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Emotional Monsters

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Jul 10, 2020

Emotional Monsters

Emotional Monsters | Part 1

Lessons from 1 Peter 5:6-81
 
Stop trying to handle your stress, emotions, and problems on your own. The reason we don’t humble ourselves is that we become haughty (prideful) without saying it we think we can handle this. Cast ALL your cares upon Him for He cares for you. Our emotions are greatly driven by what we think on. Jesus wants to take our emotions, bring Good News–restore relationships.
 
Insights on Emotions.
 
The life we have is a reflection of the thoughts we think. Change your thinking–change your life. Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. Most of life’s battles are won or lost in the mind. The mind is the battlefield: God’s truth to you and Satan’s lies about you. You allow your mind to stress you out or you learn to stretch your mind. Change begins with a decision, and nobody can make it for you; your mind will try to muzzle you. If you keep telling yourself, you are stressed your body will follow.
 
Emotions to beware of: Guilt, Anger, Greed, Jealousy, Fear.
 
Guilt—I owe you. (Psalm 38:4, NIV)
Guilt is feeling remorse real or imagined. Guilt creates distance and leads to keeping secrets; our secret sins keep us sick. Guilt makes its way into our words and then into our relationships. The sooner we learn to deal with guilt, the sooner we will be free of it; Ask forgiveness, there is not a sin God can not forgive.
 
It is not our responsibility for them to forgive us, it’s our responsibility to accept God’s forgiveness and ask those we hurt to forgive us. (Romans 8:33-34, NKJV) If we keep living in guilt after we confess it to God, we are saying God giving His Son for our sins was not enough. (Romans 8:15, NIV)Learn to confess your faith, as much as you confess your fear. (Romans 8:1, NIV)
 
Anger–you owe me. (Ephesians 4:26-27, NKJV)
 
Anger not dealt with gives place to the devil.ii.The real danger about anger—it is often passed on to the next generation and hurts the people closest to them.iii.Result of HURT = Real or Perceived Unmet Needs.
 
How to respond to anger:
 
Forgive as soon as possible. Identify what you feel was done to you, then forgive and decide the person no longer owes you anything. When we forgive others, we give up the right to hurt them back. (Romans 12:19, NKJV; Matthew 13:55-58,TLB)
 
Overcoming emotional anger that destroys
 
Anger artificially helps us feel in control when we are really out of control. Anger falsely helps us feel powerful when we feel powerless. Anger is a secondary emotion that comes as a result of hurt, frustration, or insecurity as a result of unmet expectations.
 
Hurt–real or perceived unmet needs
Tool # 1–Attack the issue, not the person.
Tool # 2–Learn how to communicate your needs.
 
Frustration–real or perceived unmet expectations
Tool # 1–learn to communicate your needs or expectations—why you feel the way you do.
Tool #2–Use the word “I desire vs. I demand.”
 
Insecurity–real or perceived attacks on my worth
Tool #1–Ask yourself “why am I feeling threatened?”
Tool #2–We have to get our security and worth from who we are in Christ, not others.
 
Thoughts to ponder

When we don’t allow Christ to help us control our emotions—our emotions control us. Do you have Christ in you? (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV, TLB) Have you allowed guilt or anger to defeat and discourage you? Do you want to confess it, face it, forsake it, and move on in the power of God? Is there someone you have been angry at and today you need to let that anger go? (Galatians 5:22-23, TLB) 2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV, TLB; Galatians 5:22-23, TLB

Sermon Video Transcription

James Greer (00:02):
Well, man, what an appropriate time for us to be talking about emotions, Amen? Matter of fact, I’ve got mixed emotions. I mean, starting next Sunday, you know, we’re not only supposed to wear our mask, but we’re really supposed to wear them while we’re in here, but you can at least put them down and breathe. Amen?

