Sermon

Depression | Holly Whatley

Crossing Church with Clayton Hentzel

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  1. Well, good morning Crossing Church.

  2. How are you doing today? Oh, you're doing better than

  3. that? Good morning Christ.

  4. The church. How you doing today?

  5. Way to go with? So good to be in the house of

  6. the Lord, with the people of the Lord, learning from the word of

  7. the Lord, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work richly and

  8. powerfully in each one of us. And then we get to project that

  9. out into a world that so desperately needs that intimate

  10. personal relationship. Ship with Jesus Christ.

  11. I want to welcome all of our campuses joining today from all

  12. over this region of your Insider online.

  13. We are so thankful for each and every one of you and today I

  14. want to share the sermon time with Holly Whatley.

  15. I've no ye men. I've known Holly since my very

  16. first weekend at the Crossing back.

  17. When we were pacing Road Christian Church, she was there

  18. that first weekend and she has been involved.

  19. Evolved with some of the most critical ministries of this

  20. church for years. She was my personal assistant,

  21. she was a critical player in the stablishment of our worship

  22. teams. She used to run the finances for

  23. the whole church. When we decided to go

  24. multi-site, she was part of the launch Team for our Macomb

  25. campus at church location. Shout out to Macomb and while

  26. she was up there, she finished her bachelor's degree.

  27. Lincoln Christian University and then she stepped away from our

  28. staff for a time to lead the well house ministry here in

  29. Quincy, awesome Ministry that we do and what we share in.

  30. And after a time there, she went back on staff at our 929

  31. location. Shout out to 929, And then later

  32. transition to manage discipleship and women's

  33. Ministries here at the 4th Street campus.

  34. She also helped develop and Lead our rise conference as well.

  35. Can I get a shoutout for Rise coming up?

  36. And after that, she went back to pursue to school to pursue a

  37. graduate degree in counseling. And after graduation, she went

  38. to work in counseling services in Hannibal.

  39. Shout out to Hannibal. You're lucky to have her out

  40. over there. She has run a marathon.

  41. She has been commissioned to ministry here at the Crossing.

  42. She's Champion. The ministry of Rafa house,

  43. Mission our missions. Team, she's been a leader at

  44. Region and she is Close personal friend of Allison and myself.

  45. And we have a very deep respect for her.

  46. The reason I want you to hear from her today is because she

  47. has professional expertise in the understanding and the

  48. treatment of depression. And she couples that with her

  49. love for Jesus and her Devotion to the ministry at the Crossing.

  50. So I want you to give the very best most powerful Crossing.

  51. Welcome to Holly, walley's she comes up on This day.

  52. Thank you. Well thank you obviously Jerry

  53. for such a warm welcome and thank you all so much.

  54. It's such a honor to be here. I cannot begin to tell you how

  55. much I love this church. I have been here my entire adult

  56. life at this church. I have grown and discovered a

  57. deeper love and knowledge of Jesus.

  58. I have found love and acceptance and healing.

  59. I have been challenged. I've been encouraged I have

  60. loved my opportunity to be on staff here at the Crossing it

  61. has literally been the honor of my life and this transition into

  62. mental health and into therapy was something that I never

  63. expected. Like so many of you I was doing

  64. my normal quiet, time one morning, sitting down reading my

  65. Bible spending time with the Lord listening for his voice,

  66. and the Holy Spirit just impressed on my heart.

  67. So deeply to go back to school. And as I began to near the end

  68. of my degree just so many things kept lining up that it looked

  69. like I was going to be making this transition and it's been an

  70. incredible Ministry to sit in front and across from clients

  71. its Sacred Space to hear people's struggles to hear their

  72. stories to hear their sufferings, but also to hear

  73. their wins and their Joys and their successes and I'm so

  74. grateful for the opportunity that God has given me in this

  75. season of History as well my unofficial title or how I

  76. affectionately refer to myself at my current position is

  77. world's oldest intern. Yes, thank you for that

  78. Applause. My co-workers assure me that

  79. there's no way that could be possible but no one has yet to

  80. produce an intern older than me. So until that happens.

  81. I'm just going to wear that mount will proudly.

  82. So if you're a person who can't seem to quit, White find your

  83. career path. As you heard Jerry say I think

  84. he's listed at least 12 that I've done in my current life.

