August 30, 2017, Wednesday night

The Ministry of Failure

Deuteronomy 8

The Book of Deuteronomy is a book of remembrances...and Moses is rehearsing with God's people all the things that God has done for them and in them during the past years.  

There are a lot of things, a lot of ways, a lot of means that God uses to accomplish His purpose in my life, and yet, many times I miss God in those situations.  

Canaan does not represent physical death or heaven, but it does represent what we might say is heaven on earth.  Canaan represents everything that God saved us to be in this life.  Canaan does not refer to the sweet bye-and-bye...it refers to the sweet here and now.  That's where God expects us to live. 

God does not waste time and He does not waste experiences.  God uses it all to bring about His purpose and plan for our life.

Why does God let us go through the wilderness?  Why does He allow us to fail?  Why are there times when God even actually negotiates for our failure?

1) God uses failure to empty us of pride.

Verse 2

I believe a man will never trust God until he has to.  Man is basically self-sufficient.  He likes to think he can handle it himself.  As long as I have another trick or two up my sleeve I'm going to use it.  As long as I've got a back door, as long as I have a fire escape...as long as I have some other plan, some other gimmick, I'm going to use that.  And if God is going to bring me to the place where He wants me to be...and that is absolutely dependent upon Him...He must first of all destroy my faith in myself.

        
Are you serving God tonight simply because everything's going well?  What if everything in your life were to fall to pieces and you were to lose your health and you lose your family, would you still serve the Lord?  


Oh that we would begin to pray...Lord, make us hungry."   A man won't eat if he's not hungry.  And we'll never discover the resources of God until God first of all puts you in a situation where you're hungry for Him.  

2) God uses failure to expose us to the wickedness that's in our hearts.

Verses 2 and 16 tell us God said that He led them through this wilderness to prove them...to expose what was in their hearts...whether they would keep God's commands.  Now...it wasn't that God wanted to find out what was in their hearts.  God knew.  He wanted them to know what was in their hearts.  

Now, Jesus said, "Out of the heart are the issues of life."  In a man's heart, even though he is saved, there is the possibility of every kind of evil.  

3) God uses failure to educate us as to the true values in life.

Verse 3

One of my greatest problems and one of your greatest problems is a wrong system of values.  We place values on the wrong things and God has to patiently educate us and teach us what really counts in life.