"Silver To Silver" Dary Northrop at Timberline Church

Transcription:

- Good morning, Timberline. We're so glad you're here and welcome to everybody joining us online. God's got some amazing stuff for us this morning. As you may have seen, we're gonna be taking communion at the end of service. So if you didn't grab those elements, they're on the side of the room. But for now, if you're able, would you stand with us as we start our time off with worship. Here we go. We'll sing come let us worship our king. ♪ Come let us worship our King ♪ ♪ Come let us bow at His feet ♪ ♪ He has done great things ♪ ♪ See what our Savior has done ♪ ♪ See how His love overcomes ♪ ♪ He has done great things ♪ ♪ He has done great things ♪ ♪ Oh, hero of Heaven ♪ ♪ You conquered the grave ♪ ♪ You free every captive and break every chain ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ ♪ We dance in Your freedom, awake and alive ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, our Savior, Your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ Yes you have Lord We believe that He's been faithful. ♪ You've been faithful through every storm ♪ ♪ You'll be faithful forevermore ♪ ♪ You have done great things ♪ ♪ Yes I know You will do it again ♪ ♪ For Your promise is "Yes and amen" ♪ ♪ You will do great things ♪ ♪ God, You do great things ♪ ♪ Oh, hero of Heaven, You conquered the grave ♪ ♪ You free every captive and break every chain ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ ♪ We dance in Your freedom, awake and alive ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, our Savior, Your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ Come on praise Him now, sing hallelujah. ♪ Hallelujah God, above it all ♪ ♪ Hallelujah God, unshakable ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, You have done great things ♪ ♪ Oh, yes You have, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah God, above it all ♪ ♪ Hallelujah God, unshakable ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, You have done great things ♪ ♪ You've done great things ♪ ♪ Come on sing now. ♪ ♪ Oh, hero of Heaven, You conquered the grave ♪ ♪ You free every captive and break every chain ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ ♪ We dance in Your freedom, awake and alive ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, our Savior, Your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, You have done great things ♪ ♪ You have done great things ♪ ♪ Oh God, You do great things ♪ Come on church, let's give Him praise this morning. Yes Lord, You're so good. Such a great God. Lord, we've come to worship You this morning. We just fix our eyes on you. We run into your open arms this morning. We thank you Lord. Thank you for Your presence here in this place. Sing I've carried a burden. ♪ I've carried a burden ♪ ♪ For too long on my own ♪ ♪ I wasn't created ♪ ♪ To bear it alone ♪ ♪ I hear Your invitation ♪ ♪ To let it all go ♪ ♪ Yeah, I see it now ♪ ♪ I'm laying it down ♪ ♪ And I know that I need You ♪ ♪ I run to the Father ♪ ♪ I fall into grace ♪ ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ And again and again ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ You saw my condition ♪ ♪ Had a plan from the start ♪ ♪ Your Son for redemption ♪ ♪ The price for my heart ♪ ♪ And I don't have a context ♪ ♪ For that kind of love ♪ ♪ I don't understand ♪ ♪ I can't comprehend ♪ ♪ All I know is I need You ♪ ♪ I run to the Father ♪ ♪ I fall into grace ♪ ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ And again and again ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ I'm running into Your open arms ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ My heart has been in Your sights ♪ ♪ Long before my first breath ♪ ♪ Running into Your arms ♪ ♪ Is running to life from death ♪ ♪ And I feel this rush deep in my chest ♪ ♪ Your mercy is calling out ♪ ♪ Just as I am You pull me in ♪ ♪ And I know I need You now ♪ ♪ I run to the Father ♪ ♪ I fall into grace ♪ ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ And again and again ♪ Oh oh Oh oh Oh oh Again and again Oh oh Oh oh Come on lets run to the Father today. ♪ I run to the Father ♪ ♪ I fall into grace ♪ ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ And again and again ♪ ♪ I count on one thing ♪ ♪ The same God that never fails ♪ ♪ Will not fail me now ♪ ♪ You won't fail me now ♪ ♪ In the waiting ♪ ♪ The same God who's never late ♪ ♪ Is working all things out ♪ ♪ You're working all things out ♪ ♪ Yes I will, lift You high in the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Yes I will, bless Your name ♪ ♪ Oh, yes I will, sing for joy when my heart is heavy ♪ ♪ All my days, oh yes I will ♪ ♪ Yes I will ♪ ♪ Oh yes I will ♪ ♪ I choose to worship ♪ I count on one thing ♪ I count on one thing ♪ ♪ The same God that never fails ♪ ♪ Will not fail me now ♪ ♪ You won't fail me now ♪ ♪ In the waiting ♪ ♪ The same God who's never late ♪ ♪ Is working all things out ♪ ♪ You're working all things out ♪ ♪ Oh, yes I will, lift You high in the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Yes I will, bless Your name Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, yes I will, sing for joy when my heart is heavy ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes I will ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise ♪ ♪ To glorify, glorify ♪ ♪ The Name of all names ♪ ♪ That nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise ♪ ♪ To glorify, glorify ♪ ♪ The Name of all names ♪ ♪ That nothing can stand against ♪ Come on Church sing out. ♪ And I choose to praise ♪ ♪ To glorify, glorify ♪ ♪ The Name of all names ♪ ♪ That nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ And I choose to praise ♪ ♪ To glorify, to glorify ♪ ♪ The Name of all names ♪ ♪ That nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ Oh, yes I will, lift You high in the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Yes I will, bless Your name ♪ ♪ Oh, yes I will, sing for joy when my heart is heavy ♪ ♪ All my days, oh yes, I will ♪ ♪ For all my days, oh yes, I will ♪ We sing ♪ So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned ♪ ♪ In awe of the one who gave it all ♪ ♪ I'll stand, my soul Lord to You surrendered ♪ ♪ All I am is Yours ♪ ♪ So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned ♪ ♪ In awe of the one who gave it all ♪ ♪ I'll stand, my soul Lord to You surrendered ♪ ♪ All I am is Yours ♪ One more time. I'll stand. ♪ So, I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned ♪ ♪ In awe of the one who gave it all ♪ ♪ I'll stand, my soul Lord to You surrendered ♪ ♪ All I am is Yours ♪ ♪ All I am is Yours ♪ ♪ All I am is Yours ♪

- Let me read you a truth from God's word. This comes from Roman's chapter eight, verse 38, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Will you pray with me? Father God, we thank you so much for our gathering together this morning. God, we thank you so much for your grace, for your mercy, for your loving kindness that you extend to us each and every day. We thank you for forgiving us of our sins. Holy Spirit, there are those of us who are here this morning, who are present with heavy hearts, their hearts are heavy because of something going on personally in their lives, or even being weighed down because of all that's going on in our world. God, we ask that you show up that you reveal yourself to be the prince of peace. May we continue to listen to what you wanna say to us this morning. We're listening with open hearts and open ears in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, before you have a seat, would you mind saying hi to someone you did not come to church with? Well, good morning Timberline. I'm Donny Abbott, and it's so good to be with you this morning. I wanna extend a special welcome to any of you who might be visiting for the very first time. If that is you, we really do hope that you find a home here at Timberline and folks joining us online, good morning. We see you. We're glad you're with us as well. Well, we wanna make sure that you stay up to date on all things Timberline and a couple of ways to do that, you can simply visit us timberlinechurch.org, or you can activate the QR code that's on the connection card in the chair back in front of you. Both options will take you to a landing page where you can learn all you wanna know about Timberline Church. Well, this past Wednesday we hosted our Annual Grand Day Out event, and it was so much fun. There's the crew. Over 50 grandparents, joined their grandchildren for a day of fun, intentional relationship building, as well as getting to know Jesus a little bit better. One little girl, she showed up with her grandmother and this kiddo has had a difficult year in that she's lost both her mom, a grandfather, and as well as a great-grandmother. But she was able to come with her grandma and just have a wonderful time together. The day concluded with a prayer, a blessing, where grandparents could pray a prayer, blessing over their grandchildren. It was a wonderful, wonderful day. Well, Summit is taking place this afternoon at 12:45 in the South Auditorium. And Summit is your gateway to connection here at Timberline. If you wanna learn about the church's history, what are our beliefs and values, you wanna come to Summit? It's led by pastor Dary, and his wife Bonnie will provide a pizza lunch. Will take care of your kiddos up to fifth grade. It's a free date. So just look at it that way. I hope that you join us. All right, well, let's go ahead and prepare a hearts and minds to receive this morning's message.

