TURNING FAILURE INTO SUCCESS
Miracles Still Happen
Part 4
03-23-14 Sermon
Jesus Calls His First
Disciples
5 One day as Jesus was standing by the
Lake of Gennesaret,[a] the people were crowding around him and
listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two
boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He
got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out
a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep
water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught
anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that
their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in
the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so
full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away
from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his
companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and
so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to
Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So
they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. Luke
5:1-11 (NIV)
FOUR STEPS TO RECOVER FROM
FAILURE
1. Invite Jesus _________________________________________.
Luke 5:3-4 “Jesus got into one of
the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, to teach the people from the
boat. When He had finished speaking
He said to Simon, ‘Now go out where it’s deeper and let down your nets and
you’ll catch a lot of fish.’”
First
Peter used his boat for___________________________________
Then
Jesus took care of _____________________________________
Matthew 6:33 “Seek first His
kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto
you.”
2. Admit that ________________________________________________.
Luke 5:5 “Simon
answered, ‘Master, we worked hard all night long and we caught nothing.’”
What is it that
causes failure?
1. A____________________________.
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before
destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
2. D_________________________________.
Deut. 11:28 “You will
be cursed if you disobey the commands of God.”
3. D____________________________
James 1:6 “He who doubts is like
a wave, he’s unstable in all he does.”
4. D________________________________
Galatians 6:9 “We will
reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.”
Proverbs 28:13 “A man
who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them,
he gets another chance.”
3. Obey what Jesus ______________________________________.
Luke 5:4 “Then Jesus said,
‘Launch out into the deep water.’
Simon answered, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and we haven’t caught
anything. But because You say so,
I will let down the nets.’”
What has
God told you to do that you know to do that you’ve been delaying?
4. You can expect Jesus to turn things
around.
Matthew 9:29 “According to your
faith it will be done unto you.”
Luke 5:6 “When the fishermen did
as Jesus told them, they caught so many fish that the nets began to break. So they called their partners from the
other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats, so full
that they were almost sinking.”
Luke 5:11 “They left their nets [their
boats] and immediately followed
Jesus.”
They were more interested
in following the Blessor than having the blessing.
“’You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by My
Spirit,’ says the Lord.” Zechariah 4:6
TURNING FAILURE INTO SUCCESS
TURNING FAILURE INTO SUCCESS
Miracles Still Happen
Part 4
03-23-14 Sermon
What do you do when you
fail? We’re going to look at that
today. Four steps to recovering from failure.
Maybe some of you failed just
this week. Maybe others of you
haven’t failed in twenty years.
But you need to write this down because you may need this very
soon. Failure is a part of life.
In this story of the
disciples they’d been all night fishing and they’d caught nothing. For me that’s nothing because I’m just
a casual fisherman. But these guys
made their living at it. They were
pros. They made their livelihood
at it. So they’re discouraged,
they’re tired, they’re frustrated.
They’re washing their nets on shore the next morning. And Jesus comes by. He says, I’d like to use your boat as a platform. And they say Fine. So they put Him
in the boat and pull out a little bit from the shore and Jesus speaks to the crowd. When He’s through speaking to the crowd
He says, “Take the boat over there. Launch out into the deep. Let down your nets and you’re really
going to catch some fish.”
They caught so many fish it not only filled up their boat, they had to
call another boat over and it filled up that boat. And the boats began to sink.
That’s what I call turning a
failure into a success.
Jesus never did miracles just
to show off. He always had a
lesson to learn, always had a truth.
There are four very important lessons He wanted to teach the
disciples. They’re lessons we need
to learn about turning failure into success. Regardless of whether you’re failing financially, failing in
a marriage, failing in your dream, failing in a business, failing to get
married, failing to stay married, whatever. These four things make the difference.
1. Invite
Jesus into your boat.
Invite Jesus into the
situation. Give Him control. The starting point for success is
this. Get Jesus in your boat. Luke 5:3-4 “Jesus got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, to
teach the people from the boat.
