October 2024 Sunday Morning Dennis Burke _ Victory Maysville _ LIVE

Thank you Lord Jesus, thanks for that welcome, it's good to be back and be with friends and among a place that Vicki and I both dearly love. By the way, she does remind me periodically that she was the first one to speak here, and I later got an invitation, so I just follow along and do my best, praise God. But I've been invited back, so that's a cool thing. Well I've got to get over being a little misty over what we just did in celebration and honor. I want to add my thanks and appreciation to all veterans that are present and all that are tuned in, and we just are grateful to God for His blessing in your life, and we thank you for your service to help us be able to do just what we're doing here today, and do it in a free land. Glory to God. Amen to that. There's a lot of reasons for rejoicing, a lot of reasons to know that we are still a land that is free, that we still have our democracy, and that we are a republic, and that we have the right to expect the blessing of God in this land, and God is certainly not done with America. Nothing has changed about His initial design for this land, that it would be a free place to promote the gospel, and there's no nation in history that has promoted the gospel of Jesus any greater than this land has, financially, and in sending people all over the world, and in raising up the standard of righteousness within this land, and even amidst a lot of chaos and strategies from various entities, we stand free, and we stand in faith, and we stand believing that our best days are yet ahead in the name of Jesus. Glory to God. Amen. We are a land that has a covenant. We have a covenant with God. Our founders created this land with a covenant, that this would be a land to promote the gospel of Jesus, that it was really all about Jesus, and it still is. We just continue to declare it in Jesus' name. We refuse the naysayers and the strategies to try to undermine anything that we have come to know and appreciate and love in this land, and we just expect the days ahead to reflect and keep reflecting that Jesus is Lord over these United States of America. Say it with me out loud, Jesus is Lord over these United States of America. In Jesus' name we declare it. Amen. Glory to God. Glory to God. Go ahead and shout another praise to the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, King Jesus. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God. These disciples had walked with Jesus over three years. They had seen the miracles. They had participated in some of the miracles. They had listened to the teachings. They had watched Him handle the most difficult of situations and walk away from traps that Satan and religious leaders had laid for Him. They had watched all of these things and they could talk to Him. They could ask questions. They spent time personally with Him. And now He says, it's going to be to your advantage that I leave. Well, no wonder He wanted to start this with, I am about to tell you the truth. This is no lie. It is to your advantage that I go away. And here's why. For if I do not go away, the divine encourager, that's how this translation gives this, not only the helper or the comforter, which those things are accurate, obviously. But there's a facet of that word in the original text that this translation brings out that is so powerful, and we're going to focus on this concept, that He is the divine encourager. He said if I do not go away, the divine encourager will not be released to you, but if I depart or after I depart, not if, but after I depart, I will send Him to you. We know He's talking, obviously, about the Holy Spirit who was to come. We understand this also. Holy Spirit was already in the earth from the very beginning. So it's not something different that the Holy Spirit would be here, but what was about to happen was going to be radically different from anything the Holy Spirit had ever done. There was a major shift about to take place, and we understand this now looking back. But at this moment, these disciples are hearing things that are just very foreign to their thinking. The Holy Spirit had already come, but not in the capacity that He was about to be revealed as. He would be the helper, the comforter, the divine encourager. And what we now know is that He was about to move from where He had always been in the earth, and He was about to become the one who would dwell inside of people that are in the earth. Not on the outside any longer, but suddenly He would dwell within people that had never happened before. But it was about to happen. And while in this passage He later says, there are things that I still have to share with you and tell you of, but you're not able to bear them yet. They were not born-again people at this stage. The Holy Spirit was not dwelling in them, but the Holy Spirit would. And Jesus was referring to the idea that when you are filled with the Holy Spirit personally, there will be things that I want you to understand that you can't bear now, but you will be able to grasp at them. He's put every one of us now in the place where we can hear and we can understand this kingdom that we live in. God's got so many things to reveal to us that any time we're in a position of need or want or lack of understanding or lack of wisdom, we understand the Holy Spirit has come to bring help, answer, solutions and encouragement to us in any situation that we find ourselves in. That's His assignment, to dwell on the inside of us, but also to lead us and to guide us into the truth. He's referred to in several places in Scripture as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth. And He has the assignment to lead us into the truth and literally lead us as one would take someone else on a tour, a guided tour, grab somebody by the hand and lead them into things. The