1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,920 Welcome to Trinity Sermons. Here at Trinity Church, 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:12,960 Streetsville, we want to share messages that inspire you in your faith journey as we learn 3 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:19,920 together to love Jesus, live like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus. This is episode 4 of our sermon 4 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:26,160 series, Renovation of the Heart. Today we have guest preacher Luke Limo with us. He is a student 5 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,800 from Wycliffe College and today he will be preaching about dealing with our feelings. 6 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,560 Certainly a talk that you don't want to miss. But before we begin, please make sure to take a minute 7 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:42,320 to follow our podcast so you can stay up to date on all of our future episodes. We hope you enjoy 8 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:56,240 the sermon today and God bless. A reading from Mark chapter 7 beginning at verse 1. 9 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:02,240 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around 10 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:08,560 Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with their hands that were defiled, that is unwashed. 11 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:14,640 The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, 12 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:20,480 holding to the tradition of the elders. So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law ask Jesus, 13 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,880 why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their 14 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:36,000 food with defiled hands? He replied. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. 15 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,600 As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 16 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:49,360 They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. You have let go of the commands of 17 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:55,200 God and are holding onto human traditions. Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, 18 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:01,120 listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them 19 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:08,320 by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. If anyone has ears 20 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:15,520 to hear, let them hear. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him 21 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:22,080 about this parable. Are you so dull? He asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a person 22 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:29,200 from the outside can defile them for it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach and 23 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:37,840 then out of the body. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on. What comes 24 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:45,440 out of a person is what defiles them. For it is within, out of a person's heart that evil thoughts 25 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:58,000 come. Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, 26 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:05,440 arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defiles that person. The word of the 27 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:06,440 Lord. 28 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:14,240 I want to say good morning to you all. It's a pleasure to be here and to talk about feelings. 29 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:24,800 How are you feeling today? Maybe yesterday was Canada Day, right? So happy Canada Day. Maybe 30 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:35,040 you're feeling proud about Canada. Maybe not so much. Feelings are something, aren't they? 31 00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:45,280 Libby was just sharing from her heart, you know, all of the anxiety and the excitement and the 32 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:53,280 stress of doing a renovation of a house, of an actual house. That's, I think, our experience of 33 00:03:53,280 --> 00:04:01,680 feelings. Feelings are powerful that way. And, you know, you can feel happy, you can feel sad, 34 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:10,480 you can feel hope, despair. You can feel all of that at once. Feelings are something else. 35 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:17,360 When Rob told me I would be talking about feeling, I thought, how do I feel about that? 36 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:25,440 Yeah. And it's not just emotional feeling, right? There's even physical feeling, too. 37 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:32,400 I mean, a favourite feeling of mine of the physical sort, and that's sarcasm, is when I'm 38 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:40,000 eating and all of a sudden you feel that urge to sneeze. You can't control it. And you want to 39 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:47,600 sneeze and you're eating. It's terrible. Feelings are an integral part of our lives. 40 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,520 There's no way we can live without feelings. And, frankly, would you like to live without feelings? 41 00:04:55,200 --> 00:05:00,800 Psychopaths, notoriously, it's not that they don't have any feelings. They do have some feelings, 42 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:08,560 actually. But most of the normal feelings that normal sort of regular people have, 43 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:14,080 non-psychopaths, anyways, they don't have. Would you like to live like that? Nobody would like 44 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:19,840 to live like that. Feelings are important. In the book that I think some of you might be reading, 45 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:25,600 called Renovation of the Heart, that Rob has been recommending for this series, 46 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:29,600 Dallas Willard opens the chapter about feelings with this sentence. 47 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:39,200 Feelings are a primary blessing and a primary problem for human life. Why would he say something 48 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:46,560 like that? Why are feelings a... Could feelings be a problem? I'm sure I'm not the only one, right? 