Steven Furtick - The Great Emoti-Con (01/29/2026)
Pastor Steven Furtick kicks off the #MoodSwingers series from John 15:11 and Proverbs 4, teaching how to take control of emotions so they don't control you. Jesus promises overflowing joy when we remain in Him, and Proverbs commands guarding the heart above all else because everything flows from it—own your emotions, change your concentration, and swing moods toward praise and God's Word instead of letting circumstances dictate them.
Welcome to Mood Swingers – Owning Your Joy
Before we get into this, the first week of #MoodSwingers, where we're going to be talking about how to take control of your emotions so they don't take control of you, I want you to turn to the person next to you and tell them, I'm already in a better mood just because they seated me next to you. Amen. You may be seated. Welcome to every location. Who would have ever thought nine years in, we would have over nine locations. We started out with less than nine families. There were more staff members in the room this Thursday than there were people in the church the first Sunday we opened nine years ago. Little is much when God is in it. Don't despise the day of small beginnings. You've got a small dream in your heart today, but God put it there. Don't give up on it. You never know what God might do. And don't let go when things get hard or when people doubt you, because if you believe in what God spoke, it shall come to pass. Amen.
Look at this. They brought out my screen. It's back to the teaching screen. I'm going to be studying from one verse primarily today, and I have several other verses I'll mention. But I want to put on the screen John chapter 15. You ever heard of this Scripture? We can't let it go just yet. I want to drain a little bit more out of John 15. Since a rich passage we've been concentrating on, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, preparing them to face great sorrow, but to keep their joy. And that's our goal of the series. In fact, you might say, this is not a theme verse, what I'm going to show you for our series. It's our goal verse. It's our statement of intention of what we want to happen in our lives over the next four weeks, where Jesus said, John 15, 11, and I'm going to put it in a different translation than we usually read. But he said, I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Jesus and joy are not opposites. In fact, they're intertwined. Jesus and joy are not opposites. God and happiness are not opposites. He said, I told you these things, the commands I gave you, so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow.
Overflowing Joy – Jesus' Intention for Us
Tell somebody next to you, I'm going to spill on you. I'm overflowing. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I was glad. I didn't go begrudgingly. I went gladly. That's why I like to have fun in church. Even if my humor is corny sometimes. I figure if I'm going to endure in ministry, I got to enjoy my ministry. You can't endure what you never enjoy. It's true. You can't endure what you do. I know it because the writer of Hebrews, when he was talking about how Jesus endured the cross, he said, he endured the cross for the joy set before him. How about that? In order to endure what he didn't want to go through, because Jesus prayed, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And it was because he set joy before him that he was able to endure what he suffered.
You can't just endure a marriage year after year if you never learn how to enjoy one another. That's why I'm building a church that hopefully our children will enjoy coming to. I want them to not just endure it until they hit college and then split. But I figure for them to keep coming when it's their choice, they got to enjoy it. They got to look forward to it. Amen. And so you ought to bring joy with you to church, because Jesus said, your joy should be overflowing.
From Emoticons to Real Emotions – The Tricks We Play
Now, transitionally speaking, how many of you remember your first time that you used an emoticon in a conversation on text messaging? How many of you remember the first time that you... How many of you have never used an emoticon in conversation on text? You know, the little symbols that you use. How many of you have never used it? Raise your hand. Okay. How many of you are silently judging my masculinity and calling into... Yeah. Because when the first time I used an emoticon, I remember it was like a big deal. I wouldn't say I was an early adopter, but I saw all these people using all these cool symbols texting me. So I went to London Gatch and asked her, how do you get those stupid little things on your phone that you always have? And the little stupid cats that you send, I don't want the cats, but I just want like the smiley faces and stuff. And so she was like, oh yeah. And she showed me how. And I thought the first test market to use one, somebody who wouldn't judge me for it, I sent it to Holly. And so my first emoticon text was to Holly. And I figured she'd appreciate it. And she sent, for all of you who were judging me, when you said that, she sent me back one of these. And I was like, oh yeah. Emoticon on. Trying to enjoy my job.
