Stretched Thin Part 1 | Why Do Churches Avoid Mental Health? with Chris Schlotterbeck

He is glorious.

Behold the one who has come for us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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you feel called to make a change in your life,

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Thank you and enjoy the message.

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Sorry, I'm a little thrown off.

I'm used to like 22-minute announcements

and Lance is so fast, he just blows through them.

So I'll get it going here.

We're so glad you're here.

If you're joining us from home,

thank you for welcoming us into your space.

You made it!

You don't have a post-Easter hangover.

Give yourselves a hand.

Yeah!

And if you're back from Easter,

we're so glad you're back for the second time.

And I am super excited about the month of April.

Many of you know that our theme for 2024 here at HCV

is the year that we are going to go deeper.

In January, I shared with our community faith

that God was calling HCV into a more intimate connection

with him and our scripture focus for this entire year

is Luke 2, 52 and it reads this.

Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature,

in favor with God and all the people.

And so as a community of faith,

we're going to focus on those four areas

that Jesus grew in in Luke chapter two

throughout this entire year.

And this month, we will be focusing on mental health.

And I do not at all find it a coincidence

that this headline was in my newsfeed yesterday morning.

A 28-year-old Dutch woman is slated to be euthanized

next month because of her struggles with mental illness

after her psychiatrist said her condition will never improve.

Zoroia Terbeek lives in a nice house

in a small Dutch town near the German border

with her boyfriend and two cats.

And despite being physically healthy,

she plans to end her life due to her depression

and borderline personality disorder

according to the free press.

She once had ambitions to become a psychiatrist,

but she was never able to finish school

or start a career due to her own mental illness.

But now she is simply tired of living

and wishes to end her life.

Friends, can I simply say that there is a mental health

crisis in our world today?

Currently, in the United States alone,

20.78% of the people, that's one out of every five adults

are experiencing some form of mental illness.

That's the equivalent to over 50 million Americans.

Half of those adults with mental illness

never receive any type of treatment

totaling over 28 million people.

The vast majority of individuals

with substance abuse addictions or problems

in the United States are receiving no treatment whatsoever.

And 15.35% of adults with a substance abuse problem,

of them, 93.5% did it on their own.

And they're coping with their addictive behavior.

Now let's go to the young adults.

Barna's largest ever research study shows that half

of the young adults, 18 to 35 years old, that's 49%,

expressed anxiety over important decisions

and were afraid to fail.

Three out of every 10 of them said they often felt sad

or depressed, lonely, or isolated from others.

And let's go to our teenagers.

Currently, one out of every 10 youth in the United States

are experiencing depression that is severely impairing

their ability to function at school or work at home

with family or in social life.

Now some of you are thinking, well, Chris, that's the world,

that's our culture, we're gathered here in a church,

the church numbers are not very different.

Currently, one in five church leaders ranks their mental

and emotional health as below average,

according to Lifeway Research.

23% of pastors acknowledge they have personally struggled

with a mental illness, while 49% of pastors say they rarely

or never speak to their congregation about mental illness.

Friends, that's over half of the churches

in the United States of America that share nothing

about mental health throughout the year.

Today, at HCV, that all changes.

And I believe that God is going to move through

our community of faith and people outside

of our community of faith to bring freedom

and change this month.

And let's open in prayer and invite the Holy Spirit

to overwhelm us with his love.

Holy Spirit, come.

God, we're just so thankful for those gathered,

those watching online.

God, just move amongst us.

We invite your presence here, your spirit here, God.

May your freedom, may your healing come.

May your kingdom come and your will be done

on earth right here in this place as it is in heaven.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And I believe there's a lot of you gathered

or even watching online that can relate to those statistics

where outwardly you're still showing up, right?

You're smiling, you're doing your job,

you're there for your family,

but inwardly you're battling real depression.

Or there's this ongoing chronic anxiety

or you just feel stressed and you feel overwhelmed.

You can't seem to handle it.

And if you're anything like me,

it seems like you could just snap.

And if you find yourself struggling mentally,

you're not alone.

One out of every five.

And over the next several weeks in April,

we're gonna be discussing different topics

focusing on our mental health

in a series that we've called Stretched Thin.

And this morning I wanna build a simple foundation

for this series and look at the myth of mental health

because unfortunately within the church,

there are people that believe that mental health

should not be an issue for a person

that's in a relationship with Jesus.

One blog post from Geneva College,

a Christian university writes this,

the prevailing culture of silence

along with misguided attitudes and erroneous expectations

often causes suffering believers to feel shamed,

blamed and very unsupported.

