Overcoming Failure

As we sit, let's bow our heads and pray together.

Our loving Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your word.

! Our loving Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your word.

! And we thank you that the Lord Jesus taught that your word is truth.

And Father, he claimed that it would be your truth that would set us free.

And so we ask now for your people gathered.

That we might discern your truth.

And your truth would indeed free us.

That we might become the people, not that we want to be, Lord, but the people you would like us to be.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to preach on a verse from the reading that Grace read to us.

The disciples decided they would go on a fishing trip.

And there were seven of them.

And six of them joined Peter.

And they got in the boat.

And the rather depressing outcome of their first attempt to fish, we read about in verse 3.

They went out and got into the boat.

But that night, they caught nothing.

I remember watching that series of television programs some years ago on the television about this bloke who had this mad idea for a set of documentaries.

That he would go into the forest flung places of the planet.

And what he would do is he would join some of the most primitive people.

And he'd stay with them for a week.

I mean, you can imagine what that was like.

They nearly killed him, in fact.

They gave him some hallucinogenic leaves to chew.

And that nearly did for him.

But I remember every night he came in front of camera.

And he did a little video.

And he would say what he'd been doing.

And he said on this particular program.

He said, I'm very excited.

He said, tomorrow we're going fishing.

He said, I'm really keen to find out how these people go about fishing.

He said, and I saw them loading the canoes tonight.

He said, I was a little confused because there's no nets and no fishing rods or anything like that.

He said, so we'll wait and see.

The next minute they're canoeing down the river.

And suddenly there's a bloke at the front.

And he's looking into the river.

And he tells them to stop.

By the way, these primitive people had a massive outboard motor on the back of their canoe.

So they stop.

And this guy sitting there.

And you can tell he's very puzzled.

Because there's nothing.

There's no nets.

And these are primitive people.

And suddenly the elder in the boat pulled out a stick of dynamite.

Lyt it and threw it in the river.

And then they collected all the dead fish off the top.

Well, fishing at the time of Peter was a slightly different business.

Partly because, of course, dynamite hadn't been invented in that time.

But just so you know this, I mean, it seems like when you're talking about overcoming failure, that at a certain level, going out fishing and not catching any fish is hardly life-changing.

But then you've got to reckon that Peter's livelihood depended on what he caught.

And fishermen today is exactly the same.

You know, sometimes they take these big expensive boats out to fish and they don't catch a thing.

It was like that then.

But, of course, the consequences were probably more serious.

Not only did they not have food for breakfast.

But he wouldn't have had any fish left to sell.

That would have fed into his livelihood.

So it's a serious matter, fishing.

And they went out.

Now, in 1902, there was a scientist called Karl Popper.

And he wasn't born a scientist, obviously, but he became a scientist.

And as he got older, he became more interested in the philosophy of science.

In particular, he became very interested in how do we know things are true.

What is the nature of proof?

And he came up with a theory.

And the theory was based, I think he must have been a natural skeptic.

Because his default in all matters of scientific truth were,

you cannot trust human thinking because it's inevitably wrong.

And so he developed this theory of proving.

He said that we don't really prove anything.

What we do is we find truth by consistently disproving things.

It reminds you of that well-known adage by Thomas Edison,

who invented the electric light bulb.

And he tried and tried and tried to get this light bulb to work.

And he could not do it.

And a lot of his fellow inventors and scientists were saying to him,

it's a flop, you know, give it up.

It's a failure.

And his conclusion was, I haven't failed a thousand times, he wrote.

I haven't failed a thousand times.

He said, what I've done is, I've discovered a thousand ways that this light bulb won't work.

And of course, he invented it.

Well, we're talking about overcoming failure today.

And I have to say, I'm a little nervous about this.

Partly because I suspect I may be in a classroom full of experts.

There'll be very few of you in life who've not experienced failure.

And it's not a great feeling.

I mean, I'm not, you know, I don't want to talk to you about kind of superficial failures.

Like, you know, I baked a cake and it didn't rise, that sort of stuff.

I want to talk to you, and I'll come back to this in a moment,

about the kind of more serious failures that can stay with us for life.

And rob us of that fullness of life that Jesus promised in John 10 and verse 10.

So, in the 1970s, early 1970s, when I was a young businessman,

I tried to learn as much as I could.

And I discovered that most of the books in the commercial area of leadership

focused on success.

One of the most famous books was written by a man called Jim Collins,

and it was called From Good to Great.

And Jim was a Harvard researcher, and his interest was,

what's the difference between a good company and a great company?

And through his research, he tried to isolate some factors,

which he thought would make companies go from good to great.

It's all about success.

And then, round about the turn of this century,

the kind of mood changed.

I can't explain to you why the mood changed.

I sort of suspect it's all to do with our kind of grievance, victim,

slightly more aware of mental illness.

But suddenly, people started to write leadership books about failure.

failure.

And there were very notes.

There's a guy called Matthew Egan who wrote a book called The Failure Foundation.

It actually made a foundation which talked about failure.

failure.

And then there was John Maxwell's famous book called Failing Forwards.

I thought I might write a book at one point about the Church of England called Failing Slowly,

but I never got round to it.

So, you've got these books on failure.

And of course, there's one big proviso.

What's that?

We will learn from our failures.

And there's an element of truth in that.

It's not guaranteed.

But actually, it is true, isn't it,

that if we can learn from our failures,

we might actually get better at our endeavours.

So, I want to talk to you about overcoming failure,

and I want to do it from this passage that we have.

I don't know if it could go up on the screen.

I'm not quite sure about that.

I don't understand technology.

Visit to the doctors is a nightmare for me now.

So, incidentally, these books on failure sold amazingly well.

John Maxwell's book sold 31 million copies worldwide.

I mean, unbelievable.

So, as I said earlier,

I don't want to talk to you about superficial failures.

I'm not that worried about those of you whose cake didn't rise,

or the gift that I carefully curated for my wife,

which she truly hated.

No more.

And talking about a deeper, kind of more existential failure.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I mean, the very serious failures that some of you have gone through.

Relationship failure.

Always difficult.

Marriage or parenting failure.

Career failure.

I mean, I know people who have failed,

and unfortunately, it's defined the rest of their lives.

Let me ask you a question.

I mean, do you think that's God's intention?

That we would fail,

and that we would let it define us for the rest of our lives?

I mean, you need to know that if you follow Jesus Christ,

your primary identity is not dictated by your failures or your successes.

It's dictated by the grace of God,

who's called you to himself.

So, I'm talking about these,

and of course, oh my goodness,

hands up, you know, I'm a PhD in this.

I mean, spiritual failure.

My willingness to unforgive.

And yet, it was only a few moments ago that

Tim encouraged us to pray the Lord's Prayer.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Well, what about disobedience?

Would you put your hand up if I said,

have you ever been disobedient in your walk with Jesus?

I suspect there wouldn't be many of you.

John chapter 14 and verse 15,

John 14 · chapter mention

Jesus said,

if you love me,

you will obey my commandments.

You will keep my commandments.

I must say,

I've always kind of wondered about that verse

in relation to the assertion that God's love is unconditional.

I mean, the word if is at the beginning of that sentence.

If you love me,

you will keep my commandments.

Indifference.

Or again,

spiritual failure.

I think this is a huge thing

in the 21st century church.

Indifference.

I'm going to show up on Sunday

and I'm going to make sure that the new vicar sees me.

And I'm going to go home wherever I go

for the next six days of the week.

And somehow it doesn't seem to quite be the same.

I am aware that I think the Western church has become,

it's almost like we're sleepwalking some of the time.

And God knows there's a work out there to be done.

This is not just about getting a tick on the register, friends.

This is about believing

that our effort together with Christians across this town,

Christians across this nation,

our effort can change the world.

But here's the point.

If the effort's not there,

it's unlikely that the change will be there.

Remember that church in Laodicea

in the book of Revelation

and the risen Christ addresses the church

in these words.

I know your works.

You're neither cold nor hot.

Would that you were cold or hot

because you are lukewarm.

Because you are lukewarm,

I will spit you out of my mouth.

I didn't ever imagine that

the risen Christ would develop the habit of spitting.

But that's what he says.

If you're sitting here thinking that

if I warm the pews often enough,

I'll get a gold watch at the end of it.

Friend, with respect, you need to think again.

So let's take a look at this passage

and see what we might learn.

The first thing I noticed about this passage

is failure can make us lose focus.

Verse 4 of chapter 21.

We're told there that the disciples saw this person

on the beach 100 yards away

and they didn't recognise Jesus.

See, I think this is what failure can do.

I think if you are starting to define yourself

by failure,

Jesus is going to fall out of focus in your life.

