Emojis have changed communication. With a single keystroke, we can boil down complex emotions or moods to one digital image. All too often we repeat this oversimplification in life outside our phones as well. Analyzing and articulating my emotions? Hard work! Letting my moods dictate my day? Easy! But the truth is, life according to “eMOODjis” comes at a cost. Your life will turn into a rollercoaster ride, making you a hostage to fleeting feelings. That’s no way to live. And luckily, we don’t have to. God has given you the ability to control your “eMOODjis” before they take control of you. It’s work, but it’s worth it!

Have you ever said “It’s not my fault I feel this way...”? Of course you have. We’ve all said it—blaming other people or circumstances for how we feel. The problem is that when we do this, we take on the role of perpetual victim with no hope of escape. Think about it: if your emotions aren’t under your control, why bother? But on the flip side, if emotions can be owned, then it means that, like anything else that belongs to you, they are yours to manage.

Well, hello church family! You guys happy to be here today? It's good to see everybody. I hope you're happy! Online, worshiping with us today, glad you guys are here as we jump in to week two of "eMOODjis" emoodjis, isn't that a fun word? It's just it's just a fun word to say, I'm gonna have to sprinkle it all throughout the message today. I am so pumped for this sermon, God was really placing this one on my heart as I prepared for this week. I hope that you were with us last week and that you enjoyed what we went over I trust as we talked about emotions and dealing with moods and feelings that you now are like just an emotionally stable rock to everybody in your life. I trust that that entire transformation is happening. And only in one week, right? Yeah, no, not, not likely. Not likely, right? It takes a while emotions, like we talked about, they're complex things. They're hard things to manage. And so it's gonna take a little bit for us to get there. But we're gonna get there, we're gonna get there, right? We're going to grow together. That's exactly what we're about here at Cornerstone, growing together, pushing ourselves farther into what God has in mind for us. So if you're ready, and are you ready, you ready to jump in today? All right, if you're ready, if you're ready online, to jump in today, we're going to get into it.

We don't normally do this. But today, I'd like us to do something a little bit different. Today, I'm going to start off reading a piece of Scripture. And in honor of the reading of God's Word, if you would, if you're in house with us today, go ahead and stand to your feet for the reading of God's Word. This is from 2 Peter. It's gonna be our section of verses that we focus on today. 2 Peter chapter one, starting in verse three, this is what Peter writes, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory, and goodness. Through these things, He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them, you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world, caused by evil desires." So that is true of you. And that is true of me. We are given a new nature by Jesus. That's good news isn't it? That's good news, we have been given a new divine nature, "having escaped the corruption of the world." Verse 5, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

Father, God, we pray for ourselves today, we pray that we would be able to hear your word in a new and fresh way. And that what we hear today would not just be words spoken by a pastor, but that we would hear your truth, and that we would allow it to do what your Word says it will do that when it is when it's spoken, it will never return void. It always goes out and accomplishes what you had in mind. And so we're believing that here today that your word has a very specific will in mind for everybody in this room, everybody watching online, everyone under the sound of my voice today. So God help us to be receptive to hear it. Help us be receptive to allow you to change our hearts and our minds, so that we would be different people as we walk out of here today, people who look and sound and act more like Jesus Christ. And we'll be sure to give you all the honor all the glory, and all the praise and everybody said in agreement. Amen. Amen.

You can go ahead and grab a seat. And as you do tell the person next to you. It's not you. It's me. It's not you. It's me. Judging from some of the laughter I'm hearing and some of the faces, you've heard that phrase before, right? Online, you've heard that phrase, maybe you've said that phrase before? No, no, no, it's not you. It's me. Right? It's not you. It's me. It's a common line that we hear in breakups, right? Maybe you've said it, maybe you've heard it. Maybe someone's said it to you. Maybe you've just seen it in a movie or sitcom, something like that. But we hear it all the time. It No, no, no, no, no, it's not you. It's me. It's me. But here's the thing. I mean, it's really a cop out, right? I mean, it's really common. How many times have people said that phrase and they actually meant it? Like, no, no, there's literally nothing wrong with you. It's really not you. I've got an issue that I need to work on. I really got something wrong. We don't mean that. It's a cop out. And we add really good Christian words to it whenever we use it. If we're a Christian, we use that cop out. We're like, no, no it's not you, God's calling me into a new season. God has closed the door, like we know how to work around this phrase and make it advantageous to ourselves, right? We know how to do this. But here's the thing. We use it as a cop out, we don't really mean it. But the fact of the matter is, is that that statement, it's not you, it's me, is actually very true. It's a very, very true statement. It's not you, it's me, because more often than not in our life, when there is a problem, whereas when there's an issue, when there's something that comes up, that isn't exactly meeting where it should be, the issue is not outside forces, the issue isn't people in our life, the issue is looking back in the mirror. It's us. It's not you. It's me. And nowhere is that more true, nowhere is that more on display than in our emotions. Than in our moods, than in our feelings, and in our attitudes. We are the issue. Well, welcome to church. Hope you didn't come here for a motivational talk today, cause ya ain't getting it. Right. You're the issue.

