and we are holding in, and we are restraining our desires. Oh listen one of the great needs in your life, one of the great needs in my life, is for the Holy Spirit to so control us that we are demonstrating self-control. The Bible here says that when you walk in the Spirit, you don’t need the law to keep on reminding you to keep your life in order. You know why? Because the Lord Himself does it in you, through you, and around you. The Spirit of God becomes your prompter, if you may, and your leader, and your enabler, and your source for all your strength.
There’s a second major flow in the passage here today. And I want to challenge you to:
2. Face the reality of the emotions that are in you and they show up through you. Face the reality of the emotions that are in you, and they will show up through you in your life. Verse 24 says now that you belong to Jesus Christ. I love that verse. Now that you belong to Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus, your flesh has been crucified, every passion of your flesh has been crucified, every desire of your flesh has been crucified because you belong to Jesus Christ.
Now the scripture says to us that we need to face our emotions because of what occurs, and here’s what I want you to see in chapter 6, if you would, in Galatians, verse number 8. Do you have it? “Because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh; but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” In other words if you sow to your flesh, all right? Meaning if you feed your flesh, you live on your flesh, you, you try to take care of your flesh, and you see your flesh, then your flesh will reap corruption. But if you will sow to the Spirit, in other words, if you’ll run to the Spirit rather than running to your flesh, then you have hope in your life, and you can move forward in positive way.
You see here’s the flesh. The flesh is my frame of reference. The flesh is my old frame of reference. I’m always going to return to my own vomit. I’m always going to return to my own, my own flesh because that’s, that’s what I’m used to. But what has to happen is death, death to myself, death to my flesh, death to my desires, death to my will, death to my emotions, and when those are crucified, when I understand I belong to Him, and all that’s gone, and now I live in a new life, by a new power, then everything changes!
Therefore what do we need to remember today? Here’s what you need to remember:
(1) Do not live in denial of what you feel inside of yourself. Do not live in denial of what you, what you feel inside of yourself. We are real good at repressing our feelings, covering them up. Satan is the master cover-up artist. And what happens is when he covers that up, all that just takes seed in you, and all of a sudden that, that, that thought becomes a stronghold in your life. And before you know it, it’s running your life, and you’re running places you don’t want to run to. Therefore, if you deny it, you know what will happen to you? It will destroy you. But if you will deal with it spiritually, then the Spirit of God will live through you.
In recent weeks this man’s name has become much more well known in the American culture. His name is Jesse James. Jesse James is the CEO of West Coast Choppers. He was on ABC’s Nightline recently. He’s married to the beautiful Sandra Bullock, the winner, the Academy Award winner for Best Actress for her performance in an incredible, outstanding movie called Blind Side. James committed adultery on Sandra Bullock, if you can imagine that. Men do the stupidest things. And it has been a major issue.
Jesse James is one of TV’s toughest guys. He customizes motorcycles for a living. He’s covered in tattoos, and hosted Monster Garage on the Discovery Channel. Let me make it real clear, I’m not a watcher of the Monster Garage. In his Nightline interview Jesse James revealed something. He revealed that he was a victim of both physical and emotional abuse growing up as a child. He cried like a baby on national and international television on Nightline, saying that he wants to appear as tough as he possibly can to cover up, but in the depths of who he is, he’s nothing more than a little scared, abused kid, a 7 year old little boy.
James’ interview revealed two things that I want to note today: first of all that he believes that his adultery goes back to his childhood abuse, and he said it cost him his marriage, and it cost him his life. Men and women you listen today, you better deal with what’s in you. Deal with what is in you. Sometime your mate wants to deal with it, and sometime your mate doesn’t want to deal with it. I don’t know the dynamics of that. I don’t know why that happens. It’s hard to know. There’s all kind of things that can go back and but all I know is the blame game’s got to stop.
And then notice the second thing, the second thing is he revealed the long-term influence of a father upon a child, and his emotional well being. I want to say to every dad here today, fathers, sit up and listen to me. Here’s what I want you to hear: dad’s, if you have some emotions, and some stuff in you that you have never dealt with, you had better deal with it, or it can cost you a whole lot in your life. It can cost you your career, your marriage, your kids. It can cost you your life, your life. I beg you in the name of Jesus today deal with what is in you.
And you know why that’s important? Because of the second thing, are you listening?
(2) Whatever is in you will come out of you. I mean life has a way to reveal you in a great way, and in a not so great way. You cannot deny it. If you sow to the flesh, you’re going to reap to the flesh. And if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap to the Spirit. You act the way you act, and you say what you say, and you treat others like you treat others, and you live life the way you live it because of what is in you! And you’ve got to deal with what’s in you. If it’s in you, here’s what I want you to understand, it will eventually come out of you! And when it comes out of you, it may not be very cool.
I know today I’ve unpacked a lot for you. I literally have backed up the trailer and unloaded. But I’ve got just one more minute and I want you to hold on and I want you to listen very carefully. How do you deal with all this stuff? How do you deal with it? First of all, you’ve got to admit it to God. You’ve got to stop playing games and admit it to the Father. “Father, I’ve got an issue. Father, I’ve got some stuff in me that’s not good. I’ve got some stuff in me that was revealed last week in me Lord, that I’ve got, I’ve got, I’ve got to overcome.” All right? Are you following me? It doesn’t matter who you are, what your make-up is, Lord, there’s been some things out here that, that you’ve revealed to me about me that’s not very good. And really when you roll back the curtains of all of our lives, sometimes there’s not, there’s not a whole lot there, if we’re not careful. We need to admit it to God we’ve got some issues.
We need to confess it to God as sin. Oh listen to me; we’ve got to confess it to God as sin. It is sin. Are you with me? We have to act like it is not honorable to the Lord. And then we have to confess it to others. We’ve got to, we’ve got to, there are times that our choices messes up other people’s lives. It could disrupt them for a moment. I mean I guarantee you there are some of you in this room today when, when you came to church today you, you got up in a good mood, but something happened at the house, something happened on the way, and, and I mean Satan disrupted your day tremendously. You walked in this room, and even though your heart was initially good, you wished to God you never were here because of something that disrupted your life earlier this morning.
You’ve got to confess it. You’ve got to deal with it. You’ve got to; you’ve got to get with the reality of it. It’s wrong. And then seek forgiveness if it’s needed. Listen, I’m sorry. I exploded on this. Lord I shouldn’t have said this. Deal with the people. Talk to the people. Overcome it. Seek forgiveness. People need to learn how to forgive one another! But listen, your forgiveness of someone of that situation is not contingent on whether or not they forgive you; God has called us to be forgivers! And the only way we’re ever going to do that is to live in the Spirit. There’s no way in the world otherwise. I mean Christ is my hope. He’s my hope of glory. And the great news is that when Jesus came into your life years ago, He didn’t leave you alone. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is now able to live in you, and He’s able to put under, under all authority, He has to have all authority in your life, where it the mind, the will and the emotions, and the body go under the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want you to be encouraged today. There is a way for you to live above that. There is a better way, and God’s better way is when the Holy Spirit gets His way in your life.
- SKU:
- 2Z225L
- MP3:
- http://www.ronniefloyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/2Z225L-Controlling-Your-Emotions.mp3
- Vimeo:
- 12741358