Summer in Proverbs | Emotions

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I'm Kevin. Thanks for listening to our message. We strive each week to bring you relevant, practical, biblical teaching that meets you where you are. Hope you enjoy the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

It's good to see you this morning and uh delighted that you're here. Great job, worship team. Um I uh I think that's my favorite song to have done right before I get to speak. Um it's just uh, you know, we'll make room for him to do whatever he wants to in this time. And uh I may have some notes, um, but his way is better. And I submit to his way over my notes any day. Um last Sunday, if uh if you weren't here, you may want to go back and listen to the uh to the message. It's on our Water's Edge app under Podcasts. So each sermon is on that um as well as the weekly podcast that goes along with the uh Bible recap. But I wanted to say last Sunday was one of the most difficult messages um to preach. Um not that I've ever preached, but it is one, it was a difficult message because we talked primarily out of the book of Proverbs of the ideal family. What's the ideal family? How should kids treat parents and parents treat kids and spouses treat each other? And it's it's this it's this if everything in life is going great, this is how we get along. But the problem is we all have brokenness. And uh probably every family is broken in some ways. And so to communicate those things, knowing who's listening, I guess that's one chance that I wish that I was speaking to a mega church where I didn't know anybody. But I know some of the hurts, and you know some of my hurts in my life and in my family. And so, so uh uh so just thank you for staying so kind last week as I as I preached through uh that that difficult passage. Today it's a little bit easier and more fun to preach on. I'm talking about emotions. And one of the things that I wanted to just say, you may want, if you like to take notes, you may want your camera out so you can grab the scriptures as I go through them, because I'm not taking one text like I normally would. I'm taking several different texts, sort of like last week, um, when we take a subject like this. Throughout the entire summer, we've been looking at the book of Proverbs. And um, Proverbs to me has become a book of coaching on effective living. Um, like if you want effective strategies in life on how to live, Proverbs is a great place to be. And there's 31 books or 31 chapters in Proverbs, and so 31 days in a month on some of the months. So if you just take a proverb and just grab one of those proverbs every day, it's a coaching session for you. It's a it's a coaching strategy. There's things in there about friendships. Uh, Julie talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Relationships, finances, strategies for when life is really, really good, and strategies for when life is really, really bad. Um, there are key words in Proverbs that we've watched uh over the course of the summer: words like wisdom and trust and life and death and success and delight and humility. And this morning we're going to look at yet another strategy or a theme in Proverbs, and that is the theme of emotions. In the context and time that Proverbs was written, there was a group of people called Stoics. Stoics didn't show emotion. One of the ideals of Stoicism or Stoic people is they lived, they pretended, they didn't really do it, but they pretended that they lived above the turbulence of emotions. You might say they didn't play mind games, they didn't play games, they were, they had a frown on their face, they didn't show emotion. You might say they were stoic. Um and by the time Jesus arrived on the scene, stoicism had had even spread even more. Stuff your emotions, don't show your emotions. And more and more in that group, people just pushed their emotions down. In Isaiah chapter 53, we read a prophetic message about the coming of our Lord. And it says, Surely he was, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Into the time of stoicism comes a man who will bear our grief and carry our sorrows. Jesus wasn't stoic, he entered wholeheartedly into life. And really, redeeming our emotions is part of the redemption story. Jesus redeemed our fallen emotions. One of the emotions that we see in Jesus' life is compassion. He had compassion. You, if you've been in the church long, if you know anything about Jesus' life, if you if you watched um the uh uh what's the sh the the series, The Chosen, if you watch the chosen, you see the emotions of Jesus coming out uh so well, demonstrated so well. Jesus had compassion. He had compassion for the weak. He had compassion for the poor. He had time for people who were in pain. He had time for people that were kicked out of society. He wept when his friend died. Um, the idea that Jesus had compassion for the poor, that's why, that's why I'm excited about going to this. Not because I need to eat whatever they're gonna serve, hamburgers, and and listen to some good music. I'm excited about it because it's it's it's a ministry that helps the poor. And so I'm registering today, and I hope you will too. And I hope you'll you'll see me there dancing. No, you won't see me dancing, but I hope you'll see me there. And if you do see me dancing, check what I'm drinking. You see, the emotions of Christ was the emotions were counter to the stuck up religious leaders. Jesus had fun, he had emotions. Emotions can be strengthened, emotions can be