(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, well, amen. As you can see, we're not in Matthew chapter 20 this morning. We'll get back to that series here maybe next week or the week after. But you're in 2 Timothy chapter number one. What we're gonna talk about this morning is the spirit of depression. The spirit of depression. Look at verse number seven, 2 Timothy chapter one. So the Bible says, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So we're gonna break that down and get into what that means for us this morning. So keep your place there, but go to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations chapter number three. So back to the Old Testament, right after the big book of Jeremiah is the book of Lamentations. Lamentations chapter number three. The title of the sermon this morning is called Blue Devils. Blue Devils. You might be thinking, what in the world is that? You're making stuff up again? And the answer is no, okay? I do plenty of my own terms and things like that, but Blue Devils is actually a legitimate term to describe depression. It was first widely used beginning in 1756. And how I heard about this was Jessica was reading a book about history and things of that nature. And this jumped out at her and we started talking about it. And I was like, I gotta write a sermon about this. I think it's very interesting how back in, the 1700s, 1800s, the word or the term Blue Devils was used to describe somebody who has the blues, okay? The reason why they called it Blue Devils is because they attributed people being sad or depressed. They treated depression as a spiritual matter, okay? And the reason for that is because the Bible was more widely read and believed and used in culture in this country. And so I find it very interesting how they immediately tied it to a spiritual attack when someone was sad or depressed or felt like they couldn't go on in life. They immediately tied it to a spiritual attack. And so we're gonna break that down and look at that this morning. Now today, obviously the word that we typically use is depression. And depression, when you study the history of that word, it actually is similar to Blue Devils. I'm just gonna read for you a quick definition here. So a definition or the history of the word depression from Wikipedia, it says this. It says, the term depression was derived from the Latin verb depremere, which means to press down. And it says, this was basically also used in the 14th century in Latin, and it meant to depress or like I said, to press down, but to bring down a person's spirits, okay? Now we use that today, the word depression, because it's one word, it's easier to use than Blue Devils. But also keep in mind, we do live in a society in a culture that wants to remove every aspect of God from everything, okay? And it's definitely an attack from the devil because it's in the most minute things. It's in places that people typically don't think about, don't necessarily look. And that's why we're big advocates for reading the Bible and using language that is found in the Bible, okay? Now I'm not against using the word depression. I'm gonna use it today several times, but just keep that in mind. You know, we ought not to be ashamed to use words that are in the King James Bible. People say, well, how are people gonna understand what you're talking about? Well, if they don't understand, you just explain it to them. If you don't understand, get that understanding, okay? These are English words. All these words in the Bible can be found and used today. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with growing in your own language, okay? We don't need to dumb things down. We need to accelerate our learning and understanding. Now, I'm just gonna continue to read you the definition of depression. So it says that depression is a constant feeling of sadness or loss of interest, which stops you from doing normal activities, okay? And I do wanna say that, you know, don't ever develop this mindset that it's only lost people or Christians that are in, you know, deep sin, they get depressed because depression can affect all of us. And you're gonna see that in lamentations today. You know, you think about depression, okay? I believe that everybody here has probably gone through bouts of depression. I know I have. I was raised by a dad that was just constantly playing the what if game, okay? And I'm notorious for that too, but I do it in a different way. But my dad would always be like, you know, be careful turning the knob on the stove because you're gonna break it and it's gonna cost a million dollars to fix, you know? Don't open the door of the refrigerator too many times because it's gonna cost a million dollars to fix and our lives are gonna be over, we're gonna be homeless. Like he would take things to the extreme like that constantly. You know, just if we don't get the truck fixed, you know, I'm gonna lose my job and I'm gonna go to jail. If you don't quiet down and stop stomping around the house, I'm not gonna be able to finish the taxes and we're gonna lose the house, we're gonna lose everything and you're gonna grow up to be a bum. You know, that was basically in a nutshell my childhood, okay? That was like every single day with my dad. So I found myself growing up, you know, entering into adulthood being a very anxious person and just worrying about every little thing. This is gonna break, that's gonna break. And it took obviously Jessica, her church background and getting me back in to church and getting in the word of God to actually overcome those things. And so I'm telling you, I do believe that this affects everybody, I've been there. So if you're struggling with depression or know somebody who is struggling with depression, just understand it is a real thing. And of course there are different types of oppression. So you're gonna have spiritual, okay? You're gonna have these spiritual attacks, things that attack the mind in different ways. That's primarily what we're gonna be dealing with this morning. But there is such a thing as biological depression, you know, hormones and things like that, which come from maybe foods or environment, different things that get injected into the body, things of that nature. There's what's called relational depression. There's circumstantial depression, things of that nature. So there's different types, but the application for most of those, at least the top three, spiritual, relational, circumstantial, the application to overcoming those is the same. Okay, now biological, that's a little bit different. I'm not gonna talk about that today. But you are in Lamentations chapter number three. Now, just to give you a quick backdrop about the book of Lamentations. So Lamentations is a book of five, what are commonly referred to as melancholy poems or poems of sadness, okay? Obviously written by the prophet Jeremiah. And remember Jeremiah was instrumental in preaching the word of God and trying to get the Jews to basically follow the word of God and to turn from worshiping false gods and things of that nature so that the enemy would not come in and