Before we dive too much into what we're going to be talking about today, let me just give a quick recap of where we've been too. Last week, as we started off this series, we defined what an eMOODji is, right? Because this is a word we've coined here at cornerstone. So an eMOODji, what it is, is, um, whenever we look at an emoji, an emoji is great, because we use them to communicate a complex feeling, or a complex idea in one picture, right? That's what's so great about emojis. If you tried to text out the whole thing, you'd be like, well, I'm feeling kinda happy, but also a little anxious at the same time. Rather than typing all that out, man, there's an emoji for that. Just send this one little picture. And it communicates that same idea. And so it's great we can communicate this very complex idea with one little picture. And that's awesome. The thing that's not awesome, is how we try to transfer that same kind of idea into our moods, our attitudes, and our real life, emotions, right? Real life, we are complex people, our emotions, and our moods and our attitudes are so nuanced. Like your attitude, you may be angry. And that's what you say, that's like, that's what you put out there. Just man, I'm feeling angry today. But it's so much more complex than that. You think you're angry because you got stuck in traffic, but really, you're angry because you didn't do the habits that you knew you wanted to try to start doing today. You knew you had a morning routine, and you didn't hit it, you said no to it again. And so you're feeling frustrated about that. And that's really what's going on down here. But you're not getting into all that complexity, you're going to just sum it up with an eMOODji.

I'm angry, I'm angry. And there's this bigger depth of stuff going on. But it's, it's too much. So we don't get into it. And we keep things surface level. And we only deal with our surface level emotions rather than getting deep below the surface and actually treating it the way that we should. And when we do that, whenever we never fight, whenever we never dig or actually wrestle to get to the real stuff below, we get weak, because we're never actually doing the work so we get weak and we become emotionally crippled people. And here's this: the fact of the matter, and I'm sorry if this is you, but emotionally crippled people, no one wants to be around them. They literally suck the life out of others. They suck the joy out of others, emotionally crippled people. You would prefer most people would prefer it honestly, just about everybody I know would prefer to spend time with an emotionally healthy nonbeliever. Then with an emotionally crippled Christian, you'd rather work for an emotionally healthy non-believer than an emotionally healthy Christian. I would wager you'd rather be married to an emotionally healthy nonbeliever, then an emotionally crippled Christian, who every single day you're riding the waves of how they're going to treat you, how they're going to treat the kids, how they're going to act, if the slightest thing is gonna throw their day off, and everyone's gonna pay for it. We become crippled, emotionally. We allow our moods and our eMOODjis to dictate our days. And when that happens, man, we just start spiraling out of control, and we are nowhere near what God had in mind for us.

So we talked about the idea that we combat that with the truth that hey, I'm more than a mood. Like, yeah, moods can come, and moods can be very powerful. They can feel like they should dictate my day, but the fact is, I'm more than my mood. I'm more than what I'm feeling on occasion. Case by case basis on a moment by moment basis, I'm more than that, I am more than a mood. And in fact, a mood isn't supposed to be my guide. It's supposed to be a notification. It's supposed to be something that pops up. That makes me go, man, I'm feeling I'm feeling angry. Why? Why? A mood is an alert to something I should be paying attention to. Okay, so I'm feeling this mood, I'm feeling anger, why? Why am I angry? Is it really about traffic? Or is it really because I know that I've been saying I wanted to get up and get in Scripture more, and I haven't for like the seventh day straight. I've had a week straight of this. And subconsciously, I'm mad at myself for not doing what I know I need to do. But that's the real issue. But I'm blaming it on traffic today. Or I'm blaming it on all these smaller other things. Moods, or notifications are alerting us to what we should be paying attention to.

Now, if you were with us last week, or just through that recap, you may have noticed a common theme recurring over and over again. And this is it. Your situations in life, and my situations in life, they really don't matter. They really don't matter. And I know you're probably thinking, excuse me? Do you know my situation? Do you know the stuff I'm trying to get through in my life? Do you know what's come my way? In the last week, last month? Do you know what's going on? I don't. I don't. But what I know from the truth of God's Word, what I know from the example of Jesus in His ministry, is that your situations when it comes to your mood, having control over you, they really do not come into play. At least they're not supposed to. They're not supposed to.

Have you ever, and I can fully admit not only have I ever said this, I've said this recently, a lot. So I want you to know your pastor is right in the thick of this with you. But have you ever said something like? Well, it's not my fault I feel this way. It's not my fault. No, they made me, that thing made me. My day was awful because of X, Y, or Z. I'm in a terrible mood because of this. I'm feeling depressed because this happened. I'm feeling you know, angry because this happened. All of these different emotions, all these different moods, all these different feelings. And they're all because of something out here. Something out here that happens to me. We've all said it. I mean, let's be real. We've all said something like that. I can't help it. They made me. We blame other people. We blame other circumstances for our moods. And here's the problem when we do that it can seem so you know, innocent. Everyone does it. Everyone blames other circumstances for our moods.

But here's what happens whenever we blame our moods, our attitudes, our feelings and our emotions. When we blame them on all these external circumstances, what we are doing is we are creating and cultivating. So we're creating and we're just continually feeding this idea, this mindset that says, I am a perpetual victim. That's me, perpetual victim, nice to meet you. I have no control over my life, zero control over how I react to things, zero control over how I speak to people because I am just a creature of my moods. However, however, the day has treated me that's how I'll treat you. Because I just I ride out my feelings. I write out my emotions, I ride out my attitudes and my moods. Because what happens is whenever we think of our moods that way, when we say oh, they made me feel this way or this happened so that's why I feel this way, what we're doing is we're setting up this idea that we're hostages, we're hostages of our moods. Like, we can't help what happens. And so that creates a feeling that there's no hope of escape. To me, just think about this for a moment. If your emotions aren't under your control, if your emotions really aren't under your control, if "they made me" is really true, or if this happened, so this is why I feel this way, if that's really true, and you have no control, then why would you ever bother trying to change anything in your life? Right? I mean, why would you ever bother if you feel like you have zero control over the matter, you ain't doing nothing. You're not doing a thing.

On the flip side, whenever you feel like you have control over an issue, what do you do? You put in the work. You do things to change it because you realize, wait a second, I have some control here. So whenever your weight or your fitness level starts to get to a level where you're going man you know what I need to I need to pay attention to this yes, I get the genetics are a thing. I get that that's a thing. And it's a it's a circumstance. It's a situation I didn't choose that I find myself in I don't have great genetics. But you know what, I can control this to a degree. I can start watching what I eat. I can start exercising I can start taking the stairs. Instead of elevate, I can start parking a little bit farther away, I can, I can start making sure that I never have two bad meals in a row like I can do all these things to start controlling my weight. And the whole reason you make those choices is because you feel and you know, I have some control here. Maybe not total control, but I do have some control.

When it comes to your finances the exact same thing. If you're in debt. If you're in debt, and you're trying to get out of debt, you may look at that situation and go, man, I remember signing up for this loan. I remember doing stupid things. Whenever I was younger building up this debt, I didn't even really fully realize what I was doing at the time. But now I'm saddled with all this debt and it feels overwhelming. But you know what, if I start skipping a few times going out to eat instead, eat at home, if I bring my lunch, you know, if I try to carpool a little more often, if I cut out these bills, man, I can start throwing some money at this. And before I know it, I could actually get this debt knocked out and eliminated. And the whole reason you feel that way, is because you realize you have control. Because you realize, man, yeah, there's certain situations I, I can't necessarily control how much I make it work. I can't necessarily control these things. But man, I can control where my money is going. And so I'm going to control that I'm going to start eating away at my debt.

