Contentment in All Circumstances – Radio Classic

Based on Philippians 4:13, this message examines how to have true contentment. Dr. Stanley describes several events in the life of the Apostle Paul and explains that contentment is not based on outward circumstances but rather an inward attitude.

All of us had gone through situations and circumstances in our life that we didn’t like.
And oftentimes, we became maybe despondent, maybe even depressed. Of feeling the distress of the situation.
And this is where we live in, and we can’t change all the circumstances.
And we it’s no fun majoring on that.
So what we have to do is decide, how am I gonna respond when I go through these difficult times?
Now I think most of us would agree that, um, if we have a close friend that we can share things with, someone that, uh, would be honest with us, someone that would be confidential, someone who would be an encourager.
That if we had that, that sort of takes away a little of the pain.
But then there are those situations that you can’t tell anybody about.
The other stressful things that happened to you personally or in your life that you would be too embarrassed to tell somebody else.
There are heartaches, there are burdens, there are things that go on in the family, there are things that go on in the person’s finances, and their relationships.
In their plans, you can’t tell anybody else about.
So how do you respond to these distressing situations and you feel like I I I just can’t tell anybody.
You can oftentimes see that in somebody’s face.
If you’re close to them or you watch them or you work with them close by, you can tell when they’re sort of down.
Something’s different. And if you say, well, can I help you in some way?
They would say, no, I’m fine. Well, you know, they’re not fine.
But it point of their life, they don’t feel free to share that with anybody.
What do you do in times like that?
Well, we’ve been talking about how great and encourage your god is.
And also, we’ve talked about how we have the privilege of encouraging one another.
All of us have been encouraged by many people probably down through the years.
But what about those times when you don’t feel like you can tell anybody, and it’s just you and the situation, the circumstances?
It’s just you And maybe you feel like, well, god’s up you onto some way, but it’s just you.
How do you deal with that? Well, that’s what this message is all about. Encouraging ourselves.
And that is indeed a biblical principle that god intends for us to encourage ourselves.
And we wanna talk about how we do that.
And I wanna use David who was a perfect example of encouraging himself and think about this.
By writing the Psalms and his very life, he’s encouraged you and me for many, many years.
And when I think about how many years ago those sums were written over 2000 years ago, we’re still being encouraged.
How could we ever repay god for how he used some people in those days?
Some of them, not the best in the world. Some of them fantastic characters. And yet, we’ve been encouraged.
So what I wanna do is I wanna give you a little background so this will all fit together.
And I want you to turn to 1st Samuel chapter 30, and here’s what’s happening.
David has been running from King Saul for years.
And King Saul, um, at first, he just thought David was it.
And, uh, he killed Goliath, and that was a fantastic thing.
And next thing you know, his whole attitudes changed because all these ladies came out singing you, uh, about to David that Saul killed his thousands, and David is 10,000, and all of a sudden, jealousy.
Hit King Saul. And he set out from that moment to destroy him.
And once when, uh, twice relive when David was, uh, playing the heart for him to sort of settle his nerves, Saul’s nerves, he threw a javelin at him twice to kill him.
He said, dependent to the wall.
And you know how long they are, how heavy they are, how sharp they are.
And if someone thrust one at you, it would go through you easily.
When he talked about marriage, uh, he said he wanted to give him a certain daughter of her of his because she’d bring him down.
How’s that for a gift, uh, father-in-law?
And so everywhere you turned, he did his best to kill him.
And then he chased him year after year trying to find him had he’d have 3000 soldiers trying to find David and his band.
And, um, twice saw the was so close to David David cut off a piece of his garment, he showed him that he could have killed him, but that he would not kill the servant of god.
You think maybe that that would stop it? No. It didn’t.
And David made this statement about Saul.
One day, he’ll come to the end and probably be killed in battle.
And that is exactly what happened.
Both Saul and his son, Jonathan, who was David’s best friend, were both killed in battle.
In fact, they were killed in the battle right after what we’re talking about took place.
So since he was chased by him, finally, David had 600 fellow soldiers, and so they joined up with the Philistines, which was the army that was in opposition to Israel.
And you think, well, David would never have done that, but he was chased everywhere.
They tried to kill him. So he had 600 men he went over to the Philistine side.
So now the Philistines in Israel are getting ready to battle.
And, So, uh, David has his 600, and the Philistines get all lined up.
And then, uh, the King of the Philistines Uh, you know, he David’s been a fantastic warrior for me.
