What Happens When a Christian Gets Discouraged?
By Dr. Bob Hamblin
Dr. Bob Hamblen was a fervent example of what he preached. When he had every reason to quit, he just kept on going and preaching. After a lifetime of faithful service, Dr. Hamblen graduated to glory on January 8, 2019.
What Happens When a Christian Gets Discouraged?
by Dr. Bob Hamblen
Dr. Bob Hamblen was a fervent example of what he preached. When he had every reason to quit, he just kept on going and preaching. After a lifetime of faithful service, Dr. Hamblen graduated to glory on January 8, 2019.
I sort of feel like Dr. Tom Wallace, a friend of mine out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, who used to tell the story about the two milk cows out in the field. A dairy truck went by that said, “Johnson’s Milk, Homogenized, Pasteurized, and Vitamin D Added.” One ol’ cow looked at the other and said, “Kind of makes you feel inadequate, doesn’t it?” That’s sort of how I feel this morning, filling in for Brother John, but seeing as how the emphasis is on the Old Paths, and old preachers, maybe I fit right in. I don’t mind being bald, and I don’t mind getting old. I wouldn’t be young again if you paid me. I’m getting closer to the house.
So I’m going to preach an old sermon. I put this together, maybe thirty-seven years ago, so it would qualify as an Old Path. You say, “You’ve preached sermons that many years?” I heard Dr. R. G. Lee, not too long before his ministry was finished, he said that he had preached “Payday Someday” over 3,000 times. Now, if he preached for 60 years, that means he had to preach that message over 50 times every year, and he never did wear it out, so maybe there’s something here.
Numbers 21:1 says, “And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.” The word ‘Hormah’ means ‘total or utter destruction.’
“And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses...” Isn’t that something? All the way back there in the beginning of the Bible, people fighting against God’s leadership program, fighting against God, fighting against a leader like Moses. ”Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.” And God reached out His omnipotent arms and drew those Israelites to His bosom and said, “Oh, God bless you poor little Israelites for being discouraged.” No, that’s not exactly how He does it! “And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” (Numbers 21:1-6)
I want to speak to you on this thought, “What Happens When a Christian Gets Discouraged?” Someone said that discouragement is one of the devil’s biggest weapons. Somebody else said that God’s work is greatly hindered by discouragement. Another man said that discouragement is the sin of leaders. The greatness of a man is not determined by wealth, or talent, or ability, but what it takes to discourage him because, if you can discourage him, you can defeat him. God’s hand moves against those that give in to discouragement. The worst place in the world to have a pity party is in the Prayer Closet, because God is not in this discouragement business.
This message has two parts to it. The first part you’ll want to get up and walk out. It’s so bleak, so dark, so discouraging that you’ll be gasping for air, but we have to go through it. The first part of the message deals with what happens when people get discouraged, how it affects them. We need to understand that, but then the last part is the positive part. It is the wonderful antidote for all of it, how we can avoid discouragement, or how we can get out of that pit of discouragement and despondency. So get ready, we’re going to jump into this.
Why God is not pleased when his people get discouraged. For several reasons. Because He knows the devastation that discouragement brings into our life. It affects every part of our being.
First of all, when a Christian gets discouraged, it affects his prayer life and a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer. Now, let me give you a couple illustrations of that. Numbers says, “Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.” (Numbers 11:10-14)
They had forgotten some things. Moses forgot that it wasn’t too long ago, by that burning bush, that God Almighty made him a promise that He would go with him, be with him, and he would never have to deal with any of the tasks before him by himself. But you see, when you get discouraged, you get isolated in your thinking. He said, “I’m just not able do it! I can’t bear all this burden alone!” So notice how he consummates his prayer. “And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.” Moses got discouraged, and it affected his prayer life. A discouraged leader prayed the wrong prayer. It was not God’s Will to kill Moses at this particular point in history. That would not have brought glory to God or been a help to the Israelites.
I read in the Bible about another man that prayed the wrong prayer, by the name of Elijah. Go through those chapters in Kings where God uses him to raise a little boy from the dead, to take care of the widow and her son, and then on to Mount Carmel where he had that Great Religious Summit Meeting, and challenged the prophets of Baal, and they each built their altars and prayed, and Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal, prayed down the fire from Heaven, consumed the water, consumed the wood, consumed the sacrifice. Oh, the people fell on their faces and cried out, “Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!” Revival broke out, and then Elijah did what every Fundamentalist would like to do to every Modernist in town. He took them down to the creek and cut their heads off.
So Elijah had this great victory, but word got to Jezebel of what God had used Elijah to do. So Jezebel sent Elijah a note, and it wasn’t a commendation or love letter. She said, “Dear Elijah, by the time the sun goes down tomorrow night, you’re going to be in the same fix as those prophets.” She was going to have him executed. Do you think that’s going to bother the man of God that prayed down fire from Heaven? The man that kept the barrel of meal and the oil supplied through prayer? Do you think that’s going to bother the man of God? Well, it did! He took off running, went and hid, and prayed the same prayer that Moses prayed.
Dear God! Isn’t it strange the power a woman has over a man? Way back in the old days, there use to be a song. “Oh, Woman.” Part of those stanzas went like this: “Oh, woman, Oh, woman. Oh, what can she be? Whatever she is, she’s necessary. Afraid of a cockroach. She’ll scream at a mouse, But she’ll tackle a husband as big as a house.” It’s amazing, the power that a woman has over a man. Elijah, not afraid of 850 false prophets. Not afraid of that wimpy little husband of hers, and not afraid of anything or anybody else. But he ran and he hid from the threat of a woman, and prayed the same prayer that Moses prayed, for God to kill him. You see, this is why God is against discouragement. It affects our prayer life and, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer.
Not only do we pray the wrong prayer, but we say the wrong thing. I want you to turn to some of the most mysterious verses in all the Bible, Jeremiah 20:14. Watch this now. I’m talking to you about how devastating discouragement is and how it affects us. Why God’s so concerned about it. Why He does not want us to get discouraged. We pray the wrong prayer. We say the wrong thing. Look at what it says in Jeremiah 20:14, “Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.” Whew! No birthday parties, no birthday cards for Jeremiah. No… God’s going to put a curse. Gets worse. Look what he says in the next verse, “Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew…” What city is he talking about? He’s talking about Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, “God, you ought to do to that man what you did to Sodom and Gomorrah.” I’m telling you, this guy’s messed up in his thinking, and that’s what discouragement does.
What did this guy do that was so bad? Why does Jeremiah want him cursed? Look in verse 17. “Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.” He’s talking about the doctor that delivered him. He said, “God, put a curse on him! Curse the day that I was born and curse that doctor.” Now, what has this doctor done wrong? All he did was just what we pay, and pay and pay, and pay him to do. He delivered the baby.
Now, this is back in the old days, back when they wouldn’t let the fathers in the delivery room. They make it a circus now. Man, they’ve got snack bars in there, and they invite everybody on the whole floor to come in there. Man, I tell you, one of my girls was having a baby and they’re bringing all those people in there. To me, that’s kind of sacred. Man, I was ready to start swinging a ball bat, or something, but back in the old days, they didn’t let us guys in there. You women have no idea what we had to go through in that waiting room, not knowing what’s going on and all of that pressure. You’re worried about your wife, and you’re worried about that baby. I’m telling you, it’s tough on us guys!
So Jeremiah’s daddy’s down there, all worked up. You old-timers know. You young guys don’t know because you go in there with them, but they wouldn’t let us. So Jeremiah’s doctor delivers the baby. He walks down the hallway, goes in the waiting room, and he tells Jeremiah’s dad, “Congratulations, you’re the proud papa of a brand new bouncy, baby boy.” Now what has he done wrong? Nothing. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Jeremiah said, “You ought to zap him. You ought to send fire and brimstone from Heaven and wipe him off of the face of the earth.” Huh? I’m telling you, the thing about discouragement, buddy, it’ll affect you. It’ll make you pray the wrong prayer. It’ll make you say the wrong thing.
It’s going to make you think the wrong thing. In Matthew 11, they’ve got John the Baptizer in prison. He knows he’s going to die so he sends a couple of his assistants to go to the Lord and ask Him this question: “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Now, if there’s a man living during Jesus’ day that knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, it was John the Baptist. They were second cousins, you know, on the physical, human side of Jesus. Jesus’ earthly mother and John’s mother were cousins. They were born six months apart. John the Baptist was the only guy I read about in the Bible that was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother’s womb. So as he’s growing up, he’s instructed. He’s taught that he is that messenger out of Isaiah that’s going to go before, the forerunner. He knew that.
When those Jewish people would get together, all these families together, and the kids are playing. So, here’s John and Jesus at about nine or ten years old. Don’t you think John took note of Jesus? Can you imagine a nine-year old boy never doing anything wrong? I mean, being perfect? He was without sin. When they were playing Jewish baseball, or whatever they were playing, here’s Jesus never saying anything wrong, never getting in trouble, never doing anything wrong. Don’t you think John noticed that?
When he started preaching, what did he say about Jesus? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” I’m simply saying that John the Baptist knew who Jesus was, but now he’s in prison. His life’s about to end. Maybe he started having some second thoughts. Maybe he started getting a little bit discouraged. I know this – it affected him. He said, “Go over and make sure. Make sure that the One I’ve been preaching about, the One that I’m giving my life for, just make sure that He’s the Son of God.”
You see, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing. How about this one: He sees the wrong thing. Everything gets blurred. Those twelve spies… Ten were bad. Two were good. They go up through the Valley of Eshcol the first time. They come back, and give this glowing report, two of them did anyway, about the land. But the Bible says in Numbers, that the report of ten was so negative that it discouraged the hearts of the people. Those ten spies that got discouraged, turned around and discouraged the hearts of over 600,000 men over 21 years of age. Moses had to preach 41 funerals a day for forty years just to bury that crowd. Why? Because of discouragement.
See, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, and sees the wrong thing. Everything is out of perspective. Jesus gets out of the boat, and the welcoming committee is a naked wild man, full of demons. So He has a conversation with him and those demons and He cast those demons out of the madman of Gadara into 2,000 hogs. Somebody said, “It’s the first mention of deviled ham in history.” Those hogs ran over the cliff and that was it.
Well, the keepers of the hogs made a beeline back to town, and they bring people out there. Do you know what they didn’t see? They didn’t see that madman that nobody had been able to help. Superhuman strength. Weeping and wailing, and cutting himself, and torturing himself, and the winds would carry those wails out of those caves through the night. Everybody was petrified of him. They didn’t see him, clothed, in his right mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus. They didn’t see that. Do you know what they saw? Hey! Two thousand head of hogs are worth a lot of money. So do you know what they said? “We don’t want you to stay around here. We want you to leave.”
Hey! I’m talking to you about discouragement. A discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, and does the wrong thing. The Israelites come to Moses saying, “We don’t have any water.” Here they are. The estimates go from as few as a million to as many as 3 million. I don’t know. It’s a bunch, plus all their cattle, livestock, all that. So they come to Moses and say, “Now, we don’t have any water. What are we going to do?”
Moses goes to God and said, “We need water.”
“Okay, take that rod of yours and there’s a rock over there.” He pointed that rock out and He said, “I want you to go over there, and I want you to smack that rock once. As soon as you smack that rock, you just think about the waterfall that’s going to come pouring out of there.” You’ve got millions of people and all that livestock, buddy. No water around. Hey, it wasn’t some dribble; the water gushed out. They were able to take care of the needs of that whole crowd.
Same thing happened again a little bit later. So they go back to Moses and say, “Moses, we’re out of water again.”
Moses goes back to God. God says, “Okay, now, Moses. Now, I want you to go back to that same rock, but you don’t have to hit it.” They were Jews, not Catholics. You’ll get that if you understand what the “mass” is and all that. I just throw that in. Between his meeting with God and the time he got back to that rock, I don’t know what happened. Maybe he had a Deacon’s Meeting. I don’t know, but by the time he got out there in front of the people, he was madder than a wet hen. So do you know what he did? He didn’t speak to that rock, like God told him to. By the way, who does that rock represent? The Lord Jesus Christ. How many times did He have to die? Once.
Moses got up there and tore into those people, and he took that rod and smacked that rock a couple of times. Do you know what? God went ahead and gave the water, but Moses didn’t enter the Promised Land. That was the sin that kept Moses out of the Promised Land.
What am I saying? We need to take a look at this thing about discouragement. If you get next to somebody that’s discouraged, don’t, don’t, don’t have a pity party. Help him. Love him, but don’t take part with the thing. You’ve got to help him. Amen? Because the discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing. That’s not the worst. Also, we end up in the wrong place. You see, that’s why you never make a decision based on emotion. You never make a decision because you’re homesick, because you’re going to end up in the wrong place.
God says to Jonah, “I want you to go to Nineveh and preach.” Jonah’s thinking, “Man, they’ll kick me out of the ministerium if I go up there. They’re our arch-enemies.” So what did he do? He went in the opposite direction, and he ended up in the belly of a whale at the bottom of the deep, blue sea, in the wrong place.
You see, the discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing, and ends up in the wrong place. Abraham got a little scared. What did he do? He ran down to Egypt. The world is still paying to this very day because that’s where they found Hagar. Buddy, the whole world is still paying for that today. Why? Because one man got in the wrong place.
Peter says, on the night of the Passion of Christ, “If have to die with thee, I will not deny thee.” But before the sun came up the next morning, he’s denied Him three times, and you find him over there, fellowshipping with the Devil’s crowd, keeping his hands warm at their fire.
A discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing, and ends up at the wrong place. But that’s not the worst. He ends us up with a wrong spirit.
First of all, he develops a spirit of murmuring. Our text. What did the people of God do? Hey! They’ve just come from Mount Hor. God Almighty has answered their prayers, annihilated their enemy. God Almighty has helped to restore the families and all of the goods. They just had a tremendous victory and they’re moving on. But the valley always follows the mountaintop experience, and they get down in that valley, and they got discouraged.
So, what did they do? They did the same thing Baptist people do. You see, this thing about bucking leadership, you’re not really bucking a man. You’re bucking God because He’s the one that wrote the Book. He’s the one that set the whole program up. I remember years ago Brother Hyles preaching a sermon entitled, “It’s God They’re after.” We may be the pawns, but, it’s God they’re after. So there they are. They’re discouraged so what did they do? They started murmuring. They started complaining, and that spirit of murmuring leads to a spirit of criticism.
In Numbers 16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram started criticizing Moses and said, “…Ye take too much upon you…” “Who do you think you are, telling us what to do?” I’m going to tell who he is. He’s God’s man. God Almighty established three organizations: He established the home. He established human government. He established the church, and He put a man at the helm of all three of them. Amen? They said, “We’re as holy as you. We’re as smart as you. We know as much as you, and we’re in this thing as much as you are. So we just believe that we have a right to do it however we want to.” Murmuring. By the way, did you read it long enough to find out what happened to that crowd?
So a spirit of murmuring leads to a spirit of criticism, which leads to a spirit of defeatism. Peter, even though he’s been with the Lord two times since the Resurrection, is still totally devastated. He’s defeated, and in John 21, he makes a statement to seven other men. “I’m going fishing.” That doesn’t mean he’s going to the intercoastal canal to catch some fish. That meant he was leaving the call of God, going back to his previous occupation. He was turning his back on having just graduated from the University of Jesus for 3 ½ years and being trained with eleven others to go out and carry the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. He’s turning his back on all that. He’s quitting! He’s throwing in the towel! He’s going back! Do you know what? The truth of the matter is, most of the people who quit never get rehired. Some do, but it’s the minority.
So that helps us to understand a little bit about God’s attitude toward this business of discouragement, how it affects us. We pray the wrong prayer, say the wrong thing. Man, I’m telling you, I’ve gotten upset, and some people have caught me at the wrong moment, and I’ve said stuff that I regret to this day because it hurt people. We see the wrong thing. We think the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We end up at the wrong place, and worst of all, we end up with a wrong spirit. Go through your community, especially you folks down here in Texas. In every community, you’ll find, not hundreds, but thousands of people who at one time were Sunday school teachers, sang in the choir, worked the bus routes, involved in good Bible preaching Baptist churches. Now you couldn’t pay them to come to church. Why? They quit because they got discouraged.
What can we do about it? We don’t have to get discouraged. Hey! Why do you think that story about Daniel in the lion’s den is in the Bible? Why do you think that God put that story about Joseph in there, and how he was mistreated and what God did, all along the way… Listen, it wasn’t a picnic. Some of the times he was in those fetters, and he wept because of the pain, and the rejection and all of that. Why do you think God put those stories in the Bible? Those three Hebrew boys, cast in that furnace. Boy, what a testimony! The old-timers used to preach, “They didn’t bend. They didn’t bow. They didn’t burn.” Hallelujah, but why are all those stories in there? To show us that God Almighty can keep us from getting discouraged. It doesn’t matter what the opposition is doing.
How about the storm Euroclydon in Acts 27? Two-hundred seventy-six on that ship, and 275 thought they were going down. One guy, Paul, steps out there. They hadn’t eaten anything for ten days. Hadn’t seen the sun for two weeks. He steps out there and says, “Hey! Cheer up, fellas. The angel of the Lord came and brought me a message from Heaven, and I believe God.” All of them made it through. Amen?
So I’m just saying that discouragement doesn’t have to happen, but when it does, here’s what can we do about it? “How to overcome discouragement.”
#1. PRAY
Listen to the message that Jesus gave His disciples. Luke 18:1, “…men ought always to pray, and not to faint…” That word ‘faint’ means ‘to lose courage.’ It means ‘to get discouraged.’ He said, “If you’ve got an effective, fervent prayer life where you see God working in your life…” Hey, I’m not talking about just the prayers down there at the church where everybody’s praying about the same thing, and that’s good, but I’m talking about getting alone with God, and laying those burdens out there, and having great needs that you have no idea how it’s going to get taken care of, and you see God Almighty working in your life and answering your prayers. He said, “When you have that kind of a prayer life, you’re not going to get discouraged.”
# 2. DON’T QUIT. BE STEADFAST.
He had the apostle write in Corinthians, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be…” What? “…stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in in the work of the Lord,” Why? “…forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Back in the old days, we would put it this way: “Hang in there, baby.” Stick to the stuff.
If Brother Roloff was known for anything across this country, it was one thing. I remember at the Pastor’s School, the theme that year was, “Don’t Quit,” and they had Brother Roloff and four boys that had a little quartet. He got up and started preaching that message on “Pawing in the Valley.” I mean, he was waxing eloquent. He was going, and going, and right in the middle he turned around and said, “Brother Jack. I’m just keeping with the theme of the conference, ‘Don’t Quit.’” Man, those Carolina boys started waving their Bibles, but we had a time.
The Bible says, “Just hang in there. Just keep on going. Don’t quit.” It doesn’t make any difference what the results are – if there are any, or if there are none. If you know that you’re where God wants you, and you’re doing what God wants you to do, just stay at it. Just keep going. The Law of the Harvest says that you reap exactly what you sow. You reap more than what you sow, and you reap later than when you sow, but you’re guaranteed a harvest! So don’t quit!
# 3. KEEP THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.
Here’s the greatest sermon in the Bible, according to Hamblen-ology: “Have faith in God.” Have faith in God. Trust Him. Just keep believing. I’m not giving you the power of positive thinking. I’m just simply saying that no matter what’s going on, trust in God. Man, quit reading the newspaper and watching CNN. No sense in worrying about that.
God’s still on the Throne. God’s still in control. It could snow oats in the morning. We don’t give a flip. We belong to Him, and whatever happens, whatever happens, He is not going to leave us nor forsake us. The truth of the matter is, you can have a jubilee, a camp meeting, a revival meeting. I read about it where it happened in a Philippian jail. Those guys, beaten, and bloody, and battered for doing what God told them to do. They’re in the jail cell, and they’re in stocks, and at midnight, they put in a call to CLA. I’m not against that, but that’s not what they did. They just started praying and singing and praising God. Shook that whole place.
I’m saying that wherever the Lord is, man, you can have a time! You can have revival. You can be close to God. He’ll give you that peace that passeth understanding, no matter what. No matter what the circumstance is. Trust Him! Believe! Trust Him! Don’t doubt. Don’t start looking for Plan B. Just pray. Stick with it. Trust God. Believe God. Keep the right spirit.
W. Clement Stone said this a long time ago. “There’s very little difference between people. But that little difference makes a big difference.” He said, “The little difference is attitude, and the big difference is whether that attitude is positive or negative.” I honestly don’t like to be around people who have a negative attitude. That’s why I try to prop Thurmond up all the time. We’ve been at this for thirty years. “Hey, man! Everything’s going great?” “Yeah! Sun’s shining!” “Yeah, but it’s raining somewhere in the world.” Now, good grief. God’s still in control. Don’t you love that song, “He’s Still on the Throne?”
Before I give you this last one, I want you to know that I’m not a wimp. I’m not a pussyfooter. I’m not an Evangelical, a Liberal, or a Modernist. I’m an old-time, Independent, Separated, Soulwinning, Fundamental, Pre-Millennial, Missionary-Minded, Fried Chicken Eating, Peach Pie Loving, Coffee Drinking Baptist. I didn’t say, “Decaf.” I said, “Coffee, the real stuff.” You can’t get any more fundamental than that. I don’t wear pink ties, and I don’t drink pink lemonade. You’re going to laugh at me when I give you this last one. I’m talking to you about how to avoid discouragement. I’m talking to you about how to get out of the pit of discouragement. Pray. Don’t Quit. Keep the Right Spirit, Right Attitude. Have Faith in God. Here it is…
# 4. SING! SING! SING!
Ephesians 5:18 says, “…be filled with the Spirit;” First evidence, he says, “Talk to yourself.” “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” “Well, preacher, I’d never sing in the choir, because I can’t sing.” Liar, liar, pants on fire, get up there and sing. “Well, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” He didn’t ask that. He didn’t tell you to have a good voice, a lot of ability, or a lot of talent. He said, “If my Spirit is controlling you and you’re full, you’re going to sing.” Amen?
How can you stay discouraged, singing, “The Old Rugged Cross?” How can you stay discouraged, when you’re singing, “How Great Thou Art?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “Everything’s Alright in My Father’s House?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “Rolled-Away, Rolled-Away, Rolled-Away, All the Burdens of My Heart Rolled Away?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be?” On, and on, and, on… Man, I’m just going to tell you, “Grab that ol’ hymnal and get in the auditorium, like I used to do, and just walk around, and sing the song, “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” “I Need Thee Every Hour.” “Have Thine Own Way.” Do you know what? You won’t stay discouraged.
Discouraged folks pray the wrong prayer, say the wrong thing, think the wrong thing, see the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, end up at the wrong place, and have a wrong spirit. But we don’t need to give in to discouragement. This is a victory we can win. Pray. Don’t quit. Keep the right attitude. And keep on singing and giving God the praise!
by Dr. Bob Hamblen
Dr. Bob Hamblen was a fervent example of what he preached. When he had every reason to quit, he just kept on going and preaching. After a lifetime of faithful service, Dr. Hamblen graduated to glory on January 8, 2019.
I sort of feel like Dr. Tom Wallace, a friend of mine out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, who used to tell the story about the two milk cows out in the field. A dairy truck went by that said, “Johnson’s Milk, Homogenized, Pasteurized, and Vitamin D Added.” One ol’ cow looked at the other and said, “Kind of makes you feel inadequate, doesn’t it?” That’s sort of how I feel this morning, filling in for Brother John, but seeing as how the emphasis is on the Old Paths, and old preachers, maybe I fit right in. I don’t mind being bald, and I don’t mind getting old. I wouldn’t be young again if you paid me. I’m getting closer to the house.
So I’m going to preach an old sermon. I put this together, maybe thirty-seven years ago, so it would qualify as an Old Path. You say, “You’ve preached sermons that many years?” I heard Dr. R. G. Lee, not too long before his ministry was finished, he said that he had preached “Payday Someday” over 3,000 times. Now, if he preached for 60 years, that means he had to preach that message over 50 times every year, and he never did wear it out, so maybe there’s something here.
Numbers 21:1 says, “And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah.” The word ‘Hormah’ means ‘total or utter destruction.’
“And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses...” Isn’t that something? All the way back there in the beginning of the Bible, people fighting against God’s leadership program, fighting against God, fighting against a leader like Moses. ”Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.” And God reached out His omnipotent arms and drew those Israelites to His bosom and said, “Oh, God bless you poor little Israelites for being discouraged.” No, that’s not exactly how He does it! “And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” (Numbers 21:1-6)
I want to speak to you on this thought, “What Happens When a Christian Gets Discouraged?” Someone said that discouragement is one of the devil’s biggest weapons. Somebody else said that God’s work is greatly hindered by discouragement. Another man said that discouragement is the sin of leaders. The greatness of a man is not determined by wealth, or talent, or ability, but what it takes to discourage him because, if you can discourage him, you can defeat him. God’s hand moves against those that give in to discouragement. The worst place in the world to have a pity party is in the Prayer Closet, because God is not in this discouragement business.
This message has two parts to it. The first part you’ll want to get up and walk out. It’s so bleak, so dark, so discouraging that you’ll be gasping for air, but we have to go through it. The first part of the message deals with what happens when people get discouraged, how it affects them. We need to understand that, but then the last part is the positive part. It is the wonderful antidote for all of it, how we can avoid discouragement, or how we can get out of that pit of discouragement and despondency. So get ready, we’re going to jump into this.
Why God is not pleased when his people get discouraged. For several reasons. Because He knows the devastation that discouragement brings into our life. It affects every part of our being.
First of all, when a Christian gets discouraged, it affects his prayer life and a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer. Now, let me give you a couple illustrations of that. Numbers says, “Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.” (Numbers 11:10-14)
They had forgotten some things. Moses forgot that it wasn’t too long ago, by that burning bush, that God Almighty made him a promise that He would go with him, be with him, and he would never have to deal with any of the tasks before him by himself. But you see, when you get discouraged, you get isolated in your thinking. He said, “I’m just not able do it! I can’t bear all this burden alone!” So notice how he consummates his prayer. “And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.” Moses got discouraged, and it affected his prayer life. A discouraged leader prayed the wrong prayer. It was not God’s Will to kill Moses at this particular point in history. That would not have brought glory to God or been a help to the Israelites.
I read in the Bible about another man that prayed the wrong prayer, by the name of Elijah. Go through those chapters in Kings where God uses him to raise a little boy from the dead, to take care of the widow and her son, and then on to Mount Carmel where he had that Great Religious Summit Meeting, and challenged the prophets of Baal, and they each built their altars and prayed, and Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal, prayed down the fire from Heaven, consumed the water, consumed the wood, consumed the sacrifice. Oh, the people fell on their faces and cried out, “Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!” Revival broke out, and then Elijah did what every Fundamentalist would like to do to every Modernist in town. He took them down to the creek and cut their heads off.
So Elijah had this great victory, but word got to Jezebel of what God had used Elijah to do. So Jezebel sent Elijah a note, and it wasn’t a commendation or love letter. She said, “Dear Elijah, by the time the sun goes down tomorrow night, you’re going to be in the same fix as those prophets.” She was going to have him executed. Do you think that’s going to bother the man of God that prayed down fire from Heaven? The man that kept the barrel of meal and the oil supplied through prayer? Do you think that’s going to bother the man of God? Well, it did! He took off running, went and hid, and prayed the same prayer that Moses prayed.
Dear God! Isn’t it strange the power a woman has over a man? Way back in the old days, there use to be a song. “Oh, Woman.” Part of those stanzas went like this: “Oh, woman, Oh, woman. Oh, what can she be? Whatever she is, she’s necessary. Afraid of a cockroach. She’ll scream at a mouse, But she’ll tackle a husband as big as a house.” It’s amazing, the power that a woman has over a man. Elijah, not afraid of 850 false prophets. Not afraid of that wimpy little husband of hers, and not afraid of anything or anybody else. But he ran and he hid from the threat of a woman, and prayed the same prayer that Moses prayed, for God to kill him. You see, this is why God is against discouragement. It affects our prayer life and, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer.
Not only do we pray the wrong prayer, but we say the wrong thing. I want you to turn to some of the most mysterious verses in all the Bible, Jeremiah 20:14. Watch this now. I’m talking to you about how devastating discouragement is and how it affects us. Why God’s so concerned about it. Why He does not want us to get discouraged. We pray the wrong prayer. We say the wrong thing. Look at what it says in Jeremiah 20:14, “Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.” Whew! No birthday parties, no birthday cards for Jeremiah. No… God’s going to put a curse. Gets worse. Look what he says in the next verse, “Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad. And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew…” What city is he talking about? He’s talking about Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, “God, you ought to do to that man what you did to Sodom and Gomorrah.” I’m telling you, this guy’s messed up in his thinking, and that’s what discouragement does.
What did this guy do that was so bad? Why does Jeremiah want him cursed? Look in verse 17. “Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.” He’s talking about the doctor that delivered him. He said, “God, put a curse on him! Curse the day that I was born and curse that doctor.” Now, what has this doctor done wrong? All he did was just what we pay, and pay and pay, and pay him to do. He delivered the baby.
Now, this is back in the old days, back when they wouldn’t let the fathers in the delivery room. They make it a circus now. Man, they’ve got snack bars in there, and they invite everybody on the whole floor to come in there. Man, I tell you, one of my girls was having a baby and they’re bringing all those people in there. To me, that’s kind of sacred. Man, I was ready to start swinging a ball bat, or something, but back in the old days, they didn’t let us guys in there. You women have no idea what we had to go through in that waiting room, not knowing what’s going on and all of that pressure. You’re worried about your wife, and you’re worried about that baby. I’m telling you, it’s tough on us guys!
So Jeremiah’s daddy’s down there, all worked up. You old-timers know. You young guys don’t know because you go in there with them, but they wouldn’t let us. So Jeremiah’s doctor delivers the baby. He walks down the hallway, goes in the waiting room, and he tells Jeremiah’s dad, “Congratulations, you’re the proud papa of a brand new bouncy, baby boy.” Now what has he done wrong? Nothing. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Jeremiah said, “You ought to zap him. You ought to send fire and brimstone from Heaven and wipe him off of the face of the earth.” Huh? I’m telling you, the thing about discouragement, buddy, it’ll affect you. It’ll make you pray the wrong prayer. It’ll make you say the wrong thing.
It’s going to make you think the wrong thing. In Matthew 11, they’ve got John the Baptizer in prison. He knows he’s going to die so he sends a couple of his assistants to go to the Lord and ask Him this question: “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Now, if there’s a man living during Jesus’ day that knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, it was John the Baptist. They were second cousins, you know, on the physical, human side of Jesus. Jesus’ earthly mother and John’s mother were cousins. They were born six months apart. John the Baptist was the only guy I read about in the Bible that was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother’s womb. So as he’s growing up, he’s instructed. He’s taught that he is that messenger out of Isaiah that’s going to go before, the forerunner. He knew that.
When those Jewish people would get together, all these families together, and the kids are playing. So, here’s John and Jesus at about nine or ten years old. Don’t you think John took note of Jesus? Can you imagine a nine-year old boy never doing anything wrong? I mean, being perfect? He was without sin. When they were playing Jewish baseball, or whatever they were playing, here’s Jesus never saying anything wrong, never getting in trouble, never doing anything wrong. Don’t you think John noticed that?
When he started preaching, what did he say about Jesus? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” I’m simply saying that John the Baptist knew who Jesus was, but now he’s in prison. His life’s about to end. Maybe he started having some second thoughts. Maybe he started getting a little bit discouraged. I know this – it affected him. He said, “Go over and make sure. Make sure that the One I’ve been preaching about, the One that I’m giving my life for, just make sure that He’s the Son of God.”
You see, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing. How about this one: He sees the wrong thing. Everything gets blurred. Those twelve spies… Ten were bad. Two were good. They go up through the Valley of Eshcol the first time. They come back, and give this glowing report, two of them did anyway, about the land. But the Bible says in Numbers, that the report of ten was so negative that it discouraged the hearts of the people. Those ten spies that got discouraged, turned around and discouraged the hearts of over 600,000 men over 21 years of age. Moses had to preach 41 funerals a day for forty years just to bury that crowd. Why? Because of discouragement.
See, a discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, and sees the wrong thing. Everything is out of perspective. Jesus gets out of the boat, and the welcoming committee is a naked wild man, full of demons. So He has a conversation with him and those demons and He cast those demons out of the madman of Gadara into 2,000 hogs. Somebody said, “It’s the first mention of deviled ham in history.” Those hogs ran over the cliff and that was it.
Well, the keepers of the hogs made a beeline back to town, and they bring people out there. Do you know what they didn’t see? They didn’t see that madman that nobody had been able to help. Superhuman strength. Weeping and wailing, and cutting himself, and torturing himself, and the winds would carry those wails out of those caves through the night. Everybody was petrified of him. They didn’t see him, clothed, in his right mind, and sitting at the feet of Jesus. They didn’t see that. Do you know what they saw? Hey! Two thousand head of hogs are worth a lot of money. So do you know what they said? “We don’t want you to stay around here. We want you to leave.”
Hey! I’m talking to you about discouragement. A discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, and does the wrong thing. The Israelites come to Moses saying, “We don’t have any water.” Here they are. The estimates go from as few as a million to as many as 3 million. I don’t know. It’s a bunch, plus all their cattle, livestock, all that. So they come to Moses and say, “Now, we don’t have any water. What are we going to do?”
Moses goes to God and said, “We need water.”
“Okay, take that rod of yours and there’s a rock over there.” He pointed that rock out and He said, “I want you to go over there, and I want you to smack that rock once. As soon as you smack that rock, you just think about the waterfall that’s going to come pouring out of there.” You’ve got millions of people and all that livestock, buddy. No water around. Hey, it wasn’t some dribble; the water gushed out. They were able to take care of the needs of that whole crowd.
Same thing happened again a little bit later. So they go back to Moses and say, “Moses, we’re out of water again.”
Moses goes back to God. God says, “Okay, now, Moses. Now, I want you to go back to that same rock, but you don’t have to hit it.” They were Jews, not Catholics. You’ll get that if you understand what the “mass” is and all that. I just throw that in. Between his meeting with God and the time he got back to that rock, I don’t know what happened. Maybe he had a Deacon’s Meeting. I don’t know, but by the time he got out there in front of the people, he was madder than a wet hen. So do you know what he did? He didn’t speak to that rock, like God told him to. By the way, who does that rock represent? The Lord Jesus Christ. How many times did He have to die? Once.
Moses got up there and tore into those people, and he took that rod and smacked that rock a couple of times. Do you know what? God went ahead and gave the water, but Moses didn’t enter the Promised Land. That was the sin that kept Moses out of the Promised Land.
What am I saying? We need to take a look at this thing about discouragement. If you get next to somebody that’s discouraged, don’t, don’t, don’t have a pity party. Help him. Love him, but don’t take part with the thing. You’ve got to help him. Amen? Because the discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing. That’s not the worst. Also, we end up in the wrong place. You see, that’s why you never make a decision based on emotion. You never make a decision because you’re homesick, because you’re going to end up in the wrong place.
God says to Jonah, “I want you to go to Nineveh and preach.” Jonah’s thinking, “Man, they’ll kick me out of the ministerium if I go up there. They’re our arch-enemies.” So what did he do? He went in the opposite direction, and he ended up in the belly of a whale at the bottom of the deep, blue sea, in the wrong place.
You see, the discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing, and ends up in the wrong place. Abraham got a little scared. What did he do? He ran down to Egypt. The world is still paying to this very day because that’s where they found Hagar. Buddy, the whole world is still paying for that today. Why? Because one man got in the wrong place.
Peter says, on the night of the Passion of Christ, “If have to die with thee, I will not deny thee.” But before the sun came up the next morning, he’s denied Him three times, and you find him over there, fellowshipping with the Devil’s crowd, keeping his hands warm at their fire.
A discouraged Christian prays the wrong prayer, says the wrong thing, thinks the wrong thing, sees the wrong thing, does the wrong thing, and ends up at the wrong place. But that’s not the worst. He ends us up with a wrong spirit.
First of all, he develops a spirit of murmuring. Our text. What did the people of God do? Hey! They’ve just come from Mount Hor. God Almighty has answered their prayers, annihilated their enemy. God Almighty has helped to restore the families and all of the goods. They just had a tremendous victory and they’re moving on. But the valley always follows the mountaintop experience, and they get down in that valley, and they got discouraged.
So, what did they do? They did the same thing Baptist people do. You see, this thing about bucking leadership, you’re not really bucking a man. You’re bucking God because He’s the one that wrote the Book. He’s the one that set the whole program up. I remember years ago Brother Hyles preaching a sermon entitled, “It’s God They’re after.” We may be the pawns, but, it’s God they’re after. So there they are. They’re discouraged so what did they do? They started murmuring. They started complaining, and that spirit of murmuring leads to a spirit of criticism.
In Numbers 16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram started criticizing Moses and said, “…Ye take too much upon you…” “Who do you think you are, telling us what to do?” I’m going to tell who he is. He’s God’s man. God Almighty established three organizations: He established the home. He established human government. He established the church, and He put a man at the helm of all three of them. Amen? They said, “We’re as holy as you. We’re as smart as you. We know as much as you, and we’re in this thing as much as you are. So we just believe that we have a right to do it however we want to.” Murmuring. By the way, did you read it long enough to find out what happened to that crowd?
So a spirit of murmuring leads to a spirit of criticism, which leads to a spirit of defeatism. Peter, even though he’s been with the Lord two times since the Resurrection, is still totally devastated. He’s defeated, and in John 21, he makes a statement to seven other men. “I’m going fishing.” That doesn’t mean he’s going to the intercoastal canal to catch some fish. That meant he was leaving the call of God, going back to his previous occupation. He was turning his back on having just graduated from the University of Jesus for 3 ½ years and being trained with eleven others to go out and carry the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. He’s turning his back on all that. He’s quitting! He’s throwing in the towel! He’s going back! Do you know what? The truth of the matter is, most of the people who quit never get rehired. Some do, but it’s the minority.
So that helps us to understand a little bit about God’s attitude toward this business of discouragement, how it affects us. We pray the wrong prayer, say the wrong thing. Man, I’m telling you, I’ve gotten upset, and some people have caught me at the wrong moment, and I’ve said stuff that I regret to this day because it hurt people. We see the wrong thing. We think the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We end up at the wrong place, and worst of all, we end up with a wrong spirit. Go through your community, especially you folks down here in Texas. In every community, you’ll find, not hundreds, but thousands of people who at one time were Sunday school teachers, sang in the choir, worked the bus routes, involved in good Bible preaching Baptist churches. Now you couldn’t pay them to come to church. Why? They quit because they got discouraged.
What can we do about it? We don’t have to get discouraged. Hey! Why do you think that story about Daniel in the lion’s den is in the Bible? Why do you think that God put that story about Joseph in there, and how he was mistreated and what God did, all along the way… Listen, it wasn’t a picnic. Some of the times he was in those fetters, and he wept because of the pain, and the rejection and all of that. Why do you think God put those stories in the Bible? Those three Hebrew boys, cast in that furnace. Boy, what a testimony! The old-timers used to preach, “They didn’t bend. They didn’t bow. They didn’t burn.” Hallelujah, but why are all those stories in there? To show us that God Almighty can keep us from getting discouraged. It doesn’t matter what the opposition is doing.
How about the storm Euroclydon in Acts 27? Two-hundred seventy-six on that ship, and 275 thought they were going down. One guy, Paul, steps out there. They hadn’t eaten anything for ten days. Hadn’t seen the sun for two weeks. He steps out there and says, “Hey! Cheer up, fellas. The angel of the Lord came and brought me a message from Heaven, and I believe God.” All of them made it through. Amen?
So I’m just saying that discouragement doesn’t have to happen, but when it does, here’s what can we do about it? “How to overcome discouragement.”
#1. PRAY
Listen to the message that Jesus gave His disciples. Luke 18:1, “…men ought always to pray, and not to faint…” That word ‘faint’ means ‘to lose courage.’ It means ‘to get discouraged.’ He said, “If you’ve got an effective, fervent prayer life where you see God working in your life…” Hey, I’m not talking about just the prayers down there at the church where everybody’s praying about the same thing, and that’s good, but I’m talking about getting alone with God, and laying those burdens out there, and having great needs that you have no idea how it’s going to get taken care of, and you see God Almighty working in your life and answering your prayers. He said, “When you have that kind of a prayer life, you’re not going to get discouraged.”
# 2. DON’T QUIT. BE STEADFAST.
He had the apostle write in Corinthians, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be…” What? “…stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in in the work of the Lord,” Why? “…forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Back in the old days, we would put it this way: “Hang in there, baby.” Stick to the stuff.
If Brother Roloff was known for anything across this country, it was one thing. I remember at the Pastor’s School, the theme that year was, “Don’t Quit,” and they had Brother Roloff and four boys that had a little quartet. He got up and started preaching that message on “Pawing in the Valley.” I mean, he was waxing eloquent. He was going, and going, and right in the middle he turned around and said, “Brother Jack. I’m just keeping with the theme of the conference, ‘Don’t Quit.’” Man, those Carolina boys started waving their Bibles, but we had a time.
The Bible says, “Just hang in there. Just keep on going. Don’t quit.” It doesn’t make any difference what the results are – if there are any, or if there are none. If you know that you’re where God wants you, and you’re doing what God wants you to do, just stay at it. Just keep going. The Law of the Harvest says that you reap exactly what you sow. You reap more than what you sow, and you reap later than when you sow, but you’re guaranteed a harvest! So don’t quit!
# 3. KEEP THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.
Here’s the greatest sermon in the Bible, according to Hamblen-ology: “Have faith in God.” Have faith in God. Trust Him. Just keep believing. I’m not giving you the power of positive thinking. I’m just simply saying that no matter what’s going on, trust in God. Man, quit reading the newspaper and watching CNN. No sense in worrying about that.
God’s still on the Throne. God’s still in control. It could snow oats in the morning. We don’t give a flip. We belong to Him, and whatever happens, whatever happens, He is not going to leave us nor forsake us. The truth of the matter is, you can have a jubilee, a camp meeting, a revival meeting. I read about it where it happened in a Philippian jail. Those guys, beaten, and bloody, and battered for doing what God told them to do. They’re in the jail cell, and they’re in stocks, and at midnight, they put in a call to CLA. I’m not against that, but that’s not what they did. They just started praying and singing and praising God. Shook that whole place.
I’m saying that wherever the Lord is, man, you can have a time! You can have revival. You can be close to God. He’ll give you that peace that passeth understanding, no matter what. No matter what the circumstance is. Trust Him! Believe! Trust Him! Don’t doubt. Don’t start looking for Plan B. Just pray. Stick with it. Trust God. Believe God. Keep the right spirit.
W. Clement Stone said this a long time ago. “There’s very little difference between people. But that little difference makes a big difference.” He said, “The little difference is attitude, and the big difference is whether that attitude is positive or negative.” I honestly don’t like to be around people who have a negative attitude. That’s why I try to prop Thurmond up all the time. We’ve been at this for thirty years. “Hey, man! Everything’s going great?” “Yeah! Sun’s shining!” “Yeah, but it’s raining somewhere in the world.” Now, good grief. God’s still in control. Don’t you love that song, “He’s Still on the Throne?”
Before I give you this last one, I want you to know that I’m not a wimp. I’m not a pussyfooter. I’m not an Evangelical, a Liberal, or a Modernist. I’m an old-time, Independent, Separated, Soulwinning, Fundamental, Pre-Millennial, Missionary-Minded, Fried Chicken Eating, Peach Pie Loving, Coffee Drinking Baptist. I didn’t say, “Decaf.” I said, “Coffee, the real stuff.” You can’t get any more fundamental than that. I don’t wear pink ties, and I don’t drink pink lemonade. You’re going to laugh at me when I give you this last one. I’m talking to you about how to avoid discouragement. I’m talking to you about how to get out of the pit of discouragement. Pray. Don’t Quit. Keep the Right Spirit, Right Attitude. Have Faith in God. Here it is…
# 4. SING! SING! SING!
Ephesians 5:18 says, “…be filled with the Spirit;” First evidence, he says, “Talk to yourself.” “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” “Well, preacher, I’d never sing in the choir, because I can’t sing.” Liar, liar, pants on fire, get up there and sing. “Well, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” He didn’t ask that. He didn’t tell you to have a good voice, a lot of ability, or a lot of talent. He said, “If my Spirit is controlling you and you’re full, you’re going to sing.” Amen?
How can you stay discouraged, singing, “The Old Rugged Cross?” How can you stay discouraged, when you’re singing, “How Great Thou Art?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “Everything’s Alright in My Father’s House?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “Rolled-Away, Rolled-Away, Rolled-Away, All the Burdens of My Heart Rolled Away?” How can you stay discouraged when you’re singing, “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be?” On, and on, and, on… Man, I’m just going to tell you, “Grab that ol’ hymnal and get in the auditorium, like I used to do, and just walk around, and sing the song, “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” “I Need Thee Every Hour.” “Have Thine Own Way.” Do you know what? You won’t stay discouraged.
Discouraged folks pray the wrong prayer, say the wrong thing, think the wrong thing, see the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, end up at the wrong place, and have a wrong spirit. But we don’t need to give in to discouragement. This is a victory we can win. Pray. Don’t quit. Keep the right attitude. And keep on singing and giving God the praise!
