Jentezen Franklin - Overcoming the Fear of Failure
I wanna preach to you today about how to break loose from fear. How to break loose from specifically, and it applies to all fear, but I feel like that God wants His people to be a fearless people, a courageous people, a people who walk in faith, not in fear. And I wanna talk about overcoming and breaking free from the fear of failure. Something that we all fear and that we all face at some point in our lives is the fear of failure. Whenever we endeavor to do new things, the fear of failure will raise its ugly head.
The Bible said fear is a spirit. Especially when God is leading you into a new thing. You know, He said in Isaiah, "Behold I do a new thing, shall you not perceive it"? Or will you let fear keep you out of the new thing that God wants to do in your life? I believe the enemy wants us to settle. I believe the enemy wants us to get complacent. I believe the enemy wants us to stop dreaming, stop having vision, stop acting like that the God that we serve can do anything, and can open any door, and can make anything happen that He puts in your heart to do. We need to be a courageous, faith filled, dreaming, full of victory people.
Am I in the right church this morning? I'm just checking. Check that corpse beside you and say, "If we need to, we can call a mortician". Anytime you take a new job, the spirit of fear of failure will try to talk you out of it. Anytime you fall in love and get in a new relationship, the spirit of fear will tell you, "Be careful, be careful". The spirit of fear will tell you when you create a new product, if you have a company, "You spend a lot of money just on faith investing. It's probably not gon' make it, it's probably gonna fail".
Any time you invest money in a property or something, the fear of failure, we risk failure. When corporations launch new cars, they spend millions and millions of dollars on cars they don't know if anybody is gon' buy 'em or not. They take huge million-dollar risk on things, the world does. But faith people sit around on their blessed assurance, afraid, afraid to try something new, afraid to risk, afraid to fail. Change requires faith. We need to stay fresh, we need to stay faith filled. There lived a man who never risked, he never laughed, he never tried. But then one day, he passed away, and his insurance was denied. They said since the guy never really lived, then he really never died. What a big zero, amen. Of all the things that we will have God lead us to do, sometimes we will experience a spirit of the fear of failure. It'll stop you from becoming what God meant you to be. You will live a life of regret, a life of could have, should have, wish I would have.
There's a story of a guy who came over to America who couldn't speak English. He was terrified of failing. And he went and got Him an English tutor. And he said, "I want you to teach me. I want you to teach me how to order in a restaurant and not embarrass myself. I'm really afraid I'm gonna humiliate myself". So, he said, "It's real easy. Just say these three words, Hamburger," he said, "Hamburger". He said, "Say it again". "Hamburger, hamburger, ham". He said, "Okay, hamburger, French fries, second word, French fries, and third word Coke, or Coca Cola". So, he went into the restaurant, he was terrified, breaking out in a sweat, what was those three words? He walked up and he said, "Hamburger". They said, "Yes". "French fries". "Yes". "Coca Cola". "Yes".
Man, he was amazed. And after ordering that for about a month, he went back to the teacher and he said, "I'm 15 pounds heavier, and I need three more words, I wanna eat breakfast". He said, "It's real simple. Just say egg, toast, and juice". But he went in and sat down, the waitress walked over, he's feeling real confident. She said, "What would you like for breakfast"? He said, "Eggs". The waitress said, "Would you like them boiled? Would you like them scrambled? Would you like them with cheese"? And he said, "Toast". "Would you like wheat toast? Would you like raisin bread? Would you like white bread? What kind of bread would you like"? "Juice, juice". "Tomato, do you want tomato? Do you want apple? Do you want orange juice"? He thought a minute, panicked, "Hamburger, French fries, Coke".
Oh come on, better preach. A lot of Christians live a hamburger, French fry, Coke their whole life. Just because in that moment when they have to confront that uncomfortable place, they retreat back to the comfort zone. God doesn't want us to live a hamburger, French fry, Coke life. He says, "I have so much more for you, but you gotta believe, and you gotta step out by faith". A lot of folks live a life that is lower than what God wants them to live. You'll never please God by playing it safe. Give me a big amen on that. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. I had to learn that as a pastor, I had to learn that as a leader, that you cannot please God unless you're risking.
Faith is risk. Faith is moving beyond what you've already done, and attempting something that you feel the Lord nudging you to do. In the parable in Matthew 25 of the talents, one man had two talents, one man was given five talents, and one man was given one talent. And the one that had two talents returned four, and the one that had five returned ten, and the one that had one returned nothing. And when he was asked, "Why didn't you do anything with what you were given"? He said, quote, "I was afraid. I was afraid, and I buried it in the ground". Verse 25, the scripture said, he said, "I was afraid, and I buried it". Verse 26 is the Master's response. "You wicked, unprofitable servant".
That is strong language from sweet Jesus. "You are wicked". What did this guy do? Was he a womanizer? Was he a drug add... what was he doing? You are wicked when you bury the potential and you take it with you to the grave. The richest place in America is not the oil field, it's the graveyard. There are books that were never written because fear stopped people from doing it. There are businesses that were never started because fear stopped people from doing it. There were dreams that were never realized, they're in the grave, they're buried, and God says, "When I call you, I don't just save you and give you an identity, I give you a purpose, but it will require you to shake free from the spirit of the fear of failure and try new things".
Give me a big amen right there. We are so afraid of risk, and of failure. We don't risk, we don't venture, we don't try. And God says, "You cannot please me". There was a tourist who saw an old farmer sitting out on his old shack on a bunch of acreage, about a 100 acres of land. He had a old cabin there. He's sitting out on the front porch, and the old man had a scraggly beard, and he's sitting out there in overalls, and sucking on a straw, chewing on a straw in his mouth from one of the wheat fields that he just got a wild... You know how you do that. I used to do that when I was kid, and just chewing on it, sitting up on his front porch. And the man walked up to him, and he said, "Sir, do you own this land"? And he said, "Yes, I do".
And he just kept on chewing on that straw. And he said, "Well sir, what are you gon' do with it? You gon' grow cotton? 'Cause it's", he said, "No, I'm not gon' grow any cotton 'cause I'm afraid the boll weevils will come and eat it". And he said, "Well, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna grow some corn"? He said, "No, I'm not gon' grow any corn. I'm afraid the locus will come and eat the corn if I grow it". He said, "Well, what about you just get you some cattle and let 'em eat out in that beautiful field". He said, "I'm afraid the price of beef will go down. I don't wanna get any cattle". He said, "Well, what are you gonna do with all this land"? He said, "Nothing. I plan to play it safe and do nothing". He's sitting on 75 acres of nothing. Barren wasteland.
And a lot of us do exactly the same thing. We play it safe in life, and our potential becomes a barren wasteland that could have produced so much. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You cannot please Him without faith. How do we overcome the fear of failure? Number one, remember that everybody fails. The failure rate of the human race is 100%. All qualify for membership in the club of failures. Everybody fails. James 2 said, "We all fail in many ways". "All have sinned," Galatians 3 said, "And come short of the glory of God".
In major league baseball, you know what it takes to be a superstar? You only have to hit the ball good 300 times, and you can get, and you can fail 700 times and be incredibly successful, but you have to fail to win. That was a better point than you let on like it was. Turn to somebody and say, "You might be a superstar and not know it". The fear of failure, the fear of failure will destroy you. Recognize that failure is not final. Proverbs 24:16, "A righteous man falls seven times a day and rises again". Don't camp around the fire of failure, get up and try again. Don't spend time looking at the past, at what you should've done, and could've done. If you've fallen, and you failed, get up, dust yourself off, and say, "In the name of Jesus, I will not give up". Most of us quit too soon. Recognize that there are benefits to failure.
Psalms 119 said, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now that I've failed, I keep your word". How many people have we seen go crazy and have a catastrophic failure, and it humbled them and got 'em back to God, and got 'em back to their family, and got 'em back right where they needed to be? Failure can help us discover our one true talent.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of America's greatest writers. But let me tell you how his miracle of writing was born. He was fired. He was a customer service clerk, and he hated his job. He absolutely... let me clue you in on this. If you hate your job, it's a matter of time before you gon' lose your job. I'll just tell you. You can hide it for a while, but if you really hate your job, you gon' get fired. Go on and be looking now, I'm just trying to help you. If you hate your job, you hate the people you work for, you hate everything, you hate your boss, go on and you gon' get fired. I promise you, it's coming. So, you can go voluntarily and jump off the board, or you can wait till they throw Jonah off the boat, but you're going off 'cause that's just how it is.
Alright. What was I saying? Okay, so he lost his job, true story, he lost his job. And he came home, and he was despondent. And he laid his head on the kitchen table in front of his wife, and he started saying, "I can't even provide for my family. I'm such a failure". And he did that several days. He just lay his head on the, "I can't even provide for my family. I'm such a failure". And his wife said, "Well," she came over one day to the table, and she had a notepad and a pen, and she set it down on the table, and she said, "You said you always wanted to write but you didn't have the time. Well now you have the time, write". And he wrote, "The Scarlet Letter".
You will always, you will always, if you trust God, if you go through a failure, God will help you find your place. Ray Kroc failed at real estate, failed in sales. In Southern California, he bought a hamburger stand that was struggling from two brothers named the McDonald brothers, and then he made it into a big fast food chain that has been killing America ever since, amen. I'm just kidding. Colonel Sanders was 67, 67 when he started finger licking good chicken. Some of you can't wait to go get a bucket this morning. Sixty-seven. Man, 67. What if he had retired? He would have missed the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sixty-seven. It's a big deal. Failure drove him to something else. Move on.
Turn to somebody and say, "Move on". You should've found out what you're not supposed to do. I'll tell you something else in closing, if you'll let it. Proverbs 14:4 says, "Where there's no ox, you have a clean stall". What does that mean? "But with much increase comes the strength of that ox". That's agricultural language. "With no ox, you have a clean stall". Agricultural language is saying kindly, as the farmers know here, there's no doo doo in the stall. But if you wanna be productive, you gon' step in some every once in a while. You're gonna fail. If I'm gonna build a business, there's gonna be some mess occasionally. If I'm gonna build a church, there's gonna be some doo doo that you step in.
I know that's crude, but that's what it feels like too. If you're gonna have a family, there's gonna be a mess occasionally. You don't have one without the other. You can have a clean stall and live there by yourself. Have you ever had a dog in the house that lived with you? You know if you have, you need a scrub brush and you need some Ajax or something, 'cause they're gonna do something sooner or later. And that's fine if you don't want that, but if you want that dog and you get the joy out of it, you gon' have to deal with the mess. You can't have one without the other.
Clean stall, nothing else. Ox and productivity, then you're gon' step in some I'm telling you, I'm preaching better than you're letting on right now. If you've never failed, get married. Alright, I'mma go better than that. If you've never failed, get you some teenagers, get you some children. It's a messy stall. If you've never failed, have some kids, get married. I guarantee you, you will have some failures. I guarantee you, but it's worth it. Live life full of faith, hallelujah. This is the faith that overcomes the world.
I know I'm gonna be attacked. There's some things I get into, and I know it's gonna be controversial. But I'd rather do that than sit back and just, kinda, chew on a straw on my front porch. My whole barren wasteland back here that could've been so fruitful. Raise your hands and say, "Lord, here's my talent, here's my gifts, here's everything that I have. I give it to you. I'm ready for fresh change. I rebuke the fear of failure. I will not give up, I will not quit, I will do what God has called me and put me on this earth to do. If I have mess, I'd rather have my family with the mess than not have my family. So, I thank you. I thank you right now that your grace is sufficient for me".