Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Lessons Learned from Fai...

Transcript

Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Lessons Learned from Fai... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:00
Speaker 1: Will you open your bible to Psalm number one hundred
0:03
Speaker 1: and nineteen. I want to speak on the subject lessons
0:09
Speaker 1: learned from Failure. I think a message such as this
0:14
Speaker 1: is long overdue because we Christians are very product oriented,
0:23
Speaker 1: and our product is always success, it is always victory. Unfortunately,
0:32
Speaker 1: we are guilty of presenting a fairy tale conversion that
0:36
Speaker 1: if you will receive Jesus Christ, you will live happily
0:40
Speaker 1: ever after. I have yet, in my years of knowing
0:44
Speaker 1: the Lord, to meet one Christian who has lived happily
0:50
Speaker 1: ever after receiving Jesus Christ. Nothing wrong with being product oriented,
0:57
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with success, but there is something
1:02
Speaker 1: wrong if we leave out the process, which includes times
1:07
Speaker 1: of defeat and failure. I don't know who it was
1:13
Speaker 1: that ever wrote it in the traditional record that a
1:16
Speaker 1: Christian is not to fail, but he was a liar,
1:21
Speaker 1: he was wrong. Do you know that there are many
1:26
Speaker 1: weeks where I feel I have spent more of the
1:29
Speaker 1: week missing the mark than hitting the mark. Ever had
1:35
Speaker 1: a week like that? I feel the vibrations already coming
1:39
Speaker 1: back saying if you had a month, I could tell
1:41
Speaker 1: you about last week. Who says there's something wrong with
1:46
Speaker 1: a week where you fail several times? Whoever erected a
1:51
Speaker 1: standard of perfection in the first place. God knew we
1:57
Speaker 1: weren't able to produce perfection. That's why Gi Jesus, the
2:00
Speaker 1: perfect son of God, placed us into his family and
2:04
Speaker 1: gave us a position that is perfect, so that we
2:09
Speaker 1: might be reminded by contrast that our experience will constantly
2:14
Speaker 1: be im perfect. If you're waiting for the perfect week, friend,
2:20
Speaker 1: you're going to wait in vain. There is no such thing.
2:24
Speaker 1: And until we learn how to derive lessons from times
2:29
Speaker 1: of failure, we will spend a lot of our time
2:35
Speaker 1: increasingly more defeated. So tonight I want to talk about
2:39
Speaker 1: the whole area of failure. I want to talk about
2:43
Speaker 1: the process that leads to times of victory and success.
2:51
Speaker 1: The process is as important as the product. Now, Psalm
2:57
Speaker 1: number one hundred and nineteen, verse sixty seven, along with
3:01
Speaker 1: verse seventy one, presents for us two basic principles regarding failure.
3:12
Speaker 1: Now the Psalmist uses the word affliction, we'll use the
3:16
Speaker 1: word failure. That's the subject of this evening. They are
3:20
Speaker 1: one and the same. For the subject of tonight, let
3:24
Speaker 1: me read the two verses using the word failure. Before
3:29
Speaker 1: I failed, that is, before I was afflicted, I went astray.
3:34
Speaker 1: Before I failed, I wondered. But now I keep thy
3:41
Speaker 1: word verse seventy one. It is good for me that
3:45
Speaker 1: I failed and in the process was afflicted, that I
3:51
Speaker 1: may learn thy statutes. Now, don't miss the thought here.
3:57
Speaker 1: The Psalmist has been hurting for some perioderiod of time.
4:01
Speaker 1: He doesn't tell us what the hurt or pain was.
4:04
Speaker 1: He doesn't tell us how long it lasted. He just
4:06
Speaker 1: tells us it has happened. And after failing, he has
4:11
Speaker 1: gone through an afflicting experience before God. Now after it
4:18
Speaker 1: is all over, Now that the failure has happened and
4:23
Speaker 1: the affliction has run its course, has run its course,
4:27
Speaker 1: the Psalmist looks back and says, there are two things
4:30
Speaker 1: I can say about failure. Here they are first, verse
4:36
Speaker 1: sixty seven. Experiencing failure promotes an obedient life. That's the
4:46
Speaker 1: first principle. When I go through times of failure, I
4:54
Speaker 1: am more than ever promoted to live in a obedience.
