The Power of 'The Path': Overcoming the Fear of Failure, Part 1

The most pervasive emotion that I see everywhere, whether you're young or old, whether you're a republican or a democrat, whether you live in America or somewhere around the world, it's fear. People are afraid and for good reason.

I mean, think of just on the global scale, think of the wars, the climate issues, the people that have a little button they can push and cause a bomb to go off that literally destroys things. And maybe more nationally, think of the polarization, and people that are concerned about their kids, or the future, or all the division.

I talk with people, and young people are afraid about the future, and, "Is there going to be any life left for me?" And older people are concerned as they look backward and think, "What's happening to the family, and to morals, and to values?" Some of us that have been doing life in the church are really concerned, on bad days, fearful about the direction the church is going.

There's never been a time, at least in my adult life, that I have seen people more fearful, more anxious, more afraid. And the research bears it out.

And in every season, in every generation, God raises up people - His people. And His call to them is an anti-fear agenda.

His call to them is, "I want you to be strong and courageous - not to tremble. Don't be dismayed, don't be afraid."

In fact, God must know that fear is a big issue because scores and times over and over again in Scripture, He says, "Do not fear, do not be afraid." Jesus' last night with His disciples, "Don't let your heart be troubled.” Don't be afraid.

And I want to share with you how to be bold and how to be courageous in the midst of a fearful world as God's people. And there's something I want to share. It comes from a very parallel time.

There's a new paradigm, there are new challenges. And three times, God says to a new leader, "Be strong and courageous."

Notice how the world has changed. I'm in Joshua 1. It starts out like this, "Moses my servant is dead."

I mean, for 40 years, he’s been leading people. For 40 years, that's where you get direction. For 40 years, this is how life has worked. Bam, he's gone. He's dead. And now you're the new leader, and God knew Joshua was going to be very, very afraid.

As we pick it up, He says, "Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan into the land that I'm about to give them." And so, He's going to talk about, "I have an agenda for you. It's on the other side. There are going to be a lot of battles." And then three different times, He's going to talk about, "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Be strong and courageous."

He says, "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you." Doesn't that sound familiar? That's the very thing Jesus has said to us. But notice what He says now to this new leader in a new responsibility with overwhelming challenges, and He knows he's afraid. So, listen to what he says, verse 6, "Be strong and courageous." Why? "Because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to your forefathers to give them."

In case he didn't hear it, next verse, "Be strong and very courageous." And then He gives him a resource, "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left," why? "that you might be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth, but meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that's written in it." Promise. "Then you will have prosperity and success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you everywhere you go."

Now, here's what I want you to get. There's a parallel between Joshua - new responsibility, a fearful situation - and three times God has said "Be strong and courageous."

If we had time to develop it, what you'd realize is you can be strong and courageous 'because He makes a promise, you are going to inherit this land. There's a future for you, and I'm promising it's true."

The second thing is He gives him and resource that will give him power. He says, "Take this Book of the Law." In his day, it was the first five books, the Torah. In our day, it's all of Scripture. And he says, "God's Word, digested into your heart, when you put it into practice, will give you the power to be bold, and to be courageous, and to fulfill my will, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of the difficulty, regardless of all the challenges."

And then third, He says, "I'll be with you”- My presence. And honestly, that's exactly what Jesus said to His disciples, and He says to you, and He says to me. Yes, I can let my mind go. I can scroll and see all the difficulties. I can worry about the future, I can think about economics, I can see wars in different places. I can project fears into what will happen to my grandchildren. I have issues. What about our health? What about this? What about that? What about money? And there's no end to that.

But God says, for you and me, that we can be strong and courageous if we understand He's promised some things to us. Second, He says, "There's power available through my word and through my spirit." And finally, "I will be with you wherever you go."

Here's the question, and this is what I want to spend our time on in this series about being strong and courageous.

How do you experience that? How do you experience God's promises? How do you get into His Word in such a way that there's power? I mean there's real power to overcome hard things, to break addictions, to face tough stuff, to be the person who steps out and steps up, and, you're courageous, and you're strong. And how do you experience God's presence in all of this?

