This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day five, our final day in week three of Looking
Through First and Second Samuel. We are looking these two days at how you and I
can turn failure into success, some great lessons from Samuel as he moves from
Saul, the king that failed, to David, the king that God would use to establish
an everlasting kingdom. Yesterday we looked at the first three truths.

You confront the failure, you don't compromise with the failure, and you stop
allowing grief over the failure to control your life. First three things you
have to do to turn failure into success. Now we learn three more things, just
very practical, real life things from Samuel.

The fourth truth is you be aware of the tendency to repeat failures. If you're
going to turn failure into success in your life, you have to be aware of your
tendency to repeat failures. Listen to what happened with Samuel.

When they arrived, remember yesterday, God sent Samuel up to Jesse's house to
anoint a king, one of his sons. So in chapter 16 verse 6, when they arrived,
Samuel saw Eliab and he thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before
the Lord. " Samuel walks in, he sees Eliab, the oldest, probably the strongest
looking of Jesse's sons, and he says, "Looks like it came to me.

" And if the decision had been Samuel's, he would have repeated his mistake. He
saw a head taller than anybody in Israel, looks like a king to me, and the
people demanded that kind of a king. And here in chapter 16, Samuel once again
is looking at appearance, that kind of appearance for the next king.

If he'd been left to himself alone, he would have repeated his mistake. And the
truth of the matter is we all have to admit this about ourselves. We do have a
tendency to repeat our mistakes.

You can stop life from sounding like a broken record by employing one simple
habit. Always consider your present decisions and a lot of your past mistakes.
Let me just look back at the past.

Before we go ahead here, let me just be honest enough about myself to realize
what I've done in the past. Those who refuse to listen to history are doomed to
repeat it. That's not only true for nations, that's true for individuals.

If I don't listen to the history of my own life, I'm doomed to repeat my same
mistakes again and again and again. Now I've found I can't always listen well
enough on my own. I need other people in my life to give me wisdom, give me
insight when I understand my tendency to repeat these past mistakes.

So just be aware of your tendency. That gives you humility. That lets you get
counselors in as you make decisions.

There's a fifth thing that we learn from Samuel when it comes to turning failure
into success, and that is you look towards God's view of success. This is the
key. You look towards God's view of success.

Listen to what happened in verse 7. "For the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not
consider his appearance nor his height, for I have rejected him. ' The Lord does
not look at the things that man looks at.

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. " This is
one of the most famous verses in 1 Samuel. Man looks at the outward appearance,
the Lord looks at the heart.

We live life in failure, failing again and again and again because we never
allow God to impress us with his view of success. There's three very simple
truths here in this simple passage that help us to look to God's view of
success. Truth one is have faith that God desires success for you.

God sent Samuel to Jesse to anoint the next king. He desired for success to
happen. God doesn't want to ruin your life.

He doesn't want to make a mess of your life. He wants to bring success to your
life. Now it's his measure of success, it's his plan for success, it's not
yours, but because Samuel knew this, he kept searching, he didn't quit.

He was certain that God had a solution, so he ends up in this moment where he's
standing and he's looking for the king. You can have that same kind of faith.
God desires to make a success of your life.

Psalm 1-3 says, "In whatever he does, he prospers. " God wants to prosper your
life. Jeremiah 24-11 says, "I know the plans I have for you, a future, a hope
for welfare.

" God doesn't promise to make us all millionaires, but he promises to give us
all fulfillment. He promised to make us all people who live abundant lives in
him. That's his plan for your life, and that's where you start.

That's God's view of success, but the second thing you do is you quit seeking
appearances. You quit seeking the appearance of success. We base most of our
ideas of success on appearances, where somebody lives, the kind of car that they
drive, the kind of clothes that they wear, up and up a ramp, the kind of boat
that they have, the kind of yacht that they have.

It's appearances. That's not success at all, because it's not going to last.
True success is something that lasts, and many people, you know this, many
people who appear successful, they got the big house, they got the big car, they
got the right clothes, they're living in the reality of despair in their lives.

If you seek the appearances, you're going to be disappointed, but you look for
the real thing. You look for the inner fulfillment. God says, "Don't look at the
outward appearance.

" That's not where you're going to find the success in life. Don't get caught up
in that. Quit seeking appearances, and the third thing you do is you look at
your heart.

You look at the heart, because God looks at the heart. Why? Because out of the
heart flows the person.

Who you are flows out of your heart. As a man thinks within himself, so is he.
God put his spirit into our hearts so that you and I can think and see and live
in a different way.

The truth is, no matter how many things you surround yourself with, you're never
going to feel successful. True success grows out of the heart, and the true
success that grows out of the heart is the success of recognizing, "I'm living
God's plan for my life. I'm right in the middle of what God wants me to do.

" That's what Samuel learned that day. You quit seeking, you stop seeking the
appearance of success. Now there is a sixth truth that we learn.

If you want to turn failure into success, this is the hardest truth of all for
many of us. The sixth truth we learn from Samuel is you have to be willing to
fail again. If you're going to turn failure into success in your life, you have
to be willing to fail again, and he was.

In verse 8, Jesse called Abinadab and he had him pass in front of Samuel, but
Samuel said, "The Lord has not chosen this one either. " Jesse then had Shema
pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the Lord chosen this one. " Jesse had seven
of his sons pass by before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The Lord has not
chosen these.

" So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have? " "They're still the
youngest," Jesse answered, "but he's tending the sheep. " Samuel said, "Send for
him.

We will not sit down until he arrives. " So he sent and he had him brought in.
He was ready.

He had fine appearance and handsome features, and the Lord said, "Rise and
anoint him. He is the one. " So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in
the presence of all his brothers, and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord
came upon David in power, and Samuel then went to Ramah.

Samuel anoints the second king. That is significant. Instead of saying to God,
"God, get yourself another boy this time.

I messed up once. I didn't do it right. Let's get somebody who can do it right.

" He says, "God, okay," and he goes and he anoints a second king. He takes a
risk a second time. In doing that, he was looking towards the possibility of
success, but he was also willing to fail again.

So the encouragement here is don't let one failure frighten you into a shell of
defeat, of lifelong defeat. Quit letting one failure brand you as a failure for
life. We all fail.

We all go through failures in life. Open your eyes to the truth that God is in
the business of turning colossal failures into gigantic successes. The Bible is
filled with this truth.

Abraham was once a worshiper of idols, but he became the father of Israel.
Joseph had a prison record, yet he became the prime minister of Egypt. Jephthah
was an illegitimate child and a juvenile delinquent.

He became a victor for God. Rahab was a harlot in Jericho, yet she's listed
among God's greatest examples of faith. Moses was a murderer, and yet he became
God's great deliverer.

Are you convinced yet? Let's look at the New Testament. John Mark ran away from
God's mission, and later he became one of God's most valuable servants.

Peter denied and cursed the Lord, yet he became God's spokesman in the early
church. Paul persecuted the church. He watched in approval as Stephen was
stoned, and he was to become the greatest missionary of all time.

So quit telling God you can't because you failed, and begin to recognize that he
is an expert at building successes out of our failures. Let's pray together.
Father, instead of getting caught up in looking at me, looking at my failures,
looking at what's gone wrong, I turn my eyes to you, and I recognize that you
give second chances.

I recognize that you've built successes out of failures. I recognize that the
story of my life is not over, and I do not want to live the rest of my life
caught up in that failure from the past. I want to live the rest of my life
caught up in your love and caught up in what you want me to do.

That failure, it hurt me. It saddens me even today, but that failure does not
have to define me. My relationship with you is what defines me.

And so in a fresh new way, I trust you for the future right now. I trust you. In
Jesus' name, amen.

Until next week, join us. We're going to look at David and Saul together. We see
the man after God's own heart serving in the court of the man with the troubled
heart.

And of course some sparks are going to fly. We're going to learn some things
about giving our heart to God. See you next week.