It’s Okay

You are free to feel.

[Scripture Reading]

1)For today’s scripture, let us turn to the Gospel of Matthew 5:4 and Psalm 30:1-12. Let us all rise and read the scripture together.

This is the word of the Lord.

Matthew 5:4 (NIV)

2)4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Psalm 30:1–12 (NIV)

3)1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

2 Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.

3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.

4)4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.

5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

5)7 Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:

9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

6)10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.”

11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

Amen.

[Welcome]

Good morning PW. Welcome to the first Sunday worship service of 2025. Let’s all greet one another. Let’s look into our friends eyes and say this. 7)“Maranatha.”

Marantha is an Aramic word from the book of Revelation, which means come lord Jesus. It is a word used to call upon Jesus to come and judge the quick and the dead. It does not just hope for the end of the world to come but it is a way to call out to Jesus seeking the victory that Jesus is going to bring to us. So, through out 2025. I hope we all hope and call Maranatha and seek Jesus everyday in our lives and have victory.

Starting from today and for the next 3 weeks we will be sharing the word of God on the theme of 8)The Happy Days, where we will think about how our feelings has to do with our relationship with God and I truly hope that you all could find how God wants us to deal with our emotions.

[Sermon]

For the past week, we gathered for our 9)New Years Revival night. Last night we ended on the high note worshipping God together as one family with everyone in the Church. And last night, I did not preach the word of the Lord, but instead 10)I translated Pastor Marc’s Korean sermon into English. It was my first time ever to do that. I translated English sermon to Korean before but, it was my first time doing it the other way around. Because it being the first time, because I had no practice before, I was very nervous. Starting from Thursday, I started to feel the pressure. And everytime I would think about translating the sermon, the stress monitor that I have on my apple watch it would skyrocket and it would tell me, 11)“Man you are stressed bro.” So, on Friday, when it was Pastor Steven’s turn to translate the sermon, I was at the back of the room practicing. I was mumbling the translations of what Pastor Marc was preaching and I started to compare what I said to what Pastor Stevens translations. I was correcting myself as Pastor Marc preached. And because of this, I recieved an alarm on my phone. This is what it said. 12)“High heart rate notifications. Your heart rate rose above 120 bpm while you seemed to be inactive for 10 minutes.” So according to the phone, I was sitting down. I wasn’t doing anything strenuous. But the heart rate was going off the charts. Why? Because of all the things that was happening in my head, it got to my heart. The stress of uncertainty. The stress of preparing things. It got to me. It was controling my body.

We say our body reacts to our mentality and yesterday, I felt that mentality get to my body. I was nervous. I was worried that I would ruin the worship service. But no matter what, I had to translate. I made terrible mistakes. I didn’t know what 13)뇌출혈 was and made a laughing stock of myself. As a bilingual, I felt was if I was 14)byelingual loosing both languages. But through the grace of God, I finished my part of ministry. I was a nervous wreck, but everything finished. I didn’t panic, I didn’t throw a fit because I was anxious. My attitude did not change. How? For I knew that God was with me and had called me to do what he wanted me to do. Just before I went up on the stage, the last song we were singing was, “How great is our God.” And as I was singing and praying to God, I confessed this prayer, “God you are a great God and I need that great God to be with me. I cannot face this on my own right now. So please be with me.” After this prayer, and with my faith in God, I was able to stand on the stage to do what I was called to do.

Guys, the reason I am sharing this story is because, this is exactly what today’s scripture tells us to do. Matthew 5:4, it says, Matthew 5:4 15)“4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” If you go to God and pray with whatever is in your heart, God is promising us that he is going to listen. Psalm 31, King David, amidst his pain and suffering he is calling out to God and asking him to take care of all the problems that he is facing. In verse 12 in faith he proclaims this, “16)12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.” Dear PW. I hope that this would be our confession. No matter what feelings you feel, if you go to God, he is going to listen and he is going to take care of what you are going through. He is going to comfort you. That is what God promises us.

I know this stage in life is when you go through so many ups and downs within your emotions. You are so emo at one point of the day and all of a sudden so happy. The hormones, and the lack of experience in dealing with these feelings we make it the attitude of our lives. Because you are sad and tired, you lash out on others. Because your happy you become the most merciful person. God is not saying that you should not feel feelings. It is okay, but the expression of all of our feelings should not be fluctuating on others around us, but do it only to God. That is why David wrote so many poems on how he is such a miserable person and that he needs God. David after being anointed to become king, he became the most hated person in Israel. King Saul tried to kill him, Phillistines tried to kill him, his son tried to kill him. The people of Israel accused him of his failure to protect the country. But whenever he had these problems, he didn’t let his emotion be his attitude but he would seclude himself from the problem and prayed to God with his problems. He prayed his feelings up on God. That is what we need to do.

Guys, it’s okay. IT is okay to tell God everything that is in your heart. IT is okay to feel what you feel. For God is listening to what you have in your heart. God is going to take care of what you say to him. But don’t let that emotions take over your life. Let that not be your attitude, don’t hurt others through your feelings. But only seek God.

Let’s take this time to pray. When we pray, I want you all to be honest to yourself and to God. I want you all to let God know of your feelings. If you are happy thank God for the happiness he is giving you. If you are sad, just cry out to God. If you think you have no feelings to feel, just seek God and tell him of this situation. For that is what we do through our prayers and he is going to listen and he is going to answer. Let us pray.

[Response]

Worthy.

[Benediction]

[Announcement]

Birthday