Keep Pressing Ahead - Facing Discouragement, Part 2

Are you struggling with discouragement today?

Or maybe your husband or wife or one of your kids is? Got a co-worker that seems to be really down? Today I'm going to talk about the four causes of discouragement and God's specific remedy to each one. Stay with me. Today Chip continues talking about discouragement and identifies four practical steps that will help us overcome any disheartening situation. But before we get going, to help you get the most out of Chip's talk, download his message notes. They contain his outline, scripture references, and much more. Get them by going to the Broadcasts tab at Living on the Edge of the Book of Nehemiah.

At LivingOnTheEdge.org, app listeners tap fill in notes. Well, with all that said, let's join him for the remainder of his message from Nehemiah chapter four. 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 even be 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. 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. And I will tell you, of all these, that's the one where I blow it the most. I try to do too much. I get really tired. I get overextended. And it's just predictable.

Discouragement comes. And so I have to, are you ready for this? Is this like bizarre? I have to structure in and plan fun in my life. I mean, is that sick? I mean, okay, I'm going to discipline myself. I'm really going to have fun today. I'm serious. Because part of it, I know that my workaholic tendencies, part of it is I know deep down where I've come from that there's this identity issue of my work and my performance has something to do with whether I'm okay.

And even when I'm doing things for the right reason, that is always an Achilles heel. And so I've learned for me that, boy, it's really, really important to take a full day off. The second is loss of vision. Notice their focus. It says, look at all this rubble.

I mean, you know that old thing about is the glass half full or half dempy? I mean, now wait a second. I just heard, let's see, the wall is halfway built. And now they're looking at, but look at all this junk. Man, look at all this junk.

No, no, no, no, no. Look at how much progress you've made. But ask yourself, see the issue here is your focus. Are you focused on what is wrong or are you focused on what's right? Third is a loss of confidence. The issue here is faith.

Notice what they say here. We cannot rebuild the wall. Now, when there was nothing done, they said, let us arise and build.

We can do it. They had faith. God's in it.

The king's in it. The materials are here. Wow. Now that they're half done and, oh, we can't do this. Some of you have made tremendous progress in areas and you're just saying, oh, I can't do this.

I can't do this. Stop and look in the rearview mirror. And part of looking in the rearview mirror, I'll show you a little tool I have is I started keeping journals in college because I'm so prone to see what needs to get done. And all the time.

You know what? When you live off a to-do list, man, you get 20 things done, you wake up the next day and there's 24. I'm telling you, that's discouraging. So I just learned, I started with writing things down and I would write down what God has done. And when I start to get discouraged, I look back and I begin to say, well, that got done. That got done. God did that. God did that. That was a prayer for a year. That did.

That did. And when you look back, you get confidence because the God who was faithful yesterday and last month and you start reliving and telling stories. I mean, all of a sudden I realize God's big. But where's your focus? Where's your faith? And then fourth is a loss of security.

You notice that you've got the Jews, you've got the enemies, and the key issue here is fear. You never know when it's going to happen. But the word is, when you're not looking, the economy's going to go down again. You'll never find another job. Your wife's going to leave you because you can't provide. Your kids are going to hate you and think you're a nobody.

This will never, I mean, right? Fear. Fear. What if? What about? What if? What about?

If so, what? And fear is always projecting into the future. And hypothetical grace does not exist. God is not in tomorrow. Every need. Sometimes I've had times in my life where we've had absolutely no money and all we had was a roof and some food to eat for a couple days. And I had to go back to, what did God promise?

A roof, protection, and food for the day. Biblically, if you have food for tomorrow, you're rich. And all of a sudden we get totally, our today gets completely ruined because my 401k wasn't what it was supposed to and I had this plan and I was going to retire it this year and I can't retire it this year. And I might have to work and have like six or eight or ten more years of productivity and life and joy and I certainly don't want to do that because I've been brainwashed to think that when you get 60-something I deserve a break today just like the McDonald's kids.

So I want to have a break today and I don't want to keep working and I might have to work longer and, you know, I had all that money saved up. It was just on paper, it was just on numbers and when the numbers came in it made me very happy and when they went down it made me very, very sad. Of course my security is in Jesus and not in money, of course not except for when all the money goes on Jesus doesn't seem very big.

Right? Loss of strength, loss of vision, loss of confidence, loss of security. Okay Nehemiah, help us, blaze the trail brother because we need help. Therefore, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places posting them by families. So okay, where are we vulnerable? Get people there, get them with people that they are really going to give their lives for.

