How Great Men Lost
- May 24
- 21 min read
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
I'm incredibly deeply anticipating this morning's word. This is one of those words when the Lord gave it to me. And I began to study and really dig into it. I realized this is one of those words that I need for the rest of my life, one of those words I need to live by every week of my life, every decision I make. This is one of those words that every decision needs to be filtered through so that I do a good job in this life, and that by the time that the Lord calls me home or that he comes to get his bride, that I've done a decent job. I need this word. And this word is a warning. Now, before we go into that, I want you to understand that God is a good father. There are earthly fathers, sometimes us. Sometimes we warn our kids because we're frustrated with them, or we're annoyed with them, or we just want them to do things our way, or we don't want them to make us look bad, or we can have a million reasons that are not necessarily good when we stop and really think about it. But our heavenly Father is good. When he warns us, it is because he has good in mind for us, not because he's annoyed with us, not because he's frustrated with us, not because he doesn't like us. He warns us because he loves us. And with that said, the title for this morning is: How Great Man Lost.
Let's go into the word this morning. How Great Man Lost. Now, the terminology “great man” and the kingdom of God sometimes don't go well hand in hand nowadays in a church setting. And I'm a little bit sick and tired of that, because if there's one complaint that my generation often has, it's that there's very few men to look up to. Men who are approaching maybe the end of their journey here on earth, but they are great men. They have done a great job. They are finishing great. They've run strong their entire life. They've increasingly grown in becoming manly, in becoming more and more like God, who created them in his likeness. And they have become great men. Not in some fleshly way, not in some worldly impressive way, but they have become great men—great examples, great people to have around, great men. And I want to talk to you this morning about great men that actually ended up losing. How Great Man Lost. And there's a warning in this word towards my life, towards your life, that is supposed to help us make decisions, help us trust God and respond to God in a way that you and I don't end up in that list, where we were set up by Jesus to become great, godly, God-following men, but we lost. It's a warning against you ending up in that list of men who lost.
Now, these were men. They didn't lose great battles and then become great men who lost. These weren't men who had sin in their life that grew and grew and it overran them and they lost it all. No, there are great men that finished strong and that ran really well that struggled severely with sin, and the Bible doesn't hide it and the Bible doesn't lie about it. No, the way that great men lost is this way: they stopped waiting on God. We see great men in the Scriptures that God raised up. They weren't strong in themselves; God became their strength. They didn't have courage in themselves; God caused courage to arise as His Spirit began to minister. We see great men, and we see them struggle with all kinds of things. David is a great example, one of the more famous people, if you will, in the Scriptures. Guilty of murder, guilty of cheating, stealing someone else's wife, guilty of laziness, not being on the battlefield when he ought to be. Yet he is one of the men that continued to be a great man strengthened in the Lord, finishing his race, finishing his calling, his ministry completely the way that he was called under God to serve people in his generation.
That's what ministry really is: the way that God called you in your generation to be a servant to those around you. Just like Jesus came as a servant, every single one of us is called to ministry, to servanthood in the kingdom of God. This is a great man, David, who finished strong, but his life was full of failures. And the Bible doesn't hide it. Peter, we looked at him recently, a great example of failure after failure, big mistake after big mistake. Yet in Jesus, he was a great man.
Now, the men that we're going to look at, they didn't lose great battles. Their sin was not the problem. They stopped waiting on God. That's how great men lost. They lost their families, their relationship with God. They lost their purpose. They lost their God-given joy and their God-given peace. We're going to first look at Saul. Now, when we call to mind King Saul from time to time, I realize that as church people, we can call King Saul to mind, the very first king of Israel, and it can have a little bit of a negative twist to it because he did not finish well. But initially, he was an incredible man, a great man. Some of the things we're going to read in the Word may absolutely blow your mind because they go hand in hand with our own salvation experience.
Saul, just like David, was also a prophet, and he was king, and he was set up to be the point man that would point us to Jesus. We'll see it all in the Word. And he lost. He was a great man, and he lost. Let's start in verse one of 1 Samuel chapter 10. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance?” Here we see God chose Saul, and Samuel says, “Is it not because God has decided to put you over His people, commander over His inheritance? Is that not why you're being anointed? Is that not why you're being chosen king?” And we know from the story that Saul was somewhat insecure and not quite sure if he felt the same way about himself. And so we see Samuel give him prophecy after prophecy, sign after sign that would come to pass to help build Saul's courage and his confidence in what God is doing in his life, making him into a great man.
We continue in verse six, Samuel speaking to Saul still: “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. You'll change.”
Verse seven: “And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands, for God is with you. You shall go down before me to Gilgal, and surely I will come down to you to burn burnt offerings and to make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what you should do.” So it was, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. Here we have a man. God calls him, chooses him. The Spirit of God comes upon him. He becomes another man. He receives a new heart. And for about two years he walks as a great man, touched by God, changed by God, doing now the things that God has put before him. His whole life has really changed. What he spends his time on has changed. How he goes about things has changed. What he is able to bring to pass for the people and for the good of the people around him has completely changed.
Two years he walked as a great man. Now, we know that Saul was king for way longer than two years, but what I want you to see is that two years he walked as a great man. And that's where the beginning of the end started. Verse five of chapter 13, we're just three chapters into his journey. Verse five: Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash to the east of Beth Aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger, for the people were distressed, then the people hid in caves and thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and the people followed him trembling. Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering.
Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you were not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people present with him, about six hundred men. Here we see this incredible story where Saul did not wait for Samuel as he had received word from the Lord. He decided to stop waiting and instead he decided to take control of his life and to begin doing something, even though the word had already spoken to him. He began to take initiative even though the word had already given him clear direction as to exactly what to do, and in his case to wait for Samuel to get there, for Samuel to show up, to not start the fight, to not do anything, to wait for Samuel to get there. A very similar command as Jesus gave His disciples when He told them, “Wait in Jerusalem. Don’t go do nothing. Don’t start running off. Don’t be zealous. Wait for the promise of the Spirit.” And in a very similar measure, Saul receives that word: wait for me at Gilgal. Don’t be impressed with the numbers of the enemy. Don’t be impressed with what happens in the world around you. Don’t just start doing stuff. Wait. He had a word and he didn’t wait. And that is how great men lost.
This was an anointed man, a called man, a man whose heart was changed by God, and yet he lost. And when he lost, a chain reaction, if you will, began to happen. A curiosity was now born in the heart for sin, and that’s what happens in any man that is called, chosen, set free, given the Spirit of God, and receives a new heart. When a man or a woman stops waiting on God, a chain reaction is set off. Here’s what happens: a curiosity begins to be developed for things that we once knew as sin. That’s the progression. Men who walked with God, doing what God wanted to do with their life. Maybe you did that for two years just like Saul—for two years you were getting involved, you were growing in God, your life was slowly but surely becoming about God’s kingdom and furthering it and building it together with the body of Christ, taking up your place in that body, doing what you are called to do, growing in what you were called to grow. You were convicted when you weren’t reading in your Word. You were convicted when you weren’t spending time with God in prayer. And then when you stop waiting on God, everything begins to shift.
A chain reaction begins to be set off to where you end up grabbing this earthly life by the horns again, to make something off of it, to make yourself alive, to make it happen here on earth. The spiritual growth, the spiritual blessing, the fruit is taken away, and a curiosity begins to set in. Things that were once dirty to you, things that were once sinful to you, things that once you looked at as lukewarm people who lost the heart of God—who compromise this way or that way or make decisions in that way—things you would never watch, things you would never do, things you would never say, now a curiosity sets in and an acceptance sets in of those things. Let me show it to you in the life of Saul. Chapter 28, starting in verse 3. "Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land." Let’s stop right there. So here we read of something Saul did while he was still following the directions, the heart, and the purpose of God in his life. He had put other input out of his life, out of even the lives that he had influence over. He worked hard to make sure people’s attention was turned to the Lord and away from distractions, away from other spiritual experiences in this particular case.
And then we read verse 4: "Then the Philistines gathered together and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa.
When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor.” So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a séance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.” Then the woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to die?” And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice, and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.” Here we see him now curious, stepping out to begin and do things, abusing the name of the Lord to get him what he wants. Things he never thought he’d do. There was a season in his life where he was genuinely beginning to step into the things of God, and it was having an effect not only on him, but on the people around him. And now he finds himself willing to do things he thought he would never ever do, willing to say things he thought he’d never ever say—things he never thought would come out of his mouth. He lost his place in the kingdom. He lost his honor. He lost his intimacy with God. He stopped waiting.
