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INTRODUCTION
There are a few certain things in life:
• One of them is taxes.
• We will all eventually die.
• Whenever you are in a hurry to get someplace all the stoplights on your route will be red.
• When you and your wife finally get a day where the kids are off someplace, there’s no doctor’s appointments or events taking you to different places and you have a chance for some romance and “fun together” – that’s the day unexpected visitors show up at your house or one of you gets sick.
• When you are about to embark on a much anticipated vacation – the car breaks down – or the weather goes awry…
Now some of these are rather cynical aren’t they? Yet there are a few certain things in life and today I want to talk about one of them – failure. The truth is – we all experience times where we fail at something. If I was to take a brief survey of the people here today I would probably find that among the fears we face in life one of the greatest fear is the fear of failure. In this high-achieving, “make it or break it” society that we live in failure is just one of those things that isn’t looked kindly on. In many circumstances when people do fail – and remember that is a certainty of life – it gets “covered up” or swept under the carpet because we don’t want anybody to know.
Failure, or the fear of failure is one of the greatest contributors to the level of stress and anxiety many of us live in day to day. We don’t want to fail at being parents, we don’t want to fail in our grades at school, we don’t want to fail at work and maybe get fired, we don’t want to fail at being a great husband or wife (especially when it comes to our sex life right?). Sometimes it can be the trivial – failing to put the toilet seat back down – or all the way up to the huge – having an affair, crashing the car, or going bankrupt. Whatever it is, failure or the fear of it is the major contributor to stress and anxiety in our life.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, failure can be one of the greatest contributors to success. Some of the greatest accomplishments down through history were built on the lessons learned from failure.
I don’t imagine “The Beatles” felt very successful when, at their first record audition in 1962, one of the Decca Recording company executives said, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” Nor would have Alexander Graham Bell jumped for joy when President Rutherford Hayes said, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?” A baseball player might not want to be known for holding the record for the most consecutive strikeouts in a World Series game or even worse hold the major league record for strikeouts (all 1316 of them) yet both records were held by one man – his name Babe Ruth (Celebrity Trivia, E. Lucaire). It is said that Thomas Edison performed 50,000 experiments before he succeeded in producing a storage battery. We might assume that the famous inventor would have had some serious doubts along the way. But when asked if he ever became discouraged working so long without results, Edison replied, “Results? Why, I know 50,000 things that won’t work.” (Today in the Word, August 1990).
Quotes:
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising each time we fall” (Oliver Goldsmith)
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom” (Gen. George Patton)
“Failure is an event, never a person” (William Brown, Welcome Stress!)
Today we’re going to look at the story of some men in the Bible and learn some lessons about dealing with failure.
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:1-11 (NIV)
Chapter five of Luke’s gospel opens up with Jesus preaching a morning message to a group of people who are excited and hungry for what He has to say. Now it just so happens that there were also three fishermen there, not so much to hear the message, but who were busy cleaning their nets after a night of labor.
Peter, James and John were professional fishermen. This was their trade, their career – it wasn’t just a hobby or pastime. They had chosen to fish the previous night, believing that they could fare better than in the day. Nevertheless, they came up empty handed. They were worn out, discouraged, and probably just wanting to go home and get some sleep. The worst part for them was that they would have to face their families and tell them that there was no food or money for the needs of the present day.
How many times have you tried your best and still come up way short? When we have done our best and still do not have success, we should realize our dependency on the Lord Jesus Christ. But, do we? Jesus himself said in John 15…
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 (NIV)
Now these fishermen probably weren’t too excited about the presence of this Jesus. But Jesus was gathering quite a following. At this point, His public ministry was just kicking off and He was the “new kid” on the block. Everyone was ranting and raving about His ability to preach, teach, and captivate the attention of everyone with His oratorical skills. He preached with authority, like many had never heard before. But at this precise moment, the fishermen were probably thinking that this guy is just the son of a carpenter who happens to know how to speak well.
After Jesus dismissed the crowd, He turned His attention towards Peter in particular. He had already borrowed Peter’s boat and used it as a platform for His preaching but now He turns to Peter and says, “Let’s go fishing, and oh yeah, bring those nets with you that you just got through cleaning.”
