The Fear of Failure

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Acts chapter 26, we’ve been talking the last couple of weeks about the objections to sharing. And when I say sharing, I mean sharing the gospel as a part of evangelism and discipleship. Taking people who have no relationship with Christ, have never trusted Christ, some people in the world may have never even heard of Christ, taking them from where they are spiritually and getting them to where they need to be, where we reach people and we teach people.

And we have all kinds of objections to that. We’ve talked about the reasons why. But if I just left you with the reasons why, you know, that the Great Commission tells us to, and there’s a great need for it because men are dying and going to hell, and leave you with the reasons, you may think that’s all well and good, but you don’t know my situation.

And I might think, well, that’s all well and good, but my situation is different. And that’s what got me to thinking about the objections that we have. Two weeks ago, we talked about apathy and how sometimes there are some people who profess to be Christians that flat out just do not care whether they ever tell anybody about Christ or not because, hey, they’ve got their ticket and they’ve got their ticket punched and they’re ready to go and forget everybody else.

And there are those of us who are not really apathetic as a habit, but there are times when the sacrifice just seems like too much. You know, it’s too much for us to care. Last week, we talked about the fear of rejection that boils down to, God, I really don’t want to go talk to that person about the gospel because they’re going to think I’m nuts.

Have you ever thought that? You can shake your head if you want to. You don’t have to, though.

I’ve thought that before. If I go up to that person in the grocery store checkout line that I’ve never met before, they’re going to think I’m nuts. Or it doesn’t even have to be a complete stranger.

I know not everybody is bold enough to go talk to a complete stranger just approaching. And, folks, it takes a lot of working up my courage to be able to go do that. I have talked to complete strangers before, but it takes a lot of I think I can, I think I can.

Even talking sometimes to our friends and loved ones, we think, God, they’re not going to like me anymore. Have you ever felt that way? God, this has blown up in my face so many times.

If I bring up Christ over Thanksgiving dinner one more time, that one relative is going to get me with the carving knife. You know, it’s not going to be pretty. They’re going to have their fill of it.

They’re going to think I’m nuts. They’re going to hate me. Any one of these things, and we fear sharing the gospel with people sometimes because we’re afraid they’re going to reject us.

Tonight I want to talk to you about the fear of failure. The fear of failure in witnessing. The fear of failure in witnessing is different than the fear of rejection because in the fear of rejection we fear both the idea that they would reject us and the idea that they would reject the gospel just because of them, because of their meanness, because of their lostness, whatever the reason.

But the fear of failure, it is a fear that they’ll reject the gospel, but it’s a fear that they’ll reject the gospel because we mess it up. And you know what? I found this one to be pretty common.

I preached on discipleship a couple years ago at the previous church that I pastored and just took for granted that everybody knew how to witness. I’m not the world’s best evangelist, but I’ve been through evangelism explosion and studied some way of the master and some different techniques that people use. And I just kind of took it for granted that everybody’s been through these same studies.

You go through enough of those kind of things, and you forget that everybody hasn’t had access to the same material that you did. And I was preaching on discipleship and preaching on evangelism and telling people about Christ and how our responsibility is to do that and some ways we would go about reaching people. And I’ll never forget, a lady came up to me afterwards, a very sweet lady, and said, I just don’t think I could ever do that.

And I said, you don’t think you could ever do what? She said, tell somebody about Christ. I was kind of floored by that, talking to her a little bit, finding out what she meant. It wasn’t a matter of nerves that she was afraid people weren’t going to like her.

It was a matter of, I don’t know what to say to people. And I’m afraid I’m going to mess up the presentation. I’m afraid that I’m going to go and try to talk to them about Christ and just fall flat on my face in doing it.

And you don’t have to answer me on this, but have you ever felt that way? I’ve felt that way before. And I’m the preacher.

I know all these different ways to tell somebody about Christ, but there’s still, from time to time, this fear that I’m going to mess this up, that I’m not going to do it right. I’m not going to say just exactly the right words that it would take to convince them. It goes back to the thing I’ve talked to you before about, where I thought for all these years that it was my job to argue people into heaven.

It was my job to twist their arms out of a lake of fire. And I’ve never seen that work. On the other hand, praying for people, witnessing to them when you can, but not arguing with them, just repeatedly telling them about the gospel.

