Feel Like Jesus

[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Good morning We'll be in Mark 14 at some point this morning So if you want to turn there, you can turn there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be in a lot of scripture before we get there as you're turning there

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Citizen's Church.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are visiting us, my name's Jayman.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm one of the pastors and we're honored that you're visiting our church this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're here and you call Citizen's Home, it's good to see you.

[SPEAKER_00]: we are well into a series called becoming like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanna kinda reorient the scope of the series.

[SPEAKER_00]: So behind me, you'll see, think like Jesus, love like Jesus, feel like Jesus, and act like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's kinda been the guide for our series that becoming like Jesus means that we are like Jesus in all of these ways, the way he thinks,

[SPEAKER_00]: We started working on this language about a year and a half ago at our church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not new ideas, but it's just the words that we found to communicate what we think the church is all about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason the church exists is to make Christ like disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to be a consumer church, we don't want to be a church full of compartmentalized disciples who are discipled by Jesus in some areas of their life but then discipled by other things and other areas of their life.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be a Christ-like church full of Christ-like disciples who are becoming more like Christ every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ-likeness is the will of God for the people of God and so, friend, if you're a Christian,

[SPEAKER_00]: because He loves you, and He saved you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In order that, you might become more like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not there yet, but you're not who you were.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not who you were.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God is using His word, and His church, and His spirit, and His grace to make His people look more like His Son.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the point.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the point.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not new for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first sermon series we ever preached to your six years ago was the book of Colossians.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody here for that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We called that sermon series life in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have been about this for a long time now.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we started the series in August and said, we think the purpose of the church is Christ's likeness.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one was like, whoa, where did that come from, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we've been about as a church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's what you think about this series.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a sermon series, but this language and these convictions are now what guides all of our ministries here at Citizens.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's here to stay.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't do this work for myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has worked that our elders did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our exec team did this work.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we, in our staff to some degree, we all kind of put our hands in together and said this is what we want to be about.

[SPEAKER_00]: So after this series is over in three to four years,

[SPEAKER_00]: after this series is over for Advent, this language will remain.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so knowing that, knowing that this isn't just a sermon series, but this is language that will define what we're doing as a church.

[SPEAKER_00]: It came with a kind of weight, a good kind of weight to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're putting language to what we think is the purpose of the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it can't just be anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can't be thoughtless, it can't just be unquickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not quite like naming your kid, but it had a way to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we took our time and put a lot of thought into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is where we landed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think of, feel and act like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I say all that to say this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our one and only week on feel like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the one that I just wrestled with the most.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we as a team just kind of wrestled with the most.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you heard all of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the one that feels like the most foreign to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think if I was hearing all these for the first time, I could guess what it meant, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Think like Jesus, so that's theology that's our mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love like Jesus, that's like right worship of God and love of others.

[SPEAKER_00]: Act like Jesus, that's obedience,

[SPEAKER_00]: feel like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's probably the most room for confusion and misunderstanding and what I want to do this morning is instead of getting all the reasons why we think it's important or here's all the meaning behind it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think maybe it's just most helpful to name part of what this is trying to draw attention to and here's what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot be spiritually mature without also

