 Hey man, so keep your place there in 1 Samuel chapter 31. We're talking about a very specific subject this morning, and as I said in the announcements, this is a subject that I've never preached a sermon on this subject before. It came up in Acts chapter 16, and I kind of just thought I've never addressed that before. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember bringing it up as part of a sermon. So that's something that kind of popped out to me. So we're going to look at it this morning. What we're going to look at this morning, it's kind of a sensitive topic. Many people may have dealt with this with people that they know or love in their life, but I'm going to try to give you some biblical context this morning, and what I want to talk about is the subject of suicide, the subject of someone that would take their own life. In 1 Samuel chapter 31, we see an example of this in the Bible. So I'm going to show you this morning that the Bible actually talks, it doesn't talk specifically about it in these instances, but there's very many examples of people that do take their own lives in the Bible. So we're going to look at some examples of that. We're going to look at then how we can apply those examples. That's the whole idea of studying the Bible, reading the Bible, is how we can look at what the Bible has for us and then apply that to our lives, apply that to those around us. So if you do run into somebody in your life that is struggling with this, struggling with even depression to the point where they would be considering something like this, hopefully this will arm you with some biblical tools where you can handle this. So first we'll look at some examples in the Bible of both saved people and unsaved people in the Bible that take their own lives, because it's very interesting that in the Bible you have both of these scenarios. You have saved people in the Bible that take their own lives and you have unsaved people in the Bible that take their own lives. And then at the end of the sermon after we've gone through these examples and looked at what God thinks of suicide, I'm just going to give you three simple steps on, you know, or if someone's listening and is struggling with this, three simple steps to move past this in your life or to help somebody move past this in your life. That's why God gave us his word. God gave us his word not only so we could be saved but so we could live this successful Christian life and be profitable to other people. So let's apply that and let's apply that this morning. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 31, look at verse number one. The Bible says, Now the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchushua saw sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him and he was sore wounded of the archers. Then said, Saul do his upper bearer, draw thy sword and thrust me therewith. So he first asked somebody else, so the situation in King Saul, who we know if you know anything about King Saul, the first king of Israel, he was less than successful at being a king. Saul was saved as a young man and he became a wicked king. He turned against the Lord, he rebelled against God. Samuel actually used that word, rebellion. He's like, you are in rebellion, that's where Samuel says rebellion is as witchcraft. He's saying you have rebelled against the Lord, you're not listening to him. Saul was filled with pride. And God basically brought this army against Saul. He's actually in judgment as this army of the Philistines is coming against him. And he asks his armor bearer, he's wounded and he asks his armor bearer, just kill me. So these people don't capture me alive. So they don't catch me alive and abuse me, torture me, whatever you want to call it. And look, you can see that even though they didn't capture him alive, they still did abuse him. They cut off his head, they stripped his body and they hung it from a wall, you know, amongst his sons, which is a very, you know, they're trying to degrade him and abuse him even after he is dead. So look at what happens here. He tells his armor bearer, kill me, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was so afraid. So the armor bearer said, I'm not going to kill you. He wouldn't kill, the Lord's anointed, therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it. So Saul committed suicide. He killed himself. All right? And yes, he was wounded. He was definitely going to die anyway here, but he did take his own life. So we'll leave that one there. There's some other cases in the Bible of people that we know that are saved that did commit suicide. If you turn to Judges chapter 16, turn to Judges chapter 16, one of the judges actually killed himself, actually took his own life. If you look at Judges chapter 16, look at verse number 25. This is the story, of course, of Samson. So Samson was a judge in Israel, in the book of Judges. Samson's a great story in the Bible about just a man that didn't fulfill what God wanted him to fulfill. He was always kind of rebelling against what the Lord wanted him to do, seeking his own selfish desires and selfish pleasures, even though he was still used as an instrument to judge the Philistines on many different occasions. He definitely didn't do it in what we would call a perfect way. In Judges chapter 16, he ends up getting, of course, he ends up getting captured by the Philistines after he tells Delilah where his strength comes from. She cuts his hair. They're able to capture him. They burn out his eyes or gouge out his eyes, and they're having this massive party in this large building, and they have Samson chained, and they're making fun of him. They're mocking him. They're beating him and all these different things. And in verse number 25 of Judges chapter 16, so again, Samson, it's actually sort of a similar pattern, and that's kind of what I want to get you to see here. It's a similar pattern to Saul, maybe not quite as bad, but it's a similar pattern with Samson that he's kind of gotten himself into a bad spot. He's kind of gotten himself into a bad situation. And in verse 25, the Bible says, and it came to pass when their hearts were married. This is when Samson is being made fun of, made sport of by the Philistines in this massive, and they're having a party and making fun of him. And it came to pass when their hearts were married, this is the Philistines, that they said, call for the Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house and he made them sport and they set him between the pillars. So they're making fun of him, they're using him as a, you know, they're mocking him and all this. He's in prison, he's blind, verse 26. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars were upon this house, the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Now when the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there, and there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women that beheld while Samson made sport. And Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord, God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me. I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines from my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which was born up, and on one with his right hand, and the other with his left. And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life. So he killed thousands of people here, you know, is what it sounds like. And it's funny because if you actually go and look up this story and look up how it's possible that two pillars, there was actually buildings like this where the entire structure of the building was held up by two center pillars. So archaeology kind of history and archaeology kind of validates this, not that we need that. But the point is Samson, he killed himself here. He committed suicide in order to, in this case, avenge the enemies of the Lord. Again, he was used by God in this last moment of his life to judge the Philistines. But we see some similarities. This is what I'm trying to get you to understand here. Both of these men were saved. Both of these men made many mistakes in their lives. You know, that basically sin led them to this point that they found themselves in. And in these cases of Saul and of Samson, it was not really to just stop living. They were kind of dead already. I mean, they were kind of in a bad place to the point where especially with Saul, he was going to be dead soon anyway. So that is some similarities there. Now turn to Matthew chapter 27. So we see some saved people in the Bible. And I use those examples because those are specific examples in 1 Samuel chapter 28. The Bible does specifically say, as Samuel tells Saul, he's like, you will be with me in verse 19. You and your sons, basically, he says, will be with me tomorrow. He basically tells Saul that he's going to be in heaven the very next day. So we know Saul's in heaven. We know Saul was saved as a young man. And we know Samson is definitely in heaven. I'll show you that in a few minutes. Look at Matthew chapter 27. Let's look at an example of somebody who's unsaved that has also committed suicide in the Bible. This is, of course, the story of Judas. Look at Matthew chapter 27. Look at verse number three. The Bible says in verse number three, then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. Now, we have to understand here. First of all, Judas was not saved. It's very clear in the Bible that Judas was not saved, and he didn't get saved. Now, people that just take the word repent and just run 1,000 miles with it, they'll use this verse to say, oh, Judas got saved here. No, Judas repented himself, meaning he just changed his mind about selling out Jesus. He felt bad about selling out Jesus, and he brought the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. He didn't all of a sudden believe on Jesus. He just felt like he shouldn't have taken this money to get him turned in as he's watching this person being beaten and tortured. Look at verse four. So repent, again, it just means to change your mind. God repented in the Bible many, many times. Repent means change your mind. It doesn't mean you're automatically saved. Repent and be baptized means change your mind from unbelief to belief, and then after you're saved, be baptized. It's very simple. Look at verse 15, or verse five. He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Go to Matthew 26, just one verse back in verse number 24. Verse number 24. See, how do you know that he didn't get saved? Here's why I know right here. Matthew 26 in verse number 24. How do you know that right before he hanged himself, he didn't just get saved? Because Jesus said so, that's how. Look at verse 24 of Matthew chapter 26. Judas, it's crazy, but Judas is a person that people that believe you can lose your salvation will use as an example. They'll say, oh, you know, some people think that he was saved and then he lost his salvation. Some people think that he wasn't saved and then he got saved. Look, Judas was never saved. And the Bible is super clear on that. It's one of those things where I'm just like, how could people be confused about this? All right, look at verse 24 of Matthew chapter 26. Verse 24 of Matthew 26. Jesus says, the Son of man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the man that betrays him. He's talking about Judas. So Judas was an unsaved man who was unsaved due to his own sin, his own unrepentant heart, his own hard heart, but he was actually fulfilling prophecy. He was used to fulfill prophecy. Now look what Jesus says. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Now, could you say that about anybody that is saved? Could you say that about anybody that is saved? Look, because look, if somebody lives a bad life, their whole life, a wicked life, their whole life does not do anything good and get saved at the last moment and ends up in heaven for eternity, could you say it's better that they were not born? You couldn't say that. It's only better. Look, now, if somebody dies unbelieving and ends up in hell for eternity in eternal torments, it's definitely better for that person if they were never even born, if they were never even in existence, if they never came to this earth because they're in eternal torment. Jesus here is saying is that Judas is going to go to hell. Is what he's saying in verse number 24. Look at verse 25. It says, then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, master, is it I? And he said unto him, thou hast said. So he identifies Judas right there. In John 17, 12, I'll just read it for you. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gave us me I kept and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, talking about Judas, the son of perdition, the son of damnation. Judas was never saved and he never got saved. All right, that scripture might be fulfilled. All right, so look, there's many other cases. So we see saved people committed suicide. We see unsaved people committed suicide. There's many other instances in the Bible. If you remember Gideon's son, Abimelech, he also killed himself. That's a similar situation. A woman dropped the stone on his head and he said, kill me so that I might not, I guess that was maybe more of an assisted suicide, but kill me so that they won't say that a woman killed me, basically. And Abimelech was a wicked person. Zimri killed himself in the Bible. Wicked king, God judged him in 1 Kings chapter 16. You know, similar to Judas there. Ahithophel, David's counselor killed himself. I'll talk a little bit more about Ahithophel, but of course, Ahithophel was David's counselor. He sided with Absalom. He's the one that gave Absalom the advice to go in onto David's concubines on the roof of the house. And then when Ahithophel's counsel was dismissed and instead Absalom went with Hushai, David's friend, kind of David's spy that he sent in, Ahithophel was so, he was so disappointed he went and he killed himself. Okay, so we see different people in the Bible commit suicide. So it's something that happens, okay? But look, what we see in the Bible, it's people that are in bad situations. It's people that are in bad situations. Most of the time in the Bible that we saw, it's because of sin that was their own doing we saw here. But I'll talk about this in a little bit too, but people could be very depressed and be in a bad place from sin that other people have committed on them as well. Okay, so we don't wanna dismiss that one. I'll talk about that one in just a few minutes. But the point is suicide and this, I just, the main point I wanna get at so far as suicide exists in the Bible and it's gonna exist in this world amongst the saved and amongst the unsaved. That's the old point I want you to remember so far. Okay, so now suicide. The first question we need to ask ourselves as Bible-believing Christians, is it wrong? Is it wrong to do? Is it a sin? We see that sin gets us there, either sin that we've gotten ourselves into or sin someone, it could be a sin someone committed against us that drove us into a depressive state or something like this. Sin gets us there, but is it wrong to take your own life? Turn to Psalm 31, verse number 15. Let's look at what the Bible teaches about just the act of suicide itself. It does the Bible say that it's wrong. Does the Bible say that it is a sin? Look at Psalm 31 and look at verse number 15. Psalm 31 in verse number 15. The Bible says, my times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from them that persecute me. So the first part of that verse says my times, the Psalmist here is saying my times meaning my life is in your hands. He's talking about how his life is in God's hand. Time, look, notice how he says thy. Again, the th versus the wise here. He's talking to God. He's talking to an individual. He's talking to God. He's saying, God, my life, the time that I have on this earth is in your hands. That is not something that's in my hands. And I've preached on time many times before and I even did a whole sermon on time. Time is not something we are ever going to be able to control. Time in the Bible is clearly taught as something that God uses to motivate us. God says, you don't have much time. God compares the time of our physical lives on this earth as a cup of water being poured out on the ground. And it's like, oh, that's it. And you can't put that cup as we pour it out. We can't put it back in the cup. We're not gonna be able to travel back in time. We're not gonna be able to redo things that we did in our lives. Our time, look, and it doesn't matter how old you are today. Nobody knows if you have another 10 minutes, another 10 years, or another 50 years, I'm left in your life. Nobody knows that. No individual person knows how long they have left on this earth because our time, our lives, the time, the years, the seconds, the minutes are in God's hands only. We are not to take those things into our hand. Now, if I would go and I would end my life, I would be taking that time that is God's into my hands. And that is not what the Bible says. Turn to Job chapter one in verse number 21. Job chapter one in verse number 21. Job chapter one, verse number 21. Now, somebody may not believe in the Bible, it may not believe in God, but this is what the Bible says, all right? The Bible's very clear about this. Look at Job in Job chapter one. Job in Job chapter one is having the hardest day that anyone has ever had, all right? Look what he says in verse number 21. Job says, and naked, and said, naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither, the Lord. And this is the point I wanna get at right here. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So, Job here is acknowledging that everything that he had, including the lives of his children, including everything that he's ever given, was a gift from God, and it's only God that can take those things away, and God, and Job, acknowledges God's right to do that. He acknowledges God's right to take life. Because why? Because God is the only one that gave life. So God gave us life, God can take life. We see that in the example, really, of Saul. I mean, literally, I mean, if you just look at the overall situation that Saul found himself in, God really took his life away. God really said, yes, Saul ended it himself in the last few minutes, but God really decided that your life, Saul, will end tomorrow. Your time, Saul, will end tomorrow. Look, as a saved individual, we should never forget this. We should never forget that God can chastise us in our physical lives. He'll never take away our salvation, but up until the point of actually shortening your time on this earth. If you're not in obedience to him. This is what we see with King Saul. King Saul is such a valuable lesson in the Bible for the believer. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 19. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 19. So basically, in Job chapter one, Job is acknowledging that it is God that gave the gift of life, and it is God that can take away the gift of life. I picture this the same as like abortion. You know, I've always kind of thought of abortion as like taking God's gift and sending it back unopened. You know, yes, it's murder to murder somebody else, but you're basically taking a gift that God gave you and through murder, sending it back to him, saying I didn't want this, right? That is not, that is not your right to do. You say, but in the case of suicide, you say, but it's my life. You say it's my life, it's not somebody else. That, you know, it's not a baby or it's not another person. Well, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 19. Is it your life? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 19 and verse number 19. 1 Corinthians chapter 19, look at verse number 19. The Bible says what? Know ye not that your body, your body, is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And yes, I get that we're talking about saved people, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. So I understand that we are talking about the only person's body that is the temple of the Holy Ghost is someone that is saved. I get that. Look at verse 20. For ye are bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. So the primary application of this verse is for people that are saved. But God is literally saying here, you are bought with a price. But here's the thing, Christ, which, how many people in the world did Jesus die for? Jesus died for everyone in the world. It says whosoever, you know, in the Bible, the price was paid. The price that Jesus paid bought the whole store. Think about it that way. He bought the whole store. The fact that some people leave theirs on the shelf is not God's problem. But the point is Christ paid for it all. He paid for all the sins of the world. Some people would just leave that gift up on the shelf in that store. Think about it that way. But look, suicide is the ultimate form of this. It is the ultimate form of just, you know, not acknowledging that your life came from God, not acknowledging that your salvation was paid for, not acknowledging anything and just taking it away. All right? So yes, suicide, the act of suicide is a sin clearly in the Bible. All right? Now let me take it a little bit further here. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three. Here's another question that people will ask. And this is a question that I was taught wrong on just about my whole life. But the question is this. Does suicide condemn someone to hell? Does suicide condemn someone to hell? And I was surprised when I went and I looked up the beliefs on this from the Catholic Church and the Lutheran and many Protestant churches because let me tell you something. This was unequivocally a yes when I was growing up. Every single pastor that I knew growing up that was Lutheran, it was if you kill yourself, if you commit suicide, you are in hell. That's it. And I'll explain to you why that is, but I looked at the actual beliefs now and it's funny because everyone's changing their beliefs now. They're actually not changing their beliefs but they're trying to make it sound lighter and make it sound, make what they believe sound more palatable to people. Let me just read you the Lutheran take on someone that commits suicide. When I was growing up, because look, everybody knew somebody that committed suicide. When I was growing up, there was people in the small town that we lived outside of that committed suicide. There was suicide was just something that you just heard of, it just happened. And I'm sure it happens today. But look at what the Lutheran Church says today. Before consenting, this is advice to a Lutheran pastor. Before consenting to officiate at the funeral of a suicide victim, a pastor will want to make full inquiry, not so much for a reason to avoid the question of officiating as to find a reason, then it says in parentheses, even if weak, a weak reason, to accept the opportunity. Especially important in such situations is the state of mind of the deceased and whether the deceased was aware of what he or she was doing. So what, the Lutheran Church has kind of taken the same tack as the Catholic Church on that, well, if God has like a clause for insanity or something like this. I mean, this is what they're saying. Like if they will just say, oh, they weren't in their right mind, so they're in heaven. But what they truly believe is the Catholic belief where the Catholic belief says this, objectively, suicide is a mortal sin. Here, though, we must remember that for a sin to be mortal and cost someone salvation, the objective action, in this case, suicide, must be grave and serious. The person must have an informed intellect, meaning know that it is wrong, and the person must give full consent of the will and tend to commit this action. So they must be in their right mind. So basically what they're saying is if somebody in their right mind commits suicide, they're in hell. But if somebody is not in their right mind, then they're not in hell. Look, growing up, every single pastor they ever knew, if someone commits suicide, they're in hell. And Lutherans and Catholics, they still believe this. Guaranteed, guaranteed. This was a common thing. People would actually say that in church when they heard about someone committing suicide. They're like, well, they're in hell. Because that's what the church teaches. And only explain to you why they teach that. Why they teach that. Here's why they teach that. Because it's this etch-a-sketch theology. It's this etch-a-sketch confessional theology where you go to church as a Lutheran, you go to church as a Catholic, and you confess your sins. In the Lutheran church, you confess your sins, you chant that paragraph as a church. In the Catholic church, you confess your sins to a priest, and you wipe the slate clean. And then you're good until you sin again. But this is the theology. And here's the thing with suicide, that you could never confess that sin, because you're dead. So that is why Catholics, Lutherans, and I'm sure many other Protestants believe that if you commit suicide, you are in hell. They're basically taking 1 John 1-9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, they apply that to salvation. The Lutheran church, the Catholic church, they apply that to salvation. And if you apply that verse to salvation, that's where you get your etch-a-sketch theology. Now think about this. This is the problem I had as a Lutheran. I'm sitting there, and I'm wiping the slate clean every Sunday morning, and I'm just like, oh man, how long until I have a foolish thought? And I'm done again. I don't know, 12 minutes? How long? I mean, what are the odds I'm going to go to heaven? Like, no one would get to heaven with that theology. Nobody, all right? But thank God, it's not of works. Thank