That Is Why You Fail!
Scripture: Matt. 12:34, 37; Proverbs 18:21; James 3:3-10;
Introduction
Jesus said that our words reveal our character and our beliefs. In Matthew 12:33-37 Jesus said “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37) He said that we will speak what we believe in our hearts which will in fact show others who we are if they are listening close to us. If you listen to a person long enough they will reveal what is in their hearts – beliefs or unbelief. The title of my message this morning is “That Is Why You Fail.” As you think about this title, I want you to also consider the importance of words as I will be focusing on three different roles that words play in our lives. The first role is how we use them; the second role focuses on who we use them with; and the third role is who we allow to speak words into us. If I do not finish this message this morning, I will finish it next week.
This morning I want you to picture someone telling you “That Is Why You Fail!” and what your response would be to hearing those words. I did not use the word “failed” as in past tense, but “fail” which includes past, present and if nothing changes, future. If someone told you this would those words crush you or light a fire up under you to ensure that you do not fail again in the manner in which you had previously? What would your response be?
The title of this message comes from the words Yoda spoke to the young Jedi Luke Skywalker who had sought him out to be his trainer. If you recall from the movie, “The Empire Strikes Back”, Luke Skywalker separated from his friends so that he could find the Jedi Master Yoda who could complete his training to be a Jedi himself. When Luke landed on Yoda’s planet, he landed in a swamp and his ship sunk into the muddy water. As Yoda began to train Luke, there was one scene when Yoda asked Luke to use the force to raise his ship out of the swamp. Luke makes a statement about being willing to try to raise his ship but Yoda cuts him off and says to him, “Do or do not – there is no try!” Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we operated under the belief that we will Do or do not and simply stop trying? “Try” is defined as “to make an effort to complete something.” The key words are make effort. You don’t have to complete anything, just make the effort. There are many things that have gone uncompleted because people only make the effort – they tried. Stop trying!!! Do or do not!!!
I want to pause here and make a point. We reward “trying” and I am not saying that it is wrong. When kids “try” we congratulate them. When they do not make good grades and they tells us that they are “trying their best” we comfort them. We have jobs where we “try to meet the objectives” in order to keep our jobs but sometimes the objectives are just too high. “I ‘tried” my best but I just could not do it” is what is often said. What would happen if we started operating with a mentality of do or do not, there is no trying? I know many of you are probably thinking that our world and all of the creativity came from people who were willing to “try” something new. My response would be the creativity came from people who were willing to “do” something new. Do you see the difference? If we stop trying and commit to doing we will accomplish so much more. But let me get back on track and I will do a separate message one day on trying if the Lord allows.
After the Jedi Master Yoda tells Luke to “do or do not – there is no try” Luke of course “tries” anyway. He stretches forth his hand, closes his eyes and concentrates on raising the ship. After “trying” the ships sinks further into the muddy water and Luke gets frustrated and gives up. He tells Yoda, “I can’t, it’s too big – we will never get it out now!” Yoda began to teach Luke that it was not about the size of the ship but the force operating in and around him. Yoda tells Luke that he needed to “unlearn” what he knew. Exasperated, Luke stands up and says “You want the impossible!” (How many of you know that we serve a God that makes the impossible possible?) Yoda then raises the ship out of the muddy swamp and sets it on land. Luke, being surprised that Yoda did it, tells him “I don’t believe it!” That is when Yoda tells Luke, “That is why you fail!” He told Luke that he did not believe within and that is why he failed, not just situation with his ship, but also in his past and his future unless he changed.
Consider the steps that Luke when through and think about how we operate in our daily Christian walk. Luke was told to raise the ship out of the swamp. Luke did not believe internally that he could do it and the unbelief that was in him was spoken aloud when he said he would try. Luke expected to fail – that is why he never said, “Ok, I will do this.” After he tries, the ship sinks deeper – in other words his situation got worse. Once again Luke speaks from within and tells Yoda the ship is too big and now that it has sunk even deeper, it would be impossible to get out. So he tried and failed and his situation looks worse. Have you ever stood in faith and the situation got worse so you gave up before you saw the end results? Finally Luke acted on what he believed to be impossible and gave up. Now here is the point I want you to understand, before he totally gave up, Luke voiced in words the disbelief he held on the inside. He gave life to those words as he spoke them because that is what he believed.
My point with this introduction is that we often fail because we do not believe and that when unbelief is present within us we give life to it by speaking it. There are times when we need to keep our mouths closed until we are ready and able to speak words of victory and not defeat. My parents used to tell me that my mouth would get me into trouble and many times it did. What they were teaching me was that just because I could think it, I did not have to say it. They were also teaching me that not everything that needed to be said needed to be said by me. Each of us has said things that we regret. We have all spoken life to situations and we have spoken death to situations. When we have spoken death to a situation, we sometimes did not know that that was what we were doing. Sometimes we were just speaking what we believed – what was in our hearts. When we were in school and someone talked about us or called us names we would often say: “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” At the time I really believed that was the case, but having grown into an adult, I know that this statement is not correct. The Bible teaches that this statement is not correct. Words can, will and do hurt us – but they can also speak life into us depending of if we are willing to discipline ourselves about what we say! So this brings me to the first role that words play in our live – how we use them.
