Gospel Emotion - Galatians 4:8-20 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning. Welcome to Boone Fairy.

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something you would be part of. That'll

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great time to invite friends that you

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Um it always ends up being a an

evangelistic sermon on Christmas Eve. So

great time to invite people for that

kind of thing. Maybe people you've been

witnessing to. Other than that, we're

continuing our march right through

Galatians. We'll be in Galatians chapter

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

4 starting in verse 8. So let me pray

and we'll get into it. Heavenly Father,

thank you for your word. Thank you for

the understanding you're granting us and

not even just the understanding but also

the power to obey what we're

understanding in how it transforms our

like uh our lives and how we are having

your son's

truth and love and life more fully

formed in our hearts. I pray that we

would all understand what you're saying

today uh and that we would take it to

heart and that it would have a

meaningful impact uh for us to be

growing in sanctification, becoming more

like your son. I pray these things in

Jesus name. Amen.

Um I thought I'd give you a short update

on our on our house sale and home

purchase. Not just for fun, but because

something kind of relates to the sermon

here. Um, we're now pending on both

houses and our closing date is December

17th. So, we're really excited about

that. And so, Christine and I have been

thinking about things regarding how to

manage moving the house, especially

during the holidays and all of that.

And, uh, right now, I think we have our

inspection tomorrow and the um, septic

inspection already came through and uh,

we haven't seen the results, but we'll

see those soon. And so, I'm thinking

about those kinds of things. the house

is on city water even though it's

outside of the urban growth boundary

which is nice but we did have thoughts

about whether we should have a well or

not and so I looked into that and um

drilling well is just too much upfront

cost for us to think it's wise to do

that although it would be nice to have

well water on the 5 acres and so I was I

was thinking about wells and I was

thinking about my friends at Oregon

State when I went there for a year um

and the kinds of things they had to

learn regarding fluid dynamics

And there I'm sure there are people in

here that actually understand fluid

dynamics, but honestly um just from

YouTube videos I've watched like smarter

everyday Christian guy who tries to

understand all things and uh just is

constantly learning and he talks about

um mathematics in relationship to fluid

turbulence. One of the reasons why

liquid dynamics is so difficult of a

class to get through for engineers is

that the kind of math you have to do to

understand how liquid flows, especially

in turbulence,

it seems almost unsolvable. And I think

if I understand correctly, if if I'm uh

explaining this in a way that doesn't

make a whole lot of sense and you

understand turbulence much better than I

do, I'd love for you to explain it for

me sometime. But from what I've

understood, one of the reasons why uh

basically chaos theory is linked with uh

turbulence fluid dynamics mathematics is

because there are just so many

variables. When you're trying to come up

with a formula to understand how liquids

behave under turbulence and uh why

sometimes they behave very differently,

there's just near chaos in the swirls.

So you have things like um the viscosity

of the water basically how runny the

water is or how nonfluid the water is.

Uh so if honey is not going to be as

turbulent as as water for example

because of viscosity differences you

have surface tension issues. You have

flow rate issues. Gravity is related to

that. If you're thinking of a waterfall,

have you ever seen how water, although

at the beginning it seems like in a very

totally liquid flowing state, if it

falls for long enough, it almost becomes

mist like mol molten noma. Well, that

has to do with uh it falling through the

air and there's resistance and so things

are there's pressures and forces exerted

on that water that cause it to behave in

a certain way or I don't know if you

guys have ever been to Punch Bowl Falls.

that's in the is it Eagle Creek uh uh

hiking area and uh you can go up there.

I probably wouldn't recommend it, but I

did it. And you get shot right out of

this waterfall and into the punch bowl.

And unless you swim hard to get out of

it, you kind of get rocked around in all

the turbulence there. Um, so turbulence

is unbelievably difficult to understand,

especially when it's falling on a

topography of rocks that are all

different shapes. So, mathematics has

not been able to find out a formula,

cohesive theory for how turbulence even

works. And it's really no different with

the human heart except that it's orders

of magnitude more complicated when you

consider everything that's bound up in

the human heart. um mathematics is not

the right tool to understand the human

heart. Uh the Bible is a theology is the

right tool to understand the human

heart. I want to read to you from

Ecclesiastes.

I don't know if in the past Ecclesiastes

was a well more well-known book, but I

would guess that out of the books of the

Bible that are least well-known, even

among uh Bible believing churches that

are preaching through the Bible, it's

one of the ones that people know the

least about and often times surprised

when they find things in there. And I'm

going to Ecclesia Ecclesiastes 3:11,

Ecclesiastes 3:11

which I think we have on the screen,

just to show you how much more complex

the human heart actually is than even

things like fluid dynamics and

turbulence.

He has made everything beautiful in its

time. Also, he has put eternity into

man's heart, yet so that he cannot find

out what God has done from the beginning

to the end. This is Solomon speaking, at

least at the time, the wisest man who'd

ever lived. And he's saying that God put

eternity into our hearts. So, thinking

of wells again,

one of the reasons why wells can be

really expensive to have dug is that the

water may be quite deep and the deeper

you have to drill, uh, the bigger the

rig, the longer they have to drill, the

more hours you're paying for. So,

think of a really deep well, just in

literally a well, not a metaphor. And

there's water at the bottom. And now

think of your heart in a similar way.

Cuz if you were going to point to your

heart, you'd say this. If you're going

to point to your mind, you'd say this.

If you're going to point to your spirit

or your soul, where would you point? And

then you actually realize, wait a

minute, when the Bible's talking about

the heart, it's not talking about the

actual heart. When the Bible's talking

about the mind, it's not talking about

your brain. Although because of brain

science, we we understand there are

things that happen in our brain that are

connected to how we think. But it's not

your brain. When God talks about loving

him with all your heart, with all your

soul, with all your strength, and with

all your mind, he doesn't mean with this

heart or with this brain. Those are part

of it. But in the same way, you can't

really point to where your spirit is.

You can't really point to where your

heart is. you can't really point to

where your mind is. These are things

that

that science

can't fully understand and are not the

right tools. But on top of it, whatever

the heart is, and we know quite a bit

from scripture what the heart is, it has

eternity in it. So think of a well much

deeper than any human could ever drill.

And now think of the kinds of

turbulences that happen in our hearts as

a result of powerful emotions

like anger. You know, I looked up I had

to look up is loneliness an emotion.

According to AI, loneliness is an

emotion. Um maybe there's a root emotion

that's underneath loneliness, but you're

feeling loneliness or you're feeling

anxiety, which is a little bit different

than feeling fear, but they're

connected. Or maybe you're feeling joy,

happiness, or you're feeling

satisfaction,

and and something happens and it throws

your emotions into great turbulence.

