Find Hope and Help for Depression*

Depression is real, and it touches far more people than we often realize. In this message, Pastor Chris Teien shares biblical truth and encouragement for anyone walking through depression—and for those who want to better support friends or loved ones who are struggling. Drawing from Scripture and real-life experience, he reminds us that God’s presence brings both hope and help. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16335592

Key Points:

1. Depression is common, and even great people of faith like Moses, Job, and Paul wrestled with it (Numbers 11:10–15; Job 3; 2 Corinthians 1:8–9).
2. God understands our burdens and promises to walk with us through dark times (Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 41:10).
3. Depression can have many causes—physical, emotional, and spiritual—but God invites us to bring every struggle to Him.
4. We can find encouragement in God’s Word and by supporting others with compassion, patience, and prayer (Philippians 4:8; Jeremiah 31:3).

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 Pastor Chris shares practical reflections on how depression has impacted ministry leaders, how even simple things like rest and nutrition can make a difference, and why encouragement from others is vital when life feels overwhelming.

Notable Quotes:
 “Depression isn’t always a result of sin. Sometimes it’s just part of living in a broken world—but God is still present and faithful.”
 “When you feel weighed down, remember: God’s strength is greater than your weakness.”
 “Encouragement is a ministry. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for someone depressed is to keep showing up.”

Actionable Takeaways:
 • Reflect: Where do you need to let God’s promises speak louder than your pain?
 • Apply: Replace one negative thought this week with a Scripture truth.
 • Step of Faith: Reach out to someone who may be struggling and remind them they are not alone.
 • Next Step: Make time to sit with God daily, even in silence, trusting Him to renew your strength.

Scripture References:
Numbers 11:10–15 – Moses overwhelmed and discouraged
 Job 3 – Job’s deep sorrow and despair
 2 Corinthians 1:8–9 – Paul despairing of life but relying on God
 Psalm 34:18 – The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
 Isaiah 41:10 – God strengthens and upholds His people
 Philippians 4:8 – Fixing our minds on what is true and good
 Jeremiah 31:3 – God’s everlasting love

Keywords:
Depression, hope, help, God’s strength, encouragement, overcoming struggles, faith, Bible promises, Christian living

Challenge:
If you are struggling with depression, bring your heart honestly before God this week and let His promises steady you. And if you know someone who is hurting, step in with encouragement and prayer—because God brings both hope and help.

19m1013de Keys to Conquering Depression

Chris Teien, Pastor of Rockwell Church in Virginia, Minnesota, shares biblical preaching and practical encouragement through the WELL Faith Sermon Audio Podcast, along with occasional guest speakers.

New messages are shared every week to encourage you in your faith and help you apply God's Word to your life.

Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Kids are heading to kids church. Out the door, down Kids Church Alley. So I've got a video.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Have you ever thought about the cards you've been dealt? Have you ever taken the time to just stop and examine life as if they were a hand of cards? Some of you would look at your life and you would say, I have a great hand. I want to keep them all. And some of you would look at the hand that you've been given. These, these three cards in my life, they're just rough or bitter. And if I could just exchange those for some new cards, then I would be okay. You see, life is cards. You can't treat them the cards that you've been given in life. I mean, these are your cards, whether you like the way they feel or not. It's funny, in life, how we kind of look at the uglier cards that we don't necessarily want anybody else to see. We try to hide them behind the more noble, significant, prettier cards. It's human nature, I guess. But deep down we know the cards that we've been given. There's no escaping it. It's who we are. These are our cards, no matter how we look at it. They're part of our makeup. We can't escape it. You're all in. But what if? What if we're to stop and just take the time to look at the cards we've been given in life? Where did they come from? Is it life? Coincidence? Or was it God? Some of you would say, why would an all-caring, all-loving God really give me this card? I mean, if he really loved me, would he really give me this card? It's the cards of pain, it's the cards that we don't like to talk about. Cards of depression, rejection, that word that just seems to linger in her mind even after all these years. Abuse, divorce, even death. These are real cards. But there's also the good cards in her life. Think back if you can to the time you made your dad laugh when you were a little kid, when you tied your shoe, your first A on a report card, your first kiss, first job, first time you stood up for yourself. These are the cards that you're proud of. These are the cards that you play over and over again because these are the pretty cards. It's a sad fact and it's true, but we really care what other people think. These are our favorite cards that we want to show people that we have it all together. But what does God think? What if God were to choose the cards? What would those look like? More than likely, they just wouldn't be the happy cards, but they would be an array of both good and bad cards. You see, we as humans, we do not like the hard cards in life. We try to avoid these like the plague. But don't discount the fact that God may have a purpose for even these cards. God wants to use the disappointing cards as the cards that fill us up with hope and joy. To God, they aren't a bunch of both good and bad cards. They're just cards. Cards that would bring him glory. Cards that reveal that it's his story, not our story, and cards that can maybe even give us a glimpse of what heaven is like. The crux of the matter is, are we just going to pretend that we're dealing with our cards? Are we gonna hide behind cards that are more glamorous? Even hide behind cards that aren't even ours, other people's, because it's comfortable, it's safe. But if we do that, aren't we missing out on all that God wants us to be? Aren't we missing out on the rich lessons that we could learn for God's kingdom? From his view, you might just be given the best hand that you could ever imagine. As for me, I'm gonna play the cards that I've been dealt.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Alright, so I don't know what cards you've been dealt or how you feel about those cards, or how things work in your head, because sometimes you can be dealt certain cards and not be able to handle it mentally. And some people are able to go through all sorts of difficulties and troubles and have all sorts of hardships and able to function, it actually makes them stronger, it helps them to be more effective in ministry, it helps God to be able to use them because of the pain that they've experienced. And so I wanted to talk about conquering depression. So I noticed that we talked about this like almost six years ago. Using the same resource, different part of the message, though. We could talk about this a lot. As far as the pastor equipping, whenever you have like issues for yourself, you want to get self-help on, or you want to help somebody, and you don't know what you can trust for research. If you go to Hope for the Heart or search June Hunt, when you look at Kindle or Google Play or whatever, download the ebooks. If you go to the website, there is a like free little pamphlet handout that has basic information. And then if you pay, I'm not sure what it is, three, five bucks or whatever, you get like a ton of stuff, research, Bible verses, and then a bibliography of where it all came from. And if you want, you can even call that ministry and talk to a person. The topics like this, depression, things like this, sometimes people don't really want to talk to people they know about all of their issues and the things that they're struggling with. Sometimes they won't get professional help, or sometimes you just need medical help, but sometimes they won't run out and get help. They want to do self-help, but they don't know who to trust. And so that is a resource for you for more, way more than depression, all sorts of things. Job loss, stress, abortion, you name it, but conquering depression. And I want to, in the short time we have, talk about some of those things, but depression is a huge thing. Depression is common. So I would guess that there's somebody here in this room that struggles with some form of depression. There are some people in churches that think that if you have depression, if you struggle with depression, then you must be in sin, or you must not have enough faith, or