I know I've preached on suffering and just different things that have gone on, but I wanted to look at the other side of things today, and just kind of, you know, this topic came to mind. So, Deuteronomy chapter 3, if you want to open your Bibles, let's take a look down in verse 23, and we'll begin reading in verse 23. This is Moses, of course, talking with the Lord. It's at the end of You know, at the end of the children of Israel's journey through the wilderness, they're getting ready to go into the promised land. And Moses says this, and I besought the Lord at that time saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand for what God is there in heaven or on earth that can do according to thy works and according to thy might. I pray thee, Let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain in Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not hear me. And the Lord said unto me, let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter. Bummer. And lift up thine eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward and behold it with thine eyes for thou shall not go over this Jordan. But, and here's the good part that comes along, but charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him For he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. So we abode in the valley over against Beth Peor. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer here as we get started. Our Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for an opportunity to be back here on a Sunday morning. Lord, it is a good thing to see a bunch of people that have taken time out of their schedule and just overcome, I'm sure, different things in the world. To be able to come to church and hear the Word of God preached, get together and sing praises unto your name. And Father, to spend a little bit of time in worship, to their God. I am grateful that they chose to do this. I know there are others that would like to be here that for whatever reason couldn't. Pray, Father, you would be with them and encourage them as well. Again, Father, we're just grateful that you're a merciful God, that you take care of us. And we're grateful, Father, that that you sent your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. What a great price you paid. What a great gift we received, and we thank you for it. We pray that what we might say and do here this morning might be pleasing unto your ears, and it might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' name, and amen. So here, Moses has been through an awful lot. He has led the children of Israel for some 40-plus years. And now we're getting down to the end of Moses' life. The Lord's getting ready to take him up to Mount Pisgah, and Moses is going to die. But before all that happens, the Lord gives Moses a command. And that command is to go and encourage Joshua. Amen? That is something special that the Lord gave Moses to do, and I'm sure Moses took that charge very seriously. Now, I don't know how Moses encouraged Joshua. I don't know how much time he spent with Joshua before he went up to Mount Pisgah. I don't know if Moses sat down and had a regular meeting with him. I don't know if it was just a one-time meeting or if it was over the course of time. I'm sure Moses had been an encouragement to Joshua for 40 plus years, just like Joshua had been an encouragement to him. But nonetheless, the Lord saw fit to give Moses this special charge and say, Moses, I want you to go over and I want you to encourage Joshua, because Joshua is getting ready to take on an awful big project. Amen? So I've titled this message this morning simply Encouragement. Encouragement. There's a lot of different things and a lot of different ways that you can approach the topic of encouragement. But I decided to keep it relatively simple this morning. And when it comes to encouragement, I found a few things in the Bible, and I came up with three things. three simple things that you and I can do, that you and I can do and that will allow us to raise up and be counted with those that made a difference in Christianity. I mean, Moses has given this charge to Joshua and Joshua was getting ready to take over. And folks, what Moses did to Joshua, you know, made a huge impact on Joshua's life. All right? So I came up with three things when it comes to encouragement here that you and I can do. And brethren, you may not realize it. You realize it when you're on the receiving end. Sometimes we forget to be on the giving end of encouragement. But I came up with three things that you and I can do that will make a big difference in our Christianity in 2021 and 2022 and 2023 until the Lord returns, amen, to get us out of here. One of the first things, brethren, that you can do is quite simply this. You can encourage a leader. you can encourage a leader. It says in Deuteronomy 328, we read that, but charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him. Joshua has obviously established himself as a leader in general among the nation of Israel. He was one of the 12 spies that went in to spy out the land some 40 years ago when, you know, when we're at this point in the Bible right here where we're reading this passage. And he was one of the two, obviously, that came back with a good report. Amen? He wanted to follow God and go into the land. Caleb was the other one that wanted to follow God and go into the land. They were ready to charge a land and take it over. You remember the story. He is, when you read through the history of Israel back there in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua is there during the battles. He's out in front leading the battles. I mean, Joshua is a leader. Joshua is somebody that's always in the forefront of things. He's there to help Moses. Joshua