 Amen. Keep your place there in 1 Samuel chapter 16. We're going to be there throughout the sermon in that area of the Bible talking about this story of King Saul. So what are we talking about this morning? So we're in our emotional series and what have we been talking about? We've been talking about different emotions that we go through in our lives and how to handle these emotions. We talked about anger in the first sermon. We talked about how there is a time to be angry. A lot of times the Bible says that there's a righteous anger. Jesus himself got angry. But we're not to be quick to anger. The key with anger is having that righteous anger for the right reasons and also not being quick to get angry. Then we talked about fear. We talked about anxiety last week. We talked about how there is a time to be fearful and what we should be fearful of. And it's pretty simple with fear. We're only supposed to fear the Lord. That's it. We're not supposed to fear man. We're not supposed to fear what's going on in this world. We're to fear the Lord. That's it. It's pretty simple. So there's a time for some of the emotions that we're talking about the last couple of weeks. But the emotion that we're going to talk about this morning is not really a time that you can say that this is a good thing. So we're going to talk about depression this morning. We're going to talk about depression. Depression? I was actually pretty surprised when I started looking up numbers on things, especially now. Depression in the country has gotten way worse than it was in previous years. Imagine that. Most of you probably are thinking that that's not a surprise. But depression is a huge problem today amongst Americans. It's about between the age of 12 and 30, there's about 12, one in 12 people suffer with major depression. And what major depression is, look, first of all, let me just give a disclaimer. I'm not a doctor. I just play one on YouTube. So I'm not a doctor, but here's the thing. Depression, major depression, we're going to talk about this morning, is defined as someone that goes through a two week period where they are just so down that it affects their actions, it affects how they can live their normal everyday life. So 80% of these people that go through this depression of this one in 12 people have difficulties performing everyday tasks because of the depression. So it's not just the point I'm trying to get, is this depression, this thing that we're going to talk about this morning, it's not just a feeling. It's not just you're down. It actually affects the way people are living their lives and prosecuting their everyday lives. And I can guarantee you that with coronavirus, because with the whole thing that's been going on this year, that with the numbers that you've seen from like substance abuse and all these types of things that you will find that this one in 12 has gone is skyrocketed. I guarantee it. So look, it's a big deal today. That's what I'm trying to say. And I want to give you this morning, I want to give you some troubleshooting tips from the Bible on how you can handle depression in your life. You say troubleshoot. I'm going to give you a methodology this morning on handling depression. You say, what do you mean by troubleshooting? I mean, we're going to isolate problems and we're going to eliminate possibilities is what we're going to do this morning. That's what troubleshooting is. You're isolating things, you're eliminating possibilities and you're looking for what? You're looking for the root cause of a problem. You're not looking for all the effects of the problem. You're looking for what's actually causing the problem. So I'm going to give you some tips, a methodology this morning on how you could narrow down, if you're depressed or suffering from depression, how you could narrow down the root cause of your depression. I mean, wouldn't you want to know what was causing the actual problem if you had a problem like depression? So what we're going to do is we're going to first study this story about King Saul. We're going to first study this story and see what we can learn from this story, turn back to first Samuel chapter 10. And let's kind of begin with King Saul. Let's look at when King Saul was chosen as king. So of course you remember the book of the judges in the Bible, you know, it was about how God sent judges to free the Israelites, to judge the Israelites, to lead the Israelites, you know, out of captivity, you know, to get them right. And then the people they just saw too many of the heathen nations around them everybody's got a king. It's like we want a king too. So they wanted a king and God gave them a king. God chose a king for them. And this king was King Saul, the very first king of Israel. So Saul is anointed king. Look down at first Samuel chapter 10. Saul is anointed king. And then he's told to go and meet with these prophets. And the Bible says in first Samuel chapter 10 in verse number five. And the Bible says after that thou shalt come to the hill of God. This is Samuel. Whereas the garrison of the Philistines and it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city. He's giving Saul direction here. And thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with sultry and a tabaret and a pipe, musical instruments and a heart before them. And they shall prophesy. And the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shall prophesy with them and that