Lessons from the Battlefield, Part 4

God is telling you to quit fighting your own battles. Quit hassling with people.

Quit trying to convince them that you're right and they're wrong. Let the Lord fight your battle. Let His grace be sufficient for you.

Let His peace fill your heart and mind. You go forth and do what the Lord has put on your heart to do. That's Pastor Paul Sheppard and this is Destined for Victory.

Thanks for making this part of your day. If you are a believer in Christ and you've made a decision to pursue His will no matter the cost, it won't be long before your enemies show up. They'll say you have no chance, that you're not good enough, that you should live your life by common sense instead of uncommon faith. Today, Pastor Paul takes you once again to the early life of David. As you follow along, you'll see how he handled his critics when he made the decision to accept Goliath's challenge. Stay right here or visit pastorpaul.net to listen anytime on your schedule. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, at Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Lessons from the Battlefield. We're studying the life of David when he was but a young man. As we continue to learn lessons from the battlefield and we are learning lessons not only for historical value, but we're learning lessons that we can apply to our lives.

And so we are in 1 Samuel chapter 17 and I'll catch us all up and then we'll look at some verses along the way as I wrap up this particular section of our series. We have looked at a few lessons from this chapter. First of all, we saw that challenges and conflicts are inevitable. Just as sure as the Philistines gathered for war with Israel, so you and I have enemies that we must face as we seek to do the will of God in our lives.

And as I said at the early part of this series, there's no such thing as victory if you're not willing to be in a fight. And so challenges and conflict are inevitable. Number two, we said become familiar with the enemy. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 and 11, we are not ignorant concerning Satan's devices and we have to learn to become familiar with the ways of the enemy of our souls. And we're not only talking about the spiritual enemy, Satan and his demonic forces, but you also have the enemy of your own fleshly desires that war against God's plan for your life. And the fact of the matter is you have to become familiar with not only the tactics of the devil, but you have to become familiar with your own stuff, your own issues. And I challenged us in that message to get out of denial, become familiar with your own stuff so that you can be fully surrendered to God and enjoy the victory that he has for you.

Now, in the last message, we looked at a third point as well, which is to see every enemy through the eyes of faith. Now, when you look at verses 8 through 11 of 1 Samuel 17, what you see is Goliath standing out in the valley, define the armies of God, bring out a warrior who will fight me. If he overcomes me, the Philistines will serve you. But if I overcome him, you will serve us.

And he stood out and defied them every day. But the Bible says because the army of Saul was only focused on Goliath rather than on their God, the Bible says they were dismayed and terrified. And if the truth be told, some of us are in a state of discouragement, some of us are disillusioned, and some of us are terrified at the thought that our lives are not going to get any better than they are right now. But I showed up to tell you the devil is a liar. The devil is a liar, and you've got to call him the liar he is.

He's the one person you can talk about all you want, and you won't get in trouble with God. You can tell the devil you're a liar, and if you had a mama, she'd be a liar too. The devil is a liar. And when he tells you, when he stands in the valley of your life and defies you and says you'll never become anything for God, you'll never get over your hang-ups, you will never get over your besetting sins, you will never have joy and peace and righteousness reigning in your life, the devil is always going to walk up one side of you and down the other, you are always going to be frustrated and disgusted and pitiful and broke and discouraged and messed up and jacked up.

He is only defying what God says is your inheritance, and what you have to do is look at him through the eyes of faith, and when you do, you'll see that he's a defeated foe. Now what happened was Israel stood there and they fixated on who Goliath was, and whenever you fixate on your enemies, you magnify them. You blow them up. You make them bigger than they are. In fact, that's a general rule in life. Whatever you give the most time and attention to, that's what becomes magnified.

That's what becomes the preoccupation of your mind and of your heart. And that's why the Bible says, oh, magnify the Lord. What that means is you've got to learn to make God as large as he is. And when you learn to magnify God, when you learn to see your enemies through the eyes of faith, your enemies shrink in size and in power. But Israel, unfortunately, the vast majority of them didn't learn that lesson, and so we see them in verse 11 quaking with fear.

