Practical Living

Dale O'Shields: Thank you for joining us for today's Practical Living broadcast. I appreciate that through this message, you will learn how to apply God's words and truths to any situation in your life. Stay with us as we discover God's truths that will transform us.

Today, we're going to continue in our series together entitled Lifequakes. I want to wrap up a message that I started last week talking about staying encouraged in discouraging times. In this Lifequake series, we're talking about the things that tend to shake up our lives, that cause us to get a little bit off balance in terms of our spiritual, mental, or emotional equilibrium. Life does deal us blows at times. Just the basic transitions of life, as well as other things that happen to us, we experience things that we might call lifequakes.

Jesus referred to this kind of experience in his gospel accounts recorded in Matthew chapter 7. Jesus talked about two men that built houses. One man built his house on rock, and another man built his house on sand. To both of them, the storms of life came. The wind blew and the rain came down. The Bible tells us that obviously, if you think about a foundation, one man's house survived the storm, and another man's house did not. The man's house built on the rock made it through; the man's house built on the sand did not.

The lifequake is something that comes to all of us. The question is, do you have the right foundation? The right foundation is to know God's word, to live it, to obey it, and to understand how to apply it in your life. That's what I want to help you to do in this series as we look at different things that affect us in a variety of ways. I'm talking to you this weekend, as I did last weekend, about one of those lifequake moments. It's a moment we're calling times of discouragement, times when you just simply get so discouraged.

I want to remind you of two points that I shared with you last weekend, and then we'll pick up two more points today that will round out this message for us. We talked last week about the fact that discouragement really is an enemy. We don't often think of discouragement as being an enemy of our lives, but it is. In fact, the Bible teaches us that Satan uses discouragement against believers. What Satan wants to do in your life is to try to drag you down and pull you down with a spirit of discouragement.

Many Christians have been taken out of their spiritual journey not by some terrible sin they committed, but literally by discouragement. The devil knows that, and the devil uses this against us. Discouragement is an enemy of your life. Then, I talked about the fact last weekend that discouragement is the result of things happening in two very significant categories. Discouragement happens when you go through a traumatic kind of event. Something happens in your life that is a one-time thing, but it knocks you off-kilter. It's an event that transpires.

Most of the time, discouragement happens through seasons of just trouble and difficulty. Not just one thing that happens, but things that sort of pile up on each other. You have one bad thing happen, then something else happens, and it seems like before long, you're living in this ongoing process of trying to pull yourself up out of a pit in some aspect of life. I want to take you to the story of David in 1 Samuel chapter 30. I want you to see in David's life and in the life of his men both an event and a sequence of events, a season of events that happened for him that brought him to a place that he is very low and discouraged.

Then, today, we'll talk about how he got out of his discouragement. 1 Samuel chapter 30, beginning in verse number one: "David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now, the Amalekites had raided the Negeb and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them but carried them off as they went on their way. When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep."

Notice the discouragement now setting in. "David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David's two wives had been captured, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed." Again, you see this describing discouragement. "David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters." Let's see what's going on here. This story that we're looking at today transpired in a village, a city called Ziklag.

Let me back up and tell you how David ends up at Ziklag. I need to give you a little bit of history so you'll understand how he's living here at this particular time along with his men and all their families. During this time in Israel's history, there was a king in Israel by the name of Saul. He's the first king of Israel. He had been anointed by Samuel to become that first king when the people asked for a king. Saul had been anointed to become that first king, but over a period of time, Saul kept disobeying God. He would not do the right thing and ultimately, he completely rebels against God.

God removes from Saul his anointing as king. Saul continues for a period of time to be king, but he's no longer anointed by God. The presence of God and the blessing of God has been removed from Saul's life. At the time that blessing is removed from Saul's life, God sent Samuel to the house of a man by the name of Jesse to anoint who would be the second king. The second king of Israel will be a man by the name of David. Saul is still the king, but David is anointed to be the next king.

As soon as Saul learns about this, Saul is very upset about this. He is the king, but he realizes that Samuel has now anointed this next guy, and so he feels very threatened, very concerned about his own kingdom. His desire, Saul's desire, was to put David to death. David ends up running away from Saul, fleeing for his life. He becomes a fugitive for about a decade. For almost 10 years, David is running from Saul. David accumulated some men with him who became a part of his entourage.

About 600 men were traveling with David during this particular time as they wandered through the wilderness of Judea, hiding in caves and all kind of places to protect themselves from Saul, who was trying to kill David. Ultimately, they come to a village in the Philistine territory, and the village is called Ziklag. They end up at Ziklag and they feel like, this is our place. We're going to be safe here. Saul can't find us here. We're kind of hiding away in Philistine territory. Certainly, Saul is not going to come here to attack us. They feel fairly secure and safe there.

What happens there at Ziklag is there's a moment in time when David and his men go out to engage in a battle. All the men leave all the wives and children back at Ziklag in the village. They go out for a battle. They come back and when they came back, they discovered that an enemy group by the name of the Amalekites, who were enemies of Israel, came in and raided Ziklag. While all the men were gone and all the warriors were gone, no one was there to protect all of the women and children. The Amalekites came in and they robbed that city.

They actually stole away all the goods, all the plunder, anything of value, and they kidnapped all the wives and all the children and all the livestock and took it away with them. The men come back from their projected battle, they enter into the city, and Ziklag has not only been destroyed in terms of all these things being lost, but they've burned it. The Amalekites have burned it with fire. It's just a bunch of rubble left. As soon as they arrive back and see this situation, it's like the straw that breaks the camel's back. They're just absolutely devastated by it because they've been running.

Think about this. They've been running for 10 years now from Saul. This is like the icing on the cake in terms of tragedy. How do we deal with this now? The Bible says that David's 600 men, who've been with him for many years now and loyal to him for many years, they are so distressed and so discouraged that they start talking about stoning David, putting him to death. This spills over to David as well. David feels the pain of it because he's lost his family also. All of the men along with David are extremely discouraged. This is horrible. It's an event that's happened, but it's also a representation of a season of time that David's been going through that's been very extended and very stressful. Discouragement now has settled into them.

I want to talk to you about the fact of discouragement, how dangerous it is. It's dangerous because it is what I'm going to describe as a disease in your soul. I've used the example that discouragement is an enemy. It is an enemy, but the reason it's an enemy is because it's a disease. Which of you would agree that cancer is a disease? Right? Would you also agree it's an enemy of your body? I want you to put these two terms together. Discouragement is an enemy because it is a disease of the soul. Discouragement is not just any kind of disease; it is a malignant disease.

It actually eats away at you on the inside. If you don't address discouragement inside of you, it's going to grow over time and it's also going to become contagious to other people. It spreads to others. When you're discouraged and you don't deal with discouragement, when it's not addressed, you start shaping your decisions out of a discouraged soul. You start restricting your own growth out of discouragement. You start distorting the trajectory of your life and in fact, distorting the trajectory of the lives of other people around you. Discouragement affects the way you think, the way you live, and the relationships of your life. You start living out of discouragement.

That describes lots of people today. The decisions they're making, the choices that go along with their lives, their thought process, their relationships, they're not living out of encouragement; they're living out of discouragement. Their lives are producing the fruit of discouragement rather than the fruit of encouragement. You see this in the story of David and his men. This is exactly what happened here. When they return to this ruined village of Ziklag, they're very discouraged. We see how discouraged they are by the fact that David's men, 600 men, are talking about stoning him. Now David is at a place where he, the Bible says, is greatly distressed by the situation.

David was not a novice when it came to discouragement. David had experienced it before because obviously, you can't run for your life for 10 years without being discouraged along the way. This is kind of toward the end of these 10 years, if you look historically and in terms of the chronology of this. This is toward the end of this period of fleeing from Saul, and David has experienced this before. We see this through the book of Psalms. Let me give you one example of that. In Psalm 31, we see David talking about a time in his own life earlier when he was discouraged. He understands what discouragement is all about.

He writes in Psalm 31, verses 9 and 10, "Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress." Same word that is used to describe him at Ziklag. He says, "I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak." David's talking about a time in his life very much like the time he's in right now at Ziklag in this story, when he felt like he just had no hope for his future. His life was being consumed by anguish and his years by groaning and his strength had failed him because of the afflictions he was facing. Not necessarily physical afflictions, but the afflictions of dealing just with the problems of being a fugitive at the hand of King Saul. He understood discouragement and its dangers.

