008. Dealing With Discouragement

I consider myself to be a very positive person. So positive I believe that negative people often don’t want to hang around me. 

But I’ve got a confession to make. Some time ago, I, the positive one, slowly became discouraged. So discouraged in fact, that I wondered if I even wanted to pull out of it again. I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. Me, the positive one! 

I began to realise for the first time in years that if I, the positive, could get that discouraged, then what hope is there for a huge number of other people around this world. --- 

Even this week a few things have tried to get me down, so this message today is at least for me. I need it! ------ Friends - if you get discouraged, or are even discouraged now for any reason, I want to take you to the Bible. ------ 

PP As we review the great names in the Bible, we become aware very quickly that almost all of them, at one time or another, experienced great discouragement. 

---- Job, is described as the noblest man living in his time, but after the troubles that were his, he cried out in … 

PP Job7:6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.” 

Without hope! Have you ever felt like that? ---- 2 

Moses, is described as the most disciplined, and the greatest, of all of the Old testament personalities. And Moses is frustrated as he leads the children of Israel out of Egypt. They want to return to the sweet cucumbers and other food, and the organisation, of the slavery they’d known before, and this becomes so discouraging to Moses that at last he cries out in …. 

PP Numbers 11:11,14 

“O Lord, why have you afflicted me? I am not able to bear these people. The burden is too heavy for me.” 

PP We find similar expressions of discouragement with Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah and Elijah, and yes, even with Jesus Himself. ----- 

--- At the conclusion of His earthly ministry, when He came to Jerusalem, the city He loved most on the face of the earth, and looked out upon it, He was filled with deep discouragement and He wept over it. ---- 

PP Friends, the company of the discouraged is a very noble company, and it’s OK to be in that company from time to time. 

-------- Some years ago, the Hayden Planetarium in New York City issued an invitation to all those who were interested in applying to be a part of the crew on the first journey to another planet. Eighteen thousand people applied. They gave the applications to a panel of psychologists, who examined them thoroughly and came to the conclusion that in the vast majority of cases, those who applied did so because they were discouraged with their lives here and hoped they could find a new life somewhere else. 

All of our lips have spoken the words of discouragement. All of our hearts have felt discouragement. Every one of us has known at one time or another, the discouragement of setback. So to be a part of 3 

the company of the discouraged is not to be a part of a fancy-free, exclusive group, but it is a costly fellowship. 

What I would like to share with you in our brief time today are four steps you can use in dealing with discouragement. 

The first step is to: 

PP 1. Take a short look at the problem. 

Notice I say a short look. That is, you recognise that you are discouraged, but you don’t focus on that. The birds of discouragement may crow and fly about you, but you don’t let them build nests in your hair, if you have any. 

PP (Picture of hands holding paper facing audience) 

Perhaps you’ve heard of the old sales manager’s example of holding up a large piece of paper with a small red spot down in one corner. He says to his salesmen, just like I say to you, “What do you see?” 

They all report that they see that little red spot, and he says, “That’s your weakness as a salesman. You see the little-red-spot and don’t see all of the huge open opportunities before you.” --- 

Friends, we don’t want to focus for long on our discouragements, because the Bible says in … 

PP Proverbs 23:7 

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Which is the same as this statement) 

“We become like that upon which we dwell.” 

This one’s not in the Bible but it’s a true saying … 

PP “Problems, like babies, grow larger by nursing.” 4 

To major on discouragement soon makes all of life discouraging. Yet, we must at least take a short look at it for two reasons. First, to acknowledge that it’s true. 

PP There are some individuals who think somehow it’s sub-Christian to be discouraged. 

I used to think that. We need to acknowledge it and to recognise that our Lord, Jesus Himself knew how discouragement felt. So we need to admit that for our own mind’s sake. 

But we need also in that quick look at discouragement, to discover whether or not we’re the ones who have caused the situation to be discouraging. Many times we are not the cause of our own discouragement. If that is the case in our moment of discouragement, it’s important that we know, so we don’t add to the weight of the discouragement, the burden of self-blame. ----- 

You remember how they came to Jesus and said, … 

PP “Those Galileans who died – was it because of their sin?” Jesus said no. 

“Those on whom the tower fell in Siloam, was it because of their sins?” Jesus said no. 

(They brought a blind man to Him.) “Is he blind because of his sin or the sin of his parents?” And Jesus said no. 

Many times we are not the cause of our own discouragement, and a short honest look will ascertain that. 

------- Some years ago we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in two storms on the farm where we were. 

Within 15 or 20 minutes I had summed up the problem and got out of problem mode into solution mode. I could have continued to 5 

dwell on the problem for hours, even months or years. But what good would that do? It would be good for Satan, because I would be living an unhappy life, and heading down to an early grave. 

-- Generally, I’m fairly quick to get out of problem mode which is so debilitating and full of negativity. I generally get out of problem mode fast and into the positive solution mode. I don’t have the solution immediately when I change from the negative problem mode into the positive solution mode but a smile now starts to come onto my face and into my attitude which could never happen as long as I continued to dwell on the problem. 

PP Often when I have a problem, I take a sheet of paper and a biro and I simply get down on my knees and tell God my problem – it really helps to talk it through with God. Then I ask Him for help to find the solution. 

So often, while I’m still down on my knees, the solution comes to me. So I take my sheet of paper and write the solution down. Then I thank God for showing me the solution. --- 

Now I have to admit that I don’t always follow my tried and tested method of getting out of problem mode fast. And when I fail to follow that method, I sink quickly, even into despair, and Satan is so pleased. 

PP We don’t think of Satan being happy, but while we are having a woe-is-me-pity-party, he is so happy. 

Three times I have been discouraged enough to seriously ask myself, “Is life really worth living?” 

They were all times when I was spending very little time with God and my faith was weakening. 6 

In the book … 

PP ‘Today Matters’ - John Maxwell (said,) 

“I sincerely believe that faith holds the key to life’s meaning.” (He also said,) 

“Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.” 

In … 

PP James 4:8 (James says,) 

“Come near to God and He will come near to you.” 

Friends, if faith (or believing), holds the key to life’s meaning, then how do we get it? … 

PP Romans 10:17 (tells us) 

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 

Friends as I said before, I have been at my lowest, wondering if life was really worth hanging around for, when my faith was down at low tide. 

Why was it down so low? Because I wasn’t spending much time talking to God on my knees, or listening to Him speaking to me through His word, the Bible. 

Friends, the Bible verse does not say, “Get into man-made DVD’s and Holy TV shows about the WORD. It doesn’t say to read man-made books about the Word. 

If you and I don’t have enough faith and yet we are hoping to get through the storms that come into our lives, then we need to get on our knees more, and, get into the-word-of-God – the Scriptures. ----- 7 

------ So, in summing up on the first step when we’re dealing with discouragement, we noticed that it said, … 

PP1 1. Take a short look at the problem. 

The point is, you just take a short look at the negatives. You must not focus for long on them. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, He wept over it but He didn’t sit there all day and all week sobbing. He got up and went down into the city, and that brings us to the second step. 

PP2 2. You take a narrow look at yourself, that is, you remind yourself of your abilities and assets – the positive things that are going for you. 

As the old song says, … 

PP3 “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Think of all the things the Lord has done.” 

------- There’s an interesting story in the book of Samuel where David, because of a military blunder, leaves some cities unprotected. They are attacked by the Philistines, and some of the relatives of David’s soldiers are slain. David, it says, is discouraged. But in 1 Samuel 30, it goes on to say that David went off and “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” He encouraged himself by reminding himself of all of those things that were still his. 

PP Just because you miss one train doesn’t mean you have to cancel the whole holiday! 

---- Here’s a man sitting on his porch in Kentucky USA. He’s only recently retired from the Post office, and he’s sitting there when his first pension cheque is delivered. He’s very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, “Is this what life is going to be from now on – 8 

sitting on the porch waiting for my cheque to arrive?” ----- He decided he wouldn’t settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him, and all the blessings and all the capacities, his capabilities, the unique things that were in him. The list was long because he wrote down everything he could think of, and in the list was the fact that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother’s recipe for fried chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices. 

So he went to a nearby restaurant and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu. So he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and a string of restaurants. Eventually, Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across all of America. He finally retired a second time and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year until his death. ----- 

Now there was a man who didn’t allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. He took a look at it, recognised it was there, but then went on to look at what he had with which to deal with it, and used that. --- 

Remember again friends, … 

PP Just because you miss one train doesn’t mean you have to cancel the whole holiday! 

----- Jesus, friends, wept over the city of Jerusalem, but He knew there were certain things to be done in that city that only He could do. There was a temple to be cleansed. There were teachings to be taught. There was a Last Supper to be had. And there was a Golgotha to be climbed. Only He could do these things, and so He set about the doing of them. --- 9 

------ The third step is to …. 

PP 3. Take a long look at God, to remember that we are loved by God. 

----- Benjamin Weir was held captive by terrorists in Lebanon for eighteen months. Fifteen of those months he was in solitary confinement. 

They took Ben to a room, a small room, and in the room there was a mattress on the floor and a room heating radiator bolted to the wall beside it. That was the mattress on which he slept and on which he sat, because one arm was always handcuffed to the radiator. The window had a venetian blind. There was no other furniture. Interestingly enough there was an old stuffed bird sitting over in one corner, a poor example of the taxidermy art. There were some cracks in the walls, and where there had been a chandelier in the ceiling, it had been taken away and there were three loose wires sticking down. This was all there was in the room. ------ If I was there, I think I might have tried to work out how I could hook myself up to those wires and turn the switch on and put myself out of my misery. But Benjamin Weir didn’t do that. 

Ben said, “I began to use what was there to remind myself of the love of God. Those three wires coming down – well, they reminded me of the way God’s hand comes down and touches the hand of Adam in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. You remember how the gift of life is given in such a way? This meant God’s gift of life.” 

---- He counted the various slats in the venetian blind, and he used the many slats in the venetian blind to remind himself that he was surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. They were watching him, encouraging him – “Ben don’t give up!” ----- The bird, though it was very old and dirty, he used to represent God’s Holy Spirit, sometimes symbolized in the Bible, as you know, by the dove. 10 

The cracks in the walls, the places where the plaster was broken – each and every one of them he identified with some promise in the Bible. He would repeat to himself each day passages which he had long ago hidden in his heart, … 

PP1 “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.” 

Philippians 4:7 

PP2 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” 

Jeremiah 33:3 

Ben remembered all of these things, and out of this he kept hold of himself for fifteen months alone – a long look, a remembering, a focusing upon the love of God. ------ 

----- Notice that when Jesus went down into Jerusalem for that week, He went in the power of his Father’s love. John, writing about the foot-washing scene says, 

PP “And Jesus, knowing where He came from and where He was going, girded himself with a towel.” 

John 13:3-5 

And He took the time to wash His disciples feet to give us the example that like Him, we too need to be humble, loving servants in our community, wherever we live. 

Or there are those magnificent words at the end of the experience on the cross when Jesus says, … 

PP “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” 

Luke 23:46 11 

Remembering the love of God, like Jesus and like Ben, we too can place our hurting and discouraged selves, in the loving care of God. 

Now, the fourth step is to, … 

PP 4. Take a wide look at the possibilities. 

We need to see the possibilities. --- Here’s a man who sold insurance, and he went after a particularly difficult customer, a man that no one had been able to sell insurance to. Eventually, he sold him a fifty thousand dollar policy. Back in 1883 when this occurred, that was a very large policy. He took out his pen and handed it to the man to sign the contract. When the man tried to write, the pen wouldn’t work. He tried several times without success and finally handed the pen back with the contract and said, “I’d better think over this a little while longer.” 

The salesman lost the sale. He went home disappointed and discouraged because he had lost the sale, and he determined right then and there that he would never ever lose another sale because of a fountain pen that didn’t work. So he sat down and invented his own fountain pen. His name was Louis Waterman, and the Waterman Fountain Pen became the premier writing instrument in America for the next fifty years. ---- Out of discouragement, a great possibility. ---- 

---- Here’s a doctor working in St. Mary’s hospital in London. He’s growing some cultures, and a careless laboratory assistant leaves a window open and some material blows in, settles in the cultures, and ruins them. The doctor is very discouraged. His name is Fleming. As he decides which of the cultures to throw out, he begins to notice some mold growing there. Out of that, Fleming developed penicillin. A possibility out of discouragement. ----- 12 

