Join us now for the chapel hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker today is Dr. Ron Allen, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Matthews, North Carolina. The title of his message is, The Devil's Dart of Discouragement. The text is from 1 Kings 19, verses 1 through 18. Well, good morning and let me say again how much I appreciate the invitation to be here and speak in chapel yesterday and then again today, my wife and I have certainly enjoyed our very brief time here, but are so thankful again for the way that the Lord has used Bob Jones University in our lives. such a privilege to be able to be back here again able to renew some old acquaintances and we certainly are thankful to the Lord for that told you yesterday that some of the. happiest moments of my life have been spent here on this campus. I mentioned to you that there are places that I could go here across the campus and consider different things that the Lord taught me and challenges that the Lord worked in my own heart during that time. Some of the very happiest moments of my life have been spent here. I was thinking yesterday, some of the most embarrassing moments of my life have also been here. I remember back when I met the lady who is now my wife. This was in 1980 when we met. And I remember that I didn't date a lot my freshman year and then my junior year, I met Janice and I was excited about her and the prospects for the future. And I remember one day, I was a hall leader. I think you call them now in the dormitory in Graves. And while I was, I assume they still do this, we called it sitting hall. I was sitting hall one night and I got a note. Some fella dropped a note off by the desk there. And it was a note from Janice. And the note said that I should go up to the library and that at the library there would I would find a another letter. And she was kind of sending me on this rabbit trail. And so I couldn't find anybody else to sit Hall while I was gone. So I just knocked on my supervisor's door. His name was Jim Harris. I said, Mr. Harris, do you mind if I just run right up to the library? There's a note up there I need to pick up. I'll go right up there and come right back. And he said, OK. So I took off and ran up there. I was excited about this. This was from a girl that I was really interested in. And so I took off to the library. I get to the library at the circulation desk and a lady there. I tell her my name is Ron Allen and I think there's a note here for me. And she said, yes, there is. And so she hands me this note and this this note tells from tells me to go to the stop sign in front of Rodeheaver Auditorium. And so I go over there and sure enough tape to the back of the stop sign was another note from Janice. And so this note then tells me to go to the student center. And so I go over to the student center and this was the old student center then you didn't have the nice mall area that you enjoy today. But I went over to the student center and there and there's the red and blue mailbox and sure enough tape to that red and blue mailbox out there on the lawn was another letter from from Janice. This one sent me over, I think, if I recall, it was somewhere over in the FMA. And so I am just very excited, you know, and so I'm taking off and I'm headed back over to the to the FMA. And as I'm running down across by the chapel sidewalk there and I'm running this way, I see Mr. Harris in his car driving up the street and he kind of looks at me sort of surprised and stuff. I just kind of wave at him and and he he goes on and then That next letter sent me over to what we call the practice studios that used to be behind Johnson Dorm. It was a long building with practice studios on either side of it, and there was a monitor that was at that building. A lady there that just kind of worked all of those, monitored those studios while they were being used. Well, this letter, the last letter I got, sent me to that lady. So I go and I as I go in there, of course, I'm pumped. I'm very excited about this. And so I go and I knock on the door there and her back is turned to me. And as I knock and then I say, open the door, I say, my name is Ron. And she turned around and when she turned around, I was looking at the face of the girl that I had dated all of my sophomore year. The year before that. I was terribly embarrassed, it was one of those things where you just say, How can I get out of here very quickly, you know? So she said, yes, I have something for you. And so I took that and went on my way. Very embarrassing moment. Almost as embarrassing as the time two years ago when we had someone come to our church, a lady that I had known for some time and we had served together in a previous ministry, and she came with her family and I was just making conversation. And I said to her, when is your baby due? You're right. She says, I'm not pregnant. I said, oh, nice weather today we're having. So I was recalling yesterday. Some of the most joyful moments that I've had here, and then, of course, some of the most embarrassing moments, too. Let's pray together. Ask God's blessing as we look into his word today. Oh, Lord, we are so thankful for who you are. We are again thankful that you have chosen to reveal yourself to us. We thank you for this book, our treasure, the Bible that you've given to us and preserved it for us so that we can look into it today and we can read and understand everything there that you want us to know about you at this time and what you want us to know about us. We thank you again for your Holy Spirit, and we pray that we might be in this chapel hour illumined by the Spirit of God. Help us, Lord, to behold wondrous things out of thy law as we consider it, and we'll thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Our old enemy, Satan, is a destroyer. He's out to destroy you. He's out to destroy me. He's the second most powerful being in all of the universe, and we must be aware of the potent enemy that he is. Satan cannot capture our soul as believers, but he can certainly neutralize our testimony. The Bible warns us in Second Corinthians, chapter two and verse eleven, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his devices. The idea here is of being cheated. It's the idea of Satan taking one of us or taking one of our family, lest he should get an advantage of us. What makes it difficult for us and challenging for us is that Satan can look very differently from what he really is. Second Corinthians 11 and verse 14, the Bible tells us there that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Ephesians six and verse 11 commands us that we must put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The wiles of the devil are his crafty schemes. The wiles of the devil are his bag of tricks that he uses. And sometimes the devil uses that bag of tricks and he neutralizes the testimony of a believer. Sometimes he reaches into that bag of tricks and he pulls out pride and arrogance and he puts that into the heart of a man and that arrogance in that man neutralizes his testimony and makes him ineffective for the kingdom of God. Sometimes he reaches into that bag of tricks and he pulls out anger. And he lets anger neutralize the testimony of one of God's children. Sometimes he pulls out of that bag of tricks and puts into our hearts a lust for things. And that materialistic spirit will hinder our work for God. Sometimes he reaches in that bag of tricks and he pulls out bitterness. Sometimes he pulls out us taking up somebody else's offense. There's so many different tricks that he has in that bag. Sometimes it's discouragement. Sometimes the devil takes discouragement and he puts it in your heart and he puts it in mine. You ever struggle with that? I would guess that every single one of us here at some time we battle with the issue of discouragement in our lives. There's a character in Scripture that also battled tremendously with discouragement at a point in his life. Elijah was one of the greatest men in all of Scripture. Elijah saw God do some wonderful things, some powerful things, some miraculous things this prophet of God witnessed. God dropped Elijah in Israel's history when Ahab was leading the nation as far away from God as they could possibly go. And Elijah was use of God at this particular time. But as we look into our Bibles this morning at First Kings, Chapter 19, we see a discouraged prophet of God. I want you to turn in your Bibles there this morning. First Kings, Chapter 19. In those first few verses. We see Elijah. Under great discouragement. And since all of us, every one of us here battled that particular issue in our lives from time to time, sometimes we struggle with that, sometimes the devil comes and puts that in our hearts and tries to neutralize our testimony, he tries to neutralize our effectiveness for God. Just like he tried to in the life of this prophet. I want you to notice what the Bible says here in first Kings chapter 19. They have told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword, then Jezebel sent a messenger into Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, it is enough now, oh, Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. And he came further into a cave and lodged there and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said unto him, What do is out here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken by covenant, thrown down by an altar and slain by prophets with the sword. And I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the Mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and breaking pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind and earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake of fire. But the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire is still small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice into him and said, What do is out here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken my covenant, thrown down by an altar and slain by prophets with the sword. And I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him, go. Return into thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that of them that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal. and every mouth which has not kissed him. Here you see the prophet Elijah, a man of God, a man used greatly of God, and here he is in a tremendous battle with discouragement in his life. And I want us to look this morning just briefly at these few minutes that we have at this man. And I want us to pull out of this particular passage seven principles that will help us deal with discouragement as the devil uses that in our lives. The first thing I want us to notice here is this discouraging dart of Elijah. Notice first the timing of this dart. Here, the devil has sent this dart of the prophet to the prophet of God after one of the most significant victories of his life, one of the most exciting times of his life, really one of the most exciting victories that we see in all of the word of God. You read about that in the first Kings or chapter 18. You remember those odds. The prophets of Baal versus Elijah, 450 to one. And we look at those odds and we say, wow, what tremendous challenge there is just looking at those odds. And you remember when Elijah goes and Elijah says, you bring out all of those prophets. And let them all come and let us take two bulls. You take one and I'll take one. And you make an altar there and you put your bull on the altar and then you call upon Baal. And I will take the bull and I will make an altar and I will call upon the God of heaven and the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And you remember what the prophets of Baal did. And you remember how they made their altar and you remember how they cut up their bull and they put him on that altar. And you remember how they cried out to bail for bail to come down with fire on that altar. And you remember that nothing happened. And you remember that about noontime. Elijah begins to mock those prophets and he says to them, where is your God? What's going on with him? Does he hear you? Maybe he's going on a long journey. Maybe he's asleep. And they continue to cry throughout the day, and at the end of the day, there's no voice from that God. No voice from bail. And then Elijah built his altar. Elijah cuts up that bull. Elijah puts that bull on the altar. Elijah says, bring me four barrels of water. And he pours it on that altar after he's dug a trench around it. He says, let's do that again. And they do it again. He said, let's do it a third time. And they do it a third time. Water's all over the place. And then Elijah, the prophet, calls upon God and says to God, for your sake, that these people will know that you are the God, you're the God of heaven. Bring down fire and consume this altar, this sacrifice, and that's exactly what happened. Great victory that had taken place. And then we see Elijah just a few verses later, and we are shocked that he's in the shape that he's in. That gives us our first principle. Discouragement comes often after great victories. When you and I experience great things that have happened in our lives, I mean, God has really moved in our hearts in a dramatic way, in a very decisive way. And we have sought after the Lord and we have been found of him and we have made a decision about something in our lives. We have given something. It's been a great spiritual victory in our lives. Often at those moments is when the devil comes in with this dart of discouragement. After we've seen those kinds of great victories, he comes in. And I want you to notice. The source of that dart, the devil uses old Jezebel. She uses this wicked queen to discourage the heart of this prophet and through this threat that this queen has made, the heart of the prophet is weakened and it's the devil that's behind all of this. And that's the second principle that I want us to take away from this passage. Discouragement comes to us from the hand of Satan. It is the devil himself that works. And any time we are battling discouragement, never think, as we mentioned yesterday, God is not giving you a test in your discouragement. That is not from God. That's from the hand of the devil. Any time we're tempted to sin, it's the devil that is working in us. It's our great enemy that's trying to get us to fall. And the devil uses this wicked queen. And here, Elijah. Is frightened and we see in the next couple of verses here that Elijah begins to run from that problem, he's faced with that guard and how does he respond to that guard? He says, I'm getting out of here and he runs away from what God has been doing in his life and he just wants to get away from that. He hears what this queen has said and he's getting very frightened. And we're reminded that Proverbs 29 and verse 25 says to us that the fear of man bringeth a snare, but who so trusteth in the Lord shall be safe. The Bible tells us, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28, and fear not them which can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him which can destroy both soul and body in hell. And most of us today, if we were to be honest with ourselves and honest before the Lord, we would say, I struggle at times with the fear of man. Folks who have studied out that say that that is of all the fears and different phobias that we have in our lives, that the fear of man is at the top. And we are we are fearful of the thoughts of man, we're afraid of what people think of us, we're afraid of the threats of man. Sometimes God puts it in our heart to do something and we don't want to do it because we're afraid that we're going to fail if we do it. And it's not so much the failure that we're afraid of. It's what will people think of us if we fail that we're afraid of. And here the prophet, the queen has said this to him and he's frightened at this threat. And he looks at himself and he says, the best thing for me to do is get out of here. And so he heads away. And then we get to the point where he just wants to be alone. He runs off and he takes his servant and then he leaves his servant and he goes on even further away and he wants just to be alone. He wants to be by himself. And this is the third principle. When we battle discouragement, we must remember that the discouragement is in me. It's not in my surroundings. It's in me. Sometimes we feel like the discouragement that I'm battling with is really the result of my circumstances. And if I can just get out from under those circumstances, then I'll be OK. And we look at how we can maneuver things to get out of those circumstances. But folks, we must remember what we're battling those kinds of things. Discouragement is an issue of the heart. It is not an issue that has to do with my surroundings and what I find myself battling with so many times when I get faced with discouragement and the circumstances I look at are creating that discouragement in my life. I say I want to get out of that. What can I do to get out of these circumstances? That's my flesh talking to me. And sometimes I can make it work and I can pull the strings and I can get out of those circumstances. But I've not learned my lesson. I'm not dealt with the issue of my heart, and I have to remember God's not interested in changing my circumstances. God wants me to change. God wants me to get a hold of him. He wants to deal with my heart in those kinds of situations. But I don't always do that. Often I look and say, how can I get out of these circumstances? And that's exactly what Elijah is doing, a discouraged prophet. And he says, I want to get out of this. Discouragement is in me, it's not in my surroundings, it's a matter of my heart and God's wanting to change me. And then look at what Elijah does here. He begins in verse four tremendously to pity himself. And here we say, the prophet of God at one of the weakest moments of his life. And he gets to this point and he's off by himself and he says, it's enough. I just can't handle this anymore. Just take me off of the scene. You ever been that way? You ever gotten really discouraged about something and you say, I just don't want to do this anymore. Here God's brought you here and you're training for whatever the vocation that the Lord's call has in your life. And and then you go and you start training in that and it becomes challenging and you go in and here's a test and you've studied hard for that test and you go and you don't do very well. And you walk out of the classroom after you've gotten a grade and you're discouraged and you say, I just don't want to do this anymore. And someone calls from home and say, you know, we really miss you and we'd love to have you back home. And and that's just kind of pulling, pulling at you and you get discouraged and in your discouragement, you say, you know, well, maybe I just shouldn't be here. Maybe I just want to go somewhere else. And we want to just kind of give up on those things, sometimes that happens. Maybe it's in a relationship that we've got and it's there's some struggle that's going on in the relationship, which I just want to get out of this. We're having a difficult time. And here, Elijah, Elijah is just pitying himself tremendously. And here's the next principle. When we get discouraged, that discouragement I find in my life, if I pity myself, it just gets bigger. It just gets bigger if I'm struggling with discouragement and I start looking at me and I start listening to what I'm telling myself and myself is always wanting to protect itself. And so it's telling me, you know what, your life is really hard. You don't deserve those kinds of circumstances. You don't deserve what's what's happening right now. Why look at everybody else? They don't seem to be struggling that way. And look at you. And discouragement grows. When I listen to myself rather than talk to myself. And that's where Elijah is. Elijah is just looking at himself and he's looking at his circumstances and everything looks so bleak and difficult. But then we notice in the next few verses. How God deals with Elijah. When God answers Elijah, you notice the first thing that God does with Elijah is he gives him something to eat. The angel comes and says, here, get up. I want you to eat. And then he has him do the same thing again. And there's a principle about our discouragement in that. We can battle discouragement by taking care of our bodies. I know in my life, If I am dragging. I'm not eating well, I'm dragging, I'm not getting the rest of the stuff I need or you like this, but I'm that way. Everything looks bad. Everything was just gets magnified and the trouble, the difficulty, the circumstances, if I am weary. It just seems much, much bigger. That's what was going on with Elijah and God in taking care of him says, listen, Get up and eat. And that's important for me to take care of my body, to help me deal with that, but then I want you to notice in verse nine that God says to Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah, what do is down here? You can hardly remove a rebuking tone from that question. What are you doing here? And then Elijah just opens up and he just pours everything out to the Lord. But the principle number six here about our discouragement is that we battle discouragement by listening to the voice of God. We don't listen to ourselves. Ourself is always going to try to protect itself. God's wanting to work in my heart through my discouragement. He's wanting me to listen to what he's doing. And then principle number seven, he wants me to see him in that picture. And so when God is speaking to Elijah and God's wanting Elijah to listen to what he has to say and then he's trying to get Elijah to see him in the middle of that picture. And when we are battling discouragement, what we must do if you're here today and that is just a struggle of your heart. The devil just has you there and maybe it's something related to your major. Maybe it's something related to a conflict in your room. Maybe it's something related to a relationship. Maybe it's something related to something's going on in your family back home and you're just battling with discouragement. Can I challenge you this morning? See God in the middle of that. See, God, God is using these circumstances to work in me, to change me, to grow me, to mature me. He's wanting to develop his own likeness in me. You know, we all battle this thing. Charles Haddon Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers, I love reading after him. Spurgeon said this, he said, I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go. But listen to what he says. But I always get back again by this. I know that I trust Christ. I have no reliance, but in him. And if he falls, I shall fall with him. But if he does not, I shall not. Because he lives, I shall live also. And then he says that I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and get the victory through it. And then he says, and so may you do and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it. We must see God right in the middle of those things. If you're battling discouragement this morning. We often respond in one of three ways. Sometimes we battle that discouragement just by just resigning. That was Elijah's first thought, I'm quitting the profit business. I'm just going to resign. I'm getting out of this thing. That is our normal fleshly response. What are the alternatives for me to get out of this? I'm just going to resign from this. And sometimes we respond this way. Sometimes we become resigned, we're not going to quit the team, but we're going to quit caring about the team. We're not going to quit what God's doing in our life, but we're not going to be very motivated about it. We lose our sense of joy. We lose our sense of direction that God's wanting to do. Or we can respond a third way. We can resign or we can become resigned or we can, I like to say it this way, we can re sign. I am going to resign. I am going to rededicate myself. I'm going to renew my commitment to what God is wanting to do in my life here. And whatever that struggle is, God is right here in the middle of it. And God, you are bigger than anything. You have my best interest at heart. You have never acted toward me without my best interest at heart. You want to grow me through this and Lord, I'm going to help. I'm going to trust you in it. Can we do that? You battle that discouragement, don't resign and don't become resigned, resigned. God, you're in the middle of this. Help me grow through it to be more like you. You've been listening to the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was Dr. Ron Allen, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Matthews, North Carolina. For a cassette or compact disc copy of today's message, send a check for $6 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.