Indicators Of Our Mental Health

If I've not had the chance to personally meet you, my name is Abe and I have the honor and privilege of bringing the word this morning and continuing our series on A Beautiful Mind. I'm so grateful for this series because I think it's important that within the church building, the church body, that we have these important conversations as it pertains to mental health. How many of you guys know that God cares about our emotional health? How many guys know that God cares about our mental health? And that God, we thrive in this, in this thing called life.

And so I'm so excited to be able just to share my heart with you this morning. I was a little nervous in first service, but I blame the hazers because he got in my throat. But they're gone, you know what I'm saying? So I'm going to bring it, if that's okay. Amen.

Amen. I want to talk about emotional health because I believe that emotional and mental health go hand in hand. You see, mental health is about how we think and process information and emotional health is about how we express and handle our feelings. I want you to hear me this morning. When our emotional health is strong, it supports our mental well being.

When our mental health struggles, it can be harder to control our emotions. So for example, poor mental health can lead to feelings like sadness, anxiety. While healthy emotional habits help us handle stress and help us bounce back from challenges. And how many of you guys know that sometimes in life we face a lot of challenges? But aren't you grateful that God's with us?

See, I believe this morning that God's desire for everyone here, those that are watching online, those present in this room, that he desires for all of us to be emotionally healthy. And that's what he wants to hear inside of our hearts today here. We're gonna honor the word of God. We're gonna look at a key scripture. So will you stand as we honor the word of God?

Now, as you're standing, I just want to warn you and let you know that the scripture we're about to look at is very long. But I want you to bear with me. Is that okay? Here we go. John 11:35.

It says this. Then Jesus wept.

That's it. Then Jesus wept. I believe there are some truths this morning that God wants us to look at as it pertains to this scripture. It's super. It's super simple, but so profound.

And I believe that we're going to look at as we look at the scripture later on in the message. We're going to just kind of dissect a little bit, to reveal God's heart as it pertains to our emotional health. Amen. So come on, if you believe it and you believe that God can meet you this morning. Come on.

Can you make the these declarations that we do every Sunday? Come on, say it nice loud and declare it. Come on. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones.

I will be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name. Amen. Come on, you can take your seats this morning.

Amen. I know that for some of you guys, as I've just briefly mentioned, that we're talking about emotional health. For some of you guys, you already feel uncomfortable. But I want to let you know that for some of you, as you feel uncomfortable in that the Holy Spirit wants to meet you specifically. Excuse me.

In that area, I believe that a good indicator of how we're doing mentally is reflecting on how we're doing emotionally. So, refuge family, this morning I want to ask you a question. That's a question that I want you just to think about for a couple seconds. It's this. How are you doing emotionally?

Your emotions matter to God. How you feel matters to Jesus. And I believe that if our lives were, so to speak, were to mirror trees, our emotions are the fruit and our mental health is the root system. So I'll look at it this way. If your fruit isn't good, it means that there's something going on with your root system.

So for the sake of our mental health, we must understand the importance as believers of the beautiful value of knowing how to regulate our emotions. I know I said a big word real quick. I said emotional regulation. You're like, what does that mean? Well, I'm so glad you asked because I'm gonna define it for you.

Emotional regulation means being able to manage your feelings, what you feel, when you feel it, and how you show it. It's choosing to respond calmly instead of reacting in the moment. And I think it's so important that we understand that because I think that a lot of us in here, as a lot of people in the world, we're quick to react and don't understand the value in stepping back and allowing the Lord to help us manage our emotions. Managing your emotions makes it easier. Easier to deal with stress and actually protects your mental health.

This is so important because for lack of better terms, we all understand that life can life sometimes. What that means is that the struggles that we face, the circumstances that you face, are not happening because something's wrong with you. They're happening because we live in a fallen world. And until Jesus comes back and makes all things right, I believe that God wants to gives us, give us healthy tools on how to navigate life when it lives. Amen.

I believe this morning that there are two significant reasons that cause us to be emotionally unwell. And I want to hit those real quick. You guys ready? So here's the first reason why we're emotionally unwell. Number one, we let our emotions take the lead.

