Depression: The Fear of Mental Breakdown | Dr. David Jeremiah | Job 3

Message Description:

For those struggling with depression, the world is a pretty hopeless place. But as we’ll learn from Dr. David Jeremiah, God specializes in bringing hope out of hopelessness! The Bible provides four steps for defeating depression and reassures us that God is in control.

The reality is that godly believers sometimes get depressed as you examine depression.
You discover that sooner or later, people who know the lord can find themselves going through a difficult moment, a down moment, uh, a depressing moment.
depression has been called the common cold of the soul. And sooner or later, most people catch it.
and god’s servants, including Job and David and Moses and Elijah, they caught it.
Sometimes people don’t understand that, Doctor. David Murray writes, but Christians don’t get depressed.
How many times have you thought that or said that or heard that How many times have Christian pastors or counselors made this claim, or at least implied it, if it is true that Christians don’t get depressed, it must mean that either the Christian suffering from depression is not truly depressed, or he’s not truly a Christian.
But if this notion is false, What extra and unnecessary pain and guilt are heaped upon already darkened minds and broken hearts?
It is common for spiritually mature men and women who feel depressed to think that they are doing something wrong.
After all, the scriptures filled with words of joy and happiness And when they aren’t feeling happy, they feel they must be missing something or that god is punishing them.
And John Lockley writes, being depressed is bad enough in itself, but being a depressed Christian is worse.
And being a depressed Christian in a church full of people who do not understand depression is like a little taste of hell.
Now, I wanna answer some questions. Why do people get depressed?
I need you to understand, friends. I, I’m a teacher of the word of god. I’m a pastor.
I’m not here to solve all the problems people have through depression.
I’m not an expert on depression. I am just a pass and I wanna help you.
So my counts is gonna be rather general and as much as possible based upon what I’ve learned from the scripture and from life.
The dictionary defines depression as low spirits, gloomy feelings, rejection, sadness, a condition marked by feelings of worthlessness, failure and accompanying guilt.
You may wonder why I would even address such a subject.
why I would talk about something that can be so dark.
Well, let me tell you for a few moments why I am doing this.
as I express to you the epidemic of depression in our culture today.
Today, more than 1 out of every 20 Americans adults are treated for depression during their lifetime.
Worldwide, there are 121,000,000 people who are suffering from depression as I speak.
The use of antidepressants has soared in our nation over 400% since 1988, making the medication the most frequently used drug by people ages 18 to 44.
According to a study by the World Health Organization And Harvard Medical School, America today may be the saddest nation in the world.
The experience of depression is simply this, that depression is a human problem.
A fact of life perfect people.
We live with other imperfect people in an imperfect world.
And when we open our bibles, we discover a long line of people who struggled with depression.
When Moses was leading the complaining Israelites in the desert, he cried in numbers chapter 11, I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me God, if you treat me like this, please kill me here and now if I have found favor in your sight.
And do not let me see my richness.
When he lied to face death at the hands of Jezebel, his fear led to despair as well.
He prayed to the lord that he might die hear your heart’s words from 1st kings 19.
It is enough now, lord. Take my life for I am no better than my fathers.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed the connection, but Jay Oswald Sanders reminds us that Elijah and Moses were the 2 men who stood on mount transfiguration with the lord.
Both of these men broke under the strain of their ministry and pray that they might die.
David, the psalmist sprinkles depression throughout all of his Psalms.
If you read them, you run into it everywhere, hear from Psalm 32 as an illustration.
He says, when I kept silent, my bones grew old. through my groaning all the day long.
For day night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
people in the Bible were depressed.
I remember telling you that in the Bible, over 200 people are said to have been afraid and that it wasn’t just the peripheral people, but it’s the main people.
So we’ve got your attention with the realization that Elijah Moses and David, and there are many others I haven’t got time to tell you about this morning, are people that we know, people that we think are the greats of the word of god.
and they suffered from depression. And it’s not just the biblical heroes who have survived depression.
on a notable Sunday in 18 66, the famous British preacher Charles Hadenspergen shocked his 5 1000 listeners when he got up in London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle to begin a sermon, which included these words, quote, My soul is cast down within me.
