1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,480 I'll bump that air up for y'all. I'll preach till I start seeing people starting to fan 2 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:18,480 and then I'll know it's time to stop. I see a taker over here. Alright. Let us close with 3 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:33,680 a word of prayer. No, y'all aren't that lucky. Alright. Psalm 37. Psalm 37. Verses 23 and 4 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:48,760 24. Psalm 37. Verses 23 and 24. This is a Psalm of David. We're not going to look at 5 00:00:48,760 --> 00:01:01,760 the whole Psalm. Just one part of the Psalm. Psalm 37. Verses 23 and 24. We'll read through 6 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:12,640 these couple of verses. Then we'll pray and get started. Psalm 37. Verse 23. A man's steps 7 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:19,960 are established by the Lord and he takes pleasure in his way. Though he falls, he will not be 8 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:26,500 overwhelmed because the Lord holds his hand. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today 9 00:01:26,500 --> 00:01:30,520 and we thank you that we have the freedom and the privilege to come into your house 10 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:35,960 this morning. I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among us. I pray that you'd speak 11 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:41,400 to us today. I pray that you would help our minds to be focused on you, dear Lord. I pray 12 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:46,840 that you would help us to be free of worries and free of distractions and free of the things 13 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:51,200 of this world. I pray, God, that you would just help us to listen to you today, that 14 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:57,320 you meet us where we are, dear Lord. We are those today, dear Lord, who are fallen, as 15 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:03,320 your word says, dear Lord. We fall, we fail in so many ways, God. And so I pray, dear 16 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,760 Lord, that you would help us. Maybe today if we are struggling with our failures, that 17 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:12,880 we would not be overwhelmed, but that we would find strength in you this morning. I pray, 18 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,800 dear Lord, that you would hide me behind the cross, that you would take away any pride 19 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:21,960 or any nerves that I have, that every word that is said will come from you and that it 20 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:29,480 will be for your glory. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. There's one word there 21 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:36,480 that jumped out to me in this verse, verse 24, overwhelmed. Though we fall, we will not 22 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:42,520 be overwhelmed if we trust in the Lord because He will hold on to us. I don't know about 23 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:48,800 you guys, but there are certainly days in my life that I feel overwhelmed. There's so 24 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:55,560 much stuff that life throws at us, that it is just one thing after another. And it seems 25 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,440 as though things are getting faster and busier. Now part of that just may be because I'm an 26 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:04,280 adult now. Maybe it was always this busy for adults. Maybe I'm just starting to really 27 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:09,240 experience it. Or maybe things really are getting faster and more hectic. I don't know. 28 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:15,120 But we see all the stuff that goes on in our life, and there are days that we fall, there 29 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:23,240 are days that we fail, and our failures often can be overwhelming to us. Now I don't know 30 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:29,840 about you guys, but I hate to fail. I hate to fail. It doesn't matter if it's something 31 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:35,200 simple, if it's something that's trivial. Maybe it's just failing a test in school. 32 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:39,160 We don't like to fail. Maybe it's failing to win a race at Mario Kart. Something just 33 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:44,160 that trivial. In the small things we don't like to fail, and in the more serious things 34 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:48,440 we don't like to fail. We don't like to fail our spouses. We don't like to fail at our 35 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:56,360 jobs. We don't like to fail the Lord. But that's really what sin is. Sin is a failure. 36 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:02,480 Sin comes when we fall. We don't like it when we fail. Our failures kind of pile up on us. 37 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:07,960 They eat away at us. Sometimes they make us sick to our stomach as we think about the 38 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:14,720 great failures that we've experienced in our life. And failures can be quite overwhelming 39 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:23,000 for us if we allow them to. Our failures can overcome us. Our failures can make us want 40 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,920 to give up. Our failures can make us feel as though we are worthless. Our failures can 41 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:33,360 make us feel like our families don't care about us. It makes us feel like God. We could 42 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:39,880 be of no use to God anymore. Our failures are just ever before us. Sometimes we just 43 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:44,840 can't get them off of our minds. Some of us may do better than others. But some of us, 44 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:49,640 our failures probably come back to us and they just eat away at us. Those things that 45 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:54,960 we did in our past, those things that we did last week, those things that we did yesterday. 