I'm going to say that one more time. Sometimes in life we let our emotions take the lead. And I think sometimes that's a danger in our lives. Because how many guys know that sometimes we really kind of can't trust our emotions? Let's look at some of what the Bible says.

Because the Bible gives us some reasons why allowing our emotions can be harmful. Let's look at this real quick. Jeremiah 17, 9 reminds us that the heart is deceitful above all things. In other words, that our heart can mislead us. Listen, church, our feelings aren't always trustworthy, especially when they aren't surrendered to God.

Ready? Galatians 5, 16 tells us that we're to walk by the Spirit. We are called to be led by the Spirit. Listen to me, not our impulses. The Spirit gives us self control and wisdom.

While unchecked emotions often lead us to impulsive choices. How about this? Ephesians 4, 26 reminds us, Be angry and do not sin. Emotions without wisdom will lead us to sin. Things like anger, fear, jealousy, anxiety can become destructive when uncontrolled emotions themselves.

Guys, I want you to hear me, Church. Emotions themselves aren't sinful, but letting them rule over you can lead to sin. How about this? We say this verse all the time. Proverbs 3, 5, 6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Hey, look. Wisdom should lead and emotions should follow. We are called to submit our feelings to God, God's wisdom, instead of being controlled by them. I want to make the statement to you this morning and it's this.

It's that our emotions are meant to be indicators, not the main driving force in our everyday life decisions. I'm going to say it a different way for you. You ready? It's this. Your feelings don't give you permission to act out or justify harmful behavior.

Come on, church. You wanna. I know that the series is over, but you wanna walk in spiritual maturity. I need you to hear this. That our feelings don't justify harmful behavior or acting out.

No, no, no. Our feelings are indicators that should invite the Holy Spirit to come like never before. If you turn your Bible to Psalm 77, there's a Psalm that really kind of can express what I'm saying to you guys. The author of this psalm specifically finds himself in a season of despair. In other words, for lack of better terms, he's in his feelings.

And his feelings become the driving force in such an unhealthy way that all of a sudden he forgets who God is in his life. He lets his emotions get the best of him. Come on, let's read it. You guys ready? Here we go.

Psalm 77, verse 1. I cry out to God. Yes, I shout, oh, that God would listen to me. When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord all night long. I prayed with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted.

I think of God and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. You don't let me sleep. I am too distressed to even pray. I think of the good old days long since ended when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I searched my soul and.

And ponder the difference now. Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me? Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door of his compassion? And I said, this is my fate. The Most High has turned his hand against me. Listen to me.

I think sometimes when we read things in the Bible, we can. We can kind of be judgmental sometimes. Like, can I just be real with you guys? Sometimes I read stuff in the Old Testament and I'm like, man, the Israelites, they were dummies. When I realized that, I myself do the very same thing.

Listen to me. Maybe you've never been in a place like this, but can you relate to this author of this psalm? Have you ever been here before where you're in despair, where your emotions are high and. And you feel like everything's hopeless? Have you ever been here where you know how you feel is greater than the faith that you're supposed to have?

Hey, I think it's important sometimes that we recognize that our feelings are real things. I think if I'm honest with you guys, sometimes I can tend to get bothered. Or discouraged. Maybe that's a better word, discouraged. Sometimes when we're really feeling something.

Like we're feeling sadness, we're feeling anger, we're feeling something, and then we express it. And it's supposed to be a safe place. But people tell us, oh, that's nothing. Or they kind of are very quick to dismiss that no feeling. Our feelings are real.

Sometimes, everybody, and sometimes look at me. What we have to do is acknowledge that they're real, but they don't have to lead us. So how do we practically check our emotions? I'm so glad you asked. I'm gonna tell you now.

What I want to share with you is not something that, in a sense, is going to fix things overnight. I believe it's a strategy and a discipline that God uses to really help us. And it's this, that if we want to keep our emotions in check and how we feel in check, we have to distinguish the difference between real feelings and valid feelings. I'm gonna say that one more time. We must distinguish the difference between real feelings and valid feelings.

