Learning from Failure || Pastor André Olivier

You know, it is our honor today. Thank you for coming to church,

Thank you for considering to invite people to church on this Father's Day.

We are extremely honored to have one of our dearest friends with us, him

and his wife, Pastor Andre and Pastor Wilma, all the way from South

Africa and Johannesburg and Santin and Durban and in so many other areas. And

you know, I've been to a few churches this Their church looks like our

church. Culturally, they looks they look just the same. They both are

avid book writers. They have amazing orphanages outreaches very much similar to us.

People say, who do you listen to? Who do you draw from?

Who mentors you? Who who inspires you? The man you're you're about ready

to be introduced? Does I remember several years ago I was trying to think

of a way to be cutting edge and trying to create a different way of

presenting the Gospel. And that's when I ran across Pastor Andre and he his

style blessed me so much. And so he's one of the most prolific teachers.

They've been married fifty years. That's something to be said. And you

are going to be extremely blessed. So thank you so much. Would you

stand on your feet and give a big patriot warm welcome to Pastor Andre Olivier.

Thank you, Good morning, patriot. How are you today? Happy

Father's Day to all the dads. May the Lord bless you, make his

face to shine upon you, and may you be loved today and appreciated by

your friends and family. Stay standing with me. I'm going to pray in

just a moment, But the longer you stand, the shorter of the preaching.

Seems such an honor to be back here with Pastor Diego and Cindy,

and just so grateful to God for what He's done here over thirty years and

now the wonderful hand over, and how the church is continuing to grow and

momentum, new creativity, fresh ideas, and you're still staying put. You're

bought in and you're committed. And I take my hat off to this church,

to this ministry. I've so loved your pastors. You came over about

two three years ago and preached for us, and it was just a wonderful

blessing, and Pastor Adam and Ashley, just lovely people and leaders emerging and

seeing how God is taking them forward. You should be grateful for the legacy

you have here. Give him a hand. Are you ready for some teaching

today? You're gonna be responsive. In my church, they talk to me,

they say, Amen, put your hand on your heart and let's pray.

Let's get the word. Father. Thank you for your wonderful presence here

this morning, during the worship and the fun that we've had. We pray

now that you'd impart truth and insight to our hearts, give us understanding today

and wisdom that we might live our lives spiritually and practically, and be fruitful

and successful as you intend. I pray that you'd speak to every heart,

free us from distractions, help us to benefit today. And at the close

of the preaching, let hearts be open to respond to you, soft hearts,

hearts that return to Jesus Christ as Lord. We commit our time to

you now, and we pray Lord that you would speak, that my accent

would not be a barrier. We commit this time to you in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen, you can be seated this morning. Such an honor

to be and such a blessing to spend time with Pastor Dieger and Pastor Cindy

and chatting to Adam upstairs. This morning, I'll get straight to the word

because of the time, and I want to make sure that I am able

to get through what I wanted to share with you today. How many of

you realized in the room today that failure is inherent in us all, every

single person is prone to failure. In fact, mankind started with failure.

God created Adam, and even then there was failure. One generation later,

Cain kills Abel. And when you study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation,

you'll see that failure us all the way through. God finds a man like

Noah, and he says, I'm going to recreate the earth, and I'm

going to years Noah. And then Noah gets drunk. He has some cabinet

sauvignon and he falls down on the ground naked, and we've got problems all

over again. And as we look through we see Abraham taking his maid very

willingly and having a child with her and causing problems. As we look through

scripture, you see one failure after another. Moses loses his temper, he

strikes the rock, he can't go into the Promised Land. This amazing seeing

man of God fails. As we go further, we look at David,

a man after God's are not commits adultery. And then we see Jonah disobedient,

running away from the Lord when God's got a plan for his life.

King Solomon wise beyond measure, But then he gets involved with all those women.

And for those men who think having lots of women is great, just

read the Bible. And then of course we know Simon Peter, the leader

of the Twelve, denies Jesus three times, fails miserably. We can understand

the twelve, but not the leader of the twelve. How do you know?

