Take 2 Scriptures and Call Me in the Morning

Take two scriptures and call me in the morning. This is the title of my sermon. I asked our friends from Trinidad if they knew what that meant. They said they'd never heard of it. So I guess it's an American idiom that people have used in the past where they would say, a doctor would say, take two aspirins and call me in the morning. We have at least one I know, nurse, here. And I bring that up because, like taking aspirin or pills, we're reading two scriptures from this book, solve all your problems, all your issues. Obviously, somebody in the back, it's not solving their problems. If somebody's hearing that, I'll try to speak over that.

But how often do you read? Hopefully every day. But if you don't, hopefully we can make something work there. But no, reading two scriptures a day and thinking that's going to solve all your problems, guess what? It won't. Remember the famous story of Mark Twain. Mark Twain knew this millionaire businessman who'd been successful. And as he was getting older, he told Mark Twain, I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel over to the Holy Land. He said, I've been blessed. I feel like God's blessed me. Now, Mark Twain knew he was a... He got all out of his wealth, not from being honest. Let's just put it that way. And so he told Mark Twain, I'm going to the Holy Land. I'm going to climb Mount Sinai. And I'm going to bring the Bible, and I'm going to read the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. Mark Twain said, why don't you stay here and observe them? Keep them. So this will not solve all your problems, but it definitely will help. But by living by the words that are in this book, applying and practicing will definitely help no matter where you're at in your life. Remember what Matthew 4 said? Christ being tempted by Satan said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word.

So we need to maybe practice that as Christ was telling us about the word. So today I want to discuss a very prominent subject in the Bible. And in my 14 years here, over 14 years, I've never given a sermon on this. And some people say, well, I've never really heard one on it. Well, you will today. Because it is a prominent subject in the Bible, and that subject is depression. Depression. You go, well, wait a minute. What am I hearing something like that for? Is that biblical? Oh, yes. If you know the Bible, you know that it, yes, tends to be something that is discussed. Now, something else that I've spoken on a few times is alcohol. Because it's in the Bible. Paul even tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach for health. Know the Passover. We know that one. But do you also know that alcohol is a depressant, and it can lead to further depression? Drink enough of it or often enough, and you will find that. So there are many types of depression. Manic depression, daily depression, occasional depression. I'm not an expert. I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Never played one on TV. But I have studied a great deal, read about it, because as a pastor and a counselor, I deal with it. Often, I counsel people that have problems with it, have buried people who had problems with it. And so why would I bring this up? Well, two reasons. One, according to the AMA, depression is a disease. A hidden disease, many people. But the number one reason I want to bring it up here today, this congregation, is we're nearing the Passover. It is a good time to talk about depression, because many people get depressed. Some people get depressed. One of the growing types of depression is—we don't experience that down here, but they do of winter. Some people are depressed, because they may—yes, as Tracy said, the gloom. Maybe it's either fog or it's haze or it's just not sunny yet. It's cloudy all the time. I guess Oregon has that sometimes. Am I correct? I knew Washington did, so I just figured you did, too.

Some people get very depressed because they want to see the sun, so they come to Florida, and they turn red.

So I want to talk about that, because as a Passover gets here, we're asked to examine ourselves, examine our spiritual lives, and we sometimes may wonder, well, that can be a little depressing, because you may look at yourself and go, well, where were you spiritually a year ago? Well, maybe you're not even there. Or maybe you see some improvement, but you would like to see more.

