Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals church podcast.
Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others.
We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.
Hi, guys, and welcome to Sandals Church.
We're in this series called healthy.
Last weekend, Pastor Eric did an amazing, amazing job.
Let's give him a hand.
Thank you so much to Eric.
I've learned so much from him when it comes to physical health and how that impacts me
spiritually.
And so I know many of you guys are just starting out on your physical journey towards
physical health.
But today we're going to shift and we're going to talk about something that is a problem
just literally with everyone, and that's emotional health.
Emotional health has reached just an epidemic platform in our culture.
Young people are struggling emotionally, middle aged people are struggling emotionally, and
the elderly are struggling emotionally.
Nobody seems to know exactly what's gone wrong or where it's gone wrong, but our emotions,
especially as Americans, are out of control.
And so today we're going to turn to Jesus, as we should as Christians, whether you need
physical health, spiritual health, or emotional health.
And Jesus has this amazing, amazing passage where he talks about an emotion we've all
wrestled with at some point in our lives.
It's called worry.
Hey, Sandals church.
Thank you so much for tuning in today as we continue in our series, healthy.
Before we dive into today's message, I wanted to invite you guys to partner with the work
that Sandals church is doing.
One way you can do that is by going to give SC.
For now, let's jump back into today's message.
And if you don't think you've struggled with this, then you're a liar.
And I would encourage you to pray through that today.
But in Matthew 625 through 34, listen to these words.
Jesus begins with, that's why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.
Some of you should get that tattooed right here on your forehead.
You're like, now I'm worried about that.
Whether or not you have enough food or drink or enough clothes to wear.
Now, 2000 years ago, people worked every day, all day, the vast majority just to eat
something, just to have something to wear.
Okay?
Nudity was a sign of poverty in the day and age of Jesus.
Nowadays, you're just showing off.
You know what I'm saying?
He says, isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing?
He says, look at the birds.
They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns for your heavenly Father feeds them and
aren't you far more valuable to him than they are.
Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why do you worry about your clothing?
Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.
They don't work or make their clothing.
Yet Solomon, who was the richest king in Israel's history in all his glory, was not dressed
as beautifully as they are.
And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers, this is amazing.
That are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, listen to this.
He will certainly care for.
So why?
Why do you have so little faith?
So don't worry about these things, says Jesus.
What we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear.
These things, according to Jesus, dominate the thoughts of unbelievers and probably some
believers today.
But your heavenly Father already knows your needs.
Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you
everything you need.
So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
This is one of my favorite verses.
Today's trouble is enough for today.
Amen.
It's enough.
So today we're going to talk about how God helps me with my emotions.
How does he do this?
Number one, if you're taking notes, by revealing their impact on my daily life.
Some of you, you don't realize how much your emotions are wearing you down and wearing you
out.
When you look through this verse, Jesus doesn't mention worry once, twice, three times, but
six different times.
Why would Jesus over and over and over again talk about worry?
Because he knows what we struggle with.
I was digging through my office a couple of weeks ago, trying to clean it up, and I found
an old journal.
My wife said, I didn't even know you journaled.
I was like, yeah, because my life is stressful.
And I was reading through a journal from 15 years ago, and you know what was on every page?
Worry, worry.
I'm in a very different place than I was 15 years ago, but I still worry.
It's just what I worry about has changed.
Three times Jesus says, don't worry.
Don't do it.
One time he says, why?
Why would you worry?
Another time he says, can worry.
He asks a question, can worry, do anything?
So why do we worry?
We worry, worry because we're emotional people.
Every single one of us is an emotional person.
Some are like, no, I'm not.
Listen, scientists have actually determined no one makes a decision divorced from emotion.
Everything flows through the heart according to science.
Now, some of you are new to Christianity, and you don't know that the Bible told us this
thousands of years ago in proverbs 423.
And Pastor Eric mentioned this verse last week.
It says, guard your heart above all else.
Why?
For it determines the course of your life.
And you say, well, wait, wait, I thought God determines the course of my life.
Some things he does, but most things.
Your heart is in the driver's seat.
Now, heart, in Hebrew is the word lev.
