Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God as moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome to Elevation Church. My name is Larry Brye.
Speaker 3: I'm one of the pastors here at Elevation and everybody
Speaker 3: calls me LB. So in the chat if you want
Speaker 3: to call me LB, we'll be friends. I love it
Speaker 3: and my wife and had the privilege of being one
Speaker 3: of the original eight families that sold their homes and
Speaker 3: quit their jobs nineteen years ago to start.
Speaker 1: Elevation Church and.
Speaker 3: Surely one of the biggest honors of our lives to
Speaker 3: have a front row seat. But every time I get
Speaker 3: up in the pulpit, there's a couple things that I'm.
Speaker 1: Always encouraged by.
Speaker 3: One is Pastor Stephen, you do this every week, My goodness,
Speaker 3: thank you for standing in the pulpit every week faith
Speaker 3: inly preaching the word of God. I honor you, we
Speaker 3: love you.
Speaker 1: And it makes me grateful for our church.
Speaker 3: Nineteen years ago we had eight families, and now we've
Speaker 3: got nineteen physical locations.
Speaker 1: Come on balancein.
Speaker 3: Let's welcome all the other locations joining us today. It's amazing, Ronoke,
Speaker 3: I love you. And then our very first Sunday, we
Speaker 3: had one hundred and twenty one people joining us for church.
Speaker 3: Now today, the team told me, on this a weekend
Speaker 3: like this, an average weekend, there'll be one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty countries watching elevation chirts.
Speaker 1: So let's welcome everybody.
Speaker 3: Joining us from countries all around the world, Denmark and Sweden, Kenya,
Speaker 3: the country of California, the country of Texas City, and well,
Speaker 3: gratefully you joined in today because we believe God's got
Speaker 3: a word for you. Let me give you one versus
Speaker 3: scripture to set off where we want to go today.
Speaker 3: This is an Acts, chapter four, Verse fourteen says, Then
Speaker 3: Peter stood up with the eleven raised his voice. Let
Speaker 3: me say it again, then Peter, he stood up, and
Speaker 3: he raised his voice, and he addressed the crowd. Fellow
Speaker 3: Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. Let
Speaker 3: me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say.
Speaker 3: I think Peter's got a sermon he's gonna preach for
Speaker 3: us today, and we need to listen to the words
Speaker 3: of Peter. But not just the words he's gonna preach with,
Speaker 3: but he's gonna preach with his very posture, because it
Speaker 3: says if he stood up, he was sitting down. And
Speaker 3: I think there's some of you that have sat down
Speaker 3: in some things that God's calling you out of. And
Speaker 3: so he's not just gonna preach with his words. He's
Speaker 3: gonna preach with his posture. And the title for today,
Speaker 3: I got it from my mom, Dorothy. She's four foot
Speaker 3: eleven on a good day, and when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: I would not want to get out of bed, like
Speaker 3: the curtains were closed.
Speaker 1: I love it dark.
Speaker 3: I'd be curled up in my blankets and my mom
Speaker 3: would walk in with all authority of Heaven and she
Speaker 3: would throw all open the windows and the light would
Speaker 3: flood in, and she says, time to rise and shine. Larry,
Speaker 3: that's the title I got for our message today.
Speaker 1: Time to rise and shine.
Speaker 3: How about your look at your neighbor, tell him to
Speaker 3: rise and shine. Worship Team, thank you for leading us today.
Speaker 3: You guys can have a seat. This text that were
Speaker 3: jumping into this character Peter in Acts two fourteen. It's
Speaker 3: the day of Pentecost. It's kind of the birth of
Speaker 3: the church. The promise of the Holy Spirit had showed up,
Speaker 3: and they started to do profound things that were filled
Speaker 3: with the spirit. And it spills out of a little
Speaker 3: room into the street. And this is like nine in
Speaker 3: the morning, and all the people who didn't quite understand
Speaker 3: what was going on looked at and said, these people
Speaker 3: got to be drunk. And then it says Peter, he
Speaker 3: stood up, he raised his voice because there was a
Speaker 3: murmur in the crowd trying to drown out what God
Speaker 3: was doing. And there's always a in the crowd to
Speaker 3: try to drownd out what God wants to do in you.
Speaker 3: And threw you in all around you. And Peter recognized
Speaker 3: the situation because he was he stood up out of
Speaker 3: something and he raised his voice. That was not just
Speaker 3: him going, I think that is.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3: Saint Peter, you were prepared for this moment. Stand up,
Speaker 3: lift your voice, and I'll speak something over these people.
Speaker 3: And he got up out of something. But we don't
Speaker 3: appreciate Peter standing up as much if we don't actually
Speaker 3: know where he sat down, because if you only see
Speaker 3: the second half of the movie, you don't appreciate as
Speaker 3: much if you don't understand where it began. So as
Speaker 3: you look at our character Peter, some of us are
Speaker 3: going to identify.
Speaker 1: I love Peter. I so relate to Peter, and so
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 3: Because Peter's the guy who would always say some dumb
Speaker 3: things at the wrong time.
Speaker 1: Just call me Peter. That's that's me.
Speaker 3: But if we rewind just a couple months, in fact,
Speaker 3: fifty three days, just flip over a couple chapters in
Speaker 3: Luke twenty two, verses thirty one to thirty four, it says,
Speaker 3: and Simon, this is the moment at the Last Supper
Speaker 3: that Jesus is going to have with his disciples before
Speaker 3: he goes to do what he was created to do.
Speaker 3: And he's got this moment with Peter. Pastor Stephen actually
Speaker 3: preached on this a couple of weeks ago in a
Speaker 3: sermon called the Prayer that Repairs.
Speaker 1: Go back and watch that.
Speaker 3: That is so good, Jesus says Simon, Simon, Satan has
Speaker 3: asked to sift you as we but I prayed for you, Simon,
Speaker 3: that your faith will may not fail. And when you
Speaker 3: turn back strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm
Speaker 3: ready to go to to go to you. I'm ready
Speaker 3: to go with you to prison and to death. Peter's loud,
Speaker 3: He's like, I'll take a stand for you.
Speaker 1: Will.
Speaker 3: I will take a stand in front of everybody. And
Speaker 3: Jesus like, yeah, surely you will, because he's he says,
Speaker 3: I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, he
Speaker 3: will deny three times that you know me. And so
Speaker 3: at the last Supper, Jesus gives this parting word to Peter,
Speaker 3: and then they go out to the garden, and Jesus
Speaker 3: know about what's gonna happen. After that moment, the disciples
Speaker 3: had heard Jesus talk about three times you'll be crucified.
Speaker 3: But now they start to see the story unfold. And
Speaker 3: it's a little bit of disbelief, I think as they
Speaker 3: go around with this. But if you go to Midnight
Speaker 3: just a few hours later Luke twenty two, it says
Speaker 3: this verse fifty four says then seizing him him being Jesus,
Speaker 3: they led him away and took him into the house
Speaker 3: of the High Priest, and Peter followed at a distance.
Speaker 3: Now it's really interesting to see the story and fold
Speaker 3: like this. Remember, Peter, I'll never deny you. I'll go
Speaker 3: to prison with you, but you just got to restle.
Speaker 1: Like, well, just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I want all that. I signed
Speaker 3: up to follow you, Jesus, but maybe just not quite
Speaker 3: that close. And sometimes we don't understand what we sign
Speaker 3: up for until we see it in.
Speaker 1: Front of us. And like, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: signed up from eh.
Speaker 3: But before we beat Peter up, I think we need
Speaker 3: to celebrate him a little bit. Because Judas he betrayed Jesus.
Speaker 3: Where are the other ten apostles?
Speaker 1: They left?
Speaker 3: They deserted Jesus. Peter might be following out a distance,
Speaker 3: but praise God for Peter, he's at least following. Can
Speaker 3: we celebrate Peter just a little bit. He's at a
Speaker 3: distance because there's somebody watching this sermon right now, and
Speaker 3: you're afraid that your parents might hear it. So you
Speaker 3: got the tone, you got the volume way down. You're
Speaker 3: following Jesus. It might be at a distance. And we
Speaker 3: have brothers and sisters around the world that if this
Speaker 3: sermon were to be played in public, they would be
Speaker 3: persecuted for their faith. They might feel like they're following
Speaker 3: at a distance, but they're doing the best they can.
Speaker 3: And for those of you who took every ounce of
Speaker 3: energy to click on the link, Praise.
Speaker 1: God, you're following at a distance.
Speaker 3: For every one of you that had everything you could
Speaker 3: do just to get in the car to get the
Speaker 3: church today, Praise God. You're following at a distance. But
Speaker 3: Jesus said, you'll deny me three times. But Peter doesn't
Speaker 3: realize the denial has already started. Because the destination of
Speaker 3: denial starts with just a little bit of distance. The
Speaker 3: devil doesn't need much space to work in your life.
Speaker 3: I wonder where you've got some distance in your life.
Speaker 3: You just got a little bit of distance from the
Speaker 3: word of God. You got a little bit of distance
Speaker 3: from your small group you just haven't.
Speaker 1: Gone in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: A little bit of distance from your small group, a
Speaker 3: little bit of distance at work. Maybe the path you
Speaker 3: would normally take to get your desk at work, you're
Speaker 3: going just a little bit of a longer way because
Speaker 3: the person, the guy at work, gave you a little
Speaker 3: bit of a tension, and he noticed your haircut, and
Speaker 3: your husband didn't and now you're just adding a little
Speaker 3: bit of distance, trying to fulfill something that God wants
Speaker 3: to feel, just not that way, just a little bit
Speaker 3: of distance. And then.
Speaker 1: And when some there had.
Speaker 3: Kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and
Speaker 3: had sat down, Peter sat down with them.
Speaker 1: Two in the morning.
Speaker 3: Peter's been following at a distance. I want to be
Speaker 3: right close with you, Jesus, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: When he's dismayed and he's discouraged, and he sees them
Speaker 3: making a fire in the middle of the courtyard, and
Speaker 3: it says, and he sat down, we love talking about
Speaker 3: Acts two fourteen. He stole up, he stood up, and
Speaker 3: he preached boldly. But he sat down fifty three days
Speaker 3: earlier in this situation.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know that he's gonna deny Jesus.
Speaker 3: He said, I will never And now he sits down
Speaker 3: in something that in a sane moment, he would have
Speaker 3: never gone close to. Why did he sit down in
Speaker 3: that moment? What's two in the morning. Temperatures would have
Speaker 3: been in the high thirties. It's a fire, he's cold.
Speaker 3: He just the guy he's been following for three years,
Speaker 3: just got to arrest and he's like, I don't even
Speaker 3: know what's happening around me. And sometimes you get punched
Speaker 3: in the face and you sit down in something that
Speaker 3: you wouldn't have picked, but it's.
Speaker 1: Just there, and he sat down in it.
Speaker 3: And what I want you to understand, the denial is
Speaker 3: already in motion. It started with a little bit of
Speaker 3: distance and then he sat down. We live in North
Speaker 3: Carolina now, and I didn't see the ocean till I
Speaker 3: was twenty five. I was born and raised in Minnesota,
Speaker 3: and I had all these images in my head of
Speaker 3: what the ocean's going to be like, in the surf
Speaker 3: and the oh. And then I went there and I
Speaker 3: hate it. I hate the ocean. I hate all of it.
