**If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide due to medically-diagnosed or life crises, please contact professional help immediately.**
In spite of all the blessings, prosperity, and opportunities we enjoy in this country, many people are suffering from such devastating situations that they decide to end it all by taking their own lives. Learn what you can do to help those who are considering this option and share with them God’s amazing love.
you’ve been given the gift of life
you’ve been given the wonderful
privilege of spending eternity in heaven
with almighty god and all the blessings
are indescribable
you’ve been given that privilege and so
what do you do you commit suicide
you short circuit just listen your life
here on earth
god’s purpose and plan for your life and
you lose
the reward which god would have had for
you had you lived it out in obedience to
him
today on in touch suicide the impact on
believers
one of the most disturbing events going
on in our country most people are
unaware of it
they’re so full of their own activities
and situations and circumstances and
needs and cares and burdens and
heartaches all around them this is going
on
they’re not even aware of it but it’s an
event that says something about
our society how could this happen in the
society as
educated as blessed as wealthy
as up to date on all the electronic
gadgets there are to have be had
and yet in spite of all that what’s
happening is
devastating in our nation i’m talking
about
the increasing number of suicides
now you say well i’m not i’m not really
interested in that
most people who commit suicide weren’t
interested in it at one time
you say well that could never happen to
me that’s probably what they said at
some time
this is a very serious subject
because when you think about 30 000
people committing suicide every year
one person every minute
either commits suicide or attempts to do
so
and you probably know somebody who has
at some point in your life
and you may think at some point in your
life you’ve been in some situation of
circumstance it was so
disastrous to you you thought god i
can’t i can’t keep living like this
and yet here you still are because you
trusted jesus
christ as your savior and in that
desperate moment when you thought i just
can’t handle anymore
the lord reminded you by his spirit that
he keeps his word
that you could claim what the apostle
paul said i can do all things to christ
who strengthens me
and so even though you walked through
that experience
and it didn’t happen to you the
multitudes of people with whom it’s
happening
it’s so devastating i want you to
remember it
because if i just sort of rattled them
off you wouldn’t remember it so i’m
putting them on the mag screens
so you can see these numbers
that are happening in our country and
then i want to give you a testimony that
someone gave me
just a few moments ago but as i said 30
000
people every year one every moment more
people
commit suicide than are killed in car
crashes
and you would think that we could never
be but it is up 15
in numbers and in
the lives of people 15 to 24 years old
suicide is the third cause of death and
over half of the suicides occurred in
adult men
25 to 65. what’s happening to our
country
one out of every 65 000 children commit
suicide 10 to 14 years of age
and there are four males who commit
suicide to every woman
now what does that tell you it says
something about where we are
now in the military for example listen
to this
2011-2012
suicides increased by 16 percent
in 2012 they set a record
of more than 349 that’s in all of the
services together
took their own lives across the four
branches of service
every 25 hours one of our service people
committed suicide
more than the 295 who died fighting
now listen to this someone just gave me
this
who heard the first service i’m one of
those military members in iraq
it had my pistol in my mouth
and finger on the trigger i can say that
i’ve been there
but thank god i can’t say
done that
now if there’s one group of people that
need our prayers i think about these
men who are fighting in a war they
didn’t ask for
think about being separated from their
families that wife and their children
or hearing bad news from their family
and not being able to go home and do
anything about it
knowing that every morning when they get
up to go to their
particular position they may not come
home
and every morning that wife wakes up or
those children
they know that they could hear that
their father has been killed
or their mother there’s something
desperately wrong in a nation as rich as
we are
as educated as we are as progressive as
we are in every way
what is wrong that so many people are
taking their life
when there’s so much life to be had when
in spite of all the difficulties and
hardships around us
we’re still the most blessed nation in
the world there’s still opportunity
there’s still
prosperity out there there’s still
meaning for life yet it’s happening
right before us
so somebody says what is what is the
strongest risk of all of this
and that is the underlying cause of most
of it
is depression now there was a time when
a person was depressed
they just go to the doctor and he’d give
them some pills and they’d work on that
for a while and
it didn’t ever cure anything but it sort
of settles some things down
you know what fields aren’t doing it
shots aren’t doing it
prosperity is not doing it position’s
not doing it
something is going on in this nation