Here's the difference. Sometimes the way that we feel, it's real. Can I be honest with you? Look, and I'm not saying this to be dramatic. Sometimes I wake up and I'm like, ugh, I just feel like a loser today.

Like, I genuinely feel that way. I'm like, I just. I want to roll over real quick and not get out of bed. That's how I really feel. But that emotion's not valid because God says different.

Are you hearing me now? Over time, I've had to learn that just because I feel something, if God's word says different, then I have to learn a discipline of laying that emotion down and partnering with. With what God says. Come on. We have to be people that are willing to partner with what God says and what he declares over our lives.

We need to learn as believers to partner with the valid things that God declares over us.

Is. This is a practical way that I feel that we. We. We live out Romans 12:2 that says this. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So how do we practically really understand this discipline of learning the difference between real and valid feelings? It's this, Number one, make Jesus the Lord of your life. Listen to me. I think that in the church, if I'm honest, because it's comforting and it makes us feel loved, there is this heavy lean towards just looking at Jesus as our Savior, like, right?

I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I love his mercy. I'm grateful for his grace. I'm grateful that he laid his life down for me. I'm thankful that I can come to him and he, in a sense, kind of just really covers me with his love. But listen, let's not get it twisted.

Jesus is not just our Savior, he's our Lord. Lord is a fancy word for Master, meaning that the Master decides what goes and it's his way. It's his way or the highway, right? I don't know if I said that right. You guys know what I'm saying?

When we make Jesus our Lord, it means that he's in charge. And the good Lord knows how to guide and lead us. You know, I think about my son Zion, who's 6 years old and he's been in this habit lately where he's parent number three. I'm like, bro, I don't know where this came from. It's like I'm disciplining my 4 year old, Silas, and all of a sudden it's like I leave real quick and he's just like getting onto him.

I'm like, dude, what's going on? Right? Like, he's like, well, I'm just trying to be like you, dad. I'm like, I don't need you to be like me. Cause here's the thing that I see practically, right?

Like when my son Zion is trying to discipline my son silence, in his own little effort, he just makes things worse. And then all of a sudden, not only is Silas in trouble, Zion's now in trouble. Hey, isn't that the image of what we do with God sometimes? Is that in our own way we try to fix it, and in our own trying to fix it and making go and leading ourselves, we just make it worse.

That's why we have to understand the beauty of understanding that he's a good Lord, he is a good master, He's a gentle, He's a good shepherd. And we have to follow his way. His way in us following his way. His way declares what he thinks about us and how he feels towards us. And he gives us guidances and boundaries that we need to follow.

Not because he's trying to be mean, but because his ways are right and his and it's truth. Right?

Number one, how do we do this? We make Jesus Lord of our life. Number two, we devour the word of God. We don't just read the word of God, we got to devour it. Now, I'm going to probably lose my crown in heaven for this, but I was fasting this week for love life, which, by the way, if you came to love life, man, shout out to you guys.

Over a thousand people showed up yesterday to. To walk and pray. The prayer walk for the onboard. Come on, can we give it up real quick? Was a phenomenal time, and the Lord really came.

But I was fasting for them, right? Like, fasting that God would move, fasting for their service. And I mean, I was fasting sun up to sundown. Don't judge me by what I'm about to say, okay? But I was counting down.

I was like, man, I'm hungry.

And I don't know about you guys. Like, some of you guys can relate because you're feeling this way right now. You're not thinking about this message. You're thinking about how you're going to go smash some tacos at the Mexican place after the service.

Have you ever been so hungry before? Like, me, and I don't know who I was talking to. I think it was one of the guys from kids camp. And we went to camp this summer and the food was awful. And I would say to people, like, I'm gonna.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna kill these buffalo wild wings when I see them. I'm gonna, like, you know, like, there's just this urgency in me. You ever been there before?

You're like, I'm gonna just destroy these. This ramen. I don't know. Those of you guys are on a budget. I don't know.

