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BACK FROM FAILURE – Part
2 of a 2 part sermon (see sermon “Dimensions of God’s Grace and Love”
for part 1) by Dr. D.A. Farmer, pastor
John
21:15-19; “So
when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, [son] of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou
knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to
him again the second time, Simon, [son] of Jonas, lovest thou me? He
saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto
him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, [son] of
Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the
third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all
things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou
girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird
thee, and carry [thee] whither thou wouldest not. This spake he,
signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken
this, he saith unto him, Follow me.” Not
long ago a local newspaper ran a cute cartoon with “Dennis the
Menace” in it. The scene showed Dennis kneeling by his bed saying his
prayers. He had his hands folded looking upward toward Heaven. The
caption under the cartoon read; “I’m here to turn myself in!” I
wonder if anyone here today has ever been in Dennis’ shoes before? You
know, telling God you blew it -
again! Failure is a painfully powerful word! Often you feel guilt that
overwhelms you. We
all may feel failure sometimes in our life. For example, someone here
this morning may feel they have failed at their job. Others may feel
they have failed at home as a parent or spouse! Someone here may have
felt sometime in his or her life like a failure when you tried to
witness for the Lord. But probably the worst feeling is the emotional
feeling that we have failed God! Spiritual
failure can be devastating! You perceive that you have really let God
down to the point that He’s probably had it and is through with you! Failure!
It’s a word that has the power to turn us red inside and out! But
friends, please allow me to tell you two things about this Book, the
Bible. One, God wrote it! And this book tells stories of people that
failed! Some failed many times over! If you or I had been writing it, we
probably would have left out all the stories about people that failed!
We would not want the world to know about people in Bible times had
problems like we do today! The
Bible also tells us about the God who wrote it! It tells of a God that
is full of love and grace. We looked at that last week in the sermon “Dimensions
of God’s Grace and Love.” Today is part 2 where we started last
week. If you missed last week’s sermon, please download it from our
web page or seek a copy of the tape from Mickey Akens. The
Bible also explains to us about a God that sent His Son to buy back lost
humanity! A God that forgives human failure! But, just because He is a
God of love and grace, that does not give anyone the “license” to
sin. Just because He forgives us, doesn’t mean we can go on living the
way we may be living today! But we can be thankful knowing that He
understands us! We can be thankful knowing that He works on broken and
wounded people! And we can be thankful knowing that God never gives up on us!
Do
you remember the story by the sea in Luke 5? Please turn there with me.
Look at Luke 5:8. “When Simon Peter saw
[it], he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a
sinful man, O Lord.” Simon Peter tells Jesus to
depart from him for he is a sinful man! In other words Peter was saying,
“Lord, do not waste Your time on a bum like me.” Peter had
experienced failure in the above verses before Jesus gets there! They
had been fishing and caught nothing all night. Friends,
have you ever expressed those same words? “Lord, do not waste your
time on someone like me.” Let
me ask you, did you really want God to quit working on you? Of course
not! And neither did Peter! Listen to what Desire of Ages page 246 says:
“Peter exclaimed, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man;’ Yet
he clung to the feet of Jesus, feeling that he could not be parted from
Him.” We must learn to cling to the feet of Jesus and not let Him
go too! Do
you remember when Peter was denying Christ for the 3rd time?
It was a barnyard animal that God used to show Peter his failure! And
often God uses different ways on us to show us our failures too. But
really when you get right down to it, our text in John 21:15-19
doesn’t deal with Peter’s failure, but rather Peters coming back
from failure. In
my NIV Serendipity Bible, the heading above those verses in John 21
reads “Jesus Reinstates Peter”. But can Peter make a come
back? Can he stand back up and walk with the Lord again? Remember he had
denied knowing Jesus 3 times. And here we find Jesus asking Peter 3
times if he loved Him. By the time Jesus ask the 3rd time the
same question, we find Peter was very grieved! Those repeated questions
brought Peters shameful denials back to his mind vividly! Then just like
a barbed arrow going through his heart, Peters was cut and wounded!
Jesus could now entrust Peter with His flock! And our Bible tells us
that Peter came back from certain failure and made a great impact on the
growing Church of God. I would like to tell you a story of a time I felt
like a failure. For
the 3 years pastoring our 1st district in Greenville, MS we
had given 2 Daniel and Revelation Seminars and 1 Evangelistic Crusade.
Friends, we didn’t have even 1 baptism from any 3 of those outreaches.
