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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Failure Isn't Final With Faith | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Genesis, chapter 17. I had something come into my heart. I know Sunday, we might actually continue with Sunday's message this Sunday, but tonight I wanted to. I don't know if you would call it a follow up or, you know, part of it, but if you remember, Sunday we talked about, and the Holy Ghost helped us with, you are not your situation, you are not your circumstance, you are not your symptoms, you are not your financial situation, but you are in Christ. You are a new creature. Old things, as the Word says, old things were passed away. The blood of the old covenant, of the goats and the bulls, it simply covered sin. But the blood of Jesus has wiped away every sin, every mistake. And you understand that the blood, it didn't stop working for you at the time of salvation. The blood continues to wash. The blood continues to work in our lives. The blood. You can call on the blood of Jesus. You can bring the blood of Jesus into the forefront of the scenes of your life. That should be the blood of Jesus, really should be the number one actor in the scenes of your life. The blood of Jesus should be speaking. Speaking first, should be acting first, should be talking first. The blood of Jesus should be the very first name that you call on the blood and the name of Jesus. So I want you to understand some of these things first before we go forward. And this is what we talked about on Sunday is the through your redemption, through the new birth. That is always where we start. Don't ever get too far ahead. Don't ever get too far away from who you are in Christ and where you started. And that was the day you called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, to be delivered. You know, in walking with God, and we see this with Jesus, oftentimes we think to be mature and to be developed with Jesus and to be developed with Christ means that we're so far out there, maybe in our prayer life, in our faith life, and we want the. What we would think is the greater things. What we're really looking for is something complex that we want to be so far with God, that we're in the complex and we're in the Majestic and we're in these things that it takes a really developed theological and, you know, out there kind of mind and that we are just walking with him, that we are hearing his voice every minute of the day. Walking with God is not complex. It's simple and it's so simple that even Jesus, before he went to the cross, really and truly rededicated himself. You understand that. That he went back and he demonstrated for us what it means to truly walk with God and be obedient. Not my will, but your will. Wasn't it hours before he went to the cross, not my will. Not even hours before he was betrayed by his dear friends, those who walked closely with him, that he just said, not my will, but your will. So how simple is that? When was the last time you reached out to God and said, not my will, but your will? Oh, but Pastor, you don't understand. I am facing such a great financial need and the pressure is on. We may lose our house. I may lose my job, I may lose my family. I may lose my car. Well, Jesus was about to lose his life, his fellowship, his place in heaven. He was about to lose his health. He was about to lose his dignity. He was about to lose everything a man could lose. And he stood before God. He kneeled before God and said, not my will, but your will. Not my will, but your will. That's not out there, folks. That's not too far gone. That's not too complex. That's not too spiritual. That is really. That is spiritual because you're taking your will and laying it down. There's nothing more spiritual than picking up the Father's will for your life. As spiritual as you can get. But you know what I'm saying, that's not too. People think living by the Spirit is living out beyond the realm of walking in a natural way with God. You're called to walk naturally with him by the Spirit. How do you walk naturally with him? Oh, Father, I thank you for your goodness in my life. I thank you. Oh, today is the day that you have made. Your mercies are new. Today. I talk to him the way I would talk to my spouse. I address him the way I would dress somebody. My dearest friend, my closest brother, my closest companion, because that's what he should be in our lives. Amen. We're to walk in the spirit, but by this natural world. You live in a natural world. God's not asking you to live outside of this natural world. He's just asking you to live more in fellowship with him and bring him into the natural world. It's not that we leave the natural and live flaky by the spirit. It's that we bring the Spirit and bring it into this natural world. You can do that. You have the capabilities as a spirit filled being. You have the capabilities of Bringing God into every situation in your life. Amen. But we're not too complex. We're not too out there. It's not too complicated. Because Jesus, at the very moment everything was about to be pulled away from him, really, he laid everything