Usually, it has to be pretty powerful

emotions to throw that deep well of your

heart into turbulence. But if it's

really as deep as eternity since God put

it there and listen to the second thing

he says yet so that he cannot understand

or cannot find out what God has done

from the beginning to the end. So he's

put this puzzle of eternity in our

hearts but we don't naturally have all

the pieces to be able to put together.

Um, and you you can you can understand

this just by sometimes you are feeling

things that you don't even understand

why you're feeling. You ever been down?

Just feeling down, but you don't know

why you're feeling down. Things are not

bad at work. Things are not bad in your

marriage. You have enough money. You

don't feel stressed out.

Maybe things are going well spiritually

in general, but you just feel really

down and you don't know why. It happens

to me. You get just this glooiness and

you try to search this eternal thing

that God has put in us, this heart, as

the Bible calls it, and you try to do

that naturally, you've got no chance of

figuring out what's going on in there.

Got no chance of figuring out what's

going out in there. Um, I wouldn't say

that non-Christians have no idea or

self-awareness of what's going on in

their heart, but it's worse than us just

trying to understand our hearts and not

having all the puzzle pieces. Our hearts

are also broken in a very specific way.

They're sinful, the Bible says, and that

means they're bent against God's will.

And that's what Paul will call the flesh

over and over again. He lit, he does not

mean your heart of flesh in the sense

that like the muscle there that you

could take out or point to or have

surgery on, but he's talking about your

innermost being, which a lot is wrapped

up into more than just emotion, but your

innermost being.

And that's not naturally surrendered to

the Lord. And unless it is surrendered

to the Lord, you can't really understand

the depths of what's going on in there.

So, you might be angry at someone you

love and feeling tempted to say things

out of that anger, but you don't really

even understand what you're angry about.

You might be afraid of something and

don't understand that you're afraid.

Worse yet, or what why you're afraid

worse yet, you're afraid, but you don't

think you're afraid because the heart is

deceitful

according to God's word. So as

Christians, we know that the spirit of

God dwells in our hearts. He's also

called the spirit of Christ. So Christ

himself, Jesus, has made our hearts his

home. He's taken up permanent residence

in our home.

And so because of that, we actually do

have everything we need to understand

the eternity in our hearts. But if

you're not surrendered to God, then

although I still believe you're more

protected than a non-Christian and you

are still more capable of understanding

what's going on there just from past

knowledge and revelation from scripture,

the symptoms of how you behave are

really not that much different than

non-Christians. So, can Christians steal

because maybe they feel like they don't

have what they need and so they are

tempted to steal and then they take what

doesn't belong to them? Yeah, Christians

can do that. And non-Christians will

look at that be you're no different than

us. And from the outside symptoms, it

really looks that way. There's a

dramatic difference because our very

hearts has become God's holy of holy

place. He's actually dwelling in us. And

just because you steal something doesn't

mean the spirit abandons you. But it

does grieve him and it does quench him.

And those are grief is an emotion. Do

you know the Holy Spirit experiences

emotion when we sin? He experiences

grief.

In fact, I don't believe that there is

any emotion that a human being feels

that God doesn't. Do you know God feels

jealousy?

If you take sin out of every emotion,

God feels that. It's where we get our

emotion from his image.

So,

think about how complicated turbulence

is. You know, maybe if you pour some

food uh coloring into water, then pour

water, you can see all these swirls.

Imagine trying to predict that

mathematically. So far, no

mathematicians has figured it out. Think

of that same thing being your heart

apart from God.

You don't know what's right or what's

true. And yet, your heart will trick you

and say, "I do know what's right and

what's true here." And when you're

angry, sometimes you'll feel you're

entirely justified in being angry and as

angry as you are. And then you surrender

emotion to God, come back to a cool

place, and realize your anger was

actually totally false. and based on

false ideas and it shouldn't been angry

at all. And other times you'll be angry,

surrender that anger to God. And yet

that anger wasn't necessarily false.

There was a righteous element to it.

But if you really believe what God says,

and we do, that he's put eternity in our

hearts, then you can understand that the

theory of the heart is far more

complicated than chaos theory. And we

are hopelessly desperate uh without God

to understand it.

And I say all this because

unless you you in humility understand

that you won't be warned by Paul to the

degree that you need to be warned in

what he's actually saying. We need to

come to this passage with a clarity of

our desperate need for protection from

about three things and I'll list them to

you here in a moment. But if we don't

have protection by the spirit of those

three things, um Paul actually says we

can become enslaved.

So we've started let's go let's go

actually to Galatians and I'll give you

my main point here before we continue.

Main point is that unless Christ is more

fully formed in us, we're in danger of

capture by the enemy's influence through

worldly principles. And you might think,

what on earth does the introduction have

to do with this? Well, the enemy, and I

think I if you're not convinced of this,

I think I'm I'm going to be able to

convince you biblically that the enemy

will always start by manipulating your

emotion when he's trying to tempt you to

sin in some way or another.

I cannot think of a time and I challenge

you to think of a time where you have

sinned where there wasn't a powerful

emotion

that that was a lever to gain influence

for you to do it.

Think of a sin like is loneliness

sinful? No. Lonel is not because can

loneliness lead to sinful things? Oh my

goodness. Yeah. Can anger is anger

sinful? Not necessarily. But when it's

not surrendered to the Lord and when

it's turbulent in the heart and not

understood and just lashing out from

that place of turbulence, it can cause

unbelievable sin and damage. Stuff you

can't take back and you can't undo.

Fear. The more powerful the emotion,

the more dangerous it is.

Okay, I want to mention the three things

that I would talk about here that we're

in such danger from our flesh. So our

natur our natural desire is against what

God wants for us. And everything that

God wants for us is life and love and

joy and peace and power. It's everything

good you can imagine. That's what God

wants us to have. And freedom is one of

those things. Our flesh wants the

opposite of those things. But it'll

convince you. You in yourself, your

heart will convince you that what God is

trying to take from you is your freedom.

So it's just like inversely set against

all the things that are godly desires.

There's that. Then there's the world

that Paul is going to talk about. And

the world has principles and ideas

prevailing. Most of them are pretty much

the same throughout the ages, but some

kind of spike and then and then lose.

You've heard the German word zitgeist.

That's like the spirit of the times. Uh

but they don't mean anything spiritual.

Just mean like the thoughts of the times

that prevail. And then there's the

enemy. And the enemy is in power over

this world in a way that we don't see

but is very real. and he has vast

resources of other demonic spirits that

he's in control of that play a direct

role in influencing human beings. So th

those are the three things, your flesh,

what Paul will call elementary

principles, worldly ways, and the

enemy's influence. So you got three

things against you. Uh and emotion, I

I'm positive I'm going to be able to

convince you of this. Emotion is the

epicenter of all of it. When you sin,

the the emotion is not the sin itself.