Holy Spirit has come to lead and guide your life, your thoughts, your experiences so that when you are facing anything, He is right there to take you by the hand and lead you into answers and help and deliverance and strength. He's always available and He has come, as this is already said, to encourage you that you have what it takes to receive on those levels. In Jesus' name. Dropping down to verse 15, still in the Passion Translation, He said everything that belongs to the Father belongs to Me. That's why I say that the Divine Encourager will receive what is Mine and, I love this, and reveal it to you. Everything that the Father has, Jesus said, is Mine. But the Holy Spirit is coming as the Divine Encourager to take what is Mine, which He just said is everything that the Father has, and reveal it. We don't have to live ignorant. We don't have to live in lack. Now look, I understand that all of us, self-included, have questions about how things need to proceed and how things need to go, maybe things I need to be participating in, but I don't have to feel like anything is being held back from me. I may not be quite dialed in and getting it yet, but those things that Jesus said I have that you can't bear yet, I can bear now because the Spirit of God dwells in me. Is this making any sense to you yet? But He said the Divine Encourager will receive what is Mine and reveal it. Not only receive it, but reveal it to you. How many of you could use a bit more revelation like that? Yeah, of course, that should be 100% participation. Just wanted to give you an opportunity to weigh in on this. Might be the last opportunity I give you, though. Dropping down to verse 33 of this same chapter, Jesus said, And everything I have taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you, and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble. How many of you have proved that already? Yeah, I have, too. You'll experience trouble and sorrows or pressure, but you must be, look at this, courageous, for I have conquered the world. The Christian life that Jesus gives us is not for the fainthearted, really. It really is for the courageous. Those that are going to take what He's given and what He's said and courageously embrace it and take it and not allow fear of failing or fear of anything to dissuade you from what He said you can live in and you can walk in. So He said, I have conquered the world, and that gives you every right to be courageous. Glory to God. In the face of anything. Courage is one of those things that you know it when you see it, you know it when you don't see it, but sometimes it can be a little bit hard to pinpoint and grasp exactly what constitutes courage. Takes courage for the law enforcement officer to run toward the gunfire when everybody else is running away. Takes more than that, I get that, but it takes courage. Takes courage for the firefighter to run into the burning building when others are running out. Takes courage for the soldier to stay in the conflict when bullets are flying and bombs are going off. Courage doesn't mean you don't have a sense of, I'd like to be somewhere else. But it does mean that you're going to follow through with things from your heart and not just from your head. Actually the English word courage comes from the French word for heart, which I think is real telling as to what it really does indicate. It is to follow your heart and not just your head. As Christians we get that because that really is the life the believer is destined to live in, that we can live out of our heart by the Spirit of God dwelling within us and follow His lead and His guidance even when our head is contradicting things or certain circumstances seem to be different from the truth that we know God has given us. Does that make sense to you? There's another definition for this word courage that I found in a dictionary that I just have loved ever since I saw it. It is to be buoyant in spirit. Courage or to be courageous is to be buoyant. And we all understand what it means to be buoyant. It means you stay on the surface, you rise to the top, you get pulled under the moment you kick loose whatever was dragging you down and you're floating right back to the top. And that's really an aspect that courage that is on the inside, it's not a mind game really, it is deeper than that. For the believer it is a spiritual force that is alive within us by the Spirit of God to cause us to rise back up regardless of what has dragged us down. Glory to God. That's good preaching, Dennis. One of the most powerful things that you and me as believers can participate in, in following the Holy Spirit, one of our assignments is that we would be encouragers. If the divine encourager, the Holy Spirit, has an assignment of encouraging people that are discouraged, and you understand, I mean it's so obvious, that discouragement has the word courage kind of wrapped in it in a very negative light, it is to be without courage. The Holy Spirit's assignment is to encourage those who are discouraged, but sometimes you don't have to be totally discouraged to need encouragement. Everybody needs encouragement. And we need it all the time. Glory to God. And I'm convinced that one of the greatest assignments on every single believer is to be the voice of encouragement. If that is the work of the Holy Spirit, then we participate with the Spirit of God on a very high level if we would be the voice of encouragement ourselves. When everybody needs encouragement, then you're never going to go wrong by encouraging somebody. Is this too deep for us? No, this is all very simple. But here's what we understand. We understand that our words can either build someone up or do something else that could tear someone down. Just a word, how many people still carry words around that were hurtful words spoken to them decades ago? Happens all the