Now let’s think about what might have been going through Peter’s mind at that moment. I’m sure he must have thought, “I’m not sure what this carpenter turned preacher is up to. Doesn’t he realize that we are professional fishermen? We have already put in a long shift. This has been a bad time for fishing, and he wants to fish now in the day time? I wish he would just stay with his own trade and leave us be!”…
You can tell Peter was not totally convinced for he pointed out to Jesus that they had fished all night without success – yet for some reason Peter says that they’ll give it a try. Why would Peter do this? They had just spent all night fishing without success, they had finished cleaning the nets and setting them out to dry. And finally, they had spent the last few hours hosting this Jesus on their boat listening to Him teach this crowd. And that last point is the key, perhaps there was something in what Jesus taught that caught Peter’s attention, perhaps it was something that Jesus said that awakened Peter to the possibilities Jesus represented. At any rate, there was enough for Peter to simply agree to take a chance that maybe something would happen.
You may have noticed that Peter called Jesus “Master”. This is a term that people would use of someone they respected and usually referenced the acknowledgement of a person as a teacher or guide. So, even though it’s obvious Peter is still unsure, he’s willing to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt.
Even with this small measure of faith, Jesus wants so much to bless Peter and to teach him a great lesson. We see that almost immediately that when Peter lets down the net he is blessed and cursed at the same time. Have you ever been in those situations in life where you are in the midst of some blessing but are also going through incredible difficulty at the same time?
Look what happened here:
They caught so much fish that their net began to break. The outcome of their fishing journey went from 0 to “mucho” in just a matter of seconds! From failure to success in record time. Yet the net was ripping because Peter refused to believe that Jesus could really bless him abundantly and so this blessing quickly turned into a complicated situation. You can almost picture the surprise on these men’s faces as they struggled to bring in this huge catch – complicated by the fact that there would be much net-mending and repairing after everything was brought in. There was so much fish that Peter had to signal some partners in another boat to come and help them bring in the nets and still the amount of fish almost sunk their boats!
Are you getting the picture? So many times, we find ourselves in the midst of a blessing and then things get complicated. Usually the complications exist because we lack the faith to step out and do exactly what God asks of us in the beginning. God may ask us to do something and we think – okay we’ll test the waters a little bit and hap-hazardly cast out the nets not really expecting anything to happen – and then something does and things get complicated. Two quick lessons as a kind of side note:
1. God rewards even the smallest amount of faith. It wasn’t much, but because Peter did decide to try casting his nets in response to Jesus’ instructions he was rewarded with the catch.
2. God’s response isn’t limited by our faith but what we catch is. Can you imagine what would have happened if Peter had of realized the opportunity Jesus was giving here and had called all of the partners in the business and said let’s get those nets out guys? Sure the catch of fish they brought in was great – but imagine what the catch would have been if Peter had more faith than he did?
In this story there is something great that we can learn in the actions of the men after this catch and in the response of Jesus. It is a lesson that I think has much to teach us about how we should approach failure. There are three important things I want you to remember about failure this morning and if you remember these points I am convinced it will radically change how you approach failure and the possibility for failure in your life.
1. Failure puts us in the place where we can LOOK UP (Dependence on God).
There’s no doubt about the fact that failure often results in discouragement and anxiety. Yet, failure is also something that creates the awesome potential for us to realize how much we need God.
There were two failures in this short story. The first failure was when Peter and company had such a dismal day at the office and failed to catch any fish. In stock market terms they crashed and the crashed bad. Maybe it was the bait they used, or the location they fished in, or even the time they chose to fish – but whatever the reason they still failed in what they had set out to do – which was catch fish.
The second failure was when Peter didn’t recognize the opportunity Jesus was presenting to them and limited His faith to simply humouring Jesus.
In both cases, failure put them in the place where they had the potential to realize how much they needed God. Notice what happened as soon as Peter got to shore with the net breaking, boat sinking catch – he ran up to Jesus and fell on His knees and called Jesus Lord. He looked up to God.
Let me put it this way – let’s say that Peter and crew had a successful night fishing and had pulled in to shore with a great load of fish. Would they have been in the position to meet God that day? Would they have been in the position to experience the miracle God planned for that day? Now that’s not to say that God guided all the fish in that lake away from their nets through the night so that they would fail – maybe God did, maybe He didn’t. The point is that regardless of whether our failures are brought on by our own bad decisions or the sovereign plan of God they always create the potential for us to look UP to God and draw closer to Him as we realize our dependence on Him.
