Americans love success. We celebrate it; work hard to achieve it; and honor those who attain it. Take the fourth of July as an example. Every year, we have parades, and speeches, and festivals and fireworks. On that day, all across the country, millions of people commemorate the birth of our nation, the date on which we declared independence from Great Britain. And why do we do that? Because we won! We won the Revolutionary War! If we hadn’t, then July 4th would not be a national holiday. Instead, we would all be driving on the left side of the road, eating scones with jam for breakfast, drinking tea at three in the afternoon, and singing "God Save the Queen". Baseball would be replaced by cricket, and the game called "football" would be played with a round white ball being randomly kicked around by men wearing kneesocks. We would have to use expressions like, "Pip! Pip!" and "Cheerio!" And whenever we came across a member of the so-called nobility, we would have to bow from the waist and address them as "Your Lordship". But thankfully, we avoided all that by kicking the redcoats out of America.
As you might expect, the fourth of July is not a big holiday in London, England. Nor do Southerners in the U.S. typically celebrate February 22nd. That’s the official birth date for the Confederate States of America. But there are no fireworks in Atlanta or Charleston on that day. Why? Well, for one thing, it’s too cold for fireworks in February. But more than that, it’s because the South lost the Civil War. No one shoots off fireworks, or holds parades, or gives speeches to commemorate a failure.
It’s the same in the political arena. Had a few thousand votes in Florida gone the other way, our President would be Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., instead of George Bush. The margin of victory was razor-thin, the race so incredibly close that it had to be mediated by the Supreme Court. But it doesn’t matter. George Bush lives in the White House, while Al Gore is back in Tennessee and out of government. When Bush walks into a room, the marine band plays "Hail to the Chief". He travels on Air Force One. He serves as chief executive of the Federal Government; as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. World leaders answer his phone calls. And everything he does makes news. This morning, newspapers all over the country had a picture of George Bush in Kennebunkport, fishing. Nothing else. Just fishing. Because by definition, anything the President does is news. And Al Gore? What did he do yesterday? Who knows? Who cares? He lost!
My point is that we celebrate success, but we either ignore or condemn failure. We despise it; we fear it. And once someone has failed in a dramatic and public way, they seldom get another chance at success. As the author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "There are no second acts in American lives." But God takes a very different approach. Many, if not most, of the people God chose had personal histories of failure. Moses committed murder; David adultery. Jacob was a con man who deceived his own father. Noah was guilty of drunkenness; Jonah disobeyed God’s command to go to Ninevah; Elijah was guilty of cowardice. In the New Testament, God chose Matthew, a corrupt tax collector. The apostle Peter, who denied even knowing Christ. And Thomas, a man of so little faith that he refused to believe Christ had risen from the dead until he saw the nail holes in his hands and feet.
This morning, we’re going to look at two of these "heroes of the faith with feet of clay," one from the Old Testament and one from the New. These are men who knew what it was to come up short; who knew what it was to make mistakes and fall into sin; who knew what it was to be overcome and overwhelmed. Men who knew what it was to fail, and fail miserably, but who found that in God’s eyes, failure is never final; failure is never the last word. I believe we can learn something from these examples. First of all, we can learn what kind of God we serve. A God of grace and mercy; a God of compassion and forgiveness. A God not only of second chances, but of third chances, and fourth, and fifth, and on and on. A God who delights in using ordinary, foolish, sinful people to accomplish his good and wise purposes, because that way He gets all the glory, as he should. A God who can use someone as flawed and imperfect as you or I to do great things, in spite of our weaknesses and failings. A God who looks to the future and sees what we can be, rather than just what we have been.
