Oh, well, good morning. All right, Mission Grove. Have you have been having a good time so far? Let me see your hands. Yeah, good time. All right, I'm gonna fix that. Um, uh, actually come Tuesday, this room is going to be filled with kids having a good time. A bunch of happy kids. Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy. Got any happy people here this morning. Happy people on a scale of 1 to 10. How many of you are? At least a 567 10? Ok. You can't have two hands on that. All right. Well, that's not too bad. Um, one of my favorite songs that was popular here a while back is, is the Happy song. Clap Along. If you feel like I have a, a house without a roof. Yep. Not exactly the video you expected to see at, uh, Mission Grove this morning. I hope you enjoyed that. It, I love it, but it's totally out of touch with reality. Uh, because life is not always happy. I want to begin with a little story. How many of you here today are on a diet? You're on a diet? Ok. That's, that's pretty low numbers. Pretty ok. We're just filled, uh, filled with a room full of skin. How many of you are sitting next to somebody who should be on a diet? Uh, actually they say that 80% of you have been on a diet at some point in time. Only 40% of you are on a diet at this point in time. That's because the other 40% of you gave up and the other, last 20% are people who are either in denial or you're skinny and we hate, you just want you to know, uh, how many of you? We got any parents here? Got any parents, parents. All right, we got any parents of perfect kids, parents of perfect kids. Ok. Uh, you're sitting next to your kids. So, you know, there's nothing else that you could say. All right, how many of you have already yelled at your kid this morning or, or spoken harshly to them? Ok. Some honesty here and how many of you wanted to? Uh Yeah. Ok. And then how many, how many married people do we have here this morning? Ok. 40 to 50% of you will make it to the end. Uh, according to the studies, it's pretty discouraging. My wife and I, uh, joy and I have been married 43 years, just had our 43 anniversary, 43 years and, uh, and, and a few really good ones. Uh, I say that because those of you who, who are married, you know, that there are some good years and then there are some, uh, discouraging years and I would be dishonest if I, uh, pretended like, uh, I didn't make some of her years, uh, discouraging. Today. We're gonna talk about discouragement. Then the percentage of people who experience discouragement is right there at 100%. If you've got a pulse, you do experience discouragement. There's three different kinds of people here in the room. There are those of you who uh who are discouraged right now. There are those of you who are discouraged yesterday and there are those of you who sorry. Uh It's just around the corner. Tomorrow is not looking good. Discouragement is a natural part of the human experience. 2016 was a good year for me 2016. Um I had been the pastor of a church that I had the privilege of founding for uh 29 years. And uh thank you John for some of the nice things that you said and uh things had gone, gone. Well, it it, it had started off just a little group of people uh meeting in, in our living room and it, and had grown to quite a substantial church that started a whole bunch of other churches and, and uh I had hopes and dreams about uh what was gonna be happening in the next five and 10 years. That was 2016. Everything was good. And then 2017, I came to an elder board meeting where they asked me where they told me it was time for me to be done and my world collapsed. Um, apparently there had been, um, some people on staff who hadn't been happy with me. I asked the elders who they were and, and they couldn't tell me because of confidentiality. And I asked them what specifically I had done wrong or offended somebody. And they couldn't tell me that because of confidentiality. They just told me that it was, it was time for me to be done. It was time for me to go and inside my, my heart, it was like go where I'm 63 years old. I'm 63 years old. And I've been at this church for that. I started for 30 years and, and it's time to go. Where and my life in 2017 and in 2018 and 2019 and in 2020 was just filled with painful discouraging questions for myself and for God and I never got any answers. God, why, why is this happening? What did I do wrong? Is there some other villain that I should know about? It was a painful time, a discouraging time. If you have a Bible this morning, I want you to take a look at Psalm chapter 42 because we're gonna talk about discouragement and how you can deal with it. I don't wanna pretend that uh I got two or three points. Do these three things in every and life will be perfect. That is not the way it works. All right. What I do want you to know is some of you are here and you were discouraged yesterday. Some of you are discouraged right now and some of you, it's only a matter of weeks or months before is coming your way. The question is, how do you deal with it when it comes Psalm chapter 4242 and 43 actually is one psalm that eventually got broken up into two parts. If you read them together, you'll get the picture of why they are one psalm. It's a psalm written by a discouraged worship leader written by a Brandon, by the way, where were you? Ah, there he is. We're hoping that Brandon never experiences the discouragement of this guy because what has happened with this guy, the best we can tell by reading the Psalm is that, um, this discouraged worship leader? Well, I got to back up. What was going on at the time is uh a, um, a rotating group of geographically and family based worship teams would come to the temple at Jerusalem, lead worship for a space of time and then move on and a different group would come in and this particular worship leader was part of that rotation. What happened? We don't know exactly. But what seems to have happened is that one of Israel's perennial enemies. Uh probably Syria had invaded from the northeast and taken the territory in which this worship leader lived and had taken him off into captivity. And he was never again to be a worship leader at the temple. It was a gut wrenching experience for him. So, what does a discouraged worship leader do, Brandon? What's a discouraged worship leader? Do they write a song? They write a song, clap along if you feel like a room. No, that's not the kind of song that he wrote. He wrote a lament, a lament, an honest statement of God. Why me? I don't get it. You see it in verse three, my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long. So where is your God in verse five? Why are you cast down? Oh my soul. And why are you in turmoil within me? Verse six, my soul is cast down within me. Not exactly the kind of uh song they sing here on Sunday morning to lift people up. Verse nine, I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Some of you have asked that question? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Verse 10 as with a deadly wound in my bones. My adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long. So just where is your God in varying degrees? Every one of us has been there, discouragement. It was for this worship leader, the loss of confidence in himself, the loss of confidence in his God and the loss of any confidence or hope for the future. You've been there where you just want to give up. Maybe it has to do with your job. That's what it was for me. In 2016, I couldn't figure out for from the life of me. Where do I go from here? God, maybe it has to do with your marriage. Maybe it's your kids, your health, your goals. Why try? Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I guess I'll what go eat worms. Sometimes this happens. It's a season that we go through an extended period of time, especially when it has to do with marriage, job, career, health kinds of things. Other times it's something that happens in a moment tomorrow. It's momentary. Your kids are misbehaving. You're a little league coach and your kid and you, and the, uh, the team is absolutely horrible and they've lost yet another game and you're discouraged. You're a Sunday school teacher and you actually want to ring the necks of those little munchkins. In which case we don't want you to be a Sunday school teacher. But that's a whole another story. Um, sometimes it's momentary, sometimes it's huge and it's a season of life. So this morning I want to talk with you about first off some lessons that we pick up from this. Discouraged worship leader. Number one, catch that discouragement is a normal part of life. Every one of us, even the best of us don't feel guilty about that discouragement. There will be times life is not under your control. There will be trials. Some of you know, James chapter one, New Testament verse James chapter one verse three. It says, consider it all joy my brothers when you encounter. And by the way, I think it's a sick burst. Uh When you encounter various trials, notice he says, consider all joy when you encounter not if you encounter, it's common for some of you. It was yesterday, some of you. It's today some of you. It's tomorrow. When you encounter various trials, it's not gonna be one. If you've got a pulse, it's gonna keep happening throughout our lives. Discouragement is a normal part of human existence. Uh There are some myths that many Christians buy into the myth of if I just try hard enough or if I'm good enough by good enough. I mean, like I'm obeying God, I'm not doing anything wrong if I try hard enough, if I'm good enough and if I trust God enough that everything is going to go, ok? I want you to know that's a lie that you can try hard live, right? Trust God and trials, discouragements are still coming your way as a part of human existence. Secondly, understand when it comes, God will oftentimes feel silent. The Psalmist writes in verse nine, I say to God, my rock God, why have you forgotten me? Verse two of chapter 43 for you are the God in whom I take refuge? Why, why have you rejected me? There are times when you're going to have nothing but questions and heaven is going to be silent. Even Jesus at the cross, his cry to God was his unanswered cry to God was my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? God will sometimes feel silent. I told you my story of 2016, 1718, 1920 the questions I asked and I never got answers. All I got from God was not an answer about the past but an answer about where he was taking me where he said to me, Dave, take a look at what I've still got for you. Sometimes God's gonna feel silent. Thirdly, you're gonna have frenemies, frenemies. 42 9 speaks of the oppression of the enemy. 42 3. They say to me all the day long, where is your God? 4210, my enemies taunt me, front of me. You're gonna have friends and you're gonna have enemies. And sometimes in the middle of your discouragement, you're not gonna be sure which one is which you may have and some of you have had human enemies. It's not real common, but some of you have had human enemies that is you've had somebody in your family or somebody in your workplace that actually wants harm and hurt to come to you. Hopefully, that is relatively rare but it does happen. But, but even, but we do have no matter who you are, we do have a spiritual enemy, a spiritual enemy who is determined to try and rob us of our confidence in our self, our confidence in our God and our confidence in our future and get us and get you to give up. You have an enemy that wants to convince you to throw in the towel, give up and say, forget it. And our job is to say no, no, 1/4 thing to understand is it's ok. This psalm is, is, is encouraging to me because it's discouraging. It is ok to complain how many parents we got in this room. Bunch of pairs, right? If