I want to drive home to us today, to all of us, an understanding that discouragement is an enemy of your life. It is not your friend. Discouragement is an enemy and discouragement is a disease that will work its way into your spirit and into your soul and into your very being. It will affect the way that you start making decisions. Sadly, as I said a moment ago, many people and sadly, many Christian believers are living their lives out of discouragement rather than out of encouragement. It is a disease that is also contagious. It spreads from you to other people. All it takes is one discouraged person in a family to make the whole family discouraged. All it takes is one discouraged person in the workplace to bring everybody down in the workplace. All it takes is one discouraged person on a team to bring the whole team down. It begins to filtrate and infiltrate through us to other people around us.

I'm going to give you the fourth point in the series and this is what I'm going to call the hallelujah point. I've given you some basics to understand about discouragement, but I'm going to give you the good news right now. There is a way out of discouragement. There's a way out. There's a strategy to deal with it. When you read the entire story of David at Ziklag with his men, you'll begin to see that there's also a bright spot in the story. There's a dark spot in the story, we just talked about that, but that dark spot yields eventually to a bright spot in the story with David and his men.

This bright spot is seen in the choices that David makes in this moment when he's discouraged. When he's at one of the lowest points of his life, he chooses some things that turn everything around and the light comes on in the midst of darkness. Let's look now at 1 Samuel chapter 30. I will pick up again at verse number six. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters, but David found strength in the Lord his God. I love that, "But David found strength in the Lord his God." One translation says, "But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God." The old King James version says, "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

He found strength in the Lord his God; he encouraged himself in the Lord his God; he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Verse seven says, "Then," after strengthening himself in his relationship with God, "Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, 'Bring me the ephod.'" Let me stop there for a moment. The ephod was something that the priest would wear when they would go into the presence of God. It's a part of their priestly garments and their priestly vestments. As a part of their priestly garments and their priestly vestments, they had this ephod upon which and in which contained two stones called the Urim and the Thummim.

The Urim and the Thummim was what they brought with them into the presence of God. It was lights and perfections is what Urim and Thummim mean. It was the way they would discern the will of God when they would go in to inquire of God in the presence of God. David calls for the priest and he brings the ephod that included the Urim and the Thummim, the lights and the perfections, the fact that God wanted to reveal his will to his people. Abiathar brought it to him and David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Do I need to go after these Amalekites who just attacked us? Will I overtake them?"

This was the question he asked God. "God, do you want me to go after them? Do you want me to pursue them? What do you want me to do?" Then God responds, "Pursue them," he answered, "You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue." God speaks to him and tells him what to do. Verse nine: "David and the 600 men with him came to Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. 200 of them were too exhausted, so worn out, too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other 400 continued the pursuit."

Notice verse 17: "David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away except 400 young men who rode off on camels and fled. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back." There's where we see the light shining in the midst of a dark moment. How did David respond to his discouragement? What does he do there? Well, I will tell you what he did not do. He did not lay down in the bed of discouragement and simply lie there. He didn't just passively let discouragement overtake him. No, David decided to fight.

This is important because if you're struggling with an enemy called discouragement and if it's a disease in your soul that can destroy you and other people, would you agree fighting it is the best thing you can do? David made the decision, "I'm going to fight this thing. I'm going to respond to it in the right way." I'm going to unpack for you right now seven critical decisions that David makes here in this situation that you and I need to be aware of and practice in our lives. This is not just David; we could see it in a lot of different men and women of the Bible, these principles. There are other principles, but these are very significant ones we see particularly in this story of the story of Ziklag.

Let's walk through seven things. When you're discouraged, what is it? It's an enemy and it's a disease. Don't lay down and accept it; you've got to fight it. You've got to fight it. How do you fight it? Let me give you these seven things. Number one, you've got to seek strength first and foremost from God. The Bible says that David pressed into God in this moment. His men are talking about stoning him. Notice again verse six. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters, but David found strength in the Lord his God. David strengthened himself; David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

David had no one else to encourage him, so he encouraged himself. You know, there are times that you're going to have to encourage yourself in God. There may not be anyone else around to encourage you, but you have to take the responsibility to say, "No matter what I'm going to through right now, I know that God is still for me and not against me. No matter what I'm going through right now, I can still encourage myself in my relationship with God. I will strengthen myself in God."