improved, emotions can be changed. We call it emotional intelligence now. It's or EQ, it's you you have intellectual intelligence, uh, but you also have emotional intelligence. And you can grow your emotions just like you can grow your intellect. You can grow your emotions, you can become healthier with your emotions, with the expression of those emotions, it can become healthier. Listen, the emotion of Jesus who who had perfect emotional intelligence. I've written some articles in leadership on this. Jesus had perfect emotional intelligence. The emotions of Jesus are flowing still into our world. His perfect emotions are flowing into our world, but this is how they flow into our world through me and you. That's why we have that's why we have to understand this topic. That's why emotions are so important in our redemption story. Jesus not only saved your soul, he redeemed you, he also redeems our emotion. How how the local church, how water's edge lives and shows emotion, are a vital part of the display of Jesus into the world today. What you and I get emotional about must should be a direct correlation of what Jesus would show emotion about. So if Jesus, if Jesus, if Jesus showed, if Jesus showed compassion or humility, that's when we should show compassion and humility. Jesus showed anger. When the disciples wanted to tell the kids, get away, go, go, go away. Jesus is dealing with adults. Jesus got irritated at them. If you read that, he he wasn't saying, oh no, hey guys, guys, let the children come to me. He was irritated. He was like, haven't you learned anything? These children are important to me. He called, when he got angry, he called people pigs and snakes and hypocrites. Now, you have to understand, you I mean, we don't start calling people pigs if they pull in front of us in traffic, because that's what Jesus did. You have to understand the context of his anger, right? Jesus was not afraid to show emotion when something was wrong in the world. He didn't just express emotion, though. He he went beyond the emotion and he suffered with the emotions. He was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. He endured the cross, the suffering of days before the cross, the emotion of knowing that he was dying, he was going to be killed for being perfect in every way for the sins of the people like me and you. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We're gonna spend the entire year in the Gospels. And and here's one of the reasons why. Because I've spent this year up until September 30th in the Old Testament in the Bible recap. And I just need a little New Testament in my soul. Can you say amen? I I I have loved the journey. Uh I have I am thrilled with all the Bible recap podcasts that we've done. Um, I would love to do the Bible recap again, but I can't wait for October 1st when we start in uh as reading in the in the New Testament. And all along, and and I'm I should, if I make a mental note of it, and and uh uh Pastor Julie and Pastor Kayla can remind me, um we need to, I want to bring out the joy of Jesus, because we can miss that sometimes in scripture. Sometimes they they miss the translation of the joys of Jesus. It doesn't translate into this. But Jesus was filled with with joy. The uh I mentioned earlier, the chosen. If you've watched the chosen, um you see Jesus in in a different light in the chosen because the the writer was able to bring out the joy and the laughter and even some of the teasing of Jesus. If you have your Bibles with you, or if you just want to take a look at the screen, um, I want to first, before we get into Proverbs, I want to look at James chapter 1, verses 14 and 15. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Just kind of hang on, just I want you to remember when per when people are tempted, they are dragged away by their own evil desire. That's emotion on steroids and enticed. Then next scripture. Then after desire, after those emotion, that evil emotion has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. The word desire is like emotion um in four-wheel drive, like hyper emotion. It is a death creating power inside of us. Where does desire show up in our emotions? Our desire shows up in our emotions. Never think that because we feel something honestly and sincerely, it's just an okay emotion. Now, is there a remedy for four-wheel drive emotions? Is there a remedy for evil desires? Because emotions are a part of who we are. God made us uh a part of who we are. We're created in his image, and so we have emotions. But evil desire, emotions on steroids are not a part of who we are, of who God created us. That those are because of the fall. That's why we have emotions and we will always have emotions. Without Jesus, they need to be redeemed. With Jesus, they are redeemed, they come under that, but without Jesus, our emotions are left um uncleansed. So, how do we find a balance? How do we submit our emotions to Jesus? Well, the first thing I would I would say to you, if there's any counselors in our uh group today, you'll you'll be proud of me. You don't stuff the emotion. So when you stuff emotions, it will come out somehow, somehow. Um, just as evil desire is cultivated and that grows to death, when you come to Christ with all of your emotions, he redeems our emotions and he cultivates them, and that leads to life. So, so watch this, and we'll talk about this throughout the rest of the message. Without Jesus, emotions lead to death. With Jesus, emotions lead to life. So let's talk about a couple of the emotions. Let's