Try Less - August 8, 2021 - 9:45am

gospel but our worship experience yes right now we have the opportunity to share with all of our friends on our facebook feed our group chat our text thread uh your book club your brunch buddies whatever you got going on you can send that link out and so wherever you are click that share button however you can click that share button and get that out there to the folks so that you can tune in because we got a great service today and let me tell you okay so i'm excited uh for those of you who know me you know that this is a topic that is so important to me so austin austin august guys i don't know what is going on today but listen that's okay august we're kicking off a new series and it's our mental health series so for august we will actually be talking about every mind matters right it is the emotional healthy living series and so what this is this is going to be a way for us here at greater mount zion to really talk about mental health and how that coexists with our faith right especially if that's something that you're truly dealing with absolutely it's going to be an amazing service so that is why we need you to share this live stream because you never know who's connected to you that may be dealing with these things may really need to know the answers on how to get through it and human oh listen if you know somebody that might benefit from this series we want to make sure that you're sharing this as much as you possibly can because maybe they won't watch it today but in the days ahead throughout this week that might be a resource for somebody to get the help that they need or to begin doing the work of healing uh of doing the work of trying to make sure they get an understanding of what they're dealing with i'm so glad to not only be a member of this church but during this specific time during this specific series i'm really excited about it because there are so many of us that uh from march of last year to where we are today have been dealing with so much and so now we're going to be talking about ways that we can uh leverage our faith our faith walk more in pursuit of um healing and working towards understanding why our mental health matters which is the biggest thing that i have that i am so grateful for right i think in my own journey and my own battles with mental health like i often felt like uh god was mad at me or he would feel jesus be upset with me because i'm experiencing these things sure so it's great to be a part of a church who understands that dynamic and is willing to help us find it through the word of god and how to fight those battles and letting you know you're okay right right hey we just have the tools that we need so listen this is gonna be an amazing and amazing series so please make sure that you share this live stream because there is so many people who are connected to you who will definitely be impacted by that listen i'm so glad i remember when pastor clark said you have jesus and therapy okay jesus and therapy hey god empower with the therapist let's keep that thing moving let's keep going listen tonight yeah at 6 30 you don't want to miss this on facebook live at 6 30 p.m pastor clark is going to be continuing the conversation and the discussion about uh mental health and so we want to make sure that not only are you promoting this event but use that hashtag actually sharing the service use the mental health you can also use wise up but definitely use that hashtag mental health because we want to make sure that everyone who's tuning in everybody who's watching the service we want to make sure that you've got an opportunity to connect with us not only in the days ahead but to understand this new sermon series so tonight 6 36 facebook live you definitely want to make sure that you're tuning in for this discussion and use the hashtag mental mental health so listen we want to say good morning to all of our greater family we really appreciate you guys tuning in with us also again if you do not know i am brianna dejane murphy and this is i'm brandon jones and we are your co-hosts we your co-hosts for today so listen again if this is your first time visiting with us whether virtually or in person we want to connect with you so please please text us or drop it in the chat the words vip and so we can text us at 512-746-7613 so that way we can connect with you and see how can we serve you in a greater way because that is what greater is all about that's who we are and what we do listen parents parents i just got a real quick announcement that just came up on my phone so for those of you who are wondering the greatest students will not be having service today um we had a mix-up and scheduling and so we would not be having service today so if you've got teenagers 6th through 12th graders that were looking for us upstairs we will not be having service so make sure you bring your teenagers down here with you but they have to get that in that real really quickly no but it's going to be an amazing service so whether you are a teenager whether you're an adult it's going to be such an amazing service today our praise and worship team is going to definitely come and set the atmosphere we will have an awesome word of god again we're entering a new series speaking about our mental health and the importance in that so emotional healthy living is important in the lives of the believers so it's going to be a power pack service so i'm excited i'm excited if you have not shared this live stream please share please make sure that you share this live stream i'm telling you one thing that helps other groups on facebook i promise you it's just one click of a button and you can share it to all your groups honey i bet you didn't even know that if you're at home remove the distractions yes please remove the distractions please go ahead and get settled at home if you're in the atmosphere here at the church go ahead and get settled get in your seat get your last elbow bump and high five in because it's going to be an incredible service one thing i know that whenever i'm at home and if i'm watching service online when you say remove the distractions i literally will put my phone over there somewhere because i know me i'll start you know scrolling on my phone so whatever you need to do to get yourself in the mind for worship we want you to do that whether in person or watching online because today i promise you this is going to be something that will greatly impact your life well listen we've enjoyed being with you all we got to do in the sanctuary and get our worship on too if you're at home get comfortable get ready uh we'll see y'all next time all right great family let's get ready to worship [Music] [Music] what up trying to wake y'all up a little bit good morning grader how y'all doing go ahead and stand to your feet before we go into the worship song i want to just take a moment close your [Music] eyes i want to take a deep breath in and exhale and every time you do that we're going to do it a few more times every time you do that i want you to visualize all the worries all the stress all the stuff and junk from the week leaving every time you exhale take another deep breath exhale all those worries going away take another deep breath exhale when you come into the presence of god you want to feel light you want to feel free so you can come and get what you came for you don't want to bring all that junk and all the worries so we're going to breathe that out and leave it right here at the feet of jesus let's do that one more time deep breath in [Music] exhale yeah yeah feel a little lighter it always helps me just take a few deep breaths and just release all of that all that stuff you carry through the week just give it to god just give it to god let him have it let him have it amen because we're free we have freedom in jesus so it's one thing to have freedom but it's another thing to feel that freedom amen hallelujah so we're gonna sing this song it's called freedom how appropriate right y'all know this one come on put your hands together [Music] [Music] here we go i want to clap a