"For Those Whose Past Decisions & Failures Haunt Them" 2 Corinthians 2:12-14A Message 14

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.  Within 2 months, John Landy eclipsed the record by 1.4 seconds.  On August 7, 1954, the two met together for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he would win, but as he neared the finish he was haunted by the question, “Where is Bannister?”  As he turned to look back and see where his competitor was, Bannister slid by him and took the lead.  Landy later told a Time magazine reporter, “If I hadn’t looked back, I would have won!”

One of the most descriptive pictures of the Christian life in the Bible is of an athlete competing in a race. First Corinthians 9:24-27 tells us that discipline is the key to winning. In Hebrews 12:1-2, we are encouraged to lay aside anything that might hinder our spiritual advancement and to stay focused on Christ. And in Philippians 3:12-13, the apostle Paul said, “I press on,…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”  And today we will look at another essential piece of divine wisdom for those of us who while running our race have made decisions—course deviations—if you will and in looking back over our shoulder are wondering if we may have lost our place in the center of God’s will.

I doubt there is anyone in this room who does not every once in a while look back on decisions that were made in the past and wonder “what if”?

What if I had finished school?

What if I had stayed with the company?

What if I had not quit?

What if I had gotten some better advice?

What if we had not sold the house?

What if I hadn’t made that decision?

What if we had been more attentive parents?

What if I had been closer to the Lord?

I could literally go on and on with “what if’s” for hours and still not exhaust all the possibilities.  The fact is, we all have some “what if’s” don’t we?  Some of our “what if’s” cause us to think and live as second class citizens in God’s Kingdom because we think we missed God’s will for our lives and are now simply taking up space waiting for heaven.  For others, the “what if” may not have had anything to do with sin at all—but rather a decision made in the past resulting from a change of mind that truly redirected your life path and now you’re wondering if that decision was God’s will for your life.

Maybe it was changing your mind about going to college, where to go to college, or about what to major in.

Maybe it was a change of direction regarding your career, being married, having kids, or leaving a certain church or even resigning a ministry position.

It could have even been changing your mind about going to the doctor sooner, getting more tests, or not going at all.

Again, life is filled with “what-if’s” that come as a result of us making all kinds of decisions and all kinds of course adjustments and even course deviations in our lives.  And many times, people find themselves getting wrapped around the axle—worried, concerned, and troubled about whether that decision or change of course has ruined their ability to be of any use to God in any kind of positive way.  Well, if this is you—God has some great news for you and it simply this:

“If you are living out your identity in Christ—where you are right now is the most important place you can be because God is manifesting Christ in that place through you no matter how you got there.”

Let me restate it this way: 

“Regardless of how we get where we are—where we are is the place God will use us if we are living out our identity in Christ.”

And if you’re still not getting it, let’s try it this way:

“If, as believers, we truly see ourselves as God sees us as those who are completely forgiven, totally accepted, wholeheartedly loved, and absolutely secure in Christ and then live joyfully contagious, guilt free, genuinely real, and spiritually confident, Christ-centered lives the people around us will notice and be either positively or negatively impacted by the Gospel regardless of where we are or how we got there.”

This is Paul’s message in 2 Corinthians 2:12-14 so let’s turn there and read it.  

12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of theknowledge of Him in every place.

Essentially, Paul is recounting for us his decision to change his mind and not pursue an open door of opportunity God had provided for him in terms of ministry.  Paul had made the decision to go to Troas to start a church and upon his arrival he was well-received and obviously had God’s hand of blessing upon him and his endeavors.  He makes the point that the Lord had opened a door of ministry for him.  And then to many people’s surprise Paul changes his mind about Troas because he is experiencing a lack of peace about the situation in Corinth and Titus who he had sent there and has yet to catch up with.

He changes his mind and leaves.  He leaves the place where he was experiencing an effective ministry and had a wide open door for more ministry simply because he was concerned over Titus and the church situation in Corinth.  And the interesting thing I see in this passage is that Paul doesn’t tell us if in the long run his decision was a good one, a bad one and/or one he regretted.  In fact, he doesn’t talk about any regrets.  He doesn’t seem worried or concerned that maybe he missed God’s will for his life in leaving this place where God had opened a door of ministry for him.  And apparently he is not wondering if God is displeased with him and is not going to use him any longer because he changed his mind and walked away from a ministry opportunity God had opened for him.  None of these things appear to be a concern for Paul.

