From His Heart

Speaker 1

What happens when we get discouraged, lose our focus? The bottom line with discouragement is you get your eyes off the Lord.

We say, well, how big am I? How big is this giant that I'm facing? Don't look at it like that. The question is not how big you are. The question is how big is your God?

Because the comparison isn't between you and the giant. It's between your giant and God. Every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 2

If you find yourself today with some giant-sized problems, it's easy to be distracted by them and start focusing on how big they seem compared to your power and might and your will and ability. But as Pastor Jeff has said, we're measuring the wrong if we think like that. What we need to concentrate on is taking a long, steady gaze into the heart of our Heavenly Father.

And the best way to do that is by reading and meditating on his Word. This is from his heart. The broadcast ministry of Pastor Jeff Shreve. Each day we open God's word and share real hope from God's heart.

And pastor, before you begin this message on discouragement, can you explain the hindrance to believers that discouragement can be when we try to walk in faith? Of course. You based this message on the story of David and Goliath, one of your favorites in the Bible. And likely because there are so many parallels between David's story and our story, right?

Speaker 3

Yes. And David had tremendous faith and tremendous courage. But what I like about David, and when I think about that story, is remembering that David is a human being. He's not Superman.

David didn't go in a phone booth somewhere and pull off his robe and there was a big blue suit with a cape and a big S on his chest. He's a 17-year-old kid with a slingshot and a stick going up against a 9-foot-9-inch giant.

But he had a rock-solid faith in God, and he knew that God's name was being run through the mud. David wanted to defend God's honor and to stand up to the enemy in the power and strength of the Lord.

Speaker 2

Well, during this series called *Facing the Giants*, you talk about other giants like shame, evil desires, strongholds, fear, and others.

And really, all of these other giants can cause this giant discouragement. It's almost as if everything pivots around discouragement.

Speaker 3

Yes, that's true. We can have all sorts of problems with different things and cause us to be discouraged as a result. But I think that the devil uses discouragement, and however he gets us to be discouraged, he'll use different things to bring us to that place of hopelessness. I'm in a place of despair; I can't win. You know, what's the use of going on?

I think a lot of people get there in one degree or another. It might not be full-blown discouragement, where they feel so depressed that they can't get out of bed, but they are just discouraged in life and feel like nothing ever works out for them. As a result, they become very pessimistic.

One of the great things in the Bible that God tells us to do is to encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Everyone needs encouragement because everyone is susceptible to discouragement. The devil will use that to keep you, me, and whoever from really stepping out in faith and doing the things that God calls us to do.

Speaker 2

Now you're in part two of this lesson, and already you've talked about keeping our eyes on God as a means of defeating the giant of discouragement.

But when you use that phrase, keeping our eyes on God, how do we do that? What does that practically mean?

Speaker 3

Well, the scripture talks about that in Hebrews 12, fixing our eyes on Jesus. And that means looking away from everything else and just keeping your eyes on him because he's the author and perfecter of faith. I think when you fix your eyes on Jesus, you're not focused on those things that are bringing fear. You're not looking at the giant; you're looking above the giant to the God who is over every giant. It means that you're keeping your heart focused on the promises of God.

And the Lord said, you know, I didn't come to wreck and ruin your life. I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly. He said, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for a future and a hope and not for calamity. I think when you fix your eyes on the Lord, you have his promises going through your mind. And regardless of what you may see, you're seeing past the circumstances and you're seeing with eyes of faith, and you're saying, God, these are my circumstances, but you're greater.

I love what the scripture says about Abraham. You know, Abraham, when God called him to sacrifice his son Isaac, he was looking with eyes of faith. And he said, I don't understand why God would want me to do this. But he said, if I do this, then I believe that God is going to raise Isaac up from the dead. And the Lord was so pleased with that faith because Abraham just said, God, you have this all under control and I'm just going to keep my eyes on you and I'm going to trust your promises.

And the Lord, as we know that story, the Lord brought a ram caught in a thicket, and Abraham sacrificed that ram. And the scripture says in Hebrews that he received Isaac back as a type of Christ because he believed that God was able to raise him from the dead, even if he sacrificed him as God had asked.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you, Pastor.

Hey, listen, if you missed part one of this message or you'd like to get the entire Facing the Giants series, you can go to our website for information at fromhisheart.org. You may know someone who needs to be encouraged.

Let's find out how to do just that. Open your Bible to 2nd Samuel, chapter 21, and here's part two of the lesson, the Giant of discouragement.

Speaker 1

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. Now, David is fighting the Philistines. David's not a young buck anymore. He is a man of war, and he's been through a lot of battles. He’s probably in his late 50s or early 60s, and he's not as robust as he used to be. They are at war, and he is at war with the Philistines. It says that he became weary. The giant came at David when he got weary. That’s the way discouragement comes to you and me; when you're weary, when you're tired from the battle. Maybe you've been fighting a sin battle—maybe it's with drugs, alcohol, lust, bitterness, or gossip. You've been fighting and fighting, and you just feel so weary, so tired, so broken down. Then discouragement will come in.

