for the wonderful motel room that you got me this afternoon. It was just very, very nice. Thank you so much for doing that. It makes it so much more comfortable for the preacher, and I sure appreciate it so much. And it's good to be here at Glory Land Baptist Church, and with Brother Charlie, he's been my friend for many years now, and we've preached together for many years, and I love to hear him preach, amen? He knows how to tear high, doesn't he? but he's a man of God, has the power of God on him. You pray for your preacher, amen? Over in, if you will, to Deuteronomy chapter 31. Deuteronomy chapter 31. Deuteronomy 31. And then keep your finger there and turn over to Numbers chapter 21. Deuteronomy 31 and then Numbers 21. And we'll be turning to several passages of scripture tonight, so keep your Bible handy and open. Deuteronomy 31 and Numbers chapter 21. We'll start reading in verse one of Deuteronomy 31. It says, and Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am 120 years old this day. I can no more go out and come in. Also, the Lord has said unto me, thou shalt not go over this Jordan. Isn't that a sad commentary? All those years he served God and was faithful. Messed up one time. You see, it don't take a lot of times to mess up, does it? One time. One time he messed up. Just disobeyed God. And God wouldn't let him go into the promised land. said in verse 3, The LORD thy God, He will go over before thee, and He will destroy these nations before thee, and thou shalt possess them in Joshua. He shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said. And the LORD shall do unto them as He did to Sihon and Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them whom He destroyed. And the Lord shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you. Now notice these next few verses. Be strong and of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, be strong and of good courage, for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord has sworn unto their fathers to give them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. Now, have you ever wondered why God had to keep repeating himself? That's amazing, isn't it? Be strong and of good courage. Be strong and of good courage. There was a battle that lay ahead of them. There were hard times that lay ahead of them. And he had to keep reminding them to be strong and of good courage. But he also had to remind them that he would never fail them nor forsake them. He'd never leave them. And sometimes we have to be reminded over and over and over and over again to be strong and of good courage. Be strong and of good courage. Look here, folks. According to my Bible, this thing that we're living in is not getting better. It's going to get worse before the Lord comes back. And he's showing us this throughout the scriptures, but he keeps telling us, be strong and of good courage. Don't be discouraged. Be strong and of good courage. He has to keep reminding us, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now that doesn't mean there's not going to be battles. That doesn't mean there's not going to be difficult times, hard times, very hard times. That doesn't mean that we're never going to have to go through trials and heartaches. That doesn't mean that. It means for us to be strong and of good courage, that he'll never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what we have to go through. Do you understand that? So when we're going through these times in our life, we need to come back to the word of God where he tells us, be strong and of good courage. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. That's good enough for me. It was good enough for God's men in the Bible. It ought to be good enough for us Christians. Amen? I mean, let's just man up and do what God tells us to do no matter what the cost. And God will never leave me nor forsake me. No matter what happens in my life or your life, it's part of the plan of God for our life. But we need to know that he's there with us to the very end. to the very last breath, he will never leave us nor forsake us. I think, Brother Charlie, we as preachers have made a big mistake by always encouraging our people. And you say, what do you mean, preacher? Don't you want us to be encouraged? Yes, I do. I want you to be encouraged. But not to the point that you think nothing bad's ever gonna happen to you. Not to the point that you think that you're beyond suffering. Because I know we preachers get up and we say, bless God, we're living in the land of Goshen. It happened to the children of Egypt, but it didn't happen to God's children. They lived in the land of Goshen. God's gonna take care of you. And all of that was true, was it not? But Paul suffered greatly. The early Christians suffered greatly. They had their heads cut off, burned at the stake. They watched their husbands have staves drawn up through them and planted in Nero's garden and set on fire while they were still alive. Have you ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs? Have you ever read The Trail of Blood? If you've ever read any of these books, you'll find out that the early church suffered greatly. They had their heads cut off. They suffered. Now what makes us think that we don't have to suffer? But he said his grace is sufficient. His mercy is everlasting. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. Do you understand that? There may come a time in our lives that we will have to suffer, but be not discouraged. You know, Paul's told his churches, he said, if I get discouraged, who's gonna encourage you? And we all need encouragement because discouragement comes to us all at one time or another. It comes to us all, but it's how we handle it is what makes the difference. You understand? We must refuse to come to the place that we remain discouraged. We must not let that take over our life. We must not. We must realize where discouragement will take us. Numbers chapter 21. In Numbers chapter 21, here's the children of Israel. They've just come through a battle. They're facing another. And here's what the children of Israel are doing now. In chapter 21, we'll pick it up, verse number four. in chapter 21 of Numbers. And look where discouragement brought the children of Israel. It says in verse four, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom, and the soul of the people, look at it now, was much discouraged because of the way. The way got hard. You know, I live in a motor home. So I camp almost every day. You know, it's one thing to go camping on a weekend and have a good time out by the river and just go camping, but it's another thing to camp for 40 years and move all your stuff every time the trumpet blows. I mean, you gotta remember, they borrowed a lot of stuff from the Egyptians when they So they had their stuff plus all the stuff that they borrowed. And here's three million plus Jews going out into the wilderness. And now they stop and they set up camp. They don't have any running water, no bathrooms. Hello. No place to take a shower. And this is the way they're living for 40 years. I would say that was a difficult way. Plus they had to fight the battles. They had to go through all these battles that they had to fight. And they had, you know, one thing after another happened to them, did it not? I mean, it was a difficult way, to say the least. So they were discouraged because of the way, the hardness and the difficultness of the way. Because they got discouraged, look what happened to them. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to dine this wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. For heaven's sakes, it was angels' food. They never got sick. Their shoes never wear out. Look here, there wasn't no fat people and skinny people. Everybody was just right. You understand? They didn't have to buy new clothes every other month. I got size 38s to 44s in my closet. And I ain't throwing none of them away. Do you hear me? I'm saying that it took care of their every need, that manna. It was wonderful. But they got discouraged and they said, we're sick of this stuff. We don't want no more of this. We want some meat. And God gave them some until it ran out their noses. And then he killed the fattest of them for complaining and griping. We're never satisfied with what we get. We're never satisfied. We always want more. It's hard for me to find somebody that's ever prayed this prayer. Thank you, God, I've got enough. I've never heard anybody pray that prayer. Have you? The fact of the matter is we're never satisfied with what we've got. We always want more. Bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger job. I mean more, more, more. We're never satisfied. We ought to be thankful for what we got. And say thank you God, I've got enough. There's not a person in this room tonight that didn't have enough today. And you'll have enough for tomorrow. But if you don't, you ought to thank God anyhow. I'm gonna show you that here in just a minute. So they spake against God and they spake against Moses. Verse number six, because they did that, because they spake against God and they spake against Moses, verse six, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much of the people of Israel died. You know why they died? You know why they spoke against God and against Moses? because they were discouraged. Discouragement will lead you into sin and lead you away from the will of God. I'm speaking to you tonight on the disaster of discouragement. Because if we remain in this way of discouragement, listen to me tonight, please listen, it'll lead you off into sin. It'll lead you away from the will of God for your life. I mean, right now, I heard on the news the other day, Brother Charlie, right now, because of all this COVID-19 stuff, that the suicide rates have skyrocketed. You know why? People got discouraged. People lost their jobs. They lost their cars, their houses. People got sick. People died. Everybody got discouraged. Now they're taking their own life. You see, nothing good comes out of discouragement. You can't tell me one solitary thing good comes out of discouragement, not one. And so we see that we must, we must not stay in this area of discouragement in our life. Look here, they speak against God. That was one thing. And they speak against the man of God. Be careful. Be careful that you don't speak against God. You say, oh, preacher, I'd never do that. Do you complain? That's speaking against God. I mean, he is in control of what you got, right? He is the one that gave you. My Bible says the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And so when you don't like it, when he takes it away and you get to complaining, who you think that's against? It's against God. Be careful. Of course, my Bible tells me that when they speak against God and speak against the man of God, that the snakes came in and bit them and killed many people. And then they had to turn back. Look what it says in verse seven. It says, therefore the people came to Moses and said, what did they say, folks? We have sinned. That's three of the hardest words to say in the Bible. You don't see very many people saying that. I have sinned. It's hard to say, isn't it? I have sinned. I'm wrong. And yet that's what they did. You say, they had to, you're right, it's either that or die. And we see that happening all over our country and all over the world for that matter. That people just refuse to say, look here, I've sinned. I got discouraged and got away from God and I quit reading my Bible and quit praying, I quit going soul winning, I quit caring about anybody but myself. And I've sinned, I've done wrong and God forgive me. But yet we just sort of go past all that, don't we? We do that, it doesn't get any better. God's