---- The Franciscans were the first to systematically grow grapes in California. They grew the muscat grapes to make muscatel wine. One year they had a terrible drought, and the grapes shrivelled on the vines. They thought they were going to lose them all, but they took those grapes down into the towns and sold them as what they called ‘Peruvian delicacies’. That was the beginning of the Sun Maid Raisin Company. A possibility came out of discouragement. -- 

----- In the olive tree nursery business we operated some years ago, we learnt that when someone hands you a lemon, you’ve got to work out how to turn the sour lemon into lemonade. We produced olive trees for the Australian Olive Industry, and one public investment company had on order with us, 100,000 olives trees. We’d sold them quite a lot before this, but they were going to expand their project and they wanted more trees. 

Now we needed a one dollar deposit on each of those trees. They actually cost $4.50 each but we just required a $1 deposit up front for the company to prove they were fair dinkum about going through with the contract. 

So they paid their dollar per tree and we got started producing them. We had 80 staff in those days and we produced a lot of olive trees. 

We finally got the trees ready to be sent out to this company and of course we would be waiting for the balance of the money, the next $3.50 to complete the payment. 

Well, at the last minute, they cancelled out on the contract and we were in trouble. We had no use for 100,000 olive trees that were specifically selected for this particular company. 

So when I got this bad news, I thought, ‘What are we going to do? How are we going to turn this big problem into something positive? How can we turn this sour lemon into lemonade?” 

I got into my ute and went straight over to another property where some of our men were preparing land to grow trees for the production of olive oil. 13 

I asked the foreman to ring the irrigation people to see if the system we had in place under the ground would be suitable for growing trees, not in the wide 8m x 5m spacing, but to make hedges 4m apart with the trees in the hedges just 1/4m apart. 

I explained to the staff that we were going to plant trees to produce a herbal tonic called Olive Leaf Extract, something I’d been quietly researching and experimenting with for 8 years. 

The workers laughed at me. They thought I was crazy. They always thought I was temperamental, 10% temper and 90% mental. ------ 

Well we planted that first 100,000 trees and the Olive Leaf Extract business was born. We finally went on to plant over three quarters of a million trees. ----- 

It became a very successful business and we sold it some years ago. The money we received for that business still supports large numbers of lay Bible workers in different parts of the world, as well as clean water projects, children’s care and education, and health clinic programmes, and microfinance projects to help the extreme poor to start little businesses of their own. ----- 

So friends, remember, when someone hands you a lemon, and it certainly happens many times in life, don’t dwell on the discouraging problem for very long, but get out of problem mode into solution mode and concentrate on how to turn that lemon into lemonade. -- 

----- Jesus went down into that town in the midst of His discouragement, and He brought out of it His death and resurrection and hope for the discouraged such as ourselves. ----- 

---- I know that in talking about discouragement today that perhaps some of you think I’ve been too simplistic. But I do know what discouragement is. I don’t want to go into the details because I don’t like to dwell for long on negatives. And nor do I want us to get into a competition as to which of us has been discouraged the most. But all of us know what discouragement is. 14 

Friends, I am continually discovering from my own experience, that if you’ll … 

PP1 1. Take a short look at the problem. 

Look at yourself, admit the problem exists, and discover where the blame lies; And … 

PP2 2. Take a narrow look at yourself. 

Remind yourself of the talents and things you do have - that is, be prejudiced toward the things God has given you, then … 

PP3 3. Take a long look at God. 

to remember that you are loved by God, hiding Scriptures in your heart that testify to that. 

And if you … 

PP4 4. Take a wide look at the possibilities. 

the positives that can occur from discouragement – if you do those things, you can be like that little old lady flying to Europe….. 

She was very nervous. She said, “I’m always nervous when I fly. But it won’t be bad this trip.” 

She was asked, “Why?” 

She said, “We’re flying into the morning. We’re flying towards the dawn. We’re flying towards the sun.” 

PP That’s the thing to hold onto friends. If you are a disciple of Jesus, God’s Son, you don’t have to be nervous or afraid, because you’re flying towards the sun, 

S-O-N, always and forever towards the Son, and eternal life.