Failure is never Final
Luke 5
Have you ever blown it? Have you ever failed a test in life or in the classroom? And then we feel like we are a failure. If others don’t get down on us, we get down on our selves, right? Saying things, “I’m so stupid, I can’t believe I did that, How did you forget that big assignment, you moron. I’m the worst ever. And we look at others and envy them -they seem so successful. They seem to get everything right. Everything they touch turns to gold. It doesn’t seem fair, they get all the breaks. God has a word for the rest of us today. Those who have struggled and failed at times. Who seem to rarely drink the sweet nectar of success. Those of us in the real world.
Here it is: Failure is never Final.
How a person handles failure can mean the difference between living a life of victory or living a life filled with bitterness, hostility and anger.
In the first church I served as pastor in Kansas City I got acquainted with a youth husband and father whose wife attended our church, but he seldom attended. I went golfing with him a few times to get acquainted. On one occasion I encouraged him to put his faith in Jesus.
He told me that he couldn’t trust God because God had failed him. In college he was driving his car at reckless speeds and he was involved in a car accident. His best friend was riding with him and his friend was seriously injured. He said that he prayed for his friend. He told God that he wanted him to answer this one prayer, “let my friend live!” His friend died. He said he could not trust God because God had failed him when he needed God most. He said, “I’ve given up on God.”
The Apostle Paul experienced one failure after another. 2 Corinthians 11:24-30. Paul gives a litany of failures…hardships, persecutions and pain. He could said, I’ve been down for the count of 9, but I’m getting up.” “I’ve been knocked down but I’m not out.”
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” {2 Cor 4:8-9 RSV}
I Failure is Inevitable (fished all night and caught nothing)
A. Everyone fails at something
Michael Jordan did a basketball commercial where he walks in the arena and the people are chanting, “Michael! Michael!” He says, “I’ve missed 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and I have missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.” Then he says, “That’s why I succeed.” Michael Jordan didn’t focus on his failures he focused on his strengths.
B. Failing does not make you a failure (failed a year in school)
Have you ever felt like Charlie Brown? I sure have. In fact, I’m standing here today as an absolute failure. I came across a list of things this week that I’m supposed to do where I fail regularly. Could I share just a few of those with you?
- Experts say you should drink eight glasses of water a day – I don’t always do that.
- Dentists say you should brush your teeth after every meal and floss every day. Don’t always do that.
- I’ve been told I should never allow the gas tank in my car to get below half full.
- You should make your bed every morning, dust once a week, and vacuum a couple times a week. I’ve struck out on that.
- Doctors say the average adult should get no less than 8 hours of sleep per night
All of us fail occasionally – don’t we? It is not out desire or intent but, “hey it happens.” Nobody wants to be known as a failure in life, but the truth is: failure is universal! Everybody experiences failure, and everybody experiences the fear of failure. In fact, just the fear of failure paralyzes millions of people.
Thomas Edison said it like this,
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize
how close they were to success when they gave up.”
.Nobody is perfect. We all blow it. You can’t get away from that principle in Scripture. Great men of the Bible failed.
- Abraham failed to believe that God would give him a son so he slept with someone who wasn’t his wife, but God didn’t give up on him.
- Jacob was a thief, and God allowed him to bless the world through his children.
- Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, survived the flood but ended up getting drunk.
- Moses stuttered and was a murderer.
- David committed adultery with Bethsheba, and then murdered her husband to hide his failing. Yet, David became known as a man “after God’s heart.”
Folks, the list could go on and on. Everyone fails!
Everybody fails. You’re a superstar in baseball if you only make an out 700 times out of a thousand at bat. If you’re a professional basketball player, you’re at the top of the game if you miss 50% of your shots.
1. Even good guys stumble! History is filled with the biographies of failures who got up and kept going.
- George Washington lost 2/3 of all the battles he fought during the American Revolution, but eventually won the war and became the first President of the United States.
- Napoleon graduated 42nd in a class of 43 students. Brilliant! Then he went out and conquered Europe. Failure doesn’t have to be final.
