Overcoming Depression, part 1: Great Saints Face Great Struggles

[0:00] Go ahead and get started on our Sunday school hour this morning. Go ahead and take your Bibles. Turn over to a book of 1 Kings this morning. 1 Kings as we're going to begin looking here at another being resilient in life.

[0:17] You know, that's important of understanding the resilience that comes and what we have in Christ in that being able to be resilient in life.

[0:29] And so as we begin looking here today, we realize that no matter who you are, there's going to be struggles in life. You know, one thing about it doesn't take very long for you to realize there's going to be in life, there's going to be problems.

[0:44] There's going to be things that come up. There's going to be situations that happen. And sometimes even those things that are overwhelming to us. And one of the things in society today, and it's nothing new, you know, we just have a lot more fancy labels for it than we used to, but we're going to be talking about overcoming depression.

[1:04] Because I want you to understand it's an emotion that is very real in the life of an individual. But God also gives us some clues and some helps to work through those things.

[1:17] Because, you know, depression has been a major problem for some time. And it seems to be increasing among people. But the number of people affected seem to continue to grow.

[1:29] A few statistics that you find is this. And worldwide, it says 300 million people have been diagnosed with depression. 300 million in just one 12-month period.

[1:40] 3.1 million people between the ages of 12 and 17 were diagnosed with depression in the United States. 8.75% of women and 5% of men report having experienced depression.

[1:55] Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 34-year-olds. Now, the thing is this. Depression can sometimes be hard to define. And it's even harder to experience.

[2:08] As symptoms can include following things, we're going to find feelings of sadness, emptiness, hopelessness, loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities, insomnia, or even sleeping too much.

[2:23] That's the problem with depression's impact on people is it impacts everybody a little differently. It has a lot of dynamics to it. You can have tiredness and lack of energy for even doing small tasks.

[2:36] You know, some people experience reduced appetite and weight loss. On the same token, some have increased cravings for food and have extreme weight gain. It's one of those things that covers a lot of things.

[2:48] Sometimes they have trouble thinking clearly, concentrating, making decisions, or just remembering things. And any one of these symptoms can be challenging, but when you add them together, they feel overwhelming.

[3:00] But, you know, I want you to understand. Sometimes we think, well, people, God doesn't understand what I'm going through. I want you to know this morning that God knows exactly what you're going through.

[3:11] He knows exactly what's going on in your life. Because the first thing we need to realize is that God does know. And secondly, that God cares.

[3:23] Because caring makes a difference. God cares about us. You know, when we understand the examples in Scripture of people who encountered really what you might say serious depression.

[3:40] You know, one of these people we're going to look at this morning was Elijah. You know, think about that. Here's the prophet Elijah. Probably one of the most famous prophets in the Old Testament. I mean, you don't have to be in church very long and even read through the Bible to read about Elijah.

[3:57] Elijah gets referenced all the way up through the New Testament, even into the book of Revelation. I mean, you see his name and the references to him. But he experienced depression to where he was ready and was asking God to take his life.

[4:16] All within 24 hours of having one of the greatest victories spiritually that you could think of. You know, I believe that God records Elijah for us to realize that sometimes the emotional rollercoaster of life, you're not broken, you're just normal.

[4:36] Because sometimes we think, well, what's wrong with me? I want you to understand, God says that he cares and he's made a way for you to walk through these challenges.

[4:47] And that this emotional rollercoaster that we can get on sometimes, it can be dealt with and work through. Because as we look at Elijah's victory over depression, I think it's important to understand some things.

[5:03] As we're going to look at, but let's take a look here. Go to 1 Kings chapter 19. And let's read through the first few verses here and just see the context of what we're speaking about.

[5:14] And it says this in verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

[5:34] And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord. Take away my life, for I am not better than my father's.

[5:56] And as he lay and slept under the juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. Here's Elijah. Just had a great victory.

[6:07] But now we find him exhausted, running away, hiding, even ready just to give up his life.

[6:18] So I want you to understand, as we look at Elijah, I want you to understand that some things about depression, because first, depression comes in degrees. You know, it just means to be held low, to feel low in our life.

[6:34] It simply means that they're feeling a little down. Sometimes they mean it to describe an intense form of symptoms that we've talked about above. You know, serious, lasting depression shouldn't be taken lightly.

