Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan Oh, the grace that brought it down to man
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free
Burned in soul from liberty at Calvary
Now I've given to Jesus everything
Now I gladly own him as my king
Now my raptured soul can only sing of Calvary
Mercy there was great and grace was free
There might burn in soul found liberty at Calvary
Great singing, let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Lord God Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us another day that we can come to your house and hear the preaching of your word
Thank you for everyone that's here this morning. We ask that you bless our service Lord every aspect of it
Please bless the singing that will prepare our hearts for the message Lord and please give us all your spirit in the congregation
Give us ready years to hear the word that pastors
Prepare for us to hear Lord and fill him with your spirit as well as he preaches give him boldness
That we may leave her change in Jesus name. We pray
you may be seated please turn your song books to song number 129
song number 129
song number 129 rock of ages all together nice and strong on that first verse
my self in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wound inside which flow'd be of sin the
double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no
for sin could not atone. Thou must save and Thou alone, in my hand no price I bring.
Simply to Thy cross I cling, while I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close
on thy throne. Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee.
All right, welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Great scene, just a few announcements here
before we're seeing our next song,
which will be song number 105.
All that thrills my soul, song number 105.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand.
One of the ushers can get one for you.
Some important information on there.
Of course, we're welcoming you to come back
to our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m.
And then we do have a Thursday night Bible study
at seven o'clock.
We are currently going through the book of John.
and we will be in John chapter eight this coming Thursday.
So hope to see you then.
This is a family integrated church
and so infants and children stay with their parents.
Of course, if the children get a little fussy out of hand,
you can take them to the mother baby rooms
located throughout the building.
If you need to know the location of those rooms,
you can ask one of the ushers
and they can help you out with that.
There are speakers and screens available there.
So you can still tune into the preaching
and come back in at your discretion.
You see the soul winning times
and teams listed there in the middle,
the list of expecting mothers.
can keep them in prayer and then we have the stats for salvations and baptisms
for the month of July and so great month there we're looking to hit the 2000 mark
by the end of the year so keep that in prayer on the right hand side is the
upcoming church events we have the men's prayer night coming up on Friday
September 5th that's this Friday meeting at the building at 7 p.m.
dinner is provided. Our church anniversary is coming up on Sunday September 14th
and we're gonna have burgers on that day. We will have jumpers. Thanks for the
kids after the evening service, but the evening
service is gonna be pushed back a little bit and so it's gonna be a
services back-to-back like we did last year and we're gonna have all the fun
stuff after the evening service and so we hope to see you then.
Just to celebrate all that the Lord has done the TJ missions trip is coming up on Saturday, September 27th
Leaving the building at 9 15 a.m. I heard the team did a great job yesterday going out to Mexico
They got 10 salvations and so praise God for that homeschool field trip to Legoland is coming up on Tuesday, October 15th
details at the guest center of course the expenses are paid for if you have any
questions that are not on the information table you can talk to my
wife Sarah for more details about that and lastly please make sure you silence
your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service
and that is it for our announcements 105 all that thrills my soul
Song number 105, all that thrills my soul, all together nice and strong on that first verse.
Thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me.
And the fairest of ten thousand, In my blessing, Lord, I see.
Peace of God beyond a grief, Mercy higher than the heavens.
Even when the deep has saved.
All that thrills my soul is Jesus.
He is more than life to me.
of ten thousand, in my blessed Lord I see. What a wonderful redemption, never can a mortal
the snow. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me. And the fairest
of ten thousand. In my blessing, Lord, I see.
On his hand supplying, Every good in him I see,
On his strength divine relying, He is only God to me.
more than life to me, and the fairest of ten thousand, in my blessed Lord I see,
by the crystal-flowing river, with the ransom I will see.
and forever, praise and glorify the King.
All that thrills my soul is Jesus.
He is more than life to me.
Blessed Lord, I see.
Amen, wonderful singing.
At this time, the ushers will come forward
to receive the offering.
You can turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter number five,
Ephesians chapter five.
we're in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, the Bible reads,
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. But fornication in all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named
among ye, as becomeeth saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are
For this ye know, that no hormonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let a man deceive you with vain words,
for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in
the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,
for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatever doth make
manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord.
Giving thanks all way for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head
of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything.
Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
They might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word.
They might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So I am meant to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated to his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as
the Lord the Church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the
wife see that she reverence her husband.
Let's pray a deal, Lord God, thank you again for everything you've blessed us with.
Just ask that you be their pastor now.
Please fill in with your Holy Spirit as it preaches your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Ephesians chapter five this morning.
And the time of my sermon today is the sin of suicide, the sin of suicide.
Here in Ephesians chapter five and verse 29, the Bible says,
and cherish it that even as the Lord, the church,
obviously this is telling us here
that the natural bent for any human being
is not that they would harm themselves,
take their own life, do wrong to themselves.
This is obviously something that's not biblical.
It's not something that someone's naturally inclined to do.
Obviously they have to be convinced of this
because of their circumstances,
maybe because of situations that are happening in their life
can often move them and cause them
to commit the sin of suicide.
a biblical thing to do.
This is not something that God ever prescribes
as a solution to someone's problems.
And in fact, you don't have to turn in Ecclesiastes,
chapter seven, and verse number 16,
it says, be not righteous over much.
Neither make thyself over wise.
Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
You see, God doesn't want us to take matters
into our own hands when it comes to our life.
He doesn't want us to destroy ourselves.
And in fact, it says, be not over much wicked.
Neither be thou foolish.
Why shouldest thou die?
before thy time.
God is pleading with people saying,
you know, you shouldn't die before the time comes.
Obviously, we are all gonna die one day.
We have an appointment with death.
Obviously we don't know exactly when that is,
but we should not seek to accelerate
to meet that appointment, right?
We should not seek to have that appointment
and seek to cause ourselves to die for whatever reason.
Why?
Because we should nourish and cherish ourselves
because of the fact that God wants us to live.
He wants us to have a prosperous life.
He wants us to fulfill the will of God.
And you know, losing the will to live
is a common sin unfortunately that Christians can struggle with throughout various periods
in their life and unfortunately you know believers are not immune to this temptation
they're not immune to this feeling you know they can become susceptible to the temptation
to take their own lives and let me just say this is that suicide though it is a very grievous sin
A lot of people will say, suicide is an unpardonable sin because only God can take your life, but
quite frankly, that's not in the Bible.
The Bible doesn't teach that suicide is an unpardonable sin.
The Bible teaches that the unforgivable sin is actually blaspheming the Holy Ghost.
This is not a sermon on the blaspheming of the Holy Ghost, but suicide is simply self-murder.
Murder is definitely a sin, but it's a sin that is covered under the blood.
It is paid for by Jesus Christ.
statement to advocate for suicide it's like oh it's already paid for us to go
ahead and do it because you're not gonna suffer any consequences because of it
God's okay with it I'm just saying that suicide is murder and murder is covered
by the payment of Jesus Christ and so it's not an impartable sin there's
people in the Bibles we're gonna see this morning that committed the act of
suicide and still went to heaven
Now, this doesn't mean that there was no consequences
because of the fact that you think of someone like Saul,
we're still seeing the consequences today
because we use him in every sermon in a negative light
as someone who didn't want to face the music,
someone who lived, died a dishonorable death.
And of course, now he has that legacy for thousands of years.
And so, you know, obviously this is not a righteous thing to do.
This morning I want to give a couple of reasons why people commit suicide,
why people take their lives, and specifically Christians,
and what are some biblical principles that we can learn from it.
Now, turn with me, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 31.
1 Samuel 31.
Let me start off by saying that one of the reasons people commit suicide
is out of fear of shame
Now, people often think the main reason that people commit suicide today is because of depression.
It's because, you know, they lose the will to live, they're so sad, they have some sort
of mental illness, and obviously that is definitely the case in some instances, but the instances
of the Bible cover a variety of different reasons why people take their lives, one of
of their actions.
Now, you are in 1st Samuel.
I'm going to read to you from Judges chapter 9
in verse 52.
Verse 52, this story is about Abimelech
and Abimelech is the son of Gideon.
He's a very wicked leader.
He's an evil person.
He's carrying out warfare against different people.
And in this particular battle,
he ends up coming against a particular city
and he ends up losing to the point where,
you know, he's ashamed because a woman
is about to take his life.
