Despair, what would you say? Okay, despair has no hope and perplexity has what? What's that? Puzzled, yeah. So it's the same word in the Greek, it's just double emphasized no. So perplexity is, I don't see a way out, I could say it that way. I don't see a way out of this. And despair is, there is no way out. Okay, so we want to, as Christians, realize that hopelessness is not an option for those who have faith, because faith is the assurance of things, what? Hope for. Without faith, we can't labor, we can't work. And if you ever study the relationship of faith, hope, and love in the scripture, it's really interesting, because the connection there, these are the motivators of the Christian life. Faith causes us to work, right? And hope causes us to persevere in that work. And love causes us to labor more intensely. It's like we work, we labor, we persevere. We work because we believe. We labor because we love. And we persevere because we have hope. So remember that. This is a big deal as we start this up. Now, let's pray together as we start here. Father, thank you for the promise of being more than sufficient through 2 Peter 1, that we've given all we need for life and godliness as we add to our faith these things. And today, we're going to see that we must have, adding to our faith, hope. because there are many weights in our life, there's many perplexities. Lord, teach us how to be more than sufficient, not just as an individual, but as a church, and help us to realize that's all anchored in the promise that We will grow up into Christ in all aspects if we together speak truth, together in love, together. The one and others of Scripture, the Spirit of God works through the Word, works through prayer, works through the body to make us more than sufficient for sad times so that it doesn't control us and cause us to despair. Some of us have been there. Some of us may still go there in despair, but help us, Father, to always go back to our faith Let it stimulate good desires to persevere. In Jesus' name, amen. So, five questions in depression. We have covered in a series here twice now, a series last year, a series now this year. We've covered conflict. We've covered temptation. We've covered anxiety. Five Questions and Fear, if you remember that. A Biblical Strategy When Tempted, if you remember that. A Peace Promoting Process, if you remember that. These are just 40-minute little sections for encouragers. For those, not just for personal edification, but to be able to sit down with someone in one or two pages, be able to work through a few basic things that encouragers need. And now we've covered anger, and we've covered now depression. In the future, I would like to cover self-esteem, and I put that in quotes, and we'll talk about that whenever we do that. And I'd like to talk about decision-making, because those are also two things that all believers should be able to encourage each other in. Confidence in Christ instead of self-esteem is what we would call that. And if any of you are here who want to help the church as the church grows here, you know, there are more opportunities to open the door for people that need encouragement. that are in anxiety, in depression, addiction, whatever it is. And to be the first line of defense as an encourager, we've talked as elders about me just doing like a 12-week breakout for a group of eight to 10 people over in Danny's office as we cram in there. But if you're interested in that, there's no need to say, oh, I got to go deep into counseling. No. Some people, again, two-thirds of the issues are just encouragement. They need biblical encouragement. So you can do two-thirds, but it doesn't mean you have to do seven a week or 10 a week. Maybe you can say, all I can do is courage one a week if there's someone in the church, and here's my special focus. I've experienced anxiety. God's helped me with that. I like this tool. If someone's struggling with anxiety, I will be there to help them work through that as an encourager, right? Or depression, like today. Keep that in mind. There's no date set for that, but I would imagine the first of the year that we'll be trying to run that, roll that out. All right. Five questions in depression. What are your perplexities? That's the first question. Just looking at this, what are your perplexities? Number one, you see your sheet there. Are you discouraged or depressed? Do you have any reason for hope? And will you make the goal faith-motivated responses? Make that the goal. Five, are you willing to develop two essential habits? Are you willing to develop two essential habits which are effective meditation, in quotes, effective with an A, and scheduling to avoid neglect? Those are really basic things that everyone struggling with despair or depression needs to know. And right off, we start off the bat with this first question. What are your major perplexities? And what is weighing you down? Good question. Because depression is that you don't have the resources within you, or for some reason, there's not something operating in your life to allow you to not cave under the various perplexities that are going on. And those arrows can get pretty big. I used to think when I was younger that the worst thing in the world was being made fun of by a classmate. And then when I got older, I realized there was a lot bigger perplexities in life than that little thing. And our arrows grow. and