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Sunday 26 April 2015

'THE TENSION BETWEEN FAITH AND FEELING'

Rev. Brent Russett
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/   

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LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, April 26th, 2015:
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‘The Tension Between Faith and Feeling
  
            Good morning. And welcome to good news in the morning.  My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some good news in the morning.

            I am glad that you tuned your dial to CFRA. I want you to know that you can also find Good News in the morning on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca . There you can hear past episodes and find interesting articles.

            This morning’s program is Sponsored by Good News Christian ministries and Alice and Clifford Miller.  Thank you so much for your generous support. Your partnership with us in the gospel is really appreciated.

            Good News in the morning is sponsoring a wonderful event that is taking place next Saturday at Noon. At Bethany Baptist Church.  It is “Ask the Pastor” day. There is going to be a light lunch and a chance to hear from and interact with the Pastors from this program. The event is free, but  we will be taking up an offering which will go towards helping fund this program.

            It looks like it will be a wonderful time full of stories and music. If you want more information, you can find it at www.goodnewsinthemorning.ca

This morning I am going to be looking at the tension between faith and feeling. Or for some of you it might be better framed as the tension between intellect and feeling.

            Part of what it means to be human is that our emotions and our brains are not always synchronized. Sometimes I know I should be content, but I don’t feel content. Sometimes I know I shouldn’t be angry, but I find myself being angry. Sometimes I know I should be happy-- but I feel sad. My intellect says it would be better to interpret a situation one way, my emotions react to the situation in a totally different way.

            Have you ever been there. Have you ever been talking to someone and you know you shouldn’t say anything, you know you should bite your tongue,  but all the while you can feel your anger rising. Your emotions and mind  battle it out. Some of you will go ahead and blast the person and others of your will bite your tongue.

            Some people who have very few filters, so if they are feeling something – they are going to say it. Others have extraordinary filters, and they keep their emotions under severe check.

            Which side you believe that it is better to err on  probably has as much to do with your family system as it has to do with anything else. That is the human condition, there is often a battle between mind and heart.

            But sometimes this battle bleeds over into our spiritual condition. Our faith and our emotions are sometimes at odds with each other.

             This morning I want to speak to those of you who know Jesus as your saviour. You have received him into your life. You have given your life to him. But sometimes your faith, what you believe and your emotions are at odds with each other.

            I don’t know how many people have told me, I believe that God loves me, at least in my head. But it is a long piece between my head and my heart. They are saying “I know that God loves me but I don’t feel that God loves me.”

            Or---I know that I am forgiven, but I still feel guilty and ashamed before God for past sins. My faith tells me that Jesus took my sin away, my heart still feels weighted down with my past.

            Or--I know that Jesus has purified me and cleansed me from all sin, but my heart still tells me that I am not acceptable. I am from the wrong part of town. I will never be fully accepted by God.

            Our faith tells us one thing, and our hearts tell us another.

            It is really hard when your faith tells you one thing and your emotions tell you another. It is made more difficult because we know that sometimes our emotions tell us the truth. When we do something we know we shouldn’t do we feel guilt. Sometimes that is an appropriate feeling.  

            So what do we do about this tension between faith and feeling. Well in a moment I want to take you to Scripture, but before we do that let’s listen to Accapella Singing

Music. Set Me free 4:17

            What do you do when your faith tells you one thing but your emotions tell you something else.

            Let me start by taking you to
2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)
10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

            There is a kind of sorrow that is godly. There is a kind of sorrow that is worldly.

            The NLT is much more expansive in its translation. It says
2 Corinthians 7:10 (NLT)
10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

            There is a proper and true sorrow for our sin. We have sinned against a holy God. Our sin was part of what put Jesus on the cross, so we were part of the crowd that were yelling crucify him crucify him. This kind of sorrow leads us to repentance, which means turning from the way we were going and heading towards God.

            There is another kind of sorrow. Paul calls it worldly sorrow. This is the sorrow that feels sorrow over feeling sorrow. So we really blow it and we feel the weight and guilt of our sin. It is not a good feeling. We feel sorrowful, not for what we have done, nor for what we have done to God, we feel sorrowful for the guilt that we have and how it makes us feel. We feel sorrowful that we got caught.

