TPW 47 The Depression and Anxiety Crisis

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While it is wonderful to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in our relationship with Christ We also come as we do that to a greater knowledge of our own sin and thus we grieve over that too
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The more you know yourself and the more, you know God in his holiness the more you grieve over what you are
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Welcome to the
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Proud Son Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines You're again at Gretel Heights Presbyterian Church.
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I'm going to post a few more sermons on depression and Anxiety as that is a big problem that human beings face even as Christians we face those issues of depression anxiety worry and Some of it is caused by sin and some of its
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Physiological and has other causes and so I hope that you will find these Messages as I post them to be useful
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As I know this can be an ongoing problem for for folks and is a real struggle. So I hope that this edifies your soul
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Let's pray for our Lord to bless our time in this word together, please Heavenly Father we thank you for speaking to us and giving us the words of eternal life and your holy word and We pray that you would help us to receive the truth of what your word teaches us with faith and love laid up in our
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Hearts and practice it in our lives in Jesus name. We ask. Amen Please take your Bibles and turn to Lamentations chapter 3
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Lamentations chapter 3 Lamentations is a short Appendix on the end of the book of the long book of Jeremiah Jeremiah's 52 chapters
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Lamentations is just five right after the book of Jeremiah Lamentations chapter 3
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Verses 1 through 33 will be our scripture reading for this morning Lamentations chapter 3
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Verses 1 to 33. This is God's word. I am the man who has seen affliction
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Because of the rod of his wrath He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light surely against me
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He has turned his hand repeatedly all the day. He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away
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He has broken my bones He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship in dark places
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He has made me dwell like those who have long been dead He has wallowed me in so that I cannot go out.
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He has made my chain heavy Even when I cry out and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
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He has blocked my ways with hewn stone He has made my paths crooked He is to me like a bear lying in wait like a lion in secret places
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He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces. He has made me desolate
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He bent his bow and set me as a target for the arrow He made the arrows of his quiver to enter into my inward parts
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I have become a laughingstock to all my people their mocking song all the day
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He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drunk with wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel
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He has made me cower in the dust. My soul has been rejected from peace.
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I have forgotten happiness So I say my strength has perished and so has my hope from the
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Lord Remember my affliction and my wandering the wormwood and bitterness surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me
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This I recall to my mind Therefore I have hope the Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease for his compassions never fail
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They are new every morning great is your faithfulness The Lord is my portion says my soul therefore
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I have hope in him the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the person who seeks him
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It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth
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Let him sit alone and be silent since he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust
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Perhaps there is hope Let him give his cheek to the smiter let him be filled with reproach for the
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Lord will not reject forever For if he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to his abundant loving -kindness
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For he does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men
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May God bless the reading of his infallible word This morning we begin a new series of messages that I've had a burden to preach for some time now
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It's going to be on difficult problems and God's holy wisdom difficult problems and God's holy wisdom
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It will cover a series of Problems that we all seem to face in life at one time or another as well as a number of key solutions to these problems
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It's also going to cover General wisdom from scripture on a variety of subjects marriage friends wealth grief
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Forgiveness the arts music things like that Now why would
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I begin this series on? Problems that we face in life difficult issues we face in life with a series on depression and anxiety a
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Great man of God and preacher wrote long ago quote. I am the subject of depressions of spirit
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So fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to Again the same man wrote quote we very speedily care for bodily diseases
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They are too painful to let us slumber in silence and they soon urge us to seek a physician or a surgeon for our healing
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Oh if we were as much alive to the more serious wounds of our inner man and quote another quotation from the same man
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Quote personally I know that there is nothing on earth that the human frame can suffer to be compared with despondency and prostration of mind
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He also said quote the road to sorrow has been well trodden It is the regular sheep track to heaven and all the flock of God have had to pass along it
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So wrote Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the throes of physical
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Emotional and spiritual agony that giant of the faith Job Said these words my spirit is broken.
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My days are extinguished. The grave is ready for me The wisest man of all wrote in the scripture in Proverbs 18 14
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Solomon The spirit of a man will sustain him in witness, but who can bear a broken spirit?