James Greer (00:03):
I’ll tell you, you know, in the next service out in the parking lot, we’ve got five youths going to be baptized. You know, and even that was a mixed emotions. Should we have youth camp, should we not have youth camp, but man, I’m so thankful that we did now and lives are changed for eternity. And I have the same thing about VBS. You know, I know kids are fixing to start going back to school, public school yeah? And then I thought about Bible school. I think everybody has to do whatever they think is right. But I can remember Tommy and Susan Cartwright when their son died. And one of the things they said is I’ll never forget VBS. That is because of VBS that he stepped out and accepted Christ. And that’s the comfort that they had right now. So, Amen? Yeah. And I love public school, but I love Bible school too. So, you just have to think about what you think God wants you to do.

James Greer (00:51):
Strange times, I mean, we have lots of people with cancer and I wish I just had the faith like Janice Ryland and Randy and Noah. She has really fast growing cancer. And she said, you know, I’m going to win or I’m going to win. I mean, if God takes me home, I get to see my son and my mom who are already in heaven. If he doesn’t take me home, I’m going to have some more time here with my family and loved ones. I think if we’re not careful with everything that’s going on and things are going so fast, listen, if you’re not careful, you’re focusing more on the problems than God’s promises. And if you keep focused on the problem, instead of God’s promises, your emotions are going to get out of control. That’s why we titled this, the Emotional Monsters.

James Greer (01:30):
I was reading this morning. Then in 2 Timothy 3 it says, I want you to know that terrible times are going to come in the last days. I mean, we could be in those days, it says there’ll be many troubled times and how fast things are changing. I would have never believed in my life that things would change so bad. And then the governor said yesterday, we all have to wear masks. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I mean, one minute I’m saying praise God everybody has to do it and the next minute I am saying, quit telling me what to do, but we’re going to try to obey. Amen? I believe in obeying most of the laws. I’m just trying to confess, it’s good for the soul. I mean, these people on the interstate, I’m going to Shreveport the other day and I was going 75 and they dropped it to 50. Now I don’t believe everybody is abiding by that law. But most of the laws we’re going to try to.

James Greer (02:41):
So, next Sunday we buy the most part. We’ll try to wear our masks, like they said, and we’ll try to do our social distance. I do think you should do everything you can do take care of yourself. Amen? But God’s ultimately in control. If there’s ever been a time, we need messages and teaching on emotional monsters is right now, because things are changing so fast. I mean, when I say emotional monsters, I’m talking about my emotions going up and down and I want to quit acting like an emotional monster. Amen? One minute sometimes we’re afraid, the next minute we’re not. Sometimes we have fears that we have to face. Sometimes we’re acting crazy. Sometimes we’re trying to act like Christians. I was thinking while ago, when we were singing, you know we have this great opportunity to trade fear for faith, but worry for worship. And a lot of times I sit in my office and watch the worship until it’s time for me to preach. But man, there’s nothing like being out here and sitting to get to participate in worship and all of a sudden, I didn’t worry about a thing, but just precious Jesus. Amen?

James Greer (03:24):
Now I want to thank our people online, man. I mean, it’s fantastic, but I think you should participate. You know you can, Amen? You can sing. Be a part of it. That’s why you’re online. Why we’re going through this time. I mean, we have lots of people right now feel more comfortable watching online and I thank God for that, but I do like to preach to people. So, I’m glad you’re here.

James Greer (04:06):
Let’s look at the emotional monster. We’re going to look at 1 Peter 5:6-8. And I’m going to read them to you. And some of them, you’re going to read with me. Therefore humble, say humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Say the mighty hand of God. And he will exalt you in due time. In other words, this is going to be a verses that help you get through your emotion. Cast some of your cares upon him because he cares you. Cast what? You know, when you say cast all your cares, we got little cares, big care, but he didn’t say any. He said cast every single one of them up on him. Now what’s going to be excited is later on, we’re going to find out who him really is and why he said cast them upon him. But until we do that, number one, God said, we need to humble ourselves. Quit trying to handle your stress and your emotion, your problems yourself. Most of us can’t do that. Most of us don’t even realize we’re doing it. So then we start saying, I am so stressed out. I’m so stressed out, Hey, God, stress and worry are indications. We need to humble ourselves. So next time you’re all stressed out and you’re all humbled, man. Holy spirit teach me. I need to humble myself.