time. You know, one place to get some real discouragement that sets in for the long term is out on the schoolyard when you were in elementary school, because elementary school kids, we love them, God bless them, we all went there, we all were there. But elementary age kids can turn mean in a moment. Certainly not your kids. So we're talking about somebody else's family, I get that, but when you were a kid, it's very likely there were some hurtful things said to you. Now not everything just sticks, but every once in a while something just hits a nerve and really drops something on the inside of another that just lasts them the rest of their life, becomes something that they have to deal with. I'll share a brief one, it's not a big one. When I was going into the fourth grade, the summer prior to going into the fourth grade, I had gotten some kind of weird, weird kidney disease and the assignment for me was to do nothing for the entire summer, I was not to get out of bed. That was like being assigned to prison, or worse. Don't move, don't get out of bed, you do nothing for the entire summer, and then they'll put me on some kind of steroids and all kinds of stuff. And during the course of this, between the steroids and me doing nothing but eating, I was allowed to eat of course, something happened. It seemed unexplainable to me, but I blew up. I got a little hefty. Well I went into the fourth grade and on that first day when they were taking rolls, verbally calling out names because the teacher didn't know any of the students really yet, and when the teacher called out my name, somebody shouted right away, he's not here. And then I said, here. Heads turned. They couldn't recognize me, because I was always the skinny little kid. Now I was a bigger little kid. So that day out on the schoolyard was a rough day, and that's about all I'm going to say about that. Thankfully, I don't remember the kids that were so cruel and mean, because if I did, I might say things about them right now. But there are things that can stick, like that stuck for me, and while I got past it right away, I lost the weight and I trimmed down, and I stayed trim, pretty trim most of the time. You don't care about any of this, but just thought I'd brag at how trim I've stayed. I told Vicki last year, I said, you know, I'm the same weight I was when I married you 51 years ago, just thought you should know that. I'm not sure that was the right approach. I'm not any more convinced now, although it is true. Okay, there's a message in here somewhere. I'm going to find it before this service is over. I've got the night. If anybody comes back. Let's get back to the Bible. The Apostle Paul referred to something right along this line that gives a lot of light on how we can approach this subject. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, this is going to be from the New Living Translation. In verse 4 he says this, he says to the Corinthian church, he said, I have the highest confidence in you, and I take great pride in you, and you have greatly encouraged me and made me happy despite our troubles. We're going to read further, but that last little part of that, despite our troubles, it always catches my attention because he had had trouble with the Corinthian church. This is the second letter. In the first letter, he had quite a few corrective things that were a bit rough. He pointed out some things in the compromises going on in that church, and he told them exactly what they needed to do and what he thought about it. He gave them counsel. Now he was an authority in that church. He was the apostle for that church, and so he had a right to speak into that church on that level. You know, not everybody has that right in our life. I don't listen to just anybody. There's a few people that have that right in my life, but it might not be you. It is my wife. Thank you for pointing that out. Somebody asked me, I was asked earlier, where's your wife? I thought she was coming with you. I said, she is ever-present as she is, and she could be tuned in right now. I love you, darling. But Paul had had trouble with this Corinthian church. There was trouble, and they had to hear his counsel, but they didn't have to receive it. You know, not everybody that comes for counsel really comes for counsel. Oftentimes, many, many times, let me say it this way, many, many, many times people come not for counsel, but they come for comfort. They want to ask you a question, but they don't necessarily want to hear an answer. I'm sure that's no one present here, but you may know somebody like that. But the Corinthians, they took the counsel that Paul brought them or gave them through his first letter, and obviously, based on what he just said, they received it. They made the adjustments. They shifted. They took the guidance and the input from the man of God, and they allowed those words to resonate in them so that now Paul could say, I have confidence in you, and you have greatly encouraged me and made me happy despite our troubles. You had trouble with me. I had trouble with you, but we're past that. Now, there's a lot of directions we could take with this. We do have to understand how to get past things. When there are troubles, those troubles are not to remain ever with us, but we do get past them, and that's for another time and another message, but it would be a good one. He goes on, though. He says, when we arrived in Macedonia, there was no rest for us. We were faced with conflict from every direction. Now, here's the line that I wanted to point out to you. This shocked me when I first read it out of this translation. He said it this way. He said, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside. This is the Apostle Paul talking. Battles on the outside. We get that. We have a variety of stories in Scripture, and the book of Acts tells of a variety of times