Speaker 3: Oh my soul. They paint this picture of it's going
Speaker 3: to be amazing, and you go out there and you
Speaker 3: bak and you just lay there and you have dirt
Speaker 3: all over it and you feel filthy.
Speaker 1: Gosh. I hated it.
Speaker 3: And then when the kids are little, you got to
Speaker 3: take all.
Speaker 1: This stuff out there. Oh painful.
Speaker 3: And then the kids are out playing in the water
Speaker 3: and the waves are coming in, but the waves come
Speaker 3: in a little bit of an angle. They don't come
Speaker 3: straight into the shore. So they'll go out and they'll
Speaker 3: play in it, and then the waves will push them
Speaker 3: up shore just a little bit. And then they go
Speaker 3: back out and play and having their fun in the
Speaker 3: boogie born and the surface pushing in and the waves
Speaker 3: are just pushes them up shore just a little bit
Speaker 3: of distance, and then they go back.
Speaker 1: You're just having a grand old time.
Speaker 3: Twenty thirty forty minutes, and now they're way upshore and
Speaker 3: they look up and they go, how did I get.
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 3: No one of these movements is significant, but when you
Speaker 3: add them all together, it creates a significant distance from
Speaker 3: where you started. And what I want you to understand,
Speaker 3: denial is a drift, because the drift wants to push
Speaker 3: you away from the purposes of God. It is so subtle,
Speaker 3: it's so slippery, and you're just out there having fun.
Speaker 3: You don't even recognize how far you're drifting away. So
Speaker 3: when the kids were really little, I would take one
Speaker 3: of the orange tents from elevation and I would put
Speaker 3: it right on the shore one because I didn't want
Speaker 3: to bake in the sun is horrible. But what I
Speaker 3: told the kids is every time you play and you're
Speaker 3: gonna get pushed. The world wants to push you away
Speaker 3: from the purposes of God. All you do, Oh there's
Speaker 3: my dad. Take one step over, and now I'm in alignment.
Speaker 3: But what happens with the drift of denial is some
Speaker 3: of you have drifted so far because you don't realize
Speaker 3: you've drifted often until you go, how did I get here?
Speaker 3: And now that little bit of distance is a massive
Speaker 3: mile of shame.
Speaker 1: And the enemy wants to drown you here because you don't.
Speaker 3: Feel like there's any way I could ever get back
Speaker 3: to there.
Speaker 1: That's what denial wants you. But it's a drift. It
Speaker 1: starts as just a little bit of distance.
Speaker 3: Holy Spirits, show us where we've allowed a little bit
Speaker 3: of distance, a little bit of distance in our relationships,
Speaker 3: a little bit of our distance in our relationship with
Speaker 3: you and others and meaningful relationships. And he says, he
Speaker 3: sat down. I wonder what did you sit down in?
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit, show us where we sat down in situations
Speaker 3: we would have normally avoided.
Speaker 1: Where did you sit down?
Speaker 3: Why did you sit down in that because you were
Speaker 3: cold and it was a warm body. Why did you
Speaker 3: sit down in that? Not because you wanted it. You
Speaker 3: were led to it, or you were lied about it.
Speaker 3: Maybe it was fun or it was familiar. As the
Speaker 3: story will unfold with Peter, you'll see him go back
Speaker 3: to the very fishing ship that he said he was
Speaker 3: going to leave to follow Jesus. Why would he go
Speaker 3: back to it because it was familiar? Some of you
Speaker 3: sat back down in it. God called you out of it,
Speaker 3: but you went to it because you were so discouraged.
Speaker 3: You went back to what was familiar. What did you
Speaker 3: sit down in and why did you sit down in it?
Speaker 3: And as we look at the story of Peter unfold,
Speaker 3: you already see the denials in motion, a little bit
Speaker 3: of distance.
Speaker 1: And then he sat down.
Speaker 3: And then Matthew Chapter twenty six, verse sixty nine, it says,
Speaker 3: now Peter sat outside.
Speaker 1: In the courtyard.
Speaker 3: A servant girl came to him, saying, you also were
Speaker 3: with Jesus of Galilee, weren't you? She comes up, and
Speaker 3: she asked Peter a question.
Speaker 1: Don't you know him?
Speaker 3: Don't you you're one of his guys. You're from Galilee,
Speaker 3: aren't you? In verse seventy. But he denied it before them, saying,
Speaker 3: I don't know what you're saying. Here's what he did.
Speaker 3: He deflected, girl, you crazy. You'll know what you're talking
Speaker 3: about is somebody in your life who loves God is
Speaker 3: trying to get you back into alignment, but you are
Speaker 3: deflecting and blaming them. You see what happens when somebody
Speaker 3: tries to call you out of the slippery slope of denial.
Speaker 3: It's this drift that gets in motion and somebody comes
Speaker 3: to you with a question.
Speaker 1: It says, hey, weren't you don't you go to elevation?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: You crazy? Arms you're talking about?
Speaker 3: You see how he's gaslighting her because the shame is
Speaker 3: starting to seep up inside of him. That's a projection
Speaker 3: of the shame that he's carrying because he's unaware of
Speaker 3: the distance that has been created between him and Jesus.
Speaker 3: And at nine pm, I will never deny you. It's
Speaker 3: about two am. Now look how much distance has been
Speaker 3: driven there. And then the story continues, and when he
Speaker 3: had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him
Speaker 3: and said to those who were there, this fellow also
Speaker 3: was with Jesus of Nazareth. So what you see now
Speaker 3: is that it's not just a girl asking Peter a question.
Speaker 3: It's a girl making a statement to the crowd. Hey, yo,
Speaker 3: guys in the crowd, that guy was with Jesus. You
Speaker 3: see how the enemy is increasing the size of the waves,
Speaker 3: trying to push you away. You see the attack of
Speaker 3: the enemy, trying to steal your purpose, just one wave
Speaker 3: at a time. This has been in motion. This is happening.
Speaker 3: And how does Peter respond to this? But he says
Speaker 3: he denied it with an oath, I promise you on
Speaker 3: the name of Jesus. I don't know Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's now defending it with an oath.
Speaker 3: Wow. Wow, the first time he was just deflecting. Are
Speaker 3: you aware of your drifts?
Speaker 1: Are you aware of when you.
Speaker 3: Start deflecting things that God's trying to bring into your life?
Speaker 1: And now you start.
Speaker 3: Defending your things with an oath on my mama's grave.
Speaker 3: So a serving girl turns to the crowd. Isn't it
Speaker 3: funny how we're so easily swayed by the crowd. We
Speaker 3: love the applause, but then when the criticism comes, the
Speaker 3: crowd is very fickle. But what you see is the
Speaker 3: start of a servant girl asking him a question. Now
Speaker 3: it's another girl talking to the crowd. And here's the
Speaker 3: third time a little later those who stood by, This
Speaker 3: is gonna be at.
Speaker 1: Like five thirty in the morning. You see.
Speaker 3: He sat down at the fire at two and now
Speaker 3: the third denials at about five thirty or six m
Speaker 3: because that's when the sun comes up, and that's when.
Speaker 1: The rooster crows.
Speaker 3: And a little later of those who stood by came
Speaker 3: up and said to Peter, Now, this is the crowd
Speaker 3: that are all murmuring with each other like that guy,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And Peter's trying to escape it.
Speaker 3: He's just trying to find a safe place to stay warm.
Speaker 3: He should have gotten out of the courtyard a little there.
Speaker 3: Those who stood by came up and said to Peter,
Speaker 3: surely you were one of them for your speech, but
Speaker 3: trays you see, you're from Galilee, that's up north. We're
Speaker 3: in Jerusalem here in the south. Now. I was raised
Speaker 3: in Minnesota once upon this time, if you would have
Speaker 3: heard me talk, I would have said things like, oh yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: don't you know, yeah yeah, go out and about oh
Speaker 3: yeah you bet y'ah yeah yeah sure sure, uh huh.
Speaker 3: And when I'm moved to the South, I went to
Speaker 3: a grocery store and ask a woman where.
Speaker 1: Do I buy the pop.
Speaker 3: And this woman looked at me. She's like, boy, you
Speaker 3: ain't from around here, are you. I said, no, ma'am.
Speaker 3: She says, do you know do you know what we
Speaker 3: call you Northerners?
Speaker 1: I said no. She goes, we call you Yankees?
Speaker 3: And then she says, do you know what we call
Speaker 3: you yankees that move to the south, Those darn Yankees.
Speaker 3: That's because shame was rising as the pressure was mounting,
Speaker 3: and something's leaking out of Peter. That's betraying who he
Speaker 3: really wants to be, And it says verse seventy four.
Speaker 3: Then he began to say, those darn Yankees. He began
Speaker 3: to curse and swear. The first denial was a deflection,
Speaker 3: The second one was a defense. Now the third one
Speaker 3: is a disgust, he said, disgust in himself, he says.
Speaker 1: Then he began to curse and swear. I don't know
Speaker 1: the man.
Speaker 3: And immediately the rooster crowed for seventy five, and Peter
Speaker 3: remembered the words that Jesus said said to him, it
Speaker 3: was only nine hours earlier.
Speaker 1: How quickly we forget? Just nine hours?
Speaker 3: He forgot what Jesus said to him, but he remembered
Speaker 3: the words before the rooster crows, you will deny me
Speaker 3: three times.
Speaker 1: So he went out and he wept bitterly.
Speaker 3: I think he sat down at this point and said,
Speaker 3: how did I get.
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 1: See what Shane wants to do.
Speaker 3: He wants to get you so far away from purpose.
Speaker 3: You feel like the only way out is to do
Speaker 3: what Judas did. And for some of you, your speech
Speaker 3: betrays you.
Speaker 1: You kiss your mama with that mouth. You're acting like
Speaker 1: you don't belong.
Speaker 3: To Jesus, because here's the reality. You'll drift far enough
Speaker 3: that his tongue will become a Judas and betray the
Speaker 3: allegiance to CHRISTO, Why are you acting like that? Why
Speaker 3: are you behaving like that? It's not because you love Jesus.
Speaker 3: I've just drifted so far away. And that's what happens.
Speaker 3: And that's what the enemy wants to is to get
Speaker 3: you to drift so far away. And Peter doesn't realize
Speaker 3: it until he remembers what Jesus said, and he says,
Speaker 3: how did I get here? And as I thought about
Speaker 3: Peter sitting in that place, I wonder what he felt
Speaker 3: after he realized he had denied Jesus three times.
Speaker 1: The shame, the.
Speaker 3: Way, I believe he felt like the complete and utter failure.
Speaker 3: And I often thought about that story, and I would
Speaker 3: always assume, of course Peter fail. Look at what he did,
Speaker 3: that's what an ultimate failure like. It's easy to see
Speaker 3: his failure in that one. But did he really fail?
Speaker 3: And it went back to the text, And this is
Speaker 3: the part that God really showed me in this sermon.
Speaker 3: If we go back to the encounter with Christ at
Speaker 3: nineteen Luke twenty two to thirty one says Simon, Simon,
Speaker 3: Satan's as.
Speaker 1: The shifty as weak.
Speaker 3: But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
Speaker 3: may not fail. I so skipped over that because I
Speaker 3: like to focus on the dysfunction of man. I so
Speaker 3: identify with the denial. I couldn't even consider Christ's prayer.
Speaker 3: I wonder what Jesus was praying. I wonder what it
Speaker 3: sounded like. I wonder if he prayed out loud right
Speaker 3: in front of him, or said I prayed in back
Speaker 3: and I got all prayed up and then I came
Speaker 3: out to you. But Jesus prayed for Peter, And what
Speaker 3: did he pray? That your faith would not fail? Your
Speaker 3: behaviors failed, your actions failed, but the faith I prayed
Speaker 3: for that. I didn't pray for your behaviors. I didn't
Speaker 3: pray for your actions. I prayed for your faith God.
Speaker 3: The Bible says, the prayers of the righteous are powerful
Speaker 3: and effective. Jesus is righteousness, He gives us his righteousness.
Speaker 3: So the prayers of the righteous, the peers of Jesus,
Speaker 3: are powerful and effective. And if Jesus is praying for you, who,
Speaker 3: maybe there's something greater than just me. Maybe it's not
Speaker 3: based upon what I think failure and success is. Because
Speaker 3: I always thought that Peter failed. What's your definition of success?
Speaker 3: Because you aren't often know what a failure is until
Speaker 3: you've defined success. I think most of us walk around
Speaker 3: feeling like a perpetual failure because we have a bad
Speaker 3: definition of success.
Speaker 1: Who gave you your definition of success?
Speaker 3: Who are you trying to impress that isn't even watching,
Speaker 3: Who spoke a word over you that you have been
Speaker 3: trying to prove them wrong and they can't even remember
Speaker 3: they said it, but you'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Who gave you that definition for success?
Speaker 3: Because when I don't define success correctly, I will always
Speaker 3: feel like a failure. And when I look at Peter
Speaker 3: sitting in that place of weeping bitterly. He felt like
Speaker 3: such a failure, But did he really fail? It all
Speaker 3: depends on your definition of success. Because Jesus would leave
Speaker 3: that moment at the last supper, and Peter would.
Speaker 1: Get it, would would.
Speaker 3: Go through this thing till six am, and then he
Speaker 3: denied Jesus at six am, and then at nine am
Speaker 3: the next day, on Friday, is when Jesus would be
Speaker 3: kneeled to the cross. And as the story continues to unfold,
Speaker 3: to Luke chapter twenty three, it says this in verse
Speaker 3: forty four is about noon, and darkness came over the
Speaker 3: whole land until three in the afternoon. And what that
Speaker 3: darkness reprisen is the wrath of God being placed upon
Speaker 3: his son. There must always be a penalty paid for sin,
Speaker 3: and in that moment, the wrath of God, the sin
Speaker 3: of humanity and the shame of the world, and the
Speaker 3: darkness represents that shame of the world.
Speaker 1: And for three.
Speaker 3: Hours Jesus sat underneath that not just for three hours
Speaker 3: until he died physically, but for three days he sat
Speaker 3: in a grave, underneath the weight of that condemnation that
Speaker 3: should have been placed upon us, and that this represents
Speaker 3: the shame and it's coming on the world. And it's
Speaker 3: interesting because the scripture says this. It says until three
Speaker 3: in the afternoon, verse forty five, for the sun stopped shining.
Speaker 3: The sun was created to illuminate so everybody else could see,
Speaker 3: but it stopped shining for a couple hours.
Speaker 1: This was not an eclipse. This is a movement of
Speaker 1: God and.
Speaker 3: It represents the shame of the world. The sun was
Speaker 3: created to do something. Hey, when Jesus said I prayed
Speaker 3: for you that your faith would not fail, the word failed.
Speaker 3: There is only used a couple times in the Bible.
Speaker 3: One of the places where it's used is right here.
Speaker 3: So when it says the sun stopped shining, it means
Speaker 3: the sun failed. It did not operate according to its
Speaker 3: original design. It failed to glorify, it failed to illuminate,
Speaker 3: it failed to shine. And here's what I'm taking from text.
Speaker 3: We were created in the image of God. We are
Speaker 3: the image bearers of God. We are called to receive
Speaker 3: and reflect the glory of God in the world.
Speaker 1: Oh, you didn't catch it.
Speaker 3: So when Jesus said I prayed that your faith would
Speaker 3: not fail, I created you, Peter because I picked you.
Speaker 3: I chose you. I knew you were gonna deny me,
Speaker 3: and yet I still picked you. I knew you were
Speaker 3: going to do all that stuff, and yet I still
Speaker 3: picked you.
Speaker 1: I knew you were going to have all.
Speaker 3: These questions, and yet I still picked you. And my
Speaker 3: picking of you is not based upon your behavior. It's
Speaker 3: based upon me, because I know the world is going
Speaker 3: to try to make you drift, and the waves of
Speaker 3: anxiety and the chaos, of the current of chaos will
Speaker 3: try to push you away from the promises of God.
Speaker 3: But when I think Jesus prayed for Peter, here's what
Speaker 3: I pictures that boat out on the lake being tossed
Speaker 3: about by the way, and then Jesus says, I just
Speaker 3: got on your boat. Jesus, I am an anchor, and
Speaker 3: I will go straight through the bottom, through all of
Speaker 3: that depression, through all of that anxiety, through all of
Speaker 3: that stuff, and I will get to the bottom, and
Speaker 3: I will anchor your soul. And a good anchor only
Speaker 3: has so many feet of.
Speaker 1: Rope on it.
Speaker 3: And when the rope gets to the end of it
Speaker 3: and the anchor does what it does, that boat will
Speaker 3: go no further. Jesus says, I know you're gonna drift,
Speaker 3: but I have set by my grace how far you
Speaker 3: will drift, because I am in control of the boat, Peter.
Speaker 3: I'm in control of it. I know it feels like
Speaker 3: the anxiety is sweeping you away, but I am an
Speaker 3: anchor for your soul. And the faith that Jesus is
Speaker 3: talking about is not Peter's faith to Jesus. It's Jesus
Speaker 3: faith to Peter. So that faith I prayed that would
Speaker 3: not fail. It's that remnant of why I picked you
Speaker 3: and I gave it to you, because you see, we
Speaker 3: were created to be the image bearers of God. Saint
Speaker 3: Irenea says it like this. The glory of God is
Speaker 3: man fully alive. In Roman, chapter three, verse twenty three,
Speaker 3: it says this, It says, for all of sinned and
Speaker 3: fall short of the glory of God. I always first
Speaker 3: focused on the first half of that verse, all of sined.
Speaker 3: It's easy for me to identify with the humanity, for
Speaker 3: all of sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: And I think when.
Speaker 3: I look at that story of Peter and the failure.
Speaker 1: And the success and all those things.
Speaker 3: He says, Peter, when you're sitting down in shame, you're
Speaker 3: not standing up giving me glory, and so.
Speaker 1: To me, failure.
Speaker 3: Is to say seated when God gave you the opportunity
Speaker 3: to stand up. A couple of years ago, my son
Speaker 3: was doing a video shoot. His name is Corbin, and
Speaker 3: he was doing a video shoot for our youth. I'm
Speaker 3: watching him do the video shoot and I'm like, oh, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm so proud of Him'm just beaming with excitement God.
Speaker 3: And then we got in the car and he sat
Speaker 3: down after we finished, and you could see in his
Speaker 3: face he was defeated and dejected. And he says to me,
Speaker 3: all right, Dad, give me some constructive criticism.
Speaker 1: And my heart broke and I'm like, son, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: I need to apologize because you got that definition of
Speaker 3: success from your dad, and because he had the bad
Speaker 3: definition of success, he felt like a failure and he
Speaker 3: could not share his father's pleasure. You see what sitting
Speaker 3: down in shame does. It robs you of sharing in
Speaker 3: your father's pleasure. And he's not making you aware of
Speaker 3: where you sat down to rub your nose in it
Speaker 3: like a puppy, to throw you in the closet because
Speaker 3: he's trying to punish you. He's wanting to make you
Speaker 3: aware of where you sat down because he wants you
Speaker 3: to recognize I sat down with you.
Speaker 1: Because Peter, I know you're gonna deny me, but.
Speaker 3: Jesus says, when you are faithless, I will remain faithful.
Speaker 3: So when you have no faith, I've got enough for
Speaker 3: both of us, is what Jesus was saying to Peter.
Speaker 3: And so when you read themout and he stood up, yeah,
Speaker 3: we like that, and often will preach a message of
Speaker 3: you just got to stand up, meaning I'm just going
Speaker 3: to do it my own strength, my own power, in
Speaker 3: my own way, and I will give you about six hours,
Speaker 3: but after that I'll forget because I grow tired and
Speaker 3: weary and I sit right back down. How many times
Speaker 3: do I go through the cycle of doing it in
Speaker 3: my own strength and sitting back down own strength, sitting
Speaker 3: back down before you get so exhausted, I just settle
Speaker 3: for here, and I'll paint a smile on on Sunday mornings.
Speaker 3: I'm blessed and highly favored. You just cussed your wife
Speaker 3: on the parking lot because your speech betrays you.
Speaker 1: Some of you.
Speaker 3: The reason you're talking like that is you're so disgusted
Speaker 3: with yourself that rather than the recognize how far you've drifted,
Speaker 3: you blame everybody else around you. What have you sat
Speaker 3: down in? What have you settled for? That? The grace
Speaker 3: of God is saying, but I have prayed for you
Speaker 3: that your faith would not fail. So success, success isn't
Speaker 3: dependent upon my behavior. Success is my recognition that Jesus
Speaker 3: still holds.
Speaker 2: On to me.
Speaker 3: And if he is still holding onto me, I'm successful.
Speaker 3: That's what it means. I wonder if your definition of
Speaker 3: success even includes Jesus. And so what I want you
Speaker 3: to hear at this point is all of us are
Speaker 3: going to sit in things, because that's the natural flow
Speaker 3: of humanity. But the grace of God is another wave,
Speaker 3: wave after wave after wave of grace. And to truly
Speaker 3: stand up, to truly get up, it's not you doing
Speaker 3: it better, trying hard, Gosh darn it, New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a real faith.
Speaker 3: And you need two people to help you stand up.
Speaker 3: There are two key people in this whole story, because
Speaker 3: the last scene we had of Peter was him sitting
Speaker 3: weeping bitterly, and in one of the other gospel accounts,
Speaker 3: it says he saw Jesus in that moment, the one
Speaker 3: he just denied. He saw face and he wept bitterly.
Speaker 3: And that represents Peter moving forward. As some of you
Speaker 3: have been sitting in this place for twenty two years.
Speaker 3: You gave a part of yourself twenty two years a
Speaker 3: part of yourself. Twenty two years ago you said you
Speaker 3: were going to keep sacred till marriage. And because you
Speaker 3: compromise that part of yourself, you'll feel so unworthy that
Speaker 3: you are settling for sitting down in shame. And I
Speaker 3: want you to know that God sees you, and he's
Speaker 3: not disgusted at you. He's not looking at you with
Speaker 3: a furrowed brow of disappointment, just waiting for you to
Speaker 3: try harder and do better.
Speaker 1: No, he's coming to you. Because if this were.
Speaker 3: The end of the story, how depressing would that be.
Speaker 3: But the great God that we served, Jesus shows up.
Speaker 3: Jesus comes back for him. Jesus remembers, oh, I am
Speaker 3: tied to his boat. He's not died to me. And
Speaker 3: so Jesus is resurrected from the grave. Because you need
Speaker 3: three people, he need two people to help you get up.
Speaker 3: We believe in a God that's a trinity, Father, son,
Speaker 3: and spirit. Each one is full of God. God the
Speaker 3: Father always has been in you, as will be. God
Speaker 3: the Son always has been in you as will be.
Speaker 3: And God the Son took on flesh, and he made
Speaker 3: his dwelling amongst us.
Speaker 1: And the sin that.
Speaker 3: Should have been placed on us was placed on him.
Speaker 3: And he gave up his life, and he went into
Speaker 3: a grave, and he sat down for three days.
Speaker 1: And after three days.
Speaker 3: The Father looked at the son and said, son, I
Speaker 3: created you for something.
Speaker 1: It's time for you to rise and shine.
Speaker 3: And Jesus heard the voice of his father calling him
Speaker 3: from the darkness he had sat in for three days.
Speaker 1: And because Jesus sat.
Speaker 3: Down in it for three days, you and I don't
Speaker 3: have to settle for sitting.
Speaker 1: Down in it.
Speaker 3: And that same Jesus, that same Jesus now shows up
Speaker 3: three days after he's resurrected. And who's the first disciple
Speaker 3: he appears to? Who's the first apostle he appears to Peter?
Speaker 3: And when Jesus shows up on the shore, he looks out,
Speaker 3: and where does he see Peter sitting in a boat?
Speaker 3: I thought you left that boat to follow me. Jesus,
Speaker 3: I thought you left that to come after me. And
Speaker 3: why did Peter go sit back down in it? He
Speaker 3: didn't know what else to do, and it was familiar.
Speaker 3: And I hope that gives you encouragement to realize today
Speaker 3: that Jesus sees you going back to the thing you
Speaker 3: said you would never do. I'll never deny you until
Speaker 3: he did, and God said, I knew it was gonna
Speaker 3: happen along, and I still picked you. You're still my
Speaker 3: first show and fantasy with selection Peter. I won't deny
Speaker 3: you because I'd be denying myself, because my name is
Speaker 3: on you, because I am the anchor on your boat,
Speaker 3: and I will only let you go so far. And
Speaker 3: why haven't you given up to this point? Because the
Speaker 3: grace of God has been an anchor to your soul
Speaker 3: and says, I will only let you drift so far.
Speaker 3: I will only let you get so far away from you.
Speaker 3: But because my grace is holding on to you, success
Speaker 3: is realizing that he is holding on to me, and
Speaker 3: the fails to think I got to do.
Speaker 1: It in my own strength.
Speaker 3: So the Father looks at the sun and says, Jesus,
Speaker 3: it's time to rise and shine, and Jesus kicks the
Speaker 3: end out of a borrow to him because he was
Speaker 3: made to glorify the Father. And then Jesus shows up
Speaker 3: and he sees Peter out on the boat that he
Speaker 3: was supposed to walk away from, and he says, hey,
Speaker 3: you come back yet. So Peter makes his way back
Speaker 3: into the shore, going through the same waves of chaos
Speaker 3: that he was drifted away by. Isn't that funny how
Speaker 3: God comes to you. All that stuff in your life
Speaker 3: will have purpose when you see him face to face.
Speaker 3: And he calls him in to the shore and he
Speaker 3: has this meal, and three times he asked him do
Speaker 3: you love me?
Speaker 1: Do you love me? Do you love me? One for
Speaker 1: each of those.
Speaker 3: Denials, because God's love is always greater than your denial,
Speaker 3: and he needed Peter to hear that for every one
Speaker 3: of those denials, I've got something greater. I've got something greater,
Speaker 3: I've got something right because I picked you for a purpose.
Speaker 3: I picked you to show my love, to receive and
Speaker 3: reflect my love. We were made to glorify God. But
Speaker 3: when I sit in shame underneath the space here, I
Speaker 3: don't bring him glory.
Speaker 1: So when you go to work tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Are you sitting down in something old or are you
Speaker 3: hearing the voice of God saying stand up and glorify?
Speaker 1: So in Acts two.
Speaker 3: Fourteen, then Peter stood up. I wonder if he remembered
Speaker 3: the bitter tears he wept when he denied Jesus. I
Speaker 3: wonder if that was the soundtrack playing in the back
Speaker 3: of his mind on some level, going Okay, maybe this
Speaker 3: time I'll get it right, but maybe I won't.
Speaker 1: I wonder. Peter was dealing with some doubt and like,
Speaker 1: could you really use me? God?
Speaker 3: But something about it, the voice of God, the Holy
Speaker 3: Spirit resonating in him, made him stand up, and he
Speaker 3: spoke loudly and clearly, and he said, let me explain
Speaker 3: the goodness of God to you.
Speaker 1: And who better to explain the.
Speaker 3: Goodness of God than a man who had just disappointed
Speaker 3: and denied Jesus fifty three days earlier. He didn't need
Speaker 3: to go to a class, need to go to a
Speaker 3: twelve step program. Those are good, but he said, all
Speaker 3: I need is Jesus on one side and then the
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit on the other. So in Acts, here's the
Speaker 3: way it begins. Here's the second person. Acts two, Verses
Speaker 3: one through four. So that day that Peter gets up
Speaker 3: and speaks, that day that he boldly proclaims Jesus, here's
Speaker 3: the other person that comes into him. Starting in verse one, says,
Speaker 3: when the day of Pentecosts came, they were all together
Speaker 3: in one place. Suddenly the sound like the blowing of
Speaker 3: a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole
Speaker 3: house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to
Speaker 3: be tongues of fire separated and come to rest on
Speaker 3: each of them. All of them were filled with the
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues that the
Speaker 3: spirit enabled them. So some of you have not placed
Speaker 3: your faith in Jesus, and you are dead in your sin.
Speaker 3: And what it would want you to do is to
Speaker 3: hear the voice of Jesus calling you from the grave.
Speaker 3: Say rise and shine. It is time to rise and shine.
Speaker 3: It's time for you get up out of that grave cloth.
Speaker 3: It's time do you come into relationship with me. Some
Speaker 3: of you have been following at a distance for so long,
Speaker 3: but God says, I still got you, and I'm still
Speaker 3: calling you. And today is the day that you're going
Speaker 3: to hear jesus voice calling you from the boat of
Speaker 3: doubt follow calling you from the boat of disappointment and
Speaker 3: despair and disgust, and the grace of God wants.
Speaker 1: To wash over you and clean you and make you
Speaker 1: a new creation.
Speaker 3: And when you come into relationship with Jesus, when you
Speaker 3: place your faith in him, it says, when you believe
Speaker 3: in your heart that he was raised from the dead,
Speaker 3: and you confess with your mouth that he is Lord,
Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit, the person of God comes to live
Speaker 3: inside of you. This Holy Spirit's not a power or
Speaker 3: an energy. It's not a viber of feeling. It's a person.
Speaker 3: And the Holy Spirit desires to lead you so to
Speaker 3: get up out of that grave. It's hearing the voice
Speaker 3: of Jesus. But now once we come to Jesus, we
Speaker 3: also want to sit right back down in that place.
Speaker 3: And if success is about you trying harder or doing better,
Speaker 3: Earth success is more square footage. Earth success is a
Speaker 3: corner office, sir, a certain amount of money in the
Speaker 3: retirement account, you may or may not be successful. But
Speaker 3: if success is based upon what Jesus did for me,
Speaker 3: and if success is that he came back from me,
Speaker 3: if success is recognizing that the Holy Spirit is tied
Speaker 3: to me living inside of me. And though you're gonna
Speaker 3: sit back down in something, here's what I believe.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.
Speaker 3: He's not gonna kick down the door, but he's gonna
Speaker 3: knock and say, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: I've not left you. I'm right in this thing with you.
Speaker 3: Would you respond to that voice, just as that voice
Speaker 3: was so tender with Peter saying come here, Peter, get
Speaker 3: out of that boat. I know you were sitting down
Speaker 3: feeling disqualified, and you feel like you've got nothing to say.
Speaker 3: But to rise and shine is to hear the Holy
Speaker 3: Spirit saying, come forth.
Speaker 1: To respond to that.
Speaker 3: Now, the waves are going to be loud, the waves
Speaker 3: of disappointment and doubt and discuss.
Speaker 1: They're just crashing, they're crashing rush.
Speaker 3: But the voice I'm talking about, it's a whisper, Simon, Simon,
Speaker 3: it's a Hebrew term of intimacy.
Speaker 1: Because I'm close.
Speaker 3: And the Holy Spirit's inside of you, and he's whispering
Speaker 3: to you, rise and shine. I put you in that
Speaker 3: job to give me glory. I put you in that
Speaker 3: school to give me glory. And when you sit in shame,
Speaker 3: you don't operate according to what you were created for
Speaker 3: the sun stopped shining. It was created to shine because
Speaker 3: of the shame that was in the world. You were
Speaker 3: created to glorify God. Don't let the shame rob you
Speaker 3: of giving him the glory. Would you stand your feet
Speaker 3: at all of our locations, And what we want to
Speaker 3: do at this point is offer an invitation for somebody
Speaker 3: to place their faith in Jesus as their Lord and savior.
Speaker 1: And what I wanted you to hear today.
Speaker 3: Is of a good God who sees you sitting down
Speaker 3: in something that he says, I still picked you, I
Speaker 3: love you, and I'm here.
Speaker 1: Will you respond to it?
Speaker 3: Will you come out of the grave and say, I
Speaker 3: need to give him glory? Will you receive the gift
Speaker 3: of salvation that's found in him? The Bible says if
Speaker 3: you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
Speaker 3: you believe in your heart that He was raised from
Speaker 3: the dead, you will be saved.
Speaker 1: Would you buy your heads?
Speaker 3: Would you close your eyes at all over locations, in
Speaker 3: everybody online, And if you need to place your faith
Speaker 3: in Jesus, this is your prayer. I'm not talking about
Speaker 3: a commitment to try harder or do better. I'm not
Speaker 3: talking about a resolution to say I'm just going to
Speaker 3: give it one more chance. Now I'm talking about confessing
Speaker 3: you are dead in your sins and you cannot save yourself.
Speaker 1: That is why Jesus had to die.
Speaker 3: And if that's you, I want to lead you in
Speaker 3: this prayer in the church family. I want us to
Speaker 3: say this prayer together out loud for the benefit of
Speaker 3: somebody who's making this decision to follow in Jesus. Pray
Speaker 3: this with me, Church family. I believe that Jesus Christ
Speaker 3: is the son of God who died on the cross
Speaker 3: and rose from the grave.
Speaker 1: So forgive me of my sins.
Speaker 3: I give you my life, I give you my sin,
Speaker 3: I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend
Speaker 3: my life following you with your head still about in
Speaker 3: your lives still close. If you just place your faith
Speaker 3: in Jesus for the first time and you're recognizing I
Speaker 3: need to be forgiven. If that's you, I'm going to
Speaker 3: count to three, and when I get through without hesitation,
Speaker 3: I want you to boldly.
Speaker 1: Shoot your hand into the air.
Speaker 3: One, two, three, shoots your hand up all across the sauditorum.
Speaker 1: Come on, Church family, no, let's celebrate.
Speaker 2: That thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
Speaker 2: of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
Speaker 2: of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
Speaker 2: the link in the description to give now or visit
Speaker 2: Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if
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Speaker 2: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: God bless you.