If you got your Bibles, hopefully you do, we're at church. But if you got a Bible with you, open it up, go to the book of Numbers with me. We are gonna look at another pathway, and this is not a fun one. I do hate Numbers, but you know, it's... No, no, numbers hate me. That's what I said, numbers hate me. But we're going to look at another pathway from the book of Numbers. And it's going to be kind of a bit of a springboard, but we're going to look at some aspects out of one particular verse. And then we'll go to a couple of other places for an alternate look of the issue. But as we're dealing with pathways, I'm not going to repeat all the ones that we've done, but we've looked at several different ones. The last one that we looked at was the pathway of decision. And that can be a tough one because sometimes it's hard to know, what decision am I supposed to make? And making the right decision really matters. But tonight, we're gonna deal with a pathway that, in all honesty, is one that every single one of us, at some point in life and sometimes multiple times in life will end up walking, and it's not necessarily by desire, all right? This is a pathway that can be very frustrating, at least for me, it can be. I really don't like this path. I can't stand it. It normally gets in the way of my plans, and that's why it actually becomes what it is. Now that I've got you confused, see if y'all can guess at what it is, all right? Go to Numbers chapter 21 and verse number 4 and verse number 5. Verse number 4, the Bible says, and they journeyed, just dealing with the children of Israel, 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 was much discouraged because of the way. Can you guess where we're going? Pathway of discouragement. And the people spake against God and against Moses, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And we're going to stop right there, but we're, and this is not going to be a lengthy message. I know we could probably go in multiple different ways in multiple different places concerning discouragement. I think right here, I believe in this passage alone, we can see some things we need to be aware of concerning discouragement, but then we're going to go to a couple of other passages as well this evening in the area of how to deal with discouragement. And I'm not even going to get close to dealing with all the different passages of Scripture that we can use to help us. There's multiple different ones. You can look at multiple different events that took place in people's lives and the things that is recorded about how they handled those issues. And we could probably gain even more knowledge concerning the fight against discouragement. But the matter of the fact is, we are all going to face and have faced discouragement. It typically, as a kid, started off with things not going the way we wanted it to. And we got discouraged. If you played sports, One of the most disheartening aspects of playing sports is when you have to lose. It's discouraging, especially if you're winning the entire game and the opposite team, they come back and they actually beat you in the last part of the game. It's very discouraging. Maybe you're on a roll with something in life, and you've had some consistency on some things, and you've got some goals, and you're hitting those goals, and it's going along good, and then one hiccup in all your plans completely messes it up, and you fail to reach your next goal. You've been working on it for so long, it's discouraging. When all of a sudden, I didn't get to where I was going. I didn't reach what I was doing. I didn't get to see the plans fulfilled. There are things in life that discourage us. And discouragement can be a pathway that leads to bitterness, or it can be just a pathway of life that we all trod, but we go through it, we learn from it, and we move on. Discouragement can go one of two ways for us in this life. It can make us bitter, or we can learn from it and make us better. So, we're gonna look at this. I'm gonna show you some things from verse number five here in Numbers 21, and then we're gonna jump to a couple of other accounts given. of folks that were dealing with discouragement or even teachings of how to handle such things. And we'll visit those things tonight and we'll wrap it up in more of a shorter scenario of a sermon as a whole. But I believe it will be very helpful for us. So let's pray and ask the Lord to help us as we look at this. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for tonight. Thank you for the chance to once again open your word. Would you help us as we look at this very real aspect of life? Lord, it is a true reality for every single one of us to face discouragement. Would you help us to see the dangers and also, Lord, exactly what we're given from your word in ways to be able to combat this aspect of life that could be detrimental to us if we let it. I pray that you would teach us something from your word that only you can. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. As we look here, I wanna first just give you, I wanna give you three things from verse number five in Numbers chapter 21, and if you're writing, taking notes, you put number one, okay? Number one, here is the thing about discouragement, the dangers in discouragement, okay? Dangers in discouragement. The first danger we find in verse number five of Numbers 21 is where The people give evidence that if you're not careful, discouragement can lead to blaming God and blaming others. And that's what we see, the initial thing with the children of Israel. They had just fought the Canaanites and utterly destroyed them and their cities, and they'd seen victory, and they turned right around. In verse number four, they journey from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom. And in that journey, they hit a discouragement. They come across an area where there's no food, there's no water, it seems dry, it seems barren, it's... this is not really... I mean, we just came out of a great, great aspect of victory. Why do we have to go through this? Y'all ever had times in your life where you're on the mountaintop and all of a sudden you turn around and you're like, why? Why are we in the valley right now? Things were going so good. And so, let's just be honest, have you ever gotten to a point where you just wanted to say, you know, I just wanted a little bit of space where nothing was bending, breaking, and blowing up? I mean, it'd be nice just to have a little bit of space when something isn't falling apart. Yeah. We have an ever-growing list of things that, you know, projects here at the church. One of those things... Poor Brother Rick, I'm not even going to go there. But he's had some experiences recently too. But here's the thing, we're working on the playground, and we're working on other things, and trying to get things over at Bethel Haven rolling, and in the midst of all those things going on, We're getting ready for school the other week. I think I mentioned something about all this happening. I still haven't cleaned this up yet, but we were getting ready for school. I'm cutting ends off of, matter of fact, it was Brother Rick's, the book that we have for the children's church, the next, I cut the binding off the back for you. Yeah, I did it that day on my big cutter over there that I use every now and then. and did it that day and cut it. And we had other things going on. And then my wife comes later that day and says, what did you do? What did I do? Actually, I don't think she said it that way. But she said, did you see that room? I'm like. Yeah, I was just in that room a little while earlier today. I cut the paper, everything's fine. I mean, I could probably clean it up a little bit. Clean it up a little bit? Have you seen in there? I'm like, it's not that bad. Have you seen? No? Yeah, it's my version. This is the way it translated. And I have multiple translations in life. But as a whole, she took me back there. I'm like, what in the world happened? The entire ceiling fell in. And that storage room we got the extra chairs in and some different stuff. And I had just been in there, thank the Lord it didn't fall in when I was beneath it because I'm talking about the lights, everything came crashing and it all came tumbling down. All right, but I mean, it is absolute mess in there. And evidently a couple of the center wires that are holding up the mains for the entire drop ceiling pulled out of the ceiling. and the rest of them couldn't hold the weight, and the whole thing snapped off the end lines that were holding it up, and it just came crashing down. I still haven't cleaned that up. That was two weeks ago? Longer, three weeks ago? We haven't gotten around to that project. See, that project was not on the list. There was no problems in that room And we already had a list of things to do. And then that got added on. And then the other day, we had the lightning storm that happened. And we all around, you all hear that massive strike that happened right over here. I mean, not too far over here. Ever since that happened, I've been having wacky stuff with all of our stuff. I got like two cameras that won't come back on. I don't know what's going on with that. I mean, after a while, you're like, Lord, time out. Okay. Let us catch up before you add more to the list, please. But there are times when life, no matter what, this is not the path I chose. This is not the direction I wanted. This is not what I need right now. Y'all ever had that? Y'all ever notice that it's never convenient for inconvenient things to happen? I know that's deep, that's real deep, but it is never convenient for the inconvenient things to happen, and nothing bad ever happens when it's a good time for it to happen. I don't know what's up with that, but those things are what lead to discouragement. And by the way, if you haven't noticed, typically when you're already struggling with something, the adversary would love to go ahead and kick you while you're down too. There are times when in no relation to what's going on, but you're already discouraged, you're already having struggles. And then in the midst of that, Satan comes and starts playing with your mind. And starts associating some things that have nothing to do with each other and starts tying a whole bunch of things together in your mind like it's one big conspiracy against you. You ever face that kind of stuff? No, never, never. But when we're