107. Freedom from Depression Part 2

Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Saifert and Brett Martin. Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. We are tickled to be back with you and to be giving you another episode this week, last week of October and excited about where we're Brett. We're one weekend away from being back together with the For the Sake of the Gospel Conference. And man, I'm pumped. I am excited about being in Asheville. I'm excited about being there with you, my brother from another mother. And I can't wait to be there and see all of our friends and get to meet some new faces. I know there's some new people that I've seen on the For Freedom, not the For Freedom, the fan page, the RFP fan page that I haven't recognized. I've had a couple of them reach out to me and just say, hey, we're excited about being there. And so, man, it's looking forward to it. And man, how are you doing? Are you excited about what's coming up? Well, I'll tell you what, this week, I had an exciting week. I put in for my vacation to go to Asheville. So I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to go to Asheville, go through the conference, and then my family is going to go over to the mountains and spend a few days in the Smoky Mountains, which, by the way, I don't know why the guys, you know, one year would have, you know, have the conference in Pigeon Forge or, you know, I think that would be really cool, you know, right there, and that's kind of a centralized place. Really? Pigeon Center out, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think that'd be cool. So a little plug there for that. But this week, I took my kids to a pumpkin patch. All right. In Chunky, Mississippi. I thought that was an interesting city name. I would fit in well there. It would be like our kind of place, you know. Right, right. Up in Chunky, Mississippi. And the kids had a great time at the old pumpkin patch. Y'all do anything like that recently or plan to? Not yet. We typically do a corn maze or a pumpkin patch deal every year. So whenever my wife tells me we're going, I jump in the car and go. She plans all those things for me. I don't really do a lot of the planning on that stuff. But, yeah, it's going to be a good time. We've got our chunk of tree coming up for church, homecoming for our church. I started walking through the Book of Colossians. And so I'll be walking through our focus on the primacy of Christ. And I'll be taking about seven, eight weeks talking through that. So looking forward to going into that season of preaching. So, yeah. I'll tell you a couple of things that I'm excited about in that regard. We also have a Fall Fest coming up. And we have our Fall Festival. We have our Chonka Tree at the same time. We have a band, a bluegrass band called the Allen Sibley Band. And they come and play bluegrass music for us while we have our Fall Fest. We started last year with a chili cook-off. And so we'll probably have that again this year. But what I'm excited for the preaching is I am starting a series this Sunday through the Book of Jude. Oh. Hey, Jude. And, you know, I've never preached through Jude before. And so I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to spend about four weeks in Jude. And I have not announced this to my church. So the only way my church will know this is if they listen to the podcast. Right. But beginning in January, I'm excited to go through the Baptist Acrostic. That's going to be my next series at the beginning of 2024. Love it. It's going through the Baptist Acrostic, Biblical Authority, Church Autonomy, Two Offices, the whole deal. And I'm looking forward to spending anywhere from eight to ten weeks in that. And, you know, just picking apart the doctrines, why we believe what we believe. I'm just going to be honest with you, James. I don't have to have Baptists on the side. But I'm a Baptist for a reason. Because, you know, I agree with all of those doctrines in the Word of God. So I'm really looking forward to diving into that and exploring those doctrines with our church. Absolutely. Love it. Like I said last week, continue to pray for Israel and the trip that we've got going on. Continue to pray for the peace in Israel and the soldiers and even the American soldiers. They're going to be there and fighting and protecting Israel if things escalate there. So just continue to pray for that. But we started last week, Brett, on talking through depression. And we talked through. You gave some great statistics at the beginning. 350 million people struggle with this. The fourth leading cause, according to the WHO. WHO. And just talked through some great stuff. And then we began talking biblically through common depression, chosen depression. We ended last week with our conscious depression. Consciousness having a depression state on us. And so we're going to pick up there and talk through the last three states of depression. And then we're going to close today by looking at some essential practices to consider when you're dealing with depression. And some key points there at the very end. Some practical helps for us. So I'll jump right in. And the first one we're looking at is the casualty depression. This is a sadness of the soul that results in regret over the consciousness, the consequences of sin. Choices ultimately leading one to death because of lack of repentance. I'm going to read one passage, Genesis 4, 1 through 14. A common passage to look at this. But Cain and Abel, it says, Adam had relations with his wife Eve. She conceived and gave birth to Cain. And said, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And then she gave birth again to his brother Abel. And Abel was the keeper of the flocks. But Cain was the tiller of the ground. In the course of the time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought the first one of his flocks and their fat portions. And the Lord had respect for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he did not have respect. Cain was very angry and the countenance fell. And the Lord said to Cain, why are you able? Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not well, sin is encrouched at the door. It desires to dominate you, you must rule over it. Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about that when they were out in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. The Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And then he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out for me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hands. From now on, you will till the ground, and it will not yield for you its best. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Then Cain then, Lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. You have driven me out from this day, from the face of the earth, and from your face I will be hidden. And I will be a fugitive and a vagabond of the earth. And it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me. And so this is the casualty of depression. Depression happens. We lack repentance. We don't deal with what's in our life. And then it can lead to either the death of us or the death of someone else. So it's a pretty big depression. Many people commit suicide every single day. Many people go through this state. You were sharing with me a story just last week, earlier, about a friend of yours. And it's a story that happens over and over again, where people fall into the state of depression. They can't figure out what's going on. And the only thing, the only way they see out is by death, by leading to either killing someone or by killing themselves. And so what happens is an example is one is sorrowful about what's going on or what is going to happen to them as a result of their sin. They're not focused on how their sin has dishonored God or damaged others. And since there's no change, the heart's only grief about the issue, one experiences more complications, more problems, more pain, and ultimately death because of the consequences of continuing life of sin. And so this is this hard one to talk about. It's a hard one to even think about. But we know that people struggle with this. And so we have to look at it. We have to look at it biblically. And Brett, what is the response? How can we respond when these things happen? So part of our response listed is to repent of unloving attitudes and actions while embracing the sovereignty, wisdom, and love of God. And one is to accept what God has allowed while submitting to what he has commanded accordingly. And, you know, there is such a thing as ungodly grief. There is such a thing as ungodly mourning. You know, so many times people are sorry and depressed over sin. And not because they're genuinely sorry, but they're just sorry that they got caught. Right. You know, how many pastors come forward after they got caught in sin and said, I'm sorry. But most of the time, they're just sorry that they got caught. You know, for example, King Saul, he was sorry and he was depressed that he was told that he was going to lose his throne. But he was only sorry because he got caught. An example of ungodly grief and ungodly depression in the book of Revelation is that the kingdoms of the earth are described as being sorrowful when they watch the city of Babylon sink and be destroyed. But only because they can't fornicate with her anymore. And let's talk about Judas. Listen, Judas was sorry for what he did. Judas was depressed and sad. He went through the 30 pieces of silver back at the Jews. And then he went out and committed suicide in his depressed state. Now, a lot of people don't realize this or put it together. But Judas was not the only one to betray Jesus that night. There was someone else that betrayed Jesus. And that was Peter. Peter betrayed him by denying him. And Peter also ran out sorrowful. But Peter was eventually restored. You had two men who were both depressed and sad that they had betrayed Jesus. One took his life and one was eventually restored back to God. What was the difference? And I think the difference was one of them had godly repentance and the other one had ungodly sorrow. And we read about this in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. Man, what a promise. But worldly sorrow brings death. So what is godly sorrow? Godly sorrow is sorrow that leads to a change. If you have guilt and depression that doesn't change you, it's ungodly sorrow. But if that sorrow leads to a change in your life, then that's true repentance. The Bible says that leaves no regret. Man, in an episode about depression, that's a comforting phrase in the Bible. True repentance will eliminate your guilt. Because this kind of godly sorrow is actually a good thing for Christians. Because God is concerned about your heart attitude. You know, where this goes off the rails is ungodly sorrow and sadness that doesn't lead to repentance. Okay? But worldly sorrow brings death. So the question is, how