Slaying The Giants In Your Life Series
"Facing Your Failure" 6 of 6
June 2, 2002 FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
Stephen Pile chronicled some of the biggest failures in modern history. The Incomplete Book of Failures
*Thomas Edison’s teacher said, "he was too stupid to learn;"
*Albert Einstein’s teacher said, "He (Albert) was mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams;"
*One Word: Edsel (A door that wouldn’t close, a hood that wouldn’t open and horn that wouldn’t honk)
There is not on record of anyone every stealing an Edsel.
*Decca records rejected the Beatles
*The newspaper editor who fired Walt Disney because he lack ideas......and, in turn, the Disney executives years later who rejected Star Wars, claiming it would flop at the box office
*Two Words: New Coke
We all mess up, fail, bad choices. (You’ve heard to learn from others mistakes. The problems is that you and I are usually the others) Welcome to the human race!
Today we’ll face the last giant in this series....Failure
a 2 Corinthians 4:8-10
[8] We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; [9] persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. [10] We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
b Even at our best, we fail. (ESS)
I hope you’ll see your failures as something less than fatal. (Objective)
How are you failing forward? (Probing Question)
Let’s look at a five fold system in facing our failures. (Transitional Sentence)
A Acknowledge Your Failure
a Not every failure points to sin-at least not yours.
*Job lost his family, home, belongings and he didn’t do anything wrong.
*Jesus was seized, convicted & executed and he didn’t do anything wrong.
b We all fail. (James 3:2) "We all stumble in many things."
*If at first we don’t succeed, we redefine success." WE HATE ADMITTING FAILURE!!!
*A common mistake "Marriage failed" Marriage is of God. Marriages don’t fail. People fail.
*I HAVE FAILED! I HAVE FAILED! I HAVE FAILED!
T.S.: When we admit and confess our failures, we can know the 2nd fold in failing forward.
B Accept God’s Forgiveness.
a Psalms 103:10-12
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
(IL.) I Need A Globe as a prop. North & South (You will eventually go south or north) East & West (You will never be heading east if your heading east and vise versa. God used latitude and not longitude to describe his forgiveness.
b There is no failure to big for God to forgive. (Forgiveness is God’s speciality)
T.S.: After we’ve acknowledged the failure, accepted God forgiveness we can move to third fold.
C Apply The Lessons of Failure Toward Success
a Don’t totally forget your failures. (Don’t beat yourself, but learn something.)
*Tom Watson Sr., founded IBM and guided "Big Blue" for over 40 years. One of his most impressive moments in leadership occurred when a junior executive lost an enormous amount of money ($10 million) on a risky venture for the company. Watson called the man into the office and the man entered and nervously blurted out, "I guess you want my resignation?" Watson replied, "You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million educating you." Mistakes can be teachers that provide us with invaluable lessons!!!
b PR 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
*Lake learned to walk by falling down. Fall down enough times and you’ll learn to walk just by a process of elimination.
T.S.: Even though we fail, that doesn’t mean we’re failures.
D Accept Failure as a Fact of Life, Not A Way of Life
a Peter the disciple knew all about failure.
*In the upper room Jesus warned Pete about how he, Peter, would deny him, Jesus, before the rooster crowed 3x’s.
*MK 14:66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. [67] When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said. 68 But he denied it. "I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about," he said, and went out into the entryway. 69 When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, "This fellow is one of them." [70] Again he denied it. After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." 71 He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, "I don’t know this man you’re talking about." 72 Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times." And he broke down and wept.
Peter blew it and He knew it. (He went and spent the rest of his life as hermit, seclusion. WRONG!
*2 months later he preached one of the greatest sermons in Christianity and 3,000 people got saved!
b Don’t ever let someone call you a failure or a loser. You are not your resume!
*Failure is an event, not a person. It’s something you do, not something you become.
*YOUR FAILURES ARE NOT FATAL!!!!
*Your attitude during failure determines your altitude after failure
T.S.: When you mess up, you can go up.
E Arise From Failure & Start Again.
a Remember Jonah and the Whale? Why was he in the whale? (Running from God’s will for him to go to Nineveh.) What do you do in the belly for a whale for 3 days? (You stink and you think)
Jonah 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: [2] "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."
"Here’s the map again. Go get’em!"
*120,000 Ninevites repented.
b You may not have been in the belly of a big fish....but maybe you’ve been in the belly of...
Divorce, poor parenting, job, sinful spouse, horrible husband, wicked wife.....you can start again.
*Scottish preacher, Alexander Whyte said saints "they fall down, they get up, they fall down, they get up...all the way to heaven."
Conclusion:
We can do everything the best way we know how and still mess things up. Even at our best, we fail. (ESS)
A We’ve looked at a 5 fold system in facing our failure
a Acknowledge our failures,
Accept God’s Forgiveness,
Apply the lessons of failure toward success,
Accept failure as a fact of life, not a way of life,
Arise from failure and start again.
b I hope you’ll see your failures as something less than fatal. (Objective)
*You can fail in two directions: Backward or Forward
*You have that choice!! You can decide if your going to fail or not. Your going to fail.
How are you failing forward? (Probing Question)
A When we look in a mirror we see ourselves as a composite of all our short comings/failures.
a Only see a divorced person, or someone who’s lost his job, overweight loner. (We may not be able to see past our failures, but God can.)
*Can you imagine a loving father introducing his children by saying, "This is Sue. She spilled grape juice on the carpet when she was 2, Scratched the car with her bike when she was 9, failed to get on the honor roll in all 4 years of high school, she’s been married twice and has had four speeding tickets."
b Loving fathers don’t memorize their children’s mistakes, neither does our heavenly father.
*If your beating yourself up for the memories of past mistakes, your holding yourself to higher standard than even God has. He doesn’t remember the forgiven failure.
B How are you failing forward?
a Face it (Some need to accept, confess, and get forgiveness)
b Pray
