Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times, Part 1

Thank you for joining pastor and author, Dr. Michael Yousef, for a brand new episode of Leading the Way Audio. Now, be prepared to experience renewed hope when hope often fades into the darkness. All right, what do you do when your hope comes?

Well, many take to social media and just post their irritation. And other people like to gather with friends and look to fill the darkness with some laughter and camaraderie, knowing that other people might be facing similar struggles. But you and I, all of us, well, we should be taking our discouragements and our hopelessness straight to God. Today, a look at words of the psalmist, David, where you'll see that trusting God is at work is the key to experiencing encouragement when you're surrounded by discouragement. This is just the beginning of Dr. Yousef's short series. It's called Encouraging Words for Discouraging Times.

Listen with me now to Dr. Michael Yousef on today's Leading the Way. I have not seen this level of discouragement among God's people. And I know there's a lot to be discouraged about.

I know that I don't gloss over things. But continuous discouragement can sap your energy. Continuous discouragement causes loss of hope. Continuous discouragement, if persisted, can be very destructive.

In fact, continuous discouragement even can lead to all sorts of illnesses. And that is why I'm starting this short series from the Psalms entitled Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times. No one suffered from discouragement like David. Started as a shepherd boy out in the hills of Bethlehem in the fields, he felt lonely at times, all alone shepherding his father's flock, what with living in the shadow of his older brothers.

But precisely, those lonely times in the hills helped him develop some of the most profound God honoring prayers in a form of Psalms. Question. What do you do when you are discouraged? What do you do when you are discouraged? What do you do when you unjustly suffer? What do you do when you are slandered and misunderstood by others?

What do you do? You plead your case with God, just as David did. So let's look at the Psalm, Psalm 28, under three headings. First of all, you see David places his confident request before the Lord, verses 1 and 2. Secondly, it calmly presents a well-reasoned argument before the Lord, verses 3 to 5. Thirdly, David receives a cause for rejoicing from the Lord, verses 6 to 9. The first thing you see here is David places his confident request before the Lord. Where does his confidence come from? From all of the things he did for God. From many times he said, I kept your commandments and he would rejoice over the commandments of God and laws of God are perfect and so on and so forth.

No. David's confidence not based on his rightness or even the rightness of his cause. Listen to me. I know that sometimes you know you're right and you're absolutely certain you're right. You're absolutely certain about the rightness of your cause for which you're praying but that is not the source of your confidence.

It ought not be. His confidence is in who? In God.

Question. Why is God called the rock? Because the rock is a symbol of changelessness even when our world is falling apart. The rock is a symbol of immovability. The rock is a symbol of permanence. The rock is a symbol of invincibility.

The rock is a symbol of immutability. Please don't miss this. Don't miss this.

Don't miss this. David's world is falling apart but not the rock. David's world was slipping from under him but not the... David's kingdom was slipping from under him but God still is what? David's kingdom being snatched away from him by Absalom but God is what? David's palace was snatched away from him by Absalom and his men but God is what? David's security was melting before his own eyes as he was running away but God is what?

David's subjects even turned on him and turned against him but God is what? Let me ask you this. You feel your world is falling apart. You feel that your world is shaken. You feel that your world is slipping from under you.

You feel that your world is sliding into oblivion. You feel that the foundation is shaking so much you don't know how far and how long can you hold on and you feel that your marriage is on the rocks or you feel that your health is failing you then do what David did. Do what David did. Call upon the rock. Call upon the rock for he is the only one who's unchangeable. He's the only one whose love is changeless.

He's the only one whose stability is unquestionable. David's confident request stemmed from knowing who God is. Who God is. Not like so many in our culture today sadly. They think that God owes them something. I don't have to tell you that in this entitlement culture millions of people feel that the government owes them something. That their parents owe them something. That the church owes them something. And in the midst of this evil invasion that is taking place in our culture there's some Christians feel that God owes them big time. Listen to me. When it comes to God he owes us nothing and we owe him everything. Please listen. People with that type of entitlement mentality they accomplish nothing.

In fact they destroy everything they touch. And David said, hear my cry, oh Lord. For what? I've been good to you. I've been faithful to you because you owe me.

No. Hear my cry for your mercy. Listen David reasoning is this. If God is hearing him but not having mercy on him he felt that he was a dead man walking. I think it's easy to deduct that David pinned those words where he was experiencing what so many of us sometimes experience. The silence of God.

He was experiencing the silence of God. David said he raises his hand toward the holy place that is symbolic of the presence of God. Raising of the hand is an expression of imploring God. When Moses raised his hand up on the mountain God gave victory to Joshua. When Jacob wrestled with God raised his hand before God he got the victory.

When Jesus was sweating blood in Gethsemane the resurrection took place three days later. David placed his confident request before the Lord. Secondly he presents calmly his world reasoned case to the Lord. Look at verses 3, 4 and 5. Here David is talking about the wicked people. He says this, he said they kind of smile to your face but then they stab you in the back.

It's a use of translation but that's really what he meant. He asked God to judge them. Repay them for their evil deeds. Those words might sound harsh in our soft non-judgmental tolerant culture. Always judgmental. Have you noticed that the very people who were yesterday pleading for tolerance, today they're the same very people who are promoting violence and intolerance. I am absolutely convinced that Satan has unleashed a successful propaganda campaign that has corrupted the thinking of a whole generation. A whole generation.

In our media, in our government, in our schools, even the political leaders. They're all now preaching the kind of moral insanity. Some will meaning church people. I didn't say believers I said church people. They're saying oh we must not judge any sin.

Yeah, except the sin of being morally upright. Oh they don't want to blame the criminals for their life of crime. They don't want to condemn the terrorists for taking lives. They say to us oh these terrorists and these criminals they don't need to be judged they need to be understood.

In contrast David said Lord repay them for what their hands have done. Our culture probably would say he shouldn't be so judgmental toward those people who hunting him down. People are trying to destroy him. He shouldn't be judgmental. He should be more understanding.

He should be more tolerant. Some of you may remember this not more than years ago but 2017. It was March 22nd in Manchester, England. There was a concert by American singer where a local group of Muslim terrorists detonated in that arena a homemade bomb and it killed 22 people and maimed 250 others. After this horrific attack I can never forget that. I can never forget that.

I can't get that out of my head. Elementary school students were told not to judge the terrorists. Try to understand their motives. Children were told to write a letter to the terrorists and ask six questions to help the children better understand the terrorists not judge them. Listen to me.

Please listen. If you cannot see the devil's fingerprints in Western civilization that was based on the Reformation on the Bible on the Word of God trying to destroy Western civilization you need to get some spiritual binoculars. Rabbi Jeffrey Salim of Hollywood Florida spoke with utter sadness of his heart to what he sees as young Jewish people who succumb to this moral madness of non-judgmentalism.

He said I've heard Jewish young people tell me we have no right to judge the Nazis because they thought that what they were doing was right. Our beloved the Bible from cover to cover tells us that we must call wrong wrong evil evil sin sin wickedness wickedness. Listen whether that sin is in our lives and lives of others I condemn the sin in my life faster than I condemn any other person. The beauty of David's claim this calm reasoning with the Lord is this it's not based on self-righteousness not even the rightness of his cause but was based on the character of God. In fact David already approached God and you see that in the beginning with confession he says protect me from falling in these sins he confesses his sinfulness so he doesn't begin the prayer with asking God to judge the wicked no no he begins by asking God to keep him from being dragged into these wicked schemes. I often use the words of John Wesley but for the grace of God there go I. David was always aware of his own propensity propensity to sin. Now if you're not aware of that you need to do some work with God today. I as your pastor I'm aware of my propensity to sin. That's why David begins with confession.

I plead with you don't miss this. When David was praying for justice against the wicked he was not just praying as a private citizen he was praying as the ruler of his people. He was praying and assuming his rightful place as the ruler as the leader of the nation and as the ruler he is responsible for executing justice not mercy justice not mercy. Mercy is what you and I exercise but the government is called to exercise justice. Romans 13 is the government supposed to exercise justice.

Please don't misunderstand what I'm going to tell you. Evil must never prosper regardless of how we feel about the perpetrator of that evil. We must pray to God to frustrate the evil designs the evils plan. Sadly today in our culture as we drift away from our biblical moorings as we drift away from our godly moorings under the guise of compassion and tolerance we let the criminals roam in the streets and care nothing for the true victims. We want to protect the civil rights of the wicked more than those who suffered from their wickedness.

We care more about the rights of a child abuser than the abused children. That causes me to weep and should cause us all to weep. Beloved evil is evil and wrong is wrong and we need to pray that God will raise up godly leaders who would administer justice. Confidently requesting calmly reasoning calls for rejoicing.

