The Lie of Numb

What do people reach for when life hurts?

In this sermon from Proverbs 31:4-7, Pastor Jason explores addiction, emotional numbness, mental health, grief, and the quiet ways people try to survive pain. While many know Proverbs 31 as the "virtuous woman" passage, this message focuses on a mother warning her son, a king, about the danger of losing clarity, compassion, and purpose through numbness.

This is not just a sermon about alcohol or addiction. It is about all the ways people disconnect:

• through work
• scrolling
• anger
• isolation
• busyness
• emotional shutdown

From small towns battling addiction crises to overwhelmed families trying to hold life together, this message speaks honestly about survival mode, healing, and the hope found in Jesus Christ.

If you have ever felt exhausted, emotionally stuck, spiritually numb, or burdened by the pain of someone you love, this sermon is for you.

"Numb is not the same as healed."

Linkoln shares his story on why he started coming to Ravenna Church of the Nazarene and shares why you should consider doing the same.

Ravenna Church of the Nazarene
530 Main Street, Ravenna, KY 40472

Transcript

Episode Trailer

Pastor Jason 0:00

The person getting high is not the only one trying to stop the pain. All of us try to numb. But numb is not the same as healed. I'm Pastor Jason Barnett, and this is the Dirt Path Sermon Podcast. And I'm gonna be honest with you up front, Proverbs can be a difficult book to preach from sometimes. I mean, it's wisdom literature. And wisdom literature is messy because life is messy. So Proverbs doesn't always give us neat little black and white answers the way we want, right? It just gives us practical advice for what things we might encounter in life.

Pastor Jason 1:44

Let me add to that that Proverbs 31 comes with a lot of baggage. When people hear Proverbs 31, they mean to think about the perfect woman or Mother's Day sermons or impossible expectations that have actually hurt people over the years. But very near the beginning of Proverbs 31 is a conversation between a mother and her son that felt incredibly important to talk about right now.

Pastor Jason 2:07

The verses of the opening read like, don't mess with loose women and um don't drink, but the sermon became less about alcohol and more about numbness. The things people reach for when life hurts. About survival mode, about grief, addiction, exhaustion, distraction, and the way people slowly disconnect themselves from others and even God.

Pastor Jason 2:30

And this sermon opened up some really important conversations in our church this week . Not because the sermon was perfect, but because people are hurting more deeply than we often realize.

Sermon Introduction: "Numb"

Pastor Jason 2:41

Wherever you're listening from today, whether you're exhausted, grieving, overwhelmed, struggling, or praying for somebody you love, I hope this message reminds you that Jesus sees the pain underneath the numbness. So here's this week's message, the lie of numb from Proverbs chapter 31, verses 4 through 7. 

Pastor Jason 3:05

Now, teens, I'm gonna date myself a little bit here. But I think I think Jake and Keyairah might back me up, although I'm about 10 years older than they are. So they might they might know this. And Thomas, he might know this song too, just from being an athlete, maybe. Okay. But I've been thinking about a song uh this week that was kind of everywhere when I was younger. And again, some of you might know it immediately, and some of you are good Nazarenes, and you're not gonna know the song. Okay.

Pastor Jason 3:39

But it's a it's by a band called Lincoln Park. Has anybody ever heard of Lincoln Park? Okay, okay, I got I gotta catch up on it. Well, they had a song called Numb. And it was it was the song in the 2000s. No matter where you were, whether you're riding the van to to well, not the van, the bus to like a sports event or riding around with your buddies when I was even in high school, this song was blaring on our radio. It was very popular. And I think it was one, it was very popular, and it was probably like millions of people because the the words of it were so relatable.

Pastor Jason 4:22

And really the key line was from the chorus. The chorus said, "I become so numb, I can't fill you there." And again, that was such a powerful, relatable line, especially as a teenager, you know, grow up in a house and my dad had Huntington's disease and trying to just navigate life as a teenager anyway. So those lyrics resonate with me, and I know a lot of other people.

Pastor Jason 4:50

Now, people in the outside, when you hear that song and you hear it talk about being young, you can kind of get this idea that man, that's just that's just a song with angry music. That's just one of those teenage songs dealing with their anxiety. It's just loud rock music that we don't listen to. (This is why I never get in on the worship or debate, because we're never gonna do my style of worship in church, right? Like my favorite dance red and loud stuff like that."

