Failure is Not Final - Part 1

Welcome to Right Beside You in the Pulpit with Dr. Stephen Rummage! 

This episode is Part 1 of a recent sermon titled "Failure is Not Final." 

Over a four-week series, we’ll focus on a single sermon—tracing the journey from initial preparation all the way to the closing invitation on Sunday morning. Each month, we’ll also gather around the table with pastors from across our state to hear insights from their unique preaching rhythms, contexts, and experiences. 

As you listen, our prayer is that you’ll find encouragement and practical help to strengthen your weekly preaching of God’s Word. 

This podcast is funded by the generous Cooperative Program giving of Florida Baptist churches.  

If you have any questions about this episode, please email communications@flbaptist.org.

Transcript

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When we recognize a spiritual failure in our walk with God or in our moral life or in our integrity or in our leadership, it's important for us to understand our failures never catch our gracious God off guard. Praise God for that.

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Welcome to Right Beside You in the Pulpit with Dr. Stephen Rummage, a series geared to help strengthen your preaching of God's word and encourage us together along the way.

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Hi, this is Stephen Rummage, Executive Director of the Florida Baptist Convention. Thank you for listening to this episode of Right Beside You in the Pulpit. This month, the message comes from Mark chapter 14, verses 66 through 72. And over the next two weeks, you'll hear the sermon as I preached it. And then in the following episodes, we'll go behind the scenes into the Bible study process that shaped the message, as well as a panel discussion with other pastors. Pastor, we know that Sunday is always coming. And I pray this podcast encourages you in your preparation and preaching of the Word of God. And now let's get into my sermon from Mark chapter 14, verses 66 through 72. It's a message called Failure is Not Final. If you have a copy of God's Word, I want you to take your Bible and look with me in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. Mark's Gospel, chapter 14. Today I've given my message the title, Failure is Not Final. Failure is not final. And I'm going to give you a name that last week I didn't know. Maybe you didn't know, but a lot of people know this name now who didn't know his name last week because of failure. Failure. I hope I say his name right. I've worked hard to make sure I had the pronunciation right. You can correct me afterward if I say it wrong. Ilya Malinan. Do you know that name? Ilya Malinan. And he's become, he was well known in the figure skating world before this past week, but he's become even better known because last week at the Milan Olympics, Ilya, who was the men's figure skater gold medal favorite, incredible athlete, 21 years old. And when it came time for the free skate event, he fell twice. He made other mistakes, and he wound up not winning the gold, and not only not winning the gold, not winning a medal at all. He wound up finishing eighth. You've seen the footage or you've seen the picture, perhaps, of him holding his hands in his face, devastated, because he failed in a way that no one thought he would. Now here's the question: how did he respond? What did he do next? And what he did next has captured people's hearts in ways that perhaps he would not have captured hearts even if he had won the goal. After he lost, he hugged the gold medal winner. And then he went and he was interviewed by one media outlet after another. And he didn't get angry and he didn't throw things and he didn't blame others. He answered calmly and politely. In one interview, he said this. I blew it. That's about all you can say. I blew it. That's honestly the first thing that came to my mind was there's no way this just happened. I blew it. I failed. That's a hard thing for a champion to say. But friends, those are hard words for anyone to say. Nobody likes to say, I failed. Nobody likes to admit I failed. Failure is disappointing and heartbreaking. It lets the air out of our egos, it takes the shine off of our reputation. Who wants to admit failure? Nobody. But here's the question: Is there hope on the other side of failure? And the good news of God's word is this: in Jesus Christ, there is always hope even when we fail. God's redeeming power can snatch spiritual victory out of the jaws of defeat. Jesus Christ has an awesome ability to restore us even when we have failed. And so we come to Mark chapter 14. In Mark chapter 14, verses 66 through 72, we see the spiritual collapse of one of the giants of the early church, the Apostle Peter. I'm going to begin by reading the end of the story. If you'll look with me in Mark chapter 14, verse 72. Notice what the word of God says there. Verse 72 of Mark 14. The Bible says, and immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And he broke down and wept. This is the word of God. Will you join with me as we pray? Father in heaven, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for this good day that you've given us. And Lord, I pray in these moments that you would move me out of the way, and God, that you would speak. Lord, speak to remind us that you offer grace and hope when we fail. And Lord God, I pray that you would do a work in the hearts of your people today to restore us and to bring us where we need to be when we fail. Then, Father, I pray for those who are here who have never trusted Jesus as Savior. Show them right now how much you love them and how much they need you, Lord Jesus, that today they might turn to you and receive your gift of eternal life. We'll give you glory and honor and praise for all that you do. For we pray these things in Jesus' holy name. And church, if you agree with that prayer, will you say amen? Amen and amen. Look at those words of Mark 14, verse 72 again. Church history tells us that Mark, John Mark, wrote this gospel largely based on the remembrances of Peter. This is Peter's own testimony. So when you read the Gospel of Mark, it's God's word written by Mark's pen from Peter's memory. Everything that you read is what Peter told Mark. Read it again with me, and I'm just going to change it from third person to first person. And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter said, And I remembered how Jesus had said to me, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And I broke down and wept. Peter doesn't hide his failure. And yet at a decisive moment, Simon Peter failed in a big way. Think about who he failed. He failed Jesus. Think about when he failed as Jesus was being delivered into the hands of his enemies and just hours away from his crucifixion. Think about how Peter failed. He failed after promising that even if everyone else failed Jesus, he never would. Peter failed in a big way. And yet, from Peter's story, we can learn three lessons about dealing with our own spiritual failures. We're going to walk through Mark 14, 66 through 72. And I want to talk to you about three lessons we learned from Peter about how to deal with our own spiritual failures. The first thing I want you to see with me in this text is the certainty of our spiritual failure. The certainty of our