Joyce Meyer - Victims Of Suicide (08/24/2019)
In this sermon on overcoming depression, Joyce Meyer emphasizes that Jesus is our healer for every area of life, including emotions and mental health. Drawing from Psalm 42, she urges believers to choose joy deliberately, talk to their soul in faith, and not let problems or others steal their happiness. She concludes with prayer for breaking the yoke of depression and releasing God's joy.
Understanding Depression's Many Causes
I want to talk specifically about depression because that's a deeper issue than just being a little bit sad or having a bad day. Let me just start off by saying that there's a lot of different reasons for depression. If you have trouble with depression, I know that sometimes it's not as simple as just putting a smile on your face, forgetting your problems, and going on about your business.
But I do believe that no matter what we're dealing with—even if doctors can't fix it—Jesus can. Amen. I said Jesus can. Actually, Jesus can heal you anywhere you hurt. Healing is not just for the physical body, but it's for emotions, finances, our social life, for our mind—every area of our being. Jesus wants to heal us, and He is our healer.
I believe that all healing comes from God. Even if it comes through some kind of medical help, it still came from God because only He can give people the technology that we have available today to help us in some of these areas.
Physical and Lifestyle Factors
Now there are a lot of medical reasons why people can be depressed. Jesus can heal those, I believe. This weekend people are going to have breakthroughs, and I don't want you just to get your little breakthrough and go home and enjoy it. I want you to let us know that God touched you because it's important for our faith to grow in these areas and also important for you to share your testimony.
People can be depressed because they eat too much sugar and it's not agreeing with them. People can be depressed because they don't get enough sleep. People can be depressed because they get too much sleep. Do you know that laziness will depress you? If you just sit around and do nothing, the more you do nothing, the more you don't want to do anything. So nothing turns into more nothing, and the more active you are, the more active you can be.
The more inactive you are, the more inactive you want to be. God didn't create us to sit around and do nothing. He wants us to bear fruit, and so sometimes just boredom can depress you.
The Danger of Focusing on Problems
There's a lot of different reasons. Problems—if we meditate on our problems too much and we think about our problems, we talk about our problems—if you look around at your problems all the time, you know there's a danger in just staring at your problems and talking about your problems and talking about your problems.
God wants to help us in greater ways than what we can even imagine, but we do need to be willing to give Him our problems and our situations. So if a person is making you sad, don't let somebody else who doesn't want to be happy steal your joy.
Now I think maybe I'm going to say that again. I said if another person is making you unhappy, don't let somebody who doesn't want to be happy steal your joy. Amen. And to be honest, if the enemy is using them to make other people unhappy, the more unhappy you are, the more you feed their problem.
Personal Testimony of Joy Overcoming Discouragement
I had a lot of discouragement and depression and bad moods in the early years of mine and Dave's marriage. I had a lot of problems. I'd been abused, and I had not learned how to think right yet. My husband loved me and he tried to help me, but I really wasn't at a point yet where I was ready to receive help, and I was unhappy a lot.
But Dave stayed happy, and his joy made me mad. Well, it's the truth, you know. When you're unhappy, somebody that's happy annoys the living daylights out of you. It's like, well, what are you so happy about? And so it would almost aggravate me that he didn't seem to have any problems. Well, it must be nice that life was so great for you, but you didn't go through what I went through.
But I can also tell you that in the long run, Dave's joy was the salt that God used to make me thirsty to have what he has. So you're not helping the person you're in relationship with if you let them make you unhappy all the time. You're actually only feeding their problem.
Choosing Joy as a Decision
So if you want to help them—are you ready for this?—if you want to help them, stay happy. I said if you want to help them, stay happy. And I'm not talking about being ridiculous and going around giggling all the time, but joy is anything from extreme hilarity to a calm delight.
I think that we have those moments of extreme hilarity, but basically we live in a calm delight. It's God's desire that we just live in this calm delight and that we can enjoy wherever we're at, whatever is going on—not that we like everything that's going on. We don't.
And one thing's for sure—now listen to what I'm going to say—you'll never be consistently happy if you don't make a decision that you're going to be okay. About 40% of the crowd got that, so we're going to try again. I want you to get this: you're never going to really be consistently happy if you don't make a decision to be happy.
And I'll tell you something else that I think—joy has to be a priority in our lives. I realized probably 15-20 years ago that because the devil stole my childhood, I never really learned how to be a child. You know kids are pretty happy no matter what. They can get mad at somebody and be over it in two seconds.
Rediscovering Childlike Joy
You can punish them for something and they'll find a way to make a game out of that. You tell them no and they act like it's the end of the world, but a few minutes later everything is fine. I never got a chance to be a kid, so I didn't know how to be one.
I think every healthy adult also needs to have a good healthy child on the inside of them. Maybe some of you that your childhood was stolen—you've always been serious, you've always been sincere, you've always been deep. I used to say, well I've just got a deeper personality. Well, I was so deep I didn't know where I was at half the time.
So maybe you're like that. Maybe you've kind of just lost yourself somewhere in your depth and your deepness, and it's time to just lighten up a little bit and try to enjoy your life. You don't have to figure everything out. You can trust God—let Him figure some things out. Amen.
The reason why we call our TV program Enjoying Everyday Life is because it became a real priority for me because I continually saw in the Word of God that one of the reasons why Jesus died for us is so that we might have joy and that we might enjoy our lives in abundance to the full until it overflows.
Scriptural Foundation for Rejoicing
Paul said, rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice—and he was in very bad circumstances when he wrote that. It's recorded in Philippians. So I started making enjoying my life a priority, and I didn't want to just enjoy parts of it. I wanted to enjoy all of it.
Being sad about your problems is not going to make them go away, but laughter does good like a medicine, the Bible says. I know I can almost see it when I look around. I see a certain amount of people—it's like what I'm saying almost minorly aggravates you because it's kind of like, that's nice for you to say, you just don't have my problems.
No, you're right, I don't have your problems, but I've had plenty of my own, and I'm telling you what I've learned over the years: I wasted too much of my life being sad about things that I couldn't do anything about. You know, you can't do anything about your past, but you can do something about your future.
Maybe you didn't have a good start, but you can still have a good finish. Amen. This is the day the Lord has made, and today I will rejoice and be glad.
Acting in Faith Over Feelings
You might think, well I can't help the way I feel. Well, depression does a lot to your feelings, and like I said, there's a lot of different reasons for that. I'm not just saying everybody can all of a sudden feel better, but you can do something about how you act.
I believe that when we act on the Word of God in faith, our feelings catch up with it. For example, instead of sitting around watching sad movies that make you cry when you're already depressed—why do you want to do that? I went and saw a good movie last week on the worst, craziest, most awful day that you've ever had in your whole life. That was pretty funny too.
Dave didn't think it was as funny as I did, but I said, you know what, I guess I just needed a laugh. When I really need a laugh, it don't take much to get me started and I'm off and rolling.
In other words, what am I saying? Laugh on purpose. Don't spend all your time hanging out with people that are in a worse mood than you are. Get around some people that have got a sense of humor. Amen.
Practical Steps and Biblical Encouragement
Well, but couple that travel with us on the road—he's our staff pastor. You'll meet Mike throughout the weekend and his wife Penny. Mike is just funny, and I just love to have him around because he's just funny. He just does and says some of the funniest things, and yet he's very deeply spiritual and can be very serious and can handle anything that you want him to handle.
But we all need to have a sense of humor. You know what? Some of you—it might just change your life if you would make a decision to take every opportunity that you possibly can to just have a good laugh. Yes, I'm also talking to the people watching at home by TV, and I want you to cheer up.
The two best things you can do is calm down and cheer up. In the world you will have tribulation, Jesus said, but cheer up—I have overcome the world.
Two scriptures: Psalm 42:5—Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my help and my God.
David was having a talk with himself. You know, sometimes when my mood starts to sink, I have to have a talk with myself. Sometimes you got to take yourself somewhere and have a little meeting with yourself.
I actually have to say to myself sometimes, Okay, Joyce, knock it off—especially if I'm getting cranky because I didn't get something I wanted or I'm having a tough day or somebody aggravated me a little bit.
My goodness, we have got so many blessings in our life. I said we have got so many blessings in our life. You know, if you make enough noise, you can scare off the spirit of depression.
Hope and Praise as Weapons
Psalm 42:11—I think it's interesting because he said the exact same thing twice in this one chapter, and the whole chapter is only 11 verses. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him who is the help of my countenance and my God.
So I'm going to pray for you. Father, I thank You for just reminding us that You want us to be happy. I know that the anointing destroys the yoke of bondage, and I believe that You've given us a word for this conference in particular—that You are going to break depression off of people as they sit in the worship and as they hear the word.
But I pray that every person here will make a decision tonight—a firm decision—that they are going to be happy and they are going to enjoy the life that You've given them, even while they're waiting on the things that they would like to have, that they're going to enjoy where they're at right now.
So in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I take authority over the spirit of depression, sadness, moaning and groaning and regret and dread. I thank You, Lord, that the joy that's in us is greater than any of those things that come against us.
I pray that Your joy would rise up and fill people and just press off of us all those other things that try to hold us down. I thank You, Lord, for healing people that have medical depression—straighten out their hormones, straighten out their chemical imbalances.
I thank You, Lord, for helping people that have been hurt and wounded and abused in their past. I thank You, Lord, for pouring in Your healing oil into their wounded souls. This is a brand new day, a turnaround evening, and I thank You, Father, that You're going to do what man and even medical science cannot do. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.