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Hello everyone, it's James Long Jr. And I wanna talk

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to you about emotions

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today. And emotions were designed by God,

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and some of these principles come from actually

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all of the principles come from a study

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called Relational Wisdom. Relational

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Wisdom 360. It is a study

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created by Ken Sandy. He's

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the author of The Peacemaker and Resolving

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Everyday Conflict, plus many more

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studies. I am one of his

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advanced instructors of

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the Relational Wisdom Program, and today

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I wanna talk to you about emotions.

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Maybe you struggle with emotions. And today

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what we want to do is to identify ways

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that God can teach us about emotions

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and what he can do through them. Well, my

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name is James Long Jr. And this

1:09

is Lessons for Life. I am a pastor,

1:11

board certified professional counselor,

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a certified biblical counselor, and

1:16

a university professor. I have over 30

1:18

years of experience helping people find

1:20

God's solutions to life's problems. I

1:22

make these educational videos on the

1:25

topics of mental, emotional, and relational

1:27

health, and we do it. Biblical

1:29

perspective and today, as I said, we're gonna talk

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about emotions. Passage

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I wanted you to consider is from Psalm 32

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and it says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice

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all righteous and shall for joy.

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All you upright in

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heart, great passage. Now

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I want you to think about all the emotions that

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are behind that passage. It talked

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about the fact that it's being

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glad in the Lord. It talks about rejoicing,

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it talks about shouting for joy. It talks about

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upright in heart, all of the emotions

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that are filled. I love the Psalms and you'll

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hear a number of studies that I will do are

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videos I will do on the Psalms cause I just love

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them. But let's talk about

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emotions itself. Emotions

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move our relationships and they can move our

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relationships either positively

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or negatively. And you, you know that you

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can have great emotions that can move you to do

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good things and positive things in relationships.

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And then you can also have emotions that will. Hinder

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things in your relationships. Emotions

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influence most of what goes on in the world,

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and whether it's the romantic attraction

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that draws a couple together, or the sacrificial

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love of a parent for a child, or

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the desire to build a successful ministry

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or business, or maybe even the bitterness

2:38

that corrodes a relationship. Or

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how about the anger that tends to fragment

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a family or a church? Emotions

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play a powerful role in every

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aspect of life yet.

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The problem is most of us

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know far too little about the source and

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the dynamics of our emotions, and what

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I wanna do today is I want to give you eight basic

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facts about emotion. Eight basic

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facts about emotion will help you to understand

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what emotions are and how they were designed by God

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and how they can help us. Well, number

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one, I want you to consider this, then emotions are

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built. All people in all

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cultures by God's design. So

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all people have this, they are hardwired

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into our brains and our bodies through

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neurological issues, hormonal

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issues, but it's also connected

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to our, our spirit, our, our heart.

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And he designed them at creation and it weaves

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into every baby as he forms them in

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the womb in Genesis. It tells us

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that in his psalm and says that God

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has crafted us in his very, in our,

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in our mom's very womb. Thus

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human vocabulary when you think about it,

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is filled with emotion. There are

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so many different types of emotion

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that are talked about in God's word and

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so many emotions that we deal with. There's a

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chart and I'm gonna attach one down below,

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and it's called the core emotion chart. And

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that chart is really helpful. And what you're gonna

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see is a series of core emotions. Eight

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of them across the top, you'll see shame

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and sadness, shame, fear.

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Then we have enjoyment and love, and

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then we have surprise, disgusted, and anger.

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So those are the eight core emotions,

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and what you'll see on the left hand side

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is the low, medium,

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and high the intensity. So let's

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just take the shame category. It's,

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let's say you have a low level of shame

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that would be kind of like regretful

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or uncomfortable, embarrassed.

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But if you have a medium level, it would be

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like humiliated dishonored. but

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you could also have a high level where you feel sorrowful

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or guilty, and so it kind of goes that way.

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This chart, I keep in, I tell my people

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to keep in their bibles or keep in

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their journal, and when they struggle

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with a particular emotion, they can just pull out this

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core emotion chart. Now down at the bottom,

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you will see the three. Key

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types of emotion that the Bible often

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talks about, fear, love, and anger. And

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it talks about God has not given us a spirit of

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fear. So those level, those three

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at the end here, shame sadness

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and fear tend to be under the category

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of fear. Then in

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the middle, enjoyment and love, it

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says, but a power, love, and sound

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mind, a self-control. That's from

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second Timothy chapter one. Seven

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and then the ones off to the right, you'll see surprise

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discussed in anger that is based

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on the umbrella of anger. Surprise

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discussed in anger comes under the anger category.