So let’s begin by considering Moses. It was Moses whom God used to bring His people out of Egypt and into the promised land. Through him, God performed many miracles, and brought great plagues on the land, in order to force Pharaoh to release his captives. After they escaped, Moses led the people through the Red Sea, which God had miraculously parted. It was Moses to whom God gave the law and the Ten Commandments, Moses who led the people for forty years in the wilderness, Moses who interceded for them with God, Moses who brought them to the border of Canaan. Deuteronomy 34 tells us that he was unique among men:
"Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel." – Deuteronomy 34:10-12
Hebrews 3:5 tells us that "Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future." And the esteem in which Moses was held by God is seen by the fact that it was Moses and Elijah who appeared and spoke with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Yet Moses’ life was marred by a great failure, before he was called by God to lead Israel. Here’s an account of that event, in the words of Stephen, speaking to the Sanhedrin:
"At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
"When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ’Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
"But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ’Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons." – Acts 7:20-29
Moses was moved to anger and righteous indignation by the cruelty of the Egyptian slavemaster, by the suffering of his people. But he reacted in an impulsive and arrogant manner. God had not yet called him to be the deliverer of his people. He had no warrant or authority to take this kind of violent action. Nevertheless, he took it upon himself to lead an uprising among the Hebrews, a slave revolt. But he acted arrogantly and foolishly. And his people rejected his leadership. No one followed him. (If they had, they almost certainly would have been slaughtered. Pharaoh had a great army, with chariots and horses and weapons and trained warriors. The Hebrews had nothing but their bare hands. Without God’s promise to protect them, a rebellion would have been suicide.)
When it became known that Moses had committed this murder, Pharaoh ordered him killed. He was forced to flee for his life. He escaped into the desert of Midian, where he settled and became a shepherd. For forty years, he stood day after day and watched sheep for a living, sweltering under the heat of the day and freezing during the cold of the night. No longer any royal robes to wear or king’s palace to live in, but rough wool clothing and a mud hut. No delicacies from the king’s table, only the simple fare of a peasant. No time to spend on leisure or study, but only year after year of hard labor from sunup to sundown. No servants, no power, no glory. All those things he had forfeited by his one act of murderous rage. No longer was he "Moses, prince of Egypt," but only "Moses, the shepherd". It wasn’t until after four decades of separation from his home and his people that God finally called to Moses, out of the burning bush, and commissioned him to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt. But this time, Moses had a very different response. Forty years before, he had been self-confident and presumptuous. But now he was anything but:
"Moses said to the Lord , ’O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ The Lord said to him, ’Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’ But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it.’" – Exodus 4:10-13
Moses’ forty years of exile had at least taught him humility. He’d had four decades to think about what he had lost by his one impulsive act of manslaughter; what his failure of wisdom had cost him. The passing years had given him a strong sense of his limitations and his weakness. And after all, by now he was eighty years of age, no longer a young man. He was ready for retirement. All his dreams of doing something great with his life had passed. And so, when the Lord finally did call, Moses was not eager to respond. He was reluctant. He knew from personal experience what could go wrong. Not until the Lord assured him repeatedly that He would be with Moses did he agree to go.
And that, I think, points up one of the benefits of failure, one of the reasons that God so often uses failure in our lives to prepare us for his service. It teaches us humility. It teaches us that the outcome of our labors is in His hands, and not ours. It burns away our self-sufficiency and presumption, and burns into our consciousness the vital truth that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. It tempers our pride and arrogance. It teaches us to look to God for success, instead of to ourselves. For Moses, it took forty years to learn that lesson, but once he did, God was able to use him in a mighty way. Let me ask you, have you learned that lesson? Have your failures taught you to look to God, to trust in Him rather than yourself? Or have your failures only strengthened your determination to be self-reliant, made you even more determined to succeed by your own ability and power? If so, you have not yet learned what you need to learn.
Another lesson we can draw from this is that failure is never final. None of us would likely have chosen a murderer, a man on the run, to be the spokesman for God and the leader of God’s people. But God did. He did not regard Moses’ life as having been ruined, as being irreparably damaged. He had a plan to redeem Moses’ life, to make sure that his failure was not the final word. He made of Moses a great man and a great leader. And he can do the same thing with your life. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how miserably you’ve failed, God can make something great and wonderful out of your life. He can transform it. He can take all of your mistakes and put them in the past, and give you a glorious future full of fruitful service. He can forgive your sin, cleanse from guilt, and overcome your mistakes. The good news is that you have not ruined your life beyond God’s ability to redeem and rebuild. God can bless you and use you, regardless of your past. Listen to these promises:
"The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. . . he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." – Psalm 103:8-12
"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." – Hebrews 8:12
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." – 1 John 1:9
"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten–the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm–my great army that I sent among you." – Joel 2:25
In this last verse, even though the people of Israel have suffered due to their own sin, God promises to restore what they have lost. And he can do the same in your life. He can rebuild what is broken; He can bring life and hope and renewal, even when the damage was the result of our own sin and failure.
We have another example of this in the life of the apostle Peter. Peter was impulsive, proud, and passionate. When Jesus predicted, on the night of the last supper, that all the disciples would desert him, Peter responded indignantly:
"’Even if all fall away on account of you, 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.’ And all the other disciples said the same." – Matthew 26:33-35
Yet he was not able to make good his boast. Later in the evening, after Christ had been arrested, we read of this encounter:
"Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. ’You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said. But he denied it before them all. ’I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, ’This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ He denied it again, with an oath: ’I don’t know the man!’
After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ’Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.’ Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, ’I don’t know the man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ’Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly." – Matthew 26:69-75
Can you imagine any worse insult? Any deeper wound? For Peter to curse and swear and deny that he had ever met Jesus? How would you feel if someone did that to you; if a close friend were to deny ever having met you? It must have hurt Christ deeply. What cowardice, what ingratitude, what disloyalty! After three years of the closest companionship! After he had chosen Peter, made him part of the inner circle, shared with him things that no one else knew! It’s almost inconceivable. But that’s the problem. It’s only almost completely inconceivable. Because we have all done just this – we, too, have denied Christ. Perhaps not in words. Perhaps we haven’t been as emphatic, or as profane as Peter was in his denial. But we have remained silent when we should have spoken. We have failed to identify ourselves as followers of Christ when it might have meant ridicule, or contempt, or exclusion, or discomfort. We have denied Christ by our conduct, by failing to live as He would have us to live. And when that happens; when we realize what we’ve done, we too feel sorrow, as Peter did. It grieves us to be such poor friends to the one who gave his life for us. So what can we expect when we do this? That Christ will deny us in turn? That he will turn his back on us? That he will refuse ever again to use us in his service, refuse to entrust any important work into our care? No. Far from it. Psalm 103 tells us that,
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." – Psalm 103:13-14
After Christ had risen from the dead, he appeared to Peter and the other disciples. What must have been going through Peter’s mind, seeing the Savior that he had so recently betrayed? Did he expect a rebuke? Condemnation? But Christ not only forgives Peter, he commissions him for further service.
"When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ’Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ’Yes, Lord,’ he said, ’you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ’Feed my lambs.’
Again Jesus said, ’Simon son of John, do you truly love me?’ He answered, ’Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ’Take care of my sheep.’
The third time he said to him, ’Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ’Do you love me?’ He said, ’Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ’Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, ’Follow me!’" – John 21:15-19
This morning, you may be grieving over some failure in your life. Some act of foolishness, or sin, or misjudgment that has messed things up royally. Perhaps even this week you’ve done or said something you regret deeply. And the message I want to leave you with today is simple: God can make it right. He can forgive – anything. He wants to forgive; He’s waiting to forgive. All you have to do is ask, in the name of Christ, and your guilt will be washed away.
Not only that, but God can use you. He uses broken, wounded, sinful people to accomplish his purposes. And he has a place for you in his service. Whatever you may have done, God still has a good purpose for you life. So come to him, bring all your broken pieces, all the junk, all the mistakes, all the messed-up parts of your life, and give them to him. Then wait to see what great things God will do. You won’t be disappointed.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