What I'm trying to say to you is that we need to have that same passion for the Word of God, that we don't just read the Word of God, that we go, I'm gonna devour this thing. Look at me. I'm gonna ask questions. I'm gonna research. I'm not going to let go of this.

I'm going to be. I'm not going to let go of this until I understand what the Word of God is saying. You're like, well, Pastor Abe, I'm not. I'm not a Bible scholar. You're not, but you're good at Google.

We got to devour the Word of God. The Word of God renews our mind. It shows us who God is, what he loves, what he hates, and how he wants us to live. The Word of God describes how we're supposed to view ourselves, how we're supposed to feel, and we got to be intentional to devour our. The Word of God Number three, how do we practically discern between real emotions and valid emotion?

We seek godly counsel. Now, the word here is godly counsel. Not the person that's struggling with the same thing. Like, can I just be honest with you? Sometimes in our emotions and our emotional health and our struggles, sometimes we're.

We have this tendency sometimes to find comfort from those that are going on that are struggling with the very same thing. And I'll say to you, I hear what you're trying to do, a for effort, but it's not gonna lead you anywhere. You need people in your life that are maybe more mature or have found freedom in the area to speak truth over you, to not necessarily coddle you or comfort you, though there's a time and place for that. But to speak life in you. My wife is.

My wife is so good at this. Like my wife sometimes, you know. Cause I'm just being a negative Nancy, you know, I'm like, oh, I just feel like. And she's like, stop it. Cut it out.

What does God say? And I'm like, you're right, babe. You know, you need people in your life where you can process how you're feeling that are going to hear you out, but also speak truth and bring you back to go. But what does God say? Listen, can I tell you this?

And I want to just make it very clear. I think for a long time we've. We've had a bad therapy and counseling has been in the church. Culture has been a taboo word. We don't talk about that.

You don't. All you need is the Lord. Don't go to counseling. No, I want to tell you something. Counseling is a good thing.

Christian therapists are great tools that God uses. And let me tell you something. I am a product of just walking in freedom because of a great Christian counselor. And sometimes we have to just go to people that are equipped to make us, help us understand not only what the word of God says, but the way our mind thinks, our trauma responses. Do you hear what I'm saying to you, Church?

We got to seek godly counsel.

The writer of Psalms, going back to Psalm 77, something happens in verse 11 that he just checks his emotions and he begins to remember the truth about who God is and how good God has been to him. And he says this Psalm 77, 11. But then I recall all you have done, O Lord, I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I can't stop thinking about your mighty works.

Oh God, your ways are holy. Is there Any God as mighty as you. Come on. You are the God of great wonders. You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

By your strong arm, you redeem your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. When the Red Sea saw you, oh, God, I love this. The waters trembled. The seas quaked to its very depth. The clouds poured down rain.

The thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. Your thunder roared from the whirlwind. The lightning lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters, a pathway no one knew was there. You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep with Moses and Aaron as their shepherd. Something shifts when he recalls and remembers who God has been in his life. And he checks his emotions. See?

I want to say this to you. Church this morning. Emotional unrest isn't due to ignorance, but it's due because it happens because of a lack of putting this knowledge into practice. Can I tell you guys something? I think we live in a culture, in a world where we have information after information, information after information and information.

And. And that's not the point. The point is, what are we doing with that? What are you doing with the word of God? Are you applying it to your life?

Because as you apply it to your life, emotional health will come and you will no longer be so led by the way you feel, but you will be led by the truth of what God says. Our emotions are indicators that require what I call imitation. What does that mean? It means that when you're feeling the emotion of anger, when you're feeling the emotion of depression, when you're feeling anxiety, when you're feeling all these things, it's. It's the perfect moment to stop and say, holy Spirit, come.

Like, right. Sometimes I think that we forget that we got to make Jesus Lord and Savior every day, that we have to confess our struggle so that we roll out the red carpet for him to come and go. No, my blood applies to him. Again, our emotions are indicators. Look at me.

They can't be the leaders. They're indicators that call for invitation. So we talked about it. Two significant reasons why we're emotionally unhealthy. Number one, we let our emotions take the lead.