And I wanna change that narrative.

I wanna be a place where people can be real and honest,

where we speak words of life and we see change,

which leads us to our first truth this morning.

Friends, God is peace.

God is peace.

We read this in 1 Thessalonians chapter five.

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way.

And may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless

until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

God will make this happen for he who calls you faithful.

Now notice the words, the God of peace.

May the God of peace sanctify you.

May the God of peace cleanse you,

change you through and through.

Notice the words, may your whole spirit,

soul and body be kept blameless until Jesus comes again.

May the God of peace bring freedom and healing.

Write all truths that we read, that we receive,

that we embrace in that one scripture

and many more throughout the Bible.

But for years, people said that the church

shouldn't talk about mental health.

Of course, it's somebody else's problem,

but it's not something we're gonna talk about in the church.

Sometimes the implications would be that

you shouldn't struggle mentally

because if you're someone that comes to Jesus,

then Jesus fixes everything inside of you.

Right, and they quote scriptures.

Well, he's gonna work in all things.

He's gonna bring about good to those who love him

and are called according to his purpose.

And all those things are true.

I believe in them.

He saves you, he forgives you, he redeems you,

he fills you with his power.

He will never leave you.

Everything does work together for good.

All that's true, but it's incomplete.

It's incomplete.

Just because Jesus saves you

doesn't mean he fixes every area of your life instantly.

Right, just because your sins are forgiven.

I've never heard anyone say,

hey, Chris, I was reading the Bible last night.

I called on Jesus, he saved me,

and all of a sudden, I got abs.

My hair got thicker.

My thighs got thinner.

I lost all this weight.

You know, I've never heard that before.

No one has never shared that testimony before.

No one ever has come up to me and said,

hey, Chris, I came to the altar.

I was crying, I gave my life to Jesus,

and my credit score improved.

I got home and I had no debt.

I was debt-free, hashtag blessed.

Have you ever heard that?

Like, I've never heard that before.

In other words, just because you come to Jesus,

it doesn't mean that your boss is now nice

or that your bank account is just instantly going up

or when you came to Jesus,

it doesn't mean that you instantly became mentally healthy.

For example, you shouldn't be stressed

because God is the God of peace,

and if you're in a relationship with him,

you should always be peaceful.

And I know for a fact, if I was to say,

raise your hand if you're always peaceful,

you're lying if you raise that hand.

And see, when we talk about mental health,

what exactly are we talking about?

So I wanna try to kind of unpack this for you over the month

because first of all, I want to acknowledge,

look, I'm a pastor, I'm not a psychologist,

I'm not a Christian therapist, I'm not a doctor.

Therefore, I'm not an expert,

but I've been doing a lot of research,

I've consulted with several books

and helping to present a biblical narrative to you

that I feel is gonna be helpful in life changing.

But I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not an expert at all.

So I'm gonna focus primarily throughout this series

on the spiritual aspects of mental health.

But I also wanna acknowledge

that mental health actually is.

So what is it, what is mental health?

Mental health would include three things.

Your emotional, your psychological,

and your social well-being.

And it's very, very important

because our mental health is not actually static.

Okay, our mental health typically looks a lot

like a roller coaster, meaning you can be really healthy

for a little while and then something happens, right?

Something changes in your body, you experience a trauma.

And suddenly one day you may be really healthy

and then at a moment you find yourself in a very bad place.

And your mental health, we have to realize,

impacts how you think, which then impacts how you feel,

which then impacts how you act.

See, your mental health determines

how you handle the stress around you,

how you relate to people, how you make choices,

or how you bounce back from a difficult situation

or how you don't bounce back.

Your mental health determines how you cope, right?

If you go to the wrong sources

or the wrong things for comfort

or if you make the right choices and become healthy.

It might determine even how you choose your friends

or the quality or not so quality of your marriage.

There are so many misunderstandings

when it comes to mental health

and we're gonna build a foundation today

and then over the next three weeks

we're gonna keep piling on top of it

so that at the end of the month

we're at a point where we feel we're strong mentally

which leads us this morning to most importantly discuss

two myths about mental health

specifically in the church today.

And the first is followers of Jesus

shouldn't struggle with mental health.

If you're in a relationship with Jesus

because you're filled with the Spirit,

because you've been saved,

you shouldn't battle with anxiety

and you really shouldn't be depressed

or you shouldn't be burned out

and if you do struggle with one of these

then it's your fault.

