Series

The Christian faith is an emotional faith. Do I get any pushback on that? Christianity is an emotional faith. Jesus Christ endured the cross, “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). The apostle Paul described himself as, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor 6:10). There are some churches, and even whole denominations, in which the emotions are so downplayed that the folks in them would take serious exception to the thought that they could / should be emotional. They focus entirely on the propositional truth of the Scripture, on logic and reason, on theology and doctrine, and they completely ignore the emotional side of the faith. Many times they do that because they are afraid of emotions, and would just as soon not have to deal with them. They tend to look with skepticism at churches where a great deal of emotion is shown. I used to be like that: I remember when we bought this building from the congregation that had it before; when we walked through the sanctuary for the first time, I noticed boxes of tissue in the pews, and I thought, Wow, they must really be an emotional lot; I don’t see that we’ll be needing tissue in the pews. And yet a couple of weeks ago, at the end of the choir anthem, I noticed a number of people wiping tears from their eyes, and I now think that is a very good thing.

1 Peter 1:8 says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” This verse talks about our love for Christ, and the joy that He gives us. These believers Peter was writing to, who were under severe persecution, proved the genuineness of their faith by their love and their joy (1:9). The great Puritan scholar Jonathan Edwards wrote a book[1] about emotions and feelings in the Christian faith, in which he said, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.”

In fact, God is insulted by a faith that does not feel anything for Him. From the Old Testament commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to Romans 12:11, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord,” we are exhorted to put our heart into it. John the Baptist promised that Jesus would baptize His followers with the Holy Spirit and fire, and that word fire has to refer at least partly to the emotional state of the Christian: we are to be on fire for God, passionate for Him.[2]

I realize that we are all made differently, and some of us feel things more deeply than others, but if you do not feel anything in your relationship with God, I encourage you to ask Him to free you up, to put you in touch with your emotions. A cold hearted dutiful obedience to God is fine if that’s all you’ve got at the moment—and I’ve been there! But ask God to set your heart on fire for Him.

B. An emotional God Ps 147:11; 1 Kings 8:46; Zeph 3:17; Ex 20:5; Jn 2:17; Mk 3:5; Luk 19:41,42; John 11:35; Matt 8:26; Matt 26:38; Heb 5:7; John 15:11

Emotions are part of our God-given makeup. We are physical, mental, social, spiritual, and emotional creatures. Our emotions are part of what it means to be made in the image of God, who is an extremely emotional being. The Bible tells us God delights in His people (Ps 147:11), and is angry at sin (1 Kings 8:46); He rejoices over us in love (Zeph 3:17) and is jealous of our affection (Ex 20:5).

Jesus was a very emotional man: When He drove out the money changers from the temple, zeal for God’s house consumed Him (Jn 2:17). He was angry and distressed at the hardness of heart He saw in people who would rather keep a human interpretation of the Sabbath than see a man healed (Mark 3:5). He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41,42) and at Lazarus’ graveside (John 11:35), even though He was about to raise him from the dead. He was frustrated with the disciples because they were so slow to learn (Matt 8:26). He said His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:38), and cried out to God to save Him from the cross (Hebrews 5:7). And in spite of all that, He claimed to have a joy that carried Him through every trouble in His life (John 15:11).

Psalm 23 is a great example of the emotional nature of our faith, and the way God ministers to our emotions.

As with everything else in our lives, the way God interacts with us is by way of the Holy Spirit. Let’s just look at four emotions the Bible specifically connects with the Spirit. I don’t think these are the only emotions the Spirit is responsible for producing in us; these are just a sample.

1. Joy Luke 10:21; Acts 13:52; 1 Thes. 1:4-6; Rom 14:17; see also Ps 37:4; 97:12; 33:1; Matt 5:12; Phil 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess 5:16; Gal 5:21

· Paul and Barnabas. Acts 13:52. In the city of Antioch located in Psidia, the Jews stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of the area. As they left, it says, Acts 13:52, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” The construction of this sentence implies that being filled with the Holy Spirit and filled with joy are somehow connected.

· Thessalonian Christians. Paul complimented the believers in Thessalonica because 1 Thes. 1:6, “…in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”

It is significant that in these two passages, the people are experiencing joy in spite of very difficult circumstances. We’ll come back that in a minute.