The reason why Paul is not concerned is because he realizes that God is in control and that God always leads His people into effective ministry no matter where they are or how they got there if they are living out their identities in Christ.  And in these three verses, Paul raises a vital truth for those believers who are wondering if their past decisions, course changes, and yes, even their sins have rendered them not useful and even unusable to God.  And here it is:

When it comes to usefulness for Christ, where we are and how we got there is not as important as who we are in Christ. (12-14a)

Paul is not concerned with where he is.  His concern is not that he be in Troas or Macedonia.  His concern is that he is in Christ.  And he knows that if he is in Christ—that is—he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and he is living out his faith in Christ and enjoying his relationship with Christ—he knows God will use him anywhere!

Paul understands that life is too full of change to be so concerned with where you are or what you are doing that you can’t focus on the more important question of “who you are”.  He realizes that if you are in Christ and living like it and enjoying your relationship with Christ that where you happen to be and how you got there really isn’t all that important—not in the Big Picture.  And so after explaining his situation and acknowledging his change of course—he instead of apologizing for it simply thanks God “WHO always leads us in triumph ‘in Christ’”.  In other words, regardless of where we are or how we got there—if we are in Christ then God is leading us to spiritual triumph for His glory, our joy, and the spiritual benefit of others and He is using our present situation, location and circumstances to do so.

So, if you made one of those course deviation decisions in your past which has perhaps landed you somewhere in life you never imagined causing you to wonder if you missed God’s best for your life and have to settle for “left-overs”—don’t even go there!

What Paul is saying is if you are a child of God—even though you have made some imperfect decisions and even though some of those decisions may have  changed the landscape of your life—God not only isn’t finished with you—He is actually right now leading you in triumph so that you can live above those imperfect and perhaps even sinful choices and their consequences.

In other words our “mess” is going to become God’s message as He leads us through the mistakes, the failures, and yes, even the sin of our lives to become exactly the people He wants us to be.  And note that the Bible says—“God ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ.”  It doesn’t say that God leads us in triumph only when we have it all together or are living lives of pristine obedience or always reading our Bibles and being in church or always making good decisions and choices.  No, The Bible makes the point that if you are in Christ—God is leading you right now in triumph and to triumph even as He uses yours and my imperfect and often biblically uninformed decisions to do it.

So, how does that work when we are living in disobedience to the Lord?

How does God lead us in triumph as believers when we have made sinful choices?  How does He work to take the “mess” we may have made or may be making of our lives and turn it into His Message of the Grace?

Let me give you one way from the Scriptures that shows how God does this.

In Matthew 26:31-35 Jesus told His disciples that they all would desert Him when He went to the cross.  But Peter exclaims with a certain amount of pride that even if all of the other disciples deserted and denied Christ—He would never deny Him and would even die with Him if necessary.  Then in Luke 22:31-34 Jesus tells Peter that on the night He is betrayed, Peter will deny three times that he even knows Jesus.  And before Peter can respond, Jesus tells him—“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and you, once you have repented, strengthen your brothers.”

In other words, Peter’s mess was going to become God’s message to strengthen believers everywhere who having failed the Lord in some way, shape, or form, need to know that God is not through with them and can use them and in fact will use them and their mess to help others for His glory and their joy.  Now, how did God take Peter’s mess and turn it into His message of grace and restoration?

How did He lead Peter in triumph in the midst of Peter’s really great and incredibly cruel and heinous sin of denying the Lord in His time of deepest need?  Well, for starters God had to crush Peter’s pride before He could use him in any kind of significant way.  And oftentimes the way God crushes our pride is by allowing us to fail and fail greatly.

Much of our sin and especially the sin in our lives that exposes who we are and who we aren’t is used by God to humble us and show us that without Him and apart from His enabling grace we are nothing and can do nothing for Him.

And this is what needs to happen and is happening in Peter’s life when Jesus tells him he is going to deny the Lord three times and as Peter actually does indeed deny his Lord on the night before His crucifiction.  Peter needs to have his sinful pride crushed.

Well, we know the rest of the story—Peter after denying the Lord three times in a short span of time—is crushed once he realizes what he has done and he breaks down with weeping and great remorse as the Lord looks at him after the last denial.  God’s work of using Peter’s sin to crush his pride has begun and is being accomplished in Peter and in this sense God is leading Peter in Triumph even as he is sinning against Jesus.

In essence, Jesus began leading Peter to triumph by allowing him to fail and fail miserably.  And again, while that failure crushed Peter’s ugly arrogant pride, the complete work of leading him to triumph is not yet done until we get to John 21.

Turn there with me.

Even though Peter has seen the resurrected Christ twice after Jesus rose from the dead—Peter is still not yet fully restored to the Lord or fully healed from his sin.  He has indeed repented but is in need of being restored to intimacy with Christ and service for Christ.  He, just like us when we sin, needed to be led in triumph through his sin to repentance to restoration to Christ’s fellowship, and ultimately to effective ministry for Christ.

And look at how Jesus does this in John 21:9-17.

