Well, good morning Crossing Church.
How are you doing today? Oh, you're doing better than
that? Good morning Christ.
The church. How you doing today?
Way to go with? So good to be in the house of
the Lord, with the people of the Lord, learning from the word of
the Lord, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work richly and
powerfully in each one of us. And then we get to project that
out into a world that so desperately needs that intimate
personal relationship. Ship with Jesus Christ.
I want to welcome all of our campuses joining today from all
over this region of your Insider online.
We are so thankful for each and every one of you and today I
want to share the sermon time with Holly Whatley.
I've no ye men. I've known Holly since my very
first weekend at the Crossing back.
When we were pacing Road Christian Church, she was there
that first weekend and she has been involved.
Evolved with some of the most critical ministries of this
church for years. She was my personal assistant,
she was a critical player in the stablishment of our worship
teams. She used to run the finances for
the whole church. When we decided to go
multi-site, she was part of the launch Team for our Macomb
campus at church location. Shout out to Macomb and while
she was up there, she finished her bachelor's degree.
Lincoln Christian University and then she stepped away from our
staff for a time to lead the well house ministry here in
Quincy, awesome Ministry that we do and what we share in.
And after a time there, she went back on staff at our 929
location. Shout out to 929, And then later
transition to manage discipleship and women's
Ministries here at the 4th Street campus.
She also helped develop and Lead our rise conference as well.
Can I get a shoutout for Rise coming up?
And after that, she went back to pursue to school to pursue a
graduate degree in counseling. And after graduation, she went
to work in counseling services in Hannibal.
Shout out to Hannibal. You're lucky to have her out
over there. She has run a marathon.
She has been commissioned to ministry here at the Crossing.
She's Champion. The ministry of Rafa house,
Mission our missions. Team, she's been a leader at
Region and she is Close personal friend of Allison and myself.
And we have a very deep respect for her.
The reason I want you to hear from her today is because she
has professional expertise in the understanding and the
treatment of depression. And she couples that with her
love for Jesus and her Devotion to the ministry at the Crossing.
So I want you to give the very best most powerful Crossing.
Welcome to Holly, walley's she comes up on This day.
Thank you. Well thank you obviously Jerry
for such a warm welcome and thank you all so much.
It's such a honor to be here. I cannot begin to tell you how
much I love this church. I have been here my entire adult
life at this church. I have grown and discovered a
deeper love and knowledge of Jesus.
I have found love and acceptance and healing.
I have been challenged. I've been encouraged I have
loved my opportunity to be on staff here at the Crossing it
has literally been the honor of my life and this transition into
mental health and into therapy was something that I never
expected. Like so many of you I was doing
my normal quiet, time one morning, sitting down reading my
Bible spending time with the Lord listening for his voice,
and the Holy Spirit just impressed on my heart.
So deeply to go back to school. And as I began to near the end
of my degree just so many things kept lining up that it looked
like I was going to be making this transition and it's been an
incredible Ministry to sit in front and across from clients
its Sacred Space to hear people's struggles to hear their
stories to hear their sufferings, but also to hear
their wins and their Joys and their successes and I'm so
grateful for the opportunity that God has given me in this
season of History as well my unofficial title or how I
affectionately refer to myself at my current position is
world's oldest intern. Yes, thank you for that
Applause. My co-workers assure me that
there's no way that could be possible but no one has yet to
produce an intern older than me. So until that happens.
I'm just going to wear that mount will proudly.
So if you're a person who can't seem to quit, White find your
career path. As you heard Jerry say I think
he's listed at least 12 that I've done in my current life.
Let's talk because I can relate. So you Dairy approached me with
this idea of speaking, it is part of the series on Mental
Health about depression. Yay.
Right fun. Everyone's favorite topic but
what's interesting is I think depression is something that we
Are very familiar with, so anxiety, and anxiety, and
depression are two. We've been discussing them, you
know, as mental illnesses, or mental health challenges, that
are the most common, we experienced by people and even
among our own church family, you know, we've been talking a lot
about this mental health, survey, and so many of you
responded and we'll talk more about that.
But depression is something that is not always very well
understood. Stood, we're not always sure
like when we say depression, like what does that even mean,
right? So imagine this.
So imagine you guys are a couple of you guys who are having a
conversation, like say a couple of you guys are like standing
around the grill. That's something that guys do,
right? I don't know men.
Yeah. Okay.
Yes. I see a couple of knobs.
Thank you. Okay.
So you guys are standing around the grill and you're having a
conversation with a buddy and your friend says this.
Hey, so How are things going and you say, oh well, you know, I
don't know. Like I've been just feeling
really run down lately. Oh, really?
Yeah, just been feeling like really tired.
I'm not really sleeping. Well, have trouble falling
asleep. And I have trouble staying
asleep and your friends. Like, oh man, I'm sorry to hear
that. Like, well, how's work going?
And your friend says, oh well, Yeah, I mean it's going good but
you know usually what would happen is I would get a project
and I would get my team together and start assigning tasks and
I'll get my spreadsheet out, you know.
But it just seems like every time I try to tackle it it's
like my brains kind of fuzzy and I just can't quite seem to get
my ducks in a row like okay. Well, alright, how are things at
home? Well, you know, like it's been
good like we've been busy, the kids have been busy now but Just
seems like I'm just always in a really bad mood, I just can't
quite seem to get out of it. And so, that's been really hard.
Okay. Well, what about that car?
You know, you've been working on.
How's that going? Well, I got really far in the
did a certain point. I just like I just didn't really
feel like working on it anymore and so you might say to her
friend like hey man, like I actually think you might be
depressed and your friends like oh no.
Like No, I'm just in a funk like II know things will get better.
Work will slow down. You know, the kids are just
really busy right now but we don't always realize is that
some of the things that we experience in our lives are the
things that we might classify as being in a funk could actually
be symptoms of depression. So symptoms of depression are
these so you might be feeling down depressed irritable or
hopeless. You might have a diminished
pleasure in activities that you used to really enjoy.
You might have a significant change in appetite.
You might be really more hungry than usual or you might not feel
hungry at all. Or wait.
You might have extreme fatigue or loss of energy.
You might have a diminished ability to think.
Clearly evaluate our concentrate, you may feel like a
failure or like you have let yourself or others down.
You might have movements that are slower than normal, or you
may Movements that are more agitated than normal.
You might be getting too little sleep, you're having trouble
falling asleep or having trouble slang, staying asleep, or you
may have the exact opposite where all you want to do is
sleep. You may also have suicidal
thoughts or start to make plans or even attempt suicide.
And again, like I said, depression is something that
affects so many people. If you have these symptoms for
two or more weeks, you may have what could be diagnosis,
clinical depression. And it's something that affects
a lot of people. We asked you to participate in
our mental health survey. And so many people responded to
that survey. And we're so thankful and
appreciative of you, sharing your thoughts and experiences.
And of those who responded to that survey fifty percent of
women who responded. Depression and forty percent of
The Men Who responded experience depression.
So even among our own church family, there are a significant
number of us who either have or are currently experiencing
depression. And not only that, when we look
in the pages of scripture, we can begin to see.
So many people who also have experienced these circumstances
or these symptoms are qualities that we see with depression in.
Just like in real life where I would never presume to diagnose
someone based on a conversation or a journal entry.
I'm not 100% certain that this is the case for these people,
but we can begin to recognize some of these qualities that
match some of the qualities that we are familiar with and one of
those is the psalmist in Psalm 42.
So let's look at Psalm 42 verse 5.
Why my soul are you downcast why so Disturbed?
Within me, put your hope in God. For I will yet, Praise Him My
Savior and my God and I can only imagine what some of you might
be thinking world's shortest. Sermon, right?
Why are you so sad? Put your hope in God great let's
go get nachos, right? No actually no sorry to
disappoint you but for others of you you Maybe on the exact
opposite end of the spectrum. For those of you who either have
or currently experience depression, you may think great
one more message where I think what is wrong with me.
Why am I so sad? Why can't I put my trust in God?
And so right now I want to speak to all of us at all of our
locations, who care for someone or love someone with depression.
We've been referencing this word a lot throughout this sermon
series. It's the word validation.
Word, validation simply means acknowledging the thoughts
feelings and experiences of another person and it sounds
like this. Hey, that sounds really hard or
I can imagine that. That really hurt it's being
willing to see through the lens of another person and so often,
when we love someone in our life who is struggling, our
intentions are so good. And so well-meaning, we want
them to think differently, we want them.
Um, to feel differently, but in that Zeal, or that desire, or
those good intentions, we can end up using scripture, not so
much as an encouragement, but sometimes it can feel like
almost like a weapon to the people in our Lives who we love
who are having those experiences.
So, here's what I want. All of us at all of our
locations to do. I want us to take a collective
deep breath. Okay, so let's take a deep
breath in. And let's take a deep breath
out. And this is the posture that I
want us to enter into those conversations with because the
people in our Lives who we love so much, they are not problems
to be fixed. They are people to be loved.
And so often our presence, our compassion, our kindness our
prayers, our encouragement. Hey, even our funny memes that
we send them throughout the course of a day.
That can mean so much Two more two people we love who are
experiencing depression, been any right answer ever could.
Because more often than not, there really is no right answer.
So with this, we're going to shift back to our psalmist in
Psalm 42 and we're going to look at what he asks in verse 5.
Why is my soul? So downcast the way I often
explain it to my clients is that depression can Feel kind of like
a soup and I know what you're thinking, oh this is the kind of
expert advice that I really came here for right?
Yeah yep, you're welcome. Okay, so the reason I say that
depression can be kind of like a soup is that with a soup?
Some of the basic components are the same but the exact
ingredients can be different depending on each type, right?
And depression can kind of be like that we're for each person.
The basic components can be kind of the same.
But the exact ingredients for each person can be a little
different and they can contribute to the continuation
of a person's depression because depression is a syndrome that is
comprised comprised of mood dysregulation.
It can be resulting from events. It's a it's a combination of
feelings and behaviors and the combination of these things,
depends on the individual person and the root of each two persons
depression. Can be different as well.
This is where if you have been having these symptoms for a
continued amount of time working with a medical professional and
a clinical professional can be a huge ATU of figuring out.
What are the components of your exact experience and what are
the tools and the resources that you need to meet you where you
are to help you along the way with your particular set of
symptoms? So while we'll be talking about
Out some of the components of depression in our time together.
Today these may not be the case for you because they may not be
your particular type of soup, I guess.
But what we will be doing is looking at depression through
the lens of the four buckets that we've been looking through
all along through this mental health series and the first
bucket is the chemical bucket or the biological bucket.
So genetics can make us very vulnerable to depression.
For example, if you have a family history of depression you
are much more likely to experience it yourself.
Also if you have we call a concurring diagnosis like
bipolar disorder. You can also be much more
susceptible to developing depression.
There can also be other mitigating circumstances like a
change in hormones. So for example after you have a
baby or as you get older That those those hormonal changes can
precipitate depression. It can be a side effect of
certain medications and there are also even neurotransmitter
changes that happen when we are depressed.
So let's look at Psalm 42, verses 1 through 3 As the deer
pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you, my
God, my soul thirsts for God for the Living God, when can I go
and meet with God? My tears have been my food all
day and night. While people say, to me all day
long. Where is your god in Old
Testament times? God's presence was focused in
the temple. And the psalm is here is writing
on the road. He is removed from God's
presence. And he, he says, my tears say to
me. Where is your god?
And so it can feel like that when we are in a season of
depression it's like okay, wherever God is I'm somewhere
else and our soul can feel so dry and we can feel so
desperate. We no longer sense his presence
and he could feel so distant. And this can contribute to the
symptoms that we can experience. We can feel like we like the
psalmist we can have prolong times where we have trouble
managing our emotional effect for some.
Us. We do feel like exactly like the
psalmist said. We're literally, we have no
appetite and our tears are all. We eat on all day long, so those
can be some of the biological components of depression.
Depression can also be situational.
One of the other buckets we've been looking at throughout this
sermon series. Let's look at Psalm 42 verse for
these things. I remember as I pour out my
soul, how I used to To go to the house of God, under the
protection of the mighty one, with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive. Throng.
The psalmist is looking back on a time in his life, in which he
was flourishing, he was worshipping God in the temple,
he had purpose, he had Community, he was close to God
and others. And now that season is gone in a
sense of loss can often A season of depression.
Whether that's the death of a loved one, the loss of a
relationship, the loss of a job, even the loss of a promotion or
something. We perceived as the support in
our life, and so often depression, can be perpetuated
by the failure, to truly grieve these losses, we try to push
away the emotional pain, we busy ourselves or try to keep our
minds occupied. But grieving It is simply the
process of acknowledging reality.
It's being willing to say, hey, I am hurting I am in pain.
I miss this person. I miss this season of Life,
maybe you're grieving or morning us an experience of life that
you've never even got to experience in the first place.
Mourn. That loss, David Kessler, who is
an expert. And grieving and mourning says
it this way, grief Demands a witness for.
So many of us, we try to stuffer or struggle alone, but we have
to be willing to share with the people who love us so much.
I am hurting. I am in pain.
I am grieving Depression can also be clinical and for the
most part during this series, we've been kind of skipping over
this section, right? It's like, oh, the buckets and
clinical and then Moving on. But for this series, I'm like,
Hey, we're going to hang on to this for a little bit because
this is kind of my jam, right? And it's interesting because
when I very first transitioned into full-time therapy, I got
this question a lot. Well, are you going to be a
Christian? Therapist.
And I totally get the questioning or the thought
behind that question, like, oh, where you going to be rooted in
the word of God? You know, are you going to be
pointing people to Jesus? Are you going to be trusting in
the holy spirit to guide you in your counsel?
Like, oh, absolutely, yes, yes, yes, yes.
And yes. But the interesting thing is
that the more I learned about counseling, theories, or about
how our brain and body is wired or about the things that help us
grow or the things that help us when we're stuck.
Tuck or the things that can get us stuck.
I was like, oh wait like the Bible says that oh yeah, the
Bible says that too. Yep, the Bible says that too.
So they didn't quite seem as opposed to one another as some
people might actually think. So, an interesting example of
that is found exactly in the scripture that we are in today,
it's in Psalm 42:5. So again, the psalmist asks, why
why Is my soul so downcast. Why is my soul so Disturbed
within me and what we may not realize is why is actually a
superpower? The psalmist is actually
teaching us a brain hack. So can you guys hang with me and
nerd out with me for just like 30 seconds?
Yeah, okay. Thank you.
I see.
I see thank you. I see those nods.
Ok, so in our brains is our amygdala.
So our amygdala regulates our emotions and often our amygdala
can kind of get become dysregulated.
It gets triggered and triggered, and triggered and triggered.
When we're having mood dysregulation, when we're
experiencing big emotion, after big emotion after big emotion
after big emotion. So what happens is there's two
ways that our amygdala gets trigger and you may have heard
this before it, you can experience fight or flight where
your amygdala gets really agitated or you Experience
freeze or faint, sometimes it's called where your amygdala and
your body and your brain, kind of like shut down.
So those are kind of the two experiences that we have.
Well, here's the amazing thing. When the psalmist says, why is
my soul so downcast? Why is my soul so?
Disturbed within me, the word downcast literally means in the
Hebrew like brought low. Just exactly what happens when
our amygdala gets triggered. Some Times and the word
Disturbed, literally means it's like the Roaring of waves.
It's like thundering and crashing and it's exactly what
happens when our amygdala gets triggered, we get agitated.
So the psalmist is describing exactly what happens to us,
exactly what can be our emotional experience.
But here's the amazing part, there's one part of our thinking
brain, normally our thinking brain has no effect on our
emotional brain. Except for this one part and it
is the noticing part. So the more we become curious
about our thoughts, the more we become curious about our
emotional experiences, the more we ask, why am I feeling so
angry in this moment, why am I feeling so agitated in this
moment? Why am I feeling?
So sad right now, it actually calms our amygdala.
So it calms this emotional experience that were Having it's
actually a fancy word called metacognition.
We separate ourselves from the emotional experience to notice
the thoughts or emotions. And so often depression, is the
result of repressing. Our emotions or just a lack of
acknowledgement of like, what is going on inside of us.
It made feel too scary to acknowledge it or to face.
What is going on inside of us. That could be for a variety of
reasons, maybe it's Trauma from our past that feels very scary
to address and that is very understandable.
It could be difficult or painful emotions like fear anxiety or
jealousy or more often than not shame or guilt and we don't even
want to go there. So we just yell at our kids or
we binge another episode of Netflix or we finish off another
sleep of Girl Scout cookies. Or we utilize drugs or alcohol
or sex to try to regulate what is happening to us, emotionally.
But the more we utilize this process of noticing the more,
our amygdala becomes less reactive and it calms down this
emotional experience and helps us to get to the root.
You see, the psalmist was morning a season in his life, in
which he was really flourishing and transitioning to a season in
which he was not later on. In Psalm 42, we read that he was
oppressed. But he was feeling forgotten by
God and it's very often in these times of difficulty that we can
really do the hard work of getting to the root.
The why regeneration is an incredible Ministry at our
church? I am a proud regeneration
graduate. I love this ministry and
regeneration is a Biblical discipleship 12-step Ministry
and as part of those Twelve steps we do the fourth step and
it can be kind of known as the dreaded fourth step.
If, you know, you know, because the fourth step is we go through
the process of cultivating or conducting a Fearless moral
inventory. We list out all of our fears, we
list out all of our resentments, all of the harms done to us, all
of the harms that we ourselves have done to other people and
it's all The effort of getting to the root.
What did our response value? What are we placing on the
throne of our hearts? Other than God is it pride?
Is it control? Is it a sense of security is it
self protection? Is it relationships?
What is at the root of my experience?
And where am I failing to put God on the throne and trust, God
first in my life. So as we continue on this
spiritual bucket we're going to go back to Psalm. 42:5 why my
soul? Are you downcast why?
So Disturbed within me, put your hope in God for I will yet
Praise Him My Savior and my God. So now we're going to focus on
the very last section of this verse 4.
I will yet. Praise Him My Savior and my God.
So in the Hebrew verse 5 actually reads, more closely,
praise God, for the help of his presence.
We as human beings are co-regulators, any of you who
are parents at any of our locations, you understand this.
So imagine this with me, your baby is crying.
Crying. Okay, and imagine like the
heaving sobbing top of the lungs just like, you know, where the
face is, just like beet red, everything they've got crying.
Okay, so you go in and you pick them up and you hold them close,
and you're like, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
Well, what begins to happen, right?
You feel their body begin to relax.
You feel them. Begin to take, breaths that arm.
Much more deep, you feel the shaking begin to calm and you
feel the tears? Begin to dry up because that's
what happens when we co regulate with each other.
And that process continues throughout the course of Our
Lives. We teach each other how to
regulate and manage our emotions And God's relationship with us
is no different. God's presence is with us when
we have these big feelings when these thoughts overwhelm us,
God's presence is with us to calm us to hold us.
When we are struggling with our mood, our thinking and our loss.
Psalm 42, 6A says this, my soul is Cast Within Me.
Therefore, I will remember you, you see, when we are depressed,
we have a mental filter and that mental filter is a negative
mental filter. We will think that we are
failing. We will think that everything is
going wrong. We will convince ourselves that
there is no hope. And that is naturally, that is
connected. With depression.
And the psalmist says, okay, I realize that this is my
experience. My soul is downcast.
What did we say? That was my soul is down low.
My soul is depressed Within Me. Therefore, so he's saying I know
that I am depressed. I know that I have this mental
filter. Therefore, I will remember you
when we have this mental We have to remember God, if he's in 617
says this. We have the full armor of God.
And particularly verse 17 says, take the helmet of salvation and
the sword of the spirit which is the word of God.
So the helmet of salvation protects our minds and think
about it for a minute. What is salvation Salvation is
the knowledge that we have been rescued by God.
It is the knowledge that all of our sin and failure and mistakes
have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is the knowledge that there is absolutely no condemnation.
For those who are in Christ Jesus, it is the knowledge that
there is absolutely nothing in heaven on Earth that can
separate us from the love of God.
That is ours in Christ Jesus. So the helmet of salvation
protects Our minds and reminds us of who we are and whose we
are and not only that we have the sword of the spirit, the
word of God. It was never meant to be used as
a weapon against us. It was always meant to be used
as a weapon against the enemy of our souls.
Psalm 42 verses 7 and 8 says this deep calls to deep in the
Roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and break.
Have swept Over Me by day the Lord directs his love at night,
his song is with me a prayer to the god of my life.
We talked about that when my soul is distressed, it feels
like the Roaring waves, right? Our thoughts are all over the
place. Those emotions.
Hit us like waves, but the psalmist is comparing God's love
his voice. To those same waves, which means
that When those thoughts and those feelings are so loud God's
voice in his love is louder and that he is directing and
commanding his love towards us. He is very much in the battle
with us. So when the thoughts are loud,
his voice is louder. And when we're awake and cannot
sleep, at says, his song is with us.
So what does that mean? For those of us at all of our
locations, who are in a season of depression, it means that we
will take steps of faith. And for some of us a step of
Faith, literally might mean getting out of bed and taking a
shower. But as we take that step of
faith, we know, God is directing his love towards us, right?
So that means that every Every step of the way, God is saying
I'm here. I'm here, you're doing it,
you're doing it. He is directing his love towards
us and when those thoughts and those feelings get so loud.
We will remember that. God's voice is so much louder
and we will protect our minds with the helmet of salvation.
Remembering that we are loved and chosen.
By God, that we were covered in Christ blood. and when we are
awake in the middle of the night again and again and again, We
will allow him to sing over us. And we will rest in his love for
us. The psalmist says yet.
I will praise him. It's a, pretty powerful word,
right? Especially when our symptoms are
so significant when we're feeling so tired.
When those emotional waves, hit us over and over and over again,
when those thoughts Pierce so deeply Yes, no matter what?
No matter what I experience, no matter what each day brings yet.
The psalmist says yet. I will praise him.
Why? Because he is with me.
We're moving to a time of decision.
I'm in. I'm in an interesting spot
because I've said to you before that, I've had people come up to
me and say it's like, you're reading my mail.
It's like you're going through my trash or hiding in my closet.
I kind of feel like that happened to me today.
That I don't know how what Holly shared with you is affecting
you? I have no idea but I know how
it's affecting me and and how I look at my own life.
And I can see a lot of those realities.
In my life and I bet you do too. A lot of different things
impacted mean what she said, one of the biggest ones was
co-regulation. and, As a parent. I can remember the two words.
That we said to our kids, they had two different meanings
depending upon the situation, but we set them a lot and that
was be still. Did you ever hear that from
parents? Be still.
You know, that's a Biblical term.
It's in Psalm 46 where God says be still and know that I am.
God. Most of the time though, we
didn't use those two words, we had a noise.
A sound that we would make that conveyed the same message.
And the noise was this. How have you heard a lot?
And again, it can mean two different things in
co-regulation. It can mean two different
things. One, It can be.
Hey, you need to quiet down. Right.
And then in Psalm 46, be still in the Hebrew language, could be
translated, stop striving. Quit fighting.
Surrender. Some of us today is where we are
exactly where we are. And that still Small Voice in
your heart. God speaking to you right now
and that's what be still means. That's what co-regulation looks
like for some of us. I mean, we're just torn up.
And we need to feel that we've been taken up in the arms of
God. He calms us.
And he reminds us. That it's okay.
That it's going to be okay because you're in his arms.
maybe today is a day where you're not crying or retching or
Overwhelmed. But because you spend some time
with the Lord today, you can feel those things calm down.
Some of you today have never come into an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. You're still trying to do this
on your own and it's time to stop that.
It's time for you to go to him. And let him have control of your
life. It's time to stop striving.
It's time to quit fighting. It's time to surrender.
There's going to be someone right over there by that
baptistery. That would love to talk to you
about that step. A courageous step, a huge step,
but so powerful. So life in eternity changing For
many of us today. It's different.
We have that relationship with Jesus Christ and maybe, you
know, we're feeling hypocritical, like why can't I
Why can't I get this? Get my stuff together, why can't
I And that's what these steps are for today.
For you to just take that step to take a step.
A courageous step. Get on your knees before the
Lord, and pour your heart out to him.
And feel. His hands pick you up.
To feel his comfort and his strength in a time of need today
is the day. To start a process of healing.
It just makes sense that you would go.
To the great physician. To the Healer.
Would you stand with me? Let's pray together in Jesus
name. Heavenly father I pray.
Would you just take advantage of this moment?
That we would be able to hear that voice.
Your spirit inside us. Gently encouraging.
Moving us to take a bold, step courageous step.
And that father, we would be able to experience some healing.
I pray father that you would accomplish a great Mighty thing.
In Jesus name, amen. In Jesus name, amen.