18 Jan

JULY 1, 2018     1 KINGS 19:1-15A    “LET’S WORK ON YOUR DEPRESSION!”

Before we begin I would like to clarify our topic.  We are going to be talking a little about depression.  Last time I preached on this passage, I had people come up to me after and were all upset because they thought I said something else.  So I ask you to listen carefully to what is said.  Jesus Christ is one of the ways to beat this disease.  And He will use many different ways to help you.  He will use doctors, clinics, friends and whatever other means He deems necessary.  So please listen carefully as we find how one of the greatest prophets dealt with depression.  Maybe you can see another avenue of treatment through the Scriptures.  Maybe we can all benefit from this wonderful passage.

There is a story by Philip Harrelson that tells of a man in England who in August of 1929 made $70,000 for his family in one month.  In those days that would have been almost a fortune.  He took that money and invested it in the American stock market and sat back thinking that he was financially secure for life.  90 days later the stock market collapsed and he lost it all.

But that wasn’t all.  This man was also a faithful servant of the Conservative Party in his government.  He had been diligently working his way up the ladder in Parliament.  In 1931, he was not invited to serve in the cabinet of his country.  This was a staggering blow that sent him back into political obscurity while Hitler was in the process of building his terrible war machine.  He was the only person in the English government that saw Hitler as a threat this early.  He was ignored and sent out to do menial jobs.  He was sent to the political minor leagues.

That still wasn’t all.  Later in the same year while he was in Canada and the United States touring, he was hit by a taxi traveling 35 miles per hour.  He ended up in the hospital clinging to his life.  Winston Churchill wrote to his wife about how depressed he had become as he had lost all his money, his job and now his health in less than three years.  He thought that he would never recover from these three events.  He was 57 years old and crushed.  Little did he know that a mere 9 years later his government would call him into a leadership role in the fight against Hitler!

There are many reasons for depression and no one is immune from it.  There was a young Midwestern lawyer who suffered from depression so badly that all of his friends kept knives and razors away from him.  He wrote, “I am now the most miserable man living.  Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell.”  Somehow, Abraham Lincoln received the help he needed and later led this country in one of our darkest hours.

This morning we are looking at a period in the life of the great prophet of God, Elijah.  If you know the story of Elijah, you would say that this man really had it all.  How could a man who walked so close to God be so depressed?  With the help of God, here was a man who had stood before King Ahab and told him that because of his sin, there would be no rain until Elijah said so.  Here was a man who had survived the desert by being fed by ravens.  Here is a man who had performed miracles with the widow at Zarephath as they survived on a continuous Godly supply of meal and oil.  Here is a man who had just raised her son from the dead.

Elijah was the man who had challenged 450 false prophets on Mt. Carmel to a contest to prove that God was real.  Do you remember how they danced and sang for 8 hours and nothing happened to their altar?  Then Elijah douses his altar with water and God sends fire from heaven and all the Israelites fall down saying, “The Lord, He is God.  The Lord, He is God.”  And right before this morning’s passage, we have Elijah finally calling for the rains after 3½ years.  Then God empowers him as he runs ahead of King Ahab for 18 miles.  He arrives in Jezrel before the King and the King was driving a horse and chariot!  Here was a great man who had done all kinds of great things and he was now suffering from depression.

I think that this goes to show that no one is immune from this terrible illness.  I have been very fortunate that this hasn’t been one of my many ailments throughout my life.  But it could happen to me just like it could happen to anyone.  Some of you may have it now or you may have had it in the past.  You know just how crippling it can be.  For those of you who don’t know much about depression, according to David Yarbrough it is basically a feeling of hopelessness that is not consistent with reality.  It can be a temporary condition with exaggerated feelings of sadness.  Some of its symptoms may be 1.  Weight loss or gain.  2.  Loss of sleep or energy.  3.  Loss of interest in most or all pleasurable activities.  4.  Reduced ability to concentrate.  And 5.  Being overcome with feelings of hopelessness or uselessness.  Depression is very serious and very real.

I believe that the statistics are something like one in four or five people will suffer from some sort of depression in their lifetimes.  It is one of the leading causes of absenteeism in our workforce today.  It’s a common ailment in our elderly.  And if everyone who suffers from depression went to the doctor, all the doctors in the country couldn’t handle the influx.  This is a problem within a problem.  If you are depressed, you need some sort of help.

As we can see we have a problem today that has been around for thousands of years and we are probably no better at curing it than they were in Biblical times.  But we do have this problem and God is telling us how to solve it if we would just listen to Him as He tells us the story of Elijah.

Elijah had all the classic timings of depression.  He had just finished a tremendous ministry output.  Did you know that most ministers resign on a Monday after a major output on Sunday?  Elijah had a relational conflict with his king and queen.  He was physically exhausted after killing 450 false prophets, causing the rains to come and running almost 20 miles.  He had just seen major revival in Israel.  He had just won a very major victory.  Did you know that most depression in athletes comes after winning a major event like the Super Bowl or the World Series?  Suddenly their reason for their drive is gone and they don’t know what to do.  It’s like what Tom Brady asked after winning his 2^nd or 3^rd Super Bowl, “What’s next?”  And also Elijah was really disappointed that Ahab and Jezebel were trying to kill him instead of rejoicing with him that they had found their way to God.

