DEPRESSION // Your Brain In Your Bible

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you, and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from

one of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your

faith is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as

you engage the Word of God. Stay tuned back from the message for ways

to get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

Can we give a roundup applause for all the moms in the house today.

Men, be extra loud. Come on, men, you've got to be

louder than that. That's what's up. Yeah. So that idea, the

faith of God and the delight that He shows in us when he sees us.

We talked about last week how that is a narrative that is from Genesis

to Revelation. That when we think about the fact that God knows more about

our brains than we do, and that science is catching up to what He

knows about us, that's the heart of this series. Many of you,

how many of you this week used the phrase right orbital prefrontal cortex. Anybody

use that phrase in conversation. I'm very proud of you. Way to go.

You're learning something that's awesome. We learned a lot about that last week,

and today we're going to dig deep into one of the big three mental

health conditions. We're going to talk about that one today, will diagnose it,

will analyze it, we'll talk about how to treat it, and we'll

identify how each of us can play a role in addressing it with the people

that we love. But before we do this, I want you to watch

this. It's just there's all this pressure, you know, and sometimes it

feels like it's right up on me and I can just feel it, like

literally feel it in my head, and it's relentless, and I don't know

if it's going to stop. I mean, that's the thing that scares me

the most, is that I don't know if it's ever going to stop.

Yeah, well, you do have a nail in your head. It is

not about the nail, are you sure, because I mean, I'll bet

if we got that out of there. Stop trying to fix it. No,

I'm not trying to fix it. I'm just pointing out that maybe the

nail is causing You always do this, You always try to fix things when

what I really need is for you to just listen. See, I don't

think that is what you need. I think what you need is to get

the nail. Okay, fine, I will listen. Fine. It's just

sometimes it's like there's this achy I don't know what it is, and I'm

not sleeping very well at all, and all my sweaters are snagged, I

mean all of them. That sounds really hard. It is, thank you

on if you would just don't. It's about the nail. And today we're

going to talk about the nail that a lot of people have varying degrees of

opinions, a lot of people have suspicions against this particular issue and advocacy for

this particular issue. I'll tell you that this week, as I prepared for

this sermon, I really felt the weight of this particular topic. I really

felt the nuance of it, the depth of it, the confusion about it,

and the responsibility to stand up here in front of my friends and tell

you what I've learned about depression. And I'll tell you from the very beginning,

I've got two sort of underlying agendas today as we talk about this.

The first is I want to tear down the wall between the mentally anguished and

the spiritually enlightened. I want for those of us who know Jesus, who

love Jesus, who follow Jesus, to have a higher level of empathy and

compassion for people that are walking through this terrible, dark, debilitating situation called

depression. That's the first wall I want to tear down. And the second

one is I want for those of you who are maybe in the room or

watching on YouTube. I want for you who have never lifted your hand to

say I need help, because maybe of the stigma that's attached to depression,

maybe you have felt if I were to talk about this, people would judge

me, when people would think less of me, people would think I'm just

being hyper emotional. I want to break down those walls as well. So

those are my two agendas today. And I want to make it so clear

that this issue of depression is disorder. It's disorder. Your brain is not

supposed to function this way. It wasn't built to function this way. It

was built to function healthily, and so if you are walking through depression,

it means that you are experiencing mental problems in your brain, like the neural

pathways are not connecting the synapses are not firing, and you're not the problem

it is. And so today I want for us to talk about these things.

Honestly, I want for us to talk about what depression is and what

it isn't and I want all of us in the room to understand our role

in the concept of talking about depression, because it's real, it's happening,

it's urgent, it's actionable, it's about the nail and it matters. And

so today, if you have a Bible, I'd love for you to open

up to John chapter five. If you've got a device, you could look

there. We're going to be looking at the story of a really fascinating story

of a guy who is sitting at what's called the Pool of Bethesda. I

say sitting, he's actually laying at the Pool of Bethesda. This week,

we read this passage in our growth group and my son Justice, who's nineteen,

was reading this passage and it talks about an invalid a person who's an

invalid. Justice who again is nineteen, and I've paid for most of his

education. He read the word as invalid, okay, and we all laughed

at it. Come on, man, you got to know what an invalid

is right, and he didn't. But then the more I thought about it,

first of all, I didn't pay enough for the education, and second

of all, I started to think about how powerful that word is. Invalid.

This man who we're going to hear about today probably felt that way.

