Week 7, Day 2

Celebrate Community Church

Week 7, Day 2

Inside Out

There is a healthy place for emotions in our lives. But they try to battle for control, don’t they? Emotions should be in the car, but do not let them drive the car. Don’t let emotions drive you, but you must drive them. The goal is that you are at the steering wheel, and they are in the passenger’s seat with the seat belt securely fastened.

Emotional maturity is not accomplished by putting emotions aside, pretending they have no place. When we attempt to put sadness in a circle, we often get stuck. Sadness can lead to healthy things. Sadness is a part of compassion, understanding, mercy, humility, relationships, striving, and becoming. God experienced a sense of sadness over the sin in the world. In one of the clips, Joy had a revelation – you really can’t get through something by just skipping over the emotion of sadness. Sometimes you must sit down and deal with reality.

Read John 11

Jesus showed up at the house of a friend who had just experienced loss, and he expressed empathy. Jesus experienced sadness with the loss of his friend Lazarus, but he also experienced joy when he raised him from the dead. In this fallen world, joy and sadness both have a place in healthy emotional development.

-Is it difficult for you to discuss emotions? Is it difficult for you to express sadness in a healthy manner? Explain your answer and write about a time when you experienced deep sadness.

Week 7 Discussion Guide

It’s important that God’s Word continues after the message. At Celebrate, we find that you will talk over this week’s message long after our experience is over. That’s because God has lasting impact. The Sermon Discussion Guide is designed to help you continue the conversation all week.

Week 7, Day 6

The Church is not for perfect people. It’s for imperfect people who are working together to become fully mature in Jesus Christ. It’s the place where we rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. So for Riley, joy and sadness come together to the emotional headquarters and join fear, anger, and disgust. Riley’s emotions keep maturing with her growing self-control. “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” Proverbs 16:32 Read Proverbs 16 As you grow a stronger emotional control center, authentic emotions will work together. Sadness and joy are blended into honest emotions. When our emotions work together, we grow in our emotional health and relational health. -What is one way you can mature through your emotions instead of running away from them?

Week 7, Day 5

Throughout the movie, we see the operations console that controls Riley. By the end of the movie, she is upgraded to a bigger emotional control center. Let’s go back to one of the verses we have meditated on this week. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 Read Galatians 5 (Again) God tells us that a life fully surrendered to Him will produce the great benefit of self-control. We can’t win at emotional maturity by our own efforts; it takes God to help us build a bigger control center. -How are you doing in your life at becoming a safe place for your emotions to mature?