Scripture:
Romans 8.28-39; Matt. 14.22-33; Luke 8.22-25; Luke 22.28-35; John 21.15-19; 2
Cor. 12.7b-10
Translation: Romans 8.28And
we know that for the people who love God, He is working everything out for good,
for the people who really are called according to plan. 29[We know]
that the people He had a relationship with before time, He also destined to be
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the Firstborn of many
brothers. 30And the people He destined, these same people He also
called. And the people He called, these same people He also made righteous. And
the people He made righteous, these same people He also glorified! 31So,
what will we say faced with these things? If God is for us, who can be against
us? 32The One who didn’t even spare His own Son, but instead gave
Him up for all of us, how will He not grace everything to us with Him? 33Who
will bring charges against God’s chosen ones? God is the One who makes
righteous! 34Who is the person who will condemn? Christ Jesus the
One Who died, but moreover Who was raised, Who also is at God’s right hand, Who
also is interceding for us! 35What will separate us from Christ’s
Love? Suffering, or stress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger,
or swords? 36Just like it’s surely written that “because of You
we’re being put to death all day long! We’re thought of like sheep marked for
slaughter!” 37But in all these things we take absolute victory
through the One who loves us! 38You see, I’m convinced that neither
death nor life nor angels nor demons nor the present nor the future nor powers 39nor
height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Matt. 14.22And immediately urged the
disciples to get in a boat and go ahead of him to the other side, until He had
dismissed the crowds. 23And after He dismissed the crowds, He went
up into the mountain by Himself to pray. And when it became evening He was
there alone. 24Meanwhile, the boat was already many stades away from
land being tormented by the waves, because there was a hostile wind. 25And
during the fourth watch of the night, He came towards them walking on the sea. 26And
the disciples, watching Him walking on the sea, freaked out, saying that it was
a ghost. And they screamed out of fear! 27And immediately He spoke
to them saying, “Get a hold of yourselves. It’s Me. don’t be scared.” 28And
in response Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to You on
the waters!” 29And He said, “Come!” And getting out of the boat
Peter walked on the waters and came towards Jesus. 30But seeing the
wind he got scared, and as he began to drown, he screamed saying, “Lord, save
me!” 31And immediately Jesus reached out His hand and grabbed on to
him and was saying to him, “Man of little faith, for what purpose did you
doubt?” 32And when they got in the boat, the wind stopped. 33And
the people in the boat worshiped Him saying, “Truly You are God’s Son!”
Luke 8.22And it happened on one of the
days that He got in a boat with His followers and said to them, “Let’s go
across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. 23And while
they were sailing, He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down towards the lake
and they were being swamped and were facing danger. 24And they came
over and were trying to wake Him up, saying, “Master! Master! We’re dying!” And
after He woke up, He rebuked the wind and the waves. And they stopped and
became calm. 25And He said to them, “Where’s your faith?!” And
terrified they were amazed, saying to one another, “So Who is This Guy, that He
even rebukes the winds and the water, and they obey Him?!”
Luke 22.28And you are the ones who will
actually stay with Me during my tests. 29And I’m arranging for you,
just like My Father arranged a kingdom for Me, so that you will eat and drink
at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes
of Israel. 31Simon, Simon, look, Satan was demanding to sift all of
you like flour. 32But I prayed for you [Peter], so that your faith
would not fail. And you, after you have repented, strengthen your brothers.” 33And
he said to Him, “Lord, I’m ready to go with you both to prison and to death!” 34And
He said, “I’m telling you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you
deny knowing Me three times!”
John 21.1After these things, Jesus show
Himself to the disciples again at the Tiberian Sea. And He showed up in this
way. 2Simon Peter and Thomas, called Twin, and Nathanael from Cana
in Galilee and the Zebedee brothers and two other of His disciples. 3Simon
Peter was saying to them, “I’m going fishing.” They were saying to him, “We’re
coming with you too.” They left and got in a boat, and during that night they
caught nothing. 4And when it was already early in the morning Jesus
stood on the shore, although the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus. 5So,
Jesus was saying to them, “Dear children, don’t you have anything to eat?” They
responded to Him, “No.” 6And He said to them, “Throw the net to the
right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they threw the net, and
they were not strong enough anymore to pull it in because of the huge number of
fish! 7So, that disciple that Jesus loved was saying to Peter, “It’s
the Lord!” So, Simon Peter, when He heard that it was the Lord, tied his outer
clothes around his waist, because he was naked, and threw himself into the sea.
8And the other disciples came in the small boat, because there were
not far from land, but about 200 cubits away, dragging the net full of fish. 9So,
as they moved out towards the land they saw a charcoal fire set up and fish set
on it and bread. 10Jesus was saying to them, “Bring some of the fish
that you caught now. 11So, Simon Peter got up and pulled in the net
to land full of 153 huge fish. And even though there were so many huge fish,
the net didn’t break. 12Jesus was saying to them, “Come on, eat
breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask Him, “Who are You?” because
they knew that it was the Lord. 13Jesus was coming and taking the
bread and giving it to them, and the fish in the same way. 14This
was already the third time Jesus showed Himself to the disciples, after rising
from the dead.
