EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND JESUS — WHY YOUR INNER LIFE MATTERS

SERMON: EMOTIONAL HEALTH AND JESUS — WHY YOUR INNER LIFE MATTERS Topical: Emotional Health, Discipleship, and the Way of Jesus

1. EMOTIONAL HOOK Have you ever felt like you’re falling apart on the inside but no one sees it?

You lead. You smile. You show up. But when you're alone, you feel like a fraud. Your body keeps moving, but your heart is numb.

You’re not okay—and the scariest part? You don’t even know how to say it.

Maybe you’ve exploded in anger at the people you love and then sat in shame wondering, Where did that come from? Maybe you’ve shut down emotionally because the pain was too deep, too buried, too much to feel.

Maybe there’s trauma you’ve never told anyone about. Maybe your soul is bleeding beneath a well-dressed life.

And the church told you, “Just pray more. Trust God. Be strong.” But no one ever showed you how to be human. How to feel. How to hurt. How to heal.

Here’s the truth: Jesus never asked you to numb your heart to follow Him.He came to heal the whole you—your body, your soul, your story, and your emotions.

Pete Scazzero says it like this: “You can’t be spiritually mature and emotionally immature.” So many of us are preaching the gospel outwardly while bleeding internally. And Jesus says, Come to Me—not the polished version of you—but the real you. The broken you. The hurting you. The angry, scared, confused, ashamed, overwhelmed you.

Because He can’t heal what we hide.

2. TRANSITION TO ME I used to think spiritual strength meant emotional suppression. But God used brokenness to teach me otherwise.

3. ME I’ll never forget when I first discovered Pete Scazzero’s ministry and the work of Onsite—both deeply focused on emotional health and healing. I was in a season where I knew I needed something deeper. I wasn’t content with surface-level spirituality anymore. I was doing all the outward things right, but inside, I was tired. Worn down. Disconnected from myself.

Reading Emotionally Healthy Spirituality opened my eyes to how much I had spiritualized avoiding pain. I thought if I just prayed more, read more, served more, I’d feel better. But the truth is, I wasn’t dealing with my actual heart. I was spiritually active but emotionally absent.

And then Onsite helped me realize I had boundaries that were blurred, walls where there should have been bridges, and places where I was abandoning myself for the sake of ministry or approval. I thought it was noble to always say yes. To push through pain. But I began learning that emotional health requires boundaries.

That having limits is not unloving—it’s godly. That saying no doesn’t mean I’m weak—it means I know who I am. That protecting my heart isn’t selfish—it’s stewardship.

I also went on to get certified in coaching through The 7 Primal Questions by Mike Foster—a tool that helps uncover the core emotional narratives we carry from our earliest wounds. That book changed how I saw myself, others, and even God. It helped me understand why I react the way I do, and how the gospel speaks directly to those core identity questions.

All of it—Scazzero’s work, Onsite, Foster’s framework—taught me that a mature faith in Jesus isn’t just about Bible knowledge or outward obedience. It’s about being honest with what’s happening inside. It’s about being integrated—emotionally, spiritually, and relationally.

As Pete says, “Jesus was never in a rush. He often withdrew. He didn’t heal everyone. He said no. And He lived deeply rooted in the Father’s love.”

Emotional maturity isn’t just a side benefit of discipleship. It’s a vital marker of it.

4. WE/SOCIETY/CULTURE We live in a world that either suppresses emotion through distraction—or is ruled by it. Our culture tells us to either “tough it out” or “let it all out.”

But neither denial nor emotional chaos leads to freedom.

Even in Christian culture, we often equate maturity with stoicism. We think tears are a sign of weakness. We quote verses to silence pain instead of sitting with it. We rush people past grief with spiritual clichés. We fear emotional honesty because it exposes the fact that we don’t always have answers.

And so we scroll instead of feeling. We binge instead of processing. We numb with noise, entertainment, hustle, and religious performance. We value productivity over presence and appearance over authenticity.

We idolize strength and mock tenderness. We measure maturity by how composed someone looks—not by how whole they actually are.

Men are told to be hard, women are told to be quiet, and anyone who doesn’t fit the mold is left wondering if something is wrong with them.

