Fighting Failure - Part 1 - It's Time to Fight

they don't mind we've got to stand strong and determine and we've got to have a made-up mind that no matter what comes against us in life we are going all out with God and nothing is going to shift God's best are the people that have a never-say-die attitude anybody can quit that's the easy way but God's looking for people that have a backbone made of steel the Bible says God is a rewarder of those that gently seek him for people that are extremely determined people that have a made up mind people that have their face set like a flint people that have a made up mind people that have their face set like a flint the scripture says here first Corinthians 15:58 be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord notice that word always indicates that perseverance should become a habit but we must realize just as standing strong and persevering can be a habit so can quitting and giving up and unfortunately today many people have developed this negative habit of quitting it's just part of their character when times get tough rather than fighting the good fight of faith they just take the easy way out and quit but friends God has not given us the holy spirit so we could become quitters Philippians 4:13 says we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us who hasn't ever failed be persistent god never promised us that our dreams were going to come to pass on the very first time Abraham Lincoln went through eleven political defeats a nervous breakdown the loss of two of his children and a severe depression all before he was elected president of the United States see he was determined he had that never-say-die attitude it's reported that Thomas Edison failed 32,000 times before he finally invented the phonograph can you imagine how tempted he must have been to give up after try number 1,000 or try number 10,000 what if I'm trying number 30 1999 he would have said forgetting this thing's not going to work I'm giving up no he would have missed out on God's best and how many times do we allow the enemy to deceive us into giving up right before our dreams come to pass we to see so many people who are joining us here for the first time if you're just coming for a first time here we here at the way I like to say we are an ordinary place where extraordinary things happen and never is that more true than today as we kick off a new series called fighting failure where hopefully we'll get a chance to have some fun discuss some topics that apply to all of us and maybe we might learn something in the process as well but before we get into our topic I want to ask you all a question which in case you ever appear on Jeopardy you'll be prepared what do these five individuals up on the screen have in common in case you don't know who the five individuals are you got mr. Walt Disney you got Albert Einstein Vincent van Gogh the great painter artist guy dr. Seuss coming underneath him and then Thomas Edison one of these guys have in common Walt Disney Albert Einstein Vincent van Gogh dr. Seuss and Thomas Edison all these guys you'd be tempted to say these are very successful individuals right so what all these people share in common is they're men of success well let me tell you about these great men of success Walt Disney before Disneyland took off when he was trying to get the idea up financed and off the ground did you know that Walt Disney was rejected 302 times when he proposed the idea of Disneyland to people trying to get financing 302 times he failed Vincent van Gogh the famous artist the man who has so many paintings and so many great things do you know how many paintings Vincent van Gogh's sold in his lifetime one the other 800 or so he kept in his basement and now the value of those is an incredible amount of money one painting his most famous one or his most expensive one is worth is valued at 142 million dollars but he failed to sell a single or he sold just one other than that Albert Einstein great man intellectual person failed to be able to speak until 8:00 fork was unable to utter his first word dr. Seuss famous author of so many books when try to release his first book 27 times he was rejected by the publishers and was tried number 28 and he made it then the last but not least Thomas Edison as you heard him there in the intro video right there Thomas Edison the man who invented so many things including the light bulb do you know how many times Thomas Edison invented the light bulb that didn't work 200 times 200 times you said this one this is the one that's going to do the trick and 200 of times it failed so what I would say with all these guys have in common is they're failures because they failed more than me and you combined but what we're going to talk about here in this series beginning today is that failure is an inevitable part of success in any field failure is an inevitable part of success I'd actually love what Thomas Edison said he said something nice when he was talking about how he had failed 200 times and in the light bulb before he bore he succeeded he said I he said in my mind I never failed even once I invented the light bulb but it was a 200 step process to get there I like that because that's the way that success works its failure plus failure plus failure plus failure leads to success and the list goes on which war General in the Revolutionary War lost two-thirds of the battles that he fought George Washington which United States president lost 11 out of the 13 elections that he ran for Abraham Lincoln which European war hero finished 42nd in his class out of 43 Napoleon then he did a little thing called conquer the rest of Europe and if you're into sports everyone knows the greatest baseball player of all time is Babe Ruth who in 1935 and he retired led the majors with the most home run 714 a record that stood for so many years until steroids came along ok it's it for me yes but did you