{"id":33445,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/overcoming-discouragement\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"overcoming-discouragement","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/overcoming-discouragement\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Discouragement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18815.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Life is hard. Life is a battle. Saint Paul says we struggle in\nlife, not just against the world and the flesh, but against invisible powers\nthat struggle against us to keep us from becoming all that God wants us to\nbecome. It is very important that we face the hardness of life\nstraightforwardly. So today I want to talk to you about the overcoming life in\nregard to the Christian and discouragement.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It was advertised that the Devil was putting up for sale all of\nhis tools. On that date the tools were laid out. They had prices marked on them\nfor public inspection, and there were a lot of treacherous instruments: hatred,\nenvy, jealousy, deceit, pride, lying, and so on. Laid apart from the rest of\nthe Devil&#8217;s tools was a  tool, but it was worn more than any of\nthe others and was priced very high. &#8220;What&#8217;s the name of this tool?&#8221;\nasked one of the customers.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;That,&#8221; the Devil replied, &#8220;is\ndiscouragement.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Why have you priced it so high?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Because discouragement is more useful to me than all the\nothers. I can pry open and get inside a man&#8217;s heart with that when I cannot get\nnear him with any other tools. It&#8217;s badly worn because I use it on almost\neveryone, since so few people know it belongs to me.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Discouragement is still the Devil&#8217;s tool. Not many people\nrealize he&#8217;s using it on us, and he&#8217;s using it on some of us today. Life is\nfull of discouraging circumstances. Even the most blessed people, the most\nsuccessful, the most spiritually mature, face constant disappointment and\ndiscouragement. The aim of my sharing this with you today is that you would\nhonestly face the problems served up to you in life without fooling yourself,\nwithout giving up, but rather by acknowledging the problems and discouragement,\nby acknowledging our need for help, by getting help from others, and by\ntrusting and obeying God in the midst of problems.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Life is hard.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I want to thank our junior choir for sharing the wonderful story\nof Joseph because it puts in perspective how hard life is. No one knew this\nbetter than Joseph. When he was a baby, his mother died. His father was a\npretty old fellow, and even though he was famous in the Bible, he was something\nof a scoundrel, not an easy father to live with. Joseph&#8217;s brothers hated him.\nThey mistreated him, and finally they betrayed him and sold him into slavery.\nHe was torn from his home and he became a slave. He had no rights. Then he was\nfalsely accused. He wasn&#8217;t given a fair trial. He was thrown into prison, and\nthere he was forgotten. If anybody ever knew how hard life is, it was Joseph.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The life of Joseph reminds me of the life of another person.\nWhen he was seven years old, his family was forced out of their home on a legal\ntechnicality. He, as a , had to go to work to help support his\nfamily. At the age of nine his mother died. At 22 he lost his job as a store\nclerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn&#8217;t good enough. At\n23 he went into debt to become a partner in the small store. At 26 his business\npartner died, leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At 28 after\ncourting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him. She said no. At 37,\non his third try, he was elected to Congress, but two years later he failed to\nbe . At 41 his  boy died. At 45 he ran for the Senate\nand lost. At 47 he failed as a candidate for vice president. At 49 he ran for\nthe Senate again and lost. At 51 he was elected president of the United States.\nHis name was Abraham Lincolna person many people consider to be the finest\nleader we&#8217;ve ever had. Some people have all the luck.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Life is hard for most people. Life&#8217;s discouragements vary from\nstage to stage in life. When you&#8217;re a little child, there are certain things\nthat are difficult. When you&#8217;re a teenager there are others. A teenager is\ndiscouraged when she looks in the mirror or looks at her figure, or when he\ndoesn&#8217;t have many friends, or doesn&#8217;t make good grades, or doesn&#8217;t make the\nteam, or doesn&#8217;t get a part in a play. There are certain things that are real\nand discouraging when we&#8217;re young.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">As we get older, our problems change. I&#8217;m wondering how life is\nhard for you today. I&#8217;m wondering what discouraging events you are\nencountering. Perhaps you don&#8217;t have enough money. Everybody has that problem.\nMaybe your business or your job hasn&#8217;t worked out to your expectations. Maybe\nyou&#8217;re facing the problem of alcoholism or the problem of barrenness. Maybe\nyou&#8217;re facing a divorce. Maybe you&#8217;ve lost someone through death. Maybe your\nmarriage is bad. Maybe you don&#8217;t have a marriage to be bad or good. Maybe\nyou&#8217;re lonely. Maybe you don&#8217;t have many friends. Maybe you can&#8217;t seem to locate\nyour niche in life. Maybe there&#8217;s a problem of physical or emotional abuse in\nyour home. I don&#8217;t know what your problem is, and you may not have any\nproblems. I say &#8220;Hallelujah!&#8221; with you if you don&#8217;t.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But you will, because life is hard.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Whatever your problem is, there are more people in this church\nwho have that same problem than you would ever guess. You know, when we&#8217;re\nreally honest, when we get right down to it, in this church and every church\nare a lot of tired, discouraged people. Life, as some people said, is like a\nschool of hard knocks, and the colors of the school are black and blue. Life is\nhardthat&#8217;s the point.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>You can choose unacceptable ways of dealing with your\nproblems.<\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now, there are three ways of dealing with life&#8217;s\ndiscouragements. First, is give in to them. Let them overwhelm you. Let them\neat you up from the inside. Focus on them until you become a negatively\noriented person. Many people choose this option.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">This week in Bangor, Maine, a teenager committed suicide, and\nbefore the week was over, 33 other teenagers had tried to take their lives.\nThey gave in to it, gave in to the discouragement and the hardship. Five\nthousand teenagers every year commit suicide in America. Children are realizing\nearlier and earlier that life is hard. And there&#8217;s a great temptation to give\nin, to accept the fear and discouragement. Sometimes just when it seems things\nare getting better, they get worse. You&#8217;re going through life, and it&#8217;s like a\ndark tunnel. All of a sudden you see a light at the end of the tunnel and you\nthink, &#8220;At last it&#8217;s coming to an end!&#8221;only to find it&#8217;s a train\ncoming toward you.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now Elijah, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, had this\nvery experience of life&#8217;s problems, and he chose the option to give in and to\ngive up. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah is alone. He has just had what you would call a\ngreat mountaintop experience in which he&#8217;s experienced the power and reality of\nGod in a way none of us has ever experienced. He was God&#8217;s man for his\ngenerationnobody like him.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then, because he angered the queen and she threatened to kill\nhim within 24 hours, he became afraid and ran for his life. He came to\nBeersheba and left his servant there. He went a day&#8217;s journey into the desert.\nHe came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die.\n&#8220;I have had enough, Lord,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Take my life. I&#8217;m no better\nthan my ancestors.&#8221; Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There were two voices whispering in Elijah&#8217;s ear, and there are\ntwo voices that whisper in our ear in the face of difficulty. One is the voice\nof Satan, and it says, &#8220;Give up.&#8221; The other is the voice of God,\nwhich says, &#8220;I&#8217;m the Lord your God. Nothing is impossible with me.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Perhaps in no area of life over the last few years have I\nobserved the difficulties people encounter any more than in the area of\nmarriage. Some of you are in trouble in your marriages, and you&#8217;re the only\nones who know it. Some of you are hurting, discouraged, angry in your\nmarriages. One voice is whispering in your ear, &#8220;Give up. Forget it. Go\nyour own way.&#8221; Or the voice may be saying, &#8220;Well, don&#8217;t turn away,\nbut give up. Forget about ever having any kind of meaningful relationship in\nmarriage and just tough it out, because your partner can&#8217;t change.&#8221; That&#8217;s\nthe voice Elijah listened to, and that&#8217;s the first option, the first way of\ndealing with discouragement. That option is not acceptable to God, and it&#8217;s not\nacceptable to us, either.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Second option: deny the problem. &#8220;My husband doesn&#8217;t really\nhave a drinking problem.&#8221; &#8220;This sickness is really not anything\nserious.&#8221; &#8220;I know my daughter says she&#8217;s lonely, but I don&#8217;t think\nit&#8217;s really anything to be concerned about.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You can magnify a problem and make it worse than it is. I&#8217;m not\ntalking about that this morning. I&#8217;m talking about serious problems. Some\npeople tend to minimize the problems they&#8217;re encountering:<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;I know we&#8217;re in debt, but oh, it&#8217;s going to work out\nsometime, sooner or later.&#8221; &#8220;I know I&#8217;ve lost my job. Every time I&#8217;ve\nhad a job, I&#8217;ve lost it, but it&#8217;syou know, I just haven&#8217;t found an employer\nwho can understand me.&#8221; That&#8217;s denying the problem within.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">This second option is the option Saint Peter chose in the face\nof difficulty. Saint Peter had this problem. Jesus said, &#8220;Peter, you are\nweak. You are a coward. You&#8217;re too influenced by other people, and you know\nwhat? You&#8217;re going to deny me.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Peter said, &#8220;Oh no, Lord. Glory to GodI&#8217;ll never deny\nyou!&#8221; He denied the problem.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;m sincerely worried about any in this church who may be facing\nsevere problems and are denying those problems or minimizing the seriousness of\nthem. Some of you have experienced anger and hurt, and in your marriage you\nhaven&#8217;t been talking to your mate. You haven&#8217;t been sleeping with your mate.\nThere&#8217;s a coldness, a desperation, that&#8217;s settled in. But you won&#8217;t acknowledge\nit. Or if you do acknowledge it, you minimize it. You&#8217;re on dangerous ground.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus was ruthlessly realistic. He said to Peter, &#8220;Peter,\ngrow up, man. Be real. You&#8217;ve got a problem. You&#8217;re going to deny me. Face the\nfacts.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Some Christians feel guilty and ashamed for having problems in\ntheir livesas though Christians should be immune? And some Christians are too\nproud to admit they&#8217;re having problems. This past week, I have been deeply hurt\nby a revelation about a dear,  friend who has had a serious,\npersistent problem, but hasn&#8217;t been open about it, hasn&#8217;t apparently been able\nto deal with the fact that even strong Christian leaders can have problems. And\nso it&#8217;s been covered up. It&#8217;s been denied. It&#8217;s been minimized. Or it&#8217;s been\nspiritualized. And I have been sick all week because of the agony I feel for\nthis friend. I feel that way for you when I learn you are having a difficult\nsituation that you&#8217;re not acknowledging.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The second option, Peter&#8217;s option, is deny it. Minimize it. But\nthat&#8217;s not an acceptable option, either.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Or you can\nface your problems like Josephrealistically and faithfully.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The third and last option is the option of Joseph. Joseph&#8217;s\nresponse to life&#8217;s hard knocks was to face them realistically and faithfully.\nThe tragedies in Joseph&#8217;s life were basically out of his control. He accepted\nthose tragedies and made the best that he could out of them. As I reread the\nstory, I noticed five little observations about Joseph that enabled him to face\nhis troubles with honesty and faithfulness.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">First, he maintained his relationship with God no matter how\nhard his life was. Over and over again the story says, &#8220;And the Lord was\nwith Joseph.&#8221; He never lost sight of his relationship with the Lord. He\nprayed. He meditated on the truths of God. He didn&#8217;t have any church to go to,\nbut he didn&#8217;t turn his back on God. He was faithful in his relationship to God,\nand God was with him. Maintain your relationship with God, first of all.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Second, he refused to give in to temptation. Whenever we\nencounter a difficulty, almost always there is a way of dealing with it that is\nabsolutely pleasing to God. You see this in the life of Joseph in the incident\nwith Potiphar&#8217;s wife. She presented to him a ticket to freedom and security,\nnot to mention all sorts of delights. But he refused to disobey God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Third, he refused to focus on himself. Joseph always gave\nhimself tirelessly to any work that was to be done, even when he was in prison.\nHe always took an active interest in other people. You see this even in jail,\nas he got involved in the life of the cupbearer and baker from the royal\npalace.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once gave a lecture\non mental health and was answering questions from the audience. Someone said, &#8220;What\nwould you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming\non?&#8221; Most people thought he would say, &#8220;Go see a psychiatrist\nimmediately,&#8221; but he didn&#8217;t. To their astonishment. Dr. Menninger replied,\n&#8220;Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find somebody in need,\nand help that person.&#8221; Don&#8217;t focus on yourself. Get involved in the lives\nof other people.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The fourth observation: Joseph took whatever steps he could to\nsolve his problems. He didn&#8217;t just sit back and say, &#8220;Oh, que sera\nsera.&#8221; He did anything he could to deal with the problems he was facing.\nAs an example, when he was in prison, he begged the cupbearer to the king, when\nhe was reinstated, to put in a good word with Pharaoh for him. The fellow\ndidn&#8217;t do it, but Joseph was always seeking to get out of his difficult\nsituation. There was no paralysis of action. You&#8217;ve got to initiate whatever\naction you can if you&#8217;re dealing with life&#8217;s hard knocks. Sometimes it just\nmeans getting honest and sitting and talking with someone else.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The last observation is this: apparently Joseph didn&#8217;t lose\nsightat least not for longof the fact that God was still in control of his\nlife, that God is sovereign. He trusted that God was in control. We see this in\ntwo wonderful statements Joseph made. This is when he has been reunited with\nhis brothers, and he&#8217;s looking back. This is his comment on what happened:\n&#8220;Joseph said to his brothers, &#8216;Do not be distressed, and do not be angry\nwith yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent\nme ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for\nfive years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you\nto preserve you and to save your lives. So then, it was not you who sent me here,\nbut God.'