Do You Mind? Week 2
Tim Rivers | May 12, 2024
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Transcription
How y'all doing? Good. Good. Happy Mother's Day. Can all the mothers in the house please stand? If you're a mother, would you stand? Come on, let's make some noise for all the moms in the building. We love you moms so much. We wouldn't be here without you. Literally, this is your day. You may be seated. I hope that whoever's in your life spoils you, gives you everything that you want and ask for. Janice is over here. Amen. Motherhood is not an easy job. There's a lot of long nights, sleepless days, there's a lot that goes into motherhood, and so we just want to say thank you so much for all that you do and we pray that you are celebrated today. We have a little gift for you after service. Make sure that you grab something because we want you to get your flowers for being a mom. Mom should be making some crazy noise right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, so we're in the second week of our series that we are calling. Do you mind? Last week we talked about reset your mindset, and this week we're going to go a little deeper. Is that all right? Yes. This wasn't intentionally, but it just worked out this way. This week we're going to talk about anxiety and depression, and what's interesting about this topic is that today is Mother's Day, and I dunno if you knew this or not, but women are twice as likely to experience anxiety almost twice as likely to experience anxiety than men are. And in particular, mothers are the group within women that deal with anxiety and depression the most. And obviously if you're a mother in this house, you know how difficult it can be to not just worry about yourself, but worry about somebody else like a child and the first few years of a child, you're all they got. Literally, we have a 2-year-old who last night was not having it. He wanted money.
So I do what I normally do, get in his room, put him to bed, and I sit down, I sit with my sons in their room to help them go to sleep so much that I got me a nice bean bag. I needed to be comfortable, but he wasn't having it. He wanted mommy and I was trying to relieve Janice because it's Mother's Day weekend, but at the end of the day, he wanted mom. And that's what motherhood does, right? You can want a weekend, but sometimes duty calls, but I don't want you just, if you're a man in this house, I don't want you to think that this message is purely targeted at women. This is also for you. Men deal with anxiety and depression as well. Here's what we're going to do as a church. We will not be silent on the topic of mental health.
We won't do it. We're not going to oversize things. We believe in the spirit. We believe in healing, we believe in all those things, but we also know that there is a physical attack that can happen. There's physical things that can happen. There's biological things that can happen and we're not going to sit there and oversize things and cause people more damage and everybody say amen. Y'all already know I'm getting juiced up. Alright, if you have your Bibles, let's go to one Samuel chapter one, the book of one Samuel chapter one, and we're going to read kind of a lengthy passage of scripture. I was going to try to condense it, but I felt like we needed to read the whole thing to get the context. Alright, first Samuel chapter one, here it is. There was a certain man of ram, so of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elna, the son of Gerome, son of ou, son of Tohu, son of self and fright.
He had two wives, the name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other Panina. And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children. Now, this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. There are the two sons of Eli Hof nine and finna were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elana sacrificed, he would give portions to Panina his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her though the Lord had closed her womb and her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her, therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.
And El Hanna, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more than you? More to you than 10 sons? After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah Rose. Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly, and she vowed a vowel and said, oh Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head. As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth, Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved and her voice was not heard.
Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman, and Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you. But Hannah answered, no, my Lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman. For all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vation. Then Eli answered, go in peace and the God of Israel, grant your petition that you have made to him. And she said, let your servant find favor in your eyes. Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Rama and Elana knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time, Hannah conceived and bore his son and she called his name Samuel for she said, I have asked for him from the Lord. And everybody say amen. Amen. My title for today is don't just pray about it.
Don't just pray about it. I'm going to get into somebody's Kool-Aid today. Let's pray. Amen. Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. I pray, Lord, that you would bless every mother in this place. God, I know that there are some whose mothers have passed on and this may be a sad day. I pray that you would give them comfort and peace. There are women in this place who have dealt with miscarriages or waiting for a child. I pray that you would give them peace in the process. I thank you, Lord God, for this opportunity to be in your house and to consider your word. Give us ears to hear a heart, to receive a mind, to understand what the spirit would say to us in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Amen. Don't just pray about it. Has anybody ever heard the phrase? Just pray about it. If you've been in church for any length of time, you undoubtedly have heard somebody tell you, just pray about it. You know how much spiritual, emotional, and mental damage has been done or perpetuated by these four words. Just pray about it. Generally speaking, when people say this, it is in response to you pouring out your soul to them.
