Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Being a Christian does not make you immune to injustice or discouragement. Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart Briscoe shows you from the story of Joseph how to overcome discouragement. He'll get started in just a moment. Everyone experiences disappointments in life, and when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

So request your copy when you give today. 1 800 889 5388. That's 1 800 889 5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's begin Stuart's message how to cope with discouragement.

Stuart Briscoe: There are many reasons that people are discouraged in our world. I want to explore some of them with you from the story of Joseph. But we don't just want to look into the reasons for discouragement. We look into some possible reactions to discouragement. Finish up talking about the resources available to us to handle discouragement. If we are made by God, for God, to live through God, and are ultimately accountable to God, it would seem reasonable to assume that if we find ourselves discouraged at any time, perhaps part of the reason for it is something fundamentally awry with the relationship with God.

That certainly was the case as far as the story of Joseph was concerned. Now his reasons for discouragement. The first reason, of course, that is very obvious was he was in prison. It was a very very unpleasant environment indeed. And like all human beings, his environment made a profound impact on his attitude. I know this to be the case because not infrequently I will go to places and I look forward as soon as I get there to leaving. But the underlying assumption seems to be it's my environment that causes my problems. Therefore, if I could just change my environment, all will be well.

And it ain't necessarily so. However, there's no question about it that living in an unpleasant environment, such as was the case with Joseph, can lead to disappointment and discouragement. The second thing that we can glean from his story is that he had suffered over an extended period of time a considerable amount of unfair treatment. He was betrayed by his own family. And that, my friends, is a very very disappointing thing to experience. People who get betrayed by families finish up very discouraged indeed. I'm talking to some people now. You entered into marriage. You entered into marriage with every intention of being faithful and committed.

And put put it very simply and very bluntly, you were downright betrayed. And some of you are still living with the pain, the hurt, the scars that have come from the betrayal of those whom you left. Betrayal of those to whom you are committed. After he'd been betrayed by his loved ones, Joseph sold into Egypt, found himself in the home of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's great servants. And because he conducted himself wisely and well, they saw immediately that he was a gifted young man. He was promoted. He got himself in a position of authority and responsibility.

And immediately his life took on a whole new shine. Unfortunately, at that time, Mr. Potiphar, his employer, had a wife who was a little lonely and a little neglected, and she cast eyes on Joseph. And when he would not engage in a sexually immoral relationship with her, she accused him of trying to rape her. It is a pretty discouraging thing to be falsely accused. It happens all the time. The tragedy was compounded in that not only was he falsely accused, the people who should have taken the time out to look into the truth of the matter didn't.

They simply assumed the lies that were being told about him, and they condemned him, and he was thrown into prison. So having already been sold into slavery and worked his way out of it, now he's down in the pit again. But he conducts himself with considerable industry and integrity and dignity. They see his value, and very soon he is doing well in the prison. The tragedy, of course, is this that having lived in an unpleasant environment and being treated unjustly, he now finds himself in a situation where life is full of disappointments. While he's in the prison, two of Pharaoh's chief servants have obviously incurred his displeasure, and they could tell he's they've incurred his displeasure because he simply puts them in prison too.

But we notice that while they're in there, Joseph ministers to them. He's not only running the prison. He seems to be the chaplain as well. He He's the one who is just generally a caring for everybody. And he goes out of his way to be friend and to be interested in and to minister to these men. One day they have a dream. They have a dream each. And he begins to deal with the dreams. We'll talk about this in just a moment. And the only thing he asks of them as he ministers to them is that when they eventually get out of prison, that they remember him and be kind to him.

And the tragedy is this that after they've made great promises to him, they don't follow through. And so now he has to live with the insensitivity of people and rank ingratitude. And he finds himself fundamentally disappointed with people. People do tend to disappoint you. Uh sometimes we can have unrealistic expectations of them, but sometimes perfectly reasonable expectations can be presented to people and they just don't come through. As Joseph finds himself in prison, he is in the prison immediately adjacent to or perhaps even part of the palatial home that he used to run. So not only does he have these awful feelings of being rejected and falsely accused and unjustly condemned, but I have no doubt that he can hear all the sounds of activity and all the signs of festivity that are going on in the household that he used to run.

And now he finds himself in this situation, and there's a very high probability that as he sat there, he pondered why is it in this world that so often the people who try to be good and righteous finish getting ripped off. And the rogues and the rascals laugh all the way to the bank and seem to get away with it. Why is it? Why is there this fundamental injustice about life in general? Would you agree with me that one of the reasons that we find ourselves discouraged is simply that people disappoint us so often and so regularly that in the end we sour on life itself.

And we begin to be skeptical about life. For the wicked flourish and the righteous suffer. If you haven't read the Psalms recently, do that again sometime. You'll find that that is one of the dominant themes of the Psalms.

Guest (Male): Don't go anywhere. There's more life giving truth from the Briscoes headed your way. Tellingthetruth.org and the Telling the Truth app are great resources to help you grow in your spiritual life. Packed with videos like Ask the Briscoes, articles from Stuart and Jill, and encouraging audio teaching content, you'll find a treasure trove of resources to encourage you and others in your faith. And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource when you give a gift to help more people around the world experience life in Christ. So visit us online or download the app today.

We look forward to connecting with you. Let's go back to Stuart now and hear more about how to overcome discouragement. But here's a tragedy. If we find ourselves disappointed with people and eventually disappointed with life, one of the great tragedies is that we may eventually become disappointed with God. Do you ever find yourself in that situation? You spend time in your Bible. You spend time studying it. You spend time in worship. But then this time has gone on. Life has turned sour on you. People have disappointed you. You've been betrayed. You've been left. You've been abused.

You've been victimized. And you have tried to hold on to the promises of God. And in the end you are so disappointed with people and so disappointed with life that in the end you became disappointed with God himself. And you say, where are you, God, when it hurts? Where are you, God, when I really need you? Can you understand that some people can become so discouraged with life and so discouraged with people in the end they become discouraged with God? Oh I can understand this. Some of you find yourself in an unpleasant environment treated unfairly and unjustly living with life's disappointments.

These are the reasons for your discouragement. Well, let's move on. You say, please do. Getting more and more discouraged the longer you go on with that. The key to coping with discouragement is changing the heart attitude. Remember, core, heart is the key, the root of encouragement. The first thing I want you to notice is this that Joseph even in the prison retains his commitment to the sovereignty of God in his life. Now you get a clue to this. It was customary in those days for God to reveal truth to people through visions and through dreams.

And he would raise up gifted people who could interpret the dreams you find all the way through the Old Testament. Periodically, God would reveal truth to people. That's very interesting to notice that this happened in the prison to Pharaoh's officials. They had the dreams, but they said we've no one to interpret them. And notice Joseph's answer. Interpretations belong to God. Interpretations belong to God. What does it mean? He means only God knows. You've heard people say this in a facetious way. God only knows. And they're absolutely right, although they don't always mean it reverently. What Joseph is saying is this, interpretations belong to God.

In other words, only God is able to understand what is going to happen. Why? Because he is in control. That's the key to coping with discouragement. The second thing that he does is he retains the principles that have already been built into his life. I'll just identify one of them for you. One of the principles that got him into trouble in his early days was telling the truth. Just plain old telling the truth. It will get you into trouble. When he's in the prison, he has these two men. And one of them has a dream, and the interpretation of the dream is I got good news for you, Buster.

Three days and you're out of here. The other one is I got bad news for you, I'm afraid. Three days and you're toast. You're gone. Now then he actually tells them both. And this was very gracious of him, but it was rather courageous of him too because this man is a high official. You tell him three days from now you're dead. Yes, he told him that. And it was a very gracious thing to do, and I'll tell you why. It isn't just a gracious thing to do to tell people good news. Sometimes the best thing you can do is tell them the bad news because if you tell a man three days from now you're dead, you put him in touch with his mortality that is denied for yours.

And you focus him on eternity which he's ignored all his life. As Dr. Johnson said, one of the great advantages of the death penalty is it wonderfully focuses the attention. It does that. And so he retains his principles. And that is how you cope with discouragement. You maintain your conviction of the gracious, divine, sovereign control of this world, and you stick with your spiritual principles. And you nurture your spiritual life in the discouragement. Now of course he could have done it different way. He could have said I got good news for you for the cup bearer on your way.

And then he turns to the baker he says there I am I'm not quite sure I can tell you exactly what the vision that you had really refers to. It was a little fuzzy. Um but keep your chin up. He could have done that, but unfortunately he had principles and he stuck with them. You say the problem is this. My discouragements are so great. My disappointments are so far reaching that I just find that I lack the resources to be able to respond. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. One day the Lord Jesus said this to a group of people.

