Fighting Discouragement | Wellington G

This message was preached  by Wellington Gomes at Word of Grace Church on March 25th, 2018. Wellington has been a friend of Word of Grace Church for many years. He leads the River of Life Church in Panjim, Goa that belong to the NewFrontiers sphere 'Commission'. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

We are going to look at the book of Nehemiah and I want to talk to you about how to deal with discouragement. It is one of Satan’s biggest weapons. We are called to rise up and do what God has called us to do. We all get trapped into discouragement, but we will look at how to get out of it.

Whenever you have a dream from God, the first thing that hits us is problems. Joseph had to go through a huge process before his promise was fulfilled. At first, we get excited about the thing God has called us to do. Then we get discouraged. Then we blame someone. The innocent gets punished and the wrong people get appreciated.

Nehemiah heard from 2 of his guys that the wall of Jerusalem is in a bad shape. He is burdened with this thing. So he made a huge plan to rebuild the walls. The walls are a protection and an identity. So when the wall is destroyed, it means that they were disgraced. Nehemiah builds this at a miracle pace of 52 days. Everyone who has made it big has made it because he persevered through problems. Everyone goes through a struggle.

Nehemiah 2: 17-20 “Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. 19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.””

The God of heaven will give us success. But these guys did not give up.

Nehemiah 4: 1-3 “When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!””

Discouragement comes in these ways:

1.      Words: People are going to say things to discourage us. When I became a Christian, people ridiculed and challenged me that I will not last more than 5 years in my Christianity. It’s been 30 years and I am as passionate about God! If you can keep your eyes fixed on God and move forward, nothing is impossible with God. Words are the most discouraging thing. Even with your children, don’t put them down using negative words. They will become what you say they are. Always have positive attitude.

2.      When words don’t work, they start using physical threats: I got physically threatened many times. We will see the victory, please don’t give up. Don’t make excuses, get through. Even people who don’t know God work like that. How much more should Christians be determined to go where God has called us to go? There are too many Christians giving up too easily these days. Nehemiah 4:11 “Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.” Did the walls stop? No way!

3.      Sometimes discouragement can come from your own people: we face that all the time. We get a brilliant idea, and someone will say something discouraging. When we come together, say words of faith to one another. If you have a vision, however slow it may be moving, it will come to pass. I told the church when we were 10 people that we are going to reach 1000 people in the city. Now we haven’t reached a 1000 people yet, but our reach is going further and further. I believe the dream God gave me, we are going to get there. If you can trust God, he will be with us.

4.      Send intimidating letters: Today it is whatsapp Messages. Please don’t give up, we have great things in store. The difference between discouragement and disappointment is that you cannot choose disappointment. But discouragement is a choice. Sometimes you wake up not knowing how you are going to run this race.

5.      Exhaustion brings huge discouragement: Elisha faced this. He brought down fire, and then one woman frightened him. if you don’t refresh yourself in the presence of God, you’re going to have a hard time. How did David get back his strength? He found his strength in God. Whether you business is failing or your child is sick, it can change tomorrow. People get burnt out or overwhelmed with the work and can’t find strength to go on. Find your strength in God 

Q. How can you get out of this discouragement?

1.      Get into the presence of God- he will refresh you. Nehemiah 4:4-5 4:9;6:9- In response to the threats, he would go back into the presence of God.

2.      Don’t stop doing what you are called to do: some people even resign from their jobs when they are discouraged. You never make decisions when you are discouraged. We are building the walls of the city and the lives of the people in the city.

3.      Arm yourselves: Nehemiah 4:13- “Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.” Never put your armour down. If the devil comes, you have to have your armour on. Ephesians 6: 10-13 says put on the armour of God. They are not going to take a break. We need to alert, be sharp

4.      Encourage one another: When you reach halfway of any project, that’s when we feel down. We need to be careful we don’t give up at that time.

5.      Be united: this is the toughest one for the church. If you put two Christians on an island, there will be 2 churches in 2 months. If we don’t learn to live with one another, it is a bad testimony. The Bible says, you will know they are Christians by their love one for another. Let’s do everything to guard the unity of the spirit. Let’s fight our battles together.

Hebrews 12:3 “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”. We all go through challenges, but let’s not give up.

  Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.