A CEO has taken on a new job, and the outgoing CEO says to him, “Sometimes you'll make wrong choices. You will. You'll mess up. When that happens, I have prepared three envelopes for you. I left them in the top drawer of the desk. The first time it happens, open #1. The second time you mess up, open #2. The third time, open #3.”
For the first few months, everything goes fine. Then the CEO makes his first mistake, goes to the drawer, opens up envelope #1, and the message reads, “Blame me.” So he does: “This is the old CEO's fault. He made these mistakes. I inherited these problems.” Everybody says, “Okay.” It works out pretty well.
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his second mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #2. This time he reads, “Blame the board.” And he does: “It's the board's fault. The board has been a mess. I inherited them. They're the problem.” Everybody says, “Okay, that makes sense.”
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his third mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #3. The message reads: “Prepare three envelopes.” (John Ortberg, in the sermon “Guide,” www.PreachingToday.com)
Sad to say, that’s what a lot of people do when they fail. They look for someone else to blame; and when that fails, they quit. But failure doesn’t need to be fatal if we can just admit our own mistakes and learn from our failures.
Sometimes in life, we get so caught up in our own successes that we fall flat on our faces. That happened to Jesus’ original followers. They were casting out demons, healing sick people, and becoming very popular with the people. Three of them had gone to the top of a high mountain with Jesus and met Moses and Elijah! Then they came floating down from that mountain-top experience and crash landed as abysmal failures.
Even so, they learned some important lessons, and they are lessons we can learn from our failures, as well. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 9, Mark 9, where we see the fruit of failure.
Mark 9:14-18 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked. A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” (NIV)
A distraught father comes to Jesus’ disciples for help with his demonized boy, and this is something they should have been able to handle. After all, Jesus had given them authority to cast out demons, and they had done it many times before (Mark 6:7,13). Except this time they can’t do it. This time the disciples fail. Why? Well look at what Jesus tells them in verse 19.
Mark 9:19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” (NIV)
Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and He scolds them for their unbelief. You see, they had done this so many times before, and they had become so good at it, that they became self-confident and forgot to depend on God. It was a subtle form of unbelief. It was the unbelief of pride.
William Lane, in his commentary on Mark, says, “An attitude of unbelief and self-confidence, based on past success, had exposed them to failure” (p.332). And this is the first lesson we learn from failure: Don’t depend on yourself. Instead…
DEPEND ON CHRIST.
Keep on believing in Him. Keep on trusting the Lord. Continue to rely upon Him even if you’ve been a Christian for a while. Because as soon as we stop relying on the Lord, like his first disciples we too will fail.
Corrie Ten Boom used to tell the story of a woodpecker that was pecking away at a tree when the sky turned black and thunder began to roll. Undaunted, the wood pecker went right on working. Suddenly, a bolt of lightening struck the old tree and splintered it into hundreds of pieces. It frightened the bird, but he was unhurt. Then as he flew away, he looked back with amazement and said, “Look what I did! Look what I did!” (Bible Illustrator #1723, 10/1988.15)
That woodpecker failed to realize that a power far greater than itself had splintered that tree. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Now suppose that bird decided to blast away at another tree. It thinks to itself, “I’ve got experience at this sort of thing. I’ll just peck away and BOOM! – just like last time – it’ll be gone.” What do you think will happen? That bird will continue to peck until it gives itself one massive headache and then wonder why it failed.
So it is when we fail to recognize that a power far greater than ourselves is at work in our lives. We just happen to be at the right place at the right time. We’re busy serving the Lord and BOOM! – God does a miracle: He transforms a life; He provides a need; He causes a church to grow.
That’s when we have to be very careful not to step back and say, “Look what I did! Look what I did!” Because as soon as we do, we set ourselves up for failure. Another opportunity comes along and we think, “I’ve got experience at this sort of thing. I’ll just do just what I did last time. Then we wonder why the only thing our efforts give us is one massive headache. The unbelief of pride will eventually cause us to fail every time.
So in all our efforts, we must keep on trusting the Lord; we must continue to rely on Him, because Jesus succeeds where we fail all the time. Jesus had asked his disciples to bring the demonized boy to him.
Mark 9:20-23 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” (NIV)
It’s not a question of His ability. It’s a question of our faith.
Mark 9:24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (NIV)
I love the honesty of that father’s reply. Perhaps, he had come in faith, but Jesus’ disciples failed him and now, he’s not so sure. That father’s faith is wavering. His faith is faltering, and he asks Jesus to keep it from crashing down on the rocks of disappointment and disbelief. So what does Jesus do? Tell that father that his faith is not strong enough? No!
