Music
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
It is time to get started this morning.
If you'd grab a hymnal, turn to 421,
the first Noel.
Gotta get your last fix of Christmas music.
421, the first Noel.
We'll sing there on the first.
The first Noel
the angel did say
was to certain poor shepherds
in fields where they lay
in fields where they
lay keeping their sheep
on a cold winter's night
that brought us so deep.
Noel, Noel
Born is the King
of Israel
and by the light
of that same star
the wise men came
from country far
to seek for a King
was their intent
and took hold the star
wherever it went.
Noel, Noel
Born is the King
of Israel
this far tonight
to the Northwest
for Bethlehem
it took its rest
and there it did
though stuff and stain
brought over the place
where Jesus lay
Noel, Noel
Born is the King
of Israel
enter him
those wise men free
who reverently
upon their knee
and offered there
in his presence
a gold and pearl
and frankincense
Noel, Noel
Born is the King
of Israel
Amen at this time we'll open with a word of prayer if you bow your heads with me
thank you for this day just for another day to freely gather together and sing praises in your name
I just pray that you'd be with us for the services today that everything would be done decently
in an order that you'd fill Pastor Oz with your spirit and that you would open our ears to the messages
that you've laid on his heart also pray that you'd just be with those that are not feeling well
or those that are traveling through this holiday season that you would just strengthen them keep them safe
and restore them to good health these things we pray in Jesus name Amen
all right for our next hymn this morning turn if you would
423 Joy to the World
there on the first
Joy to the world the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
prepare him room and heaven
and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing
Joy to the world the Savior reigns
Let men their songs deploy
Walk fields and floods
Park fields and plains
Receive the sounding joy
The home for the sins and sorrows
grow for thorns it
lasts but crown
He comes to make his blessings
flow far as the curse is found
far as the curse is found
He rules the world with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories
of his righteousness
and wonders of his love
and wonders and wonders
of his love
Good morning everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. This time
we'll go through our bulletins. If you don't have one, go and raise your hand and
Usher will bring you one. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week
Hebrews chapter 6 verse 20. We're doing this verse
one more time because we just want a grace week at the end of each chapter so you
got one more week if you can quote this before Sunday
next week so you got the rest of this week to a non-family member
word perfect then next Sunday morning you will receive a prize
of your choice. Really excited for that. On the inside is our service
times listed. Sunday morning at 10 30, Sunday evening at
4 30 and our midweek service at 7 but please be reminded
that this upcoming week we have a Tuesday midweek service
so many times are listed there all those meet here at the church building
as well as our nursing home ministry schedule on the bottom
is our year-to-date statistics great job for the month
of December 45 salvations for a cold month like that is a great
job for sure and we only have a few more days left in the year so definitely keep
working hard as long as you can to try to do that final push I know we
did have nine salvations this Saturday with just a handful of
groups so it was a really receptive time and I'm always just thankful that we live
in a city that's very receptive to the gospel so don't take that for granted for
sure. On the top right is our list of expecting
ladies please be in prayer for Miss Reed also just for the Reed family's
health at this time and our upcoming events remember this
Tuesday we're having our new year's eve party and it's going to start
at seven o'clock with the men's preaching night I think we have four or five guys
slotted to preach they're already signed up and it's going to be a 15 minute
time limit for that so it's just going to be like a normal service songs preaching
everything like that so looking forward to hearing those guys and then afterwards we'll kind of
get this room set up for some food and games and we're going to have a great time
as a church. Online giving is there at that QR code
as well as our prayer list if you have any prayer requests
or updates I do ask that you please email the church or just some way to
get in contact with me and I'll make sure that that gets updated for you. On the back is a place for you
to take notes if you'd like that's going to be it for our announcements this morning let's go ahead and go
to our third song
Alright our third hymn this morning is number 425
No Room in the Inn
Four hundred twenty-five
Four two five No Room in the Inn
We'll sing there starting on the first
No beautiful chamber
No soft cradle bed
No place but a manger
No where put his hand
No praises of gladness
No thought of their sin
No glory but sadness
No room in the inn
No room, no room for Jesus
Oh, give and welcome free
Lest you should hear at heaven's gate
There is no room for me
No sweet consecration
No seeking his heart
No humiliation
No place in the heart
No thought of the Savior
No sorrow for sin
No rent for his favor
No room in the inn
No room, no room for Jesus
Oh, give and welcome free
Lest you should hear at heaven's gate
There is no room for me
No want to leave
No want to receive him
No room for them all here
No want to relieve him
No almost half of us fear
No seeking his pleasure
No weeping for sin
No doing his pleasure
No room in the inn
No room, no room for Jesus
Oh, give and welcome free
Lest you should hear at heaven's gate
There is no room for me
Amen. As the offering plates are being passed
turn if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter number 1
2 Corinthians chapter number 1
Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother
unto the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints which are in
Arkea. Grace be to you and peace
from God our Father in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
God be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforted
us in all our tribulation that we may be
able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us
so our consolation also abounded by Christ and whether we be
afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings
which we also suffer or whether we be comforted
it is for your consolation and salvation and our hope
of you is steadfast knowing that as ye are
partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation.
For we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble
which came to us in Asia that we were pressed
out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired
even of life but we had a sentence of death in ourselves
that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from
so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us yet also helping together by prayer
for us that for the gift bestowed upon us
by the means of many persons thanks may be given
by many on our behalf. For our rejoicing
is this the testimony of our conscience that
in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly
wisdom but by the grace of God we have had
our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you
word for we write none other things unto you
than what ye read or acknowledged
and I trust ye also acknowledge even to the end
as also ye have acknowledged us in part
that we are your rejoicing even as
ye also are ours in the day of our rejoicing
are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in this confidence I was minded
to come unto you before that ye might have a second benefit
and to pass by you into
Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia to you
and of you to be brought
on my way toward Judea
when I therefore was thus minded did I use lightness
for the things that I purpose do I purpose
according to the flesh that with me there should be
ye ye and nay nay but as God
is true our word toward you was not
ye and nay for the son of God Jesus Christ
who was preached among you by us
even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus was not
ye and nay but in him was ye
for all the promises of God in him are ye and in him
amen under the glory of God by us
now he which established us with you in Christ
and hath anointed us is God
who hath also sealed us and given the earnest
of the spirit in our hearts moreover I call God
for you I call God for a record upon my soul
that to spare you I came not
as yet unto Corinth not for
not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers
of your joy for by faith ye stand
Let's pray. Heavenly Father Lord we're thankful to be gathered together in your house
Lord to hear the preaching of your word we pray that you feel
after all that your spirit Lord help us to focus on the intentions of the message
and apply it for our life Jesus can we pray amen
Amen, alright well we are in 2 Corinthians chapter number 1 let's start reading in
verse 3 the Bible says blessed be God even the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the
God of all comfort and so in the introduction of
this chapter here Paul is giving some descriptions
about God one of the things is the father of
mercies and of course in order to show mercy
on someone they have to be deserving of something bad right and so
for us to appreciate the fact that God is a merciful God we have to
realize that we deserve things that are bad we deserve
wrath from God in fact we deserve hell is what the Bible teaches and so when you look at a title
like this the father of mercies the only reason you could even appreciate that
is the fact that you know that you're not worthy of God's goodness
then the next it says this and the God of all
comfort now again how is it that we can appreciate
comfort the fact that God comforts us gives us strength
and peace well it would have to be that you would have to go through things that are uncomfortable
in order to experience comfort and realize the blessing that comfort is
you have to go through things that are not comfortable and then he explains
