Depression (1)

Hello, good morning. It's such a joy and blessing to be with you today. Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Nana and I hope that you're keeping well. I also first send a special shout out to everyone who is working honestly to everyone who has ever had an opportunity to just cut corners and make extra money. But decided not to do so. You know, the scripture says that Godliness with contentment is great gain. Because when you come to think of it, if you have so much really, how much can you really use as a person? How much can you really use? Many people falling over themselves and just trampling on others to make much more than what they really require. I mean, what do we really need? Aside from food and clothing on our back. Oftentimes just having a piece of clothing is enough. But because of fashion, it is you want to wear something very expensive, extravagant. So you have layers and layers. We don't really need so much. But when we see people really hurting others to make much more than is necessary, especially those already have enough. But they just want to have more and more and more. It's like an evil. I don't even know how to explain it. It's like I can't I can't be into explainable. My prayer every day is good. Please let me know be like that. Godliness with contentment is great gain. I once heard of someone who was an actor who actually read of someone in Southwestern Nigeria. And I know that this is common for most elderly people. Well, he was in his working days. He had built a very big house like a mansion. And that's something very, very common here in Nigeria. Most times the kind of house you live in, the kind of house you have your village and some parts of the country. They are indicative of status. So most people want to put up his structure and their villages. For me from the Southeast, that's something that most people, especially the men are known for. Like they want to have a house in the village. It's a symbol that you have actually become a man-man. So oftentimes people will build a massive structure with the hope that, oh, their children will live there. Their children's children will also inherit it. But hey, wake up and smell the coffee in this 21st century. Most of the children are not coming back to the village. Most of your children will not want to live in your house, especially when they're getting to university as soon as they start to earn an income, they are out. And thank God for mobile phones. They just call you. Oh, thankfully we have the internet that's made it easier. You can video call someone. They can see your face and say hello. Sometimes you could spend years and you may not come to visit you in person. So you have your big house there. We just you and your spouse. If you are lucky and blessed to still have your spouse alive, you just be put of your hand. If you are also lucky to have your help to be you, your spouse and your help and then the big house is just there. And in this article, it was explained that, oh, there was this guy in southwestern Nigeria. And his wife had traveled. So he saw just him and his wife living in that big mansion because their children were grown and had left the house like they had moved on with their lives, some were living in different cities and different countries. But his wife had traveled and he was alone in the house and he was scared like he was petrified just being alone in the house. And there's something about spaces and human spirits. No matter how beautifully house is, if it is only habitat, it just looks haunted. There is no human spirit living in this house. But in this case, he was the only one in the house. And in that article, it was written that he was scared like he became really petrified that's oh, the house, some evil spirits might actually enter into the house with him. So he had to stay and train each of the rooms and lay on the bed and making some incantations to say, oh, a human body has already laid on this bed. So nothing else should come into this room and lay on this bed. It was just moving from one room to the other. It was really just almost out of his mind before the day before the day broke. And in that article, it was like look, you don't really need to have so much. You don't need to invest in things that really do not matter. Once you give your children education, you can give them food to eat. And look, you don't really have sent them to some of those extra vegan schools. Either if you cannot really afford it from your own income fine, but just live within your means. Live within your means. Be happy, take good care of your body, take good care of your spirit, take good care of your soul, take care of others. And you don't really have to break your back to take care of others. Sometimes just landing at a listening ear and be be faithful to your maker, to your creator. You know, for me, I always ask myself, God, I don't know. I may have represented you, Mr. represented you today. Please help me. I'm not happy with where I spoke with this person. So why am I really making this quick shout out that has taken about six minutes is basically to honor a young man who I had stopped over to pump my my car tires, see, vulcanizer in the city where I live. And he hadn't like this just happened randomly along the road. So it wasn't a place that I would say I usually visit all the time. So he didn't really know me. But he checked the tires. He used a particular item that he used to check and he checked the tires and to me that they were well-gaugeed and there was no need for me to pump them. I was just really appreciative, you know, that he didn't pretend to be pumping and charge me for it. But he told me that there was really no need for me to work on them and that they were all within the appropriate range. I was so grateful that he was honest enough to