Even leaders can fail, and leaders need to be humble, need to

know how to recover from failure and move forward. You know, I found

it amazing that even reading the Bible and discovering a man called Barnabas and Encourager,

a man after God's own heart, literally one who would encourage the church

and sold the field. Even here it says in Galatians was led astray by

hypocrisy. And so none of us is excluded from failure. In fact,

if you have never failed, we'll just take a moment to pause and let

you leave so we can carry on It's so true, but we don't think

about it in that light. I believe we need some understanding about failure,

and then we need to know how to recover from it, because if you

don't have understanding of why you failed, how can you move forward? And

so today I want to speak to you and ha'v entitled the message Understanding and

Recovering from our Failures. Understanding and Recovering from our Failures. The late pastor

Jay Wallace Hamilton said this. He said, people are training for success when

they should be training for failure. Failure is far more common than success,

Poverty is more prevalent than wealth, and disappointment more normal than arrival. Isn't

that true? We need to know how to deal with failure because we all

fail in every thing that we do and everything we say. In fact,

James tells us that we all stumble. He says in many ways. Don't

nudge your husband. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is

perfect able to keep their whole body in check. Paul, writing to us,

tells us that even when we have good intentions, we fail. He

says in Romans seven and verse nineteen, for I do not do the good

I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do.

This I keep on doing any Amen's in the room. You see. The

key to failure is this is not to let us defeat us or define us.

The only one wants to defeat us. If you can defeat us,

you'll be in church, you'll be singing in church, you'll be attending,

you'll even be giving. But you're defeated because of your failure, or you're

defined by it. I'm a Christian, but I'm not one of those up

there, you know, I'm like number two. No, don't let to

defeat you. Don't let it define you. And the world loves fail It

loves to jump on Christian failure. And we've seen a number of key leaders

in the world fail and it embarrasses the church. How many of you know,

all of us have got relatives we're not proud of. Go to them

at Christmas and then you're glad it's over. Well we have that in the

Kingdom. Leaders fail. God wants us to understand why and then to move

forward, because he's the God of the second chance, He's the God of

recovery. You know. Jensen Franklin, in speaking about our culture put it

very well. He said. The celebrity gossip industry rakes in over three billion

dollars a year because we live in a world that thrives off of sensational stories

of failure. The enemy wants to use your mistakes to mock you, but

God can use them to make you if you let them. The people around

you will define you by your failures. Don't be held hostage by your bad

choices. Your failure is not final. I want to give you five things

today to help you, and we'll have sub points under them, because that's

what teachers do. But John Maxwell said this before we get into it.

He said this, a person must be big enough to admit her or his

mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

So we've got to be big enough. We've got to be smart enough,

and we've got to be strong enough. And if we are, God

will give us grace and we can move forward from strength to strength. So

let me give you five things today. Number one. The first thing if

you are going to understand and recover from failures, this admit your failures.

Don't conceal them. Now that doesn't me tell everybody around you but we need

to go to God, and we need to be honest about our failures and

admit them. Proverbs twenty eight says a man who refuses to admit his mistakes

can never be successful. But if he confesses, and then I love this,

he gets another chance. God's got another chance for you today, as

a leader, as a husband, as a wife, as a businessman,

as a father. Particularly, God wants to get because we're all learning.

Come. You know, you didn't get a book when you became a father.

You made it up as you went along. We had our first child,

we tried everything on the first child, and we had the second child.

We switched tack. By the third child, we said, you do

it. We gonna admit our mistakes James Chapter five. Admit your faults to

one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. I

love that when we're admit, we can be healed. Here's what I want

to say, especially to leaders. When you admit your mistakes, you know

what happened. God draws near you, and so do people. When you

refuse to admit it, people withdraw They're like, doesn't he know? And

the are key Christian leaders in the world today, who could have a second

chance if only they acknowledged their failure, admitted it to God and to others.

People draw near to you and they embrace you. Isn't that what happened

with a prodigal son when he failed? He said, I'll arise, I'll

go home, and I'll tell my father I've sinned against Heaven and against you.

What happened? His father drew near to him and blessed him doubly.

He received his inheritance and received it again. But when you don't admit that,

people withdraw, and so does God. It's like He's like, okay,

you're going to carry on. Let's admit it. Let's not conceal them.

Number two, don't label yourself a failure. You see, failure is

an event, not a person. It's an event, not an identity.

And it's so easy to label yourself. I'm one of those people that's lesser.

And if you've grown up being being beaten or being verbally abused, you

can end up taking that even as a Christian. I'm a Christian, but

I'm not really a Christian. And we need not label ourselves a failure.

