Hebrews 12:14-15 – Defeating Malicious Emotions – Bible study

Hebrews 12:14-15 Defeating Malicious Emotions \See "Romans 12:14-15"\ \See "Romans 8:1"\ Last week, I preached on the topic Emotional Death Grip \See "Romans 12:14"\. In that message, I presented one primary thought to you, that Christians must control their emotions. If we do not, then the opposite will happenout emotions will control us. I feel that I should follow up that message with some additional thoughts that I did not get to last week. The Bible, in teaching us to deal with our emotions, speaks of two sets of emotions that require more work to control. I wish to speak on one of those this morning, the Malicious Emptions. Last week, we looked at Pauls writing in the book of Philippians and saw that Paul used three of the great gifts of God to help him in dealing with his past. 1. Paul found the greatest power – Jesus Christ. 2. Paul found the greatest need – To forget those things which are behind. 3. Paul found the greatest goal – To gain the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Yet, these three helps alone will not give us victory of malicious emotions. This morning, lets consider some thoughts. I. Malicious emotions are perversions of the emotions God gave. A. Did God create evil? 1. Yes and no. 2. God did not actually create the evil but God created the things that created evil. 3. God created Lucifer. God created free will, God gave to Lucifer freewill and Lucifer preferred grace into sin and evil. 4. Sin and evil are then perversions of the what God did create. B. Did God create bitterness? hatred? envy? lust? greed? malice? 1. No. These are perversions of the emotions that God did create. 2. The writer of the book of Hebrews warned us specifically that we watch and guard against allowing bitterness to take root and to grow in our hearts. 3. Why? For it will trouble us and spread from us to others causing others to be defiled by it. C. How can our emotions be perverted? 1. We deal with our emotions on a daily basis. a. So much so, that perhaps we do not realize it. b. If we do it well, we will be well-rounded Christians. c. If we do not, our emotions will take control over us. 2. Example fear. a. Fear is a good emotion. (1) It alerts us to potential dangers, causes us to exercise caution, and helps us to survive. (2) Once the potential danger has passed, fear should also pass. (3) God does not want us to live in a state of fear. 1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. b. But not all people set aside their fear when the danger is past. These people live in a state different from peace. (1) They live in a state of worry. They are always fearful of something. It does not matter what. They may not know what. They are just fearful and worry. These people are being controlled by their emotions, the emotion of fear. (2) It can get even worse. They can live in a state of panic. Panic is being so fearful that you cannot function. Panic is a state of uncontrollednot uncontrollable but uncontrolledfear. (3) God gave us the emotion of fear to help us, but sin and sinful man has perverted what God gave to create emotions that are not healthy. (4) The problem is that instead of us controlling our emotions, we have perverted them and allowed our emotions to control us. D. Lets consider the malicious emotions. 1. There are a set of emotions that are a perversion of a good emotion God gave, anger. a. Anger is not a bad emotion. b. God gets angry at sin and so should we. Psalm 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. c. God commands us to use our anger but to keep it in control. Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: d. What is angers purpose? (1) Anger motivates us to deal with sin and injustice. (2) I was reading the life of young king Saul this week. The Ammonites had come against Jabesh and told them they could either die or be ruled over, but if they were going to surrender, every man would have to have his right eye poked out. Jabesh sent word to the tribes of Israel, requesting help. A newly anointed but very bashful and timid Saul was their new king. What would help this bashful, timid, backward man do something? 1Sam 11:6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. (3) So anger is given to us to motivate us to do right when our sinful nature might want to do nothing at all, but angerlike all emotions can be perverted into something with no good in it at all. 2. What can anger be perverted into? Would you consider anger as a pot of coffee? a. Anger kept hot turns to hatred. Hatred has no place in Gods kingdom. b. Anger turned up to a boil becomes wrath and rage. c. Anger boiled out of the pot leaves bitterness. d. Anger that has been diluted but not dealt with becomes resentment. 3. None of these perversions are helpful. Not one! Yet, how many are the souls who have been afflicted and controlled by these perverted emotions? 4. They have produced jealousy, envy, malice, revenge, gossip, treachery, violence, thief, rage, and even murder. 5. But never have these motions produced confession, repentance, godly sorrow, or forgiveness. E. No. They are worthless emotions that cause only harm and sin. F. Malicious emotions are perversions of the emotions that God gave. II. How do we deal with malicious emotions? A. Some would say, "You must forget the wrong done to you." 1. That is not entirely true. 2. "Isnt that what the Bible says and what you preached last week?" That is part of what the Bible says and all I had time to preach last week. 3. Someone says, "Oh, we must forgive them." a. Again, that is part of the truth but not all of the truth. b. In order for us to deal with anger properly, we must do all that the Bible teaches us to do. B. The Bible tells us three things we must do to keep from being controlled by malicious emotions. 1. We must go to the one who has offended us. Matt 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. a. \#15\ Condition – The act that starts all of this is that someone does something against us. Matt 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee. (1) Have you ever been hurt, betrayed, lied to, lied about, had something unkind said to you or done to you? (2) Congratulations. (a) You are a member of the human race because that is what people do to people. (b) You get the opportunity to obey God in something that is very spiritually challenging and rewarding. You get to work to make things right. b. \#15\ Command – God then tells us what we must do. Matt 18:15 go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. (1) Christians, good Christians, can be the more stubborn about obeying this command of Christ than about any other. (a) They say, "I didnt do wrong to him. He did wrong to me." That is the exact context of the Scripture. (b) "I cant do that. Im too hurt or mad or whatever." Then you are being controlled by your emotions and you need to regain control. 2. I will give the 2nd and 3rd later. III. We must prepare ourselves to reconcile. A. More and more, I am concluding that some people are just not able to do the things that God commands. 1. I do not think this is not because God has set the bar too high. 2. I think it is because man does not strengthen himself to obey Christ. 3. Instead, we give ourselves over to the natural man and do that which comes naturally to us. B. In order for us to obey Christ commands, we must develop a spirit capable of obedience. 1. An obeying spirit would have to be a born-again spirit. a. I repeat that salvation is necessary so often because salvation is so necessary. (1) You cannot begin to live like Christ teaches without having salvation. (2) You cannot give the forgiveness of Christ until you receive the forgiveness of Christ. b. If you do not want to wreck your health, waste your life, and ruin your friendships, you need to come to Jesus Christ. 2. An obeying spirit would have to be an obedient spirit. a. Obedience is best learned in our youth. (1) It is very hard for an older person to learn to be obedient. (2) That is due in large measure to pride and stubbornness. b. However, wherever we are in life, we must learn to obey not because we like it, want to, or think we can but we obey for obedience sake. (1) Sometimes the only reason you will have to reconcile with a person, is the that God said so. (2) Do you remember the question the child asks when given a command that he didnt think was appropriate? "Why?" (3) God is telling us to go see those who hurt us and even more, to forgive themeven when they have not acknowledged they were wrong! (a) We are going to ask God "Why?" (b) Let me tell you the first answer. Because God said so. 3. An obeying spirit would have to be a humble spirit. a. Humility and obedience go hand-in-hand. b. A proud heart cannot lower itself enough to go see a person who has done him wrong. c. Rather, the proud heart is the vengeful heart, the stubborn heart, the rebellious heart. d. So if we refuse to forgive we immediately become in need of forgiveness ourselves. e. Yet, God says He will not give it. Mt 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 4. An obeying spirit would have to be a strong spirit. a. Sometimes, the only thing that will work is muscle and brawn. b. As a younger man, I was never very strong in my upper body. (1) I did not work out with weights and my biceps were never very impressive. (2) However, I had very strong legs, I believe they would say today that I had a strong core. (3) Because of that, there would be times when I could do things that others could not do. (4) I remember once at work, several workers were attempting to move an object, and they could not. I was bashful and did not want to push my way in, so I watched from a few feet away. Once they finished, they noticed me watching and challenged me to move the object. I planted my feet firm, and scooted the object where it needed to go. The workers seemed to have a new appreciation for me after that. c. Sometimes, God calls upon us to do difficult things, such as to initiate a reconciliation and we may not want to do so. (1) You might think God ought to send you a sign or somehow direct the two of you together as an omen. (2) However, what you are going to have to do is just cinch up your belt and go do it. 5. An obey spirit would have to be a thoughtful spirit. a. By a thoughtful spirit, I mean one that can still remembers what it was like to need forgiveness. b. Every Christian had to know they were wretched and wicked in order to be saved. (1) If you do not think you were wicked, you did not get saved. (2) God does not save moral people, good people, or decent people. (3) He only saves the bottom-of-the-barrel, the scum of the earth, and the most vile and wretched of sinners. c. People who can remember how wicked they were, find it much easier to forgive others. 6. An obeying spirit must be a compassionate spirit. a. Compassion is defined as having sympathy and sorrow for another. b. No matter what wrong has been done toward you, the person that wronged you needs your pity, not your wrath. (1) Our goal in going to see someone is not to (a) Share a piece of our mind. (b) Set them straight. (c) Or to be sanctimonious. (d) It is to let them know that we love them, that God loves them, and that we need to make things right. (2) If their hearts are not right with God, we need to love them back to Jesus. (3) Sin has a way of blinding and binding the heart of those it victimizes. I must stop here but the process is not completed. This is step one defeating malicious emotions. Someone says, "I cant do that." What we call inability God often calls stubbornness and rebellion. We need to be free to serve God and to enjoy life.