that is disastrous
how could so many people how could
children
commit suicide how could we be living in
a nation that
is so progressive and yet we can’t get
along
listen we can’t get along with ourselves
that depression is the major cause of
people
taking their own life so
in the scriptures for example there are
seven instances where
someone uh committed suicide
but we know most of all about judas i
want you to turn to the 27th chapter
of matthew for a moment and look at the
first five verses
and you know this story but listen to
what he says
now when morning came all the chief
priests and the elders of the people
conferred together against jesus to put
him to death
and they bound him and led him away and
delivered him to pilot the governor
then when judas who had betrayed him saw
that he had been
condemned he felt remorse
and returned the 30 pieces of silver to
the chief priest and eldest
saying i have sinned by betraying
innocent blood
but they said what is that to us see
that yourself
and he threw the pieces of silver into
the temple sanctuary and departed
and he went away and hanged himself
let me ask you a question have you ever
thought about hanging yourself
have you ever thought about doing
anything in any fashion that would cause
you to commit suicide
has it ever crossed your mind have you
said well you know that could have
happened to me but you know someone with
whom it has happened
it’s closer than you think and there are
many people who are
suffering today and they’re living on
the edge in fact i checked but just
before i came in here
with our folks who answer the phones for
us and in touch
in the last two months they’ve had more
people
calling who were questioning their own
life
and and talking about committing suicide
the most in two months ever there’s
something
going on in america there’s a state of
confusion
frustration anxiety fear
desperation and despair that is
happening
everything seems to be up for grabs
and we are wondering what is going to
happen next we who believe us
have the awesome strength of almighty
god living within us
we have the word of god as a part of our
life
and therefore we have the source of
strength to live through any and every
circumstance of life
but many people around us do not and so
my primary purpose for this message
is to say to you who
are strong there are many people around
you who are not
and we need to be very sensitive to
people’s actions around us
or when they joke about it when they say
well you know i could just take my own
life
or you know life’s not worth living
anyway we think they’re just joking
and oftentimes they’re very sincere
so we need to be sensitive to people
around us
who are in the process of growing
in their thinking toward the moment of
the day that they might
commit suicide so what i’d like for us
to do is to think
in terms of why people do and one of the
most evident ones is that people do it
because
of their commitment to a cause the
suicide bomber is all about
their commitment to a cause they lay
down their life
hoping and believing that something
they’ve been promised will be given them
for the rest of eternity which is
absolutely not true
some people have a love pack between
themselves maybe somebody who’s elderly
and they have been sick for a long time
and and he’s dying or she’s dying and
they decide you know what
we’ve never been separated for these 50
years or 40 years or 30 or 20
and they decide to commit suicide
together
oftentimes people say well the reason i
don’t want to live is because my life is
meaningless i don’t have any reason for
living anymore
i don’t feel i have any friends
i don’t feel any purpose in life i’m not
going anywhere
i’m not getting anywhere i get up every
morning and
get in my car and drive to the traffic
and i work eight hours
and i come home and i get my paycheck uh
for the
for the week and i come home and uh what
do i do
i sort of watch the tv at night and what
do i hear all the bad things that are
happening in the world unless there’s
something on there that’s
maybe funny on the one moment and so
ugly and
and dirty and trashy at the moment i
don’t want to watch it so
where’s the meaning in life don’t i
don’t have any sense of purpose in life
not going anywhere not getting anywhere
and life is just a circle that’s going
further and further down
and so what do they say they say well
you know what i don’t have a purpose for
life
i don’t want to live this way the rest
of my life and so they choose to end it
tragically and then of course people who
feel hopeless they’re in a situation
where it looks like it’s not going to
change sometimes
it may be in their health and maybe in
their relationships
maybe in their finances i think about
for example
college students today who come along
and they go through four years of
college and now
they’re getting out of college they
don’t have a job but but they do have
something else they’ve got 150 to 200
000 dollars of debt
no job how long does it pay off
take to pay off 200 000 or 100 000
of pure debt and they look at their
future and they think
i don’t have any future i’ll never get
out of debt
i’ll always be a prisoner to somebody
who has the money
i’m in bondage i feel like i’m in a
prison
what purpose is there for me to live
when i don’t have any
i have no sense of real value in life
and i don’t see anything in the future
that is encouraging at all
see most of us have never been in a
situation like that so we don’t know how
