Sunday morning teaching by Pastor Tom Johnson 3-7-21

to grow in their faith in jesus christ so we're going to need your help well let's pray take your bibles father we thank you for the opportunity to learn the word today i ask that you would move upon us by the power of the holy spirit as it is applied to our lives we learn how to live it in jesus name i pray amen this last year has has pushed everyone to its limits it's pushed me this a year ago we weren't having church it's pushed everybody and one of the things that we keep hearing about is mental health and even mentioning that some people go oh great in that we're going to talk about this in church yes we are because the scripture speaks a great deal about it and in this area many christians especially pentecostal charismatic churches like us have not had a great track record of compassion people have been told who are suffering from depression and other mental illnesses and and troubles they've been told well you need to pray more you need to you need to fast more you need to have more faith well that's true yeah yeah but that doesn't help when you're in the middle of a situation people have been forced to hide the fact that they need meds to deal with their mental health issues because there's still a stigma attached to it this has to stop how do i get it from my nurses at least come on many in this room take medication for high blood pressure or cholesterol or have to take things for diabetes in the same way you're simply trying to level off your body in the same way people have to take medication for mental issues it is the same thing we got to remove the stigma and remove it so people don't have to hide some have been guilted into thinking that they need to quote live by faith and drop their meds that is a very bad idea if you're going to go off your meds you're going to go off your meds with the help of your doctor because truth is truth okay you could talk to them now it is true that that too much has been prescribed we understand all that but why do we gotta swing the pendulum so far all the time let's stick with truth i've dealt with a situation where people have been told they have to get rid of the meds and and they're not living by faith and they've taken they dropped their meds and they've fallen into a deep deep dark hole of depression because someone who is insane insensitive unwise claiming to be some spiritual guru told them to do so we're not going to do that now one of the great heroes of the old testament is elijah it says in james chapter 5 verse 17 when talk about this great hero in the new testament says elijah was a human being even as we are he was a person just like us he faced situations and because it says this because he did such amazingly huge things that none of us think that we could ever do amazingly huge things but that's not what the bible says the bible says he's just a dude that listen to god now let's look at his life and we'll find out some big things he did and then some issues he had everybody look at your neighbor and go i know you got issues all right first of all let's go to first kings in the old testament first kings chapter 17 18 and 19 and we're going to get get to 19 but let me tell you the story because we don't got time to read four chapters this is good reading this goes back to the time of king ahab and he had a nasty wife her name was jezebel now abraham was kind of a man but his wife was more of one and she kind of run she kind of run the kingdom and he was kind of broken and whatever and she began to lead the people to kill god's prophets and they began to get into baal worship baal worship is a hideous thing of perversion that because there's children in the room we can't even tell you what they did because it's so perverse the things they would do and she began to kill off the prophets then there's elijah god's man he's on the scene god begins to move through his life and finally it culminates in this amazing confrontation on mount carmel where he begins this he be he runs into the king he says i want you to meet me on the mountain and here's the deal the god who answers by fire is god and we're going to serve him so 450 prophets of baal show up and they've got a couple of oxen over here and they're up on this mountain and all the people are standing around watching and he goes this is what we're going to do we're both going to prepare these sacrifices and the god that answers by fire is god so he says you guys go first pick one well we'll take that one now you go and arrange it and they set up their sacrifice he says but don't touch it the god who answers by fire is going to be god and so elijah goes over here and he's sitting back and he's having a little a little little glass of bubbly and and he's sipping back and he's watching him and these guys are doing chanting and screaming come down bail bail we need you bail show up and nothing's happening so then they begin to go to the next level they begin to cut themselves they begin to cut themselves now i want to be sensitive to this because we've dealt with a lot of people who've been cutters did you know the bible talks about cutting it always is connected to the demonic and what it does is the demonic spirits push you in times of stress and pain to hurt yourself and every person i've talked to has ever cut says when i do that there's a release but what you're not knowing is that after the release the clamps come tighter and it isn't long and the pressure comes back and then do it again and the clamps get tighter do it again and the clamps get tighter and that all of a sudden begins to choke a life out of a person so i want to be sensitive to that there's many people in these this room right now that have been cutters and who have been set free so i want to let you know that so i'm not making fun of that i want to go back to the biblical thing here these people will worship in a demonic spirit and they would slice themselves and cut themselves and elijah was sitting back while these things were happening and elijah because these people claimed they were serving the real god and they had killed all of god's true