But 1 Samuel chapter 27 verse 1, and the Word of God says, And David said in his heart, I shall not perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel, so shall I escape out of his hand. And David arose, And he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish the son of Maok, king of Gath. Now if you go down to verse 5, the Bible says in verse 4, And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. And David said to Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Wherefore, Ziklag pertaineth unto the king of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt in the country out of the Philistines was a full year and four months. Think about it. David was with the Philistines for a year and four months. That's a long time. Now go over to chapter 29. The Bible says, Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands, but David and his men passed on in the re-reward with Achish. Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews hear? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days? or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day. And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him, and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us, for wherewith Should He reconcile Himself unto His Master? Should it not be with the heads of these men? Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Then Achaz called David and said unto him, Surely, as the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out, and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight, for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day. Nevertheless, the Lord's favor thee not. Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displeased not the lords of the Philistines. I want to draw your attention back to chapter 27. And notice in verse one, And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. I want to preach this evening on this subject. Discouragement after victory. Discouragement after victory. You know, there are just few tools that the devil uses that are very effective in derailing God's people. And the main one, I believe, is discouragement. Why? Because the devil can defeat people with discouragement that he cannot defeat with greed or apostasy or immorality. But he can defeat them with discouragement. Now I want us to think because we've already saw, we've already seen David. You remember the first temptation against Saul to kill him was in the cave of Adullam and he experienced there a personal victory even when his own friend said you could go ahead and go and kill him. I mean God's delivered him to you. And David experienced victory after that. Now in that victory what happened right after that? The problem with Nabal. I mean, think about it. He had so much restraint. He was so sensitive to the Lord and to the Spirit of the Lord. But then, just a little while later, he's taken up a sword just because someone has offended him and he's ready to kill him and everything he has. but that was shortly after a tremendous victory. You know, this is no doubt seen throughout the Word of God. Think about Joshua experienced failure with the Gibeonites right after a great victory against Ai. We could also think about Elijah. Elijah, he panicked and he ran from Jezebel, of all people, right after he defeated the prophets of Bel on Mount Carmel. We know that Hezekiah failed in dealing with the ambassador from Babylon after his miraculous healing experience. And really this pattern you see it throughout the Word of God when great men of God experience tremendous victories in their lives and then a moment later they're discouraged. How does that happen? B.W. Newton wrote this, The moment in which faith attains any triumph is often one of peculiar danger. Self-confidence may be engendered by success, and pride may spring out of honor that humility has won. Or, if faithfulness, after having achieved its victory, still finds itself left in the midst of danger and sorrow, the hour of triumph may be succeeded by one of undue depression and sorrow disappointment. And thus it is with David. You know, we're going to look at these things in this study here when it comes to discouragement this evening. We'll look at the path to discouragement. What is the path to discouragement? Then we're going to look at the portion of discouragement and then we're going to look at the provided deliverance. Now, there are certain sins that some Christians struggle with while other Christians have no trouble with. You know, there are Christians today that struggle with drinking. There are some that struggle with that. Others don't at all. Some Christians that perhaps have been, you know, started smoking or for whatever reason then got saved, some people struggle. Some people don't struggle with that. As a matter of fact, you find some Christians after they get saved struggle with smoking and some people don't at all. It just goes away instantly. Some Christians, we would say, have their besetting sin that some people have no idea what it even means to go through that. In other words, there are certain sins that we know that we struggle with that other people don't struggle with, and there are certain sins some people struggle with that others don't. But this subject of discouragement, every single person, at one point or another, will struggle with this. Every single person is going to struggle with discouragement. So I believe this is a very important as we deal with that this evening to think about how do we get there? Because it seems to happen so easily, doesn't it? So let's look first of all at the path to discouragement. How does a person get discouraged? You know, many times we understand that discouragement can happen very quickly and also to the most mature Christians. You could just read a few biographies of great men of God and find that many of them struggle with depression sometimes. I mean, that goes even beyond discouragement to depression. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a man that dealt with depression. There are many other men that dealt with times of discouragement. But as we look into this passage, there are many more things that we could say about discouragement. We're looking specifically at this instance where David, just think about the second time he had the opportunity to kill Saul, and he restrained himself, he was faithful to God, not to touch the Lord's anointed, and then here just a little while later is now discouraged, think about it, just after a great victory. Notice verse one again. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. Right after he saw his God delivered in Macarthur. So just after Saul basically said, you're right, David, the kingdom is going to be established under you. You're a great godly man, David. But now David is discouraged. So I want us to think, first of all, as we think about the path to discouragement, we see, first of all, his perspective was wrong. His perspective was wrong. Verse 1, notice the Bible, and David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. Notice the word in here. I shall perish. There is nothing better for me to do than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. I want us to think here because David's focus changed here. He focused on the negative and not the positive. He again considered the attacks of Saul that he had just been delivered from and perhaps he just forgot all about God's deliverances over and over and over and over again. He's only thinking now about Saul and the fact that Saul is trying to kill him and he forgot all about God. You know, throughout David's fleeing, he was constantly reminded, time and time again, that he was going to be the next king. Think about, Samuel told him that, in the midst of the time that he was fleeing from Saul. Jonathan told David, Saul's son told David that he would be the next king, and he would be his second in command. Saul even said that. Remember, when he spared Saul's life, and Saul said, surely you're going to be the next king? Think about, time and time again, David saw God's deliverance, but here in this moment, he was talking to himself. And his perspective was wrong. He focused on the enemy, he focused on the negative and forgot all about the positive. You know what that's called? That's called pessimism. He became pessimistic. Therefore, when his perspective was wrong, there are two things that happen in his mind. The first thing we see that happen in his mind when the perspective is wrong, and by the way, that's what's going to happen to us when our perspective is wrong. When we focus on the negative and forget all about the positive and the faithfulness of God. We see first of all, what's going to happen in our minds is first of all, our problems will become inflated. That's what happened here in David. His problem was inflated. He says, notice, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. That's almost like a promise, a guarantee. David here had overwhelming evidence that God was protecting him throughout his years. But by the way, discouragement never seeks proof. He forgot all about the proof that God has been faithful throughout all these years. It always distorts, discouragement always distorts our vision. It takes a slight possibility of defeat and it magnifies it to certainty. That's what happened here in David. It makes mountains out of molehills. It makes rattlesnakes out of earthworms and cloud into an eclipse of the sun. That's what happens when we get discouraged. Our perspective changes and everything becomes inflated. As far as discouragement is concerned, any little setback, we consider it the end of our lives. Isn't that true? I mean, I think if we're all honest, that happens sometimes. Discouragement sees no recovery possible. It's impossible. You know, not viewing our problems properly makes it very difficult to solve them. And here David saw that there was no way this problem was gonna be solved. Why? Because he was discouraged. So when you're discouraged, when your perspective is wrong, first of all, your problems will be inflated, but number two, your reasoning will be irrational. The Bible says here, as I just read it earlier, it says, he says, there is nothing better. Now think about it. Nothing is a big word. Now, This is really a bad habit I have. If I go to a store, or if I go to a fast food, or a restaurant, or whatever the case may be, and the service is bad, or something happens that is unpleasant, I say things like that. I will never come here again. And my wife helps me out and says, that's not true. Don't say that. You'll be back to McDonald's. Even if you found a bug in your fries, yes, you will be back. Now think about it. But here he was discouraged, and think about it, he became irrational in his thinking. There is nothing better for me to do, than to do what? Than to go live with my enemies. That was his decision. Nothing better. There is absolutely no other choice, that's what he says, than to go to my enemies, the Philistines. That, think about it, that was his conclusive decision, based upon his circumstances. There is nothing better for me to do, than to go live with my enemies. You know, we must be very careful when considering the remedies