Speaker 1: I meet people who are discouraged all the time, and
Speaker 1: they're ready to throw in the towel. They're at the
Speaker 1: end of their rope, they're ready to give up, and
Speaker 1: they're discouraged about a lot of things. And people go,
Speaker 1: you know, there's so much bad in.
Speaker 2: The world right now.
Speaker 1: Well, I hate to tell you this, but there always
Speaker 1: has been. It's not like it's worse. It always has
Speaker 1: been bad because the Bible says God gives us a
Speaker 1: free choice, and we often choose to not follow what
Speaker 1: he says to do. The Bible calls that sin and evil,
Speaker 1: and so people get discouraged. And I thought this week
Speaker 1: we would look at how do you defeat discouragement in
Speaker 1: your life. Now, I don't know what's discouraging you, but
Speaker 1: if you've been discouraged by your finances or your health
Speaker 1: or relationship, and you picked a good week to come
Speaker 1: to church, because that's what we're going to look at.
Speaker 1: If you take out your message notes, it's inside your program.
Speaker 1: So we begin to look at defeating discouragement. You know,
Speaker 1: discouragement can be quite debilitating. It can cause you to
Speaker 1: give up trying, you can give up hoping, you can
Speaker 1: give up caring, when you get discouraged. When you get discouraged,
Speaker 1: you can give up believing. And the Bible has a
Speaker 1: lot to say about discouragement. I put a couple of
Speaker 1: examples there at the top of your outline. Exodus chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse nine says this, Moses told the people what the
Speaker 1: Lord had said, but they wouldn't listen anymore. They had
Speaker 1: become too discouraged by the increasing burden of their slavery.
Speaker 1: I wonder what you feel is enslaving you. I wonder
Speaker 1: what burden is getting you down. I wonder what problem
Speaker 1: you've had. You've had it for so long. It's been
Speaker 1: so chronic as you get discouraged that like these people,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't even listen to God. They couldn't hear God
Speaker 1: because of their discouragement. The burden was too heavy in
Speaker 1: their life. And we all know the times in life
Speaker 1: you come to a point where you just go, I'm
Speaker 1: so burdened down, I'm so overwhelmed, I don't even know
Speaker 1: what to think, what to believe, what to care about.
Speaker 2: That's discouragement.
Speaker 1: David felt this and Psalm forty two, verse five, David says,
Speaker 1: why am.
Speaker 2: I so discouraged?
Speaker 1: Why am I sad, and then he answers his own question,
Speaker 1: I will put my hope in God. Anytime you feel discouraged,
Speaker 1: you need.
Speaker 2: To change your thoughts.
Speaker 1: You need to change your focus, you need to change
Speaker 1: your mind. Now, what we're going to do today is
Speaker 1: look at a great example from Paul on how to
Speaker 1: change your thoughts so you're not discouraged. Paul, of course,
Speaker 1: had many, many reasons to be discouraged. Paul had a
Speaker 1: very tough life, certainly a whole lot tougher than your life.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe that, look at this on the screen.
Speaker 1: Let me read this to you the Bible, the second corintheans,
Speaker 1: this is Paul's testimony. I've worked much harder. I've been
Speaker 1: in prison more frequently because of preaching the gospel. I've
Speaker 1: been flogged more severely. I doubt you've ever had that.
Speaker 1: I've been exposed to death again and again.
Speaker 2: Five times.
Speaker 1: I received thirty nine lashes, you know, with a whip.
Speaker 2: Three times.
Speaker 1: I was beaten with rods once, I was stone nearly
Speaker 1: stoned to death. Three times. I was shipwrecked. I spent
Speaker 1: a night and a day in the open sea. And
Speaker 1: I've been constantly on the move and I've been in
Speaker 1: danger from rivers, from bandits, from my own countrymen.
Speaker 2: I've been in.
Speaker 1: Dangers from the gentiles, in danger in the city and
Speaker 1: the country, at sea, and at dangerous from false brothers.
Speaker 1: He says, I have often gone without sleep. I've known
Speaker 1: hunger and thirst, and I've gone without food. I've been cold,
Speaker 1: and I've been naked, no clothes. Besides, it's everything else
Speaker 1: I faced daily, the pressures of my concern for all
Speaker 1: the churches.
Speaker 2: And you think you got problems. I wanted to read.
Speaker 1: That to you because if anybody had a right to
Speaker 1: be discouraged, I would say, it's that guy. If your
Speaker 1: life was that, you would have a right to be discouraged.
Speaker 1: And yet in Second Corinthians chapter four, Paul gives us
Speaker 1: the seven secrets of defeating discouragement. This is going to
Speaker 1: be a very hopeful and very helpful message today. So
Speaker 1: if you take the message notes out, and if you
Speaker 1: look at Second Corinthians chapter four, let's get right into
Speaker 1: what Paul says, and he just goes we're going to
Speaker 1: go verse by verse. First, the first secret of defeating
Speaker 1: discouragement is this, never forget how much God loves me.
Speaker 1: Never forget how much God loves me. You have to
Speaker 1: keep this constantly in focus if you're going to be
Speaker 1: immune discouragement, because everything in life flows out of the
Speaker 1: love of God, out of the mercy of God, out
Speaker 1: of the grace of God, out of the kindness of God.
Speaker 1: It all flows out of His love. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: God loves you.
Speaker 1: You've heard it probably all your life. You've heard me
Speaker 1: preaching on it week after week after week. You know
Speaker 1: God loves you, But do you feel it. When you
Speaker 1: stop feeling the love of God, you can't feel it
Speaker 1: in your heart, that's when you start to get discouraged.