I mean, we know this, we know this to be true. We know this to be true at work. We know this to be true in our marriages, in our relationships. We know this to be true at school. Yes, there's a whole multitude of things that I can't control. But there's plenty that I can. And so you start working at those areas you can control. That's why it's so deadly to look at our emotions and our moods and our feelings and say, Well, I just made me feel this way. I just I couldn't help it. I, this made me feel this way. This made me mad. This made me angry. This made me sad. This made me depressed. And the crazy thing is many of us live this way. We live this way as a prisoner of our emotions as a prisoner of our moods, from day to day, just completely being hostage to how we feel moment by moment. And so what we do, and maybe this sounds familiar, we we look for purpose in our job, we look for our spouse to fulfill needs that only God can fulfill. We look for our friends to fulfill our wants and our needs. We do all these things. And when they obviously don't, because no one can do those things, and it falls through, we wear our emotions on our sleeve. Emotional manipulation. We were our emotions on our sleeve. We let everyone know we're angry. We let everyone know we're sad. We let everyone know that they've let us down. Well, not everybody. Because in this truth, we say that we can't help it right? Bad day at work, stuck in traffic, not having enough money to pay a bill all this different stuff will say we can't help it, that this made me feel this way.

But isn't it funny how we can make sure our emotions aren't too out of whack in certain places? We can hold it together at work, then we come home and just lay it on everybody at our house, right? We just completely obliterate our family with this stuff and just crap all over the people who mean the most to us. And we just throw it all on them and have no emotional check at all. Right? It's emotional manipulation. That's emotional immaturity. And it is unhealthy and it is awful. And let me tell you, it is not even remotely the fulfilling future that Jesus had in mind for you. Not even close.

What are we talking about here? Cornerstone? What is our mission? I want to see if you guys can do this. Let's see if we can fill this out. Helping people find..."A Father, a family, and a fulfilling future." Oh my goodness, give yourself a round of applause. There you go. Wish I had a prize to give you like Oprah just throwing stuff out like oh, yeah, everyone wins something... But I don't. You just get kudos, you get kudos. But yeah, that's what we want to help people do is find the Father, a family and a fulfilling future like that's, we're not content with you just finding the Father. We want you to live into the fulfilling future that Jesus has promised here and now. And let me tell you emotional maturity, that is what a fulfilling future looks like. If you are emotionally immature, it's the opposite of a fulfilling future. It is damaged relationships. That's what your life will look like. Right? That's what it will be characterized by.

And here's what I want to let you know if you are living moment by moment, letting your moods just dictate how you feel and say hey, I can't help it. I can't help it, this is how I was made to feel, if that's the case, let me tell you, you are living out a lie. You're living out a lie. Because the truth of the matter, and I want you to listen real close on this. The truth of the matter is I have everything I need to manage everything I feel. Hear that? I have everything I need to manage everything I feel. Listen to what it says in the Scripture we looked at again today. "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness." His divine power has given us everything. Everything, there is nothing that we lack. We are not shortchanged. That means God is a good father, and he's given you what you need in life. He is not shortchange you, he is not holding back. What that means is when a mood hits you, you have what you need to hit back. Like you're not just this captive, and well, they said this to me, and so that's how I feel and now everyone's gonna see how I feel. No, when moods hit, you can hit back.