&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Again in Genesis 50 he makes a similar statement to his\nbrothers: &#8220;You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to\naccomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So life is hard. Did God topple off his throne in heaven? No.\nYou are not the victim of life&#8217;s hard knocks. When you entrust yourself into\nthe hands of God, God is at work bringing you through, bringing about his\nspecial purposesif we will maintain our relationship with God, refuse to\ndisobey, refuse to focus on ourselves, take whatever steps we can to get help,\nand finally, trust in the sovereignty of God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Yes, life is hard. The Christian life is a battle. Life will\nserve up discouragements. There are three options: we can give in and let them\ndefeat us and lead us to personal ruin; we can deny our problems, which leads\nultimately to frustration and a kind of sick schizophrenia; or, with Joseph, we\ncan face our problems , with honesty and with faith in God, knowing that\nnothing is impossible with God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Let me share a letter with youa letter from a missionary who\nhad gone into the jungles of New Guinea and was writing to his friends at\nhomebecause his letter catches the spirit of Joseph in adversity.\n&#8220;Man,&#8221; he said, &#8220;it&#8217;s great to be in the thick of the fight, to\ndraw the old Devil&#8217;s heaviest guns, to have him at you with depression and\ndiscouragement, slander, disease! He doesn&#8217;t waste time. He hits good and hard\nwhen a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by\nthe one you get back. When you&#8217;re on your back with fever and at your last\nounce of strength, when some of your converts backslide, when you learn that\nyour most promising inquirers are only fooling, when your mail gets held up,\nand some don&#8217;t bother to answer your letters, is that the time to put on your\nmourning suit? No sir! That&#8217;s the time to pull out the stops and shout,\n&#8216;Hallelujah!&#8217; The old fellow&#8217;s getting it in the neck and he&#8217;s giving it back.\nAnd all of heaven is watching over the battlements: &#8216;Will he stick it out?&#8217; And\nas they see who is with us, as they see around us the unlimited reserves, the\nboundless resources, as they see the impossibility of failure with God, how\ndisgusted and sad they must be when we run away. Glory to God! We&#8217;re not going\nto run away. We&#8217;re going to stand.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now that&#8217;s not some pietistic . That&#8217;s the way God\ndesires us to face our problems. Don&#8217;t give in. Don&#8217;t ignore. Face it with\nfaith. But don&#8217;t try to overcome it alone.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Some of you, I fear, may be in danger of forgetting this, that\naside from our relationship with God, there&#8217;s nothing else, no other\nrelationship in life, as important as it is to be crucially linked up with a\nfew Christian friends. A few brief moments of utter honesty with a friendmaybe\nit&#8217;s with the men in your Bible study group or the women in your home church\ngroup, or with your minister, or with a counselora few brief minutes of utter\nhonesty may be the first step of turning everything around.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You don&#8217;t have to be a casualty in the battles of life. Christ\nhas already won this war. He has his people and he is present to help you win\nyour battle with discouragement. We can be overcomers if we will face the\nbattle honestly without giving up on the powerful help of God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"subhead\">John W. Yates II<\/span>\nis rector of Falls Church Episcopal, in Falls Church, Virginia, where he has\nserved since 1979. He is author of For\nthe Life of the Family Seven Crucial Moments, and What Makes a Man.<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">John W. Yates II<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape # 42<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>A resource of\nChristianity Today International<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[2059],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3389,3758,3766,3780,3797,4580,5191],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33445","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-john-w-yates-ii","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-adversity","tax_ctp_tags-denial","tax_ctp_tags-despair","tax_ctp_tags-difficulty","tax_ctp_tags-discouragement","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-trial"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Overcoming Discouragement - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/overcoming-discouragement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Overcoming Discouragement - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Life is hard. Life is a battle. Saint Paul says we struggle in life, not just against the world and the flesh, but against invisible powers that struggle against us to keep us from becoming all that God wants us to become. It is very important that we face the hardness of life straightforwardly. 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