Title: Learning from Failure
It is one of the words we want to ignore.
Everyone is reluctant to fail and wants to succeed.
Nevertheless, looking back on the footsteps that have passed, it cannot be denied that there are many traces of failure rather than success. So, failure is not to be avoided, but to be learned.
Anyone who tries to invent anything has learned to fail.
This is because success is achieved through repeated failures.
When you fail, most of the time, even disappointment.
Disappointment (失望) means losing hope. If you lose hope, you can't do anything.
Even if you fail, if there is hope, that failure is not a failure.
This is also true in the life of faith.
Even if you have failed in the past year, you must learn from those failures and succeed.
It is because there is nothing more unfortunate than that if you lose even the God of hope even if you have failed once in your faith life.
In this regard, we need to re-think today's text.
1. Failure is hardship, but you must gain enlightenment through it.
“The sufferings of the present are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed.”
If you think about it, it is no exaggeration to say that all of our lives are a series of failures.
Failure is a failure because people accept it as failure.
However, if you accept failure as enlightenment, that failure is not a failure.
In other words, failure is learning.
Failure is the only way to realize and learn new things.
So the psalmist said, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes" (Psalm 119:71).
He said that he learned from failure.
We write when we fail, but when new learning is opened through failure, thanks and praise burst out just like this psalmist.
These were the words of the enlightened people in the Bible.
The Apostle Paul compared our lives to sports.
In any match, there is always a loser.
However, in any match there is a judge.
The final victory or defeat is decided by the judge.
Therefore, it is the wisdom of believers to use that failure as a new opportunity.
No matter what failures we have in the past year, we hope that through them we will come back to enlightenment and instead use this as an opportunity to win in the new year.
2. Failure teaches us the patience to wait.
If people who have failed in the path of sin realize that they have turned away from that path, it is necessary to have patience to look into the future. That is the basic attitude of a believer.
That patience is not vague patience.
That patience is not hopeless patience.
That perseverance is not the perseverance of a loser's consolation.
The Apostle Paul called that patience the endurance of a living hope.
If you think about it, we are all slaves to corruption.
They are all people who lived according to the lusts of the flesh.
They are people who repeat and fail in the path of sin.
But now we are not people of perdition that leads to eternal failure, but people who will be set free from the seat of sin.
It means to wait patiently through the sufferings of the present while looking at the redemption of the body.
Therefore, while faith is a wish, patience is a believer's participation in reality.
People of the right faith are people who wait patiently no matter how frustrating things are. That waiting is not a hopeless waiting, but a confirmation waiting with a promise.
That is why today's text also says, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us."
The reality of today's suffering is incomparable to the glory that believers will enjoy in the future.
With this belief, the believers of the early church endured and overcame the 300-year period of Roman tyranny.
With this belief, I was able to sing hymns while being taken away as food for the burning pit, lions and wild beasts.
With this faith, I was able to overcome any kind of tribulation.
But how are we today?
Aren't you rather discouraged in the face of a small economic downturn?
I am young, healthy, and have loved ones, and the Lord is with me, so why am I so easily discouraged?
Failure is not fear, it is fear to be discouraged without learning from failure.
A successful person is, in other words, a person who has failed several times.
I got my driver's license by counting eight.
4 out of the 8 numbers were automatic failures because they did not keep the date, and 3 mistakes were made.
In the driving test, the loser is in the test of going up a hill, stopping, and starting again.
It was a falling failure. But at the last minute it succeeded.
After that, you can stop at any hill or on any steep incline and go back.
improved the ability to start again without slipping.
How fortunate is this? Because I learned to fail.
The same is true on the road of our life.
You have to learn not to slide backwards.
Dear saints!
Don't be discouraged if you fail once.
Because life is a series of failures.
Look at the 12 disciples. All were failures.
The Last Supper with the Lord, with the Lord with every mouth
They said they would die, but they denied that they knew everything, starting with Peter.
And these were the people who scattered and tried to hide.
However, the Lord appeared to them again later! Rather than rebuking them for their failures, they gave great enlightenment through their failures, and through those failures, they began to learn the Lord properly. What happened to all the disciples after that?
Everyone drank the cup of martyrdom for the Lord.
This is what we need today.
You have to learn through failure.
You have to learn your own powerlessness.
You must realize your own pride.
You have to realize your own ignorance.
When that happens, the learning from that failure leads us to a higher level of faith.
We must give up the thought that we live the life of faith as if we were doing it by our own will.
Nothing is as weak as our will.
No one will remain in the place of sin because no one will turn from the way of sin. Because you cannot resist the yoke of sin, or the temptation of sin, by your own willpower.
The power to overcome sin is impossible unless it is the power of the Holy Spirit who gives enlightenment through failure. The coercive power of the Holy Spirit must overshadow our will. That's how drunkards stop drinking.
Only then will you turn from the path you were drawn to by the pleasures of the flesh.
This is not your willpower. It is a power that comes from God.
3. Those who persevere in faith are crowned with the laurel wreath of victory.
In today's text, it is said, 'Because we have been saved through faith, hope is not only what we see.' “What is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal.”
I hope you understand this well.
Those who have realized the meaning of these words are those who have already opened their spiritual eyes. When the spiritual eyes are not opened, these words do not reach the heart.
This is because in the mind tilted toward the world, only things of this world can be seen and heard.
What does it mean to be visible for a moment?
Everything in the visible world is temporary.
Victory in the visible world is temporary.
But in the invisible world, faith is said to be eternal.
Therefore, momentary joy and happiness in the visible world are only temporary.
So, if we hope for what we do not see, we are told to wait patiently.
In this new year, we should all learn to persevere through failure.
The great power of faith is the power to live in hope for this invisible thing.
The power of this faith does not see failure as failure.
Through failure, we can see the new grace of God.
Let us experience the power of the Holy Spirit through failure.
This is also the mysterious grace of God.
The world drives out all those who fail.
It is true in the company, in the denomination, and in the public service.
We do not give opportunities to those who fail.
But our God is different.
He makes us realize through failure, and through the learning of that failure, enables us to be reborn as a new person, so that we can fulfill God's holy will. This is an amazing grace.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit working in us.
The American department store king (John Wanamaker, 1838-1922) was offered the post of minister by the president. "Please assume the post of Minister of Posts and Posts with your excellent management skills." Wannamaker refused in one word.
"I value the job of being a church school teacher above all else. If I can't teach my children because of a ministerial position, it's a really big deal."
The president promised to make it possible for him to serve as a church school teacher.
Only then did he accept the post of minister. And every Saturday, I flew back to my hometown to teach the children.
"The church school teacher job is my main job for the rest of my life. But the ministerial job is a side job after a year or two."
Everyone!
We must imitate the faith of this Wannamaker.
The visible world is only temporary.
We have the invisible and eternal thing.
It is the Christian's responsibility to endure in reality while looking forward to the glory that will be revealed in the future.
We must not become those who forsake God's promises for the things that seem to perish.
I hope that there will be a level of maturity in faith that rises one step further through learning from failure this year.♣