When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, ‘Now go out where it’s
deeper and let down your nets and you’ll catch a lot of fish.’” If you don’t get anything else that
we say this morning, get this: if you want to be a successful person in life,
you’ve got to get Jesus in your boat.
When Jesus was in the boat
they caught more in ten minutes than they did in ten hours. What was the difference? They had the same boat, same lake, same
fish, same fishermen, same nets.
The difference in the catch was now Jesus was in the boat.
Is Jesus in your boat? Have you invited Him into every
situation of your life? You say, “What does that boat represent?” For Peter it represented his
business. His boat was his
business. It was his
livelihood. It’s how he made a
living. It’s how he put food on
the table. So this is no small
matter here. Peter is saying to
Jesus, take my boat, use it as a platform
to speak to people. And Jesus
turns around and says, Let’s catch some fish. When Peter invited Jesus into his business the results were
incredible.
I’m not talking about making
Jesus your business partner. I’m
talking about making Him CEO of your career where He calls the shots. Jesus in your boat, in your
business. Whatever I want God to
bless I’ve got to give to Him. I
must dedicate to Him. I must say, “Here, use it.”
Catch the sequence of these
events.
First,
Peter uses his boat for Christ’s
purpose. Peter offered. He said, take my boat which represents my livelihood, get in it and use it as a
platform. By the way, you know
why they did that? Jesus got on
the boat, they went out a little from shore and Jesus speaks. The crowd sets on shore, a couple
thousand people probably. And He
speaks. You know why they did
that? Because in those days they
didn’t have microphones, sound systems.
And water magnifies sounds.
If you’ve ever been out on a boat, you speak and you can hear it a long
distance. So He was using it as a
platform so more people could hear Him.
That’s why He got in the boat, pulls a little ways from the shore and
the water magnifies the sound. So
Peter offers Jesus his business, his livelihood and says use it as a platform
to reach people, first.
Then
Jesus took care of Peter’s needs. That’s a principle of priority. The Bible says in Matthew 6:33 “Seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” God says put Me first in your life and in every area of your life that you put
Me first, I’ll bless. If you put
Me first in your marriage, I’ll bless it.
If you put Me first in your finances, I’ll bless it. If you put Me first in your business,
I’ll bless it. Whatever you
want God to bless, you’ve got to get Jesus in that situation. That’s the difference between fishing
all night and catching nothing and catching a large catch.
That’s the first
principle.
2. The
second principle is, Admit that my own efforts have failed.
After I dedicate my career to
Christ, my job to Jesus, or any other area that I’m committing to Him, I admit
that my own efforts have failed.
I’m willing to admit that it just isn’t working out. The Bible calls this confession. Luke 5:5 “Simon answered, ‘Master, we worked hard all night long and we caught
nothing.’”
That’s no big deal for you
and me because when you go fishing, you go fishing for a couple hours. These guys have been fishing for twelve
hours. Their families were
depending on them catching something.
It’s like being unemployed.
They said, We’ve caught nothing. And, as I said, these guys are
pros. They’ve grown up on this
lake. They know where to fish,
what time to fish, what time of day to fish, they know just how far to drop the
nets. They’re pros.
But even the superstars
strike out sometimes. In baseball
if a person has a .300 batting average that means they struck out 70% of the
time. It wasn’t like these guys
were doing something they weren’t good at. They were doing what they did best. But it wasn’t good enough. So it was humbling for Peter to say
this, “Lord, I’m the pro around here but
I’ve caught nothing. My best was
not good enough.”
Have you ever felt like
that? Do you ever feel like, I try
so hard but it never is enough. I
do the best I can in this situation.
I’m really doing the best I can but it doesn’t seem to make any
difference. I worked all night
long, I’ve worked all my life and I’ve got nothing to show for it.