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: The guy who can quote more Scripture than anyone in the room, but can't control his anger is not like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The woman who is zealous for the lost and great at sharing her faith, but is easily offended, insecure and bitter, is not like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pastor who can work really hard for the good of the church, but does not have the joy of Jesus, is not like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Christian who's in church four Sundays a month, but has no excitement for the things of the Lord, is not like Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean they aren't like Christ at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just means that there are areas of life that are untouched by discipleship and the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: So emotional unhealth is a symptom of areas that need to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: And people who are serious, people who are serious about Christ's likeness will pay attention to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll pay attention to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot be spiritually mature without being emotionally healthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what you could ask is you could say, well, Jamen, if you think like Jesus and love like Jesus and act like Jesus, won't you naturally feel like Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like thinking and loving and acting will lead to the fruit of emotional health.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we needed four.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are all, what's true is they're all interdependent on one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if you love like Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: to the degree that Jesus loves, then all of the others will fall into place, really.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we gain something by paying attention to each, and we gain something specifically by paying attention to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a way to draw down is Jesus to think like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the wisest, most theologically sound human is ever lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to love means Jesus is the most faithful to God, loving of others human is ever lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: And act, Jesus is the most obedient, light of the world human who ever lived, feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the most emotionally healthy human who's ever lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's something helpful and challenging and transformative about considering Jesus that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what's true for us, I think, you know this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We live in a time where a lot of people are talking about emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: and offering advice and guidance on how to handle emotions and what to think about them and how to feel about how you feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of it's really helpful and some of it's not helpful at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we want to make sure as a church that we're engaging in this in a way that honors Jesus and makes us look more like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to consider a lot of scripture this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we want to go to the places where the gospel speak to Jesus' emotions and just make some observations.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a super clear outline this morning and I feel sad about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stay with me as we just consider Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 15, 11, I'm going to rattle through a few.

[SPEAKER_00]: These things I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that you're joy may be full.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark 14, 34, and he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 14, 14, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark 10, 14, but when Jesus saw it, he was indignant, and said to them, let the children come to me, don't hinder them for such belongs to the kingdom of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke 10, 21, in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father Lord of Heaven and Earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mark 35, and he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 8, 10, hearing this, Jesus was amazed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead to those following him truly, I tell you I've not found anyone in Israel so great of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joy, sorrow, compassion, indignation, rejoicing, anger, amazement.

[SPEAKER_00]: All came out of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a theologian and pastor named Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, really strong name.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lived from 1851 to 1921.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's most well known because of his contribution to

[SPEAKER_00]: He taught and ministered at a time where people doubted the inspiration of Scripture and so he defended the Enairncy of Inspiration of Scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: He also wrote commenters on the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he has a short little book that very few people know about called the emotional life of our Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of my content today came from his book.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's basically just a survey of the gospels that highlight every emotion that was attributed to Jesus in the comments on what it means about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the opening sentence of that book.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the very first line of the book.

[SPEAKER_00]: to the truth of our Lord's humanity, that he was subject to all sinless human emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: John Calvin says the same thing, the Son of God having clothed himself with our flesh, of his own accord clothed himself also with human feelings, so that he did not differ at all from his brethren sin only except it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus experienced the range of human emotions and never sinned.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we saw that in the verses we read.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joy, sorrow, compassion, indignation, anger, amazement.

[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is, if there was no sin, it means in every one of those instances what he felt was the righteous way to feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you hear, Jesus is the most emotionally healthy human he's ever lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is easy to assume that that means he was always what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's what we think, when we think of emotional health, we think of a happy person, or that Jesus was always full of joy, or that he was always emotionally light.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joy and sorrow and compassion and indignation, amazement and anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is emotionally healthy, not because his emotions are always positive, but because they always reflect the heart of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 15, when he talks about his joy with his disciples, it's the joy of relationship with the Father and the joy of getting to share his relationship with his followers and friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: He felt joy because joy was right to feel in that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joy reflected the heart of the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he says he was angry in Mark III, it's anger in response to self-righteous, hard-hearted unbelief.

[SPEAKER_00]: He felt angry when anger was right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sorrow, when sorrow is right, and compassion, when compassion is right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he felt the range of human emotions and every emotion was righteous because it revealed a righteous heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: So emotional health is not about feeling some emotions and not others.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's right to feel anger and wrong to feel happy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to rejoice over things that grieve God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our emotions will invite a question.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a book I've referenced before called The Cry of the Soul is written by a Theologian, Old Testament scholar named Trimper Longman, and a Christian counselor named Dan Allender, and it's a book about the Psalms and the emotions that we find in the Psalms, and they have a couple quotes that have stuck with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: They say this every emotion is a theological statement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Emotions reveal how we're doing with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Emotions are like messengers from the front lines of the battle zone, lean in for something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what we want.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want our emotions to only explain our circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in reality, our emotions expose our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our emotions reveal, not just what's going on around us, our emotions reveal what's going on within us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if we use anger in an example, what we want is we want our anger to be explained by our circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I didn't get the job.