overtake the southern kingdom of Judah. But the problem was that people did not want to listen. Jeremiah has all this truth. He's given it to him. He's praying for these people. He's interceding for these people. He's, you know, getting hunted down. He's, you know, obviously not in favor with the king. He's looked at as a traitor because he's telling people, okay, now that you've rejected God, you know, there's no turning back. Jerusalem will be destroyed. Babylon's gonna come in. They're gonna wipe the floor with you. And so he's having to see this. He's having to see everything that he's grown up with, just the glory of the temple, all of these things. He's having to witness it with his own eyes go away. Having to watch a foreign power come in and absolutely destruct and just to demolish everything about their culture. So he finds himself literally no temple, nothing's like it was, just absolute depressed, terrified. And that's what you're gonna see here in Lamentations chapter number three. So look at verse number one. He says this. He says, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. So what is he saying there? He's saying, hey, I am the man. I am the prophet that witnessed, that saw with my very own eyes, the destruction to my homeland and to my people by God because of his wrath. Verse two, he hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. So pay attention there how he feels. Here you have a man of God, a saved, a born again person. And look what he says. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Now, if this could happen to the prophet, this could happen to anybody in this room, anybody that you know that is saved. Look at what he says here. Skip down to verse number four. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. Verse five, he hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. Now, obviously, if we were reading through this chapter, there would be different, not different, but there would be a deeper lesson in this. But what I want you to see here is just his emotion and how he feels during this time. Okay, and he understands that what's happening is righteous, but this is how he feels based off of what he experienced, what God told him was going to happen. Now skip over to verse number 19. So jump over to verse number 19 and let's look at the remedy, okay? It doesn't just stop there. It's not just all doom and gloom. Look what he says in verse 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. So he's talking about the bitterness, how he feels on the inside based off of what he saw. Okay, he's definitely depressed. He's definitely experiencing anxiety. Verse 20, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. So the key word here that you need to remember as you go through this is what he says in verse 19, remembering. So he's remembering this and he's recalling how he feels based off of everything that he saw. Okay, and then he says, but in verse 20, my soul hath them still in remembrance. Okay, so though he still remembers these things, he says, it's still humbled in him. Verse 21, he says, this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. Okay, look at the next verse. So he says, I do have hope even despite all of this. Verse 22, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not. Verse 23, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So what I want you to see there and what I think Jeremiah, one of the things that he's definitely conveying to us is that our emotions are real. You will feel things, you will feel pain, you will feel hurt, sad, whatever the case is. Okay, when somebody wrongs you, when just, I don't know, let's say the government were to collapse. You're gonna feel a certain way, okay? It's gonna hit home. What you have to remember is that that's okay. That is how we are wired. There's nothing necessarily wrong with you in that. God gave us emotions for a reason, okay? But what do we do about it? What is he doing about this, okay? Well, what does he feel hopeless about? Well, he feels hopeless about his circumstances, but he's telling you that God is bigger than his problems. God is bigger than his emotions and emotions are temporary, okay? That's what you need to understand. Emotions are temporary. These emotions were not meant to be permanent, okay? So we have to understand that. Yes, you're going to feel a certain way. You may feel depressed, like you can't get out and just do what you need to do. However, if we can remember like the prophet says here, verse 22, he says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. So he says, you know what? We might not have our temple anymore. We might not have our homeland. We might not have it like we did back in the days of Solomon however, we're not dead. I have this Velcro sticker on my Bible cover. I think a lot of you have seen it. It says, but did you die? Now I got that because a lot of times we'll be in these complexes and people will just be so upset that you knock on the door. You know, you get this one person that wants to follow you around and basically take up the position of sheriff and ensure that you don't knock any other doors. And they're just so offended, you know? And I got that just to kind of point to like, hey, look at this. Yeah, I knocked on your door, but did you die? Did anything happen to you? Just get back inside your house and leave us alone, okay? But in this passage here, Jeremiah brings that to light. He's like, yeah, all this bad stuff happened, but guess what? We're not dead, right? We still have purpose. We can still move forward. There's still something else that we can do. In verse 23 he says, they are new, talking about God's mercies, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Verse 24, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. And I'm just telling you that as a believer, you will not escape depression without the Lord's help. And you're gonna see that in better detail here as we go through this this morning. Now you can leave your place there in Lamentations and go to Proverbs chapter number 17. I'm gonna say this a couple of times this morning, and it's just a phrase that kind of came to mind as I was studying Jeremiah and as I was studying Paul's conversation with Timothy. And that's basically this, understanding what God says is threatening will give you mental strengthening, okay? Understanding what God says is threatening will give you mental strengthening. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, Jeremiah definitely understood this. He understood that God is not a believer. Well, Jeremiah definitely understood this because God had given him all these things. Hey, tell the people to stop doing this, turn here, go to Babylon, comply, comply. So Jeremiah understood very well what God was trying to communicate to him. All these things that the children of Israel were doing were threatening to their lives. If they had not turned away from God, if they had not done all those threatening things, if they would have came to understanding, they would not have found themselves in depression, okay? So here, I mean, we've got the prophet and he tells you he's in a dark spot. He's in a very dark place in his life. However, he still has hope. Why is that? Because he understands what is threatening to the children of God. He gets it, he understands it. And so because of that, he's able to cope with all the destruction and torture and just all the horrible things that came with the siege on Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah. And it's gonna be the same thing for us today. When we get this mindset correct in our hearts that, you know, what God tells us to stay away from this, do this, and we just understand that, that's gonna strengthen your mind. That's gonna strengthen you so that you can overcome that depressed feeling which holds so many people down. Now let's take a look real quickly here, Proverbs 17, at a potential side effect of being depressed or having blue devils. Look at verse 22. So Proverbs 17, 22 says this, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones, okay? A broken spirit dryeth the bones. And it's kind of funny that science is just now starting to figure out that people that are just constantly filled with depression that just refuse to get over it or just don't know how to get over it, it is damaging their health. You know, that's exactly what it does. But guess what? That's been in the Bible for thousands of years. That's the word of God, okay? And so what's the solution here very quickly? Well, you know, find ways to have a merry heart. You know, fellowship is a good place to start, being around God's people, talking about your problems and getting a solution in place to work on those things. I mean, you know, you go back to Lamentations chapter three, one of the things that also jumped out at me was how did he overcome that? Well, obviously he's writing scripture, but just the fact that he's communicating how he feels, right, was definitely, I believe, therapeutic for him. And I think it would be therapeutic for anybody to have somebody that you trust that you could tell your problems to, that you can talk to, to work them out so that you don't feel hopeless and don't feel trapped. Now go back one chapter in Proverbs to Proverbs chapter number 16. Proverbs chapter 16, and remember, okay, you don't have to turn there, but 2 Timothy chapter one, verse seven, where we first started, Paul told Timothy, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So we've been given a spirit, okay? Obviously we've been given the Holy Spirit once you're saved, you're indwelt by the Holy Ghost, okay? And that in and of itself gives us power, love, and sound mind. We have that capability within us to operate in those things, okay? Power based off the word of God, love for the truth, and of a based sound mind, able to discern situations and things of that nature, okay? And so he says, God hath not given us the spirit of fear. So the question is, who or what has given us the spirit of fear? Now I'm not up here before you this morning as a Pentecostal saying, oh, you know, there's a spirit and a piano, and there was a spirit in the ceiling, and the lights flickered because there's a spirit, okay? Not doing that. But the Bible does talk about different things having a spirit or a manner. In Proverbs 16, look at verse number two, the Bible says this, all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord wayeth the spirits. You see that there? Okay, so most men, you know, the Bible says, will proclaim everyone his own goodness. You know, most men think, well, I can do whatever I want, or, you know, I have this well thought out plan, and because I thought about it, it's gonna be fine. It's clean in my own eyes. But it's actually God who weighs the spirits. It's God who weighs the intentions and the motivations of the heart. And so part of dealing with depression is understanding the difference between how you view yourself, how you view what your actions are, versus how God views those actions and what you are about to do. And just to give you some more examples, you might be thinking like, well, what spirits? Okay, way of the spirits, what does that mean? Well, the chapter tells you, go down to verse number 18. Let's take a look at an example. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. What does it mean to be haughty? Well, it means to be arrogant or to have this mindset that you're superior or better than others. Who's ever looked or been around somebody or met somebody who's just constantly looking down on you? You know, maybe you've had a boss or a relative or a neighbor, somebody who's just constantly looking down on you. You tell them something, they've done it 10 times better or know somebody who has done it 10 times better, okay? Or maybe you say hi and they just kind of give you this look like, who are you, who do you think you are? Do you know who I am? You know who I am? You know, that's very prevalent in the military, which is why it bothers me so much. I hate that with a passion, but we've all probably been there, okay? And look at this. So having a proud, arrogant spirit is definitely a bad thing, okay? And God weighs that and God judges that. Look at verse 19. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud, okay? So again, God weighs the spirits. He weighs the motives. He weighs the countenance of a man's heart. And you can see here in verse 18, again, that pride, right, pride month, all that stuff surrounding pride, but just pride in general across the board, God hates it. It's destructive and it always goes before a fall, okay? And that's a spirit that we do not want to have as God's people. You know, the Bible says that God is the same today. Forever, God does not change. And you have this mindset today that people, and especially in New Evangelical Christianity, you have this mindset that, well, God's okay with pride. God's okay with the ways of the world, you know? And that's just not true, okay? God doesn't change, you know? If pride was wrong while Solomon was writing this down, then it's still wrong today in 2023, okay? But most Christians, honestly, they can't tell you that and they won't agree with that. And they'll say, no, but Jesus came and changed everything. And so it's okay to have pride month. It's totally fine. He washed all that. That was just Old Testament. That doesn't apply today. Nothing could be further from the truth. That's a spirit that needs to be rid out of people. That's a spirit that's causing depression in people and they don't even know why, okay? And the whole reason you go to one of these other churches and you're gonna be surrounded with people that are very proud, very arrogant or sodomites. And guess what? That is going to induce depression in you because those people are vexing. They're implacable. They cannot change. And you're sitting here trying to play the game of the world and act a Christian at the same time and it just doesn't work. And you're thinking in your heart, what am I doing wrong? What's going on here? Why doesn't anything make sense? Well, it's because you're trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the Bible. It just doesn't work. Skip down to verse number 32. Look at what the Bible says here. It says, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh the city. And you could definitely see that with the prophet Jeremiah that though he has emotions, okay? He didn't just suppress them. He talked about them. He let us know, but he also had a tip. He also had some application and he was able at the end of the day to say, you know what? At least I'm not dead. Hey, at least God didn't consume us. That means that he's definitely full of mercy. They're new every day. Today's a new day. We can start fresh. We can start gaining victories as soon as we wake up. That's literally what he means there. Now back up to first number three in Proverbs 16. And then we'll go back to second Timothy chapter one. Look what he says here is another pro tip. See, how do I overcome depression? How do I get out of these things? Well, here's one way. Like if this is a constant thing that you're dealing with, a constant thing that you battle, look at right here, verse three. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. Okay, commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. Okay, I think that is so important for believers today. That's exactly what Jeremiah did. Well, why do you think God used him? You know, why do you think we're still reading about him today? Because he committed his works to the Lord and God established his thoughts. God gave him the proper mentality, the proper way to think. And that is true for all of us because God has not given us the spirit of fear, but what, what has he given us? The spirit of power, love and of a sound mind being based. Right, it's a popular word today. Oh, so-and-so's based. Oh, Ben Shapiro's based. No, he's not, okay. Most of these conservative people that you watch on YouTube are not based, okay. You wanna see people that are based, go read Lamentations. Go read first and second Timothy. Go read first and second Peter. You know, go read the book of Revelation. Go read the gospels, that's based. Okay, that's true basement. That's being of a sound mind, okay. Go back to second Timothy chapter number one. Second Timothy chapter number one. So again, understanding what God says is threatening will give us mental strengthening. So that's the very foundation of what we're talking about this morning. We need to be well aware of what God is telling us as mankind, as his children threatens us. What is the threat? What are the threats? When we understand these things, then guess what? You know, I believe that he sets an order our thoughts because we're starting to commit our works unto him. And then we can have the tools necessary to get over these emotions that we have just raging on inside of us. Now we're gonna get back here. Second Timothy chapter number one. We're gonna take a look at this passage here and really break this down. Look at what it says in verse number six. So Paul tells Timothy this. It says, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. So Paul here is reminding Timothy that he has a gift. That gift is from God and he wants Timothy to use this. Okay, but when you read the passage, you can tell here that Paul's implicitly mentioning something that could stop that gift from being operated. Okay, but I wanna call your attention to the verse again. Look at the beginning of the verse there. It says, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God. So understand this, okay? Overcoming any kind of depression, if you feel anxious or you feel like, I just can't move forward. I just can't get out of my shell. I'm just bogged down by the situation. The first step really involves you because this is thou. So it is our choice. We actually have to be the ones that take the first step and begin to stir the gift of God because we all have gifts. Everybody in here, you're saved, you have a gift from God. You have to be the one that initially stirs that up. Look at verse seven. He says, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Why does he say this after what he tells us in verse six? Okay, because the spirit of fear will stop you from stirring up that gift, which has been given to you by God. Verse eight, be not thou therefore ashamed. So there's a clue right there, okay? There's a clue. So you say, okay, well, what does it look like? What does the spirit of fear maybe look like? Well, right here, he starts to unveil this for us. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, okay? Well, let's talk about this. Be not thou therefore ashamed of what? The testimony of the Lord. The question is, are we ashamed at all about anything written down in the word of God? Are we ashamed of Genesis 19? Are we ashamed of Judges 19? Are we ashamed of King Asa getting the Sodomites out of land? Are we ashamed of Josiah doing the same thing? Are we ashamed of these things? Absolutely not. We're proud of those things. Those are what are written down for us. Are you ashamed of what the Bible says regarding sanctification, that we should be separate from the world, that we shouldn't be a part of the world, we shouldn't mimic our church services after the world like all these other churches do, okay? Because that's something that puts pressure on people, okay? Because look, you're in the workforce, you're talking to people in your neighborhood, you're at the store or whatever, maybe you're getting along with somebody and they're like, hey, I go to this church, and then they find out about this church, and oh, you don't have the same kind of music, you don't have the same light show, it's just a storefront, it's just blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. But at the end of the day, it's like, yeah, but we believe the whole counsel of God, we believe the word of God here. We believe committing our hearts to the works of God, therefore he's established our thoughts, what's the problem with that? Okay, the problem is not with us. We shouldn't be ashamed that we're never gonna probably have 10,000 people like they do, okay? We shouldn't be ashamed that we're not gonna have the glorious buildings like all these Mormon tabernacles around here, or these new evangelical churches. You know, somebody could start a new evangelical church next week and they're gonna instantly have 300 people, okay? I mean, it's just the way it works, because all it is is the world, okay? And it's kind of funny when you talk to a lot of these people, you know, they look at us and they look down on us, they have a haughty spirit, don't they? Okay, but guess what? We shouldn't be ashamed of that. Don't be ashamed of that situation at all, because you need to understand, everything that they're doing over there in those new evangelical churches is threatening. They have a false gospel, if they even mention gospel, or a confusing gospel. They're not using the King James Bible. They're not singing God-honoring songs. They don't have the same type of fellowship that we have. They don't go out and commit their works unto the Lord. They don't go tell people how to be saved. They don't tell people the dangers that are going on in society right now. They don't want to talk about that, because