Failing Does Not Make Us Failures - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Remember the night before Jesus was crucified and he was at Mount Gethsemane and before he went up there in the Mount Olives, he said, I'm going to go away and pray. Would you stay and pray with me?

So he went away and then he came back and how'd that work out? They were all asleep. They didn't have the energy to even pray for him. And Jesus, though, said this. He said, The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Well, that's our frame.

That's our mindset. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. The Christmas season is now upon us. It means something different to all of us. Certain traditions, rituals, things we'd like to do. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is I have to see every year it's a wonderful life. Now, understand, I come from a mixed marriage. My wife does not like it at all. She thinks it's a very dark kind of movie.

I think it's a wonderful movie. As you know, Clarence Oddbody was an angel second class, and God sent him to earth to be able to help George Bailey, which is Jimmy Stewart. And they started out at a drowning situation and got his life saved and all that. And the story just goes on and on. And what was really going on is George feels like a complete failure.

He feels as though he has failed everybody in the whole town. And they go through the story. And at the end of the movie, Clarence leaves George a book with an inscription on it.

And it says this in the inscription. It says, remember, no man is a failure who has friends. And the theology of that's not real good, but that's the statement. But what amazes me is what the real underlying theme is for the human condition. And that is that George perceives himself as a failure and decides, in spite of all the other things about his life that are very good, one, that he wishes he had never been born, and two, that he wishes he could take his life. And I think what makes the movie so compelling is that all of us love to see a movie where someone moves from failure to real success. And that's what makes the movie the movie.

I don't know if we realize, though, that part of the movie is extraordinarily biblical. And what I mean by that is that what you see over and over and over again in the Word of God is God takes people who are failures and then makes them successes. Abraham, the father of all of us who believe in the father of Israel, is a failure. He fails even twice. Remember, God told him that he was going to bless him with a child. That child will be a blessing throughout the world. And twice Abraham denied that Sarah was his wife in order to save his own skin. Now, even after God had told him, you're going to have a child. Moses.

I mean, you're talking about an incredible name to the Jewish people. The deliverer of Egypt decided to take into his own hands the idea of being a deliverer for Egypt and kills an Egyptian. Tremendous failure, and he has to run away to the land of Midian. And it took him 40 years to finally see it God's way.

And then he went back into the land. David, I mean, my goodness, Bathsheba, adultery, the murder of Uriah the Hittite, complete failure. Elijah, the great prophet. Elijah has this incredible victory over the priests of Baal and then finds out that some woman is after him named Jezebel, and he completely panics.

Peter. And his denials, which we'll look at in a few moments. And many others in scripture, monumental failures. And that is really important to people like you and me. Because we all fail.

It's really part of the human condition. I've had people come into my office over all these years and say things like this to me. Pastor, I don't really believe I'm a Christian. And in one way or another, they say, because I failed. I don't believe I could be a Christian and do what I did. Others come in and say, look, I believe that God is finished with me.

He'll never use me for anything because of what I did and how I failed. Many others just come in and are sadly just extremely depressed about the whole thing. This prevailing feeling, the idea that my new identity is I'm a failure.

Well, today, what I want to tell you is this. Failing. Does not make us failures. You really need to understand this failing does not make us failures.

Back in 1988, United Technologies Corporation published a small article in The Wall Street Journal. And I just wanted to point out some things. And they said, you failed many times. Although you may not even remember it, you fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. Did you hit the ball the first time you had a bat in your hands? R.H. Macy failed seven times before store finally caught on in New York.

Babe, Bruce struck out thirteen hundred and thirty times before he hit seven hundred and fourteen home runs. Said, don't worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't try after failure.

So the first and most important thing for us to do is we all need to face the reality of failure in our lives. I'm not sure all of us are very good at this, especially Christians, because of expectations. Open your Bible to Psalm 103, Psalm 103, verses 13 and 14.

To me, it's an extremely important and familiar song because virtually in every funeral I do, I read this song. But 13 and 14 tells us something first about God and then about us. Verse 13 says, just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. God not only knows who we are, he knows what we are.

That's a response. He said, look, I know who you are. I know what human beings are.

I know your frame. I know you are but dust. But he says clear, but I have compassion on you.

That becomes a very important part when we deal with our own failures. Remember the night before Jesus was crucified and he was at Mount Gethsemane, and before he went up there in the Mount Olives, he said, I'm going to go away and pray. Would you stay and pray with me? So he went away and then he came back.

How did that work out? They were all asleep. They didn't have the energy to even pray for him. And Jesus, though, said this. He said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Boy, that's our frame. That's our mindset. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I want to look at probably what I would call the greatest failure of a believer in the entire Bible. I hope I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 22 or turn to Luke 22. It's a story of Peter.

And the reason for him being the greatest is the context in which this all happens. And we learn some things about spiritual failure from this context. Again, Jesus is about to be crucified the next day. So he starts in verse 25 and he he tells him what leadership in the kingdom looks like versus Gentile or secular leadership. And then he gets down to verse 31. And he says, Simon, Simon, behold. Now, that word doesn't mean much to us, but that behold is the word he do.

And it's like exclamation points in English. It's behold. It's not behold. He says, behold, Simon, Simon repeats the thing.

This is important. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission. To sift you like wheat.

Notice the word permissions in italics. He didn't ask for permission. He just demanded that he could sift you like wheat. The first point about failure is this behind spiritual failure is always a spiritual enemy. He's always there. He's there for Peter. He's there for you and me. He's always there.

He always has something to do. And notice his thoughts here. He wants to sift you like wheat.

That's putting grain through a sieve so that you can remove the head off the grain. So if you want to say from a more colorful point of view, Satan would just like to tear your head off if he could. He can't. But he wish he could.

That's important. There's another thing important in the verse you'd never see in English. He said he has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. Because he said Simon, you're thinking he's talking about Simon. He's not.

The word used plural, not singular. In other words, he's talking to all of his disciples. Satan has demanded that he can sift you all like wheat. Now, the reason he hasn't is in the next verse.

But I. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Satan has demanded he could sift all of us like wheat. Why are we all here? Because of Christ. Because he prays for us. Romans 8 says he makes intercession for us. The book of Hebrews says he's our great high priest that represents us to God. The reason all the believers in Jesus Christ are still on the earth right now is because Christ prays for them.

Not because of them, not their strength, but that he prays for them. And then he says something here that I ashamedly admit that I missed. And I only missed it for 40 years. That's all I missed at 40.

I probably went through the passage 100 times, missed it every time. He said, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And he says, and you. He said, and this goes back to singular, he says, and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen the brethren. Like what?

What? Jesus is telling Peter, you're going to fail. And you're going to repent. And when you do strengthen the brethren, that's what I called you to do. Jesus is anticipating the failure. Jesus knows the failure is coming. But he says, I also know that you'll repent. So he says, so he says, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brethren. Now, in that context, those are sobering words from Jesus.

Watch Peter. But but he said to Jesus, Lord, with you, I am ready to go both to prison and to death. That's who I am. But God knows our frame. He knows we are but dust. Well, this is this is human pride.

Just incredible. This sounds just like Peter and a little bit just like us. I have strength. I have capacity.

I don't think we do. But he said it. And Jesus said to him, I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not, he said, crow today until you have denied three times that you even know me. By the way, you see something in the beginning of that verse. What does Jesus call him? Peter.

This is kind of ironic. You know how many other places Jesus calls Peter, Peter? None.

None, except here. That's the name, by the way, Jesus gave him, remember? Peter Rock.

Jesus having a little bit of fun with this. Sort of saying this way, I say to you, Rocky, Mr. Strong Guy. You see, the reason you're called Peter, Peter. Is because of me. Not because of you. You see, the strength that you have comes from me.

It doesn't come from you. Paul learned the same lesson, didn't he? With a thorn in the flesh. Remember what God said to him? Paul, when you are weak, I am my strength.

You become strong through me. That's what he's telling all of us. So he says that. And then he says to all of them. He said, when I sent you out without a money belt and a bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?

Now, this is talking when he sent out the 70, but when he took them out, he told him to take nothing with him. Well, you'd need money. No, you won't. You'll need clothes.

No, you won't need anything. And that's what they end up responding and saying to him. They say, no, nothing.

You handled everything for us. The reason be, Jesus is telling them that it's going to be a lot different now. It's going to be a lot different now. Jesus knows he's going to be crucified the next day. Up till now, Jesus has been in the eye of the hurricane. He's been in that part of the hurricane on the spiritual warfare issue. It's Satan and him. But the next day, Jesus is leaving.

He's going to be crucified. He says, and then you'll be in the eye. And by the way, I'm not going to take it all the way.

I'm not covering everything you need. He goes on, he says this, then he said, but now whoever has a money belt is to take it along. Likewise, also a bag and whoever has no sword, he said to sell his coat and buy one. It was going well for them until the last phrase there. I have a lot of fun with this over the years. But before Pentecost, almost every time Jesus spoke that you could take it wrong, the disciples took it wrong. It's uncanny how they never got it. No matter what he said, they almost never got it. And that's one of the things that he does here. When Jesus says a sword, he doesn't mean a sword. It's a symbol.

This is a life and death situation. That's what he means. How did they take it? Literally, they said, oh, we need swords. Now, we know that what Jesus meant, because when he was arrested, how did Peter do with his sword? Remember, he got what drew one eye and he cut an ear off, a temple guard. Jesus looked at him, probably shook his head, put the ear back on, give me the sword.

You see, there's something different going on here. Jesus doesn't necessarily mean it the way they took it. Well, as he goes on, he said, for I tell you that that which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with transgressors for that which refers to me has its fulfillment.

I'm going to be crucified. And they said to him, Lord, look, here are two swords. And he said to them, well, that's enough.

I just love that we got two already. That'd be enough because it's not that's not the sword that he means. That's not what he's really talking about here.

He's talking about something else. So the second point behind every spiritual failure is a spiritual enemy. And behind every spiritual failure is blindness to our own weaknesses and ignoring God's warnings.

You see, what is the sword we have in order to fight for failure? Turn with me now to Ephesians six. Ephesians Chapter six. And here in Ephesians six, Paul's describing the same kind of scenario, but he's explaining to us the symbolism, which is helpful. I'm afraid that if Jesus had spoken to the disciples using Paul's words, they were all dressed like Roman soldiers. And so that's what Jesus wants of us.

But Paul explains it to us. He's in prison and he says, therefore, in verse 13, therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything, stand firm. He says, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And in addition to all taking up the shield of faith with which you'll be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now, the evil one's not shooting real flaming arrows at us, but he's shooting everything else at us from a spiritual point of view. So take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's what Jesus meant. The only way you're going to resist, the only way you can fight your own failures is with the word of God. Your loins are already with the truth. Your faith is there. He said, but that's exactly what ends up happening. You have to be able to use, he says, the word of God. The other thing he says here is pretty interesting, that every time we have a spiritual failure, it's always a failure of faith. Always.

Notice that's what he said. He said, in addition, take up the shield of faith with which you'll be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. For the child of God, whenever we fail, is because we have a failure of faith.

That ends up being what happens to us in every single situation. We don't believe. And let me define faith.

I've done this for some years now because of Tony Evans. But faith is acting as if God has told you the truth. Best definition I've ever heard. Faith is acting as though God told you the truth. Faith is not.

Oh, yeah, that's right. But I'm going to do it anyway. That's not faith. Faith is acting as though what God tells you the truth. So whenever you and I fail, we fail on faith. Think of all the ways in which we fail. One of the most painful ones that I run into consistently and deal with in counseling is in a marriage where adultery has been committed.

OK, and that becomes very painful and a very difficult process to work yourself through. Why they do it? I thought it was going to feel good.

I thought that it just seemed like I was so tired of the fighting in my marriage that it would be better for me to just do something like this. Where did you get that? Where did that come from? That come from God? God said, yeah, yeah, I think, look, it's only going to be a few nights.

Go ahead and enjoy it. Now, God said one man, one woman, one lifetime. So and by the way, very few Christians know that or don't know that there's very few that don't know that.

Well, he did it anyway. Why? I don't believe that. I believe for me.

You see, I can go ahead and do it. It happens in every different aspect of our lives. I know people that are bitter Christians over all these years. And you know why? They won't forgive somebody who hurt them.

They won't. And they're just bitter and they're bitter about everything, but they're bitter. Why are they bitter? Because God said, look, they hurt you.

You be bitter. Is that what God said? I think he said you forgive them. How often?

Seven times 70. Infinitely. In fact, he said you need to forgive exactly the same as Christ forgave you in Ephesians. That's what God said. So what aren't you doing?

I'm not forgiving. You see, almost every time it's a crisis of faith, we don't act upon as though what God's telling us is true. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.