This is part 2 of 2. It does a fantastic job of explaining and summarizing what I already believe. I have copied the transcript in its entirety, with no editing. The copyright belongs to TimeofGrace.org. I will include all of their contact information at the bottom of this post. - SZ
And so, I want to give you something better today. I want to give you a reason why not. No, scratch that. Today, I want to give you 13 reasons why not. So grab your Bibles, hold onto your pews, because we start with reason one: That God has a plan for you. Often in the pit of depression and despair, we assume that there is no plan; this is pointless and the suffering will never change. But have you ever heard that coffee cup favorite Christian verse? “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.” Do you know who wrote that? A severely depressed follower of God. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. In fact, at one time in the book of Jeremiah, he asked, “Why did I ever come out of the womb?” which is a depressing question. He saw no point to his life. There was no plan. And yet, God didn’t just use him to write a book of the Bible; God used him to write one of the most famous passages that has inspired the hopeless for thousands of years. And the same is true for us. You might not know the plan and I might not know the plan but God has a plan. He will use you. In fact, he will use this because he knows the plans he has to give you hope and to give you a future.
Reason number two: Because this pain will pass. Pastor Rick Warren is the pastor of one of America’s largest churches but all that ministry success did not stop his son from taking his own life. After Matthew’s suicide, the pastor made a video where he pleaded with people who were considering making the same choice as his son and he said, “Don’t. Because emotions are like waves. You feel so dark and so hopeless but just like a wave that feels like it’s drowning you passes and crashes over your head, this pain will, too.” Emotions don’t last forever; they can’t last forever. So hold on. Light is coming in the morning. Blessing is coming with the promises of God.
Reason number three: Because we would love to meet the real you. In his book, “And She Was a Christian,” Pastor Peter Preus tells the story of his wife’s suicide. She succeeded not on her first attempt but on her second and his church had no idea that she was sick, depressed, delusional. When he got up and prayed for his church family, they never prayed for her because what would the people think? What would they say if the pastor’s family was going through that and they were shocked to find out the day she did it.
I hope we don’t have churches like that. I hope church is a place that you can come to when it is messy and messed up. When people come to my church for the new member meeting – you know, sit down in the pastor’s office – do you know what I tell them? I say, when you do something that is shockingly bad and embarrassing and shameful and you want to crawl in a hole, I want you to come here, first. And you’re going to hesitate to say it and then you’re going to spill it and you’re going to cry on this couch because here’s what I’m going to say as soon as you close your mouth: You know that God loves you, right? The church is not a place where we heave guilt on people’s messes. It’s a place where we have grace and mercy and the promises of God and so I want you to know that we would love to meet the real you. In fact, I feel closest to the people who are messed up at my church; it makes me feel better like I’m not the only one. So what if your church was a place where you can make a call, where you can reach out, and people would not take a step back in judgment but a step forward in grace?
Reason number four: Because suicide is sin. You shall not murder, God commanded, and he was thinking about the murder of self, too. You are not your own; you were bought at a price, the apostle Paul wrote. And so, life is not ours to give or to take. God knit us together in our mother’s wombs and, therefore, our lives belong to him. Our best lives and our worst lives, the peaks and the valleys, the lives that seem to lack quality, all belongs to God. It’s in his hands and he gets to decide when it ends.
Reason five: Because suicide is selfish. All the stories of suicide that I’ve read were not of people who wanted to end their lives; they wanted to end their pain. They believed things like this world would be better without me. I’m a burden to my family and friends. It’s going to be easier for them if I take my own life. But I can tell you the opposite is true. And the worst part of watching that show was when Hannah’s mom walked into the bathroom. And she did not end pain in this world; she compounded it. And so, you might hate yourself but I bet you love them – your friends, your family – and this will not ease their burden. It will leave them with questions that they maybe never will answer: Why did this happen? What didn’t I see? What did I do wrong? Suicide’s not just sinful; it’s selfish.
Reason number six: Because Jesus knows. You ever feel so overwhelmed, so sorrowful, so close to death that no one gets it? Have you ever felt so in the pit, that you’re so desperate for people to be with you because it’s not safe to be by yourself? Do you know who knows exactly how that feels? Jesus. You remember in the garden, the night before he dies, what he says? “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here with me.” And so when you’re in that valley and it seems like no one gets it, I want you to pray to Jesus because he doesn’t shake his head and furrow his brow; he nods and says, “I know. I know.”
Reason number seven: Because I need you. I have battled a lot of temptation and a lot of struggles in my life but I’ve never battled this. And so, I need you. I need you to live and I need you to share and I need you to help make church better. There are depressed and suicidal people who show up every Sunday and I’m never going to be able to connect with them, to reach them, to understand them, without you. One of the best parts of preparing for this very message was talking to people who’ve thought about it, who’ve even attempted it, to learn from their stories. I need you to be a better pastor. Your pastor needs you to have a better church.
Number eight: Because we need you. You might feel worthless, you might feel depressed, you might feel hopeless but the Bible says this: Those parts of the body of Christ that seem to be weaker are indispensable. You know what you might be like? You might be like that muscle in your body that you don’t know exists until you pull it. Ever happen to you? You try a new activity like, “I don’t even know what’s sore, but that hurts!” And you realize there’s something you didn’t know existed but you needed it.
I think some of God’s depressed sons and daughters are just like that; they don’t know what their role is, they don’t know what their purpose is. They go through the motions and they think the world wouldn’t even miss me if I was gone. But like that muscle, we would. You’re an indispensable part. God uniquely wired and gifted and placed you in the time and place where you live for a reason.
Reason number nine: Because they need you. And maybe it’s just me, but I think the Christian church has a bit of a PR problem these days. Lots of people think that the church is for good people who wear nice dresses and suits and polished shoes and if you’re depressed and suicidal and you have a problem with pills and clinical depression you don’t belong there. So maybe – maybe – God could use you to reach them. Maybe your story would be the one to prove, hey, you can be suicidal and saved. You can be depressed and you can go every Sunday. You can struggle with this and you will be loved and welcomed and not judged. Maybe God’s plan is to use you in that struggle to reach them for his glory and for their good.
Reason number ten: Because God is with you. Maybe you’ve considered suicide because your ex isn’t with you. Because you lost a baby and the child isn’t with you. Because you lost your reputation; you lost your job; you lost your wealth. You have lost so much; it’s not with you anymore. But you know who is? Jesus. “He is close to the brokenhearted,” the psalms say. “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.” You feel completely alone in the dark. If you could just turn on the light of faith, you’d see him because God is always with you.
Reason eleven: Because God forgives you. You know the saddest thing to me about the story of Judas? Is that Jesus would have forgiven him. If he could have waited just two days and gathered with all of his shame and guilt in the upper room, do you know what would have happened? Jesus would have looked him in the eye with all the other bozos and said, “Peace. Peace, I give to you. For you, Peter, the denier. And you, Judas, the betrayer.” The blood of Jesus purifies us from all unrighteousness. And I don’t know what you did that makes you feel ashamed or embarrassed, wanting to run and hide, but I do know this: That when Jesus died on the cross and he said, “It is finished,” he thought of that, too.
Reason number twelve: Because God has got you. When King David was in the pit of despair, he cried out this: “My times are in God’s hands.” Whatever that situation is that is making you feel that way – maybe it’s slipping through your fingers – but you know what’s underneath your fingers? The hands of God and nothing slips through. The situation is underneath the feet of Jesus; it is in his hands and he promises to use it in ways that if you could just see them for one second, they would blow your mind.
And finally, most importantly, reason thirteen: Because God loves you. I know depression isn’t logical, I know you might not believe me when I say it, but if there’s one thing I want you to remember when you leave here today is that God loves you. If you’re a mess, God loves you. If you have it all together, God loves you. If you’ve never thought for a second about suicide, God loves you. And if you thought about it – before you came to church – God loves you. Neither angels nor demons nor the present nor the future, there’s nothing in all of creation, Romans 8 says, that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. So you can cry and you can curl up and you can hold the pills in your hands but I want you to remember this – that you are dearly and deeply loved by God himself.
Thirteen reasons to live. And if you would let me preach for another hour, I’d give you a 113 more. Up in Green Bay, Wisconsin where I’m from, a few years ago a woman tried to jump off a bridge. Her husband knew she was attempting it; she was speeding, weaving through traffic trying to get there and he called it in to the police station, panicked. And an officer sped through town to try to catch her. He saw the car when she parked. He rolled up behind her, she got out and ran, and she jumped to the bridge and just before it was too late, he reached out and grabbed her and pulled her to safety. She later came to faith in Jesus. Maybe today, the Holy Spirit is reaching out for you. And you’re so close, you're so close; you’re ready to jump but here is the hand of God, the hand of Jesus, pierced to prove his love for you and he says, “No, no, no. Don’t.”
You might have 13 reasons why; I have thousands of reasons why not. So brothers and sisters, choose life because Jesus gave his life for you and he has a great life for you. Amen.
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