of our discouragement because they're typically not where we think they are. So, as we think about here, his perspective was wrong. When our perspective is wrong because we're discouraged, all the problems will become inflated and our reasoning will become irrational. So we see not only his perspective was wrong, but we see his patience was worn. The Bible tells us here again, verse 1, And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me to do than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul, notice, Saul shall despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. Think about that. Think about that here. I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. What happened? David got tired of waiting on the Lord. He got tired. He's been trusting the Lord by faith. But now his patience is being worn. His patience is being tested. Kind of like we've been studying through the book of Hebrews last Sunday night. Remember, let faith and patience have her perfect work. But by the way, that's a biblical principle. Hebrews 10.36 tells us, for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Galatians 6.9 tells us, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. James 1.3 and 4 says, Knowing this, that the trying of our faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. It is clear for the people of God that patience, as we hear sometimes, that patience is a virtue, right? Patience is a virtue. Patience is absolutely necessary when it is tested for us to continue to have faith in God. The longer the delay of the fulfillment of the promises of God, the harder it is for us to remain patient, to wait on the Lord. And so here, no doubt here, David's patience was worn. But I wanted to see two things here. That first of all, when his patience was worn, His foes became interesting. Now, I want us to consider this because this evening it's very important that when discouragement happens, and we get discouraged after we've been faithful to the Lord for some time because our patience is being worn, two things are going to happen in those moments of weaknesses. And by the way, they still happen today. And we see the first thing that happened in David's life when his patience was worn is that his foes, his enemies, became interesting to him. He wanted to go, corner verse 1, to the land of the Philistines. Now, I think we know the history between David and the Philistines. He's the giant slayer. Hello? He killed Goliath. Battle after battle, when Saul put him in charge of his own group of men, he went out and defeated the Philistines time and time again. I mean, David was a man of war. And according to the history with the Philistines, David knew that the Philistines were an ungodly people. But here, think about it here, he's so discouraged, and now that his faith is being tested and his patience is worn, he is considering, interested, in going with his enemies. You know that is the same thing that happens to the Christian today? When we get discouraged, you know what we do? When we become talking with ourselves and when we are patient and we say, well, I'm not seeing the promises of God. I'm not seeing God's deliverance. You know what our eyes turn to? Our eyes turn towards the world. And when our eyes turn towards the world, we think, well, that's interesting here. I think I can find deliverance or reprieve in the world. That's what we think when we get discouraged. But not only we see that his foes became interesting, but we also see that his friends and family became insignificant. Verse 2 of chapter 27, the Bible says, Now think about it here, David not only made a decision to go to his enemies, But in his discouragement, because his patience was worn, he gets to the place he's interested in his enemies, but he's also... To him, his family becomes, and the men that are following him, become insignificant. He is bringing his 600 men, their wives and their children, and his wives and his children, in the midst of a people that is ungodly. In the midst of a people that worship false gods. In the midst of a people who throughout history have offered their own sons and daughters to burn to their own gods. That's where David is bringing those people. And may I say today the same thing happens that when we get discouraged because our patient is worn by the trials of life and we lose and we become to see that the world becomes interesting to us and the enemy becomes interesting to us. And what happens as a result of that, our family and our friends become insignificant to where we don't care as much for them as we ought to. Why? Because when we're discouraged, it's all about us. You see, we got to help ourselves and as a result, The people around us are affected. So as we consider this here, we see that his perspective was wrong, his patience was warm, but thirdly, we see that his prayer was wanting. Verse 1 tells us, and David said in his heart. You know, in David's life, we can note that when he was discouraged or when he was in sin, a lack of prayer was evident. He's not praying to God here. Now, we've seen him. We'll go back and we've studied the life of David so far. Do you remember at times in his life when he actually prayed to God? And he sought the Lord's face? Lord, what do I need to do? He went to the man of God, asked for wisdom, but not here. You see, here, he's talking with himself. And when you get discouraged, here's the temptation. Instead of talking to God, to the one that we can come to, we talk among ourselves and we reason with ourselves. You know, David spoke to himself about his problem, but he left God out. A lack of prayer