I believe that the price for a full life is mistakes
mistakes are the price for a full life that you have to pay if you learn from them
I believe that hell wants to maim you and mock you with your mistakes
but heaven wants to make you and transform you by your mistakes failure should not become
a prison house where you're held hostage the rest of your life by your mistakes that's not
God's voice that's not God's will that's not God's plan for you the enemy wants us to think that our
failure is final because I've seen us go through things where the enemy tried to take us out by
a failure or a mistake or a terrible choice your mistakes are not final your failure is not final
rejoice not over me o my enemies for when I fall I will rise again when I sit in darkness the light
will come I want somebody to hear me clearly you might have made a mistake but you're not one
you might have failed but you're not a failure you might be down but down is not your destiny
there is a resurrection coming to your dream to your life to your call to your purpose you
might have fallen and you might have failed and you might have made a mistake but you are not a
mistake and God will never define you by the worst mistake and choice you made in life critics will
attackers will haters will people will but God will never define you by your worst mistake
and I need you to thank him that great is his mercy towards us I love the story of Simon Peter
I love the fact that God loved him after he messed up that's why when the angel appeared at the tomb
the angel said Jesus wants me to specifically name one of the the disciples by name
he said go tell my disciples and Simon Peter to meet me in the upper room
the same guy who denied Christ the same guy who lied the same guy who cut a man and got violent
the same guy who fell and failed miserably he said you tell my disciples and you tell peter
he named him specifically I believe because he wanted his critics to hear I'm still I do believe
in my good disciples but I also still believe in my fallen disciples and I'm here to preach to some
people who've messed up and the enemies told you your call is over you're blessed your dream is
is shredded you don't have any hope you don't have any future there is restoration available for you
and he still has his hand on your life in this something that it was Simon Peter who preached
on the day of Pentecost he didn't choose the other 11 he chose the one who messed up
and that's what I've come to prophesy and preached to tonight that some of you have fallen some of
you did it some of you messed up but the Lord sent me to tell you there's still life in your dream
there's still life in your call there's still life in your purpose there's still life in what God has
called you to do realize failure is not final failure is not final we live in a culture that
says if at first you don't succeed give up no you know one reason most of us don't venture out and
start pursuing our God-given dreams in life we are paralyzed by the fear of failure we thought
what if I apply for this job and I don't get it you know what if I ask that person out on a date
and they don't say yes what if I you know do this and it doesn't work they're paralyzed by
failure remember this nobody stubbed his toes standing still I mean if you're moving forward you
are going to stub your toe from time to time but you're also going to move forward I mean I think
of Thomas J Watson the founder of IBM he said the way to succeed is to double your failure rate
what do you mean by that double your failure rate he was saying the more times you try
something the more ventures you pursue yes the more times you're going to fail but you're
also going to succeed more as well you have to fail if you're going to succeed George Bernard
Shaw great novelist had his first five novels rejected Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times but he's
considered one of America's greatest baseball players Thomas Edison discovered 1800 ways
not to make a light bulb but all of those men were tremendous successes guess what the more resumes
you send out yeah the more rejections you'll get but the more likely you'll get a bite on it
the more doors you knock on the more people you share your faith with yeah the more rejections
you're going to have not of you but of Christ but the more opportunities to lead people to Christ
that's why it is important that we understand that failure is not final Dennis Waitley in
his book seeds of greatness says winners work at doing things the majority of the population
are not willing to do do you desire to achieve your God-given purpose in life expect to work hard
and don't be discouraged when other people seem to be making progress and you seem to be standing
still I think of the words of Amy Carmichael that great Christian writer words that have been
an encouragement to me at certain times in my life perhaps you'll find encouraging as well she says
sometimes when we read the words of those who have been more than conquerors we feel almost
despondent I feel that I shall never be like that we think but these people won through step by step
by little bits of wills little denials of self little inward victories by faithfulness
and very little things they became what they are no one sees these little hidden steps
they only see the accomplishment but even so those small steps were taken now listen
to this there is no sudden triumph no sudden spiritual maturity that is the work of the moment
perseverance is the determination to continue pursuing your God-given dreams in spite of
unanticipated unexpected setbacks undeserved criticism and unrelenting hard work
perseverance is the attitude that says I will not give up some of my favorite words about
the value of perseverance come from president Calvin Coolidge press on nothing in the world
can take the place of persistence talent will not nothing is more common than unsuccessful people
with talent genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a proverb education will not the world
is full of educated derelicts persistence and determination alone are overwhelmingly powerful
successful people are those who continue pursuing their God-given dreams but when those unmovable
obstacles come into our life we have one of two choices we can either just give up or like Paul
we can view those problems as brilliantly disguised opportunities to trust in god
what you don't know is that the best lessons I've learned
I've learned through inadequacy and failure disappointment and heartbreak and forgiveness
by the grace of God I've come to the place where I no longer fear failure and I've come to the place
where I will be always grateful for God's grace to forgive but I don't measure up to my
unrealistic standard please men and women please understand only God is adequate
you're not only God is perfect you're not
only Christ can set goals of that high and reach them you can't you do your best
the good news is that God in his grace uses us warts and all there's a wonderful scripture in
Proverbs that's helped me a lot and it says this Proverbs 24 verse 16 it says the righteous person
falls or fails seven times and rises again the perfect the the person that's close to god the
righteous person the holy person you know false fails seven times that's a multiplicity of times
but he rises again in other words it's okay to fail it's okay to to have this fear of failure
but you know we will rise again imagine if it said the stupid person or the idiot falls seven times
okay it doesn't say that it says the holy person the righteous person the person that's close to
God falls or fails seven times but rises again so that's a that's a wonderful promise so maybe
you've fallen down maybe you're not happy where you are in life maybe you have all of these
regrets and say oh yes I I deserve it you know look I'm in this dead end life nothing's working
out for me but it says that you will rise again okay in fact I think our dreams are always on
the other side of our failures and Michael Jordan he says this I've missed more than 9,000 shots in
my career I've lost almost 300 games 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot
and I missed I failed over and over and over again in my life and that
is why I succeed there's failure everywhere there's behavioral failure moral failure
there's failure of making promises to yourself and then breaking them there's just failure everywhere
what do you do when you then hit with failure many people think that once you become a Christian you
never experience failure but that's not true at all some of the people who are closest to God
have experienced failure and what you do with that failure determines the kind of life that you're
going to live many people who experience failure satan the devil that Jesus talks about uses the
failure to bring condemnation and guilt bothers them at night when they try to sleep and the next
thing you know they have a heavy spirit many times their heavy spirit leads to bitterness cynicism
and they quit they give up life they're walking but they're not alive any longer they're making a
living going to their job but that failure haunts them letting down God or their family
their friends and other people have the same failure or worse failure
and instead of it burying them they turn out to become stronger through their failure just like
a bone that's broken they say when it's healed that bone is stronger than before you break it
the Christian life is made up of 10,000 fresh new beginnings today you can have a new beginning with
god he doesn't throw you away because you messed up can we all say amen to that God is a God
of a second chance forget it I've heard people as God is the God of a second chance that's
ridiculous to me how about God is the God of the two millionth chance you're gonna
make it just start a new fresh with God today you can always have a new beginning with God
if you just come to him he will help you Jesus is love even when our love breaks down he picks us up
and you fail the Lord remember his love hasn't changed he loves you don't believe what the devil
says he loves you don't believe what some voice in your mind says he loves you he loves you God
loves you I know he's perfect and you and I are a mess but he loves you that's who the kind of God