Okay, so we're going to talk about how to help women that come in our life, that come to you and they say they're struggling with depression. That's a really common, another common temptation that people have. And you know, some of my goals this afternoon will be to just talk about how, kind of identify some of the definition of depression from a biblical point of view.

Even look at some people in the Bible that struggled with depression and how they actually can counsel themselves out of that and just some differing thoughts, schools of thoughts. Now again, let me remind you, I'm not a psychologist. I'm a biblical counselor and so I'm not going to come from a psychologist point of view.

Some of you might have a psychologized view of this topic. You were taught that in school, but I don't hold to that school of thought. And so don't be offended if I give you the biblical view and it's contrary to what you've learned in school because there's just different schools of thought, right?

Biblical counseling is still lumped into the psychologies because it's not just one psychology. It's like, it's a school of psychologies. There's differing thoughts and so I'm in the world of the biblical counseling psychologies. But anyway, let's just start with a big old quote. This is, this will get us started.

This is Jay Adams again, the co-founder of biblical counseling, and he says that depression can all, almost anything can be at the root of depression. A person could have a recent illness in which they get behind in their work. There could be hormonal changes. There could be a reversal of fortunes.

There could be just the consequences of simple negligence. There could be guilt over a particular sin, self-pity arising from jealousy or maybe a disadvantageous turn of events. There could be bad feelings resulting from resentment and worry. Really the important factor or fact to remember is that depression does not result directly from any of those outside factors, but rather it comes from a cyclical process in which the initial problem, whatever that is, is mishandled in such a way that it is enlarged in a downward lexical spiral that eventually will plunge somebody into despair.

So it's the way a person's responding to their circumstances and eventually it could potentially drive them to despair. And that downward cycle of sin moves from a problem to a faulty, sinful response, thereby causing an additional complicating problem which is met by an additional sinful response. So usually when people come and they present their problem as being depressed, there's usually other things going on in their life.

That's usually not always the case. Depression can sometimes be just an effect of something they're responding to. Now because we live in a fallen world, it's just inevitable that life's going to bring hardship and suffering on one level or another. I'm sure all of you might be struggling with things in your life.

I mean I had a student, it was just amazing, here we're going along in our semester, we've got two weeks to go, right now's the time where students are doing presentations, you know, the finals are coming up. And this poor girl over Easter break, her father died. Just like that, it was just very sudden.

Things happen. We live in a fallen world. Death is part of being in the fallen world. And so she's dealing with that, right? She's having to deal with a sudden death of her father that she loved, of course, and trying not to allow it to drive her to despair.

Now there's going to be obvious grief, but how do I keep from despairing without hope, you know? And so just kind of thinking through that. But depression has the potential to develop when setbacks in life, like what happened to my student, just aren't handled in a biblical and godly way.

And as Jay Adams points out in that definition, is there's always a potential for it to become a downward spiral that will plunge us into despair if we allow it. So one of our goals this afternoon is to learn how we can hold to a high view of God in comparison to the trials that you experience.

Because people are typically just responding to trials that they're trying to endure, and just remembering that God always brings great hope to believers when his grace is viewed as sufficient and his strength is viewed as real. Like David expresses in Psalm 42 and 43, that's a great two psalms that you can read that gives you focus.

And it kind of helps you to view sorrow and suffering from God's perspective instead of just dealing with the emotion of it. So I think, again, what's helpful is just to kind of present a case study. I think it's helpful for you to kind of think through these issues by looking at a person.

This particular case study comes out of the ACBC question that we use when we have our candidates take that exam. We want, so Esther will recognize this, so we want you to think through, I kind of changed some of the words, but it's basically the same one. And so just kind of follow along.

I'm going to read the case study, and you just kind of think through this person's life as if it's someone you really know. And you're being asked, basically, by your pastor to come alongside this woman to help her, okay? So this is somebody that you're realizing, wow, this is going to be interesting.

But here we have Sarah. And Sarah is a 34-year-old woman. She's a mother of three. So a lot of you are a mother of three. You can identify. And she's come to you because she's been labeled as having depression. That's what she's telling you. She says that she's been feeling terribly sad for the last six months, and she's had a lot of trouble just keeping up with life.

She wants to get to the bottom of this, and so she met with your pastor initially to get some counsel, or maybe she met with Esther initially to get some counsel, and they referred her to you because they're hoping that you might be able to give her wise counsel on what she should do, okay?

And in addition to seeking your counsel, she also shares with you that she's already talked with a bunch of friends, and she's asking for their opinion as well, which isn't always very helpful, by the way. But that's what friends do. So she's asking her friends for help, and she says that a lot of her friends struggle in the same way.

And so they said that what they did is they received antidepressants for their despair from their medical doctor to help with their issue, but they say they claim that the medicine seemed to help for a while, but they were beginning to experience some unpleasant side effects that Sarah's actually really concerned about.

And so one of the questions she has for you is whether or not she should see her doctor about getting on antidepressants, okay? So we have a woman here, very common issue. This Sarah represents so many people that I've seen over the years, and she's describing something that women struggle with all over the country.

