verse number 14 and we are continuing our series on life's challenges life's challenges and life is full of challenges and this is one that you gave us to share of this morning enlisted topic below the Bible says in verse 14 for we know that's in Romans 7 verse 14 but we know That the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. We got a problem. I want to talk this morning, just a little thought, frustrated with myself. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you'd help us, Lord, to realize some of the aspects of being frustrated. but also, Father, the victory that we can receive in the midst of our frustration. So I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would let this message be very, very clear to us, very alive to us. Lord, help us to comprehend it, but also, Father, help us to receive victory through it. And with that, Father, we'll thank you. I pray, God, that you clean my vessel, wash my vessel thoroughly, inside and outwardly, and make it pliable for your use. I pray and ask God that you help our ears to be unstopped. Yes, sir. Unstopped, so we can hear what you've got to say. Help our eyes be open to see what you want to show us, and our hearts to be tender to be able to receive what you want to plant inside of us. And with that, God, we'll thank you. God, when we leave this morning, we'll leave much encouraged about life. I pray, God, we'll not leave discouraged nor disappointed. Lord, no, sir. not even disillusioned by our situation. But I pray, God, we leave with dynamic power and realization that victory is just on the horizon. And for that, God, we'll thank you. Lord, you've been so good to us. Thank you for the singing this morning. Thank you for the worshiping this morning. Thank you, Lord, for the attendance this morning, those who are here in the building, and those who are watching live streaming, and those who are watching later, and those who are listening later. I pray, God, you'll bless those who are out from our church preaching in various churches this morning. Bless them and bless their families. We thank you, Lord, for our small part that we play in this world and in this life. And for that, God, we say thank you. Bless the nursery workers, and the Sunday school teachers, and the choir members, and those who clean the church, and, our Lord, those who serve in other areas of the church. God, bless them for their efforts and their labors of love. And for that, God, we'll thank you, too. God, you've been so good to us. We'll stop here, though. It's time to preach, so help us. And we'll thank you, Lord. If there's anything else I've left out, please, sir, meet that great need as well. For us, in your son's name, we pray. Not a week, Jesus. No, sir. but mighty Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. You may be seated. Frustrated? with myself. Now, probably none of us face that, but others of us do. Amen. Being frustrated with yourself. Now, I'm not talking about your frustrations with somebody else. There's plenty of that. But I'm talking about being frustrated with yourself. And as you see in this verse, Apostle Paul, great man of God, wrote half the New Testament, was saved on Damascus Road. The Bible says that Paul says, for that, verse 15, for that which I do. That which I perform. He says, I do, I allow not. I don't know, I don't understand this. He goes on to say, my dear friends, for what I would. That word would there means what I intend or have in mind or determine or desire. He says, that do I not. That word do means to practice. Wait a minute, Paul, what's up? Paul says, the things that I desire to do, intend to do, want me to do, determine to do, he says, I am not doing it. And then he says, but what I hate, that which I detest, Paul says, what? That do I. You know what? That will cause you to become frustrated. Because there's a desire to do one thing, but instead I'm doing another. I'm doing the other thing that I don't want to do. I don't desire to do, but I find myself doing that instead of that which I do desire to do. That's frustrating. And many times we are frustrated with ourselves because of those very things. The word frustration means it is an emotion that occurs in situations where a person is blocked from reaching a desired outcome. Let me read that again. It is an emotion that occurs in situations where a person is blocked from reaching a desired outcome. Here's my desired outcome, but something's blocking me, something's stopping me from reaching it. It means to be disappointed and to have dissatisfaction. The word frustration is one of the causes of stress. It arises when one's motivation to achieve a desired goal is blocked. When you think about that, you have a desired goal that you want to achieve, and it's blocked. That will cause you to become frustrated. And I thought to myself, well, actually, I think to myself, it just came to my mind, because I saw it last night, and I ain't picking one team over another. Y'all know I'm road tired, baby. But anyhow, but Notre Dame was playing against Clemson in football yesterday, college game. And if you watch the game and you are a fan of Notre Dame, you are here this morning frustrated because they had many opportunities to score, many opportunities to perhaps even win the game, even though many times they were messing up. They had a young, what I would call a rookie or a quarterback. He was a freshman, I believe. and this freshman was doing the best to me that he could. But