It's a lot like this. I have a prop for today. So it's a lot like medicine. I raided our medicine cabinet this morning. One of our MPs here Michelle Higgins was saying watch your wife is gonna need all the stuff you took from home. I'm like, I know. So Jessica. I'm sorry. I took it all so hopefully you didn't need this today. But let's look at what we're working with here. Okay, some of the stuff from my medicine cabinet. We've got Tylenol, Cold and Flu Severe big deal stuff. Um, what do we have here? Benadryl Allergies, Zarbee's Natural Child Sleep Aid. I would buy stock in this if I could. This stuff is like, ahhh. We got Hall's Cough Drops. Let's see Icy-hot which I might need to pop one of those in. Icy-Hot Pain Relief and Cream. I'm not kidding. I might have to use this too. Thank you very much. I might have to use this. If you're with us. Last week, I talked about the fact that my arms and my shoulders were sore from throwing the football on vacation. They're still sore, like, well, I don't know what's happening to me. So you guys need to be praying for your pastor. I'm falling apart here. What else do we got? We got some. We got some Pepto Bismol. If you know you need some real help. Ibuprofen for headaches, Neosporin for cuts and got a few little stray band aids, there's always those just flying around right at the house. Oof. If you're really having a bad time we got some stool softener. If that's you, you can come up we'll lay hands on the after service and try to help you out a little bit. We got some wart remover, let's see we've got some iron supplements. And we've got some severe toothache and gum relief oral suppressant. So I mean, look at all this. This is this is a lot of stuff, right? A lot of different medications. And here's the thing. If I feel any kind of ache, I feel any kind of itch. But you feel any kind of pain, if I feel any kind of, you know, stopped up a little bit. If I feel any of that stuff, here's what's so great if I feel any of those things. I got everything I need. I have everything I need for what I feel. And it's all right at home in a medicine cabinet that is accessible to me. I have what I need to manage what I feel. And you do too.

You don't have an empty medicine cabinet at home. It's stocked Your Father has made sure of that you have a stocked, fully loaded medicine cabinet that you have access to. So what that means is when I feel a feeling, I am not hostage to its demands anymore. I don't have to say, well, I couldn't help it. Well, hey, this is this is what I'm feeling. And I don't have to try to make it sound good as a Christian. Well, I feel like God's calling me to this. No, no, no, no, I don't have to give into that stuff and try to pretty it up in any way. I have a way out. I have a way to treat it. I have a way to manage it. I have everything I need to manage everything that I feel. Because remember, it's not you. It's me. Let's say it out loud. It's not you. It's me. It's not all this other stuff going on out here. It's not. It's not you and it's not them and it's not, you know, my job and it's not the car that always seems to be going wrong. And it's not my spouse and it's not my kids, and it's not the house and it's not bills and it's not school. No. All of these circumstances and all of these situations, they do not get to manage my mood. My mood is exactly that. Mine I own it, I own it, your mood is exactly that, it is yours, no one else owns it, no one else gets to dictate it, it is yours and yours alone. My mood is mine, I own it.

And here's the thing. If I own it, I control it. If I own it, if I have ownership of my mood, if I have ownership of my feelings, if I have ownership over my emoodjis, if I got ownership of those things, I control them. If it's mine, then it's up to me to act. It's up to me to do something. And God has told us to do exactly that. Listen to again, what it says in verse 5, we just read this. "For this very reason," listen to what he says, "make every effort." Effort implies action, implies doing something implies you actually playing a part here, "make every effort to add to your faith." Peter is very clear. He says in verses 3 and 4, God has given you something he has given you divine nature, he has given you the ability to manage yourself through the power of His Holy Spirit. God has given us that we have that power. We've got a stocked medicine cabinet. We're not coming into a fight where God's just saying, I'm completely ill equipping you, but good luck. Like, no, we're coming into this knowing yeah, there will be scrapes, there will be bruises, there will be upset stomachs, there will be headaches, all that stuff's gonna happen. But don't worry, I'm equipping you. You don't have to handle all that stuff the way the world handles it. You don't have to handle it and just allow it to ruin your life and take you out. No, there's ways to treat it. I've given you that, I have given you everything you need to manage it. Because they're your emotions. They're your moods. And if they're yours, you can control them through the power of the Spirit, I can add I can subtract what I need to.

