MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
A. Have you ever failed at something that meant a lot to you? Have you ever had that sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach that comes when your hopes & expectations are crushed?
Now maybe there is someone here who has never experienced athletic, or academic, or financial, or social, or moral failure, but I doubt it. I’m convinced that virtually everyone has wrestled, or is wrestling, with failure of some kind.
And I think the most difficult failures for us to get over are the ones that take us by surprise, the ones we don't anticipate. They are generally the ones we thought would never happen to us.
ILL That's what makes the Titanic one of the most famous failures in history. The designers & builders were certain the Titanic was one ship that would never sink. It was the largest ship ever built, & its 26,000-ton hull was believed indestructible.
As it was leaving port on its maiden voyage, a passenger, Mrs. Albert Caldwell, asked an employee, "Is this ship really unsinkable?" He answered, "Yes, lady, God Himself could not sink this ship."
No one ever anticipated the nightmare that occurred when, at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, this unsinkable ship struck an iceberg & sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic, taking over 1,500 people down with it to a watery grave.
As I said, the most difficult failure to deal with is often the one that takes us by surprise, the one we never expected would happen. So when it does, it is easy to feel as if our world is falling apart.
B. An example of that has to be the apostle Peter. In the upper room on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that one of them would betray Him. But Peter boasted, “Lord, even if all fall away…I never will.”
'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.' But Peter declared, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.' (Matthew 26:33-35)
Well, you know what happened. That night Jesus was betrayed & taken to the house of the High Priest for a series of illegal trials. Peter follows, & soon we see him sitting by a fire in the High Priest’s courtyard.
A serving girl recognizes him & says, "'You also were with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied it before them all, 'I don't know what you’re talking about,' he said." (Matthew 26:69-70)
Three times Peter is confronted with the accusation, "You were with Jesus. You’re one of His followers!” And 3 times Peter denies knowing who Jesus is.
Peter did exactly what he said he would never do, & right then the rooster crowed. Remembering Jesus’ words, Peter ran out into the darkness & wept bitterly. He had failed Jesus. This brash & boastful fisherman had failed.
Now, let’s fast forward a few weeks to John 21:1-19. By this time Jesus has been resurrected from the dead & Peter has seen Him. But Peter’s failure is still eating him on the inside like an ulcer. No matter how hard he tries to convince himself otherwise, he feels that he has failed & thinks he will never bounce back from that failure.
So what does he do? He goes home. He & the rest of the apostles leave Jerusalem & go back home to Galilee. And guess what Peter is doing as chapter 21 begins. He is out in a boat, fishing.
Vs. 3 tells us, "'I'm going out to fish,' Simon Peter told them, & they said, 'We'll go with you.' So they went out & got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing." Peter has gone back to doing what he knows best how to do.
That often happens when people are troubled. A pianist goes to the piano & expresses her mood in her playing. A golfer goes out & works off his frustrations by hitting the ball. And Peter gets in a boat & fishes all night long.
APPL. We have all been in this boat called failure a few times haven't we? And we have wondered, "How can I ever recover? " Well, in the conversation recorded here between Jesus, the risen Savior, & Simon Peter, we learn how.
I. WE MUST LEARN FROM OUR FAILURES
A. There are 3 things we need to do to bounce back from failure. The first is to learn from it. One thing in Peter’s favor, at least, was that he could admit that he failed. Some people can't seem to be able to do that.
Listen to Proverbs 28:13, ”He who conceals his sins does not prosper.” A modern English version states it this way, "A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful."
ILL. Even after the Titanic hit the iceberg & was starting to sink, many of the people on board refused to believe that there was a problem. Bands continued playing & passengers were still dining because they were convinced there was no possible way the ship could sink. They couldn't accept the idea that they were in any danger.
It’s the same today. The Bible says, "All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) We’re all sinners & we need a Savior. But there are many people who will never admit their sins or the danger they’re in.
B. Now I think getting into this boat in John 21 was a good thing for Peter because it gave him time to reflect - to think about the past & learn some lessons from it. He didn't just dismiss it & pretend it didn't happen.
You see, one of the greatest benefits of failure is what you learn from it that you wouldn't have learned otherwise.
ILL. Before Jonas Salk came up with a successful vaccine for polio, his first 200 attempts didn't work. Someone asked him how it felt to fail 200 times. He said, "I didn't fail 200 times. I just discovered 200 ways not to make a vaccine for polio."
Walt Disney approached 301 banks before one was willing to fund the Disney Land project. Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Old Opry, once fired a young singer after just one performance & told him, "You ain't a goin' nowhere, Elvis."
Listen to this modern paraphrase of Proverbs 20:30, "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways."
APPL. The truth is, most of us don't change our ways when we see the light. We change our ways when we feel the heat - when the marriage starts falling apart, or the kids start going sour. You see, pain is God's megaphone. God shouts to us through our pain.
Simon Peter blew it big time. He was in a lot of pain out there in that boat. But that was okay because pain gets our attention. Pain can lead us to make important changes. And if we’re willing to humble ourselves & learn from our mistakes, we will be well on our way toward recovering from our failures.
