Have you ever reached a milestone only to find yourself facing even greater challenges? Join me, Pastor Brandon, as we venture through the biblical landscapes of 1 Chronicles chapter 20, where we unravel the myth that achieving God's promises shields us from life's battles. With King David's post-coronation life as our backdrop, discover that each victory in God's plan is often just the beginning of a new struggle. As we dissect the scripture, we'll find solace in the truth that our strength lies not in avoiding the fight, but in God's unfailing ability to win every battle on our behalf. This episode is a call to arms for all who are weary in their spiritual journey to persevere with faith in divine triumph.
In the tapestry of our faith walk, the constant presence of God threads through every season—one of the profound truths we'll embrace together in this discussion. I offer a prayerful embrace to those caught in the tempest of life, uplifting hearts with words of encouragement to seek and recognize God's companionship, even amidst turmoil. Reflecting on the virtues extolled in 1 Chronicles 29:17, let's delve into the importance of integrity and a pure heart in the sight of the Lord. Prepare to be fortified in spirit as we continue our exploration tomorrow on the profound wisdom waiting in 1 Chronicles chapter 21.
Have you ever reached a milestone only to find yourself facing even greater challenges? Join me, Pastor Brandon, as we venture through the biblical landscapes of 1 Chronicles chapter 20, where we unravel the myth that achieving God's promises shields us from life's battles. With King David's post-coronation life as our backdrop, discover that each victory in God's plan is often just the beginning of a new struggle. As we dissect the scripture, we'll find solace in the truth that our strength lies not in avoiding the fight, but in God's unfailing ability to win every battle on our behalf. This episode is a call to arms for all who are weary in their spiritual journey to persevere with faith in divine triumph.
In the tapestry of our faith walk, the constant presence of God threads through every season—one of the profound truths we'll embrace together in this discussion. I offer a prayerful embrace to those caught in the tempest of life, uplifting hearts with words of encouragement to seek and recognize God's companionship, even amidst turmoil. Reflecting on the virtues extolled in 1 Chronicles 29:17, let's delve into the importance of integrity and a pure heart in the sight of the Lord. Prepare to be fortified in spirit as we continue our exploration tomorrow on the profound wisdom waiting in 1 Chronicles chapter 21.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 1 Chronicles, chapter 20, and today's title is God Wins Every Battle. God wins every single one of the battles. We gotta realize there's gonna be a whole lot of battles for God to have to win. We're gonna get into that in just a moment because I want to very politely, absolutely destroy a false belief that we sometimes have when it comes to the promises of God. All right, but before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like share, subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Also, make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion. Man, I love the work they do over there. It is such a joy to read their blog entries every day and the more we dig, the more we find. So if you have your Bible with you, we're going to open up to 1 Chronicles, chapter 20.
Speaker 1:
It's a very short chapter, but I believe it's an insight into something that I don't really know how it started in my own life, but I know it was there and that is for a long time. I had this idea, just like in the movies. You ever watch a movie where everything is going well and then all of a sudden, the problem is presented like whatever the problem is, that the hero's got to somehow overcome, and then, after he overcomes the problem, whatever it is, he wins the battle whatever it is and then he just rises off in the sunset and there's no more problems. I've always had this idea that God's promises were kind of like that, in that once I overcame the problem, god's promises were that I was never going to have a problem, everything was going to be okay, or that at some point I would reach this space where everything was just perfect. But can I tell you that's not been the story of my life that God wins every battle. But that also means I have a lot of battles to fight. I thought once I entered into the quote-unquote promised land of my life, I conquered through his help, of course, I conquered a sin issue or I overcame an issue over here, just something like that. Well, now it's just from glory to glory, as the Bible says. But what we don't understand is when the Bible says from glory to glory, that word in the middle, to, can last a long time. There can be a lot of problems. So I want us to read this and I want us to understand kind of what is being said in the subtext, in between the lines of this passage, and see if maybe for some of us it will give us kind of some relief, kind of take a deep breath, but then also, for some of us, help us understand what's going on in our life. You ready, here we go.
Speaker 1:
First Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 1, says this in the spring of the year when kings normally go to war, joab led the Israelite army in successful attacks against the land of the Ammonites. In the process, he laid siege to the city of Rabbah, attacking and destroying it. However, david stayed behind in Jerusalem. Then David went to Rabbah and removed the crown from the king's head and placed it on his own head. The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and he found it weighed 75 pounds. Can you imagine trying to put a 70-pound crown on your head? Not for very long, you wouldn't right Just for a minute and you put it back down again.
Speaker 1:
David took a vast amount of plunder from the city. He also made slaves of the people of Rabbah and forced them to labor with saws, iron picks and iron axes. That is how David dealt with the people of the Ammonite towns Also. In all, he then returned with his army to Jerusalem. Now pause, some of y'all would be like well, that's mean, why would he do that? Is that? Or what a lot of armies would do? They would slaughter them. What about you? I'd rather have a benevolent king that I would work for rather than be slaughtered. So you can look at this as a very much a mercy in the eyes of David. Verse four.