James Greer (04:54):
I need to quit being dependent upon myself and I needed to be dependent upon God. I need to be willing to say I can’t handle it, but God can. Amen? And so that’s what we’re doing next. All he said, hey, under the mighty hand of God, not just some hand, the mighty hand of God. The all-powerful and the one that’s in control.

James Greer (05:34):
And we’ll talk about him a little bit in a minute, and he’ll exalt you. Well, he’ll lift you up. He’ll elevate you. Once he lifts you up, once you elevate and your high enough, you can look down, you can understand better what’s going on. Then he said, cast all your cares upon him who cares for you. Cast them all. Not just some, but all. Okay. We’re going to try this. Yeah, I know I was right. Anyway. They used to call these casting reels. Now, what I do is, I know, you know and I know that this could be dangerous, especially with my fishing ability. But anyway, when he said cast all of them, Oh, sorry, baby. I told you, give it to Terry, give it to Terry, give it to Terry. How long is that Terry? Now what I usually do is, I understand that verse. And I say, God, I’m going to give you my words. I’m going to give you my pressure. I’m going to give you my strength. And then I do this. I start reeling. Yeah, I know. That’s the closest thing I’ve got to fishing lately. But what I really need to do is learn to get out there and I was going to have Terry cut the line, but then I have to do it again. But really and truly what we need to do is when we cast there, we need to leave it in God’s hands. And the Bible said, cast, our cares upon him.

James Greer (06:26):
Who is him? God, of course it’s God, it’s the one who died for us. It’s his son. It’s the Lord almighty, the master, the one in control. The Lord of all the army’s, all powerful one. The same God that was with David. When he killed Goliath. Him is I am, who I am, whatever you need. That’s who he is. He, I am what you need. He’s the one. When he said, cast your cares upon him. Did you know he really did part the red sea, that really did happen? Do you know he defeated Pharaoh? That’s the same him. Did you know manna was coming down out of heaven that they could eat? That’s him. Did you know that one time him made the sun stand still? Can you imagine God said, Hey, sun stands still. What did the sun do? That’s the same God that he said, cast your cares upon him. The same one that allowed the blind to see, the deaf to hear. The same guy that took five loaves of bread, two fish, fed 5,000 and they had leftovers. That’s him. I mean, he’s the one that healed the sick, cast out the devils. And there’s many, many more. But what he’s trying to say is, I want you to cast your cares upon him, but he wants you to know who him is. Him is whatever you need. And that him has the power to take care of it. Amen?

James Greer (07:48):
Because he said be sober, be vigilant. He says, you really need to know what’s going on in the world, especially right now, probably than any other time. In verse eight it said this, be sober, be vigilant because what? Because the adversary, the devil walks around like a roaring lion. He’s not the roaring lion, but he’s like one, but he’s seeking who he can devour, who he can discourage, who he can defeat. Did you know that sometimes when it says seeking who he can devour, sometimes the devil is trying to bring discouragement in your life and you don’t even know why you’re discouraged. And I said, what’s wrong? I don’t know. I just feel a little discouraged. Yeah, because that’s oppression, not depression. And you don’t may not even recognize what’s going on. See, God wants to set you free. And he wants to put you in bondage enough t so that you can’t even understand what’s going on.

James Greer (08:36):
See, God wants to set you free. And he wants to put you in bondage enough t so that you can’t even understand what’s going on. I’ve talked to you before many times. If you don’t allow your fear to grow your faith. I didn’t say you did not fear. I have fear, but allow my fear to grow my faith or you’ll become fearful and frustrated. So, fear is we push through until faith kicks in. And when we’re fearful and frustrated, our emotions take over and we talk ugly and do ugly things. Now I know Journey Church people you all don’t do that. I know I’m the only Preacher that cusses in the whole world. But I mean, have you ever been so frustrated or so angry you said something you shouldn’t have done? The rest of you better admit it because it is Sunday, or you are going to confess it at the end of the service. That’s because our emotions are out of control. Our emotions are greatly driven and determined by what we think of, but the good news we can learn to change our thinking. We can learn to think on the right things and that helps us control what we say and what we do.

