What Are My Emotions Telling Me?

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God. Psalm 42 opens not with complaint, but with thirst, a desperate longing for God written by someone far from His presence and aching to return.

This third message in our Made to Feel series takes us into Psalms 42 and 43, really one poem split in two, and into what's known as a psalm of lament. Koob traces the pattern honestly: tears that replace food, grief crashing wave after wave, the raw question "why have you forgotten me?" There's no sugar-coating here, because the psalmist knows he's speaking to a God who can handle the full weight of what he feels.

But the psalmist doesn't stop at the complaint. Three times he turns and interrogates his own soul: "Why are you cast down, O my soul? Hope in God." That's the turn this whole sermon hinges on, our emotions are honest reporters of what we're carrying, but they don't get the final word on who God is. Feeling forgotten doesn't mean you are forgotten. And if you find yourself cycling back into the same pit more than once, that isn't failure. That's what faith actually looks like.

When your soul is downcast, what would it look like to speak truth to it instead of just believing it?

"Where are you?" That's the question God asks Adam and Eve after the fall, not because He doesn't know, but because He's inviting them to look inward. It's the same question He's still asking us.

This second message in our Made to Feel series moves from God's emotions to ours, and specifically to the heart behind them. In Genesis 3, Andrea traces a pattern that feels uncomfortably familiar: saw, desired, took, ate, gave. Before Eve ever disobeys, something has already shifted inside her, a quiet decision that God's way might not actually be the best way. That's the real story of the fall: not just an action, but a trust that broke first.

From there, Andrea walks through what Scripture calls a distorted heart versus a pure one, and lands on the promise buried in Genesis 3:15 before judgment is even spoken: a Redeemer is coming. David's cry in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart, becomes the model. Not fixing ourselves, not suppressing what we feel, but bringing our hearts honestly before God and letting Him do what only He can do.

Where are you hiding, and what would it look like to stop covering and just answer the question?

We were made in the image of a God who feels. Not a distant deity untouched by the world, but a Father who grieves, a Son who weeps and rages and rejoices, a Spirit who can be grieved by our sin. If God feels, and we are made in His image, our emotions were never a design flaw. They are part of the gift.

This opens our new series, Made to Feel, right where Scripture opens: God created man and woman in His own image, emotionality included. Genesis shows Him grieving over humanity's sin. Hosea shows compassion growing warm and tender. Zephaniah pictures Him rejoicing over His people with singing. And in Jesus, we see the fullest range: tears at a friend's grave, righteous anger in the temple, joy He wants full in us. He never suppressed what He felt. He was never ruled by it either. His identity as the Son shaped every response.

That's the arc of this series: emotions as a good gift, distorted by sin, redeemed in Christ, formed by the Spirit to reflect Jesus. Today we start at the source, the God who feels, who made us to feel like Him.

If God feels the full range of human emotion without being enslaved to it, what would it look like for you to stop treating your feelings as an enemy to suppress or a master to obey?

You cannot hold on to two things at the same time. The hands that grasp eternal life must release everything else.

This final message in our series through 1 Timothy closes the letter the way it opened: with a charge to fight. Paul's word for "fight" is agon, the root of "agony," a brutal, painful struggle, like an athlete driving toward the finish or a soldier locked in combat. But this fight isn't for a temporal crown. It's for what is eternal.

Paul shows us what that fight looks like: receiving eternal life by releasing everything competing for first place in our hearts, embodying the gospel the way Jesus did before Pontius Pilate, confessing truth without holding back, giving generously instead of chasing the false security of wealth, and guarding the gospel entrusted to us with everything we have. And underneath it all, one truth: we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory already won.

What are you holding onto that's keeping you from taking hold of eternal life?

Continuing our series in 1 Timothy, Dilip Aaron preaches from 1 Timothy 6:3–10 on the connection between godliness and contentment. Paul warns the church about false teaching—especially teaching that uses faith as a means to pursue wealth, division, or personal gain—and points believers toward a radically different definition of true wealth: godliness with contentment.

Dilip explores how we can recognize false teaching, why knowing God’s Word matters, and how the pursuit of money and worldly success can quietly shape our desires. Instead, he invites us to find our identity, security, and satisfaction in Christ, declaring that Jesus is enough.

Through practical practices such as generosity, fasting and self-denial, gratitude, and guarding what we allow to shape our desires, Dilip challenges us to examine where we are placing our worth and hope. He closes by sharing the story of his friendship with an international student whose understanding of success was transformed by hearing that true success is found in loving Jesus—not in money or achievement.

In this sixth message of The Good Fight: Trained for Godliness, Andrea Gorriti teaches from 1 Timothy 5:3–16 on what it means to honor and love others, especially those who are vulnerable and in need.

Paul’s instructions about caring for widows reveal that Christian love is more than an emotion or a sense of duty—it is a tangible expression of God’s character. As Andrea explores the biblical meaning of honor, she invites us to consider how we value people, how families and the church are called to care for one another, and how we can respond to the needs around us with both wisdom and compassion.

Ultimately, caring for others is not simply a matter of doing more. It is a matter of discipleship: becoming people who reflect the heart of God. As followers of Jesus, we are called to imitate God’s character, extending His love and mercy even when it is inconvenient, costly, or offers nothing in return.

Andrea also shares personal stories from her family’s experience serving at an orphanage in Peru and from a season of vocational transition, reflecting on what it means to love others without trying to fix every problem.

In the fifth sermon of our 1 Timothy series, The Good Fight: Trained for Godliness, Jingyang walks through 1 Timothy 4:11–16 and 2 Timothy 1:3–7, encouraging us to consider what it means to live faithfully and persevere in the Christian life.

Paul tells Timothy not to let his youth become a reason for others to dismiss him, but instead to set an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Jingyang explores how Christian faith is often formed not only through what we are taught, but through what we see modeled in the lives of others. Our everyday faithfulness, service, relationships, and commitment to Christian community can become a living example for those around us.

Jingyang also reminds us not to neglect the gifts God has given us, but to “fan into flame” those gifts for the sake of the church and the gospel. Ultimately, following Jesus is not a short-term commitment or a one-time spiritual achievement—it is a life of perseverance. Through community, faithful practice, and patient endurance, we encourage one another to remain rooted in Christ and faithful to the end.

What shapes the way we live? According to Paul, we are always being formed by something. The question is whether our lives are being shaped by the truth of Christ or by the competing voices that promise fulfillment apart from Him.

In this fourth sermon of The Good Fight: Trained for Godliness series, Pastor Piero Gorriti explores 1 Timothy 4:1–10, where Paul calls Timothy to "train yourself for godliness." Drawing on the imagery of elite athletes, this message shows that spiritual formation is not passive—it requires intentional rhythms of Scripture, prayer, and life with God. Yet this discipline is never about earning God's favor. True godliness flows from a life rooted in the gospel, shaped by Jesus, and empowered by His grace.

Discover why the Christian life is both a gift of grace and a lifelong pursuit, why the prize is far greater than anything this world can offer, and how fixing our hope on the living God transforms the way we live today and for eternity.

In the third message of our series through 1 Timothy, pastor Piero Gorriti explores Paul's vision for the church as the household of God—a family where our identity in Christ shapes how we live, serve, and love one another.

Walking through 1 Timothy 3, we discover that godliness isn't behavior modification or religious performance. It's the outward expression of an inward relationship with Jesus. As members of God's family, our private faithfulness flows into public faithfulness, transforming our homes, our service in the church, and our witness to the world.

This message invites us to see the church not as an institution, but as a family united by the gospel, called to uphold the truth together, and empowered by the living Christ—the true source of all godliness.

In the second message of our series through 1 Timothy, Koob Vang explores Paul's call for the church to make prayer its first response rather than its last resort.

Walking through 1 Timothy 2:1–7, Koob reminds us that prayer is more than bringing our requests to God in moments of crisis—it's the foundation of a life shaped by relationship with Him. From praying for neighbors and strangers to interceding for leaders we may disagree with, Paul calls the church to reflect God's heart for all people.

Grounded in the truth that there is one God and one mediator, Jesus Christ, this message invites us to cultivate a rhythm of prayer that transforms how we live, love, and participate in God's mission to reach the nations.