Overcoming Discouragement

Overcoming Discouragement in 2 Corinthians 1

Well, good morning, church. It's good to be with you and to bring forward the word of God to you. May you receive it well and may it nourish your soul. If you please can turn to your Bibles in 2 Corinthians chapter one.

I'm going to be sharing with you a message on how to overcome discouragement, and the scripture reading is from 2 Corinthians chapter one. We'll be starting in verse three. When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word.

Here you this morning, the word of the Lord. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort, too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the afflictions we experience in Asia, for we're so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death that but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him.

We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You must you also must help us by prayer. So that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. These are the words of the Lord.

You may be seated. Father, we do come before you this morning with many different afflictions, despair, many trials, many ups and downs. We pray, God, that you'd grant us this comfort of which Paul spoke of.

This comfort that is acquired in and through the sufferings of Christ and are joining to the same sufferings of our savior. Lord, help us to see with eyes of faith and with great clarity how it is that we as feeble, weak humans, creatures of the dust may be able to overcome such great despair, such as discouragement and even depression.

And help us, Lord, to seek your face so that we may have that comfort that you have promised us in Holy Scripture. And this peace that surpasses all understanding may be ours to guide and to protect our minds and our hearts in Christ Jesus.

In his name that we do pray. Amen. Well, beloved, I don't know about you, but Christmas and Thanksgiving and this season to me is one of like my favorite times of the year. It is a season of joy. But I must also admit to you that if I'm going to be completely honest with you, though I have a very idealistic version of the holidays in my mind, I also have come to the realization that over the last several years of my life, these are actually one of the most difficult seasons of my life is also the holiday.

So while in one regard is a time of great joy for me because I love celebrating Christmas and I love celebrating the holidays and being around friends and family. I've also come to recognize this is a very difficult time in my life as I reflect on my family situation and my upbringing and all the things that I've had to endure around this time of the year.

And I suspect that this may be also true of you. That this may while being a season of great joy can also be a season of great trial, and it's usually true in life that seasons of joy and seasons of trial go hand in hand.

And so I want to speak to your hearts this morning to encourage you, to edify you, that there is hope over despair, that there is joy in the midst of this discouragement and that there's hope even in the depths of depression.

And so I want to bring us this word from from Holy Scripture, from Second Corinthians chapter one. And again, today's message is how to overcome discouragement. You may find yourself discouraged this morning.

You may find yourself struggling, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, whether it's in our marriages, whether it's in our relationships, whether it's economically. We may be looking for encouragement.

We may be looking for hope. And hope is found only in one source. Verse three says, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Get this. He is the father of mercies. He's the father of mercies.

God, the father, is not just a father of our souls. He's not just a father of creation. He is the father or in this sense, father, meaning source of mercy itself. Think for a moment what it means to receive mercy.

You and I, as we just learned from the catechism teaching, we are all subject to the wrath of God because of our sin. You and I are under a broken, terribly desperate state apart from Jesus Christ. And that state is described for us in Ephesians, too, that we were once dead in our trespasses and sins and that we used to all walk under the authority of the prince of the power of the air and that by nature we were objects of wrath.

You and I, by virtue of our sonship in Adam, by virtue of the sin inherited from Adam, are under the curse of God. And yet there is one who stands above all of it, who is the source, the father of mercy.

He extends that mercy. What does mercy mean? Mercy in this context simply means to extend grace even when you don't deserve it, to extend a hand, to extend loving kindness to those who are unlovable, undesirable.

And that is what we were under. Adam, we were undesirable, unlovable. We were objects of wrath. And yet in his great love, with which he's loved us and his great mercy, he made us alive in Christ and he seated us with Christ in heavenly places.

And this father of mercies extends his mercy to you today. I'm not sure exactly what you may be facing in life this morning, but be assured of this, that there is one who is extending mercy to you in your circumstance.

Mercy. And mercy is what we need. Oftentimes in this world, what we think we want is justice. Notice the pleas and the cries of the world today. They're all asking, demanding for justice, justice in the courts, justice in the public sphere, justice in the corporations, justice in politics.

