Discouragement & Encouragement

May I read, please, in 1 Samuel chapter 30, 1 Samuel chapter 30, and we'll read at verse 1. 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 1, And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziglag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziglag, and smitten Ziglag, and burned it with fire, and had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters were taken captives.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. So that was a desperate situation. David's two wives were taken captives, the Hinnom, the Jezreelites, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, a Carmelite.

And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Now over to the New Testament, to the book of Acts.

The book of Acts chapter 27, and we'll just read a little bit of this story, not very much. Chapter 27, Acts chapter 27, and they're on a ship, leaving on a ship. Paul told them not to leave, but in verse 11, it said, Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul.

And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenicia, and there to winter, which is in haven of Crete, and lieth toward the southwest and northwest. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing thence, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Eurocledon.

And they did a lot of work to the get into a storm, down a little farther. And verse 20, And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. That's a desperate situation.

But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. And there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I fear, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar.

And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe that it shall be even as it was told me. Down a little farther, verse 29, Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.

Down a little farther, verse 31, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. And I guess that'll suffice on that.

Chapter 28 for a couple of verses. Acts chapter 28 and verse 13. Now they've left the... one person said they were under the attack of the devil.

So when the devil lost as the lion, he comes at them now as the serpent in chapter 28. But I'm just thinking of verse 14 or verse 13. And from thence we fetched a compass and came to Regium.

And after one day the south wind blew and we came the next day to Podoli, where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Zappi Forum and the three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage.

Now the Lord will bless, I'm sure, what we've been listening to and help just for brief moments this afternoon in our meeting. My little thought for this afternoon that I've been praying about and thinking about for a little time now is the thought of discouragement, being discouraged. So my question would be, is there anyone today in our company? Would there be anyone? And I'm sure no different this part of the world than down in our part of the world.

Sometimes the Lord's people become discouraged. And maybe there's one today. And if there's even one in our company today that these little thoughts might be of someone help to, to be encouraged.

So any discouraged here today? Three ways of encouragement. I was thinking about them, just going to give them. I'm sure you know already, I can't tell you anything you don't know, but I can at least remind you of some of the things that we would find from these three scriptures that we've read together.

Three ways of encouragement. And we all need to be encouraged, I'm sure, from time to time. I read one time a person said that next to the bread that we eat, that the next thing that's needed is kindness.

Because most everyone is fighting a hard battle. And of course the enemy, the enemy that's against the believer, you and I that are saved, the enemies that are, the enemy that is against us, threefold enemy, will definitely see to it, if at all possible, that we might be discouraged. Because if we become discouraged, he knows then that the work of God and the things of God, then they are going to suffer.

And of course we're going to suffer personally. So I just thinking of three ways of encouragement. First of all, in 1st Samuel chapter 30, you'll recognize right away, it says that David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Things were desperate. It was a desperate time in his life when they returned to Ziglag and noted a lot of disappointments at that time when he had seen that the fact that his home life, because that was gone, affected his family life because that was gone. And maybe the work that he'd planned to do against the enemy when he went down to the battle, well that had changed.

And so when I think of David and then his friends, his very friends that he had went to battle with and had been with them, as we've been hearing, even they began to turn against him. They spoke about stoning him. And so as he's looking at these situations that he's facing, they were desperate days for this man David.

So what's he going to do? I don't know. He didn't run. He wasn't a man that was used to running, really, running away from difficulties.

But it says there that David encouraged himself in the Lord, even in a desperate situation, when everything looked terribly against him. And one fellow said in the Bible reading one time, that verse was mentioned in the Bible reading, he said, well David encouraged himself in the Lord, and the other one of the men said, well I don't think that even should be in the Bible. He said, how can a person encourage themself in the Lord? And I suppose that's what made me think about it a little bit.

How does a person encourage himself in the Lord? If things were going hard in your life, things go hard in our lives, how do we encourage ourselves in the Lord? Because sometimes there's very little outside encouragement. Well I think David, one thing would be his past. He would look into his past.

He would look at down the channels of the years that had gone by already in his life. He would remember as a young man when he had to face a lion and a bear, and another day when he had to face the giant Goliath. And you know, as he looked into his past, he would remember that God didn't let him down then.

The circumstances when he was as a shepherd boy and tending those sheep in the in the field, where no one else could see him when he was all in the privacy of his own life, his God took care of the situation. And so he would have learned confidence that God was able to meet the need, no matter how great that need was, no matter how desperate that situation was, because I'm sure when he was looking face-to-face with a lion, I'm sure that he would maybe begin to wonder. And then when he began face-to-face with a bear, I'm sure that he maybe questioned how this was going to, how it was going to go.

And then with Goliath, as he goes out to face that giant, it was tremendous, the confidence in God. Well I'm sure he would look back and he could draw from his past experiences. And sometimes in our Christian life, you know, that's what we have to do.

We have to go back and we have to draw from our past experience, remembering that God was able to meet our need back there, and God hasn't changed. He's able to meet our need right here. And so I would think that he was encouraged.

Think of God's power, we'll think of the path that God led him in his life, his pathway in life. And I'm sure as he drew from some of these experiences, that he would be encouraged. So my little thought on that, along with others, but I'm passing on for time wise.

Looking into his past, remembering God was able, so he could encourage himself in the Lord. Then when I come to Acts chapter 28, there's a storm raging, a Northeaster is raging. I don't know if you've ever been in a storm.

I don't see many oceans around here and much water like that for vessels. But if you've ever been, a lady said just outside there, before we come in, she said, did you ever see so much wind blowing in Iowa? It's so windy, the days are so windy. Well I said, it blows a bit up our way, for sure, a little bit.

In fact, I said when we lived in Red Bay, Labrador, for a few years, Mr. Dryburn and them would know about that. I used to say, tell them when I was off, that they make the wind up there and then they test it all out and then they send it out through the world. So there's a bit of wind up that way, for sure.

But you know, this storm here is a Northeaster, that's their meeting here in this vessel. And this Northeast storm begins to blow and it becomes a situation. And what I thought here, the word, you know what Paul got one night or one day in that storm? He got a word from God.

And that word from God, he said to those men aboard, and you know, they'd been on that ship for quite a while. And I'm sure there was moments on board that vessel when they were wondering. In fact, it said that all hope was gone, that we should be saved.

Sometimes into our Christian life, there comes the Northeastern storm. There's storms come that we just wonder, are we going to be saved through this storm? Are we going to be able to make it? Sometimes that storm comes against our personal lives. Sometimes it comes against our family lives.

And I'm sure I'm speaking to some here today. And you would look at your life. Maybe you wonder why, why is this happening anyway? Why is this in my family? Why is it my children or grandchildren? And the storm just seems to be raging and just wonder, are we going to make it? Are we going to be saved through this storm? And not only that, not only was the wind howling, not only was the sea raging and beating against that vessel, but one of the worst times of a storm, it says it was dark.

And you know, when a storm is on, when you're in a vessel and the storm is on, in the darkness, that's one of the worst places to be, in the dark. And it said that they wished for the day. And then if you've never been on a vessel looking for wishing for the day, well, maybe you could appreciate just waiting for a little bit of light to come, just a little bit of the day to break, to see the sun rise over the horizon, just so you can see a little bit ahead of what lies ahead or what's happening, how to deal with the situation.

And it was dark. Maybe it's dark in your life today. Maybe there's one in our company, perhaps just one.

Maybe you're going through a dark. It's a dark day in your life's experience. Maybe it's a dark day in the assembly's experience.

You know one thing that I noticed here? You know what Paul said on this occasion here in this story? Some were going to leave the ship. And Paul said, don't leave the ship. And I thought of that with the assembly when I was listening to my brother there that just spoke, you know, speaking about Mr. Lavery, of leaving the ship.

Sometimes, you know what the devil really wants to discourage us enough to leave the ship. But he says, if you leave the ship, that's really, none's going to be saved. Stick with the ship.

And I thought in our Christian life, you know, the devil is out to discourage us in our family lives, in our personal lives, in our assembly lives, and in all other spheres of our life as well if we're trying to do something for God. But one thing to remember, our young people, young couples today, young men, young women, or older ones, whatever you do, in spite of how dark the day is or the night is, no matter how rough the storm seems to be or the waves are beating and the wind is howling, one thing that we need to remember, don't leave the ship. Stick with the ship.

Whatever hope or chance you have, stick with the ship. You know what Paul got? He got a word from the Lord, a word of encouragement. And he said, tell them there's not going to be a hair fall from your head.

He says, and now I treat you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you. One man said one time in the storm, you know what we don't need in the storm? When a storm's hitting our life, you know what we don't need? We don't need preaching. But we need promises.

One man said one time, and I thought, excuse me, how true that is. What we need is promises from God to lay hold upon. And you know what his word will do? That's what his word will do.

That's why we need to read his word. That's why we need to look into it. You know, I just thought sitting there, there was a wedding up in Labrador.

My mother has never been on an airplane in her life. In fact, she doesn't even want to go on one. But since one of the family was getting married up way up in the Labrador, she decided that she would go.

So after the wedding, she's Mr. Burt Joyce, has a 185 aircraft at that time. And so he's going to fly across the straits and he's going to take my mother and a couple of my sisters, my brother, back to Corner Brook. But across the straits, he loads about seven people into this 185, sitting on knees.

And so he goes across the straits and drops off a few and he heads down the northern peninsula. And the further down that shore he's going, the weather's starting to come down and getting worse and worse. And it's getting rough and it's turbulent.

And the plane is just going in every direction. And he's coming down and down and he has to go through the hills, the Bombay Hills, it's called, over these mountains. And finally, about halfway through there, he has to turn back.

He can't get through. And my mother is sitting there as calm as a clock. That plane's going up and down and then it comes down like that.

My sister's sitting next to her and she says, Mom, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid? And she's shaking. Mom said, No, she said, I'm not afraid. Never in an airplane, little one.

She said, How come you're not afraid? Well, she said, You know, I prayed about coming over here before I left home and the Lord gave me a verse that was going to be all right. Everything was going to be all right. So she said, I'm depending on the Lord.

So my sister said, Do you have your Bible? Well, Mom said, Somewhere. She said, Could you get me a verse? But you know, that's not the way it works, really. But God is able to give us a verse from his word to encourage us, to strengthen us, to help us along the way, even though the storm's raging, even though the night is dark, even though it seems like maybe the ship is not going to make it.

But the word of the Lord encourages, it can encourage. So then lastly, of course, I was just thinking of our responsibility. The great apostle Paul, I thought of anyone that maybe didn't need to be encouraged in life, the great apostle Paul.

But it says that when the brethren came to where he was and when he saw the brethren, he took courage. When he saw the brethren, he took courage. Are you encouraged when you see the brethren? Well, I've been encouraged up here in Iowa, I have to admit.

And this place has been a blessing for me. I can say that here this afternoon. For the saints and the Christians and the believers here in this area and in the Stout Assembly there, it's just been a real encouragement.

And you know, that's what the Lord desires, that we might be an encouragement one to another. And it says here of the apostle Paul, when Paul saw the brethren, he thanked God and he took courage. And so we have a responsibility one with another in our community, in our assembly, that we might encourage one another.

In this dark day in which we're living, in these difficult days that we're passing through, where the world is just attacking, the devil is just attacking the very foundations. I suppose that starts with our family, the very foundations of our nation, starting right at the foundations of it. We need to encourage one another and we need to encourage one another in the assembly to keep going for God, to keep on, to keep a good relationship, to keep to maintain unity in the assembly at all costs, at every cost.

And one man said, and I close, a word of encouragement can make the difference between giving up or going on. And sometimes in our Christian lives, well, maybe that's what we need, a little word of encouragement once in a while. And so that's my little thought for today.

David encouraged himself. Sometimes we need to do that. The word of God encouraged us.

So we need to read his word. We need to listen to it, even at a conference. Sometimes a conference can change our lives for a word from God.

And then we can be an encouragement one to another in our Christian pathway as we await the Lord's return.