tell me that because some people would have just still gone ahead to put me when I stopped by, especially on the highway, I do not often get out of the car. I just wind out, explain what I wind out my window, tell them what I want, wind up and just continue to listen to musical, something else and all the car doors are locked. So I would hardly really calm down. I would rarely calm down to really see what they are doing. And I was just appreciative that this young man was honest enough to tell me that I really did not need his service because my tires were fine. Now, especially because I know that he needed the money, you know, his appearance, he looked really, he looked like he could have done with a little more extra cash. But he decided to be honest and to tell the truth. And I just want to bless God for him and I pray that God comes true for him and provides him with all he needs, according to the riches of God and Christ Jesus. And for everyone who is doing an honest job, you, they, who you have seen opportunities to cut corners and make a little extra to the detriment of your customers, the organization that you work with or your business partners, and you have refused to do that. May the Lord honor you and may God continue to keep you away from temptation. May God continue to help you to shine the light of God in your life and in all areas of your life in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. So today we'll be talking about depression. Oh, so this is a word that in Christianity, people do not like to talk about it like, ah, the joy of the Lord is my strength. No, you can't be depressed in Jesus name. I reject in Jesus name, cannot be reject. But today we are just going to X-ray the scriptures, you know, to see, um, at the examples of people that have been depressed in the past and how did they handle it? What were they depressed about what led to it and how did they handle it? Hopefully we'll run this a series and just like study a couple of persons as God leads us to and hopefully learn from them today. We'll be discussing a particular person before that. Let's talk about, let's explain the term depression that we want to discuss. So also dictionary defines depression in five different ways. The first way is like in medical, in a medical sense and in the second way is feeling or mood, we're defining this depression as a feeling of mood. Another way depression is this is this is the fine in terms of economics depression is also define in terms of surface description and finally in terms of what in terms of weather. So you see that depression is defined in five different ways being medical, feeling or mood, economic surface description and waedah, but for us we were focusing on the second main of depression, which is depression in terms of the feeling or mood. And in Oxford dictionary depression is defined as the state of feeling very sad and without hope. That's the state of feeling very sad and without hope. And we know that hope is to believe that something is possible and will happen. So when a person is depressed that means that that person is really feeling very very sad and feels that something is not possible. That something will not happen. Maybe the person knows that they will not happen or the circumstances around suggest that what the person actually desires for or yearns for is not going to happen. And that person just falls into a state of sadness. Now this time move to medical depression when the person is unable to function, no longer able to sleep or eat or begin to lose weight. And it's almost like cut off from the regular activities that would then require medical help through some drugs that the doctors could prescribe to help the person to sleep, to help the person to calm down, to help the person to relax more and to start with therapy with the help of, with the aid of therapies to begin to talk about what they're feeling and get advice and gradually come out of that state of sadness. So that's when depression moves to the medical aspect. But for us in this podcast, this particular episode will be considering depression in terms of feeling a mood where somebody just feels very sad and almost hopeless. And the first person we are going to consider, guess who? Guess who we are considering first. So in my study, I have thought, hmm, what's Adam depressed? I can't say, I don't know because when he said, can you, can you remember that the last thing, the scripture records that Adam said to God was, okay, you had one that gave me this woman. Is this woman that you gave me that asked me to eat this fruit? And God did not answer Adam. Like he did not say, why did you not know the base? He just kept quiet. The next thing he told Adam was like, this is your punishment by the way, your punishment is that the ground is cost for your sick and you have to kill it. So that was the end of discussion. The Bible does no record again. That Adam went back to God and said, God, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have touched this fruit. By the way, Adam is not the character we are discussing. I'm just giving you guys like prelim. So Adam didn't, I don't know what he was thinking honestly. In fact, sometimes I say God, I think I think it's the spirit of God. And by the grace of God that we are even able to go and ask God for forgiveness because kind of things that people did in the past, I don't really understand. Adam and Eve, they don't give them punishment. They are the workers. They move like no, no, no, I beg no, please, no, please, please forgive me. You know, you can imagine your parents when you were younger, you know, imagine your parents catching you in the act of discovering that you have done something wrong in Nigeria. And I'm sure probably many parts of Africa, especially back in the days, like in the 80s, most parents would flood their children because there was this African thing that, oh, you should not spell the child and spread the road like if a child, you have to use the road on the child. For some people who used to sleep past for some people who used to hand. So it wasn't uncommon to see parents beat their children when they miss beef in Africa these days. It's no longer something that's not practiced oftentimes. These days people discuss with their children, you know, ask them why they're messing up and have a conversation with them or ground them like, oh, yeah, ground, they are not going out today. But then can you imagine your parents flogging you for messing up and you cannot say that, please, I'm sorry, mommy, I won't do it again. You know, if it's even if you don't say it at the time, they are touching you when they finish, after you have taught about your life, you will be the ones to go back and say, mommy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry about what I did, I won't do it again. You know, and even for those children that you use a very soft disciplinary measures for, oh, you are grounded, oh, you're doing some productive punishment clean the house, wash plates and all that. You see that the child, if you were to, after some time, the child will come back and say, mommy, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. So, even try to explain why they did it and, you know, get some counseling on why what they did was wrong and why they should not do it again. But Papa Adam and my wife did into that, so I don't know why, only good news. And the most, I don't want to call him rascal. I don't want to call him rascal, because the kind of gods that came here, they, hey, hey, wow, I cannot see, I can't for the life of me even think of, it's crazy, it's just crazy. He had, first of all, they told them the kind of sacrifice they should make, because the Bible says it was by faith that a bell gave that kind of sacrifice, like he knew they had been instructed. This is the kind of sacrifice that God likes to hear, but he built on now give that kind of sacrifice by faith and God accepted it. But came to do whatever he liked and he gave what he gave and God did not accept it. Instead of him to go to a bell and say, ah, bros, my brother, a bell, please, so what did you do to make God to accept this sacrifice? Please give me the g's, give me tips, show your boy way now, like caught soup. Sorry, please, today's episode of the Nigerian girl in me is just coming out. I'm just, just seeing you guys, I'm just seeing you from, from the death of my heart as a corn Nigerian. He'd not say, oh, bros, please, so show your boy way now, show me what you did that made fire to just come out, consume this your sacrifice. So at next time I'll do it. Instead, he said to behave like a rascal and cornered his brother and killed him. And I see if there was nobody enough. God then came to the king. I said, where is your brother? That one to instead of him to say, ah, God, I've messed up for father, really messed up. You know, I felt bad. I you know, accept my sacrifice and I was just jealous and I did this. Please, he didn't say, he did not apologize. He was right. I'm questioning, am I my brother's keeper? I had like, how dare you? How dare you ask me? I thought you know everything. I thought you, your eyes were everywhere. I thought my father said that you are the, you are everywhere. Well, I can't be no, no, that's, you know, this guy, I'm sure he must have been thinking also of silly things in his mind. But God then said to him that look, the blood of your brother is crying to me from the ground. And then he issued out punishment to him. That was when that one or guy came decided to say, ah, Lord, I'm sorry. He didn't say I'm sorry. In fact, he was, he was, he was still being selfish because he was like, ah, this punishment to give me is too big for me. So anybody that sees me now, we kill me. Ah, the punishment is too much. I go and say, do you kill no problem. God is so merciful. And he said, I'll put him back on you so that nobody will kill you. So I used to live in so far this punishment. You keep pruning around. So those were for those, that's for those two. And then the first person that was, that's exhibited some signs of depression from my study of the scriptures is guess who Noah. It was not easy. So imagine that you are just there. You are yourself wholly as God has helped you to be as righteous as God has helped you to be. And one of the spiritual God comes to you and says, have join BC, to la in gozy come. Nancy, this is what I want to do. I want you to construct something. And that thing you have never seen before. You have never seen anything like that before. And he says, oh, I want you to make this type of thing. This is how you should make it. This is what you should use in making it. This is a measurement. This is the exact location. I want you to make this thing. And this is the type of size I want you to use. And then you are making it. And he says, as you're making it, start telling people that they should prepare to enter inside this thing. You are making it because I'm going to wipe off everything. So you start making the act or you start making this object that the Lord has commanded you to run. That's what happened to Noah. Now I began to make the act. Go to them. See you. This earth that I created. The kind of things I'm seeing here. It was this is not what I desire. This is not what I desire. So I want to start the earth afresh. Kepti. Mithu. Aya ma'an ni gain, from the beginning, "I want to use you at your family now in the place of Adam and Eve." Because back then, I started with Adam and Eve so now, I want to use you at your family as the, you know, to start the new earth. So construct this act. This is a type of wood she uses, the measurement, this dimension. This is where I want