5:02
Speaker 1: When I go through occasions of walking in the flesh
5:06
Speaker 1: and I come to the end of that ugly scene, Oh,
5:11
Speaker 1: there is never a time in which I want to
5:14
Speaker 1: be pure more than then. You follow me. Times of
5:19
Speaker 1: failure bring me to a place of wanting to be
5:23
Speaker 1: obedient more than ever at any other time. Now there's
5:28
Speaker 1: another principle, Verse seventy one. He says, it's good for
5:32
Speaker 1: me that I was afflicted that I may learn Principal
5:38
Speaker 1: number two. Experiencing failure prompts a teachable spirit. You know,
5:49
Speaker 1: people that are listening closely to God tonight, there are
5:54
Speaker 1: people who have been broken and bruised. You know, the
6:02
Speaker 1: sensitive heart tonight, or the Christian that's hospitalized or is
6:07
Speaker 1: facing hospitalization. There are those of you here who bear
6:13
Speaker 1: the marks of a carnal weak and you come desperately
6:19
Speaker 1: in need of learning from God. You see, the failure
6:25
Speaker 1: has given you a sensitive, teachable spirit. It's broken the
6:32
Speaker 1: pride barrier. The hardest thing for us to do is
6:38
Speaker 1: to face the fact that we have failed. Our tendency
6:44
Speaker 1: is to employ defense mechanisms to deny it, to excuse it,
6:49
Speaker 1: to rationalize around it, to reinterpret it. Call it what
6:54
Speaker 1: it is. It was a failure. It was wrong. Now
7:02
Speaker 1: having declared it, learn what God has to teach you
7:06
Speaker 1: from it. It was Winston Churchill in The midst of
7:11
Speaker 1: the Nazi bombings, who said to the people of London,
7:16
Speaker 1: this is not the end, it is not even the
7:20
Speaker 1: beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end
7:24
Speaker 1: of the beginning. I like that very much. We have
7:29
Speaker 1: come through a time of failure. This isn't the end,
7:32
Speaker 1: it is not even the beginning of the end, but
7:34
Speaker 1: it is perhaps the end of the beginning. What do
7:39
Speaker 1: I mean by that? I mean that as you begin
7:43
Speaker 1: to interpret failure correctly, you will take your first giant
7:47
Speaker 1: step toward maturity. You will come to the end of
7:52
Speaker 1: the beginning few steps of the Christian life. Now, the
7:58
Speaker 1: personification of this whole story is, of course Moses, who
8:03
Speaker 1: is the man of the hour these days. And I
8:06
Speaker 1: want you to turn to a man who failed, and
8:08
Speaker 1: he failed royally, Old Mayor LaGuardia of New York. Those
8:17
Speaker 1: of the other generation will remember that name. Used to say,
8:20
Speaker 1: I don't fail often, but when I do, it's a butte.
8:25
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the way you feel, Preacher, I don't fail often,
8:28
Speaker 1: but boy, when I do, it is a royal flop. Well, wonderful.
8:36
Speaker 1: That's great, because royal flops lead to royal lessons that
8:42
Speaker 1: can be learned if you fail only slightly, you'll get
8:45
Speaker 1: only a slight lesson. But if the bottom drops out
8:49
Speaker 1: and you fall forty stories, that's when you begin to learn.
8:54
Speaker 1: It isn't the fall that hurts, it's the sudden stop
8:57
Speaker 1: at the bottom of those forty stories that give you trouble.
9:02
Speaker 1: Moses is at the bottom of the well, as it were,
9:08
Speaker 1: the most crucial moment in his forty years on earth.
9:15
Speaker 1: I know just how he feels. I've come through a
9:19
Speaker 1: very difficult week. A couple of most unique kinds of
9:25
Speaker 1: pressures led me to a hard week that's now passed,
9:32
Speaker 1: and I sort of was licking my wounds last night
9:34
Speaker 1: as I was thinking over tonight's message, and I thought,
9:37
Speaker 1: thanks Lord, I needed that. As I look over what
9:40
Speaker 1: I'm going to be saying, I'm really saying it for
9:43
Speaker 1: my own benefit as well as for some of you
9:45
Speaker 1: that want to listen in to the testimony of this failure.
9:48
Speaker 1: Moses verse fifteen sat down by a well. Exodus two fifteen,
9:54
Speaker 1: the last few words, the lowest moment of his life.
9:59
Speaker 1: You know how he felt. You perhaps have felt like
10:03
Speaker 1: that this past week. You sit down and you feel
10:09
Speaker 1: what a waste you feel. I'll never be useful or
10:19
Speaker 1: God through with me? Or why not again? Here I
10:29
Speaker 1: am again? Had those feelings lately. I feel like I'm
10:34
Speaker 1: an advertisement for the pill Compose right now. You know,
10:38
Speaker 1: just a simple pill is what you need. Now you
10:41
Speaker 1: don't need a pill. You need to learn, You need
10:48
Speaker 1: to look back. I think Moses looked into the reflection
10:52
Speaker 1: in that deep well that hot evening, and he learned
10:57
Speaker 1: four lessons from his past. Let me give them to you.
