Truth or Consequences

4/27/03

The child of God must be rooted and grounded in knowledge of the truth!

Jo. 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

James Dobson, in his book Emotions, relates a story his mother told about the high school she attended in 1930. It was located in a small Oklahoma town, which had produced a series of terrible football teams. They usually lost the important games and were invariably clobbered by their archrivals from a nearby community. Understandably, the students and their parents began to get depressed and dispirited by the drubbing their troops were given every Friday night. It must have been awful.

Finally, a wealthy oil producer decided to take matters in his own hands. He asked to speak to the team in the locker room after yet another devastating defeat. What followed was one of the most dramatic football speeches of all times. This businessman proceeded to offer a brand new Ford to every boy on the team and to each coach if they would simply defeat their bitter rivals in the next game.

The team went crazy with sheer delight. They howled and cheered and slapped each other on their padded behinds. For seven days, the boys ate, drank and breathed football At night they dreamed about touchdowns and rumble seats. The entire school caught the spirit of ecstasy, and a holiday fever pervaded the campus. Each player could visualize himself behind the wheel of a gorgeous coupe, with eight gorgeous girls hanging all over his gorgeous body.

Finally, the big night arrived and the team assembled in the locker room. Excitement was at an unprecedented high. The coach made several inane comments and the boys hurried out to face the enemy. They assembled on the sidelines, put their hands together and shouted a simultaneous “Rah!” Then they ran onto the field and were demolished, 38 to zero.

The team’s exuberance did not translate into a single point on the scoreboard. Seven days of hoorah and whoop-de-do simply couldn’t compensate for the players’ lack of discipline and conditioning and practice and study and coaching and drill and experience and character. Such is the nature of emotion. It has a definite place in human affairs, but when forced to stand alone, feelings usually reveal themselves to be unreliable and foolish.

Emotions are powerful forces within the human mind. Fear, especially has a remarkable way of generating evidence to support itself. For example...

Steve Smith, won a bronze star for courage in Vietnam combat. However, the first night his unit arrived in the war torn country was not to be remembered for remarkable valor. His company had never seen actual combat, and the men were terrified. They dug foxholes on a hill and nervously watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon. At approximately midnight, the enemy attacked as anticipated. Guns began to blaze on one side of the mountain, and before long, all the soldiers were firing frantically and throwing hand grenades into the darkness. The battle raged throughout the night and the infantry appeared to be winning. Finally, the long awaited sun came up and the body count began. But not one single dead Viet Cong lay at the perimeter of the mountain. In fact, not one enemy soldier had even participated in the attack The company of green troops had fought the night in mortal combat, and won!

Do we act out of impulse, emotions, feelings, anger, imaginations, suspicions or out of KNOWLEDGE?

Impulsive behavior is based on feelings, not knowledge.

Pr. 13:16 Every prudent man acts out of knowledge, but a fool exposes his folly.

Impulsiveness can be expressed in many different ways: spending, decision making, social interaction. But here’s another area where impulsive behavior can cause a lot of problems. Impulsive behavior causes someone to “react” instead of “acting prudently.”

Jesus never once reacted to anything! No matter what anyone did to Him or said to Him, He never responded impulsively or emotionally!

We need to learn to let go of what doesn't matter. Impulsive, emotional behavior won’t do that. Knowledge of the truth and acting on that knowledge is the only thing that will work

Each one of these verses involve strong emotions and feelings.

Knowing when to say something and when not to say something takes a lot of wisdom and guidance by the Holy Spirit.

Pr. 17:9 He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

Pr. 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

Ec. 7:21 Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you - ²² for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Pr. 19:11 A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Pr. 20:3 It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.

Pr. 10:12 Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.

Pr. 11:12 A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue.

Genuine love is based on knowledge and truth instead of emotions and feelings.

It’s unbelievable how many songs contain the words, “It Feels So Right.”

Eagle-Eye Cherry, Feels So Right

Too shy to

To follow through

But it is true

Yes, I do love you

You say no

But I won't go

Cause all I know

Is you and I are meant to be

You and I are meant to be

Too proud to

Give in to

All the love

That I wanna lay on you

So called no

Say it ain't so

Cause all I know

Is that you and I are meant to be

You and I are meant to be

Feels so right

It feels so right

Amnon was like many today who have a twisted perception of what love is.

2 Sam. 13:1 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David.

² Amnon became frustrated to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.

³ Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. ⁴ He asked Amnon, “Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?”

Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

⁵ “Go to bed and pretend to be ill,” Jonadab said. “When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.’”

⁶ So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so I may eat from her hand.”

⁷ David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him.” ⁸ So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made the bread in his sight and baked it. ⁹ Then she took the pan and served him the bread, but he refused to eat.

“Send everyone out of here,” Amnon said. So everyone left him. ¹⁰ Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food here into my bedroom so I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. ¹¹ But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.”

¹² “Don’t, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me. Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. ¹³ What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” ¹⁴ But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.

¹⁵ Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”

The Bible defines true love. There is not one mention of feelings.

1 Cor. 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

To deny the fact that God speaks to His people is to deny the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice.

The Lord Jesus can speak to us in many different ways--and he does.

Discerning His voice among so many voices takes caution, confirmation and maturity.

Impressions can be God or not be God!

James Dobson relates the following story in his book, Emotions, “The subject of impressions always reminds me of the exciting day I completed my formal education at the University of Southern California and was awarded a doctoral degree. My professors shook my hand and offered their congratulations, and I walked from the campus with the prize I had sought so diligently. On the way home in the car that day, I expressed my appreciation to God for His obvious blessing on my life, and I asked Him to use me in any way He chose. The presence of the Lord seemed very near as I communed with Him in that little red Volkswagen.

Then, as I turned a corner (I remember the precise spot), I was seized by a strong impression which conveyed this unmistakable message: “You are going to lose someone very close to you within the next 12 months. A member of your immediate family will die, but when it happens, don’t be dismayed. Just continue trusting and depending on Me.”

Since I had not been thinking about death or anything that would have explained the sudden appearance of this premonition, I was alarmed by the threatening thought. My heart thumped a little harder as I contemplated who might die and in what manner the end would come. Nevertheless, I told no one about the experience when I reached my home that night.

One month passed without tragedy or human loss. Two and three months sped by, and still the hand of death failed to visit my family. Finally, the anniversary of my morbid impression came and went without consequence. It has now been more than a decade since that frightening day in the Volkswagen. and there have been no catastrophic events in either my family or among my wife’s closest relatives. The impression has proved invalid.”

The issue of guilt and forgiveness.

Guilt is good when used by God to bring us to repentance. Guilt is good when we have unconfessed sin.

But guilt is bad when Satan uses it to condemn the child of God.

Remember, Satan is the accuser of the brothers!

Rev. 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. ¹¹ They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;

Experiencing the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is not a matter of feeling, but a matter of faith and trust.

1 Jo. 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Two people can pray at the same time, both asking for forgiveness from the Lord Jesus. Both received it. But one left rejoicing and the other not sure. The difference--the one believes that they were forgiven and the other doubts.

Be determined to live your life by what God says, not by what you feel!

Either live by the truth or the consequences of emotions and feelings!