Destroying Your Discouragement
Nehemiah 4:4-14
From the series "Slaying The Giants In Your Life"
Introduction:
Most of you have never heard of Lawrence Hanratty, who was named the "Unluckiest Man In New York City." (Profiled in the Los Angeles Times)
A Nearly electrocuted to death in a construction site accident in 1984. For weeks he lay in a coma, with his lawyers fighting for his liability claim-until one of them was disbarred and two of them died. Hanratty’s wife ran off with her lawyer.
Hanratty lost his car in a terrible crash and when the police left the accident scene, he was robbed. Later, his insurance company fought to cut off his worker’s benefits; his landlord tried to evict him. He suffered from depression/agoraphobia. He took an oxygen canister with him where ever he went, and took 42 pills a day for his heart and liver ailments.
b A city councilman took up his cause, neighbors began to rally around him. Incredibly, Lawrence summed his life this way: "There’s always hope.
*Would you be able to talk about hope after a string of calamities like Lawrence’s.
*Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative during low points?
The dictionary defines dicourage as "to deprive of courage, to deter, to dishearten, to hinder."
You can lose hope
Nations can lose hope as well......darkest days of Israel & Judah
*The Babylonians destroyed the holy city of Jerusalem, carrying its loot and people into captivity...dispersed across the nation. There’s always hope. A ruler by the name of Cyrus took the throne and began to allow the Jewish exiles to return home to begin to rebuild the walls of the city.
Nehemiah was the architect of building discouragement into hope.
We’ll begin a series of messages entitled "Slaying the Giants In Your Life" with the lesson "Destroying Your Discouragement."
Nehemiah 4:4-14
Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. [5] 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. 6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. 7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. [8] They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. [9] But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. 10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall." 11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work." 12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us." 13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. [14] After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
Nehemiah had to deal with discouragement. (ETS)
The principles to dealing with discouragement never change. (ESS)
I hope you’ll take at least one biblical response to your discouragement. (Objective)
a What will you do to destroy your discouragement this week?
b Lets look at two actions that Nehemiah took to deal with discouragement.
The first action that Nehemiah took to deal with discouragement was recognizing discouragement.
There are four factors that lead to discouragement
1. The first factor is.....FATIGUE.
Neh. 4:10 10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, ........
The wall builders would work for 52 days of back breaking labor...and they were right in the middle of the project.
*1/2 way through, they got tired, wore out...fatigue sets in.
You can clean your house all day long, help the kids with algebra all night, do laundry after that....depressed, worn out, fatigued.
(IL.) Vince Lombardi observed, "fatigue makes cowards of us all." He was right.
2. The second factor is.....FRUSTRATION.
Neh. 4:10 10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble.........
They worked in shifts for 26 straight days and the place was a wreck.
*How can anything be accomplished in this mess?
(They didn’t see the big picture, only a pile of debris) *burned out!!!
Burnout (Buzz Word) Synonymous with working too hard. I know people who work very hard, long hours...not burned out.
*Burn out happens when you work too hard at the wrong thing.
*Striving for a goal that you can’t accomplish, maybe nobody can, carrying the weight all by yourself up hill....frustrated!
3. The third factor is.....FAILURE.
Neh. 4:10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."
The Israelites threw their hands in the air, "Were tired, fed up with the set up, we can’t do this. It was a great idea, we’ve been at for a month and we can’t take it any more!"
*The negative talk was (is) like a virus that spreads through the whole community.
*Nehemiah’s people hadn’t failed at all,...but it appeared to them that they had.
Failure is universal. (If you do anything you will fail.)
How you handle failure is the difference maker!
*The dangers is letting the negativity get to the best of us. When we do.........we give the world’s greatest de-motivational speaker a platform from which to speak. We get a real good chance to buy into his lies.
3. The fourth factor is.....FEAR.
Neh. 4:11-12 11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work." 12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
Imagine the weary workers, building their walls in the midst of the ugly rubble...and then their neighbors come by and say "When you least expect it.. we’ll come in with our swords and take you out one by one. The walls will be left half built."
