Dr. John Maxwell | How To Come Back From Failure

Hey, we're Todd and Julie Mullins, Senior Pastors here at Christ Fellowship Church, and we're so glad that you're tuning in for service today. Yeah, Christ Fellowship is one church that meets in lots of different locations, including right here with you. Yeah, and our prayer for you today is that you would sense God's love for you. See, I don't personally know all that you're going through today and what you're up against, but God does. And He hears your prayers, and He knows your name, and He's right here for you today as you call out to Him. Yeah, thanks again for joining with us today. We love you, and we're praying for you. God is more in store than you have in mind, and I believe so much more than it's going to blow your mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind. God is more in store than you have in mind.

God is more in store than you have in mind. ♪ Your holiness is worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Bless God when nobody's watching ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I'll bless Your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when the weapon's forming ♪ ♪ Bless God when the walls are falling ♪ ♪ Bless God cause He goes before me ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I'll bless Your name ♪ ♪ Bless God when He holds the victory ♪ ♪ Bless God for He's always with me ♪ ♪ Bless God for He's always worthy of you ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I'll bless Your name ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, I'll bless Your name ♪ ♪ Every chance I get, come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ ♪ Come on Lord with me, sing it, You are His name ♪ ♪ So come on and lift Your voice with me ♪ ♪ He is worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Oh come on and bring Your offering to me ♪ ♪ Sing it, You know His grace ♪ ♪ Come on and lift up Your holiness ♪ ♪ He is worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ He is worthy of all our praise ♪ ♪ Come on and praise the Lord with me ♪ Come on, sing if you've known His grace. Christ Fellowship, we are a people who have known the kindness and grace of God. I was reminded of Revelation 12 when it says, we, the people of God, we would overcome the enemy by the work of the cross, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony.

Oh, when we sing, we are testifying to His grace and kindness and that He has the final word, amen. And today, hey, I just wanna welcome you to church. This is our testimony. If you're new with us, maybe you're joining us online for the first time. Maybe someone told you that John Maxwell was speaking in the house today and you got into this place. We want you to know that you are so welcome and we pray that you experience the life-giving power of the Lord today as we pray for you, as we lean into God's word, as we worship, and as we testify He's worthy and He is good, amen. Hey, it is Baptism Sunday, and so we wanna do something really special today. I've got a friend, not often, often when we come to this place where people are going public with their faith, we get to hear maybe a little bit of their story as they're going public with their faith through water baptism. But today I wanna invite my friend Frankie up. Frankie, you has been serving on the scenes and behind the scenes for a long time ago. And eight months ago, he got baptized. And so I wanna share with you something a little bit different today. Come on up here, Frankie. We wanna share a little bit of his story,

what God's been doing over the last eight months since he went public and fully surrendered in his faith. The church loves you. And you've got an important message to share with them today. So full of authority, full of faith. So my name is Frankie. And before I gave my life to Christ, I was searching for fulfillment and peace in the things of the world, but nothing could fill the void inside of me. No matter what I did, there was still emptiness, fear, and a lack of purpose. I knew about Jesus and was brought up in religion, but I didn't truly know what it meant to live a life fully surrendered to him. A little over a year ago, everything changed when God led me to this church. I had an encounter with the living God right up in those stands back there. And he showed me just a glimpse of the love he had for me. And it was in that moment I said, all right, Lord, I'm all yours. And I gave my life to Jesus. I learned quickly, this wasn't about religion. It was about a personal relationship with Jesus. And since that moment, my life has been forever changed. Not long after that, I met some great people, got involved in the young adults ministry on Tuesday nights. started serving here at church. Last August, I decided it was time

