The Fiery Arrow of Discouragement

Let's go to the word of God here this morning. We're continuing on our series on the fiery darts of the wicked one. It's a very important set of messages that we're dealing with, and I want to go further.

In fact, this message I'm going to preach this morning, it's rolled in my heart from the beginning of this series. It's a very important one. It's one of the main ones that I wanted to bring you to during this time.

I want you to turn to a few scriptures. I'm going to read just one here, but we're going to come back and read these. If you can, you can turn to Isaiah chapter 42.

You can turn to Numbers chapter 13, and maybe a few other verses we're going to go to. But first of all, I want to read from Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Just have your fingers in those few chapters. Numbers 13, Isaiah 42, and Ephesians chapter 6. My message here this morning, the fiery arrow of discouragement.

I preached a message very similar to this many years ago for the school of Christ convention here in Limerick the opening night. I believe it's a very important message. So important on this issue of discouragement that I've gone back to those notes.

I don't usually re-preach a message, but the odd time I'm compelled to because most of you have never heard that. You wouldn't hear it, but I want to take that and just clothe it differently in this message. The fiery arrow of discouragement.

Reading in Isaiah 42 verse 1 to 3. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed shall he not break. And the smoking flax he shall not quench. He shall bring forth judgment on the truth.

And listen this verse, he shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. Then Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Let's pray together. Father, I pray right now in the name of Jesus. Lord God, we realize that we're not wrestling merely against thoughts, imagination, circumstance of life, our people and around us.

Lord God, there are powers of wickedness. There are demonic spirits. There are demons that teach and spread false teachings within the church.

My God, there are demons that come to discourage. And Father, I pray here this morning, my God, for a victory over every discouragement, every thought, every feeling, every emotion that with the shield of faith, we would extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. Lord God, you have exposed in this book who our enemy is, who our adversary is, who the evil one is.

You have called them a thief, a devil, a liar. Lord God, he's the God of murders. My God, he is the source of so much wickedness and evil in our world.

And Lord God, we're asking of you right now, expose the wiles, the stratagems, the strategies of the devil against us individually, that we might be set free here right now this morning. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

I'm going to deal with the fiery arrow of discouragement. There's maybe nothing that is as fiery or devilish as a thing called discouragement. I'm going to explain to you what discouragement is.

I'm going to define it biblically, not according to my thoughts, not according to what men say. I'm simply going to expound very clearly that you know what discouragement is. Discouragement is common to all of us.

If you've never been discouraged, then either you're a child or there's something remarkable or unique about you, or you're a liar and you're deceived. I don't know what it is, but I want to tell you, if you've been any time in this world, you know the reality of discouragement. It is a dark thing.

It's an overwhelming thing. It's a binding thing. It's a hindering thing.

But what is worse than that? The devil can come in on the back of discouragement. All discouragement is not devilish. All discouragement is not from the devil.

It can come out of your flesh. It can be found in the circumstance of life. You can get discouraged.

Sometimes you don't know. It can be biological. It can have many, many sources and reasons.

But I'm not just dealing with discouragement. I'm actually dealing very specifically. There's certain times when the devil himself fires a fiery arrow at individuals, and that specific arrow, it's discouragement.

See, it's carefully timed, primed. It's exact in its timing, and it's focused on you as an individual. It's not always like that.

It comes at a set time. And you know what? It's to take you out of the battle, to nullify you, and to stop you in your tracks. Let's read together Numbers 32 and verse seven.

And it says, and wherefore discourage you, the heart of the children of Israel, from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them. Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up into the valley of Eshcol, they saw the land.

They discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them. And then one more scripture, Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 21. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee.

Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers has said unto thee, fear not, neither be discouraged. Another verse in Joshua 1 verse 6. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Then verse 9. Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.

For the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. Discouragement is a very ancient thing, not a new thing. It's not a new discovery.

It's known thousands of years ago in the Bible. Discouragement is a thing. It's a real thing that affects the heart and the life of individuals, not only of sinners, but of a believer.

The Bible actually deals with discouragement, not once, not 10 times, but times without number. It deals with this thing called discouragement, time after time. Commands are given about it, entire teachings.

We are given warnings about it because it can easily become sinful. All discouragement is not just a thing of being a victim. Discouragement can actually be sin before God.

It's a thing that can be remedied. It's a thing that can be delivered from. It's a thing that can be healed.

You can be set free from this thing called discouragement. And so we have a manual that deals with discouragement. Before the world out there knew there was a thing called discouragement, our Bible and our God in the Bible is emphasizing and dealing how major a thing discouragement is, how widespread it is, and how effective it is against an individual.

And believe me, the devil knows how effective discouragement is against a believer. Maybe unforgiveness in the heart doesn't work against you. Maybe anger and bitterness and jealousy doesn't work against you.

Maybe a false gospel doesn't work against you or ecumenism against you. So he doesn't fire those arrows. But yet I believe there's people here, they're not going to go off and get drunk.

They're not going to go off into a false gospel, but you're very vulnerable to a thing. In the Bible it's called discouragement. It says in Ephesians 6.11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

The wiles are the fiery darts. Remember what we said the word wiles is, it's methodia. It means the secret of schemes, cleverly crafted plans, tricky strategies.

These are arrows that the devil has used for 6,000 years. He is used to them, familiar with them. He has used them regularly.

And you know what, they're very effective. Why would he invent new 21st century stratagems when his quiver is filled with arrows that work very well? I want to expose one of his arrows, discouragement. All discouragement is not sin.

All discouragement is not of the devil. But I'm telling you there's a time that discouragement is chosen by the devil, and he uses discouragement against the best of saints. I'm going to tell you I know what discouragement is.

I know how dangerous discouragement is, and I know how effective discouragement is against me. Before I go into the meaning of the word, let me tell you of three men in the Bible, great men, godly men, righteous men, who I believe had a unique fiery dart of discouragement fired at them. It was a wile, a plan, a strategy at a certain point in their life to discourage those men of God.

