Josh Howerton - Four Ways to Respond to Depression (01/11/2026)

Summary:

In week three of the «Let’s Talk About It» series addressing the silent mental health pandemic, Pastor Josh Howerton teaches on depression using Psalm 42 and 1 Kings 19. Depression is the «check engine light of the soul"—a signal, not the problem itself. Four possible causes: (1) Physical (exhaustion, lack of sleep/food—Elijah ministered to with food and rest); (2) Emotional (ungrieved loss—suppressed grief emerges as depression); (3) Relational (isolation from community—church attendance uniquely improved mental health in 2020); (4) Mental (ruminating on negatives leading to false conclusions). Sufferers must ask «Why?» (Psalm 42:5), diagnose the cause (s), and preach truth back to depression—interrupting its lies with gospel realities from the cross and resurrection. Removes stigma: it’s not sin to be sick; everyone struggles; help is available.

Introduction: The Silent Mental Health Pandemic
All right, welcome LakePointe family! And hey, if you’ve got your Bibles, I need you to go to two passages. Okay, turn to Psalm 42 and then put your finger in 1 Kings 19. Two passages: Psalm 42, 1 Kings 19. Hey, if you’re new with us, welcome! My name is Josh, and I’m the senior pastor of our church. We are really, really honored you’re here. If you are new, you’re joining us at a good time. This is week three of a series that we are really excited about that’s just called «Let’s Talk About It.» Now, we’re excited about this series; we’re not excited about why this series is necessary.

So let me explain a little bit. Here’s what this series is in two sentences: Right now, everybody knows there’s a pandemic going on that everyone’s talking about. You can’t go anywhere without hearing about infection rates, masks, flattening curves, and toilet paper shortages. You can’t go anywhere where they hear about that stuff. But there’s another pandemic; it’s like the silent pandemic that nobody’s talking about. And we are right now in the middle of the greatest mental health pandemic in our nation’s history.

I’ve shared one of these two stats before, but to put this in perspective: the Kaiser Foundation found that over the course of the last year, one out of every two—one out of every two people who are watching this message—one out of every two people that you love have experienced a mental health crisis in the last year. That’s suicidal ideation, severe depression, crippling anxiety—one out of two. Now for a lot of us, this may actually make it even a little more poignant.

I read a study from the CDC that was released last month stating that one out of every four young adults in America, in the last year, seriously contemplated suicide. One out of every four. So, here’s what we wanted to do as a church: there’s a pandemic that everyone’s experiencing, but nobody’s talking about, so we just said, «That’s our job; let’s talk about it.» In this series, we’re hitting kind of all these mental health issues that people are talking about.

Now, I do just want to say one thing: LakePoint Church, there’s something I think we need to be aware of that we can help eliminate. One thing I hope to see happen during this series is the removal of the stigma around people who suffer from mental health issues. You know, this is something I’ve become more and more aware of in the last few years. If you share with somebody that you have a physical illness, like heart disease or cancer, what they typically do is they lean in and go, «Man, how can I pray for you? How can I help you? Let me walk with you through this season.» But if you share with somebody that you struggle with a mental illness—“Man, I struggle with depression, I struggle with some anxiety issues. I’ve had some dark thoughts about ending my life”—people don’t tend to lean in; they tend to walk out.

And we’ve got to remove that, and here’s why: because the Bible is full of people who struggled just like you. And God put those people and their stories in His Word so that you would know, listen to me, it’s not a sin for you to be sick. Your illness is not your identity, and it’s okay for you not to be okay. That’s okay. In fact, if you’re new to this and you’re kind of walking in thinking, «Man, I’ve got all these issues, and all these people here have their lives together, » let me just tell you two things about the people of LakePoint Church. Okay? Number one: they’re the finest people on earth! I mean, you’re just not going to find better, more encouraging, more honorable, higher integrity people in the whole world. They’re the finest people in the whole world.

Now here’s number two, and LakePoint, you can mentally or verbally assent to this so that our newcomers know you believe it too. Here’s the second thing you need to know: they’re real jacked up. They got all their issues just like you! And listen, here’s the deal: if you look around this room, not everybody’s going through the same thing, but everybody’s going through something. We are all walking through seasons like this together. So what we want to do during this series is if you are struggling or suffering from a mental health issue, we want you to hear two things from us: one, you’re not alone, and two, in Jesus’ name, it doesn’t have to stay this way! Can I get a good «Amen» from somebody? It doesn’t have to stay this way!

And so here, I do just want to say this: during this series, we’ve been talking about how we want to provide resources that are biblically informed but practically helpful to people who are suffering. We’ve said, «Hey, if you’re struggling with any issue, or marriage issue, anything like that, you can text the word ‘HEAL’ to 20411.» We’ve got all these resources as a church, and we’re financially prepared to help every single person who reaches out with a legitimate need. And so we’re prepared to do that. But you guys know, one of the hardest things to do because of the stigma is for somebody to do that and fill out that form and say, «Hey, I need help.» That’s really hard for somebody.

So to help kind of remove some of that stigma at LakePoint Church, can we celebrate the 317 people who have taken that step, raised their hand, and said, «I’m struggling; I need help»? Let’s do that, man! And if you’re one of those people, we want you to know, listen, we’re proud of you, we’re behind you, and we’re with you. And so, man, we can’t wait to see what God does in your life.

Depression in Psalm 42: The Check Engine Light of the Soul
Now, what we’re going to do today is talk about depression, and we’re going to get right in. I just need you to know this message is very, very practical. Here’s why. I built this message to be very practical because a drowning person doesn’t need to know the Greek word for life preserver—they just need you to throw them one! And so I’ve built this message intentionally to be extremely practical. So if you’ve got your Bible, head over to Psalm 42, and this is a psalm that was probably written by David. There’s a heading at the top of the psalm that says, «Of the Sons of Korah, “ but the Sons of Korah were worship leaders in Israel. Most Bible scholars believe this was a psalm written by David after his third son, Absalom, rose up against him and actually tried to depose him from his throne and take his place as king. So his own son tried to kill him, and that caused David, obviously, a lot of pain. David, if you read the Psalms, was a person who already struggled with depression during different seasons of his life.

So when this happened, he wrote this Psalm 42 that’s designed by God to help sufferers of depression. Have you got your Bible? Pick up with me in verse one. I’m going to read down to verse five, where it asks a really important question. Here’s what the psalm says: „As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.“ Now pause really quick. That’s a verse that you might be used to seeing, like, in a Christian bookstore on a Thomas Kinkade-style painting—beautiful deer, green pasture, blue sky, breeze through the trees kind of thing. That is not the image this psalm is supposed to give you. When it says, „As the deer pants, “ what you’re supposed to picture is a gaunt, emaciated, about-to-die-of-thirst deer because David’s expressing his pain. He’s saying, „I don’t know if I’m going to make it. I don’t know if I’m going to make it.“ And then he says, „My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?“ In other words, God seems totally absent. I don’t feel His presence. I come to worship; I don’t feel a thing.

„My tears, “ verse three, „have been my food day and night.“ If you’ve ever known somebody who’s walked through a season of depression, they’ll describe to you how sometimes they’ll just burst out crying, and they don’t even know why. They just have seasons where they’ll be in the kitchen, breaking down weeping, and if somebody asks them why, they can’t give a cause. And David says, „That’s me right now. I’m weeping day and night. I can’t stop it; it seems unending.“ While people say to me all day long, „Where’s your God?“

Now watch the verbs in verse four. „These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One, with shouts of joy and praise among a festive throng.“ In other words, David said, „I remember that I used to do that, but not now.“ In other words, happiness is nothing but a memory for me. In my message prep this week, somebody defined depression as a lethal absence of hope. In other words, „I remember what it’s like to be happy, but I don’t think I’ll ever be happy again.“ David says, „That’s how I feel.“

Now in verse 5, he asks the all-important question: „Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why are you so disturbed within me?“ Now that’s the all-important question, and here’s why I say that: because most people, when they begin to experience depression, the emotional pain is so great that they just seek to eliminate it without asking the question, „Why is it there?“ Now that’s really, really important because if you seek to—if you ask how, how can I eliminate it without asking why—then you’ll deal with the symptom of the problem, having never dealt with the problem itself.

