The Emotional Nature of God

DOES GOD HAVE FEELINGS?

1. There is an experience from my childhood that remains

       indelibly imprinted on my memory. It has to do with me,

       the baby of the family, and my three older brothers

       attending a Christmas function which was intended for my

       older teenage cousins…afterwards I was threatened to

       within an inch of life never to act so childish, so out of

       control, so embarrassing to my older brothers, ever again.

B.     Many of us have been taught that a part of maturing was to

      learn to control our emotions. Emotions like: happiness,

      sadness, anger, outward affection. If the truth be told, for

      many of us this meant, not curbing our emotions, but

      killing our emotions.

C.     But where we have experienced the strictest enforcement of

      this code of conduct is in the church. My earliest

      recollections of church have to do with how solemn and

      stern everyone seemed to be. There was no laughter or even

      smiles. Worship, it seemed, was serious business. Steven

      Scoggins, the pastor of First Baptist Church in

      Hendersonville, North Carolina illustrates through the

      lyrics of a song entitled “Dancing Feet”just how sterile an

      environment the church can be. It goes like this: Don’t get

      excited, don’t let feelings out:/ You’re not Pentecostal,

      so don’t jump and shout!/ We worship in order, we

      don’t like a beat./ Why, the Devil is there when you see

      dancing feet.

D.    But maybe keeping our emotions pent up inside is the way

      it should be. After all, if that is what God is like should we

      not be like Him? But what is God like? Does He have

      emotions? If He does, would He ever express them?  If God

      were to score a winning touch down, would he calmly hand

      the ball to the referee, or would he do a celebration dance

      with his teammates in the end zone?

I.   GOD IS AN EMOTIONAL GOD.

A.    He does happiness.

1.      When you begin reading in the first chapter of the Bible you discover that God expresses great delight in what he does (…God saw that it was good…God saw that it was very good…then he gave himself a holiday because he was so delighted with what he had created.)

2.      Throughout the rest of Scripture we see repeated examples of God showing happiness when he sees people acting in ways that honor Him. The prophet Zephaniah says regarding God, “He will rejoice over you with gladness/ He will quiet you with His love,/He will rejoice over you with singing.”

3.      If God can let loose in expressions of happiness, should we not also?

4.      But God is also referred to in Scripture as a “man of sorrows.”

     B.    He does sadness.

1.      When we look at God as He is reflected to us through

      the life of Jesus, we see that when Jesus walked up to

      his dead friend Lazarus’ tomb, he didn’t put on a

      brace face – he wept.

2.      As Jesus looked upon his beloved city of Jerusalem and

      saw people wandering around wasting their lives, He

      cried bitter tears and lamented, “They’re like sheep

       without a shepherd. They’re lost.”

3.      As Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He knew what awaited Him, He tried to explain his sadness to His disciples, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” Another version says, “My soul is crushed with horror and sadness.”

4.      What does this suggest to us as to how we should handle painful experiences? Put on a “happy” face or disclose our agony?

5.      But God also does anger.

C.     God does anger.

1.      We see that God gets angry through the actions of Jesus when He enters the temple to see dishonest businessmen jacking up prices for animals that were required as sacrifices for God.

2.      While some of us find it hard even to think about God loosing His temper, others of us are caught in the trap of thinking that anger is God’s only emotion. We must remember the Scripture teaches that “…The Lord is…slow to anger.”

3.      How do we get God angry? When we intentionally sin by ignoring the Savior. In the NIRV Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we keep sinning on purpose…if we do it even after we know the truth…then there is no offering for our sins. All we can do is to wait in fear for God to judge. His blazing fire will burn up His enemies.”

4.      But, fortunately, God also does gentleness.

D.    God does gentleness.

1.      We are told in Isaiah 42:3 that “…He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the dimly burning flame.”

2.      Jesus was gentle with pesky children, with deceased lepers, down-and-out people – he touched them – he healed them.

3.      God has a gentleness that we need. Some of us need it because we’ve only known harshness from people in our lives. Whether it was a cruel parent, an unfair boss, a abusive husband, or even a rigid pastor or church, all some of us have known is judgement, derision, chastisement, and ridicule. And God says to us, “In a relationship with Me, you’ll know a kind gentleness that will meet the need of even a bruised reed and a flickering flame.”

II.  BECAUSE GOD HAS EMOTIONS WE CAN MOVE

     HIM.

A.       By our responsiveness and openness, by our trust, by our

       faith and by our obedience we can move God and send a

       smile of delight across His eternal face.

B.        On the other hand, of course, we also can break God’s heart - in Christianity, we don’t just break a rule – we break God’s heart.

C.       We can also push away Christ, become stubborn, go our

        own way, and move God toward anger.

D.       But we also can experience God’s tenderness. Some of us truly need to admit, “God, I’m like a bruised reed…I’m like a flickering flame.” If we would honestly present our condition before God, He would meet us with tenderness.

III.             GOD WANTS US TO BE AS EXPRESSIVE AS HE IS.

A.     When we become Christians, we are invited to join a relational, expressive, and vibrant family. God has sent His Holy Spirit to transfer us into a more accurate reflection of who He is, and that includes modeling His expressiveness.

B.     He invites us to express our joy, our laughter even our fun.

C.     He invites us to express full, deep, heart-wrenching sorrow – no more pretending to be “over” a painful experience. God can handle and desires to hear your sorrow and grief.

D.    Some of us need to express appropriate anger. There’s lot’s in this world to be angry about: oppression, injustice, discrimination, cruelty, euthanasia, abortion. God says, “Be angry. Then convert some of energy generated by your righteous anger into doing something about it”

E.      Other’s of us need to experience moments of tenderness. Some of us men just don’t do tender…We need to live our lives as more accurate image-bearers of our tender God.

APPLICATION

A.      In my introduction I didn’t finish the lyrics of the Baptist pastor’s song “dancing feet”. They go on: “Well, I tried to sit quietly, to keep it all in,/ But His love reached my heart, my soul started to spin/ I just wanted to tell Him, His love was so sweet./ Now His love’s in my heart and His joy’s in my feet!/ Now I get excited, my feelings get out./ Well, I’m not Pentecostal, but I still can shout!/ You can worship in order and still like a beat/ The Lord helped this Baptist to have dancing feet.”

B.       I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that these lyrics express far more than a Baptist learning to be more  expressive in his worship. They speak of a person who was freed from emotional bondage when He got a glimpse of the emotional nature of God.

C.      I hope you have caught a glimpse of the true nature of God, too. My prayer is that that glimpse transforms your life.