I'm not okay... but Jesus is - Louie Giglio

it's a weird world amen can I get an amen some of you don't know it cuz you didn't live in the world before this world but if you lived in the world before this world come on that older people got to come with me it's the world's getting weird I mean I'll give you one example video games have become such a dominant part of our world any gamers in the house tonight just see it so hands shake to see how dominant it is six people are gaming it's just taken over it's like wildfire it's an epidemic for the six people here tonight who will get what I'm about to say but it's interesting that the gaming world's just one factor that we're all living with in this new world has made it a reality that a lot of people under 30 have spent more time interacting with people on screens characters on screens and they have interacting with real-life people in real-life situations and it's growing faster than you and I can imagine I was stunned to find out just recently that the Fortnight world champion 16 year old from Pennsylvania won three million dollars for winning the fortnight World Championship in July that's more money than Rafa Nadal won for winning Wimbledon in July some of you are going what is fortnight exactly fortnight came on the scene in 2017 it's grown so fast it's made its parent company a 15 billion dollar company and half the people in this room don't even know what fortnight is the other half are going to go home and play fortnight tonight and they're gonna get their skills sharpened knowing that there's a three million dollar prize for winning the fortnight World Championship scientists tell us and we would have to agree that we are addicted to technology and scientists tell us that our relational skills are dwindling families are splitting up kids are left to fend for themselves and grow up far faster than in the generations before anxiety has acceded almost every family table kids live in a fishbowl of comparison and even if you wanted to you cannot escape a world that bullies anyone and everyone it sees fit to do so so it's no wonder when you read study after study after study that teens and young people in their twenties are battling depression at unprecedented rates it's a reality it's complex depression is complex mental illness is complex but it's here and it's in all of our lives and if you are in the middle of this storm you already know that's true I want to make sure we say tonight that mental illness is not a one-size-fits-all problem mental illness happens for a lot of different reasons it happens because of trauma in our lives it happens because of genetic circumstances in our life it happens because of chemical imbalances in our life it happens because of stress in our lives external circumstances in our life mental illness sometimes as a result of our own personal failures that we're trying to keep the world from knowing about a lot of things can cause mental illness and the problem with mental illness one of the great frustrations of mental illness is you can't see it and you can't touch it a scientist can't show it to you on a sonogram or an MRI or a cat scan or a blood test that there are symptoms for sure that you can see but you can't see mental illness and that makes it even more frustrating for people who are fighting and struggling against it and so obviously there's no three-step formula right there's no simple answer there's no band-aid and that's why I'm not going to try to give a lot of quips tonight and I'm not going to try to offer any a one-size-fits-all solution tonight I on the other hand even as a believer in Jesus Christ want to respect the force of Mental Illness it has the power to steal and to kill and to destroy and I believe that the church is only going to be able to get into the conversation in the way that we need to once the church wakes up and understands the power of the grip of Darkness that people are struggling with and facing in their lives we can't just push it aside we can't just say oh you can get over that we can't just give a simple little bumper sticker sized answer to people we've got to respect that we are talking about a powerful force when we talk about mental illness but I'm telling you the thing that we've got to do is talk about it and so tonight whether it's suicide or whether it's depression or whether it's crippling anxiety we're not going to hide in the uncomfortable but we're gonna point to Jesus tonight because he has triumphed over all but we're also gonna try to understand if you haven't been through all this I'm telling you right now you probably don't fully understand it that's not a knock on you it's just a reality that you've got to step into if you haven't had suicidal thoughts then I'm just telling you you can't fully understand like that's not a knock on you it's just a reality that you have to step into I don't really fully understand what that battle would look like and even those of us who have been through severe depression like myself we don't even fully understand what we've been through but not understanding isn't going to give us an out to be silent we're not going to go silently no we're gonna stand up and speak up and tonight we are shining a light into the darkness even a darkness that maybe we don't fully understand because we do understand that Jesus and Jesus is the light in the darkness depression does its work its best work in the dark and I believe the power of depression even the power of suicide Garner's its strength in the darkness scientists say that more suicides happen in the window of midnight and at any other time in the day and I