got a plan. God's got an order for everything. Have you realized that? He's got an order for the home, book of Ephesians. He's got an order for the church. He's got an order for our government. And when things get out of order, it causes confusion. Would you agree with that? Whether it be in the home, or whether it be in the church, or whether it be in our government. When things get out of order, it causes confusion. Now look here, listen carefully. When it's not fixed, it has to be fixed, not overlooked, not ignored, but fixed. Most folks don't come to church to get fixed, they come to church to get a fix. But it has to be fixed. And if it's not fixed, then the next step is not confusion, but chaos. Then chaos sets in because it's still out of order. And it never was fixed. In the home, right? Look here, fellowship has to be maintained. Ain't that right, husband and wife? Fellowship has to be maintained. And if the fellowship's not fixed, then you might just overlook it. You might sleep on the couch, and she might sleep in the bedroom for two or three days. And then all of a sudden, y'all start talking to each other, and everything sort of looks like it gets all right. But it didn't get all right. It's just waiting for the next bomb. And the next bomb will be worse, because it never was fixed. And so the second thing is, if it's not fixed, it's chaos. But then if it's not fixed, then it causes utter destruction. And this is what's happened in our homes. It's what's happened in our churches. And it's what's happening now in our government. Everything's out of order and nothing's being fixed. And so now it's chaos time. Can you not see that? And so God's got an order. And so they have to fix it. They said, we've sinned. And they asked Moses to pray for them. So Moses prayed and God took the fiery serpents away. Isn't that amazing? They complained, they spoke against God, and they spoke against the man of God. Now they come to the man of God and said, pray for us. Isn't that the way it usually happens, Brother Charlie? I mean, just before they go to the divorce courts, they sit in our offices and they're weeping and crying and carrying on. You done told them what to do about 500 times, but they just ignored you. But now chaos is coming and they come and sit in the office and said, please help us. We gotta listen, folks. You gotta apply this stuff to your heart, to your life. Nothing good comes out of discouragement. Nothing. Look here. God's discouragement doesn't come from God. So where does it come from? You say, My husband? No. My wife? No. My kids? No. It comes from the devil. That's where it comes from. He just uses all these to cause havoc in your life. This is the devil that's doing all this. You see, he's the one that's planting all these seeds. He's the one that's getting you to look at nothing but your problems. He's the one that's causing you to get discouraged. He knows if he can get you discouraged, you'll fall out by the way. And then your family, your home, everything's destroyed if he can keep you there. And I've watched it down through the years. Look here, I've been preaching this stuff for 48 years. I've watched this happen time after time after time in people's lives. Break my heart. But when folks won't take heed to the counsel of God, that's what happens. You have to take heed to it, not just listen to it. You have to believe it, right, and take heed to it. So discouragement means there's a loss of courage. It takes courage to fight discouragement. Now Christians, this is where we have to build our faith. This is where we have to get stronger, right? I mean, if we stay anemic all the time, first little thing comes along, we're flat of our back. Satan's just stomping all over us. So we have to become stronger. We have to believe God's word. We have to take it to what it says and we have to apply it to our lives. That's not always easy, is it? It takes faith. And we hear things like, preacher, you just don't understand. No, I don't understand, but I know what the Bible says. Somebody come in my office and they'll say, preacher, here's our problem. And I'll tell them what the answer is. And they said, well, we knew you'd say that. And I said, well, why'd you come? If you knew what I was gonna say, you see, you know what's right. You just want me to agree and sympathize with you and pat you on the back and cuddle you and tell you everything's gonna be all right, but it ain't gonna be all right. You have to take care of things in your life. This takes work. This takes dedication. This takes consecration. This takes a sanctified life to be able to do this, but most folks are so anemic, they can't find that. and we have to be obedient to God, folks. That's the only thing that's gonna bring us out. The only thing. Somebody cuddling you and somebody patting you on the back and your friends telling you it'll be all right, it'll be all right, and it ain't gonna be all right until you fix it. You have to fix it, amen? I refuse to stay discouraged. Brother Kenneth, what do you do? Well, if I get discouraged, I try not to let anybody know it, especially my family. But you know how wives are, they know everything. My wife would come to me and she'll say, she'll see me in the house, she'll say, what's wrong? And I'll say, nothing. She said, well, you need to let your face know it. I said, thank you. And I'll be walking through the church hall or something and she'll say, what's the matter? And I'll say, I don't know. She said, you need to put your big boy pants on, get over it. And I said, thank you. You'd have to know my wife. Some of you's better. And then there'd be other times she'll say, what's wrong with you? And I'll say, nothing. She said, well, you need to build you a bridge and get over it. You ever seen anybody discouraged? How many of you's ever seen anybody discouraged? Without even saying a