to go public with my faith and be baptized. Christ has transformed my life from the inside out. In just a year, he's done more than I could ever ask, think, or imagine. He's given me peace in the storms of life. He's given me a purpose beyond myself and a relationship with him that I wouldn't trade for anything in this world. He planted me exactly where he knew I needed to be and surrounded me with a spiritual family. And I truly believe he wants to do the same for each and every one of you here today. So today, so today as people come up out of the water, let's celebrate the new life they've found in Jesus. Come on, we have a confidence today. ♪ He's been my forfeith in the fire time after time ♪ ♪ Born of his Spirit washed in his blood ♪ ♪ And what he did for me on Calvary is more than enough ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail, perfect submission ♪ Oh, let's praise God today. Let's sing it. ♪ I know the author of tomorrow is Lord Elishasha ♪ ♪ Oh, this is my story, this is my song ♪ ♪ I'm praising my risen King and Savior, oh Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, I trust in God, my Savior's the one ♪ ♪ Who will never fail, He will never fail ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my Savior's the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ Who will never fail, He will never fail, oh Lord ♪

Oh, we're a confident people today. ♪ See, I sought the Lord and He heard me ♪ Come on, this is our testimony as the church. ♪ And He heard and He answered, I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ That's what I'm trusting, that's what I'm trusting ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ That's what I'm trusting, that's what I'm trusting ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ That's what I'm trusting, that's what I'm trusting God ♪ ♪ I, my Savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail, oh, I trust in God ♪ ♪ I, my Savior, the one who will never, never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail, oh, I trust in God ♪ Come on, celebrate what He's done today! Money never fails. We join the choir of angels as we sing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. A thousand generations Of falling down in worship To sing the song of ages to the Lamb And all who've gone before us And all who will believe Will sing the song of ages to the Lamb Come on, let's sing that again, a thousand generations A thousand generations Of falling down in worship

To sing the song of ages to the Lamb And all who've gone before us And all who will believe Will sing the song of ages to the Lamb Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all In all thrones, in dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Holy, our creation cries Holy, You are lifted high Holy, holy forever It's the end If you've been forgiven If you've been redeemed Then sing this song forever Come on, you have a testimony If you walk in freedom And if you bear His Name Sing this song forever to the Lamb We'll sing this song forever and amen And the angels cry Holy, our creation cries Holy, You are lifted high Holy, holy forever Hear Your people Hear Your people sing Holy, to the King of Kings

Holy, You will always be Holy, holy forever Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all In all thrones, in dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all All thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all And the angels cry Holy, our creation cries Holy, You are lifted high Holy, holy forever Hear Your people sing Holy ♪ To the King of Kings ♪ ♪ Holy, You will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, Holy forever ♪ ♪ Heavenly, You will always be ♪ ♪ Holy, Holy forever ♪ ♪ Heavenly, You will always be ♪ This song, this song comes directly out of Revelation. I'm sorry, I've been losing my voice. I apologize. But this song comes right out of Revelation

where scripture tells us that around the throne, angels all day and night, all they can say is holy, holy, holy. Why? Because Jesus is on the throne and nothing else. But today the question I'm asking myself is what's on the throne of my heart? It's so easy to let the things of this world be our attention. It takes the most important place. But today, can I tell you, there is nothing better than putting Jesus at the center of your life, on the throne of your heart, saying you are worthy. You are set apart. And I wanna encourage all of us to take a second to do that today. Just to go, Jesus, you are the most important thing. And I'm so grateful that we get to worship in a building like this, in the country that we live in. So honored that we get to worship without being restricted or being told, but we can or can't say, are we grateful for that, to live in this nation today? And I, on this Memorial Day weekend, I'm reminded, I got the honor and privilege of growing up on and around military bases

my entire life. And I'll never forget the day that we were driving past the house on a military base. And there was a flag that had a red border and a gold star in the middle. And I asked my mom, what does that flag mean? She said, it means somebody's loved one passed away in the line of duty. And all of a sudden I began to see house after house after house all throughout my life of those who had served and had laid down their life that we could worship in freedom. It's not something that happened hundreds of years ago, it happens today. That people today are serving in the line of duty, making sure that you and me, we can worship in freedom. And we wanna take a second, not just to celebrate a barbecue tomorrow or have a day off together, but to honor those who have served. So today we're gonna take a second just to be silent and a moment of reflection.

