Good morning, you guys. Good morning. Glad to see you. That's, that's some good songs. I like those a lot. You know, you, if you, if you toss me and Mike out the average age of the band is like 16 or something, which is pretty cool that the band is up here doing what they do. Um, so I didn't have one to mention the recreate church picnic. This is what two Sundays from now. If I got my, my dates right on that two Sundays from now at the Carter Pines Park, that is the picnic shelter by the Carol Wellness Center down here, left at the stoplight. Uh, we will be providing hot dogs, hamburgers, condiments, beverages and paper goods. So bring a, a side, bring a dessert and, you know, come on and anybody got any cornhole boards? I need to be humbled pretty badly. Cornhole is one of those things I think I should be good at. Anybody else feel that way? Okay. Well, somebody, I bet somebody's got some boards. But, uh, like, like I want to, I think I'm good at cornhole and like once in a while, I'll, I'll, yes, I'm good at this. And then, then I realize I'm not, that's why I don't golf. I think golf will be very bad for me. I think I'd do a lot of repenting. So when I repent, I just do plumbing. All right. So it's true though, you know, plumbing will test your Christianity. It will so I want to tell you a story. Many years ago in Italy, a man visited a doctor and the poor guy, he said, doctor, you got to help me. I am miserable. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I worry all the time. I don't want to see my friends. I am falling to pieces. The doctor examined him, had to foot, couldn't find anything physically wrong with the man. And he said, sir, I believe what you need. Is a good laugh to visit your spirit, to, to a good laugh, to lift your spirits. I see there's a circus in town. I was there just last night. And there was this star performer, a clown called Grimaldi. He must be the funniest person on the whole planet. You need to go to the circus tonight and see Grimaldi and he will make you laugh and lift you out of your depression. And the man looked more miserable than ever. He said, no, no, no, Grimaldi can't help me. You see, I am Grimaldi. See, look, even those who appear the happiest and the most successful, maybe fighting battles we don't know about. Some of the most influential people in history have wrestled with depression. People like Sir Isaac Newton and Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther, Princess Diana, John Denver. That's because he was a bad at geography. That song is about Virginia, not West Virginia. That's a sorry, John. Mark Twain, Mozart, Beethoven, countless actors, singers, musicians, and virtually every comedian has struggled with depression. Winston Churchill called it the black dog. I like that metaphor. That's why I've called the message today, battling the black dog. He said it's like a black dog that follows him around. You ever heard the name Charles Spurgeon? If you haven't, figure out who that is because he's accounted as maybe the very best preacher since the Apostle Paul. And incredible man of God and yet suffered debilitating bouts of depression where he couldn't get out of bed for weeks. God used him greatly. If we got a kick everybody out of the Jesus club, if they experienced depression, we're going to have to kick out Elijah, Moses, Jonah, Job, Jeremiah. Lots of leaders, lots of pastors, including a pastor you may be very familiar with. I want you to imagine for a moment, a person lying face down on the ground, sweating profusely, filled with dread, crying, praying, begging God to get him out of the situation he's in. I don't know if you call that depression, but the ingredients are there. I don't know if it's too much to say that Jesus felt depressed in the garden of Gethsemane, but he was certainly distressed and he came very close to it. And he understands what we feel, Jesus knows what it feels like, at least to feel all the things that are connected with depression. There's still a lot of stigma attached to it, especially for men because, you know, we're tough, where I might, we're tough, we're tough. Also, we worry that if we bear our soul, maybe people will think less of us or use it against us. Shout out to King David and the other writers of the Psalms who were radically honest about what they experienced. Have you read the book of Psalms? A lot of those are starting out, man, am I ever depressed? God, even God's not paying attention to me anymore. But by the end, something has changed. We're going to be in Psalm chapter 102 today, and it's very much like that. We're going to get back to the Gospel of Mark eventually. I swear, I promise we're going to get back to the Book of Mark. We just, I don't know. The Lord's, I prayed about the message this week, and this is where he led me to. So I have to believe it is for somebody. Maybe it's for you because according to one study, about 50% of Americans admit to experiencing depression, at least sometimes. And that's the ones who would admit it. So if it's not you, then you know somebody and you need to be compassionate and ready to support them, ready to understand them. So we're going to get started with the text and pray. Now, Psalm 102, we're going to go through the whole thing. And it's a, it's a pretty tough hike. I know we've got some hikers here. So you got your hiking boots on, your spiritual hiking boots on, put them on, get your spiritual walking stick, your spiritual backpack. And we're going to take kind of a long walk through some heavy emotions. So here's what we will see though, kind of the theme that's running through it. Go ahead, praise is a weapon against depression. It's not the only weapon. There's more to it. And you might have to have some good medication counts on all of that. But don't forget this part, praise is a weapon against depression. So let's read a couple of verses and we'll stop and pray and go from there. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble and climb your ear to me in the day that I call, answer me speedily. Almighty God, we believe that you will answer us speedily in the day of our trouble and we praise you in advance for that. Lord, so many of us experience depression or care about someone who does. And I pray now that you'll fill our hearts with praise as we fight against that black dog. We give you the glory in Jesus name. Amen. So not all depression is situational. Some of it, everything can be going right. But when you are going through something, it can really drag you down. The Psalm writer here calls it the day of his trouble, your day of trouble could be a season of struggle, a deep disappointment, traumatic experience, prolonged illness, physical exhaustion, emotional let down, even after a victory. Financial hard times are just, just heartbreak that maybe you had somebody in your life who really hurts you or, or, or bailed on you. That's tough. Even spiritual issues can be part of it. I know that's certainly true for me, for many of us. The day of trouble comes upon everybody. Nobody hasn't charmed life. If you see someone who has a charmed life, you just don't know enough about their life, although some things might be easier than yours. So you're going to experience it. It's going to impact you if only for a while. For some folks, it lasts longer than a while. And this Psalmist here is apparently one of those people. We don't know who he was exactly made, probably wasn't King David or it would have labeled it as a psalm of David, but it was somebody like David. The next few verses, he, he describes what it's like, the signs of depression. What have, aren't you so glad you came to the church service today for the preacher's proposal? He preached on the signs of depression and it depressed me. Sorry. I'm just going to read that I want to read the scriptures. Okay. Verse three, for my days are consumed like smoke, the day of trouble we can feel as empty as smoke like our life is meaningless or pointless or the word is this is not even a real word. I don't think, but I heard people say it's just, man, how was your day? Man, I think that's spelled M-E-H can confirm it. Man, yeah, yeah, my bones are burned like a hearth. Sounds like the gout I got in my foot. I'll tell you what, the 40s ain't like the 30s. Depression brings physical suffering as well as emotional suffering. This almost said his bones burned. We could add headaches, muscle aches, stomach problems, feeling tired all the time, even make you feel like you're having a heart attack, even though there's nothing wrong with your heart. Verse four, my heart is stricken and withered like grass. It's hard to, it's hard to describe what it feels like to be depressed. He said it felt like his heart was like withered grass. Like before the drought broke and it was so dry and you walk through your yard and it's dying and you crunchy, crunchy yard. That's kind of what it feels like. Like a crunchy lawn, kind of weird, huh? This almost came up with that a long time ago. Verse four, the last part of it says, you know, it's hard to so stricken that he forgets to eat his bread. Depression can mess up your appetite. It might be forgetting to eat, not been a problem for me too much, but more like, you know, for some folks, it's eating too much. Verse five, because of the sound of my crooning, my bones cling to my skin. A pain of depression will come out in one way or the other. It may come out as like literal groaning. Like, oh man, just or it may come out as anger, volatility, defensiveness. Sometimes it's in going quiet. Sometimes the kind of silver lining is you can pour that into some kind of creative works, you know, art, music, writing, I do a lot of writing. He says his bones cling to his skin. I think that's an indicator of physical health problems. He had neglected his body to the point of serious illness. Get this. Okay. You're ready for like a sobering statistic here. According to the National Institute of Health, untreated depression shortens your lifespan more than heart disease. Set other heart, dive a broken heart. It's not just an expression. So you got to get some help if you're experiencing these things. You got to get some help. I don't go who you are, what you doing? You got to get some help. And, and I'm just going to tell you a few practical things, something like vitamin D deficiency can really make you feel bad and make it worse because vitamin D requires some exposure to sunlight and we work indoors for the most part of these days. We don't spend as much time outdoors as we used to as human beings. So you might get you some of them. Nice chewable vitamin D and I got calcium in them too. And thyroid problems can look like depression too. Get that checked out. Can make it a lot worse. So get that stuff checked. All right. Now he gets real poetic here in these next couple of verses. And I really like it a lot. Verse six and verse seven, I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert. I lie awake and I'm like a sparrow alone on the housetop. Those are great lines. He said he felt like a solitary bird all alone. Depression can make you feel very lonely even when you're with other people. You know, these birds, pelicans and they, they travel in groups. Sometimes, you know, there's lots. You see one, you see more than one and, you