God Uses Failure to Accomplish His Purpose in Us

Good morning family. It's good to see you all here today. I feel like if you were paying attention to the singing, the songs, you almost don't need to hear anything more.

I hope you are encouraged and challenged. As we approach the end of time and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ draws near, we find that Satan's attacks are concentrated more and more on the family lives of Christians, marriages and children. We see evidence of such attacks everywhere in the world today.

It is essential, therefore, that we preserve our families within the boundaries of the teaching of God's Word, if we are to glorify his name, fulfill his purposes and preserve our children for his kingdom in these days. The Word of God contains the manufacturer's instructions for the family life. It was God who ordained marriage, first of all, and he has told us in his Word how to have the best family life possible.

Follow his instructions and you cannot go wrong. Even if you have destroyed your family life in the past by foolish mistakes, you can still set things right. There is no pit so deep that the Lord cannot pull you out.

There is no state of death from which the Lord cannot bring resurrection. Praise the Lord. Even if your marriage and your family feels dead, there is no pit, there is no state of death from which the Lord cannot bring a resurrection.

Praise the Lord. We've heard often in this church that we must be a living witness of the power of God in our personal lives, in our family lives. And even if you are single and not married, or don't have children, or have married, don't have children, or have children, this is a burden that all of us must carry together.

I believe that we as a church have a responsibility for every one of the children in this church. We have a responsibility to pray for every marriage. That's where the devil wants to attack us.

I read this from a book that my dad wrote recently and was recently published called A Godly Family Life, Building a Sanctuary for God. God wants our marriages and our homes, your family, to be a sanctuary, a holy place. When you think about the holy place today, it's not this building, nothing special about this building.

Many people think that going to a church building like a cathedral or some other type of church, they feel a sense of awe, God is here. The sanctuary today is your body. There must be a sense of awe with how you live in your body, that God is here.

Your body is the temple now. There must be a sense of awe in your marriage. Your marriage is now the holy dwelling place of God.

How you treat each other, how you think about each other, God is there. How you think about your spouse privately, God is there. With your children, you're in your home.

This is the sanctuary today. And so if you have a burden for your family life to be a sanctuary for God, there's as I just read, we have instructions. The instruction manual is right here, the Bible.

There's also this book which I want to recommend to all of you. It's just recently published. We have copies of it in the back.

We haven't yet added it to our reading plan, but we will, God willing, because it's a very important thing. Very, very important. So grab a hold of that book.

It's there in the back table. We have a few copies of it. As we were singing, I was challenged and I was thinking, would you sit here any differently if you had lived this past week without making any mistakes, any known sin? You walked in victory in every single area.

Would you sing a little bit more with your head held high and confident than if you had failed this week and had repented? If you had failed and truly repented and seen the forgiveness and justification of Jesus Christ, you could sing just as confidently and as loudly and full of faith as if you hadn't done any wrong thing this past week. This is the gospel. And that's especially in that last song, just as I am, my plea as I sit before you, Lord, and kneel before you or stand before you today, my only plea is not, Lord, I finally got a week that I didn't make a mistake.

It's that you shed your blood for me. That's it. And whether I fell this past week or not, whether in my own estimation, I had a successful week or not, today as will be every day and will be in eternity when I stand complete.

When I am made like Jesus in eternity, my plea will still be, Lord, you shed your blood for me. That's why I'm here. And so, dear family, we ought to be able to sing every moment of every day, rejoicing in the Lord always because he shed his blood.

If he gave his only son freely, if he didn't withhold his only son for you, how much more will he not give you all that you need? This is the gospel. One of the things that has challenged me for a number of years now, I don't remember the exact date or the year even when it became a revelation for me and a rock in my life, was when I saw the depth of Romans 8 verse 28. Let's turn there as we begin.

Romans 8 verse 28. It's one of those verses that because we know so well and hear about it so often and probably know by heart, know from memory, we can easily lose a sense of the power that's in this verse. I had just mentioned verse 32.

Let's read verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? If he, verse 32, who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? And who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Every time the devil goes to God and says, have you seen Santos, how he acted in that situation? God's reply is, but I gave my son for him.

Don't you dare bring a charge against my elect. Have you heard God defending you, family? Oh, it will bring such relief and joy and comfort to your life. When you see Jesus standing up every time the devil brings an accusation, saying, oh, but I shed my blood for him.

While he stands in heaven, no tongue can bid me thence depart. Because he stands there to defend me, the devil runs away and flees. That's verse 32.

Now let's read verse 28. And so we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew this was his purpose, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

We know that God causes all things. And some years ago, the Lord asked me about this. He said, Santos, do you believe that I cause all things to work together for good, for you? Made it personal.

And I said, yes, Lord. As I examined that question and examined the answer to that question, I said, yes, Lord, I believe that because I've now given my life to you, from now on, everything that happens to me, you will work out for good. I've given my life to you.

I've repented of all my sins. And from now on, everything that happens to me, because I'm now your child, you will cause to work together for good. And I felt good about that.

That brought me some joy. But the Lord said, no, you're not saying all things. You're saying all things from now on, which is the future.

So I stopped and examined, okay, what does he mean by all things then? That includes what I'm going through right now. And at that time, I was going through some situations which were the result of my own failure. I was going through the reaping of things I had sown.

I thought, well, Lord, your word does say what you reap, what you sow, you shall reap. That's true. It's Galatians 6. It's a principle in God's kingdom.

You can't, God can't ignore it. You will reap what you sow. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap to the flesh.

If you sow to the spirit, you will reap to the spirit. And at that moment, that time in my life, I was reaping consequences, bad consequences, uncomfortable consequences, painful consequences, as a result of sowing to the flesh. And the Lord asked me, can you trust me that I will work all things, including what you're going through right now? And I said, Lord, help me.

And I got faith. I said, Lord, you have to cause me, you have to allow your law to act itself out. God can't change that law.

As much as he can't change the law of gravity, as much as he might feel sorry for me, as much as he might love me and be merciful to me, he still has to be just. And his laws still have to be upheld. Otherwise, the universe would fall apart.

And if God said, yeah, because I like you, I'm not going to allow you to reap what you sow, he would be unjust. He would be untrue to himself. And he has to be just.

And he has to allow me to reap what I have sown. But he says, I will cause even that to work together for good. Isn't this amazing? But God, the just, can now also be God, all powerful, who works all things, even the reaping of my bad sowing to work together for good.

So God will work my future out for good. He'll work my present out for good. But the Lord said, I'm not done.

You have to trust that I will work even the past. See, that's a little bit more difficult. I can't change the past.

I can't go back. That's another law of God. He doesn't allow us to go back and redo 10 years ago.

I can't even redo yesterday. I can't redo last week. Time marches on.

To trust that God will cause my past, which is written in ink and cannot be changed. The facts of the past cannot be changed. And to trust that God can cause that past that is unchangeable in its nature, in its fact, that God can cause even that to work together for my good, took an even deeper level of faith.

And I want to tell you, when God says all things, he means all things. The future, the present, and the past. Because otherwise, we would have to say, well, Lord, he would have had to say, well, all things from now onwards.

From the day you started to trust me, I can work all things out. But the past that you can't go back and redo, unfortunately, that's just there. And I hope that in what I'm sharing this morning, I can give you a little bit of a pointer to the God who is all powerful, who wrote in his word all things.

That it will become faith in you. I cannot give you faith, family. That's something only Jesus can give.

Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. If you hear Christ's voice speaking what I've just said to you, and it becomes faith, oh, it will transform your life. So I'm just pointing to the one who can give you faith.

You must go to him today and decide that it will become faith in your life. And so I saw the past as I look back on my past. See, there's a good way to look back on the past and a bad way.

A bad way to look at the past is you look at the past and it condemns you and brings you heaviness and condemnation. The good way to look at the past is like Peter says in 2 Peter 3, not having forgotten your forgiveness and your cleansing. So when I look back at the past now, because I've seen that God is going to cause even my past to work together for good.

Because he loves me so much and because he's so powerful. If God is even willing to work my past for good, then I have no fear of looking back at my past anymore. See, as I looked back at my past, I saw wildernesses.

I saw stones that I stumbled over and fell. What I mean by that is situations that happened in my life. Sins that I committed.

Years that I wished, oh I wish I could just have taken that particular year out of my history. That horrible thing I did and those horrible things I did that year, oh such regret. And I look back at those as like big rocks that I stumbled over in my life.

Specific days even I could remember. Months or even years that were like big stumbling blocks. Big rocks sitting in my past that I was thankful.

I didn't ever want to look back and think about those things. But as I meditated on Romans 8 verse 28, I found the Lord asking me to go and pick up those blocks and bring them to him. And I heard him say, Santosh, I'm going to use those blocks as a part of the building I'm building which is your life.

Your eternal home. I'm going to ask you to bring those things from the past that you're so ashamed of. Not the things that you did but the fact that I'm going to work even that into good.

How is God going to work the past into good? He can't change the fact that I did those things. He says your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. But how is God going to bring good out of the very sin and the iniquity that he doesn't remember anymore? That's an amazing thing for me.

Because God said all things. I said Lord if you said all things that has to include even those very sins and iniquities that you're not remembering anymore but you're bringing good out of. This has brought me such tremendous comfort family and I often have to go back to that and remind myself this is the same God.

And as he's brought me to a life of increasing victory and given me grace that I take no credit for that no man should boast. Ephesians 2 verse 9. By grace you have been saved through faith and it is the gift of God. He says at the end of that sentence that no man should boast.

That's why I said whether you had a good week in your own estimation or a bad week in your own estimation don't boast. My only plea is that you shed your blood for me Lord Jesus. And so as God has brought me increasingly to a life of victory in different areas and will bring me to a complete life of being an overcomer I believe when I see Jesus I will be like him.

I have that hope 1st John 2 verses 2 and 3. As I continue on that I often have to go back and remind myself God is still building a building that includes the good he is doing even from my past. And in eternity I think about my life being like a little building. Think about your marriage being like that, your home, your children being like that little building and I'll look at that one stone in particular and I'll know that stone comes from that particular year.

Maybe it was 2001 or 2018 or it could be 2025. And you look back and you remember 2025 that year that when I didn't have faith I wished I could just take out of my memory and remove all together. But because I trusted God he said go bring that year that you're ashamed of.

Bring it, bring that stone Santosh. And let's make it a part of this building and let me show you how I bring good even out of evil. God is in the business of bringing good out of evil not in spite of evil.

Yes that's a wonderful thing that in spite of evil despite all the evil he still does something good in me. But it's another completely different level of faith when he says I use the evil itself and I use those very things that you did bring good out of it. Yeah that's why if I could title my message today it would be this that God has a purpose even through failure.

There is power in failure that God is going to use for his glory. And so today I'll tell you my life is what it is today and it's by far far from complete. I have such a long way to go.

But today I see goodness in my life the goodness of God. Pieces of God's goodness which I know came through some of the most painful moments in my life. Some of the times of my most horrible failure.

Those are stones in the building today. I'm thankful for that. Luke 22 we read in verse 31 you know Peter's story that he was very sincere he really really wanted to follow the Lord.

And he really meant it when Jesus called him to forsake his nets and follow Jesus he really meant it. He immediately dropped his nets and said yes Lord I'll follow you. And yet down the road Jesus knew Peter was going to betray him and do something that was as evil as what Judas Iscariot himself did.

He was going to betray Jesus. A few hours from now when Jesus said these words Peter was going to curse like a fisherman cursed. In the old days they say curse like a sailor back then it was curse like a fisherman.

They were known for their foul language. And Peter's old foul nature was going to come out because he was put into a corner. He was going to be trapped and he didn't find any way out and so he just became his old self as it were.

And Jesus knew this. Old Peter is going to come out right now. You're going to curse in front of a little girl a little 8 year old girl 10 year old girl is going to say something.

And you're going to be so afraid you're going to feel so trapped that the old Peter is going to come out. I know it Peter. But verse 31 Simon Simon oh I love that he calls him twice Santosh Santosh.

It's love. It's not pointing a finger at you saying oh you're going to betray me. I know Jesus wasn't mocking Peter when he said Peter you're going to betray me.

He said Peter I love you. Simon Simon. Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.

He's demanded permission to shake you. But I prayed for you not that you won't fail. Not that you won't fall.

And today dear family Christ is interceding at the right hand of the Father and praying the same prayer for us. Santosh Santosh. Satan has come to me and asked permission to sift you like wheat.

Satan has asked permission that this week he can shake you. He's asked permission about you as well. And Jesus is praying.

And you know what Jesus' answer is? Yes go ahead Satan. Because of Romans 8 verse 28. See if you don't know God to be as powerful and loving and merciful and good.

Your God would say no Satan don't shake Santosh. Because I'm not powerful enough. If you shake him he might fall.

And then you know it's over. But God is so powerful that he says go ahead Satan shake him. Sift him.

Let him go through that. Let her go through that. It's perfectly okay.

Because Santosh trusts me that even that shaking and even if he was to fall through that shaking I'm going to turn it into good. He has come to that faith. And that's why Jesus' prayer was Simon I'm praying that your faith won't fail.

I don't mind if you fall Simon it's okay. I can handle the falling if your faith won't fail. Even the failure I can use in that building I'm building.

See how important faith is? Faith allows for failure. That's faith. Now before I go on further I must say Paul had such an understanding of this.

Let's come back to Luke but I want to show you a verse in Romans 3. Paul had such a deep understanding of this that he says in Romans 3 verse 8. If that's the case if faith allows for failure then failure doesn't matter right? So Romans 3 verse 8 why not as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say let us do evil that good may come. Paul had such a deep foundation in this truth that he knew that people would say well what he's saying is yeah go ahead and sin anymore doesn't really matter. But that's not what he's saying.

But you see how he had such a deep revelation of this. He was so grounded in the fact that God if you have such faith God can handle the failure part. The failure actually doesn't matter in fact God uses the failure.

And of course people will say well then why not we just go ahead and sin. Romans 6 verse 1 he says the same thing. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be.

But the point there is that Paul saw the goodness of God. And he had such faith. And it's I really believe sometimes too mystical to understand.

But the natural response will be for somebody who doesn't really know God will be like well then go ahead and sin. And there are people in the world who do that. The grace of God becoming licensed to sin.

Licentiousness Peter calls it. Yeah sure. And if that's what your response is as you hear this as I speak the tip of the iceberg of the grace of God as you hear that if your response is well then Santosh I guess you're saying I can go ahead and sin.

I can go ahead and lust with my eyes and lose my temper and love money and live for myself because God's grace right he's going to use the failure into good. That's a serious place to be. To take advantage of the grace of God and such a person I believe will find themselves in hell one day when there will be no more opportunity.

There is going to come a time for those who play around with sin. Who God yearns and yearns and calls and calls and calls and they put it off and say well no God's going to use my failure so I'm just going to keep failing and I'm not going to take it seriously and I'm going to live for this kingdom and live for myself and ignore the warnings. And one day they'll wake up in eternity when there is no more opportunity for repentance.

In a place where there is no mercy that is hell. But I don't think any of us wants to be there. I don't think any of us are in that place where we want to take advantage of the grace of God.

