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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Creflo Dollar » Creflo Dollar - Gaining Control Over Your Emotions

Creflo Dollar - Gaining Control Over Your Emotions


Creflo Dollar - Gaining Control Over Your Emotions
TOPICS: Emotions

If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of 3 John verse 2. I'm gonna give a little review before we get into today's continuation of the series, "Gaining Authority over Your Emotions", gaining authority over your emotions. Now, for the most part, churches spend a lot of time talking about, you know, your spirit and spiritual things and how to pray and what you ought to do, what you ought not to do, but we spend very little time talking about one of the most vital areas of our life, and that is our emotions.

You see, we all have 'em, so we probably need to talk about 'em, just, you know, figure out how to deal with our feelings, how to deal with our emotions. We all have emotions, but, unfortunately, sometimes they have us, and God has given us emotions to enjoy life, but he wants us to operate in emotional stability. He never designed the system where you were to be dominated and where you are to be mastered by your emotions, and yet for a lot of Christians, because we don't talk about it and because we don't understand it and 'cause we don't know where it fits in our everyday lives, we're experiencing a lot of traumatic feelings and emotions, a lot of hurt and depression. And not only that, but even joy and all that kinda stuff and peace, but yet we don't understand where emotions fit in the life of the believer.

And I am telling you that if you can control your emotions, you can do anything in life, but I'm also telling you if you cannot control your emotions then you will attempt to try to control some other person. God has given us authority over everything that he created, but he's never given us authority to try to control other people, but I'm telling you right now when you are out of control and when you can't control your own emotions, you will attempt to try to control other people.

So, this is all to the single people. If you meet people who are out of control emotionally, they don't make good candidates for marriage. They need to get their emotions in control before they go out and, you know, try to do anything where you're concerned, amen? "Yeah, but, Pastor, you don't understand they cute". Cute ain't got nothing to do with it. In the middle of the night, if they start floating up above the bed and turning their head around and, all right, anyway, so we have emotions, but in this series I'm trying to convince you that you can control them. I'm trying to convince you that your emotions do not... or you do not have to give your emotions authority over your life and then you're responding emotionally based on the situations and circumstances that are in your life.

So let's begin in 3 John chapter 1, one chapter, verse 2. And he says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers". So, here he says your success and prosperity in life is gonna be based on how successful you are in your soul. Now, man is a spirit. He possesses a soul. He lives in a physical body. Religiously, we've used the word "spirit" and "soul" interchangeably as if they are the same, and they are not. You don't have a spirit. You are a spirit. You have a soul. You are a spirit being. Say, "I am a spirit". Say, "I possess a soul". Say, "I live in a physical body".

Now, the soul part of a man is made up of the mind, the will, watch this, and the emotions. Your soul is made up of your thinker, your feeler, your chooser, and so as goes your soul, so goes your life. Now, I wanna add precision to these things that we've heard in times past. As goes your emotions, so goes your life. Your emotions, if you allow them, they will take you in places some good based on the emotion and some bad based on the emotion. That you are kinda like a guy who's surfing. You'll ride on the wave of your emotions, and you've got to learn how to fall out of love with your feelings.

In the Amplified it says, "I want you to prosper in every way", in every way, "and that your body keeps well, even as your soul keeps well". "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and that your body may keep well, even as I know your soul keeps well and prospers", or have success. So, here he says, "I want you to be successful in every way". That's the will of God. The will of God for your life is to be successful in every way.

See, you've got to know the will of God for your life. The will of God is for you to be successful in every way. The will of God is for your body to keep well. That's God's will, so if you're not being successful in every way and if your body is not keeping well, just by knowing the will of God you should rise up in your authority and say, "I'm not putting up with this. This is not God's will. His will is for me to be successful in every way and for my body to keep well. Body, get well. Line up with the Word of God". Why? 'Cause that's God's will for my life.

Something about recognizing when something is God's will for your life. There is a passion that comes out of you that says, "No, I'll not tolerate nothing else in my life except the will of God, and this is not the will of God, amen? God's will is not for me to be failing and go from one place of failure to another place of failure and try to figure out what's going on and what's wrong". That's not God's will. God's will for your life is to be successful in every way. He wants your body to keep well and that is what you should be using your authority to make happen in your life. "This is not God's will. I am gonna align my life up with God's will". If you agree with that, say, "Amen".

And then he says here is the key to all of this. The key to all of this is your soul, and I wanna be with precision, your emotions, because I believe the attack is your emotions, your emotions, so let's define again emotions. They are feelings. Emotions are feelings on the inside 'caused by pain or pleasure to move you in a direction. Feelings on the inside caused by pain or pleasure to move you in a direction. When those emotions don't line up with the Word of God, they will move you in a direction from the will of God for your life and from the design of God for your life. It will move you away from that, so, it's not okay just to have negative emotions, because those negative emotions serve a purpose: to move you away from the will of God and the designed purpose for your life, so I want you to think about it.

Every time you settle with depression and you just keep that emotion, it's working on moving you. Every time you, you know, allow anger and bitterness and hurt, all of those emotions in a negative sense are designed to move you away from peace and joy and all those kinda things. Now, these emotions that will come from God, these emotions of peace, these emotions of joy, they are gonna move you, as well, but they're gonna move you towards the designed purpose for your life. And that's why you're gonna have to choose the emotions that will move you towards the will of God for your life. You choose the emotions that are gonna move you towards the designated purpose for your life, so now even here you have a choice, but you've got to know the objective of negative emotions, and Satan will ride your emotions like a wave to get you away from the purpose of God, the blessing of God.

And nobody ever thinks about that. We're just thinking that, well, emotions are just something that just happens that you don't have control over, and that's just not it. And until you come to the place of understanding that you can control your emotions, you are not gonna get to the place of being a person that will understand, well, how did you end up here and how did you end up there? Your emotions took you there. Your emotions, like a wave, will take you somewhere and the question for you this morning is where are you? Where are you? How did you get there? Your emotions took you there. How did I get back into drug addiction? Your emotions took you there. How did I get to the place where this is my third divorce? Your emotions took you there. How did I get to the place of being so depressed where I wanna kill myself? Your emotions took you there. How did you get to the place where you're now walking in the will of God for your life? The right emotions took you there.

Listen, Satan is going to ride your emotions because that's the part of you that will move you. That's the part of you that moves you in a direction. Now, you can control your emotions. There are three things I wanted you to get from last week. Number one, you can control your emotions. Say out loud, "I can control my emotions". The second thing I wanted you to get from last week is that self-control (this is important), self-control is a godly force that's been designed by God to direct our lives where he has designed them to go, so self-control, temperance, is so very important. Why? God uses that to direct your life in the place where he's designed you to go.

So, every time you're attempted to be out of control, like I said before, a man who cannot control his emotions is the weakest man on the planet. And if you can operate in self-control and temperance, and that's a force that God will use to get you to the place where he's designed for you to be. Yes, you're gonna be tempted to lose it and all that kinda stuff, but remember by losing it it's gonna take you from that designated place where God wants you to be and by having self-control it's gonna lead you to that place where God wants you to be. That's the second thing I wanted you to get.

The third thing I wanted you to get is that when you cannot control your emotions and your emotions are out of control, then you will attempt to try to control other people. And that's the one area that God does not want man to try to control, and that is other people. Now, Jesus understands this. Jesus knows about emotions, and he would never allow his emotions to take charge of his life. Now, people will think, "Well, Jesus, you know, where in the Bible does it talk about Jesus having emotions"? I mean, think about it. Why haven't we ever talked about in church, the fact that Jesus has emotions? Because we've been focused on the spiritual, we've been focused on healing, and that's fine, but we also gotta be focused on this area of our lives where emotions are concerned.

Look at Hebrews chapter 4, I believe, in... and verse 15 and in Hebrews 4:15 it talks about how Jesus, he says, "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sins". I'm telling you Jesus was tempted in the area of feelings, in the area of emotions, but because those emotions did not master him, he didn't end up in sin because he mastered his emotions. And I'm gonna show you that all sin, all sin is conceived in a man's emotions. You conceive in a man, in your emotions and when you understand how vital this area of our life is, we're gonna start taking a little bit more, attempt to try to, you know, understand how to live successfully in the area of emotional prosperity.

