CRAZY PILL

The Cause of Crazy

January 11, 2009

Ed Young

[An instrumental version of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” plays as Ed walks on stage.]

All right, who recognizes that song? Yea, Crazy Train, because we’re talking about Crazy Pill over the next several sessions. That’s right, we’re doing a series called Crazy Pill.

Am I the only one, or sometimes do you ever look around and say, “Man am I the only person who hasn’t taken my crazy pills?” It’s crazy on the freeways, our world is going crazy with crazy terrorists blowing themselves up, the economy has gone crazy and there’s crazy movies. We just live in crazy world. Everything is CRAZY.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, Ed, you know what, I just got back from the holidays and I spent a lot of time with my crazy relatives. What a perfect opportunity to attend a series that I can sort of get some help and some fast temporary relief from the aches and pains of craziness.”

Well all of us, we’re going to find out, are crazy. And over the next little while we’re going to talk about two types of crazy. There is a good crazy. Say ‘Good Crazy’. Yea, there’s a good crazy. We should be good and crazy. And the Bible talks about this. That’s right, the Scriptures talk about having and being crazy in a good way.

Illus: I’ll give you an example. Tim Tebow. You heard of him? The quarterback for the University of Florida? That guy is good crazy. And it freaks people out because he’s crazy for God. He’s thinking about others. He’s going on mission trips. It’s not about him. Wow, that’s a shocker in today’s culture, especially in the world of athletics.

Jesus was crazy. A good crazy. It’s crazy to become a follower of Christ. The apostle Paul was crazy. And he challenges us to be crazy for God. So there’s a good crazy.

But today though, we’re talking about another kind of crazy. We’re talking about a crazy-crazy. A crazy that’s whack, that’s loco, that’s skewed. I’m talking about a crazy where you’re like the lights are on but nobody’s home. Your elevator doesn’t go to the top floor. You don’t have all the line on your reel. I’m talking about that kind of crazy.

CRAZY PILL

The Writing on the Wall

January 18, 2009

Ed Young

There’s one thing that we learn from history. It’s the fact that we don’t learn history. Have you discovered that? We have read about and we’ve heard about all these people doing all these crazy things. Yet, so many of us end up doing the crazy things. So again I’ll say, there’s one thing we learn from history: it’s the fact that many of us don’t really learn from it.

That’s why I’m so excited about the Bible, because the Bible not only shows the strong points of characters, it also shows the weaknesses. The Bible tells us how to learn from history. In fact, as you read Scripture, it says time and time again, “Learn from history. Learn from the history,” God tells us, “of Scripture.”

Do you ever deal with any crazy people? I mean, our world is crazy, isn’t it? Crazy people are everywhere. At the grocery store, on the athletic field, in school, around the office, neighborhood. We’re surrounded by crazy people.

When I talk about crazy people, I’m not talking about people who are mentally ill. That’s a whole other subject. I’m not talking about people who have a chemical imbalance. No. I’m talking about people who are whack. Those who are loco, those who don’t have all the line on their reel. Those who are sort of wheels off. That’s who I’m talking about.

Really, I’m talking about what the Bible says regarding crazy people. And here’s what Scripture says, let me paraphrase. “You go crazy when you say with your life, ‘I’m sovereign, and you’re not. I’m God. And God, you’re not God.’”

Whenever we make that decision, we are going to go crazy. We take the crazy pill.

There’s another crazy. It’s a good crazy. All of us are a little crazy. All of us have a cup of crazy in our family recipe. Maybe some have a gallon or two, but good-crazy is what we should be. And we’re going to discover over the next several sessions what it means to be good and crazy.

CRAZY PILL

Mob Madness

January 25, 2009

Ed Young

It’s amazing how often we make decisions - life is full of decisions. Some of you right now are in the process, I know, of making a major decision in your life. A life that – that matters to God. And you’re making choices that really-really concern him. Some of you are thinking about, “Ok, Ed, I’m possibly considering a relocation. I’m thinking about another job.”

That’s a major decision. You’re in the throws of it. You’re in the middle of that decision. Others of you have been talking to someone, you’ve been dating someone for a while and you’re like, “I’m really considering marrying this person.” And that’s probably the second most important decision you’ll ever make. That’s a big-time decision.

Others of you are like, “You know, this hurtful habit I’ve been dealing with, this thorn in my flesh. I’m tired of it.” And you’re again in the process of making the decision about really dealing with that and getting rid of that.

Others are thinking about a financial decision because of this economy. Maybe because of the cards or the hand that’s been dealt to you, you’re like, “This is a joke. I’ve got to change, I’ve got to do something.” You’re in the throws of that decision. So, decisions, decisions. Life is full of decisions as we negotiate the maze of life.

When you’re making a decision, what are you doing? Because we’re going to look today at the evolution of a decision. And the reason that we’re going to do so is the fact that the Scriptures tell us how to make great decisions and great choices.

I’m going to talk to you about a man that you’ve probably never heard a talk on before, or a sermon on before. His name is Darius. Darius was an Old Testament figure who was a king. And basically, Darius, we’re going to see, was in the throws of a major decision. And the cool thing about this decision that Darius was making was you could feel the movement, you could feel the tension and you can see him moving toward the right decision.

And then right when he gets down to the point of making the call, well, I’m going to talk about that.

CRAZY PILL

A Serving of Crazy

February 1, 2009

Ed Young

Earlier this week I was in New York. And while in New York I saw a vintage clothing store and I got these boots. These boots were made in the 1970’s. They were worn in the 70’s. And I paid $49 for the boots. The guy in the store called them Beatles Boots. I’m not sure if Ringo Star or John Lennon wore them, but I do like the shoes. It’s interesting about vintage clothing, people tell me, because, what was once old-school is now sort-of new-school. It’s in style, people are saying. It’s very interesting – vintage clothing.

Illus: You know, the first time I ever walked on a yacht – it was a gorgeous vessel. It had a crew of 10. And a gentleman invited me to spend about 24 hours on this craft and just to talk to him about his life. And as I sat down and looked at this gentleman, a very obviously wealthy person, we began to discuss life and his philosophies of different religions and things of that nature. And basically, this yacht was a mirror of his life. The yacht was floating on the turquoise seas and this man was floating on the seas of relativism. He was kind of doing the cafeteria-style religion thing – taking a little bit of Buddhism, a little bit of Hinduism, a little bit of Christianity, and mixing it into this cosmic cocktail. And that was his existence.

After I talked to him for several hours and he told me about his marriage that was all messed up and how his kids hated him, finally I just looked at him and said, “You know, you are one of the most miserable people I’ve ever met in my life.” I said, “I wouldn’t trade places with you for anything.”

And then I looked at him and I said, “Ok, here’s what you’re doing, here’s what you’re believing. How’s it working for you? I mean, seriously. How is it going for you? Because to me, it doesn’t seem like it’s going that well.”

Well today, we’re going to discover something. We’re going to find out that we can learn from the old-school. That we can learn from some of the vintage stories in Scripture and we can apply the old-school in today’s new-school. We’re going to discover that many of us are sort of like the people we’re going to be looking at today. Many of us are floating on the seas of relativism.

We have convictions about no convictions. In other words, we believe truth is relative.

We say, and this sounds so cool and so sexy, “Hey, what’s true for you is true for you. But what’s true for me is true for me.”

There’s no real truth source out there. What happens when you life your life that way. What happens when you say, “you know what, that’s going to be my mantra”?

CRAZY PILL

Crawl Away From Crazy

February 8, 2009

Ed Young

All right, thanks for being here today. Thank you so much for being here. By the miracle of technology this is going to be seen at all of our campuses, we’re very, very excited about that, because whenever you hear the word disciple – a word that some of you are familiar with, a word that maybe some of you aren’t – a disciple is a learner. And at Fellowship Church, I’m thrilled, because we have a bunch of incurable learners. We learn through high-definition video, we learn through live teaching, we learn through different video, short films, we learn through songs, we learn through dramatic readings, we learn through all sorts of things, so welcome to Fellowship Church. We’re packed full of disciples. And we’re full of incurable learners.

Well, today I’m going to talk about something that everybody deals with. I’m going to talk about depression. Now, when I just said everybody deals with depression, you might be going, “Well, I’m not dealing with depression right now. I’m not feeling down in the dumps right now.”

You will. Some of you are dealing with depression. And this message is directly to you today. You can apply this right where you are, because the Scriptures are going to get all up in our chili as we talk about what depression is, the cause of it, and the cure of it.

Now, if you’re saying, “Ed, I’m not depressed.” One day you will definitely need this stuff so make sure you take it and download it. Or maybe you know someone in your family, or you know someone at work who’s dealing with depression.

I’ve been fascinated since I’ve studied depression. I’ve been blown away as I’ve looked at depression throughout the Bible. Because so many people in Scripture dealt with depression. So many of the great matriarchs and patriarchs, the great men and women of God, dealt with despondency and feeling really, really down.

What is depression? I mean, when I throw the term out, what am I talking about? Depression would be considered an intense feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that leads to sadness. Helplessness and hopelessness that leads to sadness.

And I’m here to tell you that all of depression is not sin. Yeah, if your rebellion before God has led to depression, that is sin causing depression. But so much of it, in fact, most of it is not a sin. So isn’t that cool? It’s not a sin to be depressed.

So if I’m depressed, I’m hopeless, I’m helpless and it leads to intense sadness. Well, today’s talk is going to be about giving hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless. I want to talk to you up front, I want to give you the raw and real, the 4-1-1 you might say about depression.