And then I'm gonna pray for those who have lost loved ones today. Jesus, thank you that we get to worship unhindered and unrestricted. God, there are millions of people around the world who wish that they could stand in a room like this. We don't take it for granted. And God, it's because of those who have served. God, I pray for families today who are mourning and grieving loved ones that tomorrow when they wake up, they're reminded again of the loss and the pain in their life. God, I pray that you would comfort them today by the power of your Holy Spirit. And I pray that we would never go one day not realizing what an honor and privilege it is to live in this nation in this time, lifting up the name of Jesus because you are worthy of it all. And we give you all the praise and the honor and the glory today. And the church said, amen, amen. Come on, can we give Jesus all the praise today? He's worthy.

I love it. But hey, if we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet, my name is Cole, my wife, Chris and I get to serve as the campus pastors here at Christ Fellowship, Palm Beach Gardens. I'd love for you to get out of your section, meet one or two people around you that you don't know, shake their hand, give them a high five and you can grab your seats today. Good morning. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh, good to be with you. You look good. Wow. My name is John and I'm your friend. On the count of three, give me your name. One, two, three. Yeah, nice to meet the family. Hi, I'm gonna talk about famous failures today. I did talk, share with you, I wrote a book of how to get a return on failure. It's my third failure book that I've written. So let's start there. It just seems to be a spiritual gift in my life. In fact, my first book was entitled,

Failing Forward, it became an amazing bestseller. My second book, Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. And this book just came out on how to get a return on failure. I'll be delighted. I'm looking forward to meeting you, signing the book with you. In fact, how to get a return on failure is a, I mentor all of my children and my grandchildren on every book I write. And I just mentored my daughter's family on how to get a return on failure. And I can promise you to sit down with. teenage kids and began to help them understand how to do failure, because we all fail. And to help them on the beginning, it's just huge. And so this is a book that's going to help you, I promise you. In fact, there will be three or four things in that book you've never read on failure, anywhere, never heard about failure. Things such as keep failure and success together, don't separate them. Just things that, how to know a difference between a good miss and a bad miss. So it was a very good experience. It just was a great experience with my kids and my grandkids mentoring them. Take a book like that and apply it to your life, but take a book like that and apply it to your team or to your family. It's life changing. So I'll be glad to sign it afterwards. But anyway, it's my third book on failure.

The first book was Failing Forward. Let me tell you how I wrote that book. This would be 20 plus years ago. I saw that Margaret and I were going to take, we were going to go on vacation. We were going to take a cruise to the fjords of Norway. And about two weeks before we went on the cruise, I was looking at my calendar and I saw it was a two week cruise to see the fjords of Norway. And it just seemed to me a little long to see fjords. It just did. You know, it's, you know, God created the heavens and earth in six days and we're going to take two weeks to see the fjords of Norway. And it just seemed a little long. So I sat down with Margaret and we'd had a conversation about the length of it and good conversation. Then we took the two week cruise to see the fjords of Norway. If you've never compromised, you've never been married very long, have you? But anyway, we did a deal. And the deal was I could write a book while we were on the two week cruise so I could get something done in between the fjords, of course. And I write with legal pads. So I took six legal pads with me, three or four of my Bic 90 cent four color pins that I write with. And I had a table like this. We had a beautiful suite with the windows so we could see the fjords of Norway. And I'm writing my book, Failing Forward. And every once in a while, the ship would stop and the captain would say, to the left is a fjord. And I'd stop writing and I'd look over there and I'd say, yeah, he found one, didn't he? Yeah. Wow, that's something, isn't it?