And yet I would submit to you that what we actually need is not justice, but rather mercy. Because if we all truly received justice. Who could stand? Who would be able to stand before the Lord if we were all to demand his justice?

Because his justice would say we are guilty. We're under his wrath. We are undeserving. And yet it is only when we are met with mercy that we can see the loving kindness and grace of God. His mercy leads us to comfort.

And that's what will truly comfort us in this world is not the pleas and cries for justice, but rather for his mercy, which is why when even our savior was on the cross and he could hear the words and the cheering and jeers of his opponents who were mocking him, who were flogging him.

And yet, as he cries on the cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. His cry was not one for justice, but instead for mercy. Are you crying out to God this morning for his mercy?

Are you crying out for his justice? And to cry out for his justice is not a bad thing, because even we see in scripture that that is entirely appropriate to do so under given circumstances. In fact, in heaven right now, there are souls gathered under the altar who are crying out aloud right now.

Until when, oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, will you hold back your judgments? There's a plea for judgment. There's a plea for justice. And yet what I would submit to you, though, this morning is to overcome discouragement, to overcome despair.

We must seek first mercy. Because it's through mercy that we find comfort, because he is the father, the God and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ is the father of mercies, and he's the God of all comfort.

If you're following along in today's teaching, I want you to write this in. The Lord, Yahweh, is the father of mercies, and he's the God of all comfort, which means that he is himself the source from which we receive our comfort.

He's the source of all comfort. He's the source of all mercy. It all flows from him and his undivided being. Now, one thing I want to address as well this morning is that, yes, God is the God of mercy.

Yes, God is a God of comfort. But beware of the idol of comfort. As Americans, we tend to worship comfort. There's often time and even in Christianity in the church today, evangelicalism at large, we seem to worship comfort as our God instead of the God of all comfort.

What do I mean by that? What does that look like? Well, how often is it that in church or religious settings that we often do not like to feel challenged, right? There are times in which a person may even consider leaving a church because of the challenges that they've been receiving from the pulpit.

Oftentimes, Christians in America want to be coddled and want to be comforted with smooth speech and talk. But instead, what ought to be declared from the pulpit, what ought to be declared amongst Christians is the truth, regardless of how that makes you feel.

Truth should not be subject to your emotions or to your sense of comfort. So beware that you do not worship comfort itself, but rather that you worship and serve the God of all comfort. Because true comfort is not to be comfortable in your sin.

Not to be comfortable in your circumstances, but rather to know that your comfort comes from the source of all comfort, from the source of all mercy, God himself. This is what it means to know and have and receive true comfort.

Verse 4 says,. The comfort that we receive as believers, as Christians, from the source of all comfort, is not meant for us just to hold and hide and to put under a basket. But instead, the comfort that we receive from God is meant to overflow into the lives of others.

It's to overflow into your neighbor, to overflow into your congregation, to overflow into your marriage, to overflow at your workplace, to overflow wherever it is that you carry life in. Comfort overflows.

Similar to the imagery that we see in Psalm 23, To be comforted by God means that he gives us not just enough comfort to get by, but enough for it to overflow into the lives of others. Isn't that a beautiful thing?

That not only does God give us enough so that we can get by, but he gives us more than we can ask or comprehend so that we may be able to fill the cup of others. This is why, as Christians, it's so important that when we are in trials, when we are going through great difficulty, that we don't just contain these things to ourselves, but rather that we speak and testify of our trials and tribulations so that when comfort comes, we can receive it with joy.

And then we can also extend that comfort to others in similar circumstances. One of the things I don't want us to do as a church is to hide our struggles. You may be here today and you may be struggling, but I would never know because you put up such a good exterior.

Some of us do a really good job of having it all together, even when we don't have it all together. Some of us are able to put a very good facade up of our lives, and yet, brethren, it is in the brokenness of our lives that Christ demonstrates.

His mercy, his kindness, and his comfort more fully. So don't be ashamed of your trials. Don't be ashamed of what you're going through in life, whether it's a good or bad or high or low. Whatever it is that you go through in life is meant to be shared amongst the burden of the brothers and sisters of the church.