more about this in verse 4 he says notice who comforted us
in all our tribulation notice it's not that God
comforts us in all our successes and joys and spiritual
highs and God comforts us when everything's going great in our life and our lives are just
perfect no God is the God of all comfort because what we experience
oftentimes is tribulation what does that mean trouble
and we experience trouble in this life notice he says
that meaning so that we may be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God he's saying look we're going through all this tribulation
and troubles so that we can be comforted by God and in turn we could
comfort other people with the same comfort that we receive from God
in our troubles verse 5 for as the sufferings of Christ abound
in us so our consolation also aboundeth
by Christ you know that's kind of a great attitude to have he's saying look
if my sufferings abound if my life is just going through all these terrible
things well the good news is at least the comfort is going to abound at least all the consolation
is going to abound you know someone that goes through a lot of troubles and problems they at
least get to experience more comfort from God than someone who just has
an easy life verse 6 and whether we be afflicted
it is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual
in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer
or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and
salvation and our hope of you is steadfast
knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings so shall
ye be also of the consolation verse 8 for
we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which
came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of
measure above strength notice this
in so much that we despaired even of
life those are some pretty chilling words that the apostle
Paul said there he's saying look I'm happy that we're able to be comforted
by God and my hope of you is steadfast that you're going to be able to be comforted
by God as well but I don't want you to be ignorant and be surprised
and think that our life as apostles has been so easy serving Christ
and it's just a prosperity gospel and if you're on God's side
you're going to be healthy wealthy and everything's going to be perfect in your life he's going to say
no actually we were pressed out of measure what does that mean
he's so stressed he feels like it's beyond something that he could even
handle and it says this above strength right he can't do it
in so much that we despaired even of life
the title of my sermon this morning is despairing of life
here the apostle Paul and other disciples got to the point
where it was hard for them they didn't want to it was
a despair a drudgery for them to even live
now I'm here to tell you that this is something that is common
in the Bible that many people experience this in the Bible
and this morning I want to give you two points by way of introduction and then I want to answer this
question what to do when you despair
of life number one you will experience
pain in life this is just a point by way of introduction
you need to understand that you will experience pain in life
it doesn't matter if you're the most wicked person on this earth who's not saved
who's not following God's commandments that person will experience pain
that person will lose their mother and father that person will get sick
that person will deal with the consequences of their sin on this earth
and then you could be the most righteous guy you could even be the apostle Paul
you could be the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ going out
turning the world upside down with the gospel and even those people
could get to the point where they despair to even live
and I'm here to tell you that you in this room will also experience pain
in life and it is an unreasonable expectation that people have
to think that we should always be happy that you should always be doing great
in your life emotionally or whatever there are times where you are not going to be
happy let's read that again
so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ
and of course like I said in order to be comforted it means you have to be
going through something hard in order to have hope
of something in the future it means that what you're experiencing right now
is not fun right I think of running you know when I
run I'm just thinking of the hope of the finish line because if there was no hope
why would I even be running why would I just not quit right then and there
but I keep going because there's hope towards the end right you know Pastor Shelley
had us do this push-up challenge in the month of December
100 push-ups a day and I signed up for it but unfortunately
on Wednesday I had the stomach flu and it was tribulation
it was trouble it was terrible but I was like look I got this far
into this challenge I'm not going to quit so I'm just like one two
three but I had hope though that we're almost at the end of the month so it's
like we're going to keep going because we have that hope so to experience things like
comfort hope joy peace you have to
even know what the opposite of those things are in order to even
fully understand or appreciate those emotions and that's that's like one of the things about
hell that has to be so terrible is that every single person
in hell has experienced some level of joy in this earth
I mean they've experienced a beautiful sunrise most likely
unless you're born blind but everybody in life has experienced some sort of pleasure right
the love of a friend the love of a spouse a good meal
a beautiful sunset things like that you've experienced something that's good
and when you experience something terrible you have it something to compare it to
and vice versa right if I'm going through something terrible and God comforts me
now I can appreciate that comfort and so we have this mentality
in our society especially where we just want to avoid all pain
avoid all suffering you should never be sad if you're sad there's something wrong
with you but I'm here to tell you that you wouldn't even be able to appreciate the good things
in life if you didn't go through pain and this is why people
who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth and are spoiled
their whole lives they lack perspective they're not appreciative
of things in life they're spoiled brats because they often haven't gone
through things that are hard and you'll notice often times people that go through things that are
really hard are people with high character
people that have a high tolerance to go through things go to John chapter 16
John 16
I want to show you that you will experience pain in life
John chapter 16 verse 33 Jesus said
these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have
peace in the world ye shall have tribulation
but be of good cheer I have overcome the world
see Jesus wanted to make sure that we had the right expectations out of life
that we didn't think that because we're saved because we're Christians in this world
everything's going to be great for us no he says in this world
you will have tribulation you will have troubles
problems the Bible talks about how we're going to be persecuted
if we're righteous Jesus said that the world's going to hate you
but notice he said in me you have peace right and that has to
we have to calibrate our expectations as Christians to realize
hey in God we have peace in God everything's good but in this
world we're going to experience trouble we're going to experience tribulation and pain
go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 2 Ecclesiastes chapter number 2
and the book of Ecclesiastes is
a good place to turn for this topic because really the whole book
is about a guy explaining life from a
carnal perspective I mean over and over again in this book the Bible
talks about how this happens under the sun and these are the things going on
under the sun because really Solomon's focus is he's saying this is
what the world is going to look like when you look at things from a carnal perspective
when you look at things from a worldly perspective and this is what many people do
look at verse 14 of Ecclesiastes 2 it says the wise man's eyes
are in his head but the fool walketh in darkness
and I myself perceived also that one
event happeneth to them all he's saying look carnally speaking
it doesn't matter if you're wise or if you're a fool
the human experience is universal it does not matter if you are the
wisest person on this earth or the most stupid ignorant
fool on this earth things like your parents dying is going to happen
to both of you things like the possibility of losing a child
is going to happen to both of you getting sick going through financial problems
getting ripped off getting robbed all these things it happens to the
wise it happens to the fool one event happeneth
to them all the Bible says it's a universal human experience verse 15
says then said I in my heart as it happeneth to
the fool so it happeneth even to me and why was I
then more wise then I said in my heart that this also
is vanity so again he's looking at things from a carnal perspective and he's
saying if the same things in life happens to the idiot
as happens to me someone who has given myself to learning and you know
the Bible talks about in Ecclesiastes 1 how he really studied and tried to learn
as much as possible he's saying then what was the point of getting all that
wisdom right what was the point of being wise if all these terrible things happen
to both of us look at verse 16 for there is no remembrance
of the wise more than the fool forever seeing that which now is
in the days to come shall all be forgotten and how dieth
the wise man as the fool and you know with the
exception of people like King Solomon people that were living
around his time we've forgotten about them I'm sure there's tons of wise men
in his kingdom during those days and we know nothing about them we've completely
forgotten about them just like we forgot about all the fools that were living
during his time too and he's just saying what's the point of all this then it's all
going to be forgotten and then at the end he says how dieth the wise man as the
fool I mean someone could work their whole life really really hard they could get
