Encouragement: Encourage Yourself - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The worries of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace.

This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. We continue with the message, Encouragement, Encourage Yourself. Indeed, we all appreciate receiving a word of encouragement, but often we're at the place where David was that we must encourage ourselves. We do so by going to the promises of God's Word, encouraging ourselves in the Lord. And then indeed, we should be ready to encourage others.

Now while I think that following the pattern that is set here by David is very worthwhile for us to consider, but I think as we look elsewhere in the Scripture, we can expand it a little bit. So we consider the question, how can I encourage myself? In addition to learning what David did, how can I encourage myself when I'm really down? What it looks like, everything I've tried to do, I've wanted to do something that was worthwhile. I've wanted to serve the Lord, I've wanted to help Him, and right at the time, I just felt like, now I'm going to be able to be successful in doing some things I haven't done before, I've renewed my commitment, I've earnestly prayed, I've spent more time in the Word, I'm looking for things to smooth out, and instead of things being smooth, they fall apart.

One thing after another just blows up in your face. You might just say, Lord, why, why is all this happening right now? This is a time where I thought I was going to be used in a very positive way, a time that I was going to really get some things done that I neglected and hadn't been able to do in the past, and then sickness comes, or these financial problems come and are distracting me, or I'm being criticized, or misunderstood, or misrepresented, and all these things are problems. I've got family problems, and problems at work, and wherever you turn, how can I encourage myself? First of all, remember, God is on the throne.

Each one of these considerations I would give you are rather basic, but those are the things that we generally forget when we need them most. We know them, we've been taught, we've read it, but when we come to that moment of great need, instead of encouraging ourselves, we discourage ourselves, because we focus on all the troubles. Think about all of our failures, think about all of our disappointments.

As the old saying goes, some people like to just dig a hole and pull it in on top of them, and they spend a lot of time just pulling in all the stuff they can think about that has gone wrong, disturbed them, discouraged them, and just piled it up. But we need to remember, God is on the throne. Back in chapter 2, the 20th verse says, But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. Everybody here knows that, do they not?

Everybody here believes that. The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord is on the throne, but has there ever been a day when you behaved like somehow the Lord had stepped aside and wasn't on the throne anymore? You were kind of behaving like everything was out of control, everything was chaotic, nothing was going right, the world's falling apart, and your little part of it was disintegrating more quickly than any other part of it.

Everything was going downhill and going downhill fast. You need to be reminded, the Lord is in his holy temple. Chapter 3, this marvelous concluding portion of the book of Habakkuk, chapter 3 verse 17, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.

That's about as dark a scene as you can make it. No harvest, no crops in the field, no herd in the stall, easy to be discouraged. What's he saying?

Yet. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. You remember when we studied this book, we learned that this word joy indicates that he wasn't just expressing it verbally, it literally meant to spin around, just like a little kid that's happy and throws their hands up and spins around in a circle. That's what Habakkuk is saying, I will joy in the Lord.

People that specialize in discouragement, if they saw somebody spinning around, say well, you know, not much to that, that's probably a lot of put on, nobody's that happy. If you've seen Habakkuk with that kind of joy, say just calm down brother, say you know, you may be happy today, it'll be bad tomorrow, you know, good times can't last, I know something bad's about to happen because if anything good has recently happened, it's going to turn sour. That's not how you encourage yourself in the Lord. You encourage yourself in Him by remembering that even in the most difficult of times, God is on the throne.

Secondly, how can I encourage myself? Remember that daybreak may be just ahead. We think of times of discouragement and trouble as being dark times. The old adage says, the darkest time of the night is just before dawn. And that indeed may be so in our experience.

It may seem that we've reached the darkest time of the night. How can there be so many problems at once? How can so many things be going wrong at the same time?

How can trouble be coming from so many different directions? Surely David would have felt that way when he comes here and Ziklag is smitten and burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters are carried away. What worse situation could they encounter? But as dark as that was, daybreak wasn't far away. Chapter 30 of 1 Samuel, verse 17, as David pursued his enemies, he found a young man who was willing to take him to where he could find those that had brought this devastation. And it said that David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day.

And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away and David rescued his two wives. You see, the scene was dark. He thought he'd lost everything.

But in a short time, he recovered it all. And not only that, but in three days after this dark scene, he got word that Saul was dead. Saul was the one that had pursued him and persecuted him and tried to take his life. Now when you see the reaction of David, there's a lesson in that for all of us.

Because you might expect David to say, my, what a relief. Saul has been after me. Saul has given me some hard times.

