Sermon Tone Analysis

As we continue to consider our prayers, I thought that it would be good for us to consider how we deal with times when we are grieving, or sad, or even depressed.

How should we pray then?

I’m going to read some quotes about depression.

And after I read them, I will tell you who said them, and that may surprise you.

“I find myself frequently depressed - perhaps more so than any other person here.

And I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus, and His infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all my transgressions.”

“I know, perhaps as well as anyone, what depression means, and what it is to feel myself sinking lower and lower.

Yet at the worst, when I reach the lowest depths, I have an inward peace which no pain or depression can in the least disturb.

Trusting in Jesus Christ my Savior, there is still a blessed quietness in the deep caverns of my soul.”

“No sin is necessarily connected with sorrow of heart, for Jesus Christ our Lord once said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death."

There was no sin in Him, and consequently none in His deep depression."

“Poor human nature cannot bear such strains as heavenly triumphs bring to it; there must come a reaction.

Excess of joy or excitement must be paid for by subsequent depressions.

While the trial lasts, the strength is equal to the emergency; but when it is over, natural weakness claims the right to show itself.”

All of these quotes are from a man who was called in his time “the Prince of Preachers”.

A man who is still quoted today in pulpits across the world, and who in his own time, never had problems drawing a crowd, because his sermons were so well liked.

A man influential in the pulpit, as well as starting a seminary for preachers.

A man who had such great faith but who suffered from great depression.

The man responsible for these quotes is Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

If you have been in a church where love for the Word of God is present, chances are that you have heard a number of Spurgeon quotes.

But you may not have been aware that the man suffered from long bouts of depression.

Even while his sermons were impacting many lives, bringing confidence in God, repentance of sin, growth and maturity in Christ, Spurgeon was often melancholy.

Of course, in his day, the term major depression had not been coined, but psychologists who have studied Spurgeon believe that today he would have been diagnosed with Major Depression or something like that.

And yet, as Spurgeon said,

“The worst forms of depression are cured when Holy Scripture is believed.”

You shouldn’t complain to God - Or should you?

Or maybe another question we should ask ourselves in times of sorrow is where is our faith in the midst of it?

What do we do with our prayer life when we are overwhelmed with feelings of sadness?

Does sadness by itself mean a lack of faith, or some unconfessed sin, as some preachers have claimed?

Or can we have the heart of God, compassionate and to the point of grieving over things we see?

As we continue to look at prayer, I’m going to highlight 3 men of God this morning who had sadness, or depression.

And hopefully, from these men, we can learn some ways to deal with our own sadness, our own times of feeling down.

We looked briefly at Spurgeon, lets now consider the prophet Jeremiah: He is often referred to as the Weeping Prophet.

What was it that made Jeremiah suffer from a very pessimistic outlook?

Can you believe it was his faith that brought him to tears?

He believed God, and so he wept.

He pleaded with the people to repent, he believed God would keep his word in judgement as well as blessing.

We are going to look at Lamentations 3.

This chapter of scripture loses part of its beauty in the translation.

The reason is, that in the original language, Lamentations 3 is an acrostic.

In the Hebrew language, it has verses of poetry that correspond to the letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

A comparison for us may be if someone wrote a poem, and used the ABCs as a start to each verse.

Like if I was to write a poem about my wife, it may begin,

Apple of my eye, she is my first love

Beauty in the sunlight, she is radiant

Caring for others, she loves deeply

You see, a poem of the ABCs.

Now, Jeremiah was not writing about his wife in Lamentations 3, but rather this acrostic would more aptly be considered as: Suffering from A-Z

22 letters

66 verses

Acrostic could have been to help people memorize this.

Lamentations was something part of the culture, recited at solemn events such as funerals.

A recounting that life is full of suffering, but God is graciously extending his mercy to all those who follow him.

Jeremiah is in the struggle.

CS Lewis, as he was grieving over his lost wife, said:

“But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find?

A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.

After that, silence.”

-C. S. Lewis

What a shocking statement from the man who inspired the hope of thousands with his Narnia books and other works!

“You can’t see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears… Is it the very intensity of the longing that draws the iron curtain, that makes us feel we are staring into a vacuum when we think about our dead?”

But he also admitted that his view of God was imperfect:

“My idea of God is not a divine idea.

It has to be shattered time after time.

He shatters it himself.

He is the great iconicast.

Could we not almost say this shattering was one of the marks of His presence?”

Great is thy faithfulness: the hymn is based on this: that although we suffer, question God, and even feel oppressed by Him (our impression), he is faithful.

He will keep his word.

The blessings and curses of scripture, he will keep.

For those who scorn him, the curses.

For those who ignore him, the curses.

But for those who trust in him, who love Him, and seek to do his will, and abandon their life of sin and embrace a life of the Spirit, He will bless and see us through those difficult times.

The end result of our faith is not in this life, but in eternity, and He will keep his promise to those who put faith in him.

Good, how can it be good?

How could it possibly be good to go through difficult trials, those times when relationships cause you pain, when all you feel is beat up and hurt?

How can this be good?

It doesn’t make sense to us on the surface level.

But consider what James wrote about trials:

There is an entire sermon in those two verses alone.

And it goes along with what Paul wrote to the Romans, that God works all things out for the good of those who love Him.

So our trials bring us closer, our faith is tested, the testing produces steadfastness.

That is, you make it through this time, and the next time the challenge is different, and you recall how God got you through, and you remember that, and you are strengthened by his word and how he already proved his faithfulness.

You are even able to strengthen others because of your experience, and tell them God will help you through this time, I know it!

So you become steadfast, and when that steadfastness has its full effect, you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

This is the ultimate and final state of the believer, who, throughout life, goes through various trials.

But in the end, they are made perfect, and they will look back and see that God perfected them through those trials.

We often do not see it in real time.

We don’t understand or even like what we are going through.

That prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon.

Would his sermons have had the depth of feeling and conviction of the truth of God’s Word had he not suffered?

Could CS Lewis have written such wonderful fiction had he not felt the pains of this life?

And what of Joseph, and Paul, and so many other biblical heroes?

Did not God use their suffering in order that their ministries would be complete?

How could James write about trials, if he had not experienced the growth that accompanies them first hand?

“Before God can use a man greatly, he must wound him deeply” - Oswald Chambers

Why?

Because suffering aligns us with Christ.

The disciples knew this and rejoiced to have suffered for the Name.

Do we know it?