*Nothing derails the work of God’s people like a negative word.
Criticism is toxic!
Re-focusing, re-energizing, re-dreaming, re-evaluating...get slammed.
*Maybe your dealing with criticism at work/home....discouraged.
Now that we’ve recognized all the factors that lead to discouragement, how can we respond?
II The second action Nehemiah took to deal with discouragement was responding to discouragement. (Four responses)
The first response is...
Cry out to God. Neh. 4:4-5,9
Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. [5] 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.... [9] But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
"I’ve done & tried everything and now all I can do is pray."
Next time, reverse it.
*Call out to God FIRST instead of last.
*Don’t wait until last to look up, start at the TOP.
How do you cry out to God? (Cry out to Daddy.)
*Me: blubber, boo hoo,....biblical! David did it all the time (Ps. 13)
The second response is...
Continue the work God has given you to do. (Neh. 4:6)
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
Nehemiah knew his people were discouraged, fearful, worried, upset...but he never (nor allowed) a trowel to be set down, never missed a beat in laying the next brick.
*There were problems...but that wasn’t going to set aside the mandate that God had given to him!
*He knew his people didn’t need to bail, they needed to build. They didn’t need to walk, they needed to work!!!
Gal.6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
2 Thess. 3:13 And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
It’s easy to get discouraged doing God stuff.
b Why is that our immediate response to adversity it to quit?
(IL.) We’re often like the little kid on the playground when something doesn’t go our way. We take our ball and go home.
Churches: I’ll take my tithe and go home. Quit and go to grace.
Jobs: I’ll quit and go somewhere else.
Marriage: I’ll quit and go get a divorce.
All because they went through a predictable season of discouragement.
*No matter how devastated you may feel, no matter how down in the dumps your spirit may be, keep up the Good Work. Your emotions are treacherous advisors.
The third response is...
Concentrate on the big picture. (Neh.4:13/14)
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. [14] After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
Each family had it’s own part of the wall to rebuild...couldn’t see what others were building.
*Nehemiah positioned the families in rows to see how everything is working together in unison for a larger picture."
b What we do here at NDBC is part of a much bigger picture that is the Church of Jesus Christ.
There Is A Bigger Picture!!!
D The fourth response is...
Get help to carry your burden. (Neh. 4:16-23)
Read from bible
They stayed awake all night, worked all day, carried swords, built, carried supplies.
*They knew if they were going to prevail, they had to watch one another’s backs.
*Reach for the shorter ones, carry for the weaker ones.
Do need encouragement right now? (Go encourage someone else!)
*Discouragement makes us focus on us-Pity Parties.
*When you encourage someone, a miracle happens- - - You get encouraged.
*You Reap What You Sow.
Conclusion:
Discouragement is a universal, timeless problem. The principles to dealing with discouragement never change. (ETS)
We’ve looked at two actions that Nehemiah took deal with his discouragement.
Recognize: Fatigue, Frustration, Failure, Fear
Respond: Cry out to God, Continue the work God has given you to do, Concentrate on the big picture, Carry someone else’s burden.
In 1856, Auguste Bartholdi was inspired to begin working on what would become his most noted work of art.
He was approached by the French government to design a lighthouse to put at the entrance of the Suez Canal (Red Sea to the Mediterranean sea).
Spent ten years working on the design and model of this lighthouse, couldn’t get it financed.
The Suez Canal opened without it and Bartholdi felt he wasted 10 years of his life.
Later when the French wanted to provide a gift for America, they contacted Bartholdi again. (His lighthouse design was perfect)
A colossal robed lady that stood taller than the Sphinx, held a book of justice in one hand and a torch in the other. (Statue of Liberty)
b What started out as devastating, discouragement, disappointment, ended up a magnificent success.
*Keep your heads up!!!
What will you do to destroy your discouragement this week
Cry out to God,
Continue the work God has given you to do,
Concentrate on the big picture,
Carry someone else’s burden.
