Renovating Our Feelings
Renovate

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Lord , we come to You asking for that very thing–that You would ignite a fire within us and that Your Holy Spirit would be a consuming fire for revival. Let it begin in us; in our church. Let it sweep out over the city.

We pray for other churches that are meeting this morning. We want to lift up a church that we collaborate with; it is Peace Church. We pray for their services today and we pray for pastor Rusty Russell at Peace Church. Rusty is a dear friend of ours and we work together for the revival in this city. Lord, we recognize that there are pastors preaching today all over the city. Lord, we’re one of those places that’s preaching the gospel. I pray revival would break out and reach all of eastern North Carolina. Let it start with us. Let it start with each individual’s heart this morning.

Lord, we’re also reminded that today is the day that we remember the sanctity of human life. Lord, we pray for that one that might be with us right now; they’re watching online or maybe they’re present with us in person today and they have experienced the pain of an abortion. They’ve not really known how to feel about it, how to grieve and how to move forward. We pray for them as we offer this message from You today. We pray that those kinds of griefs and hurts might be found healed by Jesus and not just those kinds, but all the kinds of ways that we hurt ourselves. Lord,bring us into the presence of the Spirit today to find healing and wholeness. Lord, set a fire in our souls for You in Jesus’ name, Amen.

We’re in part three of our series, “Renovate.” We’re not talking about renovating our house, garage or kitchen. We are talking about renovation of the heart. Today, as we think about the heart, we think about the heart as the “seat of the will.” The “driver’s seat,” if you will, of how we make decisions for our life. The truth is, life doesn’t really change unless there’s heart change. We think if we change outward things that we can somehow change our lives, but real life change comes from the inside, not from the outside.

Our theme verse is from Proverbs 4:23 (ESV) “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Life comes from the heart; it comes from the inside out. The heart is like the “control center” of our lives. It’s where we make decisions.

As we talked last week, one of the places, one of the inputs, is our thought life. This week, we’re talking about another place that influences our decision making– our heart is our feelings influencer. In fact, many of us would admit that we make most of our decisions based on how we feel. We are going to talk about that today.

Here’s what Dr. Willard says in his book, “The Renovation of the Heart.” He writes, “Feelings live on the front rowof our lives like unruly children clamoring for attention.” Our feelings are those things that are the loudest inside of us, speaking and clamoring for us to follow how we feel. It’s how we greet each other, isn’t it? We’ll say to a total stranger, we’ll bump into them at Food Lion and we’ll ask, “Hey, how are you?” We don’t expect them to say how they’re doing. In fact, if they look at us and say, ‘Well, I’m just so depressed,’ we will think to ourselves, What have I gotten myself into? “How are you?” is a way of greeting. We don’t walk up to somebody and ask, “What are you thinking?” People would think, That’s none of your business. If we ask, “How are you?” we are really saying, “How are you feeling?” but they’ll answer right away, “Doing fine and you?” You will lie back and say, “I’m good.”

The truth is, we’re not, we’re not good. Stuff is going on; there’s always something going on. We have feelings. We greet each other that way because feelings are so much the mark of how we live. The truth is, feelings can be both a blessing and a curse. Nobody wants to live without feeling, but yet, our feelings can misguide us. They’re so central to our lives that we often make decisions that way.

You can put feelings into categories. There’s a whole description of feelings, but you can put them into simple categories – pleasurable or painful. I was thinking about this this week and I was thinking, If I asked some guys in the church to give me a list of feelings based on color, some would say, “I’m blue.” I feel like the ladies’ list would be longer because, based on color, having to use color to describe feelings, she might say blue , “I’m aquamarine with shades of blue and green.” The truth is, ladies are more in touch with their feelings and they’re able to be more descriptive about it. Guys are less; they really only have two prominent feelings that they feel; one of those is anger. They know that one – the red. We know that feelings can be pleasurable or painful. Those are the two categories that describe how feelings feel.

There might be two categories of their effect on us–pleasurable or painful, helpful or harmful. Here’s what we assume– if it’s pleasurable, it must be helpful and if it’s painful it must be harmful. This couldn’t be farther from the truth because sometimes feelings of pain are helpful and feelings of pleasure are harmful. What I’m trying to tell you is you can’t base your life on your feelings because the truth is, feelings are only the top note that’s radiating out of a condition that’s underneath it. Feelings are a response to an underlying condition. If you base your life on feelings, you’re not getting at the condition and the condition might be true or false. It might be right or wrong. You’re making a decision on how you feel about it.

