Let’s talk about depression. That is something all of us have experienced at one time or another, and I believe it is important for us to understand just what it is, and how it affects our walk as Christians.
First of all, what is depression? Let me give you a very simple definition. It is a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It is a depression when you lose yours. In other words, when bad things happen to us, we tend to feel the mental weight of it all and we start focusing inward with an intense longing for things to be better.
George Barna reports that over 70% of Americans today are suffering from some form of mental depression. It touches all of us, but sometimes it stays way too long.
There was a lawyer in the 1800’s who suffered such severe depression that his friends took all the knives and forks out of his sight. That lawyer was Abraham Lincoln.
How many of you know who Charles Spurgeon was? He was one of the famous preachers in the 1800’s. He brought tens of thousands to Christ Jesus. Yet he had such severe depression at times that his deacons had to come and physically carry him all the way to the pulpit so he would preach.
Martin Luther was the great Christian reformer of years gone by. He was plagued by depression, too. His wife was said to have told him one day to hurry up or they would be late for the funeral. He asked whose funeral and she said, “God’s funeral.” Well, he told her that God could not die, and she said the way he had been moping around for the last few days, she thought He had.
And when we are in our bouts of depression, we go into a wilderness. And in that wilderness, terrible dangers surround us.
2 SAMUEL 17:16
‘Now send a message immediately and tell David, “Do not spend the night at in the deserts; cross over without fail, or the king and all the people with him will be swallowed up.’ “
Just as David was warned to get out of the desert quickly or be destroyed, we must also heed the same warning and get out of our deserts of depression quickly or we will be destroyed, too. See, that is where Satan does his best work against us.
1. IN THE DESERT WILDERNESS
I can tell you this from personal experience having lived in the deserts of Arizona. When you are in the wilderness, you are isolated. By definition, the deserts are away from the things you need and desire. There are no convenience stores in the middle of the desert; there is no air-conditioning and precious little shade; and there are no safe places in the desert. When you are in the wilderness, you are at the mercy of the things that surround you, so you have to quickly get out!
The first thing we must do is rely upon God. We must train ourselves to trust Him in all things. God says for us to be still and know that He is God. That does not mean to be idle and do nothing. That means to stop what we do for a period and focus on Him so that we can know what He wants from us. And the best way to do that is to take a daily time-out and read His word. If we do not have time to read His word, we will never have time to be a real follower of Jesus.
In ISAIAH 40:31, we are given excellent instruction.
‘But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.’
There are people sitting in churches all over this nation that need to mount up with wings as eagles and get out of the wilderness they are walking in.
I believe that we can learn a lot about how our Christian walk should be by looking at how eagles live their lives and what they go through. First of all, eagles are mentioned in the Bible 32 times. Each time is a time of instruction or example of what we can do, also.
The eagle is like no other bird. It is regal; majestic; and powerful. Scientists say that, pound for pound, there is nothing in the world stronger than an eagle except for the ant. The average eagle weighs in somewhere between 20 – 35 pounds, and eagles have been known to carry 100-pound animals for more than a mile. Their wings are the strongest of all birds. They come from a family called falcons, which consist of condors, hawks, and eagles. And even in this family of birds, the eagle distinguishes himself from all others because of its spirit. He has a different honor, a different heritage, and a different habitant.
Eagles live from 60 – 100 years of age. The eagle’s momma taught him well. She taught him early on to use those powerful wings to soar above everything else. She taught him how to avoid those areas that might be dangerous and how to glide through the sky.
And every eagle has a rock. They are born on rock ledges, they nest in rocky clefts, and they will always use a rock as a home. There was an experiment some years ago in Lafayette, Georgia. Four golden eagles were hatched and raised inside a building. When they were small eaglets, they were taken outside for the first time and turned loose in the compound.
As soon as they were turned loose, they spotted a rock, and they all rushed straight for that rock and huddled against it. Their natural instinct drew them to the rock. When an eagle needs rest, it will go to his rock. When something is wrong with it, it will immediately fly back to its rock. It will go to its rock for daily cleansing. And the neatest thing is that once an eagle has his own rock, he will never leave it for another rock.
As Christians, our natural instinct draws us to a rock, too. We are drawn to the Rock of Ages where we find our only salvation. We find comfort in our rock just as the eaglets found in their rock. We should go back to our rock for daily cleansing from the dirt this world throws on us. And we should never leave our rock, as some have done.
The eagle will come back to its rock every day, so if you ever want to find an eagle, find the rock and wait. Christians need to go back to their rock every day, too. And that includes reading about the rock from His holy word, and praying to Him daily. But many Christians are too busy to do that. And using the plight of the eagle, we are going to find out what happens to us when we are away from our rock for too long.
2. EAGLES MOPE, TOO
We could go on and on talking about eagles, as they are fascinating creatures, but I want to zero in on the middle years of an eagle. They go through a time of depression that is called the “moping” period.
