EMOTIONS

0:05 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 them 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. Okay. So I 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 going to 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.

0:56 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 began 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.

1:53 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 of points that I wanna share with you. But point number one is even God's strongest people struggle. So today we're going to 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 going to hear it again.

2:45 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.

3:45 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 and 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 is, spends three days, three nights in the bottom of the ocean in a belly and 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.

4:42 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. Like, 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 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.

5:36 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 chapter four, 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.

6:55 Jonah chapter four, verses five through six said, Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen into 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 had a therapist tell me, she said, you know, Landra, I think that I was just curious. I was like, why am I not like, I don't feel close to God. And I'm just, I was really dealing with like 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 going to invite him into my eating disorder. Like that's a part of me that I don't want God to know about, you know, when it's funny because God already knows about it. 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 a posture of admitting that, you know what? I want God to see every part of me.

8:27 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, like her life has just completely blessed this church in ways that I can't even explain. And when I lost LeBeth 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 LeBeth and just having to process through the emotions.

9:20 And I will tell you, a lot of my emotions, I pushed away to think that they would go away when really like 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, like God doesn't want me to get rid of my emotions. He just wants me to invite him into my emotions. And you know, 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 like, well, how am I gonna do that? We'll just pray the prayer to invite God in, but it's not just going to be one prayer. It's going to 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 on a mountaintop or in a castle or in front of a crowd?

10:16 No, God spoke to Jonah at the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish in 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 in what you're walking through. He can. Jonah chapter two, verses one through three 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 two, verse seven 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 going to 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 a 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 this, but 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

12:25 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.

13:16 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.

14:14 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 going to 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, Landra, I was battling with all these thoughts in my head. She goes, Landra, whose voice is louder in your heads? God's or the enemy's? I was like, man, that really hit home for me.

15:23 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 are the enemies, 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.

16:15 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.

17:09 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 LeBeth 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 like parts and pieces of them, you know? So I get LeBest 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 LeBeth's Bible and I flipped and I saw LeBeth's handwriting in the margins of her Bible. And, you know, Well, LeBeth died of alcoholism and she was not perfect.

18:23 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 and 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 going to pick up my Bible and look through page after page and see, oh, mommy went to scripture.

19:10 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 of weeks ago on the scripture verse, first Peter five, seven, first Peter five, seven 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.

20:18 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, Leandra, how are you doing? I had to be honest with my father. The same is true with us.

21:11 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.

21:38 And I know in a room this size, there are a lot of individuals here who are just walking through emotions. The emotions I talked about, grief, anxiety, depression, disappointment, all the things. And you are already a Christ ball and 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.

22:00 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.

22:56 I invite you in to my heart. I don't want to handle my emotions alone. I don't want to 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.