also know that when Hank when when Babe Ruth was retired in 1935 he not only led in homeruns but he also led the league in strikeouts and he set a world record for that as well big failure is an inevitable part of any success if you are not failing at something you are probably not trying anything and the same is true spiritually and that's why we're kicking off a series here today called fighting failure because usually what we do in churches across America is we talk about how to be successful and we stand up here and we say to be good do this and do this and do this and then you'll be good but most of us our experience is not at being good it's actually being bad so what do we do and we're bad like I come up here and I can read you a bunch of Bible verses and say how good you're supposed to be but what happens when we're not good what happens when we fail what happens we talk about how important it is to be pure and we're not pure what happens that when we talk about how faith is the most important thing and then we have doubts what happens we talk about the hope we have in Christ and then we go home and we struggle with despair and depression and we talk about the freedom and grace but then we struggle with guilt and shame what happens when we fail what do we do well I'll say this just as with those individuals you will discover that spiritually failure is a necessary part of success in the spiritual life as well the proverbs chapter 24 verse 16 says that a righteous man will fall seven times but he will rise again and that's what this series is all about this series is not about not failing this series about what to do when we fail not if we fail but when we fail how do we rise up and not let our failure define us but let our response to failure define us now before we get too far into this you're sitting there and you're thinking I know what you're thinking you're thinking you father Anthony what are you gonna tell us about failure you say you stand up there on that stage what do you can tell us about failure you know my life you one of my problems you got a perfect life a perfect family you always know all the verses you got a perfect life why don't you pause me and tell me when it comes to failure well I'll tell you this and I've told you all this before just because I appear to have it all together doesn't mean I got it all together just means maybe I'm pretty good at acting just like maybe you're I'm giving you parents that you got it all together to see we're all actors in this and I'm gonna prove it to you raise your hand if you have never ever actually no one do the opposite because we need to be awake said friends and families today I need everyone to participate okay not if you've never failed raise your hand if you have failed and let me try to be a little more clear that let's say not failed in life not a failure let's say in this year 2015 if you have failed Keir Asia and if you failed at a test failed at a relationship failed at a promise that you have made okay and not kept failed at a New Year's resolution New Year's was just a few months ago raise your hand have you failed in any capacity at all during 2015 raise your hand nice and high can everybody look around and see how many people's hands are up and see who's a liar by not putting their hands up okay now keep your hands up keep your hands up now all these people whose hands are up are people that have failed I got both mine up to now keep your hand up if you love talking about those failures if you love sharing about it and on job interviews then you talk about it when you go out to coffee with people and on friends and family day you write your failure on your nametag okay look around all the hands that are up are now down just because we don't talk about failures doesn't mean we don't have them it just means we don't talk about them but you know what I discovered even though what we usually talk about is our success what we prefer to listen to his failures we like hearing stories of failure especially from people that we admire because it gives us hope example which would you prefer Here I am on father Anthony would you rather me stand up here and spend the next 45 minutes telling you about how good I am at prayer and how I can pray for hours unlike you you heathen you pay it you want me to sit here and tell you how good my prayer life is or do you want me to tell you the truth that I struggle just like you to pray for one minute when my phone is anywhere in the vicinity an I struggle because somehow my phone is in my pocket I can hear but if I'm praying and that phone is all the way across the house I can hear the slightest vibration and that distracts me from praying which too would you rather hear would you rather hear me tell you a story about how disciplined I am when it comes to my eating habits oh you want me tell you the truth that I try to distract my daughter so I can eat her brownies when she turns her back watch this one parents you want to hear me tell stories about how well-behaved my children are and how they're so obedient and they're so good or you like me like me when you walk into that Wegmans and you see that preacher man over there and you see his cabin his kids having a temper tantrum inside you smile then he's got normal people problems just like the rest of us some people think Here I am I'm the great preacher man I give sermons and I'm so good at sermons and ever failed sermon let me tell you about a sermon fail that I did one time and I'm sure some people here even presence probably six seven years ago something like that one time I decided front of a large audience just like this broadcast over the Internet to give an entire sermon on the topic of joy and you say it's a good topic and while I was giving the topic of joy I decided I don't know why I don't really do this very often but I decided this time I was going to introduce the Greek word for joy