Gateway Church's Podcast
The Battle For Our Courage
Turn in your Bible to Psalms 42 and we're going to speak this morning the battle for our courage There is a battle going on we're in the series called the battle and one of the greatest battles that the enemy fights against every believer is the battle for our believers courage and We're going to read in Psalms 42 in just a moment about this battle that King David fought regularly If you read the Psalms you read you know more than one at a time It seems that every other psalm David was either really excited or really depressed It's like every other one good day bad day good day bad day good day bad day And so he wrote a psalm every day it seems like and then you can kind of follow the pattern of this life You ever do that when you read the Psalms? It makes me feel better because that's sometimes that's how I feel good day bad day good day bad day Well in Psalms 42 David's not having a very good day and he was battling discouragement battling heaviness battling a tormenting attack that was happening in his life and so let's bring Psalms 42 verse 9 and This is out of the message version of the Bible and it's not a literal translation But it captures the thought of what David was trying to communicate, okay? Psalms 42 verse 9 says sometimes I ask God my rock solid God Why did you let me down? Now let's pause here for a moment. How many of you have asked God that question in the past? Why Lord? Why God? Where are you? Why have you let me down? You ever ask that question? We have some honest people Let's try that one more time. Have you ever honestly have ever asked God that question in some form? Well, I have certainly have it and God's not offended by that question He wasn't offended when David asked the question, so let's keep reading why am I walking around in tears harassed by enemies? They're out for the kill these tormentors with their obscenities Paunting day after day in other words. They were marketing they were scoffing and here's what these enemies these demonic entities that were saying to him Where is this God of yours? Let me ask another question. How many of you have ever heard the voice of the enemy in your life ask that question Where's God now? Where's the blessed life now? You go to gateway. I see it gateway. I see you reading your Bible and praying and telling people your believer. Well, where's God now? Have you ever heard the enemy say that to you? I hear it a lot. I hear that all the time. Where's God now, Brady? When you pray for someone they don't get well. Where's God now? You pray for something it doesn't happen the way you think it should happen. Well, let's keep reading verse 11 Why are you down in the dumps to your soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God soon. I'll be praising again Now, whatever it says in your Bible you need to underline that phrase because key to the message today soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God Now what David is saying in this passage is I know that I'm discouraged I know that I'm battling something that is the origin of which is demonic David is very clear here that he knows that he's under some type of demonic attack and it is causing him to be very heavy Very discouraged ready to give up, but here's what David says in verse 11 and I want you to really catch this this morning This is a declaration that David's making. I cannot stay here. I cannot remain here. I know this is not a good place I cannot stay where I am Soon, I'll be praising again Soon, I'll be praising again Now, I know a lot of you from a lot of you that in this 21 day time that you've just you've experienced great attack Like an increased attack in some parts of your life like pastor Robert this weekend had an increased attack in his body over the weekend Well, I went through one of the greatest personal battles that I've ever went through, but it was back in November I just I for the first time in my life I felt that I was close to being depressed and I don't know why it happened I went through such a great period about a three or four week period where I was very discouraged I had a why-bought or attitude. I didn't care about some things that I've always cared about and I've never done that My personality doesn't allow for depression very often. I don't ever get depressed. I just don't go there I've never had to battle it never had been concerned about it couldn't empathize with people who were depressed I didn't understand it until now and Only a few people knew that because I didn't make that a public but I'm telling you I've went through a great period of discouragement and and my marriage was great finances were great. My kids are great The church is great and all those things that should have made my life fine weren't enough I was discouraged and I was battling it and I had to ask the Lord Lord. I needed some help This is not a good place. I mean I was like David. I know this is not a good spot and I can't stay here I can't live here you ever had that feeling. You know you can't live there. You don't want to live there Let me give you a really simple definition a simple very clear definition of discouragement Okay, something that you can always remember Discouragement is simply the absence of courage Discouragement is simply the absence of courage Let me tell you why discourage the actual word means discourage means to take courage out of you That's why the word encourage