The Danger Of Discouragement #2 Of 2

And if you ever hear a fellow say that he never gets discouraged, watch out for him!

Illus: He will also probably tell you he likes to take cold showers when it is 30? below zero.

For some, discouragement has become a way of life. That is, if you talk to them today they are discouraged, and if you talk to them a month from now they are still discouraged.

Illus: The Hayden Planetarium in New York City issued an invitation to all those who were interested in applying to be a part of the crew on the first journey to another planet. Eighteen thousand people applied. They gave the applications to a panel of psychologists, who examined them thoroughly and came to the conclusion that, in the vast majority of incidents, those who applied did so because they were discouraged with their lives here, and hoped they could find a new life somewhere else. (Bruce Thielemann "Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48.)

Many are discouraged, and ready to move to another planet.

But those who have gone on to greatness in their lives, discovered that discouragement is something that we have to defeat, or else it will defeat us. We can learn how to OVERCOME DISCOURAGEMENT.

Illus: A man was sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He only recently had retired from the post office, and he's sitting there when his first Social Security check is delivered.

He's very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, "Is this what life is going to be from now on -- sitting on the porch waiting for my check to arrive?"

He decided he wouldn't settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him, all the blessings and the capacities, the unique things that were in him.

The list was long because he listed everything he could think of, and in the list was the fact that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother's recipe for fried chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices.

So he went to a nearby restaurant, and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu.

Then he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and a string of restaurants. Eventually Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across all of America.

He finally retired a second time (all this happened, you remember, after he had retired from the postal service), and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year until his death.

Now here was a man who did not allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. ("Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48. )

Listen, the reason a person is discouraged is because they choose to be discouraged. Colonel Sanders decided he was not going to sit in an old rocking chair with all the other old people and:

• FUSS ABOUT THE WEATHER

• FUSS ABOUT HIGH PRICES

Illus: We can take the sour lemons that are thrown at us, and by the help of almighty God, turn them into sweet lemonade.

Some of the most successful men/women who ever lived, use their discouragement to make them successful.

Illus: For example, “A fellow who sold insurance went after a particularly difficult customer, a man that no one had been able to sell. Eventually he sold him a fifty-thousand-dollar policy. Back in 1883 when this occurred, that was a very large policy. He took out his pen and handed it to the man to sign the contract. When the man tried to write, the pen wouldn't write. He tried several times without success, and finally handed the pen back with the contract and said, "I'd better think this over a little while longer." The man lost the sale.

He went home disappointed and discouraged because he had lost the sale, and he determined right then and there that he would never lose another sale because of a fountain pen that didn't work.

So he sat down and invented his own fountain pen. His name was Louis Waterman, and the Waterman Fountain Pen became the premier writing instrument of America for the next fifty years. (Bruce Thielemann, "Dealing with Discouragement," Preaching Today, Tape No. 48. )

But some of the greatest men had to battle discouragement. Elijah was such a man.

This morning we looked at:

I. THE PLACE

II. THE PROBLEM

III. THE PROVISION

But lets look at something else-

IV. THE PREDICAMENT

If Elijah was a cowboy, we could say, “He is fixing to have a showdown at the OK Corral!”

After three and a half years of DROUGHT and HIDING, God decided it was time to bring things to an end.