Paul will say, "Be angry, but do not

sin." So, if you can be angry and not

sin, then anger must not always be

sinful, right? Same thing with fear.

So, I think we've gone wrong as

Christians for a long time trying to

make emotion out to be a bad thing

because we've noticed how many times

people's emotion will overwhelm their

faith and obedience.

So what we ought not to say though even

before we get in this passage what we

ought not to say is that our emotion

itself is somehow sinful. It becomes

sinful when it's not surrendered to the

Lord. Okay?

And and the the way that this connects

to this main point is that what it

really means for Christ to be more fully

formed in you

um is that you allow your heart to be

more surrendered to him when it really

counts.

frustration. It's probably emotion,

right? Somewhat akin to anger, not quite

the same. So, if you're mildly

frustrated and your faith has grown

some, you continue to trust God through

that frustration and you don't sin as a

result. But what if you are so

frustrated, your faith kind of level of

faith is right here. The well of your

faith hasn't grown much beyond this.

It's pretty deep. But the frustration is

just so powerful in that moment. If you

don't allow the Holy Spirit to deepen

your faith, to trust you even beyond

this frustration. I mean, just think

about the last time you said something

out of frustration you shouldn't have

said, right? That's this versus, you

know what, I'm going to go calm down.

I'm going to trust God over this. I'm

going to give him lordship over this

frustrating emotion I'm experiencing.

You understand what I'm saying? So every

time it's this the enemy the enemy has

has observed you whether it's him

directly or one of his you know fallen

angels that that are really ultimately

in his control. They know enough about

us to know when to tempt us in this

direction. God will never tempt you but

he will test you. So just like any kind

of exercise if you stress the muscle

it'll grow. If your faith is stressed

and then you obey, it'll grow deeper

than the current temptation. That is

like an attack on your emotions to get

you to do the opposite of what God an

attack on your heart. The deepest place

of yourself

he So, so God says, "Love me with all

your heart." So, what does the flesh

say? No, none of my heart. What does the

enemy say? No. Worship me instead.

What does the world say? Do whatever you

want. do what makes you happy. You have

this whole complex of things working

against you with a heart that has

eternity in it that is swirling far more

complex than turbulence theory.

That's how much we need the Holy Spirit

just in any given moment. And they

always come at times you're not really

expecting it, don't they? All of a

sudden you're lonely, droningly lonely,

and you're like, "Well, I could do this

thing. I know it's sin, but it does make

me kind of feel a little bit better at

the time.

Or you could trust God in that moment to

fill that place in your heart that's

lonely. And that's the battle.

It is a battle of emotions. But I don't

mean emotions the way non-Christians

mean. I mean like deep spiritual inner

desires.

I can see you guys sh nodding your head.

So and Paul is so perplexed about this.

He he hasn't figured out the human heart

either. Let me read the whole passage to

you and you can understand how this

relates then. Here's Galatians 4:8.

Galatians 4:8

Formerly, when you did not know God, you

were enslaved to those that by nature

are not gods. Why were we talking about

spirits and demons and things? Well,

what he's saying is that these Galatians

people through different types of means,

whether it's elementary principles or

religious practices or whatever's going

on, were actually enslaved

to spirits that are not God. And you

don't see them. And at the time, you

have no idea you're enslaved to them,

right? So they're unseen and unknown,

but they do capture people in their

hearts and their minds and and their

actions and their thoughts. Even verse

9, but now that you have come to know

God, or rather be known by him, by God,

how can you turn back to the weak and

worthless elementary principles of the

world whose slaves you want to become

once more? Notice the language of desire

there. They he's saying, "Do you really

want to become slaves again to those

things that God had freed you from? how

you observe days and months and seasons

and years. Well, I'll explain in a

moment what he's talking about there.

But Paul then says, "I'm afraid I may

have labored over you in vain."

You see why I say that when Christians

give in to their fleshly desires and the

enemy's temptations to follow worldly

ways, it's hard to differentiate them

from non-Christians.

Paul's worried that he may have even

labored over them in vain because he

doesn't understand how this could happen

to a Christian. Brothers, I entreat you.

Become as I am, for I also have become

as you are. You did me no wrong. You

know it was because of a bodily ailment

that I preached the gospel to you at

first. And though my condition was a

trial to you, you did not scorn or

despise me, but received me as an angel

of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has

become of your blessedness? For I

testify to you that if possible, you

would have gouged your eyes out uh

gouged out your eyes and given them to

me. Have I then become your enemy by

telling you the truth?

So there was something amazing that

happened in in in the Galatians hearts

and they were unbelievably generous and

kind and loving sacrificially so to an

extreme Paul's saying in a good way.

Have I they become your enemy by telling

you the truth? They, he's talking about

the false teachers, make much of you,

but for no good purpose. They want to

shut you out that you may make much of

them. It's always good to be made much

of for a good purpose, and not only when

I'm present with you. Uh, excuse me.

It's always good to be made much of for

a good purpose, and not only when I'm

present with you, my little children,

for whom I am again in anguish of

childbirth until Christ is formed in

you. I wish I could be present with you

now you now and change my tone for I am

perplexed about you.

The more I study Paul, the more I'm

convinced that he's just about the

greatest scholar of the Bible. And not

just in terms of knowledge, but in terms

of surrender and obedience. He's the one

especially that didn't get taken in by

this lie. Remember Peter, Barnabas, the

Jews, they all got taken in by the lie.

What was the lie? That you can be

righteous by works. That's what that's

what circumcision is about. That's what

doing the law is about. It's I can do it

myself. It's what the heart wants. God

says you can't do it yourself. In fact,

you you can't do anything. Uh I did

everything by my son and now I've given

you myself by the spirit to give you the

power to actually love me and obey. So

the heart says no, no, no, no. The heart

wants to do it itself and self-justify.

And Paul seems to be sort of the lone

warrior to have stood against this

especially for the churches of Galatia.

And we also understood earlier in

Galatians by going to Acts and different

places like Corinthians that it seems no

one really had the same depth of

revelation shared with him. Maybe John

uh but Paul even talks about the

exceeding revelations caught up into the

third heaven. We don't understand

exactly what he saw, but you can see it

in his writing, the amount of stuff he

understands. And yet, he's saying, "I'm

perplexed. I don't get it. I don't

understand.

I don't claim to be understanding

anything Paul doesn't understand. I

think everything I'm saying today, Paul

did understand." But I'm not just making

this thing up with emotion. If you can

turn back with me, I don't think I gave

the you guys this, so you don't need to

look at it, but it's in in chapter 2 and

he says about Peter having been taken

in, the epicenter of that is is an

emotion. The reason why Peter was taken

in by by the light and and gave into it

rather than forcefully resisting it like

you should uh was an emotion. Let me

read it to you. This is chapter two of

Galatians verse 12. For before certain

men came from James, he was eating.

