- Hey, you guys. Welcome to Sandals Church. My name is Vivi Diaz, and
I just wanna say welcome. Here at Sandals Church, we are all about this
vision of being real, so no matter who you are or
where you're watching from, there is a place for you here, and if you're wondering, how do I dive deeper into
this vision of being real, or maybe what does it
look like in my life, you have to head on over to
our podcast called The Debrief, where we take any questions that you have and give you real answers to those. So head on over at debrief.show. Enjoy the message. (upbeat music) ♪ Hoo ♪ ♪ Hey hey Marjorie ♪ ♪ Hey hey Marjorie ♪ ♪ You know you do something to me ♪ ♪ You know, you know, you know ♪ ♪ Hey hey Marjorie ♪ ♪ Whoo hoo hoo ♪ ♪ Whoo hoo hoo ♪ ♪ Hey hey ♪ ♪ Hey hey Marjorie ♪ - Welcome, welcome. (applauding) Man, it's so good to be
here with you guys today. Super excited. Thank you for all your prayers, man. This past week I talked about
the uncomfortable subject on my podcast, about
suicide, and I've gotten nothing but positive
feedback, so thank you so much for your prayers and hopefully
we can save some lives, Amen. Hopefully somebody out there
will listen to what was said, (light clapping) but as we were doing this
series, I just thought, you know, we need to insert a week about dealing with discouragement,
depression, and anxiety, and if you've never
been to Sandals Church, normally I'm kinda upbeat,
I'm really funny normally. Today's not gonna be that day, but. I know you're disappointed. You're like, I haven't laughed all week. Well, come back, but I
started Sandals Church, actually somebody told
me that they were invited to Sandals Church and
literally, it was this way, "I know the name sounds weird,
but come to the church," and so here's where the name comes from. I used to have these ugly, ugly toenails, like the toenail fungus commercial with the little monster
underneath your toes, those were my toes, and
I was so embarrassed and ashamed of my toenails,
I would only wear sandals around somebody I was
totally comfortable with and felt safe with, and so I thought, that's the kind of church
I want to be a part of. I want to be a part of a church where if somebody sees something
that's ugly about me, that they're not gonna run away, but they're gonna love me
and help me through it, and so, thank you, that's
where the name Sandals Church comes from, and I don't care
what somebody else told you. I was there, I started it. That's the story. (crowd laughs) People love to tell stories,
but that's the story, and so the vision is to be
real and so what that means for most of the weeks is
we're gonna have a good time, we're gonna be uplifted,
encouraged, we're gonna laugh, but the Bible says for
everything there is a season, and there's a time to laugh
but there's also a time to be sad and there's a time to lament. There's actually a book in
the Bible called Lamentations, which means, let's get sad together. That's what it means,
and we're gonna deal with some heavy lifting because if you've never been really discouraged, if you've never been really
depressed or really anxious, I just want to thank God for your life and I'm glad for you and I hope
that you never feel this way but sometimes your spouse
is gonna get there, your family, your friends,
a coworker, man, your kids, and some of you guys aren't
gonna know what to do, and I hope that you can
just file this sermon away for a rainy day when
somebody needs to hear it or maybe you need to hear it today and we're just gonna end with
a time of worship together and we're gonna end with
a time of prayer together, where we just cry out to God and we say, God, we need you because we're losing too many people to
suicide, too many people are checking out because we've lost sight of God's heart for us in
the midst of suffering. So I don't know where you are today, but I just want to pray for
us and ask God to bless us and bless me as we talk about this difficult subject
together, so let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just
pray in the name of Jesus. Lord we pray that you
would fill this place and every campus and every
room with every computer or iPhone or smartphone that is opened. God, whether it's in a Starbucks or they're sitting in a church service, I pray that your Holy
Spirit would speak to them right now where they are
and I pray they would hear your words and that
the powerful name of Jesus would speak, Lord, to discouragement, would speak to depression,
and would speak to anxiety, and Lord I pray they
hear the name of Jesus. I pray they hear your name,
they feel your presence, and they hear your words,
Lord, and they run to you, because you are a God of
