The Struggle Is Real | Part 1: Master Your Moods

Let me start right here. How many of you are brave enough to admit, or in an honest assessment, you would say that you are somewhat of a moody person? Let me see your hand. Come on, raise your hands. Appreciate your honesty. Actually, more than I thought. Now, how many of you would be brave enough to say that the person you're sitting next to who didn't raise their hand is a liar? Anybody brave enough? We'll get to that sermon eventually about lies. We're starting a new series today called The Struggle is Real. For the next four weeks, we're gonna be looking at what the Bible has to say about our emotional health. I know that the Bible primarily deals with our spiritual health, but it has a lot to say about our mental health and our emotional health. The Bible makes it clear that while our emotions are a gift from God, they also have the potential to hold every one of us hostage if we are not careful. And this was never God's intention or will. And over the next three weeks, we're gonna actually look at some very specific emotions that I think a lot of people deal with, even followers of Christ. Like next week, we're gonna talk about depression. And you say, Pastor, can a follower of Christ struggle with depression?

You bet they can. And it's not because you're a bad Christian, and it's not because God doesn't love you, and it's not because you don't have enough faith in God. It's because we live in a fallen, sinful, broken world, and sometimes we're subjected to things that this world has. But there is hope in the Word of God. There is hope in the Spirit of God. But depression is real. In fact, I'm gonna show you three spiritual giants in the Old Testament who dealt with depression. I'm gonna show it to you in the Bible, so you don't wanna miss that one. Invite somebody. Next week, we're gonna talk about fear and anxiety. My own wife, early in our marriage, dealt with anxiety. I know what panic attacks look like. My wife dealt with it for months of her life. It was debilitating, and God set her free, and we're gonna talk a little bit about that. Then the last week, we're gonna talk about one of the things that I think the enemy uses to keep more people on the sidelines of the kingdom than anything, inadequacy or low self-esteem. They think that only great people with great talent are people that God uses to do great things. It's not true, and I'm gonna show it to you in the Bible, that God uses everyone and anyone on purpose, with a purpose, and for his purpose.

But let's start here today. I wanna lay the groundwork with a general foundational message. Emotions play a huge part in our lives. In fact, every day in communication, we use these things. Let me give you a little background. In 1999, cell phone users in Japan were increasingly using picture messages to communicate, and mobile phone companies started really noticing this because of the amount of code that a picture message uses. It literally is the equivalent of hundreds of common text messages, and they were already struggling to support the volume of 80 million users, so they put this task to their engineers to solve this problem, and they did. They worked on it for a year, and what they solved and what they did, when they were finished, the emoji was born. The emoji was born. Now, with a single image designed to communicate emotion and feeling, they were able to dramatically reduce the amount of volume, crashing their systems, and the rest is history. Now we use these stupid things every day to communicate to each other, right? These emojis, without words. You can actually almost have a dialogue without words through just emojis when you text back and forth to each other.

And it's one thing when we're communicating by text to each other, but the question is, what about when these become our actual life? What about when they represent our actual life? What happens when our life becomes dominated by depression? What happens when we can't find joy in anything? We don't seem to find happiness or fulfillment in anything. We live out of this constant state of gloom and doom. What happens when our life becomes dominated by offense? And everywhere we are, we live in the most offended culture that maybe has ever been. You can't say anything anymore without offending somebody. You can't post anything, even if you're trying to be optimistic and positive. Somebody somewhere will find offense at something you say or do. And some people live their whole lives sitting in a constant state of offense. What happens when your whole life is lived out of anger? It's burnt down so many marriages. It's burnt down so many relationships with sons and daughters and friends. What happens when your whole life is just kind of tempered by anger? What about this fear and anxiety and worry? Like you live your whole life by Murphy's Law. You may not say it out loud, but you think it. all the time, if anything bad can happen and it will happen and it'll probably happen to me. This has never been God's will for his people.