I can look around this worship center this afternoon. I know some of you here and some of the stories that you've walked through in your lives. I know that some of you can testify and declare that you would have not made it through a particular season had God not given you the strength to make it through. That you made it through because God gave you the strength to make it through. You look back and you say, "How did I even get through that?" You got through it because you were strengthened by God. God gave you the strength in your heart to make it through what you could have never made through on your own.

I will tell you today that the Lord strengthens hearts. This is what he does. In fact, David says in Psalm 73, verse 26, "My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever." The first thing that's necessary to get out of discouragement is to go to God and ask him for the strength that you need to get out of that discouraging moment and season of your life. God, strengthen my heart.

The second thing that we see here is that you and I, as David did, we need to seek wisdom from God. Not only strength from God, but wisdom from God. David needed an answer. He needed to know what to do. "How do I handle this situation?" When you're going through discouraging moments, you need to know what to do. You need an answer from God to know, "This is how I'm supposed to respond." David goes to God. In fact, I will tell you that God has answers and God has direction for people who are going through discouraging moments. He did for David; he does for you as well.

The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse eight, that David inquired of the Lord. David strengthens himself, and the very next thing that he does, he inquires of God. "God, what do you want me to do here? What's the wisdom? What do you want me, what are your instructions for my life?" Approaching the priest and through the priest, finding an answer from God. I will tell you that when you go to God asking for wisdom, God will give you wisdom. This is promised to us in the Bible. James chapter one, verses five and six: "If you need wisdom," and that's all of us, right? "If you need wisdom," what should we do? Ask our generous God. What's the promise? He will give it to you.

He will not rebuke you for asking, but when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Don't waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Go to God and believe that God will impart wisdom for you. David needed strength from God and David needed wisdom from God. When you're discouraged, what's the first thing you do? God, strengthen my heart. Second thing you do, God, I need wisdom from you to know how to handle this.

God, thirdly, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you that you're going to respond and help me in this situation because I've cried out to you. I have confidence. I'm going to wait on you to respond. Number three, trust God. David did not know for sure what God was going to ask him to do, but he put his trust in God to hear the answer from him and knew that God would show up on his behalf. If you cry out to God and ask him to strengthen your heart, he will strengthen your heart. He will give you wisdom and you can trust that God will hear your cry and that God will answer you. You can trust him.

Psalm 27, verses 13 and 14: David says, "I truly believe I will live to see the Lord's goodness. I believe that in this trouble that I'm going through, it's not going to kill me. I'm not going to die in this situation. I truly believe that I will live to see the Lord's goodness. Wait," he says in verse 14, "Wait for the Lord's help. Be strong and brave and wait for the Lord's help." That word wait means to put your trust and hope in God, to tie yourself inextricably to God, to put your confidence in God knowing that he is going to help you. Don't be in a hurry, but put your trust in God knowing that he will show up in his right timing for your life.

Number four out of these seven that we're looking at is then, when God speaks to you, do what he tells you to do. Follow God's instructions. By the way, let me simply say when we talk about following God's instructions, the best way to follow God's instructions is just to look in the Bible and do what it says. Those are the instructions of God to you. What do I need to be doing in my life that will bring me to places and points of obedience in my life? What am I not doing that would represent disobedience in my life? Where have I walked away from the word of God? How do I need to get back on track with the word of God in my life?

The Bible says that David then follows God's instructions. Verses eight and nine of 1 Samuel chapter 30: "Then David asked the Lord, 'Should I chase after this band of raiders, these Amalekites? Will I catch them?' And the Lord told him, 'Yes, go after them.'" I want you to notice verse number nine: "So David and his 600 men set out and they came to the Brook Besor." The Bible says that once they knew what to do, David said to his men, "Let's go do what God has told us to do."

The fifth thing, if you want to recover or deal with discouragement in your life, is to expect recovery in your life. You need to remember who God is. David remembered who God was. As he asked God for help, he remembered who God was. I will tell you today that one of the things that you need to always remember is who God is in your life. I'm going to give you three things to describe who God is. Number one, God is the God of resurrection. That's who he is. Dead things never intimidate God. You can look at a life and say, "This part of my life seems dead. My marriage seems dead, this career seems dead, this financial situation looks like it's all dead." All it takes is one word from God and that which is dead comes back to life again.

That's exactly what Jesus spoke to Mary and Martha at the tomb when Lazarus, John chapter 11, when Lazarus had been put in the tomb. He was there for four days and already started decaying. Jesus walks up to the tomb and says, "Roll the stone away." They say, "Well, Jesus, he's been in the grave for four days. He already is decaying, he stinks." Jesus said, "Roll the stone away." He said, "I am. I am the resurrection and I am the life." Let me tell you again who God is. God is the God of resurrection. Never forget that.

Number two, he's the God of restoration. He's not only the God of resurrection, he's the God of restoration. He's able to restore back stuff to your life that maybe you've lost in your life in some measure. All of us have lost certain things. The Bible says the devil is a thief. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But that which the devil has stolen from you, God can bring back to you. He's the God of restoration. Ask Job, because Job lost everything. Family, finances, he lost everything. When you get to the final chapter of the book of Job, the Bible says that God restored back to Job double of all he'd had before. He received double for all of his trouble. God brought it back to him again.

He's the God of resurrection. He's the God of restoration. Thirdly, he's the God of recovery. He's the God that recovers things in your life, puts your life back together again. When your life has been broken and things have been lost from your life, he's able to mend those areas. Notice, if you will, 1 Samuel chapter 30, verses 18 through 20: "David got back everything the Amalekites had taken." Do you see that in scripture? How much did he get back? Everything. "David brought everything back. He also recovered all the flocks and the herds." You see that? Got back, everything back, recovered all the flocks and the herds.

You say, "Well, Pastor, that's the Old Testament. That's David. What does it have to do with me?" I'll show you exactly what it has to do with you and me because it's in the New Testament as well. Peter writes about this in 1 Peter chapter five. If anyone understood restoration, Peter did because he'd messed up big time and he had to come back to God, find restoration as Jesus brings him back into the fold again and recalls him into ministry after his failure and denial of Jesus the night before Jesus was crucified. Peter understood restoration. He writes these words in 1 Peter 5, verse 10: "In his kindness, God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. God called you to share in his eternal glory by Christ Jesus."

Then he adds this: "So after you have suffered a little while," let's stop there for a moment. I'm not sure I like that part of the verse. But it's in the Bible. Every time I read that verse, there's a question that always pops up in my head. "How long is a little while?" I always want to know how long it is. We always want to define what the little while is, and God doesn't tell us what little while means and it's not for us to determine what the little while is. But the Bible says that after you have suffered a little while, whatever the little while is—it might feel long to you, but the Bible says that a day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years like a day—so we don't define time in the same way God defines time.

We shouldn't worry about how long the little while is. But the Bible says, "So after you have suffered a little while," please notice the next three words, "he will restore." Aren't you glad that's there? He will restore, support, and strengthen. After you've suffered a little while—you're going to go through some stuff in your life—but don't give up in the suffering part because after a little while, God will show up and he will restore, he'll support, he'll strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. That's the promise that you have from God. Make sure that you expect recovery in your life. David expected to recover what had been taken from him by the Amalekites, and indeed that's exactly what happened.

I've got two more to cover with you. The sixth thing is to make sure that when you're encouraged, that you encourage somebody else. I love this part of the story because it's not really explicitly laid out in the story, but it's implied in the story. You have to sometimes in the scripture passages read between the lines to figure some things out. Let me see if I can help you read between the lines here to understand something that happens here in this story that's not explicitly laid out. All the men are discouraged. That's what happened when they came back to Ziklag. Everybody's frustrated, they say, "Let's kill David. We're going to stone him to death." David's greatly distressed.

Then the Bible says David encourages himself in the Lord and this turnaround begins to happen. But here's what I want you to see. Here in one moment, 600 men are talking about stoning him. The next moment, they're going to war with him. How did this happen? Somehow, the encouragement that David received, he passed on to his men. That they, in their discouragement, were turned around by the encouragement that came to David. He did not keep it to himself. He took the encouragement he received from God and he passed it on to his 600 men. Now they're no longer distressed and discouraged. They're believing as well that they can go back and recapture what has been taken from them. Their hearts have been refreshed with the encouragement that came from God to David and from David to them.

Are you hearing me today? When God encourages you, he expects you to become an ambassador of encouragement to other people. When he encourages you, he does not encourage you so it stays with you. He wants to encourage you so it gets passed on to others. Do you know that we live in a world that is greatly discouraged? You have people in your family right now that are discouraged. You have people right now in the place where you work, your officemates, the people that you work with, they're terribly discouraged. They may not tell you this, but there are so many people in your neighborhood, there are people that are discouraged.

Maybe that neighbor right next door to you, they're discouraged about something in their life. They're going through a hard time, and God needs agents or ambassadors of encouragement in the world. One of my prayers for all of us is that God would encourage us so we can go out into our world and be encouragers to other people around us. I would love to invade the DMV with encouragement. I'd love to just send us all out today on a mission. That as we go out into our various places in our neighborhood, because we've got people from all over here, all over the DMV that come to church here, and my prayer would be as we go out of this place today and every week that we come in and receive God's word, refreshed by the worship of God, that we'll go back out again as ambassadors of encouragement. That we give what we're receiving from God.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse number four, as he's describing his own set of circumstances and the circumstances of the Corinthian believers. He writes and says, "He comforts us, God comforts us in all our troubles so that," so that what? "We can comfort others." He says the whole reason that God comforts you is so that as he comforts you, you can comfort somebody else. As he encourages you, you can encourage someone else. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. Are you an ambassador of encouragement? You can't be an ambassador of encouragement if you're discouraged. So you press in to find the encouragement from God so you can give it to others.

The last point for today is this: make sure, whatever you do, when you're discouraged, don't give up. Don't give up. David and his men, when they're going after the Amalekites, they stayed in the fight until they defeated the source of the discouragement, the Amalekites. They stayed in the fight. Notice verse 17 of 1 Samuel chapter 30. David and his men rushed in among them, these Amalekites who had stolen everything from them. David and his men rushed in among them and slaughtered them throughout that night and the entire next day until evening. Notice that the battle wasn't won quickly. They had to fight throughout the night and the entire next day until evening. They stayed with the fight until the battle was won.

I will tell you today that sometimes discouragement is not going to give up with the first time that you try to strike out against it. You fight that battle and you stay with the fight and you don't give up. You are not going to give discouragement a place in your life. It has no place in a believer in Jesus Christ. Fight until the victory has been won. The victory will be there, but you've got to fight the fight. Paul speaks in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good. At the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Don't let weariness win in your life. Stay with the fight. Don't let weariness win. Keep doing good, keep fighting the battle with whatever might be coming against you. Fight that battle with faith and with confidence.

As Paul writes to Timothy, Paul went through all kind of difficulty. I'm now into that portion of the book of Acts where Paul is now going out and doing his journeys and his preaching the gospel. Paul faced, time and time again, he's misunderstood, he's abused, he's persecuted, he's driven out of cities, he ends up being shipwrecked, all kind of terrible things happen to Paul. Finally, he comes to the end of his life, and he realizes he's now imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel. He knows who the emperor is, a man by the name of Nero. Nero, an evil man, hated Christians.

Before he dies, he writes a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. It's the last letter that Paul wrote, his last words that we have recorded in scripture. He writes to Timothy these words: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful." Paul at the end of his life says, "I got in the ring and I fought a good fight. I did not give in, I did not throw the towel in, I kept fighting to the very end. I finished the race. The race was tough at times; sometimes the incline was very steep and the rocks on the trail were hard. It was a difficult journey, but I kept my eye on the end. I realized that I wanted to cross over that tape at the finish line. I remained faithful. I kept the faith."

Now a prize awaits me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. Never give up. When you're discouraged, what do you do? You recognize this is an enemy, it's a disease. I don't want discouragement in me. I'm going to seek God for the strength that I need in my heart and ask him for wisdom and trust him. I'm going to believe and expect that recovery can happen in my own soul, in my own life. I'm going to become, as God encourages me, I'm going to encourage other people along the journey of life. I am going to stay in the fight; I will not throw in the towel. I will not give up. I will finish this race. I will not let discouragement take me out. Amen?

I want to do something today. I'm going to ask you to stand your feet right now. Everybody. I'm going to conclude just a little bit differently today because I just feel this message so strongly in my heart, that God wants to drive some discouragement from lives today. He wants to turn some things around for you. By the way, I know I've gone a little longer today. That's okay because we're on God's time right now. Sometimes you need a little more time with God. God wants to do something in your life right now to begin to break the pattern of discouragement. I know that there are people in this room right now that you're battling some terrible discouragement in your life.

Do you believe that God can turn your situation around? Do you believe that? Do you believe that God can work in your life? Not just in somebody else's life, but God can work in your life today. He loves you, he cares for you. I'm going to invite you just to bow your head with me right now all across the worship center. I'm asking you to do that because I want it to be a private moment. I don't want anyone to feel embarrassed in any way. If you've been going through a time of really battling some discouragement in your life, can I ask you right now to throw up both of your hands? Throw your hands up to God right now and say, "This is me, God. I've been discouraged, I've been battling some discouragement." Don't be embarrassed; we all battle it. It's okay. We're going to go to God right now and ask him to help us.

Lord, I thank you for the honesty and the transparency of your people today. Lord, you not only see hands, but you see hearts today. Lord, you know the pain, the difficulty, the challenges that people are going through. You know the details of every person's life. It might be a financial discouragement, might be a career discouragement, might be a relationship discouragement. But Lord, I know that you are the God of encouragement. I pray today in the wonderful and precious and mighty powerful name of Jesus, the name that is above every name and every situation, that you would begin to break the stranglehold of discouragement upon the lives of your people.

Lord, I rebuke the dark spirit of discouragement. I come against the ugliness of that spirit, that disease in our lives. I pray that in the name of Jesus, that even today those strongholds would begin to be broken. I pray that joy would begin to arise in the hearts of your people, that peace would rise in the hearts of your people, that a sense of expectation of recovery and resurrection and restoration would begin to rise in them. Lord, thank you for the story of David, that he comes out of discouragement into encouragement to a place of victory. I ask you to do this for your people today by the grace and power of your spirit at work within us. We receive it and we thank you for it.

Now right where you are with your hands lifted up, I want to encourage you right now just to begin yourself to begin to thank God for beginning that process in you. Doesn't matter what you feel; this is not an emotional moment. This is about faith in your life. Begin to tell him thank you. Lord, thank you for setting me free. Thank you for beginning to break the discouragement that has a stranglehold on my life. You speak out your words to him. Tell him that you thank him for doing this work in this life. Praise him for what he's doing in you. Thank him that this is the moment that things are going to start turning around in your spirit, in your life. He's lifting that burden, that cloud is going away. Come on, thank him for it, praise him for it, exalt him and magnify him for what he's doing in your life today.

Now I'm going to ask all of us to raise up a great worship of praise and adoration. Come on, let's give God the praise today for what he's doing. From your heart, thank him. Praise him, worship him. Let your voice declare the praises of God. Tell him that you love him. Tell him that you praise him for breaking the strongholds in your life. God of resurrection, the God of restoration, the God of recovery loves you. He cares about you.

I would like to close today by giving you an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me right now? Right where you are, just simply bow your head with me and I'm going to give you a prayer to pray. You can simply speak this prayer out from the sincerity of your heart. Call upon God, and I promise you that he will hear and answer you. Say, "Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, that I have fallen short with you. I'm sorry for all of my sins. Jesus, I believe in you. I believe that you are God's Son. I believe that you are the Savior of the world. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, and I believe that you rose from the grave, that you are alive today."

"Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. Give me a new start in you. I commit my life to you in Jesus' name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer with me, I want to encourage you with a promise from God's word that says that when we call upon God's name, there is salvation that comes to our lives. He changes us from the inside out and you become a new creation. All things pass away, all things become new. And that's exactly what has happened to you today. Your next step really is to make sure that you get into a good Bible-believing church. You begin to study God's word. Get a copy of the Bible if you don't have one and begin to read it. Spend some time every day in prayer.

I would encourage you also to check out the resources on our website that will help you to get going in your relationship with Jesus. You can find them at church-redeemer.org. Get those into your hands. Get started in your new life with Jesus Christ. Thanks again for joining us today. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you next time.