Encourage Yourself

0:21 All right, open your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. If you don't know where 1 Samuel is, it's right before 2 Samuel. I know that's going to help you out, right? I want to set the stage for what I'm going to be preaching about today and give you some background information. This is a passage of scripture about David. David is 17 years of age when this history of him picks up with him at this juncture of him killing Goliath the giant. at 17 years of age he kills Goliath and the Bible teaches us that the soldiers in the army of Israel were afraid and timid to go and fight Goliath but this 17 year old teenager in fact goes and kills Goliath he kills Goliath and the praise and the celebration of what he has done actually permeates the community I mean, the nation is talking about David.

1:39 As a matter of fact, the women went back in the town singing praises about David. They said, Saul has killed his thousands, but David killed his 10,000. They did a rap. They said, Saul, oh Saul, Saul has killed his thousands. Then they said this, but David, oh, David.

2:06 David has killed 10,000. Y'all, you get the judicious. This 17-year-old kid and the women are marching back into the city singing his praises. And the king, King Saul, gets angry. He gets mad. He gets upset. And he goes after seeking to kill David. and David goes on the run. He's escaping and here's a man who, David was a man who once played the harp that soothed the king's conscience and brought him to a place of peace but yet now he's trying to kill him and David's on the run and he ends up ducking into a cave and inside the cave are a bunch of rejected men. A bunch of guys who are in debt, in distress stress, discontent. That's how the Bible describes them there. They owe people money.

3:06 Y'all do know people hide when they owe people money. Come on, y'all know what I'm talking about. People hide and people park their cars in places other than where they live. Why y'all acting like y'all don't know what I'm talking about? Yeah. But David ducks into this cave and there's a bunch of rejected men in this cave and the scripture says that they elect David to become their leader. He is elected to be their leader and he leads them. And the first thing he does,

3:41 one of the things he does is he helps them find a job. He helps these rejects find a job. And so they end up joining the Philistine army. They become soldiers in the Philistine army. Now that's an unusual situation because the Philistine army are the enemies of the Israelites. And David and these men are Israelites. And so here is a strange deal that these Israelites are in the army of the Philistines. Okay, y'all don't get it. That would be like a commander player going over and joining the Cowboys. Okay, y'all still ain't got it. That would be like a Ukrainian joining the Russian army.

4:37 Oh, now y'all get it. Now y'all get it. Yeah, it's unusual. And so they're about to do battle. The Philistines are about to attack the Israel army. And the general of the Philistine army is inspecting his soldiers. and he comes across these Jews, these Israelites in his army. He says, well, you guys can't do battle with us against the Israelites. Y'all are from Israel. You can't be on this team. You can't be in this army. And so he fires them. He dismisses them. And they go home. And when they come into their home, 1 Samuel chapter 30, when they get back to their home, they discovered that their city where they live, Zigglag has been burned down has been set on fire and their wives and their children have been taken captive now I know see this group right there this is all of the Shabbat group right here all of these are Shabbat people right here they were at the 8 o'clock service they've heard this sermon already I need you to act like y'all ain't heard it already just act like y'all ain't heard it no more Just say amen, preacher, pastor.

5:53 That's good. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. There you go. You're right. You're right. You're right. Talk, sir. Okay, well, I was saying something profound. I don't remember who I was. They get back in there, and their, the city's been set on fire, and their wives and children have been taken captive by the Amalekites. The Amalekite army comes and takes, and they're in captivity. It's a sad place because the men start crying. they start weeping until the scripture says matter of fact let me just let me just read it to you first samuel chapter 30 now it happened verse one when david and his men came to ziglag on the third day that the amalekites had invaded the south and ziglag attacked ziglag and turned and burned it with fire y'all see that and had taken captive the women and those who were there from small to great They did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way.

6:54 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burnt with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. They have cried. They're in a place of distress. That's their wives and their children. They've been taken captive. And the Bible says they wept. Now, you know when a man cries, that's deep pain. But the Bible says they wept until they had no more tears to cry, no more power to cry. It is a tragic, sad, troubling circumstance and difficult day that they cried. And as a matter of fact, in verse number six, it says, Now David was greatly distressed. David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him.

7:50 Because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. I think that's interesting. It says that they were weeping for their sons and their daughters. Y'all notice that they say nothing about their wives, but that's another thing. I'm going to leave that alone right there for a second. I ain't got nothing to say about that point right there. But they were weeping for their sons and their daughters. But then it says this, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. I want you to get the picture here. And this is what I want to talk to you about for the few moments that I have remaining. I got 20 minutes to get through a 40-minute sermon. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. You know I can't. That's why y'all are telling me. Come back and tell me that at 12. Come back at 12 o'clock and tell me to take my time.

