How to Screw Up and Still Be a Winner

Welcome back to the Trudy Masterpiece podcast. My name is Craig Walker. Today, I just want to jump into our talk. I'm super excited to share this topic with you. Here it is. How do you screw up and still come out a winner? This talk, it could save your marriage. It could save your career. It could save a friendship, your finances. For some of you, this talk could save your life and certainly the lives of those that you love. I know an enemy of the good life. It's the subtle belief

Transcript

Craig (00:00.13)
Welcome back to the Trudy Masterpiece podcast. My name is Craig Walker. Today, I just want to jump into our talk. I'm super excited to share this topic with you. Here it is. How do you screw up and still come out a winner? This talk, it could save your marriage. It could save your career. It could save a friendship, your finances. For some of you, this talk could save your life and certainly the lives of those that you love. I know an enemy of the good life. It's the subtle belief

You've got to do everything right to be worthy of love and belonging. And I say subtle because no one really believes that you've got to be perfect, but subtly we do believe it. And that subtle belief is what shapes our behavior and allows the enemy to get in your head. When you screw up, the enemy is right there to condemn you saying things like, always, you never, you've done it now. No one will ever trust you again. You're a loser. You're worthless.

When you hear thoughts like that in your mind, just understand you're listening to the voice of shame. Recently I was on a call with John, John and his wife, the rebuilding after she had an affair. She got caught cheating before she confessed, but after getting caught, she broke off the relationship and she and John went to counseling. Actually, she's doing everything just right. That's been two years.

since all this happened and he continues to fall into that investigator mode. Every time he sees her receive a text, if she were to get a phone call, it doesn't matter if he's watching the football game and the noise in the room. And if she gets up and walks out, he immediately begins to distrust her again. It's been two years. Well, he's promised because he knows it hurts her. At first he expected it. Now he knows it really hurts her when he does that. And he's promised I'll trust God. But just last week he admitted.

my gosh, I said I wouldn't and I did it again. What do you do when you blow it? Maybe and blow it again. You know, for you, it might be that you said you would never lose your temper again, but you did. You said you wouldn't lie, but you did. You said you wouldn't overdraw the bank account, but you did. You said you wouldn't look at porn again, but you did. You said you wouldn't be judgmental, critical or harsh, but you were.

Craig (02:24.312)
When you promised that you would keep your promises, you didn't. What do you do when you blow

I want to give you what for me has become just the best response ever. Here it is. Okay. I screwed up. Lord. Now what? Seriously, turn that into a prayer. Okay. I screwed up. Lord. Now what? I'm not suggesting that you take your failures casually. Okay. I'm suggesting that you take God's mercy and grace seriously.

Because of God's great love, you see, you are never without hope. God promises to give you mercy and grace when you need it most, just because you belong to Him and you ask for it. That's all. Thank God that He's preserved a story from one of His choice servants in the past who blew it badly, but responded to his failure correctly. He said in effect, okay, I screwed up. Lord,

You don't cover up your mess up. You just recover from your mess up. His response saved his life and literally saved the lives of hundreds of others. David, he had been a fugitive. That's who we're talking about, King David. He had been a fugitive from Saul at this point in David's career. He didn't even have a career. His career is running from Saul. He had been a fugitive from Saul for the better part of 13 years. He was weary.

I doubt that any one of us can really relate to what it would be like to live on the run, running for your life from a tyrant who had the resources to hunt you down and the mental instability to gut you with a dull knife. Now, I imagine a scene like from the Disney classic that my kids love, the Fox and the Hound. The movie opens with Mama Fox fleeing from the hounds. Her pup is in her mouth, Todd, who's kind of the star of show.

Craig (04:29.166)
She drops Todd, she's been holding him in her mouth, she's running from the hounds and she sits Todd down and she takes off to, you know, probably to draw the hounds away from her baby and she runs over a hill and just as she goes over the hill, bang!

movie changes, Todd's orphaned. Now I imagine in this scene David is hearing the howling of the hounds. They're closing in and for David he's waiting for the bang. So I'm not surprised when I read in 1st Samuel 27 .1 that David kept thinking to himself. That's a very important phrase. You might underline it if you're following along.

David kept thinking to himself, someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is to escape to the Philistines. David did what he never wanted to do. He let fear cut God out of the equation and he went and hid among his enemies.