15So,
when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus was saying to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of
John, do you love Me more than these?” He was saying to Him, “Yes Lord, You
know that I love You!” He was saying to him, “Feed My lambs.” 16He
was saying to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
He was saying to Him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love You!” He was saying to
him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17He was saying to him a third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was hurt that He said to him three
times “Do you love Me?” so He was saying to Him, “Lord, You know everything!
You know that I love You!” He was saying to him, “Feed My sheep. 18Amen,
Amen I’m telling you, When you were younger, you were dressing yourself and
walking wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will hold out your hands
and someone else will dress you and will bring you where you don’t want. 19And
He said this, signaling the kind of death that He would glorify God by. And
having said this, He was telling him, “Follow Me!”
2 Cor. 12.7bBecause this, so that I
wouldn’t get cocky, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, specifically a
messenger/angel of Satan, so that he could torment me, so that I wouldn’t get
cocky. 8I urged the Lord three times about this, that He might take
it away from me. 9And He was actually telling me, “My grace is
enough for you, because My power is best experienced in weaknesses!” So,
unexpectedly, I will brag the most happily in my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ will dwell on me! 10Because of this, I will celebrate in
weaknesses, in insults, in obligations, in persecutions and troubles, for
Christ. You see, whenever I’m weak, it’s at that point I am powerful.
Interpretation
1.
Themes
a.
Failure
b.
Helplessness
c.
Problems
d.
God’s Sovereignty
e.
Repentance
f.
Restoration
g.
God’s plan
h.
Goodness/beneficialness
Applications
1.
Outline
a.
God uses failure for your
good
i.
He uses your own failures
for your good (Romans 8.28-39)
1.
Examples
a.
Luke 8.22-25: The Storm at
Sea
b.
Matt. 14.22-33: Peter tries
to walk on water
c.
Luke 22.28-34: Jesus tells
Peter he will deny Him three times, but also tells Peter to later strengthen
his brothers
d.
John 21.15-19: Peter is
reinstated
2.
Implications
a.
Don’t let a fear of failure
keep you from living for Christ
b.
Don’t give up on living for
Christ after a failure, even a major failure
c.
Failure will sometimes be
unavoidable, because God has planned to use Your failure
i.
in other words, sometimes
God will refuse to keep you from failing on some level because He has a plan
that includes failure
d.
Don’t lose your failure;
Use your failure to glorify God and strengthen others
i.
When you fail, repent from
it, and use the growth that God gives you through the failure to serve God and
help others
ii.
He uses other people’s
failures for your good
1.
Examples
a.
Gal. 2.11-21: Peter gets
rebuked by Paul
b.
Gen.37-47 : Joseph’s
Life-story
c.
Christ on the Cross
2.
Implications
a.
Sometimes God will expose
the failures of others to prevent us from falling into those same failures
b.
Sometimes the failures of
others will be part of a grand plan for your own growth, for your own good, and
even for the good of many people
i.
This means that sometimes
you will not see the purpose for your own failures and the failures of others
for a long time. in fact many years may pass by before you see how God worked
it all out for good, and you know what sometimes you might even have to die
before you see why.
c.
Sometimes the failure of
others is required for us to receive true blessings
b.
God uses helplessness for
your good (2 Cor. 12.7b-10)
i.
To humble you
ii.
To deepen your faith
iii.
To reveal His Glory and
Power
Illustrations/Explanations
1.
It’s like saying, “hey I
failed the last quiz, so I’m not even going to study for this quiz.”
2.
A person who caves in and
smokes pot, and then thinks, “o well, I’ve done drugs now, so there’s no reason
not to try crack.” So the person tries some crack, and thinks “O well, I’ve
tried crack, why not try heroin?”—Why not?! Have you lost your mind? It’s
heroin! That’s exactly why not!
3.
In my own life, I was an
addict to a particular sin when I was in junior high/high school. No one ever
knew, and no one would have ever suspected. But I remember being trapped in it.
I would try to overcome the addiction every single day, day in and day out. But
literally for years I experienced almost no victory. It got so bad, I started
questioning, “Am I even really a Christian? Because all I seem to do is give in
to this sin, even when I don’t want to, and even when I fight against the urge
to sin hardcore!” But one think I did do was keep fighting. I kept fighting day
in and day out for years. And I failed way more times than I would ever like to
admit. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t see any good coming out of it. And you
know what? I didn’t. not for a long time. but somewhat recently, somehow the
topic of all that failure came up in my conversations with God. And the Spirit
told me, “Anthony, I was training you to pursue Me day in and day out, with
desperation, with passion, with hope, with faith, with love. I used your
failure to give you a thriving relationship with Me that will last for
eternity!” And I was like, “Mind blown. Whoaaa!” I am the pastor—no, I am the
Christian I am today, because like 10+ yrs ago, God refused to answer my
prayers for victory in the way I expected. God basically said, “I’ll see your
one-time win, and raise you a life-time of wins.” God’s just bawler like that!