49 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:56,560 So many times, I think, you must have had that experience. You know what you want to do. 50 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:02,560 You know what you need to do, but you feel like doing something else. You feel otherwise. You feel 51 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:09,680 tired. I don't know. Or you feel like watching TV or another episode of The Chosen instead of 52 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:15,120 whatever it is that you need to do. It's like there's this battle going on sometimes between 53 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:21,840 what you think and what you feel. Well, let me give you a very personal example, actually. 54 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:30,480 Last year, October 7th, my dad, who lived in Brazil, passed away. I received the news. I was here 55 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:38,080 starting a very busy semester at Wycliffe College when I received the news. And it was somewhat 56 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:44,720 unexpected. He was sick, but he was getting better. You get your hopes up. You know how that goes. 57 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:53,840 Feelings, right? And let me tell you, I remember that very well. It was a Friday afternoon. That 58 00:06:53,840 --> 00:07:01,680 Friday, when I heard, of course, I was sad. I cried in the shower as I took a shower later. And 59 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:09,360 the Saturday, I was also sad. Feeling sad, but it wasn't until Sunday morning, just as I was having 60 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:18,160 breakfast before church and Priscilla hadn't even woken up yet. I was by myself. Why would I do that? 61 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:25,040 I opened YouTube. My dad was a musician, actually. And so for some reason, I felt like watching one 62 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:35,760 of his very last videos, music videos. And boy, it hit me hard. It was this flood of emotions 63 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:42,240 coming, like it felt like a flood of emotions coming crashing down on me. I couldn't stop crying. 64 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:49,040 I felt like a kid. I felt like I was back to being a child. The feelings were so overwhelming, 65 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:54,000 the feeling of grief. And I was supposed to help in church. And I just thought, how am I going to 66 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:00,720 do that? It's not going to happen. Feelings are that strong. Let me give you another example, 67 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:06,880 actually, still on the same note. I love comedy. I've always loved a good old sitcom 68 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:15,440 and something Priscilla and I like to watch. But guess what? Oh, yeah, I need to tell you this. 69 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:22,640 Whenever my mom recommends me something to watch on TV, and it's usually, oh, this is amazing. 70 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:29,200 This is an amazing movie. It's usually a drama. I know. And my joke, I'm not going to lie, 71 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:35,360 my joke, I used to joke, well, why would I want to watch some more drama? There's enough drama in 72 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:43,920 real life. Thank you very much. I want to pass on that. But guess what? After my dad passed away, 73 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:53,360 I just couldn't watch even the somewhat upbeat show that we were watching anymore. We had to 74 00:08:53,360 --> 00:09:03,840 stop. And I was drawn to drama, to watching drama. Feelings are that powerful. They can control you 75 00:09:04,560 --> 00:09:12,560 in ways that you and I are almost helpless to actually try to control them. And guess what? 76 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:19,360 It's true. We are very helpless in trying to control our feelings. I actually minored in 77 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:25,760 psychology in my VA, a Redeemer. And so I'm going to throw you some psychology right now. 78 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:35,280 But I think it's helpful. When I thought about, you know, talking about feelings, I said, no, 79 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:43,200 I really thought back to this. There's this very famous, very influential, he's been named among 80 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:52,240 the 25 most influential psychologists of our time called Jonathan Haidt. And the metaphor that he 81 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:57,040 uses for the brain, which, of course, from a psychological point of view, feelings, everything 82 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:03,680 happens in the brain, right? So the metaphor that he uses for the brain is that of a writer 83 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:14,160 and the elephant. Yes, that one right there. Lest I misquote him, let me read him for you how he 84 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:27,520 himself describes this. The writer is our conscious reasoning, the stream of words and images of which 85 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:37,280 we are fully aware. The elephant is the other 99% of mental processes, the ones that occur 86 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:46,080 outside of awareness, but that actually govern most of our behavior. And he goes on, I developed 87 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:51,120 this metaphor in the happiness hypothesis, which is a book he wrote, very famous one, where I 88 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:57,920 described how the writer and the elephant work together, sometimes poorly, and this is very 89 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:05,360 important, as we stumble, listen to this, as we stumble through life in search of meaning and 90 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:12,560 connection. If you want the technical terms from psychology, the writer represents what we call 91 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:19,040 controlled processes, and the elephant has to do with what we call automatic processes. The writer 92 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:26,080 represents conscious reasoning and thinking. The elephant is where the realm of emotions, 93 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:33,920 affections, and feelings and intuition lives. So let's take a closer look. How do they work 94 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:41,440 together? Well, do they work together? You know, you can try to pull the elephant and 95 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:48,240 it's not going to work because guess what? The elephant is very, very heavy. Yeah, you're just 96 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:57,360 going to be there. It's not moving. It's a struggle. Yeah, it doesn't matter how much you 97 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:05,120 tell or try. Your feelings are that powerful. That's what this metaphor, I get from this metaphor 98 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:16,880 anyways. Height actually suggests that the writer's job is to serve the elephant. And this is very 99 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:26,000 key. What the psychology actually indicates is not so much that you think and then you feel, that 100 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,080 you think about something in a certain way and then you feel about that thing in a certain way. 101 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:35,520 That's not how it works. You usually already feel about something a certain way and then you reason 102 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:46,080 about it in service of how you feel about it. Let me give you an example. Politics. That's the reason 103 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:52,960 why it's almost useless to try to get into an argument with a politician or I mean in politics, 104 00:12:52,960 --> 00:13:00,720 in politicians as well. Because those commitments are made really deep down, most of the time 105 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:09,680 anyways, not at the rational level, but at the emotional level. You already feel a certain way 106 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:17,200 about that party or that candidate and therefore you reason about him or her or the party in order 107 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:22,960 to support how you feel about it. And that's unconscious. You don't even realize it. It's 108 00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:31,040 how it happens in our minds all the time. And something I find very fascinating about this is 109 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:36,560 that this is the psychology today. This is psychologists and guess what? Saint Augustine 110 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:42,800 over 1500 years ago was saying something very similar to that already. He had this idea, 111 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:52,240 Augustine's thought is very complex, but in a nutshell, he had this idea of the will as the 112 00:13:52,240 --> 00:14:00,560 center of something that actually determines your whole being, your will and not reason, 113 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:07,600 not actually reason, not your thinking. It's at the level of the heart. In our passage, 114 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:13,200 now you might be thinking, what does that have to do with this passage of ours? In our passage, 115 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:19,360 the Pharisees criticized Jesus because they see his disciples eating without washing their hands. 116 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:30,080 Let me just tell you something. That had nothing to do with hygiene. They were not washing. That 117 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:37,040 was not the case. They had no idea about bacteria and germs and all these things that today we know 118 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:42,960 about. That's not what is at work here. The reason they were criticizing Jesus' disciples for not 119 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:49,040 washing their hands is because they washed their hands in order to be clean religiously, 120 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:55,040 ceremonially. It had to do with being accepted before God, with being holy, actually. They 121 00:14:55,040 --> 00:15:02,160 thought that washing their hands made them holy. They see Jesus' disciples not washing their hands 122 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:09,440 and they say, ha, why are they doing that? What kind of a rabbi would Jesus be if he couldn't even 123 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:15,680 get his disciples to wash their hands? Not because of hygiene, because of what I just said. 124 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:25,360 But I just love how Jesus completely turns the tables here. You have to bear in mind that the 125 00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:32,320 Pharisees are the holiest of holy people that would have existed in that day. You would see them and 126 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:37,040 you go, oh, those are Pharisees. They're really holy. And you would feel inferior and you would 127 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:43,840 feel those are the Pharisees. And these are the people to whom Jesus was sent. And they were 128 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:49,840 the Pharisees. And these are the people to whom Jesus says these words. Isaiah was right when he 129 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:55,920 prophesied about you, hypocrites. As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their 130 00:15:55,920 --> 00:16:04,240 hearts are far from me. Jesus goes on and he warns them that nothing outside a person can defile them 131 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:10,240 by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. The disciples, 132 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:16,800 of course, are as low to understand as we are. So they ask a question and Jesus asks to clarify. 133 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:25,200 And then Jesus says, oh, are you so dull? Don't you see that nothing that enters a person, 134 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:33,280 food, for example, can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart. It's what comes out of the 135 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:39,520 heart. What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's 136 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:51,040 heart that evil thoughts come. And my theological mind here, it's also connected to the psychology 137 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:55,680 that I know. And I was just sharing with you, right? It's amazing to me the precision of Jesus 138 00:16:55,680 --> 00:17:02,800 diagnosis. Like we just established, your feelings actually come first and then you reason. And Jesus 139 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:12,640 is saying it's from the heart that come even evil thoughts. Now, I want to make something very clear 140 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:18,560 before we continue. Please don't come away from the sermon with the impression that I'm advocating 141 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:27,040 a reductionist view that everything is sin and so I'm associating feelings with sin. That's not my 142 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:37,200 intention at all. Feelings are a blessing. Feelings are what makes you human. But I am focusing 143 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:44,080 on the brokenness of feelings. You know, that disconnect that we are talking about, right? 144 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:52,000 Between what you think and what you actually feel. Or sometimes there's a disconnect even 145 00:17:52,000 --> 00:18:03,760 between what you want and what you want to want. That's how messed up we are. I think in some ways 146 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:12,000 this is part of the human condition that Jesus is addressing here. Jesus is telling them that 147 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:18,000 there is a fundamental problem with us. It's not about food, it's not about... it's at the level of 148 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:23,120 the heart. It's a renovation of the heart that we need and that only he can address. 