Why People Fail Rich Nathan June 26, 2011 Judges: Ordinary People, Extraordinary God Series Judges 1-2 I have noticed over the last four to five years that there are more and more books and articles and seminars about failure. Amazon lists over 16,000 books on the subject of failure. I ve read three or four just in the last year or so. There is book titled Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures in Leadership. There is another book by the famous business author Jim Collins titled How the Mighty Fall which is a book of lessons on business failures. The Harvard Business Review recently devoted an entire issue to the subject of failure. Everyone seems to be talking about failure these days. I noticed in today s paper there was an editorial about failure. Perhaps it is because of the recession. Perhaps it is because we are seeing so many spectacular failures of leadership in the athletic world, in coaching, in politics, and especially, in the Christian Church. Why do people fail? Why don t we make steady progress in life and become, over the course of time, better and better? Beginning in the late 1930 s, a psychiatrist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tracked the lives of men who graduated from Harvard. He tracked them in one of the most incredible, longitudinal studies ever done for the next five decades. The psychiatrist s name was George Vaillant. About half of the men who were studied are still alive. They are now in their late 80 s. What Dr. Vaillant had these men do was to fill out detailed questionnaires about their lives every year. Tracking a group of people year after year for five decades yields an incredible amount of information about what makes life work, what makes life fail, what makes people happy. And the stories in Vaillant s study are just fascinating. For example, here is Case #141. The question is asked: What happened to you? You grew up in a kind of fairytale, in a big city brownstone with 11 rooms and three baths. Your father practiced medicine and made a mint. When you were a college student, you described him as thoughtful, funny, and patient. Once in a while his children got his goat, you wrote, but he never gets sore without a cause. Your mother painted and served on prominent boards. You called her artistic and civic-minded. As a child you played all the sports; were good to your two sisters, and loved church. You and some of the other boys from Sunday School met at your house used to study the families in your neighborhood, choosing one every year to present Christmas baskets. The study s social worker concluded after 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 1
meeting your family that the atmosphere of the home was one of happiness and harmony. At Harvard you continued to shine. Perhaps more than any other boy, who has been in the Study the staff noted about you, The following participant exemplifies the qualities of a superior personality: stability, intelligence, good judgment, health, high purpose, and ideals. And then what happened? You got married. You started smoking and drinking. And then you died before age 50. Dr. Vaillant tracked down your therapist who said you seemed unable to grow up. You had an affair. You looked steadily more disheveled. You came to see your father as over-powering and distant; your mother as over-bearing. You said everyone in the family made you feel like a black sheep. In your last days you could not settle down. You wandered, again, offering ad hoc therapy groups. You lived on a houseboat, broke out spontaneously in Greek and Latin poetry, got involved in peace protests. And then you died. What did George Vaillant learn about success and failure in life after tracking people for 50 years? He learned that some things just don t matter a lot. Childhood temperament doesn t matter a whole lot in predicting long-term success. Shy, anxious kids tend to do poorly in young adulthood, but by age 70 they are just as likely to be happy and well as outgoing kids. What did predict success; Vaillant said after 50 years of study the main thing that really matters in life are your relationships with other people. People who had warm connections with their families, with friends, with their siblings, with mentors, with their mates, generally ended up happy. And those who didn t, who lacked these connections generally ended up sad and sick. Other factors that predicted healthy aging, both physically and psychologically, were stable marriages, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, healthy weight, and maturely responding to pain and trials. Vaillant said that in his study that virtually every single participant experienced several severe crises in life. Those who responded with what Vaillant called immature adaptations, becoming hypochondriacs, engaging in fantasy, separating themselves from relationship, denying the pain those folks did much more poorly in life than those who responded to trials with what Vaillant called mature adaptations, things like a sense of humor, giving to others, self-sacrifice, postponing their impulses, finding good outlets for their feelings such as sports or relationships. Today I m going to begin a new series titled: Ordinary People, Extraordinary God from the Book of Judges. In the first couple of chapters in the Book of Judges we are going to engage in a spiritual analysis regarding the subject of failure. There are very few things that we could study that shed more light on ultimate 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 2
