How To Deal With How You Feel Series

This sermon is a revision of Rick Warren's sermon on Emotional Health in the 50 Days of Transformation. The original sermon was much too long for our time frame of preaching during service. It was adapted somewhat to make room for palm Sunday as well. Rick Warren did a great job.

HOW TO DEAL WITH HOW YOU FEEL

50 Days of Transformation – Part 4 (Emotional Health)

Pastor Rick 3/29/2015 Psalm 70:1-5 Luke 19:32-35

Let’s take a feeling test this morning. Let Me Ask this: What all did you feel yesterday. Who felt happy, sad, upset, angry, joyful, thankful, disappointed, depressed, jealous, ambitious, surprised, convicted, hopeful and who felt as though God wanted to use them to make a difference in someone’s life.

We’ve been looking during 50 Days of Transformation first at spiritual health. Then at physical health. Last week we looked at mental health.

This week we are going to look at emotional health. That is how to deal with how you feel. Last week we talked about how to manage your mind. Your thoughts. This week we are going to look at how to manage your emotions. Has anyone here ever had a change take place in your life because you didn’t keep your emotions in checkWe are going to look at what the Bible says about how to manage your emotions. How to deal with how you feel.

Mark 12:29-30 Jesus says this “The most important commandment is this, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.”

Do you understand the emotion involved in this passage. If this verse had said, you must love your favorite football team, or favorite singer, or favorite actor with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, what imagery comes to your mind. How are you going to act at the game, at the concert, or at the movie. Would people think you were a little radical, a little nuts.

God is saying, I want to have an emotional relationship with you, where you throw everything you have into it. God even complains when we don’t do it. He says, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Have you ever seen somebody do something, and though they did it right, you could tell their heart just wasn’t in it. God wants us to be emotionally involved in our relationship to him.

UNDERSTAND MY EMOTIONS

Let me give you some facts about your emotions before we get into this.

1. First, God has emotions.

Jesus was God in the flesh. Can you imagine all the emotions he went through on Palm Sunday. He was happy to see the people turn out in large numbers. He was thankful for the praises of the people. He was disappointed that the Pharisees could not see what was taking place.

He was angry that that religious leaders wanted him to silence the crowd. He was sad that the people didn’t understand their true need. He cried because he knew the destruction the Roman army would inflict on some of the people there. He felt rejection because he knew the cross was still less than a week away.

God has emotions. The only reason you have emotions is because you’re made in God’s image. If God wasn’t an emotional God you wouldn’t have any emotions.

2. My ability to feel is a gift from God.

Your emotions are a gift from God. They may not always seem that way. But even the negative ones have a role in your life. God can use them to show you your need for him. Emotions are a great asset. They’re the one thing that make you human.

If you didn’t have emotions you’d just be a robot. How many of you would want to be married to a robot. It is your emotional ability that allows you to love and create and to be faithful and loyal and kind and generous and all of the emotions that are attached to the good things in life.

One of the most astounding verses in the Bible is Genesis 1:26 “Let us make man in our image.” In our likeness. As I said the only reason you have emotions is because God gave them to you. And you were made in his image.

3. There are two extremes to avoid.

There are two extremes you need to avoid in dealing with emotions. One is called emotionalism and the other is called stoicism

Emotionalism means all that matters is how I feel. Emotionalism is the extreme of saying the only thing that matters in life is how I feel. It doesn’t matter what I think, it doesn’t matter what’s right or wrong, it doesn’t matter what’s popular or unpopular, good or bad. What matters is doing what you feel. If it feels good do it. If I am full of Emotionalism, They control my life, they dominate my life, they run my life and I’m a very emotional person.