God that we don't have to look. You should confess your sins. 1 John 1-9 is as true as any other verse in the Bible. It's about having a good relationship with your Heavenly Father. It's about being right with God. It's about, you know, confessing your sins and getting things right in your life. Nothing to do with salvation, all right? So these religions teach that if you commit suicide, you are definitely in hell. But what does the Bible say? Turn to John 3-36. Turn to John 3-36, my favorite soul winning verse right here. John 3-36, what causes a man to go to hell? What causes, is it about sin? Is it about what causes a man to go to hell and another man to not go to hell? What is the difference between those two men? Look at John 3-36. The Bible says he that believed on the Son, half everlasting life. But he that believed not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. Where's suicide there? Where's suicide there? It has nothing to do with salvation. The difference between someone that goes to heaven is they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The difference between somebody that goes to hell is they haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you trusted in Jesus or not? It has nothing to do with suicide and that's why I pointed out that there's many stories in the Bible that saved people committed suicide. And look, while they should not have done that, they're in heaven, all right? So, I mean, is Samson in hell? Turn to Hebrews 11. Turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, Samson is mentioned in the hall of fame of faith. In the hall of fame of faith, look, he made many mistakes in his life. Samson would have done many greater things in his life than he did with his life that he had. But look, he's in heaven. He's in heaven. Look at verse 32 of Hebrews 11. That literally called the faith chapter in the Bible by most people that are familiar with the Bible. Look at verse 32. What shall I more say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah and David also. Jephthah also made mistakes. And Samuel and of the prophets, who through what? Talking about all these men, Samson being one of them. Who through faith? Subdued kingdoms. Whether or not Samson in heaven has nothing to do with why Samson's in heaven has nothing to do with whether or not he committed suicide. It has to do with whether or not he believed God, he had faith, which he did. So Samson is in heaven. Samson is maybe the greatest, one of the greatest proofs in the Bible of just a person that's just a proof against workspace salvation. Just because, including suicide. Including suicide. So salvation has to do with believe on Jesus or not. That's it. Suicide has nothing to do with it. Or any other sin. So, I mean, what is the situation with suicide in the United States, in the world, in the US, here's the statistics for you. There's about 48,000 suicides, people that take their own lives per year. This was interesting, I guess it wasn't that surprising, but four times as many men commit suicide as women. It's much more common amongst men. And here's another one, and this shouldn't surprise you. And it definitely didn't surprise me, but from 1999 to 2019, there was a 33% increase in suicides. So, just let me just give you a, for somebody who looks up a lot of statistics on society and things like that for sermons, nothing's getting better. I can't think of a single statistic in the United States that is getting better. As a matter of fact, all I see when I look up statistics on bad things happening, all I see are all time highs. All I see are all time highs of fornication, all time highs of people not getting married, all time highs of whatever kind of sin, all time highs of disease, all time highs of just everything. All time highs, and guess what? You know what else is at all time highs? People's knowledge of the Bible. All time lows, people that believe in the Bible. I mean, you think that these things are connected? Hello? And again, suicide is just one more thing on top of this. One more thing on top of this. So, what's the answer? What's the answer? So, what's the answer if I know somebody or have heard of somebody or if I ever meet somebody that is considering suicide, that is struggling with depression? I'm gonna give you a three-step plan for helping somebody that you would run into that would be struggling with this type of, basically extreme depression to the point where you no longer wanna live anymore. It's hard to imagine that despair, but look, it's a very serious thing. 50,000 people a year nearly will commit suicide. And I think that the attempts, the attempts, people that try to kill themselves that fail were way off the charts, like maybe five or 10 times higher than the people that actually do kill themselves. So, it's something that's a real thing. It's a real thing that a lot of people struggle with. And look, I'm sure if I would ask every, any person in this church, you've all heard of somebody who committed suicide. I mean, I can remember several cases myself that I've just heard of or people that we knew that lived in the area close to us or whatever that someone in their family committed suicide. So, it's a very real thing that society is struggling with and that it's getting worse as with everything else. So, I'm gonna give you a three-step plan, all right? The first one is this. If you find somebody that is struggling with these types of thoughts, or struggling with these types of thoughts, the first step is this, okay? The first step is this. The first step that I would offer to this person is this. It's the gospel. That is the first step. Because here's the thing. You say, well, this person, they don't believe in God or they didn't grow up in church and they don't know who Jesus is. But what I would say to that person is if you're at the point of ending your life on this earth, why not give Christ a chance? I mean, why not consider that the way that you, you're like, I'm at the end of my rope. I burned all bridges. Why not try something that you never thought was possible? Why not consider that maybe your thoughts, how you were raised, was not the correct way? Why not give the Bible, the gospel a chance? See, the problem is, the problem with psychology today. You know, the problem with psychology today is, look, depression is a real thing. I'm not saying that depression is not real. Many people suffer from depression, but here, instead of focusing