Setbacks Not Failures | Elder Terence Atkinson

You're listening to a message to go from at church. We hope this message

will light up your day. Today's message is hopefully something that will encourage all

of us, because God wants to encourage us, especially since being the last

days, and I'm sure we are out there doing what the Lord tells us

to do by sharing Jesus with our friends and family. And sometimes we get

discouraged because it seems as if nothing is happening. It seems as if nobody

is coming to the Lord and we are speaking in the air and we're not

having any success. And sometimes we go to work and we think, well,

everything's okay, and then suddenly it's not. Well. I want you

to know there is an answer. Setbacks are not failures. Setbacks are not

failures. And some times we think we fail because we have a setback and

it prevents us from moving forward. We kind of stay where we are,

We kind of wallow in pity and sadness. Why me, Lord, why

is this happening? I mean, I have been doing good and for no

rhyme nor reason stuff takes place. Well, that's not exactly the case,

because there's a reason for everything. This morning, I'm going to be sharing

from Second Samuel Versus six three to five, and let's read it. So

they set the ark of God on a new cart. Okay, do you

know what the ark of God is? If you don't know what it is,

you have to go back and read the Old Testament. When the Lord

delivered the children from Israel, and you know, a children not from Israel,

from when he delivered them from Egypt, right and they were walking in

the desert. And then after that, you know, God told them,

you know, told Moses, I want you to build this ark. In

this ark will have two angels with their wings outstretched over the center. And

this ark is going to be placed in the tent. And I want you

to know that God does not reside in things made by human hands. However,

the ark was to be a representation of His holy presence in that tent,

and he gave specific instructions to the children of Israel that when you move

this is how you're supposed to move it. This is how it's supposed to

be, and you must not touch it. How many of you have read

the Old Testament and you've read about you are, and you know that God

was very serious when he said you must not touch it, for if you

touch it, you will die. Okay, So since all of you have

said that, that means I know you've read that portion, and it seems

a little bit strange that God would say that. But you have to understand

that our human uh, the makeup of our human physicality has never been catered

to touch the holy presence of God directly. You know, how many of

you know that? When? When? When? When? When Moses said,

you know, God, I want to see you, and and God

told Moses, okay, this is what I'll do for you. I'm going

to hide you in a rock, and I'm going to pass by, and

I'm gonna, you know, cover your eyes and when I pass by,

I'll let you see something. And God did that, and you know,

you know, as got passed by, Moses could only see that that glows,

so you see the back, but he couldn't see the face. Why

because the physicality of our eyes was never meant to behold the unbridled power of

our God, which is why we will only see God in our new body,

one that will be given to us when we expire from this earth and

go and be with the Lord. We are given a new body, a

glorified body. But that's all not the message. That is just to give

an idea what the ark is about. So now they set the ark of

God on a new cut and brought it out of the house of Amid Binadab.

Okay, I'm going to have difficulty with these names, all right,

so you will forgive me. Doesn't roll off the town. I wonder how

these guys when they were actually saying, they must have been used to it

just doesn't roll off the tongue. Amin A Dab Okay, that sounded okay,

all right? Why was it in the house of amid A Dab read

the scripture. It's not in my message today, okay. If not,

we will never get forward. We'll be moving backwards. Not my purpose,

which was on the hill. On the hill. You know that that this

on the hill was mentioned twice and uzza and ah here the sons of Amida

Dab drove the new car, so inverse four, and they brought it out

of the house of Amida Dab. It's getting better, which was on the

hill mentioned twice? Why on the hill? Okay, So I a the

Lord this question. And this morning when I was walking at three am,

three that's the time I get up to walk. I know it's strange to

some of you, but it's a lovely time to walk. There's nobody there,

it's just you and the Lord. You can praise the Lord, you

can worship him, and before anybody turns on the light in their house,

you're there with the Lord, enjoying the cool of the morning. So the

Lord gave an answer, and this answer, I hope will bring you a

blessing on a hill, meaning that sometimes our lives are on a hill,

on the up and up. Everything is going right, it's good, life

is good. The presence of God is up there with us on the hill,

the arc of the Covenant on a hill. It was good. How

many of you have experienced those hills in your life where everything's going great?

Can I see your hands? Okay, praise the Lord. So now you

have to understand that sometimes it's not sufficient to remain in one place of blessing,

especially when God has a different height for you to be at. You

have a different place to be so God can bless you some more. And

in order to do that, sometimes you will have to go down hill and

you say, oh, that's not you. Lord, Listen, the Bible

say we go from glory to glory. Yes, the Bible says that,

but the Bible also says that in your journey to glory you will face challenges.

I mean, if we only go from glory to glory, why did

Paul say, I've got this thorn in my flesh and I sought the Lord

and he says, forget about it, man, you just trust in me

I'm paraphrasing, of course, for my strength. It's made perfect in your

weakness. And then I love what Paul says. Oh, then I'll boasted

my weakness so that God can be strong. So now always remember that when

we are going everything's going fine and going well, and we want to move

on to a greater destiny, sometimes you go down a hill, you know

what I mean, and things aren't as smooth as the should be. So

as they brought it down to the house out of the House of Ahmed Dah,

which was on the hill accompanying the ark of God, and a hel

went before the ark. So always just keep that in the back of your

mind that when you are moving to another stage of glory, you may have

to come down off the hill that you're on. You see, you don't

get to the mountain by staying on the hill. You don't climb a mountain

by remaining on a hill. How many of you are known? Do they

call a mountaineer a person who climbs mountains? What did they call them?

Okay, climb the mountain? Climber? Du The thing is this, how

many people make a big deal about I'm a hill climber. Nobody bothers,

right, yeah, but nobody bothers. Nobody bothers you climb a hill.

So what but you see I climbed the mountain? Yes, sir, Wow,

we need mountains in our life so that people can see how God is

blessing us. Anyway, let's move on. So David and all the House

of Israel played music before the Lord, on all kinds of instruments of fur

wood, on harps and stringed instruments, on tambourines, on systems, and

on symbols. There was celebration. How many of us know that celebration is

not always worshiped. Celebration is not always pray. The Bible says they played

music before the Lord. I play music in my car. Does that mean

I'm worshiping the Lord? Because not all the time of music is worship music.

Sometimes it's instrumental. How many of you have heard the song Feels So

Good by Chuck MENGIONI you don't even know how I'm talking about. Go and

listen to the song Feels So Good by Chuck Menjoenny. A lovely song,

but it's not worship. So sometimes we may confuse what we're listening to.

Yeah, yeah, it's a song of praise and glow, but are we

worshiping? Just because you listen to gospel music doesn't mean you're praising the Lord.

It simply means you're listening to gospel music. You know, there are

many non believers who listen to gospel music and who don't worship the Lord.

We have to take note, and I'll explain as we go along. And

when they came to Nachons, sounds like nachos. And when they came to

Nachon's threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to the ark of God and

took hold of it for the oxen stumble. How many of you know that

coming down from the hill is not always a smooth journey. It's rocky,

it's rough, and sometimes you may stumble, stumble, doesn't mean fall.

Stumble can mean fall, but stumble doesn't mean fall. It means you can't

lose your balance, but a lot of us don't. Actually, every time

we lose a balance fall out, true. Not when we lose a balance,

we catch ourselves and we you know, shaky, shaky, but we

stand up ry. Not Now they're walking down the hill and the oxen stumbled,

And how many of you thought that this guy Usa put out his hand

to prevent it from falling, and he took hold of it as the oxen

stumbled, and the anger of the lord in verse seven aroused against Uzzah,

and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the

ark of God. How many of you have read this passage before? See

your heads? How many of you thought that God was a bit harsh here?

Honestly bit harsh? Right? I mean, the guy is preventing the

ac from falling, and God killed him. This is the answer. You

can touch God with faith, don't ever touch God with doubt. You can

touch God with faith, but don't ever touch God with doubt. I'll explain

this God who created the heavens and the earth and put everything in its place.

He has caused that molten ball of iron in the center of this earth

to spin in order to give the earth a magnetic field that keeps away radiation

that comes from the Sun, which is why we are alive today. This

God has spoken this and caused this to happen, and he has placed the

Sun ninety three million miles away from the Earth, and he has caused the

Earth to spin on its axis if I'm not mistaken, at twenty six degrees.

For if it was a little degree off, we would all die.

But at that particular angle, everything that's supposed to receive the warmth of the

sun gets it equally. This same God, who put everything in its place,

said, don't touch. Do you think I cannot cause a miracle to

prevent that ark from falling? When you touched the ark? Are you not

telling me I'm not sufficient? Are you not telling me I cannot protect my

own word? Are you telling me you are better than me? Who are

you? Do you see why God was angry at Uza because when Usa did

that, Usa was doubting God's ability to hold the ak up. Because the

Oxen stumbled, that's so like us, right, because we don't believe that

God will come through in our lives. We kind of take a lot of

things into our own hands. We do a lot of stuff to prevent things

from falling. But I gotta ask you, are we doing what God told

us to do? Are we telling God, God, we trust you,

or are we putting our hand on the ark and saying I got to prevent

you from falling? God? Man as I walked and the Lord gave me

this understanding. By the way, I preached this message in two other churches,

and they didn't get this understanding. They only got the understanding. And

the Lord spoke to me and said, the hell is mentioned twice, so

there must be something to it. So I asked God about it. You

are getting the current version. The current version is powerful because when I received

it this morning, I said, my word, Lord, I understand.

