Michael Youssef - Encouragement from Discouragement
A man was convinced that he has an inferiority complex problem, and he went to see a psychiatrist. And he told the psychiatrist, "I suffer from an inferiority complex". So the psychiatrist examined him very thoroughly, very thoughtfully, and finally came to him and he said, "Well, I want to give you one of those good news, bad news situation. The good news is you don't have a complex. The bad news is you're certainly inferior". Well, I think the feeling of inferiority is really, seriously, not a joking matter because those who compare themselves with others and then feel inferior, they're dishonoring the Lord because he made each one of us, individually, to be who we are. But even acting in that spirit of inferiority, a person opens his heart or her heart to Satan to do terrible things.
Why do I say this? Because if that feeling of inferiority persists, it will lead into all kinds of discouragement, and discouragement is Satan's number-one tool. I want you to hear me right. For it is one thing to feel discouraged on occasions. We all do. Or for a short period of time. And it's a whole different thing to live in the spirit of discouragement or live in a state of discouragement. It is dangerous to stay in that territory because most likely it's going to lead you into sin and into doubt and into confusion. David, in this stage of his life, was choosing to wear the garment of discouragement and led him to all sorts of terrible things.
David allowed that the spirit of discouragement to be his companion. David elected to give the spirit of discouragement a free run in his life. Here you see David surrendering to the spirit of discouragement. And surrendering to the spirit of discouragement took him into places that he would never have gone. Discouragement led him to roads that he would never have trodden. The spirit of discouragement escorted him to functions that he would never have attended. And so, the question is, how did this happen? After a great victory, you remember from the last message, after a great victory of David doggedly refusing to kill Saul when he could have, when all of his motley crew telling him to do it, when he refused to do that, and he only cut a small piece of the garment.
That was a great victory over temptation. And he said, "I will not touch the God's anointing". After that, David entered into a period of moping and sulking and feeling sorry for himself. And, beloved, when that discouragement sets in, it can become a disaster if you stay in it. So let me repeat this because it's very important. It is important to know that we all, at some point, because of circumstances totally out of our control, we can feel discouraged. But please do not stay there. Staying in discouragement led David to Ziklag. That's a good word, you need to remember it. It's Z-I-K-L-A-G, Ziklag. Say it with me: Ziklag. Because all of us, every one of us, including your pastor, at some point we found ourselves in our Ziklag.
Your Ziklag is inevitable, and it is inevitable destination if you stay with discouragement. Listen to what David said during that time. Psalm 10:1, he was writing during that period of time. "Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble"? Or Psalm 13, verse 1, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me"? And you see that spirit of discouragement setting in? Or in that messianic psalm which was repeated by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, Psalm 22, verse 1. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me..."?
Whenever a person, anyone, begin to think this way or begin to think that God had forsaken them, when the Word of God is so clear that "I will never leave you, I'll never forsake you," the moment you begin to think that way, you are entering into a danger zone. Can I get a witness? For one thing, it is just not true. It is not true. It's a lie from the devil. At that point, you're either going to put on the garment of discouragement or encourage yourself in the Lord and in the faithfulness of the Lord and in the promises of the Lord. Either you will comfort yourself in the Lord, who loves you enough to die for you, or allow discouragement to lead you into despair. Either you will say with Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives," or you give up like Elijah and said, "Take my life," ready to die.
There can be no doubt that David was facing discouragement. We all agree on that? I mean, he was facing discouragement. He was disheartened. And as I said, discouragement comes to the best of us, all of us, in one way or another. But it is what you do when discouragement comes your way will determine your victory or your defeat. David's discouragement came as a result of what appears to be. Now, notice what I'm saying. Appears to be. Don't ever judge things by appearance. It's very important. What appears to be. Why do I say this? Because God's delay in answer of his prayer appeared to David, as it does appear to you and it appeared to me in the past. It appears that God had forsaken you or God is not listening to you. It appears.
So he sat down and said, "Saul continues to hunt for me". And there is no, at least, seems to be, no end to David running away from Saul. David is under this enormous pressure of providing for this 600, used to be 400, now 600, they're increasing, provide for them. The pressure of finding a place for them to hide. All of that, he was carrying all of this on his shoulders. And here's a choice we all have to make when we're under pressure. Either we cast all our burdens on the Lord or carry them ourselves and let them take us to Ziklag. You either hand your sorrows to a loving heavenly Father or let your sorrows take you to places you don't want to go. David convinced himself that it is hopeless, it is useless to continue waiting upon the Lord.
Verse 1, mark it, because verses 1 and 3 are really key verses here. Verse 1, "David said in his heart, 'I shall now perish one day at the hand of Saul.'" Oh, David, have you forgotten Samuel anointing you with oil? "'There's nothing better for me to do than escape to the land of the Philistines.'" Oh my goodness. Listen, listen, listen. Someone here or might be watching around the world, may be discouraged at this very moment in your life and you're saying to yourself, "There is no use holding on, there is no use persisting, there is no use waiting for the Lord. There is no use persevering, there is no use totally trusting in the promises of God, they're not coming".
That, my beloved friend, will take you to your Ziklag where you don't want to be. Here's the lesson. Here's the lesson. The God who holds the stars in place holds your future in his hands. The God who spins the orbits around with meticulous precision is holding and spinning the circumstances in your life. The very God who weighs the dust and scales is in control of your tomorrow. The God who commands the ravens, of all birds, these are venomous ones, the ravens to feed Elijah, he will command the events in your life. David came to erroneous conclusion. I'm not going to tell you how many times I came to erroneous conclusions. Only God in heaven knows how many times. I do too. He came to the erroneous conclusion, but David failed almost at the last hour of his trial.
