Hello Crossing Church. How are you doing today?
You do not ride. Aha, I don't know how you can't
be. That was 30, baptisms.
You know, we just watched 30 baptisms.
Just, I guess it's amazing. You know what?
We call that at the Crossing, we call that last week, you know,
and there's so many things that are going on in this world that
can be. So discouraging depressing can
create disillusionment, it's good to know that God never
stops working. That he's working in the hearts
and the Lives of people and that visits a visual reminder of
that. That's not just an individual.
That's being changed. That's a family that's
generation after generation. I mean, there's incredible
things that God is doing. We sing that song, even if I
don't see it, you're working. If I don't feel it, your work,
you never stopped working and he never does stop working.
I'm so thankful that we have that opportunity to reflect on
that truth. I want to welcome all of the
campuses that are joining With us today from all over this
region if your Insider online. So thankful for each and every
one of you as well. We're in this series, called
weeds in my garden, talking about this issue of mental
health, that we're all dealing with and how that relates to
God's word, what God has to say about it and how we walk that
out. Spiritually, would you agree
with me? That it seems like every
generation has a rougher time than the Duration proceeding it.
It just seems like the problems they get just more pronounced,
they get more Vivid strong and harder to to manage.
And as a church, we really want to help you.
We want to, you know, we see that and and we want to be able
to reach out to that. I noticed that at camp, this,
this last year. I mean, we had an incredible
Camp, largest amount of students that we've ever had.
We were full With our camp for virtually every week and all the
rest of the camp weeks were taken up by other churches using
our camp. So lots of business done for the
Lord, all this summer, but there was a statistic that came out of
that camp that really kind of alarm me.
One of our camps is called fuse camp and that's Middle School.
Junior high. And you would imagine that with
all these kids that we have coming to all of our locations
and having a full Camp. The the kids that would come to
Camp would probably the most connected, the most plugged in,
right? Half 50% of the kids that went
to fuse Camp. Attend church less than six
times in a year. Half.
Which means their parents probably aren't attending
either, and I'll tell you why. That's a big deal to me.
It's a big deal because if that's where they're getting
their spiritual nourishment, if that's where they're learning
about who they are in Christ and and how they can develop
spiritually, and they're getting that little of a, a taste of
that. How are they going to manage in
this world that just keeps spiraling culturally?
How are they going to have the tools?
That they need and of course, I'm looking at that going how as
a church. Are we able to substantially
help them in that process especially if we have so little
exposure to them? Early this year, Allison.
I had the opportunity to go visit some friends.
He's a pastor of a church in Post Falls Idaho, right across
the border from Spokane. Washington, his name's Jim
Putman, his wife's Lori Putman and we were doing some
Consulting for them. Like secret shoppers was
actually a lot of fun going to their different locations and
then talking about all the things that we saw whether they
were good or bad and to try to help them out.
It was great to connect with them and when we're in the car
together, you know, you're going to be talking about things that
pertain to Ministry, one of my questions to him was like, what
it was, one of the best sermon series that you've done in the
recent past that you feel like really just got a lot of
traction. And he told me about a series
that they were doing, they had done called Irreplaceable.
And it was a it had it had to do with suicide and I'm thinking.
Wow that's like preaching on that.
He said well in our community one of the key administrators
School of Public School administrators committed
suicide, not too long ago. And then right after that, the
captain of the football team, the varsity football team did.
And it just it just rocked the community and the fact was that
there was an epidemic they were realizing it's just epidemic of
people. That are doing this, they're
committed. They're contemplating it or
they're doing it. And he started kind of going off
on these statistics where they would, they actually went into
the schools to do counseling. And through that process, they
did some research and this research just really showed a
lot of things. There were 400 kids in that
public school. That first one that they went
to, and they thought that there might be a few kids, who would
go We get permission to tell their stories. 200 of them did.
Half of the student population. And, you know, I was thinking
we're planning a mental health Series in the summer.
Anyway, I really felt like this would really dovetail into that
because, you know, that's not something that's just happening
in northern Idaho. That's happening all over the
country, we're all experiencing that.