prophets he was sit back going hey maybe he's sleeping why don't you yell a little louder or maybe he went to target maybe he's shopping a little bit you know the back aisles are pretty good this time of year i mean and he's just harassing them like crazy and finally he goes all the way through the day and it's the afternoon he goes okay boys you're done so the one guy against 450 he takes and what had happened is that it had not reigned in israel for three and a half years and so he takes this oxen he repairs the altar and altar basically notice is a pile of rocks and he puts these pieces of this oxen on there and then he digs this trench she says guys go get all the water you can find we're going to pour it on here it was like a precious sakura and it went and filled the trench around it then he stood back and he prayed a prayer he says lord i'm not praying because i need to pray but because i want these people to hear now first of all let's stop for a minute if you ever think you know need to go up on mount carmel and do something like this you had better be a mature christian with lots of experience with all kinds of backing behind you because if you've known jesus for like three years and you think you've got to do something big like this you aren't hearing anything right you're just off your rocker okay just chill out because god isn't going to call you to something big until you learn how to do the things that are little right come on if you don't because jesus said if you if big the biggest word in the bible is if if you are found faithful in the little things you're going to be able to be able to do bigger things and many times in people's immaturity they think they're supposed to instantly do big things and they can't do even the little things right so god's got to clean your life up do some stuff in you get the little things put back in place and you're going to see the big thing so he's there and he prays and god comes down boom the whole thing is burnt up by fire the fire goes wrong licks up all the water around the sacrifice and then elijah goes take them boys out back and kill them all man there was a victory that day there was a victory that day what happened afterwards though let me show you let's go to uh first kings 19. verse number one now ahab told jezebel everything and he told them like he told jesus well everybody the elijah did you know what he didn't know all about prophets i can't believe he did that now ahab told jesus about everything elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword so jezebel sent a text message to elijah and look what she says may the gods okay look at how she says it may the gods she didn't know the one true living god she knew the gods there are many things that are called gods on this earth all of them are demon imposters fallen angels how do i know that i've gone into the depths of india and walked in and saw what these people are doing and saw what they sacrificed to and after the people are done in their temple they came to our meetings and we had to cast demons out of them i've gone to the depths of africa done the exact same thing everywhere i've gone the exact it's always true always these are little gods who masquerade they're not gods at all they're created angels who fell and rebelled against god god cast them down they are demonic spirits may the gods deal with me be it ever so severely if by this time tomorrow i do not make you you make your life like that of one of them now elijah just had this big big big deal going on and a woman sends him a note and he wets his pants look it says here in verse 3 elijah was afraid and ran for his life you can see that this is a spiritual thing going on this is not just a simple what you can see on the surface there there are demonic things behind these other things when when you're told to get into astrology or witchcraft or or or tarot cards or are having your palm read or or any of these things they look good on the surface but there's always a demonic power behind them bible says very clearly in deuteronomy 18 not to touch these things it will defile you why should you not touch these things because you won't have an experience no because you will have an experience but it won't be with god you'll be with something dark and any time you mess with something that's not of god it will always cost you whenever you come to jesus everything you've received from jesus cost him there's the difference the enemy always wants more of your blood the enemy always wants you to take another beer the enemy always wants you to take another drug the enemy always wants you to go deeper deeper deeper deeper because every time you go deeper it gets more of you but when you come to jesus he paid for it all and every time i get more to god it's because of what jesus did and because he paid there's the difference there is the difference while he himself went a day let's go down to verse three elijah was was afraid and ran for his life when he came to bear sheba and judah he left his servant there and while him he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness he came to a a broombush sat down under it and prayed that he might die look he said i've had enough lord take my life i'm no better than any of my ancestors then he laid down under a bush and fell asleep this life will always bring you to a place where it's beyond your ability to handle it every person here is going to face things you can't handle and when you're at that point is when the enemy comes to you and offers you something do you know you can escape this if you just drank a little bit of that or took a little bit of that you can escape this pain through sex you can escape this pain through this if you just took a little bit of this and did a little bit and a little bit of this and a little bit of that how many in this room could say you know what i i know what that's that circle of terror is like come on you know what that circle of terror is like and it just circles on you again and every time you come back you get deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and you come to a place because the enemy