Today, with God's blessing, we'll move on with the study we began last month. It's called spiritual depression. Depression, you know, is a sorrow that stays with you for weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime. And spiritual depression is the kind that has no medical cause. If you've been down for a long time and can't imagine why, go to the doctor. He is God's gift to you and you mustn't be ashamed of taking what the Lord has provided for you. The depressions I have in mind, however, cannot be healed by doctors. They can treat them and they can cover them up, but they cannot be gotten rid of by doctors because they're spiritual sicknesses, and spiritual sicknesses need spiritual cures, which come to us most of the time through the reading and preaching of God's Word and the fellowship of His people. Last week, we looked at unrealistic expectations as a prime cause of depression. As Americans, we think we have the right to be happy, and as American Christians, we think it is God who guarantees the right. When we're not happy, it's because someone has robbed us of our happiness, and this makes us mad, and when our anger cools down, it becomes depression. Today's topic is similar to this, but it's sufficiently different to merit its own sermon. The topic we'll look at today is disappointment with other people as a major cause of spiritual depression. A great many people, a great many Christians are deeply discouraged because they're very disappointed in other people. I needn't spend much time describing this feeling since we've all felt it and some of us are feeling it right now. We expect people to be better than they are, more loving, more just, more loyal, more forgiving, easier to get along with. When they're not the way we expect them to be, we become disappointed in them. And when they fail time and time again, we slide into bitterness. And when that's not repented of, We give up all hope and fall into depression. Other things may and often do contribute to this depression, but the real cause of it, right down at the bottom, is disappointment in other people. Question, is disappointment in other people wrong? Is it always wrong to be disappointed in other people? Well, no it isn't. Our Lord himself felt this way more than once and it cut him to the bone. Two scenes come to mind. One in the courtyard of Annas and the other a few minutes before in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the night of his arrest, our Lord told the disciples they would panic and forsake him. They all said they wouldn't, but Peter in particular assured him he would be loyal to the end. He wouldn't be, the Lord warned him, but to no effect, for Peter remained as cocksure as ever. A few hours later, he did just what the Lord said he would do. He denied the Lord three times. When the final oath was just out of his mouth, Luke says, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. He doesn't describe the look he gave him because he doesn't need to. It wasn't a look of hate, or scorn or hurt pride, it was a look of deep and intense disappointment. No wonder the poor disciple, who really loved the Lord, went out and wept bitterly. This was our Lord disappointed. If the disappointment he felt in Peter hurt him, our Lord was hurt even worse by another friend who did him wrong. When the other disciples went with the Lord to the Garden of Gethsemane, the other man went elsewhere. Taking him for a good and generous man, the others thought that he had gone elsewhere to help the poor. But it wasn't the poor whose pockets he was filling that night, but his own. Thirty pieces of silver were given to him to find and identify his master, which he did in the most shameless way imaginable. Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Yeah, that's exactly what he was doing. Although our Lord knew from the start what kind of man Judas was and what he would do, he was still the traitor's friend and looked at him with crushing disappointment. It is not wrong to be disappointed in other people. The only one who never feels that way is the cynic, a person lacking the three things most needful, faith, hope, and charity. If you want to avoid all disappointment, become a cynic. But you can't be a cynic and a Christian at the same time. Because cynics don't only disbelieve in man, but they also disbelieve in God and His grace. If it's not wrong to be disappointed by the actions and attitudes of other people, what is wrong is to let the disappointment rob you of your joy and peace and obedience. That's really the issue we'll look at today. Not it's wrong to be disappointed, but rather it's wrong to let that disappointment rob you of the joy that God has for you or make you to slump into depression. That's what's wrong. No chapter in the Bible features this kind of depression more clearly than the one we read just a few minutes ago, 1 Kings 19. Elijah is the prophet of the Lord. A few hours before he had met the king of Israel and 400 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel with the whole nation in attendance. Quite a scene. One prophet of the Lord, King of Israel, 400 prophets of Baal, up on top of the mountain, and hundreds of thousands of people all around him. Elijah proposed a contest between the true God of Israel and the