How does examining ourselves lead to depression? Well, none of us are where we want to be spiritually. Let's be honest about it. We know we can all do better, and that's kind of why we have a tune-up. If I can call that every year, the spring holy days come out of the winter, and we're just like, okay, I'll do a little better. But I want to talk about depression, because to me, depression may be Satan's favorite tool. He'd love to get us depressed. And there's enough going on in this world, as William talked about, in this pagan world, that it's fairly easy to get depressed sometimes. And I want to say up front, clinical depression, as it's outlined, brings in three areas that doctors talk about the most. And one is chemical imbalance. It happens. It's a small percentage, according to statistics, but you can have a chemical imbalance. It happens to both men and women both. Women tend to have a little more, or quite a bit more, through chemical imbalance. That can cause depression, and that has to be addressed. The larger percent of causes is called environmental depression. The environment in which you live in can depress you. Maybe it's a job. Maybe it's people you work with. Maybe it's your neighbors. I've had some depressing neighbors before. Have you? Maybe you do right now. Maybe they're actually in your house. But also tied to the environmental part is DNA. They have found that DNA and family can be one of the leading causes of depression. You live with negative people all the time. Guess what you're going to be? Negative. That happens. And also your family. The DNA, you may grow up in a family, and you've got a father. My grandfather was that way. Matter of fact, my father told me his father. In the entire 70 years he lived, knowing his father.

He never once heard his father say anything positive. He was negative the entire time. And I grew up, and I just found it a challenge, so I would just throw positive stuff at him until he got so frustrated. But people can live their entire lives being depressed or depressing others. It happens, and they enjoy it. And don't you think Satan does too? He enjoys seeing the world a little depressed. And we live in that world. That's why I wanted to stop today as it is six weeks until we get to the spring holy days. And Satan loves to depress us or give us reasons to be depressed, whether it's financial, emotional, mental, spiritual issues that can cause that.

So why are there so many biblical issues or biblical depression stories in the Bible? Have you ever thought about it? Well, maybe you say, no, I don't really dwell on it. I try not to dwell on negative. But they're in here, and they're in here, for example. They're in here to help us understand that it's part of the human condition.

Part of the human condition. Christ, when he was living here, his 33 and a half years, three and a half years of ministry, he had to deal with how to handle depression because it's part of human beings. And I think he gives us quite a few examples of dealing with it. That's the reason we could probably take two scriptures, a few scriptures, and talk to God about them, because it's about Bible study and prayer. Sometimes you just need to talk to someone. I've had that many times where people have problems, and they said, would you like me to help in someone? No, I'd just like to talk to someone.

I've had that where people called me because they were about to commit suicide, and they just needed to tell someone because they thought no one cared. And I was able to talk to them and try to help them. But depression leads to that.

It is a serious matter, and it's a serious matter for our teenagers and our young people, even 10, 11, 12 years old. The rates of suicide because of social media, trying to depress or take apart or rip your world apart is out there. Our teachers run into that all the time at school because our users are so affected by this. And so it's something we need to be cognizant of. And I like to look at it because the Bible tells us that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. That means he just hangs out there. And his wavelengths are going everywhere. And he's a negative person or an individual. I wouldn't say he's a person, though he's taking a form of a person or two, or he's taking possession of them.

And it never turns out good. So the lack of faith that God is in charge of our lives can lead to depression, especially this time of the year. Because a lot of us have challenges that pop up, don't they? Either before the fall holy days or the spring holy days.

We're like, wow, why did this happen all of a sudden? How did this come to be? And you realize it's a challenge. It's a test. It's a test. And like the man that came to Christ, Christ said, you need to believe.

He said, then help my unbelief. And sometimes, because we all experience depressing moments, we all experience depression at certain times in our life. We need to have God as a part of our cure. He needs to be the big part of our cure, because we need His help. Because, you see, He still is omniscient. He's still omnipotent. He's still sovereign. He controls everything. And sometimes we need power from above to help us deal with depression.

So what we really need is to believe in a wider, higher God than we do. That's right, a higher, wider God. Welcome, Don. I'm sure you got into traffic, too. Well, back there came a new way. Oh, and found out it's not a better way. I hope you didn't get depressed on a ride drive over. So we're talking about depression today. So depression in the Bible that we read about usually is about His call out ones, the ecclesia. And they face it. And as one psychiatrist called it, 3D.