And it may, you may have experienced that with people
that, you know, that you love that, you care for and it spins
you out, like, what in the world is going on.
His teaching focused on three lies that Satan surrounds us
with it, encourages us to believe about ourselves and how
and irreplaceable. That series was about
dispelling, those lies and where he got.
Those was from people that he talked to, and that his staff
had talked to that had contemplated or attempted
suicide and then others, who actually Had accomplished it and
what they left in their suicide notes.
So this week, I'm going to talk about the first of three lies,
the next three weeks. We're going to talk about these
three lives and we're going to dispel this, because because
it's amazing how much we might believe these lies first one.
The first why we tend to believe is that?
My life is meaningless. It doesn't really matter.
It's worthless. I really won't be missed.
So what's the point? Many of you have had that
thought in your head. Some of you actually have that
thought in her head right now, So the question is, where does
that lie come from? I'm going to show that.
It's a lie, where does it come from?
What's contributing to it? And how can we move against it?
In the late 1990s as a result of this amount of school shootings.
I mean we all kind of remember Columbine and and then it start.
I mean, it's becoming more and more of a thing.
You're hearing Dartmouth medical school and you will Dartmouth
the prestigious college did a landmark study, and it was
called hard-wired to connect. It came out in 2003, and it was
done by Children's doctors by research scientists mental
health professionals and youth service professionals.
And this was the opening statement of that study.
What is the crisis? The crisis comes in two parts.
The first part is the deteriorating behavioral and
mental, health of us children. We are witnessing high and
Rising rates of depression anxiety, attention deficit
conduct disorders. Thoughts of suicide and other
serious, mental, emotional and behavioral problems Among Us
Children and adolescents Listen to how the report concludes
because you won't believe it. The report concludes that the
main cause of the crisis in American Childhood and
Adolescence is a lack of connectedness.
IE close connections to other people and connections.
This is the part that blows me away, connections to moral and
spiritual meaning. This was Dartmouth.
It's not a Christian School, you know?
It wasn't written by Christians was a secular study, but they
realized that moral and and spiritual underpinnings are
critical. To your emotional well-being.
Underneath this fact is that there are destroyers of those
critical Connections in our culture today, right?
Things that just wipe us out like divorce, like the busyness
of our schedules, like, the shallowness of relationships,
like people having a lack of honesty, in their relationships,
like, people moving because they want to get a better job and
they're disconnecting from their family, their extended family,
they're close friends, Is and so you can't really have those
lifelong connections that are so meaningful.
Listen you and I We were wired for deep connection.
God made us that way. We're wired for Intimate
Relationships, but because many of them are not deep or they're
not intimate anymore. It is producing a lot of anxiety
and depression, between 2007, and 2017 that 10-year period.
The number of those suffering with anxiety, and depression,
tripled, and teens, The Journal of the American Medical
Association stated this. And this is a quote people.
In each generation of the 20th century were three times more
likely to experience depression than the people of the preceding
generation. Their actual studies that show
that depression can be passed on genetically, which also
contributes to these increasing levels and our behaviors can
contribute to this. And one of the reasons is we
can't shut our brains off. You get in a room with seven
people just sitting down with seven people, right?
A tan, your net airport, and you're waiting for you, name it
any? What do you see?
Everybody's on their phone. Everybody is on their phone, and
you know what's happening? They cannot disconnect, can't do
it. You can't shut your brain off,
whether its media, whether it's social media, whether it's
gaming, whatever it is, and they contribute to something that
West Beavis is going to be talking about in a few weeks.
Psychiatrists psychologists going to be here to the
overworked of the stimulation of those areas of our body.
Those hormonal areas that provide Is serotonin and
dopamine, and they overworked Us in those areas until they burn
out their ability to produce it. And you need those chemicals.
God created you to produce those chemicals hormone Ali because
they contribute to feelings of peace and joy which you all need
and I need Now you already know that I'm standing up here and
I'm not going to be focusing on all that stuff.
I'm going to be focusing on a spiritual problem.
But I want to be really clear about this before.
I do that, anxiety, depression and different forms of mental
illnesses are real. They are real and we have to get
over the stigma. That hey, just suck it up
buttercup. We got to get over the stigma
of, you know, that's not really like you should just be able to
manage that. Look, if you came to me and I,
you know, and while we're talking you had a little, you
know, a little beeper, go off and I'm watching you inject
yourself with some insulin because you're diabetic, would
you think I would say hey you don't need to do that.
Just pray about it. You just need to pray about it.
And this is just as real as that.
And I want to say one other thing.
God uses doctors. He uses doctors.
He's the one who's empowered, doctors to know, what they need
to know to prescribe what they need to prescribe to help you.
So you need to embrace that. That's a gift of God and we need
to get over this stigma, okay? Use the tools that are that are
available for you, but there is a big piece being left out and
we have to consider it even focus on it.
And that's what I want to do today.
And I'm Begin with the Apostle, Paul's words in Ephesians
chapter 6, starting in verse 10. He said this finally be strong
in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of
God, so that you can take your stand against say this with me
the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood. This is not a human battle, but
against rulers against the authorities, against the powers
of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in
the Heavenly or spiritual Realms that's scary.
I mean, is he just trying to scare us?
Is he trying to tell us some kind of a like a horror story or
something? No, Satan is real.
The Bible is very clear, Satan is real and the battle is real
and whether or not you want to admit it, you're in it, you're
in that battle. Let me tell you something about
it. You're fighting against an
enemy. You can't see.
And he is a lot stronger than you, and he is a lot smarter
than you. Jesus spoke about it.
Do you believe him? Do you trust?
Jesus. John 8:44.
He says this, you belong to your father, the devil and you want
to carry out your father's desires.
He's speaking to those people that were coming against him.
He was a murderer from the beginning.
Not holding to the truth for. There's no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language for, he is a
liar and the father of Lies. What does Jesus teach us?
The devil is a liar, and he's a killer and he will try to take
your life. He'll try to take it all at once
or he'll try to take it a piece at a time.
How does he do it? You know, how he does it?
I don't need to preach this to you already know Satan creates a
culture, he creates a culture of darkness and he creates a
culture of death, and he doesn't with lies a culture of darkness
and death with lies, he partners with our culture.
I mean, we live in this culture, right?
He partners with our culture and that's where this lie comes
from. And it comes from all different
angles and I don't have time to talk about all the angles, but
I'll hit a few of them. Okay, here's one.
Education. Academics science.
At least certain kinds of science.
Every one of you, all of you at my location.
If you went to public school, you were taught that you are the
product of evolution, right? Right?
You have been taught that the world is so many billions of
years old. You're taught about natural
selection, survival of the fittest.
Darwinism. You're taught about all this,
right? Ultimately, if you want to boil
all that down and see what's at the bottom of the pot, when
you're done, boiling it. All out, it's this, the LIE is
you are a product of randomness. You're a coincidence.
The reason that you exist is that just certain things came
together over a long period of time, right?
Basically, you're an accident. You're not special, you're not
important. And when you think about the
vastness of the universe, you're actually very small and very
insignificant. Because there's no such thing in
that world, that academic world, or that Science World about a
spiritual realm. Then, it's just silly to think
that there's actually an enemy after us, Satan loves that.
Can you think of a better way to Ambush us then for a whole bunch
of people to believe that he doesn't even exist?
Just think about what he's able to get away with.
So, when you're dealing with this spiritual realm, this is
what you hear. I know what you hear.
I hear it too. That's just your own voice in
your head. Listen, there's nothing after
you die. You just die.
Listen, you're in pain so just end your pain.
It won't matter because you don't matter.
He lies to us. Those are the lies we're
hearing. I mean, how can we do that?
If we're not hearing that, and if we don't have something
that's going on in our lives reinforcing that he lies to us
about who we are. He lies about the consequences
of our Behavior. He says.
There are no such, there's no such thing as moral absolutes.
You know what? Laws of morality is it's just
what everybody gets together and decides whatever they say is,
right and wrong. There's no absolute right and
wrong. If you want to be happy, you do
you If you want happiness in your life, make that happiness
yourself, do whatever you need to do, to get that happiness
yourself, right? It's okay.
It's okay to step on others because there really isn't any
right and wrong. It's all about making you feel
better. If you want to be a bully, go
ahead and be a bully. Go ahead, write that post, get
your likes. If I want to have sex with
somebody else, if that makes me feel good, go ahead and do it.
If I get pregnant or cause a pregnancy, we can just abort it.
That little babies in the way of my happiness.
My future and my happiness is more important.
Look just don't call it a baby. Call it a fetus, it's easier.
He lies about the nature of Who We Are.
People are just animals. We're just animals.
We're part of the whole Animal World.
We're a little smarter than they are, you know, we've evolved a
little bit more, but we're just animals, dude, we kill animals.
Anybody been to of McDonald's lately?
You're eating an animal. You ever go to Arby's?
They got the meats where you think they got the meats.
What's the difference? Satan says. that person's skin
color means, he's inferior to you, lie, that person at the
borders, wrecking, our economy, Me happiness, those older people
are destroying so security. Why don't we have euthanasia?
And on, and on, and on it goes, listen to me, we live in a
culture of darkness and death. Filled with lies.
Now, right now, I'd like to have like a bottle of mouthwash and
like the like little and true because that's all that is.
That is not you. That is not who you are, but we
believe these lies. And the mist of all of that.
Now, I'm glad you stayed with me.
In the midst of all that God, creates a culture of light and
life and Truth. Would you just for a moment?
Let God tell you the true nature of who you are.
Would you do that? You know, how far you have to go
in the Bible to find this out first page?
You can find it out in the very first page.
Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27.
This is who you are. then God said, Let us make mankind say
this with me in our image. Basically that's saying let us
make mankind like us. Like us.
In our likeness. We what does that mean?
Means we look like him. Set right, my right.
Not wrong. So that they may see this word.
Do you know that only God Sovereign God has an
indisputable right to rule? Only God, has the right to rule
and he rules over the whole universe, right?
And you know how he made us, he made us to do this because we
are Made In His Image. In in his likeness we reflect
him. Wow, let them rule over the fish
of the sea, the birds of the sky, over the livestock, the
wild animals, over all the creatures, that move along the
ground, so God created Mankind in his own image in the image of
God. He created the me says a three
times. He wants you to know that.
I mean is it once enough? No, I'm going to say three times
in two verses. Male and female.
He created them. This world is not an accident.
It was designed intelligently by someone, you can't.
And I can't fathom can't even begin to understand.
You are not an accident. This world is not an accident,
you're not an accident. As a matter of fact, you're
special Very, very special. You have a quality in you
because you were made in the image of God that will Outlast.
This world, there is an eternal quality to you because you were
made to be like him. Now, these three words, I just
hope that they resonate with you today.
And it's this, you are known. He knows you.
Go. God knows everything.
Okay, believe in a God, God knows everything.
God knows me. Oh no!
Your you don't get you don't get that word.
You don't get that word known. Let David the king explain it to
you. In Psalm 139 You have searched
me. Lord and, you know, me. you
know, when I sit and when I Rise, he knows when you get a
snack when you're watching TV, He knows you perceive my
thoughts from afar. He knows what you're thinking
right now. Keeps track of what you're
thinking. You discern my going out and my
lying down for those of us that are older.
Yes is keep up with us it night right?
We're gettin up and never mind anyway.
You're familiar with all my ways.
He knows all your ways. before a word is on my tongue, you Lord
know it completely Does this sound like a distant?
God does this sound like a god who's really not that
interested? You hit me in behind and before
you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me to lofty. For me to attain God made you
and he made you uniquely, there's no one like you, there's
no one even remotely. Like you, you are a masterpiece
of God, he signs his work. And if you don't believe me,
look at the verses 13 to 16 in that same chapter.
Or it says for you created my inmost being you knit me
together in my mother's womb, I praise you because I'm fearfully
and wonderfully, made your works, are wonderful.
I know that full well my frame was not hidden from you when I
was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the
depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before
one of them came. Aim to be.
Wow. Some of you got Mom issues and
dad issues and you know what your biological mother and
father participated in your birth, but it was God who
created you. It was God, who created you?
And you need to understand that, because no matter what anyone
else says about you, you are valuable to him.