Well, look at Mark chapter 14. Let's go to the Amplified and let's identify some of these emotions that Jesus knew about. You know, it surprise a lot of people when they realize that Jesus knew about depression and that Jesus knew about stress. We take you here in Mark chapter 14, and we see a Jesus who's about to take on the sins of the whole world. Mark chapter 14. We see a Jesus who's about to, you know, take the very pain of the entire world on his shoulders and in verse 33 and 34. Mark 14:33 and 34 he says, "And he took with him Peter and James and John, and he began to be struck with terror", Jesus struck with terror? "And amazement. He was deeply troubled and depressed".

This is talking about Jesus. Terror, amazement, troubled, and depressed. Look at verse 34, "And he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad", Jesus? "(Overwhelmed with grief)", Jesus? "So that it almost kills me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching". So, Jesus experienced the feelings and emotions of terror, of stress, of grief, of sadness, of depression, so he's not like on this Earth in his body and he's not experiencing these things. And so, how did he handle it? Did he just give authority to his emotions and say, "Well, you know, depression is here, so, you know, I'm gonna let depression now take charge of my life and take me away from the very purpose of my life, and that's dying on the cross. I can handle all these things"? Or, "Am I gonna take charge of these emotions and keep going forward"?

Look at the next verse, because this is what he advised. So, what did he do? How did he handle these negative emotions? All of us will have to face at one time in our life, a lot of times in our lives, negative emotions, and how do you handle them? He said, "And going a little farther, he fell on the ground, and he kept praying that if it were possible that this fatal hour might pass from him". He gave two advice. He gave us two bit of advice right here. He said, "Number one, I want you to keep going forward and doing what you know God has called you to do", so he says in the midst of negative emotions don't change your course.

Turn to your neighbor and say, "Stay on course", so negative emotions are designed to knock you off course. "I want you to turn around and go another place". And any time some bad emotion come, "Well, maybe God this". And you know how people do, especially Christians, "Maybe God don't want me to do that". Just 'cause you bump into some trouble doesn't mean that God wants you to change your course. He just wants you to grow up and mature a little bit and say, "No, I expect for you to come, because the Bible says, 'In this world you'll have tribulation.' I was expecting for you to show up, but guess what? I'm not changing my course. This is what I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna go forward a little. Even if it's just a little, I'm gonna go forward a little".

And then the second thing he advises for us to do is he said keep on praying. Why does he say keep on praying? Keep your focus on what God told you to do. Don't lose your focus, man. There is so much going around and depression can try to get you to lose your focus and stress will try to get you to lose your focus. And what he says, "That's the time I want you to choose the right emotions, and I want you to take charge of your emotions and say, 'Just 'cause it's bad out there and in trouble doesn't mean I have to have a bad attitude, doesn't mean I have to have bad emotions. I'm gonna forward, I'm gonna stay focused, and y'all gonna have to get out of the way in a moment because you will not move me'". Praise God. Amen.

So, emotional stability, ladies and gentlemen, emotional stability is absolutely the will of God for our lives. Look at Isaiah 26 and verse 3. It's the will of God for your life. It is not God's will for your emotions to take charge and begin to move you in all these different directions, and I tell you most Christians who are going through issues right now, I guarantee you they are people who do not understand that they have control and that they can master their emotions. And I mean I want you to start now, learning how to master your emotions, amen? All right, and so look at what he says. Isaiah 26:3 he says, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind", watch this, "is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee".

This one Scripture right now just lets me know, "Wait a minute". He says, "I'll keep you in perfect peace". He says, watch this, where is your mind? Where is your thinking? Where is your mind? Where is your thinking? Wherever your mind goes, your emotions gonna follow. Wherever your thinking goes, your emotions are going to follow. Your feelings are gonna follow where your mind goes. Where is your mind? What are you spending your time focused in on the most? What do you figure you're spending your time thinking about the most? 'Cause he says here, "I can keep you in perfect peace. You have a choice for perfect peace if you will now take charge of your mind, and I'll keep you in perfect peace". Emotional stability is available. You gotta choose to get it. It's a choice. It's available. Peace is available.

Somebody says, "But you don't understand what happened". No, no, no, peace is not available based on what happened. Peace is available no matter what happened. Peace is available no matter what. I don't care how bad the thing was. Peace is available no matter what happened. I know some of you you've lost loved ones and some of you have more peace and joy in the midst of that whole situation than a whole lot of other folks, because we think, we think that negative situations should control our responses.