As we look at how great men lost, let’s look at the life of Aaron. Aaron, the older brother of Moses, a great man. When Moses was insecure and even willing to kind of go against God and say, “I can’t go. I can’t go to Egypt. I can’t speak. I can’t do this,” God said, “Well then let’s get your older brother Aaron. He will do the speaking.” And so Aaron was there when Moses first arrived back in Egypt. Aaron was there, and Aaron was the one that actually spoke to Pharaoh on behalf of Moses. Aaron was there when the plagues of God began to bring destruction to the gods of Egypt and show Pharaoh that the God of Israel is the God of heaven and the God of earth. Aaron was there when finally, by the blood of the lamb, the people were set free out of Egypt. Aaron was right there walking up front when they got to the Red Sea, and it opened up, and they went through it to see God take them to the other side and get them on the road to the promised land.
Aaron was a great man, a leader of leaders among the people. But Aaron also stopped waiting. Exodus 32:1–8: "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron. He was the natural second leader. Everybody knew great Aaron. The people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, “Come make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off their golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.
Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then he rose early the next day, offering burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down, for the people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf and worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” They stopped waiting. Both Saul and Aaron, great men called to be great men in the kingdom of God, great examples to look up to, growing into examples to look up to, they stopped waiting on God.
They found every reason in their heart as to why they should just start doing stuff and take life, if you will, by the horns and just begin to make something happen and do something with their life here on earth. They stopped waiting.
Instead of surrendering their situation, instead of leaving their situation on the altar until God brings it to life in a miraculous way, they came to a point where they took a hold of it. Then they sought to take control again of the life they had surrendered and said, “God, you can have my life, I’m going to follow You.” And the word tells us that the very same thing will happen in our time where the people that the Son of God died for will stop waiting for Him.
2 Peter 3, starting in verse 3: "Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. Think about that for a moment. He’s writing this not about unbelievers. He’s writing this to the church. In the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. Remember what Saul said: “I felt compelled to stop waiting.” Following their own desires is the result of when they stop waiting on God.
Watch what happens: they will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” “What happened to the promise of Jesus coming again? He’s not coming right now. He’s not coming in my lifetime. I don’t have to live waiting for Jesus to show up. This may take a long time. He’s not coming. I’m going to stop waiting on Him. I’m going to start living.” They deliberately forget. They choose to forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of His command, and He brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then He used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment when ungodly people will be destroyed. But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, He will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth He has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in His sight. And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.
This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him." Says in the last days, you’re going to see the Saul and the Aaron story, if you will, happen all over again. You’re going to see it.
People that Jesus died for are going to stop waiting for Him to show up. They’re going to stop waiting for Him to bring them out of this world into the best of all possible worlds that He has promised for them. They’re going to stop waiting for Him, and instead they’re going to start living as if this life on earth is their life to be lived. They’re going to stop waiting in the last days.
You’ve heard the Bible many, many times refer to the people that Jesus saves as the bride of Christ, Jesus being the groom, the church, the people He has saved, being the bride. That example makes sense because in biblical times what would happen is a man would propose to a woman, and if she said yes, that man would leave. They were now engaged, so to speak, and that man would leave and go back to his own land, wherever he was from. No way to connect, no way to call, no way to check in on one another. That man would leave and be gone. And that woman’s time of waiting now began. That man would go home to his own land, and he would either purchase a piece of land or his father would give him a piece of land, and he would begin to build a house for that woman. And it would take him quite a while. And he would build a place for her to come to. And then one day when all that work is done, when everything has been prepared, he would come back and show up to collect her, and to have the wedding feast, and to bring her home.
But sometimes that waiting was too much for a woman. And she’d lose confidence in his character. She’d lose confidence in his intentions. She’d lose confidence in him, and other men would come around. He lived closer by, it was easier, and maybe the families knew each other. And she’d been waiting for so long, she began to doubt that man that she had said yes to. And there were times where another man came by, and she changed her yes to another man, for then eventually her bridegroom to show up to realize that she had not waited for him, and he’d return to his home empty-handed. And Jesus uses this example of the bridegroom and the church—Jesus and the church—because Jesus, when He went to heaven, went to prepare a place, the Bible says, for you and I. And when all things have been prepared, He is going to come to collect His bride and to bring her home. But the Word says in the last days some will stop waiting for Him. And their yes will change. And instead of waiting for this bridegroom to come and collect me and then my life really starts, instead their yes will change, and they will stop waiting for Him and they will start saying yes to another life. They will start to say yes to here on earth. They will start to say yes to a life without waiting on God and stop waiting.
Church, this is how great men lost. Great men lost this way. They stopped waiting. See, the only men that I see in the Word that became great men in God—not in some fleshly way, great men in God—and finished as great men are those who continued to wait on Christ. They didn’t have much in many seasons in their life, but they could always, with the eyes of their heart, clearly see that the Bridegroom is coming for them. Second Timothy chapter 1, let’s start in verse 7. Paul speaking to his friend. Paul speaking to Timothy. He loved Timothy. He wanted to see Timothy do well. He wanted to see Timothy succeed. This is what he said: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.” So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me either, even though I’m in prison for Him. with the strength God gives you. Be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan from before the beginning of time to show us His grace through Christ Jesus. And now He has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the good news. And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this good news. That is why I’m suffering here in prison. But I’m not ashamed of it.
For I know the One in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what I’ve entrusted to Him until the day of His return. See, Paul wasn’t discouraged that he gave up his life for Jesus and now, “I’m just wasting away here in prison.” It should have been a lot better for me if I just did something with my life. I gave it to Jesus. Now I’m here stuck. No, he’s saying: “My eyes—I know what I’m waiting for. My eyes are on Jesus. I know He’s coming back. I know He paid for my life. I know He paid for my sins. I know He’s not delaying. I know He’s coming. I know He’s going to bring me home. My life here on earth doesn’t have to work very well for me. I know that He’s going to come and He’s going to redeem what I’ve entrusted to Him on that very day that He comes and finally sees I’m still waiting for Him, and He can bring me home.” Church, wait on God in all seasons. Don’t get busy. God has a plan. You don’t need to make a plan. God has a plan. Wait on Him when you don't know what to do. It's time to wait on Him because He will make known His plan. 1 Corinthians 16:13, be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong.
Church, how will you lead this generation if you are not following the plan of God? Where will you lead people? Where will you lead your kids? Where will you lead the people you have influence over? If you yourself are not following the plan of God for your life, for the lives of those that are around you. Now, if you don't know God's desire for your life, if you don't know His plan, you're not waiting on Him. Because those who wait on Him renew their strength on wings like eagles. Here's what Psalm 27:14 says: Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. When you wait on Him, He will speak. When you wait on Him, He will reveal Himself. When you wait on Him, He will strengthen your heart with a strength that comes from heaven, not from yourself. Wait, I say, on the Lord. See, David, the man after God’s own heart, who ended up replacing Saul—lots of failures and sin in his life—but he waited on the Lord and he would not move. He was chosen where Saul was rejected.
Here’s what David said at the end of his life, 1 Kings 2:1–2: When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man.” And even closer to home, us men: Men, are you giving your wife a God-given purpose, a God-given assignment to help you with? Are you giving that to your wives? Is your life about a God-given assignment? Is your life about a God call? Is your life about a godly purpose so that she has actually something godly to help you with? Is there something that you are building that has eternal value that is worth for a woman to lay down her life and join you in following Jesus? Are you acting like men, or have you lost that? And to the women, are you actually helping? The word tells us, written so long ago also by Paul, we are closer now to His return than when we first believed. How much more now? Are you helping your man to fulfill his God-given call? Are you helping him closer into what God is calling him to do? Are you helping him to stay away more and more from the world and to more and more take on the heart of God and the mind of God for this generation? What are you helping your husband to do? Do you help him build God’s kingdom? Do you help him to take on God’s will in all areas? Do you help your husband fight for the souls of men in your family, in your extended families, in the workplace?
Great men lost when they stopped waiting on God and began doing something else. That’s how great men lost. I believe with all my heart that God is calling you back to waiting on Him. To wait on Him so that you may end up doing His will. To wait on Him so that you may end up fulfilling your ministry. To wait on Him so that you may finish well and not lose your sensitivity to His word, not lose your sensitivity to time in prayer, not lose your sensitivity to seeing when a man or a woman in front of you needs to hear of Christ, and you know it and you speak it and God uses you—a man or woman after His own heart—to bring about the very purpose to why you are on this earth: to be a witness to the risen Lord until He appears in the sky to bring you home, finally to the place that has been prepared for you, finally bringing you to the place where you can start your life.
-Pastor Stan Mons
