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Mar 05, 2023

In The Pit of Depression

In The Pit of Depression

Passage: Lamentations 3:1-32

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Stand Alone Message

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, worship, faith, jesus, god, sermon, christian, bible, christ, gospel, hope, joy, depression, anxiety, video, calling, believe, health, jesus christ, the bible, lord, christianity, happiness, stress, bible study, inspirational, mental health, self improvement, depressed, transformed life, bible stories, health tips, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, how to change your life, dealing with depression, anxiety relief, signs of depression

Depression is when you are looking into the now and into the future, and all you feel is despair, suffocating darkness, and no clear way back to joy. Today we study Jerimiah chapter 3 to see what scripture says about dealing with depression and finding joy in what seems like a place of no hope. We learn that its ok to express raw emotions to God when we are struggling, and many of the greatest Christ followers in history are not those that God delivered from pain and sorrow, but those who God delivered through it. Learn how to recall and search for the goodness of God and discover the good lessons God is trying to teach you in your time of despair.

Well, good morning, church and welcome to March. And most importantly, welcome back, Mr. Pollen. Amen. It is that time of the year this year. You know, the older I get, the more I realize that when I was younger and when I say younger, I mean, like last year when I was younger, the people would always tell me something like this. Matt, just wait till you get old and watch how fast time goes. But here's the deal. It's true. It's true. It seems like yesterday that we were doing our Christmas series here and now we're already in March. And man, I remember being a kid and it took forever for Christmas to get here. Now it seems like it comes every five weeks in our world. We just swap between Christmas and Easter every couple of weeks.

But hey, listen, over the last two months, God has been doing some incredible things here in the life of Burnt Hickory. Man, he has sent us incredible people. We've been watching transformations in life happen. We have been watching people just be delivered from so many just things that are just happening in their lives. People have been saved. People have been jumping into life groups, families have been connecting. And it has been incredible and it's been incredible just to be a small part of it. And here's what I know. I know that the best is yet to come for Burnt Hickory, and I just can't wait to see where God is going to continually take us here at Burnt Hickory. Well, here's what we're going to do. Here's my plan over the next three weeks. All right. I'm a planner. I like to know and a lot of you are type A people. All right. Over the next three weeks, God willing, what I'm going to do is I'm going to deal with what I'm just going to call three tough emotional struggles. Three, just tough, emotional struggles that really and truly in many ways are indicators. All of these things I'm going to talk about over these weeks. They are indicators of what is actually happening in our hearts now. You say well Matt, what are the three? I'm not going to tell you. You know what? Because you struggle with one of them, you won't come. All right. So I'm not going to tell you what they are.

All right. We're going to walk in three of what I'm just going to call three of the really big emotional struggles. Now, I know that when I say that we're going to be talking about our feelings, that some of you are like, come on, Matt, let's not go there. But here's the thing. I get that on one end. But on the other, and we've got to realize that it is God who gave us those feelings. It's God that supplied those emotions to us, and it's God that in all reality is the giver of those things. Do you realize that your emotions are one of the largest determinants of the quality of your life? They determine in a lot of ways how happy you feel about life, what tomorrow looks like, how you enjoy life, how you allow other people in. So what I want to do is I want to show us over these next couple of weeks, God weighing in, in scripture, in some of these emotions. Now, when I say that, I say this, we're not going to talk about all of them, but we've got three weeks. And I want to jump on the three of what I think are three of the big ones that either if you're honest with yourself, either you struggle with, or that I can guarantee you that you know somebody that does. All right. So I want you to put this in the category of, hey, this is for me or, hey, I've got a friend and can I ask a question? Right. That kind of conversation. So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to jump into our first one today and we're going to jump into this idea of depression today. You know, when I jump in the deep waters, right, we're going to look at this idea of depression. But if you got a copy of scripture, I want you to go ahead and turn with me to Lamentations. Chapter three. Lamentations Chapter three. When's the last time you heard that right? Now, as you're finding that, here's what I want to say from the top of the message this morning.