you to construct it. And Adam was working on this act. And by the time he finished, he's there calling people, "Come into the act, come into the act." Rain is coming. People are like, "Rae, what? Like, what is rain?" Because it had never rained on the earth before. It had never rained on the earth before. It was all due, due, just calm. You know, only in the morning, when you go out, you feel some misty water droplets. You know, if you look at plants, you see them on the plants, you look at them, the grasses, you see them on grasses, you see them on the surfaces. Those were the kind, that's what God had permitted to be on the earth to help water the vegetation and all. So these people did not, that's not when Adam was, when he knew, when the pattern was saying that rain was coming, they were just like rain, "What's no place?" And they were laughing at him like, "What is this guy even constructing? What is this guy building?" Well, he said this word. What did he say? It was that, told him. And then, they came. When they came, God told Noah, "Okay, take your family into the act. Take all the animals into the act." So Noah took all the animals, male and female, in pairs, to each one, male, one female, took them into the act. Holy God knows how all those animals did in the act, without killing each other, without saying, "Caring, in fact, you know, animals are actually, they were created before humans, right? In fact, when I see animals, I have some kind of, appreciation and respect for them, because they were made first. They were here before us, but God made them subjects towards, like, they are subjects towards us. That's how, and they are stronger, most times. They are stronger, it's just like, they don't get sense. They kind of bring that God has given them, and they don't have the spirit of God in them as well. So, God gave Noah this instruction, and Noah took all the animals in pairs. And when they entered, God himself shot the dog, "Hey! Oh, then the race started. In fact, I can only just imagine the horror of the people on earth at that time. Because it was not just rain, you know, what that was coming from on that ground. Now, recently, in 2022, there was a serious flooding in Nigeria. And I think so, it's probably one of the worst flooding we've had in recent times. In the Niger Delta, where people were testifying that, what are just the coming out of the, ground in their backyard. You can imagine, you can imagine going to bed, you wake up in the morning, you go outside to maybe, you know, stretch your waist out, your legs, and then you see what that, like a pool outside. And you'll be like, "Ah, okay, I did not dig well here, okay." And before you know it, the water is rising. It's rising. It's rising. It's rising. It comes into your house. It keeps rising. It comes everywhere. That was the experience. Of most people, in the Niger Delta, during the flooding of between Q3 and Q4 of 2022. So, it's not a pretty experience. It's not a pretty experience. So, what was coming from down, and you know, when it's raining heavily, when it's raining heavily, you don't want to be outside. Because if you know just slap you silly, it can actually flush things off. Now, it's raining, and then water is coming from under the ground. And these people, of course, they could not survive it. Because when the rain had ended, the Bible records that, the water level was like 22 feet above the highest mountain peaks of the earth. Can you imagine that? 22 feet above the highest mountain peaks on earth. And when you come to think of it, Mount Everest, I think that's the highest point on earth. Mount Everest is like 29,000 feet. 29,000 feet. So, this water covered Mount Everest, and was 22 feet above Mount Everest. So, the aqua's floating above, far, far, far, above the highest peak of it. So, Noah, his family, and everyone, the way up there, meanwhile, everybody else on earth had perished. And you know that, it rained for about 40 days and 40 nights. And after all of that, it still took a while for the water to recede. So, it took about in general, about a year for the water to recede. And throughout the period, Noah and his family during the aqua, the animals, when he stopped raining, Noah sent out the raven to go out and check. The raven went out, they no come back. After a while, Noah sent the dove. The dove went out, flew around and came back. It shot well after about seven days after Noah sent the dove again. The dove went out, flew around, came back with an olive tree branch. And Noah knew that, oh yeah, that means trees after coming up again. And after a while, he sent the dove out again and the dove didn't come back. And they knew what remained in the aqua until God opened the aqua. Now, I think I need to pause here. And through the grace of God, explain certain things. Excuse me. So, sometimes, God gives you an instruction to do something. You know that you are working in God's instruction, but it's not very easy for you. You get all sorts of attacks, you get pushbacks. Can you imagine how Noah felt when he was building, constructing this aqua? People were laughing at him like this guy is crazy man. Remember, he was about 600 years old when the rain started. And it took a while for him to construct the aqua. So, he was an old man working on this aqua. Maybe his sons were helping him. You can imagine how everybody was just laughing at him. It was difficult enough that he was different. You know, he came from the lineage of Metustela and Inalcanco. So, he had ancestors that were righteous from whom he had learned how to worship God, I believe. But all these other people were not really caring about God and who God was and all. At that point, the earth had degenerated to a very sad state that God himself sort of regretted ever creating man. So, you can imagine the mental trauma that Noah had faced. But he persevered in obeying and he obeyed God to complete the instruction, to complete the aqua, to take the animals in, to get his family in into the aqua as well. I don't want to go into the family aspect because if he was not a man in charge of his family, maybe his wife would not have joined him in the aqua. Maybe his children would not have joined him in the aqua. Maybe his daughter-in-laws would not have joined him in the aqua. But in this case, they all obeyed. So, Noah was like a good leader of his family. And the trusted division he had seen, the trusted world God had told them and they all went into the aqua. Imagine being in the aqua for like one year. One year, we experienced this COVID-19 pandemic in the world in 2020. And it was not easy. I think there was like a period of strict quarantine when people were not even allowed to come out, it was called lockdown. And here in Nigeria, it was like people were so forgetting. And for me, interestingly, because of the kind of work I do and the location of my work area, which is quite proximity to where I live, I really didn't feel the stress of the lockdown so much because I was working throughout the period. I was going to the office, working on this was a very busy period because of the consequences of the pandemic and how they had impacted businesses and the nature of job I do and things I had to deal with at the time. So, I was really very busy but just knowing that I could not really move on. wahtarun, 'Ka mentau tocho for me.' So even the places I did not like green, I wanted to go there. You know, just knowing that you are restricted. I think he does something to the human mind, things that you do not, like I felt like I wanted to travel. Like I want, states were not allowing free mobility within the states, not to talk of movements across states. But I had a large expo estates where I could actually move around, I could drive, I could go for walks, I could do sports, I could do. But that was not enough for me. The fact that I couldn't go to the markets, when I just suddenly started craving all these things, I would not ordinarily have cravings just because they were ticking out of me. When you deny someone of something, I think somehow it impacts your mind and this, that you desire it. So imagine how Noah would have felt in this act. Maybe after his well, his wife would have just said, 'Hmm, now it's interesting because there wasn't much record of his wife saying anything, doing anything, George just mentioned that he is wife and his children went into the act. But who knows what he went through inside that act?' Because during the quarantine, most relationships from what I read were impacted because husband and wife didn't know how to stay together for a long time without breaks. Because of the modern world, you're used to going to work, you spend like eight hours at work, you come back, when you return your boot tired, maybe you just for about two hours and then your husband and wife business and then you go to bed. So you basically see yourselves at night. In the morning, you're going out, during the weekends, you already have like a full schedule of what you want to do, or my dad wants to go to my kitchen, wants to do laundry, wants to do dishes, wants to do that. You yourself probably want to do a couple of things and sometimes you can't be decided to hang out together. But in this quarantine period, you are boxing to the house and oh, Lord bless you if you have a small house. You'll be running into each other. Like, you're always on the road, please excuse me. Oh, move your leg, I want to do this. Oh, move. So it was a very tough time, I guess, for couples and that was what the research should as well. So imagine what's Noah dealt with in this act? Well, after everything, he came out and he came out when God asked him to come out. So there is a season in your life where God puts you in an act. Don't jump out of the act until God tells you to come out. And be patient. You see, while Noah was in the act, he was sending a ribbon. He sent a dove. He forgot that God who told him to go in there. And was still alive. And that God will still tell him when to come out at the right time. You know, there are times when we are in the wheel of God and we start to ask ourselves how long we will take. Oh, you start eating. Is it not enough? Oh, okay, maybe I should take this step next. If God has told you to take his step, trust me, he will tell you when and how to take the next step. And if you are in doubt, ask, you know, if you are in doubt, if God has told you to do something and you are wondering what you should do next, ask him. I mean, God is not like this big guy up there looking for someone to just climb down on and destroy. Because for some reason, God has been soon misrepresented, especially in this generation, which is very sad. He is a loving father. And he is the all-powerful almighty God. So we cannot take him for granted. But at the same time, he wants us to also trust him and come close to him as his children. So when you are in doubt, please go back to God and ask him, "Oh, father, I have been in this act for too long. I feel like I have been in this act long enough. Should I come out? What do you want me to do next? What I try to do and I am not perfect. For me, it is a spiritual journey that I am still on. There are times when I am in a situation I am like, "God, what are you teaching me in this situation? What is it that you want me to learn? Why am I still at this point? What is it that I am not doing? What do I need to do now? I start to ask God for help. I want to say questions. I start to ask him for help. Because in asking those questions, I am asking him to help me with answers to help me know what to do next. Am I on the wrong path? Am I doing the right thing? Do I need to make a U turn? I am not going to wait here a little longer. Please make it easy for me to wait. When it was time, God opened the act and asked Noah to come out. Sometimes you feel sad about a couple of things. But, run to God. After Noah came out and God gave him instructions, you can imagine God is so wonderful that while they were in the act, there was no record that the animals breeded, that they stay giving back to children. After they came out of the act, God said Noah, "Release the animals, those in Genesis chapter 8, release the animals in pairs, male and female, so they can't go and reproduce and replenish the earth." And God also said to Noah and his family, "Okay, now this is the earth replenish it and populate it." And then he gave instructions, he gave commandments in Genesis chapter 9, things they should do, things they should not do, that he had made the animals to be afraid of them as human beings, such that if any animal kills any human being, that that animal should be put to death, because it was a vulnerable one, animal to kill a human being, and also to them not to hurt each other. So you could say the laws of nature, natural laws, were like method out, were like giving to Noah and his children, you know, by the Creator God, after they came out of the act in Genesis chapter 9. Now, can you put yourself in Noah's shoes, eh? Imagine all the people you knew before, everybody had disappeared, like there was not even one person of the people, in fact, so just you and your family. So wherever you are now in this world, just imagine that it's just you and your family day, nobody else forever. Can you begin to imagine how you feel? I think that's very depressing in the first instance, because you see Noah's situation was even worse than Adam's own, Adam and Eve's situation. Now, okay, let's say Adam, because Adam was created first. When Adam was created, that was his normal. His normal was that he was really one day with a giraffe and lions and cool. He would just call him, he would draw giraffes, neck, he would run with monkey and everything, he would sneak us, rope to move to, you know, swing and move. He, it was a normal thing for him, you know. He wasn't used to seeing any other person, because he had never seen anybody else. In fact, the time he saw somebody else that looked like him, that was Eve, he was like, wow, this person looks like me, she must have come out of me. In fact, see how she is, she must be the model of all the things that are living and everything is there, ex-trolling her. But in Noah's case, he had seen people before. He had friends, he probably had friends, he probably had colleagues, he had neighbors, he had relatives. Aside from his children and his wife, I'm sure you had other relatives, you know. If not from his side, at least from his wife's side, from his in-laws' side, his daughters' in-laws' side. His side, he must have had relatives and friends and business partners, everybody was gone, everybody was gone, everything was different. I wouldn't say abnormal, everything was different. Like all the places, you can imagine, when the act had gone as high as same, above the highest mountain level, higher than Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth now, it had gone far like 22 feet above that. And when the flood receded, the act came back down. Of course, he must have landed somewhere else, only God knows where it came down to. At some point, he was resting on Mount Everest. I don't know where that is. I'll just try to check what the mountain Everest is saying. Turkey, at some point, it had rested on Mount Everest. But when he finally dropped down to the ground, only God knows where it dropped. So it might have been a different location from where Noah was living or what he had known. So everything had changed. And I can imagine that Noah was really exhausted. Emotionally, he had, now he had this way. walked to the earth to build the earth fresh. Of course, we will help God. But I don't know if he was thinking that, "Oh, he should ask God for help." The same way, in fact, Holy God knows because it just seems like back then, people were so in awe of God that they were not really so used to communicating with Him. The closest we saw was Abraham that you know, tried to negotiate with God and discuss with God and we will study Him next. As you see that, Noah's predicament in his plight, feeling so exhausted, mentally emotionally down from all of this, he then became a farmer. He stayed planting crops and he planted a vineyard. So you know, a vineyard is where you plant vines from which you are using making wine. So he planted a vineyard. This is what his sadness had led to. Because I don't know if he was in good terms with his wife or he probably was, "I know that man. That was not enough for them. They want to just be their fellow men. They want to throw bantas and everything but there was nobody. It was only his sons." And of course, the sons they will revert their father now. So there was something I was seeing earlier that all these animals that were in the act, they were not reproducing, not even rats that can reproduce like Noah's business. They were not reproducing. All of them were, God like just put it stopped to their reproduction clock until their reproductive clock until they came out of the act and then God said, "Release them so they can go and reproduce and breed them replenish the etan blah blah blah." So just figure out Noah in these states, all in loan. You know, sometimes you obey God. God has told you to do something. You do it and then the outcome of it, the immediate taste of the outcome is not as sweet as you expected. Okay, now God has done this for you but others are probably not there to enjoy your celebrated with you. It can feel lonely sometimes and that is when we need to watch our action. We need to watch what we do next because you see