happiness in life than Why People Fail. That s what I ve called today s talk. Let s pray. Judges 1:1-8 1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the Lord, Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Canaanites? 2 The Lord answered, Judah shall go up; I have given the land into their hands. 3 The men of Judah then said to the Simeonites their fellow Israelites, Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours. So the Simeonites went with them. 4 When Judah attacked, the Lord gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them. They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire. Before we tackle the subject of why people fail, I think, if we are going to be honest as Christians, we need to ask the question, How do we understand the Old Testament conquest of the Promised Land? We are living in a world of jihad where groups like Al Qaeda declare Holy War against the enemies of Islam and use suicide bombings as a primary weapon in the Holy War. We live in a world in which people plant bombs at funeral gatherings. People gather to mourn the loss of a loved one and then another bomb goes off. We live in a world in which hospital maternity wards are bombed. So here is the question: how can we 21 st century people make moral sense of books like Joshua and Judges in which God tells the children on Israel to go and essentially wipe out all of the people in a particular area. Are the book of Joshua and the book of Judges an ancient form of genocide? Is this just the Old Testament version of Kosovo or the Holocaust or Rwanda? And to compound the problem there are modern day Christians who adopt Holy War, Crusade language. I get email blasts from groups almost every day as a senior pastor of a large church in which I am asked to join a Holy War against secularism, or against the current administration, against the Federal Government. Anyone with a sensitive heart and with a moral compass will struggle to reconcile what we know about the goodness and love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and the command to go out into the land and destroy a group of people. So here is the problem, the killing of the Canaanites. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 3
The problem: the killing of the Canaanites How do we respond to the murder of the ancient Canaanite people? Well, one false answer One false answer is that this was just the God of the Old Testament who ordered the Canaanite destruction. And that Old Testament God is angry all the time. The Old Testament God is judgmental and full of wrath or at least the ancient Israelites thought he was. But fortunately, God was never like that. He is really loving and that s what we now discover in the New Testament. This separation of the Old Testament God from the New Testament God is so much a part of the popular consciousness of the culture. Most people don t know that this division between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is actually an ancient heresy. There was a man named Marcion, who back in the 2 nd century wanted to separate Christianity from Judaism. So he tried to get the early Christians to throw out the Old Testament and get rid of the Old Testament God. Marcion taught that we Christians only worshipped the God of the New Testament. The truth is, if we throw out the Old Testament, we Christians have a house with a roof hanging in the air no foundation in creation at all. We don t understand the story of God s activity in the world. But you know, friend, if you read your Bible the God of the Old Testament is not just a God of wrath, he is also a God of love. I can cite you dozens of Old Testament regarding the love and compassion of God. But I will just offer you one. Psalm 103:8-14 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. And it is simply not true that in the New Testament we encounter a God who is just an easy-going, tolerant, sweet and gentle Grandfather. You know who spoke more about hell than anyone else in the Bible, don t you? Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus constantly warned people about the Day of Judgment. He 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 4
spoke about eternal fire and terrible remorse that some people would suffer on the Day of Judgment. He talked about tormenting imprisonment that would come in the future, and outer darkness. And all of this judgment talk was the context for the Good News of God s redeeming love in Christ. But the truth is, we can t so easily separate Old and New Testament. So how do we make moral sense of the conquest of the Promised Land and the slaughter of the Canaanites? I don t have a complete answer, but let me offer some partial answers. Some partial answers First, it is important to remember that the conquest was not directed against an ethnic group. The conquest was not directed against an ethnic group Typically, when we use the word genocide today we are speaking about ethnic cleansing that s rooted in theories of racial superiority. But the conquest of Canaan is never justified on ethnic grounds in the Bible. It is never the result of a sense of ethnic superiority, or moral superiority, or numerical superiority. There is no hint of superiority in the conquest. In fact, when Israel sinned and became like the other nations, they became enemies of God. Here is the second thing. enemies. The conquest was not directed against Israel s The conquest was not against Israel s enemies Now, this is really important. Whenever you read stories of wars in the Old Testament, it is important to note that the war is not directed against Israel s enemies, but rather God s enemies. So we read in Joshua 5: 13-15: Joshua 5:13-15 13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? 14 Neither, he replied, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, What message does my Lord have for his servant? 15 The commander of the Lord s army replied, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 5