and the Greek word for joy lo and behold sounds very similar to an Arabic word which I cannot say here on stage cuz it's a bad word I'll just say has four letters and it's something that goes in the toilet and I mispronounced the Greek word and made it sound awfully like that Arabic word and not only did I say it once twice three four or five times somehow I saw the people's reaction so I said hey say it with me and all the people the majority of them knew what I was talking about today they said and I was like no you in the back you're not saying it say it like you mean it is what I said everyone yeah that's what's called sermon fail the Greek word by the way is ha talk that's the proper pronunciation but if you emphasize the wrong word you have a sermon fail if you emphasize the wrong part of that anyway my point is this God hears our theme our main message of this series is that God wants to work through your mistakes and shortcoming not in spite of them God wants to work through your mistakes your failures your shortcomings your weaknesses not in spite of them God doesn't see your failure as a aah again God doesn't see your failure as something that stops his ability to use you in fact what we are going to see in this series cuz every week we're gonna look at different failures different great people who failed God royally we're going to see that God will use us and as you use them not in spite of our failure but actually you'll use our failure and he will work through those things our theme verse is going to be this from Luke chapter 5 verse 31 which shows you about God's view of us in our failure scripture says those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance God said I came as a doctor I didn't come as a judge I didn't come to judge you I came to heal you so if you have no failure you have no need of me the only one who expects you to be perfect is you the only one let me say it better wait the only one who is shocked when you fail is you nobody else is and you don't believe me go take a surfing go ask your co-workers if they think you're perfect I'm if your supervisor go ask the people under you if they think you're perfect no one expects you to be perfect know one thing no one's fooled by it except you as much as we hate to talk about failure the good news is God does not and God in his book in the Bible does not hide the failures of the great men and women who came before us Moses was a great man oh but he was also murdering David was a great man but he was an adulterer Solomon was a wise man but he was actually the dumbest of them all because he worshipped them dumb idols st. Paul wrote all half the New Testament but he persecuted more Christians than anybody else before he became a Christian himself even the great Noah himself a righteous man one time got drunk lost all his clothes and found himself in a very precarious situation but those failures do not define those individuals no one would say that Saul or let's say that Paul is defined by his failure Paul is defined by his response to his failure as is Noah as is David as is Moses and so too will you and I be when we understand how God wants us to view our failure and respond to that failure every week in the series we're going to look at a different character in the Bible who failed and we're going to see a different tactic that failure will treat failure like our enemy and failure comes out as every week and hits us with a different whether it's doubt or whether it's discouragement or whether it is despair failure comes at us and beats us down every week we're gonna see a different character who failed and how they responded to that failure today we're gonna start with an easy one kind of a general failure one of the most well known characters in the scripture who was actually not even really a character because he's come from a parable it was a story the prodigal son everybody knows his story even people who don't know the Bible know the story of the prodigal son a man with two sons one of them went astray and he failed and in his story of failure we see that failure doesn't need to define us but our response to failure is what defines us we'll pick up the story in Luke chapter 15 again it's not a real story it's a parable that Jesus told which is like a story with a meaning Jesus said Luke 15:11 a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falls to me so he the father divided to them his livelihood and not many days after the younger son gathered all together journey to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living let's stop right there the Sun comes to the father and says to him what says to him father give me the portion of goods that falls to me you may say that doesn't seem like that big a deal like I asked my parents for money all the time what's the big deal this is a big deal because he's not just asking his parents for a loan he's not just asking his dad to help mountain a tough time he's asking for what money his inheritance money what is implied when I go to my father and say I want my inheritance money now what is the inheritance money comes when when he dies so when I come to my father I say I want my inheritance money now it's an essence saying I'm sick and tired of waiting for you to die I cannot wait any longer and if you go read commentaries about this about this what would happen okay in this situation where a son would come to his father and ask for his inheritance like this this is equivalent to spitting in his father's face this actually you can't read the what would happen like what would a father do for son really did this you can't read that you know why because every Bible scholar says it will never ever happen because the son who would even imply that would be beaten on the spot would be beaten on the spot will be beaten by the father the father servants arrested family there's no such thing as a son who comes his father spits in