But God loves you so much that He will not leave you like that.  Elijah goes a day’s journey into the wilderness and sits down to die.  God provides him with food and drink from an angel and lets him sleep some more.  When he awakens again, the angel gives him more food and drink.  Then he sends him on a journey for forty days and nights to get to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God.

Notice how God does not chastise him but only asks why is he here.  And Elijah pours out all of his perceived troubles.  It probably took some time as his feelings were exaggerated.  Then we come to the famous scene on the mountain where Elijah is asked if God is in the wind, then the earthquake, the fire and finally the whisper.  We all know that God can come to us in any of these forms.  But for the condition of Elijah, He chose the whisper.  Then God asks again, “What are you doing here Elijah?”

Elijah gives him the same answer.  This time God listens and sends him back with a new mission.  And by the way it has been found that one of the best ways to get out of depression is through work and being busy.  Anyway, through every step of the process, God is showing his love and compassion for Elijah.  It isn’t until the second answer that God feels that he is ready and rested enough to go back to the fight.  God slowly and surely walks him through this crisis even when Elijah doesn’t seem to want to go.

And God will do the same for you also.  I read a few years back about a man who worked in a psychiatric hospital that found roughly 50-60% of the patients had no psychological problem at all.  It seems what they really had was a problem of demon possession of one sort or another.  And I will stick my neck out here a little and say that this study is right.  It almost seems to me that we are too quick to label and treat a lot of mental disorders with pills and expensive therapies when the real problem is the prince of lies.  This is a personal opinion but data backs it up.  I believe that it may have more than just a little merit.  Anyway, as we can see, God has been working on this problem for many years and He does it without chemical imbalances, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinics or little purple pills.  If he can help Elijah, I believe that He can help you also.  There are times for these professional services but why not try God first.  The first thing you need to do is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Then let Him help you.  Jesus might even tell you that your doctor is right in what he is doing.  I’m sure that the prescription Jesus gives you will differ from everyone else’s prescription.  We are all different and so is our depression.  But here are some basic ideas to help.

Now the first thing that God did was make sure that Elijah was nourished and rested.  This is the first thing that most doctors and clinics will do if the depressed person is in-patient.  Immediately before treatment, the patient is usually on such a skid or roller coaster that they are worn out.  They need rest and they need nourishment.

The second thing that God did for him was to send Elijah to church.  Mt. Horeb was the holy mountain of God.  Now this may seem a little radical to some of you, but I think, I know that a little more church in our lives is way better than a few more little pills.  Duke University did a study of 4000 older adults that found that attendance in a house of worship is related to lower rates of depression and anxiety.  In another study at the University of Pittsburgh they found that prayer and meditation were significant factors in the lower risk of depression, heart disease and improved immune function.  So please come to church often and on a regular basis.  Not only is your spiritual health at stake but so is your physical health.

The third thing we need to do is verbalize the problem like Elijah did.  It doesn’t matter if the depressed person is right or wrong, he or she has to talk about it in their own words.  So if you know someone who is depressed, then listen, because this leads us to the fourth thing that needs to be done.

You have to deal with the false beliefs that the person has.  One of the problems that Elijah had was that he thought he had been doing all of the work and now was wondering when God was going to step in and help a little.  That is pretty common.  A depressed person will think that they are all alone against the world.  These people need to be instructed that others are working and helping them in many ways.  God told Elijah that he was not the only prophet left but that there were 7,000 left.  How could Elijah be so wrong?  It was the depression talking.  And not only that but God sends him back with a mission showing us that God is just getting warmed up for this battle.  A depressed person has a hard time to believe that God is working in their lives.  You need to show them that this is not true.  Satan is controlling all of these bad things and God is trying to help you out!

And after you have done all of these steps, you have to get busy.  As I just mentioned one of the most successful treatments for depression that I have read about in any of the literature is work.  The person has to get back to work or get to work.  When a person is depressed, they are usually only thinking of themselves as was Elijah.  Work or doing things for others is one of the quickest ways of getting your mind off of yourself.  God told Elijah and he will tell you that He has a job for you.  This is where the listening comes into play.  You need to listen to hear God.  Learn to listen!

The famous psychiatrist, Dr. Carl Menninger, was once asked, “What would you advise a person to do if the person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?”  Everyone thought that he would say ‘see a psychiatrist immediately.’  But instead he said, “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need, and help that person.”  Don’t focus on yourself; get involved in the lives of other people.

Jesus Christ came into this world as our great Savior and Healer.  As you can see by this morning’s Scripture, He has been in the healing business a lot longer than our local Sanford Clinic or any of the other clinics around.  And the way of Jesus works wonders.  If you come to church and get involved in the church, you will have little time to think of yourself.  If you ask Jesus Christ to live in your heart, then you have hope.  And when you have hope, especially the kind that Jesus will instill in you, then you will be able to defeat any of these Satan caused diseases.

Jesus wants you to be happy.  Jesus wants what is the very best for you.  When you find that you are a little down then try the things that God used on Elijah.  In my few short years in the arms of God through Jesus Christ, I have never known Him to be wrong.  If you practice these steps, I think that you will find that depression will go away along with a lot of other problems of life.  By concentrating on Jesus, you will get better.  That is His way and I praise the Lord for that.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.