The Philistine soldiers said, wait a minute. Isn’t this the David that killed Goliath?
Isn’t this the David that the women came out singing about him?
Isn’t this the David who is a great warrior? We don’t want him in this battle.
Because if he’s in this battle in the middle of a battle, he may turn against us.
And so finally, uh, Akish called David and said to him, as the lord lives, you’ve been upright and you’re going out and you’re coming in with me, in the army are pleasing in my sight for I have not found evil in from you or from this day or the days come.
In other words, Nevertheless, you’re not pleasing to in the sight of the lords.
That is you’ve been everything I’ve expected you to be, but my commanders don’t want you and your 6 100 men in this battle because they don’t trust you.
So finally, he said, okay. And he told David, he said, uh, Sunrise tomorrow, when the sun get when the light gets up, you all are to leave.
So here he is pretty disappointed that he can’t get in the middle of this battle.
And so if you’ll start with me in the 30th chapter and, uh, here’s what happens.
So they’ve left And it’s about a sixty mile, uh, trip back to, uh, zicklag, and they’re, uh, terrible about 20 miles a day.
Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag where they had been camping.
On 3rd day that the amalikites had made a raid on the negev and on zicklag and had overthrown zicklag and burned it with fire.
It has burned everything to the ground.
And they took captive, the women, and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them all off uh, their own way.
When David and his men came to the city behold, it was burned with fire.
Their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and look at this.
And they wept until there was no more strength in them. To weep.
Now, David’s 2 wives had been taken captive, uh Hanum, the Jesrealite, and Abigail, the widow of Naval, the Carmelite, Moreover, now this is the verse.
Watch this. Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him.
For all the people were embittered each one because of his sons and his daughters, but David strengthened or encouraged himself, same word, encouraged himself in the lord, his god.
Now think about this. He’s lost everything. That’s enough.
They said they’re wept and wept and wept. These not let these men.
We’ve been, we’ve been, we’ve been till they just couldn’t weep anymore. They were totally exhausted.
Tela disappointed, distressed, tele depressed. And so David was one of them.
And then the more they thought about it, their hurt became anger and bitterness.
And they thought, well, we’ll just deal with this, and they’ll thought they would maybe just stone David to death.
And they were talking about it, so we heard it. So think about this. What would he do?
He couldn’t run. He couldn’t outrun 600 men.
Secondly, he’d already lost all of his family and everything.
There is not anything good going on for David at this particular point.
There was no one to turn to. He didn’t have half his army.
Um, saying, well, we’re for David and have not. No. They were all bitter because of what had happened.
Yeah. Nobody had turned to. What do you do when you hit one of those times?
And whatever’s going on in your life, you can’t tell anybody about.
Or you don’t have a friend that’s confidential enough to share it with. So it’s just you.
What do you do with those heavy, heavy, weighty, heartaches, depressions, They come into your life, and there’s nobody to turn to.
Well, listen to see what David did here, and I wanna show you how he did it.
Listen to what he says. Moreover, verse 6, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him for all the people were embittered.
This they turned bitter. Each one because of his sons, they’d lost their families, and his daughters but David strengthened himself in the lord.
Now strengthen himself means that he encouraged himself. How do you encourage yourself?
We know we talk to our friends and they encourage us. How but how do you encourage yourself?
What do you do? How do you go about that?
So I want you to listen carefully, and I want you to think about this.
There are times when you have situations you can’t tell anybody about, What do you do?
Do you get depressed, stay depressed? Get so distressed.
You don’t know what to do next, and you do something that’s foolish probably?
Or do you do what he did? So here’s what he did.
And that is he paused and got quiet before god. That’s all he could do.
In other words, he couldn’t run. He gotta give up and quit. He paused.
And the reason he paused was this because oftentimes when we get in a situation that’s very difficult and hard to handle.
People wanna make a snap decision, and they’re motivated by get me out of this right now.
I don’t deserve this. I don’t want this, whatever it might be. And oftentimes he can’t get out of it.
He didn’t do that. He paused and thought He didn’t run. He didn’t make a decision.
He he he paused and thought about where he was and what the situation was.
What do you do when you get in a timely situation?
Do you stop and think, lord, What shall I do, or do you just make a decision?
And oftentimes, the decision we make is motivated by on the basis of what we think I can handle this, and sometimes you can’t.
And, uh, uh, my way will be as good as anybody else. No.
A godly person is gonna stop and think. Pause and think. What shall I do?
