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Ithaca SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

Finding Success After Failure

How many of you can relate to the scripture reading we just read?

Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 16 says, For a righteous man may fall 7 times.

How many of you think you have fallen at least 7 times?

There's a powerful quote by Thomas Edison.

It says, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

There's a story that sticks in my mind of a man of persistence and determination, and it was a young man by the name of Abraham Lincoln.

Some of you may know him as the 16th President of the United States.

Many of us think of the success of Abraham Lincoln, but we don't realize what it took for him to be able to get there.

At the age, at the young age when Abraham was being raised, he was raised in a home of poverty, and forced out of the home and required to work in order to be able to provide for the family.

He lost his mother at a very young age, and at the age of 21 he failed in business for the first time.

He ran for the state legislature at the age of 22 and he lost.

He also lost his job and he wanted to go to law school but he couldn't get in.

He borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of that year, he was bankrupt.

He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

Now after that he ran for the state legislature again and he won.

He was engaged to be married but his sweetheart died when he was 26 years old before they were ever married.

He sought to become the speaker of the state legislator but he was defeated.

He sought to become the elector but he was defeated.

He ran for Congress again and this time he won and went to Washington and did a great job.

He ran for the re-election of Congress and he lost.

Continues on, he sought for a job as a land officer in his home state and he was rejected.

He ran for senator of the United States and he lost.

He sought the vice president nomination of his party in the National Convention and got less than 100 votes.

He ran for the US Senate again and he lost and he was elected President of the United States.

Now we realize that success never comes without a struggle, would you agree?

Many inventors have said that if they wouldn't have persisted through difficulty, they would have never found success.

I was reminded of this as I was studying the books of Judges and 1 Samuel this week and looking through the story of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel story relates very directly to that of anyone who's ever gained success.

For those of you have read it before sometimes it can be depressing because it looks like there's just continual defeats 1 after another And you wonder how will God ever give them victory?

In the time of Judges chapter 13, Israel became captive to the Philistines.

In Judges chapter 14, they were finally victorious and they were able to win victory and Samson delivered the children of Israel at his death.

1st Samuel chapter 4 tells us once again the children of Israel were defeated.

1st Samuel chapter 7 tells us that they gained the victory over the Philistines.

1st Samuel chapter 13 tells us that they were defeated.

1 Samuel 14 tells us that there was a partial victory.

1 Samuel chapter 14 tells us that there was a continual war for all the years of the kingship of Saul.

How many of you often feel like your Christian life looks a lot like Abraham Lincoln's professional life or like the life of the children of Israel?

You sense that the Lord's calling you to do something or you're looking for victory over a certain sin or struggle or complication in your life, but it never seems like you can get a handle on it.

And we realize that time and time again we persist through this.

And the Bible tells us that a righteous man will fall 7 times, but there's another key that comes, and what is it?

You don't just fall, but you get back up.

I would say the greatest reason for failure in the Christian life is not because we didn't try, but it's because we didn't try again.

This morning we're going to be looking at a very familiar story after these years and generations have gone by in the history of the Israelites.

Through 1 of the darkest periods of Israel's history after Moses had died and after Joshua had died and the conquest was over and now they're in captivity to the very people who God had promised the land to.

And as they're there in captivity, God desires to deliver them.

Now, this morning we're going to be studying the story found in 1 Samuel chapter 17, and I'm hesitant to tell you what story it is because I'm afraid when I do you're going to check out.

1 of the greatest hindrances to our learning is familiarity.

That's why when the pastor tells you to open to John chapter 3, verse 16, you sit there and just stare and make eye contact because we know it, right?

And this morning we're gonna be looking at a very familiar story, and what's the story?

First Samuel chapter 17, the story of David and Goliath.

Now how many of you can raise your hand and say you could probably quote me the timeline of this whole story?

Now I see some hands, there's some humble people.

But this morning I believe the Lord is going to show us how it is that God was able to give his people success in their Christian life.

You see for years they had been defeated by the enemy but now in this chapter it's the turning point for the whole nation of Israel.

Maybe there's many of you here who feel like you've just been in 1 constant defeat after another and you never feel like you have victory in Jesus.

But I believe that by God's grace, we can find the principles that gave David success in overcoming the enemy of his time, that will give us success in overcoming the enemy in our time.

This morning we're going to be starting by reading 1 Samuel 17, beginning in verse 1.

Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle and were gathered at Sukkoth, which belongs to Judah.

They encamped between Sukkoth and Azorah, in Ephraim of Dominion.

Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the valley of Eccle, or Ella, and drew up the battle array against the Philistines.

And the Philistines stood on a mountain on 1 side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them.

Now was this an unfamiliar situation for Israel?

For well over the last hundred years, they had been constantly confronted with the Philistines.

Constantly taken as captives to their nation, paying tribute to their kings, and so once again, after being defeated for over 100 years, many generations, Israel once again is confronted with their problems.

Do you guys feel like you have any problems like that in your life?

The persistent ones that just don't seem to be able to allow you to have the victory that Jesus desires?

Well, as they're there, Was it God's desire for them to be defeated by the Philistines?

And this desire goes all the way back to the time of Abraham when he promised that God would create a nation, his own peculiar people, and he would give them a land to dwell in and it was going to be the promised land where the Philistines dwelt, but because of unfaithfulness to God, Israel never received the promise, but now in confrontation with the enemy, God once again desires to be able to give him what he's always longed for them to have.

Now we realize that this situation with the Philistines is not 1 that's very common or not something that we had seen happen before in their confrontation but notice what's different.

And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a span.

He had a bronze helmet on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail.

And the weight of the coat was 5, 000 shekels of bronze.

And he had a bronze armor on his legs and bronze javelins between his shoulders.

And now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his iron spearhead weighed 600 shekels, and a shield-bearer went before him.

And then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel and said to them, Why have you come out to line up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul?

Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me." Now I don't know about you, we might think that we've heard the story of David and Goliath so much that it's almost diminished how scary this situation would have been.

But the Bible tells us that this man was 6 cubits and a span.

Now in modern measurements, that's about 9 and a half feet tall.

And to give you an estimate of that, imagine going into the gym and looking at the basketball hoop that sits at 10 feet.

And this man was just 6 inches shorter than that.

And as this man is towering there, he was large enough that his armor weighed 125 pounds, just what he was wearing on his chest.

His spear just the head of it was 15 pounds.

Now to give you a little idea of how heavy that is that's about the same weight as a car tire.

Now here's a man a giant of a man standing in his massive form once again threatening Israel, and what is their response?

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Finding Success After Failure

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