 We're looking in John chapter 21 verses 15 through 17. And so let me read those verses to you and we'll look at the subject of love and restoration. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him, again, a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. So what we have here as we're gonna be looking at this passage this evening is Jesus, who is in the process of restoring a fallen sheep. One of the reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do this is because he wants to make the apostle Peter usable in the kingdom of God and that cannot happen until he is completely restored. So we're looking at restoration. The word restoration means bringing something back to its original condition. It speaks of repairing or refreshing. And the concept of restoration is found throughout the Bible. The word restore is used 52 times in the Old Testament and four times in the new. The word restores is used three times in the Old Testament, one time in the new. Restored is used 28 times in the Old Testament, five times in the new. And the word restoration is used one time in the New Testament. So it's a concept that you find in scripture. In viewing this passage we get insight. And what we're gonna gain insight into is how the Lord restores a sheep who's in need of restoration. We're gonna be seeing that he is able as well as open to restoring us when we fall. Revelation 21 says to us in verses four and five, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. He said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful. Behold, I make all things new. God makes all things new. And that includes especially our broken lives. He delights as you read your scripture in healing broken lives. He delights in mending broken hearts. And the reason he delights in that is because we discover as we read our Bibles that he loves us. Now in various portions of scripture in the New Testament, as well as allusions in the old, you see that Jesus Christ is pictured, Messiah is pictured as a shepherd. He says it himself in John chapter 10 verse 11 when he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. So as the good shepherd, Jesus has a loving concern for the welfare of his sheep. The Old Testament Ezekiel chapter 34, 11 and 12 says, thus says the Lord God, indeed I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. God says, I am that shepherd. Jesus said, I am that good shepherd. And so as that good shepherd, he has a concern for us, a concern for our welfare. Now there was a time when Jesus asked the question, a question that would actually give us insight into his heart. It's a question found in Luke chapter 15 verses four through six when he says, what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost. And then he kills it and he needs it. No, that's not what he does. Just seeing if you're listening. Jesus searches for his lost sheep. He searches until he finds them and then he rejoices over them. What we have here in this passage is Jesus restoring his beloved apostle Peter and he's restoring him to full fellowship with himself. And in his doing so, we have an opportunity to see the work of restoration how God restores. The psalmist in Psalm 23 verses one through three said it like this. He said, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He refreshes and he repairs my broken soul. That's what the Lord does. And that's what we're gonna see here in this passage before us how the Lord Jesus Christ is about to restore his beloved apostle. Now let me lay a context for you so that we can see how this is developing in scripture. Over the last several days prior to this event we know that Peter had had contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 24 verse 34, it simply says there that the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Later on, the apostle Paul made reference to this when it says in 1 Corinthians 15.5 that he was seen by Cephas and then by the 12th. So John reports that Peter had seen Jesus and had seen him on at least two occasions within an eight day period. First when he was with nine other apostles and then later when he was with 10. On one of these occasions, he even had received a commission to go out and to minister. But with all of that activity, Peter is still living with the knowledge, the knowledge that he denied the Lord. He's busy. He's even spiritually active, if you will. Yet he has unfinished business with the Lord. The wound that he has has not been healed. And if that wound is not healed, he cannot be fully used. And part of his healing and part of his restoration will rely on an open dealing with his failure. There had been a public failure, a public denial, and therefore there must be a public confession and an open restoration. Remember with me that Peter had sinned in full view of witnesses. And as a leader, he needed to be dealt with openly. In 1st Timothy in chapter five, verses 19 and 20, Paul was instructing Timothy a young pastor about this. And he said, in 1st Timothy five, 19 and 20, do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it's brought by two or three witnesses, those who sin are to be rebuked publicly so that the others may take warning. And so on that night, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, Peter had stated that he loved Jesus. And he even went so far as to say he loved Jesus more than the others did. But instead of faith, this revealed self-sufficient pride. Remember with me on that night how Peter had asked a question and made a strong statement. It's found in John 13, 36 through 38. It says there that Simon Peter asked him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus replied, where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. Peter asked, why, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. And Jesus answered, will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth. Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. Mark tells us in chapter 14 verse 31 that Peter insisted emphatically, even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. So that's self-confidence. That's a self-confidence strength. And it's a tremendous amount of self-confidence. But when it came down to it, Peter denied the Lord. Again, remember with me, Jesus said that he would deny him, that he would deny even knowing him. And when Jesus had told him that, it's found in Luke 22, 60 through 62. Peter replied, when he was being questioned and they were saying to him, you are with the Galilean. He said, man, I don't know what you're talking about. And as he was speaking the rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him before the rooster crows today. You will deny me three times. And he went outside and he wept bitterly. He wept bitterly, he had denied the Lord. Now, this denial did not come as a surprise, of course. He was aware of Simon's weakness, and he's aware of mine, and he's aware of yours also. Psalm 103, 14 says, he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust. Romans 7, 18, Paul said like this. He said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. I don't want to, but I find myself being vulnerable to not walking with the Lord as strongly as I would like. And so these are things that were not surprising to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't surprised that the apostle Peter would deny him. As a matter of fact, he had predicted that he would. It's Simon Peter who seems to be surprised that he denied the Lord. It's Simon Peter who had vehemently said, I will go with you to death. Others may deny you. I never will. You can rely on me. Well, these events, the events of his denial had occurred probably around three weeks earlier. Peter hasn't forgotten his own words. Undoubtedly, his own words are still haunting him. That reminds me of King David and how David remembered his own failure. In Psalm 51, verses one through four, he had said it like this. He said, have mercy on me, oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions. My sin is always before me. Against you you only have my sin and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. My sin is always before me. There are times when your conscience will accuse you. There's no doubt about it. There are times when your own heart will say to you that you aren't what you say you are. You're not as strong as you think you are. You're not really born again or even redeemed like the Bible says you are. There are times when you might remember, you might wake up in the morning and remember some failure of yours, some sin that you'd committed, even a recent sin, but sometimes it's a sin that you have been forgiven of 20 or 30 years ago. The enemy will remind you or your own heart will convict you or condemn you. We have to learn that God is greater than my heart. He knows all things. He understands and he knew that when he called you, he knew what you would do with this message and he called you anyway. He knew that you and I would not be faithful like we wanted and there have been times perhaps in your life as I've been in mind where I've been in a moment of spiritual revelation where God is working in my heart and moving in a powerful way and there can be even sometimes emotions attached to it where I'll say to the Lord with all of my heart, with all truthfulness, God, I just wanna serve you. I just wanna pursue you. I just wanna be consumed by you only to find myself denying him in one form or another shortly after even prayer like that. I know my own weakness and I think you know yours too. None of us is fully completed yet on the side of heaven and so it's not a surprise to the Lord when we fail. And David failed. My sin is ever before me. David had failed in that he had had sexual relations with Bathsheba in that he had had her husband killed and gone through so many tremendous things as a result of that tremendously painful things as a result of that. And that's why he would say my sin is before me. I haven't forgotten what I've done. Wash me and cleanse me. Restore into me the joy of thy salvation because the Lord without you I'm not gonna make it. So David said my sin is ever before me. So we need to remember that sin cannot be swept under a carpet and simply forgotten. You can't deny its existence. You can't excuse it. It's not simply a mistake. It's not an error. It's not a mental lapse. It's not a culturally acceptable action. You can't blame it on somebody else. You can't blame your parents or your friends, your boss, circumstances or even your government. You can't rename it. You can't call it a disease, a preference. You can't legalize it. It remains sin. So to be ever healed we have to confess it. To have peace and restoration, sin needs to be brutally dealt with. It has to be recognized and it has to be named. It needs to be confessed and repented of and forsaken. And when this occurs restoration is made possible and it does occur. You see Peter is restored to fellowship with Jesus but he's going to be restored to fellowship with Jesus before he's going to be restored to ministry because he could not minister effectively until his restoration of fellowship is complete. And that's what we have here. Now in the setting we have Jesus preparing a meal for his disciples. In verses nine and 13 of this chapter we see that he has given them some fish and some bread that he had prepared for them. So imagine for just a moment this meal. More than likely this meal had been eaten in an uncomfortable silence. Have you ever had a problem with somebody at the