8:44 It's a sad day. And it says the men were crying. They were so distressed, so upset that they spoke of killing their leader. The man that they picked, they selected. When David showed up in this cave, they elected him. They voted him. They asked him to be the leader. And now they had a job, but now they lost their job. They're despondent. They're frustrated. They're upset. They're hurt. They're depressed.

9:11 Then when they come back and see that everything has happened, they talk about killing their leader. It's a sad, sad day. But verse 6 says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. The title of this message today is encourage yourself.

9:39 There come seasons and times in your life when you got to learn how to encourage yourself. Amen. Can I get an amen from anybody right there? Yeah, there comes a day and a time when you can't depend on somebody else to encourage you because sometimes people don't know what to say. You know, sometimes people be talking and they don't know what to say. I learned that people, church people, black church people don't always know what to say. They say stupid stuff sometimes. Like when you done had a death in your family, they say God needed a flower in his garden so he came down and plucked your loved one because he needed a garden. Do you not know that we serve a God who created the heavens and the earth. You don't need to come and grab your... Listen, let me just say this.

10:31 If you don't know what to say, just keep your mouth shut. Go ahead and look at your neighbor. Say, be quiet. Don't say nothing. Some people need to learn about the ministry of presence. Just learn how to just be somewhere. You ain't got to say nothing. You don't have to get no answers. You don't have to come to no solution. You don't have to pretend like you're God and you know why something happened, just shut, just be quiet. I almost said something I shouldn't say. Let me slow down because I feel myself getting a little bit too loose right here, right now. Just learn how to be quiet. Learn how to just be present. Sometimes people just need somebody just to sit with them. Job found himself in a situation where he had trouble all around. His children had been killed. He lost his property. He lost his animals and all of that. and he had people come to try to give him answers.

11:26 That's when you run into trouble when you try to give people answers. And they tried to, Job's friend came and tried to give him some answers. And unfortunately, they came up with all this stuff. You must have sinned, obviously you'd have made God mad and so that's the problem. No, be quiet. But that's what they did. And here David's in a place where he's at a spot where he doesn't have anybody to give him any encouraging words. As a matter of fact, they are choosing, they are suggesting, they are voting, they are dialoguing, they are discussing among themselves, killing David. Their leader. But David, but David. I like that right there. Somebody say, but David. Say but, then put your name there. Say but. But Allen. There you go.

12:18 But James. but John, sometimes you have to do what you need to do, but David strengthened himself. That's a Hebrew word. Shazak is the Hebrew word. Shazak. What does it mean? It means that you learn how to talk to yourself. It means you learn how to encourage yourself. It means you learn what to say to yourself. Come on. When nobody else is talking to you, you better learn what to say to yourself. Go ahead, give the Lord a clap of praise right there. When you're in a place of distress, when everything's not going right and nothing's going the way you want it to go and things are going backwards and stuff's not going the way you go, sometimes you got to learn to talk to yourself. Now, I see people talking to themselves all the time. Y'all haven't seen people sitting in the car talking to themselves, singing to themselves. I don't know what they're saying. It's okay to talk to yourself. The question, the problem is not talking to yourself. The question is what are you saying to yourself? Some of y'all are saying the wrong thing to yourself. You're saying I'm depressed. Ain't nothing going right. I ain't going to never win. I ain't going to never get out of this situation. I'm never going to have this situation turn around. Nobody likes me.

13:26 Just nothing's going to be better. God doesn't live. God's not alive. You be saying the wrong thing to yourself. You got to learn what to say to encourage yourself. Somebody give the Lord a phrase right there. Somebody tell yourself, I got to learn what to say. I got to tell myself that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I got to tell myself that I'm the head and not the tail. Tell yourself the Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. Tell yourself some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we will, I wish I had a help right here, remember the name of the Lord. Tell yourself I shall be above and not beneath. Tell yourself I'm more than a conqueror through Christ who healed me. Tell yourself I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Remind yourself though he slay me yet will I trust in him.

14:23 Tell yourself the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? See some of y'all can't say those things because you don't know the word. But if you get in the word and you know the word you can talk and speak the word over your life who know what I'm talking about right here somebody give somebody a high five and say I know what I'm talking about it here I'm gonna encourage myself Remind yourself that I serve a God that can make a way out of no way. Remind yourself that I'm not going to judge my future by my present circumstances. Tell yourself, remind yourself that where I am is not my destination. It's not what I'm going to, it's what I'm going through. Oh, I feel like shouting right now.