But there was a couple that came to all 3. But never the less, I felt
that I had really let God down. Then God called me to Russia and I had a
hard time understanding why. I already felt I had failed God here in
America. Why would He be calling me to Russia? Long story short – we
went and had 78 baptisms. Shortly
after we returned, we were called to pastor in Ft. Dodge, Iowa. And it
was there that we received word that the couple that had attended all 3
series in Greenville had been baptized and joined the Church. And that
convinced me that no matter what we do for the Lord, it is never in
vain. You cannot do anything for God and fail! Not as long as you are
allowing Him to lead! Did you know that if you look at Jesus’ life and
ministry while on earth, you might even consider Him a failure? Think
about it for a moment. He started off with 12 men in His primary
congregation. They heard Jesus’ same sermons over and over. Not only
heard the same sermons, but lived and walked with Jesus. Yet after 3
years not one of them really grasped the message He sought to teach
them. Not one really understood Jesus when He repeatedly spoke about His
death - burial and resurrection! Not one seemed to have been fully
converted before Christ’s Crucifixion. One betrayed Him and Peter
cursed and swore that he didn’t know Jesus (See Matt. 26:69-75). The
12 constantly disputed among themselves on “Which one of them was
the greatest” (See Luke 22:14-53). They were even still were hung
up on this same topic as they trod the path to Gethsemane with Christ
(See Matt. 20:17-28). Yet, even with all these failures, these are the
very ones that Christ willed as the leaders of His Church! Then Christ
went to the grave! His mission appeared to have failed! He is dead and
buried in a tomb! When we look at the picture up to this point, and
judge it simply by what meets the human eye. If we valued Christ’s
Ministry by typical human standards, then it would appear that Jesus
failed! If
I had been Jesus, I probably would have folded up my sermon notes and
turned in my credentials! Lets face it - we all enjoy success! We like
to see it - smell it - savor it - grasp it - touch it - and as a
minister, best of all count it and report it to the Conference Office! Some
years ago at a ministers meeting, the yearly Baptism Reports for the
Conference were being passed out. It showed how many baptisms each
pastor had for the year so far. Of all the ministers, I was the only one
with a zero by his name. Then the Conference Official that passed out
the report said: “If David Farmer has a baptism between now and the
end of the year, it will be the first time in our conference history
that every pastor had at least one baptism!” Friends, death would
have been better! That
was probably the most embarrassing experience I have ever had in my
entire life. Now I know that the Conference Official did not mean it the
way it came out. But never the less, it hurt. At
that moment I appeared to be the only failure among all the pastors!
That happened on my 41st birthday by the way. The good news
is that by the end of the year, I had 3 baptisms. But the point is I did
not like appearing like a failure! No one does! But
something I learned a long time ago is that apparent failure and
ultimate failure is not the same thing! Just like my story of my 3
series in Greenville, MS. I appeared to have failed but I had been
successful all along! I just did not know it at the time! But my success
showed up later! I planted the seeds that had to germinate underground
where I could not see them! My problem then and often now is that I want
to cultivate - water - and harvest in 3 or 4 weeks! Some of us have a
hard time tolerating failure or what appears to be delayed failure! We
all want immediate success! Just like we want our prayers to be answered
immediately! And when they are not or it appears they are not then we
feel like we have failed at knowing how to pray! But again look at
Christ! He planted seeds with His disciples and the fruit wasn’t seen
fully until Pentecost. By this time Christ is in Heaven! In
the book Education page 305 we find these words; “Men sow the seed
from which, above their graves, others reap blessed harvests. They plant
trees, that others may eat the fruit. …In the hereafter the action and
reaction of all these will be seen.” As
Christians, we must understand that what appears to be failure in
witnessing is not real failure! And that same principle applies to
raising our children. Do
you realize this is one of the main reasons why some Christians never
witness for God! They’re afraid of failing again. They believe that
failure means they are a loser! And losers are never trusted with any
important assignments! So they feel that they are better off not doing
anything. This way they can never fail! I mean after all, anyone can
succeed at doing nothing! It’s much easier and much less threatening
to simply sit in our comfortable pews and criticize others for what they
are doing. But friends, we should never stop telling others about Jesus.
We must continue to tell and demonstrate to our children about Jesus and
His love. Look
at Thomas Edison for a moment. History says that he tried over and over
before inventing the light bulb that worked. Abe Lincoln and Winston
Churchill both lost several elections before entering their place in
history! Formula 409 wasn’t invented until the 409th
attempt. And we must never be afraid of failing when it comes to
witnessing for Jesus! What we should be afraid of is not being willing
to take a risk! It is only those that quit trying that can be considered
failures! Only those who are doing something have the opportunity to
appear to fail. Or better yet - succeed! We need to look beyond our past
witnessing and look forward to what roads God has for us to travel
today. I
heard a quote once that went something like this: “If you fail to
plan - then you are planning to fail.” Our responsibility is not
to worry about the ultimate victory but to do our part today! Once we receive God’s love and grace we discussed last week, it is then our responsibility to share it with others. I pray you will.
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Printed From Texarkana SDA Church Website http://www.tagnet.org/texarkana |
