8/23/2020 - Failure Is Not The End - Psalm 34:1-10

We all experience failure in one way or another. When put in a spiritual context, it can be very debilitating. But the Bible is clear, failure is not the end, it is the thing that reveals our deep need for God's rescue. Recently I read this from a young person in the church. "I am a terrible Christian. I sin on a daily basis in many more ways than I even realize, failing often. I don’t always give to the homeless when they ask and I have money. As a teacher in a poor inner-city environment, I’ll make dark jokes about the school system that I probably shouldn’t. I gossip about the latest person that offended me or angered me, or whose ideas I don’t deem “woke” enough, all the time. I curse all the time without even thinking about it. I don’t listen enough. I care too much about money and reputation. I’ve been losing it more and more in my impatience with people who I think are wrong about the world and wrong about my family. I don’t pray nearly as much as I should. And I say I do all these things in acceptance that I am a terrible person, a Christian that is by no means holy, someone who constantly falls short of the standard of Jesus Christ. In so many things I do, I put success, money, approval, and accomplishments over God. The truth is I’m a hypocrite, and I fall short so often, and the labor that comes with falling short and failing is much more of an emotional toll than being successful. But it is the story of Peter that gives us a lesson on how to proceed as Christians, even when we fail to be saints. Peter told Jesus at one point “though [everyone else will] fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Peter thought he was the perfect disciple. Peter thought he could never fail as a follower. And then he did, when he denied Jesus three times in the Garden of Gethsemane when he failed to ever to acknowledge he knew Jesus at all to save his own behind. If the story ended there, Peter would have won the award for least valuable player in the Bible. But the story didn’t end there." This young man is correct. Jesus restored Peter and established him as a pillar of the church. It's not just the story of Peter but of many others including Israel's greatest leader - David. Psalm 34 is the confession of David's embarrassing failure. The worst kind. However, it is turned into triumph when it is given to God. In the end we learn that our failures reveal our need for God's help.