Discouragement tells you and me that we can't do it. The devil comes in the form of discouragement with whatever you're struggling with, saying, "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 now." Rest is really important to God. You and I need to be very, very careful, cognizant, and obedient to the Lord to say, "Yes, Lord, I will rest." Because discouragement comes when we're weary.

Lesson number two: Discouragement comes not only when you're weary, but it comes in when you and I lose our focus. 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, King Jehoshaphat faced an enemy. The enemy looked huge to him; there were so many of them. They were armies that had come together to wipe out King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. Jehoshaphat prayed in 2nd Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 12, and he said this to the Lord: "For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are on you."

When you're discouraged, put your eyes on the Lord. You might say, "Well, Jeff, I tried that. I put my eyes on the Lord, but it didn't work. He didn't come through, and He didn't do what I wanted Him to do." Well, how long did you leave your eyes there? Look at what the psalmist said in Psalm 123, verse 2: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until He shall be gracious to us." I leave my eyes on the Lord until He shall be gracious, until He answers my prayer, until He comes to my aid, until He comes and defeats the giant that I'm too weak to face. I just keep looking to the Lord.

You and I need to fix our eyes on the Lord and remember that He is able. He is able. There’s nothing too difficult for Him. Ephesians 3:20 states, "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory." He is able.

Now, it goes without saying that David was much smaller than Ishbi Benob, the giant. Much smaller. The scripture doesn’t say how big he was, but it does say that Goliath was 9 feet 9 inches tall. Maybe Ishbi Benob was his son; it talks about descendants of the giant. Maybe he’s his son, or maybe he’s his brother, or maybe he’s some kind of relative. But he’s a giant too. Maybe he’s only 9 feet 5 inches tall—that’s still a big dude, right? Maybe Goliath weighed 650 pounds, and Ishbi Benob only weighs 630. He’s just a little smaller, but he’s still huge compared to David.

And that’s what we do with our giants. We say, "Well, how big am I? How big is this giant that I’m facing?" Don’t look at it like that. The question is not how big you are; the question is, how big is your God? Because the comparison isn’t between you and the giant; it’s between your giant and God. And you know what we do so often? I’m guilty of it too. We magnify our giants and minimize our God. How big is your God?

Let’s think for a minute. Jason Tingle reminded me of this some weeks ago. Just think for a minute about creation, about the universe, about the things that we can see and know. How big is the universe? Well, I went online and did some checking. When you talk about the size of the universe, they measure it in light years. Why? Because the universe is so gigantic. So, you measure it in light years. Light travels 186,000 miles per second. A light year is how much distance light travels in a year. In one second, light can travel around the Earth seven times. One light year is 6 trillion miles.

So, how many light years is the known universe? It changes all the time as science learns new things. I read a lot of different statistics, but the one I thought was probably the most conservative said that the known universe is 14 billion light years. One light year is 6 trillion miles. So, you take 6 trillion and multiply it by 14 billion, and you come up with this number: 8.4 times 10 to the 22nd power. That’s 22 zeros—that’s in miles. You know what the scientists call that number? A honking long way. That’s what they call it. That’s a big number. That’s the known universe.

In Isaiah, chapter 40, we read this about the Lord: "Who is He who measures out the waters in the hollow of His hand and measures the heavens by the span?" The span is between the thumb and the pinky. How does God measure the heavens? How does He measure the universe? Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 3

Like that.

Speaker 1

Wow.

Speaker 3

God's got a pretty big span, doesn't he?

Speaker 1

Bible says the heavens, not even the highest heavens can contain God. The Bible says all the nations are as nothing before God. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless. God is huge. He is so huge. How big is the giant compared to God? He is smaller than a pimple on a flea compared to God. And you and I need to constantly compare our giants to God. We keep our eyes on God and we say, "God, you're able. God, you are huge. And this problem that I have, it is small, so very small in comparison to you and your greatness and what you can do."

You remember that he is able. And this God who is able, he is willing to help you. He's willing to help you. In this story, Abishai, David's nephew, one of David's mighty men, saw that his king was in trouble and he willingly came to David's rescue and defeated that giant. Abishai would have laid down his life for his king David. He wanted to help him. I know of a God who laid down his life for you and for me because he loves us. He wants to help you and he wants to help me if we'll just call upon him.

Psalm 46, verse 1 says, "God is our refuge and God is our strength, a very present help in trouble." He's abundantly available to help us when we're in trouble. And he says, "Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you don't know." But he says in the book of James, "You have not, because you ask not." In the Old Testament, God is just beyond and beside himself when he looks down at his people and he says, "And they don't call upon my name." He doesn't understand that. How can they not call upon me? I want to help them. God wants to help you. He wants to help me. God says, "Call to me and keep calling to me, and keep looking to me until I'm gracious to you. Until I deliver you."