This is a really important moral point. The wars of conquest were not against Israel s enemies, but against God s enemies. God is not on Israel s side. Israel was merely the servant of the Lord carrying out God s judgment. Here is what I m trying to say. It is always a dangerous thing; it is always an immoral thing, for a human being or a group of people to believe that my enemies, or our enemies, are God s enemies. I happen to have a problem with you, so therefore, God must have a problem with you. We as a race, or a tribe, have a problem with this other race or tribe, so therefore God must have a problem with this other race or tribe. We as a nation have a conflict with another nation, therefore, God must be backing up our acts as a nation. We are at ward, so God must be at war. We as a religion have a problem with another religion; so therefore, God must want to judge this other religion. That is absolutely not what s going on in the book of Joshua or Judges. God is not backing up Israel s act. Israel is backing up God s act. God reveals himself personally, he sends angels, and he says, I am bringing judgment; and you, Israel, are my servant and I want you to carry out my judgment. I am not carrying out your judgment, says God, but you are carrying out my judgment. In fact, when you sin, I will use other nations as my servants to judge you. Here is the third thing: The conquest was not directed against the repentant Now, this is really important, a lot of people miss this; but, if the Canaanites repented and turned away from their idols and turned away from their wickedness, they would be saved. So there was a way out of judgment, as there always is in the Bible. We do not have to be judged by God. There s always a way of escape and the way of escape is always repentance. Turn control of your life fully over to the Lord. Stop committing adultery, or spiritual adultery with your idols. Stop laying in the arms of your lovers; instead, God says, lay in my arms, and you will be saved. So we have the example of Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, who turned her life fully over to the Lord. She and her whole family were saved when the city of Jericho was conquered by the Israelites. So the conquest was not directed against the repentant. And here is the fourth partial answer: The conquest was directed against the particularly wicked at a particular time We must set the conquest of the Promised Land against the backdrop of God s extraordinary patience and long-suffering. Way back in the Book of Genesis, in 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 6
Genesis 15, God promises the land that became known as Israel to the descendents of Abraham. But he says in Genesis 15, Not yet. You re not going to get it. And your sons are not going to get it. And your grandchildren are not going to get it. Here is what we read in Genesis 15:16: Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. In other words, God says, I m not going to bring judgment until the sins of the Amorites, those were the Canaanites, literally go over the top of the levy and flood the land. I m not going to bring judgment until the moral and spiritual pollution of the Canaanites is so great that the only way to cleanse the land will be to bring judgment and to wipe the people out. Generations passed and little by little Canaanite society filled up the cup of their sin. If you read through the Old Testament and consult the archeological records, you will read about the mix of perverse sexuality and religion that was taking place in Canaanite worship. You read about the Canaanites offering their children they literally would take their children and their babies and throw them into a burning fire as a sacrifice to the gods. You will read about the social oppression against the weak; the crushing of widows and orphans; the violence against strangers. The conquest was directed against the particularly wicked. And let me offer another partial answer. Another partial answer We don t separate out the God of the Old Testament and put him in contrast with the God of the New Testament. There is only one God. But the God that we see in the Bible works his plan out in history in different ways. So, first, in books like Joshua and Judges, we read about God fighting flesh and blood enemies. God fights flesh and blood enemies God brings judgment. And he brings judgment against the particularly wicked among the Canaanites for their child sacrifice and their violence. But there is another stage to the judgment of God and this is where you really see a difference between modern jihad and God s activity in the Old Testament. God not only fights against flesh and blood enemies, God in the Old Testament fights against Israel. God fights against Israel 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 7
Far from being exempt from the judgment of God, God s own people can become God s enemies and the subject of his judgment when God s people reject God and go the way of the nations. Israel was promised blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience. We read this in Deuteronomy 28:7: Deuteronomy 28:7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. And in Deuteronomy 28:25: Deuteronomy 28:25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. What I mean here is that far from being ethnically or racially superior, or deluding themselves into believing that they were God s favorites, so that Israel could do whatever they wished, we discover in the Old Testament that when Israel behaved like the other nations, Israel would be judged like the other nations. And the third stage of God s judgment is that God fights against spiritual enemies When we get into the New Testament, we do see a change not a change in the character of God. God does not become less holy and more loving, or less wrathful and more tolerant. But we do see a change in who God fights and how God fights. And in the New Testament, what we find is God sending his Son Jesus Christ into the world to fight spiritual powers and spiritual enemies. No longer in the New Testament does God send a particular people out to fight flesh and blood enemies. Rather, he sends his Son into the world as a Warrior to fight spiritual enemies specifically Satan and sin and death. So we read in verses like Colossians 2:13-15 these words: Colossians 2:13-15 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 8
And whenever in the New Testament people begin to take on an Old Testament mindset that their fight is against flesh and blood, that we are now replacing the nation of Israel and we are going to go to war against God s enemies, such people are sternly rebuked. For example, there is a story in the Gospel of Luke in which two brothers, who were Jesus followers, James and John, wanted to call down fire, God s judgment, upon those they perceived to be enemies of God. We re going to act like Joshua and like the people in the Book of Judges. We ve discerned these people are your enemies, Lord. They are part of a different religion; they re part of a different ethnic group; they practice abortion; they don t welcome Jesus. Here is what we read in Luke 9: 52 55: Luke 9:52-55 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Our fight today as Christians is never against flesh and blood physical enemies. We can never say our enemies are God s enemies. And we can never say that we have discerned who God s enemy is and therefore we re going to engage in Holy War against these people. Our battle today is fought against spiritual enemies sin and Satan and death. And it is fought with spiritual weapons preaching the gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, ministering to the poor, visiting those in prison, welcoming the stranger. But let s get back to the subject of failure. The Book of Judges is a great picture of the spiritual life. As we read these physical lessons, they provide us with a picture, an open window, into our own relationship with God. Why do people in the Book of Judges often fail? Let s read Judges 1: 8 11: Judges 1:8-11 8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire. 9 After that, Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills. 10 They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. 11 From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher). In Judges 1 up until verse 15, Israel is rolling through the Promised Land. They are conquering enemies, piling up success after success. But you know, just like those stories that I told you at the beginning of this talk, those Harvard men, who were involved in George Vaillant s study, a great beginning does not necessarily 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 9
guarantee long-term success. What we have in the book of Judges is a continual lack of follow through. A lack of follow through Let me say it again. A great beginning does not guarantee long-term success. John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach said, It is not important who starts the game, but who finishes the game. We have so many people who start the Christian life with great enthusiasm. Over the years I ve met literally thousands of people who were incredibly enthusiastic about the Christian life at the beginning. And you see them everywhere in the church, at the beginning. They sign up to teach in Children s Ministry. They sign up for classes on leadership. They attend a small group. But over a period of time, if you are a Christian long enough, you will find many people s enthusiasm melt off like the dew in the heat of the noon-day sun. The Book of Judges is a great window into the spiritual life. We see the Canaanites in the Promised Land as being a spiritual picture of sin in the Christian life. Then what you often find in the initial flush of Christian conversion is that many sins are easily kicked out of a person s life. When a person comes to Christ in a real way, when a person chooses to turn control of their life over to Jesus, very often what the person experiences at the very beginning is easy victory over certain sins in their lives. How many of you who were converted not as little children, but as teens or adults, saw this in your life immediate quick victories over certain sins in your life. Certain sins just dropped away without much effort. I certainly experienced that as an 18-year old when I surrendered my life to Christ and became one of his followers. Some things that I used to do I never did again. I used to regularly as a teenager use Jesus name as a curse. The moment I met him I never did that again up to this present day. It wasn t this big thought out thing; I just couldn t bring myself to curse the name of Jesus anymore. I never used drugs again. I never got drunk again. There was stuff that was at the surface of my life that was easy; when I came to Christ it was like taking a shower; it just washed away. But what you find in the story of the Israelites in Judges and in the Christian life is often a line of descent. A line of descent 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 10
Like the people in George Vaillant s studies, we start off great. But often we don t make steady progress. Instead, there is a line of descent; the trajectory heads down. Why? Because of the stubbornness of sin After all of these great conquests, the easy stuff is dealt with. But then look with me at Judges 1:19: Judges 1:19 The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron. Some enemies in the land, like some sins in our lives, are more stubborn; they re more resistant to change. They re not like the dirt that is on the surface of life. They re more like splinters deeply embedded in your soul. We need to be prepared. After the honeymoon the reality of having to work on your marriage begins, and after the honeymoon period with God, the real work of learning to walk with God begins. The battle is not over at the point of conversion. The battle is just starting. Some sins are simply hard to get rid of. The Puritans used to call sins that are hard to get rid of bosom sins. They re things that are really near to your heart that you cling to inside. The Southern Baptists call these sins besetting sins. Do you see this in your life, friend certain things, certain attitudes, certain behaviors that you ve tried to fight against, but they seem too strong. They are like the Canaanites with iron chariots. You just don t feel like you have the power to fight against them. You ve tried and failed. Maybe there are certain addictive patterns like smoking or drinking or pill use, or porn use. Certain behaviors like holding grudges or unforgiveness, or gossip or lying. Certain relational patterns in your life with men or women, or with your family. Things that you want to overcome, but you just can t. They re stubborn. What do you do with stuff that doesn t easily get dislodged? In the case of the Israelites, they compromise with sin. Compromise with sin Judges 1:22-25 22 Now the house of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them. 23 When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz), 24 the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well. 25 So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 11
