1 Kings 19

If you brought a copy of scripture with you this morning, you can find first Kings chapter 19, first Kings chapter 19 as we continue in our series, Real… that is, biblical, but… Real Counsel, and the title of the message is Cultivating a Sound Mind, and we are dealing particularly with the subject of anxiety and depression which will strike a nerve with many of you, I know… maybe all of us for that matter.

But let’s just start by asking a question. How many of you have had a great car mechanic? Raise your hand. Don’t point any fingers or anything. Just raise your hand. All right. Several of you. I’ve had three. I’ve had three great car mechanics in my life. And what made them great is their ability to diagnose the problem in my car, because other mechanics aren’t so good doing that. And if you get a good diagnosis, you’re getting into the root of the problem. You get to the solution, etc. Right? So they weren’t cheap, but they were great. And if you don’t have a good diagnosis, you’re not getting your car fixed.

God is the greatest mechanic there is over our body, over our souls and over our minds. He is able to diagnose not only your problem with flawless precision, but He can provide the solution to the problem. The Bible tells us David said,

Psalm 139:1, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!“

Right? There’s your diagnosis. And on the flip side, Peter says,

[2 Peter 1:3] ‘God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.’

That should encourage you right out of the shoot, because we live in the most therapeutic age ever known to man. And the most common problems that are being dealt with in the counseling arena are anxiety and depression. Billions, with a “b”, billions of dollars are spent every year on counsel and medication, and most of the help, so to speak, comes from… not all, praise God… but most of the help comes from Godless authorities, and by Godless, I mean literally God-less. I don’t mean that the secular counselors out there are nefarious in their intention. I don’t mean that at all. I think they’re really trying to help you, really trying to help me. But they’re God-less. They take God out of the equation. David Powlison, the great biblical counselor and theologian who’s now with the Lord described secular psychologists as “brilliant and distorted,” brilliant because they are able to identify problems, but they’re distorted because by removing God they remove the possibility of real lasting help in your struggle.

Now back to your car. What if you never changed your oil or had somebody change it for you. When I was 18 years old, my first car was a 1968 Ford Galaxy 500 V8. It was a mean car! — except I didn’t know anything about cars. I mean, it was a good looking car. I washed it, I waxed it, I detailed the inside. It looked so nice, but change the oil? I mean, who looks at the oil? Right? I changed the oil one time, and so that winter, because of my lack of attention, my lack of understanding, my ignorance, I snap my timing chain… catastrophic damage, junked the car! I mean, everybody knows that’s the most basic thing you can do, right? — for your car, and I ignored it.

Listen… listen to me. There are hundreds of helps for anxiety and depression that are out there. Hundreds! But if you leave God out, you’ve left the most important thing out, and the possibility of real help. So body, soul, mind, and they all interact with one another.

And our focus is mostly going to be on the mind here. And many… this is wherein lies so much of the problem for so many, because we are so saturated with information. We live in an information overload society. Some of you are suffering from information fatigue as we speak. One… you read this one tragedy, another tragedy, another tragedy… and you just can’t take it! — especially if you’re wired for mercy, you can’t take it! And you either become indifferent or anxious, fearful. Did you know that most millennials are on their phones for at least seven hours a day, and that doesn’t even surprise you, does it? And if you’re boomers like me out there, stop looking around. You’re no better!

And speaking of minds, the Bible has a ton to say about it. ‘Don’t let anyone take you captive,’ Paul said, ‘through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.’ [Colossians 2:8] And into that same letter, Paul said, [Colossians 32:2] “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” And Paul said to the Romans, [Romans 12:2] ‘Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be “metamorphoo,” transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ And then to the Corinthians, he would say, ‘You need to capture every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ [2 Corinthians 10:5] We’ll come back to that.

Now we’re not just the most therapeutic culture of all, we’re the most medicated. And some of you are medicated right now. I know you are. I don’t have one person in mind. But I know this… and this is a 15 year old study. In 2011, 253 million prescriptions were given out, medical prescriptions, were given out. One out of every five Americans are taking medication for some form of mental illness. Now, in case you think I’m going to be really rough on you here, let’s just be clear. The right medication taken in the right amount and for the right amount of time has the ability to sort of clear that, you know, the windshield wipers on your mental windshield. But it can never cause you to trust in the Lord. Here’s how Piper put it. He said this,

“Medication can take you into a position of neutrality, but it can never take you into a position of active trust.” John Piper

And he was right. Scripture has repeatedly commanded you and me, “Fear not.” “Don’t fear.” “Don’t be anxious.” We’re told not to fear, we’re told not to be anxious. Those are commands, and we take those commands seriously. But God’s will… listen to this… God’s will for you is not merely that you don’t fear, you aren’t anxious, you don’t experience PTSD, but that you positively trust the Lord. And let’s keep it as simple as David. David, who suffered immense anxiety, immense stress on his mind. He said,

Psalms 56:3, ‘When I am afraid (what?) I will trust in you.’