He probably felt invalid. He probably felt like I don't matter. And we're

going to see that. Jesus has a different idea. So John chapter five,

verses one through seven, it says this. Sometime later, Jesus went

up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem,

near the sheep Gate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda,

and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of

disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

One who was there had been invalid. He'd been an invalid for thirty eight

years verse six. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had

been in this condition for a long time, he asked him a question,

do you want to get well? Sir? The invalid replied, I have

no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While

I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Now,

just in these short seven verses we have, I've learned five things about

this man. I'll show you what they are. First, his position in

life is defined by his condition. People are walking by him every day because

he doesn't matter, because there's no helping him. His position is defined by

his condition. Number two, he's been this way for thirty eight years.

Thirty eight years. Can you imagine that, laying invalid for thirty eight years?

Wild he's living his life alone, inches away from a healing, inches

away from a miracle. I don't know, we don't know how long he's

been laying at the pool, but he's just this far away from healing.

And number four, I love this one. Jesus sees him honestly, Honestly,

we could do a whole sermon on those three words. We won't,

but I'm just saying we could. Jesus seize this man. What does that

mean about you? What does that mean about you and your situation? Jesus

sees this man, he doesn't walk past them. And number five maybe my

favorite thing we learn about this guy. He didn't really answer Jesus's question,

did you notice that it's a yes or no question, do you want to

get well? But you know what, I think that this guy, our

guy, I think he stumbled upon the exact perfect answer to the question that

Jesus is asking him. I said last week that we tend to think of

mental health as a me problem. We tend to think of it as you

know, I'm the problem, it's me. We tend to think of that

way or worse, we think sounds like a you problem, like you need

to go fix that. But what we learned last week about neuroscience and about

the way our brains are meant to function, and about the way that God

made us formed for relationship, what we said last week was that mental health

is not a me problem. It's a we problem, and it can't be

solved with a me solution. Amen, you're with me. That's exactly what

our guy is saying. Hey, do you want to get well? Great

question, here's the problem. I'm all alone. I'm all alone. Think

about this question. By the way, do you want to get well?

Can you imagine if you and I were to take a trip down to the

hospital and walk into the cancer ward and walk up to someone who's on an

IV at a breathing machine and dying of cancer and ask him the question do

you want to get well? Now, we're not Jesus, so we can't

get away with it. But think about, like, how incendiary of a

question that is? How combative, how assumptive, how rude? I mean

if it were me and I were laying in a canceled cancer bed and you

walked up to me and said, hey, fight, do you want to

get well? I have some words for you today, and they're not Christian,

right, This is an interesting question. Do you want to get well?

It's a yes or no question, but our guy answers it with an

incredible piece of insight. I have no one to help me. How do

you think I'm supposed to get well? I'm alone. He didn't ask for

this malady. He didn't ask for this sickness. He didn't do anything to

deserve it. He didn't go knock on the door one day and say,

hey, could I be sick and lay lame for thirty eight years? Please?

Oh please? This has happened to him. He's neither responsible for it

or capable to fix it on his own. So I think our guy stumbled

upon the exact right answer. I think he's saying to Jesus, I can't

solve a wee problem with a me solution. I've been trying for thirty eight

years. Depression is serious. It's intense, it's nuanced, it's heavy,

it's weighty on it. Oh, good series on it. Siah's gonna fix

it. Thanks, sirih. Sorry, I guess you don't need Jesus.

I guess you just need Siri. Don't clip that for the internet. Our

guy says, I can't solve a wee problem with am solution. And so

throughout this series, what we're gonna do is we're gonna work through an acronym

together for each of these major three topics. And here's the acronym heal.

You know, preachers love acronyms because we think it helps you to remember things.

It doesn't, but we think it does. Uh and so uh,

We're gonna work through the acronym of heal, heal, H E, A,

L, Harm, evidence, what's the A sorry? Harm? Evidence,

antidotes and lifelines. Every week we'll talk through those four so harm,

how do we name what is out of place in us? We'll as we

talk about these issues today, we're talking about how do we talk about what

depression is and what it isn't evidence how does it manifest itself? And this

is important not just for those of us that are walking through those dark clouds,

but those of us who have loved ones who might be walking through something

like that, that we can see it in them so that we can help

them antidote. What does the Bible prescribe to fight it off? The Bible

must have an answer, amen and lifelines? What methods can we practice to

improve our mental health? So let's get going. What exactly is depression?

How does it harm us? I'm going to try to give us some broad

strokes here today. I could give you a real simple Quippi answer, but

depression is neither simple nor Quippi, and so I want to give you kind

of a broad I want to kind of expand it for you so you can

understand what it is and what it isn't. And I didn't know all of

this eight weeks ago when I started studying for this, and I've learned a

ton about this. I want to share it with you. You're going to

hear from Kim Troby later today, and another thing upstairs you'll hear about that.