believe it's like a storm over ocean waters strengthening in the warmest of seas the depression and anxiety and suicide they strengthen in that dark night of hopelessness when we feel like maybe we're never gonna see a dawn again I know personally the depression tightens its grip in the night and in loneliness and in isolation and tonight all of us have the opportunity to step out of the night and into light to step out of the isolation that can be depression and into community where we can be honest about who we are in what we're struggling with and in stepping into the light something can change I am NOT a doctor I am NOT an expert I am NOT a psychologist I'm not a psychiatrist but I've been down in the pit of depression most everybody in this church knows this but I will say it again I've been down in the place where lies incubate I've been down in the place where I never thought I was gonna be myself again I've been down in the place where I thought I was losing my mind and if you've been there you can relate and if and I can relate to you I'm not talking about to lose my mind that we use just colloquially and our given circumstances like man I lost my keys and I was late to work and I was losing my mind not that kind of losing my mind I mean the real kind of losing your mind were your lark I don't know what's happening to me right now I'm not in full control of my faculties right now things are going on in my mind and physiologically in my body that I don't have control of right now and I think I actually may be crazy I have been in that place where hope seems to be extinguished but I'm telling you and I'll say it a thousand times with the help of doctors and with Jesus and with the weapon of worship I made it back to the land of the living and by the grace of God I'm standing here right now and I know that what I needed in those months was not someone to come along and give me a shout-out Louie you got this you can do it that is not what I needed in the darkness and it is not what I needed deep down in that pit I didn't need a shout-out I needed someone to show up and say I have lived through what you have lived through and I'm here to tell about it and God sent someone to me who had lived through exactly what I was going through and had lived to tell about it I needed somebody to show up and say you're not alone and you're not the only one because I didn't know that the world of mental illness existed the way it did until I was mentally ill and then I realized half the world is mentally ill but if you don't know that already you think you're the only one going through what you're going through and you don't need a shout out saying you can do it you need somebody to show up and say hey let me explain to you that you're not the only person going through this and I'll tell you what else I needed I needed somebody to show up and they did show up and they said hey there's gonna be a bumpy ride but you're gonna get through this and you are going to make it to the other side I needed ultimately a miracle from God and I ultimately got a miracle from God and therefore here I stand tonight and I'm in a way never wanting to go through that kind of depression again but on the other hand I'm so glad that I'm standing here as a result of it because I would probably never be giving this talk if I hadn't and I would never be able to have compassion for people who are struggling the way that I think that I can and so I'm here tonight if you're in that place not to offer you something simple and I'm not here to shout you out tonight and say come on you can do it I'm here to tell you that you are not alone and I'm here to tell you that you are gonna make it through this by the grace of God he is bigger then what you are facing I'm here tonight to take depression seriously I believe that depression is real and it is a killer but it is not bigger than Jesus it is not bigger than Jesus now if you're in panic right now if you feel suffocated right now by thoughts of suicide I want you to know you're not alone in this room probably in your section and very likely on your row and I want you to know this you're not crazy no you're not crazy there may be a boatload of crazy in it there was some crazy in mind but you are not crazy you are God's handiwork and he is greater you can clap for that if you want don't let people stop you if you want to get started don't you hate it when you want to clap and nobody else does and then you feel the pressure and then you just stop don't stop just keep going and let them feel the pressure of why am I not excited about the truth that's being proclaimed in the gospel that's being preached in the Jesus being exalted can you receive that tonight you're not crazy you're like well you should see the symptoms I'm having you should see the thoughts I'm having you should see the things that my body is doing oh I've seen all that before and that's why I say there is crazy in it but you are not crazy God created you and you are God's handiwork so another thing I just want you to know tonight we're here we all showed up today we all knew what this talk was about we all knew what this subject matter was going to be today and look around we all showed up tonight we didn't run and say hey you should go to that thing we all came to this thing tonight we're here the church is here but we need a few things to change number one we need to talk about mental illness more the church needs to talk about depression more the church needs to talk about suicide more and honestly we don't have a choice there was a time where we didn't talk about it I don't know if you remember that or not