Most people believe that a negative circumstance must now bring about the negative emotions. That most people think that a negative circumstance requires negative emotions, the correspondings of negative emotions. That's not true, but we think, "Well, you know, the reason why I'm feeling like this is 'cause that happened", and for the most part that's what people think. "This happened, so now that's"... You're using the circumstances to justify my feelings, and you can't do that anymore, not as a Christian. That may have worked before you got saved.

See, psychology just deals with the mental and the emotional capacity of a human being, but when you get born again you're not just talking about coping with negative emotions. You're talking about controlling those emotions, because we're not just subject to our mentality and our emotions. We are now subject to the graces that come out of our spirit, the answers and the power that's available to us from our spirit man. Psychologists won't tell you that you got authority in your spirit man, you got power in your spirit man. They'll teach you how to cope with where you are, but I'm not trying to teach you how to cope. I'm trying to teach you that from your spirit there is power and anointing that's available, praise God, for you to control those bad emotions.

My God, I'm preaching enough to give myself a offering. Listen, man. Most people believe that negative correspondence must have, that, you know, a negative circumstance must have a negative emotion to go with it, and so what happens is, you know, we think that, you know, emotions are just a response and not a choice. We think that emotions are just responding to something, versus it being a choice that you can make, and so most people think, "Well, I don't have any authority or control over emotions", because they believe it's just the response. And so, the thinking of the day is that emotions are just something that just happens and that there is nothing you can do about it.

Some, "It just happens that way. This is a bad thing. That's why I feel like that. It just happens and there is nothing I can do about it". I can't tell you how wrong that is. That is not right. It is a big lie of the devil to keep his efforts safe and clear for him to continue to wreak havoc in your life. It's an area of this area of emotions. It's not a response. It is a choice. It's not a response. It is a choice. Your circumstances does not have to dictate to you how you feel. You have authority over you, how you feel, so regardless of the circumstances you can choose to feel however you wanna feel.

Somebody dies, "I can choose to have joy and peace in the middle of that whole process". Somebody diagnoses you with a disease, "I can choose to have peace and joy and faith through that whole process", or you just be like the world. That's what holiness is all about. The world chooses to respond to the circumstances, but we don't. We don't respond to the circumstances, hallelujah? We walk by faith and not by sight, and we line our emotions up with the Word of God. We line our emotions up with what the Word has to say, praise God? Bless his holy name.

When we broke we don't say, "Well, I'm just sad. I'm depressed, wanna kill myself 'cause I ain't got no money". We don't do that. When we can't see it we say, "Thank God he'll supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory. I think I'll shout about it right now. No, I don't see no money right now, but, hey, the same God that delivered me last month out of this situation, he'll do it now". You choose how you feel.

All right, now watch this. Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28, verse 45 through 48, I want to show you this. Deuteronomy 28:45 through 48. Now, this is pretty, pretty amazing. Again, trying to convince you that you have control over these emotions. Now, we are going back to the law. And so, under the law, sin was judged harshly. But under the grace of God, which we live under the covenant of grace, God's judgment is on Jesus. Even though you don't behave right all the time, his judgment still is on Jesus. But it's good to see how God views the thing even under a law.

And so, I want to show you this because this is quite fascinating to me. It just shows you that God is not an unjust God. So, look at this. Deuteronomy 28, verse 45, what did I say? Okay, 45 through 48, 45 through 48. "Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee, and they'll overtake thee, till thou be destroyed because thou hearkenedst is not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandment sand his statutes which he commanded thee".

So, they're being judged for not keeping the commandments. And he says, "And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder and upon thy seed forever because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things". Stop, did you see that? He said, "Because you didn't serve the Lord with joyfulness, emotion, and you didn't serve the Lord with gladness, emotion, for all the things he'd done".

You know what he just said? He says they're getting ready to be judged because they didn't serve God with the right emotions. They're getting ready to be judged because they didn't serve God with the right emotions for all the things that he's done. He says, "Therefore shalt thou", here's the judgment, he says, "Now, because you didn't serve God with the correct emotions, you didn't choose the right emotions, joyfulness and gladness, therefore shalt thou serve your enemies which the Lord shall send".

