Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / Men of the New Testament: "Peter" by Jeremy Waddell - Part 8

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Men of the New Testament: "Peter" by Jeremy Waddell - Part 8 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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Good evening, everyone. Greg was back here making faces
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at me. I had to sit and watch him for a minute. So tonight
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I'm going to be covering Peter. That's going to be the person that I picked.
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Whenever they sent that list out, I was looking through the list and I thought,
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who's going to be the easiest one for me to talk about? Who's going to
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be somebody that I can relate to, that everybody's going to know? So there's going
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to be tons of comments. And the only thing I'm glad I didn't do is
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ask Barrett. Which one he thought because after he did
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that to Caden, there's no telling what he would have done to mine. He would
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have took mine too. So tonight's going to be Peter.
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So hopefully this class, we're going to understand not only who Peter was,
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but how God transformed him in his life,
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major events of his life, and then some practical lessons
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about how we can relate to him, about things that we can
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do not only just to learn about him, But I always like to take
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all of our Scripture, everything we read— the Bible's for us. The Bible
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is for us to learn from, to help us through life,
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to help us to understand things. So every time we
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have a story about a different person, a different event,
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no matter who it is, we need to figure out how can that relate to
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us? What can we gain from that? And how's that going
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to help us through life? And I feel like Peter, he is probably the most
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relatable person in the Bible, for me anyways.
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So if you had to describe Peter in one word, what would that be?
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Your knowledge of Peter, what would you— how would you describe him in just one
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word? Impetuous.
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Okay. Impulsive.
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Eager. Okay.
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Anybody else? What's that?
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Bold. Yep. Imperfect.
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Those are pretty much my list. Passionate,
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forgiving, he was a leader.
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All those things, we can relate to those things.
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We can be all of those things in some way or another.
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Throughout Scripture, we watch him succeed greatly in
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things that he does. We watch him fail publicly in in front of everybody.
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We watch him repent pretty deeply.
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He gets called out pretty good and has to repent.
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Then we watch him become one of the greatest leaders of the church, of the
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early church. So we can all put ourselves in some way or
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another in Peter's shoes at some point or stage in our life.
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So let's get into a little bit about who he was, his background, some things
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about him. So originally he was named Simon. In John 1:40-42,
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we'll read that real quick. Uh, one of the 2 who heard John speak and
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followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found
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his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah,
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which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.
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Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon son of
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Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone.
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So Jesus immediately, as soon as He saw him, He changed his name. He said,
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you're going to be called Cephas. You're going to be called Peter.
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That means stone. That means rock-like. Jesus already
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knew what Peter could become and He was planning on it.
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He was expecting him to do that. Jesus knows
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our potential in life long before we do. Long before
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we ever figure out our potential, Jesus already knows it.
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And he knows how we can use our talents, our abilities,
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and the things that we can do. And it's up to us to live up
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to that potential. There are characters in the Bible, there are people in the
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Bible, there are people in our lives, and maybe it may be us,
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that you don't live up to that potential.
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You don't repent, you don't return, you don't go back to Christ.
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But Jesus knew that Peter was going to be rock-like. He knew that he
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was going to be a stone and he was going to be a pillar of
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the church. He knew that as soon as he saw him. I think that was
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pretty unique there, that first thing he said is, that's not your name
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anymore. Now your name's this. This is who you're going to be. I think that
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says a lot about Peter and the man that he was and is and
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who we're going to read about and learn about. The next
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thing, his occupation. He was a fisherman. In Matthew 4:18-20,
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he was working right alongside his brother Simon. He was working
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alongside James and John.
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Why is this important to recognize about Peter? Why is this so important to recognize
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that he was just a simple fisherman? What does
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it— what does being a fisherman require?
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I don't know how many fishermen— where's Ethan at? Patience.
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What's that?
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Yep. Patience, hard work,
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teamwork. If you're working on a boat, you got to have teamwork.
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Sometimes long hours. You got to depend on each other when you're out there
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on the boat. I went deep-sea fishing one time with a bunch of people,
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and I tell you what, that's the hardest. I'd like to not made it back.
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That's some of the hardest work I believe I'd ever done. It's kind of like
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the perfect storm when we got out there. So Peter had to be tough to
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go through that. You can ask Kevin. We got a picture of him. I wanted
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to put it up on there. He was laid out on the floor. It about
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got him. So being a fisherman is tough. You've got to be tough,
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dependable, hardworking. Daddy always
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said a dairy farmer was like this. A dairy farmer could do anything, not because
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he was the smartest, because he had to. He had to be depended
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on. He had to get the cows milked. Certain times.
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What we do each day with our lives, the attributes
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that we possess each and every day, they can, they will,
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and they should impact our Christianity.
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All of those things that we learn how to do, all the things that we,
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we try hard to be good at, that type of mentality should
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transfer into our Christianity just like it did his as a fisherman.
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Any comments about that before I move on to the next one?
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All right, so his family. Peter was married. It says in Matthew
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8:14, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law,
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which means Peter had a wife. It later mentions Peter
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traveling with his believing wife in 1 Corinthians 9:5.
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So being married not only shows his dedication
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It shows he's trustworthy, shows he's loving, caring, patient,
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shows he's a leader. All the attributes that I'm sure
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all of us husbands in here possess, just like Peter did.
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That's what he was. He was a married man.
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So I know we ask this question a lot, or make this comment a
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lot, but it makes it relatable to each of us.
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Why do you think Jesus chose these ordinary fishermen? Rather than these, the religious
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scholars of the time.
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Do what? That's right, he was going to ordinary
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people, so to take— used ordinary people to get to them.
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That's true. What other reasons?
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Right.
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Okay, so basically the Lord can use all of us. He can and does,
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no matter our status, no matter what— how others may see us,
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no matter what job we have, what we do.
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Jesus can use all of us. I don't know about you, but if I'm training
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somebody also, I'd like to have somebody that doesn't think they know everything already
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if I'm trying to teach them something new. So I think there's a lot of
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reasons why Christ used ordinary men
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such as fishermen. He looked at the person, not what
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the other— what the world saw them as. Um,
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right. He taught them everything they needed
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to know, right?
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That's a good lesson for us too, and we'll get into a little bit of
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that, kind of touch on that as well. With Christ, you can do anything
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as long as you're keeping your, your eyes on Christ. If your faith is strong,
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you can do pretty much anything, and we'll see that here in a few,
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few points later on. So the next thing here was
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Peter's personality. That was one of the main reasons
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that I picked Peter, because I can relate to this guy.
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I'm a whole lot like Peter in a lot of ways, and we're going to
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see that maybe that's not a good thing all the time.
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First thing there, Peter often acted first and thought
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later. So we're going to look at some of his qualities that on the surface
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seem a little less desirable, but they look familiar.
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I know they do to me. So when Peter was walking on water, or Jesus
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was walking on water in Matthew 14:28-31,
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Peter says, Lord, if it's you, command me to come out.
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And then Peter actually walks on water. He steps out of the boat with the
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waves crashing down. He steps out of the boat and he walks
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on water. But then he notices all the things
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around him. He notices the wind and the waves and
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the crashing. He notices all that and takes his eyes off Jesus.
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Faith can become fear when our eyes do leave Christ.
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When we turn away from him, when we look the other direction,
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when we lose our faith, things can get scary.
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A lot of times life is scary, and decisions and choices that we have to
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make are hard. But as we were saying, if you keep your eyes on Christ,
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it's going to help us through it. And that's where his faith
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kind of failed there when he took his eyes off and got to questioning things.
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The next one, the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17.
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He didn't understand. He wanted to build 3 tabernacles,
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one for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. He speaks up
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before he truly understood what he was even saying.
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I do that a lot. That's a hard thing. Sometimes you
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don't understand everything going on and you want to speak out, you want to voice
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your opinion, you want to change things or do your way.
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And that's what he did right here. He didn't fully understand what was taking
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place or what Jesus meant. And first thing he wanted to do was build
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3 temples. When he cut off Malchus' ear
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in John 18, he drew a sword, cut off the ear, and then Jesus
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has to heal him. Peter was courageous but
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sometimes misguided. Sometimes doing
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something in the moment is not the best choice.
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You need to think about things and try to really understand the situation.
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Peter was very Courageous. He was always there to fight.
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He was always ready to do something. But sometimes that's not the best thing.
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So though on the surface these situations all seem like negative
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things, but it causes me to think, what in the world?
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What's going on with Peter? How can this be the pillar of
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the church? How can this be somebody that is going to preach the first sermon?
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How can Jesus call this guy the rock, the stone?
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But there's positive qualities in all of these things too.
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What are they? Like his impulsiveness that he— that we've talked about here,
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what can— what kind of positive things can we bring out of that?
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Right,
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that was my first point here. His courage. Peter wasn't afraid to step out and
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take on the waves, the guards, or anything else that
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would stand in Christ's way. He went out of his comfort zone and He was
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pretty courageous in a lot of things.
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What were some more of them? How can his impulsiveness
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be positive things?
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Passion. He obviously believed in Christ,
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believed deeply in the purpose, believed that this was the Messiah,
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this was the chosen one, and that Christ
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was the only way to heaven. So he had passion for Christ.
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Apathetic, right? And bad things can happen.
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He was willing to act. Yep. He had a love for Christ.
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No doubt he loved him. No doubt he loved Jesus.
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Whenever you do all the things he did, I'll be honest with you, I ain't
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stepping out of the boat for nobody. If the waves are crashing down, I can't
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swim that great, so I'm not stepping out of the boat. That takes some serious
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courage, passion, love, trust. And he had all
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those things because of the things that he tried to overcome.
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His willingness to act, he was willing to do it. As you said, he was
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the only one that did it. He was the only one that took that first
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step, good or bad, needed or not,
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he was willing to do it. And to me, that's a positive thing.
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You got to be willing to get up here and teach class, good or bad.
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Somebody's got to be willing to get up here. And a lot of times in
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church, in jobs, in family.
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We've got to be willing to act. We've got to be willing to, to do
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what's needed to, to further the kingdom. And I
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think that's who Peter was, and I think he demonstrated that a lot
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throughout his life and, and throughout the Bible here.
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All right, so the next thing, Peter's greatest failures. We're going to beat on Peter
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a little while here. I mean, he's— he did a lot of things that We
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probably do too, but we're going to go over some of them. In Luke 22,
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Jesus predicts that he's going to deny him 3 times before the
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rooster crows. Peter says, I'll never deny you. And he's—
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only hours later, he did it 3 times.
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He even swears he doesn't know him. So he denies him.
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In Luke 22:61, this is almost one of the saddest
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verses in the Bible, in my opinion.
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When the Lord turned and looked at Peter, Peter remembered.
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He went out and wept bitterly. This one hits
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pretty hard if you really think about this situation, this scenario, what's taking
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place, the story.
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Jesus told him, you're going to do this. You're going to deny me. You're going
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to turn your back on me. You're going to curse. All these things. He said,
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I'm not going to do it. No way. But then he did.
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And can y'all imagine what that look would be like when Jesus
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turns and looks at him? They— my little girls,
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they act pretty well. They're pretty well behaved.
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They don't do a lot of things wrong. I don't think I've ever had to
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whip them because all I gotta do is look at them. And if I look
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at them the right way, they know. And I just think about this kind
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of— because that's how it was with my daddy. My Papaw, all they got to
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do is look at me and I know, hey, I messed up. I did the
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wrong thing. So imagine getting reprimanded by Jesus.
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Imagine that look that would come from Jesus knowing
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that you just did what he said, what you told him, there's no
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way I would do that to you. I love you this much. There's no way
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that I would deny you.
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That's pretty tough when you really think
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about it. But Peter overcame that. We're going to
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see later on through here, Peter got back up.
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Yeah, Peter messed up. Yeah, Peter got called out. Yeah,
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Jesus was hurt by this. He denied Jesus.
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But failure doesn't always have to be final. Whenever you fail,
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you can get back up. Many people quit as soon
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as they fail, and then you can't do that. Peter is a good example of
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that. Peter repented from what he did.
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Judas regretted what he did. And Peter
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returned. There's a big difference in that. So what is the difference
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between guilt or regret and repentance? I think as
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Christians we have to really understand the difference in
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these 2 things. What is the difference
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in that? Changing direction.
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Right. I think that's where a lot of people
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in Christianity, in life, in a lot of things get confused.
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The difference in, you know, I messed up, I got caught,
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I feel guilty for what I did, but repentance is
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change, like you said, changing directions and going the other way and doing just
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the opposite of what I did. And I
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think that's the hardest part. A lot of people can feel guilt. A lot of
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people get caught. A lot of times we all sin. We all have things and
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shortcomings that we have. But it's that repentance that
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brings us back to Christ. It's that repentance that changes us and gets
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us back on track. And I think that's where Peter was
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different. Than Judas and other people throughout
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the Bible. Any more comments or
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questions about that?
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Right, that's true.
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Like I said, we're all going to sin. David and Saul are another perfect example
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of that. Saul wasn't sorry. Saul did not
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want to turn from it. David did. David saw his wrong. David saw that
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What he did was wrong and he repented and turned back just
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as Peter did. We need to remember that. You can fail.
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You're going to fail. There's no ifs, ands, buts about it.
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But it's how you respond to that that changes everything.
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That goes back to those attributes of a fisherman— being strong, being dependable,
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having to do things on your own. And you could always do that, but spiritually,
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sometimes that's hard. That was a new thing for him that he had to
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overcome. That's right, I never thought about that.
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Anybody else? Okay,
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so we're going to move on to Peter's restoration in John 21.
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This is going to be after the resurrection of Jesus. Peter is going to meet
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Him by the sea out there, another sea. And there is going to be another
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miraculous catch of fish.
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And as they are eating breakfast, Jesus looks at Peter 3
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times and asks him, do you love Me? He asks him 3
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different times, do you love Me? And each question corresponds perfectly
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with Peter's 3 denials. He just denied Him. Not long before this,
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and now he's asking him 3 different times, do you love me?
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So Jesus restores him publicly and gives him a mission.
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He told him to feed my lambs, told him to tend to my sheep
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and feed my sheep. So Jesus didn't merely forgive him.
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He didn't just forgive him and say, okay, you're forgiven, let's move on.
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He gave him responsibility. He told him what he wanted him to do.
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Hey, you're forgiven now, Let's get back to work.
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Grace restores people for service.
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Whenever— this is a good lesson for us, and I think this is one that
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I struggle with. I'm sure you do too. When someone
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repents, they're forgiven. When they turn back,
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they're forgiven. There's no trial period. There's no,
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well, I don't know, that person, we might ought to let them wait a little
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bit. If they truly repented and they've said,
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hey, I repent, I'm sorry, I'm ready to get on,
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there's no trial period. Let's get them back to work. They don't
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have to prove themselves again. And that's what Peter did here.
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Jesus didn't ask him to prove himself. He didn't ask him to wait and then
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later on, hey, we'll figure out something for you to do. He gave him a
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job. He got right back to work. Beating on
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himself forever. It's like, I didn't—
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Peter, right? I don't know why that's specifically go tell Peter too, he wants
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me there, right? I don't
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know if that always counted, but even if we are repentant of the thing,
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right, that tells us this— Peter showed us
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that it's still— that's true. A lot of times we are harder on ourselves Even
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though we are forgiven, we've repented, maybe others have even forgiven us and moved
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on, but we've got to do that for ourselves as well. I think that
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goes back to showing just how strong mentally,
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physically that Peter was, because like
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I said, that look that Jesus gave him, and he repented,
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he turned, and he was stronger for it. He kept moving.
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And we have to do that for ourselves. We have to forgive ourselves as well.
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Anybody else?
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So Peter after Pentecost, we're going to kind of summarize a few
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chapters that mention Peter, talk about Peter.
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He has a lot to do with a lot of these, but we're going to
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summarize a few of these. In Acts 2, this is one chapter that we all
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know very well. This is where the fearful fisherman
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becomes the fearless preacher. He preaches the first sermon here.
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The first gospel sermon right after Jesus' resurrection tells everyone
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how to be saved. Acts 2:38,
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about 3,000 souls obey the gospel in this chapter.
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That's pretty big. He went from
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the things that we've just discussed to now he has preached one
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of the— probably the best sermons there ever was.
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In Acts 3, he heals the lame man. He starts performing miracles in
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these chapters. Acts 5, many more people are
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healed. Acts 9, he raises Dorcas, Tabitha, from the dead.
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He goes about working hard. He doesn't
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take for granted anymore. And he takes the mission that Christ gave him for
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real. He takes it seriously. He gets out and gets to work.
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In Acts 10, he opens the gospel to the Gentiles here when he talks
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about Cornelius. He learns
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here that in verse 34 and 35 of Acts
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10 that God shows no partiality. There is no partiality in the
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church. This became one
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of the greatest turning points probably in Christian history right here where
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it kind of makes it known it's for everybody. It just gives us another
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example of how the gospel salvation is not for a certain set
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of people. It's not for certain people. It's for all of us. And that's how
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Christ set it up. That's how God wants it to be so that we can
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all share in salvation one day.
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Any comments about that?
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Alright, so getting into some of the letters that Peter wrote.
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Y'all may be getting out of here early today. Some of the letters. 1 Peter.
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So the theme of this is hope during suffering. Some of the
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key verses: 1 Peter 1:3-9, 1 Peter 5:6 and 10.
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Hope through suffering in life, the things we have to endure, the things that we
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have to go through. He talks about how we can get
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through those things. There is light at the other end of that tunnel.
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2 Peter, growing spiritually, warning against false teachers.
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So many things that we have to overcome. That he had to
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overcome. Just like you said, he's physically a really strong
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man, probably. Spiritually, he had some
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things to learn. He had some things he had to overcome mentally, spiritually,
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to get the way to be that stone, to get where Christ wanted him
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to be. 2 Peter talks about that. 2 Peter 1:5-8
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talks about faith, virtue, knowledge,
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self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love.
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All the things that we need to possess as Christians.
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And no doubt, I think he did. I think he possessed those, those characteristics.
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He showed them a lot of ways throughout his life and throughout
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Scripture here. Then as far as his legacy,
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as far as what he leaves behind, what we, what we remember about him and
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what lessons that we can learn from him, from his life and
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his teaching, One, as we've said, Jesus uses imperfect
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people. Peter failed repeatedly, but God still used
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him greatly throughout his life in so many different ways. So that needs
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to remind us that no matter how many times we fail, no matter how many
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times we sin, we can get back up just like he did.
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We don't have to regret. We can repent and we can
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move on and we can get back to work. We're all imperfect,
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just as he was from the very beginning. But God
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still uses us just like he did him.
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Boldness grows through faith. He was naturally bold,
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man. Peter, I'd say he— when he came in a room, you knew it.
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I'd say he was one of the louder ones in the room. He was a
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pretty bold man, it seemed like. But until his boldness
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became Spirit-directed, didn't do Christ any good.
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But Christ saw that. He knew some of his talents. He knew who he
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was and how he could use him to further his gospel.
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His talents and personality became a tool that was used
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for good to carry out God's will. We all possess those same things.
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We all possess different attributes about our personality,
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about our lives, about what we do, about what we can
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do, and God can use all of those things in one way or
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the other. It's up to us to live up to those potentials.
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The next thing, as we've discussed, repentance changes
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everything. That changes your whole course of life. That changes everything
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about your life if you're willing to repent.
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His story, his example,
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it could have ended whenever he denied Christ,
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whenever Jesus turned and looked at him and
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basically said, I told you so. This is what I told you was going to
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happen, and that's what you did.
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Peter's story could have been over right then. And if
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I'm being honest with you, it might have been over for me right then because
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that would have been a hard pill to swallow to come back from that.
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But quitting, that's the easy way out. That's the easy thing to do is
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give up, quit. Hey, you know what? I messed up. I'm done.
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Maybe a lot of days we feel like doing that. And you know what,
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every now and then we might quit for a little bit, but if we keep
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our eyes on Christ, stay focused on that,
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once we repent, we're forgiven. Like Joey said,
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let's, let's don't beat up on ourselves. Let's get back to work. Let's, let's forget
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it and let's move on.
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Right, that's true.
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You know, uh, you Since you bring that up, I've thought about that a
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lot. Like whenever God was talking to the devil about Job,
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whenever he said, hey, when you recovered yourself, Jesus was thinking about him.
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How many times is— this is all— this is completely off this right here,
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kind of. Well, kind of. How many times does God mention our name throughout
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the day? How many times does God look down and think about us and say,
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he'll get back up, he'll be all right, or we can move on from this,
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or Maybe test him a little more or what. I mean, right.
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Anyway, that's just something I think about a lot. I wonder if God mentioned my
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name today. Did I do anything for God to mention my name today?
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I think about that a lot. Anyways, something completely different.
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Anybody else on that one?
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1st or 2 Timothy 4:17. This is one of my favorite verses:
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I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I've kept the faith.
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I think as long as we can say that almost every day and
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at the end of life, I think that's, that's pretty important. I think that's
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the, the goal there is to do that.
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One more thing there: leaders are servants. Peter eventually
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wrote in 1 Peter 5, shepherd the flock of God.
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The impulsive fisherman He became a humble servant. He became
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a humble shepherd. Everything he had to endure,
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he did. And he got through it. And it made him
28:56
more humble. It made him a better servant. It made him a better follower
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of Christ. He understood the mission. He understood what
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it took through the things he had to go through.
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Alright, so just kind of a summary there of Peter's timeline.
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Matthew 4, he was called by Jesus. That's whenever he
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got his name, the rock, the stone.
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Matthew 14, walks on water. Matthew 16,
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confesses Jesus as Christ. 17,
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witnessed the Transfiguration. Luke 22
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is when he denied Jesus.
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John 21, it's when he was restored by Jesus.
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Acts 2, That's when he preached the sermon at Pentecost.
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Acts 3, starts healing people. Acts 10,
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Cornelius was converted. Acts 12, he was imprisoned
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and freed. And then later on in his ministry is when he wrote 1 and
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2 Peter and the books that he wrote.
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So that's a rundown. That's a summary. That's a kind of an overview of
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Peter there. Go ahead. On the legacy,
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I think, that he has. In Galatians
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2, who had said God's no respecter
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of persons, withdraws from the Gentiles when James and the others come from Jerusalem.
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And Paul withstands him to the face, dressed him down,
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rebuked him. A lot of us don't take that very— we aren't
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told in Galatians 2 how he responds, but some of those very
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last words that he writes on the second coming, he says, and some of these
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things are hard to be understood. And Paul, our beloved brother Paul,
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talks about this. This is at the very end of Peter's life.
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So instead of holding that against him, you know, being irritated
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and causing a schism, he had a forgiving spirit.
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And it may have been because Jesus had forgiven him so
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freely and so deeply. Right. But for somebody who's impetuous,
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you might think they'd be surprised. But that's humility.
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Maybe that's why he made such a good shepherd. Right. And that's a legacy I
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think all of us— that even when somebody has to tell us enough to be
31:06
able to see the bigger picture, resent them. Right. That's a
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good point right there. That's— say the same thing, that conflict.
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Right. And maintain a strong— despite
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that. Right. He felt confident.
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Right. So not only was he strong and willing to repent, he was also willing
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to forgive. And I think that takes about as
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strong a man as the other way of it. Which one? Go ahead.
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Right.
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Never mentions again, never thinks about it, and keeps rolling.
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Right. What do you got, Tommy?
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Right. No doubt
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that would be tough, and it's tough in the church today. Everybody wants to,
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to be recognized, to be seen, to be, hey, I know that guy, or I'm—
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I can do this, or I'm this person. It's part of being a
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humble servant though. I think that's where we all have to to look
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at ourselves and know that, you know what, it ain't about us. It's about Christ.
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It's about furthering, furthering his gospel,
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his message, and it's not about us no matter
32:26
what. And there could have been some of that. There could have been some jealousy.
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There could have been, but we don't know that. We just know
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that he was a humble guy. He was a strong person
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that, that Christ chose to build the church
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on to, to help further things.
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Yeah, he was right.
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That's
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right. That's what he did, and that's what we're supposed to. So some questions
33:07
here. You can answer if you want. But ask yourself these questions, and if
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you don't want to answer, that's fine, but answer them to yourself about yourself.
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What ways are you most like Peter? And all the things we've talked about here
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about his personality, the man he was,
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the things he did— are you more like his negative
33:26
things, his positive things? Do you use your negative things for
33:30
positive? What ways are you most
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like Peter. Kevin, I guess he knows
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me well enough, the first thing he said was impulsive. I guess whenever I said
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I'm relatable to Peter, not to Kevin, but to Peter,
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I guess that's the first thing he thought of was impulsive. That's how I am,
33:49
man. I'm ready to jump. Well, I know you were,
33:52
but I'm relatable. I'm pretty relatable to Peter. I'm pretty—
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not repulsive, impulsive. Get up here.
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I'm gonna get my words turned around here in a minute. Go ahead, Rod,
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you start talking before I say something. We ask ourselves,
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I guess my— how am I not like— at
34:10
the end of John's Gospel, he said in this book, and I always—
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right, more information. What I'd really like to know,
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we don't have much about that in Acts 1. What went
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on in Peter's mind between that conversation with Jesus and
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the time he delivered later such an effective leader? I don't know about that.
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Yeah, I'm aggravated at John. I'm also aggravated
34:33
at Luke. Tell me more. You can voice that when you get to heaven,
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Roger. Come, you needed to know more. But yeah,
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he definitely, from the time he had that conversation and Jesus gave
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him basically, hey, this is what I want you to do, feed my sheep,
34:48
tend to my flock, all that stuff, um, to go and he
34:52
took it seriously. I mean, when he gave him that command, when he gave him
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that that job, he went at it hard,
35:04
right?
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That's true. He swam all the way, didn't he?
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Yeah, he didn't learn his lesson too well on a few things, did he?
35:22
Or just observe, he has to just blur that in a lot of ways
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too. I'm right there with you. Alright, a couple
35:29
more. What fears keep
35:33
you from boldly serving Christ? Think about your fears.
35:37
Think about all the fears that he probably had starting out. They didn't
35:41
keep him from serving. They didn't keep him from trying to do what was right
35:45
for the furtherance of Christ. But think about your fears
35:49
and how to overcome them. Um, how has
35:53
God used your weaknesses to strengthen your faith?
35:56
Think about your weaknesses that you have in
35:59
the church, in your abilities,
36:03
maybe in your willingness to do things.
36:07
And how's this— how can you strengthen your faith with that? How can
36:11
God use those things to strengthen your faith? And I think it's just
36:15
where we've got to do what we need— know we need to do,
36:18
try to live up to that potential that we know we have.
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And then let's see, biggest thing
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right here: what does Peter's restoration— whenever
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they were on that beach and basically Jesus publicly restores
36:34
Peter— what's that teach us about extending grace to others?
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We need to remember that, that Right here, this is
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Jesus, this is the Son of God that got denied, that got
36:47
beaten, hung on the cross, died,
36:50
and yet he still restored Peter.
36:55
He showed him grace. He loved him.
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He didn't hold it against him. He put him to work. He gave him a
37:01
job. What does that tell us about
37:05
when somebody does us a little wrong or somebody hurts our feelings or somebody says
37:08
something? We ought to be showing that same grace to everyone.
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If we're going to be like Christ, and that's the goal, that's what we're
37:16
supposed to be, we're supposed to be like Christ in all things,
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we need to be showing that same grace to those around us in
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the church, in family, in our jobs,
37:28
throughout life. That's our job, that's our mission.
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That may be one of the hardest things that we have to overcome is extending
37:35
that same grace to those around us.
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Alright, so a couple takeaways here. Obviously Peter was an ordinary fisherman transformed.
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He was one of the greatest shepherds, servants, preached the
37:52
sermon, did it all. Just an ordinary fisherman. His failures,
37:55
they didn't define him. His repentance did.
37:59
He became a courageous leader who preached Christ despite persecution,
38:03
despite all the things he had to go through. He kept the faith.
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He kept moving forward. His life demonstrates that
38:10
God, as we've said, uses imperfect people. He uses
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everybody no matter what. We can get that from Peter's life.
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Peter's journey reminds us that faith is not about never
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failing. It's about continually trusting
38:26
Christ, repenting when we fail, and faithfully following
38:30
him. We're all going to fail. It's just a matter of how we respond to
38:34
it. We all need to repent. We all need to stay on the straight
38:38
and narrow. We're not going to do it every time, but we can get back
38:41
on the right path through repentance. So a
38:45
scripture to close us with, 1 Peter 5:6-7.
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We've got a song we sing, humble yourselves under the mighty
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hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all
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your anxieties on him. Because he cares for you. He loves you.
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Man, that verse, you could almost sing that song and say that verse every day.
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Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and he'll lift you up.
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He, he'll take care of you in all things.
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So Peter's life wasn't a story about a man that never failed. It was
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a story about a disciple who kept getting back up, kept staying on
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the right path, kept following Christ.
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That's all I got. Thank you all.