Burdens & Blessings | Week 2 | Sermon

Hey. I I go over to England, you know, because we do ministry over there, and I get to work with some some churches. And they know I love history. So when I was over there a couple times ago, they they know I like history, and I really like to look at, like, like leaders in history. And so they they took me to Winston Churchill's house, you know, the family estate where he grew up and then it was his house as as he was an adult. And I I got to see it. So I got a couple pictures here. One is me doing my best Winston Churchill in front of his house, given the victory sign. In England, do not turn the hand around. It means something very different.

And and then, this other picture is there's his house. It's a huge, awesome, beautiful house. I'm in his backyard, basically.

And I'm not even to the end of his backyard. There's another lake and another whatever. It's like it's a massive estate outside of London. So I show you that because Winston Churchill grew up in wealth. He grew up with some doors open to him, and and he took advantage of it. He was smart. He was a little bit arrogant. You know, always was confident in what he could do. But he rose through the ranks pretty quick. And he actually, by the age of 36,

had become the first lord of the admiralty. That's like the highest rank. It's it's like a joint chief of staff. You oversee the military. And that's a super young age. And many detractors thought he was too young, and he just got that because of his connections and his wealth and all that. And then they seemed to prove

he seemed to prove them right with within four years when he's about 40 years old. He'd only been doing the job for a while, middle of World War one. He authorized and helped plan this in this this invasion called the Gallipoli campaign

that they thought it would, like, really change the tide of the war. It was an epic debacle, led to about 50,000 casualties, a lot of young British soldiers and Australian soldiers being killed. And it ended up just such a big mess that he had to resign in disgrace.

And a lot of the common folk felt good for him. Mister, you know, money bags that just got this position he didn't deserve anyways is now out. And his political career looked like it was over.

Well, what he did at age 40 is he he thought about it. He humbled himself. He went back and regot his re upped his army commission and literally went to France and led men in the trenches. He fought in trench warfare at age 41.

And now, you know, too young to be a first lord admiral. That's ancient of days to be fighting in the trenches of France in World War one. And by doing that and fighting valiantly,

he was honorable, won some medals. His men loved him. He didn't act like the rich guy. He led the way, went over the top. He did all that stuff as an older guy now in that job that he actually got respect again. And and a lot of the commoners

thought, hey, this guy isn't just a you know, he he gets it. He's willing to roll up his sleeves and do the hard stuff. So he got selected to to to parliament.

And then he just kinda toils around doing his job for the next twenty years. And and he was a little bit of a loudmouth, sometimes off to the side. People didn't like him too much. And they really stopped listening to him and were really frustrated when he was the only one that kept hollering about this guy they have a problem with that the world's gonna have a problem with in Germany named Adolf Hitler.

And no one would listen. Other countries wouldn't listen. They kept appeasing Hitler, appeasing England did the same thing. And then when Hitler invades, Poland and and and it turns into an all out war,

their British prime minister had to resign in disgrace because he was the one saying, no. It's good. We've made peace. Peace in our time. And now at age 65, he becomes the prime minister of England

right at the time going into World War two. And if you've read anything about it, he was the right man at the right time because he rallied his people like no other because every nation in Western Europe surrendered to Germany in the within the first year of that war. England never surrendered. Fought by themselves.

And a matter of fact, he had another failure that you thought was gonna end his beginning of his prime ministership because people didn't like him then when he took over, that he's too loud, too obnoxious. And and when he took over, they sent the whole army, their whole army, 400,000 troops to France immediately got

beat all the way pinned them and the French troops in a place called Dunkirk. And they're about to get wiped out, and he authorized a crazy mission again. Only this time, it was getting all the troops out, and they got them out. So it was a loss, but the victory was they saved their entire army

so they could stay in the fight.

Well, then he had to give a speech, and people thought his detractors thought, well, he's gonna have to own this. This was a mess and almost got our entire army wiped out. And he did. He got up and it's a long speech, but the first part is he got up and he went detailed by the hey. Here's what went wrong. This was definitely a loss. We can't celebrate this. This was horrible, but we gotta get ready. But then he ends the speech in such a way that this speech is his most famous speech. It's called the We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech.

And and and he turned it into, yeah, may have been a loss here, but we can this failure isn't final. We are gonna go on to victory. And I just wanna read the last part, a little bit of the last part of what he says in this talking about how we just about lost the our entire army and we're out of this war before we even really got into it. He says, we shall he's like how he would talk, we shall go on to the end. No. No. I won't do it that way. But that's how he sounded. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We will fight on the beaches. We will fight on the landing grounds. We will fight in the fields and in the streets. We will fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

He got cheers at the end of that speech. And his detractors were like, how is he getting cheers? This was an epic debacle. And Edward Murrow, the journalist, said this. He goes, the reason he's getting cheers is because Winston Churchill mobilizes the English language and takes it into battle.

Man, I want people to say that about my preaching. I would like to be like, they they most people just hope I mobilize grammar properly and and get done on time. But still, it's like all this failure, success, failure, success. He he learned that failure isn't final.

Matter of fact, a couple of my favorite quotes of them were about this. He said this. He said, success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts. And then my favorite one, because it just wraps up, he's really wise and smart, but he also has a sense of humor. It just sounds funny too. As he says,

success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. And and it's true. And he was right. He's an epic hero in in in in in in in British history, in world history. That failure isn't final or failure doesn't have to be fine. But what about in our lives when it comes to walking with God?

Being a disciple of the Lord. Being someone who knows their God and wants to go, hey. I wanna be in a relationship with God. I wanna live this life. I wanna be a follower, but we fail. We always fail. Sin. It's like we we never totally get it right. And and and what what what happens then?

Is failure final? Because last week, it kinda looked like it when we talked about Judas. Jonesy did a great job talking about one of Jesus' disciples betrays him, goes away completely remorseful, filled with guilt and shame, tries to return the money. They could and he says, I've sinned, But yet the the the the the priest say, we don't want that money back. He throws on the ground. He goes off, and he kills himself. He hangs himself.

Is that isn't that failure was final?

But what we're gonna see today is no. This big idea is simply what I have already said. Failure doesn't have to be final when it comes to our walk with the Lord and in our lives.

And how we're gonna see that is, yeah, it looks like Judas' failure was final. But there was another disciple at that last supper that when Jesus asked, you know, is it me? That he said, is it me? And didn't think it was him. And then it was Judas that right after that moment, he ends up denying Jesus. His name is Peter.

And Peter's story ends very different than Judas'. And the first key thing, just to say as we go in, one of the key ingredients, even before I dive into how his story ends and what does that mean for us, is simply this. The problem with Judas was he might have said, I've sinned to the priest

and felt bad. But what he thought was sin and felt bad is I took money to get a man killed. I didn't want him to be killed. He never believed that Jesus was the Messiah. He rejected him because that wasn't the Messiah he wanted. Jesus wasn't the Jesus he wanted.

So he felt bad that he went the other way, but he never returned to him. Peter always believed in who Jesus was. He just denied him and failed out of fear. So how does this work? Let's look at it. So what I wanna do is I just wanna go through Peter's story, jump through a couple passages,

wall the way through that, and give us three points and a poem. No. Just three points. Three quick things of what just happened. What is the process that just happened in Peter's life is the same process that we need to have in our life because we are gonna have moments of failure. We are gonna fail. We're gonna sin. We're gonna fall back. What does it mean, and what do we do with that to get to victory?

How do we how do we fight in the hills, fight in the seas, fight in the air, fight on the land, and never surrender? We might have losses. We might have failure, but we're not gonna surrender the fight. So here we go. So the first part of this is found in in Matthew 26,

and it's, starting in verse 31. This is right after Peter yeah. They just did the last supper. Judas just betrayed him. They're heading to the Garden Of Gethsemane where Jesus is gonna be praying. And then in late early hours, he's gonna get arrested.

And so this is the last moments. And as they're walking, Jesus just says like what Jesus does. He's gonna say something like, wait. What did he just say? He he's walking, and he says in verse 31, on the way, Jesus told them, tonight all of you will desert me. Great. He has a horrible small group, doesn't he?

This is the reason some people I tried a small group. They all deserted me. He says, for scriptures say, god will strike the shepherd, and the sheep, of the flock will be scattered.

But after I have been raised here he gives hope. He goes, but after you're gonna desert me. But after I've been raised from the dead, I'll go ahead of you to Galilee. I'll meet you there. So he's saying there's hope in that. I know you're gonna do this, but we're gonna get past that.

Well, Peter doesn't hear any of that. He just declares, even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you. And then Jesus replies, I tell you the truth, Peter. This very night before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny three times that you even know me. And then look what Peter says, write to Jesus' face. No.

He just says no, write to Jesus' face. Okay. Could you imagine? Would you ever say no to Jesus' face? Trick question. We do it all the time. We just don't realize he's actually there. No, Peter insisted, even if I have to die with you,

I'll never deny you. What I do in life will echo throughout eternity. You know, he goes all gladiator on this moment.

And all of the other disciples vowed the same. Well, you know what happens? He goes to pray. They're falling asleep. They're deserted. That's what he meant by you guys will desert me. They're falling asleep when they should be praying with their friend. And

then they they come to arrest Peter. He does try to go gladiator. Pulls out a knife, packs the guy's ear off. Jesus heals it. He says, stop doing that. You don't get it. You know? Like, I don't know if that's what he said, but he just he just he moves on. He gets arrested, and then Jesus then Peter follows him.

And what's important is before you go, yeah. He denied him. Why would he do that? Is is is before you judge him,

think about the situation he's in now. He follows him, and what he sees happen is they arrest him. They start trying him. They start ridiculing him. He covers it. They start beating him with his head covered and and mocking him and saying, hey. You're the Messiah prophesied. Who hit you that time? And he's watching Jesus just getting beat on, and Jesus isn't doing anything.

He's not saying anything. Now imagine that. He's in that moment, and then people are gonna start saying, hey. You're with him, aren't you? And he freaks out.

But don't we do that a lot? Some of you are doing it right now in your life. Because what happens when you try to follow Jesus, and what you see Jesus start doing makes no sense. What what what situation is he putting you in? Where why is he doing it? And why is he not talking? And you start to doubt.

Hey. Is he really lord of all? Because this makes no sense. And in the same way, you're Peter's kind of becoming like Judas a little bit. This isn't the the Messiah I thought he he was. I don't know what this means.

And you know what? It really freaked him out. He's like, if they're gonna do that to him, then what's gonna happen to me? Which is usually what happens to us in those moments. We see what Jesus is doing and like, well, what's gonna happen to me? And so that's the setup. So in this moment,

he sees this. And then all of sudden, it says in verse 69, meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came over and said to him, you're, one of those with Jesus the Galilean,

but Peter denied it in front of everyone. I don't know what you're talking about, he said. And watch this. Every time he escalates, just like your kids do when they get caught in doing something, they lie. They just think if they get louder and meaner, that makes them more believable.

Your kids aren't the only ones that do it. Just ask your spouse. Later out out of the gate, later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to those standing around, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth.

Again, Peter denied it. This time with an oath. I don't even know the man, he said. A little later, some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, you must be one of them. We can tell by your Galilean accent. What does that mean? Did he say, I don't know what you're talking about, Yolleth.

I I I don't know if that's what it meant, but, but then now Peter swears. Peter swore a curse on me if I'm lying. I don't even know the man. And immediately, the rooster crowed.

Suddenly, Jesus' words flashed through Peter's mind. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times that you even know me. And he went away weeping bitterly. Alright. Well, he's going away weeping bitterly and feeling bad. Judas did the same thing. What happens? What changes?

Well, I wanna jump over to John 21 where Jesus has an encounter with Peter and the other disciples in Galilee, like he said, why they're fishing. Because and and and he basically

has a conversation with Peter that kinda reinstates them. But what I wanna set up before this is because a lot of people like, this moment is that first moment that he talked to Jesus. It's not. It's not.

They've already had a per private conversation that the Bible doesn't tell us what they talked about. They just said they talked.

And and and you can look at Luke twenty two thirty four when the these disciples that saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus after he resurrected, they ran to the disciples and said, we've seen him on the road. And they said, we know we know Jesus has risen in verse because he says, he already appeared to Peter. And

Paul talks about that in first Corinthians 15 verse five when he talks about how Peter, Jesus had appeared to Peter.

So most theologians believe we don't know what he talked about, but we know it probably talked about that moment of him denying. He had to probably, you know, had a conversation with him. And so this moment isn't what you think. This is not that first moment of, oh, I'm running away because and a matter of fact, what you're gonna see by the setup is Jesus sits there, shows up. He they're they're fishing. Peter was with the disciples,

which we know something must have changed because when Jesus was first resurrected, the angel tells the Mary, he says, go tell the disciples and Peter, Which means at that moment, he probably felt like I've I'm doomed. I'm on the outside. I'm not in the club anymore.

This picks up where their disciples are together in Galilee, like Jesus had said. And Peter just says, well, while we're waiting around, I'm going fishing. And so they go fishing.