3D. The 3Ds of depression that we all are confronted with. Even if you're the most positive person in the world. There are still things that happen in this life that can depress you. So I'd like to cover for just a second the 3Ds that they talk about. The type of depression you may look at this yourself and say, well, yeah, I've dealt with that. And the first one is days. These are people who have depression for a day here, a day there.

Maybe it's just depression for two days or even a week. It's usually a temporary state of mind that we can learn to get over. The second D is decades. Sounds like, wow, you mean somebody could be depressed for decades? Yes, decades. I've known people that dealt with it for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.

They've dealt with depression. Maybe they don't have Don here to tell them a joke every week. But they really want to get over it, but they just can't. And it stays with them for decades. So there's daily. Because some of us, and I fit in that group, some of us can have a depressing day. And I'll come home and Mary knows that I'm depressed because whatever I've had to handle or whatever's come up or whatever.

But the next morning, I get a good night's sleep and plenty of alkaline water, and next to it makes it feel pretty good. But there are people that's not like that. They have a hard time. And so they deal with it for decades. And then there's the final 3D. And that is the utmost. And that is depression that leads to death. Depression that leads to death. And that is very, very tough. There are people who are so depressed that they drink themselves to death. And they don't know why. And that's why I bring out. If you deal with it, depression a lot, stay off the alcohol because it's a depressant.

It further accelerates it. But there are people who just have had such a tough life that they want to end it. They don't want to have to get up. Another morning I had a man tell me that I just dealt with who wanted to commit suicide. He said, man, I tried for 10 years to just abuse my body, do all this stuff because I was just hoping I just wouldn't wake up one morning.

I told him, well, that didn't work, did it? So we have to realize there are people we can help. And there are people we can't. That we have to not only try to help, but we have to turn that over to God. Because it really bothered me because I said, man, I'm ill-equipped to handle this until about the fourth or fifth suicide. Then I began to feel like I kind of understand the problem a little more. So I would like you to tell me today, as this is a little interactive message, can you tell me the first instance in this book of depression?

Yes, sir. Well, yeah, I'd say he was pretty depressed about it, depressed enough that he's really killed somebody. I think he had maybe more anger problems than depression problems. Clarless. Judah. Yes. Gilbert. What? King Saul. King Saul. Yes. Moses. So you're talking about quite a few people. You're bringing this out. Judas. Judas. Abraham. Joe, when he was in the ark in the people, and he was just in the rain. Yeah, that had to be depressing, didn't it?

They think around 125 years, building the ark, and people... Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the gark. Very good. That had to be probably the first, wouldn't you say? Yes. Joe and Eve. Or was it? Oh yeah, Jonah's in there. But let me ask you this, since you bring up the Garden of Eden. Yes, sir. Eric. What about the Lucid break-in kicked out of heaven?

Ah, that would have been way before the Garden of Eden. I'd say Satan is depressed, and he wants everybody else to be depressed. Because he wanted to be like the Most High. But you bring Adam and Eve up. He's talking in the human condition. And it's depressing because they had to...

They got kicked out of the Garden, which he then told them what they were going to have to deal with. And one of the things that he had... You've got to go to work. Right? You no longer could just pick a fruit. You could no longer just... You're going to have to... Nothing's going to just grow anymore.

You're going to have to work with your hands. You're going to have to do all this. It's like, what? It's like telling your teenagers you're going to have to get a job next year. Oh, wait. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Uh-huh. But think of the moment that brought on depression. I'd like to go there, if you will, in Genesis. Let's jump over there. I've got it turned here at Genesis. Genesis 3, verse 6. And you guys brought it up. Said, So when the woman saw the tree was good, and it was pleasant to eat, and the tree desirable to make one wise, she took both its fruit, and she ate it.

She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of them were both open, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Hmm. Interesting. And then they heard the sound of the Lord walking, Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees.

And then the Lord God called to Adam and says, Where are you? He knew where they were. Why did they cover themselves? Shame. What causes shame? Well, no. Ah, who said that? Guilt. Guilt.