Look at verses six all the way to nine. I think we are all very good at requesting. We are all very good at requesting. We may even be good at reasoning but very few of us very few of us are thankful when the prayers are answered. We don't stop long enough to thank him.

Soon our exuberant emotion fades and as time passes well yeah but what did he do for me lately? Our gratitude diminishes as our memory grows fuzzy. I think all of us are familiar with the passage in Luke 17 when 10 lepers 10 wanted to be healed crying to Jesus and he heals all 10 of them. Nine were Jewish did sons of the Covenant. One was a Gentile Samaritan and only the Samaritan came back with the same intensity by which he was thinking. With the same intensity with the same passion that he want to be healed he came back just to give thanks.

And Jesus asked and you can see the pain in his voice. Where are the other nine? Where are the other nine?

Are they 10 all together? Are they not as grateful and thankful as this Samaritan? Now probably they felt the world owed them something. But not David. Not David. Actually he began praising and thanking God before he could see evidence to his answered prayers. Don't miss this.

It's the last part of the song. Now I can tell you truthfully a number of years ago. I prayed for something for six years. Six years for an impatient guy that can only be the work of God in me. I would have given up long ago but I prayed for six years. Nothing.

I heard nothing. I examined my heart. I examined my motives. I ensured that my prayer is consistent with the word of God. I ensured that my prayer was consistent with the will of God as I knew it. Why was my prayer not being answered?

Then finally the Lord laid something on my heart. Why not thank him now before the prayers are answered? Why don't you thank him for answered prayer before you see the evidence? Why wait until God answers? Why not exercise faith at the front end? So I began to thank God for answered prayers. But be careful.

Listen to the rest of this. And that prayer of thanksgiving for answered prayers went on for eighteen months. Eighteen months.

That's not it. Eighteen months without a hint or a sign that my prayer is about to be answered. There were difficult eighteen months.

They were more difficult than the six years prior. The devil taunted me. How can you thank God for something he hasn't even done yet? How can you thank God for answered prayer when you haven't seen any answers?

Michael, you're losing your grip on reality. But when my prayers finally were answered, when Satan proved to be a liar yet again, I praise God for enabling me to persevere. Thanking him in faith.

And that's why I'm testifying today those many years later. Look at verses six and seven. Psalm twenty-eight. Praise be to the Lord for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him and he helped me. My heart leaps for joy and with my song I praise him. Don't miss David's fully trusting in God no matter what. Fully trusting in God before the prayers were answered.

Beloved, listen to me please. The life that we're living right now, the life you're living today, wherever you are in your circumstances today, we live it because of what God did for us yesterday. And we will be in a different place tomorrow because of what God is doing for us today.

You know why I'm saying this? I'm saying this because God is not trapped in time dimensions as we are. And when he looks down, he sees the past, the present, and the future all in front of him.

All of them accomplished. And that is why, like David, we need to fully trust him. Even in the times of what appears to us to be his silence.

His silence. Look at verse seven. My heart trusts, as in the past. I am helped, as the present. I will praise him, as in the future.

Based on his own experience with God, David, based on his knowledge of the character of God, not only in his own life but in the lives of Abraham and Moses and Jacob and Isaac as he knew the word of God. Based on all of that, David's supplication turns into seeing God acting by faith. Can I get an amen?

Take it from this broken preacher. After all these years that I've been walking with the Lord, I can tell you with absolute conviction and certainty that the life of gratitude, the life of thankfulness, is the secret to everything. I am talking about a lifestyle of it, not just occasionally say thank you God.

No, no, no. I'm talking about a lifestyle of it. It's the secret to joy. It's the secret to life of faith.

It's the secret to God's blessings. I know this is a sweeping statement. I know that. But please let me appeal to you to try it. Try it. Please try it. Practice it. Live it.

You will never be the same. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Yousaf for his series Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times, leaning into the comfort and the encouragement that comes from knowing that God is at work. And if you'd like to speak with someone about your faith journey, or maybe you'd like to tackle your discouragement, won't you consider connecting with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor?

They're at ltw.org slash Jesus. Our five year vision to come is following in the footsteps of Jesus, his great commission. And so we're focusing on bringing the 96% of Americans who do not have a Christian worldview to come and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're reaching out to the rest of the world through the Navigators, through KingdomSats, through many, many opportunities.

And that is God's vision for us. And I pray that you're going to be part of this vision. Reach the lost in your neighborhood and around the world through the expanding ministry of Leading the Way. Give us a call. 866-626-4356 or ltw.org, ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org.