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Three Angels SDA Church

Don Mackintosh

Faith Alone

Father in heaven, we ask that you'd be with us as we consider your word.

How many of you have had the problem in your life that your feelings can't be trusted?

How many of you have ever had that problem?

How many of you have trusted your feelings only to be disappointed?

You know, I've had several conversations over the last few days that lead me to believe that you're no different than I am.

Because my feelings go up and they go down.

I listen to Eric play the violin and I hear that music, I go, wow!

Then the next moment I'm thinking, I gotta get up there and pray?

And your feelings go up and they go down.

And dealing with the feeling factor is a big thing No matter what your line of work is.

Medicine's based a lot of times on feeling.

Certainly feelings are a wonderful thing.

I can remember when my wife for the first time said, I love you.

And she gave me a little heart to put in my wallet.

But in America today, according to the reports I saw on the Wichita Eagle, from the census report, lots of people come to an end of that feeling and then they say goodbye to their spouses of many years.

And yet so often when we go through life we say, how do you feel?

And feelings are important, but I wanted to suggest to you something.

And especially those that have been baptized today, I want to address this to you.

We look at Christ's baptism in Matthew chapter 3, and we find here that Christ was on an emotional roller coaster, if you look at it in terms of feelings.

Jesus came from Galilee, it says, to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and you're coming to me?

Boy, I tell you, how would you feel if John, the greatest of the prophets, would say to you, I need to be baptized by you.

What if today in that tank, you know, that would have happened?

John could have felt pretty high on himself, couldn't he?

Here is the Lord saying to him that he needs to be baptized.

Then John says, look, I need to be baptized by you.

If Jesus was given the feelings, he probably would have said, yeah, that's right.

He would have felt pretty good about that.

But then there's more feelings or emotions that you could tell behind the scenes in this passage.

Jesus then says no, permit it now to be so, to fulfill all righteousness.

And immediately after he says that, the Spirit of God comes bursting through the heavens there, like a dove alighting on him, and suddenly, verse 17, a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Do you think that in terms of the feeling factor, Jesus was feeling pretty good at this point?

You know in the book Desire of Ages it says that when we're baptized, that promise is ours.

This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter in whom I'm well pleased.

That's a promise for those who are just baptized.

I mean, I had a lot of emotion during the baptism myself, as I recognized what God has done in these young lives and in the life of Cecilia.

And don't you wish you could just stay there in verse 17?

Looking now at the feelings, chapter 4, verse 1.

Then Jesus was led by the spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterwards, he was hungry.

How do you feel when you don't have food?

And every time I go in there, you know, I want to be a blessing to them, because I know that the devil wants them to give up.

And when they feel really low, the book Ministry of Healing says that the nurse, the social worker, the person in the hospital can send them 1 way or the other.

Because the devil understands your feelings and tries to play on those almost exclusively.

So he came here with the persistence of a dreadful enemy and 3 times tried to assault our Lord when He was feeling physically probably 1 of the worst times He felt in His life.

He tries to get us when we're down, when we don't feel good physically.

Look with me in another text here, another text in Hebrews.

Hebrews, and I'm so thankful for this text, Hebrews chapter 4.

And in Hebrews chapter 4 we find this promise and this reality based on the Word of God.

Verse 14, seeing then that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

Do not sympathize with the feelings of our what?

He understands our feelings But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without what?

The issue is whether or not we'll follow God's law by not our power, but His power when we're feeling what?

And Jesus' life is so beautiful when you recognize that He took on the battle of feelings just like you and I do.

I don't know about you, but many times I'm tempted to just live on the level of feelings.

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Faith Alone

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