Mistakes - We All Make Them!

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

(Powerpoints used with this message are available free. Just email me at MNEWLAND@SSTELCO.COM and request PP #152.)

TEST: Psalms 31; Genesis 12:10-13; 2 Kings 1:5-6; Jeremiah 8:20

ILL. I read a rather interesting story this past week. It concerns a young woman who made an appointment to talk with her preacher about something which was really troubling her.

When she met with him, she said, "Preacher, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I just cannot control. It is pride. Every time I attend church I look around at the other women, & realize I’m the prettiest one in the whole congregation. No one else even compares with me. What can I do about this?"

The preacher replied, "Oh Mary, Mary, have you had your eyes examined recently?" (Adapted from Paul Fritz on Sermon Central)

We tend to joke about our mistakes because we all make mistakes! We might make them because we have poor information, or because we have bad judgment, or just because we are making the wrong choices.

Mistakes aren't necessarily sin, but they can become sin because of the domino effect. One mistake often leads to another as we try to excuse or cover up our mistakes. Soon we’re getting in deeper & deeper, & a chain reaction has begun.

Now, I am not an expert in most things, but I am very nearly an expert when it comes to mistakes. I have made enough mistakes in my lifetime to pretty much make me an expert. Maybe you have too!

So this morning I have taken some of my mistakes, & added some of yours mixed them all together & have reached the conclusion that there are at least 4 major categories of mistakes, & all 4 of them are found in the Bible. Listen carefully, & I think we will see ourselves in each of these 4 categories..

I. PANIC PROMPTED MISTAKES

A. First, there are panic prompted mistakes mistakes that are made because we are in too great a hurry, or because we are afraid that something is going to happen. So we take quick action to try to keep it from happening.

We are worried about something & we are hesitant about letting God take control. So we handle it ourselves & the result is that we make mistakes.

ILL. You remember the story of Abram, whom God later renamed as Abraham. God told Abram to leave his homeland & go to a land that God would show him, where he & his family would be greatly blessed. Abram would become the father of a great nation, & all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him.

When Abram finally got there he built an altar to God, & God told him, "This is the land I promised you. Stay here, & don't leave this land."

Time passes, & Genesis 12:10 tells us, "Now there was a famine in the land, & Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while, because the famine was severe."

Now that is a panic prompted mistake. Abram had promised God that he would stay put. But when a famine arose, Abram was afraid that he & his family would starve.

So he panicked & packed his bags & family & moved down to Egypt. The first domino fell.

The 2nd domino is found in vs’s 11-13, "As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live.

“Say that you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake & my life will be spared because of you."

Abram had reason to be fearful because powerful rulers had a practice of confiscating beautiful women for themselves; & killing their husbands. So He told Sarai to manipulate the truth a bit. Yes, she actually was Abram’s half-sister – but she was also his wife. And Abram was asking her not to mention that.

That was mistake #2, & the dominoes are beginning to fall. One mistake led to another, & the first thing you know Abram & Sarai were in a dangerous situation in Egypt, & only the direct intervention of God saved them.

B. Now let’s bring it down to today. People make panic prompted mistakes, & they make them primarily in two areas of life. First, in the area of romance, & second, in the area of finance.

1. How many times have you heard of people nearing the mystical age of 30, who haven't met that "right someone" yet, & they are about to panic? "I‘m going to be a bachelor, or old maid the rest of my life. No one will ever marry me!"