SEA POINT EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CAPE TOWN.

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas Scarborough.

Depression.

Morning Worship, 19 September 2004.

I have been preaching lately on a few topics that are important to us as Christians – and this morning I am preaching on the topic of depression.

I certainly hope that it won’t be a depressing sermon – but rather a source of hope and strength for you – and if not to you personally, then to someone you know.

Depression is a very wide problem in our society today, so my topic is not on the fringes of real life, it is right at the centre.

According to statistics, at the very least one in three people have suffered – or do suffer – from depression – two in three have had experience of depression – that doesn’t mean they just know about it, but they have had experience with it in their life. And two in three young adults today show tendencies towards depression.

Just this week, some new statistics were published in South Africa, in the Natal Mercury. Every hour, at least one person commits suicide in our country – and every hour, at least twenty people attempt it.

10% of all unnatural deaths in this country are now by suicide. Also, nearly 8% of schoolchildren have already attempted suicide. Not that suicide is always liked with depression, but often it is.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now I shall begin this morning by saying the most important thing there is to know about depression – and that is that it is a spiritual problem – and it has a spiritual solution.

It is influenced by circumstance – and it is influenced by personality – it is influenced by your background – but in the final analysis, it is a spiritual problem.

And that is actually cause for hope – because if the problem is spiritual, it is something that defintely has a cure.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now right at the start I shall say two things about the way that God designed us to live.

Firstly, He designed us for worship – He designed us to worship Him. Without worshipping Him, we are incomplete, and we are not doing what we were created to do. And there is one thing that is completely absent in worship – and that is self-interest.

We don’t worship God and ask at the same time, “What am I going to get out of this? How is this going to benefit me?” We worship God because God is deserving of our worship. We worship Him out of gratitude. We worship Him because He deserves to be praised.

The Bible shows us that God is worshipped ceaselessly and eternally by innumerable hosts, and we are simply joining them when we worship Him.

Worship draws our attention away from ourselves, and from anything that has to do with me – and it sets my heart on the Lord. And that is completely the opposite of the natural condition of people before they are saved, which is to put me at the centre of my world.

Secondly, once we are saved, the whole emphasis of our lives turns around. No longer are we self-seeking, and interested in myself, and my own pleasure and my own glory – or even my own reputation, my own safety – but in the words of the old chorus, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

The whole New Testament is filled with the one fact that when we become Christians, we become a part of the Body of Christ, and we start to be a spiritual blessing to others. We encourage one another, we minister to one another, we build one another up, we even admonish one another.

We start to live, no longer out of self-interest, but out of love. We start to live for the blessing of Christ’s Church, His people. Our entire vision turns outward. There is a turning from self-focus, and self-centred, self-concerned thoughts, to the Body.

And we shall see in a moment how these two very basic facts tie into depression.

When problems creep into those two very basic areas of our lives, that is where the risk of depression creeps in.

Worship is healthy – serving others in love is healthy – that’s what we were designed for. And if that slips out of our lives, we are in trouble.

* * * * * * * * * *

Several characters in the Bible, incidentally, experienced depression. And some of them were the greatest men and women of God.

It seems that Abraham experienced depression. The Bible says: “A thick and dreadful darkness came over Abraham.” (Genesis 15:12).

Elijah suffered depression. He went into the desert, and sat down under a broom tree, and prayed that he might die. He said, “Lord, take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:4).

King Saul experienced classic symptoms of depression, although in his case this also had a demonic side. The Bible says: “An evil spirit from the Lord tormented Him.” (1 Samuel 16:14).

Job suffered depression – David – Hezekiah – and several others suffered depression in the Bible.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now sometimes people misunderstand what depression really is, so I’ll just say a little about the definition of depression.

Firstly, it is not the same as normal, everyday emotions. There is nothing unnatural about tears and sorrows and disheartenment in everyday life. That is a natural part of life – and it doesn’t have to be something destructive.

In fact the Bible shows us that, in the life of the Christian, tears and sorrows have a very important part in our sanctification. They are a mark of God’s blessing and God’s working in our life.

* * * * * * * * * *

But then there is something that goes deeper than mere sorrows, or disheartenment – and that is depression.

And depression is not always the feeling of being down. Often people associate depression with the feeling of depression. But it is not always a feeling. It is more like a state, or a condition.

That might sound strange – but depression has around 20 classic symptoms – and only one of those symptoms is the feeling of depression – and sometimes people suffer many of the other symptoms without feeling particularly depressed.

Here are some of the classic symptoms. You can check yourself against these symptoms.

Do you have feelings of guilt? Do you feel self-reproach – or that you have let people down – or God is punishing you?

Do you have thoughts of suicide – or thoughts of just fleeing from it all – or do you think that life is not worth living?

Do you have difficulty getting to sleep – or staying asleep?

Have you lost interest in your work or your activities?

Do you find you are “pushing” yourself through everything in life?

Have you become slow in trying to put your thoughts and words together? Do you have problems concentrating on a page? Do you find you are agitated?

Are you anxious? Do you find yourself worrying about all kinds of little things?

Those are all symptoms of depression – and if you have a few of these together, you qualify as being depressed.

These are not all the symptoms, they are just a few.

* * * * * * * * * *

Depression also shows itself in different ways. Not only is it a continuing condition, but sometimes it manifests itself in downward spirals, and panic attacks – which are also forms of depression.

These are a very sudden plunge into depression – like a sudden implosion. Suddenly something triggers such an episode – you may not even know what – and suddenly you plunge downwards into a nightmarish condition.

And these forms of depression have similar causes, and similar solutions, to depression in general.

* * * * * * * * * *

Let’s touch just briefly on counselling, and medication.

Should a person seek counselling for depression?

And the answer is yes. If depression is seriously disrupting your life, you should go for counselling. If your car breaks down, you don’t try to fix it yourself. You are quite happy to admit: “I’m not competent to fix this car” – and so you take it to a mechanic.

In the same way, if your emotions break down, it is good to admit that you are at the end of your own ability, and to seek confidential counselling – if at all possible a mature Christian counsellor.

In fact it is a Christian principle to seek advice and prayer from mature Christians – and that is why God poured out gifts of wisdom and discernment and encouragement and pastoring on His Church.

* * * * * * * * * *

Should a Christian seek medication?

The answer is that medication is never a final solution, and I have never met a person yet who said it was the final solution. But medication can help – and sometimes it can be a critical help.

What happens with depression is that after a while it begins to have a physical effect. I am not a doctor, but they say that depression causes a surplus of adrenalin, and a surplus of adrenalin eventually causes harm to the nervous system – and when that happens, you begin to experience some of the physical effects of depression.

Medication can help with that – it can be a jump-start to someone who has become physically run down – and in fact it may be necessary.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now on the surface of it, there are some well known causes of depression – they are not the deepest causes, so I am not going to dwell on them for long – but they are important causes.

The first major cause of depression is stress, stress, and stress.

If a person falls into depression, it is virtually guaranteed that they have been suffering too much stress – either through their environment, or for some reason in their hearts.

And that stress usually is what is called global stress. It is stress at work, and stress at home, and stress that fills a person’s life from waking till sleeping.

If you have stress in every department of life, you are almost certainly suffering depression.

God didn’t design us for continual stress. He designed us for trust, and peace, and a balanced life.

So the first solution to depression is: Put your life in that kind of order that reduces stress, that cuts it out, and finds a godly balance.

* * * * * * * * * *

Another well known cause of depression is the loss of life’s balance. And I have put some crucial areas on the Sermon Outline for you to run through as a check.

There are seven areas of life that need to be in balance. And what you need to do with each of these areas is to ask the simple question, “Is this area of my life satisfactory?” And then hear what your heart is saying.

Is my home life satisfactory? my work life, my spiritual life, intellectual life, social life, the amount of recreation and rest I have, and the physical activity and exercise I have?

Psychologists say that if one of these areas is not satisfactory, you are emotionally endangered – and if more than one area is not satisfactory, then you are almost certainly suffering from depression.

Then you need to prayerfully set about putting these areas back into balance. Make a determined effort to find a new balance in your life.

* * * * * * * * * *

Next on the Sermon Outline – and this is the most important part of my sermon this morning – a huge part of the problem of depression is inward-looking.

How does a person look inward? There are two basic ways.

Firstly, you look inward by looking to the sin that is inside of you. “I’m such a sinner. I’m a failure. I have let people down. God can’t love me.”

Or, secondly you look inward by looking to the inadequacy inside of you. “I can’t handle this situation. What am I going to do? How am I going to cope? Life has got on top of me.”

And those are two basic spiritual problems – sin – and inadequacy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Listen how the psychology textbooks describe the causes of depression.

Dr. John Wilson, in the LIFE Science Library, says the cause of depression is: “feelings of failure and frustration”.

Failure – that is sin – the first reason number for depression on the Sermon Outline.

And frustration – that is the sense powerlessness in face of a situation – a sense of inadequacy – which is the second reason for depression on the Sermon Outline.

One of the best known psychology textbooks today – The Oxford Companion to the Mind – says that the cause of depression is: “a state of deep despondency and hopelessness” – “feelings of despair and dread of the future”- and that is inadequacy, on the outline – “coupled with self-accusations and guilt” – and that is sin, on the Outline.

Again and again we find these two factors – sin, and inadequacy.

And both of them lead to an inward-looking.

“Look at me…”

“I am a sinner.”

“I am inadequate in this situation.”

* * * * * * * * * *

And the solution to this is fairly simple – although we need to bear in mind that it may not be quick. Depression involves habits of thinking – long-formed habits – and habits are often very strong. They are very tenacious. When I was a teenager, I had a motorbike with an ignition on the right side of the bike. Now it’s twenty-five years later, and I’ve got an ignition on the front now – but I still sometimes put my key down there.

So depression has a simple solution – but it has to be very steadfastly and consistently applied – every moment of every day. You need to develop new mental and spiritual habits – and that takes continual watchfulness.

* * * * * * * * * *

First of all, you will need to deal with the feelings of sin. Those feelings that say: “I’m such a sinner. I’m a failure. I have let people down. I’ve sinned against God.”

In fact you may not even recognise those feelings at first, and you need to start to catch them, and to notice them. “What am I actually saying to myself?” What are you blaming yourself for? What is it that you feel guilty about? Catch what you are really feeling.

* * * * * * * * * *

There are two healthy spiritual things you can do with feelings of sin or self-accusation.

The first is to reject them. Some accusations may not be true. Some feelings of sin may not be warranted – they may be planted there by the devil.

If that is so, then reject them. Have nothing to do with them. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

It is possible to hear false accusations – accusations from others – accusations to yourself – that are not true – but you fail to resist them – to reject them. And that is not healthy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Secondly, what is more likely is that accusations are true – that you have sinned – that the accusations of others – or your own self-reproaches – are in fact true.

What you need to do then is to take them to the foot of the cross in prayer, and to ask the Lord for forgiveness, and for cleansing – and then to trust in His promise – that when you have confessed your sin, He is faithful and just and will forgive you and purify you from all sin. (1 John 1:8).

Remember, the Bible says: “There is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Self-condemnation comes from the devil.

Now this is not something you need to do just once – to take your sins to Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing.

I have said that the battle against depression is a determined one. You need to watch for those feelings of failure and sin and self-reproach – every moment of every day – and bring them before Him continually for forgiveness and cleansing.

* * * * * * * * * *

Secondly, there is feelings of inadequacy.

And what do you do with inadequacy?

Inadequcy is again a looking to yourself – where you say: “How am I going to handle this situation? What am I going to do? This is all too much for me. What am I going to say?”

And just as you are not designed to carry unforgiven sin on your own shoulders, so you are not designed to carry the burden of what you are going to do, and how you are going to cope.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Bible says: “Cast all your anxiety upon Him.” (1 Peter 5:7). That is a commandment. You are just a weak and sinful human being. You are inadequate. It is because you are inadequate that you suffer feelings of

inadequacy.

Now in order to overcome depression, what you need to do is train yourself to notice those feelings of inadequacy – and every time a thought goes through your head: “I am inadequate,” or “what am I going to say?” or “How am I going to manage” – stop immediately, and hand it over to the Lord.

Say to the Lord: “Lord, I am inadequate. I don’t know how I am going to handle this. Please you take this burden. Please you give me the words and the wisdom and the strength when I need them – but right now I cast it all upon you.”

This also is not just something you need to do once. You need to train yourself to do it all the time – every moment of every day – even a hundred times a day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Let’s return to where we started – because both of these areas have very much to do with what I said at first this morning – they both show us that we need to turn away from self, and turn to the Lord – turn away from my poor, sinful, inadequate self, and turn my attention to the Lord – to worship Him, and to serve Him.

And ultimately, that is the most powerful solution for depression that there is. It is absolutely vital to our spiritual and mental health to start to focus everything on worshipping God, and serving Him.

* * * * * * * * * *

For those of us who know someone who is depressed – I would encourage you to love them, and encourage them, and uplift them. God is busy doing a great work in their lives, if they know Him. Don’t blame them for what they are suffering, but look to what God wants to bring about.

In fact in a Christian’s life, depression is a time where God is working in their life more powerfully than at any other time.

* * * * * * * * * *

Finally, in closing, at the root of everything I have said this morning, you need to find God, and you need to turn your life to God.

Would you like to turn your life to God today? Would you like to turn away from yourself, and find a new focus for your life? Do ask me for a booklet as you leave, which will explain just how you may come into a personal relationship with the Lord.

AMEN.

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