Guilt is one big cause of depression. Guilt, a large part of depression. It was back then. It still is today. What does God want you to do by keeping his commandments, keeping his instructions? He wants you to get away from guilt. And even if you have guilt, which isn't bad, you have a way to get rid of that guilt, don't you? It's called repentance. It's called the Passover. We renew ourselves every year.

So is this big? Is guilt big? Yes. Don't we all deal with it? Yes. Wow. So this is the first instruction to us about depression. Was the guilt? They had been naked for I don't know how long. Was there... Why were they embarrassed if they'd been hanging around naked all that time? There wasn't any webcam or anything up there. Right? Why? What had happened? They disobeyed God. Man, you have this whole garden.

You can just eat of any tree. They're all out there. They got. But who got them to do it? Satan! Yes! So could he be the one that started the guilt? Made them realize they were naked? Hmm. Because it shouldn't have been in their mind, but all of a sudden they were no longer the sweet, innocent babes, were they? And Satan knew it. And he had to be going, Yes! Now they can join me.

Now they can become a part of my family. Isn't that amazing? How things like that happen. Because guilt can and will depress you. I guarantee it. And that's what happens. See, because people, brethren, can be chained, held captive by this thing called depression. And there's nothing Satan wants more than to take God's people, people who read this Word, people who have taken Christ as their Savior and depress them, depress them. Get their focus, William, off of that kingdom to come. Get their minds off not what the reward is, but what you don't have. Or what you did. Or what you didn't do. Or what you don't have. This is part of what Satan loves to do. And like sin, Christ came to break those chains. We don't have to feel depression because of guilt. Because the guilt can be totally taken away because Christ died for our sins. Not His, ours. And it can be gone like that. He just asks. Let's do over for the computer geeks. Reboot. You get to reboot every day or multiple times a day. When you say something, you do something, or you even have a thought, as we find out. He frees us from the penalty of sin, the guilt of sin, and sets us free to live an abundant life in Him. That's the beauty of the spring holy days. Not something you look like, I'm not looking forward, I gotta clean the house, I gotta do this, then I gotta examine myself and find out I'm not what I profess to be. It can be depressing. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be because of the plan that God puts out. So this chain that sometimes binds us, many links in that chain. Family depression, something you hand down. What are you going to hand down to your kids? Guess what? If you're depressed, no one knows it better than your family. No one knows it better than your kids. Kids may go, oh, dad's just grouchy, grumpy. My mom just doesn't even say anything anymore. They know it. You're going to grow up in that, and they're going to bring it with them. I think of so many times I say something to do something that my father said 50 years ago, 60 years ago. You carry that. Work depression. Ooh, man, I knew a guy. He worked. He came to work for me after he retired from this job. Thirty-five years he worked at this job before mine. And he said, I hated every minute of it. He says, miserable. Every single day for 35 years or five days a week. Wouldn't you? Who does that? But he said, I had bills, which can... You got guilt. I got to pay the bills. Then we had kids we really couldn't afford. Then there was expenses. And so work can be depressing.

That will affect you. I really can. Marriage, depression. Boy, heaven, I heard that one. Two people should never have gotten married. But they did anyway. Some say, I just want to... I want to give her as much pain as she's given me. And it can be depressing. God didn't bring the two together to be depressed. They may have abundant life. And of course, then there's the environment. Environmental. Everything around us, haven't you seen people? Or no matter what you say, they may be friends. They may just live. And everything they say. Well, yeah, you know, it's going to rain today. Yeah, but we need the rain. Well, not that much. They're just that way. You want to make those your friends? Guess what you're going to become? Depressive. And people won't want to hang around you. It's positive. You make a difference. You make a difference in this world. That's why God called you. Make a difference. You think He wants to have a light? He said, you are a light of the world. The city set upon a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father. Oh, yeah, well, I want to put a cover over that light. It doesn't need to be so bright. Yes. Or maybe you have friends who are, no matter what, any time you're around them, they depress you. But we still hang around them. Job had that, didn't he? Okay, let's go. Let's go to Job 16. Job back here, Job 16. Job 16, you know what he said? He said, I have heard many things. Job said that. Miserable comforters are you all to his three friends. You're miserable. You didn't care to comfort me. You made me miserable, even more miserable. Kind of a good thing to look at. And then Job had to deal with his wife. Remember her? Oh, just curse God and die. You know, I don't think she said, oh honey, it's bad. Maybe you could just curse God and die. Now, I think she was like, curse God and die.

So, Satan has eyes for you to depress you. Plans to destroy your destiny. And one of the ways he does it, one of his best tools is depression. And you know why? Because it works. We have a whole book here showing how it works on certain people.

So, at the time I have left interactive part, before I put up names, I'd like you to tell me because you already have mentioned some, but listen to my two questions, and I'd like your comments on them. But who in the Old Testament would you not want as an advisor for depression?

Yes, Eric? King David. King David, why wouldn't you want him as an advisor? For one, he has a sword in his household, so he's a good boy. And then his situation with King Saul, there's so much going on in his life. You wouldn't want him advising you. Anybody else? Who else? Anybody in the Old Testament? Yes, Carlos? Cain. Cain. Cain. You wouldn't want him advising you on depression, right? Somebody else mentioned Saul. You definitely...he dealt with it in not a good way, did he?

Yes. Or who? David. David. Oh, yes. That's a negative man. All we ever read about him is negative. Anybody else? Anybody got any? Yes. Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar. Yes. Of course, I think he did turn out pretty good at the end, but... Oh, no. I'm, like, depressed if I had to eat grass for, what, seven years? Yes. Elijah. Oh, boy, did he ever...he just asked God to go ahead and kill him, didn't he? He didn't want to even think about it. Yeah, Don, did you have one? Pharaoh. Pharaoh was pretty negative. Yes, sir. Mordecai. Mordecai?

You think Mordecai is depressing? I think Haman's more depressive. Haman? You meant Haman. Wrong name. You need another chapter in the Bible. Yes, sir. Balaam. Balaam. Whoa, yes. The sin of Balaam. So, put my list up. These are mine. Job's friends were definitely Saul. I had Elijah, too. Jonah, as somebody mentioned earlier. Then I had Jeremiah. He wrote the book of Lamentations, but... Yeah, but go to Jeremiah 20. Go to Jeremiah 20. Read verse 7. He said, I am in derision. A ridicule. Everyone mocks me.

Nobody...what was that little thing? Nobody likes me. Guess I'll go eat worms. You remember that when you were a kid? I think that was just my mental state. But then he says in verse 14, Curse me the day in which I was born. Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me. You wouldn't want to invite him over for Mother's Day, would you? I mean, this was him. This was a depression that he had. But, you know, amazing. Now, I'm not sexist. You guys all know that, right? I was at the Women's Weekend last weekend, so I'm not sexist.

Okay. But here, everybody here, and you women did it first. You mentioned everybody except a woman. You mentioned all men. You categorize us all as depression. Is there a woman in the Bible? Who? Hannah? You wouldn't want her as an advisor, even after her five kids? Leah? Leah? Not exactly Elle. She had to bribe her husband. How about Naomi? Remember Naomi? You know what Naomi, the name means? Pleasant. And you know what she wanted to do? She wanted to change it to Mara, meaning bitter. Bitter. How would you like that? Oh, don't call me. Just call me bitter.

From now on, Mara. Oh, winsome. Do you know what winsome, the name means? Pleasant. Very good. Yes. It means charming. It means light-hearted. So what if we just decided that we're not going to call you winsome, we're going to call you Mara. You're bitter. You see how that changes even Naomi? I mean, so she had to deal with this. Okay, so let's turn the table there and let's talk about my other question. Who in the New Testament would you want as an advisor? Who in the New Testament would you want as a counselor for depression or advisor?

Hello, young man. Good to see you. Another friend from Jamaica. Yes, sir. Paul. Yes. Why Paul? He got into the wise man and he had a lot of problems. Wisdom. He'd gone through a lot of problems. He knew what problems were. Anybody else? Jesus. Yeah, who? Okay. Everybody always uses Jesus. Answer to everything. Jesus. Jesus. John. Yes. Anybody else? He said David, huh? Daniel? Absolutely. Anybody else? Can you put my list up? This is my list. Because I liked Christ, of course. He has to go first because I can read His words. You see, we get their stories.

We have some of these people. We read their stories. We read their writings and it helps us, what? Focus. Because they dealt with some problems. There's Paul. There's Peter. You think Peter didn't go through things? Yeah. Peter could have ended up like Judas. Right? I mean, he rejected Christ three times. And he still came back. James, half-brother of Jesus Christ. And then I have Barnabas. Remember Barnabas? He was the encourager, wasn't he? Encourage people. We need to take words of encouragement as a pill for depression.

We need to take Scripture as a pill for depression to change our state of hopelessness to a state of joy. Matter of fact, I'll tell you, this week or this afternoon, you have time. And every one of you has a phone. If you don't, you're not from America. Right, Junior, you have a phone, don't you? Yeah. He has a phone. And your wife has one. But your child has one, too. Yep. Google, this afternoon, you can write this down.

Google 100 positive verses in the Bible. And you will see website after website after website, giving you verses. There's that many. What a great tool for when you don't feel that good. Remember Christ? Christ was talking to his disciples, and they go, well, wait a minute. You're sending us out, but what if they don't want us? You know, it's like a salesman. They shut the door in your face. No. What if they don't? He says, you know what you do?

Kick off the dust. Kick the dust off your sandals and move on. Do that. Oh, Matthew. Matthew 6. Turn there, if you will. Get over there. Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Verse 25, there's an incredible sermon on the Mount. He said, Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, about your body, about what you put on, nothing more than food and body than clothing.

Look at the birds of the air, for neither they neither sow nor reap, but gather into barns, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they are? He's saying, don't worry. Don't be depressed, but yet so many people are depressed, because I can never get ahead. No. God's got this. God's got this. How about Paul? Remember Philippians 4 and verse 8? Philippians 4, verse 8? That should be a scripture that comes up all the time.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are what? Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, set your mind on those things. He says, stop it. Don't let Satan get a foothold. Dwell on, meditate on these positive things. And guess what? Your state will change. Because you not only read those verses, you ask, God, help me. Help me. How many fathers in here wouldn't help their fathers, either their sons or daughters, when they really need it? Yes.

And what about Peter? You ever thought about Peter? What did he deal with? Let's go back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. This is really incredible. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and according to abundant mercy has begotten us into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. You're kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed. In this you shall greatly rejoice, the opposite of being depressed. Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. That fits every one of us. We've all gone through some various trials. But it's short-term that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious and gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It means He's coming back. We can always think positive about that. And then verse 8, whom, having not seen you love, though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you what? Rejoice. You rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Positive. James, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Why? Because it's the perfecting of your patience and your faith, and God's going to see you through. And then I end with Barnabas. Oh, you know Barnabas? Everybody here know Barnabas? Okay, from the Bible? Yes. That wasn't his real name. What was his real name? Do you know? Bible tells us. And see, nobody knows, because we just know of Barnabas. His real name was Joseph. Joseph was his real name. But the disciples in Acts, you can go there, Acts 4, they changed it to Barnabas because Barnabas meant encourager. Wow! Wouldn't we like our name to be changed? Matter of fact, don't call me Chuck, call me Barnabas. You know, how powerful is that? That's what we should have. That's what we need, not only to help our depression, but other people who are going through it. Brethren who are going through that very thing. So, brethren, take two scriptures and call God in the morning. Call Him through prayer and call Him through study. I think He's waiting on your call.