So to address how to help her, if this were you and you were the person that needed to help this gal, I kind of want to just give you kind of a framework or a methodology that you could use. It's not, again, it's not rocket science. It's just careful study of people, wanting to ask questions to help them for the glory of God.

And any of you could incorporate this into your own counsel. So it's always going to begin with asking good questions. You've got to ask people good questions or ask questions in general. You can't just assume that a person is a certain way just because you're making a judgment. James 119 says that we're to be quick to listen, quick to listen, slow to speak, right?

And so if you want to be a compassionate and wise friend who gives good counsel, you need to make it your aim to seek to truly understand this woman that you're meeting with and just kind of begin to acquire knowledge before you pass any judgment on her. We see this played out in Proverbs 18.2, which says that a fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing his own opinion.

So we don't, we want to get away from just expressing their own opinion. We actually want to give biblical counsel. I think it's just helpful. I kind of broke down the data gathering section into six categories. But before I go through this, I just want to make a disclaimer.

I am not saying that you have to come up with 50 questions before you meet with anybody. This is just meant as a tool to kind of help you think through this a little more carefully. Everybody has their own style, but it is something that you've got to think through when someone comes to you and says, "Hey, I am really depressed and I'm despairing without hope." So the first thing that I'm going to look at is the physical data.

You know, as a person who knows that I'm a body-soul person, like I've talked about before, I know that there might be something physical going on with this woman. And so I'm going to start asking her questions, like I'm going to start off and say, "How much sleep are you getting?" You know, it's not uncommon.

How much sleep do you think the average college student gets? You guys laugh, right? Probably three, four hours maybe, especially when it's getting pretty heavy, if at all. But really, it's not a scientific fact, but overall they say that an adult should get seven to eight hours of sleep if you're between the ages of 18 to 64.

And even a little bit less if you're older than that. So what kind of questions do I need to ask Sarah? Let's think about Sarah for a minute. What can I ask my friend? How much sleep are you getting? Are you getting enough? The story said that she has three children.

How many of you have three or more children? Two or more children? My gosh, you know how that is. I would want to know, are you getting any sleep at all? You've got all these kids. Maybe she just had a baby, you know, and she's not getting any rest at all, right?

Because she's up in the night. You know, or maybe all of these children, we don't know what their ages are. I don't know about you, but when I was having children, they were all like a year and a half apart. And so I had boom, boom, boom, and I wasn't getting a whole lot of sleep or a whole lot done.

So, you know, it could be a situation like that. I might even ask Sarah how her diet's been, you know? What is she eating these days? Is she just barely surviving? Is she grabbing those, you know, fishy crackers as she's dealing with her kids and that's her lunch for the day?

Or, you know, what's going on there? Could it be that she's eating the wrong things? For me personally, I know that when I have felt down in the dumps, when I've had those kind of emotions that I can't explain, I'll go to the doctor and I would tell Sarah the same.

I'd say, "You need to go get a physical. That would probably be really important for you to do." But when I went, I had anemia. That's what was contributing to my depressed feelings. And so you've got to get those things checked out. And when you have lack of iron, if you've ever had that before, you have chronic fatigue, you know?

And I was trying to figure out what's going on here? Why am I feeling that way? But it has an impact on your spiritual health. So it's not just the physical, but that was a big contributor. It had a potential to affect the spiritual. Maybe some other physical data you can think through is whether or not Sarah's getting enough physical activity.

Maybe she's the kind of person that's too sedentary, right? She's not active enough. She's not getting out. She's not taking those kids out. I was telling one of the students, or students, one of the ladies earlier that when my kids were little, I had to get them out, take them to the park.

I was their first soccer coach. I mean, I had to do a lot of physical activities just to stay sane most of the time, being a young mom. But those are some things that we need to think through. What's causing? It's impacting. Let's say what's influencing. Another issue is maybe Sarah just has a medical problem.

If you send her to the doctor for the physical, there are so many things out there that can contribute. Maybe some of you have thyroid issues. That can contribute to despairing feelings. People don't even realize that. It's a big contributor. It could just be something as simple as medical that a doctor can help fix.

And then suddenly you're like, "Wow, that's just not impacting me as much as I thought it would." Those are some questions you can ask Sarah on a physical level. But the next one is resources, resource data. That's when you're trying to just understand where's Sarah even coming from? Is Sarah even a Christian?

I don't know. So I need to sit down and I need to kind of talk through the gospel with her. I mean, is she coming from a place of belief? Do I need to maybe go over the gospel with her if she's a Christian? Is she even integrated and interacting with the body of Christ?

Because people that struggle with depression have a tendency to withdraw from the body of Christ. And that's a big issue. So it's important to know what's just going on with reference to her involvement in church or lack thereof. I worry about the people that are withdrawing because they usually start to feel lonely and it creates a lot of problems in that sense.

They isolate too much. They get lonely and start to kind of get involved in a pity party. Emotional data. We need to know, you know, what kind of questions can I ask Sarah to help me to understand how she's responding to the circumstances in her life? In other words, you know, if I were to follow Sarah around with a tape recorder, I guess we wouldn't say tape recorder anymore, my iPhone, my MP3 player, if I were to follow her around and I played it back to her, what emotions would I hear?

You know? I mean, really, how is she responding? And so the goal is to help her to kind of describe herself through those kinds of questions. And so am I really being slow to speak? Am I really listening to what she's saying? She said in her, in the case study that she's terribly sad.

Why is she terribly sad? What is that all about? You know? Let me ask some questions about those things. Give me some more information. The fourth category is actions. This would be something that is kind of talking about what is Sarah doing and not doing? You know, is she not able to fulfill her responsibilities as a worker or as a wife or as a mom or whatever her context is?

Because usually depression is an effect of not doing. So has she just gotten so overwhelmed now that she's just stopped doing everything? And that, the effect of that can be despairing feelings. And so I kind of want to know, what have you stopped doing? You know, you might even ask her questions pertaining to how she's even growing as a Christian.

You know, has she stopped reading her Bible? Has she stopped going to Bible study? Things like that. Personal convictions data is important too because it has to do with just her attitude, her expectations, her desires, her values. You know, what kind of questions can I ask that will help me to understand Sarah better in this situation?

I need to kind of understand what is she trusting? What is she, where is she really putting her trust? What is she fearing? What is she even listening to these days? You know, what is she reading? What is she serving? You know, what is her functional God? What does she see as the most pressing problem if I were to ask her in her life?

Those kinds of things. The last thing would be historical data. I would want to know what kinds of questions, I would need to know past influencers. It's important. I would say that our past influences us, but I don't hold to the nurture nature theory. It has an influence, but it shouldn't dictate.

But it does have an influence, and so we would be foolish to say that it doesn't. And so I'd want to know what her past life context was, what her present life context is, what her external circumstances are. You know, stuff that she's currently experienced. Maybe someone has sinned against her, and that's the whole issue.

Has she been sinned against? I mean, we haven't, it doesn't say anything about the husband. I don't even know the story there. You know, is there a husband? Is he being helpful? Is he not being helpful? You know, are there hardships? You know, maybe he's just left. Who knows?

We have to ask. And so you have to ask those kinds of questions to discern, you know, what's going on in a person's life. You might also, we call it halo data, but you could just kind of tell from a person on the outside whether they're depressed or not, or at least despairing, because usually they look pretty disheveled.

They kind of have a what's-the-use attitude. They feel pretty hopeless. They cry easily. They sigh heavily. They look down a lot. I remember one counselee I had when I was working with her, she just looked down at the floor most of the time. Her hair was pretty much in her face, and it was just amazing to see how the Lord just transformed her life, and she just became this bright flower, you know, just to see her like on Facebook now in her life.

It's just amazing. It doesn't even look like the same woman. But often they just seldom laugh, and they just are very, they just physically, they're just slow and lots of things. So again, you know, there are just so many people like Sarah in our churches who are going to come to you for counsel.

So how are you going to help her? You know, the world has a lot of answers for that, but as Christian women, how can we help our other Christian women with depressed feelings? Just so you know, I'll give you a stat. Stats are always helpful. Did you know that it's estimated that 25% of the U.S.

population have the label depressed? 25%. That's pretty staggering. And you know, typically their understanding of depression stems from thinking that because they're tired most of the time or they cry easily or stuff in their life is hard, that these are things that are causing my depression. So they're kind of coming from not really clinical depression, but just, yeah, feeling down because of things that are going on in their life.

And that could be Sarah's story. You know, maybe we're going to find out that, you know, before kids, maybe she had this successful job before she had kids and maybe she got all this respect, you know, at work and people really gave her, affirmed her a lot. And now she's at home with these little kids who, you know how kids are, they are not going to say, "Mommy, you do such a good job.

Thank you." You know, that could be Sarah's story. We don't know. But we need to understand how far back the problem goes because we might find something pretty significant in her life. You know, maybe she's been discouraged in her marriage for the last four years and she just at this point doesn't feel like dealing with it anymore.

And so I guess just wanting to make the point that if you have someone come to you, take the time to just ask really good questions. It's important. If you love her and you care for her, that's going to be a big part of helping someone who comes to you and says, "I am depressed." Looking at a definition, a biblical definition by Robert Smith, he was a medical professional and a biblical counselor.

And he says that depression is that debilitating, weakening mood, feeling, or air of hopelessness which becomes a person's reason for not handling the most important issues of life. And so we need to ask, why do people get depressed? Why? Well, I think over the last few decades, just really in the medical community, there's been a huge effort on their part to educate people about depression.

You probably read stuff yourself. And really kind of depending on where you go to treat depression is going to be your answer as far as a secular community goes. So I'll just kind of take you through how they would think about this. If Sarah would have gone to a psychologist for her depression, and they usually hold to a psychoanalytical school of thought, they would probably tell Sarah that the reason why you're depressed is because you're probably angry about something and you're turning it inward.

Okay? They have some interesting ways of thinking about it. That you're looking at your circumstances and you're resentful and it's turning inward. They might say also that your depression is caused because you've lost something. Maybe you've lost a person in your life, like a parent or a child, or maybe it's a loss of self-esteem.

The world would say that maybe she failed at something in her life and there's a sudden loss of self-confidence. So a psychologist is just kind of looking at circumstances that are causal. If she went to see a behaviorist, or what we would call a cognitive therapist, they would say that her depression stems from a learned helplessness or hopelessness.

So for her it would be more, when I was growing up as a child I didn't get enough reinforcement, my parents didn't boost my esteem enough, and my family was dysfunctional, and that's how I view my world and so that's why I'm depressed. And so they would say that her depression is from the loss of maybe status or the loss of prestige or something like that.

So if Sarah's a stay-at-home mom, maybe she's buying into this idea that she's less of a person. Even society tells wives that, wives and moms, you're less of a person if you stay home. And so she's believing that lie, right? And so people get depressed over things like that.

If Sarah went to a doctor, a medical doctor, who held to a biological school of thought, they would say that her depression's probably caused by her genetics. Maybe her mom was depressed, maybe her dad was depressed, maybe another family member, there's something in her history. So she's predisposed to depression.

Some doctors say that it's not scientific fact, they make it sound like it is, but chemical imbalance is not a fact, ladies. That's just a theory. They know that antidepressants will level a person out and make them feel better, but there's no scientific proof of what they say they think it does.

They're just guessing at best. The same goes for when they tell us that the serotonin levels are low. That's not scientific fact. That's just something that they're still looking into. Same with neurotransmitter function. So it could be that Sarah has a physical illness. It's true that if you have diabetes or epilepsy or anemia, things like that, that can contribute to a depressed-like feeling.

But just kind of thinking through why people are depressed, if we look at it from a biblical point of view and kind of thinking through all of these different schools of thought, one of the best books that I've ever looked at was written by a medical doctor and biblical counselor, his name is Charles Hodges, and he wrote a book called Good Mood, Bad Mood, and it's very good.

It really is kind of speaking more to bipolar I and bipolar II. And I might have put it in the resources, but I would really encourage you to read it. But he says that there's been a lot of great work done on the topic of depression. And it's been at the center of healthcare since the 1980s when I was a young college person.

This has been going on for years. And our country alone, we've spent billions and billions of dollars trying to figure out why people get depressed. And as far as the secular community is concerned, it's kind of interesting. They say that the results are still very discouraging. They don't really know why.

They don't know why. And because research has found that the medication that people are taking, and maybe this is you, maybe you found this to be true, the medication they're taking that's prescribed isn't working as well as it did in the past. It's just not working. And they don't know why.

But it's actually causing other significant problems. And I would even go as far as to say that I think sometimes that bipolar 1 and 2 is a side effect of antidepressants. Because that seems to be what you see in research. But I mean, think about it for a minute.

We watch these commercials. I mean, for heaven's sakes. Let's talk about Cymbalta, for example. You watch a commercial about Cymbalta. And it's all fine and good, and this person wants to go on it for her depressed feelings. But have you heard of the side effects that they talk about on TV?

I mean, the side effects sound worse than the actual issue. I mean, I'm like, really? But just listen to this. And this is just one medication. Because what I'll do with a person, again, you have the freedom in Christ to be on medication. It's not a sin. But what I at least want to do is help a person to realize what the side effects are.

I mean, make an informed decision before you decide to do this. We can walk through this biblically together before you take that big jump. Because medicine will make you feel better, but it doesn't deal with the heart. But anyway, Cymbalta. Blistering skin, peeling, loosening of the skin, blurred vision, change in consciousness, chills, cold sweats, confusion, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, faintness, lightheartedness when getting up suddenly, eye pain, fainting, irregular heartbeat, muscle pain, sores, ulcers, white spots in the mouth, unpleasant breath odor, upper right stomach pain, vomiting of blood, great, yellow eyes and skin.

And my goodness, that is just a scary list. And that's what you get because you're dealing with medication. But again, I mean, if Sarah were to go to her doctor and her-- because I'm not a medical doctor. I don't prescribe or tell people to get off their medication. But if she were to go and that's what they ended up doing, she would have the freedom to do that.

But I would at least want her to think through spending time with me before she makes that decision. Let's work through the spiritual issue. A couple of years ago, my daughter, Carly, she had a co-worker who actually committed suicide. And it was really very perplexing because I knew who this guy was.

He really loved his job. He didn't have all the signs of depression. He really loved his job. He was just a very outgoing guy. He was very physically healthy. He loved his dog very much. And so I began to ask questions about what was going on there. And it was kind of discovered in the conversation that he had just gone on antidepressants.

And that concerned me because he was, I guess, apparently struggling with some kind of depressed mood and that's what the doctor chose to do. And when I looked up the medication that they put him on, this is what I read about it. It may have a role in inducing worsening of depression and the emergence of suicide in certain patients during the early phases of treatment.

And that's really what happened to him. I'm convinced that he became very suicidal as a side effect. And so he'd only been on it for two weeks. I don't think that his, from what I understand, he was feeling depressed or maybe had just depressed feelings but he wasn't suicidal when he went on the medication.

So it didn't get better. It actually had gotten worse. And that really, really concerned me. The sad fact is that those who have been diagnosed with depression, you need to know that really only 10% really are, 10% of the people out there. This is a huge industry for pharmacy.

They're making lots and lots of money on meds out there and that's part of the issue. They over-diagnose and they're so quick to give people drugs to deal with depressed feelings. I think one of the issues is just not making a distinction between true depression versus sadness or discouragement.

I think we're just not really thinking through that carefully. I mean, for example, if you know a person that's truly clinically depressed, there are just some real common characteristics you see. Like they just stop functioning altogether. They're not working. They're not out there working or going to school or doing whatever.

They just stop functioning. And I've observed that in friends. I'm thinking of one friend. He had a very difficult circumstance happen and he responded by spiraling into depression and he didn't leave his house. He quit his job. He just ceased to function normally. He lost a tremendous amount of weight, about 40 pounds, and he was very restless and all of this kind of thing.

And so he was debilitated. That's kind of more clinical depression, right? They're just not functioning. They're like what you would say down and out. And some of that was triggered by physical issues and medication and spiritual issues. But most people are just in a state of just discouragement or sadness over something going on in their life.

And so, you know, they may feel down, but they're functioning. They're going to work every day. They're getting out of bed. They're going to school. They're doing what they need to do, but they just have depressed feelings. And so my opinion about people like Sarah that come to counsel that have a label of depression, not all, but most I would say in my experience are just really in a state of discouragement.

So if you look back at your case study, you know, you're going to notice that Sarah said she felt terribly sad. She's not keeping up with life. Her friends are trying to help. They think medicine is going to be the option because even they believe she's clinically depressed. I mean, that's like their assumption right away.

Oh, here, you know, let's get you to the doctor and get you on some antidepressants. But that's not usually the issue. I mean, she could have a medical issue, it's true, but she's not going to know that until she goes to the doctor to find out. She's probably just an overwhelmed mommy.

Do you feel like an overwhelmed mommy sometimes? Sometimes you're just overwhelmed with things that we're going through. And you know, when our kids are little, it's hard. I mean, sometimes even when you have a baby, you get what they call the baby blues. It's just normal. And so we need to find out some things about our friend Sarah to make sure that it's just that.

And also, I have to say that the world is telling you a lie right now. Whenever you watch those commercials, these marketers, they're really savvy because what they're trying to tell you is that you need to look for ways to escape feeling sad. Okay? They're telling you that sadness is bad.

And believe it or not, that's kind of their marketing plan. And they work really hard at it to convince you that you need to have a way of escape. And it seems to reflect the attitude that there's just no good that can come out of sadness. What do you think?

Do you think there's some good that can come out of sadness? Do you think it drives you to the Lord sometimes? There's a lot of good that can come out of sadness if you have the right perspective. And so I think with women like Sarah, if you were just to come alongside her and just have compassion and care, and if you were to ask her some good questions, you could just help to reorient her back to Christ-like counsel.

And we don't have to be afraid of this. Have I beat this head enough? God's Word tells you in Romans 15, 14, that if you are full of goodness, which you are if you're in Christ, and you're filled with knowledge, which you are because you have God's Word, then you're able to counsel one another by coming alongside and gently guiding the Sarahs toward a response that's keeping in her profession in Christ.

So we may need to introduce her to the Savior, or if she's already in Christ, we just need to help her to get back on track. So I'm going to give you a biblical perspective to kind of end our time so you know where to take her in the Bible, okay?

We'll just kind of end there. Here's a very broad perspective for your consideration under the point of biblical perspective on the development of depression. First of all, depression, as we've defined it, is only possible in a fallen world. That's post-fall depression, which is interesting. Romans 5, 12 reminds us that just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all have sin.

So broadly speaking, you need to know that depression is the only logical, rational, consistent conclusion of someone that's living without God. That's why people in the world get depressed that aren't believers, because they're separated from Christ and they don't have that hope that you have. I think one regret that my daughter Carly had with her co-worker is she felt guilt over this and she's not in control of this guy being saved, but she would have wanted to have time to witness more to him, so that's kind of normal to struggle with that.

But she recognized that he needed hope in Christ. That was the big thing at the forefront of her mind. Which leads us to the next point, that deliverance from depression or despair or sadness, which is one of the effects of the fall, is actually made possible through the redeeming work of Christ, and that includes our justification, our sanctification, and just that work that the Holy Spirit does in all of us.

But you know what? Depression and despair isn't just isolated to unbelievers, right? How many of you know a believer that's feeling despairing right now? Depressed or discouraged? Yeah, a few of you. We know people in our life. We may be those people. And the reason why people struggle with it now is because, my goodness, we still struggle with indwelling sin.

We still have that. We're not perfected this side of heaven, and we haven't perfectly put off the old man. We were talking about put off, put on before, but we haven't done that perfectly. And we're still working through putting off the old man and putting on the new and being renewed in the mind.

We still have the temptation of just difficult circumstances and people in our life and just dealing with that. It's hard when you've got difficult people in your life. You know, maybe your work is difficult. Maybe your marriage is difficult. Maybe these other things outside of you are just difficult.

And we're really only seeing through a glass darkly and only know in part because we're at this side of heaven, you know, and so we only have a down payment of our inheritance. Our down payment is the Holy Spirit. That's your earnest knowing that we have a future inheritance, but right now we just have that down payment.

And so we struggle with those three enemies. You struggle with your flesh. You struggle with the world. You struggle with Satan. But our hope, however, is knowing that we will eventually experience complete and continuous uninterrupted deliverance from depression and all other effects of the fall when we're glorified someday.

So that's encouraging to know. It's not, again, depression, you don't have to be stuck there. There's actually hope that you can work through depression. And I've got three really great biblical examples for you of people that responded well and people that didn't respond well. And you can kind of take that for your consideration.

So there are just so many. You know, the word depression isn't really used in the Bible, that actual word. It's usually a synonym like despair or downtrodden or fallen countenance, things like that. But it means the same. And the first person that I'd like to have you consider is Cain.

You guys remember Cain from Genesis 4? Yeah? So we know who Cain is, first son, one of the sons of Adam and Eve. And remember, you'll recall he brought an offering to the Lord and that was rejected by God. But instead of repenting of this envious attitude that he had towards his brother Abel, he became angry.

And he responded by being angry and then eventually that kind of spiraled down into a fallen countenance, which is that synonym for depression. And so Cain kind of becomes an example for us of somebody that has unconfessed sin. Sometimes people are just depressed because they have unconfessed sin in their lives.

I mean, that's just a fact. And the Lord even tried to help Cain to do what was right. Remember, he told him that sin is crouching at the door and you need to repent. I mean, you have this opportunity, do it. But he didn't. He actually complicated his sin by adding revenge and adding all these other things.

And so Cain becomes an example for all of us of somebody who was aware of personal sin in his life, but he failed miserably. He didn't handle it biblically. He made it worse by not dealing with it biblically. And he became a wanderer, a restless wanderer, the rest of his life because he wouldn't humble himself.

David, of course, is the other example of someone we can look to. I actually love Psalm 32 because David talks about what life was like when he had unconfessed sin in his life. Do you remember what his sin was? I mean, he is a man after God's own heart, but he is human.

He failed a lot. And he committed adultery, you'll recall. And not only that, but he made a way for that woman's husband to be killed in battle, and so he would be responsible for that man's murder. And so he was in sin, and because of that unconfessed sin, he says in Psalm 32 that when he kept silent about his sin, he felt as if his bones were wasting away.

So there was a physical crushing component to his sin, and God's hand was really heavy on David. So if you ever want to get an idea of what can happen to you physically, Psalm 32 is a great place to look. I mean, he even talks about his strength being dried up.

But really, thanks be to God, David didn't respond the way Cain responded. David actually repented, and he says in Psalm 32, verse 5, "I acknowledged my sin to you," and he's talking to God, "and I didn't cover my iniquity. I said, 'I'll confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

So blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.'" So like Cain, David is a person who's an example of a person who became depressed because of unconfessed sin, for sure. But unlike Cain, David confessed his sin, and so he was delivered from his despairing feelings. That could be what's going on with Sarah or your friend, a friend that you know, or even yourself.

It could just be unconfessed sin. And so, you know, remember we talked about bitterness. That will lead a person to depression easily if they continue to walk down the road of bitterness. Other reasons why people experience sadness or despair is because they're dealing with difficult circumstances in their life.

And Hannah is actually just a wonderful example. And so we'll learn from Hannah, and then I'll let you guys be done. But turn to 1 Samuel 1. Hannah is just a great person to learn from. She becomes so real for us. While you're turning there, I'll just give you some quick background.

Hannah lived during the time of the judges, and that was really one of the darkest times in Israel's history. They, you know, this is the time when everybody did what was right in their own eyes, right? And it was a very backslidden era. But despite that, Hannah and her husband would still travel faithfully to the temple in Shiloh to give a, to do an offering for the Lord.

They were just considered a very devout family. But in addition to the difficult circumstances, her environment, if you will, within her community, her home life was very troubling. And so we learn something about Elkanah. So look at verse 2 of 1 Samuel 1. It says that Elkanah had two wives.

The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. So the first thing we learn about Hannah's circumstance is that her husband was a polygamist. What do you think about that? That would be tough. Your husband had two wives, okay.

And the second thing it says is that Peninnah apparently had children, but Hannah was barren. She didn't have any children just yet. So that's a very, very difficult circumstance. Probably what's happening here is the husband Elkanah, he probably is an example in the Old Testament of a man who, when he realized his first wife was barren, he took on a second wife because they're always concerned about, you know, carrying on the next generation.

And so he did it out of a lack of faith. But as we read on, let's discover what the relationship was like between these two wives, right? So let's look at verse 6 in 1 Samuel 1. So it says, "Her rival," well that's interesting, so now Peninnah's being thought of as a rival.