down. He said, not my will, Let this cup pass. Pass before me. Please don't. What are you saying? Please don't let me go through this. But even if I need to, that's okay. It's not my will, it's your will. Amen. And so tonight, what happens, I want us to look at if. Go with me to Genesis chapter 17, and I want us to look at. Genesis chapter 17. What happens? What happens. Could say this. What happens when we let ourselves become our situation? What happens then? Well, to become your situation, to identify with your situation, to identify with the need you have, you. You have to step away from meditating on who you are in Christ. You have to step away from that. Because as long as you're in him and you're dwelling in him, you're abiding in Him. If you know, it's the Bible, the scripture says, if my words abide in you and you abide in me, you can ask anything. And we know this, that he hears us. And then if we compare scripture, we go to first John. If we know he hears us, we know we have right. So the key is, it starts in the abiding. But if you're not asking, then he's not answering. He's not supplying. He cannot deliver to you the very plan and the very purpose and the very divine solution. I want divine solutions. I don't want my solutions. I've had my solutions. I've had my answers. I will humbly take his answers any day. But he'll deliver his answers and his divine solutions if we first go back to abiding. But I want us to look at what happens when we become our situation. What happens when we make a mistake? What happens when we miss it. The title of the sermon tonight, I've been doing good with coming up title so she doesn't have to call me after the sermon. Failure isn't final with faith. Failure is not final. Tonight let's just quickly deal with failure in any measure. You know, sometimes we project failure on ourselves and God never saw it as a failure. There's been so many times in my life, I for sure thought in my estimation, in my assessment, because you understand, we only see in part. We only know in part. And so we see. It's. It's like we can like it unto if anybody, you say, well, I don't understand this because I don't exercise. That's okay, just bear with me. Just go with me on this. You know, somebody who's lifting weights or even running, they set a goal for themselves. Maybe they want to lift 150 pounds five times, but they, they, they get 150 pounds only four times. And on that fifth attempt, they just can't make it all the way. And they see that as failure. I failed to complete, I failed to lift. That final lift I failed to do. Maybe a runner says, I want to run this mile in under six minutes, but they make it to six minutes and they finish in six minutes and 30 seconds. They failed to run their mile in the time that they've allotted for themselves. But what they forget is they still ran the mile. They still got up and moved, they still activated, they still lifted that 150 pounds. And in that lifting they were developing and they don't realize that next time they pick it up next time, one more go around, just rest that body two more days. And oftentimes it's what we do. We've confessed and we've confessed and we've confessed. And on our hundredth confession we go in. We must have failed because it hasn't manifested. Sometimes you need to step away and instead of confessing and trying to lift something because you think you failed, step away. Worship God, rest it, lay it down for a second. This is what I taught a couple weeks ago. Sometimes you need to set it down and pick him back up. Amen. Get into his refreshing. Rest that body. Oftentimes that's the problem that weightlifters have. They lift so much, the body is so fatigued lifting that they're done, it's reached its max and it's not been able to recover. Amen. Well, what are we called to do? Run our race? We call it exercising our faith. We want it right. How many of you have used that term? I'm exercising my faith. What are we saying? I'm lifting with my faith. I'm pushing back. I'm resisting the devil so that he's going to flee. I know he'll flee from me. But even though I've resisted him, some things in the natural still haven't changed. Right. I'm exercising what the word that I know to be true. I'm demanding that the results be in line with the word and not in line with my thoughts. I'm exercising. Sometimes you got to stop exercising for a moment and rest. Make sure you're resting. Every good runner knows there's days off. Every good athlete knows there's times where we step away and we have to fuel our body and take in the adequate nutrients. Because what happens, we're trying to push the limits that our body says there's no more. There's times where you have exercise and you have stretched your faith and praise God, you're right there. But sometimes you gotta. I just need to worship God. I need to get along with God. I need to. The joy of the Lord is my strength. And I've not put back the strength that I've put out. Right. If you don't eat properly, you don't sleep properly, you won't exercise properly. If you don't get back into joy, if you don't settle your mind, if you don't get into peace through worship, Amen and thanksgiving, then you're