Let's pray, Father in heaven, we pray that from the inside out, from the depths of our souls, our souls will cry out for your praise and your glory. I pray that we would not be more excited at a football game than we are right here right now because forever and ever we will surround your throne with our arms in the air singing your praises forever. And so I pray that we would get a taste of that now. I pray that your glory would overwhelm us so that we would then respond the way that you would have us to respond. I pray that from the depths of our souls we worship you today. I pray to Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated.
Ethos Presbyterian Church. How about that? I asked the band members just to stay up here because I don't know, I saw it, I was watching, I was at a conference one time, the band members were sitting up on the stage and they had their bibles open and the preacher was preaching and he could turn and talk to him and I thought, dude that is awesome, I'm going to do that in my church. So hey, this is my church so I can do whatever I want. So the band has agreed to stay up here. Hi Caitlin, good to see you. Hey see how easy that was? That was nice. Now I have somebody to talk to because when I talk to you guys, nobody responds to Presbyterians but that's how I've talked to these people, they know. Anybody make New Year's resolutions this year? Yeah, New Year's resolutions, anyone? I'm the only one. Didn't everyone used to do these? Okay, I see that hand, Lord. Samuel Johnson, a great literary giant of the 18th century. He kept the journal and in that journal he would write down his resolutions and I was reading a blog post by Tulian Chavitian who got this from somebody who got it from somebody who got it from somebody so I won't quote it but let me refer you to Samuel Johnson's personal journal that he wrote over the years of his life where he struggled to keep his resolutions. Samuel Johnson was a night guy kind of like me. He didn't like to get up early in the morning and read his Bible and pray. He knew he should. He thought he should and he was having trouble keeping his resolutions. At age 29 he says, Lord, help me with my idolness and my sloth. He's asking God to help him get off his rear end and get up in the morning and pray and read his Bible at 18 years later at age 47. You know what he prays? Lord help me with my idolness and sloth. Two years later or three years later at age 50 he says, Lord help me with my idolness and my sloth. I'm still struggling. I'm still failing. At age 52 he says, I'm afraid to even pray for this any longer. I keep failing. At age 55 he resolves to wake up early and start praying. At age 56 he resolves to rise at eight because he says in his journal, I often sleep until two and that makes you feel good about yourself, doesn't it? At age 60 I resolve to rise at eight and eventually again by six, age 66 I resolve again to rise at eight and age 72 just a few years before his death. He says, I will not despair. Help me. Help me. Oh my God. See Samuel Johnson knew something that was true of most of us and that is we have a hard time keeping up with our own goals much less God's goals for us. You see I'm a failure too. Last year I'll never forget I was writing out my New Year's resolutions and I had a journal. I had a new journal for a new year. This year I'm going to write in it. You know you guys ever do that? You go out and buy a new one because the last year you wrote, I'm going to write in this journal and you never wrote in it. So instead of crossing it out I just went out and bought a new one and opening it up and I said, this year is going to be the year. I'm finally going to be disciplined this year. I'm going to write in my journal. I'm going to keep my deals and so I resolve to be a better husband and a better dad and I resolve to pray more and watch TV less and eat less and drink less and all these things and I made all these huge resolutions. I was going to run and do all these things that guys my size don't do right and I was going to do all that and I remember calling my friend John Oak because he's my accountability partner. We've been best friends for 15 years and I called John and I said, all right John, here's my resolutions. I'm making them again and my friend John. He just that poor guy has had to put up with me for so long and he he said, bow, why are you doing this again? And I said, we'll do it it's a new year and this is going to be the year. This is going to be the year that I keep it and he goes, that's what you always say. In every year, you know what you do? You call me like in two weeks or one week sometimes and you tell me that you've already failed and you feel down and I have to encourage you. Why are we going through this again? Now, my friend John, who can talk to me like that, he's been best friends for that long but I hope you have friends like that because again, I feel this weight of the failures of my life all the time. I mean, how many times have you said, Lord, this is the time that I'm not going to do that thing again. I do it all the time. How does Jesus feel about you when you fail? That's what we're going to talk about today. When you don't live up to your expectations, when you don't live up to God's expectations for you, how does he feel about you? How does he feel about you when you fail? The text we're going to be looking at if you have your Bibles is Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, we're going to look at the story of Peter and Peter is this guy. He's this voracious, passionate, intense kind of guy. I don't know any people like that. He's this voracious, intense, passionate guy who's always the guy to step out and be the guy to try out whatever thing Jesus is asking all the guys to do and everyone else is scared to do. We're going to read about one of his failures and we're going to read how Jesus feels about him. We're going to start in Luke 22. What I hope to show you today are these three things. It's written in your bulletin, if you're taking notes. Number one, the hope of future success. We all have these hopes. Number two, the pain of failure and number three, the beautiful bliss of restoration. So let's start with the hope of future success. Jesus is going to tell these guys you've succeeded in the past. You've stood by me. Look at what he says in verses 28 through 30, verses 28 through 30. He says, I'm reading out the NIV today. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. You've stood by me. When I've gone through the tough stuff, you've been there for me. Verse 29, and I confer on you a kingdom just as my father conferred one on me so that you may eat and drink at my table and my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And you go, wow, they are really doing well, right? Jesus seems to be saying, way to go guys, he's patting them on the back, right? Except the next verses are coming. Jesus says, you've stood by me in the past, but you're not going to in the future. Look what he says. Verse 31, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. Now, I want to stop just for a minute. I've prayed for you, Simon, that your faith won't fail. I would think that if Jesus is praying for you, it's going to work, right? I mean, he's got, he's sovereign. Jesus is interceding for us, right? And so he says, Peter, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you, which means that he's going to succeed, right? But look what happens. And when you have turned back, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. Peter, Satan has asked you to sift, has asked me to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you. Therefore, when you've blown it, come back. When you've blown it, encourage those other guys who have blown it too. What is going on right here? Why is Jesus praying for Peter and yet Peter fails? Maybe it was part of his plan all along.
Maybe Peter's failure was part of Jesus's plan all along. Well, Peter's not the only one who's failed in the Bible. Peter's not the only one who has struggled with the humility of being exposed. There's a lot of failures in the Bible. If you think about it, we have the Apostle Paul who wrote 13 books of the New Testament, calling himself the chief of sinners. We have in Romans 7, where the Apostle Paul writes, the good that I want to do, I do not do, and the things that I do not want to do, those are the very things that I do. Whoa is me. What a wretched man that I am. And he wasn't alone. Think about Abraham not believing God and sleeping with his made servant. Think about Isaac and Jacob and all the soap opera stuff that they were involved with. Think about Moses who didn't believe Jesus lost his temper through the Ten Commandments down, struck the rock. Think about King David cheating on his wife and then killing a guy. Think about Solomon. Think about Samson. I mean, the Bible is full of failures. These are the guys that we're reading about. These are the guys that God wants us to be like. He calls David a man after my own heart. They are complete failures. The pain of failure is deep. And you know that when you've tried to set goals for yourself, musical goals or work goals or whatever goals it is that you have. And you've said, this is going to be the time that I'm going to succeed. And you find yourself failing again. And it hurts. Or you're like my good friend over here that I won't say his name. Who's like one of the most driven guys I know is like entrepreneur seminars every weekend. I mean, this guy is good. He's he's photographer and all these different things. Maybe you know, I don't know this. I don't know this to be the case with this buddy of mine. But maybe he sets goals and he actually meets them. You know, people like that I do. I remember going to a church with a pastor said, I have not missed a quiet time in 28 years. And my wife's only missed one. And that was because she was in labor for 24 hours. I know people who can keep their goals, but here's the problem with them is that eventually, they're faced with the reality that their success is puffed them up. Now, I don't know that's to be the case with my friend. My friend knows who I'm talking about. I have no idea if he's puffed up with pride or not. But I guarantee you that those of you who actually set your goals high and then you get it, you struggle with self-righteousness. Why can't you be like me? I'm better than you. I run a marathon. How can you struggle with running a 5K? All you guys do is go out there and do it. Yeah, you tie a 80 pound inner tube around your waist. And let's see how your knees feel. All right. That's why I feel about it. I went jogging with my wife the other day. My wife ran a marathon a couple of years ago. And so I asked her to go run a wing. I was doing this couch to 5K thing. And my wife's like running backwards. I'm like running as hard as I can. And she's like running backwards, like looking at her watch. Like, gotta keep the heart rate up. Gotta keep the heart rate up. That's how slow I am. But when we fail to keep our New Year's resolutions, we often times have serious pain. There's a problem. There's a problem with the pain of failure. One of the problems with this kind of failure is that evangelicalism, what we are all a part of, largely has taught us certain things. And that is this, that it's all about your performance. Evangelicalism, largely, has taught us. It's taught me through the years different. Now, maybe you were blessed with a pastor who got this way better than some of the teachers that I sat under. But Christianity has been plagued with this idea that the better you perform, the happier God is with you. And so you know what you did. You heard a pastor say, you need to be a better dad. And you need to be a better this. And you need to be a better this. And look what I've done. And I haven't done these things. And you shouldn't do them either. And you went, yes, this is going to be the year. I'm going to be better. And then you failed again. And the problem is, is that when you do good, you feel good about yourself. And when you feel bad, you just feel horrible about yourself. And you essentially become your own personal savior. You know, if you live up to your own expectations, you're happy. And if you don't, you're despairing. Peter suffered from this as well. Look, let's stay in chapter 22. But I want you to flip over to verse 54. We're in point number two now. The pain, the pain of failure. We're going to read verses 54 through 62. Then seizing him, they led Jesus away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed, Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and it sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, this man was with him. But he denied it. Woman, I don't know him. He said a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. Man, I am not. Peter replied about an hour later, another asserted, certainly this fellow was with him for he is a Galilean. Peter replied, man, I don't know what you're talking about. Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him before the rooster crows today. You will disown me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. Can you imagine seeing Jesus turn his face towards you at that moment, the pain, the humiliation, the angst that you would feel over your own sin, the guy that you've spent three years with, the guy who asked you to get out of the boat. Just get out of the boat, Peter. Come walk to me, Peter. I'll do it. You know, and he gets out of the boat and he's walking towards Jesus and then he goes, oh my gosh, what am I doing in falls? The guy who was on the mount of transfiguration and said to Jesus, hey Jesus, let's stay here forever. This is the guy who has been with Jesus for a long time and flat out turns his back on him three times. Flat out turns his back. What was Peter's idol? What was it that caused him to not respond to God? What was it that caused him such angst in his soul that he could not say yes, I'll go. Yes, I'm the guy. Maybe it was a idol of safety and security. Maybe it was an idol of I love my life and I don't want to die.
Whatever it was, he loved his life more than he loved Jesus at that moment and that was the last conversation that he had with him before he died. That was Peter's last words that Jesus heard before Jesus died. Now, I want you to imagine for a moment that you're Peter. You've just turned your back on the very one who you've believed in for years. The guy who you left everything to follow and you've just turned your back on him three times and he looks at you in the rooster crows and you never talked to him again before his death. How would you feel at that moment? I guarantee you Peter was feeling an angst like we can't even imagine as he watches from a distance as Jesus dies. Why do you think he ran to the tomb on that Sunday morning? Can you imagine the hope that he must have felt to be able to say to Jesus one more time? I'll follow you. Give me another chance. He ran to that tomb. There is pain and failure and Peter was running to the only one who could give him hope and you know what we would say? I mean, come on evangelicals with me here. Let's let's be honest. You know what we would say? He doesn't love Jesus. His actions don't show it. He denied Jesus. He probably was never saved to begin with. That's what we would say. We would point our fingers at him and we would say, I would never do that. Jesus didn't believe that about Peter. Point number three is the beautiful bliss of restoration. Flip over to John, chapter 21. John, chapter 21. As of this point in verse 15, we have not yet seen any conversation. There's nothing recorded about any conversations between Peter and Jesus. Jesus has resurrected. He appeared to the 12th. We know that he showed Thomas the hands and then he appeared to the two disciples at a mass and now here we are. Peter's coming in from catching no fish and Jesus says, cast out on the other side and they do and they bring in all these fish and Peter realizes that it was Jesus. And so Peter, what you know, you're coming in, right? You have about 50 yards left before the shore. What's the normal person going to do? They're going to wait until the boat reaches the shore before they, but what's Peter do? Jumps out of the boat. He's, he's, he's pretty much naked because they just fished with like a little something on and and so he throws on his overclock and he jumps in the water. He can't wait to see Jesus. He wants to talk to Jesus and this is their conversation. Look at verse 15. When they had finished eating, because Jesus says, come over here and get something to eat. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, this is the first words we have Jesus speaking to him. Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these? What a question. Think about what has just happened. The last thing that happened between these two guys was that Peter is denying him. Jesus calls him over and says, do you love me more than them? Because you always act like you do. Do you love me more than these guys? Because every time I ask, I'll y'all and ask for a volunteer. You're the one that always volunteers. Do you love me more than them? And I imagine that Peter full of kind of that hurt and pain says to Jesus, yes Lord. You know that I love you. Now, time out. How does Jesus know that Peter loves him? Do his actions show it? The last time we're looking at Peter, he's completely blown it. How can Peter then say to Jesus, you know I do. Maybe, maybe we really can love Jesus and still blow it. Maybe we really can absolutely love Jesus and want to follow him and yet still in a weak moment blow it. This is what seems to be happening. And so Jesus, watch what he does. He asks some again. Jesus says to him, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. And then again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? Peter says, yes Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, take care of my sheep. The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Now Peter was hurt. Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me? And I imagine he got a little bit indignant here and said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Jesus had said to Peter before, stay with me, Peter. You're going to sit on thrones and rule, but Peter, Satan has asked to sift you his wheat, but I've prayed for you. And when you've turned back, when you've turned back, encourage everyone else to follow me too. And now he's saying it again. There's going to be a time, computer, where you're going to die. Peter, it's coming. See, someone's going to ask you if you're affiliated with me and you're going to say yes and they're going to kill you, except this time you're going to stay strong. Why? Because I prayed for you and you've turned back. You're here right now. You've turned back. Now is the time to strengthen your brothers. And what did Peter do? He wrote scripture. He strengthened his brothers. And then Jesus does something so beautiful right here. I want you to grasp the weight of this moment. Look at what he says.
He says to Peter, follow me. When was the first time Jesus said that to Peter, about three years before. And here he is saying it to him again. Peter, follow me. It's an invitation. It's an invitation to enter into a relationship. It's an invitation to enter back in to a restored, reconciled relationship. And it is beautiful. It is compassionate. It is grace filled. And it should bring you to your knees in the depths of your soul. That when you fail, when you let God down, he says to you again. Now follow me. Now follow me. Get back up and let's follow me.
I was discipling a guy a few years ago and he kept slipping up into the same sin over and over and over again. And one day he's sitting in my office and he breaks down crying again. And he says, it happened to me again. It happened to me again. And I keep saying that was the last time. And it happened again. And I said, get on the floor. And he looked at me crazy. I said, just get on the floor. And he got on the floor. And I reached out my hand. And I said, now get up. And let's do it again. And I pulled him up and we were both kind of crying and I held him. Get up. Follow me. That's what Jesus is crying out to you. And you know what? If I was you, I'd be saying, how in the world can that even happen? How does this even work? How can you blow it that bad? And Jesus says it's okay. How can that happen? Let me tell you how it can happen. How it happens is that Jesus on that cross became sin for you. He took your failures upon himself and he died in your place. And what does the Bible say that we get in his place? Because he took our sin. What do we get from him? His righteousness. We get his righteousness. He doesn't see us as failures anymore. Jesus has his sons. I don't stop loving my son when he blows it. My wife doesn't stop loving me when I blow it. There's grace. There's forgiveness. Why? Because we have one who has shown incredible grace to us. He says, get up. Come on. You want to run a 5k? Your joints are aching. That's all right. I know you quit. Get back up. Do it again. Catch the 5k, baby. One more time. Get back up. Go see Dr. Barnes. Let him rub out all the muscle cramps you have and let him tape up your feet and get back out there and start running again.
Some of you in here have blown it. Some of you have blown it. And you need to hear these words today. But some of you won't admit that you're a failure. Some of you can't. Some of you really do believe that you have achieved pretty much everything you need to do. That you're a pretty good person. That you're not really that bad of a person. C.S. Lewis says three things about pride. Number one, everybody struggles with it. Number two, you hate it when you see it in others. And number three, Christians are the only ones that are even aware that we need to work on it. And he says, if you don't think that you're conceded, you are very, very conceded indeed. We all struggle with pride. Let it go right now. Let it go right now and pray that God would change your heart, repent of your sin, turn towards Jesus and get going. Believe today. Believe today. And if any of you are saying to yourselves, I didn't know Christianity was this easy. I can do whatever I want and keep failing and Jesus keeps forgiving me and I can just live life how I want. Let me just caution you do not make a mockery of Jesus. That is not what this is about. This is about those who like Peter, love Jesus and yet blew it. Believe today. Believe today in Jesus. Let us pull you up by the hand. Come talk to an elder. Come talk to me. Let us pull you up and follow Jesus. He calls you to do it today. Let's pray. I want to take just a few moments right now and I want to give you a chance to repent. So as your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, we don't need to be looking around right now. Just repent to the Lord. Tell him that you're a failure and that you've blown it. I want you to imagine that God is absolutely holding you in his lap. His arms are around you. He's hugging you. Cheek to cheek because he loves you and he's your dad and he's allowed to hold you like that. The field is embraced. Father in heaven, we have sinned against you. We have mightily turned our backs on you and yet you say over and over again, do you love me? And we're right now we say yes
and then it says if the Savior says to us then come follow me. I want to pray that if there's anyone in here today who have they've never decided to follow you before I pray that they would do it right now that they would say Lord I believe in you and I thank you for your grace because I am a failure but you love me anyway. Thank you for saving me. Jesus name