they feel
but that’s what they’re saying then of
course there is the whole problem
of pain that is unbearable
physical pain and we talk to people
every once in a while
who’ve been in the same pain for years
and years and years
and some of them i have heard tell of
what’s going on in
their life and what’s been happening and
where
they are and i wonder how they are able
to keep going with the pain they’re
experiencing
and once in a while somebody says i
can’t and therefore since they don’t
have any cure for what i have
and i’m in this particular degree of
pain
it’s so bad i can’t stand it i can’t
stand i don’t i don’t want to die
but i can’t stand living and at some
weak moment in their life
they take their life and
so i think about people who have
emotional pain
they live in circumstances and
situations they don’t feel wanted
they feel betrayed they feel like the
other person’s been unfaithful disloyal
they don’t have a sense of oneness with
the other person
they feel rejected alienated isolated
cast out and they’re just existing
and that emotional pain can be so bad
they say you know what
i can’t handle this anymore they’ve
talked to
their spouse maybe they’ve talked to
doctors they talk to psychiatrists they
talk to
their friends and nothing gets any
better and
so they decided i can’t handle this
anymore
i’m going to take my life
we don’t even understand the degree of
hurt and pain that some people go
through
what motivates them to make the most
difficult
decision they could make and the most
disastrous they can make
to shorten their own life which is never
the will of god
and so when i think about all of the
different reasons but
but there’s one more and that is
sometimes people
commit suicide out of vengeance
i’ll i’ll i’ll show you i’ll show you
who i am
and so what do they do to take out their
vengeance and anger on someone else
they kill themselves and every once in a
while
i’ll hear somebody who’s done that and
that’s their reasons
sometimes they’ll leave a note sometimes
they don’t but they will have said
can’t live like this anymore it’s what
you did to me
and so this is what i’m going to do all
of these are probably other reasons why
people take their life
so with that in mind let’s think about
this whole idea
of who is affected when somebody commits
suicide
well first of all the person who commits
suicide is affected
they’ve cut off their life they’ve
shortened their life
they’ve ended their earthly life but
it’s not just that
there are consequences in the life of
the family
and this oftentimes they don’t consider
once in a while i’ll meet somebody who’s
had a suicide in their life
and they’ll ask this question could this
could this be
in my family jeans i say no
and once in a while some young person
will say that especially
if their grandparent or their parent is
committed suicide
does that mean that that’s that’s a part
of my future
no it is not but think of the
devastation in a family
whether it’s a father or mother or son
or a daughter
when someone shortens their life it’s
over
you can’t say i’m sorry you can’t bring
them back
you can’t say what have i done how could
i change and they asked that question a
thousand times
what could i have done different that
would cause him or her not to do that
and yet family and friends will do what
they can but you know what they can’t do
they can’t bring them back
i think that’s the thing about it that
really just breaks my heart
you you can’t ever get them back they
can’t ever
answer any questions they can’t ever
explain it to you
you have to figure it out somehow in
some way and oftentimes you know
you’ll never know why and especially if
it’s somebody you love
somebody that you dearly love and all of
a sudden
they take their life no warning
and you don’t know why and so you ask a
thousand times
how did i miss it what did i say
what did i do what could i have done and
the ongoing
hurt and pain and suffering that goes on
with the family
it is a tragedy going on in this country
far greater than we realize why would
people lose a sense of
direction and become hopeless feeling
isolated
no friends no real genuine purpose in
life
just existing well family and friends
hurt the whole community hurts for
example
whenever it happens it spreads not the
event itself
but people always ask this question
why do you think he did it why do you
think she did it
and a doctor that i thought a lot of um
i went to see him i’d been to see him
about three times and i went to see when
daniel wasn’t there
and so i asked him the question i said
well tell me
where is dr so-and-so you say he’s not
going to be in him well i said
why isn’t he going to be here well they
said well
he’s resigned and he’s going to teach
that didn’t register with me quite well
so i waited about a month
and i went back so i got one of the
nurses by herself i said ma’am
i want you to answer my question where
is dr so-and-so
and she said he left work one day
he went home he wrote a note and shot
himself
and he had a great position i’m sure he
had plenty of money and had a great
family
but he saw in the decision that somebody
else made that he would not be able to
keep his position and for some reason
not only to him he took his life
it’s a tragedy that happens and the
tragedy of tragedies is
and when i think about that i think
about somebody somebody that i
genuinely loved deeply i couldn’t
ever i could ever get them back
to find out how and why why did you do
that