It was actually an important time in their life. They had major things to accomplish, and the devil used discouragement against them. The first is Job.

It was at a time where he loses his 10 children. The devil said, just lift that wall. Let me deal with them.

You see, losing your 10 children is one thing. Having sickness on your body is another. But discouragement is something worse.

You may say, are there some worse things than that? Yes, discouragement. When a man loses his children, he could still keep fighting. Remember, he grieved.

He was broken. He fell on his face, and he wept and worshipped the Lord. But he was still keeping his eyes on the Lord.

He still did not curse the Lord. But a day come where he says, I wish I had never been born. Job, the most righteous man on the entire earth, the most perfect man, the one man the devil targeted him and homed in on, just let me loose on him, and he will curse you, and he will die.

Okay, do your best. He took his 10 children. He sent sickness against him.

There was a massive dark onslaught day after day, week after week, month after month. We don't know how long this went on. And saints, it wasn't natural.

It wasn't biological. It wasn't circumstantial. Yes, his 10 children died tragically.

That's enough to discourage anyone. But this wasn't just normal discouragement. It was the devil in the discouragement.

The devil come to whisper, what's the point of living? What's the point of carrying on? I wish I could die. I wish I'd never been conceived in my mother's womb. I want to tell you, Job was being hit with a fiery arrow.

You know the story. Saints of God, he got restored again, and he got twice as much back. The children were replaced.

Oh, I can promise you, he never forgot those children or the grief of his loss. But you know what? God blessed him. He overcome one of the darkest, farriest attacks of hell upon a man, but he prospered.

This second one is Elijah. Remember that man of God, that prophet who challenged the false prophets of Baal. He went on Mount Carmel, and he called down the fire of God.

And then he had the people kill these false prophets in the land. God sent revival. God sent fire.

God vindicated his name. Few men have seen such an intervention of God. A miraculous salvation from God.

But directly after this, Jezebel writes him a letter and says, I'm going to take your life, like getting an email. Ever had an email or a phone call that discouraged you? Ever had a message, a text that sent you into the very pits? It doesn't even make sense. Listen to me.

It doesn't make sense. You get a message, and of course it's discouraging, but you want to die. You don't want to even continue.

It doesn't make any sense. You need to stop for a moment. When Jezebel actually wrote to him, she's a wicked sorcerer.

She is clothed in dark arts and crass. I want to tell you, with that letter, I want to tell you it was an attack of hell upon a man of God. Here's someone who's seen the fire of God fall.

The false prophets destroyed. And yet he gets one letter from this wicked, vile little lady. You know what he does? As soon as he reads it, he runs for his life.

He goes, sits under a juniper tree, and he says, I want to die. It doesn't make any sense. How does a man on the mount call him down far? The man who prayed and it stopped raining.

The man who prayed again and the heavens opened and the rain comes down. A man who could make it rain. A man who had the ear of God, and yet here he is sitting under a tree, all because a little wicked lady wrote to him, and he says, I want to die.

That is not normal. He was so discouraged God couldn't speak to him. The Lord sent an angel from heaven, said go feed that man of God, and tell him have a good night's sleep.

You know, some of you, you need to go home, have a good night's sleep, have a good meal. You know what? I couldn't talk you out of your encouragement, out of your discouragement, if I tried. You actually don't want to be talked out of it.

You don't want to be helped with some things. You'll say, no one can help me. Well, let's just get them a good sleep.

Elijah, it says that after that meal, fed by an angel, he got up, ran for 40 miles, 40 days, and he got to a cave. He's in a cave all that time later. What does the Lord do? Now it's time for the Lord to speak.

What are you doing here? Oh, I'm very jealous for you now. What are you doing here? Wrong place. See, I couldn't talk to you 40 days ago, but now you're in a cave.

You've been well fed, got rested. Now I'm speaking. What are you doing here? You're not in the right place, not doing the right thing.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Do you know Elijah came under a satanic arrow from the very gates of hell. The third man I want to mention here is John the Baptist.

Remember John the Baptist, 30 years old, the cousin of the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as Jesus came to the Jordan, he says, behold, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He saw that dove descend.

He heard the voice of the father. He's seen that this is the lamb of God, the Lord's Messiah, the Christ, the prophesied one, not just his cousin. This is the Messiah.

This is the chosen one of God. This is John the Baptist who preached repentance. He only had a ministry of six months.

It was Keith Green, he said, if you're going to preach repentance in the true gospel, you better pledge your head to heaven. You won't have it long. You see, John the Baptist preached.

He was fearless, lay the axe to the root. He stood against a religious system nationally. He wasn't scared of anyone.

He challenged the Pharisees, Sadducees. He preached to the king, said you shouldn't have married your brother's wife. He was fearless.

And yet just after this, before he was killed, he's put in prison and we see him in the Gospels. He sends a message, sends some of his disciples out. Go to Jesus and ask him, is he the one we're looking for? What happened, John? Hold on.

I've read a lot of commentaries on this. They're all confused. They all come out with bizarre answers.

You know why? Because they won't face the truth. They start saying, oh, well, he didn't know who he was. He was looking for reassurance.

No, the man got discouraged. You know what? Like Elijah in the Old Testament, here is John in the prison. He knows who Jesus is.

He knows his genealogy. He knows his calling. He preached it publicly in the nation.

He preached it to tens and tens of thousands. He's sitting in prison. He's discouraged.

His ministry is over. He's gonna die. You know what? There's spirits of wickedness in that place.

There's Herod, Herodias. There's all of that vile stuff going on. I'm telling you, there's dark spirits that we wrestle with.

The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. These three men, Job, Elijah, and John the Baptist, show there is a fiery arrow or dart of discouragement that comes in a unique singular point in your life, and it's meant to destroy you. It can take the breath out of you.

