Date:      9th March 2008                                                                      (Sunday AM)                                                                       Ref: A0371

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: Way Beyond Blue

Text:        & Philippians 4:4-9

Illust:     beyondblue - the National Depression Initiative

beyondblue is working with a range of partners including governments, schools and community organisations, as well as people living with depression, to progress the National Depression Initiative.

beyondblue is the independent public company which was formed in 2000. It provides national leadership for the awareness, prevention and early intervention of depression and related disorders. The National Depression Initiative responds to the growing burden of depression in Australia:

• On average, one in five people in Australia will experience depression at some point in their lifetime, with around one million adults in Australia and 100,000 young people living with depression each year.
• Depression is currently the leading cause of non-fatal disability in Australia, with less than 50% receiving medical care. Depression-associated disability costs the Australian economy $14.9 billion annually, with more than 6 million working days lost each year.
• Depression costs the Australian community over $600 million each year in treatment costs and depression will be second only to heart disease as the leading medical cause of death and disability within 20 years.
• Postnatal depression affects 14% of new mothers.

Major problem impacting many Australians: - Need to know that while the world recommends:

Visiting your general practitioner (GP) is a good first step in getting help for a mental or physical health problem. Some GPs may manage your mental health themselves, while others may refer you to a specialist such as a psychologist or a psychiatrist.

Truth is .. Gospel ... not only has the answer .. but ultimately is the answer ...

I.                   Crucial Perspective

A.               Makeup of Man

i.                 The revelation from the Bible / Word of God is that  C God breathed His breath into man and he became a living being (soul)

           Man .. not merely an evolved creature .. but a created being .. designed with purpose, created to be in relationship with God

           As a 'living soul' ... more than a complex arrangement of chemicals ..

         Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (NKJV)

ii.               Biblically .. Man is a fallen creature & he is neither morally nor relationally right with God Though we function & even look to advance in many areas, in reality Man is in darkness & incapable of discovering ultimate answers.

iii.             Man is a spiritual & moral being ... our lives & minds ... necessarily determined by our relationship & right standing with GOD

B.               The Bible, God’s Revelation

i.                 The Bible, the Word of God. Paul makes the claim;

         2 Timothy 3:15-17 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NKJV)

         2 Timothy 3:15-17 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. (NLT)

      J Adams writes: “The Bible is the basis for a Christian’s counseling because it deals with the same issues that all counseling does.12 The Bible was given to help men come to saving faith in Christ and then to transform believers into His image (II Tim. 3:15). The Holy Spirit uses it as an “adequate” instrument that He says has the ”power” to do so. That, in substance, is what these verses say.”[1]

ii.               We need to get a revelation that the Bible is totally sufficient to deal with the problems of the human condition and to realise that within these pages all manner of human weakness / sin & it’s effects are articulated for our benefit that we may know what is wrong & what needs to be done to resolve the issue.

iii.             What can secular psychiatry / counselling founded on the premise that you evolved and are not basically sinful possibly offer other than harm. It is in direct competition to the Word of God. – Jay Adams again:

      It is dangerous to compete with the Bible, since all such competition in the end turns out to be competition with God.[2]

II.                 Depression Revealed

A.               Your Will

i.                 A common area of depression / anxiety is an issue of the will. Your will versus God’s will, a failure of your will , the frustration of self will - Get frustrated / angry over life ... your inability to control ... to make it turn out the way you want.

ii.               Dissatisfaction with the Will of God ... This produces a tension ... conflict ... anxiety ... Your Will At Odds With GOD  ~ no confidence in goodness & grace of God ... no peace ..

iii.             Or there is the failure to Exercise The Will ... You cannot Simply FLOW in life .. You MUST Make CHOICES

           Most people live their life taking path of least resistance ... avoid what is difficult / unpleasant ...  ... result -> lack of will power & moral fortitude. ~ Give themselves to the flow of feelings – always seeking way of escape: problems / conflicts / responsibility

           fail to defer the present for the sake of the future ..  the mind is overwhelmed with the weight of decisions    -    fail to come to terms with personal role / accountability

B.               Your Life

i.                 We are moral creatures and we know the Law of God in our hearts – God has given everyone a conscience But the conscience is a fragile thing,  possible to suppress / deny .. even harden & sear ... BUT reality of your sin, the guilt is still at work ...

ii.               I am convinced that much of what is termed mental illness depression / anxiety disorders etc is a failure to deal with the guilt of sin, the disobedience to God’s laws, rebellion against God. The suppression / covering up of sin.

iii.             We can not expect to live with joy & peace if there is sin that needs to be dealt with.

III.              Soaring Beyond Blue

A.               Wings of Wax

      In Greek Mythology, in order to escape from the Labyrinth, Daedalus fashions a pair of wings for himself and his son, made of feathers and wax. Before they took off from the prison, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt, Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea

i.                 This is as excellent a picture as any of man’s efforts to treat depression/ anxiety / mental health issues.

           Often eventually results in the prescribing of drugs; problem though:

      12-year-old Christopher Pittman, said "I got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger," he recalled. "Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show. You know what is going to happen, but you can't do anything to stop it." ~ His lawyers would later argue the boy had been a victim of "involuntary intoxication," since Pittman's doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior to the murders.

      Andrea Yates who drowned all five of her children -- aged 7 years down to 6 months -- in a bathtub had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.

      Columbine mass-killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox -- a widely prescribed type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. Harris and fellow student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999 during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before turning their guns on themselves.   ~    Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical trials 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox -- that's 1 in 25 -- developed mania, a dangerous and violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement and delusion.

           As David Kupelian writes, speaking about the US;

      The inescapable truth is, perpetrators of many of the nation's most horrendous murder rampages in recent years were taking, or just coming off of, prescribed psychiatric drugs.[3]

ii.               Man’s method’s are just like Icarus the wax has melted, the feathers have all fallen off & they are just flapping their arms around. – Think about it, if all the GP’s, Psychologists & Psychiatrists really knew what they were on about, wouldn’t the instances of people suffering be reducing & the use of medication as well.

      In November 2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added "homicidal ideation" to the drug's list of "rare adverse events."

      Effexor is Wyeth's best-selling drug, by the way, bringing in $3.46 billion -- with a "b" -- in sales worldwide in 2005, almost one-fifth of the company's total revenues.

iii.             Need to realise that today's cultural elite, those in the medical profession, basically don't recognize the existence of God, morality, good and evil, righteousness and sin. In other words, they don't understand what life is all about. How then can they possibly have any real answers to emotional / spiritual problems

B.               Wings of Eagles

i.                 By contrast, God who created you & I, knows exactly how we are formed. You have a conscience. You sin. You naturally desire to cover up your sin. – Causes psychic torment. ~ If we are going to deal with these issues need to address the root causes:

ii.               Problem of the will, of sin. – Get right with God. Understand the grievous nature of sin, grieve over your sin & repent.

         1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NKJV)

iii.             & vs.6 ~ Pray & commit your life, your problems / concerns / worries / fears to Jesus. – and Rejoice & vs.4 Knowing that He loves you & has your best interests at heart.

iv.             Be careful what you think about. – Give your thought life to Jesus, ask the Holy Spirit to help you to no longer  dwell on the torment, the worry, the doubt and to meditate on the promises of God: & vs.8

v.               We have the wonderful promises of God that if we will set our thoughts on Him, we will not have wings of wax but the wings of eagles.

         Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (NKJV)

IV.             Altar Call

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12 Engineering, music, etc., do not. I have written about this at length elsewhere. See especially Lectures.

[1]Adams, J. E. (1986], c1979). A theology of Christian counseling : More than redemption.

[2]Adams, J. E. (1986], c1979). A theology of Christian counseling : More than redemption.

[3] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=43033