false. Baal's men would build an altar and ask their God to send fire from heaven to burn it up. If he did, Elijah would join the nation and say, Baal is God. If he didn't though, Elijah would rebuild the altar of the Lord and ask the Lord to send fire. If he did, the Lord is God. The people thought this was a very good idea. The prophets of Baal went first and they cried out to their God all day long. But he did nothing for them because Baal himself is nothing. Baal flopped big time and in public. Late in the afternoon, near six o'clock, Elijah built an altar to God, put a butchered animal on it, and drenched it with water. Hundreds of gallons of water were poured on the animal, and the altar, and the ground, and the trench that was dug around the altar. Then he told the people to draw near to him, because he wanted them to see he was no magician. This was no trick up his sleeve. They got really as close as they could, and then he prayed in just a couple of sentences, And the Lord answered with fire. The people were all struck at God's power and grace. And for the first time in more than a hundred years, they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. Well, if the Lord is God, Elijah answered, take those prophets of Baal down to the river and kill every last one of them. Which they did. At last, After years of halting between two opinions, the people had made up their minds and at long last they would return to the Lord with all of their hearts. That's what Elijah's hope was, but of course his hope didn't come true. The people he had invested his hope in disappointed him. And neither did the prophet have long to savor his victory. For word soon reached Jezebel, who was not there, but she was apparently at the palace. It wasn't long before word reached Queen Jezebel, and the Queen swore an oath that by this time tomorrow, Elijah would be as dead as her prophets are. Hearing this threat, Elijah panicked, ran off into the wilderness, and sat down under a tree and prayed, It's enough, O Lord, take away my life. I'm no better than my father's. Curious to think about what he means here at the end. No better than my father's. I suspect he means my father's the prophets. The prophets whom God had sent before Elijah was born. These men had struggled with Israel. God had sent them prophets rising early and sending them. And they all got the same treatment. Israel was made no better by the prophets. And Elijah said, I'm one of them. I'm doing everything they did. I'm pouring my heart and soul into these people, and look what return I'm getting. They say the Lord is God, but right now they back the Sidonian Queen. The man has a breakdown. He falls into deep depression. How do we explain Elijah's condition? If you read his whole life in this chapter and the chapters that come before, you'll see several things piled up on him to break his mind. For one thing, he was lonely. For three and a half years, he'd been hiding in a foreign country and without any fellowship of his own people. He was hungry, not having eaten all day long at least, and maybe he'd been fasting longer than that. He was tired, drained from the long journey alone and on foot. He was away from home. It was Elijah the Tishbite, but he wasn't in Tishbe. In fact, he had no home. He was sitting down under a tree. He was scared of Jezebel, and he thought the work he lived for had come to an end. All these things contributed to his depression, but they didn't cause it. What broke his heart was disappointment in the people he loved and lived for. Elijah wasn't being paid for his work. He wasn't on salary. He was serving God who was providing, often scantily, like from the work of ravens and a poor widow. He was being supported by God, but he was pouring his whole life into Israel and was getting nothing in return. That's what he thought. The contest on Mount Carmel was not a sporting event, but that's just how the people treated it. To them it was nothing more than a boxing match or a football game. They cheered the winners, they booed the losers, and then they went back to their homes and lived the same lives they and their fathers had lived for more than a hundred years. In spite of the high sounding words, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God, Israel remained as halt between two opinions as they'd ever been. Elijah was crushed by what his people had done to him and by what he thought was the futility of his life. Even he, as heroic as he was, fell into depression and chose death over life. Elijah wants to die, but God says, no, you're not allowed to kill yourself. You're not allowed to wish you were dead. The Lord spared Elijah's life, but this is not all he did. He went on to restore his balance and make him as useful as ever, and everyone who knows the end of his story also knows, made him happier than he could have possibly imagined. How did the Lord pull Elijah out of his despair? It would be very easy to say the Lord can do whatever he wants to, and everything the Lord does, he does by miracle. There is some truth in that. But no miracles performed this day in rescuing Elijah from his depression. Just a couple of tried and true methods were used, and as always, they worked. So, what did the Lord do to save Elijah from his depression? Two things. Number one, he gave him something to do. verses 15 and 16. Then the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Haziel as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nemshi, as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel, Mihollah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. Nothing feeds depression like doing nothing. Or more to the point, Nothing feeds Christian depression more than doing nothing for God. If you're depressed on Sunday mornings, here's what you do. You get out of bed, you go to church, and you stay until the afternoon service is over. You fear the hours will wear you out, but they won't. They'll refresh you. Psychologically, they do this because they get your mind off yourself and your problems. I came to church this morning thinking, oh, what a terrible family life I have, or oh, how am I going to pay those bills, or that was terrible news I got from the doctor. But I come here and these things aren't mentioned, are they? I come here and it's all about God, and all about Christ, and all about forgiveness, and I think about these things more than the other things. So it works in a purely psychological way. Church is not a distraction. It's not like going to the movies or going to a game where you think about something else for a couple or three hours. Truthfully, they lift you up because they put you in contact with God in whose presence is the fullness of joy and in whose right hand are pleasures forevermore. What does depression do to us? What it does is very simple and everybody knows it. It turns us inward. But we will find no peace or joy until we obey the Lord Jesus who tells us to look outward. This is my commandment, that you love one another, that your joy may be full. Am I advocating busy work? Maybe. I know a young woman who began her climb out of depression by doing three things a day. Three things, let me say just briefly about her condition. This dear young woman was deeply depressed to the point that she would spend almost 24 hours a day in bed. She just wouldn't get up at all. That's how depressed she was. Well, a counselor talked to her and told her, do three things a day and you'll be better. Three things were, number one, get up at 8 o'clock in the morning. Number two, make breakfast. Number three, wash the breakfast dishes. Then he said you can go back to bed and spend the rest of the day in bed. These three little things that took maybe a total of 30 or 45 minutes gave her a peg to stand on and within a few months she was more or less back to normal. Busy work is better than nothing, but loving work is better than anything. And this is what I'm really advocating. Our Lord said it's more blessed to give than to receive. Giving makes you happier than getting. That's what he means. This means that if giving makes you happier than getting, that a person cannot get out of depression until he starts giving. And giving from the heart, and without gloating, or feeling sorry for himself, or being thanked to the high heavens. Don't think you'll get better curled up in a ball. Don't think you'll get better not getting back to the people who leave messages on your phone. Don't think you'll get better locked in your bedroom with a television on. God has given you things to do, present things to do, and not just with your body like get up, get dressed, make breakfast, wash the dishes. He's also given you things to do with your heart. Do them and see if you're not better. And in particular, since we're talking about the depression that is caused by disappointment with other people in particular. Do these things for the people who've disappointed you so deeply. Want to get out of your depression? Do something, but not just anything. Serve the people who've disappointed you. I wonder if there's any for common cause of unhappy marriages and disappointment. She's not what I thought she was. He's not the man I thought I married. These things are left to linger, left to fester. They last for years and years and years until the happy marriage becomes indifferent at best and maybe something far worse than indifferent. How do you do that? How do I get out of the depression that I should have married someone else, that you should have married a better man than he is? How do you get out of it? You start getting out of it by serving that person who's disappointed you. This is not my advice. If nothing else, it's loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, praying for those who spitefully use you and persecute you and blessing those who are against you. That's the first thing. The second thing that God gave Elijah was he gave him something to hope for. Verse 17, it shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Asael, Jehu will kill and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Now that doesn't sound very encouraging. But this is exactly what Elijah needed to hear. Elijah would not be in the world forever. I'm tempted to say he wouldn't live forever, but he did. But Elijah would not be here in the world forever. And when he left it, God says the saving work of God will continue. Part of that saving work is separating the wheat from the tares. Elijah had done some of that himself. And before long, Hazael Jehu and Elisha would carry on Elijah's work, and when these