We'd stop a little later and he'd say, to the right is a fjord. And I'd stop writing and I'd look over. Yeah. Wow. He found another one. You know what, baby, that fjord looks just like that fjord. Two-week cruise is over, book is written. 236 legal pages with a rubber band around them. It's my manuscript. We're walking off the ship and Margaret looked at me and said, John, it's a great book. I said, well, thanks. I said, what do you like about it? She said, on every page you talk about another failure that you're just open about your losses, your misses, the things that didn't work out. She said, the reader's just going to be so encouraged that they're going to connect with you. She said, there was only one problem. I said, well, what's the problem? She said, you didn't get all your failures in the book. She said, I see a series, you know, like failure 101, 201, 301. And that's exactly what's happened. This is my third book on failure, on how to get a return on failure. And trust me, I know I've got another one in there. I'm telling you, I think failure is a spiritual gift of my life and I'm good at it. And I'm going to teach you how to be good at it out of the Bible in a moment. But let me just say this. Some of you probably don't need this book on failure because you're perfect and delusional. But how many of you are so glad you brought the person beside you because they definitely need a book on failure. You know what I'm talking about?

You see, we all fail. We all fail. In fact, look at your neighbor and tell them you're going to mess up. Just tell them that because they're going to mess up. And by the way, no one enjoys failure. It's not any fun at all. You know, somebody told me one time, if you first don't succeed, just hide all the evidence. And, you know, we identify with people's failures. In fact, when you think of the Peanuts cartoon, Charles Schultz said the reason that Peanuts was such a popular cartoon for decades was because he was never successful. And people knew that if you saw Charlie Brown, you just understood that Charlie Brown, he's He's never going to kick the football. He's never going to get the date with the redhead. He's never going to fly a kite. And so today's lesson on famous failures are taken out of the Bible. And what I want you to know is that your failure, my failure is not final. And so if you want to look at a list of mess ups, don't look in the mirror, just look in the Bible. Because the people in the Bible weren't perfect either. And what's beautiful about God's word is God's word never tried to make them perfect or show them as being perfect. You'll see that there's a woman in Samaria that has five husbands. And there's Gideon who literally sets up an idol at the very spot where God called him into an incredible work in ministry. You know, Sarah laughed at God

after many years of him being faithful to her. She still can't believe his promises. And David is an adulterer. Eve ate the apple. My gosh, Zacchaeus was a crooked tax collector. I mean, when you look at the Bible, it just has all kind of people, different sizes, different shapes, different backgrounds, but they all messed up. And so before you count your own sins, count theirs. And before you throw the towel in on yourself, read the list of every person in the Bible who failed and you will find that these, what I call famous failures, had amazing divine comebacks. Now, I speak in the business world all the time. They understand business comebacks. They even understand personal comebacks. But what I want you to know today is it's wonderful to have a personal comeback. It's wonderful to pick yourself back up. It's great to pull yourself out of the ditch. It's wonderful to say I overcame. That's a beautiful, beautiful thing. But one of the things about the Bible is it not only talks about failures very honestly, but it talks about a hope that the world just doesn't have without God. You can have a personal comeback, which is a wonderful achievement personally, or you can have a divine comeback.

And a divine comeback is a God comeback. A divine comeback is where God helps you do things that you and I cannot do ourselves. And we're gonna look at two. I mean, the Bible is full of failures, but we're gonna look at two, one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament, and the one we wanna look at in the Old Testament is Jonah. And Jonah was, the best way I would describe Jonah is that he was kinda like the prodigal son of the Old Testament. Pretty much, he kinda just went away from God and he did his own thing because God asked him to go to Nineveh to preach and he didn't wanna go to Nineveh and preach. And there are 12 amazing words that are in the Bible that will just give us the essence of how a divine comeback looks like. And here are the way, 12 amazing words. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Now, why did it have to come to Jonah a second time? Because the first time the word of God came to him, he blatantly disobeyed everything God asked. God said, I would like Jonah for you to go to Nineveh. He headed 2,000 miles the opposite direction. That's what I would call blatant disobedience. Jonah said, God said, go by land, he went by sea. God said, east, Jonah went west. God said, arise and go. Jonah went down into the bottom of the ship.

