Failure is not Final

Greeting

What an amazing story - thank you Charlie for letting us share your story one again.

This is not a new video, but as our church is growing, I thought it would be helpful to introduce to some of you, and reintroduce to others of you, some people who have experienced a Fresh Start here at Lighthouse.

I’m excited as we start this new series becuase I believe it can be a game changer for so many of you. Many people believe that because of their past or upbringing, that they can only go so far in life.

Then there are others who feel like the decisions they’ve made have disqualified them from the life they envisioned that they would live.

We want to speak directly into that for the rest of this month, becuase we believe that in Jesus you can experience a Fresh Start.

Introduction

Psychologists tell us failure does more than just hurt our performance — it threatens our identity.

People who fail often stop trying, disengage, and withdraw.

Some people assume failure makes us stronger, but research says that’s not automatic. Failure can make you better… or it can make you bitter. The difference is what you do with failure.

And the reason that matters is because every single one of us in this room is going to fail at something.

We don’t mean to. We don’t want to.

But it is part of the human experience.

And we are going to look at a story in the Bible than shows us what failure looks like, and it shows us how Jesus handles failure.

And since we all fail, we have so much to learn from this story.

Reading

Luke 22:54–62 NIV

Then seizing him (Jesus), they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Failure is not Final

Text

I want to put this text in its context.

So let’s back up to the night that Jesus predicted Peter’s failure and tried to warn him that it was going to happen.

Luke 22:31–34 NIV

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

We can’t read the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus without Jesus’s prediction of Peter’s denial.

It happens during ‘The Last Supper’ when Jesus gathers his 12 for a final meal. Recorded in every single gospel account is this moment when Jesus looks at Peter and tells him, “You are going to deny me.”

Now, we all know Peter was saved, but he wasn’t THAT saved…

He was Holy, but he had a little hood left in…

He was that Christian that would preach Jesus to you, but would cuss out the person who cut him off on the road.

Flip the Script

Perhaps that is why Jesus continued to switch his name from Simon to Peter…

Do you see it?

Jesus calls him Simon… then Peter… because failure doesn’t change your identity — it only reveals the battle between the old you and the new you.

Can we be honest this morning?

We don’t always have our stuff together, even when we are walking with Jesus.

And… we fail…

[Transition of Thought and Pace]

Jesus tells him that he would deny him and Peter’s response was, “I’m willing to die for you!”

And for a moment, Peter seemed to be that guy.

When Jesus is arrested in the garden Peter grabbed the sword from the temple guard and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus.

But then we get to our passage for today, and sure enough, Peter denied Jesus.

And it wasn’t some angry mob that outed him, but the bible said it was a girl.

Imagine that.

Peter the brave being outed by a servant girl.

And he deny’s Jesus not only once, but three times.

And it happened the way Jesus said it would - you’ll hear a rooster crow, and when it did, it struck Peter so hard that he ran off and wept bitterly.

Transition

There are some things that we can count on in life, and failure is one of them.

Peter was called by Jesus to be an Apostle.

Peter was the disciple who walked on water.

He saw Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration

He was the only disciple willing to walk on water to get to Jesus

And Peter’s failure shows us every single one of us will also fail.

We miss the mark.

We don’t get it right 100% of the time.

Framing Failure

Recently I was listening to a podcast and the speaker was talking about failure. Knowing that I would be speaking on the subject of a Fresh Start, and that overcoming Failure was one of the topics, I leaned in to what the speaker was saying.

As he was talking about failure, a word picture came to mind.

Has that ever happened to you when as you were listening to someone a picture is being painted in your head?

So this is the image of what I was seeing.

We often think of success and failure as opposites. Success is heading in one direction, while failure is often heading in the opposite direction. So this is how I envisioned what that would look like.

However, the more that I listened it became clear to me that people do not set out to fail. We don’t wake up and decide that today is the day that we are going to mess things up in a big way.

We don’t do that.

Instead, we start going down the path that we believe leads us to success… and then failure happens and it looks like this.

What my head was showing me was that many times, failure and success share the same road.

It spoke two things to me:

Success and failure are a lot closer to each other than I originally thought.

The road to failure is often shared with the road to success, until something starts to shift us in the wrong direction.

Success, is the ability to go back to the place of failure in order to learn and grow from what we lost.

Experience is not the predictor of success, but evaluated experience is. What did I learn from that moment in my life?

Peter’s Denial

Matthew & Mark: Accent and Identity

Let’s get back to Peter and look at his moment of failure. As I mentioned earlier, every gospel account has this story about Peter, and there’s insight in each one of them.

When we read Matthew’s account of the story, Peter is outed by this servant girl and he deny’s Jesus. He said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Then, Matthew records that a second servant girl says to him the same thing, “You’ve been with Jesus of Nazareth.” Peter deny’s it once again. Then a crowd starts to call him out and they say this - “Your accent gives you away!”

When you read Mark’s and Luke’s account one of the people in the crowd not only pointed out his accent, but said to him, “You are a Galilean!”

Here’s what I see from this:

Who you are still shows up in your failure.

Peter, you can deny Jesus — but everything about you has changed.

You can follow the wrong crowd, but you still belong to the right King.

You are not your failure.

When you try to fit in with the world and do the things that go against God’s plan and purpose for your life, you won’t be fully accepted. You are God’s man. You are God’s girl. Your place is in God’s house.

John: Hurting The Ones We Need

When we get to John’s retelling of this event he slips in a detail that is brilliant.

John 18:25–27 NIV

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

Earlier I shared with you that Peter got real gangster in the garden. He let Simon, his old nature, take the lead.

And look at this full circle moment at the fire… The relative of that guy is there and he calls him out on it.

[Pause]

Have you ever had someone catch you in a moment and say to you, “Aren’t you supposed to be a Christian?”

I had a moment like this when we were opening our sanctuary.

We had ordered chairs for the church. Negotiated the price. Waited a real long time for delivery, and then the chairs showed up and they were not what we ordered.

The company tried to pull a fast one on us and say, “Keep the chairs and we’ll give you $1,000 off final invoice,” which was laughable because the difference in what we ordered and what we received was more than $1,000.

Well, that was when Pastor Josh reached his limit… We were sitting on final billing waiting for them to make it right and when I stepped in I let the manager have it.

Now, I didn’t swear and lose the Holy Spirit. Don’t think I did that…

But I did speak sternly to him and there might have been moments of condescension in there. I’m telling on myself this morning…

Then he said, “Hey aren’t you the Pastor! Why are you talking to me like that.”

As much as I felt right, it also felt wrong… I was letting my emotions get the best of me.

[Pause]

You see, when we fail we cause damage to not just the people we hurt, but it reaches further.

Have you heard that saying before?

Sin will take you further than you want to go and it will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Remember that the next time you are thinking about doing something that is out of character.

The damage reaches much further than you thought it would go.

And even if you thought you got away with it… it’s only a matter of time before it comes around.

You cannot sow sin and not reap pain.

Luke: Jesus Sees You

Luke gives us the only account that Jesus turned to Peter at the moment of the third denial and looked at him.

Can you imagine what that moment must have been like for Peter.

I don’t know if he saw Jesus looking at him, or if he was caught up in the moment that he didn’t realize that it was happening, but Jesus was looking right at him.

We don’t know what was on his mind in that moment, but I want to offer what I think was happening.

Jesus didn’t look at Peter to shame him… He looked at him to remind him — I knew this was coming, and I still chose you.

[Pause]

Some of you need to get that word for yourself - God knew you would fail, and He still called you.

He still saved you.

He still loves you.

And, he isn’t done writing your story.

Conclusion

When we get to other side of Jesus’ resurrection, in one of his many appearances to the disciples, John records this moment when Jesus meets his disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

It’s John 21 verses 1 through 17. In the interest of time I’m going to paraphrase, but you should read this story.

Jesus comes to the Sea of Galilee, and the boys are out fishing again. They have not caught anything so Jesus calls out to them and tells them, let down your nets on the other side of your boat. They do, and they end up catching a large number of fish.

At the moment their eyes were open to the man calling out to them - it was Jesus.

The bible records that Peter jumps off the boat and swims to the shore to be with Jesus.

And then, the Bible records that Jesus starts a fire, and begins to cook for them.

Then it is recorded that Jesus asks Peter 3 times , “Do you love me?”

Each time Peter answers yes, and Jesus replies, then feed my sheep.

I want you to see what happens here in this moment. When Jesus called Peter to follow Him at the beginning of our gospels, it was after this moment when the boys had been out fishing and caught nothing. Jesus sends them back out again and they catch a multitude of fish… then Jesus tells them, “Follow me and I’ll make you a fisher of men.”

Here in the last chapter of John, Jesus recreates this moment to remind Peter - I called you, and I’m not done with you.

He recreates the original moment of his calling then to affirm His calling over his life now.

Your failure is not final.

But that’s not it…

Jesus then lights a fire to recreate another significant moment in Peter’s like.

You see, Peter denied Jesus at a fire, and so every time Peter gets around a fire, he’s going to think back on that time that he denied Jesus three times.

So Jesus brings Peter back to the fire. He wants to get every one of his senses working together again:

what he sees when he looks at the fire

the sound of the fire crackling

the smell of the wood burning

the warmth he feels from the fire

But this time, Peter isn’t going to deny Jesus three times, he is going to say yes to Jesus three times.

Jesus recreates the environment of failure… to rewrite it with grace.

The fire that once reminded Peter of failure became the fire that reminded him of grace.

[Pause]

I know I’ve said a lot today, but I need you to know this:

Failure may be part of your story — but it doesn’t get the final chapter.

Call

Some of you walked in carrying failure… and it’s not just something you did — it’s something you’ve started to believe about yourself.

But today Jesus is recreating the moment… not to shame you… but to restore you.

If you need a fresh start, we want to pray for you.