He didn’t pool his fears. He didn’t pool his stresses. He didn’t pool his anxieties. He channeled them, which is exactly what you and me… And that might be the only thing you need to hear today. I’m guessing it’s not, but don’t pool, but channel.

Okay, so let’s look first of all, at biblical factors regarding anxiety and depression. The very first one is just human nature. All right, we’re all human. Right? — And that involves things like genetics, temperament, history, even your upbringing factors in to the way you act, the way you respond… the way you go through things. There’s a lot of stuff that’s just learned. David wrote this;

[Psalm, 33:15] ‘God fashions their hearts individually.’

Have you ever read that? That word, “fashions” is a Hebrew word which, it literally pictures a potter molding. You know, God is the potter. We are the clay. It literally means to squeeze something, and if you’re a parent, you’ve been squeezing, you’ve been molding your kids from the very beginning. Right? And by the way, if it’s true, ‘if you train up a child the way he should go, when he’s old he shall not depart from it,’ [Proverbs 22:6] isn’t it also true that if you don’t train them in the way they should go, bad things might happen? Well, sure it is! Solomon said to his children, he said, I have taught, listen to this;

Proverbs 4:11, ‘I have taught you in the way of righteousness. I have led you in right paths.’

I’ve taught you. I’ve led you. Every parent here can look at your… every… every single one of you parents, including myself, can look at our kids and say, ‘I have taught you and I have led you.’ But how many of you can say I have taught you in the way of wisdom? How many of you can say ‘I have led you on right paths?’ That’s the question. Right? And let’s just be honest. Some of our ways are simply learned. Can I get an ‘Amen?’ And then as far as temperament… this is an important thing for you to know… If God has saved you… and I never assume God has saved every one of you. Some of you need to be saved… But if God has saved you, He has clothed you in the righteousness of Christ. He has made you a new creation.                     [2 Corinthians 5:17] He has placed His Holy Spirit within you. [1 Corinthians 6:19] Hallelujah! — But He didn’t change your temperament. And you know that to be true!

Two years before I became a Christian, I was at a Knights of Columbus event. That’s a Catholic event that they’re like a charity branch of Catholicism. I was at a table with several people I didn’t know. One was a politician, and I was sort of on fire. We were just going back and forth. I was asserting my opinions and this and that. In the middle of it, the politicians said, “Nemmers, you would make a great politician!” Can you imagine that? I’d be insufferable as a politician! That’s just temperament. My temperament hasn’t changed. I was an orator before I became a Christian, just not for God.

James tells us that Elijah was a man with a nature. Have you ever read this? — just like yours and mine. [James 5:17] Now we know the context was… remember? He prayed and didn’t rain. He prayed again at rain… called down fire from heaven. This guy was the electrifying prophet! But he also was a man with a nature who got so depressed He asked God to kill him! So there’s just human nature involved as a factor in anxiety and depression.

Another one is personal sins. So here’s David in Psalm 32. You don’t need to go there, but you can mark it down somewhere. In Psalm 32, he describes himself during that year where he was unconfessed. He had committed adultery, he had committed murder, and he let it, he just tucked it away. And he tells us that God’s hand was heavy on him. [Psalm 32:4] I mean, David literally describes himself as in physical pain and mental strain because of his sin. [Psalm 32:3-4] Now we’ve got all around here stations of the Lord’s table you’re going to be invited to at the very end of our service here. The Lord’s table. What’s wrong with taking the Lord’s table? I’ve seen people taking the Lord’s table they have no business taking the Lord’s table! … And yet we’re invited to take it.