and shall be turned into another man. And then look down at verse number nine. So Saul's been anointed king and then he's being told by Samuel to go and do this thing. And then it comes to pass in verse number nine. And the Bible says and it was so these things happened that when he turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart and those signs came to pass that day. And when they so now he's been given another heart kind of sounds like he was born again here. Right. So this is where Saul King Saul he's been anointed. He goes. He gets saved. Look salvation is the same throughout the entire Bible. It's not some mystical thing. It's always been the same. Okay. Saul gets changed. God gives him another heart and those things that came to pass that day. When they came thither to the hill behold a company of prophets met him and the spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them. Turn to Acts chapter 19. So what's this all about where the spirit of God he's he's gotten saved. Now the spirit of God has come upon him. Look at Acts chapter 19 and verse number six. Acts chapter 19 and verse number six. So we're going to look at a New Testament equivalent of what has happened to Saul where the spirit of God came upon him. And if you look at Acts chapter 19 and verse number six the Bible says and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. So this is also like you know the day of Pentecost where you know the spirit of the Lord came upon them and they spoke in all these different languages and were able to preach the gospel. So the spirit you know the Holy Ghost coming upon them in Acts chapter 19 and many other parts of the books of Acts is the same thing that happened to Saul when King Saul when the spirit of God came upon him and it's interesting because the same thing happened right. The spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied right. That's why you know you can be you know we're all sealed by the Holy Ghost right. When you get saved you are sealed you know Ephesians one says you are sealed by the Holy Ghost. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what seals your salvation but you know when you are doing the right things and you are you know just living for the Lord you know you can be filled with the Holy Ghost and then you know that many times like Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost and you says great things. You know you say great things for God. You're filled and you prophesy right. You prophesy right. You know I pray that I'm filled with the Holy Ghost when I'm preaching. I pray that the Holy Ghost would fill me and then I would able to say the right things and not say the wrong things you know and I pray that that happens before every sermon. You know I would pray that the Holy Ghost would you know fill me so I could say I could prophesy great things. So this is the New Testament equivalent. I want you to see what the Spirit of God coming upon Saul and then he prophesies what that's all about. All right. Now turn back to 1st Samuel chapter 15. So of course now Saul's become he's he's saved. He's the king. Here we go. He's the first king of Israel. You know it doesn't take long for king Saul to get filled with pride and he gets rejected from being king. Okay. He gets fired from the job. So he doesn't obey. He was supposed to go destroy the amicolites and he doesn't do it. He also you know one time he doesn't wait for for Samuel and he sacrifices himself. He's just doing these things that are just disobeying God and then when Samuel calls him out on not following what God told him to do with amicolites he does not admit fault. Look at 1st Samuel 15 in verse number 26 and the Bible says and Samuel said unto Saul I will not return with thee for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. So this is after you know Samuel points out you know he's like why did you not destroy all the the animals and why did you not destroy everything? He kept the king. He didn't kill everything like he was supposed to. You know like God told him to utterly destroy everything and he didn't and then he gets called out on it and he blames the people. He said the people wanted to do all this. He doesn't take responsibility and then in verse 26 Saul basically tells him that the Lord has rejected you from being king. Okay so look look at 1st Samuel chapter 16 the chapter that we read. So now we've been brought up to the chapter that we just read and you know David has just been anointed king. So God you know replaces Saul. Saul is still the king but he's been replaced by God. As far as God is concerned Saul is done and David is now the king. So now we have a little bit of a political conflict of interest. I mean talk about an awkward situation you know high you know God's chosen me to be king and you've been rejected but you're still the physical king. So this is an issue right. So God is is basically he's removing his favor from King Saul and he's he's moving David into the position. Look at 1st Samuel 16 in verse number 14. God wants Saul out at this point. Because why? Because he's been rejected from being king. All right so he's chosen David and he's trying to or he wants King Saul out of the position. Look at 1st Samuel chapter 16 in verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. So this is you know an interesting statement right here the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now this used to confuse me right here when I first started you know reading the Bible and studying the Bible. I mean an evil spirit from God. What is that all about? All right turn to Judges chapter 9. Let's look at this idea of this evil spirit from God. So we see that the Spirit of the Lord Paul or Saul is no longer filled with the Spirit of God at this point. It's been removed from him. He didn't lose his salvation. He's just no longer filled with the Holy Ghost. God has removed his spirit from him in that sense and then he's replaced it with an evil spirit from the Lord. Now remember first of all when the Bible says an evil you know God was going to do evil or God repented from the evil that he was going to do to Nineveh. When that word evil is used in that sense it's talking about hurt. It's talking about trouble. It's talking about judgment. Okay so it's talking about you know God you know wanting to judge a situation. He was going to do judgment to Nineveh. He was going to do judgment to Saul here. All right turn to Judges chapter 9. Look at verse number 23. We see here you know a bimilech. You know we've studied a bimilech. We see a bimilech. He did an evil thing. He killed all of Gideon's sons and then the Bible says in verse 23 then God sent an evil spirit between a bimilech and the men of Session and the men of Session dealt treacherously with a bimilech. So here this is another evil spirit from God. Okay look at go turn to 1 Kings chapter 22. Let's look at another another example of an evil spirit from God or a bad spirit from God. So in 1 Kings chapter 22 we see the story of Ahab and Jehoshaphat. Ahab is trying to convince Jehoshaphat to go to war with him. Ahab of course is a wicked king and Jehoshaphat is a good king of the you know the lower kingdom of Judah and he's trying to get you know Jehoshaphat to join forces with him and go to war and this is when Micai you know Jehoshaphat you know says hey don't you have all these prophets came and said to Ahab you know you're going to do great and you're going to win the battle and they're just lying to his face right. They're the yes man and Jehoshaphat sees right through it. He says do you have a real prophet here? Is there a real prophet around here? Maybe we should ask a real prophet and Micai finally says you know you're going to die if you go and then you know they throw them in jail and whatever right. So but the point is look at 1 Kings chapter 22 and verse number 21. The point is that God wanted Ahab to go to battle. God wanted Ahab to go to this battle and die okay and look at verse number first Kings chapter 22 and verse number 21. Or look at verse number 20 where the Bible says in the Lord said who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead and that one sent in this manner and another one said in that manner. So God wants him to go. He's like I want someone to persuade Ahab you know God wanted to wipe out Ahab. He wanted to remove Ahab and then there came forth the spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him where with? So the Lord said unto him you know how and he said I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets and he said thou shall persuade him and prevail also go forth and do so. So all these prophets that told Ahab that he was going to you know win the battle and you remember you know the prophet that made the horns of iron he's like you're going to be like these horns of iron you know and you're going to just win the battle and all this. They were influenced by this lying spirit from where? From the Lord. Okay because the Lord wanted to pronounce judgment on Ahab. Now look Jehoshaphat when God's judging somebody you don't want to be standing next to him. So that's why Jehoshaphat you know was rebuked later on you know for you know should thou help those that hate the Lord? The prophet said to Jehoshaphat so look if this is just another sermon in itself if you got somebody who's a wicked person and doing all these things first of all you're not supposed to fellowship we're supposed to be separated from all that but look the thing is God's judgment is coming down on somebody you don't want to be standing next to him. I mean Jehoshaphat he almost died. You know there was a saying right close only counts and horseshoes and hand grenades you don't want to be standing next to somebody who's being judged by God when the hand grenade goes off. Okay when the tactical strike comes down on that person from the Lord you don't want to be standing there. Jehoshaphat almost died. All right turn back to 1st Samuel 16. So we see that this is I mean this is a method that God uses to judge people by sending so basically this evil spirit from the Lord is one of God's angels that goes to perform judgment on somebody for the Lord. Okay it's not a it's not a demon it's not something like that it's someone doing a task that the Lord wants done in that case. Okay look at 1st Samuel 16 in verse number 23. And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took in harp and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed and it was well and the evil spirit departed from him. So I mean David was a musician and this is just another really interesting point and one of the guys actually preached about this on Friday night but Saul was troubled. God removed his favor he removed his filling spirit from Saul this is what happened. Saul rebelled against the Lord God rejected him from being king he removed his spirit from it didn't mean he wasn't saved anymore he's under the chastisement of God now and God sends a troubling an evil troubling spirit on him and it just makes him this I mean you see if you read the story of King Saul it makes him this just depressed this this angry person all the time I mean he's trying to kill people he's he threw a javelin at David he tried to kill his own son I mean he just became you know this troubled individual and but it's interesting because he was troubled by this spirit and what helped him what helped him turn to Ephesians chapter 5 and this isn't what the sermon is about but it's also helpful okay look at Ephesians chapter 5 and verse number 18 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse number 18 this will just show you this this verse in 1 Samuel 16 23 it shows us the importance of the right type of music of the right type of music look at Ephesians chapter 5 and verse number 18 and the Bible says and be not drunk with wine wear in his excess but be filled with the spirit so we can be look we can be filled with the spirit it's over and over and over again in the Bible right and it says if you're drunk with wine if you're in sin you're not going to be filled with the spirit Saul was not filled with the spirit anymore okay so you're if you're saved you have that earnest that down payment of the Holy Spirit that seals you but you can also be filled with the spirit okay but then the Bible says in verse 19 speaking to yourselves that means speaking amongst ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your what in your heart to the Lord so this I mean music goes to your heart the Bible says and while in first Samuel 16 23 it talks about how that music that David played it it calmed Saul it made him it made that troubling spirit that evil spirit depart from him it made his heart better those spiritual songs those Psalms those hymns that David played it made you know but look it works the opposite way too it works the opposite way too I mean there's a reason that all these violent you know you know kids they go and like murder a bunch of people are listening to like all this death metal satanic music I mean there's a reason for it because it affects your mood it affects your heart it affects the way that you think it affects the way that you feel just the way David's music affected Saul in a good way music of the world that's out there can and can and will affect you in a bad way and I mean it can depress you it can depress you so go back to first Samuel chapter 16 we see that Saul is he's troubled he's depressed at this point so he hires you know David to he has David play this music for him to so he can feel better okay so what but what were the causes of this evil spirit what were the causes of Saul's problem because look the the music is just a it's just a fix for that but it's not the I mean it's not fixing the cause of the problem go back to first Samuel chapter 16 first Samuel chapter 16 first say I'm going to turn there myself first Samuel chapter 16 so let's look at the root cause here because the bible says that I think I've got the wrong verse listed here I think I'm in 15 yes go back to 15 there you go I had a mistake and I caught it during the sermon I'm getting better at this okay first Samuel chapter 15 and verse number 23 this is after you know Samuel is is currently rebuking Saul he's currently rebuking for not destroying the amicoites and he's telling them he's telling him look it's a big deal he's saying you know it's not that you just you know just missed a command from the Lord by him you not admitting that you you literally I mean because he said you know you didn't listen to what God said and he said instead you know you basically said you still you did what God said and you didn't and then in verse number 23 he says for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft he said you have rebelled against the Lord and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord you have also rejected thee from being king so look he said because you know you haven't admitted your fault you haven't admitted that you haven't followed God he's like you're in rebellion right now so you think about that you think about that you know with your parents kids when you're not going to admit fault and you're not going to follow what your parents say you don't want to be in rebellion rebellion I mean you say oh it's just I just didn't listen to my parents that one time no rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft you see why we're a family integrated church now because kids need to hear this too so even the smallest thing if you're not admitting I mean what did Saul do he left a few cattle you could say oh that's not the point the point is he didn't listen and he didn't admit that he didn't listen he was in literal rebellion to the Lord you don't want to be in that place because it's as the sin of witchcraft as the sin of witchcraft very serious so first of all he rebelled against the statutes of the Lord he rebelled against God so that's the first reason the first reason the second reason is this turn to first Samuel chapter 18 so we see rebellion just sin is the first reason the second reason is this vanity vanity was the second reason look at first Samuel chapter 18 look he was envious of David from the beginning he was insecure in his own position he wanted all the attention for himself look at verse number six of first Samuel chapter 18 and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the philistine that the women came out all of all the cities of israel singing and dancing to meet king Saul with tablets with joy and with instruments of music and the women answered one another as they played and said Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands uh-oh and Saul and then look at the next verse do you think now Saul was like you know what i'm glad i've got a good general i'm glad i've got a guy that can just that can just do what he's supposed to do and he's overachieving no Saul was very raw the bible says he did not like that David was doing better than him and that people were seeing that and the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed unto David ten thousands and to me they've ascribed but thousands and what can he have more but the kingdom he's insecure he's he's focused only on himself saw he's focused only on retaining power he's focused only on retaining his reputation his image his vanity he's focused on vanity so we see the main problems with Saul and the reason that you you'll see throughout the rest of the story in first Samuel with him and David it's all because of his rebellion against the Lord and his vanity those two reasons okay so you say what does that have to do with us well let's let's do some depression troubleshooting this morning okay let's look at depression troubleshooting let's apply these two things to us today and see if it matches all right so the first one is what sin just sin in general I mean let's just talk about you know the unsaved the the world let's talk about a sinful lifestyle what will that lead you to in this world and this is the most ironic thing ever because nobody except probably people in this room seems have this figured out okay most people out there think oh you know the christian life you know most people probably talk to me and they realize that you know i'm not going to go out with them after work and i'm not going to do all the stupid things that they do and all these kind of things and they probably think i'm boring but i'm telling you i don't have a boring life at all i'm telling you if you are living the christian life and you think it's boring you're doing it wrong you're doing it wrong i mean this is not a boring life and it should be filled with joy but you know what you know what they're misunderstanding they're misunderstanding because this world out here for the unsaved for everybody what they're after they're after this immediate gratification they're after this you know this life of of the drunk is they're looking for this immediate instant gratification this you know this quick you know but look this is this is normal today i mean this is normal i mean just think about just drinking i mean alcohol itself it's people do it because it's fun do you know that it actually depresses you you know they do it because it's they're looking for this short term short term high but do you know that it actually i mean even science and the medical profession will tell you that alcohol is a depressant it depresses you it brings you down let me just read you a quote when broken down scientifically alcohol is in fact a depressant the more alcohol you drink the more it depresses the functions of your body i mean it'll actually slow your heart rate and all these different things it says it says many people feel a little extra pep when they first drink alcohol however this effect is short lived it does not take long for the depressant effects to begin to take over do you know that if you drink a lot you will become depressed alcohol is a depressant you know the side one of the side effects of being in what they call an alcoholic is depression suicide people drink to become happy but it actually brings them depression it's crazy the world tells you here's another one the world tells you that fornication is normal the world tells you that you know fornication is normal and if you're not doing it you know i mean what you know everyone's doing it everyone's just living with their girlfriends nobody gets married anymore i mean it's a generational problem at this point it's a generational problem everybody's just out doing it and you're like oh no you know i'd like to wait till i get married people are like what what are you crazy but do you know that fornication will depress you do you know that that fornication leads to disease leads to like unwanted pregnancies it leads to like murder i mean that sounds fun look this isn't fun this is short term high everybody's chasing a short term high and and they're ultimately just gonna lead themselves i mean they're leading i mean these young girls and women today are being sold the biggest lie called feminism hey you don't have to get married you don't have to get married and have children that's just the the man trying to keep you down you need to go out and just live in fornication and just live with all these different people and just you know basically become a whore but you know what that will lead women today too depression depression turn the first great thing is chapter six and you wonder i mean look i was involved like my mom has been involved in like the pro-life cause since i was i can't even remember since and i remember there's so many statistics on women that you know they they get abortions and it just leads them into severe depression later in life because guess what they may have done something wicked and evil when they didn't know what it was you know someone was lying to them oh this isn't a child this isn't you know a human being and they go and they make some decision when they're 16 years old 17 years old 18 years old and then you know what they grow up and they get married maybe it maybe they got maybe they get saved hopefully and then they have children and they're like oh what have i done and they realize they've murdered their own child 10 years ago 15 years ago i mean that's why like pro-life you know people that are against abortion i mean they're for women they're for women not ruining their lives they're for women i mean this is all a lie it's all wicked evil lie i mean that that's fornication though oh but it's fun i mean forget the marriage stuff how to ruin your relationship with your future husband or your future wife and it could even cause you to not even be able to get married to certain people i mean forget all that it'll just wreck you it'll ruin you first Corinthians 16 18 flee fornication every sin that a man doeth is without the body but not this one it's different the bible says that this sin is different because it says all these sins that you do are without the body you go out and you steal in your you know whatever else it's all without the body but he that committed fornication sinned against his own body say look you're destroying yourself i mean it should be pretty easy to convince people not to go into fornication because all you have to do is convince somebody hey could you not destroy yourself please the bible says you shouldn't destroy yourself don't destroy yourself i mean it just leads into all these terrible things and look if you get into all these things and it leads you into all these serious serious sins as fornication is one of them look you're going to be depressed that's why people are depressed that's why many people are depressed they're chasing the short term high that the that the world tells them is what they should chase and they end up destroying long-term things that can't be undone and they're depressed look it's just this life is this world is just one pursuit of sinful pleasure after another and it will all lead you to pain and suffering all i mean today the world the world by the way they'll explain this away the feminists will explain this away they'll say oh no it's all these it's all the restrictions that that the bible and god has put on people and there's guilt on them that that's causing the depression really that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life yeah it is a disease made up in your mind no that's real physical that's real physical consequences is ending an unborn child's life is that is that made up in my mind these people are morons and they're wicked as hell and they're liars and they're destroying women is what they're doing they're destroying women it's a nice counter punch from satan but it's not even really a good one right that oh it's it's the religious restrictions that are just depressing people it's like when you're an idiot all these consequences are real they're physical they're medical they're they're real they're real so what's the next one and by the way all these things that we talked about as far as the unsaved they apply to the save too if you get into all these things get into all these things because i mean is it a possible for a saved person to become a drunk is it possible for a saved person to fall into sin to fall out of church to just backslide in the christian life is that possible happens all the time it happens all the time i mean the worst thing is watching it happen to people that's the worst because you're just watching this happen and you're like hey this is happening hey you know and you just watch it get worse and worse and worse it's it applies to save people as well it's even worse with saved people because you're going to be under the chastisement of god right god's going to make sure you get away with nothing in this life if you're saved so what's the second thing we saw that saw was in sin what's the second thing that caused his depression caused him to be down caused him to be troubled the second thing is vanity the second thing is vanity turned to ecclesiastes chapter one you want to learn about vanity read ecclesiastes ecclesiastes was written by the wisest man who ever lived aside from jesus he was given everything by god he was given all this knowledge by god he was given all this wealth by god he was given everything and he wasted it all he wasted it all but he didn't really waste it all because he gave us the book of ecclesiastes so we can read it so we don't do the same thing look at ecclesiastes chapter one what is vanity let's talk about vanity i mean the bible i mean even the front of your bulletin says vain glory what does that mean let's talk about that look at ecclesiastes chapter one in verse number three the bible says the words of the preacher this is king salomon king salomon is the preacher here the son of david king and jerusalem vanity of vanity say at the preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity sounds like this guy's in a good mood what prophet have a man of all his labor which he had taken under the sun he's like he's like he's an old man at this point he's saying he's like what was the point of all of this i mean imagine does anyone want to be where he's at right now this guy is depressed he's saying it's all vanity but what does that mean look at ecclesiastes chapter two just one chapter down he's saying here he's saying by vanity he's saying everything that i have done has been out of personal pursuit or pleasure that's what he's saying look at ecclesiastes chapter two in verse number nine now you've heard of keeping up with the joneses right i mean everybody you know you see it all the time around here everybody's got to have the nicest car everybody's got to have that you want to find out who the most broke people are look at the people driving the newest cars that's a general rule it works right i mean people just strapped with so much debt but that's not the point of the sermon anyway here here's the bottom line king solemn won the race you can't win the keeping up with the joneses what that will do is that will just make it to where you're not happy with anything that you have ever if you move into a nice house and you're constantly looking at the nicer house then you move into the nicer house you're constantly looking at the guy that has the nicer house than you there's always somebody with a nicer house it'll just make it so you never appreciate anything that you've been given you'll never appreciate any of your blessings but solemn won he won this he won this competition he's the only person i've ever heard of that actually won the the competition look at verse nine he says so i was great and increased more than all that were before me in jerusalem all my wisdom remained with me he's like i was the smartest and i had more than everybody ever he's like i i no one could keep up with me is what he says look at verse 10 he says whatsoever my eyes desired i kept not from them i withheld not my heart from any joy from my heart from my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was my portion of all my labor then i looked on all the works that my hand had wrought and on the labor that i had labor to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sun he's like hey look down at verse number 17 he's like hey i had it all he's like anything i asked for i got it right there i wanted something right now i mean he had hundreds of wives anything that he wanted he was just his right now he withheld nothing from himself and in verse 17 i hated life he says therefore i hated life you're like what all i need is a million bucks and i'll be happy no you won't he's he had everything and therefore i hated life because why because why because the work that was wrought under the sun is grievous unto me this is why this is why he hated life even though he had everything because he did it all for himself because all was vanity just like sol he was obsessed with himself maybe we look you're depressed do a selfishness check i mean why are you constantly thinking about yourself you're depressed you don't think there's people in worse situations than you turn to philippines chapter two or just look at the front of your bulletin here's what you need to do if you're depressed and you're like you know what i i i i i i i i i here's your problem philippines chapter two verse number three or look at the front of your bulletin the bible says let nothing be done through strife or what vain glory that means just constantly just trying to glorify yourself that's what that means it says you know but in lowliness oh so you know here's another one of those great opposites bible verses right where it says hey don't do it this way instead do it this way just in case you misunderstand right he's going to give you both sides of the coin here but nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better themselves hey why don't you start thinking about other people hey why don't you get your your mind off yourself so much and just start thinking about other people look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus maybe just maybe this whole thing isn't just about you you know what the opposite of vanity is selflessness the opposite of caring about nothing but yourself is selfish here you know here's here's another thing there's all kinds of studies out there let's look at some what science let's look at science today because they figured this out last year helping others can relieve anxiety and depression 2017 i mean somebody spent their whole career studying and doing all these different studies and they found out that helping others can relieve depression and i mean in this article in this big it's an abstract okay an abstract as means this person has done a huge study and a white paper in the abstract is the summary here's a summary here's what you should do if you want to not be depressed be supportive of others have compassion for others make a positive difference in someone's life make constructive constructive comments to others avoid doing anything doing anything that would be harmful to others avoid being self-centered brilliant i mean it's brilliant i wish someone would have thought of that sooner i mean i was 2017 there's people been depressed for thousands of years an article from time.com look i could read you articles and i just had to stop because there's so much scientific evidence out there here's a an article from time.com time magazine think about it the secret to happiness is helping others it's amazing here's a quote from the article giving back is as good for you as it is for those you are helping because giving gives you purpose when you have a purpose driven life you're a happier person goldie hon it's brilliant i mean goldie hon figured it out in 2018 many people look first of all i'm so irritated with people repackaging the bible and selling it as their own you know i'm people make an entire career out of repackaging ideas that aren't their own and just you know passing them off but i'm not even going to go off on that one all right study after study shows that the bible is true on this is what i'm trying to get across to you becoming less self-focused and helping others literally brings joy to your life you know try it try it i look i have done this on several different occasions something has gone wrong whether it be at work whether it be things just aren't going the way i want them to go and i'm like you know what i'm gonna go help so-and-so dig up a sewer pipe and every single time it happens it it helps it works and look here's the thing if you're depressed and you do this i mean this is a troubleshooting technique okay if let's let's try a fix right i mean that's what you do if you got a car that's broken and you want to you know it's one of four things all right let's start with the least expensive thing and start fixing those four things and we'll see what happens right if you're depressed and you go out and you help somebody with something you're like you know brother frank needs help building the fence or he's struggling with this thing i'm going to go over there and i'm going to be labor for him i'm going to help him or i'm going to just be a blessing to somebody in some way and it helps your depression you found the problem you found the problem you're too self-focused you're too self-focused look i'm not saying don't pay attention to issues that you need to worry about in your life but i'm saying if you're literally depressed and helping other people helps bring and it will it will trust me that that's part of your problem is your too self-centered you're too focused on yourself so i mean use these two criteria for troubleshooting depression in your life you know look i'm not downplaying you know hormonal problems or changes people go through in their life or or whatever you know or actual medical struggles but here let me just tell you something from my limited medical experience okay when somebody i knew that was going through depression whether they were you know treating it with medication or not there was always a root cause and the problem look the problem with the medical industry today is they're not even interested in the root cause they're just like take this pill i mean people i mean don't get me started on like anti-depressants and all this people are just going and they're just thinking that just pills are going to fix their life and and you people they're crazy crazy i mean these anti-depressants that you read about you know what the side of one of the side effects is suicide depression it's an anti-depressant and its side effect is depression and suicide it's like hey this will make you feel better unless you kill yourself i mean look if the problem is this i mean if you have a car that needs fixing you got to find the problem i mean if you got a car that's leaking oil you i mean you can just keep buying oil and buying oil and buying oil but the leaks going to get worse and worse and worse and pretty soon you're going to destroy the motor you got to find the problem you got to find the problem and the bible says that mainly you know do a sin check on your life am i into stuff that i shouldn't be into and if you're saved you know i mean that could be actual judgment from god on your life like don't go around being like hey brother i think you're depressed because you know don't be jobe's friends this is for you personally to do a check on yourself if you're suffering with depression and then second of all you know are you just living a life of vanity because people that are really selfish they're they get depressed a lot because they're just living a life of vanity so do this do this and then go help somebody with something if that's you start thinking about other people start thinking about others you see i mean haven't you ever felt good buying someone a gift i mean when you actually help something with something serious it's like that times a hundred that's why soul winning is so great that's why soul winning is so great look soul winners you're going to get to a point where maybe there's going to be a day especially if it's 150 degrees outside where you're like you know what this isn't that much fun right now but you know what those are the days where something great happens and you go home and you're just like you know what that was awesome you know what i'm glad i got out of bed and went soul winning today i mean those are the days where you know if you just stop focusing on yourself and start thinking about other people you know and you know from christmas gifts to their very soul you know it's going to help you not be depressed so i mean just look at this look at this listen to the wisdom of Solomon don't be Solomon that's the beauty of the bible is is we can look at somebody else's mistakes and we don't have to fall in all those pits what let's let's listen to this wisdom that the bible gives us and do these checks on your life and i bet you you know what i bet you get some joy back in your life let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer