The fear of failure is not really new. It’s been around for ages. In fact, Jesus told a story about it in Matthew 25 about a master who has three servants. He divided his income among them and said, “I’m going on a trip. I want you to take my money and invest it.” 
The first guy took the money and doubled it. The master was satisfied. The second guy took the money and doubled it. Again, the master was satisfied. But then we come to the third guy the Bible says, “’I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.’ ”But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You think I’m a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn’t plant and gathering crops I didn’t cultivate? Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest.” (Matthew 25:25-27) 

Jesus wants us to learn from this story that when we refuse to take risks, we’re refusing to live by faith. How do we conquer the fear of failure anyway? How do we face this giant of failure and come out on the other side victorious?  I want to share four truths about the giant of failure and encourage you to take risks that honor God.

1.  Understand that everyone fails – no exceptions
This is a starting point and a foundational truth to understand when you are facing the giant of failure.  Everybody fails.  In the Bible, James is very specific about this in James 3:2

It would take me all night to list and give you the stories of all the great heroes in the Bible that failed. 
 But here are a few: Abraham failed to believe that God would give him a son so he slept with someone who wasn’t his wife, but God didn’t give up on him. 
Jacob was a thief, and God allowed him to bless the world through his children. 
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, survived the flood but ended up getting drunk. 
Moses stuttered and was a murderer. 
David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then murdered her husband to hide his failing. Yet, David became known as a man “after God’s heart.” 
And the list could go on and on.  Everyone fails!

I love Romans 3:23. Failure is universal and that’s why we all need God’s grace. 
“Failure is when you feel like your best just isn’t good enough.”  Please understand that everybody fails.

2.  Don’t compare your failures against others success
I believe this one truth that we will all have to fight against our whole lives.  Face it, you and I live in a competitive society.  Everybody competes with somebody else and it gets way out of hand.  When I swam competitively – was I faster than the guy in the next lane.  On the soccer & basketball team – could I score more than my teammates?  Every race I ran – what place did I finish and how many did I finish ahead of?  Now I would say that I’m not against competition in the athletic arena if it is kept in check.  The problem is we take that level of competition into every area of our lives.  SAT scores, report cards, how tall, how skinny, what kind of clothes, boy/girlfriend, car, job, family.  Everything becomes a comparison (horizontally) to others. 

But as a Christ-follower our only comparison can be to Christ (vertically).  That’s all that matters.  And with him our success is simply found in knowing Him and having a relationship with Him.  Because honestly, nothing we do can compare or impress God.  So our success in Him is simply striving to be obedient and offer our best.  The Bible says it this way in Galatians 6:4.

3.  Accept failure as a fact of life, not a way of life
Look at what Proverbs 24:16 says.  We need to learn to make the most of our mistakes. 
In Galatians 6:9 we see that many of us give up too quickly.  But one of the best ways to learn is through failure. You become a success through failure. 
But that doesn’t mean that we have to enjoy it or that it feels good.  Failure hurts but faith can move us forward.

The novelist, John Gardner said: 
“One of the reasons why mature people stop growing and learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.”
 Failure is not the worst thing that can happen and it doesn’t have to be a way of life.  There’s another way to overcome the fear of failure, and that’s to…

4.  Apply the lessons of failures toward future success
Paul said in Romans 8:28 … does that include failure?  It sure does. God can work even in our failures! 
One of the most well known characters of the New Testament is a man named Simon. He knew all about failure. He failed to walk on water. He failed when he refused to let Jesus wash his feet. He failed when he took out his sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the High Priest. He failed to stand up for Jesus during the trial before Herod. He failed to stand with Jesus at the foot of the cross. When you read through the Gospels, it seems like Simon messes up almost everything he tries… maybe that is why I like him so much, because I can relate to him. 
But Jesus gave Simon the name, “Peter” which means, “rock.”  He offered forgiveness for all of Simon’s failings, and Peter preached one of the greatest sermons in the history of Christianity where 3,000 people became followers of Jesus Christ.

When you fail at something, maybe God is developing a skill that you didn’t know you had. You see, God uses failure to direct us into a new future.  Some of you have attempted something – maybe it was even something great for God – and you feel as if you’ve failed and so you just walked away.  That’s not what God wants for you.  He wants mold us, shape us, stretch us and grow us. 

So, if you want to conquer this giant called failure, you have to understand that everyone fails, decide to stop comparing yourselves to others, realize that failure is a fact of life not a way of life, and apply the lessons of failure toward future success by depending on God’s strength in you.