Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

- Personal History with Depression and Anxiety

- Charles Spurgeon

o at 24: “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.”

o Spurgeon struggled with a “causeless depression” his whole life.

o Spurgeon’s Definition: A “shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness that cannot be reasoned with.”

o Though Spurgeon said it was causes, he mentioned many throughout his life

§ Struggled with reality of Hell before Christ

§ Slandered constantly by others

· Grew a beard because people would joke about the shape of his face

· Lost friends and received bitter reproach during theological controversy

§ Felt the weight and responsibility of preaching God’s Word

§ Suffered after the death of 7 people who died in a church fire

§ Physical pain (gout)

§ Busyness – cared for an orphanage, church of 4000 members, weekly sermon, weekly magazine to edit, weekly average of 500 letters to be answered

Causes to Depression and Anxiety (there are many factors, so this is not an exhaustive list)

1. Spiritual Warfare

a.

The enemy is real and at work

b.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

c.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

–

2. Sin

a.

At times our dark places are caused by our own choices.

Reaping and Sowing

b.

Laziness and procrastination can yield anxiety when it is the night before a test

3. Self-Sufficiency

a. Pride, putting everything on your own shoulders, not sharing with others.

i. “I’m fine” Freaked Out, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional

4. Unrealistic Expectations (from others and yourself)

a. Culture “you can be anything you want to be”, not always true, we have limitations

5. Flesh

a.

We are finite creatures, we have a breaking point

b.

Only so many people I can be in relationship with

6. Success

a. What’s next after a big goal?

b.

Hard to down-shift and forced down time can sometimes trip us up.

(summer break), at the same time sometimes it is hard to get back going (vacation after my vacation)

7. Suffering

a. Death, disaster, and pain from living in a fallen world

b.

Normally unexpected

8. Financial Pressure

a. Student loan debt, looking at a small bank account wondering how you will pay for bills and essentials

9. Other’s Sin

a.

The sinful choices of others – friends making bad choices, family chaos, divorce

10.

Comparison

a. Always seems like someone is doing everything better or has a better more ideal life than you.

b.

Makes you ask the questions, Am I good enough, am I doing the right things, is does what I am doing actually matter?

11.

Critics

a. Bullies, family, or friends.

Face-Face, online (social media).

b.

Sticks and Stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me is a lie.

These wounds hurt deeply.

12. Family Neglect

a. Awkward relationships, maybe due to neglect, lack of openness or dishonesty

13.

Physical Sickness

a. Broken bones sideline athletics, question identity and purpose

14.

Spiritual Sickness

a.

Not sure why or how, but you are just down, hard to find words to pray

15.

Human Frailty

a. Fallen bodies, real battles with depression

And these factors don’t work in isolation, but are often paired or grouped together, wearing us down.

And, we are all uniquely predisposed in certain of these sources of discouragement.

For example, someone who is prone to fear of man may find the voices of critics to be particularly discouraging, whereas someone who struggles with worry may find financial pressure to be overwhelming.

Truth

1. Jesus is victorious

a.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart; I have overcome the world.

–

2. God is with you

a. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.

For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

–

3. God is Sovereign

a. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.

The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

–

b. “It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, not sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

Spurgeon

4. God is parenting us

a.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

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5. Brokenness produces humility