11:01
Speaker 1: Will just start of survey where we were last week,
11:04
Speaker 1: and we'll wrap it up with some changes that God
11:06
Speaker 1: brought about in his life. The first lesson that he
11:10
Speaker 1: learned spiritual ends are never achieved by carnal means. Spiritual
11:24
Speaker 1: results never take place through carnal means. Where had Moses
11:35
Speaker 1: acted in the flesh well? Look back up at verse eleven,
11:40
Speaker 1: It says in those days when Moses had grown up,
11:42
Speaker 1: he went out to his brethren and looked on their
11:44
Speaker 1: hard labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew one
11:49
Speaker 1: of his brethren, and he looked this way and that way,
11:54
Speaker 1: and when he saw there was no one around, Remember,
11:57
Speaker 1: he forgot to look up. He never prayed. He stepped
12:02
Speaker 1: into the scene, and in fact, he murdered that man
12:05
Speaker 1: and hid him in a fresh grave. That's the first
12:11
Speaker 1: act of the flesh. You cannot sow a carnal seed
12:17
Speaker 1: and reap a spiritual plant. You cannot sow a carnal
12:25
Speaker 1: act and reap spiritual fruit. If you manipulate and connive
12:32
Speaker 1: and scheme and lie to get yourself to the top,
12:37
Speaker 1: don't thank God for the promotion. God knows as you know,
12:44
Speaker 1: that you manipulated and schemed and buried those carnal carcasses
12:49
Speaker 1: in the soil to get yourself promoted. So when you
12:53
Speaker 1: get there, don't give him the credit. I think at
12:57
Speaker 1: times we must say to the Lord, thanks Father for that,
13:01
Speaker 1: and the Lord must answer back, who me, I didn't
13:04
Speaker 1: pull that off? You pull that off. You cheat on
13:09
Speaker 1: an exam and make a good grade. Don't thank God
13:12
Speaker 1: for the aid. You planted a carnal seed in the
13:16
Speaker 1: crib sheet. You lie on your income tax and you
13:21
Speaker 1: get money back. Don't thank him for the extra cash
13:24
Speaker 1: you can give to the building fund. It doesn't work, friend,
13:28
Speaker 1: he says to you, that's a carnal end. Don't thank
13:35
Speaker 1: me Moses that that Egyptian is in the soil. You
13:38
Speaker 1: did that and it will never result in spiritual ends.
13:43
Speaker 1: It's cardinal Moses from start to finish, and you know it.
13:47
Speaker 1: I think he learned that lesson. And then when he
13:51
Speaker 1: moved back into the scene the next day and tried
13:53
Speaker 1: to take up the leadership and nobody followed him, all
13:56
Speaker 1: of a sudden, everything began to pour in on him.
13:58
Speaker 1: And he just worked harder to keep a float, and
14:00
Speaker 1: it wouldn't float. And Moses sat down by the well
14:04
Speaker 1: that afternoon and he learned that you cannot produce spiritual
14:08
Speaker 1: ends by carnal means. Stop trying to do it. For
14:15
Speaker 1: the first time, I think he learned that there's another
14:19
Speaker 1: lesson he learned. He learned that timing is as important
14:24
Speaker 1: as action. Timing is just as important as action. Sometime, frankly,
14:34
Speaker 1: I think it's more important. You know that you can
14:37
Speaker 1: do the right thing at the wrong time and it'll
14:39
Speaker 1: blow up in your face. I've had that happen so
14:44
Speaker 1: many times. I'm just embarrassed to think back over it.
14:48
Speaker 1: God not only plans what we are to do, he
14:50
Speaker 1: has the right time for it. And Moses looked back
14:54
Speaker 1: and he could write over the entire experience premature. He
14:59
Speaker 1: jumped into that he jumped into leadership. He pushed his
15:02
Speaker 1: way in, he forced his way, and it didn't work.
15:05
Speaker 1: And he looked back and he realized, you know, I
15:08
Speaker 1: have now discovered that the timing of my act was
15:12
Speaker 1: as important as the act itself might have been. You know,
15:18
Speaker 1: I am beginning to live by a formula that is
15:20
Speaker 1: rather simple. I want to pass it on to you
15:23
Speaker 1: so that I can keep you from stumping your toe
15:25
Speaker 1: as often as I've stumped mine. Here's the formula. When
15:30
Speaker 1: God is in it, it flows. When the flesh is
15:34
Speaker 1: in it, it's forced. Think that through. If you think
15:45
Speaker 1: that in order to pull this off, you better force
15:50
Speaker 1: it through. You better back off. When God is in something,
15:57
Speaker 1: it flows. If you want to engage yourself in a
16:05
Speaker 1: ministry of some kind in your work, Let's say perhaps
16:09
Speaker 1: at the lunch hour, you want to provide an opportunity
16:12
Speaker 1: for fellows and gals to get together around the scriptures
16:16
Speaker 1: and maybe spend ten or fifteen minutes with their lunch
16:20
Speaker 1: in the word. Don't force that. Lay it before God
16:24
Speaker 1: and let him open the doors. If He is in it.
