Peace Of Mind: Week 3

Well, good morning, welcome to churches acrossing. My name is James,

and today we are in our third week talking about peace of mind. And

today we're talking about one of those issues that really in the church we don't

talk about much, but we're gonna talk about it today. But before we

do that, I just want to encourage the church. You know, over

this summer we've had multiple adult baptisms. We are seeing God at work changing

lives. I praise God for that. Also, let me tell you a

little bit about what Gene and I did on our day off this week.

We went over and we celebrated at Pinheads. Who here's been the Pinheads.

It's like a bowling alley for billionaires. And we went to Pinheads to celebrate

this little girl's birthday. Her name's Grace and she's nine years old. And

when we showed up because they just moved here and they wanted to show us

their new house. And so while we're there, they're showing us her new

house house and she said, today's my birthday. I said, all right,

we gotta go to Pinheads. And Grace, by the way, is

a young little lady, one of three siblings of the family. That's moving

here next week to start our Hispanic ministry. Can we give God praise for

that? So we will be launching our Spanish speaking service. And we had

such a good time. We went to pinheads and then we went to graders,

and then Gene and I were miserable the rest of the day, but

it was a good time. But we're seeing God at work and still we're

seeing new families who've joined in since VBS. Our kids just did an awesome

job on the mission trip. And we're just a few days away, a

couple of weeks away from launching our neighborhood market, which is our food pantry

for our community. We're so excited as we're looking at ways that we can

impact our community. So today let's pray and ask God speak deeply to our

hearts and just ask him to and only if He's gonna speak to you.

But maybe the word today is not for you, but maybe the word is

for someone very close to you. So please pay close attention today to what

God has to say to us. God, we love you today. We

thank you for the opportunity to seek you, to know you, and to

be challenged by you, but most of all, to be encouraged by you.

We pray this down in him of Jesus. Amen. All right,

here's what we're gonna do today. Today we're talking about depression, and people

don't like to talk about depression. I'm gonna tell you about a guy named

Tom. Tom's real. I'm not Tom, so it's not at the end

of the story. I'm gonna go and I'm Tom, So that's not going

to happen. But if you were to meet Tom, you would love Tom.

Tom's a great guy. Tom's an energetic guy. Tom's a type of

guy that if you hang out Tom, you want to be friends with Tom.

He's encouraging, he's uplifting, and he's just fun to be around.

People will call him an amazing guy. And after you have an uplifting conversation

with him, where you're thinking, Man, I want to hang out this

guy. You would be absolutely shocked to find out that it took every ounce

of energy for Tom to get out of bed that day. You would also

be shocked to find out that he gave you all of his energy just to

make sure you had a good experience. See, from the outside, he

looks happy, but on the inside he felt hopeless, empty, dark,

afraid alone, and here's what's going on. Tom has battled chronic depression and

suicidal thoughts for many, many years. Now. To someone who hasn't experienced

depression, you might be dismissive, being like, oh, come on,

Tom, you got so much school. When you look at your life,

you're a good looking guy, you got a great job. Tom, you

got it all. And he would want you to know, Hey, listen,

depression isn't just sadness. It's Discouragement's constant darkness. It's like no feeling,

like like literally no feeling at all. It's no motivation, it's no

hope. Just this past week, on my news feed, I was going

through on on Tuesday, I read an article that shared that they were comparing

the stats from last year the Suicide Hotline for America. They have experienced twenty

eight percent more calls. That means close to thirty percent more people called into

the suicide hotline and said I don't want to live anymore. The next day,

on Wednesday, I'm going through the articles and I see Matt Damon,

who's one of my favorite actors. And Matt Damons, you know, you

look at him, he's like he's got it all together, and Matt Damon

finally opens up and tells a story about how he suffered through deep depression during

a significant part of his career because he felt like he took some bad roles,

he felt like he was in a bad situation. Maybe he made decisions

that we're going to ruin his career. And he talked about how his wife

how to help walk him through this deep depression. Suicide depression, suicide depression.

It's not something we'd like to talk about, is it? Absolutely not?

