Spiritual Depression — Carter Conlon

Now, this is a message entitled spiritual depression. Now, spiritual depression is different from other forms of depression. It's a depression that can hit the minds and hearts of the godly. Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 12, that in the last days, iniquity would abound.

Lawlessness and the Cooling of Christian Love

In other words, lawlessness would break out. There'd be this rebellion, this wholesale rebellion against everything that the godly hold to be dear. And it will be so powerful that even the love of many will begin to grow cold.

And I think of the people here today who have to go into work environments where it's becoming so vile, the speech is so vile. And the sneering and scorning of everything godly all around you and the love of the work of God can begin to grow cold in your heart because of it.

The work of God is the redemption of the lost. And you and I love that work because we found forgiveness in Jesus Christ. God's Holy Spirit came to us. We found a meaning and a purpose for living on the earth as the church of Jesus Christ.

But lawlessness around us can literally drive the love of the work of God out of our hearts. And there's a sigh that comes into the heart. God, just get me out of here. I don't know if anybody's ever prayed that recently.

Ezekiel and the Sighing of the Godly

Prophet Ezekiel, the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel and the society at that stage in Ezekiel's day was coming to a final point. Now, it's not the end of society, but society as it had been known up to that point was about to end.

God had decreed an end to it because of its godlessness. And the Lord told Ezekiel, send this writer out with an acorn. I can't explain it, but nevertheless, there was somebody there. And have him put a mark on the foreheads of everyone who sighs and cries for all the abominable things that are being done in the nation.

And so it speaks to me that in this final moment of society as it then was, there was a sighing and a crying came into the hearts of the godly. Walking through their day with that constant sigh in the heart, that constant, oh God, it's so hard to live here.

It's so hard to be part of all this. It's so hard to see the degeneracy of our society at almost every level. The rebellion, it's so hard to watch everything that I hold dear trampled underfoot and scorned and ridiculed and mocked.

It's so hard to have my children come home after school every day. And such godlessness is being at least attempted to be infused into their minds. And I'm constantly having to fight against this and all of the turmoil that it's producing.

David's Lament in Psalm 12

And this is exactly what happened in this Psalm in measure because it was written by David. Now David was destined to be king of Israel. And I want you to keep in mind that one day he was going to dance before the ark of God.

One day everything was going to turn around but David was at a season in his life very much like you and I can find ourselves in. Where those leading the nation were godless and moving farther and farther away.

Saul the king was a godless man. He had a form of religion. He had a form and he tried to present a public appearance as it is of some form of worship. But he was deep in the inner core, a godless man moving the nation farther and farther away from the things of God, bringing about a powerlessness to the people of God who were supposed to have this incredible promise of being a blessing and being a blessing to others in the earth.

And David is in this season. Now I want to, before I even begin, I want to tell you conclusively that you are on the winning side and don't you ever believe anything other than that. I read the end of the book folks and we are on the winning side.

We are going to dance one day before the ark of God. Though for a season if need be, we will be in heaviness through trials that you and I are going to have to go through and many are going through even now.

I want you to keep in mind David was a king. He was anointed. At this point he doesn't know it. Everything seems to be against him. Society is going in the opposite direction to godliness. And he starts this psalm in verse one by just saying, help Lord, for the godly man ceases.

The faithful fail from among the children of men. In other words, godliness is fading so rapidly. David said, I feel powerless to stop it. It's all around me. Now you have to understand at certain points in his life he's being pursued by this ungodliness.

Verse two, he says they speak vanity every one with his neighbor. With flattering lips and a double heart do they speak. In other words, truth as in Isaiah's day has fallen into the street and people who want to do right have become the object of ridicule.

They speak vanity means they speak empty words. Words that disappoint the hope which rests upon it. They speak falsehood. They lie without conscience. And they even use the Lord's name lightly or without thinking.

And David was just so tired of it. God, we've gotten so far away from you that truth doesn't matter anymore. Everybody feels free to spin everything the way they want to spin it to pursue their objective.

Whether it doesn't really matter what the objective is. They flatter people to get them to follow them, but they speak with a divided heart. They'd have no intention of doing what they say they're going to do.

