Transformed to Transform: Dare to Fail

Sunday November 18, 2018

“Transformed to Transform: Dare to Fail”

Acts 13:13; Acts 15:36-40

            We continue our Transformed to transform conversation today. Over half way there.  Our marbles remain in their same containers. I hope you are still pondering the meaning and significance of empty to full marble jars.  Next Sunday we will reveal what these marbles are here to tell us!  This morning we will talk about how daring to fail transforms us to transform in our being/doing church. 

Let’s pray… Come Spirit of the Living God, forgive us for our sins, mistakes, failures… forgive as well for our we use our successes as opportunities to refuse your leadership in our lives!  Come Spirit of God, come.  Amen. 

            Who do you remember said this, “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed”?  Can you guess who said that?  Hint- he was Chicago Bull.  Yes, Michael Jordan. 

            Michael Jordan, #23, dared to fail…and thus was successful!  Basketball and our faith lives have some things in common and some things not.  But the road to success often passes through several pit stops of failure. But a temporary failure does not have to bring our journey to an end. God delights in exalting the humble (Matthew 23:12, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5-6). Our two scriptures from Acts are put together today to help us learn from a failure in the early church. 

The story of Barnabas and John Mark is briefly told in the New Testament. But their relationship gives us insight into how churches can serve God. John Mark was a young man who experienced a humiliating failure early in his ministry. He left for the mission field with Paul and company and failed to finish the task. Evidently, when the going got tough, he quit and went back home.

Maybe John Mark he found out that ministry was not easy. Perhaps he left the job because he found his early efforts for God to be more difficult that he had first thought. Could have been physical hardships he hadn’t expected. Maybe he found mission work too emotionally draining. We are never told specifically why John Mark deserted his post.

Yet, as we heard in Acts 15, Paul was not willing to give John Mark a second chance.

Fortunately for John Mark, he had a faithful relative who did not give up on him when he stumbled. Barnabas, a man well known for his ability to consul and encourage, refused to allow his nephew to remain a casualty of his past. Oh, that there would be more Barnabas’ in our world today!  May God’s Spirit put the Spirit of Barnabas’ into the people of Ridge!  We need a revival of Barnabas among us!

Notice what happens next.  Barnabas and John Mark were used by God to multiply the mission efforts of the early church.  Clearly we see that God calls us forward into the future… not to live out of our past.  Moreover, just as we cannot live in yesterday’s failures, we also cannot live on yesterday’s accomplishments (15:36-38).  And this is a message for the church of today.  We cannot live our past into the future… but be present to our future. 

Does God use successes?  Heavens, yes!  Does God use failures? Absolutely! In fact, it could be argued that all of us are hypocrites… we just are hypocrites on different subjects from one another.  And hypocrisy is just one of our sins, failures, mistakes, and foibles.  Perhaps no man or woman is really prepared to serve God until they have failed in the pursuit of success without fully relying on God. Miss a few shots… to win the game later. 

Jesus’ invitation to salvation is for everyone.  His invitation for service is, likewise, for every believer.  That means- do not let anyone tell you that your past failure(s) mean that you are disqualified to serve God. God in Jesus offers forgiveness for every sin.  Once we receive Jesus’ forgiveness that might mean we live with the consequences of our past actions. And that could entail that the focus of how or where we serve God might be different.  But the call to serve remains.  Consider this some of the fastest growing seminaries are those in prisons!  Most of all, any real or perceived limitation should not discourage us or humiliate us anymore!  We are forgiven and freed from shame, guilt, etc. 

Look back at John Mark’s early failure.  It was not fatal. He lived to serve again. Barnabas recognized that his nephew had not shown his best colors when he deserted the work at first. Although Paul was not as trusting of John Mark, Barnabas still had faith in him. Thank God for faithful family and friends who have faith in us when we fail! God’s invitation to serve is really His command to serve and it is valid for every believer, regardless of his/her past.

Today, as we read about the first recorded breakup among the missionaries, we cringe and see it as a potential setback in cooperation and a breakdown of harmony. We are tempted to take sides. But God’s word offers neither explanation nor blame. We are simply told that the missionaries disagreed and went their separate ways.

Remember that everyone does not have to be just like you or me or Beth Ann or Wes or Ann or Richard or Dave to be effective in ministry. Each of us has a different focus and methodology. Not everyone can preach a bold, compassionate, convicting, Biblically sound classroom lessons.  Many people would not even be interested in trying. That is not their calling.

Likewise, not every preacher can minister to all the widows and orphans in the church. Nor can the church staff witness to all the lost in your community. The kingdom work of the church is a shared responsibility. We don’t all have the same gifts and abilities, so God has assigned us to specific ministry tasks based upon our own personal set of ministry skills. A successful, Bible centered, missionally-oriented church is one that can truly say, “It takes all kinds… and they’re all here.”

I would like to ask five (5) people to come up front and help me demonstrate something.  If you folks would come and stand in a circle together.  Hold hands.  This is what church looks like to us.  Doesn’t it?!  Everyone in the circle feels connected and Jesus is in the center.  This is the vision of what church looked like when I grew up and maybe this was the vision of church for your life too.  Or even if you did not grow up in a church family, but are here now… maybe this is what you feel and experience here.  Being together is good.  Jesus at the center of us is good. 

But I want you to notice something with me.  Notice where I am (and you are) in relation to this circle.  I am outside.  You are on the outside.  And being outside the church often means…outsiders only see Christians back sides!  Yikes!  Not always our best feature.  Does this vision of church look inviting?  Does this help you overcome your personal failures to find forgiveness? Does this look like a church being and doing the forgiving work of grace in the world?   Would our friend Barnabas from our story today stand here like this?   

Now, I am going to ask our friends to stay in a circle.  But move just their right hands into a pile of right hands holding together in the middle.  Notice how they are holding each other.  Support, unity, and love are there.  And how Jesus, of course, remains in the center.  Now, friends take your left hands and hold them palm up and look outside of the circle.  

This is what a missional, transformed to transform church looks like.  Connected with each other, centered on Jesus, but reaching out to others…extending Jesus to them.  Rooted inward deeply in love with Jesus… but also, extended graciously outward into our hurting and broken world!  What a vision!

Friends, we have only one message to share with the world.  One message to preach/teach.  Our goal is to preach Jesus, crucified and resurrected.  Jesus loves people.  All people!  Jesus forgives people.  Jesus redeems people.  Jesus transforms people to transform other people.  And clearly, our God in Jesus uses anyone, including former failures.

Ridge is God’s family… and we are challenged to be like Barnabas as we support each other in this amazing calling!  Each of us has a unique set of talents and gifts, as well as a distinctive personality. God calls us to perform tasks for Him that are good matches for our unique abilities.

Most of all, dear friends, if we are going to follow Jesus, if we are going to answer the call of God to make disciples, if we are going to transform the world, if we are going to be and do church in the world, then our closed circle vision of church needs to be transformed into an extended circle of care and compassion… offering Jesus’ hope, unconditional love, and His purposeful meaning for life!  Let’s be transformed to transform. Let us pray…