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Today let’s talk about a serious problem. Depression.

There’s a variety of different types of depression. There’s seasonal depression maybe gloomy weather causes you to be down.

There’s situational depression, maybe something terrible in your life is causing you grief and pain. Think about the loss of a loved one or a family member. Understandably you’re going to be down there is clinical depression where maybe a chemical imbalance in your brain, something that you have no control over, causes you to lose your motivation and causes you to lose your energy and not be passionate about the things that are important in your life.

There’s also spiritual depression. Let’s talk about that. What’s spiritual depression? Well it’s thinking things like this:

Man I’ve made such a mess of my life. How could God still love me?

I’ve done something so wrong, so terrible, how could God ever forgive me?

It’s looking at your life and looking at eternity and wondering does heaven even exist?

Is there eternal life? If so can I have that?

When it comes to a spiritual depression, there is a cure. Not just a treatment, not just something that can help, but there is a clear and effective cure and the cure for spiritual depression is the gospel message.

It’s that God loved you so much, no matter who you are no matter what you’ve done, that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be your Savior.

It’s that Jesus Christ loves you so much that he laid down his life for you.

And it’s that Jesus resurrection from the dead means you have eternal life you’re going to rise from the dead one day too.

The prophet Isaiah he prophesied about Jesus Christ and about how our Savior would come into the world with this cure for spiritual depression: the Gospel message. And that he would preach and teach it. Isaiah said that someone would come to preach the good news to the poor, to take care of people who are hurt and wounded, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

If you ever find yourself wrestling with any aspect of spiritual depression. Spend time with your savior Jesus Christ in His Word where you have the gospel message, the cure for spiritual depression. Amen.

Today let’s talk about some of our interactions with the government and specifically let’s talk about this question: what do we do as Christians when the government tells us to do something that we don’t agree with? Or maybe we’re not that excited about?

Maybe you face this situation or a problem in a simple way. Maybe you’ve been driving down the highway. There’s no other cars around the highways straight. But the speed limit and you want to go 85.

Or maybe you face this problem in a little bit more of a serious way. Maybe you have a great job and you’ve done very well for yourself or maybe you have a great business that you own. But the government wants a certain percentage maybe a big percentage.

Well the simple answer to that question “do I have to obey the government even if they tell me to do something I don’t like?” Is yes.

Jesus tells us “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” That’s talking about paying taxes. And that’s not the only instance in scripture where we are encouraged and even commanded to obey the authorities. In Romans Chapter 13 were told to

Pay what you owe to all of them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. (Romans 13:7)

One thing that can help us pay taxes, share our revenue, give honor and respect to the government is understanding that the government is really God’s representative here on Earth in civil matters. Now the Government’s not perfect, it’s not flawless. We may not agree with everything that the government does, but it’s still been established by God. And the only time that we can oppose our government or disobey them is if the government tells us to do something that goes against God’s Word, that would cause us to do something contrary to Scripture.

As we close our devotion let’s talk about one of the greatest blessings that we have from our government. That is the freedom of religion. Here in the United States. We have the ability to learn and share the gospel freely. The Gospel message that Jesus is our Savior and that through him we have eternal life.

To God Be The Glory. Amen.

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