05.25.22 - Fail forward

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Next week combined youth night Movie night for both groups. June 1st

The week after that on June 8th we will be having a graduation party to celebrate those moving into middle school, high school and graduating.

Main Point/Theme: Peter denies Jesus three times.

Bible Text: Luke 22:54-62

Luke 22:54–62 NIV

54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. 59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” 60 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 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.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Introduction

When you are in a situation where you feel like all eyes are on you you will say anything to get out of that situation you may say anything to remove yourself from this situation.

We can believe something so strongly in our mind, but when we are questioned or interrogated without the ability to defend ourselves sometimes we result to lying to remove ourselves from the situation.

Example: You do something wrong towards your parents. Change, an extra cookie when your a child, some extra ice cream after dinner, being on your phone too late. What ever the situation when caught off guard and confronted a good majority of people will lie to get out of the situation and to avoid the punishment of being in trouble. It happens to all of us. So imagine Peter knowing the punishment he may be facing and through that moment he forgets one of the best things he has at his disposal… The power of God.

Denial and failure is something that will happen to us all in our lives and through this Jesus is the strength for us all. We will fail at our mission of sharing the gospel to the world around us and there will be times that you fold under pressure because you are human, but the thing is; will you fail and turn away or will you fail forward?

How many of you know how to ride a bike? Skateboard? ride a scooter? Kick a ball? any activity you can think of is an example of failing forward. IF you are like most people you did not start doing any activity and perfect it. It took time and stumbles along the way, but what you did was continue moving forward and learning.

You will fail in your life and through different situations with friends, family, activities you will deny Jesus Christ in your life through various ways, but Jesus wants you to fail forward. He wants you to get back up and continue moving towards Him. Jesus didn’t go through all of this to have you turn around and not try.

Some will say when you fail there is not an option to change and your failure is the reason to quit. It is too hard to move forward through the shame, guilt and embarrassment, but that isn't true. You always have the ability to continue forward. Will it be hard? YES. Will it take you letting go of some pride in your life? YES. Peter initially ran away with guilt and sorrow for what he had just done, but Peter didn’t stay this way forever.

Even though Peter denies Jesus three times and goes through this failure in His life, Jesus still loves him and wants him to share the gospel. In John 21 we see when Jesus appears to Peter and the disciples after the crucifixion when they are going fishing, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Jesus asks him this three times just like in the same way Peter denies Jesus three times. Peter returned to what he did prior to meeting Jesus and in this moment Peter wasn’t sharing the gospel to those in the world as Jesus commanded to do. Instead, he was probably still feeling the guilt and shape of his decision when he denied Jesus three times.

But Jesus wanted to replenish Peter to the status of one of his Apostles so Peter can know that Jesus forgave him and wanted Peter to “feed my sheep” is how it is phrased in John. Through those mishaps in your life, you don’t need to feel like your failure is a ticket to run away and never try again. Instead your failure should be a learning experience of what not do to in the future and to allow you to grow in life.

Failure is not the end unless you quit. This is a phrase I want all of you to learn this evening.

“YOU NEVER FAIL, UNTIL YOU QUIT.

There is a quote about Thomas Edison that comes from when he created the light bulb. Through these failures of him creating the light bulb, people said you have failed so why keep trying. And Thomas Edison says, “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that wont work.”

As long as you keep moving, keep trying and continue to learn from what you have done, you are simply learning of ways that don’t work. But if you quit learning and stop, then you have failed.

No mater what happens Jesus still forgives Peter and wants Peter to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not want Peter to stay in this funk and wither away. Jesus wants to take what Peter calls a failure and use that to build Peter into a stronger person. Jesus wants to take the things you consider your own failures and build upon those. Just don’t quit. Don’t stop making improvements.

You may not agree with the fact that Jesus will forgive you, but you would be cheating yourself in this thinking. Jesus knew we would continue to fail in our lives. This is WHY HE DIED ON THE CROSS. He died to make sure you were always able to come to Him and ask for forgiveness. He died so you would have the ability to get back up, dust yourself off and try again, to learn. If you are running away and not coming to God in those moments it is because you are choosing not too. Not because God doesn’t want you to come to Him. If you have failed, it is because you have quit, God hasn’t failed you.

You are forgiven if you ask for forgiveness and understand that in those moments of denying Jesus Christ in your life like Peter did, Jesus paid the way for us to freely come to Him with our sorrows and shame. And through that shame we learn and try again. We do not need to feel that the mishap in our life is the end and we have failed. Instead we need to rely on Jesus Christ in our lives and rely on His power to pull us through those situations.

Jesus knows you will fail. Jesus knew Peter would fail and He predicted this to Peter and then when it happened Jesus looked at Peter in verse 61 in a way that was to say, “I know what you just did”. and through this process is why we see Peter run away weeping because he cannot believe he just denied Jesus Christ in his life. Peter almost turned away and let this failure control his outcome. But Jesus didn’t fail Peter, peter gave up.

