Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

we are in this sermon series entitled Unashamed - where we have been looking at this hidden emotion called Shame.. its often consider more subjective than objective and is easily ignored..

However what we have been seeing is that Shame is an INFLUENCER - IT is one of those emotions that impacts/ or binds itself onto other emotions…

It is in someways silent emotion because Shame always wants us to hide.. it’s that that emotion that tells us that we are never match up to certain standards…these can Either be expectations that we have placed on ourselves or the expectations others have placed upon us..…the result is that we never quite feel good enough…

Emotions are essentially good because it is the way that God designed us to experience and process life… We don’t want to ignore our emotions…--However, we don’t want our emotions to control us… when our Emotions Drive our lives it leads to problems.

There is a good reason for this… Especially when we consider that our hearts have been impacted by the Fall… When Adam and Eve took of the tree of the Knowledge

of Good and Evil — they realized immediately that they were naked.. they went from enjoying a relationship with God and each other to hiding — they went from Grace… to disgrace…

The heart was impacted… In Hebrews

which is consider to be the seat or center of emotions...

Jeremiah marvelled at the deceitfulness of the heart...

Jeremiah tells us that heart is deceitful and desperately sick…(incurable) — these are strong words… not just deceitful but above all things… but incurably sick…

Have you ever thought of your Heart being Sick and incurable?

Jeremiah tells us there is a problem that lies deep inside the heart of man… that sometimes we don’t recognize..

Some of you may remember watching the live launch of the space shuttle Challenger...… It was April 1986 and I was about 16 years old at the time… Our whole class was watching… Christa McAuliffe had planned to give a lesson from space..

We all watch anticipating that things would go with out hitch.

all systems were cleared… and the count down began... nobody knew there was any problem… …and they went ahead with the Launch..

but there was something very wrong…Watch in horror as one of the tanks external tanks exploded before our eyes.…Even

though everything on the outside look right…There was something very wrong with the Challenger was wrong...

As Jeremiah Examines the Inner life… He sees that Houston there is a problem.. What is interesting is that is examing his own heart and he concludes the heart is deceitful above or else… the word diceitfulness means.. duplicitous.... Isn’t that the truth...

Our emotions pull us in different directions…

One moment we can be full with elation and joy the next minute full of frustration, anger and sadness… One moment you confident the next minute we are feel threatened and fearful..

So the Big question is ...

How do we deal with our emotions?

The first thing we need to have We is a Right view of Our hearts… We can assume like the challenger… that nothing is wrong… or avoid… dealing with our emotions… but really setting ourselves up.

Your emotions are gauges not a guide...

Our emotions are meant to report to you, not dictate you.

The pattern of your emotions will give you a reading on the gauge where your hope is -- because they are wired into what you believe and value — BUT we are not to be guided by those emotions…

Our Emotions are indicators --- but they shouldn’t guide us…

Jeremiah Enquires further about the heart… Who can understand the HEART?

Who can deal with the heart… who can help the heart?

God answers Jeremiah's question in the very next verse.

God says--- He is the one who searches the heart and examines the mind.

God knows those innermost thoughts and motives of our hearts..

He knows how to deal with each of us at a personal level....The Bible tells us that...

We are wonderfully and fearfully made --- You and I unique… .. Think about that they way that God deals with each of us is totally different ---

And He doses that Through His Spirit..

One of the greatest privileges we have as being Children of God is that we have the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, influence and guidance in our lives..

It is the Holy Spirit who brings us into sonship… we cannot be children of God without the Spirit of God…But at the same time we still dealing with our nature that has been impacted by the Fall… Our sinful nature was not eradicated… when we came to Christ...

But having his Spirit doesn’t mean that that we don’t struggle...

Paul tells us of his own struggle between his heart and his actions..

In chapter 7 He shares the problem and then in Chapter 8 he share the Remedy… That there is a CURE for the Heart…

There is another Law that is in operation and its the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus...

When we live under the law of the spirit there in no more condemnation.…

Even though we struggle with the flesh we are no longer under its power to SHAME US… Condemnation is a legal term to declare one Guilty..,,

Even though we struggle with the Flesh we are not under the condemnation or the Shame of Sin…

In Verse 12 Paul tells us How we are to deal with the Conflict between Flesh and Spirit..