As I said earlier Jesus leads Peter to triumph first of all by allowing him to fail.  Then, in verses 9-17, Jesus begins the process of restoring Peter and thus leading him in triumph after his dismal failure by:

1.    Leading him back to face his failure so he could truly repent and move forward.

When Jesus meets with Jesus this third time it is important to note that it is around a charcoal fire.  Remember that it was at a charcoal fire that Peter denied Jesus three times.  Thus, Jesus is bringing Peter back to the charcoal fire--to the scene of the crime if you will to face his past head-on.  YOu can't keep running from your past looking over your shoulder wondering when it will catch up with you.  That is what Peter was doing and it wasn't working.  So Jesus out of great compassion for Peter makes him face his failure so as to be able to deal with it.

Note to the penetrating question Jesus asks Peter:  "Do you love me more than these?"  The "these" is a reference to his brothers--his fellow disciples and their love for Jesus.  Remember that Jesus had warned all of his disciples that they would all desert him but that Peter had protested saying that even if all the rest of these guys denied Jesus--he, Peter, never would.  In essence, he said that he loved Jesus more than these guys did.  So Jesus asks this question making Peter face his pride head on.  Pride was Peter's problem--remember?!  And it was his pride that God crushed through his failure.

Then Jesus followed this question up with two more questions making it a total of three questions around a charcoal fire to match the three denials around a charcoal fire the night in which Peter denied Jesus.

2.    Leading him to see that his failure accomplished God’s purpose in crushing his pride.

In asking Peter three times if he loved Jesus, the Lord is showing Peter through his responses that he indeed has had his pride crushed and is now fit to serve.

In the first two questions, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with an "agapao" type of love.  This is what we more commonly refer to as "agape" love which is the highest form of love--the greatest degree of love that one can have for another.  

But Peter responds that his love for Jesus is not agapao love but rather "phileo" love.  This is more of a fondness or a friend's love.  The point is that when Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with this great agape love Peter says--Lord I love you but it is with an inferior love.  Do you see a different Peter here?  You should.  The old Peter would have said, Lord you know I love you perfectly.  This new Peter doesn't go there.  He says, Lord I love you and I wish I loved you perfectly but I don't.

Then in the third question, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with a phileo love and Peter says yes that is how I love you.  But Peter is also deeply grieved that the Lord has asked him this three times.  You see, the cleansing of our hearts from sin hurts especially as we are forced to see who we really are.  But it is this cleansing that finally sets us free from our sin and our past.  It is also what helps us to see that God's work is being accomplished in us.

3.   Leading him to use his failure as a strength and an asset in future ministry.

After each of Peter's response Jesus commissions him to care for his people in some way.  The first commission is to tend his lambs.  These lambs Jesus has in mind were sacrificial lambs--future martyrs--if you will.  Remember Jesus' words to Peter when telling him he would fail--when you repent strengthen your brothers.  These were the sacrificial lambs who were soon to be tested and martyred for their faith in Jesus.

Then Jesus tell Peter to shepherd and feed his sheep.  I think it is so powerful that Jesus commissions Peter to his service not because he succeeded but rather because he failed and learned the lessons of his failure.  In other words, that which qualified Peter for ministry was the fact that he had failed and repented--not that he had never blown it.

And how did Peter do in strengthening his brothers—?

 Andrew, his brother, was crucified but did not deny Christ.

Bartholomew was beaten and then crucified but did not deny Christ.

James the older brother of John was beheaded but did not deny Christ.

James the half-brother of Jesus was beaten, thrown off the Temple wall, stoned, and then clubbed to death in Jerusalem but did not deny Christ.

Jude, brother of James,        was crucified but did not deny Christ.

Judas (not Iscariot) was clubbed to death.

Mark was dragged to death in Alexandria.

Matthew was stabbed to death.

Nathaniel was reported to have been flayed and then crucified.

Matthias was stoned and then beheaded in Jerusalem.

Philip was crucified.

Thomas was speared to death.

And finally, Peter himself was given another opportunity to stand for Christ or deny Him several years after the account of John 21.  He stood and was crucified upside down in Rome.

I would say that God did indeed use Peter’s mess—his sinful decision to deny Christ—to make him into the man of God he became and the man of God who ultimately strengthened his fellow disciples and the early church and the persecuted church today to stand firm under persecution so as to not deny Christ.

God led Peter in triumph through his sin and through his recovery by using his failure to develop within him a life message which became his life ministry which if we were to sum it up today would be—

God will turn our mess of sin into His message of grace as He always leads us in triumph no matter how badly we have failed when we repent and turn back to Him.

So, regardless of where you are or how you got there—God’s grace is so powerful that He will always lead you in triumph as you respond humbly to His correction and restoration.