Refined by Failure
A hiker was charged w/ eating an endangered species while tracking the woods of California. After hearing the man had eaten a condor, the judge quickly passed a harsh sentence of 10 years behind bars.
Wouldn’t it be great that if today, you could experience immediate change, immediate refinement through failure. You can.
Many don’t realize that judging is one of our greatest hindrances to succeeding in life. When we judge others it can:
• Paralyze our prosperity
• Seize our success.
• Cause us to fail in our fight.
That’s why Jesus warns us about Judging others:
Luke 6:37-38 (English Standard Version)
37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."
What does it mean to judge?
It means: to call in question or to guess by estimation.
To scrutinize by looking for blemishes or faults so that a punishment may be pronounced.
We are not God, we are not omniscient. We don’t have the complete picture, we are simply making assumptions according to what we see, hear and feel.
This is why we have to be so careful to judge people…Jesus didn’t say “don’t judge”, but he is saying that “if you don’t want to be judged then don’t judge.”
When you judge a person in an area of their life, be sure that you stand ready to be judged and found without blame. Other wise the same sentence you executed on someone else will be executed upon you.
That is why we are not to judge any man without full, clear, and certain knowledge, without absolute necessity, without tender love. (I as a pastor)
To judge enacts the golden rule on our life. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Except now it is, “as you have passed judgment on others, it’s going to happen to you.”
John Wesley wrote: Our Lord now proceeds to warn us against the chief hindrances of holiness. “judging”, “To miss the mark”
We miss the mark and fail by:
1. Judge others out of pride and envy.
We judge others out of pride and envy because we want to experience or have what we are lacking that someone else is enjoying.
• We want what they have.
• We want to do what they do.
• We want their body.
• We want to be just as spiritual.
So we have to judge them and nock them down a notch just so we can feel better about our selves.
We have to tear apart their successes so we can feel better about our failures.
“People that identify themselves as a failure tend to judge those with success.”
We find reasons why:
• we deserve it and they don’t deserve it.
• we it passed us by and landed on them.
Those that struggle with pride and envy are those that have deficiencies in their own life. Faith, family, finances, physical health.
Envy focuses on why someone doesn’t deserve it and pride focuses on why someone isn’t getting it.
Pride and envy becomes the wedge between us and what God wants for us.
When we judge others out of envy, we place a curse on our life. "Judge not, and you will not be judged.” When we judge, we immediately execute a sentence of judgment upon our self in the same area.
We are failing because we want other people’s success. We can’t focus on our own success if we are focusing on everyone else’s.
Let’s look at some of the devastating affects of pride and envy:
Jimmy and Marvin.
a. Pride & Envy of Blessings - Gen 4:5 Cain was jealous of God’s acceptance of Able’s offering. (Cain – marked and cursed for life)
b. Pride & Envy of Family - Gen 37:11 Joseph’s brother’s envied his relationship with his dad. (Had a strained relationship with their dad all their life)
c. Pride & Envy of Position
Daniel’s enemies envied his position with the King.
Daniel enemies suffered the very punishment they chose for Daniel
d. Pride & Envy of love.
David and Bathsheba. He took another mans wife, and had her husband killed to cover up the pregnancy.
2 Samuel 12 (The Message)
27-3 But God was not at all pleased with what David had done, and sent Nathan to David. Nathan said to him, "There were two men in the same city—one rich, the other poor. The rich man had huge flocks of sheep, herds of cattle. The poor man had nothing but one little female lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and his children as a member of the family. It ate off his plate and drank from his cup and slept on his bed. It was like a daughter to him.
4 "One day a traveler dropped in on the rich man. He was too stingy to take an animal from his own herds or flocks to make a meal for his visitor, so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared a meal to set before his guest."
5-6 David exploded in anger. "As surely as God lives," he said to Nathan, "the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!"
e. Pride of Superiority
Esther 5:13 Haman’s pride against Mordecia’s because he wouldn’t bow to him.
f. The pride of Unforgiveness.
Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
God’s perspective:
Proverbs 14:30 (English Standard Version)
30A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
but envy makes the bones rot.
Proverbs 8:13 (Amplified Bible)
13The reverent fear and worshipful awe of the Lord [includes] the hatred of evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and perverted and twisted speech I hate.
What’s changed in the church in the last 30yrs? People are seemingly more whole outside the church than inside.
There seems to be more envy in the church than in the world.
In what area’s have you stood in superiority and arrogance over another person?
In what way have you wanted someone else’s love, money, possessions, peace?
What judgment is blocking your freedom?
You can change it today. You can be set free today.
You can lift the curse off from your life and get ready for your failures to be refined into success.
