0:07 Brothers and sisters, what a wonderful thing it is to come together to seek the Lord and to look into His word, to be encouraged. The first thing I want to show you from scripture today, our subject is that God 0:26 wants us to be free from all discouragement. There are many titles given to God. He is our Father, but He's also called in Romans 15 and verse 5, here's a title of God that we must never 0:46 forget. Romans 15, verse 5. God, the God who gives encouragement. The God who gives you perseverance. It's God. 1:06 He's who gives encouragement and His title is a God who gives us encouragement. A God who gives us perseverance to hold on till the end. So, 1:27 there are also many other scriptures that tell us how God's desire is that we should be free from all anxiety. A lot of discouragement comes because we're tense and anxious 1:46 about something on the earth, especially about people whom we love. Somebody's sick or somebody's going through a difficult time and we're concerned. Now, we must distinguish between 2:04 being concerned and being anxious and worried. Jesus said in Matthew 6, in the space of 10 verses, Matthew 6:25-34, three times He said, "Don't be worried. 2:26 Don't be worried. Don't worry be worried." Matthew 6:25, "For this reason I say, do not be worried." And again, in verse 31, "Do not be worried." 2:45 Again, in verse 34, "Do not worry." But He said, "If you do want to be anxious about something, be anxious about God's kingdom." Verse 33, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness." 3:05 So, sometimes anxiety comes because it is not His kingdom and His righteousness that we are seeking. He says, "If you seek God's kingdom first and His righteousness." Verse 33, 3:24 "all the things that we are concerned about will be added to us." It doesn't mean everything will be perfect because this is an imperfect earth and you cannot expect everything to be perfect here. In your life, in I mean in 3:38 the external circumstances, it will never be perfect. Something or the other will be wrong. Somebody or the other will be sick. People will die. There'll be sickness all over and especially at this time of this COVID-19 pandemic 3:54 that's covered the whole earth. It's very easy for people to get depressed. We know people who have died due to this sickness. And naturally, there'll be sorrow. The Bible doesn't say sorrow is wrong, but the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4, 4:11 "We don't sorrow like others." 1 Thessalonians in chapter I mentioned this because there are people we know whose loved ones have passed away or gone to be with the Lord. And 1 Thessalonians 4 says that concerning those who are asleep, 4:30 the Bible never speaks about Christians having died. He always It always uses the word they are asleep in Christ. In other words, they've gone to be with the Lord and they've got to raise them up one day. 4:49 Death refers to a permanent end, so He uses the word asleep in Christ. So, it says, "Don't grieve like others." 1 Thessalonians 4:13. We do grieve naturally when someone dies, but we don't grieve like others because we have a hope 5:07 that we will see them again. So, let me just mention a word about those who are discouraged or gloomy because of death that has come in due to COVID or something else like that. An unexpected death, someone dying much earlier than they should have. 5:24 God is sovereign and He's the one who's got life and death in His hands and He's the one who determines it for all His children. It's God who decides when He's going to call them up to heaven. Psalm 139:16-17 say that God has determined the number of our 5:43 days. That should bring comfort to us. It's a great verse that we must always remember in case you've never read it before. It is Psalm 139 and verse 16. God has determined the number of our 6:01 days and He determined it before you were born. It says in that verse. So, we find a comfort in that. Nobody could take the life of Jesus away before He had completed His course and He had to die on the cross. And they tried to throw Him once over a cliff 6:18 once. Not possible. And there was a storm in the lake. It's impossible for Him to die there because it was not God's time. I want to say to every one of you, this is the word of God. You don't have to be a great saint to know this. God loves His little 6:34 children, young newborn children in the faith as much as He loves His older servants. But let me say this to comfort you and encourage you that if you are seeking to do God's will 6:51 and that is your ambition in life, you cannot die before God's time by any method. The devil cannot kill you. Sickness cannot kill you until God's time has come. He determines the number of our days. 7:10 It may not be long. A full life is not necessarily what the world calls a long life. Jesus' life was the fullest life that was ever lived on the earth and He left this earth when He was 33 and a half. So, what is 7:30 a full life? Completing the will of God. So, let me say this that when because we know that our loved ones have gone to be with Christ, we have to think of them as our having seen them off at an airport. 7:48 They've gotten to a flight. Imagine this loved one of yours that's departed has gotten to a flight and gone to a better country, far better than this one. Would you be depressed? Yeah, there'll be a sorrow that I may not see this 8:04 person for a long time because he or she is gone away to another country, but there's also a joy that this loved one has gone to a better land. So, look at what the world calls death seeing somebody off at the airport who's taken off for a better land. 8:21 So, we don't sorrow like others. I've seen parents who are seeing off their sons or daughters going off to study college in college in some other place, in a better place, and seeing them off at the airport and parents are crying. Why are they crying? 8:39 It's not because they'll never see their children again. It's because they'll be away for some time. But there's gladness in their heart. They're glad to send them off that to their children to a better place. So, it's It's like 8:52 that we must look at what the world calls death. So, we grieve, but we don't grieve like others. There could be also other causes for See, for example, medical people tell us about what is called clinical depression. Now, that's a medical term and I'm not 9:11 talking about that. Some people's personalities are such and we don't judge them. We are We compassionate and merciful towards them. Never judge another person as to what is the source of his discouragement. Just can be concerned about yourself. 