is one of those major figures. And that's why he's being elevated to this position of leadership. And that's what's getting ready to happen here. And now, here he is. He's about to become the next leader of the nation of Israel. Ladies and gentlemen, any kind of leadership position like that, rather it's in your family, rather it's of a church, rather it's of a business, whatever the case is, any type of leadership position like that is a difficult role to fill. Amen? I know that you guys are aware of a lot of it. Some of you may not be as familiar with leadership roles as others, but leadership requires a reliance on God that is not easily achieved. Amen? I mean it takes, you know, Joshua is one of those men that, you know, he stood out when it comes to having faith in God and listening to God and trying to follow God's will. Leadership, if you're going to do it right, requires a reliance on God that It takes some time and some work and effort and a lot of failure to achieve. Leadership requires a positive attitude about things, even, quite frankly, when you may have doubts yourself inside. That's something that's just required out of a leader. Leadership requires an inner strength and an inner confidence that ultimately must come from the Lord God, obviously, but nonetheless, that strength and that confidence is going to be tested in a very earthly way over and over and over again. Right? These are just some things that are required when it comes to taking on a role of leadership. Listen, leadership requires a constant self-evaluation and an acknowledgment of your own failures and faults. It is not a pleasant thing. If you're going to lead, you've got to be able to look at yourself in an honest light and kind of evaluate, hey, how am I doing? All right, Lord, how am I doing? Right? That's not an easy thing for a leader to be able to do, yet it is critical and necessary if you're going to be successful. Listen, leadership requires a servant's heart. Amen? It requires a true desire to minister to people that appreciate your efforts, as well as minister to those that would take advantage of your kindness and your giving nature. Amen? That's leadership. You get the whole gamut. And you have to be prepared to take the whole thing. Leadership requires a vision. It requires discernment from God for the direction of that vision. And we could sit here and probably go on and on and on and on about different things that are required when it comes to leadership. But those are just a few things that a leader has to deal with on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis. Leadership is a heavy burden to bear. Hey, listen, that goes for pastors, for Sunday school teachers, for deacons, for fathers, for bosses. There's leadership in a lot of different positions, a lot of different places you don't think about. And if you're going to fulfill that calling in that office, you're going to have that burden placed upon you. Now, I don't claim by any stretch of the imagination to have all those attributes down packed in my life. I'm still working on a lot of them. I know a lot of them. I've experienced some of them. But there are some that I feel like I fail at miserably. But that's OK. You probably do, too. Amen? We're all in this thing together. Yet the Lord has called me to this office, and he's called you to different positions of leadership that you have in the body of Christ or in your family. And like I said, for many of you, those positions involve leading other people, right? And you know what every one of us needs a little bit of along the way? We need a little bit of encouragement. Amen? A little encouragement. Take a look at Deuteronomy chapter 1. You'll see this again between Moses and Joshua. Deuteronomy chapter 1. Look down at verse 34. There shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I swear to give unto your fathers, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, now also shall not go in thither. But Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Once again, you have the Lord giving Moses this instructions to encourage Joshua. I mean, leaders oftentimes need a little bit of encouragement along the way. Encouragement to do the right thing. Encouragement to go down the right path. Sometimes they need a little push and shove to get outside the box and take on the challenges that that they're faced with. I am sure that most of you have heard of a gentleman called Chesty Poehler. I know that I've preached about him before. But he was a famous Marine that served as an inspiration for probably every Marine that's ever been alive since Chesty was a Marine, right? He was in the Marine Corps for 37 years of service. He would rise from the ranks from private all the way up to a general. And he became the most decorated Marine in American history, winning five Navy crosses. To give you an idea what a Navy Cross is, a Navy Cross is the medal right below the Medal of Honor. He won five of them. And they say that several of those probably should have been Medal of Honors, except for the fact that he wasn't very politically correct a lot of times. I can't even imagine. Five. Navy crosses. Here's one example of the types of things that Chesty Poehler did. During World War II, he was a commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, and his men were tasked with making an amphibious assault on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal. Two companies of his men had hit the beach and almost immediately ran into a force of Japanese infantry much larger than they expected to and much larger than what they were actually prepared for. And those Marines were faced with, you know, a pretty dire circumstance. That invasion force was cut off immediately. It was surrounded by