4-17-2016 Bioethics Part 53

The speaker begins by praying and expressing gratitude for various aspects of life. They then discuss the topic of suicide, examining the biblical perspective and the potential impact on others. They argue that suicide is not explicitly condemned in the Bible, but it is always viewed negatively. They also emphasize the social and emotional impact of suicide on family, friends, and society, and discuss how it can become normalized in certain cultures. The speaker concludes by highlighting that suicide does not actually benefit the loved ones left behind and can lead to feelings of guilt and regret. They also mention the potential for suicide to be seen as a legitimate escape or solution for others facing difficulties. Alright, let's pray and get started. God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for the church. We thank you for each other. We thank you for the world that we live in, and we pray that we would understand better how to do it as we study this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Alright. So, this morning, we're going to continue on in our look at the topic of suicide. We saw that there are lots of kind of easy, simplistic answers to why suicide might be wrong. We saw that one of the strongest biblical arguments, at least on the face of it, is the fact that the sixth commandment says, shall not kill. We saw that there's two major problems, possibly, with the sixth commandment being applied to suicide. What are those? What's the first one? There's a couple weeks ago, so I'll refresh your memory. It's that there are exemptions in Scripture from the sixth commandment. Anybody remember what at least one of those exemptions are? Just war, capital punishment, self-defense. That's right. We saw that those are very limited and constrained in Scripture. However, they are very much exceptions to the case. So, we cannot say simplistically, sixth commandment done. Because somebody could go, well, there are exceptions, so how many exceptions are there? The second thing is that the Bible never explicitly condemns suicide. You will never find a verse as a good fundamentalist that says, thou shalt not commit suicide. However, does the Bible recount suicide, yes or no? Yes. And in every single one of those cases, how is it viewed? Negatively. That's right. Some of them are more negative, but none of them are positive, and very few of them are even neutral. They're seen as either the just judgments of God on a person, in the case of rebellion against the leader or something, or as a result of their own wickedness, or just as a kind of reaction of despair. They are never positively viewed. Then, kind of at the end of our time, what we'll be continuing on this morning, is we saw that there are two other major kind of theological considerations that lead us to consider the practice of suicide off-limits for Christians. The first one was that we're social creatures. As much as we do and ought to uphold the rights of individual liberty and autonomy, as we saw working towards maximal freedom, which is hard to define, that's what we're arguing about, how free is maximally free. As we work at that, we also have to understand that we have rights, duties, and obligations to other human beings, whether you like it or not. Does this come in small things? In big ways, there are no morally neutral acts. Everything that we do, to some extent, affects other people, even things that we do, quote-unquote, in private, because that shapes the kinds of people that we are, which will then spill out into the way that we treat other people. So, we saw that there are examples of very small acts, or seemingly inconsequential acts, that would affect a limited number of people in a very small way, all the way up to gigantic effects on a large number of people that we know is going to take place, and everything in between. Suicide, I would say, falls somewhere in the middle of there. So, right-to-die advocates champion the idea that it is a person's right to kill themselves. It's my right. It's my body. It's my right. I can do whatever I want with this thing. And the question that we asked at the very end of our time last week was, well, does anyone else matter in that decision? You might have, think you have the right, but does anybody else have the right for you to kill yourself? Is that something that I ought to have a say in? It's at least a question. And then the question is, how many people? Does your immediate family, if my wife desires to kill herself, does my opinion on the matter count? Or just hers? Do my kids have a right to chime in on the matter? Then you kind of expand a little further. Does, Marge doesn't want to kill herself, by the way, I'm just kind of, you know, so don't, like, think, not that I know of, at least. So, Marge's dad, right, this would be like the next ring out. Marge's dad, does he have the right to, does her brother and sister have a right? Does their spouses have a right? And you just keep on going, to her aunts and uncles and grandparents, and then you kind of get to her neighbors and the society that she lives in. Eventually, does anybody matter in this decision? And why would you draw a line in one place or another? It seems kind of arbitrary. The person who commits suicide affects all groups of people in multiple ways. Sometimes these effects will be very dramatic, of course, probably for people closer to the person that commits suicide, and less for the people who are further away. So, one action affecting numbers of people in numbers of different ways. Let's think about this. In what ways, you're going to answer this question for me, in what ways would a person who commits suicide affect these varied groups of people, immediate