[SPEAKER_00]: They messed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: She made me angry.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Riff missed the call.

[SPEAKER_00]: My dad was just like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we wanted to explain our experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: We wanted to explain our circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it does to some degree, but it also exposes our heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: ecclesiasties seven nine says be not quick in your spirit to become angry for anger lodges in the heart of fools it doesn't say anger lodges in the actions of others anger anger lodges in the heart and so my anger when I experience anger my anger is a theological statement my anger is a messenger telling me something about my relationship with God

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus felt angry and it was righteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ecclesiastis says anger lodges in the hearts of fools.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when I'm angry, I can ask about that anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's it telling me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a righteous kind of anger, like the kind that Jesus felt, or maybe it's the kind of anger that fools feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you following me?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I can ask a question about any emotion is my joy something that God rejoices in, is my sadness, something that grieves God, is my offense, something that offense God, is my hope, the kind of hope that God has said, put your hope in these things, it won't fail you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So part of emotional health is learning to listen to what our emotions are telling us about our relationship with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that means there are some extremes we have to avoid.

[SPEAKER_00]: If our emotions are theological statements, if your emotions are messengers, giving you real time health checks on your sanctification, we can't ignore them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us hate the sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hate this sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we feel that right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the reality is, we hate the idea of paying attention to our emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: We won't raise that way, maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think this is meaningless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we think this is not even biblical.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I had called you this morning and I was like, hey, man, come to church so we can talk about your feelings.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't like, sorry, I have to go to the dentist this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last minute, I just scheduled it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying, hear me, I'm not saying that to be like Jesus, you have to be in a constant state of emotional reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: That will paralyze you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you ignore this part of your life,

[SPEAKER_00]: You will miss ways that God is trying to get your attention and you will miss things that he wants to change and heal because the emotion coming out of you is not neutral.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not neutral.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a way to draw it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many of you in the room would have loved, if you think about the home you grew up in, many of you in the room would have loved if your dad had asked about his anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does this reveal about me and God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because maybe that question would have changed him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And instead he ignored it and his anger suffocated the home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us, maybe you would have loved, if your mom had asked about her fear, what does this fear reveal about me and God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause if she had asked that, maybe God would have started to heal something, but instead she ignored it and her worry infected your home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe some of you right now can think of a loved one and you would love if that person would ask about their apathy, what does this apathy reveal about me and God?

[SPEAKER_00]: And instead they ignore it and because they ignore it, they're missing out on life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this matters, it matters because it affects us and it affects people around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about obsessing over the emotion, but listening to what it reveals so that we can grow closer to Jesus and get more of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other extreme is to crown the messenger, to elevate my emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: To not treat them as a messenger leading me to God, but to treat them as God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe we love a sermon like this because we love talking about how we feel and we love listening to how we feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe we expect to get permission in this moment to follow our feelings wherever they lead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our emotions can help us see our need for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They cannot take the place of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was talking to Cory Butler after the 90M service.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, one of the things they say in their home with their kids is, our emotions are good helpers but bad kings.

[SPEAKER_00]: So consider Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is John 12, 27.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now is my soul troubled in what shall I say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't miss Jesus just talk to the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now is my soul troubled.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I've come to this hour, Father glorify your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: A voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus in the Gospels days away, days away from the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he is in front of his disciples, and he's in front of a crowd of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's some believers, some are not believers, and he says, my soul is troubled.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not feeling in the moment about the next few days.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the image is strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: The language he uses is, there's a storm in his soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's distressed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows the cross is coming, that's not news to him, but now he's days away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in front of this crowd of people in this moment of vulnerable humanity, he talks about his emotional state.

[SPEAKER_00]: My soul is troubled, and that's how he's feeling about what the next few days will have for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then a few days later, he's in the garden, moments before he's arrested.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's suffering is right about to start, and he talks about his soul again.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Mark 14, this is what Katherine read for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Going a little farther, he fell in the ground and he prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him and he said, Abba, father, all things are possible for you, remove this cup from me yet not what I will but what you will.