15:28 Somebody tell your neighbor, speak right things over your life. Tell them, speak hope over your life. Speak victory over your life. Speak peace over your life. Speak joy over your life. Joy that's unspeakable and full of glory. Speak it over your life. Declare it over your life. Say it over your life. Believe it over your life. Hope it over your life. Man, I shouldn't have got started. I sure feel like hollering right now. When I think of how good God has been to me, when I think about what things he's done for me and the prayers he's answered for me, remind yourself that he did not bring me this far to leave me after I got here.

16:32 Hallelujah! David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David encouraged himself. I know I keep telling y'all this for the next to the last time. Tell the person next to you, encourage yourself. Turn on the other side and say, I lied. I'm going to tell you many more times, encourage yourself. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors.

17:35 Tell yourself the King of glory is about to come in. It may seem like he's absent, but the King of glory is about to step into my circumstance. The King of glory is about to answer my prayers. The King of glory is about to bring deliverance. the King of glory. That's who we serve, the King of glory. Okay, I got to roll on. I'm acting like I got all day, but I got to...

18:06 That's my first... What was my first point? Encourage yourself. Yeah, speak to yourself. Talk to yourself. But here's the second point I want you to see is in verse 7. Can I read verse 7 to you? Then David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech's son, please bring the ephod here to me. and Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

18:33 What is an ephod? The ephod is a garment that the priest would wear. It's a garment that when it was the time for the priest to come and lead the people in worship, the priest would put the ephod on. And now the thing is, David is not a priest. But he said, Pastor Jazz, I'm glad to see you. Thank you for coming and being with us today. David said, I'm not a priest, but I can still put the ephod on.

19:13 I don't know who I'm preaching today, but I'm here to tell you to put your ephod on. Yeah, I know you're not the priest. You're not the pastor. You don't fall in the role of any of that. But here's what the word is to you today. Put your praise on. Oh, I wish I had a praying crowd with me here today. I'm telling you today, here's what I'm telling you. Here's one of the things that God wants us to do when we get discouraged and frustrated, when we get to a place where we don't know what the future looks like is going to hold. We got to put an ephod on. We got to give God praise. We have to praise the Lord like we believe that he's going to make a way out of nowhere. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but I'm telling you today learn how to worship God and give him the praise Not based on how you feel not based on your emotions But based on the fact that you have history with God that has made a way out of your past And he didn't bring you all through what he's brought you through to abandon you now So my assignment is to tell you to go ahead and put your ephod on I wish I had a praying crowd with you here Y'all are too quiet for me.

20:27 Let me go back here to the people in the back because I believe we got some people in the back that don't mind praising the God that we serve. That he's a, somebody say, he's a way maker. He's a burden bearer. Wake up, baby. Whatever you do, don't go to sleep while I'm preaching. Y'all better not go to sleep while I'm preaching. I'm going to wake you up. The Lord will, you look at God. He directed me right over her. She was over here with her eyes closed. I know you were meditating, weren't you, baby? It's all right. But put your ephod on. Get some ephod on your head and worship God. He's worthy of our praise. He's worthy of us thanking him. He's worthy of us lifting our hands and opening our mouths and making a declaration that the God we serve is worthy to be praised. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together somebody say put your ephod on when I look back at all the things he's done for me, I will put my ephod on.

21:42 When I look at how he healed me, delivered me, saved me, forgave me, cleansed me, washed me, I will put my ephod on. Somebody say put it on Put it on.

22:11 Hallelujah. I feel like running around this building when I look back and see everything God has done for me. You ain't got to beg me to worship God. You don't have to ask me. When I think of the goodness of Jesus, when I think of the miracles, When I look at what he's brought me through and what he brought me out of, you don't have to ask me. I will bless the Lord at all times. I like it back here. I need to come preach to y'all a little bit more.

22:53 They hear the worshipers are back here. Hear the ephod wearing people right here. Here they are. Hallelujah. Somebody say, I got my praise on it. I got my praise on it. I try to help you understand what do you do when life looks frustrated, when it looks like things are not going your way. Encourage yourself and then worship God. Amen. Go ahead, find three or four people. Find somebody sitting down with their arms crossed, their mouth shut, and just say they done.

23:51 Put your ephod on, baby. I know, I know God done done something for you. I know He done opened some doors for you. I know He done worked some miracles for you. Put it on!

24:13 Hey! Put it on! Okay. All right. I got to hurry up. I got two more points. I got to hurry up. We got two more points. I got to get through. Here's...

24:41 that's that's my daughter and you know why she got her e-fight on because her team started this season she coaches college and they started off one in seven. But now they done won seven out of the last eight games. Thank you. Somebody tell your neighbor God's about to turn your situation around He's about to change your circumstance He's about to turn your problem around Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

26:38 Woo! Thank you. Okay, y'all gotta stop now. Get off the drums. Y'all stop. Okay, get stopped.