I feel as I had rather die than live, all that god has done by me has created in me such an awful feeling and seems to be forgotten, and my spirit flags, and my courage breaks down, and I need your prayers.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, was subject to such fits of darkness that he would hide himself away for days and his family would remove all dangerous implements from the house for fear he would harm himself.
In the midst of one of these times, he said these words, For more than a week, I was close to the gates of death and hell.
I trembled in all my members. Christ was holy lost I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy of god.
The expression of depression There are many expressions in church history and in the Bible, but none are more poignant than the one recorded for us in Job chapter 3.
And our biblical character today is none other than Job himself. Jobe stands naked before his god.
Anything or anyone who he might have counted on for hell or encouragement has been taken from him.
If you read the first two chapters, it’s hard to comprehend what it must have been like.
a servant would come and tell him of one tragedy.
And before that servant could leave, another servant would come and tell him of something else that he had lost.
And one after another, Joe was reduced until there was nothing left. His wealth was gone. His health was gone.
His children were gone. His wife has abandoned him. His misery is indescribable his outlook is hopeless.
And while he rejects the advice of Satan and his wife to curse god and die, Jobe is despairing of his life.
As he sits on the ash heap outside the city where he lived, we are not left to wonder what is going through his mind over in the 29th 30th chapter of his book.
Jobe is speaking of things as they used to be and as they are now.
In a modern paraphrase of those words, we can get a sense of what this man was feeling.
Listen to his words. In days past, god took care of me, and god’s friendship was felt in my home.
All of my children were around, and my life was prospering.
The elders of the city honored me, and the young men stepped aside and reverence to me.
Even the highest officials in the city stood in respect for me, but that was then, and this is now, The young men make fun of me.
I am a joke to them. They spit in my face. They lay traps for my path.
They come at me from all directions. I live in terror with no one to help. Depression haunts my days.
I cry to god, but I get no answers. My voice of joy and gladness has turned to mourning.
By this stage, in the life of Job, it should become clear that an entirely new trial has overtaken him, the trial of depression, of deep mental and spiritual trauma.
the terrible disasters that are described in the first two chapters are over.
Job has managed to weather them with his piety intact But now the battle has shifted from the outside of his life to the inside of his life.
Now, it is Job’s inner life, his very soul that is under direct attack.
And in the 3rd chapter, he cries out in three limits about what it’s like to be where he is.
And anyone who’s ever been depressed or has known people who have been and have walked through depression with them, will understand completely why Job is lamenting as he is.
Let’s look at what he says. His first lament in verses 1 through 3, we might title it.
Why did I arrive He says, after this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth, and Job spoke and said, may the day perish on which I was born?
and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived.
Joe begs that the night of his and the day of his birth be blotted from the calendar.
These words are the words of a man who is so broken that he no longer cares what he says later on in his book, he said that he spoke with rationalists, but he just spoke honestly.
That’s what he felt. He said, lord god, why did I even have to be born? why did I arrive?
His second lament takes it to the next level. Why did I survive?
verse 11, he says, Why did I not die at birth?
Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
Lord, if I had to be born, why couldn’t I have just died at childbirth?
Usually, retort questions, but Job finds no answers to these questions.
In his present state of depression, Job can find no reason for his life He cannot understand why god would have allowed him to survive birth if all of these tragedies were gonna happen to him.
And then he takes it to the final question. The 3rd lament, why am I alive?
Verse 2021 of the 3rd chapter. Why is light given to him who is in misery?
and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but it does not come and search for it more than hidden treasures.
Jobe’s 3rd cry is one that is very common today.
Job is saying Since I had to be born and for his life.
Everything that brought meaning is gone, his wealth, his health, and most of all, his family.
And one does not have to be a psychologist to understand why he might be depressed.
six times in these verses from the 3rd chapter that I have read to you, Job asked the question why.
There’s nothing wrong with asking why.
Even the lord Jesus on the cross ask the father why have you forsaken me?
But if you remember the moment, you will also remember that there was no answer from heaven.
There’s nothing wrong with asking why as long as you don’t get the idea that God owes you an answer.
because he does not.
Throughout this whole book, Job cries out to god over and over, and it’s like heaven is a brass uh, brass wall, nothing happens.
Not until the end when Job has endured everything that you can imagine did god finally communicate with him, and he suffered like you will not believe.
Could I just pause here for a moment and say, it is a wonderful gift to us that god has put the book of Job in the Bible.
because it reminds us that if we suffer, we are not the only ones If we go through dark seasons of life, if, as Saint John of the cross said, we live the dark night of the soul.
We have been preceded by others who have gone before us, and the record is here.
why would god allow this book to be in the Bible if for no other reason than to encourage us?
In fact, if you think you’re having a bad day, read the book of Job, and you will feel better about yourself immediately.
Some of you have heard me tell the story of a card that I received when I was in the hospital recovering from cancer.
Someone sent me a card.
And when I woke up in the morning, Donna brought the cards in, and right on top of the pile was this card.
And in the words of this card were the words of, of Corinthians, where Paul was talking about all his problems.
right on the front of the card, there was nothing else written.
It said, many, many times, shipwrecked, all these stripes that I’ve heard, beaten cast out all the list, all of the stuff that’s in the 11th chapter.
And I’m thinking to myself, who would send somebody a card like that when you’re trying to get better.
I mean, I was I was sick and and this car was just full of all of Paul’s pain.
And then they opened the car. Do you know what it said on the inside? So how you been?
It it was a reminder to me that what I was going through was nothing compared to what Paul went through.
And when we go through depression and sorrow, we read the book of Job.
And we realized that we’ve had some bad days, but we’ve never had days like Job had.
Remind you now, Job was not depressed because of what had happened.
He was depressed because he couldn’t figure out why it happened.
The reality is that godly believers sometimes get depressed as you examine depression, you discover that sooner or later, people who know the lord can find themselves going through a difficult moment, a down moment, uh, a depressing moment.
Depression has been called the common cold of the soul.
And sooner or later, most people catch it.
And god’s servants, including Job and David and Moses and Elijah, they caught it.
Sometimes people don’t understand that, Doctor. David Murray Wright but Christians don’t get depressed.
How many times have you thought that or said that or heard that?
or at least implied it.
If it is true that Christians don’t get depressed, it must mean that either the Christians suffering from depression is not truly depressed, or he’s not truly a Christian.
But if this notion is false, what extra and unnecessary pain and guilt are heaped upon already darkened minds and broken hearts.
It is common for spiritually mature men and women who feel depressed to think that they are doing something wrong.
After all, the scriptures filled with words of joy and happiness, and when they aren’t feeling happy, they feel they must be missing something or that god is punishing them.
And John Locally writes, being depressed is bad enough in itself, but being a depressed Christian is worse.
and being a depressed Christian in a church full of people who do not understand oppression is like a little taste of hell.
Now, I wanna answer some questions. Why do people get depressed?
I need you to understand, friends. I I’m a teacher of the word of god. I’m a pastor.
I’m not here to solve all the problems people have who depression.
I’m not an expert on depression. I am just a pastor, and I wanna help you.
So my counselor is gonna be rather general and as much as possible based upon what I’ve learned from the scripture and from life.
But let me tell you why people get depressed.
First of all, sometimes people get depressed for situational reasons.
For situational reasons, I mean, let’s face it, folks. If you were jailed, would you be depressed?
I guess, I I cannot tell you what an amazing experience I’ve had this week in preparation for this message.
I actually believe it or not, I’ve met 3 of the most depressed people I have ever met in my whole life, I didn’t go to see them.
They came to see me. For instance, I was in Oklahoma City preaching.
After I got them preaching, I was walking back around the stage to go back to where Donna And our friends were at the book table, and a
man was waiting there for me. I don’t know how he
got back there, but he grabbed hold of me and he said, I must talk with you, and he told me the story.
He said, I am a bus driver here for children in Oklahoma City, and then he just began to sob.
During the winter months, he was driving a bus, and he ran over a little girl.
who lived next door to him and was the best friend of his little girl who was the same age.
He said, just hours before that it happened.
They’d stayed all night at my house, and both had fallen asleep on my chest as I laid on the floor playing with them.
And then he poured out his heart to me. What do I do pastor? I can’t get past this.
I know god loves me. I know he cares about me. I didn’t do anything wrong.
She should never have been where she was. It was dark.
I’ve been totally absolved of any guilt But he’s, uh, and then he just started to weep.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Would you think that a person like that might have a reason to be depressed Sometimes depression has to do with things that happen in our lives.
Let’s don’t make it any more complicated than that.
usually that kind of depression will ultimately subside over a period of time, often with counseling and with prayer and scripture and love from others.
And I have every reason to believe that my friend will make it through this.
Sometimes depression is systemic.
By that, I mean, it has something to do with what’s going on in your system.
This is often a surprise to many people. Sometimes there are systemic reasons.
One of my favorite sayings goes like this.
Our souls and our bodies live so close together that they catch each other’s diseases.
Did you know that? We all know that.
How many of you know that when you don’t feel good physically, it’s hard to feel good spiritually.
Isn’t that true? And the other way, it’s the other way around too.
I mean, so we we’re a body, soul, and mind. We’re not just segregated into 3 different parts.
And let me just tell you something.
there are things that can go on in the human body that can create depression, hormonal imbalance, dietary issues, All of these things can contribute to the moods that you feel.
And before you go any further, if you have these bouts in your life, check it out.
Make sure there’s nothing going on that could cause you to be depressed that is systemic in nature.
Let me go back to my friend, Charles Hatten spurgeon.
The great man himself was subject to such spiritual depression, and the main cause of it was that he suffered from gout, severe gout that finally killed him.
And he had to face this problem of spiritual depression, often in a most acute form, a tendency that always happened when he was having a severe about with his physical disease.
And he would have to leave his church for days months at a time in order for him to get over this.
You cannot isolate the spiritual, the emotional, the intellectual from the physical. they go together.
The greatest and the best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time, And there are great illustrations of that in the Bible and in history.
Sometimes there are satanic reasons I mean, the book of Jobis, certainly an illustration of that.
Here we see Satan at work more than in any other book in the Bible.
Do you know that at the beginning, Satan makes a deal with god.
He says, let me have Joe, and I’ll show you he’s not as hot as you think he is.
Let me have Job. Let me let me cause suffering in Job’s life, and you’ll find out that this guy Job that you think is the greatest god, you’re number 1, uh, pupil.
he’ll curse you and and, uh, you’ll just wait and see.
Now, the interesting thing about this is that god and Satan knew what was going on.
They had this deal, but god never told Job Joe never did know about the deal that god had made with Satan to allow Satan to test Job and prove his integrity.
sometimes Satan will try to cause sadness in your life.
Here’s what I’ve known about Sain doesn’t usually have anything to do with the bad things that happen.
He comes in afterwards to make you misinterpret the bad things that happen.
He comes in afterwards and says, god doesn’t love you as much as he used to, or god doesn’t care about you.
And god doesn’t, he’s not really interested in all And so Satan uses the tragedy, which he may not have caused as a talking point in your life, to bring depression into your heart.
Don’t let him do that. Sometimes there are spiritual reasons for depression. I read this this week.
This is a great comment. Listen to this. Sometimes god puts his children to bed
in the dark. He really does.
We say that god allows suffering and sometimes scripture uses that language. But he’s always in control.
And if god is allowed a dark time in your life, and there’s no evidence that you know of of any reason for it, just know that he’s up to something.
And at the end, as we’ll see in the life of Job, when the test is finished, you will be better experience of it, and the expression of it, and the examination of it, and some explanations of it, I want you to notice something that I find to be truly amazing.
Let’s talk about the expectations of depression.
Someone has described this phenomenon in nautical terms like this, the height of the wave determines the depth of the valley that follows it.
And the opposite is also true.
Sometimes the depth of the valley is a promise of the blessing to come.
How many of you know, life is lived in a rhythm. There’s a rhythm about life.
Let’s get to understand that when it comes to what we’re talking about today.
This is born out in examples from the Bible. Let me just give you a couple.
Do you remember when Elijah stood on Mount Carmel and confronted all of the prophets of bail.
And he called down fire from heaven, and he made fun of their god saying maybe their god was asleep.
And then after god came down and looked up all the water that was poured on the fire and destroyed the destroyed the altar, ate up the sacrifice.
He lied, you went out and he killed all of the prophets of bail.
Now, I would say that was a pretty good day for a man of god.
It was a mountain top experience that most people would never ever get close to.
But within just hours after that experience, Elijah is running for his life from Queen Jezebel.
And when he finally could no more run, he collapsed under a Juniper tree, and that’s when he said, lord, let me die.
He went from the mountain top to the valley in just a few hours.
Do you remember when the lord Jesus was baptized?
And god broke heaven’s silence and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
And the next verse says, and Satan took him to the wilderness and tempted him for 40 days.
After a major mountain topics we need to be ready to face the valley.
We were not created to live on the mountain all the time.
We weren’t created to live in the valley all the time. Life has rhythm to it.
And I, I’ve understood this. Don and I have talked about this many times.
Let me tell you about an illustration for this week.
We were in Kansas City, and we had one of the best events we have ever had since we’ve been doing this.
people came from everywhere that the building was full.
And I preached in John 316, and you’ve heard me preach that message.
And I gave the invitation and a few people came, and that’s what happens in these events.
We don’t always have a
lot of folks. And then all of a sudden, without any way for me to prepare for it.
People started coming to the front in droves.
I’m standing here, and this is a big bowl and people sitting on the floor and all up on the sides.
And all I could see is people streaming down from the sides. over 200 people came forward.
There were so many people we didn’t have anywhere close to the number of counselors we needed to share with them.
So I had to do a group prayer. We got everybody in front, and
I asked them all to pray out loud, the sinner’s prayer after me, and it sounded like Half of the audience was praying the prayer.
God came down in this place. And, uh, I was in tears.
I walked off the stage, and I reminded myself because I’ve been studying this this week.
Look out Jeremiah tomorrow’s coming. You know, look out, and I’ve been on guard so far it hadn’t got me yet, but But if
I hadn’t been on guard, it surely would have.
And, you know, Charles hadn’t spurgeon says it works the other way.
He said, he said before, any great achievement some measure of the same depression is very usual.
Such was my experience. When I first became a pastor in London, my success appalled me and the thought of the career, which it seemed to open up so far from elating me, it cast me into the lowest depths.
Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude And I would be take me to my village obscurity or immigrate to America and find a solitary nest in the Backwoods where I might be for the things which would be demanded of me.
And then he said, this depression comes over me whenever the lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry.
The mountain comes and then the valley, but sometimes the valley comes and then the mountain.
there’s a rhythm to life.
You know what? We would do ourselves a lot of good if we would just understand that.
What are the men that I met who was depressed?
came to a book signing, and he just told me how depressed he was, and I asked him what he did.
And he said, he was an accountant, and he did taxes. This was 16th April.
I told him I was depressed.
And then I I said, how many taxes he told me he did taxes for all
the wealthy people in Oklahoma City.
And I said, Oh, you’ve been working
on it. He told me,
I said, well, you know what?
I don’t know all that’s going on in your life, but I told him this little story.
I said, when you finish with a task you’ve been working on for a long time and you finally get it done and you’ve been to the mountain and it’s over, your system needs a break.
And one of the things that happens is you go from the height of your adrenaline grants just pumping into your system.
And there’s going to be a little bit of a down. Don’t take that so seriously. Understand.
That’s a part of how life works.
God has built that into us so that we can survive as life goes forward, can I get a witness?
Everybody got that? Amen. The expectations. Now, let’s talk about the elimination
of depression. And I’m just going
to give you some thoughts that I think might be helpful.
Please understand and let’s look up here for just a moment. If you have severe depression.
If you suffer depression that is debilitating, that means you can’t work or you have days when you can’t function, do not, whatever you do, do not not go and get some help.
But I am telling you some things you can do to help when these moments come, but I am not trying to stand in the place of a of a doctor.