do you know if the sorrow that you're feeling is godly or not? Okay? Well, your sorrow or your sadness, it's either going to produce one of two things. It's either going to produce change or it's going to produce death. Now, we're dealing with sin right now. Sorrow because of sin. It's either going to produce change or it's going to produce death. You know, if death and it was sinful. Look at Cain. Look at Pharaoh. Sorrow. Okay? They were both sorrowful. But the sorrow didn't bring change. It actually brought about death. Something in your life will die because of your sorrow. And if it, you know, it may be a relationship that dies. It may be your potential that dies. It may be an opportunity that dies. But something in your life will die if your sorrow doesn't bring about true repentance of sin. But if that sorrow brings that repentance of that sin, then it's godly sorrow. It leads to a change. And then that change will relieve you of that guilt and relieve you of that remorse. And just a great passage in the scripture. Well, that's great. And, you know, you segwayed so well because we're talking about casualty. And then the next one is the contract depression. And the reference was 2 Corinthians 7, 10, and 11. I'm going to also read Luke 18 when we look at the contract depression. Because Luke 18, 9 through 14, Jesus gives this parable. And the parable is this. He told this parable to some who were trusting in themselves as though they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed these things about himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even like this tax collector. I fasted twice a week and I tithe all that I earned. But the tax collector standing in a distance would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his chest saying, God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This is the contract depression, a sadness of our soul because one is broken over their sin against God. You can't even go to God and lift your eyes to God because you're so broken because of what you've done. And this is the thought of someone who's maybe dishonored God in their life. You know, Brett, I know I'm just a man. I know I'm going to sin. I'm going to mess up. But my mind, every time I hear of another pastor who falls into sin or falls into adultery with a woman in his church, my heart is broken for that church that's also broken for that man because how could he have done this and gotten away with it for so long and allowed that to be in his life and grieve the Holy Spirit and dishonored God and not had a contrite heart? You know, David sinned with Bathsheba and wrote Psalms 51. You know, create me a clean heart, God. He was depressed. If anyone would have been depressed, it was David multiple times after being chased by Saul, after the depression of the sin that he made. But yet he went back to God and sought that forgiveness. Maybe this is an example of one who's grieved over how they brought depression to God because of their sin. And as a result of grief over sin against God, one is wanting to move forward towards making things right with God, according to God's will and his ways. And this is often where we can be stuck in. We can be stuck in this contrite where we begin to put ourselves and say, well, you know, I've done this better than someone else. So my life is OK. And what God is simply telling us is, no, we must have a contrite heart. We must deal with it head on. And he is the one that's going to relieve us of that guilt, not something that I can do. So, Brett, what's our response? How do we respond to this? So our response listed is very similar to another response that we've had, which is to repent of unloving attitudes and actions, embrace the sovereignty, love, wisdom of God and accept what God has allowed while submitting to what he has commanded accordingly. James, there is a lot of Christians undervalue. This thing of brokenness. Yeah. Brokenness is a part of being a Christian. And you have to bring that brokenness and bring those pieces to God. Don't try to, you know, be broken and put yourself packed together like Humpty Dumpty. You bring those broken pieces and you lay them on an altar in front of the Lord, wherever that altar is. It could be in your prayer closet at home. But there is value in coming to God broken. And this is, you know, we feel broken, but we need to bring that brokenness to God. And that's what the example of that tax collector in that parable. He was broken before God and he beat his breast before God. He brought that to God. And you mentioned, I've just got some scripture that I want to read about this broken condition and how we need to bring our brokenness to God. David wrote in Psalm 51 and verse 17, the sacrifices of God are broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. So even the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. So once again, this idea of bringing our brokenness before God, laying the pieces out on the altar, surrendering to the will of God, surrendering to the gospel. There's nothing we can do to fix this situation. There's nothing that we can do to put this situation back together. The only thing that can help us is the gospel. You know, the law, the law can do nothing for us. We can we can know right and wrong all day long, but that's not going to fix this situation. The only thing that's going to fix it is the gospel. Psalms 126, verse five and six. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. And then Psalms 32, verses three through six. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. So we have we have the psalmist keeping this stuff in and, you know, being silent about his sin, not confessing his sin to God, who is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's keeping all of this in and it's just a drain on him. It's heavy on him. It's just feels like he's just been through a long, hot summer day. He's got no energy all the time. But then in verse five, things change for him. He says, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity. I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Man's greatest need is forgiveness. It is our number one need. And where we will find that forgiveness is at the foot of the cross. We will find that when we confess and acknowledge our sin to God. And we may be ashamed by what we've done to God and what we've put God through. But but if we're tempted to keep all that in, God wants us to go to him. We don't need to ever be ashamed. You know, for instance, some people say, well, you know, I'm you know, when they're sick, I'm not going to go to church because I never went to church when I was well. God don't care about any of that. Right. God doesn't care. Even if you're sick, even if you never came to church when you were well, when you're sick, come to church. And this is the same way. Never be ashamed to go to God and open, confess your sin. Lay those broken pieces on the altar before God, because God loves that broken spirit. God loves your broken heart. He has empathy for your broken heart and he will not despise it. And and we just need to remember as Christians being broken before God brings value to our Christian life. And and ultimately what is what brings about restoration? Absolutely. You know, I said something. Brokenness is great. But I said something last week. I said that God doesn't want. Let me read it again. It said the goal is not to hinder or stop the depression, but to accept what God has for us. I don't want you to hear what I'm not saying. I'm gonna pull a John statement. I don't hear what I'm not saying. What I want you to hear is God doesn't want you to hinder or stop it, but he doesn't want us to live there either. He does have a way out. And oftentimes people think, well, my symptom of depression is who I am. I'm defined by that. No, God says when we get to this broken part, we turn to him and allow him to work through these things in our life so that we can come out of this broken out of this depression moment so we can live back in that freedom of who God has designed us to be. The last one we're gonna look at before we look at some practical things is the chastisement depression. This is laid out in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11. It says in Hebrews 12, verse 11, This is a question that we're gonna look at some of the things that we're gonna look at some of the things that we're gonna look at. Is God chasing to me as a father loves a son, as a father loves his child and wants to rebuke his child and wants to correct his child so that that child will be back on the right path? Or am I going through this as a self-inflicted wound? What is it in my life that I'm going through and acknowledging that so that we can know what this depression is and where it's at in our life? Brett, how do we respond to this? Before we go to the response, I do want to go back and say one thing. Go ahead. When you earlier when you talked about, you know, kind of managing depression, and that is this thing where we have this idea that we identify with our disease or we identify with our problem. Let me give you an example like an alcoholic. So somebody would say, okay, I'm an alcoholic, and I'll always be an alcoholic, and there'll never be a time when I won't be an alcoholic. And modern, you know, psychology and psychiatry, you know, has this idea that I am my disease. My disease identifies me. I will always be that. There will never be a time when I won't be an alcoholic. And we tend to do that same thing with depression. I am depressed. I will always be depressed. I will always be predisposed to depression. And we use language of, oh, I'm managing my depression. We don't have to manage depression. Christ can give us freedom from it. And we cannot be depressed anymore. We can win the battle. We can win victory over that. So don't let anybody kind of trick you into using this language of you have to manage your depression. No, no, you don't have to manage anything. You don't have to identify with it. You can get victory. You can get freedom over it. When it comes to chastisement depression, you know, our response is to endure the pain and accept what God is allowing while submitting to what he has commanded accordingly. And Hebrews 12, 7 starts by saying, endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline and you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. You know, one of the things that I go to this Hebrews 12 passage for a lot, as I go to, I went to it just the other night in small group, is this Hebrew 12 passage is good for our eternal security. Because if God is chastening us, then that is proof that we belong to him. Because if he didn't love us or if we sin and could lose our salvation, then he wouldn't punish us at all because we don't belong to him anymore. But the discipline of God not only shows us that God actually cares for us, but in which, you know, which and that's true when you discipline