The Remedy for Being Heady II Tim. 3:1-5 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

We studied 2 Tim 3:1-5 in Sunday school this morning.  One of the characteristics of the perilous times in the last days is that men are heady [2 Tim 3:4].  Heady means rash, willful, impetuous.  Impetuous means controlled by emotion rather than thought.  Today, reporters are not as interested in the facts as they are in your feelings about the “alleged” facts.  And they mostly interested in making you fearful and angry about the things they report.

I have certainly experienced “heady.” We were heady in our demands for Josh’s release.  We made no progress; we just made a lot of people mad.  We only succeeded in exacerbating the emotional roller coaster ride for those who were closely connected to his case.

When you find yourself emotionally reacting to a situation or circumstance in your life, like a job related problem, a marital problem, a medical problem or a problem with your child, you are prone to get heady.  You make bad decisions when you are heady and you take God out of the solution.  That’s perilous for a Christian.

What is the remedy for being heady?

Peace – Phil 4:6-7 – you must settle down and prayerfully approach God.  Prayer is the very first thing you must pursue.  You’re not begging God to change your circumstance; you’re begging God to change you.  He must help you get your emotions under control until you have peace.  Peace is the fruit of the Spirit.  So, if you will let him lead you rather than letting your emotions lead you, you can have peace.  Right before Jesus went to Gethsemane and then Calvary, he said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.”  God didn’t change his circumstance; he filled him with his peace so that he could go through Calvary.  And he will give you the peace to go through your problems.

Wisdom – Ecc 9:17-18; 10:10. Prov 8:6-11 – read the Bible.  You’re not looking for answers; you’re looking for God.  He will reveal himself in his words and then he will give you wisdom [Prov 2:6].  He will speak to you directly out of his words.  He knows exactly what’s going on [Ecc 5:8].  You don’t.  If you were looking for answers, you would only be looking for a way out of your trouble or for an answer to help you understand it.  God must give you wisdom to simply navigate through the situation so that he can work it out [Rom 8:28].  Godly counsel will confirm the wisdom he gives you.

Meekness – Jas 3:13 – that is, once the Lord has given you his peace and his wisdom, don’t take matters into your own hands and don’t go contrary to the wisdom that he has given you.  Submit to the Lord and obey him.  Joseph was meek.  When he was sold as a slave, he just did the work, as unto the Lord.  When he was in prison, he just did the work as unto the Lord.  He wasn’t hiring attorneys or pleading his own case.  He was confident that God was doing something.  He just didn’t know what.  Later he could say, “God did send me before you to preserve life,” [Gen 45:5].  He would have missed all that if he had not been meek.  Joseph just wanted out of prison.  God wanted him to be the second ruler in Egypt.  There is no way that Joseph could have worked that out.  We have help with being meek because meekness is the fruit of the Spirit.

Patience – Jas 1:3-4 – give God time to work out what he must do to accomplish his will.  Again, we can look to the Spirit for help here.  Longsuffering is the fruit of the Spirit.   Heady people are rash and willful.  If God doesn’t answer quickly enough , you just jump in and take over.  You justify your actions because you think, “something must be done about this!!”  You can’t rush God.  He spent 13 years working out what he did in Joseph’s life.  It took 50 years for a mother’s prayers to be answered when her daughter finally got saved.

Trust – 1 Tim 4:10; 2 Cor 1:9 – you must get to the place where you know not to trust yourself.  You know that when you take matters into your own hands things don’t work out right.  You must trust the Lord, completely.  You know when you are trusting him because you are completely at rest despite the problem you’re facing.  Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [Matt 11:28-30].  Just rest in Jesus and he will see you through.

Conclusion: it is not enough that you hear this sermon.  You must learn to live by what the Bible says.  Carefully, study these five things.  Then when you are being heady, follow what the Bible shows you and you will find God working out your life in ways that are far better than you could have ever imagined.