            But our sorrow does not turn us towards God. This kind of sorrow often turns us towards ourselves. This sorrow becomes all about us. We dwell on how bad we are. Or we rationalize the situation and talk about how good we are. The sorrow is all about us. This kind of sorrow results in spiritual death.

            If we have sorrow over what we have done, the appropriate thing to happen is that it drives us towards God, it drives us towards the cross. There is a reason why Jesus died on the cross. We were guilty. Yes he takes our shame and our guilt upon himself

            But what do you do when you asked God for forgiveness but you still feel guilty. What do you do when you have had Godly sorrow, and you have repented to God, but you still feel shame?

            One of the things that could be happening that complicates things is that Satan is a liar and he is also the accuser of the brethren. One of his tricks is to bring up our past and hold it against us. He often will whisper in your ear, you know you, how do you think God can love you.

            Worse yet, he will put horrible thoughts in your mind and then condemn you by whispering in your ear, how can you think those horrible thoughts. Satan is your accuser. He does accuse you. He loves to heap guilt and shame on you.

            He calls into question the love of God and the power of the cross.

            So we have this tension. Our faith says one thing and our emotions say another things

            Have you ever been there. Maybe some of you are there right now. You are feeling really bad about who you are or really bad about what you have done. The question is, what do you do with that?

            Come with me to 1 John 3 John has been talking about loving one another. Then he says (in)

1 John 3:18–22 (NIV)
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:

            Our faith says one thing and feelings say another things. But our hope is to set our hearts at rest in his presence. When our hearts are at rest in his presence, there is not conflict between faith and feeling. That is what we really want to happen. We want what God says about us to be the same as what we feel about ourselves.

            Our hearts and our heads are aligned in the presence of God. The question is how does this happen.

1 John 3:18–19 (NIV)
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:

            The first way and the best way for this to happen is when our actions are consistent with what we believe. That is what we want. We want what we believe and how we live to be aligned.

            When those things happen, there is this confidence when we stand before God. That is always the best way. 

            But the problem is of course, that this is not always the case. Sometime we believe that we should have done more, or done less and our hearts are not at rest. Sometimes we are not sure if we did the right or the wrong thing, and our hearts are not at rest.

            The truth of the matter is that sometimes we doubt. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our actions. We doubt God. Sometimes we doubt.

            We doubt that we did enough, or that we did right. Or sometime we are pretty sure that we didn’t do right. We are pretty sure that we have done wrong. Our actions and our faith haven’t lined up.

            What do you do when you know you have blown it. What do you do when you know you have blown it. Well you know what to do.

1 John 1:9 When we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

            So you blow it, and you confess your sin. You agree with God that it was wrong. The promise of God is that you are forgiven.

            But you don’t feel forgiven. You don’t feel sometimes even like you deserve to be forgiven. Your heat and your faith don’t align. You doubt the truth of 1 John 1:9

            So what then
Verse 20

 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

            Did you catch that, so you heart condemns you. You feel guilty. You feel unworthy. You feel hopeless. You feel wrong. You feel full of doubt and fear – your heart condemns you.

            The bible says two things in response to that.

            1.God is greater than our heart and 2. he knows everything.

            It is sometimes hard to remember that God is greater than our hearts. When you are feeling guilty, the way you feel is that your guilt is bigger than God. Intellectually you know that is not true, but it feels true.

            But John tells us that God is greater than our hearts. He is bigger than your guilt. He is bigger than your fear. He is bigger than your doubt. He is greater than your despair. He is greater than your depression. He is greater than you grief. He is greater than your sadness. God is greater than our hearts.

            Some of you know what it means to be overwhelmed by emotions. You know what it is like to be completely stressed out. You know what it is like to curl up in a ball and cry. The emotion that you feel is overwhelming.

            When you get there, you wonder where God is. Your emotions are so loud that they seem to dwarf the presence of God and the voice of God. But I want you to know, God wants you to know that he is greater than your heart.

            When your heart is overwhelmed, it is no longer about the strength of your faith, it is about the greatness of God. It is no longer about your doubt, it about the faithfulness of God. It is not about your guilt it is about his mercy and grace. It is not about what your heart says about God it is about what God says about you that matters.

            The first thing that God wants you to know is that he is greater than your heart.