But I want you to hear from her now. She says this depression

is a mood disorder that affects the way a person thinks, acts and feels.

It's a feeling of deep sadness that doesn't go away. Typically, people

who deal with depression, either chronic or acute, are disinterested in activities that

would normally get them excited. Often they will want to sleep for hours each

day, escaping from the feelings, and they can even feel physical pain related

to the depression. So it affects the way they think, the way they

act, and the way they feel, not just mentally but physically. Mindy

Streiber said this. She said depression is a reality that can affect people from

all walks of life. Nobody is exempt. It can be caused by chemicals

in the body, but can also come from events too overwhelming for us to

endure, the loss of a loved one, the loss of income, a

traumatic event, or difficult diagnosis. In the case of depression, the neural

pathways that are supposed to motivate and inspire a person to fight past the setbacks

and struggles of life simply aren't functional, and what might feel like a bump

of the road to a properly functioning brain feels more like a forty foot drop

to the bottom of a rocky shore. This is what depression feels like.

It's a serious word, a serious condition, a serious diagnosis, a serious

reality. It's not just emotional. To say that would be to reduce it.

This is a whole body problem. One person said that depression feels like

waking up in the morning and putting on a backpack filled with bricks, and

you're just walking with the way of those bricks, and after a while you

don't want to walk anymore. You just want to lay down and get in

bed and never get up. One of the things I want to do,

and this is especially true for young people in the room, is I would

like I'd like to correct our sort of half hazard flippant usage of the word

depression. Uh. For example, if you get a B minus on a

like an English test, you're not depressed, my friend, You're sad,

you're disappointed, but don't go home and say I'm depressed. Why B minus?

No, that's not depression, okay. Uh. If you're like me

and you try to get the next newest sneakers on the sneakers app and you

get this message didn't get them, which happens to me all the time,

and I get really really upset. I'm not depressed, I'm just upset.

Maybe in watching this Nugget series, you're watching how they're fouling the junk out

of Nikola Jokic and not calling fouls, and you can feel yourself stirring up

with sadness. That's called idolatry. But anyway, uh we uh, it's

not depression, right. Uh. Depression is not sadness, it's not discouragement,

it's not grief. It's deeper than all of those things. That's the

harm. What's the evidence. Let's look at the evidence. Markers like span

of time, functionality, and awareness are indicators that a person is experiencing more

than sorrow, grief, or discouragement. I'm a preacher, so when I

read a statement like this, I'm like, Okay, I'm never going to

remember that. So I try to come up with again, you know,

little tricks to help you remember. So I came up with the three d's.

Okay, and all the licensed professional counselors in the room feel free to

use this. Here's the three d's duration, debilitation and distress. Duration debilitation,

distress. What does that mean? If someone is experiencing sadness. Experiencing

sadness for a couple two or three days, a licensed professional counselor might say,

well, let's just watch this for a while. They're looking for a

two week span of consistent debilitation and distress. How long have you been feeling

like this? Debilitation? That backpack is so heavy that I literally am I

can't get out of bed in the morning. People say that you should get

up and make your bed and that makes you feel mentally strong. Well,

it's hard when I don't get out of bed until three pm. Right,

that's debilitation. How about distress? Is this bothering you? I mean,

do you have any sense of this doesn't feel right? I shouldn't feel like

this, or are you so used to it that you don't even know what

normal life is supposed to feel like. Licensed professional counselors are looking for this

kind of evidence to decide No, No, this is a serious situation.

Again, Kim Troby says this, sometimes you can see it coming. Other

times it happens for no apparent reason. Traumatic experiences may induce bouts of depression

as well as chemical imbalances. In the body. Many people grow through sporadic

times of depression based on circumstances and are able to recover relatively quickly even without

medication. Mindy Striver says this, if a person is experiencing prolonged bouts,

duration of sleeplessness, changes an appetite, restlessness, irritability, difficulty making decisions,

or suicidal ideation, it's very likely that depression is threatening to take hold.

So if you're seeing that sort of evidence in the people that you love,

you need to speak up. You need to pay close attention to what

is happening in the hearts of the people that you love, In the minds

of the people that you love, that's the evidence. Let's talk about the

antidote. An antidote is a medicine taken or given to counteract a particular poison.

That's what antidote means. I want to be really, really careful as

I talk about this particular part all three weeks, because I would love to

say to you the answer is Jesus, and he is. I would love

to say to you that today we're going to have a moment where we're going

to ask you if you're experiencing depression to come up and our leaders are gonna

pray over you, and that depression is gonna leave. I would love to

say that, and guess what, I believe that Jesus can do that,

and you ought to say I believe that he can do that. But I've

walked with God long enough to know that some people heal instantly, some people

it takes a little while, and some people walk with whatever they're walking with

until they get to eternity. And that's because healing is God's business. It's

not mine, it's not yours. He decides who he's gonna heal. And

I believe that God is still a healer. And that is another amen moment.