a child. Like you talked last week about disciplining your child. You did that because you love your child. If you didn't love your child, you wouldn't discipline them. So the discipline of God not only shows that he cares for us, but that nothing can separate us from the, and nothing can separate us from the love of God. You know, verse 9, Moreover, we all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of Spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while, as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems unpleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. So it's amazing what a shift of perspective can make a world of difference when you're dealing with the chastisement of sin. Because on the one hand, you're in the consequences of your actions. You've made your bed. Now you have to lie in it. And it can bring on this state of depression. But if you shift your perspective a little bit, you can look at this season in your life of chastisement, of dealing with these consequences. You can look at it as God caring for you. If he didn't care for you, he wouldn't chastise you. And because he's chastising you, that means that you're eternally secure. It means you are saved. You belong to him. It's proof of eternal security and that you belong to a child, that you're a child of God and you belong to him. So just a shift of perspective during this season of your life can make a world of difference. Absolutely. When I talked through Hebrews 12, 11 a couple of months back, I used this illustration that I heard once. It was, you've been to a restaurant where you've got that little kid at the other table that's running around and going crazy and screaming. And you want to get up and you want to discipline that kid. But that kid's not your kid. And you can't do that. Now, if your kid was doing it, you better believe you'd tear the crap out of it, whatever, however you want to discipline them. You're going to make sure that your kid's right. But because that kid isn't yours, you have to sit there and watch it. And that's how it is when God disciplines us. He disciplines us because he's our own. He doesn't discipline those that are not his. It's a great, great way to look at it as well. All right. So let's look at the essential practices. I'm going to read the first three. Brett, you read the last three. And I'm going to read the key point. And then you can close it with whatever closing thoughts you want to give as well. So essential practices to consider, grieve the disappointments, death, difficulties, devastation, denial, damages, or distance that has happened. Have a moment of grieving. When you go through depression, if you don't properly grieve, you're going to stay in that state of depression. I don't know how many widows I've talked to. I can name one specifically that said, I never had a proper funeral for my husband when he died during COVID. And I still am in a state of just sadness because I never really got to have that welcoming line, that hugging of neck, you know, that you need when you go through those funerals. And because she didn't have it, she said, I just feel like I never had closure in my husband's death because we couldn't meet. We couldn't talk. We couldn't do those things. And so, you know, not having that moment of grieving can cause us to go into those states of depression. One thing I want to say about that is I 100% agree with you that grief is a process, but you shouldn't leave there. It's live there, but it's necessary to move on. And I thought about this when reading that. I thought about Jesus at Lazarus' tomb. You know, Jesus didn't have to. The shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. He didn't have to do that. I mean, he knew that he was moments away from calling Lazarus out of the tomb. He knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, but he grieved. He went through that process. He knew it was necessary. He wanted to share in our infirmities because he knew the importance of it. He wanted to be an example for us. And even us, when we're at funerals, we know we're going to see our loved ones again one day. But it's still the grief. Grieving is still an important process that we need to experience. Yeah. Number two, accept what God has allowed. I don't know if you picked up on it, audience listeners. Every single one of the responses that we said was, in one way or another, accept what God has allowed while submitting to what he has commanded accordingly. We must surrender to the reality of God's will within the context of depression, within what God is calling us to do. And to understand that God is sovereign. God is over all. My son, just two weeks ago, we arrived at the church. One of them, either my oldest son or my daughter, goes with me every Sunday to open the doors. And we were riding, and my son goes, Dad, I don't even know how he asked it. He just said, Dad, what is the sovereignty of God? It was an awesome conversation that I had with my 10-year-old about how God is sovereign over all. He knows what's going to happen, and he allows these things in his sovereignty. And it was a great conversation on a 10-year-old level. But it was awesome just to be able to have that conversation. And when we accept what God has allowed, we're able to go through these states of depression with a peace of mind. Number three, confess and repent of any and all unloving thoughts, desires, and words or actions accordingly. Having a state of repentance