James Greer (09:33):
I love the word. Good news though, because when you say good news in the Bible, you’re talking about the gospel, but it really means restored broken relationships. And Jesus in Matthew 9, he went around doing that. It said in Matthew 9:35, Jesus traveled through all the towns, all the villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news. Preaching the what? The good news. He went around and said, Hey man, I want to cure, help, restore broken relationship. And the reason that I want you to know one of Gods, one of Jesus’s jobs was to restore broken relationships. When our emotions are out of control, we destroy more relationships than any other time in our life. The kingdom about the kingdom and healing all kinds of diseases and sickness in Matthew. So, we’ve got to be careful that we get our emotions under control or we’ll be doing things and saying things that we shouldn’t say and we’ll break relationships that we love the most.

James Greer (10:18):
Several of the emotions, one’s guilt. And we’re going to talk about guilt in a minute. Anger. We’re going to talk about anger, greed, jealousy, and fear. And we’re not going to have time to talk about all those, but let me give you a few insights. The life you have is reflected on the thoughts you think on. You change your thinking, you change your life.

James Greer (11:09):
Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. Our strongest thoughts guide us and direct us. We’re always moving that way. Sometimes that’s good. And sometimes that’s bad. Most of our battles are won in the mind. If you’d have not learned how to have a self-talk, you need to. You need to learn how to talk to yourself the right way. The mind is a battleground. God’s truth to you, God’s trying to give you a truth. Satan’s trying to lie about you. You do understand the really the only power that Satan has over you is that we believe his lies. So, there’s battle going on. God is trying to give you truth. Satan’s trying to give you lies. And we allow our mind to stress out and are stretched out. Stress or stretched. How can you stretch your mind easily while you can take minutes a day in God’s word? But, what I want to do is, I want to challenge you to do this. Take a promise every day and think about it.

James Greer (11:57):
I saw Holly McDaniel, she’s fixing to go back to school and she was writing out our Facebook page. She says, anybody has a promise that you’d like to give me, I’m going to do it on my school calendar. And not only am I going to claim it that week, but I’m going to pray for you also. So man, I wanted to get me a promise in and I want her to pray for me. But what she didn’t realize is how important that is. If you really want to start helping control your emotions, control what you’re thinking instead of focusing on the problem, focus on God’s promise. Now, Darryl at the end, if you’ve never had a promise book and you need one, I think he’s going to let you check and he’ll make sure you get one. But I want to challenge you to do that. It will help you think on the right thing. So, if you keep telling yourself you’re stressed out, you ready? Your body will follow that.

James Greer (13:04):
Science is starting to catch up and in the medical field with the Bible. Instead of saying your stressed, say, I’m blessed. When you’re having negative thoughts, it changes the chemical makeup in your brain. Every thought creates neurochemical changes in your body. Positive gratitude gives you surges and rewards and even like dopamine and positive hits. It’s like the best dope you can have and it’s legal. I mean it wasn’t long ago, the kids are all walking around and saying man, that’s dope. And I said, I wouldn’t do dope in my day, dude. They may think that’s really cool. That’s great. And the best thing you can do is practice having positive thoughts and speak them out loud and your body will follow. Your chemistry will follow, but the same things happen if you do the negative ones. So you got to be careful. You’ve got to be careful about guilt and anger and greed and jealousy and fear.

James Greer (13:50):
Guilt is nothing more than saying I owe you something. Either I hurt you or I took something. I owe you. Anger is saying, you owe me. Greed is saying, I owe me. Jealousy is life owes me. Fear is you hurt me. So, let’s talk about guilt for a minute. Guilt can be emotional monster. The Psalmist said in 38:4 he said, my guilt, my guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy for me to bear. You do understand that part of that’s true. And part of that isn’t. Jesus said when we’re heavy laden and when we’re burdened, he says to come to him and we’ll find rest. But if we don’t deal with guilt, look what it does to you. It causes you to be overwhelmed and it causes you to feel like you’re carrying a heavy burden. So, there’s a danger with that. There’s another danger, when you sin and don’t feel guilty, oh, you better really worried. You know the good times when we used to give an invitation and people would come, we could pray for them. Blessed Jesus come again. But anyway, until then we can’t do it. But they’d come to the front a lot.

