Dealing with Discouragement

TEXT: 1 Samuel 30:6

TOPIC: Dealing with Discouragement

Pastor Bobby Earls, Northgate Baptist Church, Florence, SC

Sunday morning, July 18, 2021 and July 28, 2013

I am preaching this morning, a message I preached exactly one year ago, today!

We are looking at a verse that has long been one of my chosen verses, one I have often pinned on my study cork board in my office. It’s 1 Samuel 30:6.

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. 1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV)

This morning I want to deal with the subject of discouragement. Discouragement is that state of being emotional down or defeated; a state of feeling dismal or even, an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.

Some time ago I received a call from a local pastor who was himself struggling with discouragement. After listening for a while to his personal struggles and that of his church, I shared my own personal experiences similar to his own.

At one point he asked me, “How is it that you are not discouraged?” I told him, “While I am discouraged from time to time, I am not discouraged.”

This morning’s message seeks to answer the question, how do you deal with discouragement? How can you deal with discouragement without becoming discouraged?

First, notice the causes of discouragement.

I. THE CAUSES OF OUR DISCOURAGEMENT, I Samuel 30:6a

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.

A. Dramatic Loss or a Severe Trauma

We are told in the first five verses David had experienced a series of critical losses in his life. His home away from home, a town called Ziklag, located in the Negev and Philistine territory had been destroyed, their homes burned and their families stolen away.

1 Samuel 30:1–5 (NKJV) 1 Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive.

Remember that David and his men of 600 were all hiding out from King Saul of Israel. David had already said goodbye forever to his best friend, Jonathan, the King’s son.

On the run. Hiding out from Saul. Only to return from being rejected by the Philistine Kings and dismissed from joining them in battle against King Saul and Israel, only to find their homes destroyed by fire, and their families taken captive by the Amalekites.

I would say David and his men had suffered great loss and severe trauma in their lives, wouldn’t you?

APP. Most of us know what it is to suffer dramatic losses and trauma in our own lives.

ILL. Share the loss of my mother in September of 2005 and Penny’s father in January of 2006. But that pales in comparison to the sense of loss we feel for our family at this moment.

I think most of you know the loses my family suffered not long after moving back to SC in 2013. We live every day with that sense of loss. Every day we grieve our loss! Never has my soul, my heart anguished as it does at this time in our lives.

I know many of you have been there too. At the Valley of Baca, mourning and grief.

B. A Sense of Alienation or Betrayal

1 Samuel 30:1a, Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him,

Few things are as discouraging as the loss of a friend or follower. When those who at one time believed in you, and supported you, turn against you, it can be one of the most devastating experiences you will ever know.

C. Personal Failure or Disappointment

David had known few failures in his life. The champion of Goliath won most of his battles. Even though the battle wasn’t over in Ziklag, David and his men didn’t know that. Maybe this is the time when David wrote Psalm 42.

Psalm 42:5 (NKJV) Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

D. Prolonged Mental or Physical Strain

David and his men must have been both physically and mentally exhausted. In fact we are told in the story that 200 of David’s 600 men were so physically drained that they were not able to join in the pursuit and recovery of their own loved ones!

It is almost certain that we will face discouragement if the body and the mind are tired and the nerves are frayed.

That’s why I am a big believer in physical fitness, and exercise. We also need a healthy diet and proper nutrition. Rest and relaxation is a third ingredient needed to deal properly with discouragement.

Psalm 127:2 (NLT) It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Jesus often encouraged His disciples to take time off for rest.

Mark 6:31–32 (NLT) 31 Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone.

E. Spiritual Aloofness or Waywardness

Some have questioned just how close David was living with the Lord. They believe if David’s faith was as strong as it should have been he would have never left Israel for the land of the Philistines.

He may have been somewhat like Samson, who had no premonition that he had lost his power with God.

Judges 16:20 (NKJV) And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

Just as good physical and mental health helps us stave off discouragement, so too our spiritual health can be a determinant of our ability to deal with discouragement.

F. The Chastening Hand of the Lord

When we find ourselves spiritually wayward or apart from God, you can be certain our loving Heavenly Father will chastise those He loves.

Hebrews 12:6 (NKJV) For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

But dealing with the Lord’s discipline without properly responding in repentance can be discouraging.

T/S-Those are the causes of discouragement, but this text also gives us the cure for our discouragement.

II. THE CURE FOR OUR DISCOURAGEMENT, I Samuel 30:6b

Now David was greatly distressed,………But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

I want you to see the clearly defined steps we must take to be cured of our discouragement:

A. Get Alone in the Presence of God

That’s exactly what David did.

1 Samuel 30:7 (NKJV) Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

Abiathar brought the ephod. The ephod was a source through which one could make direct and specific inquiry into the will of God, the High-Priest’s ephod, which contained the Urim and Thummim was sought by David. The distress of the moment drew his focus away from the treasonous thoughts of his men and back to God in his desperation to know what God would have him do.[1]

The cure for discouragement in our lives is to come before the Lord, to discern His voice, to gain His direction, to center ourselves in the center of His will.

We do this in two primary ways: By seeking God in prayer and by listening to God through His word!

B. Seek the Fellowship of the People of God

David did this as well. Abiathar was the priest of God, the man of God. David sought not only the presence of God through the ephod, but the fellowship of the people of God through Abiathar, the priest.

1 Samuel 30:7 (NKJV) Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

One of the clearest and most consistent messages of the bible is the importance of the place of the church and the fellowship of God’s people in the life of a believer.

Hebrews 10:25 (NLT) And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

C. Lean Hard Upon the Promises of God

David did this also. 1 Samuel 30:8 (NKJV) So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

So much of God’s word contains God’s promises to His children. And they are all true and trustworthy.

Psalm 119:25 "I am completely discouraged. I lie in the dust. Revive me by your word."

Matthew 11:28 (NKJV) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 28:20b (NKJV) “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

D. Remember the Providences of God

Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Although David was passing through a time of tremendous personal crisis, of loss, distress and discouragement, yet God was silently planning in sovereign love for him.

1 Samuel 30:11–19 (NKJV) 11 Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. 12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong,and where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?” So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.” 16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.

God’s love and sovereign control in our lives reminds us never to live in discouragement for long. His faithfulness in the past is a reminder of His promised faithfulness in the future.

Psalm 92:12–15 (NKJV) 12 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

[1] The MacArthur Study Bible, ed. John MacArthur, Jr., electronic ed. (Nashville, TN: Word Pub., 1997), 1 Sa 30:7.