Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Depression - Get This Out of My Head
89 Plays1 year ago
In this week's sermon, Kyle Hess teaches on the topic of depression through sharing personal experiences and insights, with a focus on breaking the chains of depression through spiritual and emotional healing. He addressed the impact of childhood trauma on mental health, emphasizing the spiritual battle involved in overcoming depression. Through the "3 chains of depression" - fear, guilt, and anger - he provided practical examples and referenced relevant biblical verses to guide the congregation in addressing these emotional burdens. Additionally, Hess stressed the importance of seeking help, connecting with others, and embracing forgiveness as essential steps in coping with depression. The audience was called to accept Jesus's forgiveness and to find the courage to address longstanding issues in the presence of God.
Timestamps:
00:00 Scripture's importance, addressing struggles, differentiating sadness-depression.
05:47 Confronting woman on bridge to prevent suicide.
09:58 God works for good, no one condemns.
11:09 Nothing can separate us from God's love.
16:00 Spouse deceit, anger, and resolution against God.
18:16 Remedy to anger, 2 chains of depression.
21:45 Peter walks on water, then fears sink.
26:45 High school football player surprised by revelation.
28:28 Deputy partners faced unresolved trauma; sought solace.
34:27 Master forgives servant, but servant doesn't forgive.
37:43 Accept healing, forgiveness, and move forward with faith.
39:31 Join d group, life group, prayer.
41:56 Prayer for courage and acceptance in Jesus' name.
Recommended
Transcript
Significance of Hebrews 4:12 in Everyday Life
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning. Before we jump into the sermon, I want to share something with you from my heart. Hebrews 4, 12 has been heavy on my heart for the past month and a half. And the way that verse starts out is, for the word of God is alive and active.
00:00:16
Speaker
for the word of God is alive and active. And we say, yeah, we understand that. It provides us with help in our everyday life. It applies to our life, but it is actually that real. And that became evident to me and my family this week. My kids, they're very inquisitive. They love asking questions. It's approximate 150 questions a day. And I love engaging with them and answering those questions. And so the other day, Noah says, hey, dad, where does copper come from?
00:00:42
Speaker
Like I know, I understand it's mined from the earth, but is there a specific rock that it comes from that they melted out of or a mineral? And I said, I don't know, but we'll have to look it up. And we went out throughout our day and I forgot to look it up. And the next morning, we're having our quiet time in the living room. We're all reading our scriptures. And Noah goes, dad, I know where copper comes from. I was like, where? He goes, Job 28 too. It says, iron comes from the earth and copper is melted from ore.
00:01:08
Speaker
So the God of the universe, the creator of all things, decided to answer my son's question with the Holy Bible, a practical answer. It wasn't some huge spiritual revelation on how to deal with sin or anything like that. It was a science question. Where does copper come from? And he saw fit to reveal himself to my son because of his obedience to read the word. I love it. We were in tears.
00:01:39
Speaker
That is a mark that is put in my son at 10 years old that the God of the universe wants to speak to him and wants to live in his life, and he used his word to do it. And so that's my prayer right now, and I'm gonna pray that over us this morning before we start. Father, your word is alive and active. Help us to approach it with anticipation that you are gonna speak to our life, that you are gonna speak to our heart, and that you are gonna address things in our heart and our life,
00:02:10
Speaker
to draw us closer to you. Father, we expect you to meet us here and speak to us through your scripture. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Understanding Depression vs Sadness
00:02:20
Speaker
A few warnings. There are parts of this message that are a little bit PG-13. It's not anything too graphic, but the conversation does get a little dicey at places. So if you see fit that you have a child in here and you're like maybe he should be in childcare or over in the youth building, go ahead and do that now. Also another warning is I am not a mental health professional. I am not a licensed therapist. I am a counselor, but I'm not a licensed counselor of any sort.