You should say amen to that God is still a healer. I've seen

it in my life too many times. I've seen my wife be healed.

I've seen friends be healed. I've seen people I don't even like that much

be healed and I'm like, God, why them? You know? But

God is a healer. That's what he does. That's who he is.

God can heal you, and he wants to. He wants to heal you,

but you got to ask him. That's part of the puzzle. Because

God, more than he wants to heal you. You know what. He

wants a relationship with you, and he wants for you to say, I

need help, Will you help me? Lord? That's what he wants you

to do. And guess what it was so awesome about Jesus. If you

don't have the strength to ask for help, then he'll come up and he'll

ask you. That's what happens at the Pool of Bethesda, is that Jesus

asked this man, do you want to get well? Do you want to

get well? Now? What happens next is miraculous. Look at what happens

in verse eight. It says Jesus said to him, get up. Oh

it's that easy, yeah, Because I said so, get up, take

up your bed, and walk. And at once the man was healed,

and he took up his bed and he walked. Jesus doesn't argue with this

man. He doesn't say, hey, dude, I asked you a yes

or no question. He doesn't do that. He doesn't fight with him about

it. He just immediately heals him. I would just say to you,

if you're walking with the dark cloud of depression in your life, the first

antidote is to answer Jesus's question, do you want to get well? There's

a lot of way to answer to ask that question. You could accentuate each

word. Do you want to get well? Chandler bing right, do you

want to get well? Do you want to get well? Do you want

to get well? There's a lot of ways to talk about this, right,

it doesn't matter what the point is, Jesus says to him with compassion,

do you want to get well? Is that where you're at today?

And again, this is part of breaking down that stigma because so many people

that I have known over my years in ministry in the church never lift their

hand to say I'm hurting because they're afraid of us. They're afraid of what

we're going to think about them, We're afraid of how we're going to judge

them. I just would say, the Movement Church is not going to judge

you for lifting your hand to say I need help, because guess what,

I'm your pastor and I need help. Amen, you, every one of

us in the room, we need help. Jesus cares for you, He

sees you, He has empathy for you. This is not an insensitive question.

It's not a presumptive question. It's a genuine question from a loving savior

who cares about you. Do you want to get well? The first step

to solving a problem is acknowledging I have a nail in my head right,

It's the first step of solving it. So hear me. I want for

those of you in the room who have never lifted your hand to say I

need help. I desperately want for you to do that today. And for

those of you that have said I need help, I want to encourage you

keep going, keep fighting. It's not a wee solution. So that's the

first answer. Here's the second one. There is another answer that's available to

us. It serves several purposes, and this is it's in the same category

as the face of God. In that what I'm about to talk to you

about is a category that is woven all throughout scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.

It has been prescribed for us intentionally to walk us towards mental health because

depression is a poison and we need an antidote for that poison. It's a

wee problem that can't be solved with a mean solution. Now here's what's the

worst thing about depression, as I've learned about it. The very worst thing

about depression is this is that the very thing that people who are walking through

depression need is the very opposite of what seems the most appealing. The very

thing that they should avoid is the very thing that feels the most appealing.

A surefire way to sustain or advance depression is to isolate yourself. I really

believe that this is the number one ploy of the enemy for all of us.

What he wants to do is to get us isolated alone so that he

can accuse and confuse us. That's his job, and he's real good at

it. He's been doing it for a long time. So a surefire ware

to sustain or advance depression is to isolate yourself. And a proven way to

walk through and ideally out of depression is something that the Lord has prescribed for

Christians, for people who follow God since the Old Testament. It's a simple

word that we take for granted. It's this word community. This right here

is God's prescription for the poison of depression. Real genuine, safe relationships.

And there's a reason we called this series your Brain in your Bible. It's

because again, God has known about you longer than you have known about you.

God has understood your brain longer than your scientists have, and he knows

that isolation is the worst thing for you. And he also knows that real,

healthy Christian community is the best thing for you. You guys have heard

me say hundreds of times that the best thing about church is people and the

worst thing about church is people. I didn't say it, you did.

But everywhere you look, all around the world, everywhere you look, everyone

you know is looking for community. They're looking for ways to connect with their

people. People will join clubs like hiking clubs and you know, CrossFit clubs,

dungeons and dragons clubs. Grown men will wear ridiculous hats just to be

in community. I mean, look at these guys. They are willing to

look so dumb just to have a community of faith. Sorry, if you're

a shriner or if you're watching this, don't send me messages. I looked

online for some of the silliest clubs that exist in the world, and I

got to tell you about what I found. It's called the Martin Baker Ejection

Club. Okay, this is a real, real club in the world.

Here's how you get to join this club. You have to have been in

live military combat and have ejected from your airplane. There's no other way to

be in the Club's that's what you've got to do. If you want to

be in this club. You got to join the military. You got to

get into some fights, and then you got to just punt and get out

of there right and just eject, and then you can join the club.

Their website is serious. You should check out. How you'd think it's hard

to join a church, it is hard to join the Martin Baker Ejection Club.

But good news, they're accepting new members all the time. They're looking

for people who would eject from an airplane so that they could be a part

of this club. I'm glad I don't have to be in that club.

I have you, guys, I'm in relationship with you. I have this

community of faith to be in relationship with. I also have another group that

I'm a part of I'm proud to be a part of, and that is

Tennis players against Pickleball. That is that is a club that I am proud

to be a part of because and I've said this before and it's important,

I actually sent these guys a letter I don't think we're against pickleball. We're

against pickleballers, let's be honest. So because they're taking all of the tennis

courts from us, and it's very hurtful, and they won't pay for their

own pickleball courts. They just want to take my tennis court. That's right,

my tennis courts. And so I'm against them. And by the way,

there's a family in our church, Tina and Scott Wilson, and they

are the ones that are opening that new pickleball center at the Chapel Hill Chapel

Hills Mall, like twenty something courts will be there, and I am praying

for their incredible success. I'm praying that all the pickleballers in the city of

Colorado Springs and Monument find them and become members of that place. Lord Jesus,

make it happen, all right. So back to depression. Depression.

Depression is a mental disorder that beckons its victims to isolate. God's antidote to

that poison is community. Community. And you know what, if you really

think about it, this is other than salvation and eternal security, big deals.

Other than that, this is the best thing that the church has to

offer. You, guys, are this church's greatest commodity. Your willingness to

love people, to serve people, to be honest and real with people,

your willingness to be who you are and who you are with people is the

greatest thing that the church has to offer. Unfortunately, our reputation has made

it so that people don't want to be a part of this thing. The

amount of times I've heard from people I'm in on God and out on Church

is because of our poor reputation. And so we've got some work to do

Movement Church. We've got some ground to take together to reclaim the high ground

of this word community. Community, It matters. And I think the reason

why people get so hung up on the faults of community is because we have

these unbelievable expectations on each other. We tend to expect perfection from one another,

and we expect for people to accept imperfection from us. Right, what

we should expect is imperfection from everybody, including your pastor. All of us

are broken, needy people, and if we ever think we're anything other than

that, God help us. Right, We're supposed to be the best part

of church life. Real, honest, significant, safe, enduring relationships with

people who are every bit as broken as you are. You should not have

to behave to belong, You should not have to perform to participate. That's

not how it's supposed to work. We have nothing to be ashamed of.

We are broken, and that's okay because the Bible says that there is no

condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, Thank you Lord.

There's no reason for us to hide our faults and our brokenness. There's no

reason for us to pretend to be anything other than who we are. Community

is God's prescription. It's like the batteries that are included in the Christmas toys

you buy your kids. Actually, lately they're not even giving you the batteries

anymore. Right, But this is what it's supposed to be. When you

accept Jesus, you get with that package. All of us we come with

the package. That's the way it's supposed to work. Think about the most

famous verse in the Bible. What is it? John three sixteen? Everybody

knows John through sixteen. It says, for God so loved Richie Fike,

that he wait now, God so love Richie Fyke, that he sent his

one on only son that if Richie Fyke would believe in him, that he

would have personal salvation period. Right, that's what it says. Right.

No, God doesn't think individual. God thinks plural. So he says,

I so loved the world and all of us that's in it, all of

it, that's in it. God so loved the world that he gave Jesus.

He didn't just love me, He loved you and all of us.

That's what the message is. See the idea that runs from Genesis to Revelation.

The big idea for today is this word covenant. God is a god

of covenance. He makes covenance with people. Now, covenant is better than

a promise and more meaningful than a contract. A contract is based on distrust.

I need you to sign here because I don't trust you. Right.

A covenant is I'm committing to you. I believe in what I'm saying,

and we are connected forever and ever. And here's what's cool. When God

makes a covenant, he doesn't make a covenant with individuals. He makes a

covenant with his people for his people. Now, to be clear, he

makes individual He makes covenants through individuals. He establishes covenants with individuals, but

they'refore people. Like when he made the covenant with Noah about the rainbow right,

I will never flood the earth again. This is what God said.