missing nutrients that your faith needs to keep going. Does that help? Does that help us? That just help, you know, because for me, that, that's always a good daily reminder. And this is the best part. You don't have to figure out, what do I need today? The Holy Ghost, he knows exactly. He's the ever present help in every bit of trouble, in every success, in every failure. He's still the greater one on the inside of you. You might have made a misstep, but he never missteps. He never misquotes God, he never misuses the word, he never makes a mistake. So if you make a mistake, if you'll get back in the spirit, spirit tap back into your heart. Well, how do I do that, Pastor? Because I've been living out of my head. Well, that's what we want to look at tonight. Go with me to Genesis, chapter 17. And I would dare say that Abraham's mistake is probably going to be far greater than any mistake you'll ever make. Genesis 17. We're looking at right after Abraham's mistake. God says, I'm going to make you a father of many nations. You know, God has begin. He's, he's dealing with him. He has gone into covenant with him already based on that covenant, based on that fellowship. You know, Abraham had already obeyed God wants and it's turned out pretty well for him. What did he say? Leave your family, leave your home. At this point, he was already really well off. He's doing great. So he's already seen God's word fulfilled in his life. Oh, I've been there. God's come through, he's blessed, he's supplied he's brought answers. And yet you're still. I'm still tripping up over what about this time? The devil is always banking on what about this time? He's always thrilled to bring up what about this time? God had already fulfilled his promise. He said, leave it and I'll take care of you now. He said, trust me and I will give you a family, even at your age. And what did Abraham and Sarah go and do? They decided to come up with their own plan. Oh, we've never done that, have we? No, we would never do that. We're word of faith people. We sit under Pastor Nancy's teaching. We have all of dad Hagin's books. We would never turn to our own understanding, not with all the resources and all the knowledge that we have. We would never do that. I have. And so we See here. Look at. Look at 17. This is so precious. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord. This was after. This was after Sarai got upset with Hagar. This was after Hagar was grown. This was after they. Listen. This was after they had lived with that mistake for some time. They lived with that misstep. They had lived with that. That broken fellowship with God. The displeasure of God. And the Lord comes back and he appears. Now I want you to remember something. This was without the promise that the mercies are new every morning. This was without that. Everything we're about to read, we are in better covenant. Not only we're in better standing with God. Better standing. There's nothing between you and your father. Do you understand this? I don't care what mistake you've made as long as you have called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing stands between you and God. No symptoms, no debt, no missteps, no mistake. Nothing stands between you and God. But even at this point, there was still a gap. You understand that there's still a gap between Abraham, at this point, Abram and God. There's still a gap. There's no gap. Say there's no gap. He lives and dwells on the inside of me. And even if I make a mistake, the greater one is still greater. Amen. Even though I feel under, I'm over. So what Grant was talking about, you're still over. He said the Scripture said in verse 17, the Lord appeared unto him and said, I am the almighty God. Here we go. Walk and live habitually before me. Isn't that so good? Look at that. Under this covenant, the lesser the covenant that was to come before ours and simply help man to understand Their need for God. Their need that a savior is coming and we need him. You know, I'm not ever going to diminish that covenant. But it wasn't the covenant we have. And he still comes back. And he says, live with me. Live with me. Be with me. This is our promise. This is our same guarantee. When you make a mistake, when you fail to fulfill God's perfect will in any arena of your life. He says, live with me. Live with me. Don't walk away from me. Live with me. Be with me. Walk and live habitually before me and be perfect. Look at this. Blameless, wholehearted and complete. If God did not go and find another man and another woman to fulfill his divine plan on this earth, why do you think he's going to look for somebody else? Why do you think he's interested? He will never, ever leave us nor forsake us. You understand? If you fail, if he lets you. Well, God's just going to let me fail, you know, I need to pay the price. I need to. There's consequences to my actions. If you suffer consequences, he suffers consequences. He's not interested in your failure because he's in you. That would mean he would have to fail. Does he really want to go through that? I don't think so. But there's a key now, if you choose to walk in your failure, that's your choice. He