Speaker 1:
After this, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. As they fought, sebekah from Hushash killed Shaph and the descendants of the giants, and so the Philistines were subdued. During another battle with the Philistines, elnayan, son of Jear, killed Lami, the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of Shammai's spear was as thick as a weaver's beam. That's a really big spear. In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in all. He was also a descendant of the giants, but when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David's brother, shimea. The Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them all. By the way, that's awesome that they went through and they destroyed all these enemies of God so there could be peace in the land.
Speaker 1:
Now, even though that's a short chapter, what we see is is David had been waiting for a really long time so that he could get to God's promise, which was to be king of Israel. And I guess there was this idea, maybe for some of us, that we think that you know, god's got a plan for our life and that once we get to this plan that God has for us, that on the other side of that is just smooth sailing. But, as you can see, after he stepped into what God had for him, that didn't mean the battles were over. In some ways, that was where the battles actually began. That as he moved into this season, there was a lot of enemies. That was going to try to stop him from keeping what God had given him. His job was no longer to win the right to be king, now it was to stay in the victory he'd already received. And can I tell you that's been my story.
Speaker 1:
My story has been that I was shocked one day when I realized that, when I step into what God is doing in my life, the calling that God has on my life to be a father and to be a husband, and to be a friend and to be a leader in certain areas and all these kinds of things that if I ever got to that place, it was smooth sailing Only to realize I don't know if you realize this, if you're a parent that kids are hard. You know why? Because I'm still growing up too. I don't have it all figured out yet. Can I tell you this Marriage is hard.
Speaker 1:
You know why? Because I'm not the kind of husband I want to be, yet I still make mistakes all the time. My wife deserves so much better than me because I mess up all the time and therefore, in order to keep what God has given me, it doesn't maintain itself. It's constantly having to go back before the Lord and say, god, I need your help again, god. And that doesn't mean anything's going wrong. It just means that there's enemies in your life that don't want you to sustain what God is doing in you. Mainly, you have a spiritual enemy that doesn't want you to do so. So here's the thing First of all is to give you the opportunity to take a deep breath If you are discouraged, because you really thought that by the time you got to this point in your life, everything would.
Speaker 1:
There wouldn't be a problem. Can I tell you that was never a promise from God. God never promised us that we would get to a certain place and that we wouldn't still have to put on our shoes every day. You know, and and still be everything he's called us to be and still move forward in him. We have to maintain what God has given us. On the other side, to tell you that if you're in a difficult season of life, that doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. Now you might have, you might be, you know, reaping from some things you've sowed in your life. That could be the truth. But if you're doing the best you can and things are hard you're in a difficult season. You have toddlers at home, you've had to change jobs, you've had to move to a new area, you've had to do these different things. That doesn't necessarily mean anything's going wrong. It might be that you are now in a new place, in a new area, and that you are now having to hold on to what God has given you. That's why, a lot of times, god will lead us through long seasons of preparing us for what's coming, so that once we get to that new level, we can then sustain it.
Speaker 1:
I know that before we had kids, my wife and I, I could not have been the parent of teenage daughters. I couldn't have handled it. It's from one drama to the next. There's always something going on, there's always drama happening and it's always the worst case scenario. And I know me back then I would have been a nervous wreck all the time. I still struggle not to be, but I would have. But God didn't start me out with teenage daughters. He started me out with little bitty babies and then I learned how to trust him. I learned how to take a next step and then, as my kids grew, I grew and I learned how to develop. Over time.
Speaker 1:
Can I tell you, the plan of God for your life is a lot like that. The reason why he has you at the season you're in right now is so that you could fight the battles that you're fighting now to prepare you for what's coming next. God's got a plan. He is in more control than we will ever realize until we get to heaven and we look back and we go, wow God, you really were in control that whole time. That doesn't mean everything always goes smoothly. It just means he is with us all along the way.
Speaker 1:
So I want to tell you, if you're going through a difficult season right now, god is with you. If you're going through a great season, right now, god is with you. And if you find yourself somewhere in between, god is with you. And the presence of a storm is not the absence of God. Sometimes it's only in the presence of our storms that we truly see how good God is. Let me pray for us, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you see us and that you are with us in all things.
Speaker 1:
Lord, I pray for everybody who is watching or listening to this right now and they're going through one of those storms. They're going through that difficult season, that difficult time. I pray, god, that you'll remind them that the presence of these storms, the presence of these battles in our life is not the absence of you, but rather sometimes they reveal who you truly are. I celebrate right now, god, all you're doing in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Don't forget. God's word says in 1 Chronicles, 29, 17,. I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and you rejoice when we find integrity there. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 1 Chronicles, chapter 21.