· The kingdom of God. Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Life in the kingdom ought to be characterized by a holy and righteous life, and also by peace and joy in the Spirit. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, part of His fruit we should expect to see in our lives is peace and joy.

2. Hope Romans 15:13 Hebrews 6:18-19; see also 1 Cor. 13:13; Ps 31:24; 97:10; 119:104; 139:21; 146:5; Jer 17:7; 1 Thess. 5:8; Heb. 6:19

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Hope is the expectation that the future will be better than the present. No matter how bad things are, if we can just believe that tomorrow will be even a little bit better, it gives us hope to press on. I frequently pray for couples who are struggling in their marriages that God will give each of them hope to believe that their relationship can be not just better, but astonishingly good, because that is certainly what God wants for them. If they have hope, they will make the effort it takes to rejuvenate their marriage. The Holy Spirit gives us hope.

Acts 9:31. “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.” You know what it is to be discouraged, I’m sure. The Holy Spirit encourages us, He fills us with hope and confidence for the future. He lifts our spirits so we are not discouraged or depressed. He refocuses our attention on the Lord of Glory, and His unbelievable love for us, and His supreme power in the universe, and suddenly our problems don’t seem so overwhelming to us.

In Isaiah’s great prophecy of the Messiah, it says, Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me…He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted…” What a wonderful thought—that Jesus Himself knows when your heart is broken, when you are hurting emotionally, and cares! He cares so much that a significant part of His Spirit-filled ministry is to bring His powerful and loving attention to your emotions.

· Delight. Psalm 1:2 says we should delight in the Scriptures: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

· Reverence. We are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, but not flippantly, not casually. Psalm 5:7, “But I, by your great mercy, will come into your house; in reverence will I bow down toward your holy temple.” We are approaching the Most High God, the Sovereign One, the Master of the Universe, and it behooves us to approach with reverence and respect.

· We can have trust and confidence in God. Psalm 9:10, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

· Gratitude. We should feel huge sense of gratitude to God for all He has done for us—so much so that we can give thanks to Him for everything. Ephes. 5:20, “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

· Longing. God wants us to long for Him, to thirst for Him: Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. [2] My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” See also Psalm 27:4; 63:1, 2; 84:1, 2; 119:20; 73:25; 143:6, 7; 130:6; Matt. 5:6; Rev. 21:6

But the emotions God’s people feel—and even should feel at times—are not just positive ones.

· Anguish. We can all identify with the psalmist when he said, Psalm 6:3, “My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long?”

· Sadness. Psalm 6:6, “I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.”

· Sometimes God’s people feel abandoned. Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”

· That kind of thing, and other circumstances, can lead us into depression and despair. Psalm 130:1-2, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; [2] O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.”

· Hate. Even hate is part of the Christian life, if we hate the things God hates. Prov. 8:13, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." If we don’t hate evil, something is wrong with us.

· Sorrow. We are also supposed to be sorry about some things, and have our hearts broken by some things. Matt. 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn; for they will be comforted.'' Ps 34:18; 51:17; Is 57:15; 66:2.

So as you can see, it’s not all fluffy happiness. The Bible is an ultimately realistic book, and it constantly portrays life as it really is, full of the emotional highs and lows. It is OK to bring all our emotions to God, to be truly authentic with Him, to let Him know how we feel. If we feel abandoned by Him because He isn’t answering our prayers, or if we feel angry at Him because He allowed some tragedy into our lives, it’s OK to tell Him that. And by the same token, if we are feeling joyful, or contented or delighted, we should tell Him that, too.

Some people approach their emotional states as if they had a right to express them in every situation—they are the “gushers.” These people feel that emotions are “who you really are.” Others are constantly looking for an emotional “fix”. They go shopping because it makes them feel good about themselves. They vent their anger at others because it makes them feel good—never mind how it makes the other person feel. One writer said, “Bad temper for such people becomes a form of public littering in which others pick up the pieces.”[3] These folks slack off on the spiritual disciplines because “it’s too hard.” They eat to salve their feelings—we even have a name for what they eat: “comfort food.”

Another mistake along this line is to base all our actions on our emotions, so that we follow the old cliché, “If it feels good, do it.” All too many people do only what they feel like doing. My mother was a lot like that. I can’t tell you how many times she said, “I don’t feel like it,” and that was that. It didn’t matter to her that her feelings had just torpedoed a family outing, or ruined a birthday party. All that mattered to her was how she felt.

When we put our emotional state as the goal of our lives, then we have made an idol of our emotions, and put ourselves in a dangerous place, because living that way will most often take us down paths that are not good for us. It’s not that God doesn’t want us to feel good—He does, as we will see in a minute. But if we make our emotional state our goal in life, it will be something like the person in Aesop’s fable who wanted to touch his reflection in the water, but every time he tried, his finger disturbed the water and distorted his reflection. Chasing emotional happiness distorts life in really bad ways.

Other folks, usually through early childhood experiences, have learned that emotions are bad, they can’t be trusted, they will always get you in trouble, and therefore should be avoided, repressed, feared, etc. These are the “stuffers.” They treat their emotions as if they should never be expressed, repressing their own emotions and suppressing emotions in others.[4] But inside they may be dying. When I was in college, I was voted by my peer group as the guy in the group with the worst temper. That really scared me, and I was thoroughly embarrassed by that, because I was the only Christian in the group. So I determined never to “be angry” again. Of course, I was angry, but I never figured out a healthy way to show it. That’s not good.

I find that men, especially, do not even know they are angry or happy; ask them how they feel, and they start telling you what they think. But a person who is out of touch with their feelings is out of touch with reality, because those emotions are there, even if they are pushed so far down we’re not aware of them. And they will affect our behavior in ways we cannot predict and probably won’t like. So that’s not the way to handle emotions either.

A third wrong way to handle emotions is to manipulate others’ feelings for your own ends.

This is emotionalism, and you have probably all seen examples of that recently on the political ads. “If so and so gets in office, the world will come to an end.” “If our candidate wins, everyone will be happy.” –that sort of thing. I promise you I will never do anything that is intended to simply manipulate your emotions for the sake of some gain to me or the church. That doesn’t mean that we don’t try to design worship services that touch our emotions; we do, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will move powerfully on our emotions as we worship. But it means that we will never divorce those emotional components from the truth of Scripture, and we will never do it just to work you up to an emotional pitch to get you to do something you will regret later. Nor will I use guilt to try to motivate you to do the right thing. It’s sub-Christian and counterproductive to try to manipulate people’s emotions.

Jesus told His disciples about His love relationship with the Father, and then said, John 15:11, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” You may know that the Westminster Confession of Faith says that the chief end of man, i.e. the reason we were created, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. John Piper has written a book (Desiring God) in which he suggests that what that really means is, “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever” (p. 14). God is never more glorified than when we find our highest joy in Him. And the fruit of the Spirit includes things like love, joy, and peace. We saw earlier how the Spirit produces joy, and hope; He encourages and comforts us. God really cares about our emotions and wants us to experience many positive feelings in life.

I said earlier that we should not base our lives on our emotions, constantly chasing the emotional fix. So how do we understand these other statements of Scripture that say God wants us to feel all these positive things?

One way is to note that the positive emotions are by-products of our relationship with God. We do not seek the feelings; we seek God. And when we find Him, Jesus says, our joy will be complete. Well, actually, first, sometimes our guilt will be complete, as the Spirit convicts us! But when we have confessed and received His forgiveness, then our joy will be complete! Jesus told His disciples about His relationship with the Father so that they could have the same kind of relationship, and the same kind of joy. God wants our emotional tanks to be full, but if we chase the emotions, we’ll find that they are a kind of moving target. But if we seek God first of all, we will discover with the psalmist, Psalm 16:11, “…you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” And Psalm 63:5, “My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.”

We saw this next point before, but it is worth reinforcing. If our primary aim is to get close to God, rather than chasing the feelings themselves, we will find that He enables us to experience positive emotions in spite of terrible circumstances. In Acts 13, the new converts were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit in spite of the fact that the people who had led them to Christ had just been run out of town, and they themselves were undergoing persecution. The same thing was true in Thessalonica, where it says, 1 Thes. 1:6, “…in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” This is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit—to be able to be joyful even in the midst of great pain. I think of BJ Culver, who has suffered so much for so long, and continues to praise God and rejoice in Him. Or Margaret Yoder, who has had a terrible year of physical problems, and yet maintains her radiant smile and gives God the credit for being able to ride above the problems emotionally. Or Linda Schroeder, who is dying of a rare blood disease, and has an amazingly positive spirit. Or Joan Little, who is dying of pancreatic cancer, and continues to trust God and laugh and enjoy her family. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

When we share our pleasure with someone, it seems to heighten those positive feelings. I remember the first time I approached the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The sight absolutely took my breath away. I was single at the time, and didn’t have anyone to exclaim, “Look at that! Isn’t that beautiful?!” with. And I found that that aloneness really diminished my ability to enjoy the experience. How great to know that God is always there, and He always wants to hear how we feel. I love fall in Colorado, and many times this year I have said as I drove around town, “Lord, I love this! Thank you for this beautiful day!” Somehow, it increases my delight just to be able to share that emotion with Him.

And on the other hand, when we share our trouble with someone, it seems to take some of the sting out of it. There is something healing about just telling another person who cares how disappointed we are that we didn’t get the promotion, or we didn’t get asked to prom, or we lost our job, or our kids are going astray. It still hurts, but being able to share those hurts shifts some of the burden to the other person’s shoulder, and we feel better.

Here again, women are typically better at this than men, so the men suffer in silence, thinking that’s the “manly thing to do.” It’s not manly; it’s stupid. It’s like refusing to vomit up something that is poisonous. It’s not emotionally healthy to hold it in. But men, we always have the Lord who is willing to listen. He won’t look down on you for feeling depressed, fearful, angry, or helpless. And in my experience, neither will your wife. Men sometimes think they have to be strong for their wives, when in fact, their wives are more emotionally healthy and strong than they are, because the women at least acknowledge and deal with their emotions. I have never known a wife to look down on her husband because he was feeling weak emotionally. Instead, that kind of vulnerability seems to call forth a woman’s nurturing instinct, and she will often be the strength the man needs for that time.

What do you need to ask the Holy Spirit to do for your emotions? Maybe you should ask Him to help you become more aware of your emotions, or to help you feel greater love and joy in your relationship with Him. Maybe you need to be less controlled by your emotions. Maybe you are a person who frequently uses guilt or other manipulative techniques to get what you want, and you need to repent and ask God to help you see when you are doing that and to trust Him enough to stop.

Where are you today, emotionally? In your bulletin is a sheet with feeling words. Read through them right now and identify one or two that seem to capture what you are feeling today. If you don’t have a bulletin, I’ve put some of those words on the screen. And then we’ll take those to God. Also, share that with one other person before you go to bed tonight—even if you have to call that person on the phone.

We are emotional beings, created in the image of an emotional God. We serve a God who is jealous for our love and zealous for His own glory. Let’s give Him what He deserves, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

[1] The Religious Affections, http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/religaffect/rapt1sec2.html. Accessed 11/18/08. Many of the points in the following paragraphs are taken from Edwards.

[2] We often wonder why it is that some people can hear the gospel, can know intellectually how great God is and even acknowledge that they need a Savior, but do not seem to be moved to do anything about it. The key word is “moved”, which speaks of the motivations of their heart. If the heart is not engaged, we will not be willing or even able to make any lasting changes in our lives. When I really got a hold of God’s grace a few years ago, it took a powerful emotional experience to drive deep into my soul the truths that I had known and preached for years. Very few people can operate solely on their intellect and will. –Edwards.

[3] Dr. David Augsburger, professor of pastoral counseling, Fuller Theological Seminary, in electronic version of Complete Book of Everyday Christianity, in NavPress WORDSearch software program. The terms “gusher” and “stuffer” come from this article as well.

[4] Such people say, “I feel fine” or “I’m okay.” These are not really feelings. They are judgments about their feelings. Or they play one feeling most of the time (for example, anger or happiness) like a trombone with a stuck slide. The note may be pure, but there is more to a symphony than this. –Augsburger.