This is a great blessing to hear that he's gone. David rent his clothes and wept. He recognized that Saul was God's anointed. And he had a young man put to death that had participated in Saul's death. Jonathan, his dear friend, had died at the same time. And so of course it was a time of great anguish because of the great love he had for Jonathan. But though there was a sense of relief, no doubt, that Saul would not be harassing him any further. And the second thing was that with Saul dead, David is now officially the king. So you might say, well surely David will just be gleeful over it all.

But he did not rejoice in the death of God's anointed. Yet you can see that there was a turn of events which was unexpected. When he looked upon Ziklag and saw it devastated, burned with fire, wives and children are gone.

What's this mean? Are we wiped out totally? Shortly thereafter he recovers everything, all of their possessions, everything they'd taken and is back safely with his wives. And no doubt those that had thought about killing him have now reversed course and decided David's an alright guy, they're going to respect him as king, ready to kill him one day and follow him the next.

Shows the fickle attitude of human nature. Yes, it was a dark time, but daybreak was just ahead. Wasn't that true in the case of Jonah, it was a dark time when the storm was raging, when the fish swallowed him, no doubt it was dark inside the fish's belly, but in just three days he was spewed out on dry land. Daybreak was just ahead. You know the story of the disciples out on the ship, Jesus had told them to board the ship, they've been rowing, rowing, rowing, but they're getting nowhere because the winds are blowing, it's a great storm, the waves are tossing the little ship about, it's in the middle of the night, everything looks terribly dark, what's going to befall us?

And then Jesus comes walking on the water and at first they're affrighted by seeing this unknown figure and cry out, and then discover that it's Jesus, not an enemy, not some figure that's going to destroy them, but their dearest friend, and Jesus got on board the ship and immediately they were at land. Daybreak was not far away. In the middle of the night, we began to wonder, will daylight ever come, will we ever reach our destination? But when Jesus came, it all fell into place. Thirdly, you can encourage yourself and the Lord when you come to realize that even if circumstances do not improve, He is with you.

Be wonderful to think that in every case when you're in the dark, you're just a few hours to the dawning of the morning, but it doesn't always happen that way. Some troubles don't go away. Some things don't get better. How can I then encourage myself if I'm dealing with a situation that I may have to deal with the rest of my life? I've got this burden I'm going to have to carry. I've got this thorn in the flesh I'm going to have to endure. I think I'm entitled to be discouraged.

I've got to put up with this situation. If I've got to continue to struggle with this loss, this disappointment, this heartache, this whatever it may be, but to remember that even if the circumstances do not change, God is with you will be most encouraging. David said in Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou naughtiest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

What does he say? The Lord is my shepherd. I will fear no evil.

Why? For thou art with me. See, we forget that in our moments of discouragement. Number four, how can I encourage myself in the Lord? I'd like for somebody else to encourage me. I'd like for some good news to come. Have there been days like that where you'd say, if I could just have one piece of good news?

That'd mean a lot. Everything I've had recently has been pretty bleak, been pretty discouraging. Remember this, God uses my trials for a good purpose. Psalm 119 verse 71, David says, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.

It has been good for me. God used these afflictions. In my afflictions, I learned his statutes. That's when I got serious about examining his word. That's when his promises came to me in power. That's when his instruction was more valuable to me than gold and silver and precious stone.

I found much to be learned in the time of my trouble. We felt that God was aloof in the time of our trouble. We passed through these sorrows and there was no benefit to be derived from them. It was no brighter day to hope for. Indeed, we would be terribly discouraged. But to know that God is at work, God is teaching me in these times of great trial and trouble.

And then next, how can I encourage myself in the Lord? If my present difficulties are a result of my own failure, there still is hope. One of the greatest discouragements that any of us can possibly have to deal with is being discouraged because we have failed. We've made a wrong decision. We look back and say, what would my life have been like if I had taken the right turn instead of the left?

Where would I be today if I hadn't made that terrible decision back there years ago concerning my education or my career or my investments or how I use my time or the people I associated with and on and on you can go. Or it may be something just relating to day-to-day living and you've sinned. You fail to obey God. You fail to honor Him.

But there's hope. Psalm 32 verse 4, David says, For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgaveth the iniquity of my sin.

Selah. Oh, what hope! Satan is described as being the accuser of the brethren and sometimes you join forces with him and you point the same finger back at yourself that he points and you come to the conclusion that there can't be much hope for you because you've failed. None of this is looked at with the idea of encouraging carelessness on our part or trying to defend and justify our faults, our failings, or our sins. But is it not good to know that God is the God of all grace? Is it not good to know that when David confessed his sin that he said, Thou forgaveth the iniquity of my sin?

Is it not good to know that even when Israel had strayed and worshiped false gods, Jeremiah comes on the scene and cries, Return, return, return! Somebody says, maybe I've gone too far, but the message is return. Somebody says, I feel like just resigning from the human race. I've made so many mistakes, I'm such a failure, I'm so wretched, just give up completely.

Return, return, is the message. God is described in Romans chapter 15 as being the God of hope. He's the hope for the hopeless. He's the one that is ready to help us in our darkest times. You've heard me read this verse repeatedly. I think it's one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible. Psalm 102 verse 17, He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. Now you can read some of those verses that say that He's nigh unto that one that is of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and sometimes that comforts you.

But there are times your heart feels so cold, you say, I don't even know if it's broken. Whatever's troubling me may be sin in itself, it may just be selfishness on my part. It's not a godly thing, I don't have a contrite spirit, I'm just upset because I didn't get my way. I'm just mad because life is difficult and I don't think it ought to be this hard. I read after a man the other day that said, what I've heard a few say on the radio, it's all right to get upset with God, it's all right to be mad at God.

I don't know where they get that. Nowhere in God's Word are we encouraged to be angry at Him, but in the flesh it's entirely possible. Somebody would say, I don't understand Lord, if you're a God of power and if you love me, why did you suffer this to come upon me? But even in your darkest times, when you feel like your heart is hard, you can't get the words together to pray, you're destitute, you're destitute of the right attitude, destitute of a true broken heart, destitute of a sense of poverty. Jesus says, blessed are the poor and you say, I don't even know if I can qualify for that. One thing about it, you can't get under this promise, say I'm destitute of the right attitude, destitute of feeling, destitute of faith, destitute, well, He will regard the prayer of the destitute.

Can't get any lower than that, you're wiped out, you don't have anything to offer. He will hear the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. Talking about Jonah, looked like his days as a prophet were finished, but the Lord blessed him after he came out of the belly of the great fish to go on to Nineveh and preach and the whole city repented. Admittedly Jonah wasn't happy about the situation, but God still used him in spite of his obstinance. Here's Peter denying his Lord, I dare say that night when Peter was in such great distress, he felt like his preaching days were over. But Jesus appeared to him after the resurrection and said, Peter, do you love me, do you love me?

Feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, and there he was on the day of Pentecost preaching. So even if your present difficulties are a result of your own failure, there is hope because God is the God of hope. Finally, one reason to encourage yourself is so you can encourage those that need help. One reason to encourage yourself is so you can be an encourager to others. Every one of us ought to have that desire, a desire to think about the hurting and the suffering and the outcast and the people who are struggling in so many ways in life.

So easy in our culture today, enjoying a level of prosperity that's never been known by any other nation in the world at any time, to enjoy the material things that we have, the reasonable day-to-day provisions that are ours, and fail even to think about those who are in very difficult situations. But it ought to be our desire to minister to those around us, to encourage them. Do you not want to be an encourager? Have you not seen those that have suffered much and you say, I really would like to encourage them?

I don't know how to do it. I don't know what to say. I'd like to encourage some of these brethren that minister in foreign lands. I'd like maybe to know what to say to them in a letter or how I should go about encouraging them. How can I be an encourager? Second Corinthians chapter one, verse four, speaks of the God of all comfort in verse three. And the fourth verse says, who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

You're not going to be able to comfort anybody else or to encourage them until you've found encouragement and comfort. God is described as being the God of comfort. As you then encourage yourself in the Lord, David couldn't wait for somebody to encourage him to come give him a word of cheer, to give him some support to quote a verse of scripture to him or anything of the kind.

He was facing men who were ready to stone him. He could do but one thing. He encouraged himself in the Lord. The apostle Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. He recognized the strength came from Christ, but I, he uses the personal pronoun, I'm involved. This is something I can do.

I'm going to do. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I can encourage myself. On the other hand, I can do a lot to discourage myself.

I can think about all the things that are out of place, all the unfinished business around me that perplexes me, all of the people that have frustrated me in one way or another, all of the disappointments of life. You can pull yourself down very easily, but our responsibility is to be an encourager, to be as Barnabas was, encouraging all of those around him, willing to take a back seat as it were, that God might use others that he himself was encouraging, encouragement, encourage yourself. May all of us learn more about this essential part of Christian living. True Christianity is not something that's lived in isolation.

We don't just think about ourselves. The ultimate reason for being encouraged is so we can be an encourager. We apply our hearts to wisdom and the study of his word that we may encourage ourselves in the Lord. Today, we brought you the concluding portion of a message, encouragement, encourage yourself. I hope that this will stir our minds to realize how necessary it is not to wait for somebody to come and encourage us, but to encourage ourself in the Lord and then to be ready to encourage others. Until we greet you next time, this is LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Sending you goodbye and God bless you. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Praising my Savior, Praising my Savior all the day long.