00:02:46
Speaker
And so pastor put it perfectly last week in that when we talk about these worldly discussions of anxiety and depression, the world has their opinion of it and their world pushes it on us. And scripture in the church has taken a backseat for so long and he's given us the answers right here in this book. And so we wanna look at what God says about these things that we struggle with.
00:03:13
Speaker
Pastor covered last week anxiety, humbling ourselves, casting our cares on him because he cares for us. This week we're looking at depression. Depression is a wide gamut of things. It ranges anywhere from that just typical sadness to detrimental hopelessness.
00:03:36
Speaker
And so what does that look like? How do we determine what is just sadness and what is depression? And there's two things that come into play that differentiate sadness and depression, and that is time, how long you spend in that sadness, and severity, how severe that sadness is. And so let's put it in a practical sense. Say I lose someone that's very dear to my heart. The next morning, I'm not gonna wanna get out of bed. I may not be able to fix breakfast for my children.
00:04:06
Speaker
My daily life might be interrupted. My wife might have to step in and take care of certain things that I normally have to take care of. But as I grieve and as I mourn and as I process that, I slowly gain back my everyday life and I slowly gain back the ability to do things. That's a natural grieving process. That's natural sadness that occurs. Depression, however,
00:04:29
Speaker
It sticks. And so you may come out of it, and you may be out of it for a few months, and then you're noticing you're falling back into this state of sadness, and you're there for a long period of time, weeks on end, and it's a crippling situation. And so we can go from sadness to depression. You can go from depression to being having a few good weeks, but then it's a reoccurring event.
Personal Encounters with Hopelessness
00:04:54
Speaker
Persistent sad.
00:04:55
Speaker
Empty mood, feelings of irritability, frustration, restlessness, of guilt, feeling of worthlessness, helplessness, and hopelessness. Hopelessness. What is that hopelessness? About 16 years ago, I was about 20, 20 years old, 21 years old, I was headed to work. And as part of my commute, I crossed over this bridge that was over a four-lane highway, very busy in traffic. Typically, the cars were going 60 to 70 miles an hour.
00:05:26
Speaker
And there was no traffic going over that overpass, but one day there was traffic. And so as I come to the top of the overpass, I see a young gal sitting on the railing. Both feet were swung over the railing. She's leaning over the edge and she's got the railing in her grasp like this staring at the highway. I'm 20, 21. I don't know what to do. I throw my car and park right in the middle of the road and I start approaching her. Cars are honking. Apparently her sadness is inconvenient to somebody.
00:05:52
Speaker
And I'm praying and I'm having this slow motion conversation as I approach this gal, God, what am I gonna do? What is this gonna look like? Is this gonna be like some type of Chicago PD thing where I dive and grab her? Am I gonna talk to her for 20 minutes and build trust and walk her back to me? And as I stop about 10 to 15 feet away from her, I said, God help me. I said, ma'am, is there something I could do for you? And she turned and looked at me and I saw hopelessness.
00:06:19
Speaker
I saw darkness in her eyes. I saw that there was nothing left for her to grasp onto and she was ready to take her life.
Role of Childhood Trauma in Depression
00:06:28
Speaker
As I'm focusing on her and she leans back over the edge and she's holding on, my eyes lose focus on her and focus on this burger joint that was on the other side of the freeway. I said, ma'am, I'm hungry. Are you hungry? Can we go get a burger? I'll buy you a burger. She turns around, swings her legs over. We lock hands and we walk off the bridge together.
00:06:48
Speaker
Six months later, I'm at work. And one of my coworkers doesn't show up for a few days. And I got this very urgent desire to go check on him. So I went to my supervisor. I said, hey, can I leave work and go check on him? He's like, yeah. So I go and I knock on his door and his wife answers. And she says, hey, he's not doing good. He's in the back bedroom. I said, may I come in? I come in. I open the door. And as soon as I open the door, he makes an active attempt to take his life.
00:07:13
Speaker
I physically intervened, got him help, walked him out of there. Two years after that, I'm on the college campus that I was working, I'm coming over another bridge, and I look on the ground and I see a phone, I see keys, I see a wallet, and as my eyes look up, there's another guy leaning over the railing. And I'm thinking, God, what is going on? I said, the burger thing worked in the first place, and I'm going to try that again. I said, hey, man, I'm hungry. Are you hungry? You want to go get a burger? And it didn't work this time he jumped. But it was over water. It was only three feet deep. He broke his legs, but he survived.
00:07:44
Speaker
Five years after that, my neighbor calls me and she said, hey, my husband's going through it. He left last night. I don't know what he is, but his text messages are sounding hopeless and he sounds suicidal. I said, do you have tracking on his phone? She said, yeah, he's somewhere in this area in town. So I went over there and there was a hotel nearby. And so I went into the front desk. I said, hey, I'm looking for this guy. Is he staying here? She said, I can't give you that information. I said, he's possibly suicidal. Can I please have a key to his room? And she burned me a key to the room.
00:08:13
Speaker
I go up to the room, I key into his room, I open the door, there's an empty bottle of whiskey, and he's got a handful of pills in his hand. Hopelessness. Hopelessness. In each one of these situations, after talking to each one of these people, I found one thing in common that had to do with every single one of these people. And it was they all had experienced childhood trauma. It wasn't they were having a bad week,
00:08:43
Speaker
or that they're having a bad month, it was that they were experiencing childhood trauma. And I said, is this a coincidence that it's just with these four people? So I started researching it and diving in to depression. 75% of people who deal and struggle with depression experienced at least one form of childhood trauma. The other percentage is adults who experienced trauma. These things I dealt with
00:09:13
Speaker
turned into more than they're supposed to. And it's a battle that goes on in your brain. And how do you know if a battle is a spiritual battle? If it's a battle, it's a spiritual battle. And so your brain tells you certain things because of certain things you've gone through, and that's not what the Lord Jesus says about you. There's hope in the name of the Lord Jesus. And that's why I'm so happy that song was sang, because that is scripture, that we speak the name of Jesus over people and bring light into their dark world.
00:09:43
Speaker
Turn to Romans 8. It's not up on the board today, so follow along in your Bible. And if you don't have your Bible, you're going to have to listen to me try to dyslexic read through this passage. Romans 8 28. I'll give you a second to get there.
00:10:10
Speaker
And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be firstborn amongst many brothers. And those predestined he called, and those called he justified, and those he justified he also glorified.
00:10:35
Speaker
What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will we not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against us, those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
00:10:59
Speaker
Who is it that condemns? No one. Jesus Christ, who died more than that, was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword
00:11:21
Speaker
As it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither hyped, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
00:11:53
Speaker
When I went into law enforcement, I saw hopelessness like you wouldn't believe. Whether it was someone trying to take their life or someone acting out because of situations that had occurred in their life, I had the opportunity to talk to each one of these people, whether I was transporting them to the hospital to receive medical help or whether I was transporting them to jail because of a decision that they had made because they never dealt with the past trauma.
Three Chains of Depression: Anger, Fear, Guilt
00:12:20
Speaker
I had a captive audience in my backseat and I literally mean captive audience. And typically it was a 20, 25 minute drive to the jail or to the hospital. And so I had the opportunity to have these breakdown conversations with these people. And there was this common theme that they all had that they were stuck in this state of depression. And so this morning I want to describe three chains of depression, three chains that hold you in depression.
00:12:50
Speaker
And now when I describe these chains, I want you to physically imagine the chains, shackles on your wrist, chained to something immovable like a concrete block on the ground and what it does to prohibit or prevent you from actually doing things. If you've dealt with depression, I don't really have to describe that feeling because you know that feeling of being stuck. You know that feeling of the weight on your chest when you're laying in bed and not being able to get up.
00:13:16
Speaker
but physically imagine those chains holding you back. And the first chain of depression is anger. 50% of people who come to address their depression through counseling or therapy struggle with unresolved anger. Anger towards an offender, anger towards an abuser, anger towards a sin that they've committed, a heinous sin that they committed, anger at God for taking someone away from them before it was their time,
00:13:46
Speaker
Angry at God for allowing a heinous sin to happen to them? Anger. Unresolved anger. Anger is a God-given emotion. He designed it in us to alert us when we were experiencing injustice. How do we see this? If we look at John 2, 13 through 17, it says, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
00:14:11
Speaker
In the temple, he found those who were selling ox and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who sold pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. And so Jesus experienced an injustice towards his father's house.
00:14:40
Speaker
and anger arose because it was something that was against God's precepts. This is why you have that woke, purple-haired, teeny-bopper that when you challenge their view at all, they freak out in rage and anger. You've seen the video. They grab their hair, they scream, they stomp, and you're looking at an adult, right? It's because everything that their life is based off is against the principles of God.
00:15:04
Speaker
And so that anger is natural rage inside of them because they truly know at heart they're in the wrong. Anger. If somebody sin against you, it's okay to be angry. It's actually expected to be anger.
00:15:25
Speaker
Let's put it in a practical sense, hearing about a transgender dude dressed in drag, reading to kids at story hour in a library. If that doesn't fire you up, it should, because it's against God's precepts. Being molested as a child.
00:15:45
Speaker
even hearing the thought of someone that would take advantage of a child in any sense, let alone sexually, the person who's supposed to be designed to protect you is the one who hurts you, should fire up anger inside of you. A spouse who lies to their spouse, a spouse who cheats on their spouse, a spouse who walks away from a marriage, all against God's design, should fire up some anger in you.
00:16:19
Speaker
God doesn't leave us there. Ephesians 4, 26 and 27, he says, in your anger, in your anger, this is him telling us, in your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
00:16:42
Speaker
Our unresolved anger literally gives the devil a foothold in our spiritual life, giving him the ability to now tempt us in certain directions or put addictions in our life because of unresolved anger in our heart. There's two ways that we typically deal with anger. We either bury it and it eats us up inside and it splits our spiritual focus. And when God says, love your brother, you don't have the capability because you got hate in your heart. I was talking with someone who's abused by their father.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I said, man, do you have anger in your life or do you have anger issues? He goes, no, I just hate my dad. And I'm like, that's anger, right? As we bury it, we bury it so deep that it doesn't become aware to us and we're not aware of what we're stuck in.
00:17:28
Speaker
The other way is to carelessly express that anger, careously vent that anger. And so you have some type of grudge about someone who committed a heinous sin against you, and you're mad at that person. And what you do is you vent that closest to your family members, and you're breaking those relationships of the most important relationships that are around you because of unresolved anger.
00:17:53
Speaker
Anger becomes an issue when we no longer are angry at the sin or the injustice that was committed and we're angry at the person. By continuing anger towards the abuser, it's as if you're handing them the chain that you're chained to and you're attached to that situation, unable to move forward because you're harboring that anger against them.
00:18:16
Speaker
Now, I would like to give you the remedy to anger right now, but we're gonna read the other two chains of depression before we resolve this, and so we're gonna jump right into the second chain of depression, and that is fear.
00:18:29
Speaker
The Bible talks of fear in two different aspects. Pastor Ridley talked about it last week in the fact that the fear of the Lord, and that's this reverent fear, a respect fear in acknowledging his position as Lord of the universe. And we see that in Psalms 11, 10, where it says the fear of the Lord is beginning of all wisdom. All who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
00:18:55
Speaker
Proverbs 14, 27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. Both positive aspects of fear, the fear of the Lord is a way that keeps us away from danger and steers us in a path of righteousness. But there's another fear and it's the fear we're more familiar with and that's being afraid.
00:19:24
Speaker
And so again, fear is an emotion designed by God to heighten our senses. Imagine yourself walking through a parking lot at night. Your heart starts to beat a little bit. You're a little more aware of your surroundings. Your eyesight's better. Your ears become better. You start hearing things that you never heard before. Or you're walking from the barn to the house and it happens. Or a child's sitting in their bedroom and they get this heightened sense of fear and they start making things out of shadows, right? And it's where this idea of
00:19:53
Speaker
fight or flight comes into play. Our body dumps this cortisol or this adrenaline, and it gives us an ability to make a decision. We either fight and face the opposition, or we run from danger. When it becomes an issue is when we're crippled by that fear, and if you struggle with depression, you know what this feels like, the inability to make a decision, the inability to move forward,
00:20:20
Speaker
the inability to progress in your faith, not only your faith, your physical day. That fear is crippling. Second Timothy 1.7 says, for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.
00:20:43
Speaker
Isaiah 41 10, 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. I think of Peter because in true fashion, as we go through a traumatic situation, we take our eyes off the God of the universe who created us and loves us and knows us, and we fix our eyes on the situation that we're going through.
00:21:12
Speaker
And Peter, when he's with the disciples in the boat and they're out on the water and Jesus comes walking on the water, Peter says, Lord, if that's you, call me to yourself. He says, Peter, step out of the boat. And so Peter steps out of the boat and Peter is standing on water.
00:21:29
Speaker
Another science lesson from God, that doesn't happen, so that's a miracle, right? Peter is standing on water. He's standing in the presence of the God of the universe, and he's standing on water. Now, Peter was no stranger to the water. He grew up a fisherman, so he was on the boat, he was with the winds, he was with the waves. He knew what the weather was capable of doing to a fishing boat. He knew what waves and winds could do to himself, and he probably had some past fear involved in that in things that he had been through.
00:21:59
Speaker
And so he's standing on the water and you would think that would be like proof enough that God's gonna take care of you. And he's looking at Jesus and as he walks towards Jesus, a situation arises. And fear strikes a place in Peter's heart. Instead of progressing towards the Lord and continuing his walk towards the Lord, his eyes shift from the creator of the universe to his situation. And the second that he does, fear creeps in and he starts to sink.
00:22:30
Speaker
And we do that with our spiritual walk. And you're like, well, Peter was standing with Jesus. And the Bible says, if we know Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us. And yet we still deny that God's going to take care of us and we shift our focus to the situation. The third chain of depression is guilt.
00:23:00
Speaker
Now there's a couple different angles to this, and we're just gonna start off what the Bible says about guilt, and that's we are guilty for our sin. That's a fact. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we are guilty of our sins. Romans 6.23 takes it further and says, for the wages of those sin, the payment of those sin is death. And the beautiful news of the second part of that verse
00:23:29
Speaker
Wages sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we are left without excuse. If we truly accept what Jesus did on the cross for us, then we have no right to bear that guilt anymore. The guilt of our sin. He says it's paid in full and we bring it back. And I wanna look at a very special verse. John 19.30, this is Jesus hanging on the cross.
00:23:58
Speaker
It said, when he had received the drink, Jesus said, it is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. It is finished directly translated, implies that there was a debt to be paid and that it was paid in full. So when Jesus died on the cross and said, it is finished,
00:24:22
Speaker
He covered that sin that you're struggling with. He covered that sin that was come against you from another person. And with guilt, we hold those things against ourself. Romans 8.1 says, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
00:24:50
Speaker
We hold on to that guilt of our sin. And God says, there's no condemnation from me. There's no shame on you from me. I already covered it. When you accept my forgiveness, it's done. And worse off is when we take on the guilt from someone else's sin.
Cumulative Trauma in High-Stress Professions
00:25:08
Speaker
And that's where depression comes in. That's where that guilt and that shame come in.
00:25:15
Speaker
Because there is a healthy guilt and that's when you say and you go, corrective guilt, that was a bad idea, I'm not gonna do that anymore. And there's a guilt that you dwell in and that's not a healthy guilt. And so what that looks like on taking on the shame of somebody else is when a child is molested, as that child grows up, their brain makes a decision that somehow it was their fault that they were molested.
00:25:43
Speaker
I should have had the courage to stand up. I should have seen that I was being groomed. I should have read the signs. I should have asked for help when it was happening. And then they bury themselves in that shame, and that's exactly where Satan wants you stuck. A dad who tells his son, never tells him he's proud of him, never tells him he loves him, just criticizes him. Criticizes him. You need to be better. You're a bad kid. Criticizes him. And then the parents go through a divorce, and the son goes, if I only would have been better, my parents would have been together.
00:26:13
Speaker
That is a parental decision, not a child's decision for that divorce to happen. But a child will wear that guilt and wear that shame as if it's their fault.
00:26:25
Speaker
I saw this, I spoke to a group of about 200 high schoolers, and I'm talking about our identity in Christ, and right in the middle of the lesson for some reason I said, there's someone in here whose dad told you that you are worthless and you'll never amount to anything. And I'm like, why did that come out of my mouth? I don't know that for a fact, why did I just say that? And there was confusion on the kid's face, they were looking at each other, and I'm like, that was weird, I just moved on through the sermon.
00:26:49
Speaker
After the night had calmed down, this big high school football dude came up to me and he had tears rolling down his face and he goes, who told you my story? I said, man, I don't know what you're talking about, what's going on? He said, who told you my story? I said, explain. He said, my dad's addicted to alcohol, my dad abuses drugs, and he tells me on a weekly basis that I am worth nothing and I'll never make myself anything.
00:27:13
Speaker
He said, if I could only be good enough, maybe my dad will choose to let those things go and come back to me as my father. It's heinous for us to think that he is at any fault in that, and yet he'll adapt the guilt of someone else's sin. The list goes on. Someone gets raped, they take on the shame. Someone leaves a marriage, that partner takes on the shame and the guilt.
00:27:41
Speaker
And it's those traumatic situations, if not dealt with, will lead to more. I want to shift gears a little bit and speak directly to a certain group of people. And you're like, to me?
00:27:56
Speaker
If you've served in the military, if you're serving in the military, if you're in law enforcement, any type of first responder, firefighter, EMT, ambulance driver, emergency dispatcher, doctor, a nurse, anybody who has seen over and over traumatic situations, you are on a fast track to the symptoms of depression.
00:28:21
Speaker
And you say, well, you know what? It's not my family when I deal with those situations. So I'm very good at disassociating with that situation. That's what every single one of my deputy partners used to tell me. And I watched one by one as they fell into alcohol or infidelity or addiction or pornography because of unresolved trauma that they were experiencing, not from their childhood, but the rapid succession of multiple traumas in a way in a row that weren't being dealt with.
Breaking Chains: Forgiveness and Community
00:28:49
Speaker
I was absolutely blessed to have an hour drive between the job and my house. And that was my time with the Lord to deal with what I saw that day. In a field like that, you see multiple things a day and your body doesn't get the time to process all that, things that the human brain or mind shouldn't be dealing with or seeing. And so that would offer that up to the Lord.
00:29:16
Speaker
I had buddies, Taylor Gentry was one of them. If I was struggling with something, I would just text him, pray, pray. Didn't even know what it was, but it was something I was struggling with and I just needed someone to back me. And so these different situations where you deal trauma after trauma after trauma, if not dealt with, manifests itself in sin.
00:29:43
Speaker
And so the man with addiction to drug, he doesn't have a drug problem. He has an unresolved traumatic event in the past. The one who's struggling with alcohol doesn't have an alcohol problem. It's something that's unresolved from their past. The one who's struggling with a pornography addiction isn't necessarily a struggle with sexual immorality. It's because of some type of sexual abuse they experienced in the past.