Speaker 1: And so you've got to know the mercy. You've got
Speaker 1: to know the grace. But you've got to feel God's mercy.
Speaker 1: You've got to feel God's grace. Here's the first verse,
Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, Chapter four, Verse one, God, in his mercy
Speaker 1: has given us this ministry.
Speaker 2: And work to do.
Speaker 1: That is why we do not become discouraged, and we
Speaker 1: never give up. Now, in this whole chapter, about three
Speaker 1: or four times this chapter.
Speaker 2: He goes, this is why we don't get discouraged.
Speaker 1: This whole chapter is on discouragement, and he starts by saying,
Speaker 1: I don't get discouraged because.
Speaker 2: I remember how much God loves me.
Speaker 1: I remember the mercy of God, the grace of God,
Speaker 1: I remember the kindness of God. When I'm focused on that,
Speaker 1: it drives a discouragement away. Now, he says, God, in
Speaker 1: his mercy, has given us. Everything you have in life
Speaker 1: is a gift of God's mercy. The breath you're breathing
Speaker 1: right now, the brain you have, the health you have,
Speaker 1: the body, everything you have, your life in itself is
Speaker 1: a gift of the mercy of God. What is mercy, Well,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of things. But mercy is God gives
Speaker 1: me what I need, not what I deserve.
Speaker 2: And mercy is when.
Speaker 1: God knows every mistake I'll make in my life and
Speaker 1: yet he still created my life.
Speaker 2: That's mercy.
Speaker 1: And that God knows every sin I'll commit in my
Speaker 1: life and yet he.
Speaker 2: Still loves me. That's mercy.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, for me to not get discouraged, what
Speaker 1: I have to do is I have to focus on
Speaker 1: the mercy and the grace and the love of God.
Speaker 1: And he says that keeps me going. When you get discouraged,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you when you get discouraged. At that moment,
Speaker 1: you stopped feeling the love of God because you can't
Speaker 1: feel how much God loves you and be discouraged at
Speaker 1: the same time. So it's either one or the other.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but a lot of people who
Speaker 1: followed the Lord for a long time, they've been Christians
Speaker 1: a long time, they don't feel God's love because they
Speaker 1: only think God speaks to him in the critical voice.
Speaker 1: They hear their mom or their dad, and every time
Speaker 1: God speaks to him, it's always negative. Friends, if the
Speaker 1: voice is always negative, it's not God. I remember there
Speaker 1: used to be a woman who came to Saddleback Church
Speaker 1: and every Sunday out on the patio, I'd walk out
Speaker 1: and she'd come up to me with this little whiny voice,
Speaker 1: and she said, you know how, Pastor Rick, today, God
Speaker 1: God really.
Speaker 2: Convicted me of. And it was some sin.
Speaker 1: And the next week I preach it didn't matter what
Speaker 1: to speak on on even as an encouraging message.
Speaker 2: You know, Pastor Rick, today God convicted me of.
Speaker 1: And she did this every week. It was like sin
Speaker 1: of the week, okay. And and finally after six months
Speaker 1: she came up to me and says, you know, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 1: God convicted me of and I go, ma'am, does God
Speaker 1: ever say anything nice to you?
Speaker 2: And the truth was she didn't feel that.
Speaker 1: She didn't feel the love of God in her life,
Speaker 1: and as a result, I guarantee she was discouraged. You've
Speaker 1: got to keep the love of God in your mind.
Speaker 1: Remember that you were created to be loved by God.
Speaker 1: God made you to love you. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: so many times. And the number one purpose of your
Speaker 1: life is not for you to do good.
Speaker 2: The number one.
Speaker 1: Purpose of your life is not for you and to
Speaker 1: love God back.
Speaker 2: The number one purpose of your life is to let
Speaker 2: God love you. Let God.
Speaker 1: Are you letting God do that? Are you letting God
Speaker 1: love you? That's your first purpose. You were made to
Speaker 1: let God love you. He made you to love you. Now,
Speaker 1: this is what it means to have the mercy and
Speaker 1: grace and love of God always in your mind. Two
Speaker 1: of the benefits of always focusing on God's love and
Speaker 1: mercy is number one, I don't have to prove my worth,
Speaker 1: you can get off the performance cycle trap. And number two,
Speaker 1: I don't have to wallow in my failures because I
Speaker 1: know of God's mercy and grace and his love.
Speaker 2: So Paul starts with that.
Speaker 1: Now in the second verse, he gives us the second
Speaker 1: key of defeating discouragement, and this is really important. Never
Speaker 1: fake it, never fake it, be yourself. What I'm talking
Speaker 1: about here is being authentic, being genuine, being real.
Speaker 2: You got to be who God made you be.
Speaker 1: Nothing is more discouraging than trying to be something you're not.
Speaker 1: Because when you wear a mask, when you act, when
Speaker 1: you pose, that gets tiring, and you're afraid that other
Speaker 1: people might find out who you are, and you're afraid
Speaker 1: that God might not love.
Speaker 2: You, and all of these things.
Speaker 1: Nothing's more discouraging than trying to be something that you're not.
Speaker 1: I'll say it as clearly, as simple as again, God
Speaker 1: didn't make you to be somebody else. When you get
Speaker 1: to heaven, God isn't going to say, why wan't you
Speaker 1: more like your sister or your mom or your dad
Speaker 1: or your brother or Billy Graham, or why wan't you
Speaker 1: more like pastor Tom or pastor Yea. God does not
Speaker 1: bless fakes or phonies. God does not bless posers. God
Speaker 1: does not bless when you try to pretend to be
Speaker 1: something you're not.