46 00:04:54,960 --> 00:05:01,080 We get in the silence and those things come to our mind. And we recognize that we have 47 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:08,680 fallen. We recognize we're a fallen people. We recognize that our failures are great. 48 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:14,000 And sometimes we may be tempted to look at those around us and look at the crowd before 49 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:19,000 us today and we say, man, I wish I was like him. I wish I was like her. They've got it 50 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,720 all together. How come they don't ever have the problems I have? How come they don't have 51 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,640 the financial troubles I have? How come they don't deal with the temptations that I do? 52 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,800 How come their life is so good and they don't have any problems? Sometimes perhaps we are 53 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:39,200 tempted to think in that way. That we failed and everyone else is succeeding. But maybe 54 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,280 it would surprise you to know or maybe not that people are probably looking at you saying 55 00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:47,760 the same thing. Saying, boy, I wish I could be more like him or I wish I could be more 56 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:53,380 like her. And the truth of the matter is, is that we all fail far more than we would 57 00:05:53,380 --> 00:05:57,880 ever like to admit. You don't believe there's a lot of failures out there. If you want to 58 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:03,300 feel better about yourself, just get online. You can find post after post of people talking 59 00:06:03,300 --> 00:06:08,480 about their failures. In some ways, that's, I guess, maybe somewhat reassuring to know 60 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:12,920 that we are not alone. We're not the only ones who have failed. I was reading lots of 61 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:18,680 stories of failures this week. I read about one guy. He had this excellent recipe that 62 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:25,080 he was trying to give to restaurants. A thousand and nine times he gave it to restaurants and 63 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:30,600 failed every time. Every one of them turned him down. And I read about another guy. He 64 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:35,280 was the editor of a newspaper and got fired from his job. I was told that he didn't have 65 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:40,520 any imagination, that he wasn't creative enough. So he left the newspaper and things went from 66 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:45,240 bad to worse. He started some jobs. Those all failed and ended up filing bankruptcy. 67 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:51,960 I read about another young boy. Real slow learner. Wasn't able to speak even until he 68 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:56,600 was four years old. Couldn't read until he was seven. He got expelled from school. His 69 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:01,160 teacher said he was mentally handicapped. Tried to go to another school. Was not accepted 70 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:05,720 at that school. Read about another guy that was in the military. Went into military. As 71 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:10,480 a captain, came out of the military as a private. That's the wrong way if you didn't know. Going 72 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:17,120 down. Tried to start some businesses. Failed. Tried to get in politics and failed. So we 73 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:22,800 see lots of these stories of failure. I read about an athlete. A story of success, if you 74 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:29,160 can call it that. This guy was cut from his high school basketball team. But he kept working 75 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:35,360 hard and eventually he made it to the NBA only to miss 9,000 shots. 26 of which would 76 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:41,680 have won the game and lost over 300 games in his career. So failure is ever before us. 77 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:46,840 And those are just some stories. You could write a book of your own failures. If I stood 78 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:52,880 up here today and told you all the failures I had, we would be here for months. But that's 79 00:07:52,880 --> 00:08:00,380 life. We have failures in our life and those failures can be overwhelming if we don't trust 80 00:08:00,380 --> 00:08:07,280 in God. But I want to tell you today that there is hope for us in the midst of our failures. 81 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:12,920 That God loves us. That God is gracious to us. And I want to tell you that God is an 82 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:17,960 expert at using failures today. Now you might have failed in some great ways. I don't doubt 83 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:23,880 that you have. I have. But I want you to know that you have not failed so much that God 84 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:29,880 does not love you and that God cannot use you. As a matter of fact, if you believe that 85 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:34,640 today, if you believe that lie of the enemy today, then I want to encourage you to read 86 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:42,880 the Bible. Because the Bible is full of failures. Everybody that God ever used is a failure. 87 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:47,080 Sometimes you read about people in the Bible and you say, why didn't God use any better 88 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:51,200 people than that? Because there ain't no better people than that. There wasn't any better 89 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:55,880 people than that in the scriptural days. There aren't any better people than that today because 90 00:08:55,880 --> 00:09:00,000 there's one thing that all of the people in the Bible have in common with us and that 91 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:06,000 is they were sinners like you and I. And so even the names that may come to our mind from 92 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:11,480 heroes in scripture, people that we think of and look up to that were great men and 93 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:16,220 women of God, you just flip a few pages in scripture and you're going to find pretty 94 00:09:16,220 --> 00:09:21,980 quickly that every one of them have some pretty serious failures and some of them repeated 95 00:09:21,980 --> 00:09:27,840 failures. Go back to the beginning of your Bible. Take Abraham and Sarah, for example. 