But I want you to check out this slide here. The church should

be the safest place to talk about feelings of darkness and depressions. You hear

that, I'm will say it again. The church should be the safest place

for us to talk about feelings of darkness and depression, and to be honest,

it's not. See, for some reason, we have this stigma in

the church, okay, and people are ashamed to talk about their hopelessness.

They're ashamed to talk about it. It's almost like, oh, man,

I have shame, I have guilt, I have hopelessness, I have depression.

Oh no, I'm doing Christianity wrong. You know. It's kind of

like if I was doing Christianity right, I'd have a tambourine and I'd be

jumping around having a good time. But because I have these feelings, maybe

I'm doing Christianity wrong. And then we have these well meaning Christians over the

years, and I've seen this a witnesses where people say, hey, suck

it up, or hey, it's not that big of a deal, or

hey, you know, I just put your eyes on Jesus. Put your

eyes on Jesus and everything will be okay. Who's heard of that? Put

your eyes on Jesus and all your bad feelings will go away. You know,

the first time I preached on depression, First of all, I had

no right to do that. I was twenty one and I didn't know what

I was talking about. But I got this assignment. So I'm preciating from

adults. And so what I'm preaching about when it comes to depression, I'm

preaching on what I heard and what I was taught growing up. And I'm

preaching on what I heard the televangelists teach. And so here's the basis of

my sermon. If you are struggling with depression, here's what you need to

do. You need to get your eyes off of yourself, Go out,

find other people, go sir them. And when you get your eyes off

yourself and you go and serve these people, you will feel better about yourself.

Now, what a shameful, shameful thing to put on people, because

here's what my basic thesis was. The reason you have depression is because you're

self focused. And you're so self focused is all you can do is think

about yourself. So therefore you're going to get depressed. And let me tell

you something. Even though that teaching was well meaning, that teaching was from

the pits of hell, and it hurt anyone that heard that, and it

puts shame on them. See, when we don't know how to teach about

depression right in the church, people don't feel safe opening up about it.

People withdrawal even more, and depression seems to compound. Have you ever thought

about this? Is somebody in your small group says, I got a sore

throat. What do we say, go to the doctor? If they break

their leg? What do we say, go to the surgeon? All right,

if someone's battling depression, what do we do in church? Keep smiling,

keep a good attitude. You'll cheer up it'll get better, it'll go

away soon. If you're one of the people here today struggle with depression,

I'm gonna share this verse with you. In the first part of this verse

you might love and identify with, and the second part of this verse you

might really be disappointed in and really might be offended by. This second part

of this verse. Okay, it comes from Proverbs twelve twenty five says anxiety

in the heart of man causes depression. You will be like, oh,

oh, okay, yeah, that's true. Anxiety in the heart, anxiety,

fear, worried, stress. Yeah, I agree. Amen, Amen,

Amen, that calls us depression. But what about this other part where

it says, but a good word makes it glad. Anxiety calls it depression,

but a good word makes it glad. And if you're battling depression right

now, you might say, come on, James, preacher, man,

it's not that simple. A good word a good word. But here's what

I want to remind you, even though you might not believe a good word

will pull you out of darkness, want to remind you that it is the

word of God, and it's the inspired truth of God. And it might

seem simplistic. But my prayer today is somehow, by the power of God's

word, the good words gonna bring you a little hope, the good words

gonna bring you a little healing today. So here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna look at two truths for when you're battling depression. Now, right

off the bat. Today, depression is a very complex issue. Now,

in case you're feeling proud like you get a star for being a super Christian

for never having depression, like I've never had depression, let me tell you

something. Don't get too proud. Why because depression doesn't discriminate. Depression does

not discriminate. And let me tell you something, after twenty close to twenty

five years of pastoring, here's what I've noticed. Young's teenagers. They struggle

with depression. Do you know I group I seem to see struggle with depression

the most besides young uns, those who are in our seventies and eighties.

They've retired, they don't have a job to go to every day, their

friends have passed away, and they don't feel like they have a purpose,

and so therefore you struggle with depression. See, depression doesn't discriminate, okay,

and so it's not by the way, So what I'm telling you is

not having depression. That isn't a spiritual thing. It isn't a spiritual accolade.

Okay. It could hit anybody, and it's not one size fitt all.

So according to the expert, there's four different types of roots of depression.

Number one biological biological. So it might be a brain chemical imbalance,

Okay. It just might be something to do with the chemicals in your brain.

Okay, might not have anything to do with you at all. The

very first time I ever experienced depression was when I was twenty two. I

got bucked off a horse on a mission trip at a very severe concussion.

After staying a few days in text this McAllen, Texas, we flew back

to Cincinnati, got settled in at home, got on kinds of different meds.

I was doing fine except for all the injuries, and one morning Gina

was alright at work. I woke up and I remember flopping my legs out

on the left side of the bed, and all of a sudden, whoosh,

there was a darkness that I had never experienced before. It scared me.

It was a fearful, fearful thing, and this darkness was so powerful

that all I could remember thinking was I wish I was dead. I don't

care if I live another moment. And it scared me because malah blah life.

Up to that point, I had never experienced anything remotely like that.

I was scared. I felt isolated, I felt alone. I didn't know

what to do. I couldn't him. By the way, whenever you were

going through depression, if you think you can logically think through some things,

yeah, right, you're there. It's a cloud. It's dark. Now.

Thankfully, we've found out that it had to do with my concussion and

it also had to do with some of the meds that I was on,

so we were able to fix that. But hey, sometimes it just might

be biological. You know. For some of you who've been in chronic pain

for years, that chronic pain will wear you down until you get depression.

For those of you who've had a baby and you've experienced postpartum depression, you're

like, hey, this should be the greatest time in my life. I

just had a baby, But why am I dealing with depression? Well,

your hormones are all messed up and so Sometimes it's just biological. Sometimes number

two is relational. Your kids look at you and say I don't like you.

That can be depressing. If your marriage has fallen apart, you've got

issues with people you love, you're going through a divorce, you've been rejected,

or I don't know, let's say something crazy like you've been through a

global pandemic and you haven't been around people for two years. I don't know.

It could be anything, and you're wondering why you're feeling dark. So

it could be, you know, by a lot cool. It couldn't be

also just relational. Thirdly, it could be circumstantial, and maybe the root

causes someone that you were very close to died and you would give anything just

to have one more conversation with him. My mother, she was my grandfather's

universe. She was an only child and my grandfather he came to our house

almost every day of my childhood. He was retired, even if it was

for a few moments, and he was kind of funny. It was kind

of like he was pretty rough on my brother and I because he was gonna

make his men. But to my mom, that was his angel. And

so when my mom wanted a building for her ceramic business. Guess what he

did. He built her a whole building. When she wanted a new kitchen,

he built her a whole new kitchen. When she wanted an addict turned

into a bedroom, Guess what he did for five months on his hands and

knees, he built stairs. He built her a bedroom. When my mom

went back to college and when I was in seventh grade and graduated, when

I was a sophomore, guess what he did. He bought her a brand

new car like she was a teenager. I mean, she was his world.

But then one day we get a call. He died suddenly of a

massive heart attack. Let me tell you what happened. I watched my mom

go from this person who just graduated with her future in front of her to

a person who didn't want lights on in the house. Often would come home

and put a rag over her eyes because the stress and the pain and the

oppression was so painful. Having conversations with her was like having conversations with somebody

I had never met before. It was deep, it was dark, and

it lasted almost a year. I always think about that as like the dark

year of my childhood, and it just simply came because her heart was so

broken and the person who bent the world to her she didn't get to say

goodbye to. And so sometimes it is circumstantial. We lose something, we

lose a part of our life, we lose our business, maybe you experience

some type of trauma or financially even trying to hold her all together, but

he still had to follow bankruptcy. Or you've been thinking for years, oh,

I can't wait retire. I can't wait to retire. Then you retire

and you have nothing to do, and you're like, oh, no,

I have no purpose, or what about people my age? Right now,

we're starting to become empty nesters and for the first time, after all of

our lives being about our kids, we're alone and we're empty nesters and we

get depressed. Or if you're like me, you're depressed because your kid's gonna

go to a community college and she's gonna live with you for four more years.

Sorry, father, I apologize for that sinful, sinful remark. We

don't know why, but this biological relational circumstantial. But I also want to

remind you that we also live in a spiritual world. So some of our

depressions from spiritual attacks. I want to remind you from Ephesian six two.