And it says here in verse 52,
Abimelech came unto the tower and fought against it
and went hard into the door of the tower
to burn it with fire.
And a certain woman cast a piece of millstone
upon Abimelech's head and all to break his skull.
So he's nearing the tower and there's a woman
and she's got a stone and she's just like,
I'll take care and she just drops it on his head,
breaks his skull.
Obviously he's gonna die because of this.
And so he's laying there, he's mortally wounded, he knows he's about to die and says then he called hastily into the young man, his armor bearer, and sent him, draw thy sword and slay me, that men say not of me, a woman slew him, and his young man thrust him through and he died.
So he's laying there, he's just like, hey, I need you to do me a really big favor.
I need you to kill me, because the last thing I want is for some preacher thousands of years later to stand up behind a pulpit at First Works Baptist Church,
then talk about the fact that a woman killed him by dropping a millstone upon his head.
Oh wait, it's happening.
You know, so obviously, you know, his armor-bearer killing him was in vain,
because we know the true story, the fact that a woman did kill a bimilek.
The point that I'm making here is that although he didn't commit suicide,
he did what people would refer today as assisted suicide.
Right where you have people who lose the will to live. Maybe they have a disease
They don't want to live anymore. And so, you know places like Canada for example, you know
Allow this thing called assisted suicide where you could request to die and someone else can take your life for you
This is wicked. It's evil in the sight of God. It's murder
And so, you know, this is exactly what a bimlich is doing here. And why is he doing it because of shame?
He doesn't want people to think ill of him or think him to be a weak person because a woman was the one who took his life.
Therefore, he requested himself to die.
Another story is found in Second Sammy.
You don't have to turn there with a Hithafel who's giving counsel.
His counsel is rejected.
He's so insulted and, you know,
disheartened by the fact that the king did not take his advice and his counsel.
So what he does is he goes, he sets his house in order and he hangs himself.
Why? Because of shame, because of the consequence that may ensue because of the
counsel that he gave.
Probably one of the most famous stories regarding suicide because of shame and
the consequence is Judas Iscariot.
Now Judas was not a Christian.
He was not saved.
He did not believe on the Lord, but the Bible says that when he realized that he betrayed innocent blood
He repented himself brought back the silver and what happened is that they you know the cast of silver in the temple
He went and he hanged himself. Why?
Because he knew that he was condemned
He knew that he had done wrong and so he ended up taking his own life
Now I would say the most famous story in this regard is with Saul right look at 1st Samuel chapter 31
And verse number one, let me just give you a little background regarding Saul here.
Of course we know Saul is the first king of Israel and he starts off good.
He's a great king, he's little in his own sight, but progressively he becomes worse
because of pride, arrogance, rebellion against the word of God.
He chooses not to repent and of course the Lord ends up essentially replacing him with
He was going to replace him with someone who is better than him and Saul just departed from the
Lord. He's backslidden. He's committing heinous crimes. He's not obeying the prophet. He's not
obeying God. I mean, he is just getting worse and worse in his personal life to the point
where he ends up going to a witch at Endor to try to figure out what's his next step.
I mean, talk about backslidden. That would be like someone in our church becoming so backslidden.
They no longer go to church, they no longer read the Bible,
they no longer go soul-winning,
but yet they wanna figure out what should they do
in their life and because they don't go to God,
what do they do?
They go to some palm reader or something, you know?
They go to some witch, some palm reader,
they go to someone who can read them the stars
in their hand and try to foretell the future for them.
This is obviously an evil thing to do.
And it was essentially the last straw that broke the camel's back for Saul, okay, because once he did that, God basically told him, you're done, okay, and God essentially, through the prophet Samuel, who was in heaven foretold that he was going to die in battle, okay, and you know, this is the famous story that essentially shows that, you know, Samuel tells Saul, tomorrow, thou and thy son shall be with me.
And, by the way, although Saul was a wicked person and he's been used as a byword and
a proverb for thousands of years of what not to do, he's also been used in a great
way to prove eternal security as well though, right?
Because this is a perfect example of someone who is extremely backslidden, died in their
sin yet went to heaven.
How do we know he went to heaven?
Because Samuel told him,
tomorrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.
Well, Samuel's in heaven, Samuel was saved,
so it's proof that Saul was saved as well.
And this is showing us that, you know,
no matter how bad your life can get,
no matter how many sins a person can commit,
if they're saved, they are going to heaven.
This doesn't mean they're not gonna suffer the consequences.
And in fact, Saul's sons and his legacy,
they're after suffered many consequences
because of his actions, right?
And so we see that.
Look at verse number 1 of 1 Samuel 31.
It says,
And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melkashua, Saul's sons.
So we see that Saul's backslidden state brought death upon his sons.
They died dishonorable deaths in war.
Verse 3 says, and the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hid him and he was sore wounded of the archers.
Now this was God's will.
God allowed the Philistines to come and take Saul's life.
That's what God wanted to happen.
He wanted to destroy Saul.
He wanted to bring him home early
because of his rebellion, because of his sin.
So this is why he's allowing the archers to hit him with arrows.
This is a mortal wound that he receives.
Then Saul said into his armor-bearer,
Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith,
lest his uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me.
So what's going on here is that he knows he's about to die,
but just like Abimelech, he has so much shame and he's just like,
Hey, I need you to kill me because if you don't,
these Philistines are going to come and they're going to mutilate my body.
They might even decapitate him.
They might even pin his body up against the wall.
Oh, wait, that did happen anyways, right?
His greatest fear came upon him.
So he's just like, oh, I need you to kill me
because if the Philistines find me,
they're gonna do worse, they're gonna abuse me,
and that ended up happening anyways.
But his armor-bearer would not, for he was so afraid.
Therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it.
So, we see here that Saul, because he didn't want to face the music.
He didn't want to face the consequences of his actions.
He didn't want to face the judgment of God.
He chose to take matters into his own hands, fall upon his own sword and take his own life.
This is an evil sin, according to the Bible.
And in fact, he's not the only one.
Look at verse 5.
And when his armor bearer Saul, that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his own sword
and died with him.
So, this armor bearer also did not want to face the music.
He knew that he was about to die.
The Philistines are taken over and what does he do?
He becomes a coward and he takes his own life and obviously this is sinful in the eyes of
God.
What do we see with Saul?
We see that Saul took his life because of the fact that he didn't want to face the consequences
of his actions.
He knew God's hand was against him.
He knew God was going to punish him.
disobeyed the Lord, dishonored God,
rebelled against the word of the Lord.
And he knew judgment was coming hard upon him.
And so what did he do?
He took matters into his own hands
and he took his own life.
The Bible says in Proverbs 16 verse 18,
pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Why do people commit suicide?
I'll tell you why.
People are unwilling.
to face the music and the consequences of their actions,
and this often leads to suicide.
And look, folks, let me just tell you right now,
you might make some bad decisions in your life.
You might make some bad financial decisions in your life.
You might make decisions in your personal life
that not only affect you, they affect your family,
they affect those around you,
but that's still not a good enough reason
to take your own life.
Face the consequences of your actions.
Be someone who faces the music.
and not take the coward's way out and take your own life
and leave, you know, whatever dead,
whatever problems in the hands of your loved ones,
you face the music, you face that situation head on.
It's not a biblical action to take your life
in order to avoid consequences,
in order to avoid shame, in order to avoid judgment.
Allow God to carry out the judgment in your life.
Go to 2nd Samuel chapter 24.
2nd Samuel chapter 24.
Let me say this, I personally believe that repentance and humility is often the key to
make matters better.
You'd be surprised what a little repentance and a little humility can do in your life
when it comes to your relationship with the Lord.
Who knows if Saul would have just repented, gotten right with God and said, Lord, I wronged
you, I've sinned against you, I've rebelled, and you know, I'm sorry for what I've done.
He's done that multiple times throughout the Bible where some of the most evil wicked people that did some of the most heinous of crimes
Were forgiven were given grace were given mercy because God is a merciful God
He can often turn a situation completely around and you know when someone is involved in a particular situation
Where it seems like things are not getting better
They're often blinded by what's directly in front of them
You know, they see the outcome that's, you know, a year, two years ahead, five years
ahead, and they think to themselves, oh, there's no hope, you know, things can't get better.