the Japanese soldiers. And those soldiers were attacking mercilessly those men. And Chessie Puller realized he had to get his men out of there or they were just going to be wiped out. Another group of Marines tried to break through the Japanese flank and reach the stranded men. But the enemy resistance at this point in time was just too strong. The Japanese were too well fortified. And Chesty Polar went to his commander. And you know what the commander said? Chesty Polar's boss? He said the invasion force, they were cut off. They were surrounded by the enemy. And again, he was trying to get something done. And the commander of the operation told Chesty Polar this. He said, it's hopeless. There is no way we're going to be able to get those Marines out of there. They're cut off, they're surrounded, they're being attacked, they're being bombarded. The Japanese are entirely too well fortified and there is no way we can get enough people in there to save those Marines. Chessie Puller did not like defeat. He slammed his fist down on the table and immediately stormed out of the camp. And he went toward the beach where he saw a United States Navy destroyer. And here he is, a Marine, and he goes over and somehow or another he gets to talking to this commander, this captain of this destroyer, and he convinces this captain of this destroyer to help him. He gets on this destroyer and they head on out into the water and he brings that destroyer in and starts, you know, guiding the gunfire and they just shell and shell and shell and shell this Japanese position until they obliterated it. I mean, he took over a Navy destroyer. And they got those Marines out. That's the kind of thing that a little bit of encouragement will do. Here he is. He's faced with an impossible situation. It's hopeless. His boss told him they were going to die. There's nothing we can do about it. And he goes out of his way and he encourages another leader. the captain of this Navy vessel, who doesn't have any orders to do what this Marine Lieutenant Colonel wants him to do. It's not part of the battle plan. He's probably got his own, you know, his own orders and what he's supposed to be doing with his ship, and yet Chesty Poehler encourages this Navy captain to take a destroyer of all things and bring its full power to bear so that he could protect those Marines that were in his in his command. And he pulled it off. He pulled it off. They threw everything they had at the Japanese, and they managed to get out of there, and they managed to pull those Marines out and escape. One week after this defeat, Chesty Poehler and his men would return to that same place and win the battle. Well, you say, what is that? Hey, that's a, that's a, that's a leader being encouraged. That Navy captain had this, this, this Marine, crazy Marine of all things. Very unorthodox, very unpolitically correct Marine, somehow or another got on this, aboard this destroyer and convinced this captain to take his whole ship and do this. That's what, that's what happens when a leader gets encouraged. Amen? You know, coupled with a tenacity that he had that is just unbelievable. Listen, it's amazing what can happen when someone goes out of their way to be an encouragement to a leader. Amen? Now you guys are great at encouraging me. I want to thank you for that. It is a blessing. I receive, you know, a lot of encouragement from you. And it is a blessing to serve with a bunch of Christians that have that mindset. And I thank you for that. But I would challenge, I would challenge you to do this. Encourage other leaders that are around you and over you. Why? Because there's some pretty amazing things that can be done when somebody takes the time to encourage a leader. And that's what Moses was doing to Joshua. Wives, you know what? Encourage your husbands. He's supposed to be the leader, right? I tell you what, it's amazing what your husband may be able to do with a little bit of encouragement from his wife. Children, encourage your parents. Kids, like I said, encourage your parents. Encourage your brothers and sisters. Encourage your Sunday school teachers. Make it a habit to be encouraging to those leaders that are over you in different aspects of your life. You'd be amazed what can be done if you take on that mindset. You say, how can I do that? How can I be an encouragement to this leader that you look up to a lot of times? Well, one of the ways you can do that is don't accept defeat. Don't be the one that quits. Don't be the one that lays down when things get tough. Remember, this is a spiritual battle that we're in when it comes to Christianity, amen? And the devil is not going to win, ultimately. I mean, I've read the Bible, and I read the last chapter. I know how things turn out, amen? So we don't have anything to be afraid of. Right? If we're a casualty of war, okay, so be it. That's the Lord's choice. But I know how the battle ends. And I know that we're on the winning side. And because of that, listen, I can stand up and I can be an encouragement to leaders. Right? And so can you. Don't accept defeat. Another way that you can be an encouragement is encourage those that lead so that the mission that they're trying to achieve can be accomplished. Encourage them by being dependable, by being there, day in, day out, by coming to service. You don't know what an encouragement it is. I know you've heard it said before from the pulpit, but it's a blessing to have people just sitting in the seats for service. I mean, that's huge. You come to church, and there's like two people over there, one in the center, and three over there. And you go, ugh. But you come, and you got a lot of people that just decided to take a little bit of time out of their day and come to service and just be here. You