when Paul was under attack or on a ship that was wrecked, and he had to float out in the ocean for a couple of days, apparently, and various things that there were battles on the outside, and we have battles on the outside as well, and just like Paul, we understand you have to conquer those battles that are on the outside, but the goal of the battles on the outside is to create what Paul refers to going on on the inside, with fear on the inside. I got it. Paul wasn't saying he was caving into any of the fear, but he acknowledged the fact that that is the assignment that the enemy has through any battle and every battle, and that is to strike fear on the inside of every one of us that we don't have what it takes to deal with the kind of battle that we're facing on the outside. Discouragement. Paul goes on to say this, and this just is so strong. He said, but God. Everybody say, but God. You know, everything changes after the but. Everything that comes before this but changes with what's about to come right after the but. But God. Suddenly now, everything changes regarding these battles on the outside and this strategy for fear on the inside. Everything changes, but God, listen to this, who encourages those who are discouraged, which you need to take personally. And he encouraged us. Now watch this. He encouraged us by the arrival, look at this, the arrival of what? Of who? Titus. He didn't say I was encouraged by the arrival of an angel of the Lord, or I was encouraged because I had an experience in an open heaven and I ascended into heaven and saw things with a vision. Maybe those things would be encouraging, but that wasn't the point he was making to them. He said, I was encouraged by the arrival of somebody. Somebody showed up, and in this case it was this young man Titus, a son really to Paul, a spiritual son actually, not physical, but a spiritual son that would have been encouraged himself many times by Paul, but he came and he brought encouragement to Paul. That's how encouragement comes. Comes through other people. Certainly it comes through prayer. It comes through times in the presence of the Lord. We get that. But there are times, many times, encouragement comes by the voice of somebody. That is the assignment each of us carry. Number of years ago now, Vicki and I were really facing a very, very serious attack. It was a physical attack that had come, and it wasn't changing. Look, man, we understand how to stand on the Word and how to receive from God. We were not novices then. We're not novices now. We had already received from the Lord many times. We knew how to speak the Word, meditate on God's Word, take authority, and we were doing all those things, but it was not really moving the needle for us, and the weight of the reports that we were getting were just not good. After a few days of that, a couple of days, we were together at one point, and I received a text from a guy. This was a pastor that I had preached for several years before, and we'd had virtually no contact since, not because I didn't like him and he didn't like me. He's the kind of guy, there's nothing he wouldn't do for me, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him, which is why we've continued to do nothing for each other. That was really the way it went, man. He didn't talk to me. I didn't talk to him. He didn't call me. I didn't call him. He didn't text me. I didn't text him. I had virtually no contact until I get a text from him in the midst of this mess that we were in. He had some very encouraging things to say about how he had been praying, and some things the Lord gave him that were prophetic words, and he wanted me to hear it and receive it if I felt it was from the Lord, and it was, it was great. All of that information that he gave me, while it was good and it was God, what really got me were the first few words that he said to me. He said, Dennis, I have found myself praying for you two over the last few days. When I read that, the anointing of God came all over me and came all over Vicki. It's like the presence of the Lord, who we understand is always among us, but it's as if everything ramped up and there was a tangible sense that the Spirit of God was in the room now. He was already in the room, I get that, but man, something happened in me, and what had been weighing on me suddenly lifted, and I was, to use the word we're talking about here today, I was, and Vicki was, encouraged. With what? Just the idea that over the last few days, God had tagged somebody to stand with us. We hadn't really let anybody know what was going on for us. We didn't call, and nothing wrong with it if we had, but we really had not asked friends or pastors or people to pray over this situation. We just take care of stuff from the Word ourselves. Again, not that there would be anything wrong with that. There's reasons to do it. But now I have this witness from the Lord that he tagged a guy hundreds of miles away from me that we had not communicated with, as I already said, in a long time, but he had found himself praying for us over the last few days. And you know this, if God tagged one, he tagged others. We did not stand alone. We had others with us, and it brought with it encouragement. It's not hard to encourage somebody else. It doesn't take a great deal of time. It doesn't even take a great deal of thought. Some people are not into thinking all that much anyway, so this is perfect. Okay, that was some cynicism that I need to remind myself I'm getting out of, so you don't have to remind me later. But it's not all that hard. It just comes with the Word. In fact, here's how the Apostle Paul said it in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13. This is from the NCV. My electronics jumped. He said it this way. He said, but encourage each other every day while it is today. Encourage somebody every day. Are you