Right now you may be in a situation where you are denying Jesus Christ to others around you in your school, family or even to yourself. But you have the ability right now to turn around and no longer deny Jesus Christ in your life. You have the ability to share Jesus with others instead of putting Him in your back pocket. You have the ability to say, “Yes I am a follow of Jesus Christ” instead of denying Him like Peter did.

God is a forgiving God and wants to share with you a way to always come back to Him.

The good news is that even if you are choosing to deny Christ in the same way Peter did, you also have the ability to come back to Jesus Christ in your life the same way Peter did. Peter picked himself up and decided to follow Jesus. Jesus then told Peter to “Feed His sheep” which means to share the gospel with those who have not heard it yet. To continue the gospel message of Jesus Christ and this is also what God is asking of us in our lives.

Let this be a reminder to you that although you will fail and deny Jesus in your life through various situations, you do not need to continue doing this in your life. You only Fail when you decide to quit learning.

Remember over the past two weeks we have continually talked about how we cannot do things on our own. If left to ourselves we will always choose the easier route or the selfish one. The disciples fell asleep instead of staying on guard against temptation. Peter denies Jesus Christ three time. Time and time again we continue to proof why we are not worthy and why we need Jesus Christ in our lives.

But this is why Jesus Christ died for you, because he knew you would continue to fail. But when we fail we either learn from it and remember we have power through Jesus Christ to grow or we let it hold us back and quit. Peter chose after seeing Jesus Christ after the crucifixion when Jesus appeared to them that Peter would continue to follow Jesus Christ and grow. He let that moment in his life propel him forward to share the gospel and that is what we will need to do in our lives. To continue moving forward instead of letting this things hold us back.

We should live knowing that we cannot do things on our own and rely on Jesus Christ in our lives to move forward and have the strength needed to live in this world.

Jesus Christ will give you strength if you ask for it and will help guide you through those moments when you are failing and denying Jesus Christ with your words and lifestyle. Jesus will be there to help you as long as you want Him there with you.

People around you will say once you fall you should just give up and not worry about it. But instead what you should do is fail forward, learn from your mistakes and do better next time. Know what you did wrong and use that to strengthen you and guide you forward…not backwards.

The more the world throws our way, the more distracted we are for what is right in front of us. The Word of God, the example of Jesus Christ are all things we have the ability to know, but the world throws things to get in our way and very successfully distracts us.

Learn from these situations in life in order to keep moving forward and growing. Peter made a mistake and did not stand up for Jesus in that moment, but because of that Peter became stronger and became an amazing apostle for God in the time following the death of Jesus Christ.

The gospel we read now is the continuation of the guide of how you should live your life and if you fail and deny Jesus through your actions and lifestyle, then go back and read more and every-time you fail be sure to fail forward and not backward and learn from those mistakes.

Jesus loves you and through all of this it was to show you His love. His life He showed the love for everyone and showed how we should all live.

Isn’t it amazing that we have a God who loves us so much that He would send His son to show us the way in our lives and to be an example for us all?

How you determine what you do after you fail is up to you. You have the choice to let it either hold you back or let it move you forward. But the thing is I cant do it for you and nobody but yourself can do it for you. You need to do it for yourself.

In order to live for Jesus you must first choose to follow Jesus in your life. In order to do this you need to ask Him into your heart and this evening we are going to close in prayer and if any of you feel that maybe you have been denying Jesus Christ in your life and you want to turn around and now follow Him you can pray this prayer with me to yourself this evening. Once again if you choose to make this commitment I would love to hear about this and celebrate this decision with you as well as help guide you into next steps.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord,

I want to thank you for being the Savior in my life. There are thing I have done to deny you in my life and to those around me. I want to follow you in my life and know that even when I fail you are their for me to help guide me forward. I want to ask you into my heart and ask for you to forgive me for who I have been in my life. I choose to follow you in my life and move forward instead of backwards.

Amen

Dinner Talk questions:

Thursday

Is there anything in my life that is causing me to deny Jesus Christ?

Friday

If I am denying Jesus Christ, what steps can I take to no longer deny Him in my life?

Saturday

Peter denied Jesus out of fear. Is there a situation you are in that causes fear if you were to share Jesus?

Sunday

How can I take my fear and change it into courage to move forward with Jesus Christ in my life?

Monday

Peter was ashamed of what he did in Luke 22:54-62, can you explain why?

Tuesday

When Jesus looked at peter in Luke 22:61, what do you think was going through Peter’s head?

Wednesday

How can we change our lifestyle to not put ourselves in the situation that leads to denying Jesus Christ?