Hebrews 12:14-15
Defeating Malicious Emotions
\\See "Romans 12:14-15"\\
\\See "Romans 8:1"\\
Last week, I preached on the topic Emotional Death Grip
\\See "Romans 12:14"\\. In that message, I presented
one primary thought to you, that Christians must control their
emotions. If we do not, then the opposite will happen—out emotions
will control us. I feel that I should follow up that message with
some additional thoughts that I did not get to last week.
The Bible, in teaching us to deal with our emotions, speaks of two
sets of emotions that require more work to control. I wish to speak
on one of those this morning, the Malicious Emptions.
Last week, we looked at Paul’s writing in the book of Philippians and
saw that Paul used three of the great gifts of God to help him in
dealing with his past.
1. Paul found the greatest power - Jesus Christ.
2. Paul found the greatest need - To forget those things which
are behind.
3. Paul found the greatest goal - To gain the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
Yet, these three helps alone will not give us victory of malicious
emotions. This morning, let’s consider some thoughts.
I. Malicious emotions are perversions of the emotions God gave.
A. Did God create evil?
1. Yes and no.
2. God did not actually create the evil but God created the
things that created evil.
3. God created Lucifer. God created free will, God gave to
Lucifer freewill and Lucifer preferred grace into sin and
evil.
4. Sin and evil are then perversions of the what God did
create.
B. Did God create bitterness? hatred? envy? lust? greed?
malice?
1. No. These are perversions of the emotions that God did
create.
2. The writer of the book of Hebrews warned us specifically
that we watch and guard against allowing bitterness to
take root and to grow in our hearts.
3. Why? For it will trouble us and spread from us to others
causing others to be defiled by it.
C. How can our emotions be perverted?
1. We deal with our emotions on a daily basis.
a. So much so, that perhaps we do not realize it.
b. If we do it well, we will be well-rounded Christians.
c. If we do not, our emotions will take control over us.
2. Example fear.
a. Fear is a good emotion.
(1) It alerts us to potential dangers, causes us to
exercise caution, and helps us to survive.
(2) Once the potential danger has passed, fear should
also pass.
(3) God does not want us to live in a state of fear.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect
love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
b. But not all people set aside their fear when the
danger is past. These people live in a state
different from peace.
(1) They live in a state of worry. They are always
fearful of something. It does not matter what.
They may not know what. They are just fearful
and worry. These people are being controlled
by their emotions, the emotion of fear.
(2) It can get even worse. They can live in a state
of panic. Panic is being so fearful that you
cannot function. Panic is a state of
uncontrolled—not uncontrollable but
uncontrolled—fear.
(3) God gave us the emotion of fear to help us, but
sin and sinful man has perverted what God gave
to create emotions that are not healthy.
(4) The problem is that instead of us controlling our
emotions, we have perverted them and allowed
our emotions to control us.
D. Let’s consider the malicious emotions.
1. There are a set of emotions that are a perversion of a
good emotion God gave, anger.
a. Anger is not a bad emotion.
b. God gets angry at sin and so should we.
Psalm 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is
angry with the wicked every day.
c. God commands us to use our anger but to keep it in
control.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the
sun go down upon your wrath:
d. What is anger’s purpose?
(1) Anger motivates us to deal with sin and
injustice.
(2) I was reading the life of young king Saul this
week. The Ammonites had come against Jabesh and
told them they could either die or be ruled
over, but if they were going to surrender, every
man would have to have his right eye poked out.
Jabesh sent word to the tribes of Israel,
requesting help. A newly anointed but very
bashful and timid Saul was their new king. What
would help this bashful, timid, backward man do
something?
1Sam 11:6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul
when he heard those tidings, and his anger was
kindled greatly.
(3) So anger is given to us to motivate us to do
right when our sinful nature might want to do
nothing at all, but anger—like all emotions—
can be perverted into something with no good in
it at all.
2. What can anger be perverted into? Would you consider
anger as a pot of coffee?
a. Anger kept hot turns to hatred. Hatred has no place in
God’s kingdom.
b. Anger turned up to a boil becomes wrath and rage.
c. Anger boiled out of the pot leaves bitterness.
d. Anger that has been diluted but not dealt with becomes
resentment.
3. None of these perversions are helpful. Not one! Yet, how
many are the souls who have been afflicted and controlled
by these perverted emotions?
4. They have produced jealousy, envy, malice, revenge,
gossip, treachery, violence, thief, rage, and even
murder.
5. But never have these motions produced confession,
repentance, godly sorrow, or forgiveness.
E. No. They are worthless emotions that cause only harm and sin.
F. Malicious emotions are perversions of the emotions that God
gave.
II. How do we deal with malicious emotions?
A. Some would say, "You must forget the wrong done to you."
1. That is not entirely true.
2. "Isn’t that what the Bible says and what you preached last
week?" That is part of what the Bible says and all I had
time to preach last week.
3. Someone says, "Oh, we must forgive them."
a. Again, that is part of the truth but not all of the
truth.
b. In order for us to deal with anger properly, we must
do all that the Bible teaches us to do.
B. The Bible tells us three things we must do to keep from being
controlled by malicious emotions.
1. We must go to the one who has offended us.
Matt 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault
between thee and him alone: if he shall hear
thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with
thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it
unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the
church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man
and a publican.
a. \\#15\\ Condition - The act that starts all of this is
that someone does something against us.
Matt 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall
trespass against thee….
(1) Have you ever been hurt, betrayed, lied to, lied
about, had something unkind said to you or done
to you?
(2) Congratulations.
(a) You are a member of the human race because
that is what people do to people.
(b) You get the opportunity to obey God in
something that is very spiritually
challenging and rewarding. You get to work
to make things right.
b. \\#15\\ Command - God then tells us what we must do.
Matt 18:15 …go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone….
(1) Christians, good Christians, can be the more
stubborn about obeying this command of Christ
than about any other.
(a) They say, "I didn’t do wrong to him. He did
wrong to me." That is the exact context
of the Scripture.
(b) "I can’t do that. I’m too hurt or mad or
whatever." Then you are being controlled
by your emotions and you need to regain
control.
2. I will give the 2nd and 3rd later.
III. We must prepare ourselves to reconcile.
A. More and more, I am concluding that some people are just not
able to do the things that God commands.
1. I do not think this is not because God has set the bar too
high.
2. I think it is because man does not strengthen himself to
obey Christ.
3. Instead, we give ourselves over to the natural man and
do that which comes naturally to us.
B. In order for us to obey Christ commands, we must develop a
spirit capable of obedience.
1. An obeying spirit would have to be a born-again spirit.
a. I repeat that salvation is necessary so often because
salvation is so necessary.
(1) You cannot begin to live like Christ teaches
without having salvation.
(2) You cannot give the forgiveness of Christ until
you receive the forgiveness of Christ.
b. If you do not want to wreck your health, waste your
life, and ruin your friendships, you need to come
to Jesus Christ.
2. An obeying spirit would have to be an obedient spirit.
a. Obedience is best learned in our youth.
(1) It is very hard for an older person to learn to
be obedient.
(2) That is due in large measure to pride and
stubbornness.
b. However, wherever we are in life, we must learn to
obey not because we like it, want to, or think we
can but we obey for obedience sake.
(1) Sometimes the only reason you will have to
reconcile with a person, is the that God said
so.
(2) Do you remember the question the child asks when
given a command that he didn’t think was
appropriate? "Why?"
(3) God is telling us to go see those who hurt us and
even more, to forgive them—even when they have
not acknowledged they were wrong!
(a) We are going to ask God "Why?"
(b) Let me tell you the first answer. Because
God said so.
3. An obeying spirit would have to be a humble spirit.
a. Humility and obedience go hand-in-hand.
b. A proud heart cannot lower itself enough to go see a
person who has done him wrong.
c. Rather, the proud heart is the vengeful heart, the
stubborn heart, the rebellious heart.
d. So if we refuse to forgive we immediately become in
need of forgiveness ourselves.
e. Yet, God says He will not give it.
Mt 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.
4. An obeying spirit would have to be a strong spirit.
a. Sometimes, the only thing that will work is muscle and
brawn.
b. As a younger man, I was never very strong in my upper
body.
(1) I did not work out with weights and my biceps
were never very impressive.
(2) However, I had very strong legs, I believe they
would say today that I had a strong core.
(3) Because of that, there would be times when I
could do things that others could not do.
(4) I remember once at work, several workers were
attempting to move an object, and they could
not. I was bashful and did not want to push my
way in, so I watched from a few feet away. Once
they finished, they noticed me watching and
challenged me to move the object. I planted my
feet firm, and scooted the object where it
needed to go. The workers seemed to have a new
appreciation for me after that.
c. Sometimes, God calls upon us to do difficult things,
such as to initiate a reconciliation and we may not
want to do so.
(1) You might think God ought to send you a sign or
somehow direct the two of you together as an
omen.
(2) However, what you are going to have to do is
just cinch up your belt and go do it.
5. An obey spirit would have to be a thoughtful spirit.
a. By a thoughtful spirit, I mean one that can still
remembers what it was like to need forgiveness.
b. Every Christian had to know they were wretched and
wicked in order to be saved.
(1) If you do not think you were wicked, you did not
get saved.
(2) God does not save moral people, good people,
or decent people.
(3) He only saves the bottom-of-the-barrel,
the scum of the earth,
and the most vile and wretched of sinners.
c. People who can remember how wicked they were, find it
much easier to forgive others.
6. An obeying spirit must be a compassionate spirit.
a. Compassion is defined as having sympathy and sorrow
for another.
b. No matter what wrong has been done toward you, the
person that wronged you needs your pity, not your
wrath.
(1) Our goal in going to see someone is not to…
(a) Share a piece of our mind.
(b) Set them straight.
(c) Or to be sanctimonious.
(d) It is to let them know that we love them,
that God loves them, and that we need to
make things right.
(2) If their hearts are not right with God, we need
to love them back to Jesus.
(3) Sin has a way of blinding and binding the heart
of those it victimizes.
I must stop here but the process is not completed. This is step one
defeating malicious emotions. Someone says, "I can’t do that."
What we call inability God often calls stubbornness and rebellion. We
need to be free to serve God and to enjoy life.
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