Paul's Burden for the Church

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

And if you do not have a worship guide this morning, I'm sure Brother Bob, one of our councilmen, gave you one as you came in.

But we may have missed you.

Raise your hand because the outline's on the back of the worship guide, and we would love for you to have that if there's any that does not have one.

Here we believe in teaching the truth, the word of the living God.

In fact, that's one of our core values.

So here we have four core values, and by the way, many of you have asked about how to join the church.

And uh in August, we'll be having another covenants class.

Uh what we do, we meet on a Saturday morning in August.

So every quarter we do a covenants class and we go through our four core values basically and tell you who we are, what we are, and what we believe and why we believe it, and also uh responsibilities as a church to you and as a covenant member, your responsibility to your church.

We are excited.

We'll be three years old in August.

Uh God has so blessed our church.

We uh average uh over 200 every Sunday with high days of 300 plus, 370 in Easter, and it's just been great.

But what we're really excited about is to see how many people have been saved.

We've seen over 100 baptized.

Let's give God a hand.

Amen.

That's awesome.

People are getting, yes, amen, deacon.

People get saved every week, and uh, so it's just awesome to see that.

So if you'd like to be a part of that, we are a community church.

Uh, yesterday the the youth did uh car wash for the community and almost did 300.

Uh what was the total?

Uh 360.

360.

Amen.

Now, some of you did not get your car washed.

Uh that's okay.

Uh the raising, by the way, the money is going to a mission trip.

We uh again, a young church, Southern Baptist Church, uh, we have already done about eight short-term mission trips already.

Let's give God a hand.

Is that not unbelievable?

Is that not unbelievable?

I'm telling you.

We believe, again, sharing our faith at home and abroad.

That's another core value.

So we provide with Miss Deedra Brown, our missions director, uh, short-term mission trips.

And uh I heard the mission presentation of two of the missionaries uh a couple of weeks ago was fantastic.

We just got back from Honduras, showed you a couple of Sundays ago our uh trip.

So it's unbelievable.

So our young people are going to Mobile Bay uh to do some uh in the community and some of the communities that need a lot of help uh there.

They're going down in this summer.

So uh they're raising money.

Well, I you know what I like about our young people, and you know what I our philosophy is you don't just give it to them, they work for it.

Can I get an amen?

We believe in worth work ethic around here.

So they're working hard.

They also had a, and this coming Wednesday night, you need to be here or you need to tell Stephen, you need to, you need to hire a young person.

They're wanting us, they're wanting to work to earn money so they can go on a mission trip.

So uh Susan, I want the I want you to hire somebody.

I want them to be good workers too, and I know we will.

Uh that's another way they're we're trying to work for uh you need your yard cut, you need your uh, I'll tell you what I need.

I need my uh driveway uh pressure washer.

Thank you, thank you.

And Darren's got a pressure washer I can use.

So uh uh he'll I'll get his pressure washer and we'll get the young people to do it and we'll we'll pay.

I ain't paying you, Darren, for the pressure washer, though.

Okay, all right.

But I'll pay the well, you'll take the money, we'll give it to the young person.

Okay, all right.

So, got it, got it.

So, anyway, and then today, let me tell you what else you can do.

They had a last Wednesday night, they were, you know, feeding us that come out on Wednesday night.

And I know some of you can't, but for you that can, we have great times on on uh Wednesday night, and hopefully starting this fall, we're gonna have our water program for the whole families on Wednesday nights.

We're working strong to do that.

That's gonna be fabulous for your kids, I promise you.

And be doing it under the pavilion with the big water circles and things like that.

So it's gonna be awesome.

But$5 donation today.

They'll fix you a plate.

Uh, we have so much food left over from Wednesday night for the auction and feeding, and they were gonna combine those.

So after you get a free lunch, you can donate$5 and take home a nice lunch.

But the money goes directly to these young people for their mission trip.

So help us out today.

Now, I think I got you covered.

Did I take care of you, Stephen?

Okay, all right.

I gotta take care of my youth pastor, and I heard he did a great job preaching to you last week, and I love that.

Amen.

And Paul, I heard you knocked it out of the park again.

Amen.

And I'm looking forward to watching the service this week, and I will.

Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Title of the message this morning, Paul's Burden for the Church.

Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot stress this enough, and I mean this sincerely.

If we can grasp the truths of what I'm about to preach this morning, it will truly make us a New Testament church.

For you that are visitors, and we had eight or nine new visitors this morning.

One of our goals as we started this church, and you'll see our four core values on the wall, uh, but our main uh purpose statement is loving God and loving people.

But but the key is that we we we have taken everything that we believe, and when we founded this church out of Acts chapter 2, the New Testament church, and David and Christy and I and my wife Susan, we our hearts desire, I always said, if God ever let me start a church, start a church, that that it would be a New Testament church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And uh so it's so exciting to see these powerful practical truths.

So today I want us to start and I want us to look at what Paul is saying to the church at Colossae, a church that he never visited, but because of his friend that worked with him, uh uh, and how that his friend started this church and had come back and had reported to Paul some of the problems that were going on now in the church trying to arise.

He said, I've got to write to you.

And he, as he's writing, I want you to see this burden that he has in verse 1.

He says, For I would that ye know what great conflict I have for you.

Now the word conflict there is uh agon.

It's the Greek word agon, and it means an intense, agonizing burden for a church that he had never visited.

That's what's so amazing to me.

And I thought to myself, is that not the attitude that we should have toward God's church?

I meant not just CCW, not just our church, but all the churches in this community and in this state, that we ought to have a burden and an intense agony for the success of God's churches.

Can I get an amen?

We are not a jealous church.

Hey, we are not.

When people come to this church, if they don't stay at this church and I visit with them and they say, well, you know, we're going here or we're going there, I say, well, look, here's my heart's desire.

Whether you come and worship regularly with us, or, hey, that's not the issue.