Jonah said, preach and Jonah went to sleep. Jonah just did his own thing and he got all messed up. He got all messed up, but the word of God came to him a second time. And just think about yourself for a moment, how comforting it would be when you and I mess up in our life if we get a second chance. The kindness of God in our lives to come back again the second time. When I think of the phrase second chance, what it means to me is this. Number one, it means that the first time was lost. In other words, you only get a second chance if you blew the first one. You only get a second chance if the first one didn't go well. I can still remember as a very young writer, I was reading a lot and I was filing a lot so that I have something to write about. And I was very excited about writing, but I wasn't careful. And sometimes I would write things down, quotes or stories, but I didn't put where the source came from. And I wasn't doing that on purpose. It was just that I was getting material and I just didn't realize that I needed to be more careful with the source. and i was living in san diego and and david jeremiah great friend a great preacher himself great pastor he and i met monthly we just developed a wonderful friendship and i i never i will never forget the day that he brought one of my books with him to our breakfast and

and he put it down and i thought oh my gosh he just got my newest book and and you know probably he'll want me to sign it and so i was just so excited and so he said john i just read your book i said good and and the way he said he just read my book i could realize that that probably he didn't bring it for me to sign it and he said could you turn to chapter seven i turned chapter seven and he said do you recognize that chapter at all where the source was and i said no i said i just it's a great it's a great part of the book and and then he said that that was one of my sermons you took a sermon of mine and and you not only took it and put it in the book as yours but you didn't give me credit and all of a sudden i realized just how bad i had blown it and i i and then i thought what can i do it's already in the book it's too late it's i've already messed this up and i said david i'm so sorry i said i didn't realize this and i'm i'm so wrong and and i said i'll talk to the publisher i'll get it removed out of the book and and i i for probably three minutes i was just wishing more than anything else that that i wouldn't have blown it like that and and he's a good friend and and i didn't mean to do that to him and and so i just apologized and said i'll do everything i can to make it right and i'll never forget he looked at me said john it's okay i totally forgive you in fact he said i'll never bring it up again he said i just wanted you to know what had happened i said david i'm very sorry and then he smiled he said would you sign my book and i said i wrote my name in his book i thought to myself how good it is for somebody to give me another shot how good it is for somebody to say you get a second chance think of the times that you and i have blown it and all we really wanted was somebody to just say it's okay i forgive you think of the times perhaps somebody was waiting for us to say it's okay i forgive you there's something beautiful about beautiful about he comes back a second time it means also number two that grace is needed we know that justice is when we get what we deserve but grace is when we get what we don't deserve that's when we get the second chance that's when we get forgiveness brother lawrence one of the great great thinkers of centuries past spiritual thinkers said that when he made a mistake he said i don't spend too much time thinking about it he said i just confess it and move on he said i remind god that without him i always fail i always fall you see grace is needed when we have done wrong and we all know

that we when we do wrong we say oh i need some grace to kind of cover that i need that amazing grace in my life but let me explain something to you today my friend grace is needed god's grace is needed in your life in my life when we've done right don't miss this by grace are we saved not by works in other words no matter how good you are you're not good enough i'm not good enough and sometimes we kind of think we're good enough we think grace is kind of like for bad people and you know i'm not a bad people and i just want you to know yes you are my name's john i'm your friend we need grace it's like the guy went to heaven and peter met him at the gate and you know he's trying to get in and he said how do i get in he said well look it'll take a thousand points the guy says well he said i went to church every sunday pete said well that's 25 he said well i read the bible every day so that's 25 so well i do good things in my communities that's 25 the guy's starting to get a little desperate because he's got to get to a thousand he's at 75 and he said oh i give money i give money that you said that's 25 father guy says this is impossible he said unless it's the grace of god i'm not going to get in and peter said that's 900 that's all you need that's all you need Oh my gosh, when I think of Jonah and I think of God coming to him a second time to give him another shot, it's also God saying to you and me that not only do we need his grace and not only do we need in our life the fact to realize that we blew it the first time, what really God is saying is when he comes back to us a second time is that we can make a better choice. He is now looking at you and me and he's saying, I'm going to give you a second chance because you're better than your first decision. You're better than your first action. And you see, we don't always get what we want, but we do always get what we choose. And sometimes we choose the wrong thing. John Wooden, who was a beautiful mentor of mine for 14 years, I've heard him say it once, I've heard him say it a hundred times. He'd say, John, there's a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make makes you. I'll never forget it. The choice you make makes you. And we've all made bad choices. Every one of us could stand up today and say, I didn't do that one. Well, and I, I wish I could have a do over there. And that wasn't a good choice. We all have been there. We all understand failure. And I love this other statement that says, though, you cannot go back and make a brand new start. My friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end. You can start from today. You can