He said, come to me, all those of you who are weary and overburdened, discouraged, disconsolate, disappointed. Those are my words, but that's basically what he's saying. All those of you who find yourself in those categories, come to me and I will give you rest for your soul. You say, oh that's just religious gobbledygook. Well, let me remind you something. The one who is saying come to me and derive from me that which will put courage back in your discouragement is the one who's been there and done it all. If you're talking about unpleasant environments, how about living from a bygone eternity in heaven and coming down and being born in a stable down here?

How about being in control of the angels of light and then finding yourself a refugee when you are a baby? How about having at your fingertips everything that was needed because you made it all and then allowing yourself to be in a place where you could say the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. How about being enriched with all the glories of eternity and having to borrow your taxes from a fish? And how about having a group of men that you pour your life into and when you need them every single one of them forsakes you and runs away?

And how about being falsely accused and how about being condemned and how about being crucified on a cross? This is the one who says God is not sitting sovereignly in heaven with his arms akimbo, looking down at his nose and discouraged people and saying tough. God in Christ has come down to where we are. And he's identified with us in our pain and he's born our sorrows. He's acquainted with our grief and he comes and says now come to me. I understand. The second thing that we are told is this in Romans chapter 15 verse 4 that we can find encouragement in the scriptures.

We can find encouragement in the scriptures. I want to tell you something. Anybody who comes to a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus and begins to carefully study his word and begins to mix it with faith and be obedient to it will find resources of encouragement that won't quit. The third thing is this. Know the fellowship of the Holy Spirit which means that God in the person of the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and in the inner recesses of our spirits as we sit in our prisons, disappointed with people, discouraged by life in the inner resources of our spirit, the spirit of God is saying it is well, it is well with your soul.

And fourthly and finally, the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 10 says that whatever else we do, we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but that we must come together as a fellowship of God's people and encourage one another. Put those four things together. You commit your life to Christ. You feed on his word. You nurture the life of the Spirit. You commit yourself to the fellowship of believers who commit themselves to you. And you got four eternal resources to cope with discouragement. Now here are Stuart's answers to a few questions from today's message.

Stuart, talk about a time in your life where God showed you that you needed to shift your priorities for the sake of your character.

Stuart Briscoe: Uh when I was in my early 20s living in England, uh I used to play rugby. Uh I used to sing uh in a male voice choir and a mixed voice choir. In fact, we won the All England Championships. Uh and at the same time I used to engage uh in a lot of preaching and teaching, particularly with young people. But I I began to recognize that the rugby and the uh and the choir commitments were beginning to push out uh by free time uh where I could be available to teach and to preach. And so uh I I had to make some decisions.

And the the result of it was that I I walked away from both rugby and the choir, not to suggest there was anything fundamentally wrong with either of them. There wasn't. It was a matter of priorities. I didn't have time to do all these things. So I walked away from playing rugby and I walked away from singing in the choir in order that I could devote myself more to reaching out to people who wanted me to go and teach the Bible to them. And that was a clear case of uh developing in me uh a a sense of obedience, a sense of recognizing the relative value of things.

And as a result, I think it developed some good character traits.

Guest (Male): Stuart, I'm sure today we have someone listening who's experienced terrible rejection. How does God help heal the rejected person's heart? And what would you say to that person?

Stuart Briscoe: Uh I think the first thing we need to uh recognize when people have gone through a terribly traumatic experience is that they they need to have a sense that we we are concerned about them with we have compassion for them, that we we love them in in Christ. And how do they get that impression? I think it comes about when we are willing to give them our time and give them our attention and just give them a shoulder to cry on and ears that will listen and eyes that will focus upon them. Uh when we begin to develop that that kind of atmosphere for these hurting people, then uh they are are willing to relax in that comfort zone and open up and and tell us what really is going on.

And now at that point we can begin to ask some pertinent questions or begin to unearth what is going on. In other words, not just the rejection, but the things that led up to that rejection. And hopefully uh we can begin to deal with some of the relational problems that they are experiencing. But then in the end the one thing we tell them is this, that even though human beings reject us, God says that when we come to him, he will under no circumstances reject us. And he will never leave us alone.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. Everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like it's always going to be this way or I'll never overcome this. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series Hope for the Disheartened.

In it, Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing. You'll learn that even in trouble times, you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, and joy. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1 800 889 5388. That's 1 800 889 5388 or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Thanks for listening today. Be sure to come back again for more biblical teaching from the Briscoes to encourage you and help you experience life right here on Telling the Truth.