Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories | Part 2

Why did God use David so victoriously?

Listen closely to Adrian Rogers. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the unchanging truth of the gospel through the timeless messages of Adrian Rogers. Because King David lived by purpose, progression, and power, he saw many victories. But victory can be dangerous if we don't know how to receive it. By 1 Samuel 17 and 18, David demonstrates how to live in our victories. If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers begins part 2 of Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories. 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 is 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 get the situation. Saul is the king of Israel. There's been a battle. Little David, a nobody, a shepherd boy has 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. 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 6. 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 a 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? It's to fail to give God the proper praise for the last victory. 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 posh 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. If 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.

You can just, if it's for his sake, you can 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. 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 another. We're 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 8. 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 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, And Saul 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.

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. But now I want us to see one other thing. I want us to see the prudence of David. Look, if you will, in verses 14 and following. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. David knew how to handle victory. David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Wherefore, when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.

But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them. You see, praise, when you receive praise, it does something to you, or bad according to your own estimation of yourself. Turn to Proverbs chapter 27.

Let me show you something here. In Proverbs chapter 27, and let's look, if we will, in verse 21. As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise. Now, the fining pot means the pot where you refine silver, where you refine gold. It's a smelting pot.

The fire is underneath it. The gold, the silver, the dross is put in, and then the heat is turned up. Now, when you have a victory, your reaction to that victory is either going to reveal the dross in your life or the gold and silver in your life. David knew how to handle his victory. David knew how to handle the praise. Let me just turn you, if you will, for just a moment to Psalm 131. Now, remember, it was David who wrote this Psalm, and I'm not quite certain but what David must have had the victory over Goliath in mind when he wrote Psalm 131.

Look at it. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever. Do you know now why David was called a man after God's own heart?

I mean, you think about it. Here was a little boy. Yesterday, he's a shepherd boy watching his father's sheep. When Samuel comes to anoint the next king of Israel and he comes and sees all of the seven sons of Jesse, not a one of them is the one that Samuel wanted to anoint. Not a one of them is the one that God chose, but no one thought of little old David. He was so insignificant that he's on the backside of the desert keeping his father's sheep. When he goes out against Goliath, he's despised and rejected and looked down upon.

Just a boy. And now he's the king's bodyguard. He's got hundreds of men beneath him.

He's walking on the plush carpets of the king's palace. Everybody is singing his songs while he walks through the city and women are coming out with their tambourines. They're coming out with their flutes. They're leaping and dancing and they're saying, Saul hath slain his thousands. David hath slain his tens of thousands. David just said, well, Lord, you know who I am. I'm still David.

That's all I am. He never really took it to his heart. He knew that the battle was the Lord's. He never signed a letter, King David, G.G.K., great giant killer. He always realized that the battle was the Lord's. And that's the reason why God could bless David. In this study, as we continue to study, we're going to see the Spirit of Psalm 131 over and over and over again and you're going to understand why David was called a man after God's own heart. And that's the reason that God could use him.

You know, some people are impossible to get along with because they think they're impossible to get along without. David wasn't that kind of a guy. When I played high school football, we played Daytona Beach High, and it was a rainy night in one of those games where our team was so much better than their team. We really were. We were good, I'll tell you.

Compared to them anyway. But we had to room in a hotel, and I roomed with a fellow who was a tackle. And he was about that high, and he was about that wide. And actually, he was slower than a turtle. But somehow in the midst of that rainstorm, one of their fellows put a pass in the air. And this fellow was, well, he wasn't chubby, he was fat. And this ball came down out of the air in that rainstorm and landed right there and just stuck. And after a while, he reached out and put one hand over it and another hand over it, and he had intercepted a pass. And he started moving down that field. And this is the way he ran.

He had to think. He said, left leg. Right leg.

Left leg. I honestly believe we blocked every man on their team seven times. But he ran it back all the way for a touchdown. And I want to tell you, I had the misfortune of rooming with him that night.

You have never heard such talk. How he zigged, how he zagged, how he sped. Have you ever lived with people like that? David wasn't that kind of a guy.

David wasn't the kind of a fellow who went around talking about what he did. Did you hear about the frog who lived in a northern clime and he made friends with two Canadian geese? And one day he was talking with them and he asked them what they were going to do and they said they were going south for the winter. He thought to himself, I have to stay here in this frozen north.