start now. You can make a brand new end. So Jonah, Jonah would come to your life and he would just say that when you fail, God will give you another shot. God will give you another. Are you glad that you serve a God that gives you a second chance, a second chance? I mean, beautiful. He gives us another shot. And then let me talk to you about another failure in the Bible and that's Peter. And we talked quite a bit about him and his failures. It's like Jonah would say, he'll give you another chance. Peter, who failed pretty miserably, would say to you and me, God will give you hope. That, that God will give you hope in your life. When the things seem to be very desperate and deeply discouraging, God will give you hope. So let's talk about Peter for a moment. You know, the Bible says Simon Peter was a big guy. He was a, he was, he was just a natural leader. He walked in the room, he had a presence about him. And, and, and in fact, Jesus, I mean, Jesus basically called him the rock. He said, you know, you're, you're, he called him Rocky. He called him Rocky. He was the first Rocky. Okay. There've been imitations, but Pete was the first Rocky and he just looked at him and he had this incredible presence that, that he was a leader and that, and people just kind of naturally followed Peter in the process. But this strong Rocky guy collapsed with amazing failure. In fact, his, it's, it's something to fail, but, but there's sometimes when you fail at a crucial time or an important moment when honestly, it's a huge failure. And, and, and Peter, he, he, he really messed up. Now let's get the setting. Jesus is going for the last Passover with his disciples. It's right before Gethsemane. It's right before his trial. It's right before his crucifixion. And, and, and he's going to talk to his disciples this last time. And Jesus tells Peter that in this crucial hour, the time when he needs him the very most, he's going to deny him. And, and Peter can't handle this page. Oh no, no, I'm not going to do that. No, that won't be me. And we're going to dive into this in a moment. But, but Peter was very quick to let Jesus know that he could count on him in his most important hour. And yet there were three reasons why Peter failed. It's all in that Matthew 26 passage. First of all, he placed himself spiritually above the others. And whenever we place ourselves spiritually above other people, we set ourselves up for a fall. I'm just reading verses 31 and 33 on the way Jesus told them tonight, all of you will desert me. But Peter declared, even if everyone else deserts you, I will not desert you. Oh my gosh. He looks at the 11 and says, you know

what? Jesus, you just can't count on them. You just can't count on them. Yeah, you're right that any one of those boys probably could deny you. Thank God you got me on the team. I'm the rock. And I just want you to know that these other 11 may run, I have no clue. Can't answer for them, just really can't answer for them. But I'm just going to tell you, Jesus, you can count on me. You know, it's not healthy to think you're just spiritually better than everybody else. Or to compare yourself with someone else. You know, it just puts us in a climate that sets us up for a pretty bad fall. There go I, but the grace of God. In my life, constantly I realize that I am prone to wonder. I'm prone to sin. When I understand that, it keeps me from the arrogance, spiritual arrogance. You see that, you know, wow, successful people, they think they can't fall. They think they can't fail. I'm writing a book right now that I'm very excited about. It'll come out probably another year, but I've been writing it for two years because it's an in-depth book. It's called Success Stabilizers. And it's all about how do you stabilize success once you're successful? Because the benefits of success have a tendency to become blind spots in our life and cause us to mess up. And this is what happened to Peter here. Peter's just, he just feels so good about where he is. He can't imagine himself not fit. He compares himself spiritually with the others. He said, I think I'm on top. So I don't think that could happen to me. The second failure that Peter had is he thought he knew himself better than Jesus did. Oh yeah. Jesus replied. He said, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night before the rock rooster crows, you will deny me three times that you even know me. No, Peter insisted, even if I have to die for you, I will never deny you. Oh my gosh. Peter thought he knew himself better than Jesus did. I wish I had time to really stay here. My prayer life, my prayer life about eight years ago, beautifully changed. I used to in my prayer life, just have an agenda for God. And I would sit down and say, here's some things I'd like to talk to you about. And then one day I realized what Jesus was teaching in the scriptures that he knows more than I know. And he knows what I need more than I know what I need. And one day it hit me. If he knows more than I need than what I think I need. And if he knows more than I know, why am I telling him everything he ought to be doing for me? And I changed my prayer life and it changed me. My prayer life consists of no agendas anymore. I just take a bare page, a legal page and a pen and I sit before him and I say, talk to me. What do I need to know? Because his ways are higher

