“OUR BRETHREN HAVE DISCOURAGED OUR HEART”
Text: Deuteronomy 1: 19-32
Life is hard for all of us. We all have a load that we carry, and most of us would believe that our own burden is heavier than that of others. If one could lay his burden in a heap with those of others and then, after examining them all, pick up the one that seemed the lightest, would he not be quite likely to re-shoulder his own burden.
“But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness,” - 2 Corinthians 2:1. We can learn a lesson from Paul when he wrote and told the Corinthians that he was determined not to come to them again in heaviness! HOW RELIEVED OUR FRIENDS WOULD BE IF WE WOULD MAKE THAT SAME DETERMINATION!
When it comes to encouragement we need to watch our life and our lips!
A banker was recently getting a check-up and asked the Doctor how he was. The Doctor said, "You are as sound as the American dollar," and the banker immediately fainted.
We all need encouragement!
The dictionary defines encouragement as the act of inspiring others with renewed courage, a renewed sprit, or renewed hope. Christians are to be heralds of hope!
O, the power of encouragement. It is the power to change lives!
Example of the note from Bro. Jim Ramien “Patti got a letter from Mrs. Bonnie; she called me at work to read it to me. I made her day.”
In our text, the children of Israel have told the truth; however, I think in some ways it is a partial truth. It was their idea to send the spies and not the idea of Moses (Deut. 1:22).
Notice that they are quick to blame the group of ten for their own lack of faith (Deut. 1:28). Just what are they doing listening to these people anyway when God had already told them about the land?
It is a sad day when ten men turned a nation (one to two million people) away from the blessings of God. If it only took ten to discourage two million, how many would it take to discourage the average church?
Please notice this crowd that discouraged a nation was not the heathen Egyptians. It was their brethren. The greatest source of discouragement often comes from the brethren. They weren’t discouraged by the enemy.
Three fellows were walking on the beach, they came upon some boys looking for crabs, and they learned an interesting lesson. As each crab was caught, it was put into a basket. One warned the other boys, "Cover the basket. The crabs will climb out."
"No, they will not get out," answered another of the boys. "If one tries to climb out, the others will pull him down." Aren't some of us crab-like.
The people who should be our greatest ally often become our source of discouragement.
We need to identify the discouragers and their methods.
I. The discouragers stress the obstacles instead of the opportunities.
A. Numbers 13: 28,29
Some maximize the problems and minimize the possibilities.
B. Their attitude was centered on why it can't be done instead of the why it could be done.
The ten spies looked at the situation as if it was all about them, their resources, their abilities, and their strength. The ten spies looked only with their natural eyes, and then they proceeded to say what they saw with those eyes, so they spoke out of a heart that thought this was all about them. “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” They saw the problem (giants in the land), and they saw themselves as grasshoppers, totally unequal to the challenge.
Contrast that with Joshua and Caleb, who saw God, and the people of Canaan looked like grasshoppers before Him. They saw the same facts that the other ten saw, only they understood the truth about what they were seeing— that this was about God —and then they spoke according to what they saw: “We are well able to overcome. . . . The Lord is with us.”
We can choose to look at how small we are compared to those giants, or we can choose to look how small those giants are compared to God!
C. Neh. 4:10-14
D. Whatever happened to God can? Luke 1:37 - “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
A newspaper obituary once read: "Services for friendly fix-it man are today." Instead of focusing on one of the movers and shakers of society, the article told the story of a 79-year-old appliance repairman who was known for his integrity, character, and unquenchable happiness. The president of the company for which the man had worked said, "Half of his job was to go to people's houses and fix the appliances, and the other half was to fix the people. We had a lot of people with problems who requested him by name. He was very jovial, very friendly, and always had a kind word."
No matter what our job, perhaps the most important work we do is helping and encouraging people, especially by what we say.
II. The discouragers stress the negative instead of the positive.
A. Numbers 13:32 ,33
B. It is the garden of Eden mentality that refuses to look for the good.
Eve focused on what she could not have instead of what she could have!
When your eyes are on yourself and your circumstances, you lose your perspective and say and do ridiculous things.