they say, well, that's not safe. That takes us out of our bubble. That takes us out of our safe space, okay? And according to them, that would cause them anxiety. See, the good thing about our church, or people like us, is that we operate in what they call anxious or depressed type environments, because we go out and face rejection from people in the community trying to get them saved. They would never do that. Okay, we'll go out there and tell people, hey, this is what the Bible says about your transing of America, okay? And we're not afraid, and we're not ashamed of these things, and we shouldn't be, but if for some reason that shame starts to get ahold of you, and you start to bow down to it, you start to be afraid of the freaks that are outside, or whatever it is, then guess what? You're gonna wind up feeling depressed. You're gonna get the spirit of fear, and that will prevent you from doing great things for God, and that is not how we are supposed to operate. And so that's what Paul is telling Timothy here, says, be not thou therefore ashamed, ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. We shouldn't be ashamed of anything in the word of God. So when someone comes up to you and they're like, does the Bible say anything about blah, blah, blah, whatever it is, what does the Bible say about women preachers? Says it's wrong, there's no such thing. Oh, what does the Bible say about the Jews? They're not God's chosen people. The Bible says that people that are saved, born again, that they are the true Jews, the Israel of God. That's not a very popular view. That's not a view that's in season today, is it? But you know what? We shouldn't let those things cause shame to us because when we do, we're not gonna use the gifts that God has given us. And you know what? They have courses at a lot of these churches that you can take to find out the gift that God has given you. Fill out this paperwork, and I've done them in the past. I'm not gonna lie, you know? I've done them in the past. They're like 25, 30 questions, you know? Discover the gift that God has given you by answering all these questions. You wanna know how you discover that? You wind up not being ashamed of anything written in this book. Don't be ashamed of the truth. What does God, do you really think that God doesn't respect the NIV or that he would be mad if I used the NIV? Yes, because it's a lie. It's not a Bible. It's a commentary written and produced by people that are not saved. Understand that and be proud of the fact that we serve a God that is all about truth, that has preserved his truth. And so that, again, is what he's trying to tell Timothy, or be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. And then, of course, he throws this in, nor of me, his prisoner. Okay, and that's gonna probably come into effect for a lot of us in the future. Okay, when the government starts passing laws that you can't say this, and you can't do this, and you can't knock here, and you can't go there, you know what, if we start seeing our brethren get locked up, we shouldn't be ashamed. You know, you go around to any of the other churches like ours, no one's ashamed that we have protesters. No one's ashamed that we get hate. We're not ashamed of steadfast that has protesters. You know what they had this morning? They had this crazy lady, and they had people outside their church with like these squirt guns, like squirting green stuff, like green dye on people. You know, you tell that to your average new evangelical, and you know what their mind's gonna do? Instantly run to find something that they said wrong. Oh, well, that's happening because their pastor, Jonathan Shelley, said the X, Y, and Z. You're a coward, if that's how you think. You're a coward if that's how you operate. They're doing that so that they can, quote, unquote, protect themselves from being in a place of anxiety. Oh, that would, I couldn't bear to go through that. But these are also the same people that'll tell you when the going gets tough that the tough get going. When the Antichrist comes on the scene, then I'm gonna start to go out there and preach the word. I won't back down. I'll lose my head. No, you won't. You'll do whatever that Antichrist says. You'll take that chip. Because he's not gonna come out and be like, you know what, I'm the Antichrist, and you're gonna take the mark of the beast or you can't buy our stuff. It's not gonna be that simple. We're gonna be able to recognize it, okay? But I mean, look, the Bible says that there is delusion coming on this earth that'll be so strong that it would be, if possible, that the elect would even believe it, okay? And so enough about that. Go to Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four. So as you're turning there, the rest of the verse, he says again, he says, but be thou partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. And so I attribute that back to Proverbs 16, where he tells us, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. That's literally what Paul's telling Timothy. Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. I mean, hey, that's your soul-willing time right there. We have the word of God here, and guess what? On some levels, we partake in the affliction. It's not easy to go out soul-willing in the heat or the cold or when people are just fed up with you or whatever the case is. But you know what? We have the power of God. We've decided as a church, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna commit our works unto the Lord. And he's gonna establish your thoughts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't be confronted with the spirit of fear. Because as the Bible says, the devil is as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. And again, he's looking for that Christian that has his guard down and is maybe thinking about the wrong things, whatever. And he's gonna try to put that spirit of fear on you, which is depression, which will stop you, which will hold you down. I believe it's 100% feasible to say this, that the devil would be more than okay with taking as many Christians as he can and putting them under the spirit of fear. Because if you're under the spirit of fear, guess what? You're not gonna be able to work for the kingdom. Your ability to edify your brethren, your ability to evangelize the lost is gonna drop significantly, okay? He knows he can't throw us in hell. He knows he can't do anything like that. But what can he do? He can try to come around the back door and try to get us another way by different temptations, but by especially fear. That's where he specializes, trying to instill fear into people so that that's all that we think about and our minds just clouded with these circumstances and these situations. And then again, that goes back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah did not let that resonate. He did not let that fester. He said, yeah, this is how I feel. But hey, at least I'm not dead. At least there's still hope. The mercies of God are new every morning and that's what got him through it. And that's what made him the prophet and the man of