Mark 9:25-27 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. (NIV)
Jesus cast the demon out, succeeding where his disciples had failed. And look at the compassion Jesus showed. He takes the time to ask about the boy’s condition (vs.21). Now, Jesus didn’t have to do that. He could have delivered the boy without knowing how long he had been demonized. But Jesus cares enough to ask and He cares enough to listen. He’s not there just to put on a show. He’s there because He cares. He cares enough to listen. Then He cares enough to heal the boy without making a public spectacle of him (vs.25). Before the crowds get there, he drives the demon out, and the boy is standing there whole by the time the crowds arrive.
Now remember, Jesus’ disciples are there and they are learning some very important lessons by watching their Master. In fact, Jesus is teaching them a lesson, a lesson that he wants them to learn from their failure, and that’s the lesson of love. You see, failure teaches us that we must not only depend on Christ. Like Christ, we must also…
CARE FOR PEOPLE.
We must have real compassion for those in need. We must truly love those who are held captive by Satan’s forces. And that’s another area where Jesus’ disciples failed. They didn’t depend on Christ, and they didn’t really care about the demonized boy and his father. They just wanted to demonstrate their abilities. They just wanted to impress the religious leaders and others that were gathered. They just wanted to show off their stuff, but they ended up only embarrassing themselves, getting into an argument with the teachers of the law, and nearly destroying the faith of a distraught father.
On the other hand, Jesus really cared for people and He teaches us to do the same.
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is based on the true story of Gladys Aylward (played by Ingrid Bergman). Gladys was a faithful missionary in a remote Chinese village who helped run an inn for traveling mule drivers. The China Inland Mission Center in England had refused to sponsor her due to her lack of training and experience, so in 1932 she set out on her own, believing with all her heart that it was God's call on her life.
After years of service, the Chinese Mandarin (governor) of the town of Yang Cheng made Gladys the official “foot inspector.” It was a position that required her to convince the town's aristocracy to cease the damaging tradition of binding a young woman's feet to prevent them from growing. How did she do it? She did it through the persuasive power of love. In fact, the townspeople called her “Jennai,” which means “one who loves people.”
Later, when the Japanese army invaded northern China, the village Mandarin, the elders, and Jennai entered a conference room and took a seat around a large circular table. The Mandarin offered a toast saying farewell to the past (start movie clip @ 1:54:43 and play to 1:57:03):
“In a little while we must leave our city, perhaps for years, perhaps forever. For those of us who are old, certainly forever. Elders of Yang Cheng, I thank you for your help in this time of trouble. But we were born to our trouble. There is one who has taken it upon herself not from necessity, but from love.” He stood up and all the elders joined him. Jennai, however, remained seated.
“Jennai,” he said, “we thank you from those who are not here, whose children you have taken as your own, for the poor, and the sick, and the afflicted, from all the people of Yang Cheng, for the past and for the future.
“I honor you for your strength. I wish to share with you the faith from which it comes.”
Jennai, realizing that he is talking about her Christian faith, was overcome with emotion.
“City recorder,” the Mandarin says, “close the book of Yang Cheng with this entry: As a sign of respect for the honored foot inspector of this city, the Shian Sang of Yang Cheng has become a Christian.”
Jennai lifted her head slightly and began to weep openly. “Oh, I thank you for this great gift.”
“Jennai,” the Mandarin replied as he puts his hand on her shoulder, “accept my gift. It is offered with love.” (The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, 20th Century Fox, 1958, directed by Mark Robson, 1:54:43 to 1:57:03; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the power of love, my friends, true love demonstrating itself over time. An argument never wins anybody over, as the disciples found out very quickly. But nothing is as powerful as the apologetic of genuine love.
Faith and love – those are the lessons from failure Jesus wants us to learn as His followers. And just so we don’t miss it, Jesus makes it very clear when He gets alone with His disciples.
Mark 9:28-29 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer [and fasting].”
The marginal reading is correct here. All but 2 of the earliest manuscripts include the words, “and fasting,” as part of what Jesus said. In other words, Jesus tells His disciples, “You failed, because you didn’t pray and you didn’t fast.”
My friends, if we want to storm the gates of hell and rescue people from the Kingdom of Darkness here in Lyons, Kansas, then we must pray! We must constantly depend on the Lord, expressing that dependence through constant prayer.
A. B. Simpson, a 19th Century missionary and author, often spoke about the power of such prayer. On one occasion, he illustrated it with the story of the largest and finest bell in the East. It was located in the city of Rangoon, and it was the pride of the great Buddhist Temple there.
During one of their many wars, the bell was sunk in a river. Over the years, various engineers tried but failed to raise it. At last, a clever priest asked permission to try, but only if the bell was given to his temple.
The priest had his assistants gather an immense number of bamboo rods. One by one the rods were fastened to the bell at the bottom of the river, and only after thousands of them had been fastened did the bell began to move. When the last bamboo rod was attached, the buoyancy of the accumulated rods lifted the bronze bell from the mire of the river bottom to its surface.