You know, you're living in fear when your conversations are just in your head. When there are no acceptable solutions, no good alternatives. Fear will do that to you. gets in your head and you start rehearsing all the negative outcomes. say things like, well, if I say this bang, or if I do that bang, if I go there, bang, if I don't bang.

Every conceivable outcome that you can think of is a bang. You're dead. When David stopped listening to the Lord and started thinking to himself, he fled the land of Israel and hid among Israel's nemesis, the Philistines. Living among the Philistines, David lied daily to King Akish. He's the King of Gath, King of Philistines.

Craig (06:34.478)
He was telling him that he and his boys, the 600 warriors with David, they had been raiding Israel's towns and villages. And it was all a lie. He kept up this charade for over a year. Now, one day, while David and his warriors were out with Akish, the Amalekites, they raided David's village and his camp. They captured all their wives, all their children, and they took all their herds, flocks, and possessions. Took everything.

Now when David and his men arrived back at camp and they saw the ruins, he realized, they all realized what had happened to their families. And the scripture says they wept until they could weep no more. David was now in great danger because all his men were bitter about losing their sons and their daughters. And they began talking about stoning David. David had screwed up royally. He and his men were living among the Philistines because David...

feared Saul because David forgot God. Everyone knew they were there because of David and they were angry. David, it's your fault that we lost our wives, our children, our possessions. What do you do when you screw it up? know, our knee jerk reactions do one of two things. Knee jerk reactions are never good. The first one is to punish yourself for your failure. Old timers have a saying for this. They'll tell you things like, you made your bed, now sleep in

That may sound a little harsh for the younger generation, but to me it sounds honorable. Maybe even the responsible thing to do, right? Perhaps, but it's still wrong. You never want to punish yourself. Somebody else has already taken your punishment. You don't need to punish yourself. Here's the second thing, though. We do this. I've got to figure this out. We start thinking to ourselves. It's all on me. OK, I did X and Y happen. Now what do I got to

We have a line for this too. my gosh, I made this mess. Now I've got to get myself out of it. Have ever said things like that? Old timers have a saying for that one too. They call it jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. We just say things like, it's going from bad to worse. But there's a better way. You don't have to punish yourself. You don't have to figure it out. There's a better way. This is the way that could save your life and it could save the lives of hundreds of others. Stop listening to yourself, start listening to

Craig (09:00.078)
Seriously, at that moment, David made an incredibly wise decision. At the moment when he had failed royally, he makes this wise decision. He stopped thinking to himself. And the Bible says that David found strength in the Lord his God. It's incredible that this is said first. Then he said to Abiathar the priest, bring me the ephod. What's the ephod? The ephod was part of a priest's garment. An ephod was like a vest.

What was significant about the ephod was the pouch that was on the front that contained the Urim and Thumen. Priests used the Urim and Thumen to determine God's will. No one knows exactly how that was done, but most believe that because the Urim and Thumen was over the priest's heart, it was like the presence of God in your heart. And the priest whom God spoke to, he would ask God what to do and God would tell him what to

Now, this is important to understand. I don't think it's a coincidence that the scripture tells us that David found strength in the Lord his God before David called for the priest to bring the Urim and Thumann to give him direction. This is an important observation. You might want to write this down. Here it is. Information without an infusion of God's power leads only to confusion, not action.

Information without an infusion of God's power leads to confusion, not action. Too often we want to know what God wants for us before we have the power to do what he wants. Here's an example. Lord, you want me to quit this job? And God says, he may say yes. He might say no, whatever it is. You're going to get his answer and you're going to start thinking, well, if I leave this job, how am going to my bills? Or if I stay here, how am I going to deal with this boss? How am going to deal with these

All the things we could think of. And you won't do what he says. Lord, do you want me to reconcile this relationship? You need God's power before you need his direction. Lord, do you want me to give money to XYZ? Lord, do you want me to witness to my neighbors and coworkers? Lord, do want me to start this business? Regardless of the answer, you won't do what God says. If you know what he wants, you won't do what he says. If you don't see it as he sees it, you will rely on your own understanding. It's it's human

Craig (11:25.838)
But when you find strength in the Lord first, remembering His great love, doing God's will becomes the logical response. We just say things like, okay, let's do this. That's why Paul prayed. This is just one of my favorite passages. It's becoming kind of a classic passage for me. It's Ephesians 3, 16 through 17. Paul said, I pray that He, God, will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Okay. He prays for strength first.

why, then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. An infusion of God's power always precedes a faith response. Without God's grace, his power, Christ will not be at home in your heart because you will not trust in him. How do you find strength in the Lord? How do you strengthen yourself in the Lord so that you will do as God says? You draw near to

You pull up close, ask your Heavenly Father, help. That's it. The scripture says in Hebrews 4 .16, so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There you will receive mercy and you will find grace to help you when you need it most. Listen, I know the typical response is when you've blown is to feel like, I've got to do something to earn God's favor, know, like fast and pray for a week.

You don't even have to kneel down for this prayer, Like Chesley Sully Sullenbarger, when he landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese on takeoff. He was asked if he prayed as he was landing the plane. And he said, there were a lot of people in the cabin doing that for me. I had to fly the plane. When you don't have time for protracted prayer, shoot up a flare prayer.

Like Peter when he was drowning in the Sea of Galilee, he just cried out, Lord help! And Jesus reached out and grabbed him and he rescued him. God promises his mercy and his grace when you need it most. I've heard God's mercy and grace explained like this. God's mercy is God withholding what you deserve. God's grace is giving you his favor that you don't deserve. When you pray for mercy and grace, God responds.

Craig (13:51.696)
my son, my daughter, man I was waiting for you to ask. Yes, yes, come here, let me give it to you. This is just what you need when you need it most.

What keeps you from coming boldly to God's throne? To go boldly to God, you must believe that you're worthy.

I know you don't feel worthy of mercy and grace when you've blown it, you? But listen, you weren't worthy before you blew it. The only reason you are worthy is because of what Christ did for you. Shame is telling you you're unworthy. You're not enough. This is so helpful to remember Paul's teaching in Romans chapter eight, verse one. He said, so, so because you are united with Christ, all that he's been teaching.

because you are in Christ. So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? There is no condemnation, not even when you blow it. Now hear this, because you are united with Christ, you are worthy. Therefore, you can come boldly to God's throne and receive His mercy and grace when you need it most.

No, I'm not suggesting that you take your screw -ups casually. I'm suggesting that you take God's love seriously. Come boldly like He asks you to, to receive mercy and grace. The scriptures teach, For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Whereas worldly grief produces death. Do know the word repent?

Craig (15:41.58)
just means to have a change of mind. Some people say it means to go the other way. It doesn't. Just have a change of mind. When you change your mind, you will go the other way. It's like you thought one way was right. Like David, I thought fleeing from Saul to the Philistines was right. It was wrong. God, I see that it was wrong. I realize it's wrong now. That's a change of mind. You repented. The goal is to repent of your sins, not to gravel in your sins. Once you've changed your mind, you can live without regret.

Stop punishing yourself for failure. Start trying to figure out how to fix your problem. Start relying on God's mercy and grace. He wants to help you. He's ready. He's waiting for you to boldly ask for his help. Receive God's power to do what he calls you to do. In David's story, the Lord told him, go and overtake the Amalekites. And David did what God instructed. He led his men out in hot pursuit.

They caught up with and destroyed the Amalekites and regained their possessions and their wives, their children and everything they own. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 30 verse 19, nothing was missing, small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been taken. David brought everything

Craig (17:04.61)
Listen, can I just share something with you? This is powerful. If you feel like you're losing in life, it's not because of the mistakes that you're making. If you're losing in life, it's because of the mistake that you're making. The mistake? When you fail, you let your failure drive a wedge between you and God, instead of letting it draw you to

where you will find grace and mercy to help when you need it most. You don't have to do everything right to win. You do have to turn to God and get His power and His direction. He's ready. He's waiting to tell you exactly what you need to do. He's ready to work even this out for good. What situation in your life seems impossible? What has you stuck feeling that there are no acceptable solutions?

Stop punishing yourself for your mistakes. Stop trying to figure it out. Find strength in the Lord. Then your logical next response will be to do exactly as God says. Your future and the future of those you love depends on it. My friends, I hope this has been helpful. This has helped me so much never to let condemnation rule my life anymore. I want to keep coming boldly to God's throne to receive grace and mercy when I need it most.

Hey, I hope you enjoyed this. look forward to seeing you again next