[6:46] I want you to understand, there's a lot of things involved. Severe depression isn't usually overcome in a moment. When somebody, you know, sometimes you can just feel low, and that's easy to overcome. But sometimes there's things that happen in life that hold us down, and hold us back, and kind of create an anchor in our life, and our marks that hold us.

[7:06] And we need to understand that it sometimes builds and continues to go forward. And we have to set out a plan to move forward. We're going to see God, even working in Elijah's life, God set out a plan to help him walk through it.

[7:21] It wasn't resolved in just one day. I want you to see here as God is doing this. But second, depression is complex. Because sometimes we need to understand, because people ask a question, is depression physical or is it spiritual?

[7:39] Let me give you the answer, both. Being depressed can be a physical issue. Being depressed can be a spiritual issue. Or it could be a combination of the two.

[7:52] Because it affects us both physically and emotionally and spiritually. You know, it's not easy sometimes to pin down. Depression can come from a combination of factors.

[8:04] But whatever the primary driver is for the cause, there's always a need to understand there's hope in Christ. Christ has an answer to help you walk through.

[8:14] The Bible gives us how to walk through these things. There's always a need for hope in Christ. And we see here, Elijah's life, we learn some practical ways to lay hold of hope and live with resilience for the Lord.

[8:30] Because Elijah served God during the reign of King Ahab. You know, when he's actually been going through the kings. And if you remember, Ahab was a very wicked individual. He's a very wicked individual.

[8:42] And his wife, Jezebel, was more wicked than him. And she was a very wicked individual who worshipped Baal. You know, consider what the book of Kings records.

[8:55] Look over at 1 Kings chapter 16. When it comes to Ahab, it says here in verse 30, the Bible tells us this, Ahab, the son of Amorai, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.

[9:08] You know, that's quite a descriptor. You know, we've been going through the kings and looking at how God describes them. You know, think about what God's saying. He says, Ahab took whatever other people did and he did it and went even farther.

[9:23] Other people did evil. Ahab stepped it up a notch. Ahab was an evil individual. Tells us in verse 33 of 1 Kings 16, it says, And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger him than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

[9:40] You know? Now, when you provoke God by your choices, and that's a big thing to say. When you think about, you read through the scripture, that he did more to provoke than all the other kings.

[9:51] That means he was doing a step above, you might say intentionally going against the things of God. And he takes and he builds an altar to Baal, the false god of his wife's family, the Zidonians, and at Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

[10:09] And God sends Elijah to confront Ahab and pronounce judgment on the nation. You know? He proclaims that for three and a half years there would be no rain.

[10:21] 1 Kings chapter 17 talks about here that Elijah the Tishbite. And he says unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dune or rain these years, but according to my words.

[10:36] So three and a half years had ended, you know, Elijah had went and hid right under the nose of Ahab. When you read that story, it's kind of funny because he goes up to Zidonia and he camps out at a widow woman's house there, right under the nose of where they would least suspect him to be.

[10:55] He went right, you might say, right into the heart of the kingdom of Jezebel, Ahab's wife, that was so wicked. That's where he hides out for three and a half years. And he sees God do great things there.

[11:07] And he begins here as at the end of three and a half years, Elijah again confronts Ahab who had not repented. And he proposes a showdown between Baal and Jehovah.

[11:22] And he says, Whichever deity, whichever God will answer by sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, we need to acknowledge them as the real God.

[11:34] Now you talk about a spiritual showdown up on the Mount. Here's Elijah trusting God as he goes and he says, God, I'm going to trust you because God said, Elijah, you go and tell him we're going to do a showdown here.

[11:46] We're going to take the prophets of Baal and you my prophet, and you're going to be in contest. There was 850 prophets of Baal against one prophet of God.

[11:59] Remember they made the sacrifice ready and they did all these things and the prophets of Baal cut themselves and shrieked all day and did all these different things.

[12:11] And they leaped upon the altar and asking Baal to hear them. And we see here in chapter 18, it says, There was neither voice nor any answer nor any that regarded.

[12:23] All day they went through this and up on Mount Carmel there. And we see here that as Elijah repaired the stone altar that was there, he does something.

[12:33] He tells them to dig a trench around it and then put the offering, the bullock upon the altar. And then he says, Go fill barrels of water and fill everything up and make everything soaking wet.

[12:48] The wood, the sacrifice, the stones. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to make a fire when everything's wet. I mean, that's like a whole different tier, people who make fire when things are wet.

