Resume For Failure

Résumé For Failure

Theme:  scriptural positive thinking.  Living Thankful. 

Intro

You ever seen somebody’s résumé.  They can look pretty impressive.  A list of accomplishments, goals, awards, etc.  The intent is to make you look as appealing as possible to potential employers.  But what if someone came up with a résumé of failures?  What if they listed every reason possible that they will probably fail at the job.  Everything from their bad attitude and grooming habits (or lack thereof) to their utter lack of experience?  After submitting it they sat back and waited for the paycheck to start arriving in the mail? 

We’d say at best, they had some “reality issues.”  But that is exactly what we do to God a lot of times.  When God calls into action and blessing we tend to offer up excuses, lists of failures, circumstances that just make it impossible right now. 

Why is it that in everything else we make ourselves look better than we really are, but when it comes to obedience to the Lord, all of a sudden we are submitting our résumés for failure to Him and anyone else that will listen. 

We have such mental constipation in our lives and it is blocking our growth in the Lord.

Philippians 4:8(The Message) "Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse."

Isaiah 26:3(The Message) "People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit."

Isaiah 26:3(NLT) "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!"

You are who you are today, because of what you believed about yourself yesterday.  And you will be tomorrow what you believe about yourself today.

Gideon’s Résumé

Gideon  God greets him with encouragement, faith in him, and a plan…he offers his résumé for failure

Judges 6:11-15(NLT) "Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.

Hiding his “treasure from the enemy.  The thing he thought so valuable that he was missing God’s destiny for.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

The angel was looking at him the way God was…with eyes focused on the Lord’s destiny for him.  Calling him in the now, what he was meant to be.  Not “The Lord is with you and you are going to be a mighty hero”

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”"

What does Gideon do?  He starts whining about how tough things are…about how if God was really with him then life and his circumstances wouldn’t be so rough.  What we fail to realize as well as Gideon is that life’s tribulations are God’s proving grounds.  Is your life in a tough spot?  Good!  Look up cause Jesus is running towards you with the army of Heaven and is calling you to join Him in battle!

Gideon’s “resume may not have been very impressive before God called him out, but God loves underdogs equips the called!

To Forerunner: 

This ministry is like Gideon.  We are hiding behind closed doors with our treasure, because we are afraid the enemy might steal it.  God is calling us out.  God wants to use you to conquer an overwhelming foe. 

Week after week, some for years have heard about God’s destiny for them and have only offered their résumé for failure to the Lord. 

He is still looking at you calling you “Mighty hero…I am with you!”

I pray that God thrusts you into situations where you will die unless He comes through, so that you will be seeking Him.  You will finally surrender your entire life to Him.  

We have offered God our half measures, our scraps of affection in order to appease our own guilt.  Where are the warriors who will stand against the invading forces, who will not be ashamed of the cause of Christ? 

Is Jesus the Lord of All?

I have to ask myself as pastor where are we spiritually?  Are the people under my care living for Jesus, or are they being shady with the Lord?  Are you allowing Jesus to call you out of hiding into His purposes and will, or are you clinging to the old, to the treasures you perceive to be so valuable in your life?  i.e. a boy/girl friend’s affections at all costs, the comfort of hiding in a Christian bubble while the world around you is racing towards Hell, surfing all kinds of garbage online feeding your flesh and passions until you think and live like an animal, worried more about your appearance to everyone else rather than standing up for the One who loves you and gave Himself for you…

He is calling you out into a life of blessing and adventure, how long will you ignore Him, how long will you stiff arm Him, and hand Him you list of what is acceptable from Him and what you want from Him.