00:30:10
Speaker
And so if we try to figure out and try to solve these things, anger, fear, and guilt by themselves, if I deal with the anger, I'm not necessarily dealing with the root problem. And so I could solve my anger for temporary time, but I need to go back to what is causing me to have anger in the first place. Same with the shame, same with the fear. If I address just that symptom, I'm not addressing the cause.
00:30:41
Speaker
And so now I want to address the cause. Here's the light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry, thank you for going down that road with me. It was a heavy road, but here's the light at the end of the tunnel and the power is in the name of Jesus Christ. So what are the two ways to break the chains of depression? The first way to break the chain of depression is accepting God's forgiveness.
00:31:06
Speaker
And you're thinking, yeah, I've given my life to Christ. I've accepted his forgiveness, but I'm still experiencing these things. Oftentimes we accept his forgiveness and we don't understand the extent or the completeness of his forgiveness. Back to John 1930 says when he had received the drink and Jesus said it is finished. With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The debt is paid in full.
00:31:36
Speaker
We don't have the right or ability even to put that back up on ourselves, but we choose to do so and drag us back through the sin that we got out of, or we attach ourselves to that abuser. And God said, I died for that sin too. It's covered. Psalms 103.12 speaks of separating our sin as far as the east is from the west.
00:32:06
Speaker
And I don't know if you know geography, but those are two opposite directions. And if you go to China, there's still two opposite directions. Anywhere you stand,
00:32:15
Speaker
East and West are eternity apart from each other. God does not remember our sins. Now, yes, He's Lord of the universe, so He knows our sins, but by remembering our sins, it doesn't He recall them or put them back on us. Like I said earlier, there at no point in the Bible is Jesus like, shame on you. He points out truth, and He points out the answer to that sin.
00:32:39
Speaker
But at no point in that accepting of that sin and forgiveness does he turn around and go, shame on you. The shame that is wrapped up in that comes from Satan and he wants to keep you in that chains with the inability to move forward. The second way to break those chains of depression is forgiving others, forgiving others. Now, nowhere in the Bible does it say to forgive yourself, right?
00:33:10
Speaker
But it does say that Jesus forgave you of your sins. And so by dwelling it on yourself, you're taking that power back from Jesus and you're saying, no, I need to punish myself more because that wasn't good enough. He paid the price. He was punished enough. He covered the sin. We don't need to put ourself through more punishment to try to prove a point. We don't need to put our offender through more punishment by not forgiving them.
00:33:42
Speaker
Let me read you a story. It's a Bible story, don't worry. Let me read you a story in Matthew, Matthew 18, and you can turn there or you can listen. It said, Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times am I to forgive when someone sins against me? Seven times? And Peter thought he was being like over the top because at the time the law was forgive someone three times. And he's like, I'm gonna double it and add one. I'm gonna look good in front of Jesus and Jesus replies,
00:34:11
Speaker
and says, I tell you not seven times, but 70 times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. He began the settlement and a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he, his wife, his children and all they had be sold to repay the debt.
00:34:35
Speaker
The servant fell on his knees before the master and said, be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him and canceled the debts and let him go. When that servant went out, he found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii, a much smaller amount. He grabbed him and he began to choke him and he said, pay back what you owe me. He demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees just as he had and begged, be patient with me and I will pay you back.
00:35:04
Speaker
But instead, he refused. Instead, he went off and threw the man in prison until he could pay his debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and they went and told their master everything that had happened. The master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said. I canceled all the debt of yours because you begged me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant as I had on you?
00:35:31
Speaker
In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Notice it didn't say the master didn't throw him in jail. It said, the master turned him over to the jailers. It was by the servant's choice of unforgiveness that he was turned over to the jailers and got put in jail. What's in jail? Chains.
00:35:59
Speaker
His unforgiveness, his debt was paid in full. And he held a grudge at somebody else for their minimal debt. And that unforgiveness led him to be in chains in a prison in his own life, never moving on from that situation. That situation winning and owning the person with the unforgiveness.
00:36:27
Speaker
Colossians 3, 12 and 13. Colossians 3, 12 and 13 says, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patient. Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
00:36:58
Speaker
Now, crawling out of this pit of depression isn't this easy thing where you snap your finger and it happens. There are cases of people who struggle with alcohol and they turn their life to Jesus and they never have a drink. They never have a desire. There are those cases. But most of the time, God wants us to walk through that. Why?
00:37:19
Speaker
because of Romans 828 and says, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. Because God wants to use you in the situations you've been through. He doesn't want to use you despite the situations you've been through. He wants to use you because of the situations you've been through. And we don't experience that all things work together for good if we never accept the healing that could take place.
00:37:50
Speaker
If we attach ourselves to the past and we hold on to that anger, we hold on to that fear and we hold on to that guilt, we don't experience the healing and we don't get to see the positive outcome of what God's going to do in our life. I had a buddy and I was walking him through as a fellow deputy, walking him through a pornography addiction. And I was meeting with him week after week and I'm having a conversation with him one day and I see the frustrations just start to build in his heart. And he says, why won't God just take this away from me?
00:38:19
Speaker
is because He never promised just to zap us out of our situation. He promised to walk through the situation with us. And when we do that, and we take the proper steps of forgiveness, accepting His forgiveness, forgiving others, and we start walking and making those forward movements, later in life, our life becomes our testimony.
00:38:41
Speaker
and we're able to see someone who's going through what we went through and not say, God snapped me out of it. We get to lock arms with them and say, hey, this is how it's done. This is how God walked me through it. I wanna read this passage over you before we go, but before I do, one of the key factors about depression is isolation.
00:39:12
Speaker
If you're isolated, if you're disconnected, if you don't have community, it's a hard road. It's a hard road when you have community. And so if you're not connected in some way, here's a great place to start. But surround yourself with people who know Jesus. Join a D group. If you need help with that, join a life group with your family. If you need help with that, we can do that.
00:39:37
Speaker
I just want everybody to bow their heads and close their eyes, and I want to pray this passage over you before we go this morning with the consideration of what we've talked about this morning. Father, we know in all things you work together for our good, for those who love you and have been called according to your purpose.
00:40:09
Speaker
For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. That He first might be born again. And those He predestined, He called. And those He called, He justified. And those He justified, He glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? God, if you were for us, who could be against us? Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him for us?
00:40:39
Speaker
How will we not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is that condemns us? No one. Jesus Christ who died more than that who was raised to life and is seated at the right hand of God is also interceding for us.
00:41:07
Speaker
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered, no. In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons,
00:41:38
Speaker
nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Father, I speak the name of Jesus over this congregation. I speak the spirit of isolation and depression out of here.
00:42:03
Speaker
Father, I ask that you give someone the courage this morning to decide to give their life to you and accept the forgiveness that you gave to us paid in full on the cross. Father, I pray that you give someone the courage who's been carrying something on their shoulders for decades because it's scary to address it.
00:42:28
Speaker
There's a fear in addressing it that there's gonna be denial or it's gonna confirm the thoughts that they have in their head that they are worthless or hopeless. Father, we just read that you're standing next to us. We just read about the value that we have to you because you gave your only son to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you, Jesus. We pray this in the power of your son, Jesus' name,
00:42:58
Speaker
Amen. As we stand and sing this last song, I want to encourage you. If you've never given your life to Jesus, if you've never accepted his forgiveness, today is the day of salvation. If you're wondering why you felt broken your whole life and there's never been any resolve, it's because there's no true acceptance of forgiveness.
00:43:24
Speaker
And if you're sitting there and you know Jesus and you're like, man, I've been carrying things I shouldn't have been carrying for way too long. I've taken that guilt of someone else's sin and buried it in my heart. And it's caused anger and it's caused fear. And I'm crippled by that. Start now. Talk to me, talk to Ridley, John, Lisa standing up here.
00:43:49
Speaker
Make a physical movement towards that forgiveness of that person who wronged you. Let's sing.