It’s Ok to Not be Ok
Under Attack
I was thinking the other day about how many people in our world are suffering. So I did a little looking and here’s what I found. You might find different numbers, but my guess is that this paints a fairly accurate picture of our culture.
Our families are under attack.
Approximately 41% of first marriages are expected to end in divorce. 9.8 million families in America only have 1 parent at home. Over 500,000 kids are in foster care each year.
People are under attack.
On average, Americans average only about 6.5 hours of sleep per night—well under the recommended 7–9 hours. Around 50% of adults report experiencing loneliness. 73% of teenagers say they struggle with loneliness. We live in a world that has never been more connected, yet people are lonelier than ever before! 19% of adults in America have been diagnosed with anxiety and 1 in 5 American adults have experienced some kind of mental illness, including anxiety and depression.
Add to that…
43% of U.S. adults say money negatively impacts their mental health at least occasionally. 26% of Americans admit to spending more than they earn. U.S. credit‑card debt has surged to a record $1.17 trillion.
Then there’s this…
Nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2022, the highest number ever recorded. Over 48 million people (age 12+) had a substance use disorder in 2022, including alcohol or drug addiction (SAMHSA). More than 112,000 overdose deaths were reported in 2023, driven largely by fentanyl (CDC). U.S. teens now average almost 9 hours a day on screens, yet loneliness and anxiety continue to rise (Common Sense Media). The number of U.S. adults who say they have no religious affiliation is now nearly 30% — triple what it was in the 1990s (Pew Research). But only 31% of Americans attended a house of worship in the past week.
Not Ok
We live in a world of people who are not ok. We don’t like to say, “I’m not ok.” When someone asks us how we’re doing, we’re quick to say, “I’m fine.” We say, “I’m fine” even when we’re not fine.
Even today, how many of you would say you’re struggling in some way today?
How many of you would confess you’re struggling in your marriage, or with your kids, or in a relationship? How many of you would say you can’t remember the last time you slept for 8 hours in a row? How many of you would say you’re feeling lonely? Or that you’ve got anxiety about something, or that you’re feeling depressed?
How many of you would say you’re stressed about money, you’ve got more credit card debt than you know what to do with, and you’re not sure you can make ends meet?
How many are secretly dealing with some kind of addiction, to alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling, or something else?
How many of you are struggling with faith, and you would say it’s a minor miracle that you’re even here today?
Everybody Struggles
I say all of that just to make this one point today: Everybody struggles.
We all say we’re fine, but we’re not fine! And it is OK to say, “I’m Not Ok!”
In fact, as a church, that’s one of the reasons we exist! That’s one of the reasons God gave us the church. We need God, absolutely. But God knows something we sometimes forget, we also need each other!
It’s ok to say I’m not ok. But here’s what you need to know. God loves you as you are, absolutely. But He loves you too much to leave you as you are. God wants you to have abundant life, the kind of life that is only found in Jesus Christ.
This is why we want to be a praying church. When life gets hard, we want to turn toward one another and turn toward God together. When things get complicated, when we’re not sure what to do, when we’re feeling lost, alone, afraid, worried, confused, or when we’re hurting… we PRAY.
We see this over and over and over and over again in the life of the early church.
The letter from Jude comes right before Revelation, the last book in your Bible. It has 1 chapter, so it’s super short. In fact, if you want to, you can read Jude in its entirety today; it’s only 25 verses long, and then you can brag and tell all your friends you read an entire book of the Bible in one day! 🙂
Jude, the author of this letter, might have been one of the four brothers of Jesus. That’s a strong possibility. He might have been one of the apostles. We know he was a leader in the early church. He writes this letter to Christians just like you and me who are living in a broken and fallen world.
Near the end of this letter, he calls on Christians to remain faithful. He challenges Christians living in a broken and fallen world who are constantly being tempted to turn away from faith and turn away from God to remain strong. He reminds Christians that over and over again, throughout the generations, from the days of the Exodus until now, God has always been faithful. He has rescued people from their sins over and over again.
But God is not soft on sin, far from it! He writes that people who scoff at God, betray him, teach falsely about Him, worship idols, or use “freedom in Christ” to live immoral lives will “bring about their own destruction” (v10). He says that they will face judgment, but that they brought it on themselves (v15).
Jude knows we live in a broken and fallen world. Sometimes life is hard. And there are people everywhere who are living to “satisfy their own desires.” But he calls on Christians, on those who have decided to follow Jesus, to be different.
First We Pray
Listen to what Jude writes in v20:
20 But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, 21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.
In a broken and fallen world where people are hurting, lost, and alone, Jude tells us as the people to God to “build each other up!”
How do we do that? How do we “build each other up in your most holy faith?”
Jude says, this is how we do it, we PRAY!
But this isn’t just a quiet prayer prayed, unsure if God is listening or if God cares. No!
Jude says, “Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit!”
The same power of the Holy Spirit that raised Christ up from the grave is the same power that we have access to in prayer and when we pray, we pray believing, we pray in faith, we pray in boldness, and we pray with Holy Spirit power!
Then We Wait
And after we pray, we wait. Jude says we… “await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life.”
First, we PRAY, then we WAIT.
But we wait expectantly. We wait for mercy. We wait because we know that God will bring eternal life into whatever it is we’re praying for.
Every prayer, every request, when you think about it, is a prayer for God to move us from death to life, from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light. Whether we’re praying for healing, or to break the chains of addiction, or for financial freedom, or for the ability to forgive someone who hurt us, every prayer is a prayer asking God to make things the way they are supposed to be, to bring eternal life into the situation, to redeem, restore, and renew.
We need this. We pray for this. And we pray in the power of the Holy Spirit for God to move in our hearts and lives for our good and for His ultimate glory.
And because we believe that God is faithful and God will do this, Jude says…
22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
Just as God shows mercy to us, just as God reassures our faith when we’re struggling, just as God rescues us, we must show mercy to others, reassure others, and rescue others.
We never endorse sin, but we LOVE sinners. We love each other. And we “build each other up in your most holy faith, praying in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
There is power in praying for one another.
Everybody struggles.
When we’re not ok, it’s time to pause and PRAY.
We turn toward one another, and we turn toward God together.
Let me close with this prayer from the final verses in Jude.
24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.
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