Nothing To Show For It

Ever pour your whole self into something and end up staring at empty nets? We know that feeling, and we don’t dodge it. This anniversary message sits with the raw words “nothing to show for it” and then challenges the quiet lie underneath: that visible results are the only proof your life matters. 

We start with a younger pastor who did everything “the right way” and still felt behind: a small church, financial strain, heartbreak at home, and the suffocating pressure of comparing his ministry to bigger names. From there, we call out the quicksand of comparison, the kind that makes the grass look greener on the other side even when the cost is hidden. If you’re carrying disappointment in your marriage, job, relationships, or parenting, you’ll hear language for what you’ve been living. 

Then we move into John 21 at the Sea of Tiberias with Peter and the disciples. Peter knows calling, promise, and purpose, but he also knows regret and failure. When the gap between promise and fulfillment stretches too long, it’s tempting to fall back on the familiar and still come up empty. Right at daybreak, Jesus shows up, and the meaning of success gets redefined: God calls us to be faithful, not famous. 

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with someone who feels behind, and leave a review. What area of your life feels like “nothing to show for it” right now?

Transcript

A Pastor Who Feels Like A Failure

When Life Effort Feels Wasted

Peter’s Calling And Crushing Regret

Falling Back On The Familiar

SPEAKER_00 0:47

As you have your seats in the presence of the Lord, I'm gonna ask you to pray with me for this first anniversary Sunday's sermon on the theme, nothing to show for it. Turn to your neighbor and say nothing to show for it. I was talking with a younger pastor just recently. In fact, it was two summers ago, July of 2004, and he, this younger pastor, felt like he was a failure in every aspect of his life. He had labored long and he had done all he knew how to do, and he felt as if he had nothing to show for it. He had been at his church for 15 years. Pastor Junior then he came along with his dad, and this pastor in another city had gone into ministry what I call the right way. After the Lord called him, he went and repaired himself academically and spiritually. He did not just turn his common around and call himself bishop or apostle. He went to school and earned his degree. He got a master's degree from Yale Divinity School, and while studying in school, he sat at the feet of one of this nation's most respected and revered pastors, a man who is the perfect combination of what Howard Thurman calls head and heart. A pastor with the highest academic degree and the deepest level of spirituality imaginable. The young pastor speaks. You can feel the spring from the living waters of life that are drawn from a subterranean vault and a river that flows right past the throne of God. And yet, fifteen years into his pastor, he shared with me, his church had not only not blown up like Lance Watson's church in Richmond, Virginia, or Freddie Hain's church in Dallas, Texas, or Cynthia Hale's church in Atlanta, Georgia, or Bethel Baptist Institutional Church here in Jacksonville. His church is so small that he cannot afford health care coverage for his family. His church is so small that they do not pay into any kind of pension plan. His church is so small that he has to work at other jobs with a master's degree from Yale. And his church is so small that he cannot pay the tuition. For his older son, he told me that July, who was starting college that August, he felt he had nothing to show for his efforts. His wife left him for another man. And he has custody of their two children. But he feels like he was failing as a father, just like he had failed as a pastor. And I talked long and laboriously with that young pastor because I could see things in his ministry that he could not see. Plus, I saw him trapped in that quicksand of comparison when John Kenny and I were here with you at Bethel in the old church. John and I talk about that quicksand. John and I talk about it all of the time. When you start comparing what you've got with what somebody else has got, you are in a no-win situation. You have backed yourself into a corner from which there is no exit, and you have stepped over into some quicksand that will quickly pull you under and