PREVENT DISCOURAGEMENT IN THE MINISTRY

Leadership Lifter
Nehemiah 4:6-14
Rick Warren

After talking with hundreds of pastors and church leaders, I am convinced that Satan’s most
effective weapon against these men and women is discouragement. Long hours of work,.
Loneliness, and the many special problems that Christian leaders must deal with combine to
make these servants of God especially susceptible to feelings of discouragement.

Lessons From the Life of Nehemiah

(Neh 4:6-14)

I. CAUSES OF DISCOURAGEMENT IN MINISTRY

1. _________________________________________________

“the strength of the laborers is giving out…” vs. 10a

When does discouragement usually hit us? V. 6

2. _________________________________________________

“… and there is so much rubble….” V. 10b

What is the “rubble” in your life?

3. _________________________________________________

“… we cannot rebuild the wall!” vs. 10c

How do you respond to failure?

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4. _________________________________________________

“Also our enemies said, `Before they know it or see us … we will kill them and put an
end to their work!” vs. 11

How to prevent a negative attitude: vs. 12

II. CURES FOR DISCOURAGEMENT IN MINISTRY

1. ________________________________________________

“It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night – for God
wants His loved one to get their proper rest!” Psalm 127:2 (LB)

The importance of balance

“Energizers”

2. _________________________________________________

“I stationed them … by families…” vs. 13

When discouraged: I may be doing the right thing but….

3, _________________________________________________

“I said to them… `Don’t be afraid. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome…”
v. 14a

3 Things to remember when discouraged:

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4. ___________________________________________________

“… and fight for your brothers, your sons, daughters, wives and homes!” v. 14b

Discouragement is a choice!

Never give up!

(This lecture is found in chapter 6 of Pastor Warren’s book, Answers to Life’s Difficult
Questions. © 1985 by Victor Books

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Leadership Lifter
Nehemiah 4:6-14
Rick Warren

I think discouragement is one of the most deadly diseases. It is universal. Everybody gets
discouraged. It is reoccurring. You can catch it more than once. It is highly contagious. When
other people are discouraged, you can get discouraged. But it is curable.

The fact of the matter is, life’s got its ups and downs. Everybody has off days, down days, days
you feel like giving up. Just as we close this seminar, we’ve had so much input together, I just
want to very briefly share with you a couple of encouraging ideas out of Nehemiah. Nehemiah
has been a real encouragement to me.

Nehemiah was a builder in this chapter 4. In Nehemiah ’s life we see four different causes of
discouragement. The Israelites came back from Babylon and they were rebuilding the wall. In
v. 6 it says “We rebuilt the wall until all of it reached half its height and the people worked with
all their heart.” V. 10 “Meanwhile the people in Judah said, `The strength of the laborers is
giving out and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall. And also our enemies
said, “Before they know it or see us we’ll be right there among them and we will kill them and
put an end to the work.”’”

These guys got discouraged and they got discouraged for four reasons. Any time I get
discouraged in the ministry it’s one of these causes. Or it’s a combination of these four causes.

1. THE FIRST CAUSE OF DISCOURAGEMENT IN THE MINISTRY IS FATIGUE.

We simply get tired. V. 10 “the strength of the laborers is giving out.” They’d worked a long
time, they were physically exhausted. They’re tired. They’re weary. They’re worn down (like
at the end of a seminar) and they were wiped out. The number one cause of discouragement in
ministry is we get tired. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed.

We get tired. We are human beings and we wear out. Sometimes my council, my advice to a lot
of people is to get some rest. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. If you burn the candle at
both ends, you’re not as bright as you think you are. We just wear out. Maybe you don’t need
to change anything. Maybe you just need a vacation. Maybe you just need some time off.

Notice when discouragement usually sets in. v. 6 “We rebuilt half the wall”. When does
discouragement usually set in? When you’re half done. Halfway through. Everybody works
hard at first in the newness of a new project. When I first started the church, the first six months
I had bundles of energy. I worked like crazy eighteen hours a day. Anybody can get excited
about something for a limited amount of time.

But after the newness wears off you start to get tired and you start to get fatigued. You start
painting the living room and get half finished. You look around and say, ”Oh, no. I’ve got to
finish the other half.” Have you ever climbed half way up a mountain and looked around and
said, “Maybe it’s not God’s will that I go all the way to the top.” Halfway through the job we
start to get fatigued.
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2. THERE IS SO MUCH RUBBLE

The second cause of discouragement in the ministry, I’ve found, is frustration. They’re building
a wall here and there’s broken bricks and dirt and dried mortar. The waste that accumulates in
any project can become very frustrating. When you’re remodeling a home you get these piles of
plaster and it gets frustrating.

