Title: Grace on Honest Feelings
Grace on Honest Feelings
Matthew 26:36-46
November 17, 2007 (Sat) Tel Aviv Joppa Church
Years ago, an American economics magazine conducted a survey with the title, “How Honest Are You With Money?” Shall we take one of those surveys?
“The pay phone broke and coins spilled out. It's night time and no one is watching. What would you do with this money?' To this question, 59% said they would put it in their pocket, and 20% said they would keep the money, but they would inform the telephone company and tell them which payphone was broken, and only 20% said they would put the money into the telephone company. replied that they would return it.
If it were you, what would you do? "Thank God! You answered my prayers!”
How do you feel? If you were to test your own honesty, how many points would you score? This time, let's ask you a slightly different question. Are you honest with God?
This is not just a question about repentance, which is an honest confession of sin. It is a question of being honest about your thoughts, wills, and feelings.
When I look at the church and the members of the church, I sometimes think that it is strange. There are countless sermons and educations in the world that we must live honestly, but there are few teachings that we must be honest with God. It only speaks honesty about repentance.
And even the members of the church pretend that they don't believe it, even if they have some doubts about their beliefs, have strange thoughts, or don't believe them. Pretending to know everything. Pretend to believe. I think it's good to just believe. It's so hard, painful, sad, and even if it hurts, I pretend it's okay. Hold on tight and let it go inside on your own. They say that it is to be patient, and that patience is spiritual maturity.
So I pretend not to God, and pretend I'm okay. Or just say it in the right way. There are a lot of church members who are not honest with their feelings and attitude toward God. I know that trust is good. Really?
It's not like that. It never is. For example? In Genesis 4, we see a man named Cain. Cain is a representative person who was not honest with God in his feelings. As we know, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. However, he accepted the sacrifice offered by his brother Abel, but did not accept the sacrifice offered by Cain.
Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered better sacrifices to God than Cain.” According to this, it is believed that Cain offered sacrifices without faith, and therefore offered sacrifices without sincerity. So God did not accept his sacrifice.
How did Cain feel at this time? would have been sad. It is the heart of a person to feel sad when he or she is rejected even if he or she has made a mistake. Cain felt sorry for God who rejected his sacrifice. However, he did not show any of his sad feelings. He pretended to be casual on the outside.
However, the sadness in his heart gradually turns into resentment, and that resentment eventually turns into jealousy and jealousy towards his younger brother. Still, he hides his feelings and does not reveal them. So that feeling goes all the way to the death of his younger brother. It's a really sad topic.
If Cain had been honest and told God about his sad feelings, this would not have happened.
“God, why? Why did you refuse my sacrifice? I'm sad. I did as much as I could. But why didn't you get it? I am sorry.” If he honestly confessed, God would have told him the reason in a calm and kind voice. Then Cain would have realized his mistake and offered a sacrifice to God again with sincerity. Then the tragedy that killed his brother would not have happened.
We feel sorry for God when we believe in God in our own way, pray and volunteer, but what we have returned to ourselves is misunderstood by people, hurts, or when we or our households do not work well or are in trouble. Whether I did well or not, there are times when I feel sad like that. What do you guys do at that time?
Pretend not to? Do you keep that sadness in your heart? Then, do you increase your sadness by asking, “How can God be like this?”
Whether it is about God or people, sadness always follows us. He must express his sadness honestly toward God, and if he lives with his heart alone, he must know that in the end that sadness can turn into anger, envy and jealousy, and murder.
Sometimes if you feel bad for God, take it to God and go out and tell him. Then God will enlighten you.
On the other hand, there are people who honestly expressed their feelings to God and received great grace. That's Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:1-10 we shared last week, we see Elijah honestly pouring out his feelings to God. In chapter 18, a battle is fought with 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It was a spiritual confrontation that proved who was the true god among Jehovah God and Baal God. As a result, Elijah was victorious, and because of that victory, he captured and killed all the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel.
But when King Ahab and Jezebel found out about this, they disassembled and sent an envoy to Elijah to tell them, “Tomorrow, at this time, I will capture you and kill you.” Now Ahab and Jezebel's armies are ready to capture and kill Elijah.