word. How do you know they're discouraged? Wrinkled up face. head down, walking around, moping around. Nobody has said a word. You can tell it all over them, they're discouraged. It's your countenance that tells on you. You're discouraged. And discouragement is catching. Some folks are what I call valley dwellers, Brother Charlie. They just love the valley. You know, they're just not gonna get out of it. They just wallow in it. Every time you see them, they're complaining and griping about something. Something's wrong, something, they're sick, or they've lost their job, or something's happening at the house. I mean, just every time you see them, you ever seen anybody like that? I call them valley dwellers. Stay away from them. Treat them nice, be kind to them, but stay away from them. They're valley dwellers, they don't wanna get right. and it'll destroy you if you have fellowship with them. Stay away from them. You say, well, what if they're your families or your friends or husband or wife? Well, you need to try to be as kind to them as you can, but like my wife, build you a bridge and get over it. This is something we must do. We must refuse to stay in discouragement. I'll get in my truck and I'll drive out in the woods, Brother Charlie. And me and God will just have it out. I just tell him, I don't understand why you're allowing this to happen to me. Why in the world? I mean, why can't you just give me a little breathing room here? Boy, me and him will just have it out. I'll get back in my truck, drive back, and I'm fine. I'm just not gonna stay there, though. I refuse. Nothing good comes out of it. Absolutely nothing. Psalms 42, if you will. Psalms 42, look what the Bible says in Psalms chapter 42. In Psalms 42. I'll get over to it in just a minute. In Psalms 42, It says this, well I lost my place again, here it is. Let me go to verse one. As the heart paneth after the water broke, so paneth my soul after thee, O God. Isn't that good? I mean, is that the way that you paneth after God, that you go after God each and every day? This will sure take care of discouragement, won't it? My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? He's saying his discouragement is causing him to ask, where is my God? Do you see that? It said, when I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with a multitude. I went with them to the house of God. Now, that's a good place to go, isn't it? That's where you're supposed to be getting your encouragement, and it's at the house of God. You say, well, preacher, you sure ain't encouraging us much tonight, telling us what's happening tonight. Yeah, I am encouraging you. I'm showing you how you can get back on the mountaintop. I'm showing you how you can get back in your prayer closet and shut the door and meet with God. This is what I'm trying to show you. I'm showing you how you can have some joy and peace back in your life and some comfort from the Lord. That's what I'm trying to show you tonight. But you'll never get there being all discouraged. And it says here, why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. Skip down to verse 11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance." Now, notice up there it was God's countenance, now it's His countenance. You know what it'll do? His countenance will encourage you to have a great countenance. Amen? I mean, you can put a smile on your face. You know, you need to learn to put a smile on your face even when tears are running down. If you just remember where God brought you from, if you just remember what God did in your life, if you just remember all the blessings He's given you and how He supplied your every need. The song the writers wrote, Count Your Many Blessings, name them one by one. Isn't that wonderful? Look here, He wasn't about to be discouraged all the time. You need to learn to sing it and praise God and thank God. Where's your hope at? Your hope is in God. And certainly in this day in which we live, we certainly need some hope. And your hope ought to be in God. My hope is not in Social Security. My hope is not in the government. My hope is not in that plan at all. My hope is not in my friends. My hope is not in my family. My hope is not in a wife or a husband or children. Your hope ought to be in God. He'll be the health of your countenance if your hope is in God. But when we lose that hope, we're discouraged. Nothing good comes out of it, right? Verse number five of chapter 43. Why art thou cast down on my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. He's the health of my countenance. He is. Are you listening tonight? He's the health of your countenance. So next time discouragement comes, and it will, it'll knock at your door sooner or later, It'll come to us all, every one of us, but just refuse to stay there. Refuse to stay there. Don't stay in the place of discouragement. Discouragement comes, first of all, let me say we need to judge ourself about this discouragement. We need to judge ourselves. We need to call it what it is. You understand? We need to say, God, what my problem is is I'm losing my hope in you. And the reason I'm discouraged is I'm not satisfied with a portion of the place or what you've done with me. And that's a sin. And I'm sorry. You need to learn to judge yourself over this thing of discouragement. In Psalms 42, verse one through four, we find out that the Lord is never discouraged. You say, yeah, he's God. Yeah, but he had to tell you that. He had to tell you that he's never discouraged. Because you think everybody is. He's never discouraged. He knows exactly what's going on. When it's going on, how it's going on, he knows all about that. And look here, I can have hope in somebody like that, brother. And when he knows what's going on in my life, and he's allowing this to come into my life, and he is allowing these circumstances, and I know God's allowing that, well, he's