family, extended family, neighbors, co-workers, friends, enemies? Especially if it became routine in society, which it does in some societies. Yeah, in what way? In what ways though? You're right. In what ways though? You're right. You're right. Yep. So that's just like a very, we would say, base argument, right? It's just economically challenging for the family. Now then, break that out just a little bit. What about the person, what about the people that person works with? How would it affect them? Okay, good. So this is a very basic economic argument. Anything else? In what ways would it affect other people? Emotionally? Okay, how? Yeah, sad, depressed, have a hard time moving on with their life. It's interesting that what we looked at last week, and really in the past week, is that suicide affects all kinds of age, gender, culture, some more than others. There's no kind of population category that it doesn't affect. But what all these categories have in common is some level of depression, discouragement, hopelessness with life. Someone who's happy, joyful, and has great hopes for the future is going to kill themselves. That doesn't happen, at least on purpose. It could be an accidental or a self-sacrificial death, but nobody's just like, I'm ending it. That's always an act of despair for a very large number of complicated reasons. So you killing yourself is actually going to likely promote, in maybe large ways or small ways, the very thing that you're experiencing right now in other people. So you're going to be the cause of other people suffering from what you're suffering right now. By the way, I don't lead with that one with somebody who's suicidal. You jerk. How dare you do this to other people? But it is something that eventually needs to be brought up. The thing that you're trying to cure in yourself, you're going to cause in others. And that's a big thing. So it's not actually going to help anybody that you love that you think you're going to be benefiting by ending your own life. Good. Anything else? Oh, yeah. Cause your loved ones to feel guilty. The reality is, if you have any experience with people who are suicidal in your own family or who have committed suicide in your family or close to you, is that one of the hardest things to accept is that while you probably could have done more, people who are in that state are going to accomplish the task that they set out to accomplish if they really want to do it. And you cannot save somebody's life, ultimately. You might be able to save it temporarily, but people who are dedicated to killing themselves are going to do it. And you are going to leave people with a lifetime worth of doubt, regret, second-guessing about themselves. That's a rough thing to live with. Think about this. What about the way that it would... let's say that in Alaskan Inuit populations, for example, there's extremely high rates of suicide. So think if we lived in that kind of culture, right, where we didn't have like, oh, this one time somebody killed themselves. We were experiencing this on a semi-regular basis. How would you think that would shape us who live in that kind of culture? Yeah, it becomes normal, right? So we do become detached. Good. What else? Exactly. Because it's normalized and because we don't even really we lose kind of the emotional weight of the thing, then we also start to consider this the normal out. Well, if he committed suicide, I guess I ought to commit suicide. I mean, he did it. I was personally involved in somebody who committed suicide and was working... we worked at the youth center and it was interesting because this person in their suicide note just wrote about how, don't worry about me. I'm totally good to go. Like, don't cry. Don't be sad for me. Like, I'm in a way better place. I'm with Jesus now. It's totally cool. I want you to sing this song at my funeral, which is incredibly messed up. And a bunch of these kids that we were working with were like, wait, so everything's just fine? Imagine this. Coming from an incredibly broken and messed up home with very little hope for the future. And you think, everybody's sad about this guy. This guy just got to go out in a ball of glory. And everybody's like, oh, well at least he's with Jesus now. A bunch of those kids thinking maybe this is a good out for me. I mean, let's face it. I'm going to grow up and screw up my life. Probably. Get very little opportunities. And nobody's going to be happy with me. I can kill myself now and everybody will cry about it. And be like, oh man, thank goodness he's with Jesus and it's all fine. Becomes a normalized option. Becomes a more legitimate way of, quote-unquote, escape. Yep. Here's another thing. I think we've talked about this before. C.S. Lewis' idea that my relationship to everyone else is lessened when you go away. Because, you see, if there's three of us, right, and we are friends, and one of those people just even naturally dies, but especially if they commit suicide, then my relationship to the other person who's alive is actually lessened because part of that relationship is on the basis of knowing the other person. It's one of the hard things about having, for example, in our own church context, college kids here. God bless all of you. Here's the reason. Because the vast majority of college kids are going to grow up and go away. So the natural default of the church is let's not invest any time in you. Let's just pretend like you're stupid college kids. And just be like, thanks for coming. I'll go over there and be part of your own little church because you're all going away. Why? Because we know they're going away so it's hard to involve them in this thing knowing that they're going to be leaving. The same with suicide. Not to compare