Spiritual Discouragement: It’s Causes, Effects, and some Remedies

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI …

So chapter 4, verse 10 is our text. Just to highlight, you’ll see a little footnote in your Bible that says, some of them at least, will say, “Hebrew, Judah said.” The idea here is that everyone in Judah, Jerusalem was saying these words, and so, it would maybe read better like this: “Everyone in Judah was saying, ‘The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall.’”

Well, we have been thinking about the attacks of the devil, and I had said to you that we were gonna consider 3 different attacks. We were gonna think about destruction. We were gonna think about derision. Those 2, we’ve done. And we’re gonna think about division. And, um, as I was working through the text on Saturday, what struck me more than anything, though there is division in this chapter which we could easily deal with, is not so much the, the method of another attack, but really, what the devil is aiming at in his attacks among the people of God, and among you and I, which is discouragement.

We’ve mentioned it a couple of times in the last week as we’ve been thinking about these attacks, that one of the goals is- of the devil is to discourage us in order to dissuade us, in order to stop us working the Kingdom Work. And so, I think it’s important for us to consider the, the discouragement that the devil brings against us as he seeks to discourage us in order to cause us to both be dissuaded, but also just to despair. because more than anything else, what does the devil want in Jerusalem in Nehemiah 4? It’s the people to stop building, right? Because the glory of God is established in the Kingdom of God, and he doesn’t want Jerusalem rebuilt. He doesn’t want a wall re-established. He wants God’s people humiliated.

And so, as I’ve said several times, the devil’s primary attack upon the Church of Christ is for the sole purpose of maligning God’s glory in the church. And one of the ways he does that is by dissuading us from the kingdom work, and so I want us to think about discouragement. You might say to yourself, “That’s a rather discouraging topic, Pastor Logan.” And yet, it’s helpful for us to consider the causes and effects of discouragement, and also some of the remedies for it.

And so, let’s first think about this attack of discouragement. It’s, it’s sort of alluded to very strongly in verse 10, this attack of discouragement, but you have to ask yourself, where does it come from? The people are discouraged. That’s what verse 10 is. It’s the cry of discouragement. But where does it come from?

Well, the devil, in our chapter, uses 3 different types of attacks, 3 different methods we see hinted at which discourage the people of God. The first 2, we’ve talked about. The first is derision. We’ve seen this, haven’t we? In verse 2, the mocking words of Sanballat and Tobiah. “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish and burned ones at that?” And Tobiah, “Yes, what they are building, if a fox goes up on it, it will break down their stone wall.” And this derision begins to take an effect in the people of God as they are mocked and as they are reviled.

You know? People’s, God’s people are not brick walls, right? You know this. It’s easy for us to shrug externally as though we don’t care, but the reality is, it stings, doesn’t it? When unbelievers mock you or when other Christians revile you, it stings. You may put on a good front, and you may say, you know, “These words will never hurt me,” and yet deep down in your heart, they do, don’t they? Deep down, they can be immensely discouraging.

There’s, there’s quite a striking example of this in Psalm 88. If you’re not familiar with Psalm 88, it’s the only psalm in all 150 that does not have any positive note to it. Every psalm outside of 88 has hope, comfort, and courage in it somewhere. Sometimes it’s just the last verse, a crying out to God. But in Psalm 88, it is only darkness, and what’s striking is one of the major causes of that darkness is, “My friends betrayed me. My closest companions have shunned me.” It is the breaking of relationship and the slandering and reviling of those who were once his friends that brings the sons of Korah to a new level of lowness, and express something which only the darkest of night can express.

And so, one of the ways that discouragement is caused is through derision.

Another way that it comes to us is through the threat of destruction, and we saw the threats of destruction, didn’t we? The enemies of God’s people, they make a plan. We’re told about it in verse 8 and 11. They plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it, and then again in verse 11, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” So, they’re under this constant pressure of outward attack, and constant pressure is really hard to bear up under.

If you’ve had pressure for a season, whether it’s pressure in a workplace, in a secular setting, or whether it’s persecution-type pressure from people you know, it takes its toll. Over time, it begins to actually wear you down. When I was going through my previous trial, I found, as the time went on, the lower and lower I got, and the discouragements came all the quicker. And my temptation to despair was near at hand. Every day, it threatened to overwhelm me at times. Discouragement, it comes from the pressure of enemies. It comes from the pressure of those who want to destroy you, both during and after.

And a great example of this, of course, is Elijah. We all love the story of Mount Carmel, don’t we? When Elijah goes up and he challenges the 450 Baal prophets, and they build their altar, and there’s that hilarious moment where they’re crying out day and night, and “Ahh, come, come,” and nothing happens. And Elijah says, “Oh, where’s Baal? Maybe he’s in the restroom. You probably need to wake him up.” And then Baal, and then Elijah prays, and fire comes from heaven and consumes the altar. It’s wonderful victory, and they butcher all the Baal prophets. And this monumentous display of God’s glory and power in the midst of victory comes, and Elijah leaves town, and immediately Jezebel says to him, “May God do so to me or more also if your head is still on your head tomorrow. I am coming for you, Elijah. I’m going to kill you.”

Do you remember what Elijah does? Even though he’s had this monumentous victory, at the threat of the death of Jezebel, he goes out into the wilderness. He lies down under a tree, and he says, “God, I’ve had enough. Just kill me now. I’m done. I’m finished. I, it’s over. I am sick of it. I’m worn out. I’m, I’m exhausted.” He’s discouraged, and he gives into despair, doesn’t he?

But there’s another one in the chapter, and I’m not sure if you noticed it, but it’s distraction, distraction. Have a, have a look at verse 12. “At, at that time, the Jews who lived near them came from all directions, and said to us ten times, ‘You must return to us.’” Now, y- you ask yourself the question, who are these Jews? I mean, aren’t the Jews in Jerusalem? Well, they’re not, because we know from chapter 2, if you have a look at chapter t- sorry, chapter 3, with the building of the wall, that there are several little groups of people that come from different places. So, if you have a look at verse 5, “Next to them, the Tekoites appeared, but their nobles would not stoop to serve the Lord.” Now, Teko- Tekoites did not live in Jerusalem. They lived around the corner. This is a group of people from another place, and the nobles would not serve. And as you go down, in places like verse 7, you find the Gibeonites, and, and we won’t go through them all, but you find governors of different districts outside of Jerusalem. And, and many of these people left behind towns. They left behind family. They left behind friends. And as they’re laboring in Jerusalem with the threat of attack upon them from every side, and being mocked and ridiculed, their own people back in their cities, what do they do? They cry out and say, “Return. Give it up. Come back to us. Give up the building. Give up the kingdom work. We need you back home.”

Maybe it’s out of fear. Maybe they’re just crying out, “We don’t have a wall. You guys have at least got half a wall. We’ve got no wall. What if they come for us? Come back and defend us.” Maybe it’s because they’ve sided with the governors of those areas, like Sanballat, and so they’re trying to dissuade their own kin from serving the Lord. “Give it up. Come back. Come back.” We can experience this in our life, can’t we? Good-meaning Christian people can come to us and say to us, “You just need to relax a little bit. That’s not how things are done around here. You’re being a little bit too zealous, a little bit too passionate. You know, you wouldn’t want to burn yourself out.”

I don’t know if I’ve told this story before, but my best friend growing up, his dad, when he got converted, was very zealous and wanted to convert everybody. And an old gentleman in his church came up to him and said to him, “You need to just relax a little bit.” He said, “There’s people to be saved.” The old man said, “Oh, it’ll wear off eventually.” Good-meaning Christian people seeking to distract the people of God from the work of the kingdom, but the distraction just, doesn’t just come from within, does it? It comes from the enemy. He throws all manner of things at us to distract us. Your phone is a brilliant distraction, isn’t it? I mean, let’s be frank. How easy it is it, is it to look at your phone, and all of a sudden, an hour has vanished, and you didn’t even realize? the devil will use anything to try and distract you from the Kingdom of God, and that distraction seeks to discourage you.

We s- we see this in the life of Jesus with Peter. Remember that wonderful moment where Je- where, when Peter says When Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they give a few answers, and then he says, “Well, who do you say I am?” And Jesus says, “You are the blessed one. You’re the son of God. You’re the Messiah. You’re Christ. You’re the one. You’re it,” he says. Jesus says, “Blessed are you, son of Jonah, for the Father has revealed this to you, not man.” And the very next paragraph, Jesus says, “By the way, you know how I’m gonna be the Messiah? By going to the cross.” Do you remember what Peter says? “Oh, far be it from you, Lord. You’re not gonna die!” What is it? It’s distraction. “No, no, don’t go the way of the Father. Go a different way!” And you remember, Jesus doesn’t say, “Get away from me, Peter,” does he? He says, “Get behind me, Satan,” because he recognizes that Satan is using one of his disciples to distract him and discourage him from the work of the Kingdom of God sitting before him.

