“The Lord’s Prayer” as sung by Jackie Evancho.
Sermon Title: Emotional Congestion
March 25, 2012
Pastor Joseph Williams preached this sermon today (March 25, 2012) @ Salem Bible Church in Lithonia, GA. I took these notes as I listened to the sermon online.
Galatians 5:
19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Lord God made us 3 in one: Body, soul and spirit. The body and the spirit intersect, and the states of both are reflected in the body.
When we are emotionally congested, our spirits can become jaded. We can become confused thinking that we have made a spiritual decision when in reality we have made an emotional choice. We are spiritually congested, we can develop psychosomatic illnesses, such as headache. Emotions can make your blood pressure rise.
Symptoms of Emotional Congestion:
These are some of the symptoms of emotional congestion:
1. You are overwhelmed. You stress over everything. When you are overwhelmed you lose track of being in the presence of God. You can’t praise God, because you are so overwhelmed. This can make you fall prey to conditional worship: We praise God as long as we feel God has blessed us the way we want to be blessed.
2. Inability to Hear God’s voice. God never stops speaking. You just can’t hear Him. We hear Him though when He starts taking things away. The level of the stock market is directly related to church attendance. When the stock market goes down, church attendance goes up.
3. We make decisions with uncertainty. God does not give instructions that have confusion. When God moves, it’s always “crystal clear.” We have to learn how to make decisions in authority and with power. We are timid because we make emotional choices. When we wait to hear from God to make decisions, we can move in authority. When God gives instructions it is a promise. Don’t go about telling everybody what the Lord has promised you. Just do it and let them find out about it later.
Emotions are your spiritual signals to let you know something is wrong. When you get jealous or upset or angry or whatever; it’s your emotions telling you that something is wrong. Every time you have an emotion doesn’t mean that the magnitude is such that you need to feel what you are feeling. When you have an emotion other than love, joy or peace, then something is wrong with our emotional compass. When you know something is wrong, check it out. Get it fixed. Don’t be an “emotional baggage carrier,” internalizing stuff, keeping everything you’ve ever been through inside. Black people want people to think they got it all together, when they’re about to go out of their minds.
When something is wrong, there are three things you can do:
1. We can fix it ourselves.
2. We can get help (cry out to God; the best way).
3. We can ride it out (Do nothing and wind up in deep trouble.)
Anger:
Many people have anger, but never take the time to find out what is wrong, so you get angry whenever someone is not praising you.Jealousy:
Is one of the main reasons why “Cheaters” is on TV. Never let someone’s innocence or guilt steal your peace. Some people are jealous because they have not security of self. That’s what happened to Saul. God uses Who He wants, where He wants, how He wants, for however long He wants. There is no need to be jealous when you are secure in the knowledge that what the Lord has for you is for you.
If you want to change this (living by emotions and not the Spirit):
Know that emotions are indicators. Find out what they are.
What are the triggers: What makes you angry, what makes your jealous, etc. Where ever you are, this emotion will follow you. Find out “what’s causing me to act like this” Am I mad because I have unmet expectations. You should not live your life according to your emotions. Emotions are energy. So if the energy is bad, it will discharge into your environment.
All emotions are not caused by the same source. People have different causes for the same emotion. Find out YOUR particular cause.
Deal with your issues before God and get them resolved. The longer your issue continues, the more it will shape your personality. Personality is a by-product of what you have gone through and how you have dealt with it. Some people are co-dependent because of abandonment issues. We should not live our lives as it “this is who I am” with the emphasis on our emotions (rude, quick tempered, etc.).
Galatians 5:16 Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We can’t fix ourselves, only God can heal our issues. Anger, jealousy, wrath, hate etc. are all works of the flesh.
Example: Obese people go on a diet and lose weight and then regain it. We regain the weight because the food is not the reason they eat. They have to address the issues of their spirit.
Verse 21 says: “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Does this mean people who struggle with the flesh will not go to Heaven? “No.” God does not let go of those who are saved. But not all who are saved enjoy the Kingdom of God that is available to them here on Earth. There is a difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. The Bible says:
Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
What then is the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is the manifestation of God and the fruit of the spirit experienced here on earth in our daily lives. But we have a hard time seeing this because: “…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) The Kingdom of God is a dimension that you live in, where you can understand the voice of God. If you are not spiritual, you will not understand the things of God. Many people live their lives worshipping themselves, where every thing revolves around them. People do all that they can to satisfy themselves. So if God does not speak in a way that involves the senses, they don’t hear him, because they are not walking in the spirit; therefore they are not living in the Kingdom of God. Learn to eliminate the triggers that cause our biggest problems. If you are stressed because you have too much to do, your problem could be that you are not organized. Some people live with lots of high drama. We don’t have to be upset, even when the enemy is conspiring against us because the Lord has promised that “no weapon formed against you shall prosper.” We serve an on time God. No matter what is going on in our lives, the Lord is right there with us.
Consistently ask yourself, are you walking in the Spirit? Pray for the strength, guidance, and love of God that you will walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
©2012 Pastor Joseph Williams. All Rights Reserved.
-Notes of the sermon, Emotional Congestion preached by Pastor Joseph Williams of Salem Bible Church in Lithonia, GA were written by Verneda Lights.
Related reading:
Works of the Flesh Part IV: Hatred
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The video of Jackie Evancho singing The Lord’s Prayer, was uploaded on Youtube.com by jk4jackie on Sep 5, 2011. Verneda Lights and E-graphX Omnimedia have no ownership of this video. It is used for educational purposes only.