life, not a God of death. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so let's just talk about this. You got your outlines in front of you and if you're new to Sandals Church, whenever I say the first point, inevitably somebody with a big Bible always gets up and walks out. I want you to know that most of what I'm gonna be talking
about is from the Bible and it's in front of you so that people don't have to freak out if I say, now turn to Obadiah, 'cause
nobody of you even knew that was in the Bible,
so, and you don't have to be embarrassed and try to find it. So all the Bible verses
are in front of you, and I hope that that helps. So I want you to write this down. If I'm dealing with discouragement,
depression, and anxiety, I need to recognize, write this down, I need to recognize I could
be under spiritual attack. It's sad where we are today. You see, for most of
human history, we assumed that if you were under attack,
it was spiritual attack, but about the last 150 years, we've moved from a spiritual culture to a biological,
chemistry-focused culture, and so what we instantly
say to somebody is, oh, your chemistry's off
or your biology's off, and that may be true, but
I just want you to know that life is more that what
we can prove scientifically. It wasn't that long ago that
we couldn't prove gravity, but it's real, and if
you don't believe me, just trip and fall. You won't fly, you're gonna go down, and that's the way spiritual attack is. You may never be able
to specifically see it, but you feel its gravity. You feel its gravity in your marriage. You feel its pull in your personal life. You feel it at work, you
feel it in the world, you feel it on the news, there's something that's keeping you from being
who God's called you to be and it's something that pulls you down. The reality is, just as
there's a physical gravity, there's a spiritual gravity
and I need you to recognize, I'm not saying it's always the devil, like if you always blame the devil, you're not that important
because the devil has other things to do, but sometimes it could
be him, it could be him, and sometimes as Christians
we're the last person to think, hmm, could this be the devil? Tammy and I fought every
single Easter weekend for five years in a row. Fifth year, I was like,
this could be spiritual, 'cause I'm super smart like that when it comes to spiritual things. Took me five Easters to fight before I was like, okay wait a minute. Here's what Peter says. He says, "Stay alert!" Pay attention, pay attention. This is Peter talking. "Watch out for your great enemy." Okay, this isn't some out of shape 50 year old down the street. This is the devil, this is the devil. He doesn't have his gut hanging out. His eyes are hanging out for you, he's looking for you. "Watch out for your
great enemy, the devil. "He prowls around like a roaring lion, "looking for someone to devour." He doesn't want to shake your hand. He wants to eat your hand. He doesn't want to improve your marriage. He wants to destroy your marriage. He doesn't wanna watch over your children. He wants to devour your children, and listen to me, those of you who call yourself Christians,
you gotta wake up. You gotta wake up. There's a spiritual battle
right now in your house. There's a spiritual battle. My daughter just came to
me this week, my oldest, and she said, Dad, I woke up
in the middle of the night. I had terrible dreams. I felt like there was something evil. I said, what'd you do? She said, I started
praying and singing songs. I said, Amen. Amen, I didn't put her down, I
didn't say that's ridiculous. Sometimes there are things
out there that are scary that we don't understand,
and for so many of us we've tried to reassure our children that there is no bogeyman. We forgot the Bible says there is. The Bible says there is, and
there's something out there. He's our great enemy and
he wants to devour us, and we need to be aware. So here's the thing. The devil is sneaky and one of his greatest gifts is camouflage. He doesn't want to be known,
he wants to be hidden, but if you're a Christian, I want you to remember these words. The story of Jesus'
ministry begins this way. He was led out into the
desert by the Holy Spirit and as he fasted for 40 days
the devil came and tempted him and listen to these
words, and the devil said. The devil said. It's not just God who speaks. It's not just God who speaks, and what the devil does to Jesus, we need to pay attention to
because it's written in there, not just to tell His
story, but for our story. The devil begins with a list of questions. Are you really, listen to
me, are you really God's son? And he tries to get
Jesus to forget who He is so that he can distract
Him from His mission and take away His hope
