​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ July 28 2024)
Sermon Title – God’s Reconciliation Plan for A Divided Humanity
Text – Ephesians 3:14-21
Rev Dwayne Doyle 

​The First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012
Sermon Notes (Sunday, July 21, 2024)
Rev. Dwayne M. Doyle, Guest Preacher
The Good Shepherd
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
 
From “The True Story of the Final Hour- The Heroic Rescue of the Pendleton Crew, 1952”:
“On Feb. 18, 1952, four men risked their lives in a howling nor’easter off Cape Cod to save 32 mariners on the shipwrecked tanker Pendelton.  They brought all but one to safety in a wooden motorboat designed to hold no more than 16 people.
They were four Coast Guardsman at the Chatham Lifeboat Station who volunteered to try to make what seemed to be an impossible rescue.  They faced freezing temperatures and 60-foot waves in the hopes of reaching the Pendelton, an oil tanker that had snapped in two during the fierce storm.  All received the God Lifesaving Medal, the Coast Guard’s highest honor, for “extreme and heroic daring.”
The Coast Guard called it the greatest rescue by a small boat in its history.  The four men were called heroes.  They shrugged it off and said they were just doing their job.
No SOS from the Pendleton
At 5 a.m. on Feb. 18, 1952 the Pendleton was headed south in blinding snow and violent seas 10 miles off the coast of Chatham, Mass.  Suddenly crewmen heard explosive cracking noises.  The vessel lurched heavily and then broke in two.
Pendleton Sinking
The Pendelton’s bow section lost power and drifted south with the captain and seven crewmen aboard.  The power remained on the stern section, and the chief engineer took charge and assigned duties to the 32 crewmen.
They didn’t manage to issue an SOS
At midmorning the Chatham Lifeboat Station got word that another tanker, the Fort Mercer, had also snapped in half.  Cutters, an airplane and a lifesaving motorboat raced to rescue the vessel 20 miles off the coast.
Hours later, radar at the Coast Guard station showed the two broken pieces of the Pendleton.
Coxswain Bernard Webber was told to pick his crew and rescue the shipwrecked sailors.  Three men volunteered for the suicidal mission:  coast Guardsmen Ervin Maske, Andrew Fitzgerald and Richard P. Livesey.
Rock of Ages
They launched the 36-foot boat named the CG-36500 into mountainous waves, blinding snow and zero visibility.  To ward off fear, they sang Rock of Ages and Harbor Lights as they approached Chatham’s treacherous sand bar.
The Pendelton wreck lay just on the other side of the bar.
As they crossed the bar, a wave smashed into the CG-36500 and threw it high into the air.  The boat landed on its side and righted quickly before another wave struck it.  The breaker shattered the windshield, flattened Coxswain Webber and sent shards of glass into his face.  It also destroyed the compass, their only navigational aid.
Capt. W. Russell Webster described what happened next in the Naval Institute Proceedings.
“Creeping the boat forward, the searchlight soon revealed a pitch-black mass of twisted metal, which heaved high in the air upon the massive waves and then settled back down in a “frothing mass of foam.”  Each movement of the giant hulk produced a cacophony of eerie groans as the broken ship twisted and strained in the 60-foot seas.  No lights were apparent as coxswain Webber maneuvered the small boat aft along the port side of the Pendelton’s stern section.
Rounding stern, CG-36500’s search light illuminated the word PENDLETON and moments later, the larger vessel’s own deck lights became apparent.  And, then a small figure above began frantically waving his arms!  He soon disappeared.  Coxswain Webber then saw a mass of people begin to line Pendelton’s starboard stern area, many shouting muffled instruction, which were unintelligible over the wind and crashing seas.  Without notice, a Jacob’s ladder was tossed over the side.”
(From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security United State Coat Guard Auxiliary Sunday July 21, 2024.  USCG AUX AUXWeb Division 13)
As the humble crew rescued the crew of the sinking Pendelton Oil Tanker, so our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed his place of safety in heaven to come and rescue the human race.
The Lord is my Shepherd Psalm 23:1
A Shepherd - A keeper or herder of sheep. 2. A pastor, leader, or guide. 
It was customary for shepherds to lead their flocks instead of driving them, as is done in the West.  Even today, shepherds in the hills of Udea can be heard calling in a strange language to their sheep, which hasten to follow.  The relationship of shepherd to sheep was so close that the shepherd of a small flock could distinguish among his sheep, and any sheep could recognize its master’s voice.