spiritual failure. Think with me just for a moment about Peter's name. The name Peter. Now we know that Jesus gave Simon Peter the nickname Peter by which we know him. His mom and dad had named him Simon. But the first time that Jesus and Peter met face to face, the Lord gave him the name Peter. And you may know that Peter's name means rock, solid, strong. Simon was reckless and rash, and yet Jesus met Simon and called him Peter. Jesus called Simon Peter as a way of calling him up to what Jesus knew Peter could be. But there was a tension between Simon and Peter that shows up throughout his life with Jesus. When Jesus asked, Who do you say that I am? In one moment, Peter declared, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. There was Peter, the rock. But then the next moment, Jesus had to rebuke Peter for standing in the way of his mission, telling him, Get behind me, Satan. There was Simon, reckless and doubting. And so in an upstairs room in Jerusalem, when Jesus and the other disciples were there, Peter had confidently said, look in verse 29 of Mark 14, he said, Even if they all fall away, I will not. Then in verse 31, Peter said, If I must die with you, I will not deny you. Jesus responded in verse 30, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And Luke's gospel adds the detail that Jesus called Peter by name when he said this. He said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me. And that's exactly what happened just a few hours later in the courtyard of Caiaphas, the high priest, while Jesus was on trial, falsely accused and condemned by wicked men. Peter was challenged three times about his relationship with Jesus. Look in verse 67 of the text. First, a servant girl recognized him and said, You were with the Nazarene Jesus. Peter denied it. Look in verse 68. He said, I neither know nor understand what you mean. He pleaded ignorance. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't understand what you're saying. Now, give Peter some credit. By this time, most of Jesus' disciples had run away. But Peter had followed as closely as he could. And yet at this moment of pressure, he did not want to identify with Jesus. At most, he wanted to be an innocent bystander. I neither know nor understand what you mean. And the rooster crowed. Later, the servant girl saw him again out in the gateway. She pressed him again. Look in verse 69. This man is one of them. Again, Peter denied it. Finally, others confronted him. Look in verse 70. They said, Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean. We can tell by the way you talk. By the way, you know, when you live in a place other than when you're where you're from, you talk funny. I live in a place other than where I'm from. I'm from North Carolina. I live in Florida. I've lived here for a long time. I talk funny, and people will ask me. In fact, somebody from your church at a restaurant not too long ago asked me, where are you from? I knew that she asked me that because I talk funny. I know that. There's a whole state of people up in North Carolina who talk just like me. But when I come down here, I talk funny. They said to Peter, You talk funny. Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean. You talk like Jesus the Galilean talks. And here Peter's denial became more forceful. Look in verse 71. He began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. Everything about Peter shouted out defiance, curled lips, flashing teeth, bulging eyes, clenched fists, snarls of denial. Verse 72 concludes the scene, and immediately the rooster crowed a second time. I remind you of my point: the certainty of our spiritual failure. Peter collapsed under pressure. And here's the sobering truth Peter is not an exception. Peter is an example. Failure is not just a Peter problem. Every one of us is inevitably bound to spiritual failure. That's true for me, that's true for you, that's true for all of us. Now we try to keep our successes visible and our failures hidden. But Scripture reminds us in Romans chapter 3, verse 23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's the certainty of spiritual failure. We try to hide it. There's a professor, an assistant professor of psychology at Princeton University. His name is Johann Haushoffer. He created a resume highlighting his career and academic failures. A whole resume filled with failures. The resume had categories like degree programs I did not get into. Research funding, I did not receive. Paper rejections from academic journals. It was just a list of all of his failures. And someone asked the professor why you did that. Here's what he explained. He said, most of what I try fails. But those failures are often invisible. While the successes are visible, he said, I've noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me. Well, that's the way most of us want to live our lives. Keep the successes at the front, bury the failures in the back, keep the failures hidden. And yet the word of God is blatant and honest in showing us that Peter failed. And not only that, that Jesus told him ahead of time that he would fail. Some have asked, why did Jesus tell Peter not only that he would fail, but that the rooster would crow after he did it? Why did he give them that notice and give him that sign? I believe that Jesus told Peter in advance not to shame him or belittle him, but to show Peter grace. Jesus let Peter know exactly what Peter would inevitably do. He told him, Peter, you're going to fail. And don't miss this. And he loved him anyway. Jesus does not love us on the basis of whether we succeed or fail. He knows we're going to fail. But he loves us anyway. Peter's failure didn't surprise Jesus, and neither does yours, and neither does mine. When we recognize a spiritual failure in our walk with God or in our moral life or in our integrity or in our leadership or in our marriage or in the way we deal with our kids or in the way we handle money and possessions or whatever, it's important for us to understand. Our failures never catch our gracious God off guard. Praise God for that. He saw our sins and failures coming long before we faced them. And his grace is ready to meet us in the midst of our struggles, just as he did for Peter. Failure happens to everyone, but redeemed people don't try to pretend that failure's not there. Instead, we bring that failure to Jesus. And he meets us at the point of our brokenness. Well, it's true. Our spiritual failure is certain, but we get to bring that failure to Jesus, and he meets us at the point of our brokenness. Pastor, I hope you've been encouraged by this sane reminder today. If this message has sparked a question or stirred something in your heart, we'd love to hear from you. Don't hesitate to reach out to us at info at flbaptist.org. That's info at flbaptist.org. Also, please subscribe to this podcast so that you'll automatically get the new weekly episodes. Be sure to join us next week as we dive into the second half of this message and continue the story of Peter. Thanks for listening. And remember, we're right beside you.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Right Beside You in the Pulpit with Dr. Stephen Rummage. This podcast is made possible through your faithful cooperative program giving. For more resources, ministries, and upcoming events in Florida Baptist life, visit flbaptist.org.