The second thing that God wants you to know is that he knows everything.

            Some people who are feeling bad about themselves- then they hear that God knows everything – it seems to make things worse. They think, God knows how bad I am.

            Yes, God knows that. He also knows who you really are. ‘There is nothing that you have done that has caught God by surprise. He knew what you would do and he still he called you. He still drew you to himself. He still wanted you for his very own. He knows everything and he still called you by name.

            He never looks at you and says, oh you are worse than I thought you would be. No, he knew you before you were born, and he knew all of your days – and he looks at you and says, I love you. He knows everything – he knows everything about you and yet he loves you.

            He knows all about the situation that you find yourself in. He knows the measure of your strength. Some of you feel like you should be stronger than you are – God knows how strong you are. He knows your failures that were really failures, and he knows the things you could have done differently. He knows everything – and still he loves you.

            And he knows the power of the cross. That is something that most of us will never grasp. But on the cross he paid the debt for our sin. He conquer sin and death and evil and hell. The power of cross has not lost its power. He knows the power of the cross to rescue and redeem, to heal and to save. And while you may feel hopeless, God knows everything including the power of the cross.

            So when you are languishing in that tension between your head and your heart, and I want you to know that God is greater than both those things and he knows everything.

            So on those days when you wonder where God is and you doubt yourself I want you to know that God is greater than your heart and he knows everything. I also want you to know that you could not even want to move towards God unless God were at work in you.

VERSE 21
 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.


            We of course want to keep our heads and hearts aligned. When our faith and our hearts are working together it affects our prayer life. We have confidence before God. We start to work in sync with God, so we are praying in the will of God. When we pray in the will of God, our prayers tend to get answered.

            When our faith and hearts work together it affects our prayer life, but it also affects how we live – we keep his commands and do what pleases him. .

            We kind of create a feedback loop. Our faith and our hearts align and we keep them aligned by doing what we know is right and that keeps our faith and our hearts aligned.

            Here is what you need to know. Contrary to every other religion, our faith is not about what we have done for God, our faith is in what God has done for us in the person of His son Jesus Christ. Jesus gave his life for you. Jesus paid the price for your sin. Jesus offers you the free gift of salvation. Jesus makes a way for you to know God and have a personal relationship with God. It is about Jesus.

            For those of you who have not put your faith in Jesus, I want to urge you to do that today. It is not about how bad or how good you are, it is about what Jesus has done for you. Will you ask Jesus to forgive you for every way that you have broken God’s laws. Would you ask Jesus to come into your life. Will you give your life to him.

            Some of you have wondered if God could ever love you. I want you to know that God wants a relationship with you. Your emotions may tell you that you have been too bad for God, but I want you to know that the Bible says that God is greater than your heart. It is not about what you have done for God but what God has done for you. Will you receive the work that God has done on your behalf.

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, I pray today for those who have been struggling with a conflict between their faith and their emotions. I pray, Lord, that you would show them that you are greater than their heart, that you know everything. I pray, Lord, that you would just allow their faith to arise, to say how you would talk about them and how you know them. Lord, I pray that you would help their head and their heart to align, soon. But, Lord, more than anything else, I pray that you would bring the fact that you care about them deeply, to the forefront of their mind.
Lord, help them to trust your word, in Jesus’ name, I pray. AMEN.


 If Good News in the Morning has been a factor in your journey of faith, we would love to hear your story. Nothing could encourage us more in this work.  Contact us by e-mail or Twitter via the web site:  goodnewsinthemorning.ca

            Again, a special thank you to Alice and Clifford Miller for sponsoring this program.

            Mark your calendars for May 2nd, at noon at Bethany Baptist Church, for the Good News in the morning Ask the Pastors Luncheon. For more information you can check it out on line as well.

            And Thank you for listening this morning. This program is on the air by the grace of God and donations of many faithful people. If you can help financially we would really appreciate it. You can make a cheque payable to Good News Christian Ministries,  and send it to Box 184 , Rideau Ferry , On. K0G  1W0. Or you can give online by going to goodnewsinthemorning.ca  Thanks for considering this.


May you know   Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.  May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart .  And may the heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying love

MUSIC Paul Boloche “the Same Love” 4:35


By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, April 26th, 2015: