Alright, as we have gone through every week, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, we are in a spiritual battle. If we think not only are we in a spiritual battle in our personal lives, there is a spiritual battle going on in this world with respect to these closures and other things that are coming on, these restrictions. This is not God's purpose, this is of Satan and a desire to stamp out the believers would get discouraged and fall away and get back into the things of life. But here in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And as we go through this and you look at the verse there at Proverbs 13, 12, hope deferred maketh the heart sick. As I have mentioned several times that with respect to your heart, your heart is sick when these painful events happen. The hurts of our life and the way we act many times is because of a painful event of the past. And all humans have two basic emotional needs. As I have said, week after week, security and significance. We have to understand that it is only in God do I attain my true security and significance. And so the first characteristic of the hole of no hope I did several weeks ago is you can tell when someone is being lowered into this hole when they begin to ask the question, why? Why are they in that hole? Why are they struggling? Why are there those struggles of their life? And not only that, they might even say, it's just not fair. And then envy really is on their life, and they are struggling with those in their life. And so in Ezekiel 33 17, there's an equal statement that we find rather than it's not fair, a modern-day colloquialism, we would find that the way of the Lord is not equal. The way is not equal, that the Israelites would say. And you find then in Psalm 73 with Asaph, In Psalm 73, 16, he says, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. Asaph looks around, he says, why are the heathen, why are those who are living a life that does not please God, why do they have it so good? And he would get discouraged. He said, I'm trying to do right, and life is so hard for me, but life is good for them. And it wasn't until finally he would understand, until I come into the presence of the Lord and spend time with him, that he would understand. You know what? Actually, the wicked are actually in extreme terror. So the second one is why. The first one's why. The second one, it's not fair. The third thing that people oftentimes do is a comparison. And the comparison is the fertile soil of the vegetation of it's not fair and what it can grow in. The Bible warns us in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12. I am going through this a little bit quickly because I do want to get to the other information and look at the study that we have set out for this morning. But it just, again, reiterating these truths, and I trust that as you hear them multiple times, it would help you to evaluate in your life whether that is something that is, maybe you're in that hole of no hope. I don't know. But in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, it says, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. They measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. And we can compare ourselves. And the story that was given was a gentleman had a mole on the back of his neck and he didn't want to get his hair cut because he didn't want anyone to see it. And so there in 2 Corinthians 10, 12, as you see the verse there, And the other thing in this idea of comparison is someone might say, I don't really like who I am and I wish I was somebody else. I wish I was taller. I wish I was skinnier. I wish I was smarter. I wish I was more athletic. I wish I was more musical. I mean, there's a lot of things that people can, we state those things, but we can get to a place where it actually does bring us down emotionally and it does create that hurt there. And so. But in Isaiah 45 verses 9 and 10, as it says there, who are we as the clay to tell God, the potter, you messed up. God made us the way he wanted us. And we need to embrace those truths of who God made us. And I'll get more into these hurts, but you can see that there's several things in the third hole of no hope characteristic. is someone with comparison. Eventually, the cement hardens, the heart blames God for making me this way, and you begin to get bitter and have unforgiveness towards God. Or you can also blame God for putting me in this particular family, the skin I'm in, the job I'm in, the school, the church, the nation, and the list can go on. And you begin to blame God, and as a result of blaming God, heart, you get hurt, and you get bitter. You get bitter at God. You see, our hearts are so prone, the emotions, and we've got to keep our emotions in check. And we do that through a relationship with God, which I will be discussing. And this jealousy can create such rage. And I mean, we can get vengeance and I'm not that way. And someone is better than me. And someone has something that I, I, as I'm comparing and I'm lesser in there and I esteem them higher than me, that jealousy can get in and I can become so mean and so rude. Because I've been, I'm believing these lies that I'm not as good as them. I'm see we're all equal. God created all of us in his image. What a wonderful truth that is. The other thing is, I began to speak about last week with bitterness. Initially, that word bitterness is hard to picture. How do you detect bitterness? What are the characteristics? Like a coin, as I had mentioned, bitterness has two sides, heads and tails. The head side always shows up as anger. tail side shows up as depression. The world refers to this as bipolar. And as you're going through that, so you have the north pole of anger and you have the south pole of depression. I know I'm going through these slides a little bit quicker, but bi, you have two, you have the bi and the bitterness or society is full of angry people, depressed people, hurt people. And see God, that is not God's design for any of us. God does not want us to go through these extremes in emotion, to extreme anger, to complete depression, because maybe you have got angry. And then you feel, you're like, oh, I was really dumb. I shouldn't have done that. And we can fluctuate and we go through this. But the issue is when we have these extreme changes. very well could be an aspect of bitterness in our life. I would guarantee it. I would tell that it would very well be likely that bitterness is there in your life somewhere. You see, bitterness creeps in so slowly and it can happen even at a young age. There was something even in my life with my parents. I had a, I remember one time I was at a a party or something, my parents were at a gathering of some people and I was a young kid and kind of going through puberty and all of that and I had one of those, you know, those little pimples on my face and I was kind of like, oh no, I hope no one sees it, you know, and one of my parents had made a statement about that and I kind of got offended and hurt and I let it get into bitterness. I mean, it was something silly, but you know, you're kind of have all that self-image and like, oh wow. you fluctuate Satan gets in over small things even though someone may not even necessarily intend to hurt you those things can come in and without God's wisdom we're left to deal with things on our own through coping mechanisms as what we think is coping mechanisms as humanistic psychology psychiatry seeks to offer and what it does though is the coping mechanisms are really hiding the hurt that needs to be dealt with. We as believers ought to begin to deal with this. This is what God wants to do. I spoke about the three philosophy groups to help humanity get over the symptoms of hurt. The first is a medical But each of these areas has a different philosophy on how to treat problems. If you're emotionally down and depressed or super angry in medicine, they will give you the medicine. And then that also ties in there with psychology, the study of the mental state of those people who are in varying degrees who have lost contact with reality and sanity. And as you see that, so medical studies, the health problems, uh, maybe I'm having these extreme headaches during my anger. So, okay, we'll deal with the headaches or maybe I have this extreme pain during another time of life when I'm super depressed. Okay. We'll give you a medicine for that. Psychology says, well, uh, your emotional state will give you some medicine to help with that emotional state. And medicine is necessary. I'm not against medicine. Please don't get me wrong on that. That's not what I'm saying at all, what I'm going to say as a reiteration and a review from last week. But the study of the reality of God and his biblical laws, Christianity, as we look at the Bible as our standard, as we spoke about canon, our standard for truth. And there is a spiritual aspect that both psychology and medicine do not oftentimes look at. It doesn't look at the spiritual with respect to God. And your spiritual life will affect you on your physical life. If you look at it, I've seen several studies with respect to bitterness. If someone gets cancer and is a bitter person, they are less likely to recover than someone who is not bitter. And I have seen that and but we understand with all respect to all of this. that in Christianity, we have to understand there are consequences when we violate God's will. We are accountable. Yes, someone has hurt me in the past. Yes, I'm bitter, but that bitterness does affect me. That bitterness does have an effect upon others. And so many times medicine will like to say, or psychology, in order to fix your life and feel better, To not be angry, to not be depressed, you need a good diet, you need good exercise, and you need some right medicine. Maybe some vitamins or whatever. Other things as well. And mental illness really, as I had stated last week, is varying degrees of spiritual warfare. There are spirits out there, there are demons out there, and if one family gives in to a particular sin, Those demons, well, they've planted a seed in that family, and we have to understand, anger and bitterness were in my family, and there's other things, alcoholism and other things that have been in my family that my grandparents and back beyond that had... acted upon. And so I have to understand that that has been in my family and I ask God to forgive me for the actions. But I also say, Lord, please shore up those areas where they have opened the door to satanic influence. Now, the actions we are personally responsible Satan can't make us sin. He can tempt us, but he cannot make us do anything wrong. He can merely throw the thought out there, but I take that thought and I ponder upon it and then I act upon it. So I'm personally responsible. And so I spoke about that the sins of the family, the sins of the fathers affect the next generation. For instance, if an individual is an alcoholic, it will affect the children. And the children will have areas and things that they're struggling with because of the sin of the father. And maybe the parents and the daughters or the sons will marry those who are alcoholics, and then that sin perpetuates itself. They made a choice. And see, the truth is God has given us a God consciousness to every person. You see, even before someone accepts Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they