When Failure Breeds Growth: Studying the Sermon 'Fresh Failure' from Mike Todd

I have been following the Fresh Fruit sermon series from Pastor Mike Todd at Transformation Church. This series has really transformed the way I study the Bible, how I receive directions from God, and how I carry myself in this world. My goal is to give you insight on how I study the Bible and reflect on the word of God. 

The resounding message from this sermon was to get familiar with failure. Failure is not usually looked at as a good thing, Pastor Mike walked us through how God uses failure in the Bible to help us grow and endure. 

So, let’s get into it. 

There were five points given to us on how to get familiar with failure. I am going to give you all five, the related scriptures, so you can go back and study them on your own, my notes from the sermon and my thoughts on each. When I listen to a sermon, I look to see how it connects with my life. In prayer, I ask God to show me His will for my life, guide me in the direction He would have me to go, and to help me apply His word to my life.

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1. Factor It In

This point basically means to expect failure. Failure is ingrained into this world and in the word. All throughout the bible we can find stories of how people encountered failure and either kept going or gave up. Our goal is to always get back up. We only fail when we choose to stop trying. God has already told us he will be with us every step of our life’s journey. Factoring in failure is where you exercise your faith. How can we say we truly have faith in God if our faith has never been tested?

Reflection Scripture: Proverbs 25:16

2. Frame It Right

When we are presented with failure, how we look at it or “frame” it changes our reactions to it. There are multiple ways to view a situation that you feel did not go as planned. You can focus on how everything went wrong or you can focus on God's word and how He must have something better in store for you since this didn’t work out. We do not know what He has planned for our lives until He shows it to us. If something feels like failure, we can choose to focus on how this is an opportunity to put our faith to the test and grow. We must ask ourselves, with God, is anything a failure?

Reflection Scripture: James 1:2-4

3. Find The Fruit

There is fruit in every failure. When you think of fruit, reflect on how God uses fruit in the Bible to express a deed, action or result. When we are finding the fruit in failure we should take action to ask ourselves some questions to see what God wants us to learn or do next. We can ask ourselves these questions: What did I learn from this? What redflags did I ignore in this process? We need to evaluate the failure as we reflect on the situation. As we do this we must also reflect on our definition of failure and success. Failure is literally the lack of success. Depending on how you view or evaluate your success will determine what you consider a failure. In biblical terms, success is simply obeying God. There are only two ways to really fail; not knowing God and quitting. 

Reflection Scripture: Romans 8:28

4. Fix You Focus on Jesus

Very simply put, instead of focusing on the good or the bad in a situation, focus on Jesus. There are plenty of good and bad resources in this life. God gives us the choice of where we place our focus. No matter how many times we may try to figure out or fix something ourselves, we are still only using resources to help fix a problem. Our faith is in Him. He is the source of it all. Every time we encounter a failure we should have joy that our Father in heaven has already created a plan for it to work out for our good. 

Reflection Scripture: Hebrews 12:12

5. Flaunt Your Failure

We bring God glory when we talk about our failures. There are people who will be saved through our testimony. People are able to see how good God is by the sin we have been delivered and healed from. We are living examples of God’s grace. We should be telling our testimony and speaking of our failures and how God helped us overcome them every chance we get. When we flaunt our failures in Christ, it changes how people see God. There should never be a time we try to act as if our lives are perfect because we are saved and have a relationship with God. We are all imperfect beings striving each day to please God. The way to show others how truly good God has been to you is to share your testimony with them. 

Reflection Scripture: 1 Timothy 1: 15-17

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Testimony Time:

Until now, I haven’t told my testimony often, but today that changes. Growing up I wanted so much for people to like me. I endured a lot of bullying and emotional abuse all in trying to connect with people and have friends. When I got to high school, my whole personality changed. The once nice and sweet girl became one who would get you before you got me. I decided no one would ever tear me down or hurt me like that again. Instead of seeking God to help me heal from my pain, I chose anger, manipulation and revenge. For years I carried the pain of how others treated me and it caused even more pain. 

In addition to this, I was very confused about my identity. My parents let me know I was adopted when I was nine years old. I never felt upset about it because they told me how loved I was and I had been connected to some of my birth family as I was growing up. The pain came when I started navigating having a relationship with my birth parents. This process was really intense because I had two sets of parents who lived completely different lives in two different states 600 miles from each other and I was in the middle. I didn’t know how to bring my two families together and being a teenager, I felt my parents were coming together to help me navigate it all. This caused me even more confusion because I didn’t understand how to be a daughter to two sets of parents at the same time. With these things are other life changing events, I turned to alcohol and boys in college. At this point I was still in church, still praising God, but I just didn’t want to feel pain. I looked for love in the wrong places and I would get drunk to wash it all away. 

By the grace of God, he kept me through it all. I lost a lot of battles along the way and made a lot of bad decisions, but I never lost my faith in God. He delivered me from being angry and vengeful. I no longer feel the need for validation from men. I no longer feel controlled by the attacks from the enemy on being adopted, and alcohol no longer has a stronghold over me. 

Without God, none of this would be possible. He brought me through so many storms, some that I brought upon myself, so that I could use my testimony to help others. 

Now I wake up everyday waiting to be used by Him. I want all women to know their worth and remember that God has uniquely made them for a purpose.  

I pray this blesses you the same way it blessed me. To God be the glory and I send my love.