know, lots of sparrows. But he was lonely. Community is really an important part of healing from depression, even when you just don't want to be around people. Sometimes you need to go be around some people. Verse seven, he says, he lies awake. Verse seven, we're still there. Yeah, he lies awake. Insomnia, insomnia can be a sign. Others sleep too much. Either way, you don't ever feel rested. If you are someone you care about, kind of has these, I feel like it's, if you are someone you care about, suffering from the signs of depression, please see. See Jesus. See the great physician. No, but it, I mean, this is, if this is something that's part of your life on the regular, you need to talk somebody about it. You got to. It can be very hard to admit that you're dealing with some depression, especially when you're a Christian, because the Christians are supposed to be joyful and happy all the time, aren't they? I mean, don't we have more reason to be happy and joyful than anyone? Absolutely. But we're also, and unfortunately, very human. We're just as human and as everybody else. We aren't immune from trials and troubles and heartaches and all the things that can make a person depressed. Being honest about our pain is the first part of healing. Because if you're not honest about it, you end up treating it in other ways. Okay. You end up treating it with drugs or alcohol or with other self destructive things or pouring yourself into a hobby or a pursuit or even a job so much that it becomes a problem. We try to cure this thing when it won't cure it. Something else has got to happen. Verse eight, the Psalm writer goes on to describe his thoughts and feelings during a season of depression. He said, my enemies reproach me all the day long. Those who deride me swear an oath against me. It feels like everybody's against you. Nobody cares about you. Is it true that everybody's against you? Is it true that nobody cares about you? But does it feel like it and perception impacts reality? There's a lot more people who care about you than you know. Some of them are in this room. You know, we, we pray every Sunday that we'll, we'll have a heart for everybody who comes and we mean that. And I, I, I believe we do that in a lot of ways. You don't always get it right, but we're aiming at that. Verse nine, I've eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping. Even the good things of life can be empty and worthless. Like, like ash in your mouth. Things that should make you happy. Don't make you happy. Verse 10, because your indignation and your wrath for you have lifted me up and cast away. Who's he talking to here? Who is he talking to? He's talking to God. He's saying, you're beating me up. God, you are beating me up from his point of view. It felt like God was beating him up. God was punishing him. God had thrown him away. God had stopped caring. I want to be very clear with you. If you are a, a Jesus follower, if you're an honest, a goodness, child of God, there will be times where it feels like God has forgotten about you. That God is picking on you, that he is punishing you, that he has tossed you aside. Will that actually be true? No, but it will feel like it. Don't be surprised by that. If you're young in the faith and you've never experienced that yet, don't be surprised. It will happen. You will feel like God does not care. It is not true, but you'll feel it. And what do you do when you feel that? Well, you got to wrestle through it. You got to go back to God and say, God, here's what it feels like. This is what it feels like. It feels like you don't care about me, that you are upset with me. But I know that's not true because your word says it's not true. Your word says you care about me all the time, but it doesn't feel right. So Lord, you really got to help me right now. You got to wrestle through it. That's exactly what the songwriter is about to do. See, it's got like one more verse. Verse 12, all this is going to turn. Don't do verse 12 yet. It's going to turn, you see. And he is going to be, he's wrestled with this thing. He wrestles with his feelings. He wrestles with God. It's painful, but he has a breakthrough. So verse 11, my days are like a shadow that lengthens and I wither away like the grass. You know, one of the worst lies the devil tells to a person is that they're worthless. Depression can make you feel like you're worthless, like you're just a shadow. And and unfortunately, sometimes people will be around you who don't help with that. Sometimes people won't always make you feel like you should. But let me tell you, the people in your life should treat you with kindness and they should do what they can, but your ultimate validation cannot come from people. If you're looking for your, for your ultimate validation from human beings, you are going to be disappointed. Cause even the very best of them cannot give you that because they're not God. And you're going to be real mad at these people because they're not giving you validation, but they can't because they don't have it to give. Only God can really give that. Should they treat you right? Absolutely. But validation can only come from God. Don't expect it from people. That is not fair to them or to you and you just get your heart broken. So we, we see a pattern here when we're experiencing depression. We cannot trust our feelings. It feels very much one way. But when our feelings tell us one thing and the word of God tells us another thing, we can't trust our feelings. We got to hold them up against the word of God. We need to question our feelings. We trust God. We distrust feelings. And that's really kind of what the writer did