didn't choose that for you. He didn't choose that for you. He didn't choose it for you. You don't choose it for yourself. You don't choose to live with any consequence. You don't choose to live with any guilt. Now, therefore, there is no condemnation, no condemnation in Christ Jesus. That's exactly what we see. He says, come live with me. Come live with me. That same promise is for us today. He said, oh, my goodness. I will make my covenant his solemn pledge between me and you. And I will multiply you exceedingly. The promise I'm here to say tonight the promise is still on the table. The deal is still on. It's still on. Whatever he said to you, it's still on. The promise is still on the table. Don't get up from the table. If you did come, sit back down. He said, my deal is still on. My covenant is still on. My promise is still on. I've still got a plan. I've still got a way to get man reconciled back to God and Abraham. You are the first player in the game. I need you. God needs you. He needs you just as much as you need Him. That's why he said, come, walk with me. Come live with me. What was the whole purpose of mankind? What did he say? To come walk with me in the cool of the day. Take care of what I've given you. Name it. Tend to this beautiful garden that I said. It's all yours, you understand? If you don't know what's yours, you'll have a very hard time walking with God. Part of walking with God is knowing what he's already given you so that we don't keep going. God, I need and calling out for things that he's already provided. So I want us to see here. He said, live habitually before me and be perfect, blameless, wholehearted, complete. I will make my covenant solemn pledge between me and you. And I will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abraham fell on his face, and God said to him, as for me, behold my covenant solemn pledges with you. And you shall be the father of many nations. Nor shall your name any longer be Abraham, High Exalted Father. But your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude. For I have made you the father of many nations. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful. And I will make nations of you. And kings will come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. For an everlasting solemn pledge to be a God to you and to your posterior after you. I want us to turn over. God takes and reiterates his commitment and his covenant. That's what God's word is. That's what the word of God is, is his continual commitment. If you're questioning God's commitment to you, you've got to get back in His Word. The number one way we live and walk habitually with him is through his word. Through His Word. Amen. Go to Psalms 51. I want us to see this. Psalms 51. David also made a big mistake. A mistake of the flesh. You remember when Peter walked on the water and we could say he failed to complete? He didn't quite make it all the way to Jesus. He failed to complete that faith, that step of faith that he took. You know what Jesus said when he got back in the boat? Why did you doubt? He didn't say, peter, you failed. He just said, why did you doubt? Well, what is the answer for doubt? Faith. How does faith come? By hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if you have find yourself, you feel like I sank. I'm not on the water anymore. I stopped walking. Know this. Jesus didn't condemn Peter. Jesus didn't put him down. He just said, let me tell you something, son. You got a little bit of doubt left in you. Things got a little bit more rough and you sank because there was a little bit of doubt. How many of you been there? You stepped out, you walked, and you recognize I got a little bit of doubt in there. How do we walk with him? By his word. So in conclusion, we can see if he addressed their doubt, then that means it can be addressed by faith. And we can take the word of God, apply it to any misdemeanor step, any failure, and understanding that through that word, through renewing our minds, through walking with him, by knowing him through his Word, that anything that we see as failure, again, like the title said, failure isn't final. As long as you have faith, God can still complete in your life what he set out to do. Look here. What did we say in verse 51? In verse 10, David said, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew aright. Look at this. The Amplified says, persevering and steadfast spirit within me. Cast not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit from me. Look at this. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. If you don't have that word underline, underline that. The King James says, uphold me with thy free spirit. The Amplified says, uphold me with a willing spirit. Then didn't weren't we we talking about that earlier with Jesus? Not my will, but thy will be done. What was he doing? Pulling up that willing spirit, Walking in that willing spirit. Here he's failed. He goes back and says, created me a clean heart. He deals with his heart, right? He asked God to help him deal with his heart. And then he says, now created me clean heart and give me a willing spirit so that he can what? Go forward and not make that same mistake again? Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Verse 12. And uphold me with a willing spirit. Then will I teach transgressors your ways and send sinners shall be converted and returned to you. Verse 17. My sacrifice. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit with sorrow for sin and humbly through penitent such, O God you will not despise. So number one, if you've suffered, dealt with, been through, found yourself in any sort of failure, any struggle, sometimes, like I said, you can feel like you failed. It feels like, as Grant said, it feels like you're not going anywhere. It feels like you've come up short. But God is seeing the end result. He sees the beginning, he sees the end. We only know in part. You can't see where you're at in the spirit realm. You can't see how far you've come. And you don't see yourself always the way God sees you. And that's what he's saying created me a pure heart God. He's really saying, I got to see myself the way God sees me. But number one, deal with the heart. If you have made a mistake, you've misstepped. You knew. Maybe you knew for sure. I chose my own way. I chose not to go God's way. I chose not to go the way of the Word. I chose go my own way. Number one is deal with your heart. Repent. Amen. And number two, don't repent and be distant from God. This is something that's very important in parenting my kids. My mother taught me this. We make sure that when they're disciplined and they know that they missed it, they didn't follow the rules. They didn't follow what we. The instruction that we had given them. And there's consequences for them. Again, not that God brings consequences, but sometimes we have to suffer some things in life because of our disobedience. You know, God is ever ready and ever present in times of trouble, whether you see. Notice it didn't specify whether you brought that trouble or not. Hello. He's ever. He's ever present. Only when the devil brings you trouble. No, that's not what that scripture said, what that scripture reads. It's not what he said to us. He is ever present in the time of trouble, no matter who brought it, no matter who caused it. Okay. He's ever present, ever ready, always willing. Right? Just because you weren't. Just because you went for a season of being unwilling to follow his plan doesn't mean he wasn't willing. God is always willing. I'm the one who's got to be willing. And so what we do is we come to him, we repent, we get our heart right. We deal with ourselves the way David did. David didn't. David recognized, I've got to run back to God's fellowship. And then all throughout the psalms, oh, Father, you know, he'd say, oh, God, your presence. He'd talk about your presence, your word. He understood. He's got to stay close with God. Don't distance yourself from him. It takes faith to come back. Sometimes it takes faith to approach. But with my children, what I do is we discipline them to help them to understand. If you don't follow rules, there can be major consequences for you. I want your flesh to be disciplined. That when instruction is given, you're quick to respond. It's not about dealing with them as a bad child or you're, you know, you are a terrible. You know, you have to be careful. Speaking words over your kids and talking, putting them down. It's not about getting them to understand. I gotta put you down because you made a mistake? No, I'm here to help you to understand. You can stay above that. You're bigger than that. That's one of the things we tell our kids. Why would you do that? You're bigger than that. You're smarter than that. You're kinder than that. You're sweeter than that. Sometimes we gotta tell ourselves that. Husbands and wives. Why did I say that? I'm sweeter than that. I'm kinder than that. You gotta tell yourself that. Right? You know, instead of, why did I do that? I'm such an idiot. Don't say that. Don't call yourself an idiot. You may have had an idiotic moment, right? We can have moments. But see, the Holy Ghost is there for the lifetime. Don't live the rest of your life by moments. Amen. So we help our kids. And what we do, we tell them, come here, give me a hug. You're going to hug me, you're going to kiss me. And you know what my mom say, tell me you love me. I love you. Why? Because she understood. She's dealing with the heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. She's getting me to draw out of really what's in my heart. If I can get her to talk out of her heart, if I can get my kids to speak out of their heart, then what does that do? It pushes back on that flesh. Deals with. Sometimes you've got to get in the word. Don't try to deal with your flesh with flesh. Get in the word. Get that word. Renew that mind. I was telling the Bible school students that this week. Oftentimes people want to go aside. And I love the story of how Billy Frazier, when he would witness to Dr. And he would say, I had to go doctor. Finally, when he got born again, he said, what are you doing in the outhouse for an hour? Well, I was praying in the Holy Ghost so that I wouldn't kill you, I wouldn't punch you because, you know, you made me so mad cussing me out when I would preach