It is for us to carry alongside with you so that when you celebrate, we celebrate alongside you. When you cry, we cry alongside you. When you are struggling, we struggle alongside you. This is what it means when we call each other brother or sister.

We are truly a family, and family must carry the burdens of one another. This is our obligation as children of God. And also so that we may be able to comfort those in any affliction with the same comfort with which we ourselves have received and have been comforted by God.

Verse five shares us a very uncomfortable truth, but I want you to recognize this and what the apostle Paul writes in verse five. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too.

I don't know what you were expecting. As you begin to read those words, for as we share abundantly. Oh, I like that word abundant. I really do love that word because I'd rather have an abundance rather than the opposite, which is not having abundance.

It's not having enough. And abundance means you have not just enough, but more than enough. And so I like that idea. I like having more food in the fridge than I need. I like having more money in the bank than I need.

There's a lot of things I would rather have more of than less of. And so I'm getting excited for as we share abundantly. Yes, I want abundance, but abundance in what? In Christ's sufferings. I'm not sure about that one.

I have to share abundantly in Christ's sufferings? Think about that for a moment. What are the things that Christ suffered? He was rejected by his family, rejected by his own hometown. He was spat on, despised, beaten, bruised, falsely accused, brought before trial, then hoisted upon a Roman cross next to two thieves.

The things that he suffered, I have to share in that. Not only do I have to share in it, but I have to share in it abundantly. To receive more of it, to be overflowing in that suffering. I don't know what you're talking about, Paul.

I'm not sure I like where you're going with this. But why? What's the why here? For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. What a concept.

What a truth Paul is bringing forward here in this text. That we are to share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. Write that in there if you haven't already. And the truth that Paul is telling us here is that biblical Christianity has never sold a suffering less life.

That's not Christianity. A Christianity that tells you that God only wants to abundantly bless you and give you wealth, health, riches, and glory and all these good things in life is an incomplete. And in fact, because of it being incomplete, it is a false Christianity.

A Christianity that does not share in Christ's sufferings is no Christianity at all. To be a Christian, little Christ, follower of Christ, disciple of Christ means that we walk and we share in the same footsteps and sufferings as our Savior, including suffering.

So can I tell you something? I know the message today is how to overcome discouragement, but can I tell you the truth? You will suffer. You'll suffer. All of us. Maybe you're in it right now. Maybe you're suffering.

Maybe you're suffering because of sin. Maybe you're suffering because of circumstances outside of your ability or power or circumstances. Whatever the reason, whatever the case, suffering is part of the package if you're a Christian.

Now, it's not unique only the Christian because the truth is every person will suffer. Christian, non-Christian, Buddhist, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, everyone will suffer. Even irregardless of your bank account, rich people suffer, poor people suffer, everyone suffers.

The point in life is not whether or not we should suffer, but how it is that we encounter sufferings in this life. And as Christians, we encounter our sufferings in Jesus. So we suffer in Jesus, with Jesus, for Jesus, and we will then be comforted by Jesus.

He's the source. The God and Father of mercies and the God of all comfort will grant us his source in Jesus for comfort. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

You'll suffer. But beloved, the difference between the Christian suffering and the worldly suffering is that we get to meet our sufferings with the comfort that God gives and the comfort that he provides through the cross of Jesus Christ.

The same cross that he suffered, the same cross that he bore our sins on, the same cross by which we are now saved through faith in him and his shed blood, is the same object, it's the same source of the comfort that we receive.

Because Christ died for sinners. He died for you and for me. And that brings such comfort that my God, the one who created all things, who sustains all things by the word of his might, the same God who became man in the person of Jesus Christ, who suffered and bled for me, that this God would die for me, for you.

That enough ought to be the consolation of our soul. That enough, that should be enough for us to know that there's a sure hope and anchor, that though my life may be miserable, I'm not ahead at life.

I'm not where I want to be. I'm not progressing the way I want to progress, regardless of the circumstances. The truth that Christ died for me ought to be enough. It is a comfort. It is a truth. And again, many in this world, especially in this country, have been misled into a false Christianity that sold health, wealth, and prosperity, which is why so many so-called Christians fall into the trap of discouragement and disillusionment when they get sick, when they lose a job, when they lose someone close to them to death.