He said this to Noah. It's a covenant that he established with Noah for

us. Thank you, Lord Abraham, your descendants, all of us will

be like the stars in the sky. He was talking about all of the

people of God. When he made a covenant with David and said, I'm

going to give you a son, and he will be the king, and

he will be the Messiah. This was a covenant he made through David for

us. And of course Jesus says, I offer to you the covenant of

my blood. It's the new covenant, my blood and my body broken for

you. And he didn't say for you, Peter, for you, John,

for you James. He was talking to them and to us. That

covenant is for us. See, we in the West man in America,

we are so hung up on this word. We are so caught up in

me. We are so hung up on my story and my individuality and my

plans. We're so we can't help but read the Bible through the lens of

individuality. God so loved Richie Fike that he gave his one and only son.

We can't help but think of it this way because it's how the world

that we live in works. But you're not the only thing God's thinking about.

That's good news. I would love for you to tell the person right

next to you, just say you're not the only thing God's thinking about.

Just tell him right now, you're not the only thing that God is thinking

about. And guess what he would like it if you were not the only

thing that you were thinking about. He would really like that because when God

makes a covenant, he makes a covenant with us and he expects that we

return with reciprocity. So we're committed to God and we're committed to God's people.

That's how it works. That's the prescription. Isolation and loneliness are calling

to the depressed mind to seek further away from people, which will multiply the

magnitude of the debilitating sadness that's plaguing them. But Christianity comes with community.

Christianity comes saying no, no, don't isolate, don't be by yourself,

come and be a part of this family. And that's the narrative that runs

through the Bible community, the faces of the people of God that grant us

a safe place to be seen and known and loved and encouraged. It's why

every good church has a greeter. Why because when you walk in, especially

when you walk in on a rainy daylight today, somebody should be smiling at

you and saying, I'm so glad you made it here today. Right,

I'm happy to be with you, Thanks for coming, thanks for trekking through

the rain. It's awesome that you're here. That's what we do. The

passes that we looked at last week is so powerful to think about that they

with unveiled faces. The people who can see God. Their responsibility and their

opportunity is to see God and then to reflect Him to the world around them.

That's what comes with Christianity, and we all need it. We need

people in our lives who, when we look at their faces, we sense

from them I'm happy to be with you, even if you're going through a

hard time, even if this is the hardest season of your life, I'll

just be with you, and I'm happy to be here with you. I

watched an interview this week. My friend Laurie sent it to me from Rick

Warren and Rick Warren walked through one of the heaviest seasons of his life.

His son committed suicide and he and his wife hadn't heard from him in some

time, and so they went over to the house, knocked on the door.

He didn't answer, and so they were sure, and they were right

that they were to find his body dead in that house. Somehow word got

to his community group, his growth group, and before they got home,

all of his community of faith, the people that he had been doing life

with Christians, were waiting for him at his house. He said that when

he got there, the men of the group surrounded him with hugs, wordless,

adviceless, just hugs, and he could see on their faces that they

were every bit as devastated for him as he and his wife were. He

said, the best thing that any one of us could do when someone we

know was walking through a really hard time is to show up and to shut

up. I think that's true. I think that very often we Christians are

like the guy in the nail video. Sure he's right, there's a nail

in her head, but you know what, she's not ready to hear about

that. Just this moment, the moment that her heart warmed to him was

when he showed compassion. Did you notice that? And then they went for

a kiss and headbutted, But that moment where he shows compassion to her wordless,

adviceless. I don't need to fix you. I just want to love

you. That is what we all have to grow in as Christians. That's

how we regain the high ground of the word community by loving people. We

don't have to fix people, we can just love them. Amen. Amen.

It's a wee problem. It demands a wee solution. And by the

way, if this is you and you're walking through one of these seasons of

depression, can I just tell you I would love it if you would share

your pain with this community. I would love it if you would allow us

to see you for who you really are. I would love it if you

would be willing to allow us to love you for who you are. One

of the verses in the Bible that we Americans have individualized is this one Romans

eight twenty eight. It says, we know that all things work together for

the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for

them. Now, very often we read this verse. We put it on

our refrigerator. We put it on our you know, on our cars as

a bumper sticker. And what we hear in this is God has a plan

for my life. God will use the pain in my life to redeem my

life. But is that what it says? Is that what this verse is

about? What if I put it like this, we know that all things

work together for good of those who love God and are called according to His

purpose for them. See. I think what this verse is telling us is

that your pain isn't just for you. Your pain is for me, and

my pain is for you. The struggles that I walk through are going to

make you stronger, and the struggles that you walk through are going to make

me stronger. God won't waste your pain. He won't waste our pain.

