00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers. Hello YouTube family. Hello to everyone watching online.
00:05It is a blessing to be here today and dive into the Word of God with you all.
00:11If I had a title for today's message, I would call it, Why Am I So Down?
00:18The Bible's Answer to Depression.
00:22Oh, have you ever been depressed before? Been discouraged before?
00:28Well, what do you do when the battle isn't all around you, but it's on the inside of you?
00:36Oh God, help me. Maybe I should ask a question like this.
00:40Have you ever smiled in public, but felt heavy inside?
00:46Well, our text today is going to give us a conversation that every believer must learn to have with their
00:57own soul.
00:58Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me?
01:06Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.
01:15Now, in this text, the psalmist is acknowledging the realities of a cast-down soul.
01:24He says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
01:29This passage opens up with raw honesty.
01:35This psalmist is not pretending that he is fine.
01:39He's not pretending like he's strong.
01:42You know how we do as believers.
01:43How are you doing?
01:45Oh, I'm blessed to the Lord.
01:46I'm highly favored.
01:48Be praying all under the table, acting as though we're okay and everything's all right.
01:53Help us today.
01:54But this text is acknowledging heaviness.
01:56In this passage, he says, Why are you cast down, O my soul?
02:00Meaning, he's talking about being cast down.
02:03Deep depression.
02:05He's talking about sorrow and emotional collapse.
02:09I'm feeling like I'm about to collapse on this thing.
02:11I'm feeling emotional exhaustion.
02:14And this is a faithful man of God.
02:16That's what ministers to me.
02:19Even faithful men experience deep discouragement.
02:23Now, in this text, when I'm talking about discouragement,
02:25this type of discouragement is a discouragement that lingers.
02:30It doesn't go anywhere.
02:32It starts to affect how you think, affect how you feel, and affect how you see yourself.
02:39Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
02:41Meaning, I've been here for a while.
02:43It's been lingering.
02:45This psalmist is teaching us to examine the condition of our souls.
02:51Why do I feel this way?
02:53Where is it coming from?
02:55You must examine your souls before recovery begins.
03:01Acknowledging our discouragement is the doorway out of despair.
03:07But let us go deeper.
03:09This psalmist, he not only looks at his cast down soul,
03:13but he also looks at the turmoil he has with inside of himself.
03:18He also asks another question.
03:19He says, why art thou disquieted within me?
03:23This psalmist moves even deeper.
03:25He moves from just heaviness.
03:26He said, what's talking about heaviness?
03:28When he said, I'm cast down, I'm feeling heavy.
03:30But now he moves on to restlessness.
03:32He's having a troubled, unsettled spirit.
03:39Have you ever been there?
03:41He's experiencing, he's saying, I'm disquieted.
03:44Meaning, he's feeling anxiety.
03:47He's feeling inner chaos.
03:50He's feeling sleeplessness.
03:52He's feeling uneasy.
03:55Have you ever been uneasy and overthinking things?
03:59He's feeling emotionally unstable.
04:02Have you ever felt like your mind just won't slow down?
04:06It just keeps on circling and circling over something.
04:09And you pacing the floors.
04:11Have you ever felt disturbed?
04:13Keep on living.
04:14If you ain't been there, keep on living.
04:16Have you ever been drained of your strength over a situation?
04:20Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
04:22Have you ever not even known what's wrong with you?
04:26Something's wrong with me.
04:27And I don't know what it is.
04:28You have to sit yourself down on the couch.
04:30Oh goodness.
04:32Have you ever been drained of your focus?
04:35I can't focus because I'm, uh, keep on living if you ain't been there.
04:39That's what this psalmist is talking about.
04:41I'm dealing with inward turmoil.
04:44But this psalmist said, I'm going to confront my soul.
04:46I'm not going to let what I'm going through control me.
04:49Oh, help us.
04:51This psalm says, I refuse to let my inner condition go unchallenged.
04:57I'm going to challenge my inner condition.
05:00Oh, what I want to say today is, your God has given you power, believe them.
05:08Your God has given you spiritual authority to check how you feel.
05:13We are not powerless.
05:15We can speak unto our conditions.
05:18Oh, God has given us the power to speak back.
05:25Meaning, what am I talking about?
05:26Meaning, I can confront what's going on inside of me.
05:30Not just let it just take hold of me.
05:32This psalmist spoke back.
05:35He told his soul to hope in God.
05:39I command you, soul, to hope in God.
05:43This is a turning point.
05:44He didn't say, I want you to hope in your circumstances.
05:48He didn't say, I want you to hope in people.
05:50He didn't say, I want you to hope in what's going on.
05:53He said, I want you to change your direction and hope in God.
05:59What are you focused on today?
06:01When he says, hope in God, he is telling his soul to stop looking at what's going on around him.
06:07Stop looking at the weight of what's going on.
06:09Stop looking at the turmoil, but look at God instead.
06:14God is still faithful.
06:16God is still in control.
06:18And God is able to lift you out of this situation.
06:23Change your direction.
06:24Sometimes you don't need your circumstances to change.
06:26You just need God to help you change your perspective.
06:30Help me, God, on the way I see this.
06:32It's not what's going on in your life.
06:33It's how you are looking at it.
06:36He says, hope in God.
06:38Oh, my God is still able.
06:40This psalmist redirects his soul to God.
06:43He didn't redirect his soul to the answer.
06:45He didn't redirect his soul to getting relief.
06:48He is taking spiritual authority over his soul and telling it, you don't get to stay here.
06:58Hope thou is God.
07:00You don't get to just sit here in this discouragement.
07:03This is how we are to fight heaviness.
07:05You don't just feel and stay there in your feelings.
07:09You speak truth over your own soul.
07:13He says, hope thou in God.
07:16And not only that, this psalmist still had faith in God.
07:20He had faith in future praise.
07:23He said, for I shall yet praise him.
07:28The health of my countenance.
07:30I will praise in the future.
07:33I'm not feeling good right now, but I will praise in the future.
07:36It don't mean that he just went to feeling well.
07:38He said, God is going to get me out of this.
07:42I won't be here forever.
07:45He said, God.
07:47And he also said, God is the health of my countenance.
07:50He's shifting from, why am I down to, I shall praise again.
07:58This is faith speaking ahead of feelings.
08:02I don't feel like it right now, but I know I shall praise God again.
08:09This psalmist believed that this heaviness that he's going through is only temporary.
08:12He believed that he, his praise shall return unto him.
08:17I won't be here forever.
08:19Trouble don't last always.
08:21The sun will shine again.
08:23I do believe that my praise will return and God will lift my countenance.
08:29Your countenance is your facial expression.
08:32You know how you look at somebody's face and you can tell something's going wrong,
08:35even though they didn't say anything.
08:36That's their countenance.
08:37God will lift my facial expressions.
08:39He will lift my spirit out of this.
08:43This is faith going ahead of his feelings.
08:46This is him speaking faith over a situation, taking spiritual authority.
08:51Lord, help us speak back.
08:54He is declaring what he will do before he feels it.
08:59God has given us power.
09:01He's declaring his future right here, right now.
09:05He's telling his soul, you may be in a low place right now,
09:09but you are not, not, not going to stay there.
09:13Discaragement will not have the last word over you.
09:17Oh, God has given us authority to speak back.
09:21He's saying, God will restore you to a place where we will praise God again.
09:28If you're going through discouragement, confront what you're going through.
09:33Confront it and speak truth over what you're going through.
09:37And know and have faith that you're not there forever.
09:41God will restore us.
09:42Help us, God, to speak back.
09:44Amen.
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