How great it would be if I could only go south for the winter. Well, they said, but you can't fly and we can fly. But he said, I have an idea. He said, let's get a good strong straw and you put it between your beak here and your beak here and let it hang between the two of you. Then he said, I will reach up with my mouth and grab hold of that straw and dangle and then you two can fly and I'll fly south with you.

They said, well, it's worth a try. So they got a straw and that little frog clamped onto that straw and they took off and they went 100 miles, 200 miles, 300 miles. They were flying very high, but a farmer with a sharp eye looked up and he saw a strange sight. He saw a goose here and a goose there and a straw in between and a frog hanging onto that straw. He said, my, what a wonder. What a marvelous thing. I wonder whoever had that idea.

And that frog said, idea! Oh, won't it be wonderful if we can learn that the battle is the Lord's? The battle is the Lord's!

The battle is the Lord's. David, I want you to see the spirit of David. Saul gets carried away and says, I'm going to make you my son-in-law. And I want you to see what David said when Saul said, I'm going to make you my son-in-law.

And notice, if you will, here in verse 18. And David said unto Saul, who am I? And what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king?

Don't you like that spirit? Why, what am I that I should be son-in-law to the king? You know, I hear people going around and talking about, oh, boy, I just don't get what I deserve. Well, friend, I hope I never get what I deserve.

There are three words we need to learn. One of them is justice, the other is mercy, and the other is grace. Justice is God giving us what we deserve, which is hell. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. And I thank God for these words put together because that is the gospel.

Justice is God giving us what we do deserve, but we don't need justice. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve, but grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. But for the grace of God, but for the grace of God, I'd be lost tonight. But for the grace of God, I wouldn't be able to preach tonight. But for the mercy of God, I'd be deserving the judgment of hell tonight. It's good to God that we can learn as a church how to receive victory, just to say, Thank you, Lord.

Keep pouring it on. And, Lord, as you keep pouring the victory on, Lord, we'll keep sending the praise up, and we'll keep saying, To God be the glory. Great things He has done, for God has chosen to bless us. But I believe that the greatest blessings are yet to come. You know, David said, Who am I that I should be a son-in-law of the King? Did you know that God has something even better for us?

Not sons-in-law, but sons and daughters of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Behold what manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. I want you to know that you can receive the greatest victory of all.

It's the victory that was won at Calvary by receiving Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. I want to pray for you, and I'm going to pray for you right now. And as I pray for you, I want you to be praying for yourself, and I want you to be saying, Lord Jesus, whatever decision you want me to make, I want to make it. Lord, I want your victory on the cross to be my victory.

I want to receive victory tonight from you. Lord, I pray now in the name of Jesus for these who need to be saved, for these who need the assurance of their salvation. Lord God, bless and give victory.

Help them to trust you and you alone. Oh, dear Lord, thank you for what you're going to do. Thank you, Lord, for working in every heart. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you like to take that step today and fully follow Jesus? Pray something like this right now. Father in heaven, I have no right to call on you.

You're holy and I'm not. Right now, I want to place my full trust and confidence in what Jesus did for me on the cross. Come into my heart, make me a new creation, save me. I believe Jesus died in my place on the cross and rose from the grave.

I trust him and him alone. Help me to follow you today and forever. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. If you prayed that from your heart, we would love to celebrate with you and invite you to our Discover Jesus page. If you go to our website, you'll find answers that you may need about your newfound faith.

There's a response section. You can share your testimony with us or how this message has made a difference in your life. Just go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus at the top. Welcome to God's forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD and mention the title, Don't Be Defeated by Your Victories. This message is also part of the insightful series, Live Like a King. With that complete collection, all 12 powerful messages, call that number, 877-LOVE-GOD or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183.

Our true natures are revealed when we receive victory. If you find yourself in a position of praise, direct it to God, celebrate with fellow believers without jealousy and join us next time for more from Adrian Rogers and God's Word right here on Love Worth Finding. One of our donors wrote a brief note recently that said this, as a truck driver, I constantly listen to the radio and I just happened to cross Love Worth Finding while surfing the channels. Pastor Rogers' voice proclaiming God's Word immediately gave me a peace and comfort that I truly treasure. Well, we love to hear how these messages and resources we send continue to speak truth into the lives of those who love Jesus. And when you donate to the ministry this month, we want to send you a hardcover copy of our new book, 25 Days of Anticipation. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this season, this book looks at the prophecies regarding the Messiah and reminds us how Jesus Christ fulfilled each of them. Request this book 25 Days of Anticipation when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio. .