Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Dealing with Discouragement Lesson 11 Scripture: Philippians 4:4-9 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: October 18 th, 2015 The Perspective that Defeats Discouragement 2 nd Cor. 11: 24-29 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant Philippians 4:4-9 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Introduction Discouragement is defined first of all as the state of being discouraged. (That s not very helpful is it?) Or, discouragement is also defined as a loss of confidence or enthusiasm; dispiritedness. AND THIS description reads, Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, dis-taste for the present, and distrust of the future. It is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow. It is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellowman, and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God. (William Ward Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 18). I have been talking about discouragement to attempt to help you to deal with it when it comes. It will come. There is no avoiding it. (A very few people we meet seem exempt but they are rare.) When discouragement comes, how do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, as disciples we would even
call ourselves, attack the problem? We want to be an ENCOURAGEMENT to each other, and at the same time we wrestle with the forces of discouragement within our own hearts and minds. In 1978 or 79 probably, I made the career decision to attempt to become a professional encourager. To me, that meant getting an education so that I would be well tooled up to bring the Scriptures to bear on people s discouragements, and it meant I would seek the Lord s leading as there where and how to do it. This week I was called burned out. I m not sure what one is supposed to DO with an assessment as that although I m sure I ve had that opinion of others often enough. If burned out means tired then yes, sure. If it means less tolerant than when one was younger for stupidness then yes, absolutely it is an occupational hazard of doing a job for many years. If it means you don t love the sheep any more then, No. When you re working hard, as hard as you can, to bless people, to keep your balance and not get distracted by all kinds of peripheral issues, you don t want to be viewed as being burned out. You want to be viewed as being faithful. I rarely know if I m actually being an encouragement, people s lives being very complicated and consuming. But I press on because of the upward call of God. I listen to what people are saying and thinking, I process those ideas, and I search the Scriptures to see what reasons there are revealed there for us to BE encouraged. But before we get to the Scriptures even, there are ideas and perspectives given by other people, about how to process life or how to deal with discouragement Lily Tomlin The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you re still a rat. Lucille Ball Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself. Joan Rivers Life is tough, darling. Life is hard. And we better laugh at everything; otherwise, we re going down the tube. I enjoy life when things are happening. I don t care if it s good things or bad things. That means you re alive. Charles Stanley Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there's a choice I make. God would never discourage me. He would always point me to himself to trust him. Therefore, my discouragement is from Satan. As you go through the emotions that we have, hostility is not from God, bitterness, unforgiveness, all of these are attacks from Satan. I don t think there are many Christians today who could give to the apostle Paul a lecture about discouragement. I think even the hardest situations today that Christians might find themselves in, would maybe come UP to 2
what Paul knew about discouragement but even so I can hardly imagine anyone today whose résumé would include Five times, forty lashes less one (195 lashes). Three times being beaten with rods. One stoning. Three times shipwrecked; A night and a day I was adrift at sea; Frequent journeys, Being in danger from rivers, Being in danger from robbers, Being in danger from my own people, Being in danger from Gentiles, Being in danger in the city, Being in danger in the wilderness, Being in danger at sea, Being in danger from false brothers; Being in toil and hardship, Struggling through many a sleepless night, Being in hunger and thirst and often without food, Being in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure of anxiety on me for all the churches. I can imagine Paul thinking, man, this is too hard. Or Lord, I m ready to retire back to Tarsus. I ll set me up a little outfitters shop, teach a Bible study and just be done with all this flak and opposition to the Gospel and let younger ones get whacked around for a while So what did he say, with all his struggles, that would give us a good perspective about how to deal with discouragement? He says what we read in Philippians 4:4-9, which is late in his life he is in jail, in fact when he writes it. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. The joy of the Lord is your strength, Nehemiah told the Hebrews who were just then coming back to the land. Because of the Lord, I have cause to rejoice. I can plug back into His happiness because He is in control, even when discouraging (or worse) things happen. We are assured that if we are IN CHRIST, somehow all that happens will turn out well eventually. Discouragement is counteracted by the joy of the Lord, however we can plug into that music, praying with a prayer partner in a transparent way, hanging out with other more joyful Christians or whatever resources you can find that will inject His joy! 3
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. We should also demonstrate forbearance (Gr. epieikes) to everyone, saved and unsaved alike. The Greek word contains connotations of gentleness, yielding, kindness, patience, forbearance, leniency, and magnaminity. It recalls Jesus Christ s humility in 2:5 11. The forbearing person does not insist on his or her own rights or privileges. He or she is considerate and gentle toward others. Of course, there is a time to stand for what is right. The forbearing person is not spineless but selfless. 1 By being a reasonable Christian among the other people in your life, you get a kickback of encouragement to yourself! The Lord is at hand; He is not far away. If you hear that voice tell it to scram! The Lord Jesus is both at hand in real-time, close by and close in His coming which will not be long. Discouragement GETS discouraged when Jesus is standing right in front of it, staring it down. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Anxiety is not supposed to be the normal state of the Christian. We ALWAYS have the resource of prayer to flee to when we get anxious, afraid or feeling dread. Here, Paul authorizes the believer to bring your requests to God. This is no small password. This is an awesome invitation. If you are discouraged, take it to the Lord. If you feel defeated, take it to the Lord. If you are depressed, take it to the Lord. I am not saying that this verse is some kind of magical incantation. But it is Paul s OWN practice when he was discouraged. That Prayer Room ought to have NO SLOTS left each time we do it, after the signup time opens. We ought to be so hungry to take our requests to God that a single hour made available ought to delight us and give us a thing to look forward to! And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. If discouragement is the problem, don t you think that the peace of God a thing so awesome and beyond real description is the solution? NOT having peace and being unsettled, and bothered, and worried, is tremendously discouraging and as Charles Stanley suggests, a thing the devil loves to use on us. My heart and my mind need protection, and if I take these requests to HIM in prayer and supplication (which means just ASKING), I am promised the peace 1 Tom Constable, Tom Constable s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Php 4:5. 4
of God. Is there a better remedy for discouragement? Of course, we DO need to do it, actually! Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Then, and I am suggesting that this is Paul s perspective on dealing with discouragement, we focus our thoughts on EIGHT GOOD THINGS. Things that are: TRUE HONORABLE JUST PURE LOVELY COMMENDABLE EXCELLENT PRAISE-WORTHY We are indeed susceptible to that which we concentrate on. If we spend lots of time focusing on depressing stuff, untrue stuff, dishonorable things, injustices, impure, unlovely and horrid, shameful, sloppy and poorly done and just having low standards, and things that miss the mark, should we be surprised if our general feeling is discouragement? I think this has implications for what we do with our leisure time. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things, We are ALSO influenced by WHO we spend time with. Paul told the Philippian Christians to duplicate the lifestyle practices and choices and principles that they had seen in HIM. You and I need mentors. Our women s Bible studies and men s Bible studies should be MODELING-LABORATORIES. Younger believers should be able to ask older believers, how do you deal with this or that? How did you make this decision? How did God bless you on this path, and how did you miss His blessing when you went that way? These are things we learn from each other, and IF you have access to someone to talk about these things with, discouragement is abated, lessened and maybe even really held at bay. and the God of peace will be with you There s that word again: peace. Our God is a God of peace. Paul s perspective on discouragement ends with the reassurance that God, with His sense of peace (a fruit of the Holy Spirit, you will remember) is right there, right 5
next to us. If HE is standing next to you, even if you catch a lash, a stone, are in danger, go down with the ship, or any OTHER bad thing that might happen, can it defeat you, if HE is with you? I suggest, NO. If you get discouraged, you have this passage on a 3x5 card nearby. You think on these things that Paul wrote from within his discouragement. If you get discouraged you GO BACK to what our faith is all about to begin with. You might need to turn the television off, lay that iphone down, go out for a walk and just spend a couple of hours with the Lord. You might need to do whatever you need to do, to get refocused on your walk with Him and be alone with Him and not be distracted for a bit. And the God of peace will be with you. Let s sing, 1. Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word; I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord; Thou my great Father, I Thy true son; Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. 2. High King of Heaven, my victory won, May I reach Heaven s joys, O bright Heav n s Sun! Heart of my own heart, whate er befall, Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all. 6