III. The discouragers stress walking by the flesh (sight) instead of walking by faith!
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran," – (Numbers 13:1-3).
In order fully to understand the foregoing commandment, we must look at it in connection with a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses, in going over the facts of Israel's marvelous history in the wilderness, and he reminds them of the following important and interesting circumstance: "And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-Barnea. and I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, we will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come," (Deut. 1: 19-22).
The Lord gave the commandment concerning the spies because of the moral condition of the people. Had they been governed by simple faith, they would have acted on those soul-stirring words of Moses, "Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged." There is not a single syllable about spies, in this splendid passage. What does faith want spies for, when it has the word and the presence of the living God? If Jehovah had given them a land, it must be worth having.
Ought they not to have been satisfied with the testimony of God? Had not He spied out the land for them, and told them all about it? And was not this enough? What need of sending men to spy the land? Did not God know all about it! Was there a spot "from Dan to Beersheba" with which he was not perfectly acquainted? Did He not know all about the difficulties and was He not able to surmount them? Why, then, did they "come near every one of them, and say, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again!"
Well you say, "Did not the Lord expressly command Moses to send spies. And if so, how was it wrong for Israel to send them? True, the Lord did command Moses to send the spies, in Numbers 13; but this was in consequence of the moral condition of the people, as set forth in Deuteronomy 1. The idea of sending the spies had its origin in the heart of Israel. God saw their moral condition, and He issued a command in full keeping therewith.
The scheme of sending the spies was the fruit of unbelief. A simple heart that trusted God would never have thought of such a thing. Should not His word be enough for our hearts; we want no spies; we seek for no mortal testimony to confirm the Word of the living God. He has given; He has spoken; this is enough!
The testimony of the spies was plain enough: "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it." The land was all that He had said, the spies themselves being witnesses; but let us hearken to what follows. "Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there." The unbelieving spies saw the difficulties — great cities, high walls, tall giants. They looked at the things that were seen, rather than at the things that were unseen. Their eye was not fixed upon Him who is invisible. Doubtless, the cities were great; but God was greater. The walls were high; but God was higher. The giants were strong, but God was stronger.
A. Caleb and Joshua deliberately chose to believe what God proclaimed rather than what they perceived.
They believed what God said rather than what they saw.
They saw the giants, but they chose to believe what God said (Numbers 13:2). You are on sure ground when you stand upon what God says. Caleb and Joshua chose to rest on the word of Him who cannot lie.
Two little girls were counting their pennies. One said, “I have five.”
The other little girl said, “I have ten.”
“No, you have five just as I have,” cried her sister.
“No,” said the other quickly, “I have ten. Daddy said that when he came home tonight he would give us each five more, and so I have ten!” She was choosing to believe what her father said and not what she saw.
B. Let us be like Caleb and encourage others.
Numbers 13:30 - “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”
Let us be an encourager to others!
Conclusion
l man was once asked to contribute to the erection of a monument to one of these discouragers, and replied: "Not a penny. I am ready to contribute toward building monuments to those who make us hope—but I will not give a penny to those who live to make us despair."
He was right. Men who make life harder for us, cannot be called benefactors. The true benefactors are those who show us light in our darkness, comfort in our sorrows, and hope in our despair.
Several years ago a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child. She took the boy's name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, "We're studying nouns and adverbs in his class now. I'd be grateful if you could help him with his homework so he doesn't fall behind the others."
It wasn't until the visiting teacher got outside the boy's room that she realized it was located in the hospital's burn unit. No one had prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain. She felt that she couldn't just turn and walk out, so she awkwardly stammered, "I'm the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs."
The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" Before she could finish a profusion of apologies, the nurse interrupted her: "You don't understand. We've been very worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment--.It's as though he's decided to live."
The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw that teacher. It all changed when he came to a simple realization. With joyful tears he expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?" He had been encouraged!
The mission of Christianity to the world is to help men to be victorious. To whisper hope wherever there is despair, and to give encouragement wherever there is discouragement. May we ever be heralds of hope
