Dealing with Depression | How to be Godly in an Ungodly World

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org The altar needs to be repaired.

Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us take stock of where we are with the Lord and make the necessary adjustments. I want the fire of God to fall on my life. I want the power of God.

Good. Repair your altar first. Trying to live a godly life in an ungodly world can seem like we're trying to walk up a downward escalator. The culture is trying to drag believers right into a quagmire of hopeless humanism and angry atheism. But God has a plan.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us revisit one of the most exciting stories of the Old Testament when a single prophet of God confronts 850 feckless false prophets and watches God's plan unfold. Last Saturday, I'm walking up my stairs and I'm holding a yeti cup. You know what a yeti cup is? They're the metal cups.

Nice cups. You don't want to drop it, right? I've got my yeti cup loaded up with ice and water and my toe catches the top stair. Now the weird thing is I'm trying to get my footing, right?

Holding the yeti cup aloft because I did not want to spill the ice water. And somehow I'm kind of running along for a foot or so and I go airborne and go face first into a built-in desk up there. I open my eyes. There's blood on the floor and my back hurts really badly. And I cried out to Kathy, I've fallen and I can't get up. I didn't say that exactly but it was close.

I said, I'm hurt. And she heard the sound upstairs. It sounded like I heard a buffalo with all the noise and the yeti. Oh, by the way, I spilled the water.

Yeti cup goes flying. And so we went to the ER and I had actually, my tooth had punctured my face and actually came through the other side. And so they had to sew my lip up from behind. I still have the stitches. It's still a little bit swollen.

And actually put a stitch on the outside. Then I had a little, hit my nose pretty hard. Then I had to go to the x-rays and all this stuff. So, you know, the guy says, I'm going to take you to get your back x-rayed. Do you want to ride in the wheelchair? I said, no, I'm fine. You know, that's kind of hurt.

Go ahead and take that wheelchair ride. And it was really great because this guy was a Christian. He goes, I'm not supposed to say this but I listen to you on the radio all the time. Let me pray for you. So the whole time he's like praying for me.

I loved it because God always has his people everywhere, doesn't he? So I say that to explain what happened to me but also to segue into our message. I fell. I wasn't expecting to fall. But I did fall.

Unfortunately, I did not brace my fall with my hands as one should. But I took it right on the face and we're going to look at in a way what could be described as a fall in Elijah's life or at least a slump where he fell into a deep depression. But we're also going to look at his recovery. But before we do that, we'll look at the victory that preceded it. So we remember all the prophets of Baal were gathered there together for the big showdown, 850 prophets of Baal versus one man of God.

And so it was getting ready to happen. But here's an interesting thing I'd never noticed before as I was relooking at this story. And before that fire fell on the altar, the altar had to be repaired.

So here's my first point. If you're taking notes, if we want to see God work, we must do our part. If we want to see God work, we must do our part. 1 Kings 18, 30.

Elijah said to the people, come here to me. They came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. See, before the fire was going to fall, the altar had to be repaired. And I ask you right now, does the altar of your life need to be repaired? You know, you look at your own spiritual life and you realize it's not what it used to be.

You used to be stronger than you are now. Does your altar need to be repaired? You no longer read the scripture every day as you used to. Prayer is not a part of your life as it once was.

Your church attendance is erratic at best. If so, your altar needs to be repaired. You say, I want the fire of God to fall on my life. I want the power of God.

Good. Repair your altar first. To the church of Ephesus, Jesus says, I know how hard you work and how discerning you are, but I have this against you. You've left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works again.

Interesting. He says, first remember, was there a place in your life when you were stronger spiritually than you are right now? Just ask yourself that question.

Was there a time? If the answer is yes, now we come to step number two, remember and then repent. He says, repeat and do the first works quickly. First you have to repent and then repeat.

Do it again. Interesting that Jesus says, how you have fallen. To leave your first love is a form of falling. This is something we all need to do in our own life. As the apostle Paul said, get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged.

Well, that's Paul McCartney, but similar sentiment. It's sort of like a marriage. How many of you are married? Raise your hand.

How many of you are happily married? Raise your hand. Interesting. Not as many hands. Not really.

It's about the same. Except for this couple right here. So if in your marriage you have lost the love, so to speak, you should not wait for the emotion of love to return. Rather go back and start doing loving things.

In other words, make the emotion and the emotion will catch up. And we talk about a spiritual awakening in America. How much we need it. How much we want it. God wants to send it.

So what's the problem? We have to do our part, then God will do His part. And what is our part? Second Chronicles 7 14 gives it to us. God speaking says, if My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. Loose paraphrase. Repair your altar.

Get ready for the work of the Holy Spirit. And we look at our country right now. The acts of violence right now are just out of control. And every time you open up a new site, there's a new act of violence. A new shooter. Someone driving their car into a crowd of people.

Someone with a knife. It's something. And people say, well, we need to just stop the guns. Get rid of the guns.

I'm sorry to say that's never going to happen. We don't need gun control. We need self control. It starts with the heart. The heart needs to change.

The heart needs to change. And so this is the thing that people don't talk about. The root of all of this is that we've turned away from God. We've thrown God out of our classrooms. We don't want those Ten Commandments. We don't want a prayer in the school.

Don't even bring your Bible on the school campus. Or we do these other things where we say we redefine the family. We can't even say what a woman or a man is any longer. And we wonder why our young people are confused.

Right? And so we see this breakdown. The breakdown of the family is at the root of almost every problem in America today.

It is. 85% of these people that take guns and shoot people came from a broken home. Specifically a fatherless home. Those numbers even go higher when you look at other people who are engaged in criminal activity. Drug abuse. The list just goes on and on and on. We need to turn back to God. Repair the altar. Repair the family. Let it start with your family.

It's so easy to point a finger at someone else. But make sure your family is strong. Make sure you're the spiritual leader in your family. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Emails, phone calls, and social media messages from listeners are so encouraging to us.

And they let us know the effectiveness of these studies. Pastor Greg, I love listening to your daily messages. I appreciate how you speak biblical truth with grace. Your stories keep me intrigued and your messages are relatable.

And I love that they're broadcast every day because I always have new content to listen to. Thank you. If you have a story to share, why not call us and give us all the details?

Here's the number. Well, we're talking about committing ourselves and our families to God today. Pastor Greg's study is based in 1 Kings 18.

It's an account that underscores the need to worship God and not let anything else take his place. Well, back to the shootout of the Carmel Corral. So here they are up on the mountain. 850 prophets at Baal versus one prophet of God. Elijah says, let's let the real God answer by fire. Look at 1 Kings 18, 27.

About noontime, Elijah began mocking them. They'll have to shout louder, he scoffed. For surely he's a god. Maybe he's away on a trip or he's asleep or he needs to be wakened. And so they shouted louder. Oh, I left out one word, one phrase.

Perhaps he's daydreaming or is relieving himself. We don't want to miss that one. So shout louder. So they shouted louder following their normal custom. They cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out.

They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice. But still there was no sound, no reply, no response. Elijah says, hey, maybe your God's asleep and you need to wake him up. Oh, I'm so glad God doesn't fall asleep. Do you ever fall asleep? You didn't plan on it? Why is it when we fall asleep we always deny it when someone asks us? Were you sleeping?

No. No, you were. You fell asleep. The other day I ate something and it put me into a temporary food coma.

You know what I'm talking about? And I was asleep for like, I don't know, five minutes. I woke up. I literally didn't know where I was for a moment. Where am I? What just happened? I'm under the influence of an In-N-Out Burger.

I don't know what it was. I'm so glad that doesn't happen to God. God doesn't go into food comas. God is not asleep at the wheel. God is always paying attention to what is happening to us.

Psalm 124 says, he that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Second Chronicles 16, 9 says, the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. So God is not just awake. God is aware.

God is watching and because he's omniscient, which means all knowing, and omnipotent, which means all powerful, and omnipresent, which means present everywhere, he's fully aware of what you're facing, of what is going on in your life and what is going on in the world. I love what Elijah says then. Verse 27, maybe your God is daydreaming or is relieving himself.

Yes, that's what he meant. Maybe your God's on the celestial toilet. That was a joke at their expense, but I don't think they were laughing. Yes, Elijah was mocking them, but in a way their own gods were mocking them because their own gods were nonexistent. Their own gods had no power to do anything. I love this statement when it says they raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. And I think Ahab saw this.

King Ahab could see that Baal had no power. Baal was not there to answer the call of these people and sometimes the Lord will allow people to see the futility of their own gods so they will turn to the true and living God. I think most of us when we look back on that moment in our life before we came to Christ, we had probably come to a point where we had seen the emptiness of life. You know this book I've written, Lennon, Dillon, Allison, Jesus, it examines the spiritual life of a lot of these people that had unbelievable fame and success and wealth and they climbed to the top of the mountain and they found out there was nothing there.

There were many of them. They had to hit rock bottom before they would look up. They had to see the emptiness of these so-called gods before they would turn again to the true God.

These false gods are sort of like filters we put on photos to make things look better, but really they don't look better at all. I read about an Instagram influencer age 28 who tragically took her own life. There was a column written about her and there was a comment made by another influencer who said, quote, social media does not bring happiness. It does not bring fulfillment.

It does not bring connection, end quote. That's very true. It just doesn't. But we want to present ourselves as very happy and very attractive and look at the life I'm living, but we don't see what it's really like. 69% of adults and 81% of teens use social media. This influencer went on to say, quote, it's really just smoke and mirrors. They're just showing an edited part of their life that they want others to see, end quote. That's true.

And that's everything this world offers. It's just smoke and mirrors. It's fake. It's not real. They're false gods. It'll never satisfy you. But some people spend their whole life figuring that one out.

And other people see it sooner and they come to Christ sooner. Well, anyway, here's the big contest. So Elijah says, yeah, you guys go do your thing. OK, you done? OK, wow, what a mess. Blood everywhere.

Seriously? Now it's my turn. And he says, I want you to repair the altar, which they did. Now I want you to douse it with water. I want you to do it again. Do it again. Three times they douse the altar.

Why? Because when God answered this prayer, he wanted everyone to know it was the Lord. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a special trick.

It was something that was super natural. Bringing me to point number two. Our job is to pray. God's job is to answer. Again, our job is to pray.

God's job is the answer. Do you have a problem right now? Do you have a challenge right now? Do you have a concern right now? Now, have you prayed about it?

Is there something you really need in your life? Have you prayed about it? Maybe it's a healing. Maybe it's provision. Maybe it's a mate.

Maybe it's something else. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And not only that, but Jesus says, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened. So our job is to pray. God's job is to answer.

First Kings 18, 36. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed. Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel. And I am your servant and I've done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord. Answer me so these people will know that you, Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again. I love this prayer.

Just confidence in God. He didn't cut himself. He didn't scream. He didn't yell. He didn't jump up and down. He just prayed.

What happened? First Kings 18, verse 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice of wood, the stones, and the soil, and looked up the water in the trench. And when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried. The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.

Love this. But God was not done. Not only did He send the fire, now He's gonna send the rain. Don't forget they've been experiencing a horrible drought. They haven't seen water for over three years. And God revealed to Elijah that it was going to rain. But when you looked up in the sky, there was not a cloud in the sky.

Not a single cloud. You know, and sometimes weathermen get it wrong, right? Oh, it's gonna rain today and it's clear. Or it's gonna be clear today and it rains. I, listen, you wanna know if it's gonna rain, just find out when I wash my car. It always rains in that day. And as I've told you before, bald men always know when it's raining first.

That is absolutely true. We'll walk along and I'll say, it's raining. God will say, no it isn't.

Oh yes it is. Cause I'm a bald man and I just felt the first drop hit me, right? So, but he knew because the Lord revealed to him that the rain was gonna come.

Here's what I find surprising in the narrative. Elijah goes and tells King Ahab, hey it's gonna rain. You better get in your chariot and head back to the palace. Get those rain tires on the chariot king. A powerful rainstorm is coming and the king gets into his chariot and off he goes.

Bringing me to point number three. God answers prayer the way he wants and when he wants. God answers prayer the way he wants and when he wants.

Underline the word when. First Kings 18 43, he says to a servant, go look toward the sea. And the servant went and looked and said, there's nothing there. Seven times Elijah said, go back.

So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, there's nothing. And the seventh time the servant reported, well there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising from the sea. Elijah said, go tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.

Isn't this interesting? Elijah knew it was gonna rain before everybody else knew. And I think when you are walking with the Lord and you are living by faith, you will see things other people do not see. You know Hebrews 11 one says, faith is a substance of things hoped for, it's the evidence of things not seen. Faith sees invisible things. You see what can be, not just what is, you see past it. And the Lord can direct you.

And here's another thing to consider. We as believers know a storm is coming. People in our world today are saying, well what's going on, there's violence on the streets and the crazy things happening in the stock market.

And the aggression of powers overseas and it's almost like the end times. But I don't know, it is the end times. We know it. We know it because we read our Bibles. We know that prophecies are being fulfilled before our very eyes. We know the anti-Christ is coming. We know the tribulation period is coming. We know judgment is coming. But best of all, we know that Jesus Christ is coming again.

We know it. Pastor Greg Laurie talking about seeing our lives through eyes of faith and with the insight we get from God's Word. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg is presenting a message called Dealing with Depression. Pastor Greg mentioned his book, Lennon, Dillon, Alice and Jesus. You can locate that book in our Harvest store.

Just go to harvest.org and click the store tab at the top of the page. Pastor Greg was just talking about seeing the world around us through eyes of faith. Now if you've never actually come to the Lord and entered into a relationship with him, that concept might sound unfamiliar.

Has there been a moment when you asked Jesus to forgive your sins and give you eternal life? Pastor Greg, someone can enter into that kind of relationship today, can't they? They can and it's so simple.

And I think because it's so simple, people think, oh it can't be that easy. Well look, Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that he carried.

This isn't about what you do, it's about what he's done. But here's what the Bible says, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You say, well okay, how do I do that? You do it through prayer. And if you pray this prayer after me, I believe God will hear it and answer it and Christ will come to live inside of you. So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now.

