Emotions - Landra Young Hughes (Full Experience)

Good morning, everybody, welcome to church this morning. Would you stand with us? We're going to worship our great God today. He's worthy of our praise. Y'all got it. Put your hands together like this. Here we go. Come on. He saves every idol. Hands together. Come on. He reigns with our rival. This is who our God is. He goes by the name of Jehovah. Jehovah. He speaks into nothing. And the darkness goes running. He's stronger. He goes by the name of Jehovah. Jehovah, so call his name. We call your name. We call the name. We call the mighty name Jehovah. And all our praise, all our praise, all our praise only belongs to Him. Put your hands together, church. He's worthy of your worship, worthy of your life. We give Him everything today. His foes will be silent. He's fighting for Zion.

Oh, there's no other God like Jehovah, Jehovah. His arm never tires. Are you grateful for that? His eyes are like fire. We have a mighty and holy God. There's no other God like Jehovah, Jehovah. So call the name. We'll call the name. We'll call the name. We'll call the name Jehovah. And all our praise, all our praise, all our praise only belongs to Him. So call the name. We'll call the name. We'll call the name Jehovah. And all our praise, all our praise, all our praise only belongs to Him. We serve a great and mighty God. Whatever you come in today, feeling, caring, whether you're in joy and sorrow, we have a God that is here to meet with you today. He loves you more than anything. This is who He is. We declare His name over this place today. This is who our God is. Every time He's there. We sing this together. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah.

This is who He is. Jehovah. Jehovah. He's a great God with His name on. We call the name. The mighty name. Jehovah. And all our praise, all our praise, all our praise only belongs to Him. We call the name. We call the name. We call the mighty name. Jehovah. And all our praise, all our life, every part of us, only belongs to Him. Everybody thankful we got that name to call on each and every day in our lives. Praise God. Welcome to Fellowship Church. You know, it doesn't matter what you're facing right now. He is greater, so let's encourage one another, high five three people and tell them, God is greater, and let's keep worshiping Him. God we thank you that you're greater than anybody and anything we could face in this life. May there just be a strong sense of peace that overtakes us this morning as we hand you whatever it is we're dealing with. Thank you that you meet us right where we're at, that you're gentle, merciful, and gracious, and faithful to not leave us where we're at. We're grateful for who you are. Let's sing this together. Until you make grace upon grace even though I don't deserve it, you did it even though I couldn't earn it, you give it

who am I that you keep me on your mind God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you all my life you've been right here by my side God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you sing He's holy holy, holy there's only one even though I don't deserve it, you did it even though I couldn't earn it, you give it who am I that you keep me on your mind God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you all my life you've been right here by my side God I'm just grateful for you right here by my side God I'm just grateful for you that you keep me on your mind God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you all my life you've been right here by my side God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you God we're grateful for the breath in our lungs we're grateful for another day we're grateful for your mercy and your grace blessing us in ways we don't deserve we're grateful for you taking our sin to the cross forgiving us washing us clean and we're grateful for your resurrection your resurrection power your faithfulness come on let's lift this up together with joy I, I'm giving all that I am cause you give me chance after chance after chance we sing I, I'm lifting both of my hands cause you give me chance after chance after chance I, I'm giving all that I am cause you give me chance after chance after chance who am I that you keep me on your mind God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you all my life all my life you've been right here by my side God I'm just grateful for you God I'm so grateful God I'm so grateful

♪ Who am I that you keep me on your mind God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ All my life you've been right here by my side God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you ♪ Sing this with me. ♪ All my life you've been right here by my side God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you ♪ Let's say I survive. ♪ I survive and I'm here to testify God I'm just grateful for you God I'm just grateful for you ♪ Come on if you're grateful lift them up, give them praise. Thank you Jesus, our glory and honour and power to you. You may be seated. Welcome to Fellowship Church, one family in many locations. On behalf of pastors Ed and Lisa, we wanna warmly welcome you to a place where strangers become family, hope is restored, people meet Jesus, discover their purpose and make a difference. Whether it's through Bible study classes, connect groups, support and recovery groups, our brand new veterans Bible study and breakfast Valor, our serving teams or in FC sports, there's a place for you. So if you're ready for your next step, simply tap your seat or reach out in front of you for our connect card and take a moment to fill it out. We'd love to meet you, help you find community and if there's something on your heart that you'd like prayer for, we believe in the power of prayer and we'd be honoured to pray for you.