know what that is? Man, that's an encouragement. Amen? Just by, how can you encourage leaders? Well, just by being dependable. By being the one, by being someone that is willing to step up to the plate and give it a try even when others won't. What are we talking about? We're talking about just being an encouragement to leaders. You know, wives, you'd be surprised how much of a help you can be by just standing fast and being faithful and rising up and encouraging your husband along the way. You can be an encouragement by being one that prays for the leader. Amen? And I know a lot of you out there pray for me all the time, and I appreciate it. There's a lot of people that we need to pray for, right? It's our job to be an encouragement to our leaders, whoever that is. mom, dad, boss, whatever, whatever setting, whatever scenario you're in, you have the ability to be an encouragement to that leader. How can you be an encouragement to the leader? Well, listen, stand by your leaders even when everything looks completely hopeless. That's a tough one. Like I said, I know how the story ends, right? I know who wins this spiritual battle in the end. I know that we're on the winning side. And you know what? When you get in the middle of some of the battles and it looks like everything's going wrong, it looks like everything's against you, it's real easy to be discouraged and to pull back and go, that guy's crazy. I don't know if I want to go there. Don't be that guy. Don't be that guy. Why? We know how it ends. Look at how many times through the Bible the battle seemed to be hopeless. But yet the Lord stepped in and intervened. And when the Lord steps in and intervened, guess what? I know how the story ends. Amen? We're on the winning side. Listen, stand by your leaders even when it looks like everything is hopeless. You may just turn things around by your attitude and your encouragement. You may be the one that just kind of gives that leader that little bit of extra oomph because at least somebody's standing with them in the middle of the battle. Amen? The other option is what a lot of the children of Israel did to Moses. They turned their back on him and they wanted to kill him. Right? What are we talking about here? We're talking about being an encouragement. I know this. I know that when all the other Israelites wanted to quit, Joshua and Caleb stood strong. Amen? Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report Joshua and Caleb were ready to go in and fight even though they were as grasshoppers in their sight Even though they saw all the Giants in the land Joshua and Caleb came back and they came back with that good report and They stood by Moses and they stood by God and they were willing to fight And the Lord rewarded them for that Forty years later, Joshua becomes the next leader. Caleb winds up getting that mountain that he was promised. The Lord allowed Joshua and Caleb to go into the promised land, and everybody else who was 20 years old and up did not go. The Lord rewards that stuff. Why? Because listen, they were an encouragement to Moses along the way. Amen? When it comes to encouragement, one of the things that you can do, one point, 11.45, sorry. One of the things you can do is you can encourage a leader. I'll tell you another thing you can do, you can encourage a follower. Amen? Listen, at any given time, there's always many more followers than there are leaders. Followers are the true backbone of anything that gets accomplished. In fact, a person really needs to learn to be a good follower before they can ever hope to become a good leader. Amen? We know that. I mean, it's been said, and I've probably mentioned it before, but if you're leading and nobody's following, all you're doing is taking a walk. Amen? So if you and I can encourage the rank and file, the common person that's in the trenches, so to speak, listen, you have a huge impact on the overall mission of what goes on. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 31. 2 Chronicles chapter 31. Now, when this was finished, All Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and this is verse 1, and break the images in pieces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim also and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possessions and to their own cities. And Hezekiah, king, right? King Hezekiah, appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses and every man according to his service the priests and the Levites for a burnt offerings for peace offerings to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates and the tents of the Lord for the sake of time I'm gonna hurry look at verse 4 Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites and that they might be encouraged in the law. So here you have this big revival going on, you have Hezekiah leading this big revival, and Hezekiah pops up and he says, you know what? He commands the people, hey listen, you guys need to give the offerings that are supposed to be given, because those are supposed to go to the priests, and he knew that would be an encouragement to the priests. He encouraged his followers. I mean, he's trying to put this nation back together after a big apostasy. And he's having this big revival. And what does he do? He goes out and he encourages his followers, the priests, because he knew they were an integral part of the nation of Israel's spiritual success. And he encouraged them by making sure they were provided for. And that, you know, that put those priests in a place where, hey, we're being taken in care of. And that was a big encouragement to them, right? you know, again, encouraging, encouraging, encouraging a follower. You can encourage a leader, but you need to also encourage a follower. It's Chesty Poehler