there must be something wrong with your what you're doing because you don't trust God. You should just trust God and feel better about it. But that doesn't always work. And a lot of times it's not your fault. So we shouldn't say to people, oh, well, it's your fault, you must be doing something wrong. Sometimes depression is like the cold or something like that. People get sick, they need help. There's different forms and different types of depression, and the counselor guide, the manual that I mentioned, talks a lot about that. But if you struggle with depression, it's okay to go to the doctor, it's okay to use medication. Now, obviously, you don't want to be on medication all of your life. It's great if you can get off of it, but sometimes there's things that happen in your life that cause you to be depressed or anxious. And so you have to do something on your own to try to get over it. You need to pursue the Lord to try to get over it. You need friends around you to try to get over it. But for some people, it's just going to be something they struggle with all of their lives. And for other people that have gone through some kind of difficulty or hardship or whatever, it may go away and then come back and then go away and come back. Interestingly enough, some great men of God have struggled with depression. Martin Luther struggled with depression. Charles Haddon Spurgeon struggled with depression. Sometimes just the whole ministry stuff can be depressing because you give and you give, and then sometimes it just doesn't feel like it's working out. It leads to some types of depression. So, what is depression? Depression literally means a condition of being pressed down to a lower position, as in a footprint, or pressed down indented. Depression can refer to a state of decline and reduced activity as in an economic depression. Depression can describe, describe an emotional heaviness that weighs down the heart. So the Apostle Paul used the Greek word vario, which means pressed or weighed down, to describe the immense emotional pressure and severe hardships that he and Timothy suffered at the hands of those who oppose Christ. 2 Corinthians 1 8. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, our hearts, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death, but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. So depression is something that we often experience in hard times. Depression is something that we've probably all gone through at some point in our life. Maybe even you were depressed at some point in last week. And actually, when the weather gets dark like this, sometimes people get depressed. As went as it's constantly dark over the winter, that can cause a depression too. So there's normal depression when severe troubles fell upon God's servant Job, the death of all of his children, the destruction of all of his possessions. One of his friends observed Job's observed of Job's understandable depression. And so we can be depressed over the normal problems of life of rejection, failure, illness. Transitional stages can be depressing sometimes. Like for some parents, the empty nest. Other parents rejoice. So it just depends on how you deal with things. Midlife crisis, major moves, menopause or retirement, often pressed on the heart. So there's lots of reasons that we can be depressed, and we can easily identify it. We can say, I'm depressed because I lost this person, or I'm depressed because I thought I would be here in my life and I'm over here. Or I'm depressed because I just lost a ton of money, or my car just died, or my dog just died, or there's all sorts of things that can lead you to a period of grief and depression, and that can be identified. Then there is masked depression or hidden depression that still results in heartache. Proverbs 14, 13, even in laughter, the heart may ache and joy may end in grief, but painful feelings are denied or covered up, therefore recovery takes longer because of failure to work through the pain. Relief from emotional pain is unconsciously found in excessive busyness, activities, addictions, and other alternatives. So there can be masked depression. It's like you're depressed, you don't know why, never really thought about it. There is neurotic depression. Psalm 13,2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? A person with a neurotic depression has a disorder, meaning that normal activities of daily living are impaired. A person with any depressive disorder has clinical depression and needs diagnosis and treatment based on direct, ongoing observation, a prolonged state of sadness lasting longer than the normal time frame expected for emotional recovery, and based on stressors, for example, loss of an endeared relationship, a financial or work crisis, retirement, symptoms interfere with normal work and social functioning. The cause can usually be traced to an identifiable precipitating event. And then there is psychotic depression. Those afflicted with a psychotic depression can identify with the terror, despair, and skewed perspective described in Psalm 102. My days vanish like smoke, my heart is blighted and withered like grass. I forget to eat my food. I lie awake. I have become like a bird alone on a roof. I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears. I wither away like grass. And this is the most severe type of depression based on disassociation or loss of contact with reality. A psychotic depression is an extreme state of depression. A psychosis is sometimes accompanied by hallucinations or delusions, making those who are psychotic a potential danger to themselves or others. Those afflicted with psychotic depression can identify with the terror, despair, and skewed perspective, and so on. So these people really need help. These people need friends. If you come alongside these people, sometimes they won't react the way that you want them to. You may invite them to