is this something i could have done and
so there is a
terrifying sense of guilt
that is often left frustration
anxiety and sometimes kids ask the
question
well is that is that a part of my family
and the answer is
no it is not now
how we to view suicide in as far as as
far as the word of god is concerned
so it’s real simple the sixth
commandment says
not thou shalt not kill but thou shalt
not murder
the true hebrew rendering of that word
is commit murder it’s one thing to kill
for example
people in the service they are
responsible to killing the enemy that’s
why they’re there
or people go hunting for example and
kill an animal the bible doesn’t say
don’t kill
does not say that it says do not commit
murder
so i would say i think all of us
understand what that means but let me
just
think about something and i got the
statistics a while ago
55 million babies
55 million babies have been
murdered
they can call it abortion they can call
it anything they want to
and when it gets listen one of the
indications of how bad this society is
getting is when
a doctor would kill a baby
that’s already born and crying
that’s murder you call it anything you
want to but it’s pure
murder and i would say to any doctor
whoever you are
you will be held
accountable to holy god for murdering
children
mark it down
and isn’t it strange that we want to
protect
the whole idea do we think we could
exist in this country the way we are
with all the blessings we have
when we are deliberately you see there’s
no question about what
the sixth commandment says thou shall
not murder period
not i suggest that you don’t not maybe
you shouldn’t and thou
shalt not and if these are the words of
a man that be one thing these are the
words
of a holy righteous omnipotent
god who will be our judge
to every single one of us
somewhere along the way we better wake
up in this country
to think that god is going to ignore
that
he’s not going to ignore it i’ll tell
you why he’s not
he cannot ignore that kind of
disobedience and rebellion
and still be the god of justice that he
is he’s a god of justice
he’s a god of rightness he’s a god of
purity he’s a god of love he’s a god of
goodness and mercy
and therefore he loves those babies he
loves those children
and in my mind i cannot conceive of any
man
whatever his reason may be but primarily
it’s
money primarily it’s money
they’re not doing it for free and isn’t
it strange you don’t hear much about it
why doesn’t somebody stand up and really
tell the truth
why doesn’t somebody say it loud and
clearly we
are murdering our children 55 million of
them have been
murdered and it’s quiet
and there are certainly organizations
that impact
the political situation everybody wants
to be quiet
i’ll tell you one of these days it’s not
going to be quiet
because god’s judgment will come upon
any nation that does that
we are seeing things going in our nation
that we have never seen before
and we’re tolerating it passing
legislation
and our whole moral system
has fallen apart in pure corruption
and everybody wants to be quiet
abortion death killing babies is one of
them now
we said well how does the bible look at
all this well the bible nowhere condones
suicide not one single verse because you
ever
say well here’s what the bible says no
it doesn’t say that listen
it’s a form of escape for these reasons
we talked about whether it’s pain or
of whether it’s vengeance or whatever it
might be it’s an expression of unbelief
here’s what it says i don’t believe that
god can see me through my problem
i don’t believe that god will answer my
prayer i don’t believe that god loves me
i don’t believe that god will help me
through this
that’s what it’s saying but none of
that’s true that’s why it’s not in the
word of god
it says also that god is not a god of
love and faithfulness
oh i know he promised these things but
he won’t do them now
god is a god of faith and listen listen
remember the character of god
the the qualities of god
god does not change in any of his
qualities he’s omnipotent he’s always
powerful
he’s omniscient he always knows all
things
he’s on the present he’s always in the
situation for example we’re really in
his presence he doesn’t
he’s not in that present that presence
all of us in this whole globe
we’re in the presence of almighty god he
doesn’t change
he doesn’t change his mind he doesn’t
change his ways
god’s ways are the same they’ve always
been his mind is the same as has always
been so
we have no excuse for thinking that
somehow well god will change his mind
no he doesn’t that change his mind would
mean that he missed it somewhere
god is infinite in his wisdom and
knowledge and understanding
he’s not a god who’s unfaithful it’s an
expression of ingratitude toward god
for example let’s look at it this way
you’ve been given the gift of life
you’ve been given the wonderful
privilege of spending eternity in heaven
with almighty god and all the blessings
are indescribable
you’ve been given that privilege and so
what do you do you commit suicide you
short circuit yes listen your life here
on earth
god’s purpose and plan for your life and
you lose
the reward which god would have had for
you had you lived it out in obedience to
him
it is an expression of pure ungratitude
toward god
there’s nothing right about it
whatsoever and i think about
the fact that sometimes it is an
expression of self-hatred i don’t like
me
i don’t like the way i look i don’t like
the way i dress i don’t like the way
people look at me i don’t like i don’t