You've held something in, you're dealing with a situation, it's becoming heavy, it's becoming weighted. And so you muster up the bravery to go talk to somebody, someone that you feel like is a spiritual voice, somebody that has spiritual maturity, and you go and you tell them, Hey, I'm dealing with this situation. I'm going through this struggle. I'm going through this problem. And then when you tell 'em at the end of you spilling your guts to them, you hope that there is going to be some good feedback, there's going to be some directives. And the only thing that hit you with in your moment of vulnerability is, well, let's just pray about it. And you walk off feeling more vulnerable and exposed than you did before as if you hadn't been praying about it. Now here's the thing. Generally speaking, the reason why people respond that way is because they don't have an answer. They oversize everything or they're dealing with something themselves and you struck a chord. And because they don't want to deal with their own issue, they deflect and tell you just go pray about it. And really what they're trying to do is dismiss having to deal with your issues. And for many of you that grew up in environments and church environments that over spiritualized everything and disregarded the natural world. Anything that was not spiritual, anything that was not positive was considered demonic.
Say it please.
And so you got a real issue that you're trying to deal with and you need help with. But if you grew up in a certain environment that over spiritualized everything, their answer for everything that you're dealing with is that must be the devil. So you have an abusive parent that has caused you trauma. You go to church and someone tells you, oh, that's just demonic. Okay? I don't try to cast out that spirit that's a stubborn demon or something else is going on. And depending on what type of church environment you grew up in, if you grew up in an environment where it's a just pray about it environment, it becomes increasingly more damaging to your spirit. Because what ends up happening is you are taught that just praying about it is the answer. So you keep going back and back to God, back to God, back to God until you stop believing in the power of prayer. How many have ever dealt with an issue that you keep asking God about and it hasn't changed? Thank you. I got about two or three of us. Isn't it amazing that we're more comfortable hearing people share their struggle with lower back pain
Than we are? When somebody says, I'm struggling with anxiety and depression, we will call people down to the altar to get prayer for their shoulder, popping their knees buckling their hip being out of place. We will call people down to the altar for ingrown toenails and cavities and abscesses and we believe for healing. But if somebody says, Hey, I'm dealing with anxiety and depression, the church seems to respond with, well, you just go pray about that. Why are we okay with people praying for healing in their back and still go into physical therapy but struggle with the idea that someone could pray for healing of their mental health and still go to a counselor? I mean, have you ever thought about how many faith leaders got enough faith to pray for people whose discs are popping, but freak out if you tell 'em you're dealing with a mental health crisis? According to one study, 91% of Christians say that mental health is stigmatized in the church. Now you can read statistics and be like, Hey, is that true? Lemme tell you, I have grown up in environments where this is the truth. I've seen people say that they have a real issue and you look at their life history and they grew up in a traumatic dramatic situation and those same people, two or three people will gather around them, have 'em shaken in the altar for two hours when you probably could address it in one hour in a counseling session.
We have to remember that we are both spiritual and natural beings. We have to remember that we have thoughts that are intangible, but we also have a brain that is tangible. We have to remember that, that God didn't just make us floating beings, but we have an actual body. We have a physical makeup, we have biology, we have flesh and bones, we have a brain, we have chemicals that flow through our body and sometimes you have a chemical imbalance or you have a surge of certain chemicals in your body because of certain traumatic and dramatic experiences in your life that guess what you need to address in addition with prayer.
I'm going to help somebody today. Alright? I want to get some working definitions. First, let's talk about anxiety. Anxiety. The definition that we're going to use is a painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind, usually over an impending or anticipated ill. That's the working definition that we'll have for anxiety. And then let's go to definition for depression. Depression is a feeling of severe despondency and dejection. Now let me just clarify some things. Occasional anxiety is normal. Your body, your chemical makeup, your brain is created to function with certain natural amounts of anxiety. In other words, it's natural to be anxious when you're waiting for a baby to arrive. Any moms can attest to that. I remember when we were waiting on all of our kids to come, we would go on walks and there's this anticipation why? Because you don't know exactly when the baby's going to come unless you have a schedule. But there are times when you're just waiting, okay, is it coming? Is it coming or not? There's a certain amount of anxiety that can come with that. There's a certain amount of anxiety that comes when you've got bills due, but you ain't got no money.
Anybody know that feeling? There's a certain amount of anxiety when you need a job, but you are unemployed. There are certain anxieties that come with family problems, with certain anxieties, with children. What am I doing wrong?
Right? There are natural occurring anxieties as a human being that is different from dealing with an anxiety disorder, which an anxiety disorder can get worse over time and it can include different types of anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, phobia, anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder. Now I'm not a psychiatrist and I'm not a psychologist. So I'm not going to go super deep into the science behind anxiety and depression because I'm not an expert. We have experts in our church that can speak to this, but I did think it was important to show you an infographic that will kind of give you a good picture of what happens in your brain as anxiety takes place. So I want you to look at the screen right here and I want to show you real quick what happens. This is kind of a good image for you to understand what happens, how anxiety happens in your life.
The decision making area of your brain determines the existence of a threat. This triggers a response in the amygdala, which tells the hypothalamus to initiate the fight or flight response. So what ends up happening in your brain is if you are confronted with what you perceive as a threat, you have two responses, fight or flight, and your brain naturally will shoot chemicals into your body, which will cause you to respond either way, a fight or flight. Now, what can end up happening is if you constantly see a threat, this is why trauma in your life has an effect in your response because as a child, a lot of this is normalized.
So if your parents are constantly at you and you see this as a threat, you grow up having a response to things that are similar or things that you perceive are threats. This can also happen in church if you are in an abusive church, when you come into a church where the man of God is just reading scripture, but you have always had to,
You can hear things that are normal and have a fight or flight response because you perceive that as a threat. So it's important to understand that when you feel anxiety, it's because your brain is doing what it's supposed to do. Alright, let's keep reading. When anxiety happens, let's go to the next graph. You might experience several things, rapid heart rate and breathing. Oxygen fuels a rapid response. This is getting you ready to respond. You may get pale or flushed. Skin blood flow is reduced. You get tense muscles. This helps you prepare for a perceived threat. When you perceive a threat, your muscles start to tense up, your heart rate goes up. Why? Because your body is getting ready to respond to what you perceive as a threat. This is so interesting, you can leave that graph up, but I know based on sometimes when I teach and preach how people are perceiving what I'm saying based on their posture, you save money. Boy, that fight or flight people bite their nails, start scratching their face. Your body is naturally responding to what it perceives as a threat. Why am I telling you this? This ain't demonic.
Don't oversize it. Do I believe that you can have spiritual attacks that cause you anxiety? 100%, yes. But also understand that it is natural for you as a human being to have responses to what you perceive are threats. When anxiety persists, anxiety disorders are the most commonly diagnosed mental illness. In the US there are several major types of anxiety disorders. The most common is generalized anxiety disorder. Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder include feeling nervous, having trouble sleeping, and experiencing excessive worry. If you're constantly having to take melatonin or sleep aids or magnesium glycinate. One time I took magnesium glycinate during the day, I thought it was multivitamins. Well, I was struggling all day. But if you're constantly trying to medicate, it's time to go a little deeper and figure out why it's happening. It could be that you're not sleeping because you're dealing, you haven't dealt with some trauma in your life. If every time you talk to your mom you can't sleep that night, oh, I just got personal. Not me personal, I can sleep fine. But if every time you interact with that person, you get worried, you get nervous, you start sweating, you get flushed, your heart rate is going up,
You need to address the issue. Let's look at the next slide. The limbic system comprised of the hippocampus, the amygdala, the hypothalamus, and the thalamus is responsible for a majority of emotional processing in the brain. Scientists have found individuals with anxiety disorder have more activity in the limbic system. Neurotransmitters, these are like electric wires in your brain are responsible communicating to various parts of the brain. These chemicals transfer signals throughout the human body. Serotonin responsible for mood, sleep and appetite. The refer linked to alertness and attention, norepinephrine. There we go. I had to get an interpretation for that tongue. You know what I'm saying? Trying to stay biblical and GABA slowed down signals. Now what, Tim, why are you sharing this, sharing this with us? Because I want you to understand that your body naturally produces anxiety to threats, but when there's continuous threats in your life that cause you to be in a cycle of anxiety, it will lead to depression. Now, if you're an expert and anything I said was wrong, email me and let me know. Thank you. I was hoping that would happen.
Now I know some of you are like, okay, that was great. How does this relate to the story that you just read in the scripture? How does this relate to theology? Remember, our job here in this series is we're talking about theology and therapy, and I am about to show you how the symptoms that Hannah is displaying in this passage are consistent with her experiencing anxiety and depression. In fact, according to Cambridge, the study, there's a man by the name of George Stein. He did a study on this and he presents evidence that this is the first depiction of depressant and anxiety for a woman in scripture. So we're going to talk about it. So let's go to first Samuel's, go to art pastor of scripture. I want to give you context. Remember, context is key to understand the storyline. First and second Samuel. Those two books are really about the life and ministry of a man by the name of Samuel.
Now at this time when this story is written, Israel is moving from a theocracy, theocracy being that God is king and God is executing his kingship through judges, priests, prophets and judges were responsible to represent God to Israel. However, Israel is trying to become more and more like the heathen nations around them. So they are requesting to have an actual natural physical human. King Samuel is the one that begins to lead Israel from a theocracy to a monarchy. Remember Samuel is the one that anoints Saul to be the very first king of Israel. But prior to the birth of Samuel Samuel's mother, whose name is Hannah, is in a peculiars situation in her family construct, her husband Elna has two wives, one who is Hannah, the other is Panina. Now, most biblical scholars agree that Hannah was most likely Elena's first wife, but because she was barren and could not conceive, he married another woman named Panina so that he could have offspring, which you have to understand in this cultural context is that it wasn't just that she was dealing with infertility, but there was a societal stigma
Toward women who were dealing with infertility so much so that it was considered a curse. So Hannah is dealing with infertility most likely for years not producing any children having to be barren until the point where Elana says, Hey, I need to have children. And you have to understand Ana's point of view is remember everything was done in family context, family business. You had to have someone to pass off all your property to if not it was going to go to the nation. You had to have somebody that would take your name. He was concerned about continuing his lineage, but he also loved Hannah so much that he gave her a double portion of everything that everyone else got. So we know he loved Hannah, he cared for Hannah. He was sorrowful for Hannah, he empathized with Hannah, but he also knew that Hannah was in a precarious situation because she could not bear children. Now, how do we know this was leading her to anxiety? One is because Hannah is stigmatized by society and she's a constant constantly by the other woman. Think about what Hannah is dealing with. There were no sonograms, there were no pregnancy tests. So Hannah goes and has relations with her husband and every time she does, she has to wait for that one time a month to see if she's going to have a menstrual cycle or not.
Can you imagine the anxiety of not knowing month after month, after month after month, months turn years, years turn into decade and you're filled with anxiety because there's nothing you feel like you can do about it? Think about it. No wonder she's dealing with anxiety, right? But then her anxiety turns into what seems to be depression. Now look at the symptoms that Hannah starts to show. Irritability toward pen and toward Elana, uncontrolled weeping, distressed countenance, loss of appetite, sadness, general distress, vation anxiety. Imagine being in Hannah's situation. She's got family tension. She's got a physical ment that's out of her control. She has cultural pressure, she has social stigma. She's being socially stigmatized. Hannah is in a situation where she's dealing with anxiety and depression and she is a believer in God. You mean a woman of God who has faith and beliefs and trust in God and is going to church and is praying, can also simultaneously deal with anxiety and depression. We can go all throughout scripture and find men and women of God who were dealing with anxiety and depression and prophesying and leading a nation and hearing from God. Don't write people off.
Don't diminish somebody's spirituality because they're dealing with a real life issue that's causing them anxiety and depression. You don't know what they're going through. You don't know what's happening in their brain because sometimes it may be a traumatic experience, it may be drama in their life. Other times they may legitimately have a biological chemical deficiency. So how does Hannah respond? How does Hannah respond to anxiety and depression in her life? As a woman of faith? She does what is expected. She goes to the house of God and this is where we read in our passage when she gets to the house of God, the tabernacle, let me modernize it to church. Hannah comes to church and she does what any believer would do. She begins to pray for deliverance from her anxiety and depression. She prays for God to work a miracle so she could get out of the situation. She tells God the condition I'm in, you see what I'm dealing with? You notice my problem, you notice my issue and I'm asking you God to deliver me from this. And while she is praying, she is in such anguish that she's mouthing the words, but the words won't come out.
Now here's what's interesting. While she is praying for deliverance and dealing with real life issue, the man of God, Eli, the preacher man A, the Bible says that he is sitting at the post of the doorsteps, the entrance to the house of God. He's sitting there and he's watching everybody ensuring trying to do his job to make sure that there's order. Make sure that if there's any needs that he can supply, he can do his priestly duty. And he notices Hannah and he sees that her lips are moving, that she is weeping, but the words don't come out. Now he has no idea what she's dealing with. He doesn't know the complexity of her family situation. He doesn't understand any trauma that's happening in her life. He doesn't have context at all for what's going on. And so he decides to respond to what he perceives is an issue, which really isn't the issue. He seems to oversize the situation and he walks up to her and he says, Hey, why would you come in here drunk? He misdiagnosis the situation. How many people have come into this house that are dealing with anxiety and depression and somebody just says, just pray about it. Misdiagnosing the situation because you have no context.
You don't know if they've been sexually abused, you don't know if they've been in an abusive relationship, you don't know if their spouse is hitting on them, and yet so many people in the house of God will dismiss people because it doesn't look right. Here's what's interesting, y'all ready for this? Eli says, Hey, why are you drunk? When are you going to put away the wine? Now what you have to understand is Eli's problem because Eli, at this moment, he can't even hear from God. How do we know that? Because the couple of chapters later, we know that when God speaks Samuel's, the one that hears him and Eli can't, you know what else is going on in Eli's private life, his sons Hana and finna have issues with getting drunk and having orgies in the house of God and Eli won't confront their issue. So when he doesn't confront the issues in his own life, he misdiagnose and mistreats other people because he's not willing to confront his own issues. He misdiagnoses other people's issues. Lemme just say it this way, people who haven't dealt with their own trauma can't help you with yours.
People who are unwilling to look at their own house and deal with their own issues, don't have the right or authority to try to diagnose you. Be careful. Who are you talking to? Even in the house of God. Isn't it funny how many people in church misdiagnose anxiety and depression because they haven't confronted their own skeletons? You know how many preachers will oversize things because they're personally dealing with some stuff? Lemme tell you, if a pastor or anyone in the church is constantly using a spiritual stick to beat you guaranteed this stuff in that closet and it's just a matter of time that God exposes it. Talking to somebody out there in Innerwebs, quit playing, go to counseling. So how does Hannah respond when the church misdiagnoses her issue? How does Hannah respond? Because Hannah could have perceived Eli's rebuke as sanctioned. Hannah could have perceived what Eli was saying as he's the man of God, so I'm going to keep my mouth shut and I'm going to leave and continued to deal with my anxiety and depression and my trauma. She could have apologized. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have acted out like this. I shouldn't have done this. I should have been a lot more. She could have walked away. She could have decided not to come back to the house of God.
She goes, all right, Elna, you take this woman and her kids, y'all go, I'm out. I quit. She could have quit. She could have thrown her in town, but she didn't. And I want to give you three ways to address anxiety and depression as seen in the story of Hannah. Three ways to address anxiety and depression. Number one, pray about it. Now, I know y'all are like, wait a minute, your title says don't just pray about it and I mean that. Don't just pray about it. What I'm not saying is don't pray about it. Pray about it. Isn't it interesting that Hannah, as much as she dealt with depression and anxiety and she was dealing with what seemed to be brass, heavens still maintained faith that God is able to deliver her prayer is foundational to healing because it addresses our spiritual wellbeing. Look at Philippians chapter four, verse number six. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your mind.
Remember last week, your minds in Christ Jesus. This passage, this scripture passage, I think often is taken out of context and people will throw that in with their, just pray about it. Remember Philippians chapter four verse six. I dunno why I just did that accent, but it seemed appropriate. Yeah, pray about it. In fact, that should be your first stop. The first stop that you make if you're dealing with anxiety and depression is to pray about it. Notice that even though Hannah had a history of dealing with trauma, anxiety and depression, she never gave up on the power of prayer. She still believed that God was able, I have seen God deliver people in an instant from anxiety and depression. I've seen God work instant miracles and I've also seen God take people on a journey. Although her situation didn't change for years, she still believed that God was able to perform a miracle. Everything that we experienced has a spiritual component to it. There's a reason why we talked last week about the spirit of your mind, the mindset There is an intangible influence that happens when you deal with anxiety. It has a spiritual component. When you deal with pressure in your life, it does affect your spiritual life. Can anybody testify when you're going through any spouse who Hass ever had arguments right before church?
Now don't y'all look at me like that. Don't happen. We can tell pension he's talking to you right now. Have you ever noticed that when you have a disagreement of sorts right before church, when you come into church, it's not like you can switch it off and bath presence. You are formulating how you're going to readdress this after church. Man, I really should have said this. I'm going to say it next time. This doesn't happen with Janice and I. It does
As a human being, you're going to have anxieties in your life and it will affect your spiritual life. This is why you have to take it to the Lord in prayer. You have to submit it to the Lord. Look at what Romans chapter eight, verse number 26 says, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we all but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Do you know that the reason why you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit and so the Holy Spirit can intercede on your behalf when you don't have the words to say this is what was happening with Hannah. She was praying, but words weren't coming out. She was interceding and God was hearing her. There are moments when you are, you're dealing with such anxiety and depression where you don't have the words to explain the God how you're feeling, that you just have to rely on the Holy Spirit and he who searches hearts. Remember that word hearts also means mind. He who searches the hearts, the mind will and emotion knows what is the mind. Remember what is the mind? It is the influence knows what is the influence, the inclination of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
That passage, somebody got to write it down and you got to read it every day this week. So pray about it. Hannah prayed about it. Here's number two, speak up. You know how many people will come pray and then stay quiet until the next moment they come pray and they say, we've done people a disservice when we introduced unspoken prayer requests.
And usually it wasn't that the person didn't want to speak about it. It's that the church created an environment that if it's too risque and it's too much, let it be unspoken. The Lord knows, of course he knows, but you got to speak up. You got to tell somebody. You got to listen. Hannah could have easily apologized. She could have said her little prayer apologized, said, man of God, get up out of there and do her thing. But she decided in this moment, I don't know if this has ever happened in her life. We don't have any indication that this ever happened, but we know that in this moment she was overcome with such anxiety and such grief and such depression that she was like, I refuse to pray, be quiet and walk away. But if the man of God is going to misdiagnose me and mistreat me, I'm at least going to tell him that he's wrong. So you know what she does? She says, I'm sorry, but don't consider me as someone who is dumb enough to walk in here drunk, drinking strong drink or wine. I'm not a foolish woman. I'm not a woman of beil.
You are mistreating me. You have misdiagnosed me. But she says, I am crying out. I'm in prayer. I am crying out. Why? Because of my anxiety and my vation. That word vation means deep seated grief.
The enemy of your soul would love for you to remain quiet and not talk about your anxiety and depression. The enemy would love to stigmatize what you're going through to the point that you stay silent about it. But can I tell you, your healing is on the other side of your confession. Your healing is on the other side of your confession. She didn't keep quiet because someone misdiagnosed her. Oftentimes we can, our response to people misunderstanding us in our situation is just nobody gets it. But when she was brave enough to speak up, Eli, who still was the man of God, even though he was dealing with his own drama and trauma again, God has grace on your life. Even though he was dealing with his own issues. Once he heard what Hannah was really dealing with, he was able to offer some counsel for her. He was able to advocate for her. Once he got the right information and he realized that he made a mistake, he could then advocate for her. Can I tell you, people can't advocate for something they don't know. People can't pray with you about things in your life unless you tell them,
Well, I'm worried being stigmatized. You've got two options. Risk it because there's nothing wrong with it. And if there's a person that you feel like is going to find somebody that won't stigmatize it, be careful who you speak to. So you can either speak up or you can continuously be in a cycle of trying to do it on your own and it hasn't worked. David was a perfect example of what to do when you're in distress. Look at Psalm chapter 18, verse number six, in my distress, my deep grief, I called upon the Lord and that word called means. I spoke up to my God. I cried for help from his temple. He heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears. Now I know that some people are out there and like, well, he said he called upon the Lord and not people. He says, it was to my God, I cried for help. Alright, all right. Are we reading this? Because if it was just private, we wouldn't be reading it. He didn't just tell the Lord. He documented it so that you knew he was in distress.
This is where therapy can help you because some of us, we just needed an opportunity to speak up. 2016 is when my journey of therapy began. I was dealing with all types of identity crisis and things of that nature, and when I went, and I didn't even know what to talk about, but the counselor asked me a question. He said, who's Tim Rivers? And I said, ball, you know me. What are we talking? I was like, well, I mean I'm married. I've got a kid I minister or preaching. He goes, who are you outside of preaching, outside of being a father and a husband? Who are you? And I just started bing because I didn't know who I was as an individual, but I couldn't get to that point until I spoke up. I knew I was dealing with an identity crisis. But you know what I kept doing? Just praying about it. Speak up. Here's point number three. Make changes.
Make changes.
Make changes. Hannah left the house of God and made significant changes from her previous actions. Now we knew what she was dealing with. Now she was wasn't eating. Her countenance fell. She was upset with her husband. She was upset with benina. She had all these behavioral things that was perpetuating the cycle of anxiety and depression. But look at what happens in one Samuel chapter one, verse 17 Now. Then Eli answered, go in peace and the God of Israel regret your petition that you have made to him. And she said, let your servant find favor in your eyes. Then the woman went away, went her way and ate. She had a good meal and her face was no longer sad. She put a smile on her face. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Rama and Elana knew Hannah, his wife. You know what that means? They turned on some music, didn't have radios back there, jet die, play the harp, put some smooth music on rose petals and he knew his wife. She did something that she had always done, but she changed some things surrounding it.
You may have anxiety at your job. You may not need to quit your job. Maybe you need to change some behavioral things surrounding your job. Make changes. The changes Hannah made are conducive to her, reversing her anxiety and depression. Before she got pregnant, she decided to make some changes as if she was. Sometimes before you get the relief from anxiety and the relief from depression, you got to do some things that you would do outside of it. Go for a walk, smile. Sometimes you got to fake it till you make it. Hannah didn't wait until her circumstances changed. Before she implemented changes in her behavior, she implemented changers and her circumstances changed. Change is necessary for healing. Can I get real practical with y'all? Oftentimes what happens when you're dealing with anxiety and depression is your whole world can kind of crumble. You stay in bed, you start eating unhealthy, you're not taking care of your body. Can I tell you that bad diet? The lack of exercise is just contributing more to your anxiety and depression. Put the cookies down. Stop going to Wingstop only go. Occasionally there's compromise and change. You know what I'm saying? Incremental changes. Get the 10 count instead of the 30 you normally get. Just get three. No, just kidding.
Have you checked your body? If you dealing with anxiety and depression, have you looked at things that you're doing that are perpetuating it? So many people deal with issues that they can change, some behavioral things that or change your life? Stop drinking Dr. Pepper. Quit putting a cup of sugar in that tea. You may need to get off of social media is perpetuating your cycle of anxiety. Can I just be honest with you? Social media was getting on my nerves. It was just getting on my nerves. Janice and I would talk about, I'm like, man, and some of it was should I be E? You know how I shut it off for months, like the beginning of the year, I did it for I think five or six months. I went, that's why y'all didn't see me post, no pictures, no nothing. I got off social media. It wasn't good for my soul and my mind. So I made a change. I just turned it off and I had more time and I was happier. And now I can get on there healthily, but if it becomes an issue again, I just make some changes.
The reason why I'm talking about this is because there are people in here that you're dealing with anxiety, you're dealing with depression, and you feel like you're all alone and you feel like you're treating it separately from the church. But can I tell you that there is healthy theology and therapy that if you combine the two correctly in the basis of scripture, you can get healing. My own personal story in 2009, I was never really a depressed person. I don't deal with a lot of anxiety. But in 2009, I, oh man, I moved out to California because I was evangelizing full-time ministry. Things were going great, revivals were happening, people were getting saved. But I remember one Sunday after service, it was the weirdest thing. I got through preaching. People were in the altar and I was on the platform and I looked out and I had this thought, is this real or am I just conditioned to believe this is real because of how I grew up? And I quickly said, don't think that way. This is what you do full time. Stop it. And I remember going to the evangelist quarters and I got into bed and I had that thought again. And so I thought, okay, I'm having a crazy moment, so I'll watch a movie. I watched a movie, but while I was watching a movie, it still was playing. So you know what I did? I did what every good Christian supposed to do. I prayed and I said, God, deliver me from this thought.
And the thought didn't go. So the next day I thought about it, I ruminated about it all day and the next day and the next day, but then I had to preach that night. So I preached and I felt like a hypocrite because I was preaching about a gospel that I was questioning. The next weekend came same thing the next weekend. Now I'm buried deep into books and I'm trying to study, trying to validate my faith and anxiety was starting to build up. I wasn't sleeping, I was staying up. I wasn't eating right. Then my anxiety turned to depression. About a month into it, I felt severely depressed. I would stay in the vanity school all day. I'd either sleep, I'd watch a movie or I'd study and try to find answers that I had. It got so bad because I would preach and I would see it happening and I would walk off and feel nothing. I was too embarrassed to tell you anybody because I thought, how could I be a Christian? How could I be a pastor and preach the gospel and deal was not wanting to get out of bed in the morning?
Finally, oh man, after praying and praying and praying, I said, I got to tell somebody I got to risk it all. And I got to the point where I was like, you know what? I'll quit what I'm doing. I'll go do something else. So I called my pastor and I said, Hey man, I got a problem. I'm dealing with depression. And I just said it. And you know what he did? He didn't rebuke me. He didn't cast stones at me. You know what he said? Man, I get it. I dealt with the same thing and all of a sudden I felt like, oh,
I Prayed about it. I spoke up about it. Now what's my next step? And you know what he said? He said, Tim, just keep doing. When you don't know what to do, keep doing what you know to do and it will resolve. But you need to talk about it. You need to confess it. You need to do everything in your own power to make changes, to help reverse it. So you know how I started doing, going to go work out twice a day, started calling friends and going to hang out. I started eating better. I put away the Popeye's chicken.
Does anybody know what kind of sacrifice that is to put aside that spicy Popeye's chicken, that buttery biscuit with honey on it? But I set it aside because I knew I needed healing. Thank you. And so I wanted to do everything that I could do to get it. I'm telling you, that's why when I preach this stuff, I'm not preaching you something theoretical. I've lived this, I've done this. I'm standing up here as a living witness that if you combine scripture in therapy together, I'm telling you, you can get wholeness in your life. I want to show you this video. You may be in here. You may think, oh man, I don't know what you're talking about. I think I'm the only one, but I want you to check out this video as we conclude.
My name is Adrian Ward and I am a special education teacher. I am a wife of 10 months. We celebrate one year in June, and I have been at Embassy City for about two years. I am currently on the worship team here at Embassy and it has been about, I would say a year or a year and a half. And so that is what I do here at Embassy. I always attended embassy when I wasn't at my other church if I didn't have to serve. I came here probably for about four years just visiting on and off, and I finally made the decision to join after I decided to leave my old church and it has been home ever since. The struggle that I went through was anxiety. In 2014, I was diagnosed with what's called generalized anxiety disorder, and I would suffer from panic attacks specifically from about 2014 to 2017 was the thick of the anxiety that I experienced.
And so that struggle, I would say has been about 10 years. And I'm speaking from freedom of about two months. So it's been 10 years of dealing with anxiety. What helped me through the process was therapy. Honestly, therapy played a huge role in my healing process. Still to this day, I use tools that I learned in therapy, but I also depended on the Lord. So I'm an advocate of Jesus and therapy. I was able to attend counseling game tools for when I am having a panic attack, but also tied with scriptures. And so Jesus and therapy is what got me through. I had a conversation with someone and we talked about how miracles don't always look like the lame person being able to walk or the blind person being able to see. And so for me, it is a miracle. Anytime a person with depression can get out of the bed, it's a miracle. Anytime someone that struggles with anxiety is able to overcome that and do something that the Lord has called them to do, it feels great to be able to serve the Lord in the way that I know He's called me to and overcome something that has had me for 10 years. So it feels amazing and that's how it feels.
Thank you.
Maybe you're in this place and you're dealing with it right now and you want freedom from it. Can I tell you, God can help you. He can help you. It may be instant, it may be a journey, but God can heal you. So as we bow our heads, close our eyes. We did this last week. We want to do it again this week. I want to give you an opportunity just to respond to the Lord. We're going to sing over you. CE is coming right now. She's going to sing over you. And if there is depression, anxiety in your life, I want you to hear these words and just let the Lord begin to guide you to your journey of freedom.
