A sermon on Mental Health: It may be a good idea to plan a special Sunday event, invite and honour mental health organisations in your community for doing great work.
World Mental Health Day: Today: 10/10/2010 This sermon can be used any time of the year, or on World Mental Health Day, 10/10 each year.
INTRO: A Definition of Health: Health is the state of complete physical, mental and social (not forgetting spiritual) well being and not merely the absence of disease.
*** According to research and statistics, as high as one in three people experience a mental illness or episode in the course of a year. Look at the person sitting at each side of you: if it is not one of them, it may be you!!
1. As far back as 2000, the WHO declared that 5 of the 10 leading causes of disabilities in the world are MENTAL CONDITIONS. (Mental illness in the US and Europe is like HIV Aids in Africa) The only difference is that HIV Aids leads to severe mental conditions as it has a strong mental health component to it!!
2. The 5 conditions they listed were: (i) Major Depression, (ii) Schizophrenia, (iii) Bipolar Disorders, (iv) Alcohol and Substance Abuse and (v) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
3. What is depression? Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy and poor concentration.
4. Formula that measures the overall disease burden index that potentially leads to earlier disability or death: DALY’s = Disability Adjusted Life Years (Formula based on statistics and projections)
5. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that depression (by bringing down life expectancy) would be the second leading cause of death in the world by 2020.
6. A leading psychiatrist noted: I believe that man was designed for camel travel, not supersonic jet behaviour. You see, Life is fast. Life is unfair. Some get depressed because of the pace and expectations, the rest because they lack behind so far.
7. THE DEPRESSION CYCLE: (A): Undesirable environment or event or situation (people, places, circumstances, sometimes self-conflicted) = (B): Stress = (C): Loss of motivation = (D): You do less (unproductive) = (E): Isolate more = (F): more negative feedback = (G): more depression. *Before the cycle repeats, it LEAVES A DEPOIST OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK IN YOUR BRAIN.
8. THE NEXT CYCLE IS THEN BUILT UPON THAT DEPOSIT OF FEEDBACK IT ACCUMULATED, now referred to as THE NORM: A standard, model, or pattern regarded as typical, acceptable and even commendable!! (laziness, abuse, etc.) but almost always with a destructive outcome. (Whatever you try fails).
9. To reverse the cycle of depression, you need to increase your positive feedback, so that it reduces your negative feedback. *** (We live in an environment where we daily hear and experience the senselessness of crime, murder, rape, corruption, poverty and more which later becomes THE NORM: When you are burgled the police say: “Thank God you weren’t raped”. When you are raped, they say “Thank God you weren’t killed”.
10. ***Phil 4:1 p 904 ”Negative feedback implies that you start disagreeing or opposing the positive things you in essence AGREE with: Paul writes: And now I want to plead with those two women, Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. Working towards the same goal, but almost splitting and destroying the church read: marriage, relationships etc.)
11. This principle can be applied to our marriages and much more. That is why Jesus said in Mark 9:40, “Whoever is not against us is for us”.
12. How do I increase positive feedback?
13. KNOW WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST:
13.1 *** 2 Corinthians 5.17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
13.2 ***John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear much fruit, everlasting fruit, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you”.
14. KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING: In other words, have purpose:
14.1 The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going.
14.2 *** John 8:14 p811 NLT When the Pharisees accused Jesus of being false, He said; “I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don’t know this about me. So stop judging me with your human limitations”.
14.3 “If a man does not know what harbour he is sailing to, no wind is the right wind.”
14.4 “A ship is safe in the harbour, but that was not what it was purposed for.”
15. KNOW WHO YOU ARE TAKING WITH ON YOUR TRIP!!:
15.1 ***Jeremiah 6:26 p581 NLT (Outright sly opportunistic people) Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind. They are continually setting traps for other people.” There are people out to take advantage of you, who are jealous of your accomplishments, who will suck up to you in your presence and verbally destroy you in your absence.
15.2 *** Jeremiah 6:26 p581 NLT (Religious clubbing group) They bless each other the whole day; they prophecy over each other week after week. Religion has become nothing more than a substance dependency, an instant “high” for the moment. It gives them euphoria so they can escape from their reality.
***2 Timothy 3:5 p917 NLT “They will act religiously, but without the power thereof. You must stay away from people like that.”
15.3 ***James 2:14 “Dear brothers and sisters, what is the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? Surround yourself with people who can REALLY add value in terms of what they have accomplished and start by adding value to them”.
16. KNOW WHICH THOUGHTS YOU ALLOW TO BE DEPOSITED IN YOUR MIND:
16.1 Phil 4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” We all know too well that “as a man thinketh, so he is.” YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK.
17. KNOW HOW TO REWARD YOURSELF FOR WORK WELL DONE:
17.1 On God’s last day of creation, filled with excitement and a sense of accomplishment and excellence, and after daily having done quality control (and He saw that it was good), HE RESTED.
17.2 ***Mark 6:30 p 757 NLT “The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and what they had taught. Then Jesus said, “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” “Jesus did something most of us don’t know how to do: He knew when it was time to retreat. He knew when he needed time with family and time alone.
18. Altar Call: You may not necessarily suffer from Major depression, but if you could see yourself somewhere in that Depression Cycle, this is YOUR day to break out of it.
