Why Do Feelings Matter?

Hey, thanks again for sending in your questions regarding our recent sermons. We had a number of questions come in this week. I believe all of them came in anonymously, so we’re only going to answer one. If you, if you put your email on the form that when you send in and question, we will be able to respond to your question, even if we don’t respond to it on this video. But the question this week is why do the sermon notes focus on me and how I feel?

Shouldn’t there also be questions about am I doing the same for others in our me centric culture, particularly with how it has crept into the church? Shouldn’t the church be holy? We really appreciate this question. One reason why I appreciate it is we can talk a little bit about the strategy of sermons and sermon questions, but I’ll answer the last part first. Yes, of course the church should be holy.

And I’d say our sermons really focus on all the commands, all the one another commands that we’ve been discussing, welcoming and greeting and encouraging and being appreciative and empathetic and attentive and accepting of others and revealing what is inside of us so that others can accept that. And those are all commands that we must follow. And then the idea is that you would discuss all of those commands with other people in a conversation group setting and maybe somebody else in that group will share, especially after this last week. If we’re confessing our suffering and shortcomings and sin, hopefully somebody else in that group will share of when they didn’t feel welcomed or encouraged or thanked or appreciated or somebody had empathized with them. And if that has happened, we actually hope it hasn’t happened, but if it has happened, hopefully they will actually share it and then the other people in the group can hear.

Here’s a real live person that has been hurt by our sin. My sin isn’t just theoretical, right? It’s not just like commands. And this is only between God and me. And I just got to get cleared up with him.

Now I have heard from another individual who I have affected and that really should help me change my behavior. What we found in our young adult groups when we were talking about this so long ago is one person would share how this had hurt them and then other people would share how they were also hurt. And as a group, we kind of realized, oh wow, we could be the answer for each other. Like we’re all hurting for the same reason, but we’re all hurting for the same reason because none of us are doing what we’re supposed to do. And if all of us were doing what we were supposed to do, then none of us would be hurt.

And so that’s why we set the questions up this way and so that hopefully you will encounter or have the opportunity to share yourself a real, live example of how sin has hurt you, and that will hopefully motivate the others. Or if you are the other, the person who is sharing their pain and suffering will motivate you to live in a holy way, which is, of course, super important. So a lot of times you get the commands in the sermon, and then you discuss how those commands are lived out in the real world in your discussion and community groups. So, hey, we hope that’s helpful. We hope those who have been hurt will have the courage to share, and we hope those who hear the person who was hurt will change their behavior so that it will not happen again.

Thanks a lot, and we’ll see you next time. Bye.