start with the emotion of fear. We talked a little bit about this um uh before today, but in Proverbs, it's we talk about the fear of the Lord. So if you look at this next scripture, Proverbs 1.7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Okay, so some of you teachers, if you're students, say, I don't want to learn, you can say, You're fools. Okay, probably not. Proverbs 9:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So in chapter one, it's knowledge, verse nine, it's wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. We've talked about the fear of the Lord. This is not that you are afraid of God, it's a deep respect. We might even say a sense of awe of someone that deserves our worship or our attention. I submit to you, one of the problems in life is that we don't fear the Lord enough and we fear people too much. We don't fear the Lord enough, we fear people too much. We fear that we may not uh be accepted or receive approval. But wisdom, the fear of the Lord, at the beginning of wisdom, wisdom redirects our hunger for approval. You see, our unredeemed emotion wants man's approval, our redeemed emotion wants God's approval. Might say it like this. While you're living your life, what smile are you after? What smile are you after? Are you after the smile of others? Or are you after the smile of God? Don't don't brush that too quickly too quickly away. When you come to Christ, when you come to Christ, you have a smile coming to you from God, and he will not reject you. No matter what man may have done, will do, or is doing, you may be rejected by man. But when you come to Christ, his smile will never be rejection to you. Man will toss you aside in a heartbeat. But not God. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom of wisdom, what's the fear of man? We might say, well, it's foolishness. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of man, it's foolish. Let me let me illustrate it this way. Last week, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and uh West Virginia have been hosting a conference for the last five or six years together. And uh last last week in Fort Wayne, the conference took place. And each of the regional pastors, which I am one, we all take part in a segment of that day. We bring in a guest leader, big name comes in, all the past let several pastors and church leaders come in to uh one of our large churches in Fort Wayne, and each of the regional pastors start a session. So we you know, we start the day and then we worship and then we take a break. So that state pastor says, Hey, there's coffee and we'll start in 10 minutes. And then the next break, another state pastor gets up and says, Hey, you know, we're gonna have lunch and you know, let's let's line up and let's have lunch, let's pray. And so each of us kind of take a little break, a little visibility. Well, for the last four years, they have asked me to, all the regional pastors have asked me to start the day. And they want me to start the day with a little comedy routine. So for the last, thank you, Tammy, for the last, for the last four or five years, for the last four or five years, at 10 o'clock on the usually the third Tuesday of August or the fourth Tuesday of August, I usually welcome everybody. And and they're the people are kind of they're used to it. So they kind of know he's the guy from Illinois, and it's gonna be a little funny. And so I welcome everybody, and I do a little do a little thing with comedy, and and people laugh and um and they like it, and uh, and you know, I got a little reputation for it, and uh, you know, and I'm I'm pretty cool. And on Tuesday, I did that. I did my little thing and they all laughed. And after the conference, we were meeting on Thursday, though that was Tuesday, so two days later, we're in a Zoom meeting and we're kind of talking through the day and what we want to do next year. And uh they they they right away, they were like, Eric, that was awesome, that was so funny. Oh my gosh, what I'm saying, I was dying laughing, and it's such a great way to start the day. And I'm sitting there thinking, you know, I'm sitting on the Zoom trying not to smile, you know, and I was like, Yeah, no problem, I'm pretty cool, yeah, I was feeling pretty good. And then I'm writing this message, and I ask myself this question, and I ask this myself this question Eric, why are you feeling so good about this? Like, why did that make me feel cool? Me feel so powerful, so good about myself. Did I even in that time pause to thank the one that gave me a heart and emotions that can even find humor in life that could make instead of puffing me up like, oh man, I was really funny, I'm ready for the tonight show. Why not just say, Lord, thank you for giving me a life that I'm able to find humor in it? See, it I longed for the smile of God, but at that moment I found myself addicted to the smile of man. My friend, the fear of the Lord means his opinion is the only one that finally matters. And he promises his approval through Christ. If I gain man's applause and I get a few laughs along the way, is that what has become of my life? Or do I want my family and you, the people that I've been called to serve, do I want you to find to bring a smile that feeds a monster inside of me? Or do I want you to know what matters the most to me is Jesus? Because above all, more than coming to church and finding a laugh or hearing a good sermon or hearing an average sermon, I want you to see Jesus in me. I want you to know more about Jesus because