They're standing there looking at this giant. He's defying them, and they are all terrified. But I came to tell somebody, God has not given you a spirit of timidity. God has given you power and love and a sound mind. And it's time for somebody to shake him or herself and say I'm tired of living underneath my privilege. I'm tired of having an inheritance I don't claim. I'm tired of God saying I'm a victor when I live like I'm defeated.

And it's time for me to experience the thrill of victory instead of the agony of defeat. Now, if you don't know what that term means, that's because you're too young. But some of us know. Come on, help me, 40 and over. Don't be in denial here for a minute.

Forty and over. As soon as you all heard me say the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, you knew exactly what I was talking about. These young bucks don't know anything about what we just said. These little folk in there 20 times, what do you mean by that?

God bless your heart. We know that we grew up in the day, see, you all don't know anything but cable TV and direct TV and dish and all this stuff. You all know about stuff putting up on your house and all that. Listen, we grew up in a time when there was no direct TV, no cable TV. They didn't have to come wire your neighborhood. All you had to do was go to the store, get yourself a television and set it up on a desk or somewhere in your living room, your family room. It had an antenna. You stick the antenna on the top.

Come on, somebody. And all you had to do, all you had to do was pay for the television itself. Everything else you got for free. I'm talking back in the day now. Everything else you got for free because the antenna would pull in the signal of the local stations in your community and you got it just by virtue of living there. It came in for free. Now back in the day, there were only a few channels now.

Come on, let's be honest. Just a few channels but you got those for free. And you could watch whatever was on. And that back in the days when you had to be there to see it because there was no VCR. And forget about TiVo. There absolutely wasn't TiVo. There wasn't even VCRs back in those days. So if you missed it, you just missed it.

Talk to me, somebody. You say, you mean it was on? Oh, I remember back in the day when The Wizard of Oz, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, would come on about once a year. Oh, my joy was gone when I found out I missed The Wizard of Oz. You talking about it was on and I missed? Yeah, it was on at 8 o'clock. You didn't know? No, we had something to do. Oh, my goodness.

Now I got to wait a year. Oh, I love some Wizard of Oz. Don't tell me I missed that whole thing. I loved it when it went from black and white to color.

Come on, somebody. Dorothy opened that door and she was in Oz. I'll never forget.

I'll tell you how old I am. I remember the first time we got a color TV. Because when I was a kid growing up, we didn't know the difference between Kansas and Oz. Come on, some of y'all were like me. You trying to be cute like you had a color TV all your life. I remember the first time my daddy got a color TV and we saw The Wizard of Oz and she opened that door after the storm, blew her house all around and knocked her out and carrying on.

And when she opened the door, all the color in the land of Oz. I was just amazed by that. And I'm talking about those days. If you missed it, you just missed it. You had to be home in order to catch it. You didn't have satellite and stuff all coming in. And back in those days, there was a show. There was no ESPN. There was a show called Wide World.

Thank you for my help. Thank you. Wide World of Sports. And I loved it when it was first coming on because they would have these wonderful highlights of sporting moments and the man was giving the opening monologue and then he would talk about the thrill of victory and you would see these victorious sporting moments. And then he said, and the agony of defeat. And you'd see folk failing miserably, man falling all over the snow on skis and come on somebody. Those were the days.

Whether you call them the D-A-Y-S or the D-A-Z-E, those were the days. If you're listening to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California, he'll be right back with a second half of today's message. Remember, you can always listen to Destined for Victory right from the palm of your hand by downloading their free mobile app. The app allows you to take notes on the day's message, order books and CDs. You can even make a safe and secure donation to the ministry.

So search for Destined for Victory in the app store and download it today absolutely free. Do you have detractors in your life, people telling you that you're not big enough or strong enough to overcome your giants? Let's see how David handled his enemies in the rest of today's message, Lessons from the Battlefield. Once again, here's Pastor Paul Shepherd.

But let me tell you something. You need to experience the thrill of victory. It's time out in your life to be saddled by the agony of defeat, and it's time for you to learn to see your enemies through the eyes of faith. That's what young David did that all the army didn't do. Now, David, when you see him in verse 26 of 1 Samuel 17, and I want to pick it up there, David went out there just to bring food to his brothers who were in the army. David was still a shepherd boy at this time. He was still too young to be a warrior.

But his daddy sent him out with some food to encourage his brothers who were in the army. And when he went out there and heard Goliath standing out there day after day defying the army of God, David looked at this scene and said, What's the matter with y'all? Why you going to let an uncircumcised Philistine? That's what you need to call your enemies. How y'all going to let an uncircumcised Philistine defy the armies of God?

And notice it. David said, What's going to be done for the man who kills him? David's already thinking about his reward.

He said, What do I get for killing him? And I'm here to tell you that it is time for us to see the enemy through the eyes of faith. David went out there and he said, I don't care what Goliath looks like.

I don't care that he's over nine feet tall. I know the God we serve and the God we serve has promised us victory. And that's all that matters. And I want to encourage somebody to look at your enemies, not through your natural eyes, but look at them through the eyes of faith. Let me make a few more points and I will let you go.

Number four, the fourth lesson from the battlefield is this. Ignore your detractors. Ignore your detractors. You say, Pastor, what are detractors?

I'm not quite sure. That's not a common word in my vocabulary. All right, let me give you this word. Ignore your haters. You with me now? Ignore all the folk who are saying you'll never be anything. Ignore all the people who aren't trying to have victory and resent that you want to have victory. Ignore all the people who aren't trying to go anywhere in their life and don't want to see you go anywhere that God has destined for your life. Ignore all the folk who have a boatload of excuses, but no faith. Ignore all the people who walk by sight and refuse to walk by faith. Ignore all the people who talk about you coming and going. Ignore all the people who show up in your life just to make you miserable. Ignore all the people who it look like their mission in life is to get on your last nerve. Do you know now who I'm talking about?

Folk who look like that's the mission description that they live by. Well, what's your goal in life? To work her nerves?

To get under his skin? Ignore your detractors. Because as sure, my friend, as you declare I'm going to walk in victory, you are going to have detractors. You are going to have people come against you. They will line up in your life. They will show up. If they have to, I said it before, if they have to, they will come in from out of town into your life. Detractors are going to show up now. They will make an effort to come into your life. I've said it before, it's true, they will get on Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia.com. And they will look up a ticket to come into your life and work your nerves.

I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you what I've seen. I've had detractors stay in a hotel nearby so they can get on my nerves. And you've got to learn to ignore your detractors.

Quit bellyaching that you have them. As soon as you decide you're going to live for God, you're going to have detractors. Look at it in David's experience. Verse 28 of 1 Samuel 17. When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he turned with anger at him and said, Why have you come down here? Now the reason is, I came down here to bring you all some food, you ought to be thankful.

Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? See, now why has he got to belittle his brother?

His brother came out there to be a blessing to him, but he's picking on him and he's belittling what he does. All you do is just take care of a few little sheep. And David had enough grace to not say, Well, all you do is stand here and cry because of Goliath.

See, you don't even have to give your detractors that much attention. And so he asked, With whom have you left those sheep? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is, and you came down here only to watch the battle.

But skip down to verse 32. David just said to Saul, Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go fight him. And Saul said, You're not able to go against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth. Do you see that he shifted his attention from his brother?

He didn't sweat his brother. He went straight to Saul, the person who could commission him to do what God had put in his heart. I'm here to tell somebody that you're talking to the wrong folk. Some of you are wasting all of your energy on people who don't deserve your energy. You're wasting all your energy trying to convince folk that you are going to be something and you're going to do something with your life.

I'll never forget years ago when the Lord sent me out here. I had some detractors in my colleagues in ministry. I had them say, That boy left Philadelphia and went out to California trying to be something, and he'll never be anything. He's just out there trying to be a big fish in a small pond, going to a little church, leaving a big church. One preacher said he got tired of being a little fish in a big pond, so he decided to go be a big fish in a little pond. And you know, the devil will make sure that word gets back to you when folk are talking about you.

He'll make sure that you get the headline and you get all the fine print. Do I have any witnesses? You ever heard the full report on the folk who are messing with you? And some of my most trusted colleagues, people that I loved and respected and looked up to, I found more and more that there were some of them who were just talking against me and saying that I was just full of myself and had run out here trying to chase a dream, trying to be something, tired of playing second fiddle to my father. But I knew the truth. I knew that I served my dad's ministry well, and I was the best assistant pastor anybody could ever have because he taught me over the years, before you operate, you have to learn to cooperate. And he taught me how to submit and he taught me how to go low and he taught me how to take care of somebody else. And when the time was right, the Lord himself sent me forth and said, I've got to work for you to do on the other side of the coast.

And I knew it was a God thing, but there were folk who were determined to believe that it wasn't God at all, that I was full of myself. And the Lord taught me in those years, I said, God, can I get them, please, please? Can I answer them? Can I respond to them? Can I call them on the carpet? Can I rebuke them for talking about a fellow servant of God?

God, please let me get them. And God said to me what he is saying to some of you right now about your detractors, shut up. Hold your peace. And there were times when I was in the presence of people that I knew were talking about me and running my name through the mud. And the Lord would say, just smile at them when they come over to you, hug them.

I said, you got to be kidding. No, they're persecuting you and find that principle when they smite you on one cheek, just turn the other one, let them keep talking about you. And I said, okay, Lord, I'll get another cheek, but when I whip around, can I have a backhand with me? Oh, come on, see, you all want to act like you holy, you don't have any carnal instinct.

But there were some times I wanted to do some fighting, I'm here to tell you. There were some times when I wanted to tell the Holy Spirit, you don't have to worry about this, I got this. And the Lord said, hold your peace, hold your peace, don't say a thing. He said, let the work I do through your ministry speak for itself. And over the years, I have seen God discipline me and teach me to go low and honor people who were dishonoring me and respect people who were disrespectful toward me and not answer their criticisms. And I have seen God turn the tide.

And some of the very folk who talked about me the worst have come in recent years saying, I need to learn from you. I need to see how to reach the Lord. I need to learn some dynamics of ministry. And I said, look at God. When God calls you, he always equips you. And if giants get in your way, the Lord will make you bigger or them smaller. If there are giants in your land today, if you feel inadequate to overcome them, we want you to know that our ministry team is always happy to pray for you. Stop by pastorpaul.net and use the contact feature to share your request. That's pastorpaul.net. While you're there, be sure to ask for your free copy of Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation.

Well, our mission at Destined for Victory is a simple one. We want to take as many people to heaven with us as we can. And because we know you share that desire, Pastor Paul invites you to help by sending your most generous gift today. When you do, we have two gifts of our own to share with you, two resources from Pastor Paul that I believe will be a blessing to you and your family. The first is Pastor Paul's book, Why God Created Dads, an insightful and inspirational look at the subject of fatherhood through the lens of scripture. The second is the audio CD Attribute to My Dad, a message delivered by Pastor Paul following the death of his father. Men and women alike will be inspired by these timely resources. That's Why God Created Dads and Attribute to My Dad are gifts to you this month for your best donation of $25 or more to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. And as always, you can mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Once again, Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. What are you talking about in your life these days?

How do you sound? Are you speaking the language of faith or are you speaking the language of doubt and unbelief? Doubt and unbelief contradict what the Word of God says. That's tomorrow when Pastor Paul Shepherd shares his message, Lessons from the Battlefield. But until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.