God Never Meant For You To Lose

GOD NEVER MEANT FOR YOU TO LOSE

1 Sam 7:2-13

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR:

B. TEXT

4:1Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer. 2 Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men. [Israel brought the Ark of the Covenant to the battle.] 10 There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. 18 [The High Priest] Eli fell off the seat backward …and his neck was broken and he died.” 1 Sam. 4:1-2,10-11,18

7:2 [For] twenty years in all…the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD. 3 And Samuel said…"If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. 6 On that day they fasted and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah. 7 When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines." 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on Israel's behalf, and the LORD answered him. 10 But that day the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car. 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us." 13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. 1 Sam. 7:2-13.

C. THESIS

1. At a place called Ebenezer, Israel was terribly defeated. They lost 34,000 men and also their faith in God. After 20 years of misery, they faced the same battlefield and the same enemy. But this time they had victory.

2. Had God wanted their defeat the first time? No! They lost because some things weren’t right about them. The truth is, God never meant for them to lose.

2. The same is true of you. “God never meant for you to lose.” Everything in your life may seem opposite, but still God never meant for you to lose.

a. God didn’t save you from sin, to lose.

b. God didn’t predestine you from the foundation of the world – call you from before you were formed in your mother’s womb – to lose;

c. God didn’t save, sanctify, and set you apart, and give you the consciousness of Jesus Christ, just for you to live a defeated life.

2. If you were to be defeated, you could have been defeated in sin; you could have been overcome by your own lust and addictions.

3. If GOD thought enough of you to choose you and call you out and set you apart, then you need to get winning down in your spirit; God never meant for you to lose.

4. Look somebody in the face and say, “Friend, God never meant for you to lose?”

5. I know the devil’s been trying to tell you - it’s God’s will for you to be defeated, or maybe you’re not supposed to be blessed or happy or free. He’s tried to use troubles to turn you from God, but I came to serve you notice; the devil is a liar! God never meant for you to lose!

I. STILL BATTLES TODAY, JUST DIFFERENT

A. A DIFF. TYPE OF WARFARE

1. Our challenges today are represented by the battles they faced in the Old Testament. For us, those battles have moved from the natural to the spiritual realm.

2. Ephesians 6:12. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Not tangible.

3. Armies are still marching – against your mind, your physical well-being, your emotions; against the prosperity God has promised you, against your destiny – trying to get you to give up on the things God has placed down in your spirit.