Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories | Part 1

From the Love Worth Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Worth Finding.

Kerry, today, Adrian Rogers in a series called Live Like a King. Live Like a King, and it talks about victory, and it talks about King David. You know, nothing hurts when you're winning, but it's how you handle the winning. That's the key. Exactly. It is the key. And as believers, we're not striving for victory. It's something that we live in. Because we live in Christ. Well, and through Jesus Christ, we have victory already.

I mean, it is ours. And so I think we learn how to control that and how we live through that. You know, Dr. Rogers would say, when you receive a compliment, you pass that on to Jesus Christ. And when you receive criticism, here's the blessing, you pass that on as well.

That's right. I love that. Well, this message today, Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories, that's in the series, Live Like a King, are all available at LWF.org, or you can also take advantage of the mobile app, the LWF mobile app, a great way to connect with Love Worth Finding. I think it's one of the best resources. Everything's at your fingertips.

It's there. Please take advantage of that. We can't thank our listeners enough for taking time to let us know how the ministry of LWF is impacting your life. And this is a favorite part of my time is hearing from listeners like the one you have now. It says, I love Pastor Rogers' unique preaching style and how he would explain God's Word. His Adrianisms are also a joy to hear. I'm so happy his spiritual legacy lives on to bless other people.

You know what? King David had a legacy, and that legacy was this, a man after God's own heart. And that's exactly what the message is about today. That's the message. The way to lose the next victory is to fail to give God the proper praise for the last victory. We've got to be so careful. Well, we do because, you know, when we start believing and reading our own newspaper clippings, then we are losing. We've missed it, right?

And Adrian Rogers goes on to say that no one is a complete failure until he starts disliking the man who succeeds. Wow, that's a great word. Well, we are getting close to the Christmas season, one of my favorite times of the year, where we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've got a wonderful resource called 25 Days of Anticipation.

You want to tell us about it? Well, it's inspired by the teachings of Adrian Rogers, and it will lead you in an Advent study of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when he came to the earth. And so 25 Days of Anticipation, it's basically a mini Bible study that is sure to enrich your life, but also the life of other people around you. So get that resource and put it to practice.

Well, as your family gets together, for the Advent season and wants to bring it into the family, share with the children, this is a great resource. 25 Days of Anticipation, go to LWF.org. Well, with today's message, Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories, Part 1, here's Adrian Rogers. Take your Bibles now and turn to 1 Samuel, Chapter 17. The title of our message is Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories.

And it's possible. Don't be defeated by your victories. I want to read again just by way of review the victory that God gave to young David. And there's so much to read, but we're going to start in Verse 45.

He says, look at verse 45. This day, he will give unto these Farish two, the host of the army of Israel, which thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee. And I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day, and to the fowls of the air, to the wild beast of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord, and I just underscore this, is the moon, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. The battle is the Lord's.

Now don't forget that. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came in Brunei to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine in the forehead so that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled and the men of Israel and of Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until they came to the valley to the gates of Ekron and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way of Sheaarim even unto Gath and unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines and they spoiled their tents. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. Now let me just stop reading right there and say David won that victory by three principles. First of all, there was the principle of purpose.

He said, I will. In spite of the disdain of others, in spite of the derision of others, in spite of the discouragement of others, he said, I will and he did. There was a principle of purpose. And not only was there a principle of purpose, there was a principle of progression. He said to that Philistine, I slew a lion and a bear and I'll get you too. He was faithful in that which was least so he was able to be faithful in that which was much and he went from victory unto victory.

But not only purpose and progression, there was the principle of power. He knew that the battle was the Lord's. And he said, you come to me with a sword and with a shield and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. He knew the power that was his and therefore he won the victory, but it was really God that won the victory. Now that was the victory.

What a wonderful victory it was. And now today we see them as they are rejoicing over the spoils of the victory. And that is epitomized by the bringing of the head of this giant back to Jerusalem. Look in verse 54, and David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. Can you just imagine what that must have been as this little boy, this little teenage boy, this stripling as he's called here comes back into Jerusalem bearing the gory head of Goliath. Well, it was a victory indeed, but victory can be dangerous if we don't know the art of receiving victory.

It is possible that we could be defeated by our victories. Now, I just read to you the last part of chapter 17. Now we're going to move on in to chapter 18 because in chapter 18, we see four reactions, four reactions to the victory that was won in chapter 17. So the first thing I see is the partnership of Jonathan. That's the way Jonathan reacted was with a partnership. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that is when David had finished a conversation with Saul, Saul was the king of Israel, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him. That is Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself out of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and his bow and to his girdle.

Now we get the situation. Saul is the king of Israel. There's been a battle. Little David, a nobody, a shepherd boys come out and won the battle. Saul is so impressed that he brings David home to stay with him. David meets Jonathan, who is Saul's son. And Jonathan meets David. The two become very close friends, such close friends that they enter into a blood covenant together, which we have preached on from this passage.