than mine. It changed my prayer life because it made me incredibly sensitive to hearing from him to hearing from him more than having him hear from me. It changed my prayer life because all of a sudden it allowed me to tell God by my actions that he knew what I needed better than I knew what I needed. I think when I prayed with my agenda, he was kind to me, but I think I wore him out. I think he many times would say, John, you're just the nicest, stupid person I know. One more time, you're coming with your little thoughts. And I got some big thoughts for you and your little agenda. And I got a big agenda for you and you're living way beneath your privileges because you're more excited about you telling me what you need than having me talk to you about than having me talk to you about what you need. That's Peter. So when Jesus looked at Peter and said, you're going to do this. He said, no, no, you don't understand Jesus. I mean, Peter, Peter is correcting Jesus. That's just not a good thing. Okay. That's just not a good thing. The third reason that Peter failed is he felt that he was stronger than he was. And Jesus told him that in the garden. He said, Peter, your spirit, it's willing, but your body is weak. And of course he was pressured by the crowd. They began to accuse him of being discipled and began to point to him. And he began to curse and deny the Lord. And it says in Luke 22, 61, when he did these things, when he denied the Lord, the Lord turned and looked straight at him and said, straight at Peter can you imagine in his darkest hour Jesus looking at you and just saying you weren't there Peter I mean I can't imagine how no reason no no wonder Peter I mean he just ran and wept bitterly I mean this I mean all of a sudden it doesn't say Jesus said anything it was just the look you know there's the disappointment that we have of failing to live up to expectations he's feeling that there's the discouragement of losing courage at the time when people need us and he's gone through that and but but he went to despair he literally he just said I have totally blown everything that I've tried to live up to for the last three years you know C.S. Lewis and screw tape letters said that Satan's strategy is very simple get Christians preoccupied by their failures and from there on the battle is won so what does Peter do Peter does what we do he isolates himself he goes back to the lake and he says I don't think I'm qualified to be a fisher a man like Jesus called me I think I need to go back to do what I do and that is go to the lake at Galilee and

fish for fish so he pulls away from everybody he's isolated he's left his ministry he's left his calling he's he's saying it I mean I've blown it to a proportion that I'm just going to hang out on the boat and catch some fish but here's what's beautiful Jesus doesn't let him leave him Jesus goes to the Sea of Galilee do not miss this you may walk away from Jesus but Jesus will walk right back to you do not miss this you may take a lonely walk but Jesus won't let you stay lonely so he comes to the lake Peter's fishing Jesus builds a fire calls them up I'm cutting the story a little tight now and here's Peter now and by the way it's interesting in the Gospels there's only two times that the word charcoal is used and it's used both in the it when when Peter warmed himself by the fire when he denied Jesus there was the chart it was said it was the charcoal fire Jesus built a charcoal fire now at the lake the one sense that you and I do not lose as much as the other senses is the sense of smell now get the picture around the charcoal fire Peter denied Jesus he comes down on shore where Jesus is fixing breakfast and there's a charcoal fire immediately he smells the charcoal and he says oh my gosh it reminds me of just a few days ago so now he's he's down as low as he can get and so Jesus looks at him and Jesus said Peter do you love me now the word love that he used was agape which is divine love it's the highest of all loves and he looks at Peter says do you love me with a divine love the highest of all loves and Peter before the denial would have just come back quickly yep I love you with a divine love you better believe it you and I are right there on that high level of love but see when he asked him now after his failure Peter is in touch with himself and when Jesus said do you love me agape divine love Peter said to him I love you phileo brotherly love his failure caused him to depreciate himself he couldn't he couldn't lift himself up to agape it the gap was too big he's already messed up he's already failed and Jesus the second time came back and asked him do you love me with the divine agape love and Peter again comes and he said Jesus I love you with a phileo love I don't qualify for I don't qualify for agape I messed it up at one time I thought I was agape but I'm phileo and I don't there's a gap between your love for me and my love for you and then the third time here's what's beautiful don't miss it don't miss it the third time Jesus looked at him Peter do you love me with a phileo love Jesus dropped his love level so Peter could identify with it he dropped his love level so Peter when soon