something and hope that they would come and they might say no, but they want you to keep inviting them anyway. Sometimes if you sit with these people and encourage them, keep encouraging them, encourage them to get help, encourage them it's okay to get help, encourage them that medication is okay, encourage them that their life is valuable, encourage them in so many ways, it can make a huge difference in their life. It is hard, it is a ministry. You can pray for those people and do what you can to help those people. Sometimes people in this condition will think about suicide, and you want to do everything you can to help them not see that as an easy solution to get help, to check up on them, to pray for them. So there's six physical contributors to depression, and maybe you can identify with some of these quickly. A hormonal imbalance, especially when women go through menopause and things like that. Hormonal changes during puberty, postpartum, after childbirth, all these different things. Hormonal changes can lead to depression. Medications and drugs, side effects from illegal drugs and certain legal drugs, analgesics, antidepressant steroids, contraceptives, and cardiac medications can lead to depression. Chronic illnesses such as thyroid deficiency and even about with a flu can cause chemical imbalance in the brain, which can cause depression, melancholy temperament. The orderly, gifted, and creative person with a melancholy temperament can at the same time be moody, overly sensitive, and tear themselves down. Because those with this temperament are analytical, critical, and hard to please, they can take everything too seriously or too personally, quickly becoming depressed over circumstances or the slightest imperfection in themselves or others. Improper food, rest, or exercise, those can lead to depression. Too much caffeine or red bull when you come off of that, that can lead to depression. Trying to get by with little sleep for a long period of time can lead to depression. You want to do what you can to but something in your life that you can actually change. There's kind of a joke. Not really a joke, but it's funny. I went to a counseling class many years ago at Crown College, actually, and they said that sometimes when people are really depressed, they need more protein. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone that you know just feels like they should end their life because their life is just so terrible and everything is take them out, get them a steak dinner, and help them get a lot of sleep. And often they will feel better. So sometimes when I I sometimes I'll say to my wife and say, I just I'm just feeling so down. I think we should go out for steak. It works too. Probably do that. Yeah, yeah. So there's a you can try that one too. So it's a need. Genetic vulnerabilities are also a thing that causes depression. So those with depressed family members are two times more vulnerable to struggling with depression than those with no family history. So you need to learn all you can about depression and do what you can to help people. See, confront any loss in your life, allowing yourself to grieve and be healed. Confront any loss in your life, allowing yourself to grieve and be healed. Talk to God about how much you miss that person or that missed that job or abandonment, divorce of parents, rejection, failures, false accusations, unjust criticism, thwarted goals, unrealized dreams. They are sad experience or significant losses that can cause depression. So you can have repressed anger over a loss of a loved one, loss of self-esteem, loss of control, loss of possessions, loss of expectations, loss of respect for others, loss of health or abilities, loss of personal goals. And the Bible says that we should get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, growling and slander, along with every form of malice in Ephesians 4.31. It's really easy to say get over it, but actually it's not, because when people are going through that, sometimes it's a process. Sometimes it takes a long time. Sometimes as time goes on, you think that it heals all wounds, but it doesn't really. And sometimes when people are grieving the loss of somebody they lost, a child or a parent or somebody that they really care about, they'll seem fine for a while, and then one day they'll just like be all upset or sad or whatever, and it will just come out of nowhere, like a storm cloud. And just know that people struggle with those things. Moses struggled with those things actually. In Numbers chapter 11, here Moses is trying to do what God called him to do, to lead the people, and the people are complaining, and they're saying, We're sick of this manna, and God sends quail, and they've got quail, and they're still complaining, and eventually Moses is fed up, God is mad. Verse 11. Moses asked, let's see, verse 10. Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the Lord, Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries an infant to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me. So anyway, he goes on and on, and he says, He says, I cannot carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you're going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me. If I found favor in your eyes, do not let me face my own ruin. And that means that Moses is having a bad day and he is depressed. And I bet you feel like that sometimes too. So there's people that go through that hard time and they know why, and they feel depressed, and they know there could be a solution, and they will probably be fine in the future, especially as the circumstances change. There's other people go through the same situation, and even if the circumstances change, they'll still be stuck in the depression if there's not some kind of help, some kind of therapy, baby medication, some way that God heals them from that. So just be aware that there's people like that need a lot