really well educated get a great career and they could just randomly
be a victim of a random act of violence right this happens all the
time you know I saw a video a few months ago in Oklahoma City where this crazy
guy went to a gas station and just started shooting random people
who knows what those victims were like were they really well educated were they
Christians were they working really hard in life or were they drug addicted bums
who were stupid and were flat earthers doesn't matter because
the same event happens to them both that's what this is saying it's like how
dies the wise man like the fool does oh I was wise I worked
really hard in life I got cancer too I got Alzheimer's too
oh someone was a fool and an idiot they died of liver failure they died of heart
failure it's like they die the same way and it could be kind of black pilling to
look at life only through this carnal perspective because what Solomon
is saying is completely true I mean think about this president
George Washington you know how this guy died because
all the quacks of his day thought it was a good idea to heal sickness
by this thing called bloodletting you know how the president
of our nation died some doctor said I got a good idea let's just cut
your veins open that's how the president died how did he die
as a fool that's crazy even though he was a wise person
he was a valiant man in battle how did the first president of America die
by some weirdo cutting his veins open and letting him bleed to death wow
that's crazy but guess what we all die the same way oftentimes
regardless of how great you are in life we all die the same
and look at his reaction verse 17 he says therefore
I hated life sounds
like he despairs of life because the work that is wrought under the sun is
grievous unto me for all is vanity and vexation of
spirit and you know sometimes unsaved people even
understand this it's like the black pill community where they understand
the carnal truths of ecclesiastes here they realize like wow
everything is vanity you know the things that I do in this life it's going to be forgotten
I'm going to die the same way as the fool dies why am I the more
wise I hate life but of course we know like Jesus said that
in him we will have peace he's overcome the world we can have joy in that
we know that but I'm trying to remind you that sometimes even Christians
forget about that perspective and look at life through carnal means and they
too can sometimes hate life look at verse 18
yea I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun
because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me and
who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool yet
shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored and wherein I have showed
myself wise under the sun this is also vanity
he's saying look I'm working so hard I'm the king of the nation
I'm building this nation and it's true under Solomon the nation was the most
prosperous the most in peace and he's saying who knows
someone can come after me and just ruin it in a day one sinner
destroyeth much good right and someone could work super super hard
and build a business where they're toiling they're putting in hours they're working
late they're working weekends and then they're like alright son let me just hand
it over to you and the son is a moron the son is spoiled the
son doesn't understand the value of working hard or the son doesn't
understand money or finances and the son could just ruin it immediately
this happens all the time in businesses this happens in churches
a pastor could work really hard plan a church build a
great church through solid preaching and soul winning and ministering to people and then the fool
after him could just destroy it in a moment and it's like you could just look at that
and you could kind of get blackpilled from that you can kind of say like I'm despairing of life
because who knows if the fool comes after me and just destroys it all
verse 20
this also is a vanity and a great evil
and his travail grief
this also is vanity
this is not a positive chapter this morning this is not a prosperity gospel but this is
the reality of life from a physical perspective
the prosperity preachers are liars because
unless they're better than Solomon unless they're more wise than Solomon
and more godly than Solomon Solomon's describing life as being painful
full of travail sorrow grief vanity
vexation of spirit to the point where he's saying I hate life
and what did we see with the apostles they too even got to a point in
their life where they despaired of life the prosperity gospel is a lie
there's no one on this earth that does not experience pain
saved unsaved there's no one on this earth that's
just happy every single day and the facade that people see on social
media really can harm people's minds especially young people where they think
like wow this person they've got a mansion they've got a nice car
oh look at Andrew Tate he's got all these girls around him that must be how
you find happiness I promise you that guy is miserable
and I promise you rich men of this world are miserable people
the bible says woe unto you that are rich woe be
to the rich men I mean the bible does not speak positively of the rich
in general okay and these people are not living happy lives
oftentimes they're miserable on the inside that's why all these celebrities
oftentimes are addicted to drugs addicted to gambling
blow their brains out literally because guess what they have problems
just like the poor beggar has problems because life in general
under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit
go to 1 Peter 4 2 Timothy 3 12 says
and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution notice the reward for being godly
is not wealth riches health prosperity and easy life
according to the bible those that live godly their reward
is persecution trouble being hated being
despised 1 Peter 4 verse 12
beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which
is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you but rejoice in
as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be
revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy
and this is what the bible is trying to do the bible is trying to warn you
to have the right perspective on life and the right
expectations out of life and saying hey don't look at life and think it's
strange when fiery trials come to try you don't
think it's strange when you struggle with your health or
your marriage or your money or just any problem in
life your entire life because the bible is
saying look this is already told it's going to happen to you
don't think it's strange but in fact rejoice
why in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's
sufferings that is the key that we have as christians that the world doesn't
they sometimes understand these things that we go through sufferings
but for them it's meaningless but for us we could say hey we could actually
partake with Christ in his sufferings have
fellowship in his sufferings and then guess what
happens we have Jesus the god of all what comfort and he can
comfort us that's something the world doesn't have
so number one you will experience pain in life number two you may even
experience a desire to die this is not the happiest sermon this
morning but i'm just telling you the truth
from the bible is that you yes you as a saved christian
may even experience a desire to die now maybe some of the children in this room
have no idea what i'm talking about i hope you don't i hope you've never
experienced anything like this there's some children in this world who
probably have experienced this let's be honest
i mean some of the children that are living in israel and palestine right now
that have seen some pretty terrible things i wonder if even some children
have experienced this desire but i'm telling you that you may even
experience this in your life now i have an article here from the cdc
it's a study actually it's called suicidal thoughts and behaviors
among adults in the united states it says problem
suicidal thoughts and behaviors are important public health concerns in the
u.s in 2019 suicide was the 10th leading
cause of death among persons 18 years and older
in that year 45 861 adults died as a result of suicide
and an estimated 381295 adults visited the emergency room for non-fatal
self-inflicted injuries so in 2019 the 10th leading cause of death in the
united states for adults was suicide that's a pretty
sad statistic i mean there's a lot of people dying out
there from all sorts of different things but in the top 10
is people taking their own life sounds like this is something that people
experience and that people struggle with now here's the results
of the study it says prevalence estimates of
suicidal thoughts and behaviors varied by socio-demographic factors
region and state during 2015 to 2019
an estimated 10.6 million adults in the united states
4.3 of the adult population reported having had suicidal thoughts
during the preceding year now i'm going to be honest
i feel like that's probably way lower than it truly is
i don't know if everyone's being honest in this study
but this is saying that 4.3 of adults even just have thoughts of desiring this
or wishing to depart if you will or something like that but you know i think
it's probably higher because as we're going to see in the rest of the sermon
it's pretty high amongst men of god in the bible
great men men filled with the spirit men they did great things for god
the prevalence of them who at one point in their life or another
desired this or felt this way was pretty dang high
so seeing 4.3 i feel like it's probably higher than that
but it says the prevalence of having had suicidal thoughts
ranged from four percent in the northeast and south
to 4.8 in the west and from 3.3 in new jersey to 6.9
in utah so mormons are just the highest ones
there apparently it says 3.1 million adults 1.3 of the adult population
had made a suicide plan in the past year and to me that's a way different thing
like there's a way different spectrum between like desiring that or having
thoughts about that like these men in the bible did
to like making a plan to carry out on that
those are way different things then there's like actually attempting it or
doing that action these are far apart from each other on
