Have y'all ever spent a whole day discouraged? Not just an hour, a whole day. Maybe even a week, or a month, or a year.
I don't know if you realize this, but discouragement is not doing you any favors. So you might as well get rid of it.
God gave a direct command not to be discouraged, and whatever God commands, he also gives you the power to do.
There was a time I was a pro at being discouraged. I could find anything to discourage me, and honestly, there are plenty of things out there to be discouraged about.
I was walking on the sidewalk in front of my house, praying a discouraged kind of prayer. "Oh Lord, it's hard serving you," I said. "There's lots of attacks, lots of things that go wrong, but I'm all in for you. I'll do whatever you tell me to do."
And clearly the Lord said, "Do not be discouraged." That was a command, and it empowered me, because up until that point I was a victim to discouragement.
I learned that day that whatever God commands me to do, he gives me the power to do. That same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me, so if the Lord tells me to do something, I'm able to do it.
This is in Joshua, where the Lord says to Joshua, "Do not fear, do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged" (Joshua 1:9). So hear that as a command from your Father, the same authority your mom had when she told you not to hang out with a certain friend.
Discouragement is a bad friend, and bad company corrupts good character. You might as well see it as an unwelcome visitor and say, "Get out of here, I'm not allowed to participate with you."
For all of you who wake up on the wrong side of the bed tomorrow, you've been equipped with what to do. Do not be discouraged.
What you do with today matters, and wasting even one day in discouragement matters, so don't put off living for God until some future day.
If your assignment is one person, don't belittle the assignment. All of us have an assignment of one person, and then another, and then all of us have that.
The same goes for one day. What you're doing today matters, so let's not put off "in the future I'll have this." Let's live the one day today and make the most of it.
We find this instruction in Matthew: "Today's trouble is enough for today" (Matthew 6:34).
Some people ask, "Are you saying we shouldn't plan?" I'm not saying that. If the Lord wants you to have a plan, he'll give you one, but then he's going to say, "Here's the plan, now focus on one day. What's today's step?"
Your life will have so much peace if you get into the one day and recognize how important it is. Wake up every morning and say, "Lord, what do you want today? Just today."
The new covenant we live in is more glorious than the old covenant of the law, and unlike the old one, it never fades and it never ends.
We're getting into the new covenant today, making sure you understand what it is and that it's yours. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, starting in verse 7.
The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses's face, for his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory under this new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God? In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared to the overwhelming glory of the new covenant. So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which remains forever? (2 Corinthians 3:7-11, NLT)
The covenant we live in is the forever covenant. We're not waiting on eternity, we already stepped into it.
All of us who call Jesus the Lord of our lives, all of us who have walked through that door we call Jesus Christ, we're already in the new covenant. We're already in eternity.
Since the new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold, and once the veil is removed we don't just see God's glory, the Spirit keeps changing us to reflect more and more of it.
Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold. If we don't have confidence, it means we don't understand the new covenant, what the blood of Jesus did for us, or this miraculous, glorious thing we live in.
A timid Christian is an oxymoron. That doesn't mean a timid believer isn't saved, it just means they don't know yet the covenant they've stepped into.
Somebody can go from being the worst sinner to getting saved and stepping right into the new covenant, with all the same benefits as someone who has served the Lord for 10, 20, 30, or 100 years. Think about the parable of the workers in the vineyard: some worked all day, some showed up at closing time, and Jesus paid them all the same wages.
That's the truth of the kingdom of God. Those who show up late get the same benefits as those who showed up early, they just had to live like hell getting there. Don't ever find yourself in the attitude of the older brother in the story of the prodigal son, who was sour because he didn't recognize what he already had.
We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. But the people's minds were hardened, and to this day, whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. This veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses's writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and everywhere the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:12-17, NLT)
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT)
It wasn't because you'd lived right for years, or became a pastor, that you can finally reflect the glory of God. As soon as you turn to Christ you can see and reflect it, because you're born again, a complete do-over, translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. It just happens. Suddenly.
We're going from glory to glory. We start reflecting his glory from the very beginning, and then we go through a transformation as the Lord renews our mind with his words, and everybody else gets to see it. Your spirit was born again, and now he's going to change the outside of you too, until people looking at you won't be able to see anything different than Jesus.
We never give up because our great power comes from God and not from ourselves, so even when we're pressed, perplexed, and knocked down, we are never crushed, abandoned, or destroyed.
Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don't try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this. (2 Corinthians 4:1-2, NLT)
No matter how hard it gets, no matter what comes our way, we never give up. You're going to have to help somebody with this at some point in their walk with the Lord, so we need this boiling on the inside of us to say to somebody tempted to give up, "We never give up."
