There I am. I hear me.
Morning, everybody. Good morning, everybody. Oh, yeah. Let's try that again. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. There we go.
Hey, Linda. Good to see everybody this morning. Yeah, it is morning. Cool. I've been up for a while. Boy, this time change messed me up. I woke up at 4 o'clock going, "Oh, it's time to go study." Well, wait a minute. No, it's only 4 o'clock.
So, anyway. Good morning, everybody.
Anybody thinking about being hungry? You ever think about eating? Thinking about eating turkey? Ham? Sweet taters? Mashed taters? Gravy? Biscuits?
Y'all need to be here on Wednesday. Because all of that's going to be here. I know that there's three fried turkeys. Deep fried turkeys. We had them last year. First time I'd ever had a deep fried turkey. It's the only way I'll ever eat it now. Well, I say the only way. It's the only way I'd want to eat it. Because they were the most moist, cooked, well done, perfect turkeys.
And I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Is it lunchtime yet? I'm hungry now. I've taught myself into being hungry. But I encourage you to be here. It's going to be a great time, a celebration. Celebrate our Thanksgiving.
As Karen said, we'd like to see everybody that volunteered for our fun day to also come because, as she said, we just want to celebrate. We want to thank you guys. Plus, we're wanting to—we'll have some cards, as she said, on each table because we want to know what y'all thought about it. What if you were a participant or a helper? What y'all thought about it? What could we do to make it better? And what did you see that probably didn't work as well as it should have?
Which we already have had a discussion in our team meeting about that, and we came up with some things that we should change. First of all, rotation of volunteers along with more tents and more water stations because it was hot. You wouldn't think it'd be that hot in October, but it was. But we had a great time.
But anyway, I want to invite you all to our Thanksgiving celebration this Wednesday. It starts at what time, Karen? Six o'clock. Six eighteen hundred if you're military.
Anyway, bring a friend. As she said, there's a sign-up sheet. You know, I'm really pushing this because it's always a fun time to come together.
And if the guys will stop and stay a little bit late after service so we can get all our tables and everything set up for Wednesday, so we don't have to try and do it some other day.
With that, we're so glad y'all are here. I've got a very important message this morning for you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for all of us, you all online.
Everybody, very important message. And I just—it's one that I had to battle through even as a pastor of a church, and I'll tell you that story here in a little bit once we get into the message.
But today, my topic is how to deal with anxiety and depression. And I believe it's a message that God gave me. Well, it's a very, very, very important message because this is the time when we really need to communicate what we're going through with our lives.
So I want to use this time to talk about the message that we have this week, and then I want to go ahead and tell you what we talked about today. And I'm so glad that y'all are here. So glad you guys have joined us online.
If you have your tithes and offerings, let's just hold them up. Let's pray over it. Ryan, I want to do the long confession, okay?
If you got your tithes and offerings, just hold them up. Let me pray over them.
Father God, we just come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you for this time together. We thank you that we can come together as one family. All those online also can join us. We're all one family. We're one big church in many locations.
And we thank you, Father, for our time together where we come in unity, where we come with one voice, where we come and leave all the things of the world outside, and we come in with a clear mind and an open heart and our eyes focused on you.
Father, I thank you that we can come and worship you through song, and then we can also worship you through our tithes and offerings and receive from you in the word that you will present today.
Father, I just thank you for each person that sows into this ministry. It's ground that you have called and you have anointed, and every dollar that comes in, you always increase it so that we can continue to achieve our vision of being a place of hope, salvation, and restoration.
Father, we just thank you for all things, and we just give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
If you will confess this over your giving today according to the word of God, I declare that money cometh through the body of Christ, and money comes to me for the sake of the gospel.
I am laying a foundation, and God is performing his word in my life. Our church, Abundant Heart Church, is debt-free. God supplied the necessary finances to pay for all buildings, furnishings, equipment, and is supplying everything to accomplish all he has called us as a church to do.
We will tell the untold, teach the unreached, and raise up believers who walk in faith and victory by the anointed teaching and preaching of the gospel.
Father, I honor you by putting you first in my finances, giving you my best in tithes, offerings, and first fruits. I thank you that you supply all my need according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
You grant the desires of my heart. You delivered me into my wealthy place. You have opened the windows of heaven, and you are pouring out blessings that continuously overflow.
I call myself debt-free. I proclaim that I have the necessary finances to do everything God has called me to do with more than enough. The overflow is for sowing into your kingdom and into others.
I believe I receive increase in every area of my life: life, increased anointing, increased rejoicing, increased restoration, increased income, and increase in all my assets.
I receive increase in Jesus' name. I call my house and all my property paid for in full. I believe I receive employment, career advancements, raises and bonuses, sales and commissions, new business and contracts, favorable settlements, estates and inheritances.
Income and interest, rebates and returns, dividends and discounts, checks in the mail, gifts and surprises, lost money found, bills supernaturally decreased and paid off, blessings in enlarged territories.
We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
If you'll stand with us, let's worship. You guys go ahead. Let's stand.
Father, I just thank you, Lord God. I thank you for showing up every week as we create an atmosphere for your glory to fall. And we thank you, Lord, that it has fallen today.
And we just give you praise and we give you glory. We thank you for each person that's here and joined us online. We thank you for the word that's about to go forth. That though it's my voice that's heard in the natural, it's the voice of your spirit that's heard in our inner man.
To impart nuggets of truth into our hearts. To help us grow in the things of you. Father, I just give you praise, and I just thank you. I thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated.
I kind of chuckled when Audra said, "Thank you, Lord, for the shoes on my feet." And I looked at her feet, and she was barefooted.
Can we have some lights out there? Hey, there y'all are. I knew y'all were out there somewhere. Had to overcome these lights to the shine of my eyes. Thank you, guys. Y'all are awesome as usual. Give this praise team some love, would you? Absolutely. Absolutely. Praise God.
Hey, everybody. Oh, that was good. Welcome to church.
Anybody here on purpose? Praise God. Praise God. Let me tell you, I am so happy. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Way down a bit in the monitor or wherever it was. Up here it gets real loud, and I don't mind hearing my voice, but I don't like it to overpower my voice. Amen?
We're so happy that you guys have taken a few minutes out of your Sunday morning to join us. Join us in worship. Amen? Join us in studying the word of God.
I am so, I'm so happy for this topic because I believe this topic will set some people free. Here, online, it's something that we all need. It's a tool for our arsenal in our walking with Jesus in our life.
And it's an honor for me to be able to stand up here and minister the word to you. We're in week number three of a five-week series called "Can We Talk About It?"
And this morning, we're going to talk a little bit about anxiety and depression. And if you remember, not too long ago, I brought a message on stress. And I believe that these two topics are totally different.
And I approach them and I talk about them in two different ways. I address them differently. Because I want to show you that stress and anxiety—let me rephrase that—stress, compared with anxiety and depression, are not the same thing. They're completely different.
I don't have time to recap on the stress part of it because I've got a lot I want to give you today. So I encourage you to go back on our website, if you have the app, do that. And go and re-watch the video on stress.
But see, what I do see in stress is that stress is external circumstances that weigh on you. And what do I mean by external circumstances? External circumstances are things that happen to you that you have no control over. Amen?
So the only thing that you can do is enforce and reinforce your ability to cope with the circumstances that come on you from life. We talked about how to increase that ability and how to handle it.
And how to handle the stresses of life. Today we're going to take an opposite approach with anxiety and depression. And actually, circumstances can be great. Everything's going good.
But there's something going on in your soul, in your emotions. And let me say this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. You do not have to live with anxiety or depression. You don't have to live with it. That does not have to be a part of your life. You do not have to put up with it. Amen?
And there are several solutions in Jesus' name. And I want to give you a few of them today. But I stand in front of you this morning with some moral authority on this topic because I've experienced this very thing in my life, even as a pastor.
So let me tell you my story. I'll keep it short because, oh, I've got a lot of time. Woo! Cool!
Cricket and I were called to this ministry, Abundant Heart Church, in the spring of 2011. After six months of studying the word where God directed me, which was Acts chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4. And he said, "This is the design of the church. This is how I want you to be. This is how I want you to build this church."
And it was found on fellowship. Found on being a family. Found on breaking bread together. And then breaking bread together. Amen?
And six months later, in October of 2011, AHC, Abundant Heart Church, started in our house. Within a year and a half later, we moved into this building. It didn't look like this when we moved into it. Ha ha.
Remember that was when we moved in here. You knew that. Can I say it looked like a 1970s funeral home when we moved in? We completely redid it. We're not a funeral home. We are a joyous, praise the Lord, home where we're completely alive. Amen?
I've never been a glass half full kind of guy or a glass half empty kind of guy. I've always been a glass completely full, running over. And I've been that way all my life, even during the bad times of my life.
But in the fall of 2018, some circumstances happened here at this church. And those circumstances happened to get into my soul, into my emotions. And by the spring of 2019, I was a very miserable person.
By this time of the year in 2019, things were starting to happen. Things were growing. Church was growing. I mean, we were rocking right along. I mean, I was getting paid more than I'd pay myself. You know? I was having grandbabies, riding my Harley, having just a great time. I mean, everything looked good on the outside.
But I was completely, 100% miserable on the inside. And I really didn't know why. And that was very frustrating to me. It made me even more depressed because I'm a fix-it type of person. If I know what it is, I can fix it. No matter what it is.
And I was convinced that I was losing my mind. I'm serious. Because of the thoughts that I was having. But I never spoke or acted on those thoughts. There were thoughts of suicide. I was ready to end it all. That's where I was. Miserable.
Didn't sleep. I cried when nobody was looking. I felt alone. I felt like there was nothing that could help me. And I was ready to make it go away.
Memorial Day weekend, May of 2019. After church, I said, "Cricket, pack a bag. Let's go. We've got to go somewhere. I've got to get away." We ended up on Mustang Island in Corpus. Got there about midnight, sitting in two lawn chairs, watching the whitecaps in the moonlight. And we never said a word. I just sat there.
The next morning, we went to the hotel room and got some sleep. If you would call that sleep. It wasn't really sleep. My head just never stopped with the thoughts. Never. So I very rarely did I get any sleep.
We got up that morning. We ate breakfast. We went and hung out on the beach, drove around Mustang Island and Corpus and whatnot. Went and ate at Blackbeard's restaurant. And it appeared that everything was fine. But I'm going to tell you, it was not fine.
I was on the verge of going back to the things that I did before I got saved. The things that were killing me. I didn't. But I was on the verge of it.
When we left Corpus and started heading home, I told Cricket, I said, "Cricket, I'm done. I'm going to resign from the church. I'm done." And I actually had the idea of selling this property, buying an RV, going to the beach on Saturday, setting up a tent, and ministering in my Bermuda shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops.
Because there's a lot of people down there, and I didn't have to worry about church. I was just going to go give the word. But on the way home, in silence, the radio wasn't even on, I heard God speak to me just as clearly as if he was sitting in the truck with me.
And he just said one thing: "Go back to the vision."
What had happened is I allowed the circumstances that happened in 2018 to invade into my heart and move my eyes from what God had called me to do. Moved my eyes from my purpose to focusing just on the circumstances and what had happened.
But when he said that to me, almost immediately a joy flooded back into my heart. And now I had tears of joy. Because I felt this darkness. I felt this like scales on my eyes. I felt like this wall, this stone around my heart, the way I isolated myself from everybody.
And I felt it breaking away. And I started regaining the vision of a healing church and the purpose that God had given me originally. And I started coming back alive in me.
And I can tell you, this is not the only solution, but it's one solution. And I want to talk about this one solution for a few minutes.
I can explain the opposite of the depression and anxiety that left my life. Even in the COVID year, with only four people here—Cricket, myself, Karen, and Richard—that was it. But we stayed online. I never locked those doors. I never closed this church because I believed in a pandemic.
The church is a place where people need to go to be healed, to be strengthened, to be encouraged, to be built back up after everything that's going on that we saw in 2020.
In the ice-mageddon of 2021, we completely lost our youth facility and wiped out the inside of this building. And we spent nine months—I say we, I was just the owner. I had a general contractor sitting over there.
Spent nine months rebuilding the inside of this church completely. Completely. From the ground up. Wiring, plumbing, walls, paint, everything. And we spent those nine months in my house.
And I can tell you we lost a lot of people during that time. But you know what? I never lost my joy that God gave me back in 2019.
Oh, I could see things, and I had the opportunity to get upset or depressed, but I did not because I had a joy. I had a vision. I had a purpose. I had a purpose. Amen?
And I'm going to tell you what. You know, it's like, "God, how do we bring a church out of a pandemic? How do we bring the people back from everything that had happened during 2020?"
And then, of course, 2021. Look. This is God. This is God. This is not Ray. This is God.
And as I can say, the rest is history. And we're getting gooder and gooder and better and better every day, every week, every month, every year. And no one is as amazed as I am.
The key is, I know who I am. I know that I am in Christ. And everybody that's God.
Over the time since all this happened, excuse me, I've studied the topic of anxiety and depression. And I studied not just the spiritual side of it, but also the practical side of it.
And I've looked at different papers, different researches from psychologists and counselors. Okay. And I still don't know everything to know about it. I didn't go to college.
But I do have a little bit of revelation in it, and I want to share a few thoughts with you this morning. Okay?
Here's the first one I want to share with you: Anxiety is not a malfunction of the mind. It's a signal.
Let me say that again. Again, anxiety, depression is not a malfunction of your mind. It's a signal that your body has given you. It's telling you something.
If you're anxious or depressed, you're not weak. You're not crazy. Even though you may think you are, you're not. You're a human being. Listen to me. You're a human being with unmet needs that God has for you in your life. Amen?
And we need to remove the stigma off of mental illness, anxiety, and depression. And I think the church needs to lead the way.
You have no idea how it feels to be your leader and stand up here and show you how weak I really was. So I take the risk of being vulnerable and transparent so that I might be able to help somebody else.
One of the greatest discoveries that I found in my study is that I found about nine major causes of depression, seven of which have nothing to do with mental illness. Seven of which have nothing to do with your body. They aren't genetic. They're not biological.
They're actually what is called psychosocial. Which in other words means something happened to you or you're doing something to you. Amen?
There are things that you can change in your lifestyle that will allow you to experience healing. There are things that you can change in your lifestyle that will allow you to experience healing in this area.
Then there are two major causes that are biological. They are genetic. And biology and medication seem to dominate the conversation when you're talking about these two things.
And if you allow medication and biology to be your only solution, you're missing out on the greatest solution that there is.
And if you allow medication and biology to be your only solution, you're missing out on the greatest solution that there is. Seven out of nine have solutions. Things that we can change in our lifestyles.
And we can heal from things that have happened to us even as far back as our childhood. And I want to share some of these with you.
Now, I don't have the time this morning to get into all the things that bring depression and anxiety on to you. Now, I don't have the time this morning to get into all the things that bring depression and anxiety on to you. That's a whole other message.
But in 1 Kings chapters 18 through 19 is the story of Elijah, who was a great prophet. And in chapter 18, he defeated 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah. And it's actually some of the greatest material, preaching material in the whole Bible.
I mean, he prays a prayer and ends a drought, a three-and-a-half-year drought. But then you jump into chapter 19, one verse later, and this is what it says.
Now, Ahab, who's the king of Israel, tells Jezebel, who's the queen of Israel, everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So you've got to understand, all these prophets were their prophets.
So Ahab and Jezebel, mainly Jezebel, they ain't happy about this. Verse 2. So Jezebel posted it on Facebook. Come on. This is how they did it back then. Okay.
So Jezebel posted it on Facebook by sending a message to Elijah saying, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." In other words, "I'm going to take the sword, and I'm going to cut your head off."
Look at verse 3. This blows me away. Elijah was afraid, and what did he do? He ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there.
Now, this was his first mistake. Well, second mistake, actually. Getting scared and running was the first one. But now he's left his servant behind, and so now he's going to have to deal with this on his own by himself.
I want you to think about that because we'll get back to it here in a little bit. Verse 4. While he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, he came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die.
"I've had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors."
We have a problem with depression right now. Amen. Okay. So Elijah has done at least six of the nine causes of depression that I found in my study.
And I want to read this next portion of scripture because five things happened to him, and I want to get you out of the cave this morning. Amen.
So I dedicate this message to anybody here, out there, sees this video at a later time on demand, that I dedicate this message to anybody who's suffering anxiety and depression and has found themselves in the cave and doesn't know how to get out of it. Amen.
Let's get into this. 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 5. Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat."
So notice that the angel didn't say, "Hey, get up and worship." He didn't say, "Get up and build an altar." He didn't say—he didn't even say, "Get up and repent." He said, "Get up and eat."
Hey, this is the first prescription that you need to see. Get up and eat. Verse 6. He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and then lay down again.
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you."
So he got up and ate and drank, strengthened by that food. He traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Now, the first thing that I want you to notice here is this: The first prescription that the Lord gave Ezekiel had nothing to do with spiritual, had nothing to do with the emotional. It had everything to do with physical.
Because the Lord is saying, "Hey, before I take you on this spiritual journey, before I take you on this emotional journey, I need you to be healthy enough to even make the journey." Amen?
So it's prescription number one because some of you are trying to fix something when you're too sick to fix it. Amen?
It's like being a surgeon with the flu. Oh, no, no, no. You ain't operating on me until you get rid of that flu. Come on.
Once you get rid of that flu, now you can come work on me. Amen?
One researcher said this. Let me show it to you. We need to talk less about chemical imbalances and more about imbalances in the way we live.
Another one said this. We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, socially isolated, fast food-laden, sleep-deprived, frenzied pace of modern life.
For many of you, I'm excited to give you your first prescription, which is you need to find a different pace.
So I call it, number one, find the pace of grace. The pace of grace is not what you're able to do. It's what you can do and stay sane.
For many of you, you are doing too much. You're trying to fit way too much into your life. You're living that American dream. Which is, if one is good, then two has got to be better.
If one house is good, two houses got to be better, right? If one car is good, help me out here, then two cars is better, right?
If one wife is good, then—no, no, no, no, don't go there. That's wrong. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know how they did it in the Old Testament, putting up with thousands of wives and concubines. I don't know how they did it.
Let me stay with my message. So the truth is, and I'm trying to give you prescription number one. And this is from the angel of the Lord himself. And it says, "You ought to lay down and eat something."
Today, you're at church. Church is over with. Whether you eat somewhere else or you eat at home, go home, put on a bad movie that you don't like, you just really don't want to see, close your eyes, and I guarantee you when you wake up, you will have missed nothing. Amen?
See, the wisdom of life consists of the elimination of the non-essentials of life. Don't just make a to-do list; make a not-to-do list.
In other words, yes, I can do that, but I'm sorry, we just can't do that many right now. So I have to say no.
Let me give you a new word today. That word is N-O. Say that with me: no. Say it again: N-O. One more time: no. Correct.
We have to learn to say no. You know what one of my first responses is when somebody says, "Hey, pastor, I got a question?" No. What is it?
That way I've already put it out there, and I can say no if I need to. Come on.
I can tell you as a pastor, the number of phone calls that we get, the number of emails that we get, the number of texts that we get. If I tried to do everything, I wouldn't have time for you. Amen?
We have to prioritize our life and only do what we can fit in our life and remain sane. Stress comes on you. Depression comes on you when you put all these things in a day that you need to do.
And then all of a sudden you can't get it done. What happens? You start condemning yourself. You'll get to the point of going, "Man, I should have never said yes." No. Amen.
Listen. When you get to the point to where you can say no, you'll trade popularity for respect. Amen?
Look at the second thing that happened. Verse 9. Then he went into a cave and spent the night, and the word of the Lord came to him. "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Now, watch this. It's very interesting. He replied, "I have been very zealous." In other words, "I am one of your best dudes that you've got in your service. I left it all on the field just so I could come to you."
"So I could do chapter 18. For the Lord Almighty, the Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left."
That was a lie, folks. He was told in chapter 18 that there were hundreds of other prophets for the Lord. So he's lying to himself.
The Lord said, "Get out, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire either.
After the fire came what? A gentle whisper. The Lord was in the whisper.
Like there's something about experiencing the manifested presence of God in your life. And this is probably one of the greatest prescriptions and medications for anxiety and depression that exists.
That's why every one of us has to, number two, cultivate the presence of God in our life. Cultivate the presence of God in our life.
This is something that all of us need to learn how to do it. How to cultivate these whispers of God. The presence of God on our own.
And so my prayer, my prayer is for you today to experience this. When you're in this room and you're worshiping, I hope there's this sense of, "Oh, praise God. Thank you, Lord, for your presence."
But then there's six more days before you get back here again. You follow me? That's why we have to learn how to cultivate that presence in our own lives on our own. Amen.
Go read Psalm 73. I don't have time to read the whole thing, but it's not written by King David. It's written by Asaph, who's the chief musician, and he's having a really bad hair day.
Okay, the first 15 verses, he is complaining, complaining like crazy. Everything is negative. Oh, man, he's talking about just all the things that are bad, how bad his life is, how the evil people have a good and the godly people have a bad. I mean, he's on and on and on.
Verse 16 says, "When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply." In other words, it made his depression even worse.
"Till I entered the sanctuary of God." And the rest of that psalm is like, "Now I understand how God."
I mean, he knew how to take his anxiety and his depression and find that place where God was. And so I hope you have this in your arsenal.
If you don't, you're missing one of the easiest, quickest, most powerful tools against depression and anxiety. And it's just simply the presence of God.
Well, Ray, how do I do that? I'm glad you asked. If you will just turn to him in prayer and worshiping, he'll come and answer you. He'll come and visit you. He'll come and comfort you.
But if you're ready for this, it's even better if you do this in the morning, the first part of the day. Then that way he can be with you all day. Amen? Amen?
It's not all's well that ends well. It's all's well that begins well. Amen?
Like if you'll learn to start your day. I'm going to ask you to do a test for one week. Okay? Every person, especially those that are depressed and anxious that are here in this room and out there.
I want to give you a test to do for one week and see what happens, and that is—excuse me—set your clock for 15 minutes earlier than what you normally get up at and do what I have always said over and over. It bears repeating, and that is the first 15: five minutes of prayer, five minutes of word, and five minutes of worship.
I'm telling you, man, you can spend time with God for 15 minutes, and I promise you it will calm that raging beast that's on the inside of you. It'll do it, and you'll learn how to cultivate the presence of God in your life first thing in the morning.
Amen? Is there anyone in this room who's done this? Give me an amen. There's your testimony for those who have not.
Okay, the third thing. Verse 13. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face. This is a very interesting verse.
When your face represents what you believe about yourself, your identity. So when Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood on the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Now watch his response.
On the mouth of the cave, then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Now watch his response. It's very interesting.
He replied, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me also."
So he repeats the lie for a second time. Church, listen to me. A lot of you, the reason why you're anxious and depressed is you've talked yourself into it.
You talked yourself into a lie about yourself, something that's not true. You've rehearsed it. You've even gotten good at talking about it and saying it.
So where does that come from? It comes from two different places. First, it comes from the things that people have said about you. For a lot of you, it comes from social media.
It comes from the things that people have said about you. For a lot of you, it comes from the things that people have said about you.
Some of you have been convinced about what you're looking at on social media. And I'm supposed to say this to confirm something: It's time to get off social media. Time to get off of it.
That is not your life. And if it is, we've got a problem. You've got to stop listening to the words of the haters.
Listen, every now and then I'll go look, and it's like, "Oh my goodness." Because something pops up on what—I don't know what it is.
And it shows all this stuff that I was like, "What is all of this stuff?" You know, and everything I see on there is either porn or drugs or—get off. Get off.
I quit social media years ago. All of it. Instagram, TikTok, all of it. Because I just couldn't stand polluting my mind with what the haters were saying about everything.
So I have people here in the church that take care of the social media for me. If you want some peace, I just gave you a way.
That was worth coming to church this morning, right?
The second thing that it comes from, number two, is not just what other people are saying about you, but what are you saying about you? What are you confessing?
Psychologists call it rumination. Now, the science definition of rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress as opposed to its solutions.
I mean, it's like you chew on your symptoms, and it's kind of like a cow. A cow bites into some grass, chews on it, gets it all slobbered and chewed up, swallows it, regurgitates it back up into its mouth, chews on it some more, swallows it, regurgitates it some more, chews on it some more, swallows it.
You follow me, right? What is he doing? The cow's ruminating. Ruminating.
How many of you know that every time that grass is regurgitated back up into its mouth, it's not better? It's grosser.
And it's the same thing with your thoughts and your words if that's what you're talking over yourself. Every time you say your thoughts out loud of a depressed or anxious mind, every time you repeat it, it's coming back up. Not better, but worse for you.
Genesis says that we are made in the likeness and image of God, and he spoke everything into existence by his words.
The Bible says you have the power of life and death in your tongue. What are you saying about yourself? What are you saying about your family? What are you saying about your kid that may be a little loud and boisterous? What are you saying?
I'm not going to speak any words because I try not to. Am I perfect? Oh, no, not by any means.
Let me show you something. This is what I'm fixing to show you is funny and sad at the same time. It's called the Anti-Psalms 23.
I found this as I was researching. Some of you may have already seen this. I've got it. They're going to put it on the screen for you.
I'm on my own. No one looks out for me or protects me. I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right. I'm always restless.
I'm easily frustrated, often disappointed. It's a jungle. I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert. I'm thirsty. My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark path. Still, I insist. I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want. But life's confusing. Why don't things ever work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility, shadows of death. I fear the big hurt and final loss. I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort. I'm alone, facing everything that could hurt me. Are my friends really friends? I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back. No one is really for me except me.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty. Surely, disappointment follows me all the days of my life, and I will be forever free, falling into void.
The Anti-Psalm 23. For some of you, this is the narrative that you tell yourself, and tell yourself, and tell yourself, and tell yourself, and tell yourself.
One of the researchers that I read, his name is Brian Tracy, wrote this: "95% of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself." 95%.
So what do we do? Number three: Let the narrative I believe about myself come from God's word.
That's why I want to give you seven phrases and seven scriptures that I want you to read over and over again. Over and over and over, out loud to yourself during the week when you get up.
It doesn't take long to read these. I'll show you.
Number one: God wants me to give him my anxiety. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Isn't that awesome?
How about the next one? God is with me. Joshua 1:9. "Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Oh, come on. Here's another one. God is fighting for me. Isaiah 35:4. "Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong. Do not fear. Your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He will come to save you."
He will come to save you. Hmm.
How about this next one? Anxiety doesn't get to win. Isaiah 54:17. "No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you."
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Let me rephrase that since we're in New Testament. This is the heritage of the children of God.
And this is their vindication from me, it declares the Lord. How about another one? God is greater than my anxiety. 1 John 4:4. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who's in you is greater than the one who's in the earth or world."
Come on. Here's another one. There will be peace in my life. Philippians 4:6-9. "Do not be anxious about anything."
Let me say that again. Do not be anxious. Do not be depressed. Do not be controlled by anything. But in every situation, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
The key word is thanksgiving. Be thankful. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Oh, come on. I'm not done. Verse 8. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things."
I'm not done. Verse 9. "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you."
I'm not done. Watch this. Next one. There will be victory. Deuteronomy 20. "He shall say, Hear, Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid. Do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and to give you victory."
Oh, come on. There should be some big amens. If Geneva was still here, she'd be up running around. I'm telling you.
Many times, man, she'd get inspired. Boy, she'd jump up with her walker, sometimes without her walker. And she'd run around this auditorium. I mean, whoo.
Am I doing okay? I'm doing okay. I've got a few more things I want to give you. You get anything out of this so far?
Yeah. Number four. 1 Kings 19, verse 15. The Lord said to him, "Go back the way you came."
Now, remember, I told you to remember the word Bathsheba. Because that's the way he came. The Lord basically told him to return to Bathsheba or Bathsheba.
The name Bathsheba is called the place of oaths. O-A-T-H-S. The place of oaths. In other words, Bathsheba is where Elijah said, "I will serve you, God."
And the Lord is saying, "I want you to go back to the place that you said that you would serve me."
God's saying, "I need you to re-up. I need you to get back to work."
The Lord said to him, "Go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, look at this, anoint Hazel king over Aram. Also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king. Anoint Jehu king over Israel. And anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel. Succeed you as prophet."
I have a hard time with some of those words, so I just speak tongues, right? You all know the interpretation, right?
Okay, okay. In other words, I need you back in the game, dude. I need you back to work, man. I need you to get back to doing what I called you to do. Come on.
Verse 17, Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazel. And Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.
So God's got a plan. We're going to get rid of the enemy. And to lie about yourself? Oh, no.
Look at the next verse. Yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed.
In other words, not speaking his theology. What is God doing? He was doing what everyone in the sound of my voice needs.
This is what happened in my story. That is, number four: Find or renew my God-given purpose in life.
He did that in my pickup truck on my way home. The Lord is telling you, as he told Elijah, renew your purpose that I gave you.
So let me tell you something. You're never out of your anxiety if you keep making it all about you.
But the moment that you start thinking about the needs of somebody else—come on. I told you this story about Victor Frankel a couple of weeks ago. I love studying his work.
Here's another quote that he made: "Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose."
That's why I would love for all of you to get back in the game, chasing after God. Praise God.
I've seen you all can come back up. Ruh-roh.
Paul had a secret. He said in 2 Corinthians, he was talking about that I have bad days. And he had the opportunity to get depressed.
But in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed."
Verse 16 says, "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly, in the middle of my anxiety, in the middle of your depression, we are being renewed day by day."
Why, Paul? Verse 17. "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."
So, I don't have my eyes fixed on Instagram or Facebook or any of the other stuff like that. I don't have my eyes fixed on the worldly economy because I live in God's economy.
I do not have my eyes focused on the government even though I watch what's happening. And I'm not focused on politics even though I watch what's going on there.
And if you do vote, I highly encourage you to take one of those sheets. Or just read this and vote according to what this says. Okay?
So, we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but on what is unseen. Folks, that's purpose. That's what God is calling you and me to do.
Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
In 2020, in the middle of it all, when I refused to close these doors, and I had phone calls, I had people persecuting me, telling me they're going to come and take me to jail, which on live stream, I said, "Come on, you're not getting a virgin."
I've been to jail many, many, many times. I'll preach the word there. Amen?
When there were only four people here in 2020, as I said earlier, I started worshiping. I started lifting my hands.
And I said, "God, I still have my eyes focused on you, on the purpose that you've given me, on the calling, on the vision of Abundant Heart Church, and I'm re-upping right now in the middle of 2020."
I said, "God, I told you I would serve you no matter what, anywhere you tell me to go."
If he was to tell me right now, "I need you to go to Corpus and do the ministry on the beach," no, I'm just kidding.
But if he told me to do, go somewhere, Katie, bar the door. I'm heading that way because I'm going to obey God.
I told him that I would serve him no matter what. No matter what was happening.
"God, I'm re-upping right here in 2020. And I'm going to focus on you."
And as I said earlier, during 2020, I said, "But how do we pull a church out of the pandemic when I don't have a church here? How do I do that?"
When the people show up, how do I help them rebuild their lives after this pandemic?
I have a seasonal occupation that I do. And I had the opportunity in 2021 to see how much the isolation and what happened to me, and what happened in 2020 weighed on people and kids.
And in that seasonal occupation, I was able, through the word of knowledge and word of wisdom from the Holy Spirit, to minister to these people and these kids to bring encouragement, to see their frowns turned upside down.
It was one of the most, possibly the most depressing time I've seen outside of what I went through because of what happened in 2020.
And when I re-upped to God in 2020, when there were four people here, I had another renewed sense of purpose. The direction wasn't changed; it was broadened to encompass more than just being inside these four walls.
And we have reached out in the schools on our fun day to reach out to people to be able to touch hearts, to be able to minister, to be able to pray, to be able to let people know, "Hey, we can agree in prayer with you and help you through your situation."
On a personal level, you can do the same. "God, I'm re-upping. Doesn't matter what goes on, I'm going to serve you."
And you get a renewed sense of your purpose given to you by God.
Not a few weeks later after that, people started trickling in. And we started rebuilding again.
Here's the last one. 1 Kings 19. Can you all play a little bit behind me, just softly?
So Elijah went from there. He did what he should have done in the first place: Go find a godly friend.
So Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the 12th pair.
Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Now, in the Old Testament, putting your cloak or your robe around somebody was a statement being made that I'm a covenant friend with you.
I'm going to be in a covenant relationship with you. Some of you, if you did all four of these first—I don't know how many descriptions that I gave you, but you leave this one out, you may not come out of your depression or anxiety.
You were never meant to walk through any of this alone. You remember in the scripture, he left his servant behind.
Some of you are battling anxiety and depression right now, and you're doing it all on your own. Basically saying, "I can handle this. I'm tough. I'm from Texas."
No. No, ma'am. No, sir. You need an Elisha in your life.
Psychologists say that your IQ drops 30 points when you isolate yourself. Which is why the fifth prescription that I leave you with this morning is number five: Maintain my life with godly relationships.
You can't live your life alone. You just can't do it. And if you're here at AHC this morning, if you're online, or if you see this video at a later time, and you have or are suffering from any of these conditions that we're talking about, you're welcomed here.
You're welcome here. We don't judge. We want to walk with you. We want to help you overcome. Because we've all been through it in some shape or form.
And so what I want to say to you is welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home. Welcome home.
Although this is kind of a deep subject that we talked about today, but it's also a subject that you now have some tools. Some tools that you can use in your own life to overcome the thoughts, to overcome the feelings, to overcome the shackles, but the scales that cover your eyes.
And keep you from looking at the heavenly things and only looking at your circumstances, your symptoms, your thoughts.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians to take every thought captive that exalts itself above the knowledge of God and make it obedient to Christ.
Kenneth Hagin says a thought not acted on or spoken dies in a wound.
I can tell you just by experience, depression—mainly the depression is what I suffered. Anxiety? Yes, I was, but I was more depressed.
It came from thoughts. It came from a circumstance that I had to deal with. I had to deal with it. I had to deal with it. I had to deal with it. I had to deal with it.
My soul got into my emotions, and six months later, as I said, I was the most miserable person in the world.
But thanks be to God who showed me how to come out of it, who showed me how to overcome the thoughts and the darkness that was in me.
You and he'll show you the same thing today.
I want to offer you the opportunity to apply, to put into action the word that was given today. And if you are suffering from any of this depression or anxiety, you're anxious in any of this, I invite you to come forward and let us start the healing process through prayer.
These guys here are my prayer warriors. They can shake heaven, and I guarantee if you talk to anybody they've prayed for in here, they've had breakthrough.
And if you need breakthrough this morning, there's no embarrassment, there's no judging, there's just the opportunity to be free. That's why you come to them.
I also want to do something else. I want to offer the opportunity that if you do not know Jesus or if you're far from Jesus, the opportunity to get into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I know that when I was not saved in my BC days, I also suffered from the same stuff. It was all self-inflicted because of the drugs and alcohol and the violent lifestyle that I was in.
And when I found God on June 11th of 2000, I was physically healed, but I was emotionally healed from all the self-inflicted scars that I did to myself.
And of course, I was spiritually healed because I found Jesus.
And if you're going through a life like this, if you're far from God, maybe you're already saved. Maybe you've never been saved.
But I want to offer that opportunity for you today, here and out there. All you've got to do is whisper a little prayer with me. I'll lead you through it. And it goes like this.
And just repeat after me:
Father, I receive what Jesus did on the cross. I ask for forgiveness for living life my way. I repent, and I say, "Jesus, be the Lord of my life. I give you everything. I give you all of me.
And I believe that you are the son of God. And I believe that you died and rose again. And today I make you Lord of my life."
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. If that's you, if you are here, we'd love to sit with you and visit with you. Online, please comment to us, send us something. We would love to be able to walk with you.
If you're suffering from anxiety and depression and things like that, dark thoughts, thoughts of suicide, any of that, please reach out to us.
You reach out to us on Facebook, YouTube, on our webpage. If you got the app that's already downloaded, you can reach us through that too.
For those that want the app, we are having a problem with it, and I'm in the process of getting it fixed so we can download our app again.
But with that, get a hold of us if you need prayer. Dean and Elaine will be—they'll agree with you, and we'll get that path of healing started. Amen?
With that, I'll turn it over to you.
on Nov 03, 2024
