Overcoming Despair In Times Of Failure: Mark 14:66-72 - Neil Ryan
Date: April 18, 2004
Passage: Mark 14:66-72
Message: Overcoming Despair in Times of Failure
Theme: The Consuming Passion
I want to talk about something we are well aquainted with but not on good terms with - FAILURE.
Failure is common to all people, not just those who look and sound like they've failed!
Failure is common to those who admit it and those who don't.
Failure is common to the good people and the bad people of this world.
The big issue for us is not whether we fail but what do we do with it.
Some people live by the motto
"if at first you don't succeed destroy all evidence that you tried."
We hide it, deny it, ignore it, dismiss it, give it a more appealing name, blame it on someone else.
We do everything but accept it!
You don't have to look far in ourselves or in the world to see failure.
Dire Straights sang a song a few years back that sum up our problem pretty well -
The Bug - Dire Straights
well it's a strange old game - you learn it slow
one step forward and it's back to go
you're standing on the throttle
you're standing on the breaks
in the groove 'til you make a mistake
sometimes you're the windshield
sometimes you're the bug
sometimes it all comes together
sometimes you're a fool in love
sometimes you're the Louisville slugger
sometimes you're the ball
sometimes it all comes together
sometimes you're going to lose it all
you gotta know happy - you gotta know glad
because you're gonna know lonely
and you're gonna know bad
when you're rippin' and a ridin'
and you're coming on strong
you start slippin' and slidin'
and it all goes wrong because
sometimes you're the windshield
sometimes you're the bug
sometimes it all comes together
sometimes you're a fool in love
sometimes you're the Louisville slugger
sometimes you're the ball
sometimes it all comes together
sometimes you're going to lose it all
one day you got the glory
one day you got none
one day you're a diamond
and then you're a stone
everything can change
in the blink of an eye
so let the good times roll
before we say goodbye, because
sometimes you're the windshield
sometimes you're the bug
sometimes it all comes together
sometimes you're a fool in love
sometimes you're the Louisville slugger
sometimes you're the ball
sometimes it all comes together baby
sometimes you're going to lose it all
Life's like that
One moment you're the windscreen, next you're the bug.
FAILURE comes suddenly, without warning and with horrific consequences!
The Bible makes no effort at all to hide or diminish the failure of some of its most outstanding characters -
ADAM ate what he shouldn't have, NOAH got drunk, ABRAHAM lied, MOSES lost his temper, ELI was a lousy father, DAVID committed adultry-and then committed murder to cover it up, SOLOMON didn't follow own wisdom, PETER denied knowing the Lord and Paul made this profession.
Romans 7:15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
This moment in Peter's life recorded here in Mark 14 is the lowest point in Peter's entire life.
-What made it worse was that he denied Jesus at a time when Jesus needed him most!
-What made it more unbearable was that he didn't just do it once in a moment of madness, he did it again and again.
-What made it all more unbelievable was that Peter called down curses upon himself and swore, I don't know this man.
Peter was so convincing in his failure - he convinced everyone but himself.
Then he heard the rooster crow.
--he remembered-v72
One of the reasons I love being a preacher rather than a salesman is that a salesman has to try and create a need for his product.
They have to make us want it even if we don't need it.
They have to convince us we can buy it even if we can't afford it.
I don't have to try and create a need in for the gospel.
We remember what we are like.
We can remember what we said that hurt someone?
We can remember the lies.
We can remember when we gave up in frustration.
We can remember when we kept silent when we should spoken.
We can remember when we said yes and we should have said no.
Peter didn't need a preacher to tell him he had failed - he just needed a chook to squawk!!
His failure flooded his soul!
That's why this place ought to be the best place in the world.
This ought to be a place where failure not greeted with an exclamation mark as tho it were some strange thing!
This is the place where we find that God knows what we are like.
He sent Jesus into the world to rescue people who would otherwise be classified as serial failures and to give us hope that He can make something eternally good out of something that was momentarily catastrophic!
That's what happened to Peter - hard to believe when you open up book of Acts that this man who called down curses on himself and denied ever knowing Jesus is now preaching before thousands of people.
Read Acts 2:22-24; 32-33; 36
I want you to remember something tonight.
Write this down
Failure is an EVENT not a PERSON.
We can accept failure as a fact in our life but we must never accept it as a description of our life.
Failure is result of what we DO, it is not something we ARE!
Don't let anyone convince you that you are a FAILURE.
Trouble with this day and age is that we define ourselves by our resume.
You are not your resume!
God knows that none of us can be defined by a resume!
God does not define us by our resume but by our relationship.
The greatest, most significant relationship we can have is to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
One of the things that amazes me about Peter is that if you read 1 and 2 Peter in Bible you would never believe they are written by the man we see here in Mark 14.
God never classified Peter as a FAILURE!
What does God want us to do with our failure?
1. Take responsibility for it
--Peter broke down and wept.
We live in the world of 'I'm OK, you're OK'
We are all giving each other reassuring pats on the back that everything is OK - we know its not!
You don't need a Master's Degree in human science to understand that something is not OK about us, our world!
One of the most poignant prayers ever prayed in history was David after he took responsibility for his sin with Bathsheba
Read Psalm 51:1-4
You are proved right-..justified when you judge!
2. Realise you still have a choice in failure
 "You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure†is not the falling down, but the staying down." - Mary Pickford
The problem with failure is that we think it robs us of any options.
Sure there are consequences.
Sure there are things we can't take back or even get back.
But we still have the option to chose what we will do with our failure.
Peter could have classified himself as hopeless.
He could have gone back to Sea of Galilee and been lost in the obscurity of the fishing community of Galilee.
In fact he tried.
But God wouldn't let Him go that easily.
When the ladies came to tomb to put spices on Jesus body they saw the empty tomb and angel who gave them this message
Don't be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples AND PETER! [Mark 16:7]
-..and Peter
Tell Peter that I am alive.
Tell Peter that all is not lost
Tell Peter that I haven't forgotten him
Tell Peter that I still love him
Then came moment Peter saw Jesus on beach early in morning.
He jumped out boat - as he thrashed through the water something returned in Peter.
HOPE that all was not lost!
This is the heart of gospel.
World doesn't deal with us like this.
We classify those who fail.
We certify those who fail.
We censor those who fail.
We live with this hypocrisy where we accept our own failures but we demand perfection from others.
Eg
Goal umpire last weeks footy.
Made a mistake and was immediately labelled as the goal umpire from hell!
3. Put failure behind us
We need to learn to fall forward not backward!
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on....†Phil. 3:13-14
Arnold Palmer is one of the greatest golfers of all time. He captured the hearts of people all over the world in the sixties and paved the way for golf to become the popular sport it is today. But if you go to the Rancho Park Golf Course in Los Angeles, you will see an interesting plaque at the ninth hole dedicated to Palmer.
It reads: "On Friday, January 6, 1961, the first day of the 35th Los Angeles Open, Arnold Palmer, voted Golfer of the Year and Pro Athlete of the Year, took a 12 on this hole."
We could erect monuments like that all through our lives but we need to leave them behind.
Eg.
Sir Edmund Hilary was the first person to conquer Mt. Everest. The first time he tried, he failed. He was knighted by the Queen of England, and at the gala occasion, on the wall behind the head table, was a huge picture of Mt. Everest. The people gave him a standing ovation for even daring to attempt the climb.
When they ceased applauding, Hilary turned his back to the audience, faced that picture and said, "Mt. Everest, you have defeated me once and you might defeat me again. But I'm coming back again and again, and I'm going to win because you can't get any bigger, Mt. Everest, and I can."
Failure is an event, not a person. No matter what your parents, friends, boss, coach, or spouse may have said to you -..No matter how many times you've been fired, punished, penalised, rebuked, disciplined, admonished, or just plain chewed up- understand this one very important fact. You have a choice. You can take responsibility for your failure, learn from it and put it behind you - or you can pack up your life and put it in the too hard basket and lose it!
That's the heart of new life we just celebrated at Easter!
PRAY!