- Billy Graham said that when he was asked to preach his first sermon. He had 4 sermons prepared and he was so nervous he preached all four of them in under 10 minutes. Can you imagine if Billy Graham had said, “You know, I’m just not cut out for this. I don’t want to endure that kind of embarrassment again”? The world would have missed one of the greatest preachers of all time. Failure doesn’t have to be final.
C. Failure is not absent from Christian lives
Do you believe in God
…I am a cashier at Shoemakers Fuel Station, the last top on Hwy 77 one can make before heading south bound out of Lincoln. I work the evening shift from 3pm to midnight most everyday of the week and so it’s really no surprise to me to see some pretty wild things happen! However, the wildest thing came Saturday night after Dare 2 Share 2011 was released from Pershing Center. My slow and boring night was unexpectedly lit up by over 150 wild, joyful, and passionate kids that came crusing into my station on your return trips home! I enjoyed seeing all of you there and the burning passion you all had for the awesome weekend you shared together! It brought back great memories for me! But, I have a special shout out to an unknown individual who happen to be there that night! Whoever this guy or girl may have been, he or she left a simple card that asked a powerful question: Do You Believe in God? It wasn’t until I closed the store that night that I had found this little card next to my register and I happen to like it so I kept it and took it home with me deciding later that when I came back to work the next day I would leave it next to my register again and see if anyone would notice it! I served 423 customers that next night and after i tallied up how many people said something to me about my little card…my total only came to 1.
But this isn’t meant to be a sad story! Jesus said not to hid (sic) our light but to let it glow and shine bright to others! Well my purpose for writing this is to find that guy or girl who left me that card for me that night! Who was that ONE person? Well, an older gentleman, i would have to guess was in his late 60s, asked me why I would have such a “rubbish card” on my counter. I simply replied that I am a strong believer myself and that it was left here by somebody and that maybe someone else would like to have it. He then told me about how he didn’t want to believe in God because “God stole his wife” during a tragic car accident a few years back. We began talking about that and I told him how sorry I was to hear such news but that God sometimes God gives us hard times so that we learn to love to good times more! He simply smiled back! We chatted away for a good 30 mins or more about my faith and stories of his times with his wife until he gruntly asked me “So how do you do this silly thing anyway?” Caught of guard by his question, I stumbled with my words when I told him that I would help walk him thru the little book! He was a reluctant and stubborn but if there was one thing that just enlightened me more then anything it was to see that tear rolls down his face!
I want the world to know that that kind hearted gentleman EXCEPTED (sic) CHRIST into his heart!!! I couldn’t have been more excited! I would really like to share this story with as many as I can and find that person who left that how large that small desion he or she made impacted somebody elses life! So do me this favor…let others see “my little card” in hopes it is a guiding light to more people out there!”
Travis Bates
II Giving up (Quiting) is Optional (What’s the use -we’ve been out their all night)
In the movie The Natural, Robert Redford is a baseball player named Roy Hobbs, perhaps the most gifted baseball player ever. He’s a high school wonder boy, a natural who gets a shot at the big leagues. But his dreams of a professional career are cut short when he is shot in the stomach. Fifteen yeas later, an aging Hobbs gets a second chance. He’s signed by the New York Knights – the worst team in the league. But through his incredible gift, untarnished by the years, Hobbs has a second change when the star player dies and he leads his team into the World Series.
The climax of the film is the game for the championship. Hobbs takes a bribe to throw the series. It’s the bottom of the ninth; the score is Pittsburgh 2, Knights 0. The Knights have 2 outs; there’s a man on first and third when Hobbs steps up to the plate. He’s their only chance, this is his moment. Now, there’s an important part to this story. Ever since high school days, Hobbs has played with a bat he made himself from the heart of a tree felled by lightning in his front yard. Hobbs burned into the bat the picture of a lightening bold and the words “wonder boy.” This was the only bat he ever stepped up to the plate with. Now he’s up to bat. His first swing is a miss; his second is a foul ball high and out of play. His third is a solid hit along the first base line. It looks like a home run but goes foul. As Hobbs returns to the plate, he sees his bat lying there…in pieces. It shattered on his attempted home run swing. Many a man and woman have come to this kind of critical moment in their lives. All their dreams and hopes seem to break into pieces…investments fail, company terminates employment, illness requires changes to be made, an unmarried daughter turns up pregnant, a spouse walks out. What is the person to do? Will he/she stay in the game or shrink back and withdraw from life?