on what the Bible would call sin and what the Bible would call problems that should be gotten correct, you know, I mean, just think about feminism for an example. You know, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter six. Just think about just feminism as a perfect example of this. You know, everything that you could do in your life is not okay. That's what the Bible says. Everything, every direction that you could go in your life is not as good as any other direction. But that's what's being taught today. What's being taught today is, whatever you feel is correct. But look, there's many ways that are not correct. There's many ways that are gonna lead you to despair and to destruction. You know, feminism is a perfect example of this. Feminism, teaching women that they should just be able to go out and just fornicate and just, you know, put off their family life, put off marriage, and then, you know, this leads to all kinds of depression. But the Bible says it will. The Bible says that this will lead to depression. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter six and verse 18. This is just one example. The Bible says, flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he had committed fornication. Sineth against his own body. Literally, you know, we have philosophies today teaching young ladies and young men to just go abuse yourself. Go abuse your body. Go abuse yourself, have no value for yourself, and then it leads to depression and the psychologist says, oh, here's a pill. It's crazy. They totally dismiss what the Bible would call sin. So people can end up in situations where they're depressed because of things that they're literally doing to themselves and modern medicine will just give them a pill. Here, take a pill and you'll feel better. And you know what the side effects of those pills are? Suicide. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. If you go look at all these antidepressant pills and go look at the side effects, it will literally say suicide. So they give you this pill to, they don't address anything in your life. The Bible address your life. The Bible fix your life. And this is the myth today, folks. When you dismiss the Bible, you dismiss everything that's true. Think about this. Think about this. Maybe it's not sin in your life. Maybe there was some traumatic abuse that someone sinned against you. You know, I think about this. I think about Tamar in the Bible. I think about Tamar who was, she was assaulted. She was physically assaulted by her brother. And Tamar says, she's like, she's like, with or shall I cause my shame to go? She did nothing wrong. She did nothing wrong, but she was just under all this shame. So in step one, I'm asking people that would be considering suicide, consider the Bible. Consider what God says. Consider the gospel. So what's the answer for someone who has had someone abuse them or like there was maybe molested as a child or something which is so common, it's ridiculous. It's crazy. You must watch your kids. You must not trust anyone with your children. And guess what? It's always people they knew. It's always family members. It's always this. You know what? You watch your own kids. And you be careful that this doesn't happen to you. So what do you say to somebody though that has said someone, do some unnatural thing or some unnatural sin to them? What do you say to that person? Turn to Romans chapter 12. This is why you need faith. This is why you need to start with the gospel. This is why you need to start by trusting on Jesus as step one. Because Jesus is the word. Once you trust on Jesus, you can trust every word in this book. And you say someone has done something bad to me when I was, you know, first of all, that's not your fault. That's their fault. That's not on you. But yes, but it causes me shame, you say. It causes me shame. It causes me depression. This is why you need faith. Look at Romans chapter 12 and verse number 19. This is why you need Jesus right here. Because Jesus, while he saved you and gives you eternal life, he also is these words. Look at verse number 19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. It's like, if someone has hurt you and damaged you and hurt you as a child or whatever that is, just like avenge not yourselves. Jesus is saying, don't worry about it. Why? Why should I not worry about that? But rather give place under wrath. He's like, look. He's like, just put your wrath over here on me. That's what he's saying. He's not saying, hey, forgive those people. This is why the proper doctrine is so important. You'll have churches today that have somebody that's molested children and sitting in their churches saying we need to forgive him. That's not what the Bible says. God doesn't say, when I hate wicked people to forgive those wicked people. No, God says give place under wrath. God says, I will take care of it. This is why you need faith. And look what the Bible says here. It says, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, sayeth the Lord. That's why you need faith. That last verse right there. God says, I will repay. I will take care of it. And you're like, well, how could I think about it? I listened to, I was watching this, kind of paying attention to this trial of this, this school shooter that they couldn't even, they couldn't even put this kid to death. This demon that went and shot all these little kids in this school. Now, I was listening to this father that got up and spoke his mind to this kid in this courtroom after he was sentenced to life. And you know, it's funny because this father, he clear, I mean, he didn't seem like, I mean there was some language in there and everything and I don't know what his background is, but he was listening to this father talk to this man and he's saying, you know, basically he's saying, like you're gonna be killed and all this kind of stuff. But guess what? Guy, what I would say to that father is, God will take care of this. Because somebody that is unnatural, look, this is somebody that is not going to go to heaven. God will take care of it. He's saying, how much better could God take care of it than us? I don't know, how much better is eternity than 10 years? How much longer is eternity? That's how much more God's vengeance is than whatever we could do. So ultimately it doesn't matter if they let that guy go. If they gave him six months probation and let him go because God will take care of him for