The issue is that you find some church, a good Bible-believing, preaching, soul-winning church, and get involved so that you can grow as a Christian.

That's our burden.

And that was Paul's burden here.

I mean, he's writing this letter to church and not just to the church at Colossee, but to the church in Laodicea and the church at Ephesus, and every church in the history of the church.

So this exhortation, this letter is just as relevant today as it was as he was writing that time here in Colossians 2.

Man, it's awesome.

But now look what he says.

For as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, in other words, you've never seen me, but I have a heartbeat for you.

And then verse 2, he says, that the hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and into all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ.

Wow, that verse, I have read it a hundred times, memorized the verse, but I've never exergetically taken it apart.

It is phenomenal.

In fact, the message today is coming, just part of the message uh today will be out of this verse.

It's so powerful.

In fact, the whole paragraph is verses one through seven that we'll be looking at today and next week.

In fact, here's the preface of the whole paragraph.

Paul has a full, intense burden.

He's agonizing over these five principles that have to be prevalent and relevant in the church if it's gonna be God's church.

He said, This is the key to being all that God wants you to be as a church and as a Christian.

Five, I'm talking about, oh, they're so powerful, they're so prominent, that if we can grasp these, it's gonna change our life.

It's gonna change your life personally, and it will change our church cooperatively.

Because it's truth.

I have I've I've studied for 20, almost 32 years now.

Theological training, as high as it can go to the doctorate level, but uh master's in counseling, uh, all the behavioral science, psycho, somatic, all that stuff, but I've never seen such practical truth about emotions than what Paul writes in verse 2.

It's phenomenal.

So, with that said, let's see what he's talking about.

He's got a burden for the church.

Paul says, I wish you could understand what I feel for you.

And then he goes on to say, here's what I feel for you.

And he gives them five deep desires that he has for them to live out in their Christian life and in that church.

Number one, Paul's burden for the church.

Here it is.

That you have, look at verse 2, a strong heart.

That their hearts, that your hearts, my heart, be comforted.

Now that word comforted in the King James uh means, uh it's the word King James, but if you have another version, uh EVS or probably NIV, it's gonna say strengthen because that's what the word is.

The word is par racheleo, par ra.

And it literally means to strengthen.

It literally means to encourage, it literally means to comfort, it means to instruct, it means to teach.

In fact, what it really means is to come alongside and teach encouragement and courageousness to hey, your heart.

That's what it means.

In other words, he's saying, I am coming alongside you in my letter to encourage you, to comfort you, to strengthen you.

So it's important that we understand that word right out of the gate.

The strength and the heart.

Paul says, even though you have not seen my face in the flesh, I have a great agony that your heart be strengthened.

Now, I want to show you something.

That when the Bible refers to the heart, what does it really mean?

In the English language, watch this.

The heart is the symbol of emotion.

It is a symbol of emotion.

We use expressions like, my heart cries out for you.

We use expressions like, I love you with all my heart.

So it is an emotional expression in the English language.

Well, to the Hebrew, however, this was not the case.

Because in the Hebrew language and in this time setting, they did not use symbolisms.

They used actual experiences as their application.

So they did not have figuratively speaking, you know, symbolisms like we do today.

It was all practical, it was all experiential.

And man, when I caught that, I said, that's the difference.

In fact, let me share with you what they see the word heart means to them.

The Hebrews basically referred to two organs of the body: the bowels, the intestines, the inner workings, and the heart.

They use two organs.

And this is awesome.

In fact, the word heart uh really is cardiah, cardiah.

And we know it's physical life, it's what pumps the blood through our hearts, okay?

But it's also the seat of our spiritual life as well.

And that's why we see such expressions in the in the Greek language, in the Hebrew language, about, hey, the inner emotional workings of the Christian and of the church.

It's unbelievable.

So there are many references in the Bible to the word bowels, but in most of our newer translations, they have erased the word bowels, and what they are using is the word heart, uh, and we understand that.

But but we miss something here when we don't understand the word bowels, because, see, two words, bowels means emotions, and I'm gonna go ahead and give it, and then I'm gonna show it to you.

Means bowels.

Bowels means emotionals, okay?

It's our emotional part.

Uh in fact, you don't you don't say in your mind, uh, my mind is emotional.

Okay?

But your mind is your intellect and your will.

And remember what we talked about about three Sundays ago about being saved, and I think we had eight people saved.

I said, in order for a person to be saved, it incorporates intellect, emotion, and will.

Perfect.

Well, guess what?

In the mind, in the heart, and the heart is really connected to the mind, is your intellect, he, and will.

Your bowels is your emotions.

That's the simplest way to explain it.

Did you get that?

Your mind is your intellect, hey, and will.

Your stomach is your emotions.

Okay, because that's going to be very important that you understand that.

Not at me, save me, and I got that, preacher.

Because I'm just explained the two words, which could take two weeks to explain it in a classroom, but that's what it means.

The bowels, our stomach.

Uh you ever you ever get knots in your stomach?

When you get upset, do your stomach get upset?

Well, you say, what in the world's causing my stomach to be upset?

Your emotions.

Hello?

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

Now, watch this.

Now, let me explain it to you and show you some great, unbelievable illustrations.

But let me get it again.

All right.

Remember, your intellect and will come from your mind, your heart, which is also the heart.

Heart is in reference to the mind, according to the Hebrews.

When they thought about their mind and their intellect, they were thinking about their heart.

When they were emotionally moved, they were thinking about their stomach, their intestines.

Does that make sense?

So, in their mind, when they would say, hey, Cardia, it was a spiritual, intellectual, knowing something, doing something, and feeling something.

And here's what it would mean: it's the soul, uh, and I love this.

The heart is the center of life, our thoughts, our passions, our desires, our appetites, our affection, and our purposes.

Wow.

It encompasses all that we are: our intellect, our emotions, and our will.

So, with that said, look at some of the verses.

Psalms 22, 14, for example, powerful verse.