he's coming out of my life in ways of love and acceptance and forgiveness and yes, humor because that's how God made me. But the fear of the Lord brings life, and the fear of the man brings pain and disappointment and death. And as I get closer to retirement years and I'm not in the center of our denominational stuff anymore, and people will forget my name. Am I gonna be okay with that? And I submit to you today, I pray that I will be. I pray that I will be. Because I don't want the applause of man to be my drive. I want the applause of God to be my focus. And I don't say that as a hero in any way, because I illustrated that today, how easily the applause of man can feed the monster inside of me. And I did that on purpose. Let's talk about another, uh, let's talk about another emotion. Um, the fear of the Lord, I use myself. I want to talk about anger. I'd like to use my wife on this one. No, I'm kidding. Um, I want to talk about the anger of emotion. Here are the scriptures. I have four of them. Okay, here we go. Proverbs 19, 11. Uh, I better read it from here. Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. I love that. Next one. Let's go to the next one. A man of wrath stirs up strife. We call them troublemakers, right? A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. See, these are almost like fortune tellers. If we ever, we we should have, Linda, we should have uh, we should get fortune cookies with proverbs in them so you can hand them out at the restaurant. Fortune cookies with proverbs instead of uh Confucius say. Uh verse 29: whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts follow. When I read this this morning, I thought of little kids. Because a little kid can throw a temper tantrum quickly. And what do we say, what do we say to little kids when they start throwing a little temper tantrum? We we'll say something like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's all right, it's okay. He who has a hasty temper, it exalts folly. Okay, next one. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Another word used here is warrior. Whoever is slow to anger is like a warrior, and he who rules his spirit, he is like one who, he is stronger than one who can take a city or conquer a city. It's a little, the the translation, I it feels to me like translation is missing a word in this, but this is the way it reads. Whoever's slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. So we all feel anger, right? Anger's not a sin. Uh, we need holy anger if we are to represent Jesus to our world. But what is good anger and what is bad anger? Let's take a simple issue. I want to I want to take uh an issue that's simple and not divisive or something like that about anger. Let's take uh, oh, let's take politics. Wisdom asks, why should I feel intense about this issue? Why does the world need to know my opinion? I don't did any of you notice that Illinois voted to raise the taxes or on the toll road prices. Did you notice that last week? Now, I don't know what it did to you. I don't know what it did to you, Jason. What did it do? You're in the you're on those roads. Okay, and did it did it raise intents?

unknown 28:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah, me too. Me too. I wanted to get on the internet I or Facebook. I wanted to get on Facebook. I can't believe there's a surprise. I don't even know what the because I've got the little sticker. I don't even know what the prices are right now. I don't know. They just take they just keep taking money out of my account. And I drive on the roads and I don't know what I'm paying when I drive through those toll booths, but but I'm paying something because they keep taking. But when they raise the price again, there was this this anger that just kind of came up inside of me. And I wanted to let the world know that I was angry. Oh now, I'm not telling, I'm not, I'm not telling you the answer on, you know, why does the world need to know your opinion or judging you or anything like that? Part of my line of thinking that I have to grab control of is does God want this thing stirring in my heart? Like, does does God, and maybe, maybe he does. You know, maybe I'm in a position, like maybe it's a if it's something that happens in the city of Shorwood and I'm concerned that it's it's mistreating people, maybe that is a righteous anger. Um, but not the toll road money. That that's not a righteous anger. You can you can be like, oh, I think that's terrible, but you can also find ways around the toll road, too. So so there are some things that bring anger out of me. And um I saw a meme the other day that said, uh righteous man is able to go off Xanax because he quit watching the evening news. It's that kind of thing that we see things and it just raises up this rage inside of us. Where does that need to be something that's stirring my heart? Does God want that anger stirring us? Is it advancing the witness of who He is in your heart? Here's how the gospel helps me to rule my anger. Um, there is a day where final judgment will come. There's a day that final judgment will come. Christ is coming again, and when he comes, he will come to punish all those that do not believe in him. That's part of scripture. We don't talk about it a whole lot anymore, but I try to. I do. We are here to rescue the perishing. We are living in the middle of the first coming of Jesus, his birth. We'll celebrate that in a few months. It's coming. And we are living between the first coming and the second coming of Jesus. The first coming was a humble, gentle, forgiving, kind, friend of sinners, Jesus. The second coming is is the wrath of God. The second coming will have will have will not look like the first coming. It will be the end. And we will be divided up. Those who know him, those who do not know him. We're living in that middle. How does this apply? If I stay balanced in my emotions when it comes to anger, God has enough wrath for sin and wrong that He doesn't need mine. I'm living in the middle. I'm trying my life is geared on trying to reach others so they can be redeemed by the Savior. Let's talk about another emotion. Jealousy. One scripture on this one. Jealousy, Proverbs 27, 4. I have one scripture, not because there is just one. I knew when I was writing this, this was getting long, but I'm still on time, okay? Number five, uh, this one, 27, verse 4. Anger is cruel and fury is overwhelming. But who can stand before jealousy? Anger can be violent, but jealousy can be worse. Why? Because anger is reacting to something that is wrong, but jealousy is reacting to something that is good. Here's what I mean. If you're angry with me because I offended you, I can come to you and say, I'm sorry, and you can forgive me, and the relationship can be okay. But if I'm jealous of you because you have something that I want, that doesn't go away. Like if I'm jealous of you because you have a nice house, I don't come to you and say, I'm jealous of you, I have this house and you have this house. And it doesn't go away. Like you're not going to give me your house. You can't really, or you say, Oh, oh, I'm sorry, you you can have it. So, see, jealousy doesn't go away. It has to, it has to be healed. Cain didn't kill Abel because he was angry at him. He killed him because he was jealous. So that's why they killed Jesus. They killed Jesus. They were angry, but why? They were jealous of him, and it led to their anger, and they were jealous of his power and his authority. They were jealous of his humility. They may have been jealous of his humor. We don't know that. But after today, you you kind of wonder what if they were stoics, and here's this guy coming with emotion. Maybe they were jealous of that. Jealousy and envy, cousins, are wicked emotions that bring unhappiness and death. I'll just say that again because I think we blow off jealousy sometimes and we just kind of hide it in our hearts. And I and I wonder how many times it it causes issues in our life. Jealousy and envy are wicked emotions that lead to unhappiness. Let's talk about the last one, emotion, uh happiness. This is this is more pleasant to talk about. Uh, two scriptures, Proverbs 15, 15. All the days of the oppressed are wretched. Ah, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast. A cheerful heart has a continual feast. I love hanging around people that are positive and cheerful. It just brings life. It's like a, it's, it's, it's like this continual feast. I gotta admit, I'm an introvert, and so too much of a cheerful heart makes me a little tired and exhausted, but but it's a continual feast. Let's look at the next one. A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Remember that song? I don't know, probably it's probably 20 years or so. Don't worry. Be happy. Right? Remember that? Here's the key question. What should bring us happiness? What should bring us happiness? Is it just happiness is just when we have everything we want, or maybe happiness is when we buy a new outfit and it looks good, or get a new car, or retire, or graduate, or get a good grade. You know, I think there's nothing wrong with being happy about those things, and I think those that things can bring a smile to your face. The thing is, though, the thing like a a new car or or a new outfit or what it doesn't last, right? It doesn't last. We went on a family vacation, I don't know, many, many years ago. And Colton, who's over here, he was much younger, much younger then. But the first night of vacation, we had we had this Airbnb. And the kids were playing and they were laughing and they were having a great time, and we were all getting ready to have a fun time. We had a pool at the house and we were swimming. And all of a sudden, I hear Colton crying. And it's like, what's what's what's he crying about? He said, What you what are you crying about? He goes, This is gonna come to an end. It's gonna come to an end. Did you hear that, Colton? Did you hear all the ahs for you? Did that bring a smile to your face? Well, it should be the smile of God. That's what you should be happy about. No, it it was like it was like he was he was kind of mourning this idea that this happy feeling that he had, oh, it was only gonna last a little while because we were gonna have to go home pretty soon. Happiness does have temporary uh meaning, but there is a lasting happiness that can come in life. A true happiness that never has to go away. Even in times of grief and sorrow. And that happiness comes from a man named Jesus who was born as a baby, grew up to lead a movement. The movement was called Christians, they followed Christ. And while he walked this earth, he loved like no other person before, he spoke like no other person before, he healed like no other person before, he lived a sinless life, and he was killed because of it. Why didn't Jesus fight back? Why didn't he stop the crucifixion? He could have. He could have easily called 100,000 angels to come and just wipe the entire planet clean. He could have said, nah, this price is too high. I really don't like these