We’ve entitled today’s message, “Renovating our Feelings,” because feelings are so important to our heart. Let me ask the question and actually mean it this time; “How are you feeling today? “Are you excited or bored?” “Are you enthusiastic or complacent?” “Do you feel love or hate?” “Do you feel joy or do you feel grief?” “Do you feel peace or are you worried and anxious?” Do you have contentment or anger?” Are you self aware? Can you even answer the question of how you feel? Are you able to know how you feel, where it’s coming from and the condition that underlines it? Are you able to go before the Lord and ask for His help, that you could go before Him and say, ‘Why do I feel this way? Is this actually helpful to my life or should this feeling be validated or invalidated and replaced with a feeling that You approve of?’ These are questions we can ask and bring before the Lord. If you’re not able to bring your feelings before the Lord, then is your life more like a ship without an anchor, that’s just driven to and fro by every wind and wave or based on whether or not you ate pepperoni pizza the night before? Does your life look like a roller coaster; do your feelings go up and down all the time? Is there a better way? What moves you? What touches you? What gives you a buzz? What makes you feel high or low? Is that how your life runs?

Feelings can be good servants, but terrible masters. When you put your feelings in charge, you can end up in a ditch. It’s not good to be unfeeling though. We’re not saying that, as believers, we should be stoics like the Star Trek Vulcan character, Spock, or we should somehow put our feelings away. Nor, should we be so overwhelmed by our feelings that we’re just going everywhere all the time. There’s gotta be a better way. Our feelings can be renovated by the Lord.

Do you believe this? This is what we’re talking about today. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia, he taught them how to yield their feelings to the Lord, for His examination and renovation, so that they could put away feelings that are harmful and put on a new way of life. A new way of feeling about life that really gives you better information for your heart to make decisions.

As we look at the text, I believe that we can yield our hearts and our feelings to the Lord. As we look at the text , we’ll see three ways that we can do this. Let’s dig in.

Galatians 5:16-25 (ESV) 16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those whobelong belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” This is God’s word.

HOW TO YIELD OUR FEELINGS TO GOD FOR RENOVATION:

1. Rely on the Spirit to overcome and replace your old desires.

Notice in verse 16, Paul is speaking; he says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit…” this is a command. This is in the Greek imperative. You’re a believer; stop living according to your feelings and your former desires. Walk by the spirit. Now the word, “walk,” was a Jewish way of describing your lifestyle, your mode of living, the walk of your life, your everyday life, to walk, to rely on, to be empowered by and to be directed by the spirit. It is not the way you feel; it is not your desires, especially those that are still colored by your old sin nature . He’s saying to live like this and if you do, you’ll no longer live like that. You’ll live in a new way. You’ll live by the Spirit. He says that if you walk by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The word, “gratify,” in the Greek has the idea, “to fulfill to the limit.” You’ll no longer pursue to the limit the feelings and desires of your former life. You won’t keep trying to do that. The word, “desire,” here could be translated, “lust” or “over desire over much.” In Greek, it means “epithumía.” “Epi” means above or high and “thumia” has to do with heat; that you have an overheated desire for things. Is it evil to have desires? No. God gave us good desires. He gave us hunger –it’s a desire for food, but then we have an “over desire” and we overeat. He gave us thirst, but then we have an “over desire” . The sin nature tends to fall into “over desire” or lust. Desires start out from the Lord as good, but then sin warps them and causes them to move from the helpful category to the harmful category. What starts out being pleasurable, brings great pain. Feelings are not to be trusted in and of themselves because they’re fickle. They’re only describing some inner condition that they’ve not yet rooted out.

If you walk by the Spirit, you won’t continue to fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh doesn’t necessarily mean this; it means the old sin nature, your old way of thinking and feeling. Notice the word, “against;” it’s there twice in verse 17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” There’s a war going on. There’s a battle for your heart. The Spirit says, ‘Let me help you make decisions in your life.’