Peter was eating with the Gentiles. But

when they came, he drew back and

separated himself, fearing the

circumcision party. So clearly fear and

emotion is pointed to as the handle that

levered Peter off of something he had

preached before seemed to have been a

deep conviction. And what was that? that

the Gentiles are saved simply by faith

in Jesus Christ alone and that they have

gained the spirit and been adopted as

sons without having to become Jewish in

the sense to devote themselves to works

of the law. He preached that every bit

as powerful as anyone's ever preached.

We went to Acts 15 where he was like the

spokesperson that settled it for the the

elders and leaders of the original

church. He spoke up. Everyone fell

silent. And yet fear was so the

turbulence. Have you ever felt the

turbulence of fear in your heart? Like

it's it's actually strange because I

said it's not your fleshly heart, but I

I will experience physical

manifestations of fear in my heart. Your

heart starts racing.

You sometimes feel it in your gut. You

ever heard you have a pit in the

stomach? In your stomach. I don't know

exactly what emotions cause that, but

like when you find out something that's

really bad news, something happens in

your in your stomach, right? So clearly

these emotions, as deep as they are,

they even have an effect on on on your

biology, on your physicality, right? So

they're not you can't separate them

entirely. It's it's not like you be

like, "Well, that's not related to the

spirit and that is and and you know,

like it's you're altogether one thing

and we don't even fully understand it.

The more you study, the more you

surrender the spirit, the more you

understand it." But the reason why I'm

telling you so much about emotion is

that the very freedom that Paul wants to

maintain that Paul wants to the

Galatians to maintain is a freedom

that the enemy has convinced them is

actually slavery. And now they're

returning back to what's actually

slavery that the enemy has convinced

them is freedom. It's upside down.

Right? So, I want to go back to that

question before we go and just walk

through this a little bit more deeply

and ask yourself the last time you

sinned.

Not if there was an emotion present.

There always is. What emotion was

present? And what emotion wasn't

surrendered?

It's not like perfectly healthy

emotional people just all of a sudden

become alcoholics,

right? You you can find in the life of

an alcoholic who's been an alcoholic for

a long time

whole bunch of undelt with emotion. I'm

no psychiatrist. I'm no psychologist.

But you just know there's so much undelt

with emotion. Why alcoholism? Just they

they're not even having fun getting

drunk anymore. It's not about that. At

some point they're there seems to be a

chemical dependency as well. Um I I

don't shouldn't say seems to be. There

definitely is from what I understand.

But

why why alcohol? Well, anything powerful

enough to deal with how deep the emotion

is?

It's the same with with lust. You know,

you you're lonely. So, you go look at

stuff online that you ought not to. Why?

Because it is powerful enough for a time

to anesthetize that droning terrible

loneliness to make you not feel

I would say the pain. Loneliness is

painful.

Similar with fear.

And so you either relinquish that and

surrender to the spirit or according to

Paul, you get captured by the enemy's

influence using worldly principles and

ways. And there's nothing in between.

It's freedom or slavery. Freedom or

slavery. I want to be really clear. I'm

not saying that a Christian could be

possessed.

A spirit, the spirit of God dwells in us

and that makes possession impossible.

But it does not make influence

impossible. Does not mean the enemy

can't influence you. Of course, he can

still tempt you and of course you can

still fall to that temptation. It's the

question of

which spirit you're going to surrender

to. the spirit of God who is God or this

spirit or whatever spirits he's in

control of that are tempting you along

with your flesh and these worldly

principles. Verse 8, formerly when you

did not know God, you were enslaved to

those that are by nature not gods. I

want to show you what that kind of

slavery looks like. I've got just a

quote. This is just from Reddit and it

was about a um

question that was asked basically how

long do you think this whole MAGA Trump

wave is going to last? And this is a a

thread that's that's leaning heavily

progressive. I would say leftist, right?

So that's all you really need to know.

This is this guy's response and he uh he

or she synonymous considers themselves

an anti-fascist.

Um, and I'm not making a political

point. You you guys know my I'm

conservative politically because of my

biblical convictions, but that's not

what I'm You might be surprised what I'm

trying to say. So, what what this person

says, speak truthfully. I think what

they meant is to speak truthfully. It

will require decades of education and

waiting for this political movement to

die with the generations that made it a

reality. We need to get a strong grip on

the educational system and absolutely

squash the notion that parents have the

right to ensure their children grow up

to be hateful and ignorant by sabotaging

the educational system as a whole. When

the parents cried that they're being

religiously persecuted, when schools

start teaching their children about the

societal importance of empathy and human

decency, they need to be told

exploitative. Get over it. either your

child receives a proper education or you

go to jail for child neglect.

I can imagine how how many of you feel

about that. It's probably just about all

of you.

I'll try to keep this portion of the

story short, but um I'm I I born and

raised in Germany, so I'm a native

tongue German speaker. And I had the uh

huge opportunity to be tutored by uh

someone whose language was Hebrew was

their native tongue, their mother

tongue. And he was studying for a PhD in

theological German is really important

in PhD work. And so he wanted me to help

him translate this German book so he

could learn to speak German. And I asked

him if he'd tutor me in Hebrew. And so

he gave me a book. And I had no idea

what the book was about, but I was

reading through a segment. what he would

do. He'd be doing translation work while

I read ahead to make sure what the

proper translation is and then to check

his work. That's what we're doing. And I

start reading this section, this

paragraph,

even just thinking about it still makes

me tear up. What was the paragraph

about? It was about Nazi Germany and a

Christian couple and they had two sons

and their sons were being forced to go

to Hitler Youth. And one son was

resisting the teachings of Hitler youth

and one son just started believing

everything they said and he figured out

that his parents weren't for Hitler or

Hitler's agenda. And so he turned his

parents in and they were hung. And I'm

reading this and I'm like just as

emotionally affected as I'm now. That's

what this is.

It's it's fascism.

It's government control that says that

if you don't let us educate our children

the way we see fit, you're going to go

to prison or worse by an anti-fascist.

Again, I'm not making a political

statement. What I'm telling you is that

when you see something that's so I don't

understand how can you call yourself an

anti-fascist and yet say that someone

that doesn't want a certain type of

education to happen to their child

should be put in prison. That's that's

what Hitler did. I don't bring that up

lightly. That's exact that that is like

one of the tenants of fascism. It's to

gain control of the education of the

youth.

So I doubt this person is a Christian.

And what I ultimately think based on

this passage basically no is that that's

what enslavement of the mind looks like.