[12:59] I mean, that's a whole different thing here to understand. If you've ever tried to make fire, it's hard enough when it's dry. When it's soaking wet, it magnifies the problem.

[13:11] Here's Elijah, he's doing all the things that say, there can't be any other option but God intervening. And so we see here that when he calls down, he asks God to come down and the fire falls.

[13:26] It tells us in verse 38 of 1 Kings 18, it says, Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.

[13:42] I don't know if you ever stopped to think about that. When Elijah calls down fire from heaven, there was nothing but a burn mark. Everything else was there is gone. The fire that God put down took everything, accepted everything that Elijah had done, and he calls all the false prophets and he kills them, just as was instructed in the Old Testament law.

[14:02] As we see here, Elijah was prayed for rain after this and God sent a downpour. Now you think about what God does. You know, the battle at Mount Carmel, well, it's interesting here.

[14:16] They even have, I think they have a picture of a Elijah statue that they have up on top there, commemorating over there in the Middle East, over there in Israel.

[14:27] They have an actual statue of Elijah to commemorate what took place. But you think about that. Here's this great prophet. Everybody looks to him as a great man of God.

[14:38] He prays and rain comes. You know, you'd think that'd be the end of the story. You know, we always end the story at victory. Have you ever noticed that?

[14:49] When you're seeing and reading a story, they usually end it, you know, the victory. And everything rode off and everybody was happily ever after, you know. But you know, oftentimes, that's not the rest of the story, is it? That's not the rest of the story because after these amazing victories, we find something about Elijah in a real season of depression, a real different dynamic in his life.

[15:15] He went from the bold prophet to the hiding prophet. He didn't want to see people. He didn't want to talk to people. So today we're going to begin looking at three important lessons to overcome because when we understand some things about depression, it starts, one, we need to understand that discouragement is a tool of Satan.

[15:39] Satan loves to discourage believers. Discouragement is a tool the devil uses. Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but I think everybody here can say there's a time in life that I've had some problems with discouragement.

[15:55] Because you know what? You don't have to live very long to become discouraged. You say, what do you mean? Well, life happens. I mean, there's all sorts of things. We have expectations of the way we think it's going to work out and it doesn't.

[16:08] People get discouraged. Sometimes you did everything you're supposed to do and did everything you could and it still didn't turn out the way you thought it should. You can get discouraged.

[16:19] You know, secondly, I want you to understand depression is experienced by good people. Depression is not something that makes you different from anybody else. And third, we have deliverance is possible through God.

[16:33] But let's look here. Start here. Discouragement is a tool of Satan. Discouragement is a tool that he uses. It's his best one. You know, there's an old story that says one day the devil was auctioning off his tools and he had a high price on them all.

[16:47] He had pride. He had laziness, arrogance, hate, envy, jealousy. But he had one tool that had a sign under it that read not for sale. It was a large, heavy wedge.

[17:00] And someone asked the devil, what's that tool? And he said, why isn't it for sale? And he whispered, I can't afford to get rid of that one. That's my chief tool, discouragement. This tool can pry open a heart.

[17:12] And once I'm there, I can do almost anything I want. Satan's tool of discouragement is so powerful that he will try to work it into your heart during times of victory or times of defeat.

[17:26] We have to be alert for both those because sometimes when you have a great victory, when you come down from the high point, it causes depression in our life because we expect to stay up here.

[17:42] And you know what? The reality is you only stay up there so long before you're coming down some. I mean, that's just the reality. But notice here that the timing of Satan, you know, there's always a natural tendency to experience a letdown after a great moment.

[18:02] You know, big emotions can't last forever. You know, oftentimes it's a, you know, we get an event or something taking place and get all excited and into the moment and all those things.

[18:15] And we're exerting all sorts of energy and effort and time. And then we realize that that can't be sustained forever and things plummet.

[18:28] You know, Elijah, if you remember here, had just exerted great physical energy. He experienced mental stress and engaged in intense spiritual warfare. You know, I want you to understand the spiritual realm is real.

[18:42] It's very real and has an impact upon us. There's a battle that takes place spiritually. You know, the Bible tells us we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.

[18:59] That's a reality that these things take place. And so, of course, there's going to be some fatigue here on the cart of Elijah. And that's when Satan stepped in to shoot the darts of fear and despair, who knew as he was personally experienced God's power, fled for his life and sank into depression.

[19:19] Think about it. He just called down fire from heaven. And Jezebel, the queen says, I'm going to kill you. And what does he do? Takes off. You know, logically speaking in our mind, when I read that story, I'm like, man, you just called down fire from heaven.

[19:32] Just point your finger, dude. Who is she? But you know what? Sometimes that's a reality in life. Sometimes things that we don't even see coming, threats or other things begin to impact us.

[19:44] And it impacts everyone. You know, because I want you to understand that Satan doesn't play fair. His pattern of attacking when we're most vulnerable is evident throughout scripture.

[19:56] You know, think about the timing of Satan. You know, go over to Matthew chapter four for a moment. Matthew chapter four, we have the temptation of Jesus.

[20:07] You know, the Bible says he was tempted in all points like as we are, but yet without sin. But I want you to see here, when did the devil come and attack him? When was the devil there?

[20:19] Because remember, this event took place. Jesus was physically drained. He had been on a 40 day fast. That's when the devil showed up. Devil makes his move.

[20:29] He attacks on three rounds of temptation. In each instant, Jesus fought back by what? Using the word of God. Notice here in chapter four of Matthew in verse one, it says, when Jesus was led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

[20:43] And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward a hunger. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones be made bread.

[20:55] But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So after Elijah's incredible victory on Mount Carmel, Satan brought out the tool of discouragement and he used a person Jezebel to do it.

[21:14] He used a person Jezebel. So we see the threat of Jezebel that comes. Jezebel threatens and Jezebel didn't take the loss up on the mountain sitting down.

[21:27] I want you to understand, she was the chief priestess of all those prophets of Baal. She's not gonna just sit back and say, okay, well, that was bad. She goes on the offensive. She says, I'm gonna use my authority authority and my husband's authority as king to hunt this dog down and we're gonna kill him.

[21:48] It tells us in verse two back here in first Kings chapter 19, it says, and Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more so if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

[22:03] In other words, she says, Elijah, you got 24 hours. Your time is short. I want you to understand something though. Her threat was a real threat. It carried some substance to it.

[22:15] It carried authority. You know, she was a vicious woman who had no problem putting somebody to death. When you read the scripture, you find out she had no problem killing a guy just so her husband could take his land.

[22:28] This woman had no problem with killing somebody. Matter of fact, it was more routine than you might think. Here we are, the prophet of God, who just seen God work mightily on his behalf, is running away from a woman's threat.

[22:47] Here's a guy who was willing to stand up to 850 prophets of Baal, and he runs away from Jezebel. I want you to see the New Testament though tells us some things here.

[23:00] Turn over the book of James for a moment. Because sometimes we build up, we get in our mind that somehow prophets like Elijah were like superhuman. You know, like they were above everything else or they weren't normal people.

[23:14] You know, that's for somebody on a different tier than myself. But notice what James says in James chapter 5 in verse 17. The word of God reminds us this.

[23:25] It says, Now notice this.

[23:37] He was subject to like passions as we are. You know what James tells us? Yes, he did mighty things for God, but he's no different than you and me. You know, sometimes we read that and we say, well, Elijah, man, how can I compare to Elijah?

[23:51] I want you to understand. If you're saved and born again, and you have the Spirit of God within you, the Bible tells us, that we're sealed with his Spirit under the day of redemption, you've got the same Holy Spirit that allowed Elijah to call down fire from heaven working within you.

[24:05] But the question is, what are we going to do in those moments? You know, sometimes you have to wonder what would have happened if Elijah, in the moment of temptation like Jesus, fought back with the Word of God?

[24:18] What if instead of running from Jezebel's threat, he had made a stand? What if he had prayed for the direction rather than later for death? You know, the thing about this, here's Elijah, he calls down fire from heaven, he calls rain and it rains, and then he takes off and runs from Jezebel without praying.

[24:37] Here he is, he doesn't pray, except he prays later for death. As sinister as Jezebel was, and as real as Elijah's fatigue was, he had a God in heaven to whom he could have called for help and direction.

[24:51] And we see that Elijah, as a great prayer warrior in the chapters preceding this, we see that we don't see him doing that in response to her threat. You know, I want you, why am I pointing this out?

[25:01] I want you to understand because at times we experience these things, when we understand that when we experience fatigue, when we experience even coming down from great victories, we're vulnerable to Satan's weapon of discouragement.