will always deepen our discouragement, and it will never diminish it. You know, we tend to do when we're discouraged the opposite of what we should do when we're discouraged. So we see, I want us to think here again, that as we consider the path to discouragement, It happens when our perspective changes, our problems become inflated, our reasoning becomes irrational, and when our patience is worn, our foes become interesting, and our friends and family become insignificant. And we also see that when discouraged, our prayer is wanting. But I want us to consider number two, not only the path to discouragement, but the portion of discouragement. You know, there are many people that when they're discouraged, they make a decision based upon their discouragement, and it's the wrong decision, but for a while, they're going to experience what it seems like the blessing of God. Now, notice David in the portion of his church. First of all, we see his status. Now, notice chapter 27, verse 4. The Bible says here, And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. Now I think we could safely say that the reason why David went to Philistia was why? For safety, right? For protection. That would be the common sense answer. And so think about it. As we think about his status here, he is discouraged. Things, his perspective change, he focuses on the negative. Now think about his status. He's made a decision now to go to live with his enemies. And we see here, notice his status, the things that he enjoys. He enjoys, first of all, protection. He's protected because Saul is not going to come with the Philistines. And by the way, it is going to seem that way when we make any decision in our discouragement that does not involve God in that decision. then everybody at some point will experience some type of blessing. But may I say this? It doesn't come from God. It doesn't come from God. So think about his status here. This is the beginning. We're gonna see by the end here. This is a journey here. So his status, notice, he enjoyed protection. Number two, he also enjoyed popularity. The Bible says he David dwelt, according to verse three, with Achish at Gath. He dwelt, notice, with Achish at Gath. In other words, the king of Gath provided a place for David to stay. So David here, think about it here, he's not just living like in the stall with Achish. He's living well. Actually, because of his relation to the king now, he's pretty popular. You see, that's kind of different from being an Israelite, isn't it? I mean, think about it. Just a few chapters earlier, his own brethren, the people from his own tribe betrayed him. And in Judah, he's not very popular, except for the people that are following him. But think about all the men that were following him, we know they were rejected by Israel. And so we see, think about it here, he's not only enjoying protection, but he's enjoying here popularity, which is quite different than his previous state. But we also see thirdly that he enjoys provision. We find in verse 27, verse 6, the Bible says, Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day, wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the king of Judah unto this day. Go down to verse 9. And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish. Wow, it seems like David is being blessed. He's protected. He's popular. And now he's provided for. Just a few chapters earlier, where was he? In the wilderness. That's a little different now. You see, now he goes, he battles, and look all the spoils he can get. He's been provided for. Things are going great. We not only see that he was protected, he was popular, he was provided for, we also see that he enjoyed power. Verse 8, the Bible says, And David and his men went up and invaded the Gessorites and the Gazorites and the Amalekites. And those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And we just read verse 9. So think about here, David and his men here, they enjoyed power. By the way, they didn't have that in Israel. As a matter of fact, they were running for their lives. But now they have power. So at this point here, David's probably thinking, man, I am sure glad I made this decision to go and live with the Philistines. And may I say, there is pleasure in sin for a season. And the decisions we make, the consequences will never come right away. They never come right away. But may I say, they will come. They will come. The consequences will come. Vance Havner gave an illustration in both his preaching and writing which effectively addresses this aspect of the character of one's prosperity. He said some folks were gathered together visiting when one of the men spoke of a mutual acquaintance and said this, he is really moving up in the world. An elderly lady sitting off in the corner of the room where the group was gathered spoke up and said, which world? That was a very good question. The answer determines whether the success is good or bad. It makes a difference where your prosperity is. So it was with David. His prosperity while in Philistia was all in this world. His prosperity was only material. There was no spiritual prosperity, no spiritual growth, no spiritual gains in Philistia. All his gains were of and for the flesh. Look, the Lord's blessing him. Is He? Is that the Lord's doing? You know, a person's greatest failures are the places where they have succeeded in the wrong thing. And by the way, David is a talented man. We already know that. From music to a man of war, I mean, he's talented. But all this is his doing. And he's succeeding in the wrong place. Jesus said the world would applaud him. The