How close they were. They literally entered into a lifelong covenant, a partnership, one with the other. Now I love Jonathan. I think Jonathan is one of the finest men in all of the Bible. Not a hint, not a scintilla of jealousy do you find in Jonathan. Now David is perhaps going to be the next king of Israel, but Jonathan was the heir apparent to the throne. Jonathan was the son of the king. And yet Jonathan, the son of the king, has no jealousy, no envy. All he does is see that God gave a mighty victory to David. And Jonathan just enters into a partnership with David as if to say, I want to share in your victories. I am so grateful for what God is doing with you and through you.

And friend, that's a wonderful, wonderful way to be. None of self, but just simply when God blesses someone else to rejoice in the blessings of God upon that person's victory. And I believe that God will bless our church when we rejoice in the victories of other churches. I believe God will bless you as a Christian when you rejoice in the victories of another Christian. I believe God will bless our denomination when we rejoice in the victories of other denominations.

And if they're doing anything for the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to rejoice with them, and I want to help them and pray for them. And God forbid that we should ever look upon their victory as our loss, or God forbid that we should ever be just simply interested in the personal aggrandizement of our own denomination, our own church, our own program. We're in the body of Christ. And I want you to know that we are in blood covenant one with another, and the Bible teaches that when one member rejoices, every member should rejoice. And when one member suffers, every member should suffer.

Do you want me to tell you a test to find out if you have real religion if you're a preacher? Can you shout in the other man's meeting? Amen. Can you rejoice when God is blessing the other fellow, the church down the street, wherever it is, Jonathan could. And so the very first thing I see as we look at a reaction to victory is the partnership of Jonathan. He just rejoiced, not a trace of jealousy.

If anyone had a right to be jealous, it was Jonathan. But I want you to notice not only the partnership of Jonathan, I want you to notice the praise of the women. Here's another way that some rejoiced or some reacted to that victory, begin in verse six. And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet Saul with tabrets and with joy and with instruments of music. And the women answered one to another as they played and said, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now what was wrong with this was this, that it was misdirected praise. The praise of these women may sound good, but I don't believe it was pleasing to God at all.

What they were doing was glorifying men. Saul has slain his thousands, David has slain his tens of thousands, but who slew Goliath? Did David kill Goliath? Well, outwardly it may seem so, but go back if you will and look in verse 47, chapter 17, verse 47. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saith not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. When you get to the bottom line, it wasn't David, it wasn't Saul, it was God. And to God be the glory.

Great things he hath done. Now sometimes when God blesses the church, we begin to sing, look who did what. Sometimes we might want to give the glory to the pastor.

Sometimes we might want to give the glory to the music program. Sometimes we might want to give the glory to some program or some denomination or whatever, but God has said, I'll not share my glory with another. And it was God that gave the victory.

Do you know how to lose the next victory? Is to fail to give God the proper praise for the last victory. One of the great illustrations of that is when the children of Israel came and took mighty Jericho. You remember the story of Jericho? They marched around the walls seven times on the seventh day, seven times.

And the walls came a tumbling down and the people gave a shout and they went in with a battle cry of the Lord and won the victory. And then the next day or after a while, they were supposed to go against another little city this time, the city of Ai. A little city with a little name, just two letters in the name Ai. That's the way you spell it.

That's the way you pronounce it, Ai. And Ai was just such a small city. They said, well, we don't have to worry about that city.

We'll just send a small contingency of people up there to wipe them out. After all, look what we did to mighty Jericho. But in the meanwhile, before they went to battle, there was a man named Achan who went into the city of Jericho after the battle and he took some of the booty of the battle. He took a wedge of gold, 200 shekels of silver, a Babylonian garment, and he took it and hid it in his tent.

And the next day, when they went to war against Ai, they were ignominiously defeated and they ran like whipped puppies in the face of a lesser army. Now, what is the lesson there? God had already said to Joshua at the battle of Jericho, all the gold, all the silver, all the iron, all the brass is to be dedicated to the treasury of the Lord. What did the gold, the silver, the iron, the brass represent? The spoils of the battle. Since the battle was the Lord's, the spoils of the battle belonged to God.

It was their way of saying, Lord, we recognize that we did not gain this victory, you gained it, and therefore the spoils of the battle belong to you. Now, today, suppose we translate that into a spiritual realm. Suppose we go out and have a mighty soul winning crusade, or suppose you enter into some spiritual endeavor for the Lord, and God blesses and God gives you the victory. And then suppose somebody puts their arm around you and says, say, you did a mighty good job. And suppose you receive that praise to yourself. Do you know what you did? You did exactly the same thing that Achan did when he stole the booty of the battle.

You take the spoils of the battle to yourself, and your next battle is going to see you ignominiously defeated. You see, it's just a principle. That I'm not saying we ought not to thank people, and I'm not saying that if people are a blessing to us, we ought not to tell them, don't stop telling me if my preaching blesses you. That encourages me, and if it does, that's fine. I don't want to go without your love, and I don't want to go without your support, and I don't want to go without knowing when my preaching is a blessing to your heart.

I'm not talking about that. But I'm telling you this, ladies and gentlemen, when we substitute the praise of any man for the praise of God, we're on dangerous ground, and the man who receives it is on doubly dangerous ground, and I've learned that when anybody gives me any praise, I quickly pass it on to Jesus. Now, I may not say it. Sometimes it just sounds so pious to say, oh, well, to God be the glory.

Sometimes in my heart, I just simply do that. Sometimes I may do it verbally, but God knows my heart that that praise comes through and up. But listen, you're also going to get some criticism, and you're going to get a lot of it, and you're going to get it if you stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and his word, but I'm going to tell you something very wonderfully sweet. When you learn to pass the praise on to Jesus, you can also learn to pass the criticism on to him.

Do you know that? That's so wonderful. If it's for his sake, you just say, here, Lord, take it, and it's so wonderful. To be able to do that, but if you choose to keep the praise, then you better keep the criticism, and you will also feel that criticism, and so there was the praise of the women, but it was a sort of a misguided praise. I'm glad that David didn't listen to it, or David would have lost his victory.

Now, we see, first of all, the reaction to victory, there was the partnership of Jonathan. He just said, when old David is blessed, I'm blessed. We're members of one of another.

We are members of the same body. His blessing is my blessing. I want to be that way when God is blessing you. Bless God, I just want to rejoice and get in on it, and when God is blessing the church down the street, I want to say hallelujah, but then there was the praise of the women, misguided praise.

Let me give you the third response to victory. There was the pride of Saul, the pride of Saul. Begin reading here now in verse eight. And Saul was very wroth, that is, he was very angry, and the saying displeased him, and he said, they have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands, and what can you have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day forward. Now, that means that he was suspiciously jealous of David from that day forward, and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house, and David played with his hand as at other times, and there was a javelin in Saul's hand, and Saul cast the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it, and David avoided out of his presence twice, and Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul. Saul was filled with pride, and because he was filled with pride, and back in the 15th chapter, he had refused to obey the hand of the Lord. God had refused him from being king over Israel, and God had departed from him because he was a man filled with pride, and the Bible says God resisteth the proud, and the Bible says to the froward, God will show himself froward, and Saul became froward, and God sent an evil spirit. This does not mean a demon spirit. God doesn't send demon spirits.

We use the word evil like an evil smell, a vile smell. It literally means that here was a man with a disconsolate spirit. Here was a man with a disturbed mind. Here was a man with a frustrated psyche. Here was a man who was receiving the judgment of turning from God, and Saul eyed David. He could not take David's victory.

He felt that David's gain was somehow his loss. How many of you read Dr. Seuss, Dr. Seuss' books to your children? You know who Dr. Seuss is? Is that the way he pronounces it, Seuss?

Isn't that the way he pronounces it? You know Deacon, sure. He knows more about that than he does Apostle Paul. All right, Dr. Seuss has an animal called a Grinch, and you know what a Grinch does? A Grinch, if he ever sees anybody having fun, it makes him so mad, he bites himself. I met a lot of Grinches. A lot of Grinches, that if they see somebody else being blessed, it makes them so upset that they feel that somehow that person's blessing, that person's gain is their loss, and Saul became an utter failure.

You know, no one is a complete failure until he starts disliking the man who succeeds, and at that moment, he becomes a complete failure. What is the mark of pride that was in Saul? First of all, his anger, if you will, in verse eight, and the Bible says he was very wroth, that is, he was angry. Did you know that people will get angry with you if your church grows? Did you know that people will get angry with you if your life is blessed?

People are filled with pride. If you have a victory, there's some people who see you as the enemy, not only anger, but look, if you will, in verse nine, jealousy in Saul eyed David from that day forward, and not only jealousy, but fear. Look, if you will, in verse 12, and Saul was afraid of David. Do you know why Saul was afraid of David? Saul was a phony, and every man who's real makes every phony look unreal, and that's the reason people can't stand to be around other people who are living victoriously in Christ when those people themselves are filled with pride, and when they themselves are phonies, and so he could not rejoice in David's victory because he was a phony, but oh, there was, as we look at the victory that David had, we see again the partnership of Jonathan. That was a wise thing.

We see the praise of the women. That was not such a wise thing. We see the pride of Saul.

That was a very unwise thing. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message, but maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources and materials there that can answer questions you may have about your faith. Again, click Discover Jesus when you go to lwf.org slash radio. Thank you so much for joining us for today's study in God's Word. If you'd like to start receiving daily devotions and links to the program, be sure to sign up for our daily heartbeat emails at lwf.org slash radio. And join us tomorrow for the conclusion of don't be defeated by your victories, right here on Love Worth Finding.