WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.760 Uh we're in a series of messages right now. 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:03.120 We're calling cover to cover. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:08.560 We're going through the whole Bible and um you know we're we're taking a high-level view of the Bible. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.759 We've talked a lot about the meta-narrative of the Bible. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:14.560 We're looking at sort of how to approach the Bible. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:22.960 We took a few weeks to just lay a foundation of even uh looking at the Bible as literature, looking at the Bible as history, and then the Bible as theology. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:35.200 And if you're not careful, you could try to make the Bible say or mean what it doesn't say or mean, and uh to really be able to look at it as something that was really written for us but not to us. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:39.359 And the fact that it is a cross-cultural experience whenever you're opening the Bible. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:47.280 And so we're trying to equip uh you as best I can in that process and um really giving us some things we can build on over the long haul. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:50.560 This is gonna be my last week in the Old Testament. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:01:00.240 Um, and last week we looked at a pretty large portion of um the kings and the prophets and and priests and how they all, those relationships work together. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:08.079 Um, and so when we get to the New Testament, we are gonna reach back into the Old Testament, just like when we're in the Old Testament, we were reaching into the New Testament. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:10.959 Uh, but this will be the last official week in the Old Testament. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:17.200 And what I want to do is I want to look at uh what's called the wisdom literature of the Bible. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:18.079 Wisdom literature. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:25.359 Some people call them the poetic books, but the wisdom literature, which are uh books that are some of the more familiar books in the Bible. 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:30.239 It's Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:38.400 And uh, we're gonna take a look at these in the Old Testament and then the best way to learn from them and how we should think about them. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:48.640 Um, okay, what I want to do is I want to talk about today the relationship between emotions and wisdom. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:51.599 Emotions and wisdom. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:56.239 I want to start with a little bit of uh uh kind of looking at how our brains work. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:01.280 Um, I'm gonna share with you an excerpt from a book called Strangers to Ourselves. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:10.879 Uh, it was written by a guy named Timothy Wilson, and basically he's talking, trying to help people understand essentially what's going on inside your head second by second. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:12.560 And so here's a quote from the book. 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:28.639 He said Research indicates that the subconscious mind handles approximately 11 million bits of data per second from sensory inputs, while consciousness processes only about 40 bits per second. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:42.080 All right, so they uh hook the brain up to all these different uh uh electrical sensors and um were able to measure how much that you can sense through your senses. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:52.159 And so you you have uh about 10 million of those bits of information are coming through your eyes, about a million are coming through your skin, right? 00:02:52.240 --> 00:03:01.360 Your your sense of feel, and then hundreds of thousands are coming through uh you know your ears, your nose, uh, okay, and your and your taste buds. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:04.400 And so now think about that, think about that math, right? 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:15.599 We're we're talking if if every second you are subconsciously receiving that much information, and then you can only process about 40 bits, all right? 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:21.280 That's 0.0005% of what you're sensing. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:41.759 You know, your brain goes through this process of taking those those sensory messages and compressing them down, and you have about a 0.5 second reflex where you sense it, and then now it it compresses down into your conscious mind, and now your mind is starting to try to figure out what's going on. 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:50.400 All right, and that's every second, which leads to you know hundreds of billions of these of bits of data going on daily. 00:03:50.800 --> 00:04:05.280 So the reason I bring that up is because we the reality is it's creating emotion, even things subconsciously that you're not even fully conscious of are creating emotional responses, are creating feelings internally. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:10.159 And so a large portion of our lives are figuring out how to work our way through this. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:27.360 If I if I'm experiencing 11 million bits subconsciously, 40 to 50 per second, uh consciously, and then my even my ability to verbalize words maybe at one to five per second, it's it's gonna take a while to work our way through these things. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:44.240 And so, what I want to talk to you about is something that we're gonna see in the wisdom literature, uh sort of a framework for how we read these things, and especially if we're really trying to take away from them what we're supposed to take away, is the idea of thinking fast and thinking slow. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:54.160 So thinking fast is emotional, it's instinctual, and it is often survival-based. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:55.120 Right? 00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:08.319 This sub these subconscious patterns and what's going on in our brain, it's keeping us alive, it's creating a feeling right away, and and our feelings bring something into our consciousness that we know we need to deal with. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:15.120 And then thinking slow, thinking slow is deliberate, reflective, and wisdom-producing. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:16.240 All right. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:39.120 Um, when it comes to feelings, as it relates to faith or church or God or religion or theology, uh, it's kind of hard to know exactly how to do that in the healthiest way because if you kind of think of the spectrum, there's some people that their entire religious experience or their entire faith and relationship with God is all feelings-based. 