Facing
Your Failure
Tuesday, November 18,
2003
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.
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Stephen Pile chronicled some of
the biggest failures in modern history. The Incomplete Book of Failures
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Thomas Edison teacher said, "he
was too stupid to learn;"
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Albert Einstein teacher said, "He
(Albert) was mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish
dreams;"
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One Word: Edsel (A door that would
not close, a hood that would not open and horn that would not honk)
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There is no record of anyone every
stealing an Edsel.
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Decca records rejected the Beatles
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The newspaper editor who fired
Walt Disney because he lacked ideas....
We all mess up, fail, or make bad
choices. (You have to learn from other’s mistakes. The problem is that you and I
are usually the others) Welcome to the human race!
Failure
Even at our best, we fail. I hope you see your failures as something less
than fatal. Let us look at a five-fold system in facing our failures.
I. Acknowledge Your Failure!
A.) Not every failure points to sin, at least not yours.
Job lost his family, home, belongings and he did not do anything wrong.
Jesus was seized, convicted & executed and he did not do anything wrong.
B.) We all fail. James 3:2 KJV
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a
perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
C.)
We all stumble in many things.
If at first we do not succeed, we redefine success. WE HATE ADMITTING FAILURE!!!
A common mistake Marriage failed! Marriage is of God. Marriages do not fail.
People fail. I HAVE FAILED! I HAVE FAILED! I HAVE FAILED! When we admit
and confess our failures, we are on our way to recovery.
II. 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.
1.) There is no failure too big for God to forgive. (Forgiveness is God’s
specialty)
a.) After we have acknowledged the failure, accepted God forgiveness, we
can move on.
III Apply The Lessons of Failure
Toward Success
A.)
Do not totally forget your failures. (Do not 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 have just spent $10 million educating you." Mistakes can be teachers that
provide us with invaluable lessons!!!
1.) Proverbs 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 will learn to walk just by a process of
elimination.
Even though we fail, that does not mean we are failures.
IV. 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 Peter about how he, Peter, would deny him,
Jesus, before the rooster crowed 3 times.
Mark 14:66-72
[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 do not know or understand what you are 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 are 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 a
hermit in seclusion. WRONG! Two months later he preached one of the
greatest sermons in Christianity and 3,000 people got saved!
1.) Do not ever let someone
call you a failure or a loser. You are not your resume!
Failure is an event, not a person. It is not something you do, not something you
become.
YOUR FAILURES ARE NOT FATAL!!!! Your attitude during failure determines your
attitude after failure. When you mess up, you can get up.
V. Arise From Failure & Start
Again.
1.) 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 of a whale for 3 days? (You stink and you
think)
Jonah 3:1-2
[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."
120,000 Ninevites repented.
2.) You may not have been in
the belly of a big fish.
A Scottish preacher, Alexander Whyte said saints "they fall down, they get up,
they fall down, they get up...all the way to heaven."
Conclusion:
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Acknowledge
our failures.
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Accept God’s
forgiveness.
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Apply the
lessons of failure toward success