The heart is the driver’s seat. The heart is where you make decisions ; then, you’ve got thoughts bombarding your ideas, images and feelings about those ideas and images. They’re informing the heart.

If you’re a born again Christian, the Holy Spirit is saying to you, ‘Let me tell you which of these are true or false. Let me tell you which of these are good or bad.’ The Spirit is helping you filter those through truth or through light, so he brings them to light. You don’t have to just give in to them anymore, , but you can recognize that they’re battling for the steering wheel, the control of your heart. Recognize the opposition.

As a result, it says in verse 17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Opposition is in order to keep you from doing the things you want to do because as a born again Christian, you want to follow the Spirit. You have a new “want to” but the old nature is in opposition to your new “want to.”

Take some time maybe this afternoon if you have a chance and read Romans, chapter 7. You’ll read about how Paul talks about the old nature and the new nature being at war. He concludes the chapter by saying in verse 24 “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We have liberty in Jesus Christ; He set us free, but there’s this battle between our feelings and the Spirits’ feelings, our desires and the Spirit’s desires. How do we manage this? We can’t overcome it through our own self improvement course. We need the Holy Spirit to replace those old feelings.

What causes someone to be an addict is they have a feeling that they need something in order to get by. They have a feeling that they need help coping because they have an underlying condition. There are layers of feelings. I have anxiety and why do I have anxiety? Under the anxiety is because I’m worried. Under the anxiety is that I’m afraid; I’m fearful about something. It’s complex . The heart is complex. Who can know it? Only the Lord. He helps you go through those layers and asks, Here’s why I have this “over much” appetite for alcohol. It’s through all of these feelings right here.

There’s this condition right here, there’s this condition of your heart and of who you are. We can’t do this on our own. We need a counselor; someone to guide you. We need the Holy Spirit, whose names are “advocate, “helper” and “counselor.” He’s the best at it because He can see your heart. He can help you go down through it, so be filled with the Spirit.

It says in Ephesians 5:18 (ESV) “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” Paul tells us to think of it like this, that instead of being under the influence of something like alcohol, to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That’s the context. It’s odd when you first read it– instead of being drunk with wine, be filled with the spirit. Why? Because both of them influence your decision making. This is what Paul is saying, to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit, walk by the Spirit and rely on the Spirit instead of the way you used to be, driven to and fro by your muddled thoughts and your feelings that you don’t even know where they’re radiating from.

In Philippians, chapter two, it talks about how God can do this in us. It says, in Philippians 2:13 (NLT) “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” God wants to give you a new way of feeling, a better way of feeling so that you feel as He feels about things. Isn’t that wonderful?

In Dr. Willard’s book, “Renovation of the Heart,” he talks about a woman, but He says it could have just as well have been a man. He chose a woman that he’s telling the story about, who was taken up in the thought that she had been treated unfairly for years in her marriage and in her job. Rather than sensibly addressing the circumstances or just turning her mind away from this thought, she received it and brooded over it for years, developing a tremendous sense of injustice and outrage. She, also, welcomes and cultivates, with the aid of sympathetic friends, this bitterness. He doesn’t write this, but I kind of visualize what I see on facebook. Sometimes. I’ll see a young woman make some statement about how she feels and someone will write, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s such a harmful feeling that she’s describing.’ And then, I’ll see twenty women affirm her for that horrible feeling. The woman’s feelings are deepened with injustice and outrage. Feelings are fickle; they are not to be trusted. They are good servants, but they’re horrible masters. This is what’s happened to her. She has the aid of sympathetic friends saying, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve been treated unjustly. You have a horrible husband and boss at work.’ They just agree with everything she says and she develops a root of bitterness.

Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 15 talks about the root of bitterness that gets in our souls and gradually spreads over her whole personality. It takes over everything. It seeps into this woman’s body and soul so that even the way she moves and the look on her face is marked by the root of bitterness. It begins to permeate everything about her. It oozes out of her through her emotions and actions. It affects their capacity to see what’s actually going on and it all started with a thought and a feeling that was mishandled; it now affects the direction of her life. You can’t reason with this woman now because reason will not help. What needs to happen now, is that the light of Christ needs to shine in her life so that she can see. “Spiritual surgery” is needed and only the Holy Spirit is qualified to do it.

You can trust Him because He’s not out to hurt you. You can go ahead and say, ‘look at my heart and look at my feelings.’ He will not judge you. He wants to help. You can’t say that about anybody else but about the Counselor (capital C), the Holy Spirit. Oh, He loves you. He can help. Will you surrender your life and your feelings to Him and rely on Him to overcome your old desires and feelings and replace them with new ones?

HOW TO YIELD OUR FEELINGS TO GOD FOR RENOVATION: 2. Let the Spirit lead in revealing and correcting your feelings.

Let the Spirit lead. Notice that, in verse 18, it says this, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Earlier, he said, “walk by the Spirit.” Now he says to be led by the Spirit; let Him lead. Let the Spirit be your “GPS;” let Him lead. “But if you were led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

I’m talking to the older folks; folks in my age group. Do you remember when we used to order maps from trip AAA? We were going on vacation that summer; maybe, we were going to the Grand Canyon. So, being a AAA member, you would call them (because there was no internet.) You would tell them, “I’m going to the Grand Canyon from Wilson, North Carolina.” They would send you a map, with the highlighted best route and with brochures for the best hotels and restaurants along the way. You would get that map out and lay it out. You’d start planning. The day of vacation arrives and as you’re driving, you’re trying to peep over that thing. If you were in my car, I got one of my kids to read the map. You did the best you could; you still made wrong turns. You’d see some guy on the side of the road with the whole map spread out on the hood of his car trying to figure that out.

That’s what the law is. The law is like a map and we don’t have the wisdom to know how to follow it, nor the power to do it, but the Holy Spirit that lives within you is like an internal GPS that says, ‘Turn here. Go there. Do this. Feel that. If you’ll just trust Me, I’ll get you there.’

I was driving back from Virginia this past Fall and we hit some traffic on interstate 40. It was bad. I was thinking, Oh man, I thought we were going to get home by this time, but then, my GPS interrupts and comes through the speakers and says, “There’s an accident ahead. Alternate routes suggested.” I am thinking, What alternate route? So, I hit my phone and it changed everything, ‘Turn here.’ I don’t usually go this way, but I’m gonna trust you, GPS. I don’t know if you talk to yours or not, but I do, sometimes. This is the way I always go, but you say there’s a wreck ahead. Now, I couldn’t see up there, but apparently there was a huge wreck in the Raleigh area and I saved myself time by taking this alternate route. A map would have never helped me with that, but my GPS saw the future somehow, or saw what was happening. I don’t know how it all works, but it worked. That’s just human technology.

That is, also, the Holy Spirit. You may think to yourself, This is the way I always go; it’s tried and true. But the Holy Spirit wants to say, ‘Trust me, take an alternate route. There’s a terrible accident ahead.’ You can follow His lead. You don’t have to keep following the “tried and true” feelings that you used to have about life. There’s a better way. You can be led by the Spirit. You’re not under the law. You don’t have to follow maps anymore. You have the spirit living inside of you; follow Him. Trust Him.

Then, Paul gives you fifteen ugly descriptions of how your old life of your sin nature and your old feelings lead you astray. It’s not a pretty list; it’s fifteen random “mud clods” thrown at the wall. It is like Paul got so sick of listing them that he just ran out of air. He could have listed more. There’s nothing beautiful about them. (1) Sexual immorality – the Greek word there is “Porneia.” This is inappropriate sex that’s not according to the design that God made us for. (2) Impurity (3) sensuality (4) idolatry. Number 5 is sorcery– it’s “pharmakeia” in the Greek; drugs and sorcery are somehow connected. (6) Enmity, (7) strife, (8) jealousy (9) fits of anger (10) rivalries (11)dissensions, (12) divisions, (13) envy, (14) drunkenness, (15) orgies and things like these. Paul ran out of breath. It is where over desire leads; it starts out pleasurable and ends up causing the greatest kind of pain. You thought it was helpful, but it actually turned out to be so harmful. That’s what the former life looks like.

Paul says that I warn you and I’ve warned you about this before – those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is not how kingdom citizens live. They do not live according to their former feelings, their former addictions, their former desires. They’ve got a new way of living. They’re led by the Spirit. Paul warns us about this. It doesn’t lead to good. It leads to harm.

