Know Where You Stand, Part 03

Female Narrator: Do you want to face today's anti-faith culture with boldness? Words of truth to help from Dr. Michael Youssef, as he begins today's Leading The Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: How can you and I be encouraged in the midst of what we see today all around us? This wholesale departure from the faith. How can you and I be strong when our circumstances sometimes ready to crush us? And the answer comes to us screaming from the words of the scripture, "For I am with you," declares the Lord. That is the secret of courage. That is the source of encouragement.
Female Narrator: Welcome to Leading The Way. This is where you'll always hear Dr. Michael Youssef passionately proclaim uncompromising truth. Many today perceive that the Bible is kind of disconnected from real life, but when you approach it with an expectant heart, God will faithfully reveal relevant truth through the Bible for each new day. That'll be especially clear today as Dr. Youssef takes you into the pages of the Old Testament book of Haggai on Leading The Way. Here now, Dr. Michael Youssef, beginning a challenging message in his series that's called, "Know Where You Stand."
Dr. Michael Youssef: In the last message I told you that you should never underestimate Satan's power of discouragement. It is his most effective tool against the believer. By the same token, don't underestimate the power of encouragement. While Satan is the one who discourages us, God is the one who encourages us. Encouragement strengthens the weak. Encouragement uplifts the faint-hearted. Encouragement gives hope to the hopeless. Encouragement buoys up the fallen. And that is why in the scripture, hundreds of times you read again and again, "Be of good courage. Be encouraged." Whenever you see the Word of the Lord to somebody saying, "Be of good courage, be encouraged, have courage." Whenever you see that in the scripture, you can be absolutely sure that most times, if not all times, it is because that person is being discouraged. And that person is desperately in need of encouragement. And as we come to this concluding message from that magnificent book of Haggai, we see how the Lord Himself encourages His faithful people. He encourages the remnant. Even though they were discouraged, even though they were tempted to give up the work, even though they were going through a tough time, but the Lord did not rebuke them. He encouraged them. And this is a word from the Lord for us today. It's a word of encouragement for everyone here who's discouraged. And so, turn with me, please, to chapter two of the book of Haggai, in verse four particularly. Here's the word of encouragement. He said, "Be strong, O Zerubbabel," who's the king, or the governor, "declares the Lord Almighty. Be strong, O Joshua, the high priest," declares the Lord Almighty. "Be strong, all you people of the land," declares the Lord. How can they be strong when they already discouraged and gave up the work? How can you and I be encouraged in the midst of what we see today all around us? This wholesale departure from the faith. How can we be strong and encouraged in the midst of compromise and defection from the truth? How can you and I be strong when our circumstances sometimes ready to crush us? And the answer comes to us screaming from the words of the scripture and is found in verse four, "For I am with you," declared the Lord. That is the secret of courage. That is the source of encouragement. The one thing that Satan he will do is that he would whisper in your ear, "You are all alone. You are all alone, you're the only one. Nobody believes like you do. Nobody's holding onto biblical truth like you do. God has moved on since the days of the Bible. The Bible does not meant to be taken literally. God does not answer prayer like He answered in the Bible. Just go along and do some good and hope for the best." But God's promise, beloved, is God's promise. Amen. It never changes. He said, "I am with you and therefore you should be encouraged." I have promised never to leave you, nor forsake you. And I'm as good as my promise. Keep on trusting me. I promised to honor those who honor me. Hold on. Your honor is on its way. Your honor is coming your way. Hold on. I'm your strong tower in the days of battle. I'm your strong tower in the days of battle. And the battle is not over yet. Keep on being strong and keep on holding onto me. Keep on being anchored in me. I promised in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Be of courage, for I have overcome the world. Amen belongs here. While the promise of God for them to be courageous because He's with them is enough. But God goes on to say other things. Whenever we go through discouragement, we kind of wistfully think back of the good old days. Have you been there? Rightly or wrongly, we become nostalgic in the midst of our discouragement. And in the time of Haggai, God's people looked at where they are, and at very discouraging condition of the temple, and they began to weep. They were weeping. They said to themselves, "We can't bring those glorious days back? It's impossible. We will never be able to bring back the good old days when this temple was in all with this glorious majesty." And I wonder if you are like me. When you look around and you see how church and pastors and church leaders are defecting from the truth of the Word of God every single day, albeit so slowly. When you see how some Christian leaders because they are being bullied and they are being intimidated, they gave up and they have surrendered the white flag, and they have given up the battle. When you see all of this happening, we can get nostalgic. Even if we didn't see some good old days, we read it in the history and we see how in days gone by when the God's Spirit moved with power in days of revival and great awakenings, and how people were coming to these meetings of George Whitfield and others and they begin to weep over their sin before they even heard a sermon preached. We look back in days that we read about when God's power was moving in His church, days even when secular people respected Christian symbols, days when school students began their day with prayer. It is easy to fall back in the past. It's easy to fall back into nostalgia. I know that because I've been there. But when you begin to do that and look back nostalgically to the past, you're going to be