as I watched his coach on the sideline, when he would not, two times in a row, just about, I believe it was, they ran out of seconds. You don't run out of seconds when you're sitting there, I mean, you're watching the clock. But they ran out of seconds, they ran out of time, they were penalized. You could see the coach on the sideline, frustrated, frustrated. He was trying to be upbeat, but then he frustrated. He was like this, come on, move, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. And when you think about it, my dear friends, there are times in our lives when we are right there at the goal line. Several times there's a goal line, fumble the ball. A lot of times we in our life, we're right there at the goal line, about to cross over, but then we fumble the ball, we drop the ball. And when we drop the ball, we leave and we are frustrated. We can see victory just around the corner, just around the horizon, but then something happens and now we're frustrated. And we're frustrated oftentimes with ourselves. I wanna do this, but I keep doing this. I'm trying to achieve this, but I'm repeating this over here. There are different types of frustration. Frustration can be good and frustration can be bad. Good frustration, it can act as a motivator to change. In other words, you're so frustrated with what's been happening that it motivates you to change. Something has to change here. It can't stay the same like this. So it motivates you. But then there is that bad frustration. That's that frustration when it results in anger, resentment, depression, feelings of giving up. It becomes destructive. In other words, what's the use of keep trying because I keep on failing, I keep on losing, I'm not winning. It'll cause you to be frustrated and you'll finally say, you know what? I just give up. I'm going to stop trying. These kids won't listen. Every morning, school time, I got to go up there. Come on, y'all. Get up after me. Get your clothes on. Rest your teeth. Would you please? Would you please? I'll be right back. You go downstairs. Then you come back. And they're in the same position they was in when you left. I mean, is something that frustrating? And you'll get so frustrated and you say, you know what? Somebody, something has to happen to somebody here this morning. But man, you couldn't say, you know what? Forget it. You don't want to go to school? Fine. You don't want to learn how to read? Fine. You don't want to learn how to count? Okay. You don't, you don't want, you don't, you're not going to be able to get a job? That's okay. Fine. I'm not, I'm not waking nobody up no more. That's how you feel. But if you actually did give up, you know that that would not be in the best interest of that child. By the same token, friends, if we get so frustrated with ourselves and we give up on ourselves, that's not beneficial to us. And oftentimes, because we continue to fail, it becomes frustrating. What are some of the causes of frustration with self? Here's one, not being able to live up, watch this, this is from you guys, not being able to live up to what God wants and expects a Christian to be. Well, a lot of times that God, It's really our interpretation. But we have these ghosts. If I'm a Christian, then this is how I should be. I should never do this. I should never do that. And I should never do this. Yet we know the Bible tells us over in Romans 3.10, in Romans 3.23, the Bible says in 3.10 that there's none righteous, no not one. The Bible says in verse 23 of Romans 3, it says that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says in John chapter 1 verses 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 10 says, if we say we have not sinned, then we call God a liar. Now, we know that's there. But my friends, when we do stumble, when we do fall, we become frustrated with ourselves. Say, you know what? I can't live this Christian life. I can't do this. I mean, I've been trying, and I've been trying, and I'm failing. Everybody else is succeeding. But I'm failing. Listen. We all fail. And we preach the message already on that fear of failure. When there's a fear of failure, we fail because we don't try. Because we're afraid to fail. And we're afraid, oftentimes, that we may become very frustrated. But my dear friends, that's all a part of life. But God will help us to get through our frustration. What's another cause of frustration? With self. Battles lost with your flesh. You've been fighting this same battle in your flesh for a number of years, this same battle. I mean, you're victorious for three months. You're victorious for two months. Then all of a sudden, you fall and you falter and you become frustrated with yourself. And you might say to yourself, you know what, I give up. Don't give up. We are in a battle. We are in a war. Matter of fact, we're not running a sprint. We're running something I never liked to run when we ran track. Something called long distance. I'm not a marathon guy. OK, you want to race? Let's race from that wall to that wall. We're good. OK? But if you want to race around the block, I'm sorry, I can't help you. Amen. What do you say? Life is the same way. This is not a sprint. We got to pace ourselves. And there'll be times, my dear friends, when we're going to stumble along life's journey. But instead of that frustration causing us to quit or to give up, let that frustration be our motivation. Say, you know what? I'm going to continue forward. I'm going to get back up. I'm going