eternity. Obviously that wouldn't be a good thing for society, I get that, but God will take care of these things. That's why step one needs to be the gospel, needs to be trusting Jesus. Because look, you can trust the words. You can trust that somebody that has gone out and done unnatural things is somebody that God has rejected. That's how they got that way in the first place. Because they turned on God, they hate the Lord. God will take care of them forever and ever. Nothing we could ever do could even approach that. All right? God's like, Romans chapter 12 and other places. God's like, I got this. He's like, trust me, I got this. So that's for somebody that has said someone's sin against them, all right? Step one is consider the gospel. Consider the gospel. Why not consider something else? If you were to the point, you say, oh, I don't believe in God. I didn't grow up with the Bible believing in God. If you're to the point where you're ready to throw it all away, why not consider God? Why not consider Christ? Why not see if what I'm saying is true? I'm telling you, every answer in your life is in the Bible. Why not explore that statement and see if I'm wrong? Why not? The second one, I mean, look. First of all, look, the Christian life. The Christian life, it may not be easy, but it's very simple. It's very simple. And look, here's another thing. The Christian life has purpose. More on that later. I mean, this is just a note for the saved that would be considering suicide. Just remember this. Not one person who was saved that I read you, the story in the Bible, not one person that was saved was doing what God had planned for them in their life. Not one. On the contrary, Saul's trouble was actually judgment from God. It was actually chastisement from his heavenly father. All right, so get saved. Do what God wants you to do. Learn the Bible. You know what I mean? You go out. I just met somebody like this yesterday. You go out, you get somebody saved, and they just tell you, they just pour out all their troubles on you. They're just like, look, I got all these problems. Why not try the Bible? You're saved now, but if you continue to do the same things, you'll get the same results. Why not try what God says? I mean, God literally says in his word, turn to Luke chapter one. Turn to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one. I mean, God literally says, you're like, I don't know, I've dug myself too big of a hole. God literally says in Luke chapter one, verse 37, he says, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. Psalm 50 to verse 15 says, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me. God says, I can deliver you from anything that you've got yourself into. You say, I don't see how that's possible. Well, that's step one. Step two and three will explain to you how it is possible. All right, step two, first of all, step one is consider the gospel. Consider Jesus Christ. Like, it's not something that I've ever believed before. Consider it. If you're to the end of your line, consider Christ. Step two, make as many things right as you can. Say, I don't know, I burn bridges that can never be repaired. Make as many things right as you can. James five says, now you're saved. James five says, confess your faults one to another. Get as many things right as you possibly can. See, a lot of people will never try to make things right because they don't want to deal with the consequences of what they've done. They don't want to deal with the fact that somebody may not forgive them. They don't want to deal with, you know, facing someone that they've wronged. They don't want to deal with these things. Ahithophel, ahithophel, why did Ahithophel kill himself? You know, the funny thing is, is that prideful people can commit suicide. Ahithophel killed himself over pride. He was a prideful man. The Bible says everybody listened to him. The Bible says, in the chapter before he killed himself, the Bible says that people listened to Ahithophel like he was God, like he was the voice of God. And all of a sudden, the king didn't listen to him one time and he commits suicide. You know why that is? It's pride. Get rid of your, hey, consider humble. Consider being humble. Consider it. Pride hasn't worked for you. Pride, you know, lead it to destruction. Suicide could be one of those ways that pride leads you to destruction. Pride led Ahithophel to his death because he couldn't handle the fact that the king didn't listen to him one time. That's a very prideful person that did that. So get as many things right as you can. Forget your pride. You've tried pride, try humility. Consider that. And here's another one. Now that you're in the Christian life, you're step three. You're step three. Focus on other people. And getting saved is gonna point you in that direction because you know what? Because you know what? The Christian life is all about other people. The Christian life is focused on others. Here's a universal truth for you. Here's a universal truth for you. You say, you know what? I'm in a place, nobody needs me. I'm sure everybody that ends up committing suicide has felt like nobody needs me. Nobody wants me here. Everybody hates me. I've done so many bad things. But guess what? As a Christian, as a Christian, here's a universal truth. People need you as a Christian. Not just your family. You say all my family hates me, but not just your family. You say everybody that knows me is mad at me. Not just people you know. Everyone, as a Christian, everyone needs you. Jesus says in Matthew 16, go and you know the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He's saying, I have given you this commission to preach the gospel to everyone. You're like, these 10 people hate me. Go to everyone else then. Because everyone needs you. And here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing that as Christians, as Christians, we're all in this boat. Turn to Matthew chapter nine. Here's the boat that we're all in. Matthew chapter nine. Go to Matthew chapter nine. Look at verse 37. So the first thing is consider Christ. The second thing is get as many things right as you possibly can. You're like, I burned them all. The bridges, they're gone. Fine. Go to step three. Step three is focus on others. That is the Christian life focusing on others. Look at Matthew chapter nine, verse 37. Then say if he unto his disciples, Jesus, the harvest truly is plenious, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Guess what? Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. We will leave wheat on the ground. There's not enough people to pick up all the wheat. The wheat are souls. The wheat are people that are gonna go to hell. Because there's not enough people to pick up all the wheat. What's that mean? There's not enough people to go out and preach the gospel. That's what Jesus is saying. It is just a matter. Look, that's the current situation report, folks, is that there's not enough people already to pick up all the wheat. We'll leave it on the ground. We're gonna leave wheat on the ground. But guess what? Everyone, that means there's opportunity galore is what that means. It means that everyone literally needs you as a Christian. I mean this mission trip, you think about this. Think about this mission trip that all these people that we know are on. They're literally, these guys that are going out on this trip, they have a, think about this for a second. They have a skill. They have a skill that everyone everywhere needs. That has value all over the world. Think about the fact that you could have a skill as a Christian that is needed by 99.9% of the world. That's pretty amazing. Where did all those guys learn that skill? You ever ask yourself that? I mean, look, it begins here. It begins here. Every week is a mission trip here. Every week is a mission trip. I mean, look, as a Christian, as a Christian, you are needed. So somebody that's considering like ending their life is like, hey, get saved. Get saved. Get in church. Come be a missionary with us. Why? Because people need you. That's why, because people's eternity depends on you. Why not consider it? Why not consider that? So look, those are the three things that I wanted to point out, but see what's that kind of a hard thing to think about, especially if you've known somebody personally or close to you that's gone through it. But the Bible just points out it's just a sin. It happens to be a very selfish sin. It's a very selfish sin. The damage to others is profound that people leave behind. You think about a mom that would commit suicide or a dad that would commit suicide and leave family members behind. A common story. I hate an all too common story that I heard growing up was some farmer that would commit suicide. And most of the time, I was never really close to any of the situations, but most of the time it was financial trouble. But I just remember thinking in the last one, there was one that was just a couple of years before we moved, just a couple of years before 2016. And this farmer in the area committed suicide and he had a wife and several children and all the neighbors came together and helped harvest and help do all these things. But I was just like, man, what a jerk thing to do. You know, you got, yeah, financial trouble, but the financial trouble didn't go away. Now the trouble's on your wife and the trouble's on your kids and they don't have a dad and there's that thought of why did my dad think money was more important than me? And I mean, I can't imagine the damage for generations going forward. But you know, to somebody like that, I mean, I wish you could just say to them, hey, why not try focusing on other things other than money or finances? You're like, I don't know, I thought I'd be rich by the time I was 55 and I lost everything yesterday. Well, why not put your focus somewhere else for the last 30 years? Why not try it? You know, that's why salvation is so valuable as step one because God has all the answers. And the Christian life, the Christian life, as I said, is entirely focused on others. It's entirely focused on other people. I mean, it's a tough thing to discuss which is maybe why, you know, I haven't preached on it before. It's not something I think about a lot and it's just, it's not something that's easy to talk about. But basically, the Bible just says it's a sin, many times resulting from sin, either personal sin or a sin someone else committed against someone. But God will take care of that, as I showed you, that takes faith. But it has, you know, it has nothing to do with salvation. You know, as the main point that the Bible points out is that's the big difference that I see in what people actually believe out there versus what the Bible says is that suicide has nothing to do with salvation. You could have a saved person that was just, that just got themselves into despair, got themselves into hard times, into hard trouble and thought they couldn't get out of it. But you know, this idea, by the way, of focusing on others, this is something secular science has figured out too. Now I love when secular science catches up with the Bible. Secular science, there's so many studies out there that tell people that they just have done all these studies and show that the happiest people are the people that do things for other people. You know that, it's like built in. Like when you go out and you help other people, it just, it gives you joy. When you go out and I don't, whatever people do, charity and all these things, they've done all these studies and they just like, they're so shocked. Right, they're so shocked. It's amazing, but somebody that spends their money on other people instead of spending it all on themselves, they're happier than someone that just spends it all on themselves. It's like, you're like, yeah, but that's what the Bible says. That's why the Christian life is, it's not easy at times. There's gonna be tribulation at times. People may persecute you at times, but there's real joy. There's real joy in focusing on other people and focusing on other people and passing them using God's word from death to life. I mean, that's joyous every time that I see it happen. And it comes with the territory. So look, I mean, if you ever, if you know somebody that is struggling with this, reach out, reach out to our church or you're struggling with this, reach out to our church or a church like ours in your area that believes the Bible. But consider, you know, consider the Bible is basically the answer here. Consider the Christian life. Consider Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus Christ, you know, everybody's like, I don't know, people don't like me. Jesus Christ was despised. He was despised. He was rejected. You know, he went through that. He went through being on this earth loved by hardly anyone. They murdered him. You know, consider him is the answer. Let's bow our heads and have a word.