Unpacking Discouragement and Depression

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. But just to let you know, next week is the big week, guys. It's our Christmas, it's our eve before Christmas Eve, so it's the Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve. I don't know how many days that is apart, but next week we are going to do our Christmas service, and it's going to be awesome.

We blow it out every year. There's going to be gifts for the kids. We're going to have story time. We're going to sing Christmas songs together. It's just going to be a fun time.

Candlelight, nobody hates candlelight, right? We like to do our candlelight and lift the Lord Jesus high. We're going to have cider and hot chocolate and all the wonderful things on Christmas. So we're encouraging you to invite your friends, invite your family, let them know this is our Christmas service. We're not officially having a Christmas Eve service.

This is our Christmas Eve service because we're a mobile church and we have to work with staff and stuff. So that's the week to do it. So invite everybody you can. We do have cards. We handed out a lot of cards last week, and there was a lot of you that weren't here last week.

And so you need to grab some of those cards as you're going out the door and invite somebody to church next week. Because you know what it's really about? It's about our Savior and King and His presence and what He wants to do. Why did He come to this world so that we could know Him, that we could be saved, that we could live, that we could be 100% free, amen? We could be 100% free through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All that stuff that's in your life, it can be gone today. It can be gone right now. And we believe that in the name of Jesus. And that's why we do what we do, because we want to see people receive Jesus and experience freedom in Him, amen? Amen.

I'm excited about next week. Our other announcements, you can look in your worship guide there, and you can kind of see our note page, and there's a few other things there. One thing, we do want you to know that we started the tradition last year that we take the last week off of the year. We will not be having church the last week of December. The reason we're doing that is just to give, we're a mobile church, amen?

And a lot of you are traveling, and there's a lot of things going on, and it's also an opportunity. We love our volunteers. We love all of you. All of you who helped do this, our leadership, thank you so much. You guys meet with me every week, Keisha, Tim, and Ryan, and Eli, and Sharon.

And if I'm leaving anybody out, I'm sorry. But you guys meet every week. And then all of you guys on the second and third tier that are coming up and being a part of this church, I just appreciate you so much. I really do. And I know I don't say that enough, but I just want to say it.

I say it, say it. I am so thankful for you. It could not be possible if it wasn't for all of you guys coming together. And this is what a family is about. Ministering together, coming together, doing church together.

We have an interesting type of church because we have to set up and break down every week. But it's a part of what we do. You know, it's our kingdom. It's a gifting. It's coming together as entrepreneurs and people who want to see life change.

And we have, it's just been an incredible journey. And just the other week, somebody came in here as they were leaving and said, Wow, what is going on in that place, man? God is just heavy in that place, you know? And you know that? Why?

Because we set this up for the presence of God. This isn't just some kind of get up here and have pretty music and stuff. And some of you are like, it's really loud in here, you know? Yeah, of course it's loud. We're in a small room.

But we love to rejoice in Jesus, amen? We love to praise His name. And we're praying for a place. We want a place where we can actually set up decent sound and things like that. We know it's bouncing off the back of the walls.

I know that some of you are like, oh man, it's really loud in here. But don't think of it that way. Bring some earplugs to church and just praise God and rejoice in Him. And we'll do the best we can to maintain the sound. But we just want to praise Jesus.

We want to glorify His name, amen? I'm off on a little jump of joy there. I guess you could call it that. But let me come back. Let me pull back in.

And let's unpack this message this week because it is one that is a very important subject. And we're going to unpack. Last week and the week before, we kind of went through discontentment. And we went through some other things, you know, just kind of unpacking those things in our life that hold us back. But this week, I want to talk about unpacking discouragement and depression.

Depression. Now, why would I talk about depression at Christmas time? We want to talk about joy. We want to talk about joy. Well, the truth is that more people take their lives during this time of year than any other time of year.

That depression is heavy this time of year. I don't know why we really haven't put our finger on it. Maybe it's because of the holidays and people are thinking of those who they've lost or the families that they don't have. But it's a really heavy time for a lot of people. And not only during Christmas, it's an epidemic.

It's an epidemic in the world. It's an epidemic in America. And many deal with repression. And it's not just a bad day. It's like people are really depressed.

It's a real thing. They're heavy hearted. They're wearing this wet, heavy blanket, dark blanket over their lives. But Jesus said this. Jesus says, whom the Son has set free is free indeed.

He came. That's what Christmas is. He came so that we could be set free. We can be 100% set free. But depression comes into our lives and it robs us.

It robs us of our sleep. It robs us of our energy, our focus, our memory. And these are all documented. It robs us of the way we work, the way we love, the way we play. And in many cases, we lose our will to live when we're in depression.

More importantly, it opposes faith. Because we do not walk by our sight, right? We walk in faith. And often when we look in front of us and there's a dark place and we cannot see what God has for us, it's hard to live by faith. It opposes faith.

Faith is something that we take risks with because we believe that God is going to provide, that God is going to do, that God is taking us through our calling, through our destiny. And we walk in faith, but depression kills that. Because what it does, we don't see any hope. We don't see any destiny. We have a happy endurance in this one.

All right. Before we start back to the gameeni. we We don't see any future. We can't see God because we're darkened. And God doesn't want that for us.

So today I'm going to talk about that. I'm going to look at that. And it's not just a social problem. It's reshaping and reforming our minds. You know, it's a physical problem.

In fact, we can look at data and determine that. Some psychologists say that over the period of time, it can cause physical damage to the brain if not treated. Did you know that? Actual physical damage to the brain. And they say that it comes down to the lifestyle, the way we live.

And some possible reasons why. Part of that is we're a very indoor culture now. With technology, cell phones, and social media. Y'all hear me talk about it all the time. And I'm not against it.

I'm just saying we do have some issues here where people are constantly indoors. And every culture that spends more time in the sunlight and working more with their hands have less mental disorders. Did you know that? That's been heavily researched. The Aboriginal Australians have been studied as well as Poplar New Guinea tribes in the Highlands area.

And they've noticed comparatively that there are a few mental disorders. There's less depression, although they live horrible lives, live lives in other ways that their life expectancy is short. They have tribal wars. They are under a lot of pressure, you know, as in Poplar New Guinea particularly. And it's not really necessarily a healthy life, but mental disorders aren't there.

Why is that? Because they don't deal with the stresses and the things that we have in life. We're an indoor culture as opposed to a culture that works with their hands. And it could be a lack of identity. People don't know who they are.

They don't know their purpose. It could be the inability to experience pain, the process pain. A lot of us, we eat, we drink, we binge watch, we binge do everything. And you know what? If you're having a weight issue, it may not be, for many people, it may not be an eating disorder.

It may be a depression disorder. Because we tend to eat more, we tend to sleep less, we tend to not work out as much. Another thing, it could be peer-to-peer mentoring. That's what we have these days, that we're not going to those who are more wise than us. And elders that we can go to learn from, we go to our peers.

So you've got a 21-year-old peering a 21-year-old, and both of them are lost, right? We can put 35, 45, 55, whatever we want to do on that age. And I would challenge you who are older here and have been around for a while, and some of you have poured even into my life, you know, I ask you questions because I want wisdom. I'm hungry for wisdom. It's to invest in some of these young people here.

Invest into some of these young people in your community. Maybe you have them in your community right here in the church, and you can invest in them, and help them, and encourage them, and give them wisdom for life. So one of the problems could be peer-to-peer mentoring. And another one is the narcissistic culture. We all know that this is a culture where it's all about us, all about us.

Take a selfie of this. Take a selfie of that. We take selfies of our ugly sweaters. Of course, that's okay. But some of us might have been taking that ugly sweater picture saying, hmm, I'm looking good in this ugly sweater.

You know, everybody, let me filter that a little bit. Let me get that ready so the world can see it. So as you can see, we've never, I love how Stephen Allardy says this. He's a well-known psychologist, does a lot of TED Talks and things. He wrote the book, The Depression Cure, and he said this.

We never were designed for a sedentary, indoor, socially isolated, fast-food laden, sleep-deprived, prisoned pace of modern life. And that's so true. And as a result, 1 million people worldwide commit suicide every year. 48,000 people in America commit suicide alone. It's twice the murder rate.

And it's the number one killer of young people between 15 and 24. So as you can see, it's a very bad epidemic. Let me just say this. It's okay not to be okay. Can I say that?

It's okay not to be okay. You need to be open when you're not okay. It's okay not to be okay. It's okay to share that. Your illness is not your sin.

Your illness is not something that God has plagued you with because of something you've done wrong. It is not your sin. You can't help it if you don't recognize it, if you don't know it's there. So you need to go to people. You need to ask for help.

You need to recognize it. It's all over the Bible. Moses dealt with it. He said, go ahead and kill me. You know, he told somebody to do that.

He told God to do that. If I have found favor in your eyes and do not let me face my own ruin. Elijah said it like this. He was severely depressed. He came to a broom bush and sat under it.

And he prayed that he might die. And this was after he took out all the prophets of Baal. So this was up on a high. He was in a high. Something powerful had happened through God.

He witnessed God take out people through him. And there he is under a broom bush, wishing he were dead. And I can tell you, you know, the ups and downs of life. Sometimes that happens too. And I can tell you from personal experience, I think some of the most depressing times I have, like, like, it's not nothing like severe or anything, but Sunday afternoon, Sunday evenings are usually bad for me.

Monday mornings. We have an ongoing joke among pastors, you know, like we're on a, we think we can conquer the world Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And then, and then Sunday afternoon and Monday morning come, you know, you're like, Oh, and you're thinking about things. You're ruminating about the things you said, the things you mispronounce in your message or, or the things you said to somebody else, you know, or, or did I handle that situation right? Or nobody was in church today.

You know, am I really making a difference? You know, things like that. We ruminate on those things. And, and, and even the, even the biggest pastors in the world deal with that. We all have those times, right?

We have those times. Paul had those times, right? He said, we despaired of life itself when they were out in the ministry. They just lost all hope at times. And here's a great quote.

Suicide is a permanent irreversible attempt to solve a temporary problem. It's a permanent irreversible attempt to solve a underlying temporary problem. And you don't have to die or end your pain through suicide. In fact, just to help us all out, if you're struggling with suicidal thoughts or having a hard time, there is a number, if we'll put that right up on the screen, the National Suicide Prevention Line, very practical way, if you need to talk to somebody, you need to call somebody, 1-800-273-TALK, and they'll be trained counselors to be able to help you. It's okay not to be okay, okay?

So let's look at the Bible and see what it says, and I want to dig from a prophecy, Isaiah 61, 1-3, if you want to turn there, and we're just going to look at this, and this is a Messianic prophecy that I believe will help. It's a Messianic prophecy that tells of the coming of Jesus. Messianic prophecies are that. They state their types and shadows of Jesus. We see the prophet give a message for that day, but yeah, you see Jesus all in these prophecies.

It's a beautiful thing. So we're looking at Christmas, and this is a great Christmas verse, just looking at Isaiah and what he's saying here, and it's a promise. It's a promise of freedom. It's a promise of freedom, okay? So this is your promise here, and it says this, Yes, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our Lord, and to comfort all who mourn, and to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, and to give them beauty for ashes, beauty for ashes, and the oil of joy for mourning. And this is a big one, the garment of praise, or the spirit of heaviness. There it is right there, that spirit of heaviness that may be over us. That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. So we see this scripture, acceptable day of the Lord.

What is that? That's the year of jubilee. That was, every seven years in Jewish history, everything would be reconciled. If people were in prison, they would be released. Debts would be forgiven.

And here you see, in the year of jubilee, where prisoners were set free, debts were returned, and Jesus came to declare complete freedom over you. He wants you to be 100% free of what you have going on in your life. And it also says vengeance, it talks about the vengeance of our Lord. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to destroy Satan.

So you see here, prophetically, he's talking about the works of Satan, and how he's coming, the vengeance of the Lord is coming to free you by destroying the works of the devil. And he says he will give you beauty for ashes. And ashes was a headdress for grieving in biblical history. We see that over and over in scripture. He wants to take away our grieving and bring in a headdress of celebration.

And it says the oil of joy, the oil of joy. He wants to give you the oil of joy instead of mourning. He wants to take away the perpetual grief that you have and restore you with the oil of the Holy Spirit, which is joy and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. What is a garment of praise? He takes away our grief, our discouragement, our despair from the works of the enemy by transferring this garment of praise.

Now you hold on to that for a minute, and I'm going to dig into that a little deeper here in a second. So I'm going to do something a little different today because here's the thing. Jesus came to set us free, 100% free. I believe that with everything that's in me. I want a church full of 100% free people.

But when you do that, you first have to recognize what's going on and then attack it, right? Recognize what's going on and then attack it. So today I'm going to talk about a few types of depression, what causes depression, and then I'm going to practically give you some answers as I go along rather than giving you all of them and give you answers at the end, okay? Does that make sense? All right, so the first cause of depression is a biochemical disorder.

Many people have biochemical disorders. It could be postpartum depression. Some of you probably have experienced that when you had your children and your hormones are off and a lot of things have happened through childbirth. And after that, you could go or a husband, your wife could be there. And sometimes men experience it too.

I don't know what that is, but biochemical depression, it could be bipolar issues and things like that. And these do need to be addressed by a doctor. It's important and it's biblical to go to doctors, take a little wine for the pain, you know, for the stomach. You know, we see that in Scripture. Even the Apostle Paul approved of it, right, when they were out and Paul could perform miracles.

You know, he could say you can be healed, but still he had issues and things like that going on. So we know that it's important to go to doctors. But be careful because some over-prescribe these psychedelic medicines and we can be over-prescribed. And a lot of people are living on these medicines. And I think it's important for us to know that, that we don't want to, if you need it, you need it, right?

But there's something more. I mean, we don't want to over-prescribe medications. That's kind of an epidemic today, over-prescribing medication. So it's good. So we have biochemical disorders.

We've got to understand that if you're suffering from one of those, then it's important to get help and do it the right way. Amen? So let's first of all recognize that. Secondly, emotional exhaustion can be a cause of depression. Example, think of a runner.

A runner. I mean, people run and they're really fit. Some of us probably are runners in here. Maybe you've ran some 5Ks, 10Ks, triathlon, person. I don't know what you do.

But everybody has a limit, right? Even if you're the most advanced runner, you have a limit. You can only run so far. But did you know that even Olympic runners and Olympic people or lottery winners at that, people who experience something so overwhelming in their life when they win something or they gain something, that they experience depression afterwards is a common thought. It's because of emotional exhaustion.

That after, and I think of the prophet Elijah, as that great thing happened on the mountain where he called the fire of God down and God took care of all the prophets of Baal, but yet he was sitting under a bush depressed. And for so many people, they go through those exhausted periods. It's an emotional state. And those emotional highs can leave us to lows. And people tend to lie on emotional highs.

They, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they. They set themselves on these emotional highs and they try to live from high to high and the devil, here's the thing, the devil uses that against you and you need to learn to even it out a little bit. You need to learn to rest. You need to learn to, this is why a Sabbath is so important. Resting is so important.

In fact, Mark 2, 27 says the Sabbath was made for men, not men for the Sabbath. This is what Jesus was telling the religious leaders because they were making it too hard for people to take a Sabbath because they told them not to do anything. So they were real religious on that side of the house. But for others, for us, I think it flips a little bit because we're too busy. We work all the time.

We do all the time. We don't take a Sabbath. We don't know how to take a Sabbath. So, you know, as your pastor, I'm giving you permission, after you leave here today, go home and take a nap. Okay?

Take a nap. You've got to get healthy physically. In fact, I love how Psalm 127, 2 says it, In vain you rise early and stay up late. Does that sound like us? Tolling for food to eat because we've got to make the money.

We've got to make ends meet. We've got to do what we're thinking. But here's what God does for us. He grants sleep to those He loves. He grants you sleep.

So, let's bring that emotional exhaustion to a level. Take good rest. Second one is, and I've dealt with this. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. Anger turned inward.

I dealt with this last week. I talked about bitterness and anger and unforgiveness last week. And it certainly is an emotional drain. It's like a treadmill. It's emotionally exhausting.

Kind of tagging on to the last point. That when we think and when we think about things and we're thinking about that bitterness or that hurt and it just ruminates inside of you and it's just like a treadmill and you're just going and going. You're thinking about it. You can never cut it off. And it's exhausting to live angry, have anger inside of yourself.

So, you need to release that anger. In fact, the Bible says, bless those who curse you and don't go to bed angry. Forgiveness doesn't make them right. It makes you free. Do you want to be free?

Forgive them. I know they hurt you. I know they did awful things to you. I know they thought they accused you of doing things that you didn't do. I know they're talking about you.

And I know it's hard, but let it go. You can go to last week's message. We talked a lot about that. Jesus said it himself. Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who mistreat you. Because it will free you. I promise. That's the solution. If you can bless them, it will relieve you.

The next thing is grief or regret. Grief or regret. Some of us have depression because of our grief. We have ongoing grief. We have ongoing regret.

Maybe we lost a child. Very difficult to lose a child. Or we lost somebody close to us. And what we have to do in those moments is we have to learn to trust God because we're not going to have the answers anyway. Because what we do is we struggle with the answers.

I don't understand. But you know what? There will be a day you will understand. There will be. And we can have hope in that.

I remember when we started the church a few years back. I mention it all the time. One of our best friends, Peter and Amber, who helped to start the church here living in Florida now. While they were here, they lost a child to cancer. Little Wesley.

I did this funeral. It was a very, very troubling, hard time. But I will tell you this. One of the most mature things I ever heard Peter say as he was dealing with it. And this was while Wesley was passing away.

He says, I've moved right past asking God why. Because he's not going to give me the answer anyway. I'm not going to know. I'm just going to move right past that. I'm not even going to entertain that question.

I'm just going to trust God. Because I know he's figured out. I'm hurting. He says, I'm hurting. There's tears in his eyes when he's talking to me about it.

He says, I'm hurting. And it's hard. It's hard. It's hard. But I don't deny who God is.

And I know that he knows. And I don't know. And I'm not even going to waste my time trying to ask him questions. For so many people, they deal with that. They ask the questions, ask the questions, ask the questions.

And they work themselves into bitterness. And into anger. And into hurt. And they live in that constant grief. But Proverbs 3, 5 says it is, Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And lean not on your what? Own understanding. And in all your ways, acknowledge him. Acknowledge him in all your ways. When it says ways, it means when you're hurting.

In all your ways, in every way, acknowledge him. And he will direct your paths. The only thing that can get you out of chronic grief is to trust God. To put your hope in God and give it to him. The next thing is toxic thinking.

Toxic thinking. Huh. This is a big one. Jennifer Crowe, author of Perfect Lies, wrote a book about depression. And these lies that are constantly a part of us.

And she talks a lot about it. And she's completely free today. But she suffered from depression for years and years and years. And couldn't get by it. Couldn't get past it.

She's got an incredible ministry today. Helping those get through depression and getting through discouragement. And she learned to take every thought captive. And she's got great teaching on that. But here's the lies that she wrote in her book.

She said those things that really get us. And the lies that are placed on us when we think about these things. Is I'm unlovable. I'm worthless. I'm unacceptable.

I'm unable. I'm a target. If you feel like you're a target. Perhaps you're dealing with some stuff there. I'm not angry.

Or I'm angry. I'm bad. I'm in danger. Or I'm deprived. So she deals with all those things in her book.

But she dwells on this particular thing. 2 Corinthians 10, 5. It says, We demonstrate arguments in every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive. And that's what you need to do with that toxic thinking.

That authority that God gives you. You need to take captive of those thoughts. See, the thoughts is where it goes. It takes us there. It makes us think about those things.

We need to take every thought captive to what? The obedience of God or Christ. We need to put our hope in Christ. We need to see what Christ says about us. Not what those lies are that are whispered into our head.

I'm unacceptable. I'm unlovable. I'm this and that. That is a lie. It is a lie from hell.

It's a lie from Satan. And you need to take those thoughts captive. Which leads me to my final point. And that's demonic. That's what God��議 and his MAYSUM.

Lord, my Lord. In darkness, I'll tell you there. Influence. Demonic influence. And I think this is the biggest one.

Everything that I talked about today somehow ties to this, that there are actually demons out there. Satan wants to destroy you, and he wants to take you down. He's going to do everything to pull you into a dark area. He's going to throw dark things at you. The devil's end game is to completely take you out.

And he's going to use every practical thing he possibly can. He's not going to come down and possess an animal and have their head spin around like some people think. Right? That's safe. No, he's not going to do that.

He's smarter than that because you guys will be freaked out and run to God. Oh, God! Jesus, I believe in you now. Right? Oh, that doesn't work here, right?

I mean, it really is a strategy of the devil, and he will use everything. In fact, he uses more than anything our thoughts. Our thoughts. Because what do we do? We stop, and we get alone, and we ruminate, and we chew those things, and we go over and over and over again.

You know, Jeremiah did that. Jeremiah wrote. There was a whole book that Jeremiah wrote called Lamentations, and it talks about the laments of Jeremiah because that's what he was doing. He was focused on those thoughts, and Satan was just loving that, loving that, you know? And he loves that.

And here's what Lamentations 3.17.20 says, and this is what Jeremiah was dealing with. I have been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is, you know?

And he just keeps going on and on and on. And so I say, my splendor is gone, and all of my hopes from the Lord, and I can just hear the whining in his voice. And I remember the affliction because I bring it back up again, you know, because I haven't let it go. Oh, man, it was probably, you know, 20 years ago, but I remember my affliction and my wandering and my bitterness and my gall, and I will remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. We like to read that.

My soul is downcast. Nope. My soul is downcast. I can just hear him. It's like Eeyore, you know?

He's just sitting there just going off, and he lost hope, and he began to ruminate. And it's self-talk. And really, what it comes down to is the truth is most oppression comes about thinking about ourselves. Thinking about our issues and our hurts and our want and what we didn't get and what happened to us and what and what and what, and we set on those things. And the devil's endgame is to get you to chew on that stuff like cud and regurgitate it and eat it again and eat it again and work yourself into a deep, deep, deep place of depression.

The devil's endgame is to use it and to take you out. And it's like a wet, heavy, dark blanket over you. It's a spirit of heaviness, is Isaiah 6.1. That's what I want to deal with.

The spirit of heaviness. He's evil. He's demonic. He hates you. But God gives us a garment of praise.

Praise. A garment of praise. And he says, I will take and give you... And that sounds funny, right? Like, God, I'm going through this.

Well, here's a garment of praise. Well, what do you want me to do with that? Just take my depression away. Just put on this garment of praise. And we know what that means.

It means to take your eyes off yourself and put your eyes on God. That's why we come together in church and we worship this morning, you know, just lifting him up. You need to do that right now. Take your eyes off of yourself. Well, if you deal with the things of yourself on your own, you're in trouble and you're destined for a path of destruction.

But God wants you to put on the garment of praise. And you know what he does in praise? And this is why I love worship. I have a prophetic guide that always is telling me, Leon, you need to teach the people to worship. You need to teach the people to worship.

I see worship all over you. He says, I'm not talking about leading a band. I'm talking about worship. I said, you're right. Because worship, worship is the answer to a lot of the issues that you're facing.

The garment of praise, the darkness that falls on you, the garment of praise. Start lifting him up. Start praising his name. Start getting, defeat him through the praise of his people. He says he inhabits, he manifests the praise of his people.

He's looking around all over the place. Who is praising my name today? Who's going through trouble and is responding with praise? I'm going to meet them there. And I'm going to fix this issue.

I'm going to make them free. And when we come together and we praise God in this church, if only one of us is praising, if only two of us is praising, it's pretty good. But I'm telling you, if the whole place praises and shouts for glory, for the voice of triath, shout unto God with a voice of triath together, God will come and God will heal and God will free some people because things happen in the presence of God. In the presence of God, he lifts the spirit of heaviness. And secondly, you need to take authority.

You know, God has given us authority. Luke, Jesus says this in Luke. He says, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome the powers of the enemy and nothing will harm you. The problem is we don't believe that. Whether you're a Christian today or you've been a Christian for a long time or you gave your heart a couple of days ago, you know, it doesn't matter.

You've been given authority. As soon as God came into your life, he has given you the authority, the trample on serpents and snakes, which means demons. That's demons. He has given you the authority to do that. And no matter what it is that's causing your depression, here's the deal.

Satan is going to try to do everything he can. But listen, you are the apple of God's eye. Did you know that? He loves you so much. He cares for you so much.

And you are so valuable to him. You are so important to him. And Satan is going to do everything. But he wants to respond. He wants to respond.

So you need to put praise on your lips because you know who you are. You know that you are a child of God. You know that you have been rescued by him. You know who he is. And you know who you are underneath him.

And you can rest in the shadow of his wings. You can know him. And you can have authority. So we just need to, honestly, we just need to get militant. We need to tell Satan where to go.

We need to, and I'm not talking about Satan himself because there's a whole slew of demons. A lot of people say, well, Satan's attacking me. How do you know Satan's attacking you? Well, you know, he did this and this. You know, demons do the same thing.

And there's a whole, there's a whole nation of them. And Satan can't be everywhere at one time, right? You know, he's limited. And people make the mistake that Satan and God are at the same level. Let me tell you something.

Satan has no, no authority over God. He can only do what God allows him to do. And you have the power of God. God in your life. You have authority in your life.

And you can pray over. You can praise Him. And I want to see a church that praises God today. I want to see a church that praises God over this whole area. We're going to praise God.

We're going to resist the devil. And we're going to reach for the authority that is within us in Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. We need authority in Jesus Christ.

So that's kind of my one practical point I want today over everything else. All the other stuff. I said, you've got to believe it. You've got to believe it. So I'm asking you this question.

How are you and are you willing to fight? Are you willing to fight? Are you willing to claim the authority that God has given you over these things? Are you willing to allow God to come into this situation and not allow Satan his right? And when I say Satan, I mean the rulers, the powers, the principalities, there's dark places that come over us.

God wants to completely make you free. A hundred percent free. See, that's what Christmas is all about. It's all about. Now, I've asked the band to come up here.

I've asked the band to play. And I just want to give people an opportunity. I don't care who you are, where you've been or what you've done. But we're going to open up this altar just for a few minutes. And some of our prayer warriors are going to come up here and we're going to pray over some people.

Because I know that some of you need prayer. We need prayer today. And so the band's going to play. We're going to be playing softly in the background just singing. And we're going to claim the authority that God has for us.

So you just make your way up here. If you feel like you're dealing with depression, heck, if you just need a touch from the Lord today, it could be anything. Make this stage available. This stage, just lay it here at the altar today. Amen.

Amen.