little louder than before i want a single louder than before [Applause] [Music] [Music] free [Music] louder [Music] [Applause] [Music] before somebody shall see freedom i wanna lift my hands higher than before i wanna love you more than before [Music] i wanna worship deeper than before and i gotta scream you set no more shackles no more chains no more bondage i am free yeah come on y'all haven't seen that no more shackle no motion no more tank no no more change no more bondage i sing it one more time say no more no more now if you know you've got freedom in jesus let's give him the highest price [Music] [Applause] all of let's swing that again no more shackles no more chains no more bondage i am free yeah come on y'all singing with us no more no [Music] one more time no more shackles [Applause] one more time come on sing it with us hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] we celebrate you on today guys if you know you're free [Music] hallelujah he's worthy he's worthy he's worthy don't stop praising him he's worthy he's worthy he's worthy think about all the things he's freed you from he's worthy he's worthy think about the people he let walk out of your life he's worthy think about the doors he allowed to shut in your face he's worthy my god is worthy god we give you all the honor and we give you all the praise because you're our great god even in those moments when we felt like we were losing god you were setting us free god you saw the end from the beginning and for that we give you worship we thank you for freedom on today god we thank you for freedom on today god hallelujah freedom from those sin struggles god freedom from those soul ties god we thank you jesus for your power hallelujah and the fact that we have freedom through your son jesus christ we owe our life to you god we love you so much hallelujah it's in your son jesus name that we do pray amen and amen [Music] my name is tracy clark may be seated my son's name was la marquis jarrell thomas i am his mother i was his caregiver his advocate and his friend well when marcus was growing up he was funny witty outgoing a little shy at times but you know more funny and witty always get caring and giving his senior year in high school he decided he wanted to go to the army we were against it but he was determined so we signed the paperwork he went in um then one day back in 2013 i received a call that he was in a mental hospital in maryland still in the military um but they because of heifer laws wouldn't go into detail other than notification he was eventually moved to the military base in san antonio still in a mental hospital but i was able to visit and hug him for the first time [Music] that's when i realized that he was very different um you know when someone tells you that your child isn't okay you think broken bones you think wounds and all this other but his physical part was fine his mental part wasn't there he didn't recognize me and although he hugs me it wasn't the normal bear hugs that he used to do so you know i knew immediately it was more to the story but of course i still didn't know how much more the thing that kept coming up was they each kept saying that he was mentally ill you know i grew up mentally ill things weren't handled well so i got scared you know mentally ill what do you do put them in a back room you feed them occasionally i didn't know what did that mean did it mean he would be in the hospital for the rest of his life i started asking questions what did that mean what did i need to do what kind what do you mean mental illness and they said bipolar but they also said schizoaffective manic depressive and then i found out he had attempted suicide multiple times in addition to suffering from ptsd oh that was a lot and then you get on the fast pace of how do you help them what do you do while at the same time they're not okay i didn't know about medications i knew the veterans the va had given him 13 prescriptions he was taking all at the same time i found out eventually four of those prescriptions were the exact same thing with the same name so he was over medicated which was answering a lot about his behavior but still as a mother seeing your child go through this it isn't what you picture you know you picture a nice career home car children family but this wasn't going to be that i eventually had to accept that and that meant i had to figure out how to help him [Music] i started getting depressed because i started feeling like i was failing him i'm a fixer so how do i fix this so that he's okay so then i'll feel good even though it's not about me i still need it to be okay to help him um i was in denial that i was in over my head i was in denial that it was a situation that i wasn't supposed to fix that i was just supposed to support and help and speak up for but the fix wasn't me it wasn't something i can do with that in mind that meant i had to heal me while he was in the hospital being healed i know that when you truly care about somebody and you're doing the best that you can you seek help for yourself first so that you're mentally stable enough to help someone who is not mentally stable and there's only so many ways to do that yes you pray but you also need to seek outside sources and talk to somebody a friend a stranger i found it easier to talk to strangers [Music] and it was easier to talk to strangers because i didn't feel judged most importantly i want people to know when you have someone that you're not sure how to help them or what to do there are resources out there that you can seek out that will help guide you that will support you that will assure you you're not alone and gmz is doing a good job of that by starting with this by talking about it because as a community we don't do well talking about mental illness besides nami also went to blue bonnet trails and and a few others and found what fit best and i asked a million questions you know but those questions helped me understand more about how to help him and how to help myself well listen everybody this is uh a tremendous day in the life of our church uh it is a day in which we are uh discussing uh mental health and you know there's been a lot of discussion about mental health there had there's been a lot of people who have been opening up about their mental health conditions and the various challenges that they that they have and we applaud that don't we we applaud that we thank god for that and um as we begin this journey in which we're talking about mental health i think it's important for us to realize that even if we feel our mental health is where it needs to be if we feel like our mental health is stable remember as we are talking about this that um next month you might be struggling uh before the years out you may be struggling with anxiety struggling with um sense of brokenness how many of you ever been through something and you just didn't feel whole you know it's just it breaks your life can break you and uh and so what i wanted to do today is i wanted to bring in some professionals who will talk with us and they're not only professionals but they they have personal faith in the lord jesus okay and uh you know i appreciate all of the therapy and the counseling and it's so necessary and we have to realize that jesus works through therapy and counseling i'm sorry y'all i'm all up in what y'all want to talk about um and yet at the same uh at the same time we can't forget jesus okay because we are believers okay so we have a few friends of ours from the community they do a tremendous job we have dr quivera moton with nami national association for mental illness and we have one of the great leaders in our city with respect to mental health conditions mental health challenges vicky coffey and she's a licensed professional counselor and she is with the hog foundation for mental health for mental health i don't know why i wanted to say awareness but mental health and then my friend michael cox who is just a great soul has a tremendous tremendous service to our community he and his wife work together to ensure that those who they serve have a holistic view