Crossroads Community Church

May 21, 2015 · 0 Comments

Sunday May 17th, 2015

The wonderful sun greeted us this morning; the Lord was smiling down on us as we worshipped Him. Pastor Don shared announcements and prayed, “Dear Father God we humbly come to you to thank you for your presence and your gift of mercy. We acknowledge our shortcomings and we pray for the grace to release them unto You so we will not carry the burden and shame, In Jesus name, Amen.”

How many of us can spend a day without making one mistake? If we are truly honest with ourselves we know it is impossible to achieve, but why do we make mistakes? Our mistakes are the result of poor information which leads to wrong judgement and choices. When one mistake is done it can often have a domino effect; panic, fear, pride and shame tends to creep up and we make mistake after mistake; a whirlwind that can quickly spin out of control and leave us exhausted. Proverbs 19 :2 says that haste makes waste, “Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.” When we make one mistake, we tend to be overconfident trying to get out of hot water and quickly try to fix it without thinking it through, we overcompensate and make rash decisions which leads to more mistakes. This seldom leads to resolution. The better course of action is to investigate, ask questions get knowledge and wisdom from trusted sources, the best one being the Lord.

Abram aka Abraham was known as a faithful friend of God but he wasn’t without his share of mistakes. In Genesis 12 we read that God asked Abram to leave his home country and that He would lead him to a land of prosperity and make him into a great Nation. Abram obediently left on this journey, at the beginning it went well, at every stop he trusted God, he took time to build altars in order to praise and worship God, and he made God the center of his life. As the journey progressed Abram began to fear for his life, he took his eyes off the Lord and focused on the situations around him. He encountered obstacles one was a famine in the land so he panicked and turned to Egypt. Once in Egypt he became fearful of the Pharaoh and lied about who his wife Sarai was, he said she was his sister, this lead the Pharaoh to take her as his wife and Abram let him in exchange for cattle and riches. However the Lord cursed Pharaoh’s household because of Sarai and they were ill. Once the lie was discovered Pharaoh was furious, he confronted Abram and commanded him to leave with his wife. When Abram faced this famine it would have been better for him to pray and wait on the Lord’s guidance.

We all know King David’s story, a man after God’s own heart but his life was filled with mistakes too. We know the tragedies that followed him when he neglected his military responsibilities and was tempted by a beautiful woman on a rooftop in the moonlight. In 1 Kings 1:5-6 we also read of his sons trying to dethrone him all because David neglected to discipline his sons. When we neglect the important areas of our lives and get sidetracked, this leads to a plethora of mistakes. The Bible tells us not to neglect our meeting together, it tells us to pray unceasingly and to meditate on God’s word, these will help us keep alert and resist the devil’s schemes,(Hebrews 10:25, 1 Thessalonians 5: 17, Joshua 1:8, 1 Peter 5:8).

A very dangerous cause for our mistakes is unrestrained disobedient curiosity. In the book of 1 Samuel 28, we encounter the story of King Saul, who had been the King of Israel for a long time but due to many sins against the Lord he feared for his reign and became curious about the future. Rather than turn to the Lord, repent and seek His guidance he disobeyed God and sought the council of fortune tellers. God forbids His people to consult with mediums, sorcerers and fortune tellers for they lead to evil. We ought to trust God with our future not only because He holds our every breath but because he truly wants the best for us and he has a plan for our good not our harm, (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Jeremiah 29:11).

Another trickier and less noticeable cause of mistakes is Blind Spot mistakes, sometimes we may upset or offend others without knowing, although we are all believers in Jesus, we have all come from different customs, traditions and upbringings, this can often lead to misunderstandings and hurts, but we shouldn’t judge one another, we ought to make every effort to get to know and understand each other, this will promote unity, mutual respect and peace in the family of God. The important thing is that we all follow God’s truth,(Galatians 2:11-14).

Beloved the best way to avoid mistakes is to keep God as our focus, to learn from his word, follow and obey it. When we face temptations we can always depend on God to show us a way out. If we are guilt ridden and feel we can’t cope, we like King David can pour out our hearts to God, lay our sins before Him and ask for strength to turn away from temptations that so easily entangles us to sin. God will not turn us away, He did not turn away from Abraham or David after their mistakes, He forgave them and set them back on course, (Psalms 31). As Christians we are not perfect but we are forgiven through Jesus Christ, and nothing will take his love away from us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Asherey Shalom!