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:46.240 Uh, I've I've seen people get caught up in their feelings and attribute things to God that He probably had nothing to do with. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:59.519 I I've spent a lot of time, a lot of time trying to help people sort of clean up in their mind and their emotions and their spirit, like something somebody told them that God told them to tell them that really probably God had nothing to do with. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:05.680 And so sometimes people, they it's just if they feel it deeply, it must be an unction from the Holy Spirit. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.000 If they feel it deeply, this has to be God provoking me or directing me. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.000 And and so some people they're just all, it's all feeling, it's all emotion. 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.519 And and we can see the concern with that, right? 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:19.759 You could make you prone to manipulation. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:28.399 Anybody that's always inflaming your emotions, sometimes we've all done things in emotion that led, uh maybe made us vulnerable to manipulation. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:34.399 And so uh that that's a mistake if we make our faith and our relationship with God all emotional. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:43.040 But some people, in an effort to not fall into that category, swing the pendulum completely on the other side and they put it all in the cognitive head brain. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:53.199 And so every you know, my relationship with God starts to be reduced down to mathematical equations and it gets down to just what I can make sense of. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:55.600 And that's also, I believe, a mistake. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:03.519 Because if if if everything uh that I believe and know about God it has to be able to fit into my brain, I become the limitation. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:11.279 There's a lot about God that's true, there's a lot about uh faith that's real that's never going to fully add up to you. 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:15.600 And so we have to sort of be able to sit in this tension and to think fast. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:42.000 In other words, when I feel my emotions, it's not just that my emotion is a full liar and I need to just push it away, but at the same time, I don't want to think so fast that I'm living impulsively, and so now, whatever conclusion I came to in my uh ability to process the 11 million bits of subconscious in my 40 bits of conscious, and now I've come to conclusions based on strong feelings. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:43.360 I don't want to do that either. 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:49.439 I have to get in the process, and you have to get in the process of thinking fast, paying attention to the emotion. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:50.879 It's telling me something. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:55.040 There's some truth in there, but it's not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:02.160 Before I become conclusive, I need to react to it, respond, and start to make my way through it by also thinking slow. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:04.560 And that's what you're gonna see in the wisdom literature. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:12.399 If you think take this thinking fast, thinking slow, we're gonna lay this over, you know, these books, and I'm gonna kind of show you a little bit how to do that. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:18.560 So let's do kind of a brief synopsis of uh the five books of the Old Testament wisdom literature. 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:20.720 Uh, the first is the book of Job. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:24.800 The book of Job, uh, a little summary of that, I think, should come up here. 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:34.879 Uh Job is the story of a righteous man who experiences great suffering, and the book focuses on the nature of suffering, faith, and divine justice. 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.559 Uh, what you're gonna see in the story is Job is this really good guy. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:40.639 He's kind of got he has it all going for him. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:46.320 He he's he's a great example of a person, and he's got a great business, a great family. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.159 And tragically, in a moment, he loses everything. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:56.240 And in the in the blink of an eye, he is he starts immediately through the process of grief. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:02.639 I would say he starts in denial, he doesn't know what to even do with the information, he can't even absorb it. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:15.200 And he goes through this process where he now has uh to deal with his own feelings of grief, and then his wife is so low uh she falls into despair. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:29.679 And if you've ever been in that position where you're trying to fight for your own survival, and then you have somebody you love who is floundering and is not being able to keep their head above water, and you're trying to, you barely have it to help yourself, and you're trying to help her. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:36.399 And she got to a place where she was so low when he was just he was trying to maintain some semblance of faith. 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:38.240 She's like, What are you doing? 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:40.320 Why are you praying to God? 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:41.840 He's we've lost everything. 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:44.159 You know, you should just curse God and die. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:53.759 And so he's he he's kind of alone in his marriage, and then his friends show up and they mean well, and they we know they're at least trying to do well. 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.679 As it says, actually, for a week they showed up, they didn't even say anything. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.759 He was so brokenhearted, they just looked, they just all sat there and just stared at each other. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:03.200 He's like, What do you say? 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:09.679 Then at some point they start saying stuff, and everything they said, although they meant well, was making matters worse. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:20.240 It was confusing him more, it was discouraging him more, and so he's he gets to this uh this low place and uh eventually his body starts struggling. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:36.159 Uh, he starts developing uh physical issues, and and then he starts kind of crying out to God and he's angry at God, he's he doesn't know what to think, he goes through this season of confusion, and for most of the book, okay, he God's not saying anything. 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:56.799 So he's in this moment, spiritually disoriented, physically suffering, emotionally uh in despair, and he gets all the way, and at the end of the book, um, God begins to speak to him, and through this process, okay, every time when you read the the monologue of Job, you're gonna see him thinking fast. 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:01.759 He's feeling intense feelings, and he's verbalizing exactly what he's feeling. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:03.279 But he thinks slow. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:09.360 He works his way through 42 chapters of not quitting, of not giving in to despair. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:17.519 And in so doing, he gets to chapter 42, and in verse 3, he says this surely I spoke of things I did not understand. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:31.679 In other words, when I was thinking fast, I felt something that felt it was real, and I was verbalizing it, but the things that were coming out of my mouth, he said, I didn't even understand what I was saying. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.360 I was I was so overwhelmed. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:45.360 I had 11 million bits of information running through my mind that I could only process 40 at a time, and and and part of that, he goes, it was just stuff was coming out of my mouth, but I stayed with it. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:52.720 He said, Because I stayed with it, it says in verse 5, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:12:04.879 So, in the process of him being true and honest about what he felt and leaning into it, but not getting stuck in the grief and moving his way through it, he ultimately came to a deeper understanding of God. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:09.519 So we see him living uh the think fast and slow right in front of us. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:10.639 Um, in Psalms. 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:22.240 Psalms is uh uh primarily known as a book of hymns and prayers, but many of the psalms contain wisdom teaching on living a righteous life and also it talks about the nature of God. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:24.799 So that's what you can expect when you read Psalms. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:26.639 Uh, we'll look at a few psalms in a minute. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:33.600 Proverbs uh is a collection of sayings and teachings that provide practical advice for developing godly wisdom. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.639 Again, these are some of the most uh easy to understand. 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:40.720 You just they're they're pithy sayings that are time-tested truths. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:50.639 One thing to make note of, by the way, when you think about the wisdom literature of the Bible, these are not promises, they are probabilities. 00:12:51.039 --> 00:13:11.440 So we've been talking the whole time about reaching back into the garden, that it's God's desire that we live in a uh a state of shalom, that we live in a place where we're at peace with Him and with ourselves and other people, and not just peace, but a place of prosperity, a place of fullness, a place of security, right? 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:13.440 To have right relationship. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:18.559 Okay, and so when you look at the wisdom literature, it's helping us know how to do that. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:28.960 It's helping us know how to pick our circle, it's helping us know how to pick our partners in life, it's helping us know how to deal with situations, how to think about things like money and how to think about business. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:36.240 A lot of these are wisdom literature that is helping us know how to maintain shalom in our lives. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:39.120 But just to be clear, it's probabilities. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:43.200 It's, hey, you're much more likely to maintain shalom in this. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:44.480 It's not a promise. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:49.519 Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they get old, they won't depart from it. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:51.120 That is not a promise. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:54.080 It's a probability. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:58.159 If you train up a child in the way they should go, it's a pretty good chance. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:02.320 It's the best shot you have of them not departing from it later. 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:05.360 But but you you can't go, wait, God, I have a promise in the bottom. 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:10.559 No, if your child goes off in their own way, they are a free will human being that can make their own choices. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.080 At some point, you did everything you could do, and then they didn't do it. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.480 It's not a promise from God, it's a probability. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:23.440 This is the highest likelihood based on the decisions you have control of and I have control of, that I can live in a place of shalom. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:24.159 Okay? 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:26.080 Okay, so so that's Proverbs. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:33.759 Ecclesiastes is a philosophical book that explores the meaning of life, the limitations of human wisdom, and a search for purpose. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:35.840 Uh, my daughter turned 16 this year. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:40.639 She and I read through Ecclesiastes a few months ago, and she was loving it, right? 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:43.039 So if you have a 16-year-old, take them through Ecclesiastes. 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:44.000 I mean, she was eating it up. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:46.159 She was like, that's a bar right there, dad. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:47.120 That's a bar. 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:48.559 I was like, what? 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:50.879 She explained it to me. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:54.960 And basically she's like, this is incredible stuff, like a lot of really good practical wisdom. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:01.919 Ecclesiastes was designed to try to take the wisdom of an older person and put it in the mind of a younger person. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:04.000 It was written to young aristocrats. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:15.679 These are people who pretty soon you're gonna be leading everything, and you're so focused on what's in front of you and developing your skill and making your way, we're gonna force you to think about things bigger than what you would normally think of on your own. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.919 And so they start talking about the meaning of life. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.960 They start talking about the big picture, stuff you don't think about when you're 15 or 16 on your own. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.120 Uh that's what it's designed to do. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:34.799 And then uh Song of Solomon is a poetic and allegorical book that can be interpreted as exploring love, relationships, and the beauty of creation. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:36.559 Um, okay, here's what I want to do. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:49.360 I want us to think about how within the uh the wisdom literature and the poetic books, what we have is a picture of bringing the entire emotional human spectrum to God. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.559 To bring whatever it is that you're walking through to bringing that to God and how to do that thinking fast and slow. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:09.840 So we're gonna start, I'm gonna give you five, just a cross-section of five different human emotions or things people walk through, very practical to us, and to see, let's look for how uh we see thinking fast and slow in this. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:11.440 Uh, the first is anger. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:13.759 All right, so this is, I'm just gonna give you a warning here. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:15.440 We're gonna read Psalm 109. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.159 Um, this is pretty intense stuff. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:21.600 All right, so Psalm 109, this is a Psalm of David. 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:33.759 Uh David, uh about half of the Psalms are attributed to David, and uh he's responding to people who are powerful people who are mistreating people. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:39.919 And so he says in in Psalm 109, 6 he says, appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:40.960 He's talking to God. 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:42.080 This is his prayer. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:47.279 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy, let an accuser stand at his right hand. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:17:02.000 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him, may his days be few, may another take his place of leadership, may his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.480 May his children be wandering beggars, may they be driven from their ruined homes. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:15.440 May a creditor seize all he has, may strangers plunder plunder the fruits of his labor. 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:20.240 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:25.440 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:33.119 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and may the sins of his mother never be blotted out. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:36.240 May their sins always remain before the Lord. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.880 May he blot out their name from the earth. 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:44.000 I think he was upset. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:50.319 I think I think he I think he might have been upset. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:52.480 Psalm 58, 6. 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:55.279 Break the teeth in their mouths, oh God. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:58.880 Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:02.799 Um okay, what's going on here? 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:06.000 Uh we see fast thinking. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:16.880 First, when you read this, you kind of go, wow, that's that's over the top, you know, that's uh excessive, it's kind of hard, it's a little cringy uh to read. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:26.799 But I think the reality is I'm grateful for Psalm 109 because it shows us the depth of human emotion. 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:44.720 And frankly, often the intensity of our feelings, even if trying to process the 11 million bits into 40 turn out like something like this, often the intensity of those feelings are connected to something underneath the surface that's been offended in you. 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:50.720 Like what with David, you have his sense of justice has been offended deeply. 00:18:51.359 --> 00:19:02.319 And although it would be this isn't a moral example of for us to go, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna do all the things that he said and take justice into my own hands and now be the one to do this. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:09.920 What we do have from David is permission to feel intense feelings, especially in intense situations. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:15.519 And so you see, David, in a sense, has his sense of justice offended. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:27.680 As much as these things sound so horrible when you read them, what David is doing is he is saying ultimately, God, I wish that this person would get a taste of their own medicine. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:33.839 All the things that I'm asking you to do to them are things that they're doing to other people. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:41.200 And I'm having to observe this, and I feel powerless in the process, and you're omnipotent, and so I feel what I feel. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:47.039 Now, is it right to, you know, all these things about their children and all the things he's feeling? 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:57.920 No, it would be absolutely wrong to think so fast and to get caught up in your impulse to then jump to a conclusion and then to take an action based on these type of feelings. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:09.359 Wisdom in emotion is thinking fast and slow, to say, you know what, I'm gonna step out of this and I'm not gonna start getting decisive or start taking action in my current feeling. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:12.640 I'm gonna pump the brakes a little bit and I'm going to take this to the Lord. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:21.359 In fact, David shows us the most appropriate place to take feelings this intense are to God, not Facebook. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.599 I'm not saying don't ever post, I'm not saying don't stand on what you believe. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:33.759 I'm saying when you're in that mood, don't put your Psalm 109 on the internet. 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:43.759 Don't hold up your camera and say, you know, I'm feeling a little Psalm 109 right now, I'm gonna break it down and go, well, David did it. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:55.440 I can tell you there's a lot of times that I want to say stuff and I want to pull my camera out, and I want to just start typing it keys, but but but I have too much fast thinking. 00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.240 I got 11 million bits going through my head, and only 40 I can process at a time. 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:03.519 And if I start plucking keys, I'm gonna regret this later. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.720 So I'm gonna step back and I'm gonna bring it to the Lord. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.839 I'm gonna say all of this to God Himself. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.960 I'm gonna close the prayer closet door, soundproof room. 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:15.200 God and I are gonna talk it out. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:20.000 And so it's it gives us permission to feel what you feel. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.319 But what are you going to do with this? 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:26.240 I understand wanting the teeth of the wicked to be broken. 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:32.559 I understand wanting someone to reap what they sow and to get a taste of their own medicine and all the feelings that come with that. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:44.000 But but what we have to do is not sin in our anger, but to be able to pump the brakes and bring it to the Lord and express anger to God, but work your way through it in a healthy way. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:46.160 Uh the second is sadness. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:46.960 Sadness. 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:51.440 Uh Psalm 42 5 says, Why, O my soul, are you so downcast? 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:53.759 Why so disturbed within me? 00:21:54.160 --> 00:22:01.839 Job, and when Job is starting to really embrace the reality of the loss and And he's in the valley of grief. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:13.039 He says in verse 2 and 3, he said, If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery placed on scales, it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:15.839 No wonder my words have been impetuous. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:17.440 Notice what he's doing right there. 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:19.440 He's being honest about how he feels. 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:22.319 I feel like I'm being crushed by the weight of grief. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:24.720 And he says, you know, my words are impetuous. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.160 In a sense, he's almost giving himself a little bit of grace in the process, you know. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:31.519 I'm not an impetuous guy, but I feel impetuous right now. 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:34.160 I'm not a bad guy, but I'm feeling bad right now. 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:36.319 There's something coming out of my mouth. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:37.759 I'm working my way through it. 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:47.200 And if I'll stay here and I'll keep thinking fast and slow and I'll keep processing my way through it, I'll get to a place where I'm not impetuous anymore. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:52.640 And so we see that, you know, sadness, sadness doesn't mean that you're faithless. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:54.960 All right, it often means honesty. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:58.960 And so uh we need to be willing to kind of lean into it and embrace it. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:11.680 You know, uh my wife and I this week were putting out uh a podcast and we were talking about you know the human ability that God has given us to hold multiple thoughts and feelings at the same time. 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:12.079 Right? 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.400 So you see this vividly at funerals. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:20.000 You you can be at a funeral and feel grief and gratitude simultaneously. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:24.079 You can find yourself laughing and crying at the same time. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:30.720 And so often, emotional maturity, which again the wisdom literature is helping us turn emotion into wisdom. 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:37.200 Emotional maturity is having the presence of mind to not get singular, become singular in my emotion. 00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:39.440 That doesn't mean I avoid sadness. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:53.039 It means that I don't only experience sadness, that I can hold sadness at the same time I hold hope, that I can hold despair at the same time that I hold optimism, that I can go through grief at the same time that I hold gratitude. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:24:04.559 And so what you see from Job is his ability to keep himself moving forward, even though the predominant emotion that he was feeling was sadness. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:07.119 Uh the next one is confusion. 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:14.799 Ecclesiastes 2, 18 through 20 is uh the writer of Ecclesiastes is just talking about how discouraged he is. 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:18.000 He's lost motivation to work and to live. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:26.960 And he says, uh I came to hate all my work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I've earned. 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:30.960 And who can tell whether my successor will be wise or foolish? 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:35.920 Yet they will control everything I have gained with my skill and hard work under the sun. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:37.200 How meaningless. 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:43.279 So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world. 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:48.319 Um, you see the the writer of Ecclesiastes coming to a place that I think a lot of people come to. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.599 Maybe all people come to at some point if you don't sort of wrestle with the proper motivation for what you do. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:57.039 He said, I got to this place, I'm working my tail off, and I'm like, what am I doing? 