And what are these enemies going to look like? In hunger, 'cause you didn't serve him with the right emotions. Thirst 'cause you didn't serve him with the right emotions. Nakedness 'cause you didn't serve him with the right emotion. You're going to be in want of all things because you didn't serve him with the right emotions for all the things he did. "And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee", all because you didn't serve him with the right emotions? All right, now that's not even, you know, what we deal with today, but that's under that covenant.

But here's the point of me showing you that. And some of you better be glad you ain't under that covenant. All the stuff that God does for you, how sometimes you don't have a right attitude, and you're not grateful, and you murmur, and you complain, and you go around, and you want more, and you can't be thankful for what he's already done. If we were under that covenant, a lot of us would be destroyed. But thank God we're not under that covenant.

Somebody say, "Thank God for Jesus". But what was he saying here? What he says was this. If God will judge people for having the wrong emotions in serving him, that only concludes that they could have made a choice to have the right emotions. They could have decided and chosen to have the correct emotion. It would not be just, it would be an unjust thing to do to judge somebody for something they did if they didn't have the authority to do something differently. They had the authority and they had the choice to choose the right feelings. They could've chosen the right feelings, just like you and I can choose the right feelings. They didn't choose the right feelings, and they were judged for not choosing the right feelings 'cause they could have chosen the right feelings.

So, don't come telling me, "I can't help how I feel". How many of you heard that before? You know you heard that before. "Well, I can't help how I feel". Yes, you can. What you mean, you know, 'cause my mom and dad will get the belt and the switch and say, "Well, let me help you. Let me help you, let me". Everybody in the neighborhood had hedges, a community with hedges. Didn't have no grass, but they had them hedges, boy. You could have made a decision to do that. You could have made a decision to choose it.

Now, go to Saint John chapter 14, verse 1. Saint John 14, verse 1. Again, you can choose. That's an amazing, amazing revelation to me is the fact, how long have we been lied to about our feelings? "There's nothing I can do about it". You can. You can choose what the feelings you want. He says here, he says, "Let not your heart be troubled". Don't let your heart be troubled. That sounds like you have authority, right? Don't you let you heart be troubled.

Well, why would he even say something like that if you had no authority over whether or not you felt troubled or not? I wrote a book years ago on how to trouble your trouble. And it talked about how you don't have to be, even though you're in trouble, you don't have to be troubled because you can choose to have peace in the midst of trouble. Remember, if you control your emotions, you're going to get to the destination that God wants you to be. But if your emotions are out of the control, you get out.

So, in trouble, the best thing for you to do is to choose the right emotion so you can get to where God's trying to get you. Have some self-control so you can get to where he want to get you. But we keep letting our self-control take us back and take us into all of these things that, when we get there, we say, "How did I get here? How did this happen? Why do I keep ending up with the same kind of no good for nothing man"? There's a reason for that. The level of a woman's self-esteem will always draw the type of person to her. Yep, you better see yourself better. You better see yourself better if don't nobody agree with the better that you see about yourself. You need to let that joker know, you know, you don't even understand what you getting.

"I know I'm fine and I know I'm awesome and smart. And I know I'm amazing, alright? I might not have no three inch waist but, you know, whatchu gonna do with a three inch waist, you need a little something to hold onto, you don't need no three inch waist". Amen. Three inch waist, something the matter with you. I know some of you are like huh? Where'd that come from? I don't know. All right now. In fact, go to Deuteronomy 30, I think this is where that came from, Deuteronomy 30 verse 19. Yeah, "And I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I've set before you life and death", choice now. "I've set before you life and death", choice, choice. "I've set before you blessing and cursings", choice.

This is awesome because God says, "I'm setting the choices before you". And then he says, "Before I stop, I'm going to tell you what to choose". And then he says, "Therefore choose life". It's almost like God was saying, "I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. And if you too dumb to know what to choose, choose life, that both thou". Look at this, look at the power of your choice. "Thou and your seed may live and prosper and be successful because you made the right choice".

Now, I believe when you choose life - he says and recommends choose life. I believe when you choose life, you can't talk about choosing life and not choosing emotional stability. It's not life to not have stable emotions. It's not life to not have authority and a choice where your feelings are concerned. So, involved in choosing life is choosing emotional stability. You know, I have a right to choose whether or not I am going to be in control of my emotions, or I'm going to have a right to choose whether or not I'm not going to be in control of my emotions. You have a right to choose. You have a right to choose.

So, turn to two people and say, "I have a right to choose how I feel". Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 6, Romans chapter 8 and verse 6. I have a right to choose how I feel. Somebody can come and cuss you out and maybe spit a little bit in your face. See, you know how you responded, right? You responded because you have traditionally marked in stone how you're going to respond emotionally. Wish you would. And all of that is that same part of the fear of being disrespected that causes you to respond as if the disrespect has already occurred. And it just gets you in trouble.

It's the story of the guy who purchases the new car, he's driving down old national highway. Somebody hits his car from behind, you jump out of the car and you know, you chose your emotions, it was just real quick. You jumped out of the car like, "No you didn't hit my car". You were very aggressive, and then you hit the guy. And the police was pulling up about that time and saw you assault the guy. And it was on a Friday, and before you left, your boss said, "You can't be late no more. And if you're late again, I'm going to have to let you go". And on that Thursday, your wife said, "Don't lose your job. I'm tired of going through this. You lose your job, I'm going to go".

And so, they arrested you for assault, put you in jail, it was the weekend, the judge ain't coming back till Tuesday, you lost your job on Monday and your wife on Tuesday. And you sat there in the cell and you ask yourself this question, "How did I get here"? The answer, your emotions drove you all the way there. How many times are you going to put in jeopardy the blessing that God has for your life? But you can't ever walk into it because as soon as you're like a step away, your emotions from a negative place lead you away from the designed place because you have no self-control, no temperance, you won't practice temperance because you see that as being weak. Somehow in your mind, you think by losing it, it shows how big of a man you are. That's not the truth. It shows you're the weakest punk on the planet by that time 'cause you can't even control what you're supposed to have control over.

And like laughter, you're quiet because you know this is the truth. Romans chapter 8 and 6 says, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded", look what happens, "it's life and it's peace". Here you have a choice. When you talk about carnality here, it's literally referring to in context here to be dominated by your senses. It's like, you know, you're allowing what you see to dominate how you feel. You're allowing what you hear to dominate how you feel. You're allowing, you know, what you smell to dominate how you feel.

Somebody says, "How that works"? I mean, somebody might not be smelling all right, but you know, you got to be mean. And you don't know they just got put out of their house, and they've been struggling to do stuff, and it's dominating your feelings. So, what happens is to be dominated by just your emotions and your feelings, it'll lead to death or separation from the great things that God's trying to do in your life. But he says if you're spiritually minded, wherever your mind goes, your emotions going to follow. If you're spiritually minded, it'll lead to peace and life.

So, now you have to choose to be spiritually minded and allow the Word of God, in fact, go to John 6:63. What does it mean when I talk about being spiritually minded? What's the essence of being spiritually minded? John chapter 6:63. Because in Romans 8, it talks about, you know, when we're spiritually minded, we can produce emotional stability when we're spiritually minded. Peace and life, life and peace. He says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life". The question is, will you choose to allow the Word of God to dominate your emotions? It's a choice. You're going to be dominated by the carnal or you're going to be dominated by the Word of God.

And you think about it. In that time where you're choosing the type of emotions and how you're going to feel, when was the last time you said, "Hold on a minute, let me go to the Word. Hold on a minute, let me go and pray. Hold on a minute, let me pause and stick this tape in"? It works, the issue is we just don't do it. It works, it'll calm you down, it'll get you to a place where you can think, but you just don't do it because I guess if you don't honor that Word and exalt it enough for you to say, "Well, this is what I'm going to turn to in the time of great temptation and in the time of being tempted to choose the wrong emotion", that the Word of God can help you to always choose the right one. But not many people reverence the Word enough to go to it when they need it.

You know, the Bible doesn't just tell us to choose the right emotion, you know, when everything's going right. He tells us to choose the right emotion even when things are not going right. Look at John 16:33, John 16:33, choose the right... no, no, let's go to Philippians first. Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7 because here I want to mention something here. I think it's so important as Christian people that we understand that we need to be accountable for our feelings. Don't try to make the devil responsible for it, we need to be accountable for our emotions.