Let me give you an example of this if this isn’t making sense. Pain is always a signal toward the problem; pain is never the problem. If I’ve got severe pain, so let’s say I get in a car accident, I’ve got severe pain in my leg, the pain is not the problem; the pain is signaling to my body, „Hey, your leg’s broken.“ And so what I most need isn’t to just eliminate the pain; what I most need is to figure out the cause of the pain and get my leg fixed. It’s the same with depression. If we never stop and ask the question—depression is, let me give one other analogy. Okay, if the check engine light in your car goes off, what you don’t need to do is get a new check engine light. What you need to do is figure out what made the check engine light go off. Depression is the check engine light of the soul, and when it comes, what you most need to do is not just get rid of the emotional pain; what you need to do is ask the question in Psalm 42:5: „Why? Why is this happening to me?“ So that you’re dealing with causes, roots, not fruits and symptoms.

Now, this is why this psalm is so helpful. If you look at the top of this psalm in your Bible, you may see a little heading there with a Hebrew word. It says „A Maskil.“ A maskil—all that means is it’s a Hebrew word that means this psalm was used to teach. In other words, God put this psalm in the Bible to teach people who are experiencing depression how to diagnose and ask, „Why is this happening to me?“

So here’s how I built this message. You’ve got to track with me really fast, okay? This psalm gives us a checklist of four things—four causes of depression. If you or somebody you love is walking through a season of depression, you can go through this checklist and figure out which one or ones are causing your sorrow. Okay? So here we go. I gotta go through all four pretty fast.

Cause 1: Physical
All right, number one: look at verse three and notice in verse three he says, „My tears have been my food day and night.“ Notice this person is not eating or sleeping. Number one, your depression can have a physical cause. Now let me give you some theology here so this makes sense to you: you are created as what Bible scholars call a psychosomatic whole. What that means is that what happens to your soul—let me just read it how I wrote in my notes so I get it right—it’s impossible to separate what happens to our souls and our bodies, and what happens to one affects the other. You’re a psychosomatic whole. What happens to your soul affects your body; what happens to your body affects your soul.

I’ll give you an example of this: I’ve mentioned before, Jan and I, our date nights on Thursday night, we do not miss date nights. What I want on date night is like—I seriously build my workout schedule for the week to build up to Thursday so I can have as many calories as I want on Thursday. So what we do on Thursday, it’s a little—I don’t know—it works for me, is essentially I save all of my calories on Thursday for dinner, and then I just go to town! I mean appetizer, big meal, dessert, second dessert, fourth meal when I get—I mean everything, everything! When I get home.

But what happens to Jan and me is we get hangry on the way to our dates. I’ve mentioned this before. The time when—this is a true story—the time when Jan and I are most likely to get into a, shall we say, „discussion, “ is in the car on the way to our date on Thursday night. We’ll get in the car and I’ll say, „Hey babe, where do you want to go for dinner?“ and she’ll say, „I don’t know; you decide.“ And it just for some reason, about once a month, it’ll just trigger me—“Well, why do I always have to decide? You never know where you want to go! The only thing you know is where you don’t want to go!» It’s just kind of snappy! And what I’ve learned is that Jan is a lot godlier after a chocolate chip cookie! I’ve learned that! And I’ve learned that I’m a lot godlier after an appetizer and a sugary carb! I just am!

Now there’s a reason for this because think about this: if I haven’t eaten, I get rude and impatient! Now, rudeness and impatience, those are sins; those are spiritual issues, but they’re triggered by a physical cause. It’s possible for your depression to have a physical cause, and if so, it needs a physical cure.

I told you to put your finger in 1 Kings 19. So here’s a story in 1 Kings 19. This is a very important story with depression in the Bible. A prophet named Elijah has an incredible victory. He faces off against a whole lot of prophets of the devil—prophets of Baal! God brings down fire from the sky on top of his sacrifice and proves that He’s the one true God, and they all go wild, and everybody realizes that Yahweh, God, is the true God. All right? Amazing victory. Immediately after that, Jezebel, an evil queen in Israel, says, «Surely by this time tomorrow, Elijah, you’re going to die!»