his face and says give me my money I'm Stephen waiting for you to die for the past five years and you won't die give me my money right now that's in essence what the son did it doesn't get much more fail than that it doesn't get much more you disappointed your dad than that can it get worse I get worse where's 14 but when he had spent tolls not only the last of the money but he wasted the money on top of that he spent all there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine watch his part right here and he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine and no one gave him anything see we miss we miss read this parable so often we say that the parrot the prodigal son was in such a bad state he was eating pig food he was not eating pig food what does the scripture say was he eating pig food no he was yearning for pig food he wasn't eating pig food like eating pig food like I don't make that as if it's like like eating pig food he wasn't eating pig food he was yearning for it like here comes porky porky please give me a piece can I have it pork he said no get your own man and the pigs all laughing at him does it get any lower than where this son finds himself now what do you think is going through the son's mind as he is not eating pig food but dreaming of eating pig food like one day I'm out enough money pig food what's going through his mind what's he thinking I messed up I'm a bad person and he's got evidence in front of him to say you are the dumbest person in the world you're not dumb you're the number-one most dumbest person in the world this prodigal son in his mind is I'm a failure I can never amount to anything I wasted it nothing good can ever come from me you know those thoughts don't you he's not alone in those thoughts he's not the only one who thinks I'm bad he's not the only one who thinks I've wasted a golden opportunity he's not the only things I've messed up so badly then nothing good can come from my life is he the only one well I'll tell you this that whether you admit it or don't admit it I'll admit it I share some of these thoughts sometimes I know exactly how he feels because let's just take one simple area one area which you may not realize but I seen that Pierre and I give sermons and so many people come to me say do you give the best sermons so I'm here to visit because I heard your sermon your sermons are the best and that's the best thing in the whole wide world I say thank you very much and I get lots of compliments on my sermons but I always get compliments on my sermons and even forget about compliments I know when sometimes I don't give a good sermon I know it and I know sometimes when you mean it and sometimes you're just like politely like you know how you know how when you go you know when you go for your review at work and your boss gives you like 27 positive things and then one growth opportunity right growth opportunity and 27 positive things but you remember any of those 27 things all you thinking about is that one growth opportunity I do the same thing I can stand up here for 27 weeks in a row and give the best sermon in the whole wide world and week 28 I know I gave a clunker and that's all I'm thinking about and I'm kicking myself and most people take one out of twenty eighths not bad but in my mind I didn't I didn't prepare hard enough I didn't pray hard enough I should have rested more on Saturday like I water stay out too late I'm sorry why wouldn't I focus why didn't and I kicking myself I'm not a good priest I'm not a good preacher and I'm the worst person in the whole wide world and I let people down and someone came to churches first Sunday and I'm here ten years I may hate God because of me and I'm the worst person and I feel like that sometimes I feel like sometimes I'm not adequate as a father to my children I feel that a lot actually that I'm not good enough as a dad that I let them down I feel like sometimes I let my wife down now I'm not enough when it comes to what she needs as a husband I know for certain I let God down all the time and many times that I see you see up here I'm perfect whatever it is many times I stand in front of God I can't even stand if all of my knees and say I'm the worst person in the world yeah again I hide it from you just like you hide it from me but don't don't fall for what's hidden for what's what's appeared we all know what it's like to feel like a failure and this prodigal son while of his story is because you cannot be worse than this as bad as you may be as bad as I may be I can say pretty safely I ain't that bad iein failed as bad as this guy and if God can use him and the father can welcome him back which we'll see in a minute and maybe there's hope for me too I said in the beginning our theme is God does not want to use you in spite of your mistakes he wants to work through your mistakes and through your shortcomings because no failure can negate the power and the promise of God but the key as we'll see in a minute with the prodigal son is how do you respond to failure the key is and whether or not you get knocked down all of us will be knocked down and my guess is the many people who are here today right now are kind of woozy and on the floor and getting that standing eight-count and they're getting counted and they don't know if they can be able to get back up well I'm telling you that what you do when you get knocked down will define you more than what you do when you're standing because it's not our success that determines our character in life it's how we respond to our failures but we must respond the proper way how do we usually respond to failure how do we usually respond when we feel bad about ourselves when we feel like I'm no good and I'm bad and I've let people down how do we usually respond we all want the same thing we want anesthesia we want something to numb it and we as a society are the most I don't know what the proper verb is of