I remember several years ago, there was a man who was living in known sin. And everybody knew he was living in sin, but he would come to church, and he would come in, and he would take the Lord’s table. He did it like two or three times straight, and one of our elders picked up on it. I didn’t even know what was happening. One of our elders picked up on it, and the next time he came, sure enough, he just went over and took the elements and sat back down. And the elder quietly walked up, sat down next to him, leaned into him and whispered into his ear, “I want you to know that I love you. And it’s because I love you, I want to tell you, you’re about to eat and drink judgment upon yourself. Living in sin is a mockery to God. If you take the Lord’s table, please be concerned about that.” — And then got up and walked away. Now the man was furious and he left angry, but he should have been thankful. The guy probably saved him from death. How do I know that? Because this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. He says this because they had misused the Lord’s table of the Corinthians.

1Corinthians 11:30, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

So personal sins, the fact you’re in not just physical maladies, but mental maladies.

Thirdly, health practices. I know of a counselor, whenever he meets with some, the very first meeting, he says;

“I wanna prescribe three medicines. Good food, good sleep, good exercise.”

Advise of a counselor

I thought about that. I nailed two of them. But a friend of mine said, ‘Yeah, I would add good input.’ Make sure you know… because garbage in… garbage out. Right? — Into your mind. That’s good advice! Now, first Kings 19, I ask you to go there. And Elijah has just done the most electrifying thing he ever did. He challenged the prophets of Baal and that epic battle on Mount Carmel against the gods of Baal, and they’re cutting themselves. Remember that? He calls down fire from heaven… licks up the water… burns up the sacrifice… he slaughters the 850 false prophets. He is on top of the world! And then Jezebel says, ‘I’m going to kill you for this!’ — And he beats a trail! He starts running… He runs 120 miles! I mean, if you run 100 miles, that’s an ultra-marathon. He ran 120! In fact, in verse 4, look at it. It says;

1 Kings 19:4, “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might (what?) die, saying, “It is enough;” (sure, 120 miles would be enough!) “Now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

And so, God really laid the lumber down on him! Amen? No! That’s not true. God did not lay the lumber on him! He’s in such a state. He’s so depressed, he’s so anxious, he’s so stressed out, he wants to die! Look at verse 5;

1 Kings 19:5-7

5 “And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

And that’s what he did. So God didn’t rebuke Elijah. What did He do? He fed him and He hydrated him. He did something else. He did this twice as well. He touched him! Did you catch that? The angel from the Lord touched him.

He reminded me of the leper that came to Jesus one day in Mark chapter one and said,

‘Lord, if you’re willing, you can heal me.’ [Mark 1:41-42] Remember that? And Jesus looked at him and said… and then, he didn’t just say, ‘Jesus looked at him and touched him…’ something nobody had done… and said, ‘I’m willing,‘ and healed him. Sometimes, we just need to have good health practices. You take care of yourself, you get exercise, you eat good food. Sometimes we need a personal touch. But we definitely need rest. Amen?

I mean, when I was a young pastor, I literally went 24/7, and probably proud of it. I was always going, always preaching, always witnessing, always doing this, always pastoring. And then, explainably, I would just get sick for about a day or two, and then I’d be back on my feet, go out again. And then I literally… I’m not exaggerating… get sick again for a day or two, back up on my feet… do it again. Somewhere in there, I figured out maybe I should be taking a break. Even when I came here to Saylorville 27 years ago, a couple of years in, Lucas Bair, our [then] college pastor, and Abe Miller, our [then] high school pastor, came up to me, came into my office with fear and trepidation as anybody who comes to my office should have. (I’m kidding! A poor choice of words for a message on anxiety and depression.) And they said, they said, “Hey,” they said, “do you ever take a day off?” And I go, “Yeah, I take a day off… day’s off when it’s right, when I feel like…” “No, I mean, do you ever take like an actual day off?” And I was so convicted in the moment, because I had not been doing that. And I made a commitment to God then and to them, and ever since I’ve taken a day off.

Now there is a place for medication but just good health practices… I mean, the Bible says, take a little wine for your stomach for the sake of your frequent infirmities…’ [1 Timothy 5:23].

I get that, but start with your general health.

Fourthly, another factor is just physical results of infirmity and stress. If you have listened In the last ten messages I’ve preached, I probably quoted Charles Spurgeon in at least seven of them. He’s my favorite preacher, and yet he himself suffered with gout… very painful… and depression. He once was preaching, and somebody yelled in a packed out place, and they left the place and several died! He never got over that. Others, like Martin Luther, John Calvin, C.S. Lewis, John Piper, Andrew Peterson, and our very own Paul Seymour who we’ve mentioned a few times over the last couple of months, have suffered with anxiety and depression. Paul’s own family has a history of it… his father, his brother. They know that… there have been…, his father is a pastor as Paul is, and there have been pastors who have been released from their jobs because they suffer anxiety and depression. By the way, those churches that released those pastors would have to release Moses, and Elijah, and David, and Job, and Jonah, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus! — because on the night in which He would… the day before He would die for us… that which we will memorialize here at the end of our service… He was praying in the garden with blood coming out of His pores! And He cried out, “My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death;” [Matthew 26:38] And the Greek word for “very sorrowful” literally means “surrounded by sorrow.” No one in this room or in this world has ever suffered the stress and sorrow of the One who bore your sins.