wants to kill you satan will always offer you something that looks good on the surface with the motivation to kill you jesus will always offer you the difficult things because it will save you he calls you to that which seems impossible for you to do so that you can be saved do you see how it's always the opposite always the opposite so he gets a little bit of practical teaching here about depression anxiety in fear when you're in that situation you know what the best thing you can do take a nap just take a nap when you are stressed out when you are worried when everything is going on the best thing you can do is go to bed close the curtains and sleep then look what happened verse nine five all at once an angel touched him and said get up and eat he looked around and there beside his head with some bread baked over hot coals in a jar of water he ate and drank and then laid down again another thing you need to do when you're stressed out and bummed out don't know what to do and overworking over this and over that have a good meal and take a nap the next time your wife comes in guys and you're just there in your chair and you're saying what are you doing honey i'm going i'm spirit doing spiritual warfare honey that's all i'm doing i'm just fighting the devil right now let me go back to lee why why is that important for christians because like it says in in psalm 46 be still and know that i am god says the lord there are those times when we basically say i am done worrying with this i have gone too far with this i can't carry this i'm taking a nap you deal with it lord sometimes the greatest act of faith is a really good night's sleep come on come on is the rest because when you're not resting when you're not thinking we're talking about mental health here today when you aren't taking the time to take care of you we just had our thing with our meeting with uh 20 other pastors this week we talked about the four-legged table where you've got your physical your spiritual you're emotional what was the other one and mental there you go thank you doctor and and the mental any one of those legs that are off your table is going to wobble all over the place we've got to be strong in all those areas of our lives that's what god was doing with elijah after a good nap he needed some food and then after that need another nap then what happened then you're going to be prepared for the next verse verse 7 the angel of the lord came back a second time and touched him again and said get up and eat another meal i love how god does these things my wife says every time we go somewhere i'm always worried about where we're going to eat well we're going to have lunch we're going to have supper we're eating breakfast she goes is that all you worry about well i got to have a plan for life the angel lord said i came back a second time and touched him and said get up and eat for the journey is too much for you when you can't make it you need what god gives come on verse eight so he got up and ate and drank strengthened by the food because this was so it was from an angel but it's got to be something supernatural it's kind of like an illustration where jesus said i am the bread of life that has come down from heaven he who feasts on me shall live come on he traveled for 40 days and 40 nights until he reached horeb the mountain of god there he went into a cave and spent the night now you can read later this experience he's about to have with god the bible consistently gives us stories of people who have high high mountain experiences and then are in the valleys why is it that we live in a land that thinks christianity is only when you're living on the top of the mountain it is a filthy lie these people who are on tv who tell you you got to send in for their book and everything is going to be wonderful if you have faith you know what if you have true faith is only shown when you're in the middle of a tragedy come on when someone's dying or has died when there's a situation you don't know the answers for you need faith to make it through the situation and why in the world is it do we believe this stupidity that says well if you have faith you're just never going to face any trouble whatsoever you know what they're doing send me your money so i can buy myself another stinking jet come on somebody say pastor you tell the truth now that's all they're doing they're stealing from people but the bible teaches us that there's times when we get so deep we need the lord and when the greatest thing we can do is take a nap that's it and i want to tell you something because you're his child when you've given your life to jesus when you can only take a nap he's there come on when that's all you can do is take a nap he's there why is it that people have such big devils and such anybody jesus you know those people say oh i'm not going to claim that i'm not speaking that over my life i'm not going to say i'm i'm praying the lord i'm healed my husband's not dead this situation is not happening i speak it in the name of jesus money money money money money money my money okay i mean these crazy people on tv teach you this junk they're lying to you why because they think their jesus is so small that if you might pray just a little wrong he's gonna slap you just for fun you know what they're doing they're trying to tell you that god's like satan do you wonder why i get riled up sometimes now jesus says come to me like little children louie i'm learning louise language he's he's going to be too and i know his language he talks to me at this afternoon we'll have to talk about i know exactly what he's saying he's under two now jenna can understand what he's saying moms do you remember that when you could understand what your kids are saying and dad's going i don't know what the kid wants huh he says the house is on fire oh now if a parent can figure out what a one and a half year old is saying don't you think the living god who knows how many hairs are on your head and knows what you think every moment and knows the words that come on don't you think he knows enough to take care of you when sometimes all you can do is go abba it's