[This is a long outline with a lot of points and is therefore probably more suited to a Wednesday evening study.]
"I DON'T WANNA!": There are times in the Christian journey when we get tired of serving the Lord and we throw a pity party.
- Jeremiah 20:14-18.
- We whine and complain and fuss and pout and gripe.
- Look at how big an overreaction vv. 14-18 are. You would have been better off if you’d never been born? Really?
- But we throw ourselves pity parties over things much less substantial that what Jeremiah was going through.
WHAT ARE THE REASONS WE "DON'T WANNA" ANYMORE?
1. “This isn’t what I signed up for.”
- Jeremiah 20:7.
- Cf. NT passages:
a. Deny self.
- Matthew 16:24.
b. Carry cross.
- Luke 14:27.
c. Do work of an evangelist.
- 2 Timothy 4:5.
d. Count the cost.
- Luke 14:28.
e. Persecuted.
- Matthew 5:11-12.
2. “I’m tired of being rejected by people.”
- Jeremiah 20:8.
- When we are bold in our faith, we get tired of people rejecting us. When we try to stand for Christ, we get tired of people pushing back against that.
3. Things are getting hard.
4. We got into it for the benefits, not the sacrifices.
5. We just get tired.
6. We’re not getting enough and feel like we’re carrying an unfair load.
7. We don’t feel appreciated.
8. Our church is going down and we get discouraged.
9. Few signs of progress.
10. We’ve been doing the same thing for a long time and are feeling burned out.
11. We suffer personal attacks.
12. We’ve hit a really hard stretch.
A WARNING SIGN: It’s a danger sign when our primary emotion toward God is resentment.
- Jeremiah 20:11-13 v. Jeremiah 20:14-18.
- Isn’t it weird that vv. 11-13 paint a picture of faithful belief in the Lord and trust in His hand, only to be following by vv. 14-18 describing someone who is willing to give up and resents having even been brought into this world by the Lord?
- Yes, it is weird. But it also reflects real life.
- I have experienced it myself where everything is wonderful and God is blessing only to find myself totally disheartened and discouraged only a couple hours later. For instance, as a pastor, I have been in great Sunday morning services where the Spirit moved and lives were touched so that I walked out of there full to overflowing. Then back in the office that afternoon, I’ll get word of a complaint that someone has about how things are going in the church and suddenly feel disheartened about us becoming what God wants us to be. It can happen in a matter of hours.
- Of course, another factor here is we don’t know the length of time between when these verses were written. There may have been a little time happening between when they were penned.
- When resentment becomes the primary emotion that we’re feeling toward God, we’re in trouble.
- This is not something that’s extremely rare. We read at various points in the Bible when God’s messenger resented having to continue to do the thankless job that he was assigned. Further, we read of times when depression or weariness caused a follower of God to want to quit. There are other times when we had expectations of the way that God was going to answer our prayers and His failure to answer the way we wanted makes us mad.
- Sometimes preachers make it sound like the Christian journey is going to be victory after victory, joy after joy. It’s not. There are challenges and difficulties that we struggle with.
WHY WON'T HE JUST LET ME QUIT? The Lord won’t let a genuine believer walk away because He wants what’s best for His child.
- Jeremiah 20:9; 1 Corinthians 9:16; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:4-11.
- There is a desire within our hearts that we can’t get past. As v. 9 says, there can be a fire within us that we can’t avoid.
- Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 9:16.
- Philippians 1:6 says that Christ will complete the work He began in me.
- In Hebrews 12:4-11, we read about the discipline that God brings upon a true child of God.
- Why does God do this? Because it’s in the best interest of the child – in terms of living a life that matters and as well as glorifying the Savior – to complete the race. It’s not only in God’s best interest – it’s in our’s as well. The commitment we made when we began was to finish what we started. God intends to finish what He began.
- Pity parties are likely, in part because we’ve signed up for something that we’re not in charge of.
- Like a football team, there are moments in August during “two-a-days” when you want to give up, but you’ll be so glad you persevered when you hoist that divisional trophy.
- Like a weight-loss coach who has seen dozens of times the joy of the finished result, God pushes us on because He knows the result is worth the struggle.
- What about those who believe that you can lose your salvation?
- This is a point where eternal security makes more sense. If we can lose our salvation, then we have much to fear as we walk through the inevitable seasons of disappointment, depression, and discouragement. Not knowing where the line is, we would have to be anxious that we might not be strong enough to persevere.
- I heard a soldier talking one time about why there is a commitment among soldier to never leave a man behind in combat. The essence of what he said was this: “Everyone needs to know going into the battle that, no matter what, his brothers will not leave him behind. Even if he’s dead. Even if it costs someone else’s life. No matter what. That certainty is essential to have the trust that’s necessary function as a cohesive unit.”
- I believe that something similar is in play here. Knowing this is a long and arduous journey, I need to know going into it that God is not going to abandon me. We’re in this together. He’s not going to leave me behind, even when I’ve lost the strength to walk forward.
- Of course, God won’t override our free will, but He will work to push us back in the right direction.
- There is an old gospel song called “Hornets” that talks about how hornets can drive a person from a room. The hornets don’t force us to go, but they make us want to go. God works like that sometimes.
- “He does not compel us to go 'gainst our will/But he just makes us willing to go.”
HOW DOES THE LORD RESPOND TO OUR COMPLAINTS?
1. Sometimes He gives us rest.
- Sometimes we have served valiantly and faithfully and the Lord gives us a season of rest to refresh us. For various reasons, we may have been asked to carry a particularly heavy load for a while and the Lord may reward us with a season of rest.
- I remember Dr. James Dobson talking about his pastor father going through a season where he switched jobs and had the leisure to play quite a bit of tennis.
2. Sometimes He gives us support of sympathetic people.
- 1 Kings 19:18; 1 Kings 19:19-21.
- After Elijah (who is showing all the signs of depression) reaches a breaking point, God reaches out to him with sympathy. First, in v. 18, God tells Elijah that he is not the only one left – that in fact God has reserved 7,000 to His side. Secondly, God allows Elisha to be his attendant (vv. 19-21).
3. Sometimes He gives us a kick in the pants.
- Sometimes our pity part is because of our immaturity. The next step for us is to wake up to our shallowness. Sometimes we need to be pushed to realize that persevering through struggles is part of the deal.
4. Sometimes He gives us a new understanding of what we’re doing wrong.
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-6.
- It may be that we’re doing things incorrectly. God may use the moment of resentment to wake us up to what we’re doing wrong.
- An example: we’re burned out because we’re doing everything at church. We get resentful of how much we’re doing and how little everyone else is doing. God uses our breakdown to reveal to us that we’ve been doing things wrong: we’ve been doing everything ourselves because we don’t like the way others do things. In God’s plan, we need to allow others to fulfill their God-given roles. We’ve allowed our perfectionism to cause us to take too much on ourselves.
AN IMAGE TO HOLD ONTO: The sides of the road of faith is littered with those who served for a season.
- Matthew 13:18-23.
- “I was a Sunday school teacher.”
- “I was a deacon.”
- “I used to attend that church.”
- There are too many who have only shown an outward sign of faith.
- We’re warned in the parable of the four soils that there are those who show some initial interest in the gospel, but who do not make it to the abundant fruitfulness that defines true faith. (That is the key distinction in understanding the difference between that statement and what I said earlier about eternal security: a key part of the definition of true faith is that it is going to be fruitful.)
- All around us we see people who showed a little interest in God or in church for a season, but it hasn’t been part of their lives now in years.
- True faith perseveres.