Speaker 2: If you want.
Speaker 1: God's blessing on your life. You better just start being
Speaker 1: who God made you to be. Stop trying to be
Speaker 1: live for the pleasure or the pleasing of other people,
Speaker 1: the approval of other people. God didn't put you on
Speaker 1: earth for the approval of other people.
Speaker 2: He puts you on earth to be who you are.
Speaker 1: And when you be who God made you to be,
Speaker 1: God looks at it and goes, that's my boy, that's
Speaker 1: my girl.
Speaker 2: That's why I made you be.
Speaker 1: If you try to be somebody else, we don't need
Speaker 1: two of anybody else. And if you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: you got you, just go ahead and kill you and
Speaker 1: take on to heaven, because we don't need a carbon copy.
Speaker 1: Most of us start off as originals in life and
Speaker 1: end up as carbon copies. When you try to be
Speaker 1: something you're not, that's discouraging. Paul says, don't fake it.
Speaker 1: Here's what he says in tewod Corinthians four to two.
Speaker 1: We don't try to trick anyone. In other words, we're
Speaker 1: not putting on a phony mask. We're not trying to
Speaker 1: pretend we're something we're not, and we don't twist the
Speaker 1: word of God. Instead, we teach the truth plainly showing
Speaker 1: everyone who we really are. That's an antidote to discourage me.
Speaker 1: Who we really are. Then they can know in their
Speaker 1: hearts what kind of people we are in God's sight.
Speaker 1: Paul says, I'm just trying to be myself. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to please everybody else. I've got nothing to hide.
Speaker 1: What you see is what you get. Nothing is more
Speaker 1: discouraging than trying to please everybody. Why because even God
Speaker 1: can't do that. If you realize this, even God can't
Speaker 1: please everybody. Somebody's praying for the Rams to win, and
Speaker 1: somebody's praying for the chargers to wink, and some is
Speaker 1: praying for it to rain, and somebody's praying for not rain,
Speaker 1: and somebody's praying ittle snow and I can stay home
Speaker 1: from school, and I was.
Speaker 2: Saying, please don't let it snow.
Speaker 1: Even God can't please everybody, so only a fool will
Speaker 1: try to do what God can't do. You know, just
Speaker 1: about time you get crowd A, please, crowd B gets
Speaker 1: ticked off at you. And then when you get crowd
Speaker 1: B please, crowd A's upset with you. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been on the cover of Newsweek magazine twice.
Speaker 2: Once is the heat and once as a zero.
Speaker 1: One of them they were building me up, and one
Speaker 1: of them they were tearing me down. That's life, folks,
Speaker 1: that's just life, and so you can't fake it. You've
Speaker 1: got to be who you're going to be. If you're
Speaker 1: always trying to be something you're not, you're always going
Speaker 1: to be under stress, You're always going to fear being exposed,
Speaker 1: You're always gonna have to wear a mask, and you're
Speaker 1: going to be prone to discouragement. What I'm telling you
Speaker 1: as your pastor is you don't have to be perfect
Speaker 1: for God to bless you, but you do have to
Speaker 1: be authentic.
Speaker 2: You do have to be real.
Speaker 1: So Paul says, first, I want you to remember that
Speaker 1: God's never going to stop loving you, and then second,
Speaker 1: be who He made you to be warts it all.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a very flawed man. If you don't
Speaker 1: believe that, asked my kids are o Kay or Tom
Speaker 1: or anybody who's close to me.
Speaker 2: I'm very flawed.
Speaker 1: But I actually think that talking to you about my flaws,
Speaker 1: not trying to pretend like I've got it all together,
Speaker 1: is a good thing. Because we don't grow from other
Speaker 1: people's strengths. We grow from their weaknesses because you go, oh, man,
Speaker 1: if God blesses Rick that much and he's such a dufus,
Speaker 1: then maybe God could bless me because he that certainly
Speaker 1: doesn't have it all together.
Speaker 2: So maybe God could bless me like that.
Speaker 1: And it is in our weakness we actually help other people. Now,
Speaker 1: what keeps you from really being real? One word fear.
Speaker 1: What keeps you from being honest about your weaknesses is
Speaker 1: your own fear of rejection. And what's the antidote to
Speaker 1: the fear of rejection? Point number one? Focusing on God's
Speaker 1: unconditional love for me. And if I'm focused on how
Speaker 1: much God loves me, If God loves being, I like
Speaker 1: me and you don't like.
Speaker 2: Me, that's your problem.
Speaker 1: So it's really important these first two. Don't fake it,
Speaker 1: but focus on the love of God. Now here's the
Speaker 1: third secret to defeating discouragement.
Speaker 2: Remember that it's not about me. Remember that it's not
Speaker 2: about me.
Speaker 1: The more self focused I am in life, the more
Speaker 1: prone to discouragement I'm gonna be every time you forget
Speaker 1: that life is bigger than you, that you're not the
Speaker 1: center of the universe, you're not God's gift to the world.
Speaker 2: You're not holding up.
Speaker 1: You're not Charles Atlas holding up the world or whatever.
Speaker 1: You think it's all about you. And anytime you forget
Speaker 1: that it's not about you, you're going to get either
Speaker 1: prideful or you're gonna get fearful, or you're gonna get bitter. Prideful,
Speaker 1: fearful or bitter. Because God didn't make the world to
Speaker 1: revolve around you. And not only that, when you think
Speaker 1: everything's all about you, then you take everything personally and
Speaker 1: you get your feelings hurt so fast. Now here's the
Speaker 1: next verse, second Gradians four, verse five. He says, our
Speaker 1: message is not about our It's not about us. It's
Speaker 1: not about you. It's not about me. Our message is
Speaker 1: not about us. It is about Jesus. Christis Lord. We're
Speaker 1: merely your servants for Jesus' sake. Now says a couple
Speaker 1: important things in that verse. First, he says, our message
Speaker 1: is not about ourselves.
Speaker 2: God has a unique life message for you.
Speaker 1: He puts you on this earth, and he has a
Speaker 1: message he wants to say.
Speaker 2: To the world through you.
Speaker 1: The message that God wants to say through you to
Speaker 1: the whole world is called your life message. But your
Speaker 1: life message is not about you. It's about him. God
Speaker 1: didn't put you on earth to be about you. He
Speaker 1: puts you on earth to be about Him. Is your creator.
Speaker 1: Your life message is about God, and he says it's
Speaker 1: not about you. You know, when I wrote Purpose Driven Life,
Speaker 1: the first four words of that book are it's not
Speaker 1: about you. And I intentionally chose those four words to
Speaker 1: start the book it's not about you, because that's the
Speaker 1: most counterculture message you could give in today's world, because
Speaker 1: everything in our world says the exact opposite. It's all
Speaker 1: about you. Have it your way, we do it all
Speaker 1: for you. You deserve the best today. You're number one,
Speaker 1: look out for one. I've got to do what's best
Speaker 1: for me. Everything in society, every music song, every video game,
Speaker 1: every TV show, you.
Speaker 2: Know, the news, everything around you.
Speaker 1: Every advertisement says you got to think about you. You
Speaker 1: got to think about you. No advertisement says think about others. Certainly,
Speaker 1: no advertisement says think about God. Everything says think about you.
Speaker 1: It's all about you. You you, you you, And that's
Speaker 1: why I put in there it's not about you. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you personally. Sometimes I wish I hadn't put that
Speaker 1: in there, because I had no idea I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: For the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: Maybe twenty times a day, I was going to get
Speaker 1: tested person on that verse, on that phrase, it's not
Speaker 1: about you, And sometimes I think I have to say
Speaker 1: that to myself twenty times a day. Somebody gives me
Speaker 1: a praise, it's not about you. Somebody gives me a criticism,
Speaker 1: it's not about you. Somebody misjudges something that I did.
Speaker 1: It's not about you. Somebody disagrees with me. It's not
Speaker 1: about you. And I have often had to say it
Speaker 1: to myself, sometimes every hour in a particular day. But
Speaker 1: it's one of the things we have to learn. Remember,
Speaker 1: it's not about me. When I focus on me, I'm
Speaker 1: going to get discouraged. Now, the second part of that verse,
Speaker 1: he says, it's not about us, but we're merely servants
Speaker 1: for Jesus's sake. Now, this phrase for Jesus' sake, Paul
Speaker 1: uses it twice in this chapter.
Speaker 2: He says, we do what we do for.
Speaker 1: Jesus' sake, And what he's talking about.
Speaker 2: Here is motivation.
Speaker 1: Now, motivation and discouragement have a lot to go do together.
Speaker 1: God is always more interested in why you do what
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 2: Than what you do. Let me say it again.
Speaker 1: God is always more interested in why you're doing what
Speaker 1: you're doing than he is what or even how, Because
Speaker 1: he cares about the motivations of your heart.
Speaker 2: You can do the right thing for the wrong reason.
Speaker 1: Why always determines how long in your life. If you
Speaker 1: go out on a project, or you get a goal,
Speaker 1: you get an ambition, and you forget why, you'll get
Speaker 1: discouraged and quit. A lot of people start off in
Speaker 1: life knowing why they want to do what they want
Speaker 1: to do this particular career, or marry this person or whatever.
Speaker 1: When you forget why you married the person, when you
Speaker 1: forget why you went into that career, when you forget
Speaker 1: why you gave your life to Christ, when you forget
Speaker 1: the why, you're going to stop doing the how long.
Speaker 1: Discouragement always happens when we forget the whych So let
Speaker 1: me ask you before we go on, why do you
Speaker 1: do what you do? Why do you do what you do?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: I do it to put money, you know, in my pocket,
Speaker 1: to put food on the table. That's not a good
Speaker 1: enough motivation that that will wear out pretty pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: So remember that it's not about me. Number four, the
Speaker 1: fourth secret of defeating discouragement is in the next verse,
Speaker 1: and it has to do with this.
Speaker 2: I need to relax.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I need to relax in my limitations. I
Speaker 1: need to relax in my limitations. Now, why is that
Speaker 1: an important antidote to discouragement? Because you get discouraged when
Speaker 1: you try to be superman. You get discouraged when you
Speaker 1: try to be superwoman.
Speaker 2: Get try.
Speaker 1: You get discouraged when you try to do more than
Speaker 1: you is humanly possible.
Speaker 2: You have not relaxed in your.
Speaker 1: Limitations, or I have not relaxed my limitations. What we
Speaker 1: all need is a realistic view of you. I need
Speaker 1: a realistic view of me. You need a realistic view
Speaker 1: of you. And and the facts are I mean, let's
Speaker 1: just say them. You can't fix everybody's problems. I agree
Speaker 1: with that, but sometimes you act like you can. You
Speaker 1: can't be in more than one place at one time.
