Do you know why people put on
masks when they come to church? It's because we fear failure. We don't want
to fail; we don't want others to think that we have failed. But consider:
dealing with failure - especially the failure we all have called sin - is one
of God's principal concerns. We see the beginning of it here:
(Acts 15:35-41 NIV) But Paul and Barnabas remained in
Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.
{36} Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the
brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how
they are doing." {37} Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with
them, {38} but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted
them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. {39} They had
such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and
sailed for Cyprus, {40} but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers
to the grace of the Lord. {41} He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening
the churches.
(Acts 16:1-5 NIV) He came to Derbe and then to Lystra,
where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer,
but whose father was a Greek. {2} The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well
of him. {3} Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him
because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father
was a Greek. {4} As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the
decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to
obey. {5} So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in
numbers.
Preliminary: the definition
of failure
What is failure? Many of us
define it in an emotional sense - we did not get what we wanted. But I submit
that the real definition is more complex:
·
First, we must have a goal, and it must be a good one. It must
be something which we "should" do or have. For the Christian, we are
given goals - we are told to preach the Gospel and to make disciples, to attain
personal holiness. But sometimes the goal is the problem, for we do not have a
good one.
·
Sometimes the goal we set is a wrong goal. We set our eyes on
things of this world, material things. We set our eyes on personal goals, such
as marrying a good looking woman regardless of her character. We decide that
we should be arrogant. These things, when achieved, fail to satisfy because
they are the wrong goals.
·
Sometimes we fail to accept the good and righteous goals God
gives us. We will not present our bodies as living sacrifice, for example.
·
Next, we must know what that goal truly is.
·
It should not be too fuzzy ("I want to be happy.")
Rather, it should be something that we can recognize clearly.
·
It should not be too crisp, either. Things like "I'm going
to marry that woman on thus and such a date" may cause failure simply
because we did not give God the room to work his plan in our lives.
·
Sometimes, however, God does not reveal his goals for our
lives. In such an instance, the goal is simplified: we must trust him.
·
Finally, failure consists then in not meeting such a goal. We
fail in many ways in meeting such a goal, and it is convenient to be able to
classify the causes of our failures. Consider, for example, a convoy of ships
trying to deliver goods from New York to London:
·
If something is wrong with an individual ship, it may sink. It
may collide with other ships. So it is with us; if one of us is out of control
or hurting, all of us may be damaged by it, and be prevented from reaching our
goal.
·
Even if the ships are operating correctly, failure to keep order
in the convoy will cause collisions and sinkings. So, to avoid failure, we
need to keep not only ourselves in right order, but also our relations with
others.
·
And finally, if the convoy is not pointed in the right direction,
the convoy fails. If the goal we have is not one God wants for us, the failure
is inevitable.
All this is preliminary. The
real question is not, "what is failure?" The real question is,
"what are we going to do about it?"
Failure in Others
It so often comes as a surprise
that other people fail us. We expect so much; we see how easily the failure
in others comes about; so we feel completely let down and disappointed. The
Scripture provides us warning about this, however:
·
Even Christ was betrayed, by Judas. He was denied by his
disciples. And he knew it would happen.
·
The church is warned to expect failure in its midst. Remember
the parable of the wheat and the tares?
We deal differently with
failure in others
Chrysostom, commenting on this
passage, says "the gifts are diverse." God in his wisdom saw fit to
make Barnabas a man with the gift of encouragement but Paul without. The
wisdom of this differing gift is easily seen.
·
Paul, the man with the driving energy, sees the work to be done.
So God has raised up one for whom the work is paramount, and nothing will get
in its way.
·
Barnabas, the son of encouragement, considers the person to be
paramount.
So it is that both the work and
the person are provided for. Paul still holds a high opinion of Barnabas; the
argument is sharp but the parting is friendly.
There is a lesson in this for the
church. Some of us cannot deal well with failure. But God will raise up those
who can, and they will deal with it. So when we fail, we should expect some
Christians to dispense with us; others to uphold us.
We are not consistent in
dealing with failure
Circumstances change; people
change; time passes. Paul does not consistently throw away people like this:
·
Onesimus was a runaway slave - a criminal in his time. Yet Paul
sends him back to Philemon, begging Philemon to forgive and restore.
·
Later, Paul will specifically ask for Mark to join him, because
he is so useful.
So we see that today's failure
maybe tomorrow's success. It is not too much of a stretch of imagination to
think that Mark was redeemed because of the care of Barnabas and the lessons
learned in failure.
We should deal with failure in
God's way
So how does God teach us to deal
with the failures of others?
·
We are commanded to withhold judgment.
·
In our forgiveness, we are to be unlimited (as God is).
·
We are to think of ourselves as Christ's ambassadors, the ambassadors
of reconciliation.
Failure in Ourselves
Many of us have much greater
difficulty in dealing with our own failures than in dealing with the failures
of others. This is good. It means that our own failures have at least had the
beneficial effect of making us more forgiving, less judgmental and more
inclined to reconciliation than otherwise would be the case. So we need,
therefore, to deal with our own failures.
Failure is inevitable with
human beings
Paul tells us of the struggle of
the two natures.