time for us to get a great big jesus it kind of reminds me of the aladdin itty-bitty living space it always makes you laugh when i think about that but let's get a great big jesus and let's get a itty-bitty devil amen because our god is bigger amen come on we might get out of control here today now so if elijah faced days when he just wanted to give up we also will face days we when we just want to give up the things that make the difference is this how we face the challenges and then overcome it starts with understanding that this life understanding what this life has done in our past has done to our self worth has done to our purpose when when satan came to eve he came in the form of a snake and as a snake he did not bite eve he simply gave her an idea think about that god said we're going to live in perfect harmony and in order to be have perfect harmony and you choose to serve god you have to have an ability not to choose him to reject him he says there's a tree here don't touch it it's tree of knowledge good and evil satan came along oh did god say you can't eat from any tree in the garden well he did say there was some tree the tree of knowledge and the day we touch it and eat it we will die and then satan goes really you won't die you'll be like god he didn't bite her he introduced the thought of doubt and then a thought of contradiction of god's truth he does the same things with us and this is a large part of our mental health how we think part of living a successful life is overcoming your past and living for jesus being mentally healthy is identify the lies that you've been told through life about god and about who you are yourself so there's a book and i'm going to just use a little bit this is a guide for the rest of the sermon it's called search for significance everybody's got to get out your amazon app and go search for significance it's a great book it's got all kinds of stuff in there and but it's based on these four things there are four basic fears that drive people number one the fear of failure number two the fear of rejection number three fear of punishment number four hopelessness and shame let's see if we can get a few through a few of these today fear of failure it's a false belief and it says this i must meet certain standards to feel good about myself consequences of this false belief the fear of failure perfectionism driven to succeed willing to manipulate others to achieve my success and withdrawal from healthy risks in other people god's specific solution is justification because of justification i am completely forgiven and fully pleasing to god i no longer have to fear failure well let's see if the bible backs this up let's go to romans chapter 3 verse 20 through 22-25 and if i would rename this message i would rename it big words of the bible because we talk about regeneration reconciliation all the uh oh man it's like it makes you dizzy let's see if we can break them down a little bit but let's start with romans chapter 3 verse 22. it says this this righteousness is given through faith in jesus christ to all who believe there is no difference between jews and gentiles now let me give you a backstory there the jews were saying we are god's people because we have the old testament law and we're better than you because you're garbage and the whole first couple of chapters of romans is to say oh no no no no we're all on the same level we all got the same problems and then he says this amazing thing for all have sinned and fall short of god's of the glory of god that wasn't to be a condemning verse it was to be a leveling verse see the difference a leveling verse in other words there's no person that's better than another person in this room the difference between me and you and hitler is this much baby jesus is the standard not our ability to do good things so we need jesus verse 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that comes by jesus christ let's take the words out of here and define them and see what we can learn first of all righteousness it means to have right standing before god all of us want one thing when we die and face judgment are your hands going to be clean are you going to be righteous before god are you going to be declared right and the only way you can do that is through jesus christ faith what is faith i am so sick and tired of people looking at people well that person said they were a christian and look at the terrible things they did and if that's christianity i just don't i i just don't want anything to do with it at all well here's the deal just because people say they believe in something doesn't mean they're a christian because the bible says in the book of james 2 19 that even demons believe but then it says and they tremble or they wet their pants i like to say they freak out when they think about jesus demons aren't scared we should be around the other way around we should not be scared of demons because they're terrified of us we should be scared of sin because sin gives them an open door to eat our lunch faith is this it's the word pistus in the greek language which the bible's originally written in faith it means allegiance if i am going to be a christian i have to put my faith my allegiance solely in jesus christ in believing him trusting him serving him everything i do is wrapped around with literally what will please god then the word justified is in that verse justified is a legal term it means to be declared guiltless declared guiltless and what we do is we come before god with our guilt and our past and our brokenness and we look at the ten commandments and we find out from the ten commandments where we're at i shouldn't lie off broke down i shouldn't steal i shouldn't murder one i missed and then jesus goes and he takes it to a deeper level he goes oh by the way you've heard it said matthew chapter five it says you've heard it said do not murder but i tell you if you're mad at somebody and you're unforgiving them you've murdered them in your heart and you're guilty [Music] don't commit adultery and then jesus goes oh oh you've heard said don't commit adultery but i tell you if you look at someone