our godliness must match it. Or we get overcome by anxiety, addiction, depression, anger, and it starts to rule us. Our godliness, our responses to God must continue to grow because the weights will continue to grow by God's design. It's necessary that you undergo various trials, 1 Peter 1, verse 7, that the testing of your faith may be proven genuine. Isn't that a good verse? Here's another good verse. Let's talk about this. What are the nine weights of perplexity? Any time I say there's an inventory here, I'm talking about from the counselor's toolbox. And as you guys need these or develop this, need to have this, you tell me. So here is from the counselor toolbox here. I'm just going to go to it. an appendix at the back of the longer depression outline, and here they are. We looked at them last week a bit. Determine which three or four of the following eight areas, which they're really nine, I made it into nine. Sins that shame, situations that sadden, relationships that are strained, circumstances, opportunities mishandled. Expectations, goals, unachieved. Hurts, anger, unresolved. Fears, troubling. Weakness, embarrassed by illness, pain, suffering. I really like to think of depression as almost like a secondary emotion. There's other stuff going on, these weights, and you're responding to it You're shamed instead of confessing. You're saddened by a situation instead of believing God for the bigger picture. You're focused on it. Maybe you lost a relationship. You're thinking about those things more than anything else, and so you're struggling with that. The initial hope that we want to give someone when they are discouraged, I have found a good verse, is James chapter 1. And I'm going to read it for you here. Let's look at that. James chapter 1, starting with verse 2, actually. Blow this up so you can see it if my fingers will work. There we go. So, concerted all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Here's the trials, by the way. Consider it all joy when you encounter various perplexities, knowing that the testing of your what? Faith. Produces what? Endurance. When you have nothing left but what you believe about God, you're isolating the very most important muscle in your life, your faith in God. And that's why God brings trials. Without those trials, your faith is not tested. You just sit in a classroom and learn some good things and sing about some wonderful things, but when you go out there and there's a terminal cancer, or there's a divorce, or there's a strained relationship, or you're being sued, or go on and on with all the list, right? That's when this happens, what it says here. Consider it all joy. Why? because the most important thing you've got, more precious than gold, faith, is being strengthened, or tested, as it were. And then what does it say happens here in verse three? The testing of your faith produces what? Endurance. Stop relying on willpower and rely on what you believe about God. It is not about willpower first. You do have to have willpower, but it's willpower based upon what you believe about God. And then that endurance, once that is triggered by faith, that endurance will trigger what? A perfect result. That's why we consider it joy, so that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Another way to say complete in Christ. Where would Tim Bryant be today without his sickness in the early 20s of his life? Not 1920, when I was 20, okay, not that old. Where would I be? Not strong in my faith. Maybe just sitting on a pew doing not much for the Lord. But God had to kick me in the butt. And he does that over and over again, maybe with you, and say, I'm not done yet. I want to put you in the school again of hard knocks. Let your faith be tested. So you want to give a person initial hope from James 1, but be careful here not to be too much to sing songs to the weary, as it says in Proverbs, that you don't sing songs to the broken heart because it comes off really ugly. You want to move slow with people in depression that are truly depressed, not just discouraged. Because their body has slowed down. Their mind has slowed down. They are in a state of slug. They don't do much quick. They can't even think. And sometimes if they're medicated, it's even slowed down further, even though they've got these stimulants. There's a reaction to the stimulants. Sometimes they'll have to be put on a slow downer. to speed it so they don't overwhelm with the speed up. So if someone's struggling with depression, anxiety, you got medication to calm you down, you got medication to stern you up. It's like you get a real mix of a cocktail there. So you do have to realize slow may be the necessary. You have to earn their trust. You have to earn their trust for them to actually tell you more about what's going on. And what are the three ways you earn their trust? Richard and I were talking last year, and I really, Richard, have started to use this more and more to see the Apostle Paul through the lens of the Greek persuasion, right? The three words. How do I earn your trust? How do you earn my trust? They've got to see your pathos. That means your passion, right? About God and about them, that you love people. It's not just a job. It's not just a checkbox. They've got to see your ethos. In other words, they've got to see your weightiness, that you have gone through trials yourself. Not that you're trying to one-up them, but they've got to understand that you have something to speak into that. You're not just a fly-by-night. You're not just a floaty person. You have some substance to you. And then your logos. They got to know that you have some logical thoughts about depression and scripture and the wisdom that comes out of that. You earn their trust. All right. Are you discouraged? Number two. Are you discouraged? or depressed. And remember 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 8 through 9, Paul is discussing what he's been through and he says, we are perplexed but not despairing. We are in every way afflicted but not crushed. We are persecuted, but not forsaken. We are struck down, but not destroyed. You could put those four words, eight words, on a chart. These are the things that we are to put off in trouble and put on. The thinking. What should I be thinking when I'm going through trouble? Well, I should be thinking, yep, I'm afflicted, but I am not crushed. You know, the crushed is the picture of a grape being crushed in the vine press, you know, the grape press, it's squeezing it. I'm afflicted, but I am not crushed. And I am perplexed, but I am not despairing. See the put off? I am persecuted. Ah, but what's the thought that gives you hope? But I am not forsaken. You see, I am persecuted. You ever think that when you're going through persecution? I am persecuted, but I am not forsaken. You see how Paul is lacing his troubles with hope, faith in his God. He's demonstrating faith being tested. Then the last one, I am struck down. You ever been struck down in life? Bam, boom, what just happened? What was that all about? I can't believe I just found out that I, whatever, ever been struck down? But what are you not? It says here, we are struck down but not destroyed. We get back up. Why? Because we are not forsaken. Because God is still on the throne and he's over all the troubles and trials of life and he will see to it that we persevere. It just may take some of us longer to get doing that. But He will work in us all that He wills according to His good purpose. So there you have depression is becoming despairing. You want to understand that in light of the passage there. And then this is the other one. Depression is a hopeless response to a challenging circumstance. That's maybe a clear way to say it as well. Look at this Lamentations verse here. Remember, Jeremiah lost his land. as did all the rest, the promised land of Israel under Babylon. And as he's out there looking at what's going on, look what he says starting in verse 13. He made the arrows of his quiver to enter my inner parts. This helps someone depressed to have someone to commiserate with. You want to commiserate with someone? Here's Jeremiah. Look what's happened to him. I've become a laughingstock. He's filled me with bitterness. He's broken my teeth with gravel. My soul has been rejected from peace. So I say, my strength has perished and so has my what? Hope from the Lord. We call that despair. Your hope from the Lord. Now let me tell you something exciting about this passage. If you were to look a little bit later, Do you see the word my hope from the Lord has perished? Meaning the land, meaning maybe your health, maybe your relationship, it's gone or it's threatened. Maybe you've got a Babylon nation coming in trying to take something over in your life or your relationship, right? Your hope from the Lord can be perished. I don't have what I had anymore. I've got half my brain. Let's say someone's struggling with Alzheimer's. They could get that I don't have any hope because I'm losing my brain. Well, that does feel that way, doesn't it? I'm sure. Right. But my hope from the Lord is perished. But look what it says down here. Right down here. What does it say here in verse 24? The Lord is my what? The Lord is my what? My portion. not the land, not the health, not the relationship. In the end of the day, I lose it all in one sense, right? Really, we do, we all lose all of that. And what I realize I have left is what? Who I most needed, the Lord. And then we'll have everyone else with us who is the Lord, too, in eternity. So therefore, I don't have hope anymore from the Lord at this moment in that area. My hope from the Lord is gone, but my hope in the Lord. Do you see the difference? That little word. I don't have the water anymore from the fountain, but I still have the fountain. God will be good. So you see how we want to explain to someone that depression is a hopeless response. to a challenging circumstance, much like we see in lamentations. And then the other thing that we talk about here is assess the control of despair. How controlling is despair over you? And if you go back to that Appendix A, it will talk about emotionally, emotional signs that you're depressed. What would you say, guys? If someone in here is depressed, what would you start seeing emotionally from them? Yeah, maybe they're crying. See? How often are they crying? So this gives you an assessment, this little appendix. If you needed that, I can get it to you. But it lets you take someone through and say, OK, what level of despair are they having emotionally? And then what level of despair are they having behaviorally? What would be some behaviors that you see with someone that's very despairing, has no hope? What would you say? Some of the worst, middle, some of the lightest. What would you say? What? Okay, withdrawing, behavior, just isolating themselves, not coming to church, right? Suicide. What's that? Say it again. Paranoid. Yeah, things are starting to unravel. Maybe they're not sleeping, right? You mix depression with lack of sleep, you're going to get bizarre behavior. It's funny that psychiatry You know, we know that sinners are sinners. We're all sinners. No matter what good we have in us, there's always this potential to not do what's best for people because of money, okay? You agree with that? I mean, we struggle with that, all of us, in some way, unless you have a bigger reward, and that's God. But psychiatry has, for years, pushed the medications for bizarre behavior. Did you know that we could... Here's the thing. If I let any of you be up and didn't sleep for three nights, you're going to be acting bizarre. Now, there's more than that going on in those folks because they've got these circumstances. They've had a nurture in their life that's probably made them a little bit violent or maybe unstable. But if you get someone to sleep, if you get them to sleep, things start leveling out in some ways that medication, but they keep doing the medicine many times when it's just they're not sleeping. That's one of my first questions if someone's depressed, bipolar, I say, how much are you sleeping? Almost always it's this sense of either they're sleeping way too much, but most of the time they're not getting any sleep if it gets bizarre behavior. Your body gets into an LSD cycle. where it might as well just be taken, I don't say any of this, but if you don't sleep, that's a cheap form of LSD, okay? That's what I'm saying to you. There's this reality. So behaviorally, they could be controlled by despair, by not sleeping, by pulling away. What about not just behavior, but cognitively, the thoughts of the mind? is again, there's just themes of no hope. There's no purpose anymore. All those things are lies if you know the Lord. Now, affectually, what do I mean by that? They're desires. The desires of their heart now are saying what? I want to die, right? I want to run away. I want to hide. I want to never be hurt again, and that's the most important value in my life. For me, when I was depressed, seriously depressed, I fought the desire to just not be depressed. It's kind of odd. It starts to eat itself up, but you wake up and after a number of weeks and months that you wake up and you have this weight upon you, the fog, the fog of depression, the weight of depression, and you're like, I've got to remind myself to smile. Why do I feel so crappy today? And every time I would say that, I would just desire to get out of that. And I forgot that there was more desires. I need to learn to love people. Yeah, but that ain't going to work. I need to look to the Lord. Yeah, but I can't even do that. You need to open your Bible. I can't do that. You know what I mean? Your desires, that's deep depression. So you want to assess how controlling that is. Now, third question, do you have any reason for hope? Do you have any reason for hope? It's a good question, huh? Maybe they've never been asked that. And maybe up to this point, their answers could be fickle. You know? You know what fickle hope is? Give me some examples of people. If we went out into the street tonight, knocked on doors, knock, knock, knock, what's your reason for hope? Even if they weren't depressed, just to find out how deep does that hope go when the storms are going to come, right? What's your basis of hope? What would you say some of the answers would be? Politics. My hope is built on nothing less. Children. My hope is seeing my children grow up and have grandkids. Is that a good hope? Hey, that's a good hope. But is that your deepest hope? Because that stuff could take wings and fly. I hate to say this about myself, but I'm going to say it. I am a optimist. in my faith, but an incredible pessimist without faith? Asked my wife. She said yes. I've never asked her that question. Without faith, I am the squeakiest pessimist up here. And so you know what? When Timmy was born, he was sitting there in his little bassinet, whatever that was, and I looked at him, and this was the thoughts that would come to my head. Tim, you are so precious, but you are going to go through so many trials. Life is going to be rough for you. You're going to cry. You're going to get hurt. People are going to hurt you. I mean, that's just, my goodness, Tim. No wonder you need the Lord. I do. I do. I do. Did I tell you I come from a family where my oldest brother was an addict to cocaine for 20, 30 years, and my younger sisters have struggled with addictions for years, and then here I am in the middle of all that? There's something about the Bryant clan, right, Aaron? There's something about us that we either soar or we sink pretty quick. So my faith, that's why I think I do what I do, because I have found faith to be enough. It's just that I gotta listen to it. I gotta think on it. And so when we talk about reasons for hope, A, hope results from trusting in God's sovereignty. Hope results in trusting in God's goodness. Hope results from trusting in God's wisdom. Hope results from trusting in God's justice. Do you believe that? Have you experienced that? Can you give it to others? Can you nurture it in others, your children, those who struggle? Explain how this truth relates to your current situation after reviewing what does it really mean to trust