And number two, I really want to hit this. We suppress our emotions because we believe they're bad. Come on, somebody. We suppress our emotions because we believe they're bad. Studies show that accepting negative emotions instead of fighting or judging them support better mental health and reduce stress.

When we accept our feelings, we prevent them from becoming Bigger problems. In contrast, feeling bad about feeling bad can increase anxiety and depression over time. Church, are you hearing me? Here are some signs of what it looks like when someone is suppressing emotions. It shows up in different ways.

Feel. Feeling sad all the time or anxious. Mood swings. Getting stressed out easily. Having a tough time dealing with stress or just practical responsibilities.

Pulling away from friends or family. Changes in how you sleep or eating habits, or coping in unhealthy ways like using drugs or alcohol. These things are so real. When we suppress our emotions, can we be honest? For lack of better terms, it manifests itself in a way that's very unhealthy.

I mean, I've been this sometimes, right? Thank God for his grace and mercy. But I've also had friends that sometimes, emotionally, you're like, okay, where are we on the roller coaster today? Are we higher up, down, sideways? Where are we?

And some of us in here, we're like, oh, but I'm good. You know, I'm good. I'm so emotionally healthy. And we're like, yeah, but it just feels like we're on the fury again.

I love what Pastor J Said last week as he was opening this sermon series. And he said this, that it's something that really has stuck with me all week as I've been prepping. He said, you cannot defeat what you can't define. You cannot defeat what you can't define. And as I was thinking about it, I was really thinking about my childhood.

So I'm first generation American. That means that my parents migrated from Guatemala when I wasn't born. They met in the United States, got married, and I was born here, and I didn't know the English language. You want to know how to learn English through Sesame street and cartoons? So if my English is busted, you can, you know, blame Elmo and Big Bird.

Sometimes when I say my numbers, I just automatically want a cookie. You know what I'm saying? I don't know.

I would watch all sorts of cartoons, and I was very intrigued. And looking back at it now, a lot of the cartoons that I watched didn't make sense. Just nonsense. Like this two friends, Gerald and Thomas, who would chase each other with dynamite Tom and Jerry, for those of you guys, didn't know who I'm talking about, made no sense. But there was one thing that always bothered me about certain cartoons that I watched, and it was always the scene where the character would be brushing the living.

I don't know if it was a living room or a room. They would brush it right and create a Dirt pile. And instead of just being responsible and grubbing the, grabbing a dustpan and taking that pile out, they would lift the carpet. You mi hermano, they would lift the carpet, right? And just brush it under the rug.

And I thought to myself, man, if I did that, my mom would tear me up. Like, how irresponsible, right? I'm thinking to myself, how are you supposed to put any furniture on that, on that carpet?

But I think it could be said the same way about our hearts, that we suppress our emotion and that we just lift the carpet of our hearts in a sense and we just brush things under the rug. Our grief, our anger, our sadness, all while saying that we're Christians, inviting the Holy Spirit in. And if the Holy Spirit is supposed to dwell in our hearts and, and wants to move in, let me tell you something, you're asking him to come clean house.

When it comes to emotions, some of us that are sitting here in this room, instead of dealing with our emotions, we just lift the carpet, like I said, and brush it under the rung. And if you think, and if it's not in front of me and I don't see it, then I'm good. And I'm here to say to you, just because you brush it under the carpet doesn't mean it's not there. Remember, our emotions are indicators that should lead to invitation, not suppression. I want to talk about John chapter 11.

We read the verse, then Jesus swept. And, and I think that it's important as we look at John chapter. I'm not going to read it all for the sake of time. So I'm the pastor that's going to give you homework and say, go read that afterwards in Jesus name. There'll be a test next week, but not really.

John chapter 11 reminds us a story of a guy named Lazarus. He was Jesus friend, a close friend of Jesus. And he become very sick. Mary and Martha asked Jesus to come, but he waited so God would be glorified. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been dead four days.

Jesus comforted the sisters, declaring, I am the resurrection and the life. And he wept at the tomb. He prayed, called Lazarus out, Lazarus come out. And Lazarus came back to life, still wrapped in his burial clothes. We read this story and I'm captivated at the fact that John is 11:35.

Then Jesus wept was written in scripture. Now I think it's important that those of us that are ministers that preach the word of God, we wanna be careful to make sure that we don't manipulate or change scripture to fit Kind of what we wanna say, and that's irresponsible, and I wanna be very responsible with fear and trembling before the Lord to make sure that we really discuss what the scripture is saying. So as I researched it, a lot of people have a different viewpoint of why Jesus wept. Some would argue that Jesus was weeping because he was impacted by the sorrow of Mary and Martha. Others feel like he believed that he was weeping because of his closeness with Lazarus.

But did you know that most commentators and theologians believe that Jesus wept because his heart was saddened by the faithlessness in men and those around him who refused to believe that God would move.

Here's what I want to say to you. At a surface level, is this okay? Regardless of these viewpoints, the point I want to make to you is that on a surface level, our Lord and Savior wept and didn't hide it. If he was comfortable to express and own his own emotions, then why don't we.

If we can't be comfortable with feeling our emotions, then I believe that there is an attribute of God that we're not seeing correctly. The Son of Man did not define weeping as weakness, so we shouldn't either. You know, in the Bible, it's recorded that Jesus wept. He wept with Lazarus in the situation with Lazarus over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. And here's the beautiful thing that we see as we look at those stories.

Every time Jesus wept, the result was always new, new life and hope.

It's beautiful. We can't be afraid of our emotions. For some of us, we have to follow the example of what Jesus did to own it and express it. I want to share a story with you. It's very personal and I'm gonna get very vulnerable.

Is that okay? Now, there's a couple of disclaimers as I share this with you, because I think a lot of times we all go through traumatic areas in our lives. And I think that sometimes in our culture, we're quick to release these things. And the reality is, I think sometimes the wisdom is that before we release or talk about what we've been through, we need to find healing first. Because as I share this story, I want to say to you that God is faithful, Jesus is king, and Jesus has come and made me whole.

Jesus has healed the very deep areas of my life as it pertains to my mental health, as it pertains to my emotional health. And I'm so grateful for that. But last Sunday, as I was driving to church, I was thinking about just what I would bring to you this week. And the Holy Spirit just reminded me of this. This incident that happened in my life, this trauma when I was about a little kid.

In my. In my family, I was known as the cryberry. The crybaby. Cryberry. I know I said that.

Cryberry. It's the haze, okay? The haze is that I was the crybaby. I would cry about everything. What was on the tv, what was put in front of me for food, my mom in the room, my mom.

I just would cry all the time. My family, who's Hispanic, they would be like, oh, here comes the yodon. Yoron is the crybaby in Spanish. That's what I got labeled. And I think that I just.

I don't know what it was. To the point that it was so bad that sometimes my family would not. Certain family members would not want to watch me because I just would overwhelm them. The story goes that when I was about three or four, a family, a relative of mine, was watching me. And I just began to do the crying thing.

I couldn't stop crying. I was overwhelming them. And out of their own brokenness and not knowing Jesus, they decided that they were going to try to fix me or address this thing in me. This relative filled the tub with cold water, undressed me, and put me in the tub. And he said to me, I won't let you out of the tub until you stop crying.

I didn't realize, looking back, what that did to me. But looking back at my older. Like, as I was a young person, an adult, it really affected me in a very traumatic way. In our culture, these things aren't looked at as traumatic things. It sometimes just become the.

You know, it's very. Just talked about, and it's not that big of a deal. And the Holy Spirit has only met me in this way three times in my life. I was on the phone with a relative, and we were just talking about life. And this incident got back up and got brought back up.

And they were laughing and they were like, remember when. Remember when this would happen? And you got put in the water and it was so funny, and now you're not a crybaby. And they were just really laughing about it. And all of a sudden.

I can't explain it to you. I just felt the Holy Spirit so powerfully speak to my heart. And he said to me, not funny.

And I just kind of stepped back.