I’ve seen that work, but as far as arguing with people, and I’ve got to know just the right words to say, just the right argument that’s going to convince them and drag them kicking and screaming to the cross, I’ve never seen that work. And yet we feel like that’s what we’ve got to be able to do or we’re going to fall flat on our faces. I want to talk to you tonight about Paul and the time Paul failed, so to speak.

A lot of times we would, a lot of people today might look at this and say that he failed. If it was anybody but Paul, they would look at it and say he failed because here he witnessed and he didn’t win the person to Christ. But our idea of success and witnessing is a little bit different than God’s, I believe.

Acts chapter 26 verse 1 we’re going to go through the whole chapter pretty quickly here but verse 1 says then Agrippa said unto Paul thou art permitted to speak for thyself Paul’s on trial here because of some of the well you know the trouble that kind of plagued Paul throughout his ministry when he would witness for Christ and people would get upset and they’d call the law on him then Agrippa said unto Paul thou art permitted to speak for thyself then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself I think myself happy King Agrippa because I shall answer for He said, teach thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life, verse 4, from my youth, which was at first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee.

Now that’s almost hard for me to say, the most straightest sect, because it’s not proper English, but yet Paul here is driving home the fact that he was the most observant kind of Jew there was. He was the most egoistic, the most zealous, that if ever there was a committed Jew in his time, Paul was one. He was part of the most straightest group, he says.

I’m going to start talking that way, see how long it takes somebody to correct me. He was part of the most straightest group of the Jews. He lived as a Pharisee.

In verse 6, and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made unto God our Father. He said, I was a zealous, observant Jew, and yet here I stand accused of the Jews and charged by the Jews because I had the nerve to adhere to the promise that God gave to the Jews. Now I stand and have judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers.

Unto which promise are twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come? For which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. He said, the only thing that I am guilty of here, The only thing that the Jews have against me is that I’m actually following our religion as God intended it to be.

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? King Agrippa, why would it be, as somebody who’s familiar with the Jewish religion, as somebody who’s familiar with the customs of the Pharisees, why would it be unimaginable for you the idea that God could raise somebody from the dead? See, among the Jews at their time, they had what, you know, today we have two extremes in Christianity, or at least people portray it that way.

We’ve got legalism on one hand and we’ve got liberalism on the other and the truth is found in between. Legalists would be the Pharisees because they had, it wasn’t their staunch adherence to God’s word. A lot of people would call us Pharisees because we stick by God’s word.

But the Pharisees’ problem wasn’t the fact that they stuck by God’s word, it was that they stuck to their traditions over God’s word, elevated it to equal status with God’s word. On the other hand, you had the Sadducees who were the liberals of their day They denied miracles. They denied angels.

They denied spirits. They denied the resurrection. Anything that took a supernatural explanation, they said, well, that’s just an allegory or that’s just a picture.

It’s not, you know, God doesn’t really do these things. And we hear that some today in Christianity. But the Pharisees, the Pharisees believed in things like the resurrection.

Pharisees believed in things like the spirit, believed in things like angels. And so he says to him here, why would it, why would it be unimaginable to you? As somebody familiar with the customs of the Jews, as somebody familiar with my Pharisee upbringing, why would it be unimaginable to you that God should raise the dead?

Because the Pharisees believed in a resurrection. They at least had that going for them. I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

He said, as a good Pharisee back then, I thought it was my job to oppose the name, the person, the work of Jesus Christ. I thought it was my job to put a stop to that. I thought that I should do anything I could to put a stop to it. Back when I was a good Pharisee.

Verse 10, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And we know about this from earlier in the book of Acts, where his claim to fame was that he ran around the countryside with letters from the synagogue saying that he could arrest the Christians.

He could throw them into jail. He could have them tried and killed. And he said, I gave my voice against them.

I testified against these people and got them killed. And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

He said he went into every synagogue where he found them and he forced them to blaspheme. Now, coming from Paul now as a Christian, that means that he as a Jew had forced these Christians, he tried to force them to renounce Christ and in doing so blaspheme. You see, Paul thought they were blasphemers anyway when he was a zealous Jew.

And he said he persecuted them, and he was exceedingly mad against them, and he even drove them out of the country. He pursued them even to foreign lands, these strange cities. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, that’s what he was doing on the Damascus road.

He was headed there to arrest the Christians and bring them back. Verse 13, at midday, O king, this is where he really starts to get into his story about the time he met Jesus Christ. At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. I saw this light from heaven that was even brighter than the sun.

