The Psychology of Mental Health

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

I flew in yesterday from Lai, got the the red eye and so I

arrived here at Orlando at 5:00 AM and I was scheduled to meet

Aaron here at the church to kind of get all the technical sides

set up. And as I'm coming up to church,

there's just a ton of men here at the church and nobody knew me

from, you know, just Adam off the street.

And this guy Rob comes up to me and he goes, hey, great to have

you here. We've got breakfast over here.

We'd love you to come and meet and introduce me to a whole

bunch of guys. And, and I'm just thinking, you

know what? I'm starting to love this church

already. And so I got to have breakfast

with a whole bunch of men here. And thank you, Rob, for making

me feel welcome and all the guys at my table.

I know ministries like this don't just happen by accident.

There are people who have prayed it and persevered it into

reality. And I just want to honor your

pastors, Pastor Tim and Pastor Christine, thank you so much for

being faithful. This is how faithful your

pastors are. There was a call that went out

this morning from the children's ministry saying we've had an

unusual amount of call ends people who couldn't make it.

And so we're putting the the word out there who anybody can

help us today. We'd love to have your help.

And Pastor Christine turns to her husband and says, here I am,

Tim, send me. That is the spirit.

Now I'm I'm glad that you're here.

I'm glad that the children's ministry was covered.

But that is the spirit of your pastors.

Here I am, Lord, send me wherever the needs are.

So I just want to honour you as pastors, as team leaders here at

this church at Illuminae. God bless you and thank you for

trusting me with your people. I also want to put the worship

team on notice. I'm calling an audible here.

I can't do this in every church, but in this church I can do it

because you are just that good. So Aaron, if you could get the

word to the entire worship team, I want you to come back and do

that song. We're going to just start out in

the chorus something. I'm still amazed by you.

That's all I can remember. I'm still amazed.

So the whole worship team rhythm section, everybody, I want you

to come out with Patty around 10:50.

Actually, let's make that 1054 and we're going to finish up.

Oh, tits 954. That's great.

I've just had to cut an hour off my message.

I all right, as Pastor Tim said, I am both a pastor and a doctor

of clinical psychology. That means that I have been

trained and licensed to diagnose and treat the conditions that

impact people's mental health. And so I love just standing at

the Nexus of science and faith. And this morning, I'm going to

be basing my message on on a scripture that I know and love.

But I always like to know who's speaking to me.

So I thought you should know a little bit about me.

I belong to a family, and this is my wife.

On the left hand, your left hand side with our oldest son, David,

he and his wife pastor a church in Montana.

On the right hand side standing with me is our second son who is

a doctor of medicine in the US Navy and he's currently based in

Georgia. I also have a YouTube channel

and it's the only time I want you to get out your phones.

I have this YouTube channel as an extension of my ministry.

It's called Making Life Better with Doctor West, and I worked

really hard to put these many documentaries together just on

various subjects all around the topic of making life better.

The one I did just recently is called Wives Want This.

This comes out of my private practice as I do a lot of

couples counselling, specifically of pastors and

their wives who come in. And consistently there are three

themes that come in which wives are saying I really need these

qualities in my husband. So every guy in the house should

at least watch that one. But I invite you to subscribe.

It's a good way for us to stay connected and it's a great

encouragement for me to keep going with the this

encouragement after today. Anxiety is not the enemy.

That's a good one to watch because sometimes in this

culture we see anxiety as an enemy and it's not.

Sometimes an anxious response is absolutely appropriate in the

situation. What God wants is for us not to

be imprisoned, so captivated by anxiety that we can't even

function. So that's that's a good one

there. So thank you in advance for

subscribing and being a part of that world.

All right, the scripture that I'm basing this message on is

Psalm 139, verse 14. One that you know very well.

Psalms 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully.

Now let's just stop there. God was not in heaven going.

Oh my goodness, I hope I get this right.

I'm really quite anxious about this.

No, fearfully in the Hebrew text means He made it with awe and

reverence. So when you read that word, I

want you to thank God made us with awe and reverence.

It was the pinnacle. We are the pinnacle of His

creation. We are fearfully and wonderfully

made. Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well. Here on the screen is a picture

of a friend of mine. Her name is Anne Yeller.

She's on your right. Anne and her friend Debbie

Nichols were out riding their mountain bikes in Whiting Ranch

in Southern California. And as I was interviewing Anne

for one of my content creations, Anne said.

I was ahead of Debbie at this stage.

And I came over a hill and I saw in my peripheral vision this

reddish, brownish fur. And she thought I'd startle the

deer, but she said where's? Nanoseconds later, I realized I

had not startled a deer. I was actually being attacked by

a Mountain Lion. A fully grown Mountain Lion with

so much thrust knocked Anne off her bike and then proceeded to

grab her by the neck. Now you know that that is that

is the kill shot for a Mountain Lion.

As Anne fell off her bike, her helmet slipped off her head and

was dangling around her neck, which was frustrating this fully

grown Mountain Lion because it could not get a purchase on her

neck. This helmet was getting in the

way. And so instead it grabbed onto

her face, her cheek. Now you notice she's she's kind

of leaning away left, left kind of leans away, but her cheek was

completely ripped open. Debbie coming upon the scene,

saw this Mountain Lion dragging Anne down into a ravine and Anne

threw her mountain bike aside, ran down into the ravine,

grabbed Anne by the ankle and started pulling Anne up the

ravine having the force of gravity against her.

And not only that she was pulling up Anne, but she was

pulling up the Mountain Lion at the same time that was attached

to Anne. And she was screaming at the top

of her voice. Anne, I'm not going to let you

die. I'm not going to let you die.

And with superhuman strength, she was pulling Anne up the

ravine, having the forces of gravity against her.

How does 115 LB woman achieve that type of fate?

Well, I'll tell you why, because God made her that way and God

didn't make you any differently. God has put within us mechanisms

in certain situations to do something that defies our

humanity. Oh yeah.

I always have to put this slide up because I forget to tell the

rest. Anne lived.

Very important detail. They brought in a Life Flight

helicopter. They put Anne in and took her to

Mission Hospital in Southern California.

And there happened to be the world's leading, one of the

world's leading trauma surgeons there working that night.

And he said it as if her whole left side of her face had been

peeled away from her skull and just handfuls of dirt thrown in

there. 15 plus operations and did survive.

And once she got to that point of being healthy enough, all the

all the television programs, Good Morning America and the

Today Show were calling in and saying we'd love to interview

you and said I'd love to be interviewed as long as you let

me say it was Jesus who saved me.

She is a mighty woman of God. And So what was unleashed in

Debbie Nichols at that time? It was a hormone called

adrenaline and adrenaline is secreted from the adrenal glands

which are just sit above our kidneys in the back here.

And what adrenaline does is it shocks our muscles into action

followed by adrenaline is cortisol.

Now, cortisol is the stress hormone, and cortisol has a a

specific purpose. What it does is it helps.

It narrows our attention down to a very specific thing.

And as Anne was being attacked by this Mountain Lion and Debbie

was screaming at the top of her lungs, Anne, I'm not going to

let you die. There was adrenaline and

cortisol flooding through her system.

Now, cortisol releases certain chemicals that help us perform

certain functions. What cortisol does is it turns

sugar and fat into energy and it improves the ability of your

body and brain to be able to use that energy.

Now our brain is only 2% of our body mass but uses somewhere

between 20 to 25% of our blood supply.

And so the brain has been flooded with with this cortisol

because the brain needs it at that point.

Now, cortisol also suppresses some other biological functions.

So when you're highly, highly stressed in a stressful

situation, let's say guys, you were being chased by a bear,

your digestive system is shut down at that point.

You're not thinking. You know, Rob, you and I are are

not thinking. Oh man, we should have, should

have had that extra bagel kind of hungry at the moment.

No, our digestive system is shut down.

Also, our reproductive system is shut down.

Quarter soldiers shuts down our reproductive system.

You know, it's, it's been said that guys think about sex a lot.

Well, in this moment when you're getting chased by a bear, guys

are not thinking about sex at all.

I can see there's wives in the house going, honey, we we should

get a pet bear. We should.

OK. There is another neurosteroid

called dehydroepyandrosterone that is released in our body

that helps our brain to grow. Now, testosterone.

I'm going to need some help here, young man.

What's your name? John.