like my friends they don’t like me
and the person can have such self-hatred
they think why should i live
when i have no friends i’m living alone
but not just alone i’m lonely i’m all by
myself in the world so what do they do
they say it’s not worth it they take
their life is it right no it’s not right
and what they’re doing is usurping the
power of god in other words
god is the god of this universe and if i
do something
that violates the word of god there is a
penalty
and to take your own life is to say to
god
i’ll handle this my way. and it’s to
take
the life that god has given you and
destroy it
there can be no way that you could
possibly believe
that god could condone that kind of
action
then i think about it this way god has a
willing plan for all of us
and when a person says i just can’t
handle this and i just i’m i’m
i’m cutting it out too many difficulties
remember this
what is it that real and truly builds
character
what is it that makes us able to achieve
and accomplish in life
most of the time it’s because we suffer
some situation maybe something emotional
it may be something physical it may be
something
some pain you and i go through and all
of us who believe us know
that god allows pain in our life very
trying
difficult times to do what to cleanse
us to change our minds and our attitudes
about the way we’re thinking about
something
in order to use us when i think about
most of the
famous people in the world that that
i’ve read about who were godly people
they went through all kinds of pain and
i can think about
many pastors that i know now and in the
past who
have done a wonderful job for god
suffered all kinds of pain and heartache
and disappointment and all the rest
you say well well you know i just can’t
handle it so much you can handle
anything
god sends you away and listen
the reason you can handle it is because
he’s there
to enable you to handle it to uphold you
to overshadow you
that surround you to be with you no
matter what’s going on
and so a lot of the pain and suffering
and disappointments we have in life and
these lonely times or whatever
god allows them because he’s in the
process of teaching us something
so instead of asking the question
what is god up to in my life
god help me through this a person says
you know i don’t have to do this
and it reminds me of what i hear pastors
every once in a while
they’ll call me and they’ll say i’m
going through this bad situation my
church these folks they don’t love me
they don’t appreciate me
they don’t pay me right uh they they
treat my family wrong and on and on and
on they go and they’ll say
i don’t have to put up with it you know
what i say to them
yes you do you have to put up with it
until god moves you because god must be
doing something in your life and i can
think of so many come to my mind right
now
that i said to them you don’t run you
don’t leave you don’t move
you don’t go find another church because
if you think if you think grass is
greener on this side the guy that left
that church he thought
he thought it was brown so he moved up
here where he thought it was green
so what happens is you keep running
god listen god doesn’t want us to run he
wants us to stand
burn and listen rooted and grounded in
the truth
of the word of god because with that
being true
we can stand anything the lord allows in
their life because listen
if he’s allowing it for some reason he
does
if you’re not a believer i can tell
exactly what he’s up to he wants you to
get so miserable
that you’ll trust jesus christ as your
savior because you so desperately need
him
for all of us who are believers listen
here’s what he says
he says in romans 8 28 he causes
all things to work together for our good
to those who
love him and to those who called
according to his purpose so in those
most extreme moments
and i’ve had some extreme moments in my
life
i never considered committing suicide
but i’ve had some moments i thought god
only you can help me through this and he
always has and he always will and he
always does
and and he god’s not partial he doesn’t
do one thing for one person something
else for the other
he’s willing to help anybody and
everybody through whatever they’re going
through in life
no matter what it might be so it’s an
expression of unbelief it’s
expression of selfishness to take my
life and
listen when you take your life and
deprive
your life of those whom god gave you
your wife or your husband your children
it is a very
selfish act it’s a selfish act
there’s no way you could ever look at
the word of god and say well god
understands no it’s selfish it’s
unbelief it’s ingratitude it’s all the
things
that we’ve said it is and then it hurts
the cause of christ
if you’re a believer for example and you
commit suicide what does the unbelieving
world say
well you know you believed in that jesus
but he didn’t help you
how do i expect him to help me and so it
hurts
it hurts your testimony but it hurts the
cause of christ
so that brings us to another question
and that is anything that’s so
devastating
is suicide and unforgivable sin
well if we would if we were to take a
vote we might be surprised
right the vote would come out is it an
unforgivable sin
let’s put it this way it is a sin
without question there’s no doubt about
that
and nowhere in the scripture is it
stated
that suicide is an unpardonable sin
it is a sin but it’s not unpardonable
now let me say carefully
because i say it is partnerable that is