James begins to answer the question about where this junk comes from this list. James 4:1-3 (ESV) 1 “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” You’re ruled by your passions, desires and feelings rather than by the Spirit of God. We’re to be led by the Spirit.

Romans 8:12-14 (NLT) 12 “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” You don’t have to keep living that way. You don’t have to keep living the way you used to live, with your old identities. False identities are usually connected to false feelings. We have a whole generation now being raised up about how what they feel is more true than reality. We’ve elevated feelings up to the throne of idolatry that this is the truest thing. How I feel is more true than what God’s word says about me, what my biology says about me, if I look in the mirror and know how I feel, it is the most true. We’ve “shipwrecked” a whole generation with these nonsense feelings. They are not to be trusted. Again, they are good servants, but terrible masters.

It didn’t take long for humanity, after the sin of Adam and Eve, to stumble into following their feelings rather than following the Lord. There were two young men, the first born of Adam and Eve, Cain and the second born, Abel. They had both offered sacrifices. Abel offered a blood sacrifice, a first- born lamb and Cain offered some vegetables from his garden. Now, we don’t know the back story, but we must imply that Cain and Abel knew what was appropriate. But if they didn’t, they were certainly informed afterwards because God said He didn’t approve of Cain’s offering but He did approve of Abel’s offering. In Genesis, chapter four, God is talking to Cain about his feelings and trying to help him. Genesis 4:6-7 (NLT) 6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Dejection is on Cain’s face. He will be accepted if he does what is right; it requires a blood sacrifice because life is in the blood. The Messiah, someday, will come as the fulfillment of that blood sacrifice. Abel got it right; his younger brother got it right. The older brother now is prideful, angry and dejected. “If you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching behind your door and it’s eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master because our heart is supposed to overrule our feelings. Our feelings are always suspect; God tells Cain this, but Cain doesn’t listen. He invites his brother out to look on the farm and look at some things in the field; he takes him to a private place and he murders him. It began as a feeling that he followed.

Will you let the Spirit lead you in revealing and correcting your feelings? Will you say, ‘Lord, I trust You. I have this feeling of anger. I have this feeling of unforgiveness, I have this feeling of bitterness. I have this feeling of woundedness. Lord, what’s the underlying condition that causes this feeling? Help me to know if I should own this feeling or disown it so that I’m no longer ruled by this feeling. Replace it with a new feeling. Do I have a right to this anger? Is it appropriate ? Is it righteous anger or is it prideful anger?’ What kind of anger did Cain have? It was prideful anger. His little brother got it right and he got it wrong, so he killed him.

That’s in all of us. Why am I angry? Does this person deserve my anger ? Do I deserve this feeling? Holy Spirit, look at the root of this in me because I trust You. Give me an alternate route, so that I don’t drive into the accident that waits for me ahead. I want to follow the Spirit’s leadership.

HOW TO YIELD OUR FEELINGS TO GOD FOR RENOVATION:

3. Pursue the Spirit’s fruit, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Walk by the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit. Pursue the Spirit’s fruit, which is yours in Christ Jesus. We’re in verses 22 and following. Now notice the word, but this is in contrast to the previous list of the ugly fifteen list. “The fruit,” singular, not fruits, not plural but singular, one fruit with nine seeds, nine character traits of the fruit.

What fruit stand do you go to purchase this fruit? Where do you go to get this? That first hand only accepts one coin and it’s the coin of Christ Who paid in full that we might purchase the fruit of the Spirit. It’s already paid for. All that you need to do is to go up and say, ‘I have Jesus. Give me the fruit. It’s already mine in Christ.

The list earlier was the works of the flesh; in the Greek, it is the stuff that oozes out of the flesh that it works out, but fruit Is that which comes as a result of being connected to the vine. Jesus says in John 15:5 (NKJV) “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” You can’t bear this list of fruit unless you’re connected to Jesus. He’s the source. Jesus provides life. What’s my job? My job is to hang on and abide. That’s active. It’s not passive.

Grace is opposed to earning but not effort. What’s the effort? Hang on, receive, ask for it and put off wrong feelings. Put on what flows from the vine, from Christ the fruit of the Spirit and then what begins to pop out in your life.

