Hope That is Greater Than Your Failures
1 Peter 1:1-7
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuinenessof your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Video for this Service can be viewed @ March 20, 2022
"Failure is a necessary ingredient for success"
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently"
Henry Ford
May I confess that early in my life I had the audacity to think that in seeing other people's mistakes and failures and learning from them that I could avoid making any of my own. Now, this practice did in fact save me great heartache in many areas of my life. But this arrogance created a blindness that kept me from seeing the reality of areas I needed to grow in.
Like the time I was trying to prove to the kids in the neighborhood that I knew more about fixing bikes than they did. Sometimes they brought me their bike to do some work on it. But one time a friend came over to ask my help in adjusting a new type of brake that I was not very familiar with. It had both rear AND front brakes. I decided faking my way through it was the best option so he would not lose confidence in me. I did a few minor adjustments and said, "let me take it for a spin to make sure it works okay."
I got on the bike and went tearing down the driveway. When I got up to a pretty fast speed, I grabbed the front and rear lever brakes and squeezed them as hard as I could. I remember being launched into the air as the front tire grabbed hold. The bike and I went spiraling out of control and landed in heap of dust on the driveway. My friend came running up and seeing that his bike was okay said, "that was so cool!" I did not feel what he was feeling. My body was in pain and I was humiliated with my first experience with front brakes on a bike.
My character needed to be refined. This is part of God's ongoing work as I depend on the Holy Spirit more than myself! We all have areas of failure that will give us opportunities to learn. This Sunday we will be looking at the Apostle Peter's life and what we can learn from this impetuous and impulsive person!
Grateful to journey together with you,
Pastor John