Speaker 1: Hey, friends, thanks so much for joining us today on
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching ministry of Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: We're so glad to have you with us.
Speaker 1: And today, Rick continues in his series called Transformed. Together,
Speaker 1: We'll dive into God's word and discover powerful principles that
Speaker 1: can truly change our lives from the inside out spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially,
Speaker 1: and vocationally. You'll experience how God's truth brings real transformation
Speaker 1: to every part.
Speaker 2: Of your life.
Speaker 1: So excited to hear what Rick has to say today
Speaker 1: in part one of a message called how to Deal
Speaker 1: with How You Feel.
Speaker 3: We've been looking during fifty days of Transformation, first at
Speaker 3: spiritual health and then at physical help. Last week we
Speaker 3: looked at mental health, and this week I want us
Speaker 3: to look at emotional health, and that is how to
Speaker 3: deal with how you feel. Last week we talked about
Speaker 3: how to manage your mind, your thoughts, and this week
Speaker 3: I want us to look at what the Bible says
Speaker 3: about how to manage your emotions, how to deal with
Speaker 3: how you feel, Mark twelfth, twenty nine to thirty. Jesus
Speaker 3: says this the most important commandment is this. You must
Speaker 3: love the Lord your God with all your heart and
Speaker 3: all your soul, and all your mind and all your strength.
Speaker 3: Do you hear the emotion in these words of Jesus.
Speaker 3: Jesus is saying, I don't want you to just kind
Speaker 3: of love me. I don't want you to kind of
Speaker 3: love God. I want you to love God passionately, with
Speaker 3: all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and
Speaker 3: all your strength. God wants an emotional relationship with you.
Speaker 3: He didn't want to head knowledgey. I know, Jesus, I
Speaker 3: know God, blah blah blah blah blah blah. I want
Speaker 3: an emotional, passionate relationship that is full of feelings. Now,
Speaker 3: let me give you some facts about your emotions before
Speaker 3: we get into this. First, God has emotions. Many people
Speaker 3: don't realize this. God has feelings. God is an emotional God.
Speaker 3: God feels joy, he feels grief, he feels pain, he
Speaker 3: feels hatred towards sin. He has frustration with the people
Speaker 3: around him, just like you do. And God has emotions.
Speaker 3: The only reason you have emotions is because you're made
Speaker 3: in God's image. If God wasn't an emotional god, you
Speaker 3: wouldn't have any emotions.
Speaker 2: If God wasn't a God of love, there would be
Speaker 2: no love on this planet.
Speaker 3: God is love. God created romance. God created emotions, created feelings.
Speaker 3: So God is an emotional god. Number two, My ability
Speaker 3: to feel is a gift from God. Your emotions are
Speaker 3: a gift from God. And now they may not always
Speaker 3: seem that way, but even the negative ones have a
Speaker 3: role in your life. Emotions are a great asset, the
Speaker 3: one thing that make you human. If you didn't have emotion,
Speaker 3: you just you'd be a robot. You wouldn't be a
Speaker 3: human being. It is your emotional ability that allows you
Speaker 3: to love and create, and to be faithful and loyal
Speaker 3: and kind and generous, and all of the emotions that
Speaker 3: are attached to the good things in life. One of
Speaker 3: the most astounding verses in the Bible is Genesis one
Speaker 3: twenty six. God said, let us make man in our image,
Speaker 3: in our likeness. And as I said, the only reason
Speaker 3: you have emotions is because God gave them to you
Speaker 3: and you were made in His image. Now, number three,
Speaker 3: there are two extremes that you need to avoid in
Speaker 3: dealing with emotions, and one is called emotionalism and the
Speaker 3: other is called stoicism.
Speaker 2: Let me explain these to you.
Speaker 3: Emotionalism means all that matters is how I feel. Emotionalism
Speaker 3: is that the extreme is saying the only thing that
Speaker 3: matters in life it is how I feel. Doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: what I think, doesn't matter, what's right or wrong, doesn't
Speaker 3: matter what's popular or unpopular, good or bad, And what
Speaker 3: only matters is do what you feel, and if it feels.
Speaker 2: Good, do it.
Speaker 3: And that extreme of emotionalism means everything I do in
Speaker 3: life is based on my emotions. They control my life,
Speaker 3: they dominate my life, they run my life, and I'm
Speaker 3: a very emotional person. Then stoicism is the exact opposite,
Speaker 3: and it basically says feelings aren't important at all.
Speaker 2: Feelings are not important at all.