  85. Let's talk because I can relate. So you Dairy approached me with

  86. this idea of speaking, it is part of the series on Mental

  87. Health about depression. Yay.

  88. Right fun. Everyone's favorite topic but

  89. what's interesting is I think depression is something that we

  90. Are very familiar with, so anxiety, and anxiety, and

  91. depression are two. We've been discussing them, you

  92. know, as mental illnesses, or mental health challenges, that

  93. are the most common, we experienced by people and even

  94. among our own church family, you know, we've been talking a lot

  95. about this mental health, survey, and so many of you

  96. responded and we'll talk more about that.

  97. But depression is something that is not always very well

  98. understood. Stood, we're not always sure

  99. like when we say depression, like what does that even mean,

  100. right? So imagine this.

  101. So imagine you guys are a couple of you guys who are having a

  102. conversation, like say a couple of you guys are like standing

  103. around the grill. That's something that guys do,

  104. right? I don't know men.

  105. Yeah. Okay.

  106. Yes. I see a couple of knobs.

  107. Thank you. Okay.

  108. So you guys are standing around the grill and you're having a

  109. conversation with a buddy and your friend says this.

  110. Hey, so How are things going and you say, oh well, you know, I

  111. don't know. Like I've been just feeling

  112. really run down lately. Oh, really?

  113. Yeah, just been feeling like really tired.

  114. I'm not really sleeping. Well, have trouble falling

  115. asleep. And I have trouble staying

  116. asleep and your friends. Like, oh man, I'm sorry to hear

  117. that. Like, well, how's work going?

  118. And your friend says, oh well, Yeah, I mean it's going good but

  119. you know usually what would happen is I would get a project

  120. and I would get my team together and start assigning tasks and

  121. I'll get my spreadsheet out, you know.

  122. But it just seems like every time I try to tackle it it's

  123. like my brains kind of fuzzy and I just can't quite seem to get

  124. my ducks in a row like okay. Well, alright, how are things at

  125. home? Well, you know, like it's been

  126. good like we've been busy, the kids have been busy now but Just

  127. seems like I'm just always in a really bad mood, I just can't

  128. quite seem to get out of it. And so, that's been really hard.

  129. Okay. Well, what about that car?

  130. You know, you've been working on.

  131. How's that going? Well, I got really far in the

  132. did a certain point. I just like I just didn't really

  133. feel like working on it anymore and so you might say to her

  134. friend like hey man, like I actually think you might be

  135. depressed and your friends like oh no.

  136. Like No, I'm just in a funk like II know things will get better.

  137. Work will slow down. You know, the kids are just

  138. really busy right now but we don't always realize is that

  139. some of the things that we experience in our lives are the

  140. things that we might classify as being in a funk could actually

  141. be symptoms of depression. So symptoms of depression are

  142. these so you might be feeling down depressed irritable or

  143. hopeless. You might have a diminished

  144. pleasure in activities that you used to really enjoy.

  145. You might have a significant change in appetite.

  146. You might be really more hungry than usual or you might not feel

  147. hungry at all. Or wait.

  148. You might have extreme fatigue or loss of energy.

  149. You might have a diminished ability to think.

  150. Clearly evaluate our concentrate, you may feel like a

  151. failure or like you have let yourself or others down.

  152. You might have movements that are slower than normal, or you

  153. may Movements that are more agitated than normal.

  154. You might be getting too little sleep, you're having trouble

  155. falling asleep or having trouble slang, staying asleep, or you

  156. may have the exact opposite where all you want to do is

  157. sleep. You may also have suicidal

  158. thoughts or start to make plans or even attempt suicide.

  159. And again, like I said, depression is something that

  160. affects so many people. If you have these symptoms for

  161. two or more weeks, you may have what could be diagnosis,

  162. clinical depression. And it's something that affects

  163. a lot of people. We asked you to participate in

  164. our mental health survey. And so many people responded to

  165. that survey. And we're so thankful and

  166. appreciative of you, sharing your thoughts and experiences.

  167. And of those who responded to that survey fifty percent of

  168. women who responded. Depression and forty percent of

  169. The Men Who responded experience depression.

  170. So even among our own church family, there are a significant

  171. number of us who either have or are currently experiencing

  172. depression. And not only that, when we look

  173. in the pages of scripture, we can begin to see.

  174. So many people who also have experienced these circumstances

  175. or these symptoms are qualities that we see with depression in.

  176. Just like in real life where I would never presume to diagnose

  177. someone based on a conversation or a journal entry.

  178. I'm not 100% certain that this is the case for these people,

  179. but we can begin to recognize some of these qualities that

  180. match some of the qualities that we are familiar with and one of

  181. those is the psalmist in Psalm 42.

  182. So let's look at Psalm 42 verse 5.

    Psalms 42:5

  183. Why my soul are you downcast why so Disturbed?

  184. Within me, put your hope in God. For I will yet, Praise Him My

  185. Savior and my God and I can only imagine what some of you might

  186. be thinking world's shortest. Sermon, right?

  187. Why are you so sad? Put your hope in God great let's

  188. go get nachos, right? No actually no sorry to

  189. disappoint you but for others of you you Maybe on the exact

  190. opposite end of the spectrum. For those of you who either have

  191. or currently experience depression, you may think great

  192. one more message where I think what is wrong with me.

  193. Why am I so sad? Why can't I put my trust in God?

  194. And so right now I want to speak to all of us at all of our

  195. locations, who care for someone or love someone with depression.

  196. We've been referencing this word a lot throughout this sermon

  197. series. It's the word validation.

  198. Word, validation simply means acknowledging the thoughts

  199. feelings and experiences of another person and it sounds

  200. like this. Hey, that sounds really hard or

  201. I can imagine that. That really hurt it's being

  202. willing to see through the lens of another person and so often,

  203. when we love someone in our life who is struggling, our

  204. intentions are so good. And so well-meaning, we want

  205. them to think differently, we want them.

  206. Um, to feel differently, but in that Zeal, or that desire, or

  207. those good intentions, we can end up using scripture, not so

  208. much as an encouragement, but sometimes it can feel like

  209. almost like a weapon to the people in our Lives who we love

  210. who are having those experiences.

  211. So, here's what I want. All of us at all of our

  212. locations to do. I want us to take a collective

  213. deep breath. Okay, so let's take a deep

  214. breath in. And let's take a deep breath

  215. out. And this is the posture that I

  216. want us to enter into those conversations with because the

  217. people in our Lives who we love so much, they are not problems

  218. to be fixed. They are people to be loved.

  219. And so often our presence, our compassion, our kindness our

  220. prayers, our encouragement. Hey, even our funny memes that

  221. we send them throughout the course of a day.

  222. That can mean so much Two more two people we love who are

  223. experiencing depression, been any right answer ever could.

  224. Because more often than not, there really is no right answer.

  225. So with this, we're going to shift back to our psalmist in

  226. Psalm 42 and we're going to look at what he asks in verse 5.

  227. Why is my soul? So downcast the way I often

  228. explain it to my clients is that depression can Feel kind of like

  229. a soup and I know what you're thinking, oh this is the kind of

  230. expert advice that I really came here for right?

  231. Yeah yep, you're welcome. Okay, so the reason I say that

  232. depression can be kind of like a soup is that with a soup?

  233. Some of the basic components are the same but the exact

  234. ingredients can be different depending on each type, right?

  235. And depression can kind of be like that we're for each person.

  236. The basic components can be kind of the same.

  237. But the exact ingredients for each person can be a little

  238. different and they can contribute to the continuation

  239. of a person's depression because depression is a syndrome that is

  240. comprised comprised of mood dysregulation.

  241. It can be resulting from events. It's a it's a combination of

  242. feelings and behaviors and the combination of these things,

  243. depends on the individual person and the root of each two persons

  244. depression. Can be different as well.

  245. This is where if you have been having these symptoms for a

  246. continued amount of time working with a medical professional and

  247. a clinical professional can be a huge ATU of figuring out.

  248. What are the components of your exact experience and what are

  249. the tools and the resources that you need to meet you where you

  250. are to help you along the way with your particular set of

  251. symptoms? So while we'll be talking about

  252. Out some of the components of depression in our time together.

  253. Today these may not be the case for you because they may not be

  254. your particular type of soup, I guess.

  255. But what we will be doing is looking at depression through

  256. the lens of the four buckets that we've been looking through

  257. all along through this mental health series and the first

  258. bucket is the chemical bucket or the biological bucket.

  259. So genetics can make us very vulnerable to depression.

  260. For example, if you have a family history of depression you

  261. are much more likely to experience it yourself.