[SPEAKER_00]: In both verses, Jesus is naming out loud how he feels, my soul's trouble, my soul's sorrowful even to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a strong phrase.

[SPEAKER_00]: He means my inner life is crushed with grief right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what he says, my soul is very sorrowful, so I'm going to avoid the cross because God wants me to be happy.

[SPEAKER_00]: My soul is troubled and I don't like feeling this way, so I'm gonna tell the Father to change his plans.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is profound.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he's feeling, a troubled soul, crushed with grief, these are some of the most extreme emotions a human can feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he doesn't choose what would make the feeling go away.

[SPEAKER_00]: He chooses what will glorify the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: For this purpose I've come to this hour, Father glorify your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't surrender his life to avoiding the sorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He surrenders his life to the Father's will.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remove his cup from me yet not what I will but what you will.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's paying attention.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's openly naming what's going on in his heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he's feeling, the emotion of the moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's overwhelming, but he does not crown it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does not treat it as God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember a few weeks ago we talked about idolatry?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was everyone's favorite Sunday.

[SPEAKER_00]: And part of that was seeing how different problem emotions will reveal different deep idols in our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So anger will expose an idol of power, and fear will expose an idol of approval, and worry will expose an idol of control, and restlessness will expose an idol of comfort.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we see in Jesus is emotion, strong emotion, completely absent of any idolatry.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we feel these things,

[SPEAKER_00]: When the average human feels sorrow and trouble, those feelings come with commands, stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do whatever you have to do to make this go away.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus does not follow the emotion of disobedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of turning from God, he sets his face towards the cross and he runs straight into more sorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did not obey his feelings, he obeyed his father.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that active obedience changed your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Change your life, change my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: had the sorrow of the moment one over in his will, then we would spend eternity apart from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I see something else here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And both verses, Jesus speaks to his messianic purpose in his sonship.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his identity, it's who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's the son of God, he's the savior of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: He speaks to his father, he speaks to his purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: For this reason, I've come for this hour, father, glorify your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not my will, but your will be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the Christ, and he's the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus knows who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He engages with his emotions out of his identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Warfield's book, he says, the most common emotion Jesus experiences in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you just read the gospels and circle or underline or keep track of all the emotions Jesus felt, the number one emotion he felt in his life is compassion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 936, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were harassed like sheep without a shepherd.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew 14, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke 7, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Compassion is his loving response to those in need.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just sympathy, he's moved to action.

[SPEAKER_00]: He felt compassion for lost sheep because he came as shepherd, and he felt compassion for the sick because he came as healer, and he felt compassion for those who mourn because he's the comforter, and all that's tethered to his identity as the Christ, the Son of God, sent from the Father to do the will of the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's another observation, please lean in.

[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot be emotionally healthy without a secure identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of emotional and health in our lives is because our functional identity is in something that's easily threatened.

[SPEAKER_00]: The most famous story Jesus ever told.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is, he's welcoming sinners in text lectures to eat with him in Luke 15.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the scribes in the Pharisees are so angry about it that they grumble out loud.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus hears their angry grumbling, and he tells the story about a shepherd who had a hundred sheep.

[SPEAKER_00]: and a woman who had 10 coins and a father who had two sons.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that story ends.

[SPEAKER_00]: That story is about competing emotional responses to the same event.

[SPEAKER_00]: That story ends with the Father celebrating because the younger brother came home and the older brother angry and grubbling, just like the scribes in the Pharisees.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is saying to the scribes and Pharisees, what makes you angry makes heaven rejoice.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're having a competing emotional response with heaven to what's going on on earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happened?

[SPEAKER_00]: The scribes and Pharisees were the self-appointed gatekeepers of God's people and their identity as gatekeepers of God's people was threatened when Jesus let people in that they thought were out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they complained while having celebrated.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were angry because they were insecure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And their identity was threatened by what Jesus was doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just see a pattern.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was at a service once with a bunch of other pastors.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know a lot of my illustrations are about church things and pastors.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the only life I've got.

[SPEAKER_00]: So all my stories come from now.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a part of the service, one pastor pulled another pastor

[SPEAKER_00]: And honored this man for years of ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just said, I love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So many of us are here in this room because of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I talked to a friend afterwards.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he just said, I love that we did that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That brought tears to my eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were happy that this man was honored.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they just said, I was glad to be a part of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I talked to another pastor right after who was really bothered by it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in more dressed-up words, he was like, I work harder than that guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's not as great as what people think he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, bleaker, I've never heard you talk like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_00]: Michael's way more emotionally healthy than that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moments like these, though, just always make me think.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's too men, observe the same thing, and had two different emotional responses.

[SPEAKER_00]: One was honored to be a part.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other was offended that it happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what's the difference?

[SPEAKER_00]: The offended guy felt like his identity as a pastor was threatened by all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I work harder, I'm more worthy of honor.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that emotion that you felt in that moment was a messenger saying, hey, things aren't going well.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a messenger saying, your identity is in something that's not as secure as you think it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wonder if you're open to this, genuinely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you open to following some of the things you feel to the insecure identity in your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the last time.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you were to think the last time I was offended, could I follow that offense to some place that is insecure in my life where I've placed my identity?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I don't feel very secure and who I am as a dad or as a mom.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when I saw that message on that group chat, I got offended.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not performing great at work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel secure and who I am in my vocation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when that coworker said that thing, I just clouded my soul with a fence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you could follow some of the discouragement that you feel, the despair that you feel,

[SPEAKER_00]: Like your life's not panning out the way you thought it would, you're not what you expected to be, you've not achieved what you thought you would by now, you feel like a failure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that discouragement comes from being disappointed in who you are, because you've placed your identity in something that you can't control.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you follow the shame, you feel?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because you have this ideal picture of who you should be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no matter what you do, you can't live up to your own standard, your own image.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're ashamed of the gap between who you are and who you think you should be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so much unhealthy emotion flows out of that because there is no identity as insecure as the ideal identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you could follow your anger and your irritability to unhailed wounds in your past, because you've been wronged, sinned against, and because you've been sinned against, you expect to be wronged again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so your anger is just below the surface, and it's this defense mechanism that's going to protect you from ever being hurt again, because I identify as a victim.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you could just follow how disproportionate your emotions are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I imagine if I asked the room, if we're having coffee.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just asked you, do you have a lot in your life to be grateful for?

[SPEAKER_00]: I imagine everyone would say yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of us could name multiple things that are a gracious gift that deserves our gratitude.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if the question is how often is gratitude the controlling emotion of our life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or, what do you experience more gratitude or frustration?

[SPEAKER_00]: gratitude or overwhelmed, gratitude or entitlement.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so often so convicted by this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something is off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something about how we see ourselves is distorted.

[SPEAKER_00]: If gratitude is something, we know to acknowledge, but never actually experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Underneath so much of this,

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we know who God says we are most of us, but we function out of false identities that are easily threatened.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I'm forgiven through the cross of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a child of God forever accepted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I function like I am what I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or I function like I am what's happened to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am my worst moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am what I achieve.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am what others say about me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of those identities are so insecure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unhealthy emotion flows out of that life when that identity is threatened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of those identities are so easily threatened.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we need something.

[SPEAKER_00]: To have any shot at emotional health, we need something more stable than all that to ground us in the range of things that we face and feel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look to Jesus again.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is John 11, verse 33.

John 11:33

[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of if not de-most emotionally charged moment of Jesus' entire earthly ministry in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: His friend Lazarus has died.

[SPEAKER_00]: He got there.

[SPEAKER_00]: What they thought was too late.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, where had you laid him?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they said to him, Lord, come and see Jesus, wept.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Jews said, see how he loved him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind men also have kept this man from dying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is some of the most intense emotion that Jesus experiences recorded in the gospels.