But I want to encourage you this morning. You’ll cultivate a sound mind and you won’t lose your mind if you first love God with it. You’ve got to love God with your mind. Jesus said;

[Matthew 22:37] “… love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your… mind.“

And with that, I want to invite our own Paul Seymour up. Let’s give him a round of applause as he comes up here, okay? Paul. [ Applause ]

About a month ago, the two of us were at lunch. You were starting to come out of this incredibly deep valley you were in, and I was commending you and encouraging you. And you said something. You said, “This has been heavy to me, Pastor, but I have never felt as close to the Lord as I am now.” Talk to us about that.

“Yeah, thanks for having me up here and that lunch. I had much fear and trepidation with you when I was there. (Pastor Pat replied, Amen!) You’ll have to excuse… If I look a little stiff up here, you have to excuse me. I have a 46-year-old body with apparently a 26-year-old brain that made me do an inappropriate thing on the basketball court. I’m shuffling a little bit, but thanks, Pastor, for having me up here. I’d vote for you, by the way, if you were a politician. (audience laughs)

This, these past few months have been a trial, a valley, I call it, for me. At times, a very dark valley. And I just want to take a minute to thank a lot of people that have been helping me up… a voice. They’ve been voices in my valley, First off, my wife, Steph… incredible. Pastor Curt, Chad, Dave, Marilyn, Scott, Lori, Kyle, Mark Rice, many others have leaned into my sorrow and have spurred me on, and that’s because that’s what Christians do. Right? We come alongside one another. As Pastor mentioned, I have felt close to God, and I think of the way I want to describe that closeness is much like I imagine the woman with the issue of bleeding in the New Testament, how she scraped her way through the chaos of that crowd just to grab on to the garment of Jesus. That’s the kind of closeness I was going after. Or how I imagine Peter felt after Jesus pulled him from the waves, how he must have clutched on to Jesus for dear life. But as Peter said himself, “After all, where else is there for us to go? You have the words of life…” Peter said to Jesus. But through these ways and other ways… I’m one of those people that have the windshield wipers of meds that help me be able to see clearly, to see what’s going on, to work on it and have allowed God to work on me. Just like the silversmith in Proverbs clears away, burns away the dross so that he can have a vessel for use. God’s been doing that with me. He’s been revealing my sin of worrying about tomorrow… something I did yesterday about this… And not trusting His forgiveness and redeeming ability for my past mistakes, and also for not wanting to need grace, which is a pretty good definition for pride.

About two months into this valley, I realized in all the praying I’d been doing, I’d been praying the wrong prayer. The prayer I had been praying is “God, just take this away! You’re powerful enough. Just take it away. I don’t want to feel this way anymore!” What I realized I should have been praying is, “God, help me to know You better,” because what I realized is that when it comes through our relationship with God, intimacy with God leads to trust in God, and then peace follows. So when there’s no intimacy, there’s no trust. When there’s shallow intimacy, there’s shallow trust. And when there’s deep intimacy, there is deep trust. So how do I remind my heart of His character and love Him with my mind? Well, I engage my mind with His word, and let Him tell me who He is all about. Him. And you know what I found? — The same thing you’ll find. Several of these are from my favorite passage in scripture, Psalm 103; ‘God is abounding in steadfast love.’ ‘He is sovereign in all things.’ ‘He’s slow to anger.’ ‘He remembers my frame, that I’m made out of dust.’ (that is, I’m weak) — And He also reminds me that His strength is made perfect in my weakness.’ Two of my favorite passages that have held me up in my valley, have been Isaiah 41, 9b and 10, which says to me, from Jehovah, says;

Isaiah 41:9b-10

9b … “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.”