in a couple different, you know, a couple different situations, but Chesty Poehler was definitely the type that was a big encouragement to those men that were underneath him. Here's a few of the things that he said along the way in different situations. He said this. He said, they're in front of us, behind us. We're flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29 to 1. They can't get away from us now. I'm sorry. That's awesome. Can you imagine being under him and hearing him say that? I mean, your chest has to puff up and you go, oh, they can't. All right, let's get them. He said this at another time, he said, great, now we can shoot at them from every direction because they were surrounded. I mean, that's an encouragement, folks. That's what happens and he pulls people through battles that are virtually impossible and he gets his men out of it and they're successful. Why? Because he's an encouragement to his followers. Amen? He said this. He said, we're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them. You kind of get the idea that he's the kind of guy that is in an absolute terrible situation and looks at it and still wants to charge forward and finds the best thing about it. Amen? That's an encouragement. He said this, he said, remember, you're the first Marines. Not all the communists in hell can overrun you. He said that at the Battle of the Chosen Reservoir. What is that? That's somebody who is encouraging a follower. Listen, he was loved by his enlisted Marines. He was constantly trying to improve their working conditions, trying to make sure they had good equipment. He was taking care of those Marines. One time, Chesty Poehler came upon a second lieutenant that was under his command. And this second lieutenant had ordered an enlisted man to salute him a hundred times because this enlisted man had missed saluting the officer. Chesty Poehler walked upon this thing happening, and he was talking to the lieutenant, and he said this. He said, you're absolutely correct to make him salute you a hundred times, lieutenant. You know that an officer is supposed to return every salute he receives. Now return them all. I'll keep count. That's pretty good. Amen? Don't you think he had some people's respect because of that? Another time while he was on duty in Hawaii, he was inspecting an armory. And he went into the armory, and he had a .45, and he accidentally discharged it inside the building. And he charged himself a $100 fine. Now, the standard fine for discharging a weapon was $20. But because he did it, he charged himself a $100 fine. During that same campaign on Guadalcanal, Poehler would once again prove his leadership and courage by going above and beyond the call of duty and destroying the enemy. One night on October 24th in 1942, he had about 700 men, the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. They were positioned in a thin, mile-long line defending an American airfield that was critical to the success of this Guadalcanal operation. And they suddenly came under an intense onslaught, you know, an attack from the Japanese army. And this army, the Japanese 17th Army, just came charging full speed at the U.S. position. For over three hours in the middle of the night, Chesty Poehler ran up and down the U.S. lines directing men, giving orders to his company commanders, and when the smoke cleared by the next morning, they had killed over 1,400 Japanese soldiers. That's what he does. He encourages people. He runs up and down the line. He does that. Listen, before he would leave Guadalcanal, Chesty Poehler was shot twice by snipers. And he was hit with shrapnel from an exploding mortar round. And he kept going and he kept going and he kept encouraging his followers and he kept encouraging his men. And you know what he gained a reputation for? He gained a reputation for getting things done. Why? Because he was an encouragement to those men that followed him. Makes a huge difference. You can be an encouragement to leaders, but listen, it's also critical that we encourage followers, us. We're all following in some capacity. Encourage one another. It's amazing what can happen when somebody takes the time to encourage those people that are following. Amen? Rather that encouragement comes from the leader, or rather that encouragement comes from another follower, still has the same effect. Listen, how do you and I do that? Well, I tell you what, dads, encourage your children. That's something that gets overlooked an awful lot of times. Encourage your wife. Amen. You're the leader. Okay. Be an encouragement to the followers. Listen, tell your wife, tell your kids when they've done a good job. Listen, show them that you support them and you love them no matter what. Stand by them even when things don't go right 100 percent of the time. Amen. In short, have their back. Be an encouragement to them. And listen, don't ever make your love conditional on the outcome or the success. I love you if you succeed, but if you don't, eh, you know, well, try harder next time. No, that's not love. Win, lose, or draw, I still love you. You're still my son. You're still my daughter. Dad, you can make a huge impact by encouraging those that are supposed to be following you, husbands and wives. Love them unconditionally through thick and thin. Makes a big difference. Moms, encourage your children. Usually this is a pretty easy one. You're pretty good at that. That's just a mother's way. But don't ever forget, your children are human and they're going to fail along the way. And they will make mistakes. And you will be disappointed. Don't stop encouraging them just because that happens. Amen? They're still your son. They're still your daughter. They still look to you for encouragement. And the encouragement