A Cure For Discouragement?

Thank you, Teresa. Certainly appreciate the special music. Beautiful message with kind of an eerie, minor feel to it, but really positive words. Really appreciate the effort that goes into special music. Have you ever seen one of these programs where they have to jump over obstacles and get to the finish line as they try to win the prizes? I think some of the television programs began in Japan where they do all kinds of crazy things. Have you ever seen one of those programs or flipped by a channel that they were doing these things?

They're jumping from lily pads and they're trying to knock them off with balls and hit them in the water. It seems like these obstacles are unending, almost like a steeple chase, almost, that they jump from one thing to another or they have to go through these things. They're faced with challenges at every turn. And so I was thinking about that the other day, because sometimes it seems that life can be like that. It seems like you jump from one challenge and then here you're right in the middle of another obstacle. We've just come through the days of Unleavened Bread.

And so we come off a spiritual high, I think, in many ways. And then we're faced with the reality of life. And things just don't automatically go away because of the Holy Days. And so we are faced, I think, oftentimes with obstacles that would like to hinder our faith. So what do you think is the biggest obstacle to faith? If you had to name one thing that gets in our way, one thing that is an obstacle that we face, it seems oftentimes at every turn of life. I put down discouragement.

Discouragement. It seems like discouragement can be an obstacle that blocks our spiritual path. And it's an easy disease to catch. It seems like it's passed on pretty easily, but it's very difficult to overcome at times. It seems like it's easy to catch because it's highly contagious. It's a contagious disease that's easily transmitted from one to another. It doesn't matter if you've just been baptized. It doesn't matter if we've just come through the Holy Days.

It doesn't matter if you've been in the church for 50 years or more. It seems like every one of us is prone to the attack of discouragement. And you know, once it gets ahold of you, boy, it can drag you down. It can discourage you. It can bring you into despair and depression. And yet, I think what we find in the pages of the Bible is there is good news.

That discouragement can be overcome. The obstacles that we face through discouragement don't have to knock us down, don't have to wear us out. It doesn't have to overcome our faith. It's a weakness, but it's one that we can guard ourselves with. It's one that when we see it's on its way, when we see that that discouragement is about to knock us off God's way, we can be ready for it, and we can face it.

We can be prepared for it. In fact, there's an interesting story in the Bible that gives us some direction when it comes to facing discouragement in our life. And I'd like to focus on that particular story and pretty much stay with it throughout the whole sermon this morning. And it's the story of Nehemiah. The story of Nehemiah, it's over in Nehemiah chapter 4, is where we'll pick up the story. Nehemiah was at a very challenging moment of life. The Jews were coming back from captivity, and they were given a work to do.

The work of God during the time of Nehemiah was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. So at that time, it wasn't necessarily preaching the gospel to the world. That wasn't the work of the church. The work of the church at Nehemiah's time was to build that wall.

That's where it had to start. So God had given him a plan. God had given Nehemiah a vision to rebuild those walls, and that was going to renew the people, renew their perspective. But like any project I think that God gives, sometimes it's also laden with obstacles that are having to be overcome.

So Nehemiah certainly faced many obstacles. Now if you look at verse 6 of Nehemiah chapter 4, Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 6, you'll find something interesting here as this disease of disappointment appears, and in a way it appears at a time that's, I think in some ways, predictable.

It's a predictable time when this particular disease of disappointment appears. Notice verse 6 in chapter 4 of Nehemiah. It says, "'So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. So as they returned, they wanted the work of God finished. And so they got partway done. They worked with all their might, they worked with their heart.

And how far did that wall get built?'" Well, it says right here, half its height. Half its height. And isn't that the way it just about seems to happen? Right when you get to the midpoint, you get right to the halfway point of finishing something that you're excited about, you're thrilled about, you're enthusiastic, and you ought to see this completed, and you get about to the halfway point, and then discouragement can set in.

It's kind of when we've reached that point of no return. We can't really go backward. We'll take a look at the progress we've got. We can't go back, and it just doesn't seem like we can make it complete either. And so this discouragement seems to fit in, because boy, we're halfway there, but wow, we've got a long way to go. There's so much more that still has to be done. What seemed possible in the past when we started, somehow we look at it and we go, boy, we're only halfway there.

We're worn out already. We're not there yet. And so that enthusiasm, that excitement that we had when we started, seems to fade as the finish line seems farther and farther away. And I think oftentimes discouragement loves the middle. It loves that midpoint, that point of no turning back, that point of no return. It's the place that you can't start over, and yet you can't quit, because failure is so great at that point. And that midpoint seems to be that point where the accomplishments that you've had don't seem to equal the energy that you've got left, because there's so much more to do.

And you know, when it comes to faith, once you've made that commitment to God, once we've made that commitment, we've come through the days of Unleavened Bread, we've come through the Passover, and we want to be that much more renewed. We want to be that much more rededicated. We want to be that much stronger in our faith. And yet, maybe we look at the wall that we built and said, boy, there is so much more to do. There is so much farther to go. And as we begin to take those steps in our life to make those positive changes, that seems to be the point that Satan attacks, and Satan discourages us.

Now, in these next few verses in Nehemiah, we see some of these things that I believe Satan uses to discourage us, to distract us, and tries to keep us from reaching the goals that God has given us. Ultimately, the goal of his kingdom, but the goal for us purposely to overcome, so that we can reach our potential, so that we can be more Christ-like. As we look through these next several verses, I believe we can look at the causes that discouragement begins to set in. Let's notice these things. Nehemiah 4, let's jump down to verse 10.

It says, then Judah said, The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we're not able to build the wall. And our adversary said, They'll neither know nor see anything till we come to their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease. Nor do I know it was when the Jews who dwelt near them came that they told us ten times, from whatever place you turn, they will be upon us. They'll be upon us and attack.

Boy, that's not very encouraging, is it? We're trying to build this wall and look at these things that stand against us. Well, the first thing mentioned here is kind of an interesting one. One of the causes that brought on their discouragement and maybe brings on discouragement from us was fatigue. The people were tired. They were worn out. They were exhausted from the work that was already done.

And it had gotten the attention of the world around them as they were building this wall. And maybe part of the reason for the attention that the enemies paid for this wall being built was the fact that they were doing so well. And so quickly they had gotten this wall to this point.

And so the enemies suddenly had to take notice. Nehemiah had put together such an efficient workforce, and they were so well prepared and were doing such a good job that it caught the attention of all the enemies around them. And so this was a remarkable effort that was going out, a remarkable job that was being accomplished.

So the enemies became afraid. They became concerned. They wanted that work stopped. I think in some ways it's really no different with us. You know, when Satan sees us progressing spiritually, does he want that work to stop? Does he make a special effort, perhaps, to try to discourage us?

To try to stop that work that God is doing within us? I think in some ways it is. In fact, here was a workforce that Nehemiah put together that was looking forward to accomplishing that job. And they had gone at that work so enthusiastically. Maybe they were overworked in some ways. They were overworked. In their excitement, in their enthusiasm, maybe they didn't recognize the fact that working that hard could actually work against them.

If we read the whole story, we find they were physically exhausted. I think you could probably include they were mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted. Well, why not? Why didn't they keep that enthusiasm? Well, where do we find in the story where they actually set aside a time to catch up again?

To look back? I think oftentimes that's how it happens. You get this new project. You have this new problem. You have a new solution. And once that newness kind of wears off a little bit, fatigue ensues. And this cause of discouragement of fatigue set in to the Jews. And certainly that's where discouragement met them right in the middle of that wall. And so they had been burning the candle at both ends. They didn't have the energy to complete the job that they started.

And so there needed to be a solution to that. And I think with our lives as well, have we checked our energy level? There's still a job that needs to be done. We haven't reached the completion of that spiritual wall yet, have we? And so there's still a job to do. Are we spiritually exhausted? Are we emotionally exhausted as fatigue set in for our lives the way it had in Nehemiah and his workers' lives?

Certainly fatigue had been a major issue for them. Now, I didn't stop there for Nehemiah and the workers here. There was another situation that brought about discouragement. Look at verse 10 again. Nehemiah 4, verse 10. The strength of the laborers is failing, and there's so much rubbish that we're not able to build the wall. There was so much rubbish, if you remember what had happened. When they had come and taken the Jews captive, they knocked down that temple. They destroyed it. And so there were all the remains, all the rubbish, all the rubble from the temple before that was all around them.

And what happened? Instead of seeing the wall and that thing being built, what did they start to notice? All the rubbish, all the garbage, all the rubble that was around them. They lost their vision. They lost their vision and ultimately became frustrated with the whole circumstance.

And so this discouragement began to set in because they were frustrated with where they were at. They lost their perspective. They believed, oh, there's too much junk, there's too much rubble. They lost the vision of building the wall. And instead of seeing the big picture of what God had in mind for them, they just saw the mess in their life.

They just saw the difficulties surrounding their life. They just saw the difficulties instead of the progress. And so what about us? Maybe you've got a job where your work is never done. The work is never, it doesn't matter how much you get accomplished in a day or a week or a month, there's still more that has to be done. You know, you can never get everything off of your desk. It just never is completed. Now, if you've got a job like that, you know what frustration can be like. See, once you get one thing done, there's always another issue, another problem, another challenge that you have to deal with.

The feeling like, yeah, I'm never free of this. I'm never out from under the pile of work that needs to be done. Now, if you feel like that, that's probably the way that these people were feeling. Now, maybe there's that deadline that I just never able to quite get it done because then there's another deadline.

So I just can't relax, I can't leave my work behind, I'm just trapped by this. And if we allow that to overtake us, we could lose our sight, we could lose the plan, we could lose the greater vision of what God wants accomplished in our life. And so we see, like these workers, we could fall in that same type of a situation if we're not careful.

If we look back to verse 4, we get another glimpse of what caused this frustration for these workers. What was a part of their frustration? Verse 4, it says, the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus the king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia. You see, these people were beating them down. They were causing them to lose their morale. They were sapping their resolve to finish the job.

And when that frustration sets in, what usually happens then? I think you lose your purpose. They lost their purpose. The goal of frustration is to break us down, it's to divide us, it's to separate us from what's best. And certainly that was the people's goal.

More importantly, I think we see Satan behind these things without God's direction, without God's will in your life, without his perspective. You lose it. You lose your purpose. You lose the fact that you've accomplished anything. You begin to feel worthless. You begin to feel helpless.

You begin to feel like, I am so insignificant, I can't accomplish anything worthwhile. But you know, that's a lie. That is an outright, satanic lie. God has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and it outweighs anything that this world and its obstructions have to offer. And so we've got to be sure that we don't get caught with our eyes in the rubble, that our eyes are only on the problems. They're only on the difficulties. They're only on the challenges. And if we get caught with our focus on all the rubbish that's around us, we can forget what God's purpose for our life is. We can get distracted, and we can become frustrated and be discouraged because of that frustration. But God doesn't want that for us. He wants us to be able to overcome that discouraging approach to life. Because these workers certainly felt this. Because they felt the discouragement that all these situations around them brought. In fact, it's interesting as we look through this story in Nehemiah, we realize that they felt there wasn't a way that they could finish. It was just too big a task for them. And so adding to the discouragement was this idea of failure, that we're failures. They lost their confidence, they lost their direction, they lost their vision, and they felt like they were failures. Because once I think fatigue comes into play, once the challenges of frustration face us, we can lose confidence. We can lose confidence in ourselves, and ultimately we lose confidence in God. And that failure just bears down on us. Because if you look at the end of verse 10 here in chapter 4, what did they say? They said to themselves, we cannot rebuild the wall. Well, what happened? We got off to such a roaring start, and now we've gotten sidetracked. And so this third stage in discouragement, it always seems to begin the same way, that I can't do it. It's impossible. It's too hard. I always fail. I can't quite finish the job. You know, I never will amount to anything. You see, those are the kinds of thoughts that leave us feeling there isn't any hope. What does the future hold with that kind of an approach? You see, what the people needed to realize is that even though they got distracted, even though they became discouraged, even though they felt like failures, is failure ever really final in this life? I think in most ways, it's not. It's not. If we're still alive, failure is another opportunity to give it another try, isn't it? It's another opportunity to reorganize. It's another opportunity to say, you know, this wasn't working, but there is a better way to go at this. I was thinking about this topic, and I ran across a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, and he said something amazing about failure. Here's what he said about it. He said, it's not the critic that will count in the end. No, not the man that points out where others have stumbled and where others could have done better.

Nope. The credit, he went on saying, the credit belongs to one who is actually in the arena, the one who might come up short again and again, because he knows there's no effort without error or shortcomings. Do we do things perfectly? That's the point he's making. He goes on and says, it's the one who knows the great devotion. He knows the triumph of achievement, and who, if he falls, he falls at least while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, even though you're checkered with failure, than to be with the poor souls who never enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in the gray that knows neither victory or defeat. It's pretty powerful, isn't it?

Are we hoping to achieve great things? Absolutely! Our goal is the Kingdom of God, being children of God Almighty. What an awesome task that is! What an opportunity! We are seeking great things, and we need great devotion to accomplish those things.

Will we have failures along the way? No doubt! We're physical human beings. We're not spirit yet.

But God wants us to get up when we fall down and go on, not allow failure to put us out of the game.

So the question isn't whether or not we're going to stumble once in a while, because that is going to happen.

So the question is, how well do we stumble? How well do we fail?

Doing it well means we get back up and we get to work on that wall again. We start building something spiritual again. So how do you respond when you stumble? How do you respond when you fall short?

Do we give in to frustration? Do we give in to fatigue? Do we give in to that failure? Do we give in to self-pity? Do we blame ourselves? Or maybe, instead of blaming myself, I blame others.

Maybe that's a little easier. Do we do that? Or maybe we just get mad? Maybe we just get angry and we allow the impact of those shortcomings to affect everybody around us. Maybe that's what we do. I think if we change our perspective on that stumbling, on those failures, if we realize that it's not over, it's not done. Yeah, the wall was halfway finished, but the work was not complete yet. Just feeling like a failure at that point was not the end of the story.

Because I know with God, when we feel that way, it's really another opportunity for an open door.

That leads us to verse 11. Verse 11 gives us another aspect of discouragement and why it comes about. Notice verse 11. It says, Our enemies said, Before they know it or see us, we'll be right there among them, right there among them, and kill them and put an end to the work.

Then the Jews who lived by them came and told us ten times over, Wherever you turn, they will attack us. They will attack us. Wow! That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

What was the people's reaction to this? Well, if somebody's going to attack me, I'm not going to be happy about that. I'm going to be shaking in my boots. If somebody's going to be attacking me, they're going to be right on me. And so they allowed fear, a lack of security, to discourage them.

They looked to themselves and realized, wow, they're going to be able to overcome us. We can't fend ourselves from all the enemies that are around us. And they became fearful because they just didn't feel secure. And becoming fearful then led to that discouragement that weighed them down.

And you know, when you think about it, if we're going to build something for God, if we're going to build godly character in our lives, if we're going to build that spiritual wall, you know there's always somebody out there that wants to stop us, isn't there? If not spiritually, we know we are fighting spiritual wickedness in high places the way Ephesians says it. And as Nehemiah and the people built this wall, the enemies tried to stop the work of God. And they made fun of them, and they criticized them. They called out, you just imagine the scene, on the mild side of it, they were just telling them and mocking them and criticizing them. Oh, you're never going to get this done. Look at all the junk and rubble all around you. You'll never finish this. And they mocked them, but it didn't even stop there. Then the enemies said they're going to attack them. They were going to attack them. It's interesting, it wasn't the enemies that brought the fear, was it? It was how they responded to the chance and the criticism. It's how they responded to the threats. It was the people's response to their enemies. They started listening to their enemies. It said, as you notice that, it says our adversaries, our enemies said, why in the world could they quote their enemies? Because they were listening to them.

Should we listen to that? Should we put up with that or just say that? That is not worth listening to. That is not, that's discouraging. I am not going to be fearful. And so the first step was the people actually listened to those who had nothing to do with God. They had absolutely nothing to do with God's way. They weren't speaking for God. God said, build this wall. I'll be with you. I'll support you. This is what I want accomplished. So who were they listening to?

They were listening to the enemies of God instead of God Himself. And so if we stop listening to God and start listening to God's enemies, is that going to make us fearful? Is that going to take our security away from us? I think it does. I think it does. And so when that happens in our life, we've got to consider the source, don't we? Consider the source. Are they gods? Is this what God wants? You know, if it's not from God, it's a lie. And don't listen to lies. Don't dwell on lies. And remember, God is still on your side. God is still with you. Don't be fearful. Don't allow fear to discourage you. Now, it's also interesting in this section when you look at verse 12. Who does it talk about here in verse 12? It says, the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10 times over, 10 times kind of representing over and over and over and over again. Wherever you turn, they'll attack us. So here you have the enemies saying this. These were their fellow countrymen. Today we'd say these are people in the church telling them that. Oh boy, look out! Our enemies are going to get... We're never going to finish this. This isn't going to happen. This is terrible. We can't do that. Are you kidding? We'll never be able to accomplish those things.

These were their own people. And the fact is, there are people that want to see you fail. Their goal is to make you fail. That's a scary thing when you think about it. Their goal is to keep you from experiencing the best that God wants for your life. Can we surround ourselves with people like that? Boy, if we do, we're in trouble. We are in trouble if we do that. You know the old proverb, if you want to soar with the eagles, you can't run with the turkeys. So we can't allow that. We cannot hang out with those kinds of people. They want to see us fail. They are negative.

And they just bring you down and discourage you with this fearful approach to life. And it's interesting. Sometimes the ones who are most critical, sometimes the ones that give you the most unproductive help, they think they're going to encourage you with these words. They think they're going to warn you and help you. But it comes from somebody that you think you trust.

So the unbelievers gave these people a lot of trouble. But the ones that were a part of the group gave them just as much, maybe even more, trouble. And I think it's an important thing for us to think about. What kind of helper are we? Are we the detractor? Are we the criticizer? Are we pointing out all the problems and all the enemies that are going to attack us? Do we build up or do we tear down? Do we encourage or do we discourage people? Are our words, are our actions aimed at encouragement or discouragement? What is our approach? Are we looking for the negative?

Are we placing motivation on others? That's what these people were doing. Oh, forget it! We can't do this! Don't you know the enemy said they're going to attack you? You can't do that? That's terrible. That's awful. We'll never be able to finish. You'll never make it. And so that's what these people were doing. They were leaving them with that discouraging approach. And so I think we see here in Nehemiah, there's a pattern, you might say, to discouragement. Is that fair to say that there's a pattern to discouragement? It seemed to start with fatigue. It started with fatigue, turns into frustration, multiplied by failure, and ultimately resulting in fear.

And so we have all of those words, fatigue, frustration, failure, and fear, that want to grab and get a hold of our life. And our reaction oftentimes is just to quit, just to give up or run away. Want to get to something and just ignore the whole problem. But that's not what God wants for us. It's not what God wanted for Nehemiah and the people building that wall. You know, what happened? What did they do once that discouragement had really dug itself in?

How did Nehemiah and the others answer that discouragement? I think the story gives us some interesting lessons as well. Even though there are all of these negative, discouraging approaches to life that weigh us down, in this story of rebuilding the wall, we find that there is an answer. There was an answer at that time, and there's an answer for us today as well. Notice verse 13. Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 13. There was a response. Nehemiah responded to the discouraging aspects that had plagued them in building this wall. I'm going to read from the New Living. It might be just a little bit from your New King James or your King James. Verse 13, it says, So I placed armed guards behind the lowest parts of the wall in the exposed areas. I stationed the people to stand guard by families armed with swords, spears, and bows. Then as I looked over the situation, I called together the leaders and the people and said to them, Don't be afraid of the enemy. Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your friends, your families, and your homes. Verse 15, When our enemies heard that we knew of their plans and that God had frustrated them, we all returned to our work on the wall. Now we saw four challenges that bring us down and discourage us. I think in this story it's showing us four aspects of what God wants us to do to overcome discouragement in our lives. Now it's interesting, what was the first thing that happened as they got to this discouraging halfway point? Well, the first thing was they stopped working. They stopped. And I think there's more to just stopping. They rested. They rested, and obviously from these first couple of verses here that we read in verse 13, they reorganized, didn't they? Those are two R words. They rested and they reorganized. In order to stop the spread of discouragement, Nehemiah said, okay, wait a second. Let's stop for a minute. Let's think about this, and let's get things back together again. Let's figure out a way to handle this problem. So they had to stop and rest, and then he reorganized. And how often in Scripture do we find that?

That we'd arrest and reorganize our life. Well, we're supposed to do that once a week, aren't we? We're supposed to put the week behind. Sabbath comes. It's a time to rest. It's a time to reorganize. Didn't Christ say that? Come to me, all who labor, all of you who are working, you're heavy laden, you're weighed down, you're facing challenges and discouragement in your life. He says, I will give you rest. And he's given us the Sabbath. He's Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2.28 reminds us of that. So he gives us the Sabbath, I think, in one way to help us defend off the discouragements of the week, to help us to reorganize, to get refocused. Doesn't he?

And so Nehemiah knew this. He understood this. And so they rested and reorganized. Sometimes the most spiritual thing that we can do is to take a break. Isn't it? Now, that doesn't mean just take a long nap, you know, sleep 14 hours. That's not what I'm talking about here. Yeah, you might need a little extra sleep because the physical labor has been pretty tough.

But to stop what you're doing, take a break from what's bringing you down and get reorganized.

I believe the Sabbath is for that. You know, can we do that? Can we go to our room? Can we shut the door? Can we get down on our knees? Can we get reorganized with God to take in the silence, take in a break from this world, take a break from the negative, take a break from the challenges, and begin to think more on a spiritual level? Maybe just get down on our knees and thank God for the good things that He's given us. Instead of seeing all the rubbish and the challenges around us, we can see the positive side of things. See, resting and reorganizing will help that to happen in our life. Because once we have rested, now is the time to get things back together again. Because discouragement doesn't mean we've been doing all the wrong things.

Maybe we just got too carried away. We need to just adjust the way that we were doing them. There wasn't anything wrong with the way they were building the wall, but they went at it so enthusiastically they never did take a break. They never stopped. They never slowed down, and it began to discourage them. They began to give up the dream and the hope. But we don't want to do that. We don't want to give up our dream. We don't want to give up our hope.

And Nehemiah didn't give up. He rested, and then he tried something different.

That's kind of interesting. One of the things that he tried there, did you notice what it said?

That when he called together the people, he told them to stand guard. How are they to stand guard?

Stand guard, it says in verse 13, according to your families. You get the family together, and you stand as a family unit. Now, who's our spiritual family? Are we standing together, and are we standing strong? They needed people that were working around them and encouraged around them. People that they loved, people that they cared for. I think God's kind of telling us the same thing. Don't we need to draw closer together as God's family and quit looking at all the burdens and all the trials and all the challenges, but to help and encourage one another and do it in a reorganized family kind of way. I think God wants us to do that.

Now, he also points out here in Nehemiah, there is another thing that we can do if we're going to overcome. Part of this reorganization and this refocus that they had was to be reminded. Look at verse 14. Nehemiah reminded them of what? It says, don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome. I think that's important for us. If we're going to overcome discouragement, remember God's with you. Don't forget that. Remember God's not going to give up on us. Don't be discouraged. Don't lose your focus. If we're going to overcome that, we've got to focus our eyes on God and His purpose for our life. Not get lost in the responsibilities of life. Don't get lost in the duties of things that we have to accomplish.

That's not where real life is focused in all the challenges and the rubbish around us.

Isn't it fair to say our life is more than being a good parent? Is our life more than being a good husband or being a good wife?

Is your life more than being a good Christian at church?

I think it is. Isn't the most important aspect of our life, our relationship with God? Do we not say that when we were baptized? That we would love less? Father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, whoever. God would be first. Our first and foremost focus must be our relationship with God. We have to have Christ in us living through us. It has to be that way. Otherwise, we've lost our focus. We're only a good wife, or only a good husband, or only a good parent, and we don't have that relationship with God. We've missed what's most important.

We've got to remember God comes first in our life no matter what. Our strength, our endurance, our encouragement comes from God, and we can't take our eyes off of that fact. We've got to hold your place here for just a moment. I will turn over to Psalm 111.

So hold your place here. We'll come back to Nehemiah. Psalm 111 verse 4.

A pretty amazing song here. It begins in verse 4 by saying, He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

Psalm 111 verse 5. He's given food to those who fear Him. He's ever mindful of His covenant. He's declared to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations.

So as we focus on God, guess whose focus is on us?

God's focus is on us. He's ever mindful of His covenant. That's what God's mind is on. He's declared to His people, to you and I, the power of His works. Can we keep building that spiritual wall? Can we keep on with the task? Is it too great a task for us? Or when we are focused and remember God is with us, it can be done. We can do something spiritual. He says in verse 8, verse 7, the works of His hand are verity and justice, truth and justice. All His precepts are sure. They stand fast and forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people. He's commanded His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding of all those who do His commandments, and His praise endures forever. So there's our focus. That's what we should be guided by in our life. So we take our focus off the fears and off the challenges, and we focus on our strength. And that's in God. Our strength is God. Because in many ways, doesn't our focus determine our feelings? Our focus determines our feelings. So where are we focused? What are we focused on? Are we focused on ourself?

Are we focused on our problems? Are we focused on God?

Where is our focus? If we're going to overcome, we have to remember that God is with us and wants that deep, loving relationship with us. Now, Nehemiah talks about a third step in overcoming discouragement. So if you go back to Nehemiah chapter 4, look at verse 14 again. Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 14. In the middle, Nehemiah is quoted as saying, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses. So what does Nehemiah encourage them to do? Let's fight. Let's fight for what is right. Don't give into discouragement without a fight. God doesn't want us to pick up physical weapons. It's a different work today, isn't it? But we can choose how to respond. And discouragement being that disease that affects us and can bring us down, it can be stopped. It doesn't have to be an epidemic. We can resist it. We can overcome it. We have to fight it. We just don't allow it to run its course. We need to fight it. That's what Nehemiah did physically. Spiritually, we have to do the same thing. You could write down in James chapter 4 and verse 7. Probably familiar with that. It says, Submit to God. Resist the devil. Oh, you just don't give in. You just don't allow the discouraging attitudes of the devil to overcome and overtake us and throw us off track. No, he says, Fight it! Resist the devil, and he will flee. He will flee. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you. And so we fight for what's right. And we are in a spiritual battle.

We're at a spiritual war, and Satan is going to use every warlike tactic to try to keep you from being a part of the kingdom, trying to keep us from building that spiritual wall.

And so even though we are physical beings, we don't fight physical battles, do we? We fight spiritual battles. You could write down 2 Corinthians chapter 10, talks about that. And fighting that spiritual battle with God on our side, we can be mighty in God, is what 1 Corinthians... Well, maybe we should turn over there.

I think it's in 2 Corinthians 10, not 1 Corinthians 10. Let's see if I'm right.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, Yes, 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, Though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. That's not where our battle is.

We're fighting a spiritual battle, aren't we? Verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 10, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not physical, but mighty in God. When God is our focus, what can we accomplish? Can we build that wall? He says, yes, we can pull down the strongholds, those things that would work against us, one of those strongholds being discouragement, disappointment. We can cast down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We can bring every thought into the captivity, to the obedience of Christ. And so it reminds us, we are God's children. He is our family. So we draw the family together. We're heirs to the kingdom, and we can build that wall in Jesus Christ. So we've got to reject it. We've got to fight against it and realize where it's coming from. And as James and as Paul wrote here in 2 Corinthians, we can resist it in God. I think there's also a fourth step if we're going to overcome discouragement. And it's in this story of Nehemiah. We've already read through the end of that particular section. What did they do? Once they had rested, once they had reorganized, once they had remembered that God was on their side? What did they do?

They got back to work. Now's the time to keep working. They returned to work. They returned to work. Once they rested, once they reorganized, once they remembered God was on their side, they returned to work. They got back to the task at hand. You see, discouragement wants to take us away from the job. It wants to say, you know, your efforts aren't good enough. It's not going to be helpful. Your God's too little. He can't help you. You might as well just give up.

But that's not what God wants us to do. When we remember that God is with us, can we finish that job? Can we build that wall? Can we accomplish the task? Absolutely. And so when we overcome, we remember God is with us, let's get back to the job at hand, right? Job 22, verse 23, certainly a reminder of that. Let's notice what it says there in Job. Job 22, in verse 23, we'll see this perspective here that I think gives us some deep insight into overcoming and getting on with the task at hand. Job 22, verse 23, it says, Okay, this isn't a question, is it? When we put those things in order, when we rest and we reorganize and we remember God, he says, let's get back to work and God will help you build. You will be built up. You will remove iniquity. Verse 24, Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. Then you'll have your delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You'll make your prayer to Him and He will hear you.

And so when we get back to work, is God going to be with us? Is God going to help us finish the job? Is God going to help us overcome? Absolutely. Absolutely. And so when we demonstrate our commitment to God the Father and Jesus Christ, we get back on the front lines again and we go at it and we accomplish great things. We don't want to be like Revelation where those in Ephesus left their first love. Let's not let that kind of discouragement bring us down. Let's resist it. Let's overcome it and then let's put it in its proper perspective. So if we're feeling that we just can't quite do it, if we're feeling fatigued, if we're frustrated with the things that we face in life and we feel like I just can't do it, I'm a failure, and then we're fearful of the things that are around us, I think we can remember the story of Nehemiah and rebuilding the wall because we can build that wall. We can overcome any of those obstacles that others lay in front of us. We can overcome and we can overcome if we rest and we get reorganized. We can overcome if we never forget that God is with us. And if we resist from being discouraged and we get back to work, rest, remember, resist, and return back to work. If we do those things, God promises us that we can be strong and we can be of good courage.