Beating The Winter Blues Week 3
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Good morning and welcome.
Let me ask you, have you ever been down because you didn’t get what you wanted?
(Years ago I worked as a manager at Target, and I had to work Black Friday. Now if you have ever worked in retail you know Black Friday is death For the employee. Tell the story.)
We Live in a society and world that is facing many mental health afflictions.
Week 1 Pastor Joel talked about the holiday blues that can grip our life.
Week 2 Pastor Jeremy talked about he pandemic of lonliness.
This week, I want to talk about Depression.
Check out these stats on depression.
Figure 1 shows the past year prevalence of major depressive episode among U.S. adults aged 18 or older in 2021.
An estimated 21.0 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 8.3% of all U.S. adults.The prevalence of major depressive episode was higher among adult females (10.3%) compared to males (6.2%).
The prevalence of adults with a major depressive episode was highest among individuals aged 18-25 (18.6%).The prevalence of major depressive episode was highest among those who report having multiple (two or more) races (13.9%).
Figure 2 shows the past year prevalence of major depressive episode among U.S. adolescents in 2021.
An estimated 5.0 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. This number represented 20.1% of the U.S. population aged 12 to 17.
The prevalence of major depressive episode was higher among adolescent females (29.2%) compared to males (11.5%).The prevalence of major depressive episode was highest among adolescents reporting two or more races (27.2%).
Now these statistics seem really bleak. But this is the reality, and here’s the hope.
Jesus brings hope to those in the middle of depression.
I want to look at a story in the Bible, and it’s the story of Jonah. You know the guy who was supposed to preach to a city, and instead ran away and got swallowed by a whale.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
So Jonah gets the word of the Lord, and decides to run, now that’s a whole other sermon. When God gives you a word and a calling and we run. Instead I want to focus on Jonah’s reaction.
Jonah after being in the whale, and praying for God to rescue him finally gets out. But here is where the story get’s interesting.
(RECAP JONAH 3)
Now, if you or I had went to preach the Gospel to a wicked city, and the whole city gives their life to Jesus, we would be praise breaking up and down the streets. But what’s Jonah’s response?
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
So let’s get this right, Jonah finally listens to the word of the Lord and obeys, and God spares the city. And Jonah is angry, depressed, and even suicidal.
This is what depression looks like, even in the middle of something Good, like a python around your chest, it squeezes the life out of you.
One and only point: We can’t always control our circumstances or the outcome, but we can put our hope in the one who does.
So how do we respond when depression hits? And how do we put our hope in Jesus.
1.) We Recognize our needs and thank God for His provision.
-Thankfulness in the middle of depression is like a sounding drum, it shakes off the cobwebs that depression ensnares us with, and breathes life.
-Jonah had a physical need which was shade from the hot sun, and God caused a gord to grow up over him to shade him. This is crazy to me, because God sees his needs.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
-Dr. Caroline Leaf has amazing research on the mind.
She states theres 4 warning signs about depression:
Feelings of irritability and/or hopelessness (an emotional warning signal)
Ignoring calls, texts or emails (a behavioral warning signal)
The world feels more negative (a perspective warning signal)
Muscle aches and/or pains (a physical warning signal)
-Jonah recognized his physical needs, but I wonder if you recognized these 4 warming signs.
2.) We read Gods word to change the environment in our soul.
--Proverbs 12:25 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.”
-Understanding the Bible Engagement Challenge: Scientific Evidence for the Power of 4
-Understanding the Bible Engagement Challenge: Scientific Evidence for the Power of 4
Arnold Cole, Ed.D. & Pamela Caudill Ovwigho, Ph.D. December 2009
IF YOU READ THE BIBLE 4X A WEEK, THESE ARE THE RESULTS:
Feeling lonely drops 30%
Anger issues drop 32%
Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
Alcoholism drops 57%
Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
Viewing pornography drops 61%
Sharing your faith jumps 200%
Discipling others jumps 230%
-Reading Gods word is not just a habit we are supposed to do, it actually is a lifeline.
-There’s a practice I started doing recently, and actually our network LMC does this as well. But it’s called “Dwelling in the word.”
1.) You take 8 verses in a book to read. You read slowly and methodically. As your reading you ask the Holy Spirit to highlight any word or phrase that jumps off the page. Circle it.
2.) Then ask yourself, “How can these verses help me today?” And you reread it and allow God to show you. It’s an easy practice that focuses your mind to a place of recognizing Gods word.
3.) We take our depression before the Throne of grace.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
-Listen God see’s you in the midst of your depression, He See’s the heartache, and longs to bring comfort, but it sometimes takes us coming boldly before Him Without reserve.
-Talk about spiritual warfare and chemical imbalance. (My Story with taking medicine.)
-Sometimes it’s a chemical imbalance and other times it’s the enemy of our soul. Regardless we take it to the throne of grace and ask Jesus to help us.
-Jonah failed to do this. Let’s not be like Jonah, let us throw aside our pride and come before His throne.
-If you are able in this room, I just want to ask everyone to kneel as a sign of surrender.
I want to lead us in an open hand prayer. So with everyone kneeling, would you open your hands and put them in front of you.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen