A Successful Failure – Jeremiah’s Example

Introduction

Well, here we are at the end of another year. I don’t know about you, but that’s hard to grasp at times. I think maybe a sure sign that you’re over the hill is that time goes by faster because you’re going downhill now. But it seems like I’m just getting used to writing twenty nineteen. And now I have to get used to writing twenty twenty. This time of year is or can be at least a powerful time for us. It should be a time of reflection as you look back upon this past year.

Many of us will look back with tears. We’ll look back at some joy at some fulfilled opportunities, and most of us will look back with some regret at some opportunities that we let slip by and failed. We can look back at this past year and think of a lot of things that have happened in twenty nineteen.

We said our earthly goodbyes to many loved ones, family members, and we’ve wept together over that. But we’ve said earthly hello. To some new life. New babies have entered this world and entered into our lives in 2019, and announcements of even more is to come, and we can rejoice. Look back at other goodbyes that we’ve had to say. We live in a transient time and in a transient city, and so we’ve had to say just temporal goodbyes to those that have passed through our life and have moved on to other pastures.

Some this is our last service, and others who will have a little while.

Four of my favorite people have announced that they’ll be leaving us, but I’m sad for me, but happy for them that they’re getting a little bit closer to heaven by moving to Alabama think I literally heard some of your eyes roll just then. And it’s been a personal loss for some of us, some greater than others. To Greg’s announcement last Sunday, I’ve my playlist on my iPhone has changed. I’m playing those sad breakup songs from the 80s. If you leave me now, please don’t go. But we need to recognize that 2020 brings with it some challenges because of these changes. Also some wonderful opportunities. Opportunities for us as individual Christians and as a church to grow together. To be able to fill the gap of those losses and to rejoice again for those good things.

Because 2019 also showed some great life.

A real challenge for every Christian that is here today to decide to grow.

Some of you make New Year’s resolutions, and statistics show that the two greatest New Year’s resolutions are number one, to lose weight, number two, to deal with maybe financial problems and paying off debt. That could be overwhelming. Your debt is the size of the economy of some smaller countries, you might think, I can’t do this. If you’re like me and losing weight means you need to lose really an entire person to be where the doctor says you need to be, that can be overwhelming. But let’s just think about one change. Paying off one debt or losing one pound, that’s where it begins. And so I want to challenge you in your spiritual growth to not to be overwhelmed by the maybe a hundred things that you need to change and improve in your life, but what’s one thing?

What’s one move that you can make to make you spiritually stronger? Maybe that’s one worship period that you failed to be faithful in attendance to that you can add to your arsenal. Maybe it’s one work that you could do for the church or for your brethren or those who are in need. Just one thing that you can do. And commit to that change and commit to that improvement in your spiritual life. And I hope this morning’s lesson will be maybe the impetus, the motivation that you’ve been looking for and need to do just that one thing. To grow closer to God. And grow deeper in your service to God. This morning I want to talk about an oxymoron. You know what an oxymoron is? It’s a figure of speech that we use that many times involves two words, although it can be a phrase or an entire sentence that seem contradictory at its face value, but when you look at it, it kind of makes sense.

We have a lot of oxymorons, don’t we? Bittersweet. A small crowd. An original copy. A jumbo shrimp. We use those oxymorons a lot to make that point, make it more memorable or maybe more impactful to us. And this morning I want to use this oxymoron that we see from the life of Jeremiah that I hope will be our motto as well. That Jeremiah, who we’re studying in our side classroom, the prophet of God, could be seen as a successful failure. Let’s think about Jeremiah. If you’re in that side classroom, you’ve got a head start, but you might turn with me to the book of Jeremiah, chapter one. We want to use Jeremiah as our example this morning. And first I want to talk about what do we mean that he is a successful failure.

1. Jeremiah, You’re Going to Be a Failure

Jeremiah prophesied during the reign of the last five kings of the southern tribes of Judah. Only one of those, Josiah, was a good king. And even the reforms that Josiah instituted, that Jeremiah was a part of, seemed to be superficial at best and were only temporary, certainly. Because Judah is on the pathway of Big Brother Judah or Big Brother Israel. They’re going to be judged by God because of their unfaithfulness. They’re engaged in idolatry, idolatry of the worst sort. Idolatry that involves rebellion against God, bowing down to other foreign gods, even to the point of sacrificing their own children in service to those false gods. With that comes the neglect of their fellow man, the neglect of God, the rebellion against God, his word, his will, in every sense of the word.

And Jeremiah is going to prophesy, Jeremiah is going to preach for approximately 40 years to this nation. And at the end of that 40 years of preaching, of pleading with them to repent, they haven’t repented. As far as we can tell, Jeremiah has not moved the needle at all. He has not delayed God’s judgment. His work, his cry for the people to repent and turn back to God, will not delay God’s judgment by one day. And won’t soften the captivity. The people do not listen to Jeremiah.

In fact, in Jeremiah chapter 1, if you’ve turned there, God, when he calls Jeremiah to prophesy, tells him to get ready. That’s going to be the case. Jeremiah, you’re going to be a failure. They’re not going to listen. Jeremiah chapter 1. Let’s begin in verse 17, where the Lord says, Therefore, prepare yourself and arise and speak to them all that I command you. And do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them. For behold, I’ve made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I’m with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

And so God says, Jeremiah, here’s your task. I want you to go and preach to these people. Tell them what they’ve done wrong, plead with them on my behalf to repent so that I don’t have to do this judgment against them. But they’re not going to listen.

Turn over to chapter 7 of Jeremiah. It’s one thing to ignore the pleadings of a man of God. It’s another to actively call for his death. Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 26, yet they did not obey me, Jeremiah 7, verse 26. They did not obey me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. Jeremiah was a failure. God told him, You’re going to fail, Jeremiah. The people rebelled against the word of God. They sought to kill Jeremiah. And they did not repent. And so what do you think Jeremiah’s response to that’s going to be?

Turn over to chapter 26. You might expect someone under those circumstances to labor and to preach for about 40 years and know up front and to see it fulfilled on a daily basis that these people aren’t listening. You might expect that man to experience a little bit of discouragement. Look in chapter 26 of Jeremiah, beginning in verse 7. So the priest and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it happened when Jeremiah had made an end of the speaking of all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You will surely die. And so Jeremiah grows despondent. Jeremiah will even say, I tried not to deliver the message.

2. Jeremiah Was Truly a Successful Failure

But I couldn’t help but to speak the truth. You imagine being Jeremiah. We’ve seen the ways in which Jeremiah, this prophet, could be deemed a failure, but think of the ways that he was truly a successful failure. Jeremiah was a success because Jeremiah did what God told him to do. God said, speak to them, they won’t listen. Preach to them, they won’t repent, but do it anyway. And so Jeremiah did what a servant of God should do. He preached anyway. He pleaded anyway.

But a success.

We have Jeremiah as that example of someone who kept doing what God told him to do, though he was not able to see tangible, visible results of change in the hearts and the lives of people. And we could go throughout the scriptures and find other people who were equally a successful failure. Maybe the greatest, the most perfect example of that would be our Savior. I believe you could make the argument, the effective argument that Jesus, by the same standard of Jeremiah, was a successful failure. He viewed, he would have been viewed as a failure by the people of the world. Here is this man who called himself a king, but yet he set up no earthly kingdom. Here’s a man who came to be the Savior of His people, but his own people mocked him, spat upon him, and put him to death.

But what a success.

Ever put into motion.

3. The Church Will Be a Successful Failure

And so we have an example. Nay, we have a standard set before us that as God’s people, if we’re to truly be a success, we’re probably going to have to be successful failures. In the sense that we’re going to be viewed as failures by much of the world. Gauged and judged by their standards, we will look like abject failures. But when held up with the standard of God’s word and God’s will, we’ll be seen to be a success. Let’s look at some examples and some ways in which we can be a successful failure. The church, the New Testament church being born out and lived out today, will be, like Jeremiah and like our Savior before us, will be a successful failure. If judged by the world’s standards, even the religious world, we may look like a failure.

And like Jeremiah, there may be times in which we’re tempted to give up and to lose hope and lose consistency and to lose the steadfastness to do things according to God’s will. But like Jeremiah, we will hold true to the task set before us to be a success. Look with me in the book of Ephesians. If we think about the church and the work that God has given it to do, in Ephesians chapter 4, we recognize that what made Jeremiah truly a success is that he was able, even through his discouragements and the despondency, he was able to keep his eye on the big picture. That is an absolute necessity. When you’re being judged and being called a failure by sticking to God’s word and God’s standards, by being unwilling to conform to the things and the models of this world that might make us appear as a greater success, we have to keep our eyes on the big picture.

And that’s certainly true when it comes to the church. By what standard will we judge ourselves? And by what standard will we finally be judged to be a success or a failure? In Ephesians chapter 4, we’re reminded of the spiritual focus of this body.

Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended. What does it mean that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He also descended, he who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens, that he might feel all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Do you see the model?

4. Successful Failures in Our Evangelism

Do you see the eternal plan that was brought to fruition in Christ of this spiritual body and its spiritual purpose? And the standard by which it should be judged, and yet the standard by which many times it is falsely judged. What makes a church a success? What makes a church a failure? If we do things God’s way, if we focus upon the spiritual rather than the carnal, like Jeremiah, we’ll be a glorious successful failure. That’s true in regard to our evangelism. Maybe it’s clearer seen in the idea of evangelism in the teaching of the lost. That we’ll be successful failures. Many times when we think about sharing the law, sharing the gospel, teaching the word to someone else, we want results. As well as we should.

And so we try plan after plan, system after system, hoping that we’ll find that one diamond, that one system, that one method that if we just implemented it at the right time, at the right place with the right people, that would be the formula that’ll convert everybody to the Word of God. And so we try. And we try.

After failure. But remember this that the Apostle Paul taught. Look over in the book of 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Let’s remember what our task is and to recognize that, like Jeremiah, every time, every time the gospel is taught in its simplicity and truth, every time the word of God is delivered, it’s a success. Because you remember the Apostle Paul had said in the book of 1 Corinthians that his job was to plant. Apollet’s job was to water, but God gave the increase. Every time the apostle Paul planted the word of God, it was a success. Whether he could see the increase or not. Look what he said to the Corinthian brethren in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Begin with me in verse 14. He says of his own work in preaching the gospel, but thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, we are the aroma of death to death, and to the other, the aroma of life to life. For who is sufficient for these things? Paul says God leads us in triumph in preaching the gospel. Our job, he says, is to diffuse the fragrance of Jesus Christ. To some that will be the aroma of life. To others, it’ll be the aroma of death. In other words, some will listen, some will reject, but either way, God leads us in triumph.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t care. But it does mean that we understand our job may be much like Jeremiah’s.

5. By What Measure Will You Measure Your Family?

By what gauge, by what measure will you measure your family? A success or a failure? We see that the world continually changes not just the standard, but the very definition of family. And so we should not be surprised that it’s changing from God’s plan the definition of success and failure of a family. You may have absolutely nothing to pass on to your children in your will when you die. You may be in a financial situation where all your children inherit is the debt to plan your funeral.

In music, in education. But if you’ve raised your children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, if both by your teaching and by your example you’ve imparted unto them the importance of living a life in God.

6. What About Your Own Personal Life?

What about your own personal life? Are you a Jeremiah? Do you get discouraged? Do you feel like you’re the only one and nobody’s listening and nobody’s doing what they ought to do? Do you sometimes want to throw your hands up and say, what’s the use? But you see the big picture. And so, despite the opposition, despite the discouragement, despite the failure. You keep on keeping on. And you get up every day and you live your life for God. You stumble and fall, but you get back up. You come back to Him and you live for Him. And you realize that it’s a wonderful thing. That it’s okay to be a failure by the world’s standards. As long as you’re a successful failure. So we encourage you this morning in this upcoming years to be a Jeremiah.

Conclusion

Do what you know is right. Serve God to the best of your ability. Recognizing you won’t receive the rewards in this life, the accolades, the applause in this life. But you can truly be a success in the eyes of Him for whom we live. Would you be a success this morning in giving your life to Christ? Would you believe Him, repent of your sins, confess your faith before this good audience, and be baptized to wash away your sin. The world may mock, the world may ridicule. But like Jeremiah, it could be a wonderful success in the eyes of God. Maybe you’ve done that, but you failed. Truly failed. To live up to the standards of God and in your weakness and discouraging moments like Jeremiah had, you’ve lost hope and you’ve given up.

What a wonderful way to start a new year with a new life and with a new hope. We can help you this morning as you render obedience to the gospel or help you in any spiritual way, let it be known. Right now, as together we stand and as we sing.