And his opinion is the opinion that matters most.
He made you beautiful and he made you precious and if you
doubt that for a minute answer me this why would he give up his
only son to die for you if he didn't consider you precious and
when they nailed Jesus to that cross as those Nails pierced his
flesh and held him to that would he was saying hey I love you
like this much. That is how valuable you are to
him. You're known.
God tells you the true reality of your behavior because we all
have Behavior, right? And let me just tell you this
sin is real and you've done a lot of it.
And so have I, we're all Sinners.
It's in. You don't give me any excuses.
You can blame God if you want, but you and I were the product
of our sinful Nature's and the product of all the sinful
Nature's of all the choices of all the people around us in our
Culture that they made for us, these choices they made for us,
right? Because this is a sinful Dark
World filled with lies. From the Devil Himself.
And if you wonder you know well if I made in the image of God,
why do I find it so easy to run into darkness?
Well, that's why. It's because of that nature
inside of us. And the people around us.
But beneath all that you're more, you're so much more and
God God beneath all that. When he sent Jesus, to come here
to this earth and died on the cross and shed his blood to
cleanse, you from your sin to rise from the dead to prove that
he has the ability to raise you from the dead.
Before Jesus was born 700 years. Before Jesus was born, Isaiah
wrote this in the Old Testament. He said the people walking in
darkness have seen a great light.
And those living in the land of deep Darkness, a light has
dawned, John recorded it in John 15.
And 112. He said this the light shines in
the darkness and the Darkness has not overcome it.
He says in 12 yet, all who did receive him, because Jesus is
that light to those who believed in his name, he gave the right
to be called the children of God.
Remember God wasn't creating when he made you, he was
procreating. Because You're Made In His
Image. Jesus died for you.
He died for you because he loves you.
It's as simple as that. It's not rocket science.
And even though we're Sinners, Jesus can make us clean and new.
Now, some of you are going, well, you have kind of the
world, you have G, don't know what I've done, didn't we just
take care of that heat up. He doesn't only know what you've
done. He knows what you thought.
He knows the words that are going to come out of your mouth
before they come out of your mouth and he still loves you.
Not just everybody but you individually.
He loves you. You are known.
You are not a Accident you were not an insignificant Speck, that
no one will miss. You have position you have
purpose. God has a plan for your life to
live out here. On this Earth.
There is a spiritual realm. There is an enemy who is trying
to kill you. He lies to you.
He surrounds you with lies. The devil is a liar.
But if we do a John says listen to what John says.
In first John chapter 1, this is the message we have heard from
him and declare to you, that God is light.
And in him, there is no Darkness at all.
And if we claim to have fellowship with him, and yet,
walk in the darkness, we lie. And we do not live out the
truth. That's what it would be with the
devil, right? But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and
him. And the blood of Jesus, his son
purifies us from all sin. You see what's there for us, in
the midst of a culture where there isn't connectedness like
there needs to be where people are.
So disconnected. We can have that connectedness
to our father. And in community of Fellowship
like this church we can have connectedness to one another and
we can drive down deep into that connectedness and it'll make a
difference. And in the process of all of
that, those lies are going to be exposed to the light because
Satan hates the light. and even though he's way stronger and
smarter than you, he's nothing compared to Jesus.
And if Jesus is in you, you win, You will always win.
We can have a greater fellowship, and listen, you can
go all the way back to the Old Testament, to Moses.
His last sermon before he goes up on Mount, Nebo and
Deuteronomy 30. Look what he says to you and me
today. He says this day, I call the
heavens and the Earth as Witnesses against you that I
have set before you life and death blessings and curses Now,
choose life. So that you and your children
may live and that you may love the Lord, your God and listen to
his voice and hold fast to him for the Lord, is your life.
And he will give you many years in the land.
He swore to give your father's Abraham.
Isaac, and Jacob. Listen, you are known And he
wants you to choose life. Choose life.
You know what? There's some that are here today
that are fighting this battle right now and I want you to know
that as a church. We want to fight alongside of
you. We want to surround you.
We want to lock arms facing outward.
We don't want the enemy to get to you and we want you to do the
same for us because we are all in the same battle.
We all have the same problems just because some people may
look better. They may polish it up better.
They're Just as big a mess As You Are.
I'm the proof of that. We want you to have deep and
meaningful and transparent relationships that will help you
along the way. We need that and we need those
relationships grounded in our mutual faith in Jesus, but most
of all, I want you to have an intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, because he's the only way to life.
He said it himself in John 14:6, the day before he died for our
sins. He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life and no one comes to the father, except through me,
Jesus is life, he is Your life. Choose life.
Choose Jesus, we're moving to a time of decision.
So, you know, that what I'm saying is true that there's this
epidemic. And it's all because of this
devaluation of life. And it's surrounded us write
this whole devaluation of life is surrounded us.
And we hear these lies, we believe these lies and we don't
have the structures in our life to change that to counteract
that to hear those things. I was really contemplating that
this week. I'm preparing for this message
this week and last week, it There's a word that hit me
pretty hard this week. And it's a word that's in First
Corinthians 13. That's the chapter that you
heard read all those times you went to weddings if I speak in
the tongues of men and angels and have not lie know that Love
is patient. Love is kind, doesn't boast, not
proud, right? All that and then you get to the
bottom of it, like toward the end of the chapter and it says,
and these three remain Faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
I want to talk about the middle one because we don't talk about
it a lot. And that's hope. you know, I
think that people that are struggling when we talk about an
issue like suicide, that's where right where it is.
Hope they don't have it. What is it Anyway?
What is hope, hope is like maybe you see yourself in a place
you'd rather not be but you can see out in front of you enough
to believe that there's something good coming, like
there's something good on the way and so hope is what's out in
front of you. It's like, yeah, I can believe
that and I have to believe that a person Who contemplates?
This is a person that can't see that.
So, I want to ask you a hard question, each one of you
individually this question? Where do you get it?
Where do you find it? Where do you find it today?
Where do you find Hope? In the relationship, you have.
In the next thing, you buy next accomplishment that you cross
off or check mark. Where do you find Hope?
And where do you find hope that lasts?
We've, we sing a song at the Crossing and in the chorus.
It says hope has a name And his name is.
You see I don't I don't think a lot of us really have a grasp of
that. We don't have a hold of
something called hope and I want you to have hope today.
If you don't have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Right now, I want you to know,
That there's going to be someone over there by that baptistery in
just a moment. And they will, they will be
happy to pray with you or share with you anything about what it
means to have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. And I guarantee you you walk out
of here with hope. Many of you are here today and
you're dealing with issues in your life circumstances
challenges, right? And it's getting you down and
you're getting kind of caught up in the lower story and I'm going
to invite you to come up here and get down on your knees.
because I guarantee you, If you're struggling with hope and
just because you're a Christian, doesn't mean you don't struggle
with it. I guarantee you get down on your
knees up here and you spend a little time with the Lord
talking to him. You're going to get back up on
your feet and you're going to be more hopeful when you get up and
win. You got down on your knees.
Did you see anybody in that baptism video that got out of
that water and looked frustrated.
Did you see anybody that came that their face broke through
the water and they were like, that was a dumbest thing I ever
did. Do you know what I saw?
Hope it's what I saw. Maybe it isn't you maybe today.
You're doing. Okay, you're a solid 7.5, you
know, maybe you're carrying a burden for somebody else.
A lot of you. A lot of you are carrying a
burden for someone else. I want you to consider coming up
here with their burden, Plead their case before almighty God,
you don't think he hears that prayer.
He knew it, before you put it in your mouth, he knew it.
When you were thinking the thought of right, Huh.
Some of you're going to see this.
This whole front is going to fill with people and you're
going to go, it's full We made lots of space here.
You don't have to actually touch the steps.
Just come up, put some action to your desire to your faith.
Would you think that? Would you consider that right
now? Let's stand heavenly, father,
I'm praying. I pray in Jesus name that will
just get out of our own way and let you have your way and you
would just speak to us right now and that we would move because
we know that you're there and that you care and that were
known Pour your spirit out. Here.
With your family. I pray in Jesus name, amen.