Will you try to put all the pieces back together by yourself? But like humpty dumpty who had a great fall and all the king’s men could not put humpty dumpty back together again.
Hobbs stands looking over his shattered bat. The bat is beyond repair. Then he says to the bat boy, “Go pick me out a winner, Bobby.” He stays in the game and hits a home run to win the series. To prepare to keep swinging we need to turn to the Lord for His strength to face change and failures. All the king’s men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together, but God can.
A. You don’t have to Give up and stop trying because you have a setback.
B. You don’t have to- Blame other and become a victim- Andrew wore wrong clothes, didn’t hold his end of net,
C. You don’t have to stay on shore, cleaning your nets, critical of all who go back out.
III Starting (Beginning) Again (Over) is necessary (Nevertheless At thy Word)
A. You will never rise higher than your last failure- unless you get up and start over
B. It takes Faith -Taking God at his word with no outside evidence
C. It takes Hope -That things will get better - Failure is Temporary
IV Changing Methods (strategies) is essential (go out in the day, launch into the deep)
A. Failure should cause us to look inward.
-Ask What did Failure teach me ? God can use frustration to change us
-if we are blaming, we can’t see the lesson God wants to teach
-points to a need for a change.
B. Failure may be preparing the way for a miracle -
-Here if they had caught a normal catch the huge haul wouldn’t have seemed so great.
Following other coon hunters into a woods and killing coon -
Lazarus Raising from the dead John 11
C. Failure may cause us to see our need of God - Peter
Charles Colson in his book “Loving God” tells about his experience in prison. While in prison he remembered his life before prison, honors he earned, court cases he won, and prestige in government positions. His life had been the perfect success story, the great American dream fulfilled. But while in prison he had time to think and pray. He realized all his achievements meant nothing in God’s economy.
His greatest victory was his biggest failure, begin sent to prison was his great humiliation – but prison was the beginning of God’s greatest work in his life. God chose the one experience in which he could not glory for His glory.
D. Failure may cause us to depend upon God more -
E. Failure may tell us to change our methods or strategies. (Day fishing, in deep)
My twelve point buck KY -In middle of day-raining -I had been taught deer only move in the morning and evening, not in the middle of the day. But my friend Gene said we kill the big bucks in the middle of the day. He was right, and I killed by 12 points at about 2pm.
We need to learn to make the most of our mistakes. I’m told in the back woods of Arkansas, there was a man who worked both as a veterinarian and as a taxidermist. The sign on his office door read:
“Remember, either way, you get your dog back!”
- You see, we can learn from our mistakes. Failure doesn’t have to be final.
E. Failure may point to a new beginning -
-Fired and found better job
F. Failure may point our life in a new direction (Rick Sturgill) (Disciples left Nets)
Jim Baker
-It may be God telling you to quit one thing in order to start another.
Joni Eareckson became a paraplegic after a diving accident. She testified that her physical disability pushed her to start a life-long ministry to help people like herself. She says that her ministry of comfort and encouragement to others provides for others: “a way out of the miry pit of depression, despair and self-pity. You realize that there is always somebody worse off then you, and form that understanding you find strength to be victorious and carry on in even the toughest situations.”
Joni says: “We shouldn’t view life’s struggles as daunting obstacles to our happiness. They can be the very keys to our lasting happiness, true contentment and godly joy.”
A common denominator for people that learn how to deal with failure and hardships in life is that they don’t give up. They refuse to focus on the failures and weaknesses and focus upon their strengths.