Okay? You think it can only happen on

the left. Listen to this. This is an

article. And I'm not trying to be

balanced between. I'm I'm conservative.

I told you that it's not a balance at

all for me. There's just absolutes in

terms of conviction, values on morals

based on the Bible for me. I think there

are for you, too. This Fox News article,

and it's about a Catholic church um

putting a ice was here sign in a

nativity instead of Jesus, Mary, and

Joseph, right?

I would say at least akin to blasphemy,

if not blasphemy. And people are angry

about it, especially Christians. Here's

what one Christian posts, also anonymous

name. As a Christian, I find this

extremely disturbing that churches would

use the birth of Jesus as a political

statement. Whatever happened to

separation of church and state if they

want to be involved in politics,

eliminate their tax exemption.

And I'm like,

what are you talking about? I agree with

the sentiment of upsetness that this is

happening, but what if this actually

happened? First of all, it's got the

church and state separation completely

upside down. It's not about the

government being protected from the

church. It's about the church being

protected from government intrusion. So,

it's totally upside down. So, I don't

know who this is, but you can kind of

vere engineer what's happened here.

What's happened is I'm angry at this.

This is an outrage. How dare you? And

you ought to be outraged by blasphemy.

You should. Good Christians are. But all

this emotion is happening. All this

turbulence. And what do you want to do?

Shut it down with rules.

What does the hard left want to do? Shut

it down with rules. What is I'm assuming

this is hard right kind of my camp. Shut

it down with rules.

Do you see what the enemy is doing

there? Do you see the plan? It's exactly

what Paul's saying. But now that you've

come to know God, or rather be known by

God, how can you turn back against the

weak and worthless elementary principles

of the world whose slaves you want to

become once more?

You observe days and months and seasons

and years. What's he talking about

there? So with this Jewish contingent,

the circumcision party, the Judaizers,

uh going back to law means doing all the

festivals of law, all the holy days, the

Sabbath, all these things. And there's

nothing necessarily wrong with having a

Sabbath. That can be a really good

thing. God says that that Paul says, God

says same thing that that should be a

personal conviction. Whether you think

every day is equally holy or one day is

especially holy, if you have a

conviction to do that, God will honor

that conviction. But it's a personal not

a universal thing. And it' be the same

with different observing certain seasons

and months and days as as in honor to

the Lord. But what they're doing is

doing that in a way to gain

righteousness. So I'll be righteous if I

do these things. Okay, very similar

passage in Colossians. And listen to

what what he says what Paul says in

Colossians. Again, it turns towards

legalism.

That's part of what I'm driving at here.

When the enemy takes control, he's

always moving you towards a type of

legalism. Doesn't matter what political

persuasion you're coming from. So here's

Colossians chapter 2,

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

and here's what Paul says. And if you

guys can go ahead and put that up,

that'd be great.

Looks like I didn't mark it. Yeah.

If with Christ you died to the elemental

spirits of the world, why? So there you

have actually the same construction of

elemental principles, but in this case

the scholars decided to translate that

they felt what Paul meant in context was

actually elemental spirits. So now you

have demonic entities that are in

control and you die to them by by dying

with Christ on the cross spiritually, so

to speak, right? So they're not in

control anymore. Similar idea. If with

Christ you died to the elemental spirits

of the world, why as if you were still

alive in the world, do you submit to

regulations?

Next verse. Do not handle, do not taste,

do not touch, referring to things that

all perish as they are used according to

human precepts and teachings.

These have indeed the appearance of

wisdom in promoting self-made religion

and asetism aseticism and severity to

the body. But they are of no value in

stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

They don't bring the chaos turbulence in

your heart of emotion into any kind of

laminer flow for you science geeks like

me. or laminer flow is just find a hose

and make sure there's nothing impeding

the water and it's flowing at a certain

rate. It flows just perfectly

undisturbed.

That's what the for the spirit of peace

looks like in your heart. In the midst

of the greatest turbulence and valley of

the shadow of death type of temptations,

your heart can be laminer flow so to

speak. That's by the spirit. But here

the same thing's happening. No value.

That's definitely not the equation.

Your flesh, the world, the enemy. That's

going to be turbulence. Next verse.

I think we have a next another verse.

If we don't, I'm going to find it myself

because I want to continue there for a

little bit.

There we are. Um, we're on verse what?

23. I can't see the top of that.

>> 23.

>> 23. Okay. So,

actually, I want to go back. So, going

back to um uh let's go all the way back

to 13. Okay, I don't think you guys have

this, but I'm going to go all the way

back to 13. Colossians 2:13. And you,

Colossians 2:13

that's the Colossians, who Christians,

any Christians who were dead in your

trespasses and in your uncircumcision of

your flesh, God made alive together with

him, forgive having forgiven us our

trespass by cancelelling the record of

debt that stood against us with his

legal demands that he set aside nailing

to the cross. All these sins, they're

wrong. God is just. He can't just leave

them unpunished. So what he did is have

his son put to death, punished for the

very sins that you committed. And

because justice has been accomplished in

his son because his sacrifice is so

weighty, he can justly forgive you and

cancel the debt. He's not just saying

it's fine. He didn't leave your sin

unpunished. It's Jesus that bore that

sin. And in dying with him, you've been

crucified with Christ and it's no longer

we, you, me, who lives, but Christ who

lives in me. It's it's talking about the

very same thing that Galatians is

talking about. By cancelelling the

record of debt that stood against us

with his legal demands, this he set

aside, nailing it to the cross, he

disarmed the rulers and authorities and

put them to open shame by triumphing

over them in him.

It's just an image that came to mind. I

didn't even plan talking about this, but

imagine your child was kidnapped by

somebody.

And imagine some stormtrooper

of a detective or police officer or SWAT

team or FBI went in there and rescued

your child and bought them out and

you're holding them in your arms and

then you put them down and they run

right back to the kidnapper.

That's what it's like to have been freed

from all these things and then go back

to them. You wouldn't understand. And it

it's literally has a syndrome attached

to it. Stockholm,

right? There are people that end up

somehow strangely emotionally connected

to their capttors.

Not sure anybody fully understands that

one either. Verse 16. Therefore, let no

one pass judgment on you in questions of

food or drink or with regard to a

festival or new moon or Sabbath. These

are a shadow of the things to come, but

the substance belongs to Christ. Okay.

Here's Jesus, the substance, the

article, the Lord of the Sabbath, his

shadow. That's that's the Sabbath.

You're still following the shadow.

You've got the real art, the genuine

article right here, the Lord of the

Sabbath, the one that gives you the

grace that the Sabbath is all about. Why

are you going with the shadow?

