Have you ever had a failure in your life that still haunts you? Most of us have. Today we jump to the end of the story to look how Jesus & His resurrection brought restoration to a massive failure. Jump in with us in Sections 247 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT’S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).
OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Several weeks ago I installed a new shower in our bathroom. Let me just tell you, I’m at best mildly handy. Like I’m constantly thinking, “don’t cut your hand out, don’t cut your hand off”. But I knew our shower wasn’t going to fix itself. So, I got some advice from Anthony and went after it. Everything was going great until about the 2nd hour into it the demolition when I accidentally place my little ladder on the shower drain pipe without knowing it and snapped it off – inside the wall… It was just downhill from there. I had to cut out the floor to fix the pipe – the structure I put in to support the pipe kept it from fitting up snugly to the base – which of course I realized after gluing the basin down. Literally, when I was on the 10-yard line and installing the shower handle, I had to put a screw into the valve behind the wall and the screw broke off in the valve, behind the wall… Oh man, it was just failure after failure – what was crushing about it is when that stuff happened to me. It doesn’t just feel like I’ve hit an issue, it feels like it is me…
Failure feels crushing because failure feels final
It feels personal…
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How do you personally respond to failure?
I mean big failures?
What does it mean for you when your business failed?
When your marriage failed?
When your kids ended up not turning out at all like you dreamed they would?
When you fail your kids?
Ways people tend to respond to failure…
-Anger
-Avoidance – act as though it never happened – give attention to something else, withdraw
-Reengage with a vengeance
-Create agreements (“I’ll never let xy&z happen to me again,” ”I’m never going to allow myself to be put in that situation again”)
-Self-doubt
-Embarrassment & shame
-Depression & Desperation
These are just some of the ways we all try and overcome failure. I want to ask you a pretty serious question…
What’s the worst failure of your life?
Now, I want to be gentle with your soul right now, I’m not trying to bring you into a dark place, so you need to be gentle with yourself too. Don’t start beating yourself up about it. I want you to just kind of put it out on a pedestal for you to look at, without judgment. But what is it? What’s the thing you’re most embarrassed about or wish you could change?
I’m not going to share mine, but don’t kid yourself, I have one for me. I’m as human as you. I can see it on a pedestal, right there.
Can I, for a moment, take you into someone else’s worst moment in life?
It is Thursday, April 6th, AD 30 (this is my best, educated guess on the date). The disciples have just had the Passover dinner with Jesus. Jesus is betrayed by a kiss, soldiers arrest Him. Peter sneaks into the courtyard of the proceedings. Peter’s cold, he’s warming himself at the fire, his stomach is turning, he’s nervous, Jesus isn’t fighting, He’s not even standing up for Himself. Had Peter been wrong about Him? All of the sudden a young girl says, “aren’t you with Him?” speaking of Jesus. Peter, without even thinking deny’s it, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” 2 more times he’s pointed out. The third time Peter calls down curses – in our culture this would be like, “lady, I don’t know what the F you’re talking about”… Just at that moment, in the darkness of the night with the fire still burning to coals and the first rays of light breaking over the horizon, a rooster crows…
And Peter remembers this…
Luke 22:31-34
31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
Peter’s so embarrassed, such a failure, that when Jesus dies on the cross, he’s nowhere to be found.
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“I’ll go to prison and death” – he couldn’t even admit he knew Jesus…
The timeline of events after this…
- April 7th – Jesus dies on the cross – terrible, brutal
- April 7th – Jesus is placed in the grave
- April 8th – Jesus is in the grave – dead
- April 9th – Jesus is in the grave till shortly after sunrise – Jesus raises from the dead and appears to the women and several disciples
- April 16th – Jesus appears again to the disciples
- Sometime after this, before May 18th, Jesus appears to Peter & the Disciples again on the Sea of Galilee
Jesus had told the disciples to go to Galilee and wait for Him.
Paul tells us that in these off times, Jesus appeared to over 500 people…
Peter getting antsy. I picture Peter bouncing his leg, worry growing in him – he failed Jesus. Finally, Peter says, “I’m going fishing!” he gets up and goes and 6 of the other disciples decide they’re going too…
They are out on the lake and NOTHING is going right for them. They haven’t caught one single fish. There is just about nothing worse if you are a good fisherman than catching nothing.
They’re out there and Jesus shows up, He tells them to cast their net on the right side of their boat… They listen and do it and catch a huge catch of fish – this is something Jesus did when he first called Peter… A very similar miracle. Peter jumps in the water and swims to shore, Jesus and the boys eat a fish breakfast over a fire on the shore – I’ve been to this spot, there is this giant piece of bedrock that juts out above the water – this is near the spot where Jesus performed the miracle of the fish and bread.
Jesus and Peter go off and have a private conversation and I’d like to let you listen to it…
John 21:15-19
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Did you see it?
Peter denied Jesus 3 times
Jesus asked him if he loved Him 3 times
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ILLUSTRATION:
Have you ever seen a video of a surgeon work? it’s incredible – they cut into a person’s body, go straight to the problem, sometimes a microscopic level, and they start cutting…
Jesus with absolute precision goes straight for Peter’s heart
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Jesus wasn’t willing to let Peter hide away in failure
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He wanted to take Peter’s worst failure and make it his greatest Faith Story!
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
Can I ask you a question today?
Are you willing to let Jesus into your worst failure and let Him turn it into your greatest Faith Story?
all it takes is you inviting Him into it.
Some of you, Jesus wants to break your addictions, He wants to call you out of your life of lust, he wants to forgive you and walk with you, he wants to call you out and say, “Follow Me!”
I can remember after a particularly bad period of time of feeling like I was completely failing in my faith – you think it’s bad when you are struggling, try being a guy or gal that has to get up and talk to people about following God and knowing you’re not doing so hot at the time. I remember just being like, “God, you must really hate me, you must really be disgusted with who I am…”
I felt Jesus say, “is that who you think I am?”
See, Jesus is in the restoration business
Isaiah 54:9-10
“To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
God looked forward to this day, when He would bring a new covenant on the earth, He saw you and He saw me and He said, “I can bring them back”
Are you willing to turn back to Him?
What if you just took a simple challenge? What if for the next 4 weeks, you committed to being in a place – a church – where God could meet with you and you could learn about His unshakeable love?