So I have the medicine. I have the fully loaded medicine cabinet. But the thing is, it's up to me to take it. It's up to me to take it. Just then I have a little bit of an itch in my throat. I could have tried to power through this whole message with my eyes getting watery and me being like, you know what I mean? Instead? No, can I get some water? Boom, it helps. It's gone. How crazy for me to sit down seeing a bunch of bottles of water and not ask for one. Crazy, right? Except I do this. I can't even tell you how many times at home. I've had a headache. Jessica will come in. So like seeing me on the couch or something be like man, are you alright? Which that never makes you feel good. Because like I must look like crap. If someone's coming in like whoa, you okay? So she'll walk in and say that I'm like, yeah, I just man pounding headache, it's hard for me to even think right now. So oh, wow. Okay. Did you take anything? No. What are you waiting for? Like, I mean, you have like you have what you need. There's ibuprofen, there's acetaminophen. Not only do we have Tylenol, we have like seven kinds of Tylenol. We got liquid gels and we got caps and we got all this different stuff. Like, why aren't you taking it? It's on me because if I own it, I control it. It's on me to actually take the medicine. It's on me to actually take it I mean, think about it that come on guys. We don't you don't let your physical wounds just run their course untreated. Maybe here and there. You have a little small cut. You don't really think anything about it. But generally speaking, if you have a pounding headache that is not going away. If you have a cut, it's pretty serious. It looks pretty deep. You don't just completely leave it untreated. No, what do you do? You treat it, you treat it you gotta cut, you take some Neosporin, you take a band aid and you you treat it. You have a pounding headache, you have a migraine or something, man, you take some acetaminophen and you close the curtains and you lay down for a while, you treat it. If you have a physical wound, you treat that wound, but for some unbeknownst reason to me when it's an emotional wound, when it's a mood when it's a feeling. We don't treat it. We just let it run its course.

Think about how we talk about moods and feelings. I can't talk to you right now. All right. I just I can't go through this right now. I can't do this. I'm feeling a certain way. We need to wait until tomorrow. We need to wait till tomorrow. No, my mood right now I just I can't even have this discussion with you. You know what we are doing in that moment? We are just telling our moods and our feelings, you are Lord over my life right now. You get to say how I feel how I act anything until you run your course. Then afterwards, maybe I'll get some semblance of self back, but until then, you get to sit on the throne of my life, because you were just running everything for me. Nope, can't have that conversation because of the mood I'm in, because of how I'm feeling because of my attitude.

Who is in control? Who is in control? We are. They're our emotions, they're our moods, and if we own it, we control it. Don't let your moods run its course, God has given you what you need. So if I own it, and he's giving me what I need, then I can control it through the power of the Spirit, I can manage it through the power of the Spirit, and I can treat it through the power of the Spirit, all of those things can happen. Absolutely all those things can happen. And this is this is something I wanted to lay out too, is not just for today, but as we go forward in this series, whenever we talk about it, and what we're looking at, and what we're wanting to try to have happen in our life, emotional maturity, being who we're supposed to be who God created us to be, when it comes to our emotions. The Apostle Peter man, he was so kind to lay out an exact list of what it's supposed to look like in our lives, we already read it, I'm gonna read it again, this is if you want to know if you're an emotionally healthy person, this is what characterizes your life. Listen to this, this is so good. "For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self control." Just those three things, could our world use a little bit more goodness, you know, self control.

The elementary school, I went to was Chapel Hill. And I remember we would do these awards for fruits of the Spirit. And so for every fruit of the Spirit, you would get an award if you really exemplified that over the recent month. And there was like definitions for every word. And I remember the one for self control was self control, surrendering control of my total self to the Holy Spirit. How different our world would be if just people who claim Jesus said, I am surrendering control of my total self, including my moods, including my attitude, including my emotion, to the Holy Spirit. I'm surrendering all of it. And to self control perseverance and perseverance godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. That is what it looks like to be emotionally healthy. To have those things, goodness and self control and love and mutual affection for people in the world. That's what it looks like to be emotionally healthy to have those things characterize your life. Anyone in here blessed to know someone like that? It's good, isn't it? When you have someone in your life, who is good? Who perseveres, who has self control, who loves man, I have been blessed to have numerous people like that my life, my parents, my grandparents, I've had friends like that. And let me tell you, when you're around those people, you feel alive, don't you? You just you feel something within you that you can't even really put words to. It's incredible. I've been with people like that. And then after you leave a conversation with them, you feel like you can charge hell with a water pistol. Like, you just want to do something. You know what I mean? You just want to do something, you want to be active, you want to make a difference. You want to do something, because you see in their life, and you hear how they talk. And you're like, man, nothing fazes them. Like, they're not they're not being fake. They're not acting like stuff isn't hard in life, but they're acting like the God they serve as greater. They're actually taking steps like he really is the King of their life, and that he really has overcome the world. And, man, I want that, like, I want that in my life too. And you see that and you just, you want it. And not only do you want that in your life, you start to want to become that person. You look at that. And you're like goodness sakes, I want to be that. I want to be a person that other people can count on. I want to be a person that is steady. I want to be a person  who is a blessing to every single person they're around. I want to be someone who's good and wise, and kind.