It says that our struggle, okay, is not against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark

world. And it gets the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

You are being spiritually attacks sometimes, John ten ten, don't forget this that

the enemy's goal is to destroy your life. He wants to destroy your joy,

destroy your hope. So it says the thief comes to still killing,

destroy, But then Jesus says, hey, I come that you may have

life and may have it to the fool. See, here's what you need

to understand. You matter to God more than anything else on this earth.

And yeah, there's different causes. Depression doesn't discriminate. And I'm not a

doctor, I'm not a licensed counselor, but I am a pastor. So

here's what we're gonna do today. The rest of the time, We're gonna

look at this from a very spiritual perspective, okay, And now I encourage

you to if you're dealing with depression, you need to take a holistic approach.

You. I don't know if you guys have noticed this. But Andrew

and I have had a lot of conversations. We say, hey, any

time that you and I can bring up how you and I are in counseling,

We're gonna bring it up in our sermon because we want to normalize counseling

here. We want to get rid of the stigma. And of course you

might to heard me talk about counseling for a while because my therapist quit.

But I got a but I got a new one now, okay, or

anyways, but I want to talk to you from a spiritual perspective today.

I want to show you any old Testament a very depressed man. First of

all, he is a prophet. Number two, he was a man that

God spoke directly too. He received God's word and then he spoke for God.

He's so close to God that God gave him his own words for him

to let other people know. And then we find him here, this committed

man of faith in a very deep, dark, desperate place. We're gonna

go to the prophet Jeremiah and Lamentations Chapter three. I want to give you

a little bit of context. Okay, Now I listen to a context about

four hundred years before this story happened, the Israelites they built the Temple of

Solomon. Now, the Temple of Solomon was one of the grandest buildings in

all the ancient world. It was a building to show the majesty of God

itself, celebrated who God was, and people came from all over the world

to look at this great Solomon's Temple. In five eighty seven BC, the

Babylonians come in and they tear Solomon's temple down, brick and stone, brick

and stone, until it's demolished. And so you think about this preacher who

actually has God speak to him, and now his church is histroy But on

top of that, his friends and family members that he's known his whole life,

he watched them murdered, raped, beaten, thrown into pits and mass

graves. He watches everyone that he grew up with and he loved be destroyed,

either physically or taken into captivity. And Jeremiah, here's this man who

speaks for God. He sees his church crumbled, his friends have died,

and his acquaintances they're taken off into slavery. This man is in a deep,

deep, dark depression. Everything is destroyed. Now here's what I want

to do. I want you to look at Lamentations chapter three with me,

and it's gonna show you what depression looks like these metaphors. Those of you

who have experienced depression, you're gonna say, yes, this is depression.

Those of you who don't know what depression is, he's going to describe it

to you. Let's look at this together. He says, I am a

man who's seen affliction by the rod of the Lord's wrath. By the way,

often when we are depressed, we believe God's against us. And he

says, he's driven me away and made me walk in. Here's a word,

darkness. You feel us darkness rather than light. Indeed, he has

turned his hand against me. It's almost like you feel God is against me

again and again all day long. Let's continue on. He has besieged me

and surrounded me with bitterness, hardship. He's mallied me. Dwell. Here's

a word again, in darkness, like those long dead. He has walled

me in so I cannot escape. In other words, I feel stuck.

He has weighed me down. And a lot of people who have depression,

and I want to say, especially those who might be the breadwinner of a

family where you feel like you know, I'm dealing with depression, but I

have to keep this job because if not, my family will not be able

to eat. You have depression, but then you have this weight that comes

on top of this depression. And he goes, He goes. Even when

I call out our cry for help, he thinks God doesn't listen to him.

He shuts out my prayer. He goes, I've been deprived the peace

I prayed for. I've forgotten what prosperity is. So I say my splendor

is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord, and he goes.

I remember my affliction in my wandering, the bitterness and the goal,

I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. I know

about you, guys, but that sounds like depression. Can I get an

amen? That sounds like depression? The prophet of God, he's broken.

But here's what I want you to do. We're gonna now, we're gonna

look at two things to remember when you're battling depression. Okay, two things

remember. And a lot of times people in a church culture will say,

hey, don't trust your feelings, don't worry about your feelings. Hey,

hey, don't just don't trust them. They're just feelings. But here's the

number one thing I want to tell you. Number One, when you're battling

with depression, your emotions are valid. Your emotions are valid. Number two.

If you're in the middle of depression, your situation does feel hopeless.

Your situation does feel hopeless. If you're depressed right now, you don't know

what to do. You don't know where to turn, you don't know how

to get out. You've been praying, you've been seeking, reading your Bible,

you try harder to believe, and you've done it for so long that

you have no hope whatsoever. And so what I've told you is completely true.

Okay, your emotions are valid and your situation feels hopeless. But here's

the problem. A lot of times we listen to a truth, We accept

the truth even though the truth is incomplete. This is an incomplete truth.

Now let me give you the complete truth. Here we go. Number one,

your emotions are valid, but they are not permanent. They're not permanent.

Number two, situation feels hopeless. But with God, there's always hope.

With God, there's always hope. When you are in the presence of

God. Even when you don't feel it, you don't see it, and

everything feels hopeless, there's always hope. And I want to unpack these truths

and I'm want to tell you again your emotions are valid. And here's what

an expert would tell you. An expert would tell you that if you want

to start healing, you need and you want your emotions to a change,

the first thing you have to do is acknowledge your emotions. You say stuff

like I feel hopeless, I feel angry, I feel hurt, I feel

betrayed, I'm depressed, I'm empty right now, I'm numb. I feel

afraid speaking of being and afraid. Who here is scared of tarantulus? Anybody?

Anybody scared of tarantulus? Okay, let me tell you about this study

that was done. They brought four groups in and they had a tarantula in

a cage, and then four groups and the four groups observed the tarantula.

And then they said, here's what we want you to do. We're gonna

separate unit four groups and you have four sons aliments. The first group's assignment

was to express how they felt about the tarantula, like I was scared when

I saw the transla. The tarantula horrified me. I think that transula just

is so ugly. In discussing, it makes me want to get sick.

All right. The second group, they said, just make observations, like

the tarantula is big, the tarantula has hair, the tarantulas in a box.

Third group say something that's not relevant, like it's Tuesday, it's raining.

The fourth group don't say anything at all. All right, they wait

a week, they bring everybody back in. And when they bring everybody back

in, what they did was they all they hooked them up of all these

wires, and they wanted to measure their physiological responses like did they sweat,

did their heart rate beat? Did they wet their pants? You know?

What did they do? And what they did was they brought them in.

But this time the tarantula is not in a cage. Guess which group,

by far did the best. The group that named their emotions, by far

did the best. Matter of fact, the people in the group that named

their emotions the week before, actually a lot of them petted the tarantula.

And so we have study after study after study that says that, hey,

once you start naming your emotions, that's when you begin to change your emotions.

So let's look at this next thing here. Naming your emotions opens the

door to changing your emotions. They're valid, but you need to name them.

God gave you these emotions, okay, and you gotta understand that they're

not permanent, so you need to identify them. See, when you name

it, it opens the door to God being able to change it. When

you name it, that opens a door to God being able to change it.

And because your emotions are temporary, and listen, those of you under

thirty, please please please, please please please listen to this next part.

Don't make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions. Don't make permanent decisions based on

temporary emotions. I can't tell you how many times over the years it probably

works one hundred staff members, and how many times a staff memorial get upset

I didn't get this so low, and so they'll quit and then two weeks

later like I blew it, I can't believe I quit over that. Are

people who quit their great job and said, what did I do? I

mess? They everything off? Are people who break off a relationship because they

go all hyped up one day. Do not make permanent decisions based on temporary

emotions. And speaking of permanent emotions, let me tell you why this is

so important, because when you do with depression, someday Satan's gonna come to

you, and Satan's gonna say your life is not worth living. This world

would be better without you. Do you really want to experience his pain anymore?

There's a way out, And let me tell you something. Let me

tell you something at that moment that may feel true, but I want you

to know that that is never, ever, ever, ever, under any

circumstance true, because God knew what he was doing when he created you.

I want to remind every single one of you God knew what he was doing

when he created you. Let's look at Psalm one thirty nine. He says,

for you, you created my inmost being. You knit me together my

mother threw in other words, when you were inside of your mom, God

put your DNA together. You're not a mistake. God knew what he was

doing inside of you where life began, and inside of your mother, where

life began. God created you. Then it goes on to say this and

if you just two ten says for we are God's hand. You were created

in christis what to do good works. Before you were even born, God

had a plan for you. God had a work for you. You were

created by God, and God had a purpose for you, says, which

God prepared an advance for us to do. So, when you're thinking about

making a permanent decision, are making permanent conclusions based on temporary emotions, don't

do it. Your emotions are valid, but they're not permanent. And you

might say, James, I don't feel hope. But of God, there's

always hope. And I'm praying that a good word today would bring you hope

because God can always give hope. Let's look back at Jeremiah, same chapter.

Let's follow him. Let's see what's going on. He goes, I,

well remember them, and my soul is downcast with me. Yet this

I called him mind. Therefore I have hope. Darkness, darkness, darkness,

darkness. But then there's a shift in the middle of his darkest moment.

He turns his eyes back on God. Let's look at verse twenty two,

and he says, because of the Lord's great love, we are not

consumed. Because of his compassions that never fail. They're new every morning.

In other words, his grace is there every single day. And then I

love this, I love this old him great, great is your faithfulness,

he says. Here's what I called him mind, He goes, I called

him mine in my darkest, deepest moment, that God has great love for

me. That's why we're not consumed. And that's it his compassions they never

fell. Here's the word we love, compassion. Compassion, and it is

the same root word for a mother's womb. What is a mother's womb.

It's a safe place. A mother's womb is where we are protected, where

we are nourished and by the woman. In other words, when God looks

at us and we're struggling, God pours out his compassion on us, like

like we're in a mother's womb where he feeds life into us because you're his

child. So what do you do when the whole world feels dark, Well,

you acknowledge it, call it what it is. I'm depressed. And

by the way, I'm gonna tell you something right now about our church.

This is a safe place to say you need help. Okay. It is

not a sign of weakness around here. It's a sign of wisdom. I'll

say that again. Saying you need help is not a sign of weakness.

It is a sign of wisdom around here. Now, where might you get

help? Will counselors where I would go first, Maybe to a doctor,

gets some meds, exercise, Definitely being a small group, people to cheer

you on, pray for you. We need community, we need each other.

You need to pray, you need to praise, You need to be

in worship services. If you isolate yourself, you're not gonna do well.

Okay, you wake up on Sunday morning you're like, I don't feel like

it. That's probably the number one reason why you need to be here.

Okay, and let me tell you what happens when you start doing these things.

Hope begins a seepin. Now check this out. This is his continuation.

Here's what he says. I say to myself, everybody on account of

three say. I say to myself one, two three. I say to

myself, we're gonna get here in a second, he says. I say

to myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for him.

The Lord is good for those who hope, whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him. Let me tell you something, Jeremiah

says, I say to myself. In other words, sometimes you got to

preach to yourself when you're down in the hole. Sometimes no one else is

gonna appreciate you. You got to preach to yourself. Okay, So Jeremiah

starts preaching to himself. He says, hey, the Lord is my portion.

Therefore I will wait for him. He preaches morning. He says,

hey, the Lord is my hope. He preaches morning. He says,

hey, the Lord is good to those who seek him. He preaches more

to himself, and he says, hey, I'm going to wait quietly for

the Lord's salvation. See, sometimes you got to preach to yourself. There's

always hope. See when God is on the throne, there's always hope at

home. Don't forget Romans eight thirty eight that says this, For I am

convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demon is, neither the

present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor death nor anything

else in all creation we are able. Nothing will be able to separate us

from the love of God that is in Christ, Jesus our Lord. So

you need to preach to yourself. You need to say, hey, not

my depression, not my darkness, not all my stubby's not my fault.

But there is nothing in all of creation that is able to separate me from

the love of God, which is in Christ, Jesus our Lord. Nothing.

Sometimes you need to preach to yourself. You know, I'm lucky.

I got a lot of preach your friends. I call him, I say,

give me a sermon, and they're more unhappy too. Okay, we're

not going to be little depression, but we're not going to surrender to it.

Do you understand, Church, We're not gonna be little around here,

but we're not going to surrender. We're gonna surrender to God. We fight,

we fight, we fight, and this is how we fight those battles.

We get in the presence of God. And see you're saying, hey,

James, anxiety gives us depression, but a good word gives hope.

And you're like, man, that's too simple. But here's the thing.

Here's my prayer today that this good word today will just give you another hour,

another minute. And I want you also know that this good word is

available to you day in and day out. Let's get back to Tom Tom's

a real person. Tom's not me. And he would say, here's what

I got him through his depression, and he was Jesus. He see he

didn't give up. Here's what he did. He went got some counseling and

that helped. He went to a doctor, got on different meds until he

found the right meds. Became a prayer warrior and that helped a lot.

He changed his diet, he started exercising. That helped a lot. He

got very involved in a life group and I helped a lot. He began

daily renewing his mind. And here's what he would say to you today.

He would say, Hey, yeah, your emotions are valid, but they're

not permanent. He would say, your situation feels hopeless. But with God,

there's always hope. And as I closed today, I want to speak

to those of you who have struggled with depression for years. I have a

word of hope for you. The matriarch and my family, the person who

had the deepest spiritual influence on my dad's side of the family and in my

life. She that my Dad's whole side the family, every single one of

them, even though some of them took it till they were in their thirties

or forties. Every single person on my dad's the family as a follower of

Christ. This matriarch, my great grandmother, wrote letter after a letter after

a letter. Every time she had a chance, she spoke truth. She

taught the family how to study the Bible. She was always sitting us Bible

verses. She was always when our family would get together, she would give

us lessons before we could have Christmas dinner. She would talk about Jesus.

She led women's Bible studies, and she was all about Jesus, all about

Jesus, all about Jesus. And when I was young, I could not

wait to go over her house. And I spent so much time with her

as a little child, and she would open up the Bible and so much.

I remember when I was five years old, I had to have the

same Bible as her. So here I am as this five year old with

this Bible that's this big because it's large print, because it's for you know,

people who can't see, and I'm like a huge Bible. She meant

everything to me. Here's what I found out later she suffered from clinical depression.

I didn't know that she had been hospitalized many times in her life.

Many times in her life she was hospitalized. She had seasons where she was

catatonic, where she couldn't even talk or respond at all. Then she would

come out of it and she'd be same old grant all about Jesus. It

was a real chemical thing. It was a true chemical thing. And there's

multiple times when I was young that she would have to go into a nursing

home and then oh, she's better, okay, And I had no idea

what was going on because a family hid it. But then we found out

that, hey, it was just clinical depression. The woman who was the

leader of our family and was a spiritual influence of our family, she suffered

from clinical depression. So if you're here today and you suffer with depression,

anxiety, if you're bipolar, you might think to yourself, I can't be

a leader, I can't be an influencer, I can't be used by God.

Those are all lies from the pit of hell. Do not believe that.

That's what Satan wants you to believe. And also, one last before

we close out today, our goal here as a church is to be not

a bigger church, but a better church. And one of the ways we're

going to become a better church is that we completely eliminate the stigma of being

able not to talk about mental health around here, in the lobbies, in

the classrooms, in the small group, and even in the sanctuary. We

have a free license here to be honest about our mental health. And no

one's going to give you an answer. Come get me if he might gives

you an answer where they pat you on the back and say good luck,

come get me because I'll get you to a counselor. Okay, but we're

gonna get rid of that stigma here, okay, because we're gonna become a

better church. Can I pray for you right now? God, I just

pray for those who are struggling with depression this morning, or who chronically struggle

with depression. Love on them today, incourage and today remind them that you

created them. You're not surprised by their struggles. You design them, but

you also have plans for them. For those of us, like myself who

live in very very close relationships with those who struggle with clinical depression, it's

really hard sometimes and difficult to walk with them. So for those of us

in the room today who are walking with people that we dearly love. Give

us strength today, give us wisdom, give us patience, Give us hope

too. So, God, we just pray that this will be a stigma

free church, that we will love each other and lift each other up in

the mighty, mighty, mighty name of Jesus. Amen.