suffocate you in the pathos of a pity party. Hey, when you start comparing what you got with what somebody else has got, you can't enjoy what you got. Because you're too busy looking at what somebody else has got. And how the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. Freddie Haynes, the real preacher, who'll be in tonight. Freddie says, Freddie says that if the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it just might be because the water bill is higher on the other side of the fence. Somebody is paying a high price to keep up the appearances. But appearances can be deceiving. You are looking at what you think is real. But it is phony, make believe in a unofficial. It ain't the real thing that Mom and Gaye and Tammy Cham told us years ago what ain't nothing like the real thing. That's what Freddie Haynes said about the grass looking green on the other side of the fence, comparing what you got to what somebody else got. And we have a son in the ministry, Oze Earl Smith. We went out to his church for his anniversary, and I preached that sermon at his church about comparing. And Dr. Smith went home to Memphis, Tennessee. He was so excited about my sermon and his anniversary, he told his mama what I preached word for word. And his mama said, You go back to Chicago and you tell Pastor Wright that sometimes the grass may look greener on the other side of the fence because the grass is sitting on top of a septic tank. So when you start comparing what you've got with what somebody else has got, you've stepped over into some quicksand, the quicksand of comparison. And that quicksand, as I said a moment ago, will quickly pull you under and suffocate you in the pathos of a pity party. This young pastor was comparing his ministry with what he could see of other folks' ministries. He had labored long and he had done all he knew how to do, and he felt like he had nothing to show for it. Somebody looking at me in Bethel this morning. You know exactly what that young pastor was feeling. You've done all you know how to do, and you feel like a failure in almost every aspect of your life. You put all you had to put into your marriage, and you've got nothing to show for it. There was no communication, you tried to talk, but you kept talking right past each other. And at times it seemed like you were speaking two different languages. So you just shut down. He shut down, she gave up, and now you coexist in a quiet hell where don't nobody say nothing to nobody. You're all you had into your marriage, and you've got nothing to show for your efforts. Somebody else, you you put all you had to put into your job, and you've got nothing to show for your efforts. You hate to go to work and you hate to go home. Feel like a failure in every area of your life. You you put all you had into your parenting. You know, you know, it's one thing to hear the heartbreaking stories of single parents, single mothers and single fathers, who did all they could with all they had, and the gangs won out over God, cocaine one out over college, crap one out over Christ, jail, one out over Jesus. It's sad enough to hear those stories and feel so helpless in the face of the statistics that are overwhelming us in this country. But when you hear a father from a two-parent household, like the one I heard, not this pastor, but another one, parent, a two-parent household. He said to me, right? A lot of daddies ain't there for their kids. I was there. A lot of fathers will not support their children. I supported my, I supported them financially, I supported them spiritually, I supported them psychologically from kindergarten through high school and college. I sacrificed for my children. I did without so that they could have, I paid tuition all by myself. I let my wife put all her money in her own account, do what she wanted to do. And now he said, I look at my children, and my mind can't see anything in any of them except the word failure. One has a failed marriage, one has failed in school, one has failed in her fight against addiction. All of them, he said to me, give less than a damn about the church, and all of them were raised in the church. Where did I go wrong? What did I do wrong? He put all he had into his parenting, and he's got nothing to show for it. Somebody looking at me right now, you know exactly what that young pastor was feeling. You labored long and you labored faithfully. You did all you knew how to do, and you feel like you have nothing to show for your efforts. Well, if that is how you're feeling, or if you know anything at all about how that feels like a failure, then perhaps you can relate to what it is. Peter and his partners are feeling right here as we joined them by the Sea of Tiberius in John 21. Simon Peter had to feel like his ministry was a failure. He started off with such great promise. Andrew, a disciple of John's, had come and got him and told him, We have found the Messiah, we have found the Christ, we found the anointed one. Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. And when Jesus saw Simon, Jesus looked at him and Jesus said, You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. You know, Jesus can look at you and see stuff in you that you can't see, stuff that other folk can't see, stuff that the world cannot see. When Jesus looks at you, he is not interested in what you did that caused you to become what you have become. Jesus is only interested in what you can become and what you shall become if you hook up with him. And if you look at the text, he he calls you when he says to Peter that your name is Simon, but you're gonna be called Petras, Peter. He is calling you in the now what you will be in the not yet. Jesus speaks into existence the positive plans he has for your future. He calls Simon now Cephas, which is what he will be later on. Cephas in our man is the Greek word that petras, petras, from which we get Peter or Rock. Now, if you're fast forward from that meeting that they had, fast forward on the spiritual VCRs of your mind. Look at what happens when they come into the coast of Caesarea Philippi. Many years later, Jesus asks his disciples in Caesarea Philippi, whom do men say that I am? What are the people saying about me? Who do they think that I am? And the disciples say, well, some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist, some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Please notice those were all good things that they didn't tell him the dirty stuff that people say about it. There were good things, but they were also spooky things. I mean, look at it. Elijah, that's a good thing. Elijah was Israel's mightiest prophet next to Moses. Jesus, they said to him, Folk think you're a mighty prophet, right up there next to Moses. John the Baptist, that's a good thing too. John, John was a preacher par excellence. And the crowds went out in great numbers to hear John. They were saying to him in so many ways, Jesus, folk think you are a great preacher. You can draw crowds like Freddie Haynes or T.D. Jake. Jeremiah, they said, some people think he's Jeremiah. Jeremiah, that's a good thing too. Jeremiah in the Bible was a flat-footed prophet standing smack dab in the middle of a tradition whose allegiance was to God and not to government. I know you're not gonna believe this, but there were some preachers in the Bible. There used to be some preachers in the Bible, back in Jeremiah's day in the Bible, whose allegiance was to the government and not to God. They cared more about money than mercy. They cared more about a payday than the poor. They care more about jewelry than justice, and they send whatever the party line was so as not to upset the government. I know you're not gonna believe that. That's way back, that's way back, way back, way back, way back. Brandy Max said long, long, long, long, long time ago. Long time ago. That's way back before Eddie Long would not let Harry Belafonte come to his church. Because he wanted President Bush. Allegiance was to the government, not to God. Way long, long, long, long, long time ago. That was then, that was then. Whenever that not Jeremiah though, they said Jesus, some people think you're Jeremiah. Jeremiah in the Bible stood flat-footed, and Jeremia stood smack damn in the middle of a prophetic tradition whose allegiance was to God and not to government. And they said, damn, Jesus, some folks, some folks think you're a minister who cares about people and not the president. Some folks, Jesus, think you are a minister who will critique the government's policies even when it is not popular, and even if it lands you up in jail. These are great things that they're saying about you, Jesus. But I said that you notice there are also spooky things that they're saying. But why spooky, really? Well, Elijah's dead. John the Baptist is dead, Jeremiah