Sherwood Baptist Church has one of the most dynamic media ministries of any church in America. They have produced Facing the Giants, arguably the best feature-length movie ever made by a local church. It’s a God-glorifying, excellently created sports film in the tradition of Hoosiers, Remember the Titans, and Friday Night Lights. Facing the Giants is being released by Sony/Goodwyn and will be in theaters on September 29th.
Accompanying the movie are numerous sermons by such leaders at Johnny Hunt of Woodstock Baptist Church, Michael Catt, Pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church, and Dr. Jay Strack of the Student Leadership Network. You may copy and paste the following links to access these sermons:
1. Evidence of Christian Growth (Johnny Hunt)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94258&ContributorID=15171
2. Overcoming The Grasshopper Syndrome (Dr. Jay Strack)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94257&ContributorID=15170
3. Faith to Face Your Impossibilities (Michael Catt)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94256&ContributorID=15169
4. Hearing God When You’re Hurting (Michael Catt)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94255&ContributorID=15169
5. It’s Always Too Soon to Quit (Michael Catt) URL:
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94254&ContributorID=15169
6. What Does It Mean to Live By Faith? (Ron Dunn)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94253&ContributorID=15167
7. Will a Man Serve God for Nothing? (Ron Dunn)
URL: http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=94252&ContributorID=15167
Also, a study curriculum that accompanies the movie may be downloaded at:
http://www.facingthegiants.com/resources.php
Hearing God When You’re Hurting
Psalms 42, 43
Michael Catt
A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek; I want to drink God, deep draughts of God. I’m thirsty for God-alive. I wonder, "Will I ever make it—arrive and drink in God’s presence?" I’m on a diet of tears—tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, pestering, "Where is this God of yours?" These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—celebrating, all of us, God’s feast! Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God –soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God. . . . Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did you let me down? Why am I walking around in tears, harassed by enemies?" (Psalm 42:1-5, 9, 10, MSG)
Even though we do have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us, sometimes we get discouraged and depressed. In Facing the Giants, both Grant and Brooke Taylor wrestled with depression at some point. Grant couldn’t seem to get ahead as a coach, and he felt inadequate as a husband when it came to having children. Brooke wrestled with God’s faithfulness and her desire to have children. Both characters experienced despair and helplessness. Some would lead us to believe that if we can’t praise our way out of sorrow, then we aren’t spiritual. Well then, Jeremiah wasn’t spiritual because he knew depression. Elijah wasn’t spiritual because after Mount Carmel, he got so depressed that he went and hid himself and asked God to take his life.
C. H. Spurgeon lived with depression most of his life. The late Ron Dunn, my close friend and mentor, lived with manic depression and bi-polar almost all of his adult life. These were godly people; these were people who love Jesus; these were people who enjoyed close, intimate fellowship with God. Yet, there was something in their lives that caused them to be depressed and discouraged, whether biological, genetic or circumstantial. Whatever it was, it was a reality. And it is a tribute to their faith that they did so much, even when they were battling and struggling to keep their heads above water.
Winston Churchill said that depression followed him “like a black dog on attack.” Abraham Lincoln acknowledged in many of his writings his battle with depression. And yet they were men who rose above their depression and their circumstances to be great leaders.
Warren Wiersbe says, “Depression is a major ill that affects more people than we imagine and infects more people than we realize.” You can’t go to the mall or to the beach or to any tourist area, a climate where people should be happy, and not find those whose lives have been touched by depression. They seem afraid, discouraged, defeated, beaten down by life.
How do we, as God’s people, handle this matter of depression?
First, we must look at some reasons for depression. I am not a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist, but there are some broad reasons that are obvious as to why depression happens. It typically happens more often to those who are naturally introverted, but it can affect any personality.
THE REASONS FOR DEPRESSION
1. Spiritual Separation
Depression doesn’t have to be a sign of weakness; it can be an opportunity for faith. David felt like and he and God were miles apart. He was running; he was pursuing; he was longing for communion and fellowship with God. Sometimes in our lives, it’s a struggle to pray, to worship, to even get out of bed and come to church. If the blankets and the blues decide whether you’re going to get up and worship God, then they have more power over you than the Holy Spirit. We can even begin to resent those who seem to praise the Lord with joy and excitement, but believers throughout the ages have worshipped God in the midst of deep, dark valleys as a testimony that God is greater in us than he that is in the world and that we overwhelmingly conquer through Christ. There are times when it seems like God is distant, not because He is, but because we have let our feelings or our circumstances override our faith.
2. Physical Separation
In verse four, the psalmist is remembering when he was right in the thick of things, when God’s presence was real; but now he is separated from that. There was a sense of isolation, of being alone. All that once felt secure has been uprooted, and it feels like a strange place.