of love and care and encouragement. So suppressed fears. So sometimes you don't even realize that you're depressed or anxious, but you have a suppressed fear of losing a job or dying or empty nest, failure, abandonment, growing old, being alone or rejection. Isaiah 41, 10 says, Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So I see a lot of these things in people's lives and even my own life. And I try to remember that God is the one that provides our daily needs. This idea that our grandparents had jobs and they were secure all their lives and then they retired with pensions and it was good. That's not happening for most people now. Now there's all sorts of uncertainty, all sorts of things that people don't know about the next day. But the Lord says that we're supposed to seek him first, his kingdom and his righteousness, and he'll provide everything we need. The Lord's first is give us this day our daily bread. So when you think about dying, think about I'm gonna die, so let me die in such a way that when I'm gone, people will remember Jesus in my life. Make my life make a difference. That's why we're gonna talk about rewards in the future, because we're all gonna die. Won't it be great? To die in great expectation of seeing Jesus and being rewarded for the life that we've lived. So there's yeah, many different things. Offer your heart to God for cleansing and confess your sins. Sometimes we are depressed because there's sin in our life. There's no way around it. Jesus did die on the cross for our sins, and our sins are forgiven for all time, but we have sin in our life, and that gets in the way of fellowship with the Lord. And if we're going to walk around and unconfess sin, we might be depressed, we might be disappointed, we might be sad, we might feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Offer your heart to God for cleansing and confess your sins. So depression can be a result of sin when you're depressed over the consequences of your sinful actions and you don't attempt to change. When you don't take the necessary steps for healing, seeking biblical counseling, memorizing scriptures, reading Christian materials, getting medical help when appropriate. When you hold on to self-pity, anger, and bitterness, when you've been wronged instead of choosing to forgive anyone who knows uh the good he ought to do and doesn't do it sins, James 4.17. When you use your depression to manipulate others, when you continually choose to blame God and others for your unhappiness, you are depressed because you choose to let others control you instead of choosing to obey Christ and allow him to be in control of you. So bitterness is a major cause of depression. We should forgive people and try not to hold bitterness. Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy. Proverbs 14, 10. J.C. Ryle, the English evangelist of old, he wrote about a backslidden state most miserable. He said, It is a miserable thing to be a backslider of all unhappy things that can befall a man. I suppose backsliding is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins, these are sad sights. But a backslider is a sadder sight still. You know what a backslider is, right? Somebody who's fallen back into sin. They were pursuing Jesus, and then they've now they're living in sin. They've backslidden. A backslider is a sadder sight still, that true grace shall never be extinguished, and true union with Christ never be broken off, I feel no doubt. But I do believe that a man may fall away so far that he shall lose sight of his own grace and despair of his own salvation. And if this is not hell, it is certainly the next thing to it. But a wounded conscious, a mind sick of itself, a memory full of self-reproach, a heart pierced through with the Lord's arrows, a broken arrow, a spirit broken, with a load of inward accusation, all this is a taste of hell. It is hell on earth. So living in a backslident state leads to depression. So depression is not a result of sin. When your heart grieves over normal losses, your body experiences natural deterioration due to the pass due to the passing of years, your body chemistry can change and become compromised. The Bible says outward we're outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. And also in Ecclesiastes 3 4, there is a time to weep, a time to mourn. So confess that sin. John 1 8 says if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. So if it's unconfessed sin in your life, confess that sin and get right with the Lord. Nurture thoughts that focus on God's great love for you. So replace those, the inner voice inside your head with thoughts in Scripture that is encouraging, that is helpful. Jeremiah 31:3, the Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with an unfailing kindness. Focus your thoughts on God's truth about his love for you. Philippians 4.8. Dear brothers and sisters, fix your thoughts on what's true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Think about such things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Another thing you can do is read Psalm 103 over and over again. It is a great thing. From the New Believers New Testament, they have all these memory verses, and I actually have the New Believers Bible on a computer so I was able to extract the verses. But there's all these great verses that you can memorize, and they come with the topic, what the verse is about, and then the verse reference, and then the verse. So I used the text-to-speech system to make something for myself for the verses, so I could review, remember, rememorize them. And I realized I just made myself a self-help audio, and I could share it with you. I don't have a copyright or anything, so I'm not going to put it online, but if you're interested in it, I could just send it to you. But here's what I did. I've got three different text-to-speech things.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