We see that our sinful nature and our spiritual, God-filled nature are in
conflict, and that it is inevitable that we will fail - even the greatest of
us.
We fail in different ways. Some
through the flesh; some through the temptations of the world; some - the most
deadly way of all - through pride. My failures are not the same as yours - but
they are real none the less. The question is not, "Will I fail?"
The question is, "What should I do about it?"
Wrong Ways
We have a number of human ways to
deal with failure. Here are just a few:
·
Anger. Jonah was angry because - after having predicted doom for
Ninevah - the Ninevites repented. Just like he thought! Just like God to do a
thing like that!
So he reacted with anger, and wanted to die.
·
Sometimes we react with panic - and stop everything. We see a
leak in the side of the ship, and running panicking to the bridge. A good
captain will then send someone down below to plug the leak - and sail on.
·
Sometimes we give up. We just quit. But listen to a little
story - a true one:
Imagine,
how easy it would have been for this young man to have bowed his head and
given up. He failed in business in '31, he was defeated for the legislature
in '32, he was elected to the legislature in '34. His sweetheart died in '35,
he had a nervous breakdown in '36, he was defeated for speaker in '38, he was
defeated for election in '40, he was defeated for Congress in '43, he was
elected to Congress in '46, defeated for Congress in '48, defeated for Senate
in '50, defeated for vice president in '56 and for Senate in '58. But
fortunately he was elected president in 1860. His name was Abraham Lincoln.
He proves that failure need not be permanent.
The Right Way
Psalm 51 gives us the eternal
model to deal with failure:
·
Confession - admitting that we have failed, and asking God's
help.
·
Repentance - turning from the things that caused our failure
·
Restoration - going back to the task
·
Service - doing what God wants us to do.
Peter is the great example of
this. He denied his Lord - but led the church. In all these things, the
Christian has one great weapon: prayer. Our greatest cause of failure is that
we will not commit our ways to the Lord, and lean on him for strength.
How God Deals with Failure
God's righteousness demands
perfection; his love redeems failure. Let us therefore examine the methods of
God in dealing with human frailty.
Prevention
God first attempts to prevent
failure;
·
He warns us to "count the cost" before undertaking
anything.
By doing this, he lets us know what we should expect in his service.
·
We are directed to pray, "lead us not into
temptation." There's a reason for that!
·
Our greatest resource for prevention is the Scripture, for in it
we find God's warnings and his guidance, all for our profit.
Correction
If the prevention fails,
correction must follow. We see again how God works:
·
We see the patience of God in that he corrects his people
repeatedly. It is not just "once only" but over and over again.
·
We, the imitators of Christ, must do likewise.
In other words, God has provided the church as a source of correction so that
we might be turned from our sins to our successes.
·
Indeed, God has empowered the church with church discipline, so
that the correction may have teeth in it.
God turns evil to good
We see this clearly here. From
one team of evangelists he now has two! Indeed, we know from church history
that these two teams both worked well, each suited to its own mission field.
God has given us other examples, as well:
·
In the parable of the Prodigal Son,
we see that the Father (God) runs to greet his lost son. From the
depravity of feeding pigs to the feast at the Father's house, failure turns to
success - with God.
·
Paul himself is an example of just such a redemption.
Ultimately, God deals with our
failures by his sacrifice
Does it seem that God is unfair?
Indeed, He is! Remember that Christ went to the Cross not to redeem the
righteous (the successful) but the unrighteous (the failures). Recall the
parable of the vineyard.
Not everyone worked a full day, but all were paid for it. God takes the late
and the lazy and rewards them in the kingdom. It is his generosity, not our
failure, that counts.
We have not yet seen the
fulfillment of all his redemption. But the time is coming:
(Rev 12:10-11 NIV) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven
say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our
God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who
accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. {11} They
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they
did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
His part - the blood. Our part -
the testimony of what He has done for us. So shall we overcome.
Summary
I can think of no better way to
put it than this story. It happened in the days when twenty-five cents would
buy you a decent meal, but it is still timely today:
A
beggar stopped a lawyer on the street in a large southern city and asked him
for a quarter. Taking a long, hard look into the man's unshaven face, the
attorney asked, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" "You
should," came the reply. "I'm your former classmate. Remember,
second floor, old Main Hall?" "Why Sam, of course I know you!"
Without further question the lawyer wrote a check for $100. "Here, take
this and get a new start. I don't care what's happened in the past, it's the
future that counts." And with that he hurried on. Tears welled up in
the man's eyes as he walked to a bank nearby. Stopping at the door, he saw
through the glass well‑dressed tellers and the spotlessly clean
interior. Then he looked at his filthy rags. "They won't take this from
me. They'll swear that I forged it," he muttered as he turned away.
The next day the two men met again. "Why Sam, what did you do with my
check? Gamble it away? Drink it up?" "No," said the beggar as
he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket and told why he hadn't cashed it.
"Listen, friend," said the lawyer. "What makes that check good
is not your clothes or appearance, but my signature. Go on, cash it!"
The
promises of the Lord do not depend upon our righteousness, nor our lack of
trouble. They depend upon the name of the Lord, which cannot fail. It may be
that we do not cash the check - but the check is good nonetheless. Bring your
failures to the Lord; he will redeem.