Skip to content Your Insides Matter Jul 8 · 57 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
56K followers
Since 2000 Every Man Ministries has been activating men worldwide to live out their truest identity in Christ through its discipleship resources, live events, and steaming platform.
56K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
What's Going On Inside? 0:00 Good morning, everybody. Good morning. This morning, we're starting a new series. It's called You Asked For It. And, pretty simple. We we had asked our members to scan a QR code. We sent out some emails. A0:12 lot of people responded. And we got some topics that either A, affect everybody. All right? Or B, they're just kind of current issues that we're seeing going on in this global moment and0:24 in this culture. And, today, we're going to kick it off with mental health. Alright? I didn't draw the short end of the stick. Alright? I didn't get stuck with this.0:35 Before I was a pastor, I was a mental health worker. So I think in my career, I must have done 3004 thousand psychosocial evaluations. I worked in the inpatient setting, the outpatient setting, the group setting with0:47 cancer patients. I did a lot of work in mental health. And more personally, I've had 2 of my own family members take their own lives. I have 2 members of my family with bipolar 2, manic depression, and I've0:59 experienced just in our own family ecosystem probably over 30 hospitalizations when it comes to mental illness. And so not only is this an important topic, but it's personally affected1:10 me in some pretty profound ways. Now everybody is interested in mental health. And if you don't believe that, then I'm gonna ask you a question, get a response and then you'll believe it.1:22 Alright? How many of you this last week have asked someone else, how's it going? Alright? See? You're all interested in mental health. Right? And all it means is what's going on on1:34 your insides. That's it. Right? It's what's going on on your insides. The interesting thing about how's it going and you're like, you really want to know what's going on inside of a person, you know, where they're at on1:45 in their inner person, what they're thinking, what they're feeling in the moment, is they don't give you none of it. They just go, Oh, they start talking about their outsides. Well, I'm busy. Right? I have this, you1:57 know, there's the kids, there's school, there's work. They don't reveal anything. Why? Because people are like icebergs. They only give you the tip. But where's the substance of an iceberg? Above the2:08 waterline or below the waterline? Right? So they give you the tip, the projection, the what's happening. They give you their outsides. When you want to know what's underneath here, So maybe you can enter2:20 in and maybe you can help them out. Alright? And so everybody is kind of interested in mental health. All we're talking about is your inside life. And people want to know, but2:32 we're very slow to let people in for fear that there might be something that contrast with the image that we're projecting. Okay. Let's go to the next level2:44 of what mental health really is. It's really connected to your perception of yourself, your perception of life, your perception of others, your perception of God. And can I ask you another question?2:55 Is perception always reality? Yes or no? No. Yeah. We can get it wrong. We can perceive things. We can feel things. We can sense things. We can look at life. We can look at our3:07 situation. We can look at what's going on in the world. We can look at what's happening in a family group. We can look at what's happening in someone else's life. And man, we can go to a dark, dark place, make a dark3:17 conclusion, but that perception isn't always reality. You know what the toughest 1 is, is your perception of yourself. Perception is not always reality. In mental health, we always deal with people3:29 who have this perception that things are fatal and final, and that this is irrecoverable, that this is irredeemable, that I've gone too far, and it's not true. It's simply3:41 not true. And that's where a mental health worker would come alongside and just say, well, yeah. Based on what you've told me, I think some options you need to explore are a, b, c, or d. And then you start3:53 walking with that person out of a perception and then into some reality. Right? And so today, here's what's going to happen with this message on mental health is we're just4:04 going to normalize the issue. And I've given you kind of a lexicon, a word for just your insides. That's all mental health is. How's it going? What's going on? And that's what God would be asking of you during this time4:16 together as a church family. How's it going? How's it going on the inside? Not the image or anything like what's going on out there, the car you drive or the vacations you take or the activities you do. Right? How are4:27 you? And then what we're going to do next is look at some inner battles that we fight and then how God is connected, how the follower of Jesus, right, connects the issues of life4:39 that have the potential to crush us and put us in despair and fear and make us depressed and sad or lonely. How does that collide then with faith and how do we get out of it?4:51 If you have your message notes at the top of them is Psalm 42 verse 5. We're going to put it on the screen and I'd like to read it. It says this, why my soul are you downcast? Why5:03 so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God. We just sang a song that called the soul to wake up.5:16 Have you guys ever talked to yourselves? You ever done that kind of the self talk when you're in