in other words if somebody says well
it’s an unpardonable sin you can never
be forgiven
that is not true and i’ll show you why
in a moment not true
but that doesn’t give you any room to
commit suicide and say well
if i’m going to be forgiven in a way i
don’t have to worry about it oh yes you
do
there is an awesome penalty for usurping
from the hand of god your life which he
brought into this world for a specific
purpose
and so when we think about that and
think about
the atoning death of jesus how many sins
did jesus die for
he died for all sin every sin
there’s no sin that there’s no sin that
he did not die for
there is an unpardonable sin we’re going
to come to that in a second
but suicide is not an unpardonable sin
and there are many disappointments in
life heartaches burdens
cares and trials we face
but we have to keep moving trusting god
believing in our hearts that he’ll
take us through it now so let me just
say this
is it the will of god to commit suicide
no is it a sin
yes is it an unpardonable sin
no this is the absolute truth of the
word of god
once you’ve trusted christ as your
savior you are eternally
secure in the grace of god but
there will be a judgment and there will
be rewards and loss of rewards and so a
person who takes their own
life loses reward you say well i don’t
care about rewards now
i just want to get out of this yes you
will you see that
short-sighted thinking that’s earthly
thinking that’s not godly thinking
that’s not heavenly thinking
that’s not eternal thinking every one of
us need to think in terms of eternity
what about on the other side of this
life and we’re all
going to die he says that his opponent
unto man wants to die and what
he didn’t say that’s the end of it he
said and after this the judgment
every single one of us will face holy
righteous
god and the person who commits suicide
will face god
and there is a penalty for it is it an
unforgivable sin
it is not an unforgivable sin i want you
to turn to matthew chapter 12 for a
moment
and let’s talk about this whole idea of
of the unpardonable sin for a moment and
you remember that
jesus is dealing with pharisees and
sadducees
now watch this carefully they have seen
him heal
they have watched him work they have
heard his words
they have watched these miracles and
they’re saying
to him you’re the devil you’re of the
devil
so listen to what the scripture says in
the 12th chapter and the 30th verse
he who is not with me is against me
he who does not gather with me scatters
therefore i say to you any sin
now look at that look at that word any
any sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven people but blasphemy
against the spirit shall not be forgiven
so he says any sin except this one will
be forgiven
whoever speaks a word against the son of
man it shall be given
so when people blaspheme jesus and curse
him and all the rest
can you be forgiven of that yes but
whosoever speaks against the holy spirit
it’s it shall not be forgiven him either
in this age
or the age to come which means in this
life
or the life to come now so what is he
saying
what is he saying about that simply this
remember this carefully the reason any
one of us is saved is because the holy
spirit of god the third person of the
trinity
convicted us of our sin showed us the
truth
helped us to understand the truth and to
believe in the lord jesus christ as our
personal savior
and he’s the one who enabled us to
become a believer
now when you say
i don’t believe in jesus christ i don’t
believe in that holy spirit
i’d have nothing to do with that all of
that’s just
that stuff those christians talk about i
will have nothing to do with any of that
and when they continually deny and
reject the lord jesus christ and the
ruling of the spirit
then how they’re going to be saved they
rejected jesus
they rejected the woman of the holy
spirit so is god going to forgive them
of that
no that is the only unpardonable sin
when i think about people saying well
you mean suicide
it’s not unpardonable well let me say it
clearly
suicide is partnerable but it is
horribly destructive in ways that i
cannot even explain
and the attitude of god listen
the attitude of god toward
committing suicide isn’t something well
odds that’s okay
the having said all that i want to make
one thing clear
there are people who love god
who’ve been christians who have come to
some area and some place in their life
who genuinely just in their thinking
can’t
handle it and take their life
was that sin unpardonable no
it’s forgivable but i’m careful the way
i say it because
somebody out there thinks well stanley
said it’s forgivable if he says it’s
forgivable i’m not going to worry about
it i’ll just do it
listen it’s forgivable but the
consequences
are disastrous
and those consequences are eternal
you say what are they i don’t know all
the consequences except that i know the
bible is clear about losing a reward
it doesn’t fit who you are listen
carefully
you can’t name anything god
can’t help you through if you will trust
him
if you will trust him you say well
when people who are go to church when
they know enough why
why wouldn’t they trust god i can’t
always answer that question but i can
say this
no matter what you’re going through
almighty god
is there to help you but just because a
person claims to be a christian doesn’t
mean they’re in the word of god
listen i’ve been through difficult times
in my life and i had to stay in the word
lord
here’s what you said this is not the way
i feel this is not what i want that’s
not what i asked for
here’s what you said i have to trust you
that’s why this book is so absolutely
valuable
listen this is a life and death message
and it’s an eternal life in death
message
and if you’re a person who says i don’t
need any bible in my life then you’re a
fool
and i say that lovingly but pointedly
you’re a fool
if you think you can handle life without
the word of god and you will find out
too soon so it is not unpardonable
so let me just say this here’s some
things to remember
in order that you may share with a
friend listen if somebody
jokes with you about it take it
seriously if they even mention it once
take it seriously
if they call you take it seriously
because here’s the things that you need
to share with them
remind them that god knows all about
their circumstances
and he’s committed to helping them
through it there’s nothing god can see
you through
secondly he loves you just as you are
and he’s willing
to step with you step by step through
your pain and hurt and suffering and
sorrow and disappointment
and aloneness and alienation and all the
rest he’ll see you through it
thirdly you must invite him into your
life
as your savior then he will become your
friend
and your partner in life without jesus
christ
you’re not going to make it
when you trust him as your personal
savior remember this
when you ask him to come into your life
and save you he forgives you of all of
your sin
he comes in to dwell listen he comes to
dwell within you
for what reason to help you age you
enable you strengthen you overshadow you
undergird you surround you
whatever is necessary to help you to get
through it you have listen
not just a friend but you have almighty
god
on your side to help you through
whatever you’re facing
you don’t shoot yourself you don’t kill
yourself you don’t poison yourself you
don’t take pills
and all the other things you may have
tried everything
you may have tried it a few times and it
didn’t work
don’t try no more you heard the
testimony of this military person who
said he put the gun in his mouth
and god wouldn’t let him do it don’t
destroy what god has created
you may be absolutely shocked at what
god does for you
and then you enter you once you pass
through that stage
no i’m not taking my life i’m going to
find out
what this holy awesome god will do in my
life
you’ll be surprised
just give him the privilege and father
how grateful we are this morning
but the holy spirit who doesn’t let up
thank you for the times he convicts us
the times he just
loves us and we pray this morning that
every person who hears this message will
take it
very seriously
and we pray that each person listening
who has never trusted you as their
savior will be
wise enough to wise enough to listen
carefully
and recognize that if they’re willing to
not just confess
their sin but to surrender their life to
you
you will forgive them write their name
in the lamb’s book of life
walk with them through the last moment
of their life
here on earth and take them to heaven
you said you never leave us nor forsake
us and oh
god of all the promises in the word what
could be better than that
my god will never leave me
nor forsake me write that up on the
table of their hearts today is my prayer
in jesus name amen
as believers we have god’s promise that
his holy spirit will help us endure
through life’s hardest challenges
if we are willing to trust him at
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suicide
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situation
god says that in all these circumstances
in all of these things he says
nothing can separate you from god he
says not on that he says you’re more
than a conqueror
he says you are a super conqueror that
is you have the privilege of learning
and becoming and developing your
character has the privilege of being
shaped and formed in these difficulties
and trials
in the furnace of trial and stress you
have the privilege of becoming
what you probably would not become were
it not for the difficulties and the
heartaches
what did paul say he said he used to try
and pray and ask god to remove the
throne of the flesh but then he learned
the most beautiful lesson
that when he was at his most weakest
moment he came forth as conqueror
so therefore he began to thank god for
the difficulty
he began to thank god for his trials he
began to praise god
that he loved him enough to want to
develop him and strengthen him
and build him and form character in his
life he began to thank god for his
trials and his heartaches how do you
respond
when these things come into your life do
you see yourself as a conqueror
or do you see yourself as a defeated foe
do you believe what satan says about you
you can’t make it you’re too weak the
stack is dec
the deck is stacked against you that is
the cards are always against you and
there’s no way for you to win
this is just the way you’re going to
have to live this is just the way you’re
going to have to be
this is just the way you were born these
are your circumstances you can’t ever
get out things will never change
it’s going to get worse and worse and
worse and that’s just the way it is you
might as well give up
and settle down for a settle for life
that is you can just count yourself as
defeated because
life has dealt you a deaf blow
and i want to tell you my friend you
don’t have to live in defeat
you don’t have to surrender to your
circumstances it doesn’t make any