of wellness and so i so appreciate his his perspective uh and so the first question i want to ask of you and i'll begin with you mike um talk to us about the importance of mental health the first place i go to is thinking about we we talk a lot about our physical health and in our community especially we talk a lot about how we need to make sure we're eating right and seeing our doctors maybe getting the medication that's needed we're well there's a lot of emphasis there and there's been a lot of work and research put behind it but that's and that's necessary as you mentioned with a holistic approach that's kind of what we talk about is that's part of it but our ability to be able to show up and function in our day-to-day life is just as important if my mind isn't doing well i'm not going to take care of my physical health i'm not gonna eat right i'm not gonna do those things and so it's almost like you need to get there before you can allow yourself to address some of the rest of those things and so the important is a maximum of being able to know what what's going on in my brain what's going on in my mind what are my emotions doing so that i can do those other things in my life and making sure they're okay yeah indeed another question that i wanted to make sure that we asked is talk to us about the difference i'm going to ask you this dr moton i want you to chime in vicki as well the difference between um mental health in a general sense and someone who's going through really a disruptive crisis or they have a mental health clinically diagnosed condition well i often like to explain things in analogies and so i'm going to use the analogy of your vehicle when the check engine light comes on that's a warning we all maintain our vehicles and we drive it and we just we're just going but when those warning signs starts to come up that's mental illness and that is the difference it doesn't mean that something's wrong with your vehicle it doesn't mean that it isn't possible for it to be restored because if that was the case if the check engine light came on and you gave away your car because the check engine light comes on what would be the purpose of you continuing to pay a car node but because you have vested into this car payment and you have a vehicle when the warning signals come on you go and get it checked right same thing mental health is your being it is who you are all of us have mental health but when mental illness comes into play that is when the warning signs the check engine or you may be a little low on air how many of you have been a little low on air yeah indeed vicky why don't you chime in there sure i would just add that every one of us live with mental health yes at any point in our lives but as pastor mentioned earlier we also can experience mental illness and that's that time when you just don't feel right and you know it when your your mind is cloudy or you feel like you just can't figure things out the chat the difference in the mental illness piece where that comes in everyone can be sad everyone can feel hopeless everybody can feel depressed that doesn't mean you have mental illness those are feelings but when they get to the place where they interfere with your ability to function in your day-to-day living makes it difficult to get out of bed to go to work you're fighting and having a difficult time with your spouse you just feel paralyzed that's when you're moving more to the illness phase but just remember everybody has mental health talk about some symptoms of depression as you have spoken about with respect to mental illness uh as well as anxiety i'm sorry i was i was talking so i think a lot of times we look for a clinician or someone who's licensed to tell us what those things are but they manifest themselves in so many different ways that sometimes we overlook them so particularly as it relates to children and young people they're struggling with their school they don't well now they don't want to go to school even virtually they may lose friends or they may pick up friends that you're not used to them being around that and for even younger children they may complain about something hurting so they'll say my stomach really hurts or my head really hurts and they say it a lot and you're like we've checked them out with the doctor there's nothing going on so just things like that i also think that we see aggression sometimes in people a lot of times when i'm hurting it may come out angry so you may see domestic violence or people fighting those are all signs some signs and symptoms of depression and also just not wanting to move not motivated giving up hope those are just a few of the things i would agree and so it's that um the inability to do some things that you were all maybe always doing and so you're seeing a an individual who you said there's a change or a shift in the way they typically would be um dealing with the world and engaging with the world and i agree uh with vicky because it's it's different for every person um we do know with younger men specifically and young boys we see it more prevalent in their activity and so we start talking about young people getting introduced into the juvenile justice system unfortunately what happens sometimes is there is a mix-up between what they are doing their behavior and it may be we see it as a bad thing in the family or a bad thing happening somewhere else but it's typically maybe depression and or anxiety and so those that shift is that change when something's different in that child or when there's something that's progressive or persistent that's happening that's different than what they typically would present and the hard part is sometimes you said depression and anxiety is that those symptoms are oftentimes similar it's hard sometimes you know is it depressing and anxiety it's one of the reliefs for individuals is allowing someone like us maybe to help you with that but at the end of the day is when you see something that's shifting or something that's changing significantly something that i left out that i wanted to add was substance use that a lot of times what we'll see in our younger populations are people that start using drugs smoking weed getting high numbing that pain so that they don't have to feel that and we start worrying about their substance use when really the underlying issue is a mental health issue in addition to everything that they've said i'm a faithful member of the blessed and highly favored culture so i'm that strong person where someone would ask me how are you doing oh i'm blessed and highly favored and going home and crying the strongest people you know the strength and the pillars of your community of your families are the people who wear the biggest mask and i know all of us have on mass today but i want you to dig a little deeper sometimes you're the one hiding behind the mask and instead of saying blessed and highly favored that's when some of those things are happening behind closed doors so i just wanted to make sure why don't we talk about that a little more because i think that's a huge challenge in the church uh we tend to think that if we just pray harder if we just fast more if we um talk to the preacher as if preachers are like professionals at therapy uh or exempt yes or exempt look here i'm i'm evidence of that okay um and so let's talk a little bit more about that because i i know that there's someone viewing and there's someone in this room who um they have just thrown their mental illness upon god and they should but god works through varied means and so talk about the relationship between faith and mental illness so the first thing that comes to mind is that the hardest part i think that happens with us when our faith is that when i've prayed when i've fasted when i've done all these things and it didn't work why am i still down why are these things still going on and why are these things happening and unfortunately sometimes what we do in the in the church is telling people you need to do it more and pray harder and fast more and but it's not working so what's going on and so it's that that's exacerbating the problem it's because now i'm worried about am i not a faithful enough am i not good enough for god that i can't heal and so you're exacerbating making the problem worse because now it's like well now i'm dealing with depression i'm dealing with these things that i can't do and now i don't have enough faith and so it's exacerbating the issue and so being able to know and people say it's a little trendy right now but it's real that it's okay not to be okay and so part of that process and praying and fasting is part of the process but the other part of the process may be that god has provided someone else in your life to walk through that issue with you and to see what that looks like and it may be a professional maybe someone else but someone to support you in that process so i'd say the challenge sometimes is that in the church yes we have to be praying and i agree with you yes we need to be fasting that all needs to be a part of the process but at the end of the day if god is giving to someone else to walk along that journey with us maybe there's something else that god wants to do through somebody else to help us through it i um i couldn't agree more i think my experience my mother was an ordained minister she was diagnosed years later with schizophrenia and in that journey of her um the onset of her mental illness i was her caregiver for over 14 years and in the midst of that journey i thought something was wrong because the church began to demon demonize her mental illness oh she must have done something we can't take mental illness and compare it with a sin when you have a headache how many of us have tylenol and advil in your purse when your head starts to hurt you immediately go to your purse and pull out the advil or the elite to hit it mental illness is health mental illness is a physical illness and i believe we as a church have to stay away from and reframe how we demonize someone oh he got demons oh look at that demon oh we're going we're going we're going to pray it out get the oil i think i ran through more bottles of olive oil until one day i said wait a minute god i keep anointing her but the anointing was understanding that it wasn't about me praying it out of her it was about me going to war a totally different way we as a church have decided that the weapons are all spiritual wow how are we using spiritual weapons spiritual weapons should be used parallel with physical weapons so the physical illness that my mother had olive oil couldn't anointed bless i had people praying over the oil maybe i wasn't praying over the the oil right or something but in that moment i recognize whoa it took me over 10 years to recognize this wasn't something i could pray away and if you don't remember anything i say today there are physical systems and resources just like you have that tylenol in advil and aleve in your purse right now i don't even have to look and ask it's there we should have the boldness and the confidence to use those resources for our mental health [Applause] that's so needed that is so needed and so uh necessary and i'm gonna share a story since you brought that up and you spoke to it so powerfully um i have major depressive disorder i mean i you talk about an illness i've got an illness um so um now our church you know we've been talking about mental health for a long time because the pastor has a mental health challenge and no i have a mental health diagnosed condition okay and i share my story usually about once a year because i want to continue to put it out there and i want people to know that you can be a leader you can have impact and still have a mental health condition and so i'm very intentional about that and i want you guys to know our church has been so profoundly supportive of me and understanding and i have to call timeout you know at least a few times a year and they've been so understanding i thank each and every one of you for your kindness but uh to share with you the um the level of stigma and misunderstanding about seven years ago it was right before we moved over here um a young man asked me why had i not been to church why had i not been preaching and and i told him well i have clinical depression and i was out for that and he looked at me and he said pastor you're not crazy and i said i agree i'm not crazy but what uh my point is is that there is a lot of that kind of just foolishness and misunderstanding because you know those demons you know those demons everywhere they're fighting against jesus um and so i just i just know somebody's viewing and they just don't know they just don't know and they're thinking that their loved ones or their friends at work they just crazy had a nervous breakdown i want you to kind of speak to that how can people be caretakers for those in their world those maybe in their family like like you how can they be effective caretakers maybe you respond to that vicki first i just want to thank you and commend you pastor for sharing that because a lot of people wouldn't do that because people do think if you live with a mental health condition or a mental illness that you're crazy and that's part of the problem that's what makes it difficult for people to want to come out and share what's going on emotionally before fear of being judged so i think as a caregiver you have to first of all just sit down and be quiet and just listen and don't fix you don't have to fix just listen because i think that's the hardest thing people want to open up and people want to say i'm hurting and if they don't say it verbally you can see it in their behavior and their actions so you have to observe and see if something looks different and something's going on and then you have to be an encourager and encourage them to get the help they need because help is out there and to me crazy is not getting the help you need that's what's crazy crazy is not what you're being but crazy is you know there's people out here you have cancer or you have something else another medical condition like mental illness which is a medical condition but you don't get any help it's the same thing so i think you be an encourager and you also encourage your congregation like you're doing and you let people know that hope is there's hope you're not going to have to live with this pain forever because that's the other hardest part it's the pain that feels like it'll never go away but there's hope and the faith is a protective factor so when people come to this place of refuge and they're hurting it's our job to have open arms to welcome them and to love them through whatever it is that they're experiencing there's somebody watching right now there's somebody in this audience right now who needs to pursue help whether that's going to a doctor whether it's going to a counselor whether that is admitting that they need help uh why don't we speak to them right now michael what would you say to that person who's listening right now their heart is beating faster because we've walked into their space what would you encourage them to do i'm a tagging on to what we were just talking about what a caregiver can do and then what the person do if the care dealer can't can't provide those things one caregiver provide a space that it's okay to admit it i think whether it's a young person or older person wherever you are in life sometimes you know something's going on you know something is different you know something that's not quite where you want it to be but you don't know who to go to as we talk about stories my own story is that right in my family i had i'm i had to be i am the strong one when somebody's died because i was a pastor i'm ordained i can do it all right i can i'm gonna be the one they're gonna call on i never knew that there was a place for me to be able to say i'm not okay like things are not and things aren't okay with me but i didn't have anybody that i thought i could go talk to about it that i can go say that i'm just not doing okay i don't even know what it is i don't even know what's going on but i'm not okay it took me being brave on my own to say to someone that didn't look like me unfortunately someone that i didn't know what to do but it got to a place of me being able to say i need some help because i don't know what the next step is going to be i need your help so those of you that are sitting out there whether it's in here or on virtually maybe you're struggling and part of the problem may be that you don't know if you know that there's somebody that is willing to listen you don't know if someone is going to hear or they're going to think differently about you because you're going to admit that things aren't okay step out someone's out there there is someone to help whether it's a professional a best friend a pastor someone talk to someone and let it be okay that you're not feeling well that you're not doing right that you can't perform your best today that you can't solve the problems you don't have it in you don't have the energy you don't have the will to do it it's okay it's all right i want to specifically talk to not feeling like this is the men there's a man that's out there it's about your image it's about you being manly it's about you showing up and because right now you know specifically black man this is what you're supposed to be into what you're supposed to do and you don't feel like you're able to to stand up and be those things because you just don't have it in you right now that's all right you don't have to be the strong one right now you don't have to be have all the answers you don't have to have those things there are people that can walk this journey with you and help you remember who you are and what you're about so whoever that is whoever you are at this moment allow yourself not to be the strong one allow yourself not to be the person that's okay all the time we weren't built that way we weren't built to carry it all where does our faith come in i think when we're talking about the christ and their faith where does my faith come in my faith comes in being able to go tell somebody i'm not doing it right it's where my faith comes in and whatever the stigma whatever the fears whatever those things are you're still not feeling okay and the stigma the fear those are all still there so take that step and let someone know that you're not doing okay i think it's also important to remember the concept of putting your mask on first there came a period in my journey where i had no air going to myself over 84 million americans are caretakers 32 hours of time caregiving in addition to their full-time jobs with no pay in that journey of being a caregiver i lost my own breath and when i lost my own breath is when i recognize quivera if you don't do anything you need to get some oxygen to you and that happened and then when my mom was arrested in williamson county and the sheriff said to me miss moton you've been going through this a long time why don't you give nami a call i called nami in desperation in 2009. didn't know 2021 2020 i would be working for nami but in the midst of that i called nami in desperation because i had no understanding and i didn't know how to breathe i took a class called family to family and it showed me how to see my mom's mental illness through her lens it also taught me how to care for myself while caring for a loved one with mental illness i'm going to say that again how to care for myself while caring for a loved one with a mental illness because when you're a caregiver you're not only a caregiver you're an advocate you're a protector do i do i call the authorities or do i not call the authorities who do i call how do i protect her they're not going to understand her all of these uncertainties can be clearly defined and laid out for you so you can have the support that you need it is critical especially in this day and time that we equip ourselves with the resources and support that we need you don't have to navigate this by yourself your name is not jesus anybody in here or online is your name jesus so if your name isn't jesus you are not all powerful all-knowing that's not who you are so i had to recognize that i no longer had to be that and i could love and see life through my mom's lens and take care of my own mental health in the process i think the first thing i would you can clap go ahead that's good [Applause] the first thing that i would want someone to know is that for you to know is that you are not alone you're not alone first of all god said he will never leave us or forsake us right and secondly there are people that are available and it doesn't have to be a licensed professional counselor speak to your parent speak to your spouse speak to your best friend and let them know like has been said i'm not okay i'm hurting but just know you are not alone and that's the thing that i think makes mental illness so challenging we all know we all got a taste of what being isolated from people we love feels like right with this whole covet thing but with people that live with mental illness and mental health conditions that's that feeling that they're alone that you i'm isolated that i don't have anyone and some of that is the devil creeping in right puts that in our mind yo you by yourself you don't have nobody you're all alone you can't get through this but i think the key is knowing you are not alone there are people that god has placed on this earth in this church in your homes who love you and who are there for you who can support you i think it's appropriate for us to pray right now we need to pray for everybody who is in the room with respect to their mental health of course uh i think it's important for us to pray for those men yeah they're stuck in silence they're more angry than they have been um drinking more doing that more um and so we need to pray for the men we can't forget our women of course and for the caretakers and just as you feel led mike i want you to pray over the house pray for those viewing right now father god we we saw the example in your son jesus that the burdens that we carry the things that are are around us the things that we hold in can be heavy jesus himself knew that the road that he was about to go on was hard it was difficult and said i don't want it yeah i don't want it but if it's your will i'll move forward so father when we think of our even our comparison of of that with jesus i i think that we can look at him and say that there are places where we have to admit that i can't carry it that i don't want it father i pray for anyone in this room father anyone's viewing this going to view later i pray that you just touch that place in their heart that says i i can't disclose i can't say i can't i can't come forth because if i do what does that mean about me what does that mean about my family what does that mean about my job specifically some of the men that say that if i do this i might lose everything i pray against those lies i pray against that pain father that you step in holy spirit and do your work in that place in those hearts you step in and be that presence and to help them know that no matter what that you are there that sounds it sounds like the thing that we're supposed to say in church is the thing that we're supposed to talk about but you are there yes you are you are present in a room when someone is in deep in their thoughts when they're crying they feel like there's no walls to go when they're smoking any of those things that are happening you are in their midst because father you said you were always with us so i pray that you holy spirit show up and god i'm playing specifically that you don't just show up and take away the illness i pray that you show up and allow a person to know that they are in your hands and they need to take a step forward in finding help right here on earth that you're going to walk with them to the doctor's office you're going to walk with them to the the counselor's office you're going to walk to them to their parents you're going to walk with them to the next person that needs to help father i pray for that boldness i pray for that boldness to step out and say i'm not okay i pray for the bosom to say that i need help and in the midst of the father be glorified be