table and maybe it's Thanksgiving and you have a brother, sister, even your mom or dad or somebody that you're close to, a wife or husband, maybe your child? And you had a bit of a problem with them and now it's Thanksgiving and you don't want to, you don't want to be exposing dirty laundry at the table. You don't want to have a problem there at the table and yet it's there, it's unresolved. You're still angry at grandma or whatever. I mean, it's still there. It's still there. It hasn't gone away. It doesn't go away, does it? It doesn't just evaporate, disappear. It doesn't take a vacation and say, I'll come back later. I'm going to let you enjoy your meal. Doesn't happen that way, does it? Now if you've got an unresolved conflict it's at the table with you. It's going to be there. And the apostle Peter has an unresolved conflict with Jesus Christ. He denied him. It's something that has to be dealt with. And so in the midst of all of this, how exciting it was and that they were fishing and they recognized that it was a Lord there on the seashore and Jesus said, have you caught anything? And John says, it's the Lord and they come rushing up to shore and you can see that like children they're excited because they're with the Lord. And now Jesus has a meal and he's serving them and now they're eating and in the quiet of that meal there's still stuff that has to be dealt with. It isn't going to go away by itself. And the tension of something like that is going to grow steadily. You see Peter had led the disciples back to their former occupations, hate been fishing. And now there they are seated with the Lord. They're alone, they're on that shore. And as you can almost hear the sound of them as they're eating their meal, crunching that bread, Jesus breaks the silence. And he speaks in verse 15. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, I hate your guts. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? What a question to ask. Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? What? Do you love me more than these things? Do you love me more than your fishing? Do you love me more than your boat? Do you love me more than your business? Or it could be, do you love me more than you love these friends, your companions and associates? Now he more than likely is asking this, do you love me more than these other men love me? Now that word, those spoken with gentleness would have torn Simon's heart. Again, remember it wasn't that long ago that he was insisting that he loved Jesus more than them all. Peter had declared in Mark 14, 29, even if all fall away, I will not. That's another way of saying, I love you more than all of these. But I want you to notice something that, that we might pass up and not even notice if I didn't bring it to our attention. I want you to notice again, Simon, he said, son of Jonah, do you love me? Why would he say Simon, son of Jonah? Remember in John chapter one, verse 42, when Jesus called Simon to be an apostle, he referred to him in that way. He said to him that he was a son of Jonah. And so that's when he first called him to be an apostle. But now when he develops his call, Jesus once more speaks of him as son of Jonah. And so what we have between the first time he's referred to that way in Scripture in John one and the second reference, there's a whole lifetime or three and a half years of lessons that were learned. Peter had to go through tremendous pain to arrive at a place that he would be usable. And what we have here is Jesus stirring at least two memories that Peter would have. In John chapter one, he would think of when Jesus had called him and given him a promise. He had said in John 142, you shall be called Cephas, which has translated a stone. Simon, you will become strong and I will use you mightily in the work of the kingdom of God. That was part of that promise. But secondly, he would be reminding him of his recent denial. He had said he loved Jesus more than the others. And those two memories would serve as the bookends of Peter's life with Christ. And as he's thinking of these things, he's being gently brought to the place of restoration. In considering these things, he's allowed to re-experience his sense of failure as well as his sin. You see, when Jesus originally called him, he said, you are Simon, son of Jonah. Before Christ called him, he was simply what is called a natural man. But in Jesus, he receives a new name to reflect his new nature that God would give to him. And so Jesus is reminding him of the original call and reminding him of his failure. Jesus is simply and gently meeting him where he is. And he confronts Peter, but he exposes him only to heal the pain and restore him. You see, if Peter's to be healed, he has to confront his sin. And that's why in verse 15, the question is asked, do you love me? What we're looking at here is a man whose pride has been dealt with. What you have in verses 15 and 16 with the word love, in verses 15 and 16, is an interplay between two Greek words. One of the words that Jesus uses is the Greek word agape. The second word, the word that the apostle Peter uses, is the Greek word phileo. Those are two words translated by the single English word love. But there are differences in the meaning of those two words. Jesus is reminding him by using the word agape of his claim that he loved him with everything within him. Because agape is a word that is used to describe the God kind of love that is fully committed. The word phileo is a word that all of us are familiar with because it's a root word for friendship. When you see the city of Philadelphia, its translation literally is the city of brotherly love. And so brotherly love is phileo. Agape is the God kind of love that is self-sacrificial. So in this interplay, what you have is this. Jesus is saying, Peter, do you have agape for me? Do you love me with all of your heart completely and sacrificially? And Peter's response is, Lord, I have friendship love for you. What happened? A while back you were saying I love you with an uncontrollable burning without any borders kind of love. I would lay my life down for you. And now you're simply saying, I love you like I love the dearest friend that I could have. What happened here? You see, what's happening is the Lord is reminding him in a gentle way of the claims he had made and his own failure to keep his own promises. It's not cruelty on the part of the Lord. It's a way that he's gonna be able to root out this thing in him and bring him to healing. Simon, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I have a friendship for you. So when he first says that, Jesus gives him a commission, feed my babies. Take care of the babies and the faith as well as the children under your care. Spiritually nourish and tenderly care them for them. Take care of their spiritual needs. But he says that again in verse 16, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Simon, do you have agape for me? Lord, you know I have deep affection for you. But even so he's saying I have deep affection. Jesus says tend my sheep. Nourish, rule, govern, protect and defend my sheep. That's what ministers, by the way, are intended to do. God has called us as ministers, pastor teachers, like myself, to have a defensive posture for the body of Christ. I don't know if you know that or not. You probably do. But perhaps you don't. Some people say what are you meddling in my affairs for? What are you busy in my business? You stay out of my business. Well I have to be honest with you, pastors have the ministry of meddling in a sense of bringing things up that need to be dealt with. And pastors have been given the call by God, the responsibility and duty by God to protect and defend the sheep. That is my responsibility. How do I do that? Well I do that through the word of God by equipping you for works of service so that you develop discernment as you go through the word and you're able to tell when someone's bringing false doctrine and you're able to say that's not true. There's something wrong with that. My mom used to use the phrase. She said, that sounds like tin. That sounds like tin. I was first saved. I was maybe two weeks old in the Lord. No more than two, three weeks at the maximum. And I was a hippie kid and all of that. And I was home and some Jehovah's Witnesses came and knocked down the door. And I had been instructed to read the Bible because it's in the reading of the word of God you're nourished in the things of God. You need to learn the ways of God. So read the Bible. And I was taught to do that when I got saved because the guy who followed up on me said you need to learn to read the word of God to fellowship, to pray, to have fellowship. These are the four basic things that'll keep you strong in the things of the Lord. And so the first thing he had said to us to me is you need to get into God's word and allow God's word to get into you. And so I started learning to read the Bible. No, I didn't understand it. And to this day, there are many things I still don't understand. I'm not gonna pretend that I know everything. I've been studying the Bible for a long time and I can tell you there are still mysteries that God is gonna unveil to me when I'm in heaven with him. And I'll say, oh, now I see. Now I understand. But I knew less than 40 some years ago than I do now. And there's a knock on the door. And I used to have this robe. It was a Japanese robe. It was a silk robe. It had a big old dragon on the back, oh, nine yards. And I was barefooted and I had the robe on. And I had the long hair and all of that. And there's a knock on the door and I opened the door up. And it's a wild. I had round granny glasses, big bushy sideburns. You know, my hair is all like that. And you know, all messed up and everything. And I opened the door to these two Jehovah's Witnesses. And I don't know anything. I don't know anything. I don't know anything about Jehovah's Witnesses or any other group at all. I've just gotten saved. And I still remember speaking to them and the two ladies and they said, we're representatives of Jehovah's Christian, we're Jehovah's Christian Witnesses and we're going through your city and we're discussing the things of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm a brand new Christian. I said, well, praise the Lord. I'm a Christian too. And you should have seen their faces are looking at this hippy wild-eyed guy, you know, like, you know, and they're like, they really tripped on me. They really did. And they really did. And so they said, oh, I said, yeah, yeah. I was born again. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. And they started giving me their wrap. I'm two, three weeks at the maximum old in the Lord. Just started reading the Bible. I was reading what is called the good news for modern man. It isn't even a translation, it's a paraphrase. Because I was given a King James Version Bible and it might as well have been in French because the words, I didn't have a clue. I finally got what was called the layman's parallel version of the Bible which had four translations side by side. So I read the King James, then I would read the New American Standard and I would look and compare. And that's how I started learning the King James language. And I taught out of the King James Bible until 1983. And when I would teach, I would simply change the words that were archaic to modern words every time I taught until the new King James came out and I began to use that and I've been using that for many years now. But as