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on

aeticism or worship of angels, going on

in detail about visions, puffed up

without reason by a sensuous mind, and

not holding fast to the head, from whom

the whole body nourished and knit

together through its joints and

ligaments grows with a growth that is

from God. If with Christ you die to the

elemental spirits of the world, why, as

if you were still alive in the world, do

you submit to regulations? Now, we're

caught up to where we were. It's talked

about all over scripture, this concept.

And again, why? Well, my answer is not

really any different than Paul's

writing. I just don't think we have to

elimmit it only to fear. Any emotion

that is not surrendered to God and

turbulent and deep, your faith will have

to be deeper for you to overcome the

temptation to do what your heart

actually desires.

And and really, God has given us a new

heart. So I can't even say you almost

should say what your heart heart falsely

desires. The flesh falsely desires

something. Your new heart made in the

likeness of Christ. A new creation

desires what God wants. And you it's

almost like you've got two. I wouldn't

go that far. But you've got to decide in

that moment, am I going to surrender

this thing or am I going to take what I

want?

And you can't pretend like you don't

want it. You do. You ever felt angry?

And it felt good to get angrier.

Yeah.

You bite into that anger, it tastes

delicious at first and then it goes down

and it makes you sick to your stomach.

It's really the same with any

unsurrendered emotion. So if I were to

give my answer, and I believe Paul would

agree with this just based on how he

writes and things, especially, you know,

if you think about the fruit of the

spirit, most of them are emotions, love,

joy, right? Peace, patience. There's a

lot of emotion involved or directly

connected to the fruit of the spirit.

So you're not going to gain peace while

being in turbulent sinful anger. It's

not going to happen. So going back to

our passage, that's what he's talking

about. You're observing days and months

and seasons and years. They've gotten

back enslaved into the sort of squirrel

brain. We can do it ourselves again.

They've gotten legalistic.

So you might think, well, my worldview

since I'm aligned worldview over here

with the Bible, I'm safe. Not not apart

from God, you're not.

What you know what would happen if this

this is a well-meaning Christian, I

think.

But if what's going to happen is anytime

someone says something from the pulpit

that people don't like, they get

attacked by the government legally. Does

anybody want that? Well, you don't think

about that when you're really angry

about someone blaspheing, do you? You

need the spirit for that.

I mean, I I don't want people putting,

you know, lawless signs in a manger. I

don't I don't think that's right. I

think God's going to deal with that that

Catholic Church. But I'm also not

saying, "Oh, the government better stop

them."

Right? It's it's the exact same thing as

the first one about trying to control.

When you're not living in surrender to

the spirit, your heart will try to

control things with rules.

Think of those rules as little equations

we come up with to try to deal with the

turbulence in our hearts and they never

fit and it never works because it's

chaos in there and you can't order it

yourself.

Brothers, I entreat you. Become as I am

for I also have become as you are. You

did me no wrong. In this case, I don't

think I can explain it any better than

the NLT does. I I like the NLT as a

what's called a paraphrastic

translation. So, I'm going to I'm going

to take you and just go ahead and read

real quick um Galatians

4

um

12 because I think this verse has

derailed some people when they when

they're talking about like what's Paul

talking about? Um here's what he says in

the NLT. Brothers and sisters, I plead

with you to live as I do in the freedom

from these things in freedom from these

things for I have become like you

Gentiles free from those laws. What he's

talking about is Gentiles didn't even

live by those laws in the first place.

And even though Paul's a Jew, he became

like them in the sense that he's no

longer following the law for the sake of

righteousness. What they've done is

switch positions and almost become like

Jews now following the law, practicing

works righteousness. So what he's saying

is just follow me. I'm in the right

place. I changed to the right position

based on the repentance that Jesus gave

me. You know, it was because of bodily

ailment. We don't know exactly what that

bodily ailment was, but evidently had

some kind of physical difficulty that I

preached the gospel to you at first. And

he wants to talk about how they treated

him when he did that. He he says in

verse 12, I skipped it. You did me no

wrong. Um you know that it was because

of a bodily ailment that I preached the

gospel to you at first. And though my

condition was a trial to you, you did

not scorn or despise me, but received me

as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

What then has become of your

blessedness? For I testify to you that

if possible, you would have gouged out

your eyes and given them to me. Okay?

Those kinds of Christians, whatever the

Galatians were that he's describing, are

awesome Christians. I think we can all

agree on that, right? If you met a

Christian like that that you know would

take a bullet for you whose life has

sacrificed the Lord, they're on fire and

you you're watching them grow and

they're listening to your teaching and

and then you come back a couple years

later and they're like, "Yeah, the way

you get to heaven is just by being good

enough."

What happened? What happened?

What happened was the enemy using

worldly principles

that he uses as a lever that always

match the desire of your flesh. And one

of the desires of the flesh will always

be to be in control of your own destiny

spiritually. I'm good enough. I'm not a

bad person.

Murderers in prison will say that. Well,

I'm better than that guy. Just make up

your own standard. And and people don't

see the enemy. They don't know that

there's this whole spiritual world,

actual spiritual entities,

personalities, persons. Demons are

created persons, but they're spiritual.

They don't have bodies like we do. We

don't even know exactly what an angel

is. But whenever anyone sees one, they

fall to the ground as though dead, like

an angel that's that's uh uh in right

relationship to the Lord. People are

terrified. So super powerful. So you

have these super powerful entities

that are against God.

irredeemable. There's no mention of

redemption of demons. They're all going

into the lake of fire. They hate

anything right, good, and true. And they

serve a master whose name is Satan or

the adversary or the enemy or the liar

or the serpent. Lots of different names

in the Bible. And his endgame is that

you'd worship him. That's what he wants.

And he'll use any manipulative tactic.

Let's read on because something Paul

says I can identify with. It's so

relatable to me. Ha. He says, "What's

become of your blessedness? For I

testify to you that you if possible, you

would have had gouged out your eyes and

given them to me. Have I then become

your enemy by telling you the truth

before I officially became a pastor?"

Maybe I don't know somewhere between 15

to 20 years ago now. Um, depending on

how you define the beginning of

pastoring, um, I didn't have a whole lot

of enemies spiritually.

I had enemies because of how much of a

jerk I was, but that's totally

different.

I've amassed some enemies over time,

almost always because I was saying

something true that they didn't like.

Now, there have been times where I was

saying that too forcefully in an unkind

manner. And it's it's terrible when you

lose a friendship that like if maybe if

you had been kinder, more patient or

more gentle

and loving and trusting God for the

change in the person, uh that maybe it

wouldn't have gone that way, you know,

but there have been times where I don't

have any conviction in my heart that

what I said was wrong or whether my

attitude was wrong and still it totally

breaks the relationship. I could

probably say I have between 10 to 20

people who

who think I'm the enemy.

People who say I'm a cult leader. People

who say that all I do is manipulate

people.

And and they used to

love me,

be thankful for the teaching until

something was confronted in them that

they didn't want to deal with. Again,

think of the last time the enemy has

tempted you. And you don't always know

when the enemy is tempting you, right?

He disguises himself

pretty well. Sometimes it's really

obvious. But think of the last emotion

that you had at a time where you did

something you know was wrong. A lot of

the things that we do wrong are in our

speech, the way we talk to people. And

by the way, you can say the exact same

sentence and God knows it's not sinful.

and say the exact same sentence and God

knows it's sinful. It's not it's not in

the rules. It's not in the surface

level. It's the attitude underneath.

Right? So, let me let me uh yeah, I

forgive you versus

that really hurt me, but yeah, I forgive

you. That one had really obvious cues.

But what if I just say, "Yeah, I forgive

you." And then the other time I say,

"Yeah, I forgive you." You think I'm not

a good enough actor to pretend like I've

forgiven you? Of course I am. I was that

from birth. Ask my parents,

right? I can definitely be a manipulator

if I want to. And and our children can

and we can. And you can pretend so hard

that you've forgiven someone that you

convince yourself.

Without actual surrender to God, you

don't understand the eternity in your

heart. It's chaos theory in there.

I'm not sure the enemy actually fully

understands it. He just seems to

understand it well enough to know

exactly what to tempt us with.

I mentioned anger, fear, they're so

common. Loneliness, anxiety, you know,

anxiety will have a physical effect on

you, right? I think sometimes people are

experiencing physical effects of

unsurrendered anxiety that they're then

trying to control with rules. And those

rules can sometimes get unbelievably

restrictive dietarily. And do not hear

me trying to call somebody out that has

got a bunch of allergies, right? That I

had terrible allergies. There are

sometimes where you just have to

restrict your diet until like you find

out what's causing the problem, right?

But man, if fear can cause heart

palpitations, why can't constant droning

anxiety cause gut issues or other

physical problems? Sometimes doctors

have no idea why the patient's sick and

everyone just assumes they're faking it.

Or is it actually a physical

manifestation of a spiritual problem?

I know those are real. And I mean, I

could show you in the Bible, which is

not not the time. But

your spirit is what will actually

determine a lot of the reality of your

faith. And if it's turned the wrong way,

don't raise your hand. But how many of

you know someone that was just doing

awesome in their faith

and now is like a universalist and

thinks everyone's going to be saved?

Meaning the cross is meaningless at that

point. I just had a friend tell me about

someone you would I don't want to talk

about it on live stream, but you would

be absolutely shocked if you knew who it

was that is now universalist.

Don't think you're safe just because

you're a Christian. You're safe when you

surrender to the spirit.

You know, it's not actually I should

have said there's four things. The

enemy, your flesh, worldly principles,

the enemy, and then there's human

enemies who are servants of his false

teachers. Listen to what Paul has to say

about them. Have I now become your

enemy? Verse 16, by telling you the

truth. They, he's talking about the

circumcision party, who was ever

troubling them, the false teachers, make

much of you, but for no good purpose.

They want to shut you out that you would

make much of them. False teachers always

have a design. And by the way, I've said

this before, but if your only vector of

analysis of someone's character is

kindness, you will be easily taken in

because the enemy knows how to

counterfeit kindness, right?

What is that? It's like his his his lips

are smooth as honey, but in his heart is

war. something like that. You know, you

you've seen like like Jafar whispering

in the Sultan's ears all these things

that sound good but are actually evil

and will lead to something terrible.

That's who's controlling them. And what

they want, their goal is always human

praise. Just like their father, who is

Satan, wants to be worshiped. They too

want to be worshiped. Except he's not

going to let anyone be worshiped but

himself.

He ends up betraying everyone that he

kind of manipulated into thinking he was

the good guy.

So what if you're really lonely? Some of

your really good friends haven't been

very kind to you. Your only vector of

analysis is kindness and all of a sudden

you get taken in by one of these.

Kindness is a really powerful thing, but

it be counterfeit. Almost all of the

sort of spiritual fruits can be

counterfeit. people can act really

loving.

The enemy gets people so twisted up that

they'll call love hate and hate love.

It's basically what I just read to you.

So what am I saying? I mean I'm not

saying the the sort of normal

evangelical line is like trust the truth

over your emotions. What God says is to

love the Lord your God with all your

heart. That means all of your deepest

emotions that are like rooted in

spiritual desires. You can't just get

him out. Love him with that emotional

affective center of your heart and love

him with your strength uh your body and

your your actions and love him with your

soul and love him with your mind. All of

those things people sometime you just

got to trust your mind over your heart.

No can't your mind is also sinful.

What you have to do is you have to

surrender your emotions. Let me give you

a little medical image. What happens to

me when I'm angry and I'm angry in a

about something that's actually

justified and I know I'm angry about

something that's actually justified, but

it's not going away and it's not calming

down. You leave even righteous anger for

too long and what happens is Satan will

will bend it almost every time because

it's like your heart just can't contain

that much anger. You got to surrender.

And when he when you do, God doesn't

squash it, repress it, or always dismiss

it. I mean, if your anger is really

false, he may directly rebuke that

anger. You'll just know he's upset

you're so angry about something wrong.

That can happen. But if he sees that

it's justified, or even if he doesn't,

he's he's like a father. He puts you on

his lap and he listens to what you're so

upset about and he hears it. And and

man, he he will have compassion and

empathy for you. He'll understand why

you're angry better than you even do

because he's the one that put that

eternity there, right?

But then at some point, you got to give

it up to him, which is faith. It takes a

trusting thing. But I'm angry. They did

this thing to me and it was wrong and

they shouldn't have. I'm right to be

angry about it. I'm right.

And he's like, there's one solution and

he's you got to give it to me. And you

give it to me. And it's like in medical

terms, this is not really how it works,

but he'll put like an IV in one of your

arms and you'll just watch the anger

dissipate and then he'll put an a

another IV another one and and and give

you peace or maybe the forgiveness you

needed or maybe the patience or the

self-control that you needed. And you

don't feel like you've been violated or

manipulated or squashed or that you

weren't understood or that your anger

was dismissed. you just he did something

supernaturally in my heart which I don't

even understand and my anger just

dissipated from me and now I may anger

just kind of pushes all the other

emotions away and then you start

you start actually feeling compassion

for the people person that hurt you so

bad

I wonder why they said that maybe

they're really hurting MOMENTS BEFORE

I'M JUSTIFIED IN this anger then like

you know maybe I did something wrong and

I should ask for forgiveness for. And it

doesn't feel hard or terribly unjust

because you know how much pain your

savior who's living inside you and

empowering you to do this very thing

that knows what it's like to be angry.