And David was living in a season like that. Empty words, disappointing words, false words, lying words. And he said, where are the godly? Where are they in our generation? That was the cry of David's heart.

Where are those who will make a difference? Where are those who will stand for truth? Where are those who will stand to their feet and be counted in this time of incredible spiritual declension? Verse three, it says, the Lord will cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things.

We have said with our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? David was saying they've cast off all restraint and now they're governed by their own corruption and faulty reasoning.

The sin nature of man had taken over. Exactly the seed that Satan sowed in the human race in the Garden of Eden that you can be God and you can determine with your own speech what is good and what is evil.

You don't have to listen to God anymore. He's not the only one who has an opinion. That's what the devil sowed into the human race. And you can determine what's good and what is evil. I don't know if you've noticed lately, but evil is becoming good and good is becoming evil in our time.

For the oppression of the poor. Verse five, for the sighing of the needy. Now will I rise says the Lord and I will set him in safety from him that pops at him. David felt oppressed. He felt constantly that because of his lack of strength and voices all around taunting him to give up what he believed to be right and to join the crowd going the other way.

Have you ever felt like the only fish going up a stream when everybody else is going the opposite way? You ever felt like that in your home? You ever felt it in the workplace, your apartment, your community?

Everywhere you are, you just feel like everyone's going in the opposite direction to me. What's the point of what I'm doing? And is it going to amount to anything? Verse six, the words of the Lord are pure words of silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. David said wickedness is on the increase as vile people.

That means morally loose, prodigal, perhaps having had some knowledge of God but having drifted far away from it. Self-indulgent, riotous people are raised up as leaders and role models among the people.

Have you noticed lately that the role models are all falling? These are turning out to be liars, frauds, or drug addicted. And they've been raised up in this generation. It's so strange to be living at a time when godly people are not esteemed to be role models for the people.

Spiritual Depression Among Those Who Live for God

Many today find themselves journeying through this season of despair. And we've had many have gone before us who've had to face what you and I are facing. Spiritual depression is not something that others have not been familiar with.

Now I'm talking about spiritual depression in the context of those who want to live for God. You are living for God. As much as you know it, you're doing what is right. You're trying to be a representative of Christ in this perishing world, but it looks so hopeless.

Everything seems to be going the other way and you wonder, will I ever make a difference? Is there any point to this? Am I on the winning side or on the losing side of all of this? And it can get a hold of the minds of even the godliest of people.

David was in this moment, not realizing he was going to be king, not realizing that his life would rewrite history as it is, not realizing that every yearning of his heart would one day be fulfilled by God and by God alone, not realizing that although he was pursued, perhaps at this point in his life, he was not going to be conquered.

You might be pursued by despair, but I'm telling you today, despair is not going to conquer you. You will not be triumphed over. There is a promise of God. God has intertwined the very glory of his name in keeping you and I, the very glory of his character.

Jesus said, I have sealed you in my father's hand. My father is greater than all and no one can take you out of my father's hand. That is settled. No mountain, no valley, no wall, no army, no argument of hell, no demonic power, no circumstance, no sickness, no situation, no opposing force will take you and I out of the hand of God.

We are already sealed in that victory that was won for us on the cross of Jesus Christ 2 ,000 years ago. We are more than conquerors this morning through Christ who loves us. He is the head, we are the body.

He already sits at the right hand of almighty God. He's already crossed the finish line and in him, you and I already live on the victory side. Though we have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though we have to trust God for a banquet table to be prepared for us in the presence of our enemies.

The Road to Emmaus and Lost Hope

In Luke chapter 24, there were two followers of Jesus that had really left Jerusalem and are heading in another direction. And it represents those who once had a hope, but their hope is in their minds, it's lost.

It's been forfeited, it's been triumphed over. And Jesus himself walked with these men and began to ask them, why are you so sad? And why is all this negativity technically coming out of your mouth? And they said to him, have you not heard?

Are you only a stranger here? You see, God sent his son and we hope, that was all that was left of their testimony. We had hoped, we'd hoped that he was the one who was going to deliver us and the one who was gonna bring godliness back into our nation because you see, we're oppressed by the Roman empire and their thinking is against the ways and traditions of the people.