And the amazing thing is I'm looking around the room and I see plenty of those people. Like I see plenty of those people, people who are stewards in our church, people who, the reason our church is still here, think about this and the pandemic, they said, statistics are showing that as we get out of the pandemic, there will probably be one out of every five churches that has to close its doors for good. Think about that. That's a shocking number of churches that have just gone, just gone. Not not for any period of time than reopening. No, they're just done. But here we are. Like, here we are, and we're still going. And the reason, the reason that's happening, let me tell you is not because we have a congregation full of people who just ride out their emotions. If we did, we would already be closed for good. The reason we're still here, the reason we are still taking ground, the reason we're still pushing forward and advancing the gospel, the only reason is because we have people in our church who exemplify knowledge and goodness and self control and perseverance and godliness, and love. That's why we're here. That's why we're here. And that's why we're taking this round as a church because we have stewards who are doing that, and MPs who are doing that, who are saying, I'm going to come and I'm going to give, and I'm going to serve and I'm going to be sacrificial, and over my dead body is this church is going to fail, like it ain't happening.

And those people let me tell you, you don't start to think about people outside of yourself until you're emotionally healthy. Because you are so utterly consumed with self and making sure you get what you want, and that your moods and emotions are met, you don't even get there until you're emotionally healthy. Even the stuff that you do that looks good is actually for you. We have got to become emotionally healthy people who give life to everybody we're around, and we can do it. Because God has given us everything we need to manage everything we feel. Becoming those people is attainable. Like this isn't some pipe dream for one day when I go to glory, like I'll become I'll become the person that Jesus had in mind for me, that is not at all it. Man,  it's gonna be in a sermon series sometime coming up. But our idea of what Christianity is and so many, so many ways, it's so messed up that we think it's like a eternal retirement plan, that I just put my faith in Jesus, and I kind of muddle my way through life. But hey, one day, I'll be able to retire on that pension. That is not what it's about, like it's never been about it. We'll see, whenever you read Scripture, you look at the early followers of Jesus, they cared so little about what happened after they die, they barely talked about it, they were so concerned with what they were doing while they were living for Christ, that they that was just off in the distance. And that's where we need to be. That's where we need to be, we need to be living in the here and now. Being the people Jesus has called us to be and created us to be right now, living that fulfilling future out in our own life.

And here is the key. Here's here's the last point we'll get to. Here's the key with all of this stuff that I want you to remember, if you hear one thing today, I hope you heard everything. If you hear one thing today, I want you to hear this: when it comes to the outcomes in life, the situations or circumstances that we find ourselves in, the things that seem to control our moods so much. I don't get to control my outcome, neither to you, the outcomes that we experience in life, I don't own my outcome, but I do own my output. And there is a very clear, stark difference between those two things. I don't own the outcomes in life, I don't get to dictate and say, well, this is how this is going to work out. And I need it to work out that way. If my moods gonna be good, and this is how this is gonna work out. And I'm always going to get the promotion I want, I'm always going to get the guy I want, everyone's always going to believe the best things about me, like all of this is going to be so perfect and wonderful, and everything's good. That does not get to happen. If you've lived for any amount of time you realize that. But for some reason, we still try to control outcomes. We can't, I don't own my outcome, I can't control my outcome. But I do control and I do own my output. Listen again, to the closing part of our scripture from today." For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see, what Peter is saying is, hey, if you follow Jesus, if you're if you're someone who's emotionally healthy, and you're trusting Him with all of this, you don't have to worry about being unproductive or ineffective, because that's up to Him. That's up to Him. You don't control the outcome. And you don't want to control the outcome. Just control your output. Just possess these qualities in increasing measure. And as you do, you don't have to worry about the outcomes in life, because God will lead you and He will take you exactly where you are supposed to be. And let me tell you, if you're someone who struggles with anxiety, that should be a relief. That should be something that removes that burden off your shoulders and says, wow, okay, I don't, I don't have to control how my life turns out. I just have to control what I put into it. I just have to control how I react to it. I just have to control how I respond to it. That's it and then I leave the rest to Him.