Depression is an incredibly complex issue, incredibly complex. In fact, there's different degrees of depression. There's a scale or a continuum that kind of starts over here at discouragement and leads its way all the way over here to just full blown depression. And I want you to see that I am not attempting to be a doctor. I'm not attempting to give you a clinical diagnosis. I'm not even attempting in these messages to kind of begin to look at these through the lens of the medical or the or the other doctor or counseling world. What I want to do in this is I want us all to realize that God has created us with the ability to feel. And in that feeling He's given us a body and a soul. And a lot of those two things kind of crunch in together, and one always affects the others. But what we're going to do in our times together over these next weeks is we're going to look at the spiritual side of these conversations, the spiritual side. And as a result of that, I just want you to know that there's spiritual and biological and psychological, there's social, there's environmental. And all of these that we're going to look at. But my primary goal is to look at the spiritual factors and the fact that God has created us as body and soul. And all of this goes together. All of this goes together, which, by the way, my prayer in these messages is that you will be seeing this through a different light. And as you do see it, it will either A, kind of set you free from where you have been traveling or B, give you the ability to see that something down in me is happening and I need help and I need help. Now, that's not something that we say very well, but I need help, which is why we're putting the resources as a church into a counseling center, into a holistic ministry that focuses on mind, body and spirit. All under the guise of a world view of Christ. Okay, so depression. Let's talk about it for just a minute. One of the things when you think about depression is that it is a time when you begin to be discouraged. And what it does is it begins to shape your outlook of life. Your outlook on life.

Now, let me describe that for me, because here's what happens. You see, when you get discouraged, when you get discouraged in something, whether that is your marriage or your health or your work or your family or your school or your identity. It seems like in that moment, what happens after a period of time is you begin to see that through this lens of that it's never going to get better, or that there is no way back to finding joy in this in your life. You see, depression is possibly something that has happened in your life and it has changed you. Whether she broke up with you or he stole your heart or they ran out or you got passed over, or your health is just not where you think it should be. Or you're still single and you think you shouldn't be. Whatever the case may be. It's this idea in our minds that we begin to lose a perspective of seeing that this can be better. That's the idea around depression. It's also this idea that you've maybe messed up royally. Something in your life happened. And now when you see your life, you are no longer able to see it through the lens of joy or see it through the lens of this idea that this can get better when you see your life. All you're beginning to do in depression in this continuum is you're beginning to see the walls of life begin to cave in a little bit, and there's nowhere for you to go. In your mind, you're thinking there's no hope. In fact, I want you to write this definition of depression down before we jump into Scripture. All right. This is not a clinical definition. This is a working definition. I feel like I need to say that 100 times because some of you are super smart people and you really intimidate me. Here it is. All right. Depression is when you are looking into the now and into the future and what you feel is despair, suffocating darkness and no clear way back to joy, no clear way.

I don't know if I've ever sat in many cases where somebody has given me a working definition. They've all just said, Well, maybe you're depressed. I don't even know what that means. But that's our working definition of of depression. It's where you begin to feel despair over something. I just mentioned a couple of things. And in that despair, it just feels like there's this suffocating-ness of life. The suffocating darkness. And then you begin to look, whether it's in front of you or behind you are right now, and that you just can't see a way out. Listen, some of you're nodding because you have spent some time in this and you just didn't know how to describe it. All right. That's depression. That's depression. Okay. With that being said, that brings us to Lamentations, chapter three. Lamentations. Now, I know really and truly, when I said the word Lamentations chapter three, some of you were like Lambda what? What in the world are you talking about? Lamentations is a book in the Bible. It's a small book in the Bible. In fact, I have watched for 5 minutes now some of you are trying to find the Book of Lamentations. All right, but here's what I want to tell you. Do not be despaired or depressed that you didn't find it. All right. I'm going to put it on the screen. It's going to be okay. Lamentations was written by the prophet named Jeremiah. It's a book of poems, or a book of laments, if you would. In fact, it's a beautiful book. I'm not sure how many of you brought your Hebrew Bible today, but if you did, you would know that Lamentations is written as an acrostic. Every chapter has 22 verses in Lamentations except for chapter three and the last chapter. And here's why. Because every chapter represents one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's it's a beautiful thing. It's incredible. But chapter three doesn't follow that form because it has 66 verses. So every letter has three verses, and in the last chapter, Jeremiah just throws all of it out and said, It's all hitting the fan and I can't do it anymore.