but there was a time when someone would take their life and we would go to the service I've been to services like this and no one ever mentioned that they took their life they died never said how they died nobody ever talked about the circumstances in which they died except in the hushed conversations in the hallway but we didn't want to talk about suicide we didn't want to surface the reality may be a family member went to the psych ward and we just said oh they they're dealing with an illness right now or they went to the hospital we never mentioned it was a mental hospital or maybe someone we loved was out of commission because of depression we said yeah they're going through a tough season right now but we didn't want to tell people oh the reality is they're curled up in the fetal position at the house and they haven't moved in six weeks but that was the reality and I just hope that the church can get to a place where we can talk about it where people don't feel like they have to hide what's going on in their world I know for me living in this PC world we live in I felt like it was easier for me to say to people after the fact I had a panic disorder or an anxiety attack because those actually kind of sound like something you have like I had a sinus infection I had a panic disorder I pulled a muscle on my back I had a an anxiety attack it sounded so much more acceptable to people been saying I had a mental breakdown when's the last time you heard someone say that not any time recently because that doesn't float in the society as easily as I had a panic attack and I just think we've got to strip all of the pretense away so that we can talk about reality and one of the realities going on around us is massive depression mental illness everywhere thoughts of suicide and suicide is happening everywhere in the church needs to talk about it more I think the days of not talking about it are over suicide as you know is one of if not the fastest-growing killer of young people growing at an incredibly steady pace especially among teens and people in their 20s but it's not just young people they say the most likely people to take their life for men and women over 70 years old it's predominantly a white problem specifically a white male problem 7 and 10 people who take their life are white men the most clarifying numbers we have looking back 2017 and I didn't went around the number I just wanted to give it in its detail to count and respect every single person who we've lost 47,000 173 people in the United States alone took their lives in 2017 129 people a day one person almost every 10 minutes and it's not some problem out there right it's it's here on Thursday a high school student at North Atlanta High School where we meet took their life the conversation for me of bringing suicide to the forefront started with a middle school kid at passion camp two summers ago who came to passion camp having written a letter goodbye to his family on his computer the student didn't know that his parent had found the letter and there they were at camp together not having had that conversation yet and God spoke about suicide at passion camp two summers ago and that student stood up in the response and said that is me thinking about taking my life and the parent and the student had a conversation and light came into the darkness and this past summer that same student was also at passion camp a year later and that family it seemed like them in the darkness that stirred something in me and in Colorado a few weeks after I was at an event of four thousand teenagers and since the Lord put someone on my heart I came after my message during the responsive worship I just asked the worship leader I need to share I said I believe there's somebody here who's already made a plan I believe you've written in your journal and it's in your drawer in your bedroom right now and you've already made a specific plan to take your life on a specific day after this Christian conference is over and if that's you I just need you to know you're not the only person who's read that journal entry Jesus has also read every word of that journal entry and he is here tonight and he wants to bring light into your darkness and he wants you to know that he loves you and he is with you and he is for you and you've got the power to step toward Jesus tonight and I said I want to pray for you if that is you I said I know it's a bold step and I've never done anything quite like this before there's 4,000 of us standing around but if that's you I just wouldn't invite you please can you just put your hand up and let me see it because I want to pray for you in Jesus name and I would say in the next second about 200 hands went up in the room it took my breath away but I knew in that moment Jesus is wanting to step into the conversation he's wanting to step into the fight he's wanting to step towards people who were thinking about giving up on it all and not long after I got pinged on social media by someone who said if anybody ever asks you and trust me I already know the story I know who does what in in the circumstances the situation's of life but someone ping me on social media and said if anyone ever asked you if you've saved someone's life you can say yes because I was in that gathering in Colorado and I had had a journal entry and I already had a day in a plan three days after that conference ended to take my life but I did make that choice because in that night God shifted my heart and I stepped toward Jesus and I've chosen to live and not die the freaky part of it was when I clicked on the link of the person because I was intrigued it was