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There are so many today who believe that depression and anxiety are somewhat modern phenomenon
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But the fact is that neither are new Excessive sadness and anxiety are part of the fallen world now
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But they are also part of the Christian life or are they can Christians be depressed
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Excessively anxious and even have panic attacks and mental illness. The answer to all those questions is yes in His excellent book
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Christians get depressed to author David Murray said this quote statistically one in five people
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Experiences depression and one in ten experiences a panic attack at some stage in his life an estimated 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression
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Studies show that 5 .8 percent of men and 9 .5 percent of women will experience a depressive episode in any given year
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Suicide sometimes the end result of depression is the leading cause of violent deaths worldwide
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Accounting for forty nine point one percent of all violent deaths Compared to eighteen point six percent in war and thirty one point three percent by homicide
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It is also not uncommon among professing Christians indeed these days There would appear to be an epidemic of depression anxiety and panic attacks among Christians both young and old
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This is partly because of the depressing state of the church and the nation in which we live
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Frequently we hear discouraging news about church splits or problems about high -profile
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Christian leaders falling into serious sin and then there is the secular and anti -christian direction of many governments as they continue to Dismantle the
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Judeo -christian laws and standards that our civilization was built upon and as they attack and undermine the family
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There is the relentless audio -visual misrepresentation and Persecution of Christians through the prints and broadcast media
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To top it all there seems to be an unceasing diet of bad news on the international stage with wars
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Terrorism and natural disasters ever before us it is therefore little wonder that Christians reacted react adversely and get depressed and anxious
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About themselves their families their church and the world they live in Last Saturday, I did a five -part seminar at Graham Bible College on preaching and one of the things
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I encourage these young men to do I said you need to try to keep your finger on the pulse of the nation where you live
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You need to understand what's going on in the nation that you live in and they asked me Well, how do you do that?
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I said well I usually listen to the briefing by al moeller or at least as much of it as I can until I'm too depressed
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I just have to stop it Because it's basically the chronicling of the collapse of our society and eventually it's just okay.
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I've heard enough Enough al I appreciate your thoroughness, but I can't listen to this anymore Depression and anxiety as real phenomena impact our spiritual life dramatically, and I think most of us here know that Physical illnesses can impact us spiritually and and in the same way when our emotional and mental health are suffering.
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We are affected badly spiritually David Murray writes quote the depressed believer cannot concentrate to read or pray
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How many of you have ever sat down to read the Bible and it's just it doesn't work. There's too many burdens There's too many things in the way going on in your mind.
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It's not happening today Murray says as she doesn't want to meet people she may avoid church and fellowship.
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She often feels God has abandoned her and quote Charles Spurgeon said it is not easy to tell how another ought to feel and how another ought to act
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We're all different each one of us But I am sure there is one thing in which we are all brought to unite in times of deep sorrow namely in a sense of helplessness
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That's something Spurgeon emphasizes over and over again in dealing with the profound depression that he dealt with most of his life helplessness
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I Can't stop it. I just feel terrible all the time. I can't stop. I feel helpless about it
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People who experience profound sadness depression and anxiety, please remember this if you're a person who is not prone to those things
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You need to understand this the people that feel those things all the time or a lot. They don't want to feel that way and They don't need you to rebuke them for it
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People if they could push a button and cure it or take something to make it go away for good They would do it people don't like feeling like this and they all wish they could change
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Among Christians today. I think that we can be a bit reactionary against the tower of Psychobabble that looks for excuses for every kind of negative feeling that anyone ever experiences and and as a corollary to that almost look at all negative feelings as well you're in sin and you need to repent you
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Shouldn't be so sad But let's not be over reactionary against the psychobabble
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There's a lot of psychobabble people look for excuses for every kind of of malaise and every kind of disability
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Every every kind of mental illness out there. There's an excuse given in the tower of psychobabble
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Christians today often don't want to talk about depression and anxiety because it's seen as scandalous or even sinful
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Many don't want others to know that they feel these things because I want to be seen as strong I want to be seen as someone who doesn't have these kinds of issues
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I want to be seen as someone who has a strong constitution. I have a strong faith in God And you know studying church history in seminary was a healing thing for me because so many
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Great men and women of God dealt with these issues all the time Many don't seek help for these kinds of things because of that very kind of stigma.