No one is more unjustly treated than

Jesus.

And he's he's he's giving you emotions

you didn't even have moments before.

It's it's transformation of the emotion.

It's not suppression. It's not

repression. It's not squashing. It's not

diminishing. It's not pretending like

it's not there. It's supernatural in the

power. But you don't see it. And you can

only access it by faith or trust. Or

another word would be surrender. In that

moment,

you've got your own flesh. You've got

the world. You've got the enemy. And

you've got the enemy's servants, both

spiritual and physical human beings

against you.

your own heart will betray you even if

no one else is involved. But with all

those other forces bearing down on you

to get you to do the exact opposite of

what is freedom to try to capture you

again. It's a battle. It's a battle in

the deepest places of our heart.

Paul goes on, it is always good to be

made much of for a good purpose and not

only when I'm present with you. So he

doesn't say that human praise is wrong.

You can praise people when they've done

well. You can encourage them. That's not

it. if it's good purpose. What he's

talking about is they're going to try to

use you as stepping stones for their own

glory and they took you in with the

kindness. Oh, I so many people have been

mean to me. This person's so nice to me.

And next thing you know, they're

stepping on your head to get farther

ahead. Again, they're trying to display

their own righteousness by their own

works. So, we don't want to go too far

and say you can never praise a human

being. That's not I don't mean worship

praise. I just mean like that was a

really good job. you know, don't

flatter, but actually encourage. But

Paul goes on, it's always good to be

made much of for good purpose, and not

only when I'm present with you, my

little children, for whom I am again in

the anguish of childbirth until Christ

is formed in you. I would venture to say

that the vast majority of us, if not all

of us, need to have Christ more fully

formed

in becoming more emotionally tempered.

And it uh it's I was going to say it's

hard. It's impossible on your own. You

you're going to get banged up. Tempering

is a process of hammering steel, heating

it up, hammer it again, quenching it.

You get I mean almost every area of

emotional growth in my life has happened

not without real pain.

not without real pain. So to cancel the

ne double negative there,

every time I've grown so that my the

well of my faith is deeper than whatever

emotion I don't like to surrender to

God. And so I've proven that because in

that moment I now have a track record of

when that happens. I don't sin. I don't

take things into my own control. I don't

try to make it happen with the rules. I

surrender.

It was painful. Why was it painful? It's

called It's called the crucifixion of

the flesh. Something has to die in you

to let go of that. Your well of faith

will not become deeper than the areas of

emotion that are not surrendered without

terrible pain. It will never happen

because every single time you deepen

that well, something in you that is not

life, is not good, and is against God

and is only for your own glory has to

die. And it is hard to differentiate

whether he's cutting something real from

you or something that just should never

come back. It can be terrifying to let

go of of these things, especially when

you've been using them to protect

yourself from all of the pain

emotionally that you've just stuffed

INTO THIS ETERNAL DEPTHS of your heart.

It's so evil for the enemy to use those

those places against you and me

and to tell you that it's that it's God

that will try to enslave you.

The worst things that have happened in

my life and I believe the worst things

that have happened in your life are

areas of deep well uncurrendered

emotion.

And it doesn't ever make any sense when

people act according to that emotion

because you you know they know it's not

right. But the heart is so deceiving and

the enemy is so deceiving and the world

is so worthless in its principles. Paul

says

he says, "I wish I could be present with

you now and change my tone for I am

perplexed about you." You might be

perplexed about you. I don't know why I

keep doing this thing,

but you you've been told the solution

today. Let's put that main point back

up.

Unless Christ is more fully formed in

us, we're in danger of capture by the

enemy's influence through worldly

principles.

The only reason I didn't put emotion in

there is that is not what Paul

highlights here. He highlighted it

earlier in the in the in Galatians. So,

it's fair game, but man, you it's your

heart that has to be surrendered.

You can be so convinced because of that

deep turbulent well of emotion that

you're right. And then you surrender and

you realize nothing about what you were

thinking was right. Has that not

happened to you? It's not always that

black and white. Sometimes some of what

you were thinking was right. But man, a

heart not surrendered to the Lord is in

danger being captured by the enemy. and

he'll use the flash and use worldly

principles. And so when I think of this

anti-fascist who wants to put everybody

in prison who doesn't want to educate

their kids the way they think, I don't

think, oh enemy, I mean if that person

becomes prominent and starts pushing

that, yeah, that might be an actual

enemy, but I think someone captured a

soul captured by the enemy.

I don't know where that Christian's at,

but man, they're saying dangerous things

that would be turned. the enemy can turn

the rule-based solutions of people that

thought they were doing the right thing

on either side.

It always somehow comes back to

legalism. So, as we wrap up today, I

want I want you to think about I don't

always give these specific call to

actions, but the very next time you

experience a powerful emotion, I want

you to think of how deep is that? Well,

it's pretty deep. I may not even know

how deep it is. Man, this is really

intense. Well, I'm feeling this.

Whatever it is, anxiety about money

around Christmas time would definitely

be one up there on top of the list that

I could predict as one we'd feel. But

whatever it is,

ask yourself, am I surrendered right

now? Have I given this emotion to God or

am I taking control of it? I'm going to

You're You'll hurt other people when you

try to take control of a heart that has

eternity in it. You can't handle that.

You don't have the power. I don't have

the power. no matter how and and be

prepared. Surrendering it's going to

hurt. Something's got to die for you to

give up control of that emotion. But I

believe I I I know most all of you I

believe you trust God with your emotion.

So don't be fooled.

And every time you do that, your spirit

will get a little stronger and it won't

be as hard to resist that level of

temptation the next time. every time you

give in, you're basically giving the

enemy tracks to run on and just roll

you.

So maybe maybe you can think of the

exact emotion the enemy used as a lever

to get you to do something you are now

ashamed of. And I'm not here to condemn

you and I know our Lord is not. So that

is what communion is for. as you as you

dur as Emily comes up here and we start

to worship again. I hope this sermon's

ministered to you. But I will what I'm

hoping is that the spirit is ministering

to you and showing you, hey, this is

enslavement. This is a pattern of enemy

capture in your life and you need to let

it go and it's going to be painful, but

just give it to me. I died for this and

you can die with me again to this sin

and give me that emotion and trust me

for freedom. Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit

again to the yoke of slavery.

Heavenly Father, thank you for these

words. I pray that each one of us would

experience a powerful

freeing in our lives, even just in one

area, one well, one place of

uncurrendered spiritual emotion in our

heart. real desire that we would not be

too afraid to let you surgically remove

it. You won't cause any more pain than

is necessary. And that we would find

that grace today at the table and during

this time and walk out of here without

those shackles.

I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.