anesthesia Society ever and I'll prove it to you because I'm going to give you some facts about our society that you may not know we are the most over the most in debt the most addicted and the most medicated society in the history of the world ever there's never been a society that struggles with obesity that struggles with debt that struggles with addiction and that is more medicated than we are today in the United States of America and what are all these four things they're all proof that we are looking for some anesthesia just to numb the pain I feel bad about myself I'm a failure I'm no good so go to the bar kick back a few beers pick up a box of Krispy Kremes on the way home feel better about myself makes the pain go away just for a night or go shopping somehow this but I don't get but people tell me that somehow they feel better when they're shopping I don't get it we go shopping why because we feel bad and we just need to feel good about ourselves but this stuff doesn't solve the problem numbing the pain doesn't make the pain go away it only makes it that much more worse when we wake up what are the part of the sundew when he was down and he looked like he was out for the count next verse watch here watch here and fight her man of God watch what he does he's down for the count he's seven eight and at the nine count at the nine and a half look what happens but when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough in to spare and I perish with hunger exclamation mark meaning like what am i doing I am dumb why am i down here yearning for big food when my father's house has so much good food I will arise and I will go to my father and I will say this father I've sinned against heaven and before you have no longer worthy to be called your son make me as one of your hired servants boom is what I want to say boom is what I want to say because that what this guy did he's down and there come and another victory for failure failure another one bites the dust throw him away throw him away into despair throw him away in a shame and guilt and he's done he said I ain't done yet and he picked himself up he said let's fight but he didn't fight by no coming he fought by bike by coming to himself and saying what he said right there let's translate this to what that means for us when he said he came to himself and he said how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough in to spare and I perish with hunger let's translate that into something actionable for me and you what did he do what was the key step when he came to himself that he picked himself up and he started fighting again it is this most important thing that you will take away from what I say today he realized who he was he realized who he was he woke up and he realized he looked in the mirror and said I am NOT a pig food your God I am NOT a poor person I am NOT a beggar I am NOT a bad person I am the son of a very rich father and my rich father has been enough in despair and I'm his son because everything that failure was telling him is you are no longer his son you have lost that right you threw it away you don't deserve to be his son anymore you're too bad you wasted that and he said he was believing it and believing in believing the finally said you I not believe in that anymore I'm son of a rich King and I will go to my father and I will say father I've sinned against heaven before you and that realization changed everything that realization changed everything someone sent me a video recently about a researcher who researches and studies the topic of shame you didn't know that was a topic that you can study digit but someone study the topic of shame and about how we human beings deal with shame and what is shame and how shame works how to get out of shame and this whole research field about shame her name is Brenna Brown okay and I actually wanted to show the video to get some of the clips but I didn't show the video because she's not Christian or I don't know what she is but it's it's not a Christians talk she used some not nice language she used the Greek word for joy okay but in English okay she's all about joy okay so let me just summarize what she said okay without game this specific some quotes okay and and some of it might not seem like it's relevant but watchful follow me here she's talking about connection okay connecting with one another and she says quote connection is why we're all here it is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives what gives people Worth and Happiness is a sense of connectedness this is this is good with us this is what we know from the scriptures do you just told us this that life is not about accomplishment life is about relationship and when we feel connected in relationship we feel good and we feel disconnected we feel bad and we know that it's not just this level of relationship it's this level as well that's what she's saying the whole point of humanity is to feel connected with God well she didn't say God but I'm adding that with God and connected with one another she goes on shame is the fear of disconnection shame is the fear of disconnection and she explains that shame is the fear that if people knew certain things about me they wouldn't want to be my friend or I would be unworthy of their connection that's her exact words it would make me unworthy of connection that's what shame is shame is that if you knew this about me then we couldn't be friends anymore so shame kids me hiding and shape keeps me I don't want anyone to know this because shame is a fear of if you if I was exposed they would be dis connection and disconnection leads to lack of happiness this is where many of us find ourselves today in our relationship with God in a relationship with one another fear that if people really knew if people found out that God I'm not good enough fear that if God somehow like as if God doesn't know but we have this idea that as long as we act Christian okay then everything is okay in front of God and God doesn't really see anything behind that so we have this fear that you know what I made this promise to God I'm gonna keep it this time but then I broke it God won't want me back or fear that you know I I God does not want me to do this and if I do this one more time and I'll never be acceptable in front of God this fear that if people really knew who I was that I wouldn't be worthy of connection and you know what happens when you have this fear when you have this shame where that fear that if you discover me that you won't want to be my friend what happens is I naturally want to have that fear I pull away I disconnect and then it becomes a vicious cycle because the more I disconnect the more I'm validating in my mind I'm not worthy of connection and a shame cycle just continues gets worse and worse and worse and worse prodigal son was in this cycle he did bad actions can't go back but because I can't go back I might as well do bad actions and it's a vicious cycle I'm not worthy of connection so therefore I behaved this way and because I behaved this way I'm not worthy of connection that's what the prodigal son found himself but he was able to snap out of it and he was able to say to himself that yes I have failed but I am NOT a failure and what I want you to see the most important thing with the prodigal son that you see here is nothing in his circumstances changed when it says he came himself it's not like all of a sudden everything was fine nothing changed outside him but his mindset changed and that's why I say what me and you our mind said that's something that we can control we don't think we can but we can and when we control when we change our mindset it will change everything dr. Brown goes on and she and her study talks about she divided again talking about shame and she divided people into two groups this group who felt like excessive shame and felt like they're not worthy of connection and they felt like they don't have any connection in life and then this group of people who feel very connected and very loved and they felt a sense of belonging and what she said was very profound about the difference between those two groups I'll say it and then I'll explain what's the difference between the people who feel connected and loved and the people who don't feel connected and love this group feels connection this group feels disc action what's the difference their circumstances their background their upbringing what's the difference only one difference she says quote there's only one difference between those who have a sense of connection and love and belonging and those who don't those who have connection believe that they're worthy of it and those who don't have connection believe that they're not worthy of it that's the only difference that is huge that is enormous because what that says is in other words the only difference between the people who feel connected and feel loved and feel belonging whether it's with God or with man that applies in both versus people who feels isolated and feels disconnect the only difference is in here the only difference is in here that this group of people says I'm worthy of love so they feel loved and they connect with people miss grupe says I'm not worthy of love and as long as they believe they're not worthy of love they will continue to pull away from relationships whether it's with God or with man and it continued to feed this vicious cycle that's the only difference it's in here it's not out here let me translate that for you spiritually God's love for you God's love for you is only as big as your faith in it is God's love for you is only as big as your ability to believe in it if you walk out of this room and say God cannot love me more than this and how big will God's love be in your life is this if you say God's grace I am so bad I can never have more grace than this and you will never find more grace than this but the one who says like the prodigal son God's love for me is big big big big bigger than big that's the one who will be swimming in an ocean of God's love today go back to the prodigal son beginning of the story versus end of the story beginning of the story he felt a shame he felt like my father hates my guts can't go back to him end of the story he felt the Father's love logic did the father's love change from the beginning to the end did the father let grow in his love like after the boy spit in his face he increased his love towards him yes I love you more now is that what happened at the beginning of the story the boy felt no love he felt no connection no reason to state spit in his father's face at the end of the story he feels so much love did the love change did it change no it didn't change his perception of a change his realization of it changed I tell you what at the beginning of the story if the father didn't love the son immensely like I said he had beaten that son silly he certainly wouldn't have given her the money to give him a kick in the pants maybe he wouldn't have given him the money so watch this your problem you who struggle with shame your problem and my problem is not that you're not worthy of God's love your problem is that you don't believe that you're worthy of God's love and there's a big difference your problem isn't that you're not worthy of God's love your problem is you don't believe that you're worthy of God's love it's all in your mind and again does this confirm what the scriptures say absolutely because the scriptures say in Proverbs 23 didn't bring it up on the screen that as a man think in his heart so is he as a man believes about himself in his heart so is he scripture also tells us in Romans chapter 12 that we will be transformed when we renew our minds it's all in your mind again you sit there and say cuz I someone told me this recently I was sharing kind of some of the principles is with someone someone said you know father Anthony you know what you just you've been blessed you have good self-esteem you're good at this like God gave you good self-esteem it's easy for you to believe that you're good it's easy to for you to believe in God's love just go made you different the rest of us and I say that's a cop out that's a cop out if that's what you're thinking that's a cop out cuz this has nothing to do with self-esteem this has nothing to do with self-esteem this has everything to do with who is the authority in your life who you listen to and I say that I defeat failure by trusting in God's Word more than my own thoughts had nothing to do with self-esteem and that's a cop-out to say some people have good self-esteem I don't that's a cop-out the truth of the matter is God's Word says one thing your thoughts say another who's the authority in your life and if I have the ability to feel good about myself despite my failure and pick myself up then it's not because I have good self-esteem it's because I have made a decision that God's Word is higher than anything else in this world and if you tell me I'm bad but God's Word tells me I'm good i'ma go with God's Word and if you tell me if God's Word says I am precious and I'm valuable and the world tells me I'm worthless I'm going with God's Word because that's the authority in my life and if you make God's Word the authority in your life you'll experience the same thing I always make a distinction between two ideas reality and truth what's their ensuing reality and truth reality is what we see but truth is what we know so reality is what's in front of our eyes I have failed that's reality I'm a failure I'm sorry I have failed that's a reality but truth is that I'm not a failure that I'm loved even though I failed reality says that I'm not good but truth says I am eternally good and infinitely good because the one who is in me is eternally and infinitely good reality says you can't win this battle truth says you can't lose as long as you stick with me it's an interesting reality and truth reality and truth are not contrary to one another truth is not Nick is not opposed to reality truth completes reality reality is in front of us what I see and true says okay but let me tell you what you don't see you see that you failed I see that God knew you were going to fail and still says I love you anyway see the difference who you choose to trust reality or truth give some nice verses on what truth is Jeremiah 31 verse 3 yes I have loved you with an ever lasting love but the context of this sometimes we miss the value and the significance of scripture verses because we don't understand the context who is this verse being spoken to is this verse Jeremiah the Prophet Jeremiah even know it Jeremiah is like nickname was he was called the weeping prophet or the wailing Prophet because Jeremiah preached at a time where the people were horrible miserable so bad and he would just go around saying destruction and God is gonna destroy cuz y'all won't obey and the people during the time of Jeremiah were as low a place as you can imagine and eventually they were taken captive by the bad guy but look what God says he's not saying you haven't failed because the first 30 chapters of Jeremiah was y'all failed y'all are miserable y'all the worst can't stand joke but then look of 31 verse 3 yes I loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you again I will build you and you shall be rebuilt a virgin of Israel see you shall be rebuilt because y'all are destroyed and I'm gonna destroy you but i'ma rebuild you you shall again be adorned with tambourines you shall go forth and the dances of those who rejoice this might be a good verse Circle this one keep in front of your like this might be a good one to remind us of truth despite the reality that is in front of all of our eyes another passage romans chapter 5 verse 8 you say I'm bad I failed I got problems I got big problems I say yes you got big problems but you got an even bigger father you got big problems but you got an even bigger solution to your problems because God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners reality still sinners truth Christ died for us reality says we were sinners truth says Christ died for sinners you see how this works we need to get better at that we need to get better at when reality comes here that I shoved truth in its face that's why I tell people this all the time some people think I'm crazy some people tell me they got this problem they're struggling with this and I say do you read your Bible like father anything how's that time for Bible someone's in the hospital and sick or someone is about to die I'm like hmm did you read your Bible was Bible have to do with anything you know Bible s do with anything because the Bible is a source of truth and if all you are doing is looking at reality without truth to combat it you got no shot I'm telling you got no shot I'm telling you stop coming to church you got no shot you got no shot because reality will beat you down but truth picks you up reality says prodigal son you do not deserve the father is reality right let me ask you a question does the son deserve to go back to the Father does he deserve it depends who you ask depends who you ask if you ask reality reality says no do you ask truth look and he arose Luke 15 verse 20 let's ask the Father let's ask the father who represents truth here does he deserve to come back to what the father says and he arose and came to his father but when he was still a great way off his father saw him had compassion ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said to him father I've sinned against heaven in your sight and no longer worried that he be called your son that's reality not worthy to be called your son father doesn't even listen to him doesn't address him doesn't say no no no no no the father ignored everything that he said and