his whole family. 26 He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day. Instead of totally destroying everyone, including this guy who had not repented, he was just temporarily accommodating the Israelites; they compromised with him and let him go. What did he do? He went and planted another city by the same name, Luz, elsewhere. It was like digging up dandelions. The Israelites decided, well, we don t need to dig this up carefully. Instead they blew the seeds of this weed and they landed elsewhere and took root. That s what so many people do with addictions. We get rid of one addiction and replace it with another. And then we see the third step down the stubbornness of sin, the compromise with sin and then we see the Management of sin Judges 1:27-30 27 But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. 28 When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. 29 Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. 30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor. The Israelites think that they ve dealt with the Canaanites by getting on top of them, by keeping them under. We do that with our sin. I can control this. I m just going to compartmentalize this sin off in my life. I only get drunk with certain people, or at certain times. Its not like I m drinking every day. Its not like I m waking up and drinking. I shop and run up debt only when there is a really good sale. I can control this. This particular problem is really sectioned off in my life. So we continue to use despite growing warnings that maybe this problem is not really subject to your control, despite a sense of growing doom that the consequences of this particular sin are going to grow out of your control. Maybe you can t manage this as well as you think you can. But we push past those warnings. The line of descent. I can manage this. Having an affair won t blow up my life. It won t blow up my marriage. It won t blow up my reputation. It won t destroy my relationship with God. I can manage this. Here is the fourth step down in the line of descent. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 12
The domination of sin Judges 1:31-33 31 Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob. 32 The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out. 33 Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. Rather than the Israelites enslaving the Canaanites, the Canaanites are enslaving the Israelites. Rather than the person being on top of their sin, the sin is on top of the person. There is no way to manage sin. You don t manage sin by feeding your craving, or your lust, because craving is infinite. The more you feed your craving and lust, the hungrier you are. There is only one way to deal with craving and lust and that is to starve it to death through withdrawal and to hook your desire onto something more satisfying, more wonderful than any of your idols and that is Jesus Christ. So in the case of the Israelites, the Canaanites become the dominant players in the land. In our case, when sin is not dealt with, it becomes the dominant force in our life. More and more of our life energy goes to serving that particular sin. And finally, the final line of descent is found in Judges 1:34: The destructiveness of sin Judges 1:34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. We began with the Israelites pushing the Canaanites out of the land, and the chapter ends with the Canaanites pushing the Israelites out. To me, this is a perfect picture of a person who is completely taken over by sin and addiction. The soul is kicked out of the body and the only thing that is left is the sin. Now, at the bottom, when you hit bottom, you are defined by this sin this is your identity, like a cocaine addict I read about. He lost his wife; he lost his job; he lost his kids; he lost his house; he lost his friends. He said, I don t care. Friend, have you gotten to the place where it could be said of you that you are now defined by your sin and addiction. You are an alcoholic. You don t just abuse alcohol. You are greedy. You don t just like nice things. You are an abuser. You are not just angry; you are a bitter person. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 13
Anatomy of failure. In chapter two we see that failure not only involves a line of descent, failure often involves A generation gap Judges 2: 6-7, 10 6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. 10After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. What we see in the Book of Judges is the classic spiritual problem of one generation trying to live off of their parents or grandparents spiritual capital. There is an old saying that God has no grandchildren. But as a pastor, I see this all the time 2 nd or 3 rd generation people trying to live their lives off of the spiritual capital that was accumulated by their parents or grandparents. My mother was a faithful Christian. My family never missed church when I was a child. Somehow that accumulated spiritual capital from your family is supposed to guarantee success for you. But it doesn t. We don t learn Christ by osmosis. We don t pick up Christ just from our environment. Every single one of us and every single one of your children needs to be personally converted and personally connected to Christ. Parents, listen to me now. No matter what your child s age; they may be two to three years old; they may be seven; they may be 12; they may be 16 have you sat down with them and talked with them about how to have a personal relationship of their own with Jesus Christ? Their own need to ask for God s forgiveness? Their need to trust in the death of Christ for their sins. Have you talked with your child about turning control of their lives over to Jesus Christ as Lord? Do you feed your child s soul? Do you pray with your child? Do you support your child s faith in Christ? And what about you? Are you trying to live off of the spiritual capital accumulated by your parents? Have you been personally converted? Have you surrendered your life to Christ? What creates failure? This line of descent regarding sin; a generation gap, and finally, A cycle of failure 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 14