A. B. Simpson writes: Faith can lift the heaviest of burdens and the highest of mountains. Every whisper of believing prayer is like one of the little bamboo rods. For a time they seem to be in vain, but there comes a last breath of believing supplication, and lo, the walls of Jericho fall, the mountain becomes a plain, and the host of Amalek is defeated. (A. B. Simpson, Herald of His Coming, January 1994; www.PreachingToday.com)
R. A. Torrey, another 19th Century preacher put it this way: We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services, but few conversions; much machinery, but few results.” (R. A. Torrey, How to Obtain Fullness of Power)
My friends, if we’re going to do what God has called us to do, We must pray. We cannot do it on our own. We need God’s help, and God has promised that help when we pray. That’s why your elders spend a significant amount of time in prayer at the start of their meeting every month. That’s why they are committed to praying for you every week, and that’s why we spend a significant amount of time in prayer for our unsaved friends and family members every Sunday night.
Prayer is more than a perfunctory exercise to dress up our meetings. It is a vital link to the Almighty God of the Universe, without whom we can do nothing. On the other hand, with God ALL things are possible!
So we must pray if we’re going to see results, and we must fast. We must weep and mourn for those caught in Satan’s snare. In the 40 times fasting is found in the Bible, it is almost always in a context of mourning and weeping. In fact, it is never imposed as a spiritual discipline for its own sake. Rather, it’s an expression of severe grief and deep concern.
The fact is, the Bible condemns all fasting that is not a true expression of sorrow and concern. In Isaiah 58:3, the people ask God, “Why have we fasted and you have not seen it?” And God answers, “[because] on the day of your fasting, you find pleasure.” Their fast was NOT a sincere expression of sorrow. It was an attempt to twist the arm of God. They were trying to manipulate Him into giving them what they wanted. Well, God will not be manipulated in that way or in any other way, for that matter.
In the New Testament, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for the same thing in Matthew 6. They fasted to put on a show, not as a sincere expression of sorrow and concern. So when Jesus tells His disciples, “You failed because you didn’t fast,” He’s telling them, “You failed because you didn’t really care. You weren’t really concerned about the boy or his father. Their suffering did not move you to the point of going without your lunch, and so you couldn’t help them.”
Prayer and care. Faith and love. Those are the lessons we must learn from our failures if we’re going to make a real difference in our world like Jesus’ first disciples did. Like I said, failure doesn’t ever have to be fatal if we learn these important lessons. Depend on the Lord and care for people in His strength. Then stand back and watch God do some powerful things right here in Lyons, Kansas.
A few years ago (September 2009), the Chicago Tribune ran a story about Bettye Tucker, a Christian cook who works the night shift at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She has been doing her job for 43 years – 28 of them on the night shift.
On that shift, she sees a steady stream of parents in her job, many of them frightened and weary. On the night she was interviewed for the article, Miss Bettye (as she is called by all who know her) served food to a mother whose three-year-old fell out of a second story window that morning, another mother whose seventeen-year-old was battling a rare form of leukemia, and a third mother whose eighteen-year-old had endured seven hours of brain surgery.
Their stories break the heart of Miss Bettye. “That's why she feeds every last one of them as if they had walked right into [her own kitchen],” so says to one of her coworkers. Another coworker, a member of the hospital's housekeeping crew adds this thought about Miss Bettye: “You need someone to bring you life, and she brings it in the middle of the night.”
Miss Bettye herself says, “When I ask, ‘How you doin' today?’ and they say it's not a good day, I say, ‘Don't lose hope.’ When the nurses tell me it's a bad night, I say, ‘I understand it's a bad night. But guess what? I am here for you. I'm going to get you through the night.’”
There is a picture in the article which shows Bettye sitting down, head bowed, over a meal. “I'm a praying lady,” she says in the article. “I pray every night, for every room and every person in the hospital. I start with the basement, and I go up, floor by floor, room by room. I pray for the children, I pray for the families, I pray for the nurses and the doctors… I say, every night while I'm driving in on the expressway, ‘Oh, Lord, I don't know what I'll face tonight, but I pray you'll guide me through.’”
Barbara Mahany, the reporter who wrote the article, offers these words about Miss Bettye: “Just might be, that divine helping on the side is the most essential item on Miss Bettye's menu. The one she stirs in every broth, and every whisper. The ingredient that makes her the perpetual light shining in the all-night kitchen.” (Barbara Mahany, “Cooking up compassion,” Chicago Tribune, 9-20-09, section 6; www.PreachingToday.com)
Miss Bettye knows what it means to serve Christ well. Not in her own strength, but in dependence upon the Lord, she truly cares for the people God brings across her path, and she is making a real difference in her world.
So can we, if we pray and if we truly care for the people God brings our way.
