HEALING THE MIND AND HEART

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Historically in our nation some of the most unloved were those who were suffering mental health disorders. Often they were viewed as people with incurable diseases and demon possession. We have become more humaine in our treatment of the mentally handicapped but how can we win them to Christ like Jesus?

Notes
Transcript

Mental Health By the Numbers

General
20.6% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2019 (51.5 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults.
Major depressive disorder affects approximately 17.3 million American adults, or about 7.1% of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year. (National Institute of Mental Health “Major Depression”, 2017)
Gender
Women are almost twice as likely as men to have had depression. (Centers for Disease Control “Prevalence of Depression Among Adults 20 and Over: United States, 2013-2016”, 2017)
Health
People with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than the general population. People with serious mental illness are nearly twice as likely to develop these conditions.
The Cost
High school students with significant symptoms of depression are more than twice as likely to drop out compared to their peers
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. (World Health Organization, 2017)
Depression contributes to the estimated $100 billion annual cost of depression for U.S. employers, including $44 billion a year in lost productivity alone. (Beck et al., 2014; Stewart, Ricci, Chee, Hahn, & Morganstein, 2003)
Life
Mental illness and substance use disorders are involved in 1 out of every 8 emergency department visits by a U.S. adult (estimated 12 million visits)
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10-34 in the U.S. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
Depression is the cause of over two-thirds of the 30,000 reported suicides in the U.S. each year. (White House Conference on Mental Health, 1999)
Justice System
About 2 in 5 people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness (37% in state and federal prisons and 44% held in local jails).
Treatment
Up to 80% of those treated for depression show an improvement in their symptoms generally within four to six weeks of beginning medication, psychotherapy, attending support groups or a combination of these treatments. (National Institute of Health, 1998)
Preventable??
Treatable??
Despite its high treatment success rate, nearly two out of three people suffering with depression do not actively seek nor receive proper treatment. (DBSA, 1996)

Summary

Mental health is a big problem.
Individually and globally.
Jesus care about it.

Mental Health

Jesus cared for mental health
physical health
Lunatic?
Matthew 4:24 KJV 1900
And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
Lunatic?
epilepsy
Today’s standards
epilepsy
not mental illness
400 years ago
epilepsy
“crazy”

Mute

Matthew 15:30 ESV
And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,
often caused by
psychological
physical damage

Grieving

Luke 7:11–15 ESV
Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Grieving
Jesus cares about
Depression

Social Health

Luke 5:12–14 ESV
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
Leprosy was not just
physical problem.
More of a
social problem.
Removed from
family
city
society
beggars
living in camp
depending on mercy
Viewed as
terrible sinners
retribution of God.
Notice how
Jesus heals
Jesus touches him
Catch this!
He was not allowed
to be touched.
Nobody would touch him.
not even spouse...
Fear of infection
Jesus did
unthinkable
touched him.
(CROWD GASPS)
Instead of
becoming infected
healing touch.
Jesus is calling us
to be His hands.
Bring a healing touch
to our lepers.
Who
Pour
outcast
mentally fragile
depressed
marginalized
elderly

Spiritual Healing

The Paralytic
Luke 5:18–26 ESV
And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus teaches
connection between
Physically broken
mental/spiritually broken

Comorbidity

The simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.
Stats
Depressed people
40% more likely heart disease
Diabetes
40% chance of depression.
Other Commodities
Physical / Spiritual
Mental / Spiritual

Deeper Question

What if the
mental health issues
physical health issues
both tied to deeper
underlying issue?
Spiritual Brokenness???
Charles Darwin, known for his theory of natural selection, noticed that his later life included a “loss of happiness.” While he never acknowledged that it might have been related to his changing worldview, which eventually rejected the idea of a higher power in favor of philosophical naturalism, it is hard not to wonder about the connection.
Darwin observed, “Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds . . . gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare. . . . Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. . . .
I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did. . . . My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. . . . The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.
Listen
Jesus ministered to
their “felt need.”
He healed
the crippling paralysis.
But!!!
He also healed
crippling sin problem!
As spiritual healers
we have this same ability.
We can do work
Doctors cannot!!!
But how?
one last story...
Demon Possessed Boy
Matthew 17:14–20 ESV
And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Mental and Spiritual Health
Disciples Couldn’t
Prayer and Fasting
We given power
heal spiritual illness
Previous Church Member
They must choose.
God will not
go against their free will.
Similar issue

Addiction

All kinds
Tobacco
Alcohol
media
music
novels
mature content
food
etc.
Mark 16:9 ESV
Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
Jesus could read minds
God still can.
I cannot!
Individual
must choose
to be set free.
Jason

Application

Physical Needs
often lead to other needs
emotional
spiritual
mental
social
We have the opportunity
reaching deeper needs
God has given us
authority
power
to minister to
Deeper Needs
Mental
Spiritual
Social
Emotional

Summary

Some of these needs
require their commitment
For example
Forgiveness of sins
we can lead them
they must be repentant
Drug Addiction
God can free them
we can support them
they must choose
address underlying issues

Appeal

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