  262. Also if you have we call a concurring diagnosis like

  263. bipolar disorder. You can also be much more

  264. susceptible to developing depression.

  265. There can also be other mitigating circumstances like a

  266. change in hormones. So for example after you have a

  267. baby or as you get older That those those hormonal changes can

  268. precipitate depression. It can be a side effect of

  269. certain medications and there are also even neurotransmitter

  270. changes that happen when we are depressed.

  271. So let's look at Psalm 42, verses 1 through 3 As the deer

    Psalms 42:1–3

  272. pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you, my

  273. God, my soul thirsts for God for the Living God, when can I go

  274. and meet with God? My tears have been my food all

  275. day and night. While people say, to me all day

  276. long. Where is your god in Old

  277. Testament times? God's presence was focused in

  278. the temple. And the psalm is here is writing

  279. on the road. He is removed from God's

  280. presence. And he, he says, my tears say to

  281. me. Where is your god?

  282. And so it can feel like that when we are in a season of

  283. depression it's like okay, wherever God is I'm somewhere

  284. else and our soul can feel so dry and we can feel so

  285. desperate. We no longer sense his presence

  286. and he could feel so distant. And this can contribute to the

  287. symptoms that we can experience. We can feel like we like the

  288. psalmist we can have prolong times where we have trouble

  289. managing our emotional effect for some.

  290. Us. We do feel like exactly like the

  291. psalmist said. We're literally, we have no

  292. appetite and our tears are all. We eat on all day long, so those

  293. can be some of the biological components of depression.

  294. Depression can also be situational.

  295. One of the other buckets we've been looking at throughout this

  296. sermon series. Let's look at Psalm 42 verse for

  297. these things. I remember as I pour out my

  298. soul, how I used to To go to the house of God, under the

  299. protection of the mighty one, with shouts of joy and praise

  300. among the festive. Throng.

  301. The psalmist is looking back on a time in his life, in which he

  302. was flourishing, he was worshipping God in the temple,

  303. he had purpose, he had Community, he was close to God

  304. and others. And now that season is gone in a

  305. sense of loss can often A season of depression.

  306. Whether that's the death of a loved one, the loss of a

  307. relationship, the loss of a job, even the loss of a promotion or

  308. something. We perceived as the support in

  309. our life, and so often depression, can be perpetuated

  310. by the failure, to truly grieve these losses, we try to push

  311. away the emotional pain, we busy ourselves or try to keep our

  312. minds occupied. But grieving It is simply the

  313. process of acknowledging reality.

  314. It's being willing to say, hey, I am hurting I am in pain.

  315. I miss this person. I miss this season of Life,

  316. maybe you're grieving or morning us an experience of life that

  317. you've never even got to experience in the first place.

  318. Mourn. That loss, David Kessler, who is

  319. an expert. And grieving and mourning says

  320. it this way, grief Demands a witness for.

  321. So many of us, we try to stuffer or struggle alone, but we have

  322. to be willing to share with the people who love us so much.

  323. I am hurting. I am in pain.

  324. I am grieving Depression can also be clinical and for the

  325. most part during this series, we've been kind of skipping over

  326. this section, right? It's like, oh, the buckets and

  327. clinical and then Moving on. But for this series, I'm like,

  328. Hey, we're going to hang on to this for a little bit because

  329. this is kind of my jam, right? And it's interesting because

  330. when I very first transitioned into full-time therapy, I got

  331. this question a lot. Well, are you going to be a

  332. Christian? Therapist.

  333. And I totally get the questioning or the thought

  334. behind that question, like, oh, where you going to be rooted in

  335. the word of God? You know, are you going to be

  336. pointing people to Jesus? Are you going to be trusting in

  337. the holy spirit to guide you in your counsel?

  338. Like, oh, absolutely, yes, yes, yes, yes.

  339. And yes. But the interesting thing is

  340. that the more I learned about counseling, theories, or about

  341. how our brain and body is wired or about the things that help us

  342. grow or the things that help us when we're stuck.

  343. Tuck or the things that can get us stuck.

  344. I was like, oh wait like the Bible says that oh yeah, the

  345. Bible says that too. Yep, the Bible says that too.

  346. So they didn't quite seem as opposed to one another as some

  347. people might actually think. So, an interesting example of

  348. that is found exactly in the scripture that we are in today,

  349. it's in Psalm 42:5. So again, the psalmist asks, why

    Psalms 42:5

  350. why Is my soul so downcast. Why is my soul so Disturbed

  351. within me and what we may not realize is why is actually a

  352. superpower? The psalmist is actually

  353. teaching us a brain hack. So can you guys hang with me and

  354. nerd out with me for just like 30 seconds?