world would clap and say, wow, look at this great guy. Let me say this, what do you think God is thinking right about now? That is the most important question. So we see, think about it, the portion of discouragement, we see his status, but number two, we see his sinfulness. His portion extended, first of all, disobedience. His portion extended his disobedience. The Bible tells us in verse 7, and the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. Now let me say this, every time a man of God told David where to go, was it ever outside of Israel? The answer is no. We already said, remember when the prophet of God came to, or he asked the prophet of God where should he go? Remember where the man of God told him to go? He told him to go back to Judah. That's where he delivered the people of Keilah. So we remember that every time a man of God told him where to go, was always within Israel. Was always the place where the people of God were supposed to be. And so here, the longer he stays, he is extending his disobedience. This time, David's stay in the Philistia seems to be going well. Think about it. Remember the last time he went there? He came seeking refuge from Saul, and it didn't go well. Remember, he ended up acting like a madman, like he was crazy. And so he said, get this knot away from me. And so he went away. But this time it's going pretty well. Therefore David made the decision to stay for an extended period of time. While David's prosperity may have looked like a blessing, it was not. David was actually continuing in his disobedience. You see, we must never equate what we think is the outward blessing of God with obedience. Wow, God is really blessing those people, and they seem to be healthy, and they seem to never have any problems in their lives. God must be blessing them. No. No. Blessing is never the sign of God's moving in that person's life. David, the matter of fact is, on the outside everything may look fine, but the truth is he was disobeying the Lord. So we see his sinfulness, it extended his disobedience, and also we see his portion encouraged more disobedience. In chapter 27, verse 10, the Bible says, And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to-day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of Jeremelites, and against the south of Kenites. Now think about it here. David hearing this reply, Achish asked him, Where did he go? Now where did he go? The Bible tells us that he went against according to the previous verses, against the Gazrites, the Amalekites. Now, the Amalekites were friends of the Philistines. They dwelt on the south, just south of Judah. Notice David's reply to Achish. Achish says, where have you been today? He says, we've been against the south of Judah. What was he doing? He lied. He pretended that he attacked the Israelites. How do we know that? Because of the king's reply. The Bible says verse 11, Think about that. We say, well, David didn't lie. Yes, he lied. Because he made it appear, by his speech, as talking to Achish, that he attacked the south of Judah, while he attacked the nations south of Judah. You see, it appeared like he said the truth, but he didn't. Because Achish interpreted it like he attacked his own people, because he says, now the people of Israel are going to hate him. So he lied, but he didn't lie. Have you ever done that? You deceive people by not really telling the truth, by telling something that's similar to the truth? You see his extended disobedience, you know what that produces? It produces more disobedience. Now he's deceiving the king. Now he's lying. You know, it was true that He invaded the countries that lay south of Judah, but He made the king believe He had invaded those that lay south of Judah. David's intent was to deceive the king. Therefore, he lied. Because we could say, look at the verse, he didn't lie. His intent was to deceive the king. Therefore, he lied. So, we see his status, we see his sinfulness, but thirdly, we see his spoiling. Chapter 28, notice verse 1. The Bible says, And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men. Who are they going to go fight? To fight, the Bible says, with Israel. Uh-oh. Now, now things begin to change. You see, in the midst of the portion of his discouragement, he came out of discouragement. This is his portion. He's got power. He's protected. He's got possessions. He's got popularity. And he's getting away with his deception. He's getting away with his disobedience, but look at the spoil. Now, the king said, alright, we're going out against Israel. Can you imagine David's face right at that point? What have I done? He just spared the king by saying, I cannot touch the Lord's anointed. And now he's going to go to war with the Philistines to kill his brothers. How do you think he must have felt then? That's the mess he created. David and his men found themselves having to fight for the Philistines, their enemies, against They're friends. You know, when we make a mess of our lives, and we make decisions based in the middle of our discouragement, and it is the wrong decision, and we continue in our disobedience to God, knowing where we ought to be, and we're not there, and we begin to be okay with our sin, eventually things are going to catch up to us. They are. They always do. And we always find ourselves in the position that whatever decision we make, it's going to be wrong. How do you know that? Because we find at the last. Notice, we not only see in this text the path of discouragement, the portion of discouragement, but we see thirdly the provided deliverance. So God is going to intervene. Aren't