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First Springfield SDA Church

Eric Walsh

Finding Hope in the Darkness

Our scripture reading is going to come from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5, starting at verse 8 says, "'But let us who are of the day be sober, "'putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

So our message tonight is entitled, Finding Hope in the Darkness.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word and to go through some of these issues around the intersection of faith and depression and mental health.

I'm asking for your Holy Spirit now, Lord, that you just fill this place with him, that he would lead us into truth and into peace, that Lord, we would be agents of change for the better in the lives of those around us because we are working together tonight.

All right, so I'm gonna go to Luke chapter 21.

1 of them is to set the stage for tomorrow.

And then the other part of it really is to deal with a specific issue around why so many people can't find peace, why they can't find hope and joy.

Now Luke chapter 21, Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13 are all in the 3 synoptic Gospels.

These 3 chapters show you Jesus as a prophet.

So a lot of people don't think of Jesus as being as prophetic as John the Revelator or maybe Daniel, but I would argue the greatest of all the prophets is Jesus.

And in these verses, in those 3 chapters, he reveals to you what is going to happen, especially at the end of time.

Now, On a mental health weekend, 1 of the things that I see in practice and now just kind of everywhere is that there are a lot of people who, because of what's going on in the world, they are uneasy.

In fact, There are people who see the wars the crime there are people for the current presidential administration Against the current presidential administration almost no matter what side of every issue you're on Creates stress and not just stress it creates distress bad stress We are living in a time where things change quickly and there are hidden forces at work that were not at work when most of us grew up.

There was no social media when I was growing up Right.

There was a rumor mill the school people talk but there was no social media.

There was no artificial intelligence artificial intelligence when I was a kid was that was the was the was the material of science fiction movies Today, all of these things are real, and there are a lot of people who don't know what to do with it.

Never mind the fact that society, American society in particular, but globally, The world has never, and America, maybe since the Civil War, has never been as divided as America is right now.

We are on day number 15 of a complete federal shutdown of the federal government that could be taken care of, but you can tell they're both basically entrenched, not moving, people aren't getting paid.

We live in that kind of society now where 2 sides can't even talk.

Where people, if 1 side of the family is a Democrat and the other Republican or vice versa, they stop having Thanksgiving together.

So we are at a time where fissures, and Satan looks for these fissure points to press to separate people.

Because the Spirit of God does not abide in disunity.

So I say that to lead to the fact that in the church there's gonna be fissures.

Satan is gonna press to divide people in the church because the latter rain cannot fall into a church that is fighting itself.

When Pentecost came in the book of Acts, they were in 1 place in 1 accord.

So we are living in a very different time.

And if I had time, I'd go through Matthew 24 and go through verse 7 and just show you how everything is happening.

I was just reading an article about earthquakes.

And people say, well, no, the earthquakes aren't really increasing.

I have graphs that show deadly and destructive earthquakes absolutely have increased over the last 150 years, just as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24.7.

But I was looking at the largest oil reserve in the United States is out in the southwest section of the country.

In order to get the oil, when they pull the oil out, this toxic radioactive water comes out.

They pump that water back into the ground.

When they do, it creates pressure that has caused that area to have all these earthquakes.

Usually in the 3.3, not heavy earthquakes, but just to show you instability, even of the earth.

There's a whole lot of talk about climate change.

I teach at a medical school in Texas, and we just had a whole module on how climate change will impact the health of people in rural communities.

Whether you believe in climate change or not, the fact that people discuss climate change is enough to create anxiety and stress.

Because there are a lot of people who honestly believe within 5 years, you know, we're not gonna be able to come back from the climate change damage.

And I just read an article about the coral reefs, that they're starting to see coral reefs go down because of the rising temperature of water.

And so when Jesus was talking about the end time, you'd have to imagine he would address these issues.

So verse 25 of Luke 21 says, "...and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring." It's almost like Jesus is describing to you the earth itself will be in upheaval.

And what we know the Bible teaches that as God's spirit is withdrawn from the earth, the earth itself begins to change.

What I can tell you is things are going to change.

As God's Spirit is withdrawn from the earth, this is going to happen.

It says that men's hearts will be failing them for what?

The Bible is telling you that in the last days, men's hearts will fail them because they are consistently fearful, which is clinical anxiety.

Now, that also tells you that the Bible is teaching there's a connection between your mental health and your physical health.

The number 1 killer in America still is heart disease.

It says in the last part of the verse, for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be what?

As men look at the condition of the world and they see what's happening, they become more fearful, more frightened as they see what's happening.

Now this week, this current president has talked a lot about the wars he's ended.

Of course, now I think he's meeting with Putin and Zelensky again and trying to deal with the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

But we know that these wars are almost a constant.

War is so bad in the world that most Americans didn't even know there was a war between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

They didn't know that there was a civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

There are wars that happen in the world and people have no idea it's even happening.

But this all is prophesied and look at what happens next Why is it important that you have the right mental health Luke 21 27 tells you it says Then shall they see the Son of Man Coming in a cloud with power and great glory The second coming happens.

Yes, just like in Noah's day They're bearing and giving in marriage going about their business, but they're going about their business uneasy.

They're going about their business unsettled.

He comes back to a world that is 1 not at peace in general, although war is not the way the world ends.

But he comes back to a world where individuals are not at peace within themselves.

And I'll spoiler alert you, without Christ there is no true peace.

And so the world is starving for Jesus, many have thrown off.

This 1 here shows you percent with high depression symptoms.

And this across here is the years, and you can see that the high depression symptoms shot up, especially in young ladies, in women, I should say, females.

And you can see males, it's also shot up as well.

Many men probably don't get screened for it, partly why this probably isn't as high for men, but I can tell you I know many men who suffer clinical depression but have never seen anyone for it.

Just from doing men's ministry and talking to guys.

And what happens, let me, again, another spoiler alert, what happens when people have these kind of clinical conditions and this rate of it, and they're not getting adequate treatment for it?

They're not really dealing with the problem.

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Finding Hope in the Darkness

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