Whether you fail at looking for a job, fail at an exam, fail in a relationship, fail at doing a task, all of us have had some experience of failure.

A person I talked to this week, said that through sickness he was put out of his job. When he went to the Social Welfare department they wouldn’t give him a sickness benefit, because they didn’t think he was sick enough. Then he went for budget help, and while he was there, the police issued him with a $200 violation for not having his car registration up to date.

If you think you have failed, there are others who may be glad to be in your situation.

What do you do when failure occurs? Has your Christian faith anything to offer you in this situation. Can you offer encouragement to anyone else who has failed?

1. Focus on God rather than your failure? - Job

Nowhere does the Bible say that we will escape the problems of life. When we look at all the great heroes of the Bible, we see that they all had their times of failure.

Job was a man who was righteous before the Lord, and yet he suffered the loss of his farm and his wealth, his children and his health. And after it all Job’s wife said to him, “You are still as faithful to God as ever, aren’t you. Why don’t you curse God and die?”

And Job answered, ‘You are talking nonsense! When God sends us something good, we welcome it. How can we complain when he sends us trouble?” Even in all this suffering Job said nothing against God.’ [Job 2:9-10]

What do we learn from this? We learn that blessing or success is a gift of God, and not something that is our right. When success comes we can praise God, but when there is failure, we don’t turn away from God, but keep looking to him.

The real problem is that we measure the worth of our life by our success or failure. We live in a competitive society, where so much is judged by whether we win or not. So if we fail, we fall into despair or discouragement.

But the truth is that winning isn’t everything. More important is our relationship with God. What happened in the end was that Job had to turn away from talking to his friends, to talking with God. And in talking with God he saw that God was a just God. God said to him, “Are you trying to prove that I am unjust - to put me in the wrong and yourself in the right?’ [Job 40:8].

It is a question of pride that puts our success in first place. God wants us to look to him and trust him for giving us success in God’s time. God’s has organised this whole universe. Surely God is going to work things out as he wants to.

So Jesus said, “Happy are those who are humble, they will receive what God has promised.” [Matthew 5:5] If we have humility about our own performance, then we are more likely to succeed. Paul Tournier, the great Swiss Christian Psychologist said, “The people who fail are those who try hardest to succeed.”

Aim to be faithful. It's up to God whether he grants you success.

“The God of heaven is the one who will give us success”. [Nehemiah 2:20]. Success is a gift of God - not really our own effort. Don’t keep our eyes on the success, but on the one who gives it.

Job kept his eyes on God, and in the end God blessed him again, even more than he had blessed him in the beginning.

2. Don’t Give Up - Peter

Experiencing failure leads most people to give up. But this is the exact opposite from what is helpful for us to do when things don’t work out.

Peter denied his faith in Jesus at the crucial point. For a disciple of Jesus what greater failure could there be? He had asserted to Jesus that he would stick to him to the end.

Jesus spoke to Peter. “After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?” “Yes Lord” he answered, “You know that I love you.” Jesus said to him. “Take care of my lambs.”

A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes Lord,” he answered, “You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

A third time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” ... “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.!” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.” [John 21:15-17]

What Jesus was doing was forgiving Peter for his past failure. At the same time he was giving Peter a new task to do. Yes, Jesus comes to us in our failures and shows us that he loves us just as much. His love does not depend on our success. In his love he encourages us to not give up, but to see the task that he has given us.

Peter took up the challenge, instead of giving up. He allowed hope to come into his heart again. Maybe I am not a failure after all! Failing once doesn’t mean that I am going to fail next time. God has got something else for me to do! God was able to use Peter to be a fearless preacher on the Day of Pentecost. He failed because he was afraid of speaking out about Jesus in front of others. But on the Day of Pentecost that was reversed. He brought the gospel then to many people, so that three thousand people were converted on that Day.

God is able to reverse our failures. That is part of the forgiveness he offers to us. But we still have to allow that to happen. We have to come to that point of saying, `Yes, Jesus, I receive your forgiveness for my failures, I commit my life to you afresh, and I am ready to do whatever you want me to do.’

3. Let go of idols - Samaritan woman

A Samaritan woman went one day to get water from her local well. We don’t know her name. She felt she was a failure. She had failed in her relationships, as a Samaritan she was rejected by the Jews, and as a woman she was given little respect in society in that time. She was at the bottom of the heap. So what a surprise to find a man there at the well who was interested in her.

Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” Then turning the conversation he said, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.” [John 4:7 & 10]

Jesus was offering her a new way out of her sense of failure. He was offering her a new life. The real thing we need when we are aware of our failures is not success. It is more basic than that. We need a new life - to start out again a different way.

The Samaritan woman had sought fulfilment in life through relationships with men. But it hadn’t worked out. Her life was going in the wrong direction. When Jesus talked with her, he encouraged her to let go of her inadequate relationships and to turn to a new life that he as the Messiah could offer her. In a sense the men in her life were like an idol. An idol is anything that has taken the place of Jesus in our hearts. An idol is anything that we hold onto other than our Father God to give meaning and value to our life.

If we are tempted to give up in a time of failure it is a sign that our success has become an idol for us. As Christians we must always be ready to give up what we have, simply because the Lord can take them away at any time.

The person whose ambition is to play for the All Blacks above everything else, will be bitterly disappointed if he misses out, compared to the person for whom his place in the team is not the main source of his happiness in life.

So also, the person who lives for the share market, is going to be shattered when share prices fall. But if money was only an incidental part of his life, then the share market ups and downs are not going to bother him.

So you need to be careful where you put your heart. Your failures are an aid to help you to see where your heart truly is. If the ship carrying your fortune begins to sink, we must not be so identified with the treasure that we go down with it.

The Samaritan woman came to believe in Jesus, and her life was transformed. She let go of her idolatry and received the living water into her heart, that met her real needs.

Conclusion.

Failure is not the end. To fail does not make you a failure. Victory can come out of failure. How often in rugby have you noticed that when the opposition is down near their try line, how there can be a runaway try. We need to have the confidence, that we can bounce back from failure. Satan would like us to feel defeated, because when we feel like that we are not likely to try again.

Each of these three people experienced failure, yet bounced back again to success in their life.

Abraham Lincoln experienced failure after failure. - for 28 years! In 1833 his business failed. In 1836 he had a nervous breakdown. He failed to be elected as speaker in 1838. He lost re-nomination to Congress in 1848, and was rejected for Land Officer in 1849. But he `hung in’ there’. In 1854 he was defeated for the Senate. Two years later he lost the nomination for Vice-President, and was again defeated in the Senate elections of 1858. But he was elected President in 1860, and went on to become one of America’s most successful Presidents.

At the centre of the gospel is the cross. Jesus Christ suffered the greatest failure that there could be. He was put to death by those he was trying to reach with the love of God. He was rejected by the crowds, betrayed by a disciple and abandoned by the rest of them, despised and beaten by the authorities. He suffered the failure of death itself by the cruelest form of punishment that has ever been devised by humanity. The movement he started was snuffed out. He left behind no wealth other than the robe he was dressed in. He had no organisation that continued on after him. What a failure!

Yet out of that failure arose the greatest victory that has ever occurred on earth.

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