James Greer (14:48):
People tell me the stuff you would not believe. But anyway, they’d say, I did so and so, and I feel guilty. I’m wondering if I’m really saved. I said, you really feel guilty. They said, yeah. I said, but you really did that? Yeah. I said, you’re probably saved. The ones I’m worried about that come and said that and they don’t really feel anything. See when the Holy Spirit lives in you, he’s going to make you feel convicted when you do the wrong thing. But really the guilt is this, guilt is a result of the wrong handling of sin. Guilt is a result of sin not dealt with correctly. Guilt is a feeling of remorse. Guilt says, I owe you something. I owe you or I took something from you or I hurt you. It makes its way into our words, into our relationships. And guilt will hurt you worse than it hurt the person you wronged. When I feel guilty, the soonest thing to do is learn how to handle it correctly. There’s no sin that God will not forgive you. And there’s no sin that you can’t go to the person and ask them to forgive you. You’re not responsible for them forgiving you or not. You are responsible for two things, accepting God’s forgiveness and going and ask the person or call, however you do it, to forgive you. You know, we have to face it. That’s admit it. We have to confess it to God and those that hurt us. Then we’ve got to forsake it and leave it and move on. Amen? Did you know what God’s response is to those people? You ever gone to somebody, don’t say anything, you ever gone to somebody and said, Hey, I’m sorry. I did so and so, would you forgive me? They say, ain’t no way. You all had never had that? I have had that. My things were probably worse than you all’s. You go to them and you say that and God has a response for you. He tells you in Romans 8:1 he said, therefore, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. So, if you’re in Christ, there is no condemnation. That’s why you need to handle the guilt as quick as you can. God said, you didn’t receive a spirit of fear, you received a spirit of sonship that you can go to the father. He said, there is no condemnation for the Christians. Even if they don’t give you forgiveness, God has an answer.

James Greer (17:13):
I had somebody throw this on me early in the ministry. I just had a problem with this personal problem. This personal problem with this person. I said, you know, I don’t want to deal with you anymore. And they knew enough scripture to get you in trouble. They said, did you know what Romans 8:33 says? Not exactly. I know Romans 8:28, but not 33. And they said, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? Oh, isn’t it God who justifies? In other words, God’s saying to you, and if you hadn’t forgiven somebody, they sought to you. And if you’re the one that needs forgive and they didn’t forgive you. It says, you know, who is he who condemns? Is it not Christ who died for the moral? So risen? Who is even at the right hand of God, the father making intercession for you. In other words, God said, listen, who are they not to forgive you? Because my son is the only one that did not sin and didn’t deserve it. And he forgives you, so they should forgive you. But if they don’t, don’t stay where you at, don’t live in guilt, you know, learn to confess your faith just like you confess your guilt. You know, there is no condemnation for James, because I’m in Christ. That’s why you need to make sure you’re in Christ. Amen?

James Greer (18:02):
So, the first emotion is guilt. If you came here today and you continue to listen, you continue to live in guilt. You have confessed your sin to God. And you’ve asked the other one to forgive you. You better leave your guilt right here today because you’re actually saying without knowing it, God, maybe your son died on the cross wasn’t a great enough price to pay for my sin. Well, nobody needs to leave here guilty. They need to take those two steps and go out here free. Amen?

James Greer (18:59):
Second of all, second of all, Oh wee, it’s anger. And we’re going to talk about anger this Sunday and were talking about anger next Sunday, because I think anger destroys more relationships than any of our other emotions. Now there’s two ways people handle anger. It’s like me, I’m a volcano, I just spew it out. And then there’s those that just stuff it. They stuff it, but have you ever seen one of those stuffer’s when they finally explode? Holy moly, I’d rather just argue as we go.

James Greer (19:32):
But we all get angry and we’ve all said things we shouldn’t have. Ephesians says, 4:26. It says, be angry and sin not, and don’t let the sun go down on your wrath. Why? Because it gives place to the devil. Anger not dealt with gives the devil a foothold, a stronghold in your life. It’ll even effect the way you think. See, because if you don’t deal with anger and you don’t go back and make things right, the longer you put it off, the harder it is. And the more self-justified we get. I said, if Darryl wouldn’t have said what he said, I wouldn’t have cussed him out. Darryl’s the problem. And see, and then you start blaming other people instead of dealing with your own personal anger. And you give the devil a foothold. So, if there’s somebody that you really been angry with that you need to make it right. The sooner you make it right, the better. Let the Holy spirit convict you to do what’s right. Anger says you owe me because you took something from me. Either pay me back or I want to pay you back.

James Greer (20:23):
Anger many times is a secondary emotion. When I learned that I had got angry and did something stupid more than once. But this particular time I was trying to learn while I was angry. Almost liked it better when I was just angry. But I said, I’m going to backtrack and I’m going to really think through why I was so angry. It usually comes because you, you feel like they hurt you. You’re frustrated or you’re insecure. So, anger in itself is usually a secondary emotion and the danger. If you don’t deal with it, you pass it down to the next generation. We’ve all seen people, he’s just like his dad. His dad screamed and hollered and cussed at fault just like that. So, we don’t want to pass it down. It results in hurts. You know, forgive as soon as possible. Try to identify what you feel was taken from you or why you hurt and then move on.

James Greer (21:34):
When we forgive. Listen, when we forgive, we give up the right to hurt somebody back. I mean, you give you give it up. Even though you may have been hurt deliberately, personally and deeply, you suspend the law of vengeance because the Bible says, the Lord said in Romans 12, vengeance is mine. I will repay. Did you know that anger even affects your faith life? You start doubting what God will do in your life. Some of Jesus’ own kin got angry at him and it effected their faith life. He tells a story in Matthew 13:55, he says, how’s this possible? These were the people living in the same town that Jesus was. He’s just the carpenter son. We know Mary, like we know Mary. You know, she was pregnant when Joseph married her. We know who she is. We know your mother. We know your brother, James. We even know your sisters. They all live here. How can you be anything? Great. Jesus went to his own town. It’s like going to your own house. If there’s any place you want God to work and great, it’s your own family. Amen?

James Greer (22:38):
And he went there to do great things and changed their life and let him know who he was. That he was the Messiah that he was the promised one. And he wanted to do great thing. Sometimes you’ll come to church and you want to go home, say, man, I want to go home. I want to change my family. I want them to change their life. I want them to see what God’s doing. And they do just like this. You know what the next verse said? And they became angry at Jesus. They became offended. Then Jesus told them, you know, a prophet is honored everywhere except his own country. And among his own people. You know what the last one he summed it up? So, he did only a few great miracles there because of their unbelief and anger.

James Greer (23:29):
Don’t be surprised when God’s really working in your life and God’s trying to transform you and you try to go home, maybe share it with your kids or your mate or your mom, your dad, or somebody, your cousin, sister, brother. And all of a sudden they think who’s he think he is. I knew what he’s like, but you know what happened with them? Anger can and does affect your faith life. Their anger affect their faith life. And Jesus did just a few miracles, but he wanted to do a lot. You do know how that applies personally, right? Jesus may be wanting to use you and do a whole lot more miracles than you can even imagine because your anger, he will not.

James Greer (24:09):
Our faith lives affects our quality of life. When your faith is strong, it doesn’t matter. What’s going on in the world. Even though it’s changing so fast, faster than I’ve ever seen it. You have a different quality of life. So, if you’ve been angry and it affected your faith life, and now it’s affecting the quality of life, I don’t know why you wouldn’t let it go. See you start doubting what God can even do this in your life. And God do the impossible. Can he meet my needs is, but many times it all started with anger. What I want to do today is kind of introduce a couple of emotions. And then I want us to think about some things. At the end I’m going to give you six simple steps that can help you control your emotions. But right now, I just want to tell you, when you allow Christ to help us control our emotions, we’ll either let him help us, or our emotions will control us. You can do better, but you need to have Christ in you.

James Greer (25:01):
My question would be, do you? 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, any man, be in Christ. He’s a new creature. Old things passed away and behold, all things become new. Another translation is once you become a Christian, you’re like a brand new person inside and out. Have you allowed guilt and anger to defeat you and discourage you? Are you having some discouragement and you don’t even know where it’s coming from? Confess it, face it, forsake it and move on. Is there someone that you have been angry at and today you need to let the anger go? The quicker you do it, the freer you will be. Either you try to control your emotions, which you cannot, by the way, or you will allow the Holy spirit to control your emotions.

James Greer (25:45):
Galatians 5:22 says, the fruit of the spirit. Love joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and self-control. So, that’s where all your self-control comes from. So, you either try to do it or it will control you. Here’s the six simple, simple steps that can help you control your emotions. You really ought to take note because I can tell you the way the world is going. You’re going to need it. If you’re not like me, your emotions are up and down one day. You’re so excited. I mean, I think we’ve got the virus under control, we’re fixing to rock and roll. Everybody’s going to be back in church. I can hug and kiss. The next day, I got to wear a mask.

James Greer (26:34):
Number one, number one, you have to make the decision, okay? Maybe you need to change direction or have better control. Change what been thinking on what’s the first thing you do. If you want to help control your Moses, change your thinking. Think on the right things. Think on God’s promises, personalize them, put your name in there. Number two, humble yourself. Anytime we have stress and worry, it should be a spiritual indicator that we need to humble ourselves. Stress and worry, and I do it, is us trying to take care of the problem instead of giving the problem to God. So, we need to humble ourselves and say, God, I can’t handle this. I need your help. Would you give me guidance? Would you give me direction? Can I cast all my problems on you?

James Greer (27:25):
Third, allow the mighty hand of God to help you to elevate you. The reason I say the mighty hand of God, it’s almost, if you read Peter, it’s like God said, I’m going to reach down my hand to help you, but you have to choose. Then when it says the mighty hand of God, you need to know who that is. He’s the all powerful one. He’s the one in total control. He’s the one that did the miracles. He’s the one that fed the 5,000. He’s the one that parted the red sea. The same God said, I’m extending my hand to help you. Would you allow me to help you? No the biggest problem with stress and the problem is, we get in the way of God.

James Greer (27:58):
Fourth, cast all your hurts and cares on him. We talked about who him is. I would say cast them on him and leave him there but I know many times it comes back. I know this week, for instance, I’m doing a message on change. Your thinking, and the negative thinking just kept coming up every time I was like, God, I know I shouldn’t think of this. And every time I told myself, I thought of it more. So I said, there’s two things I can do. I can start reading God’s promises or I can listen to God’s word. I’ve got to do something because if I don’t change my thinking, I’m going to let that emotion control my life. And when I do that, I’m up and down every two hours. And that’s when I go from the bed to the couch, to the chair, to the floor, to the bed, to the couch, to the chair, to the floor. Because I was not controlling my thinking.

James Greer (28:45):
Fifth, remember the devil’s trying to devour you at every moment. God’s trying to deliver you. The devil is trying to devour you. God’s trying to deliver you. And there’s a war going on and the biggest war is in your mind. So, which one you allow into your mind will control your emotions. And six, the real simple one, take a promise every day. If you don’t know what they are in a minute, Darryl will give you an opportunity. We’ll send you a promise book, but write some of them down and put them in your pocket. Quit saying, I can’t, say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Amen? Quit saying, I fear. God didn’t give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sound mind. Quit saying everything’s going wrong and say, hey, Romans 8:28. God turns all things to our good.

James Greer (29:32):
So, you’ve got to take one and meditate on it every single day. Because as you think of that, promise, it helps control your thinking. And what you think controls where you’re going. And your emotions and what you do, and then how you do it. Do you realize if you could do those steps, everybody in here could do those. Do you realize nobody in here has to go home feeling guilty today? Did you know everybody in here can get their anger on, better control if they’re willing to humble themselves. So this is what happens at every service at the end. Nobody can make a decision, but you. I can’t make it for my wife. I can’t make it for my kids. I can only do it myself. So you have to make a decision. If you want to deal with your guilt and anger and fear the right way and go home different, or you just want to live that way. What do you say? Let me pray with you for a minute.

