For many people these days, stress has become a way of life. There’s the stress at the job, the home, raising kids and a host of other things that we mast contend with daily. The sad truth is all our experience with life and managing life on life’s terms, the one thing that seems to eat away the most at us is stress.

Stress has taught us that not only does it eat away at the joy of life. It eats away at us physically as well as mentally as well. It robs us of happiness. Which in turn only brings on even more stress for us..

To learn how to counter the root source of stress we need to go back to the Bible—this "instruction manual for life" that God has given us. I have told you repeatedly, God’s Word is the best place to look for help in dealing with any type of problem we may face in life—including stress—and that’s what I want us to do for this sermon today. Show you what the word has to say about it.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father let your word touch the heart and souls of those who are here today listening and those who will be reading this on line. Let them find comfort in your words this day, and turn their hearts and minds towards you for you are the great I Am. In you all thing are possible. Help us to hear your words this morning as read from your book of life In Jesus Name we pray Amen

Turn with me now to Matthew

Unlike the commercial we see on TV about the magical place called "Perfect" where everything comes up roses, and nobody has any troubles because they live in Perfect. We have to deal with reality as it happens and when it happens.

A couple years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting some small towns across the US. Most of these blink and miss them type towns were quiet places where life is simpler and sweeter. In fact you can’t even hurry to get there because the only route in and out is a two lane highway and the speed limit is only 35MPH!

Now, wouldn’t you just love to live in a place like that? Can I see a show of hands? Sure you would! All of us would! We yearn for a slower pace of life that will allow us to actually "stop and smell the roses," a place where we can enjoy the lives God has given us instead of rushing through them! And the reason we yearn for this kind of life is because there has never been a more stress-ridden society than ours. We are plagued with what has been called the "hurry-worry syndrome."

As Charles Swindoll writes in his book, Stress Fractures, "Gone are the days of enjoying babbling brooks along winding pathways or taking long strolls near the beach. The relaxed bike ride through the local park has been replaced with the roar of a motorcycle whipping through busy traffic. The easy-come, easy-go lifestyle of the farm has been preempted by a hectic urban family going in six different directions, existing on microwave food, shouting matches, strained relationships, too little sleep and too much television."

Well, he’s right isn’t he?!

For many people these days stress has become a way of life. And the sad truth is all our experience with stress has taught us that not only does it eat away at our life—it eats away at us as well because living with stress hurts us in several ways.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the modern day stress factors:

• 12-hour work days steal precious family time damaging or even destroying FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS.
• Stress hurts us PHYSICALLY and can cause everything from panic attacks and heart palpitations to high blood pressure and coronary disease.
• It has even been linked to some forms of cancer.
• And—our panicked efforts to complete our endless "to do lists" also can do incredible EMOTIONAL damage.

All our "shoulds" and "oughts" and "musts" hit us like strong gusts of wind, driving our lives into shallow points of frustration—and even depression. Thanks to stress, the suicide rate for Americans under thirty years of age has increased dramatically in the past decade. Did you know that every day in the United States over seventy people that’s 7-0 people take their lives—that’s more than three each hour, twenty-four hours a day. How many of you have thought about ending it all at one time or another. Pretty scary when we stop to look at what something as simple as stress can do to us

Well, because stress CAN be so devastating, dealing with it has become big business in today’s society. We have hospitals that dedicate countless hours to helping people manage stress, psychiatric doctors’ study it endlessly to get a better handle on how to treat it. Stores stock everything from anti-stress CDs and herbal remedies and vitamins formulated to countering the damage stress can cause. You can find everything from miniature rock sculptured water falls for home or office that keep the calm sound of a babbling brook constantly in our ears to the expensive hot tubs and special motorized chairs that massage the tension out of every muscle in your body.

The problem is all these gadgets only deal with the SYMPTOMS of stress—not the CAUSE.

And to learn how to counter the root source of stress we need to go back to the Bible—this "instruction manual for life" that God has given us. As I have told you repeatedly, God’s Word is the best place to look for help in dealing with any problem we face in life—including stress—and that’s what I want us to do today.

In fact we’ll FOCUS our study on what the Bible has to say when it comes to dealing with the top four sources of stress in life: money, marriage, parenting, and our subject for this morning: career stress—that daily rat race we all run in.

This is a good place to start because we spend so much of our lives involved in our careers. Did you know that over the course of an average lifetime, most people spend about 150,000 hours on the job? That amounts to 40% to 60% of our waking hours. And that percentage has grown over the years. In 1973 the average American spent 40 hours a week at work. In 1987 that amount increased to an average of 46 hours a week. Today, if you’re a professional you work an average of 52 hours a week and if you’re a small business owner or operator you work an average of 57 hours a week sometimes even more. The fact is no matter what your job, you and I will spend more time WORKING, COMMUTING to and from work and THINKING about work than anything else we do in life.

We’ll spend a greater number of hours involved in our CAREERS than we will with our family, or with friends, or in leisure, or in spiritual activities. Whether we like it or not our jobs dominate our lives so we have to learn how to go about them in ways that it doesn’t cause us stress. Now I know most of you are saying Yea Right.. but think about it. If you were more relaxed at work, wouldn’t you be more productive, and less consumed so you could enjoy the fruits of your labors?

No where in there does it say that we have to stress endlessly over our work habits. It only says that we should work at it with all our heart as if working for the lord himself and not for man.

This morning I would like us to look at the other end of stress. I mean, instead of focusing on its CAUSE. I want us to study what the Bible has to say about one of the main CONSEQUENCES of stress—which is DEPRESSION. I want to BEGIN by pointing out that DEPRESSION is not a new thing. I mean we who live the fast-paced, hectic, stress-filled lives of the 21st Century aren’t the FIRST to endure it. It’s been around for thousands of years. As far back as the 4th century B.C. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was familiar with this malady and referred to it as, "melancholia."

These days we call it "the blues" , "a slump" or "feeling gloomy." But whatever designation you give it, DEPRESSION IS the most widespread form of emotional illness. It has been called, "the common cold of emotional disorders." Statistics say that each of us has a one in ten chance of becoming severely depressed and ALL of us have our regular skirmishes with its milder form.

We should also understand that depression is not always easy to cope with. You can’t just ignore it because it hurts too much. In fact recent studies of more than 11,000 individuals found depression to be more physically and socially disabling than arthritis, diabetes, lung disease, chronic back problems, hypertension, and gastrointestinal illnesses. The only medical problem that is more disabling is advanced coronary heart disease. So, battling depression is not an easy thing.

And, while SOME depression is the result of a person's willful disobedience of God, as Christians it is important for us to realize that this is NOT ALWAYS the case. I point this out because there seems to be a stigma attached to depression. Many people think that if a person is walking in close relationship with God and making progress as a Christian, they will never suffer the blues.

The truth is if you are normal and love God deeply, there are still going to be days, sometimes weeks, and maybe even seasons when you wrestle with depression. That doesn’t mean you are a bad person or an ungodly person. It just means you are a REAL person.

In fact, over the years many great Christian servants, whose walk with God, have suffered from depression. The Bible records the fact that Moses and Jeremiah went through times of deep despair. Job did as well—often to the point of his being suicidal. Listen to Job’s anxiety-filled words, "I cannot eat for sighing; my groans pour out like water...my life flies by...day after hopeless day...I hate my life....my heart is broken. Depression haunts my days. My weary nights are filled with pain...I cry to you, O God, but You don’t answer me."

Notice that even with his constant, deep, agonizing depression, found in Job 1:22 it says "In all this Job did not sin." So the Bible teaches that depression is not always related to sinful actions.

And, the record of Church history underscores this truth because many great men—faithful servants of our Heavenly Father—struggled with this emotional illness. For example, the great reformer, Martin Luther, fought with depression on and off through his entire life. In 1527 Luther wrote, "For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members. Christ was wholly lost....The content of the depressions was always the same, the loss of faith that God is good and that He is good to me."

The famous preacher Charles Hadden Spurgeon, whom God used to light the "fires" of the 19th century revival movement, struggled so severely with depression that he was forced to be absent from his pulpit for two to three months a year.

In 1866 he told his congregation of his struggle saying: "I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go through." He explained that during these depressions, "Every mental and spiritual labor...had to be carried on under protest of spirit."

