morning. You'd grab a hymnal, the 421st noel, ask fix a christmas music, 421 the first noel,
we'll sing there on the first. We 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
would 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 to 423, "Joy to the World." Four, two, three, "Joy to the World." They're on the
first. "Joy to the World." This 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 seven. But please be reminded that this upcoming week we have a Tuesday midweek service.
So winning times are listed there. All of 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 a 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 gonna 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 you please email the
church or just some way to get in contact with me and I'll make sure 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. And our third hymn this morning
is number 425 no room in the inn number 425 425 no room in the inn. We'll sing there starting on the
first. Turn if you would to second corinthians chapter number second corinthians chapter number
one. Chapter number one. The will of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother under the
church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints which are in Archaea. Grace 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. Whereas 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 and 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 and whom we trust that he will yet deliver us yet also
helping together by prayer for us for that 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 under you than what ye read or acknowledge 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 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 to be brought on my way
toward Judea when I therefore was thus minded did I use lightness or the things that I purpose
do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yay yay and nay nay but as God is
true our word toward you was not yay and nay for the Son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among
you by us even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus was not yay and nay but in him was yay for all
the promises of God in him are yay and in him amen under the glory of God by us now he which
stablisheth 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 from my soul
that to spare you I came not as yet to unto Corinth not for not for that we have dominion
over your faith but our helpers of your joy for by faith ye stand let's pray heavenly father lord
we're thankful to be gathered together in the house amen all right we are in second
corinthians chapter number one let's start reading in verse three 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 four 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
could 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 five 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 six 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 eight 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 gonna be perfect in your life he's gonna 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 title 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 okay 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 a 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 blessed be god even the father of our
lord jesus christ the father of mercies and the god of all comfort who comforteth 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 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 uh 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 gonna 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 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 something
to compare it to and vice versa right if i'm going through something terrible and god comforts me
now i could 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 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 oftentimes 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 two
ecclesiastes chapter number two 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 dyeth 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 die at
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 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 blackpilling 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 blood
letting 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 yay 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've showed myself wise under the sun
this is also vanity he's saying look i'm working so hard i'm 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 the hours they're working late they're working weekends and then they're like all right
son let me just hand it over to you and the sun is a moron the sun is spoiled the sun doesn't
understand the value of working hard or the sun doesn't understand money or finances and the sun
could just ruin it immediately this happens all the time in businesses this happens in churches
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 therefore i went about to cause my heart to despair of all the
labor which i took under the sun for there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and
in equity yet to a man that hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his portion this
also is a vanity and a great evil for what hath man of all his labor and of the vexation of his
heart wherein he hath labored under the sun for all his days are sorrows and his travail grief
yea his heart taketh not rest in the night this also is vanity hey 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 okay 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 angie 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 first peter four second timothy 3 12 says yay 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 first 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 you 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's 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 381 295 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 percent
of the adult population reported having had suicidal thoughts during the preceding year now
i'm gonna 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 percent 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 percent 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 percent in the west and from 3.3 percent new jersey to 6.9 percent in utah so
mormons are just the highest ones there apparently it says 3.1 million adults 1.3 percent 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 percent of the population that made a plan to actually
carry it out and then it says 1.4 million 0.6 percent 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 experience 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 job 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 your 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 was spared 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 job 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 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 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 father's 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 jona
jona chapter number four jona chapter number four jona 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 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 jona 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 jona that it might be a
shadow over his head so he's giving him like a big sun hat or something to keep him from getting
sunburned to deliver him from his grief so jona 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
smoked 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 jona 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 jona he's asking him to die okay oh he's happy again hey 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 uh 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 bared 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 i forth 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'd 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 first 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 100 man
you know the bible calls jesus the man of sorrows 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 saith 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 jona 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 early 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
years 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 spheres
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 has it 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 carnell's 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 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 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 re-uptaking 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 but 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 there's 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 the 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 ssri 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 four verse eight draw nigh to god and he will draw nigh
to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you 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 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 going to draw nigh to god
i'm going to 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 side 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 flippant about what you do when you sin against the lord 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 he 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 practical 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 delivereth 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 2nd Corinthians 1 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 an eye to god and he'll draw him draw draw an eye 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 that 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 an eye to god number two make your life count for other
people make your life count for other people look at philippians 2 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 vain
glory 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 that 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 can 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 a knight of God.
Number two, make your life count 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 pushups, 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 almost hate that word motivation.
I think it's so overrated.
It's like a terrible word.
Just get rid of it.
It's like 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 love Paul's mentality.
I don't know what I'm going to 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 life 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."
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 that word.
Who cares if you're motivated?
Do what's right.
Oh man, I just 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 on a secret.
Only 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 1 Corinthians chapter number 9, 1 Corinthians chapter number 9.
Men, please don't wake up in the morning and ask yourself if you're motivated to go to
work.
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.
1 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 read the Bible.
Don't study.
Don't go plant another church.
Just rest awhile.
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."
It talks about men striving for mastery, incarnal things.
You think about athletes.
I think about 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."
The world-class athletes of this world, the best baseball players who's ever lived, they've
never thought, "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."
It's like people like that in this world.
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 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, 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, 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'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 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.
The next day, tiny little soreness and then maybe the time after that, no soreness at
all and you're getting stronger, you're getting more disciplined to where it becomes easy.
This is like this in 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.
Maybe some people don't understand this, there are 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 where 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 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.
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 that the desire fails, they give up.
They quit.
Because 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 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'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 and 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 8, let's just finish with this beautiful passage here at 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
would 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.
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 time, until he seems wrong.
Our trials are through, they were to come.