96 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:32,600 Oh, we remember Abraham. He's father of our faith, right? He's a man he believed and it 97 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:37,920 was credited to him for right as righteousness. But yet when God made the promise to Abraham 98 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:43,200 that he was going to have a son, what did Abraham do? Abraham and Sarah decided they 99 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:48,860 were going to do things their own way. They decided to fulfill God's plan, doing things 100 00:09:48,860 --> 00:09:54,120 their way. Well, that was a failure. And oftentimes what we see of our own failures and what we 101 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:58,760 see of the failures of people in scripture is that our failures come with consequences. 102 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:02,280 That's going to happen. That is inevitable. Our failures are going to come with consequences 103 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:07,160 and they certainly did for Abraham and for Sarah. But even though they failed God in 104 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:12,120 that way and there are some other ways in which Abraham failed too, nonetheless, we 105 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:17,240 look at Abraham and we think of him as a godly man. You flip the pages in your scripture 106 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,440 a little further, you get to the story of Moses. Well, his story started out pretty 107 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:26,320 good. A story of faith, a story of his mother coming up with a great idea that was going 108 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:31,960 to spare his life and sure enough, his life was spared and he grew up in the palace of 109 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:37,920 Pharaoh and then he killed a man and then he fled. He left. So here's Moses, a great 110 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:44,560 man that we think about in scripture and yet he's a murderer. And even further on through 111 00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:48,880 the pages of scripture, we see that Moses as he's beginning to lead the people through 112 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:53,560 the wilderness before they get into the promised land, he's disobedient to God and his disobedience, 113 00:10:53,560 --> 00:10:59,640 the consequences of that he doesn't even get to enter into the promised land. You fast 114 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,480 forward a few more pages in scripture, they finally get to the promised land and there 115 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:10,520 we're introduced to a character by the name of Rahab. And what was Rahab? She was a prostitute. 116 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:14,240 But as we flip through the pages of scripture, we see Rahab's name again and do you know 117 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:20,320 where you see Rahab's name? You see it in the very genealogy of Jesus Christ that even 118 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:26,960 God could use a prostitute to bring about his will. You flip a few pages over, you get 119 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:32,200 into the story of the judges. Perhaps you've heard of a story of a judge by the name of 120 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:39,880 Samson. Samson was the man who had a foolish temper and always was getting himself in trouble. 121 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:44,760 He loved women way more than he should and that got him into trouble. Eventually his 122 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:53,340 eyes were gouged out and God used him still, even in his failure, even in his sin. God 123 00:11:53,340 --> 00:11:59,880 still used Samson at the end of his life. You flip through, you see the prophets. Elijah, 124 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:05,640 a mighty prophet of God, one that God had used to do great things and even still, when 125 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:10,200 Elijah faced adversity, he sat under a tree and he said, God take my life, I'm ready to 126 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:17,240 die. And all of these people that I just mentioned to you, they're all found in Hebrews chapter 127 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:23,960 11 and they're called heroes of faith. They're called men and women of faith. These are the 128 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:28,800 best examples that we can go to and even though these are examples that maybe we've heard 129 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:34,120 of, that these are examples that God used in a mighty way, we have to also recognize 130 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:40,680 that they failed in many ways. But praise the Lord that God can use failures. Even some 131 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:47,520 of our greatest failures God can use. He can use us to build his kingdom if we would trust 132 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:54,120 in him, if we would hold on to him, if we would know that God established our ways and 133 00:12:54,120 --> 00:13:00,400 that we need to walk in the ways that God has established for us. That then when we 134 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:06,600 fall that our failures will not overcome us. There may be some of us today that we feel 135 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:12,280 overcome by our failures, that we have fallen today. That we have fallen and we wonder if 136 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:18,340 God still loves us, if God can still use us. And the good news is the hope for us today 137 00:13:18,340 --> 00:13:25,600 that is if we would trust in God, that God can use us in spite of our failures. And we 138 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:32,760 see that example