It was at noon, and yet the light that shone down around him, and he says around those who were with him, was bright enough even that it superseded the sun. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And that was something, if I understand correctly, you’ve probably heard this before, where they would put a board behind the back legs of the horse that had spikes on it, so when they would kick, it would hurt them, so they wouldn’t do it as much, and they would learn to be tamed. And in this, Jesus is telling Paul, you’ve been fighting against me, but you’re already mine. I’ve got a calling here for you.

He had already chosen him to be an apostle. Verse 15, And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon my feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.

He says, Get up, get on your feet. I have prepared you. I have done all of these things for a purpose, because you are to go and be a witness for me, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

So, in other words, you’re to go to the Jews and to the Gentiles, and you’re to help deliver them. You’re to help open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, turn them from Satan to God, and show them the way to receive forgiveness of sins and the inheritance that is due to all of those who express faith in me. He’s been quoting Christ up to this point.

In verse 19, he stops off with the direct quote and turns them to King Agrippa, and he says, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. He said, These things that I’ve already heard, King Agrippa, after hearing them I was not disobedient to this vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. He said, Immediately, I went to the people of Damascus, I went to the people of Jerusalem and all the coasts of Judea and the Gentiles, and I went to all of them, and I talked to them about repentance toward God and about the works that were meat, that were fit for repentance.

For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and to great, saying none other things than those things which the prophets and Moses say should come. He said, that’s the reason that the Jews have sought to kill me, because I’ve been there in the temple, I’ve been there on the streets, I’ve talked to anybody who would listen about Jesus Christ and about the need to turn in repentance toward God and the need for faith in Christ. And he said, And in spite of the fact that they want to kill me, I’ve continued on to this day serving God with God’s help, with God enabling me.

And he said, And by the way, King Agrippa, the Jews who accuse me, what they’re accusing me of, again, I’m not doing anything other than what Moses and the prophets said was supposed to happen. See, if they were following the religion that they’re persecuting him for not following, they would be working alongside of him instead of opposing his efforts. Verse 23, the things that the prophets and Moses say should come, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

It was spoken of in the prophets. The Jewish prophets that these men revered had said that Christ would need to suffer and to die and to rise again and to show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. Folks, we spent, I can’t tell you how many weeks, covering that last fall.

We know as well as anybody that that was in the Jews’ religion. and they missed it, that Christ was the fulfillment of what their religion was. And verse 24 said, And thus he spake for himself.

He said all these things for himself. And Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. Kind of get the idea here that he’s looking at Paul like he’s some kind of mad scientist, I guess.

There are people that just get too smart for their own good. It kind of drives them crazy. You may know some of them.

They’ve studied and they’ve got PhDs, and I’m not talking about Joyce either. Didn’t want you to go home and tell her that I said all people with PhDs are crazy. But there are some people that just study and learn so much and gain so much knowledge and wisdom that something affects them.

I mean, it affects them. It changes them. Like, what was the deal with Einstein not combing his hair?

I mean, he just, my personal opinion, much learning drove him mad. and a lot of other people. Some of the smartest people in our world are some of the quirkiest. And here Festus looks at Paul and says, Paul, you’re beside yourself.

Much learning doth make me mad. Paul, all of your intelligence has driven you crazy. You’re talking crazy here.

And he turns to him and says, I’m not mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus. But speak forth the words of truth and soberness.

He says, I’m not mad. The words that I’m speaking are not only true, but they’re words of soberness. And that word soberness means pretty close to the way we use it today.

We think of soberness or sobriety in terms of alcohol or drugs, people getting off of things or being off of things that keep them out of their right mind. And so when somebody’s been an alcoholic or a drunkard or whatever you want to call them, and you know what that can do to somebody, you know what that can do to their mind, and when they get off of those things and they’re thinking clearly again, we say they’re sober. Well, folks, that word sober means the same thing whether alcohol is involved or not.

Somebody that is sober-minded, somebody that is sober, is somebody who is clear-thinking, somebody who is serious. And what Paul is telling him here is that not only are the things I’m telling you the truth, but I’m thinking clearly as I say them, and I’m serious about what I’m telling you. I’m not out of my mind.

My learning hasn’t driven me mad. But the king knows these things. and he looks at Festus and he, I believe, points to Agrippa and says, but for the king knows these things before whom also I speak freely.

The king that sits there with you before whom I speak freely, he also knows. He knows what I’m talking about. He knows where I’ve come from.

For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. He said, I’m convinced that King Agrippa knows exactly what I’m talking about.

I’m convinced that King Agrippa knows this whole story because these things were not done in secret and King Agrippa, as somebody who was familiar with the Jews and their customs and traditions, knows that what I’m telling you is right. He’s got to know, Paul says. I’m persuaded, I’m convinced that these things are not hidden from him.

Then he turns to King Agrippa, verse 27, and says, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? Rhetorical question here, because he answers it for the king. He says, I know that thou believest. He’s just said here, King Agrippa, I’m persuaded, knows these things are true.

what I’ve testified, that Christ is the fulfillment of the law, that Christ is the fulfillment of the prophets, and that what I’m accused of doing is only remaining in line with what God has already revealed to be true. He says, I’m persuaded King Agrippa already knows that. And he turns to the king and says, you believe the prophets, don’t you?

And then he says, I know you do. I know that thou believest. Verse 28 says, then King Agrippa said unto Paul, or it just says, then Agrippa said unto Paul. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds. So King Agrippa says, I’m almost persuaded. You’ve almost persuaded me.

And people have debated, people debate some of the silliest things. But I read about it in the commentaries when I’m researching this stuff, and they’ll say, people debate such and such, and I think, really? What’s there to debate about?

But people have debated for a long time whether King Agrippa was serious, whether he was pulling Paul’s leg, whether he was saying it ironically, what he was saying. Folks, if he was the man that Paul describes, somebody that knew the Jewish religion, somebody that believed in what the prophets said, I can’t really believe that he was anything other than serious in saying I’m almost persuaded. And this is just conjecture on my part, but I see a man here who is conflicted within himself.

Because as a king there at the behest of the Romans, he could have very easily shut this down, shut this madman down and said, you know, what they all said, get out of here, don’t preach here anymore, that sort of thing. But yet he’s given Paul this hearing and said, I’m almost persuaded. Those are pretty gutsy words for a Roman leader.

I’m almost persuaded. And what I believe we see here is somebody who in his heart and in his mind knows that what Paul has said is the truth, and yet because of his position and whatever other considerations he had could not bring himself to embrace the truth that he knew to be true. And we know people in our world, not even powerful people, but we know people in our world who when we talk to them about Christ, when we talk to them about God, when we talk to them about the Bible, we can tell by our dealings with them that they know in their heart and they know in their mind that what we speak is the truth, but they cannot bring themselves to embrace it because of what they’re afraid they’d have to give up.

I believe we all know people like that. can’t embrace the truth because they’re afraid of what they have to give up. And I believe that’s what we see here with King Agrippa.

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. He tells him, I wish that you and everybody else in this room, everybody that hears me, were almost and altogether.

Had that little bit of belief that you have, and kicked it up a notch, as Emerald would say, to the next level. Being altogether such as I am, convinced that Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, that he’s the promised Messiah. He said, I would to God that every one of you here were such as I am, except these bonds.

I wish that you were willing to embrace the truth. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up and the governor. And to me, verse 30 reads here as though he got up immediately.

And that also lends itself to what I perceive as a man who’s under conviction here and running from it. He gets up and walks away. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up and the governor and Bernice and they that sat with them.

And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. He’s done nothing to deserve being here. As far as his criminal case here, they were convinced.

Now, Paul wanted them to be convinced of much more. But as far as his innocence, they were convinced. This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.

Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. See, Paul had already said, I’m a Roman citizen, and I want to be judged here by Caesar. And so even though they could have found him innocent and set him free if he had not already said that.

Now you may be asking yourselves at this point, what does this story have to do with fear of failure in witnessing? What does that have to do with this? Well, for starters, if we would believe what some people teach and what I’ve been taught, I’ve been taught, it seems everybody’s program, everybody’s process is foolproof.

That if you learn these steps, you know, we can all but guarantee you somebody’s going to get saved if you go through it. There are churches that, you know what, God bless them for their soul winning efforts. But if you don’t have the numbers, when you come in, if you haven’t won X number of people to Christ in a month, well, you’re just not as good a Christian as anybody else.

I don’t know if there are any of those churches here, but I could take you and show you where some of them are in Oklahoma. That if we’re good Christians, we’re just guaranteed that we should be able to talk anybody into heaven. And folks, that’s just not the way it works.

If we looked at the world, if we looked at witnessing, if we looked at soul winning, whatever you want to call it, if we looked at any of those things through that lens, we would look at Paul in this instance, in this story, and say Paul was a failure. because he almost persuaded King Agrippa, but he could not quite close the deal. And I’m sure there are some in our day who could do a better job and they could go and close the deal with King Agrippa. But Paul was a failure, wasn’t he?

Because he wasn’t a good witness. He didn’t quite seal the deal. He must have botched the presentation somewhere. We’re afraid a lot of times of talking to people about Christ because we’re afraid we’re going to mess up the presentation.

We’re afraid that we’re going to talk to somebody and it’s going to be like King Agrippa, that they’re almost persuaded. Man, if I had just used a better argument, if I had just used better words, if I had just taken them to a different venue, if I dressed differently, if I didn’t, you know, any number of things to make ourselves more acceptable, make our presentation more acceptable, and we’re afraid that we’re going to mess up the presentation. Now, you may sit there and think, I’m not afraid of the things you’re talking about.

I can almost, I sound like one of these guys, I can almost guarantee you that at some point you’ve either felt this way, are feeling this way, or will feel this way. I can almost guarantee that. If not, you need to tell me what you do to not be afraid, where your boldness comes from.

But we’re afraid to talk to people because we’re afraid of messing up the presentation. We’re afraid that we just don’t cut it as witnesses. And I know that’s true because of the number of people who’ve told me, I just don’t think I’d know what to say.

I don’t think I could do it right. I hear that. I don’t think I could do it right.

So we’ll leave it to the preacher. We’ll leave it to the deacons. We’ll leave it for somebody super spiritual because I’m just going to mess it up anyway.

Folks, as with so many things, God does not measure success in witnessing the way that the world measures success in witnessing, the way we sometimes measure success in witnessing. God in general does not measure success the way that the world does. The world measures success, results, numbers, money, notoriety, all of these things.

God measures success in obedience. And the same is true with witnessing. The same is true with sharing the gospel.

The same is true with trying to make disciples. Our success doesn’t come from our results. That would imply that the results really had anything to do with us in the beginning.

And if it’s not been clear up to this point, let me make it clear now. I’m not a Calvinist, if there was any doubt about that. I’m not a Calvinist, and I’m not saying that if they’re going to get saved, they’re going to get saved, you know, God’s going to save them without any help from us.

God does send us to open our mouths. But as far as the connection that’s made between the Word and the heart, that’s the Holy Spirit’s work. Now, we need to stay out of the way of that and not on purpose do things to hinder that.

But really, the result is God’s business. Our success does not lie in the result when we lead people to Christ. Our way of failure at witnessing is by not doing it. You see the irony in not telling somebody about Christ because we’re afraid we won’t do it right and they won’t get saved?

and realizing that they’re not going to get saved if they don’t hear the gospel. That’s the irony of it is we don’t witness because we’re afraid to fail, and the only way we’re guaranteed to fail is by not doing it. That kind of strikes me as funny, not in a ha-ha kind of way, but as ironic.

Folks, in this story, I think we can learn from Paul’s story here, and we’re almost through three quick points, and we’ll be through. We can learn from Paul’s story, first of all, that success in witnessing, here’s what it means. it means faithfully recounting the gospel we’ve received.

Success in witnessing means faithfully recounting the gospel that we’ve received. It would be really hard to call Paul a failure in this simply because Agrippa was only almost persuaded and not all the way persuaded. Because what we see Paul doing here is exactly what God had called Paul to do here.

Paul walks in and he did not have to have all the theological arguments figured out. He did a pretty good job, I think, of making the case from the prophets, just as Peter did at the day of Pentecost, making the case from David’s writings. But he didn’t go through all the arguments for God.

He didn’t go through all the arguments for Christ, all the arguments for the atonement. The simplest form of witnessing is telling somebody what happened to you. You realize that?

The tools that I’ve talked about, evangelism, explosion, way of the master, those are some good tools. And I like to pick and choose aspects from them and bring them in when I can. But you don’t have to have a memorized presentation.

You don’t have to have something that you lead them through from A to Z, and when they get to Z, they should be ready, or you have to go back through it and redo it again because you messed it up. The bottom line is, if