Mental Health & Faith | You Asked For It | Tim Birdwell

You wanna know what the will of God for you is? Renew your mind. Be transformed by God's character, his nature, every single day, every single thought, every single feeling. See it redeemed. I promise you, he'll tell you what kind of job to get. I promise you, he'll fix your relationships. If you are transformed, metamorphosed, not just a little tweak, not just a little upgrade, not just a two point o. It's a different operating system. That's what renewal means. If you do that with your mind, heart, and soul, God will show you what his will is. [00:28:56] (39 seconds)  #RenewYourMind

Talk to God about how you really feel. Journal how you really feel. Let me just clue you in on something. God is omniscient. He already knows. You try to present this best side of you in this Sunday khaki version of you. You're like, I'm gonna keep all the dark stuff over here. God sees it all. Who do you think he is? Tell him. [00:19:12] (22 seconds)  #BeRealWithGod

Jesus has been there. And he doesn't just say, hey, I've been there. It's gonna be okay. He says, I'm gonna redeem you from my glory. I'm gonna die for you, and I'm gonna rise again for you. I'm gonna give all of me so I can know and love all of you. And that's true for you today, but you gotta go to them. [00:41:51] (25 seconds)  #JesusKnowsAndRedeems

And as they stay in the dark, you will numb them with social media, with alcohol, with drugs, with sex, with lust, with pornography, with shopping. And as they stay in the dark and Satan, he doesn't have a pitchfork and he doesn't have a red tail and he's not coming at you trying to fight you. He just keeps you in the dark and tells you the lie that hey, they If they knew these things about you they wouldn't love you. [00:17:35] (29 seconds)  #StopNumbing

The Psalmist says, why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? I love the Psalmist doesn't just give statements, he gives questions to his feelings. He questions his questions. He doubts his doubts. Feelings are not facts. They are real, but they are not always reliable. [00:21:46] (22 seconds)  #FeelingsNotFacts

Your feelings have become dictators, not indicators as they were meant to be. And they're just leading you down all kinds of paths. And scripture is calling you, hey examine these things. They are important. Your mental health leads to your spiritual health. They are directly linked together. [00:24:39] (18 seconds)  #MentalAndSpiritualHealth

As you think about the sin you've committed and the sin that was committed against you and you do that without the spirit of God, without the people of God, and without the word of God, What's growing? For most of us, it's not righteousness, it's shame, it's guilt, it's depression, it's anxiety. And as you do all that over in the dark, and you got this garden full of weeds, and you don't even know it. [00:23:56] (32 seconds)  #DontCultivateShame

That alert that you get that you swipe clear really quickly that tells you how many hours you spend on it. Or that like you've tried with Instagram or whatever and you like try to set limits and every time you're like ignore for fifteen minutes. Ignore for fifteen minutes. And some of you need to think about that. What's that doing to your mind? What seeds are planting? Is that is that transforming you for the glory of God? Or is it shifting you away from people, the word of God, the mission of God? [00:33:01] (34 seconds)  #ScreenTimeSeeds

and he's coming at you and he's planting seeds in your mind every single day and they are growing. And some of y'all are like, Tim, I'm not suicidal, I don't have deep dark depression or anxiety, But every single day, there's a garden in your mind being cultivated. What's being cultivated? What's being planted? What's being grown? And are you pulling any of the weeds? [00:22:45] (20 seconds)  #TendYourMindGarden

And you're like, I know God is this, but I'm this, but I did this. Scripture flips the butt and say, hey, I feel like this. I feel like a mess. I feel shameful about what I did last night. I feel guilty that I'm not the father that I should be, and the friend that I should be. My finances are not I'm not tithing to the church. I'm not generous. I'm glad somebody gave $26,000 because I sure as heck went to Shake Shack. And I'm kind of just what's the point? But God, who is rich in mercy with the great love with which he loved me. He gave his son for me, his only begotten son, so that I could have eternal life, so that I could be adopted in his family and be a child of the king of kings and the lord of lords. Flip the butt. Change your process. [00:31:13] (64 seconds)  #MercyForTheMess

But notice in all of this, he's not hiding it. He's not numbing it. No. He's expressing it. And not on social media, and not with a substance, and not with a sex, and not even just with himself. He writes this under the Holy Spirit's inspiration. He is expressing his emptiness, his exhaustion, his dryness spiritually, mentally and emotionally. He's expressing it with God. Listen, with God. Not just a priest, not just a counselor. Again, we're pro counseling here, but he's going straight to God. [00:14:40] (41 seconds)  #ExpressToGod

And we've just grown up. You you've you've had seeds planted that have grown in your mind that have taught you this and you believe these lies. And yet God wants to redeem those lies and turn them into truth and have you express your emotions to God's people, to God himself, put them up against the word of God, and see them transformed for his glory. [00:39:48] (22 seconds)  #RedeemYourThoughts

And I was just like, oh wow. They're honest with God. They express, they don't suppress. They bring things into the light because that's actually where healing happens. You express your mental, your emotional thoughts and feelings before God who loves you, who knows them and he loves you. Do you believe that? [00:20:00] (28 seconds)  #BringItToTheLight

And some of you have believed the lie in church for way too long that you can't be honest about who you are. And let me just tell you again, a real Jesus died for the real you. He went to a real bloody cross and a real tomb and he overcame it for a real you to transform the real you. [00:18:45] (17 seconds)  #RealJesusForRealYou

But I would just ask you, what seeds are being planted in your mind when you wake up? Are they truth? Are they lies? Is it the pattern of this world from Romans 12? Or is it the pattern of Christ? When you hop on your phone and just think I'm gonna look at Snapchat, what seeds did you just plant? [00:23:19] (23 seconds)  #PlantDailyTruth

And doesn't Jesus bring healing to our struggles? Why am I gonna leave him up there when I could bring him to the altar and get healed? And yet, I think many of us, we even hear that. Some of you heard that and you're like, well, Tim, amen. That's what you're supposed to do. Leave it all at the door. No. You're supposed to bring it to God who can actually do something about it. He's loving enough to care. He's powerful enough to heal. [00:16:12] (22 seconds)  #BringYourStrugglesToGod

And that started a journey for me of renewing my mind and my health that I still go through today. It's an ongoing process. So I've been there. People have been there. Most importantly, listen to me. Jesus has been there. [00:41:14] (15 seconds)  #OngoingRenewal

And I'm a flawed father, and it breaks my heart when they don't. What does a perfect father feel for you, his kids who are struggling and not coming to him? But instead going to other things that are gonna hurt you and harm you and keep you in that spot, bring him into the light, express. I I don't know what it is today. There's some things planted in your mind right now you need to express onto God. [00:21:12] (22 seconds)  #BringYourStrugglesHome

And men, I would just I would just say this in the room, bring this into the light. Y'all gotta ask each other how you're doing. And it's okay to say, I'm not okay. Amen? Ladies? Amen? Can we tell the men to do this? And there's just some stereotypes in our culture like men can never be sad. Women, you can never be angry. [00:39:25] (23 seconds)  #ItsOkayToNotBeOkay

He leads it with truth. You have to look closely. Look at verse five with me. He says, hope in God. He preaches to himself. You notice that? Hope in God. For I shall again praise him. God's faithful. My salvation and my God. My salvation and my God. Very key. Salvation is God at the beginning. The rescue, he saved me. He was there at the beginning. [00:27:30] (24 seconds)  #HopeInGodAlways