It can be so shocking that you could never imagine that you could have got into such a despondent, paralyzed state as this. But the Bible speaks often about this, and I want to help you this morning. We're going to look at several words in the Bible that are used for discouragement.

See, I want you to understand I'm not giving you all the answers. I am actually exposing the stratagems, the wiles of hell. All discouragement is not natural.

It's meant to nullify you. You've got to see the person behind it. You've got to see the purpose behind it.

You've got to see the goal behind it. Why are you submitting to an agenda of hell? See, if the new world order tries to force something on us, I'm going to kick against it. I don't know about you.

They want to bring all this filth into the schools. I'm going to kick. If I had my kids, I'd pull them all out of school.

They won't be in there. They're not going to teach my kids that a little boy can be a little girl at six years old. They won't be doing that.

God help me. They will not be doing that. I assure you.

I'd move countries. I'd do anything, but they're not going to do that because that's my child. I'm going to guard that child.

Since we need to realize there's an agenda where the devil works from the inside out. He fires thoughts at your mind. He attacks your heart.

He tries to undermine your faith that you become so despondent that you go, it can never be the same again. I'll never be free of this. I believe as I show you these seven words, we're going to expose what discouragement is.

It's not harmless. You mustn't treat it as a friend. Don't close your arms around it.

Don't set it at the fire in your own house. Don't sit down with it as you drive along. Discouragement is an enemy.

It's destructive. It's dangerous. It does damage.

You can't tolerate discouragement and be fine. It's an enemy. It's not a normal personality trait.

Oh, that's just who I am. Absolute toddle. That's not true.

Since there is an answer in scripture, an adorably scripture, than 10,000 men in our world. Let me give you these seven words and let's see what the Holy Spirit says. Let's understand this.

See, God doesn't discount the seriousness of discouragement or how hard it is. He cared enough about Elijah to not rebuke him. He sent an angel to feed him.

He delayed speaking to him for some 40 days because he went, he can't hear me. He's locked into this. I'll just wait.

God's very patient. He's very kind. He's very good.

He'll wait until you can hear. He'll bring you through that and say, no, why are you feeling sorry for yourself? Get up and fight. The first word, and I won't go into all of the words trying to pronounce them because you can't pronounce them any better than me, but I'm going to give you these seven words.

Five are in the Old Testament Hebrew. Two are in the New Testament Greek. The first word in the Old Testament is new.

It's used nine times, this first word for discouragement in Scripture, and this is what it means. It means to neutralize, to make you of none effect, to stop you in your tracks. The word means to disallow you, nullify you.

You're not allowed to go any further. Stop. Do you know the devil does that? Discouragement does that.

Discouragement is a thing in your mind, in your heart, in your thoughts that stops you in your tracks. It neutralizes you. It stops you dead.

This word is the word that's used in Numbers 32, seven that we read. And wherefore, do not discourage the children of Israel as they go into the land. See, they're going into the land.

Do you know what discouragement does? It stops you from going into God's inheritance. I've seen sinners. Salvation is there, the promise of eternal life, forgiveness of sins.

Discouragement neutralizes them. Well, I'll just sit here until God saves me. You'll wait an awful long time.

The kingdom of God suffereth violence, and those who press into it will receive salvation. For you to sit there and say, well, I'll just let myself go with the things of life. You're going to be paralyzed.

Discouragement paralyzes you. This is the word that is used when Israel is in Canaan, and they come to the edge of the promised land, and they become discouraged. Everything is before them, all the promises, all the covenants.

This is theirs. God says, I will give you the land, but God can't. You know why? They're paralyzed with discouragement.

They stop in their tracks. God has set them on a course. He has given them his clear will, his plan for their life.

He said, it's a good land, a land of milk and honey. There's nothing you're going to lack here. What happened? They got paralyzed or neutralized by discouragement.

This is an entire people. This is an entire church. Church, listen to me.

Be very careful as a church. See, that's what I watch out for the ebbs and flows, not just of an individual, of an entire church. I have my finger in the pulse.

I am praying because you know what I realize? A fiery dart of discouragement could hit an entire church and nullify it and stop it moving into the will of God. An entire church. You all get discouraged.

You start sharing about it. Do you know what it says in number 32? Don't you discourage your brother's heart? This here can discourage your brother's hearts. Oh, I'm just being honest.

No, you're a non-belief. You're discouraged. Now you're trying to discourage everyone else.

You want everyone miserable like you. You need to be very careful that you don't hinder someone else in the will of God and the word of God. It says in numbers 32-7, why discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going into the land that the Lord has given them? Do you see how discouragement literally neutralizes you? It paralyzes you.

Here's the will of God. Here's the plan of God. Here's the blessing of God and you're paralyzed at the edge of it and you can't enter in and you go, God, why don't you? Hold on.

God spoke very clearly. You go in and possess it. I've given it to you.

I will help you. But if you sit there, now you're a non-belief. Do you realize God treated as sin men? You're going to end up in the wilderness walking 40 years.

Oh, I'm with you. You're still my people, but you'll die in that wilderness 40 years because of the sin of discouragement. What begins as an attack of the devil becomes sin.

He neutralizes you. Do you remember the four lepers in 2 Kings chapter 7? The chapter before is very interesting. There's a famine in the land and there's Elisha the prophet is in the city of Samaria and he's helping the king of Israel and the Syrian king gets so angry.

He said, who is giving away my secret information because the prophet was given it to the king of Israel. And he said, there's someone in my bed chamber who's able to take my secrets and pass them on to this prophet of God who's doing it. So he takes all this army up to the city.

He besieges it. He surrounds it. He begins to attack it because he's going to get Elisha.

I've got to stop Elisha and the land or the city fell into famine. Mothers are actually eating their children. That's how bad it got.

It got really bad, really bad. Mothers, can you imagine that getting so desperate? Things are so bad that you would actually eat your child. It happened in the Bible.

The king was so outraged. He said, I'm actually going to kill Elisha. He turned.

That's what always happens. See when things go bad, turn on the leader. Happened with Moses.

Happened with Elisha. It's crazy. God's got an answer.

He told them, just you wait until this time tomorrow. They all change. How's it going to change? You're going to bring a great preacher, great miracle worker.

How's it going to change? That's 2 Kings chapter 7 about the four lepers. Remember they're sitting there. They're dying of leprosy.

Bits of them are falling off. They're in pain. You know what they said? Why sit we here until we die? Let's go up to the enemy's camp.

I mean, what are they going to do? Kill us? Cause us pain? And the four of them said, you know what? I'm in pain. I'm going to start marching. All four start marching towards the camp of the enemy.

And can you imagine what their feet are like? Sore feet, agony. No, no, no, no. Just sit down there.

Just die. Capitulate. There's no way out for you.

You're a leper. You're going to die. No, they have some.

Why sit we here until we die? You know what? Come on, Jimmy. Let's start going. I'm going to go see if they have a good meal.

They walked into the camp. You know what God done? God made their feet sound like a mighty, mighty army. And all the Syrian army, the entire army fled from four lepers who are in pain, agony, who have a terminal illness.

But do you know what they say? Why sit we here until we die? We need that spirit again, saints. And the entire city gets free. The entire army is destroyed.

Elisha the prophet is vindicated because of four lepers. Oh, let Elisha do it. No, you four lepers need to begin marching in this church again.

Some of you are so distracted. You're not doing the will of God. You're held back from prayer meetings.

You're not doing what's the right thing in your family. You know why? Oh, I'm just a leper. I'm going to die.

I'm neutralized. It's discouragement. So that's the first word.

It's used nine times in the Old Testament. It means to neutralize. The second word is used 49 times.

And the scripture gives us for discouragement, it means to cut down or to reap as in the harvest. You see this word used many times when you go out to reap in a harvest. Remember in Ruth, it talked about them reaping the harvest, bringing in the harvest, the corn from the fields.

Well, it's that word. That word that's used for reaping or cutting down the harvest is the word for discouragement. Sometimes it's used for discouragement.

Many other times for the actual act of bringing in the harvest. So it's actually talking about the grim reaper, a reaper, a harvest bringer in. The devil can come as the grim reaper.

I'll tell you what it is. It's discouragement. You come Halloween.

We don't celebrate Halloween. If you do, you need your mind looked at. Okay.

You really do. But when you see that grim reaper down the road, that's going to mean something different. That's discouragement.

And it doesn't look gory like that. It gets right inside your heart. And the devil uses that to cut you down.

The devil comes to cut down. So it says in Numbers 21, 4, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, the compass, the land of Edom, and their soul of the people was discouraged because of the way, because of the journey, because of life, because of the length of it, because of hardships, they become discouraged. It means the reaper came in and cut them down.

They got discouraged. They were cut down like a harvest would be cut down. Or in Numbers 21, 5, it says, and the people speak against God.

Why? Because they're discouraged. See sometimes sin comes out of discouragement. That's the source of it.

That's where it began. They're discouraged. So they speak against God and against Moses.

Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loatheth this light bread. Since the people got discouraged, they were cut down.

Job says in chapter 21 and 4, my spirit is troubled. It's the same word. It's the reaping of harvest.

It's getting cut down. When you get discouraged, it's like a reaper's coming, just cut you down, taking your feet from under you. When you see the reaper coming, it means that he is coming to literally take the feet from under you.

Do you remember Peter in the Testament, Luke 22 verse 31, Jesus is speaking to Simon saying, one of you is going to betray me. But he also said, Simon, you're going to deny me. Three times that cock's going to crow.

You're going to deny me. Simon says, oh no, I won't. I'll die for you.

I'm strong. I'd never give ground. Listen to what he says.

Simon, Simon, the devil. So I don't always, I don't see demons behind everything. I don't believe Christians can be inhabited by a demon.

Utterly impossible, biblically. But the devil is real. I don't swing the other way and think we don't need to worry.

The devil is very real. Jesus speaking to Peter, an apostle, one of his greatest disciples, he said, Simon, listen to me. The devil has desired to sift you as wheat.

The devil had to come to God. God the Father, like he did with Job. The devil can't even sift you with discouragement without asking permission.

You are guarded if you walk with God. If your heart's right with God and your life's right with God, not even discouragement can visit you. This fiery art can't be fired at you unless permission is given.

The devil has desired you. But do you know what? I prayed for you. And he said, I will tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

See, that's the effect of discouragement, of a fiery dart. This is devilish. It caused Peter to sin.

Oh, the devil can't touch me, can't he? Are you telling me the devil cannot cause or lead a real Christian into sin? You'd be shocked that some sins have the devil in them. He's actually drawn you to sin. It's not innocent.

It's not just always your flesh. The devil actually can be in those things. And Jesus was exposing it.

And he says, but you know what? After you convert again, after you turn again, after you get up again, after you get back right again, then feed my sheep. What did Jesus say? I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Peter, you would have been destroyed if it wasn't for your shield of faith, with discouragement, with the grim reaper coming and cutting you down.

It says in Judges 16.1, and it came to pass when she, Delilah, pressed him, Samson, daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed on the death. This is the same word for discouragement, cutting you down as a reaper. Samson was cut down by a little lady through her words, crying, moaning, going on daily.

He got discouraged and he told her his secret. It's my hair. That's my strength, my sanctity.

And he was brought down. Also, this word means to be short, to have your hand shortened. You remember in Mark 3, the man with the withered hand.

You remember what Jesus said? He comes with a withered hand. It's people are getting healed. You know what Jesus said? Stretch out your hand.

No, you don't understand, Jesus. This is a physical thing. This is biological.

You can't heal a withered arm. My arm's been withered. It's always been withered.

It's going to be withered. That's how I am. Just do something in my heart, but my arm's going to remain the same.