men died, God would find others, then others, then others, until finally he hit upon just the right man to finish the job, Jesus Christ our Lord. This means Elijah's life had not been futile. He said, Israel has slain your prophets. thrown down your altars, and I and I alone am left." But Elijah was wrong. His word had reached 7,000 in Israel and had reached them with the power to make them defy a bloodthirsty queen. And so the word of God had succeeded. Elijah didn't know it had, but it had. And it would succeed because every work for Jesus will be blessed. especially the work that Jesus does personally. Moral of my story is this. We're not allowed to live in disappointment. We are not allowed to live in disappointment. We're allowed to be disappointed. We're allowed to feel disappointment. But we are not allowed to live in disappointment because the Lord is still at work in the world and in the hearts of the people who have let us down. We may not see his work, Elijah didn't, but we must believe in it and also believe what he is now doing invisibly will one day be plain for all to see. This is exactly what Paul is getting at near the end of Galatians when he says, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint. Live in hope. Don't assume that people who have disappointed you cannot change. No, they cannot change themselves, but we're not asking them to. We're asking God to change them. And with God, all things are possible. What if He doesn't? What if a man is disappointed in his wife and he prays fervently for many years that God would change her? and he doesn't. She's as shrewish and impossible to live with as ever. May he then be excused for his disappointment? No, he may not be. Changing people is God's work and we leave it with Him, knowing that He will do it wisely and well. Our task is not to change others, but to love them and to love them as they are. This won't save us from all disappointments. but it will save us from living in disappointment and what goes with it, depression, bitterness, and despair. Are you depressed because someone has let you down? You expected better of him, but he didn't deliver? You thought she'd be better than she is, but she's actually worse than she is? Are you depressed because someone has let you down? If you are, welcome to the club. Everyone has been let down, including Elijah and our Lord Jesus Christ. It's hard to imagine the face of our Lord Jesus when it was kissed by Judas and denied by Peter and feel sorry for ourselves. No one has ever suffered the way I have. No one has ever had the kind of wife I have. No one's kids ever betrayed them the way my kids betrayed me. No one's parents ever done him wrong worse than my parents done me wrong. How in the world can we say such things in light of the sufferings and the disappointment and the rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ? He came to his own, and his own said, we don't want you. The disappointment hurts us badly. Of course it does. It hurt Elijah badly. It hurt Christ worst of all. because our Lord's soul, unlike ours, had no calcism. He had the thinnest of all skins because he had to suffer all things that we do. Notice Elijah did not stay down forever. This is not the end of the story. The rest of the chapter and the chapters that follow say that Elijah was entirely restored and went back doing the will of God and eventually was rewarded by going to heaven in a chariot of fire without benefit or detriment of death. Elijah did not stay down forever because God roused him from his sorrows by giving him something to do and something to hope for. He's given you the same two gifts. Your job is to love the ones who let you down. This doesn't mean tolerating them. It means loving them. And love is described for us in 1 Corinthians 13 as that state of mind that suffers long and is kind, it does not envy, does not parade itself, is not popped up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, and thinks no evil. Loving others increases the likelihood that we will be hurt again. This is the risk we must take for Christ took it and we're called to follow him and to put our hope where he put his, in the power, wisdom, and mercy of God. You don't have to live in disappointment. You're not allowed to live in disappointment. Insofar as it's your duty, I urge you in the name of God Himself to repent of the disappointment you've been living in. Insofar as it depends on God, I pray that He'll give you and me alike the grace to do it. Let's pray, please. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word of God. We thank You for its instructive stories. We pray that we would learn from them, Lord. Learn to follow what is good and not what is evil. Lord, we thank you for restoring Elijah, a real man, one of our own ancestors, flesh and blood, the same kind of person that we are. Lord, we thank you that you restored him, and we thank you that in his restoration you hinted that you would restore us. Oh, Lord, restore us from the disappointments we so keenly feel and the heartache and depression it causes. Grant us these favors, Lord, because we need them, because you have not willed your people to be a morose people, but to be a rejoicing people. Give us these things, Lord, for Christ's sake and for your glory. Amen.