[SPEAKER_00]: That word deeply moved is not sadness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a kind of extreme anger and rage.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 1138 in a different translation, then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb.

[SPEAKER_00]: His friend died, all of his friends and followers are really broken up about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus hates death.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's this kind of grief, deep anger, righteous rage that wells up within him, and he goes to the tomb to raise Lazarus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in his book, Warfield comments on this moment, and really uses this as a moment,

[SPEAKER_00]: to highlight a summary of Jesus' emotions and what it means for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just think it's stunning.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says this, it is death that is the object of His wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: And behind death, Him, who is the power of death, and whom He has come into the world to destroy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tears of sympathy may feel as eyes, but this is incidental.

[SPEAKER_00]: His soul is held by rage, and He advances to the tomb

[SPEAKER_00]: What John does for us is to uncover to us the heart of Jesus as he wins for us our salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not in cold, unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smights in our behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has not only saved us from the evils and oppress us, he has felt for and with us in our oppression and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has felt for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption, Jesus did not just act perfectly.

[SPEAKER_00]: He felt perfectly, righteous in every way, and instead of using that against you, the gravity and impulse of his emotional life was given over completely to the Father's will and the loving rescue of his people, including you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's not stoic about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not cold and apathetic about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Satan, death, and hell got all of his wrath, and you got all of his compassion and mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: A found the core of who you are is a recipient of the mercy of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's what this means.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my prayer for us this morning, in all this.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the standard is a couple commands that we already feel pretty good at meeting, then maybe we don't need any of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the standard is to be held accountable that every internal emotion reflect the emotion of our holy God, then we need Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the good news is that Jesus' grace is eager to meet every single gap in our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus' grace is eager to meet every single way in which we fall short and fail.

[SPEAKER_00]: The anger and rage that weld up in his soul was poured out against our enemies so that we, as God's enemies, could be called his friends and children.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's who we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so my prayer is not that we would in response to this be a hyper introspective people, not that we would give our emotions sovereignty in our life, not that we would ignore or suppress, but that we would listen to the degree that we are brought nearer to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that in those moments, if we see a pattern of unhealthy emotion in our life, or if we're overwhelmed in a moment by how we feel unsettled in some way that we would follow that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Underneath the frail identity, all the way to who we are securely in Christ, and then from that secure place, we would like Jesus obey the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Surrender all of our life to the will of the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you pray with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like what's left is best done in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you pray?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, beloved.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that the steps that are needed from here are best done in a space like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that they can be done in a space like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we would just in prayerful response, would you just maybe try to find yourself within the extremes?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're the kind of person who's way more apt to dismiss all this and suppress all this and ignore all of this, or if you're on the other side and you're the kind of person that is easy to crown and deify your feelings, where are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere in between, I never listen to, I only listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And would you consider that God is inviting you to follow wherever you are in that to meet him?

[SPEAKER_00]: to be changed by him, to encounter him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I think in my own life where this has led me so often, I can follow my worry, or I can follow my cheap affection, or I can follow my discouragement, I can follow my anger, and I can follow it to a place where God is asking me to surrender my definition of who I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not an identity that I earned, but to receive what he has gifted to me in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: God gets to decide.

[SPEAKER_00]: God gets to decide.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Lord be surrendered to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, we need you in this moment, you don't miss, you always, always, rightly appropriate the Word of God to the hearts of your people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Holy Spirit, we're asking that you would do that, that you would lead us, that the things that are coming above the service of our life, that we would follow those things to deep,

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ-like transformation in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that maybe what you would do this morning is you would take a heart that is enslaved to anger and you would bring freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would take a heart that's enslaved to despair and you would bring joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would take a heart that's enslaved to fear and you would give to kind of resurrection, gospel confidence, Lord, so that the climate of our life,

[SPEAKER_00]: In the condition of our heart is a righteous reflection of you, Lord God, that we would have joy where you would have us have joy, and we would have righteous anger towards the things that break your heart, Lord God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love you, and we need you.