people. It stops now. But he didn't. He chose to walk a road to Calvary for you and me. You were on his mind. You were on the mind of Christ when he died on the cross. He was thinking about spending eternity with you. He was thinking about the pain and the suffering that he was saving you from. And he died to know that someday all the pain and the suffering will end. He died for you. So that you could be forgiven, so that you could be free, so that you could live for all eternity with him. We just have to hold on. We just have to hang in there a little longer. We just have to endure a little suffering in this life so that we can spend all eternity with him. And to me, that brings a lasting joy into my life. Think about this. If you give your life to him and you walk with him in a life surrendered to him, no matter what this life has been like for you, there is nothing that this world can throw at you to rob you of the joy that someday all these troubles will be over. And someday we get to spend eternity with the Savior. No more tears, no more sorrows, no more pain, no more relationship garbage, no more abuse, no more mistreatment, no more toll roads. There's nothing that this world can throw at us that can steal our joy when you know Jesus. So let me bring this all together. God gave you emotions. Your emotions are not the enemy. But because of sin, even our emotions have been affected by the fall. Fear can become fear of people. Anger can become bitterness. Desire can become lust. Admiration can become jealousy. Happiness can become dependent upon what new thing you order from Amazon. And that's why we need Jesus. To forgive what we've done. He came to redeem who we are. He didn't come just to forgive. Even our emotions. So maybe the prayer today, as we come to the end, is isn't Jesus, just take all my feelings away. Maybe the prayer needs to be, Jesus, redeem what I'm feeling. When I'm afraid, teach me to fear you more than I fear people. When I'm angry, teach me to care about what you care about and then trust you with the judgment. When I'm jealous, teach me to celebrate what you've done for somebody else and be grateful for what you've given to me. When I'm hurting, remind me that Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And when I'm happy, remind me that my deepest joy isn't found in what is happening around me, but in the one who lives within me. Friends, we don't want to be controlled by our emotions. But we also don't want to stuff our emotions. We want to surrender our emotions. Because whatever I surrender to Jesus, he redeems. Whatever you surrender to Jesus, he redeems. Imagine what happens when a whole church begins to live this way. Imagine what water's edge would be, this place where hurting people encounter compassion. Because our emotions aren't judging, our emotions are compassionate. Imagine if we were a place where angry people could come and they would encounter grace. And where fearful people could come and they would encounter faith, and where jealous people could come and they would discover gratitude, and where grieving people are come and they're allowed to cry. And where joyful people are allowed to dance. She's having some physical problems. And I miss Pam when she's not here. I know that Pam can get a little loud sometimes sitting in that third row where Kevin's sitting today. But do you know one of the reasons why Pam gets so into worship and sometimes have to walk out? It's because of everything that God's done in her life. She's far from perfect. She's being redeemed as just like we are being redeemed. But when she starts singing some of these songs, up from her soul comes this rejoicing of yes, God has done this in my life. I'm glad she feels safe here. Oh, you may have experienced it for the first time, and it may have scared you. It's like, whoa, what is that woman doing up there? Can I tell you? She's just filled with all the joy because of what Christ has done for her. Imagine being a place where people walk through our doors and somehow experience the emotional life of Jesus flowing through his people. That's a gospel culture. That's a gospel church. And that's what I want for us. Proverbs, Proverbs keeps putting two roads in front of us. Choose life, choose death, choose life, choose death. So today, today, I ask you to bring your bring him your anger, bring him your jealousy, bring him your sadness, bring him your disappointment, bring him your happiness, bring all of you to him. And maybe your prayer would just be, Jesus, I don't want my emotions to control me. I want you to redeem them. And I want people to see you in me. Choose wisdom. Choose Jesus. Choose life. That's right. Father, thank you for the redemption story. Thank you for for the sacrifice of the cross that you made for us. Not simply to forgive our sins, but to redeem us. That which we surrender to you today, God, would you redeem those things? Maybe it's something I've mentioned, maybe it's something that I haven't even come close to mentioning. God, may this be a moment of true surrender. All of us to all of you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Thanks for joining us at church this week. And a special thanks to all those who continue to support our mission through your generosity. You too can support our mission to reach, grow, and serve our community by giving on the website or through the app. To make sure you never miss out on a message, be sure to subscribe and don't forget to hit that share button to spread the word. Have a great week.