If they had of successfully caught a full catch of fish it is much more likely that Peter and company would have recognized Jesus for who He really was. They still might have thrown out the nets one more time in response to Jesus’ instructions but it would have been no big deal to catch more fish with already having the catch on shore.
Are you afraid of failing? Or have you failed at something? Next time you face failure or experience remember to look UP and see the failure as an opportunity to become more dependent on God and to grow closer to Him.
2. Failure highlights where we need to grow.
This is another important lesson about failure that we can learn from this story. Notice what happened when the fish were brought in. Luke records that Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees and urged Jesus’ to leave Him because of the sin he recognized in his life. Pretty weird way to thank a guy don’t you think? I would think that after a catch that big Peter might have run up to Jesus and gave a whoop of joy, smacked him on the back or given a high five and said something like, “Wow, thanks a lot, you’ve got to come to our house for a party tonight!” But instead, Peter’s response indicates that he realized something he wouldn’t have known otherwise. In this case Peter had failed to recognize who Jesus really was and this lack of faith opened His eyes to where He needed to grow. All of a sudden it connected with Peter that he wasn’t as good as he wanted to think and he was humbled.
Failing forward means that when we fail, we take the opportunity to allow it to show us where we need to grow.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well” (Zig Ziglar)
You will never grow unless you allow failure to teach you what is not right in your life. With this understanding failure doesn’t have to be discouraging or defeating. In fact failure can be stimulating and encouraging as you recognize the lessons you can learn from failing.
This is why risk and failure go hand in hand. We all want risks in life to be met with success but the reality is many risks are met with failure. For some people that’s reason enough to always play it safe. They figure, if we don’t takes risks, then we won’t fail. True enough – but what’s also true is that you will also never grow as a person because if you never fail at anything you will never know what can be improved in your life. Now that doesn’t mean that we aren’t to be careful about what risks we take – it’s always important to make sure what we are aiming for is worth the risk – but it does mean that we don’t let the fear of failure keep us from taking any risks!
It amazes me because when you look at some of the choices God made in people throughout the Bible you see that He didn’t really make that many “safe” choices: Jacob, a liar and a cheat; Joseph, a guy who just didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut; Moses, a stutterer, murderer and old man; David, the youngest son and pretty unnoticed; Jonah, prejudiced and stubborn; Among the disciples, some fishermen, and a couple tax-collectors; then there’s a guy named Saul, who was violently chasing and persecuting followers of Christ. No, God chose a lot of risky people to go about doing His business. Why? Certainly it isn’t because God didn’t expect them to fail sometimes. In fact, I believe it is because God knew that they would fail in some cases BUT God also knew the potential resident in what these men and women could become and that it was through their failures they would grow into that person!
Don’t let failure be a setback – instead allow it to expose where you need to grow!
Finally,
3. Failure provides the opportunity for something better.
Sometimes it isn’t until we fail that the door to something better opens up. Such was the case here in this story. The failure of these fishermen to catch fish and even to some degree their failure of faith opened up the door to the opportunity to become fishers of men. In the midst of their failure, Peter, John and Simon grabbed a hold of who Jesus is and caught the burden to join Him in His mission on earth. The proof of this is found in the abandoned tackle, bait, boats, and their prize catch upon reaching land to follow Christ.
It’s interesting that throughout the more than 3 years of Christ’s public ministry, we do not find recorded that the disciples ever returned to fishing, except upon the command of Jesus to catch a fish and take the coin out of its mouth to pay taxes. It is only after Jesus died, rose again, and talked about his ascension, that the disciples reverted back to the old fishing habits. And again, it was due to lack of faith. They didn’t believe that they had what it took to carry on without the physical presence of Jesus Christ at their side.
Friends, sometimes failure opens the door to something better – a something that we wouldn’t even be aware of if we succeeded all the time.
Will Rogers’ stage specialty used to be rope tricks. One day, on stage, in the middle of his act, he got tangled in is lariat. Instead of getting upset, he drawled, “A rope ain’t so bad to get tangled up in if it ain’t around your neck.” The audience roared. Encouraged by the warm reception, Rogers began adding humorous comments to all his performances. It was the comments, not the rope tricks, that eventually made him famous.
(Chuck Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, p. 29, cf. pp. 69, 244.)
What started out as a miserable failure, ended up with a fabulous ending.
Regardless of how bad things look for you in your life and regardless of the failure remember to look up, look in, and look out – let the failure bring you closer to God, let it reveal where you need to grow, and finally let it point you in the direction of something better!