and destroy His calling. That's what the devil does. Here's the thing is, I'm not, the devil's not gonna tempt me to turn stones into bread, 'kay? That's not gonna happen. If I could do that I would put
Subway out of business, Amen. The devil's not gonna tempt me to do that, but Jesus could turn
stone into bread, I can't. The devil knows what your weaknesses are and he knows how to tempt
you, and here's the thing is he's looking and waiting for you when you've fasted for 40 days. You're like, that's why I don't fast. That's not a reason, but
you know what I mean, when you're tired, when you're hungry, when you haven't slept well, when your marriage isn't going
right, when you got a kid, when you got two kids,
when you got four kids, when you went nuts and you got five kids, that's when the devil shows up, right. Some of you are like, I told my wife we shouldn't have done five. (laughing) Four was the number. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying the devil
knows when you're weak. He knows when you're weak,
and just like a lion, the lion picks on the young
and the old and the tired. That's who they hunt, so the devil attacks us in different ways. We're in this series
called Relational Remix where we're looking at this
thing called the enneagram so that we can begin a
conversation with us relationally. You see, not all of us
come at life the same way and today we're gonna look
at literally the triads and we're gonna look at how
the devil's gonna tempt you in no matter what triad you
are, and I want you to see how it's so subtlely different, and here's one of the
things that the devil does is we don't get how
somebody else is tempted so we think they're ridiculous and guess what we just did? We just isolated our
brother or sister in Christ and that's what some of you do. Well, I've never
struggled with depression! Well, it might look
different in your life. Well, I've never had anxiety! It might look different in your life. So I need to recognize I could
be under spiritual attack. Let's take a look at the enneagram. Let's start off with the gut triad, the eight, the nine, and the one. The primary weapon that the devil uses against this triad is guilt. Guilt, guilt for not doing enough. You see, the gut triad lives their life and they're asking this question. Listen to this question, here's
the question you're asking if you're in this triad. Am I doing enough? Am I doing enough? Am I accomplishing my mission? Am I a good enough mom, a good enough dad, a good enough friend? Until you're constantly
caught up in this rat race and guess when you're tired, when you've tried to do everything you can and it's never enough, and then
the devil's like, see, see, and some of you in the gut triad, you say, well the devil
never takes a day off, so I don't either, and I
say, show me the Bible verse that says the devil's your example. Right, you're called to
follow Jesus, not Satan, and Jesus rested all the time. Shoot, he took naps in the
middle of storms, Amen. He's just like, I'm gonna check out. You guys handle this. (fakes snoring) Some of you feel a great deal
of guilt for not doing enough and you're running yourself ragged, and so maybe you don't fast from food but you're fasting from rest,
you're fasting from God, you're fasting from
worship, and you're tired and you're running low on spiritual fuel and the devil's whispering into your ear. So if you're an eight, how does
the Challenger feel guilty? The Challenger feels
guilty for being too much. I'm just too much for people. You see, here's what happens to eights. Eights just get burnt
out because they're tired of hurting people, overwhelming people, being too much for people,
and if you're not careful, the devil's just gonna convince you that being strong's a sin. Let me tell you something, that's a lie. That's a lie. God made you strong, don't ever
be ashamed for being strong, and you ask yourself this question. Well, did the devil mean
for me to be this strong? Yes, he just wants you to control it, and by the way, that's what meekness is. Meekness is not weakness,
it's power under control, but here's the thing. Listen to me, if you're
raising little eights, especially if they're little girls, they're gonna have a hard time playing in the sandbox, right? 'Cause they're strong, they're powerful, they're, come here, ride the tricycle, no, (banging) come here, and guess what happens? The world runs away from them and they feel lonely and isolated and they feel guilty because
they don't, listen to this, they don't do enough to control themselves and the world receives
you as overwhelming and so what you do is you isolate
yourself and you become alone. That's the Challenger, you
feel guilty for being too much. It's just too much. The nine, the Peacemaker, you feel guilty for not standing up. If you're a nine, you might
have these conversations with yourself after a fight. Well, I shoulda said
this, I woulda said that. I shoulda said this, I'm gonna
give him a piece of my mind. I'm gonna send an email, no I'm not, (audience laughs) and what you do is you beat yourself up for never standing up,
never ever standing up, and instead of facing your trials, listen to me nines, I love you, many nines run to alcohol and so you might think suicide will never ever
occur in your mind. The devil doesn't start with suicide. He's gonna start with a drink and in order to run from conflict, in order to numb yourself
from the pain of life, the devil will say, might
I recommend addiction? You see, part of the church's
problem is we're stupid. We don't know where it starts. You see, eights, the only
way they become suicidal is in a fit of rage and
that's why it's shocking. Nines, oftentimes, if
they get to the place where they consider taking their life, it's because they can't
numb themselves anymore and they just give up and
they may not take their life in a traditional way. They might just drink themselves to death because life is too painful, and they feel too guilty
for not standing up. The Reformer, the one, you feel guilty for not being perfect. Can you imagine how
miserable that must be? You're never going to be perfect
and you feel bad about it. The rest of us are just happy with a C. You're like, I got 103%. I should have got the
bonus question correct. Think about that, so here's
what the devil says to the one. If you really were a Christian,
you wouldn't have said that, you wouldn't have done that. You see, guilt is the devil's weapon for what we should be doing. I should be doing more,
I should be doing less, I should be less, and the devil
comes at us every single day and we're asking, what am I doing? What am I doing with my life, right. The eight, I gotta
conquer, I gotta be strong. The nine, I gotta be peaceful,
I gotta establish peace, and the one says I gotta get
it right, I gotta get it right, and right when you're
weak, at your lowest point the devil's right there
and guess what he's saying? You didn't do enough, did you? If you're in the gut triad, that's when you gotta look to Jesus 'cause He said, I already did it for you. Ones, you don't have to be perfect. He was perfect for you. Nines, you don't have to
make peace with the world. He made peace with the world, and eights, you don't have
to run from who you are. Jesus died for who you are. Don't ever let the enemy whisper that you were made wrong into your ear. He knows how He made you,
He wants to redeem you, and He has a wonderful plan for your life. Now this is, this is difficult here. Oftentimes, people get confused
between guilt and shame. So guilt is something that I
feel for something I've done. Shame is something I feel
bad about for who I am. So guilt is external, shame is internal. So guilt says I did the wrong thing, shame says I am the wrong person. So Satan would tempt the gut triad, what are you doing with your life? Satan would tempt the heart triad, who do you think you are in life? I'm nobody, I'm nothing. How does he tempt Jesus? If you really are God's son, if you really are, if you really are. The heart triad feels
shame for not being enough. You don't feel like you're enough. So if you're a two, you're ashamed that you don't really matter. If I stop serving, if I stop giving, if I stop doing all these
things for these people, they're gonna realize who I am and they're gonna see I'm not enough, so I've gotta keep losing sight of myself. I can't ever declare my own needs. I have to take care of
everyone else's needs because if I don't serve them,
they're not gonna love me because I'm not enough, and so the devil whispers in your ear, you know, Sandals wouldn't even care
about you if you didn't serve. They don't appreciate
you, they don't love you. They won't even miss you if you're gone. Man, I've had people tell me that. I left the church just to
see if anyone would miss me. Well, who told you to leave? It wasn't the Lord. The three, the three feels shame, is ashamed for failing to succeed. Listen to me, if you're
raising a little three, you gotta prepare them for
failure because it's inevitable. I don't care how talented they are, they're gonna find
something they stink at. It's gonna happen at some point, and we lie to threes, you
can be whatever you want. You can be whatever you can be within the context of
who God made you to be. One of the reasons we got all
these kids that are miserable is 'cause we've lied to
them their whole life. It does not help me to
tell me as a little boy that I could be a NBA basketball player. That's not helpful. Maybe I could be a coach, or a trainer, that's probably more. That's probably more, let's be honest, that's probably, I could lead
