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.
4. The greatest battles go on in our minds! And because they’re invisible, we don’t realize how fierce and terrible they are.
5. We read the testimonies in Hebrews 11 of people tortured and sawn in two, and next to them our testimonies seem weak and feeble and embarrassing. But if you realize that you have legions of demons attacking your mind, then it’s a victory report, after it all, to be able to say, “I’m still here!”
B. STILL CHOSEN THOUGH CHASTENED
Israel represents the church in crisis. “The Word of the Lord was scarce and there were no open visions.”
1. The crisis is not whether Israel is the chosen people of God, but why God allowed His chosen people to suffer severe trials.
2. You can be chosen and still be in a crisis. You’re probably much too polite to admit it but there’s times you wonder – “Has God forgotten me?”
3. But the text reveals that God hadn’t forgotten Israel, but Israel had forgotten God! They were meant to be
victorious but they had corrupt and carnal leadership who were only in it for money and sex.
4. When a man or wife quits talking, it speaks of how critical the situation; God had stopped talking! “The word of the Lord was rare and there were no open visions.”
5. You have to have a vision before you can get a re-alignment to your life. Why? Because you must believe in your destiny!
6. Hope & destiny cause you to deal with your issues NOW because you believe something greater is ahead of you.
II. WHY DO WE LET THE ENEMY TRESPASS?
A. LITTLE DIRECT CONTACT WITH GOD
1. Into this climate of defeat and no vision, God began to trouble a woman named Hannah who gave birth to a prophet named Samuel. God made her hungry for pregnancy.
2. She just thought she wanted a baby, but she was a tool in the hand of God to “birth a prophet” for the nation. She was a symbol of the nation – needing a Deliverer.
3. Samuel altered the direction of the nation because Samuel had one thing and only one thing going for him; Samuel was a man of PRAYER.
4. THE DEVIL DOESN’T MIND IF YOU:
a. start complaining, or if you
b. feel sorry for yourself; Or if
c. you dial 1–800–Cry Baby,
but he does get upset if you drop down on your knees and start calling on the Name of the Lord. “For the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”
5. If you start praying, the situation is going to change –
a. the prodigal is going to come out of the pig pen;
b. God’s going to take 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and multiply them.
c. If you start praying you’re going to start walking on top of water and speak to storms.
There’s something about prayer. You don’t need a psychiatrist, mind-altering pills, or a stiff drink – you just need to get alone with God and pray!
6. 2 Chronicles 7:14. “I will heal your land.” God never meant for you to lose.
a. Do you have an affliction in your body? Lay your hand on that place and declare and decree in the Name of Jesus that God is healing your body. The devil is a liar. Healing is the children’s bread….
b. The doctors have done what they could do and now let’s let God do what He can do! “I declare healing in this house; In the name of Jesus, be healed. God never meant for you to be broke and sick.”
c. Lay your hands on your head – “I take authority over pride, over emotions, etc. The devil is after my mind. I rebuke mood disorders, personality disorders, etc. ‘Lose me and let me go.’” Praise Him for your sound mind. 2 Tim. 1:7; “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.”
d. Be healed in your marriage/relationships. I defy the devil’s power. God never meant for me to lose my mind/my prosperity/my peace. Somebody help me praise Him.
5. I feel a “coming back” spirit, a spirit of restoration, renewal; turn to somebody and say “take it back – everything you lost,” everything that’s eroding, every place that’s under attack. I need some people with some radical Holy-ghost faith in this room. Turn to your neighbor and say, “I am coming out of this.” There’s a battle going on.
B. LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT’S OURS
1. If you DON’T PERCEIVE it right, you WON’T RECEIVE it right. God says, “Tell my people, ‘They’re entitled.’ That means I’ve transferred the title to them.” It doesn’t matter if the Canaanites, the Jebusites, and the Hittites are camping on the land; God says, “I have given YOU the land to possess it!” It’s written in the title that it belongs to you.
2. That’s why you have the power to evict the devil that’s on your stuff. That’s why you can tell the devil to get off. You’re entitled to peace of mind/wellness/ prosperity; stop begging for what you’re entitled to. Stop begging for what He’s promised you; it’s His Last Will and Testament. It is written.
3. You’ve got to Start telling the devil what is written
over your life and stop telling him what you think or feel. Start telling him, “It is written!”
4. Hold up your Bible. This is your Title-Deed. This is how you’re going to come out – not by your feelings, your emotions, not because people support you or like you, but because “It is written.”
C. ONLY WHAT’S WRITTEN MATTERS
1. If you make a business deal with someone, it doesn’t matter how nice they are, or what they promised when driving down the road, rather the question is “What’s in the contract?” If it’s not written down, it’s not real.
2. When the devil came to Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus flipped out the contract and said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone…” If it’s NOT written in the contract “I have to be sick”, then guess what – I don’t have to be sick. If it’s NOT written in the contract “I have to be lonely” then guess what, I don’t have to be lonely.
3. When there’s no vision in the house, the enemy can do whatever he wants to. Samuel was a prophet. He was called to bring the Word back in the house. It makes a difference if there’s a Word from God in the house. You know why? Then you can be what God says you should be.
4. Samuel had to learn to hear God’s voice. There’s a lot of people “running” with words supposedly from God, but a true servant waits to hear. I would rather wait 10 years and have it right, than to go out 11 years early and have it wrong. Israel was being defeated because they didn’t have it right.
III. THE VALUE OF TROUBLES
A. LOSS CAUSES US TO ASSESS THINGS
1. The lights went out in New York City and it created quite a stir. Problems make you assess. There’s nothing like trouble to bring you to your senses. That’s why the Bible said, “It was good for me when I was afflicted.”
2. I have seen the furnace of affliction turned into a pit of revival. I didn’t learn faithfulness from somebody’s podcast, I learned it when all hell was breaking lose. That’s when God showed up!
B. THE LOSS RESTORED FEAR OF GOD
1. Israel played games with God and lost 34,000 men. They thought they could use God like a butler or bellhop – bringing the Ark of the covenant to the scene of the battle.
2. God had to show them He was not a toy, by letting them be defeated. God says, “Don’t take My favor for granted.” God will allow casualties – like careers – in order to make a statement.
C. THE LOSS BROUGHT A TRANSFER
1. They had the Ark/the presence of God with them, but they lost! They shouted, they danced, and they lost! Some of you have wondered how you shouted, and danced, and still lost! Something wasn’t quite right.
2. The religious veneer had to be peeled off and replaced with repentance and Holy Spirit-dependence to shift the kingdom back to God.
D. THE LOSS BROUGHT CONSECRATION
1. Samuel told them to get rid of Ashtoreth and Baalim – to get rid of their sins, so God’s blessing could come. They brought themselves into alignment with God.
2. When under attack – you clean up your act, you find a deeper consecration, you instinctually home-in on the real source of power – God.
E. THE LOSS BROUGHT HUMBLING
1. You can’t beat an enemy unless you get lower – a lower center of gravity. The problem with the church now is that they were wanting to fight standing straight up and looking cute. No! Get down low.
2. Do you have a bad doctors report? Get down low. Is your house being foreclosed on? Get down low. Because God gives grace to the humble!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.: ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S CALL TO NAT’L FASTING
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Don’t think that because you were defeated yesterday that you can’t have victory tomorrow! God says that your later days will be greater than your former.
2. God says, “Everything the enemy took, I will make him give back, because I was trying to get you to line up with me.”
3. James 4:7 gives the prescription for victory; “Therefore submit [yourselves] to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” All we have to do is Submit and Resist! Praise God – Victory is within your grasp!