I want to say to you, if you
feel like giving up today you’ve got to take these steps. First, get Jesus in your boat. Invite Him into every situation of your
life. What we normally do is we
segment our life between the spiritual and the secular. We’ve got Jesus over “here” and our job
over “here”, Christ over “here” and our career over “here.” And never the twain shall meet. We say, God, You take care of the big problems like world peace and saving
people and the poor people and all that and I’ll take care of the issues like
who’s going to pay the rent and where do I invest my money, and how do I build
relationships, and how to I make the relationships I’m in last and work and be
meaningful?
All we do when we separate
into compartments like that is we miss out on God’s blessing. Because God wants to bless every area
of your life. If you’re
discouraged, get Jesus in your boat, invite Him into the very situation that
you’re ashamed of, the very thing where you’re failing, the very area that you
regret the most. Get Jesus in that
situation. And just honestly say,
“God, my best isn’t working. It’s
just not working. I’m not making
it in this area.”
What is it that causes failure? There
are lots of reasons.
1. Arrogance.
The Bible says, “A proud attitude leads to ruin. …
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” When we think we know it all, when
we think we’ve got it all together, we’re setting ourselves up for
failure. If you think, “I’ve never
failed!” get ready. Because that
arrogance is going to cause you to fail.
2. Disobedience.
“You will be cursed if you disobey the commands of
God.” Did you know that?
You say, How come nothing’s going
right in my life? Because
God’s told you to do some stuff and you’re not doing it. God is under no obligation to bless you
if you’re thumbing your nose to Him.
Not at all! The principles
and the commands in the Bible, God didn’t put them in here arbitrarily. He doesn’t set up in heaven thinking, “What command can I think of that will
really make life miserable for human beings? How can I steal all the fun from these people I’ve
created?” That’s not why He gives
commands. Every command in this
book is for your benefit. They’re
made by a loving God. God loves
you. He loves you more than you’ll
ever know. God wants you to be
happy. In fact, He knows what will
make you happy more than you do. But,
often what you think will make you happy is not really the truth. God knows what really will make you
happy. So He’s put certain
principles in His word and when we ignore them we set ourselves up for failure.
It’s all for your own
benefit. Any time you ignore a
command in the word you’re going to hurt yourself. So disobedience causes failure.
3. Doubt
“He who doubts is like a wave, he’s unstable in all he
does.” We fail and we sometimes just can’t make up our minds. We go this way, we go that way, this
way, that way. You get to be
thirty, forty, fifty years old and you’ve gone fifteen different directions in
your life. Why? Because you’ve never stopped long enough
to get God’s direction for your life and figure out what He put you on this
earth for. If you don’t figure out
what God put you on this earth for you’re going to fail at a lot of things He
didn’t put you here for.
4. Discouragement
Discouragement causes
failure. “We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and
give up.” The fact is a lot of
times we fail because we give up too soon. Anybody who watches basketball knows you often win the game
at the very last second. In a baseball
game you often win the game in the very last inning, the very last hit. We give up too soon.
There are many causes of
failure but regardless of the cause, the second step in recovering from a
failure – first you get Jesus in your boat, then second is just admit it and
say, “I am incapable of solving this issue
on my own.” That’s the first
step. Admitting. I’m not God. God’s God and I’m not.
This is beyond myself. My
life has become unmanageable.
If you’re going to recover
from a failure you’re going to have to humble yourself. God does not help prideful people recover. God helps people recover who admit, “My best is not good enough to break this
habit, this hang up, this hurt, or anything else in life. It just isn’t working.”
Proverbs 28:13 “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can
never be successful. But if he
confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.”
3. Step
number three is to obey what Jesus tells me to do.
Obey whatever Jesus tells me
to do in the area that I’ve failed.
I get Him in the boat, I admit that my best isn’t working, then I obey
whatever Jesus tells me to do. I
cooperate with His instructions, even when it doesn’t make sense.
In Luke 5:4 it says this “Then Jesus said, ‘Launch out into the deep
water.’ Simon answered, ‘Master,
we worked hard all night and we haven’t caught anything. But because You say so, I will let down
the nets.’” Circle “because You say so.”
The second reason why they
caught a lot in ten minutes when they hadn’t caught any in ten hours is now
they’re fishing under Jesus’ instructions. Jesus told them when to fish – now – He told them where to
fish – launch out into the deep.