been dead. So they're saying there's something about you, Jesus, that's sort of spooky when you're speaking. Like a like a like a voice from the other side. But then Jesus flipped the script on him. Jesus, Jesus said, okay, that's who they say I am. Now you tell me you say that I am. And Simon answered, You are the Christ, son of the living God. And Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood is not revealed this unto you, but my father which is in heaven, and I say unto you that you are Petras, you are Peter, you are the rock, and upon this rock I will build my church. Jesus told him on the day that he met him, I see something in you that you can't see. You are to become Cephas or Peter the rock. Peter's ministry has started off sermons with such great promise. He had been there on the Mount of Transfiguration, he had been there in the Garden of Gethsemane, he had pulled his sword to protect the Prince of Peace, but something happened. Something always seems to happen, doesn't it? Something happened, and not only had he failed in his ministry, he'd also failed in the area of loyalty. Here was the man who had changed his life and he let him down. Here is the man who had rearranged his destiny and he had denied him. Not once, not twice, but what? Three times. Here's the man who had taken it from being a fisherman to being a fisher of men, and he had failed him. Written all across his resume in bright red letters, as red as the blood that flowed from Calvary, was the word failure. Simon Peter had to feel like his ministry was a failure. Look who else is there, Thomas said Thomas the Twin. The man who said, Unless I see the nail prints and put my hands in the wounds, I will not believe it. But he also heard the Lord say, Yeah, Thomas, you believe because you've seen. Blessed are those who will believe and who have never seen and will never have seen. And that thing had to eat at Thomas. I only believe because I had to see. The tradition teaches that we walk by faith and not by sight. But most of us we walk by sight, and then we have faith. Look who else is there by the sea of Tiberius, Nathaniel of Cana, the man whom Philip found, and the one who signified on the Savior before he ever saw the Savior. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Jesus, when he saw Nathaniel, complimented him. Nathaniel before he ever saw the Lord, laid eyes on him, criticized him. That had to haunt his memory. Look who else is there by the Sea of Tiberius: James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the sons of thunder, the ones called Bo Anergies, the ones who wanted to rain down fire on a Samaritan town, and the two who selflessly tried to carve out a niche for themselves while cutting out old Big Mouth Peter. You remember what they did? They stepped to Jesus and said, Look here, G. When you come into your kingdom, can you hook a brother up? You ever said stuff or done stuff that you're sorry you said and sorry you did, and wish you'd never said it or done it? Because in your solitude and the quiet time and the in-between times, and there's no action going on in the waiting period between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise, that's when that stuff starts to surface and your thoughts of failure will not leave you alone. That's when it's easy to make a mistake and end up in the quicksand of comparison. That's when you start to question yourself, second guess yourself, come down on yourself. And the text teaches that that is also the time when you're attempted to fall back on what you know. Turn turn to your neighbor and say, fall back on what you know. Turn on another side and say, fall back on the familiar. That's what happens in the text. They fall back on the familiar. Now, some of y'all looking at me funny, like you don't know a fall back on the familiar. You got some numbers programmed in your cell phone right now that should have been deleted. But that's the familiar you can go back to if this don't work here. And don't think them code names you got them on the phone, nobody either. The ministry ain't working, got nothing to show for my efforts. The marriage ain't working, got nothing to show for my efforts, the job ain't working, the relationship ain't working, this parenting thing ain't working. So I'm gonna go back to what I know. I'm gonna fall back on the familiar. Look what Peter said. Peter said, I'm going fishing.