doing that? You know, we're Word people around here. We want to do what God tells us to do, and here's something he's told us. It's not hidden. Encourage each other every day. It's a great habit. You know, some people discourage others on a daily basis. You know, some people, they just walk in the room and you can feel what has just come in as a downer. Let's avoid that person. Sitting over here, I'm going to sit over here, or whatever it is. It happens in church. Not this church, most likely. Others come in the room and they're like sunshine. You've got to decide, are you going to be the dark cloud that sucks all the oxygen out, or are you going to bring the life of God with you? And you have to make a decision which way it's going to go, particularly if you've been kind of that dark kind of voice periodically for a long time. There's a shift that has to take place. Was that harsh? I was trying to be kind. This is supposed to end up as a word of encouragement today. So y'all pray for me. Or send me a text, but I won't get it right now. Encourage one another daily. That's participation with the ministry of the Spirit. That is what He does, and when we do this, we are working with Him on a high level with the ministry that He has for every person. It doesn't take long to encourage somebody. And it's not always even spiritual. Hey, it's good to see you today. That's better than, hey, I wish I missed you today. Never said that before. I may never say that again. But sometimes our encouragement comes not just as a, hey, I'm thinking about you today. Anytime I mention that, it reminds me of something Charles Capps told. He's been in heaven now many years, and he had told this different times. But he said that at some stage, he got a phone call from John Osteen, Joel Osteen's daddy. So this has been quite a long time ago. But he said, I got a phone call from John Osteen. Picked up the telephone. Charles, this is John. Just wanted you to know I love you. Thinking about you. Bye. Click. No commentary. No conversation. Nothing more than something like that. And yet it did exactly what we're talking about today. It encouraged Charles that somebody had something to bless him with and went ahead and took the time to do it. Called him on the phone or in the case that I described, sent a text. Or you could even write a snail mail letter to somebody. Does anybody do that anymore? God bless every one of you for that. It doesn't have to be deep. It doesn't have to be lengthy. It doesn't have to be a great deal. But just the idea that somebody blesses another is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We need to get involved with the Spirit of God. Don't wait to have a vision to feel like the Holy Spirit's ready to use you. He's ready to use you now. And you have this capacity. But there's also a little more that Paul talks about, Romans 1, verse 11 and 12. He says it this way there. He said, I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. So there is not just a quick encouragement, but oftentimes there will be a spiritual encouragement, something that is more meaty where maybe you do have something the Holy Spirit wants you to give a person that is a scripture or an idea, a thought that the Holy Spirit has inspired inside of you a little bit more than a, hey, I was thinking about you, hey, I like you a lot, or love you, God bless you. But, hey, I was praying about you and I just had a sense that you were being weighed down by some things and I want to tell you, I'm praying for you, that this is your moment for victory. Or something that has a little more spiritual meat to it. That's also a type of encouragement that we're instructed really to participate in ourselves. Let me try to wrap up with this. There are times when Titus is not coming. There are times when nobody's coming. There are times that you can face discouragement and face a real strategy against your life and there's nobody that's going to take you by the hand and bring any comfort to you at all. In those times, here's what scripture gives us the example of. That's the time you understand how to encourage yourself. Of course, the great example of that is when David was not yet king, but he was running. He had his entourage, his several hundred people. They were living in Ziklag and it's quite an interesting story. I won't go into it in depth. But while they were gone from their encampment, the men had gone out to take care of some business for a period of time, there was an enemy. The Amalekites had come in to the encampment in Ziklag. They had taken captive all of the women, all of the children, all of the goods, taken all of the wealth and burned the entire camp down. When the men came back, everything was gone, destroyed or left in ashes. All of the men were quite discouraged and they did what a lot of people do when they get discouraged. They turned on David, the one voice of leadership from the Spirit of God that many of these men had and yet now David became the problem. Not the Amalekites, who were the real problem. But no, it was all about David now because he was there. And they lashed out at him. Yet here's what Scripture tells us in 1 Samuel 30, verse 6 in the Amplified Bible. It says, David was greatly distressed for the men spoke of stoning him because the souls of all of them were bitterly grieved, each man for his own sons and daughters. Which you can understand, it would be, but they were going at it all wrong. But the next line is what I want you to hear loud and clear. But David encouraged and strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Nobody was coming to David's aid. Nobody was going to stand with David at this point. They were all against him. He stood totally alone and yet he had the presence of mind to understand that he would encourage himself and strengthen himself in the Lord his God. No pity party