Is life disappointing? Are their pains deep inside that no one knows about?

Are You Lonely, Sad, Depressed? Is life disappointing? Are their pains deep inside that no one knows about?

Have you ever thought about ending your life? • Is it Dissatisfaction or disillusionment? • Is it Feeling lost or lost all feeling? • Are you Angry and hurt or hurt about being angry? • Are you trapped in underachievement and purposelessness?

Would it surprise you to know most if not everyone is plagued by fears and failures? • There are some very damaging myths that are embraced by our culture such as: • You can be anything you want to be… • You are not supposed to be depressed or unhappy… • We are in control of our destiny and our happiness… • Everyone is supposed to be normal… It's what we are taught!

Did you know that most families are dysfunctional? • Most people grow up in families that have real problems some very severe and damaging for life. • Most people have inner turmoil and issues that constantly bother them; baggage that often began while little and the older they get the more it grows. Phobias Generalized pain Trust issues Insecurities

Do you suffer in your inner being? • Do you feel Insecurity, • loneliness, emptiness, • inadequacy • How about fear, • anxiety, distress, pain, • or deep seeded panic… • Do you want your life to • count, matter, mean • something, have value • to you & others far • more than it does? And there really isn't anything there...

Is it that you are never good enough? • No matter what you do people are never satisfied? • Is it that certain important people in your life are never pleased with you? • Do you feel you can’t do enough or be good enough to find approval or acceptance? • Maybe you feel like a black sheep (not like the others, not liked, not accepted, not wanted, maybe you’ve done something no one else has done)? Unwanted

Are there times when you want to run away? • The pressures from life • coupled with the inner • conflicts are just too much • at times? • Does the idea of fleeing, • flying away or wanting to • drive away and never come • back cross your mind? • Do you somehow feel • persecuted, up against it, • cursed as if someone were • against you, that you will • never get ahead?

Does life seem unfair? • Does everything you try end in failure? • Do you feel that you never got a break? • Do you get angry when others seem to have life so easy? • Do you take two steps forward only to make two or more backward? • Do you feel lost and life is passing you by? Unfair!

Do you imagine what life would have been like if… • You’d been born rich? • You’d been born with talent? • You’d been born of another color or better looking? • You’d made different choices? • If you’d been given the chance you deserve? You’d been given the training, teaching, and mentor you needed?

Has this gotten your attention? • I am describing the burden of life. • This is life being lived in a world that is fallen, cursed, and self centered. • The burden of life is the responsibility of our own happiness, purpose, and meaning being up to us. • As one famous singer once sang, “I did it my way…” Our Cares are our own!

The burden of life is being responsible for life when we were not meant to be… • The culture and media lure us into believing that we can be and do whatever we want to do; however, only a very small percentage of people really ever do… • And for those who do get to do whatever they want to do many of them are not happy, fulfilled, and at peace! Do it Your Way!

In essence we are being taught to chase our tails… • We are ever chasing some elusive place or state of peace and happiness. • We are ever searching for some kind of pleasure, entertainment, and completeness…and it always fades! • If we stopped and realized that our lives are genuinely empty and we are boredwe might find some answers to why this is so…

People avoid the truth about the burden of life… • We keep very busy! • We keep very entertained! • We keep striving for attention! • We keep life noisy, cluttered, and packed! • Some people never want to be alone; some are angry and bitter and don’t really know why.

Maybe your life has taken some direct hits! • Such hits as a parent dying young, parents getting divorced, someone close to you dying, being abused, attacked physically, experiencing trauma, tragedy, or crisis on several fronts… • Maybe someone you trusted severely hurt or betrayed you? Maybe someone has done something to you that you can never forgive?

Direct hits harden and alter our sense of wholeness and wellbeing… • Life scarsremain on us physically and emotionally; they remain psychologically or mentally inside of us… • Many people are very unhappy, unfulfilled, and lost…and many have honestly given up and live day to day on survival mode! Scars for life...

Are you just surviving? • Are you just trying to get by? • Are you waiting for things to change? • Are you feeling marked and rejected? • Are you living with a sick soul, wounded spirit, broken dream, loss of meaning? REJECTED

I am fishing because there are a lot fish trapped in this fish bowl! • Do I have any answers? I didn’t bring it up to let you down… • You may feel you are all alone in your own bowl; but you are NOT! We want to get you out!

We were Created to Know God! • Life is missing THE most important part—a relationship with God. • The Burden of Life is the result of living life outside of God’s Presence and Will—weare on our own. • What we are looking for isn’t pleasure, entertainment, accomplishments, success, fulfillment, meaning, outside or apart from God! (Our sin has separated us from Him.)

All of the things we are chasing after to bring meaning to our lives… • Will not satisfy us because none of these things, experiences, or people can fill the void (the god shaped void within us)! • We experience happy and sad, excitement, and misery but the one thing we can’t find is JOY. • We need joy that is not conditioned upon anything in this world. Empty

Joy comes from God and knowing His love… • Joy brings us peace and healing within… • Joy brings us rest from all our fears… • Joy brings us completion as a human being because God fills our hearts, souls, and spirit joining with us and filling us. • Jesus is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

As strange as it might • sound we will not find • true rest and peace • until we give our life • back to Christ. • When we try to keep • life for ourselves and • do things our way and • remain our own • god…the suffering • describe in this • message is the • common experience • of many if not all • people. We were meant to live with God and under God’s providence…

Our life belongs to God… • When we surrender and give up our life we’ll find it. • When we come under God’s authority and direction we’ll find meaning and fulfillment. • When we know God’s forgiveness and love our heartswill be at rest from insecurities, anxieties, and fear. See it...find it Peace

You have one life to live… • The world tells us to get what we can… • God tells us to give our lives to Him! • The world tells us to look out for number One! • God tells us to love our neighbor as our self and put God first and His kingdom! We've got it backwards!

In other Words… • Our pain and inner turmoil comes from an empty spirit and a life that is misguided chasing after the wrong things. • Jesus came to give us abundant life and to serve the eternal values not these temporal ones that are passing away… • In Christ what was lost can be found; what was destroyed will be recovered; what was wasted can be restored…but it requires being born again!

It is New Lives for Old! • God doesn’t want sinners in His Kingdom but He does want you. • God will cleanse us and re-create our spirit so that we can become Sons & Daughters of the Most High. • We forsake this world’s values in expectation of God’s kingdom coming; a kingdom everlasting. We give up what we cannot keep to find what we cannotlose—that is a good deal!

This Deal however requires Jesus as Lord! • The Burden of Life becomes Jesus’ burden for our meaning, purpose, fulfillment, happiness, joy, and walk in life! (He always intended to be our God) • We learn to lean, to rest, and to follow His Will, Word, and Ways and become free from the burden of life! • To understand how check out the topic on this DVD on “What does it mean to be Born Again?” It's a VERY good Deal!

Is life disappointing? Are their pains deep inside that no one knows about?