149 00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:30,880 I love this passage because the Pharisees were so full of themselves and they thought they had it 150 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:37,920 all together but Jesus just turns the table on them and he just levels the playing field. 151 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:45,360 Everyone is in the same condition before God. We really are that broken. And our feelings, I think, 152 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:50,720 when I thought about it for this sermon, I thought, you know, it's that condition. It's 153 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:56,480 the rider and the elephant. How can you change your feelings if you have feelings that you would 154 00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:02,800 like to have changed? Jesus just says the problem, folks, is way deeper than you think. 155 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:13,520 And feelings have this funny way of taking over. All of a sudden they could be ruling your life. 156 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:19,840 You could be just living out of your feelings and that might and might not work, actually. 157 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,920 Let me throw you just another quote from 158 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:36,080 Jonathan Haidt, which I think is very helpful, actually. He says... he's talking about human 159 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:40,080 nature. This is very interesting. It's at the introduction of the book that I read and 160 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:45,760 he's talking about... he's reflecting on human nature and bear in mind, Jonathan Haidt is a 161 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:53,040 secular social psychologist, not religious, he's an atheist. He says, when talking about human 162 00:19:54,240 --> 00:20:03,200 nature, we are indeed selfish hypocrites, so skilled at putting on a show that we fool even 163 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:11,200 ourselves. And he was talking about it in the context of doing good deeds. And what he's saying 164 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:16,720 is we do them, but we don't feel like doing them. We just do them to show up, like to show that... 165 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:23,840 to appear good, right? And that was certainly the case with the Pharisees in our passage, 166 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:31,600 but I wonder, is that the final verdict? Is that the final word on our human condition 167 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:37,360 that we really are this messed up? And you know the ending... I didn't put that in the slide, 168 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:41,360 but you know the ending of this verse, it's out of the human heart that all these evil things come. 169 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:50,640 And is that the end? Is that the final verdict? Of course not. You know you're here because you 170 00:20:50,640 --> 00:21:01,840 believe it isn't. But it is our human condition. And you know, last week, Rob, 171 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:12,240 he quoted from a passage where the Apostle Paul is wrestling precisely with this, the human condition, 172 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:22,080 that thing about, I think about this and I actually want to do this, but I even can't. 173 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:29,680 And then he says, oh yes, sorry, for it is from within, from the heart, that thoughts, evil thoughts 174 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:38,560 come. But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a 175 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:47,680 prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man that I am. Who will rescue me from 176 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:55,920 this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord. 177 00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:01,840 Let me just make something very clear. When you see body there, please don't think about our 178 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:09,920 physical bodies. I mean, we don't need, we need to do away with this dualistic mentality of spirit 179 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:15,040 versus body. That's not what the Apostle Paul meant. I mean, most theologians today would agree 180 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:22,960 that what Paul meant by body subject to death is precisely this inherited human condition that we 181 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:30,960 all share. The brokenness that we all share. And there's something I really like about this verse is 182 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:37,760 in the Greek at the end there is much more direct and succinct than the NIV makes us sound like. 183 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:45,040 When the Apostle Paul is thinking about this and I wish I did that and but I feel another way, 184 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:54,560 he says, he exclaims, what a wretched man I am. And then he asks, who will rescue me from this body 185 00:22:54,560 --> 00:23:03,680 that is subject to death? And in the Greek, his answer is just thanks to God through Jesus Christ. 186 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:11,120 Thanks to God, it is through Jesus Christ that I am rescued. 187 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:21,200 And we are very soon going to celebrate the communion. And you know, another way to refer 188 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:27,280 to communion that is often used is the word Eucharist. It sounds fancy, but the word just 189 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:35,280 means thanksgiving. When we're celebrating communion, we are actually giving thanks to God 190 00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:44,320 for Jesus Christ. Because he is the Savior. He is this one who sees the inner thoughts of our hearts, 191 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:50,720 the feelings that we all have, the feelings that you don't want to have. And he sees it all. 192 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:59,280 And he's the one who can fix them. He's the one who can actually fix them. There's something 193 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:05,120 I shared with you, psychology. And psychology can be helpful. I thought it would be helpful to 194 00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:12,480 actually if you're aware that that's how our brains work, you know, oh, this is why I feel this way. 195 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:18,800 And this is why it's so difficult. But psychology will only go so far, right? 196 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:29,600 It's like, to use the analogy of a fixer-upper, I think psychology or any human effort for that 197 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:38,240 matter is like painting a wall that has structural damage. It's not going to do anything. The house 198 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:46,800 will eventually fall. We need someone who sees right through us, like Jesus saw right through 199 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:57,200 the Pharisees, who sees our hearts, who can actually fix our hearts. And that is Jesus. 200 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:05,280 Because Jesus is not only God, but he's also human. So he understands us. 201 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:12,080 He himself experienced what we experience, the brokenness that we experience without sin. 202 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,120 The author of Hebrews had a lot to say about this. 203 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:22,560 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who 204 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:31,120 has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God strong 205 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:38,720 of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 206 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:47,440 Now, something came to my mind as I was preparing the sermon. And that was an interesting... 207 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,760 I mean, I think it's an... you know, imagine if Jesus were here physically, 208 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:58,160 and we could actually approach him physically and ask him to help us. 209 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,200 We could actually approach him physically and ask him, 210 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:08,480 Lord, I mean, I would have all my own questions. Lord, look at me. I have all these feelings that 211 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:15,680 I can't control. And you know, and it came to him and asked him, how can I reframe my feelings? 212 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:21,680 Which is the theme of this sermon. How can I reframe my feelings? I have a feeling 213 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:31,840 that Jesus' answer would be, seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness, 214 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,560 and all these things will be given to you as well. 215 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:47,120 I... it's very interesting. If you were to look at Jesus' sermons and teachings in the Gospels, 216 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:52,880 he was a very practical guy. There's a lot of theology. We need theology. I mean, 217 00:26:54,080 --> 00:27:01,840 Rob mentioned Dr. Stratus. I was in his class. I love theology. There's a lot of theology 218 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:06,720 outside of the Gospels, I would say, because you're thinking about what Jesus did and 219 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:11,040 what he has done for us, the death and resurrection of Christ. But while Jesus himself 220 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:16,480 was here in the Gospels, the Gospels are just very, very practical. And you can see 221 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:23,280 that. And Jesus' own teaching is very practical. He was a praxis-oriented guy. If he saw a blind 222 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:31,280 man by the side of the road, he would go right there and heal him. And his sermons were 223 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:36,160 delivered to the people that the religious leaders of the day would have ignored. They 224 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:41,360 didn't care much about them. He just seemed to like going to the marginalized for some reason. 225 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:47,840 So, if we want to know what the Kingdom of God is like, that Jesus talked so much about... 226 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:52,720 Oh, yeah, that's what I'm... Sorry, I forgot to say. If you were to look at the Gospels 227 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:58,000 and to try to think of, especially the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and you try 228 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:05,600 to think of what's the most common theme, probably one of the top answers would have to be something 229 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,760 to do with the Kingdom of God. Jesus talks about it all the time. And if we want to know what the 230 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:18,000 Kingdom of God is, it's just this. The Kingdom of God, which is what Jesus brings to earth, 231 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:25,360 is hope for a very broken world. It's a place where the least is the greatest and the last are the 232 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:33,440 first. The Kingdom of God is feeding the hungry, ministering to the hopeless, fighting for justice 233 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:39,440 for those who don't have a voice. And you may think that this is a detour from a sermon about 234 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:45,840 feelings, but I really think that if Jesus were here physically and we could actually ask him, 235 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:51,920 Rabbi, what about our feelings? I have all these bad feelings. I wish I were a better person. 236 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:58,480 Can you transform me? And of course he will transform you. That's his job. But I think he 237 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:05,360 would smile. He would look at you with a smile on his face and he would say, seek first God's Kingdom, 238 00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:10,400 and all these things will be added to you. And trust that the rest will be taken care of. 239 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:16,160 There's something about getting our hands dirty with the work of God's Kingdom, even when you 240 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:24,320 don't feel like it, and that just ends up shaping you as you go, as you walk with King Jesus. 241 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:32,800 You may feel inadequate and unworthy, but don't listen to your feelings there. Just do it. 242 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:37,440 I'm sure there's many people in this congregation who will tell you that sometimes the change, 243 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:44,080 the transformation of the heart happens as you are involved in ministry, whatever that is, 244 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:49,840 as you get involved working in the Kingdom, whether it's volunteering here at Trinity or 245 00:29:49,840 --> 00:30:00,400 a local food bank or a shelter. Jesus' invitation to you and me is to join him in restoring the 246 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:06,880 whole world. And the reframing of our feelings happens in that process. Some people experience 247 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:12,560 that conversion experience that you change, like water to wine all of a sudden. The vast majority of 248 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:19,760 us, it's a long process. Day by day, you screw up, you come back, you repent, and Jesus is there. 249 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:26,800 I just love how Paul the apostle describes the Kingdom of God in this verse. 250 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:31,120 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. And forget about that part. 251 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:39,040 It's a complicated story, but the Kingdom of God is about righteousness, which can also be 252 00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:47,920 translated as justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Just imagine a world, 253 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:56,800 imagine a world where justice, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are what rule. 254 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:04,880 This is what God wants for us. I mean, imagine what our feelings would be like in that world. 255 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:11,520 But we don't have to wait for it. I mean, yes, we do. It's both end in theology. The Kingdom of God 256 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:17,680 is at hand, but at the same time, we wait for the final fulfillment. We're living between. 257 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:29,280 And Jesus restores us as we go. To close, I thought I wanted to share with you, and even if we 258 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:35,280 just read it together, because this passage is so powerful, it always moved me so much. We're 259 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:41,280 talking about feelings. This is one of the passages that I love to read. It's a passage that I 260 00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:47,360 love to read. It's one of the passages that moves me the most, because it's Jesus' own feelings. 261 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:55,440 Jesus Christ is the one who sees through you, who sees your needs, your most, your, 262 00:31:55,440 --> 00:32:01,440 your, you know, unfulfilled needs, the feelings that you have that nobody else knows about Jesus does. 263 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:10,480 And guess what? He himself had a moment, and there I say this. I don't know if I'm saying heresy here, 264 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:17,680 Justin, but Jesus himself had his own struggle with feelings. 265 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:25,920 The passage that we're about to read, which is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, is right 266 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:33,360 before he is betrayed. It's right before the crucifixion. And this is the most, this is Jesus 267 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:42,560 Christ, the perfect human being, the bravest of, of all the brave people that have ever lived. 268 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:50,080 Jesus Christ, at the very last moment, has this conversation with the Father, and we get a look 269 00:32:50,080 --> 00:33:02,240 into how he was feeling. They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, 270 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:10,000 sit here while I pray. And he took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply 271 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:20,160 distressed and troubled. Let's look at the feelings there. The Greek is, is really strong. 272 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:27,120 My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, he said to them. Have you ever felt like 273 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:35,200 that? Nobody, none of us will ever feel like this. Stay here and keep watch. Going a little 274 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:42,560 farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible, that hour might pass from him. Abba 275 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:53,120 Father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but 276 00:33:53,120 --> 00:34:00,800 what you will. This is Jesus Christ, the perfect, the only perfect human being who has ever lived, 277 00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:07,360 who never sinned. At the very last moment, he came to this very hour. There's another passage where 278 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:13,520 he actually says this in John, well, what would I say to the Father? Deliver me from this hour, 279 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:20,480 because I came for this hour. I came to earth to die on the cross. And here we look at Jesus' own 280 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:28,960 heart and that struggle that you and I have, Jesus also faced. The thing is, we, you and I, 281 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:38,320 more often than not, don't succeed. Jesus did. He did go to the cross. And the rest is history. 282 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:52,080 The world was changed. This is our Savior. He is the high priest, which means the one who intercedes 283 00:34:52,080 --> 00:35:02,800 between you and me with God, who is also human. He sees our pain. He sees our sorrow. He sees our hurt. 284 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:14,320 And he's right there to heal us from all of that. In my grief, after my dad passed, it was really 285 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:20,000 difficult. There were times when I couldn't really do anything else. It just, I needed an extension 286 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:29,280 as Justin well knows. And the help stalking about it, you want to talk about your feelings. Don't 287 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:34,400 suppress them or ignore them, because they will explode eventually. You want to talk about them 288 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:42,560 with someone you trust. But my experience was that it actually drew me closer to God. 289 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:49,120 Don't let your feelings govern your life. I mean, as we saw, that is the psychological model for 290 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:57,360 thoughts and feelings. But I think there is a better way with Christ. He can bring peace and 291 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:13,360 harmony to our very broken souls. Thanks be to God. 292 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:33,360 in Mississauga, Ontario. Thanks for listening.