paralyzed in the present. And that's where they were. That's where they were. And God knew that, God saw that. They were paralyzed in the present. And when people are looking around and saying, "What can one person do? What can one family do? What can one church do?" The answer come to us because God has a word for us, for this generation, for you and for me today. God has a word because the answer comes straight to us from the Word of God. The God who encourages us, makes it very clear, "I know where you are. God knows how you feel. God knows what you need. God knows." And He doesn't gloss over them. He doesn't gloss over where you are. He doesn't try to cover it up and move on. He did not even try to rebuke them in their discouragement. No. In fact, He said to them, "Don't get down on yourself." That's what it means. "Don't get down on yourself. Don't put yourself down so much. Don't look back too much. Don't let the nostalgia of the past paralyze you today." But instead, He said, "Be strong. Today be courageous because I am what?" "With you." "Don't be afraid. Don't give up the fight. Don't give it up. Don't surrender." How many of you needed the word of encouragement from the Lord? He's giving it to you today. Not from Michael Youssef, it's from the Lord. In fact, you see that happens again and again and again in Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse six. He gives that word of encouragement to Moses. In the book of Joshua chapter one, three times, six, seven and nine, He gives that word of encouragement to Joshua because he needed it. In fact, in Chronicles, First Chronicles 28:20, David gives that word of encouragement to his son Solomon because he knew that he needed it as he begins to build the temple. The Apostle Paul, when he was discouraged in the prison, the Lord Himself showed up and said to him, "Be of good courage, Paul." And then Paul began to encourage others as he does in Ephesians chapter six, verse 10. He said, "Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." And God was doing the same thing here in the book of Haggai as He's doing it today to you. He's doing the same thing here for these folks, this remnant, these faithful people. And so, He speaks to them, "Be strong, O Zerubbabel. Be strong, O Joshua. Be strong, all you people of the land." How? By remembering the presence of the Lord. How easy it is for us to forget the presence of the Lord. You know, when you're in the muddle, when you're in that prison cell of your own making, when you are in the dark place, it's easy to forget the presence of the Lord. In the New Testament, where believers are indwelt of the Holy Spirit, this word is even more poignant to us than it was in the Old Testament. But the Word of God does something else that is so powerful. I don't want you to miss it. He's not only telling them not to look back with nostalgia, but He tells them to look forward to the future. Looking forward to the future always will encourage you. Looking back will paralyze you. Looking forward will encourage you. And so God is saying to them, "The reason you are down in the dumps is because you are looking back." Look at verses six all the way to nine. He's saying to them, "Look forward to the future." Let me read them to you. "This is what the Lord God Almighty says. In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations." Now, if you look historically at this prophecy, it was physically fulfilled literally. Persia, and the Persian Empire that was so mighty and powerful and dominated the world, got shaken to its knees by the Greeks and then followed by the Romans, who paved the way for the coming of the Messiah, built all the roads in the Roman Empire and the places they occupied. And so that the Messiah came at the right time, at the appointed time so that the apostles and the disciples can take the Gospel to the ends of the earth as they knew it back then. What is this "nations desiring, the desired one?" The desired one is the Messiah, Jesus. How can the nations desire Him? The nations revile Him. The nations hate Him. Ah, what He's saying here is that the believers from every nation is the ones who desire Him. The faithful Christians from every nation today are desiring the return of Jesus. This is a prophecy of the returning of our glorious King Jesus. For in that great day of judgment, God is going to shake the nations of the earth. The proud and the arrogant kings and rulers and heads of state are going to bow to Him. Even now, the little announcements He keeps sending about His coming, earthquakes and floods and tsunamis and rumblings are taking place. These are mere announcements that God is sending, "I'm coming. And when I come, it's not going to be little announcements like this. It's going to be a complete shaking." These are gentle reminders that I'm coming. These are gentle reminders that the world is coming to an end. These are gentle reminders that I'm in charge. These are gentle reminders that He's around the corner and He may be even closer than we think. For on that day, the mountains are going to fall into the sea. On that day, the elements, Peter said, will melt. The earth will shake like a leaf. The heavens will thunder with power. The mighty will be terrified. The arrogant hearts will melt like butter. The powerful will bow down in fear. Those who persecuted Christian believers now today will tremble. Those who hate God's people and God's Messiah, they're going to weep blood. Those who curse God's anointed will try to run, but they won't be able to hide. Those who mocked Him, those who reviled Him, those who hated Him, those who sold their birthrights, those who have rejected His truth, those who took pride in denying Jesus, those who have sought to modify His words, those who watered down His words, those who compromise His words, they will be shaking like leaves. That's the Word of God. That's the promise of God. I'm going to shake everything that's been shaken. The earth will shake. The heavens will shake. Look at verse nine. You have to ask, "What does that mean in the light of the New Testament?" Listen very carefully. We don't have temples. And God does not dwell in places, in buildings. He dwells in the believers. You are the temple of God. He dwells in you. God will never be satisfied again with animal blood. When the purest blood of all, His son, Jesus Christ was shed on Calvary, that end all animal sacrifices. God's