exactly the face of the person that got it laid on my heart when I stepped up that night I didn't say it in the setting because you never can trust really if this is me or this is the Lord you just kind of go with an instinct and I said I believe there's somebody here but it was the girl that God had put on my heart a cheerleader at her school one of the bright ones and I'm sure running with all the right people but yet dying on the inside it's all around us all ages high school kids and CEOs and the culture is trying to speak in but honestly I'm not sure what the arts can bring it's not a knock on the arts I love the arts but thirteen reasons why I don't know if it's really bringing a solution to the struggle in more recent days the jury is out on whether Joker is really helping the conversation but I do know this I know that we know the one who is the light of the world therefore the church can't be silent and on the sidelines the church has to speak up and the church has to talk about mental illness and the church has to talk about suicide and that's why we're talking about it tonight I hope that by speaking up about it we can de stigmatize mental illness and even D stigmatize the struggle with suicide could it be possible the church could become a place where people could walk in and comfortably say I'm depressed I'm on medication I'm in a treatment facility right now I've been struggling with thoughts of taking my own life I actually attempted to take my life and the church wouldn't reel from that conversation the church would just lean in with open arms and say welcome home there's no stigma here for having mental illness there's no stigma here for struggling there's no stigma here for anything that anybody's going through everybody is welcome in this place because I'll tell you being depressed as a weight but feeling like you can't be honest about where you are that is a way bigger weight the pressure to be quote-unquote okay is a heavy pressure and sometimes that pressure is greatest in the church why in the church well it's simple we are faith community and our faith is supposed to be stronger than all these things in the world our story is one a victory our songs are one a victory so when you come through the door and you're not walking in victory when you come through the door and you're actually drowning under the darkness and feel like you're losing your mind when you come through the door and everybody's got their hands in the air and their journals out there aiming the message and you don't feel anything that's a weight especially if the church puts you in a position where you don't feel like you can be honest it's the church in large part that's been teaching people that suicide is the unpardonable sin talk about a stigma the scripture does not teach that suicide by the way is the unpardonable sin the Gospels say clearly that the unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which in the context of Scripture means repeatedly saying to the Spirit of God wooing you to Jesus as Savior and Lord that you're not interested and to do that over the course of a lifetime is to leave you no recourse with a holy God there is no way for you to make it into God's future for your life if you resist the Holy Spirit's invitation to come to Jesus but I don't believe suicide the Bible is taught is the unpardonable sin I do believe suicide in the context of Scripture is a sin but we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and I believe for the believer suicide is under the blood of Jesus even suicide is under the blood of Jesus but in the church we ask all these questions right so easy isn't faith enough shouldn't faith be enough you're a Christian shouldn't you overcome depression and your struggle and mental illness even the church is struggling with should people be on medication should people see a therapist should people be in counseling should people be in a treatment facility well I I believe the message of the church needs to be clear and it's not simply we all should pray more I mean kind of get one Amen that somebody's been around faith long enough that it's not that simple for everybody and everybody doesn't get instantly healed every single time there's an opportunity for healing I mean stay with the thought tonight because we're definitely not finished yet but we've got to create an atmosphere where there isn't a stigma on somebody's life just because they didn't get over whatever they're struggling with during the gathering tonight I mean we had great worship and we had amazing stories and we had a really good word from the Lord and surely now with the respond time you can get over whatever it is you're dealing with while all the rest of us in the church aren't all fully over all the things we're dealing with and I believe when we get real then that stigma comes down I believe the church needs to clearly say it's okay to not be okay [Applause] and I will add to this if you need help tonight get help if you need a doctor get help doctors are gifts from God they can be a part of God's plan all plans that bring healing are God's plans for healing any healing that happens in a person's life ultimately must be the result of God because every good and perfect gift comes down from heaven from the Father of lights and I just say if you need help please get help and to the church I just want to say to our church I love our church we heard stories tonight about people walking into our church from every corner of the neighborhood in all kind of circumstances and situations and I just praise God that when they came through the door to this church they didn't feel shame and they didn't feel judged and they didn't feel like they needed to cover up their reality but they could be true and find Jesus and find healing and find help we got to make sure we don't put up the church veneer and we've got to make sure that we don't forget where we came from and what we came through I know when I realized I'm coming out of the darkness when I realized I'm coming back to life when I realized finally I'm gonna make it out of that hole and back into my right mind I had a choice I could close the door on that and never talk about it that's the choice I wanted to make as a man particularly and as a human being but then I realized I had a stewardship of a story of a miracle of God's grace and somebody needed the story of the miracle of God's grace that I'd experienced in my life so that they could know they're gonna experience that in their life and I'm not the only one even those of us moving on in our relationship with God we all have defeat in our story right we all have overcome something we all have come through something the worst thing we can do is get through it all and then act like we never went through it all so that we can tell everybody else you need to get it all together while we're still working on getting it together ourselves the church has got to be honest and the church has got to be real and we do that I think the stigma is lifted because the last thing the world needs is a fake Church and if you just dropped in tonight and you're not a part of church and you're not really even sure where you are with Jesus I want you to know something about Jesus Jesus is not like that he is not into veneer and he's not fake fact he said I've come to heal the sick he said the well they don't need me but I've come to heal the sick I've come to seek and to save those who are lost so if you're good guess what you're never going to get a miracle from God if everything's okay you are never gonna experience the transformation of the resurrection of Jesus it's when we're honest with where we are who we are what we are where we've come from that we are candidates to experience the power of all-mighty God Jesus is here right now and he's here to heal he's here to say he's here to create a culture and I just want to say I just want to take one more step and say that we've got to give people time and space to heal it's a process restoration sometimes takes time now can Jesus do a miracle right here right now 100% yes and it's very likely that he will because we've been on our knees today praying that God would do a miracle in this moment right now we come to the door every week with expectation and we see God do miracles in every gathering that we have at passion city church and I fully believe he's going to do a miracle right here in right now there is no doubt in my mind about that but at the same time we want to come understanding that sometimes the miracle takes a moment and for you the miracle may be that you make it till tomorrow that may be the miracle not that all of a sudden instantaneously everything went away the miracle just as big a miracle for you maybe that I made it to Monday praise God I experienced a miracle oh we did everything go away no but I'm still here and I'm still standing and that's a big miracle of God in my life it's in the process so if that's where you are it's okay to not be okay amen we see you we hear you we are here for you we love you and on top of that we are you and we have a place for you so we've got two distinct mattias I think that'll happen the more we talk about suicide than when we talked about mental illness but we've also got a D glamorize suicide this is the tougher part of our journey tonight he said well how could suicide be glamorous well the enemy has a way of making everything horrible glamorous in two specific ways to the side is glamorous is somehow the culture has created a insidious whirlwind it's called suicide contagion by the scientist so Robin Williams takes his life and in the four months that follow that the suicide rate in America goes up 10% the manner of suicide in which he died goes up 30 plus percent Marilyn Monroe takes her life the suicide rate in America goes up 12% somehow in some crazy way the media attention and all the notoriety and even the way for some suicide has a cult effect on their legacy it creates a vortex it sucks people in and pulls them under too this glamour somehow that suicide is actually and can be somehow a good thing the other way the enemy glamorizes suicide is by telling us that everyone else is going to be better off when we're gone Kurt Cobain wrote a Long Goodbye letter at the end of it in two sentences he wrote to his wife Courtney these words he said please keep going Courtney for Francis that was their daughter for her life which will be so much happier without me that's the glamorizing power at suicide my daughter's life will be better without me I wonder if Francis's life has been better without her father I can't answer that only she can but I can tell you that it's most likely that is not going to be better for you or anyone else if you take your life it's not gonna be better for you because it's not God's purpose and it's not God's plan for you your destiny is not in leaving your destiny is in staying and it's certainly not going to be better for the people that you love you may be free from your earthly pain but you're gonna trap all those around you in a different kind of pain for the rest of their lives so don't believe the lie that you're a burden that one choice can allow you to escape all your pain and that when you make that choice everyone else will be better off without you because that is not the case no one will be better off without you those you love will be left behind to live out their lives with guilt with a cloud with self-doubt with questions with pain and with anger for the rest of their lives and all the while they'll know that they weren't worth fighting for oh they'll know that it wasn't you that took your life they'll know that it was the darkness ravaging you that it wasn't really you thinking clearly they'll know that intellectually but it will be a gut punch in their soul and it will be agonizing and it will be painful I met this couple recently in a young couple he was a young is a young pastor and he had just gotten out of a mental hospital he'd survived an attempt on his life and he came to tell me how something that I'd written had saved his life and he said thank you so much your words changed my life saved my life and we hug and embraced and he cried and I cried and I told him how glad he was that he was alive and he told me how glad he was that he was alive and I told him what a great gift of God it was that he was still here and the more we talked the more I realized that it seemed like his wife was completely you know in the periphery of the conversation and it was all about me and God saved me and this change happened in me and I'm here and I'm not gone and I'm still here and all this conversation and finally I started realizing there's there's another person in the story you know and so I said to him I said you know I don't know you very well and I want to say this is gently as I can I know you just got out of the hospital and I know that you're in a very fragile place so I'm gonna say this as kindly as I can but you realize that your wife is standing right here also so I just want to say out loud because it needs to be said I'm really glad that you're still here and I'm also equally glad that she doesn't have to live her entire life regretting that she could have done more and his eyes whined and I knew when they did that those thoughts had never fully settled in his heart he had never fully factored in the collateral of the decision that he was gonna make and I believe that God wants you to hear that tonight somebody he wants you to hear that tonight as gently as this house can say it is kindly as this house can say it I want you to hear this tonight suicide doesn't alleviate pain it multiplies it so stay even in the pain and trust God to do a miracle and give you another sunrise in another day to believe in him we need to talk about it D stigmatize it hopefully D glamorize it and coming down to the end here we need a better mantra it can't just be it's okay to not be okay that cannot be our mantra it is okay to not be okay we should be able to say that in the church but that cannot be the total message right because there's resurrection in our story that's why we are pointing people to Jesus tonight and fixing our eyes on Jesus because even though we may not be okay Jesus is okay he is a victor with scars and he has overcome and he is here in this place right now he understands what's going on do you know Jesus was tempted to take his life you know this right in the wilderness the enemy said jump off the corner of the temple angels will grab you how did he know angels would grab him he been 40 days and 40 nights without food and without water in the wilderness how did Jesus think clearly in the moment what kind of pressure was he under what kind of stress was he dealing with and in a weak moment the enemy said jump off the highest point of the temple don't worry it'll all work out what if he had jumped and what if angels hadn't intervened and what if the resurrection plan of Jesus had died that night so when it says he's been tempted in every way like we are it means in every way yet somehow Jesus knowing he was going through pain suffering hardship death grave sin and hell he kept talking about not all that he was gonna go through he kept talking about the fact that when he went through it he was going to come out on the other side and he did when Jesus was dying on a cross one of his closest friends was committing suicide so don't think that Jesus doesn't understand where we are he's in the midst tonight alive from the dead having come through the darkness and he's okay therefore you can say and I can say that even though I'm not okay Jesus is okay I can say I'm not a hundred percent okay right now but I want to add to that Jesus is 100 percent okay right now I can say I feel like I'm losing my mind right now but I want to add Jesus is not losing his mind right now we're not saying some little slogan just say it with me I'm not okay but Jesus is okay and all boy everything just turned out swell we're not saying that we're saying something more powerful than that we're saying that you and I can participate in our own future by confessing things that are true over our lives because in large part our words determine our destiny if you're saying all day long I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I'm not gonna make it I don't think I'm gonna make it I don't think I'm gonna make it guess what you're upping your odds of not making it and you're also mimicking the enemy because your father's not telling you that but on the contrary if you were to say this is the hardest thing I've ever been through anybody in that spot right now this is the hardest thing I've been through but I will come out the other side I'm just gonna finish the sentence for myself there's a counterweight to the weight the weight is real the depression is where it real that the situation is real it's all real but there's a counterweight to this real and the counterweight is just as real he is real and he's okay so I'm gonna finish the sentence I am going through the hardest thing the darkest night the biggest trial I am up against Hell itself but I will come through I'm gonna finish the sentence about my own destiny if I don't see it or I don't believe it I am still gonna speak it because Jesus is in fact alive from the dead and has overcome the darkness and he is oh okay then you say well what difference does it make I'm telling you confessing and bringing Jesus into the darkness gives a little glimmer of light that comes crashing into the black out of depression and that one ray of light can bring you another day of life oh I know this is true I've been there and I know that you can be broken down to the bottom and still confess that Jesus is a healer at the same time and the two things don't have to match and be congruent in time and space to be real circumstances never corroborate fully the faithfulness of God you can't trust circumstances to fully corroborate the faithfulness of God sometimes circumstances are opposite everything we come to believe about God but the cross does corroborate the faithfulness of God and it stands in history as proof that our God is good even in the darkest night and you can believe that about God even when you're broken down in your weakest state both things can live together and when you start confessing the reality of who he is things change light comes in so I want to encourage you to use the power of your mouth you're like I I can't well you are I'm a my depressions horrible my depression it's worse than it's ever been my anxiety is like so bad I can't even go out of the house my situation right now I don't even know if I'm going to come out of this I've never been this bad off before I don't no one has been able to help me nobody's been able to solve this nobody's been able to diagnosis I can't see a future things haven't changed it's been like this for a long time we're already I'm saying this kindly using our mouths why not just finish the sentence I mean I've never been this bad off I had nothing's changed in three weeks but Jesus he's still okay he's still solid he's still true he still got his right mind he's still strong he's still a healer he still loves me he still got some kind of plan I know it's never been this bad before but Jesus is still as good as he's ever been since the day he gave his life for me on a cross I believe it I believe it and I'm gonna keep confessing it I'm gonna keep saying it and I'm gonna say what the psalmist said this is the one text and the heart text of everything today I'm gonna confess psalm 118 verse 17 i will not die but live and i will declare what the lord has done i will not die but i will live and i will declare what the lord has done it's not a simple fix you may need help I say if you need help get help but while you're getting help use the power of your own tongue to create a future that you're gonna live in and that future is I'm not gonna die I know it feels like I'm gonna die but I'm not gonna die I'm gonna live and I'm gonna have a story to tell of the faithfulness of God in my life I'm not gonna close it up in a closet I'm not gonna hide my Christian Church veneer I'm gonna tell the world the whole time that's where I was but this is where I am that's what I was but God brought me through I was so far down but God lifted me up and he brought me out again I will not die but I will live and I will declare what the Lord has done I'm not okay but Jesus is that's my story and every time I say it I'm bringing Jesus right into the darkness right into the psych ward right into the situation right into the depression right into the voice of the darkness that is saying take your life tonight I'm saying I got another voice Jesus is okay my God is okay my God is okay I'm not okay but my god he is okay his name is Jesus I'll say lastly that the church needs to create a story whereby we can realize and understand that God might not take all the pain away on this earth so many people that are contemplating taking their lives the sentence that they say to me is I can't take the pain one more day and somehow I think the church doesn't have an answer to that except just pray more believe more have more faith or get over it or when the church needs to have an answer to that and I believe the church is the answer that is it may not be that you need to pray that God would alleviate the pain it may be that you need to say to Jesus you understand paying more than anybody who's ever understood pain so can I bring this pain to you one more day and trust that you can use the pain to bring about eternal good and eternal change through my life in the lives of other people maybe the church needs to say instead of pray this quick prayer and all the pain will go away to say take the pain to Jesus and find that there is purpose in the pain there was purpose in Jesus pain and you say yes it was for our healing and we're all going to stand in that in that moment where he will wipe away all tears from our eyes and there is no more sorrow that's not on this earth and there is no more death I saw it on this earth and there is no more crying that's not on this earth and there are no more tears that's not on this earth that is in forever and our forever home with Jesus on this earth there's gonna be pain but the pain can have a glorious purpose you're like you don't know what I've been through I don't but I know what he went through and he can come alongside you and he can carry you and your pain one more day so that he can use you and your pain to unlock doors for prisoners and set captives free see at the end of the day it's all about Jesus suicide is the ultimate rebuttal to the belief that I am created by and for God's glory because when you choose to end your life you cannot glorify God in that way you glorify God by staying in it and leaning on him to bring you through one more one more day one more dawn that's how God gets glory in our lives that we were created by and for story so if you need help get help but I want to encourage you to stay stay for your family stay for your friends stay for the church we need you say for the world you have a gift and we need your gift stay for the world you have something to contribute to make this world a better place and we need that but ultimately stay for more than your kids stay for more than your wife stay for more than your husband stay for more than your job stay for God and His glory stay another day so that you can bring glory to God don't leave stay you have more power than an enemy wants to make you think that you have man I I didn't think I had a shred of power I couldn't go to work I couldn't go to meetings I couldn't leave the house I couldn't function I couldn't think I couldn't get out of the bed half the time and the enemy made me think you've got no power but on the night of nights when my story started turning around I realized I did have power I had power to praise God in the darkest place I'd ever been and when I did I just shoved it right back in the face of the enemy I don't say that like with a big bow duck frame because I still struggle sometimes with anxiety released a book about overcoming some of my Giants and while I set out across the nation on the media to her to talk to people on TV and the radio and in print all about Goliath mice fall I was going under with an anxiety situation that I hadn't experienced in years hi I'm Louie Giglio this is my new book Goliath must fall this talks about how the giant of fear Goes Down and then I would go back to my hotel room and I was under the gun where that was fun but it didn't invalidate the message of Jesus because at least I wrote a book does more than I thought I could have done when I was down in that hole when I couldn't go to the dinner table see the enemy is making you think right now that you have far less power than you have and you're gonna show him tonight not by some big strong man move or some big super woman move you're gonna show him just by simply opening your mouth and saying I'm not okay thank you for giving me that line I accept it and I am going through a difficult time that is reality and I'm not going to glaze over but I'm going to say something else tonight my Jesus he's okay I'm not all shouting and crazy and hands up in the air and I'm not doing a little jig and dancing around and it's all I can do to get that out but I'm getting it out I'm finishing my sentence by the grace of God I will make it I will not die I will live and I will declare what the Lord has done you have the power more power than you think you have the power to open this book and you should but I'm seeing a good counselor amen I need medication right now and it's helping me great you got the power unless somehow you've lost the use of your arm both of them and your tongue and you have no friends you have the power to open this work and I encourage you to open it starting tonight I wear when I open it Romans eight opens with no condemnation ends with no separation and in between in between no condemnation and no separation in all things God works he works in the psych ward he works in the pit he works through depression he works through thoughts of suicide he works even when a family member has taken their life God still somehow even works in that in all things God works in between no condemnation and no separation you're an adopted daughter and adopted son of the Almighty God in the spirit of God inside of you says Abba Father I have a daddy who loves me I have a God who cares for me I have a king in heaven who calls me love son love daughter no condemnation no separation why not memorize that why not make that the story why not hone in on the truth of the last few verses where it says nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ not life or death do you hear that not life or death not life or death if you're thinking about taking your life it's not death you're worried about its life that's giving you trouble and he's saying life nor death can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus you've got more power than you think you do tonight I'm not asking you to do gymnastics I'm just asking you encouraging you to open your mouth and agree with God my God loves me even in this pit and he is with me in the middle of it all if I lean hard on Jesus I'm gonna see another sunrise and if I bring my pain to him he will carry me through one more day and somehow he will triumph over it all because God is greater [Music]

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 281,077

Rating: 4.9176054 out of 5

Keywords: Atlanta, louie giglio, passion city church, passion church, louie giglio sermons, passion city church worship, passion city, giglio louie, louie giglio 2019, giglio, passion, city church, passion city church sermons, anxiety, depression, suicide, mental illness, im not okay but jesus is, im not ok but jesus is, im not okay, jesus, i'm not okay but jesus is, i'm not ok but jesus is, i'm not okay, i am not ok but jesus is, Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: kg2BoUjtvY0

Length: 55min 49sec (3349 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 13 2019