Speaker 2: Is that true? Yeah? You know people say, well, I'll
Speaker 2: be with.
Speaker 1: You in spirit. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. As
Speaker 1: long as you're in a human body, you can't be
Speaker 1: You can't be in spirit somewhere else. You can only
Speaker 1: be where your body is. Okay, so, uh, you can't
Speaker 1: do everything you want to do. You can't spend money
Speaker 1: you don't have. Now you try, and there's a word
Speaker 1: for that, debt, and then you get discouraged. Anytime you
Speaker 1: don't live within the limits of your life that are normal,
Speaker 1: then you're going to get discouraged. You cram too much in.
Speaker 1: Is it easier to fill your schedule than it is
Speaker 1: to fulfill your schedule?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Is it always easier.
Speaker 1: To get in than it is to get out, Yes,
Speaker 1: Easier to make a promise and keep a promise, yeah,
Speaker 1: Easier to get into debt then get.
Speaker 2: Out of debt, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's because we're not relaxing in our limitations.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Paul talks about literally physical limitations of your body. In
Speaker 1: verse seven, he says, you know, you need to know
Speaker 1: your limits, You need to know your warning signs when
Speaker 1: you're over extended, and you need to realize you're just
Speaker 1: a body. In Second Corinthians four seven, we are like
Speaker 1: clay jars, in which this treasure, the treasure of God,
Speaker 1: is stored and the real power comes from God, not
Speaker 1: from us. He says, we're our bodies are like pottery,
Speaker 1: We're like clay jars. Some of us have very big jars.
Speaker 1: Some of the jars in this room are very ornate
Speaker 1: and very beautiful. And now there's this kind of we're
Speaker 1: kind of plain. But you know what, the one thing
Speaker 1: in common about all pottery, you drop it, it breaks easily.
Speaker 1: So we're all clay jars. God says, our bodies like
Speaker 1: clay jars. And we're all a little cracked because we've
Speaker 1: all been dropped. We've all been dropped here and there,
Speaker 1: and this is just being honest about who we really are.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed it, but I've noticed
Speaker 1: this that God often puts his greatest gifts in the
Speaker 1: weakest people. I think that's a good thing because then
Speaker 1: people go, it's got to be God. There's some people
Speaker 1: I watch on TV or like teaching the Bible, and
Speaker 1: I'm going, boy, they're goofy, but God is using them.
Speaker 1: God often puts his greatest gifts in the weakest vessel.
Speaker 1: That way his glory shines through. The truth is, for
Speaker 1: all of history, God has only used flawed instruments. He's
Speaker 1: never used a perfect person except Jesus Christ. If God
Speaker 1: only used perfect people, nothing would get done because there
Speaker 1: aren't any. And so God has always used flawed instruments,
Speaker 1: and sometime in this series, I want to do a
Speaker 1: message on rethinking your weaknesses because you think your weaknesses
Speaker 1: are something to hide, but they're actually something that God
Speaker 1: wants to use in your life. I actually thought about
Speaker 1: this the other day that I've grown through I don't
Speaker 1: know five or six different phases or stages toward my
Speaker 1: own weaknesses. When I first started living for the Lord,
Speaker 1: they didn't even know I had any weaknesses.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was so out of touch with me. I
Speaker 2: didn't I know even had any weaknesses.
Speaker 1: Then I discovered them and I denied them, and then
Speaker 1: I moved from denial to just hiding them, and I.
Speaker 2: Knew I had him. I just hit him.
Speaker 1: And then I went from hiding them to rationalizing and
Speaker 1: excusing them in my life, and eventually I matured enough
Speaker 1: that I could actually accept them. But today I feel
Speaker 1: like Paul, I glory in my weaknesses. Paul says, I
Speaker 1: glory and weakness because when I'm weak, Christ is strong.
Speaker 2: When I'm weak, He's strong through me.
Speaker 1: When you think about it, God invaded Earth as a
Speaker 1: baby of peasants in a barn. The Kingdom entered through weakness,
Speaker 1: not through strength. God has always done that. He's always
Speaker 1: used weak people who trust him strength can go through them.
Speaker 1: So this is what humility is all about. You've heard
Speaker 1: me say this. For humility is not denying your strengths.
Speaker 1: It's being honest about your weaknesses. You're a bundle of both.
Speaker 1: I'm a bundle of both. I have some good strengths
Speaker 1: and I have some major weaknesses. You have some good
Speaker 1: strengths in your life, and you have some good weaknesses
Speaker 1: in your life. We're all a bundle of both. Humility
Speaker 1: is not denying your strengths.
Speaker 2: Just you're good at what God give it. The glory
Speaker 2: to God.
Speaker 1: God gave you that ability. Humility is being honest about
Speaker 1: your weaknesses. And it's actually not thinking less of yourself.
Speaker 1: It's just thinking of yourself less. I said, when you
Speaker 1: walk into a room in a party and if you're going,
Speaker 1: I wonder what everybody thinks about me? How do I look?
Speaker 1: Is my dress right? Is my shirt right? My makeup
Speaker 1: on right? And that's pride. When you walk into a
Speaker 1: room and you go, who could use my encouragement? That's humility.
Speaker 1: It's not thinking of yourself lest you're just so busy
Speaker 1: thinking about other people, you're not even thinking of yourself.
Speaker 1: That's real humility, not thinking less, but thinking of yourself less.
Speaker 2: We all have our weakness.
Speaker 1: I really come to the conclusion you can be spiritually
Speaker 1: godly and emotionally dysfunctional at the same time. I don't
Speaker 1: know if anybody's ever said that, but it's true.
