What Does The Bible Say About Success & Failure?
Video Timeline
WELCOME
0:00 - Welcome with Matt & Sharon
TALK with Matt Edmundson
06:20 - What Does The Bible Say About Success & Failure?
06:55 - Defining Success
07:30 - Defining Failure
08:57 - What Is Success In God's Eyes?
10:03 - So How Do I Measure Success?
11:55 - Biblical Success
16:22 - Redefining Failure
19:10 - When Failure Is Success
23:31 - Turning Failure Into Something Life-Changingly Amazing
24:44 - Failure Is Not The End Of The Story
25:49 - Are You Successful?
WORSHIP
26:23 - King Of My Heart with lyrics
CONVERSATION STREET with Matt & Sharon
30:45 - Conversation Street
CLOSING WORSHIP
1:00:38 - Grace Alone with Lyrics
Podcast:
What does the Bible say about Success & Failure?
— Matt Edmundson
I was a guest on someone's podcast recently, and they asked me a simple question, "are you successful?". Yes, it is a simple question, but to answer that question becomes complex. First, we have to understand what the word "successful" means.
Defining Success
According to the Cambridge Dictionary - it means "the achieving of the results wanted or hoped for", which, when you think about it, is an expansive definition. For example, I was successful when I turned on my computer to record this talk. Sure, I achieved the desired results - I wanted the computer to turn on, but does that really make me successful?
Defining Failure
And what is the dictionary definition of the word "failure"? Well, Cambridge Dictionary tells us that failure is "the fact of someone or something not succeeding". In other words - failure is the opposite of success. And for many years, I think subconsciously, I saw it like that - very black and white, very binary. You either succeeded, or you failed. Success was good. Failure was bad. It was as simple as that.
But then, of course, life happens. And you realise that maybe there is more to it than that. And when you dig into the Bible, you definitely see there is more to it. So let me introduce another term into the mix here, as the Bible doesn't often use the word "successful", but it does use the word "fruitful". When talking about success, the Bible compares it to a tree that bears fruit - I think it is a beautiful picture of success.
So if success is about achieving a goal, then what goal should I be trying to achieve? How do I measure success? What is success in God's eyes?
What is success in God's Eyes?
What goal should we, as Christians, be trying to achieve? To use Biblical language, what should we be bearing fruit in?
Well, according to the Bible, God wants us to bear fruit in lots of areas, and here's a non-exhaustive list: mediating in God's Word, prayer, generosity, faith, being strong in Him, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and check this one out - self-control! That should be there, should it? A biblically successful life is characterised by self-control - the exact opposite of what most people think a successful life is.
So how do I measure success?
Well, I look at these areas of my life and ask, how much fruit am I bearing in each of them? Notice none of them asks how much money you have in the bank or even if you are married with kids.
So let's dig into this a bit more because there is a principle here that is critical for us when it comes to being successful in life, and it ties into this idea of meaning and purpose. To do that, let's listen in to a conversation Jesus was having with a crowd of people, just like us:
““Who are you?” they asked.
”Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him.”
Biblical Success
For me, these verses contain the essence of everything we need to be successful, to find a life of purpose and meaning and live it out:
Jesus knew who He was - that is identity.
Jesus knew why He was here - that is purpose.
Jesus fulfilled that purpose - He always did what pleased God.
Jesus knew He couldn't do this on His own - God was with Him in this quest.
For me, if you break it right down - this is what you need to know about being successful:
Find out the reason that God has you here on planet earth, and then work really hard at achieving that.
The apostle Paul put it this way:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
Paul knew who he was and why he was here. He also knew that he hadn't obtained everything yet...he hadn't arrived at his goal. So he pressed on and kept working to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
God wants you to be successful.
So fundamental to this, then, is the belief or the idea that God wants you to be successful. Jesus put it this way in the Gospel of John:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide...”
That's interesting, isn't it? But again, we have to take this in balance because that doesn't mean a big house with a fancy car. Success, bearing fruit, is about doing those things that please God; it is about taking hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you.
You cannot be successful by yourself.
But notice the 4th point in all of this - Jesus knew He couldn't do it on His own. And if Jesus couldn't do it on His own - you have no chance. Jesus talked about this again with the disciples. He is talking to them about vines - like grapevines. It was an excellent analogy for them because grapevines would have surrounded them, and Jesus makes the obvious point that a branch cannot bear fruit unless it is connected to the vine. But then He calls Himself the vine, and He says this:
““Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
If true success is about fulfilling your calling and purpose in Christ, then it makes sense that you cannot do this apart from Him. We need Him; we need His grace, His strength, His wisdom. We need the Holy Spirit living in us to do this. And we especially need to be grafted into the vine if we are to understand who we are, our identity, and our purpose because outside of Him, outside of Jesus, it doesn't make sense, and apart from Him, we can do nothing.
