Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 21, 2016 | Men's Fraternity - Fall 2016, Session 2

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September 21, 2016 | Men's Fraternity - Fall 2016, Session 2 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hey, uh good morning, men.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see everybody out.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice that we're not uh being poured on by rain uh this morning, although I think the heat's supposed to end here in a few days.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have books this morning.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you got uh everybody who needed a book got a book, ten dollar donation.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um let's see, so we're going through Wednesday, November 23rd.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh Jim mentioned we're gonna continue on with this book into uh next semester.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: So so y'all know when you know when somebody gets interviewed, you know, on TV or whatever about a movie or a book they've written, you know, the person who interviews them probably have had this, you know, needs to have seen the movie or read the book so they can ask some intelligent questions.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I wanted to kind of challenge everybody that as you're reading these chapters on these apostles, you know, think about it in terms of if you were getting ready to interview them and and try to dig up something that you would want to uh talk to them about.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, as I mentioned, you know, we we all know some of the apostles, but uh hopefully we'll get an opportunity to talk with them and meet them all uh you know on the other side of eternity.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: So so I asked myself, you know, what would I want most to talk to um Peter about?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's uh you know, after Jesus uh you know died and resurrected and he's he's back, you know, he said, gee, might as well go back to fishing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's back in the boat and he and he sees Jesus on the shore and he's just you know thrown the net on the other side and pulled in the enormous catch like he did the first time, and it's like he jumps in and he and he can't wait to get up there.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want to ask him, what was he feeling at that point?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: What was he thinking, you know, and and um you know he had um he had been broken, you know, he ended up uh confessing and was restored to Jesus.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and so I'd really want to probe, you know, kind of what he was was going through then.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um I was challenged by something uh uh in Sunday school class a couple weeks ago, uh Dwayne Cantrell talking about uh that the the the fact that we have the opportunity to confess, be broken, and and restore a relationship with our Lord is it actually results in a stronger relationship than had it never been broken in the first place.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, man, that I had never really thought about that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: That you think about all of the character attributes of Jesus that we get to experience, um, you know, his compassion, his forgiveness, his uh tenderness, all of those things that we wouldn't otherwise.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I got to believe that that was probably one of the one of the closest uh times that Peter felt to Jesus uh at that point in his life than than any uh leading up to it.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So uh anyway, with that I'm gonna turn it over to these guys to uh teach us.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's that was interesting, wasn't it?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I uh I do sometimes think, Paul, of what I want to ask uh the apostles or other people when I get to heaven.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I are or you know, for Peter, I'd always thought it might be what was it like to walk on the water?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Or else, you know, the one we're gonna talk today about is denial of Christ.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say, what were you thinking?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, something like that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: So uh anyway, uh, you want to say hi?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning, guys.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you're having the best Wednesday morning that you've had all week.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there we go.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: The best Wednesday.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna jump into it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did any does anybody still need a book by chance?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Three.
• 3:35
  unknown: We've got three more.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get those for you guys.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: What we've got is uh great, make sure you grab um those of those of you that don't have uh books, grab the sheet of chapter two, which we've run off, and that's that's James.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna take in the next two weeks.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're gonna do 6 a.m.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Wednesdays through November 23rd.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: So including today, that's 10 uh more weeks.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh suggested donation, 10 bucks.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Where are we here?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, um, so the good news is I'm first in my fantasy league of 40 guys.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Bad news is that uh Chiefs lost to the Texans.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And who are we playing this week?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: The Jets.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's gonna be scary.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: They're really uh I have them going on.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: The Jets going to the Super Bowl.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Royals in 2015, the Cubs perhaps this year, because it doesn't look like it'll be the Royals.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: We lost two to one last night.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody stay up and watch that?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: We lost in the ninth inning, which we never used to do, but we lost to Cleveland, which uh is gonna be good competition for the Cubs and the playoffs.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we're talking about the Apostles of Jesus.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Grab your book.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're in the midst of chapter one.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: We said last week it's a diverse group of dudes, and we remember we went through the whole personality thing, and our observation is gonna be that the apostles sort of cover the gamut of all different kinds of personalities.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we we passed out something, and uh, did you guys figure out whether you're lions, otters, beavers, or golden retrievers?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Did you do that last week?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: You're asleep, doesn't matter.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, we're in Peter.