Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, Pastor Jon Burgess
August 28, 2016 - W1635

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro (video from Oregon):

We are ALL prone to depression at one time or another in our life. The Bible mentions several men who suffered with depression—Moses, Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, and King David—even well known Christians, such as, Mother Teresa and Jonathan Edwards.  Only a small percentage of depression comes from chemical imbalance or hormonal inconsistences.  If that is you, please consult a medical professional to best ascertain a resolution. 

Let me deal with the majority of other cases besides chemical imbalance or hormonal inconsistences that cause depression. The good news is that depression is resolvable and over the past ten years, I have had to come to grips with this over and over again.  Depression can and will affect your relationships if it is not dealt with.  However, the good news is that if you will intentionally apply yourself, it is absolutely possible to overcome depression.  Depression doesn’t happen overnight. 

Causes Of Depression:

1. A Great Loss - death of a loved one or death of a dream or expectation. When proper grieving is not processed correctly, a person’s emotions become pent up.  They become emotionally hardened, retreat from people, shut down mentally and emotionally, and depression sets in.

2. Prolonged Fatigue. Tiredness over time can make a person more prone to depression because we are more vulnerable when fatigued.  When our bodies are spent and our souls are depleted and we keep pushing onward for success or obsession towards a goal or a dream that will begin to take its toll.  Even Godly goals can destroy our soul if we violate the Sabbath rest that the Bible talks about, and the work of God around you begins to destroy the work God wants to do within you. When that happens, your road to emotional breakdown or success become one and the same. 

3. Victimhood.  Sometimes we become a victim of things we cannot control.  When focusing too much on self, our thinking goes bad and we become selfish.  Feeding on negative things will create more depression, making us think we are victims; therefore, we must renew the spirit of our minds. Ephesians 4:23-24, “…be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” It’s really how you think.  Victimhood will cause your heart to retreat and you’ll live overcautiously—a bad thought pattern.  Matthew 6:22-23, “The lamp of our body is your eye; so then if your eye is clear your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great shall that darkness be?” It’s about how we see things that determine how we define life and how we see ourselves.  If you are struggling with depression, there is good news. Here is what Jesus says: “Come to Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” Matthew 11:28.  When confusion, storm, or depression sets in, we don’t know which way to go.  The right direction is always towards Jesus.  He will always give us the strength, renewed hope, and biblical direction to follow.

Principles To Overcoming Depression:

1. Mobilize your mind for battle.  The first stage to getting out of depression is to fight and refuse to be a victim of things you cannot control.  Do whatever it takes, but never surrender to victimhood again.  Fit your mind for battle.  Do not surrender to circumstances, to feelings of inadequacy, or to emotional negativity of your surroundings.  James 4:7, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  Remember, the devil is a headhunter.  Your mind is his battlefield and your imagination is his trophy.  Fight for a clear conscious and a strong faith.  You alone are responsible for your emotional stability. God will help you to overcome depression, BUT you have to take charge.

2. Get back to physical fitness.  You must get your blood running again!  Steward the temple that God has given you.  Walk around the block and tune up your mind and tone up your body.  Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31-32, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  You would think that Jesus would have said, “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat so I blocked him for you.” Instead, Jesus said, “Simon, I prayed for you that your faith not fail.” God wants you to build faith muscles.  God is saying I will help you with faith but I won’t lift it for you. 

He wants your faith strengthened so that you won’t go back to depression.

3. Get back to helping and serving others.  Remember, depression comes when we think too much about self.  What has God called you to do?  Get back to your primary assignment.  If you’re a parent, raise great kids.  We can all inspire and motivate others to love God more.  In the end, God will not hold you accountable for what you have done, as much as for how much of what He has asked you to do that you have done.  He is saying, “Get off yourself, about how you feel, or what happened to you.  Don’t get caught up in the negativity of things that happened to you.  If you do, your depression will steal your objectivity and you will lose the big picture.

I wish I could give you all the answers, but I can’t. Start by fighting like crazy.  You will be creative again and make lemonade out of lemons. We can’t know the cards that will be dealt us but we can determine how we will play them.  Your creativity and your life purpose will return.  Challenge yourself to do what is right.  Don’t think like a victim; change the way you think.  Use your imagination for good.  Don’t paint your future with drab dull colors—use neon and fluorescent colors.  No more negative talk; you’re done with that!  Let God help you build your faith muscles. 

Worry is thinking about the bad things and how they may go wrong. Instead, mobilize yourself for battle and you will realize this battle was worth every ounce of energy that you invested.  Draw a line, step over it, and never ever return to depression.  It will take work but it will be worth it!  In the midst of your depression, cry out to God.  I promise, God will be there to help you.  It might be just a little help, but it will be enough for you to build the faith you need to be all that God created you to be.  You watch, you wait and you will see!  (End of video.)

Pastor Jon Burgess:

Can we give Pastor Wayne a hand for that “painfully practical” message? I’m glad Pastor Wayne gave us permission to be lovers of Jesus and still struggle with depression; that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Part of our journey is learning how to invite Jesus to help us conquer the depression and heaviness in our lives.  I want to add one more way that God has taught me over the years to overcome depression. 

4. Get back to Communing, which is a vertical relationship with God, and Community, which is a horizontal relationship with others.  Several years ago, I was in a place that I had never been before or was as overwhelmed as I was that night.  My twins, Justice and Jackson, were born almost three months premature and spent the next nine weeks in the NICU hospital.  I had three other boys at home and I was living between home and hospital.  For the first couple of weeks the twins were fighting for their lives and there was nothing I could do about it!  I was also the senior pastor at New Hope Seattle - the church that I had planted.  I was supposed to teach at a Men’s Retreat the weekend my boys made their arrival.  Everything was falling apart; at least that’s how I felt.  Depression makes you feel you are done, overwhelmed, that you’re in a well sinking fast and you’re in over your head. 

I remember sitting in a dim hallway of a hospital literally crushed. Up to that point, I had been able to overcome most things I faced, but now I felt absolutely helpless!  I couldn’t help my boys because I’m not a doctor.  I couldn’t help my wife because she felt torn between her boys at home and at the hospital.  I couldn’t help my boys at home because I was bouncing back and forth.  I couldn’t help my church.  Some of them were going through their own crises and I couldn’t be there and I had nothing to give.  I felt I was failing everyone.  I sat in the hallway of that hospital absolutely exhausted.  This is what Pastor Wayne said could bring about depression—I was losing my dreams and visions, not sleeping well, experiencing major fatigue, and being dragged into a “victimhood mentality.”  I was asking God, “Why would you let this happen?  We’re serving you.  We’ve given all that we have.  We’re telling people in Seattle about you.  What did we do wrong?”

Until you come to a place of communing honestly with God, you will not be able to receive the breakthrough that you need to allow God to lift you up from the depths of despair. Start with communing with God.  Be honest.  Say, “I feel that I have let everyone down and God, I feel you let me down.  When you get to that hopeless place, depression becomes your identity. 

In that empty hospital hallway as I sat sobbing before the Lord, I felt a tiny crack of a door opening. I didn’t receive mighty words of revelation but I did feel a peace that transcends understanding, guarding my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.  I heard two words in my spirit:  “I’m enough.”  I wasn’t enough for my boys, I wasn’t enough for my wife, I wasn’t enough for my church, but God is enough for all of it. Always remember that God is always enough.

We were fatigued but the Community - our family and friends - came. They brought food and said, “We’re taking care of Elijah, Aiden, and Benjamin.  We’re taking them to see a movie.  Don’t worry about them.  We’ll pick them up after school.  We’re going to take care of them and we’re going to have fun.  Also, just so you know, everything is fine at church.  The teaching team that you raised up is stepping into their places, and we have an intercessory team praying for you.”  We literally felt buoyed up by God through their words and prayers.

Communion and Community are what we need. They are not optional. 2 Corinthians 7:5-7 says, “For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. (Isn’t that exactly what Pastor Wayne just described as depression?) But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever.”

Have you ever sent an email or text waiting for a quick response, and time passes and there is no answer? The enemy’s strategy is to cause depression through insinuation that you made a mistake or as he told Adam and Eve, “God is holding out on you.”  Insinuation leads to isolation.  You pull back to protect yourself so as to not to get hurt again.  You isolate yourself by not going to church or small group and that leads to insulation.  Pretty soon you are filled with fear, worry, and doubt.  You become isolated with a victimhood mentality because of the way you were treated.  The situation looks insurmountable (impossible) and that you will never overcome this situation.  The insinuation (lie of the enemy), leads to isolation; isolation leads to insulation and victimhood; victimhood leads to an insurmountable hopeless view on life. 

God is saying, “I’m enough!” Paul found himself in a place of not knowing where his friend Titus was, or how the church in Corinth had received his letter in I Corinthians (a pretty strong letter of how they had to get it right!).  He was worried they would not receive him and that they would reject the word of God.  While Paul is waiting, he turns to communing with God.  Most scholars believe that he turned to Isaiah 49:13, “Shout for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into songs. O mountains! For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”  Isaiah must have felt that the people of Israel thought that God had forgotten them.  When you are facing an insurmountable impossible situation, turn to God because He is bigger than you.  Turn to the Word of God and the promises of God.  Israel felt that God had forgotten them.  Paul felt forgotten too so he began to commune with God.  See what happened next.

2 Corinthians 7:6 says, “But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus.”  His friend and protégé showed up!  He showed up with good news so that his joy was greater than ever.  However, before Titus showed up, God showed up!  Titus brought community, responding, “Paul, we’re behind you, we received your letter, we want to move forward with your guidance and leadership.”  Paul moved from the place of Victimhood to the place of Victory!

You and I have this choice too. We will either walk out of here as victims or walk out victoriously.  It all depends on how honest and willing we are.  Where are you right now?  Feeling low?  Then invite God into that place.  Feeling despair?  Invite God into that place.  If your circumstances seem insurmountable, then invite God into that place and see how Big He is again!

It is so good that you are here in Community and realize that you are not alone. You don’t have to be isolated or insulated. Invite the community of God to dig you out.  Realize you cannot get out alone.  Say, “I need help!”

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. Name one cause of depression.

2. Since we are all prone to depression, give one principle to overcoming depression.

3. Have you allowed the Lord to deal with any childhood issues or losses? Which ones?

4. What strategy does the enemy use to cause us depression?

5. How were you able to cope with depression?