People Lose Heart When They Listen To "Opinions." (2/6)

via Philgarlic on flickrIn this time with so many people discouraged and overwhelmed, I share these thoughts on “not losing heart.” I preached from these notes last year in May after listening to a sermon by Pastor Brian Houston from Australia. I present these ideas in six subsequent posts.

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WHEN DO PEOPLE LOSE HEART?

1. People Lose Heart When They Listen To The Opinions Of Others.

It is so easy to listen to the wrong voices and to believe other people’s perspectives. These negative voices can drown out the promises of God in our hearts.

Although they knew what God promised them, the Israelites were adversely affected by the negative opinions of ten spies, and they perished in the wilderness, unable to enter the Promised Land. Their inability to shut out the opinions of men robbed them of their inheritance.

Listen to the language of fear as they tried to explain their situation:

Deuteronomy 1:28
28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.' "

There is a challenge for us in this story: Are we more apt to discuss the opinions of people than the promises of God?

Look at the logic of their argument: They feel shorter and weaker than their opponents, while those are irrelevant factors in the battles ahead! In fact, in the next generation we see that God defeated their enemies in spectacular and creative ways. Their strength or size had nothing to do with their divinely ordained victories over their enemies!

Tall buildings? These were the exaggerations of faithless spies who tried to instill fear in the hearts of God’s people. God leveled those walls and buildings in one moment about forty years later! God squashed those cities and giants in a moment!

“THEY say!”
Who are "THEY?"

Don’t listen to what THEY SAY when it comes to the will of God in your life!

Remember how Jesus told needy people to, “take heart?”

Regardless of how imposing the odds against you and however unlikely victory seems to be …. be like Bartimaus, who did not allow people’s voices to stop him as he called out to Jesus. In fact, he yelled even louder to attract Jesus when they tried to “shhhh” him. It almost seems as if he believed that his miracle depended on his tenacity in pushing past those voices into the healing presence of Jesus.

Don’t lose heart because of people’s opinions. God’s opinion makes man’s opinion irrelevant! Focus on God’s opinion.

Don’t lose heart! Half-heartedness will never cause the purposes of God to come to pass in your life. Remember that without faith it is impossible to please Him! (See Hebrews 11:6)

Are you listening to the negative opinions of others? Or, are you considering God’s opinion to be most important for your life?