In other words, you don't have enough faith

or you're not praying enough

or if you are praying enough

you're not praying the right prayers

or there's some kind of sin in your life

that you need to confess and get out of your life.

And if you get that sin out of your life

then you're not gonna be anxious.

You're not gonna be overwhelmed.

You're not gonna be burned out

or you're not gonna struggle.

And what I wanna do is I wanna show you

that you can still love Jesus

and still fight depression.

You can read the Bible every single day.

In fact, you can have the longest Bible streak

in the U version app if you don't know what that is,

the daily refresh.

My wife and I get in this competition

where we're reading the Bible every day

and she made it all the way to 72 straight days

and I was like, man, I'm never gonna get there.

And then Easter Sunday came and she missed her day.

Now she's back to zero and I'm at 23.

Woo.

So I'm in the lead.

But you can do all those things and guess what?

Still battle with anxiety.

You can have perfect attendance at HCV this year,

sit in the front row, worship with your hands up,

tithe, serve in the kids wing

and still struggle to overcome a trauma.

And when you look throughout the Bible,

some of the people that I teach about,

that I share about, you know, the heroes of the faith,

the fathers and the mothers of the faith,

with all their faith,

they still struggled with mental health.

There was this guy named Elijah.

I mean, he was the guy.

He was him.

He was a rock.

Seriously, he stood up to 800 false prophets of Baal,

calls down the fires of heaven one day,

and then shortly after, he's alone depressed

and wants to die.

Look at 1 Kings 19.

Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.

He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah,

and he left his servant there, a mistake, because why?

He went on alone into the wilderness traveling all day.

He sits down under a solitary broom tree

and prays that he might die.

I have had enough, Lord, he said,

take my life from no better than my ancestors

who have already died.

David, a man after God's own heart,

stands down, stares down the giant, defeats him.

Who are you to come against the armies of the living God?

Constantly is battling with despair and anxiety,

wondering if God walked away from him, Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Why are you so far away when I've grown for help?

Every day I call to you, my God,

but you do not answer every night.

I lift my voice, but I find no relief.

Jeremiah the prophet constantly was battling loneliness,

insecurity, he cursed his own birthday.

Look at Jeremiah 20, 14 to 15.

Yet I curse the day I was born.

May no one celebrate the day of my birth.

I curse the messenger who told my father,

good news, you have a son.

So if you find yourself like so many people today,

you're struggling in your mental health

and you don't know what to do,

the message or answer sometimes in the church is,

hey friend, you just need more God.

Just you need more of God, go after God.

Just you need more.

And I came to tell you this morning,

yes, you do need more of God,

and maybe you just need a little more sleep, right?

Is that so unspiritual?

Maybe you're just tired and you need a few extra hours

to rest.

You know, God designed us to be connected.

So you might need some better friends.

For example, if you're not in a growth group, right,

you are missing out on connection.

And there's so many people, they come to our community,

oh, you're such a big church and you feel alone

and disconnected and you don't have anybody

standing with you or praying with you.

How in the world do you think you're gonna stand strong

against the forces of darkness and temptation

when you don't have friends beside you praying for you?

You need to be connected.

You know, if you're new to our community of faith,

Landshare it, I'm doing Start With Why today.

Learn about our church, how to get involved,

where we came from, where we are going.

Meet with me after this gathering,

it'll take you 25 minutes, okay?

And then I'll release you to go get some lunch.

But the point is you become connected.

And over these next four weeks,

we're gonna take a holistic approach

and I'm not talking about holistic medicine,

I'm talking about our whole body is connected, right?

You may be struggling mentally

because you need a better diet, right?

You may be having emotional problems

and you need to go see a doctor

because you're having some hormonal changes, right?

Some of you, you may need some deep therapy or counseling,

you may need one-on-one prayer ministry.

Whatever the case may be,

we wanna be a place where healing happens.

If you're struggling with things and thinking thoughts like,

well, I don't know if I can make it.

I feel anxious, I feel depressed, I don't know why.

I'm praying, I'm trying, Chris, I'm going to church,

I'm seeking God, but I'm not getting any better.

I can't shake it.

Look, if you're struggling,

it doesn't mean you're not a good person

or you're not in a relationship with Jesus.

You know what it means?

You're human.

Jesus told us that we're gonna have trouble in this world

and we live in a world that's broken and full of sin.

And there's this myth in the church

that is followed to Jesus,

you shouldn't struggle with mental health

and it's an absolute lie, which leads us to our next myth.

God doesn't care about mental health.

God is too busy.

He's got bigger problems.

Have you seen what's going on in the world today, Chris?

You think God has time to deal with me

trying to navigate my in-laws or my current workplace drama?

He doesn't have time for that.

But when you look in the Bible,

when you look through the scriptures,

especially in the Psalms,

friends, you're gonna see just how much God cares about

every area of your life.

You know, I love reading through the Psalms

because the words are so real, right?

They're so raw.

And I just wanna share a few of them with you.

Look at Psalm 27, one,

the Lord is my light and my salvation.

So why should I fear?

The Lord is my fortress protecting me from danger.

So why should I tremble?

Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

Psalm 46, one, God is our refuge and strength

always ready to help in times of trouble.

And listen to Jesus's words in Matthew 11.

Then Jesus said, come to me,

all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you.

Let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle at heart

and you will find rest in me.

I'm humble at heart and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is ease to the bear

and the burden I give you is light.

I'm here to say that God cares about you.

He loves you and He wants the best for you.

You read through the Psalms

and you see how much God cares about you

and about everyone that are writing those words.

But yet you also see people breaking down mentally, right?

There's a lot of Psalms that you want printed

on your coffee mug that as you're pouring your cup

and you're reading it in the morning,

you can quote that verse,

but I wanna share with you one

you don't wanna read every morning.

One that shouldn't be printed on a coffee mug.

And it's Psalm 88 and it was written by a guy named Heman.

Now for those of you that are my age or a little older,

when I was a kid, there was a cartoon character named He-Man.

So right, anybody know about He-Man

or She-Ra?

I mean, they're just jacked

and they just took down the forces of darkness.

Anyway, that's a rabbit trail.

The only reason I mentioned that is because He-Man

is spelled just like Haman.

They're just pronounced differently.

But in the Bible, Haman is that guy you wanted in your life.

Right, he was well-respected.

He was the one that everybody looked up to.

I just wanna show you some of the qualities

that were represented in this man's life.

In 1 Kings 4.31, we learned that Haman had great wisdom.

He was very, very wise in the decisions he made.

In 1 Chronicles 6.33, we read that he was a talented musician.

He was a worship leader in that incredible musical ability.

In 1 Chronicles 25, five through six, we learned

he had a lot of kids.

And not only did he have a lot of kids,

but he was committed to parenting them

and raising them right.

He was very, very faithful in his service

to the King.

This was a man of God.

He would have been a leader in our church.

This would have been a guy that you search out

or seek for advice.

This is the guy that you want as your father-in-law

or your dad.

He was a man of God.

And now I wanna show you what he writes or says

in Psalm 88, and it's a spoiler alert.

This is one of only two Psalms in all the Psalms

that don't have a positive ending.

See, a lot of times when you read the songs,

people are crying out, they're complaining,

and then they turn and they say, but God is faithful.

But this man of God, he's brutally honest.

And I believe that God desires the same for you and me,

which leads us to our next truth before I read Psalm 88.

God desires honesty from his followers.

God desires that we talk to him, that we share with him,

that we cry out to him and listen to Haman's words,

Psalm 88.

For my life is full of troubles and death draws near.

I am as good as dead like a strong man

with no strength left.

They have left me among the dead

and I lie like a corpse in a grave.

I am forgotten, cut off from your care.

And then we're gonna see something

that he actually gets right.

And this is the very same thing

that you are getting right today.

Because if you're here and you're struggling with darkness,

some sort of medical struggle or mental issues,

or you're watching online, right,

Haman continues to turn to God.

And if you're here today and you're struggling mentally,

continue to turn to God.

Continue to search for him

because you've shown up for church, right,

and you're being a part of his spirit moving amongst us.

So he goes on to say that he's buried

in the middle of darkness and then he writes these words.

Oh Lord, I cry out to you.

I will keep on pleading day by day.

Notice he's committed.

Oh Lord, why do you reject me?

Why do you turn your face from me?

And then the last verse we read in Psalm 88

can sound so defeating.

You have taken away my companions and loved ones.

Darkness is my closest friend.

Darkness is my closest friend.

I mean, this guy loved God.

He was a man of God.

And here we're reading in the Bible, in the Psalms,

we read these words with no positive ending.

And it literally shows me

that God is not afraid of our honesty.

God wants us to cry out to him.

He cares that you may love him

and desire to be connected with him.

And he wants you to question him.

Because as we release these struggles,

as we release our problems,

that's when he can come in and bring about change.

Because when we're hurting, he cares.

And Haman wrote, darkness is my closest friend.