I understand. Sometimes when things are not going our way? Are we giving

God a helping hand? Ask yourself? Did God ask for it or did

he not say don't touch you? Know? If Uza had said, God,

I see the oxen stumbling, but I have faith that you will hold

the oxen up, so I'm not gonna do anything. You know, he

had said that God would have done some miracle and say, uzza, because

you did that, I'm gonna bless you with this, with this, with

this, with it. God's like that. You want to touch God,

you touch him with faith, do not touch him with doubt. So now,

okay, so that part, okay, So you're saying, how is

this encouraging? Okay, just just just just buried me. Okay, just

buried me. The house is encouraging. Well, David now became angry,

and some of us become angry because of what happens when it doesn't seem as

if things are going away. So David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak

against Uza, and he called the name of this place peis Usa. To

this day, now, I'm sure there's a meaning behind it, which I

did not look up, because that's not my message today. Paris Usa means

something to the effect that the Lord's anger remained, or you know, something

along that line. So have we ever felt that we were doing the right

thing? How many of us have felt that we have been doing the right

thing? Sometimes? So sometimes doing the I think doesn't necessarily mean we are

doing the right thing. It just means that we think we're doing the right

thing. Hey, let's not think that we're doing the right thing. Let's

know whether we're doing it right or not. Sometimes we believe there's no progress

here. We are moving along swell, and then suddenly somebody comes and takes

all our stuff and we think, oh, there's no progress. Let me

tell you, if God takes away those stuff, it means those staff are

not to be there for your next phase in life, because they would have

been people who distracted you from God's blessing. So I heard that in the

morning that you were sharing, and I thought to myself, God, what

do you think? He says, well, the person was not supposed to

be there for the next phase in your growth, for the next phase in

your growth. And then we feel others had to blame. Others had to

blame David Fether God was to blame. Hey, God, he was trying

to do something good and you killed him. David didn't get it. Later

on, I think he got it, but not now, Not now,

No wants to blame except us. The responsibility of knowing right from wrong,

the responsibility of knowing what to do, when to do it, to do

it or not, rest with us. So get with the program. We

have to get in. Then we have to understand. When we are young,

we can rely on your parents make the decision, but you will not

forever be able to do that, because the time will come when you will

have to decide on your own. At that point of time, will you

have what it takes? You know what it takes. It takes the word

of God. And now we feel sometimes we have failed. You know what's

the worst thing about feeling you have failed? It paralyzes you. It paralyzes

you. Have you heard this statement paralysis of analysis? Have heard that before?

You analyze, and you analyze, and you analyze, and you know

what you do with all you're analyzing, You don't move. It's very sad.

It's very sad. Which is why great things happened to Peter. You

know, Peter never analyzed anything because he didn't analyze that he walked on water.

You say whatever you like about Peter. Some extraordinary things happened to him

because he was not a person who analyzed. So let's not I'm not saying

do things without thinking. No, I'm not saying that, But I am

saying better to do than be paralyzed. You know, another understanding of being

paralyzes. You know what, Lord, I knew you were a tough man,

so I took the talents and hid in the ground, you, faithless

and wicked servant. What you had is removed from you and given to the

one who's got ten. To them who has more will be given to those

who have none. Even what they have will be taken away from them.

You know why he was paralyzed. He didn't move. He had what he

needed, but he didn't move. So how do we react in this situation?

You know? How do we react when we seem to have failed or

when something doesn't go according to plan? Well? Anger? Do we get

angry at someone anyone? Do we get angry at God? I know some

people who are angry at God to this day, angry with God because it

appears as if they haven't moved the way God told them they should move.

And I'm thinking to myself, that's very wise of hum. You want to

be angry with God? The ant saying to the elephant, I'm angry with

you. The hair from the elephant's tail falls and the end, the end

is crushed. What's the matter with you? What's the matter with me?

Do we pit ourselves against God, we will lose every time fear. The

Bible says that David was now paralyzed with fear. He left the ark there.

Oh I in moving the art, let it stay there. I'm so

angry with this God, because hey, the guy did a good thing.

Man, the thing was goodness. So angry so what he just left it

there? He didn't want to touch? Do we doubt the plan? So

we're coming down the mountain and sometimes and mostly us, when we come down

the mountain the hill most of the time, when things are not going so

well without the plan, without that God has said, my thoughts for you

are always yes and amen. With doubt that. And so when things don't

seem to go right, we just like snails, slide back into the shell

and don't move. You know how many of you know that as long as

the snail is cowering in the shell, it doesn't move. It only moves

and it shows its head and comes out of its shell. As I said,

paralysis does it stop us? Are you and I to be a people

that are stopped because we come down hills? If we don't come down from

the hill, we'll never climb the mountain. I want you to know what's

right is right and will always be right. God is right. Let God

be right and we be wrong. That's the attitude that we must have to

succeed. So what's right is right. The ark of the Lord remained in

the house of obed Edom the guitar three months, and the Lord blessed obed

Edom and all his household. So David didn't want to move. Right.

Oh, I'm not touching the ark. I'm so angry with God because Uza

died, So I'm not moving it. God's pushed her? Is God pushed

When we don't do what God has told us to do, It's okay,

somebody else going to be blessed. And in this case obed Idam was blessed

man. He ain't his How what did he do? He did absolutely nothing.

The Ark of the Covenant just remained there. The presence of the Lord

just remained there. He did nothing. He didn't move the aark. He

was not told to move the ark. He was not responsible to move the

ark. But if you don't do it, God will bless somebody else with

the blessing that was meant for you. Wow, God is like that.

No, we are like that. Don't blame God, I love this.

What's right? He is right. So now it was told to King David,

saying, the Lord has blessed the house of obed Edom and all that

belongs to him because of the Ark of God. What did he take through

three months? There's a very simple answer. There was no internet. I

mean the internet happened. Donald Trump was shot at forty eight minutes ago.

I'm already receiving it in the morning, forty eight minutes after it happened.

By the way, I think the bullet may have grazed the year, just

missedimps and hit somebody behind. But news will travel. When David Hurd,

hey, oup Idam is being blessed, he thought to himself, that is

my blessing. Man, that's supposed to be my blessing. Who's fall?

Is it God's fault? No? Did God ask you to leave it there?

No? But it was left where because of all the things that were

happening. David's thoughts regarding what happened. So now after he heard that there

is blessing in the ark, he decides, no, it's coming home.

I'm coming home. There's a song, right, Okay. So David went

and brought up the ark of God from the house of Albert Idam to the

city of David with gladness. So now David had a change of heart.

Where he was angry, he is now glad. I want you to know.

And so it was what's the difference between the second time and the first

time. This is key, This is key to success. This is the

most important key. And so it was that when those bearing the arc of

the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and vettered sheep.

This time there was careful sacrifice. The first time there was celebration cell libration

time. Come on, that's a celebrity song. Celebration is it to God?

Know? So there are lots of music and dancing, and but I

know dancing. There was a lot of music, but what what was it?

It was just celebration. In this case there was careful sacrifice every six

paces. Can you imagine? I do not know how many pieces from obered

Idam's house Jerusalem, if it was one mile, one mile is one thousand,

six hundred one point six kilometers. One kilometer is seven thousand, five

hundred steps. I know I track all the time. Seven thousand and five

hundred three thousand, seven hundred and fifty plus seven thousand, five hundred is

roughly ten to eleven thousand steps divided by six. Go figure how many times

they stop to worship the Lord in sacrifice to his glorious name. Careful sacrifice.

You want to see your setback turn into success, because it's not a

failure. You have to have careful worship. The next thing you know is

there was worship in offering. David said aside key garments. So now David

gets involved personally. Before it was somebody else driving the car. Who's as

brothers? I think if I'm not, I always think of Ohio. But

it's a heel Chinese guy. No, no, no, Japanese. There's

more Japanese. Yeah, Okay, now my bad job. Okay. So

the thing is David set aside his kingly garments. He set aside those robes

which made him look like a king. He set aside his kingly pride,

and he it all is my And the work was say, he simplified his

attire. He just wore a lenin effort. Okay, there's a simple attire

so that he could worship unrestricted. The work was not done until the carefully

prepared, offerings are made, and scripture says if you read on that the

Ark finally made its way to Jerusalem and read what it says a little later

on, it says this, when that time came, David gave gifts to

the people. You see, after God's user, David was ready and gave

generously to the people. God's blessing for you is never meant just for you.

It's meant for you to be a blessing to somebody else. So,

in a nutshell, one more missing, go to the next griet next.

Okay, there you go. So there was generosity and lastly last light success.

Success. Setbacks are not failures, guys. It's just an opportunity to

get it right, just an opportunity to get it right. God wants supernatural

blessings for you. But in order for you to get to that next mountain

or hill, you got to track down carefully in faith, not allowing your

setbacks to detract from who God is and how great he is and how mighty

is So that when you realize that and you change your stance and you remove

the kind of things that prevent you from worshiping God, when you remove your

pride and you get down on what, you don't get down on it.

You get down into praising the Lord, and you do so carefully. You

worship the Lord. You acknowledge with every you know, every few paces that

you're making who God is and how great he is and why He's going to

make it successful. And then you know what happens. You succeed, and

always remember when you succeed, bless somebody else, Praise the Lord. We

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for you. God bless