"Her rival, however, would provoke Hannah bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb." So that's interesting. We find out that Peninnah was not a very nice lady. And so that kind of gives you insight into Hannah's just personal circumstance and her suffering. She lives in a society, first of all, where a woman's identity is found in bearing children to her husband.

So that's a big deal in the Jewish culture. And now that she's sort of barren, her sterility has made her vulnerable to someone else's ridicule. And that would be a very, very hard life. And so Hannah had to live with this woman day in and day out, listening to her, reminding her of her failure to live out her purpose in her life.

But scripture kind of gives us a glimpse in how she was initially responding. So look at verse 10, jump to 10. "Hannah was greatly distressed, but she prayed to the Lord and she wept bitterly. And then she made a vow and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come to his head.'" And so, you know, obviously she's in distress.

That's the same, that word for despair has the idea of being in a state of unhappiness. So we know that she's unhappy. We know that she's in distress. And she's just dealing with a lot of difficult things. And so she was sad over her circumstance. Makes sense to me that she would be sad.

And that drove her though to the Lord. I want you to see that. It's really a clear picture that God used Hannah's sadness to drive her to him. And sometimes when we're really deep in discouragement and we're sad, we're not really making that connection. God can use that to drive you to him in particular.

And the first thing that we learn is that she went to the temple and she prayed and she worshipped God. Okay? And so she went to the Lord, she worshipped God. She didn't angry, it doesn't say she became angry. It didn't say she pouted. It doesn't say that she slept all day.

Rather, she becomes an example to us of somebody who endured her difficult circumstances and ill treatment at the hands of Penina. And she ran to the Lord to find solace there, to find refuge there, to find comfort in him. And David is another example of that. Sometime you need to read through Psalm 119, but there is a verse that talks about God, that David begging God to revive him according to God's word.

Now in verse 11 of 1 Samuel, we also notice that she makes a vow and she cries out to the Lord of hosts. And that's important for you to pay attention to because although Hannah's in distress and there's a lot of difficult things that are happening to her, I want you to recognize that she has a very high view of God and that is going to serve her well.

She really sees the Lord as the Lord God Almighty. She sees him as her deliverer and her distress. We know that her circumstance is difficult. I mean, with any woman I work with, I'm not going to dismiss or be cavalier about her circumstances. I'm going to be compassionate about that.

But I'm also going to try to help her to see that she needs to have a higher view of God in the midst of that. And so she sees herself rightly, she sees God rightly, and so she's begging God as a servant, which is just another indication of her viewing God rightly, that if he would only look on her affliction and would remember her and give her a son that would be fit to serve in the tabernacle, she would turn him back to the Lord.

And we know the rest of the story with Hannah. You know, she did have a son later and she did give him back to the Lord. But I think as a woman, we can probably really relate to Hannah. And as a matter of fact, we all have women in our lives that are having a difficult time having children.

So she actually becomes a really, really close to home example of what a person goes through when they're having difficulty getting pregnant or when they have lost a child to miscarriage or something like that. You know, when I was studying this particular lesson, my daughter's friend had just lost a baby and I was just thinking about how sad that is and how despairing women get when they lose children.

And it's pretty easy to spiral into a deeper depression if you allow it to. But you know, women that we come alongside with, and even for ourselves, we can really look to Hannah's example to kind of help us pull out of depression. You can allow it to instruct your heart.

And again, in her case, she allowed her sadness, just drove her to the Lord and she pleaded her case. And so she's really an example of someone who prayed regularly, who prayed dependably and deliberately despite her provocation. And in the same way, when we're dealing with difficult circumstances like childlessness or difficult people in our life, God has got to be the one that we run to first.

You know, a lot of times we just run to people first. But God should be who you run to first. And just pour your hearts out to him because, ladies, he really is your comfort. He is your refuge in times of trouble. We need to see the Lord in that way.

So we need to step out in faith because God is there to help you. And he's actually using your circumstance to conform you into the image of his son, which is so important and why we can even count it all joy. Hannah's also an example to us because in her trial, she cast her burdens upon the Lord.

That's important. And that's an example of what we would say right actions. If you look at verse 17 to 18 of 1 Samuel, Eli is part of this. He was the priest of the temple at the time. And after she had been praying to the Lord, Eli answered her and said, "Go in peace and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him." And she said, "Let your maidservant find favor in your sight." So the woman went her way and she ate and her face was no longer sad.

And so, of course, if you know the story, we know that before Eli had made some really insensitive remarks to Hannah because when she was praying really deeply, he kind of accused her of being drunk, which was really interesting. But after Hannah responded in humility and explained the situation, we kind of learned that Hannah went away and she ate and her face was no longer sad.

I think that's such a beautiful picture of someone who just didn't dwell on her plight too long. I mean, her situation is difficult, but instead of dwelling on it and just spiraling down into this depression that a lot of people succumb to, she actually took the time to pray.

She cast her burdens upon the Lord, believing that he cares for her. And in a sense, she kind of left him in the altar, left him at the altar. And then she, you know, went away knowing that a sovereign God was going to take care of her. And that just kind of demonstrates a very faithful and patient trust in God.

And I'm taking a woman through this whole narrative and I'm explaining these things to her, just like I'm explaining to you. I'm trying to help her to see that your sadness doesn't have to drive you into the ground. You know, there's hope. We have a woman in the Bible.

I can show you a much better way. And in the same way that Hannah cast her burdens upon the Lord, we too are instructed to do the same thing. I've quoted 1 Peter 5, 6-7 to you before, but we can cast our anxieties upon the Lord because he cares for us.

And so we, you know, God bestows favor upon those whom he loves and we need to believe that. And so that's one way we can humble ourselves when we're discouraged and we're disappointed. We can go to the Lord and we can cast those anxieties upon him. David says the same thing in Psalm 55, 22.

He says, "Cast your burden on the Lord. He's going to sustain you." It's amazing. We know he's not going to allow the righteous to be shaken, but you've got to believe these things in your life. You've got to believe that God's going to do that. So if you spend your days fretting and worrying about your life, it's going to result in despair.

But if we trust in the Lord and we believe that he's sovereign and we can cast those anxieties upon him, you know, we're promised that he will care for us. But you've got to believe that. You've got to believe that he's really going to do that for you. One of the, Jeremiah, I think another maybe passage you could take someone to that would be really important would be like Jeremiah 3.

You know, Jeremiah, I mean, the guy, you know, he was such a faithful man of God, wonderful prophet of the Lord, and the people that he was dealing with never repented. You know, I mean, he just, just amazing to think about his life. And so he was often despairing.

He often would lose hope. But I mean, you know this, I think maybe Jen read this the first night, but I mean, just listen to how he deals with his own great sadness. He says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love, for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men." And so, you know, we just need to encourage women like Sarah that we read about who are struggling with sadness and even true depression that God already knows what they're going through.

So we need to go to him in prayer and cast our anxieties upon him. I think Hannah understood that in 1 Samuel. I think she knew and believed that God would help her with her troubles. That's why she laid them there and was content to leave, totally confident that he was going to answer her prayer.

And you know, we know that Hannah has a high view of God because if you ever read 1 Samuel 2, you'll be blown away because you're, you know, when you read it, you'll say, "Wow, that just seems really, really familiar." Because it's what Mary, the mother of Jesus quotes, it's the Magnificat.

But Hannah said it first. And Mary is remembering that when she reads it. And it's just wonderful. So I invite you to read 1 Samuel 2 on your own time because it's just such a wonderful example. I think there's really so much to say. This topic is kind of, I feel like I'm just scratching the surface.

You can, you know, practically have a whole conference just on this issue. But as I've kind of already alluded to, you know, I just don't think people know how to deal with their sadness rightly. I think they're buying into a lot of worldly messages and they're just not thinking through how the Bible would define that, how people in the Bible have gotten through that.

I think they're just taking their cues from the world. And it seems to be these days that it's Medicaid, Medicaid, you know. And it's kind of sad because it doesn't give you an opportunity to really see what the Lord has for you. But anyways, if I were Sarah's counselor, I would just want to make sure that she understood that the inner man, not her brain, which is what the biological community says is her source for her thoughts and her intentions and her choices and her emotions, such as sadness.

And so if there's no organic cause contributing to her sad feelings, then I would encourage her just to continue to meet with me to see if we can just work through stuff in the Word. And I think that that would probably solve a lot because I've met with a lot of Sarah's in my life and I've seen them really work through issues biblically.

So I would encourage you to that end. Just make sure that, you know, you're faithful with God's Word because Hannah is really an example of someone that had right praying, she had right actions, and a right response despite how she felt. And so we can be like her too.

We can go to the Lord and we can pray, we can worship him, we can cast our burdens upon him and we can grow in our view of him. And I gave you some really helpful resources. This would be helpful for anyone struggling with depression if you want to kind of get at it from a biblical point of view.

I already talked about good mood, bad mood. There's a great book by one of my mentors called Out of the Blues, Dealing with Blues of Depression and Loneliness by Wayne Mack. Jay Adams has, I think that's, I don't think it's a book, I think it's a pamphlet called What to Do About Depression.

Of course, Ed Welch has done a lot of great works on depression, but if you want to just get the pamphlet, he's got one where you can actually work through it on a homework kind of way. And then I just always say, you know, spend some time just memorizing scripture.

Philippians 4.8 being one that's really helpful, where you can just go to God's Word and just list out 10 specific ways God has blessed you. I mean, that's the beginning because it's really about how we're thinking. So there you go. Man, we've gone through a lot, ladies. It's a lot.

I don't even know how you're even awake right now. But you've got tools now, so where much is given, much is required. So I'm giving you my blessing. You know, you're equipped. So go, come alongside, make disciples, be willing, be a willing servant. Don't fear. You've got God on your side.

You've got God's Word. You've got Esther Kim, who's almost ACBC certified, so she's going to be your wisdom on a lot of these issues. But thank you for having me and enduring a lot of lecture. I'm just really impressed by you. And God bless you, and let me pray for you one last time.