Once a year, I have an annual ritual in the summer. It’s called Cleaning Out My File Cabinets. I
go through all my files, get them out on the ground, spread them all out, and at the end of the
day I haven’t made any progress. I just bundle them back up and put them back in the file
cabinet. They stay there for another year. It’s the frustration of so much rubble.

Is there rubble in the ministry? There is! Anytime you’re trying to accomplish anything. Have
you noticed that trash multiplies? Like little rabbits over in the corner reproducing. If you don’t
clean it out periodically it’s going to halt your progress toward your goal. You can’t avoid it but
you need to learn to recognize it and dispose of it quickly so you don’t forget your original
intention.

What is the rubble in your life? Rubble are the trivial things that waste your time and energy
and prevent you from accomplishing what God’s called you to do. It could be anything. It
could be committee meetings. It could be television. It could be anything but all those things
pile up and in addition to fatigue along comes frustration and you start to get discouraged.

There’s a third cause. We see it in the next verse. “There’s so much rubble that we cannot
rebuild the wall.” They said, We can’t do this. It’s impossible. We should have given up. We
should have never tried in the first place. They got a negative complex. The third cause of
discouragement is….

3. FAILURE

They were unable to finish their task as quickly as they originally had planned and as a result
their confidence went down the drain. “We were stupid to think we could ever rebuild this
wall.” Some of you might think, “I was dumb to think I could ever plant a church. I can’t do it
any more.” You feel like a failure.

What happens when you don’t reach your goal on time? Simple. Just set a new goal. You
don’t give up.

How do you handle failure in your life? That’s one of the most important questions you need to
settle in the ministry because you are going to fail. I’m going to fail. We all fail. Everybody
makes mistakes. Everybody does dumb things. How do you handle failure in your life? That’s
an issue you’re going to have to deal with if you’re going to learn to cope with discouragement
because everybody’s going to have failures.

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Do you give into self-pity? Do you start blaming other people? Do you start complaining, “It’s
impossible!”? Someone in my church said, “Just about the time I start to make ends meet,
somebody moves the ends.” Have you ever felt like that?

Fatigue, frustration, failure. There’s one other cause of discouragement.

4. FEAR

v. 11 “Also our enemies said, `Before they know it or see us we will be right there among them
and will kill them and put an end to their work.’” You know the background to this story.
You’ve preached on Nehemiah before. There were enemies. There were people who did not
want the wall to be rebuilt. They were doing everything they could to keep it from being rebuilt.
First they criticized the Jews and then they ridiculed the Jews and when that didn’t work, they
threatened the Jews. “We’re going to kill you.”

Notice who gets fearful the quickest. V. 12 “Then the Jews who lived near them came and told
us ten times over, `Wherever you turn, they will attack us.’” The people most affected by fear
are the people who live around people who are negative. If you’re going to control the negative
thoughts in your life, you’ve got to get away from negative people as much as you can. It’s like
the old saying: If you’re going to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys. You’ve
got to be away from those people. Those who get close. There’s the association.

What fear is causing you to be discouraged? The fear of criticism? Embarrassment? That
you’re not capable of the task? That you can’t handle pressure? How can you tell when fear is
causing discouragement in your life? Simple. You have an intense desire to run! “I’ve got to
get out of this! I’ve got to leave the ministry! I’ve got to leave this church!” I’ve got to leave.
You have an intense desire to run. I have learned in life that it is seldom God’s will for me to
run from a difficult situation. If I don’t learn in one place, guess what? God just gives me
another chance to learn somewhere else. I just out of the fire into the frying pan. You don’t run
from a fear. It only gets bigger. Don’t try to escape from life’s pressures.

Those are the causes of discouragement -- fatigue, frustration, failure and fear. What’s the
antidote? Thank God for Nehemiah. In Nehemiah we have the antidote for dealing with these
four causes for discouragement in life.

1. REST YOUR BODY.

The fact is, you are a human being and human beings need to do human things – rest and play
and relax and have hobbies, sleep. Psalm 127:2 “It’s vain for you to sit up late and rise up
early.” As I said, sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is just go to sleep. I like the
story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18. He’d had this great victory on Mt. Carmel with the god contest.
They’d called down fire and it was a tremendous victory. The next thing you know he’s on the
other side of the desert, discouraged, depressed, defeated – hiding in a cave from a woman.
He’s down and discouraged and he said, “I’m so tired! I’m sick and tired of being sick and
tired! Just kill me!” And God’s remedy for Elijah’s depression was not a sermon, but it says He
put him to sleep and he slept and then he got up and He fed him some food and then he went
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back to sleep. He woke up again and He fed him some more food. The remedy for Elijah’s
discouragement was eat, sleep, eat, sleep. God knows more about us that we do and He knows
that when our bodies are tired, we’ll be ineffective. Vince Lombardi said, “Fatigue makes
cowards of all of us.” Never make a major decision when you’re depressed. Never make a
major decision when you’re tired. Rest your body.

One of God’s universal laws is balance and for things to function properly, you’ve got to have
balance of work and play and sleep and rest and fun. I think God wants us to live balanced lives.
You need to fill your life with energizers like exercise and proper nutrition and play and
hobbies. Take good care of this temple.

I was out running this morning and I felt the joy of the Lord just running down the highway, just
because God fills your life when you’re in tune with Him, when you’re rested, when you’re
relaxed, when you can enjoy Him.

2. REORGANIZE YOUR LIFE.

This is what Nehemiah did.. v. 13 “Therefore I stationed some people at the low points of the
wall and exposed placed posting them by families with their swords and their spears and their
bows.” Nehemiah reorganized everything. Sometimes when you’re discouraged it is not that
you’re doing the wrong thing but you are doing it in the wrong way. Remind yourself of that
when you get discouraged. It’s not that you need to leave the ministry. It’s not that God hasn’t
called you into service. It’s not that you’re doing the wrong thing. Maybe it is the right thing
but it’s being done in the wrong way. What you need to do is simply reorganize. Take a fresh
approach. Try a new strategy.

The natural temptation when we get discouraged is to give up on the dream. We think, “Maybe
God didn’t give me that dream in the firs place. Maybe I shouldn’t have started this church.
Maybe I’ve bit off more than I could chew. Maybe I don’t belong here. Maybe it’s the wrong
place. Maybe I missed God’s call.”

No, it may just be that you got God’s call. You’re in the right place at the right time but you’re
doing it in the wrong way. I hope that’s what this seminar has been all about. To maybe expand
your vision and give you some new ways of thinking, trying a new approach to the same
ministry that you’ve had all along.

Some of you are under tremendous amounts of pressure. You’ve faced a lot of discouragement,
a lot of problems and your workload are unbelievable and you simply need to reorganize your
schedule. You need to look at things you need to cut out of your ministry. You need to see
what is important and what is not important and get rid of the rubble. Get rid of those things
that will clutter your life, that are wasting your time. There’s the old Pareto principle that
twenty percent of your time will produce eighty percent of the results. What you do is find those
twenty percent of the things you have to do and find what those are that produce the greatest
results. Likewise, in any church twenty percent of the problem people take up eighty percent of
your time. You need to recognize this.

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So what do you do with an existing church? How do I implement the radical principles we’re
talking about in an existing church?

Most of the people in your church are never going to change. First, admit that. They’re never
going to change. So you love them. Because you’re called to love them. And you can’t be
considered a failure if you love people. Because love never fails. Love those people who are
never going to change and move with the movers. In any church – there may be only one or a
handful – but you find the movers. And you invest the maximum amount of time with those
who are going to bear the maximum amount of responsibility. Jesus loved the crowds but He
discipled the twelve. And He invested the maximum amount of time with those who would bear
the maximum amount of responsibility. Love everybody. Pastor everybody. And treat them all
the same. But you move with the movers. Reorganize your life.

Notice he says “We reorganized them by families.” I think the point there is everybody needs a
support group. If you don’t have a group of pastors that you get together with, a group of men
that you get together with or a staff that you can spill your guts to in gut level honesty, you need
one of those three. You say, “My support system is my wife.” Great. My wife is my greatest
supporter and I have no secrets from her and I can’t imagine ministry without her. She really is
my best friend. But more than that, you need a group of peers, either your own staff that you
can share with or a group of pastors or some men that you can really level with who will love
you unconditionally. This is the kind of support you need. There’s no such thing as Lone
Ranger Christianity. One of the reasons why church planters fall off and get discouraged is they
get so lonely. They’re out there planting in a new area where oftentimes there isn’t a whole lot
of support. Rest you body and reorganize your life.

4. REMEMBER THE LORD

v,. 14 “After I looked things over I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest
of the people, `Don’t be afraid of these [these critics, these hounds, these negative people who
are saying it can’t be done, you’ll never be able to plant a church] Remember the Lord who is
great and awesome.” He’s talking about drawing on spiritual resources. Get plugged into the
source. Tune into your spiritual resources. Tune in to the Lord. The one who equips you will
give you the power to do it.

I like the verse in Samuel that says, “David encouraged himself in the Lord.” When Saul was
chasing him all over the place, he encouraged himself. Not with self help books, not with
motivational tapes. He encouraged himself in the Lord and that’s where his resources came
from.