10 fear not, for I’m with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

And then also Romans chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, where Paul writes;

Romans 8:31-32

31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”

I’ve also begun to memorize the names of God. Not His title. God is His title, but the very names that He gives us about Himself that are meant to describe Himself to us and give us comfort. Jehovah-rapha – the Lord is my healer. Jehovah-jireh – the Lord is my provider. Jehovah-shalom – the Lord is my peace, and one of my favorites to pronounce, Jehovah- tsidkenu, which is the Lord is my righteousness… which, if you’re like me, performance-based- acceptance people, ‘I do, therefore, God accepts me,’ — That’s what I start to think… When I remember God is my righteousness, it corrects me. These are unchanging of who He is, and my heart can rest there no matter what the storm is.

I want to end with just an illustration before I give it back to the professionals here. I used to take family vacations with our family when I was young. We had one of those Ford Econoline vans, and we did the very, now illegal, thing of taking some seats out of the back, putting a mattress down, and all the kids can sort of run around in the back, you know, going down the highway. And I loved that! I would just lay back there. I had my Walkman, and I had my Ann Murray Christmas tape and my Michael W. Smith tape, and I would rock out back there laying down. Well, one night, there was a really bad snow storm on the way to Arkansas to visit my grandparents for Christmas. And I laid in the back, and I looked up through the curved window and I saw this snow coming down. And when I sat up I saw the snow covered roads, and I know my dad driving at the time must have been just white knuckling it. It would have been a scary situation… but me? I wasn’t white knuckling it. I was at perfect peace. Why? — Because up in the front my mom was passing out PB&J and Capri Sun from the cooler, providing for me, and my dad, the pastor, the in-control one, he was at the wheel. And I knew his character, and I knew his faithfulness, and I knew that things would be okay. And I didn’t have a care in the world back there.

The greater the intimacy, the greater the trust, the greater the peace. And I want to add one more thing. God’s not white knuckling it. He is completely in control, and He uses all things for His glory and our good. Thanks.

Amen! Thank you, Paul! Thank you. Love you.

So, love God with your mind. I think it was Jen Wilkins who says;

“Your heart can’t love what your mind doesn’t know.” Jen Wilkins

Right?

[Jeremiah 9:23-24]

23 ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man, glory in his riches.’ (By the way, those are all situations we worry and concern over)

24 ‘Let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I’m the Lord.’ Amen?

Secondly, arrest bad thinking at the threshold. You won’t lose your mind if you arrest bad thinking at the threshold, and you immediately probably think of pornography, or lust or covetousness. Yes. Those are all sins, and we need to arrest those at the threshold, but how about lies? Lies like, ‘God doesn’t really get me.’ God has searched us and known us! He gets you! — or, ‘God is trying to get me.’ If God is for us, who’s gonna be against us? ‘God doesn’t really love me.’ Listen, the steadfast love in the Lord and doers forever! — or ‘He hasn’t revealed everything I need.’ The secret things do belong to the Lord our God, but the things we need, they’re for us and for our children forever.

So second Corinthians, for the balance of our time, chapter 10, I wanna go there. You can go there if you want. Otherwise, you’ll see it on the screen. Verses three through five says this.

Paul says;

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion (those are things in the mind) raised against the knowledge of God, and (there it is) take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…“

When you take a thought captive… listen to this… it ain’t going anywhere. If a police officer arrests you, you ain’t going anywhere.

When my wife and I… I shared this before… When we watch an action or a drama movie and the music changes, and some sinister individual comes into the room, I look over to my wife and I always say, “What’s the word, honey?” She always goes, “Bad guys!”

If our security… and we have a great crack security here at Saylorville Church… if they’re alerted to a bad guy, they might get a picture of him. They might get information on him. But if that bad guy comes, he is stopped at the threshold! And that’s exactly what you need to do with your bad kind of thinking that is constantly trying to creep its way in, this incessant… you know it. You swim in it. But when it comes, arrest it at the threshold.

Fourthly, admit your need for God’s people in your struggle. This is so important! You cannot do it alone, especially you men who are like, ‘Oh, oh, oh, you’re so macho!‘ You are not macho! You were never designed to deal with your struggles alone. God never wired you that way. You need others. That’s why we’re told to [Hebrews 10:24-25] “… consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling, the assembling, the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but encouraging one another and so much the more as we see the day of Jesus Christ approaching.’ Your root system is not as deep as you think it is.

