Sermon Tone Analysis

Dealing with Discouragement

How many of you have ever been ready to quit and walk away?

I mean maybe it’s your job.

There something about that dream of walking in and being like i’m done see ya later alligator...

right?

I mean just to get to that point of I’ve had enough with you people....

Or maybe you get to that point with life in general where you’ve just had enough and you want to go crawl in a hole somewhere and never come out.

Like sometimes Josiah will want to wrestle with me.

He’ll come home from Nana and Papa’s all worked up with confidence because Papa goes easy on him and let’s him win too easy.

so he’ll be like come dad let’s wrestl and i’ll be like I’m not papa son i’m not sure you want to go there.

but he insists and it usually ends up with me holding him down and him crying for his momma...

almost never is it me crying for momma…just kididng.

of course he always wants more…he’ll be like i give up dad them pop here he comes again....

But I think that’s how life works sometimes we give it our all but discouragement just comes over and keeps knocking us back down until we get to the point where we feel trapped and like we’re being held down can’t get back up.

You ever feel like that?

Like you’re down in a hole and you just can’t see a way out?

Guess what you’re not alone.

You remember that guy named Paul?

That guy who seems like he is more than human and can do anything and everything that God asks him to?

Well guess what he got to the point he wanted to quit.

He got to the point he just wanted to walk away.

He was afraid...

in God is going to tell paul to not quit to not be quiet to not be afraid.

why? cause he was he was in one words in fear and trembling.

he was discouraged and wanted to quit.

So let’s start with talking about some of the...

The Causes of Discouragement

Overworked

Imagine constantly being busy and never getting a break.

Now the reason for overworking is sometimes our fault whether we take on too much or mis manage our time or whatever...

but then there’s other times where it just can’t be helped.

For Paul this couldn’t be helped.

He had to have money to pay for his stay and he didn’t want to ask the Corinthians to help him because he was afraid they would not listen to him and judge him as being in it only for the money.

so he didn’t ask them for a dime.

but he had to work and he did alongside this ministry power couple Aquila and Priscilla who maybe we’ll have more time to look at next week.

but Paul goes to work making tents.

now there’s all sorts of theories on what kind of tents was he a leather worker or the word can also refer to doing something with goat hair…eww.

Who knows all we know is he is making a living with his hands hard word tedious word long work

and then he is going and preaching in the evenings and on the weekends telling people about Jesus.

not many coffee breaks for ole Paul..

So first off you have this constant strain to be working.

He’s giving his everyhting to these people so that they can hear the good news about Jesus.

Let’s add to this Exhaustion rejection...

Rejection

So verse 5 tells us that by the time Silas and Timothy showed up Paul was 100 percent focused on the Word.

Apparently by this time the people from Phillipi had sent their money to him so that he could give up tent making and get back to preaching the gospel full time.

So now he is immersed in preaching and teaching the word.

but then verse 6...

He is rejected again by the Jews and gives up and leaves.

He says here you’re blood is on your own head.

they have made the choice to reject the gosple so Paul is done with them.

He has doen all he can do...

Now we need to remember something

Paul is not a robot.

We don’t need to assume here that he enjoys getting rocks thrown at him everywehre he goes.

or that he enjoys people constantly criticising him everywehre he goes.

and especially in this city.

these people he was totatlly unable to please.

they complained no matter what he did.

he wrote them letters and they made fun of him for not showing up.

he showed up and they made fun of how he looked and talked.

Paul is tough when he writes a letter but when he shows up he reminds us of danny devito....

He’s no Peter that’s for sure...

So he is rejected yet again and yet again he feels like a failure…k

So we have exhaustion

we have rejection and then we have

Success

Success

So This is sort of funny right?

I mean he walks out of the synagogue and just goes next door to this guy who was someone who sorta believed not quite there yet but he’s close.

then this guy becomes a christian and Paul basically plants a chuch next door to the Jewish center.

apparently there was no non compete clause in his resignation.

Anyway not only that but the guy who used to run the synagoge goes with him and because a believers.

now why would this be discouraging for Paul?

well first off the gentiles who are becoming Christians are nuts.

Like in the first letter Paul writes to them he has to address the fact that they won’t stop fighting with each other over everything.

Like who baptized them just anything and everything they are true blue baptists right?

but it’s not just that

apparently one guy was sleeping with his step mom and they were encouraging him in it just ingnoring the sin and patting themselves on the back for being tolerant.

And to top it off they are getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper.

Like amen preacher another round for everyone...

it’s bad in Corinth so these people would be a struggle to invest it.

it’s going to be tough on him.

and then there’s the fear of what comes after success.

So if you go back to Chapter 16 Paul preaches people are saved and he gets beat up and thrown in prison.

!7 he preaches in Thess…people become believers he gets beat up and thrown out of town

Berea same thing....

Athens is not as bad they just laugh him out of town there

so what’s he expecting?

to get beat up and have rocks thrown at him till he dies of leaves.

You see Satan is not a fan of God working in people’s hearts so when a church or a ministry starts growing he is going to do whatever he can to stop it.

so sometimes the scariest thing for a misisonary or pastor or church leader is to see God start working cause we know Satan is going to come after us...

So Paul is like I’m done i’m out of here I’m ready to quit.

I’m tired.

I’m hurt from all the stuff people keep saying

and I’m afraid of what comes next....

and maybe that’s where you are this morning.

You’re tired you’ve put in long hours hoping that if you tried harder things would get better.

You’re hurt the thing speople have said or not said have you just on the brink of walking away from it all

or maybe you are looking into the future like what is next what do i not know about and what is going to happen?