can help us remove ourselves from depression. Brett, four, five, and six, or any other comments? I want to go back to two, if that's okay, and talk about accepting what God has allowed and surrender to the reality of God's will within the context of depression. You know, we're not always going to know God's reason for what he allows. And most of the time, a lot of times, we're not going to know why God does what he does until we get to heaven. But we have to remember that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and his ways are higher than our ways. And while we can't always know God's reasoning, like I said, I'm convinced that we can always learn something from it. So we need to ask what God is teaching us. And the second thought I had on that was, you know, I learned this in studying for taking my counseling classes. There's a form of therapy called Brief Pastoral Brief Solution Focus Therapy. And this is where this comes from. You know, we need to remember that, you know, there are God puts grace events into our life. And you need to look back at your life and find those grace events. And take David and Goliath, for instance, okay? But David faced Goliath. But before he faced Goliath, God sent David a bear. And God sent David a lion to prepare him for Goliath. So you need to look back in your life and look at what grace God has already worked in your life to get over this depression that you're in. And he's given you the tools that you need to overcome this. You just have to find him. He promised us that he will always make an escape for testing. And, you know, we know in the Greek that the testing and temptation is the same word. He's always given us escape. And then the third one, confess and repent of any and all unloving thoughts, desires, words, and actions. One of the greatest promises in the Bible is that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God wants to hear our burdens. He wants to help shoulder them. This is why Jesus' yoke is easy and his burdens are light. You know, sometimes, you know, we're so heavy with depression and sadness that if we yoke up with him, not only will he take the weight off, but he'll guide us, you know, like an experienced ox. And that's why you hook the young ox up with the experienced ox, because the experienced ox not only helps shoulder the burden, but also shows him how to obey the commands and makes the workload easier. And that's what Jesus is there for. And I want to make this statement, James. The greatest medicine for depression is exposing yourself to Christ. When you are depressed, the best thing you can do for yourself is expose yourself more to the gospel. Expose yourself more to Christ. And that brings us to number four. Identify the attribute of God most needed for you to depend on in light of your depression and embrace it by faith accordingly. Now, when I read this, it made me think of one of my favorite things about the book of Revelation. In chapter one, Jesus has a revelation. Jesus has seven titles or descriptions. And then in chapters two and three, each of the seven churches knows Jesus in a different way. Okay. So one knows him as the first and the last. Another knows him as the double-edged sword. He's the same Christ, but each church knows him in a different way according to their needs. And I think this goes for individuals as well. One might know him as the first and the last who died and came back to life again, maybe because they're dealing with the loss of a loved one, and they need to be reminded there's an eternal heaven where God will wipe away every tear. Another might be questioning their faith and tempted to deconstruct. So maybe they know Christ as the creator God, the faithful and true witness like the church of Laodicea. The point is, whatever you need to call on God for, look, if you need someone to fight for you, then you need to call on God as Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of close. You know, there's only one God, but he gave us different names, different aspects of his being for a reason. And he will reveal himself to you according to your need. Just identify with that attribute of God that you need during that time of your depression and hold on to it. And then number five, adjust your desires to fit the situation. Accept what you cannot have and have lost in the situation while embracing what you can have and can continue to glean and gain from the situation. You know, just kind of accept that. You know, it may sound cliche, but, you know, we need to have trust in God's plan. We need to trust in it. Romans chapter five, verses three through five says, Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That's what hope is. Hope is trust in God that one day God will make it better. One day God will wipe away those tears. One day God will erase that hurt. He has promised us that he will do that. And then number six, identify the specific command of Scripture that apply to your situation and seek to apply them accordingly. Just pull out your Bible. Find that command. Find that promise in the Scripture. Hold that promise too close to you. Memorize it. Write it down. Keep it in front of you. Claim that promise. One thing that you can do when you're in a depressed state is you can pray Scripture. You can go to the book of Psalms. And the Psalms is full. You can find a song that fits the mood you're in. That fits your emotional state. You find that song. And then you get down on your knees and you pray that. You read it a section at a time. And then, you know, you read a sentence, you stop. And then you pray that sentence. And you just work your way through that psalm. Praying that psalm. Every time I pray the Scriptures. Every time I pray a psalm, man, I end up in tears at the end. It will make such a profound difference in your life when you just identify that command of Scripture. Identify that verse that speaks to your situation. And meditate on it and apply it. The Word of God is alive and powerful. Any thoughts, James? And then you can take the key point. Yeah, no, I think that's great. We've got to get to the point where we do adjust our desires. And we, I think the biggest for me, especially in the most recent years, is just simply identifying the attributes of God that I most needed in that time. Number four that you read. Depend on it in the light of your depression. What is the attribute of God that right now I need his help in that situation? Maybe it's all-knowing. Maybe I don't know what's going on in the future. Maybe it's all-powerful. Maybe there's a situation that I can't handle. And just relying on God in that situation has been the most practical way for me. Yeah, the key point we're going to read here is an excerpt from Rethinking Depression by Daniel Berger. It simply says this, For the Christian's depression, I think so often we place our identities, like I said earlier, in our situation of depression. And not in our identification of what Christ has done for us and how he can help us. Brett, any closing thoughts for you? Yes. I want to just read, I want to, we started out last week with Lamentations 3. And we talked about how Jeremiah was exuding these symptoms of depression. And this is what a depressed person sounds like in the Word of God. Two of the verses we read were verses 19 and 20. Remember my affliction and my wandering, the warm wood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and has bowed down before me. But then in verse 21, Jeremiah makes a change. His mood changes. It's like the depression that he was experiencing up to this point in chapter 3 lifts. Because in verse 21, he says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's loving kindness indeed never cease. For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And it's like, yes, Jeremiah was experiencing that depression. But the Lord gave him the victory. Because there were some promises that God made to Jeremiah. God laid, Jeremiah laid his broken heart on the altar before God. God took the promises of his Word and put those pieces back together for Jeremiah. And my final thoughts are, look, you know, I've been depressed. Depression, it sucks. But listen, there is hope. There is help. And I want to end by, if there's any pastors out there that are listening to this, I want to say, listen, first I want to say to those who are depressed, don't be afraid to seek help. You know, there are pastors that are qualified. There are Christian counselors that are qualified to help you. And listen, pastor, you listen to me. If there's a certain situation or certain problem that you can't handle or you're not qualified to handle a certain situation, it's beyond your ability. You have a moral obligation to refer them to someone that can help. You know, in 17 years of being in the ministry and eight years of being a pastor, you know, I've counseled a lot of people. And there have been situations that are kind of beyond my ability. And I could have stuck in my pride and I would have done more harm than good. We do a lot more damage when we try to, you know, help someone that's beyond our ability to help. And I just want to say that to that pastor out there that's listening, if you have a moral obligation to refer them to somebody that can help, because you'll do more damage than good if you try to help someone that's beyond your ability. But listen, if you're depressed, look, there is help out there. You don't have to be depressed. It's not an identifier that you have to live with. It's not something you have to manage. There is help. There is healing in the gospel. Absolutely. And, you know, Brett, we laid out six different categories of depression. There's a whole lot more. These are just six that over-encompassing of areas. And maybe you look through this and maybe number two or number five was the one that you struggle with. We gave scripture. We gave illustrations in there that you can go and you can research those characters yourself. You can research those attributes yourself. And that scripture can help you. And so hopefully these last two episodes have helped well. We do have an interview coming up with Christina Chappell with Midnight Mercies, her new book that deals with depression. And so we're hoping we'll get that out here after this one as well. And it's a great book. And I know she's got a lot of great help in there. Stuff in that book has helped me, Brett, in the last couple of weeks. And it's been fantastic. And so I can't wait to have her on and talk through that. And until next time, to God be the glory. See you later. I found my new name. I found that good grace. I found that healing. And the tears fell down my face. When I found my beginning that has no ending. I found that second chance. I found my best friend. I found my forgiveness. I found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the For Freedom Podcast. For Freedom Podcast.

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