And He told them how – let down your nets. He’s giving them specific instructions. And He’s guiding them step by step in
the very area they had just failed in.
I want you to notice that
Peter’s reaction is not what you’d typically expect to Jesus’
instructions. In the first place
he didn’t argue with Jesus. Peter
didn’t say, “I’m the pro. I’m the fisherman. You’re just a carpenter. What do You know about fishing? I’ve been doing this all my life. When I need a cabinet built, You can
tell me how to build it. But I
know fish!” He didn’t argue
with Jesus saying, “You don’t know what
You’re talking about.”
A lot of times we do
that. We say, “Jesus, You take care of the spiritual issues in my life but I know
where to invest my money. And I
know best what job offers to take.
And I know best what house to buy.
And I know best which car I should buy.” And Jesus is saying, “I’ll
help you in all these areas if you want guidance.” We just think He wants to help us in
the spiritual. No. He knows more about anything than you
know about.
Peter didn’t argue. Peter didn’t delay. He didn’t say, Why don’t we think about this a little bit before we launch out into
the deep? He didn’t say, Why don’t we wait until it’s evening again,
cooler weather, when the fish are feeding. When we went to Africa we saw how they did this. They would go out fishing at night and
hang lanterns out over the sides of the boats on poles. The lights would attract the small fish
to the surface and the bigger fish would come up to eat them. Then they would throw out the nets to
catch them. But during the
day, with the sun shining down, the fish were scattered all over the
place. That’s why they fished at
night.
But Peter didn’t say, Let’s wait a while until it gets dark again. He didn’t argue, he didn’t delay, he
didn’t hesitate, he didn’t listen to his feelings. He didn’t say, “Lord,
we’ve been up all night. We didn’t
catch a thing. If we sail out into
the deep, we will have to sail back in again. I haven’t been to bed yet. I’m dead tired.
Why don’t we just go home and get some sleep and then come back and go
fishing?” He didn’t listen to
his feelings. He was tired, he was
dirty, he was discouraged. And he
says, “But because You say so, I’m going
to do it. Because You say so, I’ll
try again.”
Some of you need to do that
with a situation in your life, “Lord,
I’ve tried. But because You say so
I’m going to try again. I’m going
to try again, only this time with You in the boat. With You calling the shots and me admitting I can’t do it on
my own.” That’s the
difference.
Unquestioned obedience is another
word for it. It’s called
faith. You say, “Because You say so.” Disobedience always hurts you. You miss so many blessings.
What has God told you to do that you know to do that
you’ve been delaying?
Every time you disobey you
bring curses on your life. You
keep God’s blessings happening in that area because you’re ignoring what He’s
told you to do.
Obedience always involves a
risk. That’s because it requires
faith. Jesus said, “Launch out in the deep. Go out in the deep waters. That’s where I want you to go.” Why? Because that’s where all the big fish are. The big fish aren’t up in the shallows. It’s tragic but most people live their
lives in the shallows of life.
They live very, very superficial lives. They just kind of piddle paddle around, splish and splash,
maybe catch a few minnows. And
they think, I’m living! When God
has said to you, “Launch out in the
deep. Go for it. Take that risk. I have a plan for you. Do what I tell you to do. Even if it doesn’t make sense.”
There are many so called
Christians barely get their feet wet.
They get just enough Christianity to bug them, not bless them. They’re afraid they’re going to get in
over their head and be some kind of fanatic.
One night a little boy came
downstairs crying a couple hours after he had been put to bed. His parents asked him what happened and
he said he fell out of bed. They
asked him why he fell out of bed and he said, “I must have stayed to close to where I got in!”
There are Christians like
that. They live to close to where
they got into faith in Christ.
They needed to go deeper. They
play around all their life in just the shallows of their faith. Why? Why don’t we launch out in to the deep when Jesus tells us? Because it’s scary. It’s safer in the shallows. No big wave is going to come along and
rock my little boat if I’m in the shallows. There is no risk.
