Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We don't know the cause of mental illness. It doesn't
mean that we cannot cure the disease. It doesn't mean
that we are totally clueless about where to go from here.
In fact, here we are again the most read book
in human existence, in human history. The Bible gives us
a lot more information about this than we could ever imagine.
So I'm in John fourteen. Let's read one of the
stories that Jesus tells, and in verse seven we're told
(00:22):
that when a Samerican woman came to draw water, Jesus
said to her, everyone who drinks this water will be
thirsty again. That is the water from the well. But
whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines, pasta apologist and
Bible teacher. Anxiety and depression are more common now than ever.
If we don't struggle with mental health, we probably know
someone that does. My name is Aaron and you're listening
(00:57):
to Today with Jeff Fines. Welcome to today's program. We're
about to begin a message with Pastor Jeff and it's
another in our series looking at anxiety, depression and Jesus
scripture offers us peace with mental health and shows us
that anxiety and depression do not have to define us
in this message, Pastor Jeff is in John chapter four.
(01:17):
Let's see what it has to say and how to
thrive with anxiety depression and Jesus.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I mean John chapter four, verse seven through fifteen. John
four seven through fifteen. The stats are out according to
John Hopskins University and Medical Center, how many people do
you think died during COVID of COVID or symptoms related
to COVID. The real numbers are finally out, they've been released,
and the answer is point zero eight seven five percent
(01:58):
of the world's population died of COVID or COVID related deaths.
Now you think, what less than a percentage point? Well, yeah,
but the world population is eight billion, which means seven
million people died during COVID.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So now I'm not here to.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Talk about COVID and should we have shut down? Should
we have locked down? No, that's not the point. The
point is that's less than one percentage point. And by contrast,
one in every four people on the planet, twenty five
percent of the world struggles with mental illness. Wow, folks,
that's an epidemic. That's pandemic of epic proportions. Now understand
(02:36):
what this means. We have to distinguish between mental illnesses
like anxiety and depression and feelings of anxiety and depression.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Let me give you a few examples of anxiety.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
My wife and I were on a flight from Brisbane,
Australia to Los Angeles a few years ago, and we
got caught up in the jet stream and the pilot
came over the intercommon tolas. We can't get out of
this jet screen stream. We can't go high, we can't
go oh, We're gonna be stuck in it until we
get to LA.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
The problem is when you're caught in the jet stream,
you're bouncing up and down. You feel like you're in
a washing machine, just being thrown everywhere. And so I
can tell you I had a great fear of flying
in those days. So I was anxious, but I didn't
have the mental disorder of anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I was just feeling anxious. You can feel anxious about something.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
You can refuse to study the night before test, and
I guarantee when the teacher hands you the paper and
it's time for.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The test, you're gonna feel anxiety.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Or if you're going on a date that you wish
you would have never agreed to, You're gonna experience some
sense of anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Same thing is true about depression.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
When your girlfriend breaks up with you, when you don't
get into the college that you hope to get into,
when your dog dies. You know, if you're a Raiders
fan or an Angels fan, you know you're gonna be
sad a lot because you're losers. I mean, there's gonna
be sadness, but there's not gonna be depression. Sadness and
anxiety those are not the same thing as mental illness.
(03:57):
In fact, depression and anxiety are part and parshal of
the human experience, whereby we desire something more that we're
not getting, or we feel that our lives are not
going the way that our lives should go. So this
brings anxiety, depression, sadness, mental illness, and this is important
distinction to make refers to something far more chronic. It's
an overwhelming feeling of anxiety or depression that actually impacts
(04:23):
your ability to function and to think clearly about life.
It's debilitating, it's often unexplainable, and even suicidal. You say suicidal, absolutely,
In fact, in the middle of the three years where
I suffered from chronic anxiety disorder, I can tell you
there were days that I contemplated, and I've made this very,
(04:46):
very commonplace. There were days that I thought, if my
life is going to be like this, if I'm going
to wake up every night with my heart racing, with
my pulse racing, I can't catch my breath and this
feeling of impending, if that's going to be the pattern
of my life for the rest of my life, I
would rather not live. So let me, first of all
(05:07):
say to you, for those who are contemplating suicide right now,
which is more than most of us around have ever fathomed.
Can I say to you that your best days are ahead,
do not give up. Do not give in. This is
creating something unique in you. I know you don't want
to hear that now because I didn't want to hear
that in the middle. This is creating something unique in you.
(05:27):
Something extraordinary can and will happen in you.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And the evil one.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Wants to circumvent the process by suicide, don't give him
the victory. Stay the course, allow it to play out.
