We Feel Because God Feels

Good morning. Man, it is so good to see you. If you happen to be new around Beltway Park, whether it's our South Campus, North Campus, part of our online family. I think we're having some technical issues online today, probably because of all the rain. Somebody say thank you for the rain to the Lord. Come on now. Is that not incredible?

Anyway, man, if you happen to be We'll We'll let you clap here in a minute. It'll be good. Um If you happen to be new around here, just want to let you know, man, we are honored to have you. And I want you to know that we are a people on a journey. So, don't miss that reality. Sometimes you can visit a a place like a church and you can think everybody's got all their stuff together but me. I'm going to make you a promise that no one here's got all their stuff together. We are all on a journey. Say journey. That journey is a belief it's okay not to be okay at Beltway Park. It's just not okay to stay not okay.

There is a God in heaven who did the unthinkable, the unimaginable. He sent his son Jesus to give us new life and as we walk with Jesus through life, he actually changes us from glory to glory to be more and more like God and as we're more and more like God, we actually obtain abundant life that is promised through Jesus Christ. And we're all on a journey to stay in step with the spirit of God in all that he wants us to do, to become like him. And he shows us how to become like him in unexpected times.

I remember several years ago, I had my oldest grandchild Esther in parking lot, I think it was Lowe's or something like that. She was a little preschooler at the time. For some reason her parents trusted her with me. I'm not sure that that was the wisest thing they've ever done, but they did and I remembered that hey, you had a kid in a parking lot, a little one, you had to hold their hand. And so, I held little Esther's hand. I call her Adassa, that's her Hebrew name. And you know, I said, "Adassa, we're going to go in the store, hold hold Mack's hand." And she held my hand, she looked up and all of a sudden out of the blue, this little I can't remember how old she was, 3 years old maybe, she said, "Mack, let's skip."

Now, you got to understand, Mack doesn't skip. Um [snorts] like I couldn't remember last time I skipped. To be honest with you, I don't think I skipped as a kid. My parents used to get on to me about being so intense in life and they say things to me like, man, um David, you're just an old soul, man, which I think meant loosen up in life, but I don't think I learned the lesson as a kid cuz I've been married 40 years now and my wife of over 40 years calls me an old fart and I think it means basically the same thing. That was funny, by the way. Um It basically means the same thing.

Well, all this is going through my mind. I'm about to tell her we you know, Mack doesn't skip and she starts skipping. And she's laughing and giggling. So, I just kind of jump in and I laugh and I giggle along with her, not because I love skipping. I don't think I've done it since then. I just had this great joy, this great delight in her. And while we're doing this, a scripture came to my mind. Little side note. One of the reasons you want to put scripture in your heart. One of the reasons you want to hide it there. Memorize. Is because there will be times where God's spirit will raise something up and say, "This is what I'm talking about here. This is that." And I had a verse tucked away. From the book of Zephaniah. I know some of you thinking there's no book called There really is a book called Zephaniah. Fourth to the last book of the Old Testament. And the prophet Zephaniah tells us about the heart of God when he says, "The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you." Say great delight. Let that sink in. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

Now, when the prophet wrote these words, um he's talking about people who returned to God to walk with him the way he wants and this is God's heart towards him. Originally, that was about Israel of old, but it's also about us that when we return to God, we dedicate our lives to be a follower of Jesus. We restore relationship with him. We are confident, by the way, that Jesus and Jesus alone is the Messiah of Israel and he's the savior of the world and he's made a way for us to be right with God. And when we say yes to follow Jesus, the offer of God's love through Jesus Christ, the Bible says this is God's heart towards us. Did you hear it? I mean, great delight. Rejoice over you. Singing. In fact, in the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was originally written, there's an image that when God sings, he's not just singing, but he's twirling in delight. It's like he's dancing. Maybe even, listen to it, skipping.

I want you to consider something for just a moment here. The scripture says that the Lord is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. What does this tell you about the reality of God? Now, while you're pondering that, you may want to turn in your Bible to the first chapter of Genesis. I can confidently tell you that no matter what Bible you have, it's page one. Genesis chapter one, first book of the Bible. See, the question about the reality of God matters because it's connected to you and I. If you go to verse 26, it says on the sixth day of creation, God said, "Let us make humanity. Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness." Verse 27. So, God created humanity in his own image. In the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them. So, since we as humans, male and female, are created in the image of likeness of God, the more we understand the reality of God who God is, we understand more who we're supposed to be.

Now, don't miss hear what I'm saying. I am not saying that as you and I mature or as we go into heaven that we become gods. There are some people in the New Age movement, some other religions that teach that humans somehow ascend to become gods. We're not saying that at all. There is only one God who is true and above all and he alone will be worshipped forever and ever. Amen. We do not become even little g gods, but we become more and more like we were originally designed to be before sin marred that and took that away. We are made in the image and likeness of God. And so, our journey in Jesus Christ is actually a journey of becoming more and more like God. So, we are told to daily put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness. And notice this word, holiness. So, I'm telling you the more we understand the nature and the reality of God, the more we can say, "That's who I am supposed to be." And what we see, not just in Genesis, but we see throughout scripture is something that we rarely, if ever, talk about. We are actually made in the image of a God who feels.

And I know there's a part of us probably right now that if we're honest, we struggle with this because of what we've been told. In a lot of my life, I I have to make a little confession here. I have watched like a lot of the Star Trek series that are out there. Especially like the original Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock series, Next Generation and things that um like that. Now, to be very clear, listen to me, I'm not a Trekkie. I have never dressed up. I have never put on pointy ears. I have never been to a convention. If that is you, no judgment. Okay, little judgment, but not much judgment, okay? You do you. So, I I'm not that, but I will say I've been intrigued with Star Trek because the writers often talked about what it means to be human. They would talk about the struggles of humanity and especially the role emotions played in humanity. And their answers, I will tell you their answers were not biblical answers, but I was always intrigued by the questions.

Now, even if you've never watched a Star Trek at all, you're probably familiar with the character from the original series played by Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock, right? Pointy ear dude, live long and prosper, right? You've got that that dude out there. Well, if you've seen that in your life, Mr. Spock. I'm not talking about Dr. Spock. Dr. Spock was a guy who messed up parenting a couple of generations ago for a lot of people. Mr. Spock of the Star Trek variation came from a planet in the series called Vulcan and it was a planet where everybody lived a life utterly based on logic and reason. All emotions had been suppressed and what they held to as Vulcans is that as they evolved and they become more advanced, they live more by logic, more by reason, less and less emotion. And the idea is that the higher form of development is logic and reason, no emotion.

Now, I say that not because I'm just being weird or wanting to throw Star Trek in or anything like that. Believe it or not, that idea has often been taught as a goal of Christianity. That the less emotional you are, the more like God you are. And that's because some of our early founding fathers, based on Greek ideas and really reaction to the Greek gods, said that one of the characteristics of God is what they called divine impassibility. Hear that word, impassible. Divine impassibility says God cannot be acted upon from without, cannot eternally change his emotions and cannot experience pleasure or pain because of external actions. In other words, the actions of others, the actions of what we do cannot pass through the divine and somehow affect the heart of God, WHICH MEANS WHAT? God ultimately does not feel. God is unfeeling. He is stoic. He is rational and logic. So, think about that. If that is true of God, if God is impassible, and we were made to be created in the image and likeness of God, then the goal of our FAITH SHOULD BE WHAT? To become less emotional, to become become less affected by the world, to become less impacted that the more and more I push away and suppress my emotions, the more I am like God. In fact, some of the early church fathers, one particular by the name of Origen, had a real impact on our church, but Origen said that apatheia, that's a Greek word that means no pathos, no feeling. He would say apatheia is the crown virtue of the Christian life. So, the more detached we are, unemotional, unaffected by the world we become, the more spiritual we become because we are becoming more and more like God.

