please, if you will, and turn in your Bible to the book of Romans, chapter eight. Romans, chapter eight in your Bible. Now, I baited you a little bit this morning with a double-dog dare that you would attend church on Sunday night, and someone said, Pastor Monty's going to be controversial. For some, this could be very controversial, but you likely will not admit it. There will be some, perhaps, that will find this to be very difficult and direct medicine. But what I have to say tonight is medicine. You don't always like medicine. I don't like medicine. I especially don't like taking pills. I don't like taking pills. But sometimes you take a liquid medicine. How many of NyQuil? You like NyQuil? You like NyQuil? Don't raise your hand, addicts, NyQuil addicts out there. Some people like NyQuil. I don't care for any of that stuff, the chemicals of that stuff. But every once in a while, you get sick. And you have to have some good medicine. And good medicine does not keep you sick. Good medicine heals your problem. I want to talk to you really directly about something tonight. And if I am a little more blunt than what you want me to be, just take it, okay? Take it this evening. Because I've become a little bit weary about how many of us make excuses about our lives based upon past trauma. Based upon past trauma. There are some of us who we might not admit it freely. But we base everything, including our own personal limitations, our own failures, our own excuses, upon some event or a series of events or a season of events that somehow took place in our past. And what is really unfortunate is that the philosophy that my past must determine my present, that is wrong. That is wrong. That is wrong. Pastor Monty, you don't know what an awful thing happened to me. I don't care. This is where it starts to get rough. I don't care how bad it was. I'm not denying the badness of it. I don't care how bad it was. There is nothing, nothing that has happened in your past that needs to determine who you are in the present. There is nothing, okay? Now, that's a big statement I just made. And immediately someone says, well, pastor, you know, preach this to the rest of the crowd. I'm the grand exception. The problem is you're not the grand exception, and that's what holds you back. Now, I want to read Romans 8. We're going to look at verse number 35, and I'll explain why I chose this passage in a moment. Romans 8, verse 35. Paul says this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Kind of a rhetorical question. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, these words from Psalm 42, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. He says, what shall separate us from the love of God? Shall any of these things, any of these bad things, any of these bad incidents, any of these things that happened to us in the past, any of these things that we were a victim of, can any of these things separate us from the love of God? Look at verse number 37. Nay, that's not a horse talking. He's saying no, no, no. I want you to hear something. The Bible is crystal clear that the things that have happened in your past, no matter how bad and negative they are, do not have to affect your present or your future. I want to make that crystal clear. If you believe that something that happened in your past has to affect you, now I'll get into this, because your circumstances might have changed. because of something that happened in your past. But if you have the idea in your mind that something in your past has happened that fundamentally has to change you as a person, and you believe that, and so as a person you have changed. Maybe at one time you used to be very joyful, and now you're very depressed. Maybe at one time you used to be very faithful to church, and now you don't go to church. Whatever it might be. And you say, well, Pastor Marty, I'm going to say this. This is the reason why, and you throw out a reason at me. I say to you the same word that Paul said in verse number 37, nay, no, no. Your past is not determinative of your present or your future. Paul says, nay, in all these things, what things? Tribulation, peril, distress, sword, famine, nakedness. Nay, in all these things, what are we? We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That's a mindset. That's a mindset. But with Pastor Monty, he just talked about being beaten down. But you're a conqueror. You're not being beaten down. You're a conqueror. He says, we're more than conquerors to him that loved us, for I am persuaded. Now, what does persuaded mean? Persuaded means that I have become convinced of something in my mind. Now, I want everyone to look up here. Look up here. Your problem is not what happened to you in your past, period. Boom. That's not your problem. Your problem is your mindset. Your problem is your processing. Paul said, for I am persuaded. The idea of the word persuasion means mental processing. It is a mindset. I have come, the idea of persuasion means this, I believe this at one point, but I have come to believe this now. In other words, I took the natural route, believing what everybody else believes about bad things, but he said at this point, I've grown up. I've learned a truth that is contrary to what everybody else thinks. I've learned a truth, now I am persuaded. I become convinced. Now I am persuaded that neither death nor life, now listen to this, listen to this, listen to this. These things are a big deal. You want to talk about a big deal, my life is ruined, I stubbed my toe. Oh, I hear dumb stuff like that all the time. Your life is not ruined because of anything except for you. For I am persuaded that neither death, how many know death is a big deal? It's like one of the bigger deals. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, by the way, these are talking about dark and fallen angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, listen to this, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am persuaded, I am a conqueror. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that is a mindset. This sermon, by the way, for those who work in the audio department, I want this posted on my Peace of Mind series. I'm adding this to my Peace of Mind series. I want to talk to you very quickly tonight, maybe not so quickly, maybe not. We might be here a tad longer, a little longer. Pastor Monty, you wouldn't keep us overtime. Look, we gave you three Sunday nights off, okay? This is paybacks right now, okay? So fasten your seatbelts. I want to talk to you tonight about the topic quickly, dealing with trauma. Dealing with trauma. Because as a pastor, oftentimes I get involved in counseling, and Pastor Morris far more than I, and trauma, a bad experience, a horrible incident, something that is life-shattering, those are real events that have occurred in our lives. When I was thinking about this sermon, I was going back through some of the things, events in my own life that were highly, highly traumatic. I was thinking about my wife and events that took place in her life early on and then through life. Highly traumatic. If anyone should be traumatized, she should. She is married to me. Highly traumatic. When I preach tonight, I want you to hear me on this because someone's going to leave here mad and they're going to misquote me. And I don't want you to misquote me. That's wrong. That's wrong to do that. Trauma is real. Did you hear what I just said? Trauma is real. People go through some really difficult instances in life and incidences in life. Bad things do happen. There is nowhere in the Bible that Paul says we're to deny the reality of something that is bad. We practice something that we don't maybe know it. I'll tell you about it right now. We as Westerners practice something that is called Scottish common sense realism. It is the method by which we think. Westerners think differently from Easterners, from people in Asia. We think differently. Scottish common sense realism is something that we look at evidence and we draw conclusions from evidence. And so in Scottish common sense realism, we use categories for things. We categorize things. So, for example, if your boss calls you in tomorrow morning, come to my office. You go to his office with fear and trembling. Kind of sits there in a grumbly mood at his desk. And then he looks up from his desk and he says, listen, Joe, You've done a good job. You're getting a $5 an hour raise. Do you know what we call that? We call it beyond a miracle. Do you know what we call that? We call that good. We categorize that as good. What if the boss calls Joe into the office and says, Joe! Sick of you, you're done here. We categorize that as bad. We think in areas of category. It is a legitimate way to think. Trauma is real. Trauma may change your circumstances in a negative way. Okay, your circumstances. Because trauma is real, something has happened. And many times that means something about your life is going to change. For example, if you have the death of a loved one, that is traumatic, especially the death of a spouse or a child. And anyone can tell me who's experienced that in your life, it changes your life, especially a spouse. If your spouse dies, half of you is gone, because you were one. Half of you is gone. And that changes the circumstance. Well, Pastor Juan, you know, my spouse died so I can never know joy again. That's where you're wrong. That's where you're wrong. Well, it's changed. You know what it does to some people? They get bitter. They get resentful. Some people turn against God. All of those things are wrong, even though the trauma is real, and that trauma has negatively impacted your circumstances. Things like divorce, or disease, an illness, a job loss, they changed the circumstances of my life. They are things that we categorize as something that is a loss, but listen, They do not have to fundamentally change who I am. There's a problem afoot, because we've been convinced that somehow, if a person has gone through something very negative, that they have a right to have had their life changed negatively, that they have a right to be the person that they have become. Trauma, I believe, can make us bitter, or it can make us better. Listen carefully. You determine the outcome every time. Now, you look at me right now. You are responsible for your own life, period. You are, not one other person, not one other person, you are responsible for your own happiness. You are responsible for your own contentment. Well, Pastor Monty, you know, I married a wife and she's responsible for that. No, she's not, buddy. You're responsible for that. And the way I respond to the trauma and the situations of life, if I respond biblically, and we'll get to this in a moment, I have the ability to rise above the worst of circumstances. If I do not respond biblically, I will wallow in my self-pity and in my misery. The difference between people who suffer similar traumatic events is how they mentally process the trauma. It is what they believe about the trauma. It is, in the words of the Apostle Paul, how they have become persuaded about that trauma and what meaning they assign to it. Now, I want you to hear me. As a pastor of so many years, 36, 37 years, whatever it is, as a pastor that longstanding, I have seen some people go through some deep water. By the way, I've been through some deep water, too. But I've seen some people go through some very deep water. It's interesting. There are differences between people. There are some people who will fold like a leaf under the least, smallest level of trauma, almost not, couldn't be called trauma. They'll fold like a leaf and then they will whine about it for the remainder of their lives. There are other people who will undergo traumatic experiences beyond anything that I can possibly imagine going through myself. And I've said so many times to people, I don't even know how I would respond if I were going through that. And they go through that situation not only with a sense of grace. Now, they have hurt. They have tears. They have a sense of loss. But they go through that thing with a sense of grace, and they come out quickly on the other side of that thing. And they rise above that thing to walk again on the sunny side of the street. Pastor Monty, what's the difference between those two people? It has nothing to do with the level of trauma. It has everything to do with their processing or their becoming persuaded. Now, hear me about this because this is where I got fired up. I was studying this out this week. There are two vastly different psychological approaches to trauma. Without being a medical doctor, let me be a bit clinical for you. There is number one, the number one, and by the way, this is the most popular view of trauma, there is the cause-effect relationship between trauma. In other words, trauma is the cause, and the effect is where I am. So listen, listen. Someone says, oh, Pastor Marty. My parents were abusive to me when I was a kid. And because they were abusive to me, I've been a loser my whole life. And everyone says, yeah, your parents ruined you. It's all their fault. And it seems to make sense. Am I right on the surface? Right? A little bit on the surface? It seems to make sense. Or how about this one? Try this one on for size. Liz, this one. Pastor Monty, I appreciate your invitation for me to come to your church, but when I was eight years old, I got hurt in a Baptist church. The preacher said something that offended me and hurt my feelings, and I'll never go back to church again. Boulderdash. That's garbage. That's garbage. You don't want to go to church and so you made up a convenient excuse. By the way, you weren't traumatized. Okay, get over it. How many of you, how many of you have ever gone out to eat and had a crummy meal? OK, I was eating at Chipotle, which is normally pretty good, at Chipotle in West Virginia. OK, maybe that was the problem. I don't know, but it was a Chipotle. And to be in all fairness, it was closing time. It was closing time. And by the time I got there, those little buckets where they scoop the food out of, they were almost empty. And everything looked like it had glossed over with some kind of something growing on it. I mean, I'd been sitting there all day. And I paid $15 for something that was nearly not edible. What a bad experience. Guess what? The next day I went back to a restaurant, a different restaurant, mind you, okay, but I went back. I had a bad experience in one, it didn't stop me from going to another. Is everybody following what I'm saying? Okay, now I've gone off of preaching and gone into preaching. All right, cause and effect. Trauma being the cause, the current, I would say, I would claim that my current ruined life is the effect, okay? Do you know what that is? That is Freudian psychology. How many of you are familiar with Freud? Okay, all I need to say about this is this, Freud was a weirdo. Okay, he was a weirdo to the core. Analytical psychology is the dark side, it is flirting with Satan, it is entering into the realm of the damned, and no Christian should believe in it, and yet one of the fundamental tenets of Freudian psychology is widely accepted in Bible-preaching churches. Oh, he can't help who he is, it's because his parents. It's because of his upbringing. It's because he got really hurt at some point in time in his life. This, by the way, psychologically, is something called psychological determinism, which we reject because the Bible rejects it, okay? Determinism meaning this, that an event in my past has the power to inevitably, that's the word determinism, to inevitably determine my present and my future. So that this event back here makes me who I am today, and there's no way out of that because of the event. If I believe that, I would never preach another sermon. God, by his grace, through the power of the word of God, can change and deliver us. And so, but some of us have agreed with this. We didn't know we were agreeing with Freud, who was a weirdo. We didn't know that. But some of us have agreed with this and accepted determinism. This school of psychology offers no hope for the present or the future. It only offers comfort and excuses, where the counselor will say, you know, I'm glad you told me about this great trauma in your past. Nothing about your life right now is your fault. You're not to blame for how you are. It encourages the counselee to commiserate with the counselor and spend endless hours and lots of money in therapy sessions or to cry on their friend's shoulders who quickly get sick of hearing about it with no answer. Now, I didn't deny your trauma, but I did say it's time to do something about it. There's a difference. It does not have to affect who you are forever. I hesitate to use this story. I'm going to talk about someone that you don't know, but I'm going to talk about it in very glittering generality. I was with a man one time, and he was talking to me. about how as a boy he suffered very, very serious sexual abuse on a very high level. And after he told me details of the story, I said to him, I'd known him for several years by that point, and I said to him, I said, wait a minute, I said, you're happily married, you have good kids, you have a great career. I said, man, you got everything going for you. I said, why didn't that, I mean, it wasn't just a one-time event. It was an ongoing thing for a couple years. Why didn't that sexual abuse, why didn't that just ruin you? Here's what he said to me, he said, He said, Preacher, I came to the conclusion that I was a victim and that I was not going to allow that to frame the rest of my life, and so I became, and let's use the words of the Apostle Paul, I became fully persuaded that that does not have to frame who I am unless I let it. Now I know what I just said was highly offensive. I know that's highly offensive. But it's absolutely true. We give the past, even when we're a victim of something, we give the past far too much power in our lives. So what is the best way? Cause and effect is not the best way. How about this? We believe trauma is real, but that it doesn't have to have effect. We could call this trauma, but no effect. Trauma, but no effect. Now, understanding that traumatic things can change my circumstances, what I'm arguing with you tonight is that traumatic things do not have to change who I am as a person. While traumatic things happen, the past has no real bearing upon my present mental attitude. Oh. Unless I let it, oh, unless I like it, I'm really concerned that that's a lot of people's problems. They embrace the pain of their past. They embrace their victimhood because it empowers them in other ways. I'm gonna get into that more in a moment. This is very controversial, what I have to say tonight. The past may have changed my circumstances with the trauma but no effect model. The past may have changed my circumstances. It does not have to negatively change me as a person. The past has no real power over me except as I imagine it to and then I allow it to. And that's absolutely true. Oh, but Pastor Marty, you don't understand. This horrible thing has happened. Stop your whining. It's in the past, you're still alive, you're still breathing, you still have a brain, you still have a heart, you still have a mind. Get a hold of yourself. That is an incident that is confined to time. It only can invade your present and your future as you allow it to do so by your ongoing embrace. Now, I'm being very blunt tonight, and this is really good medicine, and I know there are people right now who are rebelling against this. Fasten your seatbelts. You say, Pastor Marty, what are you saying? By the way, this philosophical, this philosophy or psychology was actually promoted by a man named Alfred Adler. Anyone ever hear of Adler? Ever hear of Adler? Y'all heard of Freud, the weirdo? Okay, you heard of Freud. Okay, Freud and Adler were friends. until Adler looked at Freud and said, you crazy man. He said, you're ridiculous. You don't give people real hope. You just sit people in a chair and let them talk and commiserate for hours. Adler developed the polar opposite. This is historic psychology. Adler developed the polar opposite thinking that much more aligns with the thinking of the Bible. Now, let me connect a dot here. Remember all those words I read in the Bible a moment ago? Peril, distress, nakedness, sword, tribulation, persecution. Remember all that? Okay, Paul said, I went through all of that, and then he said this. He said, none of it matters. He said, is this gonna separate me from the love of God? He said, no! Why? Because I'm fully persuaded, and then he lists a whole bunch of other big deal things, none of this can hurt me. Look at me, look at me, look at me. Your past cannot touch you now except you allow it. And some people don't like what I'm saying because they want to use their past as an excuse for every failure of their life. Here's what I believe. What we believe about past trauma, what we believe about it, what we're persuaded about it, in the words of Paul, what we believe about past trauma determines how and if we will be negatively shaped by that trauma. What we believe determines whether or not, it's not predetermined that a trauma has to affect you today, it is what I think about it. Now what I want to do very quickly is examine Paul's approach. And Paul's approach is found in Romans chapter eight, the passage we just read together. Number one, point number one, acknowledge trauma. Acknowledge trauma. Look at verse number 35 of chapter eight. We're gonna look at the second part of the verse. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. What was Paul doing? He was acknowledging the reality of it. We don't deny it, listen carefully, and I am not minimizing it. So someone out there in the audience right now is accused of, Pastor Mahoney, you've just never gone through any, oh, by the way, by the way, by the way, baby, you think I had been through some stuff? I've been through enough stuff to curdle milk. I'll tell you, not what Paul went through. Paul went through way more than I ever did. But I'm not minimizing what you went through. Do you understand that? I'm not minimizing it. If you walk out of here with your feelings, and you say, Pastor, man, he just doesn't understand me. And he just doesn't understand how I feel. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're crazy. Okay, I understand how you feel, and I understand deeply how you feel. We're not minimizing the trauma. Paul did not do that. Paul experienced tremendous trauma. He talked about tribulation. That would be an incident or a season of great pain and adversity. Paul went through that. He talked about distress. That would be an incident or season of difficulty, complication. Feeling overwhelmed. Anyone ever been there? That's the word distress. That's what the Greek word means. He talked about persecution. That is either an incident or seasons in time of conflict, interpersonal relationships, struggles back and forth. Persecution. He talked about famine and nakedness. What is that? That is an incident or a season of great need, whether it be financial or some other need that he would have in his life. He had that. An incident of vulnerability. That is distress. Distress made him vulnerable. Maybe he went through a season of time of that. He talks about that. He talks about sword. What is the sword? What is that? It is an incident or season of life that is a threat to life itself. Spastimani, I've never faced a sword. No. People have threatened to kill me. I've actually had death threats before. I kind of like it. I kind of like it, honestly, because it heightens the drama hero factor of the pastor. I kind of like it when someone sends me a death letter. I'd rather get, I'll tell you, I'd rather get a death threat in the mail than a letter of criticism. I'd much rather. Just say you're going to kill me. If you don't like me that much, just say you're going to kill me. I don't mind a death threat. But in all reality, no one has ever seriously threatened my life with death. But you know what? Paul said you might go through an incident or season of your life where you're facing the sword. What about the sword known as cancer? What about the sort of diabetes or the sort of disease? Those are all things that are a threat to life. Paul did not minimize. In fact, not only did Paul not minimize the bad, but Paul actually maximized it. I want you to look on the screen. You can put up the 2 Corinthians passage for me. I want you to look at that. Paul maximized it. Paul didn't say, oh, it's nothing. So a lot of preachers say, oh, just don't, just, it's nothing, it's not a big deal. Hey, your trauma is a big deal. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 11, are they the ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. He said, I can prove that I'm a pastor, I can prove that I'm an apostle. In labors more abundant, in stripes that is in beatings above measure, in prison more frequent, in deaths off, threatened of death, of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes save one. 39 beating on the back with a cat of nine tails and that happened five times. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Folks, I want you to think about this. I'm not coming back to church because it hurt my feelings. What? What? My feelings get hurt around this place on a weekly basis. Here I am. How ridiculous. Paul said, I got beaten. I got stoned. I got beaten with a cat o' nine tails. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. Think about it, folks. Three times shipwrecked. Why would that man ever get on a boat again? If anyone should have had a phobia of sailing, it should have been the Apostle Paul. Most of us after the first bad experience, because it was a doozy recorded for us in the book of Acts, most of us after the first bad experience would say, I'm walking the rest of my life. I'm never going to be cast into the Adriatic Sea holding a chunk of a ship ever again. And what did Paul do? He got right on the boat again. Okay, I'm going somewhere with this. He said, a night and a day have I been in the deep, floating around in water. He said, I've been in... You want to talk about trauma? How many know this is trauma? Nothing that's happened in your life can hold a candle to this. In journeyings often, in perils in waters, perils means danger. In perils in waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, everybody's against me. In perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. Ladies and gentlemen, that's a lot of trauma. Makes our lives look pretty easy, don't it? Well, Pastor, you know, it was kind of slippery out there tonight and the car spun a little bit. First world problems. He goes on in verse number 27. He says, in weariness, he was tired. No doubt. In painfulness, he was achy. In watchings often, that is, he was on high alert. He was scanning the horizon, are the words psychologists would use. In hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. What a life, what a life. And then he says, and I love verse 28, I love it. Besides all those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. I read that list, and I see what a wimp I am." And Paul was magnifying that list to let us know there is real trauma in life. We acknowledge that trauma. But I want you to see something else in chapter 8 of Romans again. Not only do we acknowledge trauma, but number two, We ask trauma. We ask trauma. That is in verse number 35. He asks a question right at the beginning of the verse. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Okay, that's a question. We call it a rhetorical question because the answer will end up being no one can do it. But I want to ask my trauma question. I had a bad time sometime in life, and so I'm going to ask it a question. And the question is this, is does this trauma mean that I am forever changed? Now listen, your circumstances may be forever changed, but it does not have to ruin you. Okay, well, Pastor Monty, you just don't understand. No, no, I do understand. I do understand the truth of the word of God that I need to ask you a question. Well, Pastor Monty, you know, we grew up very, very poor. So what? So what? Stop it. Well, you just don't understand how it is to be poor. Oh, really? My dad died when I was in the eighth grade. I get it. Pastor Monty, I grew up in a single-parent home. So did I. I get it. Did you ever watch your dad languish in a hospital bed that was brought into the house only to be carted off to a hospital somewhere and go visit him one last time and hug him and turn your back knowing he was dying and knowing you'd never see him again? That's pretty rough on a 12-year-old boy. By the way, by the way, it didn't ruin me. It didn't ruin me. In fact, it is that thing that brought me to Jesus Christ as my savior. It is that thing that made me come face-to-face with the reality that there is an eternity, that I will spend somewhere, either heaven or hell, forever, and that one day, it might be in the distant future from the time that I was 12, but that one day, I would be checking out of this world, and something would happen, life would continue on, and as a 12-year-old boy, I wondered about eternity, and by the grace of God, God brought some men into my life with the gospel and it changed me and I got saved. And now I know. Death of my dad was a trauma, as it would be for any boy to ever face that. It did not have to shape who I have become and who I am as a man. I ask the trauma questions, just like Paul did. Though trauma may have changed my circumstances, is it a foregone conclusion that it must negatively impact who I am forever? No. Does the trauma forever condemn me to a life of misery, anxiety, defeat, or resentment? Ask it the question. Does this really mean that forever I have to live this way? The answer is no. Does the past trauma prove God doesn't love me? No. Paul said, nay. In all these things, we're more than conquerors. Paul said, I am persuaded that God loves me no matter what happened in my life. Has this past trauma destined me to live in mental anguish and darkness forever? The answer is no. Must the past trauma determine my present and future mental state? No. Must this past trauma make me cynical? No. You look at me. Pastor Monty, I've learned so many things in life. I'm just a cynic towards everyone. You haven't learned anything about life. The real thing you've learned about life if you're a cynic is you've learned how to poison your soul. And I'll be honest with you, now I'm gonna just preach. I've run into too many bitter, angry, cantankerous, moss-backed Baptist people who at their hearts are cynical toward everyone new they meet. God help you if that's you. I never want to be that way. Now let me be plain. In life, I've seen out of people the good, the bad, and the ugly. Baby, I've seen it all. And I refuse to let the bad and the ugly make me cynical toward people that God has called me to minister to. I'll take abuse, and by the way, I do. I do. I'll catch it for this sermon. I don't care. Write me a letter. I double-dog dare you. But I refuse to become resentful and cynical because I'm a pastor of God's people. And I love my sheep, even the bad ones. I love my sheep. You know why? Past trauma doesn't need to make me cynical. Must past trauma become the determining factor of the rest of my life? Look at me, no. And if you think it does have to be, then you've adopted Freudian psychology and you're going completely antithetical to scripture. Point number three, not only do I acknowledge trauma and I ask trauma, but I also answer trauma. Look at verse number 37, verse 37. Paul says it in one word, nay, nay. He answers his own question, no, absolutely not. You know what you need to do? Just say no to trauma. Pastor Monty, it's not my fault, it happened in my past. Okay, it happened, it happened, look at me. It's over and done with. Now what are we gonna do going forward? Pastor Monty, it just shook me. That's what trauma does. Do you not think that when Paul went down in the ship, his heart wasn't beating? When he was cast up on the island, his heart wasn't beating. He was in a state of high adrenaline. Cortisol was pumping through his body. He was wound up. The heathen people of that land built a fire for them, welcomed them to the warmth of the fire. Paul went to gather firewood, which is awesome, because the great apostle Paul didn't just sit there like a great apostle. He went and gathered firewood, amen? He went and gathered the firewood, and when he gathered some firewood, a viper, a snake, came out of the firewood and bit him! Wow, you talk about adding insult to injury? Let me tell you something, folks. All of those things could have discouraged him. The list I read a moment ago out of the pages of the Bible would have been enough to make most pastors quit. It would have been enough to make most evangelists resign. It would have been enough to make most missionaries come home. They wouldn't have had to have suffered five of those things, and they would be off the field. But Paul said, these things don't shake me. The answer to trauma is I say no. I'm not denying it happened. Paul magnified the fact that it happened, but he was denying the idea that it had to make him a certain way, okay? Determinism, that is the cause and effect thing, that is Freudian psychology, says that trauma must shape you. Don't believe it. The Bible says it must not. By saying no to past trauma, you declare your willingness to leave trauma in the past and move forward. Past trauma, whatever it is. Now, I'm saying whatever it is. There are no exceptions. This is where it gets really offensive, because everybody will say, well, mine is bigger than yours, and mine is the exception to the rule. There are no exceptions to what I'm saying. None. Past trauma does not have to change who you are. It does not have to rob you of your life. It can only ruin you if you choose for it to do so. And many people choose this habitually. And they have reasons. They have reasons. Teleology, and it's a big word, it's an unfamiliar word to most of us, is the idea that the things that we believe and practice, we have a reason for doing them, and we have a reason for thinking. Well, Pastor Monty, why would anyone hold on to past trauma and let it pollute their present life? Why would they do that? You wanna know why? Because you discovered trauma gets you sympathy. And you like sympathy. Everyone's gonna feel sorry for me. You know, they do. And we should be sympathetic. That's the right thing to do. When something happens, it's really good for us as a church to have a heart of sympathy and a heart of prayer and a heart of compassion. Those are all biblical things. Not for the next 20 years. and a person who gets hooked on sympathy, just like a drug. They get hooked on sympathy, and so they've had this trauma, and people are really sympathetic for the first three days. Don't be offended when people forget about your trauma, because they have a plate full of their own. They're sympathetic for the first three days, then they forget about it, so you find yourself reminding them over and over again how bad life is. And then after a while, people get sick of you and they don't want to hang out with you. Some people like to hold on to their trauma because it gave them sympathy. Some people have discovered that trauma becomes a good excuse for not doing the things that you should do. It's a good excuse. If you're going through trauma, it really gives you an easy out. You can say something like this. I just don't feel up to it. And admittedly, if you've gone through a really earth-shattering, big, traumatic experience in your life, you probably don't feel like doing something the next day, or the next two days, or maybe the next week, or maybe the next two weeks. But look at me, look at me. 20 years of not doing something? Boulder Dash. 20 years? 10 years? No. Well, I would do that, but I got so shaken that one time, I just don't feel up to it. You know, you're using your trauma as a convenient excuse. The excuse being you don't want to do something, and so you just use that as the excuse. Now, you know what I tell you? Snap out of it. Because Paul said that's not the right mindset. So what is the mindset? The mindset is to be a super conqueror. We are more than conquerors to him that loved us. What is the mindset? The mindset is to be an overcomer. What is the mindset? The mindset is to be fully persuaded. It is to be convinced. that this mess in my past, and it's there baby, that this mess in my past does not determine who I am today and who I will be tomorrow. It does not determine that. Some people embrace their trauma because it allows them to claim a phobia, a made up fear, fictitious fear, their trauma allows them to claim a phobia that can exempt them from things that they would rather not do anyway. It's funny, no one questions phobias because they're diagnosable. Well, the doctor said, I have this phobia. The doctor said, I have this phobia. And we're, oh, oh, the doctor said. Oh, since the doctor said, and you have this phobia, oh, we just feel sorry for you. You don't have to participate in life anymore. By the way, that'll ruin a kid. That'll ruin a kid. My wife, who teaches in the public school system, she said most of the kids have a letter, acronym, diagnosis of some sort or the other. She said those kids are assured that they have some kind of problem, ADHD, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, whatever it may be, that they have some kind of problem. They're told that from the time that they're young, and they lean upon that for everything, and they say, well, because I have this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. throughout some scientific term, I have this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I don't have to do anything. What a horrible thing to teach your kids. What a handicapping thing to teach your kids. What a limiting thing to teach your kids, especially in the light of the scripture that says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. So problematic, so dangerous. We fall prey to this. Sometimes we embrace our trauma because trauma becomes a grand excuse both for sin and for failure in life in general. And if you have a trauma, rather than judge you, people will sympathize with you. And if you remind them often enough, they will give you a hall pass for your entire life. I want you to look at me. That is why people hold on to this. It's a really nice hall pass. And as long as you're, well, you know, I'm just a different person from what I was. It's changed me, Pastor Monty. Why? You know why? Because you let it. Because you mentally said, this will change me. And when you discovered the level of convenience that having a diagnosable phobia or fear or a problem or a trauma can give you, you started using it like a credit card. And do you know what it's done to your life? Ruined it. held you back. You say, Pastor, this is too much. It's not too much. What is the answer? Well, I have to acknowledge my trauma, that's number one. I have to ask my trauma, that's number two. I have to answer my trauma, that's number three. Quickly, one last one. I need to ascend above my trauma. Ascend above my trauma. Look at verse number 37. So Paul said this. Notice the next verse. In other words, I become convinced I become convinced that none of this garbage has to frame my life. I'm convinced that nothing that happened yesterday has to ruin today. I'm convinced that the trauma, though it was real, though it was big, and no one is denying that, I am convinced that that trauma no longer has to hold sway over me unless I allow it. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Bible says I am a super conqueror and I am persuaded. What does that mean? Trauma cannot beat me down. I may get knocked down once in a while, I will not get knocked out. I may get hit once in a while and stagger because of something that happens in my life, but I'm not going to fall down permanently and lie there, because I am, according to the Bible, a super conqueror, and I believe that, and let me tell you something, I am not a victim. I am not a victim of any person, and I am not a victim of any circumstances, because God's word says, as a born-again Christian, I am a conqueror, and I'm persuaded of it. I'm persuaded. Yeah, but sometimes when you get beat down, you don't feel much like a conqueror. I know. I've been there. I've been there. And then I read my Bible. And you know what I do? I reconvince myself. because it's what God says, and I'm persuaded once again. To ascend above the trauma, I believe that God loves me, and nothing will ever change that. Nothing changes that. I am persuaded, Paul said, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God loves me. Can I tell you something? God loved you. when he allowed a negative trauma to come into your life. God loved you. Pastor Monty, if God loved me, he wouldn't have allowed it. Stop that. You're not God. God loved you, and you can love him in and through that. And I am fully persuaded of that. Well, Pastor, it doesn't make sense to me. That's why I have to be fully persuaded. I am fully convinced that if a dark time comes, God loves me. And if a bad time comes, God loves me. I am fully convinced that God loves me, no matter what has come, good or bad, I am convinced of it. I am fully persuaded God loves me. I've become persuaded that nothing in my past has to affect my present or ruin my future. I am persuaded that nothing has to cripple me. I am persuaded that the level of loss, the level of hurt, the level of pain, which was very, very real, does not need to knock me out of the race. What is the difference between the person who suffers a deep trauma and comes out on the other side a victor? and the person who suffers a deep trauma and comes out on the other side depressed, deranged, and perhaps institutionalized. What is the difference? Choice. If you don't believe that, then sign up with Sigmund Freud, sit on a couch for endless hours, pay thousands of dollars, and commiserate. He'll be glad to agree with you. If you do believe that you don't have to be a victim to whatever circumstance it is, then welcome to the fellowship of the Apostle Paul. Welcome to the fellowship of distress, tribulation, pain. Welcome to the fellowship of shipwrecks. Welcome to the fellowship of beatings. Welcome to the fellowship of being stoned. Welcome to the fellowship of robbers. Welcome to the fellowship of a panoply of negativity that over seasons of time in Paul's life poured in like a flood and would have sent most of us home crying and licking our wounds and saying, we're never going to do that again. I'm done with this. God, I'm done with you. Welcome to the fellowship that says we are more than conquerors because those things in my past will not shape it. My present is my own. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Bible. And I know that's hard medicine. That's hard medicine. But if I didn't believe that, I would never pastor this church because I'm not a therapist, I'm a preacher. I don't want to listen to endless hours of whining. What I want to do is say, hey, that happened in your past. Now, what is the goal for today? How are we gonna rise above it? Let me tell you something. If this sermon irritated you, it's because you're embracing trauma that has become your friend. It's your grand excuse. It's the thing that you're going to hold on to because everyone will feel sorry for you and everyone will say, yeah, that person had some hard knocks in life, so I guess they didn't have to make it. You get a hall pass for the rest of your life. You don't want that. You know what you want to do? You want to join the fellowship of Paul, a conqueror, an overcomer, and someone fully persuaded that while that thing really happened, and it was really, really bad, it can't touch me now, because I live in the realm of the love of God. Father, please, message tonight. is hard medicine, but it is good medicine. Lord, we need to hear it because it strips us of our excuses. Some of us have made a detente with our trauma. Some of us have made a friendship with it. And Lord, we just use it as a reason for garnering sympathy and an excuse for failure. Father, let us see from the pages of the Bible. That's not right. We all have a past. Father, help us to understand that our present can be bathed in the goodness, the grace, and the love of God. And regardless of how dark that past is, we can rise above it by the grace of Christ. Help us, Lord, to change our thinking to match the Bible, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Stand with me, please, everyone standing.