Pastor Jason 5:21

But one of the things about Lincoln Park, especially this song and some of the other ones, but one thing that the lyrics hit different now. Because in 2017, the lead singer Chester Bennington committed suicide at 41 years old. And he dealt with deep emotional wounds that he carried. He was dealing with some he was dealing with some addiction and and trauma and depression in his life, things that he admitted to, and now when you go back and listen to those songs, you know, you just hear angry teenagers anymore. You hear a person just trying to survive.

Pastor Jason 6:16

Because even if we've never said the word numb or tried to numb ourselves somehow, most of us we know what it feels like to slowly shut parts of ourselves down. We do that just to make it through. Because sometimes life hurts long enough that instead of trying to heal, we're just trying to survive. And we're gonna look at a passage in Proverbs 31 today that kind of speaks to that. Because there's a thing, escape it can look different for different people. We know some people we we numb ourselves, not maybe not with substances and things, but we do it with distractions. And we can do it, we can we can use work. Like like when my dad died, the day after, the day he died, the day we had the funeral, as soon as they were both done, I went back to work. Because I I didn't want to stop long enough to actually think about what was going on.

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 31:4-7

Pastor Jason 7:23

So again, when I'm preaching to this to you this morning, I'm preaching to myself. Because I am the worst one. That's what we do. We work, we we we we we try to find some noise to keep our brain from running. We we try to sometimes we get angry, right? We get angry to kind of kind of not actually have to deal with the emotion of what's happening. Sometimes we just sit and we scroll mindlessly. Sometimes we just isolate ourselves. Because at first that numbness, that distraction, it feels like relief. But what if what if that is the lie? That's what we're gonna look at today in Proverbs 31. So Proverbs chapter 31, I'm gonna be reading verses 4 through 7. Now I'm probably gonna mess this name up, so don't go home and assume that I pronounced it correctly. I probably should just not say that. Y'all would have believed that I said the right way.

Pastor Jason 8:28

Proverbs 31, starting at verse 4, it said, It isn't for kings, Lemuel, it isn't for kings to drink wine, for rulers to crave strong drink, otherwise they will drink and forget the law and violate the rights of the needy. Give strong drink to those who are perishing, and wine to those whose hearts are bitter. Let them drink and forget their poverty, and no longer remember their toil.

Context: A Mother's Wisdom

Pastor Jason 8:57

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. So again, some of you may have thought this when I said turn to Proverbs 31 this morning, you probably assume what kind of message you were going to hear. Just Proverbs 31, we know it talks about what a virtuous woman looks like. Or for guys, it's like this is the checklist of the wife I'm supposed to be looking for. I would argue that's not really what it's about, but that's what that's what we typically hear on Mother's Day when we hear Proverbs 31.

Pastor Jason 9:32

But we skip the beginning of that because the beginning of Proverbs 31 is powerful because Proverbs 31 starts, it's with the mother giving her son advice. And her son isn't just some, you know, her son is the king. The king who's responsible for the well-being of other people, right? Her son represents justice. Right? He's supposed to protect the people, he's supposed to lead with wisdom. He has a heaviness on his shoulders. So what she is saying to him in these verses is be careful what dulls you. Be careful.

Pastor Jason 10:20

Now you might be thinking, what does this have to do with us, Pastor Jason? Well, here's the thing: we're not kings, right? There's no way that's a king here. But we are joint heirs with Jesus. When we place our faith in Jesus, that means we we get we get to be part of his inheritance. The king of kings, the Lord of the Lord, is his inheritance, he shares with us. And not only that, we are called to be a part of a royal priesthood of believers, representing Jesus to everybody around us. We're kingdom people. So these words here in Proverbs, they matter because they're not merely about drinking.