The Holy Spirit said to me, not funny.

And I got off the phone real quick because I didn't know how to respond. I just Hung up the phone. In that moment. The best way I can describe it to you was it was almost like the Holy Spirit was in the living room of my heart. And he grabbed my hand and he began to lift this carpet, and he was going.

This thing that everybody's casual about, I'm not okay with. And if you'll let me in, if you'll let me in, if you'll own this trauma, if you'll understand that with me, emotions are not bad, but they're good things. I will heal you. I wish I could say to you that it happened overnight, but it didn't. It was years of grieving, years of godly counsel, moments of looking for someone to pray over me, just freedom, some freedom, ministry over me, some sozo.

Those things are good. Hey. Seasons of going to counseling, processing. Hey, look at this. Seasons of just getting before godly counsel and navigating what forgiveness looked like for that person that did this to me.

And by God's grace, I'm here to say to you, I'm not a victim. I'm victorious in Christ.

I'm here to say to you that you can be emotionally healthy. I didn't realize it now, but you know why God wanted to address things. This really happened about six years ago when my wife was expecting our firstborn son. And the Lord, in his love and his mercy, wanted me to be emotionally healthy for my kids. He wants me to be emotionally healthy as a pastor, as a father.

Through his grace, I was able to call this family member that did this to me and say, man, you know what? I forgive you.

Sometimes things happen to us that the reality of it is. Right. Like. And I want to be very careful because I think we can lean towards a victim mentality in our culture. Like, something sometimes happen to us that are out of our control.

And it's God's heart that we grieve those things and that he. That you. We allow him to come to make us whole. I learned forgiveness. I also learned how to put healthy boundaries down.

Come on, somebody. We need wisdom, too, and God's in all of it.

I share that testimony. I want you to hear me. I want you to lean in. For some of you, because I believe some of you have some lumpy carpets in your heart.

I believe some of you emotionally are ignoring some signs that God's going, I want you to be emotionally healthy. I want you to be emotionally whole. For some of you guys, it's grief. Some of you guys have experienced a lot of loss, and you've not allowed yourself the ability to grieve through some things. Hey, guys, grief is healthy if you do it right.

Some of you guys, right now, you. Your heart, there's a lumpy carpet. It looks like rage is just under there, or sadness or anxiety. And I would confidently say to you guys, some of the stuff that's happened to you, the Holy Spirit says to you, not funny. Not funny.

But it's our responsibility to allow him to come in. You see, he doesn't ask us to deal with these things, to address the trauma, to address the emotional pain, because he wants to lord it over us. He wants to address it because he wants to weep with you. He wants to heal you. You know, listen to me.

I'm not a believer that we should sit around and just wallow in our. In our emotions. And, you know, I'm not. I'm not a believer in that. I'm a believer in victory and freedom and wholeness.

And that's why, God, we have to start with step A. Amen. I love what 2 Corinthians 12, Nine says. And it says this. But to me, this is Paul talking. He said, but.

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Some of us are resisting being weak in our emotions. And I'm saying to you that if you keep resisting that his perfect. His strength won't be made perfect in your life. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may come and rest on me.

I Love this. Matthew 5, 4. God told me this a long time, right? Jesus was saying, God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Listen to me, Church.

You can't be comforted unless you mourn.

Come on, Jesus, his desire is for all of us, right? Listen to me. I just. I look back and I didn't realize, man, my mental health was all over the place. And then to have this emotional trauma, I'm like, oh, God.

But if it wasn't for his mercy and his grace.

Jesus, look at me, wants us to walk in emotional health. Some of us in here this. This morning. You are. Your emotions are all over the place.

And I'm here to say to you that we need to make Jesus lord of our lives and follow his way because we can't be led by our emotions. It's another sermon. But I think I want you guys to know that. That this Christian walk is not a feelings walk. It's a faith walk.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that you're supposed to feel something.

Some of us in here, we have to let our emotions stop taking the lead. And then some of us in here, we have just lumpy carpets of un. Dealt with emotion that the Holy Spirit just wants to meet you in.