in control. Okay, God, what you want me to learn? What you want me to see here? What are you doing in my life? Show me, dear God. Don't get all discouraged. Look here, learn something from what God's allowing you to go through. Look at the whole picture. It's just like my preacher preached one time about looking at the whole picture. He said, okay, so you don't like a song that the church sang. Okay, so you don't, somebody said something bad to you in church. Somebody hurt your feelings. Okay, things like that happen. So you gonna leave the church cause the preacher didn't shake your hand one morning? You're gonna leave the church because somebody said something about you that was untrue? What about all the other good things that's happening in the church? What about all the other blessings? What about all the preaching? What about all the singing and the fellowship? What about all the learning God's word? What about all of that? Are you just gonna look at one little stinking thing and leave the church over it? You see, you need to look at the whole picture, don't you? Quit just looking at one little thing in your life. And let Satan just have dominion over you because of one thing. Learn this. Be strong and of good courage. I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. Discouragement leads us to a lack of faith and trust in God. Discouragement comes when expectation don't meet reality. You know, here's expectation, here's reality, and they hardly ever meet with each other. They hardly ever, you understand? It's sort of like the young couple that gets married, and she has a beautiful wedding, and everything's going so good, and they get in the car and head out on their honeymoon. They get about 10 miles from the church, and the engine blows up in their car. Well, she was looking for a little white house with a white picket fence and, you know, cows. I mean, this ain't the way it's supposed to be. Reality, reality doesn't always meet expectations. And so we get discouraged because it doesn't. That discouragement can cause us to lose our faith in God. Most folks are not content with anything. Philippians chapter four. This is a very important passage of scripture here in Philippians on this thing of discouragement. Paul is speaking here, and if anybody knew about a reason to be discouraged, it was Paul. I mean, Paul got saved on the road to Damascus, right? And from the very first day he got saved till the day he died, he suffered. He suffered. Yet Paul was one of the greatest Christians in the Bible. I've read all the Pauline epistles, I've read all the way over all of Paul's writing, and I can't find one time, now you might be more spiritual than me and know more about the Bible than me, but I can't find one time that Paul ever had to come back to God. I never see one time where Paul got discouraged and got away from the Lord. I can't say that about all the others in the Bible. But not Paul. And yet he suffered greatly. Look what it says here in Philippians. Philippians chapter four. And Paul says here, verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. It didn't say sometimes, it said always. Now that's hard to do. Wouldn't you agree? That's hard to do, rejoice all the time. I mean, I can find plenty of things not to rejoice about. But it tells us to rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice. So when the time comes of discouragement, we need to really start finding something to rejoice about. I mean, isn't that what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, I think? In everything, give thanks. Not before, not after. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. If it had said them, it might not have meant me. But he made it real personal when he said you. That means each and every one of us. In everything, give thanks. Now, I know what some people are thinking. Preacher, that's just impossible. Nobody can live like that. You see, that's just how far we are away from God. That's just how far away we are from believing this book when we make statements like that. But the fact of the matter is, he made it. He said, let your moderation be known unto all men. Let the Lord, the Lord is at hand. Now how are you gonna let your moderation be known to all? How are you gonna give out the gospel if you're always discouraged? How are you gonna go soul winning and go door knocking if you're all discouraged? Ain't nobody gonna do that. I mean how do you come to church and how in the world if you come to church all discouraged are you going to sing living by faith? Living by faith in Jesus above. I've seen it. There are no songs of Zion in our heart if we're discouraged. Everything's taken away in discouragement. Everything. And yet we allow ourselves to stay that way because of the hardness of the way. It says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Now if we pray about everything and let our request be made known to God, look at what the next verse says. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Our problem, every failure in our life is connected to a prayer failure. Every single one. We just didn't pray about it. We didn't talk to God about it first. And if we did, we didn't accept his will about it. It's a prayer failure. But look what he says in verse 11. Here's the crux of the whole thing. Now, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. Did you notice those three words? I have learned in whatsoever state I'm in, therewith to be content. And that don't mean Alabama and Mississippi. That means whatever state he's in, whatever's happening in his life, at that moment, at that day, whatever's happening in his life, I have found that whatsoever state I'm in, to be content. But he had to learn that. It doesn't come natural, folks. It's not naturally inside of us to do that. We have to learn it. And he goes on to say, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere. And in all things, look at it again. I am instructed. I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry. Both to abound and to suffer need. What do you think about that? When we don't have enough. When you can't pay that bill on time. When all of a sudden, bad sickness comes into your family. He said, it's written in the word of God, I have been instructed. Well, he's instructing you tonight. This is the instructions right from the instruction manual. This is the way we're supposed to be. This is the way we're supposed to act. This is our mindset right here. God said this is the way you're supposed to be right here. And then he says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Are you getting this tonight? It's vitally important that we learn these things because we're instructed to do it. Discouragement is being displeased with the place of the portion that God's given you. We aren't satisfied with the manna that God's given us. We're just not satisfied with it. Isaiah 26, verse three. And I'm coming to a close here. Isaiah 26, verse three. The Bible says, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Why? Because he trusteth in thee. You want perfect peace? Let your mind be stayed on him. Not all the problems, worries, not all the things that are around you and what's going on around you, but let your mind be stayed on Him, and He'll keep you in perfect peace. That's what the Bible says. They that love thy law, nothing shall offend them. Are you listening? This is just instruction from God's Word. These are not things we don't know, but things we need to remember. because there can come disaster out of discouragement. Disaster. We need to cultivate the spirit of contentment. They lusted for the flesh pots and the leeks and the garlic. They became discouraged. The Bible says in 13, verse five, chapter Hebrews 13, five, be content and be thankful. Luke 21, 19 says, and patience possess you your souls. We must patiently wait on God to keep his promise. Okay, so what's the cure for discouragement? I won't have you turn to it, but you know the, you've heard it preached on before over in 1 Samuel chapter 30, where David and his men came back to their hometown after the battle. And the Bible says that the Amalekites had come in and burned their town, their city down to the ground. and took all of their wives and their children. And the Bible says that David and his men wept till they could weep no more. That's what it says. And those same mighty men of David, those same one, Brother Charlie, that went and stole the water out of the well at Jerusalem, They put their own lives in jeopardy because David said, oh, he wished he could have the water from the well in Jerusalem. They brought it back and poured it out, remember, as an offering. Those men would give their life for David. Now, those same men wanted to stone him. They were so discouraged. And so the Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. How did he do that? Well, he got to remembering about that lion and that bear and how God delivered it. He got remembered about Goliath and how God delivered him. He got to remembering about how God took care of him and kept him from Saul killing him. And how he just, and boy, he got all encouraged. And he went to God and he said, God, can I go get my stuff? And God said, yeah, go get it. And he went over there, those men that was all discouraged and wanted to storm him, and he said, mount up boys, we're going to get our stuff. And they all mounted up. And they went and got their stuff and more. Got all their wives back. So what do you do about discouragement? You learn to encourage yourself in the Lord. Remember what he did for you, where he brought you from, how he picked you up out of a miry clay and placed your feet upon a rock and established your goings. You remember how he supplied your every needs. You remember how he answered your prayer when nobody else could. You remember how, I remember back when I first went into the ministry, we was a youth pastor, I was getting $100 a week, Brother Charlie, and $20 gas allowance. And they put me up in the old boy's home. Had rats that big. That was without the tail. My wife stayed scared to death all the time. And that's what I, $100 a week, I mean that wasn't gonna go very far with three kids. Even that was 30, that was 45 years ago. And I'd go to church and everybody else was gonna go out and get coffee and everything and we didn't have the money to go out and get coffee. And I'd go out to my old car and I'd start to get in the car and there'd be a hundred dollar bill wrapped around a windshield wiper. We'd go home sometime, didn't have nothing. My wife said, you know, you've heard about people eating beans because they didn't have nothing else. We didn't even have beans. We didn't have nothing left in the cupboard. Nothing. Not a can of beans. My wife said, what are we going to feed the kids? And I kept saying, we'll find some way, God will supply it some way. We pulled up in front of that old house there in that neighborhood and all the lights was out and they got out of the car and started around the front and had a little old strip of concrete for the front porch there and a sidewalk with some bushes. And all of a sudden my wife said, what in the world? And I said, what's wrong? And I went around there and flipped on the porch light and the whole porch was full of groceries. Nobody told anybody about us not having no food. Not a person, not one person in the church knew we didn't have any food. You said, who did that, God? You sit around and start thinking about things like that and what God's done for you. It'll get you out of the mully grubs. You'll start encouraging yourself in the Lord, but you stay in your discouragement. and your life will end up a disaster. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed.