When I talk about fails tonight, its about moral failures when we know we screwed up and can make it right.. I’m not referring to when someone you love gets sick, or passes away, or disaster. Some things are not so simple they can be explained as “it happened for a reason.” Or that it happened “for our good”.
Our moral failures, however, we can learn from.
The myth of “be safe”
We’re not talking about this to make anyone feel ashamed for failing. We’ve all failed and will fail. All of life can be a risk. Its always better to try and potentially fail then not try at all. Where do we see Jesus praying this? Where do we see him admonishing people to “be safe”?
Where do we see the disciples or people in church history concerned about failure? The possibility of failure is always present. God doesn’t call us to be afraid of failure or to “be safe”, he calls us to be faithful, in prayer, willing to be used by God.
Some fails are avoidable.
If you are responsible at the beginning, some fails are avoidable. That's wisdom. Putting things off isn't just lazy, it's a spiritual issue. If you devote work for Christ you do it well and do it quickly.
Story. Me skipping school mom saw dad said "what if I skipped work everyday?" Burn. Fail would've been avoided if I was just faithful with my task, which was simple: go to school and do the work. Was it fun at the time to go to school? Not always. But it was certainly better than getting busted for skipping school and getting in trouble, that’s for sure.
When you fail, how do you respond?
Feeling shame after we fail is to be expected, and shame doesn’t feel good. You want to make it go away as soon as possible. But running from your shame, and your failure, is one of the worst things you could ever do.
We all fail: don’t let shame hold you down. What is shame? Its our conscience helping us know right from wrong. But what is our conscience?
Don’t run from conscience. Shame is God trying to get your attention to help you make better decisions. Shame is how we can learn right from wrong. Shame is not a bad thing. Those who are wise and make good decisions are those who listen to God’s counsel through their conscience, through their shame. Listening, and learning from, our shame can help prevent more failures in the future. Is this easy? Not at all. Its actually one of the most emotionally difficult things to do.
Its a choice to learn from your shame. Its a decision to seek to grow in wisdom at any cost. Its a choice to learn from shame, a choice that should come from your love for Christ. You want to do better because your love him. Don’t just learn from your mistakes because you have to. Do it because you want to honor God in all that you do and because you love Jesus.
Failure is how we learn
Crosby scholars and my dad story - failed, grounded for 73 years, no (home) phone, super tense.
The Bible is full of flawed people who made mistakes and God used them anyway.
God is with you. Remember God’s character
Deut 31:6 - Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”
Psalm 111:2-4
2 How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!
All who delight in him should ponder them.
3 Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty.
His righteousness never fails.
4 He causes us to remember his wonderful works.
How gracious and merciful is our Lord!
God has never failed and will never fail. It can be hard to imagine someone who has never failed. In fact, everyone you know has failed at one time or another, but God hasn’t.
In fact, if you truly believe in God, failure should not even be in your vocabulary. Total failure sounds like there is no hope, no future, no silver lining, but for those who know the Lord, we know that our failures are not the end. God is with us in our failures.
Let’s look at the ultimate epic fail, or so it seemed to everyone at the time: the cross. When Jesus was given a fake trial and crucified, it looked like the biggest epic fail in history. The movement was over, his followers were scattered, all was lost. Then God proceeded to take what looked like death, and turn it into life. Not only was Jesus raised from the dead, God then poured out the Spirit on the early church, as you heard this morning in Sunday school, to bring radical change to the world.
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28
When you’re in the midst of a gigantic fail, its very hard to see anything positive out of it. But if you keep faith, and trust God, God can use it for the good
- this applied to Jesus as well.
Jesus was faithful to God to the point of death, whatever the cost. Clearly in the garden of Gethsamane the night before, as he prayed all night long, Jesus was struggling. He felt the weight of what he knew he had to do, and was so crushed the Bible says that blood emitted from the pores of his skin. Jesus was willing to fail in the eyes of the world because 1) he was faithful to the will of His father and 2) he knew our sin had to be atoned for.
Jesus willingly entered into this “ultimate fail”...out of love.
What failures are you struggling with? How is shame holding you down? Accept the forgiveness of God and move on. Shame can force us to pick our offering back up and hold onto it again. You are forgiven. Leave it on the altar. Confess your failure and keep on moving.
Maybe someone has failed you. God calls us to forgive them. Forgiving someone won’t change the past, but it can change your future. God’s forgiveness can turn your fail into a bright future.
God doesn’t want you to stay stuck in your yesterday. He want to set you free for today and tomorrow.
