WHEN WE FAIL
Genesis 20:1-18 (NLT)
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Intro: Sports fans are fickle aren’t they? Last weekend, as I was watching our Atlanta Falcons play football, I noticed something that made me wonder. If any of you watched the game, you know that we lost the game in overtime. Our quarterback, Matt Ryan did not have a good game. He threw several interceptions and was part of the reason they lost the game. What made me think was the fact that the crowd started booing him late in the game. Now this was the man who could do no wrong in the first 5 games when they were undefeated but when he wasn’t perfect anymore the crowd rejected him.
. I’m sure that almost all of us have heard of Babe Ruth, the famous baseball player. The Babe for many, many years was considered the greatest home run hitter of all time. That was before hammering Hank Aaron broke his home run record. The Babe was a pretty good hitter also. He had a career batting average of .342. Only in baseball are you considered successful when you succeed 30% of the time. The Babe would come up to the plate and the crowds would go wild and they would acknowledge their love for him in their cheers. As he got older though and his bat speed slowed and his eyes were not quite like they used to be, he started striking out a lot more. This same crowed that had loved him and cheered and praised him were now booing him when he came to the plate. The crowds applauded him when he was successful but they rejected him when he failed.
. I guess that’s what we should expect from people when we strike out - when we don’t have the success they expect.
. Thankfully God does not respond to our failures the same way.
.How does God react when we strike out?
. How will God look at us when we fail more than we succeed in the Christian Life?
. You see, we Christians usually strike out more than we hit home runs in our Christian walk with God.
.Our scripture today highlights a person of faiths failure and how God responds to that failure.
. We are back in Genesis this morning, chapter 20.
. We have been looking at the life of Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people and the man who is held up as a great example of faith in God.
. In this scripture, we again see Abraham not placing his trust in God in his encounter with Abimelech the King of Gerar.
. Back in chapter 12, we saw Abraham lie to Pharaoh, the King of Egypt about his wife Sarah. Obviously Sarah was a looker because it seems that everywhere they went, the men desired her. He told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister. Technically that was correct because Sarah was his half sister. Regardless of that, that was an awful thing to do to your wife. God delivered them through that and you would think that Abraham had learned his lesson. NOT
.This episode with Abimelech makes Abraham a repeat offender. Abraham has been in this situation before and has failed before. Perhaps you can identify with Abraham here because the same struggles and the same failures keep turning up in your own life, even long after you may have believed they were gone or overcome.
.When you’re in a situation like this you may wonder how God will respond to your repeated failures. You may doubt God’s love for you and expect to be pulled from the game or even kicked off the team because of your spiritual strikeouts.
. I’ve got good news for you and me because we see from this story how God really responds when we strikeout. When we fail. He responds with grace!
. First thing we see when we fail or strike out is this:
. God Still Forgives Us
.Look at verses 1&2 with me.
1Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar. While living there as a foreigner,
2Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.
. We see the sin. Abimelech was a powerful King and Abraham was afraid of him and did not trust God to care and protect him. God had made all these promises to Abraham and obviously Abraham was still doubtful that God would protect him and keep him safe at least until He had fulfilled all the promises He had made to him.
. The text does explicitly state that when we fail or sin that God forgives us. We know that God forgave Abraham because of how the rest of the story unfolds.
. God could have said Abraham, I have had enough. I have been with you all the years, brought you through so many trials and problems. I have blessed you with wealth and respect. I was going to build a nation through you but you know what, I can find somebody else.
. He could have but He didn’t. Basically God was saying Abraham you have not done what you should have done. You have struck out. You have fallen down in your walk of faith but I need you to get up, and dust yourself off and try again.
. In our sport driven competitive society, that’s what we tell our kids all the time isn’t it. When they fail. When they lose. We tell them that they will get it next time. When they fall, we tell them to get up and dust themselves off and get back in the game. We have confidence that they can overcome their shortcomings.
. We do that out of love for them don’t we?
. When we strike out or fall down or fail, God is the same way. He still loves us and He is telling us to forget the past and pick yourself up and get back in the game.
.I will forgive you of your transgressions. Now get up and get back in the game.
. Just because you fail, I will still love and forgive you.
. Not only will God forgive us when we fail, He will still:
. Protect Us when we fail or strikeout.
. Look at verses 3-7 with me.
3But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!”
4But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?
5Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean.”
6In the dream God responded, “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her.
7Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”
. Abimelech had a dream and in that dream God told him that him and his entire nation could be destroyed for the sin that he was going to commit.
. Abimelech says wait a minute God, I have not slept with this woman. Besides that, Abraham didn’t tell me she was his wife, he said she was his sister. This woman confirmed that when we asked her. She said yes he is my brother. Not my fault God.
. God says I know and that is why I am appearing to you in this dream. To warn you and give you the opportunity to do the right thing.
. Abraham had done wrong, he had failed as a man of faith but God was still protecting him, even though he may not have deserved God’s protection for what he had done, God protected him and Sarah.
.Sometimes we may think that our disobedience means that we have forfeited all of God’s promises and protection. We blew it and therefore we are on our own is our way of thinking.
. The next verse here we will see Abimelech confront Abraham and ask him what he had done to them. Can’t you imagine the thoughts that went through Abrahams mind right at that minute. You hear people talk about when they think the end is near that their whole life flashes before their eyes. I can imagine that Abraham thought oh no, here it is. The end is near. God protected him though.
.Perhaps we disobeyed God’s word about how we should live our lives and therefore find ourselves in a mess. We may think that our failure to fully obey God would keep God from protecting us or delivering us.
. Perhaps we disobeyed God by lying and it is leading to or has led to a heap of trouble and we think God won’t help us out because our sin got us there. This is not true.
. God is a gracious God who still protects us despite our sins. God bestowed his grace upon Abraham even though he didn’t deserve it. He will do that for us also.
. Look at verse 7 again with me.
7Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”
. Abraham is a liar and a deceiver but God still calls him a prophet. A man of faith. A child of God.
. Even though he failed, he struck out so to speak, God still protected him and showed him grace and mercy.
.This should not be interpreted to mean that there are no serious consequences to sin or disobedience, remember King David and Bathsheeba.
. Even when we fail, God can and will protect us.
. God forgives us and protects us when we fail and he also:
. Still blesses us.
. Look at verses 14-16 with me.
14Then Abimelech took some of his sheep and goats, cattle, and male and female servants, and he presented them to Abraham. He also returned his wife, Sarah, to him.
15Then Abimelech said, “Look over my land and choose any place where you would like to live.”
16And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your ‘brother’ 1,000 pieces of silver in the presence of all these witnesses. This is to compensate you for any wrong I may have done to you. This will settle any claim against me, and your reputation is cleared.”
Who sinned here? Abraham right? Yet it is Abraham who was blessed by God through Abimelech with cattle, sheep, servants, open land, and money. This makes sense only in light of God’s grace and mercy.
. Many times God still blesses us despite our sins. I can attest to this in my own life. Even when I have failed and struggled, God has still answered my prayers, still provided for me financially, still healed my body, and still blessed me with His presence.
Folks, I don’t know about you but I have had my share of failures. I look at the blessings on my own life and can honestly say, "I’ve done nothing to deserve this and everything not to deserve this." I cannot understand it but I can certainly praise God for it.
. Just because we fail, or mess up, or strike out, we are not disqualified from God’s grace mercy and blessings.
. Lastly we see that even though we fail:
God Can Still Use Us
. Look at verses 17&18 with me
17Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, so they could have children.
18For the LORD had caused all the women to be infertile because of what happened with Abraham’s wife, Sarah.
. God used Abraham to bless Abimelech and his family.
. God uses him in his role as a prophet and a blessing to the nations he encounters despite his faults.
. Folks god can use us “warts and all” as a friend of mine says.
Sometimes when I’ve really blown it, when I have sinned I begin to think, "Well that’s it- my ministry is over- God would never use someone like me."
I begin to think I’ll be like Samson and lose any ministry empowerment that I have because of my disobedience.
. What I have found though is that when we are truly repentant God is merciful, not only in forgiving us, but also in continuing to use us for His purposes.
. How comforting it is to know that just because we fail, just because we strike out, God does not remove us from the game.
. He sticks with us, not because He has no choice in the matter, no He sticks with us because of his grace and mercy.
. My prayer for all of us is that we don’t fail in our walk with God but when we do, remember that God is faithful to forgive us and He will continue to use us to bring glory to him if we allow him to use us.
. Failure does not mean that it is over, it gives us an opportunity for a fresh start.
Invitation.
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Parts of sermon taken from:
Larry Sarver, “When You Strike Out”, sermon central