But then it was like, well, I want to branch out. I don't just want to send these to Holly. I want to see if I can send them to like one of my guy friends. And so I sent one to my pastor, Pastor Craig Groeschel. He was the first man that I sent an emoticon to. Because I'm very emoticomfortable in our relationship. I got a lot of these. And so I was like, I'll send him one. He won't judge me either. But I wanted to send him something safe. I didn't want to send him that guy. So, I found this. And I was like, well, that's totally acceptable for one man to send to another man. So I sent him that. And it was weird because he sent me that back. Not really. Just kidding. That would have been... Tragic. But... But, um... I found out, you know, after you practice a little bit, that you can actually have an entire, let's see, emoticomversation. You can actually now communicate without being bothered by those pesky words in the English language. If you are creative enough, you can have an entire emoticomversation. Sometimes it's a little emoticomfusing to figure out exactly what's going on in the emoticomversation. But, it can be done. And, if you follow me just a little bit longer, I only have a few more of these little screens. I found out that it's very... I tripped myself up sometimes. It's very emoticomvenient. When you communicate this way, because you can actually express more emotion than you really feel. It's awesome.
So, a friend can send me something that they think is funny. And, if I'm on my game, I can send them one of these guys back. Now, for the record, I have only probably laughed until I cried twice in my life. But, I send these out daily. Because, it makes the other person feel so good about themselves. And, it costs me so little. Come on, you know, when you send these out, you do it with a straight face. You're not even smiling. But, they don't know. So, I want to speak to you today for a few moments on the subject, the great emoticon. Hello. Hello. The great emoticon. And, on a more serious level, I want to talk about how your emotions play tricks on you. How your mind plays tricks on you. How your heart plays tricks on you. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said, The heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. Who can trust it, he said. And, yet, the scripture gives us this promise that, in Jesus, our joy should overflow. In this series, I believe God wants us to go from a state of emotive confusion to, watch this, emotive control.
Guard Your Heart – The Key to Control
And we're going to do it with some help from the wisdom writer in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 4 gives us some instruction for how to get control of our emotions. How to, you know, somebody was telling me that this sermon series title didn't sound very deep. It sounds gimmicky. What do moods have to do with God? Well, if what you believe about God doesn't affect the way you feel about life, do you really believe in God? If what you believe about God doesn't start to affect the internal hard drive, do you really even have the program? It's important. Moods matter. Moods matter. You can do something that's completely contrary to your goals because you were in a mood. You can do something that you spend the next 18 years paying for because of a mood you were in. Now, I won't be any more specific than that. Fill in the blanks, bro. Because I was in the mood. And yet the writer... The writer of Proverbs says... Look at verse 18. It's not supposed to be that way. He says, Proverbs 4. 18, The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. It says that God's Word will give you a sense of inner illumination. It says that it will light up the path. Now, it doesn't say that it will always light up the finish line. It says it will light up the path, which means that happiness is not a destination, but happiness is a path that is connected to God's Word and convergent with God's Word.
He said the path grows brighter. On the contrary, though, he says, The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. See, when I read that verse, everybody's like, Yeah, the Christians have the light and the non-Christians don't. It says the way of the wicked. You know, you can be a righteous person, but take the wrong route and go down the way of the wicked. So you can have a position that I'm in Christ, but you can be on a path that leads you away from his joy. I'm preaching. I'm preaching in my introductory remarks. This is just the introduction. And he says, It's supposed to grow brighter. In other words, your moods aren't supposed to be so mysterious that they lead you around. And he goes on. He gives some sound teaching, some sound advice like a father to a son. He says, My son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight. Keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Our God is a holistic God. He's not only interested in saving you spiritually. He wants the new life in your spirit to give you a new lease on life. In your body, in your mind, in your countenance. He wants it to spread to every part of you from your spirit when he touches you and your soul.
And so he says, and this may be one of the most, I think it's the most profound verse in all of the Proverbs. There's 31 of them. And I think this is the skeleton key to the whole book of Proverbs and maybe to life, wisdom for life. He says, above all else. That's why I think it's important because he started it like that. I want to hear what comes next. Above all else. If all else fails, sometimes a preacher will say, if you don't hear anything else I say today. Why'd you say all the other stuff, idiot? But he's saying, look, supreme importance, top priority. Get this right. Above all else, guard your heart. Guard your heart. How do I go from emotive confusion to emotive control? Above all else, guard your heart. Why? Why is this the most important thing? For everything you do flows from it. Above all else, guard your heart. He could have said, above all else, watch your money. Above all else, take care of your body. But he said, above those things, they're important. But above that, guard this. And see, I think we get it backwards. And that's why we're so confused in our emotions and led by our feelings. Because instead of, above all else, guarding our heart, we guard all else above our heart.