            The shepherd’s lot was not an easy one.  He was almost always outdoors, with only a camel-hair cloak and a simple head veil to protect him from the wind and the rain and from the burning heat of the midday sun.  Generally, a shepherd ate only what he could carry with him- bread, cheese, olives, figs, dates, and raisins.
            The sheep had to be led to forage and water, and if a sheep fell into a rocky crevice, the shepherd had to climb down to it or pull it to safety with his curved staff.  If the sheep was hurt in the fall, the shepherd stretched the animal over his shoulders, carried it to a safe place, and tended its injuries.  At night the sheep had to be protected from thieves and from wild animals.
            The hills around Bethlehem were full of predators, including bears, leopards, jackals, and occasionally hyenas.  The shepherd, usually armed with a slingshot and a rod (a wooden club embedded with flint or nails), was the sheep’s sole protection against sudden and violent death.  In fighting off wild animals or thieves, a shepherd might lose his own life.
            To help them protect the animals under their care, shepherds often built a sheepfold.  This was an enclosure of high, mortarless stone walls topped with thorn branches to keep out wild animals.  The fold had no gate; so the shepherd acted as a human gate by lying across the open entryway.  When shepherds shared a sheepfold, they could take turns sleeping.  Jesus and His Times Reader’s Digest Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.: Pleasantville, New York, Montreal 1987, pp.24-25
            In the book of Jeremiah, God had warned the people of Israel that they were going to be taken over by Babylon.  King Jehoiachin would be abandoned by God.  Jeremiah speaks to the leadership of Israel, “What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people - the shepherds of my sheep - for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for,” says the LORD.  Jeremiah 23:1 New Living Translation.
Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to these shepherds: “Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction.  Now I will pour out my judgment on you for the evil you have done to them.  Jeremiah 23:2
But I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the countries where I have driven them.  I will bring them back to their own sheepfold, and they will be fruitful and increase in number.  Jeremiah 23:3
Then I will appoint responsible shepherds who will care for them, and they will never be afraid again.  Not a single one will be lost or missing.  I, the LORD, have spoken!  Jeremiah 23:4
For the time is coming says the LORD, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line.  (righteous branch).  He will be a King who rules with wisdom.  He will do what is just and right throughout the land.  Jeremiah 23:5
And this will be his name: ‘The LORD is Our Righteousness.” (Yahweh Tsidqenu) In that day Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. Jeremiah 23:6
This brings us to our point in Mark 6:30.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul.
The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need.  He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.  He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.  Psalm 23:1-3NLT
The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.  Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.”  He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. Mark 6:30-31 New Living Translation
So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.  But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them.
Jesus saw the huge crowd and he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.  Mark 6:34 NLT
Sheep without a shepherd may refer to:  “individuals or nations who had forgotten God (Numbers 27:17; I Kings 22:17; Ezekiel 34:5,8; Zechariah 10:2; Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34).”  All the Trades and Occupations of the Bible A Fascinating Study of Ancient Arts and Crafts by Herbert Lockyer, Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1969, p. 201d.
Jesus was the Good Shepherd that was prophesized about in Jeremiah.  He was promised to come by the covenant that God made with Abraham  (Through your seed I will bless the world).  He was talked about in the Garden of Eden when Eve was told that the servant (Satan) would bite your heel and you would strike his head.  Jesus was the promised Messiah that would take away the sins of the world.
How should knowing and understanding that Jesus is our Good Shepherd affect us on a daily basis?
Whenever I’m afraid I put my trust in you.   Psalm 56:3 - We can trust him.
Jesus feeds the 5,000.  Nothing is impossible with Jesus.  Jesus wants to sometimes test us so that we can trust him to do the impossible so that we can grow in our faith in him.  [Example of the Ropes Course and taking greater risks because of my trust in those belaying me.  My instructor was like Jesus, or a coach.]  When we can trust Jesus, we can do amazing things. 
God isn’t looking for great people to do great things for God.  God is looking for ordinary people who are willing to trust God to do Great things.  (This was told to me when I got ordained)
“Immediately after this, (the feeding of the 5,000 and their families with only five loaves and two fish with twelve baskets of bread and fish left over), Mark 6:35-44
“Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late.  Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”  Mark 6:37.
But Jesus said, “You feed them.” 
With what?” they asked.  “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people.”
“How much bread do you have he asked?  Go and find out.”