And then Jesus shows up on the shore, and he reenacts the first time that he did this miracle that made Peter realize he's the Messiah, is they didn't catch any fish all night. Jesus just says, hey, throw your net to the other side of the boat, which sounds stupid. They do it again. It's full of fish. Peter realizes that's the Lord. This is why I know and I strongly believe he already had a conversation with Jesus. Because if he was still feeling guilty, he wouldn't have reacted the way he did. He was excited to see Jesus.

And he dove in and he swims ashore. And then they have this final conversation, which I think ends the whole circle. Then I'm gonna go back and say, hey. What just happened through this whole process that we need to apply to our lives as well

is is is they have this conversation. Jesus feeds them breakfast, and then at verse 15, after breakfast, he asks Peter some questions. After breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter. Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, Peter replied. You know I love you.

Feed my lambs. Listen really closely to what he says to him after each one of these. Feed my lambs. Jesus repeated the question. Simon, son of John, do you love me? Yes, Lord, Peter said. You know I love you. Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. A third time he asked, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. Why was he hurt?

Probably because he realized, oh, three times. And he keeps asking, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. And he's doing it in front of the disciples publicly.

And this is what makes me think. If he already had a conversation where he says, I am so sorry. I didn't I really believe in him. Hey. It's okay. And then he starts doing this, he'd be hurt. He's like, why are you bringing this up?

Why are you bringing it up again? You're like my wife. You keep bringing up the history past all the time. You don't get hysterical. You're getting historical on me. Jesus, stop.

You know, he's he's frustrated. He's like, he's hurt because he's like, it's reminding him of that worst moment, And he's probably hurt because he's like, I've already dealt with this. Didn't I already say I'm sorry? And he doesn't understand what he's doing. He's like, this isn't about your sorry. This isn't about the forgiveness. This is about restoring you back to what I called you to be. It's about real the end game of repentance.

Is he saying he probably was hanging out with disciples because look what he told him to do. Feed my sheep. Take care of my lambs. Feed my sheep. That's a that's go share the gospel. Go lead people to Jesus. Go point people to Jesus. Go be the leader you already were of this group.

It implies that, yes, he's right with Jesus, excited to see Jesus, but he was probably holding back. He didn't feel like, I don't have the standing in this group now to be able to do what I'm called to do. So I'm just gonna come be a part of it, but I can't be totally all in. He's probably hurt by that. He goes, and why are you bringing up? He didn't understand. He's like, well, you denied me three times publicly. I'm reinstating you. This is about I'm reinstating you back to your purpose, back to the mission, because and I need them to see this.

He's also saying each time to remind them again how much he loves them because he thought you might forget this. That's why you're holding back. Is he saying every time he says, I you do you love me? He's really Jesus is saying, I love you. Do you love me? I love you. But do you understand that? Do you love me?

Are you gonna live in my love?

And if you are, then lead people to Jesus. Feed the sheep. You realize what he did. Now he's saying feed the lambs. When he first did that miracle in Peter's life, he says, follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men. He's saying, you're out fishing again. You need to be out fishing for men again. He's restoring him.

And I think that's where a lot of us get caught in this process. We fail. We say, Jesus, I'm sorry. We know. If you've in church long enough we know the theological answer is, he forgives me. And then our whole, like, goal is I'm just gonna try to not fail anymore.

I'm just gonna try to not fail anymore. It means I'm going this way. It's the wrong way. Jesus, stop. You know, you know what? You're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did that. I'm not gonna do that anymore. We take a step back. But then we stay here.

If you just stay here saying I'm not gonna do that, eventually, you're gonna take another step forward.

What Peter is saying, Peter, Peter probably stepped back and said, I'm sorry. I'm hanging out. I'm going to church. You know? He's he's with the crowd. He's in a small group. He's he's there. He's showing up at church on time. He's not leaving when there's a closing song. He's not getting into fist fights with people in the parking lot. You know? He's he's trying to do these things, but he's not really going all in. Because repentance

is a military term. Do you know that? It means we can't go this way. We need to repent, redirect. So it's not just stop going that way. To repent means to start going the right way. And that's what he's saying is, hey. We've talked, and I think that something's holding you back.

You stopped, backed off, you're here, but you don't feel like you can go there.

And there's a lot of reason why people you can be stubborn. You might not know. Or it could be like him. I think he felt inadequate. I think he felt like this failure is final. I can be a follower of you, but I guess I just gotta live like a second class Christian and not really go all in. And that is not true. That is a lie from the pit of hell.