the spectrum but still still there's 1.3 of the
population that made a plan to actually carry it out
and then it says 1.4 million 0.6 of the adult population
had made an attempt in the past year so this is something that obviously
people are struggling with and go to job chapter three if you would job chapter
three i want to show you in this point and
what are we talking about you may even experience
in your life the desire to die let me show you from the bible
men who experienced this in their lives
job chapter number three
verse 11 notice what he said why died i not from the womb
why did i not give up the ghost when i came out of the belly
that's pretty dark right right there what he's saying he's saying look i
would have just rather had just perished during birth
just i wish i would have died as a young baby because he's despairing of life
so much and here's the thing what he went through
who would not be feeling this way i mean losing all of his children
losing his wealth losing his health he's scraping himself
with a pot shirt with these nasty boils all over his body
his friends have all forsaken him his friends are lying
and railing against him saying that he's doing all this stuff that he wasn't
guilty of on top of that his wife is nagging him i
mean who in this world would not just wish for
death in that situation but again here's the thing there's a
difference between feeling those emotions
wishing that you would die feeling thoughts like that and like making a
plan to do something about it or actually making an attempt see joe
though he felt that way he never tried to do anything he never made a plan to
do anything this is just how he felt and i'm trying to tell you that if you
ever feel you're like this in your life it's not like there's something wrong
with you or you're strange or you're alone in that type of emotion
because life is hard and some of us life is harder than others and generally
speaking the harder your life is the more of a chance that you will feel
like this some point in your life i mean the apostle paul he said that he
despaired of life the guy was constantly getting beaten
he was constantly getting backstabbed he was working he was laboring more
abundantly than they all he was being in perils of robbers and
the heathen and his own countrymen and false brethren and on top of that
the care of all the churches and then he's got a church at corinth
questioning his authority not appreciating him being a bunch of
jerks to him basically and like i could see how at times he
said like hey i'd rather just depart and be with christ
which is far better but for you it's needful right so he felt that way
but he never made a plan he never made an attempt okay
joe he felt that way here's another person who felt that way go to numbers
chapter 11
numbers chapter 11
verse 14 moses said this i am not able to bear all this
people alone because it is too heavy for me
sounds like he's pressed beyond measure above strength he says this is too much
for me to handle and if thou deal thus with me notice
kill me i pray thee out of hand if i have found
favor in thy sight and let me not see my wretchedness i mean this is
intense like we talked about a few months ago how
prayer we should take prayer very seriously when we're approaching god
like we're talking to the god of the universe
we need to think about the things that we're saying to god and asking of god
and moses is a meek man he's a godly man and he's going to god and he's asking
god to kill him i mean that is that's a higher level of
just like yeah i kind of feel like i could die where you're going to
the lord and you're literally asking him to kill you
this was moses this was a man of god this was not someone that needed to be
treated in a psych ward this wasn't a guy that has
mental problems or an imbalance or anything like that
this was just a man who just had a hard life who was just
getting sick and tired of it and literally asked god
to kill him moses is not a baby moses is not a weak man okay and and just
realize like if you ever experienced these emotions
it's not that you're crazy or there's something necessarily wrong with you
when it's like okay paul uh moses jobe let's look at another one how
about elijah first kings chapter 19
first kings chapter 19 and maybe you're reading these verses and you're like i
can't relate with this i've never felt this way well praise the lord for that
i'm happy for you but i just want you to know that your brothers in christ
other people in this world will experience this in their life and you
need to be aware of it first kings 19 verse 4
but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down
under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he
might die and said it is enough now oh lord
take away my life for i am not better than my fathers
even elijah the mighty prophet who did tons of amazing miracles even this
great man of god who we read the stories of elijah
and we think this guy is amazing what a great christian
yet he even requested to god that he might die
sounds like you could be a great person and sometimes
wish to be dead that's a pretty crazy thought but it's true
go to jonah jonah chapter number four jonah chapter number four
jonah said this therefore now oh lord take i beseech thee my life from me
for it is better for me to die than to live there's three
men so far in the bible that literally asked god
for them to die but notice god's response verse four
and then said the lord doest thou well to be
angry and so what i'm trying to show you is that
you're gonna you may experience this your brothers in christ may experience
it what i'm not saying is that this is good
or this is something that you should want to have or something like that
because god looked at his request and said hey are you really doing well
to be angry right now and it's like while there's the reality
of life that we're going to experience this
of course god doesn't want us over much sorrow god doesn't want us just
constantly despairing of life you know never kill yourself that is
what god would want for you even if you feel this way
even if you may at times you know cry out to god and even request that of him
god would never want one of his children to kill themselves
that's something that god would never want so please never do that
never ever do that verse five so jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city
so you know he's got his shade up he's got his umbrella up and he's ready to
watch the city get destroyed by god verse six
and the lord god prepared a gourd and made it to come up over jonah that
it might be a shadow over his head so he's given him like a big sun hat or
something to keep him from getting sunburned
to deliver him from his grief so jonah was exceeding glad
of the gourd so now you know he's starting to feel happy again which again
you have to have experience in opposites to understand this
like if the sun is beating on your head and you're getting cooked and you're
getting sunburned now you can experience joy
when the gourd comes over and covers you right but verse seven
this is just how life is but god prepared a worm when the morning rose
the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered
this is life right here it's just immediately bad again
verse eight and it came to pass when the sun did arise
that god prepared a vehement east wind and the sun
beat upon the head of jonah that he fainted notice
and wished in himself to die and said it is better for me to die
than to live and it's like look if i was getting sunburned for that long
i would want the exact same thing i was not made to be out in sun for very long
but just notice notice this is just life okay jonah
he's asking him to die okay oh he's happy again yeah he's got a gourd
a few verses later he's asking to die again it's just like
this is the human experience sometimes this is just how it is
sometimes it's just you're feeling great things are going well
and then all of a sudden it's 120 degrees in texas and you're just under
the sun all day and you're just like lord take me home
i'm just ready this is literally how life is sometimes
go to jeremiah 20 jeremiah 20 you're starting to see this is a theme in the
bible this is not just one person who felt sad
many people in the bible were so overcome with grief sometimes where they
literally desired to die jeremiah 20 verse 14
cursed be the day wherein i was born let not the day wherein my mother bear me
be blessed cursed be the man who brought tidings to
my father saying a man child is born unto thee
making him very glad and let that man be as the cities which the lord overthrew
and repented not and let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at
noontide because he slew me not from the womb
or that my mother might have been my grave
and her womb to be always great with me wherefore came my fourth out of the womb
to see labor and sorrow that my days should be consumed
with shame sounds like jeremiah also experienced this
where he literally felt a desire to die and i mean can you blame him
at times in his ministry he's literally in a dungeon
sinking in the mire you think like jeremiah
the great prophet of god the one that's going to go rebuke the nation of israel
it's going to bring god's message and warn of the babylonian
invasion coming and it's like what's his reward for being a great man of god
sinking in the dungeon sinking in the mire
being alone being persecuted being made fun of being put in the stocks
and he's just like cursed be the day that i was even born
like why did i even come out of the womb just to experience all this
sorrow and grief and travail that's what jeremiah felt like
how about our savior go to matthew 26 matthew chapter number 26
you know jesus was a hundred percent man you know the bible calls jesus the man
of sorrows you know the bible says that he was
tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin
meaning that he fully understands the human experience because he himself
fully experienced the human experience look at matthew 26 verse 37
in the garden of gethsemane the bible says and he took with him peter
and the two sons of zebedee and began to be sorrowful
and very heavy then sayeth he unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful notice
even unto death tarry ye here and watch with me sounds
like even our savior experienced the exact
same thing so you know if you ever feel like this
you're saying man i think there's something wrong with me
there's times where i even feel like i just would rather go to heaven
than be on this earth it's like okay well see moses
and job and jeremiah and ezekiel and jonah and the lord jesus christ and all
the apostles and it's like you're in pretty good
company okay i'm just i'm here to tell you that you're not strange
you're not going through something that other people don't go through and don't
experience even godly people even great people
how about another one how about king david
go to psalm 31 psalm 31
surely a king would never be sad right he's got all that he wants
he's got all the food he's got all the riches he even takes bathsheba right i
mean he everything that a man may think in his
carnal mind that he wants david gave himself that at times
but look how he felt psalm 31 verse 9 have mercy upon me oh lord for i am in
trouble mine eye is consumed with grief yay my
soul and my belly for my life is spent with grief and my
ears with sighing my strength faileth because of mine
iniquity and my bones are consumed this is the man that killed
goliath this is the man who killed the lion and
the bear and ended up killing goliath and rose
up to be the king of israel yet his he says that his life is spent
with grief and sometimes people look at other people
and i'm telling you comparison is such a foolish thing to do because people look
at someone they say that person's life must be great i mean
look at king david the ladies are singing songs in his honor and glory
he killed the mighty warrior goliath he's the king of israel he's super
talented musically he writes all these beautiful songs i mean david
must have it made but it's like oh but did you know about him evading
saul's spears every day seemingly like saul's trying to kill him he's
constantly on the run he's estranged from his people you know
he has a really close friendship with jonathan
that he can't fully really enjoy because he's on the run i mean he has
major marriage problems at times in his life
it's like oh david really hasn't made well david's life was spent with grief
in his years with sighing and his strength failed because of his iniquity
and his bones are consumed that's how david felt
sometimes and sometimes you got to just stop comparing yourself to other people
and think if i just had that person's life i would be happy
if i just had that person's marriage that person's career
that person's home i would finally feel happy no you wouldn't
because all these men experience this at times and guess what we just have to
learn to get our joy from the lord because your joy is
just not going to come from this life from a carnal perspective you are not
going to be happy with money power position riches prestige
anything you could think of that's a carnal pleasure on this earth you will
never ever be happy with it man's eyes are
never satisfied you're not satisfied by gold or silver or
anything like that no the only place that satisfaction
comes is from the lord go to actually let me read this for you
so i kind of talked about how just because you experience something
like this doesn't necessarily mean that there's something wrong with you or
something wrong with like the chemical makeup
of your brain now look i'm not a doctor and i'm never going to give medical
advice i'm sure there are people where that is
the case for them and i'm sure there are people where they really do need to go
to a doctor and get treated i'm not telling you to not get treated
but what i'm telling you is that the default reaction
in our world is like you're experiencing sadness
well go to the doctor and get some ssris some prozac
some medication to fix your problem but i'm here to tell you that medication is
not always the solution to your problem now what are ssris has
anyone ever heard of these before raise your hand if you heard of ssris
okay a few people it's like the most common type of drug
prescribed to people suffering from chronic depression and anxiety and
things like that it's called selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors and this is from the mayo clinic this
is how these work it says serotonin is one of many
chemical messengers in the brain called neurotransmitters
neurotransmitters carry signals between nerve cells in the
brain called neurons and usually things like
serotonin is related to feelings of happiness after
carrying a signal between brain cells serotonin usually is taken back
into those cells a process called reuptake
so your brain kind of like stores it and isn't really using it anymore
but ssris artificially block this process
blocking reuptake makes more serotonin available
to help pass messages between brace brain cells
ssris are called selective because they mainly affect
serotonin and not other neurotransmitters
so what are these drugs they're basically drugs that are artificially
changing the way that the neurotransmitters in your brain
communicate with each other and it's stopping your brain from reuptaking
serotonin and kind of just keeping it in the pathways
for longer than it would naturally speaking now
though i'm not a doctor and i'm not going to give you medical advice i do
want to at least warn you not to just flippantly take
these drugs or any drug right you need to do research you need
to be very careful before just putting random stuff into
your body because here are some of the side effects
admitted to by the same source here the mayo clinic
here's some side effects upset stomach vomiting or diarrhea
sweating headache sleepiness trouble sleeping
dry mouth nervousness anxiety or restlessness
shakiness sexual problems change in appetite
leading to weight loss or weight gain now i don't know about you if i was
really struggling with depression and all of these problems just got added
onto my life it would make things way worse and you
know what often happens to people and i've seen this in my life
i've seen people take these drugs and their mental health was
worse after taking this stuff and it's like a well-known thing
that a lot of school shooters in the past have been people
on prozac and ssris and it's kind of like a known thing like
watch out for the prozac heads because they go in and shoot up schools
and it's like i'm not saying that everyone who takes this is going to
start experiencing that or that desire what i'm saying is oftentimes someone
already is a little mentally unstable or they're already depressed or they're
already anxious and then they take these drugs
and then they're worse than the beginning it's kind of like the woman
in the bible who had an issue of blood and then she spent all of her living on
the doctors and the bible says that she was actually worse after she had done
that and look that is still true today people
oftentimes they don't look for solutions that are actually going to help
them like i don't know getting good sleep
getting exercise being with your spouse reading a book
doing something outside serving god they're just like okay give me the ssris
chemically change the makeup of my brain here's another thing it says
most antidepressants are generally safe but the fda requires that all
antidepressants carry boxed warnings the strictest warnings for prescriptions
in some cases children teenagers and young adults under 25 may have an
increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior
when taking antidepressants i mean even from
that the source here even from the mayo clinic they're saying
people that are 25 and younger sometimes when they take ssris
they actually are more suicidal and again
what is like the the stereotypical school shooter it's usually someone
between the ages of what like 14 to 25 years old
and they just happen to seemingly always be on these ssris
antidepressants i'm just saying these are things
that you should be aware of and not just flippantly take
yes there are some people they absolutely need medical help i'm not
denying that whatsoever but a lot of problems a lot of times
you're sad not because there's something wrong with your brain
but because life is just hard and sometimes you're sad because you're
suffering from the consequences of your own
lifestyle and your own sins that you actually
could do something to change there's some things you can't change
look if your mother dies tonight i'm sorry
that you can't change that and you're going to be sad and if you're sad
and if you're depressed let me tell you something that's normal
that's okay you can be sad you can be depressed
you don't need to start taking drugs because you're sad that's a normal thing
but let me tell you this if you're sad because you're chronically unhealthy
because you're super overweight because you're not exercising
and you're eating crap and you're super sad all the time
that's something that you could actually do something to improve
and that's something that you should do something to improve and you will start
to feel better when your life improves in that area or
whatever area of life you're struggling in
if you're struggling financially and you start doing better at work you find a
better job you make more money you'll probably
find that you're happier in that area when you start making improvements in
that area but this is what people think like
oh man my health is terrible my body is completely destroyed because
of my own neglect and my own life decisions
i know what i need to do i need to take ssris
it's like you're just going to make your your body even worse
you're not only now now you have terrible physical health now you're
going to make your mental health worse it's like no why don't you actually do
something to change it there are some things that are in your
control now let's talk about this go to james
chapter four what to do when you despair of life what to do when
you despair of life because i've shown you hey
people in the bible they struggled with this you probably
will struggle with this at one point in your life too
and i'm here to tell you that's normal you're not weird
you're not alone in that that is normal what to do when you
despair of life number one draw nigh to god
draw nigh to god look at james chapter 4 verse 8
draw nigh to god and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands ye sinners and
purify your hearts ye double minded this is an iron clad promise in the
word of god that when you draw close to the lord the
lord will draw close to you but this people have it
backwards people have it backwards this is what
they think oh god when you help me with my health i
will reach out to you oh god if you help me with my finances
i'll start going to church oh god if you help me with my marriage
if you help me with my child rearing i'll start reading the bible more i'll
start praying more that's not how it works that is a foolish
way to look at life and this is what people do
god if you do this for me i'll serve you i'll do something great
no no god wants you first to draw nigh to him
and say hey it doesn't matter if my life sucks doesn't matter some days i feel
like going to heaven doesn't matter if my finances or health
or marriage or child rearing is all jacked up
i'm gonna draw nigh to god i'm gonna put god first
and then you'll notice something amazing happens god draws nigh
to you god is ready there to help you and i found that
to be true in my life that sometimes god even just gives us these problems
and these issues because he wants us to be close to him
and some of the closest times i've ever had with the lord
has been through some of the darkest moments of my life
and at those times during those moments you are at a crossroads in your life
where you decide who you're going to trust in
where your strength is going to come from where your faith is going to lie
is it going to lie in your own strength of you trying to fix every problem
you trying to outsmart every situation in your life or you're just going to get
to a point where you just realize i can't do anything i just need the lord
to help me and the truth is is that all of us need
him at all times look at verse number nine
the bible says be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves up in the sight of the
lord and he shall lift you up say oh man i'm sad there's something
wrong with me i need to change that i need to take something
god's saying just be afflicted he's saying be afflicted
and mourn and weep sometimes you should be sad and you know we
need a culture again in america where when you sin when you do
something bad there's some mourning and there's some weeping over your wrong
actions again not just like so flipping about what
you do when you sin against the lord or sin against your brethren where it
doesn't even bother you your conscience is kind of seared to that
no when you've done wrong you should be afflicted you should mourn you should
weep and sometimes the reasons that we're sad
sometimes the reasons that we're depressed is because we're literally
suffering from the consequences of our own
actions and god's saying yeah be afflicted
yeah mourn but here's the thing draw an eye to god he will draw an eye to you
cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded
he's saying look i understand you're sad be sad now do something about it
cleanse your hands change man i'm just so sad
it's like i would be sad too if i skipped church every week
oh i'm so sad i'd be sad too if i never read the bible
oh i'm just so depressed all the time yeah i'd be depressed all the time
if i was never right with the lord too if i never put anything into practice
practical application if i never did what the bible said yeah
you'd be sad all the time go to psalm chapter 34 psalm chapter 34
and again don't forget what i said earlier in the sermon sometimes
you can be righteous you can be doing everything right and you could still
feel this way but also we have to realize that
sometimes when we're feeling this way it's because of our own stupid fault a
lot of time psalm 34 notice verse 15
the eyes of the lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto
their cry the face of the lord is against them
that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth the righteous cry and the lord heareth
and deliver them out of all their troubles the lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit notice how god is not close to the
proud man god is not harkening unto and waiting to
comfort and waiting to help the proud man that
thinks he could do everything on his own without god his life is great by his own
doing his own hand who is he ready to hear those that are
of a broken heart those that are of a contrite spirit and
why is that because remember in second corinthians one we learned that
god is the god of all comfort god wants to comfort us god wants
to be the source of our comfort when we're sad
but oftentimes do people is their first reaction okay draw nigh to god he'll
draw draw nigh to me go to the lord and he'll
comfort me or is their first reaction oh i'm sad let me pick up the alcohol
isn't this what people do today drinking away their sorrows
that's just going to make your life more miserable or picking up the needle
or hiring a hooker i'm just being honest what do people do in this world
when they're sad oftentimes it's just straight to sin
straight to worldly activities when god is saying look he's nigh to those
that are of a broken heart he's ready to save those that are of a contrite
spirit he's just ready for us to acknowledge
that we need him at all times and sometimes unfortunately we're only
painfully aware of how much we need god during the
darkest times of our life but you know what we do well just to
realize that we need him sunday through sunday whether something's
good whether something's bad we need the lord at all times verse 19
many are the afflictions of the righteous but the lord delivereth him
out of them all you know part of why god gives us so many afflictions it allows
us to go through many trials is because it shows god's might
and god's glory when he delivers us out of those afflictions
right i mean the moses and the children of israel
going through the red sea i mean that's a pretty huge affliction that they were
going through being slaves for hundreds of years
barrows army chasing after them ready to kill them and then god delivers them out
of that trial and what happens god gets the glory god
gets the honor you know daniel in the lion's den
that's a pretty big affliction that he's going through he's going through trouble
he's in a lion's den and then god delivers him and who gets the glory
god does and so we would do well just to realize
whatever problems whatever tribulations or trials we're going through
that there's an opportunity there for us to glorify god
by us relying on him trusting on him not just being like well i'm sad
let's go to the drugs let's go to the alcohol let's go to fornication let's go
to being lazy no turn to the lord he's ready to
deliver go to matthew 11 matthew chapter 11
matthew 11 verse 28 jesus said come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke
upon you and learn of me for i am meek and lowly
in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light you have to train yourself
that when things are hard when you feel like your burden is heavy
when you're going through problems you must train yourself that the first thing
you do is you run to spiritual things you run to the lord jesus christ because
his burden is easy his yoke is light run to spiritual things
when you are feeling sad we'll skip some of this for sake of time go to philippians
chapter number two so what to do when you despair of life
well number one draw ny to god
number two make your life count for other people make your life count for
other people look at philippians two verse number two
notice the first phrase here fulfill ye my joy
so let's figure out how we get joy that you've been a lot like-minded having the
same love being of one accord and of one mind let
nothing be done through strife or vainglory
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but
every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also
in christ jesus who being in the form of god thought it
not robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men
being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death even the death of
the cross he starts out by saying hey fulfill my joy
and he gives us an example of what the lord jesus christ did and what is that
that's esteeming other people better than yourself
and i'm telling you a sad life a chronically depressed life
is a life that is focused only on self it's very easy to be sad
when all you're doing is thinking about your problems your issues
your marriage your money whatever problems you have
but oftentimes you know it fulfills your joys when you esteem someone else
better than yourself here's an example of that it's called
soul winning it's called soul winning i can't tell you how many times in my
life i've gone soul winning where i was having a rough week
having a rough day didn't really feel like going soul winning
and then i go soul winning and i see the young mother
whose husband has forsaken her who's raising children by herself
in some ghetto nasty apartment and that woman
hears the gospel of jesus christ and calls upon the name of the lord and is
now saved for all of eternity and i realize number one i realize my
life is pretty great that's one thing i realize and number
two i realize that you know what brings me happiness
is helping someone else investing into someone else and i've
never ever ever gone soul winning and felt worse by the
end of it than the beginning i always feel better
after soul winning than however i started even if i went in with a great
mood i'm in a better mood after i'm done because there's just something about
helping someone else there's something about not esteeming
yourself as the best and your needs and your desires and what you want to do
but rather saying there's people dying and going to hell
there's people that need our help we are ambassadors for jesus christ
and i'm gonna go serve that person i'm gonna help that person that will make
you joyful that will fulfill your joy
you know what else always makes me happy going to church always makes me happy
i love going to church and even a depressing sermon kind of like this
you know what i'm happier now than i would have been if i just stayed at home
and just did nothing with my life this morning you know and people today it's
like oh i'm so sad all the time it's like
yeah because what do you ever do for other people
oh you just watch the sermons online well that's great for yourself
but what about for your brothers in christ who could have been edified by
you being here today you know what about iron sharpened with
iron what about we need friendship and fellowship in this world
we need encouragement from other people that are living life with us
hey i'm raising kids you're raising kids hey we're going through problems you're
going through problems we're doing this together
that helps us rather than just being so selfish where it's like well i'm just
going to watch the sermons online that's a selfish attitude and don't be
surprised if your life is sad and miserable when you're not esteeming
anyone better than yourself you're worried about yourself only and
that's why you're not coming to church you know helping someone learn the bible
helping someone learn some truth from the word of god
that's something that always makes me really happy
one of the one of the happiest moments in my life
was i preached a sermon about being fruitful and multiplying
and a year later this woman came up to me with this little baby and said like
hey we had another kid because i listened that sermon i was like
that is the coolest thing like there's a life now in this world
because someone heard the word of god and they decided
yeah let's let's have kids that's a pretty amazing thing that brought me
joy and here's the thing no matter what is going on in your life
even the terminally ill hospice patient who's a christian can serve other people
in some way you could always bow your head and pray
and ask god to help someone you could always be serving other people
and if you want your joy fulfilled you have to find a way
to serve other people go to john chapter number 13 john 13
you have to make your life count for other people
why because remember everything under the sun is vanity
it's vexation of spirit it's worthless it's all going to pass away
we're going to die whether you're wise you're going to die just like the fool
the thing that happens to the fool same thing that's going to happen to you oh
you're going to build something great with your life
don't worry the person coming after you is going to destroy it all
and it's going to be completely worthless and forgotten and then
guess what you're going to die and your life is going to be over and our life is
like a vapor but when you actually spend your life
investing into other people that lives on after you that actually
makes a difference look at john 13 one now before the feast of the
passover when jesus knew that his hour was come
that he should depart out of this world unto the father
having loved his own which were in the world notice this
he loved them unto the end that should be the testimony that we
strive for as christians that those people that god has placed in
our lives to love that we would love those people
unto the end that we would use our lives not for our own selfish gain and to see
how much pleasure and how much how many vacations we could
take how much money we could stockpile but we should think how much can i love
my brethren that god has given me how much can i love my wife
how much can i love my children how much can i love my church
and can i love them unto the end that should be
the goal for our lives go to acts chapter number 20
acts chapter number 20
you know we're going to sing this song after the service but i think this song
it puts things in perspective of what i'm talking about it's a great hymn when
we see christ the lyrics say life's day will soon be
over and believe it or not we will blink our eyes and be in heaven
pretty soon all storms forever past will cross the
great divide to glory safe at last and we'll all share the joys of heaven
a harp a home a crown see all joy is coming someday the tempter will be
banished we'll lay our burden down it will be
worth it all when we see jesus life's trials will seem so small when we
see christ one glimpse of his dear face all sorrow
will erase so bravely run the race till we see christ that should be our
mentality that yeah life is hard right now yeah we
do have sorrows right now but someday it's all joys in heaven
someday it's laying down our burdens in heaven
and so hey until we see his face let's run the race
what does that look like love other people go soul winning
go to church pray for your brethren serve
other people run the race until you see jesus christ what to do when you despair
of life number one draw an eye to god number two make your life account for
others number three learn the art of discipline
okay this i want people to understand and to really internalize what i'm
saying you need to learn in life how to be a
disciplined person you cannot be successful in
anything in life if you rely on your emotions
and your motivation to carry you through anything
okay if i was just listening to my emotions
when i was throwing up on wednesday i would not have done the hundred push-ups
okay and ladies if you're just relying on motivation
to raise your kids as they're destroying everything there's going to be days
you're not motivated man if you just went to work when you
were motivated how often would you go to work
if you just went soul winning every time you just felt like it how often
would you go soul winning nothing gets done successfully on a
long-term basis from people just riding on their emotions
and riding on their motivation i i almost hate that word motivation i
think it's so overrated it's it's like a terrible word just get
rid of it it's a bad word look at acts chapter 20
verse 22 notice what paul said and now behold i go bound in the spirit
unto jerusalem not knowing the things that shall
befall me there save that the holy ghost witnesseth in
every city saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me i know i turn here a lot but i just
i love paul's mentality i don't know what i'm gonna face
except bad stuff all i know is that it's going to be hard
that afflictions and bonds abide me that's what i know i'm looking forward
to with that in his head notice his
mentality though but none of these things move me neither
count i my life dear unto myself sounds like he's not
living for himself so that i might finish my course with joy
and the ministry which i have received of the lord
jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of god
what is he saying he's saying look i know bad things are happening
but i'm not going to let that stuff move me why because
i don't count my dear little precious life as something that's so important
for me why because i'm actually living this
for other people yeah do i despair of life sometimes
that's what he said in the word of god but he says look i'm here for other
people i'm here to serve other people and notice what he says and the ministry
what's that he's got a mission he has something he's dedicated to
he has a goal he has something to run towards he has a finish line
to run towards and he says look which i've received of the lord jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of god he's saying look
god almighty god gave me a ministry and so i don't care
if what i have to look forward to is bonds and afflictions
troubles tribulations trials despairing of life it doesn't matter
i'm still going to go there because it's for other people
and it's for the ministry that jesus christ got
me realize this discipline wins when desire fails discipline wins
when desire fails there will be time in your life
all the time where you will not have a desire to do a certain thing
but you want to know what gets you through that and allows you to be
successful in any area it's called discipline what is that
doing the right actions regardless of how you
feel you don't sit there and engage in your
mind does this sound fun does this sound like something i want to
do am i motivated i hate that word so much
just get rid of get rid of that word who cares if you're motivated
do what's right oh man i just don't really i don't really feel motivated to
read my bible this morning read your bible
anyways why because discipline wins when desire
fails discipline will triumph over emotion
when you're not feeling it but you're just disciplined and you do it anyways
that will always triumph over emotion look
jesus christ did not want to go to the cross
he was not motivated to go get tortured and die
he just wasn't feeling it that day when he was going to go get tortured
to death on the cross but he said you know what i've got a mission to do
it's called saving the world and saving mankind and dying
for every person that's ever lived and you know what i'm just going to do it
anyways this is the difference between someone
that accomplishes something in their life and someone who doesn't
see it's not one person struggles with depression and one person doesn't
let me just let you on a secret probably 99 of people struggle with depression
let me just tell you most people probably have felt
a desire to die in their life even great men of god
but you know what made them great is that they were disciplined and they just
did what they needed to do regardless of how they felt don't
worry about your motivation get that word out of your vocabulary
go to first corinthians chapter number nine first corinthians chapter number
nine
man please don't wake up in the morning and ask yourself if you're motivated to
go to work ladies please don't ask yourself if
you're feeling motivated to cook dinner or to clean the house just do what
you're supposed to do children don't ask yourself do i
really feel like cleaning my room today if mom said to clean your room i don't
care if you're sick i don't care how you feel
just do what you need to do first corinthians 9 verse 24
know ye not that they which run in a race run all
but one receiveth the prize so run that you may obtain
and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate
in all things that's a disciplined person temperate
now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown
but we an incorruptible i therefore so run
not as uncertainly so fight i not as one that beat at the air
but i keep under my body and bring it into subjection
lest that by any means when i have preached to others
i myself should be a castaway notice how he says that he keeps his body
