Gtcotr/ws1/31/18
James 2:17 Thus also faith by
itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
This
will be our first lesson in a six-week series entitled
“Faith That Works”. Each Wednesday evening we will take the Word of God and
answer the two questions:
1. What should I believe …
2. What should I do …
…
to have faith that works when faced with some very specific problems in life.
The
topics will include: Faith that works in the face of:
·
Unanswered Prayer
·
Love
·
Abuse
·
Divorce
·
Fear
This
evening we begin our series with:
Faith That
Works in the Face of Failure
We
don’t have to venture far into the Bible to find examples of people who experienced
failure. It begins with Adam and Eve, then Cain, Canaan, Abraham, Sarah,
Rebecca, Jacob, Judah, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Samson, Jonah, the 12 Disciples,
Paul, Mark, the young rich ruler and so many others. Some recovered, and some
didn’t. Some went on to see their greatest day and others allowed their
failures to spell their final defeat.
By
the way, Failure does not have to spell defeat …
It’s what we do in the face of failure that determines the outcome.
In
order to fully recover from failures in life we need to know two things:
1.
What
should I believe in the middle of my moment … and …
2.
What
should I do … What can I do to recover from failure?
Tonight
we begin a brief survey of the life of King David. David represents a type of
Christ in the Bible. The scriptures tell us that David was a man after God’s
own heart. This assures us that the problems David faced were not heart
problems, but they were problems nonetheless.
Without
respect as to what we may be encountering in life at any moment, chances are we
can find a parallel account somewhere in the life of David. In some moments
David’s decisions teach us what we should do and in others it he shows us what
we should not do. Both of these are valid lessons from the Lord. After all,
David was just a man, but he was a man after God’s own heart, and he was chosen
at an early age to fulfill the plan and purpose of God. Through it all, God never gave up on David and David never gave up on God.
(Note: Bring to bear the events leading up to David’s failure:
1050BC David’s calling; success;
popularity; and his fall from Saul’s grace)
1 Samuel 24
1 ¶ Now it happened, when
Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying,
“Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.”
2 Then Saul took three
thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the
Rocks of the Wild Goats.
3 So he came to the
sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to
attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the
cave.)
4 Then the men of David said
to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver
your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to
you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
5 Now it happened afterward
that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
6 And he said to his men,
“The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’S anointed,
to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the
LORD.”
7 So David restrained his
servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul.
And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.
8 David also arose afterward,
went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And
when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and
bowed down.
9 ¶ And David said to Saul:
“Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’?
10 “Look, this day your eyes
have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone
urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will
not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’S anointed.’
11 “Moreover, my father, see!
Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner
of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither
evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt
my life to take it.
12 “Let the LORD judge
between you and me, and let the LORD avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be
against you.”
·
David
was facing serious problems … problems which he did not cause … but they were
his problems nonetheless. Saul was jealous …
·
Others
were aware of David’s situation with King Saul and David had his supporters.
·
Everyone
takes a side when sides demand to be taken …
·
Trouble polarizes people … it even divides friends, families, nations
and the Church.
·
God
forbid that our personal problems should bring division …
·
The
Bible says God hates those who sow discord and those who cause division among
the brethren. (Proverbs 6:19)
·
In
David’s case, he had people who loved and cared for him, but they were not
helping matters … they imagined themselves right when they counseled David to rise
up against King Saul.
·
David,
like most people in the middle of a problem, needed no encouragement to be
upset, take matters into his own hand, defend himself and go off in the wrong
direction.
·
Good
people moved by a sad situation can help to make it worse …
·
Sometimes
the voice we hear sounds like the voice of God …
·
The
devil will at times even use scriptures to deceive us … (Luke 4)
·
The
devil will at times use circumstances to deceive us … (Num 22)
·
The
devil will at times use supporters to deceive us … (Acts 12:22)
·
Even
angels must be tested by the Word - (Galatians 1:8; 1John 4:1)
·
Without
regard as to what we think we hear or who says it, We cannot
go outside of the Word of God to accomplish the will of God.
·
Violating
the Word of God signals a failure on our part …
·
David
failed … he failed himself, he failed God and he failed others …
David
recovered from this failure both in the eyes of God and in the eyes of man. David
recovered because of what David believed and what he did.
1.
David
believed that God was right above all else … above hardship, disappointment and
failure and, that God would take care of it.
a. I can’t tell you the
number of times I have heard God say, give it to Me … I’ll take care of it.
b. When we first
recognize that what we said or what we did does not line up with the Word, the
Will or the Way of God, we need to give it to God. David
believed God would handle it.
c. No matter how bad things
are right now … Believe me, you can make it worse. Just give it to God and take your hands off.
2.
Next,
David faced up to the fact that he had failed and without excuse he owned his
part in the failure and repented.
a. Change is the litmus
test of repentance.
b. Nothing changes
until something changes. Change your mind.
c. A change in David’s mind
produced a change in David’s life. It was not a heart problem, it was a head
problem. David had let his situation, thoughts, feelings and friends guide him.
The
end of the story is that God did take care of everything in God’s own time. It
didn’t turn out like David hoped but the outcome belonged to God.
1 Peter 5 NKJV
8 ¶ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
8 ¶ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in
the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood
in the world.
Don’t
allow the devil to convince you that God cannot handle your future or your failure
or that He has forsaken you or left you because of a failure. God loves you and
He has a wonderful plan for your life.
If
you have faced failure God wants to help. Repent for your part, turn it over to
God and decide you’ll never do that again. You will recover …