How shall I handle this? And I want you to turn to the 46th Psalm.
And you remember David wrote so many Psalms.
And, um, I want you to look at this 46th Psalm and listen to what it says.
Verse 1. God is our refuge and strength. They were exhausted to the end of their rope.
God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. That word presence is very important.
A very present help in trouble, therefore, because he is we will not fear, though the earth should change, the mountains slip into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and though the mountains quake at its swelling, that is everything is clouded.
Nothing’s clear. What shall we do?
And he writes this Psalm and come down to the 10th verse, if you will. And here’s what he says.
Cease striving and know that I am God. Would you agree that oftentimes we strive with god?
Lord, what about this? What about that? And that’s it?
In other words, the god will show you something that that I don’t believe that’s it, god.
We strive with him. That is we argue with him.
Uh, we we have difficulty in just accepting what he wants to say to us.
And the wonderful thing about pausing and being quiet It gives you an opportunity to let the furore in your heart, the anger in your heart, or the greed of the bitterness or resentment or hostility or whatever it might be.
It gives it an opportunity to to to just settle a moment. What shall I do, lord?
Not move too fast. Not moving some foolish direction. For example, where would he go?
He didn’t know where his family was. He didn’t know where the enemy was.
And besides that, He had 600 soldiers who want to stone him to death.
What what alternative did he had?
The wisest thing he could do to encourage himself was, first of all, get quiet before god.
And many people don’t know how to do that. They just think I gotta act.
No, you don’t have to act.
Listen, if you’re in a position that is difficult, you know, what to do next, whatever the situation may be, you just stop and thank lord.
You said, stop. Don’t strive with you. Just wait upon you.
And many people, when you talk about waiting upon god, they have no earthly idea what you mean.
It means that you don’t do anything for a moment. Somebody says, well, I I have to do this. No.
You And oftentimes, when people wanna push us to make a decision, we should make it because the time’s not right.
It says my time’s better than god’s time, and my my mind’s better than his no.
First thing he did, he just stopped.
And when I think about this verse right here, the power of it I think about Martin Luther who wrote the 95 DCs, put them on a church deal that started a great reformation and listen to what he wrote.
You you know this song, but listen to these words. A mighty fortress is our god.
A bullwark never failing. Our helper, he amid the flood of mortal eels prevailing.
For still our ancient folks, speaking of Satan, does seek to work as well.
His power and craft are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equals speaking of the devil.
Listen. Did we and our own strength confide? No. Our striving would be losing.
We’re not the right man on our side, the man of god’s own choosing.
Do you ask who that may be, Christ Jesus, it is he lord, Sabbath’s name?
From age to age the same, he must win the battle.
And I think you and I need to stop and thank If I’m facing one of these things, what do I do?
First of all, I stop and ask myself the question, lord.
Uh, what what would you have me to do at this point? And you you don’t act first.
We had to ask for for guidance. God, what would you have me to do?
And the scripture gives us illustration at the illustration verse after verse about asking god, asking that she’ll be given, you seeking, you shall find knocking, and she’ll be open unto you.
For the lord wants us to ask him. He wants us to stop and seek his wisdom and his guidance.
Listen. Think about this. You can’t get in any kind of predicament that did god doesn’t have the right answer for.
In fact, he knew all about that you were going to get into it.
He knew all about how to get you out of it.
He knew exactly what it was gonna take to encourage your heart in the situation so you wouldn’t give up and you wouldn’t make a decision that you would regret later on.
And many people make decisions when they come to those tough times that they regret for the rest of their life.
And so by encouraging himself, he got real quiet.
And then he made the wise decision, and now, lord, uh, what would you have me to do?
And see, think about this. God god doesn’t have to come up with a plan because he’s omniscient.
Look, He’s already seen all the message you’re gonna get into in the very beginning.
He already has the right plan to bring you through them. Difficult is hardships that other people bring on you.
Difficult is hardship. We bring upon ourselves, things that we can’t control. He already has the answer.
He doesn’t have to say all right now. Let’s figure this out.
God, the father god, the son, god, the holy spirit. Let’s get together. No.
He already knows because you see, he has a will for your life.
When you’re out of his will, something’s gonna happen. In his will, something’s gonna happen.
Anytime we’re willing to acknowledge our inadequacy and ask him to give us guidance and direction for our life, he will.
And that’s exactly what he did. So in stopping and asking the lord what to do.
Here’s what he did. The scripture says he went to a biother who was the priest, and, seeking a dis uh, make a decision.
Now the priest had this best. It came down to about right here of his sleeve.
Let’s just came down to about right here.
And, uh, it was sort of in a square, and there were 12 stones in that, and each one represented, uh, uh, one of the one of the tribes of Israel.
And we don’t know anything else about that FOD except a few references to it, and nobody nobody has an answer of that except David knew and felt responsible for getting to the priest, and he asked god what he should do.
And if you’ll turn to, uh, verse 7 of the 30th chapter, then David said to the priest, the son of a Himalay, Please bring me the effort.
So about how to brought the effort to David, David inquired of the lord.
So he’s talking to god now. Saying, shall I pursue the band? This band, shall I overtake them?
And he said, to him, pursue for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all.
So He sought the lord, and god made it clear to him what he should do.
Now think about this. The wisest thing he could possibly do is to say, lord, I’m in an impossible situation.
I don’t know what I I I there’s no place to turn. What would you have me to do?
Now they are already getting a dystoning to death and for god to say to him, you pursue them.
What did that mean? God had to speak to 6 100 soldiers to agree with a man they were just about ready to stone to death.
He couldn’t arrange that That was the awesome miracle of god. Now listen carefully.
When you get in a tough situation, just ask him what to do. Does he have an answer? Yes.
You say, Well, it will pursue them. Well, that doesn’t sound right. You don’t argue with god.
You just do what he says.
Somebody says, well, I don’t know whether I’m, I’m, well, you know, I don’t know about asking God.
Let me ask you something. Who’s smarter than wiser than he is?
Well, you said, I don’t know that god would answer my prayers. So watch this carefully.
If you’re living in sin, right.
If you’re living in sin, you’re expecting god to give you some out and make everything just right?
No. You’re living if if you’re living in sin, you’re living in disobedience to god.
You’re not listening to him about your life.
But if your life is clean, or if you say, well, lord, uh, get on your knees and ask god to clean you up.
And get things right. And so when you do and when you come to him genuinely, now watch this also.
I’ve seen people do this. Oh, dear. Got them.
Tell you, if you’ll just please help me out of this.
I promise you I won’t ever do that again. You know what? God knows better than that.
We’re talking about genuine confession, genuine repentance, a genuine cleansing of your heart and asking, lord, what shall I do?
And so it seemed to be the most unlikely thing to do now. Watch this. Pursue them.
They’re getting a distal me to death.
Secondly, we don’t we don’t know where they are, uh, which way did we go?
And so everything was sort of questionable. But he asked god, and god spoke to him.
Now watch this carefully. Somebody says, why do you keep saying that? Because it’s very important.
When you’re asking god about something and you don’t quite get it clear and you’re saying, lord, could that possibly be true?
Here’s what you do. You open the word of god. You ask him to show you how to read.
You may read something you’ve never read before in your life.
It’s been there the whole time, but you just hadn’t read it. You’d be amazed at the times.
God will speak to you clearly through his word very, very clearly.
God is committed to showing you and me what to do and where to go no matter what.
And sometime, we we don’t have anybody else to ask. And notice what he said that David strengthened himself.
That is he encouraged himself. He encouraged himself to do what? To seek the lord.
He encouraged himself to be obedient to god, whatever god told him. He encouraged himself.
There are times when you and I have to encourage ourselves we don’t have anybody else.
As we said, there’s some things you don’t wanna share with anybody else.
Uh, some things you can’t tell anybody else, And so you discourage, you depress, you’re down, you’re out.
We said, well, how can I how can I encourage myself? Whether you stop and pause and think, okay.
Here’s where I am. What does the word of god tell me?
Am I gonna listen to god or am I not?
And you’ll see many times, god will tell us what to do, and we won’t do it.
You said, well, that that couldn’t be right. That that that’s not right.
Well, he told them, well, you head out in this direction. That’s what he did. Listen.
God will never tell you chapter 1 if chapter 2 is not gonna be there.
He’s gonna show us what to do. And when to do it, I may not understand it.
I may not understand it at all. That’s not the issue.
The issue is I’m to do whatever he says do. I’m to obey him.
So when there are times, you can’t ask anybody else.
And maybe you’ve never been in that kind of a situation that you had no one to ask.
But when you don’t have anyone and you have to encourage yourself, It’s you and god.
And you and his word, and this is why his word is so very important for the simple reason.
That in his word, we’re gonna find out what we need to know.
And I look back over the years and think about times when I have been in a situation that I didn’t feel like I had anybody to give me some real wise, uh, advice or or counsel.