3. A Personal Sense of Isolation
No one is speaking words of encouragement to the psalmist. Everyone who is speaking to him is questioning him and his God. I think of the Apostle Paul when he wrote to Timothy from prison, asking him to bring his cloak, the parchments and John Mark. Paul was lonely, cold and bored. Even the great Apostle Paul knew times when it was dark. I have personally struggled with this over the last few years. My mentors and my heroes have passed on. I can’t count the number of times I’ve wanted to pick up the phone and call Vance Havner or Ron Dunn and ask for their advice. Most of the men I started in ministry with are no longer in ministry.
In 42:5, the psalmist says he is disturbed. The Hebrew word there means “an incoherent murmuring or the growling of a wild animal.” The word expresses the dull murmuring of a lonely, wandering soul or the loud wailing of an angry man.
In 42:7, the word deep is a word the Jews dreaded. It is a mythical word of chaos, of being overwhelmed by the waves crashing in on life.
In 42:10, the word shattering literally means murder—a murder in my bones. The psalmist felt like he was dying as the life was cut out of him.
THE RIGHT RESPONSE TO DEPRESSION
1. The Necessity of Honesty
If you need to see a counselor a doctor, do it. The only thing that will keep you from admitting your desperation and seeking adequate help is pride. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for the ones you love. Don’t be embarrassed to take medication to help you. But, whatever you do, don’t leave God out of your prescription. Don’t think that seeing the counselor or taking the medication is enough. There are fifty-one personal pronouns in these two Psalms; there are only twenty references to God. The psalmist realized that he needed to shift his focus from himself to God. He asks ‘why’ ten times in these two passages, and God never answers him. I am convinced that God normally does not answer that question because if He did, we wouldn’t understand the answer. He didn’t answer it regarding Job’s affliction or Paul’s thorn in the flesh. The question is not “Why?” but “What do I need to do in light of this?” The most important thing you learn in the valley is not how to get out of it, but what to get out of it.
J. H. Jowett, a great preacher of another era, wrote the following to a friend who was always putting Jowett up on a pedestal: “I wish you wouldn’t imagine that I have no ups and downs, but just a level and lofty stretch of spiritual attainment with unbroken joy. By no means. I am often perfectly wretched, and everything appears most murky. I often feel that my religious life had only just begun and that I am in the kindergarten age. But I can usually trace these miserable seasons to some personal cause, and the first thing to do is to attend to that cause and get it into the sunshine again.”
2. The Necessity of Developing a Longing Heart for God
If I’m going to change the way I think, that’s an act of my will. And by an act of my will, I have to change whether my heart is to focus on my circumstances or to focus on God. In these verses, the psalmist is panting after God, not after religion or experience or a feeling. He knows that only God can meet him at the point of his need.
a) Remember God in your past.
The word remember in the Hebrew (42:4) is a strong expression of determination. Often when we get defeated and depressed, we forget all of God’s blessings in our life. We forget the answered prayers, so keep a list or a prayer journal to read during the dark times.
b) Remember God’s faithfulness.
“Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence” (42:5). Vance Havner once wrote a poem that says, “Yesterday God helped me; today He’ll do the same. How long will this continue? Forever! Praise His name!
c) Remember to put your hope in God.
Don’t put your hope in yourself or in the words of men, but in God alone. One of the greatest statements I ever heard Ron Dunn make was this: “I have been to the bottom, and it’s solid ground.” You can go all the way to the bottom, and you’ll find solid rock there if your hope is built on Jesus Christ.
Psalm 43: v. 1 God will get the final word. v. 2 God promises His presence. v. 3 God provides direction. v. 4 The psalmist finds everlasting joy in God, not in circumstances.
Our hope is not that God is going to fix it, but that God IS.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR DEALING WITH DEPRESSION
1. Look away from your circumstances and look to God.
2. Don’t keep your depression bottled up inside.
Share it with your spouse or a friend—let somebody help you and pray for you. And don’t forget to talk to God about it, too.
3. Learn to praise God even when you don’t feel like it.
Praise is not an emotion, praise is a choice. Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” from a prison! At her lowest point in the movie, Grant challenges his wife to love God regardless of the circumstances, regardless if they ever had children. It’s this longing heart for God that sustains them both in the midst of doubt and fear.
4. Put God at the forefront.
Don’t get out there ahead of Him.
5. Put your feet on solid ground.
6. Make God your source of strength.
7. Put your hope in God.
“Light” (43:3)—light directs the way you walk and shows you the pitfalls to avoid “Truth” (43:3)—truth directs the way you think