If the good news we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. You see, we don't go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-6, NLT)
But we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. (2 Corinthians 4:7, NLT)
It's mindboggling that God would put his glory in fragile clay jars, that we don't all just explode or something. That's the mercy of God, to put his power on the inside of this vessel, and it makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
There's something about being a young man that makes you think you've got something, until you have this great revelation that you've got nothing. It's only in a place of humility that the power of God can truly move through us. Pride is a great big blockade that won't let his power out, and you usually don't see it in yourself until God shows it to you or somebody tells you.
I'm always asking the Lord, "Father, if I'm prideful in any way, just show it to me." And he does.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. (2 Corinthians 4:8-12, NLT)
We continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, so I spoke."
We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. (2 Corinthians 4:13-15, NLT)
That is why we never give up. You're only tempted to give up if you get your eyes off what's to come.
What's to come, our glorified bodies and being with the Lord forever, is so much bigger than what we're facing now that our present troubles are actually small and won't last very long.
The day Jesus sends the angels to get us, those who are alive and remain will be caught up in the clouds, but they won't go ahead of those who have already died. Their bodies will rise first, and we're all going to receive our glorified bodies, the only promise we're waiting on. All the other promises we already have.
That is the blessed hope, and then we will be with the Lord forever. You should think about that at least once a day, and it doesn't mean we live beat down and depressed on our way there. We live strong and bold and courageous and confident, like Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who is shown as a bright light with a smile on his face when he was being killed.
May we all be that unimpressed with this life and the things it has to offer that we look forward to what's to come.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18a, NLT)
You should put this verse on your fridge. If Paul looked at his troubles and called them small, we can all call ours small too.
Have you ever gotten into a situation and told yourself it was a big trouble, one that was going to last forever, because this scripture hadn't settled into your heart yet? We've got to reframe it. Whatever we'd call a big trouble is actually a small one, so let's just rename it.
Anybody watch Shark Tank? Kevin O'Leary knows he's the big fish in the pond, so he looks at everybody else and says, "You're small." We can learn that attitude from ungodly people, we just aim it at our troubles instead of at people.
This is how you diss a trouble. When it shows up, you say, "You small, you temporary trouble, get to work, you're producing glory for me that lasts forever." That's why it says to consider it an opportunity for great joy, and our troubles don't deserve a minute of our time.
How many of you have delayed the work of God because you've been participating with the trouble? Jesus is waiting for you to get done with your play date with it. As soon as you decide to look to the Lord instead, he's like, "Watch this."
An atmosphere of joy suffocates the devil, and if you want to defeat him, you stay in a place of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit rather than trying to fight him yourself.
When you get yourself into a place of joy, it's suffocating to the devil. He's gasping for air, hoping you stop rejoicing, but if you keep rejoicing, he's got nowhere else to go but to run off. The enemy cannot survive in a place of joy.
That's why the Bible tells us the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. It has nothing to do with how many punches you can throw against the devil, just stay in the environment that suffocates him.
The Lord gave us the way to do it, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You're only going to have those things in the Holy Spirit, so don't try to produce them on your own.
In the body of Christ we don't dwell on each other's troubles or even look at them, we remind each other how small and temporary they are and fix our gaze on what we can't see instead.
Jesus never once sat down with anybody and said, "Tell me about your troubles." He never catered to it, patted it, or gave it condolences. Jesus showed up as the trouble remover.
There's only one thing we do with trouble in the body of Christ. We remind each other how little, small, and temporary it is, and that God's going to take it and turn it around into something good.
Whining about it and talking through it over and over isn't going to help you. That's not permission to be unkind to somebody who's hurting, it's real tempting to want to wallow in it for a while yourself.
How much more helpful is it to have somebody put their arm around you and say, "You're going to make it out of this. It's not as big as it feels, and God's going to turn this into something good"? That's how we counsel each other through our troubles.
So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:18, NLT)
We work to keep our eyes clean, the same way we'd get something inappropriate off the TV or computer screen. Y'all should be just as tenacious toward troubles as you are toward that kind of content.
You will have whatever you look at. So if you want what Jesus has to offer, set your gaze on him, like locking eyes and gazing into someone's, not just a glance.
When this earthly body is taken down, we get an eternal body made by God himself, and the Holy Spirit living in us right now is the guarantee of that.
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, that is, when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5, NLT)
That day has come on your glorified body. You're going to get it. As our down payment, he gave us the Holy Spirit, who's bringing life to this mortal body every day, doing this work of restoration. Imagine how much work it is for him just to keep us going, getting us out of bed in the morning.
So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10, NLT)
We're foreigners in this land, and there should be a longing on the inside of us to go home. I so look forward to that day, but I so enjoy these days too.
Every believer is called to the ministry of reconciliation, which simply means drawing people who are far from God closer to him.
We work hard to persuade others, and God knows we are sincere. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves, but for Christ, who died and was raised for them. (2 Corinthians 5:11-15, NLT)
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, and how differently we know him now.