THERE IS ACTUALLY RESIDUE of this idea that happens to us in the good old state of Texas cuz a lot of you were raised up, especially you men, were raised up that emotions were always a sign of weakness. You don't cry. Only weak people cry. You don't do this because only weak people do this. Part of us, even if we didn't get raised in that idea, there's a part of us think that sounds right. That I should be less emotional because many of our moments of failure, our moments of regret, are tied to times of heightened emotions, especially in the negative. Most of the stories of my life that I regret, that I don't I want to tell you, are times when I was really angry. I was grieving. I was stressed. I had worry in my life. And it's easy to believe that if I was just less emotional, if I had less feeling, that somehow I would be more like God. And it sounds right and it sounds good.

Here's the problem. THIS IS NOT TRUE. It's not biblical in any form or fashion. We are made in the image of God and the Bible is clear that the God of heaven is a God who feels. We see it throughout scripture. JUST GO DOWN a couple more verses in um Genesis chapter 1. In verse 31, it says, "God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was what? Very good." He did this at the end of every day of creation. Day one, he looked at it and said, "Hey, that's good." Day two, that's good. Day four, day five, that's good. But on the end of day six and everything's complete, he's like, "Man, that is very good." It's not just a statement of quality, it's a statement of pleasure. God feels pleasure. He takes great delight when people are restored to him. He rejoices. He uh dances over us.

But that's not all the scripture says. The scripture says God feels grief. If you flip over in your Bible three or four more chapters to Genesis chapter 6, a very famous story about Noah and the ark, but we often skip this part. Verse 5 says, "The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of his thoughts, of his heart was only evil with continuity. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart."

God feels anger. We see in the scripture, some of you say, "Yeah, I know that one." See, if we allowed God to have any emotion, it's anger. But even then, we miss it cuz here's what we think. When we think God's angry, we think God is just looking for some reason to pounce on us. Like we do one little thing wrong and he's going to pounce. That's not what the scripture says. Scripture says he is slow to anger. Say slow. But abounding in love. So, he is slow to anger, but he is not without anger. When does God get angry? He gets angry when we continually reject what it is that he has for us that will lead to life. It's like the anger of a loving parent who has adult kids and they keep making bad choice after bad choice after bad choice, foolish choice. I've sat down with a lot of parents and they've had some adult kids just doing dumb things. And they're ticked. And they're not ticked because they don't love them. They're ticked because they love them. They're angry because they love them. In fact, there's a times where they have said, "I WISH I DIDN'T LOVE THEM SO MUCH AND I WOULDN'T BE THIS MAD." THAT'S THE KIND OF ANGER we see in the scripture.

But at the same time, we know this, God feels love. HE DOESN'T JUST ACT in loving ways, he feels love. The prophet gives us an image and says, "Can a mother forget her nursing child?" Here See the image. A mother with a nursing baby. Can't you feel no love for the child she has born? Well, no, of course not. He says, "But even if that were possible, I would still feel the way I feel towards you. I would not forget you at all." God says he feels love greater than a mom with her baby.

I could go on and on with this, guys. The Bible is clear. The image, the God in whose image we are made, is a God who feels. He is affected by what happens on planet Earth. He is not some eternal Mr. Spock who is dispassionate and unremoved from the happenings of planet Earth. The God revealed in scripture, our heavenly Father, when we become his follower through Jesus Christ, is not just deeply committed to us, but he is deeply affected by all that happens on planet Earth. HOWEVER, and this is the key and this is where I think we miss it. God is emotional, but he is not fickle. God is emotional, but he's not non-reliable. God is emotional, but he doesn't make stupid choices in the midst of his emotions. God feels, listen to me, but is not controlled by his emotions, which I'm going to challenge for you and I is exactly how our lives are supposed to be in Christ Jesus.