Redefining Failure
So with all of that said, I want to look at failure. It is great to talk about success, about how God wants us to bear fruit, it's exciting, it is full of possibility. But, like me, you have days and probably a lot of days where you don't feel like you are bearing fruit and often feel like the exact opposite, that we have failed in some way again.
Of course, there are moral failures that we experience. The Bible calls this sin, and for that, there is forgiveness, there is restoration - it is what the Bible calls repentance.
But there are other failures we experience too. I do wonder if we need to reframe failure in our thinking and stop seeing it as a bad thing all the time. It's not great to fail your exams at school or your driving test. I don't want to fail as a husband or parent. And it's a nightmare when the Internet fails in our house! But is failure really a bad thing? The obvious example is when I watched each of our kids learn to walk as babies. I lost count of how many times they fell, how many times they failed. But it didn't stop them - it didn't stop any of us. We kept going. Like Paul, we pressed on. In other words, without failure, we would have never achieved success. Each failure, we learned something, and we adapted accordingly.
The other side of failure
But to do this, we need to see that there is another side to failure that we have to understand, and that is simply this - what we might deem as failure might well be a huge success.
When failure is success
What do I mean by this? Years ago, the company I worked for was up for sale - and both Sharon and I felt like God spoke to us about how He was going to give us that company. That's quite an extraordinary thing to deal with, so we kept it to ourselves. We didn't mention it to anyone. I then did everything I could to buy that company - but it wasn't enough. The owner sold it to someone else.
And not only was it sold to someone else, but I also ended up leaving that company due to differences with the new owners, which I appreciate is a loaded statement. So here we were, thinking that God would give us the company, but the reality was very different, it was in the hands of someone else, and I didn't even work there anymore.
It looked like a complete failure on my part. Had I missed it somewhere along the way? And this is where faith comes in - the belief that God is bigger than circumstances and that God is ultimately faithful.
Faith in a faithful God is a crucial way to deal with failure.
After I left, I started my own company and worked hard, but I just kept trusting that God was somehow in this and in control. And to cut a long and quite frankly, fascinating story short, five years later, that company was actually given to me. I didn't have to buy a single thing. I didn't have to manipulate anything; I just worked hard and trusted God.
I put my faith in a faithful God and trusted that He would work despite the apparent failure I was facing. And He turned it around in a way that only He could.
There is a chapter in the Bible that is a bit like a Hall of Fame. It's in a book called Hebrews, chapter 11. And in that chapter, it talks about the whos-who of faith, how they overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, turned weakness into strength and even saw people raised from the dead, all fantastic stuff - we celebrate people like this.
But the second half of the chapter talks about those who were tortured, abused and persecuted, wrongly imprisoned, stoned to death, and destitute. It's not a glamorous list, if I am honest. And if those things happened to us, we would look at it as a failure - the opposite of success. We don't tend to celebrate people or events like this, do we? Yet, about these people, the Bible said this:
“They were too good for this world...God had something better in mind...”
That throws most of what we know about success on its head. You see, if success is about knowing who you are and fulfilling the purposes of God - then you have to look at success in the time span of eternity - which means not everything makes sense now, not everything will appear to go right now, but in the midst of it - we can trust God, and that ultimately His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Turning failure into something life-changingly amazing
When you think about Jesus' life, it doesn't appear to end well - especially if you don't believe in the resurrection of Christ. Without the resurrection, it seems a total failure - He is crucified. But what did Christ do, on that Cross, when things were at their bleakest, where failure seemed its strongest?
“Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.”
Jesus trusted everything to God, knowing that ultimately, God had something better. It didn't look like it at the time. It didn't feel like it. But when you look into the history of eternity, it makes sense; failure is not the end of the story.
Failure is not the end of the story.
God turned failure into success. Jesus had the victory, if, as I believe it is, the resurrection is true. We serve a God who can turn failure into success. We can entrust whatever we face to him. And whilst it is in no way on the same level that Jesus was facing on that cross, I knew that when I lost my job from the company that I thought God was going to give me, despite me having no money, a newborn baby and all of the other stresses, I could entrust the whole thing to God. It wasn't easy. But in the end, where people see failure, God sees an opportunity to do something quite extraordinary, something that is life-changingly amazing.
That's my story.
Are you successful?
So going back to the podcast that I mentioned at the start - let me ask you the same question I was asked, are you successful? My answer to that question was a resounding yes! But I clarified it to my host; I am not successful because of the car I drive or my job. I am not successful because I recently sold my company. The way I view success is a little different...
CONVERSATION STREET
With: Matt & Sharon Edmundson.
What is Conversation Street?
Conversation Street is part of our live stream, where the hosts (in this case, Matt & Sharon) chat through Matt’s talk and answer questions that were sent in through the live stream. To watch the conversation now, click here.
Sharon: I enjoyed this talk. I really loved the contrast between the world's view of success and the biblical version. Because I think in the world, to be successful, you have to be at the top of your game, like a very successful businessman or whatever it is, it doesn't have to be business. Maybe you've made loads of money and have loads of influence and loads of followers. But actually, there's only a few people that can achieve those top positions. So it's quite exclusive in a way.
Whereas, the Biblical definition is so inclusive. It's like, if you are at the top of your game, then it applies to you, but also, if you're stuck at home with a long term illness, or if you're a stay at home parent, or just if you've got other stuff going on, everyone has the opportunity to be successful. I found that quite refreshing.
We all have the tendency to over emphasise our successes, and even our failures. How does the Bible help us to avoid these pitfalls, essentially, our pride?
Sharon: That is a very good question. I think one of the points that you mentioned in your talk, was the whole thing of relying on God in all that we do. If we are doing that, I think it is harder to become proud. Also recognising that any gifts and talents that we do have are from Him in the first place. Obviously, we can work with the raw material that we've been given, but actually, we were given the opportunities, and the connections. So that might be one way of helping avoid that pitfall.
Matt: I think we have a tendency to brag about our successes, don't we? Until a few years ago, we rarely talked about our failures. Now failure has become a badge of honour, in some respects, in how we talk about it. I think we can fall foul of this in the church world. I was thinking about how it's easy to stand up in the front of church and say, listen, we had 5000 people turn up to service last week, and you tell all the good stories. When you read a book, they tell all stories, and they celebrate the successes. But they don't always talk about the fact we had 40 people last week instead of 700.
If achieving is a good thing, is it okay to be a billionaire in a world where such poverty exists?
Sharon: Taking out the word "billionaire", in the Bible, you see people who are rich, who God approves and has given them riches eg. King Solomon. There are people who are poor that God also commends. You also see people who are rich and poor who God doesn't commend. So, I don't think it's so much about how much money you've got, but more about your heart attitude and what you do with it. Are you just keeping it all for yourself? Are you being selfish? Are you being generous? I don't think from what I see in the Bible God has a problem with us having stuff, but he does have a problem with us not sharing that stuff and not meeting the needs of those around us.
Matt: Yeah, for me, wealth is relative. It's easy in middle-class England to judge billionaires for not doing more with their money. You should be more generous, you should give more, you should pay more taxes etc. It's easy to make that assumption because from our point of view, they have way more than we do. Therefore, they should share it. But then, 99% of the world looks at middle class England, they say the same thing. Sometimes it's easy to look at others and say, "you should do this". It's very difficult to look inwards and go, what should I do?
When I said to you, we are gonna talk about success and failure, what was the first thing that came into your head?
Sharon: Yeah, so there's a parable Jesus told about a man who was going away to be made king, then, he was going to come back again. Before we went, he gave out different amounts of money to different people with the idea that they invested it for him while he was away so that when he came back, the investment would have increased. So he goes away and comes back. One of the servants comes to him and says, look, I've invested this money, I've got all this, here's your money back with the extra. And another one came and did the same. And then another one was like, oh, I was a bit scared of you, so actually, I've just hidden the money on a shelf, and I'm just giving you back what you've given to me. The king's really angry about this because he thinks, you could have at least just stuck it in the bank if you weren't going to do anything else and got some money back.
I think the thing that we were talking about was that there was a different amount given to each person. They weren't all given the same thing. But they were all expected to do something with what they had been given. We were talking about how we don't have all the same gifts and skills, or the same personality, or any of those things. And it can be easy to compare ourselves with other people and go, "oh, well, I can't do what they're doing". But, God has given us something, and we're meant to do something with it for Him.
Matt: No I think that's exactly right. In the kingdom of God, people are given different talents, and they are given different amounts of talents. I have not been blessed with the talent to sing. I just haven't. But my talent, it seems, is in digital and so that's what we do at work. I'm not Ogilvy, I'm not some big meat multimedia agency that's turning over millions and got loads of staff, but what we do is we make use of what we've been given and the talents that we do have, and we work hard with those.
Sharon: As Christians, we can go off into extremes of, well God loves me regardless, and he's gracious and he's loving so I don't need to do anything. Or we can have the opposite extreme of trying to work really hard to gain His favour. But I think the Bible brings both of those together. God is the one who gives us identity. He gives us unconditional acceptance and love through Jesus. At the same time, we are expected to go and do his work on Earth. We're not just meant to sit by ourselves.
It's the same with money. He does bless us with things. The Bible talks about how God meets all of our needs, according to his riches. So He gives us what we need, but it then goes on to say, so that you've got an overflow to give out to the people. So again, it's getting that balance between not holding everything to yourself and making sure you share it, but then avoiding the other extreme where we don't take any time for ourselves or enjoy any of the things God's given us because we're so busy giving it away.
Matt: Yeah. That's a very good point. There's a really interesting parable in Mark's gospel, called the parable of the sower. This is where Jesus talks about how a man goes and sows seeds in a field, and they all fall in different places. Some fall by the wayside, and get devoured, others, in shallow soil and it springs up, but because it has no root, it quickly dies away. We see that a lot in the modern world. Then it talks about the person that sort of has roots, but then gets slowly choked by the deceitfulness of riches, the care for other things and the worries of this world. The interesting thing about this parable is, it says some bear fruit, some 60, some 30, and some 100 fold. I find that fascinating as well because we will have different levels of fruitfulness or different levels of success. Jesus seems fine with this.
The Fruits Of The Spirit
Matt: The fruits of the Spirit are the things that happen in you and should happen in you and through you, as you walk with God and grow in the things of God. One of which is self control. A biblically successful life is marked by self control. But self-control can be really hard.
Sharon: I think possibly different people will find different ones on the list a challenge. For some people, it might be self control. For other people, it might be patience. I do suspect that we've all got slightly different ones that we struggle with on there. I think that is where we need God's grace, isn't it? It's not about looking at the list and going, right, I've got to be all these things now. It's like, "okay, God, I really need your help in this area". We let His Spirit work in us because we can't change ourselves just by putting a lot of effort in.
Matt: Yeah, that's very, very true. Very true. But self control, I think is probably for me, one of the trickiest ones, out of all of them. Especially when it comes to a packet of biscuits. But that's another story.
What About Failure?
Sharon: Yeah, so I teach women who can't speak English to speak English. One of the things I've noticed with a lot of them is that when they make mistakes and get stuff wrong, they start apologising. But it's not a moral failure. So it's like, why are you apologising? You don't need to apologise for this. But there is mentality of, I've got to get it right all the time. To be a teacher, one of the things that you're taught is that failure is a positive. When your students fail, all you need to do is help them. Point out what the problem is, and then get them to try and work out the solution. By making that mistake and correcting it, working it out and wrestling with it, the learning goes deeper. It might not be as instant. But actually, long term that is better. When different students make mistakes in front of each other that actually allows the whole class to learn because they have to think why it was wrong.
Matt: Yeah, it's interesting that's what you're taught now because when I was at school, you were taught to colour between the lines. Actually, that wasn't very helpful for someone like me.
Sadaf said, today's topic made me think of King David, who had many successes, but also fundamental failures. He failed as a father, and as a king. In fact, he's failed as a man of God as well. He also had a lot of successes. But she says, I love the charge he gave to his son, Solomon, who again, had lots of successes, but a lot of failures. And the charge that David said to his son is in 1 Kings 2:2, "I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. Observe the requirements of the Lord your God and follow all His ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations and laws written in the Law of Moses, so that you will be successful in all you do, and wherever you go." Now, what's interesting about this is, when Solomon did that, he was actually successful. However, when he veered away from that, that's when he became a bit of a plonker. What do you think that means for us in modern day England, and the rest of the world?
Sharon: I think it means that, because God is the Creator, He has set up the way that the world works. So he knows the best way for relationships to work, for our businesses, for our bodies - He knows the best way for everything to work. So when we're listening to Him and cooperating with Him, we're flowing with how things are created to be which is always going to be more successful. It doesn't mean that everything's going to be easy because of sin. Actually, there's an element of where the world is broken. And I think there is a difference between moral failure and learning a new skill or something. Moral failure is more of a rebellion against God. The other failure that we're talking about is more, we're trying new stuff, and we're getting out of our comfort zone, and just keep making mistakes in it.
Matt: Nicola's written here, "I'm incredibly good at helping people, but knowing when to say no and not be used is a tough one that I don't always succeed in." And this is fascinating, because what Nicola is saying here is, the areas that I'm good at and successful in, I can also fail at. Do you see what I mean? Some of my greatest strengths can be my greatest weaknesses.
More Bible Verses About Success & Failure
Matthew 3:8 - Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Psalm 145:14 - The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
Philippians 3:13 - Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Proverbs 24:16 - For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.
2 Timothy 1:7 - For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Chronicles 26:5 - He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 5:3-5 - More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Romans 5:8 - But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
James 1:2-4 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.
Hebrews 4:6 - Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.
Isaiah 40:29-31 - He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
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