Keep Pressing Ahead - Facing Discouragement, Part 1

Has life beaten you down? No job? Tough marriage?

Maybe a problem with one of your kids? Do you feel like throwing in the towel? I mean literally just giving up?

Well, before you make one more decision, would you hit the pause button in your life? God wants to enter into your situation and bring hope to you personally in the midst of your most discouraging time. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Thanks for joining us as we continue Chip's series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Today we'll learn how to handle discouragement head on by tapping into God's power that can bring us courage and hope in our most trying circumstances. And if we're honest, we all struggle with unhappiness or disappointment from time to time. So listen in after today's message for some helpful encouragement from Chip.

You won't want to miss it. Okay, go on your Bibles now to Nehemiah chapter four for Chip's talk, Facing Discouragement. I want to start with two questions.

And I have an answer to the second question. Question number one is what is the most difficult, distressing, discouraging situation in your life right now? I mean, what person, what circumstance makes you feel like, I want to give up, I want to give in, forget it. You may have not said it to anyone, but so just I want you to get that in your mind.

If there's one thing that God could just wipe away and make right, make different, make easy, solve for you, what would it be? Question number two is why must you keep pressing ahead? Why must you not give up, not give in, not opt out, not even quietly quit? Why is it so important to persevere? And here's the answer. Because the greatest things that will ever happen in your life will be birthed or forged in adversity.

Now think of that. The greatest things that will ever happen on this journey on earth, although we hate adversity, we hate all that comes with it, but I'm telling you the greatest achievements you'll ever have, the greatest relationships you'll ever develop, the greatest discoveries that you ever have, the greatest good, the greatest impact, the greatest times when you know God, the times when you'll be more honest with yourself, the times of greatest growth, the greatest things that will ever happen in your life will be either birthed out of adversity or they'll be forged and shaped during the difficult time. And when you get with people who have lived a little bit longer and you just start pecking around about how in the world did you get here and how did this happen and what happened, and they will talk about pain and difficulty and discouragement and redirections and things that God did. So, it's true. I mean, if you would just leaf through the Bible, you'd just start leafing through the Bible, you'd say, well it's true of Joseph, it's true of Esther, New Testament, I mean how did the early church start? A lot of adversity.

And it's even true in just sort of the general world. Most people, when they quit, quit just before something great was going to happen. I wonder what the music world would be like if Elvis would have listened to the stage manager when he had the opportunity for the first time to go public and sing at the Grand Old Opry.

And the stage manager said, son, keep driving trucks. You're never going to make it. I wonder what would have happened to all the people that loved those Western novels when Louis L'Amour got several hundred rejections before anyone ever said, we think you might be able to write a book. I wonder what would happen if Thomas Edison on try number 999 would just say, I'm done. You know what, this light bulb stuff, this whole electric stuff, it'll never work.

He had over a thousand failures before he discovered how the light bulb would work. And then I think of where the basketball world would be, or Michael Jordan, if he would have said, you know, they cut me for my high school team. I guess I'm not very good at this. So here's what I want you to see. What are you just on the other side of? What are you going through right now that God is saying, don't bail out, don't opt out, don't quietly quit. You need to persevere.

You need to let me use this adversity, this difficulty, this pain. And we're going to talk about why God does it, but then how to overcome the number one enemy. Because what happens is you get discouraged and I get discouraged and we quit.

And sometimes we act like we're doing it on the outside, but we quit on the inside. And so the very thing that God wanted to do doesn't happen. The marriage that could have been saved doesn't get saved. The kid that could have got the encouragement doesn't get it. The ministry that was just ready to break loose, well, forget it.

It's never going to work. The person who said, this time I'm going to make it. I'm going to break this addiction. They get a setback. Oh, forget it. I'm discouraged.

They quit. And the thing is then the ripples, your relationships, the ripples of all the people and all the network of those that come behind you. And so you notice in your notes, we're going to talk about facing discouragement and we're going to face it because it's our friend.