Judges 2:11-19 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. 16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their ancestors, they quickly turned from following the way of their ancestors, the way of obedience to the Lord s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. There is a cycle here that is repeated through the Book of Judges. The cycle begins with apostasy. God s people turn their backs on the Lord. They walk away from him and commit spiritual adultery. In Judges 2:17 the word is very graphic. They prostituted themselves. Literally, they went whoring after other gods. That apostasy leads to God s disciplinary action. God sends oppression; he brings pain into the life of his people. God wants them to turn away from their lovers and run back into his arms. What happens throughout the Book of Judges and in our own lives when we are squeezed, when things are really hard we cry out to the Lord. That s what they did. And because God is merciful, he provides a deliverer. In the Book of Judges, God continually raises up a leader for the people, who will fight against God s enemies. But do the people remain faithful? No, they go back into the cycle and it is actually a spiral that is going down. People become even more spiritual adulterous and so God sends more oppression. They cry out to the Lord; he sends a deliverer. They become even more adulterous. Friend, this to me is one of the classic pictures in the scripture of the addiction cycle. We experience pain. The pain is the pain of boredom, or the pain of a romantic breakup, or the pain of the loss of a job, or the loss of a parent. Maybe the pain is just internal restlessness. That pain leads to a build up phase. You 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 15
feel like the pressure is building inside. The cravings start and that leads to a compulsive act. We run to a new relationship. We run to the bedroom. We run to the bottle. We run to the refrigerator. And we experience a release, a deliverance. We feel better. But you haven t escaped the spiral. Because now we experience the pain of guilt, the regrets over acting out that compounds the pain that we initially were experiencing. And so there is a build up experience again, a compulsive act of release and back into the spiral. How do we get out of this trap? How do we reverse the line of descent? How do we break the downward swirl? How do we, in short, not end our lives in failure? Do you know the Bible describes compulsive sin and idolatry as spiritual adultery. We are laying in the arms of someone we are not married to. We are finding comfort and relief in someone other than our spouse. And the Bible teaches that the only way out of spiritual adultery addiction, compulsive sin is to lay in the arms of your Lover, Jesus. To take your pain not to an illicit lover; but, to take your pain, your restlessness, your boredom, your frustration, your craving to take it all to Jesus. Have you ever done that? Do you do that? Do you know how to do that? To open up your soul when you are in pain to Jesus? And to let him flood your life with his love? We are not designed to do this entirely on our own. We often need help and encouragement and ways to learn to lay in the arms of Jesus. That s why here at Vineyard we have small groups women s groups and men s groups and recovery groups. Let me suggest one thing, especially for any of you who say, Rich, I m listening to you and I feel like I ve been dominated, in fact my life has been taken over, by something. Every Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. here at the church we have a meeting in which dozens of folks get together. It is called Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered recovery fellowship for those desiring to heal any hurts, hang-ups and habits. These issues include addictions, emotional wounds, and unwanted behaviors such as codependency. For more information contact Toni King, 259-5289 or e-mail support.recovery@vineyardcolumbus.org. But the point of Celebrate Recovery, the recovery and support groups, the point of all of our small groups is to assist you to lay in the arms of your Lover, Jesus, because it is only in his grace that you will find a way out of failure and into success. Let s pray. 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 16
2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 17
Why People Fail Rich Nathan June 26, 2011 Judges: Ordinary People, Extraordinary God Series Judges 1-2 I. The problem: the killing of the Canaanites A. One false answer B. Some partial answers 1. The conquest was not directed against an ethnic group 2. The conquest was not directed against Israel s enemies 3. The conquest was not directed against the repentant 4. The conquest was directed against the particularly wicked C. Other partial answers 1. God fights flesh and blood enemies 2. God fights Israel 3. God fights spiritual enemies II. Failure involves A. A lack of follow through (Judges 1:8-15) B. A line of descent 1. The stubbornness of sin (Judges 1:19) 2. Compromise with sin (Judges 1:22-25) 3. Management of sin (Judges 1:27-30) 4. The domination of sin (Judges 1:33) 5. The destructiveness of sin (Judges 1:34) 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 18
C. A generation gap (Judges 2:6, 7, 10) D. A cycle of failure (Judges 2:11-19) 2010 Rich Nathan VineyardColumbus.org 19