you guys just to suicide victims, but in the same way, if everybody's committing suicide, then we actually have this kind of standoffish relationship with other people because I don't want to be hurt. So why would I get to know other people? Because people are just offing themselves left and right. Because it becomes this normalized option because we just kind of embrace despair. And then on top of that, my relationship is lessened every time one of these people dies so that even the people who are surviving become less human as a result of those who are killing themselves. Also, here's the thing. Forms of genuine care and treatment for underlying problems that demand something from us who are not struggling with it seem less appealing. So for example, if you have a person who is severely suicidal, that person is going through some stuff. That person has been through some stuff. And in order to get that person to the place where they are no longer suicidal or at least as suicidal as they currently are, it's going to take some work not on their part, but on your part too. It's going to take work on their part. You can't save them. But they are going to need a rather large amount of time, care, concern, patience, grace. The reality is that everybody is just like, well, I mean, look, he's in despair, he's sad, he's got this condition, whatever. Let's not treat that condition, let's just embrace the fact that people are just going to kill themselves. Caring for people like that becomes less of a necessity. Some people just aren't meant for this world. You ever hear that line? Here's the other thing. Those who are kind of just tied to this last one, we are robbed of the opportunity to help those who are suffering when suicide becomes the option. Oh, you're just giving me a shout on that one? Thank you. I appreciate that, Tim. Thank you. Buckets, there you go. Shut it, Brian. There is a powerful line of reasoning out there from the right-to-die advocates that say that it's an undue burden on family members and friends to dissuade people from taking their own life. It's an undue burden. It's something that you shouldn't have to take upon yourself. If people want to kill themselves, you should just let them kill themselves. This is particularly in relation to those who are suffering from cancer or from just an unrehabilitatable condition. Now, what is true in the right-to-die advocate's position is that, quote-unquote, dealing with people who are experiencing extreme amounts of pain and suffering, either mentally, emotionally, or physically or all three, because as we've seen, humans are complicated creatures and you just don't suffer in one part, that it's going to require a large amount from you and me. That is true. However, while it is a burden, that's the point. You see, you and I become better kinds of people when we are faced with situations that we would not ordinarily have to consider. Everybody believes the statement, because we tell it to everybody else when they're suffering, that like, you know what? Beautiful flowers grow in the valley. They don't grow on the mountaintop, which is a bunch of garbage because they actually do. It just depends on how tall the mountain is. And not every beautiful flower grows in the valley. But let's just go with the metaphor, right? And you compare that to life, it's like in the hard times of life when you get the growing done. That part we would agree with. Right? That doesn't mean that there's no benefit to wonderful times, but some of the roughest times of your life, looking back on it, are what have shaped you into the person you are today, both positively and negatively. Right? Hasn't it just been like the nice times? It's really been the difficult times where you have to struggle through stuff and get through it. It's one of the only things that keeps us sane when things are difficult. So this undue burden, that's an assumption. It's an assumption that we shouldn't have to actually suffer alongside other people. Which is interesting because I'll bet those people, when they're suffering, want friends like us. But when they're suffering, it's like, no, just let them be. Just let them end it and just get it done with. I say this as somebody who knows that I would have to wrestle mightily with my own selfishness. I like helping people that I like helping for limited amounts of time. Long amounts of time with people I don't want to deal with is miserable because I'm selfish. And so are you, probably. Right? Not looking at anybody in particular. I'm just gazing all the way around the room. I'm just throwing you all under the bus. You're welcome. Virtues aren't all that virtuous if they come naturally and are more like a character trait. Okay? We've been looking a lot at virtues for the last year and a half. And we'll continue until the day I die. However, virtues are not very virtuous. If you just find yourself loving people, then that's not a bad thing. But it's not like, wow. It is when we have to be forced out of our comfort zones and pursue something that's not naturally a part of who we are that something is truly a virtue that we're practicing. Part of that's going to be suffering alongside those who are desiring to end their own lives. So, because humans are social animals then suicide, and that God created us that way, suicide is an illegitimate option because like it or not, you are not the only person that exists in the world, no matter how much you believe that to be true, or act as if it is true. The second theological argument is this. Christians are called to suffer well under the providence of God. Again, suicide affects all ranges of people, and the commonality is despair, hopelessness, and depression. This is a very needed reminder for, we