glorified in what you do in that step because i agree i i admit father that you are the answer you have provided us you provide others you have provided people to help but you are the answer give us a clarity father on what that means give clarity for those that are struggling right now for what that means to lean into you and to whom to go to but ultimately god we just pray for your healing we pray for your healing over lives and we know that's going to look different for every person in this room every person that's looking virtually but we pray for healing that those caregivers right now would put on that mass thank you forever for that that example put on that mask so that i can go get my help because there are many people that are probably within their responsibility that do need them that need them to strong but when they can't help their father be willing able humbled to step out and get that help thank you father so much that you've brought all of us to this point and you don't want us to stay here because that's growth and growth and sink can help but ultimately god growth in finding you thank you jesus so much beautiful come on thank god for our panelists now at 6 30 on tonight 6 30 tonight we're going to continue this discussion any questions that you have um any concerns that you have anything that you want to share that has perhaps helped you um i want you to be a part of that we're going to be on facebook live i've got a couple of members who will be sharing with me and i would love for you to be a part of that that's going to be 6 30 on tonight we're also going to be sharing uh on online we're not just online but sharing on social media as well several testimonies things that will help you to engage this area of your life and i want you to be looking out for that and those things that touch you are those things that perhaps may connect with somebody in your world i want to encourage you to share share those those things because you have no idea uh how god will use those messages and those words that will that can be quite impactful all right just wonderful job guys wonderful job wonderful thank you [Music] so [Music] um i am free praise the lord i'm free i'm no longer bound [Music] no more chains holding me my soul is resting and it's just a blessing [Music] praise the lord hallelujah i'm free [Music] i am free [Music] here the lord i'm free no longer [Music] [Applause] bound there's no more chains holding me my soul my soul is resting [Music] and it's just a blessing praise the lord praise the lord hallelujah i'm free i am free come on y'all know the song [Music] [Applause] singing [Music] come on sing it praise the lord hallelujah is [Music] and guess what it's just a blessing it's just a blessing come on [Music] [Applause] [Applause] my soul is [Music] i am free and it's just a blessing it's just blessing [Music] there's no more trains holding me and it's just a blessing come on come on just the voices let me hear you say i am [Music] [Applause] my soul is and it's just a blessing it's just a blessing come on praise the lord praise the lord is praise the lord hallelujah i'm free here [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] if you need freedom today is him if you need freedom today it's in the room if you need freedom today it's in the room if you need freedom today it's in the room praise the lord the lord [Music] praise the lord [Music] praise the lord [Music] hallelujah we're free [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you believe it come on and give it worse [Music] if you believe in come on and give it worship if you believe it come on and thank you if you know your breakthrough is on the way begin to praise him in advance don't wait till the battle is over [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] hmm i'm gonna take [Music] let's pray father on today we celebrate the victory that is ours in the lord jesus christ because you heal from all manner of disease and lord if you don't heal us physically you heal our minds you heal our perspective you heal our sense of pride you change that as we come before you so that we can submit humbly to you will to embrace where we are and in embracing where we are experience the peace that you have for us even in the midst of those things that are challenging in the midst of those things that disquiet our spirit i pray that you would use this time today to honor yourself so that those who hear that they would either be enriched or that they would be empowered to use their stories to change somebody else's stories in the name of jesus amen i think you've heard of the name simone biles she is the greatest gymnast of all time she has 31 either olympic or gold or olympic medals are world championship medals in fact this olympics the tokyo olympics she was the face of the american athletes i don't know if y'all saw her but she was on all kinds of commercials even while she was performing they were following her with cameras i felt bad for her and because of the stress of having to live up to the people's expectations because of her desire not to disappoint anyone and her longing to win some gold medals because people had predicted her uh predicted that she would do just that and yet because of all of the pressure because of all of the stress she experienced a mental distress a mental crisis that prevented her from performing the way she normally would she said it was a case of the twisties and the twisties is when you are under so much stress you cannot find or sense where you are in the air while performing a gymnastic maneuver and so in practice she was trying to do two flips and actually did one flip it was disorienting and sometimes when when we are disoriented with life we can't figure out where we are our minds and our bodies are not in sync i want you to know that the best thing that we can do sometimes is what simone biles did which is withdrawal for a while from all of the pressures of life we got to withdraw sometimes we've got to do what it is that we need to do because at the end of the day our mental health is more important than another medal our mental health will serve us more in the days ahead than a gold medal or the plaudits of people or those who celebrate us because we tried to push through what carriage did that take in order to do what it is that she did today i want to speak from the subject try less sometimes less is more and there are those of us we i mean we're just drivers we're just drivers we're type a and that's just all we do we get it done and what happens over time is that it begins to catch up with us mentally and i think that was part of what was going on with simone she has been living with so much pressure and so much stress since she was a child it was a cumulative effect all of that all of that all of that stress caused her to in the olympics have to try less i want you to see this passage matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30. this is the word of the lord jesus says come to me all who are weary and burdened and i will give you what take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now look up here jesus is the best thing for your mental health now i appreciate the fact that we need to go to counselors and please go to counselors i appreciate the fact that we need to do therapy i appreciate the fact that some of us need to take medications and if that is what you need please listen to dr moton and do exactly what she says but there is a rest that comes from jesus that that supports our mental health in ways that medicine does not see they work in a complementary fashion you can have from medicine better health but from jesus you get a sense of rest that the meds can't give you he says come unto me and i will give you i'll give you rest it's an emotionally healthy way of living jesus is interested in our mental health in fact spiritual health is mental health every all throughout the bible we see people who are dealing with pain and distress and despair but we see people who are broken and needy and who have been struggling for years and jesus was there and he healed