Scripture Readings:

Isaiah 61:1-9

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor. 

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins

and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities

that have been devastated for generations.

⁵ Aliens will shepherd your flocks;

foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

⁶ And you will be called priests of the LORD,

you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations,

and in their riches you will boast. 

⁷ Instead of their shame

my people will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace

they will rejoice in their inheritance;

and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,

and everlasting joy will be theirs. 

⁸ “For I, the LORD, love justice;

I hate robbery and iniquity.

In my faithfulness I will reward them

and make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹ Their descendants will be known among the nations

and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge

that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”  [1]

 

INTRODUCTION:

A.       When we look around our society we see a lot of problems

1.    Huge unemployment, especially among young people

2.    High youth suicide rate

3.    People on drugs, homeless, broken families, huge numbers of lonely and depressed people

B.       Something many if not most of these people feel;

1.    They feel like failures

2.    Feel like they can’t win, that they’ve hit a dead end, and have no hope for the future

3.    How many of us have felt like this as well?

a)    We can start to feel that we are in a big black hole, with no prospects of things getting any better

A.       Today I’d like us to take an overview of what the BiBle has to say about Failure

1.    We will touch on the topic of suffering along the way, and come back to it in future sermons

B.       Why do we HUMAN BEINGS fail so often?

1.    And how can we, and the world around us deal with failure?

2.    What can we learn from FAILURE?

3.    How can we find SUCCESS instead?

C.       The history of mankind recorded in the bible could easily be described as a Chronicle of Failure

1.    Prayer:

A.       on the surface of it; what do you think was most prominent failure recorded in the Bible?

1.    God died.  What a failure! 

a)    The Creator came to earth in human form, he was born in a stable, and he died on a cross as a criminal. 

b)    He failed to convince the religious leaders of what he came to teach, and of who he was. 

c)    His followers were a motley bunch of non- successes, yet even they turned and walked away when he died. 

B.       Failure has dogged mankind since the beginning. 

1.    List some of the major problems and failures we see addressed in the Old Testament

C.       Adam and Eve died, as do the rest of us.

1.    They were put in a perfect environment, with God at their side. 

2.    Everything was very good

a)    yet they failed to appreciate what they had. 

b)    They failed to do the one thing God commanded, and yielded to Satan,

(1)    and out of the garden they were sent, away from God, away from eternal life and peace, and into sin, suffering, loneliness, and failure.

3.    Cain failed. 

a)    He failed in his relationship with God.  He failed in his family relationship, murdering his brother Abel.  

4.    This was a failure plainly for the life of Abel

a)    and another one for Adam and Eve! 

b)    He, the “righteous” one of the family, who was pleasing God, had his life was unjustly cut short. 

c)    Now Adam & Eve had lost two sons; they had one son dead, and one son a murderer (who was consequently banished by God to a far away place).

D.       Abraham experienced failure. 

1.    He left the security of his family and homeland to follow God through a life pock marked with failures.  He wandered around with very little in hostile lands. 

a)    He was promised a son, but failed for year after year to produce one.  He tried all sorts of creative ways to get a son, but failed.

E.       Abraham’s descendants went from failure to failure. 

1.    Many were immoral, conniving, deceitful, self promoting. 

2.    God had promised them wealth and a great number of descendants, yet they lived as strangers and nomads for generations, not having a land to call their own. 

3.    Jacob’s sons sold their brother Joseph. 

4.    Such a prolonged famine came that they almost perished. 

a)    In seeking sustenance from Egypt, Jacob’s favourite and youngest son Benjamin was taken hostage.

F.       ISRAEL

1.    What began as their physical salvation in Egypt from the famine in Canaan, ended up in slavery and near genocide. 

2.    What began as their physical salvation from Egypt ended up with many incidents of failure to trust and obey God or Moses. 

3.    Many died as a result, and they failed to enter the promised land, wandering for forty years in the desert before God granted them entry to their own territory.

4.    What started in the promised land as a great success, quickly turned to a continued history of failure. 

a)    Failure of both people and leader after leader to trust and obey God. 

(1)    They rejected God as King.

G.       SAUL 

1.    Their first king, Saul, was such a failure, God replaced him with David. 

H.       DAVID

1.    David who had been a great hero in killing Goliath and bringing victory for Saul and Israel against the Philistines, was subsequently hated and hunted as a fugitive by Saul for years. 

a)    On succeeding Saul as King, David committed several major sins, including adultery and murder. 

b)    One of his sons plotted against him, and for a time even took over Jerusalem sending David into exile. 

I.       SOLOMON

1.    His son Solomon built a wonderful temple and led Israel in a time of wealth, but it appears he fell victim to his own successes, and failed God.

J.       TWO KINGDOMS

1.    The tribes of Israel failed to get along, and split into two kingdoms. 

2.    The vast majority of kings followed the pagan gods of the land and treated the people harshly. 

a)    They were repeatedly attacked by their neighbours.

K.       CAPTIVITY

1.    As a result of their repeated failure to be the people of God, to trust him and do as he directed, God divorced them, and sent the Assyrians and Babylonians to take them away into captivity. 

a)    Many of the people lost their identity as they were swallowed up into the surrounding populations. 

(1)    It seemed as if God’s promises to Abraham and his plans for Israel had completely failed

2.    The Israelites had thought they were safe and secure. 

a)    In a sense they had a “success theology” like some Christians do today. 

b)    Because they had the temple of God, symbolising his continued presence with them, because they had his law, and lived in his land, they expected everything to go well. 

c)    When Jeremiah and other prophets told them that they had failed God, and that disaster and captivity were imminent, they refused to believe, and attacked the messengers. 

3.    Calamities came as a shock. 

a)    At times even the prophets questioned why God was not “hearing” or answering their cries for help. 

b)    Philip Yancey writes about this;

Jeremiah protested the failure of “success theology.”  In his day, prophets were being tossed in dungeons and wells, and even sawed in half.  …Habbakuk challenged God to explain why, as he put it, “justice never prevails.”

Habbakuk further protested;

² How long, O LORD, must I call for help,

but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, “Violence!”

but you do not save?

³ Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife, and conflict abounds.   [2]

L.       POST CAPTIVITY

1.    After their captivity, far from the promise given to Abraham, his descendants were no great nation or group of nations. 

2.    They had failed to prosper and be a blessing to the surrounding nations. 

3.    They were yet again at risk of annihilation. 

4.    The Messiah that had been repeatedly prophesied, like Abraham’s promised son, seemed like he would never come.

M.       JESUS

1.    And then he did.  God came. 

a)    Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God came. 

2.    And he died. 

a)    Again, this was not what was expected. 

b)    They thought the Messiah would bring complete victory and peace. 

c)    But soon after their Messiah died, Israel, already under foreign rule had their temple and capital city utterly destroyed and they again fled into foreign lands.  

N.       SUMMARY:

1.    From Adam and Eve on, life on earth just seems to have been one failure after another

2.    And so many prophecies paint an even gloomier picture for the future, with a tribulation and great calamity worse than anything before

II.    The other side of failure

A.       Why all this calamity and Failure after Failure?

1.    Surely this long history so thickly laced with sin, strife, disloyalty, poverty, and slavery adds up to a failure of major proportions,  especially in the light of the repeated promises of success, and many “promising” starts.

B.       Was this history of failure God’s responsibility? 

1.    Was it his fault? 

a)    Did God fail? 

b)    What about Gods plans, his promises to Abraham and his descendants? 

2.    First we need to note that God did not fail Adam and Eve, Abraham, Israel or any of the human race. 

a)  God has given us life, and a rich and beautiful earth to live on.

b)    He gave Adam and Eve every chance to succeed

C.       WHY DID ADAM AND EVE FAIL?

1.    Because they chose to go their own way. 

2.    They failed to live in relationship with God

a)    They chose to reject God’s ways, his justice, his grace and love

3.    In making that same choice the descendants of Israel, and all humanity, bring about our own repeated and ultimate failure in life, and with God.

D.       God didn’t fail ISRAEL. 

1.    The people failed God and themselves, just as people do to this day. 

2.    They failed to keep their side of the bargain (Hebrews 8:8). 

3.    The reason for their captivity was clearly spelled out to them in

Jeremiah 25:4-7;

4.    Plainly they brought their calamity and failure upon themselves by failing to live in faithful relationship with God.

E.       Our initial survey of biblical history is incomplete. 

1.    A major factor is missing. 

2.    Upon investigation of each failure we will find that God always provides a way out, a way back to him, a way to success, to redemption, to peace.[4] 

3.    At each humanly caused failure, God, in his grace, totally undeserved by the people involved, provides a way of salvation. 

F.       ABRAHAM

1.    For Abraham, in spite of bungled humanistic efforts to work things out himself, God miraculously provided a son. 

2.    As the ad goes, “It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen!” 

a)    God doesn’t always act in our time, but he does act in his time. 

b)    He always knows what he will do, and when he will do it. 

G.       ISRAEL

1.    Israel refused to heed God in times of prosperity. 

2.    They took for granted his blessings and presence. 

a)    They felt God owed them success no matter how they behaved, that as long as they were his people in his land all would be well. 

b)    They had no theology of failure, just as it seems some “name it and claim it”, faith movement, health and wealth gospel people today lack one.