You see, because the devil will throw anything and everything at us to discourage us in order to dissuade us from delighting in God and doing the work of God’s kingdom. And what makes this all the worse is that we don’t really need any help to get discouraged, do we, at times? I mean, our very fallen frame is prone to discouragement. Sure, maybe not all of us. Some of you are probably of the chipper type personality that you could lose everything and still be smiling and saying, “The sun’s shining.” You know? Like, the weather’s the worst day of your life, and you’re out walking in the rain like it’s the middle of summer. There’s some people who are just wired like that, right? They, they just never get downcast.

But that’s not most of us. Most of us, our human frame, we s- We get sick, we get troubled, we get depressed, we get downcasted, we face difficulties, and trials, and sickness, and pain, and just life in a fallen world causes us to become discouraged. We get old and tired. Life’s hard. Life’s busy. Work’s difficult. The money doesn’t stretch quite far enough. And all of these things do what? Seek to discourage us, and the devil will use all of it to dissuade us and to cause us to have despair so that we will do what Eeyore does. Do you remember Eeyore? What does he do? Face down on the ground and do nothing. The devil wants to make Eeyores out of all of us. That God would have us be zealous Tiggers. Zealous for the Kingdom of God.

but as the devil attacks us and seeks to discourage us, what does this discouragement look at? Because our text highlights for us, in verse 10 I, I want to suggest 5 different marks, effects of discouragement. So, he, he, he seeks to bring discouragement into our lives, but what are the effects of discouragement so that we can see it and spot it? Because if we don’t know what discouragement looks like and the effect it causes within us, we can’t seek to find remedy to deal with

So, 5 different effects. Firstly, discouragement makes us look to ourselves. Discouragement makes us look to ourselves. Have a look at verse 10. Judah said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing.” Where are the eyes of the people of Jerusalem, the Judahites, where are their eyes? They’re on one another, right? They’re on themselves. They’re looking at themselves. And now, humanly speaking, you can’t blame them. Nehemiah has got them on almost a 24/7 shift. They’re either building or they’re on guard, because their lives are threatened. He’s working them hard, and they’re tired, and they’re worn out. And so, you don’t blame them for being weak, but they begin to look at themselves as discouragement sets in. Their, their, their focus, rather than being wide, begins to narrow, and it begins to become very earthly. They look towards self. And this is always a telltale mark of discouragement. We stop looking in the right places, and we begin looking constantly at human ability, human strength, human capability. So, that’s effect number one.

Effect number 2 is that discouragement causes us, or tempts us, to begin to murmur and complain. So, they say, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble.” The, the Hebrew word’s literally dust. There’s w- too There’s so much dust and rubbish around here, it’s impossible. begin to hear murmuring, don’t you? When they, when they first, when they first went there they were busy building. Everyone was together in unity. Hammer and chisel. At work, on the go. And then, all of a sudden, they get threatened with derision, and one of the derisions is, “Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish?” You hear the similarity here? And then they begin to look around themselves and say, “You know, there is a lot of rubbish. There is too much dust. I mean, come on. What kind of work environment is this anyway? Does anybody clean up? I mean, do I have to do everything around here? Look at what God’s given us to work with. This is impossible. I mean, what a joke.” And murmuring and complaining begins to come out.

And I wonder if, have you heard that before in the Biblical story? As the people of God wander through the wilderness? Having been wonderfully delivered from Egypt, they begin to become discouraged because they’re walking around in a wilderness. Well, you don’t blame them, do you? You’re in a desert. It’s not exactly a holiday at the beach. But their discouragement gives way and breeds complaints, doesn’t it? “You said you’d lead us into a place flowing with milk and honey, and all we’ve got is this filthy manna. The bread of heaven.”

The other thing that this discouragement can tempt us to is to begin to doubt the promises of God. God had promised to be with them. Previously, previously they had looked to God and they had said, “God will help us prosper.” Remember those words of Nehemiah, “God will make us But now, in verse 10, they say, “By ourselves, we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” It’s not happening. They’ve given up on God’s promises, haven’t they? Previously, “God will make us prosper.” Now, “We can’t do It’s just never gonna happen.” And they give up, because they’re discouraged, because they’re despairing. They doubt God’s goodness and promise, which leads to the last one, which is they totally just give up. “It’s not happening.” And they sit down on their hands, and they cease to work.

That’s the temptation, right? The devil is getting under their skin. Through the attack of temptation, the Lord begins to dera- sorry. The devil begins to derail their entire work.

Brothers and sisters, we are not immune from this. Do not ignorantly think that this is not something that can happen to us here as a family, as a church, and as individuals. As families, as children, as adults, every one of us can fall prey to this. To the devil coming to us through derision, through destruction, through distraction, through fragility, through frailty. He can come and work in our lives in such a way that we, as a church, we become tired. We become discouraged. And, and we begin to look around ourselves, and we begin to say, “Well, I mean, there’s not that many new people coming.” You know, we set out on this marvelous adventure together as a church, and we were expecting wonderful things from God. But where are they? Where are the wonderful things? I mean, what type of God are we serving? Where are th- where are the people getting saved? Where is the growth? We’re tempted to be discouraged. We’re tempted to doubt the goodness of God.

And so, brother, I think, brothers and sisters, this teaches us firstly that, you know, we can f- we can fight off all sorts of different attacks by the devil. We can stand strong against heresy, and against sin, and against threats, and yet we can fail because we allow ourselves to become discouraged, by becoming cast down in our soul, and being fed up, we give up, and we hang up the boots, and we walk away.

lesson number one.

Lesson number 2 that comes from this is that discouragent- discouragement comes in many different forms. The devil is not going to come to you with a discouragement that you find very easy to deal with. He is wily. He will come to you with the forms of discouragement that work fantastically on you, whether it be sickness, whether it be distraction from a friend, distraction from hobbies, distraction from devices. Whatever it is, he will bring things into your lives to discourage you, so you must be alert at all times and in every way lest you fall prey.

But there’s a, uh, really other important lesson, and it’s captured quite wonderfully by a man called Alexander Maclaren. He says, “We may not be responsible for discouragements suggesting themselves, but we are responsible for letting them become dissuasions.”

Brothers and sisters, it’s not sin that discouragements come towards you. It’s not sin when discouragements suggest themselves. The question is not, will you face things that threaten discouragement? The question is, what will you do when they come? It’s like worry. It’s like anxiety. In life it’s filled with things that cause worry, things that cause anxiety. When Jesus says, “Don’t be a- uh, don’t worry,” and when Paul says, “Don’t be anxious,” the point is not if you ever have anything that causes worry in your life you’re in sin. No, the point is, stuff’s gonna come, and it’s gonna make you wanna worry. But the question is, what do you do when you are tempted?

And that’s where we come to the remedy. We got all this different threatenings that lead towards discouragement. And I’m sure some of you feel it within yourselves. What do we do? What’s the remedy? How do we fight against the devil who seeks to cause us to become discouraged so that we would stop, so that we put off, we put off the work?

What’s the remedy? Well, I think there’s, there’s 5 things in the text here, and then I wanna suggest after that another 3 that are not in the text that are particularly helpful.

How do we fight against this? It’s centered at inside some of the wider passages.

Firstly, we need to have a mind to work. Isn’t it striking in verse 6? “We built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.” How much discouragement was there in verse 6? None, right? Why? Because they had a mind to work. They had a job to do, and they had devoted themselves to the work together as God’s people. They didn’t withdraw. They didn’t stay in their house and drink lovely cups of tea. They got to work. And, and it reminds us of the words of the Apostle Paul in Philippians, where he writes to the church in Philippi, and he says to them, “This is what I want to hear. I want to hear of you striving with one mind together for the sake of the gospel.” And brothers and sisters, when we strive together with one mind in the gospel, it’s so much easier to put discouragement to death. Because when I go out to RBC event, whether it’s setting up the building here, or going to the prayer meeting, or coming to church, and I look around myself and I see the rest of the family there, with their mind on ball, with their heart on focus, it’s really easy for me to get on board. But if I feel like I’m soldiering by myself, it gets really hard, right? And so, we need to have one mind together as God’s people, laboring for the sake of Christ.

Uh, secondly, we need to remember the Lord. Remember how, how they focus themselves upon themselves? Nehemiah says to them in verse 14, “Remember the Lord.” Remember who’s on your side. Don’t be discouraged. When discouragement comes, you don’t naval gaze, you don’t look down, you don’t look at earthly creatures. You lift up your eyes to heaven, because he who is for us is greater than he who is in the world. And if the Lord is with us, we’re always in the majority. And so, we need not be discouraged, because I’m not the one building the wall. I’m not the one building the kingdom, Christ is! So, why would I be discouraged? I mean, let’s be frank, we can’t save anyone anyway. So, it’s not much good looking at myself. We look to Christ. We remember the Lord.

There’s a beautiful picture of this with Joshua. Remember at, at the entrance to Canaan, the first time, when Israel comes in to the entrance of Canaan, and the spies go out and they come back, and 10 of the spies spread a bad rumor? And they say, “We were like, we were like little locusts, and these enormous giants all around us. And, and, you know, the whole place just eats you alive. Everything about the place is oppressive. There is no way we can go up. We just can’t do it.” And they’re filled with despair. And Joshua stands up. As the people are thinking about stoning Moses, and appointing a new leader, and going back to Egypt, and Joshua stands up in Numbers 14:8, and he says, “We can go into the promised land, because if the Lord is pleased with us, He will give us our enemies. He will give our enemies into our hands.” That’s what it means to remember the Lord, doesn’t it? When all the other spies are saying, “It’s over! It’s done! We’re finished!” Joshua stands up and says, “If God is with us, it’s never finished.” And we can do the same. Remember the Lord, brothers and sisters, in your discouragements and despairs.

But then we also must remember what’s at stake. Jeremiah tells them in verse 14, “Fight for your brothers and your sons, daughters, wives, homes.” Brothers and sisters, remember what’s at stake. If you get discouraged and give up, what’s at stake? The Kingdom of God’s at stake! Eternity is in the balance! Look at our nation! It’s rotting in sin in every direction. Thousands of babies are murdered every year. Old people are wiped out as though they’re nothing. We have domestic violence in every direction. We don’t have a government that’s gonna help us in any way, because none of them know the law of God or care about it. What is our only hope? It’s the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Remember what’s at stake. What happens if all the churches of New Zealand just close up their doors and give up? “You know what, guys? This is not working. It’s a waste of time. We should just shut the doors, we’re giving up, we’re just gonna bury ourselves in a hole in the ground until Jesus comes back. You know what? We’ll just be like the dude who had the one talent. I’m just gonna bury the talent in the ground, because it’s not worth it.” What happens? New Zealand becomes a dead cesspool. That’s what happens.

Do you realize that God, in His ineffable wisdom, has put the Church in New Zealand as a constant reminder of God’s law, God’s morality, goodness, grace, mercy, peace? And if the church dies, do you know what- wanna know what happens? You end up, you end up like a country like Afghanistan. I read an article the other day about Afghanistan. where a bunch of American soldiers were. It was horrendous reading, I won’t describe it to you. But sin of the most horrendous nature you could ever imagine in families, and with animals. Uh, the most abominable things that made me want to throw up. Honestly, it was the most disgusting thing I ever read. I don’t know why the person sent it to me, it was horrendous. And yet, this is what happens when the Church of Jesus Christ disappears. Think about Turkey. It was the center of Christendom, and the church gave up. What is it now? It’s a cesspool of sin.

Brothers and sisters, th- think about the lives of all the people here. We, we can’t afford to give up, we can’t afford to become discouraged. This nation needs us. Karaka needs us. Your families need you. Your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, they need you. Don’t be discouraged. Remember what’s on the line and let it fuel a conviction for the sake of the Gospel.

But fourthly, encourage one another. Isn’t that what Jeremiah’s doing in verse 14? He’s spurring the people on. It’s, it’s exactly what the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 10. We love the words, don’t we? “Do not neglect meeting together.” We quoted them probably more so than anything else during the COVID period. It was a fantastic verse for us, it was really helpful. Do you know what gets said after that? “But encourage one another all the more as the day approaches.” It’s not just meet together. It’s gather together and encourage one another, build one another up. Why? Because sometimes I’m gonna come in here and I’m going to be depressed, and I’m gonna feel like giving And sometimes you are. And we need one another. We need one another to say, “Remember the Lord. Remember what’s on the line. Don’t give up, don’t despair. The Kingdom of God is advancing.” Encourage one another, brothers and sisters.

Fifthly, look to your leaders. There’s this lovely little touch. We haven’t got to it yet, but if you, if you look down further in the chapter, we get this explanation of where Judah, uh, where Nehemiah puts people in verse 16. “The leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah.” Why did the leaders stand there, as they’re laboring, as they’re soldiering? Why are the leaders standing behind them? Because when a person’s working and, and fighting, what direction do they go if they want to give up? That’s right. Backwards, right? And so, you turn around, but what do you see? You see a bunch of leaders there. “Get back in the fight. Don’t give up.”

Look to your leaders, brothers and sisters, both alive and dead. This is why the writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 13, “Remember your leaders. Remember those who taught and spoke the word of God to you.” Not just now, not just Matthew, not just Rob, but think of the leaders that you’ve had in your life. Think of your previous pastors. Think of dead men and dead women from 200 years ago, and how they’ve soldiered in the faith. Read biography and let it inspire you to faithfulness, so that the testimony of Christ would continue.

but then there’s biblical exaltations that come to us from outside of our chapter, and so we can think of the apostles after they were persecuted. I mean, they’re just beaten within an inch of their life. I mean, if anyone’s tempted to give up, it’s after you’ve been beaten to an inch of your life, right? Do you remember what they say? They counted it all joy. They rejoiced. They counted it all joy, because they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. They were, they were bold enough to outdo their threatened discouragements with gratitude and thanksgiving, weren’t they? Aren’t we blessed? I mean, we were counted worthy to suffer for Christ? What a blessing!

And they gave thanks and, and there they are in the prison, and what are they doing, Paul and Silas? They’ve been beaten. They’ve been shackled in the, in a prison, and what are they doing? I mean, can you imagine the context of the Philippian jailer? I mean, it’s just the mind boggles, right? beat the guys, they drag them in the center, they lock them up, and you’re the Philippian jailer. So, you go back home for your evening cup of tea. Everything’s locked up. You’re sitting down with your wife and you’re drinking a cup of tea, and you hear a sound. And your wife said, “What is that noise?” And you go, “I got no idea. What is that? Is someone singing? Is, who’s singing at this time of night? That’s weird.” And you go, “I’ll go check. It’s probably some door knocker.” So, out you go, and you walk, no, it’s from the prison, and you walk into the prison. And you walk past the guys who have got it pretty cushy in their outer cells, and you walk into the inner cells, in the innermost stock. And you look through the window and Paul and Silas, bleeding, battered, bruised, shackled, singing hymns to their God. They were out rejoicing all of the signs of discouragement, weren’t they?

So Paul says, “Rejoice. Rejoice! And again I say, rejoice.”

The other thing we must do is we must weigh things rightly. We must learn to put things on appropriate scales. We, we put things in wrong places, and so when we see defeat, when we see discouragement, when we feel pressure, we think it’s overwhelming because we’re not considering the reality of the weight system of God. This is what enables Paul to rightly say, “All of my persecution, it’s just light momentary suffering. It’s nothing. It’s just a fleeting, passing thing.” Mind you, getting stoned? Are you crazy, Paul? Shipwrecked, beaten, whipped. You’re like, “Light? Light? Sorry, that’s not light. That’s intense.” He said, “No, it is light, compared to the weight of glory that’s coming for me.” When you weigh it rightly, this is what enables Paul to say in Philippians 1. He’s in prison. People are preaching to try and get him in more trouble. And he says, “You know what? As long as Christ pre- is preached, that’s fine.” Because he weighs it rightly. “The glory of Christ and the preaching of the gospel is worth more than all of my suffering in this life, and I will gladly embrace it.”

But then also, the glorious encouragements of our Lord and Savior. We s- we saw it this morning at the table. I finished the table with just the most stellar verse, one of my favorite verses. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom of God.” And can you just think about that verse? Don’t be afraid. It is your Father’s pleasure. It is his plan. Now, pleasure. Remember, the very word he used of his Son, “This is the one in whom I am well pleased.” Same word. “It is my pleasure. In as much that I have pleasure in my beloved Son, it is my pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” What doubts are there? If it’s the Father in Heaven’s plan to give us the Kingdom of God, why would we be discouraged when we look around ourselves? Sure, it hasn’t happened yet, but it’s gonna happen. It’s sure. It’s firm. It’s fixed. It’s definite.

Brothers and sisters, we will not be able to stop the causes of discouragement for coming into our life. We can’t. But we can seek to apply remedies so that the effects do not bear fruit in our hearts. Temptation to sin will always come. The question is, will we put it to death? Will we respond with a mind to work by remembering the Lord, by remembering what’s at stake, by encouraging one another, by honoring leaders, by giving thanks, by rejoicing, by weighing rightly, by being Cro- encouraged by Christ?

You see, it is our responsibility how we respond to discouragement, and God has given us the remedies. And we could go on. We could talk about promises. We could talk about a thousand different things that God has given us.

The devil is laboring with all of his energy to discourage us so that we might be dissuaded from delighting in God and serving Christ and his kingdom. Our job is to both be encouraged and to encourage one another and press on to the upward call of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

May God grant us the strength to do it. Amen

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