Monday, September 30, 2019

Protecting your Emotions - September 29, 2019


SPORTS CLIP
In most sporting events, there is nothing more motivational than a team that plays with “heart.” Talent is fun to watch. Precision can be marveled at… but nothing quite inspires like a player or team that guts it out. That puts their emotions on the line and takes on a goliath. We love it as fans… the upset… the rivalry… the little guy… we love it when “Heart” is personified in sports.

The reverse is also true… you can tell it when a team’s “heart” has been removed. When they hang their heads in shame… when they can’t get excited to go on… when the victory has been snatched before the final whistle has been blown. They’ve either been beaten down by their circumstances or bad coaching. One might say that they’ve lost their identity as a team.

The heart in the Hebrew culture was the seat of emotion… it was the center of the person. It was the most valuable part of the soul of the human being. It was what you gave to your spouse on your wedding day… and what God demanded (Deut. 6) first from His people.

DILEMMA - The problem I think most of us have… sometimes it’s hard to know what our emotions will do. One day we might be up for anything… the next day…
·        the temperature of our coffee might send us into a tailspin, LOL.
·       even the day of the week can affect our emotions - Monday vs. Saturday? 
·       How many of us wake up different on Christmas day than we do on Tax Day?

Before we jump in, I want to make a few things very clear today:
1.  Emotions are a gift from God.
a.           the ability to be happy, to grieve, to have joy, and even to get frustrated
b.           God wired us to be like Him
c.            and our God has emotions.
2.  Emotions get out of control when our heart is not protected.
 .             A pursuit of happiness can become about selfishness
a.           Grieving can become our eventual depression
b.           Joy can become a false reality
c.            Frustration can become rage
d.           When our heart is not protected.
e.           God has these emotions, but His heart is always protected.

REVIEW -  We are discovering “Who Am I?” How has God designed us? We’ve been exploring the idea there is a battle for our identity & purpose taking place every day.
·       That believing what God says about us matters
·       That being grounded in God’s truth is important
·       Today, we are going to talk about “Protecting your Heart.”
If we are truly in a spiritual battle for our emotions, then we need the right equipment for our everyday lives.  
Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 
This may seem like an odd thing to say. What is a “breastplate of righteousness”?
The breastplate is the largest piece of armor attached to the body. It’s immovable… always centered over your chest… protecting your heart from swords, spears, arrows, etc… well how does righteousness do that?!

If you don’t understand something, read more of the Bible and see if you find something similar. The only other mention of something similar comes from I Thessalonians 5  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 

What I think Paul is trying to say is that the only way to protect your innermost person is to Know your Righteousness. The only way for your emotions to look like God designed is to Know your Righteousness. The only way for you to win the battle for your heart is to Know your Righteousness. The only way to know who you truly are AND behave like you were meant to behave in the midst of an emotional situation is to Know your Righteousness.
·       So, what is righteousness? And, how can that actually help?
·       turtles from Finding Nemo

In the old testament, righteousness would have equated to obeying the law. To be righteous, one would have to do their best to obey not just the 10 commandments, but also the 100’s of other laws that surrounded the core ten. So, is Paul saying that to protect your heart you have to be perfect in your obedience of the law?  Because in week #1 we learned Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

What does Jesus say?
How can I know my righteousness by obeying the law and doing good works? That doesn’t seem to make sense. Surely Jesus’ words can work this out for us, right?
·       Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Did Jesus say that we actually have to obey better than the Pharisees? Those guys were amazing! They never messed up the law. They actually believed that the better they obeyed the closer to God they got. Confused yet?

Because, I know many who do get confused at this point. Many people reject Christianity when they hear something like this, because they know that perfection is unattainable… and conversely many Christians get so wrapped up in being “perfect” that they miss the true meaning of Jesus’ word on righteousness from Matthew. 

Let’s put Matthew 5:20 in context of the rest of the sermon on the mount. Jesus is beginning to challenge his culture’s concept of righteousness. Throughout this sermon he approaches it very differently:

·       Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
·       Jesus says Righteousness is something that you can crave and long for, not something you can earn.
·       Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness
·       Jesus says that Righteousness is something you can be chastised for because others won’t understand it.
·       Matthew 6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them 
·       Jesus says Righteousness can be practiced only in relationship with the Father… and not in relationship with other people.
·       Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 
·       Jesus says that HIS Righteousness is something that we can seek after because it can actually benefit our lives.