II. WE MUST LET GO OF OUR FAILURES
A. So, to recover from failure we must, first, learn from it, & second, let go of our failure. Now back to John 21. Peter & 7 other disciples are out fishing in this boat & Jesus, the one he had denied, shows up on the shore.
When Peter realizes it is Jesus, he jumps out of the boat & swims to shore. Minutes later the two of them are sitting by the fire. The smell of fresh fish is in the air & Peter is looking directly into the face of forgiveness.
B. You see, any of us can get stuck in the past, living a life filled with regrets. "If only... If only I had done this, if only I hadn't done that, if only I could go back & relive that event."
It's the "If only..." statements that trouble so many people about the Titanic tragedy. “If only the Titanic had heeded one of the 6 warnings it received about icebergs. If only it had been a moonlit night & they had seen the iceberg earlier.
"If only her watertight bulkheads had been one deck higher. If only there had been enough lifeboats for everybody." If only one of those things had happened, every life might have been saved.
We all have these "if onlys" in our past, & they will paralyze us if we don't learn to let go of them. Eventually, there comes a point where, after we have learned our lessons, we have to get out of the boat & look in the face of the one who can forgive our failures.
Isaiah 53:5 says, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, & by His wounds we are healed."
C. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful & just & will forgive us our sins & purify us from all unrighteousness." And in Isaiah 43:25 God says, "I am He who blots out your transgressions. . . and remembers your sins no more."
Maybe you have some failure in your past & you think, "I don't see how God could forgive me." But God specializes in forgiving & in giving fresh starts to people who have failed.
He forgave a murderer - his name was Moses. He forgave a man who got drunk - his name was Noah. He forgave a prostitute - her name was Rahab. He forgave an adulterer - his name was David.
Listen, none of us would be here today if failure was a disqualification, because we have all made mistakes. Peter discovered that you must learn from your failures, let go of them, & then look to the future. So Peter gets out of the boat & comes face to face with Jesus.
III. WE MUST LOOK TO THE FUTURE
A. Then Jesus asks him this question, "Peter, do you love me?" And after a rather painful personal examination, Peter says, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love You." No bravado! No bragging! No "I'll never fail again!" Just, "I love You."
It is at that point that Jesus said something I don't think Peter ever expected to hear, He said, "Peter, feed my sheep."
Peter recovered from his failure, & then became one of the greatest success stories in history. He helped launch the church & spread it around the globe. The guy who thought God was through with him went on to be a valuable worker in advancing the kingdom of God. And the world will never forget Peter.
There is something powerful in knowing that someone believes in you, someone loves you unconditionally, failures & all.
ILL. There is a Spanish fable of a father & son who had a deep split in their relationship. The son ran away & the father spent months searching for him, with no results.
Finally, in a last ditch effort to find his son the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read, "Dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father."
On Saturday nearly 800 Pacos showed up. All looking for forgiveness, looking for love, looking for the approval of their father.
B. You know, after you have failed it is so much easier to face the future when you know there is someone who loves you & who believes in you.
There is nothing we can do to make God stop loving us. There is no failure that can make Him stop caring about us.
That may be hard for some to believe because we grew up in a performance based world where it was deeply ingrained in us, "If I fail I am worthless. I must get the 'A's. I must make the grade. I must do the right thing to be accepted & to be valuable, to matter."
But God says, "You are valuable to me whether you succeed or fail. You matter to me, & that is why I sent my Son."
SUM. Folks, the point of this sermon is that we can recover from our failures if we will first learn from them. Don't deny them, just learn from them.
Second, let go of our failures. Jesus died to take them all away.
Third, look to the future, because we matter to God & He loves us.
ILL. Some of you have seen Bible Study materials put together by Kay Arthur. Her in-depth Bible studies are offered in thousands of churches around the world. People study the Bible, watch her videos & read her books.
However, years ago when she was in her twenties, Kay Arthur went to church but had never accepted Jesus Christ to be the forgiver & leader of her life. Her husband was a manic depressive & she couldn't take it anymore. So she left him.
Then she got involved in an affair with a married man. Her husband became so depressed that he threatened suicide, & she was so crass she said to him, "Go ahead & commit suicide, I could use the money." And he hung himself.
She said she felt like such a failure as a wife, as a mother, as a person - that she got into her car with her children & as she was driving away she shouted, "To hell with you, God!"
She said, "What I didn't know is that was exactly what God did for me. He took all the hell for me when he died on the cross & He so much as said, 'Alright, Kay, to heaven with you.'"
And when she came to understand what Jesus had done for her, this woman who had so many failures gave her life to Christ. Now, years later, her teaching & her influence & her books & videos are motivating millions of Christians to a deeper walk with Christ.
The title of one of her latest books is, "Lord, I Need Your Grace To Make It."
Please hear me. There is no failure, no pit so deep that the grace of Jesus can't reach down with forgiveness & give you a second chance. Like Kay Arthur, like Simon Peter, like Melvin Newland, you need His grace to make it.
INVITATION
