Suicide

Why is this such a big deal?

in 2021 and 2022 49 thousand people died from suicide. It is something that keeps increasing year after year.

You may have been directly affected by it. Maybe personally or maybe just by knowing someone. If we do not talk about it, then who will?

Satan wants to destroy through suicide

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Satan is looking to destroy, and suicide is destruction. It destroys not only the person, but the families of those who are affected by it.

Satan is the father of lies and he seems to double his efforts when our brothers and sisters suffer through problems in their lives. Ultimately, satan looks to campaign and drive people to a place in which they come to believe their situation is dire. It is in this despair that people believe the disastrous lie that their circumstance is truly hopeless and the only solution is for them to die.

Acts 16:25–27 ESV

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

This man saw what was here in this moment that the only way out of this problem was to take his life.

There is an identity issue here to talk about. That This guy had his life wrapped up in the fact that he was a guard that when he thought the people escaped he thought his life was over. So, we can ask the question, where are you placing your identity? But we will come back to this question.

Really the reason that we need to talk about this is Paul’s response to the jailer in verse 28

Acts 16:28 ESV

But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

Do not harm yourself for we are all here. Those were the words that Paul said, and those should be the words of the church. That we are all here. That we, as a church, and we, as individual people, are all here for those that are struggling. That is what we are called to do

We are all here

Galatians 6:2 ESV

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Bearing with one another is the calling that we have. This means that we walk through life with one another. That means that we check in on one another. This means that we have compassion on each other in their problems.

Jesus is often said to have had compassion for those that He ministered to. This compassion is a brokenness for. A desire to help and be there for. It is more than just saying “oh someone else will do something” but rather longing to walk through with their problems together.

Where we miss it though is with the statements that we make that might not seem as though we want to bear with someone

• I am not sure why they are struggling with this so much, its not a big deal.

• I think they are just being overly dramatic.

• I don’t know why they are giving so much emotional effort to this.

• I have been through way worse than they have, why are they so upset.

When we say things like this we miss the mark on compassion.

Is suicide a sin?

Short answer is yes, but it is not the unforgivable sin.

Exodus 20:13 ESV

“You shall not murder.

Mark 3:28–30 ESV

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Suicide is murder of God’s creation, but Jesus clearly states that it is not unforgivable. That is blaspheming the Holy Spirit

So what?

First, lets start here with if you are struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts.

1. You’re not alone

Know that you are loved and what you are going through is hard and real.

There is nothing harder than thinking that you are alone in something. That no one wants to help, or can help you. The truth though is very much the opposite. You are not alone, and there are plenty of people who want to help.

First, it can be difficult to ask for help, but there are people who love you and want to see you here. The Lord loves you more than you know and He does not want to see you listen to the lies of satan,

2. What are you intaking?

2. What are you intaking that isn't helping?

The reality is that we allow a lot of things to be brought into our life, and then we allow a lot of things to influence our hearts and minds

Matthew 12:34 ESV

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Matthew 6:22–23 ESV

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

what we intake matters. Especially with how we view ourselves, others, and what actions we need to take in our lives.

3. What is your identity in?

3. What is your identity in?

I ask this because it is an important question. Lets talk about the jailer in Acts again. He thought his life was over because he thought that he failed at his job, so, he thought the only way out was to take his own life. In the same way, we can find ourselves in similar things.

Maybe it is work for you. As you get older this might become a problem, but you don’t get the promotion, or you accidentally miss something and your boss comes down on you really hard, so you feel like a failure. Maybe its school, friends, whatever it is, if you wrap up your identity in anything other than the Lord, it is going to let you down.

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This should be your identity. This does not fade. This does not go away.

So What?

Now for how to help on the outside looking in.

1. be there for them

I go back to Jesus having compassion on people. DO NOT minimize the hurt on them. Do not try to compare things to you or say “well this one time I....” instead continue to talk with them and understand what is hard for them.

2. Ask questions

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

These question may seem blunt, but they are needed. In fact, the myth is that if you ask it, it “puts the idea in their head”. The reality is that most people are relieved when this happens.

A study was done and people were asked very similar questions to these and 57% showed signs of improvement in their thoughts and suicidal ideations. Over half…That is significant. It is because these questions show that you care about them enough to have hard conversation

3. Stay with them

The reality is that you by yourself are not qualified to handle this on your own, but you need to let the person know that you are going to be with them through the whole time. The next steps are often to bring it up to parents and professionals. So staying with them will sometimes mean being there while they talk to their parents, calling a professional to help. Bringing them to talk to a pastor who can help walk through the next steps as well

4. Follow up

Studies also show that this is crucial as well.

5. Don’t carry the burden

What I mean by this is that you cannot carry this by yourself either. You need help too, which means that you need to talk to someone.

You also have to know that if something does happen, it is not your fault and you cannot carry that weight either.

Garrett story

God created the church to bear with one another through things. We need to do that well.