But they're not really looking at the grand scheme of things.
They can't see everything from a bird's eye view like God does.
And we have to have faith that, you know, yeah, we screwed up, we messed up, we made
a really bad decision.
I'm probably going to pay for this in the coming years, but at the end of the day, it's
better for me to be judged of God than to me judge myself and kill myself and, you know,
take the easy way out.
Look at 2 Samuel chapter 24, let's give an example of this in verse number 10.
This is the story of where King David numbers the people sins against God by
doing so and it says in verse 10, and David's heart
smote him after he had numbered the people. What does it mean that it smote him?
He felt bad about this. He was convicted. He felt
grief over the fact that he rebelled against the Lord.
It says, And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly, and that I have done, and
now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly."
And he was right.
But obviously David knows the Lord, and he's just like, please forgive me.
I've wronged you.
I've disobeyed you.
Verse 11 says, For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the
prophet, Gad, David seer, saying, Go and say unto David, doth sayeth the Lord.
I offer thee three things.
Choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee.
So God comes through the prophet to David
and he's basically kind of giving him
these options of judgment.
Because you know, David messed up.
And he says, all right, you've repented, you're forgiven.
Here's your three options though.
You can pick one.
And you know, thank God that he allowed him to pick.
We don't necessarily have that luxury now, do we?
We can't be like, mm.
You know door number three, you know
He's allowing them to choose verse 13 says so Gad came to David and told him and said unto him
Shall seven years of famine come unto thee and thy land or without flee three months before then enemies while they pursue thee
Or that there be three days pestilence in the land now advise and see what answer I shall return to him
That sent me and you're like wait, there's no good option there. Yeah, that's how it is
And this is not the sermon this morning,
but let me just say this,
sometimes when you sin and I sin,
there are no good options.
Sometimes we gotta stop looking for good options
because sometimes there are no good options
when you sin against the Lord.
It's like, oh, I don't like what's being presented to me.
Can we have something better?
How about like, you know, good happens to me?
No, because sin doesn't produce good.
What fruit have you then,
and those things wherever you are now,
ashamed the Bible says.
For the wages of sin is death.
And sometimes people, Christians, will commit sin,
they'll disobey the Lord, and then they get upset
when God offers them three options and they're all bad.
Well, you didn't give God much wiggle room
to work with here, okay?
You know who has good options?
Those who obey the Lord.
You know who has good options?
Those who serve God.
You know who have really good, beneficial options
are those who are reading the Bible,
who stay faithful to God, who keep sin out of their lives.
They're the ones who get the good options.
So don't get upset at God when you've sinned against the Lord,
you've rebelled against Him,
and all of a sudden it's just like,
oh, I just don't like these options.
Well, you should have thought about that though
before you committed the sin.
And I'm not even saying that David's complaining
because he's not.
He recognizes that he sent against God and let me say this when you're faced with three bad options
And they're all bad. Just just accept it. Just say you know what I've got myself into this situation
Right. Thank God. I even have any options
Now I'm typically not of the persuasion that we should choose the lesser of two evils, but in this situation. It's acceptable
Because David's just like, mm, you know famine my enemy's chasing me or you know have a badden
Come and just destroy a bunch of people through pestilence
And I like you know gads like oh, you know, I'll just think about it because I need a given answer
So if you could just you know, let me know anytime soon. See you later
Verse 14 and David said into Gad. I'm in a great straight
He's like this is a hard choice
But he has so much wisdom and prudence. He knows the Lord so well that he says this
Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man
So he looks at the three options and he says they're all bad people are gonna die
But you know what? I'm gonna choose to fall into the hand of God meaning the pestilence because God is actually merciful
And when I come under the judgment of God, I can cry out to the Lord, I can beg for mercy, and God is gracious and He'll provide mercy.
Whereas if I fall into the hands of my enemies, I don't know if they're going to be gracious to me.
They may not show me any mercy.
So it's just like the lesser of all the evils is for Him to fall into the hands of the living God, though a terrible thing.
Right to fall into the hand of the living God, but it's still a better option than the merciless
Enemies of David who may abuse him do wrong to him destroy his life destroy his family
He's like let me just fall into the hand of God
Verse 15 says so the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed and there died of the people from
Danny into Prasheba
70,000 men now you say well, that's not a happy ending. Well, that's the ending that you get when you sin against the Lord though
You can't really expect a happy ending when you make bad decisions, but may I say this even though he did not receive the
Ideal ending for his actions. He still faced the music
He faced the consequences of his actions
Never was there a thought in David's mind. Oh, I'm just gonna take the easy way out and just go the way of Saul
My the guy who came before me and take my life. No, he's like God is merciful
God is gracious we're gonna this is gonna hurt no matter what
But I might as well just pull off the band-aid down fall into the hand of God because I know he's merciful
I know he's gracious. He was willing to face the consequences of his actions
You know what we need to start raising up a generation a society that doesn't run away from their problems
And runs to alcohol runs to marijuana runs to vice runs to suicide
Let's just face the consequences of our actions because here's the difference between us and the world. We have God
You know because we have God when we face the consequences of our actions we get mercy
We receive grace
We can walk with God. We have the Bible. We have church. We have so much that God has offered to us to help us through
The the the process of sanctification the process of judgment and here's the thing
You know you can face the consequences that may
You know may cause you to suffer for five years and God could cut it down to three
You just never know
Right, you might have a consequence that you have to face for ten years
But because of the grace of God he cuts it down to five
That's a better option
Then take in your life committing suicide and not being willing to just face the music and providing a horrible example for those who come after you.
And look folks, the Bible still rings true when it says that all things, listen to me, work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
That's one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
You know why? Because we always make stupid decisions.
We're going to have make bad choices, make bad decisions, financial decisions, health decisions.
We're going to just do wrong because of the fact that we're sinners and we're not perfect.
We are going to mess up, but thank God that the promise exists that even though we make bad mistakes,
even though we make bad choices at the end of the day, if we love the Lord.
That's the condition, by the way.
If we love the Lord, all things will work together for good.
Meaning that God can take the ingredients that you provide it through your bad decisions and work out something great with that
In the future. Okay. You're like, I just don't see it though. I don't see my situation
Getting better. Well, that's because you're not God
That's why you don't see the situation getting better
because our sight is very, you know, we are,
what is it, far sighted?
If you can't see close?
Near sighted, if you can't see far away, right?
Is that correct?
Those of you who are blind in our church,
can you help me out here?
They're like, who's speaking up there?
You know?
We are near sighted spiritually.
We can't really see ahead,
especially when we're going through a trial.
And that's one faith that's required in Romans 828.
to say, you know what, I have no idea how God's going to work this out together for good,
but he promised that, and so I need to believe that.
And I need to fall into the hands of the living God and not take matters into my own hands
because of the fact that I fear shame. I fear the consequences of my actions.
I don't want, I fear the consequences of my debt. I fear the shame of X, Y, and Z. Therefore,
I'm taking the easy way out and just going home early. Folks, God still has a plan for your life.
He still has a plan laid out for you for you to win souls to Christ,
to invest in people, to make an impact in this world.
You may not be able to see it now,
because you don't know what's going to happen 10 years from now,
but things do work together for good.
We need to face the music.
And you know what? Even if it's to our heart.
Even if it hurts immediately we need to be able to just face the consequences of our actions and not run away from our problems
And look, thank God that you live in or you're part of a church where you don't really have to go through things alone
You have your brothers and sisters in Christ that can exhort you that can encourage you
They can give you options and help you through this. You have a pastor that loves you never take quote-unquote the easy way out
By taking your own life, you know, we need to learn how to endure afflictions
And look folks, you know as bad as your life may get this side of eternity your worst day
Your worst day this side of eternity is some unsaved person's best day
Think about that
The worst possible thing that can ever happen to you is like the best possible thing that an unsafe person can get
Because after death guess what they go to hell because they're not saved
Right, but hey if you are going through a tough time you're experiencing major severe consequences of your actions
You know what? It's okay because you still have eternity to look forward to and quite frankly it doesn't last forever anyways
Okay, go to judges chapter 16 judges chapter 16 if you would
Why do people commit suicide? I'll tell you why some people think oh, it's just depression. Oh, it's just you know
Mental illness no sometimes they do it just because they don't want to face the consequences of their actions
They don't want to face the music like Saul they don't want to face the music like a bimilek
We need to be like David repent and just accept whatever punishment comes our way
You know and just say you know what I'm gonna put myself in God's hands
I know he's merciful and you know
I know he'll carry me through and all things will work together for good and be hopeful encourage yourself in the Lord oh
Yeah, but what if I'm just like in you know thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt
What if I just I'm in so much debt like I just feel like I can't live a normal life pay off the debt as much as you can
And who knows
Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou know it's not what a day may bring forth
You just never know God can literally turn a situation around in a day
You know and you know what I rather die
living a full-life obeying God
Then die early disobeying God because of my actions because I'm afraid to face the music. It's not worth it
What's another reason people commit suicide?
I'll tell you another reason.
Number two is that it kind of goes along with the first point,
but hopelessness.
Just not believing that things will get better.
You know there's people in this world that you've you've people that have been through really hard situations
Maybe they lost the loved one
Maybe they feel like their life is just not gonna get any better. There's it won't improve. It's not gonna improve
It's not gonna get better. I'm still sad. I'm still depressed
I'm still angry, and I just don't foresee my life improving drastically hereafter
It's hopelessness, but may I say this is that things can get better
Things can and will get better because the best is always yet to come and you know what?
I can't make you believe that you have to believe that because you have to have faith in that
We have to have faith in the Bible that that's what's gonna happen
And at the end of the day folks
Let's just let's just can I be just really realistic here if you're saved things always get better because we have heaven to look
For to and quite frankly when we are like 600 years into the millennial reign you wouldn't even remember any of this
Like 600 years in you're just gonna be like, what was I crying about?
What was I whining about?
You know Saul's gonna be like, oh man
That was such a bad decision
You know 900 years in a thousand years in not even counting the new heaven and the new earth
You know, you're not gonna remember any of this so it's better to just endure but just recognize this
You know the best is yet to come
Have hope recognize your situation is not unique
Other people had suffered the same things that you have suffered through
Have faced the same consequences that you're facing and have pushed through
And you may think to yourself oh man, I just don't think that God could ever use me again
I just don't think that you know I can have another opportunity to be successful as a Christian
Let me just say this that God is the God of second chances
Okay, and here's a perfect example of this. Okay, Samson is another guy who committed suicide
And Samson, we would say was the strongest man in the Bible,
right?
Physically strong, not because he was jacked,
not because he hit the gym,
not because he did squats and benched 315,
squat, 400, deadlifted 500.
In my opinion, Samson probably looked like a twig.
He was probably really thin.
He probably visibly did not look strong.
You say, well, I thought he looked like
Dwayne Johnson or something.
You know he wasn't he like super huge and Jack. That's why he was able to do those things. No, the power came from the spirit
That's why it was so miraculous
All right, if you saw some Jack dude looking like the Hulk doing all those things it wouldn't be that surprising
Like yeah, that makes perfect sense, but if you see some small skinny
dude with no calves
No muscle the guy looks, you know, just
Mounted a wrist or something. I'm not saying that's how Samson was but he probably visibly was not impressive
Right, but when you see him doing these incredible feats of strength
Then you know that the Spirit of God is upon some it's a supernatural miraculous event that's happening there
Right, and we know that he was the strongest man that ever lived because because of the fact that the Spirit of God would come upon
Him and he was a judge of Israel and that's what God wanted him to be he wanted to be a to testify of
Being strong in the Spirit right being strong in the Lord and the power of his might
But of course this ended up going to his head. He ended up committing fornication
disobeying the Lord
He ended up violating his Nazarite vow and so he backslid, he backslid hard.
And you know he ended up getting this girlfriend named Delilah and you know Delilah did not
have his best interest in mind.
And you know some people say you know you need men beware of lust, beware of fornication.
Beware of adultery. Why? Because, you know, David was the godliest man of the Bible,
Samson was the strongest man of the Bible, Solomon was the wisest man of the Bible, and they all fell to it.
Samson, of course, being one of them.
So Samson's here, he's hanging out with his girlfriend
and his girlfriend is trying to figure out
what's the source of his strength.
And this guy's so blinded by his lust,
he's just like, you know, he's lying to her, obviously,
and then she tries to capture him using the Philistines,
it doesn't work, and this happens a couple of times.
And I'm just thinking to myself, this guy's a simp.
Because you would think after the first time,
we'd be like, oh, she tried to kill me.
Like, hey, this is, we're done, you know?
Like, I'll see myself out.
But he like remains with her, he's still hanging out with her,
but this kind of shows you that not love is blind,
lust is blind.
It can blind someone from just being,
just having common sense, logic, right?
Look at verse 28,
Samson called into the Lord and said,
oh, Lord, oh, actually, I'm sorry, before we read this.
He finally tells her that the strength of his power,
the source of his power is in his hair.
So he's like, if anybody shaves me,
shaves my hair, then my strength will go for me.
So, you know, she ends up doing it,
which I have no idea how he didn't wake up,
when that happens.
She removes the locks of his hair,
she smites him and says, hey, up,
they're coming to get you.
You know, he gets up, he thinks he's gonna go out
as other times, they end up capturing him,
they pluck out his eyes, they make him grind meal
like an ox, he's defeated, right?
And so, the Philistines are making sport of him in their particular vicinity there, and he realizes, like, man, I've sinned against God, I made bad decisions.
And so, look at verse 28, Samson called unto the Lord and said, Oh Lord, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was born up of the one with his right hand and of the other with his left hand.
And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines and he bowed himself with all his might and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein so the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
Now let me explain something here that probably a lot of you may not agree with me on.
I do believe that God enabled Samson to have once again this supernatural strength that
was taken from him when his locks were removed.
I do not believe that God strengthened him in order for him to take his life though.
Because of the fact that what he's requesting is that he'd be strengthened according to
verse 28 that he would be avenged of the Philistines' first two eyes.
in order to maybe break free, right?
Break free and slay all the Philistines
like his job was supposed to.
But instead, what does he do?
He ends up removing the pillars
in order for the house to fall upon
the Philistines and himself.
I don't believe that God wanted Samson to die.
And you say, why is that?
Well, number one, the point that I'm making here
is the fact that I believe God
was giving Samson a second chance.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, go back to verse 19, if you would.
Look what it says in verse 19, it says,
and she made him sleep upon her knees,
and she called for a man,
and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head,
and she began to afflict him,
and his strength went from him.
And she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Simpson,
and he awoke out of his sleep,
and said, I will go out as other times and shake myself,
and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.
But the Philistines took him and put out his eyes,
and brought him down to Gaza,
and bound him with fetters of brass,
and he did grind in the prison house.
Here's the key verse, verse 22,
the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
I believe that that verse is placed there on purpose
because we know that his hair is the source of his strength.
And I believe the narrator is trying to tell us here
that even though he made a bad decision,
even though they removed his locks, it's okay.
God has got a second chance as his hair began to grow again.
Now, obviously, they're probably weren't going to grow to the extent that he had it before.
Maybe he wouldn't have the same strength as he had before,
but at least there's a second chance to make things right.
So God strengthened Samson, I don't believe he strengthened him so he can take his own life
He probably strengthened them to give him a second chance to you know correct his ways
Destroy the Philistines and be a good judge thereafter, but he chose to take his own life
Why because his eyes were plucked out. He felt like oh, this is it
I can't live you know being in shame and there's no hope or whatever he was thinking and he ended up taking his own life because of it
Folks God is always a God of second chances
Did you did you mess up? It's okay. Your hair will begin to grow again, and I'm not you know
I'm not looking at any bald person right now, okay?
I'm not speaking literally, you know your hair will grow again in the millennial rain
And so it will you will have a second chance at that
But spiritually speaking
Your hair can grow back again right meaning that God can use you again. Don't ever think it's too late
Oh, it's just too late.
Now, obviously, God ended up using what Samson did
because he's such an awesome God, and he's so perfect,
he ended up using his death
to symbolize the death of Jesus Christ.
Because you have Samson with his arms spread out,
more people were saved after the death of Jesus Christ
than during his ministry.
Just like he was able to destroy,
that Samson was able to destroy more people with his death.
And so, you know, obviously God used him in a great way thereafter to symbolize Jesus Christ, but at the end of the day
He cut his life short
Why because he thought this is just it, you know, I can't improve after this. I don't have my eyes
How can I see, you know, I've dishonored my parents. I've done wrong. I'm ashamed the Lila, you know tricked me or whatever
But folks God is a god of second chances and we need to recognize that did you mess up? It's okay repent ask for forgiveness
Get it right with the Lord and keep serving God thereafter.
Will you be reinstated to your former position
of what you had before?
Maybe not, but maybe you will.
Who can tell?
Just keep serving God.
You know, and sometimes, you know, Christians,
they worry about things that, like,
oh, man, I'm just not going to continue to go to church.
I'm not going to continue, because, you know,
I just can't see myself.
Doing that or whatever because that just you know because of what just happened to me right now
You can't boast yourself of tomorrow. And in fact the Bible says take therefore no thought for tomorrow
For the moral shall take thought for the things of itself
Sufficient into the day as the evil thereof
We can't tell the future my friends
You can't tell if things are gonna get better or things are gonna get worse
But we know for sure that things are gonna get better maybe not immediately
But they will improve because God is a God of second chances
Okay, and one thing I've noticed is that people make a lot of bad decisions when they're emotional
Then they make a lot of immediately immediately bad decisions when they're emotional. I was like, oh man
This thing happened to me. I need to move
Why don't you sit on it for a while?
Why don't you like go eat a double double?
and then go take a nap.
Why don't you go just wait it out for a little bit
and think about it, go get some counsel.
You don't need to make a decision right now
because of the bad decision you made.
And let me just say this,
typically when people do that,
they sit it out for a couple of weeks,
they come back and they realize,
actually that was a bad decision that I was gonna make.
I'm glad I didn't make it.
Never make a decision when your decision maker is broken.
God is a God of second chances.
Just because you're ruined,
Some previous opportunity doesn't mean future opportunities are done for okay
You know the Bible tells us in Isaiah let the wicked forsake his way listen to this and the unrighteous man of thoughts
And let him return him to the Lord and
He will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will listen to this
abundantly pardon
You know rest assured that no matter how bad you messed up if you're not dead. That's your second chance
How do I know that God's gonna give me a second chance? Are you breathing? Oh, yeah. Are you alive?
Yeah, can you still make it to church? Yeah, you have a Bible. Can you read? Yeah. Oh, I mean you got Samson beat already
Because Samson even if he came back was can't read the word of God anymore. His eyes are plucked out. You still have your eyes
You still have your eyes. You have your legs. You can still preach the gospel. You can still serve God
There's your sign that it's a second chance to do right again
I mean, think about Jonah, right?
Jonah was swallowed by a well, he was thrown up,
and what does the Bible say?
That the word of the Lord came the second time
to the prophet Jonah.
What does that mean?
I'm giving you another chance, Jonah.
God has imperfect people to work with,
and we need to take advantage of that
because we're all imperfect.
We're all gonna blow it at one time or another,
and we need a second chance.
God is a God of second chances.
Go to 2nd Chronicles 33, if you would.
2nd Chronicles 33.
Second Chronicles chapter 33.
Hey, what's one of the biggest examples,
greatest examples of someone getting a second chance?
How about Peter?
I mean, talk about, I mean, denying the Lord,
not just once, not just twice, but three times?
How embarrassing is that?
After you said you'd go, you'd be willing to die
for him and with him?
Talking all that smack.
Say, no, man, you know, though I die, I will not deny thee
and just kind of building himself up.
And what does he do?
He denies the Lord.
He goes fishing.
But what does the Lord do?
He comes back to him and says,
love has stopped me more than these.
Yeah, Lord, God knows that I love thee.
Feed my sheep.
What is he doing?
Give him a second chance.
Giving him a second chance.
Now, let me give you just an extreme.
example of this okay, and this isn't necessarily someone who's getting a second chance
They're just getting a chance period. This is Manassee
And I don't have time to really develop who Manassee is just just take my word for it or just read the entire chapter
He's just an extremely wicked person. I mean he's a murderer
Bro is just like super wicked. Okay, like you read a story. It's just like oh this guy for sure is not gonna get saved
This guy is just super wicked. God's gonna destroy this person. He's just so evil
Well, look at verse 12 and when he was in affliction referring to Manassee
He besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed unto him
And he wasn't treated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God even someone like Manasseh got got mercy
And look none of the Manasseh get a second chance. He was allowed to be to have the kingdom again. I
Mean, who's another guy like that? Nebuchadnezzar
Seven years being chastised giving the heart of a beast and then he was restored back to his kingdom again
That's the second chance he got folks if never can Ezra can get a second chance you can too
Okay, if Nebuchadnezzar and Manasseh, but let me just clarify something though. It requires humility
It requires repentance. It's not like he just given him a second chance because it makes for a good story
It's because they humbled themselves
It's because they let go of their pride, they're repented, they want it to be righteous,
and so God allowed them to be restored into their kingdom, he gave them that second chance.
Folks, people need to realize that just because a situation went awry, you messed up,
oh, what's the point of even serving God? There's many points to serving God.
There's many benefits. Even if you don't receive the full benefits of what you previously would have had,
It's still worth it!
Suicide is not.
Not the answer.
Let me read to you from Lamentations 3 verse 22.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassion's fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness.
I love this verse.
You know why?
Because it's literally saying like you get to start what they
clean slate of God's mercies every single day.
So you suffer the consequences of your actions today. God punished you today. Tomorrow. It's just like a new clean slate
There's some new mercies for you to experience tomorrow
And that's important because a lot of people carry their failures with them throughout the week
Every week every month and they think like God is constantly holding a grudge or something like that
He's constantly remembering what you did. He's constantly just hanging that over your head
No, because if you repent you get right with God tomorrow is a new day and he acts like he just forgets it
His mercies are new every single day
Very important go to Job chapter 3 if you would Job chapter 3
Let me read to you from Micah chapter 7 verse 18.
Listen to this as you're turning to Job chapter 3.
He says,
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity,
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again.
He will have compassion upon us.
He will subdue our iniquities,
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,
What is he saying?
I'll give you a second chance.
If you humble yourself, I'll give you mercy.
If you let go of your pride, if you confess your sin,
if you seek righteousness, you seek the righteous one,
you seek to do right, God will abundantly pardon.
Folks, take advantage of that.
Not in a bad way, in a good way.
But folks, I'm just telling you right now,
too many Christians, people out there is just like,
oh, you know, it's over with.
No, it's not.
It's not over. It's not over till it's over.
It's not over till you're buried six feet deep and you're in the presence of God
and not through your own means.
Okay?
And so, why do people commit suicide?
They don't want to face the music.
They don't want to face the consequences of their action.
Whereas Christian Virtue teaches us,
Face the music.
Take responsibility.
You know, if you made a vow, make a vow to your heart.
You've made an oath, making an oath to your hurt,
even if it hurts, you follow through,
because it's the right thing to do.
But not only that, things will get better.
God is the God of second chances.
And may I say sometimes even third and fourth
and fifth chances, that's just how God operates.
But what's another reason why people commit suicide?
Why do people take matters into their own hands
and take their life?
I'll tell you why, because of deep, profound grief.
Okay, and this is probably one of the biggest reasons why the other reasons are because of not one to face the consequences of their actions
But this particular reason is because people are just like so deeply hurt
They have so much depression
right
They lose the will to live
Okay, and let me just say this all of us myself included
Have and will continue to experience deep levels of depression throughout our life
Okay, and and you know I say that to say you know you don't have to go get medicated when that happens
Depression is kind of like a part of life a little bit. I'm not saying you have to live depressed
Okay, and if you're just like I'm just depressed all the time like I'm just constantly sad well
You know, maybe you need some exercise
Maybe you need to get outdoors more
Soak in some vitamin D
Am I
Sorry, I had a nosebleed earlier and I'm just paranoid that I'm about to get another nosebleed
right now.
You know, get some vitamin D, get some red meat into you, go get some exercise, get outside,
go walk, go fellowship with people, you know, to raise your serotonin levels, you need to
get that.
Maybe that's what it is if you're constantly depressed, okay?
Go get some fresh air.
But you know sometimes there's an event that takes place in your life that causes deep
Profound grief to the point where you literally just lose the will to live and this happens to everybody at one time or another
It happened to me. It's happened to my wife. It's happened to many people
You know, I can I can point to various times in my life where it's just like I just you know
I'm kind of just tired of living and I do think that's a little different from like carrying out suicide
I'm not saying that was suicidal. I'm just like, you know, I'm just like I don't want to live
Like I'm just kind of tired of doing what I'm doing
You know, I'm tired of feeling this way.
I'm tired of just the grief in my heart.
It doesn't seem like it's gonna get better.
I'm sad.
I'm depressed because of a particular event.
And it's just like, things just don't,
life doesn't seem worth living, right?
There's like a worthlessness in it.
And you know what?
No Bible verse can carry me out of that.
No person can come to me and say,
hey, it's gonna be okay.
You know, it's just a season
where you experience something like that, okay?
You have this deep profound grief and it happens for various reasons sometimes because it's a loss of a family member
loss of a child loss of a spouse, right?
You know it could be for various reasons and people just have such
Deep profound depression that they don't want to do anything. They don't want to go to church
They don't want to win souls to Christ. They don't want to read the Bible
They just kind of want to lay in bed and just like they just wish themselves to die
That is, I hate to say it, but that is a normal feeling
that Christians will experience throughout their life.
And I would even say this, there's probably someone
in our church right now listening to this
and they're in that situation right now.
You know, you're not weird for feeling that way.
There's nothing wrong with you.
Folks, we have these emotions for a reason.
We just have to be able to manage them when they come to us.
And we need to get rid of these alternative solutions like medication.
And by the way, if you're a medicated, I'm not telling you to get off of medication,
but the goal should be that you'd wean yourself off of that, in my opinion, okay?
You know, some go to medication, some go to vice, some go to suicide.
But none of those are the appropriate solutions to your depression, okay?
Let me point to a person in the Bible who felt this way.
And I think all of us can collectively agree
that the guy we're about to read about right now,
bro suffered a lot of loss.
Now some of us have suffered loss over a lifespan, right?
Over many years.
Job suffered this in one day.
Financial loss, the loss of his children,
the respect of his wife, the support of his wife,
and his health.
You're like, wow, that's bad.
Okay, but to make matters worse though,
It's not because he was wicked I
Mean it literally says that he was a perfect and upright man, so put yourself in his sandals
You're serving God
You love the Lord you're obeying the word of God
God even says of you that you're perfect and upright, and then you just get punished severely
With these grievous events in your life where the most important things in your life are just completely stripped away
You're your status in societies completely stripped away. I mean this guy
Faced it, right?
Look at verse 1 of Job chapter 3
After this opened Job his mouth and cursed his day and Job's vacant said let the day perish wherein I was born and
The night in which it was said there is a man child conceived. What is the same man like?
May my birthday not even be a holiday may just be a cursed day
Because I was born on that day
The worst possible day of my life is what he's saying.
The worst possible day is when I was born.
Now that's some deep depression right there.
Let the day perish when I was born in the night in which it was said there was a man shall conceive. Let that day be darkness
Let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it
Let darkness in the shadow of death stain it let a cloud dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day
Terrify it ask for that night. Let darkness seize upon it. Let it not be joined into the days of the year
Let it not come into the number of the month. He said make it a leap year a leap
You know one of those days is like just
I mean, no one even regarded, may have the worst weather.
Both night and day, this day is cursed,
the day that I was born.
He's like, I wish I just never lived.
And you know what, why is he feeling this way?
Cause he lost everything.
He has deep grief.
And sometimes people commit suicide because of this reason.
But they also commit suicide to alleviate that pain.
And it's not right to do.
But it's a normal emotion to have though,
because look at verse 11.
Why died I not from the womb?
Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Why did the knees prevent me and why the breasts that I should suck for now?
Should I have slain still and been quiet?
I should have slept then had I been at rest with kings and councils of the earth
Which build desolate places for themselves or with the princes or with princes that have gold who filled their houses with silver
He's saying I should have died because at least I would have rest
At least I could just chill out now
You know a lot of times people commit suicide because they just want to alleviate the grief and the pain that they have
It's still not a right reason though, and let me just say this and I'm trying to say this as sensitive as possible
You know you can't just run away from pain all the time
You can't just run away from pain and run away from sorrow and and drug yourself up and and and you know
Try to escape all the the the tribulation and trials and the emotions that you have you can't run away from it
You got to face it head-on and
Quite frankly, you know you feel that way because God wants to make you better through it
He does and look the Bible says that Jesus is acquainted with grief
He's tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin
So as alone as you feel in your situation, let me just tell you this the Lord knows exactly how you feel
Like maybe I may not know exactly how you feel. I don't know the anguish of your heart, but you know the Lord does
He's acquainted with that grief
I'll go to Job chapter 14
So in all this Job, he felt he's just like I wish I could just die
wish I was never born and I don't understand that why when I was born I
just died then you know I should have just not existed but why is it that when
I did exist why then I just died like everyone else why didn't I just why
wasn't I just like a still birth is what he's saying I mean this is a pretty
crazy words that he's saying because at least I wouldn't rest it at that point
instead of having boils and my kids died and my finances are gone no one
respects me my wife left me I mean he's feeling like trash
But you know what? Let me say this, in all this Job sin not, nor charged God foolishly.
What does it mean? He didn't do two things. One, he didn't blame God for this.
He didn't say this is your fault. I've been serving God. I've done right. Why did you do this to me?
He didn't charge God for those things. Number one, and he didn't sin.
Meaning he didn't participate in things that he knew was wrong to do because he wanted to do it because of his pain or something.
You know he didn't use his situation as an excuse to justify his sin
He says he didn't sin he allowed himself to be defrauded
He allowed himself to be afflicted without sinning against God now that says a lot about Job
You know what you may be in a situation where you're not coming out winning this side of eternity stay in that situation
Why because of the fact that it's better for you not to sin against God
Than to try to fix your situation, but it requires for you to sin against God
I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but it's true, and you know it applies to myself, too
It's a hard truth, but folks it's better to stay right with God
To not sin against the Lord and yeah, we may be defrauded for a time, but God blesses us in the long run because of it
Now Job felt this way, but but look what Job said in Job 14 verse 14
Here's the attitude that he had he says if a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my appointed time will I wait and I want you to notice this till my change come
That's powerful
He's like you know what doesn't matter how long it takes. I'm just gonna keep waiting until when and till something changes
Meaning he's not gonna sin against God
He's not going to charge God foolishly.
He's not going to take his own life.
He's like, I'm just going to sit here with boils on me
until God improves my situation.
Now, we're not sitting here with boils in the situation
that Job's in so we can serve God as we're waiting.
Job was in a different situation.
You know what I mean?
He couldn't really move much.
All he had was the dogs that licked the sores.
Maybe at that.
Oh, no, that was Lazarus.
But all he had was the Lord at that point, right?
But even he said even he had the faith that I'm just gonna wait till my change come
And you know what the change that he was looking for was not through the avenue of him sinning in order to get that change
He wasn't gonna force change upon his own life
He was willing to allow God to work it out and he knew he said I shall come forth as gold
okay, and
Let me just say this people go through situations like this
And they end up committing suicide they end up taking their own lives because they just lose hope
Okay, you know or they just question like the love of God and let me explain something about the love of God to everyone here tonight
This morning, okay
Because you know sometimes like man, I just feel like God doesn't love me anymore
You know, I think all of us to a certain degree. I felt that way
You know throughout our Christian lives is like I just feel like the Lord doesn't love me
I feel like you know people don't love me. I feel like God doesn't love me
But you know that is a wrong assessment of the love of God that isn't that isn't a wrong way
to interpret the love of God.
Because you're basically saying if things don't go right,
that means that God doesn't love me.
So he only loves me when he's doing right to me
or when I'm being blessed of God.
But folks, go to Romans chapter eight,
if you would, Romans chapter eight.
We don't base the love of God off
of our current circumstances.
It's not the way it works.
Like, oh man, you know, I'm going through this situation,
it must be that God doesn't love me.
Well, I thought God commended his love toward us
and that while we were at sin, Christ died for us.
You know, I thought the Bible says behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God
We needed to find love based upon God's terms
And what is God's terms the fact that he sent his son to die on the cross to pay for your sins
The fact that he calls you a son of God, right?
Obviously, we know that he loves us and he expresses that sometimes through his blessings,
but just because something goes wrong, just because a situation is not improving, doesn't
mean that God doesn't love you, and it's not fair for us to judge God in that way.
Oh, this is not going right, God doesn't love me, wrong, wrong.
Things don't go right because we make bad decisions, but things don't go right sometimes
because it's just life.
Sometimes life just happens.
Look at Romans chapter 8, verse 36.
As it is written,
for thy sake, we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Now this is Paul talking,
and he's just like, man,
we're like dying every day for the Lord.
But is he questioning the love of God?
No.
He says, nay, in all these things,
we are more than conquerors to him that loved us,
for I am persuaded.
He's like, I'm convinced of this.
I believe this.
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
He's like I know God loves me
You know what situations can't change that
Death can't change that life can't change the angels can't change that demons can't change that
Perils can't change that nothing can change that I know that nothing can separate me from the love of God
And you know what we need to remember that?
Because you're gonna face the situation that's gonna cause you to question the love of God and you have to remember wait a minute
This situation does not change the fact that I know that God still loves me
People often will take their lives
Because of the fact that they lose hope in the biblical fact that God loves them. We need to have hope
Okay, and again going back to this this matter of depression
You know, obviously if you're just perpetually depressed we need to like address that
Right, and if it's sometimes in a physical way because of the fact sometimes it's a physical thing
It's a dietary thing. Maybe you're just eating too much junk food. You're not getting enough exercise. That is a definite problem
You know, I remember before I started lifting it was just like man, you know, I'm reading my Bible. I'm praying and why am I just sad?
I'll tell you why I'm sad, because I'm not hitting PRs.
I'm not lifting weights.
I'm not stressing my body.
But after lifting, it's just like, man, everything's great.
Because we need that.
As human beings, we need exercise.
We need the right foods.
We need sunlight.
We need fellowship.
Those are the things we need.
But if you have all those boxes checked,
and you still feel that way, maybe you're just going
through a season where you're feeling
that sense of depression, and you know what?
You just need to kind of plow through it a little bit.
and recognize that this soon shall pass.
It passes.
Tribulation passes.
Now you wanna pass it the right way.
You wanna be able to read the word of God,
read the Psalms.
Don't stay quiet about it,
go reach out to someone in our church,
come reach out to me.
So you know what, I'll be honest with you,
I'm super depressed, I'm sad,
I've lost the will to live, you know?
And you can have your group here
to help you through that situation.
And you know sometimes we need someone on the outside telling us truth and may I say telling us the truth?
Don't go to people that give you bad advice
Understand and look people in our church. They might give bad advice. I don't know. It's a possibility though
You know if don't go to people that'll tell you what you want to hear by the way as well
Go to people to tell you what you need to hear what the Bible actually says
Okay, and may I say this? Don't go to people who are in your situation, but are failing at passing in that situation
Amen
Well, I'm just gonna go to the person who's in my exact situation
But they're completely failing at it just so we can enable each other in this particular situation in sin wrong
Go to someone who actually has a good head on their shoulders who's in church. They're reading the Bible. They're soul winning. They're under authority
They're good Christians
Go to someone who's maybe you know not necessary experience in that situation
You need people you need like people who are outside of the ring to tell you what's going on, right?
You need to say hey
Arm bar is about to come in right now, right? Hey, push your hips out, you know
That's what you need
You know, you can't take advice from someone who's like right in the situation with you because they don't really know
You need to talk to people who've been in that situation and passed biblically with flying colors
And so, you know, if you're depressed if you're sad if you're feeling a sense of despair
You're losing hope, you know hope in the Lord and I know that's easier said than done. I get it, but it's still true
It's still true and one thing I've learned
is that if there's something that I'm struggling with
to believe, maybe like a biblical truth,
I just need to talk to people who believe that
and often that increases my faith in that particular belief.
Being around people who believe those things
strengthens my faith in that particular belief, right?
That's why it's good to go to church
to be around God's people
because they reinforce a biblical mindset
when it wanes, okay?
Go to 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings chapter 19.
So to the person who feels despair, to the person who feels a sense of hopelessness,
to the person who feels a deep sense of grief and has lost the will to live, your change will come.
Your change will come changes come all the time. We're never in the same situation for long periods of time
Let me just say this. I remember years ago. I was in a situation
Mentally spiritually and even to a point physically were man
I was just like doing really bad and I remember thinking to myself like I don't know if I can keep pastoring in this situation because I'm just like
You know, I got to take care of other people as a pastor
And I remember telling a pastor friend of mine,
like, you know, I think I'm gonna hang the coat.
I don't think I could keep doing this.
And my pastor friend would tell me,
just like, just hang on for one more day.
And I'm thinking to myself, like, again?
And then the next day is just like,
just hang on for another day.
It may seem like you're in this situation for a long time,
but it's gonna pass.
And you know what?
While I was in that situation, I thought to myself,
this is, that guy lied, or so this is like a long,
like, I feel like I'm just in this
for like a really long time.
But then now, looking back, I was like,
actually that wasn't that long.
It did like pass.
The situation was just over.
The whole circumstance changed.
Everything changed.
And I learned that we cannot judge how long
a situation is when we're in that situation.
We don't know how long it's gonna be.
To us it's just like, oh, there's no light
at the end of the tunnel,
but you don't realize that there's a corner though.
And there's light at the end of the tunnel.
around the bend
Why do people commit suicide another reason is just out of sense of worthlessness
You're just like I'm just worthless. I have no value. You know, I just
Hate life and you know it doesn't help with this social media
Does not help with this
Social media has just destroyed
worth
You know what I mean? I'm just like, man, you know, I hit a 463 PR deadlift
But it's just not good enough for me because it's not 600 because everyone else on the internet is hitting 600
It makes you compare yourself to other people and it's just an unrealistic platform
You know, it's made people discontent with themselves people got body dysmorphia
They become cubbages because they see the houses and the cars and all the glitz and the glamour that everyone else has
You know ladies look at the families everyone else has the farm living all this other stuff is just like oh man
I wish I could have this don't you remember the 90s
Too young people you don't know what I'm talking about the 90s was peak no social media
You know, I'm like doing my best to not expose my kids to social media as you know as much as possible
Why because I want them to have nostalgia when they grow up like I have so much nostalgia. I am a very nostalgic person
I love remembering the past and just thinking about certain things. You know, I like actual photos
There are physical photos that were taken with a thing called a disposable anybody know what that is
Okay, they're called disposable cameras
We couldn't afford the actual film ones, but the disposable ones and you know disposable cameras
You took a picture. It's like how to look. I don't know
Guess we'll see I gotta take it to Walgreens
Did you get it probably hopefully
You know, and then you know the disposable didn't even have like a window to look at it
It was just a hole to look through
You just you hope you got it
And it's like, you know
We'll see in a couple weeks
You know
But it was great
You know, this is how it looked when I was a kid the way I looked for my friends
was on a bike, riding through the neighborhood,
looking for my friends.
Just kinda wondering where they're at.
And then when all the bikes were collected at one house,
it's like, oh, those are my friends.
Now it's just like you go on your phone at a location,
find me, there's my friend right here.
Life was different in the 90s.
You know, social media is great.
I love social media because I think it's a great way
to reach a lot of people, get the gospel out there,
get biblical truths out there.
But it's caused people to feel just absolutely worthless,
though.
doom-scrolling, you know, coveting other people's things, possessions, people,
spouses,
vehicles,
lives, money, all these things that, you know, you didn't know you needed until you saw it.
You were happy the way you were
until you saw someone else get it.
Someone else gets something better, and then you're just like, oh man, this is actually what I need.
Well, you didn't know you needed it until you saw it.
You know we need to make sure that we recognize that we're fearfully and wonderfully made
The Lord values us, but you know a sense of worthlessness can often be the factor as to why people end up taking their lives
They feel like they're not
Valuable enough they're not worth it. No, I'm not up here to give you a TED Talk on that
You know like you're valuable and you know you I don't know what they say because I'm not a I'm not a TED Talk person, but
you know these people out there who just want to give you a positive only message
and you know
podcast, Ted Talks type things, you know there needs to be some negative preaching
as well. But it is true that you are worth something though
but it's also true that you can't become worthless though, right?
That is true. The point that I'm making is that if you're worthless
The solution is just make yourself better.
