I've taken the time this week to listen to several of the Together for the Gospel sessions, and they have been rich! What a blessing it is to hear a number of gifted pastors/teachers exposite God's Word in such a way that the applications speak to the soul and cause us hunger for a closer walk with the Lord. I think Ligon Duncan's teaching on discouragement was the best teaching I've ever heard on that topic. I encourage you to take an hour to listen to the audio recording here, but I'll also share the notes I took:
Discouragement is no stranger to faithful Christians. There are things God wants us to learn in our disappointments. We often think that if we are faithful to the ministry, we will not experience darkness. Then darkness comes, and we ask, "why?" If we study our disappointments, we will see what we really love and what we really believe when they come our way. It is easy to forget that God is God and God is good. We are tempted to succumb to idolatry, because we tend to think there is a greater treasure that has been withheld or taken away from us - a treasure greater than what God has given us.
What are your greatest losses, dreams, unsatisfied longings, hopes and treasures you've never obtained or had taken away? We all have them, but what do we do with them? How we respond to our disappointments may be the most important thing we do in life. Some of our disappointments are holy things, right things. Has the Lord brought your greatest treasure before your eyes and said, "You can't have it?"
In I Kings 18, Elijah had a ministry of power and served the Lord courageously. He confronted Ahab and saw hundreds of prophets of Baal defeated. But in chapter 19 (when he flees for his life from Jezebel), Elijah knew what it is to have his every dream lost.
Three applications from this passage of scripture:
1. Even people who believe in the sovereignty of God can fail to believe that the Lord is God. Had Elijah forgotten everything he ever taught, that the Lord is God? He had his world fall down around him and became discouraged. In verses 10 and 14 we see that Elijah lived and longed for a nationwide revival to occur, that thousands would return to the Lord their God. He realized that his dream was not going to be fulfilled. Elijah longed for God to be glorified, and when that did not materialize, his world almost came to an end. Similarly, when we long to see conversions to Christ and they are not happening, or we have loved ones who remain strangers to Christ, even faithful servants can experience despair or discouragement.
2. Even people who fight against idolatry can succumb to it. The source of Elijah's discouragement was that he forgot his name and his message; he had a theological crisis. His name means "my God is Lord." He longed that Israel would worship the one true God, but God purposed not to answer the longing of Elijah's heart with a "yes." God sent him back to Syria and told him the ministry would happen through another - Elisha. The voice that tells us we can have all that we want, that voice comes with a hiss. The voice that tells us that we can't have all that we want is the whisper of the Lord. The Lord deals with his faithful servants by ruthlessly crushing their idolatries, because he wants them to have a greater joy. Because of his compassion and grace, he weans their passions so they are left with nothing but the Lord.
3. Even when it looks like God is being hard on his servants, he is working out his compassion for their joy. In II Kings 2, the chariots of fire came and Elijah was carried to heaven in a whirlwind. This was Elijah's greatest desire, to see the glory of God. God cares about our dashed hopes and dreams. He knows his servants' hearts and cares. During the Transfiguration in Luke 9, Moses and Elijah were there with Christ to discuss the Jesus' sacrificial death. Elijah went down and looked into Jesus' face, and he saw the light of the knowledge of the glory of grace in Jesus' eyes, the Savior of the world. He realized that God wanted people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to see the glory of Jesus Christ. God gets at our fundamental idolatry. He goes after our greatest treasure, so we learn that his grace is sufficient for us for his power is made perfect in our weakness. He will graciously pursue you to work for your joy and your good, even when you can't see it. He has a plan for your everlasting joy. The Lord does not treat his servants' lives as cheap. Believe that! Do not lose heart; in those moments of discouragement, we face our greatest tests. We must remember that God relentlessly and graciously pursues us for our joy and his glory. Lord, grant that we should know that truth experientially, so that we may encourage others.
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