the people he healed the crowds he was determined to help us to support us in our mental health journey now in this text jesus is speaking to exhausted folk he's speaking to people who have been experiencing life in a way that was harsh they they had been abused by their leaders their leaders were teaching them things about god that made walking with him more difficult the pharisees y'all know the pharisees they're not fair they have unhealthy expectations the pharisees didn't just teach the word of god but they came up with 613 additional laws and traditions that the people were urged to follow in order to please god they made the spiritual life about rules the spiritual life about shoulds and should nots the spiritual life about do's and don'ts and as a result people were burdened they put more expectations on them than they could uh fulfill and as a result now they're exhausted they're in despair because walking with god has not given them what it is that they need somebody here you know what i'm talking about you've been trying and trying and trying you've been trying to follow the rules you've been trying to keep up with all the disciplines you've been trying to overcome a sin challenge that is making life harder and as soon as you think that you're getting better you slip back again and that's the way the spiritual life tends to be isn't it we take three steps forward and one step back five steps forward and four steps back this is the way this is the way of the soul and so they made living for god about religion not about a relationship with him they were not experiencing god through all of the rules and jesus says here's what i want you to do i want you to just come to me you see mental wholeness is found in a person he says it's not in a place it's in a person it's not just in laws but it's in a loving relationship with me and so he says i want you to come to me because i know a more restful way of living and i'm not going to put the same burdens on you that the sadducees and the the pharisees and all of the religious leaders are trying to put on you i have a more peaceful way of doing life and in order to experience that life jesus said you got to try less now i know that don't sound right because oftentimes we get up here and we give you five solutions for this go go and do three things for that we make it about formulas about syllogisms do this uh and you'll get that if then and it makes the spiritual life heavy that's why i don't speak often as much rather as i used to uh in imperatives because i i've realized over time that the formulas don't always work i mean you can quote the scriptures and you can do everything that god says do and most of the time you will experience the very thing that the scriptures say but anybody have lived long enough to realize that there's a mystery to the work of god that you you you can't understand everything that god is doing his way for us is specific and so try try less what do you do you try to please god less i want to drop this in your spirit god is already pleased with you he's already pleased with you now this is not to suggest that our spiritual growth does not bring him pleasure it does but more than anything growing spiritually teaches us how to be pleased with god as opposed to him being pleased with us i need to grow spiritually so that i can appreciate jesus and i can appreciate the word and i can appreciate what it is that he wants to do in my life yeah and we need this we need this understanding that that trying less in many respects is the best way yeah and here's why the more we grow spiritually if we're walking with him not just following rules the more we grow spiritually the more we realize that we're more sinful than we ever thought see when i'm moving closer to jesus it exposes more of who i am you know i might get i may i might not lie as much as i used to but as i get closer to him i realize that i might be in denial with respect to something about myself the closer i get to him i may do those things on the surface that make people think that i'm okay that i'm successful it might look like i don't have any problems but underneath the iceberg there's some pride there is some discontent there's some jealousy underneath the underneath the skin do i have any witnesses in the house yeah and so i've got to rely on the grace of god if if i don't embrace the fact that the same grace that saved me has to satisfy me as i walk through life then i'm going to be exhausted eventually because it's it's harsh for me to not be able to think god embraces my humanity he embraces all of who i am so we have to trust that god loves us yeah and it's one thing to say that but it's another thing to experience that the bible says that we're saved by grace through faith not by works this is not of yourselves you and i have no reason to boast that same grace brought us to jesus and it's going to keep us as we walk with jesus god is not mad at you god is not mad at you when when you and i sin god is not walking out the room he's not slamming the door in our faces no god is saying you know what i was right there why don't you talk to me about it you you know it's still good don't you yeah try less to please god here's the next one try less try to please people less yeah trying too hard to please people is mentally taxing these people were exhausted because not only were they trying to keep the laws but they were trying to please their spiritual leaders and they were trying to look spiritual they were cleaning the outside of the cup but the inside of the cup was not clean they they could not do everything that was said but they wanted to keep up appearances for people and friend i want you to know this is what the pharisees did to them but there's a pharisee in the people around us as well isn't there they can criticize and no matter how well we do they they can point out what it is that we're not doing right they can unfriend us when we say something that they don't agree with us they can counsel us don't go to lunch with us anymore this is what people do and if i'm trying to please people who are not going to be pleased because they're not even pleased with themselves over time that's that's exhausting that's why the bible says we we ought to confess our sins to one another so that we might be healed yeah there's a little pharisee inside side of other people and they're critiquing us but we have to try less to please them try less everybody say try less yeah try increasingly to make our love for him adequate for us his love for us rather adequate for us loving the praise of god instead of the praise of men try to please yourself less sometimes we're so consumed by our own goals but by the destination to which we are trying to travel we're so consumed by that that it gets exhausting we're so busy in pursuit of our career goals our financial goals our material goals you know we need another house you know we need the best car we're so in pursuit uh in a driven way of our educational goals and our health goals and so so passionate about it it's taking up so much time time from us that we can lose ourselves we can misplace our walk with god and assume that god is good when he helps me reach my goals but i want you to know that there are times in which my dreams are not god's dreams now now listen i'm i'm trying to reach my goals too believe that uh i know you have are trying to reach your goals no doubt about it and some of you you have you have exceeded what it is you thought you would do in life and all that's good and you did it on your on on your timetable or you did it ahead of the targeted dates that you scheduled but for most of us we can be successful and yet discover that what we thought would fulfill us is leaving us empty we thought that it was going to do more for us satisfy us do i have any witnesses in the house anybody have everything you ever wanted but lost what it is that you had this is this is the the driven-ness you know what else thank you lord when we're trying to please ourselves there's a competitiveness that comes with that because my pride tells me because i'm