This is ultimately happening for your deep, deep healing. Now
please follow me just for a moment. We don't know
the cause of mental illness. However, that doesn't mean that
we don't know anything about mental illness. It does not
mean that we can only cure the symptoms through medicine
(05:56):
that masks our feelings and emotions. We can do that,
but it doesn't mean that's all we can do. It
doesn't mean that we cannot cure the disease. It doesn't
mean that we are totally clueless about where to go
from here. In fact, here we are again the most
read book in human existence, in human history. The Bible
(06:17):
gives us a lot more information about this than we
could ever imagine. So I'm in John fourteen. Let's read
one of the stories that Jesus tells. This is actually
not a parable, this is an actual historical occurrence. And
in verse seven we're told that when a Samaritan woman
came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you
give me a drink? The Samaritan woman said to him,
you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can
you ask me for a drink? Jesus answered her, if
(06:40):
you knew the gift of God and who it is
that asks you for a drink. You would have asked
him and he would have given you living water. Sir,
the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us
the well and drake from it himself, as it also
his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered, everyone who drinks
(07:03):
this water will be thirsty again, that is the water
from the well. But whoever drinks the water I give
them will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I give
them will become in them a spring of water, welling
up for eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir,
give me this water, so that I won't get thirsty
and have to keep coming here to draw water. Every
time I read Jesus' words to the woman at the well,
(07:26):
I'm thinking I'm reminded. Rather, I'm thinking about Isaiah fifty eight.
The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your
needs in a scorched sun land, and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well watered garden, like a
spring whose waters never fail. Now follow me, just stay
(07:47):
with me. The human brain is remarkably fascinating. There are
one hundred billion nerve cells in the brain. One hundred billion,
you think, how can they all fit in there? And
within the brain is contained serotonin, the hormone responsible for moods.
So moods like anxiety, depression, happiness, sadness, calmness, peace, all
(08:08):
of those you name the emotion or feeling, and it's impacted,
that is, as it is physically manifested, perhaps even determined
by serotonin levels in the body. Now here's what you
did not know, and here's what my anxiety disorder led
me to discover. Ninety five percent of serotonin is produced.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And howsed somewhere else other than the brain. Did you
know that?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yes, you have serotonin levels in the brain. The balance
can cause or the imbalance can cause all kind of issues.
But ninety five percent of serotonin levels are not in
the brain. Ninety five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Do you know what? Would you like to guess where
they are? Let me give you a hint.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
If you get a call, if you're a parent, and
let's say you get a call and the voice on
the other end of the line says, I'm sorry to
tell you that your daughter or your son has been
in an accident. Where do you feel lit first, the
gut immediately. If you've ever gotten a call like that,
you fell it down deep inside place you can't understand.
(09:08):
Some people actually get sick, some people actually pass out.
Ninety five percent of serotonin chemicals that communicate with the
rest of your body, These emotions are discovered in the
small intestines. Serotonin in the intestines function much like a
second brain. When trauma occurs in your life, big or small,
(09:30):
serotonin is released into the body. Information is released to
the CNS, the central nervous system, and as a result,
the body reacts. Now, what is interesting is, though, is
that even though the mind can block trauma and can
suppress things.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The gut does not.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The gut is like a volcano that can store up
all kinds of pressure over a long period of time.
It's in our gut that these levels impact the way
we feel. Something deep inside us has to deal will
deal eventually with what the mind refuses to admit. Have
you ever heard anybody, when they're giving you advice say
(10:12):
go with your gut.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
What do they mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
They're saying that your gut knows the truth that your
mind and heart may not see at the moment, go
with your gut.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Let me give you an illustration. Just stay with me
for a moment.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Now I'm in Zimbabwe, which is my favorite place in
the world to visit. I've been clear about that in
times past, with victoria falls, with the shonon of people
my friend did for Chizanga. This is a very peaceful
place for me. And yet it was there when I
stood up.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
After having a come up of coffee at a cafe.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I began to walk over to the bank, and
halfway in that journey, I became so weak that I
could not stand.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Now, this is somebody.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Who's lifted weights all of his life, been in good
physical condition for all of his life. Suddenly, right then
and there, I could not stand. My heart was racing.
I was gonna pass out. I had no idea what
was happening. The first thing that came to my mind
was that my mother died of a heart attack at
sixty one. Here, maybe this is my heart attack, Maybe this.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Is the end of my life.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
For six months I went to the medical world to
give me the answers what was happening.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Nobody could tell me.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Finally, somebody said to me maybe it was a panic attack,
and that made me very angry because my immediate.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Response was no way.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Because I was in Zimbabwe, the happiest place of my life,
I had no stress. I'm around people that I loved,
there were no pressures, no real difficulties. But later on,
as you'll find out in this sermon, that's only because
the mind kept pushing what the soul, the essential need,
the gut knew very well, the mind kept pracing it down.
(11:40):
The reason doctors can only treat the symptoms of mental
illnesses because they can't go where they need to go.