And I want to ask you,

because this is very serious, frankly,

that if you've not got Jesus in sharp focus,

if he's not just your saviour but your Lord,

then I think God might want to speak to you today.

And I hope if he does,

you won't just go home and put the oven on.

But I hope you will think

about what God might be saying to you.

I know from the military

that nobody who marches with a half-hearted army

achieves anything very much.

And half-heartedness within the congregation

of Christ's faithful people

will achieve similar results.

I tell you this many times,

and I'll tell you it again,

I think about 23,000 people

live in Clevedon.

And I reckon,

having done the rounds a bit,

that maybe on any given Sunday

there might be 800 to 1,000 people.

I can't work out the maths on that.

But could we agree,

we could do better?

The thing is,

if you've lost focus on Jesus,

honestly,

it's not even going to matter to you.

Our own little church

and the friends we talk to,

we love worshipping the Lord together.

It's all so cosy.

When you lose focus on Jesus,

I think you don't just suffer that way,

but actually what happens is

your cutting edge as a Christian gets blunted.

We need to rediscover our focus on Jesus

and the likelihood is

you're not going to be able to do that

in your own strength.

You will need the Holy Spirit

to burn the idea

that I am only a spiritual failure

if I allow myself

to lose focus on Jesus.

The second thing is,

I think this issue

of failure,

the difference between failure

and success in this story

was that they listened to Jesus.

I mean,

I did fishing when I was a boy.

I mean,

I never ever caught anything.

And the bottom line is,

I'm really glad I didn't

because I was terrified.

I didn't want to handle one

to take it off the hook.

So,

you know,

my fishing,

but I didn't,

I wasn't passionate enough

about fishing

to go out all night.

Right?

I never did that.

I had other things to do at night

rather than go fishing.

But these,

can you imagine,

they've been out all night.

All seven of them on this boat

and they've not caught a thing.

And there they are

on the shore.

I imagine they're not feeling great.

And Jesus tells them

that they must get in the boat.

Sorry,

they must cast their net again.

You wouldn't blame them,

would you,

if there wasn't a discussion

that went something like this?

Who's this guy?

Who is he to tell us?

We're fishermen.

We get it.

Who's he?

They listened to Jesus.

Whom,

at this stage,

they hadn't really recognized.

And they did

what he said

and they went out

and they caught

a massive trove of fish.

153 fish.

I mean,

that sounds like

a good breakfast to me.

and I assumed

that there'd be

some stuff left over

for their breakfast.

They listened to him.

I tell you something,

if you're besotted

by your failure,

which is

a close bedfellow

of being besotted

about yourself,

then it's unlikely

that you will ever hear

Jesus speak to you.

Why?

Because you're not

really listening.

I wonder

if this morning

in this church

which has seen

so much spiritual action

over the years,

I wonder if that same spirit

who motivated

that action

is going to speak

to you.

speak, Lord,

in the stillness

while I think

on thee.

Maybe

some of you

should try it.

Try just listening

for God

and at the end

of this message

I'll give you

some silence

in the hope

that you might

ask God

to tell you

what you need

to know.

The third thing

is in

verse 6.

They didn't just

listen to Jesus.

They did

what he asked

them to do.

I know

these days

that

words like

obedience

and duty

are not really

terribly

in vogue.

But actually

I can tell you

this.

I never met

people who

just went

their own way

in life

and it ended

well.

one of the

things that

I found

most difficult

in the

hundreds of

funerals

I've taken

was that

at one time

in funerals

we just sang

hymns

and then

suddenly

the crematorium

or the cemetery

got a

stereo kit

so people

could choose

what they

wanted to

have played.

The most

common song

that people

wanted played

when I was

a vicar

was I

did it

my way

Frank Sinatra

and nobody

would say

that Frank's

life

ended well.

So

there is

a response

we're not

going to be

saved by

being obedient

that's God's

grace

but this

book

tells us

how God

wants us

to live

and I

think we

do well

to heed

that.

And maybe

one of the

biggest failures

I know

it's true

of my life

is our

failure

in sin.

And

you know

I mean

I do

some wrong

stuff

okay

and I

you know

the best

thing the

devil

succeeds

with me

is not

taking it

seriously

enough.

it's

alright

you know

there are

people who

are worse

than you

mate

might have

to dredge

the pit

and think

about Adolf

Hitler

and Attila

the Hun

but

of course

there are

people who

are worse

than me

but that's

no excuse.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18

the

Jews

are in

exile

in Babylon

you may

remember

this

that

they had

a massive

problem

and their

problem was

they would

not accept

responsibility

for their

own sin

so they

invented

this kind

of proverb

and it

went like

this

the fathers

have eaten

sour grapes

and set

the children's

teeth on

edge

right

it's a bit

cryptic

first time

round

isn't it

but what it

means is

we're

not in

exile

because of

anything

we've

done

it was

all the

fault

of our

forefathers

I tell you

I know

from my

forays

into

the world

of

counselling

which

generally

is a

great

thing

but

I know

that

you know

I've sat

with a lot

of people

in my

life

who will

not take

responsibility

responsibility

and there's

problems

with that

and one

of the

problems

is

if you

refuse

to take

responsibility

for your

actions

your thoughts

your words

you will

never grow

up

right

simple

I think

we grow

when people

give us

responsibility

and we

take

responsibility

you have

responsibility

for your

life

you remember

that story

that Jesus

told

about

the

building

of two

houses

right

and both

those houses

looked

exactly

the same

until

the storm

came

friends I am

looking out

to see your

faces

I mean

you look

different to

me

but

basically

you know

you look

human

mostly

and

Jesus

the

strap

line

of that

was

build

your

life

on a

great

foundation

he

who

hears

these

words

of mine

says

Jesus

and

puts

them

into

practice

is

like

what

a

wise

man

a

wise

woman

who

built

their

house

upon

the

rock

that

when

failure

came

when

the

storm

came

the

house

stood

firm

see

we don't

just need

to listen

to Jesus

we need

at the

same

time

to do

what

he

tells

us

to do

and

the

fourth

thing

we get

from

this

story

is

persistence

I

wouldn't

blame

those

disciples

with you

if

they

heard

Jesus

shout

get

out

there

again

and

cash

your

nets

on

the

right

and

they

shouted

back

yeah

you know

something

I

wouldn't

want

to

repeat

they

didn't

they

did

it

and

I

want

to

say

to

you

all

my

life

certainly

you know

being

on

kind

of

senior

teams

of

dioceses

the

thing

that's

troubled

me

most

is

we

fail

once

and

we

give

up

we

try

something

out

number

of

churches

I

know

you know

they'll

give

a guy

member

of

church

not

far

from

where

I

live

and

they

decided

they'd

do

a

family

service

and

try

and

attract

families

in

they did

it for

three months

and it

didn't work

that well

and

the

church

was

you know

I

just

like

you know

somebody

said the

church

of

England

was the

conservative

party

at

prayer

this

was

like

the

Derby

and

Joan

club

at

prayer

and

then

the

vicar

left

and

to be

fair

I

think

he

was

tired

he

left

and

a

new

guy

came

in

we

appointed

this

guy

who

I

had

known

for

a

long

while

first

thing

he

said

is

is

there

a

family

service

well

no

you know

there

isn't

he

started

it

for

three

months

nothing

after

two

years

suddenly

the

flood

gates

opened

and

they

were

dealing

with

hundreds

certainly

tens

of new

families

see

I

think

persistence

is a

big

word

in the

Christian

life

in the

New

Testament

remember

Jesus

was trying

to teach

his

disciples

about

praying

and he

gave

this

extraordinary

example

he said

suppose

you're

in bed

and somebody

comes hammering

on the

door at

midnight

right

I mean

that's

happened

to me

it's

not

fun

and

you know

kind of

what are you

going to

do

am I

going to

get

dressed

before I

go down

and put

a

dressing

gown

you know

all that

and

Jesus

says

you should

pray like

this

keep

hammering

on the

door

of

heaven

until

the

house owner

opens

the door

and hears

your

prayer

how many

of you

feel you

fail in

prayer

because you

prayed about

something a

couple of

times and

it's not

happened

think about

the friend

at

midnight

persistence

is a

very big

New

Testament

word

and we

do

well

to

learn

it

so

let me

conclude

because you're

feeling hungry

I want to

conclude by

saying

I really want to

speak

deep

into the

heart of

those of

you who've

got a

failure

had a

failure

in your

life

and it

defines

you

and you're

not sure

if there's

a way

that you

can process

that failure

and become

a bigger

and better

and more

grown up

person

because of

it

well I

want to

take issue

with you

I think

we're all

redeemable

I mean

we're

redeemable

in terms

of our

sin

but we're

redeemable

in terms

of our

mistakes

and our

failures

think for

a moment

about some

of the

heroes

of the

bible

Moses

right

within

Judaism

massive

kind of

image

and

revered

and

Moses

killed

a man

and then

he was

selected

to

lead the

people

out of

Israel

and then

he was

disobedient

by the

waters

of Meribah

wherever

they are

God

said to

him

speak

to this

rock

and

Moses

thought

I'm not

going to

do that

you know

you give

me this

rod

so he

hit the

rock

twice

and

it

had the

desired

effect

all the

water

flowed out

for the

Israelites

to drink

but because

of that

God

said

for your

disobedience

you will

never

enter the

promised

land

you think

about

King

David

another

greatly

revered

person

within

the

history

of

Judaism

I mean

David

started out

as a

shepherd

somehow

managed to

slaughter a

lion

then he

took on

Goliath

and killed

him

I mean

whichever way

you look

at it

still murder

he gets

recognised

by the

community

and

anointed

as king

and the

next

minute

he has

a fling

with a

woman

called

Bathsheba

part of

me wants

to say

but I'm

too polite

to say

it

how dare

you

define

yourself

by your

failure

look at

the raw

material

of God's

amazing

people

failure

after

failure

after

failure

you

know

anything

about

the

history

of

revival

you

know

anything

about

the

history

of

the

church

I

never

knew

a

church

I've

known

you know

I don't

know what

you make

of this

but I've

known a

lot of

mega

churches

spent

time

with

them

and

these

churches

interestingly

they have

one

common

feature

they

nearly

all

catastrophically

failed

at one

point

in their

history

but they

didn't

give up

and you

might feel

you have

catastrophically

failed

at some

point

in your

history

and you

have never

managed to

process it

listen

you need

to get

Jesus

in focus

you need

to listen

to him

not just

speak at

him all

the time

you need

to do

what he

tells you

to do

and that

means you

need to

familiarize

yourself

with his

word

and you

need to

develop

that amazing

new testament

characteristic

persistence

you make

a mistake

for God's

sake

please don't

give up

try and

learn from

him

and of

course

the reason

credited

to the

crowd in

Jerusalem

on Palm

Sunday

where they

were shouting

statements of

praise as

Jesus entered

the city

turned

into

hatred

and the

reason

that is

offered

as to

by the

mood of

the church

changed

is this

that they

thought Jesus

had come to

deliver them

from the

Roman

enemies

and the

crowd

on Palm

Sunday

couldn't

understand how

the Messiah

the great

political

and military

victor

ended up

being arrested

like you

when your

expectations

are let

down

they felt

angry

murderously

angry

and we're

in the

season of

Easter

which is

the most

amazing

reminder

that God

on a

cross

that looked

like a

failure

we celebrate

because the

cross is an

empty cross

because Jesus

is alive

someone say

amen

amen

Jesus is

alive

someone say

amen

amen

Jesus is

alive

amen

big deal

is

is it

going to

make a

big

difference

to you

are you

going to

make a

commitment

today

to get

past

your

failure

and start

to walk

yet more

closely

with him

and see

what happens

why don't

we pray

just in

the silence

now

let's

pray

that

if the

Holy Spirit

is speaking

straight to

us right

now

that

Lord

give us

big ears

that we

may hear

Lord

I'm

praying

for anybody

in the

house

today

who's

really

suffering

with this

problem

of allowing

past

failures

to identify

them

Lord

would you

please

heal them

of that

destructive

thought

now

Lord

I pray

for anybody

in this

church

who knows

that

their

failure

is

spiritual

that they

can't

forgive

that they

have

very little

passion

in their

soul

for the

cause of

Christ

in this

world

today

Lord

would you

please

wake us

up

help us

to see

in the

words of

the old

missionaries

there's a

work to

be done

and Father

I pray

that today

might make

a difference

not just

in our

lives

but in

our

church

and in

this

community

Lord

you know

how

difficult

we can

find it

here

to find

volunteers

Lord

would you

speak to

some

people

today

and

Lord

in line

with what

they might

be gifted

to do

would you

please help

them to

step

up

so

Father

we love

you

we bless

you

we thank

you that

you've given

us the

tools that

we don't

need to

define

ourselves

by failure

and now

in a few

moments of

silence

let's

together

listen to

God

that we

might hear

him

and having

heard him

we might

do what

he says

and we

pray these

things in

Jesus name

Amen