- Good morning.

- [Congregation] Good morning.

- How many of you know it's the first day of spring? Isn't that great? I just found that out yesterday that it was the last day of winter and I figured it out, that today's the first day of spring. Great to see you... Until tomorrow, then it's winter again. But that's how it goes, right? No, it's really fun to kind of come into March. I always love it. And leading up into Easter, we're in a six-week series right now called the Mirror, Mirror: Moments of Reflection that is a lot of Easter stories. And we're gonna... how many of you were here last week when we announced we are gonna do a 6:30 sunrise service out in the North Lawn? And so if you're into that kind of thing, please come. Bring a chair, a blanket. It's gonna be real laid back about 25 minutes and try to stay warm in the sun unless there's a blizzard, then we'll just say, nah, we'll come inside at 8:30. But anyway, it is great to see you. Hi everybody, online. It is great to have you join us. You guys, thank you for working hard to get back together. I've really enjoyed. I've met so many new people. I can't wait to officially meet some of you at Summit today that are new. Since January, a lot of people are coming back to gathering inside the walls. It's a powerful thing what community is and what it does. And the power of that is a big part of this message, and this series we started with pastor Jeff Lucas, taking us to Fire to Fire. That moment when Peter betrays Jesus around a fire, and then Jesus recreates that moment after His resurrection builds a fire and cooks Peter breakfast. And He's basically saying it's all gonna be okay. And then last week, we looked at Bread to Bread. The last supper moment when they're at the table and Jesus is gonna go into the garden, He's gonna face the cross, and He's resurrected. And then there's that road to Emmaus where those two guys are walking and Jesus shows up. Aren't you glad He shows up. He shows up, and when He breaks the bread, the Bible says their eyes were opened and they remembered who He was. Today, a little tougher subject, but we don't run away from tough topics here at Timberline. And so I really felt impressed that we needed to tackle this, and it's on Judas. And we're gonna talk a little bit about Judas life. Some things that might surprise you about him. What do you think is the one thing everybody knows about Judas? Two things, actually. Yeah, he betrayed Jesus, and he hung himself, and that's about it. That's kind of what he's known for, but there's a lot of other facts about him. And I wanna look at him. But I want you to just prepare your mind and heart because you may not ever be suicidal in your life. I can honestly tell you, I never have been. That's not an option for me. And I don't know if it's the way I was raised in a Christian home, and I've always had hope in the Lord, but I have worked with many, many people as a pastor through the years that have ended up taking their life. I've done too many funerals around this topic, and I wanna just say in tenderness, for those of you who have lost a son or a daughter, a sibling, a parent to suicide, I'm so sorry. And we as a church, it's a forever grief process, but today we're gonna prepare ourselves for never letting our minds go into that dark of a hole. And Judas had a chance to come out of his darkness. He really did. We're a church that believes in free will. You have a choice. When pastor Donny read that verse, nothing can separate... I love that verse. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. And it's all this list of all those physical things that might try. But the only thing that can keep the love of God from coming into your heart is you, by pushing it out, by not allowing it in, 'cause he loves you, whether you love him back or not. And that's an important component as we look at the life of Judas. There's a lot of stuff up about mental illness right now. From the beginning of COVID and the way it pushed us into isolation and took away so many of the joys and celebrations of our life and caseloads have gone up and people have died because of it, and mental illness has been a big thing. And I just wanna say today, we all will struggle at times with being discouraged or even depressed. I certainly have, I am not immune from... I don't live in depression, but man, I've been sad. I've had seasons of sorrow. I've had seasons when I couldn't get out of it. I needed to climb out, and I needed to think differently. And today we're gonna try to give you some tools. We also have some resources in our mall. We have two or three tables out there with professionals who can talk to you today, if you want to, or they have resources on the table. If you wanna just take a brochure for you or for someone else, but let's be mindful that you might not be suicidal, but you might be the person, someone who is needs to talk to, and you're gonna let love live by doing that. So there are a lot of components of why we're talking about this Silver to Silver. We're calling it that because it's, what will you give me to betray Jesus? And they told him 30 pieces of silver. So he did it. And they gave him the money. And once he realized Jesus was gonna