it says this the father said to his servants bring out the best rope and put it on him put a ring on his hand sandals on his feet bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost in his found and they began to be merry reality not worth it not deserve it truth bring the robe bring the ring bring the calf bring the party let's celebrate question is which of those two is a stronger influence in your life and that's not a self-esteem thing that's a decision it's a decision that you need to make to date that says I will listen to the authority of the scripture even though everything in my head says the opposite when God says I'm precious and my thoughts say I'm worthless I will trust what God says not my own thoughts that ain't self-esteem that's a decision each one of us can make give you another nice passage here of scripture from Isaiah 43 I'm just gonna read it it's such a good passage I'm telling you my greatest struggle for today the hardest part of my job preparing here today was which verses to put on your hand I I could have printed like a booklet today of verses that's but there's just so many beautiful verse to tell you who you are and you listen to these dumb thoughts and you had to tell you a failure it's so read the scriptures and let them tell you who you really are Isaiah 43 but now thus says the Lord who created you O Jacob and he who formed you Israel put your name in there oh whatever your name is fear not for I have redeemed you I've called you by your name you are mine ah when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flame scorch you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your savior since you depart since you were precious in my sight you have been honored not just I love you and you can live with me but I honor you ock and I have loved you therefore I will give men for you people for your life fear not frying with you everyone who is called by my name my have created from my glory I have formed him yes I have made him now you're gonna come and tell me I don't think God loves me I'm bad God gives me my identity too many of us honestly now it's not even a matter of our own self-esteem is not a matter of failure it's a matter of respect a lot of us are extremely rude to God we are disrespectful because God tells us a devil tells us B and we say sorry God you're wrong because he said this or you're wrong because I think this like that is not a matter of shame now it's a matter of just being respectful who are you going to listen to the next time you have failed who are you going to put your trust in yourself your own thoughts the enemy or put it in the one who's proven and he knows what he's talking about leave you with this thought stop telling God who you are and start listening to what he says instead can we do that can we make an agreement here today like a Treaty of stupidity that's we're gonna do we're called the treaty of stupidity which is gonna walk out of here and say I am NOT the smartest person in the world I'm not smartest person in the world so therefore even if I'm really convinced that if God says otherwise I'm stupid he's smart I will shut up I will listen to what he says I will not tell him to shut up I will tell myself to shut up I will tell the devil to shut up I will tell those failure thoughts to shut up but I will not tell God to shut up I will listen to what God says because in the end no matter what God thinks about you if you don't believe it you will never ever experience it God says to you today you are special you are precious not because of who you are but because Who I am and I called you by my name my children are special because they have my name whether you like them or don't like they're my kids they have my name they have a worthy of every in this universe because they have my name I put my name on them they're special because that you go into baby hospital you see a bazillion babies they all look the same no one can tell them apart but this one that has MOT maybe you can tell apart but this one who has my name is the most important one because he has my name and therefore he is special and he's worthy of this entire kingdom because he has my name that's what God says about you and if God puts his name on you they don't care what you think about yourself God says you're precious God says you're valuable question is will you believe it or not let's stand together for a prayer please in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen would we thank you thank you Lord for loving us when we're so unlovable sometimes and we thank you because you always reach out your hand to pick us up when we're not just down but like in the lowest of lowest places but I pray that this series would be like an enlightening for us would be like a pick-me-up for those who are in so desperate need of it you know Lord who's coming here today who's in a bad situation like buried in a pit shame and despair and guilt you know Lord who is discouraged and disappointed and is struggling Lord to keep their faith I pray Lord you would help us to listen to what you say to keep your word close to our minds close to our ears close to our hearts and the faith to believe what you say when everything else is telling us otherwise Lord we know it won't be easy but we know that you will help us Lord because you have promised us you will call you call us by your name and you will walk with us no matter where we go except our prayers this day in the name of your son our Savior Jesus Christ with the prayers of all your saints here as Lord as we pray together thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil one Christ Jesus our Lord nine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen

Channel: STSA Church

Views: 21,049

Rating: 4.891892 out of 5

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Id: hLMqAwdFX8w

Length: 53min 6sec (3186 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2015