here. No woe is me. No, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. How do you encourage yourself in the Lord your God? By the words of your own mouth. When your thoughts are running wild or other people are filling your head with all kinds of opposition, like David was experiencing, your mind can run and race in a variety of directions, none of them good. You have to put a stop to it and begin to declare something different. You know, even in scientific studies, they've done brain scans while people were facing and thinking about things that would stir up adversities and problems and things that were a challenge to their life. And they would record what the brain's activity was like with that kind of thinking and then they would give them in these studies certain things specifically to think about. Just a different word. Think of the word peace. Think of the word love. And that was as deep as some of it got. But the moment that a person began to think of the word peace, just think about it. Those brain scans began to change. That brain, you know, there'd be a color scan to show activity. The colors would start to change. The conflict was being dealt with. Now what we understand from Scripture, and we may get a little more into this tonight, is it's not only what we think, but it is also really what we say. You can turn your thoughts by what you say. You just utter the word peace. And it begins to make the shift in your own soul. And if it happens that quickly and that easily by simply speaking a word like peace, think about how drastic the change can be when you begin to speak the words of Scripture. The things Jesus said. Don't let your heart be troubled. I'm not going to let my heart be troubled. I receive the peace. You start announcing things that God has said and you declare them and it begins to shift things in your own soul and you encourage yourself in the Lord your God. You literally talk yourself into it. Now David went on, it says in verse 8, David inquired of the Lord saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Speaking of the Amalekites that had taken their families captive. Shall I overtake them? And the Lord answered him and said, For you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all. And so that's exactly what David did and that's exactly what happened. David's courage rose up and reverberated through all of these hundreds of men that were just minutes ago wanting to kill David. Now suddenly they embraced the same courage, the same buoyancy that had come up inside of David and they were ready to run with David after the troops and after the Amalekites and they all did and they got their families back, they got their goods back, and they even got back the goods of the Amalekites. That's another message but it is a good one. God doesn't restore to us only what we once had. He restores to us in abundance beyond what we've ever had. But He had to pursue it and you have to pursue it too. These things won't just fall on us. They come because we take authority and we take our stand and we stand strong in the divine encourager and we let His courage rise up in us and we declare it in Jesus' name. And I want you to stand with me this morning because on one level or another you may have brought in some discouraging information or ideas or had some weights on you. Everyone needs encouragement and I want today, this day, to be a word of encouragement to you. I came to be your Titus today with just a word of encouragement. In many cases that's as deep as it runs by the Spirit of God. That He lifts us out of the trap or the pit or the hole that we find ourselves in. This is part of how He makes intercession for us. We may get into that some more tonight. But the work of the Holy Spirit is here right now. Not coming into the room, He's already in the room. Not coming into your life, He's already in your life. The rising up out of your innermost being like Jesus said He would, that out of your innermost being would flow rivers of living, life-giving, and in this case, encouraging waters out of your own innermost being to flood through your own soul and into your own house. So in the name of Jesus, lift your hands right before the Lord and say it right out to God. Oh God, here I stand. There is no thing in my life that I'm allowing to discourage me. I take authority over discouragement. I take authority over chaos and the strategies of an enemy against me. I speak peace. I declare wholeness. That out of my innermost being is courage and encouragement that in this moment, peace prevails, wholeness is sealed and settled in me, and I receive it in the name of Jesus. I'm rising up. I'm pursuing. I'm overtaking. And I recover all in the name of Jesus. This is my time. And today's my day. The day of the Lord and the day of recovery. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Glory to God. So we take authority over disease just that way. We speak to it. We speak to tumors and growth, slumps and bumps. That they be dissolved and that they flee. We take authority over your nervous system. That in the name of Jesus, your blood system, your hormone level, that in Jesus' name it is all brought to a place of original design. In Jesus' name. I speak into your own brain that there is an infusion in your brain of restoration of all things. That the narrow highways within your brain are fortified and multiplying are having a miracle experience right there in your head. In the name of Jesus. Lord, we receive in Jesus' name. And you don't have to wait for me to call something out for you to receive it. But that anointing is flowing here like a river. So we receive on every level. Say it out loud. I receive today on every level. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Come on, shout a praise to the Lord. We do receive in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.