I want to just conclude this series I've been doing on the Blame Game. How many are much more aware of people blaming? [Laughter] Man, isn't it everywhere! It's not my fault. It's not my fault, and someone else did it, it's someone else is responsible to fix it, it's always out there, someone else's fault. It's the people, it's the circumstances, it's where I've come from, it's my family, it's the government, it's New Zealand, it's the world. Whatever it is, it's always out there. If it's out there, you can't do anything, but if you actually own up, you can actually do something, if you take ownership. In this next season in the year, we're going to be looking at what it means to be apostolic people, and you'll find to be an apostolic person means you have taken a hold in your heart, that you have an assignment from God, and you will assume responsibility to fulfil your assignment in the community. So if you buy in to the blame game, you can never be what God called you to be. You have to recognise that buying into the blame game - by that I mean that we're blaming someone else for problems, and believing someone else is going to have to fix it up. When you buy into that, you remain a victim, you remain powerless, you cannot be part of the answer that God wants us to be. We have to absolutely reject the blame game, in every form, and say: I am going to be part of the answer, I'm going to be part of the solution.
So what I want to do today is, I want to share another aspect of the blame game. I'm going to go back to where it started, and isn't it amazing, it started when someone failed. The blame game, passing the buck. That's what it's called here, pass the buck you know? I liked it with Barack Obama. I liked it when he said: well the buck stops here! [Yeah.] I like that. That's good leadership, and that's the indications of a man who's going to do something about things. I like that.
He said: something went wrong. He said: it's my responsibility, I'll work on it to make it right. That's good stuff. That's a man who's not playing the victim. It's a man who stood up and said he's going to be part of the solution. You want to see these kinds of things. It's like a new thing happening, instead of blaming everyone else for the problems. So we're going to look at the blame game, and what I want to look at today is: dealing with failure. Is there anyone here who hasn't failed? I'd just like to meet them and shake their hand, it'd be quite nice actually. [Laughter] Sort of was hoping I might find someone here. Often in churches there's sort of this thing that you can't fail, because you're a Christian or something. Where did they get that idea? I just asked: who didn't fail; everyone here failed see, including me. See, everyone failed. Everyone makes mistakes. The Bible says: the steps of a good man - and we're good men and women, because God has made us good. Our goodness is because God has put goodness in us, He's in us. So the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, though he fall, though he fall. Well he won't stay down, he'll get up, because the Lord lifts him up. I like that.
So it doesn't matter how much you fall, if you reach out to God, He'll get you back up again. So failure for a Christian, well that's just a temporary inconvenience, and a great opportunity to learn. There's one thing sure, you can rely on God to get you back up again see? Says the righteous man, though he falls seven times - in other words, he keeps falling over - God will lift him up again. God always loves to lift people up again, and it's interesting that when you get into a church environment, there's this whole fear of failing seems to come round people. Not only that, there's with it a religious Pharisaic spirit, that judges people for failing, as though we hadn't failed. I don't know, but when we just took communion there, my understanding of communion is ain't no way to get into heaven, until you bow the knee and admit you've failed. The rich man, the poor man, the wealthy man, it won't matter who they are, we all come into heaven the same way. You bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and you admit: I failed. [Laughs] Yes, you're going to have to admit something, got to own up, and that someone took responsibility for the failure. When you acknowledge your failure, and reach out and take responsibility to believe, then what will happen is, God can lift you up and make you change, so that's a great thing to know.