That Is Why You Fail Part 2
Scriptures: Matthew 17:14-21; James 3:5; Numbers 13:25-14:25
Introduction
This is part two of my series, “That Is Why You Fail.” If you recall from part one of this series, I shared with you that the words we speak share with others what is on the inside of us. I spoke to the fact that we speak life and death, belief and unbelief when we open our mouths. I illustrated this with the example from the movie, “The Empire Strikes Back” when Jedi Master Yoda told Luke Skywalker “Do or Do Not, there is no Try!” after Luke stated that he would try to raise his ship from the water. When Luke could not do it and confessed with his mouth what he believed in his heart – that it was impossible – Yoda did it. Luke stated that he didn’t believe it and that’s when Yoda said, “That Is Why You Fail.” I shared with you that we fail because of what we believe on the inside. We “try” to do things because we are not sure we “can” complete them. I asked each of you to spend that following week “not trying” but doing. Did you do it? Do you remember the story captured in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew? A man had brought his son to Jesus’ disciples because he had a demon. The disciples tried to cast the demonic spirit out but were not able. Let me read what is captured in verses 17-20 and I will be reading these from the King James Version of the Bible. “Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.’ And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, ‘Why could not we cast him out?’ And Jesus said unto them, ‘Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:17-20) What I want you to see is that Jesus did not mix words with them. They asked why they could not do it and He told them plainly that it was because of their unbelief. Notice that Jesus did not congratulate them or give them credit for trying! They did not believe in their hearts that they could do it and the demon knew they doubted and therefore would not leave. I ask you again, let’s stop trying and either do or do not! Remember, our mouths will speak what is in our hearts so when we say “I will try” what is in our hearts is a small slimmer of doubt that we will not be able to do it. Our words matter. If you simply say “I will do it” you will make the necessary steps to actually do it.
In part one I told you that words play three key roles in our lives: how we use them; who we use them with; and the third being who we allow to speak words into us. I previously focused on how we use words and how those words speak death and life into our situations. This morning I will focus on the last two: who we use these words with and who we allow to speak words into our lives.
II. With Whom We Share Words
One of the greatest cautions we should exercise is speaking to others. Why is so important? I shared with you what James said in James 3:5. He said, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” Imagine if you will the number of “fires” that have been started by the tongue! Now I will admit that it is bad enough when we speak negativity to our own situations, but it is worse when we speak it to the situations of others. And, in my learned opinion, it’s even worse when we speak it of others’ situations that we are not involved in – a definition of gossip. How many times have we translated and spoken about someone’s situation without having hardly any of the facts? I am guilty of this and I am not proud of it.
Please note that the tongue can only start a fire when it is communicating with someone else? If you were talking to yourself nothings would get passed along to others so nothing is repeated. However, when we begin speaking to others about their situations, then our words take on a life of their own. If I stood before you and told you about someone being healed, you would rejoice and then leave the Church and possibly forget about it by Wednesday. However, if I stood before you and confess all of my past sins, some of you would keep it quiet and be glad I am who I am today. Some of you might potentially be so shocked about my past that you’d might feel obligated to get on the phone this afternoon sharing my “testimony” and asking others to pray for me even though I was speaking of my history, not my present. Are you seeing the picture? Once you shared it with others then of course those people would be “obligated” to share what God has done in my life with even more folks until what is being shared is so distorted from the truth people would wonder why anyone would choose to sit under my leadership. The tongue has the power to start a very large fire? We should use caution when we are talking to others because when we release something we can no longer control it. We cannot control how, when and with whom that information is shared. The best way to ensure that something is shared is to ask the person to keep it a secret. A good secret is too good to keep private! There are some people who can honor this request, many cannot. This is what God’s word says about this.
Proverbs 6:16-19 : “There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil. A false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.” Of the six things listed in theses verses, half of them pertain to the tongue. The writer says that a lying tongue, a false witness who utters lies and one who spreads strife among brothers are all an abomination to the Lord. Each involve us communicating to someone else.
Proverbs 11:13: “He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy conceals a matter.” A talebearer by definition is one who spreads gossip and/or rumors. This verse goes hand in hand with Proverbs 18:8 which says: “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body.” That term “dainty morsels” small delicious bites. In other words, for those who “listen” to gossip, it’s like eating delicious food that goes deep into the body. So although the person who is spreading the gossip and/or the secrets of others cannot be trusted they will always have an audience because people love to hear the gossip. I have been on both ends and I will tell you truthfully it was fun – until I heard stuff about me. It’s amazing how things change when it involves us personally versus someone else. We often think that we do not gossip – but I believe that those who listen to it are guilty also because a person could not be a gossiper without having an audience. Even if you did not comment on what you were told, could you truthfully say that you were not affected by the information? Was your perspective changed in any way? Or did you just hear the information and then just went on your way?
