Good Friday to you. Hope your, day is going well. You're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here on American Family Radio. And I want to talk to you today about labels. The Bible says this, Second Corinthians, chapter 10, beginning in verse 3. Paul says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we're ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. We're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Sunday. This past Sunday, I had a sweet young mom come up to me, and, she was telling me about her diagnosis, and it was, schizophrenia and borderline. And I forget. But no, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. And, she's wracked with anxieties and things like that. It's hard for her to function. And she's got a child that she has to take care of. And, her life's just kind of consumed with all these difficulties, emotional difficulties. And I told her, she said, do you know what that is? And I said, here's the thing that I know. You need to see yourself not as these things. You need to see yourself as a child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are a daughter of the king. You're a princess in the Lord's, kingdom. That's how you need to see yourself. Not as schizophrenic, not as, bipolar, not as any of those things. Do you have emotional issues with anxieties and all sorts of negative thoughts running through your mind? Yes, you do. But that's not how you need to see yourself. You need to see yourself and to say about yourself what God says About you. You need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now I ran across a clip, the other day from Josh Howerton, the pastor at Lake Point. And I thought this is, this is right up my alley because I really, really struggle with psychology, being in the church to such a degree that all of a sudden, and this isn't true for everybody obviously, but the Bible gets pushed aside and psychology seems to be like, well, this person has this problem. The church can't really help them. the Bible can't help them. We need to send them to a psychiatrist so that they can get on drugs and prescription drugs and these kinds of things. I get that sometimes, somebody is so, so anxious and is dealing with so many issues that they need to have something that helps balance them out. Their chemistry is all wrong. I get that. But here is something that Josh Howerton said that we can't just dismiss because it is important.

Speaker B: This went viral, hit my timeline. I, ah, screenshotted it. He goes, first, therapy is invented. Next, 120 years pass. Next, everyone is more anxious, neurotic and depressed than ever before. By the way, can we just say that's a fact? So like, people right now live in the most therapeutic cultures ever existed. Simultaneously, this is the most lonely, anxious, depressed and suicidal generation that's ever existed. Now in a secular culture, the therapists replace the pastors. So it's like that's what you gotta watch out. So a lot of people look to therapists as secular priests. I've read that before. And I do just want to point out it does not seem at a net scale like it's doing what we may have hoped it would do. But what I think you understand as a Christian, when you walk into a counselor's office, what you're doing, whether you know it or not, is you're asking them to disciple you. And you're opening up the most vulnerable parts of your life, your heart, your emotional pathways, decisions that you're going to end up making. So what we want to do as Christians is man. We want to make sure that we're getting wise and godly counsel from a counselor. And this is something that, as I look back and reflect on the one experience I had that was not a good godly experience in counseling, this is exactly what happened. So it's the, called Centipede's Dilemma. okay, it says Centipede's Dilemma. Ask a centipede which one of its hundred legs moves the fastest and it forgets how to move. Reflecting on what we normally do without thought ironically worsens performance. A culture of endless self reflection therapy and navel gazing is eroding important life skills. And what her point is, is, dude, if you start walking into every situation, you're in a classroom, you're on a sports team, and the only thing you're thinking is, how does this affect my emotions, bro, Let me just tell you that is a great way to completely cripple your life.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: A great way to completely cripple your life. So what struck me, and I had Dr. Paige Patterson on the program some time ago. He wrote a book about this, you know, psychology, and psychiatry. Those are what's called soft sciences. You can get, 10 psychiatrists in a room and give them, this person that they diagnose, they can come up with all different diagnoses for this person. The medical community outside of psychiatry, it's a lot more cut and dry. You know, you go in, does this person have a broken bone? here are all the test results. What is physically wrong with this person? what's wrong in the biological function of this person? It's a lot more cut and dried, a lot more lab, intensive. You know, the tests don't lie. If this level is up and that level is up, this indicates, you know, you got kidney problems or you got liver problems or whatever it might be. And then you address it, through surgery or through anti inflammatories or through something like that. But when you start getting into what we like to call mental disorders, it's kind of Katy, bar the door. it's like, okay, then we're going to put you on these antipsychotic, medications, as I think it was Matt Walsh that pointed out, all these trans, shooters that we've had a rash going in, shooting up schools and things like that, they're all on these psychotic drugs. it's hard to know what kind of, impact that's having in the minds of people. It could be causing some people to kind of disassociate and go nuts. And so as Josh Howerton points out, you know, we have all this information, we have all this therapy and were worse off, seemingly worse off than ever before. you can't deny the fact that the stats show there is a definite rise in youth suicide. Now why is that? Well, the disintegration of the family has a lot to do with that. social media and smartphones and everything being recorded and kids growing up in that environment and Being afraid and scared to death, going to school, doing something stupid and having it go viral. we didn't, you know, people my age and even people m. Millennials, I guess they're millennials. But if you were in, you know, right when the iPhone came out, you were in school and, you didn't really concern yourself with that. But it's when social media and the smartphone came together, as we were talk, one particular author that wrote about that, he said that was the, cocktail that really affected younger people because everything became, you know, a, ah, fearful experience at school to not have something happen to them, to not do something stupid or have something happen to them that would be blasted out. you know, we've had kids get cyberbullied and because of that they commit suicide. So you have the disintegration of the family. You have the social media and smartphone, intersection. You have the fact that, many families don't go to church anymore. So the kids aren't growing up in church. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They're not taught about that. And, the things that they, see and hear. Because it used to be you grew up and you had network television and there were, guardrails on what they could say and what they could do on network television. And you couldn't go to movies that were going to be vulgar, or sexualized. You couldn't get into those. It was. Those were R rated. You had to be 17 years old, to go to those. So there were guardrails on things. Now those guardrails are gone. And so that is a destructive force in, the lives of children. Another thing is delayed adulthood. Matthew McConaughey did that one movie called Failure to Launch. And, so many are failing to launch. So many guys are failing to launch and they get sucked into, video games. And I get it. Video games are fun. I have a tendency to want to play those too. I had to get, rid of that stuff because it's just like, this is consuming too many hours of my time. I had a Rocky Balboa video game and it was called rage.com. and I remember playing that. And, there were certain fighters that I couldn't beat, playing this game. And I would just get so frustrated, frustrated. And I just feel the, the rage come and it's like, no wonder this is called rage.com. it's like, this is not good for my life. And, so I got away from that. But, but Kids get sucked into that, and, then they get kind of sucked into. They. They don't grow up. They're kind of locked into being an emotional, adolescent or an emotional, you know, 15, 16 year old kid. And you got to grow up. And so, as Paul said, when I was a child, I used to think as a child, speak as a child, reason as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. So we're talking about labels today. If you get a label, put upon you that you are this, you are that, you have adhd, and that's why you, are so restless and can't, pay attention. And so. Okay, well, yeah, I'm not expected to pay attention in school because I have adhd. And so then we're going to put you on this drug. Well, you have, this problem, that problem. You have ptsd. So if you go off on somebody, well, it's not your fault. You have ptsd. What's the whole Lindsay Clancy thing about, she murders her children? Well, she has postpartum depression. all these. These issues, and she was crying out for help, and nobody help helped her. And so we shouldn't hold her responsible for what she did. You don't hold a crippled person responsible because they can't get up and walk. I mean, that would be cruel. They can't do that because they have had damage to their spine and they're paralyzed. And so we try and put those two things together. Well, this person is paralyzed physically, this person is paralyzed mentally. So, you know, we cut them slack. You think about that. Does God do that for us? Oh, well, you know, there's actually a thing. I looked this up. There's a thing about explosive temper. it has a name. Say I wrote it down here. Now I can't find it. but. But it's, it's an explosive temper. Intermittent, temper explosion, whatever they call it, they have some name for it. so you have that, and it's, Well, I'm not responsible. I have intermittent explosive temper. No, God's not buying that. Moses had an episode where his temper went off. He struck the rock when he was supposed to speak to the rock, and God held him accountable for that. He didn't say, oh, well, Moses, you got a lot of stress on you and things are tough, and, I'll give you a pass. No, he said, hey, Moses, because you did that, you failed to treat me as holy, before the people, and you didn't do what I said. Guess what? You're not going into the promised land. There are consequences for your actions. Did the people contribute to that? Of course they did. That can explain it. It doesn't excuse it. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. Pastor Jeff Schrieve here on American Family Radio, talking about labels and how to put upon your life the right label. I am a, child of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We'll be right back. This June marks three years since the overturn of Roe. But did you know that since then, the number of abortions has surged to a 10 year high? Preborn network clinics continue to support women facing unplanned pregnancies, showering them with God's love and providing free ultrasounds. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, she's twice as likely to choose life. It was like the beginning of my healing journey. They do an ultrasound. That's when everything changed. When I saw my baby and when I heard her heartbeat, that was it. $28 sponsors one ultrasound and $140 helps to rescue five babies. Your generous tax deductible donation also helps to provide women who choose life with assistance for up to two years. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250, baby. Or visit preborn.com afr. This is Real Truth for today. Podcasts of the program are available on the podcast [email protected] now back to Pastor Jeff Schrieve. Welcome back to the program, Pastor Jeff. Here we're talking about labels. Has somebody put a label on you? You know, in the, psychological world, they deal with diagnoses. They have their diagnostics. The dsm, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders, it started in 1952 and it's had eight revisions since 1952. The latest revision is 2022. and so these things are changing. They're constantly changing. Homosexuality used to be, in 1952, it was, a disorder. It was listed as a mental disorder under sociopathic personality, disturbance and transvestitism. That was also in there under, a sexual deviant behavior. And then in 1980, they had, gender identity disorder. And now homosexuality is out. That's not a disorder anymore. that has changed. It hadn't changed it. In the word of God, it's still sin, but in the dsm, it's not listed as a disorder. And gender dysphoria is not listed as a disorder. It's listed in the latest DSM as, the distress of the distress a person has when his gender, identity doesn't match with his biological sex.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: I have real problems with, all the psychological things. Does the Bible talk about psychological things? Does it talk about distress? Does it talk about anxiety? Does it talk about depression? Yes. Does it talk about bitterness? Yes. Do we see all these things, especially in the Old Testament, the Old Testament accounts, and you read stories about people's lives and you have sibling rivalry and you have hatred and you have, these emotions, insecurities. You have all those things that you can see in full color there. God paints them all for us. But what is the answer? The answer is not a label. The answer is not to say, well, okay, I have ptsd. I mean, I can't control that. I have as. As I shared right before the break, I have intermittent explosive disorder. Well, I can't control my temper because. Good night. I mean, if you had intermittent explosive disorder, I wouldn't blame you. if you got hurt in a car wreck and broke your back and now you're crippled and can't walk, I don't berate you for not being able to walk. See, those two things are not the same. And God doesn't promise. I remember having this conversation with my friend Charles Lowry, who's a psychologist, ah, by training. And I said, listen, God doesn't promise us physical healing. as some want to say, you know, everybody should be healed and healthy. And, I saw a picture of some faith healer the other day, and she was wearing glasses. And someone pointed out, you know, if you're a real faith healer, why would you be having to wear glasses? That seems to me that, that would be easy for a faith healer to, you know, physician, heal yourself so that you're not having to have glasses. But, you know, the Bible doesn't promise physical healing, but it does promise, mental and emotional healing. It does promise peace in the midst of a storm. One of the fruits, one of the attributes of the fruit of the spir fruit is in the singular. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is no law. You and I can't claim, as Johnny Eareckson tada has learned, all these years in a wheelchair. We can't claim that God. I mean, God is obligated to heal my broken neck and to give me the use of my arms and legs back again. And, that's what he promises in his word. Well, if you believe like that, then something's Wrong. Because she loves the Lord, she believes God. God hasn't chosen to heal her. It's like Paul with a thorn in the flesh. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said, no, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness. Paul, I'm using this thorn in the flesh. It's a messenger of Satan. Paul says, but it was given to me to keep me m. From exalting myself. And as I had Joni, Eareckson on the program some years ago, I said, joni, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but do you feel like if God had miraculously healed you when you were 17, 18 years old and were praying for this healing right after your accident? I said, do you think that your, life would have had the impact with a, miraculous healing? Ah. As it has had with not getting a miraculous healing, but having God's peace and joy in the wheelchair? And she said, of course not. She said, God has gotten more glory from keeping me in the wheelchair than he would have if he had just miraculously healed me. Now, we all want the miraculous healing, and she wanted that. And, even today, you know, if you said, hey, Joni, God can miraculously heal you right now. Do you want that? Well, of course she would say, yes, she's going to get that. And she knows she's going to get that, but not in this life. She's going to get that at the, at the moment that her soul breathes its last. Her body breathes its last in this life, and she goes to meet the Lord, and she sees him face to face. And when she gets her glorified body, then there are no more limitations. Well, I wanted to read this. This is such a Great Psalm. Psalm 42. It's, a psalm from the Exile. It's a song from the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long. Now they're in captivity in Babylon. While they say to me all day long, where is your God? Our God defeated your God. That's how the ancients viewed it, the Old Testament peoples. It was the. The God of the Babylonians defeated the God Yahweh, the God of the Israelites. And each people group had, their own God. And so are gods Stronger than your God. That's the idea. So where is your God? The psalmist says these things. I remember. And I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God. Oh, I miss going to the temple. The temple is destroyed because Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians destroyed it, he said. But I used to do that with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. Oh, my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore what do I do? Do I take medicine? No. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep. At the sound of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have rolled over me, God. It just feels like I'm getting hit constantly. But the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and his song will be with me in the night. A, prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning? Because of the oppression of the enemy. As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, where is your God? And then he repeats it, why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God. Okay, now, I'm not saying that, people shouldn't take any kind of medicine. And, you know, if you have a chemical imbalance. Yes. If you need lithium or something like that. Yes. Be careful with that stuff. But. Yes to that. but what is the deeper issue? What is the Bible's solution to those emotional and mental problems? Hope in God. Praise Him. Focus on him. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. what you think on? What does the Bible say? Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, worry about nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God. This is a promise. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is Lovely. Whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. That's another way of saying, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So let me encourage you. Are you down? You're discouraged? Hey, many in the Bible were down and discouraged. Moses prayed for God to kill him. He was so down and discouraged, he didn't want to live anymore. Elijah prayed, God, kill me first. Kings 19. He was so depressed, and, he just thought, I alone am left. You know, they've all deserted you, Lord. I alone am left. And God said, no, you're not. I have 7,000 who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. You're not seeing things correctly. You know, God gave Elijah, he, gave him physical rest. And sometimes the physical can really play in on the spiritual, and the emotional. If you're exhausted and, your diet is poor, you're not getting enough sleep, you're having all, these physical issues. When you read 1 Kings 19, Elijah comes off this great mountaintop experience on Mount Carmel, and he defeats the prophets of Baal. And God shows that he is God, but there is not the revival that he thought would take place. And Queen Jezebel says, I am going to kill you. And he flees for his life. Well, the first thing God does for him is not to treat him spiritually, it is to treat him physically. You are exhausted, you need to sleep, you need to eat. And then he deals with his stinking thinking. You are thinking all wrong here. And so, you need to see things clearly and see things, rightly. And the truth needs to dominate your thinking, not lies. And I got a call from my friend Stephen Shipley. And, he is the uncle of, Jackson and Jordan Shipley. And I've gotten to know that family. Wonderful, wonderful family. I love Steven. He's a great friend. And he had seen a clip from a sermon that I did. And in that sermon he said, where can I get. I want to listen to that whole sermon. The clip just said this. You know, we, all have a tendency to believe lies. And the devil is the father of lies. And here is why we have such a tendency to believe lies is because the devil's lies always match up with our feelings. The devil moves in. When you're depressed, the devil will move in and he'll say, that's right. Things are terrible. They're not going to get any better, Curse God and die. I wrote a book called Runaway Emotions, and it was how to flip the script on negative emotions. And one of the passages or, one of the negative emotions I dealt with was depression. And what happens when people get, tremendously depressed? They lose all hope that things are going to get better. And when you get to the place where you lose all hope that things will get better, you're ready to. To end your life. And so we have to fill our minds with the truth. And the devil comes in those low moments, in those down moments, and says, yes, that's right, your feelings are correct here. Nothing is going to get better. God doesn't love you. God won't forgive you. He just feeds the lies. And so we need to do what the psalmist said. We need to take our soul by the scruff of the neck and have a conversation with our soul and say, why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. He's the help of my countenance. He is my God. He has promised, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you if you confess your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don't have to live in guilt. We don't have to live in shame. Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and of death. David said, as he committed those terrible sins with Bathsheba and then killing Uriah the Hittite through the sword of the sons of Ammon. And he was confronted by Nathan the prophet. He writes Psalm 32. He said, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity. I, did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. And so if you're dealing with lots of emotional problems today, lots of mental problems, you have a label on you that says, you're bipolar, you're borderline, you're schizophrenic, you have ptsd, you have adhd, you have all these things that the doctors have said. It's like, well, how is that helping you? You, it's not a pass. God holds you responsible. So how is that helping you? I say, throw out those things and say, God, I want to say about myself what you say about me, that I am a child of the King, that you love me, that in all these things Romans 8:37. We overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And in the difficulties of life, I write Romans 8:28 over my life. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good. To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. I'm going to start taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Am I going to be able to do that perfectly? No, but you're going to move in that direction. heard this from Jon MacArthur. I love it. God is not so concerned about the perfection of your life, but he's very concerned, concerned about the direction of your life. And if you desire to walk in the light as he himself is in the light, you'll have fellowship with God. And the blood of Jesus, his son, will cleanse you from all sins. That's how you grow as a Christian. Well, you're listening to Real Truth for today. I'm your host, Pastor Jeff Schrieve, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas, and the founder of From His Heart Ministries. From His Heart is heard every weeknight at 6pm Central Central Time right here on American Family Radio. When we come back from the break, we're going to open the phone lines to hear from you. 888-589-8840. That's triple 858-98840. I know this is a controversial topic, but, it is a good topic, and, we need to see these things and think about these things from a biblical point of view. So give me a call and let's talk. If you'd like to contact Pastor Jeff, email pastor jeffromhishheart.org now back to Real Truth for today with Pastor Jeff Schrieve. Welcome back to the program. Pastor Jeff here. We're opening the phone lines at 888-589-8840. That's 885-8988. If you have a question or a comment on what we've been talking about, we've been talking about labels and, how we have, such a rise in mental illness. I believe that in these things that we call mental illness, you can't, change my mind that the devil is not involved in this. Obviously, what Lindsay Clancy did, people want to call mental illness. She strangles her three kids. the devil is all over that. His demons are all over that because they come only to steal and kill and destroy. And, how do we as Christians respond to the despair in our soul? How do we respond to, anger, problems and anxiety Problems and depression problems. Those things are real. And you know, we have problems with self esteem and things like that. Those things are real. How do we respond to it? do we run to the doctor or do we run to the Lord? Now, as I said with, with Elijah's situation, First Kings, chapter 19, the Lord dealt with his physical issues. He wasn't getting rest and he needed rest. He wasn't, eating and he needed to eat. You got to respond to the physical, but then you got to really respond to the spiritual and you got to change the way you're thinking. You got to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Well, some years ago, I wrote a book called Runaway Emotions. Why you feel the way you do and what God wants you to do about it. And I deal with nine negative emotions. Worry, angry, anger, loneliness, depression, things like that, and all these things that we don't like. But, God, there's a message in those emotions and God has a way, for us to view them and deal with them. And I'd like to give away three copies of this book, Runaway Emotions. You can get it on Amazon, but I just send a, copy out, three copies out to people, that, sign in. So if you send an email to bookromisheart.org bookromish heart.org we will pick some at random and send you Runaway Emotions. If that sounds like a book that you would like to read, I think it's very, very helpful. when I first was introduced to these subjects of how these negative emotions reveal something going on spiritually with, that it really helps you understand it and then deal with it so that you can rise above those negative emotions. So email to bookfromisheart.org with your name and mailing address so we can send you the book. We'll pick three, bookromisheart.org, your name and mailing address for the book Runaway Emotions. Well, we're going to the phone lines and they're filling up, which is always a cool thing. 888 5. And we have Paula on the line from Oklahoma. Paula, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caroline: Hey, Pastor Jeff. Hey. I was just gonna say, I heard Pastor Jon MacArthur say at one time, and even with King David and Saul, you know, when his mind was distressed, he wanted music. And I just think, you know, when you listen to some of the good old hymns and the gospel song, I mean, Rock of Ages and I need the every hour, and it is well with my soul and you Sing those. And you read about the, you know, the history of what so many people went through. I mean, I just think people's doctrine and theology is just lacking, and they're not in the Bible, you know, and reading and studying. When my. When I was caring for my mom and she passed away, you know, I called in a couple of times and she was on hospice and just watching her die, you know, I was getting very depressed. And then I just started listening to music, and it just seemed to really just lift me up, and just, you know, God got me through it. And she passed about six months ago. But, I mean, if it wasn't for my continued Bible study and listening to you every morning, oh, my gosh, I just was loving listening to you and just calling in and, I just want to say thank you, but thank you, Paul. Need to, you know, music and being in their Bible, you know, and Fox's book of martyr. Oh, my goodness. And what the people went through in Johnny and.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Right. Yeah, I think that's a. That's a great point. So worship music, you know, whether it's the newer stuff with Psalms that's put to music, but, the older hymns and things like that, it gets your eyes off yourself. as we played that clip from, Josh Howerton, he said, you know, if. If all you're doing is thinking about your navel gazing and every situation you have is, how does this affect me? you're always going to be, neurotic and anxious, and so worship music helps you to quit thinking about yourself and think about the Lord. one of my favorite songs, Lorne L. Harris, he sang it at our church years ago. It's never too broken to mend. And, when he was singing that, this was probably 15 years ago, man, the Lord just, really spoke to my heart through that. And, I told him, I said, you need to sing that everywhere you go. That song gives hope to people. And so, yeah, finding some music that really lifts your spirit and gets your eyes on the Lord, that is worth a ton. And so, as you said, you know, Saul had that, evil spirit that came upon him, and when David would play the harp, that spirit would leave. So that's a great point. Thank you, Paula. I appreciate that. Well, we have another Paula on the line, Paula from Arkansas. Paula, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caroline: Good morning. I'm glad to finally be able to get through and talk with you. Just up the road, new in Murfreesboro.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Okay.

Caroline: And I have had the opportunity to attend your church and hear you preach. And I really appreciate your. Your ministry very.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Thank you. Thank you.

Caroline: I. I could. Well, I could just go off with that other Paula, because I'm a music director and, I can get on that. That topic of the music and, and go forever, but I can't. What my question is is I, I can relate so much to some of the things that you've been talking about this morning. And one of them that really resonates with me is that when you're depressed, you just want to wallow in it and you don't want to. You don't. You get there and you don't want to go ahead and you. Even as a Christian, and I've been a Christian a long, long time, you start listening to him saying, oh, yeah, you're right, you know, you. You're worthless. Nobody cares for you. You, you know, and on and on and on and on. And I, I did really grasp on to the. Take every thought captive idea a number of years ago, and I've helped myself by focusing on that word of God. I guess God has helped me, if you want to put it that way. But recently I've been in the Sunday school class, and this woman in the Sunday school class made a statement that has really bugged me. She made the comment that when you pray out loud, Satan hears what you say. And because you're praying out loud, Satan can hear those words. Can't hear our thoughts, but he can hear our words and he can take them and use them against us. And when. And he. She's talking about when you're praying to God. What do you think about that statement?

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Well, I, think it's good to pray out loud. I think it's good to pray God's words back to him. And you, know the devil. Yeah, he can use that. And, he can use. He sees things going on. He can use lots of things. And so I would throw that out. And, you know, every prayer needs to be silent. I guess if you, if you believe that. I would say that's, absolutely not. I think it's good to verbalize our prayers and to have our prayers. Our prayers need to be, peppered with scripture where we say to the Lord, Lord, here's a promise. For instance, Isaiah 26:3. You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. That's a great prayer to pray God, this is what you promised. This is what I'm holding to. This is what I'm Clinging to you. Promise peace as I keep my mind on you. I think the Bible says concerning devil, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Put on the full armor of God so that we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So I would throw that out, Paul, as you know, this idea that we have to always keep things, silent before the Lord just in our minds and in our hearts, because the devil can hear us. good. I want the devil to hear me, because I'm going to, proclaim who God is and I'm going to let, the devil know, not directly, but in. In my, prayers out loud that I am trusting no matter what's going on in life. as Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. So that. That would be my response to that.

Caroline: So even in the midst of my prayer, I can throw out there, you know, and I won't allow you, Satan, to use this against me because I'm a very, very vocal person. I talk. I talk out loud to my horse, you know, but it's hard for me not, not to say it out loud when I start praying. And then I thought, you know, I don't give Satan any. Any ammunition here, but I could. I can just. And I have taken to where, in. In impose in my prayer there about, you know, you can't use this against me saying, because this is to God, this is not to you.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: Yeah, and I wouldn't even think about him in, in your prayer, you're just talking to the Lord. And so it's just, you know, Lord, I know you're going to protect me. You're my shield. You're my defense. and so, yeah, I wouldn't even, let my mind go there to think about the enemy. Now when the enemy comes against us and we know it's an attack from the enemy, then we stand our ground and we just say, hey, greater. You know, we quote scripture again first. Jon 4. 4. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. And we're not to flee the enemy. we stand firm against the enemy. And guess what? What? He flees from us. And so he is afraid of the Christian who knows what he has in Jesus. And many of the temptations we get, they are not coming directly from Satan. We are tempted with the world and the flesh. Now the devil uses those things. But if the devil evaporated tomorrow, if God threw him into hell tomorrow, you and I would still struggle with sin because Sin is an inside job. The lust of the flesh is there. So we need to kind of keep that in order. But I appreciate it so much, Paula. Thank you so much for calling in and God bless you. We have, Mona on the line from Kentucky. Mona, welcome to Real Truth for today.

Caroline: Good morning, Pastor Jeff.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: good morning.

Caroline: I love listening this program today. I am a licensed counselor for decades and I have just watched my field disintegrate into the trash bin. and, I have prayed myself that, would the Lord allow me to be a Christian counselor and serve those in the body? And his answer has always been no. And so I am now I look at it like Paul. I'm gifted to sit and serve those of the secular world, because I get to pray for them and I get to challenge, the worldview. And if they open the door, I get to then offer a biblical worldview. So I am grateful that God said no. the one thing I do want to make you aware of, and this was very disheartening to me because I try to always educate my clients as well that, current research shows that it is not a chemical imbalance. They were wrong. They were wrong for decades. And we have been telling people, oh, well, you know, you have a chemical imbalance, but that's not true. I use take your thoughts captive. I don't use that particular language because I don't want to repel people. I want to, allow for a crack for the Lord to get in there and, and use me. So, but that's the main thing I work on. I always teach people feelings are like the tide. If you stood on the beach, you could not predict where the tide is going to come in and out because it changes not just based on a 12 hour period, but also the calendar cycle. So you cannot trust your feelings. They're false evidence appearing real.

Pastor Jeff Schreve: I love it. Yeah, that is so good, Mona. And thank you for, correcting me on that chemical, imbalance thing. I had not heard that where they came out and oh, we were wrong. They don't like to ever say that they were wrong. But it's just like the DSM, they constantly revise it. And what they said in 1950, they're not saying that anymore. The Bible doesn't change. And, God deals with the issues of the soul and with depression and those things, with those negative emotions as I wrote about in runaway Emotions. God deals with those in the scripture and he gives us the remedy for those. As Josh Howerton said. Well, we have all this stuff with therapy and all these therapists and people are seemingly worse off than ever before. Why is, suicide on the rise among young people if we have all this therapy? Doesn't make sense. Make sense other than to understand it from a biblical point of view. Hey, once you jettison yourself from God and his word and his ways, it's Katy, bar the door. And Mona, you would probably agree with this. so many problems are caused by people that have, a heart with bitterness and resentment over things that have happened to them. And I have a friend of mine that's dealing with all kinds of physical issues now. And I told him, him, ah, point blank a couple of years ago when, when Trump was first elected, he, this guy has the worst case of TDS that I've ever seen. I said, you are so filled with bitterness and hatred. You can't eat that stuff day after day after day without it affecting you. It's going to give you an ulcer. It's going to eat up your stomach lining. It's going to just, continue, consume your life. And it has. And now he has all kinds of real physical problems that have been caused by, eating hatred and bitterness for month after month after month. Well, thank you for listening to Real Truth for today. Mona, thank you for calling. Clay, I'm sorry we didn't get to you or Linda or Larry. I do want to just say if you'd like to get a copy of the book Runaway Emotion, send an email to bookromhishheart.org bookromhisheart.org, we'll give three away and include your name and mailing address so that we can get that to you. I really think that book, will be a great help to you as you link up those negative emotions with the positive response from God, with the remedy from God. Well, go out today, Shine for Christ. Share what great things the Lord has done for you and God. God will use you as his witness. I'll be with you again on Monday. God bless.