He's going to use it for the good, not just of your life,

but of our lives. That's the idea. He's going to use your story

to broaden mine, and he'll use my story to strengthen yours. Your pain

makes your community stronger, It makes us better, It makes us wiser,

It makes us more willing to serve, It makes us less judgy and more

empathetic. And we could sure use a lot more of that. Amen.

I love the old proverb that says a trial shared is cut in half,

and a celebration shared is multiplied. Would you share your pain with someone?

Would you choose to walk into a wee solution instead of trying to fix it

on your own? Would you embrace community? That's the antidotes. So let's

talk about the lifeline. Here's what a lifeline is. It's an anchor thrown

from a place of safety into a situation of trouble, intending to bring the

troubled to safety. Clear enough, right, this big giant boat, little

lifeboat. They throw the lifeline down for this person to grab it and pick

it up and be saved. Amen. You with me. That's what a

lifeline is. So we've talked. I've said this over and over so far

these two weeks, that it's a wee problem. It deserves a we solution.

So let's define who the wes are. Who are the we's and I'm

gonna give you three of them? Okay, three we's number one. The

first we is God because God is plural. I don't know if you knew

that or not, But God, the Father, the Son, and the

Holy Spirit, he is three distinct pieces all in one puzzle. That is

who God is, three distinct ways that God has revealed himself to us.

The Father is the one who made you, the Son is the one who

saves you. And the Spirit is the one who sustains you. And if

we can understand that, trust in that live in, that embrace that kind

of a relationship with that kind of a father man, that is a WE

solution. I would tell you that if you don't know Jesus and you're walking

through depression, can I just please employ you today to look up to see

his face saying to you, I love you, I'm for you, I

have healing at the ready. Will you trust in me? Do you want

to get well? That's what God is saying. So the first WE is

God. The second WE is professional help, professional help. And here's why

I've been studying this subject for eight weeks and I haven't even hit the tip

of the iceberg of how real, how nuanced, how deep, how impacting,

how total, how holistic this problem really is. I'm not doing a

good enough job even today of explaining this to you because I can't, but

there are people who can. You heard me say last week that if you

cannot afford to go into counseling. If you go, I would love to

get some help, but I can't afford. The Movement Church would like to

pay for your first five visits with one of our licensed professional counselor friends that

we know and trust. And I would say, as a pastor, I

would implore you not just to find an LPC, but an LPCC, a

Christian counselor who can help you connect your spiritual wellness with also your mental health.

Do that your brain is a powerful organ. Clinical depression is evidence of

organ failure. It's not working right. We can help. That's the idea.

Now, listen, I could spend twenty minutes today talking to you about

the nuances of medication and what it does, what it doesn't do, who

it's for, who it isn't for. We don't have that kind of time

here. That's why we came up with this in Another Thing podcast, and

so today we're going to talk about that idea of all the nuances of this

subject. So you'll hear more about that throughout the week, so tune in

for that. It's not one size fits all. And I wish I could

tell you that there's a blue pill you could take and then to fix it.

That's just not how it works. Because you're nuanced, and so is

depression. God is for you, and so are we, and so please

let us help you if you need our help. And by the way,

if you're passionate about people getting help and you want to write a check to

help us scholarship some of these folks that need counseling, just write in the

memo of your check that you send to the Movement Church, just write mental

health and we'll know what to do with it. Okay, lift your hand.

It's about the nail. Don't ignore it, don't try to handle it

on your own. Ask for help. So that's the second and the third

I would just humbly offer to you today that the third we is the Movement

Church. I would humbly offer to you. If you're in this room,

watching on YouTube, and you're walking through this situation and you're looking for a

group of people who will love you, who will listen to you, who

will have empathy for you, who will care for you, we are it.

Can I hear you say? Amen? We are it. We want

to be that for you, So let us do that. Let us be

that for you. Even if you're worried if they won't understand you, stop

worrying about that. Even if there were you're worried that we're going to judge

you, we will not judge you. We just walked through a series called

how to Church. Some of you have PTSD about it. I get it.

Eight weeks of this, but listen. The church its loudest reputation should

be that we love people, that we care for people, that we're not

judging you, that we just want you to find Jesus like we did,

and that we want you to know we still don't have all the answers and

we're just going to the one that does. That's that's the concept. You

should not have to eject out of an airplane to find community. That should

not be the way it works. The church should be the most accessible,

most available community. We want you to find your place, find your people,

and find your purpose right here at the Movement Church. So do that,

and by the way, join a growth group. Join a move group.