Fix your eyes on the Lord. Remember, he is able. Remember he is willing to help. And remember that he has a plan. God has a plan. Now this is so true. When we get discouraged, we get our eyes off of the Lord and we get our eyes off his good plan for us. Jeremiah 29, verse 11 is a verse you need to memorize: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord." What kind of plans, Lord? "Plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." God has a good plan for you.

But 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 crummy 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, when God gave that verse to Jeremiah, things were bad for the people of Israel. God says, "I know the plans I have for you." The difficulty that you and I have is we look at the plan of God, which is a big long thing for our lives, and we look at one little snippet, one little snapshot of one day of the plan. We say, "It's a terrible plan." Because look how bad it is now. It's like cooking an elaborate meal that's going to take hours and hours to fix and grabbing a bite of it after 10 minutes of mixing all the raw meat together and saying, "Psst, this is terrible." Well, it's not ready yet.

See, God's plan is working. You just need to look to him. God is a good God. Any God who would give his son on the cross for me is a God that I can trust, is a God that has good things in store for me.

Speaker 2

A God who would willingly give his own dear son for us would never create and orchestrate a shoddy, thrown together plan for the life of his children. It all comes down to trust. Trust comes from knowing God. And knowing God comes from reading the Bible, the communication from him to you and to me. Pastor Jeff has a great example that defines this kind of trust as he concludes the message, the giant of Discouragement, in just a moment.

No matter what difficulty may be before you today, no matter the discouragement you're feeling, no matter what it is, God wants you to see him as almighty. There is nothing too difficult for the Lord. See Jeremiah 32:27. But yet so many people continue to be mired in discouragement and fear. Many can hide it from others. But you know in your heart you are discouraged about your family, your job, your sin, your children, your future. And it can rob you of the joy and love of life in serving our Lord Jesus.

From his heart, we want to help you recover that confidence, courage, and complete faith in God. This month we're offering two powerful and simply helpful resources from Pastor Jeff for your support of any amount to From His Heart, from which Pastor Jeff receives no income. First is the seven-message series, Land of the Giants. That will help you face the giants of anger, insecurity, lust, guilt, shame, discontentment, and regret, and more. The second resource is Pastor Jeff's powerful and insightful booklet, When You Don't Like Yourself, both for your gift this month—a gift that will help us launch a new international outreach to translate our radio and television programs into Spanish and Portuguese.

Thanks to our partnership with Pray.com, it will allow us to reach an enormous population in America and around the world. But we need your help to launch it and sustain it for the years to come. Make your gift today to this effort when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go to fromhisheart.org. God bless you for caring about others you may not meet on earth, but you will join them in heaven.

Now, to conclude part two of the message on Discouragement, here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 1

Joyce Meyer has written a great little book on discouragement, and in that book she talks about her daughter, whom she loves with all her heart. She said, when my daughter was 18, she was engaged to be married, and she was going to be married right around the time of her 19th birthday. Right before she was going to get married, they had the ring and everything, and they were picking all the stuff out for the wedding. She found out her fiancé had been cheating on her during the engagement. She discovered he was a big liar. She broke off the engagement. What else could she do? She was heartbroken.

When something like that happens, it would be real easy to fall into deep discouragement and depression. She said to her mother, "You know what, Mom? I'm hurting, but I'm so glad I found out now before we're married rather than later." After all, her 19th birthday came, and what a birthday present it was to find out about a broken engagement right when she turned 19. Her daughter said, "Mom, today is the first day of the rest of my life. I may have lost a fiancé, but I haven't lost my future." She trusted the Lord, praised the Lord, and went on with life. Today, she is happily married to a wonderful Christian man.

God still has a good plan, no matter what has happened. Romans 8:28 is still in my Bible: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." Where are your eyes today? Do you have them fixed on the Lord? Or are they on all these other things, on all these giants, all these problems? Discouragement just comes in, and all you can see is Ishbi Benob, the Giant of discouragement, and he's going to kill you. You might feel like quitting, but that's a lie, and quitting is not an option. Get your eyes on the Lord.

Speaker 2

So what have your eyes been focusing on the past few days or weeks? There is peace, rest, and a desire to keep on keeping on when our eyes are on our Heavenly Father and not on all of the discouraging things around us that fight to bring us down.

Maybe you've been out of the habit of daily scripture reading, but that is one great way to begin getting your eyes back on the Lord. We hope you'll make that a priority.

Thanks for joining us today, and we trust you'll be here next time for another powerful lesson from Pastor Jeff's series Facing the Giants, when he'll open up God's Word and tackle the Giant of Fear. That's next time here on From His Heart.

Speaker 1

There is tremendous truth. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scars.

Speaker 2

From his heart. Is the listener supported broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Schrebe speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world?

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

Find out about that when you go to fromisheart.org.