So let's have a look here at Verse 12 of Proverbs, Chapter 13. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. In other words when you have a dream, an expectation, something you're looking forward to and it's continually delayed, put off, doesn't happen, your heart grows sick. That means to be weak or be in grief. When our heart is in grief it affects all of our life. It affects your motivation. You get a child, and a father promises the child they'll have some time together, or take him to play ball, or go and watch his match, and the father repeatedly just doesn't turn up or doesn't make it, the dream or hope the child has is delayed. Finally in the end, there's a sadness comes into the child's heart. They lose hope it'll ever happen. They accept dad's excuses, but their heart shuts down and dies a little, and a part of their dream about time with their dad, relationship with their dad begins to die. Now this is what happens. Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick.
So whenever we have a dream, and then it's delayed for a whole number of reasons - and I'll look at some of those reasons in a moment - whenever it's delayed, we begin to wonder about what our life could be like. Sometimes in marriage when things don't work out, and the marriage you dreamed of isn't taking place, you wonder what could have been if you'd done something different. That's what people do. When you go down that route you'll end up in deep trouble. You actually have to stay with the dream, and persevere with the dream, so a delay in accomplishing a dream can lead to the heart being full of grief and disappointment, and then withdrawing and giving up, resigning itself this dream will never take place. This is very, very common, so the heart grows sick. So delay causes people to become discouraged. We start to doubt the dream.
If you've got a God given dream, and God's put something in your heart, and then for some reason it delays; now the Bible's full of dreams being delayed. I wish God wouldn't delay dreams. I don't like dreams being delayed and put off. In fact I get disappointed, I tend to like it to happen now. There's a sort of a saying - there was a song. Remember that song that came out a while ago, I want it all, and I want it now! That's kind of the spirit of the age isn't it really - I want it all, and I want it now! The whole of the marketing culture, it all is wired up to, you want it all, you need it all and you need it now, and we can help you. [Laughter] No deposit! No interest! No repayments for 36 months! Then you'll be paying for the rest of your life. Long after the dream has faded, that object you bought is now marked and old and tatty, and no longer an object of desire. You will be plugging away, paying for that dream that you got impatient about. If you have a think about it, the world is in trouble now because of that very process. God's way is always pay the price up front, and then get the benefits. The world's way is always you can have it now, don't worry, come on, sign up man. Sign up man, it's only $20 a week, it'll be no problem. You can handle that - and so you get sucked in, and before you know it the $20 a week, the $1000 item turned into a $2000 item and you didn't even notice. This is what goes on of course isn't it? We all know that.
So dreams delayed, now here's the thing that when people have their dream delayed, they get discouraged, in other words lose courage to stay the course. Israel, when it got very difficult and very hard, and Numbers 21, Verse 4 it says their heart became discouraged, because they experienced difficulties and delays. What they wanted to get didn't come and when we get discouraged it always comes out your mouth. What's in your heart will come out your mouth, listen to what's coming out of your mouth, and when discouragement is there, you will complain and become quite negative. You'll hear it out of your own voice, so recognise it's just a delay, and I'll talk a little bit about what to do about your delays.