with lust in your eyes you see marriage the only only way that sex is acceptable in the bible is between a man and a woman who are married that's it okay very simple if and we come to these things you should have no other god before me you should not use the name of the lord your god in vain all these things and we all look at these and go guess what the ground is level we're all broken are we not are we not we all in this room need a savior and this is the code this is the the written thing that's written against us and if we go into the courtroom of heaven they pull out the records they go look at this guy's list whoa and then i have to pay for it or i can walk in if i'm justified through jesus christ and by his blood i walk in and the list is pulled up and go there's nothing here it's as if he never sinned this guy's free and jesus our lawyer will stand up and go yes because my blood paid for it all remember the devil always wants you to pay jesus always comes and he does all the pain amen that's just plain and simple then there's this word grace there's this word grace and in america people use the word grace that somehow god's going to look the other way well i'm saved by praise hand me another bud potty time people do it all the time i can do what i want i'm saved by grace no you're not grace is god's work to wipe out sin in your life to bring you to himself now realize jesus didn't come to condemn you he came to rescue you he came on a rescue mission we're already toast everyone is born separate from god everyone is toast but jesus has come to rescue us grace explains if you understand grace and i want you to get this idea in your brain that when you hear grace i want these things to come up in your mind grace is all of god's actions to bring you to himself that means when you first come around this stuff i can remember first coming around this christian stuff you begin to your heart begins to beat funny and you begin to feel weird and you realize i'm away from god i need help what's that preacher want me to do i don't know whoa and and you listen a few times and you keep you check it out you listen a few times you check it out you listen and all of a sudden you begin to realize i'm away from god i feel empty i feel broken if i die in this condition i'm going to go to hell and then the holy spirit begins to move on you by god's grace if you come to jesus he's paid the price to wipe away your sin and justify you to cleanse you if you put your faith your allegiance in jesus and trust what he did he paid the full price and when you do that by god's grace the holy spirit literally comes inside of you and makes you into a different person here's the problem we have a gospel in america that says you can claim to be born again without being transformed you are not a christian unless you've been transformed what does that mean well when i got saved i was 16 years old um i was a kid living in a mobile home park i was in eighth a couple years before that was eighth grade and i was dating a senior her dad owned a mobile homework it was weird um get drunk every weekend run around wild out of control i you know people would pray that i wouldn't go to church um and all that kind of stuff and my mom got was saved when i was in kindergarten and she was praying for me drugged me to church from time to time and my youth pastor used to pay people to be my friend and take me fishing and weird stuff like that and finally i start going church and god begins to move on you he begins to move on you and i remember when i gave my life to jesus everything changed but this doesn't mean that not everything was a struggle a lot of things were a struggle there are a lot of things in my old life i had to learn not to do anymore for an easy easy example was it was so easy to cuss people out anybody have potty mouth and then you give your life to jesus and you get mad at me it's like wrestle tesla frazzle russell dazzle you do cartoon swearing and anybody remember yosemite sam yeah that's how he swore that's why it's fun when i go on the golf course i tell people hey let me teach you how to swear like a christian buddha is a fat man hindu is an old god a hindu god's an old cow i mean i mean just you know we can have fun don't curse jesus though it's fun i'm offended by that path because what grace is this on the cross my guilt my punishment was put on jesus everything was done to me the abuse the pain the suffering on jesus so i could be free and then he took it to the grave and then he rose from the dead and said i have broken its power now i'm going to break the power of sin by forgiving you if you will come to me with all your heart that's god's grace and he does it without us without us trying to do all this stuff and say god look at all this good stuff i did please let me in because all this good stuff and god goes that good stuff makes it's stinky i don't want it around me i want you to come broken the way you are so i can put you back together wow wow breaking through sins power transformation the result of justification is this increase freedom from fear of failure a desire to pursue the right things christ in his kingdom a love for god now this morning we don't have time to go through the all of them but i want to go to the last one i want to go to shame shame is a confusing thing i think we could probably preach about shame on a number of directions number one our society right now needs to learn about shame because people are doing shameful things that's one side now here's the other side of it when you come to jesus if you're still living under your old shame you need to get free and that comes through understanding the word seeking the face of god let's talk about this here's what shame says the that fourth one and we skipped a couple in the middle that's okay you can get the book says i am what i am i cannot change i am hopeless consequences feeling of shame hopelessness and inferiority passivity loss of creativity isolation withdrawal from others god's solution is regeneration being born again complete in jesus jesus said no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless they are born again what's that when you put your faith in jesus by what he did on the cross the holy spirit comes in you you are changed it says in in romans 10 10 as scripture says everyone who believes in him will never be put to shame shame is dishonor for a man this is huge for a man dishonor is a deal breaker a man will run from shame a man will run from dishonor faster than he'll run from anything that's why i hate almost all marriage conferences do you know why most of the time they just tell men how bad they are no wonder we don't want to go i hate that phrase all good deeds evaporate at midnight and you start over again and that's pointed at the men because we never do anything right i'm sick of those conferences come on man somebody say amen with me my wife's going on people no but shame is dishonor men are tired of being told we're always doing something wrong our society hates men i want to have the big hairy tall dude month we teach we're going to have we're going to have documentaries on the today show about how we how we spit and scratch and go fishing come on man we build stuff and we get slivers and make funny sounds and we smell funny because this world doesn't want men to be men they want to feminize everything now guess what really good men like amen women this is pretty simple this is not hard but men will run from shame very fast narcissism that self-centered me first narcissistic attitude is developed by being overly disciplined sometimes let me tell you what i mean and i think this is very important some parents have because they have such a fear of failure want to over discipline their children so people think they're a good parent i remember i had a couple here once whose four-year-old was lying and dad was spanking him every time he lied i said dude he's four he doesn't know how to tie his shoes yet you know spank a four-year-old for lying he doesn't understand truth yet let him figure it out first and what's happened and my i'm so proud of my kids eric and jenna and ben and hannah they're so good with their boys i just want to beat them and and they're so nice they're in my house breaking stuff and melissa goes nope we're going to be the nice grandparents okay but they'll take them and they'll sit them down and they did something they go you got a five-minute timeout no send them down then they come back and say now what did you do they'll tell them now uh are you gonna no never gonna i'm never gonna hit my brother again never never again praise the lord well you i forgive you and i love you come here now the way you develop a narcissist is this you discipline them and then never bring reconciliation to them never let them feel love always remind them you're that kid you will raise a monster same way another way for ladies who have been abused as children and that abuse has never been validated or believed by another person will carry a shame in them they'll do one of two things go deeply inward or go extremely outward and will use and i'll say it's as sensitively as i can they'll use promiscuity as a way of controlling other people because it was used abuse was used against them they're going to now use that to control men and it's based on shame it was unreconciled shame and pain and hurt you know what happens we bring those things with us into the church and that's exactly what we should do and then we learn to give it to jesus and then we need help because if you don't think you need help you're in danger you need to get with people you trust who can pray with you and i know rhonda's here today she can she's an ordained minister of the seminars of god who's gone through that raped by family members having to deal with that shame that's so deep inside your soul but you're free and that's why we can say it today and we can celebrate because jesus is freedom we don't let what the enemy did to us in our past rule our future because we get free in jesus and his grace has set us free and his blood has paid the price and i can be free come on you see it is psychologically damaging not to know jesus i am so sick of this world telling oh the church just oppresses people the church just makes people feel bad the church just is in the church oh shut up i'm sorry i'm venting do you love me it is psychologically damaging not to know jesus it's psychologically devastating not to know how to praise the lord it is psychologically warping not to read his bible [Laughter] you know let's take it back baby let's realize what we got is the greatest thing that the world wants and begin to live it out with kindness and love for people and give them a chance to come and see that the lord is good be careful we might get excited see when we come to jesus with this we get changed when he takes away our shame we're no longer we no longer need to experience the pain of shame when we begin when we're born again the consequences of feeling shame is hopelessness inferior passivity loss of creativity isolation withdrawing from others god's solution is to be born again complete in jesus i no longer need to experience that pain see shame is reliving either what's been done to you or what you've done and jesus equally frees us from what we've done as much as what we've done to others and we can be free church we need to be wary of our own thoughts our own life we have to work at our mental health and we disguise it in the church and we talk about our thought life really it's just our mental health we have people around us who are broken all the time and can we not be a place where people can say i just want to die without overreacting you know when they say that none of them want to die no one ever says those words that wants to die you know what they're saying help me help me and we have to be careful how we help people i know the pain of what it means to call the police on someone and have them drug off in shackles i've done that a couple times i cry every time it happens i hate it but that person was on the verge of committing suicide and don't over spiritualize it people the health care workers love people they want to help mayo clinic i've dealt with people at mayo clinic at the psych ward mail clinic they actually had a neil t anderson team trained that would come in and cast demons out of people because they understood not only is there the the mental and physical there's a spiritual side of this too and they do it properly there's a way to do it to get people free but we walk slow we walk in love and we care for people so if you're here today and you have had a difficult time feeling that you can't share your inner struggles i'm sorry and i want our church to be a place where people are cared for prayed with and walk through it remember rhonda when you got you got delivered you had to go then to rochester to paula's group what was that called rich in mercy and we all came and had a funeral for the baby you lost when you were 13 all by yourself in your room you're saying i never knew there was such pain in this room used to be and then i could talk over here about someone else and i talk over here about someone else and talk over here about someone else but she's a pastor so i get to use that situation for the glory of god but let's take a moment and let's just bow our heads and what i'm not going to do because that would create more trauma i'm not going to call people forward or even have you raise your hands we have ruth ricketts i just talked to her she is a licensed counselor and she is in first service she's we're going to work on her having more some time at the church if people need counselors and she'll be available to that we're working on that she's done in the past she's willing to do it in the future i want you just to bow your head for a moment where you at jesus wants you to know that by his grace you can be saved remember what i said grace was was all the works of jesus on the cross to set you free to pay the price so that you can be rescued and then you go to jesus and say lord my life is broken i've gone through trauma trauma just think we had darth lee standing in this pulpit darth li from cambodia who was standing in a pile of dead bodies that were mowed down by the khmer rouge and laid in the pile of those dead bodies until the khmer rouge left and him and a group of people headed off to escape into vietnam do you think he had some emotional scars i do but he could stand right here and our team was supposed to go with them last summer to cambodia where he lives now because he's an assembly of god missionary that jesus healed i'm the i know i'm saying extreme cases these are extreme but i want to give you the extreme cases so that you can have hope and not to say this that your case is so small it's insignificant i don't want to say that that's not fair pain is pain but we begin to get free from pain when we begin to look at god right that he loves you he cares about you and he's willing to walk with you through the mess that's an awesome savior and so this is how you start it you say lord forgive me lord come into my life lord free me from the past i need your help jesus just begin to talk to him read his bible now if you need further help you can either come see me this morning which if i say all those with mental health problems come talk to me no one's going to talk to me i know how the stigma is i know it but get a hold of us we can connect you with people we can connect you've got a problem with cutting we connect you if you had you're having trauma from an abortion we can connect you if you were a young man and you were molested look at mike tyson he finally came out in an interview he said when he was seven he was raped and that's why he was so violently angry you know what mike tyson needed he needed a church he needed a kid's church he could go forward and he could get prayed for in a youth group where he could work through his anger as he's growing as a man and a bunch of men around a church that could come alongside you and not treat you like you're something less because this happened to you we got a lot of work to do don't we because right now this world is being broken like it's never been broken before and it's going to meet each one of us so today walk out of this place knowing the lord loves you knowing that sin will separate you from him that's why he points it out and says it's evil and you need to get rid of it and you need help so that's why we're here amen can we take a moment and stand and love our savior for a little bit let's just love our savior come on your savior wants to take away the fear of rejection your savior doesn't want to put you in a performance trap where you're always trying to earn his love and every time you make a mistake you deserve to be punished how many people walk into church thinking why is god punishing me how many people have ever heard a person ever see that raise your head why is god punishing me i'm telling you this god punished his son jesus on the cross that's where the punishment went satan is a punisher because i've never said those words in my entire life until i was standing right here and that's a heavy revenue for me that every time you do something with the devil he makes you pay and every time you do something with god it's because jesus is paid if you will step back and watch life you'll watch people you'll watch how much they have to pay you'll just watch it it'll it'll come alive to you it won't contradict anything you've seen anything we've talked about here today will be fully alive when you watch people amen just watch people watch what god does in their lives when they give their life to him and how he begins to repair them it's amazing well let's praise him lord we thank you for this wonderful day we thank you that you care about what we think what we feel our inner life our our mental health and lord that you've never thrown us away you are not a god who throws people away lord we come to you with our lives and ask you to clean us up give us strength we pray in jesus name amen lord bless you church

Channel: New River Assembly of God

Views: 113

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Red Wing, Church, New River, Pastor Tom, Assemblies of God

Id: Rv9VAtB09Tk

Length: 52min 39sec (3159 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021