discouraged, we're at a low point and a weak point. And when we are weak in mind through discouragement, we are vulnerable to attack. And that is when Satan loves to play games in the minds of God's people. And with that, he not only playing those games, but he begins to try to infuse thoughts that just pour gasoline on the fire. So discouragement can be very dangerous. And the children of Israel here in verse number five, the first thing they do in this moment of discouragement, they just had great victory. They just saw some good things happen. Now they're traveling from one place to the other, continue on with what they're supposed to do. And they're going to move on to this next place. And in moving this next place, they go across a void, an area of emptiness, and it gets hard, and it's dusty, and it's difficult, and they get discouraged. And the first thing they do in their discouragement is one of the first dangers we need to be aware of. It says, and the people spake against God and against Moses. They began to start blaming and attacking God and attacking those whom God had placed in authority. And may I say with this, it doesn't have to be authority. It could just be anybody around that we can point the finger to, to find somewhere where we can point out why this is happening. Well, if so-and-so would have checked on that, the ceiling wouldn't have fallen in. Really? Nobody knew it was gonna fall in. How can you blame anybody for it? Well, if the jokers who actually installed it years ago would have done it right. Might've been some of you around here, I don't know, but Sonny, was that your job? Did you do that? But, I love picking on him. But here's the thing. We can point fingers and we can attack and we can blame But sometimes things just happen. Now listen, the one thing we can say too is, though we look at it as a way of trying to qualify and say things just happen, and I'm not trying to contradict myself here, but if you really get down to it in a spiritual sense, the way a child of God should consider things, We have to come to a conclusion, too, that things do just happen, but they don't just happen for no reason. God always understands and knows and is aware of what he's allowing to happen. Am I happy about the additional things that we have on the list that I was not planning on having to try to do, which is now making it more difficult to figure out, do we do this first or do that first? I mean, how do we fix? It just seems like, turn around, we can't even hardly, I'm not complaining, I'm just saying, the mind does this sometimes. We can't even work on the additional things of putting together better for the ministries because we're trying to fix what keeps falling apart. There's only so many hours in a day. I mean, I think poor brother Tim Helms, we gotta call him again. Call him again, call him again, call him again. It's out again. It froze up again. Help! Okay, the teachers are sweating. But we got one brand new unit, it's working great. One older unit that's actually not really all that old, but now it's freezing up, just as school's starting. And they've come out three times, I think, already, and still can't seem to get the thing to work right. And they say there's nothing else showing it's a problem, so he's gonna get to come back out again and look at it again. And after a while, you're like, why? Why? Just let something grow smooth. But if we're not careful, we will, in discouragement, get an attitude and start trying to find someone we can point a finger at. This is your fault. Your fault. No, it's your fault. And sometimes we're not careful, it gets so bad, we look in the mirror and we say, It's your fault. And then we start piling on ourselves and attacking inwardly. By the way, I just get a picture for the child of God. I got a picture when that starts happening with a child of God and we start lashing out and lashing inwards because of discouragement. I just get a picture that Satan sits back and just absolutely laughs himself silly. I mean, can you not picture the adversary sitting back and just with glee enjoying the torture and the wrong mindset that begins to set into a child of God's mind where they become no effect whatsoever for the cause of Christ because they're so discouraged and they're starting to point fingers. They're so negative outwardly. They start turning negative inwardly. Next thing you know, they just quit on God completely because God can't even use me anyways. And the adversary sits back and says, man, this is great. I'm enjoying this. I love watching their misery. So discouragement, dangers and discouragement, blaming God and others is one of the first steps when we face discouragement if we're not being careful. But then we see another aspect. In verse number five, they say, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water. And they start grumbling. Grumble, I think of Pass the Pirate song, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. He had some cute songs, but you get grumbly and complain, I say you, we, we, we, I'm there, I'm with you. We get really grumbly and then we just get grumpy. We sour, you wanna put it that way? We begin to sour. grumbling and complaining and then after a while you can't see anything good happening because all you can notice is the bad. Why? Because we get into a negative spirit and just everything's horrible, everything's awful. And they look at that, there's no water, there's no food, there's no nothing. Why did you do this to us? Grumbling, grumbling, blaming God, blaming others, grumbling and complaining. And then they present another aspect in that last statement. It says, and our soul loatheth this light bread. Time out, time out, time out, time out. Just a moment ago, they said, for there is no bread. And then they admit and say, our soul loatheth this light bread. I thought you said there's no bread. No, what it comes down to is they're unthankful. They're discouraged. And now what they do have, I don't want this. We deserve better. This light bread, by the way, this daily miracle that you provide for us in the midst of a place where we should never receive this, we receive the daily miracle of bread every single morning and we're so sick and tired of it. It's bland. It has no flavor. It's not even real bread. I can't believe it's not bread. Y'all get it, all right. But it's not even the real stuff. Our soul loatheth. I just think, bleh, bleh, bleh. I look at it and I'm like, ugh. It's kinda like me with bologna. I used to be okay with bologna, I really did. I can do it some now, but we went through a season. As a pastor's family, my dad was bivocational, working at a grocery store, thus the bologna. But working at a grocery store, and we didn't have enough money for much of anything, so we're starting a church, he's working, don't have much, but we barely swicking by, we had bologna for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Do you know how many ways you can have bologna? We figured it out. Whatever you do, don't puree it, okay? But as a whole, there's so much, there's so much that you can do with bologna, and after a while, you just can't do bologna anymore, all right? So for a while there, when somebody said, you're full of bologna, I'm like, yeah, you got that right, okay? But as a whole, honestly, for a long time, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. You go for two years eating breakfast, lunch, and supper bologna. After a while, I don't care what they call it, that's bologna. That's nasty. I just can't do it. Now again, it's gotten better. I guess my body has acclimated back to not loathing it so much, but I understand the loathing of something. You have it so much, but here's the thing. God had provided for them that they would never go hungry, And they get to the point where now they're discouraged, they're blaming God, they're blaming Moses, they're blaming anybody but themselves as to why they're in this condition. And then in the midst of that discouragement, they start grumbling and complaining about all that they don't have. And then they openly say, and we don't even like what you did give us. I'm so sick and tired of what we do have. Instead of looking and saying, at least we still have the manna, they said, we're just tired of it. It's old, it's nothing new. We need new and fancy and please do a new miracle for us. But through this discouragement, they are blaming, grumbling, and unthankful. And that's the pathway of discouragement that will lead you to souring, turning bitter, and as a Christian, going bad. Discouragement is a real thing that everybody faces. How we face it makes the difference. Those dangers, by the way, those dangers led to the Lord sending fiery serpents in their midst. You think it's bad now? Wait until the consequences of letting discouragement take you down a deep hole and becoming one who blames God, grumbles, and is unthankful for what he does provide. The Lord said, okay, I've had enough. I have been so gracious to you people. And he said, your words are like, it's like poison. So I'm gonna send poison in your midst. You're gonna get the snake. the serpent, and he's gonna bite you, and you're gonna die. By the way, it was at that timeframe that Moses was instructed to create the serpent of brass and put it on a pole and raise it up in the midst of the people, in the midst of the camp, and the whole encouragement, look and live. All you got, by the way, I remind you, No one in the entire, there's no way that everyone in the entire camp could have looked and seen the serpent from the distance, the far outreaches that the camp would have gone. There's no way that anyone on the far outstretches of all that with all the tents and all the people and the distance alone, no one would have had a good enough vision to be able to see a serpent on a pole in the middle of the camp from so far away. And you say, well, then what was their hope? It wasn't a matter of seeing what was there, it was a matter of looking by faith knowing it was. Same thing is true today. It's not a matter of, well, show me that he actually died on a cross. I can't, we weren't there. But we can still look back to where it happened, where that timeframe where he died on the cross, and you can still look and live. And it's faith, by the way, it is faith that overcomes discouragement. Now, here's just some things. Go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 30, okay? So those are the dangers, dangers