We’ve created a culture where emotional repression is seen as maturity and vulnerability is mistaken for weakness. But Jesus turns that upside down.

He didn't come to make us emotionally numb—He came to make us emotionally whole.

He wept publicly. He embraced people in their shame. He sat with people in their grief. He didn’t rush healing—He embodied it.

What if our churches became more like that? What if Christian culture became the most emotionally honest space on earth? Not because we celebrated chaos, but because we believed in restoration.

The problem isn’t our feelings—it’s what we do with them.

Jesus felt every emotion we feel. But He didn’t let emotion become His master—He brought every feeling into submission to the Father.

5. GOD: BIBLE VERSES AND PETE SCAZZERO QUOTES

John 11:35 – “Jesus wept.” The shortest verse in the Bible—and one of the most powerful. Jesus didn’t rush past grief. He entered into it.

Luke 22:44 – “Being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood…” Jesus didn’t suppress His anxiety in Gethsemane. He expressed it in prayer.

Mark 3:5 – “He looked around at them in anger… deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” Jesus’ anger was holy, not sinful. It came from love, not ego.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 – “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…” Emotion is not a detour—it’s part of life with God.

Pete Scazzero says:

“Jesus shows us that healthy spirituality includes the ability to feel, name, and process our emotions in the presence of God.”

“Ignoring our emotions is turning our backs on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.”

6. YOU/PRACTICAL STEPS So how do we grow emotionally and spiritually?

Slow down for silence.

Emotionally unhealthy people never stop moving. Start with 5 minutes a day of silence with God. Let your soul catch up to your body.

Name what you’re feeling.

Jesus asked people, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Begin identifying and naming what’s happening inside your heart.

Bring your full self to God.

Don’t filter your prayers. Bring your anger, sadness, grief, and joy. God already knows—it’s for your healing that you admit it.

Read Scripture slowly and reflectively.

Practice lectio divina. Let God’s Word read you instead of rushing to check a box.

Build emotionally safe relationships.

Find people who won’t just give you a verse—but will sit with you in the tension and point you to Jesus.

Analogy: Emotions are like the dashboard lights in your car. They don’t fix the problem—but they alert you to what’s going on under the hood. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away. Paying attention to them helps you go deeper.

7. CLOSING VISION, WE We are not meant to live fragmented lives—spiritually strong on the outside, but emotionally falling apart on the inside.

Jesus didn’t model emotional denial—He modeled emotional surrender.

Imagine a community where emotional honesty wasn’t punished, but welcomed. Where tears didn’t scare us, but invited us into grace. Where people didn’t have to pretend to be okay to belong.

Imagine a church that helped people confront their childhood wounds, that sat in silence with them in grief, that didn’t rush past the pain with cheap answers, but walked them into healing with love and patience.

Imagine fathers who weren’t emotionally shut down—who didn’t believe the lie that manhood means silence. Imagine mothers who weren’t carrying shame in silence—who were given space to rest, breathe, and be fully known.

Imagine boys raised to be brave and tender. Girls raised to be strong and soft. Men taught that real masculinity looks like Jesus—truthful, gentle, courageous, and emotionally present. Women taught that godly femininity is not weakness, but power clothed in humility and wisdom.

Imagine leaders who didn’t need to perform to be accepted. Teenagers who weren’t self-harming in secret while serving on Sundays. Married couples who stopped sleeping in separate emotional beds—and started letting grace rebuild intimacy.

Imagine if church wasn’t the place we put on our masks— But the place we took them off.

That’s the kind of healing Jesus offers. That’s the kind of people we’re called to become.

Let’s be people who sit with sorrow and stay long enough for hope to rise. Let’s be people who welcome the emotionally messy—not just the spiritually polished. Let’s become emotionally healthy disciples—who feel deeply, love wisely, and live freely.

Because Jesus didn’t die for a curated version of you. He died for the full you.

And He wants to meet you—not just on the surface, but in the deep.

In the trauma. In the story you’ve never told. In the ache you don’t know how to name.

He wants to walk with you there—until your heart finally exhales. Until your soul finally feels safe. Until your healing finally begins.

And that’s not weakness. That’s the way of Jesus.