you're a first grader comes to you, your ninth grader comes to you. If your 1/12 grader comes to you and they tell you about their pain, they tell you about their discouragement. There is not a parent in this room who's gonna say to your ninth grader, first grader, 12th grader. Stop it. That's you. What is your problem? Now? Every parent in this room like our heavenly father is honored to hear from your heart, what you want as a parent, what he wants as our heavenly father is to hear our hurts, to hear our hopes. He wants to hear even our complaints in those moments go read Psalm 42 and 43 again and understand it's ok to say my God, God, why have you forsaken me? Because that's what it feels like. So when those times come, when you're in the middle of the junk, what do you do? What do you do? We can take some clues from Psalm 42. Number one, you won't be surprised when I say number one, hang on to God. 42 5 says, why are you cast down o my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? And then He answers his own question. He gives himself this pep talk, hope in God for I shall again, I shall again, I will again, praise Him, my salvation and my God. What's I'm saying here is make a decision. You've got a decision to make in those moments or in those seasons, a decision to make, whether you're gonna hold on tighter or whether you're gonna throw in the towel and give up, you can turn to God or you can turn away from God. And sometimes when it's really painful, there's a part, there's a voice in our head and it's not the voice of God's spirit. There's a voice in our head that says, if God is gonna treat you this way, then just throw in the towel, just give up. And it's at that moment that we need to make a decision to hold on. Many of you know, the story of Joseph in the Old Testament who started off as the favorite son. And then he got sold and became a, a household slave. And then it, and then he got so he got bad news yet again. And he ended up in prison. 13 years of, of do right? And lose do right and lose do right and lose. And in those 13 years, he never knew why it was happening. He just knew he had a decision to make. I can either hang on to God or I can give up tomorrow. You got a decision to make. You can either hang on to God or you can give up, turn to him not away from him. Secondly, part of that pray earnestly and honestly, it's part of hanging on to God is telling him what's on your heart, telling him what's on your mind, telling them about your happiness, your hopes and your hurts. It's what God wants to hear from you. There's a game that too many Christians play the game that, uh, that we, when we pray, we only tell God what we think he wants to hear. Um, by the way, that's a game that spouses oftentimes play, we tell each other only what we think the other one wants to hear. But we do that with God as well and God is going shut up. Just tell me the truth if it hurts. Tell me it hurts if you're discouraged. Tell me it's you're discouraged if you can't figure out what's going on. Tell me that come to God pray earnestly. And honestly, and thirdly remember, remember, um, the psalmist writes these things. I remember, I remember as I, even now as I pour out my soul, how then I would go with the throng of people and I would lead them in the procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise. He is remembering what used to be not simply for nostalgia or to say to himself. Well, that's, that was great, but it sucks now. No, he was remembering what was to remind himself of the faithfulness of God then so he could hold on to the faithfulness of God going forward. You see this in the Old Testament a lot. Um Many of you remember the story of the Passover where the first born of uh all the Egyptians were um were killed on one night and the Israelites were saved if the death angel passed over and didn't kill the first born of Israelite family, if they had put blood on the doorpost of their homes, it became known as the Passover. And then every year, every year, the Israelites would celebrate the Passover. It wasn't just a nostalgia about what was, it was a reminder, a reminder, this is the kind of God we have looking forward. This is the kind of God that we still have Christians do the same thing. We celebrate communion one Sunday, uh one Sunday a month, we go through this process with the, with the bread and the, the juice. Remembering what He did. Not simply as a remembering the history, but a reminder that He is still God. He is still in charge. He still loves us. And we can still count on him. Remembering in the middle of discouragement, sit down with a sheet of paper and write down the things that you've seen in your life in the past remind yourself of the faithfulness of God. Then so that you can hold on to the faithfulness of God. Going forward. Fourthly sing in the dark 42 8 says at night His Gods, his song is with me. I'm singing a song, a prayer to the God of my life. Got any swifties here. OK. Yeah, that's three. That's three. Too many. Um No, no, that's great that um what I will tell you and I think what the this psalm is telling us is fill your life with music that fills your life, fill your life with music that encourages you. Fill your life with music that takes your mind and moves it towards God. Um Paul and Silas had that kind of experience in acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey. They had come to the town of Philippi, they had preached the message and everybody had gone. Well, a lot of people had said, yeah, that sounds really good and for a while everything was going bad until it turned dramatically against them and the whole town gathered around them, beat them with rods to the point. They were almost dead, stripped them of their clothing, took them and marched them into, um, a, a prison in the middle of the night, in the middle of the night in this prison. What do you think they'd be doing? I know what I'd be doing and it's not what they were doing. At least not naturally act 1625. In the middle of the night. Paul and Silas were singing two grown men, beaten, beaten to a bloody pulp, were singing praise and worship to God. Later on, Paul would write in Ephesians chapter five verses 18 and 19. I want you to be filled, I want you to be filled with God's spirit and out of that, what's gonna happen is that music and worship and Psalms and spiritual songs are gonna come out of your life. Their music has always been a tremendously powerful shaper of our hearts, our emotions that brings encouragement when we need it. Question. What kind of music are you surrounding yourself with? That's not a question that's designed to say, oh, you don't want to listen to that evil double music. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is to fill your mind with God's music. This summer is the summer of the Psalms because it's always been a powerful, uh, encouragement to God's people. Number five, everyone needs an offensive line, everyone needs an offensive line. Now, some of you are into football and you know exactly what the offensive line is. Some of you are going. Oh, it's offensive line. That sounds offensive to me. Offensive line. Ok. The team with the bar, the quarterback gets the ball and he starts backing up real fast. Now, you know why he's backing up real fast. He's backing up real fast because there's a bunch of really big men who are coming at him and their, their goal is to take him down. And so he's backing up, he's looking around, he's going, who can I get rid of this ball to? And finally he throws it to somebody. All right. But in the meantime, there are five guys called the offensive line who have one job in life at that moment, that one job is to stop those other big guys from getting to their, their man. Their job is to protect the quarterback because there are a whole bunch of guys coming to get him and he needs an offensive line. And so do you, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 says to Christians don't give up getting together with other believers as some people are stupid enough to do, you need to be together with other believers so that you can, I'm paraphrasing, encourage each other, encourage each other. My question to you is then who is, when, when you're under attack and everything is, is coming at you, who you gonna call? No, I mean, literally who do you call? Um, in the 43 years, that joy. And I have been married, uh for the last 25 years, there's been a, a very special person, Rob Boyd, uh who's um about 20 years my senior and in those 25 years, there have been a whole bunch of times when I felt like I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I told you about 2016 to 2020. And you know who got me through 2016 to 2020 Rob Boy, he was the person that I could call. He was the person who would answer the phone. He was the person I could talk to. He was the person who cared for me. He was the, he was my offensive line who said to the evil one, no, you're not taking him down. Who do you have in your life that you can call? Who will pray for you, who will listen to you and who will say no, he is not. She is not going down, not on my wash, not if I could do anything about it. Who is that person in your life? And finally, number six, hold on to scripture, hold on to scripture. Um Paul writes in Romans 15. He says whatever was written in former days and he's referencing, the Old Testament was written for our instruction. Yes, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures. For some of you, it was yesterday. So for, for some of you, it's right now and for some of you, it's tomorrow and the day after that, and let me show you what you need, what you need in order to bring courage back into your life. What you need to bring courage back into your life is what God has written to you. And so what's coming up on the screen are seven verses a week's worth of a week's worth of verses for you to get out your camera and take a picture of that screen and say, yeah, I need encouragement and I'm gonna read one of these and hold on to one of these each day. This week, Philippians 46 and seven, be anxious for nothing but in everything I'm gonna hold on to God by prayer and supplication, Joshua 19, be strong and courageous Isaiah 4031. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. I'll let you read the rest but all of us go through discouraging times. Some of you may be right, may be in it right now. And God says, here's some stuff I want you to hold on to. I want you to hold on to me. I want you to pray and tell me the truth and I want you to read and gain strength from what I've already told you what I've already promised you. Would you take these seven verses read one of them each day? For the next seven days, we have an enemy. We have an enemy that wants to rip the courage out of our lives. Who wants to steal our confidence in ourselves, steal our confidence in our God and steal our hope in the future. And God says no, and you gotta decide, am I gonna turn to towards God or away from God? Am I gonna hold on tighter or am I just gonna let go and give up? Where are you today? And what do you need to hand over to God? And what do you need to say to the evil one? No, I serve a faithful God and I will hold on to Him. Would you pray with me right now? Some of you in this room are going through uh marriage struggles that are, are really painful and really discouraging for others. It's finance for others. It's health for others. It's kids and every one of us, it's unique and God, we want to bring those to you right now. We are not able by ourselves, but you are, you are the Almighty God and we give ourselves and we give our discouragements to you and we trust you to lift us up and protect us and we will not give up in Jesus name. We pray amen.