I refuse to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Listen, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible says these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, that you may know it's yours now. God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Congratulations and welcome to the family of God.

Yeah, that's right. And listen, would you let us help you get started living this new life? Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's in an easy-to-understand translation with so many helps specifically for those who are new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge, so just get in touch for your copy of the New Believers Bible. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, Max Lakato is with us today. He's a best-selling author and pastor and a real wordsmith. His books are full of wonderful stories and quotable quotes, and we're happy to make available his newest on The End Times called What Happens Next. Max, you talk about what it'll be like when we come into God's presence, and sort of as a metaphor, you tell the story of your friend Joe Stoll, former president of Moody Bible Institute. Could you recall that story for us?

That's a great story. Greg, do you know Joe? Oh yes, Joe's a great guy.

Great guy. Well, many years ago, Joe had the opportunity to do what you do often, Greg. He went to the White House.

This is in the term of President George W. Bush. And according to the way Joe told me, he was one of like a dozen pastors invited to visit with the president. And there was a reception, and he was rehearsing in his mind what he was going to say when he met President Bush. And finally, it was his turn, and they were not close to the president. There was about 20 feet.

They had to walk to get across the room. And so in his mind, he kept rehearsing, I'm Joe Stoll, I'm the president. Finally, he extended his hand. He said, Mr. President, I'm Joe Stoll, I'm the president of Moody Bible Institute. And before he could say another word, President Bush with that Texas twang slapped him on the shoulder and said, way to go, Joe. And then marched him off. And so he called his secretary. She said, what was it like meeting the president? And he told her that story. And by the time he returned to Chicago to Moody Bible Institute, she had made a T-shirt, had a T-shirt printed and placed on his chair in his office. And he said, way to go, Joe.

George W. Bush. That's great. But when he told me that story, I guess I was kind of touched with a word that was a little more from the Lord than from me. Because I said, you know, Joe, you're going to someday stand before Jesus Christ. And he's not going to be in a hurry. And he's going to look you in the eyes and he's going to say, way to go, Joe.

Well done, good and faithful servant. You know, Greg, you're going to hear those words. Dave, you're going to hear those words. And I know that maybe a person could go their whole life and never hear those words, even from an earthly father. But when we hear those words from our Heavenly Father, it'll make it all worthwhile, all worthwhile. And that's what's waiting on us when we get home.

That's beautiful. You know, Max, the word revelation means the unveiling. And it's not God's desire to conceal, but to reveal. And Bible prophecy is not given to scare us, but to prepare us.

Yes. And I think whenever we raise the subject of end times, people immediately think of Armageddon, Antichrist, Mark of the Beast, etc. And that, of course, is all part of the story.

But they don't think about what you've just said. Because in the book of Revelation, we read about that final day when we'll stand before Christ. And what is Revelation an unveiling of? It's an unveiling of Jesus Christ. That's a spirit of prophecy.

It's Christ, honored and glorified and magnified. And so what I love is that you have a gift to encourage people, not only in your writing and your preaching, but privately, how many times I can think of getting a text from you. And it's a word of encouragement, as you just shared there with Joe and with the rest of us. And you're going to be encouraged reading this brand new book that Max has just written called What Happens Next? It's about end times events.

Yeah, he gets into all the topics you're interested in. But it's a book that focuses on Christ and will be an encouragement to you. And we want to send it to you for your gift of any size this month. Whatever you send will be used to help us continue to reach people through the teaching and preaching on this program you listen to called A New Beginning. So order your copy right now of Max Locato's brand new book, What Happens Next? and be encouraged.

Yeah, that's right. It's a book you'll love reading. In fact, you'll be recommending it to friends. So thanks so much for your investment. And be sure to ask for your copy of the brand new book by Max Locato, What Happens Next?

The subtitle is A Traveler's Guide Through the End of This Age. So just grab your phone and call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 number, 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You know, we're all going to leave a legacy behind, whether good or bad. And as Christians, it's vital we leave a Godly legacy to the next generation. Listen, I have a creative way to help you do just that. I'm excited to announce that here at Harvest we've partnered with our friends at Free Will.

Maybe you've heard of them. Free Will is an easy to use estate planning tool that allows you to make planned gifts to organizations of your choice. It's a creative opportunity to support the work we're doing here at Harvest Ministries. So as you make your plans, I hope you'll consider investing in this ministry so we can continue to preach the gospel and teach the Word of God for years to come.

Listen, you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. Invest in the work of ministry. You can learn more at FreeWill.com slash Harvest. Well, next time we move forward in the story of Elijah and discover, surprisingly, how he found himself in a time of depression. We'll uncover some principle for those challenges in our lives. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.