difference what they are
you say but you don’t know how awful my
circumstances are
let me ask you this are there any worse
than this
tribulation distress persecution famine
mechanism
danger or death the sword your
circumstance is any worse than that
listen to what paul said he said in all
these things
we overwhelmingly conquer through christ
who loved us
that is listen having looked at the
whole gamut
and in those seven words you can put all
the difficulties and hardships that
people ever face
you can find a place to slot them in one
of those seven he says in all
these things almighty god when he came
into your life
through christ he made you then and
there
a super conqueror over
all these things and the question i’m
asking
is this are you willing to appropriate
for yourself
are you willing to believe what god says
about your circumstances and you in your
circumstances
are you going to continue to believe
what satan says
what does satan say you’re weak
you’re frail you’ve blunted before
it’s just not in the deck for you you’ll
never get the breaks in life other
people will you want
but you see if you keep believing
satan’s lie and you see yourself as a
defeated foe here’s what you do
satan begins to put the pressure on you
and the more pressure he puts on you
and you say well that’s right i guess i
never will make it in life and i suppose
after all
things never have been too good for me
and i guess this is just the way i have
to live and before long my friend
you’ll be where almighty god never
intended you to be listen
there’s a lot of difference in that list
jesus says you are a
super conqueror you’re not a defeated
foe listen
watch this you may suffer
periods and experiences of defeat but
that doesn’t make you defeated
listen you say but i’ve had a whole
string of defeats
so what you are still a conqueror listen
you know what we do
we we mix and confuse experiences with
who we are
i may suffer defeat here and here and
here here here
that doesn’t make me defeated i may get
conquered here and here and here and
here that doesn’t make me cease to be a
conqueror
there may be experiences of defeat there
may be times of distress
there may be times of discouragement
that doesn’t
make us a defeated foe he says we are
super conquerors through him that loved
us
now watch this next phrase because
here’s the key
he says in all these things whatever
your circumstance may be
he says we overwhelmingly we don’t get
by the skin of our teeth
he says we overwhelmingly conquer he
says we are
super conquerors we overwhelmingly
conquer
through him who loved us now what in the
world is he referring
to here now watch this what is the basis
of our saying
that even in the midst of these
difficulties and heartaches that we’re
super congress
what is that based on how can we
honestly say that and especially
if you happen to be one of those persons
who’s really going through difficulty in
heartache and i mean the bottoms dropped
out
the tops caved in and everywhere all
every piece of your life is
is unraveling and you just sort of
wobbling through life and don’t have any
earthly idea
how are you going to get out and my
friend i know that some of you are
suffering and you’re suffering deep down
inside
and the pain is becoming more and more
intense and the fears are increasing
and the frustration is increasing and
the anxieties are on the increase
and you’re thinking my god my god what
in this world am i going to do and i
want to tell you
listen to me listen to the basis upon
which god has said
you my friend are an overwhelming
conqueror what is the basis
the basis first is found right here in
this 37th verse
but in all these things we
overwhelmingly conquer through
him christ who loved us now watch this
when you were saved the bible says the
holy spirit came to your life and sealed
you as a child of god
and jesus said abide in me and i in you
who is living within you today who
jesus christ let me ask a question
what was the most crucial test in the
life of jesus
as to whether he was really who he said
it was not what was it
the resurrection of jesus christ
validated everything he said
it was the most crucial test if he were
truly the person he said he was now
listen
this resurrected christ has determined
to live his life in and through me
and through you the bible says christ is
their life
let me ask you a question if christ is
in you
what conquered jesus nothing when he
came out of the grave he conquered the
grave
that he conquered death sin and the
devil all three of them he conquered
that living triumphant victorious christ
is alive within every single child of
god let me ask you a question
if jesus christ the triumphant one
is living within you today what
can conquer you without your consent
nothing if it can’t conquer him who
lives within you it can’t conquer you
listen
that’s not the real me that’s not the
real you the real me is on the inside of
this thing
and we cannot be conquered because he
says christ
has become our life we are conquerors i
can only be conquered
when i choose to believe what satan says
about me then i’m going down in defeat
but as long as i’m willing to believe
what almighty god said about me there is
absolutely
no ultimate defeat
leading people worldwide into a growing
relationship with jesus christ
and strengthening the local church in
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charles stanton is a presentation of in
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