You see, that man with the withered arm, he's going to either have to believe the Word of God or reject it. You can talk yourself out of healing, you know. You can talk yourself out of being helped by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Word of God's simple. The gospel is simple. It can deliver the vilest offender in this city, drug addict, immoral, atheist.

I believe in the power of the gospel to radically change that man in one hour. I've seen it. I've seen it all through my life, every nation I've gone to.

If you're sitting back saying, well, I hope God zaps me. Wait on, you'll end up in hell. You'll wait on, but it's for those that lay hold of God and say, I believe it.

I died for you. I bled for you. I love you.

Believe in me and you'll be forgiven. No, God's got to send an angel. Let a feather drop down in front of me as a sign.

Lord, give me some sign. I sent my son to die for you. The third word is the word used 48 times.

It's the word for discouragement. It means to break down through violence, confusion, and fear. Notice those three things.

Using violence, confusion, and fear. Fear is the brother to discouragement. What about panic attacks? All panic attacks are not natural.

It leaves you lying flat on your face, broken down, broken in pieces. This Hebrew word is used in Deuteronomy chapter 121. Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee.

Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of thy fathers has said, fear not, neither be discouraged. Again, in chapter 31 and 80 uses the word dismayed.

It's the exact same word. To be so broken down, confused in your mind, to have fear in your heart that you become discouraged and you don't go in to possess the land. It says in Jeremiah 1443, and the nobles sent their little ones to get water.

It says because there was no water, they came back to their masters. They returned with empty vessels. Listen to what it says.

Verse four, because the ground is chapped, there's no rain. The plowmen were ashamed and they all covered their heads. The ground is chapped.

That's the word that's being used here for violence, confusion, fear, broken down, flat on the ground. There's no water, no revival, no blessing of the Holy Spirit. Moses used this particular Hebrew word frequently and so did Joshua.

He says, do not be discouraged or dismayed. Don't give up. Don't settle down.

Don't let the enemy batter you down. Don't be paralyzed. Wake up saints of God.

There's a land of good things. You're here for a short time and you've got the will of God to go into. Why are you letting the devil batter you down? Batter you down, discourage you, to sift you, your legs from under you, to nullify you, to paralyze you.

Do you see here, this is a thing dealt with throughout scripture. The fourth word is used 12 times. It means to faint, melt, to liquefy or to utterly dissolve into nothing.

This is used in Exodus 16, 21 for the hot sun melting wax and it's used like that frequently. So look at it. The hot sun beats down and the wax just melts into nothing liquid.

That's a picture of discouragement. In other words, you go from something solid to liquid. You become like water.

It's a change of state caused by an outside force or source. It is the fainting of the heart right in the battle. This word is used in Deuteronomy 128.

Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying the people is greater and taller than we. The cities are great and walled up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of Anakim there.

Do you know what they done? They didn't need to be discouraged. It was their brothers discouraging them. Saints, don't discourage the brethren.

Don't discourage your brothers and sisters. There are times we're discouraged. We need to talk.

I want you to talk to me when you're discouraged. I'll minister the word of God to you, but I'm not going to sit down there and say, yeah, isn't it lousy? I'm not going to agree with you. I'm going to listen to you.

I'm going to be gentle. I'm going to be kind, but I'm not going to sit down and say, yeah, it's all lousy. Nothing's happening.

Look at the giants. Two people agreeing on the size of the giants. I think he was nine feet.

Actually, he's 12 feet. You keep comparing notes. You don't need to be talking to each other.

You don't need to go seeking out on phone or whatever. That brother, that sister that will pull you deeper or just say, yeah, you're right. It means to faint in the midst of the battle.

It says in Deuteronomy 20 verse 8, the officers shall speak unto the people. This is when they're choosing an army to go out to war. The officers speak to the people before they go to a war or go to do the will of God.

This is what they said. This is what leaders say. What man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go and return onto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.

Do you know what the officers in Israel said? And he is scared and he is faint hearted and he is discouraged, right? You stay at home. We're going to fight the enemy. So you settle it here.

Don't go out there and discourage everyone. Don't get into a place of influence and start discouraging everyone. See, there was a protection in God's word.

It's not ridiculing the discouraged person, just saying you stay at home. You start out your affairs. Also said it to the newly married guy who's only married a year.

I would have got in there. They would have said, Malcolmson, sit down. You're not going to war.

She would have been glad. She keeps telling me it's not a year yet. Not a year yet.

You know why? It says for that first year, don't go to war. Don't go out traveling. You stay with that bride for that first year.

See, there's all this wisdom within scripture. It's amazing, but it actually shows you might make your brothers faint. What about if we embark out into a great escapade of evangelism, reaching the children and you're there, it can't happen.

We can't do this. It's impossible. I don't listen to that kind of talk.

We're going to evangelize the kids. We're going to reach someone. We'll touch other nations.

We will touch this generation. The sick is going to get healed. Someone is going to believe the word of God.

Don't tell me it's impossible. You know what? You're discouraged. If you're sitting there saying, nothing's going to happen.

God never speaks. I'm sitting here. There's no answer.

God isn't doing miracles here. Well, go do something. Maybe it's your discouragement hindering.

This word is used in Joshua 2.11. Rahab says to the two spies in her house in Jericho, listen, and as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man. In other words, when you get discouraged, you lose courage.

You melt. This sort of discouragement coming, you can't do anything. We can't do it.

We can't do it. You become so negative. You're actually nullified in the will of God.

It's no longer, let's go to the will of God. You're there telling us why we can't do the will of God and why you can't do the will of God. When a Christian says, you can't live holy.

You can't get free. You can't have victory. I know that person's discouraged.

That isn't normal behavior. There's no courage in that. There's no faith in that.

That's fear paralyzing that person. They've had experiences. Now they want to put it on everyone else.

Just keep your mouth shut, okay? You'll be at least seen as wise. Maybe the rest of us can help you. It says in Joshua 7 and 5 concerning Israel being defeated outside of Ai.

It says the hearts of the people melted and became as water. It just liquefied. Have you ever been liquefied in the battle? Has your heart ever just melted? Here's Israel getting defeated.

Let's go up and fight the enemy. They got slaughtered. They got defeated.

They got discouraged. It says in Psalm 22, 14. There's Jesus on the cross.

My heart is like wax. It is melted. That's the word.

It's discouraged. In the midst of my battles, Christ experienced this on the cross as he's being crucified. You know his heart just melted.

All courage went out and he's there hanging. Do you know my Bible says Christ has experienced everything. Every temptation that is known amongst man.

There's no temptation that Christ has not tasted of and overcome and found the victory. Did he give up on the cross? No. I will not be discouraged.

Remember what I read from Isaiah. I will not be discouraged until the word of God is established in the aisles. Even in Ireland, he's on the cross.

Here he is. His heart is melting, but he says, I tell you, I will not be discouraged. My word will get established.

Even in Ireland, he's hanging on a cross, mocked, ashamed, suffering in pain. His heart is melting. I tell you, he laid hold of the word of God.

It's so real. The fifth word means to crush, oppress, or to break in pieces. It means to be shattered.

You feel like you can never be put together again. It's the word used in Scripture for a broken skull. When someone has their skull broken, that's discouragement.

I mean, when you get your skull broken, no one's going to fix that. Modern medical science is doing amazing things. But I'm telling you, when someone has their skull broken, try saying, pick yourself up, be encouraged, brother.

They are shattered and say, I can never be normal again. In Genesis 25, we read about Rebecca giving birth to two twins, to Esau and Jacob. Listen to what the Bible says because it uses this fifth word, to crush, to leave you in a state of being crushed as if nothing's going to be left.

And the children, these two children struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. Two nations, two babies were crushing one another.

That wasn't normal. This was not normal. She's going, what is going on? I need to go pray about this.

Why are my two babies crushing each other in the womb? Because there are two nations and two great peoples are going to come out of the womb. That's the word for crushing. It's also used in Deuteronomy 28, 33.

The fruit of the land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up. And thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed. That's the word.

So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thy eyes, which thou shalt see. It says in Judges 10 verse 8, and that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel because Israel departed, got away, start following other gods, other ideas, other gospels, other ways outside of scripture. They got caught up in all of this.

And then God speaks to them. They were vexed and oppressed and they're going to be for 18 years. They're depressed, discouraged for 18 years and they're not getting out of it.

You're going to be locked into that until you come back to the Lord. Do you realize some things are only remedied when you come back to the Lord again? It says in Isaiah 42, where we read Christ speaking in prophecy, he shall not fail nor be discouraged until he has set judgment in the earth and the isles of the sea wait for the law. Let me give you the two Greek words here.

The sixth word only used once in the New Testament. It means to be disheartened, dispirited, or to have the passion taken out of you. It means to be unhearted, to have the heart taken out of you or the spirit removed from you.

Have you ever met anyone who is dispirited? They're heartless. They've had the heart literally taken out of them. Well, that's what this word means.

It's the word discouraged used in Colossians chapter 321. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, lest they be discouraged. You can actually do this.

You could damage your children. You could so provoke your children. This isn't talking about discipline or correction or warning.

It's not talking about that. This is actually talking that you wrongly speak and treat your child when they're young and over years as a practice, as a normal habit, you provoke your children. In your home, the child's not doing that.

You provoke. I should hope none of you are like that, but there have been cases of this. I'm sure in our lifetimes, we've seen this where a father provokes that child, stirs that child to anger who then gets discouraged.

What's the point of living? It's a terrible thing if you can't encourage your child. If you can't actually say to your child, I love you. I don't remember my dad once saying I love you, but I didn't have any hangups from it.

I knew he loved me. He goes out and works. He gets up early.

He works hard, held my hand, looked after me, prayed for me when I'm sick, carried me when I slept, done all of that. Never once said he loved me. I wish he had.

I don't know why. His mother died when he was young. There can be a lot of reasons, but I'm telling you from a child that went, oh, if I ever have a child, I'm going to pour love into them.

I'm going to encourage them, say I love you. I never got that privilege, but you can. You can do that to someone else.

Don't provoke them. Have you ever faced a battle? Think about this in a wider sense. When you get discouraged, you become heartless.

Have you ever been at a battle or a trial? You're getting hammered by the devil and someone discourages you. You get discouraged. The heart goes out of you.

What's the point of fighting? If you're sitting here and you're going, I'm tired of fighting, be careful. Don't let the devil fire the art where you become spiritless. An arrow hits you and the spirit goes out of you.

The heart to fight goes out of you. You go, I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of doing the will of God.

I'm not going to encourage others. I'm so discouraged. I came here, no one shook my hand.

Well, go shake 20 hands then. You'll make everyone happy. If you go up and say good morning, you sit there and go, no one's coming to me.

No one smiled. No one said good morning, brother. Go do it as someone else.

Guess what? You'll have 20 people say to you, oh, good morning. God bless you. Be careful of this mind.

I'm warning you. I'm not ignorant of these things. Seventh and lastly, those seven are just my first point.

Hold on, don't worry. The seventh word, it's a Greek word used six times. It means to be weak, to fail, to be weary or faithless.

Weak, fail, weary, faithless. It says in Luke 18 verse 1, and he, Jesus, speak a parable unto him to the extent that men ought always to pray and not to faint. That's the word discouragement.

In other words, you get tired. You get to a point and you just say, it's all over. I'm too weak.

I'm tired. I don't have faith anymore. It's all over.

That's me. I'm going to stop praying. When someone stops praying and they consciously do it, you don't accidentally do it.

You go, well, that's it. You're in trouble. You're discouraged.

An arrow has hit you. I mean, to stop praying, one of the greatest privileges in life, and you draw back, you lose confidence that God answers prayer. You stop reading the Bible.