I'm speaking to you family because I believe you want to follow the Lord. You really don't want to take advantage of the grace of God but you find yourself failing. You find yourself not living up to the mark.

And you're beating yourself up perhaps today because you're not living up to the mark that you have set for yourself. Not the mark that God has set for you. He knows you can never live up to the mark.

But you think you have to live up to the mark and you find yourself falling short and falling short and falling short. And say Lord is it ever going to end this vicious cycle? He's here to set you free. Let's go back to Luke 22.

If he really has faith you can take him through whatever Satan. And the more you bring evil the more it's actually going to turn into good. So if you give him that much evil it's going to result in that much good.

You want to increase the evil? Sure it's only going to increase the good. You want to give him even more evil Satan? It's going to result in even more good because he has faith. Faith is the key that turns everything that the devil brings into your life into good.

Faith in God and in his promises. See God is able to keep us from falling. Jude verse 24 says that.

He's able to keep you from falling. Why then does he allow you to fall? Have you wondered that Lord? You're able to keep me from falling. Why then do I fall? Because he's after something more than just getting you not to fall.

One day you will stand with him. You know that verse? Let's look at it. Jude 2nd last book of the Bible.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy. That's what he's after. That one day you will stand in his presence blameless and that great joy will be his as much as it is yours.

So he's able to keep you from falling. But now when he allows you to fall it's because he's after something else. He wants you to trust him.

He wants you to live by faith. By trusting him. Trusting that even that failure is going to result in something good.

So God is able to keep you from falling. The question is will your faith fail? Will your faith fail? May it never be. Let's turn to Luke 15.

You know the story of the prodigal son and God in this story what I see that something was able to happen in the younger son that didn't happen in the older son. At the end of the story you find the younger son who's so excited just to be in the presence of his father. The older son is just like I've been here this whole time.

I want to leave. What happened that changed that younger son's perspective? In the beginning of the story the story starts with the younger son leaves. He's like I don't want to be around you dad.

But at the end of the story he's like I just want to be around you dad. What changed? He failed. That's what changed.

You see how failure accomplished something in the life of the younger son that couldn't be accomplished in the life of the older son who didn't fail as it were. Does that encourage you dear brother, dear sister that God will still use failure and your complete helplessness to accomplish something in your life that at the end of it you'll say Lord I just want to be in your presence. That's it.

Is there a longing within your heart that says Lord I hear people talking about the joy of dwelling in your presence but I don't seem to have it. I hear others who really seem to enjoy actually being in your presence. Can you give that to me? He says yes.

Here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to allow you to fail. How did the younger son come running back to the father? After some years ago he went running away from his father.

What changed? At the beginning of the story this younger son all he wanted to do was get as far away from his father as possible. A far away country it's called. Because he wanted to get as far away from his father as possible.

And then he fails and through that failure he says father I'm coming back. You know why? Let's read verse 16. There was a famine and he spent everything.

Verse 14 a severe famine occurred and then verse 16 he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him. At a time in his life when nobody would help him. Nobody would do anything to help him.

No one would give him anything. But then he came to his senses. He came to his senses and he says there's one place where I know I will be loved.

That's what I hear him saying. How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread? I am dying here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father.

There's one place that I know I will be loved. And please take this to heart. I don't know who this message is for.

Hopefully it's for all of us. Irrespective of how the last few weeks or days or weeks or months have been this message is for all of us. There is one place you will always be loved and that is in the presence of the father.

Now it took his failure to see it. He has always been loved. The father didn't change.

His love was eternal. His love was everlasting. The father in the story is a picture of God.

I have loved you with an everlasting love he says. I loved you with an everlasting love. The father's love didn't change but the younger son hadn't seen it.

But you see how amazingly because he failed, because he sinned so horribly and messed up his life so badly where no one else would love him. He said ah but there is one place I know I will be loved. I'm going to go back there.

Is that the message you need to hear today? Take it to heart. There is one place you will always be loved. And that's in the presence of the father.

And the church must be a representation of that. We pray often Lord let your presence be here. How will we know that the Lord's presence is here? Is that sinners know God is here and this is where I will always be loved because God is here.

That everlasting love of God is manifest in his church. I pray for that. That as we seek to be more Christ like.

As we pursue holiness and a fear of God without which we cannot see God. Pursuing that holiness without which we cannot see God. As we pursue that that the church will always be a place where even the worst sinner knows.

Ah I can go to RLCF that's where I will be loved. Because God is here. That's what the prodigal son.

And so I wrote this down so I would read it. God wants to bring you to a place where you realize that the only safe place is home with him. The only safe place is home with him.

And he is even willing even for you to fall to bring you there. Let me read that again. God wants to bring you to the place where you realize that the only safe place is home with him.

And he is even willing for you to fall to bring you there. He is even willing for you to sin to bring you there. To bring you to the place where the only safe place is home.

Because God can accomplish something like he did for that younger son. See before that before the younger son left home the father could have told him I love you my son. I love you my son.

I'm sure he did. Every morning the son woke up and his father told him I love you. I love you so much.

But it fell on deaf ears. How did those deaf ears come alive? Get reopened? He went out and failed. And then he said oh I remember every day my father told me he loved me.

And I missed it. I missed it. I didn't see it because it was right there.

It's all I'd ever known. Then he went out and failed so horribly where nobody loved him. Not even a single person loved him.

No one was giving him anything. But he came to his senses and says ah but there is one place I know I will be loved. That is home with my father.

We're told that he loves us with an everlasting love. And you know that verse that we hear often John 17 verse 23. This is one of the last things that Jesus prayed.

A few references you can keep in mind. Jeremiah 31 read it. Behold I have loved you.

The first three verses. Jeremiah 31 write it down so you can go back and read it. I don't have time to show you all these promises.

Behold I have loved you with an everlasting love. Isaiah 49 I have written your name on the palm of my hand. It's verse 15.

Remember these verses. He has loved you with an everlasting love. That love has not changed because of this last week or this last month or this last year.

It's an everlasting love which means it doesn't change. It doesn't go up and down. John 17 we know this verse well.

Verse 23. This was the prayer. These are the last almost the last words of Jesus to his disciples before he dies for them.

I in them and you in me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. You know that the father loves Jesus right. That's we know that.

You imagine how much love there is in heaven between the father and Jesus the father and the son. Do you actually believe family even though you heard this perhaps from the first day you came to RLCF. This is a verse we speak about often.

Do you really believe that right now at this very moment right now nothing else needs to change. You don't have to become a little bit more perfect exactly as you are the father loves you as much as he loves Jesus. See I used to think yes in heaven I will be made like Jesus so the father will love me then as he loved Jesus because he will see that I am like him.

Yeah that's true. But what about now? Sinful Santosh. God loves him as much as he loves Jesus.

The world must know that. This is how we'll be a light. It's not by handing out more tracts or you know standing on the street and street preaching.

If God calls you to do that that's great. But think this is what Jesus said. The world will know this.

Not that Santosh never falls. Not that Santosh never makes a mistake. But Santosh has such faith that he has a God in heaven who is his heavenly father who loves his eldest son Jesus and loves him even now exactly as he is with the same love.

If you have that faith then you will trust God fully. See let's turn to Zephaniah this verse you know as well also. Zephaniah chapter 3. I believe all of these have been memory verses for us as promises because we want to know these promises.

He is silently planning for you in love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. See I look at this like a wave right? The Lord your God is in your midst a victorious warrior.

He will exult over you with joy. He's shouting with joy and then there's a silence. And then it ends with yes he's rejoicing over you with shouts of joy.

It's that in between period when God is silent. Have you had those moments where you hear God shouting over you and rejoicing over you? That's great but what about when he goes silent? You don't know. What is he thinking about me right now? I know what I'm thinking about me right now.

I'm thinking about what a mess I made of that situation. How horrible I was. I could have done so many things differently.

I could have bitten my tongue. I could have said something else that would have been kinder. I could have done all those things and now I don't hear God rejoicing over me right now.

You know what he's doing? He's silently planning for you in love. God's plans for you include those times when he's silent. Dear family you must remember that.

And I thought about God's plans for me. It says in Revelation 13 that, let me quote it exactly, Revelation 13 that it says about Jesus, an interesting description we're told about Jesus that he, Revelation 13 verse 8, All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain. And I thought about this, that the plan, according to this, that that lamb was slain, that plan came into existence before the foundation of the world.

So the plan for Jesus to die for our sins, when do you think that God made a plan for Jesus to die for your sins? According to this verse, God made a plan for Jesus to die for Santosh's sins before even the foundations of the world. Santosh hadn't even shown up in the picture. I wasn't even born.

My grandparents had not been born. The world hadn't even existed. And before that world existed, into which many thousands of years later Santosh would be born, and then at some point Santosh would commit some sins, and commit more sins, and commit more sins, and commit lots and lots and lots of sins, millions, billions, trillions of years before that God said I gotta make a plan of salvation for him.

I've got to send my son for him because thousands of years from now he's going to commit a bunch of sins. You see how God started the plan of salvation? God made the solution for you before you even sinned? God made the way of salvation first and then you sinned because you knew you were going to sin. This has helped me because I thought, well Lord, before I knew you, I committed some sins out of ignorance.

I know you've forgiven those, but what about now? After I knew you, after I saw your love, I still committed those sins. Can you still forgive me for those? He says, Santosh, you forget that I made the plan of salvation long before you even came into the picture. This lamb was slain before the foundations of the world in God's mind as it were.

And then the next thing you read in Ephesians 1 verse 4 was, he adopted me before the foundations of the world to be part of his family. And said, okay, Jesus, my son is going to die on Calvary, and Santosh, I want him to be a part of that plan of salvation, so I'm going to write his name. Before the foundations of the world, and then here I came and did all these evil things.

And I come to God and say, Lord, is there hope for me? He says, of course there is. I created the solution before you created the problem. This is the God who loves us so much.

Your family, I think these are fundamental things, but often we go away from it. And then we have weeks where we create more problems for ourselves and think, well, Lord, it's hopeless for me now. He says, no, you forget, every problem that you will commit, that have committed, are committing, and will commit, I already made the solution for it.

And it's covered, it's cleansed completely. And so, dear family, when you feel like quitting, like the disciples did, you know, I wonder what went through Peter's mind. Let's turn to John 21.

As I started out saying, God wants to use your failure to accomplish his purpose for your life. If you really see this, family, I believe it will cause you to hate sin radically. It won't result in a greater love for sin.

I really believe if you get the essence of the message, you will hate, you will say, Lord, I've seen your love so much that I never want to grieve you again. That would be like the younger son coming back home and saying, Father, I, and seeing the reception he got. The party.

I mean, he expected, as you know, if you read that story, he expected just the father to tell him, go, your place is now with the servants, in the servants' quarters. If I feel like it, I'll give you some good food, but you can't ever come into my house again. That's what he expected.

But then he got a different welcome altogether. He saw his father running to him and embracing him and weeping over him and kissing him and saying, bring out the sandals and bring out that ring, taking it off his hand and saying, this is for you, and treating him better than he'd ever been treated before. Now, do you think that younger son will ever go back to the far country? Maybe he'll forget and he'll run out again, as I have.

But all it takes is eyes of faith. See, that's why Jesus said, I pray that your faith will never fail. Faith is having our eyes open to see God for who he really is.

Faith is having our eyes open to see God for who he really is. And if you have faith, don't let that fail, brother, sister, young person, child, whatever you go through. Some of you young children are listening to this.

I hope you are. Remember this when you fail down the road and you dishonor God, if you do, if you sin horribly, remember this, faith is seeing God for who he really is. The party throwing father who has loved you with an everlasting love and has not turned his back on you.

And he's going to help you. This is faith. And that's what Jesus is praying.

See, all the other problems, the sin that you've committed and you keep committing and you're defeated by, you're addicted to, that's no problem for him. The problem is faith. Faith ties the hands of God where he can't do anything anymore.

You think, well, Lord, it's too far gone for me. It's too hopeless. This is a situation you can't ever fix.

And God says, yeah, I can. According to your faith, you'll be unto you. You believe that you're too far gone, then you will be too far gone.

But somebody else who's even more too far gone than you has faith that God is actually able to set you free, will be set free. And you know what? I think about this often, that heaven, eternity will be story after story of people whose situation was so horrible that they trusted God. And he was able to build something beautiful and perfect out of it.

And there will be others who said, well, no, Lord, my situation is too hopeless. And theirs wasn't even as hopeless as those other people. But they didn't have faith.

Somebody else had faith that God, you can bring back the dead to life. And God did. Meanwhile, I said, well, Lord, the sickness is, I'm on the verge of death.

It's too late. And God says, OK. Somebody else was in a worse situation than me, actually trusted God.

And God did the miracle for them. Let it not be that you or I are in that category of people who said, well, Lord, it's too late. Don't quit before the miracle happens.

It's coming, brother, sister. The miracle is coming. It will not delay.

That promise is going to be fulfilled if you have faith. Don't let your faith fail. And God is in the business of using failure to accomplish his purpose in your life.

Please remember this. God is using your failure. Not saying, OK, let's forget about that.

No. He forgets your sins and iniquities. Yes, I believe that.

He does not remember them anymore. But he wants to use it to fulfill his purpose in your life. John 21, after Peter had betrayed Jesus, Peter for whom Jesus had prayed that his faith would not fail.

Peter, finally, you know the story how just after Peter betrays Jesus, the cock crows and he happens to look up and then he sees Jesus. He's caught in his sin. What happens when you're caught in your sin? In the world, if the police catch you, they're going to hold you to jail.

You get pulled over with a DUI. They have you do the breathalyzer. OK, you breathe 0.08, come, you're going to go to jail now.

Or you get caught having an affair. This happens now. You get caught.

Now it's like, oh, your whole world is destroyed. What happened when Peter got caught by Jesus? He went out and wept bitterly. Jesus wasn't there to point a finger at him and say, fine, Peter.

See, I told you. I told you six hours ago you were going to betray me. See, that's not Jesus.

That's the devil. But Peter caught a glance of Jesus as he was caught in the very act of betraying him and he saw a look of compassion. He saw, I believe, the picture of the father running to Jesus, running to the younger son that Peter remembered Jesus telling him the story about.

I believe that when Peter looked up and saw and his glance happened to see Jesus being led away in the hallway, he saw the look of the father running to him and he wept bitterly. But he still wasn't sure. He said, well, he wasn't sure.

In John 21 you find Peter at that place where he says, I don't know what's going to happen. Now Jesus is dead and raised from the dead and Peter is now living with the guilt still. He hasn't been filled with the Holy Spirit yet.

He's still living with the guilt of all the things that he did. He's beating himself up and all night he stays up and says, Lord, I can't believe you warned me and I still didn't get it. I was sure that everybody else would betray you, but I was never going to.

And I was the one that did. And he's beating himself and beating himself up. And he finally decides, well, probably I'm not worthy to be a disciple.

And so he says, listen, I'm going fishing. And here he's a bunch of other people. You know, misery loves company.

She's got a bunch of other disciples who all also feel a little bit like him. And so they all go fishing. Them going fishing was a picture of them saying, let's not be disciples anymore.