In the text: Verses 4-5--The danger of becoming dulled

Pastor Jason 10:59

Now I know we're Nazarenes and we have our abstinence program when it comes to alcohol, but this and you could you could very easily take this passage and take these verses and say, well, you should never drink alcohol. Let me be honest with you. There is no passage in the Bible that says it's a sin, and you're going to hell for drinking. Nowhere. And that's I'm a Nazarene saying that. That's not why we take a stance that we do. No, these verses are about more than that. These verses are about what happens when kingdom people slowly become known. So that's what we're looking at here. So let's dig in.

Pastor Jason 11:49

So she opens up with this brief warning. And she says, it this strong drink, this wine, it's not for kings. This is a it's that's not for you. Now when she's referring to strong drink here, she's not just talking about like grape juice or something like that. She's referring to like the strong stuff, the stuff that when you drink it, it it alters your mind. It changes the way you see things. Right. It's that kind of drink.

Pastor Jason 12:30

So she opens with that in verse 4. In verse 5, she explains her reasoning. She says, where's it go? Where's it at? It says, "otherwise they will drink and forget the law and violate the rights of the needy." That word "forget", this is more than just a, well, it kind of slipped my mind. It's more than you know, me forgetting to tell you about the flowers after the service is over. Not just a slip of the memory loss. No, this is a this is a neglectable thing. This is you have responsibilities and you've cast them out. You've pushed them aside for this drink here. That word forget implies like a moral carelessness and neglecting responsibility.

Pastor Jason 13:18

So, really, what the mom is talking about here is she's talking about numbness. I mean, she's very directly talking about drink, but under the surface of that, under this idea of don't drink the strong drink, she's talking about you as king, it's not for you to become numb. As a king, you need to feel this. You need to experience it. Because you have people depending on you.

Pastor Jason 13:45

And that you know, again, that's what she's getting at, though. That numbness, it doesn't affect just the individual. And Nina said this in Sunday school this morning. So much in our life we think, oh, this is only gonna just this is just gonna impact me. It never just impacts you, it ripples out and impacts the people around you. And so she she's saying, look, Lemuel, don't drink it. You're okay. This is this isn't for you, because you have people that are relying upon you for their protection. They're a voiceless people, you are their voice. And if you're numb to that, you're not gonna hear them and you're not gonna protect them and care for them the way a leader should. But if he's numb, it changes things.

Pastor Jason 14:32

Again, so many times when we read Proverbs and other places in the Bible, too, especially Proverbs, you read Proverbs like this is a book of, it's a like it's a checklist, right? If I do A plus B, then I'm gonna be healthy, handsome, rich, and wise. Right? I'll be righteous walking with God the way I was supposed to be. If I follow the checklist of pro the checklist in Proverbs, but that's Proverbs is not just that. It's not just about personal decision, not just about personal ethics and morality. True biblical wisdom, it applies, yes, we apply it to our life personally, but we apply it to our life personally because holiness is social. You can't exist in this world and live for Jesus and be isolated from the world. Right? That's why Jesus says you're called to be in the world, not of it.

In the text: Verse 6-7--Wisdom honestly acknowledges pain

Pastor Jason 15:28

So biblical wisdom always connects beyond self. So when the king becomes numb, others suffer. So the mother's giving him these words of wisdom here in Proverbs. All right, now looking at verses six and seven. Now, this is this is a little tricky here, because again, this is why I can't say this is why it's weird. Because I just told you, like the Bible, you if you read the Bible, it doesn't tell you that if you drink one drink, you're going to hell, right? There's no place in scripture where you'll find that. And now it looks like verses six and seven are telling you, hey, you can drink as much as you want, there's no problem, right? Because the this mother is saying to her kings son, hey, um, she just told a strong drink, stop the king, give it to those who are, and then she gives a list.

Pastor Jason 16:15

This is where it's important to understand scripture and the context of scripture. Right. See, the book of Proverbs does is it looks at human behavior and is honest about that. It tells the truth. And it tells us how that we can navigate the world that we're living in.

Pastor Jason 16:39

And these verses right here, verses six and seven, these are what you call descriptive verses, not prescriptive verses, right? Prescription, like you know the word prescription. You go to the doctor, the doctor's gonna prescribe, hey, you're dealing with this, take this, and it will help. This verse is not one of those verses. This is a descriptive verse.

Pastor Jason 16:58

This is a mother giving advice to her son the king, and so yes, she says, "give strong drink to those who are perishing and wine to those whose hearts are bitter. Let them drink and forget their poverty and no longer remember the food." She is saying that. But she's not saying that because it's okay to numb yourself. She's not saying that because it's like you. What she is saying in those verses is son, you are the king. What these other people are doing, what these other people are going through. That drink is for them, not for you. Your job is to be the voice of the voice of one. Your job is to care for those who are broken, your job is to help poverty get up out of poverty. That is your job as a leader. And you can't do that if you're given to strong drink.

Pastor Jason 17:55

Now, she's not saying that those that are going through those things should have strong drink. What the Bible is doing here, the Bible is being very honest about human behavior. And what Proverbs is saying is there is utter brokenness in humanity. There are people that are living in misery. There are some people in this world that are living under intense suffering. Suffering so intense that it's unbearable. Their minds can't handle it. And they're trying to escape it somehow. They're trying to get away from it. The Bible is not pretending that people are always emotionally okay.

Pastor Jason 18:46

That's why the mom is saying this to her son. She's saying those people under your care, they are emotionally not okay. And they turn to these things, they turn to these things because they're dying and they're suffering, they're in pain. It's like they are drinking, trying to numb themselves from the pain. There are people who are living in poverty and they're working so hard, they're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and no matter how hard they work, they can't just they just can't make enough. So they're drinking to try and forget that. That's what the mother is saying here. She is recognizing the hardship, she is recognizing the emotional toil that that's taking.

Pain makes escape tempting

Pastor Jason 19:36

And she is telling her son, son, strong drink is not the king. Because that drink does not help solve poverty, it doesn't bring healing, it doesn't it doesn't solve problems, it doesn't give permanent a relief, it doesn't restore life, it only temporarily stops people from feeling the pain. And numbness is not the same as healing. Numbness is not the same as healing. You see, all of the sweet, we're oh, look at the difference. Let me be clear again. This sermon is not about abstinence from alcohol. I promise you, I'm not gonna go to your house today after church is over and search your cabinets and your refrigerator and be like, that's Nazarene approved, that's not Nazarene proof. I'm not gonna do that. I don't have time to do that, I'm not interested in that. It's not biblical to do that. Is there any other reasons I need to give? Okay.

Pastor Jason 20:44

It's not a sermon against psychology or medicine. We know that that this body can get broken sometimes physically. Well, up here it gets broken too, and in here it gets broken too. And those need treated the same way as the body does. And there's medicine and there's there's science behind all that. And God is not against those sciences. And this is not a sermon that's telling you just have more faith and all your problems are gone.

Pastor Jason 21:14

This sermon is about pain and what you and I will do to get relief from it. We don't want to feel pain. And when we feel pain, pain makes it makes it makes us think from it tempting, right? Becoming numb becomes a temptation to us because we know it hurts, it doesn't feel good, we want it to stop.

Pastor Jason 21:42

See, escape can slowly steal things from us. It steals our clarity, it steals our compassion, and it steals the calm God God's calm of lives from us. And all this we're tempted to escape somehow. We're trying to seek release somehow in our lives from what we got going on.

Pastor Jason 22:10

Again, we don't all do the same way. Some people they do turn to alcohol. Some people they do turn to other substances. But I think a lot of us it's we just work harder. Put our nose down, put our head down. To most we just scroll endlessly, you know, like because we don't want to stop and actually deal with what's going on in our life. We find a way to step out of it for a minute. Because we don't want to feel it.

Numbing is the lie

Pastor Jason 22:43

We distract ourselves from pain like we're little kids at the doctor's office to get the shot, right? Remember, they would. I know Jaedyn, especially. Remember they'd have to get like the whole team of nurses to come in and hold her down because she saw that needle. She's fighting back. She's like, oh no, you're not sticking me. And so we have to find ways to distract her. Like, hey Kid, there's a dinosaur, follow the dinosaur. Oh look, daddy, a dinosaur. That's what we do to ourselves, right? We use these other things to distract ourselves from the pain in our life so we don't have to deal with it. We numb ourselves. The numbness is not healing. It's temporary relief. And that the fact again, numb numbing, the numbness is a lie because again, we get temporary relief from us from it. We think all the pain is gone. We as long as we're doing this or not paying attention, we don't feel it, so it's okay.

Pastor Jason 23:42

That's the lie, though. Because just because you don't feel something doesn't mean it's gone. It's still there. Trust me, I ended up in therapy last year because from all of my life I kept taking all the pain I've been through, and I just kept stuffing it into like this tissue box. Right? My dad dying, go get in that box, we're not gonna think about that, we're not gonna feel. And it wasn't drugs or alcohol, it was just I'm just not gonna stop and think about it. I'll stuff it in here. My ex-wife and that little saga. I took those emotions, I stuck them in the box, and I'm not gonna deal with that either. Close the door, nope, nope, not there, it doesn't exist. Mean church people, not gonna deal with that emotionally. Stick that in there, shut the door.

Pastor Jason 24:30

But here's the problem: you stuffed it in there long enough, you keep forgetting it's not there long enough, it's still eating under the surface. At some point, it's going to come up and hurt wreck your life. Because all you are doing is making yourself numb and not actually dealing with the real issue. Because numbness is not healing.

Pastor Jason 24:55

See, numbness is disconnects us from God, it disconnects us from people, it disconnects us from our purpose. It stalls our compassion and our attentiveness and really we can't be a living for the kingdom if we're not paying attention.

We are Kingdom people

Pastor Jason 25:21

And here's the thing, when we when we numb ourselves, it's gonna take more and more numbness to make the pain go away. Pretty soon we do such a job making the pain go away, we don't feel anything at all. See the lie becomes that we're okay, but in reality we're so not okay that we can't tell that we're not okay. Well, this matters because kingdom people were called to live awake. Because here is the thing, Jesus did not die to to save us, merely so we could just survive from day to day. Right? He didn't, he didn't, it's like sometimes we think we die Jesus died on the cross and saved us our sins, and now our job is to just gasp for air until get into eternity with him. But we were not saved for that purpose. We were saved for so much more. We were saved for life everlasting, everlasting life doesn't start when you get to those other shores, it starts right here, right now. You're called to live and take full breaths here to experience life here, and that includes the pain of it.

Pastor Jason 26:47

And if you're following my notes, I'm deviating a little bit. Because here's the thing when Jesus went to the cross, remember they offered him the drink on his way there? Remember that? They've been beaten to a bloody pulp, they go through him on the cross, like offering this beverage that was supposed to help people that were condemned to die. And going through what Jesus helped ease the pain and suffering so that we would past easier. But remember, Jesus says, No, I don't want it. That's because Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus wanted to experience it. He wanted understand this was the cost of sin, and I'm going to pay that price to save you.

Pastor Jason 27:40

Doesn't mean the pain is okay, doesn't mean it belongs there, doesn't mean you can just bring along like it's a pet or something of the pain. It's something that God wants to heal in us. He wants to restore it. And he can't do that if we're numb.

Pastor Jason 28:04

See, we're called the holiness, and holiness is not just about what we do and we don't do. Right? So many times we as Nazarenes, we have a little section called the Code of Christian cu the Code of Christian conduct or something like that. It's like like it's changed a lot through the years, right? Libby can testify to this, Warren can testify to this, it by allows us to group, you weren't allowed to know the movies, weren't allowed to play with playing cards. What else was there? There's all kinds of jewelry. And so we thought that's what holiness was. If you check these boxes offering, you don't do that, and that's holiness. That's not holiness.

Jesus the pain beneath our numbness

Pastor Jason 28:40

Holiness isn't does or don't. It is not even behavior. Holiness is a state of being. And that state of being is that we've been made whole by the blood of Jesus through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Made whole, restored, or healed. That means Jesus come in. And yes, we've had to deal with the actual wounds in our lives. That brought pain, that brought suffering, but rather than just gloss it over, rather than numb ourselves, of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit helps us to deal with them and he healed. See, Jesus sees the pain beneath our numbness. He knows it's there. He he sees why he sees what we're doing. That's what we get posted. It's like, this is what they're doing, right? We look at alcohol or people abusing substance to say, well, they're doing this, we they're wrong for doing that. Yes! But do you understand why? Because something under the surface is broken. There's a pain and a wound there. And rather than deal with the pain and the wound they're doing there, you're taking that substance and they're using it to know it just like we do with our workaholicism, just like we do with our scrolling.

Pastor Jason 30:07

Jesus sees the real wound. He sees that what's really going on, where the hurt's really at, and that's what he addresses. Because he understands there's no point in addressing the behavior if you don't address what's causing the behavior!

Pastor Jason 30:31

Your pastor did something dumb a couple weeks ago. This is when I don't see that. I'm so far off track in my notes that we'll get back to there somehow. There's a there's a boy named Carter that comes to kids group every once in a while. And uh Carter's a sixth grader. And he plays sports, he's super athletic, but he he's been he was in the process of being diagnosed with a hernia. That's gonna need surgery repair. We were playing some game on a Thursday night, I didn't even think about it. We just involved running. I didn't tell him to play didn't make him play. But as soon as the game was over, Carter comes to me Pastor Jason, my side hurts . It's like, Jason, you big dummy. You're a combat medic. You know better than this, you idiot. You shouldn't have been running, Carter. I shouldn't let you run.

Pastor Jason 31:23

But see, the real issue wasn't the running, was it? That wasn't the real problem. He can stop running all he wants, but until he goes to the doctor, he gets that actual hernia and treated, that pain is still gonna be there, the injury's still gonna be there. That's what people are dealing with, that's what the Bible is addressing.

Pastor Jason 31:46

Again, Jesus knows our grief, he knows our anxiety, he knows the trauma we've been through, he knows we're exhaustion just trying to get from one day to the next. He knows we've been operating in survival mode. But he loves us way too much to offer us temporary relief.

Numb is not the same as healed

Pastor Jason 32:05

Jesus isn't a band-aid. Instead of numbness, Jesus offers restoration, he offers healing, he also offers us freedom and life. So maybe this lie is one that's had us trapped for a long time. It's one of those lies that the devil feeds us, that we take a hook, line, and sinker, we don't ever stop or think about whether it's true or not.

Pastor Jason 32:42

But Proverbs 31 has painted us a different picture. The Bible is giving us something different. You see, a mother's looking at her son that she loves saying, Be careful what dulls you. Be careful what steals your clarity. Be careful what slowly disconnects you from who God created to be. Because numb is not the same as healed.

Pastor Jason 33:09

So some of you know this firsthand. You have experienced it. You've watched numbness steal years from your life. That's it really does.

Pastor Jason 33:26

Again, I said a minute ago, this is not just about having enough faith, right? That's not what this sermon is. Just having enough faith doesn't make all your problems go away. It's not about avoiding mental health professionals and that. No, I know that because I had to go on and get some stuff for a little while. It's not about it's about not letting your letting numbness steal your joy. Steal your peace. Steal your compassion.

Pastor Jason 34:11

Yeah, we've all we've all watched numbness carry off people that we love.

Pastor Jason 34:17

In this message, I'm not about shaming anyone. It's not about shaming hurting people. I just want you to understand how much Jesus loves you. How much Jesus loves you, how much he sees you. How much he understands, how much he cares. You were created to love deeply and to see clearly. He died so you could be healed and walk in the freedom of that healing. Doesn't matter how far away we've run, doesn't matter how broken or messed up you are, Jesus never stops loving you, never stops saying, I can't do anything for you. He says, Come to me and I will give you rest. Come to me and I'll make you fishers of men. Come to me and I will give you everlasting life.

Pastor Jason 35:41

The first step today is honesty. What do you reach for when it hurts? When it hurts, what's the first thing you go for again? Is the first thing you go for God or is it something else? How tired are you really? How long have you been pretending everything is okay? Because until we start feeling transformation can't happen.

Pastor Jason 36:29

Now perhaps today it's not your own numbness. We all have somebody we love in our lives that is stuck in something that we don't want to wish they weren't stuck in. And we you spent years watching them slowly disappear behind something. Just as much as much altar is here for those that need to find healing, the altar is here for you too. Want's to give you hope.

Pastor Jason 37:15

Maybe maybe you're in a season of life where you're not in need of those, and you're just here. Thank you. You could have been anywhere else on this Mother's Day Sunday morning. We chose to be here. Somehow you don't fit in any one of those groups. We live in a community where this is a problem. Am I right? Let's not pretend it's not. Let's let's acknowledge. This is a problem. It's not a problem we've created, it's not a problem that that we're we're we're announcing saying we're proud of it. It's a problem. And we can make all the laws we want to, we can set up all the best programs we want to, but what's gonna change people is Jesus. It's gonna start there.

Pastor Jason 38:03

So that means we as the people of God need to get down and pray. How would you use us? Would you intervene? Would you intercede on their behalf? I'm here stepping in that gap. They're not here this morning to pray for themselves. So, God, I'm here praying for him. I know we have a lady that watches online, that she's praying desperately for some of the people up on the Barnes Mountain. Caught up in those things. Let's pray with her.

Listener Invitation

Pastor Jason 38:32

You know why I'm I believe I can we prayed that God would help us get 80a people for Easter, and guess what? We had 84. If God can do that. Just imagine what he can do. Well, you made it to the end of that message, and I thank you for staying through the whole thing. And at the end of that message, I did give an altar call, one where I went to the altar and prayed in intercession myself. But today, maybe your altar is not inside a church building. Maybe it's the front seat of your car, your back porch, the kitchen table after everyone else has gone to bed, the jogging trail with earbuds in, or maybe just sitting quietly trying to hold yourself together one more day.

Pastor Jason 39:17

Wherever you are right now, the invitation is still the same. If you're tired of surviving numb, come to Jesus. If you're exhausted from caring pain alone, come to Jesus. If you are grieving, if you're anxious, if you are overwhelmed, if you're trying to hold a family together, if you are a praying for somebody trapped in addiction, somebody trapped in depression, anger, or trying escaping, come to Jesus. Because numb is not the same as God. And Jesus did not die and rise and rise again so you can merely survive. He came to restore you, to heal you, to make you fully alive again.

Pastor Jason 40:01

So before you move on to the next thing today, I want to invite you to pause for just a moment and pray with me.

Connect, Subscribe, Goodbye

Pastor Jason 40:08

Lord, you see the pain underneath the numbness. You see the exhaustion, grief, anxiety, trauma, and loneliness we carry. You know the ways we try to escape instead of heal. But thank you for loving us too much to leave us there. Lord, help us stop hiding. Help us be honest about the wounds we carry. Help us to bring our pain to you instead of only trying to silence it. For those who feel trapped in survival mode, bring hope. For those battling addiction, bring freedom. For those grieving someone they love, bring comfort. For those who feel emotionally numb, awaken in their hearts again. Teach us to live awake. Teach us to love deeply. Teach us to walk in the healing and holiness you offer through Jesus Christ. And remind us today that we are not abandoned, forgotten, or beyond your reach. And Jesus done. Amen. Hey, if this message connected with you, uh, I would genuinely love to hear from you. You can reach out to the Dirtpath uh Facebook page or Ravenna Church of Nazarene has online stuff at ravnaz.com. You can reach through the podcast platform, there's a send us a message button, or you can just email me at dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. That's dirtpath at gmail.com.

Pastor Jason 41:29

If you're struggling with something and you want to share that, I'd love to pray for you. If God sets you free for something, share it with me. I'd love to hear from you. If you're praying for a loved one, let me help you pray. Um no, you're not alone. Jesus walks with you, and I'm praying for you too.

Pastor Jason 41:45

Now, if today's from a stirring your heart for people struggling with addiction, poverty, grief, or crisis, I also encourage you to support the show. Now I have no desire to monetize this show or any of my content. Um, but you can support the show in a simple way. You can do it by supporting the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Uh, there's a link available in the show notes somewhere. Uh they do incredible work working alongside hurting people in communities all around the world. And so when you support the show, you're actually supporting the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and directly, their emergency response e fforts.

Pastor Jason 42:19

Now, before we go, let me encourage you with this. Healing is often slower than numbness. Numbness can happen overnight, but healing usually happens step by step, prayer by prayer, day by day. So don't give up because the process feels slow. Jesus still at work, even when healing feels gradual.

Pastor Jason 42:41

Until next time, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus.