Text: Lu ke 19:4142

Topic: How to deal with discouragement

Introduction:

The Scriptures are filled with stories of people who knew discouragement.

Luke 19:4142

Everyone has felt discouragement.

Illustration: Thilelmann uses one paragraph to tell the story of 18,000 applicants for a program to travel to another planet, most of whom applied out of discouragement with life on earth.

You can overcome discouragement.

Take a short look at the problem.

We need to admit discouragement for our souls' sake.

We need to free ourselves of misplaced blame.

Illustration: Thielemann recounts the story of the disciples asking whose sin caused disasters and blindness.

Illustration: Thielemann tells a bad joke about a farmer building barns that keep falling down, but unbeknownst to the listeners, the second half of the joke comes later in the sermon.

Remind yourself what you have going for you.

Illustration: Thielemann briefly recounts the story from 1 Samuel of King David's discouragement and subsequent encouraging of himself in the Lord.

Illustration: Three paragraphs tell the story of a discouraged, retired, Kentucky man who reassessed his life and found a recipe for fried chicken with 11 herbs and spices that made him a millionaire.

Remind yourself you are loved by God.

Illustration: Thielemann tells the lengthy story of Benjamin Weir, who was held captive by terrorists but transformed the meager furnishings of his prison into symbols of God's love for him.

Take a wide look at the possibilities.

• Don't let discouragement cloud you from seeing the big picture.

Illustration: By telling the second half of the joke told earlier and finally arriving at the punch line, Thielemann shows how he could have been discouraged at the lack of laughter earlier, but wasn't because he knew the big picture of the joke wrapping up later.

Out of great discouragement often come great possibilities.

Illustration: The Chicago Tribune ran the story of a man fleeing who suddenly found the strength to jump a wall.

Illustration: The story of an insurance salesman who, upon losing a contract for lack of a reliable pen, invented a fountain pen that became the standard of excellence for 50 years.

Illustration: An accident that once foiled a science experiment led to the creation of penicillin.

Illustration: The Franciscans of California began the Sun Maid Raisin Company after a drought dried up their grape crop.

Conclusion

Illustration: Thielemann takes a few sentences to share his personal experiences with discouragement, including stuggling with his weight and suffering the loneliness of bachelorhood.

Illustration: A little old lady nervous about flying encourages herself by saying, "On this trip, we're flying toward the dawn."