We can't wait to witness the incredible story God wants to write through your life because the best is yet to come. Yes it is. Welcome to Fellowship Church. How y'all doing this morning? So good to have you with us. Hello, balcony people. Y'all good up there? Hello, everybody online. Hey, my name's Derek Renaud, I'm one of our pastors and on behalf of pastor Ed and Lisa, we're so glad to have you here. And because we believe that life is a million times better when you surround yourself with people who love Jesus, we would love to help you get connected. So if you've not filled out a connect card, this is an easy way for us to follow up with you. Encourage you to reach out right now, do so, you can drop it in the offering and we'll follow up with you first thing this week. And just know this, we don't want something from you. No, no, no, no, no. We want something for you. I talked to a guy in our church recently who said, you know, when I first started coming to fellowship, I'd hear y'all talk from stage about getting involved, doing things like serving, giving, being an active part of the body of Christ. He said, I thought y'all wanted something from me.

And so I was reluctant, but then I started hearing people's stories of what God was doing in their lives here. And I was like, I want more of that. So he said, I finally decided to take a step of faith and trusting God in these areas. And since then, my life's never been the same. So it's not about what we want from you. It's about what we want for you, all right? And right now we're gonna receive the offering. And again, God doesn't need anything from us. He wants something from us. There's no greater joy than the joy of a generous heart. And can anybody testify to that today? The peace, the freedom, the joy. So hey, right now, if you wanna give and be a part of what God's doing here, no pressure, but you can grab a giving envelope from the seat back. You can tap your seat. And this isn't something we have to do. It's something we get to do. We get to be a part of things like a Lasso Ranch, our camp and retreat center. We saw God, we saw so many students encounter Jesus this summer. So many students leave their old life behind and follow Jesus. Anybody excited about that? Thankful for that? We get to be a part of that.

We get to be a part of building things like the Anchor Center, our brand new student space that we break ground on in just three weeks. Woo! Anybody ready? I'm so ready. Yeah, we get to be a part of impacting children and students and families' lives for generations to come. God's blessed us to be a blessing. We get to be a part of that. So remember, it's not about what he wants from you. It's about what he wants for you. I'm gonna call our host forward. And if you're grateful for a generous guy, put your hands together with me. Just tell him, thank you, God. And we're super excited today. You're gonna hear a powerful message in just a moment from author, communicator, Landra Young-Hughes, daughter of Pastor Ed and Lisa. She's got a powerful word for you. And this is what we know. Anytime we open up God's word, the Bible says it doesn't return void. we open up the Word of God the Holy Spirit moves and lives are healed he changes us it transforms us and we know that whatever it is you're going through he's greater than we think he is in fact I want you to say with me on the count of three God is greater than we think one two three God is greater than we think maybe you've been to a doctor appointment recently you got some bad news or maybe you got a some bad news at work I don't know maybe you're just

dealing with something in your life right now that has you overwhelmed a situation that seems really impossible say it with me on the count of three one two three God is greater than we think praise God I want to tell somebody here today who's struggling with shame in your life you think there's absolutely no way you can put your past behind you and have a clean slate a fresh start hey say it with me God is greater than we think the Bible says he is the God who can do exceedingly abundantly more than all we ask think or imagine that's who we're here to worship this morning so stand to your feet we're gonna pray together we're gonna believe he's greater than we think I invite you just close your eyes and hold out your hands for a moment and imagine whatever it is you're carrying right now in your life just think about that what is it hold it in your hand and in this moment say God I give this to you I believe you're greater than we think you're greater than I think Jesus you truly are there's no one else so we seek you today we pray that you open up our hearts help us to become lead us help us to become the men and the women you created us to be it's in your name we pray I've searched every corner of this earth for someone to show me what I'm worth but it left me broken and that's where you found me you knew every scar I tried to hide you sat with me and never left my side when I was hopeless that's when I found it no one can heal the pain I had no one can calm the storm inside no one I know no one but Jesus no one will stand here in the fire no one can fill my heart's desire

no one I know no one but Jesus you told me I am salt and wine yes you showed me oh you showed me I am worth your life when I am doubting your word reminds me when I am doubting your word reminds me no one can heal the pain I had no one can calm the storm inside no one I know oh there's no one no one but Jesus and no one will stand here in the fire No one can fill my heart's desire, no one I know There's no one but Jesus, oh we sing no one No one can heal the pain I've got And no one can calm the storm inside, no one I know No one but Jesus, oh there's no one like you No one will stand here in the fire No one can fill my heart's desire, no one I know No one but Jesus, oh there's no one, no one I know There's no one but Jesus, no one I know No one but Jesus, sing no one No one I know, oh there's no one but Jesus There's no one like you, there's no one like our great God There's no one like you, before on the earth, before in the universe He's made His home in our hearts