It's pronounced lev, lamid, bet.
Now, I know I said bet, but in Hebrew, b can be v or b.
It's the center of human emotions.
It's where everything comes from.
So listen to proverbs.
The heart is the center.
It's what drives everything.
Whether I'm a man or a woman, whether I'm young or old, whether I'm a child or a teenager,
emotions are driving my life.
Emotions impact everything.
And oftentimes, especially in church, we don't talk about this.
Many of you have been shamed in church to have emotions.
I want you to know, God gave them to you.
They're a gift to you.
But you need to learn to control them.
I was doing some research this week on emotions.
Do you know that 70% of Americans say they spend money emotionally?
How many of you have ever made an emotional purchase?
Oh, man.
You're like, okay, that's going back to Amazon, right?
You're like, what was I doing?
It was two in the morning.
And you got after Eric's sermon, you got ten new pieces of exercise equipment you'll never
use.
I already hang my laundry on the bike.
Why do I need the treadmill?
But how about this?
My employment now, I don't need this stinking job.
Yeah, you actually do one time.
And this guy doesn't come to our church anymore because I lost my mind on him.
He quit three jobs in a row in an emotional rant, and he wanted the church to help pay his
bills.
I was like, let me tell you something, brother.
He goes to another church now, but he lost his mind.
He just lost his mind.
And it wasn't that he lost his mind, it's that he wasn't in control of his emotions.
Now, last week, Pastor Eric talked about our health.
Why is it that we're so unhealthy?
And here's why.
Because we operate emotionally.
Why do you drink so much?
Is anybody at the bar drinking that 6th, 6th beer?
Because it's healthy.
No, they're drinking it because they're hurting.
So think about it.
We over drink, we overeat.
Why?
Because we underestimate the power of our emotions.
Some of you young people, you're sliding right, you're sliding left.
You're looking at your phone.
You're going to go hook up with someone you don't even know.
You don't know their past.
And this decision could ruin your life.
It could take your life.
Why do you do it?
Emotions.
It's emotions.
You feel lonely, you feel unloved, you feel ugly, and so you look for someone to validate
you temporarily, and you risk everything because of emotions.
And then some of us are faith.
I hear this all the time.
I just didn't feel like going to church.
And if you're watching from home, you're just like, ouch.
It's okay.
Come next week.
Man, we oftentimes we get so frustrated with God.
But God's not the problem.
It's our heart.
It's our emotions.
How about this?
Relationships.
Anybody ever been in a relationship?
Some of our teenagers are like, yeah, four days.
All right, it's good.
I don't know how many days I've been in this relationship with my wife.
It's a lot.
But, man, our emotions can impact our relationships.
Man, we say some crazy things when we get emotional, don't we?
When Tammy and I went to counseling the first time, I remember the counselor said, never
say the word divorce.
Just don't even say it.
Because, man, it's really hard to reel back in things once they come out.
How about cheating?
Why do people cheat?
Oftentimes it's because of emotions.
We're all affected by our emotions.
But here's the thing.
We're all affected differently by our emotions.
And this is why I got this wonderful, beautiful golf cart behind me.
Because here's the problem with many of us.
You want to know where our emotions are?
They're right here.
They're driving our life.
God's not in charge, right?
Remember the song Jesus take the wheel?
No.
Your heart's already there.
Your heart's already.
And we say this right in culture, follow your heart.
Let your heart drive your life.
Jesus says, don't follow your heart.
He says, follow me.
But for a lot of us, our emotions are up here.
I've been commuting back and forth this week from Riverside to Orange county, been doing
the audio version of my book, and I'm so grateful for all the prayers and support.
I've been stressed out about that.
We're going to talk about that in a little bit.
But I was in fast track.
And for those of you watching from other states, we pay a lot of taxes in California, and
so they reward us by, if you want to get someplace quick, you got to pay for that, too,
right?
So it's just the blessings of California.
So I was in the fast track, and everyone in California knows this.
When you're heading for fast track, do I want to pay the 22 50 because it's crazy amounts
of money, or am I just going to hope that there isn't traffic?