It doesn't feel like a friend, but it's your friend. And the big piece in this whole series, you can keep pressing ahead when you can begin to rethink the adversity in your life. The adversity is an uninvited, unwanted friend, but notice in the hands of an all-knowing God. And God has three purposes for adversity, at least three.

First, to wean us from our self dependency and pride, to usher us second into a deeper intimacy with Jesus, and third, to redirect our paths. During hard times you realize, you know, that's not the right person. That's not the right decision.

That's not the right job. To redirect our paths for our greatest good and his greatest glory. Let me tell you why God brings adversity in your life.

Number one, you need to remember it's normal. Number two, it's expected. Peter would say to people persecuted, just expect it. It's a fiery trial. God will use it for good. He's going to use it to test you. Third, it's purposeful. This doesn't get wasted unless you bail out. He is going to make you and do things in you and through you.

It could never happen apart from what you're going through. Number four, it's powerful. Something happens inside of people. They get established.

They get strong. There's character. There's confidence. There's a skill set. There's capacity of what happens when people go through hard things.

And finally, it's temporary, right? It's not going to last forever. Here's what you need to understand. If you don't get thinking clearly about adversity and what God says, man, I will tell you, you will spend your whole life trying to avoid it. You'll try to manipulate.

You'll try to maneuver. God has the adversity or the difficulty or the problem or the circumstance in your life because he knows you perfectly and he's all wise and he's good and he wants to use it in ways to grow you deep, to give you good, to strengthen your relationships, to draw you closer to him and then both use you in ways in the future to help other people you never could if you went through it. Now with that said, bottom of your notes, God has a promise for you and it's a promise we don't like. It's one of those promises. Here's God's will for you.

Are you ready? Sometimes, what's God's will? If I just knew God's will, it's so difficult.

It's hard. God, show me your will. Here's God's will. You have need of endurance, hupo meno so that once you've done the will of God, you don't bail out, you don't give in. It's a great attitude. I'm trusting. It's by faith. It's hard.

I don't like it. I'm honest with God but so that once you've done the will of God, you might receive that which was promised. There's a rich, rich reward but the will of God for all of us going through adversity, whether it's in your marriage, whether it's in your singleness, whether it's in your job, whether it's your lack of job, whether it's a personal issue, whether it's a personality problem, the will of God is don't give up. Persevere.

Trust me. And He promises as you trust Him, He'll do in you and through you His perfect plan and purpose. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna follow Nehemiah as he blazes the trail.

And in chapter 4, he's gonna face discouragement. If you don't know the story of Nehemiah, pick it up in chapter 1 and what you find is a man who's the right-hand man of the king. There wasn't leadership.

People weren't worshiping God. I mean, it's a complete mess but he's in a position of power next to the king. He begins to pray. God puts a dream on his heart. He recruits a team. He takes a radical step of faith. He comes up with a plan and the king says, I'll tell you what, here's some money, here's some timber, here's some people. You can go back to Jerusalem. He was living in Persia at the time, the world rulers.

You can go back and get that thing going. And so the people are motivated and the agenda was to rebuild this wall around Jerusalem, this huge wall. And as we pick up the story, they're not quite half done. Nehemiah chapter 4, open your Bibles if you will and let's pick it up together. First three verses, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry. By the way, he will be one of the bad guys in the story.

And he was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews and in the presence of his associates and in the army of Samaria, he said, what are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore the wall? Will they offer sacrifices?

Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble, burned as they are? Tobiah the Ammonite, who was by his side, said, what? What they're building?

If even a fox climbed on it, it would break down their wall of stones. Here's the point I want you to get. God ordained steps of faith are almost always followed by significant opposition and adversity. The hardest thing to get, because we just have this unconscious idea that if I do what God wants me to do, we went to marriage counseling. I'm starting to read my Bible. I set some boundaries for one of my kids.

I went to an AA meeting or a Celebrate Recovery. I'm taking these steps. And then instead of things getting better, they get worse. It gets harder.

