MY HOPE IS IN YOU: The Heart Broken by Defeat 5-15-22

MY HOPE IS IN YOU: The Heart Broken by Defeat 5-15-22

INTRODUCTION

“There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

Varsity football for East Carter County High School Raiders my freshman year.  We scrimmaged Scott County a much larger and more successful program.  We played Ashland Tomcats a 4A school.  We were a 2A school.  Our coach was looking to the future.

Psalm 13 shows us a scene of King David in the midst of defeat.  It seems that David wrote the song of grief after his son, Absalom, turned on him and drove home for the kingdom.  In the aftermath of that reversal of fortune, David, overwhelmed and destitute, turns to God as his only source of hope in his dark days.

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

                            Psalm 13:1-6 NIV

I.  THE SELF-EXAMINATION OF DEFEAT

“At each stage of his life Lincoln knew failure and defeat.

In his 20s, Lincoln struggled with identity issues. By studying grammar and reading extensively, he acquired knowledge and discovered the rhythms of language. In speeches before the New Salem debating club, he honed his orator's voice. In the law and in politics, he found the vehicles that engaged his passion and his talent could emerge.

But against this backdrop of self-discovery came discouragement and failure. He lost his first job, as clerk in Denton Offutt's store, when Offutt's business enterprises collapsed. Lincoln and Berry, a successor store, failed, leaving the partners in debt. If we give moderate credence to the tale of Ann Rutledge, he was unlucky in love.

In his first campaign for the state Legislature, he placed eighth among 13 candidates. In a campaign document, he had stated that if he were to lose, he was too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.

The middle period in Lincoln's life was spent in Springfield. There he became a successful lawyer and made a brief foray into national politics.

He still faced identity issues. Abruptly, he broke off his engagement to Mary Todd and, as a result, experienced a profound depression. The core of it was the failure of will that he saw in himself. Helping his friend Joshua Speed deal with similar apprehensions about marriage, he rallied, and a year later reconnected with Mary.

After his term in Congress, his political career languished. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 galvanized him into action, but in 1855 and 1858, he experienced two bitter defeats in contests for the Senate. In the 1855 campaign, he came agonizingly close to victory.

Lincoln coveted a Senate seat. It was where he saw himself serving most effectively as the country polarized in the late 1850s. In early 1860, when his name first surfaced as a presidential possibility, Lincoln did not think he was qualified.”

Jan Jacobi’s article “Our 16th President Came to Genius Out of Failure.  This commentary appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , February 11, 2000.

The soul-searching that comes with defeat

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

                            Psalms 13:1-2 NIV

              A.  Questions about his God

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

                            Psalm 13:1

              B.  Questions about himself?

“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?”

                            Psalm 13:2A

              C.  Questions about his opposition?

“How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

                            Psalm 13:2b

II.  THE HEARTACHE OF DEFEAT

Let’s talk about discouragement

George Washington after suffering major defeats at Brandy wine Creek and Germantown finds himself facing one of the worst winters in history. He has 12,000 troops Left to fight the entire British army and winter’s howling breath is breathing down his neck. He goes into a desolate barren valley at Valley Forge Pa. To spend the winter and try to recuperate from the stinging defeats that the enemy has given him. There is no shelter for his men at Valley Forge, His army is naked and starving to death as “old man Discouragement “comes to sow his seeds of defeat. It looks Like total defeat and it appears that the new nation the United States of America will annihilated by the Bitter winter and the British army. YOU TALK ABOUT DISCOURAGEMENT!! But there is a man in the camp; his Name is Baron Von Steuben. He trains and shapes the army into a fighting force. He encourages them to get up and go on. They win major victory at Saratoga then on to Yorktown.

AFTER EVERY DISCOURAGEMENT THERE IS ALWAYS A VICTORY IF YOU ONLY BELIEVE

“Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.”

                            Psalms 13:3-4 NIV

              A.  “I can’t find the light—enlighten me!”

              B.  “I fear death is imminent—the sleep of death!”

              C.  “I am rattled by my failures—I am shaken!”

III.  THE THRILL OF VICTORY

There are no victories at discount prices.

                            General Dwight Eisenhower.

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

                            Psalms 13:5-6 NIV

Video - Paul Potts audition for Britain’s Got Talent in 2007 (till he is done singing)

              A.  The Past

              B.  The Future

“The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

                            1 Samuel 17:37 NIV

IV.  A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE

Wrong perspectives can often make us choose a course of action that is not in our best interest. In the 1940’s, a woman by the name of Ruth Gruber was working with the Department of the Interior, helping to promote the Alaskan territory to homesteaders. Many times she traveled by dog sled, and at other times, she was blessed to travel by truck or plane.

In 1942, she was about to board a small plane to Nome, when she was handed an urgent telegraph from the Secretary of the Interior. This was before the days of email and text messaging so she had to wait for the telegraph operator to decode it for her.

The pilot became impatient and took of without her. She later said that she needed that plane so much that she almost walked away from that emergency telegraph. She said the thought of missing that plane to Nome was at first, an unbearable pressure she could not deal with. That is the perspective she had at the time the pilot took off.

Her perspective changed about ten minutes later when the plane circled back over the runway, then veered off into the ice and crashed, killing all aboard.

              A.  The upward reach of faith

                            Painting of Peter

              B.  The change of perspective

                            1.  The lessons of defeat are the first steps of a new beginning.

                            2.  It is always to soon to quit.

                            3.  God is still in control even when life feels out of control.

CONCLUSION

“A very threadbare lesson, but needing to be often repeated.”                           

                            Alexander Maclaren

The self-examination of defeat, the heartache of defeat, the thrill of victory, and a change of perspective. 

CHALLENGE

What will you do with what you have just heard?  How will you respond to the Holy Spirit working within you?  The Challenge is intended to give us an opportunity to contemplate what God is calling us to do in our lives.  Consider these questions and write down your answers. 

              1.  How have you responded to defeat?

              2.  What has been your role in your defeat?

              3.  What defeat brought the greatest heartache?

              4.  What victories have followed your defeats?

              5.  What perspective should you have?

INVITATION

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life. 

“Now we ask you to prepare yourself for the Lord’s Supper as Dennis Fletcher shares with us a communion meditation.”