What is failure? For some it is not living up to certain expectations, to be a disappointment. It may be a breakdown in our lives, it may be a let down. There was once a man who said, “We are either failing, or living with the consequences of failure, or recovering from failure, or facing failure in the face, or living with the fear of failure.” Some of may be feeling like we are failing now, some of us are living with the consequences of past failures, and some of us may be living in the fear of failing. We may be failing in what we should be doing, or we may be failing in doing what we shouldn’t. Others may know about your failures, or maybe only God knows. We may feel that we are failures as parents, or as spouses. We may feel that we are failures as examples that we should be. In almost any area of our lives, we can feel like a failure. The prophet Micah knew about failure. He said, “when I fall,” not “if I fall”. Pro 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. I want to share with you 3 truths about failure that will be a help to you. This is a major message from a minor prophet.
I. SEE THE FAMILIARITY OF FAILURE.
1. Failure is not something that is uncommon. Failure is not something that only a certain few ever experience but it is common to everyone.
2. We tend to view just a few that we label as having failed. And then we see those that just seem to ooze confidence, we think that these never fail.
3. One of Satan’s chief deceptions is to make failure seem unusual. That’s why he works on us so much when we do fail, that’s why he tells us that we have really messed things up now, that nobody has ever failed like we have failed.
4. We tend to think of failure only in materialistic ways. When someone files bankruptcy, they are seen as being failures at managing money, or whenever someone’s marriage falls apart, society labels them as a failure at relationships.
5. However, there is one area in each of our lives where each person, regardless of financial security, regardless of social economic status, or regardless of family relationships, is a failure.
6. This area is not an area that’s un-important, it is extremely important and it is the most overlooked area in our lives. It is the only area that has the eternal consequences that it has. I’m talking about fulfilling God’s perfect plan for our lives.
7. You see, everyone, at some point in their lives, has failed God.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
8. You may remember that just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about the definition of sin, how that it means to “miss the mark”. God has set a perfect standard, or mark that we must measure up to, however, because of sin, we all miss that mark and fail God.
9. Adam and Eve failed God, Noah through drunkenness, failed God, Abraham, through fear, failed God, Moses, through impatience, failed God, David, through lust, failed God and also as a father, was a failure. Every man, every woman, regardless of how great we want to make them out to be, has failed God. Failure is common to all of us for all of us here tonight, either through word, thought, or deed, has failed God. The enemy that we have, the enemy that Micah mentions who rejoices at our failure and greatly desires it, seeks to do all that he can so that we will live our lives bound by failure.
II. SEE THE FIERCENESS OF FAILURE.
1. No one waits in line to be a failure. You will never hear any child state that they hope to grow up and be a failure.
A. Failure can be fierce for it leads to fear.
1. In 1st Samuel 17:11, Goliath and the Philistines challenged the armies of Israel every day. 1 Samuel 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
2. Why did Saul do nothing? When he was anointed king, he attacked and destroyed the Ammonrites in a great act of bravery. Yet now he trembles just like the rest of Israel. Why? Because he has already failed God and is living in the bondage of his failure.
3. Failure robs confidence and faith so much so that some become fearful of even trying again.
4. When Adam failed God, he was afraid to face Him as He walked in the cool of the day. When Peter denied Christ, he wept bitterly instead of standing up for Him.
1 Samuel 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
B. Failure is fierce for it can lead to fatalism.
1. We can reach a state of learned helplessness. Illustration-Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with classical conditioning.
2. Judas, under a load of guilt, hung himself.
3. The Old Testament has a type or foreshadow of Judas in the story of Ahitophel, who was King David’s advisor. He later sided with Absolam. The Bible tells us that his counsel was rejected so then he went out and hung himself. He felt as if his failure was fatal.
4. This is what Satan wants you to feel after your failures, he will tell you that you will never be able to change, that you will never get victory over your failures, that you will always be in bondage to your failure so there is no use in even trying to live for God.
III. SEE THE FABRICATION OF FAILURE.
1. What do we mean by fabrication? If something is fabricated, then it is something that is created or made. However, in relation to words, it means something that is made up, something that is untrue.
2. Failure will tell you that you are a nobody, it will tell you that there’s no hope, that you will never be anything but a failure.
3. One of the roles that Satan plays is that of being the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). He does it very well and he is very adapt at using failure to accuse us and make us feel worthless.
4. May I tell you that failure need not be final. Micah said, “when I fall, I shall arise again.”
5. It is said that Thomas Edison performed 50,000 experiments before he succeeded in producing a storage battery. We might assume the famous inventor would have had some serious doubts along the way. But when asked if he ever became discouraged working so long without results, Edison replied, "Results? Why, I know 50,000 things that won’t work."
6. I have already mentioned that all of us here have failed God. We were born into carnality and the carnal mind can not please God.
7. Yet despite our failure to please God, He made a way that our failures, sins, mistakes not only can be forgiven but in the eyes of God, completely washed away.
Let me share with you three actions in closing.
A. Turn to your advocate Jesus.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1. Don’t think for a moment that He is too busy to care. Don’t think for one moment that He has no use for failures for some of the greatest men and women ever used by God were first seen as failures.
2. Jesus is our advocate, the One who pleads our case.
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
3. Jesus is alive right now to make intercession for you. Notice that the author of Hebrews says He is able to save to the uttermost, that means completely. He is our advocate and He is making intercession for us. Jesus is praying for you right now.
B. Acknowledge you failure to God.
1. We try to cover it up, we try to rationalize it away, we try to deny it but it’s still there.
Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
2. Give it to God. David could not find peace with God until he confessed his sin to Him.
Psalm 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
3. Give your guilt, sorrow, and feelings of failure to God. Once we give them to God, He is able to wash them away, just like the data on a computer disk once you hit delete. As Micah says, they will be cast into the depths of the sea.
C. Determine within your self that with God’s help, you are going to make it.
1. Micah said, when I fall, I shall arise. I may stumble, I may make mistakes and I may fail, but I am determined to get up and keep going.
Abraham Lincoln was considered by many Americans as a most successful president. It was strange that he was a man marked for failure, a man suffering from melancholia, who endured long periods of depression throughout his life. He could barely see out of one eye. He had frequent nervous attacks, severe headaches, indigestion and nausea. He had a couch placed near his desk in the White House so he could quickly lie down when one of his spells came over him. When Lincoln was 10 years old he was kicked in the head by a horse and experts now believe that the skull was severely fractured, leaving him with lifelong problems. When he came to deliver the now famous address at Gettysburg, he was coming down with smallpox.
Lincoln failed in business in 1831, was defeated for the legislature in 1832. The next year he suffered another business defeat and in 1836 had a nervous breakdown. He failed to be elected speaker in 1838, was defeated for elector in 1840, and for Congress in 1843, as well as in 1848. Lincoln failed to be elected to the Senate in 1855, and was defeated for the Vice Presidency in 1856 and for the Senate in 1858. However, being elected President in 1860, he could afford all those failures. Abraham Lincoln was truly a successful failure.
Some people are slow starters and may discover God’s purpose late in life. Moses was 80 years old when he began his life’s work. All that time God was preparing him to do one thing-lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. It could be that you are living to accomplish only one great task for God, and that all the rest of your life is merely preparation for that great heroic responsibility.