So what that means is I can't make the aches and the pains and the edges and the scratches, I can't make the virus, I can't make all those things go away. But I can take my medicine. That's what I can do. I can't control the outcome. I can't even control that if I take the medicine that will work the exact way that I've hoped and thought that it should, but I can take it. And I can trust that the people who developed it know what they're doing, and that it will lead to a more healthier future. In the same way in our life, and with our emotions, man, we have got to understand I don't control the outcome, all I control is the output. So I'm just gonna take my medicine, I'm not gonna try to force outcomes in my life, I'm not going to try to only get into situations where something will happen that will make my mood good. Because how often does your mood just naturally tend towards being good, and happy and joyful? Now, if you've lived life, you know that life is constantly throwing punches at you. And just being good and feeling good and being in a good mood does not come naturally. It doesn't. But the good news is, is that you supernaturally can choose something better. And that is not just relying on how you feel in a moment, but the choice that you make, to submit those feelings and those moods to Jesus.

And it's possible, it's possible through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do that. We can actually do that. On your own if you try to manage your moods on your own, if you try to just manage your feelings, let me tell you, you are going to crash and burn every single time because emotions are a powerful thing. All you have to do is look at the landscape of the world and see people who have built reputations for themselves built power and prestige for themselves. And in a moment, they've sacrificed all of it because of an emotion. Emotions are powerful. They are powerful, moods are powerful, feelings are powerful. And if you try to handle them on your own, you will fail just like everybody else fails. But in His presence, those moods that seemed all consuming, those emotions that seem like man, I can't get out from under this, those attitudes and those moods that you have suddenly, in the presence of God, it's amazing how those things can start to lose their power. And as you start building that muscle of really dealing with your emotions and saying, I'm submitting this to you, Jesus, I feel such unbelievable grief. But you know what I am more than my mood, I am more than that grief. And so I'm going to process it with you. I'm not going to process it on my own and allow it to just run its course, no, I'm going to process it with you. So I am submitting my grief at your feet. I'm submitting my anger at your feet, I'm submitting my lust at your feet. I'm submitting everything at your feet because I know you are the only one who is capable of getting me through this.

I told you last week about a friend of mine who found out about his wife cheating on him. And in that moment, he said if he would have ever found out something like that before the kind of life he lived, he's like I would have killed her. I'm not kidding you. But in that moment, after working through feelings in his past, after trying to get closer and closer to Jesus, God came through for him. And in that moment, he wanted reconciliation. In the moment he found out about it. That's not natural. That's supernatural. That's not something that you just say, well, yeah, I worked on it on my own. No, that is something that you get from God coming in and saving the day. That's the only way that happens. And let me tell you that happens by you getting in his presence. Because again, you own your moods, you own your emotions. And so you decide how am I going to control this thing? Am I going to control it on my own? Or am I going to submit it to Jesus? Submit it to Him. I don't know where you're at today. I don't know what you're carrying. I don't know what grief or depression or anger or pride or lust or bitterness or resentment that you come in here with today. But whatever it is, you cannot handle it on your own. The moods, the attitudes, the emotions, man, they will take you all over the place. It will be a roller coaster ride and you don't want on that ride. So get in His presence and submit it to him.

Father God, we thank you for the truth of your Word. We thank you for the fact that as we get into your presence, the things around us the things of the world start to grow strangely dim because we are so focused on you in on who you are. And God we know that as we come into your presence with the different attitudes and moods and feelings and emotions that seem to control our lives, that as we get into your presence, those things start to lose their power, their grip starts to slip on our life. So God we invite you here today. We ask that your presence would fill this room, would fill every room where people are watching from home or on the road or wherever they're at, that your presence would be here because we know in your presence, everything changes, that the past that we've been running from that changes, that the brokenness that we've had that changes, that the emotions and the feelings that we have, that those all can change, because they all have to submit to you. We just have to turn them over to you. And that's what we do. In these next moments. Jesus, we make this declaration that our attitudes, our emotions, our feelings, our moods, we submit all of them to you, our King, and ask you to take their place and to show us a new better way of living. A way of living in the midst of your presence.