Now It would be easy if we could clearly see this line between the spiritual and flesh realm… It’s not simply these people out there in the world of ruled by the flesh and Christians are not....

It simply not true or the case… because the fall had 100% impact on humanity....

When the scripture says the heart is desperately incurably sick… He is not thinking about your neighbor --- He is thinking about us...

One commentator put it like this.

“The boundaries between the realm of the Spirit and the realm of the flesh … do not run simply and clearly between the believers on the one side and the nonbelievers, but go right through the believers, through each individual believer” (Kuss, 596–97)

Paul tells us the Way we deal with the Flesh — and the condemnation that comes with the law of sin and death...

1..

We Stop all Payments…

These days business do things via Subscriptions… Business know that if they can get you to subscribe they will have your income for much longer… The problem happens when you forget about a subscription… or you want to cancel a subscription…

Well this is the same thing going on in our Text… We were subscribed to the Flesh… but now in Christ the subscription has been cancelled and you are no longer obligated..

Jesus paid for the whole thing in full… on the cross....

We need to stop payments.... the way we do this is through the Power of the HS -

13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live

2. We surrender to the Holy Spirit...

When we are led by emotions — We judge everything according to our feelings… We judges something as good because “feels good.”

Life is Good when I feel Good… But What the Spirit does is lead us into Truth… Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure..

And he said that the Holy Spirit would come --- He would would guide into truth..

Just like Jesus was sent into the World so the Holy Spirt was sent.. Jesus said that he would goto the father and ask Him to send the Holy Spirit… The Holy Spirit would not just come upon people like in the OT.. but he would endwel believers..

One of his Roles is that he would lead an guide...

John Chrysostom - bishop in the 3rd Century… said is helpful...

“ For as believers we do not merely live in the Spirit; we are led by him as well.

The Spirit is meant to have the same power over us as a pilot has over his ship or a charioteer over his horses.

And it is not only the body but the soul also which is meant to be controlled in this way.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

One of the common mistakes that is made with the Holy Spirit has to do with confusing the Work of the HS (that His power) with the person of the HS (His relationship to God and the world)— I grew up in a tradition that emphasized the Power of the Holy Spirit… This idea comes from the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts… Before Jesus ascended he commanded his disciples to go to Jerusalem and to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit...

The emphasis is on the Work (ministry of the Holy Spirit… that the church would be empowered to be witnesses - But there is a big difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and the person of the Holy Spirit…

Have you noticed that Jesus never referred to the Holy Spirit as it or an energy or a force… but rather used the Pronoun He.. when speaking of the HS… Because the HS is a person.

There is a big difference between personality and a power..

He … a person.

In Ephesians 4:30, the Holy Spirit is said to be grieved.

You can grieve the Holy Spirit.

In Hebrews 10:29, it says you can outrage the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 15, it says the Holy Spirit loves.

So he loves, he’s grieved, he’s outraged.

An impersonal force cannot feel those feelings.

That’s a person.

A person has a mind, Emotions and a Will.

Here is the thing…

If we think of the Holy Spirit as a mysterious power, our thought will continually be, “How can I get more of the Holy Spirit?”

Tim Keller - says that if we see the Holy Spirit as a Force - we are always going to go about it in a mechanical way..

In middle eastern thought - god is conceived as a impersonal force… therefore, its approach is meditation, but the meditation is always emptying the mind of rational thought, emptying the mind of words.

Why?

Because we’re trying to get in touch with the force.

However If we think of the Holy Spirit as a person, our thought will be, “How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?”

Not only is the HS a person… but..

2. The Holy Spirit is God!

He’s not only a person; he’s God.

For example,

In John 14 Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to be leaving them but not be alarmed because he is going to send them another helper!

The comforter… the Holy Spirit — Holy Spirit would be with them forever..

The first thing we notice in our text is that Jesus doesn’t say I’m sending you my power… or simply a helper… but he uses the word Another… Another Helper.

There are two GR word for Another..

The one Greek word for another is hetero, which means, actually, opposed or different to the former.

The other Greek word that could be used is allos, which means just like the former

This second usage is what is being used in our text.. - The helper who he would be sending would be just like the former comforter...