Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

Can you imagine a world without Emotions?

Just think about if you never heard or saw or experienced emotions...

It would be pretty dull and boring… Without emotions, we would all be like the fictitious Mr. Spock on the television series, Star Trek.

Apparently because he was from the planet Vulcan, he was not endowed with any emotions.

Emotions are what make us Human …it is what brings life, fuel and energy into our world.

We express feelings (emotions) in a plethora of ways - through our words, our Songs, our music, our Poetry, our Art, through language, humor, through our facial expressions, through our moods, through our thoughts… on and on…

Emotions are what make us human… And we pretty much controlled by our feelings.

The human personality is said to consist of roughly four-fifths emotions and one-fifth intellect.

This means that our decisions are arrived at on the basis of 80 percent emotion and only 20 percent intellect.

To engage in a confrontation, or even a discussion, without taking emotions into account is to be only 20 percent effective in your dealings with people..

Aristotle talked about three things involved in art of persuasion… The first is (Logos) our Words, Second is our Credibility/ who we are (Ethos) and lastly.. (Pathos) which our emotion… These three things together are essential for human connection… if we don’t feel it — we are not going to act on it…

We need to understand God has created us with emotions, feelings, and affections, which are important for our lives and our relationship with God… the problem is that sin impacted our emotions… we suffer from negative emotions that are often subjected to our circumstances… Good news is that Christ can redeem and restore our emotions… Instead of being ruled by emotions they can be spirit controlled..

It is generally agreed that basic emotions are hardwired into the human nature....

There are different lists of emotions… there were initially 6 -anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

This was Developed by the psychologist Paul Ekman, this theory treats these feelings as unconnected islands — basically, building blocks that can be the foundation of more complex emotions.

Anticipation, for example, could be broken down into fear and happiness.

then 8 now they have identified 27 basic emotions… There is even a list of 412 emotions that all correspond with human experience (Preaching today)…

Emotions are unique to the human experience regardless of who you are.. and basic emotions seem to be hardwired into our human make up.

For example in another study done by Ekman (1975) They Discovered that facial expressions like anger, fear, sadness, and happiness are similar across various cultures… Even Blind children, having never seen a face, show similar facial expressions when they experience certain primary emotions such as anger, sadness, and happiness....

What is the purpose of our emotions emotions?

a.

Our emotions enable us to experience life as God intended us to experience it.

The Bible is full of Emotion.. Anger, love, passion, joy, sadness, remorse…That’s why we often turn to the psalms when we are looking for comfort… because it meets our emotional needs..

John Calvin referred to the book of Psalms as “an anatomy of all the parts of the soul.”

There is not an emotion that we can feel that doesn’t come to the surface in the book of Psalms.

Everything that we feel we can find articulated in one psalm or another.

Emotions are the way that we experience life..

b.

Secondly, emotions are the energy of the soul.

Just as physical energy is necessary for doing physical work or play, so emotional energy is necessary for the activities of the soul.

Have you ever got home after along day… and you got something to do.. you just don’t have the motivation --- or the emotional whereabouts… You said, “I just don’t have emotional energy to do that”

There is not enough fuel in the tank… Emotions Fuels the soul…

c.

Thirdly, emotions function as signals, to act as an early warning system.

These signals enable our minds to “sense” that something is happening even before we have had time to think it through clearly-

For example the proper role of fear is to protect us from danger… get us moving --- gets us out of danger and harm.... but when you fear and you not in danger — It’s a panic attack… your hearts racing… but there is nothing to run from…

There is a purpose for emotions but the problem --- that often these base emotions are impacted by the master emotion of shame.... we often don’t detect it...

When our emotions get locked behind the “door of shame” and we fail to respond to those signals that God intended and we are not able to function fully in how God has created us to operate..

When we see life through a shame-grid causes you to receive words, external circumstances and events, and the way others treat you as an indictment—a judgment that you aren’t good enough as a person.

You interpret words and actions to mean more than what they really mean; in other words, you readily assume that people see you as a lesser person.

Ultimately Shame impacts our behavior

When we live with a shamed-based set of behaviors, we are robbed of the freedom to discover who we really are and what God wants us to be.

