Failing into God's Arms

Genesis 3:8–13 NIV

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:21 LEB

And Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and he clothed them.

Introduction: What did getting an F mean when you were in school? Did you ever fail at something? How did you handle it? Did you hide the report card or blame the teacher? Or did you face the music?

We Fail Forward when we stop from letting sin Mastor us, but instead letting Grace Master us.

We Fail Forward when we submit to the Holy Spirit’s sanctification

We Fail Forward when are honest about our failures and allow Jesus to restore us for second chances.

14 - Failure Makes Us Want to Hide.

Talk about Shame....

15 - Dog Hiding in Shame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX2P3oG29NY

16 - “Shame is when we believe the mistakes we've made or the things that others have done to harm us; define us. Whichever it is, it makes us see the world and ourselves differently.”

- ReFrame Ministries

Ways we hide as revealed in this story.

We physically hide.

1 John 1:5–10 NIV

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

We hide behind blame - We blame others to divert the guilt.

Self-Righteousness - We point out others wrongs, “We Cancel Others” and believe we are more righteous then others. - We justify ourselves.

We get other people in trouble. - Was there a sibling in your family who did this?

There is a better way to deal with the shame of our sin then this.

17 - Instead We Should Abide.

John 15:1–11 NIV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

29 - - Failure reminds us of our finitude, but also of our new life in Christ. We have someone to turn to who is changing us. We are dependent on Christ.

- The word “abide” in Greek is the word meno, which means to remain and not leave. The many variants of the word meno establish the idea that believers continually have their life in Christ and “dwell as it were with him, to be continually operative in him by his divine influence and energy” (Joseph H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 9th ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009], 399).

Jesus’ solution is not to hide from God, but to Abide in God.

God’s Grace in covering their shame - Jesus dying on the cross.

There are consequences - Yes, but I wonder how the consequences would have been different if they Abided in God versus running from God.

Story of me covering up breaking the Banister.

Informed why I wanted to tell my Dad about almost crashing his Jeep.

- When we sense our brokenness and failure, our first move should not be denial or self-reliance. Our first reaction to the feeling of failure is saying, “God show me your love.

- God loves us and perseveres with us, but we must love God and never give up either.

30 - Abiding Turns Failure into Fruit.

Cutting off as a result of hiding from God.

People are able to produce much without God, including converts, good deeds and even prophesies, exorcisms and miracles (cf. Mt 7:22–23; Ridderbos 1997:517). But the divine life such as we see in Jesus is dependent on God’s own character, power and guidance at work in the life of the disciple. Jesus did not will nor speak nor act from himself; neither is the branch capable of bearing fruit ‘from itself’ (v. 4 …). Hence Jesus’ command to remain in me (v. 4)” (Rodney A. Whitacre, John, The IVP New Testament Commentaries [Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999], Logos 9).

Producing Fruit as a result of Failing into God’s Arms.

Mike Breen - Takes three years of pruning before the grape vine is allowed to produce fruit.

“It’s human nature to dwell on our missteps and wonder what others think. We gravitate toward insecurity, believing everyone knows about our failure. But more often than not, only a few people—if any—notice. If you let the failure get you down and you stay in that pit, you rob yourself of potential growth. Your past isn’t your future. It doesn’t define who you are or what the rest of your life will look like. What matters is what you do after you fail and how you move on” (D. Michael Lindsay, “3 Ways to Succeed in Failure,” The Gospel Coalition, June 22, 2018, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/3-ways-succeed-failure/).

31 - Conclusion:

When You fail - Turn Towards God, Fail into his arms, rather than hide from him.

When you Fail - Abide in God - Remain in him, don’t leave him, persevere in God, he may be pruning you for the success he has for you.