As the church, it can feel like we have to have it all together all of the time, to avoid talking about where we are, where we’ve been, or what we’ve walked through. Our prayer is that this track is just the starting place for us to let go of those expectations.

Like storms over ocean waters, depression, anxiety, and the power of suicide garner their strength over the warm seas of the night when the clouds of confusion and darkness roll in. In these moments, you may start to ask: will I ever see light again?

Truth be told, we may not understand the full scope of the darkness you feel, but that doesn’t mean we can’t turn on the light.

That is where we begin our time together today: turning on the light. Not a superficial light or a man-made brightness, but the ultimate light–Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5

There has never been a night so dark that Jesus could not illuminate it. By the grace of God and through the finished work of Jesus, we are not alone in the dark. The midnight hour will not last forever.

The Church needs to talk about mental illness and suicide more. We used to avoid all of it, but especially suicide. It would have been considered inappropriate to discuss it at all. Those days are over. We can’t hide what’s going on in our lives. We can no longer ignore the stats or what is going on around us. We have to face it.

People feel like they can’t say what they are experiencing or going through for a myriad of reasons. It seems much more acceptable to say you struggle with something in medical terms rather than in everyday reality. We have to strip everything away and just be real. We need to get it out into the open. The thoughts we are having, the actions we are taking, the emotions we are feeling all need to be out on the table.

The Church cannot be silent anymore. Mental health and suicide are in the room, and the Church can be a part of de-stigmatizing it. The pressure to be okay is a heavyweight, and sometimes it’s heaviest within the Church.

Why in the Church?

We are a faith community, and the perception is that our faith is supposed to be stronger than in the world. Our songs are songs of victory, so when you come through the door feeling defeated, like you’re losing your mind and like you can’t be honest- that’s a heavy weight to carry.

The Church, in large part, has taught that suicide is an unpardonable sin. That is a huge stigma. Scripture doesn’t support that. The Gospels say explicitly that the unpardonable sin is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. That means that someone continually rejects the wooing of the Holy Spirit over and over in their lifetime. Suicide isn’t an unpardonable sin, but in the context of Scripture, it is a sin. However, according to Romans 3:23, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even suicide is covered by the blood of Jesus.

The Church asks questions like, isn’t faith enough? You’re a Christian; shouldn’t you overcome depression and your struggle? Is medication and/or therapy ok? Is a treatment facility ok? The message from the Church needs to be clear, and it’s not, “you need to pray more.” We’ve all been around long enough to know that it is not that simple. The clear statement of the Church should be ” it’s ok to not be ok.” If you need help, get it. All plans for healing are God’s plans for healing.

The Church has to be honest and real. The last thing the world needs is a fake Church. Jesus is not fake or veneer. He came to heal the sick.

Mark 2:17 says that Jesus declared, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

We can never forget where we’ve been and what we’ve come through. When you are on the road to healing, it’s easy to want to shut the door to the past season, but God has given you a story to steward. Someone needs your story of God’s grace. We all have defeat in our story. The worst thing we can do is make it through it all and then act like we didn’t go through it.

If you are totally fine, you’re never going to experience the miracle of Jesus. It’s when we surrender and get honest about what we need help with that Jesus is ready to step right in and change us from the inside out. This process takes time. He can heal instantly if He wants to. He’s perfectly capable of that, but most of the time, it takes time.

The Church needs to de-stigmatize mental health and suicide, but we also need to de-glamorize suicide. The enemy has a way of making everything horrible glamorous. There are two major ways this is happening

1. The suicide contagion. When someone famous takes their life, the following months will see a massive rise in not only the rate of suicide but the same manner. It starts the lie that suicide is and can be a good thing.
2. Suicide tells us that everyone will be better off when you’re gone. That’s glamorizing it. It’s not better for you or anyone else if you take your own life. It’s not God’s purpose or plan for you. You may be free from your earthly pain, but you’re going to trap all those around you in a different kind of pain for the rest of their lives. Those you love will be left behind to live their lives with guilt, questions, self-doubt, pain, and anger for as long as they live. And they will live knowing they weren’t worth fighting for. They’ll know intellectually that it wasn’t really you that made that decision and it was actually the darkness, but it will be agonizing to their soul. Suicide doesn’t alleviate pain. It multiplies it.

So, stay, even in the pain, and trust God to give you a miracle of another day.

The message of the Church isn’t just “it’s ok to not be ok.” The total message is, “It’s ok to not be ok, but Jesus is.” You have to finish the sentence. He is the victor with scars and has overcome on your behalf.

The enemy tempted Jesus to take his own life and jump off the temple wall. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, and the enemy purposely picked a weak moment to attack. Yet Jesus, no matter what He knew He was going to face, knew He’d come out on the other side victorious. When He was dying on the Cross, one of his closest friends was dying by suicide, so don’t think Jesus doesn’t understand our pain. Since He came through the darkness, we can say that we are not ok, but Jesus is.

Our words help determine our destiny, so if you keep saying I’m not going to make it, you’re increasing your chances that you won’t. You are agreeing with the enemy because your Father doesn’t talk like that. The counterweight to the weight is saying, “I will make it through.” Confessing and bringing Jesus into the darkness brings a glimmer of light into the blackout of depression. That one ray of light can give you another of life. You can be broken down and still confess Jesus is the healer at the same time.

Circumstances cannot fully corroborate the faithfulness of God. Sometimes circumstances are the exact opposite of everything we believe about God, but the Cross does corroborate the faithfulness of God. It stands in history as proof that God is good even in the darkest night. So use the power of your mouth to confess the power of the Cross.

Confess Psalm 118:17: “I will not die, but I will live and declare what the Lord has done.”

The Church needs to create an understanding that God may not take all the pain away on this earth. You may not need to pray for God to alleviate the pain. You may need to trust that God can use the pain to bring eternal good and eternal change to you and those around you. The Church must say, “Take the pain to Jesus and find that there is purpose in the pain.” There was a purpose in Jesus’ pain, and it was for our healing. He can carry you and your pain one more day so He can use you and your pain to unlock doors for prisoners and set captives free. At the end of the day, it’s all about Jesus.

Suicide is the ultimate rebuttal that you are created by and for God’s glory. When you choose to end your life, you cannot glorify God in that way. You glorify God by staying in it and leaning on it. If you need help, get help, but stay for God and His glory.

You have more power than the enemy wants you to know that you have. You have the power to praise God in the darkest night. In all things, God works. Through His power, you can do way more than you think you can do. He wants you to be completely knocked out, but you have the power to worship and be in His Word. Worship is a weapon. The Bible is a sword. You are able to proclaim His truth. Start in Romans 8, it says there’s no condemnation or separation from the love of God, not even life or death.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1

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 depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

God loves you. He’s with you. He will carry you. He will triumph over it all. He is greater.