James Greer (30:23):
God, you’re a great God. I thank you for what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. I pray today. God, there’s not one person here today that has to go home feeling guilty. We need to confess our guilt to you, our sins, and maybe to the ones we’ve hurt. And then remember there’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Maybe you’re here and you’re not in Christ and today’s the day. You got to make a decision. If you’re online and you accept Christ. If you’re here today, just a moment you can say, Hey, I want to accept Christ. And you know that you sinned, you just admit, God I’ve sinned. I believe Jesus died for my sins and Rose. On the third day, I want him to forgive me and come into my heart and be the Lord of my life. Maybe it’s been anger. And the Holy spirit is putting his finger on the anger that you expressed this week. And right now you’re going to quit blaming everybody else. And you’re going to accept your own blame and just like guilt, anger. You’re going to admit, it’s your fault. You’re going to ask God to forgive you and those that you hurt. God when we get right with you and right with other people, you give a supernatural answered prayer. Maybe you want to join the church. You can join online or you can join at the end of the service. Uh, maybe you want to fall through and baptism. There’s no way the distancing the virus is going to keep us from getting baptized. In fact, the next service we’re going to baptize five and we’re going to celebrate. And we’re going to give you the honor and glory. Most of all, I want you to go home today with a peace that passes all understanding When the Psalmist was talking about guilt, it said, you know, it’s just such a heavy burden. When Jesus talked about it in Matthew 11, he said, come unto me all that labor and heavy Laden and I’ll give you rest. So, whether it’s rest peace, salvation, baptism, joining the church, let God have his will and his way and your life. And all the people said, Amen.

James Greer (32:29):
On behalf of Pastor James, we’re so glad you joined us this morning in worship. If you are still wanting someone to pray with you, we have people on standby that want to pray with you and for you, just click the link below and they’ll pray with you also. I just want to remind you to come back next Sunday with us here and enjoy our worship services. Pastor James continues the series on Emotional Monsters. We’ll see you next Sunday.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.

View other sermon videos and sermon outlines from the, "Emotional Monsters" Series

It’s Time to Get Up

It’s Time to Get Up

It’s time to get up. We are in a time where we need to stand up and be bold in Christ. The enemy wants to bring fear and doubt. He wants us to feel inferior and question our worth in God. But God will strengthen us. He comes to bring us victory. Victory over the emotional monsters; victory over discouragement and intimidation; and victory over the enemy.

Emotional Monster of Insecurity

Emotional Monster of Insecurity

Where do our insecurities come from? Insecurity comes from misplaced identity. Security comes from God. We often seek security in people and everything other than God. We focus more on pleasing others than pleasing God. Instead of putting our faith and confidence in Him, we focus more on how others see us than how God sees us. Develop a relationship with God where you are secure in who you are through Him.

Three Ways to Take Control of the Emotional Monsters

The life we have is a reflection of the thoughts we think. Our mind is a battlefield of God’s truth and Satan’s lies. Our emotions are driven by the thoughts we think. Be aware of strong emotions that cause stress, such as guilt and anger. When the mind is stressed, so is the body. We are not in this alone. Stop trying to manage your emotions and stress on your own. Jesus is always there to help us. Cast on Him all of the cares. He cares for us. All we have to do is humble ourselves, admit we need Him, and He will restore us.

Emotional Monsters | From a Cave to a Grave

Emotional Monsters | From a Cave to a Grave

There is one emotion we have all felt, hurt. Whether it was something minor or major, we have been hurt. However, we cannot let past hurt become a personal cave that keeps us from God’s promises. He is speaking to us and we can stand on His Word. The enemy’s mission is to keep us in these dark places where he can prey on us. God, our Father is calling us out of the cave. We are more than conquerors through Christ. Satan wants to keep us bound. God wants us to move forward.

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