9:27 We're not called to judge others. But for a Christian, I believe God's will is that we must be free from anxiety and free from discouragement that comes from having too high an expectation of 9:44 ourselves. We're not perfect, but we are pressing on to perfection. And along that way, God encourages us all the time. There are people who are discouraged because of poverty, especially in these days when 10:03 people have lost their jobs. We have to be compassionate towards them. And if you're facing something like that, I want to encourage you, seek God's kingdom first, and God can do amazing things to open up a way for you to find provision for your 10:18 family's needs. God's very interested in our family and our wife and children being fed and taken care of and even being educated so that they can get a job because he taught us to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven, give us 10:33 this day our daily bread." That's the prayer he taught us to pray. He said, "You can pray that every day." And that is saying, "Lord, I trust you to make provision for me to get my daily bread." In other words, I need a job. 10:50 I need a house to live in with my family. And I need to educate my children so that they can also get their daily bread one day. And so there's nothing wrong in asking for these things. And to believe that God in some way or 11:04 the other will work things out for us. Not perhaps in the way we anticipate, but definitely he cares for us. There are people who have who are, for example, some of you may be widows. Maybe your husbands have passed on. 11:22 God is the God of widows. Isaiah 54 says, "God will be your husband." Now that your physical husband is dying, God will be your husband. He'll take care of you. We think of young children who are discouraged because they are bullied 11:36 in school. That's unfortunately a very common thing nowadays. It may be happening to some of your children. We must encourage them. Never mind if other people despise you, laugh at you. Remember, Jesus loves you. That's what we need to encourage our 11:51 children. Ask Jesus to be with you always. Even when you go to school, that's what you need to tell our children. I happen to come to faith in Christ at a very young age. And also, one other thing I want to mention is that 12:08 there are different types of personalities we are born with. Some are outgoing and always cheerful and happy, but very often it's only superficial. Some of these people are always smiling and happy-go-lucky type of people. If you 12:22 look at them in their private life, very often they are gloomy and discouraged. Uh I've heard of a lot of circus clowns who commit suicide. They make other people laugh, but then they go and commit suicide. I've heard of 12:36 others who were actors who act in humorous movies who commit suicide. So they are their personalities. They were trying to go against their personality. Now, we must remember that some people's personalities are very outgoing. 12:53 Some people's are more reserved and introverted. Don't seek to be different from what God has made you. God has made us all different. And we should never seek say, "I wish I would could be like that person." But God decided you're not to be like 13:11 that person. You're to be like yourself. So that's one of the first things I would say to you. Be comfortable with the personality God gave you when you were born. You know, I was born with a very inward-looking personality. I'm 13:28 basically a very shy person. Uh you may not believe that when you hear me speak, but that's what I was. I was not the type of person who would be the life and soul of a party or the person who would slap people on the back and say, "Hi." No, I was very 13:44 reserved, very difficult for me to go and speak to people and make friends with them because that's my personality. But as I came to know the Lord, I found my joy in Jesus himself. And that changed my personality little 13:59 by little by little. And so when you find your joy in Jesus and don't seek the approval of men and don't try to change yourself just to impress people. Lord, I want to be a joyful Christian in your presence. I don't want to convince other people 14:15 that I'm a joyful Christian. I want to be joyful when nobody's not watching me. I don't want to be just impressing others that I'm a happy person. I want to be joyful in your presence all the time. So, let me mention this that 14:31 don't condemn yourself for your personality. You were born with that. And the Holy Spirit has come to take away the weaknesses of our personality and the areas of our personality that are un-Christlike, that dishonor God, 14:48 and helps us to change in those areas. I've seen that happen in my life little by little during the last 62 years that I've been a believer. It's been a slow process, but that's how the Christian life is. The Christian life is a journey towards 15:02 perfection. We're not perfect. But the Christian life is climbing a mountain of perfection. And even Jesus came to earth just like us, but and he was tempted like us, but he never sinned. It's not our personality that we should worry about. We should 15:21 worry about sin. So, a lot of discouragement comes due to other reasons where we are trying to be someone else. For example, people look at their, particularly women perhaps, look at their face in the mirror and say, "Well, I'm not as pretty 15:34 as I think I should be or as pretty as that other girl who's more popular." Well, you're looking for the wrong things. The Bible says, you know what the Bible says about charm and physical beauty? Very important to understand what the Bible says about it, 15:48 then you'll be at rest. Let me tell you, Proverbs is good for men and women to know that Proverbs 31 and verse 30. These are the two things that the world promotes in women to tempt men and to attract them. Movie stars and 16:07 others. Proverbs 31:30, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is empty." The two things that the world promotes in a woman to be charming and physical beauty. 16:26 This is what the Bible says. That charming thing in a woman is deceitful. It's to fool you. It fools you, and it fools many men. They are fooled by a charming woman who's when they if they get married to that person just because of that, 16:44 and unfortunately live get married to that person, they'll discover later on in life that that person can be very rude and selfish and very un-Christian. Charm is deceitful. That thing which looks so attractive in a very charming woman is a deception. 17:03 And physical beauty, the Bible calls it empty. Proverbs 31:30. Keep that in mind. So, you sisters, don't get discouraged if you're not as charming or as attractive as somebody else. These are the things that cause discouragement, 17:21 and they shouldn't. So I'm trying to deliver you from it. God is a God who gives us encouragement. The most attractive, good-looking women in the world are not born-again believers. Most of them are in the movie are movie stars and 17:40 they are models and all that. They're serving the devil. And those are the ones who are very attractive. God has not given physical beauty to all of his children, not even to men. So, we should not get discouraged because of 17:54 our appearance or because of our personality. If some are discouraged because they're not tall, they want to be tall. So many things which are physical. So, we have to see that God makes us all different. When he determines how tall 18:11 we should be, how what our features should be, and what our personality should be. Sometimes we can be discouraged because your family is not as good as somebody else's family. Maybe somebody's parents take more have provided more for them than your 18:24 parents. God has decided all these things. Once you believe that almighty God determined in which family I should be born into, and what sort of resources my family should have and provide for me, I find a comfort in God's will, 18:41 whatever it may be. And as you progress in that, you'll discover that God even allows and controls the way other people treat you. Yeah, I found that in my life. Romans 8:28, God makes everything work 18:58 together for good to those who love God. Can you be discouraged if you find everything's working for good in your life? That's a great verse. It's a one of the most well-known verses that many Christians know. Romans 8:28, God causes 19:12 all things to work together for good. Not for everybody. To those who love God. And do you know what is the thing that is the greatest enemy to the love of God? Very important to understand that. 19:29 The greatest thing that hinders us from loving God. It says sin. Yeah, sin also, but Jesus said in uh Luke 16 and verse 13. Luke 16:13. 19:47 That money is a great opposite to God. And he said, "If you love money, you will actually hate God." Did you know that? Read Luke 16:13. All those who love money hate God. I mean, that's the truth, whether you 20:07 like it or not. You may say you don't hate God. Well, I hope you don't, but if you love money, the Bible says you hate God, whether you know it or not. Maybe you're not one of those big haters of God going around denouncing him, 20:20 but there is a little bit of hatred of God in your life. And that can be caused the cause of that discouragement. Because you've got some other ambition in life other than the will of God. Let me tell you this honestly, my dear 20:32 brother and sister. If you have some other ambition in your earthly life other than to complete the plan God made for your life before you were born, you've got some other plan. Well, you will be discouraged. 20:51 One day or the other. Or perhaps all your life. But if you determine, "Lord, before I was born, according to Psalm 139:16, you had a plan for my life. You planned who I should marry, where I should live, how much I should earn, who 21:10 my parents should be, and a whole lot of things in my life over which I have no control. And the circumstances of my life, the people who will encourage me, the people who will try to discourage me, you determined all of that. 21:26 And I'm not going to love money. I'm not going to love this world. I need to earn money to live, so I will try to earn as much as I can. I want to tell you there's nothing wrong in earning as much as you can. If you find a better job with a better 21:42 salary and other factors are all okay, take it. There's no virtue in taking a job with a lower salary and saying I'm taking a lesser salary. That doesn't draw you closer to God. Your salary will not draw you closer or further away from God. No. 21:59 God has a plan for your life, and you if you decided, "That's what I want to do." I believe you'll be the happiest person on earth. We know that the happiest person that ever walked on this earth was the Lord Jesus Christ, despite all the problems 22:13 that people gave him and troubled him. But do you know what is the secret of Jesus' life? It's very important to understand this. The secret of Jesus' life is what he himself said. This is why he was the happiest man on 22:26 earth. I believe that Jesus was never discouraged even for 1 second at any time in his life. He was under pressure and all types of things, and he fought the battle against sin. He was tempted like us, but he did not sin. But he was 22:43 never never discouraged. And the Bible says we have to walk as Jesus walked. That's why I believe that God wants me never to be discouraged. That's what you've got to believe that in your heart first of all. God has called me to walk 22:58 as Jesus walked. That is a clear word. Let me show that to you in case you don't know where it is. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6. If you say you are in Christ and that Christ is in you, you ought to You ought to means this is 23:15 your responsibility to walk in the same way as he walked. Not to become like him. No, no, no, no. Become like him is written in 1 John 3 and verse 2. We will become like him only when he returns. 23:35 So, we will never become totally like Christ until he comes back. That is our total personality, our unconscious part, which is about 90% of us, and conscious part, which is only 10% of us. We will completely become like 23:50 Christ only when he comes. But until then, in the conscious part of our life, which is only 10% of our life, we must walk as he walked. So, that's the balance. I will never be like Christ until he comes again. So, I recognize there'll be areas in my 24:08 inner life in unconscious life where I'm not like Christ, which I discover gradually. But in the conscious part of my life, what the Bible tells me I'm to walk as he walked, he will definitely give me the power to walk as he walked. 24:26 Can you imagine a father sending his son to buy something and not giving him the money for that. I remember that with one of my sons when I was one of my sons was very small. I sent him to the market to buy a loaf of bread. It's close by. 24:43 He ran off immediately. What an obedient son. He was just about 9 or 10 years old. And very soon he came running back. I said, "What happened?" He said, "Dad, give me some money." He'd rushed off without taking the money 24:58 to buy the bread. What did I expect him to do? Did I expect him to go and work somewhere and earn that money and buy the bread? No. When I asked him to go and buy the bread, I expected him to say, "Dad, give me the money." 25:12 Sure. And when God Apply that to your life. When God asks you to do anything, he does not expect you to produce the resources to do that. He says He says, "Come and ask me for power to do that thing. Come and ask 25:31 me for the words to speak." That's what I've done for all these 60 years that I've been preaching. I say, "Lord, I don't know what to say to these people. I don't even know the need of these people. How can I ever meet that need when I don't even know 25:45 that? Even a doctor asks you what is your problem and then tries to help you. But for a preacher, it's even more difficult. He's talking a whole lot of people who have not told him their problem. Like a whole lot of you sitting in front 25:57 of me today. I don't know what your problems are, but God knows. And I say, "Lord, please give me the right word that will help every one of these hundreds of people who are listening." Who can do that? Only God. And I've seen through all these many 26:11 many years of my life that I've been preaching that God gives me the word. And I know that because people have come to me afterwards and said, "Brother Zach, that was the exact word