00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:59.440 I'm gonna do all this, I might leave it to a fool. 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:04.559 I work my tail off, somebody just what so I die, and somebody else gets all the fruit of my labor, and then what are they? 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:06.079 They might completely waste it. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.359 He's like, so I I couldn't find, I couldn't find motivation. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:13.759 But in the process, right, he wrestles his way to a deeper motivation. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:18.079 He starts to come to conclusions because he's asking deeper questions. 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:30.559 Uh Job 13, 15, uh, in the the peak of confusion for for Job, he says, Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him, I will surely defend my ways to his face. 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:41.839 So you have Job very confused about God and how much of this was God's doing, and how much of this was somebody else's doing, but in his confusion, uh he remains faithful. 00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:47.119 And you can be confused and faithful at the same time. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:47.839 Right? 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:53.200 Sometimes you have to hold these things in tension in your prayers and be able to work through them. 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:55.839 Uh, next one is joy. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:01.839 Psalm 150 and 6 says, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:06.319 Psalm 98, 4 through 6, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:17.759 Burst into jubilant song with music, make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of a ram's horn, shout for joy before the Lord the King. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:23.279 Psalm 34, 3, oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:25.759 You know, this is again part of what we do each week. 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:27.519 We come, we sing songs of joy. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:31.039 Uh sometimes when we sing songs of joy, we're having to hold multiple feelings. 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:41.680 I've got a little bit of anger over here, I've got some sadness, I got some confusion, but I'm also going to stand next to my brothers and sisters, and we're going to glorify our Heavenly Father together, and we're going to sing about who he is. 00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:46.160 And so we we encourage each other in that process and we celebrate joy. 00:26:46.319 --> 00:27:03.599 I would also say within our community, uh, outside of just the corporate times of joy, that we develop in relationship, in depth of relationship, so that you have people in life to celebrate your joy with you and you celebrate their joy with them. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:05.759 Rejoice with those who rejoice. 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:09.599 And you know, we live in a world where there is so much jealousy. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:12.559 It just feels very lonely, every man for himself. 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:19.680 Have you ever been going through something so good, like something good really happened and you're not sure who to call because you don't know if you're gonna make them more jealous? 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:23.279 Have you ever started trying to celebrate with somebody and they're like, must be nice? 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:28.640 You want to go, it is, you know, but but it's like, come on. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:30.079 Depth of relationship. 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.839 Like be in real, we we want to be the type of church, the body of Christ. 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:38.319 Be a be a type of uh somebody in a connect group with somebody, in relationship with somebody. 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:41.680 When they're excited, get excited with them, man. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:43.440 Rejoice with those who rejoice. 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:46.079 And and don't just move so fast through the joy, you know. 00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:51.519 I was talking to somebody the other day, I was giving them their flowers, I was affirming them, and because they did something great. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:54.319 And as I'm affirming them, they're like, well, you know, it wasn't really me. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:57.200 You know, it wasn't like stop it, you know? 00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.359 Come on, like take it, like receive it. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:00.880 You did that, you worked hard. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:04.480 Like, God's not offended that you feel joy in the hard work that you did. 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:06.240 You you took an opportunity, man. 00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:08.640 You went after it, you did it, it worked, you know. 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:11.599 There's enough things to create despair, there's enough things that don't work. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:14.000 When something works, let's throw a party about it, man. 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:15.680 Let's get excited about it. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:21.119 And so, again, this is this is the full emotional spectrum. 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:23.839 Let's bring our sadness, but let's bring our joy. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:32.079 Psalm 156. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:37.119 Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:38.960 I end with this. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:46.079 I want to encourage you to take this framework, thinking fast and slow. 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:53.039 When you feel something that comes from all the things going on in your senses, don't ignore the feeling. 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:55.519 Don't start to get good at suppressing emotion. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:56.960 Control it. 00:28:57.200 --> 00:28:58.319 Pay attention to it. 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:03.920 Don't let it become conclusive and decisive, but let it give you a direction to start digging in. 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:20.079 My wife and I recently were helping uh a friend of ours work through some issues that she had, and she said, you know, I've got this feeling right now that I'm I'm uh basically I keep I keep picking the wrong relationships. 00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:27.680 I keep picking the wrong guys in a relationship, and I know deep down, often I know like I'm attracted to these guys. 