means to put courage inside of you Have you ever been around someone that was an encourager someone that was upbeat and encouraging when you're around them You walk away feeling I can do I can do this it's some I think I'm capable of doing this now Because when they're around you they're putting courage inside of you and the same way you've been around someone who's discouraging You can be having the best day of your life and you're hanging around discourage people you walk away going I can't do anything. I feel like I've lost all my courage to even live anymore sometimes I mean some people have that effect on you. That's why it's important to hang around encouraging people Because they put courage inside of you. That's why the Bible says all the time encourage each other daily put courage inside of people daily So discouragement is simply the absence of courage, but what causes discouragement? What are the call what what causes this I asked the Lord these questions. What's causing this what where did this come from? It came out of the blue to me. Here's the first thing that causes discouragement is fatigue Just being tired You know sometimes the best remedy for discouragement is simply to get out of town for a few days I mean it's amazing. This is true You can go to our gal or weatherford. You just get a change of scenery and you come back into town You feel different because you just got out of town for a day or two Now I'm not working for the tourism board of our gal or weatherford But if that's all you can do then get out of town then get out of town Or maybe it's just a long nap like this afternoon. Listen if there was ever a day That you could chill out and nap today is it if you can't take a nap today, you will never take a nap in your life And I don't want you to begin napping now, okay? So fatigue is a huge cause of discouragement if your life is a constant chaos and you're not taking time to rest You are a candidate and a target for the enemy to discourage you Your body cannot keep up the pace that you're on probably you need to rest or you will become discouraged The second cause is frustration Fatigue and then frustration frustration is when you have a series of expectations or some expectation that's not met You thought something was going to happen a certain way but over a period of time you could continue to have Unmet expectations and when those things begin to build in you, maybe people aren't meeting your expectations Maybe your marriage is not meeting your expectations Maybe your job is not meeting your expectation And so this frustration begins to build and it causes you to become very discouraged Another cause is failure Fatigue frustration and failure you know that in the American culture, it's not okay to fail and it should be Failure is a part of the journey and We think that that we have to have success building upon success and success And if you ever fail that there's some type of flaw in you that is a character flaw And we've associated failure as something negative when throughout scripture and throughout history the history of mankind Failures you actually learn more many times through failure than you do through success anyway failure is a part of the journey But because we put such an emphasis on success and we don't allow for any failures when you do fail You can become very discouraged instead of learning from it the way God intended So failures can cause you to be very discouraged a failed business a failed marriage a failed relationship of any kind can cause you to be discouraged And here's the last thing that the last cause that I think of discouragement is fear Elijah is an example of this Elijah who had just called down fire from heaven destroyed the all the sacrifices and the Kill the prophets of Bell Got an email from a Jezebel Said listen this time tomorrow. I'm gonna have your life now in my mind Jezebel was about four eleven and ninety five pounds She could have been a large woman. She was just strong and and she was just threatening Why in the world this is a mystery? I'm gonna ask Elijah when I see him Why were you so afraid I can tell you why I'm because there was a demonic presence attached to that woman that caused Elijah to fear Something that he should have not feared and the Bible says that he ran for 40 days talk about getting out of town He traveled 40 days ended up in a cave discouraged depressed and saying to God God. I'm the only one that's not bowed my knee Talking about discouraged feeling like he was alone and out there. Listen if you're afraid of something you cannot have courage That's the opposite of courage is fear Whatever you're afraid of is causing you the capacity to have courage if you're harboring fear That's the place that courage can't dwell in your life courage and fear will not coexist You're either you either have courage or you're afraid That really is that simple? So here's some facts about discouragement. I want you to really understand this because I want you to catch it I want you to deal with it in your life number one. It is common Discouragement is common every believer every person. I don't care how mature you are in the Lord How many hours a day you spend praying and worshiping and and doing all those things how many times you come to church? Whether you're a new believer an unbeliever aren't a believer that's been around for a long time You are a candidate for discouragement It's very common Every believer