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Sunday School Lesson
January 27, 2013
Dr. Gary Berry; Pastor
Liberty Baptist Church
Charlotte, North Carolina
The Science of the Christian Life
Chapter5
Emotions
Introduction
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God never gives a command that your will cannot fulfill.
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God never gives a command that you cannot decide to do.
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If God commands you to love, you do not have to pray for God to give you love.
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God commands us to be angry, and He commands us to rejoice.
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Therefore we have the ability to will to do these things that God has commanded us to do.
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Now we will apply this to the area of our Emotions.
I. Your Emotions should be controlled by the will.
A. We should decide when we are going to be happy, and when we are going to get sad.
B. Although none of us are perfect, we should be in control of our emotions.
C. God would not have commanded us to do something if He did not give us the ability with our wills to do so.
Example: The cockpit of an air plane;
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There are many controls and panels to help the pilot control that airplane
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The pilot has to learn which buttons to push and which levers to pull.
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The key to flying the plane is knowing how to operate the controls.
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Our emotions ought to be controlled in much the same way.
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We should learn how to control our emotions with our wills.
D. We can will ourselves to be happy and will ourselves to be sad.
E. We can control our emotions by deciding how we are going to feel.
F. We all know what affects us emotionally, so we can do the things that will make our emotions be the way they
need to be for whatever the circumstances we have to face.
II. The determining factor is the need of others.
A. There are times when those that depend on us need us to be angry.
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B. Too often we get angry because we are frustrated or aggravated, rather than because those who follow us need us
to be angry. That is selfish.
C. There are times that those who follow us will need us to be encouraging, angry, scolding, or have sympathy.
D. If we are to give those around us what they need from us we MUST be in control of our emotions.
E. We cannot let our emotion be in control of us. Moody people are those who have no control of their emotions.
F. We must allow ONLY the needs of others to determine how we treat them.
G. We must be what they need.
III. We must know how to create in ourselves the emotions others need.
A. Those around us needs encouraging, not an overflow of our emotions from a fight we just had to fight.
B. We must know how to get our emotions in control so that we can give to others what they need from us.
C. Most Christians do not even know themselves, and do not know how to prepare emotionally for the sake of
others.
IV. Study that shows What Creates these emotions.
A. What things make you happy? Make a list of them.
B. When you feel sadness coming on go get that list and get happy.
C. A husband and wife needs to know how to get into that emotional mood that their spouse needs.
D. Likewise they both need to know how to do the same for their children.
E. To do this they need to study what triggers those emotions for them.
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Some things always inspires you
Some things always challenges you
Some things always angers you
Some things always grieve you.
Some things always touch you.
F. We need to know how to get ourselves into each of these moods.
G. The reason many people are out of control emotionally is because they have never made a science (study) of the
things that affect them emotionally.
H. The very things that move you to a certain mood can be used as tools to prepare you to be what others need you
to be rather than allowing them to hurt others.
V. Write down those things that affect you certain ways.
A. Write these things down on a 3x5 card, then whenever you need to be in a certain mood to help someone go get
the 3x5 card and get in that mood.
B. Use that list to control your emotions.
C. This is what Leadership is all about.
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1. A man whose emotions are controlled by others IS NOT a leader; he is a follower because others can control his
moods.
2. The person that determines the mood is the leader.
3. Any place we lead we should ACT and the follower should REACT. Too many leaders react to their followers.
4. A good leader controls his mood and does not allow people or circumstances to control his mood.
D. We need to be able to get ourselves in the mood others need us to be in.
E. We should not allow others to determine what mood we are in.
F. Every problem we have comes from the fact that we have not learned to control our own spirit.
G. We need to make a science of this matter of controlling our spirit so that we can be what God wants us to be.
H. As Christians it is our job to make our Christian lives work.
Conclusion
 We need to learn how to be “on purpose” what others need from us.
 We do that by making a science out of our emotions.
 And by making certain that we develop the formula which will prevent us from ever being in a certain
emotional state by accident.
 Do not allow your emotions to make you fall short of being used by God in the greatest possible way.