What We Guard vs. What We Should Guard
Now, think about it. We're a culture that is obsessed with nutritional labels. You know, we count calories. We count carbs sometimes. For a few weeks out of every year. We count that stuff. But do we measure what matters the most? You know, we avoid gluten in our diet. Some people do. Weird people do. I'm just kidding. That's totally cool. But, you know, it's crazy. We'll avoid gluten in our diet, but we'll let grumbling get into our heart, which is much more toxic to the ultimate outcome of our life. For everything you do flows from it. Caucasians will lather themselves with sunscreen to go and sunbathe. See, because I want to be in the sun for seven hours, but I want to put cream on my body that makes it as if I wasn't.
And so we got SPF 30 for our skin, but SPF for the soul, we don't even think about that. We just go out into the elements, just go out into the world, not covered, not even thinking about it. We won't even send our kids through the parking lot at Target in January without putting sunscreen. And speaking of our kids, we guard our kids, I think, a little too much these days. Just a little too. I mean, we need to protect our kids. I understand that. But we might be a little overprotective. In fact, the most dangerous thing about the way we're raising our kids these days might be our overprotection of them. Of just coddling them until they never have to experience anything. I mean, good Lord. I mean, look out for your kids, but good grief. It's amazing what we'll do to guard our kids. Try to make sure they never experience any pain. You can only guard them so much. You can only keep them in the car seat until they're 17. Have you noticed this? We're keeping our kids in the car seat until they're old enough to drive. It's the law. It's crazy. It's madness. And what's madness about it is we protect our skin. We protect our diet. Some of us protect our lawns better than we protect our hearts. We guard all else. We got Proverbs 4.23 down. We just got it backwards. We guard all else.
If we would start guarding our attitudes and start guarding our minds and start guarding our thoughts like we guard some of our other stuff, well, we'd have a better flow. We'd have a better attitude. And let me tell you something about attitude, incidentally. An attitude is not that complicated. The attitude of your heart simply reflects the activity of your mind. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You hear sometimes people trying to separate. Well, don't make decisions with your heart. Make decisions with your head. The two can't be separated. See, because if it's in your head, it'll eventually get in your heart. And if it's in your heart, it'll eventually get in your head. There is no such thing as a non-emotional decision. Every decision that you end up doing is the result of something that you started out thinking. Everything that you were thinking was contributing to how you were feeling. Your faith either affects your feelings or your feelings affect your faith, but you cannot separate your feelings from your faith. For everything you do flows from what happens in your heart.
I read an article in, I think, Rolling Stone magazine. I'm not sure. But I read an article about John Mayer. To me, he's like the best. This generation, he's the best songwriter slash guitarist. I think the guy is brilliant on the guitar. I really do. I think he's like one of the best. But what happened to John Mayer is he let all of the noise… He was explaining how all of the critics and the bloggers and the haters and the craziness of celebrity… It was so loud that it started to come out in his life, and he became somebody he didn't like.
So, a few years ago, he left L.A. to move to Montana so that he could do some work on himself because he was in a state of arrested development. It was fascinating for me to hear him talk about it because one of the things he said… This is so profound. I don't know anything about John Mayer's spiritual beliefs, but I've never heard a more profound statement about our inability to guard our hearts. He said, celebrities will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for security. They'll hire bodyguards. They'll put the most elaborate security systems in their home. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on security. But then they'll wake up every morning and get on their computer to read the most horrible things that everybody was saying about them overnight. He said, when you do that, you forfeited all that money you spent on security because you let them get in. You had bodyguards. You had CPI. But you let them in. You didn't let them in your house, but you let them in your heart. You didn't let them touch your body, but you let them mess with your heart.
It's not just celebrities. We'll do all kinds of stuff to try to protect our lives, and we'll be very guarded in certain ways, and we'll be very careful in certain ways, but we let stuff in our heart. We let our guard down, and then we let our thoughts run wild. And then we wonder, why am I miserable? Why am I selfish? Why am I irritable? Why am I so annoyed? Why can't I get happy? Guard down. You have to keep your guard up where it matters. We have heart rate monitors we can wear now to see if we're exercising hard enough, but I wish I had a monitor for my other heart, for that Proverbs 4.23 heart, the one that the writer said I'm supposed to be guarding above all else. That one's harder to monitor. You know the other heart I'm talking about? Do you? The one that is always beating, the one that is telling you to do stuff so crazy, and you wonder, where did that thought come from? I wish I had a monitor for that heart. The one that makes me trust people I shouldn't be trusting and be skeptical of people that I should trust, I want a monitor for that heart, for the heart that makes me want to lay down and die when I should be getting up to try again.
Let me read you this from a commentary that I read this week. The heart, of course, is the central organ of the body, but in the wisdom literature, it is the central organ of spirituality. It's often paraphrased as mine, since it does have an intellectual component, but it's also the basic orientation of a person. This is what we're talking about for four weeks, embracing desires, emotions, and attitude. That's what we mean by heart. That's what we're addressing in this series, Mood Swingers. If the teacher's words are in the heart, they are life and healing. Hence the need to guard the heart, for it is the source of the surges of life. Literally, from it, the goings out of life, the heart is imaged as a water source from which life erupts. Everything you do flows from it.
Own Your Emotions – Stop Blaming Others
Now, we started the year saying we were going to find our flow, but everything that you do flows from who you are. Guard your heart. You know, you've got to be a little guarded to make it in the world. People use that as an insult. A guy came up to me one time and said, You seem pretty guarded. And I said, Well, I hope so. You know, I need to be. I need to be a little guarded. You can't just let everybody in. You can't just let everything in. You can't just believe everything you think. Don't believe everything you think. Guard your heart. You're crazy. You will tell yourself lies. That's why he said in verse 20, My son, pay attention to what I say. He's saying, Pay attention to my assessment more than your opinion. And guard your heart. I always thought this verse was all about what you let in your heart. And it is. If you spend all your time seeing stuff and letting stuff in, it eventually comes out. That's why you've got to be careful. What you see and what you hear, you really do have to be careful. You spend enough time around it. It's eventually going to come within you. If it's within you, it's eventually going to burst forth out of you. From it flow all the issues of life. You've got to be careful.
But you know, I read a verse where Jesus was having a dispute one time, and they were criticizing his disciples for the food they ate. And they were saying they shouldn't be eating that food. It was ceremonially unclean. Listen to what Jesus said. And so you are sabotaging yourself by what you speak, by what you see. And what you believe. Well, I just say what I feel. That's fine. Go ahead and do that. Just as long as you realize that you're going to feel what you say. I'm going to say it again until it registers on the level that it registered when I wrote it in my notes. I pictured this big light bulb moment. It didn't quite happen, so I want to back up and hit it again because apparently you're too busy writing it down to respond, so I want to say that again. If you insist on saying what you feel, eventually you're going to feel what you say. So if you say, well, it's just not fair. If you say that, what comes out of your mouth defiles you. Guess what's going to go back into your heart that came out of your mouth? You're going to feel like a victim. So you said what you felt, and now you're feeling what you said. And if you don't like how you feel, you might need to look at what you said. Because what you feel is a result of what you said. From the heart flow the issues of life. Is your heart guarded? Is your heart guarded? I know you wear bug spray, but is your heart guarded? I know you got insurance on your house, but is your heart guarded? I know you got insurance on your car, but is your heart guarded? You have got to have a guarded heart.
But it's an interesting thing. It's an interesting thing because in order to guard something, you've got to own it. Right? So in order to guard your heart, you've got to own your emotions. Own your emotions. And here's the heart of my message, ...is that in order to guard your heart, you've got to own your emotions. We love using phrases that transfer the title deed of how we feel to other people. Let me give you a few. We say things like, well, he just made me so mad. That's a really paralyzing thing to say, because if he made you mad, there's nothing you can do about it. He made you. But if you change it... Now, this is the part of the sermon where it gets real quiet, but when it gets quiet, I know I'm preaching good, because as long as you're shouting and saying amen, I'm not challenging you. But when it gets quiet, I know I'm saying something that you need to work on, so you just have to sit there and take it. And when you say, he just made me so mad, you're not taking ownership of your own temper. Instead, why don't you own your emotions? Why don't you just say, I got angry. I lost it. I flipped out. I let what they said dominate my day.