You start listening to other voices, reading other books, and that becomes louder than God's word that will encourage you. It'll set you on fire. It'll make you to burn.

But you get so discouraged, you stop praying. See, either you're going to pray or you're going to think. You can't both.

If you're praying, you won't get discouraged. Yes, it'll come. Yes, you'll walk through it, but you'll get back up again.

You will get up again. This same word for fainting is used twice in 2 Corinthians 4, when Paul opens his heart and begins to reveal just how hard his trials are. Therefore saying, we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.

Verse 16, for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. He says, I'm getting pressed beyond measure.

I feel like I'm about to die. I'm going, oh no, not more trials. I'm being stoned.

I've been lied about. I've been chased out of towns. I've suffered physically.

I'm going, not more. But I don't faint. I'm not getting discouraged.

I'm pressed out of measure, but I am not going to get discouraged. Here's a man that faced it constantly in Galatians 6 and 9. Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Saints, do not faint.

Stand where you are until Jesus comes back, until he catches you up to meet him, or unless you lay down this body and go to meet him. Do not faint. Stand in your position.

Get back in the battlements. Begin to pray. Begin to wrestle.

Begin to fight. Begin to evangelize. Come and stand with us in the open air.

Come and pray in the prayer meetings. Don't begin to get weaned off. I'm fainting.

I'm discouraged. Join the club. We all know what it's like.

No, you can't discourage me. You can stand on your head. You're not going to encourage me.

Come on, saints of God. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3.13, but ye brethren, be not weary in well doing. Don't get tired in doing what is good.

Or again, it's repeating Ephesians 3.13, wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulation for you, which is for your glory. It says in Galatians 6 and 9, and let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Do you ever hear the voice? What's the point? What's the point? I was in Switzerland 21 years old many years ago, and I had enormous things facing me for a 21-year-old.

No, I don't think it's anything. It's nothing. But at that stage, I go, it's impossible.

My life's impossible. My situation's impossible. I went for a walk, and I went to overlook in the Rhine Valley.

There was Germany. There was Austria. I was in Switzerland, and I'm praying.

That was my prayer spot. What a spot. I wish I could reproduce it, but I went walking there every day to pray.

Late at night, would walk in those mountains. Come back, my hair would be frozen. Then it would melt when I walked into the house.

But I'd go there, and I'd sit there. I was utterly discouraged, and as I turn, I was sitting there, and I had my Bible, and I'm crying. There's no answer.

The heavens are like brass. Nothing. No answer.

Nothing changing, and as I walked back, I was despondent, and I had my Bible. I won't tell you what I felt like doing. I won't tell you that, but as I walked back, all I could hear droning in my mind, what's the point? I started to say, what's the point? What's the point? I mean, it was rolling loud in my mind.

What's the point? What's the point? What's the point? I walked in, and nobody knows what's going on with me. I walk into the house, and there are Swiss speakers, German speakers there. As I walk into the house, the lady of the house is on the phone speaking German, and as I just walk in, her eyes grew large, and she stops me and says, Keith, this lady on the phone has just said she's had a vision of you walking, and she's got a message for you.

Utterly unexpected, and this is it. You have heard a voice say, what's the point? What's the point? What's the point? But I say unto you, lift up your hands, for I am coming to answer your prayers. Utterly impossible she could know that.

See how gracious and kind the Lord is. Let me just close with this. William Carey was a missionary to India.

He's called the father of modern missions. In other words, although he didn't see a lot happen in some ways as fruit like he would have wanted, he impacted the worldwide church. He became the father of an entire missionary movement that penetrated hundreds of lands.

This one man, in 1793, he went to India with his wife and young child. His wife really didn't want to go. She was concerned.

When they got there, they had lack of funds. No one financially supporting them. They didn't have much to eat.

They didn't have good places to stay. They had to move house five times in one year just to find a place to lay their head. They suffered from tropical diseases one after the other.

Eventually, their five-year-old died and they had to bury him. The first convert was not until the year 1800. Seven years on the mission field and they get their very first convert.

Do you know any missionaries that would stay on the mission field for seven years for one convert? After seven years, they got the first convert who really got saved. His wife Dorothy went insane in 1795, five years before that first convert. She was like that for 12 years until she died.

It's what they call a delusional disorder or paranoia. All his best friends had put her in an asylum, but they got treated in such a way. He was in an asylum for 12 years while he's laboring for souls.

She then died in 1807. His second wife died in 1821. Felix's son, his second son, his first wife died in childbirth, his second wife and two small children in a shipwreck.

Tragedy really hit this family. Here's the worst one. This is what I want to tell you.

In 1812, they had built a large, in Serampore, they had built a large, right next to William Carey's house was a large printing factory, 200 feet by 50 feet, and they produced Bibles. They were doing everything there. In fact, it was the work of 12 years.

In that building was all his books, all his transcripts, all of his material. While he was away preaching elsewhere, William Ward, his printer and closest cohort, began to smell smoke. There's a fire.

He went to look and the building, a fire was raging in the building. The entire thing. They labored for hours trying to put out the fire, but they couldn't save it.

The entire thing was burnt to the ground. They sent a message to William Carey to tell him, everything has gone up in smoke. It is burnt to the ground.

When they interrupted him to tell him, he said he stood there for several minutes, dumbstruck. He couldn't even respond. He was shot going.

12 years of work. I buried my son. We have labored.

We have gone through all of this, and now we have lost everything. Everything is gone. We have lost it all.

There was 12 translations of the Bible in that building. His entire library, a dictionary and of several Indian languages, tracks without number, all gone. All of his work gone to reach and evangelize an entire nation of people.

William Ward, his principal, his printer, this is what he said. Discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, distrust of the future, ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, insecurity regarding the strength of tomorrow, unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellow man, unbelief in the promises of old, impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impotence towards God. These men knew what discouragement were, and they labored to reach an entire nation.

The people who went into the land of promise were going to have to fight through discouragement, or else they're going to go walk in a desert for 40 years and have no enemies, no enemies, but they'll die out there not having fulfilled the will of God. See, these men realized that these are real things. Deaths, tragedies happen, but discouragement is more dangerous than all of those things.

Discouragement can stop you doing the will of God. Within six weeks, they were back to printing again. They restored everything double.

Within several weeks, worldwide, people began to hear, and in fact, what was evil and wicked, unused of the devil, actually turned to the will of God. Money began to flood in. Labors began to flood in.

People began to storm heaven for souls in India. Before Cary's death in 1834, the mission had printed and distributed all or part of the Bible into 44 languages and dialects. You may say, didn't he do a great work? He labored under heavy discouragement.

I believe the devil went, I've got to stop this man. I'm going to use the tool of discouragement to paralyze him, to melt him, to stop him in his tracks, to stop him going into the will of God and the plan of God. Discouragement is a very effective thing.

Bad things may happen to you, but you don't have to be discouraged. Saints of God, within five weeks of losing my wife, I'm back in the pulpit, not just for you, for myself, for everyone. We need to go somewhere.

There's a soul that's going to need Christ in here. I need to edify a Christian that's battling sin. I have to at some point say, my heart is broken, I'm discouraged.

For a year and a half, I had absolute darkness, but I got into this pulpit and preached. You know why? Discouragement will not stop me. Saints, you need to fight through.

There's some things more important than your discouragement, than your problems, than your issues. When Cary died, after 41 years in India, without a furlough, they baptized over a thousand converts, and there was a community of about 700 converts. Very small compared to today.

Most of the megachurches would think nothing. One soul after seven years, 700 after a lifetime. You mustn't have had enough faith.

This was a man that beat the demon of discouragement. Many years ago, a story was told about the demon of hell meeting with the devil. There was this particular problemsome preacher and his church.

They were small. We don't know where it was, but this church was small. They were a simple people, but they loved God with all of their heart.

The preacher wasn't eloquent, didn't have a lot of building, but he poured himself out in seeking the will of God and the mind of God. The demons of hell were strategizing. They're looking for a methodology.

They said, how are we going to stop this man, and how are we going to stop his wife and his church? Well, the first demon stepped up. He said, I know we're going to tempt him with all manners of sin. We're going to make him proud of his ministry.

We're going to make him go after money in ministry. They started talking, and the man has integrity. That won't work at all.

Then the second one, he came up with a plan. He said, I've got an idea. Let's send all manners of trouble against him.

Let's take things from him. Let his house burn down. Let his wife die.

That'll stop that preacher, and it'll affect the church. The devil said, no, no, no. He's going to pray on.

That church will rise up with faith. Third demon stepped up, and in a quieter tone said, I've got it. Let's send discouragement against his mind and his heart thoughts on a Monday morning.

Despair over himself. Feel like he's worthless, hopeless. Like all of his efforts don't mean anything.

His prayer life, utterly useless. Reading the Bible, useless. Let's get right in close beside him.

Not outward things, not things out there, not sin. Let's get in and begin discouraging him, and make him look at himself. The devil went, that's it.

That's it. That's how we do it. We'll stop that church.

We'll bombard the church with discouragement, and you know, one by one, they'll begin to fall. They'll stop reading their Bibles. They'll start saying, what's the point of praying? I don't believe.

They'll stop evangelizing. They'll say it doesn't have any effect, and before you realize it, you'll see everything closed. Saints, I'm telling you, there's a fiery arrow of discouragement.

All of us are prone to discouragement, but just once in a while, the devil says, I'm going to take this church out, this preacher, this ministry, this Christian, this father, and I'm going to hit them with discouragement, and if he can't get you with unforgiveness or a false gospel, he'll come with discouragement. Discouragement's sin. You better guard your heart.

You better take your shield of faith and extinguish that fiery dart. Oh, I might wrestle all my days with discouragement like William Carey, but you know what? I'm going to put it out. I'm going to get back up again.

I'm going to keep marching forward. William Carey said, if they ever write a biography of me, say, let them say this. If they say, who was William Carey? Say this.

Say, William Carey was a plodder because I wouldn't give up no matter what. Saints, God, we need plodders again. I'm discouraged.

Get into prayer. Go to prayer. You've got your eyes on yourself.

That's what most of the problem is. All consumed with yourself. Begin to pray for others, and you might find the blessing of God comes down on yourself.

Let's stand together. Let's pray. Oh, let's pray.

Open up your heart right now. Saints of God, we're here in the presence of God. I'm marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God.

Saints, not very long, we're home. Jesus is coming. All the signs.

Never has there been an hour where all the Bible prophecy is coming to pass. This is the last chapter of church history on the earth. We're living in the last moments of time.

Don't grow discouraged. Take your shield. Take your armor to yourself.

Hold your shield of faith up. I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Word of God.

I'm going to believe the promises of God. He has made a covenant with me that he will conform me to the very image of his Son. God the Father said he's going to work in you.

Don't get discouraged with sin. Don't get worn down. Don't become paralyzed and nullified.

Start believing the promises of God. Go in and possess the land. Fight against the jabs.

God will give all these enemies into your hands. He'll make you holy and give you victory over lust or over despair or over lies or over hurt or forgiveness or jealousy. Saints, what is it? Why not just believe God here? Let's lift our hands and pray.

We need you, our God, this morning. My God, we pray for a move of God in this church. You have said, be not discouraged.

Be not dismayed. Do not fear. Go in and possess the land.

Lord God, let us be a church that goes in and inherits the land, that possesses the good things, the mountains, the valleys, that possesses those cities and villages that we're to go in to have. My God, I pray for something to stir here, that we can defeat discouragement in this meeting, that we'll even vanquish the devil, that you'll expose his lies, that stopping people either coming to Jesus or from walking in your will. Lord God, bless us right now in the name of Jesus.