here. I think when it gets to verse 12, things change. It's like, boom, night and day, go ahead. There's got to be a verse 12. I will read verse 12 to you. I'm being punked. There's some of them trials and tribulations getting punked. I made the, this doesn't, this doesn't happen when I, when I have the real professional making the slide show. He always gets it right, but I, I did it this week. Here's what verse 12 says, but you, oh Lord, shall endure forever. And the remembrance of your name to all generations. What happened? He went from Mondays or it was like a shadow that lengthens and I whither like the grass to you, oh Lord, shall endure forever. And the remembrance of your named all generations, did his perspective change? Did his focus change? Where did his focus move from? From himself to God. The name of the Lord represents all that he is, his nature. One of the best things we can do to get ourselves out of a depression or to help move out of that is to move our focus from ourselves and our struggles to God and to his name. Boy, it's, it's so easy to say, isn't it? In this room surrounded by people who kind of more or less think the same way or similarly, it's really easy to say that, but out there in that world, on the other side of those doors, that's harder to do because it hurts, life hurts. And how do we take the focus off of our hurt to God's name? Well, if we focus on ourselves, it makes it worse. It compounds the problem. Our pain is temporary. God is forever. And remember the heart of this message. Praise is a weapon against depression. It's not the only thing there is, but it is a weapon that cannot be neglected. And sometimes the only thing we can do is call upon his name. Sometimes the only prayer you can pray is it. Praise Jesus or Lord help me when Peter was sinking. When Peter tried to walk on the water and he was sinking, he didn't say, I come to the old Lord and this, my hour of need and I'll see us that out that I drownedest help a style me, old Lord. He said, Lord help me. And that may be it. Lord help me. You know what? That's a sincere. That's about as sincere as it gets, ain't it? Lord help me. I grew up in a world of King James prayers. Anybody else grow up like old school Baptist or old King James. You know what? I love that. It sounds wonderful, but I like couldn't do it. My prayers are a little more like, help me, Lord. And that's okay. I think God's cool with both. Verse 13, is there a verse 13 in there? Thank you. For you all are, you will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time to favor her. Yes, the set time has come for your servants. Take pleasure in her stones and show flavor to her dust. The writer was worried Jerusalem would be destroyed and everything he knew with it. Then he remembered the mercy of God and he felt sure that Jerusalem was going to be okay. Of course, Jerusalem through the years had been destroyed more than once, but always rebuilt. God has not forgotten it and understand the same God who loves Jerusalem, loves you even more. He's not forgotten you. If you joined his family, you're his child. Nothing can change that. Nothing can mess it up. He will hear you when you cry. I've experienced that mercy may not come in the form that you expect, but it will come. Verse 15, so the nations shall fear the name of the Lord. And all the kings of the earth, your glory for the Lord shall build up Zion and he shall appear in his glory. Our God is an awesome God. He reigns in heaven above with wisdom, power and love. Our God is awesome God. Those who know, no. Yeah, if you know, you know, even though God's so big and we're so small, he cares about us. That's amazing. He's got this whole universe universe to run, but he cares about your daily struggles. He cares. He wants us in his family. He cares so much that he sent his son to the cross. So you could have a connection with him. Verse 17, he shall regard the prayer of the destitute and shall not despise their prayer. When we are deeply afflicted, it can feel like God does not hear our prayers, but that is not true. If you feel like God does not hear your prayers, I want to tell you, you're, I want to validate your feelings in as much as saying, yep, I can see why it would feel that way. I hear you, but understand God does hear your prayers and he will answer. He does not despise your prayers. We have the promise that he hears, he cares and he will act. He will fight that black dog. You say, Lord, the black dogs after me, he will get the switch out. I promise and run that dog. Verse 22, when peoples are gathered together in the kingdoms to serve the Lord, he weakened my strength in the way and he shortened my days. I said, Oh God, do not take away in the, take me away in the midst of my days for your years throughout all generations. He has a little relapse here. That's going to happen. You know, he's relapsing into discouragement somewhat, but I'll say this. If we do believe God has a plan and nothing surprises him, then we have to accept that he also has a plan for depression and discouragement. I am not saying that God is picking on you or giving you trouble or making you downcast. The world will take care of that. God will not have to go and God will not have to bully you. The world will bully you plenty. The world don't do it. Your teenagers will. I'm getting the, that smile that worries me, son, the smile you're giving me. It worries me like, that's right, old man. Listen, God ain't, God ain't going to have to pick on you. He won't have to. Here's what I am saying. God doesn't stop working just because you're depressed. Feels that way. Feels it. God does not stop working just because