  355. Yeah, okay. Thank you.

  356. Thank you. I see.

  357. I see thank you. I see those nods.

  358. Ok, so in our brains is our amygdala.

  359. So our amygdala regulates our emotions and often our amygdala

  360. can kind of get become dysregulated.

  361. It gets triggered and triggered, and triggered and triggered.

  362. When we're having mood dysregulation, when we're

  363. experiencing big emotion, after big emotion after big emotion

  364. after big emotion. So what happens is there's two

  365. ways that our amygdala gets trigger and you may have heard

  366. this before it, you can experience fight or flight where

  367. your amygdala gets really agitated or you Experience

  368. freeze or faint, sometimes it's called where your amygdala and

  369. your body and your brain, kind of like shut down.

  370. So those are kind of the two experiences that we have.

  371. Well, here's the amazing thing. When the psalmist says, why is

  372. my soul so downcast? Why is my soul so?

  373. Disturbed within me, the word downcast literally means in the

  374. Hebrew like brought low. Just exactly what happens when

  375. our amygdala gets triggered. Some Times and the word

  376. Disturbed, literally means it's like the Roaring of waves.

  377. It's like thundering and crashing and it's exactly what

  378. happens when our amygdala gets triggered, we get agitated.

  379. So the psalmist is describing exactly what happens to us,

  380. exactly what can be our emotional experience.

  381. But here's the amazing part, there's one part of our thinking

  382. brain, normally our thinking brain has no effect on our

  383. emotional brain. Except for this one part and it

  384. is the noticing part. So the more we become curious

  385. about our thoughts, the more we become curious about our

  386. emotional experiences, the more we ask, why am I feeling so

  387. angry in this moment, why am I feeling so agitated in this

  388. moment? Why am I feeling?

  389. So sad right now, it actually calms our amygdala.

  390. So it calms this emotional experience that were Having it's

  391. actually a fancy word called metacognition.

  392. We separate ourselves from the emotional experience to notice

  393. the thoughts or emotions. And so often depression, is the

  394. result of repressing. Our emotions or just a lack of

  395. acknowledgement of like, what is going on inside of us.

  396. It made feel too scary to acknowledge it or to face.

  397. What is going on inside of us. That could be for a variety of

  398. reasons, maybe it's Trauma from our past that feels very scary

  399. to address and that is very understandable.

  400. It could be difficult or painful emotions like fear anxiety or

  401. jealousy or more often than not shame or guilt and we don't even

  402. want to go there. So we just yell at our kids or

  403. we binge another episode of Netflix or we finish off another

  404. sleep of Girl Scout cookies. Or we utilize drugs or alcohol

  405. or sex to try to regulate what is happening to us, emotionally.

  406. But the more we utilize this process of noticing the more,

  407. our amygdala becomes less reactive and it calms down this

  408. emotional experience and helps us to get to the root.

  409. You see, the psalmist was morning a season in his life, in

  410. which he was really flourishing and transitioning to a season in

  411. which he was not later on. In Psalm 42, we read that he was

  412. oppressed. But he was feeling forgotten by

  413. God and it's very often in these times of difficulty that we can

  414. really do the hard work of getting to the root.

  415. The why regeneration is an incredible Ministry at our

  416. church? I am a proud regeneration

  417. graduate. I love this ministry and

  418. regeneration is a Biblical discipleship 12-step Ministry

  419. and as part of those Twelve steps we do the fourth step and

  420. it can be kind of known as the dreaded fourth step.

  421. If, you know, you know, because the fourth step is we go through

  422. the process of cultivating or conducting a Fearless moral

  423. inventory. We list out all of our fears, we

  424. list out all of our resentments, all of the harms done to us, all

  425. of the harms that we ourselves have done to other people and

  426. it's all The effort of getting to the root.

  427. What did our response value? What are we placing on the

  428. throne of our hearts? Other than God is it pride?

  429. Is it control? Is it a sense of security is it

  430. self protection? Is it relationships?

  431. What is at the root of my experience?

  432. And where am I failing to put God on the throne and trust, God

  433. first in my life. So as we continue on this

  434. spiritual bucket we're going to go back to Psalm. 42:5 why my

    Psalms 42:5

  435. soul? Are you downcast why?

  436. So Disturbed within me, put your hope in God for I will yet

  437. Praise Him My Savior and my God. So now we're going to focus on

  438. the very last section of this verse 4.

  439. I will yet. Praise Him My Savior and my God.

  440. So in the Hebrew verse 5 actually reads, more closely,

  441. praise God, for the help of his presence.

  442. We as human beings are co-regulators, any of you who

  443. are parents at any of our locations, you understand this.

  444. So imagine this with me, your baby is crying.

  445. Crying. Okay, and imagine like the

  446. heaving sobbing top of the lungs just like, you know, where the

  447. face is, just like beet red, everything they've got crying.

  448. Okay, so you go in and you pick them up and you hold them close,

  449. and you're like, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

  450. Well, what begins to happen, right?

  451. You feel their body begin to relax.

  452. You feel them. Begin to take, breaths that arm.

  453. Much more deep, you feel the shaking begin to calm and you

  454. feel the tears? Begin to dry up because that's

  455. what happens when we co regulate with each other.

  456. And that process continues throughout the course of Our

  457. Lives. We teach each other how to

  458. regulate and manage our emotions And God's relationship with us

  459. is no different. God's presence is with us when

  460. we have these big feelings when these thoughts overwhelm us,

  461. God's presence is with us to calm us to hold us.

  462. When we are struggling with our mood, our thinking and our loss.

  463. Psalm 42, 6A says this, my soul is Cast Within Me.

  464. Therefore, I will remember you, you see, when we are depressed,

  465. we have a mental filter and that mental filter is a negative

  466. mental filter. We will think that we are

  467. failing. We will think that everything is

  468. going wrong. We will convince ourselves that

  469. there is no hope. And that is naturally, that is

  470. connected. With depression.

  471. And the psalmist says, okay, I realize that this is my

  472. experience. My soul is downcast.

  473. What did we say? That was my soul is down low.

  474. My soul is depressed Within Me. Therefore, so he's saying I know

  475. that I am depressed. I know that I have this mental

  476. filter. Therefore, I will remember you

  477. when we have this mental We have to remember God, if he's in 617

  478. says this. We have the full armor of God.

  479. And particularly verse 17 says, take the helmet of salvation and

  480. the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.

  481. So the helmet of salvation protects our minds and think

  482. about it for a minute. What is salvation Salvation is

  483. the knowledge that we have been rescued by God.

  484. It is the knowledge that all of our sin and failure and mistakes

  485. have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

  486. It is the knowledge that there is absolutely no condemnation.

  487. For those who are in Christ Jesus, it is the knowledge that

  488. there is absolutely nothing in heaven on Earth that can

  489. separate us from the love of God.

  490. That is ours in Christ Jesus. So the helmet of salvation

  491. protects Our minds and reminds us of who we are and whose we

  492. are and not only that we have the sword of the spirit, the

  493. word of God. It was never meant to be used as

  494. a weapon against us. It was always meant to be used

  495. as a weapon against the enemy of our souls.

  496. Psalm 42 verses 7 and 8 says this deep calls to deep in the

    Psalms 42:7

  497. Roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and break.

  498. Have swept Over Me by day the Lord directs his love at night,

  499. his song is with me a prayer to the god of my life.

  500. We talked about that when my soul is distressed, it feels

  501. like the Roaring waves, right? Our thoughts are all over the

  502. place. Those emotions.

  503. Hit us like waves, but the psalmist is comparing God's love

  504. his voice. To those same waves, which means

  505. that When those thoughts and those feelings are so loud God's

  506. voice in his love is louder and that he is directing and

  507. commanding his love towards us. He is very much in the battle

  508. with us. So when the thoughts are loud,

  509. his voice is louder. And when we're awake and cannot

  510. sleep, at says, his song is with us.

  511. So what does that mean? For those of us at all of our

  512. locations, who are in a season of depression, it means that we

  513. will take steps of faith. And for some of us a step of

  514. Faith, literally might mean getting out of bed and taking a

  515. shower. But as we take that step of

  516. faith, we know, God is directing his love towards us, right?