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:31.920 Like I don't know what is wrong with me that I am attracted to the wrong guys. 00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:33.519 And I started to see a pattern. 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.200 I almost know before I even do it where it's gonna lead, and yet I do it anyway. 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:46.960 And then I get in a relationship with a good guy, and I end up blowing it up, I get bored for one reason or another, I just don't stick with it, and I end up back in this thing, and I'm trying to dig deep and figure out what's going on. 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:48.240 And so it was fast thinking. 00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:49.519 She was she was feeling it. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:55.279 How come when I'm on the scene and I see this certain kind of guy, I find myself attracted, even though I don't want to be. 00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:01.839 I'm thinking my fast thinking is leading to that feeling, but I'm trying to slow think this and find some freedom from it. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:03.599 And so I'll spare you all the details. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:13.759 But we worked way the way through the thinking that ultimately it can't came back to um an issue that she had of questioning her own value. 00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:18.000 That it was way from the past, but it kept showing up in her life. 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:25.200 That she questions whether what is her value, and there's something about this type of guy who other people want. 00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:38.799 And if the one who everyone wants wants me, it gives me some data point that makes me be able to show the voice in my head that says you're not valuable to go, but the one who everybody wants wants me. 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:53.839 And so they're picking a certain kind of person, and they started to get to a place where they were choosing to be picked by the one who everyone wanted instead of being loved by the one who didn't want anybody else but them. 00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:02.880 So the feeling of being picked was being chosen over the reality of being loved. 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:08.400 And so if if I don't wrestle my way through that, you you think fast and then slow. 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:10.000 And I gotta slow play that. 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:12.880 I gotta sit in that feeling, I gotta ask the right question. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:29.279 I gotta ask another right question, I gotta ask another right question and have the courage to dig into that to where now I start to develop wisdom and go, wow, what's interesting is now that impulse to be attracted to that person has changed because I've gone through a place of healing where I know where my value comes from. 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:33.599 Therefore, I don't crave it from a specific type of person. 00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:37.440 And now I've started to correct the behavior and live wisely. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:38.880 You know what that results in? 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:43.599 More shalom, more security, more peace. 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:51.200 All right, you're able to live in the world in a way that the controllables that you can control, you're making better decisions, right? 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:57.359 And so this is the kind of thing I want that the wisdom literature invites us into this process. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:31:59.039 Super quick, put the list up. 00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:00.880 How do I turn emotions into wisdom? 00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:01.839 Five things. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:03.200 Feel it, feel it. 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:05.680 Don't ignore the feeling, don't get good at pushing it away. 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:10.880 Listen to it, listen to it, don't obey it, listen to it, dig into it. 00:32:11.119 --> 00:32:15.279 Second, slow down, don't react immediately. 00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:17.359 Embrace it for the long haul. 00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:19.680 Three, ask deeper questions. 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:26.640 Ask deeper questions and more questions and deeper questions until you're able to get to that revelation. 00:32:26.799 --> 00:32:28.400 Number four, bring it to God. 00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:29.440 Pray about it. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:30.319 Pray about it. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:35.279 The spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you will guide you into all wisdom and knowledge. 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:38.559 And it might take a while, but go ahead and just keep praying and keep trusting. 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.200 Do 42 chapters like Job if it takes it. 00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:42.960 Keep, keep, keep, keep praying. 00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:46.319 And number five, learn and live the lesson. 00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:47.839 Learn and live the lesson. 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:49.680 It's not enough to just learn it. 00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:51.119 You gotta live it. 00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:52.480 You gotta live it. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:54.480 Wisdom is applied knowledge. 00:32:54.640 --> 00:32:59.279 When I learn this, now I've got to be willing to execute it and live it and to walk it out. 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:07.039 Lord, we thank you, God that you lead and guide us into wisdom. 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:14.400 Lord, often it's uh thinking fast and thinking slow. 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:22.799 Each of us are in our own way trying to process through 11 million bits per second. 00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:35.440 And Lord, even within that limitation, you help us to slow down and to see things we wouldn't normally see. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:52.720 So I pray, God, as we do as the wisdom writers did in their day, we would do in our day, case by case, situation by situation, and that you would lead us, Lord, to turn our feelings and our emotions into wisdom. 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:54.720 Lord, we need you. 00:33:55.279 --> 00:33:57.599 We thank you in Jesus' name. 00:33:57.839 --> 00:33:58.960 Everybody said amen.