Because they reason this, if God loved me, why would he let this happen to me? If God loved me, why are these bad things happening? And brethren, the truth is, you and I, if we received justice, would receive far worse than whatever a lot is in life.

Yet, the question should not be raised, if God loved me, why? Because that's the natural tendency of man. As soon as something bad happens, we ask the immediate question is, why, why, why? Why me? Why that person?

And we do so at the peril of not seeing the blessing that trials, sufferings, even disappointment can bring forward into our lives. The Christian should not be thinking, why? But instead, why not? Or what is it that God is accomplishing in this trial?

In this suffering, in this moment, what does God want to produce in me? Notice that the Apostle Paul, as we're going to examine a little bit later, he goes on to talk about how he despised of life itself.

This is a man who served Christ, who had received revelation like no one can believe. And yet, how does his life end? If you looked at it from a worldly perspective, his life ends in tragedy. This man has been shipwrecked, has been abandoned, beaten, bruised, left for dead, and then ultimately martyred under the Roman Empire.

Is that the outcome that you're looking forward to in life? No, but no one lived a more victorious life, apart from Christ, than the Apostle Paul. What a victorious life it was to suffer for Christ. Brethren, suffering for the cause of the gospel, suffering for doing what is right, suffering for the account of Christ, is a victorious life.

It's victory. It's not defeat. Discouragement cannot overcome the crown of life that is produced in us when we suffer on Christ's account. And that is why, again, he says in verse 5, that we must share abundantly in Christ's sufferings because it's in his sufferings that we find victory.

And it's in his comfort that we find life, and the abundant life that Christ promises us in Scripture. It says in verse 6, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

I want you to write this in. Affliction leads to salvation. Obviously, it was Christ's affliction. It was his sufferings. It was his work on the cross that brings us salvation. Not our own. We do not get to suffer in a penal way of atoning for our own sins.

We cannot account for our own sins. We cannot be punished enough for our own sins. This is why God has ordained there to be a place called hell. And hell is a place in which the penalty of your sin, the penalty for your rebellion, is paid and poured out for all eternity.

Only Christ, the eternal God-man, the eternal second person of the Trinity, can atone for sin. And yet, there is this sacred tension in ministry. It says in verse 6, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

If we are afflicted. You see, affliction produces something marvelous. Affliction means to be put under pressure. And it's usually the things that are put under pressure that produce the most beautiful things.

Think of diamonds, for instance. Take carbon and pressed and pushed under long stress and period of time produces these beautiful things that we wear as jewelry. Same is true of our affliction. When we are put under pressure, it produces something of great worth and value.

It produces a salvation that does not disappoint. Salvation is freely given to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, be sure not to make the mistake of thinking that because it is free, that it is cheap.

Nothing costs more than the salvation that God purchased through Jesus Christ. God purchased His church with His own blood. With His own blood. There's no greater cost than the cost that God paid for our salvation.

And yet, it is in affliction, it is in trials, it is in suffering that we see our salvation more beautifully manifested in the Christian life. It is for your comfort and salvation. And it says if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

So, affliction leads to salvation and comfort, namely, suffering on account for Christ. And why is this so important? Why don't you write that in there, if you haven't already. Affliction leads to salvation and comfort, namely, suffering on account for Christ, which gives us our testimony.

Our testimonies are all the more beautiful, all the more God-glorifying when we encounter sufferings in life. And it's suffering, it's in suffering, affliction, and trials that that beautiful testimony, that diamond that's being made under pressure is able to bring forth praises and glory to God.

And it's in our sufferings that our salvation is made more complete. Not through our individual sufferings necessarily, but through the sufferings that we share in Christ. It's His sufferings that we get to share in.

Verse 6 tells us this truth as well. Verse 7 actually, our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. I just love his optimism. Notice his optimism here.

He says, our hope for you is unshaken. I don't know, as I'm telling you this message, I'm a little worried for us. I'm a little nervous. One being because I know I fall short of this. And when I encounter trials, when I encounter sufferings, I don't always have it all together.

I don't always encounter with as much grace and power as the Apostle Paul would have, or as he commands us to here. I fall short of that. I know you will too. But Paul's optimism is that he believes even in the midst of trials, even in the midst of persecution, even in the midst of affliction, he says, our hope for you is unshaken.

What? That gives me confidence. I'm like, well, Paul, if you believe in us, then maybe I should start believing in us a little bit more too. Because if our hope is truly in Christ, truly then, what can shake it?

And it's those whose faith are not in Christ. They're the ones that are when life circumstances hit, when the waves and the trials of life come at us, that we get knocked off the boat. And that's when we lose sight of things.

Part of the test, part of the beauty of being a true Christian, is that when suffering comes, we meet it in Jesus. That we are left not necessarily unbruised or unbattered, but that ultimately we are unshaken because we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Amen? Did I hear you say amen? Amen. Like we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We belong to a savior who can't be shaken. We belong, we have received a hope that can't be shaken. The world is shaken every two seconds or something.

There's always a scandal. There's always a problem. There's always something happening that shakes our confidence, either in our institutions, either in our families, either in our finances. And yet we belong to a kingdom that can't be shaken, a king that will not be shaken, and a king who will not let you be shaken.

Isn't that good news? This is how we begin to undo the effects of discouragement, of despair, of depression, as understanding and relying on God as the source and hope for our lives. He will not be shaken yet.

It is when we meet him and we share in his sufferings that we share also in his comfort. So let me tell you this as Christians, don't be afraid of suffering. Don't be afraid of it. And don't run from it either.

Maybe needless suffering. Sure, we should run from that. Or suffering that is a result of our own stupidity or sin. Those are things to run from. But when you see an opportunity to suffer on account of Christ, to do that which is right and holy, don't run from that.

But embrace it. Because on the other side of obedience is always blessing. It's blessing. If you obey God and you do what he requires and you do what God has called you to do in Scripture, he'll bless you.

He'll never not bless you. But understand that the way that the world considers blessings and what we consider blessings may be two different things. Maybe one person would see your life and your state and say, well, how is that a blessing?

You suffered. You had to go through all these bad things and how could that possibly be good? That's because, oh, because there's great good being produced in the midst of that suffering. God is at work in the midst of my suffering.

He's at work in the midst of my trials. He's producing something of great worth. And brethren, that is your testimony. That is your testimony. Your testimony is of great worth. And it is being developed by trials, by persecution, by discouragement, by depression, by all these things.

And it is so powerful, in fact, that we see in the very last book of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we see that it is through the church's testimony that we overcome. By the word of their testimony, we overcome the ails of this world and of the devil himself.

Brethren, this is the testimony that Jesus Christ is King, that he reigns. He reigns over your life. He reigns over your finances. He reigns over your marriage. He reigns over every aspect of life. Therefore, because he reigns, I can live with the assurance and the comfort that he gives through his spirit.

But run to him. Run to Christ. Run to his sufferings. And run to his comfort. Verse 8, Paul says,. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experience in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

There is the Paul I know. That's the Paul I know. Someone who isn't afraid to be real with his emotions. Someone who isn't afraid to speak truly around the circumstances of his life. He could have said something other and said, you know, well, things were kind of tough and rough in Asia and, you know, we barely got by, but, you know, but by the grace of God, you know, kind of the Christianese.

But he says, no, what we encountered was so bad, we didn't even want to live anymore. That's how bad it was. Our sufferings, the things we encountered, were so bad that we despaired, we despised of life itself.

You see, if that was one of us, you know, we'd be thinking, okay, let's call the hotline right now because this person's in distress. But no, Paul's saying, I have gone through this. Great pain, great peril, great distress.

And was burdened beyond even our own strength. So the question I have for you this morning is this, will God ever give you more than you can handle? Well, here's, let me just answer it then. Here's the truth, beloved.

We often hear this often, right? God will never give you more than what you can handle. It's not true. It's not true. Notice what Paul says here again. He says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength.

Paul's saying, we couldn't withstand this. It was beyond our strength. It was beyond our capability. It was beyond our power. We could not bear this. We couldn't do it on our own strength. Let me read you this great quote from Henry Blackaby.

He said, he asked the question as well. Will God ever ask you to do something that you're not able to do? Answer is yes, all the time. And it must be that way for God's glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory.

If we function according to the power of the spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal himself to a watching world. That's Henry Blackaby's quote. Phenomenal quote, reminding us. Will God ever give us circumstances that are beyond our ability?

Will God ever ask you to do something that you're not able to do? And the answer is yes. And it must be that way for his glory. Because if we could do it on our own strength, then we get the glory. But if we can do that which only God can provide in us to do, he gets the glory.

And God will always grant you the comfort that he promises, even in the midst of trial and tribulation. Even when you can't function, even when you can't do it on your own strength, he gives you the power to do so and abundantly more.

Again, Paul says that we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. And so the answer to the question is yes, so that we can rely on God and not ourselves. That's exactly what Paul goes on to say in verse 9.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves. Not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. You want to know how to overcome discouragement?

You want to know how to overcome despair? You want to know how to overcome depression? Beloved, here's the answer. The answer is you will not be able to do any of those things on your own strength, on your own willpower, on your own intelligence, on your own skill, on your own mannerisms or way of life.

You will not have that which is necessary to overcome discouragement based upon your own power. And there are times in life where God will bring you to such a place of desperation that you may even despise of life itself.

And it is to point you to the source, to the Father of mercy and comfort so that you rely not on yourselves, where you become your own self-reliant God, or you become your own idol, or you think you're the one who has it all together and you have all the answers.

No, you do not. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. He'll meet you of mercy and he'll meet you of comfort. It is only in Christ that you will find true hope over discouragement and victory over peril and despair itself.

Indeed, we put our faith on one who is able to raise the dead. That's where our hope is. That's where we lay our anchor. It's in Christ who raises the dead. And if Christ truly can raise the dead, and if our greatest enemy is in fact death, what is it then that we ought to fear?

Then we can see more closely with greater eyes of faith what it is that is written in Romans chapter 8 when Paul says that there is not life nor death nor angels nor demons nor height nor depth nor anything in creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Why? Because nothing, not even death itself, can separate us from Christ's love. I want you to know today, if you're struggling with discouragement, if you're struggling with anxiety or anything in life, Christ loves you.

Christ loves you. And I'm not telling you that like in a nice evangelical way where, you know, oh, God loves everyone. No, God doesn't love everyone the same. That's the truth of Scripture. There are those on whom the wrath of God abideth even now as we speak.

And yet, He loves you, His elect, His people. He loves you. He died for you. He was raised again for you so that He who raised Him from the dead will also raise us up with Him on that final day. So whatever trial, even if we're facing the adversity of death itself, can separate us from His tremendous and beautiful and unfailing love and His mercy and the comfort with which He has given us.

In order to overcome discouragement, beloved, in order to overcome disappointment, depression, we must move forward, move past self-reliance. And I believe truly that one of the issues and one of the sins, I'm actually going to call it a sin, the sin of self-reliance is what keeps us back from fully trusting in Christ because we want to be able to do it.

We want the credit. We want to be able to say, I picked myself up from my own bootstraps and I figured it out and I was able to do X, Y, and Z. And that's all the great social media testimonies out there, right, of people who've gone from rags to riches and how they did it.

And how short-lived will be their treasures because the treasures that they've accumulated for themselves upon their own self-reliance, their own self-strength, their own self-governance will not produce fruit onto eternal life.

But instead, we must move past self-reliance and move toward reliance upon Christ. Reliance upon Christ. Because if we rely upon ourselves, we get the glory. If we rely upon Christ, he gets the glory.

And self-reliance points us inward while reliance upon Christ points outward. It's a difference between one who is prideful and one who is thankful. One who is looking inwardly, thinks he has all the answers and the power to be able to accomplish that which he can do, and he gets the glory.

But the one who points to Christ as the answer has the posture of humility and thankfulness to being a recipient of the love and mercy and comfort with which he's given us. In the Christian life, we must point upward, not inward.

In the Christian life, God is the one who gets the glory for defeating, overcoming our depression, our discouragement, not ourselves. We don't get the glory for that. God does. And notice how Paul goes on to close this thought here in verse 10 and 11.