temple are the people of God. We are the true temple of Jesus Christ. And that is a prophecy about these days. It's not going to be a mere physical glory. It's going to be a spiritual one. Don't miss this. Please don't miss this. This is important. It's a word from the Lord to every one of us. Because this glorious picture have been shown to us by John the Revelator, when he was privileged to look into, peer through history and see that last day, see that end time. And John the Revelator looks in there and he sees all these people, millions of them, worshipping the Lamb from every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, gathered together praising the Lord. That's where the glory of His temple, the believers, is going to take place far greater than the greatest days of Solomon and his temple. But then in the second half of the chapter, after God reminds us of the future and how that future should encourage us to keep on going, to keep on trusting, to keep on serving, to keep on standing up, even if we stand up alone. He gets back to the present. He's back to the question, "What can I do now? What can I do today?" It's well and good to be encouraged about the day that is coming in which we reign and rule with Him. It's wonderful. It's great to look forward to those glorious days. But what do I do now? What do I do in the meanwhile? We're still living in one of the most discouraging times. We're still living in the grind of today. We're still facing ferocious enemy today. Again, God does not gloss over that. He speaks to us here and now, this moment. Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, they might be crushing you, they may be discouraging you, they may be taking you through your own Gethsemane, but God is saying, "Be encouraged today." Beginning at verse 10. This is a dramatic way of God saying to the faithful ones, the remnant, the right people in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time. He is saying to them, "Because you did get discouraged and because you have your priorities gotten inverted, because you become lukewarm toward Me and my work and my kingdom, because of that, you have become contaminated by the world." "Ah, but, listen, listen, this is the greatest, greatest news. But from this day forward." What day is that? The day of which they repented. The day in which they reconsecrated themselves for the service of God. "From this day on, the 24th day of the ninth month, from this day onward, what I'm going to do," He said, "I'm going to bless you. I'm going to bless you." Do you receive it?
Dr. Michael Youssef: From this day forward I'm going to bless you. Verses 15 to 19, He says something important. He said, "Consider." Here's that word again I've been talking about in the last two messages. "Consider or give very careful examination to where you are now. Do a big audit of your life now, of your time, of your talent, of your treasure. How do you use it? Give careful thought now." Which they did, praise God. These folks did. And the last words of the prophet Haggai are directed to the governor Zerubbabel. Listen to me, beloved. Everything hinges on leadership. Leadership can make or break an institution. Leadership can make or break a nation. Leadership can make or break a church. Leadership is of vital importance. It is so important to God that He saved His last words to the governor Zerubbabel. He gives him a specific word because God values leadership. God understands the importance of leadership. God knows that that is why He saved those words to him. "Tell Zerubbabel the governor, I will take you and I will make you like a signet ring." What is that? What does it mean? A signet ring, it was a very precious object for a king or a ruler, so much so that he either places it on his finger or he puts it on a cord around his neck. That's how important that signet ring was. And so God is saying to this godly leader, maybe discouraged, but He's saying to him that God is going to guard him so that the remnant will remain strong. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? So what is God saying? Listen to me, here's what He's saying. "Even in the midst of your discouragement, even in the midst of your disappointment, even in the midst of this heart-rending circumstance, I am sovereign. I am in control. I stand behind all of my promises. No matter how bleak it may look, no matter how dark it may appear, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how foreboding the circumstances, I am the Lord." Amen.
Female Narrator: Thank you for taking time in your day to listen to Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading The Way. His practical audio series, Know Where You Stand, is a reminder of God's assurance that He is with you, even when life makes you feel distanced and isolated. Would you like to speak with someone, a Leading The Way pastor or counselor? You can begin a personal private conversation when you go to ltw.org/Jesus. This series of audio messages from Dr. Youssef that he's calling, "Know Where You Stand," speaks directly into life today. Dr. Youssef wants to further equip you with practical biblical understanding so that you can move deeply and engage with people in your life. And that's why we want to recommend that you sign up for his inspirational email. It's called My Devotional, and it's free. Each day Dr. Youssef sends you a short, powerful word from his heart as he's reflecting on practical Bible verses. Then he offers life-changing thoughts to begin your day or to refocus you on God and His Word whenever you have a moment just to take a read. So sign up at ltw.org. Now that said, My Devotional also comes in podcast form. So if audio content is a little better for you and your lifestyle, you can find My Devotional in your favorite podcast app. Just subscribe today. In fact, take a listen to this. Get a better feel for the content.
Dr. Michael Youssef: This is Michael Youssef, and you are listening to today's My Devotional from Leading The Way. Uncompromising truth for everyday faith. September 4th, 2026. Longing for Heaven. Focusing on Heaven reveals that we truly understand the hope of the Gospel. That surely why God privileged John with a glimpse of Heaven. Our Lord doesn't want us to be apprehensive.
Female Narrator: This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform, including YouTube, Facebook, X, previously called Twitter, Instagram, and more.