With swords and spears and bows. Evaluation, after I looked things over I stood up and I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, don't be afraid of them. Why? Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. Where's your focus? Where's your faith? Let's see now, he spoke and the entire universe came into existence but he couldn't protect you. Right? He spoke and the world came into existence but he can't meet the need that you're wrestling with. No?

He's awesome. And then action, fight for your brothers and your sons, your daughters and your wives and your homes. There's a lot at stake, no time for a pity party. Step up.

I mean this is like the greatest coach in the world spiritually calling the team together and saying okay, action plan. Here's where we're vulnerable. Here, here, here and here. You guys get there. Let's get in teams.

Let's get in families. When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall each to his own work. Did you notice this guy just won't quit? He just keeps pressing ahead. He just won't quit.

He won't get distracted, he won't get detracted. And so now they're back on the wall. From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears and shields and bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried the materials did the work with one hand and held a weapon with the other. And each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed by me. Then I said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, the work is extensive and it's spread out.

We're widely separated from one another along the wall. Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us here or God will fight for us. He's got a strategy.

He's got a plan. We're spread out. We may be vulnerable. The guy with the trumpet's with me. When you hear it, we're going to gather together. We're not going down, people. God's bigger than this. We're going to fight. So we continued the work, verse 21, with half the men holding the spears from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.

At that time also, I said to the people, have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem. Notice the paradigm changes. He has a different plan. The last plan was okay, but the situation's different. Sometimes adversity causes us to think, oh, we were doing this. Now there's a problem.

Maybe we need to do it different. He says, okay, here's what we're going to do. Everyone who's working, nobody goes home anymore. We're going to have a slumber party inside Jerusalem.

Everybody gets to come. Every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day. And then here's the deal, especially if you're in any kind of influential position. If you're a single parent, your kids look to you. If you're the man of the house, people look to you.

If you're involved in ministry, people look to you. Listen to what Nehemiah does. Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off their clothes.

Each had his weapon even when he went for water. You hear what he's saying? It's going to be tough. It's going to be difficult. We're going to step up.

God's big. We're going to make it. By the way, there are seasons when you get up at the crack of dawn and you go to bed when it's dark.

You can't live that way all the time. But under pressure, under stress, you say we're all in and whatever it takes, we're going to do it. So much so, he models, we didn't even take our clothes off. At the end of the day, my sword's here, put a little wash on my face, get a little food, and we're not going to stop until we get this thing done. Fifty-two days, an engineering miracle. I had a friend who was in charge of all the engineers of this large company from one side of the Mississippi to the other half of America.

And he told me, he studied this extensively, and he was very kind of, you know, people that are like real detail-oriented and figured out how big the wall was and what kind of things they had to do. He says, absolute miracle. Absolute miracle what occurred. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return you to today's message in just a second. But let me quickly ask you, do you struggle to read and then understand God's Word? If so, join us later in today's program as Chip talks about our insightful resource called Daily Discipleship with Chip.

This tool has helped tens of thousands of people study the Bible and hear from God. Stick around to learn how to sign up. Well, with that, let's rejoin Chip for the remainder of his message. Four resources that I've pulled out of this text that have been helpful to me. One, be proactive. You might jot next to that, get moving.

All right? Get moving. James 2 17 says, in the same way, faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead. They pray, they act.

They pray, they act. Second is remember who's for you. Get perspective. Just remember who God really is. Mary, a little teenage girl said, what? When the angel's speaking to her with God, nothing is impossible, Luke 1 37. I mean, let that sink in, okay?

Don't just write, oh yeah, I've got to get that down in my notes. Get it in your heart. With God, nothing's impossible that you're facing right now. Do you believe it or not? Are you come to and saying, God, this is impossible. Will you intervene? I'll do whatever. Will you intervene?

He'll show up. One, be proactive. Remember who God is. Then fight, and then the next two words are hard. Fight, fight.

This is when you face discouragement, we cave. We start feeling like, I'm a victim, I'm a victim. Why, why? Poor, poor, me, me. And it's death.

It's like the gray mist of discouragement comes in and you start asking those questions and it just turns dark and black. And you've got to fight. Paul said, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. Now they're stored up for me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. Not only me, but all those who've longed for his appearing.

The reason he fought was perspective. I'm hanging tough. I'm hanging in.

I'm not going to opt out. I know that, you know what, there is a reward for me. Jesus is going to be enough. And I bet if we interviewed the apostle Paul in prison half that time, how's this going to work out, Paul?

I think it's, I don't have a clue. I think if you said, Paul, do you ever get discouraged? He'd look at you like, duh. Are you kidding me? Well, so are you going to give up?

Duh, no way. There was something, a fiber, and part of the capacity of the apostle Paul was forged and formed and birthed because of what he went through. And you are now the proud possessor of 13 books because his adversity kept him in prison most of the time. And his life.

Here's a guy who writes about joy to a Philippian church. Why, he's in chains. Finally, never fight alone. Get connected.

Get connected. Hebrews 3.13. Encourage one another day after day, as long as it's still called today.

At least any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. If you just want two words to get you focused, okay, discouragement's coming on. Number one, get moving. Number two, get perspective. Number three, get mad. Fight, fight, fight. You got to get mad.

Because if you don't get mad, you'll feel sorry for yourself. I'm not going to let this happen. I'm not going to let this attitude happen. I'm not going to let this loss of a job make me feel like I'm not a man, not a woman. I'm not going to allow this person who said those things to determine my future.

Just because they said I can't get in that school, there's a lot of schools. I'll tell you what, fight. And part of it, you need to get mad and say, this is who I am. God, are you for me? Give me strength.

Give me direction. And then the last one is you get connected. Before I go over there, I just want to read this quote because this quote for me is just, In a mysterious way, our troubles allow us to discover and develop reservoirs of strength and perseverance that most of us don't realize we have. When we lean on the Lord, He actually uses our struggles to expand our ability to deal with Him. It's a process that leads us to greater hope and deeper faith. In terms of being proactive, as soon as I feel discouragement coming on, here's a few things practical.

One, write a note to someone. Something I often do, immediately, get a workout. Those endorphins actually work. Do you feel like working out?

Of course not. If you don't feel, go get a workout. Help someone. Take a walk.

Make a phone call. Sing. But you have to do something to move you in the right direction.

Sometimes too, you know, are you ready? Like, have some fun. It doesn't feel very spiritual. When you're discouraged, have some fun. Whatever makes fun for you.

I mean, limited, moral, right, good things that make fun. But do something, because a lot of times you're right on that edge. Another thing I do is I'll put on worship music and I'll just stick my headphones on and find some place. And I don't feel like singing, but I just sing. The second thing there is remember who God is. These are journals. I probably have 50 or 80 of them.

I don't know. But what I'll do is I need to remember who God is. Psalm 103 says, do not forget the works of the Lord. When you remember his works, it will cause you to remember his worth.

Remembering his works and what he did will lead you to who he is. And so sometimes I'll just start reading them. And I'll think, oh wow, that's right, I forgot my son was in ICU back then.

And boy, we were really having big struggles in our marriage back then. I'll just start reading them. Another thing I do is I'll pick up a classic book, J.I. Packard, Knowing God. And you can almost open it anywhere. Or in my briefcase, I always keep A.W.

Tozer. And I just start reading about the goodness of God or the sovereignty of God or the omniscience of God. What I know is I've got to remember who God is. Or I'll take my little thing, Ken Boa has a little thing called handbook to prayer. And in it he just prays scripture prayer back to God. And I often start with, God, I don't really feel like doing this. And I do it out loud. And I begin to pray these prayers out loud back to God. And what I find is the discouragement begins to dissipate because, one, I'm getting perspective.

Two, I'm getting renewed instead of being fatigued. And then fight, fight, fight. On this one, all I can say is I just often have to call someone that I know and say, I'm really struggling right now, I need someone to fight with me. And here's what it is.

And here's why I think. And that's where you have to get connected. You just got to find someone somewhere who you can be honest with, share with, they accept you as you are.

You need to have a special friend or two that you can just open your heart and know that they're not going to judge you. Because the enemy wants to keep your discouragement or what you're discouraged about or this secret that you have as this thing and bombard you forever and ever and ever and make you feel like you don't measure up, you'll never change, nothing's ever going to happen. God, we long to obey what you've said. We want to be proactive. We want to remember who you are. We need this fire that you can put inside of us where we will fight instead of faint. And Lord, we need one another. And so in the name of the one who spoke and the world came into existence and in the name of the one who holds all things together by the word of his power and in the name of the one who died for our sin and rose from the dead and in the name of the one who caused your spirit to dwell inside of us as down payment for our own salvation, I ask you to bring breakthroughs in people's lives and healing and hope.

In Jesus' name. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, Facing Discouragement, is from our series Keep Pressing Ahead. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. The Bible teaches that followers of Jesus are more than conquerors.

But when we're really suffering or struggling with something, that idea can sound like religious mumbo jumbo. In this series, Chip's going to change our perspective toward hardship by examining the life of Nehemiah. Discover where adversity comes from and what we can do when our most challenging circumstances threaten to pull us under. If you've missed any part of Chip's teaching, catch up anytime on the Chip Ingram app. Well, before we go any further, here's Chip.

Thanks, Dave. I'll share some important application as we wrap up today's message in just a minute. But first, I'd like to ask you a question. Do you sometimes feel like you don't measure up? Like you're not useful? Like you're not smart enough? Even in maybe really low times, like, you know, what's the use?

Why am I even alive? Well, let me tell you, those thoughts are lies from the pit of hell. Too many people have bought into those type of lies instead of the truth that's found in God's Word.

And I want you to know that those lies aren't just random. They come from an enemy, the father of lies. And you have to learn to fight back. And fighting back is called spiritual warfare. And I want to invite you to join me for the next daily discipleship with Chip that's called the Invisible War.

I want you to sign up and say, I'm going to learn about spiritual warfare because those thoughts are from the enemy. Through this study, we'll open our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. We'll learn what spiritual warfare is, who Satan is, what power he has, what power he doesn't have, and tools to help you live victoriously each and every day. And for those of you that are new to daily discipleship, this is a free video resource where you and I can study God's Word together. I'll never talk for more than 10 minutes, and then I will ask you for 10 minutes with a brief study guide.

And here's the thing. You're going to learn to study the Scriptures, to hear God's voice. This is not a Bible study. I'm going to mentor you one-on-one. Two hundred and thirty-four thousand people have gone through daily discipleships with me, and they all say basically the same thing. I'm now hearing God.

I understand the Bible. I'm growing on my own. And that's our heart's desire for you. So let me encourage you.

Make the decision today. Sign up for the daily discipleship. We're in the midst of a spiritual battle. God has given us the victory, and I want to show you how to experience it.

Thanks, Chip. Well, I can't encourage you enough to sign up for this new daily discipleship, The Invisible War, by going to dailydiscipleship.com. As you and Chip study Ephesians Chapter 6, you'll learn how to defend yourself and fight back in this unseen battle. Again, to sign up for this brand-new daily discipleship, visit dailydiscipleship.com. App listeners tap Discipleship.

With that, here again is Chip. As we close today's program, I want to go over the four very specific resources God has given us when you start feeling discouraged or when you're right in the thick of it. The first was be proactive. Do not sit around.

I mean, get moving. Do something positive. Get a workout. Take a walk. Write a note. Do something positive. The second is remember who is for you. With God, nothing is impossible. Discouragement starts really creeping down at the very depths of your soul and causes you to give up when you start thinking, this is the way it is, and it's never going to change.

That's just not true. God is the God who created and spoke the universe into existence, and He cares about you. He parted the Red Sea, and He can part your Red Sea. You've got to remember who is for you. Third, fight, fight, fight. I just so fall into becoming a victim. As I was sharing a couple days ago, I really in the middle of the afternoon started getting really discouraged, and I started all these thoughts about this isn't working out and that's not working out, and I haven't been very disciplined in this, and the condemnation, I'm down on me, and then after I got down on me, I started blaming other people in my mind, and then I just realized I need to fight. This is the enemy trying to take me down, and I just needed to get mad, and I remember Teresa looking at me and saying, you know, she asked those kind questions at first, and then finally saying, you know, honey, I just think I'm struggling. I'm going to go out to the garage right now. I'm going to get a workout, and I'm going to pray out loud, and that's what I did, and you know what, 30 minutes later, I was a new person, but you've got to fight. Don't sink. You've got to fight.

And then finally, never fight alone. For some of you, the will of God is to text a friend and say, I'm discouraged. Can we meet?

Can we have coffee? Or to pick up the phone and say, hey, I'm really struggling today. Could we just pray out loud on the phone for one minute? Reach out and ask for help, and by the way, if you know someone who's discouraged, God's will for you today may be you email them, you text them, you call them, and don't solve their problem. Just say, I sensed you were down, and then do this.

Maybe you've never done it before. Could I pray for you right now? Could I just pray for you right now? And you will see the power of God come into human relationships. God bless you, and keep pressing ahead.

Great word, Chip. Before we go, I want to tell you that Living on the Edge is more than just a daily broadcast ministry. One area that really weighs on our hearts is for hurting and discouraged pastors. Now, every day, all over the world, we're inspiring these leaders to keep pressing ahead through helpful in-person training and insightful resources. But to continue to do that, we need your help. If you can partner with Living on the Edge for a monthly gift of $50, we can support 60 pastors for an entire year. Our goal is to provide tools and teaching to 60,000 church leaders in 2024. So if you'd like to stand with us, become a monthly partner today by going to livingontheedge.org, or the Chip Ingram app. That's livingontheedge.org, or visit the Chip Ingram app. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, from all of us here, I'm Dave Druey, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time. .