Lord, you pick somebody else. You made a mistake in including me here. Do you feel like you don't belong at RLCF because we want to be disciples? I'll tell you honestly, brother, sometimes I feel like I don't belong here.

I'll tell you why. Because I'm reminded of those things that I've done and how long it's taken to me. But I'll tell you why I'm still here.

Because my faith has not failed. And I pray that if you choose to be a part of RLCF, I hope you will, that you'll be here because we're a group of people who say, Lord, our faith's not going to fail because you're praying for that. And we're not going to give up faith.

No matter how many times we fall and how many times we have to get up, one thing RLCF will never give up is faith. And Jesus came looking for him. You know that story.

Jesus came looking for him. So I want to close by talking about, just briefly, I can't close without speaking about the Holy Spirit. Because it's the Holy Spirit who allows us to hear the voice of Christ, which gives us faith.

And it's fascinating to me, as I was thinking about it even this morning, meditating on what to say here, that whenever God spoke about giving the Holy Spirit, he spoke about weak people, failures, messy situations. For example, Luke 11. It's a person who didn't plan enough.

He ran out of food. And this guest was coming to his house and didn't have enough food. And so he goes to his neighbor.

Have you ever had to go to your neighbor and say, hey, do you have any food? Sometimes we see people who are experiencing homelessness on the streets. They're asking for food or a handout or some money. I think that must be so shameful.

I've never had to do that, to stand and beg for food. It's a shameful situation to be in. I feel compassion for them if they have to be in that situation.

And here, Jesus is using that example. Here's somebody who's in a shameful situation, that he has to go to his neighbor and say, hey, please, can you just give me a couple slices of bread, please? Shameful situation. And he's speaking about the Holy Spirit.

Another one is in Luke 18, where a widow has a lot of debt and somebody's taking advantage of that. Helpless, hopeless situation. And the only person who can help her is a man who's unrighteous.

And she knows he's unrighteous. He doesn't fear God or man, we read in the story. See, these were imaginary stories that Jesus invented to tell a story, to make a point.

That's the parable. Why did Jesus pick such horrible, hopeless-seeming situations? Because he knew you and I would be in those situations today in 2025. He says, I'm going to pick the worst possible case so that you will have faith.

That it is for those hopeless, helpless people that I have designed the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is intended for those who are helpless and hopeless. There's a saying in the world, God helps those who help themselves.

That's an absolute lie. Because there's nobody in the world that can help themselves. God helps those who cannot help themselves.

God helps those who have tried to help themselves, who tried to make it, and after the millionth time, they finally want to give up. God says, now you're ready for the Holy Spirit. And that's my testimony, brothers and sisters, that I have experienced the true filling of the Holy Spirit, I believe.

Not here to boast, but simply to give my testimony that when God finally filled me with the Holy Spirit, and fills me with the Holy Spirit, it happened when I deserved it the least. When I dishonored His name the most, and felt so completely helpless and hopeless that I said, Lord, I've been praying for the Holy Spirit, and praying for the Holy Spirit, and I still keep dishonoring Your name, I'm about ready to give up. He says, OK, now you're ready for me to give you the Holy Spirit.

God gives His Holy Spirit to those who are desperate, because they have no other hope, and are completely helpless. Meditate on those stories, Luke 11 and Luke 18, and ask God to show you why He has sent the Helper. The Helper is called a Comforter.

Who are the ones who need comfort? The ones who have messed up, the ones who are weeping, the ones who are beating themselves up, they're the ones who need comfort. And if there's one name He gives the Holy Spirit, it's the Comforter. Isn't that wonderful? Are you in need of comfort today, dear brother, dear sister, dear child? Are you in need of comfort today? There is a Comforter.

His name is the Holy Spirit. Designed, having a personality exactly built for your situation. He, the Holy Spirit.

Finally, Jesus tells Peter, I prayed for you that your faith will not fail, and when you have turned, now repent, having seen this God, having remembered the Father who loves you so much, having come to your senses now, and having repented, now I'm going to use you to strengthen my brothers. That's Luke 22, 32. And having repented, strengthen your brothers.

I imagine that younger brother, you know it says the father went out to the older brother, and the older brother at the end of the story is upset. And I imagine that the older brother now walks away, but now the younger brother runs after him. I'm imagining a story playing out now in Luke 15.

The younger brother goes to him and says, older brother, I made a mess. Don't go and make the same mess that I made. Our father loves us.

It took me destroying my life to see it, but you don't go do the same. And you can strengthen a brother. You can strengthen a sister.

Despite the mess that you've made, you don't have to tell them the details of all the sins you've done and how you've dishonored God's name. You don't have to dig up the past and use that. No.

We don't have to hear all the details about your past, but your faith can be a strength to somebody else who's about to go and make the same mistake you did. And you can say, brother, don't go do that. No, I can tell you God loves you.

Even if you feel hopeless, even if you feel like you're groping in the dark and you can't find God, He's there when He's silent. He loves you. He's planning for you.

You see how you can strengthen your brothers? If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you can. If you really experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the power, you will say, Lord, take that thing from my past and make it a part of my building. And I don't have to recount all the details and all the ways in which I sinned and all the things I did.

No, but let it be an encouragement to somebody. Let me strengthen my brothers. Yeah, I'll close with this.

I keep saying I'll close. I want to read a psalm we read recently in our Bible reading. If you were following the Bible reading, it always helped.

It blessed me so much. Psalm 145. I hope you didn't miss it.

I've read the psalm before and I missed it. Finally, this week I got it. And perhaps there's more yet that I will get.

But let's read it together. Psalm 145. Beautiful psalm.

Psalm 145. I will extol you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you.

Make that your goal for this week. Every day, no matter how I feel, no matter what happens, no matter even if I have fallen, every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised.

And his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another. My parents praised God.

And I'm here, another generation, to praise God. And my children and every child here in this church, we want them to praise God from one generation to another. One generation shall praise, shall declare your mighty acts.

Oh, the glorious splendor of your majesty. And on your wonderful works I will meditate. We shall speak of the power of your awesome acts.

And I will tell of your greatness. Does this sound like somebody who did everything right? Oh, let's read. They shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of your righteousness.

Who? Let's read verse 14. All who are falling. In the New American it says all who fall.

I liked how it read in the ESV. All who are falling. Are you in that place? You're falling now.

You feel like I'm on the edge. Santosh, I'm blessed by what you shared, but I still don't know if this week is going to be a week of victory. I don't know.

It's just been a constant defeat and it's a constant defeat and there's that. I'm on the edge. The Lord sustains all who are falling.

Oh, take that to heart. If you feel like you're falling, he'll sustain you. These are the ones who are singing his praise from one generation to another.

It's not the perfect ones. Like Jesus said, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, it's the sick. It's the ones who are falling that God sustains.

The others who don't think they're falling, they'll fall one day because the Lord's not going to sustain them. Oh, it's brought me such comfort. The Lord, verses 14.

No, let's keep reading. I skipped a few verses. Verse 8. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and great in loving kindness.

The Lord is good to all and his mercies are over all his works. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and your godly ones shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power.

To make known to the sons of men your mighty acts and the glory of the majesty of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. Words of a falling people.

The Lord sustains all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. If you came into this room bowed down by something, whatever it might be. He's going to raise you up.

He wants to raise you up. The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in due time. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds. Have you seen it? Righteous and kind, just and merciful. How is it that God can uphold the standard of his justice and say, you shall reap what you sow? You will have to reap what you sow, yes, but I will turn it into good.

The Lord is good, just and merciful, righteous and kind in all his deeds. It's not sometimes righteous and sometimes kind, sometimes just and sometimes merciful. Every single one of his deeds is full of righteousness and full of mercy, full of justice and full of kindness together in one.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him. Oh, will you call on him today then? The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth, to all who are desperate. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him.

He will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. And so my mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Where are you today, dear brother, dear sister? If it's been a good week, are you still the falling one, knowing that let him who takes, thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall? Are you the one that has fallen, so you see yourself as a falling one? I hope all of us see us, ourselves, as those who are prone to fall if the Lord doesn't sustain us. If the Lord hadn't helped us, we would have fallen. That's what we shall say.

And if I haven't fallen in a particular way this week, it's simply because the Lord has sustained me. That's it. And in any moment if the Lord withdraws his sustaining hand, I will fall.

The Lord sustains all who are falling. Let's pray. If you came in here bowed down, if you came in here falling, lift up your head, brother, sister, child.

Lift up your head. Heavenly Father, I pray that we'll see you. No more needs to be said, Lord, I believe, other than simply us coming to you and crying out to you and saying, Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit.

Thank you that you've sent the Holy Spirit to be a comforter, specifically to help us in our situations of need. Oh, that you will pour out your Holy Spirit upon us even now afresh, Lord, that not one of us will miss this. Make an altar, dear brother, dear sister, dear child, right now, a personal altar where you fall on your feet, fall on your knees before God and say, Lord, I give myself to you.

Fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit. A spirit of faith. Pour out a spirit of faith on us, Lord, I pray.

Faith that can withstand any trial and any shaking that you take us through because our eyes have been opened to see you for who you really are. Pour out that spirit, Lord, I pray. We lift up our cup to you.

We lift up our vessels to you. We lift up our hearts to you. We open our mouth wide and asking you, Lord, to pour out a spirit of faith in this church.

Pour out a spirit of faith on us men who need it so that we can be godly examples to our families. Pour out your spirit of faith on us sisters, Lord, so that we can be a strength and a help to our children and to our husbands and to other sisters in the church. Pour out the spirit of faith in our homes.

Pour out that spirit of faith in our children, Lord, no matter what they go through, that they will trust you, that their faith will not fail. Pour out that spirit of faith on every single one of us here in this church, Lord, that this day onward will be different, that our faith will grow and we will be a righteous people who live by faith, from faith to faith, Lord. And when you come, Son of Man, will you find faith here at RLCF? May it be so, Lord, we believe it shall.

Thank you. Seal these words in our hearts, not my words, Lord, but yours through the Holy Spirit, that in that moment of situation, that moment of trial when we need it most, our eyes will look up in faith and see your glance of love, your gaze of love upon us. Thank you for drawing us by your mercy.

We thank you, give you all the glory and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.