We fail, but we're not failures. C. S. Lewis said in

his book The screw Tape Letters, describing how Satan works, He says he

gets Christians to become preoccupied with their failures. From then on, the battle

is one. If he can't get you preoccupied with your failure, you label

yourself and you forget all the good things in your life. I want to

tell you most people who fail, even if they fail big, If you

take a moment to look at them, you'll see they've got lots of fine

qualities. But we all have a big butt. Have you got a big

bat? You see? That's the problem. We see our big bat.

We don't see the qualities that God is working on and the things we're getting

right. Let me help you. There's a man in the Bible called Naman

who he's mentioned in Two Kings, chapter five, and it lists all his

qualities, but he has a big bat. The Bible says that our name

and was commander of the army of the King of Aram. That's a pretty

good position. He was a great man in the sight of his master,

and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He

was a valiant soldier. Here's his butt, but he had leprosy. Are

you like that you only see the butt or do you see what God's still

doing in your life and the qualities You've got. Be careful you don't label

yourself. Identify the failure, the weakness, and what you need to grow

with and deal with that. Don't cost yourself as a loser. Peter failed,

but he wasn't a failure. Jesus restored him. David the Bible says

he honored the Lord in everything except in the matter of Uriah the hit tight.

We labeled David with his adultery. Don't do that. See all the

rest. The late zig Ziggler, brilliant Baptist preacher. I once invited him

to preach at Rivers, and I was sent to reply that he only preachers

in Baptist churches. So that was that. He said this. You cannot

climb the ladder of success dressed in the costume of failure. Don't label yourself.

Number three, try and understand why you failed. Try and understand why

you failed. What most of us do when we fail is we first we

blame others. Then if you really spiritual, you blame the devil. Is

actually not in America right now he's in the Middle East. I don't know

if you noticed. When you blame others, you become a victim. And

when you become a victimy you lose control over your life. We're not victims.

If we're Christians. We belong to Jesus. We stumble, but we're

not victims. We mustn't blame the devil. We need to retrace our steps

and say where and how did this happen to me, so I can make

sure it doesn't happen again. Let's read a passage here that we're enlarging the

church, so to speak. It was the school of the Prophets. And

I'll read briefly, and then we'll look at eight possible places you can look

where maybe you can retrace your steps. Two Kings, chapter six and verse

five, and it says they went to the Jordan and began to cut down

trees. They want to enlarge the kingdom. As one of them was cutting

down a tree, the iron axid fell into the water. Oh no,

my lord, he cried out. It was borrowed. If you've ever hired

a rental car and you've bumped it, Ah, but watch it, says

the Man of God asked Where did it fall? Not who made it fall?

Where did it fall? When he showed him the place, Elisha cut

a stick and through it there and made the iron float lifted out, he

said, and here's the key. Then the man reached out his hand and

took it. God wants you to retrace your steps, be honest and admit

you lost it or failed. Then go there and reach out and go again.

Now, notice, notice you see we struggle here. This is leadership

failure, This is ministry failure. These people have been doing something evil.

This was no nightclub. They weren't stripping, they were not sniffing lines and

cocaine. No one was having a bond or getting high. This was the

men of God wanting to expand, and failure came. Are you with me?

And we need to retrace our steps in all our failures, both ministry,

marriage, fatherhood, and figure out where we felt so we can pick

up and we can learn and move forward and not fail. Simon Carruthers put

it like this. I like this. He says, life is a series

of outcomes. Sometimes the outcome is what you want great, figure out what

you did right. Sometimes the outcomes what you don't want. Figure out what

you did wrong, so you don't do it again. Maybe I can give

you eight places today or eight reasons is you retrace your steps? Maybe this

is why you felt. I could give you probably two. But maybe you

failed because you're not gifted enough. You know a lot of people try things

but they're not gifted enough. You're not called or graced for it. That's

why you failed, and you're not a failure. It's like it's like what

we saw in the singing. Some sing in the shower, then they go

on idols and the judges tell them keep singing in the shower. But what

do they do? Usually I'm going to sing two thousands. I don't care

what you say. Now, don't be dumb. If you're not gifted enough,

then change tack. Can I caurage business people? You know what I've

learned over you is there are many good plumbers, electricians, painters, good

business people, people who are good accountants, but when they start to run

their own business, they're not graced for that level. You can be skilled

as a plumber, but not be able to run a plumbing business. What

is the devil in it? Is God trying to readirect me? No,

you're not being graced or gifted for it. Find something else. I don't

know where I read this, but years ago someone said this, if you

keep hitting your head against the wall, look for the door. Number two.

Maybe we're not wise enough. We've got to retrace. I'm a gifted

Maybe I'm not wise enough. How mean? You know, wisdom comes with

age, Wisdom comes with learning the Word of God. Wisdom comes as you

journey as a Christian. Many people know Warren Buffett is this amazing investor.

You know, he just seems to get it right. But very few people

don't realize that he learned all these techniques from another guy who failed miserably.

I guyther the name of Benjamin Graham, and he wrote a book called The

Intelligent Investor. I mean, you know, you don't need to fail when

you can learn from other people's mistakes. But no one's naturally just just get

up and you can invest. No one has that. We all have to

learn, and we need to retrace our steps and find out where we fail.

And here's a challenge. Paul writes to Timothy, and he says this

in two Timothy three. He's talking about women, but it's a general principle.

He says, always learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the

truth. Let's come to a place where we learned, and when we learn

from my mistakes, we can move forward. Henry Ford said, the only

real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Number three, Maybe

you're not humble enough. Maybe that's why you failed. And let me say

this. Christians don't always recognize the lack of humility because you're what they say,

God told me so. You got married and it was a disaster and

it only lasted six months or a year, or the devil got you.

No, no, no, no, no, you're not humble enough to

have taken the advice of good people around you. Sometimes other fathers need to

come alongside you and say, hey, you're heart on the boy. No

no, no, he doesn't need that. Don't smack him across the head.

No no, no, everyone needs a good smack, even your wife.

How many know you're headed for trouble and you can be saved, washed

in the blood, sitting in church. You can be a failure because you

don't retrace your skips and figure out why. I want to remind you that

even King David, when he senned with bath Sheba it took a man called

Nathan to come to him and tell him a story. Do you remember it?

And Nathan came to him and said, there's a man who had all

these sheep, but he ended up taking his neighbors one sheep, and David

said he must die. You're the man. Sometimes we can't see it,

but we need to be helped and we need to humble ourselves. Listen,

we all need a Nathan, but we don't welcome them. And if you're

a leader, you never outgrown Nathan's. As pastors and leaders, we need

each other. We need input from each other. And at times your friends

need to say, hey, come on, you need to change this.

Change that. Humility goes a long way. Are you with me? Number

four? The fourth place? Is this helping anyone today? Yeah, you

can relate to this. We're not obedient enough. You see. King Saul

was obedient, but he wasn't obedient enough. He changed God's laws just a

little bit. Go kill King Agag and kill all the Americats. Okay,

so he does most of it, but he keeps King aegreg alive, and

he keeps the You see, I'm serving the Lord, but I'm still living

with my girlfriend. I'm serving the Lord, but I've got this propensity.

No, no, no, you're not obedient enough. That's why failure keeps

coming. It's not the devil, he's in Palestine. No. You.

You see, when you're disobedient, even a little bit, you'll miss the

mark. And missing the mark is called sin, and sin is ultimately mistakes

and failure. Number five, let me lessen your pain. We're not trained

enough. Sometimes we fail because we're not trained enough. We're not equipped enough.

We knew at it. If you've ever driven a car, you'll bump

something in the early years. I know you think you won't, but you

will because you're still learning. And the same in the Christian life, we're

still learning. I've been in the Christian walk for many years. I've been

four years in the ministry. We've been married fifty one years, by the

way, and I'm still counting. But how many of you know you're still

learning. I'm still learning how to listen when my wife speaks and not go

h, I really listen, amen. And I'm still learning how to be

a parent, because you don't parent your children until they leave home. You

parent them all the way. My son is is my son's just turned fifty

one and we spent time with them in London, and I'm still parenting and

him across the table, but much more suckly than I did when he was

a child. You know, when it was a child. Don't do that,

don't sit here, come here, No, don't do that. Now

it's like, maybe have you ever thought don about we're all learning and we

miss some stop learning and we need training. I'm sure you all know the

story of the North Carolina Young Boys. At nineteen seventy eight, fifteen years

old, he's on the basketball team and he just doesn't crack it. He

never hits. The hoopy shots are terrible. He's left off the team.