And here's another thing we don't ever need to say again. While we're talking about mood swingers, don't ever say, they put me in a bad mood. That just sounds childish. Well, I was in a good mood. They put me in a bad mood. They put you? What are you, a goldfish? Like they scooped you up in a net and put you in the bad mood bowl? You're a grown man. Nobody put you anywhere. You chose to go to the mood that was suggested to you. Tell me, Brian, it's getting rough. Well, I left him because he didn't make me happy. Since when was your happiness on someone else's job description? Tight, but it's right. He didn't make me happy. When you give your power away to somebody else like that, you lock yourself in a prison and you're waiting on somebody else to bring you the key. And that's a miserable place to be.
You know, the fact may be that somebody did something that offended you and what they did may have been wrong, but the choice to own your emotions really turns the situation around. See, because if they made me mad, if they put me in a bad mood, then I'm stuck. There's nothing I can do. If they put me there, if traffic put me in a bad mood, if my job put me in... It's in our language, folks. We don't own our emotions. We don't want to take responsibility for our hearts so we can't guard our hearts because we don't own our lives. We don't own our emotions. We've given somebody else a key to our joy. And you can't guard what you don't own. You don't believe me? Go put a gate up in your neighbor's yard this week after you leave here. Just go put a gate up in your neighbor's yard. Just looking out for you, man. Thought you could use a gate. That's strange. This is not your property to guard. Go install a security system in your neighbor's home. Who does that? But we do it all the time in our lives. We want somebody else to be responsible for our state of mind. Yeah. But here's the announcement. Here's the announcement. Your joy is your job. It's your job. It's your job to have joy. Jesus said, if you remain in me, that's your decision. My joy will be in you. That's the result. Your joy is your job.
He said, guard your heart. Not hire your mother to guard your heart. Not marry somebody who can guard your heart. Not hang out with friends who can guard your heart. It's your heart, sweetheart. It's your heart. It's your responsibility to deal with the bitterness that other people tried to plant. It's your yard. It's your lawn. It's your property. It's your home. And God belongs there, And you got to guard it. You got to own it. Touch three people, say, own it. Own it. Own your dysfunction. Own your depression. Own your discouragement. Don't say, they discourage me. Say, I'm discouraged, but I'm choosing to encourage myself because I have ownership over my emotions. Emotions. I own emotions. Emotions don't own me. I put my emotions to work. They don't work me over. You see my iPad? I don't know why I screamed that last line. It came out like that. I'll bring it down. Own. This is my iPad. I own it. I own it. I purchased it. I bought this fancy case for it. I own that, too. I preach from my iPad.
The notes for this sermon that you are enjoying are on this iPad. I put the notes in iPad because I own it. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if my sermon wasn't good and I blamed it on my iPad? Wouldn't it be ridiculous if I sat down on Monday morning and had a meeting with my iPad to ask my iPad what I should preach on what I should preach on for week two? It can only serve the purpose which I input into the device. See, it can only give me back what I put in it because I own it. It's my possession. It gives me back what I put in it. It feeds me back what I programmed into the notes. Yes. And yet some of us, we wake up every morning and we consult with our device. We consult with our emotions. We consult with our feelings and ask our feelings, what kind of day are we going to have today? Do we feel good today? Are we going to be kind today? Are we going to work hard today? Are we going to follow through with our commitments today? Are we going to pray today? It's a device. You own it. You tell it what to do. You hit the keys. You make the decision. You tell your soul. You gotta own your soul. Own it. Own it. Own it. Own it. Own it. Own it. Own it.
I was discouraged because I wanted to preach about mood swingers, but I was telling God that was ridiculous because I'm a moody person. And I thought the Lord downloaded this sermon into the wrong preacher's brain. I said, Lord, as moody as I am, you want me to preach to the people about how to control their moods? He said, yeah, you're the perfect person for what I want this series to be because I don't need you to teach people how to never be in a bad mood. I just need you to teach them how to swing it the other way when it comes before it drags them down. And takes them out and costs them time. And then I realized something. I realized that David was a pretty moody dude in the Bible because he's the one who wrote all the Psalms. You know, all those great, beautiful, poetic Psalms full of prose, full of praise.
David, who wrote all these beautiful anthems of praise. King David, who was a warrior and a worshiper. David would write a Psalm, and he would start the Psalm saying stuff like this. God, why are you so far from me? That's where he started. He would say, He would say, When am I ever going to see your face again, God? How long will you cast me out? And then David would go from sadness to anger. And he'd start thinking about his enemies, and he'd say, Many are those who rise up against me. God bashed their heads against the rocks and the heads of their infant babies. I mean, this dude, David needed Prozac. But what I love about... But they didn't have it. So, what I love about David, since he didn't have any medication, David would own his emotions. Watch this. He wouldn't emote or conceal his emotions. He'd start off by owning it. You know what? I'm down today. You know what? I'm not feeling it today. You know what? I can't seem to see anything going right today. You know what? I can't get my mind right for anything today. No matter what I do, I can't cheer up. You know what? I'm just unthankful today. And you start there. You own it. But then if you own it, you can control it. You can control it. I can control it, because I own it. So, you'll see David in the Psalms.
This is what we're going to do in the series. You'll see in his startup, Psalm 42, verse 11. He says, Why, my soul, are you downcast? I'm down. I own it. I'm not feeling it. I don't feel like clapping today. I don't feel like lifting my hands today. I don't feel like smiling today. My soul is down. But he questions it, because he owns it, and he knows the purpose is supposed to serve. And so, when he sees that the thing that he owns isn't functioning according to the purpose that it's meant to serve, watch this. He says, Why so disturbed within me? Oh, that's a key phrase. Within me? It's not what's happening around me. It's what's happening within me that's causing me to feel down. I'm owning this. I'm owning this. I'm owning my state of mind. I'm owning my attitude. And yet, I love what he does. He swings it. He swings it. He starts here, but the way your day starts doesn't have to be the way your day finishes. Huh? Huh? And the way your attitude starts doesn't have to be the way your attitude finishes. And the way your life starts doesn't have to be the way your life finishes. He says, I'm down. I'm disturbed. I'm depressed. I'm in despair. But I'm going to give a command to my soul, Because when you own something, you can tell it what to do. Put your hope in God. For I will is not what I feel. I will. I will yet praise him.
Swing It – Command Your Soul to Praise
Let's put it into practice right now. Let's praise him as a church right now. From the front to the back. Won't you take control of your soul right now? And tell your soul, the Lord has been good to you. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, watch. Can't always control what's around me, but I'm in control of what's within me. And what's within me will bless the Lord. See, if your attitude is a byproduct of your circumstance, your emotions will always be out of control. But if your attitude is not a result of your circumstance, but it's a result of the character of God, watch what you can do. You can swing that thing in the other direction. You sat down too soon. I want you to jump up and touch three people. Tell them, swing that thing. Swing that thing. Swing that thing.
You know you want to touch your neighbor. Tell them, swing that thing. Swing that thing, University. Swing that thing, Rock Hill. Swing that thing, Matthews. Maybe that's where David learned it when he had that slingshot where he killed Goliath And he turned the battle around with a praise in his heart. And he said, like I did with that sling, I'm about to do with my soul. Sweeten that thing. Praise him if you want to. You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it. It's your decision. It's your decision. You can be miserable because of what they did to you 14 years ago, or you can decide 14 years is long enough for me to be hateful and stuck and miserable and regretful. Swing that thing. Push against it. Resist it. Challenge it. I will yet praise him. I will yet, yet I will praise him.
How do you guard your heart? You own your emotions, and you change your concentration. Change your concentration. We're going to work on this next week. Next week is the most important sermon of the series. Plan accordingly. But this week, I just want you to stop trying to change your circumstances so much. Change. It doesn't say guard your sister's heart or your boss's heart. It says guard your heart. Concentrate on your state of mind this week. Change your concentration. Verse 20, he said, pay attention to what I say. Tune in to truth. Well, I just don't feel like God's speaking to me. He's speaking, you're just not paying attention. And your attitude reflects your attention. You want another one? Okay. Your frustration reflects your fixation. You like the way I said that? Me too. It's a known fact that somebody came to church today with a much more frustrating situation than you have. Okay?