that being sad is not a problem. What the problem is is what you do with that sadness, what you do in your state of sadness because in Noah's state of sadness he constructed, I mean he planted a vineyard, he made wine and he was drunk. Oh Lord, in fact, I don't know. I really don't know. Honestly, because I'm just thinking that if he had continued fellowshiping, he had made sacrifices or no doubt. He had made sacrifices to God and God was so pleased with the sacrifice that he made. That God made a vow. He made a covenant with him. I said, "Okay, I'm swearing by my name. That's I'm not going to destroy the earth anymore with water and everything." But Noah, I guess, was still in this place of, maybe mental emotional loneliness that he then became drunk. And maybe that was not even the first time he had done it, it's really good news. But he was so drunk that he slept without his clothes on. And one of his sons, Ham, came in and saw him. And I don't know, Ham was married so he was no baby. Because he already had a child. He already had a child. He already had a kid and a son. But he went out and was laughing and told his brothers that, "I just saw Pope Syau is nowhere in Clude's. Who knows? Maybe he must have mocked him that, "Oh, that man that is always drinking. Look at it now. He just lying there without Clude's and everything." Then his brothers, Jaffet and Seth, both took a piece of Clude, they took a gun and walked backwards so they would not see their father's nakedness and they covered Noah. Now when Noah woke up and he heard it, I don't even know who told him about it. You see, sometimes people just be talking and they wouldn't know. They end up saying things that would just cause lifetime problems. Because they told Noah and I don't know how that report was presented to him. But he immediately exclaimed a curse. If I can pull out that Bible passage, I believe it is Genesis chapter 9 from, yeah, let me read it out to you as is. And this is reading the new living translation and after reading the new living translation, I will also read the amplified version. So Genesis chapter 9 from verse 20, it reads, "After the flood Noah became a farmer and he planted it vineyard. One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and laid naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Kenan saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Shem and Jaffet took a room, held it over their shoulders, walked backwards into the tent and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so that they wouldn't see him naked. 24. When Noah woke up from his drunkon's support, he learned what harm his youngest son had done. Verse 24, the amplified version says that when Noah awoke from his wine and knew the thing which his youngest son had done to him, he exclaimed, "Cross began and he shall be the servants of servants to his brother." Like he was angry, he became angry, he shouted, he exclaimed, exclaimed, somebody exclaimed something, pressing, is basically like shouting or screaming something and he cursed his grandson. Can you imagine? Can you imagine that in that state of sadness he got drunk and in his drunk state he was uncovered and God would help that some of his sons were wiser, came and covered him up. Now, Ham interestingly was the youngest. Ham was the youngest of the three brothers. That's what Genesis, Genesis, Genesis, Genesis, Genesis chapter 9, verse 24. But King James says that he was the younger of the brothers. Amplified version also says that he was the youngest. Well, I don't know whether he was younger in a sense that he was just younger than Seth, but older than Jaffaeth, but the Bible suggests in other versions that he was the youngest of the three. So I don't know whether he was the second child or the third and last child. The thing is that he was considered to be young and he had done this thing. And I'm sure that Noah in his right state of mind would not have immediately jumped to make that curse, but in his anger when he learned of this, and I'm sure someone must have told him about it, he issued a curse against his grandchild and that curse continues to be a problem till today. That curse continues to be a problem till today. So we need to be careful in our state of depression, the kind of things we say, the kind of things we do, the actions we take. For example, things are not going so well. I've heard some people when things are not going very well, they just make declarations and say things that could not, that would probably not just impact the millenium, but generations down the line. Let me give an example. As in me, your country is not moving the way you would want it to. As in me, your country is not moving the way you want it to and you decide to check out travel, relocate to another country. You hear people saying, "Oh, this God for seeking country, I will live and I will never come back." As you say, it's socially beautiful. You leave you, never come back. You know what that means? That means that even if they are killing you in the place that you relocated to, you will be there. Even if there is something that should ordinarily bring you here. I mean, God wants to honor you in your original place of your original country. That honor will not happen because you have already blocked it with your mouth in the past. You know? And sometimes we even tie our children into it. Oh, my children will never, you know, never something. We just need to be careful. I not allow the temporary situations of today to destroy the blessings that's in store for us for tomorrow and the future in years to come. So in summary, what we are learning from NOAA is number one, Obadiant Instruction. However, challenging it might be, Obadiant Instruction when God has given the instruction, please obey it. Number two, be patient in your obedience as you are in obedience to God. You know, just take actions on your own because you see NOAA was just sending the animals the raven that was sent out and there's often a school of thoughts that says, "Oh, the ravens are like very distinct." That's the raven that come back and just say to find his own way. Who knows if the raven survived? Maybe it did not survive. That's why I didn't come back. So be careful in taking actions while you're in God's will. Keep asking for direction one thing you observe when you read the book of kings and first chronicles, second chronicles, the book of kings and chronicles about the kings and you know, all the times we were fighting various battles. You see that there were always asking questions, going in choir of the Lord. Even David, when David was king, before he went into any battle, before he took it, you say, "In choir of the Lord, should I do this, should I or should I not do this?" In this time, an age we are so privileged that you don't need to go and take sacrifice to a house, you know, as they did in the days of old, ready to have to make sacrifices to inquire of the Lord, give the priest something to help them to ask, "Oh, please, please help me and ask God, whether I should do so." So, these days, you don't need that. Now, you can't true Christ Jesus, write down your bedroom, write down your car, write down your marketplace or wherever it is you are doing your business on your school. You can just sit down in your boys or anywhere, you can sit on the boys. You can, even while walking or strolling on the streets, you can just ask God, you know, for direction. Ask God what He wants you to do next. Ask God for help, even what He has asked you to already do. So be patient and wait to hear from God before you act. For me, I always say, "God, if you are not sending me, if you are not going with me, don't send me. If you are not going somewhere with me, don't send me there, please Lord, because I don't want to try to exist. I don't want to know what it means or what it feels like to try to do things without God's help. So I always pray and beg God, please go ahead of me, prepare the place, go with me and help me to do what you want me to do, because of my own money but to do it." So it's ask God for direction and be patient with Him while walking in His will to continue to be in instructions, because you see, no, I was, He kept to be, you know, He came out, He saw how the vestitally earth was, God still gave Him instructions, God told Him what He was still obeying the instructions. He made sacrifices to God and everything but He was probably so overwhelmed that He then decided to maybe stop, He stopped communicating so much and He allowed Himself to get into a state of drunkenness that led to an act that His soul had done and then He cursed His grandchild and we can continue to see the repercussions of that curse today. So I pray that God will help you, that God will help me, that God will help us to overcome every sense of sadness, to know that, to always have hope, because the first thing that He ever tries to do is to knock off every sense of hope and make you feel like, "Ah, this situation is hopeless, there's nothing you can do." For example, recently something happened in my country and some people are already like, "Ah, well, maybe that's just the way you should take it." You know, just like you know that what example can I give now? Let's say you know that God has lead so much potentials and you have given you the ability to be a great person. He has promised you you have had a deep in your spirit, I'm going to use you across the nations. And you get to a point where you are say a receptionist in an organization and you just feel like, "Ah, this organization is even good. At least I'm able to see different people coming into this place. I have a good salary, I have a guy, I have a house, I can't take care of my children. It's okay. Maybe this is what God was talking about. So I should just stay here and just continue to do this work until I retire. Forgetting the main dream that God had putting your heart. Forgetting that you also need to stretch, you need to invest in yourself, you need to give it to higher levels. So that's how it is right now for some people. You just feel like accepting something that's maybe mediocre, something that may be less than the standard that they had originally desired because they just feel like there's no point in continuing to desire. There's no point in going back to God and asking God, demanding and praying for God to actually bring to pass that which you believe is God's will, to bring to pass that which will help you to be the best of who you are. So I pray that every sense of hopelessness is crushed, that God resurrects your hope, that God will remind you and all of us of where our hope lies. He's the God that never feels the same yesterday, today and forever. And I pray also that every sense of sadness that you may feel that God turns you to joy because He's what says that in His presence there's fullness of joy. That God will plant you in His presence because when you're in His presence, you will be joyful. For me, there are times when I feel so overwhelmed, there are times when I feel so sad. What I do is just, I mean, I don't even have the energy to go into the scriptures or to pray. But I, if I can't have access to music, I listen to music. If I cannot listen to music, I remember when I start singing it. And gradually the strength of God in me just well so pan-grouse. So I pray that God will continue to preserve you, help you, keep you, prosper you, take care of you and help you not to make any mistake in any state of sadness, restore your hope and help you to fulfill purpose to the glory of His name in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Until I come your way again in the next episode, I say God bless you. Bye.