No one is surprised, but he doesn't give up and he goes and he

practices for days and days and months and months till eventually Michael Jordan, the

greatest player the world is known, emerged. Sorry forgive me, I'm in

ala Ada. Is he the greatest player? I don't want to tread on

your toes, but the point is made that when you train, you could

maybe overcome failure Number six? Is this helping anyone? The reason why we

fail? Literally? Trace us aft. You're not strong enough. A lot

of what happens to us in failure is because we're weak willed when it comes

to spending. Let me just tell you, you're not worth it. All

the makeup adverts you're worth it? Are you worth it if you've got the

money in the bank. If you ain't, you better pull back and leave

that shop quickly. Amen. We need to control our wills, our desires,

our sexual drives. Many of these things because we're not strong enough,

and we have not kept ourselves walking in the Holy Spirit, praying in tongues,

spending time in the word, we end up. Don't blame someone else,

just I'm not strong enough and I need to grow some strength. I

need to grow some spiritual muscle. Number nine, We're not sorry. Number

seven we're not careful enough. I found out I've made many mistakes and I've

failed because I wasn't careful enough. I didn't pay attention. And David and

Solomon both failed because they weren't careful enough. They ended up in relationships and

they did things because they lacked care, not because they didn't. You can

sing loud in church, and you can even be in several services, but

if you're not careful. You can fail. Isn't that true? Online dating?

Is that something that you do here? Always remember they present the best

and hide the rest. Moving right along number eight, we're retracing our steps.

We're not surrendered enough. We need to give Jesus our all or failure

is imminent and we can't have some of ourselves and and and some of God.

We need to give him our all. And when you surrendered, failure

becomes less prominent because even when you do fail, then you're humble enough to

honor God because you surrendered. But when you unsurrendered, trouble cometh. This

is Imaginations, Chapter one. Trouble cometh exceedingly quickth We've got to be people

who give all to the Lord and surrender. And so maybe you can retrace

your steps, maybe the other things. But once you can identify, then

you can take action. So let's move on to number four after we've done

number eight. So it makes sense. This is important. Don't give up

because you failed. Don't let the devil defeat you or define you. God's

still busy with you. Once you understand, you can start taking action.

Scott's fitz Fitzgerald. He wrote the famous book The Great Gatsby. He said,

never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. See people commit suicide.

That's a that's a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Never deal with

your life like that. Move forward and failure is temporary, but giving up

is permanent, and we need to move forward in our lives. Dennis Waitley,

the motivational author, said, this failure should not be our teacher.

Should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat.

It is temporary detour, not dead end. You may be sitting here

today say you have no idea what I've been through. You know, you

know how hard it is for me. Let me tell you about a man

called called Frank Zinadi alex Sonati sorry, a racing driver. Watched him in

my youth, and he was an upcoming guy who raced carts and then ended

up in Formula one. Eventually got a drive with Williams and on one occasion

he came into the pits those days there was no wall, you know,

next to the strait of the pits, came into the pits. They filled

up with petrol gas as you call it, sorry, they filled up with

gas and as he accelerated on that pit lane. The oil and the gas

was on the ground and the cartooner and shot across the strait and a car

came along and cut his car in half, not just cut the car and

off cut Alex Andardi in half. His legs were in the front section and

his body in the back section. You think you've had challenges, You know,

it's sometimes it's easier to recover from failure when it's someone else they did

it, But when you do it, I'm an idiot. How could I

do that? Well, what happened was they took him. He lost a

third of his blood. They flew him to a hospital and they worked on

him and he was able to recover. And this took place way back in

the eighties. Eventually he came back and raced again, and they built him

a special BMW and he was so fast in the BMW without legs, just

using his hands that he qualified in that first lap around that circuit to be

in fifth place on the track. Well, it's a long story. He

went on to race. He has become a para Olympian. He's participated in

a number of races. You're retired from motor racing, now, but he's

competed in the Paracycling World Championships, the Venice Marathon, the Rome City Marathon,

the New York City Marathon, marathon, has won two Olympic medals,

and he's entered a few Iron Man events. If your life's been cut in

half, keep going, don't give up. Don't give up. God's got

something else for you. I don't know what you like in California, but

I suspect you much like where I live. A lot of people play golf,

and I learned something interesting because I don't play golf. I find it

very slow. I like watching other people played, but I don't enjoy it

myself because you hit and then you miss, and then you hit again,

and you miss again, and then you hit again, you miss, and

then you make excuses. Anyway, but golf is interesting because they say there's

an unspoken rule when you really have a hit, there's a thing called a

mulligan where you're allowed to take the ball and you're allowed to drop it and

you're able to have another go. I don't know if you realize it,

but God gives us mulligans. He says he hit it in the water.

As a father, you've hit the ball in the water as a leader.

Man, you've hit it into the tree and we can't even get it out.