Somebody came to church today in a wheelchair. You used your legs. Okay? Somebody came to church today, and they didn't get to bring their daughter because their daughter left the earth before they planned for it, and you came to church with your whole family, but you were frustrated how your daughter was acting in the car, and so you were fixated on what's wrong in your minivan, and so you're frustrated. I'm just trying to help you to see that. See, when you're in a storm, when you're in a storm in life, it's just like what Peter found out on the stormy sea of Galilee one night. He was out of the boat walking toward Jesus on the water. How cool is this? He's gone from a boat that's about to drown him to walking toward a savior that can sustain him. And as he's walking on the water, as he's transcending the elements, he remembers, I'm not supposed to be able to do this. Now, the scripture says that the storm had been raging before he got out of the boat, and the storm kept raging when he got out of the boat. So, the circumstance didn't change. But when Peter, watch this, broke his concentration, okay, the way that your heart feels is a result of what your mind concentrates on. And when you let stuff break your concentration on the things God has given you to be grateful for, and the things that God has given you to do, when you let life break your concentration, your soul will always sink beneath the surface.
And so, he's concentrating. One minute, he's concentrating on the creator. And the scripture says, as long as his eyes were fixed on Jesus, okay, he was able to walk on water. But when he concentrated not on the creator, but the circumstance, not on the one who made the wind and the waves, but on the wind and the waves that threatened to take him out, he began to sink. Your mood, your feelings, and your direction is a result of your concentration. Guard your heart above all else. Everything you do flows from it. Look at verse 25. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Some of you are so focused on the past, you've drained all of your strength for this present moment.
Some of you are so worried about the future that you can't do what you need to do now to secure your future that you're so worried about. But he said, let your eyes look, concentrate. Tell somebody next to you, say, concentrate. Say, I know you're hungry and you're ready for them to start closing and you want the piano to start playing to give a sign. We're about to get out of here, but concentrate. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Not overhear what they're doing. Not back there at what happened. Not up there at what you think might happen. Straight ahead. Concentrate. Your gaze directly before you. Because when you can't change your... Excuse me. You bring me some water. Yeah, me too. I just need a little water. I'm gonna finish in a minute. I guess preaching about Peter walking on the water got me all thirsty. I don't know. Thank you, guys. Brought out the table and everything. Half empty or half full? I was messing with you. Awesome.
I told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Yes, your joy will overflow. That's what John 15, 11 says, right? I read it at the beginning, remember? It was only like 50 minutes ago, remember? Your joy will overflow. We were talking about concentration. Y'all remember Science Lab? Where they taught you about the concentration of the liquids? Like the mixture of... I don't even know if I'm explaining this correctly, but the solution and the solute. Did I say it right? Yeah, and how much of it dissolves in the other? It was something like that. What's he doing right now? I'm just doing to this water what life does to you. He said, I'm going to give you joy in your heart. But then life drops in all kinds of discouragement. Life drops in all kinds of disappointment. Life drops in all kinds of things you didn't see coming. Life drops in all kinds of distractions. And now, a minute ago, I had joy, but now I'm feeling kind of blue. And I don't know what to do. Because, see, I had joy, but then this stuff happened to me. The devil took my joy. But, see, Jesus said, Jesus said, that my joy may be in you. Ah, and your joy will overflow. That my joy will bring you a little more water. Yeah, bring me a big jug of water. That's what I need. That's his joy. This is his joy. You might think this is silly, but you're going to remember it all week long. Because I came to tell you, you need to start carrying your own picture of God's joy. Let me get a better grip on this so I can show you what to do.
See, because you can't control what life always drops in. You can't always control what discouragement or what disappointment drops in. But here's what I found out. You can change the concentration. In other words, you can take the worry that life dropped in, and if you have enough word in you, he said, my words will be in you. If my word is in you. If my word is in you. The water is the word. The jar is your joy. He said, if my words are in you, if you remain in me, if you've got enough word in you, some of you need to change the concentration. Because you've got too much worry and not enough word. But he said, if you put my word in your heart, your joy will over. Over. Over. Over. Over. Over. Do I have any overflowing Christians in the…. Let's take 15 seconds and overflow with praise in this place. Come on. The best praise you've got. We need more water. We need more water. We need more water. Change the concentration. Put his word in your heart.