We could go on and on citing examples of Godly individuals who have wrestled with this form of illness: ..John Bunyan, J. B. Phillps, even Rick Warren. So despair is not always linked to sin. Mature Christians can suffer from depression. Christianity does not always equal happiness.

Now, a sermon is NOT a sufficient platform to deal with a subject as complex as CHRONIC depression—which is caused by a biochemical imbalance and can be treated very effectively with medication these days. But I think that in our time together this morning we can find some basic tools for dealing with the more common forms of depression that many of us deal with due to our stress-filled lifestyle. And we can find these tools by looking at the biblical record of another godly man’s struggle—namely the prophet Elijah and his experience with Ahab and Jezebel.

Now before I read this morning’s text, let me review the setting. I would remind you that Elijah was God’s prophet during a time in the life of the nation of Israel when it’s rulers were leading the people to worship the false gods known as Baal and Asherath. Well, to shock them into turning from this sin God withheld any dew or rain from the land for three years and a severe famine resulted.

At the height of this drought, Elijah challenged Ahab and his false prophets to a public contest on the top of Mt. Carmel to demonstrate both the POWER of God and the WEAKNESS of Baal & Asherath. You may remember that two bulls were chosen. Elijah sacrificed one to God and the false prophets sacrificed theirs to Baal and Asherath. The contest was to see whose god was capable of sending fire to consume the sacrificed bull.

Well, the 850 false prophets went first. You may remember they tried from early morning until late in the afternoon in vain to get their "god" to respond. They ranted and raved and cut themselves to get his attention—all to no avail. Then Elijah’s turn came and he had barely ended his petition when God answered by sending fire to consume not only the bull which Elijah had drenched with water, but the stone altar as well.

You may remember that Elijah sent his assistant to watch for approaching clouds while he prayed seven times and finally a small cloud the size of a man's fist could be seen on the distant horizon.

Then Elijah advised Ahab to head for Jezreel and avoid the approaching downpour—and as the rain fell, Elijah tucked his robe into his belt so he wouldn’t trip over it and ran ahead of the royal chariot the entire 17 miles back to the city gates.

Can you imagine running that far in leather sandals?!

Now, you may wonder, why would Elijah associate with Ahab—why he would accompany this wicked king to Jezreel. I don’t know for sure but perhaps he was hoping that the Lord would enable him to put the final nail in Baal’s coffin with the elimination of the evil queen Jezebel and that Ahab would repent of his sin and lead the entire nation to return to worshiping God and God alone. Elijah may even have had dreams of being placed in King Ahab’s palace as the "prophet in residence."

The scene in our text opens as Ahab arrives home at his summer palace in Jezreel with Elijah running ahead of him. I imagine that this weak-knee-ed king was still excited about the events of the day—the amazing presence of Jehovah on Mt. Carmel and the joy of the rain falling on his kingdom once again.

As he enters the palace he calls for Queen Jezebel to share the adventures he had experienced with Elijah—But the story about the power of the living God, the fire from heaven, and the thunder and rain that came after Elijah prayed—well, all this was drowned out when the king got around to mentioning the elimination of all 850 of Jezebel’s prophets as per Elijah’s order.

And, at that point all the wrath of hell poured out of the mouth of this demonic woman and she expressed her desire to end the life of one more prophet. Then King Ahab’s excitement faded as he stood by passively and let his queen take matters into her own hands as she proceeded to put a contract out on the life of Elijah. So, there’s no doubt who wore the "pants" in that family!

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "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."

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

4 while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD ," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."

Now, I want you to notice that Jezebel was not only vicious but clever. I mean, she could have ordered Elijah killed immediately. Then again, without her own prophets to protect her, she might have lost her life at the hands of the people who had just recommitted themselves to following God and not Baal.

But if she threatened to kill Elijah within twenty-four hours, he might slip into a posture of self-defense and flee. And if he did this, the people might be spiritually demoralized without their prophet leading them and Jehovah might be discredited—and her plan basically worked. Elijah did flee.

The Bible records that he ran 115 more miles all the way to Beersheba where he left his servant. Then he continued another day’s journey into the Negev where he pulled up under a Juniper tree and succumbed to deep depression saying, "I have had enough Lord, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."

Okay—what can we learn from Elijah’s experience that will help us in our own battles with depression? The first thing we can learn is that....

You see, the truth is life is full of ups and downs. You can count on it. After every down there is an up and after every UP there is a DOWN. Life is not just one long joy that gets better and better. No, there are mountains and valleys. And Elijah had just climbed an "Everest" of accomplishment! Remember?

• He had prayed and God had instantly answered in the presence of thousands of people—proving once and for all that Jehovah was the one true God.
• Elijah had just seen the people turn from idol worship because of this—and obey his command to kill 850 false prophets of Baal and Asherath.
• He had prayed again and a 3 year drought had ended.

So, talk about a high! I don't think it gets much better than that. And when we have great times of accomplishment and joy in life we should learn to anticipate the inevitable lows like the one that hit Elijah. You see, our lives cannot stay at a constant emotional high. There are downs after ups.

You know, I have learned that I always have a down on Mondays. I can count on it. I almost always feel kind of discouraged on that day—why? Because Sundays are such a high for pastors! I’ve had a week of studying and praying, preparing for my sermon. Then I deliver it on Sunday morning and it is wonderful, well-received—well USUALLY—but then Monday comes—the downward slope after Sunday’s climactic mountain climb! This is why most pastor’s take Monday off. Now, I don’t because of my Dad’s example. He said he never took Monday off because he didn’t want to feel that bad on his own time! So he hung in there on Monday and then took a day off later in the week when he could really enjoy it!

Well that’s the way common depression is—it is part of the natural cycle of ups and downs in life. After ups come downs. So when we are in a "down" we should remember that an "up" will come. You know, when we are depressed, we tend to picture ourselves in a "bottomless pit." We talk about "being down" and "going down deeper and deeper into despair." But instead of picturing depression as a "pit" we should think of it as a "tunnel." You see depression is not something to climb out of as much as it is something to "go through." Like a tunnel, as soon as we enter depression, we are already on the way out.

One of my favorite Christian comedians is MARK LOWERY and I remember hearing Mark say that his favorite verse of scripture is the oft-repeated phrase, "It came to pass." He loves these four words because they remind him that when problems come they also go. They "come to pass." And when we begin a struggle with depression we should constantly remind ourselves of this fact, that as the Psalmist says, "weeping may remain for a night....but JOY comes in the morning." Depression does not last forever. It will come to pass. You will get through it. A joyful morning will dawn!

And Elijah did get through this time of depression in his life. God gave him other mountain tops of accomplishment. And you know, even though at this low point Elijah asked God to take his life—even that never happened because Elijah never died! 2 Kings chapter 2 records that he was simply taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. So remember. Depression is a cycle—a tunnel—something you go through. What goes up must come down and vice versa!

And then, a second lesson we can learn from Elijah's experience with depression is this...

Remember, when Elijah heard of Jezebel's threat he responded with fear. Verse 3 which says, "Elijah was afraid" could be translated "Elijah saw"—and the person he saw was Jezebel. In other words, he took his eyes off of God and looked at her and when he did he became afraid and slipped into the pits of despair.

And then, a third lesson Elijah's experiences can teach us is this....

Remember? Just prior to the onset of his depression Elijah had put his body through incredible stress. He had run over 100 miles without stopping. He was physically exhausted. I don't think that even our "Redland marathoners" David Houser or Douglas Ringler could do that without feeling a little down. Prior to his 100 mile spring Elijah had put in a full day of exhausting ministry on the top of Mt. Carmel. So, I think depression was inevitable, because physical stress negatively affects our emotional health.

People involved in military intelligence have known this for years and have used physical conditioning to change the emotional state of individuals. We call this brainwashing and it basically involves getting a person physically exhausted. They get you up at 1AM and keep a light on so you can't sleep. Every hour, they wake you up, stand you up in the middle of a room. They play loud annoying music all hours of the night and day. In other words, they focus on wearing you out PHYSICALLY until MENTALLY you go to pieces. This is what happened to Elijah. He wasn’t brainwashed but He was physically worn out. And God knew that. In fact, verse 5 says that the first thing He did to help treat Elijah's depression was to minister to his physical fatigue. God fed him fresh baked bread and cool water and then told him to sleep. Then He fed him again.

And you know, that is the most practical thing some of us can do when we deal with depression.

We need to stop running ourselves into the ground and take care of this physical body that God has given us. We need to quit abusing it and learn to eat right and sleep right. There’s an old Greek saying that goes like this: "You will break the bow if you keep it always bent." In other words, if you’re living under constant, relentless physical stress, you will eventually break under the pressure. You have to give yourself some time for rest and refreshment. Just remember when your body becomes weak and ill so does your spirit. Physical stress can cause emotional stress.

And then, a fourth lesson we can learn from Elijah is this...

In other words idleness breeds despair. Sitting alone in a cave with nothing to do but focus on his own problems magnified Elijah’s despair. So God got him out of the cave and put him to work. In verses 15-17 God told Elijah that he had a job to do. Two kings needed crowning. He also had his prophetic successor, Elisha, to appoint. And from this chapter in Elijah’s life, we can learn that when depression attacks we should not go somewhere and simply dwell on it. No, instead we should get our bodies moving because physical activity can be like an emotional medicine.

You see our emotions are rebellious at times. They won’t take orders. They easily ignore commands such as "Stop being angry" or "Don’t feel sad" or "Be happy". It is difficult if not impossible to control our emotions. But we can control our bodies. And forcing our bodies to do something that needs doing can have the effect of MAKING us feel better.

Psychologist William James maintained that our emotions are closely connected to our actions.

He would say that when we are afraid, this is because we are ACTING frightened, and that the way to no longer FEEL afraid is to DO something fearless. And there is truth is this philosophy.

You know, this afternoon our family will leave for a two-week vacation. We’re going to spend a few days with some friends and then will eventually arrive at Ocean Isle beach in North Carolina. And I can tell you exactly how I will behave when I approach the Atlantic surf for the first time. I’ll take a few steps into the water—and find it to be too cold—so I’ll take a book and lay out in the sun for a while. When I lie there in the sun, my emotions aren't up to a jump into the cold water. I don’t FEEL like swimming in that cold water. But then I lay there a while and I see the kids enjoying the water and my "will" takes over. I’ll want to be a part of their fun so I will force my body to stand up and jump into the water and start swimming. And you know what. Suddenly I FEEL like swimming. I stay in there until I look like a prune. William James would explain that I feel like swimming because I doing it—I’m swimming.

So, one thing we can do to help ourselves out of depression is to DO non-depressive things—even if we don’t feel like doing them. Martin Luther would agree with this treatment. He advised people with mild bouts of depression to ignore the heaviness. "A good way to exorcize the Devil," he maintained, "was to harness the horses and spread manure on the fields." In other words, get to work! Do something productive and you will feel productive because doing affects feeling.

Then a sixth lesson Elijah can teach us is that...

You see, when we focus on the needs of others our own needs fade into the background. So sometimes the best thing you can do when you are in the midst of deep despair is go and help someone else.

Now, we’ve listed six lessons we can learn from Elijah’s experience with depression but the greatest lesson we can learn as a church is to follow GOD’S EXAMPLE in relating to people who battle with depression. Remember? God was compassionate in His treatment of Elijah. Far from criticizing him, our Lord allowed him to rest and twice sent an angel to feed him.

And, we must be just as compassionate in our dealing with people who suffer from emotional problems. We must have an underlying agreement with each other that the people who enter these doors don’t have to have it "all together" in order to find welcome.

You see, in a very real sense every church is a hospital where people can come to find healing. It’s a place where people can honestly admit their struggles and find rest from them. Remember Jesus said, "Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." So, all Christians should take seriously Paul’s injunction in 1 Thessalonians to "encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men."

And we need to share that truth with a hopeless world.

We close now with our time of public response. If you are not a Christian, then as we sing I urge you to put your hope in God. Claim Him as Savior and Lord. If you do not have a church home, I invite you to come and join this church because these are some of the most compassionate people I know. You will find friends here who will rejoice in being able to share your burdens. You may have some other decision to make public and we invite you to do so as we sing.

Posted by Dean at July 20, 2003 08:30 AM