It has never been God's will for his people. Now let's acknowledge God created us with emotional capacity. He equipped us with this emotional capacity to feel because it makes life so beautiful and so full and so rich. Our emotional capacity is a gift from God. But we are constantly warned over and over in the Bible to be on guard and to pay close attention that we do not become slaves, that's what this series is about, slaves to out of control, runaway emotions. I'm gonna give you a scripture that you really ought to memorize and put somewhere deep in your heart that deals directly with this out of Proverbs 25. He said, a person who has no control over their own spirit is like a city without any walls, defenseless and open to attack. In ancient times when this was written, most of life was lived by the sword. So conquering kings and kingdoms were everywhere. Kings wanting to increase their wealth and power would expand their territory by taking what they could. So cities back then, you see it in movies and it was true, it's the way it was, cities back then built huge walls that would surround them to act as a first line of defense. Now they still had armies, they still had archers with all sorts of security features,

but the most basic and first line of protection was the wall and what the Bible is saying is that whenever we allow our emotions to run us, whenever we allow our emotions to control us or manipulate us, we are living our life like sitting ducks. We are defenseless and our life is lived without walls. We are exposed and vulnerable to our enemy to come in and have his way in our lives, to wreak havoc in our heart, to wreak havoc in our minds and to wreak havoc in our relationships. Here's the essence of the series right here. If we do not learn through the Spirit of God and the Word of God to master our emotions, you can rest assured they will master you. If you do not learn how to master your emotions through the Word of God and the Spirit of God, you can rest assured they will master you. Now, the $64,000 question is what we're gonna tackle today, how do you do it? So again, we're gonna lay a general foundation today and I wanna look at five biblical steps, all right? I wanna show you five biblical steps right out of the Bible for learning how to deal with out-of-control emotions and here's the first one and you're not gonna like it, but you need to get familiar with it. The first thing you gotta do is take responsibility for it and own your own emotions. What I'm saying is the Bible teaches us you must refuse the convenience of an excuse and listen, we are a species,

and I'm throwing myself in there, we are a species of prolific blamers. We are good at it, bro. We're good at it because we've had thousands of years as humans to perfect it, but please hear me out, you will never conquer what you're not willing to confront. You will never conquer what you are unwilling to confront. The starting point for being free is to completely own your actions, acknowledge that you are responsible for whatever they are and for some in this room, it's apathy. For some, it's anger. For some, it's being overly critical. For some of you, you are indeed easily offended. For some, it's always being the victim and just thinking nobody's ever given you a fair chance. Now, I understand and like I said earlier, there's gonna be other emotions that we're gonna deal with like fear, doubt, and anxiety that sometimes can feel like are out of our control that we're victims of, and we're gonna talk about what the Bible says, but listen, what I'm saying right now is many of the out of control emotions in our life are well within our grasp to own them and control, and sometimes we say things that shift the blame and simply offer us an excuse to act out in ways that we just want to act out in. Quiet boy. I thought it was gonna be quiet.

I've heard people say stuff like this, and maybe you have too. My day was going so good, and they put me in a bad mood. What? They put you in a bad mood. They forced you into a bad mood, like you're a goldfish, and they scooped you up and put you in the bad mood bowl, right? That's what you're saying? They made me so mad. Oh, they made you mad? They forced you into madness? They controlled you into your madness? No, no, no. What I'm saying here is that the Bible teaches us we have to own it by saying they didn't do anything. I got angry. They didn't really do it. The truth is. I got offended The truth is I am easily emotional. The truth is I have been in a bad mood all day See because once you own it now, you can actually do something about it. The first step to adjustment is acknowledgement You can't adjust what you won't Acknowledge, let me give you some bible. I told you it was in the bible. Here we go. Here's one I don't even give you nothing else. I'm gonna give you two more, but this is the galatians 6 for we are each responsible Responsible for our own conduct There's no way to break that down Any more than what it says each of us are Responsible for our own conduct. How about this one romans 14?

So then each of us will give an account of himself and for himself to god You're not going to stand before god one day and go. Did you see what they made me do? God judged them Just judge them Hold them responsible god hold them accountable. You see what they made me do? I didn't want to be like that, but they made me that way. God's gonna say no, bro. What are you talking about? What what what did you do with your life? How about this one proverbs chapter 28? Whoever conceals his transgressions will never prosper. What's he saying? You won't conquer what you're unwilling to confront but he who confesses and forsakes them Confesses and forsakes them then they walk right smack dab into the mercy of god when god sees that you are honest with him And that you are honest with yourself and that you are not going to blame other people But you are going to take responsibility for your actions and for your own spirit And you're going to build the walls around your spirit that you're supposed to through the spirit of god and the word of god The bible says he sees that honesty and mercy rushes into your life to give you power and freedom. That's what happens It's nobody else's fault It starts towards healing and forgiveness and freedom when I acknowledge I acknowledge I have some issues in my life that need to be addressed. That's where it starts own Your own emotions and actions number two bible teaches us. You can't let yesterday Define your today if you continuously focus on your past failures They will only guarantee their repetition And the reason i'm bringing this up is because I have Experienced this I know what it's like for the enemy to tell you Once a failure always a failure. I know what it's like for the enemy to get down and whisper in your ear You've dealt with it for so long and you keep coming back to it and it's such a repetitive pattern in your life You'll never be able to break it. But the bible says he is a liar and the father of the lie Some people think once a failure always a failure, but here's what paul said in philippians chapter 3 I have not yet arrived for sure. I'm completely focused on this one thing I forget the past and i'm looking forward to what lies ahead again Sometimes we've struggled for so long that it just doesn't seem like we'll ever be free But let me say this to you while it is true that we may be products of our past