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It's shameful We want to be seen as strong and as as tough We think it's a sign of a weak faith or a weak constitution as a human being if we're subject to such anxiety such depressions
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Such sadness for men, especially we can look at such things as depression anxiety is effeminate and weak
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But let us not forget that while everyone is different and no two people are exactly alike the effects of the fall reach every one
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Of us in the area of our emotions Some of the greatest of God's people have experienced terrible and even debilitating levels of sadness anxiety and depression
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It's one of the things that made them So close to the Lord Why was Spurgeon why was that guy able to pour his heart out in his preaching because most of the time he was barely hanging by a thread
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And people would listen to him preach and think man that guy must be living my life Well, he was designed by God that way to make him that much more effective
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And Paul's second letter to the Church of Corinth He begins with a remarkable discourse on God being the
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God of all comfort in the midst of our sufferings It's a fascinating letter breathed forth by the
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Spirit of God second Corinthians You look at it and you think immediately the guy that started writing this letter was really feeling things deeply
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He says in that opening chapter for we do not want you to be ignorant brethren of our trouble Which came to us in Asia that we were burdened beyond measure above strength so that we despaired even of life
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Yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead
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The guy that wrote that was feeling it very deeply He was very sad despairing even of being alive
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Why do we need to preach on these topics of depression and anxiety? Because the Bible speaks extensively about both
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Depression and anxiety we see the symptoms of depression and anxiety in Moses Numbers 11 14 he cries out.
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I'm not able to bear all these people because the burden is too heavy for me You see he got to that point.
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He broke. I can't do this. I cannot bear this burden It's too much for me.
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It is emotionally destroying me to do this Remember Hannah the barren wife of Alcana It's 1st
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Samuel 1 7 says so it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord That penina her rival provoked her therefore she wept and did not eat
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There's been so sad Involuntarily lost a lot of weight because of it in 1st
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Samuel 1 16 Hannah says do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief
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I've spoken until now remember Eli thought this woman's drunk. She says no. I'm not drunk.
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I'm sad Out of the abundance of my grief and my complaint. I've spoken until now
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Prophet Jeremiah the weeping prophet the prophet nobody listened to Said this
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Jeremiah 20 and listen to this Jeremiah 2014 Cursed be the day in which
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I was born Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father saying a male child has been born to you
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Making him very glad and let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew and did not relent
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Let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon because he did not kill me from the womb That my mother might have been my grave and her womb always enlarged with me
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Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow That my days should be consumed with shame
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What we just read in Lamentations those opening six verses of Lamentations 3. It's almost hard to read them I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath
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He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light surely He has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day
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He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe listen to this
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He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago the first 20 verses of Lamentations 3 are practically a clinical definition of depression
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Martin Lloyd -jones a great English preacher from the last century in his book on spiritual depression argues that Paul Reprimanded Timothy because of his almost paralyzing anxiety that he experienced
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And second Timothy 1 6 and 7 the scripture says Therefore I remind you Paul telling
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Timothy to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands For God has not given us a spirit of fear
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And that word translated fear there is a unique word It's only used this one place in the entire New Testament.
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And in fact, it's not the normal word that's translated fear. It's not Phobia it's not that it's a different word and it means lack of mental or moral strength cowardice
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Christians like Timothy were corrected by the truth by men like Paul and all of us need to learn how not to be afraid how not to be cowardly how not to be timid in the face of life's challenges and It happens to all of us, doesn't it fear sadness anxiety their experience by us nonetheless
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And what I hope to accomplish in this first section of this new series is to give some biblical remedies
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To these afflicting conditions that we all pastor from time to time Some have a constitution that they were given by God that they pass through these things more often than others the prophet
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Elijah experienced depression and terrible anxiety when he hears that Jezebel is after him and wants to kill him because he
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Executed all the prophets of Baal after the showdown at Mount Carmel We read this and listen to this the first Kings 19 for verse 4
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But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die
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Have you ever asked God to kill you? The prophets of God did sometimes God just kill me.
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I don't want to live anymore He said it is enough now Lord. Take my life
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For I am no better than my father's isn't that amazing? Isn't it not remarkable to consider how quickly
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We can go from the heights of joy and Christ at the lowest pit of sadness in such a short time
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What had just happened in Elijah's life? He had just returned from the incredible supernatural display of God Responding with fire to consume the offering at the showdown at Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal Remember that and Elijah was mocking them when nothing was happening when they were old bail
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Hear us and they were cutting themselves and Elijah says cry aloud for he is a god Either he is meditating or he's busy or he's on a journey or maybe he's sleeping and needs to be awakened
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When it was his turn Elijah makes a trench around the altar and ordered 12 water pots filled with water to be poured over it just to make sure everyone knew there was no trickery involved and then he
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Calls upon God and he answers with fire and Elijah orders the execution of the prophets of Baal what a spiritual
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Mountaintop experience literally in every conceivable way and just a very short time after this he prays that God would kill him
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What does that show we are frail people? We're very fickle We can go from walking strong and on the top of the mountain with God and just a very short time later
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Be wishing we were never even born We're so often Victimized by our own fickle emotions, aren't we?
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And then of course, there's poor Job Job 6 2 & 3. Oh that my grief were fully weighed and my calamity laid on it scales
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For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea therefore my words have been rash To him who was afflicted kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the
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Almighty Job 7 11 therefore, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit
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I will complain the bitterness of my soul Psalms are filled with some of the most transparent expressions of anxiety humiliation embarrassment
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Depression and near despair ever penned by human beings in the history of the world Psalm 42 1 as the deer pants for the water brooks so pants my soul for you
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Oh God my soul thirst for God for the living God When shall I come and appear before God my tears have been my food day and night
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Can you picture that? Someone who's crying so hard that the tears are going down their face into the corners of their mouth and they don't even care
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My tears have been my food day and night while they continually say to me. Where is your God?
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Psalm 42 9 I will say to God my rock. Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy
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Psalm 10 1? Why do you stand afar off? Oh Lord Why do you hide in times of trouble? Psalm 13 1 how long
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Oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall
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I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart? daily Psalm 88 is one of the darkest and saddest sections of the
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Word of God I wrote a blog article about that Psalm because when you first feel a sense of calling to the ministry one of the things that changes in the way you read the
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Bible is When you read through the Bible you start wondering how would I preach this? You come across difficult narratives difficult events difficult passages and you think what would
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I do with this? What would I do with Psalm 88 Psalm 88 is one of those real difficult? passages a
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Minister who has himself passed through very deep and very dark periods of profound depression in his own life wrote this about the
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Psalms listen closely to This quote the Psalms treat depression more realistically than many of today's popular books on Christianity and psychology
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David and other psalmists often found themselves deeply just depressed for various reasons
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They did not however apologize for what they were feeling nor did they confess it as sin
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It was a legitimate part of their relationship with God. They interacted with him through the context of Depression and I want to encourage you we believe in a
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God who is absolutely sovereign He is so much bigger than we can even imagine him to be He has a sovereign
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Decree and plan and you need to know that the saddest days of your life where you don't eat and you can't read the
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Bible And you can't pray and you're overrun with Humiliation and anxiety and depression and you do what
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Jeremiah did and you cursed the day you were born Every single part of that was planned by God for your good
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As hard as it is to believe that it was planned for your good to make you better than you would have been by yourself
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Get a point number two this morning the sources of depression and anxiety At this point in this introductory message on dealing with this difficult problem
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I I do not want to give the impression that Therefore we must all be subject to depression and anxiety and we just accept it as part of life.
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There are real Tangible remedies that God's Word teaches us on these matters And what
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I want to get across first and foremost is that it is impossible to go through life without experiencing these things on some level especially if you are an individual who really really loves the people in your life that God has given to you if you really love
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People and really lay your life down for them and you really are self -giving towards them You're gonna experience this
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I promise you it's just a matter of when When I was an undergraduate student and God first began to get a hold of me and really began to change my life the book
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Of Ecclesiastes was a favorite book of the Bible of mine When you're young and you're on the edge of the nest and are about to become independent and more self -directed in life
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Ecclesiastes is a great book to have as your companion the author Most likely who was
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King Solomon was the man who had every form of pleasure that life can give you He had everything that a man could ever want in life or desire and I personally believe that the book of Ecclesiastes is
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Solomon's Meditations upon everything the world has to offer without God It's him musing on every form of pleasure and accomplishment that God that a person can ever experience in this world
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Without God, what does it mean without God? What is pleasure? What is money? What are accomplishments of work?
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What is unending sexual pleasure? What is laughter? What are huge building projects? What is music and dancing?
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What is humor and laughter? What is popularity and the praises of men? What is life and everything in it without God?
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What's his answer over and over and over again? vanity Meaningless, it's a grasping after the wind and in all of it.
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There was no profit and nothing was gained under the Sun What an incredible thing to consider There was one verse in that book of Ecclesiastes that always jumped out at me because I could see its truthfulness
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Beginning when I was 18 19 then 20 years old Ecclesiastes 1 18 For in much wisdom as much grief and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow
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The longer we live the more we increase in knowledge and in wisdom the more sad we're going to be
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The more wisdom and knowledge we possess the more we experience sorrow Not everyone is blessed with a peaceful childhood
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Some people's childhoods are very hard Some people are forced to grow up much more quickly than they should have had to but what do we mean by that?
