Overcoming Discouragement

Get our Bibles out, lift them up and wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for Wednesday night.

My heart is receptive, I'm alert and ready to receive the word of God into my spirit.

It must go from my head into my heart so that my faith is built and my spirit develops and I will bring forth fruit in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And let's turn in our Bibles to Proverbs, chapter 13, and I'm gonna read first out of the King James and then I'll read it out of the message the King James says in Proverbs 1312, hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

And then I like the message Bible.

It says it this way unrelenting disappointment leaves you heart sick, but a sudden good break can turn life around, praise God.

So tonight I did want to share a message entitled overcoming disappointment.

Overcoming disappointment, disappointment comes to all.

You know the devil likes to use our strength against us.

You know we're faith people, and faith people believe the best, they aim high, they're expect, they've got positive expectation.

You know we have our mind renewed to God's way of thinking, and so we unhook from the negativity of this world, hopefully more and more as we grow in the word and grow in the maturity, and so that does make us kind of a target for disappointment, because disappointment just kind of can hit us.

And you know, the Bible says in Hebrews 11, one we could say at this way faith is the substance of positive expectations.

And the Webster's dictionary defines disappointment as this, disappointment as this a failure of expectation, a failure of desire, a failure of intention, a miscarriage of plan.

So you see, if we allow discouragement to just stay on us, it's going to affect our faith, it's going to drop our faith and of course we'll start becoming unsuccessful, we start bringing more trouble.

So it's vital, vital to every believer, to overcome disappointment.

You know, you might not prevent disappointment from coming, but you can overcome it.

When it does come, you don't have to stay there.

John 1633,.

Jesus said it this way in the world you shall have tribulation, and that word tribulation means pressure, trouble, anguish.

There's a certain amount of anguish to disappointment, distress, frustration.

See, that's kind of part of disappointment.

But be of good courage, be confident, be brave.

He said.

I have overcome the world, I have subdued, I have prevailed, I have conquered, I like to amplify it.

He says I have deprived it of its power to harm you and have conquered it for you.

So that's what we have to do to discouragement, we have to prevail over it.

We have to, we have to conquer it, we have to subdue it.

You know we.

You know again, you, you let disappointment linger and you're going to pay a price for it.

So, uh, just a simple message tonight.

Uh, many of you know these things, but we all need to be refreshed because we all have opportunities from time to time to be disappointed.

And uh, so this, this message, should help us to overcome disappointment.

I've got one, two, three points to share with you tonight.

I want to share some truth with you.

Um, overcoming disappointment.

Just say that out loud.

I'm overcoming all disappointment.

Amen, all right.

The first uh point I want to make is recognize that disappointment is an emotion.

See, that's all it is.

It's just an emotion, it's not a demon.

You know this.

Quit giving credit to the devil for everything I mean.

You know it's just part of our human flesh.

Flesh is, it can be disappointed.

You know your flesh can get disappointed, but you know you can still have joy in your spirit.

That's really that's exactly what the devil's after.

He's trying to steal your joy.

Uh, so Jesus said it comes with being in the world.

In the world you shall have he didn't use the word disappointment.

I don't think it's hurting the word for us to plug it in in the world you shall have disappointment.

You have to have to recognize it's just comes with a flesh, it comes with the world, it comes with where we live.

And first Peter, four 12, um, peter said think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened under you.

But rejoice, see, I tell you the first thing you need to do when disappointment starts camping out on your door, start shouting and praising God, cause that's what Peter said.

The secret is, hey, you know, everybody goes through suffering, everybody goes through disappointment, everybody.

And you don't think it's so strange.

I mean, it just comes with the territory.

Um, I like, uh, you know the thing about that.

Don't make the situation bigger than it is.

You know, whatever you magnified will be magnified.

The more you meditate on the disappointment, the more you think about it and turn it over, and so forth, and so on.

Uh, the bigger it gets.

I like what.

Second Corinthians four 17.

I think this is worth looking at.

Uh, paul, you talk about a guy that had lots of opportunity to be disappointed.

You can, I mean, he had so much betrayal, he had so many twists and turns, and people that served him and then left him and and you know, anybody could be disappointed had the right to join, be the president of the disappointment club, it would have been Paul.

But here, in second Corinthians four 17, he said for our light affliction, which is just for a moment, work within us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which you're seeing but at the things which you're not seeing.

For the things which you're seeing are temporal or temporary, but the things which you're not seeing are eternal.

You know, when disappointment comes, it's sent to you to try to get you to move off of your faith, to try to get you to move off of your pathway, to get you distracted from what God has called you to do.

And you know you just got a duty to overcome it, to prevail over it.

It's only gonna last that long.

I like what Paul said it's just gonna be like that it's not gonna last long and we're gonna get through it.

And so we have to keep disappointment in perspective, or the thing that made us disappointed.

Keep it in perspective, don't let it get huge.

You know, I was listening to somebody recently and this is a word that people use all the time.

You know they have trouble and it might be serious trouble.

It might've been a death in the family, it might've been a car wreck, it might've been some kind of terrible thing, and they use this word devastate.

I'm just devastated.

Me and my family are devastated.

You know, a devastated doesn't really belong in your mouth, because listen to what devastated means.

It means laid waste, destroyed, ravaged.

Really, is it that bad?

I mean, devastated is like overkill, it's over, it's an exaggeration.

So, yeah, we can be disappointed, but don't call disappointment, don't call it devastated a devastation.

Oh, it's not that.

It's not that they remember the children of Israel.

They exaggerated.

They said, oh, there's giants in the land.

Well, they didn't exaggerate that there were giants.

And then they exaggerated.

They said the giants think that we're grasshoppers and we're grasshoppers in our own sight.

Well, you know, they took it too far.

They walled cities.

The cities are walled up to heaven.

Well, they weren't walled that tall, so they exaggerated the trouble.

Don't be guilty of calling things devastation when they're really just challenges that you overcome.

It comes with life.

You know, in Acts 15, 39, paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement and even contention.

They had a falling out.

I mean here, they were together for years and they had a disagreement about John Mark going with him on the second missionary journey.

And you know, barnabas was determined to take him, who had left them in the first journey.

He'd left them in a lurch and left them by themselves and it created trouble.

And Paul said no, we're not taking John Mark, he's not ready.

In other words, nothing personal about John Mark.

It wasn't that he was a bad young man, it's just that he was immature and not ready for such a challenge.

And Paul wouldn't give in and Barnabas wouldn't give in and they parted company.

You know what?

Jesus didn't fall off the throne, and so the Bible says that Paul chose Silas and went on his way and Barnabas took John Mark.

And Barnabas, you never see him.

He falls off the pages of the Bible.

You never see him again.

So Paul overcame disappointment.

He didn't let it get him down, it didn't let it get in the way.

He didn't say, oh, I'm just devastated that we've had this falling out.

No, he just kept on going.

I'm sure he forgave Barnabas, I'm sure he loved Barnabas, but no, I've got a job to do and I'm gonna go get it done.

So you know that's faith and your feelings will follow your faith.

Whatever feelings of disappointment you have, those are emotions.

Disappointment is an emotion, and so your emotions are subject to your faith.

When you do the word, when you follow the Holy Ghost, when you take a faith step, I'm telling you, your feelings will follow your faith and those feelings will fade All right.

So the second thing is that when notice, I said when and not if when disappointment comes, don't blame God.

Don't think God sent it for some purpose.

Now, first of all, he didn't fail your expectation.

That's what the definition of disappointment is a failure of expectation.

You've expected something and it didn't come to pass.

Well, god didn't fail.

He never fails.

In fact, god always exceeds our expectation.

He always does greater than that.

So, no, no, don't attribute your disappointment to God.

You could never be disappointed in him.

But I'll say this about it I've been disappointed many, many times, and he never wastes my disappointment.

I'll always learn something from it.

I'll always gain at the end of it.

In Colossians three, we ought to forgive those that disappoint us.

Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves.

Sometimes we're disappointed in our own self.

Well, forgive yourself.

Sometimes you just gotta forgive yourself and just keep on going.

But if somebody's disappointed you it's a relationship or something where you, you know, just forgive them.

It doesn't mean that you approve of their behavior.

It just means you're not gonna hold them.

You know you're not gonna try to get back at them.

You're not gonna, you know, hold a hold a fire over their head and try to burn them.

You know, when you've got a bad medical report, you know, and you're disappointed in that medical report.

Well, guess what?

That medical report is not the final authority.

This, right here, is the final authority.

I urge you not to get heavily invested in the success or failure of any particular medical test.

Now, that's not your faith.

Your faith, that's all in the natural.

That is basically sense, knowledge that's printed on the page.

If it's a pet scan, a cat scan, a heart scan, whatever, whatever an x-ray, whatever it says, I'm not saying it's a lie.

I'm saying, though, that the truth is right here.

This is where our faith rests.

It doesn't rest in a particular outcome of a test.

And so, with that, if you do get a negative report from the doctor or a negative report from your financial advisor, or something you know before you let yourself go way down low, let's rejoice.

You know, that's what Peter said.

You know, think it's not strange concerning the fire trial, which is to try it as though some strange thing happened, but rejoice Number one on my list.

When I get start to get, you know, start feeling discouraged and disappointed about something, I start rejoicing.

I may not feel like rejoicing, I might have to.

The plaster of smile on my face it's kind of a fake smile.

I might have to go, ha ha ha, you know, for a little while.

But you know what I find that if you just keep on and let the joy of the Lord bubble up on the inside and stir up his joy, stir up the spirit of God, you know this thing won't seem so bad, it won't seem so big, whatever it is that you're facing.

You know, ephesians 5, 20 says giving thanks in all things.

You know, we ought to always be grateful, not for the trial, not for the disappointment, but for the escape from it, for the solution to it.

And we haven't seen it yet, but we're gonna see it because we're gonna just rejoice in advance.

That's faith.

And so never blame God.

He's your way out, he's the one that cares for you, he's watching over you.

If he ever forgot about you one second, you'd die.

So he sees what has happened and he's your way out.

So the second point don't blame God.

All right, then the last one is claim by faith the peace of God, because isn't that what we need?

We need that shalom, we need the peace of God when we're disappointed.

Colossians, chapter three, verse 15, says the let the word of God dwell in you richly, and all wisdom you let you have to let the word of God.

And well, who is the word of God?

The word of God is Jesus.

Jesus is the word of God.

Another word for Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

So you know, the peace of God.

See, claim by faith the peace of God in your circumstance.

Well, lord, you know this didn't turn out the way I expected, but thank God, I have the word on it.

I'm not looking at this circumstance.

I claim your peace through this whole thing and I'm praying for wisdom as to how to handle this situation.

You know, sometimes you've got people to deal with, sometimes you've got circumstances to deal with.

Sometimes you've got a financial matter you've got to deal with.

You can't just ignore these things and play like they didn't happen.

You have something to handle.

So it's a good time to pray and ask God to help you, ask God to be your wisdom.

I always know that the greater ones living inside of you to put you over every circumstance and defeat and conquer and prevail over disappointment.

So you know, notice in Philippians, chapter four this term there.

Hope you're getting something out of this tonight.

Praise God.

I mean, let me check my Facebook page see how many loves I have on here.

I got two.

No, I'm just joking, I'm not.

I'm getting better at multitasking.

I'll just.

I was gonna make a negative confession but I changed it the last minute.

Philippians four Philippians tells you what to think about.

A lot of times when you get disappointed, you let that fill your thoughts, and that's not the right approach.

Philippians 4, verse 6, be careful for nothing or be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6

I like to amplify it We'll keep in mount guard and rise up in mount guard over your heart and mind, and then it tells you what to think about.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, lovely, good report.

If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, think on these things.

Don't be meditating on the disappointment.

Don't be meditating on the failed expectation.

Meditate on how God has got you headed out of it and defeating it.

So just don't allow self pity that's the biggest thing.

I mean self pity is just is the worst thing you can allow to rest upon you, because it'll affect your faith, it'll give you negative results.

And I think about Hebrews 12, 15,.

Don't let a root of bitterness spring up and defile you.

If it involves a person and someone has done something and it's disappointed you.

The more you have self pity, the more you meditate on that.

You can get a root of bitterness and it will defile.

The word defile means mud in your eye, so it literally stops you from knowing what God's will is in the situation.

So you gotta be watching your heart.

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

And so it goes on and say a sick heart.

See, you know, this is what happens with discouragement it makes your heart sick and a sick heart is not good ground for faith to operate in.

Remember we were talking about the so or so is the word on Sunday Mark, chapter four.

The whole kingdom operates this way and Jesus said there's four kinds of dirt, there's four kinds of results.

Three out of four are crop failures.

Only one fourth of the ones that sowed the word into their heart got a crop because of the soil.

Some of them had sick hearts for a failure of expectation.

So guard your heart.

Don't let your heart get sick because something is delayed and your expectation has been disappointed.

No, you know, you just stick with the word of God.

Let patients have a perfect work and your sudden good break is really not chance.

It's not just a lucky break.

No, it comes from choosing to be a doer of the word rather than a victim.

So, overcoming disappointment tonight, just lift your hand and receive tonight.

Glory to God.

Thank God for the word, thank God that he has the way out for all disappointment and we don't have to dwell in that valley of the shadow of death.

We can come right out into the sunshine.

Hallelujah, amen, amen.