From His Heart

Speaker 1

Hey, I want to ask you a question. Where are your eyes today? Are they on your giant-sized problems or are they on God?

See, when you get discouraged, you get your eyes off the Lord. You get your eyes off the good plan. All you can see is a karmic plan.

Lord, my loved one died. How can that be a good plan? Lord, I lost my job. How can that be a good plan? Lord, this bad thing happened to me. How can that be a good plan? Lord, my spouse left me. How can that be a good plan?

Hey, I have good news for you. God is the God of encouragement. And God has made you and saved you to slay the giant of discouragement.

God has a good word from his Word to encourage you, to lift you up, and to change your outlook. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 2

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and today is your day. If discouragement is part of your life, there are so many things in our world and culture that seem to be competing at discouraging God's children these days. Maybe there's discouragement aimed at you from your own family members.

Well, even when things look bleak all around you, God still has a good plan for his people. And you can defeat the giant of discouragement. Today's message is entitled the Giant of Discouragement from Pastor Jeff's series Facing the Giants. We’re airing these five messages from this series this month.

But if you can't be with us each day right here, you can catch up on the ones you miss when you go to fromisheart.org, click the listen link now. Today we will be in 2 Samuel chapter 21. Turn there now if you can.

Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve with an encouraging message to help you defeat the giant of discouragement.

Speaker 1

Story is told about the devil. The devil was having a yard sale. He had his tools on display. He had a high price on pride, on arrogance, on laziness, on envy, and jealousy, and bitterness. But he had one tool, and it had a sign that said, "not for sale." And they asked the devil, "What's up with that? Why is that tool not for sale?" He said, "Oh, that is my chief tool. That's my number one tool. I can't get rid of that one." He said, "That's the tool called discouragement. And with that tool, I can pry open a person's heart and do most anything I want to do."

We're in a series called "Facing the Giants." We want to look at the giant of discouragement. Webster defines discouragement this way: it's the state of being deprived of confidence, hope, spirit, or courage. Someone has well said that discouragement is the common cold of emotions. All of us can relate to discouragement from one degree to another. No one's immune from discouragement. The great men of the Bible got discouraged. Elijah, the great prophet of God, who defeated all the false prophets of Baal, got so discouraged in 1 Kings that he asked God to kill him. "Lord, I'm not better than my fathers. Take my life." Paul, the great apostle, the one that God used to write such a huge portion of the New Testament, got so discouraged that he said, "I despaired even of life." Charles Haddon Spurgeon, called the prince of Preachers, one of the greatest preachers who ever lived in the 1800s in England, said this: "There are dungeons under the castles of despair." Boy, he knew discouragement, and those guys knew discouragement.

And maybe you're here today and you're discouraged, so discouraged. Why are you discouraged? Maybe you're here and you're so discouraged because life has dealt you so many difficult blows, and things just haven't gone the way you wanted them to go. Maybe you are in a marriage that's so difficult and so hard. Maybe you have such a difficulty with your in-laws or with your parents right now or with your children right now. Or maybe for you, it's financial discouragement or physical discouragement, but you just feel like throwing in the towel. You feel like, "What's the use?" Hey, I have good news for you. God is the God of encouragement. And God has made you and saved you to be a giant killer and to slay the giant of discouragement. God has a good word from His word to your heart today to encourage you, to lift you up, and to change your outlook.

Second Samuel, Chapter 21. Turn there with me as we look at the giant of discouragement. Now, as we study about the giants, one thing is very significant and very interesting in scripture. You know, when we think of the giant killer, we always think of David because David killed Goliath, and he's the Goliath, the biggest giant in the Bible. And so we always think David. But you remember when David fought Goliath, before he fought him, he went to the river, to the brook, and got out five smooth stones from the brook and he put them in his pouch. Now he only used one stone, but he got five. Why five? Because there were four relatives of Goliath. There's a brother, and there are probably some sons. Goliath wasn't alone. And as you study the life of David, you find out that he and his kingdom had to face and defeat five giants. So David and this story is going to teach us what to do when you face the giant of discouragement.

2 Samuel 21. I'll begin reading in verse 15. Now, when the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David went down and his servants with him. And as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. Then Ishbi Benob, who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight of whose spear was 300 shekels of bronze in weight, about seven and a half pounds, was girded with a new sword. And he intended to kill David. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped him and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall not go out again with us to battle, and that you may not extinguish the lamp of Israel."

Now, interesting story tucked away here in the Old Testament. Lots of people have never heard of the name Ishbi Benob. Didn't know he was a giant, didn't know anything about him. And here's our question: What does this story teach us about discouragement? Well, two really important lessons that it teaches. Lesson number one: discouragement comes in when we are weary. When we are weary. Now David is fighting the Philistines. Broken record with David. He is always fighting the Philistines. When he defeated Goliath, Israel was fighting the Philistines. Goliath was from Gath, a champion of the Philistines. He's always going up against the Philistines. But what's different in 2nd Samuel 21, as opposed to 1 Samuel 17, when he first comes on the scene and whips Goliath? A lot of time has passed. David's not a young buck anymore. David is a man of war, and he's been through a lot of battles. He's probably late 50s, early 60s now, and he's not as robust as he used to be. And they're at war, and he's at war with the Philistines. And it says that he became weary.

Verse 15. And when he became weary, then Ishbi Benob, who was among the descendants of the giant, with a big old spear, with a new sword, came at David and literally said, "I'm going to kill you." But it's interesting; it happened to David. The giant came at David when he got weary. He didn't come to David at first; he waited until he got weary. And that's the way discouragement comes to you and me, man, when you're weary, when you're tired from the battle. Maybe you've been fighting a sin battle. Maybe it's with drugs, or maybe it's with alcohol, or maybe it's with lust, or maybe it's with bitterness, or maybe it's with gossip. And you've been fighting that and fighting that, and you just feel so weary, so tired, so broken down, and then discouragement will come in.

And what does discouragement say? Well, think about David. What did David think to himself? He's there, and he's tired, and all of a sudden this guy, Ishbi Benob, comes across like he's really fresh. I mean, here's David so tired, and then this guy just comes out of nowhere, it seems. And he's got David cornered. He's intending to kill David. He's got a brand new sword that he's going to inaugurate with David's blood. Oh, David must be thinking to himself, "Not again. Didn't I just beat one of these guys back a few years ago? And now here's another guy." And you know, I'm not the young buck that I was back in 1 Samuel 17. This is 2 Samuel 21. And I'm older, and I'm tired, and I can't do this anymore. Discouragement.

Discouragement tells you and me we can't do it. And when you get discouraged, you begin to think the word "can't." Can't. "I can't do this anymore. I can't win this battle. I can't win in this situation, and I can't take this any longer." We start to think "can't." Someone has well said, discouragement is a dark room where negatives are developed, the negatives of "can't." But not only do we begin to think "can't," we begin to think "quit." Quit. Now, Dennis Jernigan, in his great book entitled "Giant Killer," says of Ishbi Benob that his name comes from a Hebrew root which means to retreat. And that's exactly what discouragement tries to get us to do: to retreat, to quit, to hightail it out of there and just say, "I give up, you win. I can't do this anymore. I quit."

You know one of the professions that has the highest rate of quitters? The ministry. The ministry. 1,500 pastors quit the ministry every month. All denominations, they quit the ministry. Now, there are various reasons why they quit, but one of the biggest reasons is they get discouraged because it's a discouraging calling. It's a wonderful calling, but there's discouragement there. Why? Because people look at your life and say, "Well, that guy, I mean, he only works one day a week." And everybody is critical of pastors, like football coaches. Everybody thinks they can do better than the coach. "I mean, why did he call that play? What an idiot." And see, you get discouraged, and people can come against the pastor. I'm not talking about me; I'm just talking about pastors in general. And so many of them say, "I'm working so hard, and I'm not seeing any fruit. And I just can't do this anymore."

And see, the devil comes in the form of discouragement with whatever you're struggling with. And he says, "That's right. You can't do this anymore. You can't take this. You can't have victory. You need to quit. Just give up and quit." Your marriage isn't going good, and you've been trying and trying. Just quit. Just quit. You've been struggling with that sin for so long. The devil says, "You're never going to have victory. Just quit." Oh, you have a dream that God is going to do something great in your life, that your life is really going to count, but you don't see it come to fruition. And the devil would say, "That's never going to come to fruition. Why don't you just quit? Quit."

I want to remind you about the devil, your adversary, the devil. My adversary, the devil. He's a liar and the father of lies. God never says to you and me, "Retreat, quit, give up, throw in the towel." He never does that. He always says, "Get back in there and fight." "I can't." We begin to think, "can't." Listen, "can't" is a lie because you can. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13. You say, "I can't take anymore." Oh, the Bible says that you can. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you but that which is common to man. And God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able."

"I can't take anymore." God says, "Yes, you can because I control the temptation. I control the test, and I won't test you more than you're able." You say, "But I can't win." Romans 8:37 says, "But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." "Can't" is a lie, and "quit" is not an option. Be faithful. Jesus said, "Until death, and I'll give you the crown of life."

Well, what do we do when we're weary and the discouragement comes in because we're weary? Very simple. We need to get rest. You need to get rest. Rest is so important. Now, in our story that we read, David is about ready to die. And one of his mighty men, Abishai, comes to his defense, and he defeats the giant Ishbi Benob. And as Abishai is fighting the giant, David is getting to rest. David is not in the fight at that moment; he's getting to rest. Rest is so very important.

I read online this week about a pastor who wrote a blog, and he entitled it "Don't Quit." He talked about a time in his life where he got so discouraged in the ministry that he quit. He said, "One of the reasons I quit is because I was so tired, I was so weary, so exhausted. I wanted to be Superman, but I couldn't fill the suit." And his church told him, "Listen, take some time off." But he said, "No, I'm done." And he quit. And he said, "It was the worst decision I ever made in my life." He said, "I regretted that decision, and it's taken me 14 years to get back in the ministry." Don't quit. Rest.

In his situation, this pastor said, "I shouldn't have quit. I should have rested." Now, rest is really important to God. He puts it in the Ten Commandments. Look what he says in Exodus 35:2: "For six days, work may be done, but on the seventh day, you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death." God is very serious about this. One day in seven, you're supposed to rest. I need to hear that, and I need to do it. And I've been very bad about that. And you can get worn down and worn out if you're not resting.

Vince Lombardi said this, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." You need to rest. There's a Greek motto that says this: "You will break the bow if you keep it always bent." How tight is your bow? You working all the time? There are no margins? You're just constantly go, go, go, go, go, go, go. You're not having the time to just rest. You'll break the bow if you do that.

Elijah, when he got so depressed when he prayed in 1 Kings, chapter 19, prayed for God to take his life. You know what the very first thing God did for Elijah? Put him to sleep, gave him rest, allowed him to sleep before he dealt with anything else. He dealt with the fact that he was weary, and he gave him rest. You and I need to be very, very careful and cognizant and obedient to the Lord to say, "Yes, Lord, I will rest." Because discouragement comes when we are weary.

Speaker 2

Well, if you are weary today, we trust that today's program has been an encouragement to you. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And as you've heard, when you are discouraged, one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself is nothing. That's right, nothing. Just rest. Pastor Jeff will be back in a moment to continue the lesson of encouragement called the Giant of Discouragement.

There is one thing we are not at From His Heart, and that is discouraged. For 20 plus years, Pastor Jeff has been sharing the gospel and growing this outreach. Recently, we have begun a new initiative that will share this good news to a potential audience of over three quarters of a billion people—people who speak Spanish and Portuguese. Through your support, we're actively now translating bold biblical video teaching and audio teaching into life-changing truth in their own language. And that's not just outreach; it is impact. That's gospel advancement in real time, and it's happening because you choose to say yes to joining us in this new mission method.

For your gift this month to From His Heart, we'd like to say thank you for joining us in this new translation challenge by sending you Pastor Jeff's latest series about giants called "The Land of the How to Deal with Your Biggest Problems" and his booklet "When You Don't Like Yourself," both for your gift today of any amount. To get yours in the format of your choice, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for your gift today to help us translate From His Heart's gospel-centered messages into new languages, bringing the real truth of Jesus to people who are desperate for something they can finally trust.

Now, let's get back to learning about how to defeat the Giant of Discouragement. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 1

Lesson number two. Discouragement comes not only when you're weary, but it comes in when you and I lose our focus, lose our focus on what we need to be focused on now. David in this story, he's about ready to die. As the New Living Translation said, the Ishbi Benob had David cornered and was about to kill him. He literally said in the Hebrew where it says he intended to kill him. He said, "I am going to kill you," barked that out to David.

And then Abishai, who was David's nephew, he was Joab's brother. Joab was David's general. He came to David's rescue and he defeated the giant. And you know what's interesting about this guy, Abishai? His name means "my father exists" or "my father is a gift." That's what his name means. So "my father exists" came to David's defense and defeated the giant.

What happens when we get discouraged and lose our focus? Adrian Rogers, I was reading, had written some time ago that the bottom line with discouragement is you get your eyes off the Lord, and you and I need to fix our eyes and put our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 12 says this: "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith."

Hey, I want to ask you a question. Where are your eyes today? Are they on your giant-sized problems? Are they on your giant called discouragement? Or are they on God? Fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

Speaker 2

Are you right now gazing with the eyes of your heart on your Lord and Savior Jesus, trusting in him and being comforted? Or are you distracted by something that's got you down and you can't seem to think about anything else? When you're discouraged, there just seems to be no peace until there's resolution.

I want to invite you to join us again on Tuesday for part two of this inspiring message, the Giant of Discouragement, as Pastor Jeff continues to help us discover God's plan for turning discouragement into encouragement. If you can't be with us, then you can listen online again once it's aired here and download a free MP3 of this broadcast. Go to promisheart.org. The message today is part of Pastor Jeff's series Facing the Giants, and it's also available online when you go to From His Heart.

Thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to join Pastor Jeff Shreve next time as he presents part two of the lesson, the Giant of Discouragement, when he will again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart. That's here on From His Heart.

Speaker 1

There is tremendous truth. There is love. There is hope that you always dream. Love.

Speaker 2

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more when you go to promisheart.org.