[25:19] The circumstances that are fed into it are real. The darts of Satan hurled are fiery darts, the Bible tells us. And when that time comes, you don't give in, you need to fight, you need to be ready to stand.

[25:32] Think about over to Ephesians chapter six. As a believer, what does he tell us? Because these things are gonna happen. Look at Ephesians six, look down in verse 16. The word of God tells us this.

[25:44] It says, above all things, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

[26:04] You know what? Paul tells us in Ephesians, he says, you better be ready for the battle, especially when you're tired. Especially when you, life seems overwhelming, you better put on the armor.

[26:16] You better make sure it's in place because I want you to understand, discouragement is not only a tool of Satan, but depression is experienced by good people. You know, sometimes we have a misnomer.

[26:29] Well, if they're caught up in that, then there's something wrong with them. And I want you to understand, it doesn't necessarily mean anything's wrong with them other than their person. You know, there are times we're vulnerable for discouragement.

[26:40] And sometimes those points of vulnerability repeat in our life. We need to prepare ourselves and understand, when does the devil attack?

[26:51] When do those moments happen in your life? Because not everybody's always operating at a high level. Not everybody, you know, even people who seem joyful on the outside, you know, that's not a sign there's not something going on on the inside.

[27:07] When we understand what's happening in a person, because something that's touching, touching about how God recorded what happened in Elijah's life, a godly man, whose God's hand was upon, the Bible tells us, had a root and a battle with depression.

[27:26] I mean, when you read this, I don't think you're getting the other thing different than Elijah was depressed. He doesn't want to eat. He's exhausted. Wants to be alone. Matter of fact, he's crying out to God, Lord, just take my life.

[27:39] I want you to understand, this is the reason we need to be careful, because sometimes we mistakenly assume that depression is always rooted in sin. But there are times that, when Christ-loving, born-again Christians go through seasons of depression.

[27:55] You know, there are times when depression is a result of God's conviction. Yes, those things are real. God's conviction on your life ought to impact you. But, you know, the only person that knows truly what's happening is you.

[28:11] If there's sin that needs to be dealt with, and you're feeling depressed and discouraged, then you need to get taken care of. But I want you to understand that on the outside looking in, just because somebody's struggling with depression and these elements that we're talking about today doesn't mean that there's necessarily sin in their life.

[28:30] Now, I want you to understand, everybody's a sinner. Everybody's got some sin to deal with. But I want you to understand that depression might not be directly connected to that sin. That's a judgment that we can try to make assumptions on that get us in trouble.

[28:43] We need to be careful in that, because when God convicts and we refuse to respond to his chastening, there's physical symptoms that happen.

[28:55] I mean, you think about the dynamic in David's life. He had physical symptoms when he covered his sin and refused to repent. You think about Judas. He committed suicide after betraying Christ.

[29:09] You have Jonah decided he would rather commit suicide than submit to God. I mean, think about that. What did Jonah do? He says, hey, just throw me overboard. What's he saying? Kill me. He had no idea how God was going to intervene.

[29:21] So I want you to understand, sin is not the cause of all depression. Think about Job. Was Job depressed? I think when you see the signs and you read through the book of Job, Job had some serious depression issues.

[29:34] And you say, well, why did he have them? Well, I think he had a pretty good reason. I think most of us would be pretty close to Job and probably worse with all the things that happened. So I want you to understand that even though they were passionately following God, they sank into despair and asked God to take their lives.

[29:52] Their depression was certainly not rooted in disobedience or hidden sin. But as you read the Psalms, you find that David, as well as the other psalmists, had many emotional highs and lows.

[30:03] And some of them came while they were passionately seeking after God. Because the Psalms in which they pour out their feelings of depression to the Lord are great places for us to go when our heart is overwhelmed.

[30:18] You know, in times when you're struggling, one of the best books in the Bible to read is the book of Psalms. David, I don't know how a clinical psychologist would diagnose David if they understood all the things David said in the Psalms.

[30:31] But you know the thing about the Psalms, it always starts out, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is the problem. But you know, it quickly turns to, but God. The difference in David's life, he understood, hey, this is the reality I'm facing.

[30:46] But then I remembered God. Who God is, what God's done, what God's promised to do. You know, that's the reason I think we can connect with the Psalms there because they impact who we are and how we walk through these things.

[31:01] In fact, the Psalms in which they pour out their feelings of depression to the Lord help us to understand what we're walking through is not any different than anybody else. Just as the Bible spoke of Elijah, of Elijah, he was a man of like passions.

[31:16] He dealt with the same things we deal with. But as Satan attacks, discouragement is the first attempt to sink into, sink us into that fault of feeling despair that follows.

[31:29] When we're struggling with feelings of depression, we spend our limited emotional energy trying to sort out of if or how we're at fault or for our feelings and we sink downward in our life.

[31:42] Because when this happens, I want you to see here what takes place because notice Elijah here. Look at verse 3 back in our text. It says in 1 Kings 19, it says, and when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba and that belonged to Judah and left his servant there.

[32:00] You know, one of the things about depression is people want isolation. Isolation. Isolation is one of the things that you'll find. One of the markers of depression in Elijah's life was his desire to isolate himself.

[32:16] He wanted to be isolated from people. The desire for isolation can be a sign of depression, but it also can be particular of depression.

[32:28] You know, all of us need times of solitude. Now, I want you to understand, just because you want to be alone doesn't mean you're in severe depression. You know, sometimes the best thing you can do is get alone. Quiet. Turn everything off.

[32:39] Turn the phone off. Turn the computer off. Turn TV off. Turn the radio off and the podcasts off and everything else. Sometimes the best thing you can do is take some time to actually speak to yourself and to the Lord.

[32:54] You know, I think it's one thing today that is a big issue because oftentimes we don't shut things off and just get between us and God. We're so busy of inputs. Everything's always going.

[33:05] You know, it's amazing today how many people never have any silence. Myself, I like working in silence. It's therapeutic. It gives you time to think. You're accomplishing a little bit and gives you time just to think through and you can talk to the Lord and you can even talk to yourself.

[33:21] You know, that's not a bad thing. Sometimes you need to talk to yourself. I believe it says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. What was he doing? He was talking to himself. But you know, in our society today, I think depression's on the rise because a lot of people never spend time to really process the things of life.

[33:35] Sometimes that requires getting alone. So I want you to understand that isolation is not the problem. It's when you want to remove yourself intentionally from people because of what's happening.

[33:48] You know, turn over to Psalm 102 for a moment. 102nd Psalm here. Look down at verse 7. It says, I watch and am a sparrow alone upon the housetop.

[33:59] Mine enemies reproach me all the day and they are mad against me, sworn against me. You know, I want you to understand that when you sense yourself emotionally withdrawing, there's a problem.

[34:14] When we understand the importance of isolation, you know, when a teenager wants to be totally isolated, it's a flag that says, hey, we need to pay attention. When somebody wants to be isolated for long periods of time, that's something we ought to pay attention to.

[34:29] That's different than being alone for a little bit and not wanting to be around people than isolation. Isolation says, I want to remove everything else. Isolation makes us feel like nobody else has gone through what we're feeling and nobody can understand or help us.

[34:48] You know, isolation is dangerous because isolation is dangerous when you remove it from the... There's nothing wrong with wanting to be alone for a little while, but a persistent is a problem.

[35:02] It's a sign of other issues and we ought to desire those things to understand that the devil wants to use that because when you feel alone is when you're most vulnerable because there's a difference between being isolated and feeling lonely, feeling separated from people.

[35:23] When we understand the reality of this and we'll... Look over to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. Look down at verse 8. The Bible tells us this, Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

[35:49] You know? In other words, very simply, be attentive to those things because what you're going through is the exact same thing everybody else is going through. It's because you're alive, you're going through a problem.

[36:01] Those are the realities that we have when we deal with depression. But the second thing we find here is he isolated himself from God.

[36:12] He isolated himself from God. You know, in verse 4 we find, but he himself went. Elijah didn't consult God on this.

[36:22] He just went on his own decision into the wilderness. The answer to depression is not turning away from family and it's certainly not pulling away from God.

[36:34] The answer comes through turning to God and turning to others to help you walk through. And so we're out of time this morning. We're going to finish up here next week as we look for this reality of depression and dealing with it in your life.

[36:55] Because when we recognize the signs and what's happening, it's going to help us in the next step as we're going to look at next week what God gives us to help us walk through those things. Because God doesn't just give us a problem and say, hey, it's your problem.

[37:08] God says, no, here's a problem. Here's a solution to walk through. So let's pray. Let's pray.

[37:18]