the when you're in the dumps? You're just like, hey, well that's not so bad, you know. And if people were following you5:24 around, they think you would have a dissociative disorder, you know. Where it's just sort of like, hey, this isn't so bad, you know. Hey, come on. It's not so bad. You know what? Put your hope in that. That is what David5:34 is doing. Actually, it's not David. It's a son of Korah. It's Psalm 42. It's book 2. This guy who's a son of Korah. He's a worship warrior. Right? And juxtaposed right next to each other is I'm5:45 disturbed in my soul and then there's this hope in God. Disturbed in my soul, hope in God. I'm in despair but then I have my hope in God and there's this battle. Wouldn't you agree that your inner life is a battle?5:56 Anybody? Yeah. You're battling. You're battling faith. You're battling sadness. You're battling Jesus. You're battling, you know, a loss. You're battling what I know about God, and I know all these great things about6:08 God. He controls everything. He loves me. He knows. He's wise. And then, this is going on in my life. How does that work? Right? And so you're trying to reconcile those things. Same here in the bible. That's what I love6:18 about the bible. Normal people, normal issues, battling on the inside, mental health. So let's look at some common denominators that put everybody in the same boat. Let's demystify this whole thing6:30 about mental health. Number 1, life is a mental health challenge. If you're taking notes, please write that down. Life itself is a mental health challenge. And Jesus told us it was going to be that way.6:42 In John 16 33, he said this, here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world. In other words, all that time that6:54 you spent trying to make life predictable, All that time you spent avoiding pain and we're built to avoid pain. Who wants to sign up for pain? All that time we try to organize our lives to insulate us from the7:06 hard things and then like a bowling ball coming down the line. Just whoo. Right? Some of you were there right now. Everything was going awesome. You had a good flow and then all of a sudden,7:18 bowling ball right down the alley, right? Something you didn't expect. Unwelcomed, unexpected, unplanned. Anybody here ever had something like that happen in their life? Raise your hand. Okay. So7:30 life is a mental health challenge. Alright? Things are going to happen. Jesus said, you'll have 3 trials and sorrows. He said, you'll have many. Right? Jesus himself experienced7:42 what? Trial and sorrow. Right? Which makes him the perfect savior for people going through trials and sorrows. Right? So he he resets our expectations.7:54 Right? Life is good and bad. People are good and bad. Marriages are good and bad. Relationships are good and bad. Churches are good and bad. Pastors are good and bad. Hate to break it to you. But that's8:06 our expectation. Life is a mental health challenge. All right? Look at what it says. I love how the super saints are just people. Paul is a super saint. Okay? Look at what he says to his other brothers and sisters like8:18 I'm talking to you now. He He says, we think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. Listen to this. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our8:30 ability to endure. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. Let's finish it together. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and8:42 learned to rely only on God who raises the dead. Kind of like the son of Cora. He's who raises the dead. Kind of like the son of Korah. He's in it, but he's battling. Right? He's learning. He's8:54 saying, God, you're allowing some of these things into my life, and they're almost overwhelming. But it's teaching me something here. How many of you guys have went into a problem and came out of the problem a little bit9:04 different? Anybody? All right. Yeah. Problems never leave you the way they find you. Right? So that's the same for Paul. God is teaching him to rely on him, but he's fighting. He just I'm9:16 despairing. I expect to die here. I mean, that's how low he got, but then he stopped relying on himself. There was a turn in the situation where he stopped looking at the9:28 situation, looking what was going on, focusing on the emotions, all that overwhelmed, and then he started to rely on God because Jesus is the vine and we are the Yeah. We9:39 depend. We depend. We can fight our way out of things because we have power. The resurrection power of Jesus. He says, we learn to rely only on God who raises the dead.9:51 Alright? I don't know if you're here and you think, okay, that's dead in my life. That's dead in my life. This married, that married, that relationship is dead, this is dead, that's dead. No, it's not. I feel like Buddy10:01 the Elf. No, it's not. Yes, it is. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Where's the snow? God's saying, it's not dead because I have the power to raise it back to life. Right?10:13 Dead is dead. You might feel it's dead, might look dead, not breathing, no movement. But God says, that's okay. I call into being things which previously do not exist. I speak and I can speak life into you.10:25 I can speak life into that relationship. I can speak life into your career. I'm at work. Everybody say that. I'm at work. God's at work and we need to remember that life is a mental health challenge but God is at work.10:37 Number 2, life is lived from the inside out. The story of your life is not an outside story, it's an inside story. Relationships in the end are not outside stories of people's outsides, their10:48 looks. They're inside stories of their character. Alright? Life is lived from the inside out. Bible tells us that. Proverbs 4 23, 1 of my favorite verses in all of the Bible. And I11:00 would like us to read that together. Proverbs 4 verse 23. Ready? Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows11:12 from it. When the bible says heart, it means your passions, your affections, your thinking, right? Your beliefs, everything that that's inside of you that will create an outer11:24 choice, right? A way of being, a way of believing, a way of behaving, your character that leads to conduct, right? It's your inside person. So when we say, how's it going to people? Really what we're asking11:36 is like, how's your heart? How's your insights? Tell me what's going on there because that's the most important thing. Now, you probably will get an outside explanation to the inside question, but God's11:48 asking on the inside. God's here and he wants to know how your heart really is. What's going on on the inside? I love Proverbs12:00 23. It talks about how that's where life is really lived. It puts puts a little vignette together. It says this, don't eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies. Listen to this, for12:12 as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you eat and drink. Let's finish it together. But his heart is not with you. You see the real you is your12:23 heart. It's the hidden you. It's the confused you. It's the hurting you. Right? It's the 1 that doesn't know what's gonna happen next. It's the 1 who feels maybe rejected12:35 or abandoned or maybe I I just don't know if this is going to work out. Alright? That's the real you. Who does God want to minister to? The tip that everybody else sees or what's12:47 below the waterline? Yeah. He wants to minister to the 1 nobody sees. He wants that person because that's where the real issues are. It's not in the material things. It's not where12:59 we go or where we vacation or how much money is in our portfolio or whatever. It's who you are that God is interested in. So life is a mental health challenge. Life is lived from the inside out. Number 3,13:11 life is a uniquely personal journey. Okay? I'm looking around, lots of faces. You guys have your own unique stories, every single 1 of you. You had a unique set of parents, unique set of13:23 circumstances surrounding you coming into the world, unique family systems, unique experiences in those family systems. Maybe some good things, maybe some bad things. I don't know. But it's unique to you.13:35 Right? On this whole mental health question, there are people on all parts of the continuum. Okay? It's a unique thing. It's not a 1 size fits all. There's no 1 size13:47 fits all solution when you have various sets of circumstances and stories. Make sense? I have this little cartoon. Oh, you got it up there already. Cool. Alright. So elephant, the stork, the turtle,13:59 and the snake. Right? So they come to the issue, right? And if somebody tells you that mental health is a 1 size fits all issue, they're wrong. Trust me. I know. It's not. Because people come from differentLife's Inner Battles 14:11 circumstances. You know, what works for 1 person doesn't work for another person. A low dose of lithium might just be the answer for a chemically imbalanced person and it might not be the answer for another person. Maybe14:22 they just need to talk it out. Alright? Depending on how severe or what their circumstances I work with 1 of the best psychiatrists in all the world, Christian psychiatrist named Doctor. Paul Meyer. And I said, Doctor.14:32 Meyer, what when it comes to mental health, what what is it? Is it is it genes? Is it environment? Is it choices? He goes, all 3. It's never 1. Genes, environment, and choices.14:44 Sometimes your environment puts you in a vulnerable position, then you start making choices and then choices activate a biological thing that happens to you, Right? I saw that in my own family. So life14:56 is a uniquely personal journey and what I love about the bible is that to illustrate this idea, just that there's people who come from different backgrounds. I love 1 of my favorite guys in the bible is a judge. His name15:06 is Jephthah. Alright? That's what I hope my 1st grandchild's name is gonna be, Jephthah. Anyway, I'm really hoping and praying. Not. But Jephthah the Gileadite. Alright. Look at what15:18 the bible said. Look at this guy's background. Just kinda let this sink in. Jephthah the Gileadite was 1 tough warrior. Okay. That's who he is. He was the son of a prostitute, but Gilead was his father. So looks15:30 like we got a little extra marital going on. Meanwhile, Gilead's legal wife had given him other sons. And when they grew up, his wife's sons threw Jephthah15:41 out. They told him, you're not getting any of our family inheritance. You're the son of another woman. So Jephthah fled from his brothers and went to live in the land of15:53 Tob. Some riffraff joined him and went around with him. Wow. Loses his faith community, loses his 1st community of acceptance, loses16:05 his connection to his family, all because in Harry Potter language, he's a muggle blood, right? He's not going to get any of the money. Right? And so human16:17 selfishness kicks in and because of Jephthah's background, which he didn't have a whole lot of control over, he gets booted but he still wants to belong. Where does he go? The land of Tob. Right? In the bible, it says16:29 that there's 600 adventures and they become mighty warriors. The story is amazing because because Israel asks Jephthah to come back when they're threatened by the enemy. And he becomes a judge. But I mean,16:40 what a background. Right? You have individual backgrounds, individual genetics, individual families. So some positive, negative experiences, there's no 1 size fits all. So16:52 life is a uniquely personal journey. Lastly, on this common denominator thing, life is better when lived in truth and reality. But sometimes that's really hard17:04 to live in truth and reality, especially when that truth is about yours truly. Right? I can hear truth all day long about a subject that's not connected to me, but then when the truth17:16 starts coming to the table and it's about me, I think my body temperature rises a little bit. I was in a counseling appointment, some very difficult17:28 things. I'm like, that's okay. I'm good. About you? And I just went My ears went back. I'm like, oh, 0. Thank God for Mylene Yerkovich. Thank God for the the17:40 courage that he had to kind of take me into some spaces and places in my own journey that must be discussed with another person.17:52 Right? Now, here's the thing about living in truth and reality. Jesus says, this is where the war is won when it comes to your insides. Look at what he says. This is the verdict. Jesus says, light has come into the18:02 world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil and hates light won't come into the light for fear that their18:14 deeds will be exposed. Let's finish it together. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done18:26 has been done in the sight of God. Big idea. Truth is confronting. But truth is the path to freedom. You see, there's the facers and the fleers18:38 in that passage. Light comes in, truth. And the truth is there on the porch, the truth of Jesus. He comes as light, as truth. He'll always tell you the truth because he is the truth. And then there's18:50 people who they have a way of being and believing and behaving. They have a pattern and then the truth comes in and then you have 2 choices. You can face the truth or you can flee the truth. And there's a word for that.19:02 It's denial and deception. And now, we have the spiritual battle. We have truth versus lies. God versus satan. Right? The word versus the world. Now,19:14 the epic battle for your insides is set up. And it all depends on are you going to believe truth? It comes from God. Because the truest thing about anything is Pastor JP always says is what God says is true. You're going19:25 to believe the truth? Are you going to believe lies? Self generated lies, lies from culture, lies from the enemy, right? Or are you gonna believe truth? And your your your destination19:37 based on which you choose, Jesus talks about that too. Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth. Let's finish it together and the19:49 truth will set you free. Now is the truth always comfortable? Yes or no? No. It's not. But, you're not looking over your shoulder. But you're not looking over your shoulder. You're not living a double20:00 life. You're in the light, and because of God's love, it's okay to be in the light, because he's not going to reject you, confidence to be truthful with other people in human20:12 relationships. This truth, us being in the truth, God's permanence of his love, allows us to be truthful with God, because we'll never lose his love. Now he can be truthful with people. Life is20:24 lived better when it's lived in truth and reality. So now that we have everybody kind of on the same page, right? Life is a mental health challenge. We can all agree on that. Life is a uniquely personal20:36 journey. Life is lived from the inside out. People's outsides insides come out in relationships and life. And life is better when we're in truth and reality. On that last point, we know that life is better when lived in20:47 truth and reality because when people lie to us, after we trust them, it breaks our spirit. We we sabotage relationships21:00 and then our worst nightmare happens. We don't want that to happen, but there's dynamics in place. So there's the inner battle. How does God want us to bring our faith to this inner battle? All right? Got a few things we21:10 need to talk about. Bible says, number 1, God sees our insides 1st. If you're a follower of Jesus, God doesn't care what clothes you're wearing. He doesn't care about what kind of car you drive. He doesn't care where you21:20 take vacations. He He doesn't care how much money is in your bank account. He doesn't care how successful you are. He doesn't care about your outsides. He really, really, really cares about your insides. The man after21:32 God's heart, David, talking to his son Solomon is cluing his son in on this reality. Look at what he says. David says to Solomon, 1st Chronicles 28. He says, And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge21:44 the God of your father and serve him whole with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind. Let's finish it together. For the Lord searches every heart and understands every21:56 desire and every thought. How many hearts, how many desires, how many thoughts does God search? Everyone. Everyone in this room right now simultaneously and at the same22:07 time. God is infinite and God is omnipotent and God is wise and God is looking. When you combine all those together that means he's searching every single heart in the sanctuary at the same time, and he sees you for22:19 exactly what's in your heart, what's in your thoughts, what your desires are, what your hopes, what your longings are. God sees our insights 1st. Alright? So as you're fighting some of these inner22:31 battles and struggling just to be a healthy person on the inside, just know that that's where God is looking. So you don't have to hide it. And that's what you need to deal with. Number 2, Bible says God knows your22:41 story. Thank God for that. Have you heard someone say like, How's it going? Well, it's a long story. Right? You know, it's like, you don't even know22:53 the half of it. Like, we're going to skip a big chapter of our lives because it's just too long of a story. It's too involved. It's too messy. It's too complicated. Right? That's fine. You can skip it23:05 with people. God didn't skip anything. God was with you every 2nd of the journey. He's with you this 2nd right now. God knows your story. Isn't it23:17 nice to know that someone knows your story and still That's 1 of the best things about23:23 God's love. He knew my whole story. Right? And so 1 of the best things23:23 about God's love. He knew my whole story. Right? He knew my whole story. Right? Maybe, Brad, last of 7, son of a 3rd generation alcoholic, brother was a drug dealer, I was dealing drugs, life of the party, drinking 223:35 12 packs, driving everybody home, getting in car accidents. Like, I was the kid in the neighborhood where it's just like, oh, don't hang out with him. Like, the families that cared about their children said that.23:47 But then all the lost boys, we found each other. Right, Pastor Greg? We found them. We found all we found all the lost boys like Peter Pan. Right? But we look at this and I'm like, yeah, God. You know, that's what blew23:59 my mind when I came to Jesus. Right? It's just like, wait, wait a minute. I have to earn some of this stuff. Cleaned up before I can come to you. And he's like, no,24:11 you don't. Yes, I do. No, you don't. No, you don't. You don't have to clean up anything because I already cleaned you up. Can I get an amen?24:24 Isn't that great? I already cleaned you up. I know your story. I accept you. I bled for you. I paid for all that stuff. Even now, some of you are struggling with guilt. You're walking around with it like a big hundred24:34 pound sack. You're dragging it around and the reason you're not free is because your standard of forgiveness is higher than God's. Like, yeah, but I can't forgive myself. Oh well, God's forgiven you. Yeah, but I can't24:46 forgive myself. So you're saying standard is higher than God's. You're forgiven. How about be grateful for that and use that gratitude and kindness that leads to24:58 repentance. Amen? Right? That's that's what totally motivates me. I I look at that and I'm like, oh my gosh, that is so mind blowing. What can I do for you? Because you did that for me.25:10 Kind of takes energy for God out of the performance bucket and puts it in the gratitude bucket. Alright? So God knows your story. 3rd, Bible says God wants you talking.25:22 All right? When it comes to your insides, if you don't process them with somebody, if you're not talking to God, if you're not talking to other people, you will get toxic. How many of you have25:32 ever been to Mono Lake? Anybody? You guys know what Mono Lake is? What kind of25:32 sea is it? Guys know what Mono Lake is? What kind of sea is it? Somebody said salt. I really couldn't hear it but I'm assuming somebody said salt. Right? No. If you if you look up25:44 Mono Lake, if you Google it, it'll it'll it'll say this is a Salton Sea and it looks looks blue and beautiful and all that stuff. But you know what it is? It's toxic. There's only 2 creatures that live in Mono Lake,25:55 really ugly seahorses and Brian Shrimp. And when you get a close-up under the microscope, man, the seahorses are ugly. And brine shrimp. Why? Because they they are so they are26:07 built to work in a toxic environment. Sometimes I think there are people who prefer to live in a toxic, unprocessed life with God and people, And then they26:19 become creatures. Their skin becomes so thick. Their walls go up so high, and they stop living, and they stop having joy. Why? Because there's no fresh peninsulas of26:31 life. A healthy water ecosystem has fresh peninsulas of life. That's what keeps it from becoming toxic. But if you're not processing life, your insights with God, number 1,26:42 which is what it says here. Matter of fact, let's let's read Philippians 4, 6 and 7. I don't know about you, but in my walk with Jesus, when I found this verse, I was like, yes. Because it meant that God was gonna get on26:54 my inside. Listen to what it says. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises Listen to this. Shape your worries into prayers. Letting God know your27:06 concerns. And before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness. Everything coming together for good will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens. Let's finish it together. When27:18 Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. You know, I can kind of track my inside life with my prayer life. I don't know about you. But the more I'm talking to God and the more I give to God and the more I27:30 just kind of give to him, and we have a dialogue going, the more peace I have, because God's on it. Like we talked about that. The less I talked to the less I talked about to God, the more I panic27:42 when things turn up. And I can always gauge kind of like my panic and worry level based on my conversation with God. If I'm really talking with God processing life and that's just not in the morning, but just kind of27:51 like how that goes through my day and I'm kind of turning it over because how many of you have ever prayed and then taken it back from God? My whole life to you. Now I'm taking it back. Right? Here, I give you this wholeShow more In this video 0:00 What's Going On Inside?14:00 Life's Inner Battles28:00 God Wants You Talking42:00 Strength and Healing from God's Love56:00 Prayer for Inner Healing and Freedom
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.