That's basically what it says in the last chapter. That's the Matt version. All right. That's not like any scholar, all right? But that's actually what it is. It's this book of laments. Or this book of just sorrow. It's full of sorrow. Now, it kind of makes sense because Jeremiah lived in a time where all he can see is sorrow. In fact, Jeremiah is suffering so much in this book, think of it like this. Jeremiah is showing you suffering from beginning to end or from A to Z, if that kind of helps you shape it in your mind. Now, Jeremiah lived in a time of incredible sorrow. During this time, his people were being exiled from Israel to Babylon because they had turned their hearts away from God in this land that he had given them. And now God said, Okay, if that's where you want to go, I'm just going to remove my hands from you and watch what happens to you. Jeremiah had seen such violence and such destruction. He'd seen the Temple of God torn down. And now Jeremiah is one of the last remaining survivors that are still in the motherland. And all of his people are in bondage in Babylon. And Jeremiah, along with these other people, are living in just absolute destitute conditions. Now, most of the people around Jeremiah are looking at Jeremiah, and they're going, man, thank goodness all that is over. But Jeremiah gets a vision from God is what we're going to see right here. And in that vision from God, God tells him, Hey, Jeremiah, while it may have been hard back then, get ready because the worst is yet to come.

Now imagine this. Imagine your role in Christianity is to tell people that, Hey, right now the living hell that you're in is about to get worse. That's Jeremiah's job. That's his whole role as a prophet. To make matters worse, he was faithful in his role, and no one believed him. Nobody did so much so that the people around Jeremiah heard his message that it's going to get worse and Babylon is never going to stop until you're all gone. They got so mad at him. They threw him in prison. The other book that Jeremiah wrote is The Book of Jeremiah. Great. It's pretty easy, right? He wrote the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament in chapter 38, verse six. It tells us that Jeremiah is in this prison. He's been thrown into the cistern and he's been held in chains. And he's up to his chest in mud for weeks and weeks, even possibly years and years. And is it that place that Jeremiah writes this book to us. Now, all of that to say this, If you think you're in a bad position today, trust me, Jeremiah gets you. Jeremiah gets you. Now, I can say this. I may not understand where you are. Your spouse may not understand where you are, your friends may not understand, your kids may not understand. But Jeremiah gets where you are in your depression because that is all Jeremiah has lived his whole life is depression. So with that being in our minds, let's read through this incredibly depressing but good letter that will make a turn. All right. And then we're going to see what Jeremiah says, God willing, what I can do when I'm helpless and hopeless. Jeremiah, chapter three, verse one. So our favorite verses in the Bible. Here we go. He says, I'm a man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord's wrath. Now that's how to start it, right? He has driven me away. He's made me walk in darkness rather than light. That we're driven is a Hebrew word. Primary is primarily used to describe how a horse drawn carriage guy would drive the animal in front of it and whip it. He was probably thinking of his people being driven out of their land, and then he moves on to talk about darkness rather than light.

Now we know that when you read the Bible, any time you see this idea of darkness, it always carries a connotation of the absence of being in the presence of God or despair. Or if you talk to somebody that lives in Alaska or one of the poles and they live through winter, you will know what they mean by living in despair. That's how Jeremiah feels. He feels like there's no light, there's no hope, there's no reason to do anything. And here's what I know about a lot of us. You can probably relate. You may have been in this position in your life. That's how Jeremiah feels. Look at verse three. Indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again all day long.

Now, the important question here is who is the “he”? Who's the “he” that he's talking about right here? Great. It's God. All right. I love that we all got it all at the same time. I was good in unison. God Is who he is talking about in this letter. So let's keep reading and I'm going to put God for "he" because I think it really proves a point. He, that's God, verse four has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He, God, has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. God has made me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. God has walled me in so I cannot escape. God has weighed me down with chains, even what I call out for help, God has shut out my prayers. Let me ask you something. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt like, God, why are you not listening? Why are you not listening? Or have you ever just wondered, God, why are you behind this? Why didn't you stop this? Here's the thing, though I want you to see this. Jeremiah knows that his feelings aren't right. He knows that his feelings are a lie and that they're not true. How do we know that? We're going to see it in just a minute. But I want you to see something here. This is how Jeremiah feels. This is how he feels. And this is important. And here's why. Because some of you have gone through some incredibly deep, incredibly dark, incredibly depressing, rough seasons of your life and what you have done in your life as a believer in Jesus.