to dust off my knees. And I'm going forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. Frustration can break us down. Some cause a frustration with self. Personal failures. Personal failures. You ever had a personal failure that caused you to be frustrated? Somebody had to throw out a personal failure. Not of yours, but a personal failure that perhaps caused us to be frustrated. That personal failure. Somebody throw one out at me. Weight loss. What was the other one? Who? Exams. Yeah. Getting fired from a job. Trying to stop smoking. What's another one? Not finishing school. I like that what he said. That's probably number one on everybody's list. Weight loss. You're frustrated. You're started. Health issues. Get back and frustrate yourself. When you're trying to lose weight, you got your plan. And you're doing good for a day and a half. And then somebody comes by and says, you know what? We're having a birthday party for so-and-so on the job. We've got cake and ice cream. And this is homemade cake. Miss so-and-so, she made it. You know her favorite cake? You're like, ooh. That's what they done made. And you're like, no, I can't do that. I can't do that. Then all of a sudden, you find yourself in the break room. Nobody else is in there. And it's sitting there, and you're like, well, I'll just get just a little frosting off today, and that's all I'll do. Then next thing you know, you done got you a piece off. Then next thing you know, you done got you a bigger piece off. Then you got you another piece off. Then you're sitting there, and now you're frustrated with yourself. I can't tell you how many times in the past, I'm using the word past baby, in the past when Jolene and I have been at the grocery store and she said, I want the Breyers Reese's. I'm like, Jolene, you don't want the, I want the Breyers Reese's. I'm like, but baby, you don't want, I want the Breyers Reese's. And she put it in there. And we get to the house. And she would take that Briar's Reese's and give her a big, not the little spoon, the big spoon. And she'd be in there and eating that Briar's Reese's. Box, bowl. Listen, that bowl look like the box, amen. But nonetheless, though. But you know what? But you know what I preach. But you know what happened? You know what happened afterwards, though? Next thing I know, I come out of the kitchen. I see the box in the garbage. I'm like, Juleen. What? There's ice cream in the garbage. She ate half of it and then she got frustrated and mad at herself and threw the rest in the garbage. Now I'm looking at half of $4.99 and now she's mad at herself. But we all can identify with that. And when you get frustrated with yourself, you get so mad at yourself, you wanna beat yourself up, then also you feel like just quitting. What's the even use of even going forward? I'm just gonna just quit. And that's exactly what the enemy wants us to do, is to quit when you and I become frustrated with ourselves. A lot of different personal things that will cause us to be frustrated. What are some of the reactions to our frustration? Here's some of the ways we react. One way is we lose confidence. When you and I become frustrated with ourselves, we lose confidence. In other words, I can't do it. I can't do it. Brother Anthony here, he coaches, and he's been coaching for many years different young people in the high school. And he knows that some of those guys that he's coaching, if those guys lose their confidence and swing in the bag, or they lose confidence and catch it, or lose confidence in some kind of way, but you know what? It's hard to get those guys to get back that confidence. Because what happens is it gets in their mind. And then they feel like this, I can't do it. I can't do it. Well, you know what, my dear friends? When you and I become frustrated, sometimes it causes us to lose our confidence. Sometimes it causes us to become aggressive. Sometimes you meet people in life and say, why are they so aggressive? It might be because they're frustrated. Not only that, my dear friends, frustration can cause us to have even physical ailments, upset stomachs and vomiting, et cetera. Also, we can also become, because we're frustrated, we can also react this way. We're annoyed with someone else's success. I mean all of a sudden using the weight thing, you know, somebody gives a man praise the Lord. I've lost 35 pounds So what? That's what you want to say, you know? And I've been trying for a long time, you know? And you be annoyed at their success. And even when you say, you know, you shouldn't feel that way, but you know what, you're like, you know, I mean, it ain't me. It ain't me. All of these things can happen when you and I become frustrated. But even something else, self-pity. Self-pity. You begin to pity yourself because you're frustrated with yourself. I said, Preacher, get us out the dark. Okay. How can I be delivered from this frustration with myself? Let's go back over there to Romans chapter number seven. Paul says in chapter 7, verse 15, Paul says, for that which I do, that which I perform, I allow not. I don't know. I don't understand. For what I would, what I intend, have in mind, determine, desire, that do I not. I don't practice. But what I hate, what I detest, that do I. If, then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good. Now then is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know, Paul says, I do know this, I know that in me, and he has the parentheses, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, But