you glad that God intervenes? for His children, when we make a mess of our lives, and we stay in disobedience to God for a year and four months, and God is still going to intervene. Think about it. Right at the moment, right before here, they're preparing the armies, they're about to go fight against Israel, and now God intervenes. Chapter 29, notice verse 3. Then said the prince of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews hear? And Achish said unto the prince of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years? And I have found no fault in him, since he fell unto me unto this day. So Achish told the kings, David's been with me for quite some time now. Verse 4, And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him, and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place, which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith should we reconcile himself unto his master, should it not be with the heads of these men? Now, we could say much about it, but we know because, based upon verse 2, that they passed on in the re-reward with Achish. You know where they were? By the way, these princes were smart, they weren't idiots. But as the army of the Philistines were forming, they were coming to battle, meeting all the other Philistines. The princes of the Philistines see Achish, he's got all his men in front, and right behind his men, he's got the men of David. And the prince sees that, he's like, Achish? Really? You're going to go fight the Philistines, and they're going to be attacking us in the front, and if those people turn against us, they're going to be attacking us in the back. That's not a good idea. Now, we could say, yeah, that was smart people. I believe that was God's intervention, because everybody knew David had been there for a year and four months. He had been, according to the king, been to battle, defeated people, to their knowledge, the Israelites, because he had deceived them in believing that. but God intervenes. We see later in verse 5, is not this David, think about what they say here, is not this David of whom they sang one to another in dances saying Saul slew his thousands and David his ten thousands? Is it not the guy that killed Goliath from, where was he from, Achish? Oh yeah, Gath. Your city, your town. Yeah, that's where Goliath was from. That's the guy they sung about. God's intervention. This deliverance did not come from David, but rather from God. You know, David must have seen, he must have seen at that moment and said, thank God. This is a mess. Thank God. Now I want us to see, because this is where it always goes. I want us to look to verse 8 of chapter 29. And David said unto Achish, well, verse 7, Wherefore, Achish hath now returned, and go in peace, that thou displeased not the lords of the philistines in verse eight and david said unto achish but what have i done and what has thou found in thy servant so long as i have been with thee unto this day that i may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king and achish answered and said to david i know that thou art good in my sight as an angel of god notwithstanding the princes of the philistines have said He shall not go up with us to the battle. Was David being deceptive or was he being honest? That's a question that we have to answer. Was he being deceptive or was he being honest when he said, no, no, no, let me go. I've done nothing wrong, let me go. Was he being deceptive or honest? May I say, either way, he would be sinning in either case. If he was being deceptive, then he lied to the king. And if he was being honest, then he would be okay with killing God's people. Do we see here the mess that he's created? Either way, David loses. You know, this is always the result of allowing discouragement to take over our lives and dictate our direction. Without the upholding help from God, man cannot do well. You know, when we leave God out of our lives, we make it impossible. Do you hear me? When we leave God out of our lives, we make it impossible to walk uprightly. It's not God's fault here. This is not God's fault. God is saving David. But it is going out either way. You know, to be honest, that's convicting because it's very easy for us to be discouraged. But many times we don't examine the road to discouragement and what happens as a result. And may the Lord help us and deliver us from that, because it is so easy for us to get discouraged. We all deal with discouragement. Let's get the victory at the beginning. When you start talking to yourself, there's nothing for me to do. When you start going crazy in your speech, saying crazy things, like making a rattlesnake into a earthworm, that's when you have to say, OK, stop. That's just crazy. This is really no big deal. Today, we were heading over here to church. And I wanted to be here early so we could turn on these machines and make it cool in here. And on Route 1, we hit traffic. And so I thought, man, really? Now, it may seem like something small, but my wife said, well, aren't you glad that we left this early, that this traffic is not going to make it late for the service? Well, yes, yes. What am I thinking? Is this really, in this traffic, is this the really worst time of my life, that I have to be discouraged over that? Now, think about it. That happens all the time, doesn't it? where small things happen in our lives and just throw us off track and quickly get us in the flesh. We have to correct that before we go down the wrong direction, the path where whatever we do, we end up to make it impossible to walk uprightly in the sight of God. That's where the help us.