Living In Faith Not Discouragement

Greetings to my brothers, you know, Sean shared about how David in 1 Samuel 30 with his men ended up going back to Zig Lag and there it was burned with fire and they were all discouraged. You know, discouraging times can come and sometimes I've been discouraged in my life even as a mighty man of God, I'm not saying I'm that, but this man Elijah, he became discouraged and he found himself in a cave very discouraged and he heard a voice of God and he said, what are you doing here? Why are you here Elijah? What are you doing here in this cave? Why are you discouraged? I can hear God speaking to David saying, oh God, you know, our wives are gone and our children have been taken, our cities, the city's burnt with fire and the houses are demolished and there's nothing left. I can hear the Holy Spirit speaking through the Epoch saying, what are you doing here David? What are you doing here? Why are you here? We can look back just in 1 Samuel 27 verse 1 and David said in his heart, now I shall surely someday perish by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines and Saul will despair to seek me because he was chasing him and hunting him like a dog and he won't seek me anymore and so I will escape out of his hand and David arose in that state of discouragement and unbelief that he had there and he felt good about his decision. You know when you're in a hard place between a rock and a hard place and God has you under pressure and you don't know what to do to turn to the left or the right and the Satan whispers in your ear, why don't you go and and join yourself with the unbelievers? Why don't you go hang out where things are easier? Why don't you go go talk to the king of the Philistines? You can reason with him. Tell him you'll help him and then you can get away from this persecution that you're receiving from your father-in-law and he listened to the voice of the flesh. He listened to the voice of Satan and this is where the decision was made to find himself in Ziklag which never should have been there. Never should have been in the land of the Philistines. He should have stayed right where God wanted him but through unbelief and discouragement they go together. You get an evil heart of unbelief and then you depart from the will of God. It says departing from the living God and you start doing your own will. David said in his heart now I know I shall surely perish someday by the hand of Saul. Did God say that David would be king of Israel? Did God say through Samuel that he would use him to fulfill the purposes of God for Israel in his life and he somehow came to unbelief in that that word because he didn't see like Mosef said he didn't see all his faith with the Goliath all his faith with Saul slain as thousands and David is ten thousands where he went and took out all those Philistines to get Saul's daughter and he had seen so many mighty works of God somehow he became unbelieving through all those mighty acts of faith and that can happen. All these men it says died in faith not having received the promise but we have to die in faith. We have to continue to hope and endure in what we don't see. A lot of times some of us are praying for healing. We're praying that the Lord would heal. The Lord would deliver. Some of us are in a situation we say Lord help us get us out of it and we don't always see what the end result is that we're looking for. Our circumstances aren't changing. You say well yeah God you can't do seem to do anything for me. You know obviously you don't care. Next thing you know we're listening to the devil's lies. We're arguing with the flesh and we come in agreement with these things and next thing you know we find ourselves in discouragement. Why are you downcast oh my soul? Why are you discouraged disheartened within yourself? Put your hope in God. You've lost hope. Why have we lost hope? Because I had a desire to go play baseball in Arizona with my son. Instead we had to send the email. I'm sorry we're not going to be crossing the border anytime soon and we're going to have to die to these things. Why are you so discouraged? I thought you were going to go minister up at the creek and seemingly that door is shut for now. We can be discouraged or you can say you know what? God opens doors that no man can shut and he shuts doors that no man can open and until I hear God speak to me and tell me what to do I'm not going to try and push a door open and I'm not going to try and force God's hand. Everyone has to hear for themselves the voice of God. Jesus didn't do anything in detail until he heard God speak. If God told him to go get the jab then he would have got the jab but if God didn't tell him to get the jab he wouldn't have got the jab. We need to hear from the Holy Spirit and a lot of us are hearing from Trudy and a lot of us are hearing from Bonnie and we need to hear from God and when you hear from God then you do whatever whatever God says. You have to be fully convinced because it has to be by faith otherwise if you go do it for some other reason you'll have condemnation and there's no condemnation in Christ. There's no condemnation in Christ so one has to be fully convinced that what he's doing is for the Lord. For the Lord we do these things. We live and move and have our being. We're to respect the government. We're to submit to them. We're to obey them when it comes in contact with what God says and we need to obey God rather than men. That's how I understand scripture. David became discouraged. He went and told his men what did he say and David arose. He went with his men over 600 of them and they went over to Achish the son of Mozak the king of Gath in the land of the Philistines and David dwelt with Achish. He and his men each ran with his households and it talks about David's wives and different things. Verse six so Achish gave him Ziglag that city that day. He went over there he talked to the guy and the guy gave him the city and he says why don't you go live over there it's a fantastic place where you can live. I understand Saul's being unreasonable with you and the times are tough and you can just go hide out over there and Ziglag and you know what you guys just do whatever seems best to you guys just don't bother us and you know we trust you. You know what of course God had to burn that place with fire. God had to get him out of there because he wasn't supposed to be there in Ziglag. You can go there and all your men can go there and you can all cry there and say I don't know what's going on. I'm so discouraged my men even turned against me and now they want to kill me but you know what it's in that place after he took a wrong turn someplace and he found himself in a place of discouragement like Elijah. There was a point where he found himself discouraged in fear. Fear will cripple you will make you take stupid decisions. You'll take decisions of panic rather than decisions of faith and Elijah he heard that a report that Jezebel after he had called fire from heaven and God sent things and he went and dealt with all these Baal worshipers and all these astral false prophets and everything. There was a great victory in Israel and rain even came and watered the earth. Somehow this voice from Satan gets through to the man of God and unbelief grabs his heart and fear grips him. Fear is a result of unbelief. God there's no prophets left. God I'm the only one left. I don't know what you're doing but obviously you don't seem to care here and I've run away and now I find myself here and I feel safe here in this cave and God says why are you here? What are you doing here? That happened a couple of chapters back when he received the report that Jezebel was going to kill Elijah. Fear grabbed him but if he was in faith he would have said you can't do anything to me unless God allows it but he hadn't heard from God and the enemy had got through and we see the weakness of the man. A man who has a nature like ours and sometimes I've given in to fear myself and then fear cripples you. You ever seen someone crippled in a wheelchair? Can't walk? That's what fear will do to you. Will cripple you. Will keep you from fulfilling the purpose and call of God in your life. You know the man who received the one talent? I think he was crippled with fear. He said he knew the Lord to be an austere man. He knew that boy I sure can't I better be careful what I do with this one. I need to just sit tight and make sure I don't lose it. I know what I'm going to do and so no one steals it. I'm going to bury it in the ground. For fear I believe he was crippled. It doesn't say that but that's what I believe happened to him and he called him lazy because that's always the easy way out is to do nothing. We want to do something once we hear God speak. We need to act in faith and God wants us to be men and women of faith. Full of faith because that is the seed by which all good things come. Brother shared about through faith they subdued their enemies. Through faith walls were tore down. Through faith Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac. Through faith all these things happen. Through faith the woman received their dead raised. And we also through faith will grow spiritually and our families will follow the Lord if we remain faithful. That's what brother shared he said in one in Hebrews 10. He said that we should not forsake the gathering together whether it be through Zoom or through YouTube or through meeting or through meeting in the woods or whatever it looks like. We should not forsake the gathering together as a matter of some and what does it look like to forsake the gathering? Does it have to be hundreds? Does it have to be in the 20s? Does it have to be in the 10s? The scripture says where two or three get together in my name he'll be there. You find one sister or one brother a sister with another sister or a brother with another brother you can be assured that Jesus promises he will be there in the midst. You can have fellowship and that's important because one can chase a thousand into ten thousand when it comes to overcoming the battle of the enemy against his people. And so much more as we see the day approaching. Moses said well that's for another day but I'm going to address it today if you hear his voice. So much more as you hear the day approaching. Everyone has a different idea of what that day is but that is the day of the Lord. So if we stop getting together and because it's divide and conquer and fear and we have to now all be afraid of each other because we all might be infected right and so we have to stay well minimum six feet apart we can't share heaven forbid. So what then? We stop getting together. We start finding other things to do and pretty soon what? The day approaches. So much more as we see the day approaching. What day? The day when unbelief creeps into your heart through discouragement and fear you become crippled and you go on sinning willfully. You go on sinning willfully. You go back to your old sins. So that's why we're to get together to remind one another and to encourage one another to what? Contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to us as the saints. But if we divide and conquer we let the world and the enemy divide and conquer us then we stop getting together to encourage one another to what? Contend for the faith. Keep serving Christ. Keep following Jesus. No turning back. Walk worthy of the calling. Take heed lest you drift away. Be careful. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't let fear and unbelief discourage you from the course. And all of a sudden that day comes upon you as a what? A thief. A day when you're not looking. A day when you're not aware. And all of a sudden what? You clicked on the porn. That's a bad day. You clicked on something. You clicked on this. You went to the liquor store and got yourself a bottle. You met the guy at the corner and you picked up a little bag. If we willfully go on sinning. That's the day of the Lord my friend. He comes as a thief in the night when you're not watching. But that day should not overtake us as a thief. Because we are not of the night but of the day. So we need to be watchful in our prayers. Waiting. Because the enemy comes to seek to rob from you. To kill you. To destroy you. And to take you back to where you're once enslaved to sin again. It says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins in Hebrews 10 and 26 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation and wrath for those it will devour the adversaries of God. And he goes on to speak from there. For those who once were enlightened. That's Hebrews 6. And have tasted of the good word of God. Who have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. And of the power of the age to come. They've been filled with the Holy Spirit and they're walking in as new men in Christ. Should they fall away to renew them to repentance again is impossible. So we need to have reverence and godly fear. Our God is a consuming fire. And he also goes on from Hebrews 26 into 28, 9, and 30. Saying what? Saying for those who were sanctified by the blood. They trample the Son of God underfoot. They trample the Son of God. They count the blood of the covenant by which he or she was sanctified. They count it as a common thing. And they insult the spirit of grace. And the Lord says vengeance is mine. I will repay. And the Lord will judge whose people? The devil's people? No, his people. But let me tell you this something. You can go back and research it yourself. And I think everyone should. It says that the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. You do a little study on that. There's only one sacrifice that deals with the sin issue. It says he has perfected forever. Most have shared it. By one sacrifice. It's the sacrifice of the shed blood of Jesus. The big J. Once for all. He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified or being set apart. That is the direction in which you're facing. You're looking unto Jesus. He deals with that sin issue through his shed blood. And so we're walking away from the old life. We're walking away from sin. He's delivered us and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. And now what? If we start dividing and conquering, the enemy starts getting in there. Pretty soon we're drifting. We have no need of fellowship. We're an island unto ourself. We can do our own thing. We start becoming lovers of money, boastful, proud, haughty, arrogant, unthankful, unholy, unloving. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, we become religious. And we deny the power. There's no power to overcome sin. What are you talking about? And you start believing in a Jesus with a small J. My Jesus. He saved me. He died for my sins. It's a finished work. On his part it is finished, my friends. But on our part, we're working it out with fear and trembling. Because it's God who's working in us. If we believe in the big J. Both to will and to do for his good pleasure. And it's not how we start. It's how we finish. And so he who endures to the end shall be saved. Not once saved, always saved, gentlemen. He who endures to the end shall be saved. So we need to take the more earnest heed, lest we drift away. Looking unto Jesus. If you're looking unto Jesus, you're good. If you start looking around at Jezebel, and you start looking at Bonnie Henry, and you start looking at Trudy, and you start wondering, what should I do? And you get in panic mode. When you get in panic mode, you start making bad decisions. Because they're not decisions based on faith. They're not decisions based on the Spirit. Why are you downcast, oh my soul? Why are you disheartened? Put your hope in God. I'm not against Trudy. I'm not against Bonnie Henry. I'm not against any of them. I'm for them. I pray for them that they might be saved. That's what scripture says to do. Pray for them that the Lord will speak to them to allow us as believers to live in peace and harmony so that we can serve God without restriction. But we can't get spiritual guidance from politicians. We have to get our spiritual guidance from the Holy Spirit and from the Word of God. True worship is in the Spirit and in truth. That is where our help comes from. We shared on Sunday, the verse for Josh from Psalm 121, I look unto the hills from where comes my help. Does my help come from those people in high positions? No. Our help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. He's the one who's going to protect us under his shadow. He's the one who's going to sustain us. He's the one who will deliver us. You know what, like Josh shared on Sunday, it's not in the 10,000 or it's not in the 30,000 or however many, 28,000. It's in the 300. It's in the few. You know, Jesus, some brothers asked this question, Rabbi, are there few who are saved? And Jesus answers this way, strive to enter through the narrow gate because many will seek to enter, will not be able. For wide is the road that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life. And there's few who find it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. If it's difficult, God will have to help you. God will make a way where there seems to be no way. And that is a work of grace that we need him to do. He keeps us weak. He hems us in so that we might not become puffed up. Can you imagine Elijah might have struggled with some pride there? I know I for 100% would have struggled majorly with pride there if we had that great of a victory over the enemy in the camp. And then we prayed in fervent prayer seven times, and all of a sudden the rain came, and God did that kind of miracle. And all of a sudden, the Jezebel raises her head, and fear comes. And the man of God runs. And the man of God hides because of the weakness of his flesh. But you know what? We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. And if we get to those places like