that I needed at this time." Even in the articles that we send 26:23 around, we get so many responses. That's not due to our cleverness. No, it's got nothing to do with me. It's It's that God gives me something and I pass it on, and I can't take the credit for it. But what I say is that God knows the need of people, and 26:38 he knows your need. And if you ask him, he'll give you. I believe there are many things we don't receive because we don't ask. You do not have because you do not ask. You know that verse in James that says in James in chapter 4, the reason why you 26:55 don't have something is because you don't ask. You You You You do not have The last part of verse 2, James 4:2. You do not have something which God wants you to have because you don't ask for it. You don't helplessly come to God 27:15 and say, "Lord, I need this. You're the God of encouragement. I'm trying to encourage myself. I can't. I want you to encourage me every day because I'm a person who gets frequently discouraged. And you call yourself the God of 27:32 encouragement. I read that in Romans 15. Now, Lord, I don't want this word to be said about me that I don't have it because I didn't ask for it. I'm ask asking for it. I'm going to ask in faith. And it says Earlier on, James says, 27:51 "When you ask for something, if you ask in faith, you will get it." But James 1:6, "If you ask with doubt, oh, I'm not sure whether God will give it to me." Then it says, "That man will receive nothing from the Lord." You know there's a verse in the 28:07 Bible which says that that you'll get nothing from the Lord? Yeah, there's a verse like that. James 1:7. Let Don't expect to get anything from the Lord. To whom does the word of God say, "Don't expect to receive anything from the 28:23 Lord?" To the one who asks without any faith, verse 6. It's like you go to your earthly father and say, "Dad, I'm going to ask you for something, but I know you don't love me. I know you don't care for me. I know you won't give it to me." 28:42 Imagine going to God like that. "God, I want this desperately in my life. I want encouragement. I want to be encouraged every day, but I know you won't give it to me because you're a hard-hearted God." Well, I'll tell you, you won't get it. 29:00 You will be discouraged all your life because your concept of God is wrong. Jesus came on earth not only to forgive our sin. Please remember. Many people think Jesus came to earth only to forgive our sin. Of course, he came to die for our sins. 29:16 But you know, one of the main reasons he came to earth was to show us that God is a loving father. Many times in the gospels, Jesus kept on telling his disciples about what a loving father God was. And that's one of the most important 29:34 things we need to know. See John chapter 1. It says here, John chapter 1 and verse 18, "No one has seen God at any time." The world is full of people who have got wrong concepts of God because they have tried to imagine what God is like. 29:52 And I want to say this to you, many believers and perhaps some of you also, you have uh got a certain concept of God which may be totally wrong. Consider that possibility that you have a concept of God which may be wrong and that is why you're 30:10 discouraged. I had that, too. Very often I used to I was a slave to discouragement for years after being born again. And I'll tell you why. Because I always used to think that God's always looking at me and saying there's something wrong with me. 30:29 All the time I was living with something's wrong with me. I have to keep on judging myself. Judging yourself is a good thing. But if you keep on thinking there's always something wrong with me, there's always something wrong with me. There 30:41 are some believers like that. I don't know if it's their personality or the teaching they've heard in their particular church. Oh, there's always something wrong with you. So, keep on judging yourself. I judge myself, but I 30:52 don't live with the feeling that oh, there's always something wrong with me. God is upset with me. God is angry with me. He's always trying to show me something wrong with me. I I'll be discouraged every day. Consider the doctrine you have heard in 31:05 your particular church which is not balanced perhaps. Should we judge ourselves? Of course. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:17 we judge ourselves, but that must be balanced with a lot of other scriptures which is God is a loving father. 31:20 What would you think of an earthly father who every time he sees his son, he says, "Hey, son, this is wrong with you." The evening he says, "This is wrong with you." In the next morning he says, "This is wrong with you." What will happen to 31:31 that boy? He'll grow up as a gloomy boy and that's there's no father even a evil earthly fathers are not like that. And Jesus said, "You earthly fathers know how to give good things to your children if they ask for bread, you won't give a 31:45 stone." And let me say this also, you earthly fathers don't keep on discouraging your children. You think your heavenly father will do that? You earthly fathers don't keep on telling your children, "This is wrong with you. 31:55 This is wrong with you. This is wrong with you." Some fathers are like that, unfortunately. You're a very bad father if all that you can tell your children is this is wrong with you and that is wrong with you and the other thing is 32:05 wrong with you. You're the one who discourages your children. You're spreading discouragement around the world. That's not the way you should be. We are called to encourage one another. The world There are enough people in the 32:16 world who go around discouraging others. Let's be among those who bring a balance and encourage people because God is a God of encouragement. We want to challenge people to a higher life, but in that challenge to a more 32:29 godly life, there must be encouragement. God will help you. The Lord Jesus challenged his disciples to the highest possible standard. He said you must never get angry. I believe that. I believe I must never get angry without a reason. I must be angry if I 32:48 see people making money in the name of Christ. Like Jesus whipped the money changers out of the temple and I will be angry when I see people dishonor Christ in the church. But never angry if people hurt me or do something against me. Jesus was 33:02 not angry when people spat on him or called him the devil or any such thing. So, what a high standard that we shouldn't get angry except where it concerns the glory of God. That we should never lust after a woman even once. 33:18 That we must love all our enemies. We must bless every person who curses us and do good to those who are evil to us. What a high standard. But he didn't just leave us with that high standard. He didn't just say to the disciples like this, "You must live like 33:34 this. You must live like this. You must love others like I have loved you." They would have got discouraged. He at the end of it all he said, "I will now give you the power of the Holy Spirit. Wait on God to be filled with the Holy 33:46 Spirit and then you will have power to live according to this standard I prescribe for you." So, when you read the scriptures, don't just see the standard God has prescribed for you and you're a sincere Christian and you get discouraged because you're 34:03 not living up to that standard. There's another side to that coin. Like the coin has got two sides. The other side is yeah, one side is here's the standard God wants from us. The other side of the coin is God says, "I will give you the 34:14 power. Wait on God to be filled with the Holy Spirit." I'll give you my own testimony. The thing that delivered me from discouragement permanently and completely and even from anger was when God showed me and 34:33 what it was to be filled with the Holy Spirit and created in me a tremendous thirst. Like Jesus said, "If anyone thirst, John 7:37, let him come to me and drink." I came to Jesus. This is many years after I was born again. 