God's promises to us. We are prompted to God's sight. We are friends of Christ. John 15, 15. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friend, since I have told you everything the Father told me. John 15, 15. God loved us with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31 3. Long ago the Lord said to Israel, I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself. Jeremiah 31.3. You will never leave us in times of difficulty. Isaiah 43 2. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

So anyway, someday the voice technology will be so awesome. It's encouraging, especially when you speed it up. But, alright, Q, quit negative thinking and negative self-talk. Job was enduring a difficult test, as you know, in the book of Job, and he is so sad, he is so depressed. He says, Why wasn't I born dead? Why didn't I die as I came from the womb? And some days we feel like that, and we need to replace that self-talk in our head with the verses. What are we saying? What do you say about yourself? So are you going to do you feel like you're going to fail? Do you tell yourself that you're no good? That you don't see any way out? What do you say about yourself? I can't do anything. Why should I even try? My usefulness is over. I hate myself. Look at so-and-so in comparison. I must have done something wrong. Nobody loves me. And said we should focus on God's truth for us. What do you say about our situation? I don't see any way out. It didn't matter anyway. It's not fair. It's helpless to change. I can't do anything about it. But we should focus on that. Christ can do all things through us. He strengthens us. What about our future? Nothing will ever change. No one will ever love me. I'm too old. I'll be too old. That was my last chance for happiness. I have nothing to live for. It's hopeless. What do you see about medications? Do you say they're okay? Do you say that's not trusting God? I think God can use medications, and I think that's okay. Understand God's purposes, God's eternal purposes for allowing personal loss and heartache. So God can use difficulty. When I was going through difficulty after the last loss of my son, my sister actually sent me this book, which and I didn't read it because I didn't feel like reading the book. But I did buy the audio books, and she bothered to send me the book. And so I was listening to it and I fell asleep with headphones in. And I woke up in the middle of the night in a certain chapter in the book that totally spoke to me. It was so weird. It was like God was speaking to me through the book in the middle of the night through the headphones that I had in my ears. God can have an eternal purpose for allowing us personal loss and heartache as we go through difficulty. It's like when the check engine light is on, we start to look around and say, what's wrong? There must be something wrong. The check engine light is on. It's probably more than my gas cap. It's probably, it must be something I should check and see. So we look around. And when we are depressed, when we're not feeling right, when we're not feeling well, we start to look around and we see that something is wrong. And we need to find ways to maybe get that fixed or to fix that, but learn to see ways God can be using your depression to better you. John 15, 2, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. Well, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. So sometimes then that check engine light comes on. When you're feeling that way, God wants you to deal with your past, or God wants you to see that there's something that's not right, that you need healing with, or forgiveness, or you need to forgive somebody, or you need to move forward, you need to help. Maybe you need to talk to somebody about that. Maybe you need to see a doctor, but it's like a check engine light. 2 Corinthians 1 talks about the God of peace who comforts us in all our troubles, so we can comfort others with the same comfort we receive. And so God can use the stuff that we go through, the hardship, to help other people in their time of need, and that might be the bridge to life they need to help them come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So you went through the hard thing, God helped get you through, or you're still in the process, and then you meet someone else, it's kind of going through it too, and you can help them and encourage them. E. Exchange your hurt and anger for thanksgiving. Choose to give thanks even when you don't feel thankful. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5.18. Sometimes when I'm sad and I'm depressed, I start to count off all the things that I'm thankful for. I always say stupid things like, well, it could always be worse. Of course it could always be worse. And then I feel even worse. But I start to think about the things that I'm thankful for and the things that I've been blessed with, and the things that I have, and maybe some of the things I don't have, and some of the experiences that I've gone through and that haven't gone through. And to be thankful for those things and to trust the Lord with my life and my future and learn to forgive. Colossians 3 13. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Pray to forgive your offender. Discover the source of your masked pain through earnest prayer, praying something like, Father, help me to identify what's causing me this hidden hurt and give me healing. So R, remember that God is sovereign over your life and he promises hope for your future. So remember that God is sovereign. So if you read in Jeremiah, or actually Lamentations 1, 20 to 22, again, Jeremiah is God's servant, and he's serving among people that totally don't appreciate God. He is called the weeping prophet because of all the difficulties that he's gone through. And God is still using him, but he was depressed. You can look that up in Lamentations 1, 20 to 22. But you have internalized stress over work difficulties, marital problems, workload, financial obligations, family responsibilities, troubled child, alcoholic spouse. The Bible says we're supposed to cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us. You have been my hope, sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth, Psalm 71, 5. And then a passage to help you through is 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18. It says, be joyful always. So choose to write down and continue to focus on the positives in your life. Pray continually. Choose to God. Choose to talk to God about everything. Give thanks in all circumstances. Choose to thank God for what you are learning right now. Do not put out the Spirit's fire. Choose to change when God's Spirit convicts you to change. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Choose to take God's word seriously. Test everything. Choose to ask, is this right in God's sight? Hold on to the good. Choose to do right, even when you are tempted to do wrong. Avoid every kind of evil. Choose to turn immediately from temptation. May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. Choose to see how God has set you apart, sanctified you, to be what He intended you to be. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless. Choose to commit your whole being to doing what God created you to do. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Choose to rely on God's power to do what you are called to do. There's a few do's and don'ts, and then we'll be done. Do's and don'ts for families, family and friends. Don't say you shouldn't feel that way. Do you say I care about you and what you're feeling? You can get this out of that counseling manual. Don't say, you must eat. Think of all the starving children in the world. Do say, even if we're not hungry, we do need to eat. Cars need gas for energy, we need food for energy. Don't say, you need to quit taking that medicine. Do say, not all medicines work the same for everyone. I'll go with you to get a thorough medical evaluation so that the doctor can make the medicine, make sure the medicine is working for you. Don't say you just need to pray more. Do say, I'm praying for you, and I'm going to keep praying. Don't say, you just need to read the Bible more. Do say, there are several passages in the Bible that have given me much hope, and I've written them out for you. May I share them with you. Don't say, you need to get involved in church. Do say, I'm involved in a church where I've been learning how meaningful life can be. I would love for you to come with me next Sunday and afterward we can have lunch together. Don't say, snap out of it, get over it. Do say, I'm gonna stick with you and we'll get through this together. Then it suggests you learn all you can about depression. And then it had, oh, this is a different resource, but it had a list of the ways that you should get involved in other people's lives, that you should try to focus on the things that really matter. And as you invest in other people's lives, then you will get your eyes off of yourself and be able to be an encouragement to others. So even if you don't feel like it, choose to listen to good, uplifting, inspirational music, choose to keep your living environment bright and cheerful, choose to keep a clean, uncluttered environment, choose to clear your home of objects associated with activities related to the demonic or the occult. Choose to resist long periods of time on your phone that keep you from accomplishing what is needed. Choose to avoid spending too much time watching TV or videos, choose to write thank you notes or communications, choose to set small, attainable goals every day, and choose to look for something you can do for someone each day, and you will experience God's truth that indeed it's more blessed to give than to receive. Again, you can get a lot of this at hopefortheheart.org. That topic is depression. There's so many others. I trust that resource. It's a good one. Ephesians 4.11 passage says I'm supposed to be an equipper. So my whole goal here was to equip you to either get help for your depression or to help someone else that God brings into your life that struggles with depression. There's no way 30 or 35 minutes can fix anybody or teach you everything, but you should grow and learn so that you can be effective in ministry and compassionate towards people that struggle with us. Let me pray. Jesus, I thank you so much for these people that made it here today. I thank you so much that you give us so many resources to help people that struggle with many different things in the sinful fallen world. Lord, I pray that you would help us to walk in and live in your joy and trust you from day to day. In Jesus' name, amen.