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What do we mean by some kids are forced to grow up too fast? We mean that they realize that the world can be a very harsh dark ugly painful and sad place
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One of the reasons that the transition from childhood to adulthood is difficult for young people is that they're forced to deal
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With sin and others and in themselves on a much deeper level than they ever did as children
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Why do kids sleep so peacefully? I still watch my little ones my three -year -old my five -year -old and the younger ones and they sleep so peacefully
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I don't have a care in the world. Why do they sleep that way? Why are they so peaceful because they don't know anything They don't know anything.
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You think ignorance is bliss. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be three again and to just you know
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What what is life? Hey, someone else changes your diapers for you All you gotta do is eat and you know, go to bed.
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Maybe obey your parents. Don't get spanked I mean life is so easy back then This is often a rather traumatic experience
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Which can lead to melancholy and and a hopeless mindset the first time you ever experience real betrayal by friends when you're a teenager
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The first time you experience great sadness or huge loss or betrayal. That's hard The he who increases in wisdom and knowledge increases their sorrow
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Now the church ought to be a shelter against such things, but sometimes it isn't Solomon was right and much wisdom is much grief and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow
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And while it is wonderful to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in our relationship with Christ We also come as we do that to a greater knowledge of our own sin and thus we grieve over that too
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The more, you know yourself and the more, you know God in his holiness the more you grieve over what you are
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And for those who have walked with Christ a long time you can look back Can't you just a few years and grieve over the sin that you used to tolerate in your life
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Do you ever do that five years ago? How could I let that be there the way it was? In summary, there will always be lots of reasons for us to be genuinely saddened by life in this fallen world
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And we must not ever look in a judgmental way at those who are more prone to depression and sadness than others are
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We can't look at them as if they're in sin Some people by their constitution as human beings are more sensitive to these things and we as a church should always be compassionate towards such
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Jeremiah was was legitimately and genuinely sad when he wrote those five chapters that we call lamentations
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At the end of his 52 chapter long prophecy his book that bears his name this prophet
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Jeremiah had preached and preached and Preached to a people who would not listen and he was thrown down into a well
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And then he was taken out of the well And then he was thrown back in the well and nobody would listen to him and he washed
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Jerusalem be destroyed and the people taken away captive to Babylon and Lamentations is basically whenever I read that book
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I think of Jeremiah just looking at the smoldering ashes of the city just looking over it and thinking why wouldn't they listen to me?
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I Preach so hard to those people and what is lamentations him pouring out his grief? That verse lamentations three six.
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He has sent me in dark places like the dead of long ago The mind of man was created with a right knowledge of God and in true righteousness and holiness
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But the fall introduced real and serious problems to the way we think and to what goes on in our minds
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Not only do we incline toward idolatry and error, but we're not good at being well adjusted to life anymore
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Excessive sadness depression and a loss of interest in what used to bring us a sense of well -being and happiness are real phenomena
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That even the godliest of people now experience Lamentations is a book of lamenting the terrible sadness that Jeremiah felt as he looked over the burning remains of Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it and took all the people away captive into Babylon Jeremiah as I said is known to history as the weeping prophet because nobody listened to him
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He was a man who knew terrible sadness that was real and palpable He felt it in the very depths of his god -fearing soul
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And lamentations 3 1 through 20 was written by a man who was in fact saved and on his way to heaven
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And yet when you read it, it is so sad, isn't it? If you read slowly those first 20 verses, you can't help but feel what this poor man felt the man of God Which was designed to glorify
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The mind excuse me the man the mind of man which was designed to glorify and enjoy God and to be happy and blessed in Communing with God now experiences the precise opposite in depression and despair
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Isn't it amazing to think you and I were not created by God to ever feel such things We were not supposed to ever feel these things ever and yet we do now and now we have to learn to deal with it
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We need to understand that when God's people experience real depression and real despair on that level
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It's not always their fault. We must never tell such people you need to just pull yourself together We must never tell them just stop it
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What do we do when God's people feel this way when people feel the way Jeremiah felt when people feel depression anxiety and sadness
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Humiliation embarrassment when they feel that they're in the pit in the depths of sadness What do we as the church do with them you weep with them?
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Don't try to fix people They don't need your advice on what to do to be fixed. What they need you to do is cry with them
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They need you to feel that with them Romans 12 15 rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep
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Not everything we weep over is due to our own sinfulness. Sometimes people just get very sad
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Contemplating the horrors around them. Our souls are downcast and we cry out Lord. How long?
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spiritual depression and anxiety are real and are often experienced by God's people and sometimes such feelings can last a very long time and What's the answer?
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It's always the same to remember the mercies and the goodness of the Lord God's fatherly love and tenderness toward his broken -hearted children is the anchor while we feel this terrible sadness
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And there is no fast cure for it Even remembering the steadfast love of God is not going to cure and make the sadness disappear
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It can go on for months and even years and for some it never does entirely go away and will not be gone until heavenly
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Glory has at last arrived But let us never patronize those who feel this way by blaming them or calling them to repent
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Sometimes people just get sad and it's okay And I want to encourage you all to take the time this
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Sabbath day or sometime soon walk slowly through the book of Lamentations Jeremiah holds nothing back in that book
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He gives full vent to his sadness and it is painful to read because most people who have lived a while can identify with what?
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He's saying Sadness is a real emotion that even our perfect Lord and Savior felt it is not a sin to be sad or to be down However, and here's the key part however there is much that we can learn from God's Word about how to deal with it and to be somewhat relieved from it and This is what
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I want these first few messages to give you Weeping and sadness are part of our lot in life in this cursed world
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We weep because of the suffering of others we weep because others sin against us
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We weep because of the sinfulness we see in our own hearts and because we have willfully sinned against and hurt others
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How many of us here would Regularly think of going back in life and doing things different and not sinning against certain people
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How many of us have guilt over things that we've done that you would give almost anything? I wish I could be 14 again.
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I wish I could be 18 again I wish I could be 20 again and not sin against the people the way that I did How many of us would love to go back and undo some of the evil that we've done in this world
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But sadly we can't and so we weep and we grieve over the evil that we ourselves have inflicted on others.
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I Remember our now dearly departed brother RC Sproul telling a story of having lunch with a
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Christian friend and they were talking about the topic of our duty to love our neighbor as ourselves, especially our families and Sproul said that he and his friend were both grieving over their failures to love people in the way that God calls us to And Sproul said that they were both looking down at their food while they were talking about their failures
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And he said they suddenly made eye contact with each other and both of them had tears in their eyes And Sproul said to his friend
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Don't you wish you could wake up one day and know that just for one day You would love the people that you are most called by God to love perfectly
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And this friend said yeah, that would be great It's hard to know that we will always fall short of what our gracious Lord deserves from us
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Did you know God deserves for you to love the people in your life in the same way? He loves them
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It's sad, but Jesus pronounced eternal blessedness on such sad people blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted
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Mourning is part of a blessed life One would have to be self -deceived and deluded never to find anything to be sad about in this fallen world
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Starting first and foremost with the evil in our own hearts. If you haven't been grieved over that. I wonder I wonder if you really know
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Christ Thirdly and finally this morning fighting the good fight against depression and anxiety
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But depression and anxiety are conditions the scriptures give us good counsel to overcome Everyone experiences these things to some degree or another but it need not progress to the level of debilitation in us
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It need not paralyze us altogether and the final point I'd like to make to you all this morning when it comes to how we can respond
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To the darker parts of depression and anxiety is simply this and here it is. I hope you'll write this down Learn to tell yourself the truth
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Learn to tell yourself the truth the biblical authors under the direction of the
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Holy Spirit of God and writing all that they gave a Full voice to their sadness and what even comes close to despair but tucked away in those expressions of grief.
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You see a pattern The writer will pause and begin to speak directly
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To himself and will confront himself with the truth about God's goodness and his grace
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The writer will take charge of the situation and demand that some truth about God be meditated upon in the midst of the sadness
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Listen to Jeremiah and Lamentations after nearly three whole chapters of terrible sadness. You're still there.
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Look at Lamentations 321 In the midst of it. He suddenly changes his tone and says
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This I recall to my mind Therefore I have hope
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You see what he's doing there just break from the quotation there. You see what he's doing. He's taking control of his thought patterns.
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I Am going to put something in my mind. That's not there now so that I will have hope
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I will take control of what I'm thinking this I recall to my mind Therefore I have hope he's lamented and he's grieved lamented and grieved
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But now he makes the conscious decision to turn his mind elsewhere This I recall to mine.
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Therefore I have hope and notice where his mind turns. Look at verse 22 Through the Lord's mercies.
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We are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning
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Great is your faithfulness Do you recognize the lyrics to the hymn great is your faithfulness?
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Thou changest not by compassions they fail not great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me
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Isn't it amazing that the words to that wonderful old hymn come right on the heels of expressions of terrible sadness
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Notice he preaches the truth to himself. What does he say? God's mercies are new every morning
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Why did we arise today with breath in our lungs a place to sleep a church to go to people that love us food on?
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Our plates repentance and faith praise God in our hearts in Jesus Christ because God glorifies his grace in our salvation every moment of every day and Every morning his graces and his love for us are once again new
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Even if I'm looking at Jerusalem and it's destroyed and all the people are gone that wouldn't listen to me We still have hope in God through his mercies.
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We are not consumed. He is faithful He is always with us Therefore I have hope in him verse 24.
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The Lord is my portion says my soul. Therefore I have hope in him
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Think about that. I might not ever have all that my heart desires.
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I may have lost so much I might not have my health the way I wanted
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I might not have the relationship or the marriage that I want I might have to watch people that I love suffer terribly
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But what I do have cannot be taken from me. The Lord is my portion. He is mine and I am his
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I have the true riches in the midst of my sadness. Nothing can take that from me
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Verse 25 the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the person who seeks him
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It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth
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Let him sit alone and be silent since he has laid it on him Let him put his put his mouth in the dust.
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Perhaps there is hope. Let him give his cheek to the smiter Let him be filled with reproach for the Lord will not reject forever
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For if he causes grief then he will have compassion according to his abundant loving kindness For he does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men
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Grieve and lament but do it in a way that glorifies God Give yourself time to grieve
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Give yourself time to be sad Those are real human emotions that we have to face and we have to walk through them in the sin -cursed world that we live in In the late
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James Montgomery Boyce said God does not promise us a way around suffering or sadness But only a way through it that glorifies
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God Learn to tell yourself the truth Do as Jeremiah did in the midst of the darkness of his days
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Recall the truth to your mind The wondrous truths of the grace and mercy and faithfulness of God Let meditation upon these things sustain your broken heart through the sadness that you experience
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Two more verses will receive this principle. I'd like you to turn please in your Bible to Psalm 42 And we're going to close with this
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Psalm 42. We're just going to quickly walk through the psalm. It's a short one But I want you to see this principle of self -confrontation and telling yourself the truth
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Psalm 42 the sub superscript there says for the choir director a Mosque ill of the sons of Korah and then verse 1 as The deer pants for the water brooks.
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So my soul pants for you Oh God my soul thirsts for God for the living God When shall
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I come and appear before God my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long
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Where is your God these things? I remember and I pour out my soul within me for I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to The house of God with the voice of joy and Thanksgiving a multitude keeping festival
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You can almost picture this person who's saying this can't you they're dejected They're weary.
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They've got bags under their eyes. Their heart is on their sleeve. Their faces are down. They are sad
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Martin Lloyd -jones says that at the heart of depression that becomes debilitating to us and paralyzing to us is simply stated this unbelief
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If it crosses the line into that level, it's just unbelief
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We've lost sight of what's true we're walking as if we no longer know and believe in a
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God who truly loves us and always has our best in mind and Because of this the psalmist being directed by the
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Holy Spirit knows exactly how to escape and to ward off that level of despair He confronts himself.
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He rebukes himself and he tells himself the truth look at verse 5 Why are you in despair?
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Oh my soul are some of your translations? Why so downcast? Oh my soul, and why have you become disquieted or just disturbed within me?
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Hope in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his presence Martin Lloyd -jones said this we must learn to take ourselves in hand
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This man was not content just to lie down and commiserate with himself. He does something about it
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He takes himself in hand, but he does something which is more important still he talks to himself.
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I Say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us
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Do you realize what this means? I Suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this that we allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to ourself
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Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you're listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself
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The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself
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You have to take yourself in hand. You have to address yourself preach to yourself question yourself
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Why are you so downcast? Oh my soul hope in God for I shall yet praise him
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You must ask yourself that question. Why are you cast down? What business have you to be disquieted?
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Who are you that you dare to be afraid when you know that God holds everything in the palm of his hand?
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Boy Jones continues you must turn on yourself Rebuke yourself condemn yourself exhort yourself say to yourself hope in God Instead of muttering in this depressed unhappy way
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And then you must go on to remind yourself of God who God is and what God is and what
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God has done And what God has pledged himself to do then having done that end on this great note
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Defy yourself and defy other people and defy the devil in the whole world and say with this man
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I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance who is also the health of my countenance and my
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God and quote Martin Lloyd -jones was right. He understood This man felt terrible sadness.
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He said my tears are my food. I go about all the day Where is God and then he breaks away from it?
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Why are you downcast? Oh my soul hope in God for I shall yet praise him
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Just like Job remember when Job was in the depths of despair What did he say though he slay me yet will
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I trust him though? He slay me yet will I worship him but right after he says that look at verse 6 gets right back to it
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Oh my god, my soul is despairing within me. But what is this? What do you learn from this? This is a battle
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It's a battle he just rebuked himself stop in the very next thought Oh my god, my soul is in despair within me and then another another rebuke
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Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mizar Deep calls unto deep at the sound of your waterfalls.
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All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night a prayer to the
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God Of my life. I will say to God my rock. Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy as a shattering of my bones?
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My adversaries revile me when they say to me all day long. Where is your God? So he's back in the pit again
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And then the psalmist has had enough and he issues the same Rebukes the same defiance to himself and he tells himself the truth and he rests in it
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We must develop the very same pattern in our thinking and brothers and sisters. We can do that I can't make the sadness of the depression disappear together, but I can tell myself what's true.
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I can tell myself the truth. I can rebuke myself hoping God Why have you stopped trusting in him?
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as a Very well -known Calvinist speaker went through a real dark period.
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He said his wife issued the most savage rebuke ever She said when did you become an Arminian? Don't ever say that to anybody that's
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Gotta keep the gloves off there Look at verse 11. He goes right back to it Why are you in despair?
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Oh my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hoping God for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my
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God See the battle is just going back and forth back and forth. But what does the final word the truth here?
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What is the biblical treatment for debilitating and paralyzing depression and sadness anxiety?
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Here it is you ready express it in real words and real grief, but don't lash out at God Give full vent to the way you feel it's not if you can hide it from God Anyway, he knows how you feel
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There's no need to be pretentious with him Tell him how sad you really are and how you really feel and how much it really hurts
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But then learn to take control of your thoughts and learn to tell yourself the truth Just like Jeremiah did in Lamentations just like the psalm writers do tell yourself the truth
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The truth is what sets us free Understand your own thought patterns and what pushes you from sadness into despair and don't allow those thought patterns to run wild learn to check them and rebuke them as the psalm writers do as the prophets did learn to Recall the faithfulness of the mercies of God to your mind when
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Jeremiah breaks away from the sadness He says this I recall to mind and therefore I will have hope because of his great mercies
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We are not consumed because your compassions they fail not great is your faithfulness Lord to me
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Remind yourself of the great truths that you know Rebuke yourself with those great questions
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Why so downcast Oh my soul you who are a joint heir with Jesus Christ of the entire redeemed cosmos
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Why are you downcast? Hope in God Tell yourself the truth hope in God for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my
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God and tell yourself God is my portion Therefore I have hope and tell yourself
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God is the health of my countenance and he is my God. Let's pray
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Our Father in heaven we thank you for Giving us the stark reality. There's there's no pretension at all in your servants of old who wrote and Gave us the scriptures as you directed them as the
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Spirit gave the mutterance and directed every word They gave full vent to that sat that sadness that depression the anxiety that they felt and yet We see them doing what we all need to learn to do better Stopping ourselves reminding ourselves of what's true taking control of our thought patterns
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Recalling things into our minds to put out the sadness after we've given full vent to it and to replace that With the wonderful truths of your loving -kindness and your faithfulness
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You are our portion and you never leave or forsake us your loyalty to us knows no bounds
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Jesus Christ the perfect Savior He will most certainly carry us all the way into glory
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Well, let that sustain us as we really feel sadness as we really do cry and weep and and have anxiety at times
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Help us to confront ourselves with what's true and to never lose sight of the greatness and the glory of the
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God We will one day stand before completely free of depression and anxiety and worry and the blessed fullness of Knowing you
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Without hindrance knowing you without sin between us Lord We look forward to that glorious and wondrous day
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And we pray you would sustain us against life's hardship in the meantime with your grace and truth. We ask in Jesus name.
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Amen This is pastor
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Patrick Hines of brittle Heights Presbyterian Church Located at 108 brittle Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee, and you've been listening to the
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Protestant witness podcast Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m Sharp where we open the
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Word of God together sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord You can find us on the web at www .brittleheightspca
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.org And may the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you