as he said that Peter's now hysterical he's he's emotional he's hugging Jesus oh you know I love you You know, I love you and let me just say this When you and I don't feel like we could measure up to where God is God will come and measure up down to where we are Don't miss this story my friend You may think you have disappointed God But you can't disappoint him. He knows all about you. He knows how we're wired. He can see our future Listen, he cannot be disappointed But you may be disappointed by where you are in your life now and your relationship with God But God is ready to restore you. God is ready to love you. God is ready to pull you back in And that day Peter would say to all of us God will give you hope God will give you hope The word hope is Can be read 81 times in the Bible Only one time is the word hope before the resurrection The other 80 times it's it's after the resurrection. Oh, yes Let me close with this People often ask me about books and how long does it take to write a book and sometimes I tell it takes a lifetime It's it's the book is filled with the lifetime experiences over 20 years ago I was having a conversation with a very wealthy person a billionaire In fact, I if I use his name you many of you know who he is And we were having conversation about failure and In spite of all of his success. He was that day just sharing with me wrong decisions that he had made or Misses that he had experienced or failures In his life and he was probably was a 20-minute conversation where I just let him talk and he just seemed that day to want

to talk about in spite of what his success looked like that there were a lot of misses and wrong turns and pivots and dead ends When he finished that conversation I asked him I said, okay when you look at all your failures Which ones would you like to go back and do over and his answer was life-changing His answer is not only the answer for you today in this faith message and failures But it's also it was it was the callous for the book When I asked him what one what failures he'd like to do over He shocked me He said none of them. I Said what do you mean? You just spent 15 minutes talking about your misses and your losses and your failures and now you say you don't want to do any of them over He said none For two reasons He said the first reason is that Every failure I've had in my life taught me a lesson Every failure Taught me a lesson If I went back and I erased that failure, I Would erase that lesson from my life and the lessons I learned from my failures have been much greater than what my failures would have I've been and So I'm not erasing. Nope. Nope I'm not doing a do-over because I if I erase the failure I erase the lessons and the lessons Have taught me so much in life and he said secondly In every failure I learned to have character I Learned to rise above Adversity, I I learned to walk through dark times

He said I I became bigger on the inside than I was on the outside Because of the failures that I was experiencing in my life and he said I'm going to tell you right now I'd want to tell you right now The character I've developed is because of my failures and the lessons I've learned is because of my failures and I'm not doing any of Them over I'm a better person because what I have gone through That's When I said I'm gonna write a book on How to get a return on failure He just showed me how to do it But the greatest book on how to get a return on failure Is it mine? It's the Bible and it's God's Word and if you've messed up and you feel like there's just kind of a Spot in your life where you don't know how to get out of remember God's ready To bring you back On every campus. I want the pastor to come after you come up forward and pray with you now And I want to pray with you right now father. Thank you for our Opportunity today to learn about Jonah and Peter and how they overcome failures in their life And I'm asking Lord Jesus That you would help us to do the very same thing help us to rise above of the failures and our losses in our life and have a divine comeback. And everybody said together, amen. God bless you. ♪♪♪