And I know what I learned to do very early.
Just go get in a prayer room somewhere and talk to god and be quiet.
And Lord, you show me the next step.
And I’ve been in some situations that were pretty tough, and I’m here to tell you.
God’s never said to me, I don’t have anything to say. That’s not who he is.
When you and I stop and recognize that he’s that he has an answer, he has an answer to anything and everything you and I face.
And you think about this, god is pleased and honored when you and I choose to go to him and say, lord, I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know which way to turn. I’m gonna trust you. God always answers repetition.
There’s sometimes he’ll tell us to do something that doesn’t seem the right.
In other words, it doesn’t look right, but if he tells you what to do, you have to do it, or you disobey him.
In his situation, he had little or no choice at all.
Now one of the he says he encouraged himself.
So stuffing and pausing and listening and and, uh, getting our message from god.
But one other thing that’s very important, that is didn’t encourage myself, which I’m sure he did. He recalled.
Listen, he recalled past times in his life. When god came through for some situation or some heartache.
He recalled to god’s help in previous times. And I want you to think about something.
Watch this carefully. As soon as you get the writing, I want you to look this way and listen.
It’s just that important. You are making history in your life.
Look back over your life how god has worked.
Times when you thought you had to give up and quit and just walk away or when you just want to give up and quit anyway, you’re making history in your life.
That is God has come through in the past.
He’s helped you in this situation, that situation, this situation, you say, but never anything like that?
Well, it’s just adding to history.
There’s not anything god can’t do to help you through whatever you may be going through.
And sometimes sometimes we we just forget how good he’s been in the past and what he’s done.
And so when I see what happened here, uh, think back.
Think back how I I’ve rescued you.
And he he had to think back how he rescued him from Saul and the difficulties and heartaches and goliath and all the other things he went through And this is a powerful, powerful means of getting us through discouragement.
And that is what has god done in the past in my life?
And I remember, um, had a big battle when I first came to 1st Baptist And when the second battle came, I the first battle was I sat over under the balcony and nobody knew I was there.
2nd battle, I set up on the front right beside the pulpit and looked everybody in the eye.
You know why? Because I remembered and recalled the god’s victory before and I believed he’d give me a victory again.
So if you don’t make note of what god is doing in your life, it’s it’s like you’re racing your history.
You’re forgetting it. This is why I think we should teach our children early in life to just make little notes about what y’all is doing in their life, things that they like, or things they don’t like, or what whatever is going on because they are building their history.
And the truth is all of us are building 1 whether we acknowledge it or not.
And it’s and here’s what happens. Watch this carefully. This is a principle when people forget their history.
They repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again. And so you’re building a history.
It’s a part of your life. It something that you have walked through already in your life.
And because David knew how god had worked before in his life, Here he was as a teenager coming up against Goliath, and god gave him that victory.
Can you imagine the kind of faith that built into him?
And so all of his warfare, he was victorious over and over and over again, and and he’d built this history into his life, and now he’s 600 men against all these malachates, and and there were lots more of them.
He says when when they spread out around their camp at night, they just covered everything.
And they were outnumbered many times to 1, but god told them what to do.
Sneke up on them at nighttime.
And, uh, just hit them from every side and that’ll cause confusion and you’ll defeat them.
God never leads us into a trap. Remember that? He doesn’t need it in the traps.
He leads us into situations and circumstances that are very dangerous, maybe.
Oh, it looks like there’s no way to win.
And yet, when god tells you to do something, you do it.
Now you say, well, suppose I don’t believe it the first time with you, but I asked him again.
And listen. He listen. The work of the Holy Spirit is to confirm within your heart and spirit business of god as part of his work.
To confirm in your heart that god has said do this. And so this is exactly what he did.
He began to recall how god had worked in his life before, And, uh, if you’ll think for just a moment, I’ll give you a sec give you about 10 seconds.
Think about when you have been in a tough spot. Really discouraged.
What could you have thought about that happened before?
If you’d have thought about that, well, god got me out of that.
God helped me through that. And somebody says, but I’m not sure he’s gonna help me this time.
Well, let me tell you, god doesn’t change.
Now, you know, we sing all about all mighty god and And, uh, we believe that he’s does not change and he’s the same yesterday, today, forever, and he loves us.
His love doesn’t change. And so whatever situation we are in, he is going to be there to give us direction and guidance and encourage our hearts.
And when I look how god worked in David’s life, he said he encouraged himself.
Had he encouraged him have same way you and I are to. We had to pause when something happens.
Don’t make a fast decision. We had to ask for god’s guidance.
We we had to get in his word. We had to recall what he’s done for us in the past.
God, you brought me through that. You’ll bring me through this. You took me through this situation.
You’ll take me through this. You are faithful then. You’ll be faithful today. I’m gonna trust you.
Then, of course, uh, we we are to Bay him.
He he said, Here’s what I want you to do. Pursume.
Suppose he just said, well, you know, I don’t know how many there are.
And, uh, we’re only 600.
I I don’t know where, in other words, when he said pursue, That’s exactly what he meant.
Now watch this. If I’m gonna encourage myself, I’ve got to be willing to do what he says even though I may be fearful about the very thought of it.
So what encouraged David in an impossible situation? Lost all his family.
They grieved, and they couldn’t grieve anymore. Getting that he gets stoned to death.
And all of a sudden, god says, challenge your men to follow you and I will show you what to do.
And that is exactly what he did.
Now it’s interesting what he did in this situation because Even after they decided, for example, alright, we we’re gonna follow him.
And, uh, where are we going? Look how god works.
So they headed out on a direction, not knowing where to go, and they found this one Egyptian soldier.
That their Malachytes had, uh, cashed him aside because he got sick, and he couldn’t fight in battle.
So they just told him to get out there and die. Had had any water or food in 3 days.
So when David found him, uh, looks like one of the enemy, He asked him where he’d been.
What happened? So he told him that that, uh, the commander had said you can’t fight, so you just stay here and die.
Then David said to him, will you bring me down to this band?
He said, you swear to me by god, and you that you will not kill me, and I’ll tell you.
So he did. And as a result, what happened?
His 600 men, they head in that direction, but watch this.
God that wants to be in control and get all the glory.
They got to a certain river, 200 of them said, I’m too tired. I can’t go any longer.
So that’s one third of his army is checked out. We just can’t fight anymore.
They were dead tired and worn out and, uh, and, morally destroyed because of their families and so forth.
And so they said, We we we can’t go anymore. So what did David do? Watch this.
You listen carefully because god said pursue them.
He believed exactly what god said, knowing that god knew that 200, 1 third of his army.
Won’t even be able to fight.
And it allicates where there were 100100100 and 100 and 100 and in fact, the scripture says when they found them, They were scattered out everywhere camping.
It was so many of them. They were just everywhere. He only has 400 men.
So what happens? They attack and kill them.
Got all their wives back, all their children back because they didn’t kill anybody. They just took them.
Got their wives back, got their children back, and got all of their loot back, all all their belongings.
They they got everything back. Look how god operated. David got quiet. He listened to god.
He did exactly what god told him to do.
And if you’ll notice from that point on, he was encouraged about everything.
Because he listened and he obeyed god.
And it’s, you see, his one Egyptian out in the desert, dying But god had him out there to give David exactly where he needed to go.
And so they found him sleep, And when they fell on a sleeve, they killed the whole crowd.
Now he went from absolute total discouragement facing the loss of his family and death facing all of that.
And now god has led him to be victorious over his enemy.
When I read this, I think, lord. And here’s what it says.
David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening. They fought all day long.
Now they said a while ago, they just couldn’t do anything.
David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening of the next day.
And not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled.
So the guys who didn’t stay to fight, they took off.
So David recovered all the amalikites had taken and rescued his 2 wives.
But nothing of theirs was missing.
With a smaller great, sons or daughters, spoiler, anything that they had taken for themselves. David brought it all back.
So David had captured all the sheep, cattle in which the people drove ahead, uh, of the livestock.
And they said, this is David Spoil. Look what David did.
When he came to the 200 men back here who said, well, I don’t think we we we just can’t handle it.
We can’t fight. And so the men who thought said they don’t get anything. They didn’t fight.
David said, yes, they do. We’re gonna give them as much is we gave the fighters because somebody had to stay by the staff back here.
And so I value them. And he knew that those 200 back here had done their best.
They were worn out. They couldn’t do anything else.
If you’ve got soldiers who can’t fight, they’re they’re not a help. They’re a hindrance.
So when he got back, he gave them everything that they lost.
And so David experienced an awesome deliverance by almighty god.
Now when you think about the situation that you face in life, Honestly, what do you do?
Well, when you when you get real disturbed about something or depressed about something and you’re just stressed out.
I wouldn’t dare have you raise your hand.
But, um, if I was sure to say, how many of you, your first response is called the doctor?
First response, go to the medicine cabinet. First response, I gotta take something.
First response, I gotta talk to somebody. You know what? God is the great physician.
And he’s the one who heals our hurt hearts.
I don’t think any doctor has got anything in a bottle. They can do what god almighty can do.
I’m not opposed to medicine. I’m just simply saying many times we resort to man rather than almighty god.
Listen to him. Be quiet. Don’t jump. Just wait. And whatever he says, do do it.
And listen, when somebody says, if I were you, here’s what I would do. Let this be your first thought.
You are not me. And you do not know what you would do.
I wanna know what god wants me to do, not what somebody else wants me to do.
Now that doesn’t mean you should never ask for advice or counsel.
But we’re talking about when you’ve got things that you don’t wanna share with anybody else.
We’ve talked about it. We’ve talked about helping each other and encouraging each other.
What about when it’s just you and you have nowhere to go but to god? Can you trust him? Yes.
You can. And if he says, you go this way or that way is what you must do.
And to listen to people, rather than to god, only gets you in trouble.
And when I when I look at this passage and see how god worked in his life, he he encouraged David And, listen, he encouraged him to do what?
Not just as I said, he encouraged him to go fight a war.
Outnumbered many times to one, but they want why because god was on their side.
And oftentimes, he will tell you something to do that just think that there’s no way I could do that.
Let me ask you a question.
What is it that you can’t do when god tells you to do it.
When god is on your side, when he’s working in your behalf, And, you know, I’ve lived long enough to see things and watch things in my own life that I think, lord, that appears to be foolish.
I’m not saying it is god, but I’ll do whatever you say.
I’ve never obeyed god in a difficult situation that he did not bring it to pass. Listen.
There are no favorites. God doesn’t play favorites. And god has intimates, not favorites.
Intimates are people that have a relationship. When you have a relationship with god, he’s gonna speak to you clearly.
And instead of staying discouraged and giving up and probably getting stoned to death, What did he do?
He paused to think. He sought the lord. Ask god to show him what to do.
And When you think back, how he worked everything out perfectly, who is this lone Egyptian out here?
He was god’s compass. That’s who he was. He looked like some poor soldier that was just about gone.
But god had him out there for David.
He led him to the enemy, to destroy the enemy, got every single thing back.
Don’t you know they came back rejoicing and praising god? I got my wife. I got my children.
I got everything that I had. I got it all back. How did that happen?
David didn’t react. He’s got quiet. He listened.
He sought the lord’s mind about it. He heard it.
He obeyed god. And god did exactly what he promised.
That simple illustration is the key to your life. You’re writing a history.
You’ve you’ve already written many years of it.
Some of you written more than others, and some of you haven’t written much. But you know what?
Watch this. You can’t change history. So what do you wanna do? Listen.
You want your grandchildren to read your history. You want your children. You want your friends.
And in other words, you want the people you’ve related to over the years.
You want their their remembrance of you to be something that is good.
Well, he stayed in trouble half the time. Well, he stayed in debt all the time.
Well, you know, on and on and on we go. But you’re writing your history.
Nobody can write it for you.
But if you will obey him, obey him, obey him, obey him, trust him. Trust him. Trust him.
Do what he says, not because you understand it or because it’s profitable because of this because that no.
Just trust him. And do what he says. You cannot fail. God is not a failure.
He doesn’t create failures. We bring it on ourselves.
So when I think about how god worked in his life and how he obey the lord, it’s just awesome.
And we could talk about it a long time.
But naturally, what ultimately encouraged him is he came home with his family.
Can you imagine 600 men, uh, coming back ahead back toward their home with their wife and children.
Those kids were never more precious than they were at that wife was never more lovable than she was that day.
She may have been in rags, but she was free, and she was with her. They were with their husbands.
It was an awesome and encouraging glorious time.
Even if they had lost all their stuff, it has still been the same thing. Why? Watch this.
One man encouraged himself before god. And watch what happened. One man.
He was all by himself, going stoned into debt, lost everything. Nothing positive about it.
One man got quiet, listened to god, sought the lord, heard from god, did exactly what god tell him to do.
That is a principle that is absolutely unchangeable. Now we are talking about encouraging ourselves.
Watch this. What I’ve shared with you is the most important part, but there are other ways to encourage yourself Not when you have some major issue, but there are ways to encourage yourself if you get a little down about something or even if you’re going through a tough time, there are other ways to encourage yourself.
For example, achievement and accomplishment in something you like that you love to do is a wonderful way to encourage yourself.
You say, well, that’s not very spiritual. Yes. It is. Because we’re to be joyous Christians.
And when things get tough on us, and we’re we’re doing what the watch this.
When you do what the lord tells you to do, that doesn’t mean there’s not gonna be any pain, no heartache, and doesn’t mean that but you he’s gonna bring you through it.
And you have the privilege and the right and the blessing of being able to do what you love to do.
For example, One of the most encouraging things in my life is to sit down with the word of god and prepare a message.
It’s challenging, very challenging. Sometimes it gets stressful.
In fact, the only thing that raises my blood pressure is preparing a message, not delivering it, preparing it.
I think it’s so intense. That’s okay. Um, but I’m saying I love doing that, and I love photography.
So if if I got a little heaviness in my heart about something, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do something that I want to do that brings me pleasure, and you have the same privilege.
If you’re a person that says, I don’t have anything that brings me pleasure.
You need to start from scratch because surely there’s something that brings you pleasure.
That’s holy, and it’s not godly or ungodly. It’s just something you like to do because god intends listen.
God intends for us to be joyous. He intends for us to be happy.
Doesn’t mean you’re gonna be happy all the time. He intends for us to have peace in in our heart.
And so when are we the best witness?
We are talking about what god is doing in our life and how great he is and what he’s doing in your life.
That’s when you you’re the hat that’s when your testimony is the most effective.
So think about this now because many of you sitting here probably in one of those situations.
You stop, pause. God, what do you want me to do? You’re asking him.
You get in his words, say, lord, If you need some confirmation, ask him to confirm it.
When he makes it clear to you, you obey him. And what happens, you will be encouraged.
It is the will and the purpose and plan of god.
That his children live a purposeful life and a life that has joy.
It doesn’t mean that we won’t hurt and have pain.
But it’s a life that beneath that has awesome joy because we’re his children.
Well, if you’re one of those persons who’s never been saved and you think, well, now how does all that fit me?
Let’s put it this way. If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, this is not an opinion.
This is not an attitude. This is the divine gospel, biblical truth.
It is the truth of almighty god.
That you will reap what you sew more than you sew later than you sew, and you can’t change that.
No. You can’t change it. You said, that’s not gonna happen to me yet. It happens.
You can’t change your principle. That’s true. Morning, noon, and night. It was true in that garden of Eden.
It’s it’s true today. Without Christ in your life, you’re gonna make a miserable mess of it.
You don’t have enough money as a substitute, enough prestige, enough fame, or anything else.
The wages of sin is death. It’s not just physical death. It’s spiritual death.
We reap what we sow both and we sow later than we sow.
What you need is to ask the lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, not based on how good you are or what you can do for him because you can’t do anything for him.
Based on the fact that he died at calvary, shed his blood as payment for your sin.
You need him as your savior. You need him as your helper.
You think you have it all together, but you don’t.
You think you could buy your way into anything and everything. No. You can’t.
There will come a time when your money won’t count, your fame won’t count.
There’ll come a time when your influence and testament. None of that’s gonna count.
You’re gonna stand face to face with god?
You may be lying in a hospital bed somewhere on your way to dying.
Then what are you gonna depend on?
And if you’ll think about that, your history we’ll have condemned you.
It’s the way you lived.
I pray to god that right now, whoever you are and whoever you are, you’ll ask the lord, Jesus, is Christ.
They forgive you of your sins, cleanse your life, turn your life over to him, and tell him the only thing that really matters is is Christ in your life.
I pray the god that you’re asking to save you, which he will do. Father, how grateful we are.
What an awesome god you are.
When we think about all the ways that you’ve given us joy and happiness and peace in our heart, and sometimes right in the middle of pain, You give us this overwhelming, indescribable, inexplicable joy.
And I pray for somebody here this morning who’s living in sin, disobeying you, lost, totally separated from you.
The help them to realize the writing history.
Devastating sinful history that’s going to end up in a devastated, miserable life.
And show them that they can change today by asking the lord Jesus Christ, your beloved son, to forgive them of their sins based on what you did at the cross.
And then before they leave this building, their life will be transformed. By your awesome grace.
I pray for everyone here, father, who is going through some situation or circumstance.
That today, they will take these simple ideas, points, truths, principles begin to apply them to their heart and step out of what are they facing in life in Jesus’ name?
Amen.
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