And to add insult to injury, our own religious system delivered him up to be crucified, gave him into the hands of the Romans to nail him to a cross. And it must have seemed to them that godless religion had won today.

Have you ever gotten to the point where you just hear of all of the stupidity on television that masquerades as the gospel of Jesus Christ? I heard this morning, one of my elders walked in, not knowing I was preaching this and he said, have you heard, there was a fellow on television last week telling the people, if you buy this holy water and drink it, you'll be healed.

Just stupidity in the name of God. And you wonder, first of all, who's foolish enough to support these people and keep them on television? The fraud of it all, the foolishness of it all, and you can't help but wonder when you hear it, is godlessness, how long is godlessness going to win the day?

How long are these frauds and impostors gonna be allowed to be on television, deceiving and robbing the people of God? How long is this going to go on? In 1 Kings chapter 18, it tells us that Elijah, after the confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, where the literal fire of God came down.

Elijah's Despair After Mount Carmel

Now Ahab, the king, saw it, he was there, he witnessed the fire of God come down from heaven, it touched the altar, it consumed the sacrifice, it even licked up the water, the scripture says, in the trench, and then Ahab headed off in his chariot and he's heading back to Jezreel, which was typically the seat of government, perhaps at that time, and he's going back with a report to tell his co-regent wife whether or not she was supposed to rule with him, she actually was, and he's going back to tell her, listen, listen, I saw the fire of God, the fire of God came down, I saw the prophets of Baal and all their foolishness, and it produced nothing in a whole daytime period, but I saw this prophet of God put an altar and step back from it and pray a simple prayer for just a few moments and the fire of God came down, I saw it, and the scripture says the spirit of God came upon Elijah and he outran Ahab's chariot to Jezreel, and I can't help but think, is it possible, is it possible that he thought for a moment that those who were in government might bend their knee to God just as the people on Mount Carmel had done, after all, there was irrefutable evidence of the reality of the gospel he was preaching, the fire had come down, God had manifested his glory, it was now part of history, and Elijah might have thought surely this will change the heart of those in government, you think about today in the nation that we live in, irrefutable evidence that God made this nation great, irrefutable evidence that God took people from nations all over the world and through just a few short years managed to do something through those people that had never been done throughout history, technologically, socially, a great, great experiment of what a nation could be if Christ was at the center core of it.

Now we've not been perfect in this, but there has been throughout history a genuine regard to the name of God and to the things of God, and you would think the evidence of this would be sufficient, you would think the thinkers that have produced like Edison and Webster and all of those throughout history who were able to do marvelous things because they'd been quickened by the spirit of Almighty God, you would think knowing the history that people would bend their knee, and perhaps Elijah fell to that moment thinking that there has to be a bending of the knee because this is not even refutable evidence.

He's manifested his glory once again, but only to find that hostility had deepened to the point where he was threatened with repercussion and physical harm and even death. Could it be that the unbending pride of those leading the nation caused him to eventually take himself to a cave in a mountain and want to lose his life?

He was so filled with despair. And sometimes we can get to the point of saying, Lord, what is it going to take to touch a nation? What is it going to take to turn us from our present course where we're headed for destruction as a society?

Joshua's Defeat and the Temptation to Quit

What will it take? Even the truly and obviously victorious have to fight their moments of despair. Joshua, the commander of the children of Israel going into the promised land in chapter seven was defeated by a seemingly insignificant enemy.

And the scripture tells us in chapter seven, verse six, that he was on his face till the evening with dust on his head. And he was praying a prayer that went something like this, oh God, if I can't defeat this, and it was just a little city, just a tiny one compared to Jericho.

And he was just starting that journey into his inheritance that was promised him of God, this wonderful land that his forefathers had believed that God was going to give him. And in his heart, he's saying, if I can't defeat this little city, this little enemy, then what will happen when greater enemies come?

And then he started to succumb to a false reasoning. In essence, he said, why didn't we stay where we were on the other side of Jordan? At least it was safe there. Why did we even start this journey? And you and I can only begin to imagine because some of us have experienced it, the mocking voices that would have been there saying Joshua, you've come on this journey and you've underestimated your enemies.

You've overestimated your own strength. You've overestimated the promises of God. And you've come on this goose chase only to be defeated and humiliated in the sight of man and before a holy God. You can be sure those voices were there trying to stop him from what God wanted to do through his life.

A Testimony from Nigeria

I remember years ago going into Nigeria and we were the first allowable public gathering in an area that was in civil war. They had been under curtailment for almost six months as I understand it. The last time everyone was together in one place, 6 ,000 people died.

The violence was extreme. It was on both sides. It was those who professed to be Christians and those who were Muslim were fighting with each other and there was seeming to be atrocities committed by both sides.

And here we were the first allowable public gathering. And it was reported that hundreds of thousands and they actually did come. Somewhere between four to 700 ,000 they tell us. I really don't know. You can't estimate a crowd that size except from the air.

That would be the only way you could probably estimate it. I remember in the afternoon of the first day being on the floor of my hotel room on my face fighting hell, fighting the thought that I had just brought 200 people into Nigeria.

I was bringing together a potentially explosive and volatile situation. It would take one gunshot, there would be a riot and thousands would be killed. And I remember the thought in my heart, you're over your head in this.

You've come here and you presuppose that God's going to do something. And you're going to suffer a terrible defeat. You're over your head. And I remember the despair that started to get a hold of my heart.

I know exactly what Joshua was feeling. When he was laying on the ground on his face, I was laying on the floor in my hotel room and I didn't know what to do. I was due to speak that night. And the potential for violence was immense.

I had been also warned by someone that you are going to be considered a lightening rod as it is for gathering the Christians together and your own life is going to be in jeopardy. And I remember these voices.

And thank God for one of our elders who came into the room that day. And I was laying on the floor and I basically said something to the effect, I'm over my head, this is too big for me. And I expected some sympathy, I got none.

He just looked at me and said, get up off the floor. He said, you've been sent here to do a job, get up and do it. God is able. And so would you allow me the privilege of extending to you the same hand of sympathy this morning.

Get up off the floor. You've been sent to do a job, get up and do it. God will not fail you. That night, yes, hundreds of thousands did come. That night, the devil tried to produce a riot that was lightning in the heavens even though there didn't seem to be any clouds.

Rain hit us from four sides, a wall blew down on part of our choir. Then we knew it was demonic. There's 200 witches or so chanting in the back, trying to bring a curse on this meeting, not wanting it to happen.

But all we began to do is sing and speak the name of Jesus. And there was a calm that came onto that field. At the end of that evening, after speaking a message, I gave an altar response. I couldn't give an altar call, it was too big a crowd to have people move.

But I made it very restrictive actually, and said to the people, if you have no intention on living for God, if you have no intention on stopping drinking and fornicating and everything else going on in that society and the killing and the violence, don't even think of disgracing the name of God by raising your hand.

But if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, if you want to be forgiven of your sin, if you want to have a living relationship with God and know that when you die, heaven is going to be your home, then raise your hand.

There had to be, if the crowd estimation was right, there had to be at least 100 ,000 hands that were raised that night. And people came to Jesus Christ. The violence stopped. The violence stopped and peace came into the area.

The governor of that portion of Nigeria was so moved when he had been away. When he came back, he was so stirred, so moved by what had happened. The peace that had come into a war-torn area that he flew to New York and he came on to this, the church was empty, but he came to my office and said, it has to be on the platform.

And I want you to lay your hands on me and pray that I might too become a follower of Jesus Christ. I want to ask you, what would not have happened if I had succumbed to the fear? If I had succumbed to the spiritual depression, the depression that comes into the minds of those that are godly, the depression that comes to try to tell you that you've bit off more than you can chew, that you believe promises and they may have been true for somebody else, but not for you.

If I had succumbed to those voices, much good would not have happened. And if you succumb to the voices that are telling you today that you're not gonna make it, that you're somehow on the losing end of the stick, that nothing is gonna change because of your life, that you're up against a seemingly insignificant enemy as was the case with Joshua.

God's Promise to Preserve His People

But if this thing has the power to stop you in your tracks, then it's hopeless to go forward into the future. God says for the oppression of the poor in Psalm 12 verse five, for the sighing of the needy, now will I rise and I will set him in safety from him that pops at him.

God said, I've heard your sighing and I know what comes against you. And I'm going to arise and I'm gonna put you in a safe place where the words won't affect you anymore. You're not gonna be triumphed over by this.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13, there's no testing, no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation or the testing make a way to escape that you might be able to bear it.

God will not allow you to be triumphed over. That's what the scripture says. He will not allow it. Verse six, he says, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.

My words are pure. In other words, God says, my words are not empty. My words do not give you a hope and then disappoint you. My words are not exaggerated. My words do not speak lightly about the character of God.

What I say is what I do. God speaks today just the way he always has. He joined those men on the road to Emmaus who had lost their heart and lost their hope where it seemed like godless religion was winning the day.

And he opened to them the scriptures and showed them that godless religion will never win the day. All it can do is fulfill the divine plan of God for the redemption of humanity and the strength and victory of his church because everything is under his control.

Everything is in subjection to the divine will of God to bring about his sovereign purpose. He opened their eyes. He opened their hearts. He sat at the table. He broke bread and suddenly they saw Jesus Christ is victorious.

Jesus Christ has triumphed over the devil. Jesus Christ broke the bands of sin and hell. Jesus Christ defeated all that tries to rise up and declare itself to be God. Jesus Christ has won the victory.

Suddenly they realized they were not on the losing side. Their hearts began to burn within them again. And they got up and they headed back to Jerusalem. Keep in mind they were heading away when Christ encountered them and they headed back to what looked to be in the natural losing place, what looked to be in the natural place of defeat, a place where the enemy had triumphed.

But it was in that place that the Holy Spirit came down and filled them. And they began to see what only God can cause us to see. They began to be partakers of a victory that's hidden from those who don't know the spirit of God.

God's Tender Correction of Elijah and Joshua

In Elijah's case, Jesus came and spoke tenderly to him and let him know that he was not offended by his discouragement. Christ is not offended by you, not offended by your trial. He's not sitting in heaven with his arms folded just shaking his head because you're going through a season of despair.

He told him tenderly that there was much left to do. Things that Elijah couldn't fully understand. Elijah couldn't see King David coming. Elijah couldn't fully understand that one day all of Israel was going to live for God.

Elijah couldn't understand that a savior was going to come through the lineage of David. Elijah couldn't see the church. Elijah couldn't see you and I here today. Elijah couldn't see Christ coming back with thousands times thousands of his saints.

Elijah couldn't see the church ruling and reigning with God for all of eternity. We only see through a glass darkly. We only know in part. There is a day coming when we will have a full understanding of all these things.

But God told him, you have to get up. There's much left for you to do. Elijah was an integral part of the plan of God and don't let the devil tell you that your season is past. That your time is over.

You may have had a misguided viewpoint. You may have thought that perhaps victory is going to come through government when it's not. He told him there's much left to do. And although no man or woman can ever understand the whole plan of God, we have this one assurance.

The plan of God cannot be defeated no matter how hostile anyone is. No matter how many Jezebels there are, the plan of God cannot be defeated. It cannot be stopped by anyone. In Joshua's case, the Lord Jesus Christ simply told him to get up.

There was no great amount of compassion in it. I've known what that feels like. There was something near to him that would weaken him. And God was delivering him from defeat by not letting him go forward till this was dealt with.

We can't go into the battle if we are holding to something that's taking our strength. And there was something in the camp, and I don't have time to go into the whole story, but it was weakening the testimony of the people of God.

And the Lord essentially said, Joshua, I love you enough not to let you progress any further and be defeated. I've come and put you on your face now so that you and I can talk about this and you can put it away.

Obedience, Perseverance, and the Work of God

Whatever it is, the words of God can be trusted. If he's telling you through the text of Scripture to get up and go back to what you've lost, or if he's telling you to go forward by faith even if you don't feel like it, or if he's telling you to let go of something that's making you weak, then you must, and I must.

This is our part. Our part is to obey him. Our part is to get up and go back and say, Lord, give me the passion that I once knew for your work. Give me the passion, oh God, that godlessness is trying to take out of my heart.

This love that the word of God says that you have for this whole world. It says that you love the world so much you sent your only begotten son. And may I add to this, you love the world so much that you left your church here to bear witness of this sacrifice of the son of God on Calvary.

And if he's telling you to get up and go back, then get up and go back. No matter what your heart is saying. If he's telling you to go forward by faith even when you don't feel like it, he's coming to you today and saying, my son, my daughter, there's much bigger a plan here underfoot than you can see.

You're only a little wee part, all of us in a great, great picture that God is painting. But it's an integral part. If you walk into a room and somebody is doing a thousand piece puzzle as it is on a table, and they look at you and they say, ah, it's finished, immediately your eye will fall on the piece that's missing.

Even though there are 999 pieces in place, the one piece that is missing makes a difference. Your obedience to God, you're going forward in God, you're fulfilling the call of God on your life, whatever that is, is an integral part.

So integral that it makes the picture incomplete if you vacate the calling that God has given to you on this earth. And so get up and go forward by faith. If you need to let go of something that is making you weak, then let it go.

Whatever it is, it's not worth holding on to you if it's weakening your strength in this journey. This is our part. God's part is to set us in a place of safety and to preserve you and I from this wicked generation forever.

Psalm 23 and the Call to Rise Again

Thou, the words of the Lord are pure words of silver tried in the furnace of earth. Thou shall keep them, O Lord, thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. I wanna remind you that the same psalmist that wrote Psalm 12 also wrote these words later on in his life.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my heads with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Get up and go back. Don't give in to the godlessness of this hour.

If listening to the news every day is weakening to you, weakening you, it might be good to turn it off. You'll never, it's so confusing anyway. Better to read your Bible. I wanna give an altar call for the spiritually depressed and those who could say, Pastor, I'm going to, I'm going to get back my passion for the work of God.

I'm going to keep going forward like Elijah, even if I don't fully understand it all. There is a great reward, the scripture tells me, if I would not quit, if I keep going forward. And then for those who need to let go of something that's making them weak, our part is to obey God.

His part is to give us the strength to obey him. And he will. There are great, great promises for you and I in the text of scripture. You're going to need this understanding to get through these days.

It's not gonna get lighter, folks, it's gonna get darker. You're going to need to understand these things to get through historically what could be in the days ahead, one of the darkest times in the history of humanity.

The scripture bears witness to it. A lawlessness is going to break out in the earth that will stagger the godly. You and I have to be focused and strong in the victory of our Christ. Get back to the work of God, keep going, and put away what needs to be put away.

Prayer for a Victorious Church

Father, I thank you for giving me the strength to deliver this word today. I thank you, Lord, that we are part of a victorious church in the earth, no matter what my eyes see or ears hear. I know what your word says.

I know throughout history you've shown us the pattern of victory, and so we hold to this hope. And I pray for my brothers and sisters, Lord, so many losing heart now. So many, God, living with a constant sigh and despair in the heart as they watch godlessness literally swallow a society.

Oh, Jesus, I pray, give us the courage to go forward. I ask it in your precious name. If this is you today in the annex in Roxbury and the main sanctuary and those that are listening online, for those in the main sanctuary, I wanna invite you to join with me in the front of this auditorium.

We're going to trust God to give us victory. And in the annex, you can step between the screens, the same thing in Roxbury. And for those in their living rooms at home, perhaps you just wanna go to your knees around your coffee table, and let's pray together that we'd be part of a victorious church in this last age.

Please stand if you will, and we're gonna take a moment to worship together. God bless you. Hallelujah. The men on the road to Emmaus ended up in the upper room, most likely, filled with the spirit of God, and became part of a victorious church that really changed the whole known world of its time.

Elijah got up and continued his journey and anointed a successor that actually did more than he did. And much good was done through his life, and he became an inseparable link in the chain of the victory of God.