Dharius Daniels - Keep Jack In The Box

I want to talk about this subject: keep Jack in the box. This particular passage that we just read regarding Abraham offers some unique, somebody say unique, insight into an area we’ve been exploring over the past several weeks in this series entitled «I’m in My Feelings.» In this series, we’ve been exploring the significance of feelings, and we’ve been attempting to articulate that it was God’s intention for us to live with them yet not be led by them. It was God’s desire and design that our feelings serve us, not that we serve them. Feelings make great servants but horrible masters. They were intended to be indicators, not dictators, and when they become dictators—when we submit to them instead of making them submit to us—we end up mismanaging them. When we mismanage our feelings, our feelings will influence us to the degree that we mismanage our lives. In this text today, I believe will serve as an usher and escort us into a greater understanding of how to get out of the boxes of our feelings, because I cannot get into God’s will if I’m stuck in my box. This passage is going to usher us into a better understanding of how we practically do this. This text that we see here in Genesis, with Abraham, teaches us this truth: if I’m going to make an exit out of the box of my feelings, I must acquire an awareness of my triggers, because I can’t get out of my feelings if I am not aware of my triggers. What are triggers, Pastor? Triggers can be statements, situations, and circumstances that elicit an automatic emotion and reaction from us, causing us to engage in behavior that can be sabotaging and destructive. Triggers bring our Jack out of the box because everyone has a box, and there’s a Jack in every box. What do I mean when I say Jack? I mean what Paul calls the old man, the old nature. I’m referring to what Paul describes in the book of Romans as the fleshly nature—a nature that is not evicted when I become a believer. It is a nature that must be arrested. Are you hearing me? It is a nature that must be put to death through what Paul calls the mortification of the flesh, through the vivification of the Spirit. It’s there, even if it’s not active; it’s present—it’s in the box. But sometimes Jack doesn’t show up until we’re wound up. Did you hear what I just said? Sometimes Jack doesn’t show up— that old man, that old nature, that fleshly nature does not show up until we’re wound up. Just because I’m not engaging in the activity presently doesn’t mean I’m delivered from the issue. Sometimes I’m not engaging in the activity because I have not had the opportunity to be placed in a situation or circumstance that pulls on my triggers in a way that elicits emotions and produces an automatic response. Are you hearing what I’m saying? One of the first steps to getting out of my feelings is knowing what my triggers are so that Jack does not show up at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way. There’s a Jack in your box, and what we must be aware of is how strategic and studious our adversary, Satan, is. Unfortunately, he is often more aware of how to get our Jack out of the box than we are. He is studious and strategic, waiting for the right circumstances and the right season. Y’all are not talking to me about trying to wind us up because he knows there’s only so much winding we can take before we are unable to fight the feeling. Are you hearing me, family? He is studious, and he is strategic. If I’m not aware of my triggers, I won’t know in what situations I’m vulnerable. Let him who stands take heed lest he falls. Are you catching this? Because the enemy is studious and strategic. Is this not what happened in Matthew 4 when Jesus was led into the wilderness? After Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, here comes the enemy because he felt that, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus would be in one of the first stages of vulnerability. He hadn’t eaten in a while, so he was hungry, right? This is the first acronym in something called HALT, which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Addictive specialists say that when people are wrestling with HALT, those are spaces and stages where individuals are more vulnerable to resort back to addictive behavior. When you get hungry, when you get angry, when we get lonely, and when we get tired. Jesus was hungry for food, but you can be hungry for more than food. We can be hungry for attention; we can be hungry for affirmation. So when you’re starving in an area, the enemy knows how to come right where you’re starving. You are talking to me because everybody is vacillating between living out a need and living out a purpose. Sometimes it feels like living on purpose conflicts with what I need. When I’m in that season, here comes the enemy. Do I know what gets me wound up? Because if I don’t, I can never keep my Jack in the box, and this passage we just read regarding Abraham is a powerful picture of this principle I’m attempting to articulate. The text teaches us.