  517. So that means that every Every step of the way, God is saying

  518. I'm here. I'm here, you're doing it,

  519. you're doing it. He is directing his love towards

  520. us and when those thoughts and those feelings get so loud.

  521. We will remember that. God's voice is so much louder

  522. and we will protect our minds with the helmet of salvation.

  523. Remembering that we are loved and chosen.

  524. By God, that we were covered in Christ blood. and when we are

  525. awake in the middle of the night again and again and again, We

  526. will allow him to sing over us. And we will rest in his love for

  527. us. The psalmist says yet.

  528. I will praise him. It's a, pretty powerful word,

  529. right? Especially when our symptoms are

  530. so significant when we're feeling so tired.

  531. When those emotional waves, hit us over and over and over again,

  532. when those thoughts Pierce so deeply Yes, no matter what?

  533. No matter what I experience, no matter what each day brings yet.

  534. The psalmist says yet. I will praise him.

  535. Why? Because he is with me.

  536. We're moving to a time of decision.

  537. I'm in. I'm in an interesting spot

  538. because I've said to you before that, I've had people come up to

  539. me and say it's like, you're reading my mail.

  540. It's like you're going through my trash or hiding in my closet.

  541. I kind of feel like that happened to me today.

  542. That I don't know how what Holly shared with you is affecting

  543. you? I have no idea but I know how

  544. it's affecting me and and how I look at my own life.

  545. And I can see a lot of those realities.

  546. In my life and I bet you do too. A lot of different things

  547. impacted mean what she said, one of the biggest ones was

  548. co-regulation. and, As a parent. I can remember the two words.

  549. That we said to our kids, they had two different meanings

  550. depending upon the situation, but we set them a lot and that

  551. was be still. Did you ever hear that from

  552. parents? Be still.

  553. You know, that's a Biblical term.

  554. It's in Psalm 46 where God says be still and know that I am.

  555. God. Most of the time though, we

  556. didn't use those two words, we had a noise.

  557. A sound that we would make that conveyed the same message.

  558. And the noise was this. How have you heard a lot?

  559. And again, it can mean two different things in

  560. co-regulation. It can mean two different

  561. things. One, It can be.

  562. Hey, you need to quiet down. Right.

  563. And then in Psalm 46, be still in the Hebrew language, could be

  564. translated, stop striving. Quit fighting.

  565. Surrender. Some of us today is where we are

  566. exactly where we are. And that still Small Voice in

  567. your heart. God speaking to you right now

  568. and that's what be still means. That's what co-regulation looks

  569. like for some of us. I mean, we're just torn up.

  570. And we need to feel that we've been taken up in the arms of

  571. God. He calms us.

  572. And he reminds us. That it's okay.

  573. That it's going to be okay because you're in his arms.

  574. maybe today is a day where you're not crying or retching or

  575. Overwhelmed. But because you spend some time

  576. with the Lord today, you can feel those things calm down.

  577. Some of you today have never come into an intimate personal

  578. relationship with Jesus Christ. You're still trying to do this

  579. on your own and it's time to stop that.

  580. It's time for you to go to him. And let him have control of your

  581. life. It's time to stop striving.

  582. It's time to quit fighting. It's time to surrender.

  583. There's going to be someone right over there by that

  584. baptistery. That would love to talk to you

  585. about that step. A courageous step, a huge step,

  586. but so powerful. So life in eternity changing For

  587. many of us today. It's different.

  588. We have that relationship with Jesus Christ and maybe, you

  589. know, we're feeling hypocritical, like why can't I

  590. Why can't I get this? Get my stuff together, why can't

  591. I And that's what these steps are for today.

  592. For you to just take that step to take a step.

  593. A courageous step. Get on your knees before the

  594. Lord, and pour your heart out to him.

  595. And feel. His hands pick you up.

  596. To feel his comfort and his strength in a time of need today

  597. is the day. To start a process of healing.

  598. It just makes sense that you would go.

  599. To the great physician. To the Healer.

  600. Would you stand with me? Let's pray together in Jesus

  601. name. Heavenly father I pray.

  602. Would you just take advantage of this moment?

  603. That we would be able to hear that voice.

  604. Your spirit inside us. Gently encouraging.

  605. Moving us to take a bold, step courageous step.

  606. And that father, we would be able to experience some healing.

  607. I pray father that you would accomplish a great Mighty thing.

  608. In Jesus name, amen. In Jesus name, amen.