for evil, which I would not, I don't desire, I don't intend to do, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Then Paul makes a profound statement. I find then, this is my conclusion, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see something, Paul says. I see, what you see, Paul? I see another law in my members. It's warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. which is in my members. Then Paul says this, O wretched man that I am, O miserable man, O afflicted man that I am, who, Paul says, who shall deliver me? Who shall rescue me? Who shall draw me out from this body of this death? And he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Paul says, so then with the mind, not myself, so the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. You can't sanctify your flesh no matter how hard you try, because you still got your flesh. But Paul says this though, we can get victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. A preacher can give me an example. I'll give you an example. Go with me to Luke, chapter number seven, and look at verse, chapter five, and look at verse number four. Here is an example of someone that's frustrated, but yet he gets some instructions from the Lord Jesus Christ, and his frustration moves from frustration to fulfillment. The Bible says in Luke, chapter number five, and it says in verse number four, Luke 5, verse number 4. The Bible says, now when he had left speaking, talking about Jesus, he said to Simon, which is Peter, he says unto him, launch out. I want you to set sail into the deep and let down your nets for a drought. The first thing we see is faithful instructions and a promise. The instructions are to take your net, let it down, and you're going to get you a drought. And what that means is a hole of fish. That's the promise. And here are the instructions. And then the Bible says in verse number five, we see now his frustration. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, I got to tell you something. We have toiled all the night. and have taken nothing. That word have toiled means to work hard, to feel fatigue, to be weary, to be exhausted. We have worked all night, we are tired, we are worn out, we are exhausted, and we have taken nothing. We are fishermen, but yet we have caught nothing. Don't raise your hand, but how many of you have ever fished and caught nothing? I'm sorry, daddy. When I was little, me and my dad, I think it was Turner, went fishing. I remember this. And we caught nothing. We knew we caught nothing. I don't know if you remember this or not. On the way back home, we stopped by the fresh fish market. Well, they had them whole fish. And I remember my dad buying some of them whole fish and bringing them home like we had caught these fish. But we had caught nothing. And I'm going to tell you what, my dear friends, a person that is an experienced fisherman, who knows exactly how to fish, and he's been out there all night working hard, and now he's exhausted, now he is tired, no doubt frustrated, because they caught nothing, that was their living. That's how they made their money, and they caught nothing. But notice what he says. He says in the next part of the verse, we see his faithful continuation. He says this, nevertheless, we ain't caught nothing, nevertheless, but at thy word. At your saying, I will, I am determined to let down the net. My dear friends, perhaps you and I are frustrated with ourselves. We're frustrated because we keep losing, and we keep losing, and we keep losing. But my dear friends, when God gives the word, continue faithfully doing what God has commanded us to do. You say, but preacher, my half. I've been doing what he said to do. I've been following his instructions, and I'm still losing. The Bible tells us to ask, to seek, and to knock. Lift them words up. In the Greek grammar, those are present imperatives. That means continuously ask, continuously seek, continuously knock. What are you saying, preacher? You continue to do what God says do, and you and I will receive the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus Christ has given each of us. But you understand, preacher, I've been coming to church, and I've been praying, and I've been tithing, but them folks at the house still crazy. All right. I thought I'd been changed within a week, but it's still getting worse. Matter of fact, when I left church and I got to the house, I went off because they was going off. I just rejoiced. I'm frustrated. What do you do, preacher? Keep coming. You keep coming. Our brother Patrick's gonna go to the doctor tomorrow, and they're gonna find out what's going on with his stomach. He's not exactly sure what's going on. But once they find what's going on, they're gonna give him some medication. They're gonna give him some instructions to follow. And now it's up to him to follow those instructions. Mrs. Wells, she had a quadruple bypass. Once she had the quadruple bypass, it don't end there. Now she has to follow the instructions that they have given her for recovery. And like Brother Lane said, she had a small setback, but everything's getting back where it needs to be at right now. But you know what she could do? She could say, well, I had the small setback. Say, you know what? Forget it. I'm not going to even go any farther. We know what, we might get frustrated at setbacks, but you know what, we can use those setbacks to cause us to catapult forward, my dear friends. In other words, you ever get on those things where you pull them and they stretch, it's like that big old rubber band type of thing and you keep stretching, and then once you let it go, We know what, my dear friends, maybe, come here for a minute, Brett, maybe the enemy has come by and you've been trying to go forward, and instead of you going forward, he's been trying to push you back and push you back and push you back, but that's okay, that's okay. You keep on coming, you keep on coming. Then finally, my dear friend, boom, man, you throw the enemy. Boy, you strong. You throw the enemy forward. Back that way. You should have kept on coming, man. You stayed in the same spot. Amen. Now the enemy come back. Now here we go again. We ain't move from our spot. So here we come. Here we come. We got to keep going. Keep going. And then you know what? He wins the victory. But it's because he didn't let his frustration calls him to quit. And that's what the enemy wants to happen. Us become so frustrated with ourselves that we simply quit. We stop reading our Bibles. We stop praying. We stop worshiping. And what happens then is we get weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker spiritually. Then next thing you know, we're thinking all kinds of thoughts. We're doing things we hadn't done in 20 years. But you know why? Because we don't have any spiritual strength. But watch what happens. We see the faithful instructions, the frustration, the faithful continuation, and then the fulfillment. And the Bible says this. Catch these words. These are very important. And when they had this, what? Done. When they had this done, or when they had done this, the Bible says they enclosed, they embraced, hallelujah. They embraced a great multitude of fishes, and the Bible says, and their net break, hallelujah. It was so full, the net broke. And they had to go get their friends to help them get the rest of the fish. But what if? Peter. Y'all remember this is the same dude that cut off ears, okay? This is Peter that later on is gonna cuss in the garden. When they say, hey, you sound like one of them. He said, no I don't. This is that same dude. There have been many times, many times, see most of us wanna say, I'm like Apostle Paul. We're really more like Peter. You know, one minute, yes, let's go. Next minute, I don't know him. I don't know. One minute I'm going forward all the way, next minute let's go back fishing. What are you saying preacher? What I'm saying is this, in the midst of his frustration, he could have said this, Jesus I ain't gonna do that. We're experienced fishermen, we ain't caught nothing all night, so we're not gonna try no more. And guess what? that would never have had any fish that day. But because he followed the Lord's instructions, he was fulfilled with the fish and no longer frustrated. What are you saying, preacher? You and I can move from being frustrated with ourselves to having victory because of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna give you three questions, we're done. First question is this, are you frustrated I'm not talking about nobody else, but you're frustrated with yourself. Are you frustrated with yourself? Secondly, do you feel, remember frustration is an emotion, do you feel like giving up? Do you feel like giving up? Thirdly, what has the Lord said to you to do? What has the Lord said to you The last one's simply a statement. Let's come and talk to him about it. Father, thank you that no matter how frustrated we may become in this life, and we will, we will, but I pray God that our frustration will lead to motivation. and not father destruction. And for that, Father, we'll thank you. I pray and ask God that these few moments, and of course, this is a vast subject that was given out for just a short amount of minutes, but I do pray, God, that you would take it and expand it, expand upon it in the minds and hearts of all those who have listened, Lord, this morning. And God, perhaps there are some of my brothers and my sisters that have become frustrated with themselves. And they want to talk to you about that situation this morning. I pray God they will come Perhaps God they need to come for some other reason that has nothing to do. It's not even attached to the message whatsoever But it's something God they need to talk to you about some other situation. I pray God they will come perhaps God there's someone here today that you've laid someone's name on their mind and their heart and they want to come and intercede on that person for that person this morning because they know that person's frustration and they want to pray for them. I pray God they will come Perhaps, God, there's someone here this morning that you don't know. They want to pray for somebody that's not saved. And they want to pray on their behalf. I pray they come. Or perhaps, God, there's someone amongst us this morning. They realize if they died right now, they would not go to heaven. And they want to be saved. They want to be born again. I pray, God, they come this morning. And we will show them from the Word of God what the Word teaches. Father, where the needs are, help us to respond. Maybe somebody wants to thank you. Whatever it is, it's time. We've heard the songs, we've heard the sermon. Now it's time to respond. For it's in your son's name we pray. Yes, sir. Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. Perhaps you should come talk to the Lord for a few moments. Many have already come.