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, he's called the Big Fisherman.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And uh let's just dive right in.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: What page what page are you on?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: You want to take this?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you take the penetrating accountability thing?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we'll get we'll get kicked off.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys have your books or are on the sheets, it's page 13, is where we're starting, and we're gonna start there um through the rest of these major sections of the book.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you actually had a really good segue, Jim.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of sleepy people, that's exactly what we're gonna talk about.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about how Peter was kind of sleepy and and kind of down on the job.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So in this section, penetrating accountability questions, um, the questions that Gene Getz puts at the beginning is do you have someone who holds you accountable for your attitudes and actions?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have someone who holds you accountable for your attitudes and actions?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as we look at the the apostle Peter, um, especially in Mark 14, what we see is you know, Jesus is kind of distraught.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: He needs to go pray, he needs to go to be in communion with the Father.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there's Peter, James, and John, and he says, Alright, guys, come with me.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is kind of my inner circle, come with me.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And please, please, please wait here while I go pray, keep watch, and then I'll come back.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then another, they're like, okay, okay, we're we'll stay here, we'll keep watch.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we kind of get this special duty from Jesus.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes off to pray, comes back, and what does he find?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: All of them are knocked out.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that if you were Jesus, how would you feel?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: You you tell these three, these are supposed to be your three main guys, your your key guys, and you give them one assignment, one job, please just stay awake, keep watch.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you come back, and they're all knocked out.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so for Peter, this is interesting for Peter, because even before this specific instance, Peter's, you know, the macho, Lord, I'll never forsake you, I'll never leave you, I'll just I'll do anything you say, I'll follow you, I'm your guy.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: The first one to fall asleep on the job.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And even though all three of them were asleep, I think something that's pretty significant is in verse 37 says, Then he came and found them sleeping.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Simon, are you sleeping?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: He asked Peter.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think something that's really interesting is, remember when we we first met Peter, Jesus changed his name to Cephas, changed his name to Peter, changed his name to Rock.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And here he refers back to Simon, referring back to his name.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I guess it, Jim, maybe it's kind of the equivalent of maybe if you are scolding your kids, you know, you throw their middle name in there too, and not just their first name.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's it's a pretty pointed response.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Getz writes, um, at the last paragraph on 14, Jesus simply but pointedly reminded Peter that if he were so strong and determined and such a great leader, why couldn't he stay awake for a brief time while the Lord and Master was agonizing in prayer?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of all the people to hold Peter accountable, it wasn't James, it wasn't John in that situation, it was Jesus himself.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as we're all growing in our relationship with the Lord, and God's calling us and asking us to do different things, whether it's acting a certain way, doing a certain thing, saying a certain thing, we all need people to hold us accountable to kind of steer us back to the mission, steer us back on the line.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys are married, like I am, I know one of the people that God uses the most is our wives.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're very in tune to us.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: They probably know us better than other people know us because they know us inside of our homes.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And they are the people who can help keep us accountable, and a lot of times do.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we don't like it, even if we think it's not true, most of the time we really know that it is true.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's um in our relationship with the Lord, just making sure that we have somebody to hold us accountable.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a spouse, maybe that's a friend, maybe that's a pastor, somebody who you meet up with every week, whoever it is, just to have another person next to us to help us make sure that we're striving and attaining the things that God wants us to attain.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Last week, uh to follow up on this accountability thing, in our group, without mentioning anybody's name like Kenny, I'll uh, you know, we were we were going around, we were just sharing our life, our stories and so forth, like we were doing the first week.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: And and part of his story was without going into details, that this guy named Mike, whom I know is a cool guy, you know, had had asked him a hard question at one time in his life that really, you know, helped turn him.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's a perfect example, Kenny, of this whole thing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Does any has anyone ever asked you a hard accountability question?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And for a lot of us, it is just our wife, but it's really good for us to have guys who look us in the eyes, like the book says, and who can and who we trust to to let in enough to ask us a hard question to which we respond and we don't and we don't shove it off.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the first point.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's good.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And the second point is I have um where is it?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's um yeah, P Peter's ultimate failure.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're on page now um oh, next page, 14.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: So this is uh this is this is uh apologies to Paul, but this is probably the first thing that I want to ask Peter about, you know, when I get to heaven.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly why was it that that you felt like you needed to say, I don't know the man, to servant girls or other people around the fire.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, were you scared that they were gonna crucify you, or were you, you know?