If you keep repeating the same failure, inevitably you weren't learning, and you were blaming, and so we've got to not get into the blame game, so we can actually deal with our mistakes honestly, because they are going to come. The Bible abounds in them. I love this. I like to look in the Bible, and the Bible's glorious, and it doesn't just tell you all the good things God did, and the people He used. It tells you the terrible things that people did. It just gets all their mistakes out. Imagine being one of these great men in the Bible, and not only did the Bible record all your good stuff, it also records your absolutely magnificent failures - for thousands upon thousands of people, in every generation, to read about, so they could learn not to do what you did. Isn't that glorious? In 1 Corinthians 10, of the people of Israel it said: everything that was written - Verse 6 - was written for our warning. In other words, two million people made about 10 mistakes, and it was written down what happened to them, so we didn't do the same thing. So mistakes are great opportunities to learn, and they're inevitable.
So Abraham - Abraham's a wonderful man. Abraham lied about his wife, said: oh, it's my sister. He weaselled out, and in the end he got into a whole heap of trouble. Isaac lied about his wife too. We have Jacob, well he deceived his father. When his father was old and blind, you know what Jacob did? He put on an animal skin, and he came near him, and pretended to be his brother, so he could get the blessing. He deceived his father - poor blind old dad, about to pass out of this life, and he goes up and deceives him, gets him to put his hand on the skin that's on him, so he gets fooled into thinking that this must be Esau, the hairy one [laughter], instead of the lovely, sweet boy that was mummy's boy you know, soft hands and all that kind of stuff see? What a thing to do, deceive his dad. What about Moses? Moses was a great man with plenty of things going for him and a great call of God, and he murdered someone, then got chased out of town, and there was a reward poster put on him, capture him dead or alive. He's a murderer. That's not a really good way to start your ministry, is it?
And what about Rahab? Well Rahab, she was a prostitute. Just think about that for a little bit - not too long, but just [laughter] think about that a little bit. [Laughter] It's not a good way to start in the things of God, is it? Rahab had a call of God on her life, but she had a - not a very nice start. I wonder if we'd make her even welcome here? Well Jesus made her welcome, Bible makes her welcome. Think about this. Gideon, well Gideon was full of fear. When God starts talking to him, he argues and argues and argues, so full of fear and hiding, and he has to get over and over these kinds of signs and things. What about Barak? There's a guy there called Barak in the Bible, and he was so lacking in courage, he asked a woman to give him direction what to do. It's true, and she said: okay, I will. [Laughter] Okay, I will, and you won't get the glory and the honour, because you didn't have the courage to stand up and lead properly. That's what the Bible says. It's written down too, isn't that nice aye? We can talk about it today, about that wimpy man [laughs] who didn't get the honour. It went to someone else see. Think about that.
What about Samson? When you think about Samson, you always think about Delilah, isn't that right? [Yeah.] We think about what Samson did. Now what an amazing failure - goes there and stays a night with a prostitute, and then the enemy try to get him. He tears the gates of the city off, and then he doesn't learn his lesson. He goes out and gets involved with this woman there, and ends up getting a hair cut, an expensive hair cut, and his eyes put out - I mean what amazing failure. There you are, and you're just like a donkey, just driving the grain out you know? This is a major failure. This is really messing your life up. Interesting isn't it, all these people. Here's another one, Jephthah. Well Jephthah had a great start didn't he? His father went off and had sexual relationships with a prostitute, and that's how he started off, so his whole life was a mistake starting off. No one wanted him, everyone hated him, drove him out of town as a reject, and he didn't exactly do too well himself. He made some foolish rash vows.