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So if you think about it, eight core emotions,

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three primary biblical emotions, fear,

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love, and anger, and

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the intensity tho those are really

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helpful and they can be beneficial. But

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let's keep going. And so now

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what we see is this, we

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find ourselves. Moving

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to the next step is

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this next principle that emotions

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are physiological experiences

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that they involve measurable,

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neural muscular,

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respiratory, hormonal cardiovascular

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changes that impact our thoughts. They move

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us into action, and those can be moving

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us into action either positively or negative.

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In fact, the word emotion

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comes from the Latin word, which actually

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means to move. It means to move

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forward. It's kind of like blowing you in

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a particular way. So

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first principle, second principle. Now we move to the

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third emotions, provide some of the greatest

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pleasures in life. And, and I want

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you to think about the joys, the love,

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the delight, the acceptance, the

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compassion, the belonging, the peace.

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All of these emotions, they are emotions

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that will move you in a

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positive way and, and so whether you're

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saved or unsaved, whether you believe in

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Christ or not, whether you're a Bible believer

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or not, it doesn't matter. You can have these emotions

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and they're noble and they're constructive.

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But emotions on the other level

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are also tied to some of the greatest struggles

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we have, uh, some of the agonies in life.

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And they involve things like sadness,

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embarrassment, anger, bitterness,

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jealousy, self-pity and regret.

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All of those are these more

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negative viewpoints. So emotions can draw

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the most positive things within the negative

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things. Well, that moves us to our fifth

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principle, that emotions are not inherently

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sinful. Jesus felt a wide range

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of emotions, including love

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and compassion and joy and pity.

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And anger and sorrow and agony,

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and he had all of those emotions, yet he

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never sinned. His emotions, never

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surprised him, never overwhelmed him, and

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never moved him in into move

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in a way that was contrary to God.

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So emotions, even positive or negative

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emotions. Don't necessarily mean that they're

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sinful yet, but that is

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not necessarily true for us. Well, that moves

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us to point number six, that human emotions

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are often twisted by sin because of the

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fall. Sin is so corrupted our whole

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being. That includes our thoughts, our our emotions,

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our will, and sometimes theologians

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call that the NOIC effects of sin,

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though, that sin affects the way we think. And

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therefore, like a computer with a defective

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motherboard, we're unable to consistently

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understand or control our

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emotions and are triggered. And

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when we're triggered, we could be triggered by other

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people in events in our lives. And

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therefore, while positive emotions usually

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move us to do good things, negative emotions

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oftentimes will move us to sin against God

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and one. Well, that

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moves us to point number seven. This is an important

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point that Jesus

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had emotions didn't sin. We often

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sin our emotions, but through

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the gospel, God has redeemed us from the curse

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of sin and he's made us new creations

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and that impacts our thoughts, that

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can impact our emotions, that will impact

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our will, and it's, it's pouring his.

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In us and into our

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lives, and he's given us the ability to understand

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our emotions and then to progressively

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bring them under the submission of the Holy

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Spirit and under the Lordship of Christ.

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That leads us to our last principle. I want you to

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consider that the key step

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in redeeming our emotions is

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to bring them in humility, faith,

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and prayer. These are so important. Humble

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yourself, trust God

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in faith, and pray and

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examine our emotions in light of God's

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truth, and ask God to give us the grace

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and the wisdom and the strength

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that we. Harness the power of

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those emotions so that they will ultimately

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impact us to move us to love

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God with all our heart, soul, mind,

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and strength, and to love others as we love

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ourselves. And so as we do

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that, we, we learn about what God is doing

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in us and then, then what God is going to do through

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us. All right, so those are some quick

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principles on emotion. I hope that

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help you. I'll give you a number of passages

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as well that you can look up. Be

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blessed. Reach out if you have any questions.

9:54

If you liked this video, what I would love

9:57

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11:50

Okay? I think that's all we'll do today. Be

11:53

blessed. Hope to see you next time.