I’m not a doctor. And I would hate for you to leave here and think that this is all there is.
No, if you have severe depression, you need to find medical help. And don’t be ashamed to do it.
Remember, all of these great people who have suffered with the same thing you suffer with.
But Having said all of that, here’s some things I’d like to suggest. Number 1, reveal your depression.
Based on the story of Job, I want to suggest that you reveal honestly your depression to the people that you trust.
The thing about Job was this. He didn’t hide his feelings. Listen to these words from Job’s 711.
Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job said, I’m not gonna keep this to myself.
Here’s what’s going on in my life. Find somebody a trust and let it all out.
Be honest about what you’re feeling. You say, well, I’m, Get over it.
Find somebody you trust and tell them what’s going on in your life.
Even in the doing of that, you will feel better. Number 2, resist your depression.
Depression is something to fight And I say that because, listen to me, nobody ever wants to be depressed, nobody ever seeks to be depressed, but there are people who won’t allow depression to leave.
Let me say this tenderly.
There are people you and I have both known who enjoy their bad health.
Do you know what I’m saying? I used to have people say,
you know, people come in and I’d ask people how they’re doing, and I’d get an organ recital.
This organ doesn’t work. That one doesn’t work. This one doesn’t work.
And you’d go through all this stuff, you know.
And they seem happy to be telling you. That’s their story.
And I say that because I have known people who, who go through depression and there’s help available, and it’s probably not something that they couldn’t deal with, but they don’t want to deal with it.
They enjoy the attention that it gets for them. Please listen to me today.
Depression is not anything to mess with.
Don’t let its foot in the door don’t let anything happen that would cause it to get worse if there’s something you can do to cause it to get better.
Fight it It is your enemy, just as surely as immorality or violence or theft is your enemy.
depression is your enemy. It’s not your friend. Don’t coddle it. Treat it as an enemy.
Number 3, research your depression. I read this from Dan Phillips.
He said, you should probably see a good doctor I mean, I don’t mean for happy pills.
I do not mean for psychological treatment.
I mean to eliminate the possibility of physical causes, and we’ve talked about that already.
there might be something going on in your life that you don’t know about before you do anything else.
If you suffer from this, go see a doctor and get a physical.
tell him what’s going on in your life and say, I just wanna make sure there’s not anything systemic going on that’s causing this to happen.
Number 4, replace your depression. Lean into god. Don’t lean away from him.
Let me tell you something that I’ve discovered when you go through any kind of trouble in life. Listen up.
you have to do things that are counterintuitive.
By that, I mean, if you only do what you feel like doing when you don’t feel good, you will always do the wrong thing.
What does that mean? Well, when I am down, I don’t feel like reading the Bible, do it anyway.
say to yourself, self?
I don’t feel like reading the Bible, but I’m gonna read it anyway.
And if you read it quietly in a little corner of your house, go out in the garage and read it out loud.
Take action that will bring you toward god, not pushing away. Here’s the deal.
When depression comes like any problem in life, here is god, and here are you.
If you let depression get in between you and god, it will push you away.
But if you put the depression, if you put the depression out here, it will push you toward god.
and then you will have a much better chance to survive. It all depends on where it is.
Job cried out to God, but he never cursed god.
And the Bible says that when he got all done with his depression, he did not sin.
The Bible says that in his crying out to god for answers and for help, he sinned not.
So make sure that what’s going
on in your life drives you toward your god and not away from him.
I need to tell you most of the people that I know who’ve gone through tough times, whether it’s cancer or some other kind of sickness or family trouble, when they get that principle right, they come out of it much stronger in their faith than when they went into it.
And then let’s talk a little bit about the
that depression had on
Job. Even before his testing was over, Job expressed this thought, and this is a great verse for you to remember Jobe 2310.
Here’s what it says. But god knows the way that I take.
And when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
And after it was over, he expressed gratitude for what had happened in life.
And Job 42, he said, god, before this thing, I’d heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.
Job lived in triumph in his faith.
In Job 13, he says, though he slay me, yet I will trust him. That’s what I mean.
That’s counterintuitive when you’re going through trouble. But that’s what you say in your heart.
That’s what you mean in your spirit. Lord, I don’t know what’s going on.
I don’t have any explanation for But, lord, if you slay me, I’m still gonna trust you.
That’s what Job said. And then he finally was able to say, I know that my redeemer lives and that he will stand at last on the earth.
There’s life after depressions. There’s victory after the test. There’s hope after the hopelessness.
And, yes, there’s joy after the despair.
For those of you who are Christians, you have quite an advantage that you may not know about.
So as we close, I wanna tell you this story.
Most of you have noticed that on television these days, programming is suffering.
And one of the ways you know it’s suffering is because old movies are being replayed over and over and over again.
If you have a movie you like, just search the channels for a couple of days and it’ll be there.
You won’t have to pay for it. It’ll be there.
One of my favorite movies, and don’t feel bad about it when I tell you this, is the fugitive.
I remember when the fugitive came out, we saw it when it first came out, and we sat, I think, down in the front row, either the front row or
the second row, and I I sat there like this, do the whole thing with my eyes wide open.
I was mesmerized by that movie.
Every minute of it was so captivating When, uh, when Harrison Ford went off off the ledge into the falls, I got jumped out of my seat.
Now, You know how
that movie ends. Everything gets resolved. The 1 hour
man gets caught, and everything’s fine. And Harrison ends up be — that’s the difference between a comedy and
a tragedy. a tragedy ends bad, comedy ends good. So the fugitive is a comedy.
Even though there’s no humor in it, it’s a comedy because that’s what a comedy is. Now, listen carefully.
I’m embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve watched that movie.
over and over and over again.
I already know what’s going to happen.
And I still have a little heart flutter when he goes off the cliff.
But it’s not like it was the first time or even the second.
now that I’ve watched it fifteen times or so, I still have emotion.
I still have a little bit of energy that’s dispensed. throughout the movie.
But you see, it’s different because I know how it turns out.
I know that it turns out right that the end is gonna be what you always hope a movie like that will be, you know, the good guy wins, the bad guy gets punished, and all is well.
Life is like that, isn’t it? Life is like a movie.
The first time you go through a downtime in your life. Wow.
It’s how in the world am I ever gonna deal with this? This is awful.
And then somehow, god helps you through it. And you get through the first one.
And, uh, the next time it comes, you realize You know, this is really hard, and, and this is emotional.
But I’ve been through this once before, and I know that God was with me. And you know what else?
I know how it turns out.
You’ve heard me laugh at Donna because she reads the last chapter of her books before she finishes reading the book But I’m beginning to realize she’s more right about that than I am.
When you read the last chapter, you don’t get traumatized by the events that happen leading up to it.
Because while it looks like it’s going to end here, you know, it’s not, it’s not going to end here.
And when it ends, it’s a good ending. Let me just ask you something today, class.
Don’t you know that this life is not our final place?
and that we’re going through some things right now.
1 of these days, we’re going to get to the ending, but we already know what it is.
So So when we already know what it is, let’s give ourselves a little space.
Let’s step back and say, lord, I forgot about this.
stuff we have to go through down here, but I’m so encouraged because I know we’re gonna make it through to the end, and we’re gonna do so with our hands lifted up high.
And the the little down, dark night of the soul that I have is just a part of the ultimate movie and the movie ends.
well.
Life in this world can seem pretty overwhelming.
But thankfully, God promises to be with you, right where you are, to lovingly remind you that he’s control and that there’s hope after hopelessness.
There’s no greater comfort than knowing your love by the very god of the universe.
And I pray that you’ve made the decision to experience that love by placing your faith in the lord Jesus Christ.
To help you strengthen that belief, I’d like to send you 2 free resources, a booklet called Your greatest turning point, and our monthly devotional magazine turning points.
These gifts are yours at no charge if you take a moment to contact us here at Turning Point.
Next time on Turning Point.
The Bible says that you must place your trust in Jesus Christ.
If you will believe in him, he will give you eternal life as your gift.
The wages have sinned his death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our lord.
Thank you for being with us today. Joined to Jeremiah next time for his message.
Def, the fear of dying.
Here on Turning Point,