I like to suggest that one of my heroes in Scripture is someone that goes through, I think, more difficulty, more pain, more opposition, uh, more anxiety, more struggle than anybody in Scripture, and it's David. And then he left us something that's super powerful. It's like his journal. 73 of the 150 Psalms are written by David.

And they became the Song Book. And the Psalms are heart language. You know, when you struggle, and when I struggle, and sometimes we're so excited and we thank God, and things are going great, and we have hard time, what are the words that we could use? And you go to the Psalms, and the Psalms will give you a language. And sometimes we're mad, and ticked off, and angry, and where's God? And we've been betrayed. And, I mean, there are emotions, and you can go to the Psalms and it gives words to those struggles and those hurts. And it actually brings them to God.

And the amazing thing about the Psalms is this, is that they were actually to be sung. I don't know how this works, but I can tell you this. There's something about worship. There's something about music. There's something about taking truth and allowing it not just to hit our intellect, but our emotions, that it wells up inside of us, and it builds strength and courage.

And here's what I want to do with you, I want to walk through a series of Psalms that will strengthen your faith and allow you to conquer your fears.

God has a plan for you and me that in this time of world history, when people are afraid, the call to the Church, the call to regular people like me, regular people like you, whether you're 13 or 83, whether you're a republican or a democrat, whether you're, like, just new in the Christian faith or whether you've walked with God for 50 years.

It is God's will for you to be strong and to be courageous, to make a difference, to take a stand for truth, to love people, to be a difference-maker, to be a lot like Jesus each and every day.

And so, to do that, we're going to walk through the Psalms. And I can't think of a better place to start than Psalm 1.

The whole Psalter, all these songs, all this worship was for this nation of Israel. And Psalm 1 is going to be the place where he says there are two ways to live. There's God's way to live, and there's promises of blessing, and life, and success, and prosperity, and there's the world's way. He says there's two paths, and they're always in opposition.

And then he's going to remind us, and Jesus will come out with the same. Remember? He said there's a, there's a person who plants their life and lives their life on the rock. And he says the rock is when you take God's Word, you digest it, and you put it into practice. But Jesus said there's someone who hears God's Word, they know the truth, they don't put it into practice, and their life is like sand.

All through the wisdom literature, we get a picture of the way of the wise and the way of the foolish. It's literally, the Word is a path. There's a path of life that leads one direction, for success, and blessing, and prosperity, and there's another path of foolishness that we think will be great, but ends in destruction.

Jesus so often talked about two ways, two paths, two foundations, one that's rock, one that's sand. I kind of like to actually meet new people. And I'll find myself at an airport or, you know, sitting in a coffee shop, and people I don't even know, I just kind of sit down and say, "Hey, how's it going today?" And, "Hey, what, what's the biggest challenge you face?" And whether they're young or old, and because of where I live, they're from nationalities all around the world, and what you hear is anxiety. And what you hear is fear. And what I want you to know is that one of the most foundational fears, is the fear of failure.

The fear that your life's going to be just futile. The fear that, you know, your kids won't turn out right. The fear that you won't have enough money. The fear that you will fail personally. The fear that your job won't work out. We have 'em over and over and over, and it's all about, "I'm going to fail. I won't be successful. I'm not going to achieve my goals." And all that fear, it creates all kind of anxiety and all kind of relational problems.

Listen to Psalm chapter 1, and notice there's a structure. The first three verses will talk about God's way. The last three verses will talk about the world's way.

And we're going to look at two paths, and you are going to learn how God wants you to have a prosperous, blessed, and successful life.

Now, by the way, don't get too carried away. That doesn't mean you're going to drive an Escalade tomorrow, and your Maserati is on order and it's coming here, and you'll never be sick, and you're always going to be wealthy and healthy. No, he's talking about, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law, he meditates day and night."

And then he talks about the result of this path. "And he will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither." And in whatever he or whatever she does, you prosper.

And so, the first three verses, as he opens this two ways, two paths about life, he's saying that you don't have to worry about being a failure if you follow the path that God has laid out.

And David, uh, has written here that there's a path that brings about blessing and success. And I want to break that down for you, because I want you to understand the success is dependent on something very clearly. Notice the negatives in verse 1. This person doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked.

What does it mean to walk in the counsel of the wicked? Counsel is words, it's messages: this is what's important, this is what will make you happy. Here is success. And you take in messages, you get the counsel.

But notice the prefix, "How blessed." This word blessed means happy. How joyful, how fulfilled is the man or the woman - their pattern of life is not the internet. It's not social media. It's not wealth, power, use people, get what you want, make yourself the center of life. He says he doesn't walk in that.

But then he goes to the next one. Notice the progression. He not only doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, he doesn't stand in the path of sinners.

He says the man or the woman who's blessed by God, their closest connections, their deepest relationships, the people they admire aren't people whose life is going this direction. He's going to tell us later, it's people whose life is going this direction, God's way.

Proverbs, 13:20 says, "He who dwells with wise men will be wise. But the companion of a fool will suffer harm."
I remember a lady talking to me, uh, about her son. She said, "I had a pretty deep talk with my son. He's starting to hang around with some people. They're not a good influence. I'm watching some things happen in his life, happen in his values. He's on a bad track. And I sat him down, I said, 'Son, let me tell you something. Show me your friends, I'll show you your future.'"

And that's basically what God's saying here. He says if you want to be blessed, doesn't mean there's not interaction, doesn't mean we don't hang out with unbelievers and build relationships and build bridges. But he's saying the people that you do life with, the people that you admire, where you stop and stand and have real depth, he says they're not the wicked.

And then finally, he goes to the third, he says, "and does not sit in the seat of scoffers."

Scoffers are people who, make fun of God, make fun of God's Word: “You don't think this book can really be true?” “Jesus is the only way? Come on, give me a break.” A person who's blessed by God doesn't sit and allow scoffers to fill their mind with things that aren't true.

And we live in a world where, and especially in the educational system, it is anti-God. It is anti-family, it is anti-life. And he says if you want to be blessed by God, you're going to have to say no to some things, and then you have to say yes to some things. Look at verse 2, by contrast, "But his delight," or her delight, "is in the law of the Lord."

In this passage, really, “the law of the Lord” is God's Word, in general. Some of you might be thinking to yourself, "Man, I have trouble reading the Bible. I have even more trouble understanding the Bible.

You know, when I first opened the Bible, uh, I didn't open it til I was 18, and I think a lot of you probably came from backgrounds like me. Or sometimes, I meet a lot of people that grew up in the Church and, sort of, the Bible was pounded away, and it's like, "I don't get it, and I don't want all those rules."

The Bible is God's Word to us, with the desire to give you the very best. God cares about your happiness. In the right sense of it, God really wants you to be successful. He wants you to be a successful single person, a successful parent. He wants you to be successful in your work. He wants you to be successful in your relationships. And all the Scripture is, is a guide that reveals the heart of God.

Now, I'm going to be honest with you, you don't delight in it at first because, I don't know about you, when I first started studying math, and algebra, and trigonometry, I not only didn't delight in it, you know, x plus x with a 2... I was just, I was confused. But as I practiced, as I learned, I just found I loved math. I loved the puzzles of math. My world came alive.

The average follower of Jesus has never gotten into the Bible in a way, and gotten enough help to get into the Bible in a way where it goes from, yes, maybe it's a duty as you start, and then pretty soon, you develop a discipline. But as you do that and as you learn, I will assure you, it will become a delight.

It took me a few years for that to occur in my life. But, you know, it took me a lotta years to have delight in some other things. It took a lotta years of practice to have a delight in my marriage and communication because we didn't know how to do that. It took me a lot of years to delight in being a parent when, mostly, I was overwhelmed with fear. He says here that blessed is the man or blessed is the woman who delights in God's Word. In other words, Your truth is precious to me. I cherish it. It's important. It matters. It's first.

And then it's not just that you have a relationship to say I believe that that's true, but then he says, "... who delights in God's Word and meditates on it day and night."

To meditate is to... How do I engraft, how do I let this truth begin to go down into my heart and down into my life in such a way that I begin to think God's thoughts? That I begin to look at life through His perspective? That I look at the fears of the world and what people were saying in light of His promises and His presence?