On the Edge | Part 5 - Finding Purpose in The Pain of Failure | Pastor Adam Bishop

``And all of us have experienced failure at some point our life. Maybe you're walking through a failure right now. We're gonna take a look at a guy in the bible who had an epic failure. And before we do, I wanna just kinda right size failure. I wanna make sure we're all on the same page when it comes to failure. So if you like to take notes, I'm give you just kinda three quick things about failure. First of all, failure is something that everyone experiences. The most successful person you know has experienced failure. [00:28:00] (30 seconds)  #FailureDoesntDefineYou

Michael Jordan was cut. Alright? That helps me feel better. Okay? Raise your hand if you ever got cut from a team. Okay? I'm with you. I feel your pain. Not fun. Right? Not fun. Did they hang the sheet on somebody's classroom at your school like they did mine so everyone knew you'd been cut? That was awesome. Okay? So like failure. It's like I wanted to be on this team, I didn't make it. I wanted this business venture to work and it didn't. [00:28:42] (24 seconds)

I'm gonna encourage you. Say, wait a second. Failure is something everyone experiences from time to time. Second thing, we just need to make sure we're on the same page about failure. Failure is not who you are. K? Failure is an event. It's something that happened at a point in time. Could be in the past, could be right now. But see, you are still you. And you can walk through a failure and not tie your identity to the failure. But what happens so many times, because failure is so painful, is we start to see ourselves as failures. Let me encourage you not to do that. Failure is not who you are. And then the third thing about failure, and think this is the most helpful, failure can serve you well. [00:29:19] (38 seconds)

This happens where Jesus is arrested, and there's a little detail in that account tied to Peter that sometimes we just kinda skip past because it's a lot of things happening. I mean, Jesus is moving towards the crucifixion. But I always think that we should stop and just talk about this for a second. Okay? So so so when Jesus is arrested by the Roman soldiers, this apparently gets Peter very upset and he's ready to fight. And so Peter pulls out his sword. This is in the gospel accounts. And he cuts off a Roman soldier's ear. He cuts off his ear. Did you hear that? His ear. Have you ever seen someone even try to cut off somebody's ear? If you have, please tell me the story after this service. Alright? I wanna know. Dude's name's Malchus. He's a Roman soldier. And honestly, we just haven't talked enough about this. So we're gonna do that. I'm the only one with a microphone right now. So we're gonna talk about this. [00:32:25] (53 seconds)

Because I've given this a lot of thought. See, to cut somebody's ear off, that can only go down one of two ways. First of all, it would be with a horizontal swipe, which is what I think Peter was trying to do. I think he was trying to decapitate Malchus. And Malchus was a quick cat. So what Malchus did was he kinda lowered his head and Peter just got his ear. Ear spun right off, landed on the ground. Alright. That's what happened. Alright? Now, the other option is Peter took a vertical blow, and this is where he just kinda came straight down, which honestly would be miraculous because he somehow managed to slice the ear and not the shoulder too. So I don't know how that happened. Okay? Either way, it's a remarkable account. This is what preachers do all week, y'all. This is what we do. Okay? You sit around, pray, and think about these things. Now what happens next is even crazier. [00:33:17] (45 seconds)

And from this point forward, some significant things then happen. Jesus is faithful then to go to the cross. He pays for the sins of the world. Jesus defeats death on that first resurrection Sunday then walks out of the tomb. Peter is one of the first people to see the empty tomb. Over the next forty days, Jesus appears to the disciples. There's also a lot of other people that see Jesus. First Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that over 500 people saw Jesus during these forty days. It's a unique time in Jesus' life. A lot of times when we're looking at scripture about Jesus, we're in the three years of his public ministry before he went to the cross. This is now after the resurrection. [00:35:19] (40 seconds)

In his own mind, he felt like his days in ministry were over. He felt like he had actually done something that was disqualifying him. Maybe the rest of the guys can receive the holy spirit and go do what Jesus has called them to do, but not for Peter. You say, well, why is that? It's it's kind of a big idea for us today. You see, Peter, his identity and his behavior were actually still being driven by his failure. Don't miss this. Peter still saw himself as a failure. You ever had failure take root in your heart? [00:38:46] (35 seconds)

It doesn't matter what anybody else says. You can even agree with them. But when you're trying to fall asleep at night, you still feel like that failure. This is where Peter's at. And some of you know what that feels like. You see, the challenge with that is that when failure when failure sets in that much, it drives our behavior. It's driving your behavior. If you don't think failure drives behavior, may I suggest taking a look at Peter who could look into an empty tomb and still do the exact opposite of what Jesus told him to do. [00:39:22] (34 seconds)

is a leader. When he says, I'm gonna go fishing, the rest of the guys go with him. And what we see in John chapter 21 is how Jesus handles this situation. And what's incredibly encouraging for us is that when we walk through failure, when we feel like a failure, when failure is driving our actions, the way that Jesus responded to Peter is the same way Jesus responds to us today. This resurrected savior that Peter encountered is encountered is the resurrected savior you can encounter as well. So let give you the first thing that that Jesus does for Peter, he does for us as well. He helps Peter remember. [00:40:04] (36 seconds)

Whatever your failure is, here's what Jesus would say to you today. Hey, can you remember something? This wasn't your idea. This was mine. I'm gonna chase you down. I'm gonna come after you. You can get in whatever boat you want like Jonah last week or Peter this week, I will find you. There's no wall I won't knock down to get to you. There's no amount of failure you can do to keep me from you. So at some point, you just need to realize I'm gonna be that guy standing on the shore coming after you. [00:43:38] (32 seconds)

It's what the pharisees constantly accused Jesus of. And we don't understand the significance of sharing a meal because our culture doesn't see it the same way. But see, in their culture, if you shared a meal with someone, you were establishing fellowship. It was a lot more than just eating food. And and Jesus would do this all the time [00:46:25] (19 seconds)

I wonder if Peter had had a little bit of a judgmental attitude and now he's realizing, wait a second, Jesus is doing this with me. I didn't do anything to deserve this meal. I I didn't do anything to earn this fellowship. The only thing I've brought to the table is my sin and failure. And here's what Jesus did. He prepared him breakfast. [00:47:02] (21 seconds)

I need you to listen to what I'm about to say. I don't know what you've done. I don't know how you failed, but I do know how God will respond to you. Sometimes it's I don't know what God would do. And that's a really easy thing to say because sometimes God can be difficult to understand. God God can can sometimes feel mysterious. God can sometimes feel very out there, which is one of the reasons he sent us Jesus, which is to remove the mystery. If your children ever say, what's God like? Here's the answer. Look to Jesus. If you ever wonder how would God respond? Here's the answer. Look to Jesus. If you ever wonder how will God respond to me when I fail? Look to Jesus. Because here's how God would respond because this is what Jesus does. He would actually invite you to a meal. [00:47:24] (48 seconds)

He would establish fellowship with you. He would remind you that he actually cares about you and wants to spend time with you. See, Jesus didn't just go to the cross and walk out of the tomb so you can spend time with him one day for all of eternity. Listen to me. He wants to spend time with you today. He prepares a meal for you. He invites you to his table. [00:48:12] (25 seconds)