Now he gets afraid. By the way, we’re going to talk about this next week: many times, anxiety is the cause of depression. We’re going to do that next week. He gets afraid; he runs an hour or a day into the wilderness, lies down under a broom tree, and in the midst of his depression, asks God to end his life. He’s praying for his death; he’s depressed.

Okay, now pop quiz, class. God sends an angel to minister to depressed Elijah. What do you think was the first thing that angel said to Elijah? Do you think that angel said, «Elijah, you just need to pray more»? Do you think the angel said, «Elijah, here’s your Bible; read a few chapters»? Do you think he said, «Elijah, here’s a John Piper book; this will really help you»? No, he didn’t do any of those things. Here’s what the angel said. Watch this: The angel said, «Get up and eat!» I love this angel! He looked around, and then it says he looked around, and there by his head was a cake—a sugary carb! You guys, I’m just being godly; that’s it—a cake baked over hot coals and a jar of water, and then he ate.

Watch the ministry that God gives this man. He eats and drinks, and then he lays down. You see, that angel did that because he knew that in Elijah’s physical exhaustion, it led to emotional depression. I’ve noticed this in my own life, just to be real; let me be really raw with you. For me, the time of the week when I am most likely to struggle emotionally is on Sunday, from about 1 to 4 PM. I’ve just finished preaching three times; I’ve greeted hundreds of people in the lobby, emotional conversations, lots of prayer, that kind of thing. And here’s how I work—I’m just going to pull back the curtain and tell you how I kind of function emotionally. For me, in that exhaustion, it doesn’t matter how awesome the weekend was. Tens of thousands of people could have come to worship; hundreds of people could have been saved. I’ll spend all of Sunday afternoon just going over and over in my head, thinking about how I accidentally said «turd» in the 9:30 service, or I got that sentence wrong in that message, or I saw that girl falling asleep in the third row, and my sermon must have just been awful!

And so Jan knows this about me. Here’s what Jan does. She ministers to me in that. So Jan, on Sunday afternoon, kids go down for a nap. Sometimes she’ll look over at me and just say, «Josh, how you doing?» And sometimes I’ll say, «Babe, I am tired.» And she’ll get up and walk across the room, and well, I won’t tell y’all what happens next, but you know, depression can have a—maybe you need a physical cure!

So listen, let me just speak to you in a very straightforward way. Sometimes—I bet you’ve never heard a preacher say this before in your life—sometimes you don’t need prayer or a Bible verse; what you need is a nap! And I’d prefer if you waited until after the message to try! Or you need a good meal, or you need a day of rest because depression can have a physical cause.

Cause 2: Emotional (Unprocessed Grief)
Now watch this: number two: depression can have an emotional cause. Look at verses 9 and 10. I just want to show you something about this. Watch David’s prayer: «I say to God, my rock.» Look at this question: «Why have you forgotten me, God? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?» «My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God? ’»

Now did you notice David’s question to God in his prayer? He said, «Why have you forgotten me?» Now question number two, pop quiz for the class: had God actually forgotten David? No, that wasn’t true. Question number two: but did it feel true? It did!

Have you ever noticed how honest and raw David’s prayers are in the Bible? Let me just shoot you really straight: for a lot of you guys who have been Christians for a long time, the Bible is a lot more honest than you are in your prayers! You know the Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible. There are 150 Psalms written by David, who, quote, «was a man after God’s own heart.» Did you guys know not all of the Psalms are David just skipping around joyfully in praise? Fifty out of 150—a third of the Psalms fall into the category that Bible scholars call Psalms of lament—they’re David pouring out just how he feels, even when what he feels isn’t true! Is David saying things like, «God, it feels like you’ve totally forgotten me»? It’s David saying things like, «God, it feels like it would be more fun not to follow you than to follow you.» David prays things like—you know they’re called imprecatory Psalms—David prays things—this is literally a verse in the Bible. David prays about his enemies, «Blessed are they who dash your children against the rocks.»

Now why? Why is the Bible so raw in its prayers? You guys remember it was two sermon series ago, so I’ll forgive you if you don’t, where it was during the Jonah series, and I talked about how sometimes God will knock you flat on your back so that you’re finally looking in the right direction? You guys remember that? All right, too. You guys remember; I like you! Okay! And then we said that sometimes God will let you hit rock bottom so that you discover that He’s the rock at the bottom.

Okay, let me follow that up. It’s not just being at the bottom that helps; it’s praying at the bottom that helps. See, there’s a reason the Bible is so full of expressions of grief throughout its prayers! Here’s why: because sadness is an uncomfortable emotion; we like to avoid sadness. But guys, just because an emotion is uncomfortable doesn’t mean that it’s unhelpful. Every emotion that God has given you gives you a gift, and sadness gives the gift of acceptance. You can’t accept a loss until you’ve grieved a loss.

So watch this—here’s how the math of your soul works—you may not know this about you. This is how your soul works. When you experience a loss, you don’t get over it; you grieve through it. Until we grieve a loss, we get frozen in time, and we spend the rest of our lives responding to something that happened long ago.

I’ll be real honest with you. You guys who have been around LakePoint for a few years, you know this. Back in 2018, right after I moved here, I experienced a very—I know exactly when it started and I know exactly when it ended—I experienced eight months—I’m going to share a little bit more next week—of anxiety attacks and depression caused by that eight months. And that was very weird for me. Anybody that knows me, I’m kind of like, I’m naturally wired like a positive, energetic person, kind of a Tigger, you know, kind of little Howerton family motto: Howertons are always either up or getting up, kind of thing. And for those eight months, it just would not go away. And to be really transparent with you, what I eventually realized through some counseling and people who prayed for me—some pastors who walked with me—is Jan and I, when God called us here to LakePoint, we were so excited! Like, God gave us a burden and a vision for what He was going to do, and we’ve seen all that.

In fact, we have loved, loved being here. The last year of our lives, Jan and I both agree, has been the happiest year of our whole life! But when we came, we had our faces so set forward to what God was going to do that we never stopped and grieved all the things we lost when we very suddenly moved away from a church that I helped plant with my dad and thousands of people that I loved and I married and buried and, you know, did all this, and we never grieved those losses.

And here’s what I discovered that some of you may discover in the middle of your depression: my depression was suppressed grief forcing its way out. You need to know that that can happen to you with grief! You’ve got three choices, and there are only three choices: you can either repress it, you can deny it, «Oh, it wasn’t that big a deal; it’s going to be okay, » you can suppress it, «You know, I’m just not going to think about it; choose joy!» Christians are amazing at suppressing grief! Or you can do what the Bible does, and you can express it to God in honest prayer and honest conversations with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let me just speak to you; let me just put it all in a ball. Watch this: if a loss doesn’t come out forwards in your life through grief, it will come out sideways in your life through depression. And very often, depression is grief forcing its way out because you haven’t let it out. And what you need is to be as honest as these people are in the Bible with God.

Let me land the plane right here: like after services, one of my favorite things to do is I’ll go out in the lobby here at the Rockwall campus and I’ll pray with people. A lot of times I’m praying with new Christians or non-Christians. My favorite people to pray with are either new or non-Christians. And here’s what will happen sometimes in those prayers: I’ll be praying with somebody, and they’ll start praying, and then they’ll cuss in the middle of their prayer, and then when they cuss, they’ll realize what they’ve done, and they’ll be like, «Oh, bro, my bad! My bad!» And my response is always the same. I’m always like, «Man, I can’t do it because I’m a pastor, but it was kind of awesome when you did!» Like, I love it! And here’s why. I don’t love it because of the profanity; God will clean all that up later. I love it because of the honesty! See, God wants a relationship with you, and because He wants a relationship with you, He wants real prayers, not just right ones!

Depression can have an emotional cause.

Cause 3: Relational (Isolation)
Number three: depression can have a relational cause. Depression can have a relational cause. Look at verses four and five. He says, «These things I remember as I poured out my soul: how I used to—watch this—I used to go to the house of God among the festive throng.» He’s been cut off from the community of God’s people.

Now let me give you some theology, and then let me give you some supporting sociology. Here’s the theology: the Bible says you were created in the image of God. The Bible says that God, for all of eternity, has existed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s one, what, but three whose: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So you were created in the image of a community—that means you were designed to live in community, and you can’t live outside of it. Let me put it to you another way: God is a we, not just a me; so you were designed to live as an us, not just an I. And in isolation, you’ll get a check engine light that starts to come on.

Now let me show you some sociology to back this up. I’ve showed you this chart before, but I want to point out something new, okay? So thoughts that up on the screen. This is the Gallup poll I mentioned that came out a couple of months ago studying the mental health of different population segments in America from 2019 to 2020.

Now what’s interesting about this is every population segment in America had worse mental health in 2020 than 2019, regardless of population segment. It didn’t matter your ethnicity, didn’t matter your age, didn’t matter your political affiliation, didn’t matter your income; everybody was worse in 2020 than 2019, with the exception of one category. There it is: people who attended church weekly! Those were the only people who did better in 2020 than 2019!

Now I’m going to say something with a bit of an edge to it: don’t anyone ever tell me again that church is not essential! I never want to hear that ever again! I never, ever, ever want to hear that ever again! Guys, think about this: everything bad in our nation is up! Everything bad is up! Divorce is up, depression’s up, anxiety’s up, suicide’s up! As soon as the church went down, that’s as soon as that happened!

Let me be—I’m going to be a little raw with you because I got a burden that I feel like is developing in me. Here’s my burden: and if you’re somebody that’s joining us with church online that falls into this category, listen to everything that I’m saying! And then I’m not saying—it’s about the 33% of our church that has not regathered with us physically yet—I got a real growing burden for you, and let me explain why.

Now real quick, let me tell you what I’m not saying, especially if you’re joining us online and you’re listening to me right now. What I’m not saying is that I’m trying to emotionally manipulate you to come back in person before you’re ready. You need to make that decision as you feel comfortable, when you’re wise. I’m also not—if you’re in a high-risk category and you’re like, «Man, you need to come back again when it’s wise, “ that’s different. If you’re like in a high-risk category, I get it; I get it. So that’s not what I’m saying.

But here’s why I’ve got this burden: a couple of months ago, I got with a friend who became a Christian two years ago, started bringing his family to church. He’s got a teenage son that I’m going to call Joe. And I got with him a couple of months ago. Here’s what he said: he said, „Man, they’ve been going to church for two years after the pandemic stopped, and they haven’t been back since.“ And he just mentioned, „Man, I’m really starting to worry about Joe.“ I was like, „Oh, why?“ He said, „Man, well before all this happened, his inner circle that influenced him the most was really the students in the student ministry that were also trying to follow after God with their lives, and now his inner circle has changed, and his inner circle are the guys that he connects with on Xbox Live.“

Now guys, I want you to think about this. God, listen, I’m getting emotional! This stuff matters; this stuff matters! Think about the generational havoc—the damage of an entire generation being discipled out of church attendance for a year! Do you realize what that can do to your soul, to your family, to your children? See, right now what everybody’s doing is everybody—and I understand if you’re kind of hesitant to gather with your church family—everybody’s talking about the risks of doing that: the risk, the risk, the risk. And that’s true; there might be a small risk there. But here’s what nobody’s talking аbout: nobody’s talking about the spiritual and emotional risk of not gathering with their church!

So listen, let me just say something again. You’ve heard all my caveats. I want to speak gently, and I need you to use the spirit to help you make that decision: right decision, right time. But listen to me: there is going to come a moment where the risk of non-attendance is greater than the risk of attendance. And you need to realize that—we need to realize that—we were designed for this! So listen, this is why, by the way, guys, life groups—they’re not a luxury; they’re a necessity! You need somebody in your life! You need a group of people in your life where—watch this—I’m going to speak a little strongly because I feel like I’m fighting for somebody’s life here—you need a place in your life where you can take off the mask! Watch this: and you can say, „You didn’t know this about me, but…“ And when you do that, do you know what the people around you are going to say? They’re going to say, „I thought I was the only one! Me too!“

See, we’ve got to have somebody in our lives where we can get honest about our sins and our struggles so that God can deal with them. I love how James says it in James 5. He just says, „Confess your sins”—you could also say „your struggles”—“Confess your sins and struggles to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.“ Do you know where healing happens? In community with each other!

Here’s the point of saying all this: sins and struggles are like fungus—they grow in the dark, and they die in the light! Your depression can have a relational cause.

Cause 4: Mental (Ruminating Lies)
Now, last one: your depression can have a mental cause. A mental cause. It’s possible when you get into depression that they call it „ruminating.“ Again, I’m going to talk about this a lot next week! But you’ll get focused on something terrible that has happened or might happen, and that becomes the only thing that you think about. You’re thinking about things eventually that aren’t true. You need to know this about yourself: when I was depressed, somebody told me this. The wisest thing they could have said: they said, „Josh, you don’t see things as they are; you see things as you are.“

And when you’re depressed, you begin to see everything through the lens of your depression. And here’s how it works: your depression is not passive; it’s active. It starts speaking to you, and the momentum of a few true negative things will lead you to a dangerously false conclusion. You know I mentioned earlier to put your finger in 1 Kings 19. Twice in 1 Kings 19, God asks Elijah why he’s depressed, and twice Elijah responds with a mixture of truth and error. Here’s how Elijah responds. Think about this: he says:
1) I have been zealous for you—true.
2) The Israelites have rejected you—true.
3) They have killed your prophets—true.
But then he says, „I’m the only one left”—false! The momentum of a few true things in his depression led him to a dangerously false conclusion. He wasn’t the only one left. God, in fact, tells him, „Elijah, there are 7,000 people in Israel that I have kept from bowing the knee to Baal! You’re not alone! In fact, not only 7,000; at the end of the very next chapter, God is going to raise up another prophet named Elisha! The Bible says that God would give that prophet a double portion of Elijah’s power. The future of Israel would be greater than its past, and Elijah couldn’t see it because of his depression!

Even more than that, 800 years later, God would raise up the greatest prophet of all—Jesus Christ—who would not just speak truth to His people; He would free them from lies! It was not true that Elijah was alone, but the momentum of a few true things led him to a dangerously false conclusion. You see the same thing in this Psalm 42; David says, „I’ve been cut off from the land of my youth”—true. „I’ve lost my employment”—true. „My enemies mock me day and night”—true. Then he says, „God has forgotten me”—false!

Your depression is doing the same thing to you: it’s reminding you of a few negative true things to lead you to a dangerously false conclusion. Your depression is saying things like this in your head right now: „It’s all lost”—false. „God—it’s useless; my family will never change”—false. „My friends will never listen”—false. „My workplace will never change”—false. „It’s never going to get any better”—false. „Everybody hates me”—false. „I’ll never be happy”—false!

See, this is what depression does: that momentum will lead you to a dangerously false conclusion. That’s why I love what David does in this psalm. In verse 11, watch this: he interrupts his depression as it’s speaking to him, and he stands up and he says, „You shut up! It’s time for me to talk! You’ve been preaching to me; you’re a false prophet! I’m going to preach back to you!“ He says, „Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why are you so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.“

You see, David interrupts his depression, and you’ve got to do that! You’ve got to treat the depression in your life; you’ve got to talk back to it! It’s been preaching to you. It’s time for you to stand up and preach to it! And here’s what you’ve got to do: you’ve got to talk to depression like you would treat a verbally abusive person in an argument. You’ve got to say, „Depression, you’re allowed! I’m going to be louder! I’m going to shout you down!“ You see, in this psalm, David says, „I remember back to the land of Jordan, to Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar, “ and he remembers the miraculous works of God that happened on mountains in the past. And guys, we’ve got a far better mountain to look back to! We can look back to Golgotha, and we remember what God did for us.

So we stand up and we preach back at our depression! You say to yourself things like, „I am not alone. Gethsemane shows me that there is someone who cares for me. The cross proves that my future is not dim. The resurrection declares that it’s going to be okay!“ You’ve got to stand up and tell your depression that its days are numbered, so that even if it lasts until your dying breath, it will be vanquished for all of eternity while we escape away to the everlasting joy of the Father’s presence in whose presence there is fullness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore! You’ve got to stand up and preach back and say, „I’m preaching now; your turn’s done; I’m talking!“

And you set your mind on things above that are true. And listen, right now we want to do that! Like in this service, so if you do this at all our campuses, would you stand with me? Stand with me right now! And this song we’re about to sing is actually part of this message as we sing and preach back to ourselves. You give life!