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 1: People can be close to God and can be a
Speaker 1: veritable storehouse of Bible knowledge and actually give good wisdom,
Speaker 1: and they're still messed up in their emotions or their personality.
Speaker 1: And he says, just be real and be honest and
Speaker 1: accept your limitations. Number five, the fifth secret of defeating
Speaker 1: discouragement is use my pain to help others. This is
Speaker 1: the fifth thing Paul talks about in this chapter on discouragement.
Speaker 1: Paul says, I use my pain to help other people.
Speaker 1: Remember that list we went through the shipwrecks and you know,
Speaker 1: the prisons and the beatings and all those things. In
Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, chapter four and verse eight nine. He now
Speaker 1: says this we often suffer. We often suffer, but we're
Speaker 1: never crushed, and even when we don't know what to do,
Speaker 1: we never give up. There is again, we never give up.
Speaker 1: We're not getting discouraged. We never give up, and in
Speaker 1: times of trouble God is with us, and when we're
Speaker 1: knocked down, we get up again. Now, why why is
Speaker 1: Paul this resilient? Why is Paul so resistant to discouragement?
Speaker 1: What allows him to just get back up again every
Speaker 1: time he's knocked down? Well, if you were to ask Paul,
Speaker 1: why did you put up with all that? Why did
Speaker 1: you put up with all that? Jailings and beatings and
Speaker 1: going without food and going without clothes, and being shipwrecked
Speaker 1: three times, and you know, on the in the night
Speaker 1: and the day, in the in the ocean, and all
Speaker 1: of those things that have happened. Why did you put
Speaker 1: up with all of it? His response would be verse fifteen.
Speaker 1: The next verse, all of these sufferings of ours are
Speaker 1: for your benefit. Circle that phrase, for your benefit, he says,
Speaker 1: all the stuff this is called redemptive suffering. Folks, All
Speaker 1: of these sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And
Speaker 1: the more of you who are one to Christ, then
Speaker 1: the more there are to thank Him for his great mercy,
Speaker 1: and the more God gets glory.
Speaker 2: Okay, what is Paul saying here? He said, I keep
Speaker 2: on going.
Speaker 1: I don't get discouraged because I know it's helping others,
Speaker 1: even my pain. Study after study after study is shown
Speaker 1: that human beings can handle an enormous amount of pain
Speaker 1: if they see a purpose in it. When you have
Speaker 1: pain and you don't see any purpose, it's unbearable. It's unbearable.
Speaker 1: But when you can see a purpose, a good purpose
Speaker 1: in it, then it becomes bearable. And he says, here,
Speaker 1: what's the purpose. My purpose of my suffering is for
Speaker 1: other people's benefits.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you will.
Speaker 1: Suffer for the benefit of other people, and at that
Speaker 1: moment you are more christ Like than any other moment,
Speaker 1: because that's what Jesus did. He suffered on the cross,
Speaker 1: not for his benefit. He hadn't done anything wrong. He
Speaker 1: suffered on the cross for our benefit, redemptive suffering. And
Speaker 1: sometimes God will let you go through pain, not for
Speaker 1: your benefit, yeah you can grow from it, but for
Speaker 1: the benefit of other people.
Speaker 2: He says. I keep going.
Speaker 1: I don't get discouraged because I know it's helping us.
Speaker 2: Kay, And I've tried to do this. You know, when Matthew.
Speaker 1: Died, worst day in our lives, greatest pain, to lose
Speaker 1: a child to mental illness.
Speaker 2: It was excruciatingly painful.
Speaker 1: It's still painful today. But we're not gonna waste our hurt.
Speaker 1: So we use it to help other people who struggle
Speaker 1: with suicide. We've used it to help other people who
Speaker 1: families that have struggled with mental illness in their family.
Speaker 1: Why waste a hurt. I'm not gonna waste that pain.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go through it and waste it. What
Speaker 1: is it in your life that's so painful that you
Speaker 1: need to be using to help other people? Your greatest
Speaker 1: ministry will come out of your deepest hurt if you
Speaker 1: are honest to God, honest yourself, and honest enough to
Speaker 1: talk about it with other people, the pain you've gone
Speaker 1: through in your life. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but that's
Speaker 1: called earth.
Speaker 2: This is not Heaven.
Speaker 1: This is Earth, and everything's broken on earth. So there
Speaker 1: is suffering and pain and evil here. It's not good
Speaker 1: and we should fight it and avoid it and you know,
Speaker 1: push it back where we can, but it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: There is suffering on earth. Don't waste it.
Speaker 2: Use it for good. Paul says, I use.
Speaker 1: My pain to help others, you know, In a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks we're going to be having Easter, and it's
Speaker 1: going to actually be our fortieth Easter at Saddleback Church.
Speaker 1: Last year we had almost seventy one thousand people at
Speaker 1: Easter and several thousand came to Christ the very first time.
Speaker 1: And this year we're reaching out to try to reach
Speaker 1: more and we're telling everybody, bring your friends. And why
Speaker 1: do we need any more people in this church?
Speaker 2: I mean, like, isn't this enough? Isn't it big enough? Friends?
Speaker 1: We don't grow for our benefit. We grow because people
Speaker 1: need the Lord.
Speaker 2: We go grow. We don't reach out.
Speaker 1: We don't get this church bigger because we need a
Speaker 1: bigger church. Friend, my favorite size was three hundred people.
Speaker 1: That way they could pay my salary. I go play
Speaker 1: golf three times a week. If we have stopped it
Speaker 1: at my favorite size, none of you'd be here, well,
Speaker 1: a couple of you would be in this service. But
Speaker 1: the truth is we do this for jesus sake.
Speaker 2: Paul says it twice. For Jesus. We put up with
Speaker 2: the problems. The bigger the church gets, the more problems.
Speaker 1: There are, the more stress there is, the more heartaches
Speaker 1: to deal with, the more people to help. But why
Speaker 1: do we do it not for our sake. We do
Speaker 1: it because everybody needs to know the Lord. And as
Speaker 1: long as there's one person who doesn't know Christ, we're
Speaker 1: gonna keep reaching out.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Number six, the sixth secret of defeating discouragement.
Speaker 2: This is an important one. Take time for renewal.
Speaker 1: With a long haul, you're going to figure out how
Speaker 1: have to figure out ways to recharge, to refresh and
Speaker 1: to renew yourself. If you don't learn how to refresh
Speaker 1: and renew and recharge yourself, you're gonna get discouraged and
Speaker 1: you're going to give up, no matter what the project
Speaker 1: or the goal or the dream is. Paul talks about
Speaker 1: this in verse sixteen. This is why we never give up. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's now. This is the third time you use this phrase.
Speaker 1: This is why we never give up. He's talking about
Speaker 1: overcoming discouragement. This is why we never give up. Though
Speaker 1: our bodies are dying. Literally in Greek, that word they're
Speaker 1: dying is wasting away. Okay, though our bodies are wasting away,
Speaker 1: our spirits are read it with me aloud, being renewed
Speaker 1: every day. Circle the word renewed. You're going to have
Speaker 1: to learn how to be renewed. Every day. That's called
Speaker 1: day renewal. Now you've got to renew your mind. You
Speaker 1: got to renew your body, You got to renew your heart.
Speaker 1: Renew constantly. Now, obviously and physically, our bodies are decaying.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed that?
Speaker 1: Okay, you're not the sexy being you were ten years ago,
Speaker 1: all right? And so when we have bifocals and baldness
Speaker 1: and bulges and wrinkles and aches and pains, and some
Speaker 1: of us have furniture problem in our chest dropped into
Speaker 1: our drawers. You can't stop the aging process, but you
Speaker 1: can stay fresh inside. And notice, Paul says, I renew
Speaker 1: myself daily.
Speaker 2: How do you do that?
Speaker 1: Well, you need to spiritually renew yourself daily with time
Speaker 1: with God. Every day you spend some time with God.
Speaker 1: Every day you read the Word, you pray, you talk,
Speaker 1: You get spiritually recharges like hooking up the jumper cables,
Speaker 1: get your spirit recharged. You need to know what renews
Speaker 1: you emotionally. You need to know what renews you physically.
Speaker 1: And you need to renew yourself every day. You've heard
Speaker 1: me say divert daily, withdrawal weekly, abandoned annually, and I've
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot so let's just go on
Speaker 1: to number seven, the seventh secret of defeating discouragement. This
Speaker 1: is a big one. Stay focused on eternity. Stay focused
Speaker 1: on eternity. Paul's final secret for defeating discouragement. It is not,
Speaker 1: you know, look at the hear and now. He says,
Speaker 1: you need to maintain an eternal perspective. You can't live
Speaker 1: for just here and now. You got to look beyond
Speaker 1: the here and now. The here and now is what's
Speaker 1: discouraging you. But when you look into heaven and you
Speaker 1: look into the future, and you look at the coming rewards,
Speaker 1: and you look at all the things that God has
Speaker 1: planned for you, then you'll get over your discouragement. The
Speaker 1: reality is you lose your perspective every time you get tired.
Speaker 1: When you get tired, you lose your perspective. And so
Speaker 1: Paul says this in Second Corinthians, chapter four, in verses
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen, the last two verses, he says, our present
Speaker 1: troubles are quite small. Now let me just stop right there.
Speaker 1: This is the guy who's been shipwrecked three times, been
Speaker 1: thrown in prison, been beaten, gone without food, gone without clothing,
Speaker 1: all of these different things, and he goes, our present
Speaker 1: troubles are quite small compared to what, compared to what.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a.
Speaker 1: Matter of perspective, and he's going to say it's small
Speaker 1: compared to the rewards and the joys we're going to
Speaker 1: have forever and ever and ever. He said, you know,
Speaker 1: even if I had a chronic problem, and I had
Speaker 1: that problem every day of my life, well, my life
Speaker 1: on earth's only going to be maybe sixty seventy eighty years,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to spend trillions and trillions and trillions
Speaker 1: and trillions of years in.
Speaker 2: Heaven reaping the reward. Words, so he says.
Speaker 1: Really, this is quite small, even if I had it
Speaker 1: all my life. Our present troubles are quite small and
Speaker 1: won't last very long. Yet they produce in us and
Speaker 1: the immeasurable great glory that will last how long, forever,
Speaker 1: circle that forever, it's gonna last forever. So temporary problems,
Speaker 1: joy and glory and results and rewards forever.
Speaker 2: So he says, here's the key. We don't look.
Speaker 1: At the troubles which we can see right now, that's
Speaker 1: what discourages you. Rather we look forward to what we
Speaker 1: have not yet seen. He's talking about in heaven for
Speaker 1: the troubles that we see will soon be over, but
Speaker 1: the joys to come will last forever. You know, there
Speaker 1: are three kinds of motivation in life, and you've got
Speaker 1: to have motivation to keep going. Now, there's internal motivation
Speaker 1: that's inside you. There is external motivation that's something from
Speaker 1: the outside of motivations, and those are okay. But stronger
Speaker 1: than internal or external motivations is the third kind, eternal
Speaker 1: eternal motivation, which is this life is not all there is.