David failed at the very last hour of his waiting. David failed at the very last hour of his testing. Ah, but there's more. In the last message, you saw how David inquired of the Lord. "Lord, shall I go"? He said yes. "Lord, are they going to do this"? He said, "Yes, they will". But this time he did not seek the counsel of the Lord. This time he did not seek the mind of God. Instead, he drew his own conclusions using human logic and secular wisdom and prevailing circumstances, and that's dangerous. And so David, who slayed the Philistine giant, now gone into the land of the Philistines, the enemies of God. He's now gone there. David, who was the servant of the living God, now he's the servant of Achish.
And first, of course, Achish welcomes him. Hey, you know, you heard the term, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"? Achish started this by having David, who had slain his giant, to come in and stay in there. He welcomed him. Misery loves company. Secondly, probably some of you are saying, "Well, what's wrong with that? The guy needs a little peace in life. I mean, after all, he's running from place to place to place to place. Well, he needs a little peace". Oh, but that's false peace. It's false peace. That's not the real peace of God. That's not the peace that comes from God. Think with me again. Who gets dishonored in this process that David is going through? In David's case, the Lord is dishonored and the promises of God are dishonored.
You say, "Well, how come"? Well, you see, God promised David that David, his enemies, would be cast off like a stone off a sling. That's God's promise. And that promise was confirmed to David again and again and again. It was not only confirmed by the Lord, it was confirmed by the prophet Samuel, then it was confirmed by Prince Jonathan, the son of Saul, and then, of all people, it was confirmed, as we saw in the last message, by King Saul himself. So, in his spirit of discouragement, David actually was saying, "Lord, because you have not fulfilled your promise to me now, I give up. Lord, You over-promise and under-perform. Lord, I know you kept me safe so far, but I'm not really sure you're going to keep me safe in the future. Lord, you've protected me from many enemies and from many swords of the past, but this time I think it's getting harder for you, Lord".
Now, beloved, let me testify to you, it is easy to get out of the place of testing. It is easy. But when you get out of the place of testing, be very careful because you are getting out of the place of blessing. I'm not talking about salvation now. I'm not saying you're going to lose your salvation. I'm talking about the blessing, the place of blessing. And so, David went to the place of the Lord's enemies, King Achish, who gave him the town of Ziklag. Ziklag is a symbol of compromise. Ziklag is a place of idolatry. Ziklag is a place of disobedience. Ziklag is the place of temporary, fake peace.
Look at verse 3. Significant verse because it shows you the beginning of David's compromise, because David's discouragement really had deeper roots than just this. In the book of Deuteronomy, the command of God is not to multiply wives. David has three, all at the same time. Three wives, two with him and one back home, the daughter of Saul, Michal. Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, and now Michal was back home. Taking refuge among the enemies of God, using the logic of the flesh, compromising God's law, all of these are the consequences of letting discouragement sets in. Devising your plan and not God's plan may lead to temporary success.
Living in disobedience will not always show the consequences right away. Disregarding of God's clear Word may be accompanied by worldly rewards. The Bible said sin is pleasurable for a moment. But one false step is not enough. You have to take a second one, and then another one, then another one. One deception is not enough. There has to be followed by another deception and another deception. One lie is not enough. It must be followed by another lie, and another lie to cover up that lie. And you see this happening with dear old David right here in the scripture.
You see it very clearly; look at verse 8, David began to make his living by killing and stealing. David wanted to be accepted by the enemies of God, but deep down he knew that what he was doing is inconsistent with the Word of God. David sought the favor of the enemies of God because deep down he thought that he lost the favor of God. Be very careful. Beloved, out of deep guilt David goes out, kills and steals, and comes back and lies about it. In the next message I'm going to show you how this city, the prosperous city, became prosperous even more under David, it was burned to the ground, burned to the ground.
Beloved, every protection, listen to me, every protection other than God's protection, every hope other than hope in God, every comfort other than the comfort of the paraclete, the Holy Spirit of God, every security other than the one that comes from El Shaddai is going to burn to the ground. It will prove useless. Let me share this with you as I conclude. It is a true story about a gifted writer, well-known. His name is William Cowper, great British writer. Despite of his talent, despite of his success, one day, out of grief and disappointment, he sunk into the deep and the depth of discouragement.
So he finally, on a foggy London night, called a horse and carriage, that's what the cabbies were before the days of cars, and he asked the cabbie to take him to the London Bridge. He has every intention of jumping from the London Bridge into the River Thames. After two hours, the driver found himself lost in the London fog. Cowper got so frustrated, he got so irritated, he just said to the driver, "Stop! I'm going to make it on foot".
So he got out of the cabbie only to find himself standing at the doorstep of his house. For two hours the cabbie, the driver of the horse and carriage, lost his bearing and he kept going around, around, around, around in the fog. At that moment, William Cowper recognized the restraining hand of God. At that moment, he recognized the providential turn of events. Convinced by the Holy Spirit, he began to snap out of his discouragement. Seeing that the hand of God saved him, he went inside the house, and as he sat, tears just kept on flowing like a flood out of his eyes on his face.
Then he knelt as he penned these words that have blessed untold numbers of people through the years. "God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head". You can turn your discouragement into an opportunity, not just to be blessed yourself, but to bless others. You can take your discouragement and turn it with the power of God into an opportunity to serve and to bless many people. Will you do that? Remembering that nothing is impossible with God. Say that with me: Nothing is impossible with God.