There's no one like our great God, before on the earth, we see the sky It resides in us, He's pleased to dwell in us So to Him all things, and for Him all things And through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one, no one but Jesus, there's only one worthy There's no one, no one but Jesus To Him all things, and for Him all things Through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one like our great God Lift your attention to Him, God today Give Him your praise To Him all things, and for Him all things Through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one, no one but Jesus There's no one, no one but Jesus To Him all things, and for Him all things Through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one, no one but our great God There's no one, no one but Jesus There's no one, no one like our God There's no one, no one like our God There's no one, no one but Jesus There's no one, no one, no one To Him all things, and for Him all things Through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one, no one but Jesus There's no one, no one but Jesus To Him all things, and for Him all things Through Him all things, in Him all things altogether There's no one, no one but Jesus

There's no one, no one, no one but Jesus There's no one like our great God Give Him praise today Come on, you may be seated Thank you. Well, a couple weeks ago I was overwhelmed with emotions. And so I decided to go on a walk. We just got a mini. Well, I say we just got. We've had him for eight months, but a mini Golden Doodle puppy. How many of you guys have Golden Doodles here? Okay, no one. Okay, raise your hand. If you're a Golden Doodle owner, yes. Yes, okay, so decided to take our little golden doodle on a rock and just to kind of clear my head and I just felt just kind of just overwhelmed and so I'm on my walk with our little Ralphie and my dad calls me and I'm like, oh, okay, you know, so I kind of wanted this. You know when you have those walks that you're like, you want it to be like just a peaceful walk but then someone calls you but I love my dad so I was gonna answer the phone anyway. So I answer the phone and he's like, hey Leander, like how are you doing? And I feel like when someone asks that question, you can answer one or two ways.

You can say, I'm doing great, I'm doing fine and really like your whole world is falling apart and be honest with your emotions or you can kind of just say like, you know what? I'm actually a little bit overwhelmed and that's what I decided to do in that moment. I decided to be honest with my emotions with my dad and tell him that I just felt overwhelmed and so we talked through it a little bit, hang up the phone and then as I begin to finish my walk, I just realized like, wow, there's just so many emotions that I'm carrying and I quickly wanted to realize what emotions I was carrying. I was anxious, I was dealing with a little bit of depression, I had a lot of fear, I was walking through grief and I just realized in that moment like, we all deal with emotions. Like if you're human, you're gonna walk through emotions and have you ever like just started randomly crying and you don't even understand why? Or maybe you get so angry that you feel like you're about to explode or maybe you get so anxious about something that you feel like you're on the verge of an anxiety attack 24 seven or maybe you realize you have emotions but instead of actually processing your emotions, you decide to just shut them out and pretend like they're not there but we all have emotions whether we like it or not

and tons of people in the Bible had emotions. They dealt with the same emotions that you and I deal with today. Some of the greatest people of faith in the Bible were honest with their emotions and if you have your Bibles today, that would be great and if you have your journals today, that's awesome too because I have a couple points that I wanna share with you but point number one is, even God's strongest people struggle. So today we're gonna be talking about a man in the Bible named Jonah and if you've grown up in church, you're probably hearing this, you're like, oh Jonah, man, the guy with the fish, like I've heard this story a hundred times. Well, you know what, you're gonna hear it again and if you come here for the first time and you haven't heard the story of Jonah, this is a truly amazing story. So Jonah was a prophet from God and if you're a prophet, you're not just a side man, you're not just a nobody, like you are a prophet appointed by God and that is a big deal. So God had asked Jonah to travel to a place called Nineveh and Nineveh was an evil empire, okay? So Jonah was asked by God to go to Nineveh to just spread the word and to get all the people of Nineveh

to repent and turn to God. And so what does Jonah do in this moment? He literally disobeys God and like says no and then turns the other way and aborts a ship and goes in the opposite direction, okay? So in Jonah chapter one, verse three, if you have your Bibles, turn there. It says, but Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed Tarshish to flee from the Lord, which is so funny here because come on, Jonah, like you can't flee from God, like let's wake up, okay? And so in this moment, Jonah's aboard this ship. He has sailors helping him and God sends a huge storm, okay? And the sailors like start to get terrified and they kind of look to Jonah for help and Jonah's like, look, I know this storm is like from God so I'm going overboard, okay? Like I would rather die and drown than have to face God with my emotions. And so what happens? Jonah goes overboard and then a massive fish comes in, swallows Jonah whole and literally eats Jonah, okay? And so Jonah spends three days, three nights in the bottom of the ocean in a belly of a fish. And guess what? He is alone with his emotions with God.

In Jonah chapter two, one through two says, it says, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God. He said, in my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help and you listened to my cry. So God hears Jonah's cry. The fish spits Jonah out. Jonah returns to Nineveh and spreads the gospel and 120,000 people repent, which is a huge thing. And you would think in this moment that Jonah is like on cloud nine, okay? You would think that he is unstoppable. You know that song, like, I'm unstoppable, yeah? Anyone else? Come on, you guys, I just sang, okay? Come on, let's be a little energetic, okay? So Jonah, he should feel truly unstoppable in this moment, but he feels the opposite. Then chapter four happens, verse one through three. It says, but to Jonah, this seemed very, very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life,

for it is better for me to die than to live. Okay, so the same prophet that literally spoke one of the greatest messages in the Bible is sitting outside the city gates asking God to let him die. Isn't that crazy? Jonah didn't stop believing in God in that moment. He was just experiencing emotions. Sometimes we think that if we are experiencing emotions and dealing with a tough time, that that means our faith is weak. That is the farthest thing from the truth. Jonah teaches us that you can love God and still have difficult emotions. You can have faith and still be afraid. You can trust God and still experience sadness. You can follow the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind and still feel overwhelmed. The question isn't why do I have emotions? The question is, will I let God into my emotions? Because we all have to let God into our emotions. The second point is, God cares before he corrects. After Jonah told God he wanted to die, look what God did. Jonah 4, verse four, it says, "'But the Lord replies, is it right for you to be angry?' God didn't shame him in that moment and say, what are you doing, Jonah? Like, come on. No, God asked him one simple question.

Then God did something so beautiful. Jonah 4, verses five through six said, Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was very happy about the plant." So God met Jonah's physical and emotional need before he met his spiritual need. And sometimes we think as Christ followers or even individuals that we have to have our life all figured out before we show ourselves in the presence of the Lord, or before we can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We feel like we have to be good enough. That is not true. We don't have to be good enough to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. God wants every single part of us, the good, the bad, the ugly. When I was walking through my eating disorder, I was walking around and my therapist told me, she said, you know, Landra, I think that I was just curious. I was like, why am I not? I don't feel close to God. And I was really dealing with a lot of shame.

Like I just don't understand why I'm dealing with this eating disorder and all this stuff. And my therapist said, well, why don't you invite God into your eating disorder? And I was like what? I was like, no, I'm not gonna invite Him into my eating disorder. That's a part of me that I don't want God to know about. And so oftentimes we need to invite God into the parts of us that we're most embarrassed about with ourselves. He already knows it, but sometimes there's a posture of admitting that you know what? I want God to see every part of me and that's when He can begin to work in your life. We have to show God every single part of us. And I learned this when I lost my sister five and a half years ago. Our family lost my sister to alcoholism, if you don't know. And my sister was amazing. She was beautiful. She loved this church, but she had an addiction. And the outcome didn't end how we wanted it to, but our family and our church has gone through so much because of her life. And truly, her life has just completely blessed this church

in ways that I can't even explain. And when I lost Lee Beth five and a half years ago, our family was just faced with so much emotion and grief. And everywhere we looked, I just felt like I was always so emotional. And I was still a wife and a mom whenever I lost Lee Beth and just having to process through the emotions. And I will tell you, a lot of my emotions I pushed away to think that they would go away when really they're still there. And I tried pushing them away. I tried doing all those things to suppress my emotions when really I realized one day, God doesn't want me to get rid of my emotions. He just wants me to invite Him into my emotions. And five and a half years ago, I had to make that decision to invite God into my emotions. And I still have to make that decision each and every day. So you might be sitting here thinking, well, how am I gonna do that? Well, just pray the prayer to invite God in. But it's not just gonna be one prayer. It's gonna be prayers after prayer after prayer. We have to invite God in to our emotion. The third point is God speaks in unexpected places. Where did God speak to Jonah? Did He speak to him in a mountaintop or in a castle or in front of a crowd?

No, God spoke to Jonah at the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish. the dark. So if you think what you're dealing with is too much for God, that is not true. Nothing is too much for God. If he can speak to Jonah at the bottom of the ocean and the belly of the fish, our God can speak to you and what you're walking through. He can. Jonah chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 says, from inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, in my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me. All your waves and breakers swept over me. Then Jonah chapter 2 verse 7 says, when my life was ebbing away I remembered you Lord and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Sometimes as Christ followers we can feel like we're waiting for this dramatic moment to encounter God. You know the same God that is with us in the mountaintops is the same God who's with us in the valleys. And oftentimes it's not gonna be some big aha moment. Yes that might happen in a worship service or a conference or shoot maybe even a Forrest Frank concert. I don't know, but sometimes that might happen, but sometimes it doesn't. And that doesn't mean you're broken or wrong, but oftentimes God speaks in places where we can't even imagine. I mean if he can speak to Jonah in the belly of the fish, I'm sure he can speak to you wherever you are. And for me in my life, one of the most pivotal moments in my relationship with Christ was when I was dealing with my eating disorder. And I know I shared a little bit about this, but I dealt with an eating disorder for five and a half years of my life. First starting out with anorexia, then going on to binge purge bulimia, anxiety, depression. I was in and out of treatment centers, all of the things. And so coming out of that, I was really having to kind of rebuild my relationship with Christ. And you might be like, wow I thought you were a pastor's kid. I thought you have a perfect faith. No, just because I'm a pastor's kid does not mean I still struggle with the things that you guys don't struggle with. I still struggle and

I still was finding my relationship with Christ and learning just how to read my Bible and pray and just to process all the things I'm processing with my eating disorder. And I remember being in my bedroom one night, again overwhelmed by emotion, and so I shut the door and I turned off the lights and I just got in my bed and I was just like crying. And I was crying because I was overwhelmed with so much emotion, but I was overwhelmed with like anxiety, just depression, and then just I had suicidal thoughts of like, why do I have to deal with all this emotion? Like I shouldn't have to deal with this emotion. Oh maybe it would be better if I just wasn't here. Those are the thoughts that I was thinking. Even though worship music was playing and I was praying, I still have those thoughts popping in and out. And in that moment I truly had to decide, am I gonna give in to my thoughts or am I gonna give them to the Lord? And so in that moment I just prayed, Lord I give these thoughts to you. I give these emotions to you. They're too much for me to carry, but I know they're not too much for you to carry. Take them. And the weight that I felt in that moment was truly something that I could never, never describe. And it's that piece that the Bible talks about that surpasses all understanding. It does. So if you're sitting here and you're overwhelmed with emotions, know that it's nothing too much for God to carry. God is not distant in your emotions. He's present in your emotions. The fourth point is let truth lead your feelings. Emotions matter, but emotions are not always the truth. Your emotions can tell you when something's happening, but they cannot always tell you what's true in your life. Jonah listened to his emotions and disobeyed God and turned from God. And he was really upset. He didn't think that the people of Nineveh deserve God's grace and love and mercy, but God's like, yes they do. And Jonah in that moment listened to his emotions and gave in. And how many of us listen to our emotions and give in? And please know this service is not about, oh, emotions are terrible. They're bad. Look, I'm a female. I cry all the time, okay? And so we're talking about, though, what I'm talking about is how to handle your emotions. How to handle them. We have to handle our emotions. They're not always gonna tell us what's true in

our life. Jonah's anger was real, but he disobeyed God, and that didn't tell him the truth in his life. What Jonah did is he disobeyed God. And so many of us, our emotions by one decision can cause us to disobey God when we don't even mean to. And oftentimes in that moment, I know that Jonah listened to the wrong voice in his head. And for me in my life, I had a pastor's wife, Pastor Sydney Thomas, who's so amazing. She, when I was walking through, everything I was walking through told me, she goes, Leandra, I was battling with all these thoughts in my head. She goes, Leandra, whose voice is louder in your heads? God's or the enemy's? That really hit home for me, because I was like, the majority of my day in my life, I can hear the enemy's voice in my head. Fear says in our heads that I am alone, but God says I will never leave you. Shame says you are your past, but God says you are forgiven. Anxiety says you have to control everything around you, but God says give it to me. We have to focus which voice is louder in our heads, the Lord's or the enemy's. And you might be sitting here and you're like, wow, Landry, that sounds great, but how do I listen? How do I know and hear the voices of God? You pick up the word of God and you read it and you study it and you memorize scripture, so when Satan comes into your head and tells you that you're not enough or you're not good enough, you pick up the word of God and replace it with scripture in your head. Because I'm telling you, the word of God is powerful. He's bigger than anxiety, he's bigger than depression,

and he is bigger than that, emotion. Sometimes we spend so much time focusing on how to handle our emotions or deal with them or suppress them that we miss that what if our emotions are actually gonna bring us closer to God? We can't miss that. Sometimes we run so far away from God and try to escape him that we end up running right into God. That's what Jonah did. Jonah was like, shoot, I disobeyed, I'm running away from God, well, he ran right into God. But you know what? Jesus himself experienced emotion, he did. He wept, he felt compassion, he experienced emotion, but his emotion never separated him from his father. And the same is true for our life today. Our emotions don't separate us from our father. Our emotions are never meant to separate us from our father, they're meant for us to draw us closer to our father. Don't let your emotions keep you away from God. Like I talked about earlier, when Leibeth passed away, I was given her Bible, which is probably one of the most special gifts that I could have possibly given, gotten, or however you say that. And whenever someone passes away and you're given something, like you hold on to that and you study it because you feel like if you get something of theirs, it's like that little parts and pieces of them, you know? So I get Leibeth's Bible and I'm just like, reading through everything and just seeing like,

okay, well, how did she sign her name here? And you know, all this stuff. And then I remember I was studying for a message and I was reading through Leibeth's Bible and I flipped and I saw Leibeth's handwriting in the margins of her Bible. And you know, Leibeth died of alcoholism and she was not perfect and her outcome was not what our family or anyone would wish, but it was God's plan. And to see her handwriting on the margins of her Bible in scripture verse after scripture verses highlighted, I knew that my sister and her pain and her addiction still carried her emotion and brought it to the Lord. She did. And for me to look back now that she's gone and see, you know what, no matter what she was walking through, she still went to the Lord. And I have to ask myself, when I'm gone, are my kids gonna pick up my Bible and look through page after page and see, oh, mommy went to scripture. She went to the Lord for each and everything. Guys, that is why it's so important that we are in the word of God. We can't let our emotions lead us, we have to let God lead us. Let God lead us. Madison Cleveland, one of our staff members, spoke so beautifully a couple weeks ago on this scripture verse, 1 Peter 5, 7.

1 Peter 5, 7 says, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. What Madison said that I loved is that word cast is an action word. We have to take action to it. We have to cast it. We have to bring it to God and give it to him. And with an action word, we actually have to take action. So if you're dealing with emotion and you're overwhelmed, maybe with the loss of a loved one, goodness. Or maybe you have a child that just have faded away and you don't even know if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ anymore and you raised them for the best of your ability. Or maybe you had a diagnosis that was not expected. Or maybe you're sitting in this room and as I'm talking about anxiety, you're like, oh my gosh, Leander, I feel like I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack. And you have an overwhelming sense of emotion, but please know that you have a God who loves you and cares for you and doesn't want you to do life alone. We just have to invite him in and have a heart posture of saying, Lord, help me with my emotions. I cannot do this on my own, but it starts with being honest, honest with our emotions. You know, when my dad called me and asked me, hey, Leander, how are you doing?

I had to be honest with my father. The same is true with us. We have to be honest with our heavenly father about what we're walking through, what we're dealing with, and the emotions that we're carrying. We have to be honest with God. And he's not asking you to deny your emotions. He's just asking us to bring it to him. So if you could go ahead and close your eyes and bow your heads. And I know in a room this size, there are a lot of individuals here and we're just walking through emotions. The emotions I talked about, grief, anxiety, depression, disappointment, all the things. And you are already a Christ-born. You're just saying, you know, like, I'm struggling and I need help. I need help inviting God into my emotions and processing and dealing with them. God, I just pray right now for every individual, God, that is walking through emotion and just having a hard time processing and dealing and feeling overwhelmed. God, we know that you are a good God and we know that you love us and care for us too much to let us do this life alone, God. I just pray that they would just invite you in and you would do the work that only you can do, God.

We thank you. And I know in the room this size, there's also people who are listening to my message and they're saying, you know what? I don't have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And I've been going through life alone and I've been trying to process my emotions and I just can't do it anymore. Well, I wanna lead you in a prayer that's gonna be one of the best prayers that you can possibly pray. If you could repeat after me, dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I've messed up and I wanna turn away from my old life and into my new life with you. I invite you in to my heart. I don't wanna handle my emotions alone. I don't wanna do this life alone and I want to do this with you. If you prayed that prayer, the Bible says if one person accepts Jesus Christ, all of heaven is rejoicing. That is the best decision that you can possibly make. Thank you, God, for your grace. Thank you, God, for your love. Thank you for your mercy. We love you and we praise your name forever. In your name we pray, amen. You know, there's probably some people here right now and you're going, I definitely have those emotions

and I don't really know how to talk about them, how to put them out there. I wanna tell you something real quick. There's somebody in this church, they might be seated right around you, who would love to encourage you, who would love to go, man, me too. Yeah, I deal with that too. They would love to lift you up and they would love to lift you up and they would love to lift you up and they would love to lift you up and they would love to lift you up and they would love to lift you up, they would love to support you, but you'll never find them until you take a step and get involved in community. So we encourage you to do that. And we wanna make it easy for you. If you tap your phone on your seat, you can click Get Connected. If you're watching online, you go to fellowshipchurch.com. You can see all of our groups, all of our different Bible study classes. Amen, we have our first Tuesday of the month, every Tuesday, this Tuesday, 7 a.m. Come join us for breakfast and Bible study in our Source Cafe, but take a step into the community. You can also come by our tables.

We'd love to get you connected there as well. Can we put our hands together for Pastor Landra? What a great message. Thank you so much, Landra. If you made that decision to give your life to Jesus today, over at the tables and up in the balcony at our tables, we have a team that would love to give you a Bible. We wanna make sure you have God's word in your hand, in your life. We also have some great resources that we can give you as well that will help you begin to start learning how to follow Jesus on a daily basis. And then, if there's anybody here that would like prayer, you're going through something, don't go through it alone. We believe in the power of prayer and they would be honored to pray with you as well. Now, next week is a big week here at Fellowship Church because a couple things are happening. Number one, all the students are. We're super depressed right now because summer has come to an end. So we're just gonna pray over them all week long. But also some great things are happening, students and parents and everybody, because next week we all at Fellowship Church are going back to school. All right, everyone, it's back to school season. If we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it right. So first up, students, tell your parents

if they want you to have the best school year yet, they need to get you to Unite Night. It's hands down the best way to start the school year off right. A night that'll fire up your faith. Plus, I heard there's exclusive mixed merch and first time guests get free In-N-Out. So yeah, you definitely wanna be there. Then everybody, listen up, because it's not just students heading back to school, we all are. Because life doesn't come with a syllabus, this Sunday we kick off a brand new series. Now we go to school with our pastor, Ed Young. We're gonna learn about how do you handle depression, anxiety, what do you do when you're bullied, and how do you navigate technology, peer pressure, and popularity without losing who God created you to be. And to celebrate the new school year, we'll have VIP parking for teachers and a special prayer over every teacher, school staff member, student, and family. Plus, we're collecting school supplies to bless families. So grab some items, bring them with you, and help set a student up for an incredible year. And finally, to top it all off, after church, we're throwing the back-to-school party of all back-to-school parties. It's Schoolapalooza. It's the perfect Sunday to invite every family that you know.

So spread the word and let everybody know, now we go to school. Let's go. So hey, all week long, here's our challenge to you, challenge to myself. Start every day and say, God, will you give me an opportunity today to invite somebody to church this week? You never know what someone's going through and you never know how your invite could be the invite that changes somebody's lives. Raise your hand if you're at Fellowship Church because somebody invited you. I am. I'm here because somebody invited me. I always think about, how different would my life be had that family not invited my family to church? So we got so many great opportunities this week. And on that note, let's stand to our feet and let's declare this as we go back into our week. Say this with me at the top of your lungs. Say, Jesus, thank you that in you, I am loved, forgiven, and blessed. Because of you, I will reach up and worship, reach out to share my faith, reach in to become more like you. And because of you, I know the best is yet to come. Hey, we love you guys. We'll see y'all this week. God bless you.