But I'm going to give you a mulligan. Just don't accept defeat,

recognize where it was, admits it, and go forward. And when we

do that, God gives us grace and we move ahead. Number five.

As I begin to move to a close and I'm not done yet, put

your failures behind you and move forward. Proverbs twenty four and verse sixteen.

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. To encourage people with

want you to notice you. It says, for though the righteous fall seven

times, they rise again. That tells me that good people fail, not

bad people. Good people, good church people, good long standing marriages fail.

Why because our intentions don't govern our actions always. But we need to

get up as many times as is needed and go again. If you're a

father, don't walk out, don't say I can't do this thing. No,

just gain some knowledge, gain some experience, retrace your steps. Don't

label yourself a failure. Father, go again. Phone the girl, phoned

the boy. Talk to them, but they don't want to talk to me.

Ll try and write a card, drop a gift. Find a way

to move forward and put your failures behind you, Peter, and you are

to do that. Peter failed three times. But the wonderful thing is Jesus

extended a hand to him. And I want to just paint this picture quickly

as we move to a close. When you think of Peter on the beach,

Jesus came to him, and the Bible says he made fish, and

he made bread on a fire, And it says in the New Living Translation,

I love the way John twentyone puts it. Then Jesus served them the

bread and the fish. You know that tells me he actually gave it to

them with his hand. Do you know what he's you know what he's saying

to failures, I'm personally reaching out to you. Take this gift, take

this, take this forgiveness. And he forgives Peter and he restores him.

We don't have time to read that today. And Peter responds, how many

Judas didn't respond correctly? Peter did quickly. Judas had a breakdown. Peter

had a breakthrough. Judas gave up. Peter looked up. Judas rejected the

mercy of God. Peter accepted the mercy of God. Judas ended in condemnation.

Peter lived in celebration. Here's the thing. Judas avoided public embarrassment.

Peter faced up to public embarrassment. Sometimes public embarrassment is a thing that stops

us. Just fifty days, not a year. Fifty days after his three

times denying the Lord, he stands up and preaches two thousands and the church

is born. That's our God. We've got to respond correctly, and he

will give us another chance. Let me read you a verse here in microh

chapter seven, and I'm going to tell you a story. Micah chapters chapter

seven. This is this needs to be our confession if we've failed in any

area as a leader, as a father, as a husband, as a

business person, whatever it is. Micah says, do not gloat over me,

my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise again. Though

I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. It's like Arnold

Schwartzenecker. I'll be back. Ily know. We need to keep coming back.

You see, God's not He's not surprised by our failures. He's always

provided for our failures. Right in the beginning, the blood sacrifice to cover

sins. Then the cities of refuge for those who murdered people. God's always

been aware of human failure. But then ultimately the temple Solomon builds, and

if we fail, can we come there and pray? God says, okay.

But the ultimate ultimate is Jesus, who doesn't just cover us and forgives

us us and gives us a mulligan and says, let's do this again,

and he reaches his hand to us. Now, how many of you remember

when we looked at the prophets, the school of the Prophets, when he

lost the axit, he reached out his hand and took it out. When

Peter was restored by Jesus, Jesus reached out his hand. God's hand is

there for us to touch as I close. In your own country. In

twenty sixteen, in a place called Kalamazoo County in Michigan, a uber driver

drove around shooting people at random. He shot eight people in total, six

of them who were killed, two of them were wounded. And he just

randomly shot people and it was carnage on the street. One young girl,

her name is Abigail. She was fourteen years old, sitting in the car

with her aunt and her aunt saw what was happening and pushed her down.

Her aunt sadly was shot, but Abigail got shot in the head and her

entire skull was shattered. And the parents were called and they announced that Abigail

Cop was dead. And so the parents were standing there and the mother was

holding the daughter's hand and saying her last goodbyes. The father was filling in

forms for the organ transplant because they wanted her to be an organ donor.

And in the midst of all this tragedy and carnage and failure and human sin,

the mother stood dish that all the daughter did suddenly was squeeze her hand.

They squeezed her hand, and well, chaos erupted, called for the

paramedics. They put her on a VENTA later vent later got her breathing,

and as she started breathing, they took her to the hospital and three years

later she completely recovered and they reconstructed her head. Here's my point. All

it took for her to recover was not just all the fac and see stuff.

It was all it took for that man to find the accent was to

reach out his hand. All it took from Peter was thank you Lord.