Listen to me a moment and go here with me. I would challenge that we are made in the image of a God who feels and as such, feelings shouldn't be suppressed. We shouldn't try to do away with them. Feelings should be sanctified in the name of Jesus. The Apostle Paul was praying a prayer for a church in a Greek city by the name of Thessalonica. The Greek um culture was dominated by logic and reason and he prayed, but prayed for us as well. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, and body, and soul be kept blameless uh until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That word sanctify up there, look at it. It's a word to be made holy. Remember, our God is holy, holy, holy. He wants us to become like God in every form and fashion. It means to be set apart, to be different from the world, to be as God originally designed us to be from the beginning. If you notice, it says humans really have three parts, body, soul, and spirit, right? Three in one like the one in whose image we are made, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three, yet one God, achad in the Hebrew language. So, we know we have three parts. We have a spirit, small s. God's spirit is capital s. Our spirit is the deepest, innermost part of our being where we're meant to dwell with God. It's where we do dwell in fellowship with God when we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And he gives us his spirit, capital s. And you know where God's spirit resides? His spirit resides in each of our spirits as followers of Jesus. That's our spirit. Our body is the physical, tangible part of us. It's how we interact with the material world. We have five senses, right? And through those five senses, we interact with the world. That's our spirit. That is our body. But what is our soul? Our soul, I would challenge, is our mind, our will, and our emotions. It is where we think. It is where we choose. It is where we feel. And we all know how interconnected our feelings, our thoughts, and our emotions are, right? We all know the wrestles that we can have. When we experience a strong emotion, it can catapult us into something wonderful. It can also catapult us into something really stupid. And you guys are looking at me all spiritual like you have no idea what I'm talking about and I know better. I've been to the little league fields. I've seen you. I've seen me. You know what I'm talking about, right? And some of us are thinking still, man, I just need to do away with these emotions. We know when we're angry, when we're grieving, when we're lonely, when we're stressed. We can become stupid in our thoughts and we can become stupid in our actions. We can tend to think wrongly and make unwise decisions, but the answer, listen to me, is not to try to suppress the feelings. It won't work cuz God made you to have them. The answer is to sanctify them.

Here's how you sanctify them. We sanctify our emotions by knowing that emotions are created by God for our good. We don't call something evil that God made good, that called good, right? There are things like money, sex, and power, all of which are often um because of how powerful they are, they are used in sinful ways. It doesn't make them sinful. It means we as sinful human beings use things that God created for good in sinful ways. One author said, "Emotions are precisely how we connect to God." Think about it. Joy often incites gratitude and worship. Anger can be a tool wielded against injustices. Regret is a reminder of our need for God's forgiveness. Sadness makes us draw near to God for comfort. Fear can provide protection to help discern right paths. Even hate and jealousy, which we see in God's own display of emotions, can be good. At the same time, it's important to acknowledge that emotions, like many good things that God created, think sex, money, and power, can lead us to sin.

Listen, sometimes we say, "Well, man, feelings are just part of being human." Not only are feelings part of being human, they're part of being human made in the likeness of who God is. That tells you and I that emotions were made for our good so that we can experience all that God would have for us in our life. Emotions are not meant to be avoided. They are not meant to be denied. We are meant to feel all the feels. We are designed to feel love. We're designed to feel grief. We can't love God with all our soul and deny our feelings. We were made for joy. We were made for sadness. As one of the scripture implores us, rejoice with those who rejoice. Don't just be happy for them, rejoice. Weep. Don't just be sad for them. Weep for those who weep. Part of community, believe it or not, is shared emotions in life.

But as we do all this, as we know that emotions are good, we don't deny them, we don't avoid them, we must also realize we are responsible for our choices even when we're emotional. Right there is the rub. You ready? That's the one you want to star. That's [snorts] the one where we tend to lose it in our lives. You see, sometimes the opposite extreme of denying. The opposite extreme of avoiding. It's just to say, "Well, I'm not responsible for what I do when I'm emotional." I've had people tell me they've done some some really bad stuff, and I say, "That's just who I am when I'm angry." It's like, "Well, you're a jerk when you're angry. It's what it is." But the implication is I I'm not responsible for that cuz I was angry. Well, I WAS JUST STRESSED OUT WHEN I SAID THAT. LIKE, I'M NOT responsible for the things I say when I'm stressed out. The implication is I am a victim of my emotions. When these things happen. And I want you to hear something. That is a lie from the pit of hell. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, then the scripture says that God has placed his Holy Spirit into your spirit. And his Holy Spirit is there to empower you and to power me to live the life that he has called us to live. The scripture says that one of the fruits of what the spirit does in our lives is he gives us what? Self- control. The spirit he gave us is not a spirit to fear, but a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of what? Self-control.

Think about it. When do you usually need self-control? Is it not when your emotions are heightened? Is it not when you're kind of feeling all these things that are going on in our lives? When I was a young pastor, I had a guy teach me one time, made a statement, and it made sense to me. I know where it comes from, but the statement was this, "If somebody spits on you, they don't make you mad, they make you wet. You choose to be mad." And the idea was that you have power in each and every situation, um to choose things. I will tell you I understand what is trying to be said, but I disagree with that. I'm going to tell you something right now. You ready? You spit on me, I am going to be both wet and mad. That is going to happen. Here's where the choice comes in. Do I open a can of whoop on you or not? That's the choice, right? We know that reality. If you spit on me, I can be mad. I can have an emotion cuz often the emotions come without us wanting them to come. Sometimes they're a righteous response, but here's the deal. In the midst of the emotion, I still have power. I don't have to fear that emotion. I have power, and I know this because Jesus said one time, "Hey, if somebody slaps you on one cheek, that is not a statement about self-defense, by the way. It's not a fight. A slap is an insult. It's an act of shame. If you're like fighting and a slap is not fight, okay? That's somebody shaming you. He said, "If somebody slaps you on one cheek, what are you supposed to do?" You turn the other. You have a power that even if they shame you, you don't have to respond in kind. You're probably going to be mad. You're probably going to be upset. But even in the midst of intense feelings, feelings that may be completely justified, I can still carry I still carry God's spirit. And the spirit inside of you as a follower of Jesus, the spirit inside of me, is a spirit of self-control.

Listen, I am responsible for every word that comes out of my mouth. It doesn't matter if I'm ticked off, it doesn't matter if I'm sad, it doesn't matter if I am grieving. I am responsible for every word that comes out of here. I am responsible for every action of my life. And the reason I can say that is God has not left me alone. He has not left me an orphan. He has given me his spirit. And if I'm acting outside of that, that means I'm not living dependent upon the spirit like I should.

Our emotions sanctify as we renew our minds. Emotions and thinking are tied together. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to attest what and prove what God's will is, his good, pleasing, perfect will. Emotions are often, not always, but they are often connected to the way we think. If we are thinking rightly, if we're thinking wisely, if we're thinking biblically, then I'm going to tell you most of the time it empowers good, life-giving emotions. If our mind is being renewed by the word and by the spirit, and we're staying connected to the spirit, often, most often our emotions are good and life-giving. But if we're thinking wrong, if we're disconnected to God, we are thinking like the ways of the world. We're having all our mind fed by our algorithm all the time. You want to know why everybody's angry and responding wrong? It's algorithms. We're being fed this stuff all the time. Then what happens is we tend to be controlled negatively by our emotions.

When I was a young man following Jesus, I had a lie I believed deep within. I can't tell you where I got the lie. It was probably the enemy taking the idea of being responsible, but he took it to an nth degree in my life. It was just sin working in me. It wasn't my family of origin. It wasn't anything like that. My parents didn't put it on me. It's interesting, in my mind, my worth and my value were based on how well I performed in everything. That wasn't something I believe my parents put on. They wanted me to do a good job. They wanted me to work hard. They wanted me to be responsible. But like I had to make good grades. My parents never made a big deal about grades. It was me who made the deal about grades. Like I had to be the very, very best. So, in my walk with God, I had to be the most obedient. But it wasn't just that. It was it was like I had to have great grades. I had to perform well in anything I wanted to perform well, like athletics. And that created a lot of problems cuz look at me. It's not like I had this great gene pool of athleticism that happened in life. And so, what I would find is this, when I performed up to a level that I thought was near perfection, woo, I felt good about me. I'd puff it out, strutted around. I was all that. I was worth something. But when I performed less than close to perfection, and some of you are thinking, "I bet that was a lot of your life." It was most of my life. I wasn't just disappointed, I was devastated. I wasn't just disappointed, I was depressed. I wasn't just disappointed, I was angry. Angry at myself for not performing, angry at the world and the way things were. I was just angry, and I took it out on myself. I took it out on others.

