Steven Furtick - When Emotions Take Over
The Great Emoti Con We want somebody else to be responsible for our state of mind. Here's the announcement: your joy is 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 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 have to guard it. You have to own it. Own your dysfunction. Own your depression. Own your discouragement. Don't say, "They discouraged me". Say, "I'm discouraged, but I'm choosing to encourage myself, because I have ownership over my emotions".
I own emotions; emotions don't own me. I put my emotions to work; they don't work me over. Do you see my iPad? This is my iPad. 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're enjoying are on this iPad. I put the notes in the 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 for week two? It can only serve the purpose I input into the device. 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.
Yet some of us wake up every morning, and we consult with our devices. 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 have to own your soul. Own it! The Hard Work Of Happiness Look at the person next to you and say, "You can't make me happy". Are they offended? I promise you, if you said that to somebody you live with, they're relieved, because you are heavy. They always have to make you happy.
See, it's not their job description to make you happy. It's not God's either. Look at it. He said, "Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev". The Negev is the southern part of the desert. It doesn't get any drier than that. To have a stream in the Negev only happens in the winter rain season. When the rain comes in the winter season in the Negev, it floods the banks. It'll tear up the bridges. It'll tear up the roads. It'll wipe out the livestock. You have to be ready for the rain when it comes.
Some of us are praying for things we haven't built the infrastructure for, and even if God gives it, it will not feel like a gift; it will feel like a burden, because your joy is your job. Not an event, not a promotion, not knowledge, not an amount. Your bank account keeps going closer and closer to that level you thought you would need to feel secure, and you are still scared, because blessedness is not a state of affairs; it is a way of life. We have some work to do, the hard work of happiness. Look at what it looks like. He said the Lord can do a miracle and send it like streams in the Negev, which is a completely supernatural phenomenon. That's not an ordinary thing. We need to pray, "Lord, restore my joy," but watch what the psalmist instructs us to do.
I don't know if you're ready to do this or not. For many years of my life, I wasn't ready to do that, because I was addicted to self-pity. That was my addiction. In fact, one of the most powerful things the Lord ever told me was, "You have let your mood become your master". I read in the Bible about Pharaoh, and the Lord will say, "You have let your feelings become your Pharaoh, telling you when you can go and what you can do and what you can say". When did you get the idea that your feelings are in charge of your obedience to God? It’s Mine To Manage That's a really powerful distinction: to know there are certain things God has given you under your jurisdiction. One of those things is your joy. "I will rejoice and be glad in it". "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it".
Regardless of if the traffic is congested… I don't manage the traffic, but I am… I like it this way. My joy is my job. No matter what happens when I get to my job, no one can steal my joy, because my joy is not under anyone else's jurisdiction. Do you see what I'm saying? It's mine to manage. One time I made the mistake of saying somebody stole my joy, and the Spirit of the Lord really corrected me on that. Like, "They stole your joy? Your joy is not their job, and if they stole it you should have done a better job locking the doors so they couldn't get to it. You need a better security system. If someone else can steal your joy, then you have your joy hiding out there in the open where anybody can see it and snatch it".
We Are We Label So, if I want to be more joyful, maybe I need to believe joy doesn't come from circumstances. That's what a lot of us believe. When a situation turns a certain way… We betray our belief in our language. "They stole my joy". They stole it? Where's your safe? Where are your locks? Where are your protective mechanisms to see to it that people don't get to take from you what Christ paid for? Joy comes from Jesus, not people. Joy comes from Jesus, not events. There are at least three of you who have been on a beach at a time in your life and been sad on the beach, so you found out really quickly you can move places but still feel the same way (or worse) you did when you left, because joy doesn't come from a place. Joy doesn't come from a possession. Joy comes from God. That's the first belief I have to have if I'm going to be more joyful.
If I have to go to you to get the joy, you might not have any either. So, now I'm coming to you asking you for something that you don't have. "Make me feel good. Make me happy. Oh, you've got to make me happy". "I left them because they weren't making me happy. I left that church because I wasn't happy. I left that job because I wasn't happy". Your joy is your job. (I don't care if y'all like me. I'm going to Phoenix. I'll be on the other side of the country by the time you get mad at this message and tweet at me.) It's your job, and if you don't believe that, you cannot access what you don't have the rightful permission to perceive. If you don't think you're supposed to be joyful in God's presence, at his right hand is the fullness of joy. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. So, maybe I would need to believe God wants to give me joy that the world can't take away. What would you need to believe to become more joyful? Maybe I would believe that joy isn't an effect of circumstance but is a product of my perspective.
Backseat DJs You cannot choose joy; you can only choose your priorities, and your priorities control your joy. You can't choose joy any more than you can… You think you can choose joy. It's like trying to choose the weather. What you can choose is your priority, and your priorities will ultimately control your joy. Psalm 16:5: "The Lord is my chosen portion…" See the word chosen? It means I have decided to make God the most important thing in my life. I don't want to leave that too abstract. What does that mean? Read the Bible first thing every morning? Maybe, but it means more than that. His will is what I want. His ways are higher than my ways. So the Lord, Yahweh, the Great I Am, the ever-present help in time of trouble, is my chosen portion.
I've looked at everything else this world offers me to enjoy, and yes, I can enjoy things that aren't necessarily spiritual, but I do not need them to survive. I will not attach my joy to a temporal pleasure anymore. I tried that. I cheered for the Clemson Tigers when they were 3 and 8, and when they won the second national championship in the last few years, people were coming up to me saying, "Congratulations". I was like, "For what"? I enjoyed the game. I watched the game. I liked it. I enjoyed the 44 to 16 victory, but I didn't need college boys in Spandex to give me a reason to live. That is not my priority. I can't invest my joy in what people I don't know do with an oblong object made out of pigskin converted into leather with some stitches for four 15-minute increments. It's the wrong priority. I enjoyed it, but my joy is not in it. Last week I told you something very powerful about your heart. I said when you know where it comes from you know how it comes out. This is what I want to tell you this week: where it comes from determines when it runs out. It's the source of your joy. The way you can know that is, "What are my priorities"?