And if you ever hear a fellow say that he never gets discouraged, watch out for him!
Illus: He will also probably tell you he likes to take cold showers when it is 30? below zero.
For some, discouragement has become a way of life. That is, if you talk to them today they are discouraged, and if you talk to them a month from now they are still discouraged.
Illus: The Hayden Planetarium in New York City issued an invitation to all those who were interested in applying to be a part of the crew on the first journey to another planet. Eighteen thousand people applied. They gave the applications to a panel of psychologists, who examined them thoroughly and came to the conclusion that, in the vast majority of incidents, those who applied did so because they were discouraged with their lives here, and hoped they could find a new life somewhere else. (Bruce Thielemann "Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.)
Many are discouraged, and ready to move to another planet.
But those who have gone on to greatness in their lives, discovered that discouragement is something that we have to defeat, or else it will defeat us. We can learn how to OVERCOME DISCOURAGEMENT.
Illus: A man was sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He only recently had retired from the post office, and he's sitting there when his first Social Security check is delivered.
He's very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, "Is this what life is going to be from now on -- sitting on the porch waiting for my check to arrive?"
He decided he wouldn't settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him, all the blessings and the capacities, the unique things that were in him.
The list was long because he listed everything he could think of, and in the list was the fact that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother's recipe for fried chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices.
So he went to a nearby restaurant, and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu.
Then he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and a string of restaurants. Eventually Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across all of America.
He finally retired a second time (all this happened, you remember, after he had retired from the postal service), and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year until his death.
Now here was a man who did not allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. ("Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48. )
Listen, the reason a person is discouraged is because they choose to be discouraged. Colonel Sanders decided he was not going to sit in an old rocking chair with all the other old people and:
• FUSS ABOUT THE WEATHER
• FUSS ABOUT HIGH PRICES
Illus: We can take the sour lemons that are thrown at us, and by the help of almighty God, turn them into sweet lemonade.
Some of the most successful men/women who ever lived, use their discouragement to make them successful.
Illus: For example, “A fellow who sold insurance went after a particularly difficult customer, a man that no one had been able to sell. Eventually he sold him a fifty-thousand-dollar policy. Back in 1883 when this occurred, that was a very large policy. He took out his pen and handed it to the man to sign the contract. When the man tried to write, the pen wouldn't write. He tried several times without success, and finally handed the pen back with the contract and said, "I'd better think this over a little while longer." The man lost the sale.
He went home disappointed and discouraged because he had lost the sale, and he determined right then and there that he would never lose another sale because of a fountain pen that didn't work.
So he sat down and invented his own fountain pen. His name was Louis Waterman, and the Waterman Fountain Pen became the premier writing instrument of America for the next fifty years. (Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48. )
But some of the greatest men had to battle discouragement. Elijah was such a man.
This morning we looked at:
I. THE PLACE
II. THE PROBLEM
III. THE PROVISION
But lets look at something else-
IV. THE PREDICAMENT
If Elijah was a cowboy, we could say, “He is fixing to have a showdown at the OK Corral!”
After three and a half years of DROUGHT and HIDING, God decided it was time to bring things to an end.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Look at 1 Kings 18:20-24, we read, “So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.”
Elijah proposes a contest to determine who they should follow. But he wanted to make sure it was a clear decisive victory.
When the contest was over with, he wanted to make sure that no one could say the reason whoever won, was because the contest was not fair.
He stacks the sides in Baal's favor in four ways, such as:
• They get the "home field advantage," because Mt. Carmel was a favorite site for Baal worship.
• Baal gets 450 prophets to call on him, while Elijah is the only YAHWEH prophet.
• Baal was the god of lightening and fire, so this test plays to his strength. And they get to go first, when Baal (god of the sun) is ascending in strength (18:26).
• Elijah insisted that the sacrifice be made humanly “unburnable”
Illus: He did something that any good boy scout would not do in trying to start a fire. HE COVERED IT WITH WATER. He made it humanly “unburnable”.
It must have been very convincing when the Lord sent the fire.
WHY DO WE SAY THAT? Because in 1 Kings 18:39, the Bible says the onlookers who saw it, “…Fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.”
Elijah knew that Israel had forsaken their God, but he was convinced that revival was fixing to break loose, and Israel was going to return back to their God. After people began to fall on their faces and declare the God of Elijah to be the true and living God, how could he think otherwise?
He was on a SPIRITUAL HIGH, and outran Ahab, probably anticipating Ahab's repentance and Jezebel's surrender. But that is not what happened!
When Jezebel received the news, she was furious! Ahab got home and he probably said, "Honey, you know all those prophets you appointed and have invited to eat with you at the royal table? They will not be eating with you anymore, because Elijah had them all killed!”
Look what she did in 1 Kings 19:2, “Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.”
Now notice this TRANSFORMATION about Elijah; this very courageous man fled like a scared rabbit.
WHY WAS JEZEBEL SO ANGRY WITH ELIJAH? The God of the Bible was in decline. Especially in the north, in Israel. Altars to the pagan deities of the surrounding nations were rapidly growing on every hillside.
Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab the king, accelerated the decline. She wanted everyone to worship her god, Baal. To this end, she appointed 450 people to become prophets of Baal, and invited them to dine at her royal table.
Jezebel also drove her henpecked husband, Ahab, to hunt down all of the prophets of Yahweh and have them killed. Things were so bad that these prophets had to hide in caves.
Elijah comes on the scene, and two things change:
• He told Ahab it would not rain for three and a half years. And it did not rain
• He won the contest with the prophets of Baal
And now people are falling on their faces declaring the God of Elijah to be the true and living God. ELIJAH HAD UPSET HER PLANS!
But Elijah knew he was in deep trouble when he heard that Jezebel had put her hit men after him. But look what a TRANSFORMATION took place in Elijah when he heard that she was out to kill him.
• This is the (Red neck Tishbite) fellow that had the nerve to look King Ahab in the eyes and tell him it would not rain for three an a half years.
• This is the same fellow that had the nerve to take on 450 prophets of Baal.
• This is the man that had executed 450 of the prophets of Baal.
• This is the same man that was so excited after God consumed the sacrifice with fire, that he literally ran a 20 mile marathon back to Jerusalem.
• This man was no sissy, he makes 007 look like a sissy!
But when he heard the threat of Jezebel, he knew he was in a PREDICAMENT like he had never been in before! And the Bible says he was afraid, and arose and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba.
Illus: You really can not appreciate this without a map. When it says "Elijah was afraid and ran", he REALLY ran!
• NOT JUST DOWN THE BLOCK
• NOT JUST ACROSS TOWN
• NOT JUST TO THE NEXT COUNTY
He went from the northern part of the northern kingdom of Israel, to the southern kingdom of Judah. A 90 mile ultra marathon! And just to be safe, he went a day's journey further into the desert.
Elijah running from Jezebel? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
IS JEZEBEL GREATER THAN THE GOD HE SERVED?
This was a critical time. Elijah needed to stay at his post to solidify his gains at Mt. Carmel. Instead, he deserted.
Many churches could have gone on to greatness, but because God’s man got discouraged and threw in the towel and quit, their churches have never been able to overcome.
Illus: In Columbia, South Carolina, God was blessing a church and it was growing. But the pastor overheard some men one day talking in another room, putting him down as the pastor. He got discouraged and resigned from the church, and today that church only has a handful of people, and probably will eventually shut the doors.
This was a critical time for Elijah. He should have stood his ground, and only God knows what would have happened! BUT INSTEAD HE FLED!
WHY WAS THIS A CRITICAL TIME? Because once he fled, Israel continued to decline spiritually, and was eventually utterly destroyed.
WOULD IT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF ELIJAH HAD NEVER RUN? Yes, most likely! This was a first-class failure with long lasting consequences.
Let's look at Elijah's failure and discouragement...
HOW DID THIS GREAT PROPHET BECOME SO DISCOURAGED THAT HE WOULD SIT UNDER A JUNIPER TREE AND WISH HE WAS DEAD?
1. He allowed himself to become discouraged after a tremendous victory.
It certainly would be nice in life if things became better each day. But life is filled with MOUNTAINTOP EXPERIENCES, and also VALLEY EXPERIENCES. But often when people have these mountaintop experiences, they become discouraged when they end up in the valley again.
Illus: Many Christians who are emotional are this way. You see them one day, and they are praising the Lord, but when they end up back in the valley, they are wishing they were dead.
2. He allowed himself to become weary in body.
• This is a man that fled from Mt. Carmel to Jerusalem, approximately 20 miles
• This is a man that fled from Jerusalem to Beersheba, which was approximately 90 miles
A lot of folks today have become discouraged because they do not get the proper rest. It is essential that you and I take time to withdraw from the human race, and spend some time alone.
Illus: Notice, God called Elijah to spend some time at the Brook Cherith where God fed him.
We all need to have a place we can go and be with the Lord. It is no wonder today that many are having nervous breakdowns. Why? Twenty-four hours a day, all kinds of stuff, from televisions, radios, and telephones, is being piped into their brains.
3. He allowed Jezebel to be bigger than the God he served.
Anytime we allow our problems to become bigger than the God we serve we have a problem.
4. He allowed himself to think that he was the only prophet left on earth.
But God reminded him that was not true. Look at 1 Kings 19:18, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal…”
The fact is, there were other good men who stood up to Ahab and Jezebel.
• Micah, a well known prophet who was a contemporary of Elijah, also was willing to take on Ahab
• Obadiah, another man in Israel, told Elijah how he hid 100 prophets of Yahweh in caves
But one thing is for sure, if you are going to accomplish the things God wants you to accomplish on this earth, you have got to learn to overcome discouragement.
Conclusion:
Illus: John W. Yates shared this letter from a missionary who had gone into the jungles of New Guinea. He saw his assignment as a challenge, and by the help of God, he was not going to get discouraged and quit. He said, "Man, it's great to be in the thick of the fight, to draw the old Devil's heaviest guns, to have him at you with depression and discouragement, slander, disease! He doesn't waste time. He hits good and hard when a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by the one you get back. When you're on your back with fever and at your last ounce of strength, when some of your converts backslide, when you learn that your most promising inquirers are only fooling, when your mail gets held up and some don't bother to answer your letters, is that the time to put on your mourning suit? No Sir! That's the time to pull out the stops and shout hallelujah! The old fellow's getting it in the neck and he's giving it back. And all of heaven is watching over the battlements: 'Will he stick it out?' And as they see who is with us, as they see around us the unlimited reserves, the boundless resources, as they see the impossibility of failure with God, how disgusted and sad they must be when we run away. Glory to God! We're not going to run away. We're going to stand." (John W Yates II, "Overcoming Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 42. )
By the help of God, you might be greatly surprised at what you can do.
Illus: There was a story in the Chicago paper that told about a man and his wife who had a bitter dispute. It got so bad that she began to pursue him, and to escape her pursuit, he jumped over a five-foot wall.
He later looked back at this horrible time in his life, and he realized he never knew he could jump so high.
God wants to teach us all that we can do things we never realized we could do, if we can only overcome that monster called discouragement in our life.
• You deacons do not have to be deacons in name only, you can learn, by the help of God, to function as a New Testament deacon
• You Sunday School teachers do not have to be defeated as teachers, God can use you to fill those classes
• You van workers do not have to drive around town with a few folks on your van, by the help of God you can fill that van to capacity
• You choir members do not have to sing with no excitement, you can sing with victory and excitement
• You Christians do not have to live defeated lives, you can live victorious lives
There is only one thing that can keep that from happening, and it is DISCOURAGEMENT.
#1 of 2
I. THE PLACE
II. THE PROBLEM
III. THE PROVISION
#2 of 2
IV. THE PREDICAMENT