you're depressed. In fact, God works through your depression. He will bring good things out of it if we trust him. This chapter of the Bible exists because a man got depressed and cried out to God and got it straightened out. There will be 149 Psalms instead of 150. I actually, given the all the other Psalms that are very similar to this, there would be far fewer Psalms. God works through depression. What's he going to do with you when you get down and you get low? What will he do? I saved, I skipped some verses and I wanted to end with them because they're so good, verse 18, 19, 20, 21. This will be written for a generation to come that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. Who's that? Yeah, as y'all, you're in there. You've made a cameo appearance in the Bible. Congratulations. You can put that in as you're one of your credits. Tell them that at the bank and they'll, they'll give you a loan probably time in the Bible sort of indirectly. Verse 19, 18, "For he looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from the heaven, from heaven, the Lord viewed the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord and Zion in his praise to Jerusalem." So when the writer of the Psalm here shifted his focus from his pain to his praise, the depression began to lift. He still had the same problems, same struggles, the situation had not changed, but he had. Overcoming depression, look, it's not just about this. I don't want to give that impression that you can just praise your way out of the pit. It's more complex than that. You maybe have to go see a doctor. You may have to get some medication. You may have to get some counseling, change some things about the way you live your life. You know, there's a lot going on, but don't forget this one because all that other stuff can be right. You can be doing all the right things and the spiritual part is not right and it won't be right. Remember that the Psalms were originally songs to be sung out loud. They sang this. Now it was in Hebrew and it probably rhymed or it worked a little better than the English translation would have been. You know, if we try to sing it, it might not be so easy to sing it, but you could freestyle it, freestyle rap it. That's, that's still hip right freestyle rap. No, it's not. Okay. But understand, this was meant to be sung when a person is depressed. They sing this and it helps them. Why? Because, because praise is a weapon against depression. Boy, is it hard to praise when you're depressed, but it will help you. It is a weapon. It may not win the whole battle. Man, it might beat that black dog back far enough where you can live. I wish I would never, ever wish the black dog a depression on anybody. I know too much about it, but here's what I can guarantee you. God will not always spare you from struggles like depression, but he will bring something out of it. He will bring good out of it. God redeems suffering like no other. Remember the redemption of the world was accomplished through somebody who suffered and who at least looked pretty depressed in the garden of Gethsemane. He looked depressed, whether we could say Jesus could technically be depressed or not. I don't know, but he felt it. So my advice to use call upon the name of the Lord for yourself, for the people you care about who struggle, ask God for mercy, God for compassion, ask God to bring good out of the pain, ask God to put praise in your heart, praise is the weapon against depression. I think we need to find some praise right now. Remember the first song we sang, thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me. And in the song, he said, you know, I'm not wealthy. These clothes aren't new, but I've got a roof over my head. I got food on my table. I got shoes on my feet. Now, if you're here with us this morning and you don't have some of those things, we'll help you out with that. But I think most of us have got those things. You've got things to be thankful for. Yes, there may be people in your life who make your life difficult. Yes, there may be situations that are terrible, you may be dealing with stuff that nobody ought to ever deal with, but there are things to praise God for. And that will help you more than you think. Let's just go to the Lord right now. Heavenly Father, we praise you for the things that you do for us. I thank you that you have provided for my material needs. Lord, I don't always feel it. There's things I wish that I had better or more of, but you have provided. And may I be grateful for that. I thank you for my family, even on days when it's hard to be a part of a family. I thank you for them, Lord. And may I love them and treat them right. Lord, I want to thank you for this church family here and for the community that you've created. Thank you for that, Lord. It's not always easy being in a church family, but thank you. And may we go stronger and stronger. Lord, I thank you for all the many blessings that you've given me. And I pray that on days the black dog is after me hot, that praise will come to my lips and I will glorify you so much that things change. God, please use the dark times so greatly, so greatly, Lord, that we'll look back on them and realize there's some things that could not have happened without those days. And we give you the glory in Jesus name, amen. I've told you like three weeks in a row that I plan to be back in the book of Mark, and that hasn't happened yet. So I'm making you no promises this week, except that it's, you know, it's still on the agenda to get there. God bless you. I hope you have a do, do have a blessed week and may the Lord do great things in your life. Take care.
