Feelings Can Be Faulty | Liberty at Home

Your feelings can be faulty. What do I mean?

Stay tuned to find out on this week's episode of Liberty at

Home. Hello there, folks.

Welcome to our latest edition of Liberty at Home, broadcast here

on Easton Community Access Television and brought to you by

the Liberty Baptist Church, where I, Adam Rivero, have

served as pastor for almost 13 years.

Today, as always, we're broadcasting from beautiful

Easton, MA, where the new Chipotle has now opened its

doors at Five Corners and is now in direct competition with a

nearby Taco Bell to see who can butcher authentic Mexican

cuisine the most. But I will say I'll love me some

Taco Bell. On this week's episode, I want

to talk about feelings. And to do that, let's head over

today's text, which is located in the first 3 verses of Exodus

16. And they took their journey from

Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came

unto the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai,

on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out

of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of

the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the

wilderness. And the children of Israel said

unto them, would to God, We had died by the hand of the Lord in

the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we

did eat bread to the full. For he had brought us forth into

this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

In the 16th chapter of the Book of Exodus, the Israelites were

in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land.

Through the power of God manifested in 10 plagues, the

Israelites had escaped the clutches of the Egyptians.

No longer slaves, they were now free.

Yet they had an arduous journey ahead of them through the

unforgiving desert before they were to arrive at the land

promised to Abraham by God several generations before.

Now Exodus 16 recounts a time where, very early in this

journey, the Israelites complained about their seemingly

meager rations. In their discouragement they

made some very odd statements. Consider what we just read a few

moments ago. The Israelites feelings about

the situation were off base on a number of levels.

First, it's odd that the people of Israel would reminisce about

their time in bondage, for certainly they did not joy any

kind of freedom in their final years in Egypt as slaves.

It's also unlikely they sat at the flesh pots or ate bread to

the full. The Egyptians would not have fed

them in this manner as they saw Israel as a threat and were

actively trying to decrease their population, not strengthen

it. Also, the people of Israel had

forgotten that Moses and Aaron were used by God to hearken.

They released from bondage and brought them safely through the

Red Sea. Now they're complaining that

these same two men were going to hasten their demise.

Wow. Feelings can be wonderful

things, and they certainly are a gift from God when they're in

line with God's Word. Yet our feelings should not

always be trusted as accurate representations of truth.

No doubt the Israelites felt discouraged as they were

discovering their desert experience wasn't everything

they'd hoped it to be. Yet instead of trusting the same

God that had brought them so far already, they ended up trusting

their own flawed assessment of the situation.

So now, instead of looking to ourselves, instead of the

Israelites of the Old Testament, how do we know if our feelings

are correct? Well, it's easy.

We line them up with the Word of God.

Although we may loudly proclaim that nobody can tell us how to

feel, God's Word often admonishes us to align our

thoughts with the Word. Why?

Well, one reason is Jeremiah 17 verse 9, where it says the heart

Jeremiah 17:9

is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? This means that because our

hearts are sinful, we shouldn't automatically trust our feelings

and emotions to be accurate representations of the truth for

Israel. Everything they claimed about

their situation in Exodus chapter 16 verses 2 and 3 was

Exodus 16:2

wrong. We can make the same mistake

ourselves, and we trust ourselves and our fallible

feelings over an infallible, loving God.

Feelings can be like a funhouse mirror.

They give an inaccurate, distorted picture of the truth.

Trust, the mirror of the Word, which James calls the perfect

law of liberty. In James 125, truth read comes

from trusting God in His Word, not from trusting our own flawed

sensibilities and emotions. Well, it feels like we've used

up all of our time for today's episode of Liberty at Home, and

well, that's because we have. But before we go, I'd like to

thank you for watching and invite you to join us this week

at Liberty Baptist Church. We meet every Sunday and

Wednesday at 800 Washington St. Route 138, right across the

street from Easton Pool and Spa. Learn more about a church or

watch online services anytime by heading over to my

libertybaptist.org. Well, I'm Pastor Adam Rivero,

reminding you that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's

liberty. See you next week on ECAT for

our next edition of Liberty at Home.