John. John, I'm not going to embarrass

you very much, just moderate. John, could you join me on stage

here? And I so run, John, run.

Because this is coming out of my message time.

OK, so as I'm worshipping, I I look across at John.

Here, take the microphone. Very dangerous thing.

So you have no idea what I'm going to say, but I, I'm

thinking these were you born with.

I mean, what, how did you do that?

I put them under stress, John. I put my muscles under stress

too. But when I put my muscles under

stress, my, my muscles, they hurt.

They really hurt the next day. What?

Why is that? The muscle is torn and it's

healing itself. Ah, excellent.

You got, you went straight there.

What happens? So when you're when you're doing

those bicep curls, you're, you're actually tearing your

muscle fibers torn up a bit torn up.

And that's why there's pain there.

Yeah. OK, John, God put within you

within your system. Obviously he gave you a double

portion. What testosterone does to the

body is it's a healing agent and it repairs the muscle and the

muscle actually becomes smaller. No, it becomes stronger and

bigger. Fantastic.

Let's give it up for John. You did great.

So what testosterone does for the human body, dehydro

epiandosterone does for your brain.

Now, we thought that, you know, when we were, you know,

scientists thought back in the day that when you were born, you

were born with all the brain cells you were ever going to

get. And then over the course of your

life, you, you know, end up burning through those brain

cells. So by the time you're old,

you're Dumber than a box of rocks.

That's not true. The scientists realize the error

of their way. They realize that your body is

capable of generating new brain cells up until your dying hour.

It's called neurogenesis, the formation of new brain cells.

And what stimulates the formation of new brain cells?

It's dehydroepiandrostrone that's released into your body

at certain times. Now, which is better?

Cortisol or dehydroepianndrosterone or DHEA

for short. Which is better?

It's the wrong question. You see, they both have a

purpose. It's the ratio that makes a

difference. The ratio is if you've got

higher ratio of cortisol and lower dehydroepianndrosterone if

your body is in that configuration.

And unfortunately, we live in a in an age where the culture out

there likes us to be in a place of fear.

The whole news cycle is based around stimulating that fear and

that anxiety response. If we don't watch it, we can be

high in cortisol and low in dehydroepiandrostone a lot of

the time. Now, that configuration God

intended only for specific situations.

When we're being chased by a bear, attacked by a light, and

we're involved in an accident, you know, we, our, our system

flips where we've got high cortisol and low

dehydroepandrocerone. That's exactly what God intends

when we're in crisis. But God does not intend for us

to be in this situation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And yet so many of us are. And what it does is it it harms

your immune system when you're in this configuration.

It also leads to greater depression.

Now, I think back to when we had COVID, you know, our response to

that was scientifically dubious. You know, what we did was keep

people away from each other. Well, that's a strange thing.

That's going to lower your immune system.

Don't let's shut the gems, John. That's going to, that's going to

lower your immune system when you're not.

Let's shut down the churches. Well, that's going to lower your

immune system because you're not connecting with others in

fellowship, which stimulates dehydroepiandrosterone.

Now in this configuration, high dehydroepiandrosterone and low

cortisol that has been linked. That configuration has been

linked with reduced anxiety and depression, reduced heart

disease, and reduced brain cell deterioration.

So you want to be in this configuration most of the time

unless you get chased by a bear. This research has come out of

Stanford University, and Pastor Tim and I were talking

beforehand. It's just a great delight of

ours to see where science reinforces what God has been

teaching us all along. But Kelly Mcgonigal and her

research team out of Stanford University calls this

configuration high dehydroepindosterone, low

cortisol, the growth index. And what they've determined

through scientific research is that you have greater

persistence when you're in this configuration.

Greater resilience, higher performance, greater focus,

superior problem solving skills. This is the way God wants us to

be most of the time. So the question is, how do you

activate the growth index? You know, it's like, OK, Dr.

West, you've got me solved. I want to be in this

configuration most of the time. How do I get there?

You've got to change your view about stressful events.

Change your view about stressful events.

You see, you can have a fear and worry view of stressful events.

Have you ever had these thoughts go through your mind?

I can't handle this. This'll do me in.

I'm done. This'll be the death of me that

is having a fear and worry view of stressful events.

What is that signal to your nervous system?