This means anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. And all this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ, no longer counting our sins against us, and who gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God." For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NLT)
You're all called to the ministry of reconciliation, drawing people who are far from God closer to him. Your ministry will be ineffective if you don't reconcile in this direction, if you're living an unreconciled life holding a grudge or unforgiveness against somebody.
We demonstrate reconciliation by telling people about it with our words, and by living a reconciled life. When you're at odds with somebody, go settle the odds. They may not want to settle it, but you can settle it on your side and say, "As far as I'm concerned, this is done. I forgive you. I repent of the things I've done wrong. We're moving on."
Our ministry is so simple. Don't make it complicated. You go find that one person God shows you, you reconcile them to God and disciple them, and then when it's time, you do it again.
When we get worn out, church is often the first thing we cut, even though it's the thing that actually refuels us, and instead of cutting it we should ask the Lord what really needs to change.
There's so much competing in our lives. Has anybody ever been tired, worn out because you had too much going on?
Have you noticed how the first thing you want to cut is the things of God, even though it's the first thing on the chopping block and we're only together about two hours a week? You keep going to work, to practice, to the games, consuming 40 or 50 hours of your week, but that thing that only consumes two hours is the one we cut.
I don't want you to feel condemned about this, I'm trying to shine a light on it: you think you're solving something by cutting off the things of God, but it's actually a ploy of the enemy to keep you stalled out in your walk with him.
For me, whenever I get tired, church isn't the first thing I look at. I ask, "What is wearing me out?" and I look at my work, my TV, how long I'm browsing reels, because I'll complain about being tired and then go spend three hours a night on my phone but can't give three hours to the Lord.
I'm not getting on anybody in particular, this is just something stirring in my spirit. You're getting had by the enemy if you believe cutting church out is going to relieve your schedule. Your schedule is relieved by bringing all the other things before the Lord and asking what needs to change, not just what he wants different about your Sunday.
I've been living this way for years, giving him my whole schedule and asking what he wants to change. When we go on vacation we leave Monday and come back Thursday, because three days away from home is enough for us, we love our lives that much.
When you live for the Lord and do it his way, it doesn't look like the world's doing it, and people look at you strange. But the result is a home and a life you don't want to get away from. We love homeschooling our kids and living on the farm, because we've been following the Lord step by step, even though as a teenager I thought I was going to be a city guy living in a high-rise.
When you follow the Lord, he leads you to what you really want before you even know it yourself. I never realized how much I'd love the trees and the open pasture until he placed me here.
He's not leading you into a life you're not going to like, or one where you're going to suffer. He knows better than you do, so submit your whole life to him and say, "I'm willing to change anything, there's nothing off the table." He will lead you to the best plan for your life.
What does the Bible say about being discouraged? "Do not fear, do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged" (Joshua 1:9). That's not a suggestion, that's a command from your Father. And whatever God commands you to do, he gives you the power to do it, so treat discouragement like an unwelcome visitor and tell it to get out.
What is the new covenant in the Bible? The new covenant is the forever covenant, and it's far more glorious and permanent than the old covenant of the law, which was already fading even as it was given (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). If you've called Jesus the Lord of your life, you're already in it, and it gives you confidence and boldness instead of timidity.
Why does the Bible say our troubles are small? Because that's what it says: our present troubles are small, they won't last very long, and they produce a glory that vastly outweighs them (2 Corinthians 4:17). That doesn't mean your trouble doesn't hurt. It means once this scripture settles down into your heart, you stop calling something temporary bigger or more permanent than it actually is.
Should Christians talk about their problems with each other? Jesus never once sat down with anybody and said, "Tell me about your troubles." In the body of Christ, we remind each other how small, temporary, and glory-producing a trouble is instead of dwelling on it together, because whining about it and talking through it over and over isn't going to help you. That's not permission to be unkind to somebody who's hurting, it's a reminder to put your arm around them and remind them God's going to turn it around.
How does joy defeat the devil? An atmosphere of joy is something the enemy cannot survive in. If you want to defeat him, stay in a place of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because it has nothing to do with how many punches you can throw and everything to do with staying in the environment that suffocates him.
What happens to Christians when they die? When this earthly body is taken down, you get an eternal body made by God himself, not by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). The Holy Spirit living in you right now is your guarantee, your down payment, on that promise.
What is the ministry of reconciliation? It's what every believer is called to: reconciling people who are far from God back to him (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). You do it with your words and by living a reconciled life, going to settle the odds with whoever you're at odds with, then finding the next person God shows you and doing it again.
Why do people cut church out first when they're busy? Because it only costs you about two hours a week compared to the 40 or 50 hours you give everything else, so it's the easiest thing on the chopping block when you're tired. That's a ploy of the enemy to keep you stalled out in your walk with him, so bring your whole schedule before the Lord, not just Sunday, and ask him what actually needs to change.