Confused yet?
So, what is this thing called Righteousness? What is this thing that is so important that Paul says it protects our heart AND Jesus weaves all through His most prominent teaching (the sermon on the mount) in all of the gospels? And what in the world does Knowing my Righteousness have to do with my identity, destiny, and purpose? How will righteousness help me figure out who I am?
·       Our worldly understanding is that righteousness is moral purity.
·       The heavenly understanding is that righteousness is purity GIVEN to us.
·       That we actually have “right standing” with God.
·       Illustration - house is paid off
·       We have righteousness because of what Jesus did.
·       Our armor is given to us by God… 
·       we don’t fashion it ourselves… it’s the armor of God
·       Righteous is actually our new identity.

Imagine if we believed something different?
·       Imagine if we believed that we were actually righteous… 
·       Imagine if we believed in a great exchange that took place in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection… 
·       Imagine if we believed that when that took place, we actually became something different… You can actually feel the difference in your life friends.
·       not because of something we did, but because of what Jesus did… there is a key difference between Striving (to be perfect) vs. (living in) Rest
·       not just an idea, but an actual change took place in our very core, when we believed?
·       We are returning to a state of “created in His image and likeness” - its the Father putting our identity back on us as was originally intended.




Listen to John Wimber’s (pic) words in 1987:
“God forgives us in Christ and declares us righteous. He adopts us as his sons and daughters. He changes us into his likeness. So complete is our death in Christ that we are now a new creation.
“I used to tell people that ‘I was just a sinner saved by grace.’ True, I once was a sinner who repented & believed & as a result was saved by grace. But now I am a child of God, healed of my spiritual sickness, ‘set free from sin and a slave to righteousness’ (Romans 6:18). That is to say, my fundamental identity is that I am a child of God, a new creation.”
Wimber’s understanding of righteousness is that it means we have become something that we could not have become on our own. We’ve been given the very nature of Jesus.

Joseph Prince (pic) says it this way:
“We are not righteous because we do right. We became righteous because of what Jesus did for us at the cross. Righteousness, therefore, is not based on our right doing. It is based entirely on Jesus’ right doing. Christianity is not about doing right to become righteous. It is about believing right in Jesus to become righteous.”
JP’s understanding of righteousness is that it is something that you and I can rest in! 
It’s something that we can take confidence in. Essentially, if we are resting in the right belief about what Jesus has given us… then our heart is protected!  there is a key difference between Striving (to be perfect) vs. (living in) Rest

The only way to protect your innermost person is to Know your Righteousness.
The only way for your emotions to look like God designed is to KYR.
The only way for you to win the battle for your heart is to Know your Righteousness.
The only way to know who you truly are AND behave like you were meant to behave in the midst of an emotional situation is to Know your Righteousness.

Think about it, if you KNOW that God sees you as righteous:
·       you won’t be anxious about your sins and mistakes - God is not surprised NOR is he judgmental when you mess up - He still loves you 
·       then you won’t be prone to pride - He did it and we humbly accept his sacrifice.
·       then you won’t be prone to outbursts of anger - God is not surprised by our circumstances - He is our protector and provider - truly I can only find my value in Him so no one can take it from me!
·       Illustrate - fired from a job?
·       We can live a settled life. 
·       Confident that God sees us as He sees Jesus… loves us as He loves Jesus… 
·       that God cares about all of our worries, behaviors, relationships and more… 

James 2:23 Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
Not an enemy of God… He’s not Santa Claus… He’s not an uncaring, distant old man… He’s a loving Father who cares about our every need… He’s a friend who has our back in every situation… and He’s given us His very nature to help us live in that reality.

God is not surprised by our situations. He is at rest, so we can be at rest. (2Corinth. 5:21) Jesus became our sin “so that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God.” We have taken on HIS nature… and He’s at rest!
·       So, when you find your world turned upside down and backwards… when you find your job, your spouse, your kids or your bank account are sending your emotions in a spiral… you can rest and not become anxious or worried… you can seek the truth of God’s righteousness given to you to protect your Heart.
·       When we Know our Righteousness, nothing can penetrate our identity in Christ.

God has become for us the best coach… think about it:
·       He’s our biggest fan on our worst days.
·       He’s always coaching up our HEART when the enemy tries to steal it.
·       He wants us to HAVE and USE our emotions but not be destroyed by them.
·       He wants us to be happy but never selfish… Just like Him
·       He wants us to grieve but not get depressed… JLJ
·       He wants us to have joy but not be fake… JLJ
·       He wants our anger to move us to do great things, but never destroy relationships through rage, abuse, or slandering one another… JLJ
·       Knowing your righteous identity in Christ, frees you from the grip of attacks that come on our emotions.



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