they were there and they're talking to me, I finally looked at them and I remember saying something like, you know, I don't think I agree with what you're saying. I don't, because they were saying things. I don't even remember exactly what but they were saying things that I knew I've been reading this Bible and it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. And then that's like two, three weeks old in the Lord and God begins to give you wisdom and discernment just by reading God's word and it develops a discernment. So you'll hear what's being said and it's like my mom said, it's like 10. No, that does not jive. That does not make any sense. No, I read other things that say something different entirely than that. And so it was at that point that I as a brand new Christian began to say, I need to learn what God's word actually says. I need to learn it for myself. Went into the army, got out, was home and here comes two more Jehovah's Witnesses. They knock on the door and now I live in Whittier. Hi, we're Jehovah's Witnesses and we want to share with you. And they began to share with me. And I say, I don't think that what you're saying is true. And they say, oh, what we're saying is true. No, it's not. Well, the Bible says, and they started saying that to me, well, the Bible says, and even then I'm saying, no, there's something wrong with that. No, that's not right. I know, but I don't know how to defend my faith. I've been in the army for two years. I haven't been studying. I haven't had the fellowship and the teaching that I needed, but I knew this is wrong. So I said, can you come back next week? And they said, yes, great. I went to the only Christian bookstore I knew. What you have now, guys, is not what I grew up with. In 1972, there weren't Christian bookstores on every corner. In 72, you couldn't go on to the internet. I mean, a computer would take up most of this room. I mean, there was no such thing as the net until Al Gore invented it. So you actually had to get books. And I drove to Anaheim, which was the only Christian bookstore I knew. And I lived in Whittier, got on the freeway, drove to Anaheim. And I got Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin. He had a hundred and some pages on Jehovah's Witnesses in that book. And I read through it and memorized large portions of it. Now it's waiting. And they knocked on my door. And they came in. I still remember it. And they said, well, have you considered what we said? And I said, of course I have. I've been thinking about it all week. But let me ask you a few questions. Last time we were together, you said, the Bible says, oh yes, we answer every question with a Bible scripture. I said, then where does it say that Jesus invisibly came and began ruling the ruling out of Brooklyn, New York in 19, what was it, 1914, or when did he come and invisibly begin to rule through the Watchtower organization in Brooklyn? When did that happen? Can you give me a scripture that says that? Well, no, no, I didn't ask you what you've done. I wanna know if you've got a scripture that says, Brooklyn, New York, look for Jesus. Anything, no? Where does the Bible say specifically that Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel? Where does it say that? And I started, well, we know that Michael means who is like God. I said, yes, that's what it means. But where does the Bible say that Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel? Where does it say that? And I asked them question after question after question. And I finally said this to them. I still remember it was so exciting in the Lord. I said, last time you were here, you kept on saying this is what the Bible says. Let me tell you what it actually says. And I preached the gospel to these Jehovah's Witnesses. They didn't like it. They didn't, they got up and they hurried out the door and I followed them. And I was at the door yelling, and you know what else? And they were gone. Pastors have the responsibility of teaching the truth to defend the sheep from error. Never be angry at a pastor who loves you and up to tell you the truth. Because that's our commission. And that's the commission that Jesus gave to Simon Peter in 1 Peter chapter five, verse two, Peter himself wrote concerning it. He said this to other shepherds. He said, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. That's the call of every true shepherd. And then in verse 17, he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Now it's interesting in that John wants us to see that the number three is at play here. Verse 14 of this same chapter reads, this is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now John records that Jesus asked Peter the same basic question three times. This was the number associated with how many times Peter denied the Lord. How many times did you deny me? And how many times am I asking about your love for me? What's interesting is this time Jesus says to him, Peter, do you have filial for me? And Peter's response is a heartbroken response. You know all things. You know that I have filial for you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. You can now feed and you can now tend my sheep because you are a broken man. You see I can accept you on an honest level, but I will deepen you as I heal you. There's no doubt that Peter had cried out for forgiveness and there's no doubt that he had received it. But Peter needed to know he was loved and he needed to hear that from Jesus himself. Jesus' word of love to him is a simple command, go back fishing for men. Though his denial was great, Jesus' forgiveness is greater still. Again in Psalm 51 verses 12 and 13, it says restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. There are, listen and see if I can say this properly. Probably can't forgive me if it doesn't make sense. There are areas of your life that are going to be wounds that you received in life that will ultimately deepen your faith and increase your ability to have compassion for the weak and humility that is necessary to minister effectively the love, grace and compassion of God. As long as a person thinks that they are beyond failure, they are most dangerous. Which is why Paul would say, let him who thinks he's stand take heed lest he fall. The place of ministry that is most effective is the place that one discovers when that person is broken. Often that brokenness will come through personal failure and personal disappointment. It often comes when we assume that we are much better than we actually are stronger than in reality we are. And we become self-sufficient to the degree and to the point that we fail to remember our weaknesses and in doing so the Lord allows us to enter into the area not because he leads us there but because he allows us to enter into an area that will ultimately result in a wound in our life. You say, no, I don't believe that. It's a man named Jacob in the Old Testament. His name means supplanter. Jacob was a supplanner. And you see him as a sneaky man in the book of Genesis. But on one occasion Jacob has an opportunity to wrestle with an angel and he wrestles with him for some time. And then the angel which is really what is called a pre-incarnate Christ it's called a Christophany. He's actually wrestling with Jesus. The angel reaches and touches him in his hip and it withers. And from that point on Jacob who was originally called supplanter receives the name Israel which means Prince with God. And that Prince with God came through the crippling of God in this man's life. There are times when God wounds that he might heal. That he might make you dependent on him and you may go through the rest of your life with a limp where you will remember where you met God in a very special way and it will keep you dependent on God. I walk with a spiritual limp because I've been wounded but I have also been restored. Do you love me? Oh, you know all things. You know I do. Do you love me more than these? It wasn't that long ago that I was saying I do. But when you really think about it there was really only one who stayed at the foot of the cross with you while the rest of us were hiding and that was John. I said that I would never deny you but I was hiding. I said, do you know I love you more than these but I was hiding. Which helps me, and you've heard me say this before get a grip on John because John refers to himself several times in the Gospel of John in this way the one whom Jesus loved. And I didn't like it when I first read it. I thought, what arrogance, what, what arrogance? How can you run around saying, oh, by the way I don't even need to tell you my name. I'm the one Jesus loved. Stop it, if you were here, I'd slap your face. Where are you coming from John? Listen, it's not how much you love God. It's how much he loves you. Never forget that. That's the heart of ministry. Not that you can run around saying I'll take a sword and take somebody's head off of you Jesus like the apostle Peter did. Now, it's being loved by God so much that you will follow him to the foot of the cross when all others deny him. Because to be with Jesus at the cross was the best place for him to be. Because Jesus' love drew John. Peter's love drove him to denial. But Jesus is saying now to Peter, huh? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you have friendship for me? You know all things. That's as far as I can go right now, Lord, that's being honest to you. That's as far as I can go. Take care of my sheep. Because I can start there. We know that ultimately Peter went completely to the end with the Lord. In the end, he loved his life less than he loved his God. You see, I mean it says in verse 18 here, most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you'll stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. You get up in the morning, you dress yourself, you go where you want. Day's gonna come when you're gonna be taken to die. Which the apostle Peter suffered martyrdom. But I didn't prepare this, but I wanna give you one last thought though in verse 20. Peter turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? Peter seeing him said to Jesus, by the Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Keep your nose out of somebody else's spiritual life. What's he got to do with you? And don't you, have you ever discovered that we get in a lot of trouble when we begin to see, how come you do that for him and you're not doing it for me? You ever do that? How come you're blessing her and you don't bless me? How come that guy got a brand new car and mine makes smoke signals every time I drive? Why? Why does that kid, why is that kid in the honor roll? And mine is a model prisoner. How come? What has their life got to do with yours? You follow me. Isn't that what it's all about guys? You follow me. Let me take care of that one in the way I take care of that one. You, you concentrate on your walk with me and you watch what I'll do in your life. Keep your eyes off of other people. Keep your eyes on me. You will walk on water. You will see God move. You will see God work in your life. And you can be used right where you're at if you accept the love of Christ and say, God be merciful to me. Creating me a clean heart, old Lord, renewing right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy holy spirit from me. I want to follow you. God is in the restoration business. He takes you and he makes you brand new. For if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Jesus Christ did that for the apostle and he can do that for us.