It is important that we use caution when we are speaking to others because what starts with our tongues goes into the hearts of those we hear and then are released from their tongues. It could be a small matter when we spoke it, but by the time it makes the rounds, it will have become a tremendous fire. We must use caution when we speak words to others because our belief and or unbelief will speak life or death into their situations. We have to be careful when we hear rumors or give our opinion on rumors because our opinions will still carry the power of life and death depending on who you are talking to. Finally we have to always remember that the person we are talking to might repeat what we say. When the word is spoken we have no control over where it goes from there. The final role that words play in our lives is also critical as it pertains to who we allow to speak words to us. We need to be careful who we listen to.
III. Be Care Who You Listen To
I want to read a short story to you from the Bible that illustrates this probably much better than I can explain it. Turn with me to the book of Numbers, chapter thirteen. In this chapter the Children of Israel comes to the land that God had promised them. God tells Moses to send out twelve spies to go and look at the land. The goal was for them to see the land, come back and tell the people how wonderful it was, and then, the people being excited, would rise up and go possess it. They were given orders to survey both the land and the people and bring back a report. We will pick this story up at verse twenty-five when the spies returned.
“When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told him, and said, "We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. "Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. "Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan." Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us." So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13:25-33)
Moses sent out twelve spies. When they returned, ten of the spies gave a negative report saying that the people were too great for them to go in and conquer. Caleb immediately jumped in and said that they should go up immediately and possess the land. The people were faced with two interpretations of the same report. Ten looked at the situation and said they could not do it while the two looked at the same information and said they could. Who would the people listen to? As each side described what they saw, the people visualized within their minds what they could or could not do. They either saw themselves like the ten, not being able to take the land or they saw what Caleb and Joshua saw, a land that the Lord was giving them to possess. The people would see based on what they “received” in their ears from the ones they chose to “listen” to. Please understand you can’t listen to everybody! Let’s read a few verses from chapter fourteen.
“Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! "Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" So they said to one another, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt." (Numbers 14:1-4)
The people listened to the ten spies’ report. They became so discouraged that they grumbled against Moses and Aaron and questioned why God would bring them this far just to allow them to be slaughtered. The words of those ten spies overrode everything that God had done for them up to this moment. Their words spoke death, the people heard death and within their hearts they believed they would die if they entered the Promised Land at this point. Let’s continue with verses 22-25.
"Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." (Numbers 14:22-25)
Because the people refused to do what God had instructed and chose to believe the report of the ten spies, God declared that those men would not see the Promised Land, everyone from the age of twenty and up would not entered who had spoken against Him. Can you imagine the number of people that died in the wilderness because they listened to the wrong voice? Because the received the wrong words? Thousands upon thousands of people failed to enter the Promised Land because they listed to the wrong voice – they received the wrong words into their heart. They believed the wrong words!
Conclusion
I was talking with a co-worker this week and he told me that sometimes he loves to curse. He said it actually feels good and he enjoys it depending on the situation. When I pressed him it came down to the “feelings” released when using those words, whether it was frustration or anger. When he cursed he actually felt better. Why? I believe for him, as with many others, curse words allows us to expressed those deeply held emotions that we only allow ourselves to release at certain times. When we curse, those words speak to what we are carrying within us. Our words carry power and in this case for him, curse words gave him a sense of release.
In this series I have shared with the power of words and how our words sets things in motion that we are not even aware of. The words we choose to speak shares with others what is within us. When we speak words into others, those words carry life or death depending upon the situation. We have to be careful that we do not kills the dreams and/or desires of those around us. Finally we need to be aware of who we allow to speak into us. If you are around someone who is negative and constantly speak that negativity into your life and situation, find someone else to talk to. If you are the one speaking the negativity, stop talking until you can begin to speak life.
We fail because we do not believe. We try because we do not want to commit to doing it which goes right back to what we believe. If I do not believe I am worthy of something, I will “try” to attain it and feel good about myself because I have been trying. It’s not my fault if I do not succeed because I tried. The words we speak on a daily basis tell others if we are doing, trying or not doing. If we believe what Yoda told Luke Skywalker that there is no trying, just “do and do not”, then we have a hard choice to make. Regardless of the choices you make, your words will always reveal what is really in your heart. May God bless and keep you!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