It's the prophetic picture of the crucifixion hundreds of years before it happens.

I meant verbatim.

And here's a prophetic description of Jesus on the cross.

Listen to what it says.

Verse 14.

I am poured out like water.

See there?

Again, that experiential principle.

They couldn't figuratively think of anything.

In other words, they're saying, hey, the crucifixion is like me pouring out water.

I literally experience it.

I see it.

Just as water is being poured out.

Look at what he says.

He says, as water, I'm poured out like water, and what's this?

All my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax.

It is melted in the midst of my bowels.

Wow.

In the midst of my in other words, my emotions are upside down.

My stomach is sick.

I'm uh I'm just tipsy topsy.

I mean, I'm just ugh.

Ever been there?

Maybe I didn't explain that, but I've seen some of you.

You've been there.

Amen.

And I've been there.

I mean, you just it it's you're just an emotional wreck.

Uh I feel it in my guts, what he's saying.

My stomach's in knots.

That's a very experiential concept.

Now look, look at another one.

We're gonna go to 1 John 3, 17, but let me let me show.

This is so powerful.

I didn't give you all the verses, but in the Song of Solomon chapter 5, verse 4, listen to what it says.

Song of Solomon 5:4

This is a bride waiting for her groom to come to her room on their wedding night.

Okay?

So you can think about that.

Well, in today's society, they've missed all the really sweet and lovable things of what a marriage relationship is.

But if you can go back for you that when you got married in that honeymoon night and listen to what takes place, my beloved put his hand to the latch of the door.

Now, watch this.

And my bowels were moved for him.

Now that's not very romantic sounding, is it?

If you don't understand what I just tried to explain to you.

Oh, my husband, my my husband speaks to the walk in the door for my first, you know, to see me for my wedding night, and all of a sudden my bowels are moved, and we say, huh?

Oh my soul, that's not what we think about when we say our bowels are moved.

We don't think about an emotional, romantic, unbelievable, you know, sexual experience with your husband or wife.

But that's what it meant.

It was that emotional, desirable appetite of wanting to be with her husband.

She was so uh, we would call that, I can remember, butterflies.

Butterflies in your stomach.

Uh ever had that?

Some of y'all saying, I don't know whether the answer is or not.

But anyway, that's what they're talking about.

And then watch this.

Man, in Lamentations chapter 2, verse 11, Jeremiah, which is called the weeping prophet.

Lamentations 2:11

You know Jeremiah, blessed his heart.

He preached for years and years, no repentance.

I mean, it was a mess.

This, I don't see how it was only God's grace that he continued because he never saw any movement of God outwardly, even though his preaching was prophetic and things that would be happening and did happen.

And he's so upset with the nation Israel, and listen to what he writes in Lamentations chapter 2, verse 11.

Lamentations 2:11

My eyes are do fell with tears, my bowels are troubled.

In other words, I feel it in my gut.

I have pain in my stomach.

It's all knotted up because of what?

The psychosomatic responses of his body of anxiety when all was coming from, hey, his heart, his thinking that they had turned from God, they weren't keeping the things of God, and yet he knew that, hey, curses brings destruction, obedience brings blessings, and he's so agonizing over the nation of Israel saying, You won't listen, you won't hear.

Wow.

What a picture of emotions.

What a picture.

And then to bring it to our day, 1 John chapter 3, verse 17.

1 John 3:17

Look at what he says.

The beloved John says, But whosoever hath this world's goods and sees his brother have need and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

John is simply expressing what would be obvious to a Hebrew.

He is saying, Look, when you see somebody with a need, it Ought to have a feeling in your stomach.

It ought to have a feeling of deep concern and seriousness that how can we help that person?

Woe, conviction.

When's the last time you felt like that?

Hundreds of people, thousands of people go to church every Sunday and walk out these doors, and they never have that sense, that urgency, that agony, that burden for people.

They have that agony and that burden for themselves.

Hello.

God help us.

How many times do we walk by people that we know we have the needs and the ability to meet those needs and we just walk on?

And don't even think twice about it.

Hello.

People on the side of the road, how many times have I passed by?

And the excuse I use is well, you never know, there may be criminals.

Next time it's going to be you by the road, and I'm going to pass by and say you may be a criminal.

Hello?

Huh?

I knew it's going to get real quiet.

I'm, hey, I told you, I've already failed this test miserably.

Man, this is convicting.

When's the last time you emotionally got upset?

Because there was a need to be met.

A need to be met.

Notice, right here, where, in other words, that gut feeling that I need to help them.

Wow.

Wow.

So, in every one of these passages, the bowels are always responding.

You need to write that down.

The bowels, the emotions were always responding.

That's a key concept.

Your emotions are to be your responding part of your body.

Can I get an amen?

That's natural.

Your emotions respond.

And there's evidence of that responding.

Usually good or usually bad.

But one or the other.

And we're going to talk about that.

So we see they responded to pain in Psalms 22, 14, sex in Song of Solomon verse 5, chapter 5, verse 4, disaster in Lamentations 2.11.

Human need in 1 John 3.17.

So we see these emotions responding.

It's very important that you understand that.

Man, that was so illuminating to me.

It really was.

So in the Hebrew mind, the bowels always refer to that which responds, the emotions.

Now notice the second organ.

The second organ is the heart.

First of all, we looked at this uh Paul's definition of bowels, but now look at the word heart.

Let me show you what it is symbolic in Scripture.

It's very important.

Remember, we said it deals with our intellect and our will.

Look at Revelation 2.23.

Boy, this is so good.

Under the strong at heart, the heart, Revelation 2.23.

Watch this.

In the middle of the verse, Jesus says, I am he who searcheth the minds and hearts.

Now the verse is obviously referring to judgment.

If you read the chapters 1 up to chapters 2, verse 23, because just prior to that statement, the Lord talks about the church being wayward and that he's going to bring destruction on the church if they don't repent.