27:30 we're just... All right, okay, that's good. Stop, for real, for real, I don't care what I do, stop. .

28:25 Somebody say I got my E-file on. I got my E-file on. for the next two one.

28:58 Thank you.

29:28 I got two more things I got to tell you. I'll sit down, please. I got three minutes to tell you two important things, okay? I'll pick this. I'm not going to finish today, but I'm going to pick up next week. Do part two. So you got to put your e-file on, right? What does that mean? Yeah. Don't base your praise on how you feel.

29:58 Don't base it on what you see. Don't base your worship of God on your present circumstances. Anybody can worship God when they win, but can you worship God when you lose it? yeah worship him when you're not sure all you know is that God got your back all you know is somehow some way God's going to turn things around so he so it says in verse it says in our Verse 7, he said, bring the ephod here to me. So they brought it to him and he put it on. And then in verse 8, I'm almost finished.

30:55 As a matter of fact, we're going into overtime. I'm not going to be finished. Verse 8 says, so David inquired of the Lord. He asked God. And I talked to y'all last week about making sure that you keep prayer as the cornerstone of your daily life. That you communicate with God. The thing that the devil wants to take from you is the ability for you to talk to God. And so I told you last week to pray. Did I tell y'all last week to pray? Y'all wasn't even here. Some of y'all wasn't even here last week. Tell your neighbor, I'm going to keep my prayer line with God open at all times.

31:40 Keep your prayer line open. And so David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? He asked God, what should I do? And that's what you need to do. It's ask God, what should I do? And wait for God to give you an answer. Seek God. Here's my point. Seek God and follow God's direction. Seek direction from God and do what he tells you to do. Y'all got that? What did I say? David sought the Lord. He sought God. Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him. Pursue. For you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all. Thank you.

32:35 Oh, I feel like running around the building right now. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but I got a word for somebody here today to tell you, you shall recover everything. Everything that the devil took from you. Everything that the devil stole from you. Everything that he defeated you on. I prophesy, I preach, and I tell you right now, you shall recover all. tell yourself I'm going to recover all tell yourself I'm going to get it all back you're going to get your joy back you're going to get your peace back you're going to get your finances back you're going to get your name back you're going to get your reputation back you're going to get your health back You're going to get your job back.

33:35 You shall recover. Hallelujah.

33:56 I feel a shout coming home to me today. Somebody say, you shall recover it all. Somebody say, get prepared. to get it all back. Get prepared to get it all back. Can I say that one more time? Get prepared to get everything that the devil tried to take from you or took from you. You're going to get it back. when I think of the goodness of Jesus when I think about his goodness to me I'm going to get it back you're going to get it back it's coming back he can't have it and don't belong to him you shall recover We're up.

34:56 We're up. We're up. High five. High five four or five people. Say, get it back. You're going to get it back. Get it back. You're going to get it back. Get it back. You're going to get it back. Get it back. You're going to get it back. Get it back. You're going to get it back. Get it back. It's coming back. You shall recover! Let me close. Listen, oh, oh, gosh, it's four after. Lord have mercy.

35:50 So David, verse 8, so David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him. Here's what God said. Pursue. Pursue. for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all oh my God here's what God said pursue that's what you got to do go get it Do what you need to do. Go after it. Somebody say pursue. Now, some of y'all need some relationships healed. I'm going to talk about that next week. But you need to pursue. You need to take some steps. Amen. Everything that enemy took. I'm declaring.

36:42 Can I tell y'all something? When I went to bed last night, I slept like a baby. When I got up this morning, I set my clock for 5.30. I got up at 5.20.

37:03 And God said, tell the people to encourage themselves. I wasn't planning on preaching this, but they've been shouting all day since I've been preaching it. Yeah, I might have to come up with an extra service just so I can get it all out of me here today. My job is to tell you to pursue.

37:32 Yeah, it said in the scripture they went after their sons and daughters. I want you to go after your sons and your daughters and your wives. your husband or your man. Go after it. You take the step. Whatever the enemy has taken from you, you take the step to get it back. And for some of y'all, it means you need to pay some people back. because you have a damaged relationship because maybe you kept some money that you shouldn't have kept. If y'all all say amen together, nobody know I'm talking about you. Maybe you stole some money or maybe you treated somebody wrong. It might just take you apologizing.

38:27 You know what I learned? Sometimes, this is what humility does. Sometimes you apologize even when you don't think you were wrong. If it'll bring peace, I'll do whatever I need to do to get what I need to have. And you know what I believe about God? When you take those kind of steps, God rewards you because of what you did.