Our growth groups are like you know, co ed people get together,

have meals, talk about the Bible. Our move groups are more you know,

all men, all women. That's the and we read the Bible and

study and grow. But here's the deal. Community doesn't happen in rows.

This environment today is not good for generating community. It's good for generating faith,

and that's the idea. Hopefully hearing this stuff makes you lean into God.

But this scenario doesn't help you to lean into community. You're going to

need rose. I mean, you're going to need circles to grow into community.

You're going to look into the faces of people, not just my face.

Amen. All right, So join a group. If I were to

ask you these questions, how would you answer? Would you like to have

a tight knit group of friends who you could be real with and who were

also real with you? Is there anybody here that would say no, okay,

no hands. Would you like to have trusted people in your life who

will instinctively run to you when you need them the most? Do you want

to have beloved people in your life that you will run to when they need

you the most? Yeah? We all want to be that person and we

want to have that person in our lives. But guess what, You're going

to have to fight for it. It's not going to be easy. It's

not going to happen overnight. But you can't live without it. So the

three wes, God, professional help, and Christian community. I want to

close with this. I talked to my mom this week, who has walked

through her own bouts of mental unhealth in her life, and she told me

about this thing that happens in Southern Africa. A greeting that happens in Southern

Africa. When two people are walking on the road, they will say to

one another in Swahili. The first person, when they see another person walking

towards them, will say this word sawu bona sa wwobona. They will say

sa wo bona to the person. Saiwibona is Swahili and it means we see

you. This is an individual saying to another individual, we see you.

The power of that is to say I'm not on my own, I'm a

part of a community, and all of the people that I'm a part of,

we see you. The proper response to sawabona is sircona, sircona.

This word is also powerful. It means then I am here. Think about

the weight of that. We see you, all of your pain, all

of your angst, all of your story, we see it. Oh,

then I'm here. Then I matter. Then the fact that you see me

means that what I'm going through is not isolated. I'm a part of something.

Sawabona, We see you, Circona. Then I am here. That's

exactly what Jesus did for the man at the Pool of Bethesda. He walks

up to the guy. He's been there thirty eight years, inches away from

a healing. How many people walk past him and didn't say, si wabona.

How many people just looked right past this guy, ignored him, thought

low of him. He's in ballid. Jesus says, si Wabona, we

see you. I said earlier that we learned these five things about this man.

His position in life is defined by his condition. He's been this way

for thirty eight years. He's living his life alone, inches away from a

healing. Jesus sees him, and he didn't actually answer Jesus's yes or no

question. But we also learned five things about Jesus. Number one, Jesus

doesn't let our condition determine his position. He is God no matter who we

are, and he cares no matter what anybody else says. He can change

your life in an instant. That's what he does for this man. Changed

his life in an instant. And listen, you might still, like I

said, never experience a full healing from depression. But what if you were

isolated and alone and now you've got a family. He can change your life

in an instant. Number three, he doesn't want you to be alone.

He just doesn't want you to be alone. God made the heavens and the

earth and the birds in the field, and you know all of the things

that he made, and he said, all of it's good. And then

he said, the first thing that isn't good is that man would be alone.

He doesn't want you to be alone. Number four. He sees us,

and he sees you. He sees all that you're walking through, all

that you're wrestling with. He sees you. It's powerful and I love this.

Number five, Jesus knew the answer to the question before he even asked

it. He knew he knew this guy was alone. And he walks up

to him and he says, SI will bona, we see you. And

the man says, well, then here I am. I'm alone. I

got nobody to help me. And Jesus says, I will, I'll help

you. And I would say to you that he can help you, if

you'll just look up and answer his question, do you want to get well?

If we can do that, if we can understand that his answer to

that question is us, that his answer to that question is real Christian community,

that you don't have to be alone. What a powerful witness all of

us can have. If we will look to the people in our world and

say to them, Sawa bona, we see you, and they will say,

oh, well, then I'm here. We wouldn't have empty seats in

this room. If all of us were doing that, we would see a

revival like we have never imagined, if all of us would fight to do

that. So let's do it. Amen, Amen. So what's God leading

you to do next? And how can we help? Would you send us

an email to info at Movement Church and tell us how we can pray for

you and help you take the next step in your spiritual journey. If you'd

like to contribute financially to our ministry, text the amount you'd like to give

to the number eight four three two one, or look us up online at

Movement Church dot c. You can find the Movement Church on all social media

platforms, and we hope that you'll give us a follow God bless you,

and remember God is for you, and so are we.