God never intended for you and I to be prisoners of our past We may be products of our past I get it. I don't know what all happened to you growing up I don't know what your father was like. I don't know what your mother was like I don't know what your home was like. I I get it. I know I know there's a nature thing I I get it in the nurture thing But here's what I am telling you tomorrow is a new day and it can be new for you You do not have to be a prisoner of your past There is a reason why you have a four-foot windshield in your automobile and only a 10-inch rearview mirror Your vehicle was designed that way so that you would only glance at the past but fix your gaze on the future Even automobile manufacturers understand that what lies ahead of you deserves more of your attention than what lingers behind you Don't let what you did yesterday define who you are today. The bible tells us his mercies are new Every morning when you wake up you have another opportunity but Maybe you screwed up today big time. I get it. I've done it Maybe you faulted big time and failed big time But when you get up in the morning and the sun rises there are fresh mercies and fresh grace That our father provides for you to make better decisions and get it right today and by his grace you have to believe you will So so so if the devil's been kicking you in the teeth you got to look him in the eye and say my father Told me I can be new My father told me I can be like him my father told me his spirit is in me And he's given me fresh mercy today to do it better I told you my favorite west texas saying don't waste time crying over spilled milk while there's still cows in the field to feed You got to let it go man. There's more milk where that came from So you spilled some milk they're gonna make more today and tomorrow for you to have every day There's a new opportunity to be free Every day is a new opportunity to make progress every day is a new opportunity to move forward number three You gotta challenge, man, every out-of-control emotion in your life. You gotta start talking back to those negative emotions and feelings.

You can't just lay down and let your moods dominate and manipulate you. There has to be a true struggle. You can't just be a victim to it. Instead of just accepting whatever you feel, there has to be a moment that you stand up and challenge those out-of-control emotions and make them defend themselves. And what you'll find out is that many times when you do, you will conclude they really don't have a legitimate leg to stand on. Ask yourself this. Why do I actually feel this way? Why do I actually feel this way? Why am I so angry? Because what you may find out is it really had less to do with them and more to do with just you. You may find out it has less to do with the circumstance or situations and there's just some internal work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. There's just some things that you've allowed in that you've never challenged, you've never let the Holy Spirit deal with. You need to ask yourself, is this really worth me getting so bitter and offended over? Is it really worth this? Is it really worth this relationship?

Is it really worth me burning down this relationship over this? Don't let your emotions do all the talking. They will win the argument every single time. You do not have to be or do what they tell you that you are going to be and do. Let me give you some Bible, I told you. Psalm 19 verse 14. May the words of my mouth, the psalmist said, and the meditation of my heart. What's he talking about? What's the meditation of your heart? Your thoughts and your feelings. Your thoughts and your feelings. Let they be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. See, that's the filter. That's the filter. Here's what you need to ask every time you experience these things. Lord, are the thoughts that I'm having and the feelings that I'm having pleasing to you? And if they're not, O God, would you give me the strength to bring them under the subjection of Christ and live a life that's pleasing and honoring to you? Is the way I'm feeling, Lord, your very best for me as your child? Is this your perfect will for my life? Do these thoughts and feelings bring glory and honor to you?

We're not victims, man. We're not victims. Bible says that we're more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. We are sons and daughters of an all-knowing, all-powerful, sovereign God who has provided us with everything that we need to win. But if our emotions are left unchallenged and unchecked, they are destined to win and proliferate. I love this verse, 2 Corinthians 10. Paul said, we cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Watch this, making every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When I was preparing for this, I read one commentary and I loved the way the commentary put it. It said, the scripture, it said, arresting thoughts that are not from God and making them kneel before King Jesus. Man, that's good, dude. Arresting these thoughts that are not from God, that you know are not from God, and then you hold them captive through the power of the Spirit and you make them kneel before King Jesus and give an account. Is this pleasing to you, Lord? And if it's not, free me from this. Let me give you the fourth one.

A lot of people don't like this one either, but this one's got teeth, y'all. If you wanna be free, if you really wanna be free, I've learned in my own life, you gotta be courageous with accountability. And this is so biblical. You gotta be courageous with accountability. What I'm saying to you is that one of the true signs somebody wants real change is when they are ready to be held accountable in their life. When you ask someone to pray for you, to encourage you, and then to check on you and your progress often, you are well on your way to freedom. In fact, let me reverse engineer it. I will say to you that the telltale sign we are not serious about breaking free is when we are unwilling to tell someone our struggle and have them hold us accountable. There are some things so big in our life you cannot break them on your own. And the Bible tells us that. There are some things in our life that are so powerful, that are so strong, that we cannot do them by ourself. And the enemy is hoping that you will stay in silence. The enemy is hoping that you will stay in isolation. The enemy wants to make you so embarrassed to tell anybody about it because he knows that if you're alone, you are easy prey. That he can do whatever he wants with you.

Keeps you down, but he knows that if you ever find brotherhood or sisterhood if you ever find accountability That you are well on your way to breaking his grip off of your life All right. How about some bible? Let's do this Ecclesiastes it's better to have a partner Than to go it alone. If one falls down the other is there to help by yourself You easy to keep down you are unprotected and vulnerable, but with a friend you can face the worst. I love this He said matter of fact while we're talking about it, can you round up a third? Can you get another one because what i'm telling what he's saying is the more the more power The more accountability in your life the more power why because a three-stranded rope cannot easily be snapped Did you know that over 50 times in the new testament alone that you see this phrase repetitively one another? Pray for one another love one another honor one another prefer one another one another one another It's almost like god's trying to tell you something That you need One another that we are supposed to as the body of christ depend on connect with rely on do life with one another We need One another god wanted us to know that the enemy loves detached believers because they make for easy targets This is why we are I know we're a large church But this is why we constantly tell you you have got to get in a serving group You need to be in a life group. You need to be in a small group. I know this is a great thing I love sunday mornings. We get together. We're packed out places. We sing great songs There's an energy in the room on sunday that can't be duplicated but at some point if you're really going to be a disciple you got to get out of a row and get in a circle and Get some people that can pray for you and hold you accountable and help you get towards jesus You got to it can be tough. I get it. I've been there Look, man i've had things in my life that I just Got punched in the mouth with so much for so many years. I know what it's like to feel like a failure I know what it's like to be embarrassed

To finally have to confess to some of my close friends, man. This is something I can't whip on my own and I don't know why I can't whip this thing But i've just got to tell somebody and there was such healing In just In just saying it to somebody I found such power in just telling a brother that I knew loved me and that would not judge me But that would pray with me and hold me accountable and it works man I've had issues in my life that I was afraid to confess But I had to and I knew these guys were going to help me and they did and god used it. Listen, it's biblical It's powerful and accountability works in our life. And finally number five You have to ultimately no matter how much you've struggled with it No, no matter how many times you've failed with it. No matter how much it's run you You have to believe as a follower of christ and have faith that god Is god And because he's god there is nothing that is impossible With god and that he can break every stronghold in your life We are not dealing with a weak anemic god he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine So this thing in your life while it seems looming and large It's nothing to our god ultimately While we need to point one on it. I mean, let me give you the good news the good news is god doesn't just look at you and say Pick it up buttercup Pull yourself up by your bootstraps man. What's wrong with you? Come on get control over this thing That's not what he's telling us to do. The bible doesn't tell us to just get stronger and be better and work harder What the bible ultimately tells us is that in our weakness his strength is made perfect and we surrender and rely On the power of the holy spirit while you need to own it It is not completely up to you to just fix it and to stop it ultimately as believers. We have an edge Because of our relationship with god through christ we have access to a power That is beyond anything that we can ever imagine. I'm going to show you a scripture. You're probably familiar with it