God? This assignment was developed when I was counseling someone and I've used it many times since. She had a very hard thing going through her life. And you know, you ever say to someone, hey, just trust God. Just trust God, just trust the Lord, you know? You're going through a terrible financial crisis, no job, your spouse is leaving, your kids are struggling. Just trust the Lord, just trust the Lord. What does that mean? Would anyone care to tell me what most people mean when they say, Bea, just trust the Lord? What do they mean? I'm not saying the right answer. What's the wrong answer there? When she hears me say that, what's the wrong thing we better not be communicating? Just get over it. And the worst is not going to what? Happen. True? Oh, trust the Lord. You won't die. Your spouse isn't going to leave you. Your kids aren't going to fall off their faith. Just trust the Lord. No. You can't trust him for what he hasn't promised. Has he promised you those things? What has he promised you that will not be taken from you that you can trust him for? Now, here's what this is. What does Scripture say I can trust God for in this suffering? You want to help a person depressed, take this slowly. God is a sovereign king. I believe and trust that the results are in God's faithful hands, not in mine or in anyone else's. In the end, he wins. Trust, Bea, I'm gonna single Bea, Bea, trust that whatever you're worried about, it's in God's hands. And in the end, he wins. Does that mean nothing bad's going to happen, Tim? Well, let's keep going. Number two, God is a good father. I believe and trust that he will be with me to provide all my needs that I may fulfill his will. Bea, God is good. He will be with you and he will provide all that you need to do his will. Trust him for that. Can she trust him for that? Am I okay so far? All right, make sure I'm not making up stuff that God doesn't promise. And then third, God is a wise creator. I believe and trust that if something bad occurs, and then I give a list just to help counselee understand, I look foolish, I lose some earthly treasure, I get sick, I go to jail, I get reprimanded, you make your worst list. I believe and trust that if something bad occurs, God will cause the results to be better than if the bad never happened. Beyah, God is a wise creator redeemer. And no matter what happens, if it's bad, a better will come out of that that could have come no other way. Can she trust him for that? Yes. I mean, bring it on. If that's the truth, right? Doesn't your faith well up when you start thinking about God and you say, wow, what a God I've got? I want to go experience some trials to test drive this thing. No, you don't. God will be faithful to bring that in your life. I don't pray for those. They come. And then the last one, God is a righteous judge. I believe that God will one day execute vengeance upon all sin. It's right. Nobody gets away with anything. You can temporarily hide, right? But you will be uncovered. If you're not in Christ, you will be judged. And if you don't make right those things that you have done wrong to others that are significant, especially, God loves you enough, if you're his child, not to condemn you, but to come give you a little bit of a provocation to change that. Sometimes big, spanking, you know. God has many spanking sticks, you know that. But it's all love for his children. All right, so we want to help someone have hope in God. Now it goes on to talk about what does obedience look like, but what does it really mean to trust God? And then what are some of God's good purposes in your perplexities? This is a good question to ask. And so here's a list that I have made with others who has come to counseling, and it's in this little thing here. Where's that at? Here it is. This was some good purposes that God is doing in the trial. God is finishing the good work in me of making me more obedient like Christ. Lots of verses. God believes these trials are necessary for my perseverance and endurance in faith. This is necessary for heaven. I know some people get a little scared when I say that. What, you believe in work salvation? No, no, I believe in grace salvation. Grace, you know what grace does? It gets active in your life through the Holy Spirit. It gives you the faith, and then it gives you the provocations and the resources to keep growing in that faith, and then it glorifies you one day. Hebrews chapter 12 says, without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. A little scary verse, huh? Not if you understand grace. Just don't fight grace. Grace will win. If you're God's child, I believe He who began a good work in you will what? Be faithful to finish it. And if you struggle with that work, just stop for a minute and say, God, I need to start again. I need help. And do that over and over again in your Christian life. How many here have had to do that? Like you blew it, and you're like, God, forgive me. I want to get back up. Right? How many of you have had to get back up? I even see Sandra saying yes here today. She has had to get back up. What possibly could she do bad? What got you back up? Grace did. Grace wins. Grace wins. Don't put it to the test, though. Jesus knew he had God's grace in his life, but he didn't jump. But had he jumped, grace would have caught him. Don't do it. Don't test it. So there's a lot of good reasons that bad comes through the Christian life to help us. Now, question number four, you've got some other things there I'm not going to cover, but number four, will you make the goal faith-motivated responses? Will you make the goal faith-motivated responses? Faith-motivated responses. When you think about faith, motivation, what you believe about God is tested when you go through trial. The opposite of being motivated by faith is motivated by what? Sight, right? I want this, I see this. There are five faithless reactions Instead of responding to God, we're reacting to circumstances. In other words, instead of responding like a worshiper of God, we're responding like a conditioned animal who, by their circumstances, lets it lead them in life. Are you guys more of an animal that just kind of lets your circumstances guide you? Because that's what my dog at home does. I don't know what kind of choices that dog makes, actually, now that I think of it. We make choices based on what we believe. That's the best part of being human, in the image of God. Dogs, they make choices based on what's happening. Where's the food? You know, they just go after it, right? That's it. Reactions. Will you make the goal faith-motivated responses? Because up to this time, they've probably got a lot of reactions. Now let's look at the faithless reactions here. It could be worry, it could be anger, it could be neglect, it could be sinful escapes, it could be hiding. You've got those there. And then this downward spiral of despair showing the person how faithless reactions increase the despair. You see this. There's an initial perplexing problem. This was a real issue, by the way. A man came in who was the best at what he did at work. And something happened one day. He forgot how to do the things that he did at work so well. Can you imagine that happening, Richard, to you? Think of that. All of a sudden, you're at the office, and all of a sudden, you can't figure this out anymore. Well, you know what happened to him. Look what it says. He lost his ability to work, and then he got perplexed. What will I do? Nothing wrong with perplexity, right? But he didn't have faith response at that point, which is understandable, but he had a sight response, or he had a despairing response, a lack of faith, faithless response. He said, so he chose to worry. I would understand that, anyone here can argue, I'm gonna worry about that a little bit, I'm gonna think on that. Instead of trust, seek, and obey God and his word, and get to other believers who can support him in this great trial he's having. New problem, he started getting panic attacks and insomnia started to hit him. And so he got more hopeless. So then that new problem led to another sinful response. I chose to stop doing what I could for my family and begin hours of TV. He was just trying to get his mind off it, right? We can understand that. But then what happened out of that? Spiral of despair. New problem, my family was angry. I became bitter at them. More hopeless, right? And then what happened out of that? A simple response out of that circumstance. I chose to pull away, to eat poorly, not to exercise at all, to stay in bed half the day. Then what happened? New problem. My health worsened, and my thoughts became more confused. I became more hopeless, and et cetera, et cetera. This guy got so bad before he came in that those panic attacks would hit and he would go run for hours to try to get rid of that energy. Without sleep, without nutrition, he would run for hours. And what would happen, finally, they would have to do shock treatment on his brain. They chose to do that. He came in a vegetable, basically. And slowly, he went through this spinning out, spiraling back up. And I remember he and his wife worked really hard on going through some things, little by little. And he said, you know, everybody should have to go through this, because my faith is stronger than it's ever been. Even though his mind wasn't, and his work abilities wasn't, he had a greater. What would you rather have, work ability or more God? He got more God. Can you relate to any perplexed faith-filled saints in scripture? Hebrews 11. Let them see Hebrews 11 when you think of that. We move from the despair. We move from faithless reactions to looking at the saints with someone who's depressed to see if we can see in them a case example for them. Who are some men and women in Hebrews 11 that by faith they responded to the challenge instead of reacted. Who are some of those folks? Give me a list or a name. What's that? Moses? Yeah. Moses didn't enjoy the pleasures of Egypt, but endured trouble with the children of God. Abraham left a country not knowing where he was going, but he responded to God's call, right? Abraham took the knife in his hand and almost, what, killed his firstborn son out of obedience to God. How do you think he felt? Right? He instead chose to, by faith, do what God had said. And what did God do? He rewarded Abraham. He said, stop. I was just testing you. I was testing your faith, Abraham. I'm going to get to this in just a second, but I want you to think. Refer to Hebrews 11 to help them see the hall of faith. What great things are there. And then faith versus feeling. Ron Alchen has an assignment called Faith Versus Feeling. It goes through Hebrews 11. So good for a person struggling with depression. to work through that slowly, potentially. And then supreme responses to a supreme God. I want to talk about this one. Let's talk about Abraham. What was Abraham's perplexity? God has told me that I have to kill my firstborn. Let's translate that. What is my perplexity? I might lose my firstborn. Not my firstborn, but I might lose Isaac, right? I might lose Isaac. That's perplexing. What does his faith say? What did Abraham's faith say? Anyone wanna tell me? Okay, Erin has heard it enough and read it enough. Did you hear what she said? When he's ready to go do the thing God says, Abraham's faith is being tested. And in Romans chapter five, it says, he believed that God would raise him from the dead. Just stop for a minute and think about that. No matter what's happening in your life right now, if you believe, no matter how bad it is, that God is going to recreate something better than if the bad never happened, if you believe that, you can endure that. God, I know that this is rough right now. But there's going to be a resurrection out of this somehow. There's going to be an exaltation. It's going to be better than if the bad never happened, OK? Keep that in mind as we help people have supreme responses of faith. That helps people. Then lastly, the last question, are you willing to be coached in developing two essential habits, effective meditation and scheduling? No matter how much a counseling session or a time with you, as much as your encouragement is great is, it goes nowhere if it doesn't continue somehow through the week. The thoughts must be in the mind. The schedule must be impacted, right? Your schedule and your mind. You take that out of the counseling session or out of the church this morning, and if you don't remember anything you've ever heard today, it's not gonna help you. Right? If you remember it in a way that it helps you reestablish your trust in God. It's going to help you greatly. And then your schedule. What am I going to do different today in how I act and how I live? So when we think about this, what is effective meditation? It's cultivating new desires by rehearsing biblical beliefs. Will you just say that with me? It's very important to think this is what it is. What are you doing? Go ahead and say it. Cultivating new desires by rehearsing biblical beliefs. Take that to the bank. Those are the champions in the Christian faith who do that. Not because of them. because of what the Word is doing in them. You can have new desires that overcome all the bad. As we wrap up, let me show you this. Look at these guys that did that. Jeremiah, what did Jeremiah do with his mind? Said this, the Lord is my portion, so I have hope. He's rehearsing biblical truth to have desire in his bad situation. David, I would have despaired unless I had what? Very important word. Believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord. You see how David said, I will see the goodness of God, even though my father and my mother rejected me, even though armies are surrounding me. I will see the goodness of God. Look at this, he had new desires. Look at Asaph. On earth, I desire nothing but you. You are my portion. He was struggling with envy. And then last, my earnest expectation and hope, Paul said. His earnest hope, not his secondary hope, his fundamental hope, is that Christ shall be what? Magnified. Why is it so important that Christ be magnified in you, no matter what's happening? Because what good do you have without him? If you had everything else but didn't have Christ, would you want it? So suffering helps you in that. Now, the last thing, are you willing to be coached in developing two essential habits, the scheduling, and here are the priorities you have listed there. These are priorities that you would want someone that's depressed to start living out by faith. You would want to be able to help them, enlist someone to help them, and that's why I'm saying to you again, if you're in this room and you are someone who wants to help be an encouragement to people at the level you're able to, consider becoming an encourager for the church. Someone who says, you know what? If someone's struggling with that, I want to have a few tools, and we're going to do this. And you'll see where God takes it. If we had time for questions, I would do that, but we end with this. Don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked. You will reap what you sow. If you sow to please the Spirit, you'll reap life. So what we're doing here with any issue, sad, mad, bad, or frat, is we're teaching someone with their mind and with their actions to please the Holy Spirit, to hear the words of the Spirit, to stir new desires. May God do that. Jesus, thank you for this great time together and these people that you have redeemed by grace. We're going to get sad in the coming weeks at times, but help us not become despairing. We are going to be provoked to mad, but help us to not become bitter and resentful and live a life of anger. Help us to go back to love and joy. Father, we're going to have times that we get anxious and worried and fearful. Help us to realize that our anchor is, our hope is deeper than our resources. And no matter what happens, when we step out in the boat and keep our eyes on Jesus, we will be able to walk on water. But when we get our eyes off Jesus, we'll sink. We all do. Help us get back up. Help us to let you continue the work you've begun in us through Jesus. And help us to help others as encouragers with these truths. In Jesus' name.