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Although I suspect I know because I get scared at times, or I get, you know, we've all been in a situation where we've been around a bunch of other men, and somebody's told a really filthy joke or a really awful joke, or uh, or used the Lord's name in vain, and you know, then you sort of go, Okay, sort of on the line here.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, should I say anything either publicly or to the person privately?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And once in a while you do, but you're scared to, right?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and and when I don't, I sort of feel the rooster of my conscience crowing a little bit, you know, when when I don't stand up for Christ.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Do you guys know what I mean?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're just staring at me.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, but but I think uh so so this is a story that you're really familiar with of you know Peter um telling Jesus, you're not gonna die, and Jesus says, Get thee behind me, Satan.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus goes down and he's in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want you to pray.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: Peter falls asleep, so he's feeling disappointed.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then Peter tries to make up for it by swinging his sword and defending Jesus.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Remember that when the soldiers come and the guy ducks his head and he takes off his ear, and Jesus rebukes Peter and sticks the ear back on.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm feeling like probably Peter, that Jesus isn't exactly meeting up to Peter's expectations at this point.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: He's a little bit disappointed with him, and then this thing happens.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it just uh strikes me that there's some really cool lessons here.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: This is for me one of the most comforting stories in the Bible.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's a shocking story that Peter denies his Lord.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's comforting to be reminded that even the best of us can fall, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because Peter is the best of us.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Peter is the best.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: He was one of the first disciples.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: He was an amazing guy.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I have um I remember one time, this is years ago, I was I was shocked, you know, at this.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: I am not shocked at anything anymore.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: But this is one of the first times I got invited overseas to speak at a week-long conference of missionaries.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: I was it was over in Spain.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: And and the director of the whole Spain field for this mission asked if he could if he could walk and talk with me on the beach that day.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so he did.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I kept my mouth shut.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: I was just shocked.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: He said, you know, trusted Christ when I was young, went to Bible college, da-da-da, you know, I followed the Lord, and I've risen through the ranks, and now I'm the head of the I'm a head of the field here.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: But he says, I need to tell you something.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Um, you know, the beach just north of here, the beach just south of here, or, you know, topless beaches.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um I find myself wandering down here, and then I find myself looking at porn, and I find myself more addicted than I have ever been to the kind of stuff that I was addicted to in college.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, really, really, you're in charge of dozens of missionaries, you are looked at as a spiritual leader back home in here, and you're crying now and asking me for help.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: And and I was a it was a shock to me, but a reminder that no matter who you are, no matter how far along you are, you can you can you can still struggle.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think um I read I read later on in a book somewhere where one Christian leader said, you know, when I fall, it's it it seems to always be preceded by God not living up to my expectations.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: God didn't live up to Christ didn't live up to Peter's expectations.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're supposed to be taking over the world, not getting crucified, you're supposed to be doing this.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and I find it true, the same is true with me.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, um when I compromise, it's usually in the same two areas that most men compromise, sex and money.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: And and you know, when you compromise, let's say with money, you steal a little bit of money from your business or sex, you look at something longer than you should on the internet.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know that you know the excuses that I use or the excuses that that men tell me that they use when I'm counseling them are always really similar.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like with the sex, they go, well, my wife's not giving, my wife's not coming through like like she should.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Or with money, it's well they're not paying me really as much as they should.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so because they're not meeting your expectations, that is, God's not meeting your expectations, therefore you cut yourself some slack in some areas and you compromise a little bit, and like like Peter did.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: And even though you're a good person and a good Christian and a fervent follower of Christ, you know, like Peter, you know, you find you find a rooster crowing in your conscience and you realize you've done wrong.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: So this is uh this is for me a comforting passage that um that causes causes us to ask this question this morning, what has been your greatest failure?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: Don't know if you're gonna feel free to share this at the table, but if but if you do, uh that would be great.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a good good discussion and a good thought.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's if I were to ask Peter a question in heaven, it would probably be, why did you deny Jesus?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you act so tough and say that you know you're always gonna stick with him, you'll never forsake him, you'll never deny him, and then you really did.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what kind of what was your your thought process through that, or or what were you afraid of?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And just getting done talking about you know one of Peter's greatest failures, um, I think equally as redemptive, and and what I think is a great picture of the gospel is what we see in John 21.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so in John 21, um, this is actually what Paul was talking about a little bit before as he was opening us up, is this idea of Peter having this brokenness and then being restored to Jesus.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because he did deny Jesus three times and said, you know, I don't I don't know who this guy is.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen him before, I have no clue who he is.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even though Peter's the guy who says, you know, I'll never leave you, never forsake you.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then in John 21, this is the third time that Jesus has appeared to the apostles after the resurrection.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so at this point, you know, the they Peter and the guys, they kind of returned to fishing, they went back to their kind of regular way of life as they were used to, you know, the three years before, before they started following Jesus.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus comes back to the third time, appears to them a third time, and says, Hey guys, come come on shore, bring the fish, but let's come eat.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So he already has this meal prepared.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: But then he specifically asked Peter three times.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you love me?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: The first response is from Jesus is feed my lambs.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: The second time is shepherd my sheep.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And each of these times, Peter says, Yes, I love you, yes, I love you.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third time specifically, uh Peter says, Jesus, Jesus asked, Do you love me?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then Peter says, Lord, you know everything.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know that I love you.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, Feed my sheep.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is one of the most interesting, and Getz points this out in the book as well, is that the third time that Jesus asked this, Peter says, Lord, you know everything.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I wonder if he's thinking back to the time when he denied Jesus and he realized Jesus was right, or if he's thinking back to the time when Jesus said, Hey, let's go back out into the water, let's go to the deeper water and cast the nets again.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then Peter's like, oh man, Jesus, you were right.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And to see the fulfillment, see Jesus actually come back appear to them a third time and being, man, Jesus, you are right, and realizing that God does know everything.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of an acknowledgement of the fact that Jesus does know his heart, Jesus does know what he's talking about, Jesus does know what he's going to do, the good things and the bad things.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as Paul was saying earlier, this is kind of a time when Peter says and kind of relinquishes some of his, I guess, boldness, or relinquishes some of his maybe self-confidence or arrogance in a way, and says, Alright, God, you know all these things.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's time that I can start trusting you and really start following you.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then a few verses later, at the end of 19, after this, he told them, and this is Jesus talking to Peter, he says, Follow me.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, follow me.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's an invitation to Peter to restore that relationship.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's an invitation to Peter and telling Peter, hey, I'm not gonna kick you out.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, even though you've messed up and you've done these things in the past, I still want you to follow me.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I still want to be in a relationship with you, I still want to love you, and I want you to love me too.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's keep going, let's keep this relationship going in a positive direction, even though I know all these things that you've done in the past.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me personally, I look at this as an awesome picture of the gospel because all of us have messed up in the past through through whatever it is, and Jesus is still there saying, Hey, follow me.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, follow me.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Come be in relationship with me.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to love you, and I want you to love me.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, I'm in this till the end, and I want you to be too.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, that's really refreshing to see that that even with Peter, a guy, you know, macho, even denied Jesus and tries to be kind of this heroic character that he may or may not have been at different times.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus still welcomes him back and still restores that relationship.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something that we all need.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the question is when have you been broken?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: When have you been broken?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this last point, this the last time that Jesus asked Peter this question, do you love me?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a breaking point for Peter.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in that brokenness, as you guys probably know throughout each of your lives with different stories, it's when we reach that point of brokenness and realize, man, alright, I don't have to be the tough guy anymore.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to try to hold everything together.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to, you know, try to be so, so good for God that we can turn to him and say, okay, I'm not a perfect person, but you are, and so I'm gonna trust in you and I'm gonna follow you.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's a good question.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's a life-changing question right there.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, um, you can't really finish the story of Peter, and this is the last point, without jumping over into a whole different issue.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: This is after Jesus died and went up to glory, and then the church in Jerusalem starts, and Peter becomes the leader of the church.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: And as you know, uh what happens is that God decides, partly because the Jews reject uh the gospel as a nation, he's gonna move it out toward the Gentiles.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: He's going to include those people that the Old Testament regards as outside the fold, not part of the sheepfold, right?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: The Gentiles, uh, even Jesus used the word dogs in association with them.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: The Gentiles were um sort of the only way they could join the the only way they could they could become believers in the Old Testament.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: They had to join Israel, basically.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it's understandable that Peter would have a prejudice against them coming into the church.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh you have this story in Acts 10, 11, 12 about how Peter is uh at the house of a Simon the Tanner near the coast, and he's asleep at noon, and an angel he sees a vision, angel comes, lowers down a bunch of animals in a picture, and then says, Eat.