And then he says, Watch.

I am he who searches the minds and hearts.

What is the heart then?

From this passage, we see that the heart is and has to be the place of responsibility.

It's the will.

It's the place of responsibility.

Do you understand that?

Say amen, church.

In other words, it's that place that, in other words, God is going to judge us according to how we've handled our responsibility.

And what controls what we do in the area of our responsibility has a lot to do with how we control our emotions.

And we're going to see that.

Man, this is powerful.

From this passage, we see the heart is a place of responsibility.

Look at Jeremiah 17, 9.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it.

In other words, here it is.

It's the seed of responsibility again.

It is that which God is going to judge.

It is that which is righteous or wicked.

You will be judged for your righteousness, you will be judged for your wickedness.

And that heart is the seat of that responsibility.

Man, that's good.

In fact, in Ezekiel, you don't have this one.

I saw this one on the plane coming back the other night.

When God redeemed Israel, he said, I'm going to take away their stony heart and give them a new heart of flesh.

The heart is the seat of responsibility, that which is judged.

What then does the heart picture?

Not the emotions, but the mind.

And the mind is made up of two things, the intellect and the will.

That's why in Psalm 14.1, this is awesome, in ancient times, you don't find people going around referring to the brain.

For example, Psalm 14.1 says, the fool had said in his heart there is no God.

You don't see people going around saying the fool has said in his brain there's no God.

But the fool has said in his heart there's no God.

But what makes him think that there's no God?

It's the intellect.

It's that intellectual processing that he's come to to believe that there's no God.

So, again, it's the heart.

Man, that's good.

Now, here we go.

This is gonna get good.

Look at the third thing.

See, the secret then of controlling your emotions.

If we see that emotions are the responding part of our body, it's good to know that they need to be controlled, correct?

So how do we control them?

Because if we don't control our emotions, guess what?

We are gonna be making some bad decisions.

How many of us have made terrible decisions because we made emotional decisions instead of, hey, understanding and truthful decisions?

Every one of us.

And we have lived to pay for it.

Can I get an O me?

Amen?

O me?

So, what's the secret of controlling your emotions?

Now remember, in the mind of the Hebrew and in the revelation, God's word, emotions never initiate anything.

They always respond.

The heart thinks and the motions respond.

That's the God's divine pattern.

That's why when somebody comes to me and says, I can't control my emotions.

Have you ever said that?

Have you ever been there?

I can't control my emotions.

I tell them and I tell myself, here's the problem.

I'm learning right here.

You know what the pro problem is?

It's not an emotional problem.

Hello.

Hello.

It's not an emotional problem.

Remember, the emotions are the responders.

It's a thinking problem.

Come on, work with me here, church.

It's not an emotional problem, it's a mind problem.

It's what your mind's thinking that's causing your emotions to respond.

That's good.

I will.

That's good, preacher.

If you can't say some of you that have been emotional wrecked, it's gonna change your life.

And you won't have to take pills, you won't have to take booze.

All you have to take is the word of the living God.

The word works.

Can I get an amen?

That's it.

That's it.

And you don't have to pay for it.

It's free.

The emotions are only responders to the initiation of the mind.

Wow, that's good.

The key to controlling your emotions is to fill your mind with divine truth.

Write that down.

The key to controlling your emotions is to fill your mind with divine truth, the word of God.

That's why we have a little saying around here.

Where's Rosemarie?

Oh, okay.

She's usually smiling at me.

You got it, you don't smile.

The I will doesn't smile at me, he just nods.

But we have a saying around here.

Are you ready?

About the word of God.

We love it, we learn it, we live it.

So here's the verse you all know.

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

I might not sin against God.

So the key for us, hey, not sinning against God is filling our minds, our hearts with the word of God.

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them.

And thy words were to me what?

The joy of my heart.

So again, what is it?

It's the joy of my emotions.

It's that controlling factor.

That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Well, that's good.

Why?

Because it controls our emotions.

You see, the emotions respond.

Man, this is good.

The emotions respond to the truth that they perceive.

Now don't miss this.

Whether the truth is real or not.

Good example.

You ever had a dream?

A bad dream?

But how real did it feel?

You woke up.

I'm falling off a cliff.

It's a dream.

But it was real.

In that dream.

Why?

Your mind had perceived that you were falling off a 40 however high cliff.

Amen.

Been there?

I mean, it was as real as anything, and you woke up and you and it was a dream.

Well, your mind had perceived that, and your emotions had reacted to what your mind perceived, even though it wasn't true.

That's good.

Well, guess what?

We do the same thing as Christians.

Not just dreaming.

Living.

We perceive things that are true that aren't true.

And so we respond to things that we think true that aren't true, and that's when we get in trouble.

And that's exactly why Paul's writing this.

Now you're going to see how it fits.

Because they were beginning to listen to false teachers.

They were beginning to listen to false philosophies that were not true, but they perceived them to be true, but they weren't true according to the word of God.

Amen.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall what?

Woo! Set you.

Oh my god, have a spy.

Woo! Set you free.

Amen.

You are not gonna, hey, you're not gonna take me into a cult if you know the truth.

You will not be swayed by the Jehovah's Witness, the Mormons, or any other cult if you know the truth.

And I can tell you, the easiest way about any cult is ask them this thing.

Two questions.

Who do you think Jesus is?

And number two, do you believe the word of God to be?

Hey, without error.

And if they stumble over answering those two, slam the door in the face.

Well, maybe don't slam it, but say, God bless you.

Don't laugh at me.

That's what the book says.

Amen.

Hello?

You okay?

Are you learning?

That's good.

The only way to control our emotions is to make sure that our mind is filled with the word of God.

That's it.

That's it.

So how can I control my emotions?

Listen to what Paul said.

He's writing to the church of Carth.

Boy, they were messed up.

2 Corinthians 6.11, Paul says, Oh, ye Christians, our speech to you is candid.

In other words, Paul says, I'm being transparent.