(1)    Even as Christians, God doesn’t guarantee prosperity and a life free of problems

3.    When failure and captivity came Israel cried out for God in vain. 

a)    He didn’t answer as they wished, because they had failed to hear and answer his repeated cry to them.  

b)    They failed to grasp the big picture of what God is doing. 

4.    They failed to understand that God’s justice.

a).    That he will not tolerate our rebelling against him and our harmful, damaging and sinful behaviour. 

b)    They failed to realise that God teaches us through our mistakes, and our lack of faith in him. 

6.    They failed to understand God’s grace. 

a)    That God can bring success out of human failure. 

b)    Grace would not be grace if we were the source of our own success and salvation. 

c)    God in his grace and mercy, his justice and love, works through our human failings and failures to bring us restoration, redemption, peace, success and salvation.

7.    They should have understood;

a)    Time and time again God turned defeat into victory

b)    Abraham did receive a son, and all the nations have been and will be blessed through his seed, Jesus

H.       GOD’S SUCCESS

1.    The Bible story demonstrates that success comes to all of God’s people who caste themselves on God for rescue from failure, and for salvation.  

a)    This success isn’t always total deliverance,

b)    but is always a restoration of relationship with God, and assurance of a way through the battles of life, with a sure promise of full deliverance in the future.

2.    On the other hand, the Bible shows that continued and eventually complete failure came to all who clung to selfishness and self determination, who refused to recognise or submit to God as creator, source of truth and true success in this life and beyond (John 3:16-17; Rom 2:18-3:8).

3.    When our faith is in God we can be granted both success upon success,

a)    and even more importantly, success out of failure. 

4.    We find examples of each in the life of David. 

a)    His defeat of Goliath came not through his own abilities, but through faith in God’s power and faithfulness. 

b)    David was young, but he had grown in faith and obedience to God.  No matter what difficulties arose, he had learned that God fought his battles and won victory and success for him. 

c)    Saul and Israel were failing in a big way and were on the edge of being defeated and taken captive. 

d)    But God in his grace and mercy, in accordance with his overall plan for Israel, and through faithful David, brought them success out of certain failure.

5.    David was spared from Saul, and God made him King

6.    David also experienced God’s rescue from the depths of self inflicted failure. 

a)    In spite of sins such as his adultery with Bathsheba and the murdering of her husband,

b)    God worked with David, disciplined him and subsequently led him to lovingly and powerfully to be a successful and faithful servant of God and ruler of Israel.

c)    God did guide and bless his life through thick and thin, and even beyond his life, although his throne was empty and his kingdom destroyed, he eventually sent his Son Jesus to establish David’s throne forever

I.       What of the promises to Abraham and Israel that appear to have failed? 

1.    Although it may appear that Israel has failed fully and permanently, God tells us through Paul that this is not so. 

a)    The story is not yet complete.  God has not abandoned them forever, and will yet have mercy on his people (Hebrews 8:7-12). 

b)    Even at the time of their captivity, God in his kindness encouraged his failed people that out of their failure, he would bring ultimate success. 

Jeremiah 33:4-9;

III.    WHY DO WE EXPERIENCE FAILURE?

A.       We fail because we are human, weak and not completely free from sin in our hearts and lives. 

1.    We live in a kingdom that has begun, but is not fully here. 

2.    We live at a time when the kingdom co-exists with the world. 

3.    Jesus came and lived in this world to lead us out of its failure, its sin and suffering. 

a)    He came to turn us from faithless to faith, and to restore the broken relationship with God that began with Adam and Eve. 

B.       God can work his grace in our lives

1.    He can turn our failures into victories, and make us strong when we are weak. 

2.    Paul made this point wonderfully clear when he spoke to the Corinthian church of his own experience 

II Corinthians 12:7-10

C.       BUT WE DON’T HAVE TOTAL SUCCESS – NOT YET

1.    Because of him a time will come when our failing minds and bodies will be transformed and our salvation will be complete. 

2.    Failure will be a thing of the past  (I Corinthians 15:47-57).  The ultimate victory in all things will be won by Jesus.

3.    There will be no more pain, suffering or death (Revelation 21:1-4). 

4.    The earth and its environment will no longer groan in its slavery and mistreatment by mankind, it too will be restored and at peace (Romans 8:19-23).

a)    Then we will be no longer corruptible, and our relationship with God and one another will not be chequered with failures, but will be complete, perfect. 

b)    Our life will be then and forever, failsafe!