16:28
Speaker 1: It is remarkable how the timing will take place, and
16:32
Speaker 1: you will just move through one moment after the other.
16:35
Speaker 1: It will just flow. Timing is as important as an action.
16:42
Speaker 1: I think that's where wisdom comes in. Knowledge tells me
16:46
Speaker 1: what to do, Wisdom tells me when to do it.
16:51
Speaker 1: Wisdom tells me how to carry it out. The longer
16:55
Speaker 1: I live, the more I believe the words of the
16:57
Speaker 1: wise sage who wrote one blow struck when the time
17:01
Speaker 1: is right is worth a thousands struck in premature eagerness.
17:09
Speaker 1: God is very able to pull something off, but he's
17:12
Speaker 1: going to do it in his time and not before.
17:16
Speaker 1: Don't you feel like at times he's awfully slow? Don't
17:20
Speaker 1: you have that feeling? Man? You know, get with it
17:23
Speaker 1: up there, it's the feeling you have. Wake up. I've
17:28
Speaker 1: been talking to you for weeks. You know. The problem
17:31
Speaker 1: is not that God's slow. It said we're too fast.
17:34
Speaker 1: That's the problem. He's not slow. You ever seen a
17:38
Speaker 1: dog that's untrained on a leash? You ever seen one? Well,
17:46
Speaker 1: what's the trouble. Is the fellow that's holding him walking
17:50
Speaker 1: too slow? Or is the dog running too fast? Which
17:53
Speaker 1: is it? Sir? Rather meat and potatoes kind of illustration.
17:56
Speaker 1: You can chew on for a few minutes. Obviously, that
18:00
Speaker 1: the dog's going crazy down. He's wearing all the stuff
18:03
Speaker 1: off his little hoofs, trying to, you know, get down
18:05
Speaker 1: the sidewalking, and the owner key's slow down, slow down,
18:09
Speaker 1: stop stop, kicks him and you know, wants to bite
18:12
Speaker 1: him and everything. There's a dog that they I don't
18:15
Speaker 1: know whose it is, but every morning it comes around
18:18
Speaker 1: our neighborhood and you can always tell this coming because
18:20
Speaker 1: his feet are slipping. Spends all his time just slipping
18:25
Speaker 1: his feet. And the guy that's you know, leading him,
18:28
Speaker 1: he's got him on the leaves, and the dog just
18:30
Speaker 1: crating at the neck. The callers about to choke him.
18:34
Speaker 1: And I thought the other mornings I was out to
18:36
Speaker 1: get the morning paper. That's just like me, you know,
18:39
Speaker 1: just like the Christian pulling at the leash. Guys has
18:42
Speaker 1: come on back. Timing is as important as the action
18:50
Speaker 1: stop running, slow down. Moses was too strong. He had
19:01
Speaker 1: to discover out of weakness one becomes strong. He had
19:07
Speaker 1: to learn that waiting was not a sign of weakness,
19:10
Speaker 1: but a sign of strength. Some of you haven't learned that,
19:17
Speaker 1: and so you're spending your gears working up all kinds
19:21
Speaker 1: of anxiety dust inside because that won't happen fast I
19:27
Speaker 1: got news for you. It never will it never will.
19:34
Speaker 1: Lesson number three, that Moses learned, hiding wrong doesn't erase wrong,
19:41
Speaker 1: It only postpones its discovery. He had hid that Egyptian
19:48
Speaker 1: in the sand verse twelve. But you know what, they
19:51
Speaker 1: found that Egyptian, and they knew that he had hit
19:55
Speaker 1: him in the sand. Hiding wrong doesn't erase wrong. I
20:03
Speaker 1: am convinced from that moment on Moses learned he would
20:08
Speaker 1: no longer hide anything. He would be transparent, He would
20:14
Speaker 1: no longer hide. You know, the most endamic muscle in
20:17
Speaker 1: all of us is the hiding muscle goes all the
20:23
Speaker 1: way back to Adam and his partner in crime. After
20:26
Speaker 1: they had sinned, they covered themselves up with loincloth, and
20:31
Speaker 1: they with with fig leaves. And as soon as God
20:35
Speaker 1: came to walk with them in the garden in the
20:37
Speaker 1: cool of the evening, where was Adam? He was hiding.
20:43
Speaker 1: Shortly thereafter, they gave birth to a boy named Cain,
20:46
Speaker 1: who killed his brother Abel. What did he do with Abel?
20:51
Speaker 1: He hid him just like his father. We've been hiding
20:57
Speaker 1: ever since. We've been hiding the consequences of the flesh.
21:02
Speaker 1: We hide from ourselves. The truth about ourselves. We hide
21:06
Speaker 1: from others the truth about ourselves. We don't want to
21:09
Speaker 1: be found out, so we hide that part. Like Mark
21:13
Speaker 1: Twain has put it, we're all like the moon. We
21:15
Speaker 1: have a dark side. We don't want anybody to see.