But I don't no matter how much I think about it. No matter how much I try to I preach it I wish I I cannot fully articulate to you the power of this verse and I wish to god I could I just I just pray the holy spirit would reveal it to you in some some unique way today the spirit of god paul said Who raised jesus from the dead Lives in you What The We read it too cavalierly. Ah, the spirit of god raised you from the no, bro. Did you hear it? the spirit of god That rushed into that tomb on easter sunday morning and took the lifeless dead body of jesus and and made it by his supernatural life-giving power. When you come to Christ, it's deposited in you. It's living in you. What is he saying? What he's trying to say to us is that if this spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, that if even a dead body is no match for this, whatever's ailing you is nothing for the spirit of God. Paul said, I can master anything through him that gives me strength. Not I'm that good. He said I'm not that good. But through him, what I've learned is, I can master anything who gives me strength. Whatever your emotional issue is, whatever has handicapped you, whatever has hindered you,

whatever has made you weak, whatever has handicapped you, whatever has hindered you, whatever chains you have lived with for all of these years can be broken in the name of Jesus. And you can be free because of the spirit of God. Now, I wanna address something that the Holy Spirit specifically led me to address. I had already finished my sermon. Staff and I went over on Tuesday and Wednesday to Jacksonville, we kind of do an annual staff retreat. We spend time together, I teach leadership, and we get refocused for the next season of our church. I'd already finished my sermon and on the way home, we were driving home from Jacksonville, actually Thursday morning, and I really, I was thinking about my message, I was preaching it in my mind. And I'm telling you, the spirit, and the reason I'm telling you this is because I don't know who's all in this room, I don't know who's watching on, I don't know who's at the UC, I don't know where you're at, I don't know your background, I don't know what you're going through right now, but the Holy Spirit specifically wanted me to address one of the greatest emotional cripple things that the enemy uses against us, guilt and shame. And maybe some of you have been listening to this message and you're thinking to yourself,

because you're replaying in your mind how many times you've faltered, how many times that you've let God down, how many times that you have went back to that thing you said you're never gonna go back to and you did it again. How many times you said, that's it, that's the last time, I'm not gonna let that happen again in my life. And sure enough, two days later, you're right back at it. And the enemy crawls up and says, dude, you're never gonna be free. And God is disappointed in you anyway. I know what that feels like. So I just wanna address this for whoever this is for. When I thought about it, my mind went to a tragedy that I remember happened in 2008. In the 1990s, one of the most popular Christian artists was a guy named Stephen Curtis Chapman. Maybe you've heard the name, maybe you know of Stephen Curtis Chapman. He was a big deal in the 1990s and he had a family. And in 2008, there was a tragedy that fell upon his family. His 17-year-old son had been to the mall and he was in their SUV and he was coming home and they had a long driveway at their home in Nashville. And when the son pulls into the driveway, there's a long row of hedges. His little five-year-old sister heard him coming up. She runs from around the back,

runs out from behind the hedges. He doesn't see her, tragically runs her over in the driveway. Stephen Curtis Chapman's in the backyard. He hears the screaming, he hears the commotion. He runs around to the driveway and you can only imagine what he saw. And there's blood everywhere and he's picking her up and they call 911 and the cops are there in moments and the EMTs are there in moments and the ambulance is there in moments and they're rushing around trying to revive her and bring her back and they're getting her stabilized, trying to, and they put her in the EMT. It's just total chaos. And in the moment, a police officer just tells Stephen Curtis Chapman, he said, just jump in the car with me. We're gonna take her to Vanderbilt. We're gonna get her there as fast as we can, the hospital, where she would have passed away in just a few moments. And in the commotion of the moment, they had lost track of the son. And he jumps in the car and they back out of the driveway and the cop's just about to gun it and Stephen Curtis Chapman looks at the front of his house and his son is sitting on the steps with his face in his hands, overcome by guilt and shame and what he had done. And Stephen Curtis Chapman says, stop the car

and he opens the door and he stands up on the door and he looks at Stephen Curtis Chapman and he says, Will Franklin, your father loves you. Will Franklin, your father loves you. Now I told you that to tell you this. On your worst moment, on your worst day, when you think you have disappointed him He no longer loves you. You need to know that the harmonized Bible tells us in our worst moment your father loves you In your worst day your father loves you When you stumble when you fall when you falter When you think you've let everybody down and your heavenly father. He sees you He knows you And he loves you and you can be free