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: And all of these animals are part of the forbidden animals of the Old Testament, the animals that are listed as unclean, impure.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can't eat, you know, a snake, you can't eat a giraffe, you can't eat a hippopotamus, and so forth.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: And Peter says, No, I'm not gonna eat.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: Can't eat those.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's impure, and God said, or the angel says, God's calling those not impure.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: So what God's called pure, stop calling impure.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And that happens like three times.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Immediately after that, there's a knock at the door, Peter gets called up, you know, there's a gentile saying, Would you come up and share the gospel with my master, Cornelius, Centurion?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: And Peter normally would never go into that home, home of a gentile like that.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: But he goes up because of this vision, walks in, and the first thing he says is, just want to lay down the rule that I don't normally do this, I would not normally go into a pretty polluted home like this with you, you know, smelly gentiles.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: And basically that's what he says, it's you know, really politically incorrect.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Cornelius, a stud, is kneeling down in front of Peter.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: And Peter fortunately says, stand up, I'm not God.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: But uh so so you have this story of prejudice, and where where Gene Getz takes this in his book is do you have any prejudices, perhaps, that you're not even aware of?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I've I've sort of altered the question a little bit because the issue here is that Gentiles is that Jews then, and even Jews to some extent today see themselves as superior to Gentiles in God's program.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: So what prejudices are we actually proud of?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: Peter was proud of this prejudice that God might want us to question.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: Where does this verse, I now realize that God doesn't show favoritism but accepts accepts men from every nation.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: And immediately, of course, the prejudice we think of, first of all, is of course the prejudice that's existed in this country, you know, against African Americans, what used to be called blacks, and before that Negroes, and other stuff.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: And and that was a prejudice that my grandparents probably, and to some extent my father, I would say back in the 50s, 40s, 30s were actually proud of.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that qualifies.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they somehow associated that, at least some people, some Christians 100 years ago, associated it with a verse in Genesis about a curse on Canaan, and therefore we, you know, not only shouldn't let our daughters marry African Americans, but we should, you know, it's good, you know, we should keep them at an arm's length.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now that's changed, fortunately.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't see that much in the church.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I see it occasionally.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's one or two times here at TBC that the TBC has said something that I've had to talk to them about.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, uh um I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, and this is not a perfect parallel because homosexuality is actually a sin in the Bible, and so it's not like being a Gentile or being African American.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: But um I'm gonna talk about the danger of a prejudice against not gay activists, but against homosexual guys or lesbians that who are actually struggling with it, who feel the rooster call and they'd like to get out of it.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I gotta tell you, uh I used to make so many jokes with my brother about gays when I was growing up.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: They weren't called gays then, fags, queers, whatever.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: I had a hard time when I was pastor at TBC uh talking to them, loving them at all.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And um it was only when I got over that and could genuinely hug and love.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm talking about a homosexual who struggles with it, who says, you know, Jim, I'm engaged in this every week.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: I've got different partners all the time, but I know it's wrong.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: And uh help.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's only when I could love them that I start I started to see things, you know, change.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: I got a I got a note just a week or two ago from a guy who's here for a number of years in the 80s, early 90s, you know, who who became a friend and he was deeply into the homosexual lifestyle and now he's married and he's got six kids and they're following the Lord.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just you know, he just says, I thank God for TBC, I thank God for my time there, I thank God, you know, that that life is behind me, though I still struggle.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or I think of another guy, you know, so so we've seen some really great stories, but I would say it, you know, part of it is when at least I uh made a move to being able to love them as fellow strugglers in the faith.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I uh I'm gonna sort of because this is a this is a linger, this is a prejudice that I was actually proud of, you know.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gay.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make any sense?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and maybe at your tables you could think of other prejudices, you know, that that we could talk about.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make any sense?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: You want to add something to that?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not really.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was great.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think we we talked about these throughout.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's very good.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you miss it, they're in the back of the book, the three three main principles.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but let's why don't we read this verse together?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's some questions on pages 25 to 27.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: You guys can kind of go through and maybe talk about some of the ones that you didn't talk about last week, or talk about you know any of those four kind of big main topics that we've talked about today.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let me pray for us.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thanks for this time to meet together this morning.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for this time to sharpen each other.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that your word would penetrate us and that we would see your truths and be able to grow closer in relationship with you.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.