time and time again in scripture. Some of the greatest names you know in scripture, 139 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:37,960 some of the names that we celebrate are people that God used that were not good people, but 140 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,440 yet they were people that God called upon. You flip to the New Testament, you look at 141 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:48,480 Jesus as he picks his disciples. These guys weren't all saints, but these guys were guys 142 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:54,840 who trusted the Lord. These guys had failures. Peter denied Jesus three times before Jesus 143 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:01,380 went to the cross. The disciples fled from Jesus. These guys doubted Jesus. These guys 144 00:14:01,380 --> 00:14:07,860 had failure after failure, but yet they were hand-picked and they were chosen by Jesus 145 00:14:07,860 --> 00:14:14,480 Christ to be his servants, to build his kingdom. And the good news for us today is that we're 146 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:20,840 a bunch of men and women who have failed a lot and maybe in some really serious ways 147 00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:27,400 today. But I still believe that Jesus wants to use us today, that he calls us today through 148 00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:32,240 his word, that Jesus picks you and I and he says, I want you to come into my kingdom. 149 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:37,160 I want you to be my servant. I want you to follow me. And in the midst of your failures, 150 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:41,680 I want to transform you into something new. I want you to take a hold of my hand. I want 151 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:47,400 you not to be overwhelmed. I want you not to give up today. What a beautiful message 152 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:52,440 of hope that is for us. That as we come into this room today, and maybe some of you are 153 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:57,760 really struggling, maybe some of you really feel the weight of the failures that you have 154 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:02,480 on you this morning. And I want to tell you that Jesus can take that weight. I want to 155 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:07,560 tell you that Jesus can still use you today. He doesn't want us to continue on our failures. 156 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:12,560 The greatest failure we have is that we sin over and over and that we sin against God 157 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:18,000 and his word. But if we would just call out to Jesus today, if we would just repent of 158 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:23,200 our sinfulness, if we would turn from our ways and say, God, I'm not going to keep living 159 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:29,840 in my failures. I'm not going to let my failures dictate me. I'm not going to give in when 160 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:35,760 I fall in failure, but I'm going to stand in success through Jesus Christ. That's the 161 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:40,960 only way we can stand today. And yes, there's always going to be failures, even for those 162 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,960 who are in Jesus Christ. For those of you who are Christians today, wouldn't it be great 163 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:49,520 if we could say we came to Jesus and we never failed, that we've never fallen since we've 164 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,840 put our trust in him. It'd be great if we could say that, but it's not true. So even 165 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,240 for God's people today, there are some of us who have failed and maybe there are some 166 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:03,480 here today that are still living in the failure of that sin and they've never trusted Jesus 167 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,960 Christ. They've never felt peace. They've never felt joy. They've never known that there's 168 00:16:07,960 --> 00:16:12,480 deliverance. But I want to tell you today, there's deliverance. That Jesus died on the 169 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,960 cross so that you could be forgiven, so that your failures could be forgiven, so that Jesus 170 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:24,280 would help you to be an overcomer today, so that you would not be overcome by your sin. 171 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:30,460 There's hope for us in our failures. And no matter how many failures we have, we may be 172 00:16:30,460 --> 00:16:36,160 surprised at how God can work in our life. Those people that I told you about a while 173 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:40,540 ago that failed, you've heard of them. You may not realize you've heard of them, but 174 00:16:40,540 --> 00:16:46,160 you have. The guy that had the recipe that he went to a thousand and nine people to try 175 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:51,200 to get him to make his recipe. Well, good news. He tried one more time and on one thousand 176 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:58,940 and ten, he finally got somebody to take his recipe. His name is Harlan David Sanders. 177 00:16:58,940 --> 00:17:05,380 You may better know him as Colonel Sanders, KFC. The guy I told you about who didn't have 178 00:17:05,380 --> 00:17:10,960 enough imagination, who wasn't created enough to work for the newspaper. Well, you've heard 179 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:16,080 of him too. His name is Walt Disney. Made some of the most imaginative movies you've 180 00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:21,720 ever seen. The young boy who couldn't speak till he was four, couldn't read till he was 181 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:27,480 seven and no school wanted to take him. His name was Albert Einstein. Regarded by many 182 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:33,120 as one of the smartest men to ever walk this earth. That guy who went backwards in his 183 00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:38,440 career. Some of us probably can relate to that. Went into the military as a captain 184 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:44,040 and came out as a private. Well, eventually he did find his footing in politics and became 185 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:52,560 the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The man who was the basketball player 186 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:59,440 that got cut from his high school team, went on to miss 9,000 shots, lose 300 games, and 187 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:05,280 missed 26 game winning shots. His name was Michael Jordan, who later went on to be the 188 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:11,800 best basketball player to ever walk the planet. And so you see all of these people were not 189 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:16,440 remembered by their failures. If I would have asked you after church who these people were, 190 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,640 not a single one of you would have been able to tell me who they were. But if I'd ask you 191 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:25,640 who the best basketball player was, you'd have told me that it was Michael Jordan. And 192 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:30,960 so it is for these heroes we see in scripture. They were not defined by their failures. They 193 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:37,760 were defined by their faith. And so it is for you and I. If we trust in Jesus Christ, 194 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:42,800 we may have a lot of failures in our life, but it's not our failures that's going to 195 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:48,980 define us. It's not our failures that are going to define who we are for all of eternity. 196 00:18:48,980 --> 00:18:55,800 It's our faith in Jesus Christ. So let us not be overcome and overwhelmed by our failures 197 00:18:55,800 --> 00:19:00,960 today, but let us be those who walk in the ways that have been established by God, that 198 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:07,000 we walk in the ways of Jesus Christ and that we trust him as our Lord and Savior. Let's 199 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,440 pray. Father God, we come to you today and I pray that you'd help us. Dear Lord, maybe 200 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:16,760 there are some today that really are struggling with their failures of their past. God, maybe 201 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,640 there are some today that are just struggling with something that's going on in the last 202 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:25,240 few months and maybe it's just nagging at them. And maybe they did fail and fail greatly 203 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:29,160 and maybe it's something trivial, dear Lord, or maybe it's something pretty major. Maybe 204 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:36,320 it's a serious sin that they failed in. Wherever we are today, dear Lord, I pray that in our 205 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:41,120 failures that we would just humble ourselves before you, that we would come to you and 206 00:19:41,120 --> 00:19:47,880 just acknowledge that we are a mess this morning, dear Lord. But I pray that we would not leave 207 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:53,480 here a mess, God. I pray that we would not leave here overcome and overwhelmed with the 208 00:19:53,480 --> 00:20:00,640 burden and the stress of our failures at school, or at work, or at church, or with our families. 209 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,840 God, we don't want to keep failing. We don't want to keep living in failure. We want to 210 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:09,040 do better. I pray that you help us to strive to do better in the things that we can control 211 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:14,280 and some of them we can. But dear Lord, I pray that we don't try to earn your favor 212 00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:20,800 today by anything that we do, but that we just come before you as the failures we are. 213 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,680 And we just ask this morning, dear Lord, that you would forgive us, that we would trust 214 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:30,000 in you, dear Lord, that we wouldn't live by our own ways, but that we would live by your 215 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,720 ways, dear Lord, that we wouldn't try to establish our own paths, that we wouldn't be like Abraham 216 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:39,760 and Sarah, and God try to accomplish your work according to our ways, but God, we would 217 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:46,680 seek your ways. God, maybe there are some of us today that we don't feel smart enough. 218 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:50,160 Maybe there are some of us today we've lost our job. Maybe there are some of us today 219 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,960 that are going backwards in our career. Maybe there are some of us today that even when 220 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:58,720 we do good, it seems like it's not long after that that failure comes again, dear Lord. 221 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,720 This is our cycle in life, and we need you to walk with us through this cycle. So I pray, 222 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:09,360 dear Lord, today that we would put our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ. God, that today 223 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:15,680 that we would find joy, that we would know that our faith is what determines who we are, 224 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:19,320 and God, our faith overcomes our failure. So I pray that we would repent of our sins 225 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,760 today, that we would trust in you, that we would not allow the devil to get us down and 226 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:27,480 get us depressed and cause us to want to give up, but today that we would know that you 227 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:32,120 hold on to us, dear Lord. So I pray that you would help us to hold on to you, that you 228 00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:37,400 lift us up, that you dust us off, that you not let us groan and grumble in our failures, 229 00:21:37,400 --> 00:22:04,400 but that we go about our way, dear Lord. And I ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.