to you about Jesus. It doesn't. If you get skillful it doesn't take that long. And one of the things I told the Bible school students is the Holy Ghost works in line with the Word. Oftentimes when you get upset, when you get angry, whether it be it's yourself, somebody else, and you're about to make a mistake. Sometimes if you take time and you pray in the Holy Ghost, you say, I'm going to pray in the spirit. What happens is nothing is being done up here. They are such a jerk. They are such a loser. They are. What's going on? The mind is just going and going and going. I'm going to tell you something. It's very difficult if you don't have a renewed mind to pray in the spirit. Oh, but I'm drawing on the help of the Holy Ghost. He cannot do the work for you. Don't try to pray in the spirit and expect his power to show up when you didn't invest any time walking with God. So I have found for myself, oftentimes instead of when I get upset, when I get bothered, I don't need to go pray in the Holy Ghost. I need to go hear my father's voice. I'm about to walk away from walking with him, about to give place to the devil. What does it say? Don't get angry. Don't act out in anger. Because then you give place to the devil, Right? So oftentimes we want to go and let the Holy Ghost. I'm just going to go pray in the spirit. In the meantime, you're praying in the spirit and you're sitting in the corner thinking about all the things that you could say, oh, that must be from God. I'm going to say that because I'm praying in the spirit. No, your mind, it's still drawing up fruit. It's rotten. But you know what I'm saying? It's being fruitful, all right. Picking those rotten tomatoes and you know, those spoiled grapes that you're about to spew out. But with the word of God, the help of the spirit, the Holy Ghost. That's why we're word and spirit people. You see that we've got to be word and spirit. Create in me a clean heart, Lord, I'm willing. My flesh got weak, but now I'm willing. I'm willing God, as he said to Abraham, I'm not far. Come live with me. Come walk with me. The offer is still on the table. Amen. No matter what you said, no matter what you've done, no matter what mistake you've made, no matter how you've missed it. Stop trying to fix it yourself. Come walk with him. Amen. Get in his word. Deal with your heart. Humble yourself. Deal with your heart. Father, I'm willing. I want to walk with you. I want to be with you. And then get in God's word so that you know what he says saying to you about you. And you won't be repeating what you think about you to yourself. Amen. Because how many of you know, even after repentance, we're still dealing sometimes with the after effects of the mistakes we've made. That's not God. God doesn't deal with you that way. He doesn't deal with you in consequences, folks. He deals with us in mercy. But we still notice this. He dealt in mercy with Peter. He dealt in compassion. He dealt. He maybe made corrections, but not condemnation. Correction is different than condemnation. But he said, Peter, everybody listening? If you'll just get back into faith, it'll be alright. Deal with the doubt. Deal with it. Feelings of failure are simply stemming from doubt. You doubt that God still loves you. You doubt that his plan is still applicable in your life. Anytime you're thinking I failed, I've gone too far. You have a measure of doubt. Deal with the doubt. That's what God did even with Abraham. He said, I'm going to tell you one more time. I'm going to make you a great nation. I'm going to make you a multitude. He repeated himself. He gave it to him all over again. He said, in case you didn't get it the first time, which you didn't because you went about it your own way, I'm going to stir up your faith and tell you again, this is what we're going to do. This is what I'm going to do for you. Failure isn't final if you'll get back into faith. Deal with failure through faith. Amen. Were you helped this evening? It helped me. I know that the Bible says that he gave us the ministry offices for the perfecting of the saints. I love that word perfecting because it gives us the idea that it's an ongoing process. God knows we're an ongoing process. God knows it. He's along for the whole process. He's here. The Holy Ghost is still greater. He didn't bail in the process. He didn't quit on you. He's still in it. We say he's in it to win it. He's in it so that you can win your race. Amen. So number one, we deal with our heart. Give me a willing heart in the face when you've looked like Jesus was about to lose all. And he said not my will, but your will. Go back. When was the last time you submitted yourself to God's will? Number two, walk with him, get in his word. That way you can deal with and answer any failure thoughts with faith. Okay? And then number three, just we know how to live full. We're spirit led people. Worship God, praise God, run to his presence. Don't shy away from it. Amen. It's the presence of God that restores back to us. Amen. Get in his fellowship. Well, stand with me to your feet tonight. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrainministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.