David, God, and say, God, God is able to bring us out of that place, just like he was able to bring Elijah out of that cave to finish the purpose for which he was called. God is able to finish the work that he has begun. And he's able to present us faultless before him. It's not the message that I was going to give this evening. I was going to share on the wonderful revelation of Melchizedek, who is a priest forever, with no beginning of days, nor end of days, and no genealogy, and no record of a father or of a mother. But according to an oath, Jesus receives this exhortation or promise. You are a priest forever, according to that order of Melchizedek. And I believe this is Jesus. I believe this is Jesus manifested in Abraham's time, because Abraham gives him a tithe when Levi is in his bosom. Still in his loins. And it says the greater is blessed, or he receives it from the lesser guy. And so Abraham, being the father of faith, seems to suggest that Melchizedek was far above him. And we see a priesthood established in the New Testament, not a priesthood of men who have a fear of God and a reverence for God, the Levites at one time, who hate sin and are for Moses and are for God. Now we see one covenant becoming obsolete. We see one covenant fading away. And we see a changing of the guard, and we see another priest rising up by one sacrifice of himself, now serving a tabernacle in the heavens. This tabernacle in the heavens is the true tabernacle. The earthly one is like a shadow, because it's temporary. And he offered once the blood of himself. And what we see from that is that we have a high priest who can sympathize with us in all things. We can ask Jesus for help. We can come to him with loud cries and tears and know that he always makes intercession for you. You can always ask him for help, because he always sees the face of God, and he's always interceding on your behalf. And you can be sure of that, that he's not sleeping, and he's not on vacation, and he didn't take two weeks off, and he doesn't have COVID. He's always on the job, making intercession to God for you. And you know, even though we don't see the answers that we're asking for, but if we pray according to his will, he hears us. And if we're asking for things that are not according to his will, we're not going to get those things. So don't let discouragement come. Say, God, well, when can I go on vacation? It's been so long. We can pray and cry till we're blue in the face, but you know what? It's not going to change anything unless we pray according to his will. And I'm not against vacations. I like them. But you know what what can happen is we can become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, denying the power of the gospel, denying the power of the cross. He gives us all things richly to enjoy, but we're not to come under the power of these things. We're to love the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, and all our strength. And out of that, we're going to have love for people. And when things get difficult for the believers, then that's when the true believers get fired up for Jesus. And you forget all the stuff, that junk that lies behind, and you start moving forward in a genuine walk with Christ. I want to encourage you, follow Jesus. Look unto him and be saved. Fix your eyes on the one that can deliver you from all of your pride, and all of your self-will, and all of the other junk that's going on, from your discouragement, from your unbelief, from your sickness, and from your shame, and from your pain. He can deliver you. But if you humble yourself, he'll lift you up. We have to repent. He says repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's repent. You want to see God move? Then we have some repenting to do. What does repentance mean? It means asking Jesus to forgive us where we've fallen short, to humble ourselves before him. And whatever that looks like, Jesus humbled himself on earth to his father with loud cries and tears. He said, God, you've got to help me. I can't do this without your help. And he was heard because of his godly fear. And that's how we're going to be heard. May the Lord help us to get our eyes off of our circumstances, to get our eyes off of hoping for the day when we'll have more liberties back, but that we'll hope for the day that we see Jesus. Not for the day that comes when we willfully go on sinning. Not that day. We don't want that day to come. We'll be guarding that day. But the day when we see him as he is. It says in 1 John 3, it says everyone who has this hope in Jesus purifies himself. In other words, the Lord purifies you and makes you prepare yourself to see Jesus as he is. It says our faces will radiate and shine like the sun. There's prophecies in the Old Testament about it. And we have testimonies of people. I saw that sister. She was glowing. I saw that brother. Oh, he was glowing. That brother was glowing. Jesus was on him. We shall see him as he is. That's how he's going to see us. A city on a hill can't be hidden. You're the light of the world. Don't put a blanket on your head like Moses did because it was fading. We don't have to have that kind of fading glory. We have to continue to press in with Jesus and ever increasing glory. We don't want to have a glory like the moon. Shines for a little while at night and then disappears in the light of the day. We want to have a glory like the sun, like the stars in the heavens. We want to be ever increasing in glory. May the Lord give you that passion and that heart's desire to seek the Lord with all your heart, to love him fervently and to press on to things that are ahead, looking unto Jesus, the one who is the captain of our salvation, the author and the finisher of our faith so that if we suffer for a while, we'll be able to count it joy knowing that the end of these things is going to be good things. We'll finish with Brother Sean saying the end of these things will be good things in Jesus' name. Amen.