But then because God in his grace connected me to Jesus followers, and through those Jesus followers, I was taught a truth. And that truth has been renewing my mind for decades now. And that truth is my worth and value are not based on my performance, but they're based upon what God says about me. You know what God says about me? He loves me. Before I [snorts] did anything, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Not only does he love me, he wanted me so much that before I took one step for him, before I did anything, he sent his son Jesus and said, "You want to know how much you're worth? You want to know your value? I will pay the price of my son for you." But he didn't do that just for me, he did it for you. He did it for everyone we interact with. You want to know your value? Your value is based upon what God was willing to pay for you. You want to know your worth is based upon what God gave for you. You are worth the price of Jesus. That doesn't mean he doesn't want you to grow. It doesn't mean he doesn't want you to change. He loves you so much. He loves me so much. He wants me to continue become more like him. And the reason he wants me to become more like him is that's how he designed me to be. And the more I'm like he designed me to be, the more I have the the life he wants me to have. And so, as that was renewing my mind and I found that my identity is not in performance, it's not in how well I do, it's not how successful I am, it's not how much money I have, it's not what kind of grades I make, it's not like this doesn't mean I don't have to try hard, it doesn't mean I don't have to be responsible. It's just my value's not based in that. All of a sudden, when I performed at less than perfection, which is most of my life, I was still disappointed, but I didn't have to be devastated. I had a way of telling myself the truth and I could respond and I could start seeing things positive. I could see the good things God was doing. I could have gratitude and I could have joy and all of a sudden, right thinking, my mind began to also impact my emotions. And I could have strong, healthy emotions and when things got negative, listen to me, I had a way to tell myself the truth. What if that's to become more and more the norm of our lives. Listen to me, I'm not saying I've arrived in it yet, but I'm a lot further along. I'm 45 years into this Jesus journey. And I'm going to tell you that what God can do is do far more than you think he can do. He wants you to experience all the fullness of life.

So, what we're going to do over the next week is really I I think you're going to want to be a part of this. I think you're going to want to bring some people with you because it's a part of our lives that we really don't talk about much at all. But it's immensely biblical. Listen to these commands of scripture. Shout with joy to the Lord all the earth. So, it doesn't just say, "Hey, say God, I'm thankful." He says, "SHOUT FOR JOY." IS THAT NOT AN EMOTIONAL? I've had people say, "David, you're you're you're you're you're all about the way y'all are kind of rowdy when you do church. You're like, you're emotional." I'm like, "Yeah." Why are you rowdy? Because the Bible commands us to. And that's not all it commands us to do, but it's part of it. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with what? Gladness. Come before him not just with a song, but a joyful song. All emotions. What would it be like if we begin to release this? But the scripture also says, "Be angry, but do not sin." Notice that, that's a command. Some of you guys are going, "Got that one. I know how to get angry. I get that." But do you know how to not sin when you're angry? Maybe we're getting angry at the wrong things. Often what I find is the enemy has us getting angry at the wrong thing and keeps us from getting angry at the right things. Men, you were made to war. You were made to battle for righteousness. And this anger that we often feel in the male of our species is because we've misplaced this call to war for righteousness, to war for what all God wants to do in our marriages, what he wants to do in our families, what he wants to do in our society, what he wants to bring. It's time we war. And some of it means we get ticked off at what's going on cuz the enemy is destroying people's lives. Be angry. Don't sin in your anger. What would happen if we began doing that? We do not want you to grieve like the rest of humanity who have no hope. We're going to grieve in this world. We don't grieve well in the West. We need to learn to grieve, but we need to learn to do so with hope. The scripture says to be joyful how often? Always. Some translations say, "Be joyful in all circumstances." It's easy to be joyful in a joyful situation. But what would it be like to be God's people who are joyful, thankful, grateful in the midst of all circumstances? Do not be anxious about your life. These are all commands that we're going to dive into that show us how God wants to invade a specific slice of our being, a portion of our soul called the emotions, that when we learn to navigate our mind, will, and emotions, what can happen to our life for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those around us can be tremendous. So, I'm going to invite you. You're going to want to come be on the journey next week. It's be angry, but do not sin. By the way, I'm just going to tell you right now, Jesus got ticked off and it's not just when he cleansed the temple, but that was one time he got ticked off, too. Jesus knew how to be angry, but he knew how to do it righteously and under self-control. Amen.

What I want you to do is bow your head. I got a few minutes here and I just want you to interact with God right now. >> [snorts] >> Would you ask God to renew your mind that you would think biblically? You were made in the image of the almighty, who we saw has emotions. Would you think biblically about your emotions? Don't suppress them. Don't push away from them. Embrace. Love deeply. Be giddy happy. Feel the feels. It it is great, but we don't have to be fearful of them even in the negative times. We can grieve and have hope. We can be angry and not sin. Maybe you're thinking right now of times. I've got like a couple of instances in my mind where I said things I should not have said and acted in ways I should not have acted based upon heightened negative emotions. You know what you you can repent of those. And the things I repent of is, "Father, forgive me for not depending on your spirit enough to walk in self-control in these situations. The spirit you have in me is a spirit of self-control. It seems impossible at times to control my words, but by your spirit I can control my words." I submit these things to you. I ask that you forgive me, that you purify me from unrighteousness, and that you would fill me again. Would you come on? Come on. Ask God's spirit to fill you in a fresh way. Specifically the spirit of self-control. Specifically the spirit of a right mind thinking rightly. Would you ask the spirit of God to fill you and birth within you the idea of control in all circumstances?

And before I go right here, before I pray for us, it may be that you have never ever surrendered your life to follow Jesus. You've never started relationship with him. His spirit's not been placed inside of you. Sometimes we have this idea that what I need to do is I need to do these certain things and if I do these certain things, I get right with God. But if I could do that, then Jesus didn't need to come. Jesus didn't need to die on the cross. Christianity says I could not do enough things to be right with God. So, God did for me what I could not do myself. Jesus came. He lived a sinless life, but he paid the just penalty for sins on the cross. He went to the grave. He overcame death, hell, and the grave. And what he does is he offers that to anyone. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. What we do is we believe. We trust him with our lives. We give him our lives. He makes us new and we begin to walk with him and he changes us as our minds are renewed, our souls are renewed, our choices are renewed. He makes us more like him and leads us into abundant life. But it starts with the decision that I am going to surrender my life to become a follower of Jesus.

Here in a moment, I'm going to give you a chance to do that with a bold action. Or it may be that you are person who's made that decision, but you haven't been walking it out and you're like, "Man, I I I got to come back. I've not been living a life of following after Jesus. I'm like that prodigal that Jesus talked about, but I'm coming home to him right now." If you are in either of those categories, here in a moment, I'm going to count to three. I'm going to give you a chance to raise your hand. And the reason I have you raise your hand is not because of anything we're going to do, but because you have an enemy called the devil. The devil can't read your mind. He doesn't know what's going on inside. You raise your hand up, you are now telling the devil and the minions of hell that I belong to Jesus and I am running out of him and you're walking in a different kind of power. It's not that he's going to leave you alone, but he is going to know and you're going to know that you have a different kind of power you're walking in. You are not on your own, but you have got spirit inside of you empowering you to live the life God's called you out to live. So, if you need to surrender your life to Jesus and become his follower of this day, if you need to return to Jesus as a prodigal and start following him again, when I hit the count of three, you hold your hand up and you hold it up high for just a moment. Ready? 1 2 3, put them up. Come on. Praise be to God. Come on. I see you all around. Praise be to God. Man, I bless you. Bless you. Yeah. Yeah, let's see. Come on, I can't see everyone, but I bless you. You can put your hands down. The rest of us are here. This is some of the biggest decisions you make. They deserve a clap at both campuses. A shout. Come on. We celebrate this.

Father, thank you for new life and growing abundant life that comes in Jesus. Reshape our mind, Father. We don't shy away from emotions. We will not be fearful of them. We are a people that declare that in the midst of even the most emotionally charged situation, we are people who carry a spirit of power, a spirit to love deeply, and a spirit of self-control. That our words can be guarded. Our actions can be guarded. We will be of a different kind of spirit because of your spirit inside of us. Fill us afresh with that spirit, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.