They came back and responded, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”
Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven and blessed them.  Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.  He also divided the fish for everyone to share.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterwards, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. “A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed. Mark 6:
The disciples should have learned that when Jesus is involved, anything is possible. 
 
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me.  Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.  You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.  You honor me by anointing my head with oil.  My cup overflows.  With blessings.  Psalm 23:4-5NLT
Jesus walked on the water on the Sea of Galilee in the early morning hours while the disciples were struggling to get a boat under control.
Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home.  After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land.  He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves.  About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them (Greek about the fourth watch of the night), walking on the water.  He intended to go past them., but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost.  They were all terrified when they saw him.  But Jesus spoke to them at once.  “Don’t be afraid,” he said.  “Take courage!  I am here!”  (Or The ‘I AM ’is here; Greek reads I am. See Exodus 3:14).
Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped.  They were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves.  Their hearts were too hard to take it in.  Mark 6:41-52
What did the disciples learn?  That Jesus can walk on water and can control the elements of nature.  That they have nothing to fear when Jesus is around.  That when Jesus insists that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, everything is going to be alright.  Jesus was willing to allow his disciples to go it on their own, but when he saw they needed help, he interceded for them.  He will not leave us to fight our fears alone.  He is always there right beside us.  We can trust him to see us through.  If Jesus asks us to do something, he will give us the ability to do it.  This is true shepherding or discipleship.  Has Jesus asked you to do anything for him?  Are you trusting him to help you complete the task? 
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.  Psalm 23:4 NLT
After they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret.  They brought the boat to shore and climbed out.  The people recognized Jesus at once.  And they ran throughout the whole area, carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was.  Wherever he went - in villages, cities or the countryside - they brought the sick out to the marketplaces.  They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed.  Mark 6:53-56 NLT
People need someone to trust in.  Someone to have hope in, something to have hope in. We all need a shepherd.  We all need Jesus and we all should do our best to point people to Jesus.
[My last experience on the plane flying home from Denver, CO talking to Adam.]
Are you, or have you been experiencing the presence of God in your lives in such a way that you can share that joy with others who are in need of that same experience?
We can’t give what we haven’t experienced ourselves.  We can only give to others what we have first received ourselves.
We need to spend time with Jesus every day so that we are full of his Word.  We need to be in prayer to Jesus every day so that we can take all of our cares, worries to him.  We can also help others to learn how to take their cares, worries and concerns unto Jesus.  [Ralph walking by Haddon Lake with his dog Molly].
 
 
Conclusion
The Good Shepherd has come in the person of Jesus Christ.  We need to follow his guidance, turn over our life to him and go where he leads us.  After all, he is the Good Shepherd, and he will never lead us astray.  We can put our trust in Him!
Amen

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ July 7 2024)
Sermon Title – Declarations of Dependence
Text – Psalm 48
Rev Scott Morschauser 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ June 30 2024)
Sermon Title – Keeping The Faith
Text – Mark 5:21-43
Rev Dwayne Doyle 
​
There are different extremes of faith or lack of faith.  When my wife and I were on a mission trip to Belarus in 1998, we were visiting a hospital.  Our guests took us around to many hospitals and children’s homes to give gifts to patients and put on a Christmas show.  In this one particular hospital there were, as in any hospital, many sick people lying in bed.  I went over to one patient and offered to pray for him.  Suddenly one of the people who were with us said, “why pray, that won’t do anything.”  I found out later that she was an atheist from Latvia.  I was with folks who had lived through communism in the former Soviet Union.  While in Russia in 1994, I met believers who had survived years in prison, others were faithful atheists committed to the state, and others were Orthodox Christians.  I thought it was a usual practice request to pray for someone.  I disregarded the lack of belief in a God that didn’t exist and prayed with the man in the hospital anyway.  But my experience shows that faith in God isn’t accepted by everyone. 
Today, we have two stories in our New Testament Lesson.  One is about a father who just wanted to see his daughter live.  The other is about a woman who suffered from a hemorrhage.  One was motivated out of the love he had for his daughter to ask Jesus to help heal her.  The other had tried every possible means to bring healing to her bleeding, but after 12 years of trying she thought Jesus was her last hope.  Where do you go when you are desperate for help?  Most of us go to God.
When Jesus was asked by Jairus, the leader of the local synagogue, to come help his daughter, you can see his desperation.  He ‘pleaded fervently’, he fell at Jesus’ feet.  He said, “My little daughter is dying . . . Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
Jesus’ reaction wasn’t to get upset with Jairus.  The scripture says, “Jesus went with him, and all the people followed crowding around him.”  Mark 5:23b
(Story about my daughter Sarah getting hurt and how it affected me as a father. I cried out to God to help her. I can in some way relate to Jairus in his concern for his daughter).
At other times in scripture Jesus said, “ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.”  “You have not because you ask not.”  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of these things shall be added unto you.”  “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘be removed into the sea’ and it will be moved.”  Jesus was often disappointed in the disciples’ lack of faith when they couldn’t heal people, doubted that they could survive a storm at sea with Jesus in their boat.  Putting our faith in Jesus is the first step to believing that he is alive and real.  Acting on our faith as we follow Him is like developing our faith muscle.  The more we exercise it, the stronger it will get.  How is your faith muscle?
Meanwhile, getting back to today’s scripture, “As Jesus was going to help heal Jairus’ daughter, a woman saw Jesus in the crowd.  She thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Mark 5:28.  Probably to her surprise, when she touched his robe, the scripture records, “Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.” Mark 5:29. 
Before we try to analyze what took place in this story, let’s first of all recognize the beautiful thing that happened.  A woman who was suffering from an ailment for twelve years, was finally freed from her suffering.  That is great news!  And the amazing thing is that Jesus didn’t even know who had touched Him.  The scripture records, “Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
And Jesus’ reaction again to someone seeking to be healed from Him was not to get upset.  In fact, when the woman realized that Jesus was seeking her out, the scripture records, “Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him [Jesus], and told Him what she had done.” Mark 5:33  Your suffering is over.
Jesus’ reaction was one of compassion and encouragement to the woman.  He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace.  Your suffering is over.” Mark 5:34. 
There is no shame in asking for help.  On several occasions, when someone asked Jesus for something, He answered in a way that did not seem at first encouraging.  The Syrophoenician woman who sought healing for her daughter, Jesus’ mother Mary asking Jesus to help when the wine ran out at the wedding.
And what about people who earnestly ask God for a healing and never get one?  We’ll come to this in a minute.
Just to let you know . . . I am not for pain.  I believe we should do what we can to relieve the pain from which we are suffering.
Jesus does not condemn us for coming to Him with our concerns.  He came for this very purpose, to heal the sick, free those who are prisoners, raise the dead, preach the gospel to the poor.  He came for all of our needs.
Getting back to our story, Jesus has now dealt with the woman’s hemorrhaging problem and is back to helping Jairus’ dying 12-year-old daughter.  But at that time . . .  the troubling news comes to Jairus, “When he [Jesus] was speaking to her [the woman healed of her bleeding], messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue.  They told him, “Your daughter is dead.  There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.” Mark 5:35
Jesus’ reaction to Jairus, and I would dare to say, to us, was “Don’t be afraid.  Just have faith.” Mark 5:36  “Don’t be afraid.  Just have faith.”  I am going to say it again, “Don’t be afraid.  Just have faith.”
Has anyone been trying to discourage you lately?  Jesus was not easily discouraged as we shall now see.
As Jesus, Jairus, Jesus’ disciples, and the crowd approached Jairus’ home, there was much commotion.  Jesus said to those at his house, “Why all this commotion and weeping?  The child isn’t dead: she’s only asleep.” Mark 5:39.  The crowd replied by laughing at Jesus.  “But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and His three disciples (James, John and Peter) into the room where the girl was lying.  Holding her hand he said to her, “Talitha koum.”  Which means. “Little girl, get up!”  And the girl who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around!”  
Note that the word ‘immediately’ is used extensively throughout the gospel of Mark.
The reaction of everyone in the room was that they were “overwhelmed and totally amazed.” Mark 5:44
Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened and then He told them to give her something to eat.” Mark 5:43
Jesus was doing the ministry that His heavenly Father had told Him to do while here on earth.   It was the one time in history that God came to the earth from heaven as one of us.  We could touch and feel Jesus.  He talked to us.  He cried with us.  He had compassion on us.  He healed our infirmities.  He didn’t judge us.   We should feel comfortable bringing every one of our concerns to Him today.  He is not going to be upset with us for asking.  He only wants to help.  Why don’t we bring our concerns to Jesus?  Why don’t we intercede to God for others who are suffering?  I am not saying that we shouldn’t go to the doctor, or to counseling, or take mediation, but what is stopping us from going to Jesus first to ask for his help?  I know, of course, that many of us do take our burdens to the Lord.  But I think it is just human nature to first worry and then try to fix things on our own before going to God.
What about those with long-term illnesses?  Is there ever a point where we just accept our plight in life, or the plight of another person’s life? 
(Example of the man from Mt. Holly who had a huge tumor growing in his stomach.  When I asked to pray for him, he just asked me to pray that the Lord would take him home to be with the Lord.  Also, another man from my church in Washington State desperately wanted to be with the Lord, but he felt that his family wanted him to stay around for their sake.  He had had open heart surgery and wanted no more rescue attempts made on his life.  These are difficult situations I had to discern how to pray for in my congregations as a pastor.)
I remember hearing about Joni Eareckson Toda sharing how, that when she found out she would be a quadriplegic, i.e., paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of her life, wanted to at one point to end her life.  Because of her situation, she asked someone to help her to take her own life.  She didn’t want to go on if she could never be a whole person.  This was true of another young man, Nick Vujicic, who was born without the arms or legs of a normal person.  He too contemplated killing himself.  When we get that desperate and think it is time to end it all because we believe we will never be healed or whole again, that is a point in time when we need to give our condition to the Lord and ask Him to do with us whatever he wants to do.  He created us, he allows things to happen to us.  He knows what we can take and cannot take.  “God will not tempt us beyond that which we can handle but with every temptation will give a means of escape.”  (my paraphrase)  But for all of us, we need to give our lives to the Lord and trust that He will help us to get through whatever it is we are feeling or experiencing from our situation. 
More things to learn from Joni Eareckson Toda and Nick Vujicic about coping, accepting, and living with life impairments.
Nick Vujicic.  An Australian man born without arms or legs, has shared his story in a ‘60 Minutes’ Australia’ episode titled ‘Man with no arms no legs tackles daily obstacles”.  In his testimony, Vujicic discusses his rare condition, tetra-amelia syndrome, and the challenges he faced growing up.
Nick wanted to take his own life at age 10 because he thought he had no purpose in life, he would always be dependent on his family, he would never marry.  He didn’t go through with it because he thought it would cause his family more grief than good.  He went on to live and was bullied in school.  Today he is married with four biological children and speaks all over the world.  He is a Christian. 
For Joni, God permits her to continue to be a quadriplegic in order to keep her dependent on Him.  Every morning, she has to ask God for the strength to get through the day.  Some people rush through their morning, do a quick quiet time and then go the rest of the day without any acknowledgement of God in their lives.  Also, Joni feels as though she wouldn’t have met as many people as she would have met with disabilities who are even worse off than she is.  They remind her that because they have great need, God’s presence in their lives is bigger.  Joni believes that many Christians are not really living lives for Christ.  She sees her condition as helping her to bear her cross as Jesus had to bear His cross.  Some day she will have her reward in heaven.
Both characters have spouses to support them.  We need friends, family, and the church to see us though our difficult circumstances.  The point of these stories is that at times, God allows people to have ailments.  For Joni and Nick’s testimony it seems clear that they see God’s hand in their lives, disability or not. 
“For God works all things together for the good for those that are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
He (God) promises to be with us through it.  We must trust Him.
The real things in life--Sometimes, life is exceedingly difficult, and we want to throw in the towel.  We want it all to be over.  In those cases, you need to turn to Jesus to ask Him for help, to give your very life to Him.  Ask Him to take charge of your life and help you.  But when you have done that and you are still feeling as though you want to die, you need help.  You need Christian brothers and sisters.  You need your Christian family praying for you reaching out to you.  And if you are still feeling depressed or suicidal, you may need to talk to a counselor and take medication to help you through your depression and thoughts of suicide.  There is no shame in this as a Christian, asking for help.  Jesus can work through counseling and the use of medication.  He created those things.  There is no shame in asking for help.  In fact, you are actually very wise to ask for help.  The point is, don’t try to do it on your own.  And it is never right to take one’s own life.
(My experience in seminary when my roommate signed me up for counseling when I was extremely sad after my girlfriend broke up with me.  I went to the counselor and his advice was very helpful for me.  I was, however, a little shocked that my roommate had made an appointment for me without first asking for my permission).
The Apostle Paul was a perfect example of someone who asked God several times that some ailments of him be taken away.  But God’s response was definite, “My strength is perfected in weakness.’ 
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.  Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people, then you won’t become weary and give up.  After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.”    Hebrews 12:1-3NLT
In the meantime, do what you can to encourage one another.  Jesus is coming.  Keep the Faith!