Speaker 3: The only thing that matters is your intellect and your will,
Speaker 3: your volition and your intelligence. And so the stoics said,
Speaker 3: you know, emotions are not a part of life. Feelings
Speaker 3: really don't matter. That's really funny because stoics often marry
Speaker 3: emotional people, and emotional people often marry stoics and a
Speaker 3: typically often in a marriage you have one who's a
Speaker 3: stuffer and one who's a gusher. Okay, stuffers and gushers
Speaker 3: marry now. Stuffers always get frustrated with gushers because they
Speaker 3: think they're too emotional, and gushers always get matter with
Speaker 3: stuffers because they think they're too uptight and you know,
Speaker 3: close down and shut down. Stuffers think you really shouldn't
Speaker 3: be sharing your emotions, and gushers think if you're not
Speaker 3: sharing your emotions, you're.
Speaker 2: Not being authentic.
Speaker 3: Okay, Actually both of these are extreme positions, and the
Speaker 3: happy medium is where you really want to be. It's
Speaker 3: not emotionalism or stoicism. It's interesting there are entire Christian
Speaker 3: denominations built on these two approaches to emotions. You probably
Speaker 3: know some Christians who have decided that it doesn't really
Speaker 3: matter how you feel. The only thing that matters is
Speaker 3: the truth of the Word of God, and they downplay emotion.
Speaker 3: They say, you know what, that's like the caboose. The
Speaker 3: train can run with or without the emotion.
Speaker 2: It's not important. Well, that's not right, that's not right.
Speaker 3: God gave you your emotions for a reason, and God
Speaker 3: wants you to worship him emotionally. He wants you to
Speaker 3: feel it. In fact, God complains in the scripture many
Speaker 3: times about you're just worshiping with your lips, but not
Speaker 3: with your emotion, not with your heart. You don't really
Speaker 3: feel it. And by the way, the word emotion isn't
Speaker 3: used that often in the Bible because instead the word
Speaker 3: uses the Bible uses the word passions or affections, or
Speaker 3: the number one term for emotions is heart. Heart is
Speaker 3: a symbol of love and emotions. And even today I
Speaker 3: say I love you with all my heart. And of
Speaker 3: course in the Bible this is the metaphor that the
Speaker 3: mind represents the intellect and the heart represents the emotions.
Speaker 3: We now know that those are actually two different circuit
Speaker 3: systems in your brain, that your emotions have an amazing
Speaker 3: system as well as your thoughts do, and some things
Speaker 3: you just react emotionally without even thinking about it. But
Speaker 3: some Christians they just say emotions aren't important. And then
Speaker 3: there are other Christians who say emotions are all that matters,
Speaker 3: and when they come to church, they're looking for an emotion,
Speaker 3: and when they worship, they want an ocean of emotion
Speaker 3: and they want.
Speaker 2: To quiver in the liver.
Speaker 3: And if I haven't been enraptured in a moment of worship,
Speaker 3: then I haven't worshiped.
Speaker 2: Well, that's wrong too, And a lot of.
Speaker 3: People are actually seeking an emotion, not seeking God when
Speaker 3: they worship, and it becomes an idol too. So you
Speaker 3: can make your mind an idol and make doctrine and
Speaker 3: theology and intellectual an exercise of theology of God, or
Speaker 3: you can make your emotion and your experience a God.
Speaker 2: And both of those are wrong. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: And so God gave you both a mind and an emotion,
Speaker 3: and they're both important to you now. Number four, The
Speaker 3: Bible tells us that God gave us the Book of
Speaker 3: Psalms in order to understand our emotions. And if you
Speaker 3: have a hard time with some emotions in your life,
Speaker 3: to spend a lot of time in the book of Psalms.
Speaker 3: Psalms has every emotion known to man in it, the
Speaker 3: good ones and the bad ones, the positive and the negative.
Speaker 3: You read some of those psalms, you think, why is
Speaker 3: this chapter in the Bible.
Speaker 2: It's there to teach you about.
Speaker 3: Even those negative emotions, because not all psalms are about
Speaker 3: praise and thanksgiving. There are psalms of anger, there are
Speaker 3: psalms of complaining, There are songs of lament and sorrow,
Speaker 3: there are psalms.
Speaker 2: Of arguing with God.
Speaker 3: Every emotion known to mand is in the psalms, and
Speaker 3: God is saying all of these are legitimate.
Speaker 2: I gave these things to you.
Speaker 3: So we're gonna look today at how to deal with
Speaker 3: how you feel. But what I want to do this
Speaker 3: weekend is.
Speaker 2: Do two things. Talk to you about why.
Speaker 3: The Bible says it's important to learn how to manage
Speaker 3: your emotions, and that's a skill and you can get
Speaker 3: good at it. Most people are not good at managing
Speaker 3: their emotions. They're not good at at all. But you can,
Speaker 3: and if you do, you will have enormous advance over
Speaker 3: the other people in your life. If you know how
Speaker 3: to manage your emotions, it's key to peace of mind.
Speaker 3: It's the key to success and a lot of other things.
Speaker 3: Let's look at God's word now and look at why.
Speaker 3: First I need to learn to manage my emotions, and
Speaker 3: then get into.
Speaker 2: How do you do it?
Speaker 3: Okay, so quickly for important reasons why you need to
Speaker 3: learn to deal with what you feel? Number one, because
Speaker 3: my feelings are often unreliable. My feelings are often unreliable.
Speaker 3: They can lead you in the wrong direction. How many
Speaker 3: times have you thought, I know this is the right
Speaker 3: thing to do. I just feel it in my gut,
Speaker 3: and you do it, and it doesn't work out.
Speaker 2: Every one of us have done it.
Speaker 3: Your gut is often wrong, your intuition is often flawed.
Speaker 3: Your emotions often lead you down a blind alley. You
Speaker 3: can't depend on everything you feel.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Last week I said, you don't have to believe everything
Speaker 3: you think, and you don't have to accept everything you feel,
Speaker 3: because not everything you feel is right, not everything you
Speaker 3: feel is authentic, and not everything you feel is reality.
Speaker 3: Some of the things you feel about yourself are flat
Speaker 3: out dead wrong, and some of the things you feel
Speaker 3: about other people are dead wrong. You say, I'm sure
Speaker 3: this is the right direction, but it's not. So you
Speaker 3: need to manage your emotions. Proverbs fourteen twelve says this,
Speaker 3: there's a way that seems circle seems there's a way
Speaker 3: that seems right to a man, but in the end
Speaker 3: it leads to death. So your emotions are not infallible.
Speaker 3: Just because you feel it doesn't make it true. Our
Speaker 3: feelings are often wrong, and they often guide us in
Speaker 3: the wrong direction. Number two, I have to learn to
Speaker 3: manage my emotion because I don't want to be manipulated.
Speaker 2: And if you.
Speaker 3: Don't control your emotions, they will control you. And you
Speaker 3: will be manipulated by your moods. And if you're always
Speaker 3: guided by your feelings rather than by what's right, by
Speaker 3: your commitments, by the truth. If you're always guided by
Speaker 3: feelings other people, people are going to take advantage of you.
Speaker 2: They're going to they're going to take advantage of you.
Speaker 3: In fact, salesmen and advertisers are trained in how to
Speaker 3: stir up your emotions because they know that if they
Speaker 3: can get you hooked emotionally, they're going to buy the product.
Speaker 3: And so the color of the packaging and the music
Speaker 3: and the commercial and the things that they say in
Speaker 3: the presentation are all designed to elicit emotional response.
Speaker 2: And if you make.
Speaker 3: Decisions like what you buy based on emotion, that's called
Speaker 3: impulse buying. You're going to buy stuff that you don't
Speaker 3: really need or want. Has anybody ever done this? Could
Speaker 3: I see your hands?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all have. We've go why in the world
Speaker 3: did I buy that? Because the guy got my emotions?
Speaker 2: And oh I need to buy that, I really need that.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Proverbs twenty five twenty eight I
Speaker 3: love this in the New American Bible, like an open city
Speaker 3: with no defenses is the man with no check on
Speaker 3: his feelings. If you have no check on your feelings,
Speaker 3: you have no governor, you have no moderator, you have
Speaker 3: no manager on your feelings. He says, you're like a
Speaker 3: city with no defenses. Let me show you this verse
Speaker 3: in another translation here on the screen. New Living Translation
Speaker 3: says this, a person without self control is as defenseless
Speaker 3: as a city with broken down walls. Not only are
Speaker 3: you defenseless against the manipulation of other people, but you
Speaker 3: are defenseless to the manipulation by your old nature.
Speaker 2: We talked about that last week.
Speaker 3: And your old nature knows your moods, and it just
Speaker 3: whips you around, and it puts a mood in your life,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you don't want to do
Speaker 3: what you need to do, what's right to do, what's
Speaker 3: helped to do, what's good to do, because you are
Speaker 3: being manipulated by a mood. Worst of all, Satan's favorite tool.
Speaker 3: Listen to this. Satan's favorite tool in your life is
Speaker 3: of emotions. It's his favorite tool. He will use fear
Speaker 3: to whip you around. He will use resentment and jealousy
Speaker 3: and envy to whip you around. He'll use bitterness and
Speaker 3: worry and anxiety. He'll use shame to beat you up.
Speaker 3: Satan's favorite tool is to whip you around with negative emotions.
Speaker 3: If you don't know how to manage your emotions, you
Speaker 3: are helpless against Satan. You don't want to be manipulated,
Speaker 3: so you want to learn the skill we're going to
Speaker 3: look at this weekend, because he wrecks so much havoc
Speaker 3: in our lives emotionally. First Peter five eight says this,
Speaker 3: be self controlled and alert. Be self controlled and alert
Speaker 3: your enemy. The devil prows around like a roaring line
Speaker 3: looking for someone to vour. If you don't have self control,
Speaker 3: he will eat your lunch. So what he's saying, okay,
Speaker 3: number three, I need to manage my emotions because I
Speaker 3: want to please God. I don't want to just know
Speaker 3: that my feelings are unreliable, and I know that I
Speaker 3: don't want to be manipulated by other people, or by
Speaker 3: my old nature or by the devil. But I also
Speaker 3: want to please God. And God cannot be God in
Speaker 3: my life. If emotions are God in my life, God
Speaker 3: can't rule my life. If my emotions rule my life,
Speaker 3: Jesus can't be lord of my life. If my emotions
Speaker 3: are my lord of my life. If I make all
Speaker 3: my decisions simply based on how I feel, then I've
Speaker 3: made my feelings God, and then God can't be God.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Romans eight six to eight, to
Speaker 3: be controlled by human nature results in death, but to
Speaker 3: be controlled by the spirit results in life and peace.
Speaker 3: And those who obey their old human nature cannot please God.
Speaker 3: Circle that so you can't please God if your emotions
Speaker 3: dominate your life and they are running your life, and
Speaker 3: your decisions are made based on how do I feel
Speaker 3: rather than what does God say. Finally, number four, the
Speaker 3: fourth reason I must manage my emotion is because I
Speaker 3: want to succeed in life. This is one of the
Speaker 3: number one predictors of success or failure in your life.
Speaker 3: Do you know how to manage your moods? Do you
Speaker 3: know how to deal with how you feel? Do you
Speaker 3: know how to control your emotions? If you don't learn
Speaker 3: how to do this, you will never be the success
Speaker 3: in life that God wants you to be or that
Speaker 3: you want to be. Study after study after study has
Speaker 3: shown that your EQ is more important than your IQ.
Speaker 3: That for success in business, emotional quotient is far more
Speaker 3: important than your intelligence quotient. Your IQ isn't nearly a
Speaker 3: lot of people don't have.
Speaker 2: A high IQ.
Speaker 3: Very successful in life, but they've got good smarts in
Speaker 3: dealing with their emotions. They've got good smarts and deal
Speaker 3: with how they feel, and as a result, they're people people.
Speaker 3: They know how to how to get along with others.
Speaker 3: We've all known people who live by their emotions and
Speaker 3: waste their life. They get out in the morning and said,
Speaker 3: what do I feel like doing today? Well, not much,
Speaker 3: so they don't do it much. And if you deal don't.
Speaker 3: If you only deal with how you feel and you
Speaker 3: just go based on what you're feeling, you're not going
Speaker 3: to succeed in life.
Speaker 2: You're not going to make much of your life.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Proverbs Flight twenty three, people get lost.
Speaker 3: You're talking about in life, people get lost and they
Speaker 3: die because of their foolishness and their lack of self control.
Speaker 3: How many people do you know who ruin the reputation
Speaker 3: because of their lack of self control? How many people
Speaker 3: do you know who ruined a job opportunity because of
Speaker 3: something that happened on a stupid one night party and
Speaker 3: foolishness and party and then all of a sudden boom
Speaker 3: there you know, everything happened, from an unwanted pregnancy to
Speaker 3: all kinds of different things. People get lost, people die,
Speaker 3: that's the opposite of living because of their foolishness and
Speaker 3: lack of self control. Now, when you give your heart
Speaker 3: to Jesus, that includes your emotions. So when you say
Speaker 3: I gave my heart to Jesus, you gave your emotions
Speaker 3: to him to be managed by him. Because the heart
Speaker 3: is the seat of your emotions. And Jesus wants to
Speaker 3: be a lord of how you feel, not just what
Speaker 3: you think and what you do. He wants to be
Speaker 3: lord of your emotions.
Speaker 1: Such a great message by Rick today and every day.
Speaker 1: I sure hope you were just as encouraged as I was.
Speaker 1: And now here's Rick with an important message.
Speaker 3: Hi everybody, thanks so much for listening today. You know,
Speaker 3: my hope is that God uses this broadcast to help
Speaker 3: deepen your relationship with Jesus. Now, these daily Hope messages
Speaker 3: are distributed on radio stations and digital platforms all across
Speaker 3: the globe and listeners are writing and letting us know
Speaker 3: that their lives are being changed. They're telling us that
Speaker 3: they're walking with Jesus and that guilt and fear has
Speaker 3: been chased from their lives by God's love. You know,
Speaker 3: relationships are being restored and marriages are being healed, and
Speaker 3: many people are saying that they've found their life purpose.
Speaker 3: I want to say thank you to you, because we're
Speaker 3: only able to carry the hope of Jesus to these
Speaker 3: people all around the world because of gifts from generous
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 2: Hear it from me.
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