unknown 22:54

Right.

Jesus Shows Up After Daybreak

He Cares And The Doors Open

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Fishing, I know. I'm familiar with that. And his partner said, we going with you, handling up on your business. Text says they went out, got into the boat, fished all night long, and they caught look at this text. My ministry is a failure. My loyalty is a failure. I fall back on what I know, and that don't work. They fished all night long and had nothing to show for their efforts. You've done all you know how to do. You've even fallen back on the familiar and gone back to doing what you used to do, and you have nothing to show for your efforts, and you feel like a failure. That's where this young pastor was I was talking to two years ago. That's where Peter, Nathaniel, Thomas, James, and John are, and that's where somebody in Bethel this morning is. When your partners with you cannot help you. With experience and expertise combined. Peter was a seasoned fisherman. James and John had a daddy who owned a fishing business. They grew up on the sea. They had experience, they had expertise, but even with experience and expertise, they still came up empty. They had nothing to show for their efforts after fishing all night long. Sometimes, even with the combined experience and expertise in your pocket, you still come up empty. Now, look at what the text says. When everything is going wrong. Nothing ain't working. Nothing going right. Look at the text. Just after daybreak. Jesus shows up. Just after daybreak. Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciple did not know that was his each. Sometimes when Jesus shows up, he don't even. Reverend Dr. Rudolph McKissick, Junior. I know that over 20 years of ministry, there have been times when you felt like you had nothing to show for. Oh, the folk here see you in one night. But back in Richmond, you compared to Paul Nichols, compared to your father-in-law, you could never measure. In Toledo? You had saints who didn't want to praise God. But wanted to shut down the Holy Ghost. And here you come, unappreciated, too loud, too country. A pig in mink clothing. Degrees and opera hooping like you done lost your mind. Nothing to show for. Then you come home. Oh, Daddy happy, mama happy, but I know what they're saying, but you never will be your daddy. You will always be Lil Rudy. You'll always be Pastor Junior. You'll always be playing second field. You feel at times? You got to feel that you have nothing to show for it. You preach a Virginia Union University School of Theology, Sammy Louis talked the gospel. They didn't want it down here in Jacksonville. Why don't you stick to preaching Jesus? That means sex who getting some who not getting none of the homosexual. That's the full gospel. Stop talking about the government. Preach the gospel. You in the heart of Bush territory. Jeb and George W. And you preaching about breaking the bonds of slave mentality. You talked about, you lied on, you laughed at, you this, you dismissed. But Jesus shows up to tell you this morning that you cares for your net. He cares. Sometimes when Jesus shows up, you don't even know that it's Jesus. He showed up in this young pastor's life that I started telling you about. He showed up while I was there with him in a letter from a member who had just finished med school. I was with him in July, the member had finished in May. The member had been a preteen, 12 years old when the pastor went to the church. And because the pastor poured himself into the life of a poor black ghetto kid with one parent and bad English like Bill Cosby criticized, the girl began to believe in herself. And 15 years later, while the pastor was comparing his ministry to Lance Watson's ministry, comparing his ministry to Freddie Haynes' ministry, comparing his ministry to Cynthia Hale's ministry, comparing his ministry to Rudolph McKissick's ministry, the Lord was sending a letter to a laborer in God's vineyard who felt like a failure. The letter came the week that I was there. And the letter said, Dear Pastor, because you believed in me, because you taught me to believe in myself, I have just finished my residency and I am coming home to make sure some other black child becomes all that God has placed within them to become. Thank you, Pastor, she said. Jesus showed up and he didn't even recognize Jesus showed up to say, in so many words, I didn't call you to be successful. I called you to be faithful. And you have been faithful. I didn't call you to blow up, I called you to stand up. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. Stand up for black people. Stand up for what is right. Stand up for the least of these my little ones. Jesus shows up. And if you keep on reading in this John text, you will see once again that whenever Jesus shows up, what does Jesus do? Throw down. They caught so many fish that they couldn't even get them into the boat. And guess what else the letter said? The letter said, because I got full fellowships and scholarships as a result of your teaching me to use my mind and not be ashamed of being intelligent. She said, I made it through med school without the huge debt that some of my classmates have. And I understand, Pastor, she said, that your son is supposed to start college this August. So as my way of saying thank you, and I hope you don't mind, I want to pay for your son's college to pay you back for all that you've done to me. She said, and I figured that you might object because you're too proud or you're too macho. That's a man thing I never will understand. She said, but I figured you might say no. So I found out from my mama where your boy is going, and I've already paid for the first two gifts. Thank you, Pastor. Because if you hadn't helped me, I would not be in a position to help somebody else. Jesus showed up, and Jesus showed up. When ain't nothing working, when nothing is going, Jesus will show up. Pastor McKinsey, that's all we want you to know is that he cares. You think you can make it? You think it's all in vain? Oh no, no, no. He cares for you. He cares. Somebody else needs to know that. Turn this sunny turn. Say he cares. Come on and say that you mean it. And let me tell you something. When you see his hand of mercy, when you look back over your life and see his footfalls, don't even try to figure it out. Just thank and praise it out and shout it out. Say, thank you for keeping me when I didn't feel like I could make it. Thank you for holding on to me when I wanted to let go. Thank you for caring for me when I could not see how any good could come out of this situation. Come on and stand to your feet. We're gonna come back to that. He cares. Turn back to your neighbor. Say, He cares for you. Doors of the church are open this Sunday. The doors of the church are open. Come on, come on, from wherever you are. Turn back to your neighbor. Say, I've been talking to you the whole service. I don't even know your name. Find out your neighbor's name.