You need to accept the accountability for your emotions. 'Cause if you're out of control and you beat your wife, all I'm going to hear is excuses of why you beat your wife. Nobody want to hear no excuses. You got to be accountable for your emotions. "Well, I decided to get in a fight and beat somebody up". You got to be accountable for your emotions. "Well, I decided to shoot somebody 'cause they disrespected me". You got to be accountable for your emotions. And then this precious life ends up in jail, never fulfills the will of God for his life because his emotions took him out of the play, took him out of the place of where he could do what he needs to do because you won't be accountable for your emotions.

And that's a lot of things with Christians, they don't want to be accountable for nothing. They want to blame it on God or blame it on the devil, but I don't want any accountability for this thing. It's either God or the devil, but you ain't have nothing to do with it. Well, if that's the case, why did he give you free moral agency, the right to choose and to make a choice? And if you're not choosing or making a choice, oh, you want to choose and make a choice to do what you want to, then you want to do it. And what God trying to speak to you, you don't want to hear what he got to say then.

But now, but now when something bad happens, "Well, that was the devil or that was God". And God's like, "Who told you to get that car that's hurting you"? "Well, that's just what I wanted". Well, see, as easy as you made a choice to get just what you wanted. Are you seeing what I'm saying? We've got to be accountable for our emotions. Turn to your neighbor and say, "It's time to be accountable for our emotions". Look at verse 6, he says, "Be careful for nothing", or don't be anxious about anything, or don't worry about anything.

Wow, be careful for nothing, don't worry about nothing, don't be anxious about nothing. Did you hear what he just said? Yes, stuff's going to happen, he says, "But don't be anxious about it. Don't worry about it. You know where your confidence is. You know what you believe in, you know who you trust in". He says, "Don't worry about it. Be careful for nothing. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving". He says, "Instead of worrying about it, take it to prayer, be thankful for what you know, and watch God do some stuff for you". By prayer and thanksgiving, let it be known unto God. By prayer and thanksgiving.

Here's what he says. Situation happens, go to God and be thankful for what he's already done about the situation. Look at verse 7. He says, "And the peace of God", he says, "When you do that in the middle of trouble rather than worry and be thankful for what God's already said, and the peace of God", look what happens, your emotions now have been chosen by you. When did you choose them? When I decided to be thankful for what God has already done about the thing rather than worrying about the situation that appears before me right now. Watch this, peace will guard your emotions. Peace will guard your emotions. Say this out loud, "My peace is my most valuable asset. I will not spend it on other people's drama. If I take care of my peace, my peace will take care of me". Amen.

Look at John 16:33. It's not just saying, "Well, you know, choose to be in control of your emotions only when things are going right". No, he's like, "When it's not going right". He said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have", what? Peace. In him or in his Word you're going to have peace. He said, "In the world you shall", it ain't might. It ain't might. It ain't, well, if I do these ten things, it won't. There is no way out of in this world, you're going to have tribulation. You're going to have tribulation when you done did everything in your mind that is right. And somebody going to tribulate on you because you done did everything that you thought was right. You ain't got to do nothing wrong to be tribulated on.

Boy, I got some new vocabulary coming out this morning, don't I? Going to have to add these to the Ebonics dictionary. You're going to have trouble. You're going to have trouble. Why do Christians, like you know, you're surprised, "Oh my God, this is happening to me. Oh God, they're talking about me. Oh God, I was betrayed". Seriously? In this here world, you's going to have some trouble. But, but make the choice, be of good cheer. The trouble doesn't determine your emotion, you determine. In the world, I'm going to have tribulation, but I've already decided to be of good cheer.

Baby need a pair of shoes. Look, you got a light bill due. How are you going to pay your rent? All your money's spent. Buy some food, baby need a pair of shoes, look, got a light bill due, even got a gas bill too, telephone's disconnect, wait next paycheck. Paycheck bounce on you, what are you going to do? I'm going to be of good cheer in the midst of all of it, praise God. I've already decided I'm going to be in good cheer. Because if I stay in good cheer I'll get to the destination where the supply is.
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