I. How We Choose To Use Words
You have heard me speak on the power of words before. The words that come forth from our mouths are often spoken from our heart. Even though we may be smiling and laughing when we speak them, most of the time there is truth behind the words being spoken, even when they are spoken in a joking manner. The Scriptures tell us that our words carry power and we should be very careful how we use them. For example, Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” What the writer is saying here is that we reap the seeds that are sown by the words we speak. Once our words are spoken they become a living force on their own. It matters not how many times we say we are sorry, those words will continue to live in the heart of the one that they were spoken to.
In the 3rd chapter of the book of James, James says: “Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 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! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.” (James 3:3-10)
James explains that the tongue has the ability to set a lot of “negative” things in motion. What comes out of our mouths has the ability to change the course of our future as well as directly impact the future of others. Consider what would have happen if Luke felt doubt that he could raise the ship but waited until he believed and then said, “Ok I will do this!” We often speak our doubts and unbelief but as Yoda told Luke, we too need to unlearn what we have learned. We have seen this time and time how the words we speak impact us and those around us. I cannot tell you the number of stories I have heard and witnessed where parents spoke death into the lives of their children by calling them names and/or berating them in front of others. The kids began to live the lives that their parents forecasted for them with their words. Our words are very powerful. As I said, when we speak, we often speak what we believe in our hearts. What we believe and have faith in is what will come forth from our mouth. When we release words, whether we are talking about ourselves, our situations or someone else, the words we speak will carry the power to do good or bad. If we are unsure of the impact of something we’re about to say we should choose not to say it. We need to stop speaking our unbelief and start speaking our faith. If you don’t have any faith, stop talking until you get some and then start talking it.
Yesterday after our men’s meeting I spent the day with Clarissa for our annual father/daughter day. She wanted to go to Top Golf. Clarissa had never swung a golf club but she was doing pretty good. At the start of our third game, she scored with the first eight balls she hit, something that I have never done and I have been golfing for twenty years. I told Clarissa, “You have scored with eight straight shots – I have never done that!” Without even thinking about it, Clarissa turned to me and said, “Daddy don’t tell me that – now you have jinxed me!” I told her that I do not believe in jinx and of course she responded, “Well I do and you jinxed me!” She hit balls nine and ten and did not score. When we got towards the end of the game she had three balls left. I told her that she needed to get eighteen points with her last three balls to reach one hundred. She looked at me and said, “Why did you tell me that?” I reminded her that she could do it and to see herself doing it. She hit the first ball and got 4 points. She hit the second ball and got 6 points. She hit the last ball and got 8 points and finished with a score of 100. I looked at her and told her I knew she could do it. As we were leaving I asked her about this interaction and why she immediately defaulted to “don’t jinx me by telling me where I am” versus a mindset of “tell me what I need so I can get it!” This is a learned response. We have been taught to fail and that only the best win. When I was in school it was okay to lose. Now, in some sports, we award all of the kids for trying, even if they lose, because we do not want to damage their self-esteem! Are we teaching them it’s okay to lose?
I asked Clarissa could I share her story because we have all been there. Our world is filled with people who believe in their hearts that they cannot do something. Because they believe this, they speak these words not knowing what is recorded in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” They do not realize that they are failing because they are speaking failure into their circumstance. They believe in their hearts that they will fail; they speak out loud what they believe; and then they fail.
I will have to continue this next week. But, before I close, I want to share with you what else Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12. He said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37) I want you to understand what Jesus is saying here, and I ask that you go back and study it for yourselves to see if I am correct in my interpretation. I have been so guilty of just “speaking” words without considering their impact. But consider what Jesus says here. He says, for every idle word, or discourse, that men speak, they shall give an account. This tells us, [1.] That God takes notice of every word we say, even that which we ourselves do not notice. Psalm 139:4 says “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.” Even though words spoken without regard or design, God takes cognizance of them. [2.] That vain, idle, impertinent talk is displeasing to God. The kind of talk that does not tend to any good purpose and is not good to any use of edifying as it is the product of a vain and trifling heart. These idle words are the same with that foolish talking and jesting which is forbidden in Ephesians 5:4 which says “and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” Am I telling you that we can never talk and kid with one another and have fun? No that is not what I am telling you. What I am saying is that we should always be mindful of the words we are speaking and who whom we are speaking them too – even when jesting. Why? Because even then we are often speaking what we believe in our hearts and those very words carry life and death within them. [3.] If we do not get this under control, these idle words will be produced in evidence against us thus proving us to be unprofitable servants. Why? Because we have been entrusted to improve those around us and if we are speaking words that are producing death versus life, there is a price to be paid.
In verse thirty-seven, Jesus says “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” These are legal terms meaning that our words will testify for or against us on that great day. Those who seemed to be religious, but did not bridle their tongue, will then be found lacking with a vain religion. Remember what James said in in James 1:26? He said, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.” I have been very guilty of this – have you?
I will continue this next week. This week as you go through your daily routine, tell yourself “Do or do not – there is no try!!! Live this week without trying anything. Decided if you are going to do it; then believe it and then go do it!
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)