Let me tell you, you ought to be in a church that's transparent, that the pastor loves you so much that he tells you the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God.

And by the way, there's more in the Bible than just the love of God.

It's called the judgment of God, it's called the wrath of God.

And you need to be in a church that teaches the whole council.

Amen?

You need to hear the truth.

When people say, well, you're having problems because there's sin in your life.

Yes, that's a possibility, and that's one of the reasons.

But also you can be having problems because you're in the will of God, and God's, hey, refining you and putting you in the fire to get all that dross and all those impurities out of you so that he can use you in a greater way.

And then the third reason is maybe you're lost and he's sending problems to you.

So, hey, you can turn to him who can help you.

Can I get an amen?

Well, that's good.

Now, so let's look at the next thing.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Okay.

When emotions get ahead of the mind, you're going to have a lot of problems.

I wrote that to me.

I've had that happen to it happens sometimes.

If a person comes to me, the pastor at CCW, who has something personal against me, let me say something.

Or if you have something personal against anybody else in this church, especially leadership, and I I don't know of anything.

I'm usually the last one to find out anyway.

Instead of coming to your brother and sister when you first feel something, by the way, that's what you're supposed to do.

When you start having any animosity toward any one of your brothers or sisters in Christ, you need to go to them.

Don't go tell your husband.

Well, you may need to tell your husband or tell your wife, but after that, don't talk to anybody else.

You go to them.

Can I get an amen?

Hello.

Matthew 18, Matthew 5.

That's what the book says.

Well, they won't understand.

Well, no, they will understand.

And if they don't understand, that's when you take him and her or whoever, you and whoever you got all with, and then go sit down with your pastor.

Let him be the mediator and let's work it out.

Can I get an amen?

Amen?

Or some Christian mentor that you know that's living.

I mean, it doesn't have to be me, but I'm that's what we're here for.

The council, that's what we're here for.

But you go to them.

You don't go gossiping.

Hello?

You don't go maliciously trying to talk about people.

That's it.

That's it.

It's wrong, folks, and that does more damage to the body than anything else.

And why do we do that?

Here's why.

I'm gonna help you.

Why do we do that?

Because our emotions are running ahead of our thinking.

We're acting on what we feel instead of what we think.

Oh, he hurt me, she hurt me.

That's emotions.

And most of the time it's not all the truth anyway.

Most of the time it's half-truth.

Now, how do I know that?

That's the way Satan works in the Bible.

He tells half-truth.

Remember, there's always two sides of a story.

Always.

So don't make judgment by hearing one side.

That's good, preacher.

I'm teaching it, sister.

I'm teaching it.

So, once the emotions stop, stop being the responders, they start running the show.

And when they start running the show, we are in trouble.

Now, watch this.

The success of guarding your thoughts.

Look at look at D.

The success of guarding your thoughts.

Man, this is good.

The key to behavior and the key to the control of emotion in the heart is the mind.

We need to plant the truth of God in our mind so that we will control our emotional response.

Look at Proverbs 423.

Give you a few of these verses.

I've given you several.

I'll want maybe to look at all.

What does it say?

Keep, church, read.

Read with me, church.

Keep thy heart with all diligence.

Woo! Did you see that?

Read it again, church.

In other words, what you are, what you think, what you live, everything that you are comes from right here.

And you are to guard it diligently.

Proverbs 23, 19.

Read church.

Read church.

Hear thou.

Go.

Wow.

We guard our heart, we guide our heart.

How do we do that?

We guard our heart with the word of God.

We allow the word of God to guide our heart.

And hey, he says, thy word is a, here's the other verse we know.

Psalms 119, 105.

Thy word is a what?

Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Psalms 32, 8.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go.

I will guide thee with my eyes.

Wow.

That's good.

That's good.

Look at Psalms 139, 23, 24.

I pray this every day.

I wish I could say I live it out every day.

I do not, but I try.

Search me, O God.

Read, church.

Read church.

Verse 24?

Read.

And see if there be the intermediate way in me.

And lead me into the way of my mind.

Woo! Oh.

Oh, wake up in the morning.

Open that door, my heart, and see what I'm thinking.

Hey, what I'm pondering, what I'm meditating on.

Because that's what you're gonna be, hey, whatever you're thinking before long, if it's not right thinking, hey, it's gonna be bad living.

It's gonna be wrong living.

If you're thinking right, you're living right.

If you're thinking wrong, you're living wrong.

Amen?

E.V.

Hill called it stinking thinking.

We don't need stinking thinking.

We need right thinking.

Can I get an amen?

It's so important that we understand it.

Search me, know me.

Listen to what Jesus said.

Read this, church, Matthew 12, 35.

Read, church.

Pretty plain, isn't it?

Pretty plain, isn't it?

I love it when you read.

One more, church.

Read what Jesus said in Matthew 15, 19.

Read church.

Probably some of us or all of us have committed some of those things.

Hello, let's get right, let's get right down to where the rubber meets rudd.

Hello?

Where did it come from?

Duh.

Right from the heart, right from your thinking.

And once that thinking gets control, guess what?

Your emotions are going to respond.

That's why it's so important that we have right thinking.

Man, that's hard to do, though, isn't it?

To have right thinking all the time.

Okay?

Now don't go out of here and say, preacher said he has a hard time having right thinking.

Not most of the time, but just some of the time.

Amen.

Now let me give a good example.

Ooh, this is gonna be tough.

Some people that you don't like.

Now I know if you like everybody, God bless you.

Talk.

To me after the church, I need help.

Amen.

Okay.

When you see that person, what's your first thinking?

That's an unfair question.

No, it's not.

It's a truthful question.

It's a checkup.

It's a thermometer of what's there.

And the Holy Spirit does me that way all the time.

And sometimes I say, You're right, Holy Spirit.

I'm sorry, and I try to respond correctly.