trying to please myself i'm trying to impress myself my pride tells me that i've arrived when i'm better than you my pride tells me that when i ascend the corporate level at a ladder at a level that's higher than my friends that i'm actually better that's pride pride is the enemy of rest it's the enemy arrest there's nothing there's nothing wrong with achieving our goals there's nothing wrong with pursuing a better life it's a beautiful thing but sometimes it takes longer than we think if i don't rest in those moments i can get exhausted and think that god is letting me down you know god's not letting you down god had he's looking at a different calendar than you looking at yeah and some things you know we're we're going to do most of the things that god has put in our heart and i thank god for you ought to you ought to give god praise for that if god has brought you from a mighty long way you ought to give god praise for that if you reach don't match your resume you ought to give god praise for that that's a good thing that's a good thing but but there are a few things that we dream about that we think god wants us to do and god didn't say that at all david wanted to build god a temple and god said no no no you've been fighting too much i'm going to use your son solomon to build a temple but it was good that it was in your heart friend we're going to die with some things that were in our hearts that god is going to use our children to do he's going to use other believers to do and i've got to rest in the fact that i've done god's will and god has been good even though i'm not doing everything that i thought he told me so i've got to try less i got to get out of here but let me let me give you this one i got to trust more what what do i do instead of trying less here it is i got to trust more i got to trust him more listen to what jesus says take my yoke upon you yeah i've got a i got a healthier way for you to live but in order to enjoy that you've got to take my yoke upon you take my yoke upon you now understand what they would do is that the yoke would connect oxen together so that they could plow a field and so jesus says listen i'm already in this yoke and what i want you to do is trust me enough to get in the other side of the yoke and believe that i can give you the life that you've been trying too hard for take my yoke upon you now understand jesus was a carpenter you know that and competence in this day they didn't just build houses they made yokes and so jesus is an expert yoke maker and he knows how to fit a yoke to your shoulders so that you you'll know how much you can handle he knows the specific needs that we have so he says i want you to take my yoke upon you because listen i know who you are i made you i know your strengths and i know your weaknesses and so if you get yoked up with me i'm going to give you the strength that you don't have right now and when i give you the strength that you don't have right now i'm going to do in your life many of the things that you were trying to do to trying too hard to do before you were yoked up with me [Applause] what they were doing this day is that an old ox would be paired up with a young ox a stronger ox with experience in plowing the field would be paired up with an ox who didn't know what he was doing and as the bigger ox the smarter ox the more experienced ox did what it is that he needed to do then the young ox learned from him he learned how long he needed to push he learned how he needed to fit the yoke around him he learned how to plow the field straight and he says listen here's what i want you to do stop trying so hard i'm not impressed by your good works but what i am impressed by is you deciding that you trust me enough to get yoked up with me and when you do that i'm going to give you rest when you do that i'm going to i'm going to give you a sabbath for your soul when you do that i'm gonna take you into the promised land what you are trying harder to do i've already accomplished you ought to give him praise in the house i've already done it for you i've already done it for you i've already done it for you i've already done it for you but one day one day you and i will still be disquieted isn't that right dr morton one day our rest will still be destroyed i mean be compromised but you know what jesus experienced the same thing jesus walked in faith with his god but i hear him in the garden of gethsemane [Music] saying lord if it's your will i don't want to do this this is uncomfortable lord if it's possible take this cup from me because i'm i don't want to bear this i'm already weary and i'm not even on the cross but he though he was disquieted on that night the bible says that after he was crucified on friday after he stayed in the grave all day saturday he rose on sunday morning there was an arrest on friday [Music] there was no rest on saturday but early sunday morning he got up reclaimed his rest and that's what he wants to do for you he gives us rest out of unrest he gives us peace out of unquieted souls this is what he does he has the experience to teach us how to live in a restful way yeah why don't you give him praise once you give him pray since i'm already over time let me tell you this you know that simone biles what did she do yeah she she didn't do it oh see you already ahead of me don't don't tell my illustration just yet she see she had to withdraw from the competition and it may have looked like god didn't have purpose in that but the team still got a silver medal sometimes god gives us rest he helps us to try less so that other people will experience what it's like to trust him more my rest helps people to find god's more god's god's greater yeah come on everybody stand to your feet all over the building thank you lord and sometimes god uses you when your soul is not at rest i didn't even plan on preaching today i've been i've been feeling just yeah i called vicente i said man i'm gonna i need you to get ready because i don't i don't know if i can preach this morning and vicky coffee got me so happy i was i was sitting here on the stage and i just heard god whisper go ahead and preach anyway go ahead and preach anyway [Music] oh god anyway so we thank god for you being here on today thank god for those of you who have viewed on today and i want to encourage you if you have yet to receive the lord jesus i want to invite you to do what it is he invited all of us to do come to him and live a healthier life have a richer mental health journey have your sins forgiven get the support that you need from heaven be able to appreciate the support from earth because he has freed us of our pride we can confess who we are and so i want i want to encourage you to accept the lord jesus on today and if you want to do that if you want to become even a member of this church i want to encourage you to go to room 159 159 we have people there to to share with you people there to usher you into god's kingdom into the faith they know how to do that and then also we have an opportunity for you there to join our church those of you who are viewing online you can do the same thing by dialing the number on the screen aren't you glad you came to church today as you leave most of you give online and my lord we thank you for that but if you want to give in person we have our friend boxes uh at the exits and we've got a couple of places around the building let's go to god in prayer father thank you for today for our lives for the strength that you provide thank you that we can be all of who we are that we can come to you in our humanness bring our brokenness to you and you're so gentle so humble that you don't criticize a judge you embrace and encourage and remind us of our value reminding us that you didn't get up on the cross to give up on us and we thank you for that in jesus name amen god bless you we'll see you next sunday love you man [Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Greater Mt. Zion Austin

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Id: dTXEAUhopno

Length: 105min 31sec (6331 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021