often find it easy to condemn those who either vocalize their desire to kill themselves or actually go through with it, either in just attempting or being successful. Suicide is wrong. It is sin. That much is true, but that does not mean that we are to hate those who see no other option. You and I are called to suffer alongside of them, trying to help them get to the root of their problem, to see what's driving them to that conclusion. And it's never just one thing, it's always a wide range of things. It's going to take time. Unpacking a problem that a human being has is one of the most difficult things that another human being can do. Because we might go, why do you want to kill yourself? I'm sad. What are you sad about? I'm not really sure. So that way you can go, well, you need to figure it out. See ya. Or you just have to spend time and go, okay, well, let's think through it. Can you think of anything that would be making you sad? Okay, okay, okay, let's just deal with that. Let's keep unpacking it. What is it that's truly making you feel this way? It's one thing to have the conviction to help, however, but it's another thing to know kind of how to help. So for the rest of our time this morning, we're going to be talking about that. But before that, let's talk about how you should not help somebody to understand that suffering well is part of the providence of God. So let's just go over some ways. You give me some ways that would be very, very unhelpful when it comes to helping somebody who is suicidal. Things you could say or things you could do. There's like 10 billion of these, but let's just suck it up. There you go. You just need to knock that off. Right? Things are going to get better. There you go. That sounds so good. That's a bunch of garbage. Right? That is a lie. Things are probably not going to get better. Especially if Jesus is real and he's not a liar. Right? This is going to probably be miserable in some respects. And for some people, it's going to be more miserable than it is for others. The question is, is it worth it or not? Not how bad is it going to be. Good? What else? Everything's okay? That's right. In what sense? Like their life is okay? Yeah, right. Everything's okay. Okay? Eleven-year-olds know that this is dumb. That is not true at all. First of all, could it be real? Are people who are depressed and in despair, are they likely seeing the world rightly? Yes or no? No. So is the world as bad as they see it? No. Is that the same as things are fine? No. Things are not fine. One of the core Christian convictions is that the world is wrong and bad. Okay? Embrace it. That's the way That's one of the first things that we say when we preach the gospel. Right? Everything is totally and completely jacked. Like, if you don't get that then Jesus is like, well, who cares? So telling people that it's okay is actually a fundamental denial of the gospel you say you believe in. So don't say that. What else? Tell them what they need to do. Now, don't people who are suicidal need to do something? Oh, there we go. Yeah. And that's it. You need to do this, you need to do this and that could be spiritual practice. You need to read your Bible every day. It could be physical practice. You need to get some more sleep. Emotional practice. You need to just chill out and meditate. Could all those things be completely true? Yeah, for sure. But that's not all that's going on there. Good. That's right. You are not Jesus. You are helpful. You're not salvation. Right? So stop acting like it. Good. And there's just the very thing, you just have to ignore the person. You know, I'm really struggling with suicide and you just go, like, I'm going to pray for somebody to come talk to you. Right? I'm just going to avoid the situation. That's a common response. Or the kind of passive-aggressive response like that is, ah, I'll pray for you. Right? See ya. Stop. Just stop talking. Or just say it's a demonic attack. And that's it. Like, again, this is just like the simplistic. Could it be, could that be part of it? Yes, absolutely. But you'd be like, I'm sure it's the devil. Right? We should pray for you and it'll all be better. Or send him right to me. I've said some stuff like this before. I'm just going to make sure we're all on the same page again. That would be a very bad idea for you to shirk your Christian responsibility and send the person right to me. Because just this public service announcement, just so you know, the very first thing that I will do when somebody comes to me and says, so-and-so sent me to you, is I will call so-and-so and if you are so-and-so, I will say, come to the office. Right now. Because I am going to make sure that you have actually done some due diligence and talked to said person instead of doing the very common defaulty move of, you just go talk to the pastor. This is part B of that thing. Another different kind of form of this is you hear something like this and your default move is, you should go get counseling. Again, if I hear about that, then I will be giving you a friendly call, we'll be having a chat. Now, question. Is it likely that somebody who is suicidal, who is part of this congregation, that at some point, maybe sooner, maybe later, at some point, the elders of the church ought to be called in on it? Yes or no? Absolutely! Yes! Is it possible that somebody who is in this kind of position probably could benefit from some kind of professional counseling? Possibly. Yes! Absolutely! But that's not the default move! What happens if, and I have seen this happen, what happens in a congregation if the default move is, you need to go talk to the pastor or you need to get into counseling? That's what we do. What happens? Everybody goes to that person, but then what kind of philosophy do we have? It's shallow, that's right. I'm not going to talk about anyone's issues. Good. Everybody says they're great on Sunday mornings. Right, yeah. So here's the thing, I become the savior, or the counselor becomes the savior, or the drugs become the savior. You all know this, I ain't going to save anybody. Counselor won't save anybody. Drugs will not save anybody. Those things have to be seen in the right kind of light. We professionalize the helping and love of other people. If you ever have the blessed opportunity of having somebody come to you and say, hey, I'm really struggling with suicide, then you need to embrace that sucker for all it's worth and not turn into like, this is my time, game time, I'm going to save this person. Jeremy told me that one Sunday, I have to save this person. No, you just need to sit for a minute. It's at that point that you just need to not freak out and start praying and go, oh boy, I knew this day would come. And just start talking, asking more questions and speaking. And very possibly at the end, yeah. Let's get back together. Let's talk about this again. Let's do this, let's do that. There's no seven step plan we're going to lay out. As we've seen in bioethics, people are complicated. So there are no kind of, here's the ritual you go through when you find somebody like this. Because for example, you might determine at the end of talking to this person for ten minutes, this person is going to go. By the way, your own psychology and experience is probably going to play into this as well. If you're a more kind of nervous person, you're going to want to call me three minutes into it. Oh, this is it, they're going to kill themselves. And if you're more kind of just laid back, you're going to be like, this person is going to be okay. So that goes into it. And also the situation is different. Sometimes it's going to be like, no, this person has committed or is attempting. We've got to call quicker. That's all up in the air. There is no kind of plan for this. But what is true is, do not just simply default. Because then I start getting the calls as if I can just do it. And it's professionalized. I can't help you. Just know that. If your default move is, go talk to a professor, go talk to a counselor, what you're saying is two things. One is much more profound than the other. Here's a simpler one. I am useless to you as a person in the body of Christ. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. God's word is not really sufficient, and I am not given the Holy Spirit, and I have no ability to help you. So really, I don't even know why I'm here. Don't do that thing. It's risky saying, no, you need to really just kind of be with that person. Trying to love that person. Well, God has put you together. And yes, there very well may be a time to involve others. Most likely there will be a time. But therapy, pastoral counseling, and drugs are a very, very, very sharp two-edged sword. Yes, they can be extremely beneficial. And yes, they can absolutely undermine the authority of the gospel, God's word, and everything that that person believes in. And I've seen both happen a number of times. It's all in the way that we see those things. Most see these kinds of things as ways to make people whole. But they are not God, and they cannot save you. They are a help in order to, as we saw during the time in depression and mental illness, what these things do is create a space for the truth of the gospel to come in and truly affect somebody's life, because these people are probably not able to hear the thing and receive the thing in the condition that they are. So we should be thankful for them. But we should be thankful for them in the right light. So, if we are to help people see the truth of something, what is it that we help them see? Let's talk about the non-Christian first. If you have a non-Christian friend, they go, hey, Jeremy, I'm committing I'm thinking about committing suicide. I'm just in despair. I don't understand anything. What are, and there's not just one answer to this, but what are some things that you ought to help that person see? Yes? Yep. Exactly. There is some very real power in coming alongside somebody who is suffering like that and going, the way you view the world is not all wrong. Now, and this is also the kind of point where you get to hopefully very kindly go now, I don't know, why are you seeing this as wrong? Trying to get them to see that if, at the end of their day, the way that they view the world is correct, is it just wrong because they feel that it's wrong? And if it is objectively wrong, what makes it objectively wrong? How does that work in a world where there are no objective truths? Do you just feel that way? But you're coming alongside and you're saying, I actually agree with you about the messed upness of the world. I just think I have a good reason for seeing it that way. But you're coming along and the very first thing you do is you go, yes, this is messed up. Good? That's the main place to start, especially with an unbeliever. Even if it's a believer, what are you trying to help them to see? Not only the messed upness of the world, but particularly for a Christian, this would not apply to a non-Christian necessarily. That non-Christian, you're just kind of helping them, you're embracing that, yes, the world is messed up, and then showing them the hope of the gospel. For the Christian that's already embraced the gospel, yes, you're going to share the gospel with them, make sure they understand that, but then what else does the Christian need to understand? The Christian needs to understand that the Christian life is one truly of suffering. Let's just read this, Matthew chapter 16. Better than quoting it. Matthew chapter 16. Verse 24 and 25. This is directly following an instance where Jesus has told his disciples of the fact that he is going to die, and Peter has said, nuh-uh, and Jesus has said, yes, hon, get behind me, Satan. He just got done with that part, and then launches into this in 24 and 25, and Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Either Jesus is screwing around, or Jesus is just giving us a nice quote to put on the back of a mug, or Jesus is calling you to go and die. You pick. But there's only one legitimate option. The call to follow Jesus, which is what Christian means, is the call to live a cross-bearing life. And because we do not preach such a gospel, or as a result of us maybe not preaching such a gospel, then the idea that we would have to suffer as a Christian is absolutely abhorrent. Similar to what we saw last week in Psalm 15, the idea that you are a slave of God, and a slave of righteousness is not, first and foremost, a theological concept. It is a biblical quotation. Same way here. To be a Christian is to bear the cross of Christ. Also, Romans 8, we could do this all day, but for the sake of brevity, we'll just look at a couple instances. Romans 8, verse 17, we'll see Paul nailed the point home that was begun by Jesus in Matthew 16. Romans 8, we'll just read verse 17, and we'll start at 16, "...that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and followers with Christ, provided." I'm going to read the first part again. The provided is the qualifier for what is about to be said. The Spirit Himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, so far so good, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. The qualifier for glorification as an heir of God is suffering. So here's the awkward part, the amazing part, about truly coming alongside somebody who is suicidal. You get to go. First and foremost, you are weeping with them, and you are saying, yes, this is real, and the world is very much a difficult place to be. And this right here that you're going through, this is actually part of what it means to be on the road towards glorification. This isn't apart from that. This is actually the very means that God is using to make you the image of His Son. This is a necessary entailment of being on the road to heaven. So somebody look at their suffering, their depression, their discouragement, not as a, well, hopefully you'll get through this one day and thankfully in heaven this will all be taken away. Well, that's true. This right now is actually God's blessing. It doesn't feel like it, it doesn't seem like it, and you might never see it that way. However, this right here, even something like this, is a necessary part of the Christian life. The path that we trod is, in Luther's conception of the thing, the path of the cross, not the path of glory. What you and I expect from this life radically alters the way that we view it. If you expect this life to be full of joy, peace, and contentment, you are going to hate your life. If you are discouraged this morning, it is due, possibly, not assuredly, but possibly, to the fact that you are expecting the wrong thing from life. Now, it also could be the fact that life is really truly terrible and miserable at this point. You're going, man, this is, life is hard. That's true too. But it might be that you're expecting the wrong thing out of life. This is one reason why getting the gospel right is so insanely vital to our task. If we get it wrong and the people will expect the wrong things, and thus inevitably be depressed. You can't help but be depressed if you're expecting the wrong thing out of life. This is where we will end. Friends, if getting the gospel right was never really a big concern for you, if you didn't understand why, then hopefully this morning gives you one of like a billion reasons why it is very important that we truly share the whole counsel of God with people. Because the reality is, if you do not seek to share all of the gospel with your brothers and sisters and with those who do not believe, then you are setting people up for depression, discouragement, and possibly suicide. I'm not screwing around about that. This isn't Jeremy being hyperbolic. Because if I hear that God just has a wonderful plan for my life, and Jesus is my friend, and everything is going to be okay, then I will inevitably be contemplating suicide within the next six months. That's not even a question. It's going to happen. And because humans are so fallen and broken that they really do need to be consistently assaulted with the reality of the gospel to say, the world is this messed up. And Jesus is this good. And the hope of the gospel is this great. And yes, even our sufferings are an inevitable part of being called to follow Jesus, and will, though it does not seem like it, make heaven even more glorious when we arrive. Let's pray. We thank you for this morning. We thank you for the truth of the gospel, and we pray that we would know it well. Not just for ourselves, but also for those who do not believe, for those who do believe, but are struggling to believe it in the moment. We pray for those of our friends, family members, co-workers, who might be even now, maybe even people here who are contemplating suicide as a result of absolute despair and depression. We pray that you would use us, knowing that ordinarily you work through the ordinary means of grace to confront us in our sin and to give us the hope of the gospel. We pray that you would put people in our path and that we would have kind and wise words to say, that we would help people not just avoid suicide, but see Jesus for who He truly is. And as a result of that, we would have faith and hope. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.