It's more difficult. God, what's the deal? I mean, you prompted me. You brought people to my life. I'm trying to do what you said.

Get this clear. When you take steps to follow God, it will almost always get far worse before it gets better. Because you're going to make a difference. You're going to make a difference in you. You're going to make a difference in your family. You'll make a difference in your relationships.

You'll make a difference in the world. And every time you do, then there's going to be opposition. Notice what the opposition here. Attack number one, words that cause us to question our worth, our work, and our probability of success. The words were criticism, right? Ridicule. Look at the text.

It's really interesting. Notice, what are these feeble Jews doing? What's he saying? You're inadequate. You're not strong enough. You're not smart enough. You don't have the capability.

Why are you trying to do this? You don't measure up. You don't have it. How many of you have that ringing in your mind? You'll never amount to anything. You'll never make it here.

This isn't going to work. It's the attack on your worth. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll be back to continue our series, Keep Pressing Ahead, in just a minute. But let me quickly tell you that we are more than a broadcast ministry. Every day, all around the world, we're supporting pastors who are discouraged and desperate for help.

Let me encourage you to stick around after the teaching to learn more about this work and how you can be a part of it. Well, with that, here again is Chip. And it's not only the attack on who they are, but notice he goes on to say, will they, will they, will they, can they?

I mean, it's only three verses. And so what are they doing? They're saying they can't do it, but then they attack their work.

You know, if a fox would get on what they've built, it would just fall down. Who you are doesn't measure up. What you're doing is not worth anything. And so what's the thing?

The probability of success. If I'm sitting and listening to this, I'm thinking, you know, when Nehemiah said this, it sounded like such a good idea, and I was, yeah, yeah, rah, rah, let's go for it. You know what?

These guys are kind of right. I mean, who are we to do this? This isn't going to work. Look how high this thing is.

Look how big. We've been to three counseling sessions. We argue more now than we did before. I've put in 433 resumes. I still don't have a job. Forget it. You know, I did what they said.

I called every time I was ready to, you know, then nobody knows. And boy, last night I just got off the wagon. I guess I'll always be stuck. This is how it works.

And sometimes those voices of criticism, sometimes they come from out there, but a lot of times they come right in here. You're just driving in your car. And you ever heard this? You're never going to mount anything. You don't think you can really quit. Your son's never going to change. Give it up. Hey, you know what? This job's a dead end.

Why do you keep? And you can get up and perfunctorily go through the motions, but your heart can get turned off and you're no longer trusting God. You're no longer walking with God. You're no longer believing the promise that God can see you through this.

So that's the first attack. Notice Nehemiah's response in verses four through six. Hear us, O our God, for we're despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.

Literally, they've demoralized them. So what's he do? First thing he does, he prays. And notice, you know, part of us, we've got some really bad orientations toward, you hear the word prayer. I think some of us think prayers, now I lay me down to sleep, you know.

These aren't now I lay me down to sleep prayers. Do you feel the emotion in this one? Do you feel the passion? Do you feel the fight?

Oh God, what's going on here? So often we feel ashamed to do that or afraid to do that or like God can't handle it or I shouldn't talk to him that way. Nehemiah is saying, I'm on a mission from you. I've got something you've called me to do.

And then I'm getting ripped up and I'm starting to have these feelings and these thoughts and these people around me thinking we're inadequate and we can't make it and what we're doing isn't worth anything. And I can hear him. Nehemiah's thinking, I hear the buzz.

You know, as I, you know, I'm getting my stuff over here and I hear this, you know, I don't, hey Bobby, what? You think it's going to make? Nah, I don't think we're going to do it. I don't think it's going to work. I think Nehemiah's crazy to tell you the truth.

And do you hear that other stuff and think it? And so he says, I mean, God, I want you to intervene. You praying to me those kinds of prayers? You stepping up and saying the God of the universe who called me to do this, it is his will for this marriage to work. It is his will for this child to turn around. It is his will to be a light at that company. It is his will for you to make a difference. It's his will for you to be pure and free. And so you pray, but you pray boldly and you pray with power and you pray with passion, not some little, oh God, will you help me?

I don't really think it's going to work, but it sure be nice that would. Prayers. And then notice, you know what? He doesn't just pray. He keeps pressing ahead. He just keeps pressing ahead.

Look at verse 6, so we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height. Why? For the people worked with all their heart. Well, what's he saying? It was really hard. They were demoralized. We asked God for help and why we're asking him for help, we didn't sit around and have a pity party. We got after it. We just keep pressing ahead. And God worked.

In fact, he worked in a very, very powerful way. The first attacks are with words and they attack our worth and our work and sort of our faith of believing what's going to happen. The second most formidable attack when you're a Christ follower and you are fulfilling what God wants you to do is discouragement. I mean, you're going to face a lot of things in your life, but of all the things I've seen, I think the most devastating thing I've seen really strong, really bright, really gifted people get so discouraged that they just quit doing what obviously God wants to bless and already has. And sometimes it doesn't happen when things are going bad. I've had some of my most discouraging times where it's almost unexplainable.

I can say, this is going well, this is going well, this is going well, God is blessing this with this and then I'll have these overwhelming feelings, but you know, you're the worst person that I know, Chip. You're a terrible pastor. You're a bad dad.

You're a lousy husband. You know, you said this and you know, so and so thought that, and this email said that, and I'll just, I'll just have this quiet little moment while all this gets up into my head and I'll just have this thought of, you know what, maybe I ought to do something else for a living. You ever had that? I just don't want to do this anymore. I don't think it's going to work. How do you respond to that?

Everybody has that and everybody has it in almost any area on any given time. And we're going to learn that there's four causes of discouragement but let's look at the text together. Look at verses seven through twelve. But when Sanballat, Tobiah and the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. So you know, attack number one comes, a little criticism, a little ridicule. They pray, they press ahead. Well now they're making progress again. Well the enemy sees they're making progress and so okay now they're ticked off.

Here we go. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to stir up trouble against us. Now notice the repetition here. This is almost a reflex with this man. But we prayed to our God and we posted a guard day and night to meet the threat.

Prayer, action, prayer, action. Now listen very carefully. Meanwhile, the people in Judah, in other words, if you would go to the local coffee shop in Judah, we're in Jerusalem, Judah's the surrounding area.

If you go to the local coffee shop and you hear the store keepers and people are talking, this is the buzz. This is kind of what people are talking about. Notice what he says. The people in Judah said, the strength of the laborers is giving out. Second, there is so much rubble and we cannot rebuild the wall. Then it goes on, also our enemies. So this is what the people, the Jews are saying around Judah.

You know, it's not, doesn't look like it's going real well. Also our enemies have said before they know it or see us, we'll be right there and we'll be among them and we'll kill them and put an end to the work. Then the Jews who live near them, I mean, you know, this is, let's get everybody in on the gang. The Jews who live near them came and told us 10 times over, wherever you turn, they will attack us.

And then in verses 13, he responds. If we wanted to break those apart, you see four causes of discouragement. The first is a loss of strength. And just right next to that, the problem is fatigue.

What's it say? It says the strength of the laborers is giving out. You are vulnerable to get very discouraged. And sometimes the problem is you're just fatigued. It's too much. You're up early.

You're up late. You're doing a lot. And you might've been doing a lot of the right thing, but you go and you go and you go and you go and when you get tired and when you get fatigued and you get emotionally vulnerable, then you are prime for discouragement. That's why it's very counterintuitive to stop and take breaks. It's very counterintuitive to take care of yourself. It's very counterintuitive to stop and do some things that are renewing and fun when there's a lot to do.

But if someone said this journey is a marathon, it's not a sprint. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message facing discouragement from our series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Well, Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. You know, we all experience painful and challenging circumstances in life, the loss of a loved one, crippling depression, or a constant struggle with sin.

And in those seasons, we want to throw our hands up and scream, I'm done. Well, through this study in the book of Nehemiah, Chip's going to teach us how to biblically respond to and overcome adversity. Learn the steps to have unexplainable hope and strength, even when your world is falling apart. For more info about this series, visit livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. Well, before we go on, Chip's joined me here in studio to talk about something that's really close to his heart.

Chip? Thanks Dave. I'll share some practical application from today's message in just a minute.

But first, I want you to do something with me. I want you to imagine that you were a pastor in China or Kenya or India, and especially in a rural village. And the pandemic is sort of easing, but mentally and spiritually and emotionally, your church was shut down.

People literally are starving. People have had to move away. And as you imagine being discouraged, ready to give up, looking at the devastation, some people show up and they gather you together with other pastors. And there's hope and there's teaching and there's resources. And pretty soon you realize that God wants you to stay in the ministry and Living on the Edge got to be that conduit of grace. Together we have seen tens of thousands of pastors in these countries rise up and begin to reach and to care for their flocks again. And you see people's lives turn around as these pastors get hope and then take it to their churches.

And now we look in the rearview mirror and see God at work in miraculous ways like I have never seen in my life. And what I'm asking you to do is to partner with Living on the Edge this month. Become a monthly partner. Give $50 a month. And this month alone, our goal is to resource 60,000 additional pastors.

We have nationals on the ground. God has opened the doors. The Lord is working in ways like never before, but we need the resources to help the least of these. People that are really hurting, people that love that ordinary man or woman or child in these rural areas all across the world.

Would you pray and then would you do exactly what God chose you to give? Thanks, Chip. If you're feeling called to partner with us in this meaningful work, go to livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. Your monthly gift of $50 will help us support 60 pastors for an entire year as we aim to reach 60,000 more pastors in 2024. To join us, go to livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app today and thanks in advance for your generosity.

We'll hear again as Chip with a few final words for us to think about. As we close today's program, could I just ask you a very simple little question? Where are you feeling discouraged today? What just has sort of that gray feeling that comes over your soul that pushes you down? You try and keep it at bay, but just there's little motivation. You just don't feel close to God. You maybe don't feel close to people. You don't have any sort of oomph to get out and do what you know you need to do and maybe even find yourself in some very negative activities. Maybe they're not blatantly sinful, but you just find yourself watching too much TV or eating too much food and kind of in this drift that is taking you in very negative places. One of the things when we get discouraged is we get inside of it and we try and pull out of it in our own strength. Maybe you just need to cry out to God. Then when you're doing life in community, as we've talked about through this whole series, often I need someone.

In my case, it's one of my kids or more often even my wife. She'll say just two days ago, Theresa said, you know what's wrong, honey? You seem kind of down. I said, well, I kind of am. She said, so what's going on? I said, I don't know. She said, what do you mean? I said, well, I don't know. I just don't feel motivated.

I just feel kind of discouraged. Then she pointed out some basic things like, well, we've traveled for two days. You haven't had much sleep. You've been through a number of time zones. I know you pretty well. You haven't had a workout in about four days.

You know what? Maybe a good night's sleep, a healthy meal and a workout. You'd feel a lot better. Well, here I am 36 hours later. I've eaten well. I've had two workouts and I got a good night's sleep and a miraculous thing happened.

I feel a lot better. And so all I want to say to you is get to the heart of what is discouraging you. And if it is the need for rest or the loss of strength, give yourself permission. God's a graceful God. Let him love you.

Let him give you some rest. In our next broadcast, I'll talk about some other very specific causes of discouragement and how, in the power of the Spirit of God, you can beat him. Great word, Chip. And we want to help you tune out the noise of this chaotic world and better connect with God. So let me encourage you to check out the Chip Ingram app and get plugged in with our helpful resources. You can listen to our most recent series, sign up for daily discipleship and more. We want you to grow in your walk with Jesus and the Chip Ingram app is a great way to immerse yourself in uplifting biblical content. We'll listen in next time as Chip picks up in his series, Keep Pressing Ahead. Until then, this is Dave Droome saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.