And if I'm gonna be real honest with you as your pastor,

you know, I have weeks that I feel that way.

I have weeks where I feel like darkness is surrounding me,

but I still show up every Sunday and share.

Every Tuesday, I lead staff meetings.

And throughout the week, I'm encouraging you,

my community of faith,

to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

But there are Mondays that I feel like resigning,

that I feel like, man, I can't do this anymore.

It's so overwhelming.

For example, last week,

after a busy Easter weekend of serving

and sharing and praying, I was exhausted.

Just simply exhausted.

And in my exhaustion, in my mental fatigue

of trying to figure out,

how do I create more parking spaces?

How do I reach more people?

How do I serve the broken hearted and the defeated?

How do I add more gatherings?

How do I start satellites?

How do I do this, do that?

There were a few days where I said to myself,

I can't do this.

I'm not enough.

I need help, God.

Give me wisdom.

Give me the steps to move forward.

So I know if I feel that way,

that there's many of you that feel the same way.

Life can be overwhelming.

But it's time we get real and honest with God,

which leads us to our action steps.

And listen, I believe and felt that God gave me

these three simple steps to encourage you

if you're struggling in your mental health today.

Because I know my wife shared with me last week,

it's no surprise you're feeling that way, Chris,

considering what we're discussing over the next month,

which leads us to our first step.

Listen, you gotta seek help.

You've got to seek help if you're struggling

in some mental capacity.

Matthew 22 verse 37, Jesus replied,

Matthew 22:37

you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

all your soul, and all your mind.

And many of us know this is the first

and greatest commandment.

So ask yourself this morning as you're sitting in your chair,

are you loving God with all your heart?

Are you loving God with all your soul?

Are you loving God with all your mind?

And you know, as I was reading that this week,

I found it interesting, and I began to even ask God,

how do I love you God with all my mind?

Because here's the truth about our minds.

Your life is always moving in the direction

of your strongest thoughts.

Your life is headed in the direction

of your strongest thoughts.

And see, our brains, they're actually built over time,

and it starts at birth, and then it starts to evolve.

And what happens in the brain,

it makes all these connections,

all these connections, connections, connections.

For those of you that know Jimmy Neutron,

think Jimmy Neutron, you know, this big, just,

all these connections, simple connections

that are called neural pathways.

And for the first few years of your life,

up to about age four, how many neural pathways

is your brain making?

Well, up to age four, from the start of birth,

you have about one million or so connections

every single second, every second,

until your four, or through your four-year-old birthday,

your brain is making connections every second,

a million times every second.

And when I read that and learned that this week,

I said, oh my gosh, now I know why Phoenix is who he is.

Right?

He never slows down.

It's always to this thing, and that thing,

I need a truck, I need a car, I need a motorcycle,

I need to play ball, I need to sleep.

No, I don't wanna sleep, I need to watch a show.

Right, it's just all these connections,

and he's flying everywhere.

Whoa, I also learned, and I wanna give you some news,

don't have a four-year-old when you're 51.

It's exhausting.

Whew.

So then, so you know Phoenix, he's flying around,

million connections every second.

Then after a while, your brain starts to learn,

and the connections are simplified

through a process called pruning.

And what happens is your brain gets more efficient,

and it starts to think in patterns.

In other words, once you think a thought,

it's easier to think that thought again.

It's like a mental rut or a pathway

that's easier to continue with those thoughts.

And that's good news if your thoughts are healthy.

But it's really bad news if your thoughts aren't.

So if your body is not healthy, what do you do?

You go to a doctor, right?

You might change your diet, you might start to exercise,

you might get treatment on that area

of your body that's unhealthy.

So if your mind is unhealthy, what should you do?

You might go see a doctor.

You might schedule a time with a therapist.

You might go to the great physician

who helps to renew your mind.

And if you're anything like me, my mind never shuts down.

Right, I'm always thinking, I'm always reading,

I'm trying to understand something.

There's nights where I'm up all night

because my brain just won't shut down, right?

I had ADD or ADHD, whatever it is,

before it was even known to be ADD, right?

Back when I was a kid in school, it was just,

he's the special child.

Special.

Put him out in the hallway, he's special.

Now you know who's pastoring you,

so if you wanna leave now, I understand.

But see, my mind, what happens with my mind,

my mind gets stuck in this rut of church, church, church,

church, and some of you are like,

well, Chris, that sounds spiritual,

what's wrong with that?

I just realized that's church, that's not God.

And there's a difference, it's church.

So my mind is constantly thinking work, work, work, work,

work, work, and we have to disconnect our mind

and then connect it to God.

And that's why it's so important

that we recognize where we are and we seek help.

And then our next step, then we focus on Jesus.

We disconnect from work, work, work, work, right?

Whatever it may be that's bringing you down

and then you focus on Jesus, I love Isaiah 26, three.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you.

You'll be in perfect peace.

Notice what it says, it's not occasional peace.

It's not when everything's gonna be

the way you want it to be, right?

It's not momentary peace when you feel good

about that moment or circumstantial peace.

What is it?

It's perfect peace.

And what is perfect peace?

Well, in the Hebrew language,

perfect peace is actually a translation from shalom.

And two times shalom is written in the original text.

Shalom, of course, means peace,

but the author doesn't say shalom one time, keeping peace.

He says shalom, shalom, perfect peace.

And any time you see a word repeated in Hebrew,

it means it's incredible emphasis.

So the author is telling us,

you will experience shalom, shalom,

you'll experience perfect peace when,

when your thoughts are fixed on CNN news.

Oh, sorry, wrong party, on Fox News.

You will be perfect peace when you're just scrolling

through your phone every day.

You'll have perfect peace when you're focused on your work

or you're giving your money to the right stock.

No, they're all wrong.

You'll keep in perfect peace when your thoughts are on who?

Jesus.

And the Hebrew word translated as fixed,

keep your thoughts fixed, right, is the word shamak.

And this word actually means to prop.

It means when you rest the full weight of an object on it.

So when you rest the full weight of your thoughts, right,

and everything happening in your mind,

when you rest it onto God,

then suddenly you'll experience perfect peace.

But if you're like so many people right now,

you're not doing great.

There's tension, there's heaviness.

You know, people are worried about all kinds of stuff.

You know, there's Russia, there's China,

there's the election, there's parties,

there's finger pointing, right?

You don't like your job.

You don't really like the people around you.

I wasn't talking about here.

No.

Jesus.

Look at your neighbor and say, I love you.

Thank you.

Now look at the neighbor you ignored

and really don't like and say, I love you too.

Woo.

See, we just fixed those problems right away.

If we don't fix our thoughts on what is helpful,

if we don't fix our thoughts on God

and on Jesus, on the Holy Spirit,

then you know what happens?

We start to create these neural pathways that are unhealthy.

But if we fix our thoughts on God,

on Jesus, when we learn about who he was and what he did

and how much he loves us,

then those same positive neural pathways

are being created for us to change.

Scripture says that we renew our mind.

Do not be conformed to what everybody else is doing.

Who cares what everybody else does, right?

Don't get caught up in the craziness or the toxicity

or the hatefulness, the bitterness or the negativity.

Just walk away.

Just separate yourself.

I mean, Romans 12 says, don't copy

the behavior and customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a new person

by changing the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you,

which is good and pleasing and perfect, right?

So I disconnect my mind from the negativity

and I focus on Jesus.

And then he begins to supernaturally change my outlook,

my thoughts and the patterns that are in my brain

so that I'm focusing on the positive,

which leads us to our final step, right?

We seek help, we focus on Jesus,

and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It's God's power.

It's his divine power.

It's not me because I know in my own strength,

I'm ready to give up.

I'm ready to resign.

It's his power.

It's not my power.

It's his power and he has given us everything,

not just part of it,

but everything we need for a godly life,

Jesus has given us.

And then Jesus writes this in John chapter 14 verse 27.

John 14:27

I am leaving you with a gift,

peace of mind and heart,

and the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give,

so don't be troubled or afraid.

Now I want you to think about this.

Jesus shared with us those words in John chapter 14

John 14 · chapter mention

and that is the night before his suffering began.

The night before he faced the worst physical agony possible,

right, he shows us that perhaps real peace,

perfect peace, right,

isn't found in the absence of problems.

Real peace is found in the presence of God.

Remember, it's shalom shalom.

It's peace even when there's bad news.

It's peace when you lose your job.

It's peace when your marriage is struggling.

It's peace when your kids are making unwise decisions.

It's peace when others are hurting you.

It's peace when money is tight.

It's shalom shalom.

It is peace from God and we just learned

the world can't give it and the world can't what?

Take it away.

And see friends, God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but a spirit of power, love and self-control

or a sound mind.

And may the God of peace sanctify you through and through.

He cares for you.

He loves you.

He's faithful and he is here this morning.

The King of Glory is here, come and behold.

The King of Glory is here.