21:19
Speaker 1: Why not? Why because we have to succeed, says who
21:31
Speaker 1: I think at times it would be delightful to have
21:32
Speaker 1: a testimony time and sharing failures. Wouldn't that be different?
21:40
Speaker 1: Ever been at testimony meetings where everybody was on cloud
21:43
Speaker 1: thirty nine and you were on tunnel number seven? Man,
21:48
Speaker 1: everybody was talking about soaring in the heavenlys and man,
21:51
Speaker 1: you're done in a gutter. I think it's hey, let's
21:55
Speaker 1: see the other side. Friend, tell me when your nose die,
22:00
Speaker 1: tell me about that experience. We hide that. We don't
22:04
Speaker 1: want anybody to see that. Why not because we are proud,
22:12
Speaker 1: because we are dishonest. Basically in the heart, we are
22:18
Speaker 1: afraid to say, oh wow, I had a miserable week.
22:25
Speaker 1: And as a result, my friend, we don't know how
22:28
Speaker 1: to handle failure. When we fail, we look upon it
22:34
Speaker 1: as though we think God looks upon it. God doesn't
22:40
Speaker 1: change when we fail and say, oh Father, I've failed.
22:46
Speaker 1: I failed terribly look at what I've done. A father comes,
22:51
Speaker 1: just like your loving father would come and say, honey,
22:55
Speaker 1: I accept you just like you are. I acknowledge that
22:59
Speaker 1: that was wrong. You've acknowledged it. Now let's move on.
23:05
Speaker 1: Some of the most tender experiences of my life as
23:07
Speaker 1: a father have come when my children have honestly said
23:10
Speaker 1: to me, Daddy, I want to tell you what I
23:14
Speaker 1: did that was wrong. Some of the most touching, moving
23:20
Speaker 1: experiences have come at times like that. Some of the
23:24
Speaker 1: hardest times of a father's life comes when the child
23:27
Speaker 1: won't admit it and covers it up. You never find
23:34
Speaker 1: Moses covering up from this time on. He learned that
23:38
Speaker 1: lesson from failure. Here's a fourth lesson. First lesson spiritual
23:47
Speaker 1: ends never achieve, never achieved by carnal means timing is
23:54
Speaker 1: as important as action. Hiding wrong doesn't erase wrong. Fourth lesson,
24:01
Speaker 1: Spiritual leadership is God appointed, not self assumed. I want
24:12
Speaker 1: to camp on this for just a few minutes because
24:15
Speaker 1: it is so different from the world Spiritual leadership is
24:20
Speaker 1: God appointed, not self assumed. Now, how do you get
24:27
Speaker 1: promoted in the world system. Well, you must present yourself.
24:34
Speaker 1: You must assume an air of confidence. You must work
24:39
Speaker 1: up an incredible resume, right if you really want a job,
24:45
Speaker 1: you pad that resume with every possible detail you can,
24:50
Speaker 1: just as close to the facts as possible, some of
24:53
Speaker 1: them strained to tad. And then you present yourself in
24:58
Speaker 1: full armor as capable in handling whatever the job may be,
25:03
Speaker 1: from president right down to flunkey, preferably president you self.
25:11
Speaker 1: You are self assuming in that act. You know that's
25:16
Speaker 1: not the way it is in the family of God.
25:19
Speaker 1: Moses didn't know that he had been through the temple
25:22
Speaker 1: of the Sun. He had been through the military right
25:25
Speaker 1: up to the top. He was the appointed pharaoh of
25:28
Speaker 1: the land. In just a matter of time, he was
25:31
Speaker 1: the pharaoh elect. So when it came to killing a
25:34
Speaker 1: Hebrew and redeeming the Hebrews, or killing the Egyptians and
25:38
Speaker 1: redeeming the Hebrews, he was ready to do it. He
25:41
Speaker 1: just did it by the flesh. It came natural. Well,
25:45
Speaker 1: in the spiritual life, it has to come supernatural, you know.
25:51
Speaker 1: Let me say something else. This is also true of
25:53
Speaker 1: officers in the church. We often feel that because a
25:57
Speaker 1: person is very successful in his business, he will ipso
26:00
Speaker 1: facto be successful as an officer in the church. That's
26:03
Speaker 1: not true. Some men who are eminently successful in the
26:07
Speaker 1: business world are pitiful when it comes to leading that
26:10
Speaker 1: a local assembly as an officer. It's not natural leadership
26:15
Speaker 1: that we're looking for. It's spiritual God appointed leadership. Don't
26:21
Speaker 1: think if you're a pastor in the making, that if
26:23
Speaker 1: you pull the right strings, you'll get to the top
26:25
Speaker 1: and have the church you want. It's never like that.
26:29
Speaker 1: It's often the one you didn't want that God will
26:32
Speaker 1: call you to. I've told you more times than you're
26:35
Speaker 1: ready to believe. How Cynthia and I have come to
26:38
Speaker 1: realize that He's made us eat our words. We were
26:40
Speaker 1: going to serve the Lord anywhere but the Dallas area,
26:44
Speaker 1: the New England area, and the California area. We have
26:48
Speaker 1: served the Lord in the Dallas area, the New England area,
26:52
Speaker 1: and now the California area. And you know, we've loved
26:55
Speaker 1: all three. She said to me recently, I am certainly
26:58
Speaker 1: praying these days that I am not praying against Alaska.
27:03
Speaker 1: I'm saying I'm available for any place, you know, because
27:06
Speaker 1: as soon as I say not Alaska, that's where we're
27:09
Speaker 1: going to go next. You know. It's remarkable how God
27:15
Speaker 1: appoints what he wants and you have very little say
27:19
Speaker 1: about it. Will you learn that he learned it from failure?
27:25
Speaker 1: Bless his heart? Aw Tozer says, a true and safe
27:31
Speaker 1: leader is likely one who has no desire to lead,
27:38
Speaker 1: but is forced into a position of leadership by the
27:40
Speaker 1: inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and by the press
27:44
Speaker 1: of the external situation. Such was David and the Old
27:49
Speaker 1: Testament prophets. I think there was hardly a great leader
27:53
Speaker 1: from Paul to the present day, but was drafted by
27:57
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit for the task. They didn't look to
28:01
Speaker 1: the stars and say, oh, that's where I planned to go,
28:06
Speaker 1: and they took off running. Often they looked at with
28:10
Speaker 1: chagrin upon the assignment, and God says, look, you're the man.
28:14
Speaker 1: You know how I know Moses learned this lesson because
28:17
Speaker 1: forty years later, at the bush which was burning, remembering,
28:20
Speaker 1: God says, you're the man to deliver the people from Egypt,
28:23
Speaker 1: Moses said, who me? Me? No? Remember me, I'm the failure.
28:28
Speaker 1: I'm the wash out. I'm the dropout. Forty years ago.
28:30
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it, Not me, Lord, you, Moses, not me.
28:33
Speaker 1: I can't talk. I'll use your mouth but I can't lead.
28:36
Speaker 1: I'll show you how to lead. I can't speak in public.
28:39
Speaker 1: I'll use your brother, oh man. He run out of excuses,
28:44
Speaker 1: and then he finally says, well okay, and he became
28:49
Speaker 1: the most magnificent leader Israel everhead God appointed, not self assumed.
29:01
Speaker 1: Did he change? Were there any strategic changes in Moses' life? Yeah?
29:06
Speaker 1: I think there were. As a matter of fact, let
29:09
Speaker 1: me point out three right quick. First of all, he
29:12
Speaker 1: developed a servant's attitude. Look at verse sixteen. Now the
29:17
Speaker 1: priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to
29:21
Speaker 1: draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
29:25
Speaker 1: Then the shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses
29:29
Speaker 1: stood up and helped them, and he watered their flock. Moses,
29:36
Speaker 1: prince charming from Egypt, who has come with a silver
29:40
Speaker 1: spoon in his mouth to the desert watering the animals.
29:44
Speaker 1: Why well, he had eaten the biggest piece of humble pie.
29:47
Speaker 1: You can imagine when he ran out of Egypt, he
29:51
Speaker 1: was ready to do anything. See failure teaches us to
29:54
Speaker 1: have a servant's attitude. Those that don't have it never
30:00
Speaker 1: want to get their hands dirty. They never want to
30:03
Speaker 1: get involved in the messy part of working with people.
30:06
Speaker 1: They always want the polished part, the fun part. But
30:09
Speaker 1: the dirty work behind the scenes, let's give that to
30:11
Speaker 1: someone else. Then there's something wrong. God uses a servant's heart,
30:18
Speaker 1: and he's using failure in your life to help cultivate that,
30:21
Speaker 1: my friend, that's all part of the process. I noticed
30:26
Speaker 1: something else that changed in Moses. He was willing to
30:29
Speaker 1: be obscure. Look at verse twenty one. Moses was willing
30:34
Speaker 1: to dwell with that man. How good that is. Here
30:38
Speaker 1: is a man he had never met. He gave his
30:41
Speaker 1: daughter Zipporah to Moses, and they had a child, and
30:44
Speaker 1: he named the child an unusual name, named him Gersham.
30:49
Speaker 1: It means a sojourner in a foreign land, a stranger.