So, really, what just happened here? What is this process that if you don't want failure to be final in your life, if you really want the victory, you really wanna fight on the beaches, you really wanna not surrender, you really wanna end the end, see victory. Even though there's you lose battles, even though there's problems, you really wanna ultimately experience the life that Jesus died to gave you give you? Because get this. If you don't get what full repentance is, if you don't understand what just happened in Peter's life, what you're gonna realize is is you're gonna just live a life thinking Jesus died to save me from something,

which he did. But he really died to save us for something even more so.

It wasn't just save us from going to hell so we can have a relationship with him. It was to save us for the mission, for the gospel, for what his last words, which we'll see here in a a couple weeks. Matthew 28, the last thing he says, go make disciples. He tells everybody, we are all supposed to feed the lambs.

That's a calling for all of us. That is our purpose. And a lot of us are stuck on we only do part of this. So what is this I'm talking about? Three things. There's three things here that that happens. And these three things is really what it means to repent in the Bible. Jesus says, I forgive you.

And he says, but when you fail again, when you sin he's already died for all your sin, but he does ask us to repent. What does that mean?

What does repentance mean? Because I think some of us stop short on what it really is, and that's why we're stuck. And our failure seems to be putting us on a path in our life of finality in how we're living. And so here we go. The three things. First, you acknowledge your failure. Seems simple enough.

You gotta acknowledge it. Judas never really he acknowledged that I feel bad that this guy's getting killed. I didn't want him to get killed. I just didn't think he was the Messiah. He didn't acknowledge that he literally betrayed the Lord who was gonna die for him. He wouldn't accept.

He wouldn't do that. We need to acknowledge our failure

because we are restored really by grace, not guilt. The guilt we feel, if it's from the Holy Spirit, should draw us to go back and just own it. But why do we not? Why do we not to admit that we're sinners? Especially when it's something that we're stuck in that we just don't wanna do.

We we we we get stuck there. And I think sometimes as we think, I can't be forgiven. It's too much. Or we're like Judas. I won't admit my guilt because I just don't really feel I need to.

You don't understand the holiness of God. We don't understand what sin really is. It's not being a mistaker. It's a sinner. We rebel against the God who created us, and we try to go around him to make our lives work the way we want it to. And we have to admit that and own that and be specific in that.

You know, there was these first two kings in the Bible, Saul and David. And and Saul actually looked more like a king and had the abilities. But he ends in absolute failure and loses his his kingship, loses his life at the end, and is rejected by God at this moment even though he had all these skills.

Yet David comes along and is called a man after God's own heart. When you look at the stories go read the stories. David sins like there is no. He does some darker things than Saul ever did.

Why is he called a man after God's own heart? It's not be that he failed any less and and Saul. It's that their view of what it really means to trust the Lord. And what happened was the only thing you can find that's difference between the two guys, every time the prophet of God would come and bring the message that, hey, you have sinned in this. You have failed,

and and you need to turn and repent and turn back to the Lord. Saul would make an excuse and blame something else. Every time. Here's the excuse. It's really this. This is why I can't. This is why I did. This is why I didn't. David, whenever he was confronted, acknowledged it.

He had a broken and contrite heart before the Lord. He just confessed and surrendered and said, I am a sinner who is far from God, and yet I don't deserve his love, but he has grace on me anyways.

Which one are you?

When we talk about God's word, it says this is what it means to be a follower. And there's and and you gotta understand. Sin isn't just about doing the wrong thing. Not doing the thing he's called you to is just as much sin. I think a lot of us will admit the bad thing. But what about if I talk about giving or serving?

What's your excuse, and what are you blaming? You're sinning. And if you're gonna be like Saul, you're getting mad at me that I just said it to you. That's what you have to get to. What does God really call me to?

Because that's really where it comes down to the to down to life. If we don't do what God asked us to do and live the life and go after the mission,

you're being a Judas. You're really saying that's not the Messiah I want. That's not the life plan I want. That's and that starts to challenge, do you really even believe in him? Do you trust his love?

Because what's holding you back? We need to acknowledge what sin is. We have to go before him. But what's cool is when we do that, first John one says he will forgive us every time. Every time. So what we ought to do is after we acknowledge it, we have to accept his restoration.

Truly accept. This is the other thing that holds us up. I think sometimes we never truly fall because we say the words, but do you really believe that God loves you? Some of us are stubborn. We want what we want. Some of us feel like I can't. And you really wrestle was does God really love me?

My wife was telling me was like, that's one of her struggles. And she's like, I know it. I grew up in church, but sometimes I just feel and you know what makes us doubt that? It's because we think love means blessing, and it does. But blessing means I get good things and know bad things. So when God does something we don't understand or allows us to be in a tough situation or go through something hard, we automatically assume it means he doesn't love us.

He might be disciplining you because a good parent who loves disciplines. Discipline ain't punishment. It's redirection. And what's repentance? Redirection. He's trying to drive you to repentance

because not because he's mad and just wants you to do what he wants. He knows that that's where life really lies. That's where victory is. That's where what he built us for.

Can you accept his restoration? Like I said, Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? Because he wanted him to return back and reaffirm three times that he does.

Acknowledge the failure, the sin. Accept God's truth. Matter of fact, this acknowledging and accepting his his restoration and love, it's in in in in the book of Ephesians, it talks about putting on this armor of God. And it's compares it to Roman armor.

And one of the pieces is the belt of truth. And a lot of people get confused. Belt of yeah. We need truth in our life. We need truth in like God's word. That's not what that piece of armor is. The sword is the word of God. The belt of truth it's talking about is the belt of honesty.

You need to be truthful. Because you know what? If you don't have the belt, the toga falls down, you trip yourself. A soldier could trip himself and fall before he's even in the fight.

When we are not acknowledging our sin and honest about how we're not obeying God and honest about where we're at and honest, we can't truly accept that restoration because we don't even own the fact of what we need the restoration for. So we're tripping ourselves up and we're missing out. David

wrote about that when he wrote Psalms 51, which is all about his greatest sin, and how he confessed it. And he says, you require honesty from the womb. What do you think he's talking about? Some translations say truth. He was talking about you want someone to be contrite and brokenhearted and be willing. Don't be like Saul. Don't make excuses and hide from it because it's too painful or it's too hard. Because if you think I have to hide it, you're either trying to earn God's love, or you're thinking it's too impossible. I can never do it, so I gotta hide it.

But hiding it and trying to earn it never works. You gotta find out the beauty of accepting God's restoration is when you truly are open. In other words, we say this about community in our own church, well among people, why we need other people in our lives. We need people that know us but also accept us.

Jesus knows you. You need to be honest with him because then when you realize he loves you and accepts you and supports you and develops you anyways, it really feels genuine. When you hide,

even in real relationships, oh, yeah. They know me. They accept me. But if you lie and you hide and you act like you didn't do anything, that acceptance really doesn't do anything in your life. Because you already know. They're not accepting who you really are.

They're accepting the lies in what you're building yourself up to be. And it might work that they're fooled, but you're not fooled. Because guess what? When you wake up, guess who you're with? You. And wherever you go, there you are.

So why do we try to do that with God? The more you actually acknowledge your sin and then receive his grace,

I guarantee the more you'll be able to say, you know all things, Lord. You know I love you. Because you'll understand it. Because you'll have experienced it. But the last step is the one I think stops a lot of us. You acknowledge your failure. You accept God's restoration, his love, and then you activate your purpose.

You feed the lambs.

Or as he says to all of us in Matthew 28, you will go and make disciples.

If you are a person that knows the Lord in this room, especially a young person, and you are struggling and feeling depressed and held back like, I just don't know what my purpose in life is, can I just tell you a couple things? One,

you're probably struggling with what job should I get, who will I marry, or will I ever get married,

what school do I wanna go to, should I if you're older, should I keep this job, should I start the business, is my family gonna work, is my marriage gonna get on track, or how are my kids gonna be, I gotta raise them. Those are all necessary things that God actually blesses us with. They can they can be blessings that punch you in the face every now and then and kick you where you don't wanna be kicked.

But they are things we have to do, and it's part of our role and our mission in this world. All of those things that we call purpose is not your purpose. So you're getting dragged down because they're not making sense or they're not the way you want them. So you're all confused about your purpose, but you're trying to make something your purpose that's not your purpose.

Matter of fact, a lot of marriage, you struggle because you want something from the spouse that only God is going to give you. And so you have these expectations. Your purpose is to know, grow, and go. To point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. You can word it any way you want, but that's what the Bible says.

It says that we are to make disciples. If you're trying to figure out your purpose, their problem is you're probably not pointing people to Jesus with your life and your time and your talent and your treasure and your testimony. You're not in community with others. You're not about that. This is just an add on. Churches, gotta go talk to God. I gotta worship him. Then I gotta go back with my real purpose. No. All of those other things are tools to accomplish your actual purpose.

If you can settle that in your heart, I guarantee you'll stop being depressed about life. It doesn't mean life will get easier, but it'll get a heck a lot better. And better does not always equal easy. You need to activate your purpose. That's what

Jesus was doing here with Peter at the end. He's like, get back in the game. Get back fighting on those beaches. Get back. It's like Romans twenty eight twenty eight says, he'll work all things together for good. For what?

He says he'll work all things together for good. Failure's bad. He'll work it all together for those who just go to church and keep trying to figure out their purpose independent of God's mission for their life. No. He says he'll work all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to his

purpose.

So, yeah, that's why Jesus is super repetitive. That's why I get super repetitive. That's why I talk about, hey. We need to know Christ. We need to know and worship him. That's no. We need to grow with others because we need other people to speak into us because we can deceive ourselves. We need truth from each other. We need a team. We we are soldiers. And a soldier alone, no matter how many times you watch Rambo, that's unrealistic.

The guy that comes with the most soldiers that are equipped and ready to go and has the high ground and has the better strategy wins the fight. We need to be the army that we're supposed to be, not a bunch of Rambos.

And then we need to go

on mission with our time, with our talent, with our treasure, and with our testimony. We need to be people that feed the sheep, that lead the sheep, that point people to Jesus. And to me, I honestly think in this room, that's the number one

thing that many of the Christians sitting in this room, that is what's holding you back. You won't go live intentionally.

That's probably the number one thing in the church in America.

That's why churches are tired, leaders get tired, pastors are quitting at a massively fast rate because people wanna come and sit and say, oh, love Jesus. And then, hey, forgive me of my sin, and then not turn around and repent.

Try it and see what happens in your life. Because where are you at on this? Which part are you stuck on? Be honest with God and go from there. Go from there. Because you know what?

I get it. When you hear this idea of repentant, I gotta acknowledge my failure. I have to accept God's restoration. I have to turn around and activate my purpose again. I gotta go back the other way. For some of us, I know if you've been doing this a long time, it's like, but that's

it's like I'm in Groundhog Day. Anyone else feel like you're in Groundhog Day on this sometimes?

It's like I get there, then now I'm back there again. I wake up, and it's like I got you, babe. It's playing on the radio every morning. And you're like, I know, Jesus. You got me. But why do I have to go through this again? Because he knows us. He knows that we still have our fallen nature. We live in a fallen world. It's a fight. That's why that Roman armor, he's saying, hey. It's a battle, and you gotta plant your feet. You know what that you're supposed to put on? The gospel. The shoes of the gospel. This is the armor of God is not how you'd have that winning day that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, and that's gonna make your your essential oils business thrive.

That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about you will stay in that spiritual battle with yourself and to go put the shoes of the gospel and move forward in the mission.

That's where the victory is. And he says you gotta plant yourself there. You gotta fight on the beaches. You gotta fight in the hills. You gotta fight in the seas. And you gotta be willing to do that over and over and over and over again. And it's gonna happen. It's funny. And here's the hope in this. You think, well, why is it me? Why do I keep having to do this? Like, Peter, go read the rest of the story in John 21. He says, fine. He has this great restoring moment. Feed the sheep. Great. I'm back in. And then Jesus looks at him and says, and by the way, you know how you said you would die for me? You were being so brave. Like, you said this. You would fight for the cause of Christ. Die. You're eventually gonna grow to the point that you're gonna willingly do that. He ended up crucified upside down. That's how he died. And he had no problem with it. Go read first and second Peter. He had no regrets

about his life following Jesus. He didn't get rich. He didn't get wealthy. He got beat up a lot. He had a lot of tough stuff, and he was fine with it. Because when you get to the other side, you'll get it, but you have to get to the other side. And and so he did that.

But right here, he says Jesus goes, and you know what? You're gonna get there. You will die for me. And well, you know what Peter does? He points at John and goes, well, what about him? Like, nanoseconds after this moment. What about him?

You know why? Why point at John? Because John's the guy that Jesus was his best friend. He knew. Matter of fact, John didn't wanna call the book of John, John. I think he thought that was too pretentious. So instead, he described himself in the book as the one whom Jesus loved.

That's not you know what? I think that was a knock on the other disciples. Like, yeah. You remember, guys? I'm his favorite.

And so he's thinking, oh, you say I'm gonna die? His first is he goes, okay. Alright. I am gonna get there, But that sounds hard. Just like what I'm saying. Start giving. Start serving. Start sharing your faith. Start truly repenting.

Give up. Own all of your sin. Even that. If you're not doing it, you're a sinner. You're sinning. You're not listening to God. Plain and simple. There's no ins, ands, or buts about it.

Yet if I don't own that, I can't turn around and do that and then get to their side. But when you say, okay. I'm gonna do it. And then God's saying, you know what? You're gonna be really sacrificial. You're really gonna become like me. You're gonna stop carrying your sin and carrying your own problems, your own dreams, your own aspirations, and you're gonna drop them. So now you can pick up your cross and follow him.

But when you hear it right away, I know how you're acting. We wanna act like well, what about him? What about him? And Jesus, what does that matter? Once again, you're doubting that I love you. You're doubting that I know more of what you need, that I know where the victory in your life lies. Don't play a game with Jesus.

That's what Judas did until he finally betrayed him. He was playing a game.

Are you saying you followed Jesus, but you're robbing him? You say you believe in him, but you don't want him to lead that way? That's Judas. And that failure will be final in your life. You'll never the end of that life, it says, ends in death. You want the victory, go the other way. And I get it. It's hard.

Because you know what the hardest time of the week for me is? Saturdays. Because I know I have to preach. And I get up and I freak out. Because contrary to the way I look to all of you guys, I'm not perfect.

Contrary to what my wife says and thinks, I'm not perfect. I am a sinner that has to do this, and I feel I gotta do this even more because I have this responsibility to stand up here and preach God's word. I sat there behind that curtain before I walk out every time, and I'm broken up. I pray that, Lord, you have got to

create in me a clean heart. I gotta own the things. Sometimes I'm owning stuff like happened just as I was driving over here.

I'm about to preach. I'm like, I gotta fight with my wife. I did something or I had a bad attitude. I thought something. I did I just name the list. Like, The whole list is the whole playbook's open.

You know? And and and and and then I feel terrible because I I got this burden that I gotta get up and preach. And you know what then makes me feel terrible? I know what Peter felt like. I have no business standing up here teaching God's word. I am not worthy.

I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't even have good enough grammar to be talking to this many people.

And I have to wrestle with that. It's a burden. But then I think about it at a deeper level, and I think it's a blessing. Because you know what really scares me when I when I'm about myself and where I could easily go? Is would I deal with all of this sin consistently if I didn't have to get up and preach?

If I could just hide out and come and go back into my job where people don't care and just kinda do my own thing? I get it. It'd be so easy.

And I think that's the blessing of being on purpose with God. When you start using your gift and serving him, you it is a burden. But you also feel the pressure to go, I should probably deal with this stuff in my life. So I feel very blessed even though I do not feel adequate to sit here and preach to you guys.

I know I have to do this over and over and over. Multiple times a day. I'm like Peter, man. I'll sit there and go, that was a great moment with God. And I'll send for it. I'm so excited. I walk in within minutes, I've sinned.

And all I know is you go back again and you go back again because that's what our life is, and that's where the victory is found. In other words, you have to fight on those beaches. You gotta fight in the hills. I gotta say to myself, I'm gonna fight in my study. I'm gonna fight after I after I pray. I'm gonna fight when when when I'm in my truck. I'm gonna fight when I'm sitting here. I even have to fight. Sometimes I've sat here and got a bad attitude while I'm preaching. I've looked at some and they made me mad. They're probably wearing a Seahawks jersey or something.

And and no. I I I get frustrated. I I could sit while I'm talking. I have this weird brain. I could be saying something and then thinking, you know, my wife did

I'm all mad at something. I could sit there and go, you know what? What about him? What about him? I could sit and go, well, Jesus, what about him? He got a million dollars. I only got half 1,000,000.

I could do that. It's so easy. You can start comparing.

But I refuse to do that. I am gonna fight in my living room, fight in my bed, fight in the truck, fight in the street, fight in the pulpit, fight where I go, Fight where I stand, knowing I'm gonna fall back, knowing there's gonna be failure, but I will not surrender.

And that's what God called us to. And I want you to experience the same thing. That's all I'm saying. So let's pray. Father God, I just thank you, Lord, that we can fight because you fought for us. You gave us your spirit when we put our faith in you. We have your grace and the power

that, Lord, we do not have to listen to our old self. We do not have to get stuck going the wrong way, that we can truly repent. We can turn around and run back to you, and you accept us, and you love us every time because you were already waiting for us.

So Lord, I pray for myself, anyone in this room, anyone watching online, that we would get alone and spend a few minutes with you and truly walk through this process called repentance and get to the other side of tasting some victory and not get stuck with our failure being final.

I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. Love you guys. Thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.