You're under threat. This is a life threatening

situation. We need adrenaline, we need

cortisol and it floods your system with those that which God

only intended for when you're in being chased by a bear involved

in a car accident. It's it sends a signal that we

need to flip your configuration high cortisol.

You ever heard of adrenal fatigue?

That's because we we allow ourselves to get flipped so

often. Because we attempted to have a

fear and worry view of stressful events.

But you have the option whenever you're faced with stress.

See, stress is not the enemy. You know it's appropriate to be

appropriately stressed, appropriately stressed, but it's

how you view the stress. You can have a fear and worry

view of a stress or you can have a growth oriented view of

stress. And this is one such growth

oriented view of stress. I believe regardless of what I

face, God is with me and he'll bring good out of it.

OK, I heard an Amen. Let's everybody stand together.

If you're new to this church, I'll be gone next week and you

won't have to put up with this again.

So what I would like us to do on the count of three to, to, to

declare this in the house today ready 123.

I believe regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will

bring good out of it. That's a great practice run.

Awesome practice run. All right, now we're going to

pick up the pace a bit and we're going to go for it 1-2.

Oh, you don't even need to count.

That's a great let's go. I believe regardless of what I

face, God is with me and He will bring good out of it.

Again, I believe regardless of what I face, God is with me and

He will bring good. Come on.

I believe regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will

bring good out of the come on church.

I believe regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will

bring good out of it. Let's give the Lord the hand

today this Oh, before you sit down, how many, how many of you

feel kind of this energy in your back here, this kind of

tingling? You are changing your body

chemistry by declaring that over your life when you have a growth

oriented view of stress. OK, stand standing.

Here's the Bible's full of this. Let's say a growth oriented view

of how we should respond to stress.

Let's say this together because we're good at it.

The Illuminate Church 123 So do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

That is a growth oriented response to stress and when you

speak God's word and you speak God's promises over your life,

you are you are choosing. It's like, well, I could have a

fear and worry view of this situation.

Oh, this is going to do me in. I don't know how much more I can

handle this is this is really, really stressful.

Or you can have a Bible based. I believe regardless of what I

face, God is with me and He will bring good out of it.

And I am Pastor Tim and Pastor Christine and all the other

ministry leaders and Gary and all the elders here want you to

have a growth oriented view of stress.

Do not be afraid of stress. Be afraid of your fear and worry

view of stress. And choose this day to be a day

that I'm going to Lord have the configuration of my body

chemicals that you've put within me in the right ratio.

High dehydroepidendrosterone, low cortisol for most of the

time. And you know what happens when

you speak those life giving words over yourself, your your

body goes hang on. This is this is a new angle.

I haven't got brain cells dedicated to that new angle.

Dehydroepidendrosterone floods your floods your, your system

creates neurogenesis, the formation of new brain cells and

those new brain cells now carry that message.

I believe regardless of what I you've got brain cells right now

that can be dedicated just to that thought.

I believe regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will

bring good out of it. There's so much benefit in being

in this configuration. Go ahead and have a seat and and

worship band. You can come out now.

I love this. Do not be anxious about

anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with

Thanksgiving present your requests to God, and the peace

of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your

hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

For all my ministry life, I have believed this.

I've absolutely believed it, but I've always viewed it in a

metaphorical sense, you know, will, you know, God will guard

my heart. You know, the, the core of my,

my spirit guard my heart and he'll guard my mind in Christ

Jesus. You know, that it's just kind of

metaphorical. And then I read the research

because what is the research? Stanford University.

Thank you very much for doing the hard lifting for us.

The research says when you have higher D dehydro epiandosterone

levels, it's linked to reduced heart disease, reduced brain

cell deterioration. So we can read that.

And the peace of God, which transcends all your

understanding, will guard your heart and guard your mind.

We can not only see that metaphorically, but we can see

that actually physically when we have a God honouring Bible based

view of stressful events. When we say to ourselves, let's

go for a team. Alex, are you here?

Yeah, you're no, this is this is great, man.

You're one of the only worship leaders that actually sings in

the key that I can sing in. It's awesome.

So it's great. I don't know how you're going to

do this, but I want, I want the band to come in and and do that

chorus, that refrain. Yeah, So you'll know when it's

right. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.