34:52 For 16 years after I was born again, I was frequently discouraged, depressed, defeated, angry, even when I was married. I'd get angry at home. But I said, "Lord, this is not your will." 35:10 I was so defeated. I can say that I hit rock bottom. And God met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. I changed the direction of my life 46 years ago. I've not been perfect since then, but 35:30 the graph is going upward, upward, upward, upward, upward. That I can say. But as previously it was going down, down, down, down. And what happened? I realized I cannot live this life. Here's the high standard, but I did not 35:49 look at the other side of the coin that God had given me the power to live according to that standard. So, I just looked at the standard and got discouraged. If I had looked at the other side of the coin, the promise, "You shall receive power 36:04 when the Holy Spirit is comes and fills you." That's what happened to the apostles. They were living in a locked room, discouraged, afraid. And one day inside that locked room, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and suddenly they threw open the doors 36:21 and they went out into all the world challenged by the Holy Spirit and encouraged and became a blessing to others. That is God's will for every one of you. I want to say to you personally in Jesus' name 36:39 as a servant of God, if you have given your life to Christ even yesterday or today, God wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit. And I'm not speaking about speaking in tongues or a special gift. That is a gift. 36:59 I believe in speaking in tongues. God gives it to some people. He doesn't give it to everyone. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about power to be B E a witness for Christ. Not to bear witness for Christ. 37:15 That is to speak and be a bear with uh with our words, but to be Acts 1:8, "You shall be." That's referring to your whole personality. You will be a witness for me. And you're not going to be a witness for me for you're not going to be a witness for 37:31 Christ if you're going around with a gloomy face all the time or discouraged. It's like I I I heard a story of a gloomy-looking Christian trying to witness to somebody and say, "Why don't you accept Christ?" He said, "No, thank you. 37:46 I got enough problems already. I don't want to be gloomy like you." What sort of a testimony is that? Can you imagine such a person witnessing for Christ? There must be something radiant about our life. Something that says Christ has changed 37:59 my life. I'm not a rich man. I'm not perfect in my life, but God's given me assurance I am his child. So, dear brothers and sisters, this is where our freedom from discouragement comes. Our 38:19 knowing what God is like. So, I've often said that there are different ways in which we can hold on to the Christian life. Let me use an example. Here is a pen. Uh you can hold this pen with two fingers. 38:36 Or you can hold it with your full fist. You hold it with two fingers, somebody can snatch it out of your hand easily. But when you hold it with your full fist, it's very difficult for anybody to take it out. So, I think of people trying to hold on 38:50 to the Christian life in a with two fingers and the devil snatches it away, but how do we hold on to the Christian life? How do you get a solid grip on the Christian life? Let me just tell you what I discovered. First of all, 39:08 the palm. That's where you got to hold it and that palm refers to knowing God as our father. Not just as almighty God. My personal father, a loving father 39:28 who loved me so much that he sent his only son at a time when I hated him. When I lived for myself. When I lived for in sin. He loved me not when I was his friend. He loved me when I was his enemy. And even throughout my life, though I 39:47 have disobeyed and rebelled against him, he continues to love me. This is my father. Can you imagine having an earthly father like this who never gives up on you, no matter what you do? This is the God I worship. This is my 40:01 father who never gives up on me, who will never give up on you, my brother or sister. Be assured in that. If you don't have that, you will not be able to get a grip on the Christian life. God is my father. This is the main 40:14 thing. As I told you in John 1:17, John 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time, but Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, has explained him." John 1:18. Why did Jesus come to Earth? As I said, 40:33 not just to die for our sins, but to explain what the Father is like. You know, if you If you don't know that Jesus died for your sins on the cross, you will never be assured of forgiveness of sins. You'll always live with guilt 40:47 guilt guilt guilt. But when you realize that he died for your sins and his blood can cleanse you from all sin, that guilt is gone. In the same way, you need to recognize that Jesus came to reveal God as a father, a loving father 41:01 who loves you more than and not more than your earthly father alone, but more than any earthly father, the best father in the world. It's a fantastic truth. He came to explain the Father. Will you allow Jesus through the Holy 41:20 Spirit to explain God as a loving father to you? You just got to read the Bible. And let me mention this also. If you don't have the habit of reading the Bible, you've got to blame yourself for being discouraged frequently. 41:38 Sure. The most encouraging book in the whole world is the word of God, the Bible. And Jesus said, "If you being earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your heavenly father will give good things to those who ask 41:54 him." For myself, you know, people have asked me, "What is the most the most blessed verse in the whole scripture that you have found?" There are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. But I'll tell you the verse that really 42:14 blessed me. If you ask me for the number one verse in the Bible, it's not John 3:16, which is well known. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." I 42:26 thank God for that. But the thing that brought rest into my life. Yeah, that I'm thankful that the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. There are many wonderful verses. But when I read John 17:23, John 17:23 is not such a well-known 42:43 verse, but that is the verse that changed my life. John 17:23 says, Jesus prayed an amazing thing in the latter part of that verse. "I 43:02 want the world to know that you sent me." Okay, understood. And that you love these disciples of mine as much as you love me. Okay. That you love these disciples of mine, that I can understand. 43:21 That God loves me. Yeah, I understand that. But the second part of it, as much as he loved Jesus? Let me tell you this. I've said this for more than 45 years. This is the truth that changed my life. Now, you can hear it from me 43:39 and you'll forget it. But when God gives you a revelation that I love you like I love my son Jesus, it will change your life. It did change mine. Not something I did, 43:56 that he loved me as much as he loved Jesus Christ. Why did God love his son when he was on Earth? Because his son had one desire. That was to please the Father. 44:16 The secret of Jesus' life is described in John 6, verse 38. John 6, verse 38. "I came from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me." That's why the Father loved him. He said that later on in John, "My 44:36 Father loves me because I keep his commandments." And he said that to us also. "If you keep the commandments, my Father will love you and will come to you and be with you." John 14:21. 44:52 John 14:21. "He who has my commandments and keeps the keeps it is the one who loves me." John 14:21. "He who has my commandments" That's because he reads the Bible "and keeps them through the power of the Holy Spirit, not in his own strength. 45:11 He's the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father." Aha. God has a special love for those who desire and whose passion is to obey everything Jesus has 45:31 commanded. I study the scriptures not to produce sermons. I hope you don't read the Bible to produce sermons. I study the scriptures to find out what has Jesus commanded me to do. And secondly, what are the promises he has given me. 45:49 That's why I study the scriptures. What has he called me to do? What are the promises he gives me in scripture to be able to keep those promises, keep those commandments. And when I do that, just the Father will love me just like 46:06 he loved Jesus. That's amazing truth. And the way it came to me was this, you know, the Bible says that Jesus is our elder brother. That's another truth that many of may not know. If you don't know it, look at Romans 8:29. 46:22 God wants us to be like Christ. Romans 8:29. Because he wants Jesus to be the eldest brother of many brothers in heaven. God wants many children, sons and daughters, 46:41 and Jesus to be the eldest brother. So, Jesus is not only to be our Lord, but according to Romans 8:29, my eldest brother. And that opens my eyes to understand something. I have four sons. 47:01 And everything I did for my eldest son, I did for the others. I have no partiality, zero partiality. I tried to be completely free from partiality in the way I dealt with my sons. Some fathers and mothers are partial towards some of their children. I want 47:18 to say to you, if you are like that, you are evil. I'll say that again. You are an evil father or mother if you are partial towards any one of your children. God is not partial. Partiality is a sin. So, I understood that and I said, "I 47:36 will never be partial to any of my children. What I do for one, I'll do for the other. If I correct one, I'll correct the other. They're all the same. And God is a million million million million times better father than me. 47:50 So, there can be no partiality with him, zero. The Bible says that in Romans 2. There's no partiality with God. And if Jesus is the elder brother and there's no partiality with God, then everything God did for the elder 48:04 brother, he'll do for me, the younger one. Just like me. If you being evil know how to show no partiality to your children, how much more your heavenly father will show no partiality to his children, of whom Jesus is the eldest? 48:21 That brought such a comfort to me, John 17:23. He loves me as he loved Jesus. He'll care for me as he cared for Jesus. Can you imagine the comfort that will come to your life? Supposing God were to physically appear to you. 48:38 Think of that. If God were to physically appear to you and say, "I'm going to care for you just like I cared for Jesus when he was on Earth." Yes. "I allowed many people to insult and even kill my son. I may allow many 48:57 difficulties to come into your life, too, but I'll care for you. Nothing will happen to you outside of my will. I want you to commit yourself to me." Jesus never starved. He never had to go and beg anybody for money. He never had to borrow one cent 49:13 from anyone. "And I will make your life such that you will never have to borrow. You'll never have to be dependent on man. You will never be afraid of any man. You'll be like my son Jesus." Imagine if God appeared to you like that and said 49:27 that to you. Can you imagine that you'd never be discouraged again in your life? But he has said it in scripture. When I read the Bible, it is like God standing in front of me and telling me I love you as I love my son. 49:41 If you will obey me as my son obeyed me. If you have a longing to obey me, you're not perfect like Jesus was perfect, but that doesn't matter. If you have a longing to walk like him and to obey him, obey me, the Lord says, I will be with you like I was 49:56 with Jesus. I'll tell you honestly, I'm not exaggerating. When I understood this, and God filled me with his Holy Spirit and continues to fill me with the Holy Spirit, it delivered me from anger. I could live 365 days in my home 50:18 every day of the year without ever getting angry. And 366 days in a leap year. Completely free and delivered me from discouragement. I'm not saying I'm not tempted to be discouraged. I'm tempted, but I resist it. 50:37 Temptation will be there till the end of our life. I'm not saying you will not be tempted to be discouraged. Of course you will be. You'll be tempted to lust, you'll be tempted to tell lies, you'll be tempted to cheat. You'll be tempted to love money, you'll 50:48 be tempted to do so many wrong things, to get angry. But temptation is not the same as sinning. You can resist it. You can overcome it. God will give you the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus emphasized faith so much. 51:08 He said, when you have faith, you can even tell this mountain in front of you. There is a mountain of discouragement in front of you preventing you from moving forward in your Christian life. It is like that for many people. 51:20 A mountain. Jesus said, you can speak to that mountain to go away in the name of Jesus. I'm not going to be discouraged. I'm going to praise God. And I'm not talking about some type of psychological trick. There are psychologists who say, change 51:37 your way of thinking. I'm not talking about changing my way of thinking. I'm talking about a loving father. So, I told you about this fist. Number one, knowing God as Father. Number two, the thumb. Knowing that the blood of Jesus Christ 51:56 has cleansed you from all sin. 1 John 1:7 and 9. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us from all our sins. Not only that, Romans 5:9 says, but justified by the blood of Christ. 52:15 Justified by the blood of Christ means as if you had never committed a single sin in your whole life. I used to be discouraged because, oh Lord, I've failed again. I've failed again. I've failed again. But when I realized that the blood of 52:30 Christ justifies me, and he says in Hebrews 8:12, I will not remember your sins anymore. I said, Lord, then I'm not going to worry about that. You said you won't remember my sins anymore. It's done. I'm declared righteous by the blood of 52:46 Christ. That's what the blood of Christ does for me. Cleanses me, declares me righteous. Then, the next five fingers. So, the palm is knowing God as Father. The thumb is being cleansed and justified by the blood of Christ, and 53:03 then the word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. And he's given us in the scriptures. If you have got the scriptures in your own language, let me say this. I've said this to many 53:21 people. If you have the Bible in your own language and you can read, and you don't read it, you deserve to be deceived. You deserve to be discouraged. It's like food is put in front of you 53:41 and you don't eat it, and you say, I'm hungry. What's that? Food is put in front of you, you don't eat it, and you say you're hungry. God has given you his word in your own language. He's given you education where you learned to read, 53:58 and you don't read it regularly. You deserve to be discouraged and you deserve to be deceived by all the deceivers in the world. You deserve it. You're lazy. Start reading God's word. 54:16 Make it a habit every day. Say to yourself, no Bible today, no food today. Make that a rule in your life. I didn't read my Bible today, I should not eat my food today. You really believe your spirit is more important than your body? 54:34 I'm going to tell you how to be completely free from discouragement every day of your life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And there are hundreds of thousands of 54:52 words in this book meant to deliver me from discouragement. If you don't read it, it's like a doctor says, you got a sickness. You have to take this tablet regularly every day. You'll be free. You come back to the doctor and say after 6 55:08 months and say, oh doctor, I'm still having this problem. And the doctor says, did you take this tablet I asked you to take every day? No, doctor, I forgot about it. Once in a month I would take it. Well, the doctor says, no wonder the 55:21 sickness is still there. No wonder you're still discouraged. Man shall live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. You've got the Bible there in front of you in your house, and you don't read it. Well, no wonder 55:39 you're discouraged. So, that's the second thing, the word of God. And third is the Holy Spirit's power. It's not psychology. It's not a change of mind. It's not 55:58 trying to imagine something or trying to, okay, I'm going to live by that. You got to recognize you don't have the power to overcome discouragement. You don't have the power to overcome sin. You don't have the boldness to be a witness 56:14 for Jesus. I said that. I remember when I started trying to be a witness for Christ, I said, Lord, I'm so I'm ashamed to stand in the streets and preach the gospel. And sometimes ashamed to give a tract to somebody that telling him about Christ. You were 56:31 not ashamed to hang on the cross for me, but I'm sorry, I'm ashamed. I don't want to be ashamed. But I don't have the power. I don't have the boldness to witness to others about you. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. And I prayed and I prayed and I 56:44 prayed. God filled me with his Holy Spirit. And I had the boldness to be a witness for Christ. And all these 60 years that I've been preaching, yeah, I've been preaching nearly 60 years now. God has given me the power. Even today 57:01 when I come to preach, I say, Lord, I don't know what to say. I don't know the needs of all these people sitting in front of me. You know what their need is. And it's not like one patient coming to a doctor. You're a hundreds of people 57:16 coming to listen, and I have to help all of them at the same time. Who is sufficient for these things? Not man, not me. But I said, Lord, with your Holy Spirit, there is no need that I cannot meet in my own life or in other people's. If you 57:32 call me to serve people, you will definitely give me the power. You will not send me to bread to the market to buy bread and not give me the money. I won't do that as a father. I told you, my son came running back, and I said, son, 57:45 when I asked you to go and buy the bread, you I expected you ask me for the money. I didn't expect you to go and earn that money yourself. I learned something I've never forgotten. And when God asked me to do something, 57:57 he doesn't expect me to go and produce that power to do that. Don't be anxious, God says. And he expects me to produce that power to overcome anxiety? No. He expects me to come to him and say, Dad, that's what I call God. Dad. 58:14 In the uh Hebrew, Abba. In the whatever your language is, Abba. You asked me to do this, give me the power. You asked me to rejoice always. Philippians 4:6. Uh Philippians 4:4. Give me the power. 58:34 You asked me never to be anxious. Philippians 4:6. Give me the power. You read anything in scripture. God has commanded you to do it. Love your enemy. Father, I can't do it. Give me the power. You know, that's what scripture is for. 58:52 To challenge you so that you will go to God. That's the third thing. The one, two, three, fourth thing. Power of the Holy Spirit. Seek for it. And then, number five, the fourth finger. The way of the cross. Jesus said, if you 59:11 want to follow me, you got to take up the cross every day. Luke 9:23. And follow me. I'll tell you this. One of the ways to overcome discouragement is by saying, I'm going to die to myself every day. Deny yourself and say, Lord, you walked 59:31 the way of the cross every day. I want to die to myself every day. I want to die to my rights. If people insult me, I want to be I react like a dead man. When people praise me, I want to react like a dead man. No reaction. 59:49 When people insult me, I want to be a dead man. No reaction. When the world attracts me with something that I I'm covetous about, dead man. I refuse to be attracted by that. If you don't choose that way, you will get discouraged. 1:00:08 Definitely. The way of the cross, death to self every day. And finally, number six, fellowship with the body of Christ. God has not called us to live alone. He wants us to have fellowship with 1:00:26 others. The Bible says, "Encourage one another in Hebrews 3:13. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." I need encouragement from others, and I need to encourage others. 1:00:44 And when I can't find For example, many of you are married. Who is the person you see every day? Husbands. Your wife. Let me ask you a straight question. Some of you have been believers for so many So many years you've been believers. 1:01:05 Let me ask you a question. Do you encourage your wife? Encourage one another daily. Who is the one you see daily? Do you encourage her daily? We don't take such things seriously, unfortunately. 1:01:25 We need fellowship. Encourage one another daily. And seek for fellowship with other wherever you can. It's I mean, fellowship over the phone is also good enough if you can't have physical fellowship in these days when we're not allowed to 1:01:41 meet one another so much as in non-pandemic days, we can still fellowship with one another on a phone. Yeah. So, we must seek for fellowship. Don't think that I can live this Christian life all by myself. I thank God that I have fellowship with others, and 1:01:57 I always seek fellowship with with them. Especially people who are different from me. They balance me. I'm not a perfectly balanced person. I find my balance in the body of Christ. Even in the ministry in our churches, my 1:02:14 ministry alone is not good enough for our churches. I need the balance of others. So, here are the six things I mentioned. Knowing God as a father, and secondly, being cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ, declared righteous in the blood of Christ. 1:02:32 And then thirdly, hearing God speak to me through his word every day. Even if I don't have a Bible, when I get up in the morning, lying in my bed, that's the best place. It's like Jesus went into the wilderness. To lie down in the bed even for a few 1:02:49 minutes before you get out of bed, saying, "Lord, I want to speak to you. I want to hear you before I get out of bed today. When every the whole world is asleep around me, I want to hear you before I get out of bed. It'll make all the difference in my 1:03:06 life." And then, number four, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day. Not just once. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day. And number five, Lord, as you died to yourself every day and took up the cross, 1:03:26 I want to die to myself every day of my life. Take up the cross and follow you. I want to walk the way of the cross. And then, number six, I want to find fellowship with others in the body of Christ. Please help me, Lord, to find fellowship 1:03:45 with others in the body of Christ. So, if you follow these things, I believe that God will help help you to live a life of of overcoming discouragement. Let me read one verse to you finally. In Romans 8 and verse 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation 1:04:08 for those who are in Christ Jesus." That is a word that God says to you. God does not condemn you. Don't condemn yourself. There is no condemnation. Even though we slip up, 1:04:26 get up. What do you do if you See, uh we went through a stage in our life where we could not walk. When we were babies, we had to crawl. Then a time came in our life, maybe when you were 1 year old or a little later, when you could walk steady on your own 1:04:40 feet. In our Christian life also, it's something like that. In the beginning, we go through a period where we don't know how to walk properly. We fall and get up, and fall and get up. And then one day we learn to walk. That's a great day. 1:04:56 How excited a parent is when the child has learned to walk. God is also excited when you have learned to walk and overcoming life. But even though all of us have learned to walk, none of us can say, "I will never slip and fall now." 1:05:13 No, you may slip on a banana skin tomorrow and fall down. But what do you do when you fall down? You don't lie down there discouraged. No. You get up and continue walking. That is our example. Okay? You've learned to walk. 1:05:30 You've become an overcomer. But even the overcomer slips up sometimes and falls. But he gets up. He's not falling regularly like when he was a child. You're not falling every day 20 times like a child falls. No. When was the 1:05:45 last time you fell down somewhere when walking? You can't even think. It's rare. And that's what will happen in your Christian life. The your falling will become rare. But you can't say I'll never fall. I can't say that even today. 1:05:58 Physically or spiritually. But I know it's becoming less and less and less. I become more steady on my feet spiritually. And so will it be with you. God's will is that we progress in our Christian life. But we will still slip up. 1:06:15 But there is no condemnation. Zero. So, I hope those words encourage you. Let me just say this also, that some people condemn themselves because they look for a ministry. Don't worry about ministry. 1:06:35 Some people covet a ministry. They want to be a preacher. They want to get honor. Well, then you deserve to be discouraged. Because you're you're not seeking to please God. You're seeking for honor in the Christian church, to be known as 1:06:50 a well-known preacher or as an elder or some rubbish like that. Let your aim in life be to please God, not to become a well-known preacher. Or to get honor from other Christians. If we seek honor or we seek after money, 1:07:05 then I say to you, you deserve to be discouraged, and you'll be discouraged all your life. And you deserve it. Stop running after money, and stop seeking honor from people, and say, "Father in heaven, I want to please you. 1:07:17 That's all." Fill me with the Holy Spirit. I tell you, your life will change from today. God bless you. Let's bow our heads in prayer. While our heads are bowed prayer, I want to ask you 1:07:35 to please think of one thing, not 25 things, one thing that God spoke to you today. Even if you're a very spiritual person, maybe there's some one thing God spoke to you also. Think of that one thing and say, "Lord, I want to be an overcomer in that area. 1:07:53 I don't want to be a defeated Christian. I want to be a better Christian tomorrow than I am today. Yes, I want to be a better Christian tomorrow than I was yesterday. Than I was all my life. Determine before God. Say, "Lord, 1:08:08 I want my life to progress. I want to overcome discouragement and condemnation completely in my life. Help me, Lord." I believe God will help you. Heavenly Father, I think of all these dear brothers and sisters who've taken all this trouble 1:08:27 to listen to me. I pray that something they have heard will be a word from you to their own heart. Lord Jesus, heavenly Father, there are many of these dear brothers are hungry and seeking. Some are really sincere. Many are really 1:08:45 sincere. Some are discouraged. Please lift them up, Lord. Fill them with your Holy Spirit. Give them a hunger and a thirst for you. And help them to walk in lowliness of mind and humility, believing that you will do mighty things 1:09:00 for them. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