under subjection he's in charge of what his body does
he's not going to listen to his body tell him hey paul you just got stoned
don't go preach the gospel he's just like i'm doing it anyways
hey paul you're pretty tired don't don't read the bible don't study
don't go play in another church just you know rest a while give up
he's like no i'm keeping my body under subjection it's going to do what i tell
it to do why because i've received a mission to
do and i'm going to carry it out i mean you know it talks about men
striving for mastery in carnal things you think about athletes i think about
like special forces soldiers you really think that those guys wake
up in the morning and they're just like do i feel like training for combat today
do you feel like doing drills today and getting ready for our deployment
it's just like no they're just going to train whether they're sick whether
they're feeling good whether they're motivated or not they're just
going to train you know the world-class athletes of this world
the best baseball players who's ever lived they've never thought like man
should i hit the batting cages this week i'm just not feeling it they're just
like they're going to go do it regardless
and it's like people like that in this world and i have respect for people like
that in this world who are disciplined for a carnal cause
because i just like discipline in any area of life
i just i think it's cool when you look at someone who has just
mastered discipline and you know what we can learn something from those people
and but here's the thing we should apply those disciplines that they've done for
carnal things to spiritual things because if they have that level of
success in sports or the military you know what would it look like if a
christian put that level of dedication into serving god
what would success look like for a christian that actually said you know
what i'm going to read the bible every day of my life regardless if i'm
motivated to do it or not hey you know what i'm going to go to
church and as long as i'm not spreading disease or anything like that please
stay home if you're sick okay but as long as i'm not spreading disease
i'm going to be at church whether i feel tired or happy or sad
why because it's what jesus christ wants me to do and that is the
that's the decision that you should make is what's right
that's the decision what is the right thing to do that's what you're doing
not what do i feel like doing it's what's the right thing to do now here's
the good news go to proverbs 16 proverbs 16
is that as you build discipline it also can change your desire
because building discipline is very very hard
at the beginning it's like people that start working out
from from scratch they don't work out at all and all of a sudden they start
working out they're going to be in so much pain for
weeks of just brutal soreness and you start
hitting the gym you start lifting super super hard
for weeks you're going to be in so much pain but if you just keep
going if you just stay disciplined you're going to get to the point where
you could work out and you feel great and the next day your own tiny little
soreness and then maybe the time after that no
soreness at all and you just you're getting stronger you're getting more
disciplined to where it becomes easy this is like this and everything in life
look at proverbs 16 3 commit thy works unto the lord and thy
thoughts shall be established you see sometimes
doing the right actions can actually change how you think
about a thing like if someone wanted to start reading the bible
they had never been reading the bible where they're not used to reading in
general when they start reading the bible it could be really hard
to read one chapter two chapters but when you commit your works to the lord
oftentimes your thoughts can be established to where you're like you
know what i actually like reading the bible
and you could actually get to the point in your life where you look forward to
reading the word of god where it's one of the
highlights of your day it's something that you want to do every single
day you know maybe some people don't
understand this there's some people that they want to exercise it's like the
highlight of their day and many of us were just like what
that's crazy to actually want to exercise
but there's people like that or they desire they desire to run
there's people that want to run there's people that want to do planks
there's people that want to go swim in the ocean i mean
i would not want to swim in the ocean but there's people that want to do this
why because they've just committed to discipline
and then their thoughts start to change you know this is a good idea for your
marriage too why because discipline carries you when
desire fails you want to know why so many marriages
fail because the moment the desire fails they give up they quit because some some
idiot lied to them and said you're always going to be happy
everything's always going to be good in your life your marriage is always just
going to be fireworks and just red hot fire and if it's
anything other than that you need to quit and go find someone else
no what you need to do is you need to keep doing the right actions
regardless of your desire regardless of your motivation
regardless of your feelings and you know what you might find when you keep doing
the right actions is you might find your feelings come
back you might find that your thoughts get established
and you say hey i am happy i stayed married you know i've never seen someone
that's been married 50 60 70 years that regretted staying married but boy do
i know people that regretted getting divorced
boy do i know people that regret leaving their spouse
and now they're like all right let's find a young bride as i'm in my 50s and
60s good luck man good luck lady it's not
going to work like that no you need to be disciplined
and keep going go to if you would romans chapter number eight romans
chapter number eight
so remember please remember discipline will carry you
when desire fails you don't want to read the bible just read it anyways
you don't want to go come to church just come to church anyways you don't feel
like going soul winning just go soul winning anyways
you don't feel like doing your job or cleaning your house or cooking dinner
just do it anyways because it's the right thing to do
and let me say this you don't feel like living anymore as you see
often happens in the bible just keep living anyways keep doing the right
actions regardless of your feelings and let me
be honest with you i absolutely have felt like that at
times in my life and i don't i'm not ashamed of that
i'm not thinking oh man there's something wrong with me
because i just look in the word of god and i see how many people have felt like
that before and i'm just like okay yeah i feel like that sometimes but guess
what i'm not going to quit i'm going to keep doing the right actions
regardless of how i feel you know what i notice when i keep doing the right
actions the joy comes back and life it just ebbs and flows with
joys and sadness joys and sadness but you know what i'm running the race
i'm looking for the day when i behold my savior's face
and i'm going to keep running the race until that day comes regardless of what
happens regardless of my health finances life
doesn't matter none of these things will move me
because of the ministry that jesus christ has given me
romans chapter eight let's just finish with this beautiful passage here in
verse 18 the bible says for i reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us never forget that never forget that
this life that you have when you use it to serve god it's not in vain in the
lord and that you will be rewarded greatly in
heaven and all the sufferings and problems that you experience in this
life you won't even remember them they won't
even be comparable to the glory that will be revealed
in us someday verse 35 who shall separate us from the love of christ
shall tribulation or distress or persecution
or famine or nakedness or peril or sword
as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us
for i am persuaded that neither death nor life
nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come
nor height nor depth nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of god
which is in christ jesus our lord let's pray lord
thank you so much for this day thank you for the word of god
thank you that you are the god of all comfort the god of all mercies i pray
that as we go through problems in life that
we would learn to as our knee-jerk reaction turn to you
draw an eye to you draw to spiritual things not to sinful
things we just pray that you would comfort us give us strength
to make it through this life and i pray that if there's anyone struggling with
this idea today that you would just give them
hope and comfort and just help them to keep doing the right things and i pray
that you just renew the right attitude in their mind and
heart and i just pray that everyone would know that there's always people
here that love them and care for them in jesus name we pray
amen
all right for our last hymn this morning turn if you would to hymn number 81
when we see christ
hymn number 8181 when we see christ we'll sing there starting on the first
of times the lady seems long our trials hard to bear
we're tempted to complain
all tears forever
and will be worth it all when we see jesus
life's trials will seem so small when we see
a glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will be grace
so bravely done the race till we see christ
sometimes the sky looks dark with not a ray of light
we're tossed and driven on no human health in sight
but there is one in them who knows our deepest care
let jesus solve your problem just go to him in prayer
it will be worth it all
when we see jesus life's trials will seem so small
when we see christ one glimpse of his dear face
all sorrow will be raised so bravely run the race
till we see
all storms forever
will cross the great divide to glory safe at last
we'll share the joys of heaven
the crown
the tempter will be banished we'll lay our burden down
it will be worth it all when we see jesus
life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ
one glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will be raised
so bravely run the race till we see