goes through times in their life of discouragement and chances are every person in this room at some point Will battle this season of discouragement in fact some people believe that even animals can be discouraged? I don't know if I believe that or not, but have you ever looked into the eyes of a chihuahua? Very discouraged animal I'm telling you big eyes small body very discouraged. They have a lot of reasons to be very discouraged heavy a lot of despair there Number two is chronic Just because you've been discouraged before and gotten over it. You don't build up an antibody You don't build up a resistance to it in the future. They can come back The fact that you've been discouraged once you dealt with it. You got victory over it chances are you will steal battles Seasons of discouragement as a believer in fact you can be discouraged because you're always discouraged You know, I'm discouraged because I'm always discouraged It's chronic and the last thing is that it's contagious very very Contagious that's why the devil doesn't need to discourage everyone We tell you who the devil really wants to discourage the devil really wants to discourage people who have influence Leaders husbands wives bosses business owners small group leaders You have any kind of influence over other people you are a target for discouragement because it's contagious It's that's why by the way, encouragement's contagious too It's very contagious if you're an encourager you probably have a lot of friends if you're a discourager You probably say, you know, I don't know why I don't have any friends No one ever invites me to do anything chances are you're a discourager Listen, you want your phone to ring off the hook if you want social engagements from now to the end of the world being encourager You'll never lack for friends because it's contagious So I know some of you walking so you know, I've had the best two weeks of my life But thanks pastor Brady and 10 minutes. You've already discouraged me I think I've done a good job. Just draining the life out of you already in 10 minutes Let me read this note one more time dad. I love you. Thank you So how do we win the battle over discouragement how we win this battle that's I'm telling you this is a question I was asking in November. I'm asking the Lord Lord. I gotta win this. I can't I've never battled it before I've never even been around it before I was in new territory back in November So turn with me to Psalm 34 and I'm gonna show you how the Lord led me through a very simple Exercise that helped me break through from this very very deep season of discouragement the Psalms 34 by the way is the very best place It's the best Psalm. You need to read Psalms 34 at least once a week I think every Christian needs to read Psalms 34 at least once a week. It's that good. It's a great Psalm It's my favorite. Can you are you getting a drift that I like Psalms 34? Okay, Psalms 34 verse one now I want you to see if anything jumps off the page as I read this I want to give you a clue the answers are found in verse one and verse four we're gonna read verses one through eight, okay Now I want you to see if anything at all kind of jumps off the page at you as the answer for discouragement, all right Don't read ahead. We're gonna do this together. So group exercise this morning, all right verse one I'll pay pay close attention to see if anything just jumps off the page, right verse one I will praise the Lord at all times. I Will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord Let all who are discouraged take heart come. Let us tell of the Lord's greatness Let us exalt his name together Okay, that anything jump off the page is a way to get free from depression there or discouragement Okay, verse four now. Here's the other answer is coming right now verse four I prayed to the Lord and he answered me bringing me from all my fears Remember a minute ago. I said one of the causes for discouragement is fear and he says listen when I prayed the fear left Verse five those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy no shadow of shame will darken their faces I cried out to the Lord in my suffering and he heard me He sent me free from all my fears for the angel of the Lord guards all who fear him and he rescues them Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh the joys of those who trust in him Now listen, there's two things that you should have seen in those script that passages eight eight verses. There's two keys If you want to be break free from discouragement if you don't want heaviness to rule your life There are two things you must do Praise him and pray Now, I know you didn't drive through the eyes to hear of that revelation. I know you know this I know you know to worship and I know you know to pray Here's what I find though people who are discouraged and heavy They forget to do those two things And let me tell you what happens praise shifts your focus from you to him and Prayer shifts the burden from you to him And really listen to this. Okay. This is a revelation to me in November and when you're going through a deep time a dark time Sometimes you forget to do basic things and someone needs to tell you about the basic things that you already knew to do There's not a secret formula There's no secret formula in the Bible for specific illnesses and by the way, this is the remedy for most problems But praise shifts the focus from me to him and prayer shifts the burden and God wants my focus and my burden He wants both of them Now when I ask people what are the benefits of prayer? What's what what is the benefit or what are the benefits of praying most people can only tell me one thing and If I ask you all the question today water that what are plural what are the benefits of prayer? Most people can only come up with one benefit and that is I the answer When I pray God answers my prayer. That's the benefit of praying is that God hears me and answers my prayers Most believers can only tell me that one thing But there's a lot more benefits for praying than just getting the answer And let me just walk you through the process that when you're praying number one when you begin to pray You stop worrying Now, let's read this in Philippians chapter 4 verse 6. Okay Philippians 4 verse 6 Don't worry about anything Instead pray about Everything all right now is there a comma with the word accept next to it. Don't worry about anything comma accept Here's some things you should worry about did he say that there are some things you should worry about? nothing Don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done Do you see prayer and praise in this scripture? If you do this you will experience God's peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand His peace will guard your hearts in mind as you live in Christ Jesus So the first thing that happens when you pray is you stop worrying By the way, there's no such person as a courageous warrior You can be a courageous warrior, but you cannot be a courageous warrior You know some people believe that if I just worry enough it'll wear God down and he'll answer my prayers Because he feels so bad for me. I'm worrying so much if I'll just keep worrying God in his compassion will answer my prayers doesn't God see how much I'm worrying Doesn't he even care? Listen not one time not one time in the past and not one time today and not one time in the future Will God ever answer a prayer of worry? You should stop praying if all you're going to do is pray the prayer of worry Now you've never heard a pastor tell you to stop praying, but I'm telling you you're wasting your time God does not answer prayers of worry he answers prayers of faith What it says in James if any of you are sick among you call for the elders of the church and they will anoint you with all and the prayer of faith if You're not going to pray the prayer of faith God will not answer you That's why this is how you know if you're praying effectively. I was worrying about something I prayed to the Lord and when I finished I stopped worrying about it If you're still worrying about something that you're praying about you need to keep praying Until the worry stops That's how you know that you're praying the prayer of faith You pray until the worry leaves. This is a great benefit to believers. You need to know this This is a tremendous benefit if you're going to pray Pray until the worry stops That's the in that a great benefit. I mean I hate worrying. I don't like to worry I don't like waking up in the middle of the night grinding my teeth thinking about something and By the way when I do wake up in the middle of the night worrying about something my first reaction is Lord I need sleep and I'm leaving this with you. You're better at it than I am. I am not going to worry about this I need my rest. I'm not going to be robbed of my rest I'm going to pray the prayer of faith and I'm going to go back to sleep My worry about what Jesus said your worry will not add a single measure to your life It doesn't add one thing to your life. It drains the life out of you to worry Here's the second benefit of prayer. So if you pray now and the worrying stop guess what replaces the worry? faith in courage Courage comes back joy and peace. That's why I said in Philippians 4 Then the peace of God will rule your heart and mind instead of the worry of the enemy The peace of God starts ruling your heart and mind guess what do you ever have trouble sleeping at night when peace is guarding your heart? How many of you have ever lost sleep at night because you were so filled with peace you could not sleep How many of you ever got sick in your body because I'm so full of peace I'm literally nauseous from them the amount of peace that I have in my life Peace is killing me No, I'm telling you I'm telling you I live in a life of peace. It'll add years to your life He'll add joy to your life and the reason you don't have it is because you're praying prayers of worry and you're content with that You're not going to wear God down with your worry. You're going to get an answer from God when you pray the prayer of faith And here's the last thing that happens the answer comes and By the way When peace replaces worry, it's amazing how the things that we ask for begin to change What I thought I'd need it from God when I was worrying changes when the peace of God guards my heart Peace then comes and I realize you know what? I don't think I really needed what I thought I needed in fact You will become content and whatever circumstance you're in if you've got peace You will care less about the circumstance all of a sudden It really doesn't even matter to you even more if the answer ever comes because living with peace I can take on anything if peace is rule of my heart. It doesn't matter anymore and that's when God moves When it doesn't matter as much He wants you. He wants your heart. He wants your life Circumstances can change and go they'll come and go good times and bad times come and go in life He just wants all of your heart all the time So the worry and stop the courage returns and then the answer comes and we see this pattern throughout scripture Moses Nehemiah Joseph Abraham God gave them a promise Discouragement came I mean Nehemiah is a great example. You want to read a great story about someone who got a promise from God and Then was greatly discouraged but overcame it and did what God called him to do Nehemiah is a great story Go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem go rebuild all the walls And when he got there, no one would do it. No one got excited a few people got excited a lot of people tried to kill him and discourage him Toneting mocked him for even even thinking of rebuilding the walls too big a job for too small group of people you can't do this and Nehemiah in fact one time He was so the battle was so intense that he told the people that were rebuilding the walls keep a sword in one hand and Rebuild the wall with the other because it would be attacked at any moment Fairly intense construction project wouldn't you agree? And That's what was happening, but God gave him a promise. He overcame the discouragement He chose to worship and pray and then the answer came Listen, this is the pattern for your life Let me tell you what your life is going to be like for the next 40 years Okay, I'm about to give you a prophetic word for your life for the next 40 years God's going to give you a series of promises that you know is God and the enemy will come and try to take your courage He'll try to discourage you at that moment. You're gonna have to choose Lord I believe your promise more than I believe the discouragement of the enemy. I choose to worship you I choose to pray to you. I pray the prayer of faith based on something that I know I heard you say and then the answer will come Do you know why that you ever watch those movies like Braveheart and you watch these guys They're outnumbered five to one and they charge down the heels some of them have hoes and rakes They don't even have weapons yet. They'll charge down the heel with no most of them are going to lose their lives in the battle Are you ever watch this? You ever see here here accounts of D-day when the American soldiers and Marines when those tankers open when those carriers open and they rush Out onto the beach and machine guns are coming at them. What makes a man in? The heat of battle charge into battle with the understanding. They'll probably lose their life What gives them that kind of courage? Why do men do that? Because they believe in something Enough to die part Why then I don't know if I'll ever be called to charge into battle like that But listen, you know why I battle for my children? You know why that I'll I pray and fast and intercede and do battle for my children Because I have a promise from the Lord that I'm willing to die far and it's non-negotiable to me. I Will not negotiate with anyone on this promise. Here's the promise train up your child on the way They should go and when they're older they will not depart from it Literally my wife and I feel at times that we're standing between our two kids in the world fighting off the world Teaching our kids the principles of God and not letting the world corrupt them at an early age because at some point They're gonna have to decide on their own will I follow the Lord of my mom and my dad or will I follow the lust of my flesh The lust for things that I see and the pride of my possessions That's the choices that they will have to make but I'm gonna fight my fight because I have a promise from God and it's not Negotiable to me Listen if you don't fight for your kids, you'll lose them You want to lose your kids then stop fighting? Give up I'm not gonna give up And I'm at a critical place right now I'm an eight and a six-year-old they're in public schools are doing great, and I'm fighting to fight because I want them to win I'm gonna win the reason I fight for my marriage is because the Lord I have a promise. I'm willing to die far It's not negotiable to me Here's here's the promise I have a covenant God said I'll make a covenant if you will make a covenant with Pam I'll always do my part of the covenant Brady. All you have to do is fight for your part. I'll always do my part And that's the reason I fight for Pam and fight for my marriage and fight for my home because I have a promise that's not negotiable Listen whatever you're not willing to fight for you will lose If you don't fight for it, you're gonna lose it If you think for one moment that you can retreat from the battle and get along through life you will that that's a false That's a lie of the enemy You must fight for your family. You must fight for your marriage You must fight for everything that God has promised you by the way if God has not promised you something that it's a fight You should not be in Don't get into a fight that you're not called to be in Listen, I don't have to pray about it. Should I fight for my kids? Should I fight for my marriage? Should I fight for my health? Should I fight for the church? Should I fight for you? I do fight for you It's not negotiable to me. I Have a promise from the Lord that the church is the hope of the world and I'm supposed to be a caretaker of it while I'm on the earth This is his bride, and I'm supposed to fight for his bride Not negotiable Let me ask you a question. What's not negotiable to you? What's the promise of God that you're fighting for this morning? What is it in your life that you know God has spoken to you? And you know you're not engaged in the battle the way you should be Because you've lost your courage Well, I'm gonna read a story and I'm closing with this About Joshua who had a promise from the Lord in fact he had received a promise 40 years earlier Go take the promised land. He and Caleb came back and told them all said listen. We can take the land Yes, yes, the sons of anac live there. Yes, there are walled cities and fortified cities there But it is a land flowing with milk and honey. You should see the grapes. You should see the land. It is our land Let's take the land God has spoken to us. Let's take the land and Yet ten of the other spies talked them out of it Discouraged them remember how discouraged they were read that story again when the tens files came back Everyone to all the children of Israel lost their courage and they never got a chance to go take the land So God had to take a whole generation of people that had to die Here we are now Joshua who was one of the two who said we can't take the land who had courage never lost his courage Here he is now. He's the leader Moses is dead and All the responsibility of leading these people now falls upon Joshua. I don't know about you, but that is a frightening Frightening proposition to me suddenly to have the leadership all the burden of the leadership upon you And you know, there's a fight ahead of you listen Every one of you in this room today. You'd need one of three things and some of you need all three of them Here's the three things that all of you need and that I need You need a promise from God Are you need courage from God? Are you need an answer from God? Some of you need all three some of you just need one or two of them Some of you have a promise, but you lost your courage some of you have had a promise from God and you're fighting the good fight You just need an answer you need the answer to come and This is why Joshua needed Joshua had a promise, but he lacked courage He had the promise he knew what God called him to do and let's free this together And when I read this I don't want you to think about Joshua and a story that happened three or four thousand years ago I want you to think about you right now and what's going on in your life and Joshua chapter one verse six. This is one of my favorite passages says be strong and courageous For you will lead my people to possess all the land. I swore to give their ancestors That you'll see the promise of God here. This is God speaking. Let me ask you if God speaks something this clearly to you Would you take it and not negotiate it? Would you believe it? God said to Joshua. I will give you the land that I swore to your ancestors I will I will I will Listen, what are the I wills that God's given you I? Will not I might I might consider it if you're a good boy and a good girl if you go three or four days without sinning I might consider it. That's not what God said. I Will Let's keep reading verse seven be strong and very courageous now You just said that again in verse six you repeat himself in verse seven as if Joshua was having a hard time being convinced of that I Think he was having a hard time being convinced of that Obey all the laws Moses gave you do not turn away from them and you will be successful in everything you do Study this book of the law Continually meditate on it day and night so that you may be sure to obey all that is written in it Only then will you succeed now verse seven is so powerful. I command you Like this is God speaking right to Joshua. I command you be strong and courageous Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go Listen why why will you charge into to the battle? Why will you charge into the fight? If it's a fight God's called you to Why is it that will charge in? Why is it that Joshua by the way God said to Joshua now when you cross the Jordan he didn't he didn't say this to Joshua That Joshua never had this promise than Joshua when you cross over the Jordan. They're gonna lay down their swords and call you king That's not what God promised Joshua. Here's what God said to Joshua. You're gonna cross over the Jordan and there's gonna be some battles and Some blood's gonna be shed and some people around you're gonna fall away But Joshua I want you to remember this one thing. I have called you to win this fight Don't lose your courage do everything. I tell you and remember this Joshua. I am with you wherever you go Now here's the promise for you There's a fight there's gonna be some bloodshed and chances are some people around you might fall in the battle But remember this one thing You're not getting out of the fight So you might as well fight If you don't fight you're gonna be consumed and destroyed So you might as well fight and remember this I am with you wherever you go I'll never leave you. I'm not gonna forsake you And when I heard that in November when I really caught that When I felt God's presence they Brady called you to a fight and you're doing great most of the time Brady you're doing great You're fighting just don't lose your courage now Don't lose courage now Brady just because the battle got turned up a notch or two. Don't lose your courage now You just go and I'll be with you wherever you go Brady [BLANK_AUDIO]