He says, Remember the Lord. What do you remember? I try to remember three things when I
get discouraged.

1. I remember God’s goodness to me in the past. I mentally go over, make a list 1-100
of all the neat things that God has done for me. Count your many blessings, one by one and it
will surprise you what the Lord has done. The attitude of gratitude, psychologists have proven,
is the healthiest emotion that you can have. The world’s authorities on stress have actually
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registered that gratitude – the attitude of gratitude -- conserves more energy in your life than
any other attitude that you can have. Develop the attitude of gratitude and you will find it a
healthy antidote to discouragement in ministry. Look for things that you can be thankful for.
Remember God’s goodness in the past.

2. I remember God’s closeness in the present. I remember that I am not alone. No

matter what I go through or what I’m experiencing, “Lo, I am with you always.” I’m not facing
any circumstance by myself. I’m not facing any challenge, any job, any chore, any task on my
own effort but God is with me, Christ is in me, the Holy Spirit is indwelling me. I stop and
remember, “Rick, you’re not out here on a limb by yourself.” I remember God’s goodness in
the past and God’s closeness in the present.

3. I remember God’s power for the future. “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.” I am not in the business by myself. He will give you the power to do the task
that He has called you to do. Get your eyes off yourself. You talk to people and say, “How you
doing?” They say, “So far, so good, under the circumstances.” What are you doing under them?
Circumstances are like a feather mattress. If you get on top you rest easy. You get under them
and you suffocate. It’s where you happen to be. Corrie Ten Boom says it like this: “If you look
at the world, you’ll be distressed. [Just read the newspaper.] If you look within, you’ll be
depressed. [You see all your own faults and weaknesses.] But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at
rest.” It all depends on what you have your eyes on. Remember the Lord.

Rest your body – that takes care of fatigue. Reorganize your life – that takes care of the rubble,
the frustration. Remember the Lord – that takes care of the failures in your life because it’s
God’s grace.

4. RESIST THE DISCOURAGEMENT

Nehemiah 4:14 “Fight for your brothers. Fight for your sons. Fight for your daughters. Fight
for your wives and your homes.” He’s saying, Don’t give in. Resist the discouragement. Don’t
just roll over and play dead.

We are in a spiritual battle. It’s a warfare. R.G. Lee said, “If you don’t get up in the morning
and meet the devil, you’re just headed the wrong way.” We are in a spiritual battle. There is a
supernatural struggle. We’re in combat. The devil does not want the kingdom of God to
advance. As a church planter, you are on the front line. You’re going to get hit. The devil will
attack you with every kind of thing he can think of and he loves to attack you with
discouragement. The Bible says he is the accuser of the brethren. He would love to neutralize
you by discouragement. I know so many people – guys I went to college and seminary with –
who started out great but they’re on the sidelines today because they let the devil discourage
them. James 4:7 says “Resist the devil” because we are at war with those negative forces.

If you give in to discouragement it’s because you’ve chosen to. It is your choice. You can
choose not to be discouraged regardless of how black, how dark the situation seems, it is your
choice. Victor Frankl who was one of the Jews at the camp at Auschwitz said that one day
standing before the SS in the camp. They had stripped him of everything, stark naked, taken
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even his wedding ring. He said at that moment he realized they could take away every single
thing in his life except for one thing. They could not take away his freedom to choose how he
would respond.

You cannot control those cantankerous people in your church. You cannot control those carnal
people with attitudes that the devil will use to discourage you to mix you up, to depress you, to
try to get you off God’s goal. But you can chose how you’re going to respond to them. You can
choose whether you’re going to let it discourage you or not. It all depends on what you have
your eyes on,.what you’re going to look at. Don’t look at the problem. Look at the solution.
Don’t look at the difficulty, look at the One who overcomes the difficulty. Get your eyes on
Christ. The difference between successes and failures is that successful people just never, never
give up. They keep on keeping on. Even when they’re fatigued, even when they’re frustrated,
even when they feel like failures, even when they’re scared to death, they just keep on.

I live about two miles from the Pacific Ocean. I like to go down to the ocean and set and think
and pray. I’ve noticed that the tide goes out. One of the things I’ve learned about life is that the
tide always come back in. Some of you may be at the low tide right now. Everything’s kind of
gone bad, sour. You’re at a low period in your life now. Many of you don’t know what to do.
Hang on. If there’s anything that God wants to say to you is this: Don’t give up. Hang on.

Robert Schuller wrote a book Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do. That’s true.
Tough times never last. You may think, “I’m never going to get out of this.” This too shall
pass. Like the fellow who was asked, “What’s your favorite verse?” He said, “It came to pass.
When problems come I know they didn’t come to stay but they came to pass.

If you will just hang in there, you will outlast that carnal person who’s giving you so much
trouble in your church. If you will just stick it out. A friend of mine in LA says “When you go
to a new church, the first year is the honeymoon. The pastor can do nothing wrong. The second
year, usually the pastor can do nothing right. The third year, usually, somebody has to go. And
it may be that just like God had to kill off a couple million Jews in the desert before He’d let
them go into the Promised Land, God may have to move some people out of your church before
He fulfills the vision that He’s given you. Never give up.

Prayer:

Right now, in the quietness of this moment, let’s have a personal time of reflection. What is
it that causes discouragement in your life? Some of you folks are simply fatigued. You’re
just out of energy. It was the most relaxing day of my life the day I resigned as General
Manager of the universe. I realized something. The world did not fall apart the day I did
that. I felt like I was Atlas – the whole world’s on my shoulder. Would you relax and take
a deep breath right now and just let it out and let God drain that stress out of your life, those
pressures, those problems, those people, those circumstances, those critics, those challenges,
those impossible situations. Take a deep breath and just let it out. And rest. Some of you
need to take a vacation. I read a statement the other day that was a great stress reliever to
me. “No football team in history ever won a game without substitutions.” If you feel like
you have to be there every Sunday, you’re wrong. Some of you need to take a vacation.
Some of you need to start a regular exercise program. Walking. If you walk two miles a
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day, you’ll get more energy. Some of you need to start watching your nutrition. Some of
you need to develop a hobby, something you enjoy so much you’re willing to leave your
work for it. And sometimes that’s hard to do when you love the ministry as much as we do.
But you need it if you’re going to last in the ministry. Some of you have frustration in your
life and that’s why you’re discouraged. Rubble has pilled up and you’re going back to a
heavy desk and all kinds of commitments. You’re trying to burn the candle at both ends.
What you need to do is reorganize your life. Say, “God, help me to see that I’m not doing
the wrong thing. I’m just doing it in the wrong way.” Some of you are discourage because
you feel like a failure. You say, “I’ve been in this place for six months (or six years) and I
feel like I’m treading water.” You are never a failure if what you’re doing is ultimately is
for the glory of God. Maybe God’s just been trying to teach you some lessons. He wants
you to stay there but do it in a different way. Maybe He wants you to move on. Only God
can tell you when to let go and when to hold on. Never give up on your dream. If you feel
like you’re a failure, listen to this “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus.” God does not condemn you. God loves you. God’s not mad at you. God is
on your side. “If God be for us, who can be against us.” One plus God equals a majority.

One of the great truths of scripture is that God is the God of the second chance and He lets
you start over. He says “I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.” If you would
commit yourself and say, “Christ, whether I have five years or fifty years left, I want to
commit it to You. I want to renew my life commitment to You right now. Lord, whether
you take me home next week or in 50 or 60 years I want the rest of my life to be the best of
my life.” Some of you are discouraged because of fear. You’re dealing with fears that “I
can’t handle this. It’s too much responsibility.” It the fear that you don’t deserve it. It’s
the fear of criticism. Fear will destroy your life if you let it. But you can choose to resist
the discouragement. Say, ”God help me to get my eyes off the problem, off the
circumstance and keep my eyes on You.” Tension is a warning light that you have taken
your eyes off the Lord. When you get tense it is God’s beeper saying, “You’ve lost your
focus.” “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” Resist the
devil and his discouragement. Recognize where it’s coming from. Some of you are just
barely holding on and you may be thinking, “It isn’t worth it.” Hold on! The answer may
just be around the corner. Anybody that watches basketball knows that the game is often
won in the final second. You never know. The answer may be right around the corner.
Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Heavenly Father, I want to thank You for these men and women who have taken time out to
come to this seminar. I thank You that with our many different backgrounds and
talents and abilities and experiences of life, that You can use each of us to reach people that
no one else can reach. I thank You for the diversity that we have here in this room. I thank
You that Your work done Your way will not lack Your support. I thank You that You can
use us in each of our churches in a significant way. Lord, help us to have a new vision and
new inspiration and new charge that comes not from motivation or psychology but comes
from knowing You and comes from our walk with You. Help us to realize that sometimes
You have to make us lie down in green pastures in order to get our attention. Help us to
spend some time by those still waters that restore our soul. Lord, we look to You for
strength. I thank You that what You’ve called us to do that You will bring it to pass. I
thank You that we can be confident of this, that You who began a good work in our lives
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will bring it to completion in the day of Christ. That You’re not going to cut us off half
way through. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.