Just improve.
The solution is like, oh, I'm just a piece of trash.
I'm just worthless.
Nobody loves me.
No one wants to marry me.
That's true, but it doesn't mean that you're worthless though.
That's OK.
You know, it's OK if no one wants to marry you now,
but maybe later on.
Maybe when you improve yourself.
Someone will but you know what let's say no one wanted to marry you for the rest of your life
You're still worth something in the eyes of God though
You're worth a lot and I'll tell you how much you're worth like Jesus Christ died for you
Like I'll tell you why like he fills you with his spirit like I'll tell you what you get people saved
You know what? You're not just worth something to God. You're worth something to us as well
You worth something to me. I think about
You're not here
I love you, and I'm not the only one.
There's other people in our church who do the same, okay?
And you know, maybe some girl will like you one day too.
You just, you know, that's a possibility too, amen?
To the point where they'll marry you.
But don't base whether you're worthy or not off of that.
We need to know like our position in Christ
to recognize like the Lord loves me, he values me.
Now let's look at an example of this
First Kings 19 verse one.
It's as Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword
So Elijah just got finished mopping the floor with all these prophets, right? Like he just like mugged them big time
Killed a bunch of false prophets one of the best stories in the Bible
Just like a just man just awesome story, right?
So, you know ahab because he's hen pecked he goes and he complains to you know, Jezebel
Because he wants Jezebel to fight his battles
Then Jezebel sent the messenger unto Elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more
Also if I make not thy life is the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time
So Jezebel threatens Elijah and you know, we don't know why Elijah reacts this way because you just got finished like killing a lot of profits
But you know, he's just emotionally depleted
He's not all there
He just got finished with the big victory and I would say like Elijah is one of those guys who have really high highs and really low lows
You guys know what I'm talking about?
There's people that emotionally,
they're just always like this, right?
They're like a dial tone.
They don't get really crazy angry, really crazy sad.
They're just like right here.
When they're excited, it's just like,
when they're sad, they're like,
they're just always right here.
And you know what,
they're not the most exciting people to be around.
But you know you can rest assured that they're just always right here. You don't have to worry about then there's people like me
Or it's just like you know
It's really high highs and it's really excited
But then I can have really low lows too and some of you like that too
You know or he's just like if you're down here the world's coming to an end
Life is over with but then when you're up here is just everything's exciting and great and and powerful
So this is basically like Elijah
He just had this really high high by killing all these prophets and then Jezebel comes he's just like he drops
Look at verse 3 and when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Bersheba
Which belonged to Judah and left his servant there so he here he hears this threat and then he's just scared and he runs away
But he himself on a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and listen to this and
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 and
You're thinking about yourself like
Bro, you just did like a great thing. What do you mean? You're not better than your father's first of all
Why are you even comparing yourself? But I don't know anybody else who did like you did
Like you did an incredible thing like fire came down from heaven the prophets of bell were destroyed you like
You cook them, you know like literally and jokingly, right?
He's just like where's your God, you know, he's like making fun of the false prophets like it's just an incredible story
It's very inspiring, but he's just like I want to die Lord if you could just kill me now
And how do I know that he has a sense of worthlessness because he says I am not better than my father's
And what was the answer that God gave him?
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree,
and behold, the angel, an angel touched him
and said unto him, arise and eat.
So he's just like, he kind of ignored what he's saying.
He's just like, go to sleep and then get up.
I'm gonna feed you.
Cause sometimes that's all you need.
You know, it's like kids, they just need a nap.
They're crying about everything they're complaining about everything, you know, they're just fighting with their siblings
It's just like you need a nap and once they nap they eat. They're good to go
But I think all of us could agree that Elijah was a very worthy prophet
The man was awesome, but he didn't see that and what happened
He had the desire to just not live and he didn't he lost the will to live
He wanted to die and you know, he wasn't the problem. Okay?
Matthew 10 verse 29 says are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fearing not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
And let me just say this, here's my last point, I'm done with the sermon.
In regards to this, you know, people feel worthless because they're going through a situation, but just remember this, whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth.
and scourge it, every someone who he received it.
So actually being punished by God is an indication
that God loves you.
I think that's a strange way of showing it.
No, because punishment equals
you not destroying your own life.
You know, God sees that you're going down a road
that's not good.
He's gonna allow you to suffer consequences
so you can rectify your path because he loves you.
And so, you know, the point that I'm making here
is that you are worth something.
As indicated by the fact that you're alive,
you're worth something to your family,
you're worth something to your parents,
you're worth something to your children,
and if you don't have any of those,
you're worth something to us.
You mean a lot to us.
Sorry if I don't tell you enough.
But you are, you do mean something to me.
You mean something to people.
There's people in our church.
Let me just say this.
There's people in our church
that notice when you're not around.
There's children in our church didn't notice when you're not around, you know, brother hike for example
You know sometimes his you know
He his hair hurts or something, you know, and he doesn't want to come to church
And you know what he if he doesn't come to church and very this is very rarely
You know, he doesn't come to church or something on Sunday night on the way home
My five-year-old would just tell me brother hike was not here tonight
Out of all the people in our church
And he doesn't say it jokingly he says it very and I always tell him like hey my son said that you weren't here
Just I just want to let you know
You know why because he recognizes because obviously hike has some value in my son's eyes. I
Don't know why you know. I don't want it is
But in my son's eyes
He's like us like maybe brother hike is a sense of stability in our church like he's just accustomed to seeing
Him at church all the time
And so when he's not around, he sees like,
oh, brother, hike is not here.
So stop doing that, just kidding.
It's very rare, he comes to church, obviously.
The point that I'm making here is that even the five-year-old
notices when you're not around.
You know what that shows me?
It shows me that the five-year-old values you.
That's not enough, though, to the five-year-old it is.
To the five-year-old it is.
And adults value you as well, okay?
Suicide is not the answer folks. It's an act of rebellion pride and faithlessness in the promises of God
We need to be able to endure afflictions and have faith that things will get better and they will get better and
Thank God you have a church. Thank God you have the Bible. Thank God you have God
We have salvation things can and will improve
Maybe it's not according to the way you want it exactly, but maybe what God's solution is is
Superior to your solution
and you just can't see that right now
because you're in the thick of it.
You need to let time pass.
And look, sometimes, I'm done,
sometimes God's blessing requires our maturity
to understand it.
Like if God blessed you with what you wanted right now,
you probably would not be grateful for it
and you wouldn't understand it.
But sometimes we don't get it for years to come,
weeks to come, months to come,
because of the fact that God has to mature us enough
to be able to handle that blessing.
You understand what I'm saying?
Like certain blessings require a certain level
of maturity to handle, okay?
And so suicide is a sin.
Do not ever choose that way out.
There's always hope.
And if you ever feel that way, come talk to me.
Come talk to one of us.
Even if you're like, well, I'm not gonna kill myself
but I just lost the will to live.
Come talk to me.
Let's talk about it.
Why not?
You know, because I'm telling you right now,
Satan would love for you to carry that out.
You know why he would love for you to carry that out because he knows how effective you can be if you make it through
He knows how impactful you can be as a Christian if you actually push through
So let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word
Thank you for the hope of God and we're so thankful for the Bible
And we're thankful for men who are of like passions in the Word of God
Who felt the same way that we have felt that we will feel in the future and they push through
They left us a great example.
I pray that Lord, you'd help us to recognize
that we do have value, Lord.
And Lord, if we've made mistakes
and we will continue to make mistakes,
Lord, may we face the music as hard as that is.
That's so difficult sometimes, even for myself,
to face the consequences of our actions, that's hard.
But we know that you can give us the grace necessary
to push through and learn from it
and that all things work together for good,
even if we don't see light at the end of the tunnel.
But sometimes we don't see it because it's just around the bend and I pray that Lord you'd help us to recognize that
Help us to have a biblical perspective. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen
Please sing your song books is song number 135
song number 135. I know I am saved. It's a short song, we'll sing the verse twice
over all together nice and strong in that first verse I know I am saved for
My poor soul on the cross of Calvary, And now I can sing, for Christ is my King.
I'll see his face in glory by and by.
Christ set me free, he ransomed my poor soul on the cross of Calvary.
And now I can sing, for Christ is my King, I'll see his face in glory by
wonderful singing you are dismissed.