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!!!! Dealing With Discouragement
*TEXT: Nehemiah 4:6-15*
*INTRODUCTION:* I am going to start a series of messages entitled, “DEALING WITH THE SEVEN DEADLY D’s”.
All of us at some point and time have or will have to deal with one or more of these deadly D’s.
Very quickly I want to list these deadly D’s for you.
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Dealing With Discouragement.
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Dealing With Defeat.
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Dealing With Disappointment.
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Dealing With Difficulty.
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Dealing With Delay.
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Dealing With Doubt.
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Dealing With Depression.
I want to deal with the causes and cures of discouragement.
Let me say first of all that discouragement is universal; no one is exempt from it.
From the richest to the poorest all have to deal with times of discouragement.
Saint and sinner alike have to deal with discouragement.
I know that all of us would like to think that we are immune to discouragement, but the truth is we’re not.
While we may get discouraged from time to time we must never allow discouragement to get a hold of us.
There is a difference between you having discouragement and discouragement having you.
When you are discouraged you are still in control, but when discouragement has you it has control.
So we must never allow discouragement to get a hold in our lives.
We must recognize it for what it is and deal with it through God’s word and God’s help under the leadership of the Holy Ghost.
Discouragement can be contagious.
If you are around someone that is deeply discouraged they can discouraged you if you are not prepared to deal with it.
We can not isolate ourselves from those that are discouraged but we can insulate ourselves with the things of God that will protect us from it.
While discouragement may be universal it is curable.
We don’t have to stay locked in to a life style of discouragement.
We must never allow ourselves to believe that we are beyond hope of deliverance form any one of these deadly D’s.
They are all curable through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me define discouragement in my own words.
Discouragement is loosing the desire and motivation to continue doing something that brings purpose and satisfaction to one’s life.
As we apply this to the Christian life and the church it simply means that one has lost the desire and motivation that they possessed win they first gave their heart life to God.
There was a time when people were thrilled about going to church and working in the services of God.
They derived a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from attending church and ministering to others.
But as years went by they lost their desire and motivation to attend church any longer.
I believe if that if we will take a close look at the book of Nehemiah we can discover some reason why.
Nehemiah was on a mission to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem.
This mission was a man date from God. Nehemiah tells us that it was God that put it into his heart to take the long journey to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.
Upon arriving at Jerusalem he surveyed the city; accessed the damage and put a plan of action into motion to rebuild the walls.
He rallied the peopled together and told them what God had put in his heart and shared his vision with them and soon the work was under way.
Nehemiah 4:6 tells us that they where half finished when discouragement showed up.
Isn’t that the way that it always happens?
We start doing something new filled with excitement and enthusiasm and about half way through discouragement sets in.
We look at what we are doing and it looks like we are making little or no progress at all.
It seems the more we work the less we accomplish.
If we carefully study this chapter we can discover the causes and cures of discouragement.
That the two things I want us to look at this morning;
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I. The Causes of Discouragement: vs 10-12
In these passages of scriptures we have four causes of discouragement.
Let’s look at them.
!! A. Fatigue Due To A Loss Of Strength: /v 10// And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed/
!!! 1.
The number one cause of discouragement is fatigue.
They were just plain worn out.
They had worked a long and hard for an extended period of time.
They were physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually exhausted.
They were tired, weary and worn down.
When you're exhausted it's hard to be on a spiritual or emotional high.
!!! 2. When does fatigue usually set in? When does discouragement set in? v.
6 /"So we rebuilt the wall until all of it reached half its height."/
Fatigue and discouragement comes at the midpoint.
Everybody's got energy when you start.
It's a new project, a new problem, a new solution.
But after awhile the newness of the project wears off.
You get bored, tired and discouragement sets in.
!!! 3. When does the new ware off the car?
When it’s half paid for.
When do you get discouraged in remodeling a house?
You become discouraged half way through the remodeling process.
That's why so many people never complete anything.
!!! 4. It happens after you have worked hard and long and it seems that your accomplishments don’t match the energy or the effort that we put forth.
!!! 5. We need to check our energy level; Spiritually, physically and emotionally to see if we need a little R&R.
!! B. Frustration Due To A Loss Of Vision: v /10 //and there is much rubbish;/
*/Ezra 4:4-5/*/ Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose;/
!!! 1.
The word frustrate means: to break, to annul, to do away, to fail, ineffective, made my void, to split, divide.
!!! 2. That’s what your enemy wants to do.
He wants to break you, Annul your work and service for God, to do away with you, to make you fail, to make you ineffective, to make your life void of any meaning, to split and divide the church.
When you and I become discouraged and frustrated these are the things that happen to us.
However that is not God’s plan or purpose for our lives or our church.
You and I as the children of God and as the church of God are destined to succeed.
We are destined to overcome and be effective in what we do for the glory of God and for the good of others.
Only when we allow ourselves to be overcome by discouragement to we fail.
Praise God your failure does not have to be final.
We become frustrated when we loose site of our purpose and goal in life.
When we start looking around and all we can see is the rubbish and debris of what’s left to do we loose site of what’s most important in our lives, the vision that God gave us.
How many of you have the kind of job where your work is never finished?
You know what frustration's like.
You never quite get finished.
As soon as you finish a minor project you've got others.
Your work is never done.
That's frustrating and that can be a cause of discouragement.
What is the rubble in your life?
The rubble is the trivial things in your life that keep you from accomplishing your main goals.
!! C. Failure Due To A Loss Of Confidence: /v 10/ /so that we are not able to build the wall.
/
!!! 1.
A loss of confidence is a major contributor to discouragement.
When you loose your strength you loose your ability to function.
When you loose your vision you loose your ability to see how to function.
Next you loose your confidence in your ability to function.
!!! 2. The latter part of verse 6 tells us that the people had a mind to work.
Another way to say it is they had a heart to work.
Somewhere along the way they lost the their heart to continue to work.
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