And then there's sometimes I just say, You're right, and I don't care.

I don't like them.

And I ain't gonna do anything for them.

Hello.

Hello.

Come on.

And you know what the Holy Spirit says?

Okay, go ahead.

But you're the one that's gonna not be blessed.

You think you're hurting them, but you're the one really being hurt.

Ooh.

Because there's a verse in the Bible that I wish that if I could erase it, I would erase it today.

Love your enemies.

Do good to them that hate you.

Do good.

Remember 1 John 3.17?

As we have opportunity, that in other words, when I see that person that I'm really not as likable to I don't like them as much as I like other people, which is wrong.

And we're gonna see that next.

I ought to be saying, Lord, forgive me and let me love.

Help me to love.

And He will.

There's some people right now that I really do care for that at one time I could not stand.

It's taken me a long time.

But the Holy Spirit's worked on me.

And you know how I test that?

When that name comes up, how do I respond?

Watch your emotions.

Or is it?

That's okay.

Woo! Boy, we're gonna the altar's gonna be packed today, and you better not walk out of here and not not dealing with it, because I'm the first one already down here.

Well, let's go.

Let me get us over.

There's one other.

You gotta see the success of guarding your thoughts.

Well, we just looked at that.

Then the source of a strong heart.

The source of the strong heart.

Look at what he says in Ephesians.

Look at it.

Verse 16.

Here's the source.

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.

As we allow the Holy Spirit to take the word of God and put it in our heart and teach us, remember we said it comes along and teaches us and comforts us and encourages us through the word of God as we put it in our hearts, as we memorize it, as we live it, God strengthens us to love like we should love and have the, hey, well, actually, and that's where we're going next, the love like we should, but it it strengthens our hearts to think like we should think, which means we act like we should act, which means our emotions are, our emotions are intact.

Can I get an amen?

Did you understand what I just said?

Please, all right.

When we come to the point that we allow the Holy Spirit to take the word of God, we memorize it, we put it in our hearts, we live it, then when we begin to live through memorizing the scripture, thinking the scripture, the Philippians, thank you, Holy Spirit.

Philippians 4.8, thinking over those things that are true and honest and pure and lovely and of good virtue.

As we think over them, we think right, we live right, which our emotions are intact.

Well, that's good.

So don't come to me and say you're emotionally out of control.

You're oh, hey, that's not the issue.

You're not thinking right.

Got it?

All right, number two.

Now you can see why this one verse was so loaded.

Watch this.

That their hearts might be comforted, strengthened.

Now, here's the next biggie, and this will be the end of the part one of this message.

Knitted together in love.

Knitted together in love.

Woo! Now that word knit is the Greek word soumbi bazo.

Soombi bazo.

That really is the Greek word.

Soombi bazo.

Sounds like a song.

Soom be bazoo.

Soombi bazo.

Now here's what that means.

Join together with affection.

Join together with affection.

It means joined together with intellect, will, and emotions.

All of it.

You got it?

Not part of it, not just emotions.

Oh, here's a major, major, major problem.

We become joined together with emotions.

And when you do, bad things happen.

Sex before marriage, bad things happen.

Why do you do that?

You're emotionally, hey your emotions are running rampant.

You're not thinking right.

You say, no, wait a minute, everybody's doing it.

That doesn't make it right.

Because the Bible says flee fornication, the Bible says the truth that should be here that you have sex after you're married.

And remember, we just saw that.

It is fun, it's exciting, and it should be if it's done godly.

Can I get an amen?

That's good preaching, preacher.

That's not modern-day living, preacher.

I don't care.

God didn't call me to be popular, he called me to preach the truth.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

And praise the Lord, that's why you're here.

And that's why I love deacon and I love Chuck bringing these young men and they're teenagers.

You're hearing the truth.

You say, but that's not modern, or that's not.

If you do it God's way, it's so much better than the world.

Let me give you Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel 1 · chapter mention

When Daniel didn't give in, hey, the God blessed him.

They were ten times better than the world.

Ten times better.

Daniel committed to God.

Woo! Why?

Daniel 1.8, he said, I have purpose in my heart, I will not defile myself with the king's meat and the king's wine.

Come on.

Man, that's good.

Now look at the unity defined.

It means an invisible oneness.

That's what it means, knit together, an invisible oneness.

Billions of cells are in our body.

I was reading and researching.

I had a good time on the airplane going in, coming and reading.

Billions of cells are in our body, but they act as one.

What an example.

The church are thousands and thousands, God's church of people, but we ought to individually be as one.

What?

We ought to be thinking the same.

We ought to be living the same.

Why?

We're thinking right.

Why are we thinking right?

The Holy Spirit's in us, and he's teaching us the word of God.

And we all are thinking and living according to God's word.

It doesn't matter who we are, where we are, what color we are, what social class we are, what education we have, if we're living according to God's word, there ought to be a binding, unifying spirit in our hearts.

That's why we can love Reuben and love Pastor Julio in Honduras, even though we're thousands of miles away.

Is that not good?

It's like a thread.

You ever remember the little thread, and we used to put beads on them and have bracelets, and it was the red, white, and blue bracelets to witness.

But it's like the thread is eternal life.

It's salvation.

We all have that.

And the beads are all different, they can be different sizes, they can be different colors, but we all have that commonality.

And what is that commonality?

We've been born again through the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

We are children of the King.

Woohoo! That is positionally being knit together.

You got it?

Say amen.

And there's several scriptures.

1 Corinthians 6.17, positionally speaking.

Hey, hey, but he is joined unto the Lord in one spirit.

1 Corinthians 12, 13.

For by one, read, read, church.

Read 1 Corinthians 12.13.

Read that for me.

For by one spirit we are all about body.

Whether we need you.

Woo! There's that commonality.

We've been placed.

When you got saved, the Holy Spirit came into your life and he placed you into the body of Christ.

We're all one.

We're members of God's family.

That's the difference between a lost and a saved person.

Man, that's good.

Oh, that's good.

Oh, hey, we've been saved the same way.

We've been baptized in the Spirit the same way.

Hey, positionally, we are all the same.

Now, now watch this.

You've got to read one more.

Galatians 3.

Go back to Galatians 3, 26 through 28.

26 through 28.

Read it.

For you're all.

Go, church.

Read it.

I'd love to hear you read.

For you're all.

Verse 27.

For as many.

Verse 28.

Woo! Is that good?

Is that say that's good, church?

We're all one.

I love.

That's why I can hug your neck and love you every Sunday.

I do.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

We're all one.

We have we're different gifts.

We have different colors.

We have different social classes, but we're all one in Christ.

We're all glory.

We're all hey, one at the foot of the cross.

Amen.

And don't ever forget it.

No one, you're not better than anyone.

In fact, if you really love, hey, love everyone, you ought to put yourself in the lowest position.

Woo! That's I don't do that very well.

It's all about me.

Hello?

We live in a world today, it's all about me.

Not all about others.

Look at our government, and that's all I'm gonna say on that issue.

But now, watch.

Positionally, we're all one.

And here's the problem.

When I saw this, I repented and I'm still repenting.

When Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I loved you, that you also love one another.

Okay?

That is positional love.

Verse 34 in John 13.

Now look at what he said, verse 35, though, in John 13.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples by your love.

Now, what did Paul say to this church at Colossae?

We are to be knitted together in love.

So we have positional unity.

We're all one in Christ.

We've all been saved by the same Spirit, received the same power, the same riches, the same everything through Christ.

But now, here's the problem.

And by the way, when Jesus prayed in his prayer in John 17, 21, this is a powerful statement.

He made this statement.

He said, Father, I want my children, your children that you gave me, to be one so that they'll know who you are.

That oneness, that knitted together.

The worst thing, I have dealt with two pastors, even on vacation this past week, that have been run off by their churches, and there's major problems in their churches.

God help us.

Why did that happen?

I was able to tell the preacher, I took him through this, Scott Winters, honey.

I took him through what I was studying, and he said, Pastor, that is exactly what happened.

I said, What happened?

You had a deacon, uh chairman of the deacons, and his emotions got so out of whack, he wasn't thinking right, wasn't handling things right, that he just blew the whole thing up.

And how do we know?

Well, he got up in a meeting and and and with all the whole churches say, I'm leaving this church, I can't trust the pastor, I'm out of here.

Now, folks, that is motions out of control.

Amen.

Anytime somebody gets up in a church setting and and it's not spoken lovingly, building up and kind and truthfully, and hey, the emotions are out of control.

And why are their emotions out of control?

They're thinking wrong.

Hello?

You know what it really is?

Bottom line, it's all about them and not all about Christ.

Help me.

That's what it is.

Now watch this.

Mm-mm.

Woo! Is this good or is this good?

You say it ain't good, but it's helpful.

I understand.

Trust me.

So, what he said is, how do we live out this love now practically?

Look at what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.10.

He says, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.

Now, that doesn't mean we're robots.

When he's talking about speaking the same thing, he's talking about, hey, living and speaking the word of God, and that there be no, what does that say?

Divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined.

There's that perfectly is another synonym for knitted together.

In the same, what?

Mind and in the same judgment.

There it is.

Mind and emotions.

Both of them seen right there.

In other words, ye are one, not, hey, and now act like it in practice.

Behave as one.

That's what he's saying.

Now, dispositionally, we've got to work on it.

And that's what the Lord meant.

Stand fast in one spirit with one mind.

Now, quickly go to number three, unity defended.

I want you to see this.

How do we have this?

Paul said in Ephesians 4.3, you say, well, Pastor, how do we live out our unity?

How do we live?

I mean, we've got this oneness positionally, but it's not seen if it's not lived out practically.

Watch this.

The worst testimony in the church today is people getting up and saying that they love.

Watch this now.

That they love God, but they, hey, and I can agree with that if they're really saved positionally, but the way they live is they don't live out God's love practically.

And that's the worst testimony we could have is to say we're a Christian and not live it.

Can I get an amen on me?

That's good preaching, preacher.

Wow.

Paul said, look at verse 3 in Ephesians 4.

Endeavoring to keep, that word keep there means guard.

Remember, guard, guide.

Guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Wow! I know that verse.

I've quoted it deegra so many times, I had really never understood it till right now.

Right now.

God is my witness.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit.

That means working on it.

Woo! Now watch this.

Mm-mm-mm.

Here's the problem.

Notice that we do not have to create the unity.

I've never seen this before.

Unity is already created.

See?

You're doing like I'm saying.

When I thought, mm-hmm.

Never thought of it that way.

We don't have to create unity.

The unity is already created.

Why?

Holy Spirit's living in our heart.

That's unity.

He's already brought the unity there.

We're one.

You just read the verses.

What we have to do is guard it.

We have to guard it.

We have to fight for it.

We have to diligently keep it.

You start guarding a marriage like that, you won't have a 50% divorce rate.

You start guarding your unity of your church like that, you won't have church splits.

Because we both have to work at it.

All of us.

Why?

We've got to, it's not about me.

It's about Christ.

It's about, hey, far as I'm concerned, it's not about me.

It's about clay.

It's about candy.

It's about granny.

It's not about me.

It's not what I want in this church.

Hello?

And it shouldn't be.

Listen, if you, if we wouldn't have the silly arguments that we have and the divisions in churches we have if we understand what this verse really means.

And I'm going to tell you, bottom line, it means you don't care about your rights, you care about everybody else's rights.

Every one of us are guilty of that.

We do not do that the majority of the time.

Every one of us.

Watch this.

We, all right, now here's the question you should ask.

Now wrote it down.

Okay?

All right.

Notice that we do not have to create the unity.

The Spirit's already created it.

We just guard it.

Now, watch this.

How do we guard our unity?

Look at the verse.

By being a peacemaker.

It is the unity of the Spirit that is guarded by the bond of peace.

Now, what's the bond of peace?

It is a covenant that Christians have made with God and with one another to be at peace with each other.

A covenant.

That's why people don't understand marriage.

When you make a covenant with your husband or your wife, it is a till death do you apart.

It's a covenant.

We don't understand it.

We're to agree that we will not argue or fight with one another.

Oh.

How many?

Can we all come to the altar now?

There's not one of us in this room who's not guilty of that.

But that's what a peacemaker is.

I have promised that I will not argue or fight with you.

And for my wife, she'd say, Well, you just don't want me to say anything.

And being selfish, I'd say, Yeah, I want to do what I want to do.

And I don't want you to say anything about it.

Hello?

I knew it was going to get real quiet right here at the end.

If you're not at the altar this morning.

God help us all.

Amen.

This is terrible.

I'm eating.

I have, my wife, she said, you've been a little.

Yeah, I've been that way a little bit.

Because it's eating my lunch.

I I'm how would you?

I hadn't passed any of these print principles yet.

Not consistently.

Folks, I'm convicted.

I'm not I'm not near where I need to be about love.

Hello.

If you talk about anybody other in a bad way, you aren't either.

The importance of the unity.

Look at Colossians 3 12.

Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness, a mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing, tolerating one another, and forgiving.

One another.

If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.

Now watch this, and I'm on be through.

What is the bond of peace then?

The bond of peace is love.

Love is what binds everything together.

It is love that keeps the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So the Spirit has already created the basic unity in the life of every believer.

We don't have to create this unity, we simply have to guard it.

And how do we do that?

By being at peace with one another, which occurs only when we love one another.

And I'm not going to go on and read those other ones, but the powerful scriptures just go through them.

They speak for themselves.

And what it literally says that I put everybody else before myself.

Did you hear me?

I can't handle any more.

Do you put?

Alright, let me let me ask you.

Here's the invitation question.

And I'm already, I'm gonna be the first one here.

When is the last time you got knots in your stomach that you knew you needed to help somebody?

And you did it.

If that's not recent, you got another problem.

Not positionally.

You gotta get this or you'll walk out of here so discouraged you can't even eat it.

And we gotta eat.

Not positionally.

Thank God we're all saved and we love God.

Amen.

That's not what I'm talking about.

But us living what we claim to be.

Living it out right.

Amen.

Tammy came over yesterday.

Here's what I'm talking about.

I'm sure the Lord laid us on our heart.

They've been on our heart.

They're our new neighbors.

They bought Ibn Rosemary's house and went over immediately and just hit it off with them.

Last time I talked to Wayne, they planned on joining their church, but they've had a lot of things about a parents, Wayne's parents coming up here and moving up here, and just a lot going on in their family.

And you know, we tried everything we could, and I'm gonna give you an example.

And I'm just doing this because this is my last example, which was I three two weeks ago, which is not so don't think I'm praising myself.

Actually, I'm under conviction I hadn't done it better.

But once I knew that that Tammy was out and just gotten back, I went to lunch and told Steve, and uh I told uh a couple of those ladies, I said, would you make me some plates to take to them?

Because I was really, I was concerned about it.

I was really concerned about it.

We took the food over, I did was I went behind the liver right across the street.

So that's a bad thing to done.

If you live across the street from the pastor, he knows everything you're doing.

That's why we move.

That's why oh boy, did I set myself up for that one, didn't I?

I said that's why I move.

Boy, you sure know how to blow over good line.

But on the I know that.

Everybody knows that.

But on the other hand, guess what?

They know everything I do.

It goes both ways, folks.

Amen.

Amen.

But I had that feeling.

And then she came over yesterday and brought me cinnamon bagels.

That was really good.

I was starving.

But then she came back about two hours later with cabbage and ham.

Oh, woo, forget the bagels.

But but that's what I'm talking about.

God stirs your heart.

And she said, we know you've just gotten back.

Susan hadn't had a chance to fix anything.

Uh in fact, we didn't have milk for two days.

And I kept thinking, here's a guilty.

And honey, I forget, forgive me.

I kept saying, well, when are you gonna get the milk?

When you gonna get, well, why not when you gonna get the milk?

Hello, if I'm thinking about right?

Amen.

She said, yeah.

Yeah.

But when is the last time we've been stirred with emotions?

Because our heart and our thinking is that we want to help somebody.

Is that not convicted?

I apologize.

Oh people.

I got to do better.

Granny, I got to do better.

That is the visible sign that we're really Christians.

That's the only way that we'll be different from this world, and people will start coming here by the hundreds when they really know you love that way.

And I think we are, and we're trying, we're getting there.

We are.

That's why many of you.

I was talking to Pam, but she said, that's the difference about this church that she's loved is the transparency, the honesty, the love.

Hey, we're we got a long way to go, folks.

We're just getting started.

Working together, knitted together, loving God, loving each other, and loving our community.

Liberty Baptist Church was up at Kangaroo.

Anybody go by Kangaroo yesterday?

They walked out to the car and they said, Can we be a blessing to you and wash your windshield?

I said, Yeah, you can be a better blessing.

Tell me about Jesus.

He said, Oh, okay.

Then he said, Oh, you're the preacher.

I said, I am.

But I said, don't just wash my windshield, wash my soul.

Amen.

When's the last time you ate in your stomach to help somebody?

Well, let's put it in a positive way.

When's the last time you had those butterflies and that sweet feeling because you did help somebody?

Amen.

Isn't it a great feeling?

It is.

And by the way, it's okay to say feelings because it's an emotional response to a right action.

The bride was having emotional excitement ready to consummate a marriage with her husband.

Those are right feelings.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit us on our webpage at thechurch at cw.com.

You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at thechurch at CW.

Need prayer or more information?

Send us an email at office at the church at cw dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.