God that he was. So let's look at some application here. What are some reasons that we might feel anxious? Well, obviously that's the spirit of fear. So let's take a look at something here. Here's some application for you. Philippians chapter four, verse six says this. So again, Paul talking to the Philippians. We talked about this a few weeks ago, but he says, be careful for nothing. Be careful for nothing. But, so again, on the contrary, right? He says, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So what does he mean there? Be careful for nothing, okay? Well, again, kind of like that story I told you in the beginning. You know, my dad was careful for everything. Ooh, gotta be careful of this. Oh, watch out for this. Oh, watch out. You know, everything's gonna kill you and you're gonna die. I'm surprised you're still alive. You know, we don't wanna live life like that. It's terrifying. It's basically, you're living in a prison cell when your mentality is like that. Paul's like, hey, don't be careful for anything, okay? Now is that a license to just do whatever you want? No, that's not what he's talking about. But he's like, hey, you know, we ought not to have this mentality like, oh, if we go out knocking on people's doors with the way things are after COVID, you know, people are gonna get really mad. No, I'm not gonna be careful for that. We have a mission and we're gonna do it. That's, it's as simple as that. That's what he's saying. Be careful for nothing. It's as simple as that. You have a mission to do for God. God has work that he needs done. And the last thing that he wants is for his children to be in subjection to fear. So Paul says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So let me give you a quick acronym, P-T-Y. So girls could think of the word pretty, P-T-Y. What does that mean? Prayer, thanksgiving, and your requests. Okay, we're gonna break these down. Guys, think of the pantry. Okay, when you feel depressed, you start feeling the spirit of fear, come on. You don't think of the word pantry, P-T-Y, okay? Remember this, remember this. This is the application here. Be careful for nothing, okay? Take your anxiety and throw it out the window and here's how you're gonna do it. By prayer, thanksgiving, and letting your requests be made known unto God, P-T-Y. Okay, good way to remember that. Girls always use the word pretty, okay? There you go, P-T-Y. Guys always thinking about food, the pantry, okay? So let's break this down here. Go to Philippians chapter two and let's talk about prayer. So the first step in being careful for nothing, the first step in overcoming this depression is by your prayer life. What is your prayer life like? Do you pray? That is the question. Philippians chapter two, look at verse three. So Paul says this, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Well, guess what? That's gonna take care of that pride and that spirit that is haughty that we talked about in Proverbs 16, okay? When you esteem other people better than yourself, verse four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So if we have a culture in church that abides by this, think about how powerful this is. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. When this is the culture in church, guess what? Your odds of being consistently depressed are gonna really dwindle down because everyone's looking out for each other. Everyone's trying to figure out how they can help the other person, okay? Verse five, let this mind, what mind? The mind he just told you, hey, others first, take care of your brothers and sisters. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, okay? Again, a church, the Philippians definitely had this mentality. And we talked about that several weeks ago, okay? They had this mentality and that's why they grew and were as successful as they were back in the day that Paul was writing this, okay? But when we adopt this mindset here, guess what? This place becomes like a hospital. And people that come in here that may not have the same views, they might feel more at ease and more comfortable. I'm just telling you that this year that every visitor that we've had, we've either gotten a good email from them or they've come back, you know? And so it's definitely starting to reflect the culture inside this church for sure. Now leave your place there and go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number five. 1 Thessalonians chapter number five. So again, remember the acronym, P-T-Y. How are you gonna overcome your depression? How are you going to overcome if you're that person you're just anxious about everything? You know, maybe cultural or just, I'm sorry, social situations get you anxious. Look, I've been there. I used to hate public speaking. I did not wanna do this. I fought it for years, okay? Fought it for years. Now I'm finally at the point where I just don't care. I just don't care what anybody thinks about me. I just couldn't care less at all. You know, somebody was asking me when I went to another church to preach, they're like, are you nervous because you're like at the big house? I was like, I just don't care. I love you guys, I just don't care. You just have to be that way. You start preaching long enough, you're just, I don't care. Here's my tools. It is what it is, man. That's all I can do. Yeah, I mean, I just don't care. My goal when writing these things is to help other people. And ever since I adopt that mindset, because I'll be honest with you, when I first started preaching, I was like, oh man, I gotta make this sound good or no one's gonna listen, the church is gonna fail. That used to be my mentality. Now I'm like, I just come up with these things and I'm like, I just wanna help people. And that's given me this, and not in a bad way, but it's kind of given me this, I just don't care. So therefore I just don't get nervous. I'm just, it works out great. Think about other people and it will help you solve your problems. So again, this mindset, taking your mind off of your own problems gives you some relief. You're still gonna have those emotions, but it will give you some relief and it will give you the opportunity to help other people, which in turn pleases God and is going to get the favor of God on your life as well. First Thessalonians chapter five, look at verse 17. Three words, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Now, does this mean you need to be like a monk and just never do anything, never eats? No, come on, okay? Always praying. You're driving down the street, you see something, a situation, pray for you. Somebody pops into your mind when you wake up, you pray for them. You know, things of this nature, prayer is essential, okay? It's not just for Wednesdays, it's for every single day. So the first step in our acronym is to pray, okay? When you got your prayer life in check, you have the mind of Christ in check. You're thinking about other people over yourself. Okay, that is gonna set you up for mental success. Now let's look at the second letter in that acronym, which is thanksgiving. You're in First Thessalonians chapter five, look at verse number 18. It says this, in everything, so Paul to the Thessalonians, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, that you there is the believer. This is the will of God for us or part of the will of God for us. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. Jessica loves to remind me of this one because we'll be driving down the street and somebody will cut me off or somebody would be going two miles an hour. And I'm like, dude, I just kept moving. And she's like, you gotta be thankful in all things. God could be trying to prevent us from getting into a collision down the road. I'm like, whatever. Yeah, you're right, now be quiet. It's true though, right? We need to be thankful in all things. I mean, back to Jeremiah in Lamentations. He's like, yeah, I'm in darkness. I believe I've aged from seeing this thing. I've got PTSD. However, hey, at least we're not dead, right? That's the, again, that was his mentality. He was able to still give thanks. And none of us have been through anything like Jeremiah did. So think about that. Ephesians chapter number five, look at verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he reiterates this truth to the Ephesians, okay? So again, we have in our acronym, how do we be careful for nothing? How do we overcome anxiety? How do we break out of our shell and get over that spirit of fear? Adopting the mindset of Christ, prayer, other people first, right? If you're in this, like, I just can't move forward. I have these goals. I have these things I wanna do for God. I have these things, but I just can't move. I just can't move forward. Your mindset has got to change. You have to put other people above yourself. Start doing that every single day. Send someone a text, send someone an email, pray for somebody, okay? It doesn't even, you say, well, I'm shy, that's fine. Pray for somebody, adopt the mindset. Now, number two is to be thankful in all things, okay? Because what does that do? Well, again, that puts you down here and God up here. That's what that does. That's what all three of these things do, okay? And so now you're definitely, with those two things, prayer and thanksgiving, your PTY, you are on your way to being a person that can quickly get over depression. You're gonna have these feelings. The spirit of fear will come knocking on your door in life. It will happen. You can't stop it, but you can beat it because God has not given you that spirit. Number three, okay, what does the Y stand for? Your requests, your requests. So back to Philippians chapter number four, real quickly, then we're gonna go to James and then back to Philippians. We're getting close to being done here, okay? Philippians four, looking for verse number six. Again, Paul says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Well, now he says this, let your requests be made known unto God. But I wanna give you some tips here about your requests. Go to James chapter number four, real quickly. James chapter number four. And then we'll go right back to Philippians four. So he says, let your requests be made known to God. But notice that comes third. Notice that comes last, right? You want that mindset correct. You wanna adopt that thankfulness and then let your requests be made known to God. Because what we have today is people that ignore the first two and just constantly asking God for all the requests and then they don't get what they want and they don't know why. And then they're back to the depression cycle, okay? And it's just this cycle. And I'm trying to show you this morning how to overcome that, how to break through that. It's by not ignoring the first few things that Paul said in Philippians chapter four. But here's a couple of quick notes about prayer, about your requests, I mean, okay? Which are prayer. But look at verse two, James four. So James says this, you lust and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you have not because ye ask not. Okay, so he's like, you don't have anything. You don't have what you need because you don't ask. But he says this in verse three. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask a miss. What does that mean? It means you ask for incorrect things or you go about it the incorrect way. So you ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lusts. Sometimes we need to sit back and think like, what is it that I'm requesting of God? Okay, is it really about your depression or is it really that you're depressed because you didn't get a new jet ski or you didn't get that $5 million house? You know, like bring yourself down a little bit here and evaluate those requests. That's what James is saying here, okay? He's like, look, some of you guys out here, you know, you're desiring to kill and to steal and to have things that are just not important. Now you shouldn't be depressed about these materialistic goods. In fact, that's not even the spirit of fear. That's a whole nother sermon is what that is. That's what James is talking about here. But okay, understand your requests, okay? The fact of the matter is and the truth is a lot of times we don't have what we want is because we're just simply not asking. Okay, sometimes we have needs. We have things that really need to be met but maybe we don't get them because we just didn't ask. We didn't pray. We didn't put something on the prayer list or we didn't pray long enough or we didn't think about it. We didn't ask other people, okay? Remember we exist as a body to pray for one another, okay? Sometimes God may just say, I'm ready to give this to you but I want you to have somebody else pray for that for you. Get other people involved so that the mind of Christ can be cultivated and grow, okay? Sometimes I believe that that's the case. Now here's what we get when we follow the PTY, the prayer, thanksgiving and letting our requests be made known unto God. Verse seven, Philippians chapter four. So again, it starts with the word and coming right after, letting your requests be made known unto God. What does he say? What do we get? And the peace of God. Let me say that again. And the peace of God. What do you get when you follow PTY? You get the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. And what does that do? What does that do for you? It shall keep your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. That is what the Bible says. Prayer, okay, and it's not just simple word. Don't just think prayer. When you hear that in the PTY, it is that Philippians two mindset, others above you, others above you, that is what he is talking about, okay? Once you have that, you learn to be thankful in all things. Take some time throughout the day, okay? And whenever you're feeling something coming on, like the spirit of fear, find something in that situation that you can be thankful for, because there always is. Whatever it is, find something like Jeremiah, like the temple's gone, you know? For some deep understanding of that, here's a homework assignment. Go read 1 Kings 8. Go read Solomon's prayer to God about the temple that they built, okay? And his desires and glorious, you know, things for that. Okay, go read that. And then go read 2 Kings chapter 25, and go understand what it was like when the Babylonians came in and just mopped out all up. And then picture Jeremiah being there and witnessing that. Okay, and then you'll have a crystal clear picture of depression, of the spirit of fear, okay? And in the midst of all that, Jeremiah's like, hey, but at least I'm not dead, okay? We already know he had the prayer. We already know he was thankful in all things. And he definitely made his request be made known unto God. I mean, I believe that Jeremiah went on later and just probably had a great life, because he listened to God. Said, you know what, we are to go in with the captives. We are supposed to go to Babylon. God promised to take care of us over there, and he did that, okay? He absolutely did that. But again, back to the acronym here. Verse seven, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Again, you look at Jeremiah, okay? And it's like, how could he have peace? I don't understand it, okay? That is a situation that passes understanding, but it can only come from God. It can only come from adopting this mindset here, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. No matter how bad or dark your situation is, you can find peace, and the recipe is simple. It's verse six. It's prayer, it's thanksgiving, and it's letting your requests be made known unto God. It's P-T-Y, okay? And look at this. You'll get the peace of God, not the peace of you. You're not gonna solve this. You're not gonna get yourself out of this. It is God, it is by the program that God has developed, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now, last place I wanna have you turn is Ecclesiastes. So back again to the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes chapter number three. Ecclesiastes chapter number three. So hopefully you're starting to see how understanding what God says is threatening will give us mental strengthening, okay? Well, what is threatening? What is threatening is the spirit of fear. What is threatening is not adopting what Paul told us to adopt. Prayer, thanksgiving, and your requests being made known unto God. Now, I just wanna leave you with a couple of quick facts here from Ecclesiastes chapter number three. So this is about time, okay? Ecclesiastes chapter three here, these first few verses that we're gonna read are about time, they're about things that we all experience in the human life. Look at verse one. He says, to everything there is a season. And he's gonna list some of these things. To everything there is a season. Now look at this. And a time to every purpose under heaven. So let's see what he says about that. A time to be born and a time to die. Okay, that's life. Those things have a time, they have a purpose. He says a time to plant and a time to pluck up. That which is planted. Verse three, a time to kill and a time to heal. And a time to break down and a time to build up. Okay, all of these things, he's talking about dying and killing, those aren't very pleasant things. But unfortunately, I mean, there is a time and place in this world for those things to happen. Verse four, and a time to weep and a time to laugh and a time to mourn and a time to dance. Verse five, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. Verse six, a time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. Verse seven, a time to rend and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Verse eight, last verse. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. So do you see that contrast in that passage there? Verses one through eight. There's good things, there's bad things. There's good things, there's bad things. There's things that are pleasant, things that are unpleasant. There are things there that cause mourning, things of that nature. But you know what's missing? There's a time for the spirit of fear. A time for depression. He doesn't mention that. There's not a time for you to be depressed. Why is that? Well, it's because God hath not given us the spirit of fear. Spirit of fear. And again, the question is then who or what has? And that is what you need to identify. And when you figure that out, guess what? You have the formula, you have the recipe to overcome the spirit of fear. And it is through prayer, it is through thanksgiving, and letting your requests be made known on to God. Now look, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist. They would give you a different recipe. But you know what? If you follow this, I'm telling you right now, it will work, it will help you, it will change your mindset. You don't have to have a degree for this. So you don't have to have eight to 10 years of medical school and mental knowledge or whatever. You just need the word of God, which is tried and true. The spirit of fear is real, it knocks on all of our doors, and the recipe is the same, and it will work whether you have a relational depression, a circumstantial depression. They're really all gonna be tied down to spiritual. Because if you're going through something relational with somebody, I guarantee you, at some point, a devil is looking at that one. How can I stir this up? How can I accelerate this? How can I keep these believers fighting and going at each other? Because that's great, then they're not out there in the community, they're not knocking doors, they're not edifying people, and things of that nature. So the application is the same. But again, remember, you have emotions. Jeremiah wrote about those, and those emotions are real, and you have to acknowledge those on some level. You have to be aware of that. Because sometimes people will call, you know, I'll be talking with people, and they're like, I just feel like something's wrong because I feel this way. It's like, well, no, I mean, somebody did something absolutely horrible to you. It's okay to feel that rage and upset and be mad. I mean, we're human, okay? But it's the next steps that are gonna determine whether or not you can get rid of that spirit of fear or not. So again, hopefully that under, that helps to just remember. Remember, God has not given that spirit to you, okay? So what did he give us? Well again, he gave us a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And remembering that P-T-Y is gonna help you stay in that spirit. Again, you got the choice. Am I gonna walk in the old man today, or am I gonna walk in the new man? And again, it always boils back down to that. So hopefully this will be a help. If not, maybe it'll be a help to somebody that you know that is struggling with depression or the blue devils. So let's stop here, bow our heads, and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for truth that you give us every single week. I just pray you'd help us to remember these things, apply them to our lives, not forget them, Lord, but also to be a use to other people that may be struggling with anxiety or struggling with any kind of spirit of fear or depression. Just pray you bless the fellowship after the service and the soul winning today, Lord, and bring us back again safely tonight. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.