These Dang Emotions (wk.6)

Good morning, CHURCH!

(Church joke of the day)

I heard this story about several children who found a dead bird, a red robin, while they were playing outside.

They felt sorry for it and decided to give it a proper burial.

They took a small shoe box, lined it with cotton, dug a hole in the back yard, and got it ready to dispose of the deceased bird.

The minister’s 5-year-old son was one of the kids so they chose him to say the eulogy.

And so, with great dignity, he inflected, “Glory be to the Father… and the Son… and into the hole he goes!”

(get it, hole he goes, Holy Ghost)

It’s kind of similar to a foreign exchange student who was in America and went to church for the first time.

When they got back in the car after service to return home they asked her what did she think about the service?

She said, “Most of it I understood but I didn’t understand why the West Coast wasn’t included at the end of the prayer?”

They didn’t know what she meant so they asked her to explain.

She said, “When they closed out the prayer they said in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Whole East Coast.”

(get it, whole east coast, Holy Ghost)

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Pray (Lord help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today.)

Let’s go to the book of Exodus 25:9 NLT for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Exodus 25:8-9 NLT

“Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them. 9 You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.

This word Tabernacle is a Hebrew word “Mishkan” which also means “residence” or “dwelling place.”

It’s also defined as any location where a person or being dwells more than temporarily.

But the Mishkan wasn’t only the dwelling place of God. It was also called “The Tent of Meeting.”

It’s where God and man met together.

Prayer is not just an action. It’s not just something you do or words you say.

Prayer is a meeting. It’s an encounter.

Prayer is a Mishkan. It’s about dwelling.

Prayer is the dwelling of God and man together.

And if we were to go just a little deeper with the meaning of the word Mishkan, it also means the remaining, the continuing, the abiding, and the inhabiting.

Do you remember how Psalms 91 starts off?

Psalms 91:1-2 NLT

Those who live in the shelter of the Most-High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.

Let’s get into today’s message.

These Dang Emotions (wk6)

In this series we’ve been covering some signs of Emotionally Immature People.

It’s been our attempt to grow up emotionally so that we can really grow up spiritually.

Foundation Scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:11 NLT

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

Today let’s start with:

Point #1

The Emotionally Immature disregard the well-being of others.

You can tell when someone is emotionally immature in this area often times based on the language they use.

The E.I. use language that relays what they want to get across with no regard for how it will affect the person they are communicating with.

They will often use the phrase, I’m just a truth teller or I’m direct.

As if the Bible doesn’t give a more mature way to speak the truth or be direct.

Ephesians 4:1-4 NLT

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

Ephesians 4:14-15 NLT

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever, they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you now concerning this area don’t fall back, lean into it.

It’s most likely that you picked up this trait as a youngster either by the way someone influential talked to you or by the way you saw someone you loved being talked to.

If this is an area you can sometime fall prey to unknowingly, it is likely that when you are triggered to be agitated, you will automatically lean into this type of language.

And guess what. You don’t have to be wrong in what you’re saying or the point you’re making, but it can still have a negative effect on the person you’re speaking to.

This type of wanton disregard for the well-being of another is wreck less and the cause for a lot of relational damage.

There is a reasonable duty we must have to care for others and thus be careful not to be negligent with our words and actions.

We must love others so much that we don’t just want them to know something, but we want them to receive that something from us.

I have a question for you?

We know that sometimes we need to be stern and authoritative to our children to make sure they understand the seriousness of a point.

But do we use that same sternness when it comes to communicating with other adults?

When and where is it appropriate?

I believe these are questions that you need to ask Holy Spirit and have him reveal what love expressed looks like in all situations.

Sometimes emotionally immature people aren’t aware of this because of my next point.

Point #2

The emotionally immature do what feels best.

What feels good at the time is not always the right thing to do.

Doing what feels best has caused so much damage relationally.

What happens when a husband is upset with his wife and feels disrespected by her?

Then he goes to work and is highly respected by another woman.

There is something in him that may make him feel like leaning into the respect he’s getting from the other woman.

That would be the immature and wrong thing to do.

What happens if a wife is feeling neglected by her husband?

And she at the same time is receiving a lot of attention from some guy at work or on social media.

She may feel like leaning into that attention because it feels good to her.

But that’s the wrong thing to do.

That’s the immature thing to do.

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

Proverbs 28:26 NLT

Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe.

When you to often lean into what feels best, it’s apparent you don’t learn from past mistakes.

Something should eventually click and tell you to stop just going with whatever makes you feel good.

Feelings are there to alert us that something is going on.

Then it’s time to use wisdom and insight to tell us which way to go concerning what we are feeling.

Proverbs 14:8 NLT

The prudent understand where they are going, but fools deceive themselves.

The emotionally immature continue to repeat behavior that has negative consequences.

Whether it’s negative consequences on other people or negative consequences on their selves.

Point #3

The Emotionally Immature don’t do internal emotional work.

When we have been wounded in certain areas of our life, those areas are now weak and fragile.

It is in this fragile state that fear kicks in to protect those weak and fragile areas from being further wounded.

Have you ever heard someone described as being rough and tough on the exterior but inside their just a teddy bear with a good heart?

Have you ever experienced talking to someone and the conversation is just going along smoothly and suddenly, they are defending themselves from you or something you said?

Have you ever been engaged in a conversation and your feeling good about it and the person then suddenly, you feel as if they are attacking you by something they said?

Fear will jump up and play the role of protector of my pain without me even knowing it.

There are wounds hiding beneath the service in our subconscious that we have learned to avoid, ignore and believe they don’t exist.

When that fear and protection check engine light goes off in us, we need to do further investigation.

We need to take a deep dive beneath the surface.

We need to talk to ourselves.

Ask tough questions of ourselves.

We need to call ourselves out on the carpet in a way that our fear doesn’t allow others to do.

Real emotional inner work is like death and rebirth.

We have to kill something in order to bring to life what needs to live.

This type of work on self will eventually strengthen you.

It will give you courage to be the real you.

It will be liberating. It will free you from bondages.

Jesus died to bring us to a place of freedom and he who the son sets free is free indeed.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?