All right, I'm speaking to you believers. What you have done is you have taken those dark and deep beliefs, the feelings that you're having in your life, and you have suppressed them down and hid them in your life. Thinking to yourself the lie that Satan gave you something like this, real Christians would never feel this way. Real Christians would never walk this way. Real believers in Jesus, you would never end up in a place like this. But listen, Jeremiah was a real Christian, and this is where he is. He's in this spot as well as many other real Christians. In fact. Did you know that Charles Spurgeon, probably arguably the best communicator in history of the Gospel, I mean, other than Jesus, but you get it right? Charles Spurgeon said to his 15,000 member church, one day.

Listen to what he said. He said, I've spent more days shut up in depression than probably anybody else here, and he chose to almost quit ministry. Did you know that, Martin Luther, in some incredibly dark times in his life, it is said of him that his wife hid all the knives in the drawers of the house because he was in that much despair in his life and she wasn't sure that he would end his life right then. In fact, his journal says this, for more than weeks on end I came so close to the gates of death, I could find no thoughts of Christ. Listen, I just want to tell you in the room, listen if this is where you are right now, you're not alone. Satan wants you to think that you're alone. He wants you to think that nobody else is right where you are right now. But you are not alone. But keep reading, though, all right? It gets worse. You say Matt, how's it get worse? I don't know. I'm just reading. Watch this. It says he, that's God, has barred my way with blocks of stone. He has made my paths crooked. In other words, even when I see there's a way out, God blocks it.

These are feelings, remember? Look at verse ten, it gets even better. Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding. He dragged me from the path. He mangled me and he left me without help. He drew his bow and he made me a target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughing stock of all my people and they mocked me in song all day long. Now I'm not really sure what your image of God is when you close your eyes. Right. But is it a bear lying in wait, ready to devour you? Because that's his image of God right here. That's where it's feelings are right here. And now he's a laughing stock of all these people. Keep going in verse 15, he has filled me with bitter herbs and he has given me gall to drink. Gall is the same thing they tried to give Jesus on the cross. It represented judgment. Verse 16 It says, He has broken my teeth with gravel. Let that one settle into your mind for a minute. I'm not really sure how that works. He's trampled me in the dust. I've been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say my splendor is gone and all that I'd hoped for from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, my bitterness and the gall. I remember them. And my soul, he says, is downcast within me. Church This is the great Jeremiah right? The great prophet of God. Let's just pray and we're going to leave. No, we can't do that now. This is horrible. This is horrible. But it's how Jeremiah felt. It's how he felt at this moment. And I can daresay this, probably some of you feel the same way. But here's the question: why did God put this in the Bible? I mean, why didn't God just send somebody back to Jeremiah and go, hey, listen, Jeremiah, you going to try this again?

This is incredibly depressing. This is not looking good on us Christians. You need to go write something else. Give us something like David, like lying down in green pastures. Give us some Solomon, man. Give us some good wisdom about how to be healthy and have a lot of money. Give us some gospel in this. You need to go do something else. Here's why God put this in the Bible. I want you to write this down because it matters. God put this in the Bible to show us that it's okay. It's okay when you are struggling to express your raw emotions to God. Man, I want you to hear that this morning. It is okay church, when you're struggling to just express where your heart is to God, this is a lament. This is an honest lament, but it is not an accurate picture with God. But that doesn't really matter at this point. What matters in this is that God is big enough to take your emotion. He's big enough to take your pain. He's big enough to hear your problems. He's big enough to hear where you are walking in life. And I point that out because it is good to be honest before God, deeply honest. Many of us press that down, get rid of it, say, well, if I was a real Christian, I would never say anything like that. But Jeremiah says, No, that is not the start. Sometimes you just need to know that you have a God that is walking with you in the pain. That's what he's saying. In fact, write this second principle down. I think this will help. Many of the greatest Christ followers in history are not those that God delivered from all the pain and sorrow. It is those that God has delivered through the pain and the sorrow. You see in many ways, what this says is that faith begins or starts with us standing honesty before God.

But that is not where it stops. It's not where it stops. Let me ask you this. Have you ever stood honesty before God and just said, God, this is where I'm at? This is where my heart is. This is where my struggle is. This is where my pain is. And God, I just need to tell you. I just need to tell you. Now, I want us to keep reading because this might be one of the greatest transitions in the whole Bible. Now, let's set the scene right. Jeremiah is in prison. He's up to his waist in mud. He's writing this letter of tragedy. He thinks everything is a loss. He's expressed his rawest emotion to God. Now watch what he does in verse 21. Yet, man, you may want to circle that word because that word matters. Yet this I call to mind. Therefore I have hope. I have hope. Matt, have you not read the other 20 verses that we have just read? Yeah, I have. Jeremiah says yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Verse 22, because the Lord's great love we are not consumed. His compassions never fail. They are new every morning and great is your faithfulness. I say to myself that the Lord is my portion. Therefore I will wait for Him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him. To the one who seeks him, it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Watch this verse 31. For no one is cast off by the Lord forever, though he brings grief, He will show compassion so great is His unfailing love, for he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

Now keep in mind, these are the middle verses in the middle chapter of a book that is filled with despair. But what does Jeremiah do? Jeremiah answers the spiritual side of depression here, and he gives us what do we do when we feel like we're in the pit? What do we do? I want to give them to you. There's four. And God willing, we're going to get all of them. Number one, here it is, number one. He says that we need to recall the goodness of God. We need to recall the goodness of God. Look, there's no better tool of Satan that he has in our life than to make us forget who God is and what God has done in our lives. That is an incredible task of Satan. That's what He does all over. But Jeremiah remembers who God is. Look at verse 21. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. Look at verse 25, the Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him. Look at verse 33 for he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone. So what does Jeremiah remember right here? Jeremiah looks back at his life and he remembers the idea that God is good and that God's steadfast love never ends. This is what it means. It means that God, like any good father. Yes, while we may walk through some struggles. He may put some obstacles in our path. He only does that because he knows that in those things we will come out with greater joy later, with greater dependance on him forever. Jeremiah said, In my pain, I will remember the goodness of God. I'll remember. Now what did he remember? He remembered how God delivered his people from Israel. He remembered how God given him the Word. He remembered the character of the Lord. But what do we remember? We remember the steadfast love of Jesus. We remember that Jesus took on our pain. Indeed, Jesus took on our shame. And Jesus lived the life that I was supposed to live and died the death that I deserve to die.

Church, our first goal in any pit that we have is to remember the goodness of God. To look back at the goodness of God. And we've got to know in these things that he is a good father. Now, listen to me. Listen students, listen to this. Because this is going to be big for you. We've also got to choose to believe that even when we can't see it, we get to choose to believe that even when we can't feel it. That's what verse 21 is here. Look. Look back at that first phrase in verse 21. Verse 21, the first phrase is call to mind. Call to mind. Right. You know what this means? That means that there is a thought that is not naturally there, that our role is to call this to mind, to bring it back up. Here's our role as a believer in Jesus. Our role as a believer in Jesus is to preach the gospel to ourselves. It's to preach God's goodness to ourselves, no matter what we feel. Are you seeing this in Jeremiah's life? Has the situation changed? No. But what is he doing? He's recalling who God is. Listen to me. This is going to be a little bit controversial for some of you, but I need you to hear it. Your emotions don't have brains. They don't. You say Matt, what do you mean by that? I mean they can't think and they can't show faith. So our role in Christ is to show them how to think, is to think for them, is to show them and have the faith in front of them. Listen, our role is to have a conversation with ourselves, and tell our emotions how to think based on the love of Christ and not on the love of the world. That's our role.

In fact, write this principle down, it'll probably help you out. We're going to come back to it a lot over the next couple of weeks. We should never feel our way into our beliefs. We have to believe our way into our feelings. Students, you need to write that somewhere. You put that on every notebook you can write it on every page of your science book you have. I don't care. Or your English book or whatever. We cannot feel our way into our beliefs. Why? Because Satan controls our feelings. We have to believe our way into our feelings. We cannot miss the order. For many believers, they would agree that we don't live by sight, but we live by faith. But they don't get that we walk by faith and not by feeling. See, for many, they feel that our feelings are the most reliable things of what is true.

But I got news for you, Church. Your feelings will lie to you. They'll lie to you. And that's the point in Jeremiah. He is saying, hey, I feel like God has forgotten me. I feel like God is distant from me. But then he says, wait a minute, that's not what God's word says. That's not who God is. And those feelings are not true. So what does Jeremiah do? He says, Man, I may be feeling that, but I've got to choose to believe who God is over my feelings. Listen, this is one of the biggest points. If you read Christian biographies very often, you will see that this is one of the biggest points in all Christendom for believers that just do big things for God. It's that they begin to see that they need their beliefs to control their feelings, and not their feelings to control their beliefs. I mean, some of you today even need to write down a note on your phone. You need to put a Post-it by your bed. You need to put it on your mirror. It needs to be the first thought of your morning. You need to put some things down that is who you are in Christ. So the same does not have an opportunity to railroad you.

Before you begin to dwell on who God is, you need to see that you have not been abandoned, that you have not been forsaken, that Jesus is faithful. God is good, and He loves you no matter what. You need to have that to pray over your life every day. Because I can guarantee you when your feelings begin to win, you begin to push the beliefs out of your life. You will, and I can guarantee you some of your things in specific circumstances in your life and in your family where you're already seeing that happen. In fact, today, even at the end of this message, you may need to respond to the invitation to some prayer counselors over here and just let them speak some truths of God over you because your feelings are winning and not your beliefs. Number one, recall the goodness of God even when you don't feel it. Number two, these are quicker, I hope. Number two, discover. Discover the good lessons that God is trying to teach you. What do you do in the pit? You discover the good lessons that God is trying to teach you. Now, I want to be careful with this. I don't want to imply that every suffering comes out with this incredible lesson. All right? Because that's not the case all the time. It's not even really the case that we're seeing. There's no indication that Jeremiah did anything. But look, anyway at verse 26. He said, It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Verse 28.

Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on Him. Why would it be good? It is good because God often does some of his best work when we're suffering. He does some of his best work when we're temporarily suffering. Listen, even when you don't know why you're suffering, God does incredible work in the suffering. You say Matt, what do you mean by that? I came up with a couple. I didn't put them in your notes, but just go with me on this. You see, sometimes in our suffering, God is just trying to take an idle out of our lives and replace it with who he is. Have you ever been there? David said it like this in Psalm 119:71. He says It is good for me to be afflicted so that I may learn your decrees. Also, sometimes in suffering, God might just be trying to humble you a little bit. He might be trying to take you off the throne and put himself back on the throne. So what does he do? He just kind of removes his blessing sometimes for our life temporarily, because he knows that's what it's going to be for eternity to be on the max.

Number three, sometimes in suffering and waiting. God is just preparing you for ministry. He really is. This is not even like a crazy example. This is the norm in the Bible. Watch in the Bible when God calls somebody, what happens almost every single time? There's a time of testing, there's a time of trial in their life. Look at Moses. When he was called, he was sent to the wilderness for what, like 40 years? Remember, David? Remember when David was called to be the next king? Remember, he was anointed on his head. Did he saunter over to the palace and put a crown on? No. He went back to shoveling poop as a shepherd for seven years. Remember Paul, when he was called? It was 17 years before his first journey for God molded him into that. Listen, there's a time that God does some of his best work in our lives, when we're just kind of in this pain moment. In this moment of despair. Here's the fourth one I came up with. Sometimes in our suffering and pain, God might be giving you a way to relate to others in a specific way that you could never relate to them otherwise. You say Matt, I don't like this one. Me neither. You know why? Because I feel like I've lived about half of my life in this one. I feel like God sometimes just allows me to walk through things because in a lot of ways that God does things in my heart, to where now I can come around people and go, Hey, listen, I know what you feel. I know what you feel. You say Matt, what are you talking about? Well, my 16 year old brother died in a car accident. We lost a baby in the womb. Melissa has had strokes and heart procedures and hospital visits. I've had stage three melanoma and there's been so many others. But listen, I'm going to tell you this in every single one of those, I cannot tell you the number of times that God has allowed me to walk behind and with families through my deliverance from these things to say Christ is king.

Sometimes we're in the middle of despair because God is teaching us to do something. In fact, Paul says like this in second Corinthians 15, he says, God broke me so that I could learn to comfort those in a way that God comforted me. Is that fun? No, it's not fun. But it's going to last for eternity. No, it's not going to last for eternity. Number one, recall the goodness of God. Number two, discover God's good lessons. And here's number three; grasp that God's plans are ultimately good for blessing. They're ultimately good for good and for blessing. Now, look, I'm not leaning into this prosperity gospel or this gospel of suffering. I'm not doing that. But I want to show you how Jeremiah responded in the middle of his despair. Look at verse 24. I say to myself, look at it. The Lord is my portion and I will wait for him. This word portion right here is pointing to the land that was given to every Israelite family that was to be passed down from family to family to family to family. And now what we're seeing in Jeremiah's life is that he no longer has that land, that no more nobody any longer has that land, that Babylon has taken all of it from them. And now he is looking at the Lord and he's saying, look, while it seems like I have nothing left and everything has been stolen from me, God is my portion. That's what He's saying, that he is my inheritance and all things come under that banner. But let me say this church, there's nothing wrong for you to pray the blessing of God in your life.

There's nothing wrong with that. But we need to pray it with the premise that God is our portion and everything else that God gives me is just a good gift from God. It's just a good gift from God. In fact, I am just a little bit tired of believers that are in the middle of their suffering that some of them just walk around with this woe is me. I guess this is my plight in life and I guess God will never deliver me. I guess this is because I'm a Christian. No Jesus came to deliver you. He came to give you life. He came to restore your life. Now, for some of you, he may not do it for eternity, but that's not his will for everybody. He wants to bless you. He wants to give you hope. He wants to give you life. In fact, Jeremiah three, verse 32, says, Though he will bring grief, he will show compassion. And great, so great is his unfailing love. Psalms 27:13 King David says, I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What does that mean? God doesn't just bless us when we're dead. He wants to bless us here and now. So let's get over this spiritual outlook that God's intention is for me is to always suffer. Maybe, but probably not. God came to restore you. So look for those lessons. Grasp on to his plans are ultimately good. And here's number four.

This is my favorite. It's the shortest one, too. Amen. Here it is. I wake up every morning in your despair and search for the goodness and the faithfulness of God. Now leave it on the screen. I want to point something out to you right here. Number four, wake up every morning and search for the goodness and the faithfulness of God. Now, Matt, how is that different than recalling the goodness of God? Well, I'm glad you asked, because here's the difference in it. Recalling something is something that you have already known. Searching is something that God is saying. It is out there and part of this role is for you to chase after it. Church, what he is telling us here is there are points in our lives where we need to wake up every morning and say, God, I don't know what you got for me today. God, I don't know what blessings you've got in my life today. God, I don't know what path you've got in front of me today. But God, I am searching out your will for my life, even in the middle of my despair. Watch what Jeremiah says in verse 22. Depressed, despairing Jeremiah says this, because of the Lord's great love. Listen. He said that in the middle of his depression, not after. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For his compassions never fail, for they are new every morning and catch this, great is your faithfulness. Man, church, don't you just love the image of the new morning? Some of you are Like no Matt, I hate mornings. That's not what I mean. The new morning. Have you ever been in that position where everything around you before daylight is just totally still, totally dark, and then all of a sudden the sun starts to come up? Listen, people ask me all the time, Matt, what do you like to hunt so much? Why do you like to be outside? Why do you like to be in the woods so much?

It's because of this right here. I'm not necessarily a morning person. But I'm going to tell you, one of the greatest joys in life is sitting in the middle of the still in the middle of the darkness, in the middle of the nothingness. And just watching creation come alive and watching the sun come up over the horizon and begin to chase out the shadows. Begin to chase out the darkness, begin to settle in the warmth of the sun, beginning to hit you in the face. The freshness of the new day. Church, listen to me really closely. Today may feel like a terribly dark, never ending night of despair, but God promises you his mercies will rise new every day. Every day. I know what you're thinking. Some of you are thinking no way, Matt. You don't know what I've done. Doesn't matter what you've done. You don't. You don't understand how dark it is. Doesn't matter how dark it is. You don't understand how hard it is. Yeah. Jeremiah is in a pretty rough situation, but I'll say this in the middle of the darkness, we've got to get to a point where we begin to see God's truth, and that rules our feelings, and then we begin to sense God's mercies, begin to saturate our souls. What does he say? He says that God is the hope dealer. No way, Matt. You don't understand how bad I've messed it up. Listen, if you're not dead, God's not done. He's not. That's a great place for an amen. I'm telling you, let me do it again. If you're not dead, God's not done. It's true. But I'm not sure you believe it. That's the point. But his mercies are new every day. Every day. Recall the goodness of God. Discover the good lessons that their grasp on His plans are ultimately for good and blessing. Rise up church, every single day and search for the goodness of God. Now listen, there's a fifth one. It's not in your notes. Matt, it's not in the notes? No. Came to me yesterday.

Here's another one I want to tell you in the middle of your despair, you also need to invite somebody else into the journey. Invite somebody into the journey. You say Matt, what do you mean by that? This is too heavy for you to carry on your own. That's what it means. We are created to be in a community and you need to invite somebody. Whether it's wise counsel that's a friend. Whether it's a pastor, whether it's a counselor, whether it's a medical professional. Whoever that may be in your life. Man, you need to look at somebody and you need to be honest with them, say, hey, listen, I'm in the pit of despair right now and I need somebody to walk with me. I need somebody to speak God's truth over me.

I need somebody to speak God's promises over me. And I need somebody that can just hold my hand as I am treading water. Listen, Church, we have got to get past the point of everybody thinking they're super Christians and nobody else is struggling and know that we're all in the mud together. We're all together. So here's the invitation today. Some of you feel like Jeremiah, but don't let your feelings dictate the reality of God. Express those feelings to God. Hold on to God's truths. Lord Jesus, you give hope. You're the dealer of hope. You're the giver of grace. And this morning God, that, man, that's our prayer. It's that you give hope this morning. You give life this morning. Lord Jesus, I know I know that there are people in this congregation that this message today is right where they are. God, operate in just a minute that you just give them the boldness to do business with you. God, whether that be in their seats, just claiming your promises over their lives that can shape their beliefs. Or whether that be in just a moment that you will step out from where you are. You walk down to the front next steps banner and just look at one of us and go, Hey, listen, I just need somebody to pray some of God's truths over me today. I'm struggling. God, I pray that you just move in their lives. Lord Jesus, the King and Lord and Savior. If we give you this next couple of minutes and it's in your name, we pray. Amen. Hey listen, we're walking into our invitation right here. And I know I know what's going through your minds. Your feelings are dictating your thoughts right now. Well, Matt, if I come and ask somebody to pray for me, man, people are going to know I got some stuff going on in my life. Yeah, you're right. They will. But God already knows, and he's the one that matters. But number two, maybe, just maybe, that's your first step to say, hey, listen, I need to be real with who I am and I need somebody to speak the truth of God over me today. So in just a second, as soon as we start singing, I'm just going to ask everybody in just a second to stand. And here's what I'm going to tell you to do. I need you to take that first step. I promise you, something happens after that first two steps that you don't even know where you end up. That you end up talking to somebody and praying with somebody and somebody is with you and speaking truth into you, and it'll make your day. But those first two steps are up to you. They're up to you. Some of you today, you're looking at this go, man, I that's where I'm at. But I'm not sure I know Jesus. I'm not sure I've submitted my heart to Jesus or given my life to Jesus. But Matt, that's me today. I need to give my life to Jesus so He can deliver me.

And I'm just going to challenge you to do the same thing today. Take a step from where you're at. We'll be standing right over here by the next steps banner. And just look at one of us go, Hey, listen, I need Jesus today. What do I need to do? And we'll walk with you through the gospel. We'll show you what Christ wants to be in your life. Listen, whatever your decision is, in your seat, or in this altar, or by the next steps, listen, do not let your feelings dictate your beliefs. Lord Jesus, move these next couple of minutes and it's in your name.

Amen. Amen.

Let's stand together. You move as you need to.

Follow Along with the Message

In the Pit of Depression

March 5, 2023

PRINCIPLE: Depression is when you are looking into the and into the and what you feel is despair, suffocating darkness, or no clear way back to joy.

Lamentations 3:1–2
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light.
Lamentations 3:3
Indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
Lamentations 3:4–8
4 He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. 7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. 8 Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:9
He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Lamentations 3:10–14
10 Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, 11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. 12 He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. 13 He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. 14 I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
Lamentations 3:15
He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
Lamentations 3:16–20
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. 17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

PRINCIPLE: It is okay when you are struggling to your rawest emotions to God.

PRINCIPLE: Many of the greatest Christ followers in history are not those that God delivered all pain and sorrow, it is those God delivered the pain and sorrow.

Lamentations 3:21–26
1 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:31–33
31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. span style="font-size: 8pt;">32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. span style="font-size: 8pt;">33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
What to Do in the Pit of Depression

1. Recall the of God.

Lamentations 3:21–22
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
Lamentations 3:25
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.
Lamentations 3:33
For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

PRINCIPLE: We should never our way into our beliefs; we have to believe our way into our feelings.

2. Discover the lessons God is trying to teach you.

Lamentations 3:26
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:28
Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.
Psalm 119:71
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

3. Grasp that God’s plans are for good and for blessing.

Lamentations 3:24
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:32
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
Psalm 27:13
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

4. Wake up every morning and for the goodness & faithfulness of God.

Lamentations 3:22–23
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

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