With unresolved shame in our lives, we are not free to become what God has called us to be.

So how does Shame impact Fear?

The emotion of fear is a strong emotion - purpose of Fear is really for our protection… its that flight and flee response....

FEAR is a Natural emotional response to a perceived threat to one’s security or general welfare.

It can be a useful emotion when it leads to appropriate caution or measures that would guard one’s welfare.

However when Fear is influence by shame —

It leads to things like responsible hypertension, anxiety, panic and depression…

On the surface maybe we look like everything is fine --- but underneath we fear the consequences of something…

What if… If this happens then....

Fear is this sense that I have no control… so Fear makes us want to hide and to avoid conflict…

T/s How do we disarm the effects of shame and fear ?

1. Recognize patterns and Identify Root causes.

We going to look at Gideon… and see how shame impacted his life…

Gideon lived during the period of the Judges…

During the time of the Judges there was a huge vacuum of godly leadership.

There was no Spiritual leadership or prophetic words and the result is that Israel drifted away from God.

They started doing what felt natural and that was be led by their emotions…

Summarizes this period well…

The result of being led by their emotions, led to this unhealthy pattern… And it comes up over and over in the book of Judges..

a.

When their was peace in the Land…People let down their guard and they became complacent.

When everything was going well they did find a need for God..

b.

But after some time they would drift away from relationship with God…they would focus on “more important things” and focus on other priorities… They didn’t just forget God but began to chase after foreign gods...

c.

After some time God would lift his hand from Israel and without His protection, the were left wide open for foreign nations to invade the land.

d.

At this point the people would realize what had happened… How far they were from God… The would begin to call out to God for help...

e. God in His grace and Mercy would raise ups a Judge or deliver to save Israel...

So this is the same "wash" cycle that was repeated again and again…

What is interesting is that we see a whole nation being led by their emotions… What feels good...

This is what is going on in Judges 6..

Israel is back in the wash cycle.. this unhealthy pattern of being led by their feelings and they not focused and chasing after the wrong things...

They had enjoyed a period of peace of about 40 years under the leadership of Deborah and Barak.

This was a younger generations that had now forgotten the lessons of the previous generation ---

the majority now were under 60 years and had forgotten about no memory of oppression..

The became comfortable and drifted from God…

Before they knew it they found themselves at the Mercy of the Midianites…

Every year around harvest time the Midianites and Amalekites show up in large number… like a swarm of locusts and steal everything that Israel had worked for....

Notice that Israel had not neglected their work life.... they had a good work ethic… They had put in the hours --- they had done the hard work…

The had done everything need to get a harvest… They had however neglected their spiritual life…and for seven years they had been locked into this unhealthy pattern.

If we find ourselves working hard…

and getting exhausted we need to look at the pattern — after seven years… you can see a pattern… then you need question of neglect…

We don’t have to go looking to find out what is going with Israel— because verse One tells us exactly.. what is happening...

1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

While Israel doing what is right in their own eyes… (being led by their emotions) they are neglecting doing what is right in the sight of God....

Israel thought the problem was the Midianites, but the real problem was Israel.

How often do we look at what has happened to us…and we neglect to see what is happening right in front of us… It would be easy to blame the Midianites and the Amalikites… They back again… nothing we can do because there so many of them… I guess we just going to have live with it...

It is amazing what we are blinded too when we are looking a the wrong things..Israel had failed to see what going on in their own back yard…

The whole land has gone over to Baal worship, the ancient Canaanite god.

The whole land is overrun with his image.

As they brought Idols into their homes and lives they began to squeeze God out and their are consequences for Idol worshiop.

God gives Israel into the hands of the Midianites and He removes his hand of protection and blessing.

Israel find themselves in a Cycle of Despair… They are locked into a situation where they not quite sure how they got there… They keep on working and getting no result.

everytime they thought that things were going to get better… the The Midianites would come in and ravish the land..The message say they marched in and devastated the country.

You don’t only have to recognize the pattern you have to get down to the root issue..

Israel found themselves Hiding..