If the boat capsized I would get wet but I could still walk to
shore. So I don’t want to go for
it. I don’t want to make the
effort. I’m afraid to really do
what God’s calling me to do.
Obeying Christ, even when it
doesn’t make sense will probably be the most difficult and maybe the most
frightening thing you’ll ever do.
But it will also be the most rewarding.
If you’ve taken these first
three steps – you have invited Jesus Christ into the area of your failure, you
have honestly admitted to Him “My best
isn’t working out. I can’t do this
on my own.” And you have
obediently followed whatever He tells you to do regardless of whether it makes
sense or not, then…
4. You
can expect Jesus to turn things around.
Look at this in Simon Peter’s
situation. If God tells you to go
fishing and then God gets in the boat with you and God tells you where to go
and where to let down your nets, do you think you will fail?
There was no way Peter was
going to fail now. Not a
chance! Because he was doing it
God’s way and in God’s timing.
Matthew 9:29 says, “According to your faith it will be done
unto you.” You get to
choose. If you’ve taken these
first three steps in your area of greatest failure, you can expect Jesus Christ
to turn things around.
God’s work done God’s way does not lack God’s
support. Where God guides, God
provides. If He tells you to do it, and you do it in faith, even when
it doesn’t make sense, you’re going to come out right. You’re going to be the one that
benefits from it.
Look at the result, Luke 5:6 “When the fishermen did as Jesus told them,
they caught so many fish that the nets began to break. So they called their partners from the
other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats, so full
that they were almost sinking.” In
other words, they had more blessing than they could handle when they did it
God’s way. In fact, they had to
share their blessings in order to keep from sinking
Don’t miss this point. God wants to bless your life. He really does. In fact, God wants to bless you as a
believer when you take these steps.
He wants to bless your life so much that you have so many blessings that
you have to share it with others.
God wants to bless your life so much that you become a blessing to other
people.
Verse 11 tells us what
happened when they got to shore.
It says, “They left their nets [their
boats] and immediately followed Jesus.” These fishermen had just caught the
greatest catch of fish in their lives and they leave it on the shore and
started following Jesus. Why? They
were more interested in following the Blessor than having the blessing. They were smart enough to realize, if
we follow this guy there’s plenty more where that came from. So rather, than focusing on the
blessing that Jesus could give they just focused on Jesus.
How about you? Are you tired, discouraged? Is there an area of failure in your
life and you’re just tired? You’ve
fished all night and you’ve caught nothing.
Take these four steps. First, ask Jesus Christ to come into
your life and into every area of your life. Even those compartments that you’ve kept the doors closed to. In any area and every area of your life
where you feel like “It’s just not
working out there.” Invite
Jesus into that area. Admit that
your best efforts have failed.
Obey God and do whatever He tells you to do. When God tells you to do it, you do it. Even though you think, I can’t afford it. You do it even though you think, I don’t have the time. You do it even though you say, I don’t know how, I don’t have the talents. Do it. Because You say so,
Lord. I’m tired. I’ve caught nothing. It isn’t working. But, because You say so, Lord,I’m going
to do it.
When you do that you can
expect a harvest of blessing you can’t imagine. Galatians says “Let us
not grow weary in doing well for we will reap a harvest at the proper time if
we do not get discouraged and do not give up.”
Prayer:
The
secret to success is the last verse.
It says, “’You will not succeed by
your own strength or power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” Would you follow me in a
prayer? In your mind say this, “Jesus, I invite You into every area of my
life. Even areas that I’m most
ashamed about. Even the areas that
I regret and where I feel a total failure. I admit to You, Lord, that my best efforts have not been
good enough I’ve fallen short. I
ask You to forgive me for the things I’ve done wrong. For not following You when You’ve told me to do certain
things. And starting today I want
to obey what I know to be the will of God. Because You say so I’m going to keep trying this time with
You in the boat and You calling the shots, with You directing me. I want to expect You in faith to do a
miracle in my life. In Jesus’
name. Amen.
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