That's not a slam on them. They treat the physical manifestations,
not the root causes.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They can't go deep into your gut.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
They can't go deep into your soul, and so out
of mercy they mask or shut off the brain. They
attack the serotonin levels and balance you out through drugs.
If you have too much sadness, they give you a
happy pill. I know you've met people you wish they
had some happy pills. Or if you have too much anxiety,
(12:14):
they actually give you a depression pill. Now it's not
really a depression pill, but it works much the same
way as it balances and evens things out make no mistake. However,
you are not healed. You have a sophisticated band aid,
a band aid for which I am very grateful. You say, wait, Jeff,
(12:34):
wait a minute, why didn't you take things like zoloft
then add a van if they mask the problem?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Why did you do that?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
If you asked that question, no offense. But it's because
you've never had a mental illness. And second, when you're
in a fog or a daze, when your body's telling
you to run or flee, you can't think clearly. It's
too late at that point. The technical term for anxiety
disorder is in pen doom, so the body goes into
(13:01):
flight mode. You can't think clearly when you are running
for your life. Your heart is palpitating, your pulses off
the charts, your vision is blurred, even your balance is off.
I remember going to the emergency room in the middle
of this difficult season. I couldn't walk from the car
into the emergency room. Because this order affects different people
(13:24):
different ways.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
It's not uniform. The same thing as in depression.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
There's a deep darkness of the mind that you can't explain,
and you think You can't think clearly when you're falling
through a dark hole and there's fear and doubt is
overwhelming to the point that you don't want to live anymore.
Depression is more than sadness, folks, It's hopelessness. It's the inability,
not the refusal. It is the inability to see the
(13:53):
light at the end of the tunnel. Do you know
what Zolof did for me? It pushed back the darkness
of confusion so that I can begin to think clearly,
Pour over scripture, engage God in prayer, and contemplate my
life as Jesus went into my places that no one
else could go. And I want to tell you standing
here today, it is true. He is wonderful counselor Prince
(14:16):
of peace.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Stay with me. What was the problem with the woman
at the well?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You know, we just had a conference called Hearts of Beauty,
and the stories that come out of that are amazing.
You have women who enter this place who, through their thinking,
have been able to press down wounds that they've had
for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
The problem is, even though.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
They pressed it down here, their gut still knows it's there,
and it's building like a volcano and if it's not
dealt with, over time, it will explode. So they discover
what they press down, and they deal one on one
with these wounds that are there, and the spirit of
God comes into that place and opens their eyes to
(14:59):
the hill power of Christ. And when they do that,
they circumvent all the potential illnesses that can come as
a result of pressing things down that sooner or later
you have to deal with. Think about it for a moment.
What makes a woman, as we go back to john Ford,
what makes a woman sleep with?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Every man that they meet, say, well, she's loose.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
She's looking for affirmation and approval that she never got,
probably from her father. Not not every woman who doesn't
get that approval responds this way. But there are many
young girls who never get from their father what they
needed desperately from their father. They need proof that they matter,
so they engage in apocalyptic hookups. There's an issue deep
(15:45):
deep down inside the feeling of failure and insignificance and worthlessness,
and so men become their saviors, and men were never
designed to be saviors. Ask getting married woman that she'll
tell you so the way that she's dealing with her
feeling of insignition and unworthiness is actually not healing her,
(16:05):
but destroying her life. Jesus knows what she's looking for,
and he knows he's the only one that can go
down deep.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He's the only one that can give her what it
is she's looking for.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So in verse thirteen, Jesus answers, everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water
I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I
give them will become in them a spring of water,
well enough to eternal life. Now there are two kinds
of life, right, physical and spiritual. You cannot survive physically
without water. But you know, as we've said before, you
(16:38):
are more than your body. This is the outer tent,
the outer shell, the essential you, the real you, the
spiritual the soul also needs spiritual water.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So the essential you, the soul.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Needs nourishment in order to endure what life is gonna
throw at every single one of us. Remember creation, Fall, Redemption,
where in the Fall it's gonna make serious efforts to
destroy us.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So Jesus tells the woman at the.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well that he offers the kind of spiritual healing, and
the original language is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Here that will well up.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Hallo manu is the Greek word, and it means to
start way down deep and to flow outward. The etymology
refers to the gut. Here we are again, so that
what happens in the gut will ultimately and time spread
to the outer regions. The Old Testament prophets look forward
to a time when living waters would flow from Jerusalem
Ezekiel forty seven to nine. Swarms of living creatures will
(17:32):
live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers
of fish because this water flows there and makes the
salt water fresh.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
So where the river flows, everything will live.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
But there's something else, living waters and the Old Testament
is also a metaphor for the relationship between spirit, God's
Spirit in us, and God's Truth and how they respond
and react together to bring healing. The spirit God in us,
truth God's Word in us a good example again as
(18:04):
it is equal only this time Verse thirty six. I
will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart
of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit in you and move you
to follow my decrees the word, and be careful to
keep my laws. So there is a relationship between spirit,
Christ's power and the truth Christ's word. There's this inseparable
(18:28):
relation between these two.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Look at it like this. The spirit without the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Or the Word is unpredictable, untrustworthy, and unproductive. The word, however,
without the spirit, is passionless, legalistic, and oppressive. But together
the Word and the Spirit brings life that begins way
down deep and begins to flow outward to all of
its parts. In fact, when we are experienced joy on
(19:01):
a soul level in our bellies or intestines, deep down inside,
there is a naturally perfectly balanced productivity of serotonin.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Now, I want to say that again.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So we're combining what is spiritual and scientific at the
same time. When we are experiencing joy in a soul level,
in our bellies or intestines, deep down inside, there is
a naturally perfectly balanced productivity of serotonin. Niam I put
it like this, The joy of the Lord is my strength.
(19:33):
The joy of the Lord is my strength. Now stay
with me, keep going. What was really going on with
me in my years of anxiety disorder? Well, okay, you
know I'm in retrospect. Now it's been a while so
I want to share with you what I've discovered in
this journey.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My father had died.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
A couple of months before these attacks started. Now my
mother had died and I dealt with that. It's been
ten That was ten eleven, twelve years before my father died.
But my father died on my birthday, and that had
more damage.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
That did something to me.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I can't really explain and it can't really fathom it, really,
but I knew that something shook me. My best friend
died a few weeks after the death of my father.
My mom's death was creeping up in my life again,
not to the fact that she died, because I knew
she was with Jesus, but the fact of her age.
She died so young, and I'm creeping near that age
(20:32):
with every passing year. Over time, I realized there were
two things playing a role that had been pressed down
into the gut that the brain was suppressing, but it
was building up over time.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
One was the fear of death.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Now you would think a pastor would not be afraid
of dying because he knows what's next. I can't even
really explain it. When people around me started dying that
were my age when my mom, my dad died, my
best friend died. I kind of pressed it down. I
told myself, I spoke words to myself, but I don't
think I was very convincing. It was like, I'm not
(21:08):
ready to die. I have so much more I need
to accomplish. And that was on the other side of
the spectrum because I grew up in a family that
praised athleticism. I was one of four brothers, but I
was the only one that was athletic. Therefore, as I
look back now, I know that I received the praise
and the honor, even the worship with a small w
(21:30):
that I know that my brothers longed for. But I
also learned very early in my life that you are
praised and adored based on performance. So I start to
carry that with me throughout my entire life, and I
get caught up in this performance trap. My significance, my
feelings of worth are worthy enus come from what have
I done lately?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
What have I achieved?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What have I accomplished where people will look from the
outside in and say, Wow, look at how awesome this
person is.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I got this fear of death.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Going on that I've not accomplished what I want to
accomplish in my life, and this death cloud hangs over me.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And then I've got this idea that I've.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Not accomplished, and I'm not accomplishing what I've set out
to accomplish. So I've got this fear of death coupled
with this fear of failure, and all of that is
hidden and pressed down. I had something that was welling
up within me and flowing to other places death and
under achievement. And over time, because that was pressed down,
(22:29):
the serotonin levels began to change. Did you know that
you can change the serodentonin balance in your brain and
in your gut by your response to the tragedy or
traumas of life. So over time the serotonin levels began
to change.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This deep wound.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Of performance and perfectionism and achievement for significance began to
alter the balance of serotonin so much so that it
sent a message to my central nervous system that my
soul was becoming undone. My brain refused to deal with,
my gut was storing up. And now because of the
(23:08):
serotonin levels out of balance, because there's no centralized joy
in my life, I began to disintegrate and in order
to stop the total collapse. The body reacted in order
to tell me that something is wrong and if it
is not dealt with, it will ultimately destroy me. Have
you ever thought looking at your mental illness this way?
(23:30):
You're depressing your anxiety. It's the body trying and attempting
to save itself. Something's out of whack, something's not right,
and your soul knows it. Your brain may shove it aside,
but your soul, the essential you.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Your gut knows it.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And now it's going to send a signal to your
central nervous system, to your body that you have got
to deal with the disease, not just mask the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You've been listening to today with Jeff. Thanks for joining us.
Next time we'll bring you the rest of this message
from pastor Jeff.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
According to scripture, the Holy Spirit is in you. The
waters are there. That's proof of your conversion. It is
then the word of God, the voice of God, as
it saturates your deepest parts that will begin to bring
life and vitality and break the dam where the waters
began to flow, living waters that has the potential to
(24:27):
flow out and be.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
On You can listen to more messages like this. Just
search for Today with Jeff Finds. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You make With every single brand, we'll bring this Today, Today, Today,
Today with Jeff Fines
We don't know the cause of mental illness. It doesn't
mean that we cannot cure the disease. It doesn't mean
that we are totally clueless about where to go from here.
In fact, here we are again the most read book
in human existence, in human history. The Bible gives us
a lot more information about this than we could ever imagine.
So I'm in John fourteen. Let's read one of the
stories that Jesus tells, and in verse seven we're told
(00:22):
that when a Samerican woman came to draw water, Jesus
said to her, everyone who drinks this water will be
thirsty again. That is the water from the well. But
whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines, pasta apologist and
Bible teacher. Anxiety and depression are more common now than ever.
If we don't struggle with mental health, we probably know
someone that does. My name is Aaron and you're listening
(00:57):
to Today with Jeff Fines. Welcome to today's program. We're
about to begin a message with Pastor Jeff and it's
another in our series looking at anxiety, depression and Jesus
scripture offers us peace with mental health and shows us
that anxiety and depression do not have to define us
in this message, Pastor Jeff is in John chapter four.
(01:17):
Let's see what it has to say and how to
thrive with anxiety depression and Jesus.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I mean John chapter four, verse seven through fifteen. John
four seven through fifteen. The stats are out according to
John Hopskins University and Medical Center, how many people do
you think died during COVID of COVID or symptoms related
to COVID. The real numbers are finally out, they've been released,
and the answer is point zero eight seven five percent
(01:58):
of the world's population died of COVID or COVID related deaths.
Now you think, what less than a percentage point? Well, yeah,
but the world population is eight billion, which means seven
million people died during COVID.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So now I'm not here to.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Talk about COVID and should we have shut down? Should
we have locked down? No, that's not the point. The
point is that's less than one percentage point. And by contrast,
one in every four people on the planet, twenty five
percent of the world struggles with mental illness. Wow, folks,
that's an epidemic. That's pandemic of epic proportions. Now understand
(02:36):
what this means. We have to distinguish between mental illnesses
like anxiety and depression and feelings of anxiety and depression.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Let me give you a few examples of anxiety.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
My wife and I were on a flight from Brisbane,
Australia to Los Angeles a few years ago, and we
got caught up in the jet stream and the pilot
came over the intercommon tolas. We can't get out of
this jet screen stream. We can't go high, we can't
go oh, We're gonna be stuck in it until we
get to LA.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
The problem is when you're caught in the jet stream,
you're bouncing up and down. You feel like you're in
a washing machine, just being thrown everywhere. And so I
can tell you I had a great fear of flying
in those days. So I was anxious, but I didn't
have the mental disorder of anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I was just feeling anxious. You can feel anxious about something.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
You can refuse to study the night before test, and
I guarantee when the teacher hands you the paper and
it's time for.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The test, you're gonna feel anxiety.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Or if you're going on a date that you wish
you would have never agreed to, You're gonna experience some
sense of anxiety.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Same thing is true about depression.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
When your girlfriend breaks up with you, when you don't
get into the college that you hope to get into,
when your dog dies. You know, if you're a Raiders
fan or an Angels fan, you know you're gonna be
sad a lot because you're losers. I mean, there's gonna
be sadness, but there's not gonna be depression. Sadness and
anxiety those are not the same thing as mental illness.
(03:57):
In fact, depression and anxiety are part and parshal of
the human experience, whereby we desire something more that we're
not getting, or we feel that our lives are not
going the way that our lives should go. So this
brings anxiety, depression, sadness, mental illness, and this is important
distinction to make refers to something far more chronic. It's
an overwhelming feeling of anxiety or depression that actually impacts
(04:23):
your ability to function and to think clearly about life.
It's debilitating, it's often unexplainable, and even suicidal. You say suicidal, absolutely,
In fact, in the middle of the three years where
I suffered from chronic anxiety disorder, I can tell you
there were days that I contemplated, and I've made this very,
(04:46):
very commonplace. There were days that I thought, if my
life is going to be like this, if I'm going
to wake up every night with my heart racing, with
my pulse racing, I can't catch my breath and this
feeling of impending, if that's going to be the pattern
of my life for the rest of my life, I
would rather not live. So let me, first of all
(05:07):
say to you, for those who are contemplating suicide right now,
which is more than most of us around have ever fathomed.
Can I say to you that your best days are ahead,
do not give up. Do not give in. This is
creating something unique in you. I know you don't want
to hear that now because I didn't want to hear
that in the middle. This is creating something unique in you.
(05:27):
Something extraordinary can and will happen in you.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And the evil one.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Wants to circumvent the process by suicide, don't give him
the victory. Stay the course, allow it to play out.
This is ultimately happening for your deep, deep healing. Now
please follow me just for a moment. We don't know
the cause of mental illness. However, that doesn't mean that
we don't know anything about mental illness. It does not
mean that we can only cure the symptoms through medicine
(05:56):
that masks our feelings and emotions. We can do that,
but it doesn't mean that's all we can do. It
doesn't mean that we cannot cure the disease. It doesn't
mean that we are totally clueless about where to go
from here. In fact, here we are again the most
read book in human existence, in human history. The Bible
(06:17):
gives us a lot more information about this than we
could ever imagine. So I'm in John fourteen. Let's read
one of the stories that Jesus tells. This is actually
not a parable, this is an actual historical occurrence. And
in verse seven we're told that when a Samaritan woman
came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you
give me a drink? The Samaritan woman said to him,
you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. How can
you ask me for a drink? Jesus answered her, if
(06:40):
you knew the gift of God and who it is
that asks you for a drink. You would have asked
him and he would have given you living water. Sir,
the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and
the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us
the well and drake from it himself, as it also
his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered, everyone who drinks
(07:03):
this water will be thirsty again, that is the water
from the well. But whoever drinks the water I give
them will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I give
them will become in them a spring of water, welling
up for eternal life. The woman said to him, Sir,
give me this water, so that I won't get thirsty
and have to keep coming here to draw water. Every
time I read Jesus' words to the woman at the well,
(07:26):
I'm thinking I'm reminded. Rather, I'm thinking about Isaiah fifty eight.
The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your
needs in a scorched sun land, and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well watered garden, like a
spring whose waters never fail. Now follow me, just stay
(07:47):
with me. The human brain is remarkably fascinating. There are
one hundred billion nerve cells in the brain. One hundred billion,
you think, how can they all fit in there? And
within the brain is contained serotonin, the hormone responsible for moods.
So moods like anxiety, depression, happiness, sadness, calmness, peace, all
(08:08):
of those you name the emotion or feeling, and it's impacted,
that is, as it is physically manifested, perhaps even determined
by serotonin levels in the body. Now here's what you
did not know, and here's what my anxiety disorder led
me to discover. Ninety five percent of serotonin is produced.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And howsed somewhere else other than the brain. Did you
know that?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yes, you have serotonin levels in the brain. The balance
can cause or the imbalance can cause all kind of issues.
But ninety five percent of serotonin levels are not in
the brain. Ninety five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Do you know what? Would you like to guess where
they are? Let me give you a hint.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
If you get a call, if you're a parent, and
let's say you get a call and the voice on
the other end of the line says, I'm sorry to
tell you that your daughter or your son has been
in an accident. Where do you feel lit first, the
gut immediately. If you've ever gotten a call like that,
you fell it down deep inside place you can't understand.
(09:08):
Some people actually get sick, some people actually pass out.
Ninety five percent of serotonin chemicals that communicate with the
rest of your body, These emotions are discovered in the
small intestines. Serotonin in the intestines function much like a
second brain. When trauma occurs in your life, big or small,
(09:30):
serotonin is released into the body. Information is released to
the CNS, the central nervous system, and as a result,
the body reacts. Now, what is interesting is, though, is
that even though the mind can block trauma and can
suppress things.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
The gut does not.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The gut is like a volcano that can store up
all kinds of pressure over a long period of time.
It's in our gut that these levels impact the way
we feel. Something deep inside us has to deal will
deal eventually with what the mind refuses to admit. Have
you ever heard anybody, when they're giving you advice say
(10:12):
go with your gut.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
What do they mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
They're saying that your gut knows the truth that your
mind and heart may not see at the moment, go
with your gut.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Let me give you an illustration. Just stay with me
for a moment.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Now I'm in Zimbabwe, which is my favorite place in
the world to visit. I've been clear about that in
times past, with victoria falls, with the shonon of people
my friend did for Chizanga. This is a very peaceful
place for me. And yet it was there when I
stood up.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
After having a come up of coffee at a cafe.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And I began to walk over to the bank, and
halfway in that journey, I became so weak that I
could not stand.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Now, this is somebody.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Who's lifted weights all of his life, been in good
physical condition for all of his life. Suddenly, right then
and there, I could not stand. My heart was racing.
I was gonna pass out. I had no idea what
was happening. The first thing that came to my mind
was that my mother died of a heart attack at
sixty one. Here, maybe this is my heart attack, Maybe this.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Is the end of my life.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
For six months I went to the medical world to
give me the answers what was happening.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Nobody could tell me.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Finally, somebody said to me maybe it was a panic attack,
and that made me very angry because my immediate.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Response was no way.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Because I was in Zimbabwe, the happiest place of my life,
I had no stress. I'm around people that I loved,
there were no pressures, no real difficulties. But later on,
as you'll find out in this sermon, that's only because
the mind kept pushing what the soul, the essential need,
the gut knew very well, the mind kept pracing it down.
(11:40):
The reason doctors can only treat the symptoms of mental
illnesses because they can't go where they need to go.
That's not a slam on them. They treat the physical manifestations,
not the root causes.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They can't go deep into your gut.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
They can't go deep into your soul, and so out
of mercy they mask or shut off the brain. They
attack the serotonin levels and balance you out through drugs.
If you have too much sadness, they give you a
happy pill. I know you've met people you wish they
had some happy pills. Or if you have too much anxiety,
(12:14):
they actually give you a depression pill. Now it's not
really a depression pill, but it works much the same
way as it balances and evens things out make no mistake. However,
you are not healed. You have a sophisticated band aid,
a band aid for which I am very grateful. You say, wait, Jeff,
(12:34):
wait a minute, why didn't you take things like zoloft
then add a van if they mask the problem?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Why did you do that?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
If you asked that question, no offense. But it's because
you've never had a mental illness. And second, when you're
in a fog or a daze, when your body's telling
you to run or flee, you can't think clearly. It's
too late at that point. The technical term for anxiety
disorder is in pen doom, so the body goes into
(13:01):
flight mode. You can't think clearly when you are running
for your life. Your heart is palpitating, your pulses off
the charts, your vision is blurred, even your balance is off.
I remember going to the emergency room in the middle
of this difficult season. I couldn't walk from the car
into the emergency room. Because this order affects different people
(13:24):
different ways.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
It's not uniform. The same thing as in depression.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
There's a deep darkness of the mind that you can't explain,
and you think You can't think clearly when you're falling
through a dark hole and there's fear and doubt is
overwhelming to the point that you don't want to live anymore.
Depression is more than sadness, folks, It's hopelessness. It's the inability,
not the refusal. It is the inability to see the
(13:53):
light at the end of the tunnel. Do you know
what Zolof did for me? It pushed back the darkness
of confusion so that I can begin to think clearly,
Pour over scripture, engage God in prayer, and contemplate my
life as Jesus went into my places that no one
else could go. And I want to tell you standing
here today, it is true. He is wonderful counselor Prince
(14:16):
of peace.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Stay with me. What was the problem with the woman
at the well?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You know, we just had a conference called Hearts of Beauty,
and the stories that come out of that are amazing.
You have women who enter this place who, through their thinking,
have been able to press down wounds that they've had
for a long time.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
The problem is, even though.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
They pressed it down here, their gut still knows it's there,
and it's building like a volcano and if it's not
dealt with, over time, it will explode. So they discover
what they press down, and they deal one on one
with these wounds that are there, and the spirit of
God comes into that place and opens their eyes to
(14:59):
the hill power of Christ. And when they do that,
they circumvent all the potential illnesses that can come as
a result of pressing things down that sooner or later
you have to deal with. Think about it for a moment.
What makes a woman, as we go back to john Ford,
what makes a woman sleep with?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Every man that they meet, say, well, she's loose.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
She's looking for affirmation and approval that she never got,
probably from her father. Not not every woman who doesn't
get that approval responds this way. But there are many
young girls who never get from their father what they
needed desperately from their father. They need proof that they matter,
so they engage in apocalyptic hookups. There's an issue deep
(15:45):
deep down inside the feeling of failure and insignificance and worthlessness,
and so men become their saviors, and men were never
designed to be saviors. Ask getting married woman that she'll
tell you so the way that she's dealing with her
feeling of insignition and unworthiness is actually not healing her,
(16:05):
but destroying her life. Jesus knows what she's looking for,
and he knows he's the only one that can go
down deep.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He's the only one that can give her what it
is she's looking for.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So in verse thirteen, Jesus answers, everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water
I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I
give them will become in them a spring of water,
well enough to eternal life. Now there are two kinds
of life, right, physical and spiritual. You cannot survive physically
without water. But you know, as we've said before, you
(16:38):
are more than your body. This is the outer tent,
the outer shell, the essential you, the real you, the
spiritual the soul also needs spiritual water.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So the essential you, the soul.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Needs nourishment in order to endure what life is gonna
throw at every single one of us. Remember creation, Fall, Redemption,
where in the Fall it's gonna make serious efforts to
destroy us.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
So Jesus tells the woman at the.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well that he offers the kind of spiritual healing, and
the original language is beautiful.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Here that will well up.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Hallo manu is the Greek word, and it means to
start way down deep and to flow outward. The etymology
refers to the gut. Here we are again, so that
what happens in the gut will ultimately and time spread
to the outer regions. The Old Testament prophets look forward
to a time when living waters would flow from Jerusalem
Ezekiel forty seven to nine. Swarms of living creatures will
(17:32):
live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers
of fish because this water flows there and makes the
salt water fresh.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
So where the river flows, everything will live.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
But there's something else, living waters and the Old Testament
is also a metaphor for the relationship between spirit, God's
Spirit in us, and God's Truth and how they respond
and react together to bring healing. The spirit God in us,
truth God's Word in us a good example again as
(18:04):
it is equal only this time Verse thirty six. I
will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart
of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit in you and move you
to follow my decrees the word, and be careful to
keep my laws. So there is a relationship between spirit,
Christ's power and the truth Christ's word. There's this inseparable
(18:28):
relation between these two.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Look at it like this. The spirit without the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Or the Word is unpredictable, untrustworthy, and unproductive. The word, however,
without the spirit, is passionless, legalistic, and oppressive. But together
the Word and the Spirit brings life that begins way
down deep and begins to flow outward to all of
its parts. In fact, when we are experienced joy on
(19:01):
a soul level in our bellies or intestines, deep down inside,
there is a naturally perfectly balanced productivity of serotonin.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Now, I want to say that again.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So we're combining what is spiritual and scientific at the
same time. When we are experiencing joy in a soul level,
in our bellies or intestines, deep down inside, there is
a naturally perfectly balanced productivity of serotonin. Niam I put
it like this, The joy of the Lord is my strength.
(19:33):
The joy of the Lord is my strength. Now stay
with me, keep going. What was really going on with
me in my years of anxiety disorder? Well, okay, you
know I'm in retrospect. Now it's been a while so
I want to share with you what I've discovered in
this journey.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My father had died.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
A couple of months before these attacks started. Now my
mother had died and I dealt with that. It's been
ten That was ten eleven, twelve years before my father died.
But my father died on my birthday, and that had
more damage.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
That did something to me.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I can't really explain and it can't really fathom it, really,
but I knew that something shook me. My best friend
died a few weeks after the death of my father.
My mom's death was creeping up in my life again,
not to the fact that she died, because I knew
she was with Jesus, but the fact of her age.
She died so young, and I'm creeping near that age
(20:32):
with every passing year. Over time, I realized there were
two things playing a role that had been pressed down
into the gut that the brain was suppressing, but it
was building up over time.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
One was the fear of death.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Now you would think a pastor would not be afraid
of dying because he knows what's next. I can't even
really explain it. When people around me started dying that
were my age when my mom, my dad died, my
best friend died. I kind of pressed it down. I
told myself, I spoke words to myself, but I don't
think I was very convincing. It was like, I'm not
(21:08):
ready to die. I have so much more I need
to accomplish. And that was on the other side of
the spectrum because I grew up in a family that
praised athleticism. I was one of four brothers, but I
was the only one that was athletic. Therefore, as I
look back now, I know that I received the praise
and the honor, even the worship with a small w
(21:30):
that I know that my brothers longed for. But I
also learned very early in my life that you are
praised and adored based on performance. So I start to
carry that with me throughout my entire life, and I
get caught up in this performance trap. My significance, my
feelings of worth are worthy enus come from what have
I done lately?
Speaker 3 (21:51):
What have I achieved?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What have I accomplished where people will look from the
outside in and say, Wow, look at how awesome this
person is.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I got this fear of death.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Going on that I've not accomplished what I want to
accomplish in my life, and this death cloud hangs over me.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And then I've got this idea that I've.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Not accomplished, and I'm not accomplishing what I've set out
to accomplish. So I've got this fear of death coupled
with this fear of failure, and all of that is
hidden and pressed down. I had something that was welling
up within me and flowing to other places death and
under achievement. And over time, because that was pressed down,
(22:29):
the serotonin levels began to change. Did you know that
you can change the serodentonin balance in your brain and
in your gut by your response to the tragedy or
traumas of life. So over time the serotonin levels began
to change.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
This deep wound.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Of performance and perfectionism and achievement for significance began to
alter the balance of serotonin so much so that it
sent a message to my central nervous system that my
soul was becoming undone. My brain refused to deal with,
my gut was storing up. And now because of the
(23:08):
serotonin levels out of balance, because there's no centralized joy
in my life, I began to disintegrate and in order
to stop the total collapse. The body reacted in order
to tell me that something is wrong and if it
is not dealt with, it will ultimately destroy me. Have
you ever thought looking at your mental illness this way?
(23:30):
You're depressing your anxiety. It's the body trying and attempting
to save itself. Something's out of whack, something's not right,
and your soul knows it. Your brain may shove it aside,
but your soul, the essential you.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Your gut knows it.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And now it's going to send a signal to your
central nervous system, to your body that you have got
to deal with the disease, not just mask the symptoms.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You've been listening to today with Jeff. Thanks for joining us.
Next time we'll bring you the rest of this message
from pastor Jeff.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
According to scripture, the Holy Spirit is in you. The
waters are there. That's proof of your conversion. It is
then the word of God, the voice of God, as
it saturates your deepest parts that will begin to bring
life and vitality and break the dam where the waters
began to flow, living waters that has the potential to
(24:27):
flow out and be.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
On You can listen to more messages like this. Just
search for Today with Jeff Finds. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
You make With every single brand, we'll bring this Today, Today, Today,
Today with Jeff Fines
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