And then, you know, you know, you made the wrong decision, and you're sitting there losing
your mind as everybody in fast track is flying by you.
Well, I was in fast track, flying by all the idiots, and there's this guy.
Now, the truth is, I don't know.
It was a guy, but it had to be a guy in a Rolls Royce.
I checked.
This car is $350,000.
He lost his mind.
You want to know what he did?
He was parked because he was too cheap to pay for the 22 50 because he paid 350k for his
car.
He lost his mind.
But you know, those Rolls Royces are v twelve s.
And when you put the pedal to the metal on a v twelve, man, it got out of control.
And he was spinning out of control because he's trying to jump into traffic where we're all
doing 65.
And he went from zero to 65, and he spun out and he hit those yellow pylons.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
And I'm thinking, you're driving a Rolls Royce, you moron.
What happened?
Emotions.
And I thought, what an idiot.
And then the fast track stopped.
And now I'm looking at all the free people flying by me, and you know what I was tempted to
do?
Just like the idiot in the Rolls Royce.
Why is that?
Because when I get upset, when I get agitated, when I get excited, my emotions take the
wheel and I do stupid things.
What do you think that guy would have done to me if he was parked and I just took one of
those pylons and started whacking his Rollsroyce?
He'd have lost his mind.
But because he let his emotions, his emotions drive him, he did it himself.
He did it himself.
He must have hit 30 of those pylons as he spun out.
And that's what some of you are doing to your life, because you won't give Jesus your
heart.
Your heart is giving you all the pain you can take.
But some of us, we aren't here.
You're, like, preaching, Pastor Matt.
These young people, so emotional.
Oh, you're not here.
Your emotions are back here.
But here's the thing, is, whether they're in the driver's seat or in the trunk, they're
driving.
They're driving.
You ever had an emotional rant?
You ever lost your mind?
Jesus says this, for whatever is in your heart determines what you say.
You're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I said that.
Oh, it's because we have some emotions back here.
Some of you didn't know you had a trunk.
You do, and there might be some dead bodies back there.
You need to go look.
But our emotions.
Our emotions can make us crazy.
They can hurt the people we love.
And listen to me.
They can destroy our lives if they're left buried in the trunk or they're allowed to drive
my life.
Listen, if they're not guarded, remember what proverbs said, guard your heart, for it
determines the outcome of your life.
If you're not guarded with your heart and your emotions, they're driving.
Or they're in the trunk and they're destroying your life.
Number two, God helps me with my emotions by reminding me of my value to him.
Listen to what Jesus says.
Look at the birds.
They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.
Now, listen to this.
Aren't they far more valuable?
Aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?
That's a question.
Do you feel valuable?
And some of you are like, pastor, I don't know.
This is my first week in church.
Listen to what Jesus says later in Matthew 1031.
He says, don't be afraid.
You are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
You know what's the problem with our life?
We don't spend enough time in God's word.
And we spend way too much time on our screens.
Our tv screens, our cell phone screens, our computer screens.
And do you know what they do?
They shrink us.
When we stare at these screens, we feel small, we feel ugly, we feel dumb, we feel unseen,
unloved, unimportant.
Here's what Jesus says.
Get outside.
Take a walk.
Look, we live in SoCal.
Everybody right now is all freezing because it's like 65 degrees outside.
Everybody's in here.
Oh, pastor Matt, do you know what they're doing in Nebraska right now?
They're praying for 65.
In Nebraska.
At 65, they're in swimsuits.
In California, we're like, oh, my gosh.
I got to get to get a canadian goose jacket.
Look, no matter which direction you drive from, an hour from where I stand, we have
beautiful beaches, incredible mountains, gorgeous deserts.
Get outside.
And for those of you watching from other states, move to California.
We need you.
But check it out.
Jesus says, look, this is so incredibly powerful.
Our emotions are driving when we're looking at ourselves.
This is what therapists do to people with anxiety.
They get people to take the attention off themselves.
It's why oftentimes, therapy involves caring for an animal.
You see, when I'm focused on myself, I'm overwhelmed by myself.
Matthew 628, Jesus, again, look at the lilies.
Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.
They discovered this in New York City.
New York City became one of the fastest growing cities and one of the largest cities in the
world.
And it was building after building after building, sidewalk after sidewalk and street after
street.
And people were going crazy.
They were losing their minds.
Some of you didn't know this.
That's why the Grand Central park is so big, because they realized they had a real problem.
When you disconnect people from the nature that God's created, we go nuts.
And they had to create that beautiful, amazing park.
And it is incredible.
God made us to be outside.
And if you live in Socal, you have no excuse.
You have no excuse.
It's beautiful.
Like 90% of the time, storm watch is almost always a lie.
It's never real.
Listen, you want to feel better, go outside.
You want to feel sad, depressed.
You want to feel just horrible.
Stare at a screen.
Psalms 118 24 says this, this is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice in it.
Listen to this and be glad in it.
Even if you're battling disease, you have today, you're alive today.
Rejoice in it and be glad in it.
And that's what we all need to do today.
Next, God helps me with my emotions, and this is so important, especially if you're new to
Christianity or considering becoming a Christian.
The world says, how do you feel?
And how you feel determines who you are.
Jesus says something very, very different.
Jesus, listen to this.
Teaches me to question what I'm feeling.
Many of us, even as christians, we choose to believe our feelings and question God.
What if we just flipped it?
What if we made a decision today to believe God and question our feelings?
If you're a young person today, here's one of the things I've been most surprised by my
age, how I feel in my 20s, in my teens, and my thirty s and my forty s and my 50s.
My feelings have changed.
My feelings have changed, and some of you are making all of life's decisions based upon how
you feel today.
Do you know, in my 30s, when I was battling depression, every single day I would come home
from work at sandals and I would get online and I would look at houses in Hawaii every day.
My wife called it my real estate porn.
She said, you're looking at that porn again.
I was like, I am again.
And why is it because it was unhealthy.
Here's the thing, and I know we have some listeners from Hawaii.
God bless you.
I love you.
Tithe.
I haven't visited Hawaii in five years.
Do you want to know why?
I have no desire to go there.
And it's not because Hawaii isn't a great place.
It's because my heart is different.
What if I would have abandoned sandals and riverside for how I was feeling in my thirty s?
I would be struggling financially today, and I would be in a mess in Hawaii or probably
somewhere else, because I imagine that wouldn't have worked out.
And so many of you, you follow your feelings.
Oh, we gotta move.
We gotta go.
We gotta get out of here.
It's like, no, you gotta chill.
You gotta relax.
You gotta just listen to Jesus.
You gotta learn to question your feelings.
Some of you, as christians say, you believe in Jesus, but that's not the truth.
That's a lie.
You believe in how you feel, and that is your God, and it's a terrible God, and it's going
to crash your life, just like that idiot in the Rolls Royce.
Jesus says, why do you have so little faith?
He says, God cares for you.
God loves you.
You matter more to him than anything in this creation, and you're losing it.
Why?
Because when my feelings rule, my faith falls.
So we're going to do a little exercise today, and this is a challenging exercise, and I
think it's something that we need to learn to do as christians.
I first heard about this in my doctoral program, and it's interesting.
I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys who are supposed to be spiritual leaders, and we were
taught to do this.
And it's simple.
Number one, what are my feelings?
Isn't that scary that pastors have to be led in an exercise to ask themselves how they're
feeling?
Oftentimes Christians are incredibly unhealthy emotionally because they don't know how they
feel.
So here's the thing.
Some of us are up here and our emotions are driving, but some of you are like where I was,
and your emotions are back here, buried in the trunk.
I went skiing last weekend.
I always say skiing.
I went snowboarding last weekend and I was going to get my board waxed.
And there was a family in front of me, and the dad looked at me and he said, are, you know,
Pastor Eric shared last week that people always think that he's mad at them and we look
like twins and I have the same disease, but people are always like, are you okay?
I'm like, yeah, we'll tell your.
You know, because apparently I'm staring at this family that's going on a snow outing.
Know, but here's why.
Here's why.
And some of you are like this.
You're like me.
You're not aware of how you feel.
And it's back here.
So I bought this on Amazon.
Some of you need to get one of these.
It's called a mood meter.
It's very helpful because if you're like me, you don't know how you feel.
And this can help you.
How am I feeling?
If you're raising teenagers, yeah, you need a mood meter.
And here's why.
They don't know how they feel.
And oftentimes, as parents, we're very frustrated with our kids because they can't express
how they feel.
Well, where did they learn that from?
So when Tammy and I sit in counseling, we have a mood meter in between us.
And it helps because there are words on here that help me communicate how I'm feeling.
Worried.
Annoyed.
I wouldn't advise sharing that one.
Satisfied.
Tired.
Sullen.
Disappointed.
Frustrated.
Motivated.
Inspired.
Here's a good one.
Fuming.
I like how that sounds.
Fuming.
Here's some really good ones.
Embarrassed.
Hopeless.
I like this one alone.
Part of the reason we fight so bad in our marriages and with our friends is because we
don't know how to express what's going on inside.
So what are my feelings?
What are they?
And I would encourage you, especially if you're like me and you live back here, to write
them down.
To write them down.
Years ago, Tammy and I, we went for counseling for three days because she needed some help,
you know, I'm saying?
And the counselors, oddly enough, kept asking me questions.
And I was a little concerned because we needed to fix her.
And listen to me, guys, I remember day two at lunch over a salad, I started crying and I
couldn't stop.
And I hear this all the time from my friends who struggle with their emotions.
And I hear this.
I'm afraid if I started crying, I won't stop.
And let me just ask you, what's wrong with that?
What's wrong with that?
You know what's worse than crying?
Not being real about how you feel?
Because you're bearing this in the back of your trunk.
And here's the thing.
Whatever's in the trunk is affecting your marriage, your friendships, your relationships,
your work.
It's back there and it's destroying your life.
So the best thing to do is get around people that love you and feel it.
Write it down and say, here are my feelings.
And some of you guys are like, yes, because you're up here and you're crashing into all of
us.
Okay?
So you're not back here with me.
You don't need a mood meter.
You are a mood meter.
You need to write this down.
What are the facts?
Look, I appreciate your emotions.
Listen, my feelings are real, but they are not always right, I guess.
Say that again.
My feelings and your feelings are real.
See, our world gets us backward.
They say it this way.
Well, this is my truth.
No, those are your feelings.
It's not your truth because there isn't your truth.
There isn't my truth.
There's the truth.
So what are my feelings?
My feelings are always real, but they're not always right.
So what I need to do is I need to learn to write down the facts.
This is hard.
And why don't we do this?
Because oftentimes the facts disagree with how we feel.
Tammy and I, when we argue, oftentimes, do you know what we spend the majority of our fight
arguing over?
What was said.
What was said?
I cannot tell you how many times.
And when we fight, we fight in English, which is my primary language.
And, oh, by the way, I'm a professional communicator, and we're fighting over what was said
or wasn't said.
It's hard.
It's hard to figure out the facts.
It's really, really difficult.
And that's why a counselor is so helpful, because a counselor can say, oh, no, actually,
this is the fact.
This is what was said.
That's important sometimes because some of us don't hear what we're saying, and some of us,
because we're so emotional, we don't hear what someone else is saying.
We hear what we're afraid they're saying.
Come on.
Wow.
So what are the facts?
Write them down.
And then this is huge.
If you're a Christian, what does God's word say?
Can I just tell you?
Our church would be a thousand times healthier emotionally if we just said, what are my
feelings?
What are the facts?
What does God's word say?
Now, the Bible doesn't speak to everything, but it speaks to a lot of things.
In Matthew 634, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own
worries.
Today's trouble is enough for today.
If you're a person who struggles with anxiety and worry, they are never about the here and
now.
It is always rooted in tomorrow.
And I don't know what your gifts are, but it's probably not prophecy.
You don't know what tomorrow will bring.
What are my feelings?
What are the facts?
What does God's word say?
Look, if you're a married couple and you're fighting, what if you just fought about today?
There's enough.
There has a lot of juice there.
You just enjoy it.
But that's not what we do.
We bring all our hurts, all our wounds, all our emotions from all time in this moment.
Today's enough.
You ever had a fight where you're just like, how did this happen?
Well, it's probably because you're up here or you got a lot of stuff buried back here that
you haven't dealt with, and it's coming out.
So here's an exercise that I have found very, very helpful.
And this is from someone who battles anxiety.
This is someone who wrestles with worry.
So what are my feelings?
What are the facts?
What does God's word say?
And this is huge.
What are the potential outcomes?
And he said, yeah, but Jesus said, I know what Jesus said, and you won't listen.
So listen to me.
This is very, very helpful because here's the reality.
Simply me telling you a Bible verse is not always helpful.
It's not always helpful because when emotions are driving, it's really hard.
It's like yelling at somebody that's emotionally freaking out.
Relax.
It doesn't help.
Is that helpful?
Does that help anybody?
No.
Because when emotion is in the driver's seat, man, it's really, really difficult.
So here's something that I found, and I didn't come up with this.
I got this out of a book that I read this last year called the Worry Cure.
And I've read through this book about four times, and this has really impacted my life.
And so what that book encouraged me to do when I can't be obedient to Jesus, because Jesus
says, just worry about today, but I'm stuck in tomorrow.
And some of you live in tomorrowland.
And I don't mean Disneyland.
I mean in the future.
Here's what's really, really helped me write down three things.
What's the worst case scenario.
What's the worst case scenario?
You say, well, pastor, that's not encouraging.
Well, listen, you go there anyways.
That's where some of you live.
So just own it.
Just own it.
What is the worst case scenario?
Write it down.
I could be fired.
I could die.
I could get divorced.
I could be publicly humiliated.
My career could be destroyed.
Write it down.
What's the worst.
Next.
What's the best case scenario?
What is the best case scenario?
And some of us never think about this.
We just stay in the worst.
We never move to the best case scenario.
There's a woman in our church, and she thought she was going to get fired.
And she was called before her boss, and she asked me to pray for her.
And she was all stressed out.
So we prayed right there at dinner for her.
And like a week later, I saw her.
I was like, so what happened?
Did you get fired?
She goes, oh, no, I got a promotion.
I said, I'm not praying for you ever again.
In her mind, it was the worst possible scenario.
She was anxious, she couldn't sleep.
She ruined our dinner.
I told her that you ruined our dinner because she was stuck in phase one.
What's the worst case scenario?
That's what's going to happen.
And that's where we live.
Listen, I don't care what the MRI says.
Sometimes they're wrong.
That's why they have radiologists that interpret the data.
What's the best case scenario?
It's a zit.
It's not a tumor.
You don't have cancer.
You're not dying.
This is it.
It's a pimple.
Okay, third, what's the most likely scenario?
See, this requires facts.
We got to go back.
What are the facts?
Look, and I don't know what's going on work, but I can tell you, as a boss, as an employee,
I don't look forward to firing.
That's not fun.
It's hard to get good employees if you're a good employee.
Relax.
People make mistakes.
There's been times where I thought, oh, no, Tammy and I in a fight.
Oh, no, here we go.
Okay.
We've been married 28 years.
This year, what's the most likely scenario?
We will work it out.
Okay?
We will work it out.
That's the most likely scenario.
I'm going to be okay.
And let me tell you something.
You will struggle with this every day of your life because life is scary.
So I told you, I've been commuting to Orange county, and I've got a book coming out, and
it's a very humbling thing to write a book.
I told somebody, it's like standing naked in front of everyone forever because people get
to criticize what you write forever in perpetuity, because that's just the way that it is.
And no book is ever perfect.
It's just finished.
And so I've been working through my mind, okay, what's the worst case scenario?
People hate it.
Sandals fires me for this book.
That's the worst case?
My wife won't even go out in public with me.
That's the worst case scenario.
What's the best case scenario?
Oh, it's a New York Times bestseller.
It changes lives.
What's the most likely scenario?
It does.
Okay?
It does.
Okay?
And I've had to work through that, and I have to practice that constantly.