Speaker 1: We're made to last forever, and we're gonna spend more
Speaker 1: time on that side of death. And on this way
Speaker 1: you only get a little bit on this side. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have far, far more on the other side. So
Speaker 1: think about eternal motivation. You realize this is how Jesus
Speaker 1: endured the cross. Look at the next verse Hebrews twelve
Speaker 1: to two. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus's
Speaker 1: stay focused on eternity. Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus,
Speaker 1: on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He
Speaker 1: did not give up. There's that phrase again. He did
Speaker 1: not give up. He didn't get scouraged, He did not
Speaker 1: give up because of the cross on the contrary, because
Speaker 1: of the joy that was waiting for him. He thought
Speaker 1: nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and
Speaker 1: he's now seated at the right hand, the right side
Speaker 1: of God's throne.
Speaker 2: See Jesus.
Speaker 1: How did Jesus handle all the pain and suffering of
Speaker 1: the cross? He was looking beyond it to the joy
Speaker 1: that was set before him. He's looking to the reward.
Speaker 1: He had his eyes set on eternity. Only when you
Speaker 1: see the invisible can you do the impossible. You've got
Speaker 1: to look beyond. You know, we've done a lot of
Speaker 1: impossible things at saddle Back Church. Everybody thought they were impossible.
Speaker 2: But you have to look.
Speaker 1: Beyond the impossible to see the invisible. See what God
Speaker 1: is doing in the spirit realm. Or one of my
Speaker 1: favorite quotes Corey tin Boom, if you look at the world,
Speaker 1: you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed.
Speaker 1: But if you look at Christ you'll be at rest.
Speaker 1: It all depends on what you've got your eyes on.
Speaker 1: Let us fix our eyes on GeSe or, as Paul says,
Speaker 1: we look forward to what we have not yet seen.
Speaker 1: Those are the seven secrets Paul gives us for overcoming discouragement.
Speaker 1: But let me add one on that it will be
Speaker 1: a little booster point, and it would be this all
Speaker 1: seventy of these things. They're a whole lot easier if
Speaker 1: you do them with other people. It's a whole lot
Speaker 1: easier if you have a support group. And I know
Speaker 1: I talk about small groups all the time because they're important.
Speaker 2: That every one of these things.
Speaker 1: Happen easier when you have other people who will help
Speaker 1: you with the seven things that are going on.
Speaker 2: If you have a.
Speaker 1: Small group, you need to get in a small group.
Speaker 2: We'll be glad to help you start a small group.
Speaker 1: You can go out after this service out to the
Speaker 1: patio and any of our campuses and say I'd like
Speaker 1: to get in a group. Will help you start a group.
Speaker 1: Let me close with this promised Galatians six, verse eight.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's discouraging you this weekend, but here's
Speaker 1: a verse for you. Let us not get tired of
Speaker 1: doing what is right, for after a while, we will
Speaker 1: reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged
Speaker 1: and give up. That is a promise of God to you.
Speaker 1: That's bow our heads. Let me pray for you, father,
Speaker 1: I don't know who's hearing this message right now, but
Speaker 1: you do, and you know the hearts, and you know
Speaker 1: those who are on the edge of discouragement are deep,
Speaker 1: deep in it. And I pray that we'll take your
Speaker 1: word and not just hear it and not just learn it,
Speaker 1: but actually apply it and do it and practice it.
Speaker 1: And it would take these seven steps this week and
Speaker 1: put them into our lives, and that will review this
Speaker 1: message all week in order to fight the discouragement that
Speaker 1: you don't want us to have. Now, you pray, say, Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to never forget how much you love me.
Speaker 1: Help me to never forget how much you love me.
Speaker 1: Help me to never fake it, to not try to
Speaker 1: be something that I'm not, just to be who you
Speaker 1: made me to be. And Lord, help me to remember
Speaker 1: that life is not about me, that it doesn't all
Speaker 1: revolve around me. It's all about you. Help me to
Speaker 1: relax in my limitations. Do not try to be superman
Speaker 1: a superwoman. To realize behold your treasure in clay jars.
Speaker 1: And Lord, when I go through pain, help me to
Speaker 1: not just wallow in that pain, but to use that
Speaker 1: pain to help others for other people's benefit. I don't
Speaker 1: want to waste the pain I've been through, Lord, I
Speaker 1: want to use it to help others.
Speaker 2: Help me to take.
Speaker 1: Time for renewal every day, to do the things that
Speaker 1: recharge my spirit, my soul, my body, my heart, my relationships,
Speaker 1: and help me to not get so caught up in
Speaker 1: the day to day and the problems of the moment
Speaker 1: that I lose my focus on eternity. Help me to
Speaker 1: remember that this life is not all there is, that
Speaker 1: I'm made to last forever, and that even the pain
Speaker 1: in my life is temporary compared to the thousands and
Speaker 1: millions of years that I will be with you. Tell
Speaker 1: the Lord, I'm going to claim this promise that if
Speaker 1: we do not get tired in doing what's right, that
Speaker 1: after a while, we'll reach a harvest of blessing. If
Speaker 1: we don't get discouraged and don't give up. God, I'm
Speaker 1: saying today, I'm not going to give up. Tell the
Speaker 1: Lord that I'm not going to give up, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to trust you, just like Paul did in Jesus' name.
Speaker 2: Amen,