And today no matter how bad your failure is, no matter how weak you

are, no matter to the extent you failed. I'll tell you what all

we need to do is thank you Lord. As we reach out and touch

him, He's ready to receive us, He's ready to respond to us.

Never think your failure is too big for God. His grace is sufficient,

and his mercy and kindness I extend it to us. I want to take

a moment to pray with you, and I'm going to pray to separate prayers.

But maybe you're in the room today and you say, you know I've

failed, and I've let it defeat me, I've led it define me.

But God has spoken to me today and I want to rise up beyond that

failure and I want to go again, and I want to commit myself to

the Lord. I want him to do a work in me. If that's

you, I want you to just stand up right now. Don't worry about

the people around you, just and I'm going to pray for you this morning,

and we're going to trust God to do something special in your heart.

That's it. Thank you men for leading the way. That's what men do.

They lead, And we got to be big enough and bold enough to

stand up not run away from our challenges. Before I pray with you,

can I just speak to the fathers. You know, I grew up in

a fatherless home. My father left when I was six months old, never

supported my mother, never gave her a cent. And my mother made sure

that I grew up balanced and didn't end up on the streets. And I

really have her to thank for my life. But when God the Father came

into my life, that's when everything changed. And I want to encourage you.

If you're a father's particularly today, don't walk out, he say,

but I'm not. A father is better than none, and God can use

you and build into your life and grow you anyone else. I think there

should be more people standing up today, but nonetheless, stretch your hands out

to the people standing around the room. I want to pray a prayer,

simple prayer this morning. Father, thank you for the courage of those standing

this morning. They standing publicly admitting that there's an area that they failed in

and they want your hand on their lives. Pray for your healing, touch

Lord, your strength, your grace, wash away the sin, give them

a strength to rise up and make amends and go forwarding you equip them.

I pray for wisdom, the wisdom of God, to direct them and to

guide them, and I commit them to you. I pray for their homes,

their businesses, their families, their personal lives, whatever dimension it is.

Give them a mulligan this morning, that they might start again, a

brand new beginning in Jesus' name. Amen, and amen, you can be

seated. Would you do something for me this morning? Just bow your heads

all across the room. And when I'm at home, in every service,

we take the opportunity, as you do here, to pray for people who

want to recommit their lives to the Lord, people who say, you know

what, I've lost my way. I'm a believer, but I've baxladen,

I've entertained all sorts of strange ideas, and maybe I've just got weak.

But I'm here today. Maybe you're watching online, you say I need to

come back to Jesus. I want to pray for you this morning, want

to lead us all in a prayer. Not gonna make you come forward,

and not going to ask you to stand up. I'm just going to pray

for you. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your

lord and savior. Well, you're guaranteed of repeated failure because you've got no

one to help you accept yourself. But when Jesus comes, he forgives our

failures, strengthens us, gives us his word, gives us his Holy Spirit,

gives us the gift of eternal life, gives us a hope for the

future, and changes everything. Our problems don't all go, but we get

saved, and we get what's called a brand new beginning. We get born

again. Have you ever been born again? If if not, maybe you've

attended church, but you've never prayed. Lord, come into my life.

I'd like to pray for you this morning. We're in the presence of God.

And wait until you get home. Say oh, I'll I'll pray in

the card. No, right now, right here, open your heart to

God, and I'd love to pray for you. If that's you, you

need to give your life to Jesus. You need to recommit your life or

just raise your hand. I just lift it up quickly, hold it up.

Say yeah, that's me. Would you pray for me this morning and

I'll commit you to God. Maybe you stood already. Thank you. I

think is a hand at the back I'm looking just raise it up high and

say I need to do that today. I need Jesus's Lord. I need

to recommit my life to the Lord. And I'll pray for you. Commit

you to the Lord. Trust you this morning, Lord Jesus. Nay,

Well, I can't really see at the back. But what I'm going to

do is, can we all pray church? Do you do that? Here?

We all pray out lad it. Maybe in your heart you want to

receive Jesus. You want to respond, and I can't see your hand,

but you're saying, yeah, that's me today. Let's all pray like this

out loud. Thank you Father for your wonderful son. Jesus died for all

our sins that we might have new life. Lord Jesus, I come to

you today. I turn from my sin. Receive me, save me,

restore me, and renew me. I give you my heart, I give

you my life, and I thank you Father in Jesus' name. Amen and

Amen. Let's give God, Thanks God, bless you, thank you for

having me today.