I. Introduction
A. Stories about Failure
1. Some of the most successful people we know have been failures at some point in life.
2. Steve Jobs- Steve was fired from the company he created (Apple), but returned later to save it. Steve had this to say about his firing at Apple: “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
3. Abraham Lincoln- Abraham lost almost every election he ran for until he was elected President. Failing in business in 1831, suffering a nervous breakdown in 1836, defeated in his run for president in 1856, Abraham Lincoln was no stranger to rejection and failure. Rather than taking these signs as a motivation for surrender, he refused to stop trying his best.
B. Failures of the Faithful
1. Even within the pages of Hebrews 11 we find men and women who weren’t perfect.
a. Noah got drunk
b. Abraham lied
c. Moses disobeyed God
2. No one gets it right all the time.
a. What do we do when we get it wrong?
b. How do we equip ourselves to handle failure?
c. Can failure teach us anything?
3. When it comes to failure, God has provided direction for us to help us recognize it, deal with it, and move on from it.
II. Equipped for Failure
A. It (1 John 1:6-10)
1. John tells us that when we mess up, we should fess up.
2. The only person you fool when you don’t recognize sin in your life is .
3. Usually, we try to deal with sin in unhealthy ways:
a. Hide it like David. (Psalm 51:3-4)
b. Excuse it like Abraham. (Genesis 20:11)
c. Deny it like Peter. (John 18:15-27)
d. Make it someone else’s fault, like Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:11-13)
4. Part of owning it is fessing up to it.
5. James 5:16
6. When we fail, we should admit that we have messed up so that we can move on to the next way to equip ourselves-learn from it.
B. from It (1 John 1:5)
1. Failures can be a great if we are willing to learn.
a. When we fail, we learn more about our weaknesses, so that we can better prepare ourselves for them the next time.
b. Psalm 73:26
2. James reminds us of the progression of sin. If we can find the , we can help prevent the cycle. (James 1:13-15)
3. Museum of Failure
a. The Museum of Failure is a pop-up museum that displays failed inventions, innovations, or ideas in modern history.
b. Among the displays is the Nintendo Power Glove. In 1989-90, the Power Glove was the first mass-marketed wearable video game controller, selling over 600,000 units in just six weeks! The eager gamers quickly realized that it wasn’t some magic glove – it was almost impossible to install and required four antennas placed around the television. Even when properly installed, it didn’t really work. While the Power Glove didn’t live up to its hype, Nintendo learned from its failure and created the massively successful Nintendo Wii game console 15 years later.
4. Whether it’s a trigger, temptation, or trial, we can learn to spot moments that have led to failure in the past, but now we face them more prepared.
C. From It
1. Christians must learn to fail .
a. All of the people that I mentioned at the beginning of the lesson are still great heroes of the faith, even though they didn’t always make the right decisions.
b. If we return to James 5:16, he says that if we confess our sins, we experience healing.
c. John Maxwell calls it failing forward.
2. How do we move on? We move on with Jesus leading the way.
3. Peter’s Failing Forward
a. One of the greatest illustrations of how we do this comes from the apostle Peter. How did Peter fail forward? Put himself around Jesus.
b. The worst thing we can do when we fail is run from Jesus; it never works out.
c. In John 21:3, Peter returns to fishing. Isn’t that what many of us do when we fail? We just go back to how things were before.
d. When Peter sees Jesus, he dives into the water to be with him, and they have a difficult conversation.
e. Peter doesn’t say much (which is unusual) in this conversation with Jesus.
f. Jesus calls out Peter gently, yet in a reflective manner, prompting Peter to examine himself.
g. Jesus’ teaching for Peter about moving on was simply “Follow Me.” (John 21:19)
4. Jesus encouraged Peter not to allow his past to dictate his path forward.
5. Peter listened and learned. He wasn’t thinking about his shortcomings on Pentecost; he was celebrating the power of Jesus to forgive.
6. Moving on is simply owning our failures, learning from them, and allowing Jesus to show us the way forward.
III. Conclusion
A. To Equip Ourselves to Deal with Failure
1. Own It
2. Learn from It
3. Move on from It
B. Invitation