die, what did he do with the silver? You remember? He brought it back. He said I don't want this. And they wouldn't take it. It's blood money. It's cursed. It'll put a curse on us. So he throws it in the temple. They actually ended up gathering it all back up and burying it out in this old abandoned field, 'cause they didn't wanna have anything to do with it. So it's a big story. Matthew 26:14. Now, this is right after what we talked about last week Bread to Bread. Matter of fact, in that last supper, it was Jesus who said, "The one who will betray me will dip his bread with me." And that's when Judas was discovered and Judas ended up leaving the room in that moment. "Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples, went to the leading priest and asked, 'How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?' And they gave him 30 pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus." Now the scenario of the story goes like this. If you're new to the Bible and new to faith and all that, they went down into the garden after they had supper and there were many of them walking together. And so Judas had a plan that he would kiss the cheek of Jesus or the forehead. And that's how they would know which one was Jesus, 'cause it was dark. So Judas does exactly what he told them he would do. And that's why we have that phrase, he betrayed Him with a kiss. So he kissed Him. They identified Jesus. The soldiers immediate came, they arrested Jesus. Judas ran off. The disciples ran off, and then they took Jesus to basically a mock trial. They sentenced him to death and began the crucifixion, which we pick up in Matthew 27. "Early in the morning, the leading priest and elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. They bound him. They led him away, and they took him to Pilate, the Roman governor." Now, here's a very important verse. "When Judas who had betrayed Him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die. He was filled with what, remorse." Is that real? Yeah, it is. It is, the Bible's telling us the facts. "So he took the 30 pieces of silver back to the leading priest and to the elders, and he said," say this with me. "I have sinned." Is that real? Yeah, it's real. He knew that he had sinned, and then he even says, "I have betrayed an innocent man." So there's a lot going on in his heart, in his emotions, in his life. And look at their response. A lot of compassion here from the world. What do we care? That's your problem. Boy, isn't that typical. Now Judas is in a real quandary. He threw the silver coins down. He didn't want to keep 'em. He went out and hanged himself. It was an instant knee-jerk reaction 'cause where was he supposed to go? This is a huge dilemma in the story that we don't talk about very often. And we're gonna open this up in a few minutes, but let me get into the outline a little bit. Number one, I want you to understand that Judas was a disciple. He was one of the 12. Would you say that's a big deal? Yeah, really big deal. That's one out of those 12 guys that we call the disciples of Jesus. So Jesus saw potential in Judas. Jesus saw some leadership there. He saw what he could become. And there's a lot of talk among theologians depending on where you are with predestination and free will and all that. But even from my mind, having a free will, Jesus knows the decisions I'm gonna make, but that doesn't mean I'm forced into making them. Judas had a choice, I believe. And that's very important in this story. He was gifted. He was the treasure of the group. Let me ask you a question. Would you give people your money to handle if you did not trust them? Probably not. Probably not. So they trusted Judas, and we see through scripture in the gospels, when we see stories come about, we see that Judas began to go down a path of darkness. We saw that one of the disciples mentions that he stole some money, that he was a thief. I don't think he started that way. Have you ever become something you didn't wanna become? Have you had a tendency in your life that you sort of went toward and you go, how did I end up in this mess? I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna lie anymore. I don't wanna cheat anymore. I don't wanna, whatever it is. I think this is what's happening in the life of Judas. And then he starts to become judgmental of others, which is a telltale sign of something that's wrong. Remember when the alabaster box was broken open, the perfume and the aroma filled the air as an act of worship of Jesus. It was Judas who said, what a waste of money. We could have sold that and given the money to the poor. Whether he would've done that or not, I don't know, but he was judging, and he had no business doing that. Jesus actually corrected him. We see that he's slipping. We see that he's moving toward a place that he didn't start with. And that's a big key for you to understand how this ended so tragically. It wasn't just a one-moment decision. It was a pattern that Judas was developing in his mind. The second point is this, Judas was disillusioned, and he made a mistake. He really made a mistake, and I want to tell you one theory, you do not have to embrace this theory. It's not a Bible theory. It just some scholars... It makes sense to me, though. And I believe it's possible that there's some truth in this idea about Judas. Some people say that he knew Jesus was the Messiah, and he knew that he was setting up his kingdom because Jesus was always talking about the kingdom, right? You've got the disciples, you've got them arguing over, who's gonna sit on the right, who's gonna sit on the left. Who's the greatest among them. When Jesus sets up his kingdom, he's gonna smash Rome, and we're gonna be in charge, and we can't wait. Could it be tomorrow? We want it to happen now. So some scholars feel that Judas was trying to push a button in Jesus that forced Him to set up His kingdom quicker than He had planned to. So Judas in his mind, started thinking I will betray Him into their hands and then He'll blow everybody up and set up His kingdom. And we'll all get to be in that kingdom with Him. But that's not what happened. Have you ever tried to make God believe in your idea? That's a tough sell. As a matter of fact, it won't work. That's why he's called God, and you're not. And it didn't work for Judas. If that, in fact, is a theory that you embrace. But I do see the point because of what it says about when he saw that Jesus was gonna be put to death, what? He's alarmed. He has a moment, this is not what I thought was gonna happen. And so that's when he felt remorse like I'm a part of this death I was trying to help set up his kingdom here. Wow. What do you get disillusioned about? I know so many people, especially young people, so many young people, I hope you're careful with social media and you don't let it get to you too much, 'cause man, it can push you into a dark hole. How many followers do you need? How many likes do you need? What is your identity based on? These are important topics that I can't fully comprehend this, but it really does matter 'cause it can push you socially into a tough position. There's a lot of cruelty out there. A lot of bullying, a lot of mean statements made online to people who don't agree with you. And there's a feeling of rejection. All these things can pile up in your life and push you. Judas wanted to make something happen that was actually out of his control. What do you do with the life events that are beyond your ability to control them? It's really tough. I was on I25 the other day. Yeah. Try to be in control when you're driving down that Interstate. It was a parking lot. And I was like, I had to be somewhere. How many of you have to be somewhere when you're on I25? And there was no... I had just passed an exit before I saw all the red taillights lighten up. It was like, oh. And then, there were a few of those little offshoot, illegal. I would never consider doing that. But now they got all those block barricades and fences, and you're not gonna move. You're just stuck. You just sit there. Your blood pressure goes up. Or you can just put on some music you love and enjoy the break, right? Let's move on to number three. So Judas recognized his sin. Now, this is a pretty big pivotal point for him. And I've read this already, but let me just highlight a couple things. When he realized he had betrayed Him and he realized He was gonna die, his first reaction was, I wanna get this silver back. I don't want this in my pocket. Could you please just take this? I don't want to have anything to do with this anymore. Why did he wanna do that? He wanted to go back to how it was before. And this is a typical response in our lives when we make a mistake. Forgive me, let's pretend like that never happened. Well, it's pretty hard to do that. There are consequences to every action that I have in my life, and yes, I can be forgiven. Yes, I can reprove that trust, but listen, some people may never trust me again. And I can't demand that they do. Judas blew it, and he is trying within his power. Let's get this money back. I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I don't want it. I can't undo it, though. And I'm gonna say this one thing and I hope it just burns into your brain when you can't do it, and you can't go back, that is exactly why we need a savior, right there, and we have one. We have a savior. He recognized his sin. His plan had failed. This realization was really, really big. He truly repented. But then he couldn't make it like it used to be. And he didn't know what to do. Now, I want you to think about this dilemma because this is... Do you guys know what a ball joint is? It's greased up, and it just moves real slick, like an axle or something or a hinge. This is kind of that ball joint in Judas's life in the end of his life Because he's realizing that these religious leaders don't wanna have anything to do with him. They were cruel. They were harsh. We're done with you, get out. He starts to go out, but to what? The disciples knew everything that had happened now. He can't just show up again and say, oh guys, I had this idea. I didn't mean for Jesus to get crucified. He can't bear the weight of his actions and he doesn't see past this moment. And that's the darkness right there. That's when darkness sets into people is when they have no place to go. And the harder they think about it, the worse it gets. Now, I grew up in Western Colorado in Grand Junction and loved it. Had a great childhood. When I was able to get a four-wheel drive truck, I did it. I worked construction through the summers, and I bought me a truck, a four wheel drive truck. And man, I put a roll bar on it, a big old grill on the front. Me and my buddies would go up on Grand Mesa and get stuck in boghole and spend the day digging out. It was just wonderful. I don't know why we did that. It was so stupid. But I remember one time, the back of my truck kind of went off this steep incline and it wasn't like, it could have rolled, it was just a little tiny thing. But the harder I tried to get out of there, the more stuck I got. Have you ever been there? You end up just making a big mess until someone can pull you out. But Judas was alone. No one was there to pull him out. And he felt alone, and he had no one to go to. And that's why a lot of people call it quits. They just can't get that truck out of the mud. Now, number four, the last point, and I wanna draw a couple things up here, is that Judas lost hope for his future. Judas lost hope for his future. Now when this happens, all kinds of bad things can happen because he couldn't see past what he had done. And he felt the weight of what he was going to face. And he made a really bad decision in that moment to just go and end his life. So what are we gonna do to keep that from happening? Let me just try something here. Now, I don't claim to be an artist or anything like that, but I'm gonna try to draw something and you try to guess what it is. Oh, good. I'm gonna start an art gallery. An umbrella. Now I'm gonna call this the loss of hope umbrella. And there are many things that can go under this umbrella, but it's a very real thing. And a lot of the research I've done to build this sermon, identify anywhere from 4 to 12 things, and a lot of them were so interchangeable that they're almost the same word or they're at least like a synonym. So I'm gonna put up a few words that happen when people contemplate either moving into a depression, 'cause, again, I've said it before, some of you aren't gonna take your life, but you could move into such a depression that it equals you not fulfilling your future because that's what depression does. It locks you out from tomorrow. It locks you out from the hope of your future, and you can't get out from underneath that. And it's really, really hard. And one of the big things that happened with Judas was this word, betrayal. So, whoops. I can't spell when I write on a board, that's betrayal. Now, this can happen to you and you feel totally lost because this person totally betrayed you and you trusted them and they took your money and it was a Ponzi scheme and they never cared, or they said they would be faithful to you, and they cheated on you. Even though they had this wedding vow, it meant nothing to them. So what happens is there's this loss of hope. This relationship can never be repaired, and it pushes you. It pushes you down into a dark place. Another one that's really big in this topic is shame. Shame comes to people. Sometimes being ashamed of what you've done is a good thing. But living under the shame of your past, especially when you can't control it, this will be the category that a lot of clinical psychologists talk about. Veterans who have done terrible things in the war that they can't get out of their mind. And it's better for them to just feel like I just need to take my life and get out. Victims of rape fit into this category where they somehow come into this moment of thinking I did something wrong and they don't realize that the burden of shame should rest on the perpetrator, but they can't get this out of them. And the value of their life goes down. Their identity starts to be challenged, and it's a really big, I never thought this would happen. And people begin to blame themselves. What this does, you guys, it's a process that takes them out of any hope for their future. And they're just living in this pattern of trying to survive through this emotional mess. That's a part of their life, and they can't get out of it. Another one is hypocrisy. Now lemme explain this one. Hypocrisy that I could put another word embarrassment. So, someone, it's found out that they're not who they said they were. How many of you look forward to a presidential election with all the ads and all the fun that we get to watch? How many of you just love that? Oh, okay. What happens is the opposition of the opponent will try to find all the dirt on the person running against them and expose it. What's the point of this? They're not who you think they are. They're not who they want you to think they are. They're a liar. They're a cheat. So what happens is sometimes this is true and a leader is exposed and the weight of that exposure is so great. I mean, just to be honest, I've dealt with pastors who were living a lie and when they were exposed, they wanted to take their life. You guys have helped pay to restore pastors who have almost wrecked their lives through some counseling ministries that we've provided for them. And it's not just pastors, it's any leader that's in a significant role and they blow up, and the truth comes out, and it will, they can't handle it. That's a really big one. Let me just put one more up there. It's really also real common. It's loss and grief. We have group called grief share. It's a wonderful ministry. This is for people who've lost loved ones. Your spouse that you love dies. Your son or daughter die. Your parent, whatever. You just don't know how life is gonna be without this person in it anymore. I'm glad I've never lost my wife. I get emotional just thinking about it. I can't imagine life without her. And I hope that doesn't happen. I'm telling her I'm going first. She's like, thanks a lot. That grief is very real, and it does push some people into saying, I can't live without them, and I'd rather die. And sometimes they just say that as a statement, they don't really mean it, but that's the weight. And what it does, again, it might not lead them to take their life, but it might lead them to lose their future because they lost hope and they can't get through it. And it just pounds on them every single day. Let me tell you something, the enemy of your soul, Satan himself, Jesus said something about him that you need to remember. It's in John 10:10, and Jesus is talking, and he says, "The thief's purpose," the thief meaning Satan, "Is to steal," What's the next one, "To kill and destroy." Are those three big words? Listen, those are serious. And that's targeting you. That's what he wants to do with you. And that's not exaggerative. He wants to kill you. He wins if you decide to take your life and you leave a mess behind you. But he wants you to live so overwhelmed that you can't get out. You're just stuck. "But my purpose, Jesus said, is to give them a rich and satisfying life." Life in abundance. That's God's plan for us. So what is your self-talk like? 'Cause, this is where it all happens. What do you say in your brain? What happens to you when you get in these dark places? Look, we all visit the shadowlands if I can say it like that. We all have moments of these and more and we all can be sad. And I know I've been depressed before when I had to say, okay, my self-talk needs to get back under control. We're a church that tries to get people out of the ditch, back to the center line. Now, I don't think it's real easy to live on the centerline of the road every day of my life. Because things happen in your life that are sad. You need a grief period. You need to get your finances fixed. You need all these... Relationships are hard when you break up, but we wanna pull each other back toward that centerline. And that's what the spirit does. But your self-talk matters. And the Bible talks about taking your thoughts captive. In other words, capturing those thoughts, and dealing with them and saying, I'm not saying that to myself anymore. I am free, and I do have a savior, and I do have a Lord, and I'm not gonna let the enemy beat me up. You say, well, you can't do that when you're clinically depressed. I think you can teach yourself how to change your self-talk, and that's the key. Judas did not take the time to do this. He was impulsive. So I wanna give you four things, four things that... Here's what I want to have happen. I want you to get out from underneath this umbrella. You can't live there. It's harsh there. And sometimes, once people get under these things, they don't know how to get out and they lose hope completely. So let me just give you four really practical thing. Talk to somebody. If you're feeling these feelings, not even just suicidal, but just depression, talk to somebody. That's where it starts. Judas felt like he had no one to talk to. So how about we back up a little bit and say, who is your go-to? Can you think of somebody right now that if you were really fighting depression, that you could call and talk to about it. Get them on your list. Get them on your list. Don't wait until you're there, have a plan. You say, well, that's never gonna happen to me. Well, maybe not suicide, but tough stuff is gonna happen to you in your life. How many of you're old enough to know that. You need to talk about it. The second thing is just to wait for some time to pass. I really think if someone would've been there to say, Judas, let's go have coffee. Let's talk about this for a day. I literally had a phone call with a guy that was gonna take his life after we hung up. You're my last call. I said, is there anything I can do about that? Nope, I just wanted you to know. I said, well, how about, about this? How about you give me one coffee. He wouldn't let me see him that day. Why don't I take you to breakfast tomorrow, and we'll talk, and if you still have this decision, then I'm not gonna be able to stop you anyway. He said I will do that. I said, give me your word. He gave me his word. We had breakfast. He's still alive. You know why? Because he took a little bit of time to think about this decision and to talk about it with somebody. Now might be the person someone's talking to. I want you to do the third thing, and that's to think about what could be. Just let your mind wander. If I could wave a magic wand, say, what could be here? Just do that. Just try it. And the last one is, train yourself to think correctly. And that's what I was mentioning earlier. Capture your thoughts. And that's probably not gonna happen at the lowest point. You probably can't get out of the ditch then. But if you can practice this in the day-to-day grind so that you don't end up in the darkest, deepest hole ever, ever, ever. Get out of there. Get some help to get out of there, and don't stay there very long. Why? 'Cause I want you to have this hope. Let's take out this communion. I've told you before, start with the bread side up, all right? Much better. Set the bread aside and then turn it over. I'm loving taking communion every week up to Easter, really fun. Now, this week, I wanna focus on something just a little different. Last week we talked about Bread to Bread and we talked about his broken body as we shared communion together, what a wonderful time. And doing it in remembrance of him. Remember we said, let's remember his pain. Let's remember his suffering. Today, I wanna take you to the last statement that Paul makes in the book of Corinthians when he writes his letter to Corinth and he's repeating what happened at the Lord's Supper. He's telling the church, Jesus took the bread, and it's in chapter 11, if you wanna read it, and he broke it, and he said, "This is my body." And he took the cup, and he said, "This is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me." And then Paul says, we do this to remember and to show the Lord's death, three more words until he comes. He's coming back. This isn't the end. That's the hope. That's the hope of this bread and this cup, is that Jesus is coming back. And I am so glad. And I hope it's today. Lord, thank you for this bread. It is our hope. Thank you that you alone could have laid down your body for us so that we have life to live. We take it with gratitude and thanksgiving and with hope, let's partake. Lord, we take this cup today with hope in our hearts. That your shed blood gave us a chance. It gave us a chance to believe in a future that you have designed for us. Put that purpose and that future in our hearts today that we might live with joy, anticipating our tomorrow. We drink it in your precious name. Would you just express thanks to God right where you are, right where you're seated right now. We love you, Lord. We trust you, Lord. We need you, Lord. You're almighty God. Matter of fact, with heads bowed right now, could I just pray over some of you? It might not be suicidal. It'd be kind of awkward to say, if you're contemplating taking your life, raise your hand. I don't think that would be a very good idea. So, I'm just gonna say, let's just take suicide out of the equation and say you're in the shadow lands. You're stuck a little bit and you're in a hole and you want to take a first step today to change your self-talk and to move a little bit more toward the centerline today. And I'm just gonna pray that over you. And there's no shame in lifting your hand to this. Buddy, I would've lifted my hand to this many times in my life. And so, if you're at that place, let us pray for you. Just hold up a hand to God, not to me right now. Hold it up. Lord, you see our hands, and you know our hearts, and you are in control. And we look to you today, and we trust that this moment there would be a shift in our thinking, and that we could move towards you just a little bit, just a little close to that center line, and give us the hope we need to continue these conversations and to think properly about the situation that we're in. We trust you, Lord, with greatness in our hearts. Thank you for being our Redeemer and our savior. We need you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I sure do love you guys. I'm proud of you. It's a joy to be with you in this, and I'm trusting God for a great future. So, Matthew lead us in that song again. A good place to run is to the Father, would you agree? So why don't you do that? Stand if you're able, and let's declare this song, sing it out. ♪ My heart has been in Your sights ♪ ♪ Long before my first breath ♪ ♪ Running into Your arms ♪ ♪ Is running to life ♪ Amen. ♪ From death ♪ Think about that. ♪ And I feel this rush deep in my chest ♪ ♪ Your mercy is calling out ♪ ♪ Just as I am You pull me in ♪ ♪ And I know I need You now ♪ ♪ I run to the Father ♪ Run to the Father ♪ I fall into grace ♪ Thank you God ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ I run to the Father ♪ ♪ I fall into grace ♪ ♪ I'm done with the hiding ♪ ♪ No reason to wait ♪ ♪ My heart needs a surgeon ♪ ♪ My soul needs a friend ♪ ♪ So I'll run to the Father ♪ ♪ Again and again ♪ ♪ And again and again ♪

- Yes, so good. Thank you, pastor Dary for a wonderful message. And we want you to leave this morning, filled with hope and encouragement. We know that many of you are in a dark and lonely place, and we wanna walk alongside you and journey with you. And a start to that is simply by coming forward in prayer. Our prayer team will be right up here at the front of the stage after the service. We also have some resource tables in the mall that'll provide you with some hope and encouragement as well. As always, thank you so much for your generosity in giving. When you give, you're literally impacting thousands of people around the world. Well, God bless everyone. We hope you have a great week, and remember to let love live.