Dealing With Discouragement - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Do you know the gospel?

Yeah. How you're saved? Simply by grace.

What's that mean? That means God does everything. He does everything and He saves us. I know that.

Wow. And a lot of Christians, you go on and you find out they know a lot of Christian doctrines. Things that God has taught to be absolutely true. Many of us know a lot of God's promises. I know His promises. We know the land is flowing with milk and honey.

That's what we know. But when major obstacles occur in our lives, discouragement shows up. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Have you ever been discouraged? Have you ever drank water? Have you ever breathed air?

I mean, think about that. Have you ever been discouraged? I know I have.

And I know I'm in good company. Martin Luther, who led the Reformation, had enormous bouts with this discouragement. Charles Spurgeon, probably the greatest single preacher since the Reformation out of London, had tremendous bouts with discouragement. My mentor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Howard Hendricks, had battles with discouragement. You know, I think one of the reasons as pastors we get discouraged is perhaps we're a little bit too idealistic.

Warren Worsby says this. The pastor, if he is dedicated at all, is a man of ideals. He wants to achieve for the glory of God. And yet no matter how hard he prays and works, it seems that his goals forever elude him. They never really quite arrive.

There are other reasons. When people disappoint us, we get discouraged. That's biblical. Remember what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4?

Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone on to Thessalonica. It's discouraging. When you're unfairly criticized, you become discouraged. When you're disappointed with God, you become discouraged. And there are plenty many others, but I would say that the number one reason all of us as children of God ever get discouraged is because we're not believing in a good, sovereign, loving God in our life. We don't believe that. And when we don't believe that, we end up becoming discouraged.

That's what I want to illustrate this morning. So I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 13. Numbers 13. Israel is about to enter the Promised Land. They've left Egypt. They've gone through the waters. They're right there. They're right at the doorstep.

Depending on who you read, maybe six, eight, nine weeks to get there. A million people. God has promised the land flowing with milk and honey. They're ready to go in. And it says, then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, Send out for yourself men, he said, so that they may spy out on the land of Canaan, which I'm going to give to the sons of Israel. You shall send a man from each of their father's tribes, everyone a leader among them.

There's the task. You can see what they're going to do. He said, I'm going to send them out. And it's an interesting thing because God has already told them what the land of Canaan would be like. And God has already told them, I'm going to give you that land.

But he sends them out. And this is interesting because there's a reason I think God is testing for this. In fact, if you look down to verse 17, it says, When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, Go up there into the Negev, then go up into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. How is the land in which they live?

Is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live? Are they like open camps or with fortifications? So Moses decides, OK, I'm going to be involved. We're going to send them out. That's the task. That's what happens.

And you kind of know how this whole story works. What are the reports? What is it they come up with once they go out into the land? Well, what you end up seeing here is if you go down to verse 25, when they returned from spying out the land at the end of the 40 days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. And they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him and said, we went into the land where you sent us and it certainly does flow with milk and honey and this is its fruit. The fruit from earlier verses we look at in a moment, they took some grapes and cut them down and they had to put a pole between two men's shoulders and carry the cluster. So notice, they know exactly what God said. Nevertheless, and there's the problem for all of us. Always. We do this over and over again.

You go through a set of circumstances, you know what the truth is and then you say, but, nevertheless, that's what they said. The people who live in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large and moreover, we saw descendants of Anak there. Now if you do your homework and study this on your own, those are giants. The sons of Anak are giants. So we saw them there. He says, Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites are living in the hill country and the Canaanites are living by the sea and he sent them by the side of the Jordan. There are ites everywhere. He said, there's a lot of them.

It's interesting what they end up saying here. And then it says back, I'll go then to verse 31, But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong. So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out.

The land, he says, through which we have gone in spying it out is a land that devours its own inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw, they are men of great size. They also saw Nephilim. Now remember, Nephilim is Goliath. We also saw Nephilim. The sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim. And he says, and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight.

So you get this idea of what they say they saw. Oh, except for two guys. And one of them speaks here. Verse 30, Caleb.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, We should go by all means go up, take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it. They all saw the same people. They all saw the same cities. They saw everything the same.

Caleb and Joshua said, OK, we did it, now let's go get them. The other ten said no. The other ten are discouraged. I mean, they're really discouraged. It's interesting having all this the same.

It's fascinating. Christians are a lot like this. By the way, like the ten. You ask a Christian, do you know the Gospel?

Yeah. How you're saved? Simply by grace.

What's that mean? That means God does everything. He does everything and he saves us. I know that. Wow.

And a lot of Christians, you go on and you find out they know a lot of Christian doctrines, things that God has taught to be absolutely true. Many of us know a lot of God's promises. I know his promises. Wow. We know the land is flowing with milk and honey. That's what we know. Wow.

But when major obstacles occur in our lives, discouragement shows up. Isn't that interesting? You're a child of God. Think of that. You're a child of God. God.

Isn't that something? And he says, I'm for you, not against you. I'll never leave you.

I'll work all things out together for your good. He's telling us all this. And you're a child of God. And yet, you get discouraged. It's amazing how we can get discouraged like this. Warren Wiersbe, again, says this. Unbelief always sees the obstacles. Faith always sees the opportunities. Well, that's worth remembering.

Do you see obstacles or do you see opportunities? Wow. Look, we all know the giants are real. The problems are real. We know that. So are God's promises.

See, there's the issue. So what do the results end up being? You know, what are the results of all this? Well, chapter 14, he starts out and says, And then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, Would we had died in the land of Egypt or would we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?

Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not have been better for us to return to Egypt? They said to one another, Let's appoint a leader and return to Egypt.

Wow. What does discouragement lead to? They had a night of discouragement. They cried their eyes out. They had open rebellion against God.

They wanted to appoint a new leader, and they wanted to go back into slavery. Why? They're discouraged. That's what discouragement does to us.

Notice how, never believe a really discouraged person telling you what reality is, because they always have the same kind of distortion, and we're all vulnerable to it. That's why I mentioned Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Howard Hendricks, me. We're all vulnerable to this. There's no exception to this.

Wow. See, what causes us to be so discouraged? In this case, we have a tendency to follow our eyes and not our ears. We look at the circumstances, but we stop listening to God. As soon as we do that, we're in deep trouble, because there are always going to be giants in our lives and difficulties in our lives.

That's a great reason why this happens to us. Think of one of the great stories concerning discouragement. 1 Samuel 17. The discouragement for the whole armies of Israel is one man, nine feet, nine inches tall. His name's Goliath.

And so the Philistines and the Jews are in this big valley on each hillside, and they're about to go to war. But in order to save lives, you can challenge, and so Goliath from the Philistines comes down and challenges. And he starts his challenge up right here, challenging them.

And if you read this chapter, he goes here, here, here, here. And he just keeps getting closer and still offering the same, the same challenge over and over and over again to these people. And what I find so interesting about it is that you end up, it says in 1724, when all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him, and they were greatly afraid. And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is going to defy Israel. And if someone can stop him, the king will enrich the man who kills the man. So then enters a shepherd boy, David.

And this is interesting. His brother insults him. Everyone is looking and shaking in their armor. Look at this guy.

Who are you going to send to go fight this guy? David just glances at Goliath. That's all he does.

And he's a teenager. He doesn't say, oh my goodness, look at that guy. He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine to taunt the armies of the living God?

Who is he? Wow. David knows who God is. You don't taunt the armies of the living God. See, David hears God, and he believes God.

A very different kind of approach. Israel's soldiers, they look at Goliath and say, we can't ever do anything here. We do this over and over again in our lives.

We go through the same kind of thing. We watch and we let our eyes decide what we're going to do and how this is going to happen to us. And as you know, David was so unafraid that when he even met him, he trash-talked him. I mean, he did. Goliath thought he could intimidate this teenager, but couldn't intimidate him at all. You see, David believed God.

David did not allow the circumstances to discourage him. That's a great example to us. Another reason we can get discouraged according to this, we listen to the many and not the few. Boy, this is where we get in a lot of trouble. Well, you know what my friend said. By the way, isn't that the teenage mantra? How do you decide what's true?

Well, my friends, we got together and they told me. But that's not truth. See, well, you've got to look at this. Think of it rationally.

Ten of them said we can't do this and some two fanatical guys said we could. And so they ended up discouraged. Maybe another part that's really important now, our sinful orientation to bad news rather than good. We really react to bad news. It really helps. Good news sometimes can move us, but bad news can do it all the time. We're oriented that way. Notice in chapter 13, verse 28, when he said, Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong.

The cities are fortified and very large, and there are giants there. That's bad news. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.

And then he'd go over to verse 31. It says the men who had gone up said, We're not able to go against these people. They're just too strong for us. That's bad news. If you want to move a whole group of people, give the whole group a lot of bad news. It's interesting. We'll move in unison because of the orientation we have to bad news.

They are gigantic. See, this is what they see. Now, is there any good news in this story?

Yeah. Look back to verse 27 of chapter 13 when they said, We went to the land, and he says, The land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and it has phenomenal fruit. So what do they see? Exactly what God told them. You're going to see a land flowing with milk and honey. That's why he said, Cut some of that fruit down.

Let everyone see it. You see, you'd think that would really motivate them. I mean, wouldn't have this improved their diet?

I mean, think about it. Manna. Manna in the morning, manna in the evening.

Manna at suppertime. They're going to be in a land flowing with milk and honey. You think that'd motivate them?

No. It doesn't motivate them in any sense of the word. Caleb said, Let's just go take it, just as God said. That's the way this whole thing works. We have this tendency to follow our eyes and not our ears. We listen to the many, not the few.

We are simply sinfully oriented to bad news rather than new, and we respond with fear rather than to have courage. Even back in verse 20 of chapter 13, he said, How is the land? Is it fat or lean?

Are the trees in it or not? Make an effort. That phrase there stuck with me. Here's the idea that you have to have if you're going to have courage instead of discouragement. You've got to make an effort.

You see, you can't say under circumstances, Why believe the word of God? You have to say, I'm going to make an effort. I'm going to do what I have to do here. You have to make an effort. You see, that's the point, and they would not make an effort.

You know, it's an interesting thing. This whole thing is a setup for them. How'd they get out of Egypt? They fought their way out, right?

They were warriors. God did miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle against the most powerful nation on earth, and these two million Jews, slaves, get to go free. So just think of what they've seen. Unbelievable, just incredible. I mean, if you see the Red Sea open up, you walk through it on dry land, and then it closes on the chair.

You would think that would impress you, but it tells you something else. What could have God done? He could have just waved his hand, the land's empty, go get it.

He could have done it all. It's a test. You're going to be discouraged. You're going to be faithful. See, you're going to be discouraged, or you're going to show courage, or you're going to make an effort.

You're going to do something. It's a test. You see, God could have done this with no problem at all. These are just theites. Theites aren't the Egyptians. It doesn't work that way.

It's an amazing thing. But God says, of all the different tests I can give you, this might be the most important in your spiritual life. And no matter what happened in Egypt, it has no bearing on what's going to happen now in the Promised Land. It's a test. No matter, think of how many things God has brought you through in your whole life. Now, the next time you're facing discouragement, is that all you think about?

Nope. I'm just thinking about now. I find myself almost embarrassed how many times God will test me to see if I'll get discouraged, and I still do.

It's just like, what is wrong with me? You know about Elijah. Probably the greatest prophet, Elijah.

I'm just going to read a couple things, just phrases here. Elijah, God answered his prayers, and he made the rain stop. He prayed in the rain stop for a long, long, long time.

Wow. God fed him by ravens, bringing him bread and meat. So the birds showed up and brought him food, and he was sustained by that. He performed miracles by the power of God. The widow's barrel of flour and jar of oil never ran out. Ever.

Endless supply. God's alive is over there doing that. He raised the widow's son from the dead.

Would that get your attention? Of what God has done through you? He called on fire from heaven and consumed the water-soaked sacrifice. And then he took a sword, and he killed 300 priests.

I mean, think of what this man has done. But Jezebel threatened his life, and fear struck his heart. He became totally discouraged, and he was so discouraged that he said, I want to die. I'm that fearful. And he did the worst thing he could do and discouraged him, and he isolated himself.

And then he thought, and he said to God, I think I'm the only one left in 1 Kings 19 who serves you. There's this pity party. That's discouragement. Poor me. God told him, no, shut up.

There's 7,000 that haven't filed their need of bail, so there's at least 7,001 of you. How did he get that discouraged that fast? I don't know. But Jezebel scared the bejeebers out of him. But nothing else did. And he knew what God had done in his life. Incredible things. And it didn't make any difference.

He still found every test to be unique on his own, and the Jezebel test, he got an F1. I'm totally afraid. I'm so discouraged. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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