A couple of years ago, I was in California preaching and teaching at a conference, and I was talking about the palm tree and all the things that the palm tree… ‘the righteous are like the palm tree…’ Psalm 92 — And it led to a Q&A time afterwards. And in this church was a high-end graphic artist, so high-end, large companies were getting his services and churches. He sort of gave his testimony. His name was Brice. He said, “Willow Creek Church, the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, (many of you have heard of it) they’ve planted many, many churches. Their leader, their founder, was a great communicator, an author, highly esteemed. Scandal took place in his life. The whole place was in shambles!” So the leadership of Willow Creek came to this man, Brice, and asked him to just, they’re just needed to be a whole new do over… give us a new look… give us a new look for Willow Creek Church. And since it’s called Willow Creek… have you ever seen a Willow tree? Okay. I mean, you don’t look at a willow tree and say, ‘Now, is that a maple or is that a…’ You know it’s a willow tree. Right? So Brice was going to put a willow tree or wispies of it, you know, in the art, but the leadership said, “Don’t do that! Please, please don’t do that!” He said, “Why?” They said, “Well, we actually planted a willow tree on every one of our campuses in the Chicago area years ago, and when a storm went through, they all toppled! What they didn’t know was the root system of a willow tree is very shallow and susceptible to going over in a storm. So how do they not go over? You know how they don’t go over? They don’t go over when they’re close to one another, because their roots bind to one another, intermesh with one another, so that one another can deal with the pressure.

You get where I’m going. Right? You can’t do this by yourself. You’re like a willow tree in a storm, but you need the company of God’s people. And so use them when the Bible says,

‘Anxiety in the heart of man…’

(Proverbs 12:25) ‘Anxiety in the heart of man weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.’

And where do you think those good words come from? Well, you know where they come from. So let’s conclude with this. Dear anxious heart, see the birds and maybe the lilies and believe your Father cares. Isn’t that what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter six? Look what he said. You remember this, [Matthew 6:25-26] ‘…don’t be anxious about your life, what you’re gonna drink, your body, what you’re gonna put on, your food, your body, or more… is not life more than that? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, they don’t gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than that?’

Cory Ten Boom used to say, “When you’re overloaded with stress and anxiety, don’t wrestle just nestle.”

See the birds and believe your Father cares, dear anxious heart, and listen for the voices, listen for the voices of experienced saints in your valley. I know that’s a mouthful, but I mean it. This is what Paul… in the context of dealing with anxiety… Paul said,

[Philippians 4:9] ‘The things you’ve learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me practice, and the God of peace will be with you.’

In the Pilgrim’s Progress… and if you’ve never read Pilgrim’s Progress, you should… Christian is in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. That’s the place of stress, anxiety and depression, and he even makes a profound statement. He says, “Even my sword would not help me.” That’s amazing, because the sword represented the Word of God. But what did help him was he heard voices up ahead, Christians who’ve been through the valley saying, “I know what you’re experiencing. I have been there. ” “I know what you’re going through. I’m there for you.” “I’ll help pull you through. I’ll give you the words that will help you.” There are voices from God in your valley. Listen to them!

And finally, speak often to God in prayer. Again, in the context, you know it… many of you do at least… Don’t be anxious about anything, but pray about everything, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, the very thing you’re lacking in anxiety and depression, that passes all comprehension, will set a guard, literally, set a guard around your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

[Philippians 4:6-7]

David said, “I’ve set the Lord always before me.” [Psalm 16:8] What does that mean? It means he’s constantly in communication with Him. He’s at my right hand. I won’t be shaken. Constant prayer will settle your heart and keep you aware of God’s presence.

Is God present in you? Some of you here today have suffered anxiety and depression for a long time and you’ll suffer it forever. You’ll never come out of it, because you don’t know God. You don’t know Jesus. He is the ultimate solution to your problem, a relationship with the living God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. You’ll be delivered! And then, taking all these other things that we’ve talked about today, God will not just diagnose your problem. He’ll give you solutions to get through them in this life and certainly beyond. Amen? Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, thank You as we conclude our time together. Thank You for Paul’s testimony. Thank You for the testimony of so many who have struggled, but have struggled righteously, admittedly at times unrighteously, but because you’re a Father who loves and cares, You forgive, You restore, You diagnose, You give solutions, and we’ve heard some of them today. We don’t have any illusions. We haven’t dealt with every issue out there. We know that. But help us, Lord. Help us to demonstrate our trust in You and be like David who said, “When I’m afraid, I will trust in You.” And now, Lord, as we go to the table of Your Son, may we go there thinking about what He went through for us! He went through so much more than we would ever endure or could ever endure… and thank Him for that as we participate in the Lord’s table. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.