It is during this period that he quits depending on his power and he seems to lose the will or the knowledge of how to fly. He comes down to earth and, well, he just stays. He does not take off again. And the first thing we notice as he stays in the wilderness is that his power is gone.
There are some people who go to churches that are in a mental or spiritual wilderness and they lose their power, too. They were given power in Christ, and they were able to soar above their problems, but they wandered into the desert regions and quickly forgot what they possessed in Christ. They got entangled in the things of this world and their focus left God.
During the moping period, it is up to the eagle whether he lives or dies. He can stay in that valley of depression or he can climb up the mountain and go back to his rock.
In Cherokee, NC, there was an Indian guide by the name of Tacoma. Tacoma took a man out into the wilderness to a place called “Eagles’ Bluff.” This is a natural bowl formed in the top of a mountain. It is a couple miles in diameter. It is wilderness. There are rocky cliffs that surround this bowl, and you can see many eagles flying high in the sky above.
When the two men drove as far as they could, they got out and walked another couple miles to the center of the bowl. There, they saw three eagles walking around on the ground. They were not like regular eagles, and they could quickly tell that these eagles were in their moping periods.
Normally, eagles look proud and strong. These eagles didn’t. The calcium had built up around the holes in their beaks to where they could not breathe properly. And the talons that are used to catch pray were bloody from the swelling and cracking caused by walking around on the ground.
Eagles are meat eaters from the cradle to the grave. They will not eat anything but the freshest of meat and will never eat anything that is rotten or polluted like the buzzard does.
That’s what’s wrong with many church folks. They partake of the world’s rotten pollution instead of the meat of Scripture. They act more like buzzards instead of like eagles.
An eagle is not made to walk around like a chicken or turkey. And all this walking had caused the eagles’ feet to swell and become sore. Eagles were made to soar above the earth, because he is not made for this earth.
And neither are Christians. This world is not our home; we are just passing through. We are citizens of Heaven, and we are only here as ambassadors of the Most High God on a temporary basis. We were also made to soar above the dirt found in the world.
An eagles eye is normally moist and alert. The eyes of an eagle in the moping period are dry and crusty. They are unfocused and cannot see the many dangers that surround them. And it has forgotten about its home on the rocks above, so it just looks down at the ground.
Too many Christians have forgotten that we have a home on the Rock, too, and we forget that our rock of salvation is from God, so they spend their days looking downward, unfocused, and without hope.
The two men hid in the bushes for a while and then they saw eight eagles flying in a straight line over that wilderness where the eagles walked about. As they looked at the eagles, they saw they were older eagles. The guide explained that every one of those eagles flying overhead had been down here during their moping periods. He said they know how to get out and they come back as an encouragement to the eagles that are down here now.
They had something in their talons and as they flew over the moping eagles, they dropped big chunks of rabbit and squirrel. They were dropping fresh meat so the eagles on the ground might be strengthened and be able to get out of their valley of despair – their valley of death.
I thank God that CrossRoads Church has some experienced Christians who also drop tidbits of purpose and knowledge to the younger ones. We have a choice. Our choice is to do nothing but stay in a valley of depression, drying up and forgetting the power we have as Christians, or to digest the meat of God’s word so that we can mount up on wings as eagles – for the purposes of our Lord.
As the two men continued to watch the eagles dropping meat, they saw that none of them would land. Those eagles that were in the air had been in the valley during their moping periods and knew that this wilderness nearly killed them. So they stay away from it and only drop food from a distance.
Oh, if Christians would see that the sin in this world is killing them and then choose to stay away from it. But what do we do? We keep running back to the sin in our lives, over and over again. We do not stay away from it as the eagles stay away from the wilderness.
3. CHOOSING LIFE OVER DEATH
Two of the eagles began to eat the meat, a little at the time. Over the next few hours, they got stronger and within a couple of days they flew out of the bowl. The remaining eagles didn’t eat and therefore they died there.
For those Christians who partake of God’s word, they will get stronger, too. But the ones who don’t have time for God or His word will soon perish.
There are many church folk live in a lonely wilderness. We don’t depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us or comfort us. As a matter of fact, if some people’s belief were turned into gasoline, it wouldn’t be enough to run a small go-cart half way around a BB.
Just as the moping eagles were offered meat and some rejected it, we have been offered the meat of God’s word, but many reject it, also. Those who reject it continue to sit, spiritually immobile, and they grow cold, and all the while feeling very proud of how they live their life. What they seem to be unaware of is that spiritual death is just around the corner.
So what is the difference between an eagle dying up there, and one dying down here? The eagle that dies down here has forgotten everything it had, including its purpose, and it dies a harsh and unfulfilled death. Those that die up there have lived and now they die in victory. They have accomplished what God made them for.
Remember that I said the eagle’s eyes are dry and crusted? Many people have the same problem. They shed no tears for the Lord and they have lost their focus. The Bible says that if we sow in tears, we will reap joy. But we cannot do that when we are walking around a valley with our eyes on the ground, just waiting to die because we are refusing the meat God offers us.
In JEREMIAH 29:11 God tells us,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
God’s plan for the eagles is for them to fly high above everything else, to reign over the cliffs and to stay on their rocks. God’s plans for Christians is to have us soar on wings as eagles, staying above the spiritual dangers found in the things of this world; the things most of us like to do. Can you see where this will cause your death just as the moping period causes the eagles’ death?
Let’s switch our focus from eagles to sheep for a moment. In ancient days, a shepherd would take a razor sharp knife and cut a distinctive notch into the ear of each of his sheep.
It was not the most pleasant of things to endure, as it was quite painful; both for the sheep and for the shepherd who cared about his sheep. But from then on, even from a distance, he would be able to tell which sheep were his.
And from that mutual suffering, a lifelong mark of ownership was made that could never be erased. And from then on every sheep that came into his possession would bear his mark. And he would know his sheep by that mark.
Christianity is the same way. Except, it was our Shepherd who took the pain so that we would not have to. A true Christian will hurt when they think of what Jesus went through on the cross. And it is in that mutual suffering that a lifelong mark of ownership is made that lets Him know that we are His.
Sheep have never been known to be overly intelligent animals. They are followers in every sense of the word. And being followers, they desperately need a leader. If anything happened to the shepherd, the sheep would roam aimlessly in the dessert until something happened to them.
The same is true with Christians. When we live our lives without the Shepherd, we roam aimlessly until something happens to us, too. We need the Shepherd to lead us.
Do you remember Brother Rome’s testimony several months ago? He said he used to go out drinking and wake up hugging the toilet with a hangover that made him nearly go blind. But he would smile and try to remember the fun he had the night before.
Let me describe a life and I want you to see if you this describes you to any degree.
… You have forgotten the power you have as a Christian, and focus only on those things you want to do from moment to moment.
… You are offered the meat of life found in the Lord, but you refuse to eat it, because you don’t want anyone telling you what to do.
… Others try to help you by inviting you to church or into a ministry, but you ignore their offerings.
… You roam aimlessly, without really depending on the Lord’s guidance, thinking you are safe and that “someday” you will make the decision to live for Jesus.
Can you identify with any of these? I hope you cannot, but I am afraid that more people do than we would like to realize.
What keeps us apart from our Lord? It is our pride. Daniel Boone explored the wilderness of Kentucky and Tennessee. Often, he would explore the never-ending forest and dodge arrows as he lived off the land.
Someone asked him once if he ever got lost. He said he had never been lost, but he had been a mite confused once for about three or four days. Mr. Boone’s pride would not let him admit he was lost. And our problem today is that our pride will not let us admit we are lost, too.
As a preacher, my job is to tell you the words that proclaim the power of the Lord’s salvation. As a pastor, it is my job to lead you to it. You heard last week that I am set apart by God to lead a portion of His people. There is something that comes along with that, that you might not know about.
I have a burden on my heart for each one of you. I pray daily for each one of you. And I am always trying to find the right words to tell you just how important your salvation is, and how we sometimes treat it as if it were not important to us at all.
We spend our lives going to church on Sunday and then doing the things the rest of the week that put us in spiritual danger. We need to start seeing the urgency of the spiritual situation.
I talked to a young lady this past week who said she was saved and going to heaven. I asked her how she knew, and she said she had received Jesus and was baptized. I told her that Christians also need to live for Jesus, and she said she didn’t have to. I told her she had to give up her foul language and stop the boozing and drugging. Again, she said she didn’t have to quit to go to heaven.
I showed her in the Bible where Jesus said to pick up our cross and follow Him, and she said she was going to heaven without doing that. Then she said if she did go to hell, she’d wave at me and smile and wish me luck. I told her that if she goes to hell, she won’t be smiling; she will be screaming and crying and living in total pain beyond our ability to comprehend.
And what I find most upsetting is that most people believe as she believes.
How do we make people really understand the importance of living a Christian life? The sand is no longer heaviest in the top of the hourglass. It has slowly trickled downward without our being aware of it, until now there is little time left.
I sense the urgency of the hour when some of you might go into eternity. I tremble at the fact that you might go without being fully prepared. I pray for God’s presence in your life and I desperately want you to understand the purpose He has for your life.
We are dead to our sin because we have received Jesus as our Christ, and we have picked up our cross and are following Him. There is no joy greater than knowing you are safe in Jesus. There is no peace found that gives more comfort than just submitting your heart to Christ.
Today is your day to do so. As we go into our time of invitation, I want you to just come up here where I am. I will go with you as we go to the Father.
INVITATION
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The above sermon is a rewrite of "The Danger of Lodging in the Wilderness", by Pastor Bob Brown of the Lighthouse Assembly of God, as seen on SermonCentral.com.