you give still makes a huge difference in their lives. Children, hey, encourage your siblings. Encourage your friends. Encourage them to do right. Encourage them to keep trying. Encourage them not to quit. You make a big difference in somebody's life. Christian, encourage your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Listen, give them a pat on the back every now and then just to let them know you appreciate them. Just let them know that you're glad they're in the battle with them, or glad to be in the battle with them. When someone's in the middle of a battle, it's good to hear words and see actions that encourage. Amen? It's amazing what a little bit of encouragement will do. All right? Encouragement. Encourage a leader. Encourage a follower. Finally, I'll try to wrap this up relatively quickly. Finally, the third one, I'm sure you can probably guess it. Encourage yourself. Now listen, sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, you find yourselves in a leadership position or in a following position. If all is going well, you're getting encouragement from your leader, from your followers, and that's a big help, and yada, yada, yada, life goes on. But sometimes the truth of the matter is there are times when no encouragement comes from any direction. Amen? There are times when you're in this Christian life, in this Christian battle where you feel like you're all alone. Well, what then? What then? Right? I mean, basically you have one of two choices. Quit or find a way to encourage yourself. You know, sometimes you and I need to find a way to encourage ourself even in the face of what looks like complete defeat. In Judges chapter 20, you can look there if you want, I won't take the time to you know, necessarily turn there and have you, or have you turn there. But in Judges chapter 20, the nation of Israel has got some problems going on internally. And you got Benjamin fighting the rest of the nation of Israel. And they go back and forth, and there's some things going on. You probably remember the story. But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves out of the cities under Gibeah to go out to battle against the children of Israel. I mean, you've got civil war going on. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin. And the men of Israel put themselves in a ray to fight against them at Gibeah. And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day 22,000 men. And Benjamin's one tribe against the whole rest of the tribes of Israel. And the people of Israel go back, lick their wounds, and it says this. It says they encourage themselves and set their battle in array in the place. And they go back, and they encourage themselves, and they go back to the Lord. Okay, Lord, should we go back to battle again? The Lord tells them yes. And they go back. And the second time, they fail again. And then they go back again. And ultimately, they win the battle. But they were at a place where there was, in this case, civil war going on between the tribes of Israel, and a bunch of those Israelites had to encourage themselves in the Lord. Of course, you probably remember David in 1 Samuel chapter 30. In fact, turn there, if you will, 1 Samuel chapter 30. And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south in Ziklag and had smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken the women captive that were therein and slew not any, neither great nor small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept. until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmanite. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord. So here's David, he and his men have, have lost just about everything. They've lost their wives. They've lost their children. They've lost their possessions. That city or the city was burnt down. And now, because of all that, David's men turn on him and David is all alone. No encouragement from his followers. No encouragement from his leaders. He is the leader. David's about to be stoned. His followers are thinking about killing him. I mean, that's a bad scenario. Listen, rather you're a leader or rather you're a follower, sometimes you're going to find yourself all alone. And when this happens, you need to be able to find a way to encourage yourself in the Lord, like David did. Listen, being able to encourage yourself in the Lord doesn't just magically happen out of thin air. You don't find yourself in a situation like David's in and having no experience with encouragement at all in the past, all of a sudden, voila, you magically rise up to the occasion where you can encourage yourself in the Lord. That's not the way it works. That comes from years and years and years of encouraging other people along the way. It comes from you being the one that has been an encouragement to your leaders. It comes from you being the one that's an encouragement to other followers, and you've encouraged people left and right, and you've made it a regular practice. In fact, you might say that it's become a habit. that you have just encouraged people along the way. And that's become so ingrained in your brain, those neurons begin to process things when they happen along that same pathway, and encouragement is the natural outcome of what happens in your brain process. That's what we call a habit. That's where David is at. David's been an encouragement. David's been looking out for people. David's been an encouragement all along the way. And now when David is alone, and when David is down, and when David's in distress, and when everybody else is against David and wanting to stone David, guess where David's mind automatically goes? To the habit that he's built, encouragement. And David is able to, in the midst of distress, encourage himself in the Lord. Amen? That is where your brain takes over and that encouragement starts to flow because that's the pattern that you've established of who you are, of your character. You don't just magically encourage yourself if you've never been an encouragement to anybody else. Amen? Hey, listen, when Chesty Poehler acquired that destroyer back in World War II at Guadalcanal, it was an amazing feat, yes. But you remember what happened before that with his commander? His commander told Poehler that it was hopeless and that those Marines were lost. At that point in time, Chesty Poehler is faced with no support from his leadership, no way to get his men off that island. and a hopeless situation that a bunch of his men are going to die. But he doesn't settle for it. That habit of who he is kicks in. And he's walking around that beach. Folks, he is all alone. His commanders have said, no, it's hopeless. And yet he manages to pull that thing out of thin air, somehow or another acquire a destroyer, and get those Marines off of that island. That's the pattern and the habit of somebody that has been encouraging others along the way and encouraging people in the face of certain destruction has become such an ingrained pattern and such a habit of his that when he's the one in distress, that same thing just automatically kicks in. You don't go through and come up with all those sayings that he came up with. by not being able to encourage yourself. And that was his matter. You look at his history, and you look at how he started, and ladies and gentlemen, he was that way from day one. When he first got his marching orders down in, I think it was Nicaragua, he got out there and he became known as the tiger of the jungle. Because every battle he went into, he won. Even when he was outnumbered, even when he was ambushed, he managed to pull the thing out of the hat and he won. And he did that by encouraging others, encouraging his followers, but also being able to encourage himself. There are times when you're going to be alone and nobody else is going to be there to encourage you. And when that time comes, ladies and gentlemen, you want it to be such an ingrained part of your character. You want encouragement to be such an ingrained part of your character that what your thought process goes through in that deep dark hour Encouragement is just a natural part of what comes out of your brain. And you do that by making it a habit of encouraging others along the way. Amen? David, when he was alone, encouraged himself in the Lord. And it got him through some deep, dark hours. But that kind of encouragement doesn't come without a price being paid. It doesn't come without a lot of effort, a lot of work, and a lot of training. But if you put forth that effort, that work, and that training, when you need it, it'll be there for you, just like it was for David. And the Lord will encourage and help you along the way, just like he did David. Amen? But if you're gonna encourage yourself, If you're going to encourage yourself, it takes building that habit. Here's a couple of other things and I'm done. You'll have to forgive some of this. Chesty Puller was a Marine after all. Poehler said this, Jim, after being asked to comment on the 22 Chinese divisions surrounding the 1st Marine Division in Inchon. The 1st Marine successfully broke through the Chinese lines and advanced south, destroying seven of the Chinese divisions in the process. He said this about the Chinese. He said, well, they're a sight better than the US Army. At least we know that they'll be there in the morning. He's talking about the, you know, he's talking about being surrounded by all those Chinese. He said, hey, listen, they're more dependable than the U.S. Army. I know where the enemy's going to be. They're not going to quit. This is probably why he didn't get a Medal of Honor. He said this during World War II. He said, the mail service has been excellent out here. In my opinion, that is all the Air Force has accomplished during the war. And now, this takes a very special individual to even be considered or even put this kind of a slide up. But if there's anybody, if there's anybody that has earned it, Chesty Poehler has earned it. Chuck Norris? Never heard of her. Listen, what are we talking about? We're talking about encouragement. And if you want to develop and if you want to become something in the Christian life, listen, you're going to need to learn how to encourage your leaders. They need it. It is a big help to them. You're going to need to learn how to encourage other followers, right? uh... everybody is a leader everybody's a follower in some capacity and you're going to need to learn along the way how to encourage yourself uh... those things are going to be critical uh... i know how the battle ends i know who wins we just got to make sure that we don't forget let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father thank you again for the Lord Jesus Christ for everything that he has done for this book. Father, we look through here and we see that people throughout history have gone through trials and tribulations and they've had to face adversities that some of us could maybe not even completely imagine, but yet you've given them the strength and the ability to make it through. And Lord, a lot of that is done because there's been people along the way that have been an encouragement. I pray that you'd help us to be an encouragement to one another, Help us to be an encouragement to leaders, followers, and ultimately, Father, if by some chance we find ourselves alone in the midst of this battle, Lord, I pray that that encouragement will be such an ingrained part of us that we'll be able to encourage ourselves like David did. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.