©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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8/2/98
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Holy Spirit or Human Emotions?
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8/2/98 Holy Spirit Or Human Emotion?
We have taken the past several weeks
to talk about some of the differences
between what we have called
life in the flesh
and life in the Spirit.
We've talked a great deal
about the way in which
a flesh-based approach expresses itself
within us -
we've looked at the fearful flesh,
and the way it runs in terror
from what it sees as the calling of the
Christian life,
and we've looked at the boastful flesh,
and the way in which it runs in pride
toward the Christian life,
attempting to do for God
what can only be done by God in and through
us.
And then we ended last week
by dealing with one of the questions
that came up in the course of this study:
How can we tell the difference
between what the Spirit of God is doing through
us,
and what we are simply accomplishing
though our own natural talents and abilities?
And we began to find some answers
to that last week,
but I want to drop back into that discussion
right about where we left off
to carry it a little farther.
Last week we took two steps toward an answer:
1. Step #1 was recognizing that
only God can do the work of God.
I shared with you an illustration
in which my daughter,
when she was 5 years old,
wanted to help me do my work -
she wanted to help me carry a couch into the house.
I talked about how
her desire to do my work
was motivated by love,
but it was way beyond her abilities -
it was impossible.
It's the same way with us
in our attempts to do God's work -
we cannot do it.
It's not a matter of more training
or more knowledge
or going to Bible school
or memorizing more Scripture...
there is nothing we can ever do
or learn
that will equip us to be able
to do the work of God.
We simply cannot do it
because it is totally, completely beyond our
ability to do.
I mentioned last week
that, even though we cannot do the work of
God,
yet God has chosen to do His work through us,
because He loves what happens
between us and Him in the process.
I gave the example
of my allowing my 5 year old daughter
to walk in front of me
and put her little hands on the couch
between mine as I carried it in
so that she could "help" daddy do his work.
Now, I don't want us to leave this whole area
until we understand why we cannot do God's
work,
and why we so often get confused with this
thing.
And perhaps the easiest way for me to do this
is to answer the obvious question - "What is
God's work, anyway?"
What is it God is doing in our world?
Apart from the little things
like holding the universe together,
and keeping the entire natural world
operating correctly,
when it comes to us human beings
He is doing two big things:
1. He is redeeming individuals from their sin,
restoring them to a perfect, pure, eternal love
relationship with Himself.
Peter says:
1 Pet. 1:18 knowing that you were not
redeemed with perishable things like silver
or gold from your futile way of life
inherited from your forefathers,
1 Pet. 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a
lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood
of Christ.
Now we know there is no way we can do that part of
God's work for Him.
We can't even redeem ourselves,
much less someone else.
We can't even pay our own sin debt,
much less someone else's.
And in this area we are well pleased
to allow this part of God's work
to be done by God alone.
"He paid a debt He did not owe,
I owed a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
But now I sing a brand new song,
Amazing Grace,
Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never
pay."
But there is a second area of work God is doing in
our world as well,
and it is this part of His work
where we start flexing our little 5 year old
muscles
and heading for the couch.
You see, God is not only paying the debt for us,
but He is also changing human lives
from the inside out.
He is literally remaking His people
into different people than they could or would
ever have been
had He not entered their lives.
Gal. 5:19 Now the deeds of the flesh are
evident, which are: immorality, impurity,
sensuality,
Gal. 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger,
disputes, dissensions, factions,
Gal. 5:21 envying, drunkenness,
carousing, and things like these, of which
I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned
you, that those who practice such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
Gal. 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against
such things there is no law.
You see what Paul is talking about there, of course
-
he is talking about who and what we are
apart from the working of God within us,
and who and what we become
through His rebuilding work within us.
So, what is the work of God?
1. He provides the payment for our sin through
Christ.
2. He calls us to Himself and to His offer of
forgiveness through Christ.
3. Once we respond to that offer
He begins rebuilding our lives
from the inside out,
conforming us bit by bit into the image
of Christ Himself.
Now, with that background,
lets go back to our question
about how we can tell the difference
between what the Spirit of God is doing
through us,
and what we are simply accomplishing
though our own natural talents and abilities.
And the answer here should now be a little more
obvious to us.
Can any human talents or abilities
ever bring about a change in the heart of another
human being?
Can we take a thief
and give him a heart that delights in honesty?
Can we take a person consumed with fear
and give them a heart of courage?
Can we take a person
bloated with pride and arrogance
and give them a heart of humility?
Can we take a person seething with anger
and give them a heart of love?
Can we take a person
filled with bitterness and hatred
and replace it with a heart of gentleness and
compassion?
You see, only GOD can do God's work.
All the talent
and charisma
and persuasive abilities in the world
cannot change another human being
at the heart level.
We can't carry the couch!
Q. But don't people's hearts turn to the Lord when
Billy Graham preaches?
Yes,
but it is not Billy Graham's preaching
that accomplishes the heart change,
it is the Spirit of God.
And don't Christians grow
when the Word of God is taught?
Yes,
but God's Spirit is doing the teaching,
and the feeding,
and the equipping
in the lives of those who are open to it,
and He just happens to be using
the man or woman up front.
Q. But then how in the world
has the Christian world
gotten into this huge foolishness
about doing the work of God?
In great part I think it is because
our flesh just hates to let go,
it hates that feeling of dependance upon God.
And so,
the flesh comes up with flesh-based alternatives
designed to imitate the work of God
both in our own life
and in the lives of others.
The difference, however,
is that, whereas the true work of God
aims at changing the heart,
the flesh imitations aim at altering the external
behavior
and thus creating the appearance of change.
And the three most common tools
the flesh uses for this work are
feelings of fear,
feelings of guilt or shame,
and feelings of pride or self-righteousness.
This, of course, is the heart and soul
of all man-made religion.
It thrives on creating
and maintaining flesh-based emotions
that keep the person in line.
Do you want people to give money?
Then show them pictures of the starving
children their money will feed,
or promise them a gold plaque
with their name on it
mounted permanently at the back of the
church.
Do you want people to decrease their sin?
Then paint a vivid picture of the torment of hell
and promise them the wrath of God
unless they change their ways.
Q. But doesn't the life of our Lord
sometimes generate deep feelings within us?
And when God's Spirit opens our eyes
to some need in those around us
doesn't it sometimes deeply effect our
emotions,
our feelings?
And doesn't the convicting work
of the Spirit of God
sometimes grip us so deeply
that we feel intense emotional pain
over our sin?
Yes!
Then how can we tell the difference
between flesh-based emotional counterfeits
and healthy emotional responses to the life of
our Lord within us?
Or, as we phrased it a few weeks ago,
how can we tell the difference between
the leading of God's Spirit
and our emotions?
I'm glad you asked.
I'd like to offer 3 principles
that, taken together,
should help with this troublesome area.
#1. Emotions brought about by the work of our Lord
within us
are the RESULT of His work,
not the CAUSE of it.
They are an emotional response
to what God has done
or is doing in us.
The key here is that
the feeling follows the action or the truth
rather than the action following the feeling.
ex. If I find myself attempting to change my
behavior
because I have been made to feel
guilty
or fearful,
in other words, if the emotion comes first
and is imposed on me
by the group
or the speaker
or the music,
then whatever change I attempt
as a result of that emotion
will last only as long as the emotion.
Ex. When I was in my early teens
I remember being overcome
with a powerful fear of hell,
and I remember vowing undying faithfulness to God
with the hope that
He would then save me from hell.
My devotion
lasted just as long as my fear.
Once the fear went away,
so did my faithfulness.
When I was 19 years old, by contrast,
the Lord found some very effective ways
of confronting me
not with an emotion,
but with a fact and a choice I needed to make:
I was the god of my own life,
and He wanted me to bow before Him.
It wasn't a fear thing.
It was a fact, a truth I needed to respond to.
There were no threats involved,
but I knew it was a tremendously important
question.
After several weeks of churning
I chose to submit.
That choice brought about
my first encounter with JOY.
I had never felt such an intensity
of emotional well being in my life
as I did that night.
But the emotion followed the fact,
not the other way around.
#2. The work of God within us is not dependant
upon the emotions.
Perhaps the best test I could ever offer
in distinguishing between
the work of Christ within us
and the impulses of our emotions
is simply to ask what do we do
when the feeling is gone?
If we stop giving
or stop obeying
or stop doing
when the feeling stops,
then its probably just flesh-based
man-made religion.
In fact, God often leads His children
to do things that are directly contrary
to what our emotions are telling us to do.
ex. His Spirit leads us to choose
sexual purity in the midst
of a sexually saturated culture
that plays havoc with our emotions at times.
ex. His Spirit leads us
to say "No" to a endless variety
of traps and temptations that are carefully
designed to pull on our emotions.
ex. There are times in every Christian's life, usually
on a daily basis,
when faithfulness to our King
requires choosing contrary
to whatever we happen to be "feeling" at
the moment.
#3. And the final key test I would offer
in helping to distinguish
between the life of Christ within
and simply a flesh-based emotional
response
is to test the impulse on the basis
of the protective moral framework
given to us by our Lord in His Word.
If what we feel like doing
violates God's moral framework
it is an emotion-based satanic lie.
And then just a final word
on this whole business
of "giving our talents to the Lord".
It is true
that God has given every one of us
unique gifts, talents, and abilities
that allow us to express Him
and His life through us
in ways that no other human being
has ever been able to do.
He wants and seeks the freedom
to express Himself through us
on a daily basis.
When we allow Him to do that
He flavors His work through us
with our unique personal identity.
It the most amazing way
His work caries with it
the seasoning and the aroma
of our individual personality.
Jesus talked about this amazing process
in the Sermon on the Mount when He said:
Matt. 5:16 "Let your light shine before men
in such a way that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father who is in
heaven.
They see us,
but what they see then turns their eyes towards
God -
not only to God,
but ultimately to Him.
The problem I have
with the whole idea of "giving our talents to
God"
is that to me it seems to approach
the whole thing backwards.
It carries with it the flavor
of our being able to give God
something that He needs
in order to accomplish His work here on
earth.
As such,
it plays into our pride-based religious nature
that is so hostile to true Christian growth.
So I would like to offer an alternative
to the "give your talents to the Lord" message
that seems to be so prevalent
within the religious world.
You see,
what God really seeks
is not that we give our talents to the Lord,
but rather that we give Him the freedom
to express Himself
in any way He wants
through every aspect of our being.
Now, I know that that may sound like
I'm just playing little religious word games,
but for me it fits far better
with what I see God saying to us in His
word.
Let me apply it personally
and maybe it will make more sense.
When I was 16 years old
and my aunt pointed out
my limited successes in public speaking,
God did not want me to "give my speaking
ability to Him".
He wanted just one thing:
He wanted me to give myself,
my life to Him,
to bow before Him as my Creator.
It took three more years
before I finally was willing to do that.
But once I did,
He then began a life long process
in which He sought the freedom
to express Himself through every part of
my unique being.
My public speaking was a little bitsy part of that.
But included so much more:
my intellect,
my emotional make up,
my rather strange sense of humor,
my physical body,
my fears,
my failures,
my battles with sin,
and on and on.
The flesh likes to single out
one or two qualities
that we think might impress God,
and we are pretty certain will impress
those around us,
and then make a show of "giving them to God."
God, on the other hand,
asks for only one thing: our lives,
just as they are.
Then, once that transaction has been made,
He seeks the freedom
to display His handiwork
through every part of our life.