I have to do this with my marriage.
I have to do this with our church.
When we were trying to raise that extra $2 million, I got to tell you, man, it was tough.
It was tough.
We got there by the skin of our teeth and God's grace, but it was tough, and we got to work
through this.
What's the worst case scenario?
What's the most likely scenario?
What's the best scenario?
What's the best thing that could ever happen?
This will set you free.
Last one.
God helps me with me, with my emotions by directing me to a better way to live.
If you don't know Jesus, he didn't just come to save your soul.
He came to save your life.
And if you don't know Jesus, here's why you need to know Jesus.
There is no spiritual leader in the history of the world like him.
He is morally superior to anyone.
Buddha ran away from his family to be enlightened.
That is not Jesus.
He ran to you so you could be enlightened.
It's very, very different.
Listen to Jesus.
So don't worry about these things saying, what will we eat?
What will we drink?
What will we wear?
These things dominate the thoughts of what unbelievers.
See what?
This makes me?
An unbeliever.
I'm a believer in my heart.
But your heavenly father, listen this.
He already knows what you need.
He already knows.
Just like he knows what the lilies need, just like he knows what the birds need.
This is why you need to get outside.
You need to look at how God is doing.
Sun rose, the sun sets, the earth still spins, right?
God is taking care of everything that he's taking care of.
But you have your heart, and that's where you turn.
Listeners, here's the better way of life.
Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you
everything you need.
Let me ask you this question.
How much of your anxiety, worry and stress comes from Jesus?
The answer is zero.
Some of you today, you need to listen to the words of Jesus.
You say.
Pastor Matt, I'm an emotional mess.
I'm on my third marriage.
I've been fired again.
I'm addicted to porn.
I'm a disaster.
I follow the impulses of my heart.
I'm like that guy in the Rolls Royce destroying my life.
Okay, Jesus is not here to judge you.
He's here to save you.
Listen to the words of Jesus.
This is probably my favorite verse in the entire Bible.
Matthew 1128 through 30.
Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, listeners, and learn from me.
For I am gentle and humble in heart.
And these are the most beautiful words ever spoken.
And you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
I want to end today's message with two calls.
Some of you need to come to Jesus today.
He loves you.
He died for you.
He's waiting for you.
And you are overwhelmed with anxiety, hurt, sadness.
And by the way, I forgot to mention this.
If you're up here, it's anxiety and worry.
If you're back here, we call it stress.
See, we don't call it anxiety and worry.
Right, because I'm a man.
I'm a man.
No, you live in the trunk.
It's called stress.
So here's what I want you to do.
The first call is to release everything that's just bugging you.
I want you to squeeze your fists as tight as you can.
Your job, your kids, your commute, your anxiety, your relationships, whatever it is, I just
want you to squeeze it as tight as you can.
Get your fists as tight as you can.
Right?
This is how some of you live.
I just love Jesus so much.
I'm just so relaxed.
I want you to clench your fists as tight as you can.
And then I want you to go, take it, Jesus.
Take it.
And I want you to think about what it felt like to hold on to it as tight as you can.
And then I want you to never forget what that felt like when you relaxed and you said,
lord, here you go.
Because here's the thing.
No matter what was in your hand, he'll take it.
He'll take it.
But some of you today, you don't just need to get right with Jesus.
You need to go to your spouse, your children, your friends and your family.
And you need to apologize because your emotions have been driving you crazy and have been
hurting the people you love.
Here's the thing.
Next week you say, okay, what do we do now?
Well, you got to come back next week because we're going to talk about how to guard your
heart and how to not let your emotions dictate your life, but to let God dictate your life.
Let's close our eyes and bow our heads and I just want to pray over you today.
Heavenly Father, we live in such stressful times, anxiety.
God seems to be the fuel that we live on.
We are overwhelmed with worry and stress.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you take these emotions from us and you send your spirit upon
us and you help us to trust your son, Jesus.
Lord, empower us, strengthen us and comfort us with your love and your peace.
Lord, help us this week to live, Lord, in a way that reflects the truth that you care so
deeply for each and every one of us.
We pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.