the team in jumping jacks, but listen to me, so here's, twos, twos get suicidal and
depressed and anxious when they feel like
they've served everybody and still don't have friends. Threes get depressed
and suicidal when they feel like they've just
failed, and here's the thing. If you love a three, their
life might look amazing to you, but they don't see life through your eyes. They see it through their own. The four, the Individualist,
they're ashamed that people don't get 'em. Nobody gets me, nobody gets me. They just live at such a deep level that it's hard for a
lot of us to go there. Their feelings are a lot
deeper than the rest of us and so what the enemy whispers is, people don't care about your depth. People don't care about
your creative nature. People don't care about
the thoughts and feelings that you have, and the devil lies, and he whispers, nobody gets you. You're all alone, you're
not like anybody else. You don't fit in, and listen to me fours. God didn't make you to fit in. He made you to change the world and to show us the world
in a different way. The head triad, the head triad, right. They're not attacked with guilt, they're not attacked with shame. They're attacked with fear, with fear. Fear of not having enough,
there's just not enough! I'm concerned, I'm worried. I'm just worried. Right, there's not gonna be enough. We're constantly anxious. I went out to dinner
this week with an eight, and I told him I watched a TV program that there's not gonna be
enough food to feed us all, and all the sixes, tune in at 11! We're all gonna starve,
and the eight goes, that's a bunch of crap! Literally, across the table,
he's like, that's ridiculous, and he starts quoting all these stats, just coming at me. He's like, they're just
trying to scare you. I hate when they say that. This is literally what he said, he said the world's too fat. We have too much food, we're fine. It's like, thank you, eight, thank you. I apologize for
questioning your knowledge, but listen to me, man,
if you're in this triad, the world is just having a
heyday with you aren't they? This is what you oughta call the news. Tonight at 11, the devil will
speak directly to your fears. (crowd laughs) If you're a five, you have a fear of a lack of understanding and emotion. You're all up in your head and
the world doesn't make sense and people are scary to you. Let me speak to a special
group of people in here. If you're a high four, high five, you have one of the most
challenging personalities there are and you know why that is? With a four, you have
extreme emotional depth and you're drawn to depression, and with a five, you sit
in your skull all day long and your mind swims in anxiety. If you're high four, high five, you're at extreme risk for
depression and anxiety, and I'm gonna talk about
what you need to do to deal with that in just a minute. A fear of lack of
understanding and emotion. The six, the Loyalist, they
have a fear of lack of security. I'm not gonna be safe,
I'm not gonna make it. I can't get through this, right. So the five is afraid of
understanding and emotion. The six is afraid of
everything, everything, right, all the time, all the time. The seven, the Enthusiast, they fear a lack of time and space. There's just not, there's not enough time to enjoy these things. They get anxiety about
missing out on something. They get worried they're being trapped. I can't say yes because then,
something else might come up and they feel worried. I asked a friend this week who's a seven. I said, you ever think
about killing yourself? This is what he said, "And rob the world of me?" (laughing) That was his answer. I was, okay I'm gonna take that as a no. I'm gonna take that as a no, but listen to me, sevens,
in a healthy state of mind you might never consider that but if you constantly chase gluttony and you get to the point
where you drink too much, you indulge in drugs too much,
and you become an addict, the enemy can change
who God made you to be, and now we're no longer dealing with your God-given personality. We're dealing with chemicals
that have altered who you are. So what do I need to do? What do I need to do? I need to recognize this
might be a spiritual attack. I need to think about
how I'm being attacked, and I need to recognize my need
for authentic relationships. Authentic relationships, look, the University of
California-Riverside just released a study this week that
says even introverts, even introverts are
better off in community. Listen to me, introverts,
here's the studies. Here's what the study says, even people who feel safer alone are worse off by themselves. God did not make us for isolation. Now UCR could have read the Bible but instead they spent
millions of dollars on a study. 2 Corinthians 2:8, "So I urge you now to
reaffirm your love for him. "When you forgive this
man, I forgive him too. "And when I forgive whatever
needs to be forgiven, "I do so with Christ's
authority for your benefit, "so that Satan will not outsmart us. "For we are familiar with his schemes." I hear this verse quoted all the time, and it's never in context. Let me give you the context. The church of Corinth had
to discipline a member, and some people attacked Paul. Who do you think you are
to discipline somebody? They didn't go after the
guy that was disciplined. They went after the apostle Paul, and so the church rallied to Paul, and they not only kicked
out the disciplined man but they kicked out the
guy who stood up to Paul, and Paul says, whoa whoa whoa, Corinth. I appreciate you standing up for me, but I forgive him too, and
you need to forgive him just as I forgive him, and
we need to come back together because we're not unaware
of the enemy's schemes. Do you know what the devil's scheme is? He doesn't want you in community group. He doesn't want you in church. He doesn't want you serving on a team. He wants you all by yourself. He wants you alone, and
that's what Paul's saying. We are not unaware of the enemy's schemes. Why do you think it's so
hard to make time for church? Why do you think you have
fights on the way to church? Why do you think everything comes up when there's community group? Why is it so hard to serve on a team? Do you know why, because
you are completely clueless when it comes to your enemy. He wants you alone, he wants you alone. Hebrews 10:25. "And let us not neglect
our meeting together," can you underline this, "as some people do." There's always been people
skipping out on church. It's never been right. I can't stand when people
say, well I always believe. Well, who cares what you believe? I mean, I don't say that,
I just think that inside. I just think I can worship God
in my backyard in my own way. Well, God doesn't think that way. God thinks that's stupid. Do you know why? God created us to worship
Him together, together. "And let us not neglect
our meeting together, "as some people do, but let us," underline this, "encourage one another," encourage one another. When you're on the 91 freeway,
do you feel encouraged? No. When you go to work, okay most of you, do you feel encouraged to
love Jesus, serve Jesus? Do most of your bosses ask you, did you read the Bible today? No, right. Does your two year old encourage you, or is your two year old the devil? (laughing) Right. "Let us encourage one another," can you circle this word, especially, "especially as the day is drawing near." Let me explain this to you. The closer we get to the end,
the more we need community. The average Sandalite, you
didn't know you were a Sandalite, but you are, the average Sandalite comes to church 1.6 times a month. That means most of us
don't serve on a team, most of us are not in a community group, most of us have been
completely duped by the devil. Man, most of you are more
committed to your sports team that makes you a whole lot
more like the devil, right. I mean, the Dodgers lost and
some of you lost your faith. (crowd laughs) You're like, I can't even
believe anymore, I just can't. "Especially now that the day
of his return is drawing near." Why do we need to come together? This is what James says. "Confess your sins to each other "and pray for each other
so that you may be," what, healed, healed. Listen to me if you're
struggling with depression, anxiety, or you're
battling discouragement. The devil feeds on trash. That's what he feeds on and
before we can kick the devil out of your life we've
gotta clean up your life. What's the trash that's in your life? What's the garbage that
you've put in your life? You see, here's how you defeat the devil. You can keep putting out rat traps or you can get rid of the garbage. Here's what I want you to do. What are the things in
your life that's garbage? Let's get rid of that,
let's get rid of that, let's confess that in small group, let's confess that in community group, let's talk about that,
let's get on a team, let's get in church, let's confess that. Why, because the earnest
prayer of a righteous person is great and powerful and it
produces wonderful results. What's in your life, what do we need to get out of your life? What's in it that's overwhelming you? You see, we're overwhelmed by the world because we're underwhelmed by God, and some are you are like,
well, I just don't feel like people need to hear my problems
or want to hear my problems. Can I read this verse to you? Galatians 6:2. "Share each other's burdens, "and in this way obey the law of," what, Christ. Do you know the people
in your community group have to listen to you? (light laughing) If you just start sharing at
