You discourage. Well, it's enough to this edition of key life. Hey, if you're in the stuffy, turn off the radio now because this is key life. It's time to be honest, straightforward and street smile. Here's Steve Brown with the Teaching for today. Thanks, Mike. If you have your Bible, leave it open because I'll be referring to the Bible as we go along. We're talking about God and pain and suffering and broken ropes. And this is from my book when your rope breaks. Published by Baker, you can get it at your bookstore from us. And no, I don't get anything from it. I'm not hustling a buck and all goes to key life. But if we don't make the point through that well anyway, but no, I'm not hustling bucks. And I'm giving a little bit more material than is in the book, but I'm pretty much following the book on key life. And we're talking about God and pain and evil and suffering. And we're going to get back in the next two or three weeks to our Old Testament survey, which we left off to do this subject. And we'll start in Jeremiah. But for now, what I'm going to do is introduce. And we'll talk a lot more about this next week. I want to introduce the problem of discouragement. Listen, one of the worst things about pain isn't the pain. One of the worst things about pain is the discouragement that follows. My wife a year ago went through about seven months. It was just awful. She was coughing and had a lot of things. We see the doctor and they found the mass on her lung. And the doctor said, I think it's pneumonia, but we're not sure. So they started giving her antibiotics. And then there were nodules. And in the course of all this, they talked about some surgery and steroids. I mean, it was just an awful thing. And a lot of you prayed and I appreciate that. And she's 100% now. She's fine. She's doing really, really good. And all that's over and it's behind us and we're glad. And we learned a lot through it. But after being seven months, a lot of those months, she's been in bed. I mean, she wanted to get up and she couldn't, she just didn't have any energy. Then the pneumonia cleared up in her lungs and it was gone. And she still was down. And we began to realize what was happening that that was worse than the bad stuff that was happening with the pneumonia. That happens a lot. When people go through really difficult times and they wrote breaks and they go through pain and suffering, sometimes what follows or what goes on during that time emotionally is worse than the actual problem itself. Charles Spurgeon often dealt with a problem with discouragement. Let me read you something that he told his students. This is from his book Lectures to My Students. And if you're a pastor and don't have that in your library, you ought to get it still in print. This is what he told his students. One crushing stroke has sometimes laid the minister very low. The brother most relied upon becomes a traitor. Judas lifts up his heel against the man who trusted him and the preacher's heart for the moment fails him. Strife also. In division and slander and foolish cinchers have often laid holy men prostrate. Made them go as with a sword in their bones. Hard words wound some delicate minds very keenly. By experience, the soul is hardened to the rough blows which are inevitable in our warfare. But at first these things utterly stagger us and send us to our homes wrapped in a horror of great darkness. When troubles multiply and discouragements follow each other in a long succession like Job's messengers then to amid the pain of the soul occasion by evil tidings. Dispondency dispoils the heart of all its peace. I'm familiar. You know the great thing about Spurgeon. Let me, let me, is that he, there's such identification because he went through periods of great depression. Listen to this. Constant dropping wears away stones and the bravest minds feel the threat of repeated afflictions. If a scanty cupboard is rendered as server trial, severe trial by the sickness of a wife or the loss of a child. And if ungenerous remarks of hears are followed by the opposition of deacons and coolness of members then like Jacob, we are apt to try all these things are against me. And I keep saying just quit, that's a long left quote. But let me keep on reading. I mean, you really, you see the greatness of Spurgeon. Accumulated distresses increase each other's weight. They play into each other's hands and like bands of robbers ruthlessly destroy our comfort. Wave upon wave is severe work for the strongest swimmer. The place where two seas meet strains the most seeworthy. If there were regulated pause between the buffetings of adversity the spirit would stand prepared. But when they come suddenly and heavily like the battering of great hailstones, the pilgrim may well be amazed. The last ounce is laid upon us. What wonder if we for a while are ready to give up the ghost. A Spurgeon had been there. Man he knew. Did you know that in Spurgeon's life that there was a fire in a church where he once preached and somebody was killed? Or maybe it was a balcony that fell, but something bad like that. That haunted him the rest of his life. And there were literally months when he couldn't preach because he was depressed. You say, well, he must not have been a Christian. Non-sense. That's from the pit of hell. Smells like smoke. Spurgeon was probably the finest exposure of God's words in the last 200 years. Spurgeon of course was talking to ministers in that passage. I read you, but everyone can identify with his comments. One of the great problems with broken ropes and pain and suffering is the inevitable discouragement with follow. Which follow? How do you deal with that? How do you deal with the demon of discouragement? Let's talk about it. One of the keys to dealing with discouragement is found in Hebrews 12, 1 through 3. Let me read it to you. Therefore, we also, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnare us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who far the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him, who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Now the writer of Hebrews first suggests that we are surrounded by witnesses. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews to put it in the context lists a number of old Testament characters, who endured great suffering, and who persevered because of their faith. You talk about people. You talk about people that are really in trouble. The writer ends that chapter talking about the people of God who are mocked and beaten, who were stoned and imprisoned, who were sawn in half, who had no homes. That's Hebrews 11, 36 through 39. And the twelfth chapter of Hebrews opening opens by saying that we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. That is, hey, you're not by yourself. If you're going through pain and suffering, look at the pain and suffering others who have gone through on and to complete their race, be encouraged by them, the apostle. I'll tell you, I'm having trouble talking, but I'm doing the best I can. And the apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians and Corinth about the trials he and his friends had experienced. And this is, he said they were, this is second Corinthians one eight. He said the trials were so bad that they despaired of even life itself. I wouldn't wish that kind of hurt on anyone. But I'm glad Paul went through it. It makes me feel better about my own discouragement. Discouragement, you see, is almost always marked by feelings of aloneness. You feel that no one could possibly understand. Nobody could possibly have had the kind of troubles you had. No one could possibly be as discouraged as you are at the moment. And it helps. That's not a total cure. Let me talk more about it next week. But you know something that helps sometimes to remember that others have indeed shared the occasion of suffering. The old spiritual says, When I've done the best I can and my friends misunderstand thou who knowest all about me stand by me. But you see, all of your friends don't misunderstand. You just think they do. Throughout the history of the church Christians have gone through difficulty and pain and suffering. Discouragement is a part of living. You're not a believer, your mother doesn't dress you funny. You are human being. In the early part of the 16th century a man by the name of Thomas Billney became convinced of the need for the Bible and the lives of believers. Because he was so vocal about those convictions. He was burned at the stake in Norwich England in 1531. Now you never heard of him. But let me tell you about somebody you may have heard of. Standing in the crowd on the day Billney was executed. There was another young man named Hugh Latimer. He was a graduate of Cambridge and Latimer was so influenced by the life and death of Billney. That he committed his life to the propagation of Billney's faith. Later, Latimer became a bishop in the church. Bloody Mary came to the throne. Latimer was among those who were tortured and killed. While he was dying, he talked to another man by the name of Ridley. Be of good comfort, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. Now where did Latimer get the kind of courage to do what he did? Let me tell you, he got it from Billney. Whenever he thought about just giving up and quitting, he remembered Billney dying on that stake being burned to death. He remembered the courage of Billney. He remembered that Billney was just as discouraged and afraid as he was but he kept on trucking. And Latimer said, he can, I can't. If he did, I will. If the pain was big for him and he got through it, I suspect I can too. And so, when your discouraged, remember, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, you think about that. I'm in. Hey, listen, if you're not a part of our key life tape family, I'd love for you to be a part of it. This is how it works. 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