This is a ridiculous observation, but I’m going to make it anyway. Have you ever been in an apple orchard and heard the tree striving to make an apple? No. It’s just life flowing up through the apple tree and apples form, preceded by beautiful flowers and then fruit. It’s not effort, it’s connection to the vine. So, the effort is to hang on,. The effort is to abide. Walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit and then pursue the fruit of the Spirit. I want it to flow in me and through me to others.

What does it look like? Instead of the list of the ugly fifteen (and then some)it’s a triad of triads. It’s three groups of threes like the number of the Godhead–the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s beautiful, it’s symmetrical, It’s wonderful. It’s all one yet nine. We have love, joy and peace in the first triad, which is of the mind and feelings. It describes a state of how you feel about things.

Then, we have a second triad– patience, kindness and goodness, which describes how we relate in social relationships. We’re patient with other people. We’re kind. We’re good. It begins to radiate out.

The third triad is faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It speaks of Christian conduct; how we conduct ourselves. You see the beauty of this; one flows out of the next one. The top three describe the condition of feeling of the believer that’s walking in the spirit, being led by the Spirit, and is abiding in Christ. It’s the nonstop condition of their feelings. It’s first of all love, “agape” love; God’s kind of love. It is unconditional love; love that never quits, never gives up. It’s that kind of love.

You can picture love like the big container of those Russian nesting dolls, where you pull the head off of this one and then you pull out another one. Here’s love and here’s joy. Joy is just slightly smaller than love; it comes out of love. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy… What kind of joy is this? It’s kindness in love. It’s an unconquerable joy.

You might be suffering. You might have been told by the doctor that you have cancer. You might be waiting for a surgery. You might have just lost your job and you feel painful feelings, but because you’re abiding in the Spirit, you have unconquerable joy in the midst of it . People may ask you, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why is there a smile on your face after hearing this news? Why do you have this joy?’ It’s not based on happenings. Happiness comes from favorable happenings, but joy comes from the Lord. You have a better feeling that’s superior to happiness. You have joy and it’s unconquerable.

Out of love and joy comes peace; “shalom” in Hebrew. It is a sense of contented wellness that all things are well. All things were well, all things are well and all things will be well. It’s a sense of hope that says ‘My peace cannot be influenced by anxiety and worry because God has never left the throne. Although things don’t look so good, I know on the inside this truth from God’s word because it causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I know that I’m okay and I will be okay and all things will be okay because Christ is Lord.’

What’s wrong with you? Why do you seem to have such peace in the eye of this storm? I have Jesus. It’s gonna be okay. How do you know that? Well, my GPS says that there’s an accident ahead, but if I take this alternate route I’m going to be okay. Well, you’ve been on that route before. He says it’s okay, so I believe it. No one can take my love and my joy and peace. No condition, no environment and no person and take it because it doesn’t come from them. It comes from abiding in Jesus. If I don’t feel those three feelings, then I know that there’s a condition that’s out of place. Then, I go before the Father and I ask, ‘Father, let’s get the mirror of Hour word out. Show me the condition that’s causing me to feel hatred and malice instead of love. What’s causing me to feel a grief that won’t stop?’

There’s two kinds of grief. You lose a loved one and you know that they’re going to heaven because of their faith and you know where they’re going. You have grief with hope. It’s goodbye for a season, but then, there’s a state of grief that steals your joy because you haven’t given it to the Lord. It is then that you say, ‘Lord, you take that. I can’t carry it.’ Your feelings become a servant. They become like the “warning light in the dash” that says you have a flat tire or the oil temperature is running high. You need to pull over. You can’t just keep driving like this.If you’re a believer in Jesus, you’ll have to “pull over” eventually. The Lord will help you; something is going to be broken and it’s going to hurt. You can learn when the “dash starts flickering.” That feeling that’s not love, joy and peace, that’s not patience, kindness and goodness, that’s not faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When one of those lights starts flashing, you say, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. I need to pull over. I need to bring that feeling before the Lord, because it’s contrary to the way I’m supposed to feel.’ This is a new way of living. It’s a wonderful way of living. Now, my heart can make good decisions because my feelings and my thoughts are in alignment with the Spirit.

Verse 24 says, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Replace those old feelings; kill them and replace them with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Get rid of that ugly list of fifteen.

Verse 25 says,”If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Keep in step with the spirit. “Keep in step” is like a Greek word that describes what a soldier does, walking in formation. Keep in step with the spirit; “about face.” That’s what Paul is using; he’s using military language here. If you’re going to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit, keep in step with Him.

1 Timothy talks about this pursuit. Paul is talking to Timothy. He says, 1 Timothy 6:11-12 (ESV) 11 “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to whichyou were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Pursue love, joy, peace, patience, pursue faith, hope, pursue it. Draw on it,

Colossians 3:14 (ESV) “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians tells us that the chief among these, the best emotion of all, is that they put on love.

Here is a diagram called the “train diagram” that’s in our Life on Life Discipleship process. We encourage you, if you don’t know about that, check the box on your connection card and we can let you know more about what it means to be disciples, to be a follower of Jesus and to be discipled by a mentor.

Now, I used this train diagram when I was teaching in Africa some years back. I popped this thing up and they started mumbling to each other. I asked if somebody could interpret what they’re saying. They were like saying this , “What is that?” They’ve never seen a train before. So, I tore that sheet of paper off my board and I drew a motorcycle because they all ride motorcycles in Uganda. They call them “boda bodas.” I drew a motorcycle and, instead of a coal car, (by the way, young people, this is a steam engine, you put coal in the steam engine to make it go. This is a caboose, it is the last car in the train) I drew a motorcycle and I put faith on the gas tank and I put fact on the engine and I put feeling on the seat. I taught the pastors in Uganda, using a “boda boda.”

Let me teach you, using the train diagram. Hopefully, you will understand it. Where does the coal go? It goes in the engine. What happens if you put the coal in the caboose ? The train comes to a stop; you have a dirty caboose. You put your faith; this is how I’m going to make decisions in life. I’m going to trust the fact of God’s word. I’m gonna let God’s word and God’s spirit, His spirit, guide me. I’m going to let that be the engine that influences my heart. My faith I’m going to put in God’s word and I’m going to stop putting it in how I feel. Guess what will happen to my feelings? Do they just disappear? No. They’ll follow, because if we put our faith in God’s word, our feelings always follow. At first, they might not be used to going this way. I don’t know that way. I’m comfortable feeling like this, but they get pulled along.

As you follow God’s word, your feelings catch up. You find out that you like these feelings better. They’re in alignment with God’s spirit and God’s word . Love, joy and peace is much better than all that anger, anxiety, hatred and lack of peace. I’m putting my faith in God’s word and even when it doesn’t feel good, I obey and then my feelings catch up because feelings are terrible masters; they’re great servants. God’s word and God’s Spirit is who you want to put in charge.

This is how we can allow God to renovate our feelings. We can, first of all, just admit our feelings are in opposition to the Spirit, our old nature. We ask, ‘Spirit, show me where that’s at. I want to walk by the Spirit.’ Then we say, ‘I want to be led by the Spirit rather than lead in the formal ways , former appetites, desires and passions. I want this new set of feelings and desires, I want that fruit of the Spirit.’ How do we get this? There’s only one way. It’s through Jesus.

Let’s talk to Him now. Lord, thank You for Your word. Thank You that we can have a new way of life; that we were made for. I pray, first of all, for that person that’s within my hearing. Maybe you’re in this room, you’re in the next room or you’re watching online and you’ve never given your life to Jesus, would you do it right now? It’s an act of faith. It’s a decision to put your faith in Jesus. You can do it in prayer right now, just expressing your faith. Pray like this, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I’ve been following my own plans, my own feelings and my own thoughts and I’m tired of it. I want a better way. I believe You died on the cross for my sins, You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that. Come and live in me. Make me the person You want me to be. Make me a child of God. Give me the Holy Spirit; fill my life with the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Lord give it to me through Jesus. I want to be a Christ follower.’ If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He will answer that prayer. It’s His will for you. Others are here and you’re a believer, but you’re still carrying evidence of your old life around and your feelings. You’ve never really submitted those old feelings, passions, desires and identities to the Lord for His examination. Would you do it? Would you say, ‘Lord examine me, search me and know me. Know my thoughts, know my feelings and reveal to me if there’s anything in me that’s out of alignment with Your Spirit . I want to walk in step with Your Spirit and be filled with the fruit of Your Spirit. We pray all this now in Jesus’ name. Amen.