30:52
Speaker 1: That's what Moses was. He didn't know anybody, he didn't
30:55
Speaker 1: know the ropes, he didn't know where he was going
30:58
Speaker 1: to live. But Jethro said to him, Moses, would you
31:02
Speaker 1: like to live with us? He said, yes, I would
31:04
Speaker 1: I live anywhere. That's being willing to be obscure. You're
31:10
Speaker 1: willing to be obscure. A servant's attitude will teach you
31:14
Speaker 1: the importance of being willing to be obscure in the
31:19
Speaker 1: body of Christ. Some people have to be the toes.
31:23
Speaker 1: You know that not everybody can be a hand, or
31:28
Speaker 1: an eye or an ear. Some people have to be
31:32
Speaker 1: the heel. Some people have to be the toe. Some
31:41
Speaker 1: people have to be a kidney. Oh that's crummy, isn't it.
31:50
Speaker 1: Willing to be a kidney, willing to be a liver,
31:55
Speaker 1: willing to be a stomach, willing to be an intestine
32:00
Speaker 1: you know, never seen. But boy, if you stop functioning,
32:06
Speaker 1: watch out. Moses was willing to be obscure, didn't have
32:13
Speaker 1: to have the limelight. God's breaking down through your failure,
32:18
Speaker 1: your desire to be in the lights. And when he
32:21
Speaker 1: finally breaks you to the point of breaking, who knows,
32:24
Speaker 1: He may put you in the lights like you've never
32:26
Speaker 1: known before. But then it won't matter. You don't care
32:29
Speaker 1: if they ever go out or ever go on. You're
32:31
Speaker 1: just available. There's a third lesson he learned. He learned
32:37
Speaker 1: to rest and rely on God. The last three verses
32:40
Speaker 1: of this chapter are sad verses. They portray a bleak picture.
32:47
Speaker 1: In the course of those many days, the king of
32:50
Speaker 1: Egypt died. The sons of Israel's side because of their bondage.
32:55
Speaker 1: They cried out, and their cry was their cry for
32:58
Speaker 1: help because of their bondage to God. So God heard
33:04
Speaker 1: their groaning. God remembered his covenant with Abraham. God saw
33:10
Speaker 1: the sons of Israel. God took notice of them. You
33:13
Speaker 1: never read Moses, did it. You better believe that caravan
33:17
Speaker 1: that traveled from Egypt down into the Midian desert and
33:20
Speaker 1: on across those wastelands didn't bring the message to Moses' ears.
33:24
Speaker 1: You better believe he knew that they were crying out.
33:27
Speaker 1: Moses had a heart for those people. But he rested
33:31
Speaker 1: his case. He relied upon God. He didn't roll up
33:35
Speaker 1: his shepherd's sleeve and run back to Egypt to redeem him.
33:39
Speaker 1: Not him, or he had learned that lesson. He said,
33:43
Speaker 1: when God's ready, God knows, God will work. He relied
33:49
Speaker 1: and rested in God, just for the ladies. For a moment,
33:58
Speaker 1: I received the name Alog, which is the periodical produced
34:03
Speaker 1: by the Navigators monthly. I was happy to read the
34:07
Speaker 1: writings of Ruth Denlar Myers. Ruth was, for a lengthy
34:15
Speaker 1: period of her life married to Dean Denlar. Dean and
34:19
Speaker 1: Jean Denlar were twins who played beautiful musical instruments and
34:23
Speaker 1: traveled over the Orient in the Far Eastern Islands, and
34:28
Speaker 1: they presented Jesus Christ through music. But her husband died
34:33
Speaker 1: through a terrible case and bout with cancer, and she
34:37
Speaker 1: was left a widow with little children in the home.
34:44
Speaker 1: I watched her during this time, as I knew her
34:47
Speaker 1: husband well, and I prayed often that God would give
34:50
Speaker 1: her grace to live the life of a widow. Was
34:55
Speaker 1: so pleased to read her writing. She has since married
34:58
Speaker 1: Warren Myers, who is a field presentative the Navigators, and
35:02
Speaker 1: she writes this listen, It's about failure as a mother.
35:07
Speaker 1: I remember one spring when I was a widow. Both
35:12
Speaker 1: of my children were facing excruciating problems. I would lie
35:17
Speaker 1: in bed at night, harassed by anxiety. Even though I
35:24
Speaker 1: prayed about their needs, my worries kept returning. Why was
35:31
Speaker 1: I so anxious at the time? Now listen. At the time,
35:38
Speaker 1: I was afraid of failure as a mother my number
35:44
Speaker 1: one responsibility. I didn't even have their father to share
35:50
Speaker 1: the blame with. I was seeking identity in successful performance.
35:57
Speaker 1: Does that ring a bell with any of you? I
36:01
Speaker 1: was seeking security in success. When I realized that I
36:10
Speaker 1: prayed with new insight, I said, Lord, I confess my
36:16
Speaker 1: persistent anxiety and reliance on successful performance and the approval
36:24
Speaker 1: of others. Thank you for forgiveness. The children are dedicated
36:31
Speaker 1: to you. If their difficult experiences will glorify you, Even
36:38
Speaker 1: if I seem to be a failure as a mother,
36:43
Speaker 1: you have my permission. I love that, even if it
36:48
Speaker 1: means my appearing to the world around me as a failure,
36:53
Speaker 1: You have my permission my gnawing anxiety. Operated Do you
37:05
Speaker 1: know who erects a standard that is unrealistic? You do?
37:12
Speaker 1: You do? I do? Our father doesn't. Our father says
37:21
Speaker 1: he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust,
37:28
Speaker 1: that's all. But we come into a Christian life hearing
37:34
Speaker 1: testimonies of glowing success, consistent victory, and then we tube
37:41
Speaker 1: out one week and we think, oh God, I'm finished. No, friend,
37:49
Speaker 1: you're just starting. Our problem is that we is not
37:53
Speaker 1: that we have failed. Our problem is that we haven't
37:56
Speaker 1: failed enough. The problem is not that we are defeated
38:01
Speaker 1: the times. The problem is that we're not defeated enough
38:05
Speaker 1: so that we learn. As Andre Crouch put it, I've
38:14
Speaker 1: had many tears and sorrows questions for tomorrow. There have
38:20
Speaker 1: been times I didn't know right from wrong, But in
38:24
Speaker 1: every situation God gave blessed consolation that my trials come
38:29
Speaker 1: to only make me strong. I've been to lots of places,
38:33
Speaker 1: I've seen lots of faces. There have been times I
38:37
Speaker 1: felt so all alone. But in those lonely hours, yes,
38:42
Speaker 1: those precious lonely hours, Jesus let me know that I
38:47
Speaker 1: was his own. I thank God for the mountains, and
38:53
Speaker 1: I thank him for the valleys. I thank him for
38:56
Speaker 1: the storms he brought me through. I've never had a problem.
39:03
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know that he could solve them. I'd never
39:07
Speaker 1: know what faith in God could do through it all.
39:11
Speaker 1: That's the process. Through it all, I've learned to trust
39:17
Speaker 1: in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God through it all.
39:23
Speaker 1: I've learned to lean upon His word through it all.
39:33
Speaker 1: I'm grateful tonight as I close, that all of us
39:38
Speaker 1: qualify in one area, which makes us all on the
39:43
Speaker 1: same level. We qualify as failures. Okay, that takes all
39:51
Speaker 1: the press you're off. Will you quit trying to prove
39:56
Speaker 1: something to somebody? Will you just be you and plead
40:06
Speaker 1: the spirit of God to use you dark side and all.
40:14
Speaker 1: You'll be amazed how that takes the pressure off. You'll
40:19
Speaker 1: be amazed. Now we come to the one who loves
40:26
Speaker 1: us just like we are. That's about together. Well, friend,
40:36
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot of you that are here,
40:43
Speaker 1: but I had a young man come up to me
40:45
Speaker 1: just after the other service a few minutes ago, and
40:47
Speaker 1: he said, Pastor Swindle, you don't know me, but I've
40:51
Speaker 1: felt like you knew me better than anybody in this
40:53
Speaker 1: place because you really talk to me. I have felt
40:59
Speaker 1: that I had to ache to be loved, and I've
41:04
Speaker 1: learned tonight I don't just in the quietness of this moment,
41:14
Speaker 1: thank the Lord for loving and accepting you just like
41:17
Speaker 1: you are. Warts and all cracks and all failure incompetence defeat. Lord,
41:30
Speaker 1: you are the one that never stops working in lives.
41:34
Speaker 1: You've written a book that will never end. You've given
41:38
Speaker 1: a power that will never reach its limit. You provided
41:42
Speaker 1: the Son of God who seems never to stop speaking
41:47
Speaker 1: when hurting hearts are near to hear. I pray for
41:52
Speaker 1: those who may hear this message in some lonely spot,
41:56
Speaker 1: that you would step in and do a work a
41:59
Speaker 1: salvation and or filling so that we can do more
42:05
Speaker 1: than cope. We can handle life. We praise you today,
42:10
Speaker 1: our Father, through Christ Amen. The preceding message, lessons Learned
42:20
Speaker 1: from Failure, was copyrighted in nineteen seventy five, nineteen seventy eight,
42:25
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty five, nineteen ninety eight, and
42:29
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
42:33
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four by Charles Rswindahl, Inc. All rights are
42:38
Speaker 1: reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is
42:43
Speaker 1: strictly prohibited. In the preceding message, Charles Arswindahl Inc. Is
42:49
Speaker 1: grateful to Manna Music for permission to quote lyrics from
42:52
Speaker 1: Through It All by Andre Crouch, copyrighted in nineteen seventy one,