still have an understanding that they've done wrong. That's a God consciousness. God has put into us the idea of right and wrong. And many times we try to lower that and compromise on that or try to push it aside and say it's not relevant. But you know what, that conscience that God gave to us is a good thing. It does protect us. So that mental illness, there's a spiritual warfare going on that needs to be dealt with. And that is the goal of this series. Just to begin to think, this mental illness is a spiritual warfare that's going on. As I had stated, someone who is bipolar has a bitterness, struggle, or they've got hurts in their past that are unresolved, that need to be dealt with. And see, God wants our hearts that are sick to be healed. As you go through this, psychologists many times of a sick heart will call that a break from reality or break with reality. And many people do not believe that they're bitter. Much like a drunk never thinks they're drunk. A drunk person might think they're invisible. No one sees them when they're doing foolish things while they're drunk. They might think they're invincible, that they can beat anyone up. And they think that they're irresistible. When they have some drinks, everyone's going to want them. And of the opposite gender or whatever they're desiring. So there's a mental state that is distorted. And when we're bitter, we have a distorted reality of life. And we look at things. Our perception, it skews through because of that spiritual state of bitterness that is unresolved. And we need to begin to deal with that bitterness. We have to deal with it. Because if we don't, We will continue down the same path and we will not find the healing. You'll merely put a, it's like on your dash, you would put a black piece of black tape over the check engine light or over. And a lot of times they have that clear plastic over it. So you can't, but you put a black tape or enough over it. You don't see it. That's what you're doing. You can say, I do the diet, the exercise and medicine and diet and exercise does affect your mental state. The, the weather, I mean, obviously the weather changes, it does affect you. But it won't lead you to the highs and the lows of the great anger and the great depression. You see, God's solution for the emotional, mental, and physical problems, what are they? It is the right relationship with God, through salvation and obedience to God. It is having an intimate, personal, passionate relationship with Jesus Christ on a daily basis. If you're going through these highs and lows, I'd like to ask you, are you daily meditating on God's word? I'm not talking reading the Bible. I'm not talking just memorizing verses. I'm talking you're having an issue where you are sitting down, a situation you're sitting down, and God speaks to you through the Word of God. In Philippians 4, 7, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Either the Bible is true and we believe it. Many times we say, well, this is what the secular realm is saying. And I understand if you're having cancer and there's sickness and pain in your body, you want to deal with it. But you also want to ask, Lord, is there anything in my life, any sin, any bitterness? The peace of God which passeth all understanding, how would you like to have the ability when those struggling thoughts come? get rid of them, to lay them aside. Those comparison thoughts, those whys, those it's not fairs, the bitterness. You see in Jonah chapter 4 verse 1, Jonah was exceedingly angry at God because he had spared the Ninevites. The Ninevites, as you would find, the Ninevites had acted and most likely they had killed His family, the Ninevites, I mean, they would skin people alive and then hang up those skins. I mean, it was some of the things they did. And Jonah felt that these people deserve the justice and the wrath of God. He wasn't liking God's grace, and so he became very depressed. We've come to the fifth diagnosis, fifth characteristic of a person in the hole of no hope. And bitterness, if not diagnosed, can lead to hurting yourself or suicide. And there are several things with it. Turn with me to, well, as you see there, Ecclesiastes 7.17. Be not over, be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldst thou die before thy time? Suicide is a selfish act. I understand there's some great, deep, painful hurts that need to be dealt with. But suicide is dying before God selects your time to pass. Suicide is taking your life and taking it saying, God, you don't know what you're doing. But you know what? That's Satan's lie to destroy you. Suicide is never the way out. Never. You're precious. You're loved by God. Here's some suicide statistics from down in the states. Over 30,000 people will commit suicide in the states in a year. That's one person every 17 and a half minutes. All of the people that we have previously spoken about, Rebecca, Carl, Alex, had experienced and or attempted suicide. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It is the fourth leading cause of death in those ages 35 to 54. There's 132 deaths by suicide every day. 10.3% of US have contemplated suicide. Pastor Perry is a pastor in New Mexico. So he said New Mexico is one of the highest it has a high New Mexico is a very high there's a lot of on a lot of welfare in that and a lot of poverty in that state and But there's also a lot of drug and alcohol and other issues there and It is a place Overall, but you see this this the statistics on suicide It affects us every one of us. I'm sure has known someone Family or friend that has committed this and it hurts. I mean it hurts deeply and many times we try to temporarily cover up the pain in our lives and These ways to cover up is drugs and alcohol pornography stealing lying these are temporary ways to cover up the pain of seemingly unfixable and unfair hurts of life. Unfixable and unfair hurts always drive people to two byproducts of bitterness, anger and depression, bipolar as people call it. And sooner or later, there are temporary attempts to cover up the pain and it leads to an escape solution. I can't handle my mind anymore. My mind is driving me crazy. Before someone ever personally commits the act of physical suicide, they've already committed two previous, or they've really attempted it going forward with it on average. So the drugs, alcohol, pornography, stealing, and lying are temporary attempts to cover up the pain of bitterness that has not been dealt with. They're hurting, and they're seeking for the peace of God, but they don't know where to look. Suicide always follows a three-fold path. The same threefold path is what leads to divorce and marriage. Suicide and divorce are really parting of ways. Number one is mental suicide. It is always following mental suicide follows a painful experience of life. You've had someone who's hurt you. You've had someone that's passed away and God hasn't met your expectation. Someone has left you, abandoned you. There's many different things that could be stated there as an illustration, but you have a painful unresolved clash with someone. And you don't know how to deal with it and you're forced to contemplate and think about it. And maybe you're there in your sorrow and you're thinking, I hurt and I hurt deeply and I just want help. And if your mental assessment is not accurate, you'll pull away. from the painful experience. I just can't get near that person. I just can't deal with this. I just can't go there. I just can't see this. Because you haven't dealt with that painful experience or that person. You remove yourself. I just can't put myself in that same situation. There's a mental suicide. In many ways, people with that mental suicide, to numb their mind is through, many times, music. hours and hours listening to music and I've heard people say well music got me through this time of life music helped me but it never dealt with the painful experience not only through music but through pills people will use pills in a wrong way. They will use their prescriptions. They will use too much. They will not use them correctly. They want to numb their mind, so they use pills. Not only pills, they might use alcohol or other intoxicating substances. to numb their mind, to get away. And I've had people, I said, can you just be in an area where it's quiet, nothing's going on. And you know what, quietness for many a person who's struggling in that bitterness can be very upsetting and very distressing because they don't know how to deal with quietness. And so they will use an intoxicating substance to avoid and escape reality. Not only this, many times through chat rooms or pornography, Satan attacks kids when they're young and their bodies are developing, they're going through a lot of change in their physiology. As you see there on the slide, a statistic, 90% of children ages eight to 16 have viewed pornography. Largest consumers of pornography are 12 to 17 year old boys. Porn sites comprise 12% of the internet. It's a staggering statistic. What that's meaning is that as the years go by and the years go on, if you have daughters, protect them. Protect them because you don't know what other young men that may be pursuing or you don't know what other individuals whose mind might be corrupted by this very thing. When someone is in this, they value another person as a object and not of real value. And not only this, premarital relations, as it comes in a journal here, there was a medicine conference. When premarital relations are going on, it also significantly increases the mental illness. Dr. Francis Braceland, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, currently the editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Now this was several years ago, 1979, quite a few years ago. Braceland told the National Methodist Convocation on Medicine and Theology in Rochester, Minnesota, that a more lenient attitude on campus about premarital relations has imposed stresses on some college women severe enough to cause emotional breakdown. And so as you think about this, trying to avoid Not only this, another way an individual try to numb the relationships that they're going through is through homosexual relations. I can't trust the opposite gender, so I will try the same gender. And there's a painful experience of the past that has not been dealt with. And so with this, someone says, I'm hurting so bad, I can have someone that'll just love me and accept me. And maybe this is the way. There's a hurt in reaching out with love and care. But you also have not only a mental suicide, you have emotional suicide. And if we fail to work down through these painful experiences, we transition into an emotional suicide, which is allowing wrong thoughts to breed wrong feelings. We have feelings and emotions where we've been hurt and offended. And to protect our heart from these painful feelings, you pull away from emotional contact with that individual. You cannot be around them. It hurts too bad. You've had the mental, you've made that decision. You've had the emotional, it hurts too bad to be around that particular individual because you've been hurt and you haven't dealt with it in a biblical fashion. in marriage many times. It's an emotional wound a couple will live with in the same house, but they won't talk to each other. Maybe they sleep in a separate bed. They don't talk as they ought to with one another. They don't talk about the things that, as a couple, to go through that particular hurts. They just don't deal with those issues of life. There's an emotional suicide that wrong thoughts to breed wrong feelings. So a mental suicide is a following a painful experience that leads then to number two, the next step, emotional suicide with the wrong thoughts to breed wrong feelings. And you begin to think negatively towards this other individual. I've got to avoid him. I can't be around him. I've got to do this. And you're on the next step. And then you have ultimately physical suicide. I'm gonna read for you just a little illustration here. George Matheson, who was engaged to be married, learned he would soon be totally blind. His fiancee said, I cannot marry a blind man. He left her with his dreams shattered. He thought of taking his life, but instead took hold of himself as he wrote the moving hymn, Oh Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go. It says, O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow, may richer, fuller be. The second verse says, O light that follow us all my way, I yield. my flickering torch to thee, my heart restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine's blaze its day may brighter, fairer be. Third verse, O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee, I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain, that mourn that shall tearless be. Verse four, O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee, I lay in dust, life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be. Physical suicide or divorce and marriage occurs when a person cannot escape the pain of an unresolved emotional hurt. You have the mental, there's a following, a painful experience. You get to the emotional. I just can't be around them. It hurts too deeply. They've hurt me too much and I can't accept it. I've got to get away. I've got to get freedom. This person doesn't treat me right. And the list can go on, many different things. And that wrong thought has contaminated your feelings, so much so, that you see no way out. Either divorce or death. And divorce or death is a painful, is from a painful physical, is from their, death is a divorce from their painful physical life. I'm divorcing life. I just got to get away. My mind, I can't handle it anymore. Job, Jonah 4.1, as I discussed, Job was bitter. And with that, Jonah 4.3, Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. The Ninevites, who were wicked. So, he allowed it to so bother him, he went through mental painful experiences. People had been hurt. The emotional, I can't be around him. So he ran. God got a hold of him. God gets a hold of us. Then we get to the physical. Jonah said, it's better for me just to die. There's the high, the anger, and the depression. The bipolar, not dealing with the issues, the bitterness of life. Jonah's bitterness certainly did not consider those who were small. Jonah understood that God is gracious. And we can say, why does that person have it good and I'm struggling? Why do I have to hurt? And they can continue to go on. Why can they do what they want to do, but I have to sit here in my pain? I'm allowing that mental and emotional suicide. And if you don't deal with it, it could lead to a place of physical suicide or even a lashing out at others. I mean, just you're trying to get freedom from that. As I said earlier in Ecclesiastes 7.17, be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldst thou die before thy time? Suicide really is, it's a selfish act. It's taking your life before God says it's time. Please don't. If you ever get to that state, feel free to reach out and call. Call the church. It forwards onto my cell phone. Call for help. But there are so many people. I know there were things going on growing up. Brought me to that state in my mind. I was so discouraged and there were highs and lows, highs and lows. I had another family member, highs and lows, and ended up stopping an individual from moving forward in my own family. It affects us. That hurt. You see, if we just take Christianity as nothing more than a Sunday and Wednesday belief or a time where I read my Bible and pray as merely a checklist to go through, you're going to suffer the hurts and you don't know where to turn. There is a God in heaven that loves you and cares for you and wants to help you find the freedom. There is no reason that we need to go through life for years holding on to these grudges and bitterness and frustrations against others. There is a God that wants to give you. He loves you so much. You went to a cross and died in your place and mine. You're precious. You're valuable. In Proverbs 11, 17, The merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. It is not natural to want to hurt yourself. But when we allow these thoughts, those hurtful events, and we begin to believe those lies, that perception, the mental, the emotional, into the physical, it leads to a physical suicide. It troubles your flesh when you deal with those hardships of life. And Mark chapter three, verses 28 through 30, if you'd like to turn there. Mark chapter three, verses 28 through 30. Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. And I bring this verse up because sometimes people might say, well, they've committed the unpardonable sin, they've committed suicide, so they're definitely going to hell. That is not in the Bible. If someone commits suicide, that does not automatically determine their fate. Their fate is determined because based upon their life, if they accepted or rejected Jesus. That is a choice. Suicide, that act, does not mean a person is going to hell. It doesn't. The verse right here says that they commit the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God is not accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's the blasphemy. It is not committing suicide, and that's the reason why that verse is mentioned. So, if you've had a loved one that has committed suicide, It doesn't mean they're going to hell. It's their faith. I mean, they could have had a struggling faith and you don't want to know why. And actually, even as a believer, many times it talks about a Christian as a double-minded man. If you're not saved, you're not double-minded, but if you're a Christian, You're trying to do right, but yet you find yourself doing wrong. And that can get so discouraging. It totally brings you down and you don't have the victory. You don't have the peace. You're angry. You haven't dealt with those hurts. And so you do have those extremes. Double-minded. And you're unstable in all your ways. There's an instability because of a lack of dealing with hurts. And giving those hurts over to the Lord, taking them and saying, God help me. And so God wants to help you. God wants to give you freedom. He wants to give you strength. He wants to give you the peace of God. And as you do that, you begin to say, Lord, I forgive this person for hurting. And I turn them over to you. And we'll begin to deal with that at the Freedom Conference coming up here. As I've spoken to Brother Coomer here recently and going over several things for this conference, but I would encourage you to come to that. But if we believe the lie, and I don't deal with it on the why. For instance, Rebecca, she was abused by her uncle. Why did this happen? Well, my parents don't care for me. That was a lie. God doesn't care for me. No, that's a lie. Satan put those thoughts in her uncle and he acted upon those. It's not fair. She had the emotional clutter, that up and down, that mental struggles of mine that was never dealt with. There's a comparison. I'm just not doing well in medical school. Maybe I'm not smart enough, maybe this and maybe that, and so-and-so is better than me. There's a comparison. We get so discouraged, I'm not going to pass medical school. You get a bitterness at the parents and bitterness at God and bitterness at her uncle because of the abuse. Eventually lead her to that place of thinking about suicide. John chapter 10, verse 10, I'd like you to turn with me here. You are precious. You are valuable. You are loved by God. You are created in His image and God has a purpose for your life and suicide is not that purpose. In John chapter 10 verse 10, the thief cometh not, the thief Satan cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. What better way to destroy? Because suicide hurts not only you, but it hurts the loved ones, the family, and the friends around you who have to endure that tragedy of a life ended prematurely. But Jesus goes on to say, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. My friend, if you're contemplating this, or maybe you're going through those highs and lows of anger, depression, and it might, maybe you're saying, well, it's not as bad as it used to be. When I ask you, is there something in the past to hurt? That if you bring around a person, you can continue to bring up a scenario, you continue to bring up a hurt from the past, there's something in your life that is a bitterness. And when you begin to bring up, and there's some people that I've spoken to, and without fail, or almost without fail, a particular story will come up, it just rises up. Because it's fresh on their mind, so-and-so hurt me. So-and-so did this to me, God did this to me. There's a place of hurt in your life that has not been dealt with. And you know what? God wants to give you the victory and you can have it. But you got to be willing to say, you know what? I need help. And if you'd like help with that, I'd love to meet with you or my wife and I can meet with you and go through that. There is a public world, and we'll begin to speak about this next week, another factor to be considered in the Hole of No Hope. Everyone lives in two sets of worlds. You're visible and invisible, that which is visible and seen by your eye, and that which is not seen, the private world. And there's the spirit world. So you have your physical and your spiritual. And many times we just overlook the spiritual and we go through and just believe what the secular society says, but we fail to go to God's word and look at it and say, you know what? Is God trying to teach me something through this? I have gone through some times of my life, some deep depression, deep struggles. And through those times, as I would come back to the Lord, It wasn't what I wanted to do. But as I came back, I said, God, I can't handle this anymore. It's too much. It's too overbearing. The load is too much. And I would spend time with God. And I would spend time maybe listening to preaching and music. And I'd spend time reading God's word and meditating on it. And I would just read and read and read. And I've got to find some hope or a nugget of truth. And you know what? As I would beg and plead with God. God would encourage my heart. Sometimes those hurts are so deeply embedded, it's going to take some time. But my friend, God says he'll give us peace. He wants to give it. The question is, are you willing to say, God, are there any hurts? And then begin to unravel, open that onion up. and peel back the layers and deal with those hurts that are in your life. And you know what, my friend? You can have the peace of God. It's a daily thing. It's a continual thing. It's continually coming back to that source of life. He who is the fountain of everlasting life.