a bar or at the grocery store, people could be like, I'm done. Your community group, your
community group's like, they sit there 'cause
they're obeying Christ. Can you tell me what the Word says? It says share each other's burdens. You know what a burden is? A burden's something you
can't carry on your own or maybe it is something
you can carry on your own and you need a community
group to call it your crap. I just don't know why
I have money problems. Well, 'cause you don't have a job. You have a job problem,
not a money problem, and you're like, oh. You see, works that way. If you have teenagers, write that down. That was free. (light laughing) Next point, I gotta realize
I may need medical help and a radical life change. Listen to me, Paul wrote
this letter to Timothy and this is what he said. He said, "Don't drink only water. "You ought to drink a little wine "for the sake of your stomach
because you're sick so often." You see, a lot of us, we
run straight to the miracles in the Bible but we don't
run to the struggles. The apostle Paul saw
God do great miracles. He's not gonna solve
every problem you have. Some things we gotta go to the doctor for, and so here's the thing. Here's what I think the world does. I think the world is way too slow to consider it might
be a spiritual problem, and let me just say this. This is happening all across America. People are going in for test after test after test after test and
the doctors are saying there's nothing medically wrong with you, but you know there is. You know why, it's a spiritual problem, but some of us as Christians, we're praying about something that we should go talk to a doctor about. We should talk to a
doctor and we need to say, hey I'm having this anxiety,
I'm going through these things. Listen to me, I gotta recognize
God's presence, excuse me. I need to recognize that
I may need medical help and radical life change. In my mid-30s was the first time I began to experience severe
anxiety and depression. Here's why I think it happens in our 30s, and I'm not a psychologist,
but I think I'm right. (light laughing) It's my eight speaking. Listen, I think in about
your mid-30s you realize life is not gonna be the dream
that you thought it would be and you start to realize
that a lot of your boyhood or your girlhood dreams were just dreams and now you gotta live in this lane and you gotta make the best of it and some do and some can't and here's why I think our young people are experiencing anxiety so much sooner, because you know what
they have that you didn't? They have a phone that
tells them every single day when they're 17 that the
dream is just a dream. It will never happen and so
the world is shouting at them that life is gonna be harder much sooner and they're not equipped
because they're not in their 30s to deal with it, they don't know how to deal with failure yet. They don't know how to
deal with rejection yet and they have all the
pressure we had in our 30s as teenagers and this is
what's happening to our kids. Last point, I gotta
recognize God's presence and power in the midst of my suffering. At my lowest point in my 30s, I was going in for throat surgery. Some of you remember, but I
had growths on my vocal cords and they were concerned it was cancer and I was getting ready to go into surgery and I had a pastor by the name of Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. He sent me an email, and the words said this. God is with you, learn whatever you can. I wanted to purpose-driven
punch him in the face. (laughs) That was funny, wasn't it? That was a good one, but do you know what? Rick Warren purpose-driven
punched me in the face. He was right. You see, some of you,
some of you right now are so mad at God because
God is allowing you to go through the only thing in life that will ultimately save your soul. This is the only thing
that's gonna wake you up and you're asking God to end what would end your hope of being saved and He loves you too much
to stop this journey. He loves you too much,
and some of you are like, well where is God? I don't know where God is! God is right here, whether
you feel Him or not, whether you sense Him or not,
whether you get Him or not, He's right here, He's closer
to you than gravity is! Listen to what the Bible
says, Psalms 34:18. It says, "The Lord is close," he's close to whom? "The brokenhearted and He saves those "who are crushed in spirit." God hasn't given up on you. He loves you, He's right there with you. God is with you, learn whatever you can. God's with you, don't
give up, don't give in. Don't listen to the enemy. The Lord is close, He hasn't abandoned you and let me just tell you this. Some of you guys, man, you
struggle during worship time because you're trying to think
your relationship with God. You're trying to feel your way through. Psalms 23, Though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
it's in the Song of Songs. It's meant to be sung. It's meant to be sung, and
some of us don't realize this. We can't feel our way through some things. We can't sense our way
through some things. Some things you gotta worship through. Right, you gotta worship through, and so many of you guys,
you've been reading your Bible your whole life and you go, I didn't know the Song
of Songs was a song. It has the word song in it! I heard Taylor Swift share something that was so profound, I
almost had to give up. This is what she said. She said, I've been thinking. I was like, oh no, Taylor, no. (laughing) Keep singing, keep singing! She said, I've been thinking. She says, maybe it's just me, but I think that songs
are nothing more than poetry put to music. Yes, Taylor, that's what it is! It's what it is. It's what it is. Look, when you read the Psalms and you're not getting anything out of it, it's because you gotta sing it. You gotta shout. At the end of the service today, we're gonna sing a song
called I Raise a Hallelujah and some of you don't
even know what that means. It's two Hebrew words, Hallel and Yah. Hallel is to praise in Hebrew, and Yah is shortened for Yahweh. Right, I'm gonna raise a praise God, I'm gonna raise a praise
God, you know why? Because there's some things in life you can't feel your way through, you can't think your way out of, you gotta sing your way
right in the middle of it. Amen. (applauding) Psalms 41:10, that's wrong. It should say Isaiah 41:10. I know my Bible, don't
trust your notes, trust me. (person laughing) Thank you, somebody got that. This is Isaiah 41:10. "Don't be afraid." Do you know why, sixes? I'm with you. Don't be afraid. "Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. "I will strengthen you and help you. "I will hold you up," I love this, "with my victorious right hand." Amen, amen. (light applauding) Some of you don't know who sits at the victorious right hand of God. His name is Jesus, He sits
at the right hand of God and let me tell you something. You may feel like you're
losing, but He already won. He already won, and some of
you feel so far from God. I want you to hear Jesus. You see, Satan said to Jesus,
who do you think you are? This is what Jesus wants to say to you. "Then Jesus said, Come to
me, all of you who are weary "and who carry heavy burdens, "and I will give you rest for your soul." He says, "take my yoke upon you." Listen to this. He says, "Let me teach you, because I
am humble and gentle at heart, "and then you'll find
rest for your souls." Man, I don't know where you are. I don't know what's going on in your life, but if you feel like you
need to be closer to God, if you need to reach out to God right now, would you just do that, would
you just raise your hand 'cause I'm gonna pray over you? No heads down, no eyes
closed, this is real time. I don't know what's going on in your life but you need God, you need
God in a special way right now and Jesus just says, look,
look, just come to me, raise your hand, just raise your hand. Jesus says, all who are weary, all who are weary, all
who carry heavy burdens, and Jesus says I will give you rest. Would you just look around
at all the hands raised? You're not alone, you're not alone and Jesus can lift every hand, Amen. Every hand, Jesus can lift. (applauding) Listen, I love you guys, but
the way out of depression, the way out of anxiety and the way out of discouragement is Jesus. Jesus said the thief has come
to steal, kill, and destroy. He said, but I have come
that you may have life and have it to the full. That's Jesus, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray in the
powerful name of Jesus, God. I pray for every person
who's battling depression, every person's who's just
so overwhelmed with anxiety, and for every person's that's
just so discouraged with life. Would they turn to you, would
they give their life to you, would they just come to you. Bless them, Lord, with the courage to say, I'm done doing it my way,
I'm ready to do it Your way. I pray this for them in Jesus' name, Amen. - Here at Sandals Church,
we really do believe that this vision of being
real can change the world. Because Sandals Church is a non-profit that operates from donations
from people like you, because when you donate, your money goes to creating places for people to be real all over this world. So, man, I would love for
you to be a part of that and you can make a
donation today by clicking the link on this video
or going to donate.sc. So join us in joining what God is doing through this vision of being
real and have a great day.