and discouragement. I imagine we could probably pull out several more from other places, but we're not going to tonight. But go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 30. I want to give you three passages that deal with the overcoming of discouragement. Now we know faith. Faith can overcome, yes. But as a whole, I want to show you some evidence. This one's very familiar. We know this one. If you know anything about the life of David, you know when this took place. You know what happened. here with David, and they are, him and his men are discouraged. They've gotten kicked out from the Philistine army. The Philistines have told them, you're not going to fight with us. Well, that's kind of smart, because David, they're going to fight against Israel. And the lords of Philistine said, I don't care, I don't care how much you trust this guy, he's part of that crew. Who's to say in the middle of the battle, he doesn't side, he doesn't want to kill his own people, and he turns on us. Uh-uh, send him home. So here's David, he's there to fight with the people who have shown him and his outcast some kindness and given him a home to live. And he's gonna be there and he's gonna keep his word to fight alongside. And he's there to show that he is honest about his promises. And here he is, he gets turned away. He gets sent home. He's like, what did I do? Doesn't matter what you did, they don't trust you, go home, y'all get out of here. So they go home and they get home to find their home has been attacked while they've been gone. And when they get home and find their home is attacked, everything is burned, it's all in ashes and everybody that matters anything to them and anything of value that they own has been taken and everything is gone or destroyed. and they get back and all of a sudden the entire group of men that are with David now are discouraged, they're distraught. How would you be? Think about it. You find out that a whole army came through while you were gone like cowards and literally stripped your homes, took your families and burned everything behind them so you had nothing left. And here you are now, you're left with all this and there's nothing here. You arrived back with your men. You went to war, didn't even get to fight. You got turned away because nobody trusted you. Now you're coming home with your tail between your legs and you show up and there's nothing left. His entire group of men now also distraught. David's distraught. They're all wondering, what are we going to do? And in the midst of that, you end up with verse number six of chapter 30. It says, and David was greatly distressed. That's another word for extremely discouraged. for the people spake of stoning him. Well, if it wasn't bad enough, he lost everything. Now his own men, they said, we're behind you, David. You're our leader. And they're like, hey, y'all, let's kill him. This is all, by the way, they're discouraged. What's the first thing they do? Start blaming somebody. It's his fault. This is all his fault. We've been following him. Look what happened to us. So they got discouraged, they blame David, they speak of stoning David. And David, you can imagine, is now worse off for wear because not only is he discouraged, but now he doesn't even have others that are with him. He is all alone. He is on an island by himself in that midst of all the problems. He's dealing with the same hurt they're dealing with, but now his own life is in jeopardy by the men that said they were behind him and were his friends. Imagine it kind of somewhat what Job kind of felt like. And so here's David, he's hurting like everybody else, and now he's hurting and fearful. And so they spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. I did notice, here's a light note, y'all ready for this? I find it interesting. that it said that their soul was grieved every man for his sons and his daughters, but it never mentions the wives. I just find that to be interesting. That was free, okay? Don't read into that, okay? Y'all go with me. All right, back to our message. Previously scheduled programming, okay? But their grief, their families, they're hurting for all they've lost and now David's life is in danger. But the key is at the end here. What was David's action in the midst of discouragement? Bible says, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. It was David's determination to keep his focus in one direction. when David could have looked at all that's going on around him, which he was distressed. He did know what was happening. I mean, he wasn't ignorant to what was going on. He was fully aware. And as he looked around, he realized there's nothing here that's gonna help me. So David turns to focusing on the Lord, his God. And he puts his entire mindset and his entire focus there on Reminding himself who God is, reminding himself what God has done, reminding himself that the God he serves is bigger than the problems he's faced. He faced a giant that was bigger than him and God was bigger than the giant. He faced a king that was doing him wrong and could hunt him down at any moment, yet he served a God that constantly protected him from a king that had no right to be angry with him. And David has been an outcast, David has dealt with sorrows, David has had to have ways of taking care of his parents when he couldn't do it for himself, which was added sorrow upon sorrow. And yet, this whole time, David looking back and remembering God has been there, God has helped, God has directed, God has always had an answer for every obstacle I faced. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. His focus had to be removed from the environment that discouraged him and put on the only one that honestly he found nothing to be discouraged about. So he focused there and encouraged himself in those things concerning the Lord his God. That is David's action to face discouragement. What about Paul's directive? Go to Philippians 4. We're almost done, believe it or not. Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 8, but it's actually a couple of verses even before that. Paul is writing here. And we know this passage well, but I'm gonna start in verse number four of Philippians four. And Paul is presenting to them as he's closing out this letter to the church at Philippi, he's presenting to them several things that he wants to encourage them or Paul's directive. He's wanting to direct them in a mindset that will help them as they go through life. He says, starting in verse number four, chapter four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice. That's a good starting point for any pathway of discouragement. By the way, it's when we feel the least like rejoicing, we probably ought to put the most effort into trying. It's when you don't want to do something you know needs to be done is when you need to put the most effort into it. So when I feel, everything is hit, everything is awful, discouragement is the path I'm walking, and I don't feel like singing, I don't feel like rejoicing, there's nothing to rejoice about, that is the moment that of all times that we need, listen, if you're ever gonna listen to music or listen to songs that will uplift and encourage you about what God has done, what God can do, who he has promised to be, When we are discouraged, listen, there are times when we are discouraged, we don't wanna hear it. But that is not the leading of the Lord in your life, that is leading of the adversary trying to get you to find a deeper and deeper hole. And so in the midst of discouragement, one of the best things you can do is find, I don't know if y'all know this song, but find songs that go like this. No need to doubt him now. He'll make a way somehow. That's the kind of music. There's another song. Didn't I walk on the water? Didn't I calm the raging sea? I spoke to the wind. It hushed and I gave you peace. Didn't I come to your rescue? Didn't I hear you when you called? I walked right beside you so you wouldn't fall. Didn't I leave all of heaven just to die for your sin? I searched until I found you and I'd do it all again. There are times we just need to find some good, godly music. and put on a repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and just let several different songs that can uplift the child of God, by the way, to stop looking at here and start looking there. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. That's part of it, but then here, Paul is saying, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand, be careful for nothing. That word careful, it basically is the word anxious. Okay, being care filled. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Why is that there? Because what's one of the dangers of discouragement? Unthankfulness. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. God, help! Okay, that's great, but make sure that you bring in all the elements that are required when you come before his presence. And it goes on in verse number seven, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Boy, if there's two things that discouragement attacks, it's your mind and it's your heart. Your mind and your emotions, it'll tear us up. Discouragement is a path you cannot avoid, but it will kill you if you don't walk it properly. And so he tells them, by doing this, that the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And here's the verse, verse number eight. Finally, brethren, Whatsoever things are true. By the way, this is Paul's prescription, okay? This is the official prescription for facing almost everything in life. especially discouragement. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. You gotta get the mindset right. If the mind does not get right in the midst of discouragement, discouragement will lead to bitterness. So instead of blaming and grumbling and being unthankful, take action like David and encourage yourself by focusing back on the Lord. Take the directive from Paul and add all these things whatsoever are true, things are honest, things are just, things that are pure, things that are lovely, things that are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these. Things, there's your list, there's our list of things to get our focus where it ought to be. And then I'll close with this, John 16.33, you ready? John 16.33, here's another, just one of those passages of scripture that we can go back to and we can encourage ourselves with from the very words of Christ himself. John 16.33, we are told by Christ, And you'll recognize it as soon as I start reading it, all right? These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Where do you think discouragement comes from? In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Ultimately, when we face discouragement, now listen, you say, preacher, you gotta figure out, is this how you handle everything? Not every time, trust me. You could ask my wife, but I tell you, don't do it, all right? Do I handle discouragement the way I ought to every time? Nope. Nope, but lately in a lot of things that I've been dealing with, I was telling them how long the Lord has been infusing into me a new knowledge of that nasty little word that starts with P. Patience. And may I say in the midst of having to learn patience, I've had numerous times of discouragement. Are you kidding? Really? Come on! All right? And I don't always face it like David and like Paul encouraged. And I don't always look at it from the aspect of what Christ said, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. There are some things I'm looking at and say, I can't be cheerful about that. Oh, by the way, go back to the verse where it says, in everything give thanks. Again, we know this, not for everything, not because of everything, but in everything. That is a position, okay? It's not a thing you're focused on that you're giving thanks for, it's a position of focus. It doesn't matter where I'm at, doesn't matter what I'm going through, I can be thankful. I can find something to be thankful for. And yes, I am preaching to myself as much as I am to anybody else. We all need the reminder because discouragement is going to be a pathway we have to walk. You might walk it multiple times a day. You might go a couple of days where things seem to be going great. And before the week is out, trust me, your adversary would like nothing better than to throw something your way that's discouraging. It could be somebody getting injured and end up in a hospital. It could be going out as simple as going out and going to crank your car and click, click. No! It could be one of the funny ones that I had a while back, going to cut the grass and I get nothing out of my mower. I mean nothing. And I'm like, what's wrong with this thing? It has been cranking all the time. I don't need this. I'm in a hurry. I don't have much time. I'm trying to cut it before the sun sets and it's already going down. You know, I set my time and I had everything right there and then I get over there and it won't crank. There's not even a click, nothing. And I'm looking all around trying to figure out what is going on with this. So I'm gonna jump it off, right? I look down there, where's the battery? Then I look down and I realize something doesn't look right down here. I found my battery. It fell off. And it fell onto the deck. And the belt that runs the deck blades cut through it. I mean, slapped through the battery, straight through the battery acid, straight through the metal, straight through everything, and the belt was fine. It's super belt. I'm still using the same belt, okay? It literally cut that battery in half. I took the battery off. Honestly, at that point, I couldn't even be discouraged. I was so in awe. I'm like, now that's impressive. As I took that battery off, we took it down to O'Reilly's, and I just put up there, I said, I think I got a problem. Can you tell me what it is? For some reason, my battery won't work. And they looked at it and they didn't know what to say. They had never seen anything like that before. I got a new battery, put it on there, guess what? It worked, yay, okay. But as a whole, I mean, the moment you think you got a plan and it falls apart, discouragement hits. And it's typically at the least helpful time. But no matter what you do in life, no matter how good you try to hold everything together, you are going to walk the path of discouragement. you are gonna face discouragement. The question is not, the question is not, will I ever have to deal with this? No, no, it's not, will I ever have to deal with discouragement? The question is, how will I deal with discouragement? I can point fingers and blame. I can grumble and be unthankful and take the path that leads to sour and bitterness. Or I can take some initiative as David and encourage myself by focusing on the Lord. I can then go ahead and take the directives from Paul and say, okay, I've got a whole bunch of stuff that's crowding my mind, all these negative things right now. This has destroyed my entire plan. I can either focus on that or I can say, okay, Lord, That's where everything's a pure, just, honest, good report, lovely. Lord, I need a new list of things to think on. I need your help, Lord, to think on some things. It may just be, Lord, I need you to bring some songs to mind. I need to start playing some specific songs just to remind me of the goodness of the Lord, the goodness of the Lord, the goodness of the Lord. By the way, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Don't let discouragement destroy you. It's a pathway you have to walk. Everyone's gonna walk it. Just be sure we walk it the right way. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word.